Lotrek (2006 film)

Lotrek is an American-Japanese dystopian science fiction animated film produced by Visual Works and S1 Media for Paramount Pictures. It's the 3rd feature film from S1 Media, it was directed by Micheal Christchurch and Tetsuya Nomura and was produced by Yoshinori Kitase, Shinji Hashimoto, and Ichiro Hazama, who were also the producers for Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. The films centers on Harold Garfield, an employee at Alicom who discovers the dark side of the company he works for and must work with his allies to stop Alicom from commencing a takeover act on Lotrek City, the main capital of Virginia.

The film's script was concieved after the release of Dark Blue Apollo in 2001. Christchruch wanted to expand on the universe of Dark Blue Apollo and had planned a sequel to the movie. But in 2003, Slimeo scrapped the idea of the sequel and ended up tweaking the script to separate it from the Dark Blue Apollo film. He later on hired Hans Bauer to help out with finishing the final version of the script. The film was announced in 2004 and it was revealed that Blur Studio would help out with the production of the film as it was also announced the film would rely on CGI Animation. It was later stated that 2D Animation would still be used for the film. But in 2005, Blur dropped out of the project due to certain management issues. The company later contacted Square Enix and formed a partnership for the film, which would later apply for all of the Lotrek franchise.

The film stars the voices of Ben Affleck, Aaron Eckhart, Avril Lavigne, Patrick Warburton, and Michael C. Hall. The setting and plot takes influence from the likes of Blade Runner, Akira, 1984, and Final Fantasy VII.

Lotrek premired in San Francisco on June 15th, 2006, and was released in theathers on June 23rd, 2006 in the United States and on June 25th, 2006 internationally. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who admired its story, themes, and setting, and earned $127.4 million worldwide over its $100 million budget, making it the ninth highest-grossing animated film of 2003. The film was later released on DVD on January 13th, 2006, and on Blu-ray on June 23rd, 2009, three years after the film's release.

Summary
Set in the year 2030, it follows an Alicom employee who is involved with a top-secret assignment. He later discovers his company’s true intentions behind this project and finds out that Alicom is planning on taking over the state of Virginia, forcing him and his friends, along with assistance from a mysterious FBI veteran, to take down the company along with the person behind the take-over.

Story
Lotrek City is the center capital of Virginia. This is a city thriving on the power of EOS, a power source used to power the technology the citizens and people throughout the world have. It was easy to obtain and came in many different forms, which makes it the new power standard. But, for the entire world, they live in a bit of a co-existing era. Two worlds, the real world, and the cyber world coexist with each other. Many people use the Cyber-World for escapism from the troubles of the real world, and some prefer the cyber-world and will mostly spend most of their day there.

We’re introduced to Harold Garfield, who utilizes the cyber world and resources to create his projects. He also has an interest in fixing up old pieces of technology, most notably, really old computers from the 80s or 90s. We see him testing out the game he made while in the cyber-world, but he’s then frustrated when he ends up losing in the game, but then admits he can reprogram the game to make it tolerable for him to play.

His mother, Rei, interrupts him by letting him know that dinner is ready. Harold then exits the cyber-world after letting her know he’ll be downstairs. He takes off his headset and leaves the room to head downstairs.

After he is seated for dinner, Rei then tells Harold that she and his dad, Xia, will be leaving tomorrow for vacation. When Harold asks if he’s coming, she responds by saying it’s more of a private vacation for her and Xia. Xia then adds that because they’ll be gone during vacation, Harold will have to watch over the house while they’re away and mentions that he’s responsible enough to be by himself.

After finishing his dinner, Harold heads back to his room, he then opens up a window and begins looking outside of the city. He then rambles to himself about how he thinks the cyber-world gives people the freedom they seek and how it’s a sandbox for people to mess around with or create whatever they desire. He then mentions how much the world has changed since he was born and how the city has come along in the past few years.

Just as he finished talking, Rei lets Harold know that she and Xia will be leaving to catch the plane. He then lets her know that he’ll agree to watch over the house while they’re gone and that he’ll keep in contact with them. She then closes his door, knowing that he’ll keep the house safe.

The next morning, Harold is contacted by his college roommate Carl “Rethrick '' Breezer, the CEO of technology company Alicom. Rethrick mentions that the company is looking for one more employee to work for them and offers Harold a lengthy three-year job, which will require him to stay on Alicom's campus, in exchange for company stock. Harold isn’t sure and is hesitant but then agrees to join the company. The two meet up at the entrance of the Alicom campus, Veius.

