Who holds the key that can set us free?

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts.
Shakespeare (As you Like It)

… and the very first thing we see is a stage. We could also say that all the mind’s a stage, or, better even: the soul is a stage. All the action happening “on stage” is happening within ourselves, within our imagination, our thoughts, our feelings, our mind, within our very soul; and all of this story is happening within one character’s soul, and we hear her voice as she tells us that we all have a hero within us:

Everyone has an Angel. A Guardian who watches over us. We can’t know what form they’ll take. One day, old man. Next day, little girl. But don’t let appearances fool you, they can be as fierce as any dragon. Yet they’re not here to fight our battles, but to whisper from our heart, reminding that it’s us. It’s every one of us who holds the power over the worlds we create.

I came across Zack Snyder’s 2011 movie Sucker Punch some years ago, and I am well aware that this kind of movie isn’t everyone’s cup of tea; nor would it be mine, normally. However, right from the start I was “hooked”, with a certain hunch that there was something “in it” that went far beyond its surface ripples of “[g]un-toting hotties combat[ing] assorted villains and their robot henchmen in this tawdry, repellent action fantasy.”¹ It was only later on I learned, to my surprise, that the movie reviews were full of similarly scathing critiques for “the worst kind of bad film” that has often been derided as a “hyper-sexualised spectacle”. One reviewer wrote that “upon its release it was savaged by critics who labelled it juvenile, misogynistic, and even hysterically, garishly overwrought”,² with a more well-disposed critic pointing out, “What Snyder attempted with Sucker Punch was to tap into that very specific aspect [the sexualisation of women] of geek culture,³ and explore the toxicity of this kind of entitlement.”⁴

There is a certain parallel, a similar dynamic, between the way this movie had been received and trashed by the majority of critics and the exlusive focus on a one-sided corona “pandemic” narrative by the mainstream media, with everyone not agreeing being equally denounced and condemned. In both cases there has been an all too narrow focus on appearances and unimportant details, and a painful lack or unwillingness to look into the deeper and more essential issues at play.

While the “sexy girl” aspect may have been exaggerated and unnecessary, and the machine guns are of a distinct demonic nature (the Spirit of Materialism, including technology, also known as Mammon or Mephisto) – imagine the Archangel Michael (the conqueror of the powers of darkness) with a gun, instead of a sword! – my hunch was to do with this very archangel of courage and bravery (the image of Michael with the dragon challenges us to develop courage, and to overcome love of ease, anxiety and fear, which requires inner activity – a force and quality much needed now), stepping into one’s own power, and being, or becoming, who we truly are, which is summed up in the final speech at the end of the movie, and which – in stark contrast to one of the critics’ experience of “the largely predictably dark ending” – felt very uplifting to me, leaving a lasting memorable impression.

And so, looking for an answer on the Internet, I finally had my “aha experience”, and my hunch turned out to be true, that there was indeed a deeper meaning beneath appearances. Could this even be “the deepest and most meaningful movie ever?” What follows is based on this brilliant interpretation: The Deeper Meaning of Sucker Punch (2011) – The Ultimate Achetypes Movie, and all quotes, unless otherwise indicated, are by the initiator of Think Spiritual, an online project that encourages all people to think about their personal spirituality through modern mythology and the Hero’s and Heroine’s Journeys. “Change your Self. Change your world.”⁵

The reason why this movie was a critical flop is because of its emphasis on symbolism and emotion, while the critics and detractors were analysing the movie intellectually and from a certain ideological (i.e. patriarchal) point of view. “Sucker Punch is an exceedingly deep and emotional, feminine-driven, eros movie that will make zero sense to your intellectual, male-driven psyche.” (It goes without saying that, although acted and represented by women, the female qualities in question are inner qualities that every person, regardless of their gender, carries in their soul.) You have to watch the movie a few times “to grasp all the symbolism… if it’s even possible to grasp all of the symbolism” and all the archetypes which are the primary players and which are deep and complex, and quite nuanced, with each archetype representing a multitude of personality traits and emotions. Some are purely symbolic, and others are representations of real people in the story.

The story begins with the girl we come to know as Babydoll. Her stepfather believed that he was going to inherit her mother’s wealth, but the mother left it to her two daughters. This is “the birth of Trauma and the death of Innocence.” Who hasn’t experienced any trauma in their life? However, while some people overcome incredibly damaging life events, others can’t seem to get past even the smallest of personal slurs. The stepfather attacks the girls in a fit of rage. When Babydoll realises that he wants to rape her younger sister, she threatens him with a gun. As she fires over his shoulder, her sister is killed by the ricochet. Babydoll is sent to a mental asylum where her stepfather pays the wicked character called “Blue” to forge a doctor’s signature and have Babydoll lobotomised, which is scheduled to happen in five days.

