Five Characters Willing to Make the Big Selfless Sacrifice for the Greater Good

by Brett Ashley McKenzie

Hunkered down in our basement as a good old summer Midwestern tornado warning passed, my kids reignited our usual comfort conversation that it was simply Thor causing the lightning and thunder, as Thor does, probably while getting a bad guy. 

Into month six of quarantine with my eight and four-year-old, our two dogs, and my husband, all things considered my children have gotten pretty well-adjusted to this bizarre new reality where their circle of interaction is limited to less than a handful of adults. With so many adult people acting so irresponsibly on the regular, I find myself constantly having tough conversations to remind my kids why we need to care for others as much as we care for ourselves.

My eight-year-old is old enough to understand the political and civic unrest; to read about #BlackLivesMatter, to candidly discuss racism, to create a whole art campaign all her own on Juneteenth, and to draw rainbows on the sidewalk for Pride. While my four-year-old still worships comic book heroes and the entire cast of any Star Wars movie, Sophie (my daughter) and I have talked at length about how sacrifice makes people heroic. Sometimes sacrifices include essential workers returning to their jobs; a teacher returning to her classroom for kids who would have no safe place to learn otherwise during Covid; a neighbor who dedicates all of their free time and energy to successfully petitioning our city council for reparations. 

On the big and small screen, here are five examples of NON MAGICAL, NON ENHANCED humans whose decisions for the greater good have wide-reaching implications. Fear not though, we'll be coming back to like Bing Bong the elephant clown memory from Inside Out in a future edition.

Lee Abbott, A Quiet Place (2018)

A horror story or a love story about family? John Krasinski is firmly in the camp of the latter.

The Abbott family in John Krasinski's landmark thriller A Quiet Place faces so many limitations of expression that it's essentially a silent horror movie about love. After enduring unimaginable loss, isolation, and hardship, the family has to put themselves back together in a way that seems to prioritize survival. And at times, that shift makes dad Lee Abbott feel almost callous, especially towards his daughter Regan. In a grand act toward the finale, it is made abundantly and unquestionably clear to Regan--played by the flawless and captivating Millicent Simmonds--that Lee's love for her is as deep as any force in this world. Krasinski often talks about how this film is a love story to his own children, proof in production form that he would do literally anything to protect them; something many of us who are parents relate to powerfully in watching A Quiet Place.

Steve Trevor, Wonder Woman (2017)

Trevor is played by a widely-hailed Hollywood "nice guy" in Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984.

It might seem as though being Wonder Woman's soulmate carries enough obligation with it that you should at least be able to quit your day job, maybe busy yourself offering Diana foot rubs and ice cream when she's not saving the world. Not General Steven Rockwell Trevor though. His deep sense of loyalty and almost "global patriotism" is heroic in its own right. He never shies away from being the one to do the next hardest thing. Diana reminds him to keep his moral compass pointed due north in her own ways, but he also shapes her understanding of what it takes to win a war battle by battle. We cannot wait to see how Steve makes it back to her in Wonder Woman: 1984 in a few months. 

Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games saga

Before she became the Mockingjay symbol of hope to all of Panem--and a political pawn unsure who was manipulating her in the end--Katniss Everdeen was simply a teenager who loved her little sister too much to allow her to enter a battle to the death against a bunch of other people. "I volunteer as tribute" set off a series of events spanning years that resulted in the liberation of suffering people across Panem. Katniss has to do some extraordinary and undesirable things to survive and she loses so much in the process. The irony of the ending is almost unbearable, but also indicative that Katniss isn't the only one who sees lives worth protecting more than her own. 

Boromir, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Sean Bean memes aside, man is Boromir unlikable for 90 percent of this film. But, and it's a pretty important but, everything that follows in the LOTR saga is thanks to Boromir taking those arrows to save the hobbits he came pretty close to betraying. The temptations of the race of men, yes, but in his final act at the end of the first film, Boromir proved to be made from tougher stuff. And it runs in the family, as far as his brother is concerned. Pretty sure not a soul on Middle Earth misses that douchebag of a father they shared. 

Lois Lane, Man of Steel/Superman vs. Batman/Justice League

She may not be the one flying into flaming buildings or throttling Steppenwolf, but she's no Mary Sue either. A top prizewinning journalist with a fierce commitment and obligation to the truth and freedom, she puts herself in harm's way regularly for the sake of her story. She's also sacrificing plenty of happiness having found true love with a man she has to share with a desperately needy universe. It would take only a word for Lois to keep Kal-El rooted to that farmhouse in Kansas with her, to a quieter life, because she is the only thing aside from kryptonite with any sway over Superman. Rather than begging him to stay, she sends him out into the world, a selfless kind of sacrifice that requires a woman nearly as strong inside as Superman is on the outside.