Information Content

Chapter 113 Information Content

"Lie down and lower your head."

,

"I have a license."

,

The man said somewhat indignantly.

The license is the legendary gun permit.

In the early days of the United States, because there was no standing army, the states often relied on militias for self-defense, and the War of Independence was won by armed militias.

During the subsequent westward expansion, immigrants also needed to rely on guns to defend themselves against wild animals and dangers. The concept of "relying on oneself to protect oneself" was deeply rooted in the social culture and continues to this day.

Therefore, the Second Amendment to the Constitution, passed as early as 1791, explicitly stated that "the people's right to keep and bear Arms is inviolable."

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In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court further ruled in the "Heller case" that the right to bear arms is a fundamental personal right of citizens and that states cannot arbitrarily restrict it.

Moreover, the threshold for amending the U.S. Constitution is extremely high, requiring a two-thirds majority vote in Congress and ratification by three-quarters of the states, making it virtually impossible to overturn this provision through constitutional amendment.

David ignored him and continued to search him, quickly finding an identification document.

"Come on," Buzz yelled, "I used to be a cop too."

This is important; it will be useful in the later plot.

"Lee Lan Meeks? Never heard of her."

"Everyone calls me Buzz."

David leaned closer and said, "I don't care what everyone calls you, keep your head down."

"Don't move, Buzz." After saying that, he went to the original car window, where the man was glaring angrily at David.

"Are you alright?" David asked the woman in the car.

The man sitting next to her, a cigar between his fingers, leaned forward and said, "She's fine."

The camera pans from the man's perspective inside the car, focusing on David's face. "I'm not asking you."

"Did someone hit you?"

'

The woman turned her head and glanced at the man sitting next to her, who was looking at David with a strange expression.

"Things aren't what you think."

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Just as the stalemate was reaching its conclusion, Catherine's voice broke the silence.

David turned to look at the person approaching him. "What happened?"

"You've misunderstood, sir. I'm fine."

Catherine, who came to David's rescue, also gave him a way out, saying, "But thank you for your concern."

""

Seeing this, David realized he had misunderstood and had no choice but to back down. However, before leaving, he removed the bullets from Buzz's pistol and said, "Drive carefully."

""

"What's going on?" asked the partner who got out of the car, looking at the man named Baz.

Do you know him?

'

"I've met him a few times," his partner said with a smile. "He used to be a policeman."

That's how this scene that took place near the convenience store ended.

This scene features the most important characters in the entire film. Apart from the convenience store owner, who is essentially a plot device, almost everyone else is a key figure in the subsequent core storyline.

Bud, Lynn, Susan with her nose bandaged, the fired former detective Buzz, and the man sitting in the car giving orders—none of them were disposable.

Susan is the key victim in the subsequent "Night Owl Cafe" murder case, and also a hidden connection between Bud and Stans.

Buzz is a marginal figure in the police department's corruption chain, directly linking to subsequent gangland cover-ups.

Lynn, as a core call girl in "The French Dynasty", is also involved with pimps, high-ranking police officers, and later with Bud's emotional storyline. From her first appearance, she has already laid the groundwork for her character's identity.

Through a seemingly random street conflict, the story subtly weaves together characters from three different circles—the police force, the sex industry, and gang corruption—at the very beginning, without any superfluous details, resulting in an incredibly efficient narrative.

Because movies have limited runtime, typically 90-120 minutes for a typical commercial film, redundant or unnecessary scenes can slow down the pace, cause viewers to lose attention, and create a sense of fatigue, directly ruining the immersive viewing experience.

Therefore, an efficient narrative can quickly establish a clear story logic, allowing the audience to follow the plot smoothly without having to spend extra energy interpreting irrelevant content, thus enhancing the story's appeal.

However, efficient storytelling does not necessarily mean a high density of information. Due to the length of the film, every minute and every second must provide sufficient information. The film cannot be padded out, but it also cannot provide too much information, as that would overload the audience's brain.

Nolan's only film to date to have failed in both market reception and critical acclaim, *Tenet*, largely owes its downfall to this.

The reason it is described as a double failure is supported by actual data.

The production cost of "Tenet" reached $2.05 million, but its final global box office was only $3.65 million, far from the industry's recognized $6 million break-even point. It is Nolan's first theatrical film after his fame that is likely to lose money.

It opened with a score of 8.4 on Douban, eventually dropping to 7.8, while 1MDb remained stable at 7.9. It is Nolan's lowest-rated theatrical film in nearly 15 years, breaking his previous record of all his films having a score above 8.

The film's reception was also highly polarized. While a small number of hardcore film buffs appreciated the innovativeness of its time-travel spectacle, most ordinary viewers complained that they "couldn't understand it at all."

The characters were described as "hollow," and many viewers left halfway through the film, failing to maintain the widespread acclaim and popularity that Nolan's previous works had achieved.

"Why should I be the one to explain for Susan?"

On the way back from the set, Catherine couldn't help but ask.

"Your role in the movie is arguably that of the female lead, so you'll definitely need to be given a few more lines to make your presence felt."

"that's all?"

"Pretty much. The main purpose is to make the audience remember you so they don't forget your character later on."

""

Appropriate character development is important, as it allows the audience to develop a certain emotional connection with the characters.

In order to cram in more concepts and timelines, Nolan almost completely cut out the emotional development of all the characters when making "Tenet". The characters were reduced to mere tools to advance the plot, and the audience could not resonate with them, which further amplified the sense of alienation in the viewing experience.

Moreover, most of the concepts included in the movie are things that ordinary viewers have never even heard of, such as what is the reverse entropy rule, what is the time pincer movement, and there are reportedly more than five such settings.

With such complex concepts, coupled with fast-paced cuts and loud background music, the average viewer's brain is completely unable to process them simultaneously. On the first viewing, they can only understand about 50% of the content and are in a state of "not keeping up" throughout the entire film, which easily leads to fatigue.

This is a typical side effect of excessive information density. At least Inception set up a tiered understanding threshold for the layered dreams, giving the audience some breathing room and time to digest the information, so that they don't completely give up thinking and lose the enjoyment of watching the movie.

It's said that Nolan made the film this way in an attempt to boost repeat purchases by encouraging viewers to "watch it again if they don't understand it." However, in reality, apart from core fans, most ordinary viewers are unwilling to pay repeatedly to understand the plot, which has deterred a large number of casual viewers.

However, based on Nolan's insistence on releasing the film in theaters during the most severe period of the global pandemic in 2020, refusing to withdraw or switch to online streaming, he is much better than Xu Guangtou. It's a pity that the honor of "the savior of cinemas" was ultimately taken by Guan Hu's "The Eight Hundred".

"However, there are also some practical considerations."

David added.

"What is it?" Isn't that easy to analyze? A policeman went over and asked a woman with a bandage wrapped around her nose what happened to her nose.

Even if she really was beaten, she couldn't possibly tell anyone, since the person was sitting right next to her.

This creates a stalemate. If Susan says she wasn't beaten, Bud will assume she's being coerced into not telling the truth. If Susan says she was beaten, given Bud's character, he'll definitely have a confrontation with the man in the car, making it difficult to reconcile the subsequent plot.

Therefore, at this point, an outsider who is not closely related to this matter is urgently needed to explain, and Lynn, played by Catherine, is very suitable to play this role.