Mortal (2020)
Directed by André Øvredal
No — Mortal is not woke, scoring 6 out of 100 on our wokeness meter.
Mortal is a Norwegian fantasy thriller about a young man named Eric who cannot control the weather and who may be descended from Norse gods.
Consciousness Markers
The cast is largely Norwegian with American Nat Wolff and Indian actress Priyanka Bose in a supporting authority role, but this is natural international casting with no commentary or messaging attached.
Christine is a competent psychologist who aids the protagonist, but she is ultimately fridged — killed to trigger the male lead's vengeful rampage — which is a classic anti-feminist trope rather than a feminist statement.
No LGBTQ+ characters, themes, or subtext appear anywhere in the film.
The film engages Norse mythology and Norwegian heritage but makes no statements about race or racial justice.
Weather and storms are plot mechanics of the protagonist's powers, not an environmentalist message.
No critique of capitalism, wealth, or class appears in the narrative.
No body-positive themes or messaging are present.
No neurodivergent characters or themes are depicted.
The film draws on Norse mythology for fantasy worldbuilding, which is not a revisionist reframing of historical events.
The film is a straightforward supernatural thriller with no preachy or didactic messaging directed at the audience.
Why it received this score
Mortal is a Norwegian fantasy thriller about a young man named Eric who cannot control the weather and who may be descended from Norse gods. André Øvredal directs with a straight face and a gloomy palette. The cast is mostly Norwegian, with Nat Wolff and Priyanka Bose dropped in without fanfare. That is international casting as a practical matter, not a statement. The film has no interest in making anyone feel included or instructed. It simply wants to show a man accidentally burning his relatives and then summoning lightning on a bridge.
Christine, the psychologist who talks Eric down from his panic, is competent and kind for about forty minutes. Then a sniper kills her so Eric can get angry. This is the fridging trope, and it is not a feminist gesture. The rest of the cultural checklist is similarly bare. No LGBTQ characters appear. No racial consciousness is stirred by the Norse setting. The storms are a plot device, not a climate sermon. Nobody mentions capitalism, body image, neurodivergence, or the need to revise the historical record. Norse mythology here is fantasy worldbuilding, not a correction of the sagas. The film lectures no one. It has no thesis to deliver.
What remains is a modest supernatural chase picture with a few striking images and a rushed third act. It received mixed reviews and made almost no money. The most socially aware thing about it is that it was filmed in two languages without apology. Mortal asks nothing of our politics. It gives little in return. We can respect its restraint, even as we check our watch.
Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm
Synopsis
A young boy must discover the origins of his extraordinary powers before he is captured by authorities hell-bent on condemning him for an accidental murder.
Questions about Mortal
Is Mortal woke?
No — Mortal is not woke, scoring 6 out of 100 on our wokeness meter. That earns it a verdict of Ultra Based.
Does Mortal have any woke elements?
Very few. None of the 10 markers reaches 30, the level where a marker counts as present; the highest is Representation Casting at 15.
How does Mortal compare to other 2020 movies?
It ranks #177 of the 227 films from 2020 we've scored; their average is 21. The wokest is One Night in Miami... (83).
How is the Woke Score calculated?
An AI-assisted process researches the film and its reception, scores it 0–100 on ten markers, then combines those into one 0–100 Woke Score. It measures a specific set of 2020s cultural themes, not film quality.