Blue is the one who keeps everyone enthralled in his dark power, like the Wicked Witch of the East in The Wizard of Oz (is the scarecrow at the very end of the movie a subtle hint, perhaps?); or as Klingsor, the black magician, in his enchanted castle in the 13th century epic of Parzival. People are so easily mesmerized and controlled by fear (as the covid “pandemic'“ has shown so blatantly), but Babydoll’s face also shows alertness, she is taking in every detail of what’s going on around her, including three of the items that are central to the story. She overhears the doctor/therapist/dance choreographer, Madam Gorski, say, “You control this world.”

Only seconds before the lobotomy surgeon strikes the fateful needle, Babydoll has a kind of flashback and the story really begins. We are now entering Babydoll’s (or is it Sweet Pea’s?) world of imagination. (Another correlation to The Wizard of Oz where the dream or fantasy world is more colourful and “real” than our everyday life.) The asylum is now seen as a “club” where every girl must dance, but for Babydoll every dance is a battle. Her fear is turning into defiance, and when it comes to it she displays a sense of inner centeredness and unwavering resolve. The five main female characters are: Babydoll, Rocket, Blondie, Amber and Sweet Pea. Their goal is to escape this prison. A wise man has told Babydoll that, in order to achieve freedom, a MAP, a FIRE, a KNIFE, and a KEY are needed, and – the fifth and final part, which is a MYSTERY. “It is the reason. It is the goal”, says the wise man to Babydoll. “It will be a deep sacrifice and a perfect victory. Only you can find it. And if you do, it will set you free.”

First, Babydoll has to face three giant robot samurai warriors – a kind of David and Goliath situation – where she meets the Wise Old Man who tells her about the five items necessary to gain freedom. Encouraged by the wise man, she decides to escape her prison. Sweat Pea is the one opposed to and doubtful about her plan, at first. But the fact that Babydoll had shown empathy and courage for Rocket (something uncommon in this place of deprived and degraded souls where “no one takes a risk for anyone”) finally convinces Sweat Pea. The action is happening simultaneously in the mental asylum and in Babydoll’s fantasy (a “dream within a dream”) in which the five together have to fight German WW1 zombie soldiers (for the map), orc-like creatures (as in Lord of the Rings) to get to a baby dragon they have to kill (for the fire), and to deactivate and steal a bomb which is set to detonate very soon, having to fight mechanised gunmen along the way (for the key). All those fantasy scenarios appear like dystopian nightmare visions of past (orcs and dragons), present (WW1), and future (futuristic sci-fi gunmen), but at the same time all of them pointing to a future where human beings no longer fight other humans but soulless machines and robot technology. It is those gigantic machines that human technology constructs today that will be the demons raging against us in the future. Hence, we must take the power of our inner core in hand if we want to be able to measure up to the evil forces of the future.

They manage to gain three of the items, but their plan is discovered by the cunning, evil Blue. Rocket, Amber and Blondie are murdered, Babydoll lobotomised, and Sweet Pea escapes. “Once your world has been unmade, it cannot be remade as it was before. You can only move forward and build something new.” However, when it comes to trauma, what most of us do is lock ourselves in a prison of guilt and self-loathing. We feel like we’re crazy and unworthy of love; and whether we realise it or not, we are the one in control of our own prison. Let go of the pain, the hurt, the guilt. You control your own inner world, the world of your imagination. It is the effects of impressions made on us by past experiences that have made the soul what it is. We are the result of our doing, feeling, and thinking in the past. Looking back over those past experiences we very often feel impelled to judge ourselves, realising that from our present standpoint we may disagree with some of our past actions, and even be ashamed of them.

It is here in this mental asylum where the outwardly programmed ego, or perhaps the false persona of depraved men, keep the battered feminine, the emotions, the depths of the soul, imprisoned; and to escape this prison, this asylum, this den of defilement, is the goal, the call to adventure of the feminine, of the emotions, to escape the trauma and begin the journey of who you are truly meant to be, the hero’s journey. And in order to do this, a tool is needed, something that can awaken the emotions, something that can get them working together, something that can allow you to access your inner temple where wisdom awaits you. This tool can be any form of art, whether it be movies, or books, or paintings, or music, or, as in the case of Sucker Punch, dancing. Art reveals to us a perception of truth in the face of which all merely logical or rational intellectual power is helpless. Some artists can become aware that their work is a message from the spiritual world to humanity, raising it to a universal human level.

