I recently had a chance to checkout Wonder Woman 1984 and found it a very enjoyable and imaginative episode in the adventures of the Amazonian demigoddess superhero. It is a tale extolling the virtue of truth over lies, selflessness over selfishness, frugality over greed. Lies, deceptions and falsities are typically employed for illicit gains motivated by avarice or greed but there is always a price to pay in the long run. Having a true evaluation of things allows us to grasp and hold fast to what is of supreme worth.
[Spoilers henceforth.]
Eons ago young Diana (Lilly Aspell) cheats in order to win an Amazonian competition against older warriors but Antiope (Robin Wright) denies her the victory. “No true hero is born from lies,” says the warrior to the child.
It is 1984 and the Smithsonian becomes the custodian of a mysterious artifact — the Dreamstone. Barbara Minerva / Cheetah (Kristen Wiig) is commissioned to research the find and Diana Prince / Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) offers assistance. They eventually discover the wish granting capacities of the object.
An evil god of mischief and treachery fashioned the Dreamstone with the power to grant a person one wish but at a dire cost. It is like the Monkey’s Paw. For example, a man out of a fit of rage yells at his wife, “I wish you were dead!” The Dreamstone grants the wish and causes the wife to die instantly of a heart attack. Archeological records indicate that civilizations typically fall after the appearance of the Dreamstone.
Diana wishes upon the Dreamstone to bring back Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), and the two are reunited, but there is a price to pay. The man she actually meets is really someone else (Kristoffer Polaha). The real Steve has really been dead for over six decades but another man takes on his appearance and memories. The wish also diminishes Diana’s superpowers.
Barbara wishes to be strong, sexy, cool and special like Diana, and the Dreamstone gives her more than expected, but the price the loss of her compassion. Prior to the wish, she would be a good soul who befriended and cared for a homeless man, but afterwards she loses her warmth joy and humanity. Max figures out a way to offer Barbara a second wish, she wishes to become “an apex predator” like none other, and she then mutates into Cheetah —feline humanoid amalgamation with superpowers.
Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) is a popular infomercial host who sells to viewers stocks for his failing oil company the Black Gold Cooperative. He grabs investors by appealing to their greed. He tells them: “Life is good! But it can be better. And why shouldn’t it be? All you need is to want it. Think about finally having everything you always wanted.” Max acquires possession of the Dreamstone by posing as a potential wealthy museum benefactor and makes a wish to become the Dreamstone. The wish is granted, and he becomes the embodiment of the Dreamstone. That catch is that for every wish he grants some of his own lifeforce is diminished and he begins to physically deteriorate. He must grant wishes and take the lifeforce from wishers to replace what he loses.
The President of the United States (Stuart Milligan) makes a wish for more nuclear weapons to deter threats from the Soviet Union, and Max grants the wish, but the Soviets take the sudden appearance of new nuclear silos throughout the United States an act of war, and they launch their nukes in retaliation. The Earth is brought to the brink of total annihilation.
Max fenagles a way to use U.S. military satellites to reach millions television viewers around the world in order to seduce them into wishing upon him. Multitudes are getting their wishes granted and paying the price for it. The world is in unparalleled distress as total nuclear annihilation looms closer and closer.
The curse of the Dreamstone can only be reversed by renouncing the wish. It also becomes apparent that this is the only way to keep the world from total nuclear annihilation. Reluctantly, Wonder Woman renounces her wish, Steve disappears but she regains the fullness of her superpowers. She must also battle to convince Max and Cheetah along with the rest of the world to renounce their wishes.
Wonder Woman battles and incapacitates Cheetah. She then loops the Lasso of Truth around Max’s leg, and uses his connection to the broadcasting satellites to make an appeal to the world. Those bound by the Lasso are not only compelled to speak the truth but they are enabled to perceive truth — specifically truth about themselves. She tells the world: “I’ve never wanted anything more. But he’s gone. And everything has a price. One I’m not willing to pay. You cannot have it all. You can only have the truth. The truth is enough. The truth is beautiful. So, look at this world and look at what your wish is costing it. You must be the hero. Only you can save the day. Renounce your wish, if you want to save this world.” All those suffering on account of wishing upon Max renounce their wishes and the effects of the curse are reversed. Coming to a true evaluation, Cheetah renounces her own wish and transforms back to Barbara. Max also sees the consequence of becoming the Dreamstone will result in his son Alistair (Lucian Perez), perishing in a nuclear holocaust. Max loves Alistair, but business keeps him from devoting any time to the boy. Alistair receives extravagant gifts from his father, but what the boy really wants is to spend time with his dad, loving and being loved. Max comes to realize the truth of the matter: the death of his son is too high of a cost to retain his wish. He then renounces his wish, the nuclear missiles disappear, and the world is set back to right.
