THESIS STUNTING DEATH: AFFECT, ATTRACTION AND AUTHENTICITY IN RATED-R SUPERHERO CINEMA Submitted by Ryan Kent Greene Department of Communication Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado Fall 2018 Master’s Committee: Adviser: David Scott Diffrient Co-Adviser: Carl Burgchardt John Gravdahl Copyright by Ryan Kent Greene 2018 All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT STUNTING DEATH: AFFECT, ATTRACTION AND AUTHENTICITY IN RATED-R SUPERHERO CINEMA Stunt work is an ever-present and typically overlooked aspect of film production. The labor goes unseen by design; traditionally, Hollywood studio hierarchies regarded a good stunt performer as one who altogether eluded audience detection. The early star system’s stunt performers did not see their names splashed across film industry magazines as happens today. Even contemporarily, studios and surrounding paratextual discourse systematically de-emphasize the stunt even in cases where certain stunt performers become, as Lauren Steimer put it, “hypervisible.” The trick works perhaps too well, as Steimer remains one of few scholars to studies stunts. Several of these few have called for stunt work’s theoretical and generic expansion. The impetus for doing so is a fundamentally ethical one. How can a society view and engage with entertainment while being unaware of those who willingly risk injury and death to imbue films with authentic action? Stunt scholarship thus far has focused primarily on stunt worker’s history—from their origins as human flies, bridge-jumpers and other daredevils to feckless circus clowns and all these characters’ eventual absorption into Hollywood sets. Scholars also discuss ways in which stunt work complicates traditional understandings of film diegesis. I further articulate the stunt’s relationship with diegetic narrative, tracing its functions through the cinema of attractions, avant- garde spectatorship, documentary space and other story-breaking constructs. In doing so, I hope to heed one particular scholarly call to evaluate this ubiquitous brand of labor within the brightly ii colored, ultra-violent and action-driven world of R-Rated superhero films. Fox studios recently produced two Deadpool (2016, 2018) films and Logan (2017). Critics hailed them as groundbreaking achievements within a genre that has typically eschewed not only fourth-wall- breaking humor, but gratuitous blood and gore. Something in the characters of Wade Wilson and old man Logan reflects common perceptions of stunt people. They must surely leap back up after any injury, much like the rapidly healing antiheroes they play in these films. Industry dialectic encourages a kind of spectatorship that does not linger on the stunt body’s ethereal appearance on-screen. In removing attention from the stunt, such coverage tacitly preserves audience immersion in narrative while distracting attentions from the pain and sacrifice comprising the stunt performer’s career. Since these performers give filmgoers authentic-looking affective thrills, I argue for a closer look at what is not meant to be seen. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the support this project received from my committee members, Dr. David Scott Diffrient and Dr. Carl Burgchardt, as well as my outside member, Professor John Gravdahl. I am especially fortunate to have their guidance and insights. Carl’s experience with film rhetoric and the role of authenticity have proved invaluable. He helped me relate an oft-overlooked subject to filmgoers and everyday spectatorship. John’s fine arts perspective on semiotics and the cubist movement added an interdisciplinary approach, leading me to sources I likely would not have encountered otherwise. Above all, I thank David for introducing me to film scholarship and encouraging me to seek the scholarly path less traveled. During a graduate seminar in the fall of 2016, he prompted me to take a chance on stunt work. Since then, he has been an enduring source of inspiration. I am truly grateful for his formative role in my understanding of film. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................v LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... vii CHAPTER 1: A BRIEF HISTORY OF STUNTING AND ITS AFFECT .....................................1 Methods................................................................................................................................5 Stunt Scholarship .................................................................................................................6 Stunt Philosophies ..............................................................................................................16 Stunting Death in Deadpool (2016) ...................................................................................20 Stunting Faces in Logan (2018) .........................................................................................21 CHAPTER 2: STUNTING LAUGHS IN DEADPOOL (2016) ....................................................22 The Original X-Men and the Cinema of Attractions .........................................................24 Punctum, Studium and the Cruel .......................................................................................26 Drifting Laborers and Peak Action ....................................................................................29 From Diegesis to Documentary .........................................................................................33 Laughing through the Pain .................................................................................................35 Death’s Cultural Invisibility ..............................................................................................37 Authenticating the Actor ....................................................................................................40 Funhouse Femininity .........................................................................................................43 Manifested Space and Deep Play .......................................................................................44 The Banality of Injury ........................................................................................................49 SJ Harris .............................................................................................................................51 The Unwilling Stunt Actress ..............................................................................................57 CHAPTER 3: STUNTING DIGITAL GHOSTS IN LOGAN (2017) ...........................................63 The Avant-Garde Finds Wolverine ....................................................................................68 Paranoiacs and Conspiracists .............................................................................................70 From Cowboy to Vigilante to Superhero ...........................................................................72 From the Neck Down .........................................................................................................75 Digital Faces, Digital Ruptures ..........................................................................................76 The Skein of Vibrations .....................................................................................................79 Crediting the Specter..........................................................................................................82 Logan’s Run .......................................................................................................................86 The Tesseract of Wolverine ...............................................................................................87 Acting from Within and Without .......................................................................................95 Metonymic Claws ..............................................................................................................98 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE THOUGHTS ...........................................................................103 v LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1 – SJ HARRIS, MOMENTS BEFORE A WIPEOUT .................................................20 FIGURE 2 – STANTON BARRETT DOUBLES DIGITAL LOGAN.........................................21 FIGURE 5 – AJAX, A TEAM EFFORT .......................................................................................45 FIGURE 6 – A GHOSTLY LOGAN RUSHES HIS ATTACKERS ............................................65 FIGURE 7 – LOGAN AND X-24, JACKMAN AND DAVENPORT .........................................84 FIGURE 9 – EDDIE DAVENPORT AS X-24 AND DANIEL STEVENS AS LOGAN ............97 vi CHAPTER 1: A BRIEF HISTORY OF STUNTING AND ITS AFFECT Two police officers rush forward as a gunman screams into the night air. His lips move, about to say something, when he jerks backward and falls to the ground. One of the officers holds her side arm in jittering hands. She has just shot her first perpetrator. Before she can approach the body, something happens. Time and place shift. The same gunman stands in a bank vault now, locked in combat with an armored, black-clad adversary. The two trade rapid-fire punches,