George Lucas’ first movie, THX-1138, stars a young Robert Duvall as a man suffering from malaise in an underground world full of peaceful bald people dressed all in white. His life is not bad, but it’s also not good (for example, his name is THX-1138). After his girlfriend is disappeared when the church-like government deems the couple to be a bad match, THX (“Tex” to friends) decides that he’s going to leave the system.
THX doesn’t know exactly what awaits him outside the system. He’s only sure – or perhaps, nearly sure – that it’s something better than what’s inside the system. Or perhaps he merely hopes to come into a life of clear decisions and palpable physicality. It will be harder, surely, but it will also be his own.
Just before THX reaches the outer edge of the underground city, the robotic policeman that has been chasing him calls out a warning:
“If you go any farther, we won’t be able to help you.”
It’s a chilling thing to hear in that moment, for both the character and the audience. THX pauses and looks back at what he’s leaving behind. Was he wrong about everything? Suddenly the cop is not a thug enforcing the will of a draconian state, but a potential angel of mercy, offering the protection of a benevolent environment which, though not perfect, is better than chaos.
And then THX turns back around, and leaves the underground city…
Ever get the feeling you were meant for greater things?
Me, too. So does everyone else.
The tagline for Wall-E is: “After 700 years of doing what he was built for, he’ll discover what he was meant for.”
The implication that it’s possible to be built for one thing and meant for another is a sort of meta-theism. Not only is there a god who created you, but there is also another, superior, god who endowed you with your purpose. At a metaphysical level, this idea is confusing, but at a visceral, emotional level, it’s comforting, which is why it can used to sell a family-oriented animated summer event movie.
Of course, if you really have any doubt about whether Wall-E’s origin and destiny are inextricably
entwined, watch the horrifically self-indulgent ‘Teaser Trailer 1,’ in which we’re privileged to hear the story of the lunch in 1994 when Wall-E was conceived, along with Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc, and other successes. The primary implication is that the lunch in question represented such a convergence of brilliance that every idea that came out of it was destined for success. The secondary (but more interesting) implication is that the force that creates something is, by definition, the same force that gives it purpose. In other words, Wall-E was actually not just built to sort garbage. He was built to be too good to sort garbage, so that our hearts would go out to him.
Which is to say, he was meant for exactly what he was built for.
Also worth noting: in “I just gotta be me” stories like this one, robots and other technology-related characters are usually the bad guys. It’s the hero’s humanity in the face of an impersonal world that makes him so appealing. If Wall-E succeeds commercially, it could be a sign that the general movie-going public no longer sees technology and individuality as oppositional forces. This may seem obvious now, but it wasn’t the case even as recently as ten years ago.
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