Captain Fantastic is a story about a man who retreats from civilization to raise his six children in nature. They have a well-ordered camp in upstate Washington, but things start to come apart when the man’s wife becomes so ill she needs intense medical care. Early in the film, Ben learns his wife has died when he and the kids make a rare trip into town for a few supplies. ***Spoilers*** I wanted to like this film. The trailer showed a lush, green environment that strongly appealed to me. Oh, how I wanted to be there. And as someone with PTSD and intense social anxiety, I certainly understand the impulse to withdraw. I’m not a survivalist, and I wouldn’t want to be cut off from the internet and telephones, but I would love to live in a small cabin in the woods. However, I got the sense this film was heading into territory that would rub me the wrong way right from the beginning. The first scene shows Ben’s oldest son in camouflage. He springs on a deer and cuts its throat with a large hunting knife. Then the rest of the family come out of hiding to congratulate him. Ben cuts out one of the deer’s internal organs—maybe the heart—and the son eats it raw. Ben then tells the son he is a man. That kind of hard, macho bullshit annoys the fuck out of me. We quickly learn that Ben is a serious taskmaster. He insists that his children go through extreme physical training during the day. It’s like boot camp. We see the children climbing the side of a thousand foot cliff. When one of the teen boys slips and sprains his wrist, Ben tells him to buck up and get on with it. In the evening, the kids are expected to read and study. Ben is always there to quiz them on what they’ve learned. I found it odd that Ben would have so many children. He is supposedly concerned about the environment, but apparently, he’s not too worried about overpopulation. And I quickly began to suspect that he had all these kids because he wanted to be a cult leader. Then I began to strongly dislike Ben when we learn his wife was severely mentally ill and that she committed suicide. Well, you don’t have six kids with a severely mentally ill woman and then take her out into the wilderness. That is way too much stress. Ben isn’t presented as a saintly figure. He is arrogant, confrontational, demanding and unyielding, and the film doesn’t excuse these things. However, the film still wants us to see Ben as a sympathetic character, but I didn’t find him sympathetic at all. He’s supposedly concerned about human rights, but apparently, that’s only in theory because Ben comes across as a misanthrope. He holds nearly everyone in contempt…except for his kids. And the reason he cares for his kids is because they’re under his thumb and have adopted his worldview. We’re supposed to believe that the kids are exceedingly well educated and that means they’re freethinking. What bullshit. Everything they learn is from books, and Dad is always there to make sure they interpret everything they read in the “right” way. You don’t have to be a censor if your tyranny is pervasive enough. Ben has made sure his kids have little contact with anyone who thinks differently from him. Reading books with Dad standing over your shoulder isn’t a substitute for knowing other people and seeing how they live. There is a solid authoritarian aspect to this film that pissed me off. And the film doesn’t genuinely acknowledge that Ben was controlling his children’s mental development despite his supposed rigorous academic program. The reason I was interested in the film was my need and desire to withdraw, especially to the woods. But one of the reasons I’m not at home in the world is because I feel like an outsider. When I was growing up, I didn’t feel like many wanted to know me as an individual. They merely wanted and expected me to conform. Thankfully, my parents were not attentive, so I was allowed to become my own person even if I couldn’t outwardly express myself. Having a parent like Ben who is always demanding to know his kids’ thoughts and ready to sharply criticize if they don’t say the “right” thing would have destroyed me. And I happen to have had a severely mentally ill mother, so Ben’s selfish and thoughtless treatment of his wife made me hate him all the more.
As if Ben weren’t reason enough for me to dislike this film, the plot, in the end, took an easy turn that didn’t make much sense. Two of Ben’s older children rebel against him, and while attending the mother’s funeral, one of them runs away to his grandparents’ house. Ben sends one of his daughters to break him out. She falls off the roof and nearly breaks her neck. This gives the grandparents just the excuse they need to demand full custody of their daughter’s children. Ben realizes the law would be on the grandparents’ side, so he relinquishes. But when he leaves, the kids stow away on the family bus. All has been miraculously forgiven. And Ben compromises by moving the kids into an out of the way farmhouse and allowing them to attend public school.
