Life Is an Adventure

After several attempts, my best friend and I finally managed to meet up for our guy’s night out and go see Captain Marvel. Our schedules didn’t line up until the second week of April.

The problem was that particular week is a nightmare for locals where we live; Master’s week in Augusta Georgia is a bumper-to-bumper traveling tourist fiasco. The streets are filled with out-of-towners who have no idea where they are.

To make matters worse, we usually meet up for dinner about two blocks away from the Masters. We knew we were in for a fun adventure just getting to the theater, so we decided to wait until after we ate before meeting up.

To be honest, I don’t blame people for wanting to be outside in the great spring weather. But I’d rather be doing something other than standing around watching other people trying to chase a ball all day.

I don’t like golf, I’m not a traditional sports fan. I grew up enjoying other adventures outside. Let’s be clear, spring is the time a year most people begin taking road trips or other adventures from home. Most of us seek out new adventures to break free from routines of life.

Hollywood has cashed in on man’s thirst for adventure since the days of Westerns and bank/train robberies of the 1920s and 30s. Since then each generation has been reflected in timeless adventure films of each respective era. Adventure movies are the most successful films at the box office by far, they’ve earned nearly $60 billion since 1995.[1] Here are three of my favorite from my childhood:

• The Goonies
• Stand by Me
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

I remember watching these movies repeatedly during the summer while school was out. And yes being the bad little boy I was (and maybe still am), I used them for inspiration for my own carefree adventures during the summer, particularly when my parents bought me my own four-wheeler (ATV.) We lived in a small southern town where there wasn’t much to do, so I came up with my own adventures.

Adventures?

Adventure films are exciting stories of experiences in new or exotic settings. They are the older brother of modern action films. They are heart racing narratives that thrust the protagonist(s) into unpredictable challenging situations, often taking characters to places far from home.

The trials they face raise the stakes for the conclusion of the protagonist’s journey. Successful adventure stories take their audience on a twisted ride to unfamiliar territories.

It used to be that adventure movies were primarily for boys and men. But recently, Hollywood has joined the feminist movement by producing films with strong female leads whose sense of adventure equal or surpass that of their male counterparts.

Marvel’s Captain Marvel is proof of this. And its success at the box office proves that women like adventures as well as romantic “chick flicks.” Adventure often borrows aspects from other genres such as war or political drama to use as motivation for explosive action and derring-do.[2]

In truth, all genres of movies are adventures in and of themselves, because they are stories that help us escape from everyday life. They move us from one place of thought to another. Adventure movies up the ante by incorporating more visuals and adrenaline-packed excitement. Robert McKee continues, “If Action/Adventure incorporates ideas such as destiny, hubris, or spiritual, it becomes the subgenre High Adventure. If Mother Nature is the source of antagonism it’s A Disaster/Survival Film.)”

Adventure films have the clearest conflict, pitting the protagonist or protagonists against obvious opposition, such as:

1. Individuals– Avengers Endgame 
2. Insurmountable odds– Mission Impossible
3. Time– Speed
4. Mother Nature– Twister

Regardless of the type of opposition, deep down the fight thrills us because we all want to be the hero in the adventure.

Heroes?

For over a decade now superhero movies have dominated the box office thanks to the Marvel universe. As I write this post, Marvel is releasing the twenty-second film in their universe. Avengers Endgame has been building for eleven years off the adventures of some of the most popular superhero movies ever. You can be sure that my best friend and I will be having a guy’s night out to see Endgame.

Amazingly, comic books have been around for over a century, but in the twenty-first century they are taking audiences on new adventures in film for good reasons:

• Better screenwriters.
• Better storytelling techniques.
• The need for hope in an increasingly dangerous world.
• And, of course, the rise of CGI (computer-generated imagery.)

Combined, these motives have helped take audiences on all-new adventures.

---

[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/188658/movie-genres-in-north-america-by-box-office-revenue-since-1995/

[2] McKee R. (1997).  Story: Substance, Structure, Style, And The Principle of Screenwriting (Kindle edition) pg 82.

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at Spiritual Perspectives of Da Single Guy and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.