Despite being around for over 30 years, in 2007, Ubisoft
brought one of the biggest franchises to the gaming community. Assassin’s Creed
has since grown into over seventeen games, one movie, eight graphic novels,
three short films, three encyclopedia type books, and grossed over $311 million. The games and the 2016 film differ in that the Animus works differently, how Abstergo gets their subjects, and the main character from the film has a small role in the game versus the movie.
A thought many people have had is "Where do I come from? What did my family do? I wonder how my family felt about things they did." Abstergo arises with an answer to these ponderings...with a catch. They are looking for hidden artifacts from the Isu people called the Pieces of Eden. These pieces are said to have various shapes and lend various powers to its holder. The Assassin's and the Templar both try to have them for various reasons; however, the assassin's want to protect free will and the Templar's want to gain complete control.
One of quickest overviews of the series is above.
Here is the final trailer for the movie released on December 21, 2016.
The Animus evolves over time. It is a program that reads genetic memories and enables the subject to relive and hone skills that someone farther back in their family had. The consciousness opens a memory code sequence with three-dimensional programming that evolves as the program continues. As a person progresses in the animus, there will be memory corridors to easily transition between memories and a white room that enables focus on the memory just witnessed. The more the animus is used the more synchronization can be achieved to get the most out of the memories by monitoring and controlling what is experienced and remembered to reduce potential distress. It came to be that anyone could use the animus to experience the memory provided the DNA was in storage.
The 2016 film has the animus as a six-point free range of motion arm subjects are attached to. It offers motion rather than just going through the memory while attached to a scanner or laying on table attached to the scanner. Weapons are able to be used as well as full range of motion. It is three dimensional projection of what the memory is around you so it can be observed for full understanding from a point of view.
Now the question is who would want to go through some of side effects of using the animus? Prolonged use of the animus comes with hunger; exhaustion; hallucinations, also known as the bleeding effect; nausea and headaches. In more severe cases, it can cause a neurological split causing paralysis, mental degradation, and in the most severe cases, has caused physiological instability.
In the games, subjects are kidnapped by the Department of Lineage Discovery and Acquisition. As Abstergo grows as a Templar front, they do offer people jobs as researchers to sift through information. They also released gaming consoles and VR games that brought people to Abstergo. People are kept in cells or can come and go as they please, depending on how the company acquired them. The general public either thinks them missing, dead, or working. However, the 2016 film all of the subjects in the program are thought of as dead to the public. They are picked up from prisons, usually on death row and "revived" at an undisclosed location to "help eradicate anger."
Callum Lynch, better known as Cal, is the descendant of Aguilar de Nerha who lived from 1455-1526 in Spain. Aguilar was a child of two assassin's and never embraced their creed until both of his parents were burned at the stake by a Templar-led inquisition. He became one of the finest members with a crucial role in expanding the brotherhood through Spain. Nerha later became the Mentor of the Spanish Brotherhood with every positive thing he did for the Assassin's. As far as the games go, Aguilar shows a cameo in Assassin's Creed II where we see him handing an Apple of Eden to Christopher Columbus who later meets Ezio Auditore. The only game you can play both Ezio and Aguilar is the mobile Assassin's Creed Identity.
The movie follows Cal. It has what appears to be three beginnings in the movie which can make it hard to follow. At the opening, we see Aguilar at an Assassin's meeting in Andalcia, Spain 1492, jump to Cal a child jumping his bike and seeing his mom after she's been murdered by the Templar, last jump Cal is in a Texas jail on death row and the movie goes from there. Once brought back to life, Cal is thrust into the Abstergo world and becomes the missing piece the Templar is needing for the Apple of Eden. Him and the other assassin's lead an uprising when he demands to go back onto the Animus to unlock the secret of the apple's location. As soon as it's found the uprising begins.
Assassin's Creed is fiction with aspects of non-fiction thrown in. The animus evolves in different fashions for the platform they wish to use, a lot is missing from the backstory of Abstergo, and the 2016 film is loosely tied in to make it relevant to the gaming community. To think that an answer may be that simple and complex at the same time would maybe make someone think twice about reliving the past to get answers about where they came from.
