Plot
From an ocean rig, a demented scientist, Krank (Daniel Emilfork), kidnaps children to steal their dreams. Among them is the little brother, Denree (Joseph Lucien), of carnival strongman and former Russian sailor One (Ron Perlman), who sets out to rescue him with the help of a young, orphaned, thieves' guild member named Miette (Judith Vittet). They delve into the world of a bio-mechanical kidnapping cult and discover the connection between the scientist and the missing Denree.
Krank is both aided and hindered by Martha, a diminutive woman; Irving (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a talkative brain in a tank; and six identical clones of the genius (Dominique Pinon) who created them all and has been missing for many years. They support the cult with technology as they gather children for Krank's experiments to give him dreams as without the ability he is aging rapidly.
Conjoined twins known as the Octopus control the guild of thieves in their robberies but have become distrustful of Miette and hire One to help the children steal a safe. The Octopus believes Miette has been holding out and has deserted to help One. They employ performer Marcello (Jean-Claude Dreyfus) to ensure Miette pays and One returns to them, and much to his distaste he allows Miette to drown while rescuing One from the cult using a mind control system.
Beneath the waters Miette's last sight is that of a deep sea diver who takes her to his lair and catalogues her body. He is revealed to be a delusional paranoid and identical to the clones except older with a beard. An accident revives Miette and she finds One and Marcello both drinking and full of sorrow in a bar. The angered Octopus has a henchman (Rufus) dispose of the bumbling Marcello and uses the stolen mind control to turn One against Miette; the smallest of actions has the largest of results in a spectacular chain of events leading to the Octopus' demise instead.
When a dream escapes the rig, it plants information in Miette's mind and restores some of the diver's memories, including how he was attacked by Krank and the woman he created as a wife and dropped into the sea. They all converge on the rig with the Genius armed to destroy it and the duo to rescue Denree. Miette is forced to enter a dream world to release Denree from the dream extracting machine as the Genius straps himself and dynamite to the legs of the rig. In the dream world Miette is joined by Krank where she uses her imagination to control the dream and foil him once and for all. One and Miette rescue all the children as the explosions start and the Genius finds papers, finally regaining his memory of who he is as the clones and Irving row away.
Read more about this topic: The City Of Lost Children
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“If you need a certain vitality you can only supply it yourself, or there comes a point, anyway, when no one’s actions but your own seem dramatically convincing and justifiable in the plot that the number of your days concocts.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“The plot! The plot! What kind of plot could a poet possibly provide that is not surpassed by the thinking, feeling reader? Form alone is divine.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“There saw I how the secret felon wrought,
And treason labouring in the traitor’s thought,
And midwife Time the ripened plot to murder brought.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)