In the movie, Demolition (2015), Davis (the protagonist) just lost his wife to a car accident a few weeks ago and was driving aimlessly within a neighborhood when he saw a house being demolished.
Davis went on and asked a man working on that site what they are doing, "Well, we gotta tear the whole thing down before they rebuild."
And that scene early on in the film serves as the primary metaphor for the whole plot. Davis who wasn't "paying attention" to life before the car accident, suddenly was extremely conscious of the events unfolding around him and things he is surrounded with. The loss of his wife became a trigger, the beginning of the end.
Demolition (2015).
Davis started tearing things part by part, literally (even his own home), because he is curious on how those things work. But internally, he is also tearing the identity he had so built all his life—he starts recalling and analyzing the numbness that he felt althroughout his life and his memories with his late wife.
The movie was entitled Demolition because—I figured—it was a metaphor of demolishing or tearing yourself apart in order to rebuild a new story for yourself, as shown through the construction site scene early on in the movie.
It is triggered by a death of a cherished loved one.
From their death comes the realization that the story you've told yourself for long is now untrue and you have to recreate a new one—without them.
When my closest friend died two years ago, I wrote in a post published six months after he came home to the Lord,
"I miss my friend a lot. We were both naive last year thinking that we would have all the time in the world, that we would see each other graduate, have a job, travel, and grow old together. But no.
The story that we had for ourselves, sadly, will not happen. And from here on, I had to recreate a new one. And I hope it would be a better one."
And I did recreate a story for myself—one where I channeled my grief into: stop waiting for an external validation and a perfect situation to follow my curiousities. In addition, I was scared that death may come at any moment as well and it saw me in my comfort bubble. And thus started my journey in graphic design leading to become a Philippine competitor in WorldSkills competitions.
The process in rebuilding myself took a lot of picking myself piece by piece, similar to Davis in the film (although I did not pick apart the things around me).
It took dozens of kisses with rock bottoms overshadowed by thousands of acts of compassion from people I love and encountered in the journey to reach this point of stillness.
By the end of the film, audience can finally see genuine happiness and peace in Davis' face by finally surrendering to the world around him—its beauty and messiness—and not the illusion caused by capitalism and his ego.
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