WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Chaos Walking, in theaters now.
Though Chaos Walking is set over two hundred years in the future, the film addresses topics that are pressing in today’s society. One such topic is toxic masculinity, and in Prentisstown, a community inhabited exclusively by men, toxic masculinity runs rampant. Through the characters and the story, Chaos Walking does an excellent job of displaying and calling out this concept, providing the audience with an important lesson.
Toxic masculinity is defined as, “a cultural concept of manliness that glorifies stoicism, strength, virility and dominance, and that is socially maladaptive or harmful to mental health.” Masculinity in and of itself isn’t bad, but twisted by the patriarchy and society’s view of what a man should be can make it toxic. Todd Hewitt, Chaos Walking‘s protagonist, is a young man entering adulthood, but his idea of manhood is skewed by Prentisstown’s toxic masculinity enforced by the mayor, David Prentiss.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view.
Though seemingly kind at first, the Mayor has an agenda of his own, which is based in his lust for total power and his strongly-held misogynistic ideals. However, this desire stems from fear. David fears things that are unknown to him and that he can’t control. This is why he and other men in Prentisstown murdered all the women — they were afraid that they couldn’t decipher what the women were thinking, yet their Noise was on display for all to see.
Though now absent from Prentisstown, women are hated among most of the men there. At the beginning of Chaos Walking, Todd encounters the town preacher, Aaron, who hits him and says he’s weak “like a woman.” It seems that being called a woman is the harshest insult in this community and something that sticks with Todd. As Todd is the youngest boy in Prentisstown, he’s constantly looked down upon. His greatest desire, up until meeting Viola, is to “be a man,” a phrase he mentally berates himself with. To him, being a man means hiding one’s emotions and feelings, as well as being physically strong and prepared to kill.
In the last act of Chaos Walking, Mayor Prentiss finally gets what’s coming to him in the final showdown between him and Todd. Just when it seems like David might kill the boy, Todd funnels all his strength into his Noise, which recreates a vision of the Prentisstown women who were killed. The women tell David he isn’t the strong leader he tricked Prentisstown into believing he is — he’s just a coward who’s afraid of what he can’t control.
While David is distracted by the visions of the women, Viola leaps in and saves the day, knocking the mayor off the ledge and into the abyss of the abandoned spaceship. The scene proves David’s entire philosophy wrong, as Viola shows that women aren’t weak, and Todd reminds everyone that brute force isn’t necessary to win an argument as a man.
These scenarios in Chaos Walking are prime examples of toxic masculinity. Strength, virility and stoicism are held in high regard in Prentisstown. Likewise, women are looked down upon while men are viewed in high regard, but in actuality the former are feared by the latter in this world.
Though Prentisstown is saturated in toxic masculinity, Todd manages to withstand it. With the help of Viola, he learns that he doesn’t have to kill to be respected and that showing emotions isn’t a sign of weakness. Chaos Walking provides a message that’s crucial for our society today. In a world still largely influenced by the patriarchy and toxic masculinity, its films like these that can make a change. It starts with teaching young men that they don’t have to be stoic, dominant or tough, and that they can be sensitive, emotional and caring, and through Todd’s journey, Chaos Walking shows just that.
Directed by Doug Liman, Chaos Walking stars Tom Holland, Daisy Ridley, Mads Mikkelsen, Demián Bichir, Cynthia Erivo, Nick Jonas, Kurt Sutter and David Oyelowo. The film is currently in select theaters.
About The Author