After being injected with the memory marker, which was required to protect the company’s intellectual property from being leaked, Harold is given a tour of the campus. During the tour, he meets Kate Abrex, who’s a biologist at Alicom. She decides to tag along with Rethrick in case he needs assistance on certain parts. Harold and Kate then end up getting into a conversation, in which Harold ends up flirting with her. Rethrick then introduces Harold to his work partner and physicist, Zack Blocker. After the tour, Rethrick assigns Harold to be a reverse engineer; meaning he’ll analyze his clients' competitors' technology and recreate them with improvements. He also adds that Kate will be Harold’s assistant and mentions that he can be contacted if Harold has any questions about Alicom. He is then assigned his first project.

Three years passed, and after Harold finished the memory wipe, and was congratulated by Rethrick. He then finds that the Allcom stock he earned is valued at over US$92 million, but when he goes to see his lawyer to try to get the funds, he discovers that he had given all the stock away just weeks ago. Further, he is given an envelope claiming to be his possessions on entering Allcom, but it contains a random assortment of items.

Confused, Harold soon finds himself thrown into a terrorist attack by someone who calls himself Nekkin. He ends up blowing up the roof of the building in retaliation. But it doesn’t last long as the FBI arrives and is detained by them. But, as they’re escorting him away, they see Harold. As he asks what’s going on, one of the agents examines him and finds that he’s wearing an Alicom logo pin on his shirt and he also finds his ID card, confirming that he works for Alicom. The agents decide to take him to the department for questioning. Harold is confused, but the agent tells him they’ll explain what’s going on when they arrive and warns him to not do anything crazy.

They arrive at the department, where they encounter Norma Reckart, the one who sent the agents to capture the terrorist. They also let her know they captured someone who was working for Alicom. Norma is surprised to hear this and tells Niz to bring Harold to an interrogation room. She also suggests Niz help her, and he agrees to do so. When they arrive at the room, they begin to look over the tapes of Alicom HQ to find any evidence of Harold being involved with a project. They do manage to find it, much to their surprise, and they decide that trying to leak Alicom’s true intentions will be put back into motion.

Norma then tells Harold that Alicom has faced accusations of having access to classified government designs illegally. She then tells Harold that the company was originally founded to help out with technology for the military. But in 2025, the company was taken over by Dekker, who is now dead, and that Alicom started to change as a result of the takeover. She revealed that he started to use illegal methods and as a result, they have been sued many times, but the lawsuits have failed to work. She also mentions that due to Dekker being dead, it was revealed that his son, Niox, had taken Dekker’s place as the leader of Alicom, and they started to become more of a possible threat to the city rather than doing anything for good.

She asks Harold if he’s able to remember what he was involved with recently, but he cannot answer due to the memory wipe. However, during this, the alarm goes off, and one of Niz’s soldiers working for his group alerts him that a group of assassins have caused a mess in the department and have threatened to destroy the place if they don’t let Harold go. Niz then realized that the group was sent and is working on Alicom’s behalf. He tells his friend to get out of there and that they’ll meet up once they get to a safe place in the city. Norma tells Niz to rally up the agents and prepare an assault attack on the assassins, she tells him that she and Harold will find a way to escape. Norma tells Harold to follow her and stay with her no matter what as they make it out of the building.

As they evade the assassins, Niz’s group is currently doing their best to drive the assassins out of the department. Norma tells Niz to come with her, and Niz does so. As they escape, the group is killed by the assassins, and they decide to spread out and search around to find Harold. Outside, Niz, Norma, and Harold are trying to understand what was going on. But as they’re doing that, the department explodes into pieces. Surprised by this, the three decide to head over to Norma’s place to figure out a plan. But as they’re heading there, Harold's right-hand-man Russell “Wolfe” Harderton sees Harold walking with Niz and Norma and warns Rethrick they have a problem.

The next day, Harold meets with his friend, Shorty, to try to figure out what happened. At first, Shorty doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but when Harold tells him what happened to him, he realizes what is going on and shows Harold what he did while at Alicom. While Shorty is looking through the footage to find clues, Harold sits down and turns on the TV to occupy himself while waiting, but he sees a lottery number result on the TV when he turned it on, the numbers matching those on a fortune cookie message in the envelope he received from last night. This then makes him realize that he must have built a machine at Alicom to see into the future, planting items in that envelope to help fix things. Shorty then finds something and tells Harold that he might have to be careful when he returns to Alicom cause Rethrick might be spying on him.

