How to Make a Good 50-Foot Woman Movie -- ACT II

I don’t understand you sometimes, internet.

Granted, it’s not as if the internet is what I’d call easy to understand.  It’s a repository of all the fragmented groups, ideas, and interests, mashed together into a single quasi-location.  Subcultures bump against each other at random and interact, however briefly -- for good and for ill.  True, it may very well be the ultimate means of communication and expression, but I don’t think I need to explain to anyone reading this that sometimes, things can get weird.

I know, because as the guy behind this blog, I have access to the dashboard.  And I know some of the things that have helped people find this site.  Searches for “anime panties”.  Searches for “last of us porn”.    Searches for “jurassic world indominus rex naked”.  I consider it a point of pride when one of the more recent searches includes “machina rem voltech”, so that I can spread the word on two terrible characters.  But I can also see which posts are top-scorers over any period of time.  And for whatever inexplicable reason, my post on how to make a good version of Attack of the 50-Foot Woman is a top-scorer.  Consistently.  Like, most weeks it just barely misses out on reaching the top five.  And I’m just like, “Why, internet?”

Well, I can kind of guess why.  As part of that post, I mentioned the semi-recent Attack of the 50-Foot Cheerleader -- and since I imagine I’m one of the few people who know it exists, I guess that makes me an “authority” on the subject.  I can’t say I’m happy to have that distinction.  Nearly two decades of advancements in movie-making -- writing, effects, you name it -- made that movie have some of the same problems as its 1990s progenitor (itself a progenitor of the 1950s movie), up to and including some of the same jokes.  Yeah, yeah, budget constraints and B-movie affect, but come on.  There’s so much you could do with the concept, and instead you decide to just make the titular titaness sit around and do nothing?  Why even make the movie if you have neither the money nor the mind for it?

So I wrote up my own treatment for it -- not just because I could (at least conceptually) do better, but because, as I’ve said, it’s my intent to write about my own huge heroine one day.  That’s especially the case, because in my current hypothetical build, she starts the story at the infamous height…but she’s a character that’s hard to nail down.  If I’m going to do her justice, I need to know what I’m doing.  I need practice.

So screw it.  If there’s actually a market out there for it, then let’s do this post all over again.  Also, it’ll give me another chance to force Gary Oldman into the mix.  That’s always a plus.

STEP ONE: Characters

So the last time I did this, I made an observation: in the actual “canon” movies, the woman who would be huge starts off in a bad place.  You’ve got put-upon wallflowers, social outcasts, and/or flat-out nerds; any one of them is starved for respect, and denied of power.  Well, unless you count the supermodel from Attack of the 60-Foot Centerfold who becomes huge after overdosing on a miracle (experimental) beauty drug.  Or, potentially, the titular bride from The 30-Foot Bride of Candy Rock, who goes huge thanks to the magic of radiation and it’s presumably not a means to satirize society and women’s rights in the fifties.  And now that I’ve mentioned that movie in passing, I am now the internet’s foremost expert on it, because search engine optimization reasons.

The point I’m getting at here is that it’s important to know what a character is like before the plot gets in motion.  Why do so many superhero movies start with origin stories (of varying length and quality)?  Because our understanding and appreciation of them is stronger once we know who they were without superpowers.  Really, that concept extends to a lot of fiction; powers, mutations, and strange circumstances gain a stronger foundation once we have characters that are worth following.  The various “X-foot woman” movies all tried to provide that, with varying levels of success (and quality).  I tried to do the same last time, with a character specifically starting in a good place -- a good, relatively average, relatively well-off young lady (ideally played by Emma Stone) who just went through some big changes.

But this time, what if I applied the reverse?  What if the leading lady this time was a bad girl?

Normally I’m the guy who shouts out “HEROES!” and “GOOD GUYS!”  But I’m not opposed to someone who skirts the line, or even veers into villainy.  They just have to have that quintessence -- some element about them that makes them entertaining to follow (charisma being one of them, naturally).  To that end?  Instead of continuing on with the sweetheart waitress Kitty, I’m pulling a 10 Cloverfield Lane and starting all over with a new character: Foxy.

Foxy -- not her real name, thankfully -- is down on her luck, but makes the best of it.  If anything, she revels in it.  She’s a punk-ass thug living in the city’s depths, throwing hands with gang members and stealing from the rich (and the poor, and everyone in between).  She tags whatever she wants with graffiti, trespasses wherever she wants, vandalizes the crap out of places just to pass the time, and commits the most heinous crime of all: jaywalking.  And more often than not, she’ll do it with a smile or a laugh.  Picture Aladdin as an asshole and you’re halfway there.  Or, alternatively, picture Chloe Price from Life is Strange, only…well, no, you don’t really need to do that much.  (Besides ignore her character development, but I’m trying to make a joke here.)

