Post-feminism was a huge issue back in the early 90s, women who were post-feminists believed that not only could females be equals to males, but that they were also a cut above or in other words superior to men. This relates to the theoretical saying that "anything men can do, women can do better". In 2005, Robert Schwentke's "Flightplan" was released, and in 2006 the same was done to Kurt Wimmer's "Ultraviolet", as a result allowing people to see the different representations of the post-feminist protagonist roles within two consecutive years.
"Flightplan" and "Ultraviolet" are able to showcase the protagonists; Kyle Pratt and Violet Song jat Shariff as post-feminist characters as a result of their costumes and actions within each films. Within "Ultraviolet", Milla Jovovich is continuously shown to put into perspective the theory of the male gaze. This comes as a result of the tight, revealing, leather costumes in which she is shown to wear through the entire length of the film. The use of her sexual appearance and manner is able to attract male members of the audience into continuing to watch the film. The main priority of producing films is to ensure that its audience is entertained, and due to the use of the mise-en-scéne within the form of costumes, the director is able to ensure that the male members of the audience are kept entertained even if their entertainment is based on the sexual indulgence of one's representation.
The post-feminist representation of the protagonist within "Flightplan" is shown to be different to that of the representation of the protagonist within "Ultraviolet'". A factor which contributes to this is the costume in which the protagonist within "Flightplan" is shown to wear. In a complete turn of representing the protagonist within "Ultraviolet" as being a sexy, seductive, strong female, the representation within "Flightplan" is shown to be completely different, as a result of only representing her as being a strong female, this is due to her costume.
Jodie Foster who plays the role of the protagonist, Kyle Pratt is shown to be wearing more comfortable clothing in the form of a long sleeved top, black trousers, and boots. The use of the black within her costume is able to create a narrative enigma as it sets both a denotative and connotative level of meaning. As the audience, we will clearly be able to see that her costume is black but if we continue to watch the film and analyse the narrative, we will be able to see that a narrative enigma has been created in hopes of allowing the audience to find what will happen to the protagonist as the film continues, and answer their question as to whether they think Pratt's daughter really exists or whether they think she is just imagining it. Her post-feminist role within the film is able to be reinforced due to her work background. She is able to easily search the plane in which she is travelling on as a result of her having helped to design it, which as a result could connote to the audience that she is a smart, intelligent woman due to her role in the appearance of this prop.
Both protagonists' post-feminist representations are able to be highlighted as it takes quite a long time for any other female characters to appear on screen, which in turn could connote to the audience that the protagonists live in a male dominated society. The continuous triumph that each female experiences within each film is able to put an emphasis on the roles in which they play and the ways in which they are represented. For example, within "Ultraviolet", Violet herself is able to single-handedly battle against a swarm of men by using her strength and agility in order to get to where and what she wants whilst in "Flightplan", Kyle Pratt is able to overcome the stress that she has been placed under and use her knowledge of the airplane's design in order to battle against those who trying to keep her from her daughter.
Within both films, the protagonists are denotatively represented as being lonely which could lead to a connotative meaning that the only reason as to why they may be lonely is because of their need to be independent. For example, now that Kyle Pratt's husband is dead, she realises that she now needs to be there for her daughter more than ever, and is now the only person who can protect her daughter which as a result may allow the audience to understand the reason as to why she finds it hard to trust people. This comes into viewpoint when she starts to accuse the other passengers of kidnapping her daughter, this additionally relates to her accusing the Arab passengers more than anyone else. The institution behind the film was able to highlight the moral panic, and paranoia created by the 9/11 airplane bombings as a result of having included this within the narrative. The use of the plane could connote that Kyle Pratt is also going on a journey that will change her life, rather than just a journey that will transport her to different places.
In both "Flightplan" and "Ultraviolet", the protagonists each fight against a male oppression which as a result allows for their post-feminist role to be increased. Kyle Pratt refuses to believe that no one has seen her daughter, and takes it upon herself to search throughout the plan in hopes of finding her, even though she knows she is going against the Captain's orders and knows that Gene Carson is supposed to be keeping an eye on her. Violet refuses to back down and stands by her guard in insinuating that she refuses to go without a fight when being confronted by the antagonist Viceroy Daxus. Similarly, it is the males who create the disequilibrium within each film, which shows the relation to Todorov's narrative theory. For example, within "Flightplan", the audience come to find that Kyle Pratt's daughter really does exist and that she went missing as a result of Gene Carson, for whom we now come to find is the villain, kidnapped her and hid her in the avionics system is the airplane; the one part that Pratt had not yet checked.
This male representation is similar to the male representation within "Ultraviolet". For example, an onscreen battle is created between the protagonist, Violet, and the antagonist, Viceroy where we are clearly able to see that the disequilibrium is caused by the antagonist as a result of him causing most of the film's destruction. Both reinstatements of equilibrium are quite similar as they put into viewpoint each protagonist's accomplishments .i.e. Kyle Pratt having found her daughter within "Flightplan" and Violet Song jat Shariff having killed the man who was trying to kill her and also retrieve the child of whom Daxus was experimenting on.
Having each used their strength, agility, knowledge, and power to overcome the situations of which they have been placed in, I believe that both women were able to be represented as post-feminists, not only as a result of them having played the protagonists within each film but also due to the fact that they were able to go at it alone and needed no further assistance. Therefore the patriarchal notion that men are more superior than women could be greatly questioned as we now have proof that even though men may appear to be stronger, when it comes to situations where great thinking and agility must be applied women will always have the upper-hand.
