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Big Ideas in Big Movies on a Big Boeing
I like big Boeings, and I cannot lie.
I was recently on a 777 out of Istanbul, and I watched Free Guy and one of the Fast & Furious movies. It doesn’t matter much which one. It had Vin Diesel, The Rock, and Jason Statham suddenly being a good guy or whatever. Ok, fine, I’ll check–it was The Fate of the Furious. I think I’ve now seen all but three movies in that series. Maybe.
They might be the most conservative thing out of Hollywood these days. Or not. Hard to say exactly.
In any case, these movies had some big ideas. Some of those ideas were good. Some of them were super-conservative.
Spoiler warning, of course.
Free Guy
Non-playable video game characters have developed consciousness! And they even have free will, apparently. Between deciding whether and how to take some control of their own existence and the dramatic movie situation that their whole world is about to be unplugged by a jerk in the real original world, they have their computer-generated hands full.
It’s the bit about taking charge of their own lives that’s really interesting.
The hero tells them during his inspirational speech that they can. He says, “We don’t have to be spectators to our own lives.”
Well, that’s something the left could stand to learn–we have agency. We can make our own decisions and choose how our lives turn out. Not everything is controlled by the forces of class, gender, race, history, or the billionaires.
Free Guy, I’m sorry to say, does suffer from some leftist tropes. Gun violence is noted as an enormous problem in the real world. A security guard video game character symbolically drops his gun at the end of the movie, choosing to make his own way in life and not be what he was programmed to be.
To be fair, gun violence is a big problem in the real world. But that’s why someone needs to be a good guard or a good cop or just a good citizen–with a gun. And are we even allowed to talk about the reasons guns are used to kill people–like fatherlessness that leaves people to be raised by the streets? Coolio observed that. It’s not the guns.
Anyway, Free Guy is a superb example of how Hollywood liberals try to put their ideas into their story, but can’t manage to tell a good story without giving it some good ideas–the kind of ideas conservatism is built on.
The Fate of the Furious
The villain in Fate of the Furious says family doesn’t exist. She’s representing an actual position in philosophy called eliminative materialism, and doing a pretty good job of it too. Eliminativism says that things don’t exist–most things anyway. Matter exists, but not things made of it–a lump of clay may exist, but even if you shape it like a naked Bible character, there still ain’t no statue there; there’s just a lump of clay. (Technically, on this view, a lump of clay doesn’t exist either; only its subatomic particles exist!)
The movie’s villain says family doesn’t exist; it’s all a biological illusion!
Opposed to her is Dom Toretto, the main hero of the series, who’s all about family. Family exists–it’s so obvious and fundamental that he doesn’t even need to say it directly. He lives it, he defeats the bad guys who oppose it, and he says things all the time that presume it without quite saying it. Just like the existence of salt is assumed in the request “Please pass the salt,” the existence of family is assumed in the statement “Family is important.”
Heck yeah, man.
I don’t remember this next line, but the internet seems to think Toretto even says the metaphysics directly at some point:
Now there are also some . . . other ideas in this movie.
In the George W. Bush years, the left was trying to teach us that these ideas were totally evil. This was real Darth Vader stuff back then. And we conservatives scoffed at them–as if!
You know the drill: The CIA is too powerful! The spooks operate outside the law! They don’t answer to anyone! They kill people secretly! They run the drug trade!
Yeah, right. Like that would ever happen.
Well, in the Fast & Furious movies, guess what! The CIA does run the drug trade in South America, and they do operate without rules! “Rule 3: There are no rules” is the line in Fate of the Furious, and we’re supposed to be entertained by it.
And I was! It meant a bunch of cool people driving really fancy cars ridiculously fast over a Russian icefield–with explosions! I do like explosions.
But what the [insert cuss word here] do we enjoy when we watch that? We enjoy the idea that the Deep State not only exists, but is roughly 100% unchained to law, to Congress, to the President, to rules. They’re an unelected, uncontrolled, and massively powerful secret government.
Is that fiction?
Or is the fictional part the part where a secret government like that is out there using sexy people and cars to awesomely stop nukes and terrorists, instead of, you know, maintaining its own power–and G-d knows what else?
