The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) Part 10: Worst Nightmares

It’s a gray, chilly morning and the Dawn Treader is sailing towards Dark Island.

Minotaur: So what do you think is out there?
Edmund: Our worst nightmares.
Caspian: Our darkest wishes.
Drinian: Pure evil.

The dry way Gary Sweet delivers that last line almost makes it sound like he’s sarcastically mocking the others. I’d almost like to believe that was the intent because the dialogue is so cheesy. I don’t hold much hope for the possibility though. Drinian orders everyone to arm themselves for whatever dangers they’re about to encounter and we get a series of brief scenes to demonstrate that they’ve Learned Their Lessons. In their cabin, MLG tells Lucy she wants to be just like her when she grows up. “When you grow up, you should be just like you,” Lucy tells her. This is the lesson that feels the most disconnected from the main plot and even the movie’s themes in general. To be fair, the whole thing with Lucy and the magician’s book in the source material was fairly disconnected from the book’s main plot and themes too^[1]Some have argued that just as Eustace, Caspian and Edmund are tempted by the power that comes from money, Lucy is tempted by the power that comes from beauty and knowledge. but that’s why C. S. Lewis didn’t have a scene right before the climax to remind us of it. Meanwhile in the stern cabin, Caspian and Edmund have this conversation.

Caspian: In case we don’t get through…whatever this, I want you to know I think of you as my brother, Ed.
Edmund: Me too.^[2]I assume he means “likewise” and doesn’t think of himself as his brother. That’s a joke, not a serious criticism by the way.
Caspian: You gave up your sword.
Edmund: It wasn’t mine to keep.
Caspian (handing him Peter’s sword): Use this.
Edmund: But it’s-
Caspian: Peter would want you to have it.

This scene is fine. It’s not that memorable but we’ve reached my least favorite section of the film by a long shot, so I want to emphasize when anything is fine.

Reepicheep is riding on Eustace the dragon’s head. “Our battle awaits,” he says as they come in sight of Dark Island. Amusingly, Eustace then turns around and starts to fly away. Reepicheep has to pull on his horns and get in his face to turn him around. “I will not accept surrender,” he says, “A noble warrior does not run from fear. Look at me! Look at me when I’m talking to you!” Eustace’s growl and begrudging obedience here are pretty hilarious.

“I am a mouse!” Reepicheep continues. “You, you’re a dragon! You’ve got skin like chainmail! You breathe fire! Come on! Let’s meet our destiny!” OK, let me stop this movie right there. Reepicheep would never imply that being a mouse was a reason not to be brave! You could argue that since this is a very private conversation, Reepicheep is admitting something he never normally would because it’s the only way to get through to Eustace. But Simon Pegg doesn’t play it like it’s a super personal confession or anything. Reepicheep seems totally nonchalant. And I’m again tired of the movie emphasizing the awesomeness of Eustace’s dragon form. Are they implying that the only reason he should be brave is that he’s a dragon? It’d be better character development if he had to be brave as a human-which is actually what he has to do in the book in which he transforms back much earlier. To be fair, he’ll sort of have to be brave as a human in the movie’s climax too but, well, it’s going to be a weird scene.

Anyway, right outside Dark Island, Caspian gives a pep talk to the crew. It broadly corresponds to one he gives them on Ramandu’s Island in the book when it seems that many of them wish to return home and might well refuse to keep sailing east. Given the movie’s track record, you can bet its version of the speech won’t be as eloquent as the book’s.^[3]In a deleted scene from the movie, they would have briefly threatened mutiny. Maybe if that had been kept, the context would have given this speech more of an impact. But the aborted mutiny was also … Continue reading “No matter what happens here,” Caspian says, “every soul who stands before me has earned their place on the crew of the Dawn Treader. Together we have traveled far. Together we have faced adversity. Together we can do it again. So now is not the time to fall into fear’s temptations,” he says, awkwardly tying the movie’s two themes together. “Be strong! Never give in! Our world, our Narnian lives depend on it. Think of the lost souls we’re here to save. Think of Aslan. Think of Narnia.” Everyone cheers, “For Narnia!” You’d think somebody might cry “For Aslan” too-especially Lucy-but no. Caspian actually looks a little startled and surprised his words worked so well. Can’t say I blame him.

