Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
And if so, who strokes its back?
(Later, shell look up Thomas Edison.)
Teslas sharpest turns are not narrative or temporal, however.
They are thematic and tonal, and that question about who strokes natures back isnt just a cute anecdote.
Invention, for Tesla, isnt about creating new things but about unleashing the latent mysteries of the universe.
Hes not building so much as uncovering, channeling, exploring.
Over and over, the dialogue hits us with these ideas.
Unseen gears and engines thrum and echo in the background of nearly every scene.
Westinghouse took advantage of him, while Edison blew past him as a businessman with an inferior product.
Tesla let himself get used, he squandered fortunes, and he found his noble intentions thwarted.
Almereyda never tries to cover up such imperfect effects.
Rather, he indulges them.
Itll set men free.
He himself is both seer and guinea pig, poster child and cautionary tale.
Technology makes both creation and destruction easier.
In the end, were still just left with our fractured selves.
