Consequences

One of the movies I constantly think about is 1999's Payback.

It's not one of my favorite movies, it's not even close, were I to give it a rating, it's a solid 3 out of 5. Competently shot, entertaining anti-hero characters, tons of quotable lines, and a tone that's best described as…

Fun.

Dark, but fun.

[For the Theatrical Cut, I still need to watch Straight Up]

It does have one of my favorite scenes of any movie though, one that was used to open the trailer, one that encapsulates the entire movie's blunt approach, but it's just occurred to me that I think one of the big reasons I love it, is how well it encapsulates the world we live in.

"One man. You go high enough, you always come to one man."

There's this guy, Bronson, who is head of The Outfit, a criminal organization with a committee, but one that ultimately answers to him, Carter is one of his workers, a high-ranking worker, but a worker never the less, so when he calmly explains that there's a man in his office with a gun named Porter who will kill him unless they Payback (hehe) a hundred and thirty thousand dolla-

"Seventy thousand."

Porter just wants his share.

When Bronson refuses Porter, Carter is shot and killed.

Now, there's not much sympathy for Carter, but there is only one reason he died, Bronson isn't the one at risk… not yet at least. Bronson makes a decision that gets Carter killed, because ultimately, Bronson isn't the one who is actually in any real danger in this situation. He can test the waters all he wants, he can refuse Porter, get Carter killed, and then agree to Porter's demands.

He doesn't, but that's for the sake of having a revenge film.

The point is, this is how our world works.

People (often) make decisions not because they're Satanists, not because they're for Genocide, not even because they're fundamentally Capitalist, but just because they don't face any real risk.

One day, my friend, suffering from a bout of depression, vented about why aren't they strong enough to really take their political will to the picket lines against Police Officers. If things are so bad that they're mentally unwell, why not have the grit to at least go down swinging for the fences?

I told them, it's because they're afraid they're going to face even more consequences than they already have.

That their current plight isn't about not having the strength to do what's necessary when there's no other alternative, but rather, there's so many alternatives, and they don't want to pick the one that while potentially satisfactory in the short term, will only lead to long-term pain that they will have to be the ones to endure.

This is what the powerful don't have to live with.

They're free to make decisions that even when they're completely wrong, wrong enough to implode the entire empire that made them so powerful, nothing actually happens to them.

There's no jail time, there's no fines that impact their day to day life, there's no restrictions to their autonomy, no property to be sold, no car to scrap, no card to cancel.

Nothing happens to them.

Only everybody else.

P.S. Would you believe me I originally started writing about Titanfall's latest cancelled game, and Respawns lay-offs? Maybe I'll write that next time.