American Ultra: Monkeying Around With Free Will

American Ultra: Monkeying Around With Free Will August 24, 2015

enhanced-24646-1440271849-2You can count the things that American Ultra’s Mike Howell loves on three fingers: his girlfriend (Phoebe), his drugs (marijuana, mostly), and Apollo Ape.

Sorta like Athena, Apollo Ape sprang from Mike’s fertile, somewhat stoned mind. Every spare minute he’s got (and he’s got plenty), Mike (Jesse Eisenberg) draws his prime primate and sketches out Apollo’s madcap adventures—on a spare napkin, in a notebook, on the wall. You could argue that Apollo’s life is more fulfilling than Mike’s own.

Well, except that their lives turn out to be disturbingly similar. Apollo Ape was once a NASA employee/ experiment. And, as it turns out, Mike was a bit of a governmental science project, too—not for NASA, of course, but with the CIA. Unbeknownst to him, Mike has been trained in all manner of assassinry but, like a stoned version of Jason Bourne, forgot all about it. Mike’s so secret a secret agent that he doesn’t even know it.
Except that he does. Because, well, Apollo Ape. It’s Mike’s very own, hand-drawn repressed reality, and these graphic stories are where Mike’s alter ego goes to frolic. At least until Mike’s skills are re-activated, that is, and he must defend himself against another batch of the agency’s killer experiments.

But not all government-created assassins are created equal. Whereas the CIA’s “Wise Man” program was shuttered for driving Mike and others a little crazy, the agency’s new program seems to select killers who are bonkers to begin with. A guy named Laugher (Walter Goggins) is the program’s most obvious psychopath, but everyone seems to be a few bananas shy of a bunch. They’re also completely under the control of CIA lackey Adrian Yates (the cherubically villainous Topher Grace).

american ultra 2Near the end of the movie, Laugher and Mike sit across from each, each utterly exhausted and gushing blood from a plethora of perforations.

“Who tells you what to do?” Laugher asks.

“Nobody,” Mike says, a little surprised by the query.

“That must be nice,” Laugher says.

Let’s unpack that exchange a bit. Throughout American Ultra, we hear the constant thematic drumbeat around the subject of free will—who has it and who doesn’t. Adrian spreads rumors that CIA agent Victoria Lasseter (Connie Britton), who’s trying to help Mike, has had “inappropriate contact” with monkeys—an echo of Apollo Ape, but these monkeys lack the ability to zip off on their own adventures. Adrian treats his “Tough Guy” assassins no better than dogs. Mike, as he discovers his assassin super powers, wonders aloud whether he might be a robot.

Even some characters that apparently have free will are being forced into positions of abject sublimation, and their ability to choose is ripped away from them. Victoria’s old assistant Petey (Tony Hale), for instance, wants to help his former boss, but Adrian threatens his job and even his life to make him knuckle under.

Who tells you what to do? A lot of people are told what to do here, and the results are never good.

american ultraIn contrast, the movie’s heroes feel a different sort of pressure—a desire to help the people they love or care for. Phoebe (Kristen Stewart), we learn, sacrificed a promising career in the CIA to be with Mike. Victoria risks her life to save him. Both acts were well off script, really—and explicit uses of free will. And when Phoebe’s imperiled, Mike pulls out all the stops to rescue her.

American Ultra’s good guys sacrifice a great deal for others. But they make those sacrifices through their own initiative. No one’s telling them to do anything.

There are those who don’t believe there is such a thing as free will—that all of us are slaves to our biological and psychological programming. But for those who are Christian, the concept of free will—of having the right and ability to choose—is absolutely critical to our faith. God loves us and wants us to love Him back. And while he could’ve made us love Him, that wouldn’t really be love, would it? It’d be more like a very affectionate form of Siri. And while that free will has proved ever-so-troublesome down through the ages, it’s what sets us apart from God’s other—and our own semi-intelligent—creations. Robots don’t have free will. Animals don’t have it. Adrian’s Tough Guys don’t have it. But our heroes do. They choose to sacrifice for others, and that choice makes all the difference.

To me, Apollo Ape offers a nod toward what scientists say would be our evolutionary roots. He is a primate—an animal in some respects. But yet, he is something more. Something closer to us. He has free will. He has the ability to choose his own destiny. Just as we all do.

 


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