There can be only The One?

[Perk]

     I was just watching the One a few minutes ago and something hit me.  The whole plot of the movie is about a guy who kills his other parts in parallel universes and each time he kills them he gets stronger.  However a group is against this when there are only two of him left because they are not sure what will happen if there is only one left.  Will the world blow up or will it just go on.  To make sure their worst fear doesn't become a reality they make sure that neither of the last two die.  

     Now here is where I'm lost.  What about all the other people that die.  i mean does everyone have copies on different parallel worlds?  If this is the case then shouldn't people all over the world start gaining powers?  Obciously sooner or later there will be only one of a certain person as years go by.  So apparently the world or universe or whatever doen't end right?  And to make matters even worse what happens when a person dies off completely which I am pretty sure should have happened by now.

     Then again maybe the reason these seemingly obvious occurences haven't come to the attention of the agency is because when there exist only two copies of a person they both become immortal.  Yea then when the time has come they will join in the Game with McCloud for the prize.  And thats why the universe is still in existence.

[Dano]

My impression is that powers only transferred when a person got killed by one of his doubles.  That's a poor explanation, I know, but it seems like the kind of legal mumbo-jumbo that gets written into these cosmic phenomena in movies -- kind of like the mermaid in Splash having to go home when the moon is full.

[Molly]

> My impression is that powers only transferred when
> a person got killed by one of his doubles.

I might be remembering it wrong but I thought it was just if they got killed, not just by their double.  When they get killed off then all of their "power" gets distributed among the others evenly.  So even though there are a lot of deaths in this world and all the others, you've got 200 other doubles.  So then if your double gets killed maybe it just feels like a sugar buzz or something.

On another note:   So that's why Connor hasn't gotten the Prize yet!  There's still hundreds of Connors left.  Does this mean now that he's killed all of the immortals in his own world he's going to have to travel to the others and kill off himself?

[J.R.]

The One's premise didn't really make a whole lot of sense. If someone were really old, say, the oldest person in the world, around 114 or something, wouldn't they then be super-powerful, destroying the concept of older people being frail and weak? And they said it might be bad if one of the Jet Lis died, so what do they do? They send him to a huge prison with tons of violent criminals where he might very well be killed. Guess all of reality is teetering on the brink of blinking out of existance.

This is typical of Glen Morgan/James Wong films. They wrote some of the best X-Files episodes, but their films are very lackluster.

[Foywonder]

From the November 2001 edition of my column at the NOWFF site:

COPYCAT CRIMES

Speaking of movies that aren't as clever as you'd hope they would be, I saw THE ONE recently.  By the time you read this, it will have been relagated to the dollar-theater or, better yet, video store Hell where it belongs!  You know why this movie is called THE ONE? Because that's how many stars I'm giving it!  Okay, the scene where Yulaw uses police motorcycles as flyswatters was pretty nifty, but the film is PG-13 so the over-the-top violence isn't as over-the-top as it should be.  Hell, the final showdown where the dueling Jets nail each other with bone crunching kicks doesn't even result in either one suffering as much as a bloody nose.  Thank you, Senator Lieberman!

In case you don't know the premise behind THE ONE, Jet Li plays Yulaw.  He comes from an alternate dimension where they have the ability to travel to other dimensions using a means that looks like a cross between Star Trek teleporters & Slider's wormhole thingy.  All the different dimensions make up what is called the "Multiverse."  Yulaw has been traveling across the various dimensions killing off the other versions of himself and thus gaining their life force, or something like that.  Every time he kills a version of himself, he becomes that much more stronger, faster, and smarter.  I dispute the last one, because nobody is smart in this movie!

Yulaw is pursued by two cops who protect the balance within the "Multiverse."  They have to stop him because nobody knows the ramifications of someone eliminating their other selves.  In theory, it could cause the "Multiverse" to implode or explode or some other sort of `splosion!  Or they may become a God.  The movie never gives you a clear indication as to why Yulaw is doing this or what he hopes to accomplish other than the fact that he really wants to be "the one."  I haven't seen a movie where somebody makes that declaration so many time that didn't have the words "high" or "lander" in the title!

Anyway, in our dimension, Jet Li is also Gabe, a mild mannered (i.e. dull) police officer.  Gabe is the only one left for Yulaw to kill.  Just as Yulaw has been gaining super powers, so has Gabe.  Yulaw travels to our dimension to kill Gabe.  They fight.  That's pretty much the plot.  This could have been a fun action flick.  It wasn't.  Why?  Because there are so many things that make no friggin' sense and other things that just make you want to puke.  Anyway, I now present to you -

10 THINGS ABOUT THE ONE THAT MADE ME WANT TO BANG MY HEAD AGAINST THE WALL!

* If Yulaw has superhuman strength and has become so fast he can move in the blink of an eye, then why does his character feel the need to haul ass whenever he's threatened?  For that matter, why does Yulaw sneak around and try to manipulate others?  In one scene, he damn near obliterates a small army of armed cops.  In the next, he runs away.  He should be an unstoppable badass.  The Terminator never hid in an attic in order to play pointless mind games with someone's wife.  The Terminator walked into the police station and killed everyone.  Yulaw goes from being an unstoppable badass to a wussy weasel whenever it's convenient for the plot.  A totally inconsistent character.

