There Can Be No Courage Without Fear

There are very few films that I consider to be modern classics, but Edge of Tomorrow starring Tom Cruise easily ranks as one of my absolute favorite movies that has been released in recent memory.

Edge of Tomorrow—or as it’s come to be known, Live. Die Repeat.—is one of those rare films that has a perfect combination of action, entertaining characters, and an engaging plot. But on top of all those positive attributes, one of my favorite things about Edge of Tomorrow is none other than the character of Master Sergeant Farell, played by the late great Bill Paxton. In a way, this came as a surprise because as iconic of an actor that Paxton is, with such films as Twister and Apollo 13 in his filmography, I never thought of Paxton as a particularly good actor...until I saw Edge of Tomorrow.

In a film full of memorable moments and characters, Paxton's Master Sergeant Farell steals the show in nearly every scene he's in. With his tough military bearing and quippy one-liners, Farell is instantly memorable and likable. Much of the success of Farell's character comes down to the clever writing, but Paxton's self-assured portrayal can't be understated. While Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt do a fabulous job carrying the film as a whole, Bill Paxton's character is the cherry on top that helps make Edge of Tomorrow special.

With a plot mechanic of living the same day over and over again, you need the right actors to bring a freshness to each scene, no matter how many times you've already seen it, and that's exactly what Paxton brought to the table. Every time we see Paxton, it's always exciting and fun to see how his character reacts to the slightly varied events playing out around him.

But for as funny of a character that Farell is, it's not just his wit that makes him endearing, but his straightforward demeanor and soldierly wisdom.

For as amusing as many of Farell’s scenes are, the moment that always sticks out to me the most with Master Sergeant Farell happens to be the moment when he’s at his most genuine.

The moment comes after Cruise's character, has been railroaded into the front lines for failing to accept a position on the ground with a film crew to record acts of valor and courage against the alien threat known as Mimics. As a military marketing man, Cruise's Cage finds himself completely and utterly out of his depth. And of course, Master Sergeant Farell is a thorn in Cage's side and is always there to make sure Cage stays in line.

In this way, Farell is an antagonist to Cruise's protagonist, but not in an evil way. Being the antagonist to Cruise is just simply his job, and he's very good at what he does.

As Farell's unit is flying towards the France coast for the first time where they plan to make their drop, Farell appears and says, "Two minutes to drop, it's all right to be scared. Remember, there is no courage without fear."

This is such a simple scene and such a simple line, and yet, I have always found myself fascinated with this powerful statement.

You could see this same line being told with grand gravitas from the likes of President Thomas J. Whitmore, where it's not simply said, but shouted through a bullhorn with swelling, emotional music.

And yet, there is none of that in Edge of Tomorrow. Instead, that line, "It's all right to be scared. Remember, there is no courage without fear," is said in as candid and matter-of-fact way as I could possibly imagine, which is probably why it stood out to me so much over the years. Instead of shouting the message at me, it was done so subtly that it forced me to think about it to understand it.

After all, it made me question what courage actually is. Is fear literally a prerequisite to courage? I grew up with the idea that soldiers and warriors were devoid of fear, that fear was a weakness. Even the dictionary defines courage as, "the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear."

In the critically maligned After Earth, Jaden Smith's character learns to be completely devoid of fear in his effort to fight back against the Skrel, but that idea of being able to live a life without fear never comes across as true-to-life.

Because it isn't.

Obviously, people feel fear and are fearful about vastly different things and to varying degrees, but the fact remains that fear is a constant factor that can't be stamped out of our psyches completely, even for the most courageous among us.

This is something that Christopher Nolan understood when fleshing out the themes of Batman Begins. “All creatures feel fear,” Thomas Wayne says.

“Even the scary ones,” young Bruce replies.

“Especially the scary ones.”

So, if fear is ever-present, then how do we deal with it?

I think we're conditioned to think of fear as a negative emotion, which makes it something that we never want to acknowledge. In that way, we negative equals bad. In modern life there are certain emotions such as depression and fear that are taught to be shunned and avoided at all times in the pursuit of eternal happiness.

This is a false idea.

All emotions are valid and exist for a purpose, which means that even the perceived negatives ones are natural and normal to experience. Yes, there are plenty of emotions like depression that shouldn't be wallowed in and consumed by, but that doesn't mean that there isn't any utility with depression. All emotions have a time and place, especially the negative ones. Even happiness, which is our god-given right to pursue, can't and shouldn’t be a constant state of mind. Even if it were possible to be happy 24-7, it would then cease to be happiness.

So what about this idea, that there can be no courage without fear? Yes, fear can be a negative emotion, but how do we flip it into something useful and valuable if it’s not something that’s wrong to be experienced?

There is a quote attributed to the iconic actor, John Wayne, which says, "Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway."

You have to face fear enough to get to the point where you can acknowledge your fear and press forward regardless of it. Only by confronting things that we're fearful of does the fear start to dissipate.

If you have no fear, then there is nothing to overcome. And there is simply nothing praiseworthy about a person who never surmounts any obstacles.

As such, it's quite simply, totally okay, to feel fear and to be scared. In fact, it’s perfectly normal. But once you decide to confront enough scary obstacles, you learn to recognize that fear isn't something that can or should hold you back from doing the things that need to get done. Just because you're scared doesn't give you a right to shun responsibility or to do things that will force you to learn and grow. Put simply, living in a bubble is not the right answer to life.

Of course, Master Sergeant Farell has one last nugget of wisdom for us to learn from. On their walk to the J Squad barracks, Farell states, “Battle is the Great Redeemer. It is the fiery crucible in which true heroes are forged. The one place where all men truly share the same rank, regardless of what kind of parasitic scum they were going in.”

While not everyone has to go to war in a literal sense, in a way, our daily lives are a battle of will. As such, there are plenty of things to be fearful of throughout our everday lives. We fear rejection, failure, and sometimes even success.

But only by embracing the battle and conquering our fear do we truly experience the fiery crucible where we can be forged into something better than we were yesterday.

So just remember, “it's all right to be scared. Remember, there is no courage without fear.”