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Never Back Down

Jake Tyler undergoes the hero's journey when he gets drawn into underground fighting after moving to Florida. He receives a calling to adventure and crosses a threshold into MMA fighting. Jean Roqua becomes his supernatural aid and teacher through training. Jake faces tests and trials in training and achieves his ultimate boon of defeating Ryan McCarthy for revenge. After completing his journey, Jake gains freedom and finds acceptance in his new community.

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Brad Coffey
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289 views3 pages

Never Back Down

Jake Tyler undergoes the hero's journey when he gets drawn into underground fighting after moving to Florida. He receives a calling to adventure and crosses a threshold into MMA fighting. Jean Roqua becomes his supernatural aid and teacher through training. Jake faces tests and trials in training and achieves his ultimate boon of defeating Ryan McCarthy for revenge. After completing his journey, Jake gains freedom and finds acceptance in his new community.

Uploaded by

Brad Coffey
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Brad Coffey

5/10/11
Essay
Mr. Guidone

Never Back Down

The movie, Never Back Down is a film about a teenager, Jake Tyler, who

becomes drawn into underground fight. This journey through underground fighting

leads him into what is known as the adventure of a hero. Joseph Campbell states

that, “the adventure of the hero represents the moment in his life when he achieved

illumination”. Upon completing his adventure, Jake demonstrates that he has

become a hero within himself. Although some will not see Jake Tyler’s fighting as a

heroic adventure, never the less according to Joseph Campbell’s universal guidelines

for the hero’s journey, Jake Tyler’s experience is summarized through archetype for

a hero.

Jake Tyler departure into the hero’s journey begins with the call to

adventure. This is the point in a person’s life where a change occurs, whether they

realize it or not. In Jake Tyler’s life this occurs when his family moves to Florida

from Iowa. This is a change in Jake’s life that leads him into new surroundings with

new people. He does not realize though, that different expectations come with his

new surroundings This point in Jake’s life can be seen as the time he enters the call

to adventure because he has taken the first step in changing what is known in his

life.

This leads to the crossing of a threshold, which is the point where a person

reaches their known limits and ventures into the unknown world. In Jake’s situation

this is the new popular scene in his new town, mixed martial arts fighting. Jake is a
natural fighter, which people find out from videos online. He is invited to a house

party where he unknowingly becomes the main event in a fight. The fight is a match

against Ryan McCarthy, who is a local fighter that is the best. Ryan humiliates Jake,

which leads Jake into the crossing of a threshold. The unknown limit for Jake is the

new style of fighting that involves more technique then the street fights he has been

involved at in Iowa.

Accordingly, this takes Jake further along into the hero’s journey where he

begins to receive supernatural aid. Supernatural aid is defined as the helper that

becomes known once the person has committed to the quest. The helper is Jean

Roqua, a professional fighter who runs his own gym for training. Roqua forms a

strong bond with Jake and begins to teach the ropes of mixed martial arts. The only

condition Roqua sets is that he must not fight outside the gym. This is the aid that

helps Jake improve his technique in fighting.

Jakes initiation through the threshold is taking Roqua’s classes. This is the

road of trials, which is a series of tests or tasks the person must undergo to begin

the transformation. Roqua teaches Jake specific moves to fighting and also valuable

advice that will help him further on through his journey. Roqua says, “don’t give up”

and “never back down”. This shows that Jake is being taught to have determination

to get him through the journey.

Jake reaches the apotheosis, which is receiving fulfillment of somebody’s

death. Jake wear’s his dads boxing jacket to an event called fight night. Jake initially

didn’t want to fight McCarthy in the first fight, but he eventually got Jake angered

enough by talking about his dad’s death. His dad had passed away a couple years
before and goes to an event called fight night. This represents the compassion Jake

has for his dad. Also this shows that he has begun to change because he previously

would have never worn his dad’s jacket.

Jake reaches the ultimate boon, which is jakes point where he breaks through

his personal limitations. He reaches the achievement of his goal to get revenge

against McCarthy. Roqua does not want Jake to fight and tells him he will not be able

to come back again the gym again. Jake responds with saying, “everybody has their

fight”. This shows the importance of getting revenge against McCarthy.

The return of Jakes journey of the hero deals with the freedom to live. The

freedom to live is seen as neither anticipating the future nor regretting the past. Jake

wins the fight and finds a group of friends to include himself in. Also Jake and

McCarthy acknowledge each other as they are now. Before hand there was a lot of

dislike between them, but after they begin to see respect for one another.

Jake Tyler, through his time preparing himself to fight McCarthy, has

completed the hero’s journey. Joseph Campbell’s universal guidelines of the hero’s

journey help to pull together the events Jake went through as being a heroic journey.

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