In this blog post, we will look at the unethical behavior that is condoned under the name of heroes and consider whether heroes can transcend the law and ethics.
Introduction
When we were young, we were thrilled to see heroes like Superman defeating villains in a cool way and wanted to be like them. The little boy who played Superman on the playground has now grown up. I still enjoy watching superhero movies, but strangely enough, I don’t feel the exhilaration I used to feel as a child when I watched the heroes act. When I watch the hero’s actions, I think he is more like a villain. And my admiration for the hero who was my idol when I was a child gradually began to break. And I wondered, “Can the unethical actions of the hero in the movie be condoned under the name of hero?”
Main Content
Ant-Man is a hero who shrinks people to the size of ants by reducing the distance between atoms. To do so, he needs the Ant-Man suit, and ethical issues arise from the process of how the main character Scott Lang gets the suit. After being released from prison, he cannot lead a normal life and ends up stealing with his friend again. They break into a house and steal something, which turns out to be the Ant-Man suit. Even though it was Dr. Hank Pym, the owner of the house, who had planned the theft, the act of stealing was still wrong. Scott Lang is later caught by the police for theft and is imprisoned in a detention center, but he escapes by transforming into Ant-Man. This puts the police in an emergency situation. Following theft, jailbreak is a serious crime, and those who commit it must be brought to justice. Despite the fact that jailbreakers must be punished, Scott Lang ignores these legal procedures and rationalizes his theft and jailbreak. Moreover, the audience does not judge his actions as wrong simply because he is a hero. The audience feels a sense of satisfaction when Scott Lang escapes the jail in the moment, hoping that he will not be caught by the police, and that he will escape safely. And they think that his stealing and jailbreak are part of the process of becoming a hero, and no one questions these actions.
Dr. Darren Cross, the villain, also tries to develop the core technology of Ant-Man, which is the technology that reduces the distance between atoms. He forces numerous sheep to conduct indiscriminate bio-experiments to perfect this technology, and many sheep are sacrificed due to the failure. In addition, when someone questions the legality of this technology, he says, “What law? Human law? The laws of nature transcend human law. I am beyond the laws of nature.” He claims that he cannot be regulated by law because he is beyond the laws of man. And in justifying his science and technology, he eliminates the person who raised this question with an imperfect miniaturization technology. When we see the reckless experiments on living sheep and his actions that treat human life as if it were that of a fly, we realize that it is unethical and hope that a hero will appear and stop him.
But if we turn back the clock a little, the first person to develop the technology to shrink organisms was Dr. Hank Pym, who created the Ant-Man suit. However, we do not consider his research activities to be unethical. This is because the film only shows Dr. Cross’s experiments and not the previous experiments conducted by Dr. Pym. Dr. Hank Pym also developed an ant-controlling technology using electrical signals in addition to the organism reduction technology. He uses this technology to give orders to the ants, and the ants have no choice but to follow his orders. To Dr. Pym, the ants are just a nuisance that he has to deal with. As if to prove this point, unlike Scott Lang, who gives the ants names, he only refers to them by numbers. Dr. Darren Cross, who committed unethical experiments, is also worthy of criticism, but Dr. Pym is arguably more unethical. Despite his unethical experiments and his destruction of the ants’ normal lives, the film is admirable in that it cleverly hides this fact from the audience. People only believe what they see, so we naturally think of the villain, Dr. Darren Cross, as unethical, and we turn a blind eye to Dr. Hank Pym’s unethical behavior, believing that he is on the side of the heroes and is acting to save the world.
In addition, the main character, Ant-Man, uses his ant-controlling skills to cross the water on an ant raft or to send ants charging at the enemy’s bullets. This results in the death of many ants, but neither the main character nor any of the audience members are saddened by this. This is an act of belittling life, similar to that of Dr. Darren Cross, but we apply a double standard to him simply because he is a hero.
In the movie, one can often feel the act of treating people as a means from Dr. Pym. His goal is to stop Dr. Cross’s ambition to use the organism reduction technology for military purposes and destroy the technology. However, Dr. Pym tells Scott Lang, “I believe that everyone should have a chance to recover. If you help me, I will help you get back together with your daughter. (…) This is not about saving the world. It’s about saving them.” He is lured into becoming Ant-Man with these words. He is told that it is a chance to make a comeback for Scott Lang, who has difficulty finding a job because he is an ex-convict, and that stopping Darren Cross’s plan is not about saving the world, but about saving his daughter. In fact, Scott Lang already knows that Dr. Pym is using him as a means to an end, and he says the following in the movie: “I’m just a consumable. That’s why I’m here. You need to realize. He’d rather lose this fight than lose you.” In fact, Dr. Pym’s daughter was more qualified to be Ant-Man than Scott Lang, but Dr. Pym, who lost his wife, does not want to lose his daughter and wants to use Scott Lang as a means to his own ends. We have been taught countless times how unethical it is to use people as a means. However, in the movie, we do not question Dr. Pym’s actions of using people as a means to an end, and we are subtly led to believe that sacrifice is inevitable in order to become a hero.
Finally, this is a problem that is present in most superhero movies, and it is the role of the state to prevent and punish crime in our society. Only the state can punish individuals in accordance with the law. However, Ant-Man does not report to the police to stop Dr. Darren Cross’s ambitions. Instead, he breaks into the company where Dr. Darren Cross works, blows up the company, and eliminates him by getting inside his suit and destroying the internal devices after a duel with him. Because he is a hero, he is above the law and arbitrarily destroys the property of others and executes them. Nevertheless, we are enthusiastic about this.
Conclusion
“Can a hero be above the law because he is a hero?” This is the question raised in this article. The answer is of course “no.” But we are not aware of this despite knowing the obvious answer. Movies hide the truth from the audience by introducing a villain for the sake of smooth content development, and condone or accept unethical behavior because of the hero. Many people, like me, grew up watching hero movies as children and still enjoy them. In this process, many people accept unethical behavior without realizing it and fail to judge what is wrong as wrong. That is why we need to be aware of this. Perhaps many things have been condoned and taken for granted under the name of hero. We may have also accepted false facts as true. What is clear is that a hero cannot be above the law just because he or she is a hero.
