On Christmas Day, Disney released Soul, a Pixar production by the great Peter Docter (Inside Out, Up, Toy Story…). A small gem of cinema that we recommend and where we have found many of the key intuitions that drive MAP's research. We have all seen animated films where the characters...
On Christmas Day, Disney released Soul, a Pixar production by the great Peter Docter (Inside Out, Up, Toy Story…). A small gem of cinema that we recommend and where we have found many of the key intuitions that drive MAP's research.
We have all seen animated films where characters hit and fall over and over again without consequences, at most they get a bump more or less voluminous and a crown of stars that spin around their heads. In Soul, however, falls have consequences; in fact, these are so relevant that they shape the narrative thread. First, at the beginning of the film, there is the fall of Joe, the protagonist, into a sewer that causes him to lose his life and begin the transition to the afterlife. Later, in the dimension of the 'before', we see how the souls that obtain the spark to begin life must throw themselves through a hole and fall to Earth. Joe's return to life with his companion Twenty-Two, whom he mentors, also occurs due to a fall. All falls in Soul have determining consequences; they represent a radical change of state in the character who experiences them. Among all of them, however, the most significant in my opinion is the one that occurs when Twenty-Two, embodied in Joe's body, is sitting on the ground deep in thought and suddenly sees a samara leaf fall from a tree, spinning like a helicopter's rotor. This leaf is actually a seed, destined to become a tree. The relevant fall, however, is not that of the seed, or rather, it is not just that of the seed. At the moment that Twenty-Two sees the seed fall, he also falls, but not physically; he falls into the realization of what is the main teaching of the film.
Realizing something is a fall, a collision with a reality that imposes itself, regarding which there is no discussion or calculation, which is why we say that we fall into realization.
Twenty-Two, a soul that has been searching for the spark to propel him to begin life since the dawn of time, and who despite having received teachings from great masters of humanity like Archimedes, Copernicus, Carl Jung, or Mother Teresa, has not found any reason, no argument that convinces him that life is worth living, but upon seeing the leaf fall, which is a fruit, he grasps it and understands it without words; he says nothing, but it is absolutely clear to the viewer that he has undergone a profound transformation. Twenty-Two wants to live because he has lived, because he has accidentally fallen into life, just as the samara leaf falls to the ground and bears fruit, transforming into a tree. There are no reasons, there are no words that explain life, that motivate living; in fact, we are not asked for permission; we find ourselves thrown into life, as the philosopher Heidegger said. When the two characters return to the dimension of the 'before', Twenty-Two has achieved the spark.
According to biblical tradition, God did everything with His word; He did everything with the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet that form all the words that exist. The 22 is the secret of creation. However, an act of creation is needed, a falling into existence beyond all words.
Just as there is no argument or discourse that justifies life, there is also no objective that gives it meaning. Joe realizes this when, upon fulfilling his dream of playing in Dorothea's band, he feels a great emptiness. Dorothea then tells him the story of the fish that asks another fish where the ocean is, and when he receives the answer that it is already there, the first fish says: “No, this is just water”. Joe realizes that Twenty-Two, while embodied in his body, has lived with a fullness that he had lost and that the spark is not a project, profession, or dream that must be fulfilled, but that the joy of life is found in the infinite richness of the present.
Joe and Twenty-Two finally become mentors to each other. The crucial thing in the relationship between teacher and student is that teaching and learning are bidirectional. Mentors should not dull the fall, but should ensure that it happens. Falling into realization, learning, is a personal experience that cannot be transferred.
Soul is not a film about heaven, nor about the spiritual world. The afterlife remains unknown; it is not crossed by any character; it is a white portal of which we know nothing. Soul is a film about what is closest, so close that we bump into it because it is right in front of us. May we not end up like those deformed and blind characters who wander in the limbo disconnected from life, and if we do, may the ship of the Well-Intentioned capture us and make us fall.