With omniscience usually reserved for God alone, Santa Claus knows, as the song goes, if you’ve been naughty or nice. In Red One, currently streaming on Amazon Prime, Santa gets called to task over it.
Eve and I are critically reviewing Red One this month, starring Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, Kiernan Shipka, and J.K. Simmons. Red One posits a Santa who occupies a world with many other mythical creatures. It pulls from Icelandic to insert Grýla into the Christmas story and Alpine folklore to pull in Krampus as an adopted brother to the “jolly-old-elf” himself. Grýla kidnaps Kris Kringle and connives to drain off his magic energy to create magical snowglobes intended to trap the naughty. In her mind, that is any man, woman, or child who has done anything wrong (read: sinned) in their entire lives. As Johnson’s character, Callum Drift, head of North Pole security, points out, “You’re talking about almost everyone.”
The Santa in Red One is a beefed-up version that has been more common in Hollywood for the last several decades, not the one with strong ties and easily traced origins to the very real Saint Nicholas of Myra. So Eve and I recommend you approach this movie as nothing more than a popcorn-munching superhero retelling of something like “Once Upon a Christmas Eve” (which is not really a thing—I just made that up).
Red One is directed by Jake Kasdan (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Jumanji: The Next Level) and features a solid, enjoyable score and soundtrack by Henry Jackman (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Jumanji: The Next Level, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Ralph Breaks the Internet).
First Impressions
Red One is two-fifths Christmas movie and three-fifths action movie. It’s not a kids’ movie; it’s more of an action movie targeted at teens and adults, with the crude language to match—a lot of crude language, like more-than-it’s-PG-13-rating volumes. Chris Evan’s protagonist, Jack, never believed in Santa and grows up to become an incredibly (and I do mean UN-credibly) good hacker specializing in finding people who don’t want to be found. When he inadvertently reveals the location of the top-secret North Pole toy production facility and Santa’s residence, the leader of the Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority (MORA), Lucy Liu’s “Zoe,” forces Callum to work with a very reticent and initially unbelieving Jack, calling him the “best tracker in the world.”
As mentioned, Red One is (just like Die Hard!) not a Christmas movie. It is an action movie with a Christmastime setting. Only a single element even tangentially touches on what might be considered a secular “meaning of Christmas” theme, but we’ll discuss that later. From a Christian standpoint, as Eve puts it, “there’s absolutely nothing in this movie about a messiah coming to earth to save the world or a Catholic saint whose personal mission was to save the poor. None of that is in this movie. It’s all mythological. It’s all pantheon of demigods. And that’s just what Santa is now.”
Eve and I thought the movie was enjoyable as long as you knew what you were getting into when you started it. Don’t take it as seriously as the Rock; you’ll be fine.
Speaking of the Rock, keep in mind that I like him; he was a big part of what dragged the movie down. He’s taken to playing every role the same way—as a side personality of (what I imagine) his wrestling persona. I can’t say I blame him: it’s working on the mythical “golden goose” level, so why mess with it? But there is a real actor with great potential for range under all that bulk, but he either doesn’t get to use it or doesn’t want to. In Red One, he is the same character he played in both Jumani movies, but with a different name and backstory. Chris Evans stretches his wings more, though his choice of accent grated on me a bit. J.K. Simmons had the least screen time of all five leads, but it was still the best delivery in my mind.
I enjoy the concept of overlaying the mythological world on top of the modern one. I would be on board if the studio wanted to turn the MORA concept into a cinematic universe, so long as they put more thought into it than Sony seems to have with the Spider-Man Villian-Verse. I like the idea because it has its roots in history. My kids and I have all enjoyed a couple of authors who build YA series around the concept: The Artemis Fowl series by Eion Colfer and the Lightning Thief series by Rick Riordan. They both feature kids out of their element as they are drawn into the secret mythology behind the modern world.
The excessive swearing in Red One put me off. Being an Army vet, I probably have forgotten more swear words than most people know. Still, they have to serve a purpose in the story for me not to throw the hypothetical flag on the play. If you need to demonstrate the crude nature of a particular character, have them use language that reflects it. If you must show how drastically a bad situation affects a good character, have them swear unexpectedly and then feel bad about it. But it felt like all the characters in Red One had potty mouths. Jack, who had what I think was supposed to be a Boston accent, was the biggest offender by count, but it made the most sense coming from him. What didn’t make sense was how much Callum swore. Here is a mythological person who has worked for Santa for centuries—under what circumstances would he have picked up casual swearing?
In the end, Red One is an enjoyable action movie with a Christmas theme featuring not-bad performances by likable actors. Still, you’ll need to put up with an utter disregard for the true origins of Saint Nicholas and an unusual amount of swearing for a movie rated PG-13.
