The Main Lesson from Alita: Battle Angel

Alita is an entertaining film that presents you with story development as much as cyborg-slicing action. This is a short article on what I perceive as the main lesson from the film. Needless to say,

SPOILER ALERT.

We see many themes play out: playing out of personal issues through ‘legal’ means (Ido signing up as a hunter-warrior), aspirations of a lower class person for the promised land (Hugo) and alliance building through shared sympathies (the man with the Hellhounds when the little puppy was killed).

But the theme that strikes me the most is this: how evil breeds when the desires and needs of people are dependant upon other actors.

We see several actors entrapped in this situation:

• Hugo, who wants to get into Zalem, becomes a servant to Vector who — under false pretence — promises him passage to Zalem. In his goon role, he tears up body parts of cyborgs in exchange for credits that count towards the 1 million ticket price.
• Chiren, who also desires to go to Zalem, also subordinates herlself to Vector.
• Hunter-warriors, who see hunting as the most lucrative way of them sustaining themselves, a situation made possibly by those who set the bounties knowing that it will incentivise the private actors that are…