The Metaphysics of “After Earth”

So, I’ve decided to take a break from YouTube and the MetaChannel, but that does not mean I’ve taken a break from “observational metaphysics” or viewing the world in which we live metaphysically. The movie “After Earth” almost forced me to turn the camera back-on – almost. It is certainly worthy of metaphysical review and analysis. What’s interesting is - according to RottenTomatoes.com, only 12% of critics liked the movie, whereas 82% of the audience enjoyed it. That’s a 70% difference in opinion.

Whatever criteria critics are employing in determine whether a movie is worth seeing, it’s obviously not the formula the public is using. And, if the critics are supposed to be giving us the heads-up on what’s good to go see, we cannot find a more clear referendum on their job performance than this. These guys are getting to be like the weather-man who gets it wrong 70% of the time. Hate to have to say this, but critics are by no means the stand-in experts on movie-making or what makes a good movie. Thus, the best critics are people who love movies, not journalists who get paid to think a certain way or would-be film-makers whose primary focus should be on film-making.

I digressed. Let’s get back to the movie itself. First and foremost, a primary theme in the film is ‘the hero’s journey’. That automatically makes this is a man’s movie. Not that it should be, especially since one of the first stories to depict a hero’s journey is the tale of Isis who fought with skill, cunning, and valor to save her son, Horus. Thus, anyone who has fought or is fighting the good fight can connect with and be inspired by the hero’s journey.

Nevertheless, the hero’s journey is classically depicted as one where the son faces and overcomes many challenges in becoming the father, achieving manhood, or earning the respect of some group of people. We love the hero’s journey, because it is the ultimate journey for all of us. Our goal as individuals is the ultimate return to our father – GOD. This search may take the form of finding purpose or perfecting ourselves or our craft. At the core, it is the quest for that which is beyond our reach. As a collective, our goal is to achieve oneness with our fellow man and to overcome the challenges faced by humanity. Hence, most of us can resonate with this concept in one way or another.

In this film, our heroes happen to be members of a black family. There is the wife, Faia, who heroically accepts her husband’s absence and awaits his return to the family. There is the daughter, Senshi, who heroically sacrifices her life for that of her younger brother. There is the son, Kitai, who desperately wants to be a hero like his father. And, there is the father, Cypher, who acts as savior of the human race in more ways than one – it seems. As viewers, we should be able to connect with heroics, regardless of how they are packaged. It is in our DNA to connect with the courage, faith and compassion that are characteristic to these characters. I humbly submit that if you had a hard time doing so, you were likely analyzing the film a bit too much.

The film is set in a future 1,000 years from now, where human beings can be found to be desperately seeking the balance between nature and technology. So, the habitations and the ships of the future are shown to have both a natural and a technological feel. Even the weapon is made of some crystalline bone-like material and a morphing black substrate. The décor in the homes is simple and the ship’s design is simple. Thus, our connection with the characters and the story do not get lost in a whole bunch of heavy metal and technological gizmos. Now, some viewers may have experienced a level of discomfort, expecting a more technology driven future and an even greater interface with technology. However, the movie makes the clear point that it is nature that sustains us and that our relationship with nature must be first and foremost.

Kitai’s suit changes to fit the environment. What better way to make the point – “Adapt or die.” Today, militaries around the world recognize the value of blending-in with their environment. They wear camouflage that matches their environment. They even camouflage tanks and missiles. However, in contrast to the present, this movie carries us into a future time when the need for close-quarter combat renders guns and long-range weapons useless. Apparently, this movie recognizes a future where we’ve done enough damage to ourselves to grow to hate guns. Further, an alien race brings a new threat (the ursa), which preys on humans. It closes its distance before attacking.

I found it interesting that the beast was called an ursa (or bear). Animal experts state that humans have it wrong. Bears are really no major threat to us and it is seldom that bears will attack humans. They are very shy and their only interest in us is that our food often makes for an easy meal. Our fear makes us feel threatened and causes us to react, which in most cases spooks the bear. The bear simply wants us to stop freaking-out, because it doesn’t want to freak out. Being very fast and extremely powerful, the bear has a say in whether you continue to lose your cool. In the movie, this alien race of the future can be seen as spooked by the one thing that makes human’s destructive – our fear. Thus, it sentences humanity to death (or survival) by means of the very weakness that makes us destructive, our fears.