Wonder Woman 1984 tells a story about the way people infected with greed are inevitably consumed and destroyed. Greed blinds us and distorts reality. It moves us to cheat and grasp for glorious things through deception. It entices us to give into a bit of fudging of the facts for personal advancement.1 It steals the prize of the victor without really being truly worthy of the accolades due to victorious. But heroes are not born from lies. Greed ends in destruction.
Christianity even warns against being seduced by greed. For example, the Apostle Paul instructs Timothy:
But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs (1 Tim. 6:6-10).2
James, likewise, gives this warning to Christians:
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God (Jas. 4:1-4).
James and Paul were wise to warn the Church about the danger of being seduced and destroyed by greed. Even today there are widely circulated quasi-Christian teachings that purport to offer access to a hidden force to perfect health and unlimited wealth. Some call that unlimited force to health and wealth is called the power of positive thinking, mind sciences, New Thought or The Secret. Others call the Word of Faith. Faith is a force. Words are containers of that force. Through the use of faith filled words, one can positively confess perfect health and unlimited wealth. These false doctrines often come wrapped in a thin veneer of Christian terminology but they are distorted perversions of the truth.3
What makes Wonder Woman true hero is she forsakes her personal interest for the needs of others. She is powerful yet wise and compassionate. She is humble. This is the virtue that the Apostle Paul wanted to cultivate among Christians. He instructs them: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Phil. 2:2-4). Paul believes Jesus Christ the very incarnation of the one true God of the universe. Yet, Christ is truly great because of His humility. As the ancient Christological hymn goes:
Though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:6-11).
I really enjoyed Wonder Woman 1984. It is a well-told story of the way greed consumes and destroys people. This one is worth checking out.
— WGN
- For a good discussion on cheating being a way of preserving a caricature of one’s self, cf. Richard J. Poupard, “Lying to Ourselves: Why We Cheat,” Christian Research Journal, 41, 2 [2018]: https://www.equip.org/article/lying-to-ourselves-why-we-cheat/
- All Scriptures cited from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), unless noted.
- The power of positive thinking has its roots in the occult, particularly with the New Though metaphysics teaching of Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (1802-1866). Quimby’s teachings would become foundational to other metaphysical mind science cults such as: Christian Science founded by Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910), Unity co-founded by Charles Filmore (1854-1948) and Myrtle Fillmore (1845-1931), and Religious Science founded by Ernest Holmes (1887-1960). The same metaphysical teachings are also rebooted in The Secret. It was Essek William Kenyon (1867-1948) who initially repackaged the New Thought metaphysical idea for Christian consumption, and Kenyon’s ideas were subsequently popularized by Kenneth “Dad” Hagin (1917-2003). The Word of Faith message would eventually get a worldwide platform via the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) founded by Paul and Jan Crouch in 1974. Multitudes have been introduced to Word of Faith doctrines through televangelist Kenneth Copeland. Elements of Word of Faith theology have been propagated by Creflo Dollar, Jesse DuPlantis, John Hagee, Marilyn Hickey, Benny Hinn, TD (Theodore Dexter) Jakes, Joyce Meyer, T.L. Osborne, John Osteen, Joel Osteen, Rod Parsley, Fredrick K.C. Price, Joseph Prince, Jerry Savelle, Robert Tilton, and Paula White. For further study, see Hank Hanegraaff, Christianity in Crisis 21st Century (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson. 2009). See also: Hank Hanegraaff, “Osteenification and What It Portends,” Christian Research Journal, 37, 3 [2014] https://www.equip.org/article/osteenification-and-what-it-portends/, Hank Hanegraaff, “Christianity in Crisis: 21st Century,” Christian Research Journal, 32, 1 [2009] https://www.equip.org/articles/christianity-crisis-21st-century-wealth-want1/, Bob Hunter, “Christianity Still in Crisis,” Christian Research Journal, 30, 3 [2007]: https://www.equip.org/articles/christianity-still-in-crisis-/, Hank Hanegraaff and Erwin M. de Castro, “What’s Wrong with the Faith Movement (Part 2): The Teachings of Kenneth Copeland, Christian Research Journal, 15, 4 [1993]: https://www.equip.org/articles/whats-wrong-with-the-word-faith-movement-part-two-/ Hank Hanegraaff and Erwin M. de Castro, “What’s Wrong with the Faith Movement (Part 1): E.W. Kenyon and the Twelve Apostles of Another Gospel,” Christian Research Journal, 15, 3 [1993]: https://www.equip.org/articles/whats-wrong-with-the-word-faith-movement-part-one-/
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