In all fairness, Foxy isn’t a total piece of shit.  Like I said, she makes the best of a bad situation.  Given that the alternative is to lament her life choices until she withers away in a dumpster somewhere, she decides that being a modern-day rogue is the only way to live.  For her, there’s no way out; one stroke of bad luck after another left her without a single family member to her name, along with no money, no escape from the streets, and no hope.  So while she’s all snark and smirks most of the time (and indeed, she’s willing to resort to random acts of kindness), there’s a darker edge to her -- a cynical side that helps ensure her inability to improve her lot in life.

It’s only natural, then, that she regularly butts heads with Commissioner Wolfe.  If she plays the anti-heroine who’s all smiles and pranks (of varying severity), then Wolfe is the no-nonsense, straight-and-narrow agent of justice.  Or, alternatively, he’s the Zenigata to her Lupin; a guy who wants nothing more than to clean up the streets, but gets thwarted at every turn thanks to Foxy’s skills, wits, and speed.  Of course, Wolfe has more to deal with than just one young lady; the city is brimming with punks and criminals, and it’s up to him to at least try to make the world a better place.  Will he succeed?  Given that Foxy still roams free, it’s a safe bet that he’ll just keep messing up.  As one would expect.

There are other characters, of course.  Incidental gang members and street punks abound, and create their own little networks/communities throughout the city.  How and why they ended up in the same bad place as Foxy are stories in themselves, but what’s important is that sometimes our “heroine” meets friends, and sometimes she meets rivals.  To that end, there’s also Spider -- a fast-talking rogue with a big ego and the remarkable ability to be the butt of every joke.  That won’t stop him from being Foxy’s pal some days, an item on others, and a mortal enemy every fourth Thursday. 

In this case, he’s wormed his way into the inner circle of the Tetrads, a notorious crime syndicate throughout the city.  (Well, Spider says he’s in there, but it’s more accurate to say he’s on the fringes of being one of the off-season goons.)  They’re led by the ruthless crime boss, Lynx -- and while she puts on airs of being cool and collected, there’s a reason she’s at the head of an organization unafraid to paint the town red.  In this case?  Her plans this time might do more damage than they’ve ever done before -- and it’s all for the sake of profits.  And/or power.  But they’re semi-interchangeable, when you think about it.

So which one of them would be played by Gary Oldman?  The answer: none of them.  Gary Oldman would play the scientist.

STEP TWO: Plot

It’s just another day for Foxy -- stealing her daily bread, sticking it to the man, outplaying Wolfe and the cops, et cetera.  Routine stuff, for sure; while it’s enough to make sure she sees tomorrow, she knows that it’s not quite sustainable living.  Also, she wouldn’t mind hopping on the fast track to easy street…which is kind of difficult when the most you’ve got to your name is whatever you’re wearing.  But her luck might be about to change, thanks to some hot tips from Spider.  Lynx is out to make a steal from a pharmaceutical mega-corporation; if it goes through, then she can sell its bounty for big money -- and Lynx herself is offering some serious cash for anyone who brings her the goods.

The “goods” in this case are actually a single item: a supposed, completed prototype for a cure-all concoction, able to practically stop death (if the rumors are true).  Foxy decides to stage a theft single-handedly, albeit with other Tetrads running interference -- to her detriment, inevitably, when they (rightfully) assume our hero’s going to double-cross Lynx and try to wrest money from potential buyers.  The end result?  Despite a daring theft and escape to a hidden safe haven, Foxy ends up taking some grievous damage.  The plus side is that she makes off with the prototype, and holds all the bargaining chips.  The minus side is that she’s about to die.

If only there was some way to instantly reverse damage that would otherwise put a person in irreversible mortal peril.  Oh, wait.  There is.  And I’m sure it has absolutely no side effects whatsoever, and is in no way comparable to an ancient evil artifact that no one should ever touch.

You can pretty much guess what comes next.  Foxy uses the prototype out of desperation, and is practically unconscious when she downs the stuff.  When she comes to, she’s 100% healed, and thinks she’s going to get off scot-free.  That thought doesn’t last long.  Setting aside the fact that she’s incurred Lynx’s wrath -- and by extension has Tetrads as well as policemen trying to sniff her out -- her body starts to change.  She’s getting heavier.  Her mobility’s wonky.  She keeps breaking stuff.  She’s constantly hungry.  And more pressingly?  Every so often, she sees her body swell up; whether it’s a wrist that snaps a bracelet, or feet that tear through her shoes, she learns firsthand that she’s getting bigger.  And there’s no telling when it’ll stop.

