Frequencies 2013

Imagine that your destiny and your ability to succeed in life are determined by a personal frequency that can never be changed. Imagine also that there might be a definite way to pin this frequency down from a very young age, effectively sealing someone’s fate as either a winner or a failure.

During testing, little Marie, played by Eleanor Wyld, is found to have an impossibly high frequency, making her the luckiest girl in the world. At the same time, Zak, played by Daniel Fraser, is identified as having a frequency so low it reads as a negative number. The contrast between them sets up a troubling dynamic: Zak feels a strange pull toward Marie, and soon enough he falls in love with her, while Marie—because of her extreme high frequency—lacks genuine emotional depth. She is curious about Zak and the results of their disparate frequencies, but she does not share his feelings. In her view, the very idea of meaningful emotion seems out of reach, and she often questions whether love can exist when emotions are so inadvertently suppressed. The story hints at a mystery: the higher someone’s frequency, the less capable they are of appreciating it.

The higher someone’s frequency, the less capable they are of appreciating it.

Despite this paradox, Marie begins a series of experiments to explore the possibility of emotion and connection. Each attempt is brief—lasting only about a minute—and each one ends with something unstable happening to Zak. The experiments are driven by Zak’s longing to bridge the divide and by Marie’s own earnest desire to experience genuine feeling, even if the path there feels almost impossibly difficult.

To solve what seems impossible, Zak enlists the help of his higher-frequencied friend, Theo, played by Owen Pugh. Together, they dedicate years to the pursuit of a breakthrough. Their perseverance finally yields results: they manage to raise Zak’s frequency, at least for brief periods, enabling him to spend more time with Marie and giving her the possibility to feel empathy and emotion for the first time. With a touch, a kiss, and sustained exposure, the experiment appears to be a success. Not only can Marie feel emotion again, but she can also experience true happiness and love for the man who has always loved her.

When Marie brings Zak home to her family, her parents react differently. Her mother remains skeptical, but her father bursts with joy, thrilled that his daughter is finally happy and excited by a technological achievement that promises to level the playing field and even advance humanity—potentially ending war and poverty. The mood shifts dramatically, however, when the full scope of the device is revealed.

It turns out that this frequency-balancing invention also holds mind-control capabilities. The revelation shocks Marie, Zak, and his parents in equal measure, but it lands hardest on Zak, who realizes that his emotional breakthrough may have been exploited. Marie, in particular, feels that her feelings have been manipulated, leading her to question whether her love was ever truly hers or simply the result of a controlling mechanism.

From there, tension erupts: everyone turns on Zak, especially Marie, who worries that she has been made to love him rather than choosing him freely. The film leaves the audience with a pair of grueling questions that loom over the characters’ futures: How will Zak explain what happened? Will Marie and her family ever forgive him? And, crucially, will Marie ever be able to love him genuinely if her emotions were shaped by an experiment rather than a real choice?

In the broader arc, the story examines the ethical costs of scientific progress, the fragility of love when molecular or mechanical forces intervene, and the painful truth that even the most hopeful breakthroughs can carry unintended consequences. It invites viewers to ponder where responsibility ends and ambition begins, and whether genuine connection can survive once the foundations of consent, autonomy, and free will are called into question.