A riplock into the future

Abstract

In David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future (2022), a series of mutations persistently germinate within the bodies of a group of humans known as neo-organ generators, manifesting in the form of seemingly superfluous organs. While mutation in Cronenberg’s oeuvre is often associated with a viral tendency within the body, leading to grotesque organismic transformations, this article posits that the director’s signature portrayal of organic excess in Crimes of the Future bears resemblance to the behavioral patterns of vegetal beings, whose ontology may offer a creative leeway out of the virus-organism dialectic. Although the plant, as a figure, is not the focal point of the film, I argue that the neo-organs’ resilience to destruction and disruption of systematic control and manipulation by the governing bodies of the film share an essence with the plant and its will for disorganization. I refer to this rebellious force as “disorganic entelechy,” and trace it within the burgeoning new flesh in the film to investigate whether the becoming-plant bodies of the film can combat the deadly modes of the exploitative humanistic systems.