Compounding all of this is Scientist Gary Oldman (his friends call him Dr. Crane).  Lynx catches wind of what’s happening to Foxy, since it’s kind of hard to miss someone who stands taller than a giraffe in a few days’ time.  And though she’s eager to off the lady thief, she wants a piece of that sweet, sweet gigantism for herself -- ergo, she wants to find Dr. Crane so he can produce another serum and do the same thing to her.  The good doctor is in hiding, naturally, and would prefer to ride out the storm than help anybody.  So it’s a game of cat and mouse that’s almost complex enough to need its own diagram.

Can Foxy find the doctor and a cure before she turns into a living natural disaster?  Or is her journey setting her up for one big fall?  Find out on the next exciting episode of…nothing.  Because it’s not a TV show.  That’d be silly.

  

STEP THREE: Setting

We could just say “New York” or “Los Angeles” and be done with it, couldn’t we?  Arguably.

I’ve been using “city” a lot to describe the setting, and that really is the best sort of place to stage this treatment.  Thinking back, the failings of the other X-Foot Woman movies was that they tended to take place in areas that couldn’t capitalize on the heroine’s monstrous size.  Granted part of that had to do with the fact that they tended to sit her around and have her do nothing (save for a token “rampage” that could’ve doubled as a Sunday stroll), but I think the point still stands. 

I mean, look at King Kong; he’s long since gone down in cinematic history for his scaling of the Empire State Building, and that was done with effects that could probably be reproduced today in someone’s garage.  Imagine what we could do nowadays with modern technology, a sufficient budget, and people who actually gave a shit.

It’s true that surrounding Foxy with skyscrapers could potentially diminish her impact as a towering she-beast.  (To be fair, that would depend on her sticking strictly to a maximum of 50 feet -- and since I suspect the other movies cheated, I see no reason why she couldn’t reach kaiju sizes or beyond.)  Still, it’s hard to ignore the possibilities.  Sure, cities are known for some pretty tall buildings, but almost by default they’ve got all sorts of unique designs and offerings.  You could have the pristine, glimmering neighborhoods that wouldn’t be out of place in Mirror’s Edge -- and then on the opposite end of the spectrum, you could have the crime-riddled alleys tucked away in the darkest corners of town.  Couple that with the urban sprawl, the major landmarks, and especially the city denizens, and you get plenty of tools in the box.  Just like real life.

It’d be all too easy to highlight the disparity between classes -- between thugs like Foxy and Spider, who scrape up whatever they can from the doldrums; between the workhorses like Wolfe and Crane, professionals with families and duties to keep in mind; between kingpins like Lynx, who actively makes the world a worse place from the comfort of a penthouse suite.  Benevolence and cruelty alike could coexist in the same space, and as such create a dynamic, unpredictable environment. 

Also, cities are pretty nice to look at, so there’s that.  I mean, a nice forest or beach is cool and all, but there’s no beating a steel-framed skyline.

STEP FOUR: Music

So the last time I did a movie treatment, I went for something more focused on drama -- probing the consequences of being a big woman just trying to survive.  Well, I say “drama”, but it’s not as if things would’ve been super-heavy or super-serious the whole time.  More like that “dramedy” thing.  I could see it having a lean toward comedic bits and heartwarming moments; part of that came from the proposed soundtrack, full of acoustics, indie music, and something not unlike Portal’s “Still Alive”.  It was fine for that theoretical movie, sure -- but in hindsight, that came off as pretty twee.  This new version needs something with a harder edge.

As such?  I propose the inclusion of the funkiest of fresh beats.

A soundtrack that’s predominantly hip-hop just might create the atmosphere needed.  Granted it wouldn’t mean that lyrics would be blasting from the first minute on; I could see some instrumental tracks playing in the background.  And indeed, depending on the circumstances the song(s) could be lighter than air, or heavy enough to drag a person’s soul into the earth’s mantle.  Or maybe they could just be sick as all hell.  Again, it’s all depending on the scene.  But it’s hard to divorce hip-hop from the specter of crime and violence; given that, doesn’t it seem fitting to have a song like this when three-fifths of the cast is entrenched in lawlessness?

