On the symbolism of the bunny in Con Air

The sled in Citizen Kane.

The top in Inception.

The bunny in Con Air.

Of all the great symbols which have been utilized in film throughout the years, perhaps none have been so overlooked as Cameron Poe's stuffed animal. Yet none do a better job of personifying the character's inner journey, the narrative themes and the nuanced touch of Jerry Bruckheimer.

When we first see the bunny, Poe is on the cusp of his release from prison. He's been sent there for the heinous crime of protecting his pregnant wife from a pack of rapists and has spent five long years waiting to meet their daughter. Of course, she could have visited him in jail but he refused to allow it. He didn't want her first impression of him to made in prison. He didn't want her to see him as a convict. He wants her to see him the same way that she'd see the stuffed bunny: soft, loveable, uncomplicated. So he plans to give her the bunny upon their reunion and put his sordid past behind him.

But Cameron Poe is not soft and cuddly. He's a former Army Ranger who was given a long sentence because the judge viewed him as a deadly weapon. The judge is right: he's not a normal man, not an average member of society. When the plane is hijacked, he doesn't leave. He stays and fights. Though he wants to ignore the part of himself that gets into this kind of trouble, that's willing to do what needs to be done, that's who he is.

No scene illustrates this better than the famous "Put the bunny back in the box" scene. There's an understated duality in this moment, two things going on at once. On one hand, Billy Bedlam knows that Poe's a good guy and threatens to tell the other cons. On the other, Cameron Poe is telling him to put the bunny back in the box.

"Put the bunny in the box."

"Keep the cat in the bag."

"Preserve my innocence, the face I want to present to my daughter."

But Bedlam can't "put the bunny back in the box." He hasn't just opened a box of Poe's things. He's opened Pandora's box and loosed the righteous pestilence of an angry Nic Cage unto the world. He sealed his fate the second he found out about Poe, the second he helped hijack his flight. Though Poe wants nothing more than for him to put the bunny back in the box, they both know he can't. Poe knows he has to kill him. He knows that he has to dip into the well of violence, that side of himself he wants to keep away from his daughter, the side which he's tried to run away from.

Throughout the entire movie, he tries to avoid his true self, to deny who he is. When Garland Greene calls him out on his morality, he tries to tell himself that he's nothing like him. He tries to angrily deny that he's a killing machine, a tool of justice, a stained bunny.

Finally, at the climax, the bunny fully ties into Poe's arc. Cyrus the Virus threatens to shoot the bunny, but that's only a joke. He's really threatening to shoot Poe. Shooting the bunny means destroying his reunion with his daughter. As the climax occurs and Cameron saves the day, he's left with a battered, wet and dirty bunny. The bunny, like his soul, isn't perfect. In fact, it's not the type of gift that any child would want. The bunny, the face that Cameron will show to his daughter, finally matches his soul. It matches his identity and his past, the thing which he didn't think his daughter could accept.

As the Oscar nominated "How Do I Live" plays, Poe finally meets his daughter. He offers the the bunny, doing his best to explain but finally waiting to accept her judgement. She seems reluctant to take it, perhaps even a bit scared. It's everything Cameron feared. But then she accepts it, happily taking his gift and by extension, him. She can accept the bunny because, despite being battered and dirty, it's a gift from her father. She can also accept Cameron, despite his ugly past, questionable mullet and interesting attempt at a Southern accent, because he is her father.

Con Air isn't just about convicts taking over a plane. It's not just about Nic Cage proving the existence of God to a wounded diabetic or John Cusack teaching basic empathy to Colm Meaney. It's a movie about a man who must come to terms with who is before he can meet his daughter. Its the story of accepting your inner darkness instead of rejecting it. It's the story of someone who has to be himself and pray that his daughter wants him. And no other symbol in a movie which is riddled with subtext, heavy themes and clever symbolism represents that journey better than the bunny.

Submitted March 29, 2021 at 11:58AM by Both_Tone https://ift.tt/39kcmxq