Running On Empty

Running on empty is a heart-wrenching drama that revolves around the Pope family that went underground, after, Annie and Arthur Pope caused an explosion that hurt the janitor. This incident caused them to be fugitives one the run from the FBI. The movie mainly follows Danny Pope, Annie and Arthur's first born son. Danny Pope lives a very difficult life as he has to move around a lot with the parents as they are being pursued by the FBI. After watching this movie, I can see the main theme of the movie is about family.

In order to keep his family safe and whole, Arthur Pope brought his family into hiding. I felt tremendous sorrow for Arthur, he had face so much challenges for a mistake he made in the past. He lost so much for moving around and running away. He lost his mother and did not get to pay his last respect, and soon after he had to let go of his son to live his life, even though he knew that he would not be able to see his again.

Danny Pope fits the Identity vs. Role Confusion of Erikson's Psychosocial Theory. Danny Pope being at the age of 17, he is searching for what role he is going to play as he enters adulthood. You can see his identity crisis/role confusion emerges as he didn't know what to do with his life and he has been changing identities from all the moving around. However, he begins to start doing things differently when they moved to New Jersey. He had talent for music and he caught attention from one of his new school music teacher. Also, he fell in love with a girl and soon after, decided to stay and conflicted with his father. However, it all ended well, as he was given a chance to live his life by his father. Although sad that he will have to leave them but he was able to live his life and stop running.