John Scalzi - Who's Your Daddy? Rating SciFi's Movie Fathers
Father's Day is this Sunday, which made me curious -- as I so often am when a deadline is approaching -- as to how dads are portrayed in science fiction. Are they good? Bad? Misunderstood? Let's find out with this sampling of future dad-dom.
Darth Vader (Star Wars) -- Father to Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia
He's pretty much the stereotypical bad dad, isn't he? Aside from skipping out on his kids' youth, he tortures his daughter in Star Wars, chops off the hand of his son in The Empire Strikes Back, and chooses work over family for a disturbingly long time in Return of the Jedi. Before you say it, I don't buy the argument that he didn't know he was a dad. Vader knew Luke was his son before he lopped off the kid's mitt. And call me crazy, but the time to stop your boss from trying to murder your only son with electric bolts is before he starts, not several minutes in when your kid is smoking like a grill full of baby back ribs. It's nice Luke forgives him and all, but Luke always was a bit of a sap.
Dad Score: F
Dr. Eldon Tyrell (Blade Runner) -- Adoptive father to Roy Batty, Pris, entire Replicant race
On one hand, he genetically engineered his children to be smart, strong and capable, which is a plus. On the other hand, he also engineered them to have four-year lifespans, which seems kind of mean. And more than mean, it seems like some sort of reverse-Oedipal thing. Really, there's a whole set of therapy sessions there. Also, the scene where Tyrell tries to convince Batty that it's OK he's got the lifespan of a chipmunk because at least he got to see the universe? Full of parental condescension, which almost justifies Batty driving his thumbs into dad's brain via the eyeballs. Almost.
Dad Score: D
Kyle Reese (The Terminator) -- Father to John Connor
I suppose you could knock him for not being around as John Connor grows up, but being killed defending the future mother of your child from an unstoppable killing machine cleverly disguised as an Austrian bodybuilder is an awfully good excuse. If anyone here is acting questionably, it's the son: Connor sends Reese back in time ostensibly to protect Sarah Connor, but in fact to impregnate her so Connor can be born -- and he knows that Reese isn't going to survive the trip, not that he tells Reese any of that. If I were Reese, I'd kind of want to know these details. So great dad, but the kid's got serious issues.
Dad Score: B+
Duke Leto Atreides (Dune) -- Father to Paul Atreides
Well, he's a busy man -- hey, he rules an entire planet -- so he doesn't spend a huge amount of time with his son. But he makes sure the boy is tutored by all the right people, so at least he's supportive in a distant and preoccupied way. You could easily argue that taking over Arrakis -- which everyone knew meant walking into a Harkonnen trap -- was bad parenting since someone tried to assassinate Paul the first day, and then during the coup they planned to slit the kid's throat. These are clear indications the planet is not a suitable environment. But then, being on Arrakis does allow Paul to become emperor of the whole damn universe, which wouldn't have happened had Duke Leto stayed on Caladan. So in the end he positions his kid to do well. And isn't that what dads are supposed to do?
Dad Score: B
Mr. Incredible (The Incredibles) -- Father to Violet, Dash and Jack Jack
A fine example of how a dad can become a better dad. When the movie starts, Mr. Incredible is loving but clearly inattentive to his family because of his own self-esteem issues -- it's not easy working as a claims adjuster when you used to fight crime. Later, however, he learns that his own self-centeredness has caused him to neglect his loving family. He's able to resolve his own problems and become a better dad -- though it helps that they've all become superheroes again, fighting bad guys in snazzy matching uniforms and such. It still counts as family time, and tallys towards Mr. Incredible's dad karma.
Dad Score: A
Any other scifi dads you care to score? Share in the comments. And be sure to check out the movie dads tournament (Vader is in the running!), as well as the fatherly advice movie quotes quiz going on here at AMCtv.com.
Winner of the Hugo Award and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, John Scalzi is the author of The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies and the novels Old Man's War and Zoe's Tale. He's also Creative Consultant for the upcoming Stargate: Universe television series. His column appears every Thursday.