At this point, I can’t help wondering if the feds have infiltrated the movie studios and are intentionally pushing this particular idea. What was anathema in the George W. Bush era–think of the Jason Bourne movies–is now to be made cool again, now that the right people have solidified their control.
If they infiltrated Twitter, why wouldn’t they have also infiltrated movie studios?
Still, it’s only a speculation.
“Let Us Hear the Conclusion of the Whole Matter”
Psych! I don’t even have a conclusion!
But watch those ideas in the movies. Ideas matter.
Published in General
I have a somewhat different take on the Left and the way the Lefties think than you do.
You state: Well, that’s something the left could stand to learn–we have agency. We can make our own decisions and choose how our own lives turn out. Not everything is controlled by the forces of class, gender, race, history, or the billionaires.
The Lefties believe that as long as they support the models for The Society of The Brave New World, all will be well.
They also do not see the restrictions that have been pouring out of the vast array of re-designed Fed, state and local agencies as limiting them. After all, during COVID restrictions, the least important assistant bank manager could enforce draconian activities upon the public, with the average individuals so picked on not given any say in the matter.
Our abilities to make our own decisions have been stripped away. When many in the middle class were forced to shutter their businesses, mask up their children, forego most activities that bring about a sane and healthy lifestyle, and it is now evident that Pandemic-to-Kill-All-on the Planet# 2 is soon to be unleashed upon us, our inalienable rights are inaccessible, except in theory.
I’m not sure where we’re disagreeing.
Book by @markeckel.
This is a clever illustration, part film reel, part stained glass window. And illustration it is: real reels don’t have a hollow hub. So it wasn’t just a coincidence. Good for Prof. Eckel.
Okay, maybe I need the definition you are using for the nebulous “we.”
You state: “Well, that’s something the left could stand to learn–we have agency. “
The Lefties do not need to worry about us on the right having agency, because we don’t.
What they have learned since COV was declared a national emergency is that since safety is their major concern, then they merrily agree to follow all dictates regarding COVID.
With safety as their main concern, they do not view their rights as being diminished.
Their focus has been on the ability to know their Dem governors and mayors will lock down, mask and vax up everyone in society so that they can feel safe.
Since it is primarily people in the center or on the right who did not want these draconian measures to take place, we have been violated because rights we understand to be of supreme value have been obliterated.
Prior to COVID, the Lefties had as their main concern civility. Donald Trump had to be defeated by Hillary because his locker room talk of “Grab ’em by the P***y” offended all women everywhere.
Again and again, there are examples of how only the “agency” that is now deemed to be necessary will exist to protect the special classes of people who are of importance to those on the Left.
That is why on an almost daily basis it is possible to read about a store keeper knocking a knife or even a gun out of the arms of a would be hoodlum, and then since the would be hoodlum had not stole anything, since the goods in his backpack had not left the store yet, and he hadn’t stabbed or shot anyone, as the store keeper defended him or herself, then it is the store keeper who is charged with a crime.
Human beings.
Ok, that sounds about right. That’s how they want it anyway.
But I’m talking about bigger, metaphysical questions of whether a human being has free will. The Left wants to take away a lot of freedoms, sure, but do we have no ability to decide between different ways of responding to that situation? And do we not have some measure of control over our own circumstances?
… and then gets beaten up and carjacked in his own driveway.
Finis
If an eliminativist gets carjacked, does he call a cop?
To be fair, as I recall, he did pull his gun on an antagonist a little earlier in the movie.
No, but his subatomic particles call the cop’s subatomic particles.
From the OP:
“… Hollywood liberals try to put their ideas into their story, but can’t manage to tell a good story without giving it some good ideas–the kind of ideas conservatism is built on.”
That’s because any product that seeks to maximize the number of flesh-and-blood people who will part with their hard-earned money needs to have at least a modicum of a relationship to the way in which flesh-and-blood people live our lives. IOW, at least a modicum of a relationship to … REALITY.
