The Truman Show
トゥルーマン・ショー
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A man discovers his whole life is a television show; the founding parable of reality TV, twenty years before Terrace House needed it.
Truman Burbank sells insurance in Seahaven, a sunny island town, and has never once left it. He does not know that a television company adopted him at birth, that Seahaven is a vast set built under a dome, or that every moment of his life has been broadcast live around the world, day and night, from hidden cameras. Everyone around him is an actor: his wife, Meryl, who slips advertisements into their conversations; his childhood friend Marlon; his mother. The show's creator, Christof, staged his father's drowning when Truman was a boy, so that fear of the water would keep him on the island.
Truman has never forgotten Lauren, a girl from college who tried to tell him on a beach that his world was fake before a man claiming to be her father took her away. He was told she had moved to Fiji, and he dreams of finding her. Her real name is Sylvia; removed from the show, she now campaigns to free him.
As the show nears its thirtieth year, the seams begin to show. A studio light falls from a clear sky. Rain falls on Truman alone. His car radio describes his movements. He glimpses his dead father in the street before strangers hustle the man away. When he tries to leave, every road is blocked. Confronted, Meryl breaks character and is written out. Christof brings the father back with a story of amnesia, and the tearful reunion restores the ratings.
Then Truman slips out through a tunnel in his basement, and for the first time the broadcast goes dark. He is found sailing away, his fear of the water overcome. Christof raises a storm to capsize him, over his own staff's protests, but Truman sails on until his bow strikes the painted sky at the wall of the set. There is a staircase, and a door marked Exit. Christof speaks to him from above, tells him the truth, and says there is no more truth outside than here, where he has nothing to fear. Truman answers with his old greeting, 'In case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night', bows, and walks out. Sylvia runs to meet him. Around the world viewers cheer, then change the channel.
Starring
Jim Carreyas Truman Burbank
An insurance salesman who has never left his island town and does not know that his whole life is a television show.
Truman Burbank’s story
Truman has lived nearly thirty years in Seahaven without once leaving the island. As a boy he urged his father to sail on into a storm and saw him drown, and he has feared the water ever since. In secret he tears eyes out of magazine photographs, trying to piece together the face of Lauren, the girl said to have moved to Fiji. When a studio light falls from a clear sky and his dead father passes him in the street, he tests the town, and every way off the island is blocked. He confronts Meryl until she breaks character, slips out through a tunnel, and sails into Christof's storm shouting that they will have to kill him. At the painted sky he hears out the voice above him, says his old goodbye, bows and walks out.
Laura Linneyas Meryl Burbank
Truman's wife, an actress playing a part, who works product advertisements into their married life.
Ed Harrisas Christof
The show's creator, who has shaped every hour of Truman's life and believes the world he built is kinder than the real one.
Christof’s story
Christof created the programme and directs Truman's life from a control room hidden behind the moon. He staged the father's drowning to keep Truman on the island, and on air he defends it all: the outside world is sick, Seahaven is how the world should be, and Truman prefers his cell. When Truman starts to see the seams, Christof brings the father back with a story of amnesia, wins back the ratings and plans a new love interest. At night he touches the screen where Truman sleeps. When Truman sails away, he orders a storm to capsize him, then calls it off. At the wall he speaks from the sky: there is no more truth outside, and he has watched Truman all his life. Truman bows and leaves, and Christof is left devastated.
Natascha McElhoneas Lauren / Sylvia
An extra cast as a college girl, removed after trying to tell Truman the truth, who campaigns outside to free him.
Noah Emmerichas Marlon
Truman's best friend since childhood, an actor who comforts him with the lines Christof feeds him.
Why it matters
The Truman Show imagined a man whose whole life had become entertainment just before television found the format. Big Brother went on air the following year, and a psychiatrist at Bellevue Hospital in New York later gave the name 'Truman Show delusion' to patients convinced that their lives were being broadcast. The issues it names have only grown: surveillance dressed as care, a private life sold as content, a life scripted by the people who profit from it, and an audience that loves a man it has never asked. What keeps the film alive is its last question, and who asks it. Christof, the man who built the cage, tells Truman there is no more truth outside than inside, and that inside he is safe. Truman has to decide whether a free life is worth an unknown one. The film sends him through the door and does not say what is on the other side.