The Naughty List
Earlier, I mentioned a single element that even tangentially touches on what might be considered a secular “meaning of Christmas” theme and promised to discuss it later. The “naughty and nice list” idea is a plot driver for Red One. There are a few key ways that this list, particularly the naughty side of the list, plays into moving the plot forward. First, Callum wants to retire from his position as the head of security for Santa because he’s lost his ability to see the innocent child in everybody. All he sees when he looks around are callous, self-centered people.
Another way that the naughty list plays into the plot is a big deal is made over Jack’s position as a “Naughty-lister Level 4.” Both Callum and Deigo, an anthropomorphic polar bear, immediately resort to torturing Jack because of his status. This is particularly interesting because we later learn that St. Nick never wanted to keep a naughty list and only did it at Krampus’s insistence. If Nick didn’t like the naughty list, why did his two top security people put so much stock in it?
The last way the plot uses the naughty list is through the antagonist, Grýla. It seems that Grýla and Krampus used to be an item, and they roamed Northern Europe, striking fear into the hearts of boys and girls, essentially scaring them straight. While Krampus is content with a life of playing his favorite game, Krampusschlapt, Grýla has grown frustrated with all these naughty listers getting off too easy and has devised a plan to imprison them all in enchanted snowglobes.
This begs the viewer to question whether or not naughty is a choice or not. The movie tried to address this. After Jack steals some gold in Krampus’s compound and they are thrown in jail, Callum says to Jack, “You don’t just happen to be on the list, Jack. You put yourself there. You decide to steal gold. You decide to only look out for yourself over everyone else on this earth. Nick always says that every decision, big or small, is an opportunity.”
“To be nice?” Jack asks? “No, to be good,” Cal responds.
This is likely the most common misconception in secular circles because it allows people to think they are in control, but they aren’t. The Bible is obvious:
The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:22–24)
We are all guilty and have no part in our salvation. No matter how hard we try to be good, we cannot be good enough. It is all through Christ. Questions of free will and predestination aside, the choice is to look for that redemption, admit that we’re sinners, confess our sins, and turn away from that sinful nature. Cal isn’t that far off as we take steps to make that happen, but it is only available because Christ died for our sins.
We see this “good enough” attitude frequently in the media. Every time a prominent Christian falls to sin, there is always an element of people who point and say, “See?!” We should be responding, “Yep. And you know what? Christ died for that sin, too.” We seem to have trouble communicating that the Book of Life isn’t a “nice list” in comparison to the Book of the Damned’s “naughty list.” The Book of Life is a REDEEMED list, and there is no Book of the Damned. Your name is either written in the Book of Life or not. We are told what happens if it is not:
And anyone whose name was not found written in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15)
Judgment vs. Punishment
And that is where both Red One and the modern Santa fail. Santa has been divorced from the naughty list. So, instead, Santa is set up as an aspect of a god-like pair. Santa rewards the good, but Krampus and/or Grýla punish the bad. We are once again presented with the idea of opposite forces because Satan has convinced humanity that this is the only way the world can ever be fair. The truth is that the world isn’t fair to Satan. He’s already lost his fight and is living on borrowed time. He’s just trying to take as much of humanity down with him as he can. He does that by telling people, among other things, that they are “good enough,” and that a GOOD God wouldn’t send a “mostly good” person to hell.
But God isn’t JUST Love; God is also Justice. And because God’s Justice is perfect, he must punish sin. His love is shown through His act and offer of salvation, but He must still punish sin. We see this in the Book of Romans:
Therefore, every one of you who judges is without excuse. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is based on the truth. Do you think—anyone of you who judges those who do such things yet do the same—that you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? Because of your hardened and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed. He will repay each one according to his works: eternal life to those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality; but wrath and anger to those who are self-seeking and disobey the truth while obeying unrighteousness. There will be affliction and distress for every human being who does evil, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does what is good, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. For there is no favoritism with God. (Romans 2:1–11)
Red One creates the Santa/Krampus dichotomy for the same reason that we see this balance throughout the mythologies of the ancient days. It is so hard to understand that God is Loving and Just. For many people, that does not compute.
Another quick comparison is how Grýla wants to punish everyone who has been naughty. This is closer to the Biblical truth that I suspect most people want to admit:
But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the outcome is eternal life! For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:22–23)
Like Grýla’s definition, we all are sinners; it doesn’t matter HOW much we’ve sinned.
Family Responsibilities
Anyone who has listened to Are You Just Watching for any time knows I love a good redemption arc. I can forgive all manners of despicable behavior if it serves to lead that character towards a “come to Jesus” moment (particularly if it is a REAL “come to Jesus” moment) at the end of the story. Red One has two redemptive subplots that seek to deliver a bit of that feeling, but they both fall flat in the end.
