Engage

Rewatching the first season of Picard now that Amy and I have finished our playthrough of The Next Generation (rewatch for me), something struck me.

When I was growing up, our heroes disappeared in their mid-thirties. Sure, they looked 78 by then, but there were two options for heroes: dead or forgotten.

Lately, we've been given the opportunity to see our heroes in their later years and suffering from the fate of their own decisions.

LOGAN kind of popped it all off, didn't it? March 2017--we watch an aged and failing Wolverine in an epic, beautiful movie to save the future for mutants; something he railed against his entire career (while always pursuing). We literally watch the man who can't be killed die, the man who gave up everything except protecting the man who saved him, while remaining true to his purest self: the protector. But before that? We see a man burned by a life too-lived, too bloody and raw to ever sleep well at night.

THE LAST JEDI dropped in December 2017. There we see a Luke Skywalker (bereft of the weird and convoluted/monastic and/or bootylicious Extended Universe canon) shaped by his own moment of weakness, much like his father. We watch the fallout of decisions that, like it or not, do line up with a man who--bereft of that weird ass, eclectic EU bullshit--made the same choice he did during his greatest battle: he pulled a lightsaber, fought, then sheathed it. Just this time he took too long in making his choice. And then he spends the rest of his life scarred by that singular decisions.

In PICARD, we see the galaxy's diplomat, the great Jean-Luc Picard, brought low by his greatest off-screen failure: to rally the Federation to save the Romulans from extinction. What do we see? A man who failed so deeply, so personally, that he spends 14 years hiding in France amongst vines he appreciates, but doesn't love, on a world he cares for deeply, but doesn't consider home.

And, most recently, DIAL OF DESTINY--Indiana Jones' swansong. He's broken by the circumstances of his time; July 1969. Much like the others, we see a man broken by off-screen events. But like the others, he revels in the pain. He makes it his entire life, until all we see is a shell of the person he once was… until he very much is not.

In Wolverine, Picard, and Indiana Jones’ case, they make their own choice to pick back up their mantles. I think that's why fans tend not to bitch too much about them, honestly. The flicker of the hero is still there, no matter how buried.

For Luke, he must be dragged from his cave, kicking and screaming. And, for many, that was jarring.

But all--all--rise to their respective occasions in the sunset of their lives and bring another conclusion. Another heroic deed filled with the truest essence of their selves.

I haven't finished Picard yet. Stopped halfway through season two to rewatch TNG so Amy and I could appreciate it all together.

But man... do I appreciate these films and shows.

All of my non-fictional heroes are dead or, if they still live, turned into monsters.

Watching the heroes of my youth struggle with this feeling of loneliness, of a purpose lost, of that distinct feeling that “fuck, how is everything still not better!” and yet--and YET--it gives me... hope? Purpose, somehow?

I don't know.

But I do know that this type of filmmaking is--and always has, to varying extents, been--the type of cinema that cuts me to my core.

And these stories--the ones of great heroes laid low by time--need telling. I think we forgot about them for awhile; that "while" just happened to coincide with the advent of movies and blockbusters.

But we need them. We need them as much as we need YA heroines who are awesome at everything except talking to their crushes, or grizzled Military sci-fi sergeants who get the job done <goddammit!>.

And no, I don’t mean we need more grizzled mentors. Those are everywhere. No, I want the Mentor’s story told by the mentor. I want to see the next generation (bazinga) through the Mentor’s eyes.

Seeing our heroes age and fail... seeing them rise again, against all odds including that ever-present tick of the clock, makes us see the world for what it is.

Limitless. Timeless.

And ready for any one of us to take up the mantle, regardless of our wrinkles or bad knees.

Image is from Star Trek: Picard from Paramount Plus.