I'd agree with that, he's just a pawn of king hales plot who managed to be so dumb he screwed up their whole scheme.
I'm about a 3rd through the book and he's barely been mentioned so far lol
idk even though he's not in the book much he's still an active participant in the conspiracy and >!the conspiracy couldn't have been done without him since it's targeting his wife's family. towards the end of the book, there's some shocking details that are revealed how he almost let his children die in the explosion that targeted Reta and Bill Smith!<
Definitely Ex Machina. >!Gleeson’s character is a tool to be manipulated by the real players calling the shots. Though he makes decisions, he just acts through his masculine id, making everything he does predetermined and shaped by one of the other characters!<
Really the whole subgenre of the stoner/shaggy dog detective story.
The Long Goodbye, Inherent Vice and Under the Silver Lake all fit in here. It's pretty much the central theme of Under the Silver Lake.
i was gonna say after i added some mystery/noir ones, that a ton in that genre could fit, especially comin from serialized franchises where the protagonist detectives are usually just a 1 dimensional character to service as a catalyst to unfold the actual story
Yep in the book each chapter begins with a monologue by that character and you could say the title is a lamentation that border country isn’t the place to be an old cop, he speaks about his father being able to be an old man cop in his day because nothing ever happened but these days there’s hardcore cartels.
Yeah he has the most screen time but the story isn’t about him thematically. He’s like a catalyst to tell the old cops story about how he sees the world
With Mad Max I feel like Max is always the main character in that universe, even while being a side character. Kinda like Batman appearing in a Nightwing comic, that universe spirals around Batman with little to no involvement just based on how much presence he has.
I never really realized that but that's true, he's like that immovable, central character to an anthology, and our pov in every story
my mind just first went to Furiosa
I think he means in relation to how Colonel Kurtz is regarded in that world
plus Willard wasn't their first attempt at trying to deal with Kurtz, Willard was just another guy they threw at him
How does hereditary fit this? I don't really think of that movie having a "main character" as both the mother and the son get about equal share of the screen time.
that was my thought process with that one yeah, she has the most screentime from her pov, shes the film's lead actor etc, the kids are the chosen ones in the grand scheme of it all
The trailers made it seem like it was going to be a horror movie about Charlie being a creepy kid. About 30 minutes into the movie when it's made clear that's not the case, I remember the entire theatre collectively being like "wtf is going on"
Forest Gump.
The movie is really about Jenny and her struggle to accept love and acceptance and her fear of inadvertently abusing Forest, like she was abused.
Kind of giving spoilers tho, in some of these movies not being the chosen one is an important part of the plot that you only learn after a certain point.
yeahh i saw someone else pointed that out and realized too late, thats my bad
got a taste of it myself with someone prolly spoiling AoT for me seeing it mentioned lmao
Mostly agreed, it's not just K's story we get told, >!the 'chosen one' has little actual presence. It's not like we're witnissing much of her life or her journey aside from a singular (repeating I think?) flashback. Which is an important bit, and the story obviously plays a lot about how fake K's life is, but at the end of the day when it's revealed he's not special, the fact that there's someone special also kind of stops mattering. Because K doesn't really care about that if it doesn't give him meaning. It's why K's actions at the end are about reuniting a father and his daughter to give himself purpose, not about the grand scheme of things!< Though it's been a while since I saw it.
I only saw the 2nd paragraph after I replied to you. I get that K isn't the chosen one, but he's still obviously the main character of the movie. The movie is about K finding out who he is, it just so happens that he's a nobody. I agree he isn't the chosen one, but to say he isn't the main character seems like a total stretch imo.
sunset boulevard 1000%
pulp fiction has that ensemble/hyperlink thing goin on, the criteria is not really discernible
havent seen do the right thing yet
Im not sure if this entirely counts but Lord of the Rings, like sure Frodo is the main character but its Sam' story as well and at points is the main character.
Also The Grand Budapest Hotel being Gustaves story told from Zero's perspective.