One of the two is the story and relationship between Nick and Krampus. Red One plays Krampus as a brutish bad guy and then starts to drop hints of something bigger. First, you learn that Krampus is Santa’s adopted brother. Then you learn that Krampus invented the naughty list. Finally, you find out that he and Santa have a falling out, and they settle it by letting Krampus live out his days under a hidden, enchanted dome. When all is said and done, though, Krampus is a fairly reasonable guy with a different worldview than his adoptive brother. (Think “Captain America” versus “The Red Guardian”) I could never invest in the conflict here because the information revealed piecemeal to the audience was fully known by Callum the entire time. And because Callum knew all of this, his doling out of information about Krampus to make him seem evil was just a jerk move. At the movie’s end, Krampus flies in and gives Nick a power assist in taking down the now-gargantuan Grýla. There’s a moment of manly making-up between the brothers, but this payoff is weak since Nick was out cold for 90% of the movie.
The other arc, and presumably the one that is easier to invest in, is the relationship between Jack and his son Dylan. It had the potential to be particularly rewarding. Still, it was severely overshadowed by the superheroic action sequences and the gee-whiz CGI. Worse for me, Jack’s first 15 minutes of screen time were spent showing just precisely how despicable he is. We see him set a Christmas tree on fire to create a distraction and steal candy from a baby later—because he can. When the movie springs the idea that Jack was an absent father, it lacks any real “umph” because, by this point, it’s clear that he should NOT be permitted to be around children. I specifically thought to myself that there was no way any woman ever found this idiot attractive enough to be intimate with. They never explain why Dylan even knew of Jack’s existence, only that he did and wanted Jack to be more involved in his life. Throughout the movie’s first half, we see Jack disappoint Dylan several times, but there is a sudden shift near the halfway point. When Grýla kidnaps Dylan to use against Jack, he has this turnaround moment that leads to his apologizing to his son. The problem was that it was a chunky transition that didn’t deliver. (It also demonstrated a plot hole in Grýla’s plan that you could fly Santa’s sleigh through.) Moreover, I don’t believe there is any evidence that the change we see in Jack is lasting and that he is a better person, only that he apologized to Dylan.
Eve had a different take on this, however, emphasizing that Jack confessed that he was a bad father when making up with Dylan. This step of repentance (acknowledging you are a sinner) is an essential step toward redemption that many miss, making this a more accurate redemption arc than is portrayed in most movies. In addition, Jack’s entire worldview undergoes a massive shift when he is faced with the fact that Santa is real. That shift and the change it is making in Jack’s character is indicated before the scene with his son when he refused to leave Cal in Krampus’ compound. It’s proof that he’s starting to look outside of his own self and consider others. Even his reasons for avoiding contact with his son were actually not that bad, he didn’t want to disappoint him, which means he was pretty selfless about his son.
A Skeptic’s Loose Grasp of Truth
We’re introduced to Jack as a child at the beginning of Red One. He is trying to prove to his cousins that Santa isn’t real by showing them a closet full of presents. His uncle interrupts him, sits young Jack down, and says he can’t prove that Santa is real, but he knows he is.
As it turns out, Santa is real in Red One‘s universe, and Jack is wrong. However, this exchange between Jack and his uncle is reminiscent of similar conversations between atheists and believers. We frequently see atheists intrude on spaces intended for believers so they can try to rescue us from our folly. Somehow, they think demonstrating how stupid we are is the way to do this.
We end up being like Jack’s uncle. We know that we can’t prove God is real to others, but we trust our own experiences with God and the faith He has given us. And they end up being like Jack. They are convinced believers are deluded and must spread their lostness to everyone.
Conclusion
Red One is a fun, action-packed Christmas movie with a hefty dose of Hollywood superhero style. With stars like Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, and J.K. Simmons, it’s full of humor, mythology, and wild action scenes. While it’s entertaining, it skips over meaningful character growth and leaves its redemptive storylines feeling incomplete. This might be for you if you’re looking for a popcorn flick with Christmas vibes. Just don’t expect it to stick close to traditional holiday values.
Red One’s take on the “Naughty and Nice List” adds some interesting ideas but doesn’t dig very deep. Relationships, like the ones between Santa and Krampus or Jack and his son Dylan, are there but not fully explored. And while the mythological characters like Grýla and Krampus are cool, the movie leans too much on explosions and language, losing some of that magical charm.
If you’re okay with a different take on Christmas and don’t mind some Hollywood cheesiness, Red One is a good pick. But it might fall short if you’re after something more meaningful or Christ-focused.
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