Facing Identity While Going Cyborg
Written by BCB, Edited by Antonia Martinez
*** WARNING *** SPOILERS *** AHEAD ***
Drawn to a mysterious figure at the start of the film Alita: Battle Angel, audiences are introduced to a young woman as the remnants of another. Torn into a half a body and left on a trash heap, one that Dr. Dyson Ido (a cybersurgeon who caters to cyborgs) discovers as being still alive despite other appearances.
Alita is a character that may be down in the dumps, quite literally, but one that holds great potential, nonetheless. As Ido holds a partial body, upper torso, and head, he stares into her face, and the pullback shot the film treats the viewer to, reveals two individuals coming face to face and unveiling the central theme of the story to come.
In his next line, Ido states “what are you dreaming little angel.” Despite her humbling initial entry, Alita is given a new opportunity at a powerful, impactful life. We, the audience, are invited into the classic journey of discovering who we are through the big, bright eyes of an incredible young woman and the oft-dualistic nature of the choices we face: trash/angel, and so much more. Ultimately it is where trial meet failure combines with the interminable spirit that Alita can push herself forward into discovering who she genuinely wants to be.
While the opening act juxtaposes the wonder and awe of discovering the world with the potential harshness is has to offer, Alita is pulled toward a physical strength she has yet to fully discover. The character development found within pushes Alita toward a mechanical ability and increased physical prowess from the outset.
For instance, in a competitive game of pick-up Motorball, a tech-enhanced form of roller derby, Alita is pushed as another competitor plays rough knocking her down. Alita responds quickly with a demonstration of her own enhanced physicality and force.
Not to be outdone, this is character arc is repeated several times. When Alita follows a suspicious Ido, Alita discovers that Ido is a bounty hunter looking to save young women in the harsh streets of Iron City from being killed by roving cyborgs. Quickly the tables are turned on Ido though as he finds himself in trouble from a trio of cyborg villains. A hidden Alita must come to the rescue. As she continues to uncover the knowledge she has regarding martial arts, she repeatedly moves to test her abilities in such capacities. This continues until Alita becomes a bounty hunter.
Entering a bounty hunter bar with a smirk, she seeks to gain allies in her quest against one particular cyborg that has been killing women in the streets; one that nearly had Ido conquered earlier in the story. Alita is quickly rebuked and again turns to force as she quickly disarms and defeats one of the loudest in the bar. She tries again to ask for allies but instead fights the whole bar in a typical action-movie style!
Things are only broken up when Ido appears again and threatens, “no more free repairs” if they don’t stop fighting, Things are shaken up though when Grewishka, the cyborg Alita is seeking allies against, shows up to confront and take Alita as a hostage for an unknown master. A skirmish ensues and for the first time, Alita is shown to be vulnerable in a fight.
Alita is sliced into pieces by the massive mech warrior. A flashback ensues and Alita is forewarned that her true enemy lies beyond this experience. Torn in two again, reflecting the dualistic nature of her character once again and bringing us full circle to the opening scene, Alita’s battle with Grewishka, demonstrates the limits of rage and violence, not to mention lesser tech and her physical prowess at that time. Nearly killed, Alita with one arm tears out Grewishka’s eye and is saved when Hugo, a boy she met in her first explorations into the world, and Ido, come to her aid with another bounty hunter from the bar.
Following this scene, Alita is finally given a body that unites her with her former identity as a specialized warrior. Ido claims to have joined “warrior spirit with warrior body” but reassures Alita that the choices of bad and good are up to her. We are told that Alita has “found” her identity and she now knows who she is, fully armored with nanotechnology. Stronger, faster, and more powerful, she claims that it feels, “more me.”
It is here where we see still more willing to push her world headlong a test of her own character. Instead of pushing the physical, technological side as she had multiple times before, she turns to her human side. This is the first instance where we see a push back against the technological. In a very human moment being with Hugo, they share their first kiss. Only when exposing her apparent vulnerability, that she is not completely human, Hugo tells her that she is the “most human person (he) has ever met” and she is able to push further in understanding that she is the one who will choose who she is going to be; fighting against the dualistic nature of choice in our lives.
Running headlong into another experience, the Alita style, she offers Hugo her heart if it will aid his quest to get to Zalem, a mysterious city in the sky that is all that still stands of a long off war that Alita’s former life had been engaged in. But again Alita, with the help of Hugo, finds that there are alternate ways and many gray areas in life. Instead of pushing her abilities toward violence, or self-sacrifice, yet again, the two decide that they can earn their way to Zalem if Alita becomes a champion in motor-ball and they work together in their dedication to each other.
During the competition, Alita is taken off track, and both Hugo and Alita are confronted by cyborgs. In the ensuing fight, Hugo nearly dies. He can only be saved when Alita removes Hugo’s head with the help of Ido’s ex-wife, and Ido adds a cyborg body.
In racing to a close for the film, Alita confronts Nova’s henchmen in Iron City and destroys them through violence, but in doing so has exposed Hugo. In a call from Ido, she learns that as Hugo has learned that Zalem’s forces are coming for Hugo and in response, he has decided to use his new cyborg body to attempt to make his way into Zalem itself. Racing after him, Alita catches up and in convincing him to return to Iron City, Hugo is knocked off the cables holding the city in place in the air by the city’s defense mechanisms. Alita catches him but is ultimately presented with the most character-defining situation she faces, one where there is no choice. At this moment, she must face the loss of the one she loves in combination with complete powerlessness to be able to stop it. Hugo is killed and Alita is left with no choice but to return to their plan and win their way to Zalem. Alita’s choice is to become the underdog champion of Motorball and continue her journey toward destroying Zalem in honor of her relationship with Hugo.
Throughout the film, Alita continually chose to push against the dualistic nature of her character, which makes her most human. Her new life was continually thrust against the remnant of the old. In each she is given the choice to decide who she is going to be; ultimately it is the cumulative effect of all those choices that leaves her with no choice and all and yet the most character-defining moment in the whole story. Despite great defeat and failure, Alita pushes forward with a relentlessness of spirit that defines her character; it is what she has chosen. Alita, despite the outside world pushing back on who she is to be, chooses to never surrender and become something more than either human or machine.
For those of us always looking to cyberize ourselves and self-determine our worlds, not to mention determine our own identity as well, the portrait of Alita found in Alita: Battle Angel (2019) (#CommissionsEarned) offers a unique opportunity for analysis and self-reflection as we digitize our worlds.
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