Cars (2006): a perfect rendition of the hero's journey

 

   Recently I watched Cars again and let me tell you it was just as good as I remembered. Probably the first Disney/Pixar film I’ve ever watched, Cars 2006 tells the story of Lightning McQueen, a racing superstar, being stranded in the small town of Radiator Springs, and going on a journey to discover himself and find what is really important. In this blog post, I would like to explore how the Cars movie“drives through” the various steps of Joseph Campbell’s Hero's Journey. So “Buckle up” and join me as we drive into the world of Lightning McQueen.

    The journey begins with Lightning McQueen, a rookie but already a superstar, tying for first place with two other cars in the prestigious Piston Cup. Needing a singular winner, a tie-breaker is planned to be held across the country in California. A really interesting thing I realized while watching the film was, the known and unknown world parts of the Hero’s Journey in this movie are quite debatable. One could argue Lightning enters the unknown world right when he leaves the original race, location with his transport truck, Mack, and heads off to Califonia. However, I believe he truly enters the unknown world when he falls out of Mack and finds his way into Radiator Springs. This is because the “world” of Radiator Springs really is truly unknown to him, unlike the inside of Mack, and it would also fit the step of  “Refusal of the Call” in the Hero’s Journey as he willingly got into Mack but tried to escape Radiator Springs multiple times. 

    Lightning at the beginning of the story is incredibly brash, egotistical, and cared about nobody but himself and winning races. While rewatching the movie, he actually reminded me of Siddhartha a few times and how he too was quite selfish at the start. When he arrived at Radiator Springs, Lightning did not respect anyone that lived there, thinking they were beneath him. Forced to fix the road that he destroyed, he tries to do it as fast as possible. However, that just made his work harder, as he had to remove the rushed road and redo it patiently. This is one of the many trials Lightning had to go through in Radiator Springs. While the other “trials” doesn’t exactly follow the definition, like Tractor tipping with Mater, a drive with Sally, and learning that Doc was the Hudson Hornet, each taught Lightning things like humility, patience, and friendship, leading to Lightning’s apotheosis. 

    Right after Lightning discovers what is really important, which is friendship and kindness with the people around him, he is forced to return to the world as he is found and taken to the race in California. Even before the race, Lightning is noticeably nicer to everyone around him and during the race, he uses all the techniques he learned from Radiator Springs. On the final lap, King, a respected legend trying to win the Piston Cup for one last time, suddenly crashes. Lightning, now leading the race, has to make the decision to either go back to his old mindset of being selfish and winning the racing, which might lead to King having the same fate as the Huston Hornet and being forgotten, but alas he refuses the return (step 12 of the Hero’s Journey), goes back to help King finish the race and giving up the Piston Cup. 

    At the end of the story, Lightning becomes a master of the two worlds, both in mindset and literally. Lightning learns to not prioritize racing over the relationships he has with his friends, but still being a racing megastar. He also literally becomes the master of two worlds as he reestablishes Radiator Springs on the map by setting his racing headquarters there. Because of how good this film was, even if it was just nostalgia, I plan to watch the sequels sometime in the future, maybe see how they line up with Joseph Campbell’s monomyth as well.