Popular Culture Review Vol. 15, No. 1 | Page 125

Carpenter Trio: One Piece of the Formula 121 does, however, perish in the end when she is taken over by one of the spirits seeking a human host. With Braddock killed early in the story, Ballard assumes command and it is her relationship with Desolation Williams that eventually forms the narrative’s core. For Carpenter, Ballard and Williams may be equal, but that does not mean either of them is invincible. Throughout the initial scenes, when Ballard and Williams tangle, the two take turns besting each other. Williams initially defeats Ballard, although the policewoman manages to catch Williams off guard with a sharp punch to the jaw prompting a victorious Williams to respond, “Damn, girl. I like you already.” This fight sets off a series of situations in which the two repeatedly come to each other’s aid, saving their lives while concomitantly earning respect for each other’s talents. While both Ballard and Williams are obviously dangerous and street smart in their own way, Carpenter frequently shows us that neither is invincible individually. While Williams initially gets the best of Ballard, she returns the favor later when she lures Williams and his cohorts back to his jail cell and confuses them enough to lock them up again. All this figurative pushing and shoving culminates in recognition that Ballard and Williams share the code of the Hawksian West, covering each other’s backs and coming to one another’s aid again and again. Thus, when Williams’ brother dies during one of the confrontations between the ghosts and the humans, Ballard is visibly moved by her compatriot’s loss. Likewise, in a bit of role reversal, Williams takes up the needle and thread following the final escape from Shining Canyon to sew the wound Ballard has suffered on her leg. While showing his two main characters as equals, Carpenter also manages to make them human by showing their frailties. Ballard, faced with command when Braddock is killed, finds that her impromptu plans tend to backfire, and both she and Williams leave themselves open to ambush at different times. When the police officers, Williams’ criminal brethren, and the others being held in the jail recognize they have to join together to fight a common enemy-ala Assault on Precinct 73-Carpenter shows us that putting differences and personal failures aside and teaming up is the only way for these people to have a chance of escaping the town. By the time Melanie Ballard returns to the home base and relates her story, the ghosts are on the march. The ruling council, however, chooses to ignore the threat as the head inquisitor implies that the company funding the colonization would likely replace them if the planet’s problems were reported as originating with the supernatural. This decision mirrors a number of similar situations in Carpenter’s work in which the film’s conflict results from the corrupting influence of power upon one or more of the characters. Often, this corruption is found within a ruling group as with the Catholic Church in Vampires and Prince o f Darkness, the alien yuppie business people in They Live, or the government in Starman. Thus, Carpenter suggests in Ghosts o f Mars that social