Directed by Tag Mendillo, “Model Citizen” is a sci-fi film that deals with a government experiment on criminals. Steven Bay is part of the experiment, but he does not know about it yet. He believes that he is a lonely being and has nobody to share his feelings with. However, his life does not remain the same for long because once he gets to know the truth about his real self, everything changes for him. [Spoilers Ahead]
Why Does Steven Bay Have To See A Therapist?
At first, things seem to be alright because Steven Bay appears to be an ordinary man working on a farm in the countryside, but that is not the case. Steven has a past that he is completely unaware of. He does not have memories of his past and struggles in everyday life. Steven does not understand why he has traumatic visions whenever he sees some kind of potential weapon, like knives and syringes – he is also afraid of blood. To overcome his fear and the violent visions, he visits a therapist named Dr. Harris. Steven believes that Dr. Harris is the only person who can get him out of the mess that he has in his head. Although he is absolutely clueless about everything happening around him, Steven has a feeling that he is under constant surveillance.
What Is Dr. Harris Up to?
Dr. Harris knows about Steven’s truth. Steven Bay was actually a killer named Jonathan Locke. He was in the Baltimore Police Department but was a corrupt police officer who went rogue. He stole money and drugs, killed people, dealers, informants, and anybody who was in his way. Locke even attacked a Serbian dealer, Lubomir, because he was working as a spy for the police. Lubomir had undercover cops who were going to testify against Locke trapped in his basement, so he went after him. Locke was there for something much bigger than just stealing money and drugs, but he got killed by Lubomir that night. He was supposed to be dead after that, but Dr. Harris, who had government funding, revived him somehow. Personally, I have no idea how a dead person could have been revived, but Dr. Harris did that to Jonathan Locke. That was the beginning of Dr. Harris’ experiment. He transformed Locke into a completely new person, with a new identity, known as Steven Bay. Dr. Harris obliterated the memories of his past, implanted a device in the back of his neck that would provide him information about Bay’s stress and hormone levels, as a part of his experiment. The essential motive of the experiment is to turn violent criminals into empathetic and non-violent individuals. Dr. Harris deliberately puts Steven in situations that raise his stress and cortisol levels to see if he gets violent or not. However, whenever this happens, Steven goes entirely numb; his body parts get paralyzed, and his brain shuts off. Hence, it can be said that Dr. Harris is successful in making a new individual, Steven Bay.
Who Are Gretchen Lowe And Jellef?
Gretchen Lowe, whose real name is Eva Addison, works for Dr. Harris. She assumes this alias to help Dr. Harris continue his experiment on Steven. Gretchen is originally from Harvard, and she is extremely intelligent, which is why she has been chosen by Dr. Harris to help him. She arrives on the farm as a veterinary doctor and makes Steven fall in love with her. Everything is part of the plan that has been meticulously curated by Dr. Harris. Whenever she is around Steven, his serotonin and oxytocin levels increase, which probably never happened when he was Jonathan Locke. Unlike Locke, this new person knows how to experience emotions of love and happiness like a normal individual.
Jellef is another ally of Dr. Harris who works on the same farm as Steven. He is trained by Dr. Harris to put Steven in situations that can enrage him. Jellef badmouths Gretchen to make Steven feel bad about her, but he is unsuccessful. No matter how much they try to make Steven go violent, they are unable to do that. The only time when he punches a robber in the face, it is to save Gretchen from their clutches. However, that scenario was also a made-up one. Almost everything that happens around Steven is false and fabricated.
What Does Model Citizen Mean?
Dr. Harris is trying to create model citizens, who are almost perfect because they do not get violent or go around killing people. His research gets so famous that he even receives government funding to continue his project. The main idea is to transform dangerous criminals into good people by scrubbing off their memories. This brings in the question – are people actually born bad, or are they made vicious? Jonathan Locke was not a bad person from the beginning, but his inner greed overtook his rational self, which turned him into a dangerous criminal. After being revived and having his memories wiped, he has a clean slate to begin with. Steven Bay is his clean slate, another chance at life. His renewed self actually proves that people are not born evil; instead, they are made so by life’s situations and materialistic desires.
What Happens To Steven And Gretchen In The End?
The police have been keeping track of Dr. Harris’s experiment on Steven Bay, and they are sure that he is not a renewed person but a killer he had been all this time. They are about to finish Steven, but they cannot let Dr. Harris run loose because they have other plans. In order to get rid of Dr. Harris, the undercover police agents kill him, and they go after Steven. While Steven and Gretchen are on the run, they are pursued by the police as if it is a cat-and-mouse game of chase. Finally, when the police are about to catch Steven, he jumps off a cliff into a swirling body of water and disappears. Three months later, it is seen that Gretchen is the new test subject of the police. She undergoes the same procedure that Jonathan Locke went through before becoming Steven Bay, but this time it is not to create a model citizen. Instead, the police transform Gretchen into a violent person who thinks killing people is okay. The main agenda of model citizens was to create people who would be empathetic towards others, but here Gretchen has been made into the opposite. She was a non-violent person who cared for Steven, but now, she is completely different because her memories have been scrubbed off. I don’t think Gretchen has been given a clean slate; instead, she has been programmed to harm people. In the end, it is revealed that Steven is still alive, and he is coming in search of Gretchen.
