The Truman Show

The Truman Show (1998) is a movie directed by Peter Weir, written by Andrew Niccol, and starring Jim Carrey. Niccol was due to direct the film until Carrey was signed. It was felt that Carrey's $12 million salary was too great an investment to leave in the hands of a second-time film director, and Weir was drafted.

Plot

The film is set in a hypothetical world, where an entire town is dedicated to a continually running television soap opera, where all but one of the participants are actors. Only the central character, Truman Burbank (Carrey), is unaware that he lives in a constructed reality, for the entertainment of those outside. The film follows his discovery of his situation and his attempts to escape. On the surface level, it criticizes greed, portraying people who would do anything for fame and money. Central characters pretend friendship to Truman, and in the case of his "wife", bury their real feelings of disgust.

Related Topics:
Soap opera - Constructed reality

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Truman was chosen out of five unwanted babies to be a TV star. He is an explorer and wants to find a girl that was caught back in college trying to explain things to him. Eventually, however, Truman begins to figure out that it's all fake. Everyone tries to reassure him, but Truman has already reached the point of no return, and escapes.

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Along his path to truth and escape Truman encounters obstacles placed in his way, including choreographed traffic jams, a forest fire, a long bridge to cross (knowing that he is afraid of water), and an artificially created hurricane-force storm on the "ocean". He finally reaches the edge of the constructed reality and exits via a door in the wall.

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