This blog post analyzes the film 「Chronicle」 to examine the moments when superpowers become salvation for teenagers, while simultaneously revealing the inevitable structure that inevitably leads them toward ruin.
Chronicle: Fantasy Blooming from Oppression
Despite being produced on a low budget, the film “Chronicle” achieved significant box office success in the US. Unlike other superhero films, it doesn’t prominently feature flashy action or overwhelming graphics. So why did audiences find it compelling enough to choose “Chronicle” at the theater? While many credit its effective use of found footage style, I believe the core reason lies in its organic fusion of adolescent narrative and fantasy elements.
The title itself is “Chronicle.” True to its meaning, the film chronicles three high school boys who gain superpowers and the events that unfold as a result, following the passage of time.
Among them, Andrew, unlike his two friends, ultimately fails to restrain his powers and descends into ruin. I believe the core of this film’s identity as a fantasy lies within the reason Andrew couldn’t control his powers.
The protagonist is not a hero, but a villain
The protagonist of 「Chronicle」 is not a hero in the traditional sense, but rather a character embodying a villain’s narrative. However, this villain is far removed from the absolute evil seeking world domination. Instead, he aligns more closely with the lineage of charismatic villains frequently appearing in recent films, who evoke a certain empathy from the audience. He is the type of character who grew up in an unfortunate family environment, never receiving proper love from anyone, and consequently became twisted.
Andrew also possesses many of these characteristics. At home, his mother suffers from illness, and his father, dependent on alcohol, habitually abuses Andrew. At school, he endures constant bullying. Though he has his cousin Matt and friend Steve, he struggles to open up even to them. He possesses all the conditions to become a villain. Here, director Josh Trank grants the same psychic power—telekinesis—to all three characters: Matt, Andrew, and Steve.
As expected, Andrew proves the most skilled at controlling his telekinesis. This stands in stark contrast to his later loss of control, making it all the more striking. Scenes where he deflects a baseball or instantly assembles scattered Lego blocks clearly demonstrate his power. Yet Andrew feels this ability is wasted when used merely for pranks.
The initial scene where the three boys go to a large supermarket and secretly manipulate shopping carts or move mannequins to startle people could be dismissed as the mischievous pranks of teenage boys. In fact, if they had stopped there, it likely wouldn’t have led to major trouble. But Andrew doesn’t stop. He causes a vehicle that was following their car and honking loudly to crash through the guardrail and into the lake below. The person inside is saved by Matt and Steve and survives, but this incident causes Matt to become furious with Andrew and insist they set rules: Don’t use it on people, don’t use it when angry, don’t use it in public places. In this moment, the heroism hidden within Matt surfaces. After this incident, he consistently advocates for restraint in using their powers, displaying an attitude similar to the protagonists of typical superhero movies.
Of course, Andrew isn’t entirely without heroic qualities. This is evident when he saves Steve, who loses his balance and falls while the three are flying through the air playing with a rugby ball. He also seems to be on an upward trajectory when he gains popularity among friends at a talent show he attends with Steve and spends the night with a girl at the after-party. However, vomiting after drinking once again makes him the target of ridicule at school, and Andrew experiences another setback.
The scene in the middle of the film where Andrew uses telekinesis to tear off and kill the eight legs of a spider crawling across his room can feel quite cruel. This scene encapsulates Andrew’s raw anger and aggression. Nevertheless, at this point, it’s difficult to say Andrew has fully embraced the path of villainy. However, after Steve is struck and killed by lightning, Andrew moves irreversibly in that direction.
At Steve’s funeral, Andrew brazenly shoves a camera in people’s faces. He apologizes at Steve’s grave, but his remorse feels insincere. Having resolved to become a villain, Andrew pulls out three of Wayne’s teeth, which had tormented him, and explains the law of the jungle to the camera. He then begins blatantly abusing his powers to fund his mother’s medication. He destroys buildings on the street, endangers ordinary citizens, and ultimately breaks every taboo Matt had set. Believing people must no longer be harmed, Matt takes Andrew’s life.
Effectively Showing Superpowers
Andrew was not a character who should have restrained his superpowers. Had he restrained himself, the fantasy in this film would have barely materialized. If Matt, not Andrew, had been the protagonist, the story would have flowed into a confrontation with Andrew as the villain, requiring far more elaborate and massive action sequences. This would have closely mirrored the typical Marvel Comics narrative structure, likely causing the film to lose its unique identity and fail commercially.
