On Maggie Q and the costs of an action career

Maggie Q, pausing to reflect in The Protégé. (Image: © Raul Jichici 2020.)

Recently I watched a 2021 movie called The Protégé, which features Maggie Q, and which left me thinking about the parts of her career that I’ve seen. It’s possible to read the film as a reminder of some of her work in action films and thrillers, even as a reflection on it.

Mars on the Mind

Mars is an insistent planet. Many ancient civilizations took it to represent the god of war. Gustav Holst, following their lead, characterized it with swirling currents of discontent and alarming rhythms, threatening to swell out of the orchestra and take over the auditorium. Most of the night sky has been blotted out to the view of city dwellers, but it’s still possible to witness Mars on its wandering course; I’ve seen it often in recent months, glowing red like a warning. It seems to demand to be remembered.

Whether humans will ever go there remains to be seen. Surely we will, but whether anyone can live there is another matter. Elon Musk thinks we can; no doubt some Twitter users would like to see him become the first colonist. Science-fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson used to believe colonizing it was possible too, and he wrote about it at length in a trilogy, which began coming out in 1992.