by Gary Cottle Nanny was aware that Lucas 93 was sleeping fretfully. She monitored him even when she was in her utility closet recharging and communicating with Regional Command. After he had gone to bed, she did the gardening around their isolated cottage, repaired a leak in the roof, did the cleaning and laid out his clothes for morning. After doing her chores, Nanny retired to her closet for a few hours. She sent in an order for a fresh grapefruit so it would be there for breakfast hoping that would help settle Lucas 93’s nerves, but this had been the third night in a row he had not slept well, and he had been snappy and sullen the day before. Nanny knew it wasn’t serious. His vital signs were okay, and a scan indicated nothing out of the ordinary was going on inside. It wasn’t like last year when Nanny had to remove Lucas 93’s appendix. She had to perform this surgery for all the Lucases when they were between the ages of 26 and 28. But keeping Lucas 93 happy and satisfied was part of her programming, and she knew neglecting his psychological health could result in physical harm. She lost Lucas 13 to suicide. Nanny had lost only one other Lucas before his time. Lucas 44 had fallen off a cliff while hiking in the Alps even though she had warned him to be careful. Lucas 44 had been in his 30s, and Nanny wasn’t permitted to be too restrictive after her charges had reached the age of 20. All the other Lucases had died between the ages of 99 and 102. Nanny had suggested Lucas 93 attend a meeting of the Regional Art Club or the Regional Meaning of Life Discussion Society, but he was uninterested. Nanny had suggested he attend a concert in a nearby park or a poetry reading. Lucas 93 demanded she stop bothering him. Nanny offered to arrange a basketball game or a race with a few of the nearby humans, but Lucas 93 said that was kid’s stuff. Nanny asked Lucas 93 if he would like to plan next month’s holiday. The humans were permitted to go on a trip six times a year, and soon after they got back from Angkor Wat, Lucas 93 said he was interested in seeing Paris or Victoria Falls next time, but when she brought up the subject yesterday, Lucas 93 gave her a raspberry, thus spraying her with spittle. It was time to arrange a play date. This was something the nannies were reluctant to do after their charges had reached a certain age. Once they became adults, the play dates usually involved intimate contact, and there was always the possibility of strong attachments and hurt feelings. But Lucas 93 hadn’t been with anyone in four months, and he had been spending more time in the pleasure box. For the past several days, Lucas 93 had been directing his fantasies toward more extreme scenarios. Just before going to bed, Lucas 93 had been the prisoner of a large-breasted lusty queen. He had been chained naked between two posts in a dark dungeon room, and a colossal muscular guard had ripping into the flesh of his back and buttocks with a leather strap while the queen teased his turgid penis with a long fluffy ostrich feather. This had finally pushed him over the edge. But Lucas 93 had already had six erections in his sleep, and his penis was expanding again. Almost as soon as Nanny put out the request, she received a response from Ava 87’s nanny. Ava 87 had been a bit agitated, too, and according to her nanny, she didn’t mind a play date with a smaller than average penis so long as he was generous about giving her oral pleasure. Nanny informed her colleague that her Lucas 93 was into that sort of thing. So it was arranged. Ava 87 would arrive just before lunch in an ATC, an automated taxi cab. A few minutes later, one of the general service nannies came to the door with that day’s groceries, and Nanny prepared Lucas 93’s breakfast, the grapefruit along with a hardboiled egg and a cup of coffee. In a soothing voice, Nanny asked Lucas 93 to wake up. When he demanded she let him sleep more, she sprayed a mild stimulant under his nose. Lucas 93 sat up and gave Nanny a petulant look. “You need to rise and shine, Lucas 93. You’re going to have a visitor later.” Lucas 93’s face immediately brightened, which was a great relief to Nanny. She was sure that a little companionship was exactly what he needed, and the expression on her charge’s face confirmed her diagnosis. “Boy or girl?” “Ava 87 is a 23-year-old blond petite female with perky breasts and a happy disposition. …usually a happy disposition, but her nanny thinks Ava 87 could use a little play time with a nice young man such as yourself.” As Nanny spoke, she displayed nude photos of Ava 87 on a screen in the middle of her chest. “But her nanny made it clear that Ava 87 likes to receive oral pleasure, so you should be a good host and accommodate her.” “Oh, I will,” Lucas 93 responded enthusiastically. “Do I have to greet her fully dressed?” Nanny was still a moment as she relayed the question to Ava 87’s nanny. “No, that won’t be necessary. It seems Ava 87 is a fun girl.” Once when Lucas 93 was younger, he asked Nanny why he couldn’t have a companion to live with him as in the old stories before the catastrophe. Nanny informed Lucas 93 that humans seem to get along better if their contact with one another is brief and transitory. When Ava 87 rang