MovieChat Forums > Carriers (2009) Discussion > Kate - completely superfluous character

Kate - completely superfluous character

posted 15 years ago by j-cameron22
65 replies | jump to latest

After watching this movie I was bewildered by the inclusion of Kate's character and suspect producer meddling to be the cause. I have no problem with her acting - she is a perfectly fine actor and a beautiful too. The problem is, her character adds absolutely nothing to film and actually ruins it to a great extent. I get the definite sense that the script didn't originally include her and she was quickly added in the final hour at the insistence of money hungry producers requiring a more bankable teen-friendly picture.
MAJOR PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD...
In the scene where Bobby is ordered out of the car, how much more impact would there have been if Bobby was the only girl in the car with them? Just the two brothers left alone.
Similarly, when Danny shoots his brother, the impact is lessened by the presence of Kate, her only justification for being there seeming to give him the gun to do the deed.
When she washes herself at the well it seems a blatant attempt at a Michael Bay style iconic shot and I'd bet good money that the Blu-ray/DVD will include that shot on the back when it's given a release.
Kate virtually has no screen presence throughout and the only time anyone acknowledges her is when they refer to her as Danny's 'girlfriend' and are then vaguely informed that she is in fact not his girlfriend. We are never informed how any of them know the girl.
Most crucially, the end scene where Danny reaches the beach and says "We made it" is pretty much neutred by the fact that she's there with him. Imagine, if he was alone and said "We made it". Now that would've been a tear-jerker and a half. No girl, no hope for recreation. Just one guy on a beach with his memories. Not surprisingly, Kate then conveniently disappears leaving Danny standing alone in the final shot. It's not like anyone can fight the case that she never really existed in the first place and was some kind of ghost/projection because as mentioned his brother actually acknowledged her in that one scene.
To be fair, I think this film was pretty damn good and a refreshing break from all the zombie clones out there but wonder how great this film might have been had Kate been excised from the whole thing.

--I do wish Imdb wasn't so riddled by bugs and popups--

[–] sd-divincenzo 15 years ago

Interesting post. It really gave me something food for thought and after careful consideration I'm inclined to agree with you. My question is this: Was Chris Pine's character infected before Bobby or do you think she gave it to him?

[–] snkpoct137 15 years ago

she definitiely gave it to him

Your right though she was completely useless during this movie minus the 2 bikini shots :)

[–] j-cameron22 15 years ago

Thanks guys.
I deffo got the impression that she gave it to him when he grabbed her in the sand pit and she pushed him away.
Weird how the main character isn't on the cover of the movie aint it?

--I do wish Imdb wasn't so riddled by bugs and popups--

[–] trigun_78 15 years ago

all 4 of them were on the cover

Im the boss.

[–] j-cameron22 15 years ago

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_cUT2n7u94d0/Sw7CidrrXrI/AAAAAAAAAtQ/AdIIUSTwDdI/s1600/Carriers+2009.jpg

[–] trigun_78 15 years ago

At the redbox, it had a pic like this one:
http://carrierstrailer.com/images/carriersmovie.jpg

It was also the pic on the main menu. But that doesnt really matter, cause the person i replied to said the MAIN character isnt on the cover, but he is either way.

Im the boss.

[–] MeanerWithTheScenery 14 years ago

UK DVD art has them all, but Chris pine is front and centre. And 5 times larger.http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/images/B00347A43O/ref=dp_image_z_0? ie=UTF8&n=283926&s=dvd

.

[–] Winchester_United 14 years ago

I think the main reason they put in Kate was for balance.

Imagine if all four made it to the beach unscathed, they could have babies galore and repopulate, and there might just be enough genetic diversity between them that should they be the only people left, their kids won't end up having deformed children together.

Now picture the group without Kate, and Bobby, Danny, and Brian are the only 3 people left. It be all sorts of awkward b/c you know that even if Danny was just some non sexual blob, that he'd still have to have a couple of goes with Bobby for the sake of genetic diversity to give humanity a chance.

I think the movie would have been better had somehow after everything that happened Kate ends up killing Danny and living on the beach all alone

[–] david_vega86 15 years ago

I'm inclined to agree as well.

She seemed very cold and prepared to do what was necessary (like when Brian shot the women in the car and she went to get the gas saying, "They weren't going to give it to us Danny...")

I thought she was going to play some role in the demise of Danny possibly - a survival of the fittest kind of thing. However, she ultimately served no purpose beyond some crude Adam and Eve allegory.

---

[–] garnet-8 15 years ago

Wow this was probably the most intelligent post that I've read on the entire IMDB forum!

Hollywood needs more people like you in the production loop.

[–] number1lakerfan23 15 years ago

Indeed, her character was rather pointless. The woman playing her was nice to look at but not much beyond that.

[–] j-cameron22 15 years ago

Thanks for the compliment garnet-8! :)

--I do wish Imdb wasn't so riddled by bugs and popups--

[–] gunbunny761 15 years ago

I think what we miss in the movie about Kate is the one point they were trying to make. She obviously never gave up on hope. Every phone, I repeat every phone she came across with the exception of the gas station is tried. Hope is all she has until they realize bobby is infected. Then she comes to grips with the fact that Brian has had it right all along. I think she represents our reliance on hope until all is lost. Once she realizes it she becomes more cold blooded than Brian in the execution of survival at all costs. She gives Danny the gun to kill Brian so she would not be exposed to any possible infection. It becomes calculation of infection and ultimate survival.

