Rebel Moon’s Mysterious Masked Figures Have An Even Creepier Explanation – /Film

Zack Snyder sure knows his sci-fi. Fans of the first “Dune” novel remember that the epic story features the initially unseen Princess Irulan recording the events taking place on the desert planet of Arrakis, while “Star Wars” largely relies on the ancient Jedi Order to chronicle all the matters of galactic import that have been done throughout the franchise. But “Rebel Moon” involves a very different means of preserving and rewriting history.

In a profile with Vanity Fair, the divisive but undeniably creative filmmaker revealed a crucial bit of world-building regarding the mysterious (and aptly-named) Scribes. “Their purpose is, they write down information.” Seems straightforward enough, no? Well, that’s until you account for the fact that, instead of putting pen to paper, these beings from an evocative religious order use actual human beings as their preferred method of transcribing. According to Snyder:

“Your DNA stores information. You are put in stasis if you’re a page, and your body just becomes like a hard drive. The Scribes have the ability to transfer what they see. That’s how history is recorded by the Mother World. You can plug into those things later, and you experience the history as a memory. But the Scribes, of course, are manipulated by politics, and they write down only what they’re supposed to.”

Well, that sounds … horrifying. But as much as Snyder’s quote doubles down on the darkness and edginess his films always seem to be flirting with, it also speaks to the potent idea of who decides what official history really is and why. The trailer teases plenty of spectacle, but there should be enough time in the epic-sized runtimes of the two-part franchise to really dig into such unsettling themes, too.

“Rebel Moon” comes to Netflix on December 22, 2023.