Word: skulling
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...working-class orphan, Luke McNamara (Jackson) hopes to join the secret society known as the Skulls (based on the real life secret society, Skull and Bones, at Yale) as a way to make influential connections that might allow him to attend law school. Along the way, as he investigates the mysterious death of his roommate, he uncovers the corruption and amorality of an organization concerned solely with money and power...
...crux of the movie's plot, though, is the existence of an elite society whose laws supercede all others. The Skulls' motto is, "A Skull above any other," although they tend to use each other's power and status to advance their own agendas instead of fostering a sense of brotherhood and loyalty. The movie illustrates a fact that many people know already: Groups such as secret societies and their cousin organizations, final clubs, are quickly going the way of the dinosaurs...
...boys'-networks in today's society, which, as mentioned in the movie, is increasingly becoming a meritocracy. The very fact that McNamara is at Y University to begin with despite its costs is proof that times have changed. And although McNamara is captivated with the idea of being a Skull and having access to the wealth, class and power available to the group's members, the rules and rituals that accompany membership are ridiculous and antiquated symbols of an organization whose time has clearly passed...
Back in the 1930s, my predecessor at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, Harry Shapiro, while sensibly warning of the "dangers of prophecy," wondered what humans might become a half-million years hence. His predictions included such features as a rounder skull, a smoothing of the area above the brows, a reduction in the size and number of teeth, and a shrinking of the face in general. Shapiro also predicted that we would get taller and even balder and that body hair would continue to diminish...
Then they start fiddling with it--turning on old pseudogenes; knocking out the genes for feathers and putting back in the genes for scaly skin; tweaking the genes for the skull so that teeth appear instead of a beak; shrinking the wings, keel and wishbone (ostrich genes would be helpful here); massively increasing size and sturdiness of the body; and so on. Pretty soon they have the recipe for a big, featherless, wingless, toothy-jawed monster that looks a little like a cross between a dodo and a tiger...