Being a low-budget film, it adopted the found footage format. This allowed it to deliver a vivid, high-density fantasy experience akin to watching YouTube videos. Numerous scenes grounded in everyday life are strategically placed, prompting the audience to think, ‘If I gained superpowers, wouldn’t I act like that?’ Moments like stopping a fastball with telekinesis, completing a Lego set without touching it, or bending a fork by poking it with another fork – seemingly trivial instances – naturally draw viewers into Josh Trank’s unique fantasy world.
Fantasy and adolescence are inseparable
The fundamental reason Andrew cannot control his powers is that he is a teenager in his most unstable period. Andrew is fundamentally a withdrawn child. He lives exposed to violence at home, at school, and even in his neighborhood. Then one day, he gains the immense power of superpowers, and he finally expects to be able to escape society’s violence. However, Matt, his cousin and closest friend, tries to control his power, telling him to snap out of it and stop. These words echo those of Andrew’s father, oppressing Andrew in yet another way.
Adolescent delinquency might be a natural process. Within societal norms and parental control, adolescents constantly experience oppression. For adolescents, a quasi-adult stage yearning for rebellion and independence, the only way to confront oppression is through deviance. Andrew’s actions can also be seen as the eruption of long-accumulated oppression, not mere momentary anger. Even before entering the cave, his superpowers feel like a kind of weapon forged within him, born from the entanglement of rage and suppressed freedom.
Chronicle shares significant core elements with the 1976 film Carrie. Both feature a high school protagonist oppressed by parents, school bullying, and the premise of possessing superpowers, with similar overall narrative structures. Carrie and Andrew are particularly mirrored in their attempts to escape oppression by killing their parents, only to ultimately meet death at the hands of another force.
However, the two films diverge sharply in their genre-specific conclusions. True to its horror roots, Carrie ends with Sue, who visits Carrie’s grave in the final scene, having a nightmare where Carrie’s arm bursts out and grabs her ankle, plunging her into madness. Chronicle, in contrast, concludes with Matt arriving at the snow-covered mountains of Tibet, the very place Andrew longed to go, after Andrew’s death. Matt sets down Andrew’s camera and disappears. While one might expect him to fully return to reality after Andrew’s death, the director leaves Matt as a character journeying to find the origin of his powers, while Andrew remains in a fantasy reminiscent of a snow-covered paradise. This ending faithfully follows the genre convention of keeping the audience within the fantasy, suggesting that fantasy continues within us.
The immensely popular Harry Potter series shares a similar context: protagonist Harry loses his parents at age 11, grows up mistreated by another family, and escapes oppression by entering the magical world upon admission to Hogwarts. While the situation differs from “Chronicle,” the core trait of teenagers yearning for freedom and dreaming of fantasy within their daily lives clearly resonates. For this reason, teenagers are considered a crucial presence in fantasy genre films.
Let’s show what they imagine through film
The most striking point in 「Chronicle」 was Andrew’s downfall. Yet, upon repeated analysis, it feels less like simple ruin and more like the release of pent-up rage. Andrew was destined to become a villain, not by choice, but by circumstance. Had he never escaped his father’s violence, he likely would have self-destructed in some other way, carrying that unsettling aura.
After gaining superpowers, he grows closer to his friends, gains popularity at school, and rebels against his father for the first time. The climactic scene where Andrew destroys buildings and sends helicopters and cars flying seems like the moment his complex, chaotic emotions erupt uncontrollably. Though it comes after his death, by finding himself in the Tibetan mountains he so desperately wanted to reach, he finally achieves true freedom.
Thus, youth, children, and fantasy are deeply intertwined. And even though this film is set in America, I saw Korean teenagers within it. I believe there are many children like Andrew in Korea. I wonder if this is also why the fantasy genre struggles to flourish within a social structure that suppresses and disrespects children.
Nevertheless, youth narratives clearly shine through fantasy. This is because teenagers yearn for freedom every day and possess a powerful ability to imagine their own worlds. Therefore, adults bear the responsibility to create fantasy films that can fulfill their imagination. It is important to help them release their pent-up anger by allowing them to fully enjoy freedom, even if only within the film. Furthermore, I believe it is also meaningful for adults to re-experience the world they dreamed of in their childhood through fantasy films.
