The Truman Show 2: Dark Passage
By Bruce Webber
Posted 2023-07-30 in great films
Many enjoyed The Truman Show, a movie about Truman Burbank, who, without his knowledge, is the star of a lifelong television show. Few saw its sequel.
The sequel, The Truman Show 2: Dark Passage, was never released in theaters. The studio decided the film was too sinister and that moviegoers would reject it. I was fortunate to obtain a bootleg copy of this lost treasure.
The movie begins as Truman walks through the door he discovered at the ocean’s edge. At the end of The Truman Show, we assume he will pass through the door into the outside world and meet Sylvia, the woman he dreams of. Instead, he becomes lost between the inner and outer walls of the dome, a space filled with a bewildering array of complex machinery.
After wandering through a maze of passageways, Truman realizes he is lost. He cannot find a door to the outside world, or find a way back to the inside of the dome and the safety it offers. His priority becomes food and water.
Fortunately, he meets Ethan, who has made this space his home. Ethan recognizes Truman, having seen Truman on TV when Ethan lived on the outside. Ethan decides to help Truman and shows him where to find water, and how to kill and eat the rats that scurry in the shadows of the massive machines. Ethan has constructed vats to grow algae and shares this meager resource with Truman.
Ethan explains that most of the doors to the outside world have been sealed. There is only one way out; unfortunately, that door is controlled by a murderous gang.
Truman talks about Sylvia and shows Ethan the composite image he created from magazine photos. Ethan remembers the people he loved and is inspired to help Truman escape. They form a daring plan to sneak through the gang-controlled territory.
Unfortunately, they are discovered when they are within sight of the exit. In the ensuing scuffle, Ethan is killed, and in rage, Truman thrusts his knife into the chest of Ethan’s killer. Truman runs to the exit and emerges into the sunlight. He is free, but no longer the hopeful Truman we saw at the end of The Truman Show. He has become a desperate survivor, distrustful of humanity, and carrying within him the demons from his dark passage.
Note: The above is a work of fiction; to my knowledge, a sequel to The Truman Show was never written or produced.
I wrote the story and used Stability AI’s SDXL 1.0 to generate the images.