The Z Word: 10 Badass Women in Zombie Films

After watching a zombie film that had an amazing female character in it that demoted her to being the sister of the protagonist who spent most of the film bound & gagged with her hands over her head it made me think, once again, about women's role in zombie films. It made me wonder how many times we'd seen the zombie film cliché of a killing your family after they've been turned but with women killing their husbands - Dawn of the Dead came to mind but that was about it. Then a lot of time was spent trying to think of zombie films I'd seen where a woman was definitely the protagonist and from what I could think there are only 7 – four of those are one franchise, 2 of those are the remake of said franchise, and one separate one. Zombie films, like most other horror films (and most films full stop), have a problem with women and often can’t find the balance between objectifying women and making them male badass characters with boobs. So I thought I’d write a list of some great female characters – and protagonists – in zombie films for those women like me who love zombie films and awesome female characters.

Zombieland: Wichita and Little Rock

Zombieland is a comedy horror that follows the weedy Jesse Eisenberg as he survives a zombie apocalypse by creating rules and following them. In his journey he meets the great Wichita and Little Rock played by Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin respectively. Both characters get the chance to be a bit complicated, a bit devious, and very human. It’s a staple of the genre and it’s pretty unlikely that if you’re reading this list you haven’t already seen this film.

Dawn of the Dead: Ana

Dawn of the Dead is a 2004 remake of Romero’s film, the third in his franchise. It’s a great film that looks at how different people fit together in times of crisis, and what would happen if you gave birth during a zombie apocalypse. Ana handles the whole thing in her pyjamas which in my opinion is how I want to experience an apocalypse, it might not be practical but I’d sure be comfortable. It’s not often remakes become brilliant films in their own right but this one certainly does.

Cockneys Vs Zombies: Katy, and others

Cockneys Vs Zombies is another great example of what happens when British people make a zombie film – see: Shaun of the Dead but disregard Doghouse. The protagonists, two brothers, start by trying to rob a bank to keep their Grandad’s care home open and they end up leaving the bank into, yep, a zombie apocalypse. It has its hilariously British moments and it’s a great film overall. Katy is that female character who has to keep stepping up to save her cousin’s lives because they’re useless and she’s awesome. I also just have to mention the amazing Peggy played by Honor Blackman who shows that age means nothing when there are zombies to fight.

Night of the Living Deb: Deb

I’ve mentioned this film before, here, as an alternative Valentine’s Day film but that doesn’t mean this film is first and foremost a romance film. It follows the totally unique Deb as she gets awkwardly forced out of the door by a one night stand and walks into a weirdly quiet town full of zombies. It has some sigh inducing sexist moments but Deb turns this film into something special. It’s definitely one for those who love their comedy mixed with horror and weird, wonderful women.

Fido: Helen Robinson

Fido is what would happen if after a zombie apocalypse in a world resembling the 1950s where they domesticated zombies and used them as servants. I’ve written about it in detail here because of the great Helen Robinson as played by Carrie Ann Moss. It is a weirdly lovely film, parts horror and comedy (you can tell I have a favourite genre), and it is quite a gem of the genre. Helen is a great example of what happens when you don’t disregard female characters and limit them by the limiting ideals of the time.

Pontypool: Sydney and Laurel-Ann

Pontypool is a seriously underrated film. It’s set in a radio station and follows a radio host as people around him get infected. It’s hard to talk about it without giving the plot away but if you love inventive zombie films I’d definitely give it a watch. Its slow burn nature is part of its beauty and all of the main characters involved play their parts brilliantly. It’s very loosely based off a book, mainly using its premise, which is also unique and has its moments that are pretty terrifying when they’re read in a creepy voice when you’re listening to the audiobook late at night like I was. Helen, Helen, Helen anyone?

Warm Bodies: Julie

Warm Bodies is basically Romeo and Juliet with zombies but also if zombies started to become more human, that old chestnut. It’s a really enjoyable film, with some pretty hilarious moments and though I haven’t read the book yet I all but guarantee it’s a great book too. Julie reacts kind of weirdly to what happens in the film when you remember that R is a zombie, who has murdered people, people she knows. But then you remember it is using Romeo and Juliet as its basis and it reinforces yet again how weird and inappropriate that play is. But either way Julie is a female character that manges to be a proper person the whole time and everything. The way films are these days I’m classing that as a win.

28 Days Later: Selena

Another great British zombie film, though this time pure horror. Selena is awesome and helps make this into the great film that it is. Though I, controversially, prefer 28 Weeks Later I still recommend this film for the lovers of fast zombies – even if they’re not technically zombies, hush. What I will also recommend you do after you’ve watched this film is play the game Left 4 Dead and play In the House, In a Heartbeat (“That was more than a heartbeat”) and it makes the finales of the maps something truly intense.

Rec 3: Genesis: Clara

This film sometimes gets a bad rap because it’s so different from the other Rec films but I think it’s a perfect example of how to expand an established universe. It’s a really enjoyable film, part horror and part romance. It follows Clara and Koldo at their wedding as their reception gets interrupted by zombies; the found footage style stops as we watch both Clara and Koldo get separated and try to find each other again. The moment where Clara has a chainsaw and she rips her wedding dress because it’s getting in the way is more than badass enough to earn her a spot on this list.

Rec: 1/2/4: Apocalipsis: Ángela

Rec is the Spanish found footage zombie film to rule all Spanish found footage zombie films. Some may know it as the film that inspired Quarantine, and the terrible Quarantine 2. Ángela is a news reporter who was filming a segment about firefighters when the building she is in gets quarantined due to, you guessed it, zombies. It’s an iconic film of the genre for a reason and as the films go on Ángela continues to be a tour de force. She is a perfect example of how amazing it can be when you let women be the protagonists of not just zombie films but any film. More of the same please.

Honourable Mentions

Kelly in Dead Set – a series by Charlie Brooker on Channel 4 that asks and answers what would happen to the Big Brother contestants if there was a sudden zombie apocalypse.

Many, many female characters (particularly Michonne and Carol) in The Walking Dead – both in the comic and in the show, they are badass and human at the same time.

Liv Moore in iZombie – loosely based on a comic this show looks at what would happen if eating someone’s brain (when you’re a zombie of course) helped you solve their murder.

Mia in Evil Dead (the 2013 remake) – the franchise has a very erm mixed relationship with female characters but the finale of this film shows why Mia is getting an honourable mention.