So that means people would be serenaded by all sorts of street soldiers -- Doujah Raze, Tre-Dot, Public Enemy, Busta Rhymes, Joe Budden, and more.  And to what end?  A stylish soundtrack that adds all sorts of color and flourishes to the movie.  Whether it’s a fast-paced track, a pounding string of beats and lyrics, or something more mellow and melancholy, there’s enough within the genre to fit any given moment.

And it’d all be a reflection of the tools -- of the city, but Foxy at large.  In what capacity?  Well, it’d kind of suck if she was just a one-note rogue, wouldn’t it?  We’ve got enough of those out there, I think.  So maybe she could offer something a little bit different.  Something good, hopefully.  And there’s no better way to do that than to work her character -- her struggle, irrespective of her little growth spurt -- into the story.  So let’s move on to the real meat and potatoes.  And milkshake.

STEP FIVE: Tone and Depth

Here’s the question that needs to be answered: is Foxy a good person, or just another hoodlum?

On the surface, she’s not what anyone would call the traditional hero.  She’s a cocky, sardonic rule-breaker who serves herself, and only extends a helping hand if the person in trouble is within arm’s reach.  She thinks of the police as a pain in the ass, but willingly antagonizes them (Wolfe in particular) whenever she gets the chance.  She’s pragmatic, she’s selfish, and she only thinks ahead when it means lining her pockets with cash.  But maybe her biggest flaw is that she’s caught in a negative spiral of her own creation.  Maybe she doesn’t have to live a life of crime on the streets, but does so because she thinks there’s no way out.  Granted “the way out” isn’t exactly easy, but it’s something.  And the question is whether or not she’s willing to try -- or if she ever tried.

And to that end, the core element of the movie is choice.

Foxy acts like she’s at peace with her scumbag life, but there’s no guarantee she wants nothing but the life of a scumbag until the end of days.  But she consciously makes choices that cement her lifestyle, and to the outsider looking in?  You could argue pretty successfully that they’re the wrong ones.  She chooses to be a criminal.  She chooses to get involved with a deadly syndicate.  She chooses to try and play the biggest threat in the city.  And it all catches up to her once she gets wrecked.  She should’ve died right then and there, but didn’t.  That doesn’t mean she doesn’t have to face the consequences, though.

Foxy progressively turns into a giant, with everything that that implies -- chief among them, the fact that she won’t be able to hide forever.  What should she do then?  Well, she’s got plenty of avenues to explore.  Granted putting on a few extra tons means that she loses a good chunk of the agility and speed she’s honed from years of life on the streets, but the tradeoff is that potentially, she can use her newfound power -- strength, defense, and one hell of a long stride -- for the benefit of her fellow men.  That’s what Kitty tried to do in the last treatment, and so by that logic she can redeem herself through --

Nah, just kidding.  Foxy decides to use her size to troll and bully people whenever she gets the chance.

She’s got a crime syndicate after her, so she’s at least justified in going on the attack.  And it’s pretty hard for police officers to give chase when she smashes their cars like aluminum cans.  So yeah, it’s not as if anybody can accuse Foxy of being passive or reactionary; she’s got a new tool in her belt, and she’ll make damn sure that it gets used.  With that in mind, it’s a given that the consequences are higher than ever before.  One misstep could lead to someone innocent getting hurt -- or just saddle her with deaths and destruction she wasn’t ready to take into account.  And by “could” I mean “it does”.

Every choice Foxy makes is her own.  But her problem -- if not her fatal flaw -- is that she’s unwilling to accept the weight of her choices.  It’s as if she ignored the “with great power” speech from so much Spider-Man media, or somehow didn’t get the memo about Uncle Ben.  But even pre-growth, she doesn’t put much stock into personal responsibility.  She plays the victim because, in all fairness, she has legitimate reasons to resent her lot in life.  The problem is that she does nothing to make said lot any better, even with the power thrust into her lap.  She only makes the lives of others worse.  She only makes one bad choice after another -- and once again, they catch up to her.  Only a container of ooze might not be enough to reverse the damage she does.  It certainly won't create a batch of reptilian warriors.

Of course, Foxy isn’t the only one making choices.  Spider may be a stooge who gets slapped around at leisure, but he’s still someone who has to decide where his loyalties lie -- even if either option could lead to his murder.  Wolfe, admittedly, doesn’t get to deviate from the straight and narrow, but that doesn’t make him less complex.  In the face of opposition and a world that’s long since lost its purity, he chooses to press on and preserve the law -- and in critical moments, has to choose how he’s going to uphold the law.  That is to say, there would be moments where he’d have to decide if the end justifies the means.

