WALL-E

My wife and I took the kids to see WALL-E last night. It's a cute little film, that has some good messages. It's also visually stunning, especially the some of the early scenes in space. Still, I take issue with a couple of things. The film has its flaws, from a Christian perspective (in fairness, fewer than most Hollywood offerings) most notably the notion that we can save ourselves from our downward spiral.


SPOILER ALERT!!!


The primary themes of the movie are that the human race is spoiling the Earth (agreed) and that we are gluttonous consumers overly dependent on our technology, a fact that will render us progressively helpless (also agreed.)



WALL-E is a robot alone on the future Earth. He's basically a little trash compactor on tank treads. He looks a lot like a shrunken Number 5 from the Short Circuit movies of the 80's.
700 years after what's left of the human race has abandoned the planet on a giant cruise (space) ship, the Axiom, little WALL-E is still trying to clean up his corner of the world. His only friend: a cockroach. One day, a spaceship lands and deposits "EVE" a trigger-happy egg-shaped robot whose job it is to find evidence of plant life on Earth. She scans everything in sight, but to no avail. After nearly blasting poor WALL-E to bits, she befriends our metallic protagonist. He offers her shelter from the frequent sandstorms and shows her his "home" inside the hulk of an old garbage truck and the collection of trinkets he's gathered. When WALL-E shows EVE the tiny plant he found growing in the wasteland, she squeals with delight, takes the plant into her on board storage compartment and promptly goes into a state of suspended animation. The only sign she's still functioning is a glowing green plant icon on her belly. WALL-E takes care of EVE rain and shine until one day her spaceship returns to collect her. WALL-E stows aboard and comic mayhem ensues.



I found some interesting parallels, contrasts and symbolism. Some of these things might seem a bit of a stretch, but nevertheless, they are food for thought:

The Axiom is the ship on which the remnant of the human population escaped the ruined Earth. An axiom is an accepted or self-evident truth. When something is axiomatic it is taken for granted. Interesting, no?

The hope for all mankind has humble beginnings. In WALL-E, it's a tiny plant sprouting in a garbage dump. In real life, it's the seed of David, born in a manger. (see Luke 2 :4-7, Isaiah 11:1-4 etc.) The vine. (John 15:1-11)



WALL-E's companion is known by the acronym EVE. This name is probably not an accident, either. It is a little odd, however, if taken from the Biblical perspective, since Eve, deceived by Satan in the form of the serpent, took the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, offered it to Adam and in their partaking, caused the Fall of man. In the movie, EVE holds the hope for humanity inside her. In reality, our only hope came forth from the womb of a God-fearing virgin Jewish girl named Mary.



Interestingly, sadly and predictably, there's no mention of God in the movie. The climax involves a showdown between Otto (auto?) the Axiom's computer/robot first mate, who's shaped like a ships wheel, and the Captain of the ship, who like all the other humans aboard has seriously gone downhill after a lifetime of coddling and spoiling by the ships automated "life-support" systems. (The passengers of the Axiom are built like Weebles or maybe guinea pigs. The have suffered bone loss from their sedentary gluttonous lifestyle and from being in space all their lives. Their chubby arms and fat, stubby legs are no longer good for much of anything.)

The captain knows about the little plant and since he learns about the way life used to be on Earth, he wants to go "home." However, the only way the ship will "allow" a return to Earth is by verifying that life can be sustained there again. Once a sample of plant life is analyzed and accepted by the ships systems, the Axiom will automatically head for home. Otto, who is trying to follow his new programming directive from a pre-recorded message from the Buy N Large CEO, won't let the captain (or anyone else) place the plant in the sensor. In fact, Otto doesn't seem to want the status quo to change. He directs the ship's robots to try to destroy the plant. Therein lie shades of a warning about AI and the dangers of a self-aware machine.

There is also a message about commercialism, that is at once latent and blatant. The "Buy N' Large" corporation is the company who apparently provided every indulgence the world (n) ever needed and sustains the passengers of the Axiom. The Buy N' Large CEO, delivers his recorded messages from a lectern in front of a "great seal" -like in a televised address from the President. Caveat emptor indeed.

At any rate, when the captain musters the will to stand up to Otto (it's a wonder he can stand at all) he rises with steely resolve and takes what are likely his first steps. Familiar strains of Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra are the musical backdrop for this dramatic moment.

In response to questions about his motive for writing this piece, Strauss once said "...The whole symphonic poem is intended as an homage to Nietzche's genius...." Nietzche, of course is the writer known best for asserting that "God is dead." The use of this music is enough to suggest the message in this part of WALL-E is a humanistic one, that we can rise above our pathetic condition and save ourselves by good thoughts and good deeds. Others may think the music just sounded neat and fit the scene.

Truth is, we need saved. We are helpless. We are headed for nowhere, left to our own devices. The Earth and all it offers is temporary. We were meant to be eternal. There is but one way to get back to paradise. No matter how bad things are right now, no matter where your life is going, you can turn it around through genuine faith in Christ Jesus and his work on the Cross.

Believe it.

PS: Oddly enough, I had a dream many years ago in which I watched helplessly as a very young child, his feet cemented to the earth in a knee-high pile of his own dried excrement, cried out pitifully as a tsunami of filth overtook him. Dark...I know.