Evil institutions could change any person, including most beneficent Christians, to devils. So it is easy to understand: a Nazi officer might be a loving father, but he also can be the killer for countless Jews in concentration camps. Lots of kind Chinese people can kill countless fleeing compatriot fellow Chinese in the name of revolution, or kill tens of thousands young people who share no difference with themselves in the Cultural Revolution.
Of course, this movie may have another ending in China for those Chinese whose self-esteem has been destroyed by the Party's education. That is, the experiment may continue up to 14 days, because the slaves who have been used to their slave-identity would help the slave-owners to manage the other slaves, plus they may employ much more brutal management style than slave-owners to show their loyalty and smart.
The end of the movie is meaningful. While the audience are expecting a bloody revenge fight, the red light flashes, and all of the participants suddenly realizes that this is just an experiment, and they are just some testing subjects in the experiment. This is a true tragedy: their humanity is destroyed at first in the experiment, and then is recovered. This is a much cruel ending for all of the testing subjects, especially for those who lost their lives in it. However, this is a much bigger tragedy for all the Mainland Chinese and North Koreans in the real life, because most of the people in these two countries do not realize they are in a similar experiment in fact.
The dialogues in the ending part is much ironical: Nix says: Still think we're higher on the evolutionary chain than monkeys? And Travis answers: Yeah, 'cause we can still do something about it. Well, I myself would say yes to this question, but my explanation is that only human being can be so schemed to destroy humanity.
Quotes:
Nix: Still think we're higher on the evolutionary chain than monkeys?
Travis: Yeah, 'cause we can still do something about it.
本片值得所有独裁国家，譬如大陆中国和朝鲜，的民众反复观看。本片清晰地显示了制度设计是如何摧毁人性的。几乎可以看作是真实历史的缩影和隐喻，也许最后大陆中国和朝鲜的发展轨迹就会像是电影一样，彻底崩塌，然后以流血冲突收场。
糟糕的制度可以把任何一个人，包括心地善良的教徒，变成魔鬼。所以也就可以理解：纳粹的军官也许是个慈父，但可以杀死众多集中营里的犹太人。而无数本性善良的中国人可以在革命的名义下，杀死外出逃荒的同胞或者跟自己毫无区别的充满革命热血的年轻人（文化大革命中）。
当然，对于自尊已经被党化教育摧毁的当代中国人来说，也许本片会有另一个结局。那就是这个实验也许真的可以进行到第14天结束，因为当惯了奴隶的人会主动帮着奴隶主“管理”其他奴隶，而且他们的手段往往比奴隶主更加残暴，以显示他们的忠诚和聪明。
影片的结尾意味深长。正当观众热血沸腾地期待一场复仇大战时，所有的参与者突然意识到这是一场实验，而他们都是实验中的棋子而已。这是一个悲剧：当他们的人性被实验所摧毁，突然又让他们的人性得以复苏。对所有实验对象来说，都是一个残忍的结局，尤其是那些在这个实验中失去生命的实验品。而对于现实中的中国人和朝鲜人来说，则是一个更加残忍的悲剧：因为这两个国家的民众大部分还不知道其实自己只是一个实验品。
片尾的台词颇有讽刺意味：Nix问：你还觉得在进化链上我们比猴子高一些吗？Travis答：是的，因为我们还是可以做一些事情。我也会选择我们更高级一些，不过我觉得这是因为只有人类才会这么处心积虑地毁掉人性。
Performance impression:
Director: Paul Scheuring
Stars: Adrien Brody, Cam Gigandet, Forest Whitaker
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