Amy in In the Flesh – a BBC three show about what might happen if, after the initial apocalypse we found a way to stop zombies being rabid and helped them assimilate back into the normal world. It’s an underrated show that sadly got cancelled on a cliff-hanger.

All the women, Julie in particular, in Les Revenants – A French TV show that looks at what would happen if people who had previously died came back from the dead. There’s also a French film that the show is based on, and a Canadian film of similar theme with a great female character too.

The Most Honourable Mention: Z Nation

Warren, Addy and Cassandra in Z Nation – my favourite zombie thing by far. Z Nation is a TV show that follows a group of people crossing American to get a man who might hold the cure to the zombie apocalypse to doctors who can do something about it. It’s just a shame that guy is a jerk. It is brilliant, hilarious, and it truly came into its own in the second season as its bigger budget allowed each episode to be explorations of how zombies would fit with aliens, Native Americans, and so much more. Not to mention that Warren and Addy are totally incredible.

Dishonourable Mentions

This is for those films that are pretty sexist but still managed to give us great female characters – even if time watching is spent wishing they were in a better film.

Brooke in Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead – a character that could have held an entire film herself, but sadly wasn’t given that chance. It's an Australian Mad Max style zombie film that has it's moments but ultimately didn't live up to it's potential.

Kim in Kill Zombie! – A Dutch comedy horror about a guy trying to save a female colleague, it has a fair amount of sexism but I really enjoyed Kim’s character as she kicked ass – one scene aside, ugh.

Aurore in La Horde – a French film about a group of police officers who are trying to get revenge for the murder of one of their own that very quickly turns into a fight to survive. It has one scene in particular that is disgustingly misogynistic, but Aurore stands strong with a great fight in a kitchen.

Cherry Darling in Planet Terror – a Tarantino zombie film that is terribly sexist, I really didn’t enjoy watching it at all but I will concede that Cherry is pretty badass, even if it is ultimately in a male wish fulfilment way; see: the line about her only having one leg making it easier to ‘get access’, gross.

'Little' Note about my love for zombie films and feminism:

A really annoying thing about films about the apocalypse is that they are often written by men – this is weirdly true for zombie films – and as such they tend not to know how to deal with women. They can quickly fall into boring exaggerations of patriarchy as though that’s the best they could come up with, see Doomsday (here). Zombie films can be have this problem too as they give us female characters that are either there to be saved, to be objectified/killed, and to fall into the Badass Female Character trope; the latter often being your standard action hero male character, but one they see as being great because they’re kicking ass whilst being a woman, as though that makes it fundamentally harder.

In all other non-apocalyptic films I talk about how male violence is a problem and that often it’s gratuitous and is a lot of the time there so men can watch women get hurt. With zombie films, and TV, this can also be the case such as in The Walking Dead where their biggest problem is not surviving in a decimated world, or protecting themselves from zombies but is in fact fighting violent men time and time again; this was evident in Fear the Walking Dead when even in the throes (ish) of the start of the apocalypse we’re still treated to men torturing others and it bored me half to death. So this is where zombie films get to be different, they need to be violent in order to live because zombies are strongest in numbers; if you don’t kill one zombie then chances are it will come back to literally bite you or it will get its friends and turn into a horde that will kill everyone.

But my main reason for loving zombie films, books and TV shows is nothing to do with the violence and the gore but for all the other things. It’s for the little moments of terror, that voice on the other end of the phone going “hang on? Steve? Are you alright?” and knowing exactly what is happening. It’s because I love the sheer creativity that can come out of the genre as people take all sorts of situations and add zombies. It can be a great genre for women too as it gives them a chance, despite what crappy male writers think, to shake off the daily sexism they experience and just focus on getting through the day in a world where it’s all humans versus zombies. Sexism, if you write zombies right, becomes a distraction. But mostly, I just really love zombies.

If you think there’s any women in zombie films - or TV - I’ve missed (mostly because I haven’t seen every zombie film ever, yet) then let me know in the comments or on Twitter at @FeministFilms! Or even if you just want any more recommendations of zombie related things, such as zombie books with great women in.

Suffragette: Votes for Women

Suffragette is a film that is so ridiculously overdue; in two years it will have been one hundred years since certain (over the age of 30, married – 8.4 million) women were given the vote. It wasn't even until 1928 women (who were over the age of 21) were given the same voting rights as men. As is shown at the end of the film there were a few countries before the UK that gave women voting rights and many more that didn't until afterwards. The thing that's important to remember that the vote for women wasn't simply about votes but about gaining legal standing in a lot of areas – such as the legal recognition that mothers have rights over their children, as is mentioned in the film. It's hard to imagine now being so powerless, having no right to be in government, to have a say in the world that affects them, not even having the law recognise that you should be able to look after your child or own your house and everything else that women were denied then.

The film follows Maud Watts a woman who gets involved in the suffragette movement; we see as she tries not to get involved as she has seen the consequences it has for other women. As the film goes on we see the consequences that fighting for women's rights has on women's personal lives; Maud loses her job, she gets kicked out of her home, and when her husband has no idea how to raise a child – that's Maud's job after all – he simply gets his son adopted instead. Many men around the world like to pretend that women are inconsequential, that they run the world and control everything but they forget that without women everything would fall apart. Capitalism relies on women's unpaid labour after all – feeding men, raising children, keeping the house clean and fresh; men would struggle if they had to do all of that and 'run the world' all on their own. Icelandic women proved this by almost all of them protesting and after the country all but collapsed under the weight of women striking change began to happen and they are now the most 'gender equal' country in the world.

One thing that's striking about the film is actually how little has changed despite the hundred years having passed. For instance, there is talk about women becoming MPs and as much as we have moved on and more and more women are elected 72% of the UK government is still male. The majority of board members, CEOs and all the rest of the powerful positions in the UK are male. This is called Patriarchy, men controlling the government and men also pretending that it's no big deal. But that's exactly what Suffragette shows, it is a really big deal. So much so that women were prepared to go to hell and back to get it. There were many moments in the film where I almost cried because of just how important it is. When Emmeline Pankhurst stands and gives a speech to women on a balcony it's hard not to understand. When she says never surrender it's hard not to feel the importance of being a woman and fighting for the women alive today and those who will come after us. Even now women are still fighting to keep creating a better future.

