The whole point of the Finale now is revealed
— and it’s not what we expected. This is the part where
all human solution is exhausted. This is where we’ve
got bupkis; there’s not a back-up plan, nor an
alternate course in sight. And it’s all come down to the hero
— who’s got nothing either. Yet, as it turns
out... this
is the true test! In a sense, every
story is about the “stripping away” of the stuff the
hero thinks is important at the start of the story, including his
own little ideas for winning at the end. This is the part where the
hero has to find that last ounce of strength to win but can’t
use normal means to do so. And lest you think this is a goofy,
“formula” thing, in fact it is the whole point of
storytelling. For this is the part we’ve waited for, the
“touched-by-the-divine” beat where the hero lets go of
his old logic and does something he would never do when this movie
began.
Devoid of a human solution, the hero returns to
the blackness he succumbed to during the cocoon stage of his
transformation to prove he’s mastered that part of himself
that is beyond human to find faith, inner strength, a last-ditch
idea, love, grace. It’s the Dig-Deep-Down moment all stories
teach us: At some point we have to abandon the natural world, and
everything we think we know, and have faith in a world unseen. This
is the part in Star
Wars where we hear Obi-Wan
say: “Use the Force, Luke!”; the part of
Gladiator when, seemingly dead, Russell Crowe finds that
last bit of energy to stab Joaquin Phoenix right in his Coliseum.
It’s the part where Hugh Grant dares speak to Julia Roberts
in the press conference finale of Notting Hill, and in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
when Harrison Ford is given a choice
to save his father (Sean Connery) by giving up everything else.
It’s the part in Planes, Trains and Automobiles
where Steve Martin, having figured
out John Candy has no wife, recalls the lonely man that has become
his friend and goes back to rescue him. This is the moment of faith
when, with a breathless gasp, the trapeze artist, high up in the
darkness of the big top, lets go of his grip on the world, does his
spin, and snaps out into the void hoping another will take his
hands. And we watch in anticipation, for in our own way...
we’ve been waiting, too.