At Alicom, Rethrick tries to use Harold's machine but he has difficulties trying to get it working. He’s confused about why it won’t work. But Harold enters the room and tells him that it was programmed to go offline after he left. He then mentioned that the machine only recognizes him and that he did it to ensure the safety of the machine and to make sure no one sneaks in to use it while he’s gone. Rethrick asks Harold about what happened yesterday. At first, Harold hesitated cause he remembered what Shorty told him, but then he replied that he got caught in a terrorist attack but managed to make it out safely. The bell for Lunch Break rings and he leaves the room.

Suspicious, Rethrick decides to study and examine Harold's habits while at Allcom and figure out what he’s going through. He then later discovers that he got romantically involved with Kate and left a secret message to meet her at a cafe later that day. At first, he’s enraged by this, but then he remembers that the envelope with the items was missing. After connecting the events, he figures out the truth and sends both Damogen and Apex after him to try to convince Harold to turn over the envelope.

Apex finds Harold at a Cafe near Alicom and sits down and talks to him about something. He then brings up the envelope and asks him for it, but the moment he asks for it, Harold figures out what’s going on and refuses to do so. Apex ends up kicking the table and pulls out his shotgun, threatening to kill him if he doesn’t comply with his offer. But he gets shot in the head, causing him to collapse. When Harold gets up to see who shot him, he sees Kate with Niz and Norma, he then realizes that they came to rescue Harold. He then joins them as they get away from the campus before they were seen by anyone else. However, Apex managed to notify Damogen that he got away and tells him to shoot down their car before they get away safely.

Damogen is enraged by Apex’s death and grabs ahold of one of Alicom’s Rex (a mech machine that was designed for special missions that require a mech due to risks) to go after them in an all-out assault attack. Kate brings Harold up to speed about how she figured out that Apex was going after him. She then mentions that she also figured out that Alicom was planning to take over the entirety of Lotrek City for power. Harold asked how she managed to find out about that, but Niz interrupts him by saying that he contacted her about the information and that he and Norma had to meet her immediately after she got the message. The 4 decide that Alicom is a threat to the city and agree to take down the corporation before they can take over the city.

They hear thumps and decide to stop and see what they’re coming from. But the moment they do, they see the Alicom Rex appear. It then targets the squad. But before it attacks, Damogen comes out and reveals himself to the squad, much to Kate’s surprise since she was able to recognize him. He threatened to destroy them for killing Apex unless they surrendered to Alicom. The squad didn't respond, but rather got back inside the vehicle and drove away from him as far as possible. Damogen ended up getting back in the mech and started to rush towards them to shoot them down. This results in Niz grabbing the rocket launcher along with a few firearm weapons and shooting them at the mech to slow it down.

During the chase, Rethrick ends up contacting Damogen and alerts him that the chase is being broadcasted live on television. Damogen ends up shocked when he sees helicopters homing on him. In fury, he tries to destroy them all while chasing after the vehicle, but ends up getting stuck, and starts to destroy stuff in his way in full fury. Rethrick tries to get Damogen to stop before he causes controversy, but he ends up cutting contact with him after telling him to shut up and saying that he’ll destroy the squad no matter what damage is made. During the chaos, Niz tells Norma to drive away while Damogen is distracted and states that it gives them the advantage to getaway. But the moment they do, Damogen spots them and fires rockets at them. Luckily, they managed to dodge them before they got hit.

But, they ended up getting hit by a laser that was fired from the mech after the rockets were launched and ended up flipping the car upside down. It seemed like there was no escape from the mech, but then, Zack Blocker appears and grabs the others as he finds a place to hide from the mech’s sight. While they’re hiding, Damogen starts scanning around for any signs of Harold and the others. He has no luck as the results show nothing. Damogen gives up and bows to find them another day. He then leaves the site.

Harold and the others come out of hiding in relief, as for Kate, she ends up clinging to Harold in fear. He then thanks Zack for helping them hide. When Harold asked what the mech was, Niz tells him that it was the Alicom Rex and states that it was specially built for military missions that require a mech, mostly due to the power, strength, and advantage that these mechs have for these types of missions. He then assumes that Damogen must have been blinded by his rage to cause that much damage. Norma then finds stamps in the envelopes that contain microdot images taken from the device back at the Alicom HQ. They decide to head back to Norma’s place to examine the images.

