Project X

Project X is a 1968 independently made color science fiction film, produced and directed by William Castle, starring Christopher George, Greta Baldwin, Henry Jones, and Monte Markham. The film was distributed by Paramount Pictures and is adapted from the science fiction novels The Artificial Man (1965) and Psychogeist (1966) by L. P. Davies. The script was written by Edmund Morris and had special sequences animated by Hanna-Barbera. Project Xs story echoes some geopolitical themes of the late 1960s, such as overpopulation, emerging genetic engineering, biological warfare, cryogenics and fear of Asian dominance. It mixes in science fiction concepts like holographic devices, memory manipulation and viewing, and virtual environments to create a story about futuristic espionage. Plot Hagen Arnold (Christopher George) is an American spy in the year 2118. The geopolitical climate of Earth has changed significantly over the years with Sino-Asia (China) being the only other superpower and enemy of the United States. Overpopulation is a looming issue. On a covert mission to Sino-Asia, Arnold sends a message to his handlers in the U. S. stating that "The West will be destroyed in fourteen days". Prior to the mission, he had been injected with an anti-torture drug which is triggered by extreme pain. The extreme pain will erase his mind, making it impossible for him to reveal anything to his torturers. Hagen is safely brought back to the USA and placed in cryogenic preservation until the government can devise a way to get the information out of him. With the key to discovering the secret weapon the Sino-Asians were working on locked inside his mind the American scientists resort to using a holographic memory reading device that can see inside his mind while he is asleep. The scientists also create an elaborate historical reenactment of the 1960s (Arnold has a history degree centered on this tumultuous decade) as a means to create a role-playing mechanism that may coax the information from his subconscious to the surface of the unsuspecting Arnold. To keep his suspicions down in the 1960s mock-up, they also create a 1960s personality matrix to implant in his mind. He is led to believe he is a criminal hiding out at a farmhouse and cannot leave lest he be arrested.