Protagonists are often introduced as average people, with average jobs and an average lifestyle, they are people the audience can relate to. It is however common that they have a troubled past (or one significant life changing event) and something happens in the film that sparks the plot and the average character is suddenly the hero of the film. For example a plague kills most of humanity and transforms the rest into monsters in I am Legend, the sole survivor in New York City (Robert Neville) becomes the protagonist as he stays to find a cure, his troubled past is when he sends his family to safety and knows he is probably never going to see them again, this gives him the motivation to fulfil the role of the hero even if it is to the detriment of his own happiness.
Antagonists in thrillers are often people who feel the world owes them something, a lot of the time they are portrayed as psychotic, this brings into question ‘Can they be helped or is it too late?’. A lot of antagonists in thriller films are not born evil- something has happened to them which makes them seek revenge. In this sense we can start to compare both protagonists and antagonists; a protagonist in a thriller film will have had something happen to them or something happens that involves them, this makes them seek justice and creates the ‘accidental hero’. However an antagonist in a thriller film will have had something happen to them which makes them malicious; for example the Joker in the Dark Knight had a troubled childhood and takes this out on society by reflecting his past experiences onto others.
Protagonists in thrillers are more often than not male. People who are close to the main character get involved in the situation (willingly or unwillingly) and most of the time they are killed off. Thrillers are realistic in most cases, the protagonists are left scarred by the situations and feel they will not be able to go back to how they once were- for example Richard in The Beach starts the film as a young traveller, keen to experience what most people never will. He is excited by the idea of The Beach and at first he believes it is perfect, his ideology at the start is that:
‘You hope, and you dream. But you never believe that something's going to happen for you. Not like it does in the movies. And when it actually does, you want it to feel different, more visceral, more real. I was waiting for it to hit me, but it just wouldn't happen.’
This suggests he isn’t yet sure of how the world works, he doesn’t know how to immerse himself into the situation, he only sees things- he doesn’t feel the emotion in them.
By the end of the film he sees a new visitor to the beach get shot, he has a sudden rush of emotion and doesn’t know what to do, at this moment the audience knows that he is a changed person and he will never be as naïve as he once was, his last lines of the film back this up:
‘And me, I still believe in paradise. But now at least I know it's not some place you can look for, 'cause it's not where you go. It's how you feel for a moment in your life when you're a part of something, and if you find that moment... it lasts forever.’
I have chosen to analyse deeper in the protagonists and antagonists of Blooded, this is because I feel it is a perfect example of the lack of clarity that thriller films can have when it comes to protagonist and antagonist characters.
Blooded is a mockumentary film- this is presented by having two actors to one character in order to make fictional events seem real. One actor tells the story by interview giving insight into their experience while the other actor shows the story through a dramatic reconstruction.
The story is about five young hunters who go to the Scottish highlands for a hunting trip. One morning they wake up and find themselves abandoned and being hunted by animal right extremists. The immediate issue raised in the film is who is good? Hunters have been portrayed through the media as being the antagonists and animal right demonstrators as protagonists, however in Blooded the tables are turned, the audience have to decide who is good and who is bad judging by previous perceptions and then judging by what is being shown and portrayed in the film.
The hunters are the protagonists in the sense that they look out for each other, for example Ben goes back out into the Highlands with Charlie to rescue Lucas, despite being injured. The hunters are portrayed as the heroes- the favoured characters, as they the ones the audience get to know through characterisation, we can sympathise with them and the situation they are in. The hunters are accidental heroes in the sense that they didn’t intend to be in this situation, and primal instinct set in for them- this is how they become the protagonists as they must defy this instinct in order to save themselves and each other. However the extremists claim it was ‘the last resort of compassionate people’. The extremists do what they do so they can be the protagonists- but due to how the story is presented this has the opposite effect on the audience. By telling the audience they are the good guys does this reverse their actions as we learn that evil was never their intention? This is a very rare case of the audience having to decide for themselves who is the good guy and who is the bad guy.
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