Arnold Schwarzenegger’s acting abilities are up there with Chuck Norris and other actors mostly known for action roles. That basically means they churn out basically the same character over and over in different plots. Norris has a few good movies where he really nails the part, most notably Code of Silence. But that’s thanks to a good director, Andrew Davis, and a plot that doesn’t seem like at all like a Chuck Norris movie.
Schwarzenegger is no dummy. He’s worked with Robert Altman, Lucille Ball, Bob Rafelson, Jeff Bridges and Sally Fields back when he wasn’t anything but a bodybuilder trying to cut his teeth in acting. Aside from a few cameos here and there, he spent most of his time as the “Governator” of California only appearing as himself on screen. But since his term ended, he seems to have re-invented himself in some of the better movies of his career.
The Last Stand was his first lead role in 10 years and it’s a nice action movie about a small-town sheriff’s office near the Arizona/Mexico border defending the community against a notorious drug runner and his minions. Then, there was Aftermath, inspired by a true story of a man who murdered the air traffic controller whose negligence was responsible for the death of his wife and daughter as well as many other airplane passengers. It was a different style of movie but it shows he has range.
I still say his role as Doug Quaid/Carl Hauser in Total Recall is one of his best roles along with the T-800 in the first two Terminator movies. But a movie like Maggie was a precursor to Aftermath in how it shows Schwarzenegger at his top form as an actor. It was released in 2015 at the point in pop culture where zombies movies were on their way out as the market had become saturated and dull. But now, five years to the week Covid-19 was considered a global pandemic, it seems more timely than ever.
This isn’t the typical video-game fare most zombie movies had become. A pandemic called necroambulism is spreading across the country and possible world. Society is trying to hang on as much as it can but there’s a growing concern among people if they’re going to survive, they can’t let their emotions get the best of them. Obviously the movie is an allegory about letting go when you don’t want to. Anyone who has ever lost a close friend or loved one to a disease that slowly made them frail and invalid will understand what Schwarzenegger’s Wade Vogel and his family go through.
Maggie (Abigrail Breslin) is Wade’s eldest daughter from a previous marriage. She’s been bitten on the arm and has been infected with the virus. It’s only a few weeks before she turns and becomes cannibalistic. She has left the Midwestern farm where her family lives to move to a nearby city in hopes she won’t harm them. However. her attitude has changed and Wade has found her in a hospital with others who are infected.
Wade brings her home but he and his wife, Caroline (Joely Richardson) are going to send their youngest kids, Bobby (Aiden Flowers) and Molly (Carsen Flowers), to go live with their grandparents as they know Maggie will get worse and then have to be taken to “quarantine” where she will be euthanized by lethal injection. Unlike other zombie movies, in this one, people can die by other means than being shot or stabbed in the head.
It’s a slow movie that relies more on the drama of the characters rather than jump scares. Caroline is portrayed as a loving wife and mother who cares about Maggie very much. However, she also has to consider the safety of Bobby and Molly as well as herself and Wade. But Wade, himself, is also worried about that “Sophie’s Choice.” Is he able to sacrifice one child to save two other children?
Maggie was released in the spring of 2015. On Nov. 1, 2014, Brittany Maynard, 29, ended her life as she had been diagnosed with brain cancer as it was terminal. She had made news in the Fall of 2014 with both sides voicing their opinions on the matter. Maynard was only given six months to live. She had moved to Oregon to take advantage of the “Death With Dignity Act” for assisted suicide.
How does a parent or loved one make the decision? I’m sure writer John Scott 3 was inspired by the Terry Schiavo case as well as movies like Million Dollar Baby that raised the concerns over euthanasia for people who are facing a slow death. And of course, Jack Kevorkian had made a lot of news about assisted suicide in years prior to him writing the script.
If your cat or dog is sick, then it’s considered humane to end their suffering. Yet, if you’re slowly dying of cancer, then you have to drive up medical bills to live months and even years. My stepfather passed away 20 years ago this April. When he was diagnosed a year earlier, he bluntly refused treatment saying if it wasn’t going to totally cure him, he wasn’t going to go through it.
Under the direction of Henry Hobson in his first directing job, he manages to make a Terrence Malick-style movie that focuses more on the nature of the Midwest as Wade and Caroline try to go about their days as if everything is normal. Hobson has been more well-known as a graphic designer for title sequences in movies. He shows he has an eye for good storytelling.
During one scene, Maggie goes to hang out with her friend, Allie (Raeden Greer), and others at a bonfire where she bumps into a former boyfriend, Trent (Bryce Romero), who has become infected. Later Maggie and Allie talk about getting together again both knowing this will be the last time they see each other. Maggie doesn’t want to go to “quarantine” and Wade is given a “cocktail” from a doctor friend to end her life.
But as tensions grow between Wade and Caroline, he struggles with what to do. It’s a hard choice to make. I think of the scene in Steel Magnolias where Julia Roberts’ character is in a coma dying and Fields as her mother refuses to even leave her bedside for a few minutes. Later she has to wash as Dylan McDermott as the husband of Robert’s character has to sign the paperwork that takes her off life support.
The movie was released just as The Walking Dead’s popularity was waning as people began to see them repeated the same storyline over and over. If you’re expecting The Terminator Vs. Zombies, you will be disappointed. The violence/gore in this movie is very limited considering it’s rated PG-13. However, I feel too much violence will deter the movie’s tone.
These are characters who aren’t willing to kill their friends and neighbors other zombie movies have shown people do without much thought. George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead examined some of these themes but this movie looks at the realism that everyone dies yet there’s still some dignity left.
Seeing how people acted (and continue to act) during the pandemic around 2020-2022, it’s now become more of something we’re dealing with. A lot of people think it’s something serious while others are claiming it’s no different from the flu or acted like it was a conspiracy. In many ways, the movie mocks the gung-ho wannabe “Daryl Dixons” who think they can rush into someone’s house to kill an infected person without realizing they’re becoming more of the problem than the solution.
Breslin, Richardson and especially Schwarzenegger all give great performances. Sadly, the movie was given a limited release barely making back it’s $1.4 million budget with a $1.6 million box office. And some critics weren’t too kind. However, now that zombie movies have become dead, for lack of a better word, watching the movie years after Covid gives a eerie vibe about how hard it is to try to keep things normal with situations are anything but.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 