Sulley's Hero Journey

By Dana Godrich

The Call Accidental Call

Sulley finds a unoccupied, open scaring door as he is getting Mike his paperwork. He goes inside of the door to check it but he sees no one. As he closes the door after inspecting it, he hears laughter. He turns around and finds out a little girl is on his back. This is very lethal for monster like Sulley because a human’s touch is known to kill a monster. This ends up not being the case and Sulley definitely isn't dead. Sulley was just about to throw the girl back into the door, but it was too late. Randall, Sulley’s nemesis, walks in not seeing Sulley and sends the door back up making it disappear into the hall of doors. Now, Sulley is stuck with this little girl. This is the call because it is what drives Sulley to go on his journey of the known monster world to the unknown world of living with a human. The cause of the call is out of Sulley’s curiosity.

Threshold

-Boo’s door is the main threshold

The known is the world were monsters scare humans and do not ever come into physical contact with them. Boo’s door soon becomes a portal between the human and monster world. The unknown is when this little girl, Boo, breaks this and escapes from her door entering both an unknown monster world for Boo and an unknown human experience for Sulley.

The “leap of faith” Sulley takes is keeping Boo. Yes, he tried to get rid of her and put her back into her door, but was not successful. When the door got put away by Randall, there was no way to get rid of this human other than to call the CDA (child detection agency) and have them “dispose” of her. Sulley decides he doesn’t want to do that because he knows that if he gives her in , everyone will know that he had he. Now he has put the trouble in his hands trying to keep her under his watch.

ChallengeOur initiate, Sulley, has Boo clad in sofa leather that makes her

look as if she were a monster. Randall gets suspicious the moment he spots this and decides to secretly kidnap Boo by setting up Boo’s door as a trap to lure her in. When Sulley saw Boo’s door in the blue he knew that nothing so paramount could be secure or trivial to get. Sulley makes an abrupt decision that the right choice is to scope the room prior to entering . Unknowingly, while Mike tries to prove the room safe, Randall kidnaps him thinking it’s Boo and takes him away to extract screams from who he thinks is Boo. Now, Sulley is faced with the challenge of trying to save Mike from Randall. This turns out a success and Sulley saves Mike while running away from Randall. Sulley learns that Randall is up to something and he develops a great sense of caution telling him that he must try much harder to keep Boo and Mike away from danger.

ChallengeAfter the first challenge, Waternoose, the company’s

CEO, quickly finds out that Sulley has the child and sends him and Mike off through a door into the barren Himalayas because they had the child all along. Now, Sulley has lost Boo who is in danger in the hands of Randall and Waternoose. To make matters worse, Mike is outraged at Sulley blaming him for being stuck in this land. Sulley now learns he must try to leave this place alone and continue the journey by himself. This is a challenge for Sulley because he must try to endure the cold, harsh winds of the Himalayas while stressing about Boo’s safety. This a major failure of Sulley to be abandoned on this distant location.

ChallengeIn this rigorous challenge, Sulley starts off peacefully

rummaging around the doors with Mike searching for Boo’s door. Then it takes a turn for the wicked. What began as a mere search became a high-speed chase. Randall found Sulley and hunted after them trying to get Boo in order to extract screams from her. After much chasing, Sulley learns that his goal is altered, not only does he want to keep Boo and Mike safe, he wants to defeat Randall in order to protect everyone from his evil acts. So, this chase ended when Sulley was left at a impasse only hanging on Boo’s door with by finger, Randall pushing him off slowly. Soon, Boo hits Randall from behind while he is distracted and Sulley is able to get up and defeat Randall.

Mentor

Roz is the company’s dispatch manager. She could very well be considered a mentor because she consists of all the characteristics to be one. She is in and out and not always helping, but at the end of the movie, she helps Sulley a great deal by offering wisdom. Sulley discovered her to be CDA agent 001, the most powerful. Towards the end of the movie, Roz speaks out to Sulley explaining to him how the morally just thing to do is return Boo home. This is how Roz would be Sulley’s mentor: by helping him achieve his goals with wise words and leaving room for success and failure.

