Manipulating History with Memory

Robin William's character in The Final Cut has the job of splicing together memories of the deceased for their loved ones (a Cutter). He combs through their entire life's memories with the EYE tech chip that is planted in their brains. Seeing the good and the bad, he must decide what is right to show at the deceased's Rememory (like a funeral) for their family to watch. It is a way to travel back in time within a person's memory and relive events through their eyes without ever leaving the present.

In Richard Taylor's "Space and Time", he states that to travel back in time is simply to imagine the events of the past 'except for oneself'. He says it would not make sense to make oneself a witness to such things. But in The Final Cut they do exactly that. Robin Williams job is to witness the memories of the past, going all the way back to his clients birth. Also at the Rememory of those who have died, the video Cutters put together is essentially letting the deceased's family view the past as witness. It is seen through the deceased's eyes, like a point of view television show.

Cutters have the ability in this world to manipulate the memories in such a way to make the person appear to be different. "You make a saint out of a murderer" was an insult an ex-Cutter threw at Robin Williams. An example would be as he is reviewing the memories of one wealthy man, he finds the memory of the man sexually abusing his daughter. The memory begins with his walking into her room at night and telling her he loved her. Robin cuts the rest of the scene and splices it to a memory of the daughter's talent show performance where the father acts as a normal loving father would. This changes the entire purpose of the original clip in the daughters room to make the father appear to be caring and supportive.

It is changing the past without ever traveling, because the fathers family will now remember him for those memories. The Rememory video is placed on the headstone of the deceased, so anyone can watch it as long as the headstone is there. Whatever the Cutter has altered in the person's memories is now known as that person's history, regardless of if it is true. And the Cutter (along with anyone involved such as the daughter in the above example) is the only person to ever know the history is flawed.