The film, rightly, emphasises the physical struggle suffragists went through. They were beaten by police despite their lack of violence against others, and they were brutally force fed in the jails by a government who didn't want blood on their hands but was happy to deny them basic human rights. I'd like to say I learnt about all of this in school, that as a teenager I was taught about the horribleness of the Cat and Mouse Act of 1913 but I wasn't because I wasn't taught about it in school; I remember having one English lesson where we read a play about the suffragette's but my Academy school didn't feel it pertinent to teach us about women – not in history but also not much in other subjects. Women grow up around the world not learning their history, as we as unlearning sexism women have to learn that they do in fact have a history and that it's an amazing one full of strong, courageous women.

Women's words are often seen as violence and as such men often react with actual violence – this isn't absent from Suffragette; from Violet's abusive husband to the police brutality it is clear that women's actions and dissent are taken to be way too far. As is pointed out in the film, the Suffragette's weren't killing people, they weren't setting out to start a war as many men have for many causes throughout history, and one thing that can be said of the fight for women's liberation is that it is not one built on the bodies of murdered people – though it does remember the women who have died at the hands of men. After all women are not taught to be violent, to be aggressive, and instead they are taught to be quiet, submissive, and timid. Even now when we praise strong women there are still many women who are punished for it with violence and ridicule. Regardless of the rift between the suffragists and suffragette's we can thank both of them for gaining the women's right to vote; after all, a large part of the government giving in was, after World War I ended, a desire not to return to a time of civil disobedience by suffragettes. For example, countries that too had suffragists like France had to wait longer for the right to vote.

A character in the film calls the suffragette's actions unjustifiable; he is referring to blowing up letterboxes and smashing window's with rocks but stands idly by while the police batter women right in front of him. Pankhurst's words are important as she points out that women want to be lawmakers but not lawbreakers, implying that the second one is the only way to get to be the first. In the film, as in real life, the suffragettes blew up MP David Lloyd George's house and it is said by many as going too far. Women who weren't even allowed to own property were taught to respect it more than their own rights; to see brick and mortar as more sacred than their place in creating the law. Anything is more important than women or their right to be seen as human beings; something that is still constantly evident in today's society. Maud points out war is the only language men seem to speak; though I think that violence is never the answer I do think that women can't politely ask their oppressors for change because they hold onto their power with such force that they would never happily and voluntarily give it up.

Suffragette's finale is the death of Emily Wilding Davidson, a tragic but pivotal moment in the fight for women's rights. It rightly focused on what that death would have meant to those who knew her, to women fighting the same fight, and as it changes to real footage from her funeral it is hard to fight back the tears. It struck me however that there are still those who would have been watching not knowing what was coming, that there are those who don't know her name, and that is a travesty. That these amazing women and their fight is still not recognised – statues that don't exist, women we are not taught about, and even those women of colour who were part of the movement that we still have to fight to recognise and remember. It must have been a great honour to play those women but we still have to so far to go. Even now feminists of all different types still have to fight for basic rights still to be recognised – in all countries, Western and otherwise. Men fight to denigrate women, to objectify them and insult them so we don't rise up; they want to keep us reliant on them, keep us uneducated and apart so we don't take what is ours.

For what Suffragette teaches us, as all of women's history does, is that things can change. Women can get more rights, they can get men to respect them more, and that we don't just have to accept things as they are. Men's oppression of women isn't the way things are supposed to be, it isn't natural and normal it's completely man made (emphasis on the men) and as such women can tear it all down. I look forward to watching it happen and I encourage women to keep the memories of the suffragettes alive. Most importantly we must keep their passion alive, their desire for change, and their power for taking what they are owed. I look forward in future to sitting my future children down – especially if I have a daughter – and showing her this film; of having them be proud that these women existed, that they can be and do just as much as they did, and that things are getting better and that them watching that film – even just it existing – is proof.

Carol: Kiss of Fire

Warning: Spoilers.

Carol is an adaptation of the book The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith, starring the adorable Rooney Mara and stunning Cate Blanchett. It was adapted by Phyllis Nagy, who first wrote the script in 1996 and who won an award for adapting the book at the Alliance of Women Film Journalists awards amongst others, and it is directed by Todd Haynes. It is set in the early 1950s and it follows Mara's character Therese as she works in a department store, admiring their toy trains and it follows her as she instantly falls in love with the eponymous Carol, played by Blanchett. It is a stunning film, with a beautiful score, and brilliantly touching acting. It is a joy to watch but most importantly it's a, sadly rare, treat to watch a film about two women falling in love in a way that is respected, equal to other love stories, and that has a bloody happy ending.

The book was inspired by two things in Highsmith's life, a chance meeting she had similar to the one in the film with a woman when she worked in a department store and a relationship she had with an older woman who, just like Carol, had trouble with her divorce and child custody due to taped hotel room meetings and her sexuality as a lesbian. Highsmith wrote the outline for the book in a couple of hours, driven unbeknownst to her by a chicken pox fever. It's amazing to think that there is now an Oscar nominated film that exists because a beautiful woman inspired a young lesbian author into writing a great book, albeit one that her time was not ready for; it was published under a pseudonym, and it took her 38 years after it was published for her to admit it was her novel. I'm glad that we live in a time that is better for lesbians, though there is still a long way to go. I really hope many young lesbians went to see Carol, on first dates or date nights, and enjoyed getting to see a love like theirs on the big screen – one as respected as any other.

However, before I discuss Carol and Therese I want to discuss the men in the film as their presence is repeatedly one that many women experience: a nuisance. There's Therese's boyfriend, someone who thinks people of the same sex can't fall in love, who thinks the things he does for both of them are done because she demands them when she doesn't, and who acts like his feelings for her should outweigh whatever she feels about anything. Then there's the friend who kisses Therese, the man who investigates them – lies to them and helps shatter Carol's life – and it creates an atmopshere where anytime a man comes on screen you're just waiting for them to ruin things for our two female leads; so true to so many women's lives, so brilliant and infuriating. There's Carol's husband, the man who takes her daughter away from her over his anger at the fact she has feelings for people who aren't him, and that those people are women.

It's his possession of Carol that drives that plot in this film, her need to get away from him and the control he holds over their daughter, the control he tries to exercise over her. His jealousy comes out in anger and luckily for us as viewers it doesn't end in violence; though sadly this is not always true in real life, as lesbians are often killed by entitled men who think it is their right to have any woman and that any woman who not only doesn't want him but any man is a criminal who should be punished, who should be killed. It's understandable that a film set in the 50s would be about this conflict, the punishment lesbians faced due to their sexuality; we haven't come as far as perhaps we like to tell ourselves, with women who love women still being discriminated against simply for that very fact. But with time I hope that films, ones that exist in Hollywood, continue recognising the beauty of lesbian love, but that they show that lesbians lives aren't all about tragedy and male violence and anger but that they are as varied and complicated as the films we have been watching for decades.