While examining the microdot images, they find that they show newspaper headlines from the future that while Alicom became incredibly successful with the device, it led to international political strife and the United States launching a pre-emptive nuclear strike. Niz realizes that Alicom must be using the machine to see into the future to attack their enemies before they attack them. He then states that if a nuclear war were to break, it could kill everyone on the planet as it would signal “the end of the world”. They agree that the machine must be destroyed. Niz then insists on enlisting the help of Porter “Shorty” Robin, one of Harold’s friends who keeps track of his memories.

When Harold visits him, he tells him the truth about Alicom’s intentions, Shorty is shocked about this and is concerned about his current status. He then mentions that it’s safe to assume that Harold and his allies are on Alicom’s wanted list and that they need to be stopped before they take over the city. When he’s asked to assist them, he hesitates due to the risks of being caught or killed. But Harold encourages him to join them after telling him that no matter what, he’ll be there to protect him. Shorty then agrees to help them out.

Back at Alicom HQ, Rethrick ends up chewing out Damogen for causing the incident with the mech and tells him that it could’ve gotten him killed, but it also would have caused controversy with the company. This makes Damogen mad as he ends up yelling at him about how he never liked him to begin with, which causes them to get into a fistfight, but it doesn’t last long as Niox tells them to stop. He then warns Damogen to be extra careful with the mech and how he acts next time and states that he’ll claim how the AI on one of their models malfunctioned and that they managed to stop it before it could cause more damage. Damogen then apologizes for the incident he caused and states he’ll work on his behavior more.

Niox then tells them that if they fail, he won’t be able to reach the level of power he seeks to rule the city. He then assigns the two to find pieces of an ancient relic that could help give him the power he yearns for. Damogen and Rethrick are skeptical about this, but decide to agree to do the order. They leave the room to go hunt down the pieces. Niox then looks out his window and says to himself that the takeover will come soon enough.

Back at Norma’s house, Harold and Shorty arrive and introduce him to Kate and Norma. After that, the squad goes over the plan to stop Alicom from taking over the city and unleashing a nuclear war. He states that two people will need to enter the HQ and rig the machine to be blown up before Rethrick, Damogen, and Niox can use the machine for their gain. But he also reveals that they hit another problem. When Kate asks about this, Niz says that Niox has sent Rethrick and Damogen to find pieces of an ancient relic that could give Niox the power of a god for the takeover to proceed. Kate realizes what he’s talking about and tells him that the relic is called The X Cimite, which contains a dangerous god named X, and if he was released, chaos would ensue over not only the city but the entire world. They then agree that while the machine has to be destroyed and Alicom must be taken now, X must be stopped from being released from the relic in the process.

Using the last items in the envelope, Harold and Porter gain access to Allcom and the machine, while an FBI squad sent by Norma guards the entranceways to Alicom. Knowing how much time they have before Alicom notices, Harold realizes he has to make this quick before they get discovered and ends up discovering the circuit he rigged. Realizing what he can do, he fixes it and sets up a trap on the machine which will destroy it after he sets the time limit to five minutes. Before starting the countdown, He decides to use the machine one last time to see what could happen to him while escaping. He sees himself being shot at by Rethrick in the catwalks about the machine. He’s scared by what he witnessed but decides that he has to risk escaping out of the HQ before the machine is destroyed.

Outside the HQ, Rethrick, Wolfe, and Damogen arrive with the pieces of The X Cimite relic Niox wants, Harold and Porter notice them and escape to the catwalks. The squad sees the three heading towards the entrance and orders them to stop, but Wolfe ends up shooting them all down to clear the way. As they head inside, Rethrick orders Wolfe to find the machine and use it while he can. Wolfe heads towards the room where the machine is and tries to use the machine to track down Harold. When he sees where they’re heading, he tells Rethrick where he’s at and that he’s got a partner with him. Rethrick tells Damogen to get the relic to Niox as he tries to stop the pair.

The remaining members of the FBI squad end up storming the HQ after getting word that Rethrick has ended the building and is heading towards Harold and Porter. Rethrick knows that the FBI is after him and tries to find Harold and Porter as fast as he can before they find him. He ends up finding the two after they end up seeing him, and he ends up chasing them until they get cornered. Rethrick pulls out his gun and points it at the two. He then states that he’s a killing machine and that if anyone tries to threaten Alicom, they will be killed under the eyes of Niox no matter what. The FBI ends up finding Rethrick and ends up firing at him. Harold and Porter duck as the bullets fatally hit Rethrick through the head and body.

