The Polar Express
Remarkably, almost every character in the film is unnamed. The main protagonist is an American boy from Grand Rapids, Michigan, who appears in the credits only as "Hero Boy". The film revolves around Hero Boy's disbelief in the existence of Santa Claus: during the film's exposition, he tells his sister that Santa "would have to travel faster than the speed of light to get to everyone's house in one night" and that "to hold everyone's presents, his sleigh would have to be bigger than an ocean liner". He also looks up the North Pole in an encyclopedia, which states plainly that it is "devoid of life". At exactly 11:55 pm on the night of Christmas Eve, the sound of a train awakens Hero Boy. To his amazement, train tracks have magically appeared in the middle of the street, and right in front of his house now stands a steam locomotive, complete with a conductor shouting, "All Aboard!" When Hero Boy asks the conductor where the train is going, the conductor smirks, as if the answer was obvious, and answers, "Why, to the North Pole, of course! This is the Polar Express!" When the Hero Boy boards, he finds his train car filled only with other children, who are singing and jumping all around the car. It is on this train where Hero Boy meets the two other important characters of his adventure: a girl referred to in the credits only as "Hero Girl", as well as another boy whose name we eventually learn to be Billy but is nevertheless credited instead only as "Lonely Boy". The lack of names adds to the mysteriousness of the events of the film, and it also facilitates viewer empathy: we are not just catching a glimpse into someone else's life, but we're also there ourselves, going on an adventure through Hero Boy's eyes. In that sense, Hero Boy's name is none other than your own.
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| "And all the dreams of children, once lost will all be found." |
Hero Boy, Hero Girl, and Billy recall divergent past experiences of Christmas. In the musical sequence "When Christmas Comes to Town", Hero Girl describes Christmas as "the best time of the year, when everyone comes home," filled with friends and presents. Billy's description, however, is much lonelier. He reveals that he does not usually receive presents on Christmas: "I guess that Santa's busy 'cause he's never come around." When Hero Girl recalls memories of "presents for the children wrapped in red and green", Billy replies, singing that those are "all the things I've heard about but never really seen". Later, when the train arrives at the North Pole, Billy is reluctant to leave the train and actually see Santa, explaining, "Christmas just doesn't work out for me—never has," in spite of Hero Girl's insistence that "Christmas is such a wonderful, beautiful time—it's a time for giving and being thankful, for friends and family, people hang decorations and lights, and then Santa comes and leaves presents under our Christmas trees." Hero Boy, on the other hand, does not believe in Santa at all.
The word "believe" encapsulates the film's core theme. The word is repeated throughout the film, particularly during the film's climax, when Hero Boy desperately tries to ring Santa's sleigh bell to no avail—that is, until Hero Boy declares to himself, "I believe." When Hero Boy presents his ticket to the conductor for his return trip at the end of the film, the word that the conductor punches into his ticket is "believe". Christmas is, of course, a religious holiday, but even though the film is very much about Christmas, The Polar Express never directly mentions Jesus or the Nativity and rarely any other aspect of Christianity. Instead, the film alludes to religious themes indirectly. It is difficult to avoid the heavy religious connotation associated with the word "believe" in the context of Christmas. The word appears in arguably the most famous biblical quote in Christianity: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16, New International Version). Hero Boy boards the Polar Express primarily with the goal of seeking evidence of the existence of Santa Claus; this bears a striking, perhaps allegorical resemblance to the struggle of agnostics and atheists (and other non-believers) seeking evidence of the existence of God.
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| The mysterious Hobo |
There are two critical scenes that support this allegorical interpretation of The Polar Express. Both involve the most enigmatic character in the film: the Hobo. Again unnamed and credited only as "Hobo", the Hobo provides a voice for Hero Boy's deepest doubts. Hero Boy first encounters him on the roof of the train, which is where the conductor seems to have taken Hero Girl as punishment for not having a ticket. Why the conductor thought this would be a good idea is inexplicable. While this wanton endangerment of a child certainly questions the judgment of the conductor, it nevertheless adds to the mysteriousness of the night, which the Hobo does not hesitate to point out. (In any case, it also allows for the hilarious scene where Hero Boy tells the Hobo, "I'm looking for a girl," to which the Hobo replies, "Ain't we all?") After the Hobo claims to be "the king of the North Pole", Hero Boy asks, "What about Santa? Isn't he the king of the North Pole?" The Hobo then puts on a dirty old Santa hat and mocks Santa, laughing "ho ho ho" derisively. He then asks Hero Boy, "What exactly is your persuasion on the big man, since you brought him up?"
This question has always struck me as allegorical. "The big man" most immediately refers, of course, to Santa Claus, but in a different context, the same question identically phrased could be asking whether we believe in the big man, i.e. God. Hero Boy's answer and the subsequent conversation can also be understood allegorically: "Well, I want to believe, but—" Here, the Hobo interrupts: "—but you don't want to be bamboozled, you don't want to be led down the primrose path, you don't want to be conned or duped, have the wool pulled over your eyes, hoodwinked, you don't want to be taken for a ride, railroaded! Seeing is believing, am I right?" Hero Boy considers this, but then points out the clear flaw in the Hobo's reasoning: "But what about this train?" Indeed, if seeing is believing, and this train, the Polar Express, does seem to be bound for the North Pole, shouldn't we believe at least in the train? But things don't quite add up. How was a locomotive able to appear in the street of a suburban residential neighborhood, right in front of Hero Boy's driveway? Where did the golden tickets come from? Why did the conductor take Hero Girl to the top of the train when she didn't have a ticket? Hero Boy does not vocalize any of these questions, but they are implied when he asks, "We're all really going to the North Pole, aren't we?" The Hobo only replies, "Aren't we?" That's enough for Hero Boy to say aloud his deep-seated suspicion: "Are you saying that this is all just a dream?" The Hobo is quick to clarify, "You said it, kid. Not me." Before their conversation ends and they set off to find Hero Girl, the Hobo asks Hero Boy one last question: "Do you believe in ghosts?" Hero Boy almost immediately shakes his head no. "Interesting," the Hobo replies.
