Saturday, May 13, 2023

Let's Talk About Beginnings and Endings

 Since we got rid of cable I rely on streaming services for the majority of my passive media. And one drawback of that is that I tend to dip back into things that I have already seen because . . . well, the library of entertainment is large and the output of new things is slow. Reruns and rewatches of familiar things is sort of the inevitable end result of such a situation.

But that is not always bad. And it led to an interesting thought for today.


I sat down and decided to begin rewatching J.J. Abram's Star Trek (2009). And if you like this movie, as I do, you remember how it begins. The U.S.S. Kelvin is minding its own business out in space when a mystery ship appears from an anomalous "lightning storm in space" and summarily kicks the shit out of the Kelvin without so much as a how-do-you-do. The Kelvin's captain is killed and acting captain George Kirk does his best to keep the remaining crew alive by evacuating shuttles and shooting down torpedoes before heroically colliding with the mystery ship. The Kelvin's crew survives--including his wife who just gave birth to one James Tiberius Kirk. The scene begins with a rousing orchestral variation on the movie's theme and after the battle is done, the movie jumps from space to Iowa, Earth where a young James T. steals a Mustang convertible and does his best Thelma and Louise to "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys.

A great ten minutes of sadness, action, and thrills.

Do you remember that George Kirk is played (briefly) by a pre-Thor Chris Hemsworth? Did you know that two of the Chrises were possibly on set that early in their rise to movie dominance? 

But let's shift to endings.

Specifically the ending scene of another of those Chrises. Evans, this time . . . in his own moment of movie glory that began this new phase of his own career. As Steve Rogers, in the final heroic moments of Captain America: The First Avenger.

Do you remember? 


Cap has defeated Nazis and rescued the Howling Commandoes from Red Skull.  But Red Skull has launches his massive Flying Wing bomber and has plans to drop those bombs on New York City, Chicago, and D.C. (maybe?) But Steve gets on the plane, defeats Red Skull (or lets Red Skull's hubris defeat himself) and prepares to get back home to Peggy and post war freedom. Unfortunately the bomber malfunctions and Steve has to intentionally crash the plane to save people.

So, two Chrises . . . early in their MCU (or pre-MCU) trajectory . . . intentionally crash their craft to save others. And both of them, in their pre-crash last moments have heartfelt good-bye speeches with their partners. Hemsworth's Kirk talks to his wife mid-labor and gets to help name James and say goodbye before the Kelvin collides with the Romulan mining vessel. Evan's Rogers talks to Peggy Carter and tries to keep it light. He promises Peggy that he will survive and will meet up with her in Europe to go dancing. They both know that it is false. But they get to say goodbye in a fashion.

I'd like to imagine Hemsworth and Evans swapping set stories about those moments on the set of The Avengers movie.

Beginnings and Endings.

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