Editing Alphaville (film) (section)

==Plot==
Lemmy Caution is a [[secret agent]] with the code number of 003 from "the Outlands". Entering Alphaville in his [[Ford Mustang]], which he refers to as a [[Ford Galaxie]],<ref>{{cite book |title=The Material Ghost: Films and Their Medium |first=Gilberto |last=Pérez |page=358 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-8018-6523-7}}</ref> he poses as a journalist named Ivan Johnson and claims to work for the ''[[Le Figaro|Figaro]]-[[Pravda]]'' newspaper. Caution is on a series of missions. First, he searches for the missing agent Henri Dickson; second, he is to capture or kill the creator of Alphaville, Professor von Braun; lastly, he aims to destroy Alphaville and its dictatorial computer, Alpha 60.{{efn|Alpha 60 is portrayed using an actual [[Bull Gamma 60]] computer in the film.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bull Gamma 60 in Alphaville (1965) |url=https://www.starringthecomputer.com/appearance.html?f=1382&c=572 |access-date=2023-08-18 |website=Starring the Computer}}</ref>}} Alpha 60 is a sentient computer system created by von Braun, which is in complete control of all of Alphaville.

Alpha 60 has outlawed free thought and individualist concepts like love, poetry, and emotion in the city, replacing them with contradictory concepts or eliminating them altogether. One of Alpha 60's dictates is that "people should not ask 'why', but only say 'because{{'-}}". People who show signs of emotion or refuse to adapt are presumed to be acting illogically and are executed by a variety of means: being machine gunned into a swimming pool, where they are stabbed by beautiful women to the applause of "very important people", or by attending the "execution theater", where they are electrocuted in their seats. There is a [[Bible]] and a [[dictionary]] in every hotel room that is continuously updated when words that are deemed to evoke emotion become banned. As a result, Alphaville is an inhuman, alienated society.

Images of [[mass-energy equivalence|''E''&nbsp;=&nbsp;''mc''<sup>2</sup>]] and [[Planck–Einstein relation|''E''&nbsp;=&nbsp;''hf'']] (the [[equation]]s of, respectively, [[special relativity]] and [[quantum mechanics]]) are displayed several times to refer to the [[scientism]] that underpins Alphaville. At one point, Caution passes through a place called the Grand Omega Minus, from where brainwashed people are sent out to the other "galaxies" to start [[Strike action|strike]]s, [[revolution]]s, family rows, and student revolts. Caution is told that Alphaville plans to invade the "outer countries" and that his knowledge of them could be useful.

As an archetypal American [[anti-hero|antihero]] private eye, with a trenchcoat, fedora hat, and weathered visage, Lemmy Caution's old-fashioned machismo conflicts with the puritanical computer. The opposition of his role to logic (and that of other dissidents to the regime) is represented by faux quotations from ''[[Capitale de la douleur]]'' ("Capital of Pain"), a book of poems by [[Paul Éluard]].

Caution meets Dickson, who starts making love to a "Seductress Third Class" but then dies while telling Caution to "make Alpha 60 destroy itself" and "save those who weep". Caution then enlists the assistance of Natacha von Braun, a programmer of Alpha 60 and daughter of Professor von Braun. Natacha is a citizen of Alphaville and, when questioned, says that she does not know the meaning of "love" or "conscience". Caution falls in love with her, and his love introduces emotion and unpredictability into the city. Natacha discovers, with the help of Lemmy Caution, that she was actually born outside Alphaville.

Alpha 60 converses with Lemmy Caution several times, and its guttural voice seems to be ever-present in the city. The computer identifies Caution as a spy and sentences him to death, but he escapes, shooting and killing the men guarding him. He finds Professor von Braun, who was originally known as Leonard Nosferatu, but Caution is repeatedly told that Nosferatu no longer exists. The Professor offers Caution the chance to join Alphaville and even to rule a galaxy. When he refuses Caution's offer to go back to "the outlands", Caution kills him and escapes.

Caution finally destroys or incapacitates Alpha 60 by telling it a riddle that involves something that it cannot comprehend: poetry. The concept of the individual self has been lost to the collectivized citizens of Alphaville, and this is the key to Caution's riddle. As the citizens collapse, Caution leaves Alphaville with Natacha, who eventually achieves an understanding of herself as an individual with desires. He tells her not to look back, and the film ends with her line "Je vous aime" ("I love you").