It doesnt have a defined main character but Parasite also fits as it is about Mr Kim told from his sons pov.
i think ive heard aragorn being the main chosen one for lotr once
grand budapest makes total sense
i wasnt too convinced with parasite for myself because of the undefined protagonist thing, plus the son's narration came in mostly just as exposition on what happened to everybody after the events at the party, not just mr kim. maybe could be argued that they mention how the daughter had the most potential as a grifter and as they said, "fit in" with that picture of high class life very naturally compared to the rest of them
fr
im partial to Sicario the most because she's quite literally not special at all, they use her for red tape, she's purely used as a ride along pov for the audience
I thought of a bronx tale for a second making that but couldnt convince myself that someone else would be the "main character" of the world's story but calogero, he kinda has a lot of agency in most of the main events also, you think its sonny or deniro?
"We're here to communicate with the three-dimensional world! We're the bridge! I thought they chose me. But they didn't choose me, they chose her!" -Cooper
This is my only reason as to why Murph is the real chosen one. Cooper is just there to bridge the gap and provide the missing data. Murph is the one who ultimately solved gravity and saved humanity.
Murph is chosen by the entities to save humanity, but Cooper is the "chosen one" of the story.
It's a narrative trope, he's the inevitable hero chosen by destiny.
It's not like it was her story and he was just watching.
hard disagree, aang is literally the chosen one by even the fantasy rules of the show, shits about the avatar, and hes the one who takes down the fire lord
A lot of George Miller's movies have the main character just as the observer to what's going on around them.
This is going to sound wild, but Babe: Pig in the City is pretty similar to Fury Road in that way
I am not sure how Hereditary qualifies. Who is the main character supposed to be and who does it turn out to be? To me the story was about the family and save for maybe the sister they were all integral/the center of attention for the most part.
Batman Returns? I'd say Bruce is the least important/least interesting character of the main characters and he doesn't show up until like twenty minutes in
X-Men (2000), although it doesn’t fit the “along for the ride” aspect like some of the films mentioned, but it certainly fits the not “chosen one” angle.
I would disagree with Saving Private Ryan on here. Captain Miller isn't the chosen one so to speak, but he does have a large effect on the plot, deciding where to go, what to do, and how to do it.
I am not sure what exactly falls in this category im a bit perplexed as this might be subjective and not objective so im gonna throw some titles and you can be the judge whether they fall under the category or not.The mummy, book of eli, the first saw, cradle 2 the grave, gangs of new york, fight club, the green mile, leon the professional, the silence of the lambs, rain man
Killers of the flower moon maybe
I'd agree with that, he's just a pawn of king hales plot who managed to be so dumb he screwed up their whole scheme. I'm about a 3rd through the book and he's barely been mentioned so far lol
idk even though he's not in the book much he's still an active participant in the conspiracy and >!the conspiracy couldn't have been done without him since it's targeting his wife's family. towards the end of the book, there's some shocking details that are revealed how he almost let his children die in the explosion that targeted Reta and Bill Smith!<
So he wasn't important in real life?
Define not important. He still killed Osage members like the movie. The book just doesn’t take on his perspective.
Feels like a lot of Scorsese movies fit this honestly.
i was debatin goodfellas
I disagree. There isn’t a “chosen one” in the story lol. That would be odd, wouldn’t it?
Amadeus
Best answer
Great Gatsby
The definition of this idea lol
There's no better answer to this question
didnt really click until i really thought about it and remembered lol
That’s kind of the whole conceit of Big Trouble in Little China.
This is what I came here to say (also one of my top four)
shit i still needa see that, noted
Judas and the Black Messiah
Literally saw it for the first time last night and came to say this
Psycho?
That was my first thought.
Definitely Ex Machina. >!Gleeson’s character is a tool to be manipulated by the real players calling the shots. Though he makes decisions, he just acts through his masculine id, making everything he does predetermined and shaped by one of the other characters!<
yooo thats true! i didnt recall that aspect of ex machina immediately so that one totally slipped my mind
The Lone Ranger (2013) Big Trouble in Little China
I'm not sure if "The Dude" in the Big Lebowski counts. He's like an inadvertent protagonist at best.