Lazarus Long (Time Enough for Love) Fathered a lot of children and gave them good libertarian values. he would of got an A+ if not for his time traveling shenanigans so i would give him a C.
The emphasis here is on science fiction film dads, slimpickings.
Oh you missed Gendo Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Engineers the deaths of 3 billion people, stuffs his wife's soul into a giant war machine, abandons his son for 10 years then when the poor sod is 14 calls him back to pilot said war machine (and almost gets him killed a few times), systematically mentally tortures his kid until he has a nervous breakdown and then uses him to kill the other half of the human race.
But wait, there is more. Creates a clone of his dead wife and raises the clone as a daughter. Except sends the first clone (when she is five) out to get killed while tormenting someone into suicide, the 2nd clone is raised as a nihilist with no sense of self or free will, and the third clone (he goes through them) is used as the other component in the destruction of humanity.
He has to give Vader a run for his money in the You Fail Parenthood Forever stakes
Frankenstein, Victor: Made you up with leftovers, then . . . made you a "sister/wife" in some weird Arkansas-Austrian Tradition . . . lets just say no one was happy with this setup . . .
CrypticMirror:
Re: "missing" folks: It's an 800-word article; naturally I'll be leaving people out. Which is why I'm encouraging people to bring up other examples in the comments.
What about Kirk and his son, David. It was briefly hinted that he knew he had a son, but was clearly out of the picture on his quest to boldly go where no one has gone before. He does seem to care for him, and is willing to let the Klingon empire burn for their killing his son.
James T. Kirk probably gets a D. Yes, he told Carol Marcus "I did what you asked. I stayed away."
Hey, maybe I've seen one too many eps of Steve Wilkos (or is one too many?), but if I were dad, I'd fight like hell to see my son. Instead, Kirk traipses off about the galaxy bagging alien babes in tin-foil bikinis. Only when confronted by an angry Khan, who wants to kill Kirk and steal all his rich Corinthian leather, does Kirk man up and become a father.
Only to listen to his die at the hands of Klingons.
"Klingon son! You killed my bast- No, wait!"
Jor-El: On the one hand, sends his only begotten son alone out into the cold, dark depths of space with nothing but a red-blue diaper and some psychedelic glowing crystals for company. On the other hand, saved his son from certain, catclysmic doom as the home planet was blown to radioactive simithereens.
Plus, son gets to go to a planet where its weak gravitation and mutative yellow sun allow him to grow up into a god amongst the puny mortals living there. Makes up for having to live with foster parents in the corn belt, and having to listen to real dad only posthumously on the cosmic radio.
Verdict: A
Hmmm...surprising how few fathers I can think of in SF off-hand. Lots of father-figures. Lots of MIA dads. And a fair amount of mothers (typically either martyred out early or hive-queens, though). Not so many actually flesh and blood fathers...
How about George McFly in Back to the Future? C- for being an ineffective, weak father, but upon retaking the class (and my liberal grade forgiveness policies) he managds to pull out an A+ as an involved, dynamic (even SF-writing!) dad by the end.
Does Peter Parker's Uncle Ben count as a father? We all know biology does not make you a dad. Uncle Ben, caring, loving, bestows the best advice of any super human. Great Power...Great Resposibility...has to die before Peter gets it..but sticks with him for life.
Judging by what earns a dad a D or an F I guess the lowest I can go with Gabriel Tam (father of Simon and River Tam, and I'm as surprised as you are that that's his name but Wikipedia says so) is about a C-.
Not mentioned in Serenity, but that's where we see exactly what his obliviousness puts his daughter through. In Firefly we see him more concerned with his status than with his children's well-being.
Dr. Goines in 12 Monkeys was hard to pin down. Seemed to care for his son, but also seemed to have driven him stark raving mad.
If we're talking about David Marcus then we ought to mention Joachim Singh. Sure they both died, but Khan was way more involved in his son's life than Kirk was. Way more involved with his death too now that I think about it.
