TL;DR
- Jimmy didn’t leave the power ranger behind, he became it.
If you watched this movie, you know that the ending is divisive. Either love it or hate it. I’ve been watching a lot of analyses on Jimmy’s character and I think a lot of them completely miss the point.
Spike’s journey has two parts; 1) he learns about death/life, and 2) what it means to be a man. The characters in the movie offer their perspectives to teach him about the two topics: His father has a somewhat toxic perspective of what makes someone a man — he kills without emotion, he says the infected are soulless, he isolates from his wife, cheats, drinks his emotions away, and copes. He is the one that labels the muscular, bid dick infected as “alphas”. Contrarily, when we meet the doctor, we see a healthy take on what it is to be human. He doesn’t think the infected are soulless, he doesn’t shy away from death (specifically with Isla, unlike Jaime), and he doesn’t call them ‘alpha’. He treats them like they’re living beings, as they are.
All of this shows Spike what life and death are, and that his community is actually a toxic and a regressed society. He would rather live than waste away in a toxic community, like what Dr. Kelson taught him.
Now jump to the ending. Jimmy shows up and it feels like we’re thrown into a completely different movie, pissing off a lot of viewers. But Jimmy is essential to the point of the film. Jimmy drives all of the lessons home.
In the beginning, Spike doesn’t pack his power ranger toy because it’s not what the society would label as ‘manly’. He thinks bringing it would be too boyish and immature. Jimmy contrasts that by showing that not only did he ‘pack the power ranger’, he metaphorically became one. This is where analyses break down and say “he never grew up, he’s still a child” or “this is how he copes” but I don’t buy either of them.
The whole movie presented us these toxic and traumatic perceptions of what it means to be an ‘alpha’ and shows us that it’s important to face death, cherish life, and stay true to who you are.
And Jimmy embodies the message. His appearance doesn’t make him less of a man. He obliterates the perception of what is ‘alpha’ and what it is to be a man (and really, obliterates gender norms. He’s wearing a tiara on purpose..). Jimmy doesn’t follow what his dad taught him (symbolized by the upside down cross), and he faces death head on. Jaime is not an ‘alpha’, whatever that means. He feeds us a bullshit view about masculinity but deep down he cannot face death or cherish life. Not only does Jimmy face death, but he clearly lives life to its fullest.
Jimmy is not coping; the film critics are.