The Incredibles
is an examination of common superhero tropes as would apply to
real people. The film focuses on the Parr family, but in this paper I
will draw attention to their friend: Lucius Best aka Frozone. By
looking closely at Frozone's power in the movie The Incredibles,
one can learn more about the world the film is based in, as well as
discover some secondary powers he possesses and how he freezes ice.
If you look
Frozone up, more often that not his super powers will be listed as
'ice powers.” That, however, is extremely vague and does not cover
the wide variety of special precision he is able to achieve.
Frozone's powers revolve more around heat, than water. While it is
true that he can gather moisture from the air to turn into ice, his
more impressive skill is the precise control of heat. In addition to
controlling ice, Frozone has precise control over how the ice is
formed. That is his true 'superpower.' The first area of control is
through his basic ice forming, We can see that Frozone must take the
heat out of existing water molecules and releases a freeze blast that
turns the whole thing into soft powdery snow. It is the exact
consistency needed so he and Dash do not get hurt. He has the ability
to make any type of ice he wants. This shows his mastery over the
suction of heat from water. Not only does he change the water, but
can also direct how much of the heat he wants to extract. Almost all
of it, making structurally sound strong ice, such as when he was
trying to build a wall in front of the omnidroid? Or only enough to
change it to snow, such as when the huge wave of water was about the
crush him and Dash in the finale. A simple example of his control is
his favorite mode of transportation: ice sliding on a ramp. The speed
and body movements he makes are similar to ice skating. That would
make sense, because he is using a similar method to transport
himself. By using his precise control of heat to leave a tin layer of
water on top of the ice ramp he creates, he is able to glide on top
like an ice skater, achieving speed and grace. And lastly, he has
such precise control of his ice, that he was able to encase people in
ice without damaging them. In the last scene of the attempted risque,
he and Mr. Incredible are stopped by the police in the jewelry store.
The get away when Frozone releases an ice blast that encases the
policemen, but he is specific enough that the men were still alive,
and presumably with little of no nerve dame, frost bite, or other
injury from the ice. Frozone's skill at manipulating the exact
temperature of the ice he makes is what makes him special.
How does he do that
though? How does he chill the ice? Through looking at the evidence,
it is clear that he uses a version of the mythical Ice 9. There are
many ways the film makes could have given him this ability, but Pixar
has decided to lead a trail of breadcrumbs that lead to the
conclusion of super ice. A form of intensely cold ice that can almost
instantly freeze anything it touches. In the film, he is able to
freeze ice regardless of if the water present is water that he has
gathered and formed, as seen in the scene where he freezes a wave and
where he freezes dash's spit. In both situations, it is clear that
Frozone shoots out a white dust from his hands. It is clear that that
is not extra water, the spit ice sculpture had no extraneous pieces
that were obviously added. We can conclude that Frozone does not
freeze water by adding regular ice to it, and hoping that it cools
down. He is directly manipulation heat. Based on the look of the
stuff shooting out of his hands, is is clear that he creates a super
cold form of ice that he blasts out, and upon touching other water
freezes them to the point he needs. This could be a more realistic
version of Kurt Vonnegut's Ice 9, which froze any water it touched
instantly and turned that into ice 9, and etc. Frozon's Ice 9 is more
realistic, mearly being a piece of super cold ice that can suck the
heat out of other other water, bring the temperature of the water
down and the temperature of the small amount of Ice 9 up, resulting
an a patch of ice with seemingly no more mass than it started with.
However, even the formation of the super ice would require all that
heat to go somewhere, and that is never addressed in the movie. In
the next paragraph I will go into that issue with more depth.
This film cannot
take place on earth,There are a few things that tip this off, and
although they are small they are by no means insignificant. The first
one is related to the content of our atmosphere. We have 78%
Nitrogen, 21% oxygen, a few other things, and only about 2 to 3% of
it is water vapor. In the fire rescue scene, Frozone bemoans the dry
air, and says he has run out of ice. Mr. Incredible's comment lets us
know his usual source of water, the moisture in the air. While this
could be believable, the structures Frozone creates, particularly in
the finale, make it seem impossible. On earth we do not have that
much water vapor readily available. However, if this took place on
another planet, It is quite possible that their atmosphere is made up
of a larger percentage of water. An alternate interpretation could be
that he can spontaneous generate more water if he has a seed to build
off of, but a different plant would also make sense with the next
point. In a previous point we discussed his ability to remove heat
from water to turn in into ice. This is a very efficient method of
achieve the desired ''ice powers look.” However, the amount of heat
he would need to disperse, particularly in large bodies of water such
as the wave he turns into slush, is a lot and all of that heat needs
to be displaced somewhere. Most of the water he deals with is
presumably about room temperate, and that means they have a long way
to go until they freeze; unless the planet (and by extension the
people who live there) have a generally colder temperature. In
conjunction, the atmospheric pressure of the planet could be lower,
increasing the possible freezing point of water there. Going back to
the spit example, the water that Frozone freezes was most likely
heated by Dash's mouth, but Frozone instantly sucked all the heat
out. This is odd, because all that extra heat would need to be
dissipated, but it is never mentioned as an issue. When they are
discussing freezing the fire in the secret first rescue, they never
mention excess heat runoff as a potential problem if he was to use
his powers. If the planet were colder and less pressurized, the water
could consistently be closer to a freezing temperature. Not enough to
make a difference, but enough to ease the suction and release of heat
energy. The two points combined paint a picture of a damp and chilly
planet. It could have other differences to our earth, perhaps
differences that would make it easier for other superheros to have
emerged, but without focusing on anyone else's powers this is the
picture that is painted.
Frozone has access
to a large host of ice and heat related abilities, and through more
training could probably master the axillary skills to the point of
being able to take over the world. His skill with heat energy could
turn the heat itself into a weapon, sucking heat out of water and
converting it to an energy. His delicate craftsmanship of heat could
lead to many creative ways of defiting villans, extorting
politicians, or holding cities ransom., The huge amount of water
readily available in the rivers and lakes close to populous cities
would allow him to take things as far as his imagination could.
Thankfully, so far in the film he sticks to here business. The world
is lucky Lucius Best is such a chill guy.
