Spoiler Alert. If you haven't seen Skyfall and/or Iron Man 3 and don't want the ending spoiled for you, please skip this post and I'll see you on Wednesday.
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Okay, read on.
I saw both these movie within the last week and they had something in common that I found interesting.
In Iron Man3, during the big exciting action finale, the hero's (Iron Man/Tony Stark) lady love is in peril. Sounds normal for an action film, right? Pepper Potts is about to fall from a great height. Tony manages to get close and tells her to let go and he will save her. I believe the line was, "I'll catch you, I promise." Again, pretty standard stuff. She lets go and he makes a desparate grab but...oops, he misses and she falls into the flames below.
What? The hero didn't save the fair damsel? That can't be right.
Pepper does not die. Not because of Tony but because of a rejuvenation drug forced on her by the villain. In fact, because of the power of that rejuvenation drug, it's Pepper who ends up saving the day.
So the hero didn't save the girl, the villain did.
Huh?
Then I saw Skyfall.
Here we have hero James Bond, trying to save his boss, M. At the end of the big action finale the villain has reached M and is about to kill her. In fact, he wants to force her to kill them both (firing a bullet through one into the other). If James doesn't get there in time, the villain and M will both die.
Hooray! James arrives in the nick of time and kills the villain. But it turns out M was seriously wounded earlier in the battle and she dies in James's arms. The villain and M are both dead...exactly what would have happened if James hadn't got there at all.
When did the heroes stop saving the day? Especially superheroes. (Oh come on. Of course, James Bond is a superhero.) Is this a trend I managed not to notice? Or simply a coincidence? If you've seen either or both of these movies, did this strike you, too?
Fun Photo for Today:
Okay, it's a Mother's Day picture but I'm actually writing this post on Mother's Day and I thought this was funny.