The Dawn Treader sails into the darkness. It’s not as creepy as I imagine from the book but it’s not bad.

Green Mist washes over the deck. It seems to hypnotize everyone even the rowers below. Rhince sees a vision of his wife running toward him, but it evaporates as soon as they meet. Caspian hears his father (Nathaniel Parker)’s voice^[4]Longtime fans of my blog may remember Parker as Harold Skimpole from Bleak House. saying, “You are a great disappointment to me. You call yourself my son? Then act like a king.” Edmund sees the White Witch again. Instead of just being a fear like the other visions^[5]I’m assuming the thing with Rhince represents his fear of losing his wife forever., she also represents a temptation. “Come with me,” she says. “Be my king. I’ll let you rule.”

White Witch: Come with me. Be my king. I’ll let you rule.
Edmund: Go away. You’re dead.
White Witch: You can never kill me! I’ll always be alive in your mind, silly boy!
Edmund: No!

Lucy snaps Edmund out of his trance. “Are you alright?” she asks. He answers, “yeah,” but not very convincingly. They hear a strange, mournful cry from somewhere out in the darkness. In the book, this moment happens in total stillness. I feel like having it come when characters are talking lessens the impact but oh well. The voice comes from a rock protruding from the water. It warns the ship to keep away. “We do not fear you,” calls Caspian. “Nor I you,” says the voice. Edmund shines his torch on the rock, illuminating a bedraggled man (Bruce Spence) brandishing a sword. “You will not defeat me!” he hollers. “Caspian, his sword!” cries Edmund. Caspian identifies this man as Lord Rhoop. Spence is fine as this traumatized character by the way. He’s not as intense as I imagine him from the book, but I suppose the movie could only go so far if it didn’t want a rating higher than PG.

Eustace plucks Rhoop from the rock and sets him on deck. This is hardly a good way to quiet the man’s fears, but it is efficient. “Be calm, my lord,” says Caspian as he tries to keep Rhoop from attacking his rescuers. “We are not here to hurt you. I am your king, Caspian.” Rhoop turns his wide eyes to him and strokes his face as is afraid it will vanish. “You should not have come!” he cries. “There’s no way out of here! Quickly! Turn this ship about before it’s too late!” Edmund agrees with the sentiment. “We have the sword,” he says, “let’s go!” Caspian orders Drinian to turn the ship around. “Do not think!” says Lord Rhoop. “Do not let it know your fears, or it will become them!” Edmund cringes.

Edmund: Oh no!
Lucy: Edmund? What did you just think of?!
Edmund: Oh, I’m sorry!

I’m told this little moment closely resembles one from Ghostbusters (unseen by me.) I doubt it was a deliberate homage since the Ghostbusters moment is comedic and the one in this movie is (meant to be) dramatic. Maybe the screenwriters were influenced by it subconsciously. Who knows? Anyway, Edmund looks over the side of the deck and sees what appear to be more rocks sticking out of the water but are actually giant scaly coils-coils that are slithering towards the ship.

“It’s too late! It’s too late!” screams Rhoop. MLG backs away from the railing all the way to the other side of the ship just in time for the head of a giant sea serpent to rise out of the water behind her!

The whole situation with Dark Island is different and, if you ask me, more interesting in the book. The crew sails in, not having any idea of the island’s nature but guessing it’s something bad. They find the traumatized Rhoop who explains it’s the Island Where Dreams Come True. The sailors think that sounds pretty wonderful until he clarifies that it makes actual dreams you have in your sleep come true, not wishes or daydreams. At once, everyone but the fearless Reepicheep panics and turns the ship around but however hard they row, they can’t seem to make progress. We don’t see any nightmares, but everyone hears-or thinks they hear-something different.

“Do you hear a noise like… like a huge pair of scissors opening and shutting… over there?” Eustace asked Rynelf.
“Hush!” said Rynelf. “I can hear them crawling up the sides of the ship.”
“It’s just going to settle on the mast,” said Caspian.
“Ugh!” said a sailor. “There are the gongs beginning. I knew they would.”

