didn't expect to react that way

Deepfake videos are all the rage these days. The software allows you stick someone's face onto someone else's body in an almost-but-not-quite-seamless way. As the technology evolves, it will soon become impossible to tell what's real from what's fake. Movie stars were, of course, among the first targets: famous women's faces have been mapped over porn stars' faces so that you can finally indulge that Jennifer Lawrence anal-sex fantasy that you've been quietly harboring all these years. The software is steadily becoming cheaper and more readily available, and while I can't say that it's quite there yet in terms of utterly uncanny realism, it's getting there and is quite impressive.

So one's reaction, when seeing a Deepfake job, is usually to smirk in amusement or even to sneer because you weren't fooled. I was prepared to react that way when I saw the following Deepfake video in which Christopher Reeve's face was mapped over Henry Cavill's in a redo of that final scene in "Justice League," where Superman gets ready to race The Flash across the mainland USA to see who's faster. Instead, I found myself with a bit of a lump in my throat: Christopher Reeve was a big part of my childhood, and I don't think I realized how much I'd missed him as an actor until I saw the Deepfake video. The over-mapping of Reeve's face is far from perfect, as you'll see, and there's no attempt to simulate Reeve's voice, but some part of my brain felt a pang at seeing one of my favorite actors from yesteryear seemingly alive again.

WARNING: in an extra layer of freakiness, the video actually begins with Henry Cavill's face still visible, then jarringly morphs into Reeve's face.


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