Since Quicksilver was in the Wolverine origins movie (for about a millisecond) can we judge Magneto as a father? He might actually come off worse as a father than William Stryker!
The best dad in sci-fi would have to be Dennis Quaid's character in Frequency. Teaming up with your detective son to fight crime, stop a serial killer, and save the dad's wife and the son's mother... over a 30-year gap with the power of a TIME RADIO? Awesome.
Yeah, the film was a bit glurgy. But hey, ain't that what father-son relationships are supposed to be about?
(And yes, Frequency counts as sci-fi, it was nominated for a Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation).
Honorable mention: Sarek from Star Trek. Particularly his scenes in ST:IV and the TNG Episode "Unification."
The Good: Transformers
OK, the movie itself is questionable but you have to admit Kevin Dunn is a good dad. He's buying Sam a car in the begining of the movie, how cool is that? He's also trying to teach him the value of a dollar. He's generally supportive in a bizarre situation. All in all I'd give him a grade A
The Bad: The Truman Show
Truman's symbolic dad (Ed Harris) is a world class douche for leading Truman through a fake life. His fake dad (Brian Delate) tried to make up for his part but ultimately fails, so maybe not a douche but "simpering ineffectiveness" is almost as bad in dadhood.
The Ugly: I Am Legend
Will Smith is a good dad who actually manages to save his wife and kid from being trapped on the island of soon-to-be-zombies only to have them blow up in front of his eyes. Yikes.
Data.
Ok, so it's TV and not film, but he's father to Lal. Builds and teaches her, and though a tad emotionally distant (android dads need to read Iron John), Data fights like mad to keep Lal alive.
Trek bonus: Tear jerking scene when the Federation scientist comes into the passageway and describes, to other members of the crew, Data's heroic "surgical" attempts to save Lal.
Dad Score: B+/A-
I'm going to invoke the dad from my guilty pleasure movie: Harry Stamper
Cons: raises daughter on oil rigs, tries to shoot daughter's boyfriend, misses daughter's wedding
Pro: Strong work ethic, tries to shoot daughter's boyfriend, saves world by nuking himself
I'd give him a B-
I'm going to invoke the dad from my guilty pleasure movie, Armageddon): Harry Stamper
Cons: raises daughter on oil rigs, tries to shoot daughter's boyfriend, misses daughter's wedding
Pro: Strong work ethic, tries to shoot daughter's boyfriend, saves world by nuking himself
I'd give him a B-
Back to the Future
Marty's father stalked his mother and she fixated on him due to a nightengale complex. Son goes back in time and accidentally takes dad's place, mom fixates on son, son tries to act like a lech to get mom to stop thinking about him, mom is assaulted by Biff, dad saves mom, but not enough to get them to marry, son has to play chuck barry until they fall in love.
That family has some serious issues.
Jonathan Brisby: C -- Sure he was working on "The Plan" to relocate everyone away from NIMH, but he gets himself killed without ever telling his family anything about their circumstances.
King Roland (Spaceballs): First he arranges to marry his daughter Vespa to the narcoleptic Prince Valium, causing her to flee Druidia with her personal robot Dot Matrix. Then he hands over the combination to Druidia's atmosphere allowing the Spaceballs to suck the air away from their planet. Just an all-around wimpy dad. D-
OK let's roll up our sleeves and get symbolic: in Wall-E, BnL CEO as symbolic "dad" to the Axiom mission: D.
The Captain, as "dad" to the current passengers: An enthusiastic and encouraging B-: he's ineffective and ignorant, which isn't good, but he really steps up and does his best, doesn't he?
Evil brought it up, and while I consider the movie a complete groan-fest, but I think Bruce Willis gets an A in Armageddon: sacrifices his life to save the world so that his daughter can be happy with the guy he doesn't particularly like? That's the epitome of selfless, man. It'd be an A+ except that the boyfriend is Ben Affleck, who strikes me as kind of a dick.
