The Tao of Michael Biehn(an inference)

Biehn has been on both sides of the spectrum.

Good military, Bad military.

Infamous soldier from the future.

Rather decent, humble soldier from the future.

Then, like the clown from It, he seems to disappear for a time before surfacing again.

Is there a life lesson, a secret message to the fans, contained within Biehn's breakout role in Terminator?

-Fight for what you believe in.  Some things are even worth dying for.  And when it comes to widespread slaughter: the need is ever the more urgent.

"Bodies burning like paper."

A lesson from Aliens might be about quiet competence.  To do your job well and don't butthurt about reward.

-Do your best, and measure your own performance against your own beliefs, not those of others.  Don't showboat.  Be humble.  If you have a job, do it well.  You owe yourself that much, but remember, not for accolades, but just for your own peace of mind.

Only way to be sure?

Bug-out and nuke the planet from orbit.

In the Abyss, we see a man accustomed to being ordered around, and in the midst of the Cold War Era paranoia.  He was suddenly without orders, without the guidance of superiors.  A dog off the chain.  So Gorbachev had Parastroika while Biehn's soldier "Coffey" had paranoia.

Here we see the beginnings of a rebuttal to these life lessons.  As he takes the initiative, we see his waxen wings get to close to the heat of the sun.

He meets a solid rebuke in the form of his own near-ruining of everything, and yet, Coffey's foolhardy act facilitates First Contact with a new species.

-sometimes the wrong thing can turn out well.  Don't butt hurt so about it.

As was on the Asset Protection guy's car, "Ya Never Know."  But he shook it, Shake & Baked, did Coffey, forcing an action during a natural disaster, cut off from the world, he took a bold action, and the reaction from the good guys, then, the counter-action, caused a beautiful thing.

But look at our boy, here.  He had been killed so often in popular films.  We even saw his dark side, his jock side, maybe even his sensitive side.  What we see is the purely Stoic "cosmopolitan" sharing amongst his others, a sort of global consciousness.  Quiet competence.  Moral Certainty.  Loyalty to one's country.

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