Bioshock: Infinite (Film)

Bioshock: Infinite is a 2019 American epic dystopian drama directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Tom Cruise, Adelaide Kane, and Jeff Bridges.

The film centers around Booker DeWitt, a former Pinkerton agent turned private investigator assigned to retrieve a woman named Elizabeth from the floating city of Columbia.

The film is based on the 2013 video game of the same name; Ken Levine, the original writer of the video game, penned the first draft of the screenplay before leaving the project due to creative differences with director Martin Scorsese. Parts of Levine's script were retained in the final film, though the script received rewrites from Jay Cocks and Scorsese.

The film was released on November 3, 2019 and received positive reviews and was a modest hit at the box office. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score, and won in the category of Best Visual Effects.

Plot
In July 1912, Booker DeWitt is taken by Robert and Rosalind Lutece to an island lighthouse off the coast of Maine. Told to "bring us the girl and wipe away the debt," Booker enters the lighthouse, which doubles as a rocket silo and transports him to Columbia.

Booker is soon pursued by the city authority when he is found bearing a scar of the letters "AD," matching the description of the foretold "False Shepherd" who will corrupt Elizabeth and overthrow Columbia. Freeing Elizabeth from her tower, Booker narrowly evades her captor, Songbird.

Wandering through the floating city with Elizabeth, Booker recounts his knowledge of the origins of Columbia; founded by a Zachary Hale Comstock and originally built for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, it saw life traveling the world as an example of American exceptionalism. However, following Columbia's rogue assault during the Boxer Rebellion, it grew apart from the United States and has been lurking in the skies ever since.

Reaching an airship, Booker promises to take Elizabeth to Paris; when she realizes they are going to New York City to wipe away Booker's debt, a tearful Elizabeth knocks him out. Booker awakens to find the airship under the control of Daisy Fitzroy, who offers to return the ship if Booker helps her arm the Vox Populi.

Booker and Elizabeth join forces to secure weapons from a local gunsmith. However, several twists of fate result in Elizabeth having to overlay the contents of various Tears onto the present reality. Ultimately, they land in a world where Booker is a martyr of the Vox Populi whose "sacrifice" sparked open warfare between the two factions. Fitzroy, knowing of the damage the Vox Populi would receive if their martyr was discovered alive, orders her men to kill him. With Booker's help, Elizabeth kills Fitzroy to prevent her from executing Jeremiah Fink's son.

As they attempt to leave by airship, Songbird attacks the duo and they crash back to Columbia. Continuing onwards, they unravel a conspiracy behind the city's founding: Zachary Hale Comstock had the Lutece twins construct a "Siphon" device to inhibit Elizabeth's powers; Elizabeth is Comstock's adopted daughter, whom he plans to groom into taking over after his death; and Comstock plotted to kill his wife and the Luteces to hide the truth. After Elizabeth is captured by Songbird, Booker pursues her, but ends up in an abandoned facility with snow on the ground despite the month being July; it transpires that he is now in 1984, and has been brought there by the Elizabeth of that time. Because Booker did not stop Songbird, the elderly Elizabeth suffered decades of torture and brainwashing, becoming Comstock's tool and waging war on the world, with Columbia launching a futile attack on New York City culminating in Columbia colliding into New York City in a massive explosion killing thousands. Old Elizabeth tells Booker how to control Songbird and returns him to 1912.

Back in his timeline, Booker rescues Elizabeth, and the pair pursue Comstock to his airship. Comstock demands that Booker explain Elizabeth's past to her and the two begin to argue; an enraged Booker smashes the back of Comstock's skull on a baptismal font before drowning him. Booker denies knowledge about Elizabeth's missing little finger, but she asserts that he has simply forgotten. Controlling Songbird, the pair fend off a massive Vox Populi attack, before ordering Songbird to destroy the Siphon. As Songbird turns on Booker again, Elizabeth's powers fully awaken, allowing her to open a Tear and transport them to December 28, 1890 at a U.S. Calvary camp where Comstock is stationed and berated for his Native American ancestry by his superiors.

While Comstock is sat by a river, Booker sneaks behind him and knocks him unconscious with a rock; however this causes Comstock to fall over into the river and drown. Booker and Elizabeth begin to fade from existence, in desperation Elizabeth opens a new tear. In this new tear they are transported to a black-and-white lighthouse surrounded by several red-and-white & black-and-white lighthouses with several other Bookers and Elizabeths traveling between them.

They enter a lighthouse at random which sends them back to October 8, 1893; here Robert Lutece approaches Booker on behalf of Comstock, requesting that he "bring us the girl and wipe away the debt," referring to Booker's infant daughter, Anna DeWitt – Booker's "AD" branding. Booker reluctantly agrees, but, having changed his mind, soon gives chase; Comstock barely escapes through a Tear, and its closing severes Anna's finger. Comstock then raised Anna as his own daughter, Elizabeth; her severed finger, which caused her to exist in two realities simultaneously, is the source of her ability to create Tears. Robert Lutece, angry at Comstock's actions, convinced Rosalind to help him bring Booker to the reality where Columbia exists to rescue Elizabeth.

Booker now materializes on an unstable bridge on some snowy mountains, he pushes onwards and discovers another red-and-white lighthouse, which he enters. Booker is now placed in an open, green field; here he witnesses Comstock among the flock of a pastor readying themselves for a baptism. Booker approaches Comstock, who acts friendly towards Booker and questions if Booker knows him; suddenly Comstock face begins resembling Booker's every time Booker blinks, which causes Booker's nose to bleed. Booker stumbles as Comstock catches his fall, the rest of the flock begin to disappear one-by-one until it is only Booker and Comstock. As Booker looks up to Comstock, he is now a mirror-image of him.

