Auron1Roxas2:
Clearly you didn't understand this scene at all and didn't even bother to pay attention. Here let me sum it up for you: Oh the complaints this scene gets! Drives me nuts. Hold on, this may be very long. Apologies in advance.
I love this scene. It is beautiful, well acted and heartbreaking. I hate that people miss the point of this scene. It seems like they watched a scene where a silly old man tried to save a dog and got killed while his super-powered son, who could have saved him, stood by and did nothing.
But that’s not what happened. Again, it’s all in the subtleties. When Jonathan steps out of the car and realizes everyone is in serious danger, he starts sending everyone for cover. He is very aware of Clark’s ability and need to save people. He knows darn well what his son will do if this is not played out just right. Clark will throw caution to the winds if someone is in danger of dying. It is his pattern, it’s who he is. So what does he do? He immediately tells Clark to get his mother to the underpass. He knows that entrusting Martha to Clark will keep him busy and out of the action. Because Clark would never risk his mother’s life. He helps the mother get her child out of the car because a) that’s what you do when you are a decent caring person and b) if he doesn’t do it, Clark will. As he heads to the underpass with the little girl and her mother, they are the last people still near the cars and away from the overpass. He must have felt that it worked perfectly. No one is in danger, they wait out the tornado with the shelter of the underpass, Clark’s safety is secure. This is what breaks my heart. Jonathan did everything right.
Until it all goes wrong. The dog is still in the car. Clark is heading out to get him, knowing he’s the one who could get hurt the least. Well, physically anyway. But Jonathan knows this could easily blow Clark’s cover if things go badly. His entire future is at stake. Being a father he is not willing to risk it. So what does he do? Again, he puts Clark in charge of another person, this time the little girl, knowing that Clark would never endanger her. To him, it is worth the risk of going into danger to keep his son out of the spotlight. Listen to his “No! No.” as he hands the child to Clark. This storm is a serious danger to Clark’s secret, not his body. Jonathan is desperate to keep his son safe. As any good father would do, he protected his son. He deliberately ran into danger to keep his son safe.
We all know what happens next. The part that gets me most is when Clark realizes there is no way his injured father will make it to the underpass before the tornado strikes. He sizes up the distance, and he looks behind him at the people. He’s fully aware of how many potential witnesses there are. But true to his pattern, when someone is going to die (especially his father) he is willing to risk it. He takes one step forward.
And here is where my hearts snaps in two. Jonathan knows his son inside and out. He knows exactly what he is thinking and what he has decided to do. So he holds up his hand to tell him no. It is worth it to him to give up his life to keep his son safe. Cue the tears.
But here is where many critics start to holler about the futility of the action and how stupid Jonathan was to sacrifice himself, and how stupid Clark was to let him. But was his sacrifice truly worth it? What did he gain? The answer is….time.
If you do the math based on the year Jonathan died on the tombstone, the fact that Clark was 33 at the time of the action, and the year the movie came out, Clark’s age at the time of the tornado was 17. That’s still pretty young, and legally considered a minor. The fear of the Kents and the reason they kept Clark’s abilities secret was because of what could happen if the truth came out. And yet, several times Jonathan himself told Clark that one day he would have to reveal himself to the world. “What is happening to you, one day you will see it as a blessing and when that day comes, you are going to have to decide whether to stand proud in front of the world….or not.” In the same conversation he told Clark that he had to believe Clark was sent here for a reason and Clark owed it to himself to find out why.
He told Clark he needed to decide what kind of man he wanted to be because that man, good or bad, one day would change the world. Martha corroborated this at the end of the film when she told Clark that his father always knew he was meant for greater things, and when the time came, his shoulders would carry the weight. Even Clark said he let his father die because Jonathan was convinced he had to wait. It was never Jonathan’s plan to hide Clark his entire life. But timing was essential. Too young, he may not be able to handle the pressures that would come with such a burden. Underage, he could easily be snatched up by the government and hidden away for testing, experimenting, exploitation, to be turned into a Winter Soldier version of secret government agent (doesn’t that make you shudder)! The Kents don’t have a legal leg to stand on when they claim the alien baby they found in a field is their son, it would be easy for the government to take him away and start applying pressure on such a young person to do what they deem right.
So what exactly did Jonathan’s sacrifice buy his son? It bought hm time. 16 years to grow and mature. 16 years to search far and wide for answers to who, where, and why. (You didn’t think he took all those far away jobs just for laying low purposes did you? He was searching.) 16 years and enough time to have better control of his powers, make contact with Jor-El and have a much better idea of what he should and can do for and in the world. 16 years to become the man who at the end of the film can declare that he is here to help, but insist that it has to be on his own terms with firmness and intractable determination. What did Jonathan provide his son? His entire future. Time to be the man he needed to be before he could truly show himself to the world. How can any father’s sacrifice be worthless when it provides all that? Jonathan made the right call. I admire that man. And I admire his son for understanding what he was trying to do, and making the most of the opportunity it granted him. Even if it hurt.
On a final note, I think it needs to be said that when Jonathan said “maybe” to his son after he saved the bus, he was saying that sometimes the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. He said “maybe” because he himself was uncomfortable with the idea of sacrificing a bus load of children to keep his son’s secret. He’s not even sure what should have been done in the case of the bus, but he does know the fear he feels at the possibility his son will be exposed. And he knows that this time is very wrong to expose him. Several years later, it is still the wrong time. And Jonathan, while not completely on board to sacrifice children for his son, is totally fine with sacrificing himself.
He said there was more at stake than just his or Martha’s lives, and the lives of the people around them. He knows the benefit Clark can be for the entire world if this is handled right. But the timing is everything. So he sure put his money where his mouth was when he said maybe. He knew his life meant much less than what could be done in the future. What better father for a superhero, than one who understands self-sacrifice for the good of others, and stays true to his words?
That's just distasteful. You do realize you're referring to Guardians of the Galaxy, a unknown team of outer space talking racoons and tree humanoids and not Iron Man 4, right?