The movie attempts to make the point when Kitai encounters the baboon. He is faced with a choice. He can either create a connection in that moment or be driven by fear. Kitai does what most humans would do in a moment such as that. Out of fear, he gets the impulse to fight. He throws a rock. When he discovers he is out-numbered, he runs. This is classic fight or flight syndrome. Even the reasoning voice of his father is not enough to halt Kitai’s panic, as he imagines an enemy to be lurking behind every tree.

Eventually, Kitai discovers that much of his fear is not his own – that he was taught to be afraid by the very people who felt they were being brave for him. His sister told him that she would fight. And, his father told him that he did not have to fight. In the end, Kitai discovers that he has no innate lack of courage – that the fears of others (fears for his safety) are projected onto him. Upon making the discovery, he releases these fears by taking a leap of faith (a leap into the unknown).

Beyond the boundary of fear, Kitai discovers love. A mother bird grabs Kitai, who is a baby to the concept of flight and keeps her as his own. Having ascended ‘on the wings of love’ so-to-speak, Kitai, with his newfound courage risks his own life to save the mother bird’s babies. On a planet where everything has evolved to kill humans, Kitai can be seen as a redeemer and a restorer of humanity to Earth. The mother bird is representative of God’s providence and mercy. Kitai takes a step toward GOD (in this case a leap of faith) and GOD takes a step toward him (and human-kind). He wins the trust of one of GOD’s creatures and reclaims the possibility that humans can re-inhabit the planet. A final event with the bird informs Kitai further – that not only is he able to make choices, but that it is his responsibility to make the best choices. He recognizes that the pig leads her babies into the cave for protection from the weather at night. So, Kitai follows.

The film also acknowledges a very well known practice among indigenous people – communication with ancestors in dreams. Thus, Kitai’s sister Senshi comes to him in a dream. She helps him to discover something about her – the thing that made her strong, even though she was killed. She was full of love and compassion and could not ghost (or mask her feelings) because it was not who she was. She only fought as a means of saving him. In the dream, she even distorts her face (shows that she can access an ugly side) as she attempts to awaken Kittai as a means of saving his life.

“After Earth” also recognizes that near-death experiences are a primary means of removing all traces of fear. Faced with imminent death, we come to various realizations. In the movie, Cypher Raige, when faced with death realizes how much control he has over his own reality and how much he has been allowing fear to control him. In that moment, he becomes totally conscious of his ability and responsibility to make choices in every moment. Further, he begins to recognize fear as something that lives in the heart of thoughts about the future. Totally grounded in the present, he experiences no fear. This point is especially made toward the close of the film when Cypher decides to retire (and to study war no more). Where most movies would have the son become the soldier of tomorrow, this movie gets it right. The son courageously seeks a new way – love.

For some viewers, this might have seemed weird or unnatural, but it was an absolutely courageous stand for a movie to make. In most Western films, the son continues to ‘fight the good fight’. The question could be asked, “What good has fighting done for humanity?” And, some would argue, “…but fighting is necessary!” Is it? Or, are we simply driven by more and more fears of what might be lurking around the corner, in the dark, at some time in the future waiting to get us? We equate courage with ‘keeping up the good fight’. It allows us to put our fears to rest, if just for a moment. The movie makes the point that it is more courageous to love and to live in love and live for love. For a world like ours, one that lives in constant fear of not knowing – love is an even more desperate leap into the great unknown.

This movie, like most of this summer’s films, is in-part about the demons we create for ourselves. The consciousness of humanity is awakening and attempting new heights. However, if we are to eventually soar, we must recognize that which drags us into the underworld from whence demons arise. Fear is a weight that drags us down. It is paralyzing. It is connected to other emotions that cling to us pulling us further down into the pit of despair. But, if anything, humanity is resilient and capable of not only weathering but conquering all the storms of life. “After Earth” hopefully there is more Earth. Unlike the movie, we don’t have anywhere to go and any way to get there if we did. So, perhaps we can slay the biggest monster - fear. Like the bear, fear hibernates within us. Then, it comes forth with a hunger and a thirst that desperately needs to be satisfied. “Now” is the moment wherein fear finds no safe harbor. Where “now” once were the domain of the new-ager and the student of consciousness and spirituality, today it has become the domain of millions of movie-goers worldwide. Let’s just wait and see what happens ‘now’. By James M. Power