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| "Sometimes seeing is believing, and sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can't see." |
As it turns out, the Hobo is a ghost. He is shown on multiple occasions to disappear and reappear at will, oftentimes with different belongings. This understanding is important to the second scene that is important to the allegorical interpretation of the film. At one point in the film, Hero Girl almost falls off the train before the conductor grabs a hold of her while Hero Boy grabs a hold of the conductor. However, the momentum is too great, and it looks like all three of them might fall over. That's when the Hobo appears once again, grabbing a hold of Hero Boy and pulling all three of them back to safety before magically disintegrating into snow. Later, as they are heading back to their seats, the conductor tells our heroes, "Years ago, on my first Christmas Eve run, I was up on the roof making my rounds when I slipped off the ice myself. I reached out for a hand iron, but it broke off. I slid and fell! And yet, I did not fall off this train!" Hero Girl asks, "Someone saved you?" The conductor replies, "Or something." Hero Girl thinks it's an angel.[1] Immediately, however, Hero Boy realizes the conductor is talking about the Hobo and asks the conductor, "What did he look like? Did you see him?" The conductor responds with the most important line in the entire film: "No, sir, but sometimes seeing is believing, and sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can't see."
This line summarizes the film's central message. I have actually quoted this line on this blog before in a post called "Paracosm". Fundamentally, even though there are no religious symbols to be found in the screenplay, The Polar Express is a film about faith. One film critic named Cole Smithey lambasted the film, accusing the film of "fascist indoctrination", writing, "Even when you look past the unnecessary dangers that the dehumanized child characters in 'The Polar Express' experience, you're left with a hammered-home theme that says you must believe in a lie in order to be satisfied on a personal level." I do not necessarily disagree with Smithey about the unnecessary endangerment of children, committed especially when it was implied the conductor would throw Hero Girl off the train for not having a ticket. (Smithey also points out that this is also poor optics considering Hero Girl is African American, but concedes that the "cruel metaphors at play in the movie may be accidental on the part of the filmmakers".) However, Smithey's review fails to understand the allegorical nature of the story.
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| "This bell is a wonderful symbol of the spirit of Christmas, as am I. Just remember, the true spirit of Christmas lies in your heart." |
In fact, although it is not obvious at first glance, the film does not claim that Santa is real. At the end of the film, when Santa gifts Hero Boy one of his sleigh bells, he explains to him that the bell is "a wonderful symbol of the spirit of Christmas, as am I" and that "the true spirit of Christmas lies in your heart". It does not ask us to believe in the physical existence of Santa, which would indeed be a lie. Rather, the film asks us to believe in the spirit that Santa symbolizes: the spirit of giving, of friends, of family, and most importantly, of faith. The film asks us to believe in the power of belief itself—that there are things in the world that are real, but cannot be seen, and that if you believe in them, good things will happen to you. The film's message can be applied neatly to religious faith: the belief that God is real, but cannot be seen. United with the context of Christmas, it is clear that this film is very much a religious film, even if it contains no overt religious imagery.
The film ends ambiguously. Hero Boy wakes up in his bed at home to the sound of his sister screaming that Santa's been to their house, but curiously, when he puts on his blue robe to go downstairs, he tears a hole in one of the pockets. At the beginning of the film, when Hero Boy goes downstairs to board the Polar Express, he does the exact same thing, tearing a hole in his robe pocket. However, at the end of the film, it seems that the hole he tears is new. This raises doubt as to whether the events of the film truly happened. He does, however, find Santa's sleigh bell underneath his tree, along with a note from Mr. C that says he found it on the seat of his sleigh. Furthermore, the bell still exhibits the magical property of only ringing for those "who truly believe". Thus, perhaps the events of the film were not a dream after all. In other words, it is still not 100% clear whether Santa, the bell, or the Polar Express actually exist. It remains a matter of whether the viewer believes.
Although The Polar Express only has a score of 56% on Rotten Tomatoes, it is a rare example of a film to have received an "A+" score from CinemaScore. This indicates a divergence between the critical reception of the film and the audience reception—it seems most theatergoers enjoyed the film, whereas a good chunk of critics disliked it. When expressed plainly, the film's message may be polarizing. It is quite difficult to believe in something that you cannot prove the existence of, and to even debate this topic has become something of a cultural taboo these days, at least in the United States. The Polar Express skirts around this stigma by presenting the spirit of Christmas in terms that almost anyone can sympathize with. Unlike many other Christmas-themed films out there, this one has a relatively large amount of room for thoughtful interpretation, and I suspect that both children and parents alike walked out of the movie back in 2004 filled with a sense of mystery and wonder, as I once did.
Footnotes
[1] The angel is one of the few religious symbols that the film mentions directly. Hero Girl also mentions the religious Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" during the "When Christmas Comes to Town" sequence, and in the same sequence, Billy also mentions the phrase "once lost will all be found", which I believe is a homage to the Parable of the Prodigal Son.