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Clash of the Titans

Yes, I know it’s a movie about ancient gods, but for some reason, among all the legends of those ancient gods, it has endured within the Christian world. There’s a reason for that. Other than the fact that it’s a great adventure story, it displays, in quirky, confused, and disjointed ways, mixed with error, the gospel. It’s as if the desire throughout history of man for release, for liberty, for meaning, is tracking the purpose of God, which is to bring that liberty to man through a man. But not just any man. The movie demonstrates how it must be some other kind of man, “born to kill the Kracken.”

Notice how the Titans are more like demonic powers. And the bible tells that the heathen worshipped devils, not mere stone images. The rising of man against “the gods” is the rising up against false gods, against wicked gods and devils. At the same time, however, it is a rising up against the sovereignty of God, a complaint, a railing against His will for man, the suffering man must endure. Perseus, much like the God-man Jesus Christ, reconciles all these seeming contradictory themes.

Perseus’ adoptive father, like Joseph was adoptive father to Jesus, sums up so much of the movie at the very beginning when he explains his love for Perseus, a lad of about 12 years old or so. He tells him that their love for him, an adopted child, is different from the love of a natural child. This love is what gods and men fight over. Then he quickly moves to another theme and says, “I never understood the gods. But even I know there’s a reason you were saved, and one day that reason will take you far away from us.” The love of his family is not something that Perseus wants to lose; it’s more important to him than any divine calling, and it represents the juxtaposition of love and destiny, choice and sovereignty, which is played out through the movie. The gods make the choices, and the people have to live with them and love those gods anyway. Throughout the movie, Perseus refuses to use a sword given by Zeus, proclaiming he wants to fight this battle as a man, and he refuses an offer from Zeus to live in Mount Olympus. Thus, he sides with man, in spite of his relationship to Zeus. In a sense, he’s a new Adam, refusing the temptation to be “like God,” which is the temptation Adam and Eve fell for.

The next scene is years later when Perseus is a man, and his father complains about Poseidon and Zeus because he catches no fish. His wife tells him it’s caused by the men who defy the gods and that he should be thankful, but the old man continues to rail, and with Perseus standing by and listening, he says, “One day someone is going to have to take a stand, one day someone is going to have to say ‘Enough.’ ” Not much later, they see men destroying an idol, and Hades quickly destroys them. More than a mere man or men are needed to bring about the liberty from the gods that is needed.

Perseus tells his father: “I have everything I need . . . right here,” meaning that his family, their fishing boat, and livelihood, is enough. The call of Zeus does not deter him from that love. But Satan, represented in part by Hades, directly after destroying the men taking down the idol, inadvertently accomplishes God’s will for Perseus by destroying everything Perseus had. Even Perseus cannot bring the dead back to life. The next scene reminds the viewer of Satan before God in the book of Job because Hades basically bargains with Zeus to allow him to be set loose upon mankind “to remind them of the order of things.”

In Argos, we meet a prophet of the gods, a wild man who berates the people for not being thankful and for fighting the gods. He later becomes the greatest advocate for engaging in human sacrifice. And we learn that Perseus is actually a son of Zeus. And we’re introduced to the arrogance of Humanism in its rawest form. Andromeda, the daughter of the king, is embarrassed by the frightening display, demonstrated best when her mother proclaims that the gods should worship Andromeda for her beauty and that “we are the gods now.” Andromeda recognized the danger and says, “Don’t” to her mother, who persists in her taunting. Perseus appears sheepish also, even though he has more reason to be angry for the loss of his family. Hades, like a demon-god of old, demands the sacrifice of the princess, Andromeda.

There’s even humor in Clash. When arming up for the dangerous journey ahead, Perseus picks out of a chest the old mechanical owl that was in the original decades-old version of the movie and asks what it is. Hilariously, the most aggressively antagonistic soldier of the group, tells him to leave it. Two hunters join the group of soldiers led by Perseus, and they provide some comic relief. They also provide the human perspective of those respecting Perseus. Unlike the soldiers, who take every opportunity to mockingly call Perseus “son of Zeus,” these men give Perseus the shield which he’ll use to slay Medusa. As they leave, they call him “fisherman,” which Perseus receives endearingly, considering the love he had for his fisherman father. Io, his guardian angel so to speak for all his life, tells Perseus: “You’re not just part man, part god; you’re the best of both.” A stunningly accurate depiction of Christ, the one who called himself “son of man” and who was the best of all men. While Jesus Christ, as the second person of the Trinity, cannot be better than the Father or the Holy Spirit, he did win the title King of Kings and Lord of Lords and now sits on the right hand of God and because of His sacrifice, is celebrated as the greatest of all heaven.

The finale is the scene in which Zeus, not Hades, releases the Kracken, the fiendishly awesome spectacle of utter terror and judgment from the gods. But there’s still a demigod headed for Argos. Zeus allows, even assists Perseus, in obtaining what he needs to defeat the Kracken. So also did God Himself release His Judgment but not against men, who were rightfully due that judgment. Someone else, Christ, interceded for mankind by receiving the judgment that mankind was due. And He came at the Father’s own bidding. Clash of the Titans rightly withholds from Perseus the power to cover sin by dying for mankind; Perseus merely stops the judgment in the form of the Kracken. It is a mere temporary stay of the judgment that man deserves. Perseus interceded to defeat a specific form of judgment for one time only. Yet, his accomplishment does mimic that of Christ in two ways. The Kracken was created to defeat the Titans, who had become too strong. So, once the Kracken was destroyed by Perseus, that form of judgment was gone forever. Also, when Hades shows up after the Kracken’s destruction, he tells Perseus that it’s futile to pull his sword on Hades because Hades is a god – “I’ll live forever.” But Perseus relies upon the sword of Zeus and Zeus’ lightning to send Hades back to the underworld. With three words, “but not here, “ Perseus also sends Hades back to his world, presumably forever, and out of the world of men. Has not Satan’s power to rule & condemn mankind been chained by Christ’s sacrifice & resurrection?

Jesus Christ, all man, all God, the best of men, gave His life as a man, taking the punishment which was owed to men for their sin. He did this as a man, loving man, and He even remains in that form, carrying the scars He earned for His great warfare against Satan, his minions, and that which would have destroyed man.