Mortal Engines Peter Jackson interview: "I don't like depressing dystopian films'

Mortal Engine opens with a dramatic scene of a far future London, mechanised on steampunk wheels, chasing down a smaller town as prey for fuel and workers. As a Londoner it is strangely terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. In our cinema age of spandex and spaceships, Mortal Engines is unlike anything else in blockbuster history. Jackson and his long-term co-writer Philippa Boyens are justifiably proud of creating something unique from Phillip Reeves’ cult novels. In an exclusive chat with Express Online they explore the parallels with our own society. But do Hollywood movies have the right to judge us? 

Jackson is quick to clarify that this isn’t another dark and grim futuristic world where humanity has utterly and miserably destroyed itself.

He says: “I don’t really like dystopian or post-apocalyptic films where we have all managed to wipe ourselves out. It’s tribal and feral and depressing and you think, ‘Oh my God that is the last place I want to be.’

“I like that it is 3,000 years in the future where a new society has arisen. It’s just as functioning as our society, just as clever, with their own fashions, colour, pubs, theatre. They are making a world where human being are enjoying it, but there is just a very different set of rules.”

Of course, that all depends on which side of the power balance you lie.

Affluent Londoners cheer the pursuit of smaller towns, wilfully ignorant of the cost to others and rolling over a land covered in toxic mud, while others create hidden strongholds in fertile valleys or soar to floating cities in the sky.

The film focusses on the plucky young heroine Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar), who has a mysterious link to London’s sinister and charaismatic leader Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving).

It is a dazzling and visual treat woven through with with a darker story about human nature. One unforgetable scene shows London engulfing a small Bavarian town and its citizens being informed parents may be separated from their children. The parallels to the recent events in the US are unmistakable.

It gives the film a real punch far beyond most blockbuster fare, but should it be doing so? Should Hollywood dictate social agendas? Where do you draw the line?

Boyens answers: “You make sure it feels authentic. Within this world, the giant predator city of London at any point could stop moving and could become the prey of an even bigger city. These people live in a world where being displaced could happen at any moment. We’ve all forgotten that is where we all came from. It also is that thing of ‘What is civilised. What is civilisation.”

The stunning attention to detail and world-building is magnificent throughout the movie and most especially in the recreation of the future London which is packed with delicious nods to the present mixed with unsettling images of London policemen looking more like Star Wars’s villain Darth Vader (or fascist troops) in black oiled cloaks and helmets.

There are also lovely witty moments where famous animated characters are beleived to be ancient gods and electric toasters are regarded as treasures.

This a complex film which will challenge a blockbuster audience but will reward anyone willing to engage their brain as well as their eyes and ears. 

MORTAL ENGINES IS OUT NOW