Okay… addressing your questions:

1. why would Hancock even bother trying to save people?

Because, as someone said earlier, he’s compelled to do this. When Mary is by his side in the hospital, she explains to him all the times that he saved her in the past, that it’s what he was born to do — a sort of contingency plan of the gods. He, above all the rest of them, was created to protect. BUT… also…

2. why is Hancock going through with the plan to revamp his image?

Any number of reasons, really. But I think, at the core of it, Hancock is a genuinely good person, who has, for the last 80 years, been lashing out at the people who he thinks abandoned him. There’s a line in the dinner scene that pretty much explains all of his self-destructive behavior. “How much of a bastard must I have been, to have NObody come to claim me. Nobody worrying. Nobody that cared.” He’s spent all this time punishing himself and the world for that (erroneous) realization.

But it doesn’t mean that he has completely become this piece of shit that he imagines himself to be… that he puts forth. Even as he’s saying fuck you to the world, he still needs to help. And when he meets Ray and his family, he sees people who actually believe in him. Their faith in him is what compels him to go along with Ray’s plan. They actually help him believe in himself.

3. WHO’S this THEY that keeps attacking them?

As with the others, I think the “They” is kept vague because there is no specific embodiment of it. It’s the evil people of the world. It’s “Murphy” and his law that things must always go wrong.

Ultimately, though, I don’t think it really matters who “They” are. Not for this story, at least. If there’s more to it than what they let us know, I’m sure it would make for a great sequel, but since this story is about Hancock and how he relates to people, I didn’t feel the need to have that small bit explained to me. “They” was enough.

4. Why all the hostility from Mary?

Good question. That’s the ONE part of it they never really explain. It’s like the way she talks to him during their confrontation, he sounds like he really was an asshole in his past life, but then, during that hospital scene, all she can say tell him is how great he always was.

I guess it’s possible that her animosity towards him is more directed towards herself. Guilt over being selfish, abandoning her love because she didn’t want to be hurt anymore. But if that was the case, it needed to be explained so that she wouldn’t just come off as a stone-cold selfish person. The audience needs to see her realizing her mistakes, or they just take it as her being an unsympathetic asshole. Definitely something missing there.

5. why would Red think that he could come after Hancock and win?

Well, the easy explanation is because he’s insane. =P BUT, I think that his plan was to get his two lackies behind him (people who he could manipulate because he played on their feelings of violation and desire for revenge on Hancock), and then escape, and try to come up with a way to kill Hancock. That’s just speculation on my part…

BUT, a few hours (or maybe a day? The timing is kept vague) after they get out, they find out that Hancock has been shot! Hey! Bullets hurt him now! Let’s go finish him off! That part I don’t think is such a leap of logic, since Hancock’s situation is broadcast all over TV. I think they had every reason to go to the hospital at that point, but I don’t think it was their plan all along.

6. 1) Hancock and Mary would be fine never being together again 2) Mary would truly be happy living her normal life, continuing never to use her powers; and 3) Ray would be able to overlook all that had happened.

I don’t find those things so hard to believe, mostly because of the conversations Mary has with Hancock in the house in front of Ray, and in the hospital.

In the house, she talks about how people HAVE a choice. Just because they were created a certain way, doesn’t mean they have to be dictated by that. (At which point Hancock says, “And you CHOSE to let me think I was a lone,” and storms off.)

Then, in the hospital, she tells him about their history, and explains they were created a certain way… Created to be strong, but when they were near their soul-mates, to be weakened by each other.

“Why?” Asks Hancock.

“To be human,” explains Mary. To grow old, to die.

Now, not even delving into the shitload of metaphor contained in those scenes (the whole movie, really), those exchanges pretty much answer your questions.

Hancock realizes, as Mary did, that they don’t have to live according to their programming. Just because they were made to be mortal together, doesn’t mean that have to accept that. There may be a bond between them, but that doesn’t mean that they have to stay together. Mary has very legitimately fallen in love with Ray, and even if Hancock might have feelings for her, he respects that enough to let them live their lives — especially now that he is such a public figure. It could be said that he’s doing to protect them.

Besides… they’re going to live forever. Maybe, someday, they’ll find each other again.

There’s no reason Mary SHOULDN’T be able to live her own normal life, since the only reason we learned anything about her at all was because Hancock found her again. She’s lived a thousand in peril. She should be allowed to have a few years in peace.

And as for Ray… what really is there for him to get over? Yes, his wife is has superpowers. But she also rejected her soul-mate to be with him and his son. There are real feelings there. I think it would have made everyone that much more shallow is Mary just ran off with Hancock in the end, or that Ray would have lingering anger. There’s nothing to be angry about! He loves this woman as much as she loves him!

And… I think that covers it.

Anything else? :D

I loved this movie, despite its flaws (most of which occurred in the first half).

I think, though, that you missed some of the subtleties of the movie: Hancock is compelled to help people (that’s touched on in his conversation with Mary, at least briefly), so while he’s an ass, he’s got to help. He wants to be accepted. But he has no social skills to use since his accident: no one came for him, he was likely feared at the time, etc.

The “They” that Mary talks about is US! Humans. It’s extremely obvious that the reason why Hancock was attacked 80 years ago was because he was a black man with a white woman. We aren’t a nice race. I never though she was talking about some other “they.”

I assumed that Red and his gang broke out and just got lucky, and heard the news about Hancock’s injuries, as well. Certainly no sillier than Tony Stark making a energy source in a cave. :)

I was given the impression that they don’t know who made them.

Honestly, I thought it was a great movie. It would take me a damn long time to address all of your comments, so if you want to e-mail me, I’ll do so.
brianna.c.sheldon @ gmail. com no spaces.