Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB is a 1967 social science-fiction short film written and directed by George Lucas
Plot
The film is set in a highly administered technological society. The date is given as May 14, 2187. Under questioning, YYO 7117 denies being in love with their mate THX 1138 4EB, a sexually conceived "eros body." Computer operators exchange radio messages about THX 1138, who is spotted on cameras running through a corridor. After THX 1138 refuses a command to stop and takes a conveyance to the lower levels, the operators place an agonizing mind-block on them which they are able to defeat. An enhanced "perfect body" pursues them through the lower levels. They confront and kill the perfect body, astonishing the operators. THX 1138 reaches a door, pries it open, and escapes the structure. As THX 1138 continues running through the countryside into the sunset, the government tells YYO 7117 that THX "destroyed themself" and gives instructions for requesting a new mate.
The USC program guide accompanying the film describes it as a "nightmare impression of a world in which a man is trying to escape a computerized world which constantly tracks his movements". but Robbins and Murch lost interest in the idea, whereas Lucas was keen to persist. Teaching the class was not popular amongst USC staff, as the Navy filmmakers often had rigid, preconceived ideas about filmmaking, and sometimes misbehaved in class. In January 1968, the film won first prize in the category of Dramatic films at the third National Student Film Festival held at the Lincoln Center, New York, where it was seen and admired by Steven Spielberg, who had not previously met Lucas. It also came to notice of parts of the mainstream film industry, such as Los Angeles Times film critic Charles Champlin, and Ned Tanen, then a Universal Studios production executive, who was later involved with Lucas' American Graffiti.