* You've just seen yourself.  Yourself just tried to kill you.  Are you totally freaked out?  Do you think you've lost your mind?  If you're like Gabe, then you go home, acting more like you don't want to tell your wife about the old girlfriend you met up with tonight, and practice your Tai-Chi.  Several scenes later, you go to the hospital to get checked out.  Now you start acting like you've just seen a ghost.  Wow, what a plot convenient delayed reaction just so you can have both Jets practicing their kung fu at the same time.

* Can somebody get Delroy Lindo a new agent?  Why is he playing a "Multiverse" agent chasing Yulaw?  Why is he in this movie?  Here we have one of the most talented actors in Hollywood and he keeps turning up in some of the lamest action films out there.  He must either really love crappy action movies or he loves whoever signs the check.  At least THE ONE is better than ROMEO MUST DIE and GONE IN 60 SECONDS.  As if that says much.

* Any movie that has a scene where somebody sits up on a coroner's table resulting in someone else fainting must suck!  This is simply one of the laws of cinema.

* One of the worst clichés in cinema is the good and bad twins standing side by side dressed identically causing every idiot in the room to try and decide which is which.  This movie seemed like it would avoid this since Yulaw and Gabe are never dressed the same.  Of course, they found a "you've got to be kidding me" way of getting them fashionably indistinguishable for the film's final act.

* I can't recall another movie that has so many scenes where people stand around with guns in their hands in public places and nobody seems to take notice.  I don't know about you, but if I see two guys showing off their firepower outside a gas station or inside a public place and they're not wearing police uniforms, I'm gonna call the cops.  Apparently, the average citizen in our universe doesn't think anything of it or is completely blind.

* In this day and age, unless it's a low budget direct to video movie, there is simply no excuse for any sci-fi film to conclude with the hero and villain battling it out in an abandoned factory.  THE ONE does.  The same can be said for movies that conclude in warehouses.

* Several times in the movie, Yulaw's super speed and reflexes are executed in a less than convincing fashion.  For example, Yulaw kicks somebody.  They go flying in the air.  Then, while they're still in the air, Yulaw superkicks two other guys.  They get KO'd. Then, Yulaw nails the first guy he kicked with another kick before he hits the ground.  Problem is, the first guy is kicked, then goes slo-mo as he tumbles through the air.  When Jet Li punches the other two cops, everything moves at normal speed.  Then, after he kicks the first guy again, the footage speeds up.  Instead of super reflexes, Yulaw seems to possess some sort of martial arts kicks that causes people to move in slow motion upon impact until he kicks them again.  Yet another attempt at ripping off THE MATRIX's "bullet time" technique.  As for his super speed, simply speed up footage of him running in a way that barely gives the effect of making it look like he's moving really fast.

* When one of the "Multiverse" cops explains to Gabe what is going on, he does not believe it and calls him crazy.  Sure, like you're going to get a better explanation as to why your superhuman identical twin is trying to kill you off at the same time that you yourself are developing superpowers.  Then Gabe tells the guy that he wants no part of any of this.  Excuse me, but you're being hunted down by someone who wants to kill you.  I don't think you have an option.  This is just bad screenwriting!

* The obligatory happy ending.  If you've seen the movie, you had to be rolling your eyes at the convenience of Gabe's fate.  Yuck! You knew it was an alternate dimension because where else would people drive cars that look like a cross between the bubble cars from Woody Allen's SLEEPER and those tiny cars Shriners ride around on.

* SPECIAL BONUS 11TH FRUSTRATION: Numerous scenes where the guy with the thick Australian accent discusses crucial plot points with the guy who has the heavy Asian accent forcing you to strain trying to make out what the hell they're saying!

THE ONE was written and directed by the combination of Morgan & Wong.  I don't think they have first names anymore.  They are simply known as Morgan & Wong.  They are like the Captain & Tenille.  Actually, they were two of the top writers for THE X-FILES in its heyday.  They also made the film FINAL DESTINATION.  After seeing this fiasco, I think Morgan & Wong should travel across a few dimensions killing off other versions of themselves in order to vastly improve their screenwriting ability.  That would theoretically make their next film, reported to be a remake of the 70s rat movie WILLARD, a better movie than this mess.  In their defense though, I've heard that the studio cut THE ONE down from a near two hour running time to its current 80 some minutes.  That might explain why it is such a mess.  Guess studios can't have plot and character getting in the way of people getting kicked.

Before Jet Li took the lead role, THE ONE was originally supposed to star WWF superstar THE ROCK.  He backed out of the project opting to do THE SCORPION KING instead.  Who says wrestlers are dumb?  Considering the negative buzz surrounding that film, maybe I should wait awhile to make that statement.