Film review - The incredibles

 

The differences between the plot and the story can be quite hard to understand at first, and often they seem like the same thing and the terms are often used to describe each other. However, the terms do have different meanings. The story is the basic information of a film – Who the characters are, what is happening, and where it is taking place. The plot is a structural writing device to help deliver the story in a compelling way- How they are confronted with the problems that face them, when in the character’s lives the events of the story happen, and why the characters react in the way they do. Essentially, the story is the foundation, and the plot is everything else built on top.

This takes us onto the Incredibles – how does the plot impact the story, and vice versa? The Incredibles is more plot driven than story driven, so basically the events happen to the characters rather than the characters directly causing the events.

To fully understand plot vs story in the Incredibles, we first have to get an understanding of what happens in the film. The story of the film goes as follows: “Set in a fictitious version of the 1960s, the film follows Bob and Helen Parr, a couple of superheroes, known as Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl, who hide their powers in accordance with a government mandate, and attempt to live a quiet suburban life with their three children. Bob's desire to help people draws the entire family into a confrontation with a vengeful fan-turned-foe.” (Unknown, n.d.) Here we see that the ‘Who’ of the story is primarily Bob and Helen, the former superheroes. The ‘What’ is Bob’s desire to continue superhero work eventually leading to his confrontation with Syndrome, the villain. The ‘Where’ is the version of our world in the 1960’s where superheroes and people with powers exist, and, just as importantly, people who don’t have superpowers. This creates a power dynamic, and provides motivation for Syndrome, who was born without powers. If everyone in this world was born with superpowers then Syndrome wouldn’t have anywhere near as much impact or reason to be a villain.

Next is the plot of the film: Public opinion turns against superheroes due to the collateral damage caused by their crime-fighting. After several lawsuits, the government initiates the Superhero Relocation Program, which forces "supers" to permanently adhere to their secret identities and abandon their exploits. Fifteen years later, Bob and Helen Parr—formerly known as Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl—and their children, Violet, Dash, and baby Jack-Jack, are a suburban family living in Metroville. Although he loves his family, Bob resents the mundanity of his suburban lifestyle and white-collar job as an insurance adjuster. Together with his best friend, Lucius Best, formerly known as Frozone, Bob occasionally relives "the glory days" by moonlighting as a vigilante.

One day, after his supervisor, Gilbert Huph, prevents him from stopping a mugging, Bob loses his temper and injures him, resulting in Bob's dismissal. Returning home, Bob receives a message from a woman called Mirage, who gives him a paying mission to destroy a savage, tripod-like robot, the Omnidroid, on the remote island of Nomanisan. Bob battles and disables it by tricking it into ripping out its own power source.

Bob finds the action and higher pay rejuvenating. He improves his relationship with his family and begins rigorous physical training while awaiting another assignment from Mirage over the next two months. Finding a tear in his super suit, he visits superhero costume designer Edna Mode to have it mended. Assuming that Helen knows what Bob is doing, Edna also makes suits for the rest of the family.

Setting out for Nomanisan once again, Bob discovers Mirage is working for Buddy Pine, a disaffected former fan whom he had rejected as his sidekick Incrediboy and has now become a ruthless inventor and wealthy arms dealer. Having adopted the alias Syndrome, he has been perfecting the Omnidroid by hiring different superheroes to fight it, killing them in the process. Syndrome intends to send the perfected Omnidroid to Metroville, where he will secretly manipulate its controls to defeat it in public, becoming a "hero" himself. He then plans to sell his inventions so that everyone can become "super", reasoning that "when everyone's super, no one will be".

Helen visits Edna and learns what Bob has been up to. She activates a beacon Edna built into the suits to find Bob, inadvertently causing him to be captured while infiltrating Syndrome's base. Helen borrows a private plane to travel to Nomanisan. She finds out that Violet and Dash have stowed away, leaving Jack-Jack with babysitter Kari. Helen's radio transmissions are picked up by Syndrome, who sends anti-aircraft missiles to shoot her down. The plane is destroyed, but Helen and the kids survive and use their powers to reach the island. Helen infiltrates the base and discovers Syndrome's plan. Discontented with Syndrome's indifference when her life was threatened, Mirage releases Bob and informs him of his family's survival. Helen arrives and races off with Bob to find their children. Syndrome's guards chase Dash and Violet, who fend them off with their powers before reuniting with their parents. Syndrome captures them all, leaving the family imprisoned while he follows the rocket transporting the Omnidroid to Metroville.

The Parrs escape to Metroville in another rocket with Mirage's help. Due to its advanced artificial intelligence, the Omnidroid recognizes Syndrome as a threat to itself and shoots off the remote control on Syndrome's wrist, making him incapable of controlling it and knocking him unconscious. The Parrs and Lucius fight the Omnidroid together. Helen acquires the remote control, allowing Bob to use one of the robot's claws to destroy its power source. Returning home, the Parrs find Syndrome, who plans to kidnap Jack-Jack and raise him as his own sidekick out of revenge. As Syndrome flies up toward his jet, Jack-Jack's own shapeshifting superpowers manifest and he escapes Syndrome in midair. Helen catches Jack-Jack, and Bob throws his car at Syndrome's plane as he boards it. Syndrome is sucked into the jet's turbine by his own cape and the plane explodes.

Three months later, the Parrs witness the arrival of supervillain the Underminer. They don their superhero masks, ready to face the new threat together as a family. (Unknown, n.d.)

As we can see, there is a lot more meat to the plot of the film, going off the foundation of the story. The ‘How’ is Bob trying to get the best of both worlds by providing for his family while still being able to do superhero work, eventually leading him into the fights with Syndrome. The ‘When’ is around the middle of Bob and Helen’s lives, they’ve been married for years at this point, with three kids. The ‘Why’ is Bob’s need to use his powers to help others, which leads him headfirst into the main events of the film. For Helen, it’s her desire to protect her family at any cost, especially when the kids, Violet and Flash, sneak on to the plane.

Works Cited

Unknown, n.d. Wikipedia. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredibles