Please stop resurrecting characters. Your films often pack an emotional punch that brings us on a journey with the main characters, but time and time again we are manipulated and teased when a character parishes only to be brought back minutes later.
There’s nothing more emotional than the loss of a beloved character, but when you trick us over and over again, the whole act grows pretty stale after a while.
Dear Movies,
We cannot help but point out all the times you’ve pulled this trick over the years. And let us be clear. We’re not talking about the instant survival of a character in a chaotic situation. Action movies have been notorious for this. We’ll see an explosion and our hero comes out unscathed a few minutes later. This is not the scenario we’re talking about.
We’re talking about movies where a character is presumed dead, other characters actually mourn, and then “Surprise!”, they are actually alive. Don’t worry, Movies, we’re not being vague here. Let’s get to some examples. The Dark Knight. A few detectives show up at Barbara Gordon’s door to inform her that Jim Gordon has perished. We see the wife's languished reactions and Jim’s son also has to hear the news -- all while Batman looks on. The first time seeing this, it’s awful -- until a little later we find out Jim Gordon isn’t gone -- he faked it all in a ruse to finally capture the Joker.
From one box office smash hit to another: Iron Man 3. Tony Stark made a huge sacrifice revealing himself as Iron Man -- and one of the consequences of the big reveal was putting his loved ones in danger as Stark’s enemies sought vengeance. This all built-up perfectly to the dramatic climatic battle in Iron Man 3 when Pepper Potts not only falls straight down, but she falls into a massive fire. Ouch. Well, it turns out she actually survived all thanks to the Extremis procedure she had earlier in the movie. Not only does she survive, but Potts comes back with a vengeance.
And we cannot talk about one Marvel movie, without bringing up the trickster Loki. Loki has come back time and time again -- so often that it's pretty much a Marvel punchline at this point. Thanos’s brutal attack on Loki in Infinity War was even undone when The Avengers went back in time and let another timeline Loki back on the loose. But we’re not done with Marvel yet.
Dear Movies, please don’t treat us like fools. We all knew Samuel L. Jackson was coming back as Nick Fury in Captain America: Winter Soldier. The filmmakers even went so far as to showing his lifeless body! Then Fury appears in a safe house and Marvel continues to protect their heroes.
But don’t worry -- Marvel isn’t the only offender. Superman falls to the wrath of Doomsday in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. We get several extended scenes mourning his loss only to see the dirt on his coffin slightly rise in the air. It doesn’t take long after that to see Superman plastered all over Justice League teaser posters.
In Star Trek: Into Darkness, Captain Kirk wasn’t just thrust into danger -- we watch an extended scene where Kirk says his goodbye and seemingly loses his life only to come back a little later thanks to the blood of Khan.
Jurassic Park III supposedly put an end to the egg-stealing Billy as a group of Pteranodons pecked and attacked him in a river, but the character miraculously appears at the last moments all bandaged up and very much alive.
We could go on...and on… but we think you get the point, movies. As viewers, we were put into the emotional state of these characters and followed these journeys. Often during the first viewing, but especially while we rewatch and reflect, the fake-outs take away from these emotional moments. Just compare the examples to actual character demises in movies.
When Bubba loses his life in Forrest Gump or we witness soulmates pass away in each other’s arms during the Notebook -- those scenes stay with us and remain just as emotional for years to come. As Bruce Willis says his goodbyes in Armageddon, he doesn’t magically ride the asteroid to Earth later. The emotions remain no matter how many times we see the movie. The fake-out scenes feel like gimmicks used to break the fourth wall and trick audience members rather than showcase an emotional story that will continue to resonate. In short, they feel completely empty.
Dear Movies, you want to see an actual emotional loss of a character played by Gwyneth Paltrow? Watch the harrowing ending of Seven with her head in a box. This is a far cry from Pepper Potts' dramatic fall.
And so far, we’ve just touched upon movies which resurrect characters within the same film. The trope is even worse for sequels and franchises.
