Blog 9: Hero's Quest and Film

Final Fantasy:The Spirits Within is a Japanese-American computer animated science fiction film directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi. The film was released on July 11,2001 by Columbia Pictures.Hironobu Sakaguchi is a Japanese game designer, director, and producer who is widely known as the creator of the Final Fantasy series. He took the leap from games to film when he made his debut as film director in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, an animated motion picture based on his world-famous Final Fantasy series. The movie is based on year 2065 and the Earth is under seige as the meteor has crashed onto the planet, unleashing millions of alien creatures known as Phantoms which roam on the planet.These creatures are threatening and are extinguishing the life on earth and has driven surviving humanity into barrier cities that are built to protect the inhabitants of Earth. But the few cities around the globe are in decline and time is running out.The story follows Doctor Aki Ross and Doctor Sid in their efforts to free Earth from the deadly race Phantoms. They must compete against General Hein, who wishes to attack the aliens with the Zeus space cannon to end the conflict.
Monomyth which is also referred to as The Hero's journey is classified into three sections which are Departure, Initiation and Return. Departure deals with the separation of the hero before the adventure, Initiation deals with the adventures in the journey and Return deals with the knowledge and freedom acquired from the journey.
The departure deals with living a normal life and then receiving a call from the unknown world. The hero Dr. Aki Ross was infected by a phantom during one of her experiments and after that she used to get a dream in which there are only phantoms on Earth everywhere. She wanted to save Earth from the phantoms.Through Monomyth we know that the supernatural aid is the mentor or the one who guides through the journey and becomes known. In the movie Dr. Aki does not refuses the call and therefore Dr. Sid is her protecting figure who helps her to uncover a means of defeating the phantoms by gathering the eight spirits that can stop the effect of phantoms.Having responded to his call and following what he says,Dr. Aki finds all the forces at her side and mother nature also supports her in the task. The crossing of the first threshold means crossing the field of adventure and entering into an unknown world. Dr.Aki starts her journey by having five spirits and then going in search of the remaining three spirits where she is encountered by the phantoms. The belly of the whale means the final separation from the known world and going to the unknown world.Dr. Aki enters the crater to find the last spirit which is the eight spirit.
The Initiation deals with the start of the journey and the adventures in it. The stage road of trials means to go through tests, ordeals to begin the transformation.Dr. Aki had to go through a lot of tests and tasks to collect the three remainig spirits so that she could save the Earth and ascend the phantoms back into the space. The first test she had to pass was to collect the sixth spirit which was a plant and there she was cornered by phantoms but with the help of Captain Gray Edward and his three soldiers, she was able to bring the sixth spirit to Dr. Sid. The second test was to bring the seventh spirit were again she was attacked by the phantoms but was able to get the spirit which was in a dead soldier's plasma container with the help of Captain Gray Edward. The third test she had to pass was to bring the eighth spirit and combine it with others and she successfully passes this test also.The next step of a hero's journey is atonement with the father, in this stage the person confronts and is initiated by the ultimate power.Here Dr. Aki considers Dr. Sid is the voice who will help her lead in the correct path and to achieve the tasks.The stage apotheosis means when someone dies a physical death or dies to the self to live in spirit,this is a period of rest,peace and fulfillment before the hero begins his return. In the movie this stage can be seen when Dr. Aki and Captain Gray go into the crater and when the vehicle is destroyed, Gray sacrifices his own life to distribute Aki's wave, using his body to transmit it directly to the Phantom world spirit. The Phantoms transform into bright, floating orbs which return to space. The last stage of the Initiation is the ultimate boon which means achievement of the goal of the journey.This stage is seen in the movie when Dr. Aki is successful in finding the eighth spirit and combing all of them together.
The last section Return deals with the knowledge and freedom acquired from the journey.The magic flight is the shielded vehicle that takes Dr. Aki and Captain Gray into the crater and guards them from the phantoms.The next stage is crossing of the return threshold which means returning of the hero to the known world with the experiences and knowledge learned through the journey. Dr. Aki learns about the phantoms by having dreams about them after she gets infected by them. She succeeds in combining all the eight spirits together and saves Earth by ascending phantoms back into the space. After sending the phantoms back to the space and seeing a newly liberated world, Dr. Aki becomes the master of two world as she became successful by saving Earth.
There are alot of symbols in this movie which makes it more interesting and fascinating.The first symbol is Earth which signifies nourishment, foundation of life,fertility,infinite creativity and longevity but in the movie Earth is shown where there is no life.The next symbol is the Spirit which means a supernatural being or essence which is bodiless but can become visible. The movie talks about the spirit of Earth and the spirit of phantoms. Another symbol is phantom which means an object of continual dread and in the movie it is destroying the human life. There are some archetypes in the movie too like father which is seen in Dr. Sid's character because of the way he protects and defends Dr. Aki. General Hein played a role of wise man and villian who wants to tackle the phantoms by his own way and not agreeing with Dr.Sid and Dr. Aki. Captain Gray plays the role of a true friend as he helps Dr. Aki to get the three remaining spirits and wants to save her from death.
The story tells us that every human being has to go through different kind of things in the world and if one has the will, dedication and power and the right guidance then, one can achieve whatever he wants. As in the movie Dr. Aki had the dedication and will to find all the eight spirits and then to combine them so that she could save Earth and send phantoms back to the space and she could do all this because of the right guidance of Dr. Sid.

Works Cited
Final Fantasy:The Spirit Within.Wikipedia.Web.30April2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy:_Spirits_Within
Julien, Nadia.The Mammoth Dictionary of Symbols: Understanding the Hidden Language of Symbols. New York: Carol and Graf Publishers, Inc., 1996.Web.30April2010.
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2008. Merriam-Webster Online.30April2010.http://www.merriam-webster.com/
Monomyth. Wikipedia. Web. 30April2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth