Mind Eraser

October 4, 2005 5:01 PM

I'm looking for book or movie characters and/or plots that follow this particular scenario: A prisoner or potential rescue victim are told that salvation (being broken out, being rescued) can come only if the person agrees to have all prior memories and events that make up their personalities wiped out, leaving only a blank, but functioning, 'consciousness.' Any ideas? Specific quotes?
posted by slow, man to Media & Arts (21 answers total)

Ahhh... in a way both 1984 and Brazil are similar although the characters aren't really in agreement to the procedures...
posted by starman at 5:12 PM on October 4, 2005

I can think of lots of movies and books where someone has their memory erased, but the only one I can recall that has the coming out of prison factor is Viper. I can't think of any quotes, though, as I've tried to erase the memory of the movie from my mind. To no avail, apparently...
posted by iconomy at 5:23 PM on October 4, 2005

Paycheck (the movie was blah, the PKD story it's based on is k-rad) is kinda sorta maybe similar; in exchange for working on a particular project (and the promise of TONS of $$) the protagonist had to agree to have all memories while being employed wiped after the employment term is up.

The character of Armitage/Corto in Gibson's Neuromancer goes through a similar situation as you specify, only the character didn't really have a say in the matter (synopsis: used up by politicians in a war, severely cripled, rendered mentally unstable, someonething wipes his memory and rebuilds him from scratch and gives him a mission/purpose)
posted by PurplePorpoise at 5:48 PM on October 4, 2005

Cube Zero loosely fits the description. It's not exactly a "you must sacrifice your personality for salvation" plot, but there are elements of it in there.
posted by Godbert at 5:50 PM on October 4, 2005

The process of "demolition" in Alfred Bester's [classic, phenomenal] sf novel The Demolished Man is basically a brainwipe for convicted criminals, but leaving the individual personality to be "reborn".

"Three or four hundred years ago, cops used to catch people like Reich just to kill them. Capital punishment, they called it."
"But it doesn't make sense. If a man's got the talent and guts to buck society, he's obviously above average. You want to hold on to him. You straighten him out and turn him into a plus value. Why throw him away? Do that enough and all you've got left are the sheep."
"I don't know. Maybe in those days they wanted sheep."

posted by neckro23 at 6:31 PM on October 4, 2005

Why does The Prisoner come to my mind when this plotline is mentioned. Hmmm. he was certainly not willing but I think it was the method of brain wipe which made it so interesting.
posted by ptm at 7:02 PM on October 4, 2005

P. Dick's Total Recall uses a similar premise as well.
posted by alana at 7:03 PM on October 4, 2005

A Clockwork Orange?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 7:11 PM on October 4, 2005

The Planetary series of graphic novels by Ellis and Cassady.
posted by samh23 at 7:35 PM on October 4, 2005

Orson Scott Card's Worthing Saga has a few short stories with parallel plot elements, though I don't recall this exact situation popping up, but the idea of personality being defined by our past is greatly explored (there's a way to store somebody's brain in a drug before their brain is wiped for long-term cryogenic sleep cycles).

Fascinating book, and well worth the read if you like moral/philosophical but technically light sci-fi.
posted by onalark at 7:41 PM on October 4, 2005

STNG Episode 87: Clues is pretty close.
posted by alms at 7:57 PM on October 4, 2005

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is somewhat similar, if you consider emotional pain as a prison. I, for one, revel in it.
posted by dsword at 8:49 PM on October 4, 2005

This sucks.
I know a pretty good book in which this is part of the premise, and would like to recommend it to you.
Unfortunately, to tell you that it's part of the premise would be a spoiler, and it's a good enough book that I don't want to spoil that.
Moreover, you're right now likely deciding that I'm making some self-referential joke about the subject matter -- "I'll tell you the book if you promise to forget it" -- but I'm not! I really do have such a book in mind.
Sucks, I tell you!
posted by Aknaton at 8:58 PM on October 4, 2005

Also, The Matrix is similar. I guess there's more of the memory erasing stuff if you think of Cypher's dilemma as opposed to anybody else, although he's seeking this solution specifically, rather than it being required.
posted by dsword at 9:33 PM on October 4, 2005

I'm pretty sure this or something like it has happened in several "cyberpunk" type stories, but they're all blurred together for me:
Altered Carbon
Johnny Mnemonic
possibly Snow Crash

Memory erased, or rebooted, not as an escape from a literal prison, but as a way to "save the day"

Someone may want to correct me on these
posted by poppo at 5:09 AM on October 5, 2005

Dark City follows a similar vein.

Almost anything by PKD (Paycheck, We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, aka Total Recall) is going to have issues of memory and mindfucking involved.
posted by adamrice at 6:40 AM on October 5, 2005

Well, crap. I recall reading a short story in which this was the exact scenario but I can't for the life fo me recall the title nor can I find the book since I gave it away. It can be found in one of the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror anthologies from the 1990s. That's the best I can do. Good luck.
posted by TheGoldenOne at 6:48 AM on October 5, 2005

Babylon 5 played around with the theme of memory wipes several times--there was even a character named after Alfred Bester. There were at least three episodes that dealt with using mindwipes on prisoners: "Grail," "The Quality of Mercy," and "Passing Through Gethsemane." However, I'm not sure they focus as much on the decision as you would like--they're more about the after effects of the wipe. Also, they are involuntary.

There's salvation of a sort via mindwipe in Philip K Dick's A Scanner Darkly. Same in his Time Out of Joint. However, in general, PKD is more about recovering lost memories to escape the prison than vice versa.
posted by jbrjake at 7:14 AM on October 5, 2005

I remember reading a short story by (I think) Cordwainer Bird that included a character who was a forgettee: a prisoner who'd been freed on condition of a mindwipe. I think there was a plot point whereby the forgettee would have to be mindwiped again if anyone told him details of his previous existence.
posted by jtron at 8:27 AM on October 5, 2005

Cypher?
posted by Capn at 9:12 AM on October 5, 2005

"A World Out of Time" by Larry Niven has a protagonist whose personality occupies the body of a mindwiped convict. I think the story has been rereleased as "Rammer".
posted by breath at 11:41 AM on October 5, 2005