How to be a hero in 2022

For years, moviegoers and TV viewers had a lot to watch but very little to choose from. Heroes were strong and silent towards women, strong and menacing towards bad guys, and strong and annoying if they were anti-heroes. No one suffered a crises of conscience or worried about the little guy. The hero either had all the answers, or found them all before the final scene.

Chidi Anagonye from The Good Place: Who better to demonstrate the difficulty of being good than an academic who spent his whole life studying morality, and is still struggling in the afterlife? He suffers from stomach aches when he lies. He’s convinced he’s being punished for drinking almond milk (because it’s so bad for the environment). He’s obsessed with being the best version of himself. And somewhere along in the comedy (which ran from 2016 to 2020), those traits stop being annoying and start to fit into a truly good person.

Tim from About Time: Tim can travel through time, albeit only through his own past, and change the outcomes of events. It would be the easy, then, to manipulate people’s emotions, treat the world like dirt, steal, lie, cheat. Instead, in About Time (2013) Tim decides to use his special power to live his ordinary life better, to focus on the moment, be more considerate (even in the somewhat little things, like being patient with the woman in the sandwich shop when he’s having an especially busy day) and to invest better in all his relationships. What’s not to love?

Free Guy: What would you do if you were completely free? Free Guy (2021) suggests we’d spend our afternoons robbing banks and punching grandmas just for fun (and game credits). In the movie, which is set in a gaming universe, it takes special AI programming to create a good Guy. It’s so unusual to see someone do the right thing in this virtual world that Guy quickly goes viral. He doesn’t realise he’s doing anything unusual. It’s free will in reverse for him. He’s so glad he can finally choose his own actions (as a former Non-Player Character, he just did the same thing over and over before the AI kicked in), that choosing to be good is novelty enough.

Nick Young from Crazy Rich Asians: In any other generation, Nick Young, the gorgeous eligible boy-child of one of Singapore’s wealthiest families, would have needed no additional attributes to make him attractive to women. Even in the 2018 film, he could well have taken an emotional back seat as his old-money mother sneered down his college-professor fiancé. Instead, Young actively tries to mediate, stepping in during difficult moments, and offering to denounce his family for love. It makes the story less of a catfight, and more of a layered tale of what we might be willing to do for love.

T’Challa from Black Panther: Superhero films aren’t great guides for how to live your life. Most caped crusaders have the emotional range of a driverless car. Black Panther (2018) goes further than the others. T’Challa recognises how far he has to go, how much he has to learn, introspect, and course-correct. He’s learning constantly from those in his life who are better, stronger, wiser. He struggles with the dilemma of whether to help oppressed peoples around the world or protect his own nation. There’s talk of conscience, duty and honour. He works well with others, and not just when he has to (something you just never see the Avengers do).

Jim Halpert from The Office: From 2005 until the show wrapped in 2013, Jim Halpert was the guy to follow for tips on how to survive awful colleagues. He was forgiving of narcissists, patient with fools, supportive of new ideas. He took the nice way out, even if it meant faking a bug infestation to oust a woman co-worker who was refusing to leave his hotel room. Of course, there were the relentless pranks that weren’t always kind; Halpert once convinced Dwight Schrute that he was being recruited by CIA. But Halpert proved that the cool guy could be the good guy, and get the girl too.

Remus Lupin from the Harry Potter films: No, not Albus Dumbledore, who put Potter and other students in harm’s way over and over again. Lupin, despite his full-moon triggers (they turn him into a werewolf) remains a loyal friend, fights for what he believes in, is an engaging teacher, a responsible wizard, and is civil to everyone, even to Slytherins and the seemingly insufferable Severus Snape. You can see why the feisty auror Nymphadora Tonks fell for him.

Jake Peralta from Brooklyn Nine-Nine: There are no bad apples at Brooklyn’s fictitious police station. Sergeant Terry Jeffords is a softie under his rippling muscles. Captain Raymond Holt is both highbrow pedant and consummate professional. But it’s Detective Peralta who most keenly embodies the struggle for mature masculinity in the show that ran from 2013 to 2021. He revels in silliness, but is a dogged detective. He says yes to therapy. Personal growth is hard, so is wearing a tie. Peralta grapples with both.

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