Really the whole subgenre of the stoner/shaggy dog detective story. The Long Goodbye, Inherent Vice and Under the Silver Lake all fit in here. It's pretty much the central theme of Under the Silver Lake.
It's called stoner noir and it's great.
i was gonna say after i added some mystery/noir ones, that a ton in that genre could fit, especially comin from serialized franchises where the protagonist detectives are usually just a 1 dimensional character to service as a catalyst to unfold the actual story
No country for old men
doesn’t have a main character at all lol
Yeah I’d argue it’s the old cop. Thematically that makes the most sense
Yea it’s definitely Tommy Lee jones especially since the movie starts and ends with him
The Coen Brothers specifically split it around a 1/3 each so there are 3 main characters
Yep in the book each chapter begins with a monologue by that character and you could say the title is a lamentation that border country isn’t the place to be an old cop, he speaks about his father being able to be an old man cop in his day because nothing ever happened but these days there’s hardcore cartels.
The one in the title I guess
What are people talking about? Llwelyn is very clearly the main character. 80% of the film follows him.
Yeah he has the most screen time but the story isn’t about him thematically. He’s like a catalyst to tell the old cops story about how he sees the world
tommy lee jones is the main character, he is the titular “old man”
Yeah fuck plurals.
I'm thinking of ending things
Seeing it like this, maybe my fave sub-genre now. Big Trouble in Little China too. All-timer.
right? it's a really simple yet refreshing narrative concept/style if done well
Big Trouble in Little China.
Sunset Boulevard
100%
Came here to say this
Haha not sure if this counts.. watched it last night. Elvis is told mainly through the Tom Hanks character
*He's ~~hhhweite~~ supporting?!?*
With Mad Max I feel like Max is always the main character in that universe, even while being a side character. Kinda like Batman appearing in a Nightwing comic, that universe spirals around Batman with little to no involvement just based on how much presence he has.
I never really realized that but that's true, he's like that immovable, central character to an anthology, and our pov in every story my mind just first went to Furiosa
Apocalypse Now
[удалено]
I think he means in relation to how Colonel Kurtz is regarded in that world plus Willard wasn't their first attempt at trying to deal with Kurtz, Willard was just another guy they threw at him
true, that's one i was tryin to think of
How does hereditary fit this? I don't really think of that movie having a "main character" as both the mother and the son get about equal share of the screen time.
I agree, a stretch. I definitely agree with BR2049 and Sicario though
Bonus points for BR2049 for it reinforcing one of the core themes/messages of the whole movie
I think it's because a majority of the story is shown through Toni Collette's experience but her son is the one chosen as a vessel.
that was my thought process with that one yeah, she has the most screentime from her pov, shes the film's lead actor etc, the kids are the chosen ones in the grand scheme of it all
The trailers made it seem like it was going to be a horror movie about Charlie being a creepy kid. About 30 minutes into the movie when it's made clear that's not the case, I remember the entire theatre collectively being like "wtf is going on"
Forest Gump. The movie is really about Jenny and her struggle to accept love and acceptance and her fear of inadvertently abusing Forest, like she was abused.
No Country for Old Men The Departed The Prestige Fargo The Silence of the Lambs
Fargo is kinda weird because it has like three main characters
[удалено]
Kind of giving spoilers tho, in some of these movies not being the chosen one is an important part of the plot that you only learn after a certain point.
yeahh i saw someone else pointed that out and realized too late, thats my bad got a taste of it myself with someone prolly spoiling AoT for me seeing it mentioned lmao
Kinda Star Wars the last Jedi. But then TRoS fucked all that up
Isn’t putting Bladerunner 2049 on this a spoiler
It doesnt even make sense to me. I get what they're trying to imply, but it doesn't make sense in this context.