Carol is a character that in lesser hands would become a two dimensional object, a beautiful enigmatic woman; she'd become a killer or as we saw in BBC's Sherlock a dominatrix, as happened to Irene Adler – The Woman because she was written in a time where no woman was expected to be capable of anything other than being a wife or a mother. But as she was written by someone with a deep love for women, driven by an infatuation with a passing stranger, and adapted by someone who loved this book so much she wrote the screenplay in 1996 she is a fully realised character who is flawed and human, something that is a lot to ask for in a world that thinks this is a lot to ask for. Carol is a great example too of the effort it takes to look effortless; the stress and emotional strain that it takes to appear to others as though you step out of bed stunning, glide through the streets without a care, and take lovers to bed in a swirl of magic and seduction. Instead she is wrapped in the love she has for her daughter, its cost casts a shadow over her new relationships, and almost ends up driving away a woman who makes her feel like she can truly be herself – something that is often the price of women who love men.

As that's what Therese let's Carol be, utterly herself: she lets her cry, lets her love her, lets her have her space when her world is crashing around her. She tells herself it's because she has no substance, because she lets people walk all over her and she doesn't stand up for herself; she might feel like that's true with her boyfriend but for her and Carol I don't see it that way at all. I think she becomes someone that Carol truly needs, someone who can hold her when she needs it and encourage her to be a human, to be a lesbian, and, when she finally gets the courage to be herself. If this film were about Carol and her husband it would have been a film about a broken women, alone in her own marriage, torn between being true to herself and being a mother and it would have tried to force what other films have: that she should swallow her identity, put her husband's wants first and sacrificed everything for a chance to see her daughter. It almost ends that way, it almost ends with her losing it all but Therese's love for her gives this film a happy ending, or as happy as it could get for two lesbian women in the 1950s.

It's a film you could walk away from hoping that that happy ending lasted, that those women found a way to live happily in a house somewhere, raising her daughter whilst Carol finds her calling in life; whilst Therese becomes a renowned photographer, where her favourite photographs are of Carol and Rindy opening their presents at Christmas. But as is always the bittersweet way with feminism it's worth remembering how cruel history has been to lesbians; how they were only really allowed to be close in public because society has little problem with women being friends in an intimate, non-sexual setting more so than men. It's something that needs to be remembered in feminism as we read texts like The Feminine Mystique – an important text for feminism but one that is marred by a woman believing the society she lived in at that time and putting lesbians and women of colour last. I believe it's so important to acknowledge the struggles our lesbian sisters have, that they bring so much to the world, and that they have problems unique to them and that we can help by being allies to them.

Though I am glad to say that Carol is another brick on the road to a better life for lesbians, a world where film understands women, and those who love them. With more room made for women in films - on the screen and behind the scenes - then we can keeping making more and more great films like Carol, more Hollywood films that are open about women's sexuality, and films that treat women like the people they are. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to read The Price of Salt.

Spotlight: It Takes a Village

Warning: Spoilers.

Spotlight is a film that follows the Boston Globe as they uncover the systematic abuse and cover up of young children by Catholic priests. It is a brilliant film that understands its topic well and the impact of the abuse and its cover up, rather than simply sensationalising it. It has a good cast and is well acted by all. The reason I’m writing about it for my feminist blog is because it understands abuse very well and what it does to people; but also it displays the systematic nature of abuse brilliantly which is something films can struggle with. Often when we talk about abuse people have a certain idea of it in their head, they think that it happens and you go to the police and they believe you, investigate, and if they can arrest the person and then that’s it. But unfortunately if anything that is the exception to the rule. As is shown in Spotlight it is more like you’re abused, continuously, you try to get help but those who should listen don’t, your friends tell you to stop talking about it, the very people who should be there for you are the ones who turn their backs on you because they’re people and they believe rape myths, or want to keep their power, or are simply so arrogant and entitled that they think you deserved it and that they have the right to abuse and get away with it.

The film covers the topic from many angles as it wasn’t simply about the abuse from priests, or about the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team investigating it, but about them uncovering a large cover up, first in Boston and then stretching all through the system of the Catholic Church, of this same abuse. It looks at how it was done, how it affected the victims, and how individual men time and again tried hard to brush it under the rug. As it was men, by and large, that this film focused on; when we talk about systems its important remembering we live in a patriarchal world and this means that almost all, if not all, institutions are run by men. That’s not a value judgement or a myth or conspiracy but simple fact. Men run everything, they’re in the top positions of power almost everywhere and even where they’re not they still make up the majority of the rest of the powerful positions and even non-powerful positions. It’s worth remembering this because men on a patriarchal level feel entitled to most everything and this translates to their desire to control, abuse, and not even question it or the cover up.

In the film there was one priest in particular who Rachel McAdam’s character spoke to who simply, with no shame clarified that yes he’d molested young boys but that the focus of his actions should not be on what he did but that he isn’t gay. It was important to him, as a Catholic man, that his sexuality not be questioned as being homosexual was a much worse crime than the systematic abuse of children. But this also brings up a very important point that the film also slightly touched upon, that this abuse isn’t about sexuality or sexual desire but about control and power.

Though there was a part where one person who had studied these men somewhat blamed priest’s forced celibacy on their abuse it is, in my opinion, a misplaced blame. Celibacy was brought about for priests simply to stop the nepotism that was happening within the church. It is a very big lie that men have told themselves, and the rest of us, that men need sex; water, air, warmth, shelter and food are the things humans need but notice how sex isn’t one of them? Women account for 1% of rapes, a small percent of paedophiles, and a small, small amount of those who pay for sex and that is because all of those things are nothing to do with sex but to do with power and control. There are many women not having sex and they aren’t abusing because humans don’t need sex and men are not some special case they’re just kidding themselves.

It is clearer then that the abuse of young boys and girls is about a desire to manipulate, ruin lives, exercise control and power over vulnerable – often the most vulnerable – children as you follow the cover up. These men in the Catholic Church, the news, and other institutions such as law, spent a lot of time, effort and no doubt money to hide what these men did because they had the power to do so and they didn’t want to lose that power and face the consequences of their actions. This desire for power, the abuse that stems from having this power, and the evading of the consequences is a very common theme in films it’s just often not named, pointed out or used as the focus point of the film.