Dr. Crane chose early on to use his skills for the betterment of mankind -- and seeing what sort of people want to abuse his kindness, irrespective of turning Foxy into a colossus, has left him shaken.  So he has to choose whether to stay in hiding (or better yet, run away) to keep his genius untapped, or to step into the light and fix the problems he’s only tangentially responsible for.  So yeah, he’s a good guy, but Lynx isn’t quite so altruistic.  Like I said, she wants what Foxy’s got -- and as such, chooses to forgo everything she’s got, her humanity first and foremost, for a chance to rule the city with an iron fist.  As villains would.

In theory, this movie could potentially have a dark tone (or if not that, then undertones), but I don’t see it as a priority or a requirement.  It’s all for the sake of providing answers to the scenarios presented -- or by extension, providing answers to the question “What would happen if there was a fifty-foot woman?”  Less than half of the cast would qualify as Good Samaritans -- and even Wolfe can be stunningly cold -- but they still have their charms, I think.  Their natures and interactions would inform the movie, as well as the choices made.

Foxy and Wolfe are basically enemies, but at the outset it has the feel of a friendly rivalry.  Once Foxy starts to grow, however, the dynamics shift; suddenly she has a chance to crush the opposition, so it’s a question of whether or not she’s willing to take it -- and if she’s willing to have that blood on her hands.  She also has to think about her relationship (such as it is) with Spider, and he has to do the same; are either of them willing to take the plunge for the other, or should they stay set in their self-serving ways?  And of course, there’s still the connection to Lynx.  What happens when the balance of power swings so fast it’ll make your neck snap?  I’d say that’s something worth finding out.   

STEP SIX: The Fights

How does the saying go?  The essence of drama is conflict, or something like it.  So I guess in order to create TRUE ART, the only option is to take that saying as literally as possible.

To be fair, it’s not as if Foxy is the sort to have some knock-down, drag-out brawls (at her original size, at least).  As a thieving street thug, she’s more about using speed, agility, and evasion to outpace the cops -- so while she does a little fighting, the majority of her spectacle would come from her showing off her athleticism.  Parkour, freeclimbing, and the like are all present and accounted for.  And while she loses some of that mobility once she goes gigantic, the experience she’s gained doesn’t go away.

Small or large, Foxy’s no stranger to hot pursuit.  But while she can count on escapes and hideouts at normal size, things get a little more complicated once she’s huge.  Police cruisers, gunmen, helicopters, and even tanks all chase after her throughout the movie, forcing responses of fight, flight, or a mix of the two.  So on one hand, she could sprint through the streets to escape incoming cops, leaving crater-sized potholes with each step; at one point during a chase, she could opt to gain altitude, and as such scamper up a skyscraper under construction -- only to learn firsthand just how much weight she’s gained, and send the whole thing tumbling down.

You’d think that Foxy would be unbeatable on account of having legs like sequoias, but remember: there’s only one of her, and what she suspects are an infinite number of enemies out to get her.  So when it’s time to get aggressive, she can put on a show.  She could rush down tanks and snatch them up, either ripping them apart or punting them like soccer balls.  Or, alternatively, she could scamper up buildings and launch herself through the air -- all for the chance to tug attack choppers out of the sky.  Or she could make like the Hulk and go for a booming thunderclap.  Or, beyond that, she could form barricades by uprooting the streets and turning them into makeshift fences.  Or maybe she could rip out a crane and swing it like a baseball bat.  Sky’s the limit.

Given that this is kind of starting to sound like a Marvel movie, it seems fitting to mention that it arguably follows through on one if the MCU’s biggest vices: the hero fights a bigger, meaner, version of himself.  Or herself, in this case; Lynx gets her hands on more of the prototype, downs a bigger dosage of it, and manages to overshadow Foxy in a fraction of the time.  It’s not long before the big boss becomes…well, the big boss and starts leveling the city as she sees fit, so Foxy has to step in and resolve the situation.  Though of course, she can’t rely 100% on brute force.  Luckily, she doesn’t have to -- and so the big climax would have our heroine using her skills, wits, and mobility in one stunning display of spectacle.  And property damage, presumably.  But hey, big fight.

   

STEP SEVEN: The Actual Movie Stuff

Well, Gary Oldman would have the starring role as Dr. Crane.  That’s really all you need to know.

Okay, just kidding (mostly).  I imagine that Chloe Grace Moretz would be a strong fit as Foxy; as Kick-Ass’ Hit Girl and Carrie’s…uh, Carrie…she’s got experience playing ladies with an edge.

