What Are All These Movies With Bears Trying to Tell Us?
By: Jenni Holtz
Tags: Film, Movies, Bears, Animals

We humans have a complicated relationship with bears. In popular stories, books, and movies, bears often play the part of large, intimidating, carnivorous creatures to be feared, and yet are also often the fluffy, adorable friends that are given to children in plush form. Much of their representation is aimed at youth: Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Paddington, The Berenstain Bears, and more. Historically, bears have also repeatedly shown up in mythology and folklore, often symbolizing rebirth or a connection with the spiritual world.

In three recent films: The Revenant (2015), Annihilation (2018), and Midsommar (2019), bears appears as a major component of the story. The bear takes on a different meaning in each film, but their overall presence may speak to the increasingly relevant cultural conversation about the devastating effects of climate change and the destruction of forests.

‘The Revenant’ (2015)

Photo: 20th Century Fox

The Revenant (dir. Alejandro G. Iñárrito) is beautiful and grisly. The true survival story of Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) is one of real-life horror set against the backdrop of the seemingly endless forests of the Dakotas. In the midst of battles with Native Americans, Hugh Glass and his fellow fur trappers are living in the forest to scout the land for animals to hunt. Glass, while separated from the group, is mauled by a grizzly bear. He is left severely injured and nearly dead. Two members of the group stay with Glass but eventually, they leave him alone in the wilderness to die. Miraculously, Glass lives off the land and survives, despite the hardships of living in nature, the same thing that left him bleeding on the forest floor.

Photo: 20th Century Fox

The story of Hugh Glass persevered nearly two hundred years after the real life attack occurred because it is a story of the triumph of the human spirit over nature. Even with limited resources, Glass survived the bear attack. Though his survival is miraculous, it’s also an experience that contrasts with that of the Native people who live in the “wilderness” full-time. While Glass and his crew hunt animals for their pelts, the Native people use every part of the animals they kill. Nature, in the form of the bear, seems to revolt against Glass and his attempt at domination.

‘Annihilation’ (2018)

Photo: Paramount Pictures

Alex Garland’s sci-fi thriller Annihilation is a heart-pounding film about a group of scientists coming face-to-face with death while collecting data from genetically abnormal plants and animals living in the Shimmer. The Shimmer is a mysterious, ever-growing area, where time is non-linear and life forms seem to be mutating, developing features different than those in the outside world. One such creature is the albino alligator that attacks the group. The alligator’s teeth are in concentric rows like a shark’s. The team of five scientists slowly start to change while inside the Shimmer, losing their minds and eventually their lives.

Photo: Paramount Pictures

The only surviving scientist, Lena (Natalie Portman), comes face to face with the creature that took the lives of her colleagues: a grotesque grizzly bear hungry for human flesh. The bear, with its blood-covered teeth and exposed skull, is much more menacing than the average grizzly. In addition to its physical appearance, the bear is able to psychologically torture the remaining scientists. It is able to reproduce the screams of the people it has eaten, using the sounds of loved ones calling for help to lure in its next victim.

The killer bear contrasts with most of the animals in the Shimmer that appear as different but not harmful, such as the pair of albino deer with flowers growing in their antlers. The bear is what happens when nature goes sour. In the end, Lena survives the bear’s attempts to eat her. Much like in The Revenant, the story becomes about Lena’s success in evading the predatory bear, once again placing human life over that of animals and, in the grander scheme, humans triumphing over nature itself.

‘Midsommar’ (2019)

Photo: A24 Films

Midsommar, Ari Aster’s second film, is a feast for the eyes. Bathed in sunlight and covered in vibrant flowers, the brightly-lit film looks nothing like the average horror flick. Dani (Florence Pugh) arrives in a small Swedish community for the Midsommar festival with her boyfriend, Christian (Jack Reynor), and three other friends. Dani is in the midst of grieving her parents and sister, who killed them before killing herself in an apparent psychotic episode. The festival is held every ninety years and includes a special ceremony allowing the presence of newcomers. It quickly becomes clear that the rituals of the commune do not match the cheery atmosphere. Their sacred ceremony involves death, gore, and plenty of psychedelics.

Photo: A24 Films

For the final step in the ritual, the newly-crowned May Queen, Dani, must select someone to sacrifice along with others who volunteered. Dani selects her boyfriend Christian to be the final person killed. He has been emotionally manipulative and dismissive of her grief, so, as the May Queen she decides to literally light him on fire. Part of the ritual requires Christian be sewn into a bear carcass, the same bear that was alive upon the group’s arrival in Sweden. The burning of the bear, depicted in artwork around the rural community, is notable because the sacrifice is not an easy feat. Due to their large size, bears aren’t easy to capture. Sacrificing both man and bear, the final stage of the Midsommar ceremony is one celebrating the power of humanity. Dani, wearing a flower cape and crown, smiles as Christian and others burn, knowing she’s regained some semblance of control over her life.

Photo: A24 Films

The Revenant, Annihilation, and Midsommar are vastly different films, but they all depict a message of human’s “triumph” over nature. Still, it’s a bit more complex than that. Upon further examination, the people “triumphing over nature” can be read as a bit tongue-in-cheek, or even a call-out to remind viewers of human hubris and the imminent threat of climate change due to human actions. The bears in these films all seem to represent a bigger idea of a wild, uncontrollable nature that humans will always attempt to understand, overcome, and dominate. But nature holds the true power in the end; providing shelter, food, and beauty to all who inhabit the earth.