Carter has aged only months. But his daughter from his first life, still alive and now a woman, confronts him in a boarded-up cabin in Virginia. Their reunion is not warm. It is raw. She asks where he disappears to. He cannot say Mars . He says, “War.” She replies, “You’ve always loved it more than us.”
They just didn’t know it yet.
He says to Issus: “I’ve killed gods. I’ve killed friends. I’ve killed the man I was. But I will not trade my son for a planet that never learned to love its own children.” john carter movie 2
In the third act, Carthoris (played by a young actor with fierce, sad eyes) is captured by Issus, who offers to trade his life for the location of the Heart of Barsoom. Carter almost says yes. That is the moment. Dejah watches. Tars watches. And Carter—for the first time in his immortal life—lays down his blade. Carter has aged only months
It would not be a crowd-pleaser. It would be a cult masterpiece—the Blade Runner 2049 of planetary romance. And in an era of superhero quips and weightless CGI, a John Carter sequel that asks, “What does it cost to be a good man in a dying world?” might finally find the audience that was always waiting for it. It is raw
Dejah walks to him. She doesn’t speak. She just takes his hand.