Both The Day
After Tomorrow and Children of Men (2006) illustrate similar visions of the new
eco-hero. In both films, heroic roles are filled not by tragic pioneers or even
bumbling comic heroes, but by fathers seeking to save their own children or
children they adopt as their own from an environment that humanity has made
toxic in multiple ways. In The Day After Tomorrow Jack Hall attempts not
only to save the world from global warming but to save his son Sam (Jake
Gyllenhaal) from a flooded and frozen New York City library. In Children of
Men, Theo Faron (Clive Owen) agrees to help an activist group transport Kee
(Claire-Hope Ashite) and her soon-to-be-born child to a group of benevolent
scientists on the coast, saving the only surviving baby in a dying world. In
fact, in the film’s opening, crowds of people mourn the loss of the youngest
living person, a teenager murdered by a fan.
This new breed of
eco-hero fails to fit in categories of tragic or comic heroes as defined by
either Aristotle or Joseph W. Meeker. Meeker expands Aristotle’s categories to
include the natural world in his eco-critical approach to Classic literature. Meeker’s
tragic heroes in the natural world are the ecological pioneers, “the loners of
the natural world, the tragic heroes who sacrifice themselves in satisfaction
of mysterious inner commands which they alone can hear” (“The Comic Mode” 161).
His comic heroes build community. Meeker argues that once ecosystems mature,
heroic solitary pioneers become not only unnecessary but also subordinate to
the group. In a mature or climax ecosystem, “it is the community itself that
really matters, and it is likely to be an extremely durable community so long
as balance is maintained among its many elements” (Meeker “The Comic Mode”
163). Comic heroes emerge from these climax ecosystems.
Jack Hall and
Theo Faron serve the community while maintaining solitary quests, however. In Children
of Men, Theo transports Kee to a haven at sea to
save her child and, ultimately, the world. But Theo chooses to act because his
ex-wife, Julian Taylor (Julianne Moore), reminds him of the loving family life
they shared when his own son lived. In Children of Men, both mother
(Julian) and father (Theo) die during the undertaking, but our last glimpse of
life in the movie shows us Kee and her baby floating in a boat while a ship in
the distance comes closer to save her. The focus is local rather than global in
this well-shot film, with long takes emphasizing the individualized perspective
of the hero and his acts.
Yet neither of
these heroes act like pioneers attempting to conquer an opponent, even if that
opponent is the environment or an ecological disaster. They don’t fight against
the disaster but against the forces that caused it. And they fight most
intensely not for all those affected by the disaster—as do most eco-heroes—but
only for sons, friends, and a helpless child. The new eco-hero is not a tragic
pioneer, who sacrifices him or herself for a species. Nor is this hero a comic
hero, who bumbles and succeeds only communally. This hero acts alone, but only
at a local level, not seeking control of a landscape or species but seeking to
save new and renewed relationships, just as Theo saves Kee. It is up to Kee to
save the world.
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