In Spotlight it has its Bad Guys who have clearly done wrong time and again but also it makes clear how the people you thought were Nice Guys were horrible all along. For instance, there is a character who is in the church who is friends with one of the reporters, Michael Keaton’s character, and we watch them do simple things like play golf, attend an event, have a beer and all the while this man knows the=at what his friend is investigating is real, widespread, and he too has been complicit in the cover up. This is another thing that often gets caught up in the myth that systematic abuse is some strange, unique scandal, these men are ordinary men not monsters, they have friends and wives and eat toast and brush their teeth during the times they’re not covering up abuse or committing it. It is important to remember these are ordinary men because it means they can be stopped, they can be caught by the police and brought to justice – but only if the other ordinary people help.

This is where it’s important to note that systematic abuse relies on many things but most importantly it relies on others believing that abuse isn’t really that bad, that the victims brought it upon themselves, and that the problem is someone else’s to deal with. Often when a victim comes forward with an accusation of abuse large amount of the public can be very quick to accuse them of lying, to make them the villain, and to choose to live in a world where women and children are horrible liars rather than a world where a portion of men are horrible abusers. The reality is the second world but it won’t go away if we pretend we live in the first, it’s that simple. People responded to this scandal, as is shown in the film, with shock that all of this happened and that it got covered up time and again but when you see how victims are treated it’s not that shocking; it’s actually pretty standard, even when its children coming forward, and it just helps things like this happen again.

The film is set in 2001 and there have been jokes about it being a historical piece, with technology so out of date and something so established and acknowledged being new and shocking but in terms of how people respond to victims it may as well be set today. As a public, as the institutions of law, and of newspapers many still respond to victims with the automatic response that they are liars, out of money and fame – as though any of these things are what meet victims, instead of hatred, death threats, and ruined lives. We still have so far to go in believing survivors, listening to their stories and trying everything we can to get them help, justice and men being held accountable for their choices and actions. Until we do we are helping nourish a system that can abuse freely and hide it for decades. We need to be more like Spotlight, thinking critically and reaching out with empathy and listening to those who have important stories to tell.

Room: My Strong

Warning: Spoilers (For the film, and the book)

Room is a film based on the book of the same name, both written by Emma Donoghue, and directed by Lenny Abrahamson who was so passionate about directing the film that he wrote a letter to Donoghue herself to ask to make it. The start of the film is an almost perfect adaptation of the book that it was a total joy to watch; to see these things I'd read about come to life, with the perfectly cast Jacob Tremblay playing Jack and Brie Larson playing Ma, or Joy Newsome as we learn in the film. It's brilliantly acted, directed and though I was slightly distracted in the second act by the differences in plot and themes it was still brilliant to watch. So instead of just discussing the film I will talk about the things it missed out too, not as a value judgement of the film – any book adaptation with so much to cover is almost certainly going to lose a large portion of its plot – but as a need to discuss the book and how it relates to feminism.

I would obviously not read this if you haven't watched the film but especially if you want to read the book I'd come back afterwards, and then we can have a lovely little chat about how great it is. I read Room in two days so I could watch the film and it was extremely easy to do that because it reads so well. I admire Donoghue in how she adapted her work to the screen, the second half changes setting dramatically due to the fact that there is a lot of time spent in places, and with a lot of characters, and it simply wouldn't have worked. It changed a lot about the motivations for one of the key things in the film/book – seriously, spoilers: Ma's suicide attempt; for instance in the book it is the TV interview that causes her to question herself to the point of attempting to take her own life, the suggestion that she didn't do what was best for Jack whereas in the film it's a lot of things – from her fighting with her Mum, to a shortened interview, and to problems adjusting to her old life.

However, Room is an utterly brilliant adaptation as it captures the same themes that the book does: from Jack in all his glory, to Ma in all of hers, and to all the complexities of male violence and the damage it causes. I will say now however that my only problem with the film – aside from it removing characters of colour in one area for no apparent reason – is that it ever so slightly tries once to humanise Old Nick; it's only a brief moment, as Jack is pretending to be dead, but he stops in his garden and looks bad, looks sad for Joy and what's she's lost and to me that was unncessary. Film's understandably have a harder job than books do at getting certain themes and emotions across but this is one thing that should never, even slightly be in Room. Old Nick is not a redeemable character, and as much as it's is hard to hear there are men like him in the world who are just not redeemable either.

Old Nick is not based off nothing, he's based off quite a few men in the history of this world who have committed similar atrocities: abducting a woman, or fathering a woman and keeping her locked up in a room for a very, very long time – and often when that woman is in that room raping her repeatedly and, often, impregnating them as is our opening for Room. There are men who day in day out, second to second, happily keep a woman locked up, as though she is literally not human and use her as a plaything. It happens in a world that, yes, is patriachal and it happens because men are told each day, every day since birth that they are entitled to the half of the population that are weaker than them, and who are routinely dehumanised for times such as that. It's not rocket science, it's not complicated, there is no great humanity flaw that causes men to keep commiting violence – it's patriachy.

But what I would rather talk about when it comes to Room though is the brilliant Jack and Ma, those who are hurt the most by male violence but that, as Room shows, can still say fuck you and bloom all the same. Jack is five as we start the film, his fifth birthday even, and whilst he has spent his entire life in Room it is no problem for him; after all how can you miss what you never knew existed? As we see it is actually Jack coming into the world, his mind bursting at trying to understand an entire universe that he never knew was real that is Room's focus. Again, there are sadly humans in this world who have lived lives like Jack, who have been hidden from humanity and have had to learn to adjust – though not all were as lucky to have Ma. In the book Joy was adbucted when she was 19 though in the film, presumably to adjust for Brie Larson, it was when she was 17. Both of which are insanely admirable, as we get a teenager, thrown into an impossible situation and yet when her world is changed again she adapats and survives as women are wont to do. She uses what she learnt in school – bringing Track and Phys Ed into their world – and she teaches it to Jack.

It's this amazing mothering, this strength of mothers to do all they can in their power – no matter their lack of it – to raise their children that is a testemant to women. Ma teaches Jack how to talk, using the TV to help and increase his vocabulary, she teaches him maths, how to write and draw, and even teaches him how to sew and other things. It is this start in life that saves him, that helps him grow into an adorable narrator, if not one that still had the moods and tantrums that all children – and adults – have. As Ma grows up in that room she too learns new skills of survival, such as how to ask Old Nick for things that he will actually bring them, how to eat just enough to stay alive so Jack can eat more, and how to make do and mend in the most extreme of cases – Egg Snake anyone.

