Is Summer the villain in 500 days of summer?

Forcing your mind down a channel that it normally doesn’t take is difficult for a lot of people, so for anyone that’s seen 500 Days of Summer it might be likely that some think that Summer is the antagonist since she gives Tom such a chilly brush-off at one point, but in truth, Tom isn’t entirely innocent throughout the movie, and there’s a reason behind this. In fact, even Joseph-Gordon Levitt agrees that Tom was more of an antagonist than Summer ever was, though if one wants to look at things from a purely neutral stance there isn’t really an antagonist in the movie, it’s far more comfortable to assign such roles since otherwise for some folks the fabric of the story starts to tear and rip apart if they don’t have firmly assigned roles. For the sake of it though, let’s assume that Tom was the bad guy, which isn’t too hard if one really stops to think about it since no matter how Summer was acting it was in response to how Tom built her up and then tended to obsess about the idea of her rather than the actual person she turned out to be. There are those moments that happen when a person doesn’t know someone well enough but believes that they’re in love with them when in truth they’re in love with the idea that they’ve created in their own head and have used to surround the person when in real life the person that they’ve decided to lock onto is likely quite a bit different.

Summer even went so far as to tell Tom that she wasn’t ready for anything serious, which in some ways is a dodge that’s used to dissuade people from falling in love or from becoming too attached, but is also a justifiable method that some people use since they happen to be looking for the right person but might find someone that they’re able to laugh and have a good with in the meantime. It sounds terrible to use another human being as a waypoint or a place holder until an individual finds ‘the one’ that they’ve been looking for, but it’s done quite often, as this is how a lot of relationships end up forming. People want comfort, they want to know they’re valued, and they want someone in their lives to have fun with when possible and to just sit and talk to when they need someone to understand how they’re feeling. It’s a very big comfort thing and not meant to be too personal at all, but individuals like Tom, who dive headfirst into something that looks like a relationship, tend to take things way too seriously from the start and end up devastated when the person they’re attracted to doesn’t love them back in the same way. This eventually leads to the misunderstanding that the person they’re in love with is being cold, emotionally distant, or even just cruel. It’s true that some people do manage to become unbearably cruel in this manner, but it’s also true that Tom simply took things too far too fast in his own head and built up an idea of Summer that didn’t completely correlate with the real person.

Whether this makes him a villain or not is a bit subjective since really, he’s a guy that wants to fall in love, and Summer laid out what she wanted and didn’t want pretty early on. He might have listened to this, but he didn’t hear it. There’s a very big difference between listening and hearing, as a person that listens can say that the words registered, but a person that hears everything that’s being said is someone that grasped the overall meaning of what they were being told. Hearing is all about comprehension, understanding, and gives way to the ability that people then have to adjust their lives according to what was heard and to react to certain stimuli in a way that makes the most sense for them. If Tom heard anything that Summer said to him then his initial response was still in error since the fact that he was devastated when they parted ways means that he put too much of himself into a relationship that wasn’t going anywhere, and hung on up until the moment he found out that she’d been married. This is a pretty common occurrence that can happen on the dating scene and it’s something that each person learns to take in stride in their own way.

In reality, neither Tom nor Summer are the villains of this movie but again, it’s more comfortable for a lot of people to recognize certain roles and just go with it. But as far as who went too far in thinking that there was a solid relationship between the two of them, Tom was definitely the one that stepped over that line.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has agreed with a Twitter post declaring that his character was “the actual villain” in the noughties romcom (500) Days of Summer.

The 39-year-old actor portrayed Tom in the 2009 movie, with the non-linear narrative detailing his relationship with Summer, played by Zooey Deschanel.

Since the film was released to positive reviews and became a sleeper hit at the box office, many have criticised its apparent sympathy for Tom and the portrayal of Summer as a “Manic Pixie Dream Girl”.

Read more: Gordon-Levitt shares 10 Things I Hate About You throwback

Gordon-Levitt criticised his own character on Twitter, quoting another user who described Tom as the villain of the movie and adding: “I approve this message”.

Last year, the movie’s two lead actors sat down for a viewing party to mark its 10th anniversary and Deschanel said the notion of Summer as a villain is an idea people “misunderstand” about the film.

I approve this message 👀 https://t.co/AVnY3bbCPU

— Joseph Gordon-Levitt (@hitRECordJoe) July 9, 2020

The actor has not been shy of illustrating Tom’s flaws ever since the movie came out, saying in 2012 that he “develops a mildly delusional obsession” with Summer in the film.

He added: “A lot of boys and girls think their lives will have meaning if they find a partner who wants nothing else in life but them.

“That’s not healthy. That’s falling in love with the idea of a person, not the actual person."

Read more: Mark Kermode shares romcoms everyone should watch

In 2018, he wrote on Twitter that Tom is “selfish”, though made it clear that he “grows by the end” when he moves on from Summer.

Is Summer the villain in 500 days of summer?

Joseph Gordon-Levitt speaks on stage during TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2019. (Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch)

Gordon-Levitt returned to the world of movies last month after an acting hiatus, with a lead role in hijacking thriller 7500, as a pilot trapped in the cockpit as terrorists attempt to take over the aircraft.

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He told Yahoo Entertainment: “I knew that [with] my first job back, I really wanted to focus on finding a creative challenge, and not think about: ‘Oh, what should my next career move be having taken some time off?’

“I really just wanted to focus on the art of it and why I love acting so much.”

Read more: Kelvin Harrison Jr. on Trial of the Chicago 7

He will be seen next in Aaron Sorkin’s real life drama The Trial of the Chicago 7, which was recently acquired by Netflix.

According to Deadline, the streaming platform shelled out $56m (£44m) to secure the rights to the prime Oscar contender.

Is Tom the antagonist in 500 Days of Summer?

Deschanel isn't the only (500) Days of Summer star who sees Tom as the true villain of the film—her co-star Joseph Gordon-Levitt previously opened up about his lovestruck character's "flawed attitude."

Who is at fault in 500 Days of Summer?

While there's still discourse about who the real villain is, today's dominant opinion is that it's Tom Hansen. People are starting to realize that Summer isn't some manipulative girl who led Tom on; it was just Tom who painted her in that light. It's more a reflection of Tom than it is of Summer.

What was the actual point of 500 Days of Summer?

Possibly one of the most important lessons from (500) Days of Summer is that happiness cannot be dependent on another person. Summer becomes the only source of happiness for Tom, and he loses himself because of that. It is unfair to put that pressure on anyone.

Is Tom the villain?

Cat, better known as Tom Cat, simply known as Tom, is one of the two anti-heroic protagonists/protagonist villains (alongside Jerry Mouse) of the Tom and Jerry franchise.