# Question about "Hancock"--explain part I missed. \[Spoilers included\]. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 22, 2011, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-hancock-explain-part-i-missed-spoilers-included/586490 "2011-06-22T21:47:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-hancock-explain-part-i-missed-spoilers-included/586490/1 "2011-06-22T21:47:31Z")
We watched the movie _[Hancock](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hancock_%28film%29)_ a few days ago. At one point, I left the room for a few minutes and came back right at the point where Charlize Theron’s character warns him that, if he tells her husband about her, she will kill him. This briefly puzzled me until it became obvious what her secret is: she’s superhuman just like him, 3000 years old, and, as it turns out, formerly his spouse. The next scene is in the kitchen, where Hancock attempts strike her head from behind, with a large rolling pin. The rolling pin snaps in two on her head like a piece of raw spaghetti, so he then holds two heavy pans on either side of her head, making as if to squash her head between them. It’s sort of a comic moment actually, because then she turns around just as he lowers the pans. The question is, why exactly does he attack her? Unless, as just now occurred to me, it was the fact that these superbeings lose their powers when they are in close proximity to each other. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-hancock-explain-part-i-missed-spoilers-included/586490/2 "2011-06-22T21:52:17Z")
He was testing out if she was also super like him. It was kind of a throwaway comedy scene, as she had already threw him through the wall the night before. He simply came back the next morning and wanted to see just how strong she was ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-hancock-explain-part-i-missed-spoilers-included/586490/3 "2011-06-22T21:52:18Z")
The movie was honestly kind of forgettable, but IIRC he was trying to reveal her identity to her family without actually telling them, or at least get her to openly admit what she is. Either that or he was just screwing around; since up until then he thought he was the only metahuman, he’s fascinated by the existence of another. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-hancock-explain-part-i-missed-spoilers-included/586490/4 "2011-06-22T22:02:32Z")
Feeling that the OP’s question has been well and correctly answered, I’d like to say that I would have enjoyed this movie a lot more if they’d discovered that liquor gave him his superpowers. For the entire first half of the movie, that’s where it looked to me like it was headed, and I was so happy to be watching something so subversive. Then it just all went to hell in a happy, moral handbasket. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-hancock-explain-part-i-missed-spoilers-included/586490/5 "2011-06-23T00:43:14Z")
Thanks for the replies. I agree it was rather a pointless scene, although perhaps of some value to people like me who missed the previous scene. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-hancock-explain-part-i-missed-spoilers-included/586490/6 "2011-06-23T01:20:59Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Feeling that the OP’s question has been well and correctly answered, I’d like to say that I would have enjoyed this movie a lot more if they’d discovered that liquor gave him his superpowers. I’d’ve liked it if _public hatred_ gave him superpowers - as long as people thought he was an asshole, he could keep flying around. Going heroic and becoming beloved and respected - that’s his kryptonite. Anyway, the pairing-off-path-to-normality thing doesn’t hold together. Assuming Hancock was drawn to L.A. because Theron’s character was there, shouldn’t he have been gradually losing his abilities as long as he and she were in the same city? And it’s not like he’s inconspicuous. Theron had plenty of opportunity to talk Bateman’s character into moving to another city, if she was genuinely avoiding Hancock. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-hancock-explain-part-i-missed-spoilers-included/586490/7 "2011-06-23T02:46:51Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Anyway, the pairing-off-path-to-normality thing doesn’t hold together. Assuming Hancock was drawn to L.A. because Theron’s character was there, shouldn’t he have been gradually losing his abilities as long as he and she were in the same city? Maybe it only happens when both know the other’s nearby. ---
**Author:** ![Double\_Foolscap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@Double\_Foolscap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Double_Foolscap)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-hancock-explain-part-i-missed-spoilers-included/586490/8 "2011-06-23T09:35:16Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I’d’ve liked it if _public hatred_ gave him superpowers - as long as people thought he was an asshole, he could keep flying around. Going heroic and becoming beloved and respected - that’s his kryptonite. > > Anyway, the pairing-off-path-to-normality thing doesn’t hold together. Assuming Hancock was drawn to L.A. because Theron’s character was there, shouldn’t he have been gradually losing his abilities as long as he and she were in the same city? Maybe he _was_, and the Hancock we saw was only at 50% capacity. Or maybe it’s only periods of time in close contact, like in the same room. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-hancock-explain-part-i-missed-spoilers-included/586490/9 "2011-06-23T10:02:24Z")
Hancock is just a vehicle for an “eternal romeo and juliet” love story, at heart. Every other detail is incidental to the main story of the achille’s heel of lub. It’s a very serendipitous story.