There is a sea serpent that attacks the ship in the middle of the book but it’s just an ordinary animal. Now I prefer having everyone’s bad dreams being undefined as it allows the reader to insert their own most horrible nightmare. But it’s true that this might not have worked as well in a movie^[6]If I were adapting the story to film, I’d have point-of-view shots slinking along the sides of the ship or flying overhead as the crew panicked, implying that something was sneaking towards … Continue reading and if they had to show one, I have to say I prefer making the sea serpent the nightmare to having it be things like Caspian disappointing his father or Edmund giving into the White Witch’s whiles. I know there are fans out there who find those things fascinating but to me, they make the worst fears boring because they’re so…understandable. Watching them we go, “Oh, of course, he wishes he could have had a good relationship with the parent he never knew” and “Oh, he feels guilty for betraying his siblings in the first movie.” Real nightmares aren’t so easily interpreted which is what makes them so terrifying. And to the movie’s credit, it does make the sea serpent quite scary. It might actually be one of the scariest things in any of the three Narnia movies.

MLG runs to Lucy for protection. Eustace swoops down and grabs onto the serpent. Reepicheep climbs off Eustace’s head and onto the serpent’s, stabbing it with his sword. The beast shakes the mouse off its head and onto the ship. Then it throws off Eustace, smashing him against a rock. He recovers though and lights the serpent’s head on fire. It douses it in the water. Panicking, Rhoop hurls his special Narnian sword that the crew came to collect at Eustace. It sticks into him, and he howls and flies away despite Lucy’s protests. Is it terrible that this made me laugh? “We are doomed, doomed!” rants Rhoop. “Turn this ship about!” He actually shoves away the helmsman and grabs the wheel himself. I believe I’m supposed to laugh at that. Drinian knocks him out and orders the crew to their rowing positions. “Oars at double speed,” he says. We hear voiceover of Lucy’s thoughts. “Aslan, please help us.” This is similar to what she prays in the book though there her wording is “Aslan, Aslan, if you ever loved us at all, send us help now.” Not sure why they made the wording less dramatic, but whatever.

At this point in the book, a beam of lights cuts through the darkness. An albatross appears in it and leads the ship out of Dark Island. First though, it whispers to Lucy, “Courage, dear heart,” implying that the bird is really Aslan. My brief summary may not sound that exciting but this is a wonderful passage from the book, one I’d resigned myself to not having in the movie since it had clearly made the story be about the heroes destroying it with the seven swords, not escaping it. So I was surprised and delighted to see and hear the albatross here and wondered what part it would play in this reimagined version of the scene.

Then we cut to the rowers below deck working as hard as they can. Then we cut to the wounded Eustace emerging from Dark Island and dropping on a convenient stretch of sand nearby. Then we cut to the sea serpent looping itself around the Dawn Treader, much as the book describes. Lucy hurries MLG below deck and I wonder when we’re going to get back to the albatross. Then it dawns on me we’re not getting back to the albatross at all. You know, as a fan of the Narnia books, there had been moments before in this series of adaptations that made me wince (like Mr. Beaver referring to Aslan as “the top geezer”) or even groan (like Susan becoming Caspian’s love interest) but this is the first time I’ve ever felt insulted by a Narnia movie. Did they really think they could totally change this scene and then keep fans happy by randomly showing the albatross for a few seconds like that? Do they really think we’re that easily pleased? And how on earth does this play for viewers who haven’t read the book? In the middle of intense action scene, we pause for Lucy to stare at a bird as happy music plays? It’s just so clumsy that I’m ready to give up on the whole movie!

Oh well. I’ve come this far. Caspian plans to use the ship to smash the sea serpent against the rocks. Seems like that would also destroy the Dawn Treader but what do I know? “I’ll keep it on the prow!” yells Edmund. Sitting in the mouth of the dragon’s head prow, he uses his torch to get the serpent’s attention. It bites off the prow and for a moment, it looks like Edmund has been swallowed but no, he’s still there.

The space between the sea serpent and the rock is diminishing but its coils are also tightening around the ship. Lucy fires an arrow at it which finds its mark but doesn’t do much against the beast. The ship succeeds in smashing the serpent against the rock. Edmund is thrown to the deck. Green mist emerges from the part of the serpent’s body that the ship hit but nothing else.