In a world where women are routinely and daily killed, abused, degraded, objectified in the most extreme and small sense it is important to recognise the strength that women have simply to survive; their ability to be human, and to keep what makes them human, in the face of male monsters. Women live in a world where acid is thrown on their faces and they still say fuck you you can't stop me. They're incredible, but they also shouldn't have to be as men shouldn't have created this world where they can abuse and get away with it, legally and socially in many senses. However, it's the times that women can't quite handle all of this that other women become so important, that feminism itself becomes a lifeline to help. In the book/film it's Jack that keeps her grounded, that keeps her going and in her darkest hour in the film it's what saves her, he's her strong.

Donoghue also understands the very real, physical and visceral aspect of being a mother, as is shown throughout the book. From the physical toil that her body takes from being abused by Old Nick just so Jack isn't touched, to the malnourishment she suffers to keep Jack as healthy as possible, and in a continuing theme in the book to the breastfeeding she does until not long after they've escaped. It's this last point that is only mentioned a few times in the film: her breastfeeding in Room, her mother being surprised that she still breastfeeds him – with Joy finding it ironic that out of all the things that she finds disturbing about what happened in Room it's that – and when she tells Jack that it's over. In the book Jack refers to it simply as 'some', it's never really mentioned as something that's different, and in fact the moment Jack is told that he can't have any again he simply kisses her breasts and says bye. Her body kept producing milk for years because Jack needed it, because there wasn't enough food for Jack to keep him going, and it's fitting with the rest of the book/film as Ma's literal being is what keeps Jack alive.

In the film rather than the book when they escape Jack and Ma go and live with her mother and her partner Leo; her father is briefly there though he doesn't stay as he selfishly puts his feelings at being weirded out by Jack's existence over being there for his daughter who has returned from, what he thought was, the grave. Whereas in the book Jack and Ma spend a couple of weeks in a rehab clinic – with Noreen and Dr Clay and all the rest- and then after the TV interview – done to get money for Jack's college fund – that causes Ma to attempt suicide Jack goes on his own to stay with Grandma and Leo. This changes the second act of the film dramatically, it causes us to see a different side of all characters; though it does mean Jack finally gets to hang out with a dog, make friends, and see his mother's room – unchanged since she was taken (though in the book it's a fitness suite as Joy's mother assumed she was dead).

In the book I enjoyed their time at the clinic is an as much as it was interesting to see Ma attempt to rediscover the world, who she was and how she fit into it – like when she tries to e-mail her old friends only to realise that they, and technology, moved on without her. But also the little things about what it does to a person to never go outside for the first five years of their life; Jack needs to wear special sunglasses, have vaccines, wear a mask. He suffers a cold for the first time, he is petrified of rain, and the wind freaks him out. It's as Dr Clay says in the book, he's like a baby but one who can add up and articulate his emotions. It's an extremely compelling read and as someone who has a degree in Childhood Studies it really reminds me why I love teaching, the sheer joy children can be and how amazing it is to show a big, often weird and wonderful world to them.

There are also lots of funny little things in the book that happen when Jack leaves Room and one of those is how often he's mistaken for a girl. It's understandable when one of our shortcuts for what sex a stranger is is long hair but it's one that Donoghue understands can be funny and arbitrary – though as I've mentioned sex is important as it is Ma's female sex that brought him into this world and thusly kept him alive. There is a moment in the book when Jack, whilst Ma is recovering away from him, that he goes to the shops with his Uncle Paul, his wife Deanna and their daughter Bronwyn – characters not in the film for time purposes I assume – and it's another moment that made me laugh, if not a little bitterly. Jack has his long hair as per and whilst they're shopping he sees a Dora backpack and it is the most amazing thing he has ever seen, he loves Dora the Explorer; he watched it a lot in Room, he loves that she knows his name, he hates naughty Swiper, and he sees any language that isn't English as being Spanish as a result. So he just has to have it, and there's a moment where Paul doesn't want him to have it because Dora is For Girls, he tries to wave a Spider-man bag at Jack but Jack is having none of it. It was amusing to think that gender is so arbitarily encoded into their adult brains that they thought a kid who'd grown up in one room would care that Dora is For Girls and that spider-man is For Boys. Jack is Jack, a boy because his body says so and that means nothing more than that.

Room is a brilliant film, so touching and entertaining despite it's horrific subject matter. Its a great display of how strong women and children are in the face of male violence, of how precious life can be, and of the bond between mother and child. If you haven't already I seriously suggest you read the book, it's a joy to see the world through Jack's unique eyes and it only betters the already amazing film. It's great to have a real, complicated woman on film – one who struggles, who survives, and who is thoroughly human. We don't get to see women be human on screen as much as we should, instead they're often see as disposable as Old Nick see's women, simply there for sex and not for talking or anything else. I look forward to see more from Larson and Tremblay and I hope that this film helps us get that little bit closer to getting rid of the Old Nick's of this world and creating it that little bit more in Jack's image.

Alternate Valentine's Day Films

Valentine’s Day can be a perfect time to sit and watch romantic films with your boyfriend but for those of us who have been with their other half for a long time, or who just don’t have the stomach for romance films there are still plenty of films to watch. Below is a list of films that have a romantic element but that are a bit different from the likes of Valentine’s Day. There is also a list of romantic films that don’t involve pretending stalking is romantic (or cromantic as the disturbing This Means War calls it) or that don’t romanticise abuse like the awful Fifty Shades of Grey, see here). Either way I hope you enjoy these films as much as I did.

Super Alternate Valentine’s Day Films

1)      SuperBob

SuperBob is a mockumentary style film about a man called Bob who gets hit by a meteor and gets super powers. But unlike Superman Bob is just a very ordinary, awkward man and the film perfectly shows what would actually happen if ordinary people suddenly got powers. It’s painfully funny as we follow Bob’s constant faux pas. It’s a charming film that really explores the power of saying no, finding love that’s been staring you in the face, and I highly recommend it. Plus how often does a film mention House of Leaves!

2)      Night of the Living Deb

This film is a zom-rom-com and it takes places just after a one night stand as a man tries to get rid of Deb on a morning only to find that a zombie apocalypse has happened overnight. It’s a very funny film that really gets how great of a lead it has in Deb, a very awkward and weird woman. It has its problems in certain characters but ultimately it has its humour, its romance and plenty of zombies. Definitely one for those who love their zombie films a bit different like me.

