Mirage (The Incredibles)
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Mirage is a fictional character, an ex-villainess featured in the film The Incredibles, produced by Pixar and Disney, first released on November 5, 2004. She also appears in the comic book version of The Incredibles, where she reenacts her role from the movie. Mirage is an assistant to the evil scientist, Syndrome. She tricks the superhero, Mr. Incredible, into doing work for her boss, which in reality involves battling a robot (the Omnidroid 9000) specifically designed to kill him. Mirage is the liaison between Mr. Incredible and Syndrome, preventing Mr. Incredible from learning the true identity of his employer.
Though she apparently has no superpowers, or at least none exhibited on screen, Mirage appears to have extensive computing and espionage skills and she claims her identity is kept a secret by the government, implicating she may be a "super" too. However, given her background, it is not unlikely that her claim is false.
The voice characterization of Mirage was provided by Elizabeth Peña.
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[edit] Movie
In the movie The Incredibles, Mirage's boss, Syndrome, uses her to locate and hire former superheroes to test his Omnidroids; he wishes to develop an unstoppable Omnidroid that he can use to obtain revenge on Mr. Incredible, a former superhero who had crushed his dreams in the past. Mirage later finds Mr. Incredible with his friend, Frozone, listening to police scanners. After assuring Syndrome's associate that this is indeed Mr. Incredible, she follows the two in her car.
Later, Mirage slips into Mr. Incredible's office when he is absent and places a message for him in his briefcase. In the message, Mirage tells Mr. Incredible that she is need of his services because a robot working for their secret government facility has gone haywire on their remote island. She promises him three times his annual salary to accept the assignment and ends the message by telling him to call the number on her business card. Mr. Incredible, eager to resume superhero work, tells Mirage that he wants the job.
When he arrives, Mirage tells him about the robot, the Omnidroid 9000. She tells him that it was developed with artificial intelligence and eventually became too intelligent to take orders from them. It is now rampaging across the island, forcing the evacuation of the island. Mirage explains that it is a "learning" robot, becoming more difficult to defeat the longer it is fought; she requests that the Omnidroid be shut down without destroying it.
When Mr. Incredible manages to deactivate the Omnidroid without destroying it (completely), she invites him for dinner. As Mirage is waiting for him, Syndrome (hiding in shadows) tells her to make Mr. Incredible feel that his service is needed and to boost his ego. Mirage then catches sight of Mr. Incredible listening and quickly invites him into the room. Mr. Incredible is a little suspicious of why Mirage lives on a volcano island, but she manages to conceal her true purpose before sending him home.
After several weeks, Mirage brings Mr. Incredible back to the island for a briefing in the facility's meeting room, on the pretense that she has a "new assignment" for him. However, the meeting is a trap, and Mr. Incredible is attacked by the latest prototype Omnidroid and Syndrome. Mr. Incredible escapes this trap, but is caught again in the Operation Kronos computer room when his presence is betrayed by the homing device Edna Mode built into his super suit. After placing Mr. Incredible in a electronic containment device, Mirage and Syndrome hear over the radio that Elastigirl (Mr. Incredible's wife) is flying to their island on an aircraft. Syndrome launches an attack on the plane with heat-seeking anti-aircraft missiles; Mirage appears shocked when Helen yells "There are children aboard!" and Syndrome pursues his attack, destroying the plane.
Believing that Syndrome and Mirage have just killed his family, Mr. Incredible attempts to grab Syndrome, but Mirage pushes him out of the way, and instead he grabs her. He threatens to kill her, but Syndrome appears not to care (it is implied on the DVD Director's Commentary that he is schizophrenic) and, because he believes Mr. Incredible is bluffing, tells Mr. Incredible to kill her. Unable to violate his personal moral code, even with such extreme provocation, Mr. Incredible relents; Mirage appears shocked that Syndrome would gamble her life to call a bluff. After this incident, Syndrome, noticing Mirage is angry, tells her that he knew Mr. Incredible couldn't do it, but Mirage retorts that valuing another person's life is not a weakness and walks away, saying, "Next time you gamble, bet your own life!"