We cut back to Eustace on the sand. Aslan approaches him. Eustace randomly scratches his belly. This is another reference to the book that just confuses newcomers and insults fans by being so undercooked. In the book, Eustace the dragon meets Aslan in a scene that may be a dream, but which certainly has real effects. (We only hear about it from Eustace afterwards.) Aslan wordlessly tells Eustace to undress himself. Eustace is confused at first but then realizes he’s supposed to shed his dragon skin the way snakes’ shed theirs. He tears it off with his claws easily and painlessly, only to find there’s another dragon skin underneath just as ugly. He tears off layer after layer, never feeling any pain but never making any progress either. Presumably, Eustace scratching himself in the movie is supposed to be the equivalent of that but there’s no way anyone unfamiliar with the book would guess the idea. Sheesh, I’m familiar with the book and I didn’t understand it at first. Maybe they should have had a scene before this of Eustace tearing at his scales. “What is he doing?” someone could have asked. “He’s trying to take his dragon skin off,” another character could have said. “He wants to be human again.” Without Eustace easily removing a layer of skin only to find it did no good, this still would have lost a big part of the book’s symbolism, but it would have been something.

In the book, Aslan tells Eustace he must let him undress him. A frightened but desperate Eustace consents. Aslan’s claws tear into his body and only then does Eustace emerge as a boy. “It hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt,” he reports. “The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off.” In the movie, Aslan scratches the sand with his claws and glowing…scratches, I guess, appear on Eustace’s body. Then Aslan roars and the dragon’s body sort of explodes in a shower of sparks. (I can’t describe it better than that.) Eustace lands on the beach of Ramandu’s Island, a boy again. This totally misses the point of the scene’s imagery in the book! From what I’ve gathered, the filmmakers didn’t want Aslan’s claws to physically touch Eustace as that would give the movie too high a rating. I can sympathize with that as I don’t think a PG-13 rating would reflect the book’s content, but would it really have been so disturbing? In the first Narnia movie, the White Witch killed Aslan by stabbing him and that got a PG. (Keep in mind both Aslan and the dragon are animated creatures, not people.) It’s not like the book describes guts spilling out of Eustace’s sides. The analogies it uses are of scabs coming off and snakes shedding their skins. A movie wouldn’t even need to show Aslan’s claws penetrating the skin. The moment they started to do so, it could have cut to Eustace’s pained expression. As it is, we don’t get the idea that Eustace is surrendering to Aslan, admitting he can’t become a better person without him and neither do we get much impression that this was a painful process for Eustace since the whole transformation is so brief and generic.^[7]For what it’s worth, I don’t hate this scene as much as some Narnia fans I’ve encountered who describe it as looking like the climactic transformation from Dreamworks’s Shrek … Continue reading I guess if you look closely at the dragon’s face, it looks somewhat pained and it does roar but by that point, you’re just making excuses for the movie. The scene doesn’t feel painful to watch except maybe if you’re a fan who wanted to see a good adaptation of it.

To be fair, the movie will later have Eustace describe the scene to the other characters similarly to how the book describes it. I appreciate that but I wish you could get some of the book’s message about mankind being unable to improve itself without God, painful as God’s assistance may be, just from watching the scene itself.

Back to Dark Island. The sea serpent is really mad now. As it rises over the Dawn Treader, it pulls back a hood like a cobra’s, revealing dozens of tendrils that rattle menacingly. This makes it more over-the-top than the book’s sea serpent but by making it one of Dark Island’s nightmares, I think the movie needed for it be more over-the-top.

The serpent makes a dive for Edmund. Caspian shoves him out of the way and chops off one of the beast’s tendrils with his sword. It dissipates into smoke which encourages Caspian to believe they can beat it. Meanwhile, Eustace wakes up and realizes that not only is he human, but Rhoop’s sword is no longer sticking into his side. There’s not even a wound. The sword lies nearby. Eustace picks it up and runs to Aslan’s table, realizing what he must do. While this goes on, the sea serpent chews on the Dawn Treader’s flag.