There are way too many sequels that magically resurrect characters. Professor X’s body literally exploded in X-Men: The Last Stand, but he returns in The Wolverine without much explanation despite transferring himself into a random comatose body during The Last Stand’s closing moments. Then there’s Letty in The Fast and Furious franchise. Her loss was a major burden from Dom and helped drive his motivation until she magically reappeared. The same happened with Han’s return in F9, after we spent years mourning the character and seeking justice -- not seeking some convoluted resurrection after not being a part of the main series for more than seven years. The Rise of Skywalker needed a big bad -- decided to bring back Palpatine decades after his demise in The Empire Strikes Back. Even though novels and tie-in products may have revealed more details, viewers were stuck with a simple “Sith” explanation -- which wasn’t really an explanation at all.
One of the most bizarre examples may come from the Jason Bourne franchise. In the last Bourne movie, we saw the loss of Julia Stiles’ character Nicky Parsons. When Universal decided to create a Jason Bourne stunt show, Nicky was brought back -- completely invalidating her loss from the movie.
Dear Movies, we know what you’re trying to do. Bringing back a popular character will help build hype, create fan theories, and fill theaters for a mega opening weekend. The Rise of Skywalker simply used Palpatine’s laugh in a teaser trailer to create MASSIVE amounts of hype for the movie. The problem with these resurrections is that each one devalues the overall legacy of the films that came before. It was triumphant to see Darth Vader try to redeem himself by attacking the Emperor and tossing him down the endless shaft in The Empire Strikes Back. But now the moment has lost a lot of its emotional renaissance due to his cheap return in The Rise of Skywalker. The same goes for the loss of Letty in the Fast & Furious movies. If you binge watch the sequels back to back, Letty is essentially revealed to be still alive just a few hours later.
And as much as we all loved the ending of Infinity War, the whole snap doesn’t have the same impact it did after Endgame was released. A majority of the heroes came back so seeing them dissolve to ashes is nothing compared to some of the more permanent losses like Black Widow or Tony Stark.
Scary films like Halloween and Friday the 13h can get away with the resurrection of their villains, because we see them as supernatural monsters who are almost unstoppable. Sorry, Letty, but you don’t fall into the same category. Movie studios are too actively focused on the present rather than maintaining the legacy of the characters and story originally presented to us. Can you imagine watching a Lion King sequel where Rafiki magically brings back Mufasa to come back and play with his new lion grandkids? Yeah, his loss is one of the saddest in Disney history and remains that way because the character was not resurrected or magically brought back to life. There needs to be a point where the story becomes more important than the dollar so the legacy of a film is not tarnished over the vanity of some hype and viral moments.
As much as the whole reboot thing has been overdone, it’s truly the best option if you want to bring back beloved characters. By creating a new timeline, we can enjoy the memorable characters without rolling our eyes at another resurrection. Just look how the 1989 Batman caused the Joker’s demise, but Christopher Nolan’s separate trilogy was able to bring the Joker back again -- even bigger and badder than before.
Dear Movies, don’t worry! There are plenty of times where the resurrected character actually makes sense. The demise is more of a ruse, that actually serves to the plot and emotional journey of the characters. Just look at Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige. The film is set in the world of magic and slowly sets up the story of a pair of twins who live as one person. The fake demise works for both Hugh Jackman’s and Christian Bale’s characters. Hugh Jackman’s cloning machine results in multiple drownings and a stunning visual when we see all the lifeless bodies floating together. The loss of one twin creates a new reality for Bale’s character forced to live a double-life.
Then there’s Scream, where Sidney seemingly witnesses Ghostface attack her suspicious boyfriend Billy. We all assumed Billy was a suspect -- and it turns out we were right! Billy faked the attack to hide the fact that he was one of TWO men behind the Ghostface mask. The brilliant fake-out worked because we followed Sydney’s journey and the idea was rooted deep into Billy and Stu’s plan to trick Sydney and hunt her down.
Even a movie like Tangled worked. When Flynn Rider is attacked by Mother Gothel, we can predict that Rapunzel would use her magical hair, but the fake-out was all a part of the build up from the opening narration when Flynn announced the story would focus on his own demise. The narration and tension built up to the moment helped us accept the resurrection and survival of his character.
See there, movies? We can enjoy a fake-out loss of a character if it's executed correctly, but don’t stoop to cheap moves just to try and bulk up the box office. In the long run, your long-running franchises do not need to bring back characters we all thought perished. Well, except Michael Myers. He always comes back -- and somehow we’re always OK with that.
Sincerely,
Movie Fans.
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