[–] oni1983 15 years ago

I perfectly agree with gunbunny. Kate is cold and calculating and I guess that she ended with the group in the first place by manipulating Danny, resulting in Brian's reaction to think that she was Danny's girlfriend or that Danny had some kind of interest in her. Also she does not hesitate to ignore Bobby when Danny orders her to leave the car. Same can be said for the two women who are killed by Brian.

She is not shocked by his actions but we see her ready with the jerry cans to take the gas. I wouldn't be surprized if while Danny was convincing the women to give the fuel, she was convincing Brian to kill them. She also signals to Danny with her eyes to do something about Brian when they are by the fire at the end of the movie and she then actually hands him the gun.

She is definitely someone who doesn't think twice to kill to guarantee her safety but others always do her dirty job.

My imaginary friend thinks you have serious problems.

[–] oddball_oddity-1 15 years ago

Yeah, I have to agree that Kate wasn't entirely useless. Maybe more could have been done with her, but she hardly ruined the movie and did provide an interesting element.

[–] Morson 14 years ago

Incredibly well said. Her character could have been removed and it'd made the movie far more impacting than it was. She was not required - if anything I think the hazmat guys should have kept her, with nothing they could do about it. That'd been a very sad moment that'd removed her in time for the more dramatic things ahead.

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] SecretFapper 14 years ago

gunbunny761 is correct, her character was the ONLY character that even had half a brain! How you could say the other characters were better than her is beyond me, they were all so flawed and stupid it was mindnumbing to watch.

Its the end of civilization people, you've seen millions dying from this disease you're not going to be all friendly and neigborly to every person that comes along, OR YOU ALREADY WOULD BE DEAD! Every character in this movie should have been more like Kate, then it wouldn't have been such a stupid Teens on Spring Break type movie that it was.

[–] Rastaruca40 15 years ago

Yeah I totally agree, Kate irritated me the whole entire movie. She was constantly nagging Danny to do stuff for her, even though she made it a point that he was NOT her boyfriend. She was always checking the phones, and wasting time. If a zombie came out to bite her, the movie would be justified on how crappy it was.

A true friend stabs you in the front.

[–] j-cameron22 15 years ago

Danny and Kate have a similar character arcs and both represent hope in the same way. The only real difference is that Kate surrenders herself to her cold survival instinct before Danny does. It's this similarity of characters that make me suspect that she wasn't in the original script and that they split Danny's character for reasons mentioned in my OP.
On the plus side, I think this film is remarkable for exploring the human drama and difficult decisions faced by viral apocalypse survivors without needing to resort to the usual zombie / rage virus plot devices. However, the meat of this story is the character arc of our main protagonist (Danny). It is his transformation from caring altruist to stone-hearted survivor that carries this film but the identical and parallel journey of Kate divides our attention unnecessarily and IMO makes this a much weaker film than it could have been had she not been included in the film.

--I do wish Imdb wasn't so riddled by bugs and popups--

[–] HaroldCarter 15 years ago

I saw this last night, and I have to say, Kate was probably my favorite character in the movie, aside from Frank. Was she in the original script? Who knows, scripts go through many drafts before one is settled on, for all we know Danny might not have been in the original draft, and they thought adding a brother was a good idea.

For me, all the things you mention about her character weakening the scene, I think it would have weakened them if her character hadn't been there. But hey, we all have our opinions.

[–] C.S.Wood 15 years ago

If I was in this movie and had the opportunity to take a sledge hammer to the heads of one of the four characters, it would have been Kate. Sure she's pretty, but Jesus H. Christ on a bicycle was she dead weight. If anyone was thirsty all they needed to do was pop open one of her veins for a cool drink of ice water.

I would've liked this movie a lot more if Danny just suddenly shot her at the end. That would've been fantastic.

http://stuffblackpeopledig.wordpress.com/

[–] TemporaryAgent 14 years ago

If anyone was thirsty all they needed to do was pop open one of her veins for a cool drink of ice water.

I don't recall cold blooded people carring about their parents.

If you want somebody who probably DOES have ice water in his veins, try Steve Marcus from Dawn of the Dead '04.

[–] Shane-56 15 years ago

Disagree with most . . . Kate is the only truly intelligent character in the movie, and it's why she is one of the two who survives. She is cold blooded because that's the best way to survive

She's not interested in superfluous human interaction, she's interested in surviving. Aside form her trying all the phones out to reach her family, out of the four of them Kate is the one I would want with me in a life or death situation because the other three morons will probably do something stupid to get you killed

Let's look at some actions that the others did that jeopardized their survival.

