User blog:X9 The Android/PE Proposal: Martin Kirby

Hello guys! Today, here's my twentieth-eight PE proposal, and it's about Martin Kirby, the main antagonist of the 2019 action thriller film Angel Has Fallen, the third installment of the Has Fallen film series. This is the second political action thriller antagonist I want to propose as PE after Eli Raphelson.

WHO IS HE / WHAT HAS HE DONE?
When President Allan Trumbull is rendered into a coma after being nearly killed in a drone assassination attempt, being the only survivor alongside Secret Service agent Mike Banning, Vice President Martin Kirby comes to the scene and is sworn Acting President of the United States of America until Trumbull recovers from his coma. Meanwhile, Banning is arrested by FBI agent Helen Thompson when she finds substantial evidence that Banning orchestrated the attack, but as he is transferred to a detention facility, the transport is ambushed by Wade Jennings and his men, leading Banning to escape a discover who set him up to clear his name.

However, unknown to everyone, Kirby actually orchestrated the attack with Jennings in an attempt to take over the presidency in exchange of authorizing the use of private military companies in missions like Salient Global, something Trumbull strongly disagreed. Now with complete control of the White House, Kirby publicly frames Banning for the assassination attempt and states that he did it with cooperation of the Russian government, giving the order to go to war with Russia.

Unfortunately for Kirby, in the end, Mike and his father Clay rescue Mike's wife and daughter and Jennings and his men meet their deaths at Mike's hands while President Trumbull recovers from his coma. Upon being informed of Kirby's plans and with evidence uncovered by Thompson before her death at Jennings' hands, Trumbull exonerates Banning and has Kirby arrested for treason. It's likely that Kirby was then sentenced for life or convicted and executed for his actions.

WHAT'S THE WORK?
Angel Has Fallen is a 2019 action thriller film directed by Ric Roman Waugh and starring Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman. The film is about Secret Service agent Mike Banning getting framed from trying to assassinate President Alan Trumbull, leading Banning to escape from captivity and search for his father in an attempt to clear his name while Trumbull recovers on the hospital.

MORAL EVENT HORIZON
Although mostly working behind the scenes, Martin Kirby stands up to Wade Jennings, the film's secondary antagonist and The Heavy due his manipulative and power hungry nature. Whereas Wade still held some respect towards Mike, Kirby has respect to no one and just wants more power at all costs, not caring on who will have to die or be framed to do so. Every PE villain must have crossed the Moral Event Horizon to be PE, and Martin Kirby definitely crosses it when he orders to go to war with Russia to avenge Alan Trumbull's assassination attempt when it was really him and Jennings the ones who orchestrated the attack.

HEINOUS STANDARDS/MITIGATING FACTORS?
Like many manipulative villains, Martin Kirby is able to hide his true nature and pass himself as a shy, timid and a man of few words who serves as Vice President to President Trumbull, willing to do whatever he needs to serve his country. However, deep inside him, Martin Kirby is actually a treacherous and tyrannical mastermind who has no loyalty to Trumbull and conspires to have him killed and Mike Banning framed from a crime he didn't commit so he can rise to become President of the United States and do whatever he wants. Evidently, despite his position as Vice President of the USA, Kirby isn't satisfied with it and desires more power than the one he holds, which shows his extreme lust for power.

Like many political villains in fiction, Kirby just cares for military action and war regardless of the deaths and suffering they brought. While President Trumbull disapproves involving private military companies like Salient Global in missions, Kirby is okay with that and thus forms an alliance with Wade Jennings to get Trumbull killed so he can authorize them. But the worst war-related action Kirby does during his short mandate is ordering his country to go to war with Russia under the pretext that Mike Banning tried to kill Trumbull with cooperation of the Russian government, demonstrating Kirby's extreme psychopathy just for the sake to prove that the United States can win over Russia as the best world power. In other words, Kirby just cares for himself and will even eliminate people who messes with his plans, like when Jennings gets FBI agent Helen Thompson killed to not reveal Kirby's treachery. However, just as he does have loyalty to no one, it's Jennings' actions that lead to his defeat, as Jennings kept some evidence against Kirby, possibly to backstab him if he didn't fulfill his part of the deal.

And finally, what definitely makes Martin Kirby to stand up in comparison to other villains of the franchise are his petty and mongering motivations. While Kang Yeonsak, the main antagonist of the first film, wanted to destroy South Korea and the United States, he mostly did so to avenge the deaths of his parents and was tragic, while Aamir Barkawi had similar motions as well, trying to avenge his daughter. Taking this into account, in spite of being the only main antagonist of the series to not die (at least onscreen), Martin Kirby is by far worse than his predecessors.

VERDICT
Taking all of this into account, I would say yes about considering Martin Kirby to be approved as PE.