As much as I’d love to typecast Gary Oldman in a commissioner role, I see no reason why Idris Elba couldn’t do the role justice.  All he’d have to do is be Stacker Pentecoast again, and boom.  Instant success.

I recently learned that Nicholas Hoult played zombie-boy R in Warm Bodies -- and while I imagine him as a young Hank McCoy/Beast first, it’s not hard to see him acting as a doofus who acts (or tries to act) like a Total Cool Guy™.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand as a villain, we need someone with class and authority.  We need a woman’s woman, who can crush souls with merely a glance.

…But I’m not good enough with actors and actresses to know one by heart, so let’s go with Guardians of the Galaxy starlet Zoe Saldana and leave it at that for now.

I suppose the question that remains is “who would direct the movie”?  Well, that overlooks things like writers, producers, composers, cinematographers, prop masters, and more, but if I absolutely had to name a director?  In all honesty, I’m at a loss.  If anyone has suggestions, then I’ll accept them wholesale.  Otherwise, let’s just go with Joss Whedon as a stand-in (because of course I would).  I think at this stage, the guy’s proven that he’s got a handle on snarky characters and cool leading ladies.

In terms of visual style?  The important thing is showing off the disparity between lifestyles, as well as the destruction wrought by Foxy’s mere presence.  If the movie was filmed in real locations -- and by extension wasn’t just done in full 3D animation -- then I’d imagine that smart use of props and film locations could accomplish the former.  Maybe a bit of computer/filter work could alter colors here and there, but nothing too major. 

As for the latter?  Well, like a lot of modern movies, I suspect that this is where the CG would really come into play.  It’s not like wrecking cities on a whim is appreciated by the average city-dweller, so consider it a necessary evil.  Then again, given that “practical effects” were a major selling point for The Force Awakens, I’m sure a savvy crew could find a workaround.    Maybe they could build models and have Moretz smash them up?  It could work, maybe.  On that note, I suppose calling in James Cameron to direct wouldn’t hurt; he worked some movie magic on Titanic, so he could probably do it again with the proper resources.  Or if he needed a break from…whatever he’s working on now.

Also, last time I talked about how emphasizing bigness -- via the “impact factor” -- was a must.  That hasn’t stopped being true, so I’ll just say “watch videos of Pacific Rim” and be on my merry way.

STEP EIGHT: Franchise Baiting

So the question at hand is this: is it possible for Foxy to get a cure and return to normal size?  My gut instinct is “no”, since my understanding of human anatomy is that the body only shrinks for senior citizens whose bones are degrading -- and even then, it’s only by a few inches.  Since this is basically a sci-fi story, the rules aren’t in full force.  So let’s say that at the end, there’s a way to stunt Foxy’s growth, but no way to reverse it.  Not yet, anyway.

That leaves Foxy at massive size, Lynx defeated (and dead, because her heart couldn’t keep pace with her growth -- and she sank to the bottom of the ocean or something), and millions in property damage.  There’s a lot to answer for, both on a societal level and a personal level -- because not every member of the main cast will make it to the end credits.  What will our leading lady choose to do, having been through so much, and having learned firsthand about the weight of consequences and choice?

That’s a good question.  And there are a lot of roads for her to go down.

She could stay in the city and redeem herself.  She could refuse to forgive herself, and choose to live in isolation.  She could bail out, and run without end to the next place she could call home.  She could reap what she wants at leisure, given that very few things in the world could stop her.  Or she could become an even bigger threat than Lynx would ever be, ensuring the birth of a dark new era.

There are lots of possibilities.  And if you ask me, that’s what it’s all about.  Foxy makes choices throughout the movie (some bad, some good), and it ends with her needing to make choices about what to do next.  By extension, that feeds into her facing the ramifications of her choices -- whether she’s willing to see them through to the end, or change course because things get a little rough.  In other words?  There’s foundation for a sequel, and dozens of ways to go from there.

Hell, I think I’ve proven with this post that there are lots of possibilities.  I already got in deep with this movie before, and now I’m doing it again with the same general concept alongside an entirely different spin.  So it’s not as if the concept is a creative dead end.  Far from it.  You just need to have the will to explore.  To create.  To make something that’ll put smiles on the faces of would-be fans.

So there you go, Hollywood. I’m more than willing to work with Mr. Oldman.  Alternatively, I’ve got a script for Too Many Gary Oldmans 2: No Country for Gary Oldmans ready to go.  Call me up anytime.