Mr. Ulmedya...The CarScene...First Life Inc.

One of the cutscenes in Killer 7 that I would like to comment on is the part with the young worker who gets picked to drive the really fast car.

So the first thing that I would like to say is that what I got from it is that in our society it seems like if you don't drive a car you are looked upon as either lazy for not going out to get driving lessons, or afraid of failure.

Personally I'm in my mid twenty's and I still don't have my license. Why? For one thing it's way too much money for me right now to take the course, plus the cost of gas, the car, maintence, etc..

I think our society is obsesed with driving cars, fast cars.

"Don't drive yourself to death!"

Another reason I don't drive a car is there is already enough of them on the road. It's destroying our environment. Now I'm not some environmental activist or somethin', just so you know but really do we realy need more of them on the road?

Some people see having a fast car as success. Maybe one day I might want a fast car, but right now I really don't see the point. The joke a lot of people say is why have a fast car if you can't go fast anyway? The highway is maybe the only place where you might be able to get away with it.

Also, the whole thing with the workers walking in line symbolizes the middle working class as prisoners, hence the clothing they are wearing.

The young kid is the only one in the working line-up who is blinded of what is really going on. He looks up to Andre Ulmedya for some stupid reason.

I not a rich person, and I have worked in a few crap jobs and have seen this 'young blinded worker type' before. Let me explain further.

I used to work at a movie theatre called Famous Players, a major corporation in Canada that at the time (2002 - 2003) was owned by Viacom Media Corporation.

First off, I always thought it was ironic that in Toronto at the time all the subway posters were owned by Viacom. So of course any time a film came out, most subway stations had the ENTIRE subway station filled with just one movie title so that it would be in all of our faces in hope to get our money. Kinda reminds me of when you walk up that winding road and you see all those Ulmedya posters.

But back to the 'young worker type'. I was only working there at first for about a week or two. Then this young new guy who worked with me at the concession stand got a five dollar tip. It was the guy's first day. I said to him that he was lucky to get such a good tip, and that he should put it in his wallet. What did he do? He put it in the till. I asked him why he did that. He said it was his first day on the job and he wanted to impress our boss. I told him that it was meant for him and that the company didn't give a rat's ass about us, but he still felt he was doing the right thing for the company in his eyes.

Let me tell you about my boss. All he did all day (I'm not joking when I say this) is literally stand in one spot for about eight hours straight, excpet if he had to go to the bathroom, he would not move at all. One time during a very busy shift I ran out of change and my line up was getting bigger because I couldn't make change. So I politely asked him to get me some change. He said he would soon but continued to stand in one spot doing absolutely nothing.

Finally I said to him if he could please get me some change as other guests (customers) were waiting. He sighed, then said "Oh, alright".

I felt like saying to him: "Oh alright, I'll do my job."

Another thing is he would take advantage of any new person, as he would get us to do stuff that he was suspose to do. The new guy jumped at the change to help him in order to hopefully get a reference letter and to look good for the company as the "hard worker".

Now I'm not just saying this to bitch about my bad job experience, but I'm trying to show you what the workers line-up and the eager new guy relates to this cutscene.

One more thing about my job that I think should be said is that the sad looking workers who are walking in the line in the cutscene represent to me what major corporations like Starbucks treat us like. When I was working at Famous Players, one of the Managers was talking with me and you won't believe (well maybe you will) what he said.

He was saying that most people don't last at this job on purpose. In fact, they treat them like crap so they don't have to pay anyone benefits so they literally bring in new people all the time and then let them go. In fact, it's part of the contract that you are not allowed to work there for more than two years.

After working there for not even a year, I felt really disgusited that while I was working my shift, they brought in over twenty people and were training them on my job as I was working my shift!

I quit as soon as I saw this as I don't believe in giving a company the famous two weeks notice if they treat you like shit.

I believe this is what is going on in the cutscene in a somewhat related way and that most major corporations care about making money more than treating people with respect.

I got called once on a Saturday morning because someone didn't show up and they really needed someone to come in. So I offered to help out. I show up and after two hours of my shift I was told to go home and that I would only get paid for two hours. I told them straight up that I felt what they did was bullshit and that I came down to help them out and this is the thanks I get?!!!

The point I'm making about that is that most company's don't give a shit about you (unless you are making them a lot of money) and that if you are that 'new guy type', going in to help out to be the ideal employee makes no difference and they will just jerk you around.

Written by Punisher Discussion thread for this file
6/30/07