Such as the REALITY that Familial bonds are stronger/more reliable than any others. Such as the REALITY that studying hard is a really good thing. Such as the REALITY that showing up on time is a very good way to keep your job, but showing up before your boss does and leaving after he does is a very good way to get ahead. Such as the REALITY that saving $200 rather than spending it on stylish sneakers/latest gamebox/whatever, buying less car/house than you can afford at any given time in your life, etc. is really gonna pay mucho dividends in your old age. Etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., … etc..
REALITY is … conservative.
Coming back from a very busy weekend, I haven’t yet had time to digest all the comments so far. However, I think this post is worthy of promotion to the Main Feed, being an example of Ricochet at its best.
I am going to push back a bit on Free Guy.
The man is a guard because there needs to be guards to be part of the
PacificBank Heist inGTA5Free City. It is his assigned role. I did not see this as anti-gun at all. The character is choosing to be something else other than what he is assigned. Just like in The Iron Giant.I think the idea that a bunch of scrappy heroes fighting the tyranny of the Government is baked into American storytelling. It is how we started out as a nation, after all. Superhero stories have done this ad nauseum. There is something thrilling about taking on Goliath and winning. Explosions and car tricks are the icing.
The idea that there are forces of evil that need to be confronted is as old as time. The idea that men in power are evil is too. The rough man from outside the “system” who rides in (or dives a fancy sports car) to save the day is archetypal. I think what we have today is distrust in government going up and up, so they become easy villains.
Well said. You may be right.
Please share this news with my daughters. They seem to enjoy telling me what to do all the time.
You can choose to ignore your daughters’ instructions and make your own decisions, but the life you choose that way may not be your best (or happiest) life. :)
The bounties of seat-back screens are quite remarkable. I was just on two long-haul flights, and the screens had a rich array of entertainment – recent movies, games, music, TV shows. But I never watch any of it. I bring my own programs and watch them on my iPad with noise-cancelling headphones. On one long flight the entire entertainment system went down, and I felt like the only man in the neighborhood who has a bomb shelter when the sirens go off.
Unrelated, but jeez: if you wanted the menu for the snacks, and hit the Food & Drinks button, you got this:
I know, I know, the menu is “dynamic,” depending on the flight, but it’s a perfect example of Too Much Tech.
Why do you need to scan a QR code to get to an interface on your phone — assuming you have one — when that interface could just be on the screen in front of you already?
And again, what if you don’t have a smart phone?
Just flew from Amsterdam to Minneapolis yesterday. Maybe I have been trained to appreciate limited choices by a childhood of antenna-only TV, but I enjoyed my confinement and the wide-but-finite choice of movies. I can sit right next to my wife and watch movies she would never choose — horror, violence, sick humor. While I will sometimes watch those genre at home after she has gone to bed, I often do not have the patience, or I am too tired myself, to watch a whole movie. Also, at home I have too many choices and too much chaff to sort through to find something worth the commitement. On the flights, the choices are many but not overwhelming. This flight I watched, for the first time, Pulp Fiction. I’ve seen clips and references and memes about it for the last 30 years, so I had a general idea of the character of the film, but I had not appreciated how funny it really was. This was definitely not a movie for my wife — too much violence for her to laugh at the juxtaposition of the dialogue and the contorted situations the characters found themselves in. But she saw me convulsing as I tried to suppress my audible laughter on this full flight — an effort which only made me laugh more. I tried to explain to her what was so funny, but it is all lost in translation. I also wondered how people behind me might be thinking about this guy who was laughing while horrible things were happening on the screen. Ah, I’ll never see them again. I particularly enjoyed the Bruce Willis segment, The Gold Watch. I hadn’t even known that Willis was in the movie.
You didn’t mention the (free) Wi-Fi on Delta (for T-Mobile customers). I enjoyed messaging family back home to hear what the grandkids were up to during the flight. One can only watch so many movies and episodes of The Big Bang Theory on a 14 1/2 hour flight. For the return flight, which was running seven hours late and had to divert to Honolulu on the way to LA, I was on a plane with broken WiFi and got a taste of how spoiled I had become. It also gave perspective on how far we have come. My mother depended on those flimsy blue “aerograms” to keep in touch with my uncle. Now we can keep in touch with my first cousins with emails and instant messaging.