MIB: Men In Black BS2

MIB: Men In Black by Ed Solomon

Genre Type: Superhero/Buddy

OPENING IMAGE:

A long tracking shot of a very alien looking firefly. SPLAT! It ends up a bug on a windshield. A very subtle but specific metaphor -- the driver of the truck oblivious to this whole world of alien creatures and whether they live or die.

SETUP:

A coyote transporting illegal aliens in a van runs into a blockade of law enforcement. They open the back and a bunch of immigrants get out. Just then the Men In Black (MIB) appear – Tommy Lee Jones and another older guy. They dismiss the law enforcement and discover a real ET among the bunch. The older MIB is slow, and they end up having to shoot the alien. It’s time for the older MIB to retire. He’s too old for the job. Tommy Lee pulls out his Neural Nebulizer – a device that makes people forget used to cover-up the Alien conspiracy. He uses it on his friend partner.

Will Smith straight out of his cop-character from Bad Boys is in the middle of a foot chase. He eventually corners the super-powered culprit (who also has a high-tech alien pistol) on the roof of a building. The bad-guy says ‘He’s coming’ and does a weird alien blinky thing with his eyes before leaping to his death.

A spaceship crashes on a farm. A creature inhabits the farmer’s body. This is The Bug, our villain.

Back in NYC, Will gets debriefed and nobody believes his wild tale. Tommy Lee shows up, he believes. He wants to know exactly what Will heard/saw. They go to a pawn shop that’s selling high-tech alien weaponry and have an encounter with an alien. Will’s dumbstruck…but Tommy Lee uses his Neural Nebulizer to erase Will’s memory.

Note: One pattern I'm finding with some of these more popular blockbusters - it's hard to pick a catalyst. The entire setup plays like a catalyst. Jaws & ET for example...every scene furthers the a-story plot. 

CATALYST:

But seeing something in him, Tommy Lee gives him a business card and tells him to show up at the building the next morning.

THEME STATED:

You can summarize the theme as simply ‘ignorance is bliss’. It’s constantly hammered on – Tommy’s first partner looks at the stars in the opening scene and says “They’re beautiful aren’t they…the stars.” He can’t look at the stars for their simple beauty because he knows the dangers that lurk beyond them.

Later on Tommy Lee expands this idea ‘globally’:

“There's always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Corillian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to wipe out all life on this miserable little planet, and the only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they do not know about it! “

The moral premise seems to be:

KNOWLEDGE of the harsh realities of our universe leads to sadness/loneliness; IGNORANCE leads to happiness.

It could almost be analogous to modern man navigating the world blissfully ignorant of how tenuous their lives given politics/dwindling natural resources/threat of war/threat of disease/etc.

While the Moral Premise is clearly stated throughout, I question its effectiveness; it’s never really shown how horrible life is knowing these things. Tommy Lee seems pretty well adjusted, sure he misses the life he could have had but he doesn’t seem torn up from being a MIB and having the knowledge he has. He seems pretty cool/calm and a good mentor/worker who generally has a good demeanor.

Similarly, Will goes from blissful ignorance to knowledge…but it doesn’t seem to harm him in anyway. So while the theme is presented, I’m not sure it’s really executed in a way that resonates. His knowledge changes, but his emotional life doesn’t seem too. He pretty much seems like the same guy as he was in the beginning. And certainly he doesn’t seem ‘worse for the wear’ from it.

On the surface, Tommy Lee seems like the arc character. But if he truly was training Will the whole time, then the reality is, he already had arced before he even meets Will. I guess we could assume he doesn’t decide this until the course of his training Will, but I don’t see a clear Moment of Grace where he realizes he needs to try ‘blissful ignorance’.

NOTE: After I wrote this I saw that Stan Williams (Moral Premise guru) tackles MIB on his blog. He and I land on a similar MP, but he finds a couple Moments of Grace that I don’t. Read it and decide for yourself:

http://moralpremise.blogspot.com/2010/08/what-is-men-in-black-2-really-about.html#more

DEBATE:

Will shows up at the MIB headquarters where a bunch of other ‘candidates’ (stiff military types) are put through their paces. After a written and shooting test, the others are nebulized…but Tommy Lee wants to work with Will.

He takes Will aside and fills him in on ‘the real world’. Aliens exists. The Earth is like Casablanca a sort of neutral area where aliens hide-out.  They originally crashed landed in ships passed off as World’s Fair exhibits and a young Tommy Lee (mysteriously holding flowers) was among the first to encounter them.

During this time, we check in with the bug – he kills an exterminator and steals his van.

Will is offered the job but to do it he must “sever human contact”…Will asks “Is it worth it?” Tommy Lee gives an all too quick answer of: “It’s worth it”

BREAK INTO ACT 2:

Will shows up and enters the amazing MIB HQ.  His history is erased. He gets a locker and he’s renamed Agent J.

B-STORY:


But I'd prefer to go with the non-thematic thread of The Bug. Mainly because the story of the Bug and our heroes does not directly intersect until the midpoint.

FUN & GAMES:

The guys get debriefed and first hear about the mysterious farm crash and then get their first case, an alien has gone outside of his restricted area.

Meanwhile the bug follows a jeweler to a diner and we get the first whiff of what he’s after with talk of ‘Arquillian’ and a ‘galaxy’. The Bug attacks and steals something from the jeweler; it turns out to be just diamonds.

The MIB pull over the fleeing alien. His wife is having a baby. Will delivers the squid like creature while Tommy Lee finds out the alien is trying to get off the planet in a hurry.

MIDPOINT:

They visit the farm, interview the wife of the farmer, and now have a description of The Bug. Tommy Lee describes bugs as despicable destroyers of life/etc.

It’s a false victory – on one hand they’re closing the loop, on the other hand a dangerous monster is out on the streets.

BAD GUYS CLOSE IN:

So they go to the morgue, there they discover some bodies. Will and Linda have a Déjà vu connection.

Back at the HQ, Will observes Tommy Lee checking out a satellite feed of a woman – Will realizes it’s the woman Tommy Lee was taking the flowers to the woman back when he encountered aliens. “Better to have loved and lost…” Will says.  “Try it,” Tommy Lee answers in a very on-the-nose  hit of where his arc is going.

An Arquillian battle cruiser shows up. It’s holding earth responsible for the missing ‘galaxy’. Now the stakes are raised, if the MIB don’t get the galaxy back, the earth will be destroyed.

They visit an alien that looks like a Pug and shake him down (literally). He describes how the galaxy is very small.

Will realizes “Orion’s belt” is the cats collar. They race back to the morgue.

Meanwhile, the Bug has already gone to the morgue, killed the clerk and confronted Linda.

Will & Tommy Lee show up. End up in a confrontation with the Bug.

ALL IS LOST:

The Bug escapes with the galaxy and Linda.

DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL:

The Arquillians are giving them one hour before they blow up the planet. Will and Tommy Lee search for a clue/lead.

They know the Bug will be looking to escape from the planet.

BREAK INTO 3:

Will realizes where the Bug’s headed – to those World’s Fair Spaceships.

FINALE:

They confront the Bug and shoot down his spaceship. He attempts to go for the other ship but they take him down…with help from Linda.

Tommy Lee reveals he wasn’t training his new partner, he was training his replacement. He has Will mind erase him.

We see a headline “Man Awakes From 35 Year Coma”  -- Tommy Lee is reunited with that woman he was delivering flowers to.

 Linda is Will’s new partner, they ride off to start their day.