Max Payne 3: Does Max Find Moral Redemption?

William Lin B00554595 27 January 2014 ENGL 2085 Dr Trevor Ross (1192 words)

In the opening cutscene of Max Payne 3, the titular character is seen settling into his new apartment in Sao Paulo with a bottle of whisky. In the ending cutscene, Max takes a swig from a beer at a beachside bar and saunters off into the distance. What happens in between these two scenes is an adrenalinefilled and often confusing adventure addled by alcohol and painkillers. An important question that emerges from this is if the protagonist Max ever develops as a literary character throughout Max Payne 3 or if he is simply a one-dimensional cutout on to which players can project themselves. More specifically, this essay will examine if world-weary Max absolves himself of his failures and finds redemption. Max Payne is a hardened ex-cop who now works as a private security contractor for a rich Brazilian businessman, far away from his native New Jersey. A theme present throughout the Max Payne series is the dynamic between the slings and arrows of fortune versus Maxs struggle to find purpose and to survive. Max has lost all the women he cared for in his life to these slings and arrows: his young wife and child are killed by hired thugs, and Mona Sax, a female contract killer with whom he later develops an relationship, is also killed by criminals. In Max Payne 3, he fails to protect Fabiana, the Brazilian businessmans wife whom Max is charged with protecting. Indeed, in one of his characteristic sardonic voice-overs after Fabiana is executed, Max observes, Here I was again, with all hell breaking loose around me, standing over another dead girl I had been trying to protect (Rockstar). Having suffered innumerable physical and psychological traumas, the question of Maxs development as the protagonist becomes apparent: do these trials and failures strengthen or destroy Max? Does he ultimately find redemption after all of this, or is he doomed to a life of guilt and selfloathing? The opening and ending cutscenes provide us with a clue: Max Payne 3 begins and ends with Max drinking. Ultimately, we see that Max does not find redemption in the traditional sense of the word; he does not change his amoral nature nor does he necessarily forgive himself for his past failures. However, redemption out of a sense of piety or moral righteousness is not important for Max rather,

staying alive is what is important. Max may not forgive himself or try to change his ways, but he becomes comfortable with himself. Between the opening and ending scenes of Max taking to the bottle, he notably tries to sober up. After the scene in Max Payne 3 where Fabiana is successfully kidnapped by the Commando Sobra gangsters in the nightclub when Max takes a drink and lets his guard down, Max resolves to sober up and finally start doing things right. In a symbolic and almost monastic act of determination, he shaves his head. However, a confusing series of conspiracies and betrayals only confounds Max again, already worn from years of fighting and prescription drug abuse. He doggedly fights away through Brazilian gangsters and corrupt policemen to the final boss fight against Becker, during which he remarks to himself, I wanted this. Was it redemption? Not really, it was pathetic desperation and not much else (Rockstar). Indeed, Max seems to have lost the ardent passion that motivated him in his early days after his wife and children are killed, now only possessing sore heartache from years of troubles. He is a man without a purpose for living, and Max Payne 3 depicts his struggle to find one. In light of this, a struggle for moral redemption would be a very attractive prospect as a motivation for Maxs character to undertake his suicidal mission. However, that would be a superficial analysis of Max; for a man as world-weary and cynical as him, moral redemption is out of the question. Max describes himself as an angry gringo without the sensibilities to know right from wrong [the gangsters] were correct I wouldnt know right from wrong if one was helping the poor and the other was banging my sister (Rockstar). Even if moral redemption was in his reach, Max is too old and worn to change his ways: Im a dumb move guythats my style, and its too late to change (Rockstar). Instead of finding redemption, Max continues his old, vigilante way of life killing Brazilian mobsters and corrupt officials to fuel his anger and give himself something to chase. Max tries to sober up after Fabianas kidnapping, but the ending cutscene shows him with a bottle again at a beachside bar, after shooting and bleeding his way through a deep conspiracy involving corrupt officials and violent thugs.

Max is a man that needs an object for his anger in order to live. Rage and bitterness are what have motivated him since his familys murder, and killing criminals fuels this hatred. Of course, the Brazilian gangsters have nothing to do with his familys murder. But after so many years, Maxs struggle to live is not about his familys murder anymore: it is about finding the next object for his anger, chasing the next target to kill. Throughout Maxs soliloquies, we can detect a hint of weary regret, signs of a wistful imagination of what life would have been like if his family had never been murdered, if he could have continued living the suburban American dream. However, reality is not so kind, nor is Max young anymore. He is stuck in his ways now, whether he likes it or not. Perhaps this yearning had caused internal anguish for Max before. Regardless, the death of Victor and dissolution of the UFE after Maxs actions give him closure and act as a demonstration to himself that this is simply the way things are for him and that nothing about it can change. By the end of Max Payne 3, Max does not find moral redemption in the traditional sense, but he does become comfortable with his amorality and his psyche. Max accepts his violent lifestyle, describing himself in the fight with Becker as a rent-a-clown who put holes in other bad guys (Rockstar). It is also worth considering how Max will continue from here; the way he describes himself in the final boss fight voice-over suggests he is turning into something of a hitman. The ending scene closes with Max winding down by the beach as the camera pans to a brilliant sunset. He has accepted himself as a world-weary, cynical ex-cop and his lifestyle predicated on finding an object to fuel his psyche and anger. In this scene, Max carries a heavy-looking duffle bag, probably laden with weapons or money. Similarly, years of heartache and constant struggle stay with Max as psychological baggage, but they have nevertheless shaped him and keep him moving with the same dogged determination he has always had. Max does not find moral redemption, but he finds himself.

Bibliography

Max Payne 3. Rockstar Vancouver. New York City, NY : Rockstar Games, 2012.