Danny - aka Dopey - Recommends giving his supplies to the father daughter
disarms his brother at the hospital, putting them all at risk
advocates continuing to chauffeur the infected father/daughter around with them risking infection
Wants to be altruistic and let the christian women leave them stranded in the middle of the desert with no gas

Bobby - Let's play patty cake with the infected girl on the fragile temporary saran wrap barrier we have
Let's go help the girl with her breathing when she's infectious and a goner anyway
Let's not tell anyone I got blood on me (while also spreading the blood over the "sterile" environment they created.

Big Brother - reckless driving when their vehicle is their lifeline (that's when you can tell the character Kate is furious and wondering why she ever tagged along with the brain trust)
Start a large fire in the dessert at night to attract attention when it's the last thing you want
F' around over a biohazzard pool for no apparent reason
Make huge racket to again risk attracting attention and destroy a potentially safe environment aka the golf course
Risk injuring yourself on a golf cart for sh'ts and giggles when there is no possible medical help available.
Fire some rounds into a highway sign just for the fun of it since I am sure ammo is plentiful!

Yes I'll take cold and calculating over those three brainiacs anyday

[–] subase 13 years ago

Please

Katie is only cold and calculating because she knows she's just a young girl who wouldn't last 2 minutes on her own.

She has no control over anything, except her own body, mainly cause Danny is a wimp.

For example instead of killing the big brother herself, to save the Danny the pain of having to shoot his own brother, she instead makes him do it. Thus making him more of an emotional shell, a more efficient killer, which she can then more easily control and manipulate to do her bidding.

If she was Lara Croft, she would have had the balls and decency to shoot the big brother in the face while his eyes were closed. Put him out of his misery and not allow him to die alone. But of course she doesn't do that cause she's a wimp, or maybe she doesn't even know how to aim a pistol. (no big deal it's only the end of the world where shooting skills are probably the most important skill one can have. This goes double for a young woman)

So yeah. If you like being used and manipulated, then stabbed in the back when your no longer useful, then Kate is the best partner you can have.

[–] StephEff 15 years ago

I'm a bit on the fence as far as Kate goes. I actually enjoyed her character because she seemed in between accepting that things had changed - such as when Brian killed the two people for gas - and still blindly hoping for things to return to normal - checking every phone she comes across to try to contact her parents. Bobby, on the other hand, seemed more useless to me. As far as plot goes, obviously she was technically necessary because she's the one who gets Brian infected. But her character was boring and unlikeable, just like Brian's.

I also think Kate was kind of necessary when it came down to killing Brian. If it had just been Brian and Danny, I'm inclined to believe he wouldn't have killed him, because what would he have to live for after his only other companion - his brother, no less - died? Having Kate there provided the motivation to kill Brian and be done with it, and continue to survive.

However, I do agree that you have some points. She didn't have a whole lot of purpose, but I do think that the outcome could have been quite different had she not existed.

steph

[–] autumnboyq 15 years ago

I'm hoping this is in response to the entire thread:

**SPOILERS**

I didn't think Kate was pointless. I liked that she was always hopeful in terms of trying every phone for her parents (until the last one), and I liked that she appeared to be the sweet girl, but she wasn't. She was ready and willing to make the hard decisions, and not let emotion get in her way (girls are almost never portrayed this way in the movies). She wasn't a bitch (to me), she just knew what needed to be done and was willing to do it. And the fact the was presented as the "princess" at the beginning just added to the surprise that she had balls. Kate in some ways was the most interesting character. And the core four were all interesting characters.

I was really surprised by how well done this film was!

[–] j-cameron22 15 years ago

But all of those attributes you mentioned autumnboyq are already explored with the other characters and Kate's parallel development merely echoes that of the other characters but to a weaker extent. I definitely couldn't agree with your point that she was in some ways the most interesting character.

"Appeared sweet but was ultimately willing to make the hard decisions" - that's Danny's character arc. The beach backstory that shadows the film means he is the focus of the story, not her. Her inclusion blurs our focus on Danny as the main character and his plight which is ultimately the main focus of the film.

"Not a bitch, just knew what needed to be done" - That was pure Brian and Bobby. We don't need another character vying for screentime when this angle is already so brilliantly explored.

...which leaves us with trying every phone. Not exactly enough of a character quirk to warrant her inclusion in the movie is it? Why not just have Danny trying every phone instead and cut her out of the picture entirely.

In a film about minimalist storytelling with no zombies, just raw emotions and events, why clutter the film unnecessarily with a character so sketchily drawn and blatantly weak? Why not just stick with the power three, make Danny the more central focus and thus make the film a whole lot stronger and more intense as a result?

As it is this is a nice little character piece and I definitely liked it but I think it could have been an absolute classic of the genre if the whole Kate confusion had been cleared up

[–] TemporaryAgent 14 years ago

"Not a bitch, just knew what needed to be done" - That was pure Brian and Bobby. We don't need another character vying for screentime when this angle is already so brilliantly explored.

How are you getting that vibe from Bobby? She was the one who stayed with the infected girl and got too close.

...which leaves us with trying every phone. Not exactly enough of a character quirk to warrant her inclusion in the movie is it? Why not just have Danny trying every phone instead and cut her out of the picture entirely.

Who was Danny going to call? He abandoned his infected parents. Kate, on the other hand, knew her parents were on a cruise ship and thought there was a chance of them still being alive.