Cloud Atlas is a epic science fiction film written and directed by the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer. During its four years of development, the producers had difficulties securing financial support. The story jumps between eras, spanning hundreds of years, until each storyline eventually resolves. Writings from characters in prior storylines are found in future storylines.
Characters appear to recur in each era, but change relationships to each other, suggesting reincarnation or other connection between souls through the ages. In the Chatham Islands , , American lawyer Adam Ewing is waiting for his transport ship to be repaired.
He witnesses the whipping of Autua, an enslaved Moriori man. Autua stows away on Ewing's ship, having noticed Ewing's sympathy, and persuades him to advocate for Autua to join the crew as a free man. Autua saves Ewing's life before the ship's doctor, Henry Goose, can poison Ewing and steal his gold under the guise of treating him for a parasitic worm. In San Francisco , Ewing and his wife Tilda denounce her father's complicity in slavery and leave for New York to join the abolition movement.
As the sextet nears completion, Ayrs demands credit for it and threatens to expose Frobisher's bisexuality if he refuses. Frobisher shoots and wounds Ayrs and goes into hiding. Frobisher finishes the sextet and shoots himself before Frobisher's lover Rufus Sixsmith arrives.
Sixsmith tips off Rey to a conspiracy to create a catastrophe at a nuclear reactor run by Lloyd Hooks, who secretly promotes oil-energy interests. He is killed by Hooks' hitman, Bill Smoke, before he can give her a report as proof. Scientist Isaac Sachs passes her a copy of Sixsmith's report, but Smoke kills Sachs and then runs Rey's car off a bridge, destroying the report. With help from the plant's head of security, Joe Napier, Rey evades another assassination attempt, and Smoke is killed.