The wounded Rethrick ends up collapsing and dies, but before that, he ends up sending an emergency sound to Wolfe and Damogen, telling the two that he’s been killed. Wolfe is enraged by this and starts to find Damogen, but as he opens the door, Wolfe is killed as the FBI busts in and shoots him down. Wolfe sends the death sound to Damogen. Damogen is shocked and is filled with rage. He arrives at Niox’s room and announces that the pieces of the relic have been collected, but Rethrick and Wolfe have been killed. The pieces then begin to float and they come together as they form the relic Niox has been searching for. Niox grabs ahold of the relic and ends up smashing it onto the ground, shattering it into pieces.

Damogen is confused as to why Niox did that. But, a dark spirit ends up appearing from the relic. Niox is excited as he says the reunion is here. Damogen asks what he’s referring to, but then the spirit and Niox merge into one being. He then mentions that the spirit and he were once one being named X. The burst ends up sending Damogen flying out of the room, but he’s grabbed before he can escape. Back in the room with the machine, the timer for the trap goes off, but it doesn’t destroy the machine. The FBI squad is confused and begins a full investigation, but during that, they end up getting killed one by one.

Back outside, Harold and his allies notice a dark fog surrounding the HQ. They then realize that the X has been released, Harold, Zack, Kate, Porter, Niz, and Norma end up heading inside and head towards the room where the machine is being held at. When they arrive, they find that the FBI squad members have been killed one by one. They’re shocked to see what had happened. But then, from above, tentacle-like things appear and rip the part of the roof apart. They are terrified when they see X appear from above.

X guards the machine and says that he needs the power of the machine to commence the takeover act in order to succeed. He then says that “Time shall compress, all existence denied”. He begins to absorb the power. He mentions that when he fully absorbs the power of the machine, the takeover act on Lotrek City will commence. Niz rushes to stab him, but he's knocked out before he can reach him. He ends up shutting down, unable to move, thus revealing that Niz was a robot. X then begins to attack Harold, Zack, Porter, and Kate to get rid of them. The four dodge the attacks to avoid gettng hurt. Harold tells Porter to get Niz to a safe place to fix him up. Porter grabs Niz and rushes to get out of the room. X sees this and tries to attack him, but Harold grabs one of the guns from the FBI agents and shoots it before it can grab him, giving Porter the chance to get out successfully.

Harold ends up shooting towards X to distract him. Meanwhile, in the repair room, Porter tries to get Niz fixed up so he can get back into the fight. However, Damogen ends up entering the room. Porter takes out his knife and threatens to stab him if he gets any closer, but Damogen says that he no longer has any intentions of stopping him and his allies, including Porter. He insists that he let Porter help him out on fixing Niz.

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Voice Cast

 * Ben Affleck as Harold Garfield
 * Aaron Eckhart as Carl "Rethrick" Breezer
 * Avril Lavigne as Kate Abrex
 * Patrick Warburton as Zack Blocker
 * Michael C. Hall as Porter "Shorty" Robin
 * Michael Gambon as William "Damogen" Breezer
 * Carolyn Lawrence as Norma Reckart
 * Frank Welker as Russell "Wolfe" Harderton

Production
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Marketing
A video game based on the film was developed by Eidos Interactive and S1 Games and released in March 2000 by Square Enix for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, and Mac OS X.

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Box Office
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Critial Reception
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Home Media
Lotrek was originally released on DVD on January 13th, 2006. The DVD release included a 25-minute short film produced by S1 Studios Japan and Production I.G titled Behind the Doors of Alicom, which details and explains the backstory of Alicom, Dekker's death, and how his son, Niox, along with his allies, Rethrick, Apex, Damogen, and Wolfe brought the company to power.

It was later released on Blu-ray on June 23rd, 2009, three years after the film's release. It included a new 23-minute documentary named The Creation of Lotrek, and the first episode of the second season of Lotrek: Revelations.

Legacy
An animated TV series based on the movie, Lotrek Revelations, aired on MTV2 through 2008 to 2010 and was produced by S1 Media and Square Enix Visual Works along with help from MTV Production Development. It serves as a prequel to the films and details Harold's years at Nork University along with revealing the origins of Niox's rise to power when taking Dekker's place after his death.

The follow-up installment, Lotrek: Into The Badlands, aired on Paramount Network in 2016. It was originally meant to be a film when the project was started, but Micheal stated that he felt that making it into a series was more suitable and would help expand the universe of Lotrek a bit more, as he knew fans of the franchise have a bunch of questions regarding the 2006 film and the Revelations series from 2008.

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