Recently watched The Incredibles again. As I am a trained critic with an English degree (creative writing emphasis), I analyze every movie I see and every book I read using the cutting edge techniques I learned in college in 1989, and I was quite pleased with the insights I gleaned while watching the show again, so much so that I had thought to do a blog post blowing the lid on the whole Incredibles thing, but then I read the Wikipedia on the movie and it appears that many other people have already come up with the Ayn Rand comparison (don't listen to Brad Bird's lies, he's an Objectivist), which is not surprising as there are lots of English majors roaming the country, washing dishes and cleaning houses and teaching high school and analyzing whatever movies they can afford to watch. So I gave up on that post.
But I also came up with my idea for a sequel to the movie which if it was ever made would undoubtedly be far superior to the actual sequel in production.
If I were to do a sequel it would follow Jack jack, who would be in his early twenties and struggling at a small town college. He would be majoring in English of course, and having trouble taking it seriously. His family has been telling him stories of the glory days all his life, about fighting syndrome and other villains on the island, about the giant killer robots and of course about mom and dad's earlier glory days, before his brother and sister were born. It's twenty years after the events of the first movie. His parents are in their late sixties. His dad has health problems; he's too heavy at his age. Violet is married with several children, his brother Dash is a lawyer. He's never actually seen anyone in his family use any super power. And they've told him all about the wild powers he has, but he's slowly realized that he's never been able to do anything like the things in their stories. He used to think he remembered doing those things, but it's dawned on him that he might just be remembering their stories. Strangely, he's talked to family friends who also seem to remember his powers. He thinks he has secret mental problems that cause him trouble, and he's tortured that his family and friends might find out that he's somehow lost his powers and stop treating him as a special person. What's worse, his parents often talk about how important will power and belief are to wielding super powers, and he feels guilt and shame for his failure, that he has some moral failing that prevents him from wielding his super powers.
In the midst of this troubling time, a friend wins airline tickets in a contest, and Jack Jack goes to Hawaii with his friend. While there, he happens upon a tourist brochure describing a small island that looks uncannily like the pictures his father has shown him of Syndrome's island. Jack Jack and his friend take a ferry to the island, and there at the dock, they meet Syndrome, or at least a man who looks just like him, employed as a mechanic by the ferry line. They engage him in conversation, and to Jack Jack's astonishment, he knows the family. He appeared in an episode of their one season TV series, where they played a super hero family. Syndrome, or Buddy as his friends call him, takes them home for dinner, and they meet his wife Mira, who is Mirage, and their kids, a girl and a boy. There appears to be a strange tension between Buddy and Mira at dinner, as they tell Jack Jack about the episode filmed on the island. Mira owns a pub/restaurant which she's filled with memorabilia from the time, with framed screenshots from the show and even props. The episode never aired and the series was canceled, so the mementos in the bar are worthless. It dawns on Jack Jack that his parents might be demented, and that no one in the family ever had super powers. It later comes out, after Mira hysterically intervenes in a short lived romance between Jack Jack and Buddy's daughter, whose name is Janet Jean and goes by "JJ", That Jack Jack's father had an affair with Mira during the filming on the island. After discovering the infidelity, Helen Parr refused to appear in the episode, which was eventually scrapped, resulting in the end of the family's acting career after the cancellation. JJ, Mira says between sobs, is the love child of Bob Parr. Buddy doesn't know. Horrified at dating his sister, Jack Jack leaves the island. The final scenes are a Godfather type fugue, with scenes of Jack Jack returning to his parents house, confronting his father, who nods sadly, and visiting his mother, who sits on the back porch of the house, staring creepily at a metal sculpture in the backyard, a sculpture of the killer robot from the first movie. These scenes alternate with Buddy in his backyard, soldering something with a blowtorch. As Jack Jack greets his mother, we see JJ and her brother at a bedroom window, watching their father. Then Jack Jack telling his mother he's dropping out of school. She nods sadly, and says "never forget you're a special person." These words are spoken off camera, as the scene switches to JJ and her brother looking out the window, perspective changed so that we can't see what they're seeing, only flashes like welding sparks, lighting their faces. After the word "special", a sudden flash of blue white light illuminates them. They don't flinch, they've seen it many times before. Their eyes shine with the light for one creepy moment, then the final credits roll.
Holy cow, I get chills every time I visualize that last scene! I can't believe they're going to make some typical Hollywood crap, when they could be doing this sequel and they'd barely have to pay me anything at all for it (I'm a terrible negotiator. I tend to giggle when I lie).
I might try to do a picture of the last scene, if I can do it justice. But probably not due to the time thing
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