Against the odds

For several years now, the Slacktivist blog has been reviewing the Left Behind Christian fiction series, which slacktivist Fred Clark loathes both theologically (as you may know, it’s based on Timothy LaHaye’s interpretation of Revelation) and as fiction. The series of posts is both funny and entertaining (at least if you don’t like the books—I read the first and was unimpressed) but this one got me thinking about writing in general.
The gist of the post is that thriller elements in the series—sinister conspiracies, death threats, murder attempts—don’t work because the protagonists, Buck and Rayford, are part of the Antichrist’s inner circle. And thrillers don’t work when the hero is part of the power structure.
I think there’s a lot of truth to that. I’ve read a couple of thrillers over the years where the protagonist starts out in classic thriller mode, battling a vast conspiracy solo. Well before the end of the book he (or she in one case)has convinced the powers that be and so has the resources of the entire CIA (or whoever) behind her. Suddenly the thrills are gone.
It’s not that you can’t write a book about people in authority—FBI agents, powerful millionaires, even presidents (Air Force One, for instance) but if you make it a thriller you have to isolate them. Angelina Jolie in Salt is framed and cast out of the CIA. Harrison Ford in Air Force One has to fight off the Russian secessionists alone (and why on Earth are Eastern European secessionists so often the villain? Isn’t that kind of an odd position for American fiction to take?). In The Game, Michael Douglas is rich and powerful, but he has no idea what’s going on, who’s causing or what’s happening.
If the protagonist is firmly fixed in the system, the story isn’t going to be a thriller. In World War III, for instance, or Fail-Safe, the president (Rock Hudson and Henry Fonda respectively) have tough decisions and dangers, but it’s more drama than thriller. Likewise Bill Paxton in Independence Day gives inspirational speeches but he isn’t fighting on the front lines. A thriller needs isolation, vulnerability, lack of power.
If the protagonist is a cop, he can go up against the rich, the powerful, people who can destroy his career with a phone call. Anyone in power can be isolated and vulnerable. But when you’re with the Antichrist—well, until Jesus comes back, he’s unstoppable. So no thrills.