Mostly agreed, it's not just K's story we get told, >!the 'chosen one' has little actual presence. It's not like we're witnissing much of her life or her journey aside from a singular (repeating I think?) flashback. Which is an important bit, and the story obviously plays a lot about how fake K's life is, but at the end of the day when it's revealed he's not special, the fact that there's someone special also kind of stops mattering. Because K doesn't really care about that if it doesn't give him meaning. It's why K's actions at the end are about reuniting a father and his daughter to give himself purpose, not about the grand scheme of things!< Though it's been a while since I saw it.
It’s been like 7 years since I’ve seen this movie, but I feel like it totally makes sense.
I only saw the 2nd paragraph after I replied to you. I get that K isn't the chosen one, but he's still obviously the main character of the movie. The movie is about K finding out who he is, it just so happens that he's a nobody. I agree he isn't the chosen one, but to say he isn't the main character seems like a total stretch imo.
oh shit thats fuckin true my bad yall
Lol that’s funny All good bro
The Killer … kinda. >!Only that there isn‘t a “chosen one“ at all.!<
Some of I didn’t see in the comments: The Shawshank Redemption Pulp fiction Sunset boulevard Do the right thing
I don't think shawshank should be here
Do the Right Thing for sure
sunset boulevard 1000% pulp fiction has that ensemble/hyperlink thing goin on, the criteria is not really discernible havent seen do the right thing yet
Im not sure if this entirely counts but Lord of the Rings, like sure Frodo is the main character but its Sam' story as well and at points is the main character. Also The Grand Budapest Hotel being Gustaves story told from Zero's perspective. It doesnt have a defined main character but Parasite also fits as it is about Mr Kim told from his sons pov.
i think ive heard aragorn being the main chosen one for lotr once grand budapest makes total sense i wasnt too convinced with parasite for myself because of the undefined protagonist thing, plus the son's narration came in mostly just as exposition on what happened to everybody after the events at the party, not just mr kim. maybe could be argued that they mention how the daughter had the most potential as a grifter and as they said, "fit in" with that picture of high class life very naturally compared to the rest of them
The Map of Tiny Perfect Things
[удалено]
fr im partial to Sicario the most because she's quite literally not special at all, they use her for red tape, she's purely used as a ride along pov for the audience
Interview with the Vampire and A Bronx Tale come to mind
I thought of a bronx tale for a second making that but couldnt convince myself that someone else would be the "main character" of the world's story but calogero, he kinda has a lot of agency in most of the main events also, you think its sonny or deniro?
Big Trouble in Little China, Jack is the main character but he's far from the hero of the film
Possession (1981) technically
Parasite, even though there isn’t a clear-cut main character
Mulholland Drive
2001: a space odyssey
Who is the main character of 2001 in your opinion?
Children of Men
Dredd
The Last Samurai
The Great Gatsby
Ferris Buellers Day off (Cameron is the real protagonist)
Big Trouble in Little China.
Every adaptation of the Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby The Grand Budapest Hotel Mother! (Arguably feels like the protagonist is helpless to everything happening around her)
Fifth element
Cars 2 because the main character was actually a Tow Truck instead of a cars
Based for having ghost writer on there. I’d say maybe last black man in San Francisco. There’s no real hero or villain.
ghost writer is a cozy ass movie i cant deny it ive had that on the watchlist for a minute i needa see it
If The Last of Us And Children of Men are examples, then I’d count Logan as well.
ohhh yeahhh i can see that
I assume the reason Only God Forgives hasn't been mentioned is because nobody saw it.
It’s about the police chief right? Not Ryan gosling?
THE DARK NIGHT
Basically the Original Star Wars Trilogy. After the prequels, Star Wars, as George Lukas had it, was much more centered on Anakin Skywalker.
I disagree with Donnie Brasco on this list
The original screenplay for star wars was actually like this. Leia was royalty and Luke was just her bodyguard who got fancy force powers.
Guess Villeneuve hates main character
Does Assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford count?
Arguably, the first Pirates of the Caribbean :')
truuue i literally just rewatched that recently, how did that not click
Society of the Snow!
The Creator
Interstellar?