Later on, she frees Mr. Incredible and is about to tell him that his family survived when he begins to strangle her. However, she manages to choke out that his family had survived the explosion and in relief, Mr. Incredible embraces her. At that moment, Elastigirl comes in and knocks Mirage out (before Mirage can finish addressing Elastigirl as Mrs. Incredible), thinking he was having an affair with her. As the couple starts to make up, Mirage recuperates and informs them that their children had triggered an alarm in the forest.
Mirage is last seen giving the Incredibles the new password so that they can use a rocket to escape. Her ultimate fate remains undisclosed, although she could either be incarcerated, as Rick Dicker told Mr. Incredible that they've frozen all of Syndrome's assets after the Incredibles and Frozone defeated the tenth Omnidroid, or it also could mean that they stopped Syndrome's plans on Nomanisan Island and let Mirage run it, if they ever saw how she managed to help the Incredibles escape the island.
[edit] Personality
Mirage's motivations in the film are never quite made clear. While an operative of Syndrome, she presumably was involved in the deaths of several superheroes and had full knowledge of his plan to wreak havoc upon the city. Yet, Mirage is appalled at the thought of killing innocent children. For instance, she doesn't show any objections to blowing up the aircraft until she hears Helen (Elastigirl) screaming over the radio "There are children aboard!"
It seems as if Mirage was as cruel and ruthless as Syndrome at first, but after she saw Mr. Incredible's kindness and how selfish Syndrome was, she had a change of heart. However, she enjoys having power, for, upon answering Mr. Incredible's inquiry to why Syndrome's base is in the center of a volcano, she said, "He is attracted to power... so am I. It's a weakness we [she and Syndrome] share."
[edit] Relationships
Despite not being in the movie very much, she has developed relationships between the characters. Mirage sees Mr. Incredible as a good person and respects that he has regard for life. She sympathizes with the loss of his family and is determined to help him. It is also possible that Mirage has some feelings for Mr. Incredible.
She doesn't pay much attention to Mrs. Incredible (Helen) and the children, but despite not talking to them much, Mirage cares for them and wouldn't want them to be wounded in any way.
Mirage at first has respect toward Syndrome, but later sees him as a cold, heartless person. Despite several hints at a more intimate relationship between Mirage and Buddy Pine (Syndrome), nothing is explicitly stated in the movie.
[edit] See also
[edit] Trivia
- In addition to Elizabeth Peña, Mirage is voiced by the following actresses:
- Barbara Schöneberger in the German version
- Esther Arroyo in the Castillian Spanish version
- Radó Denise in the Hungarian version
- Emanuela Rossi in the Italian version
- Misa Watanabe in the Japanese version
- Danuta Stenka in the Polish version
- Andrea Morucci in the Brazilian Portuguese version
- Though Mirage apparently has no superpowers, or at least none exhibited on screen, her appearance (a dark-skinned female with white hair) is possibly modeled after Storm of the X-Men.
- It is debated whether Mirage is a super or not. In the message to Mr. Incredible, she said "We have something in common: according to the government, neither of us exists," hinting that she probably is a super. If that is true then, her powers are unknown at this time or she may have tried to gain his trust. However, given Syndrome's delight in killing Supers, it is unlikely that he would keep one in his employ. If she is a Super, Mirage would be the only one working for Syndrome, as the rest of his staff is comprised of 'henchmen'.
[edit] Notes and references
- ↑ ↑ ↑ Adaptionsmovie.com. Mirage's personality and possible attraction to Mr. Incredible. Retrieved on March 25, 2006.
- ↑ darkhorse.com. Mirage's possible attraction to Syndrome. Retrieved on April 03, 2006.
[edit] External links
The Incredibles characters
| Incredible Family: | Mr. Incredible · Elastigirl · Dash · Violet · Jack-Jack |
| Allies: | Frozone · Edna Mode · Rick Dicker |
| Villains: | Syndrome · Mirage · The Underminer · Bomb Voyage |
