Wachowski Films: My Refuge for LGBT Poe-sitive Images In Science Fiction

The Telegraph's Poe article noted the absence of gay characters in action films with the exceptions of gay characters in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and V for Vendetta. And I have thoughts.

First, to be honest, I don't know a thing about The Mortal Instruments YA series. I've seen bits of the movie and it didn't seem great, and the books don't particularly interest me. So I will take The Telegraph's word for it and cheer from afar for some bad-ass gay characters in The Mortal Instruments. Yay.

What does interest me, however, is the name drop of V for Vendetta, originally a graphic novel by Alan Moore that was adapted by the Wachowskis into a film. Seriously, I am a HUUUUGE Wachowski fanboy. HUGE. And I am a zealous and blindly faithful Wachowski fanboy precisely because the Wachowskis have been incorporating LGBT characters and queer themes into action and science fiction films for nearly twenty years--something I can't say for any of my other favorite fandoms, including Star Wars (...or can I?). If you blinked and missed the other awesome LGBT-positive characters in Wachowski films, here's your crash course in why the Wachowskis are my LGBT science fiction heroes.

Bound for glory

First, I cannot talk about the Wachowskis without first talking about Bound, which turns 20 years old this year. True, Bound is a noir crime film and not science fiction, but if you want to understand the Wachowskis' science fiction projects, you have to start with Bound. It's about two women, played brilliantly by Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly, who fall desperately in love and concoct an elaborate scheme to rob a dangerous mobster. It all goes south, of course, and you spend the second half of the film gnawing your nails to the quick and rooting for the coolest, cleverest, and most resourceful lesbian characters you will likely ever encounter. If you have even the slightest interest in LGBT film and you haven't seen Bound... well, first of all, what is wrong with you? Second, after reflecting very carefully on your life choices, watch Bound immediately. You are welcome.

Oh hey, I forgot that Christopher Meloni is one of the mobster thugs in Bound. You are welcome again.

After the Wachowskis proved their chops with Bound, they got The Matrix green-lit. Say what you will about the whole trilogy, but The Matrix was a tremendous film. There are a million little Easter eggs and puzzles in The Matrix, but the one I love the most is Switch. Remember her? She is the member of Morpheus's crew who helps to wake up Neo, and she's notable for being one of only a handful of redpill characters in the entire trilogy who wears white.

She's also totally queer. It never overtly comes up in The Matrix, but just look at her. In fact, the original story treatments portrayed Switch as a male character in the real world, but female when her personality substantiated in the fantasy world of The Matrix. In the final film, of course, Switch is a female both in and out of The Matrix, but she retains an undeniable androgynous/LGBT presence.

I love Switch because she is badass, queer, brave, and loyal. Unfortunately, she's a supporting character who gets killed in a terrible way, and her defiance in the face of her doom is heartbreaking. She's one of my favorite LGBT characters in science fiction, but we lost her too soon.

Buzz cut? Check. Humorless no-nonsense attitude? Check. 

Another minor LGBT character in The Matrix trilogy pops up in the final film, Matrix Revolutions (did you even see it? I honestly wouldn't blame you if you didn't). Again, her sexuality is never explicitly addressed and it doesn't even matter, but anyone with even a blip of gaydar can tell that Charra, one of Zion's volunteer dock defenders in the real world, is totally a dyke. She's such a bit part that there's not really much to say other than to point out the fact that her minor role is why the Wachowskis are so great with LGBT representation. Charra just sort of shows up randomly, does some cool things that are brave and maybe a little foolhardy, and, well, meets an untimely end, like many of the human soldiers in the final Matrix installment. It's the fact that she's kind of an unremarkable denizen of the Wachowskis' universe that makes their LGBT inclusion so remarkable.

V for Vendetta came next, and the Wachowskis continued to work with source material that depends heavily upon LGBT concepts. Through a series of flashbacks, we see how the anarchist terrorist, V, is inspired to overthrow the fascist regime after learning the life story of a lesbian, one of V's fellow prisoners, and how she is arrested, put in a concentration camp, and is tortured because of her love for another woman. The lesbian characters are truly at the heart of the film, and injustice against gay people is portrayed as one of the cruelest forms of inhumanity. V teaches us that love and beauty--no matter their form--make us human, and when society turns against them, their protection is worth sacrificing everything. Love it.

[We are all going to pretend that Speed Racer never happened. LALALALALALALALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU.] 

[Moving on.]

Cloud Atlas came out in 2012, and was an adaptation of a gloriously tiered Baroque wedding cake of a novel. I really recommend reading the novel; its narrative construction is just so magnificent and exhilarating, and it's just not possible to accurately portray it on screen. Nevertheless, I loved how the Wachowskis played with the idea of souls or personalities floating across time, cloaked in different colors of skin and differently shaped eyes and different genders and sexualities. But our humanity is not any of those things, and regardless of superficialities like race and sex, we are always facing the same opportunities to make things right, with the irrepressible human urge to create always being the key to finding ourselves. Cloud Atlas has overtly gay male characters, but again, they're sort of unremarkable against the sweeping Big Ideas that propel the Cloud Atlas narrative.

Jupiter Ascending, the most recent Wachowski film, doesn't really have any big ideas, alas. But it has Eddie Redmayne as a deliciously campy villain who is super-gay. I know, I know, another mincing and ridiculously overwrought gay villain, but at least he doesn't rape-murder anyone like my buddy Baron Harkonnen. And if it's going to be done, Redmayne and the Wachowskis are the ones to do it.

I fucking love him. He's serving us evil space Liberace realness.

Also, what could possibly be gayer than Channing Tatum, as a werewolfy-elf soldier thing, gratuitously taking off his shirt to fight a bunch of bad guys? ...Oh, nevermind. This is way gayer.

So there you have it: my exegesis on why the Wachowskis' oeuvre is the best thing to happen to LGBT people in science fiction film, and why The Telegraph's reference to V for Vendetta was accurate but maybe a little underinclusive. Still, as much as they have done and as much as I love the Wachowskis' work, they have not (yet?) offered a gay heroic science fiction lead character.

This post is already too long, but I have to include, as just a final thought, Lana Wachowski's acceptance speech at the 2012 HRC Awards when Cloud Atlas was coming out. It's long, but it is hugely important to me as a gay fan of her and her brother and their films.

You are very welcome.