Besides if he hadn't saved Liv Tyler in 1998, she wouldn't have been around to save Frodo Baggins in 2001, and then we'd all be under Sauron's iron-fisted rule and that wouldn't be good for anyone.
P.S. As Frodo's adopted dad (sort of), bilbo doesn't measure up too well.
Sorry for posting 3 in a row but it occurs to me that Independence Day is chock full of dads in prominent roles, from pretty good to crazy-but-with-a-heart-of-gold.
It probably should have been called Father's Day: 4 of the 5 big male characters are heroic fathers in some way or another - will smith, the guy who plays goldblum's dad, the president, and the crazy man who flies into the great big laser (and doesn't afraid of anything!)
Do made-for-TV movies count? Because I think John Crichton is a great dad in The Peacekeeper Wars. A+, even taking off points for his son being born on a battlefield during battle.
Nobody mentioned Elrond in LOTR. He doesn't want his daughter to marry someone of another race, but he comes around eventually, even though he loses her forever in the process. A-
Dr. Evil (Austin Powers movies): Constantly berates and denigrates his son Scott, ignoring the common sense advice he gives him such as "just shoot him". Prefers to give his fatherly love to his clone. F-
@PJ: Goldblum's dad in ID is Judd Hirsch of Taxi fame, and the crazy man is Dennis Quaid (brother of Dennis Quaid).
@Xopher: LotR is fantasy.
I think the elusive A+ goes to Splinter, of TMNT fame.
@John H. crazy man is RANDY Quaid, brother of Dennis Quaid, not Dennis Quaid brother of Dennis Quaid.
Although that reminds me of ...
Multiplicity:
Michael Keaton gets a B+ for agreeing to be cloned in a bumbling attempt to meet the demands of his family.
All this talk about Dennis Quaid and nobody mentions his good parenting in Enemy Mine!!
D'oh!
I am surprised that no-one has mentioned Dr Morbius from "Forbidden Planet". A little over protective perhaps, btu his heart was in the right plan. (Not sure about his mind tho').
"Blast from the Past"
It's kind of alternate history. Christopher Walken is father to Brendan Frasier. Maybe it's a bit of a stretch to call it sci-fi, but hey, it's Walken.
Dr Morbius of "Forbidden Planet", father to Alta.
A wee bit too protective of his daughter,
Probably rates a D.
Howsabout Arroways dad in Contact?
Dies through no fault of his own then gets his likeness comandeered to set up maybe the greatest anti-climax in cinematic history.
No rating as not really his fault...
The dad in Gattaca (Elias Koteas). Clearly plays favorites with his children, giving all his affection to the younger, genetically modified child and showing contempt for the older child (Ethan Hawke). He had the chance to insist on genetic modification for Hawke, but let his wife decide against it. Then he blames the kid for not being perfect.
On the plus side, he doesn't physically abuse Hawke. And he doesn't care enough to look for Hawke when he runs away, leaving Hawke free to pursue the life he wants, out from under his father's thumb.
Rating: D
There are two fathers in Metropolis: Fredersen and Dr. Rotwang.
Fredersen is a despot and treats the workers badly, but he genuinely loves his son Freder and he is redeemed in the end. Rating: B.
Dr. Rotwang is evil through and through. He creates the robot for evil purposes, he gives it Maria's appearance for evil purposes, and he doesn't care when it is destroyed. Rating: F.
Slimpickens, you've got to be kidding - Lazarus Long??? Didn't he have sex with his daughters in Time Enough For Love? Normally I'd consider that a disqualification in the good dad sweepstakes. Sure there is some lame justification on genetic grounds, but seriously?
On the other hand, Admiral Adama from Battlestar Galactica was a bit of a hardass, but I guess that's required when your kid is in your chain of command. And you are responsible for all that remains of humanity. No one could say he didn't care. Give him a B.
Markar,
The twins in Time Enough were cross-gender clones of Laz, so it'd be more accurate to call them his sisters. Doesn't make it any less squicktastic, though.