Lesson 8

[Jeremy Kirk]

Subject line: Jeremy Likability/Empathy/Justification

What I learned doing this assignment is Jackie and the Angel make for a good buddy cop movie.

• A. Other people like or respect the character. Nobody really likes Jackie except for maybe his Guardian Angel. But even that is questionable.
• B. The character shows love for something. Jackie loves his 1986 Trans Am, that even after it is filled with holes, he calls it vintage.
• C. They’re trying to do something good. Jackie is trying to get enough money from his hits to give to Shelly.
• D. Save the cat — rescue or do something good for someone else. Jackie is trying to do a good thing for Shelly.
• E. Funny, humorous, witty. Jackie is funny and very witty in tight situations.
• F. Kindness. Jackie tries to be as kind as possible to Shelly, even though she hates his guts.
• G. Good moral decisions and actions. Being on the right side. Even though Jackie is a hitman he makes good moral decisions. He kills bad guys, decides to take the 10-million-dollar bounty for himself and Shelly and take out the agency that screwed him over.

EMPATHY / DISTRESS
• A. Undeserved misfortune. Jackie has placed himself right where he is. He made choices that caused him to become a hitman.
• B. External Character conflicts. Jackie keeps getting placed into dangerous situation due to his agency wanting to get rid of him.
• C. Plot intruding on life. Once the bounty is placed it disrupts Jackie’s life in the fact, that he now knows the truth.
• D. Moral dilemmas. Jackie now has to go against the Agency he worked for 15 years.
• E. Forced decisions they’d never make. Jackie walked up to Shelly’s father and shot him in the head.
• F. Wound attacked. The killing of Shelly’s father haunts Jackie.

JUSTIFICATION
• A. The character or their family abused. Shelly gets taken hostage by assassin Letha Koffin.
• B. Threatened by others. Hitmen and assassin keep coming at Jackie due to the bounty.
• C. The Hero is the victim of attacks. Moose LeHarl, Johnny Wrought, and Letha Koffin keep attacking Jackie trying to collect the bounty.
• D. They’ve suffered major losses. Jackie gets mortally shot.
• E. The Villain or their representatives have trespassed. Obviously, people trying to kill you is a trespass. However, killers do come into Jackie’s building to get Shelly.

[Jason Lauer]

Jason Lauer's Likability/ Empathy / Justification

**LIKABILITY / LOVABILITY**

**Trying to Do Good**: He accepts the mission to save the President’s grandson not for glory or redemption, but because he knows no one else can infiltrate the Cold War silo. He does it because it’s right, even if it kills him.

**Humorous and Witty**: He has a dry, sardonic wit—when someone asks how he still looks 40, he smirks, “Clean living and Cold War radiation.”

**Respected by Others**: At the convention, a handful of old veterans still call him “Sir” when passing. Their respect is quiet, unspoken—but real.

**Kindness Without Audience**: He shovels his elderly neighbor’s driveway every winter and leaves groceries on her porch. He doesn’t want thanks—he just wants her to be okay.

**Shows Love for Something**: Rick keeps a weathered box of his old team’s mission patches and dog tags, which he opens before every big moment. He’s not sentimental about much—but he’s fiercely loyal to their memory.

**Save the Cat Moment**: When a chaotic fan rush causes a girl to be separated from her father at the convention, Rick climbs on a chair, calms the crowd, and reunites them—treating it like just another mission.

**Good Moral Compass**: When offered a covert way to assassinate Damien from afar, Rick refuses. “We’re not snipers. We’re soldiers. You want a clean conscience, you do the dirty work face to face.”

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## 🔹 **EMPATHY / DISTRESS**

**External Conflict with Others**: Younger agents like Damien loathe him, jealous of his fame, assuming he’s a fraud—unaware that Rick *was* the missions behind the movies.

**Life Disrupted by Plot**: Just when Rick has found peace in obscurity, the kidnapping yanks him back into danger, dredging up painful memories of lives he couldn’t save.

**Moral Dilemmas**: He’s once again forced into the same terrible choice: save the boy or stop the missile. Either way, someone dies. Or he does.

**Undeserved Misfortune**: Despite his heroics, the world sees him as a washed-up actor from a forgotten decade. The man who actually saved lives is now mocked in memes.

**Old Wound Reopened**: The entire mission happens inside the very silo where Rick’s teammates once burned to death. The fire still haunts his sleep.

**Forced to Kill Again**: Though Rick never glorified the violence of his past, he’s always accepted it was part of the job. But having to kill again—up close, personal, and brutal—still weighs heavy on him.

—

## 🔹 **JUSTIFICATION**

**Major Personal Loss**: Rick’s last mission cost him half his team. The world celebrated the “victory” but never saw the blood price. He lives with that every day.

**Used and Abandoned**: The government used Rick’s image to glorify war, then abandoned him when it suited them. They never asked how he slept at night.

**Threatening Someone Innocent**: The grandson is just a kid. But his life has become a pawn in a generational war. Rick won’t let another child die on his watch.

**Lost Everything for the Mission**: Rick never married, never had kids. He sacrificed family for duty, and now faces a mirror image in the young boy he must save.

**Enemy Violates His Past**: Damien doesn’t just launch a scheme—he reactivates the same missile system Rick once disarmed. Turning Rick’s greatest victory into a ticking time bomb is the ultimate insult.

**Under Attack**: Damien leaks deepfake footage and planted intelligence files online, framing Rick as a fraud and failed operative. The headlines question whether he was ever a real hero—or just a government myth.

• This reply was modified 4 days, 10 hours ago by  Jason Lauer.