3)      The One I Love

This is a film for those couples who have been together a long time as it follows a couple trying to fix their marriage after one cheated. We see them taking their couples therapist’s advice to go and spend a long weekend in a cabin. I can’t give away much of the plot but let’s just say that it getting put in the supernatural category on Netflix was what finally made me watch it. It’s a surprisingly funny, romantic depending on who you are, and interesting film. Definitely one to watch if you’re tired of couples overcoming every obstacle with a big gesture or an adrenaline fuelled adventure, or a night of murdering if you’re in Purge Anarchy.

4)      Grabbers

Grabbers is an Irish monster film that I watched on Netflix, and I fell in love immediately. It’s so ridiculous, funny, and yes kinda romantic in its own weird way. It follows the locals of a small town after a weird monster emerges from the sea and starts causing havoc… especially if you happen to be drunk. It’s definitely not a film for everyone but I think you should give it a watch to see if you love it like I do. I don’t want to give much away because I can’t do justice to how ridiculous but great this film is. Seriously, go watch it and if you loved it you can just thank me later.

Alternate Romance Films

1)      Romantics Anonymous

Romantic Anonymous is a French film that is on the UK Netflix at the moment and it is about a woman who makes chocolates. She is so nervous and awkward and she falls for a guy who is probably more nervous than she is. It’s very cute, charming, and endearing. It was a huge joy to watch, and I would recommend it to anyone who loves romance and can happily read subtitles.

2)      In Your Eyes

In Your Eyes is another film I found on UK Netflix that I absolutely fell for, it is about a couple, miles apart, who find one day that they can see through each other’s eyes. It’s unique and really understands what it would be like to actually be in the mind of someone else and how that might cause a bond unlike any other. It stars the brilliant Zoe Kazan, who is perfect in The Pretty One, and That Hot Guy From Cloverfield. It’s a great film for romantics but just like The One I Love it’s great for those who want a bit of brain and difference in their films.

3)      Remember Sunday

Remember Sunday stars Zac Levi and Alexis Bledel and is about a woman who falls in love with a man who has amnesia. It’s not the most original concept but it doesn’t feel like you’re watching the same film as others. It handles it with all the emotion you’d expect and it was quite heart breaking as you’d also expect. It looks at what it would be like to try to remember falling in love every day and what the struggle to stay in love can be. It’s not as creepy as 50 First Dates where *spoilers* we’re left with a woman waking up every day to see she’s pregnant with a baby she has no memory of.

4)      Timer

Timer is another film I found on Netflix (so I have a lot of free time on my hands) and another that I found to be unique and weirdly lovely in its own way. It takes place in a world where every person has the option of getting a watch installed on, well in, their wrist that will count down to them meeting their one true love. It asks would this be a good thing or a bad thing, what would it be like dating someone knowing you’re not each other’s true love, and would it actually matter if you felt that you loved them anyway? Or what if you weren’t ready to fall in love again but that your time was up?

An Anti-Valentine Film: The Loved Ones.

This is a horror film for those who are a bit pissed, whether it’s because your boyfriend is being a jerk, because men are just jerks, or you just want to watch a decent horror film. It’s about Lola who wants the best prom that takes place in her own home where the other guests are your Dad and a woman who can’t talk… It’s brutal, unforgiving at times, and while I definitely wouldn’t call it feminist I will say that it shows what happens when an unhinged woman is a bit sick of never getting the man that she wants…

If you can think of anymore films that would fit, or that you love and want me to check out feel free to let me know in the comments or on Twitter @feministfilms.

The Gift: Bygones Are Not Bygones.

The Gift is a horror/thriller film that is written and directed by Joel Edgerton. He also stars in it with odd auburn hair and eyes that in certain lights look almost black. It also stars Jason Bateman as Simon and a great Rebecca Hall as Robyn. It’s about a couple who move into a new house & whilst out buying new furniture they run into a man from Simon’s old high school. His name is Gordo, or as Simon used to call him ‘Weirdo’. The film follows the couple as they have Gordo’s friendship ‘forced’ on them. It was a pretty enjoyable film, for the most part.

The film is more about suspense, the general feeling of unease around Gordo and ultimately about how much of an arsehole Simon is. As his wife tells him, he was a bully when he knew Gordo at school and he still is now. It’s this bullying aspect of his personality that led Gordo to stalk the couple, to force himself into their lives with presents and social awkwardness. This is the part of the review where I spoil the film for you so I can review it so if you haven’t already watched it but were planning to then I’d come back when you’re done. When Simon and Gordo were at school Simon, being the bullying nightmare that he is, decided one day to spread a rumour that Gordo is gay, thus ruining his life.

Seems as them being kids was a few decades ago having a rumour that you’re gay was even worse then than it is now – and it can still be pretty terrible now, which is an understatement. So he was mercilessly bullied and in the end Gordo’s father tried to kill him. Simon really didn’t seem too bothered by this fact, happy to shrug it off as having nothing to do with him. Apparently in his world everyone is responsible for their own actions, apart from him of course. Now all of this is revealed slowly, in a great way and with a stunning performance given from Rebecca Hall. Her character Robyn tries hard to give Gordo the benefit of the doubt, she tries to defend him & really be his friend. This is why the ending is so fucking annoying.

As the film goes on Robyn is pregnant and in the end she gives birth, she had had a pregnancy before but it hadn’t worked out. Sadly she has realised that her husband is a totally nasty piece of work by the time she gives birth so it’s all a bit of a mess. So we’ve spent the film getting to know Robyn as she works from home, we learn that she’s a woman who is caring and smart and oh how the film then decides that she is worth nothing. Less than nothing, she’s now firmly Simon’s Wife and that’s that. You see after Simon has beat the crap out of Gordo & told him to stay out of their lives forever that is when Gordo puts his final plan into place to truly fuck Simon over.

It goes a little something like this: Gordo has been breaking into their home and filming him watching Robyn, earlier in the film we see Robyn struggle with a pill addiction and one day she randomly collapses, nothing really happens and she wakes up a bit confused; but we find out that that’s not at all what happened as actually Gordo drugged her, and while she was knocked out he, whilst wearing a monkey mask – Simon has a phobia of monkeys – films himself touching Robyn and moving her onto a bed, then the recording stops. So Simon, furious and petrified that Gordo has raped his wife, he runs to her to see if she’s okay and tells her all about it and see’s if she’s scarred for life. Oh wait, that’s not at all what happened is it. No because if it was I wouldn’t be writing this.