The crew throw harpoons with ropes attached at it while Edmund climbs up the rigging. At Aslan’s table, the six swords that have been laid there are rattling and glowing blue. (It looks silly.) Eustace’s is glowing blue too but before he can set it down and unleash the blades’ full power, Green Mist billows behind him. It actually grabs Eustace from behind rather than just enveloping him. We’ve never seen it do that before, but I suppose so near the Dark Island, it would be powerful. Eustace actually uses the last sword like some kind of flyswatter to beat off the Mist. It looks about as silly as that description sounds.

Just as Edmund reaches the level of the sea serpent’s face, the White Witch appears beside him again. “What do you want to prove?” she demands. “That you’re a man? I can make you that. I can make you my king. Just take my hand.” I am so tired of her schtick. Some of the harpoons have stuck into the sea serpent by now and the crew try to use the ropes to pull it down but they’re the ones who end up being yanked around by it. Eustace manages to toss the final sword on the pile. A giant beam of blue light shoots from the swords into the sky. Peter’s sword in Edmund’s hand starts to glow too. When the sea serpent tries to devour him again, he uses the sword to stab it. The Witch dissolves and lightning shoots out of the serpent’s mouth. I guess when Coriakin said that the heroes needed to lay all seven swords at Aslan’s table, he meant “because that will make the eighth sword glow and destroy the monster of which the Mist will have taken the form.” I guess I can’t blame him for simplifying things. This all looks very silly if you ask me.

But I do like the imagery of the serpent’s body dissolving into mist as it sinks to the bottom of the sea. I like the imagery of the sunbeams cutting through the Mist as it all disappears even better. While it’s obviously different from the way C. S. Lewis depicted the destruction of Dark Island^[8]In the book, the characters just looked around after they’d gotten out of it and saw that it was gone., it feels like something he would describe. There really is the feeling that the character are waking up from a bad dream. I could have done without Lucy saying, “The spell, it’s lifting!” Thanks, we got that.

At Ramandu’s Island, the three lords are also freed from their enchanted sleep and the roots that had grown around them disappear. From the deck of the Dawn Treader, the longboats full of sacrificed Lone Islanders, all of them alive and well, can be seen. Rhince and MLG recognize their wife and mother (respectively) in one of them. They dive overboard and swim to her. Edmund and Lucy tearfully watch the reunion, doubtless thinking of their own family, and I still don’t really care about Rhince and MLG.

“We did it,” Lucy says to Edmund and Caspian, “I knew we would.” That’s the kind of line that can only work if the actor delivers it ecstatically. Instead, Georgie Henley delivers the first part calmly and the second part almost like it’s supposed to be a humorous moment, as if Lucy had been really terrified and were now trying to cover it. I’m guessing Henley was trying to do something interesting with the boring material she was given but she accidentally made it worse instead. “Wasn’t just us though,” says Edmund. Now in the book, when Lord Rhoop credits the sailors with destroying Dark Island, Lucy says, “I don’t think it was us,” the implication being that it was Aslan. I was pleased for a moment, thinking the movie might be honoring the text. But no, they seem to be talking about Eustace who apparently decided to swim all the way from Ramandu’s Island to the ship and could do so. Either that or the screenwriters just forgot where he was.

“I see your wings have been clipped” says Reepicheep and jumps into the water because why not?^[9]In the book, Reepicheep dives into the sea to fight one of the sea people, so this is a rare instance of the movie forgoing an action scene. He starts to sing his song about the waves being sweet where the sky meets the water and realizes that the water in which he swims does in fact taste sweet. I’d honestly forgotten that was supposed to be a thing in this story by now and I had read the book. I imagine a viewer who hadn’t would be even less likely to remember or be interested in that.

Reepicheep directs the others’ attention to a vast stretch of whiteness in the sea ahead of the ship.

Caspian: Aslan’s country. We must be close.
Edmund: Well, we’ve come this far.

Some fans have objected that that flippant line undermines the amazingness of sailing to Aslan’s country, making it something the characters might as well do since why not? To be fair, I’m guessing Edmund’s words were intended as humorous understatement and that’s there’s really no question of passing up on this opportunity. But because the movie itself has treated Aslan’s country as an afterthought, that’s sadly how it ends up coming across.

Next Week: Well, Once We’ve Gotten Through the Worst of the Movie, It Happily Ends on a Highnote