I couldn't understand Robin's problems towards the end of the film. He turned against his father. I didn't understand that..
"SG"
Another problem is the struggle for him to keep him hanging from the roof in order to get him up. Just seconds before he had been elevated from the floor due to levitation. Gravity wasn't an issue to him, but only seconds later he dies from a fall.
shareProbably all the drugs they fed him.
shareAbsolutely it was the drugs. He became more immune to them so his powers increased thus so did his paranoia which resulted in him killing the woman doctor he was sleeping with. He turned on his father because he was conditioned to believe, I think, that his father faked his own death at the beginning to allow Childress to take Robin in. Robin committed suicide at the end in my opinion. Of course he could have saved himself but instead he scratched his father's face as one last act of violent rebellion and allowed himself to fall.
shareIt wasn't the drugs, Robin had no idea that all of what was happening to him wasn't his father's doing. For all Robin knew his father could have been involved along with the goverment in what was going on with him. So in the end he turned bitter, cold and evil, especially when he got to see his father at last and it was like "who cares? You did this to me along with them, i'd rather die" type of thing. jrs-8 I think you made some really good key points in your post.
The sad thing is in the end Robin didn't know who to trust and was soured on everybody including his father so that's part of what really made him turn brutal in my opinion anyway.
I think the clues to what his psychological issues were are in this scene:
Childress: How's our boy wonder?
scientist: Those films of his father's death have unleashed an incredible emotional force. Why, he's developing the power of an atomic reactor.
Dr. Susan Charles: -- or an atomic bomb.
Childress: What are you giving him to calm him down?
scientist: Every day he has 3,000 mg of phenobarbital and 1,000 mg of Prolixin. On trial--
Childress: What are you telling me? That's enough to kill him!
scientist: Drugs no longer have any effect on him.
Dr. Charles: We've pushed him too far. He's quite unstable. He flies into rages over nothing.
scientist: He could be unstable ...
I read the book and listened to the audio book. Robin and Gillian are about 14 years old in the book. The reason Robin "turns" is because of everything they did to him that drove him mad, insane, disturbed. They pushed him too hard and the more they pushed, the worse he got. Remember, in the book we are talking about a 14-15 year old kid.
shareI wondered as well but he didn't seem to recognize his father nor his predicament hanging over the roof. It seemed like he had lost the ability to rationalize at that point, perhaps due to drugs or just psychologically or even both.
shareHe was told his father was dead. They made him dependent on them and what they wanted him to believe. Suddenly he's confronted with his father alive and realizes everything he's known has been a lie to make him more dangerous. He lost his will to live and that's why he didn't try to use his powers to save himself. Peter then killed himself because he lost the only thing keeping him going, Robin.
shareHe was kept as a prisoner and tortured/brainwashed by the shady government agency. When he finally saw his father he probably didn’t even recognize him, he’d completely snapped and lost touch with reality in a murderous rage.
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