Gender Stereotypes and Women

Joey Romero

San Andreas is a disaster movie that details the events of a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami. The film shows acts of heroism and many fatalities. San Andreas first introduced the protagonist, Raymond as a first-responder, saving the life of a woman whose car fell off a cliff. His access to helicopters, boats, and planes enables him to save not just strangers, but his family.

Although Raymond has personal issues he must deal with throughout the movie, like the loss of one of his daughters, he does manage to help people on his way to save his other daughter. Some would say he should save the strangers that for example, were caught in the falling building with his wife. Others may point out his family comes first. Regardless, Raymond displayed heroism in saving his family and helping others avoid dying from falling debris.

The monumental earthquake that hit the San Francisco and Los Angeles area is a result of the San Andreas Fault. To begin the summary of the story, it is important to explain Raymond's circumstances at the beginning of the movie. Raymond, a pilot in the Los Angeles, air rescue team, is during a divorce. He plans a trip with his daughter Blake to San Francisco. Meanwhile, Dr. Kim and his colleague Dr. Lawrence are doing research for an earthquake predicting model at the Hoover Dam (San Andreas (2015), 2015) (15:35 Minutes).

During their research at the Dam, the dam collapsed and killed Dr. Kim (San Andreas (2015), 2015) (16:05 Minutes). However, before Dr. Kim died, he managed to rescue a little girl by throwing her to Dr. Lawrence (San Andreas (2015), 2015) (17: 43 Minutes) Raymond is therefore called to go back to work. Dr. Lawrence learns the Fault at San Andreas would soon cause a major earthquake because of the shifting tectonic plates. This earthquake had the capacity to destroy the cities along the line.

Ray is the first-responder in the film. In most scenarios in the plot, he makes personal decisions instead of making decisions that will help everyone. For example, when Emma was having lunch with Daniel's sister and the earthquake happened, he saved Emma his daughter's mother from the collapsing building rather than reporting the emergency (San Andreas (2015), 2015) (41:20 Minutes). They find their way aboard his helicopter. However, Susan, Daniel's sister was a casualty in the collapsing building. In another instance, when the building that Blake was with other people started to sink, Ray dived into the building to save his daughter rather than finding a way of rescuing everyone (San Andreas (2015), 2015) (1:34:50 Minutes).

Emma, Raymond's wife acts heroically as well. She drives into the building where they are and rescues Raymond, their daughter and the two young males accompanying her (San Andreas (2015), 2015) (1:40:32 Minutes). This shows her ability to help and be of service. It also demonstrates the importance of family and helping non-family members. The events of the film show what people may be capable of in terms of strength, ingenuity, and family.

Disasters are unusual natural events that disrupt the regular order. In this earthquake disaster, humans are the frequent victims of collapsing, sinking buildings. Responses to such disasters involve technology to detect the threat and assess the situation. The accident in San Andreas portrays what may happen if a person witnessed a complete destruction of a city. While much of the movie is overexaggerated due to the action movie genre, its spectacle of overkill and fatal lack of invention places it as a stereotypical disaster scenario.

Various disasters affect where people live, travel, work, and how many children they have. If San Andreas would have created more of heroic examples of women, versus women needing saving, it would have balanced the plot out and made it seem more realistic. Women and men both work together to help each other during times of crisis. Why is it that gender stereotypes prevail even in a movie like San Andreas, where women are seen only a fraction of the time being the heroes?