I used to think 80s teen movies were blue-pill, but most of them are really a decent mix of blue and red. I’ve been catching up on more recent movies lately, thanks to RiffTrax, and I’ve come to realize that newer action movies are far more blue-pill, often overwhelmingly so.
Maria Pitillo (hot betrayer)
Case in point, the Godzilla film made in 1998 (extremely stupid movie; great RiffTrax). Matthew Broderick plays a scientist who’s studying the effects of radiation on earthworms — pretty much the very definition of undatable nerd. In his science nerd van, he carries around a collage of pictures of his old girlfriend (Maria Pitillo), who we later find out left him eight years ago, and it appears he’s been pining away for her ever since. She’s ridiculously cute with a tremendous body, but it’s never explained how he got her in the first place. She tells her friends they were together for four years. He proposed, and she turned him down (of course, since she’s at least a 9 and he’s a worm scientist who looks like Matthew Broderick, so she wasn’t about to settle for him). She ran off to New York to try to become a famous reporter, but didn’t even have the guts to break up with him, just ran off without a call or a letter.
Vicki Lewis (invisible girl)
Meanwhile, Vicki Lewis (from NewsRadio) is basically throwing herself at him from the moment they meet. She’s no 10, but she’s not ugly either, but he barely sees her because he’s still waiting for Cutie.
When he and Cutie inevitably bump into each other while he’s saving the world and she’s being an annoying junior reporter, she accuses him of still being angry and causing her feelbad. He gives her the mildest rebuke in history for leaving him without a word after four years together, so she acts hurt and starts to walk away, until he apologizes to her for his rudeness, and then things are okay. She sees his collage of pictures of her that he’s been carrying around — even in the middle of saving the world — and instead of being creeped out, she’s touched.
- So, she dumped him, in a particularly hurtful way, but it’s his job to make her feel okay about it. Check.
- He stayed loyal and waited for her for 8 years while she Pursued Her Dreams. Check.
- She never apologizes for the dumping, and he takes her back without the slightest repentance or penance. Check.
- His one-itis touches her heart and brings her back, instead of driving her away again or telling her she can blow him off for another ten years because he’s sure to keep waiting. Check.
It’s got it all, all the blue-pill lies about how to get a girl (or how to get her back, in this case), what they find attractive, how caving in and being nice works better than standing up to them, etc.
There are a couple of very small red-pill truths, though, if you look hard enough (in a way, there have to be, to set up the blue-pill lies). For instance, the way a man being more in love with a woman than she is with him, and making her too comfortable by proposing, can push her away. That’s the one true note here. Unfortunately, the typical Nice Guy who needs to learn that lesson will miss it; he’ll focus on all the rest, and come away thinking, “Okay, so I just need to keep waiting for my runaway Princess, doting on her from afar, avoiding attachments with other women, until I get a chance to save her from a giant lizard someday — and then I’d better remember to be nice to her and not push her away again.”
He should have grabbed the girl who doted on him, burned the nostalgia pics, and then told the ditz he had better things to do than rehash old news.
Cail Corishev 
Totally forgot about that. My suspicion is that you’ll find that it wasn’t alone.
In fact, come to think of it, didn’t Independence Day have a strong BP theme?
Handsome, talented air force fighter pilot sleeping with a stripper (with a kid whose parentage isn’t clear) that he later marries, despite her not being wife material? Check.
Nerdy guy who saved the world was divorced by his wife who now works in the White House and is pretty much the Number 2 there, and is in many ways closer to the President (Alpha Prime) than the Prez’s wife, and then they miraculously end up together towards the end? Check.
Heh, ID4 is next on my list. You’re right, it’s even worse.
and is in many ways closer to the President (Alpha Prime) than the Prez’s wife, and then they miraculously end up together towards the end? Check.
She’s totally Lewinskying him under the resolute desk.
Anyway, it would be good if you did some analysis of the red pill/blue pill dynamic of 80s action movies. Most 90s action movies just don’t have the appeal of the 80s.
Where does this come from? Simple wish fulfillment by beta writers in Hollywood?
I’d like to respond to Donal about the nerdy guy in ID4, but since Cail says it’s next on the list I’ll just wait.
“Handsome, talented air force fighter pilot sleeping with a stripper (with a kid whose parentage isn’t clear) that he later marries, despite her not being wife material? Check.”
