Demiurge and Sophia in the world of Star Trek: gnostic ideas in the film «USS Callister»

Abstract

The article analyzes the plan of expression and the plan of content of the American film USS Callister (2017) using the structural-semantic method. Four levels of analysis of signs in cinema are considered: three types signs that make up the characterological trait of a personality, referring to a character understood as an individuality, which in turn is a symbolic expression of a myth. In the film text USS Callister the gnostic images of the Demiurge and Sophia are created by means of cinematography, and such gnostic ideas as the hierarchy of the worlds, the abhorrence to flesh, souls life in the material world under the reign of the evil demiurge and the salvation-destruction of the world by Sophia, have been implemented into the plot. The film also refutes the gnostic idea that the God of the Old Testament is the evil demiurge of the gnostic cosmos via semantic mimicry. The film visualizes the gnostic mythology about two Sophias, earthly and heavenly, whose reunion marks the destruction of the material world and the humiliation of the Demiurge. The protagonist of the film a genius programmer Robert Daly, who has created еру the modding of Boundlessness on his PC, in which he has reconstructed the Callister starship. The crew has been created using the Daly co-workers DNA to create sentient digital clones of them. When Nanette Cole, a genius female programmer, who has been copied into the above-mentioned modding, she is able to get in touch with her celestial incarnation, execute a break plan and, as the result, the whole artificial world is destroyed together with the demiurge. The film recreates gnostic mythology for an audience thinking in terms of 20th century American culture, and more specifically in the famous sci-fi franchise Star Trek.