The already dark Truman Show gets even darker when you shift the perspective to the outside world.
Preface
The Truman Show is a 1998 satire thriller film by Andrew Niccol and Peter Weir, starring Jim Carrey. Truman Burbank discovers that he's been a star of a reality TV show that has been broadcasting him non-stop since birth. Despite Christof's filming crew's attempts to suppress his curiosity, Truman perseveres and escapes the artificial city.
The Show Without Truman
Very ironically for the title, here, of great interest is literally everything that isn't Truman himself.
Since the film is centered on the star, the world around him hardly gets an exposure outside of a few brief glimpses. However, the logistical and social challenges Christof's team had to overcome to get this far raise very troubling questions regarding the world at large, shifting a comedic mystery to a Sci-Fi horror.
The power of the corporation
Christof's crew is a part of the Omnicam Corporation, a multimedia tech giant. While Christof is the author, director and architect, the CEO of Omnicam is Moses Opperman.
The artificial town of Seahaven Island truly is big. It's located within the Omnicam Ecosphere dome next to the Hollywood sign in Burbank, California (In reality it's filmed in the center part of Seaside, Florida, while in-story it's based on it). It contains about 148 buildings, including shops and offices, and covers an area about 800m x 400m (0.5mi x 0.25 mi). It's surrounded by a forest from the North side and by a fake ocean on the South side. The diameter of the metallic dome is about 3km (1.8 mi) from the inside and 10-20 km (6.2-12.42 miles) from the outside (There's likely an artistic scaling error between two shots). Since the dome is spherical, that'd make it twice as tall as Mt. Everest. Not only something like that would be absurd to construct time-wise, it's shocking such structure can hold itself considering it's hollow inside. Omnicam has acquired the dome from NASA after it got stripped from budget and repurposed it to be exclusively for Christof's project.
Moses Opperman's role in production is unclear, presumably he handles Christof's business and legal concerns. He appears to be providing Christof with anything he asks, though is in position to step in at any time if he has concerns.
When the Show takes place is unclear, but it has been running for 30 years. The shots of the audience either match the film's release year, or have to take place in an unspecified retro-style future. Since it mentions "220 countries" and Truman's fetal stage was filmed without health risks, it's apparent the filming has started way after modern time.
The show generates "a yearly income equivalent to the gross national product of a small country". Are we talking about 1-100 billion dollars? Due to having no ads, the income is mainly from product placements and merchandise, which is insane even if it's the most watched Show in the world. It also has a "small country" staff size.
Omnicam's actors are presumably as trapped as Truman is. While they have liberties and can do whatever they want off-camera, they effectively sign a life-long contract and have to do everything Christof says unconditionally, unless they are written off and removed from production. Presumably, the paycheck is more than worth the struggle, and some actors could pitch an excuse for a vacation.
Since Meryl's actress has to have sex with Truman (in itself is questionable on many levels), she is compensated extra, and Christof is looking forward "first on-air conception". Another of Christof's plans is to set up a parallel program that would focus on their child, showcasing that his ambition has no restraint.
Anyone who doesn't follow the script is forcibly removed from the set and are given an excuse story for why they no longer appear. When Sylvia, an actress for Lauren Garland, exposes herself, she is quickly taken away and is banned from the Show. Everyone is also to report to Christof immediately in case of any unusual activity, no matter how trivial it is.
The Show has some child actors. While they are much more difficult to control, Christof has managed so far.
All actors are obliged to display and announce the names of the items they are using. The marketing conditioning is so strong, Hannah Gil, the actress for Meryl Burbank, default to showcasing an ad to the camera even while Truman is threatening her.
When Truman disappears, all of the actors are made to go over the town in a phalanx formation, suggesting that they have received a special training for cases like this. Even Truman's dog appears to have been trained for search purposes.
The speed of the Christof's improv work to Truman is impressive, as he's quick enough to come up with new backstories on the fly and stage a radioactive leak near the exit of the town, an area nobody practically visits, and fill it with actors wearing police uniforms and hazmat suits. He can't react fast enough to Truman acting spontaneously, though.
