Hypnotic | Important Motifs

In this section of our Colossus Movie Guide for Hypnotic, we look at important motifs that help us understand the film.

Cast

• Danny Rourke – Ben Affleck
• Diana Cruz / Vivian – Alice Braga
• Minnie – Hala Finley
• Dellrayne – William Fichtner
• Nicks – J.D. Pardo
• River – Dayo Okeniyi
• Carl – Jeff Fahey
• Jeremiah – Jackie Earle Haley
• Written by – Robert Rodriguez | Max Borenstein
• Directed by – Robert Rodriguez

Important motifs in Hypnotic

Hypnotic constructs

Danny Rourke spends most of Hypnotic unknowingly in an elaborate hypnotic construct. He isn’t actually running through Austin, TX or driving to Mexico. He was never a cop with a partner. Instead, he’s in a giant government facility. The combined power of the Division’s Hypnotics is enough to trick Danny into thinking he’s somewhere he isn’t, doing things he’s not, with people who aren’t. 

Danny’s entire character journey is about waking up to the reality of these constructs then putting an end to them entirely by defeating the Division. By having not only the larger construct that is Danny’s false reality and backstory but the smaller constructs throughout that affect people around him, Hypnotic asks people to think about the nature of their own reality. Obviously there aren’t Hypnotics mind controlling us, but the 21st century has had a huge problem, especially in recent years, with media shaping perception and creating a tribalism around political events, even turning non-political happenings into battlegrounds between ideologies. These are the constructs many of us need to awaken to and escape. 

Share your thoughts

Are there more motifs you think should be part of the Colossus Movie Guide for Hypnotic? Leave your thoughts below and we’ll consider them for the guide.