The Age of Horus: Hancock, Part I

Little did I realize... The same day I posted the first installment of "Space/Gods," the Will Smith superhero-as-god film Hancock was released on DVD. To mark the occasion, the logic board on my new iMac crapped out just minutes after I posted. As it turns out, the gods of Synchronicity apparently wanted to get my full attention.

  I hadn't seen Hancock in the theaters. I wanted to rent it Thanksgiving Eve, but the local video emporium was out of it. Happily, I was able to find it in the new Redbox dispenser at the grocery store, and for a fraction of the price it would have cost to rent across the street. By the time I'd watched the film for the fourth time, my head was spinning. Which, of course, it's been doing a hell of a lot lately.

 

Note: Spoilers Below

The basic plot of the film is this: John Hancock (Smith) is a superhero who is hated by the people he protects for his abrasive manner, his alcoholism and his reckless behavior. Hancock saves a hapless P/R executive named Ray Embrey (played by Jason Bateman) from certain death when his car is stuck in traffic the middle of a train crossing. 

Following his rescue, Ray takes it upon himself to rehabilitate Hancock and repair his shattered reputation. Ray has a wife, Mary (played by Charlize Theron), and a son named Aaron who meet a drunken Hancock after he flies Ray home after the incident. Ray then convinces Hancock to answer a number of court summonses and go to jail, confident that a desperate populace will soon call on him to save them. 

 Following a memorable sequence during a bank robbery, Ray's plan works and Hancock is hailed as a hero. However, after making a pass at Mary while Ray is passed out in his room, Hancock discovers that not only is she a superhero she is also his wife. Hancock forgot her when he became an amnesiac following a blow to the head following their viewing of Frankenstein in 1931. 

Mary tells Hancock that they are both literal gods, but begin to lose their powers when they fall in love. Hancock then threatens to out Mary to Ray, which leads to a memorable battle in downtown Hollywood.

Throughout the film we are hammered over the head with eagle, hawk, solar and eye imagery, which is how Hollywood consciously tries to get the audience to pick up on a symbol. Hancock is continuously identified with the eagle, and at the end of the film he takes on a hawk as a sidekick. 

There's absolutely no mistaking it- Hancock is literally Horus. No more Paul Atreides/Luke Skywalker kind of pussyfooting here - this is Horus in the flesh.

 

The title character takes his name from the famous Founding Father, who was also a prominent Freemason (that should be a given, I suppose). The name "John Hancock" is a bit redundant, since the John and Han are the same name (Oannes), with cock being an old English diminutive. 

 Hancock means "little John" and Horus is little Osiris, himself identified with Oannes. However, "cock" reminds us of the rooster, a solar symbol associated with sunrise and the beginning of a new day. And also of Abraxas, whom Jung called the "ambivalent god." Which leads to yet another association that we'll get to in the next installment.

 

Meri Ka-Hathor Olsen reveals her baby bump
at the Atlantis Rising ceremony

And since Meri means "beloved" in the ancient Egyptian language, Mary is literally Hathor. We see that in her transformation to an angry goddess who wields tornadoes, reminding us of Hathor's alter-ego Sekhmet, who is the goddess of destruction. She is not Aaron's (another Egyptian name) real mother, which reminds us of Hathor's role as the guardian of children.

  Then who is Ray? Well, remarkably, the character's name is Horus in the original screenplay, entitled Tonight, He Comes. 

Given his relationship to the Hancock character, it's obvious that Ray is Ra, an elder, extraterrestrial version of Horus. We see that in his license plate ("Greeen 44," corresponding to Ra's identification with a green sun that we've discussed here)

  Revealingly, the battle between Hancock and Mary takes place in the Hollywood and Highland area, just a stone's throw from the Kodak Theatre, which we looked at in great detail in relation to the Osiris symbolism embedded into the Oscars. 

 I knew of this film and the parallels it had to Our Gods Wear Spandex, but there were some Secret Sun-type syncs attached to it as well. Will Smith is from Philae-delphia, which we looked at in connection to the election and its attendant Sirius symbolism. 

Hancock was co-written by the great Vince Gilligan, which ties into my X-Files work. And there all sorts of other details I won't belabor you all with. I'll be honest, this stuff almost gets redundant after a while. 

But let's refer to Knowles' Law #334A- when Hollywood tosses you a bunch of blatant symbols, there's often another story hiding beneath them that you should be paying attention to. And, boy, is that the case with this film. And that's where all the trouble starts.

 

TO BE CONTINUED