Film characters that have motivated you?

Are there any film characters that have motivated or inspired you?


Here's a few of mine 👇


Vincent from collateral. Vincent pushes the character Max to go after what he wants in life, but obviously being a hitman he puts Max's needs secondary to his mission and is not oppose to killing him if he becomes an inconvenience. The character Max is a dreamer who deep down is too afraid to make the first move towards what he wants which is his own limo company. He is also too nervous to reach out to the girl he likes. It is a crime against yourself to never reach your full potential and when I was a young teenager suffering from anxiety the character of Vincent inspired me to seize the day more in my own life. Vincent serves as a harsh reality check and still to this day one of my favorite antagonists. He is not motivational in the traditional sense though as he is not supportive or someone who will pat you on the back but he gives it to people straight. Vincent is obviously extreme but I think we all need someone who is able to call us out when we're not reaching our potential in life.


Bodhi Safa from Point break. He perfectly embodies spirituality and masculinity apart from the bank robbing I have always found his care free lifestyle motivational.

Nothing inspires me more than Ed Wood (1994)



He just did what he could with what he had, and he seemed to stay positive the entire time.

Strong women in movies, such as Scarlett O’Hara.

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COLLATERAL proved me wrong about 1 thing: Tom Cruise not being convincing as a Hit Man because he was more than convincing.. This is such a great movie with a cool soundtrack and the overall Miami Vice look of it during the Nightclub scenes was nothing short of AWESOME

Love this movie.

Johnny Depp's Ed Wood was just totally great with his positive can do attitude!

Rocky Balboa got to be the ultimate motivator.. for me and I'm sure for many

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Sadly, I came away from the movie feeling that the lesson was that sometimes a positive attitude alone isn't enough.

SUPERMAN


He motivated me to take off flying through the air whenever i am dreaming lucid.

That's pretty stupid.

Why's that?

According to the movie, Ed Wood had positivity in the part of his life that could be called a heyday (perhaps by the standards of the poverty-stricken)... and that's about it. He never became rich (or even comfortable) or famous (or even known) during his filmmaking career. The movie doesn't tell the story of the rest of his life...

He lived the latter part of his life struggling and in obscurity: a chronic alcoholic who lived in squalor and no longer practiced personal hygiene, whose personal life was in turmoil as alcohol-fueled spousal abuse marked his last marriage. Toward the end of his life he had to write pornography to make ends meet and he died penniless & homeless (while crashing at a friends' house after being evicted) at the young age of 54!

He's one of those few artists who never knew success until long after he was dead - as his films gathered cult followings and his life story gained interest.

So how is his story an inspiration? He failed at what he wanted to achieve (until long after he could enjoy the ultimate success that his work found).

Personally, I'd rather live happily with no legacy than leave some far off legacy (only realized after I was dead) while living and dying impoverished, homeless, addicted, compromised and forgotten.

Those are all good points.

I believe Phantom, like me, was referring to the characterization of Ed Wood by Johnny Depp. Ironically I once read a quote from Wood's girlfriend who is played in the movie by Sarah Jessica Parker...the quote was that Ed Wood in real life was sour and not optimistic like Depp played him.

I understand what you guys are saying - and I could see the character in the movie appearing inspirational, but I viewed it as a biography (a snapshot of a moment in between two parentheses in time) of a life where I knew the final chapter.

Ed did not live happily ever after - and I don't know what to attribute that to (perhaps the times he lived in, his own sexual confusion, being a war veteran, falling into addiction, just not getting a lucky break? Or perhaps his real-life lack of positivity - as you mentioned, Rules - helped lead to his downfall.) If he was truly as positively persistent & determined as depicted in the movie, maybe his life would have had a different outcome.

And I'm a huge proponent of positive thinking. It may not be the only element to success, but most success couldn't be achieved without it.

So I'm still wondering why viewing the excellent film called "Ed Wood" within the context of Wood's real life is considered "pretty stupid"?

When I was 17-18, I saw "American Beauty" and liked the anti-materialist message, and ... to not take shit from anyone. Impressionable age.

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I thought the message was to enjoy your teenage years whether occur when you middle-aged or not.

Right, that, too. Live for the present, forget about next year. My little brother didn't make it past 37. And I don't know for sure if he saw that movie or not, which is another difficult part of losing the closest person in my life. Not having the movie conversations I've been waiting for all our lives as I'd give him links, recommendations, hours of talk, thinking it would improve his life, and mine. In the last handful of years, he did manage to see about a dozen or so great movies.

Plotting revenge.
Surviving a disaster.
Surviving a disease.

I don't know if this is an obscure one or not, but Peggy from Year of the Dog.

Also, listening to Jack rant in The House that Jack Built has quite literally brought success to my life.

For me, it is Chris Gardner from The Pursuit of Happiness (2006) I think that his studies for the exam really got me to motivated me to study

Joy, the eponymous character played by Jennifer Lawrence