“What are you willing to sacrifice?”
In “Him,” this is a question Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans) poses many times to the film’s protagonist, Cameron “Cam” Cade (Tyriq Withers). This cinematic motif has been frequently paired with the Faustian bargain, otherwise known as a deal with the devil. Written by Justin Tipping, Zachary Akers, and Skip Bronkie, the sports horror film explores this connection through the exploitation and engagement of power relations between Black athletes and white team owners. Produced by Jordan Peele and his company MonkeyPaw Productions, the film frames various nuanced allegories through football that deal with morality, religion and race.
The film depicts the moral quarrels Cade faces after he is attacked before the United States Football Federation draft. When he forgoes the combine, it appears that his only way to go pro is to spend a week training with White, the film’s fictional GOAT, who has twisted motives unbeknownst to Cade. These motives stem from White’s obsession with finding a new savior figure to uphold the San Antonio Saviors’ demonic rituals.
The opening scene of the film shows the Cade family rooting for the Saviors on the television, with an adolescent Cam sitting right in front of it. Our attention is immediately shifted to an insert of the family’s candlelit shrine, covered with the team’s memorabilia and statues of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary. This intersection is not a coincidence but is instead utilized as a symbol to establish the film’s theme of false idols and worship. False idolization is a tragic flaw Cade falls into as he goes on to blindly follow White.
Cade watches as White sustains a horrific injury. Despite this injury, White goes on to win a total of eight championships, a fictional one-up of Tom Brady’s seven Super Bowl rings. This serves as another symbol to indicate that White has inked a deal with the devil. Ultimately, we jump in time to see that Cade has become a superstar, even being called “the next Isaiah White” and “the next GOAT.”
GOAT is used as a motif in several capacities within the film. Being the greatest of all time expands upon the film’s Faustian themes by thrusting Cade into moral discourse. He is posed with the abandonment of his humanity in order to become successful, which is materialized as influence and money. GOAT is also used visually as a motif to symbolize that the Saviors’ ownership, as well as the team itself, is a satanist cult.
God. Family. Football.
This is a throughline in the film that is symbolic of Cade’s shifting morals and humanity. White prioritizes football, then family, and then God, symbolizing that he is in cahoots with the devil. In the Bible, the name “Isaiah” means “God is my Salvation.” But White conveys in many instances that football is his religion and family. This obsession he has with football is the device that drives various aspects of the film’s horror. Unlike White, Cade prioritizes his family over God and football. The fact that football does not dominate every aspect of Cade’s life holds him back from going to the USFF. This is ultimately what White seeks to change by mimicking isolation tactics frequently used to lure new members to cults.
During a drill in which a receiver gets pelted by high velocity footballs at close range each time someone drops one of Cade’s passes, the quarterback finds out that White is not messing around. Cade shows remorse and sympathy for the injured receiver, which White exploits as a weakness. The following day, Cade is pushed to his moral breaking point by White during a hitting drill. He tackles a pass rusher and paralyzes him. The shift to an X-ray lens as this tackle unfolds makes for a very original scene and a unique stamp on the horror genre. Cade taunts and trash talks the paralyzed athlete, joined by White and everyone else. They parade around the paralyzed athlete, chanting, “All the Saviors say Amen.”
The film being set in Texas is intentional, for it is symbolic of the state’s cult-like love for football. It is a state where high school games are very often played in stadiums that host thousands. The fans in the film are never necessarily depicted in a fond light. They’re crazy, unhinged, and vehemently oppose Cade joining the Saviors. They’re not fond of the idea of White leaving the franchise, as they deal with the prospect of his retirement within the film. The absurdity of the fans, which culminates in their attempted murder of Cade, comments on how fans’ intense emotions in support of their teams sometimes results in negative behaviors.
When a young Cade looks away from White’s injury, his father forces him to watch. This sets up the comparison the film makes between football players and gladiators. Both are brutal sports played in stadiums for the entertainment of people. White even keeps and displays his championship rings alongside gladiator weapons and armor. The intersection of the gladiator and the football player is the most crucial symbol because it helps one find meaning in what is considered a flaw by most critics.
Critics argue that the majority of viewers don’t know what any of the film’s themes really mean because of the fast-paced first act and half-baked ending, where Savior owners quickly explain how they and Cade’s father have been subliminally grooming him for football stardom. It is revealed they have been pulling the strings all along for the sake of eternal profitability. Ultimately, this exposition leaves viewers struggling to connect the dots between all the heavy but very present themes in the film.
Very early in the first act, after he gets attacked, Cade is evaluated by his doctor, who states that in her professional opinion she cannot recommend that he play football anymore. Cade responds with a question: “And as a fan?” This is symbolic of how the demand of competing takes precedence over athletes’ actual health. Football profits off brutality, and the film seems to hinge on the notion that it’s being done in vain because there can be only one GOAT.
In the film’s rising action, Cade finally decides to confront White, ultimately killing him. The film’s GOAT and figurative God dies at the hands of someone who is not even in the league. This symbolic passing of the torch that Cade has unknowingly carried out is symbolic of how very few players will be remembered or immortalized. Only one gladiator makes it out. Even the best will fade away in the eyes of the fans or ownership, and the film conveys that many players are essentially left with physical and spiritual pieces of themselves. At the end of the day, the only entities profiting are team owners. The players are their money mascots.
