Warning: this article contains spoilers.
There seems to be a recurring pattern in a select number of this year’s most popular movies. Father figures in some of this year’s most popular movies were being killed off for dramatic and emotional purposes.
One example of such films is “Logan.”
In this film, Logan finds out that he is the biological father of a mutant girl named Laura. They start off on the wrong foot but eventually, the two start to feel close and when Logan is killed at the end, Laura weeps for him and calls him “daddy.”
Another example is “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.”
In this film, Peter Quill’s father is revealed in the form of the Celestial, Ego. While initially happy to finally bond with his father, Quill and the rest of the Guardians begin to see Ego’s true colors when he reveals that he seeks to consume every planet in the universe and that he killed all his other children when they did not have his powers and even killed Peter’s mother.
Later in the film, Ravager Yondu Udonta, a father figure to Quill, revealed that Quill meant so much more to Yondu when he sacrifices his life for Quill’s, saying that Ego “may have been your father, boy, but he wasn’t your daddy.”
Other examples of such father figures getting killed in movies this year include Hector Barbossa in “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” Caesar in “War for the Planet of the Apes” and, most recently, Odin in “Thor: Ragnarok.”
Haverford High School student Caroline Groves, who lost her father earlier this year, has only seen “Pirates of the Caribbean 5” but she said that Barbossa’s death was emotional for her; however, she also said that dead fathers have been a thing in other films she has seen in past years, especially Disney films. Groves said that the most emotional father figure death in a film for her was Sirius Black in “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.”
“I guess I can relate to all of them because each character had a deep connection with their fathers, like I did with mine,” Groves said.
Cabrini freshman Joseph Brennan saw“Logan” and “Thor: Ragnarok” but did not notice this pattern. When he realized, he said that he thinks the dead parents trend is overused and feels redundant to the story.
“Sure, it makes the movie more dramatic, but there wasn’t anything else the writers could have thought of when they made the script?” Brennan said.
Despite viewing dead parents as cliché and overused, Brennan thought that Logan’s death was incredibly emotional because when he reflected on all the suffering Logan went through, he felt truly sorry for him.
“His healing factor might heal his body, but it can’t heal the trauma he witnessed,” Brennan said.
Lycoming College freshman Tyler Morris agreed with Brennan on Logan’s death being the most emotionally constructed death scene, mentioning that his death was a rare character death that nearly drove him to tears.
“We’ve gotten to know Logan as a character in the “X-Men” films for years,” Morris said. “Which makes you only sadden more when he dies.”
It appears that out of all the father figures in this year’s films that have died, Logan’s was the most heartbreaking and emotional death scenes this year, if not one of the most emotional death scenes in film history, according to Morris.
“When Logan says, ‘So this is what it feels like,’ he finally knows what it feels like to be loved by someone who cares about him, strengthening the family bond that existed between him and Laura,” Morris said. “All of this creates a tense, emotional scene, making for one of the most saddest character deaths ever put to film.”