Aside of controlling the sun, the Ecosphere allows controlling the weather, creating a storm of adjustable strength in the artificial ocean. The set also allows some practical effects, as one of Truman's escape routes features a remotely activated firewall and a smog. At some point during the Show's run, NASA had a talk with Christof so he would help them design another Ecosphere for simulations of Mars environment.
Despite being a strict boss, Christof appears to be close with the operator crew, and hugs them when the father reunion scene works out.
Legality
It appears that the base concepts of human rights are not applied or nonexistent in the setting of the film. Either the actions committed by the Omnicam Corporation are already legalized at the time, or they get a free pass due to their immense wealth. Both possibilities tell about the influence of Omnicam Corporation on California's laws and are equally terrifying.
Truman was picked from among five unwanted pregnancies due to being the first one to be born. Does Omnicam run a hospital or has one been sponsoring Omnicam before the Show has started to give away one baby to do whatever they want with it? What happened to the other four babies?
Christof's initial pitch was a "Bringing Up Baby" documentary, which would have lasted only a year, before he has switched to running the Show permanently "till the grave". What would have happened if he didn't? Would have the actors who play his parents properly adopted him? Would Christof have put a 1 year old baby up for adoption? Or would he have considered filming something unthinkable?
Truman is "the first child in the world to be legally adopted by a corporation". What this actually means is unclear. In theory, it means either Christof or Moses is effectively Truman's adopted father. In practice, Truman is just a prop in Christof's production and doesn't have any rights. And, if Truman is the first, he is very likely not the last.
Christof confines Truman and controls every aspect of his life without his knowledge or consent. If not for Omnicam's protection, this would count as kidnapping, unlawful restraint and/or deprivation of liberty. Deceiving Truman for financial gain could also count as fraud of the highest degree.
Ironically for a man who values own privacy, Christof gives none to Truman, monitoring him 24/7 from thousands of cameras and sharing his activity globally. The only conscious restraint Christof has is cutting the feed during Truman's bathroom breaks or sex life.
Psychological manipulation of Truman to the point of deliberately giving him a PTSD as a child would likely not pass under child abuse and endangerment acts.
Christof makes a serious attempt on Truman's life during his escape, on live TV. Since, aside of a complaint from Moses, nobody tried to stop him, it is possible Truman is not protected by a homicide clause.
Truman's life right after his escape remains a mystery.
It appears that after Truman's escape, there was a legislation in US to forbid similar exploitative programs. That didn't stop imitations from being created in other countries, though they have failed to become popular due to lack of similar resources.
Since the supplementary material mentions "re-runs" Omnicam likely has suffered no consequences aside of loss of their main source of income. Since Christof is considered a genius producer with a portfolio outside of Truman show, the revenue will probably be put into another unethical production.
Social impact
The Truman Show is the most watched TV program in the world. In just first years, it was airing in 220 countries. A lot of people tune in after work just to watch Truman's daily life.
It doesn't appear that anyone is really concerned about Truman, and only some exceptions don't see him as corporate content. This implies a systematic moral decay around the world and complacency with the narrative of a large corporation.
The Show has attracted scientific papers by engineers, sociologists, psychiatrists, about itself. The subsidiary, Christof Enterprises also released associated merchandise which appears to be in high demand, including a philosophical board game. The word "Trumanesque" even made its way into the dictionary.
In-story, the Show has received entries in the Guinness Book of Records for "Longest-running, continuous, Live TV Program" "Largest Inflatable Structure", "Most Watched Television Events".
There appears to exist a "Truman Liberation Front" activist movement, composed of "Free Truman Organization" and "Truth in Media", but what they actually do is unknown and this appears to be totally inconsequential. Christof treats phone complains about his ethics as insignificant corporate annoyances.
Despite all the cheering, after Truman escapes, the audience immediately gets bored and switch channels. It's possible everyone considered the escape as a part of the script and a creative way to end the production.
Conclusion
While Truman only had to deal with Christof's attempts to railroad his life, the real villain of the story is the Omnicam Corporation, whose offstage activity turn the setting of the film from into a questionable corporate dystopia. Despite being intended as satire, Truman has lives his life as a puppet of an evil conglomerate op par with Sci-Fi villains, and remains especially relevant in the age of online media.
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