Warning: Spoilers ahead!
Watching Spiderman 3 reveals a part of the Hero’s Journey that is not often seen; the hero’s downfall.
If you’re not familiar with the previous steps of the hero’s journey, download my free Hero’s Journey ebook. If you’re familiar with the 10 steps, you’ll know the Spiderman movies are wonderful metaphors for the hero’s journey (although the Lord of the Rings trilogy kick so much more ass!).
The hero’s downfall can happen anytime after the Supreme Ordeal. After the hero’s faced down his biggest enemies, and possibly Claimed His Treasure, his ego gets inflated. Having had a taste of his own power, he mistakenly begins to think he’s the greatest thing to come along since sliced bread. He becomes an arrogant pain in the ass.
But because he acts on this arrogant power, he triggers an opposing reaction that now comes and smack him back down. What he thought was the Supreme Ordeal now looks like a lazy stroll in the park compared to this monster (a dragon, an angry boss, an overzealous spouse…sliced muffins?). The lesson is clear: despite all your power and achievement, you are not the latest greatest thing on Earth. But you still have a mission to fulfill.
The hero’s old self died a first time when he Crossed the Threshold, and was reborn when he faced down the Supreme Ordeal and survived. Now he dies another time, but it is the death of the small ego, and he is reborn again, humbled but wiser about himself and his place in the world.
Now strengthened and humbled at the same time, he is even better at putting his talents to work, and he finds his place and calling in the world.
May 13th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
So true Alvin.
A nice quote from Robin Sharma “Nothing fails like success.” You are most vulnerable when you are most successful. Feeling that you have succeeded breeds complacency, you stop trying – and this is when you begin to fail.
May 13th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
I watched SpiderMan 3 on the day of it’s screening heh heh ^o^
Ok I know nothing relevant to this post. Just love leaving comments in my favourite blog for my friend haha
May 13th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
That’s okay Kloudiia, I love reading comments left from my friends
May 20th, 2007 at 11:42 am
To liken what you would like us to think as a self help concept applicable in real life to happenings on a movie screen strikes me as well…rather lame, actually.
Aside from the fact that Spiderman 3 was a really bad movie with a couple of inconsistencies, attempting to pass off a movie as a reflection of real life is frankly delusional.
A question, out of curiosity: Is it just me, or is self help/life coaching something of a quick fix of common sense to people’s problems which are often more complex than on the surface? This is not a personal attack. I understand your intentions are probably sincere, but I can’t help but be a tad cynical.
June 6th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Hi.. Spiderman is my favorite movies, since the 1st I’ve heard the words “Greater power comes with greater responsibilities” come from Spiderman’s Uncle. I make it as a theme in my Friendster (friendster.com/rheezq). I really agree with your articles, and keep reading on it
. Oh, mmm… I wanna write a blog like this (in Indonesian) but Im just a beginner in case you could help (dmc2000.blogspot.com). thanks.
Maybe it’s true that applying happenings on movie screen to real life is rather lame, but I consider it as: that the movie tryin to tell a long story (a long journey) into 1-2 hours duration, so it shows only the extreme condition while maintaining a flowing story that is easy to follow ;p
regards,
October 12th, 2007 at 11:56 am
hai spiderman ,iam a big fan of your”s. i have seen all your films and u r superb and really my superhero.
September 26th, 2008 at 7:47 am
What is the cultural origin of the myth of spiderman?