Helpers Mike Wazowski

Mike is Sulley’s main helper. Not only are they best friends, they work together and scare together. Mike helps Sulley with many small and big challenges. For example, Mike helped Sulley hide Boo and went along with Sulley merely being a good friend and a great sidekick. Mike is by Sulley’s side and at times they work together, at times they do not. That is what makes Mike a great helper.

The Abyss

The abyss is usually done in solitude and that’s how it was with Sulley. In Monsters, Inc., the ultimate duel is fought between Randall and Sulley. At the culmination of the last challenge, Sulley retrieves Boo. Now that he has her, he must bring her back to her home, that’s not trivial with Randall being a massive obstacle. Randall is chasing Sulley unceasingly throughout the monster world. But once Sulley entered Boo’s door, he is now safe with Boo through the threshold; the human world. This harsh and challenging abyss was succumbed by Sulley who successfully achieved his goal of bringing Boo home where she belongs.

The Revelation The revelation is when Sulley realizes that a child’s

laughter is stronger and much more useful than a child’s scream

After saying bye to Boo, Sulley realizes that along the journey, Boo has laughed and it made a blackout. He pondered on it for a moment and discovered that a laugh is much more powerful than a scream. This is the revelation because Sulley is now mentally aware that good, laughter, will defeat bad, screams. Also, Sulley is mentally changed due to his experience with Boo. He learned that humans aren’t lethal and informed Monstopolis too. Before this journey, Sulley vaguely understood humans and their impact on monsters and vise-versa.

Transformation Sulley’s behavior changes as he overcomes his challenges and

climbs up the ladder into becoming a hero. After this journey, Sulley’s behavior is now altered and he acts with much more care towards people and he shows that he knows that every moment counts. He does this because he didn’t have much time with Boo but he grew to love her and care for her. Now Sulley has learned to behave the same to others he loves and cares for. He is now changed because he Boo drove him to want to change his behavior to people and appreciate every moment with them just in case they leave you, just like Boo’s case. For example, he treats everyone with care and equality knowing that being good to people and offering them kindness can get you far. Specifically, now Sulley wakes up to his company every morning wishing people like Needleman, Smitty, and George Sanderson good day at work and showing them that he truly does care about them no matter if they are a little inferior to high ranked employees.

Atonement After his journey, Sulley is now “at one” with himself due to

his experience and adventures with Boo and Mike.

Even though Sulley had to say good-bye to Boo, he knows it was the right thing to do. He takes pride in his actions and is aware that Boo has to continue her life without him and him without her. He has found inner balance with himself by studying his choices and choosing the harder and right one to do, say good-bye to Boo and let her live her life without a constant fear of monsters. He has done this by turning the scream factory into a laugh factory. Sulley has gained harmony with himself because of Boo and understand life and grasping the selfish versus the unselfish ways to handle situations. He did the unselfish move by letting Boo continue living a normal life back at home with her family. Sulley has attained a state of selflessness and love.

The Return Sulley has now returned to his known world because

Boo is safe, she is at a state of peace at home. Now that Boo is safe from all danger like Randall and Waternoose, it drives Sulley to stay strong and make slight alterations. Others have respected him as a hero and due to his unselfish acts and gained knowledge about making clever decisions. The employees at work including Roz, Mike and others now have an even higher respect for him than they did before his journey. This is due to the fact that Sulley is not the same benevolent person he was before, he’s better; he’s a hero.

Gift

There are to gifts bestowed upon Sulley and his employees, they are both physical. One gift is granted to the company by Sulley. After his revelation and transformation, Sulley understands that a major change in the company’s ways must be made and being promoted to CEO made his dream possible. Now, instead of collecting screams to use for energy, the company collects laughs. This not only benefits the children of the unknown world, but it gives monsters the ability to have fun and not be scared for their job. At the culmination of the movie, Mike has a present he wants to give to Sulley. This present enabled Sulley to visit Boo another time. Mike put together Boo’s door which got shredded and just had one piece missing, the one Sulley kept. The door worked and Sulley was able to visit Boo.

Gift one

Gift two