Jeff Goldblum’s layered Asteroid City role not only promotes a deep contemplation of the human condition but is a clever reversal of a mega-hit movie the actor starred in before. Goldblum has previously been the harbinger of profound meaning in a number of roles across his varied and extensive acting catalog. Whether he’s warning humanity about the consequences of their creations, like Jurassic Park’s Ian Malcolm, or obsessing over the limitations of the human body, like The Fly’s Seth Brundle, Malcolm has continually performed in roles characterized by some degree of profundity.
Malcolm’s more recent part in Asteroid City, which sees him once again partnering with The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou director Wes Anderson, places him in one of his most thought-provoking roles to date, despite it being one of the shortest. Overall, Asteroid City attempts to understand humanity through the lense of extraterrestrial contact in a metatextual play-within-a-play-within-a-movie format that follows a writer (Edward Norton) who creates a theatrical piece about a Stargazer convention that’s breached by an alien presence. The alien is played by Goldblum in a brief but very cogent performance that comes to be critical in understanding the many moving parts of the eccentric Asteroid City movie.
Jeff Goldblum’s Role As The Alien In Asteroid City Reverses His Independence Day Role
Introduced during a scene in the writer’s play, the alien descends upon the convention in a U.F.O., calmly collects a meteorite that’s on display there, and peacefully departs. The encounter is conflict-free and intrigues members of the convention, but it also provokes panic within the government. The government’s resulting counteraction is Asteroid City‘s way of evoking similar responses to alien situations found in many avenues of entertainment; but just as Goldblum’s performance sets out to prove, the alien encounter in Asteroid City is vastly different from how extraterrestrial experiences are portrayed in movies such as Independence Day, because it serves as a unique perspective of the human condition.
Goldblum’s performance as the alien (and the actor who plays the alien) in Asteroid City’s cast of characters completely reverses his role in the 1996 blockbuster Independence Day, in which his character, David Levinson, is forced to contend with a world-ending alien invasion. In Asteroid City, Goldblum doesn’t just physically play an alien character but uses the role to embody the philosophy of accepting the unknown and moving forward in spite of it. Conversely, in Independence Day, Goldblum’s role is positioned on the offensive of an apocalyptic alien invasion, and his character is consequently forced to take up arms with the unknown in order to save the human race.
What Jeff Goldblum’s Alien Represents In Asteroid City
Unlike Independence Day, Asteroid City’s alien does not launch the downfall of society. In fact, the alien’s intentions are never fully disclosed, which helps to mold the perspectives of the members of the convention and is a key aspect in understanding the overarching message of the human condition in the unconventional and complicated Anderson film. The writer of the play in Asteroid City, Conrad Earp, is shown struggling to understand the vastly complex motivation and direction of his alien-centered play, but he pushes through his consternation and sees his creation through to fruition.
The characters in Earp’s creation and the performers who play them are affected by their own personal struggles as well but are expected to accept, respectively, the presence of the alien and the peculiarities of the play in stride. By Asteroid City’s ending, it’s understood that Anderson’s movie challenges its characters to accept uncertainty instead of pushing them to immobilize against it. Goldblum’s Asteroid City alien character is representative of the uncertainty of life, which, when accepted as it is, can bear unexpected circumstances that are not always calamitous.
Asteroid City
Asteroid City is a comedy/romance film by director Wes Anderson and follows several parents and children brought together across the country for a Junior Stargazer convention. When strange and cosmic events occur, the world as they know it will change, all while trying to carry on with their event.
- Release Date
- June 16, 2023
- Director
- Wes Anderson
- Cast
- Tom Hanks , Tilda Swinton , Jason Schwartzman , Scarlett Johansson , Jeffrey Wright , Bryan Cranston , Edward Norton , Adrien Brody , Maya Hawke , Willem Dafoe
- Rating
- PG-13
- Runtime
- 104 Minutes
- Genres
- Comedy , Romance
- Writers
- Wes Anderson , Roman Coppola
- Studio(s)
- Focus Features , American Empirical Pictures , Indian Paintbrush
- Distributor(s)
- Focus Features