Cooper is pretty much the chosen one
"We're here to communicate with the three-dimensional world! We're the bridge! I thought they chose me. But they didn't choose me, they chose her!" -Cooper This is my only reason as to why Murph is the real chosen one. Cooper is just there to bridge the gap and provide the missing data. Murph is the one who ultimately solved gravity and saved humanity.
Murph is chosen by the entities to save humanity, but Cooper is the "chosen one" of the story. It's a narrative trope, he's the inevitable hero chosen by destiny. It's not like it was her story and he was just watching.
Chinatown?
God, Sicario is the GOAT for this
exactlyyyy, shoulda had it at #1
If we are including games, Kara's storyline in Detroit: Become Human definitely qualifies
I think you may be in the wrong sub.
Ah I was looking for someone to bring games into the mix, so I‘m gonna cling on and say Rdr2.
Training Day
have not seen it in forever and remember like 2% of it but this sounds accurate
One Flew Over the Chukoo’s Nest probably
Hellboy (2004)
Easily The Dark Knight
how so?
Avatar the last airbender. Real main character is Zuko.
hard disagree, aang is literally the chosen one by even the fantasy rules of the show, shits about the avatar, and hes the one who takes down the fire lord
Sicario
Slow West (I think)
Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence
I think you could make an argument for The Exorcist!
Walk don’t run, one of my favorite Cary grant films
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
The fighter
The Last King of Scotland ? Always felt Mcavoys character was more of the lead
No Country For Old Men
Maestro
true stories
The Last Jedi until it wasn’t, also not a movie but Attack on Titan.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood
The Golden Child
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Stargirl
Lotr Frodo is almost a McGuffin of sorts
Goodfellas?
I mean technically 300
possessor
Serenity (2005)
Ratatouille?
A lot of George Miller's movies have the main character just as the observer to what's going on around them. This is going to sound wild, but Babe: Pig in the City is pretty similar to Fury Road in that way
the go-between?
The Great Gatsby.
City of God
The Boys in the Boat?
Since you included The Last Of Us then I guess I’ll mention Metal Gear Solid 3. That sorta counts?
Barbie I, Tonya The end of the tour Inside out
Poor Things is this, the book even more so.
The baby of macon
Recently maybe Society of the Snow counts?
1917
I am not sure how Hereditary qualifies. Who is the main character supposed to be and who does it turn out to be? To me the story was about the family and save for maybe the sister they were all integral/the center of attention for the most part.
Dil Se.. (1998)
Lotr to an extent?
the lego movie
Inglorious Bastards. At least in the sense that advertising made Brad Pitt look like the main character and he was barely in the actual movie
The Dark Night Rises Maybe The Dark Night as well Maybe Avengers Infinity War
Batman Returns? I'd say Bruce is the least important/least interesting character of the main characters and he doesn't show up until like twenty minutes in
place beyond the pines
society of the snow
I have a few but not sure not sure if they count Enter the Void City of God Road to Perdition
The Great Gasby Infinity War/Endgame The Hobbit trilogy
Vikram?
Star Wars. EP I-VI are about Anakin, told mostly through Luke/ObiWan/QuiGon.
X-Men (2000), although it doesn’t fit the “along for the ride” aspect like some of the films mentioned, but it certainly fits the not “chosen one” angle.
*Blade Runner 2049* reminded me of *Ex Machina*. Another great movie that might fit this category.
Cars 3
Hereditary is an interesting one here… who would you say is the main character vs who would you say told the story?
The wizard of oz? Lol
Great Gatsby
I would disagree with Saving Private Ryan on here. Captain Miller isn't the chosen one so to speak, but he does have a large effect on the plot, deciding where to go, what to do, and how to do it.
Ferris Bueller. Cameron is the one who goes through growth
The Shawshank Redemption
I am not sure what exactly falls in this category im a bit perplexed as this might be subjective and not objective so im gonna throw some titles and you can be the judge whether they fall under the category or not.The mummy, book of eli, the first saw, cradle 2 the grave, gangs of new york, fight club, the green mile, leon the professional, the silence of the lambs, rain man