The film ends with Booker standing up and solemnly walking into the baptismal pool as the other Booker questions what he is doing; the pool appears deeper than it was before as Booker walks into it before he is submerged entirely under it, the other Booker disappears into the wind.

Cast

 * Tom Cruise as Booker DeWitt
 * Adelaide Kane as Elizabeth
 * Jeff Bridges as Zachary Hale Comstock
 * Tom Hiddleston as Robert Lutece
 * Jessica Chastain as Rosalind Lutece
 * Aisha Tyler as Daisy Fitzroy
 * Daniel Day-Lewis as Jeremiah Fink

Director's Cut Edition
While the theatrical film was released at 142 minutes, 60 minutes of additional footage was cut to shorten the length; the director's cut was made available on Blu-Ray and on demand services on September 23, 2020 and includes additional scenes. Alongside these additional unreleased deleted scenes were released as well as conceptual ideas that never went through.

Scenes Included

 * The inclusion of Henry Saltonstall, an elderly politician and member of the Founders, he appears in a scene operating a political rally when Booker first arrives at Columbia. Here, Saltsonstall chooses a member of the crowd to come onstage and espouse their concerns, choosing Booker. Booker walks onstage slightly anxious as he nervously covers the "AD" on his hand, Saltonstall preaches to the choir and presents Booker as the model Columbian citizen. Booker attempts several times to say something, only for Saltonstall is ignore him and continue preaching. For a brief second, Booker witnesses Saltonstall change briefly as his face undergoes a distortion as his campaign button changes to that of the Soviet hammer and sickel, only to revert make to normal seconds later. Saltonstall finally asks Booker a question if he'll vote for the Founders Party for Ward 6's council, to which Booker reluctantly answers yes to applause as he quickly walks off-stage.
 * An additional scene of Booker evading Columbian forces. Here an armored car chases Booker down a cobblestone street attempting to blast Booker but blowing into the surrounding environments instead, Booker takes cover behind a water fountain before the armored car blows it into pieces raining debris onto Booker. Booker escapes by jumping from the floating neighborhood onto a passing transport ship carrying Columbian troops, here Booker quickly jumps from the ship into the window of a nearby flower shop after being spotted. Booker stumbles out of the flower shop, being hit repeatedly over the head by the flower shop's elderly owner.
 * Scenes of Vox Populi destruction including the harassment of a dentist and the attempted execution of a postal worker were included; this leads to an additional gunfight between Booker & Elizabeth and Vox Populi thugs.
 * An additional lighthouse, this time in the desert, was included and led to a flashback showcasing Columbia at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893; here it is shown how Comstock first met Fink, here Fink makes the initial proposal to construct Fink Manufacturing in Columbia.
 * Additional scenes showcasing the perspective of individual characters such as Fink and Fitzroy; these include Fink dining in Emporia and being informed of an attempted rebellion in Finkton that led to eight workers being gunned-down, here Fink begins to grow concerned once it is mentioned two of his Automatic Gentlemen were harmed in the crossfire, leading Fink to believe his security manager has become sloppy.

Deleted Scenes

 * A scene originally intended to open the film had Booker recovering from a hangover at his office in New York, though he is unable to remember drinking the previous night. After taking a bath, he answers the phone which leads to the boat ride to the lighthouse.
 * Additional lines of dialogue during the boat ride to the lighthouse, originally intended as exposition to fully explain Booker's intentions once he arrives in Columbia, it was trimmed-down to just Booker opening and examining the items in his case as in the video game.
 * Additional beauty shots of Columbia as Booker is flung into the city, these were trimmed-down in the final cut and left out of the director's cut. Here Emporia can be seen.
 * Additional sequence showcasing a minstrel show at the raffle, this leads into Fink and the crowd singing Goodnight, Irene; this is trimmed-down in both cuts to them just finishing the song when Booker arrives at the raffle though most of the full-song can be faintly heard in the background as Booker approaches it.

Differences between the Film and Video Game
Due to the rewrites following Ken Levine's departure from the project, the film received several rewrites which differentiated it from the video game. These include:
 * Unlike in the final game, Abraham Lincoln is not demonized by the citizenry of Columbia and instead is commonly celebrated alongside Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson.
 * Columbia doesn't make it a point to celebrate its secession from the United States as it does in the game, this is chalked-up to Comstock's concern over rebellion and the glorification of disobedience. Instead Booker is already aware of Columbia and the secession, as it was big news during the Boxer Rebellion and Comstock was a well-known figure during Columbia's initial popularity. During the initial festivities, Columbia instead celebrates the day Columbia was constructed for the Chicago World's Fair.
 * Immediately following Columbia's secession from the United States after its intervention in the Boxer Rebellion, Columbia didn't continue flying above the United States and instead had been hovering over Oceania. It has only recently returned to recruit more citizenry from the United States.
 * Booker and Comstock's relation which is made plainly evident in the video game is only hinted at in the film.
 * American flags with the traditional 48-stars that represented the number of states it had at the time are commonplace in the film, unlike in the video game where the 1-star variant is made universal instead.
 * Unlike in the video game, the film makes it evident some average residents disapprove of the Founders and Comstock's discriminatory prejudice against other races and ethnicities but are afraid of speaking-out in fear of the consequences. The concern over Fink Manufacturing and its practices are also shared by the residents of the city. The disapproval over Fink's monopolization of the market and prioritizing the ownership a private workforce instead of employing average citizenry is also made clear through several conversations and by multiple rally attendees of Saltonstall's deleted scene.