the bell a few minutes before noon, Lucas 93 answered the door wearing nothing but his Superman cape and gladiator sandals. His smallish penis was already erect. Ava 87 playfully slapped Lucas 93’s penis and lifted her shirt to show him her breasts. The two playmates ate lunch and discussed their favorite pre-catastrophe stories and films. Nearly all of the humans were fascinated by the old stories, but they showed little interest in understanding why things changed. The Nanny’s were programmed to tell their charges the truth if they asked. About a thousand years ago, after a series of world wars and one nuclear war, and after extreme drought and coastal flooding, a plague had wiped out most of the humans and made the rest sterile. The survivors, which had shown some resistance to the plague, had been cloned, and the nannies had been created to cater to their every need and to keep them and following generations safe into perpetuity. Few humans wanted to hear about the details. Instead, they idealized their pre-catastrophe ancestors. Many had learned to copy their art and music with admirable precision, but nearly all attempts at doing anything avant-guard were shallow and immature. All afternoon, Lucas 93 and Ava 87 chased each other around the cottage and engaged in intercourse. Nanny watched closely to make sure they didn’t hurt themselves. When it was time for Nanny to begin preparing dinner, she asked Ava 87 if she would like for her to summon an ATC so she could return home to her own nanny. Lucas 93 quickly insisted that Ava 87 be allowed to spend the night. Nanny relayed the request to Ava 87’s nanny who gave her approval. Several more hours of rambunctious activity followed dinner, and finally, Nanny had to insist that the two go to bed. She prepared hot chocolate with a sleeping aid and applied a salve to their genitals. Lucas 93 awoke late the next morning. He could tell by the bright sunlight coming into his room that Nanny had let him sleep very late, which was quite strange. “Nanny? Where are you? Why did you let me sleep so late?” Lucas 93 had almost forgotten about his guest, so he was startled when Ava 87 came into his room. “Nanny won’t bring breakfast this morning. We have to go out and hunt breakfast for ourselves as they used to do before the nannies.” Lucas 93 sprang from his bed and ran out into the living room while shouting, “What have you done to Nanny?” Lucas 93 found Nanny smashed into several pieces. His old baseball bat was laying beside her. Lucas 93 knelt before his nanny and cried. When Ava 87 came and stood beside him, through tears, he simply asked, “Why?” “Because I love you.” “You love me?” Lucas 93 asked incredulously. “Yes.” “But I love Nanny! How could you kill my nanny? What will I do now?” “Nanny was just a machine. You can’t love a machine. And we can’t really be alive unless we take care of ourselves like in the old days.” “I don’t want to take care of myself,” Lucas 93 said as he sobbed. “I want Nanny.” “Nanny is gone.” “They’ll come and fix her, and then she’ll make breakfast.” “They won’t come,” Ava 87 assured him. “I struck her in the head with the first blow. She was unable to send out a repair request before I killed her.” “No!” Lucas 93 screamed. “You’re a mean, terrible girl, and I want you to go away.” Lucas 93 was inconsolable for quite a while, but Ava 87 was finally able to convince him that they were on their own and that they needed to go out and hunt for food. Within several hours they were completely lost. After three days of wandering around, drinking from streams and sleeping under the stars, Lucas 93 and Ava 87 spotted a rabbit, but then they realized that neither of them knew how to capture or kill it. They were starving, cold and sick, but Lucas 93 discovered he still had enough energy for rage when they watched the elusive bunny hop away. There was no hope, and it was all Ava 87’s fault. Lucas 93 picked up a big rock and began bashing Ava 87’s head in just as he imagined she had done to Nanny. Ava 87 fell to the ground, and a pool of blood gathered around her. Lucas 93 sank to his knees and cried. He cried for hours, and then he simply sat there beside his dead playmate in a state of shock. Suddenly he recalled the story of the Donner party and decided that maybe he should eat Ava 87. Wasn’t that what they would have done in the old days? So he bent over and tried to take a bite out of Ava 87’s abdomen, but his teeth just weren’t sharp enough, and Lucas 93 came to the realization that he couldn’t eat Ava 87 even if he were able. His emotions were so intense. He had never felt such extreme emotions before. And Nanny was no longer around to help him cope. Lucas 93 wasn’t self-aware enough to know that he wanted to die, but when he stumbled onto a road, he instinctively waited for an ATC to drive by and jumped in front of it just as it was about to pass. Several months later, Nanny cradled Lucas 94 in her arms. When Regional Command lost contact with her, they sent a couple of general service nannies to the cottage. They repaired Nanny, and she immediately began the process of cloning a new Lucas. All future play dates would have to be carefully monitored, and Lucas 94 and Ava 88 must never be allowed to meet.