Madam Gorski, who teaches the girls how to dance – and who is also under the spell and control of Blue – also cares about them and acts a bit like a mother to them. She says, “If you do not dance you have no purpose. And we don’t keep things here that have no purpose. You see, your fight for survival starts right now. You don’t want to be judged? You won’t be. You don’t think you’re strong enough? You are. You’re afraid. Don’t be. You have all the weapons you need. Now fight.”

Dancing, and art in general, keeps the programmed ego (with its helpless logical, rational power) mesmerised, giving the emotions a chance to wage war upon the inner workings of our psyche. Wisdom informs us that five things are needed to gain our freedom.

Number one is a MAP, something that gives us guidance out of our trauma and the prisons of our mind. A map gives us orientation in a wider context of where we are.

This is the level where our mind, or thinking, is concerned.

Number two is a FIRE we need in us. Passion and drive, as well as cleansing and purification.

This is the level where our soul, our feeling life, is concerned.

Number three is a KNIFE to cut the ties that bind us to our pain and suffering; or something that can cut through the hogwash and lies that we feed ourselves. Maybe this is even a breaking away from people who keep dragging us down.

This is the level of doing deeds and taking action, of our will forces.

Number four is a KEY to unlock the prison we keep ourselves in. It’s not our programmed (or conditioned) ego that should have control of the key to our soul. It is our true Self that requires that key.

This is the level where we become aware of our true Self that becomes the guiding star for our inner core, or “ego”, or “lower self”, a two-edged sword which, instead of following lower passions and desires, cleanses and purifies the instincts, inclinations, desires and passions, leading us to ever higher stages of being.

And number five: wisdom tells us that one more thing is needed to gain our freedom, which is a mystery. It’s the goal, which requires a deep SACRIFICE.

This is the level where we move from Soul to Spirit, the Spirit Self – the “Selfless Self” – where the “lower self” is ready to sacrifice itself.

Blue has a map of the building in his office. The cunning intellect, which can be used for good or evil purposes, in a Mephistophelian or Michaelic way. They need a lighter to set off a fire in order to distract the guards. Stirring up passions and wild emotions creates chaos and confusion, which is needed to divert the rational mind. Amber has to steal the Mayor’s lighter, who is going to come and watch Babydoll dance. He keeps his lighter in his breast pocket, i.e. near his heart. Then they need a knife from the cook who tried to rape Rocket and who could be seen as a milder version of Shakespeare’s Caliban in The Tempest. Pure will forces which, unrestrained, can be extremely violent and destructive, but are needed, just as Caliban, the brute, is needed for menial tasks, such as fetching water and chopping wood. And the key… again, it is Blue who holds the master key.

We are then told to defend ourselves from judgement, weakness, and fear. Fear and anxiety in the face of the unknown future obstruct and hinder our development. Remember, we have all the weapons we need, and we are strong enough to use them. Once we have our weapons, once we are determined to escape, to be free, to make our life better, once we believe that we are the hero, that internal judgement gets beheaded, weakness takes a bullet to the head, and fear gets cut in half. Then we take command of the situation, and we can begin to rally the rest of our emotions. “Do you want to be free? Come with me!”

We can deny our angels exist, convince ourselves they can’t be real. But they show up anyway, at strange places, and at strange times. They can speak through any character we can imagine. They’ll shout through demons if they have to. Daring us, challenging us to fight.

Sucker Punch uses hyper femininity to tell its story. (When fighting, however, they are clearly showing their masculine sides.) The feminine symbolises our emotions, our sensibilities, our empathy, and our compassion – weapons against our unfeeling intellect. However, our feminine is also easily abused and repressed by our programmed ego. Isn’t this a perfect reflection of our Western Society right now? Be the change you want to see in the world.⁶ We can’t change the outer world until our inner world is at least in some kind of balance. In the movie, we see the ladies at war with undead automatons. How many people are walking around in that state of mind? When our emotions have been neglected and rejected we live in that robotic-like state.

Even wisdom (in form of the old man) was repressed at one time. He was locked in his temple, and it had to be destroyed to set him free. “The men in Sucker Punch are not the Masculine archetypes. They are Immaturity and Programmed Ego and False Persona. Which is exactly what Patriarchy is in the real world.” This programmed ego is always watching us, suspicious of what we are doing. There will be hell to pay when it catches us. Some of our battles are pure victories, while others come at a severe cost to our true Self. The archetypes represented in Sucker Punch are multi-layered and complex, and there are parts of us that have to die along the way as we fight to escape our inner prisons.

