Jupiter Ascending's Stinger Apini

… Are you telling me…

… Jupiter Ascending…

… Wasn’t crazy?

This post is inspired by Apini Week, a wonderful series of curated posts by salamanderinspace - check them out here! Concept image source here.

Set design is one of the oft-overlooked aspects of filmmaking, and it shouldn’t be - in any good film, all of the environments we are shown are used to further the characters and add weight and substance to the story. 

Jupiter Ascending’s sets are some of the most interesting I’ve ever seen in a film, and I could easily write essays about all of them - they’re packed with little details that hint at the characters’ histories and personalities, and picking them apart is wonderful fun.

One of the most intriguing sets is Stinger’s farmhouse, which is a dilapidated ruin stuck in the middle of cornfields. As I wrote yesterday in response to a post by salamanderinspace, the location and appearance of Stinger’s house are deeply evocative and help to paint a picture of an isolated man bitter about the reduced living conditions he and his daughter have to endure.

What I didn’t touch upon then is the apparent age of the farmhouse. Stinger’s house clearly isn’t new, and is in a terrible state of repair - it’s surrounded by rusted cars and the boards that form its wall are rotting and coming away. This neglect ties in with Stinger’s complaint about budget cuts - one can presume the house is falling apart because he can’t afford to maintain it properly. To sum up, the house is in a state of dilapidation that implies neglect spanning decades rather than years, and the dozens of bee hives in the house and the grounds suggest a long-term project (I know little about bees, but I’m presuming that hives wouldn’t proliferate as they do in the farmhouse without intervention and encouragement).

What I’m getting at with this is that Stinger seems to have been living in the farmhouse for a long time (decades rather than years), which in turn implies that he and Kiza are both much older than they look. As previously discussed, Stinger seems to have no qualms about using RegeneX and is only bitter because he can’t afford to keep a supply for his and Kiza’s usage. Stinger is clear that Kiza is at risk of dying without ReCodes, and it’s possible to infer that the ReCodes that keep Kiza healthy also keep her young. 

I have a headcanon that Stinger’s ‘wage’ is formed - at least in part - of RegeneX, and that while his supply was plentiful when he worked for the Legion (as a high-up officer, he was highly valued and it was in the authorities’ interests to keep him around for as long as possible), it’s much reduced now he’s just an employee of the Aegis. That would explain both Stinger’s dilemma and the passage of time suggested by the condition of the house.

I’ve read a few reviews purposing that, if Jupiter Ascending were any other Hollywood film, Jupiter would’ve been relegated to the role of “love interest” while Caine Wise assumed the coveted role of Chosen One / MC. I think that’s true - but I also find it equally likely that, if this were the 90s, Stinger could’ve been the MC, considering what he represents.

Stinger is the boomer-era white male self-insert.  He’s a cop AND ex-military, retired to a FARM in middle America where he works -  just strugglin’ to get by.  He has a teenage daughter and a room full'a guns “in the back.”  He’s every character played by Bruce Willis, John Wayne, and Kevin Costner, all rolled into one.  In the world of JA, he’s a father, a sheriff AND a cowboy–literally a cowboy, if you read bees as farm animals.  Or if you read earthlings as farm animals.  Either way.

Stinger’s role in the story is a somewhat conservative one.  As an Aegis “space cop,” he is well-placed to introduce Jupiter to the status quo of space capitalism.  Stinger is, by profession, a defender of the same laws which make Jupiter “Your Majesty” and everyone else “product.”  Yet he takes no responsibility for the power structure he helps defend. “Technically, YOUR people killed the dinosaurs,” he retorts, even though Titus refers to “Marshals and Administrators” overseeing the harvests. Marshal is Stinger’s Aegis title. “Administators” may refer to the Legion Administrator, as mentioned by the Seals and Signets master in reference to Jupiter’s royal guard.

Legionnaires, Aegis Marshals, Hunters…all these roles are integral to maintaining the system of genetic immortality space capitalism.  Caine defies authority and rejects his role; he does so outside the story (by biting an Entitled) and within the story (by deciding to date Jupiter instead of cashing in on the bounty on her head). Stinger, however, embraces his role; he DOES cash in Jupiter’s bounty, and he maintains a rank within an institution that enforces stratification of the social order.  Stinger and the Aegis staff are responsible for the “harvests” on both an institutional and consumer level - they are even depicted actively using Regenex to heal Caine.

I definitely agree that splices see themselves as entirely separate from other forms of humans, and especially from entitled humans. The implication is that splices are all designed and bred to fulfil particular roles and carry out certain tasks - so Stinger’s splicer gave him quick reflexes that make him an excellent pilot and solider, while Caine’s splicer gave him a heightened sense of smell so he could be used as a tracker. In both cases, they were treated as commodities, being given certain ‘desirable’ traits to give them a higher value in the market. In this way, they are objects to be bought and sold for profit just as much as terrsies are.

Throughout the film, Stinger is shown to be primarily out for himself (and, of course, Kiza). He is hugely disaffected with his present position and his employers, and his primary loyalty is, quite naturally, to his daughter. This isn’t remotely surprising - the system he works for and helps to perpetuate has treated him as a commodity, so he feels almost no personal investment in it. This sense of alienation was presumably deepened dramatically with his expulsion from the Legion - he clearly felt he belonged to the Legion, a feeling lacking from his involvement with the Aegis. Stinger is quite literally on the fringes of society and the organisation he works for - this is embodied in a very literal manner by Stinger’s house, which is a crumbling ruin of nails and board stuck in the middle of nowhere.

Stinger is only a part of the system because it has leverage over him - specifically, complicity in the system is what gives Stinger his wage and allows him to pay for RegeneX and ReCodes for himself and Kiza. This state of affairs has gradually eroded any strong moral objections he might have had to harvesting - while Stinger can acknowledge that the industry is “ugly”, he demonstrates no interest in bringing it down and, as salamanderinspace mentions, serves as a marshal on a planet pegged for harvest in a few generations. The main source of his dissatisfaction is that his wages are too low for him to afford the treatments he needs for Kiza - he has no apparent objections to the treatments themselves.

(x)