Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
We have qualified writers to help you.
We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.
You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)
NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.
The idea of encountering an extraterrestrial civilization has been a mainstay of fiction for decades, if not centuries, and the notion of the aliens arriving to mimic and control humans is also a prominent one. From Campbell’s Who Goes There? and Heinlein’s The Puppet Masters to Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Carpenter’s The Thing, there are plentiful depictions of aliens kidnapping, replacing, and controlling humans. The idea of juxtaposing human and alien civilizations and real humans to those subverted by extraterrestrial influence is a naturally appealing one because it allows the author to explore the core meaning of being human. Edgar Wright’s The World’s End is yet another exercise in approaching the well-established theme that uses the film’s narrative to analyze what it means to be human. At its core, The World’s End is the story of the triumph of human will for independence – the will which, while sometimes chaotic, has immense potential for self-betterment.
The symbolism of the story starts with the names of the main characters – the five high school friends who drifted apart after graduation yet reunite once again at the insistence of their former leader. Their last names, as narrated in the first scene, are Chamberlain, Page, Prince, Knightley, and King (Wright 00:00:47 – 00:00:56). This list invokes the image of a royal court – a tightly-knit group of people bound by the ties of mutual respect and the allegiance to their leader. On a surface level, it may simply look like a satire of the actual relationships within the group. Indeed, the adult Chamberlain, Page, Prince, and Knightley have little respect for their former “King.” As for the latter, he is willing to ditch his friends in favor of a random teenage gang to get an excuse to continue his pub crawl (Wright 00:36:58 – 00:37:08). However, there is a deeper layer to the protagonists’ names: the king is a sovereign ruler who bows to no one. It is this meaning that resurfaces in the film’s concluding scenes, with Gary defying the powerful extraterrestrial and refusing to submit to anything but his will.
The narrative of the former friends coming back together also works to forward the theme of their common humanity. In the beginning, the characters are alienated toward each other and have valid reasons for doing so. These may range from different life choices to something as dramatic as leaving a friend to bleed out after a car crash, as in the case of Gary and Andy (Wright 00:14:26 – 00:14:42). Initially, it seems that this drifting apart is the main moving force of the plot, and Andy even drives the point home by noting: “It’s not that the town has changed – we have changed!” (Wright 00:35:02 – 00:35:05). However, things change after the characters find out that most of its population has been “alienated” literally – that is, kidnapped and replaced by the androids of alien making. After that, the differences between the characters – even based on such grave misgivings as the one between Gary and Andy – pale in comparison. The very will for independent decision-making that causes hostility between individual humans due to their different life choices becomes a uniting factor against literal aliens who have no such value.
Ultimately, the movie suggests that this will contains an immeasurable potential for self-betterment. Admittedly, human characters make mistakes throughout the movie due to following their individual wills. Examples would be Gary leaving Andy in the crashed car or Peter lagging behind due to the emotional urge to beat up the android imitating his high school bully (Wright 00:14:26 – 00:14:42). It allows the alien Network to claim that it acts for humanity’s betterment to mitigate the chaotic and often negative consequences of free will (Wright 01:30:09 – 01:30:11). However, characters also make steps toward personal improvement enabled by the same free will. Andy remains faithful to his spouse and repairs his troubled marriage, and Steven finds the courage to confess his love for Sam and build a relationship with her. Even Gary – originally a self-absorbed narcissist alcoholic – sobers up and begins a crusade for the rights of the rebooted androids, funding a cause large and nobler than personal gratification. Thus, the film suggests that human free will, while chaotic at times, has a great potential to bring out the best in everyone.
As one can see, the idea of the will for independence, relayed through the many nuances of the film’s story, is the central tenet of The World’s End. The protagonist Gary may not be much of a leader, but he is still King in the sense that he stubbornly refuses to heed any will but his own. Using the aliens as a plot device allows the film to emphasize that “alienation” between humans is negligible when compared to the conflict with an impersonal external presence robbing the people of their independence. The individual characters’ storylines demonstrate that human free will, although sometimes violent and irrational, can promote self-betterment to a much greater degree than any external coercion.
Work Cited
Wright, Edgar, director. The World’s End. Universal Pictures, 2013.
Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
We have qualified writers to help you.
We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.
You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)
NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.