The impetuous Rocket is faith, but also guilt, deeming it to be her fault that Sweet Pea (her sister) is imprisoned with her. Guilt has to die before the Self can be free.

Amber is courage, chosen to be the pilot who soars and cheers. She takes you to the battlefield and carries you away in victory. But Amber is also timidity, another version of fear, always afraid of getting caught and being in trouble. Timidity has to die before the Self can be free.

Blondie (the black-haired) is the specialist who knows all the tricks of the trade. She is dexterous and compassionate, but also gullible, or foolish, wanting to feel good all the time. She trusts too easily, is hurt too easily, and is misled too easily. That gullibility, that foolishness, also has to die before the Self can be free.

And Babydoll, the heroine no one would take to be one of the greatest champions. She unleashes wisdom from the chains of this temple, and she crushes judgement, weakness, and fear, leading faith, courage and knowledge on seemingly impossible missions. All in the hope of freeing the Self from imprisonment and slavery (of the lower self and the nether world). But Babydoll is also pain. Pain can be a great stimulus and “instigator”. “Pain and suffering are actually the parents of hope, because we always hope for something greater.” Just as the beauty of the pearl is born out of disease and suffering, so are knowledge, noble human nature and purified human feeling born out of suffering and pain. But pain can also give birth to a victim mentality, or a raging beast inside us. That’s why she must be a willing sacrifice if the Self is to be free. That pain has to be lobotomised and sent to a place where it has no longer power over us, where the programmed ego can’t use it to control us.

At the decisive moment Babydoll realises that the fifth item to freedom – the MYSTERY – is her: her choice to sacrifice herself. “Only you can find it”, the Wise Man had told her; it has to be her very own resolve, her very own free choice, only then can it lead to freedom. (After Babydoll’s lobotomy, when Madam Gorski recognises that her signature had been forged by Blue – and not the first time – she finally takes action, having him removed by the police and put to prison.)

Which finally brings us to Sweet Pea, the true protagonist of the story. Sweet Pea, the actor and player on the stage of her life. It is at the very moment when Babydoll finally wants to give up that Sweet Pea takes over. With all four of our heroines (who are all parts of her), she finds her way to freedom, cleanses and purifies her soul with fire, stabs her programmed ego to lose its hold on her, and finally unlocks and escapes her prison by sacrificing her pain. It is Sweet Pea who winds up in a new place, clean and brightly dressed in white, but still poor in spirit. She boards a bus to an unknown destination. And it’s Sweet Pea who sums this movie up:

And finally this question, the mystery of whose story it will be, of who draws the curtain. Who is it that chooses our steps in the dance? Who drives us mad, lashes us with whips and crowns us with victory when we survive the impossible? Who is it that does all these things? Who honors those we love for the very life we live? Who sends monsters to kill us, and at the same time sings that we will never die? Who teaches us what’s real and how to laugh at lies? Who decides why we live and what we’ll die to defend? Who chains us? And who holds the key that can set us free?

It’s you.

We have all the mental and spiritual weapons we need to fight our inner zombies and dragons. Now is the time. The more of us who can bravely conquer our undead zombies and fiery dragons, the more the world around as will change as well. “Shouldn’t we be the authors of our own stories?” asks Laura Dodsworth in her book A State of Fear, which is about the weaponising of fear during the covid-19 “pandemic”.

“We don’t know how this will end. But rather than wait till it’s all over to tell the terrible story of when the world stopped and humanity was paralysed with fear, I would like to invite you to decide how the story ends.”

A week of life under the Ministry of Fear

1. Andrea Gronvall in Chicago Reader

2. Where’s the So-called ‘Feminism’ in Zack Snyder’s Violent ‘Sucker Punch’? by Colin Dray, 20 February 2018 https://www.popmatters.com/sucker-punch-zack-snyder-feminism-2535528588.html

3. The word “geek” is a slang term originally used to describe eccentric or non-mainstream people. Geek culture is a subculture of enthusiasts traditionally associated with obscure media such as comic books and personal computing. However, geek culture is becoming an increasingly mainstream influence on contemporary culture, and the word geek nowadays refers to an expert or enthusiast obsessed with a hobby or intellectual pursuit. In the 21st century it was reclaimed and used by many people as a positive term.

4. Musa Chaudhry in Revisiting Zack Snyder’s ‘Sucker Punch’ https://film-cred.com/revisiting-sucker-punch-zack-snyder/

5. https://thinkspiritual.ca/suckerpunchdeepermeaning

6. This sentence is commonly attributed to Mahatma Gandhi. But what he actually said is, “We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.”