Twilight Saga: Eclipse

After the extreme popularity of our posts for Twilight and The Twilight Saga: New Moon, it’s clear we have no other option than to continue the series, this week with The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Eclipse is a fascinating movie, in some ways it’s the most complex and revolutionary of the series, and in other ways it seems to be running in place, not really offering anything new in comparison to what came before or what comes after. So, let’s dive into the continuing battle of Team Edward versus Team Jacob, and see what makes Eclipse the movie it is.

As always, these breakdowns contain SPOILERS, and are only recommended if you've already seen the movie. You can check my introduction to these breakdowns, to get an overview of my process and philosophy.

Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments below!

The Basics

Director: David Slade
Writers: Melissa Rosenberg, Stephanie Meyer
Release Date: 2010
Runtime: 124 Minutes
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1325004

Movie Level Goals

Protagonist: Bella
External: Survive Victoria, the Newborn Army, and the Volturi
SUCCESS | FAILURE | MIXED
InternalGoal: Choose between who she is vs. who people think she should be
SUCCESS | FAILURE | MIXED
Goal Relationship: Bella must experience the full range of vampire danger and experiences and hear from all parties before she can decide to be who she is (not normal, and therefore a vampire)

Three Observations

Observation #1: Stronger External, But Focus on Internal

In the previous Twilight movies, especially the first one, the external goal is built around the romance, with very little action providing structural goals at the external level. In Eclipse, we have a more conventional structure (sort of), with a more clear cut action-oriented external goal structure. In the original Twilight, the action-oriented threat provided by James is barely mentioned until the climax of Act 3 and the first half of Act 4. In Eclipse, the action-oriented goal structure is developed immediately, and provides the movie-level goal (survive Victoria, etc.) and provides structure for each act. However, if you look at the Act level goals, you’ll see that Bella is quite passive in the pursuit of these goals:

• Act 2 External: Edward and Jacob protecting Bella

• Act 3 External: Prepare for the battle (largely carried out by Edward, Jacob, Alice, the Cullens, the wolves etc.)

• Act 4 External: Defeat Victoria (Edward), Defeat the Army (Cullens and the wolves)

So the big question is what is Bella up to through most of the movie? She isn’t active when it comes to the external goals of the movie, but of course she’s still in the majority of the scenes and doing something. Despite the addition of an action-oriented goal structure, Bella actually spends most of her time pursuing her internal goal, which echoes both the external relationship goal of the original Twilight and the more internally-based relationship goal of New Moon (more on this in Observation #2).

As noted above, that internal goal, on the surface is positioned less as pursuing Edward or Jacob, but instead deciding on what kind of person she wants to be. As she states at the end of the movie, “This was a choice between who I should be and who I am. I’ve never felt normal because I’m not normal. I’ve never felt stronger, more real, more myself. It’s my world too [the world of vampires], it’s where I belong.” So even though she’s declared that she wants to be a vampire, Bella spends much of the move internally debating and deciding for sure that this is what she wants.

In some ways this handled quite subtlety. Of course, she does talk about becoming a vampire with Edward and Jacob, but it seems largely on the surface that she’s already decided. However, when you look at the number of scenes, especially in Act 2, in which Bella listens to others talk about their choices in life, you realize that all of these scenes are informing her thoughts about being a vampire. In Act 2 alone, they include:

• Edward talking about the nature of souls

• Jacob talking about love, and how being with him would be as easy as breathing

• Billy telling the tribal stories about vampires and wolves

• Rosalie discussing the lack of choices she had in becoming a vampire, and the choices she no longer has a vampire

• Jessica, in her graduation speech, discussing the idea that people should be figuring life out and making mistakes in their 20’s.

In Act 3, Bella wonders if sex with Edward will be different as a vampire and also worries that he won’t like her as much without the warmth, flesh, and blood of being human. In Act 4, she witnesses the positives and negatives of humanity versus being a vampire when she nearly freezes to death and is helpless in fighting Victoria and the army. And, of course, she kisses Jacob, realizes she loves him too, but can’t accept living life simply as a human being.

Observation #2: The Emperor’s New Clothes

This focus on Bella’s choice to be a vampire, is both clever and complex, and also repetitive and simplistic. On the clever side, Act 2 is especially compelling in having Bella listen to the various people in her life discuss the nature of being alive, choices in their lives, and give their opinions on humans versus vampires. At times, Bella actively engages in these discussions, especially with Edward and Jacob. At other times, she simply listens, as with Rosalie and Jessica, but everything she’s taking in is informing her decision. Likewise, in Acts 3 and 4, her thought process is more inferred than implied. She watches the events around her and they all inform her decision that she needs to be a vampire.

On the other hand, this whole process feels somewhat repetitive. She has already decided in the first two movies that she loves Edward over Jacob, and that she wants to be a vampire. In particular, her interactions with Jacob, seem largely repetitive of those in New Moon, with Jacob continuing to pressure her into being with him and to not be a vampire. Though Bella realizes she loves Jacob as well, and willingly kisses him, it doesn’t change the decision we are already certain of: that she will stay with Edward and wants to become a vampire. Though her internal conflict is dressed in new clothes (whether to become a vampire), it is basically at its core the same conflict we’ve already seen (choosing Edward versus Jacob).

Having said that, one of the most compelling aspects of the Twilight series, and especially Eclipse, is that Bella is the one who chooses. She gets to decide between Edward and Jacob. In the end, they must accept her decision, and in fact, the movie gives us the pretty revolutionary idea that she can indeed be in love with two men at the same time (much like The Hunger Games), and in some ways the justification for choosing Edward is that this comes with being a vampire (i.e. choosing a non-normal life).

Observation #3: The Final Act Multiple Climaxes

In both the original Twilight and in New Moon, Act 4, is divided into sequences with multiple climaxes that revolve around different aspects of the external and internal goals. Eclipse is no different, with a series of three mini-climaxes in the first half of Act 4, and one additional climax at the end of the movie in the second half of Act 4. As the chart above notes, we have climaxes revolving around Edward killing Victoria (external), Jacob kissing Bella (internal), and the Volturi (Jane) choosing not to escalate the situation and leaving peacefully (external). The second half of the Act, much like the original Twilight, feels like a stretched out epilogue, but comes with the important reaffirmation by Bella that she wants to be a vampire, because she doesn’t feel normal and she belongs in the world of vampires. In the end, as the middle of five, New Moon is sort of like the Marsha of the Twilight movies: struggling to stand out, at times making bold choices, but still in the shadows of the original’s intense romance and the finale’s gonzo action.