The Polar Express May Be A Lot Darker Than You Remember
The Polar Express was released in 2004, based on the 1985 children’s book and was one of the first movies to be filmed exclusively with motion capture. It has become one of the highest-grossing G-rated films ever made. This mysterious Christmas story has several characters and scenes in it that have sparked the idea that The Polar Express is more than meets the eye. There are often internet theories about movies that seem to be looking too hard into things that aren’t even there. But these dark theories about The Polar Express would definitely explain why the now Christmas classic has such a melancholy yet inspiring tone to it.
The night is Christmas Eve in 1956, and an unnamed boy referred to by the script as “hero boy” is old enough to now start questioning the existence of Santa Claus. While unsuccessfully trying to fall asleep, the boy (narrated by Tom Hanks) is afraid he’ll never hear the sound of ringing bells from Santa’s sleigh because he doesn’t believe anymore. But then suddenly, he hears a faint and distant sound—ringing bells. Later, he hesitantly boards The Polar Express and meets some friends and potential foes. They arrive at the North Pole, and after a mishap, have to make their way through Santa’s workshop and the town so they might be the one to receive the first gift of Christmas (a bell from Santa’s sleigh).
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The hero boy watches in sadness as everyone around him at the festival can hear and enjoy the beautiful sound of the bells on Santa’s sleigh and reindeer. A reindeer is galloping, shaking the bells on its reins, but still the boy can’t hear the sound and feels as if it is too late for him to still believe in Santa and the magic of Christmas. A bell comes loose from the reindeer, and the boy picks it up to give back to Santa. This warms Santa’s heart, and he allows the hero boy to be selected for the first gift of Christmas. The boy puts the bell in the pocket of his robe, but there is a hole in it that he didn’t see—so the bell is lost. That is, until Christmas morning when the hero boy finds the bell along with a note from Santa. He rings it, and at last he can hear.
Tom Hanks is the young boy only much older narrating the story. The boy’s parents could not hear the sound of the bell because they did not believe, and as Tom Hanks’ character got older, his friends and even sister started to slowly one after the other stop hearing the sound as they too no longer believed. But Tom Hanks could still hear it even in his old age. The entire film has a fuzzy, distant, almost dream-like quality to it making the viewer unsure as to whether the story was a dream or not. The film has a positive message about not growing up too fast and believing in the magic of the holidays just a little longer. But the film is noticeably melancholy, whether that be because of an almost exclusively blue color palette or high key violin score, or something else.
Because of the sad tone and the fact that Tom Hanks voiced six characters in total, this of course led to some theories about how the characters Hanks voiced are connected. Hanks voiced the hero boy as an adult, the boy’s father, conductor, hobo, a Scrooge puppet, and Santa Claus. Many think that the narrator, conductor, and hobo are all the same person. Ebenezer Scrooge is famously known as an old man who hates Christmas. Because the voice of the Scrooge puppet and the narrator are the same, many think that if the hero boy had not believed in the magic of Christmas, he would have ended up an old grouchy man who hates Christmas—forever trying to find his way to the North Pole (like the hobo) so he could believe again.
The hobo and the conductor are opposite, or foils, of one another. The conductor is optimistic and believes in the Christmas spirit, but the hobo is much more cynical. Despite their differences, both characters tell the hero boy that “seeing is believing.” If the hero had not gotten on The Polar Express when he did, he wouldn’t have made it one more year. He would have stopped believing and his fate would have been sealed. The train came just when he needed it, and the viewers can look at the conductor as the hero’s “good” angel side (or side more willing to believe without question) and the hobo as his “bad” angel side (or the side more resentful to Santa and Christmas).
The conductor and hobo are two of the paths the hero can take depending on what he chooses to believe after this night. The Polar Express is dark because when one stops believing in childhood imagination, they become older and older until one day, they pass away. Just like the hobo who was a bitter and cold ghost. By keeping imagination alive, one can have a happier and longer life, as seen by the conductor’s environment, as it’s the only golden and lively colored palette in the whole film. Because Tom Hanks voiced so many characters, many believe this is to subtly show how the boy has several options about which adult he will choose to be like when he’s older.
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