Well, he did take responsibility to serve as a role model for the rugrat. Will the boyzzz at Return of Kings even take that leap of faith? No, they would rather sell their anti-Godly masculinity wares.
“He should have grabbed the girl who doted on him, burned the nostalgia pics, and then told the ditz he had better things to do than rehash old news.”
Why? It is observably true that she (the redhead) is not hot enough, at least that’s what they tell me on the manosphere. I suppose he could have tapped that ass, then made excuses as to why they could not be together. The ol’ “pump and dump”. Works like a charm.
“It’s got it all, all the blue-pill lies…”
“Game” only works for those men who have the predisposition, aka a natural inclination, to use their charm and wit to convince women to date them, fuck them, and perhaps marry them, with the fail-safe of weaseling their way out of a long-term commitment should men find this option desirable. We are talking about the upper crust of men—good looking, suave, sophisticated–which is NOT reflective of the overall population of men, who employ game successfully on a consistent basis. The exception, of course, are those men who are have money and only a modicum of looks. They can pull 8’s, 9’s, and 10’s primarily because they have the Benjamins. Although I suppose it is advisable that self-made men refrain from marrying these women, lest they lose their fortune in a messy divorce.
What game actually reveals is that “high value men”** create specialized programs or lifestyle advice aimed at men with “lower social value”**. Boot camps or “in the field experiences” may temporarily increase the student’s confidence around women, but invariably the learning curve dips and he is inevitably back to square one. Sure, he may pull the lucky chick who is a 6 or 7 out of his hat, but those high value women that he craves are still not on their sexual radar. Why? Because of the guy’s evolutionary defaults.
**subjectively defined, of course
It was definitely a goofy movie – with Godzilla as a giant iguana, but fun for its NYC locale. The Madison Square Garden kaboom and the Brooklyn Bridge scene were worth the price of admission.
It is interesting how discovering the RP can totally change your view on certain movies. A few days ago I watched “Groundhog Day” again, as per the season. I used to love that movie, but this time it struck me how incredibly Blue Pill it is.
Just wondering whether there are movies that others used to really like before the RP and now look on with a totally different light?
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I’m very late to the party, but there is one other way in which Emmerich’s Godzilla (1998) works as a red pill metaphor. I wrote the following when gearing up for the 2014 reboot.
I must stop here to mention Roland Emmerich’s remake/reboot/reimagining/regurgitation simply titled Godzilla (1998). This travesty was an American-made boondoggle with absolutely no input from Toho Studios, thus negating its qualification for entry into the Godzilla mythos. The plot centered on an ugly, hostile, gargantuan, asexual (ersatz female), mutated reptile with bad skin and a shrill roar, who malevolently attacked a once-great civilization. This beast will henceforth be referred to as GINO (Godzilla In Name Only). While the parties responsible for the 1998 version failed to adequately represent Godzilla as a horrifying metaphor for nuclear Armageddon, they couldn’t have found a more appropriate horrifying metaphor for late twentieth century feminism. If I had the tolerance, fortitude and wherewithal to suffer multiple viewings of Godzilla (1998), I could easily churn out myriad deconstructionist academic papers with titles like “GINO: The Ultimate Riot Grrrl”, “Oh No, There Goes Tokyo! You Go Girl! Godzilla”, and “Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla and Sex In The City’s Samantha: Maneaters or Role-Models for Strong Independent Womyn?” However, I’d prefer to hit myself in the head with a goddamned tire iron.
https://retrointhe90s.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/007a-remedial-godzilla-studies/
As far as other movies with red pill truths, I’ve been re-watching a lot of old Universal monster movies on Svengoolie recently. It never ceases to amaze me how differently scientists were portrayed in the 1950s versus how they’ve been portrayed since roughly the mid-1980s. Think of Rex Reason in The Creature Walks Among Us (1956) and This Island Earth (1957), John Agar in Revenge of the Creature (1955), Tarantula (1955) or The Mole People (1956). These scientists were fit, confident and overtly masculine men who fought in WWII, dedicated themselves to their craft, and acted bravely in the face of danger. They were consistently portrayed as equally comfortable behind a microscope, brawling with gill-men or flirting with nubile female Ichthyologists. Sure, these are cinematic representations of imaginary stories, but it required no suspension of disbelief to buy into Rex Reason ending up with Leigh Snowden by the end of the film. Contrast that to the uber-nerdy Goldblum/Broderick archetype….. no contest.
Retro is reactionary.