So after the recording stops Simon, furious, goes to the hospital where his new-born son and wife are and Gordo calls him up after Simon fails to catch him. Gordo explains that this is his revenge against Simon – because this has nothing to do with Robyn. His revenge is Simon not being sure, even if it’s just for a split second before he can look his child in the eyes, or in the time before getting a DNA test but just for a moment of not knowing whether his kid is actually his or whether it’s Gordo’s. So from Edgerton’s point of view that’s just awful for Simon right? It’s kind of implied that in the end, especially in the alternate end, everything’s fine and Gordo got his revenge by making Simon feel just darn awful. But despite showing Robyn as a full human being the whole film through the film doesn’t seem to care much for her at the end. We simply get a relieved looking Simon as Robyn is giving him a withering look.

Let’s just take a quick second to do something that Edgerton apparently didn’t: look at this from her point of view. Should Simon tell her, or should she find the DVD with the footage Gordo filmed this is what she has to experience: the knowledge that she was drugged on purpose, the knowledge that she was touched while she was knocked out, that she may have been raped, that the man who did that to her did it to get back at her husband, that it all had nothing to do with her, that the man who did it was one who she had been nice to the entire time, that she has had a man’s hands on her and she has no recollection of it, that he could have done anything to her when the camera was off and she was unconscious, that she, even for a second, thinks that the child she carried for months doesn’t have the father she thought, that anyone would torture her, even for a second, like this just to get back at her arsehole husband. I would never see rape as a punishment, I’d never see it as a punishment to a woman’s husband, and even if it was raping her for spreading a rumour as a teenager I’d still say you’ve gone way too far.

I have made this point a hundred times before and I’ll say it again: Women are not things, owned by men, that can be used as things to be hurt, killed, or ‘broken’ to upset those men. We’re just not, despite what shitty male writers would like to think. There’s this thing that happens when the majority of films are written by men, directed by men, and about men: they usually have a wife/daughter/mother etc. and they usually get killed. When you don’t have an equal amount of films about women then we don’t really see male husbands etc. getting killed for being husbands, or husbands getting raped for being husbands to a female protagonist and so on. Now I happen to think that watching women get killed, raped, abused and so on for the sins of their male family members over and over and over can fuck a girl, or guy, up. But that’s just me.

P.S.

Here’s an ending that doesn’t do this, that fits with the rest of the film, and doesn’t leave the female viewers with a feeling that they don’t matter, that no matter how human they are at the end of the day they’re still less human than their male partner:

Simon gets home, he opens another gift that has been left for him on his porch. He takes it inside and he opens it, it’s a carrier for his new-born son. As he’s unwrapping it he sees something inside it and he takes out three separate gifts. Each gift has a number on it, from 1 to 3. He opens the first one, in it is a key and he realises that it’s the key to his house. Horrified he opens the next package and it’s a CD, he plays it and he hears a recording of some awful things he said about Gordo when he thought he couldn’t hear. Then he opens the third, and the final, gift and it’s a DVD that has play me written on it. So he puts it in the DVD player and sits terrified and furious as the footage shows someone, Gordo, breaking into his house; he watches as the person filming goes into his whole house, as they sit filming his wife at the window, as they film him when he doesn’t realise it. Then it goes to a shot of his drink from a night when he randomly collapsed, a night he has no recollection of. He looks completely shocked and he recoils from the screen in horror as the camera is turned around to reveal Gordo wearing a monkey mask, it’s like something out of his nightmares.

Then the camera pans down and it shows Simon, totally unconscious and lying on his bedroom floor. Gordo sits on top of Simon and strokes his face, his chest and then his hand moves out of shot and Gordo turns the camera back around to himself and he laughs. Simon, utterly terrified, starts pulling at his clothes, trying to tear his own skin off. Then the TV screen goes to black as the DVD finishes, we see Simon’s terrified face in the reflection. Simon screams and punches the TV, it shatters and falls to the floor. Simon runs to the shower and scrubs and scrubs but nothing works. He gets dressed and gets in the car, he drives to the hospital where his wife is. He’s worried that Gordo will go hurt her next. As he gets there he finds his wife’s room is empty, as he goes to look for her he sees Gordo but can’t quite catch him; he runs out of the hospital where he thinks he went, his hair is still wet and he’s freaking out. It’s clear Simon can’t collect his thoughts and is screaming on the inside. Then his phone rings.

We see Gordo stood inside a hospital corridor, watching Simon stand outside and he smiles. He explains to Simon that he isn’t gay, that the rumour ruined his entire life, that it set in motion events that he could never recover from. That he barely survived his Dad trying to kill him, that there is no coming back from knowing your own father wants you dead, and that he hasn’t been able to trust anyone since. He thought that he could turn his life around when he met Simon again, that if he could befriend him – the man who ruined his life - then he could be liked, hell maybe he could even be loved. It was even better when Robyn was nice to him, that she stood up for him, and then he heard Simon insult him, call him a freak, say he was obsessed with Robyn. Then he knew that there was no coming back, no changing who he was, what he was.

So he decided to get his revenge. The rumour that he was gay had always burned in his brain, even as time had been kinder to gay men it hadn’t mattered – that one story that Simon had refused to take back had been the end for him. So he used it against Simon, now he hadn’t actually done anything – or had he? There was no knowing what Gordo had done to him, what he had or hadn’t touched, and he was never going to tell him. He wanted him to feel as violated, as humiliated as he had done when Simon had abused him, insulted him and tortured him for years. He asks if Simon wants to tear his skin off, that if he wants he could ask his Dad to set him alight because he knows how that can really give you a new body. That he was lucky the flames had spared his face, that Simon’s face, his body is perfect, that he was jealous.

Simon screams at him and has no idea what to say, what to do. He shouts down the phone at Gordo to tell him what he did, that he’ll go to the police. Gordo explains that he will too, he knows Simon, and that if he was a bully once then he’s probably ruined other lives too. That he could have fun finding those people and seeing how they feel about Simon. Gordo tells Simon that he never wants to hear from him again, that he should try to be a better man, a better human being for his son. Simon runs back to his wife, embraces her and apologises, promises he’ll be better and he kisses his son on the forehead. Robyn has a look that shows she’s not quite sure if he can be better, but she hides it from him. Gordo walks down the hospital hallway, throwing away the phone and then the credits roll.