AN: There are many things that I love about the movie Jupiter Ascending. One of them is the symmetry that comes out in multiple ways. The falling at the beginning and then end of the movie is one of those symmetries and I explore it a little bit here. More could be said, but that would be an analysis of the script/plot and a story. Hope you enjoy this story and that it helps you think about the movie with a little different perspective. It's unbeta-d, so hopefully I've caught all the errors. Please let me know if I need to fix something or if you'd like to beta for me.
The first time Caine tells her to "hold tight" she doesn't really understand that he means "hang on for dear life" or the best way to do it. One moment she's enjoying the view of Chicago from his arms while floating upward. And then he swears, the ship explodes and she loses her grip and starts falling.
Calling it an unpleasant experience is an understatement, but she can't find words to describe what she feels as she falls. She just knows she hates it. It's an experience she hopes never to repeat, after a safe landing, of course. Not because she's gone splat on some random sidewalk.
Then he's there, snatching her out of the air, and she has a hope of a safe landing, albeit one complicated by the need to avoid falling debris, gunfire and shadows.
The second time he says "hold on," she really tries. But he swings her out as though they're dancing in mid air. She isn't prepared. His grip firm, he rolls her back into his arms. Somehow, through it all, he gravity surfs while dodging incoming fire from multiple sources.
He doesn't tell her to hang on when he flips her around onto his back, but by then she's too disoriented to do anything more than cling to him.
Then they're going in circles and he tosses her up and around, almost like a ballet in mid-air. And despite the unpleasant feeling in the pit of her stomach, she wonders if people do performance art like it.
Then she's on his back again.
"Whatever you do, don't let go" is immediately followed by more aerial acrobatics as he wrests control of one of the shadows from a keeper. Plummeting toward the water in the ship isn't any better than the freefall she'd done earlier, but he eventually gets the ship under control and her heart drops from her throat back to its usual location and she manages to catch her breath for the first time since the beam disintegrated.
Then it begins all over again only this time they're in the shadow. Evasive maneuvers and return fire diminish the incoming fire they need to dodge until only one fighter remains. Taking out that fighter destroys their ship, and she's falling with the wreckage. Then he pulls her out and onto his back.
She finally gets her safe landing. Eventually her heart rate and breathing return to normal, but it takes a long time for her stomach to settle. She hopes she never ever has to go through something like that again. She wishes English had a word meaning three times the intensity of hatred with a good dose of fear. A word like that might come close to describing how she feels about falling.
She makes it through a few days without falling or even tripping. At least, she thinks it was a few days. It's hard to tell when you've been kidnapped twice, portaled, and waited in near interminable lines. She's pretty sure her days and nights are mixed up, too.
It's a relief to be on the Aegis ship returning home. So much has happened, it's hard to absorb. She really needs few good nights' sleep and a family spat or two to feel normal again. If Caine would decide that he liked her enough to overcome his cultural programming, life might almost be perfect.
When she finds that rat-faced man in the wreckage of her home, she's absolutely furious. She should have known that she wouldn't escape without an encounter with the eldest of the Abrasax siblings.
It's just as horrible as she imagines it will be. She's scared almost out of her wits that something horrible has been or will be done to her family, and Balem ruthlessly uses it against her. His response to her refusal ("Kill her") is exactly what she expects when she decides to sacrifice herself and her family to save lives of everyone on Earth.
When she sees Caine blast his way onto the floor below her, she thinks she and her family might have a chance. She's not sure exactly what she expects him to do, but a short fall through a hole in the floor and into Caine's arms isn't it. Two minutes ago she would have said she couldn't imagine a situation in which she would ever be glad to fall, but now she's more thankful than she knows how to express: thankful not to be dead, thankful not to be alone in the lion's den, thankful for help rescuing her family, thankful for him.
The quick "in case we don't get another chance" kiss isn't enough and it isn't how she wants their first kiss to be. It can't possibly communicate how much she appreciates that he's putting his life on the line to save her family, but it's the best she can do in the time they have.
He draws the refinery's security personnel away from her and she moves her family out of range of the horrible looking equipment.
Before she can find Caine again, Balem finds her and she shoots him in the leg. A second later part of the building breaks apart and a column smashes a giant hole in the floor between the two of them. She barely has time to think "not again" before she goes tumbling down the hole after him. A transport beam gone haywire increases the speed she's falling at.
Floundering while she falls, she looks for something, anything to grab onto. A loose cable finally comes with reach and she escapes the pull of the beam and gravity. A collapsing building isn't ideal, but it's a vast improvement over falling. She has no idea where she is, but she keeps going up, trying to get back to Caine and her family, feeling slightly elated that she managed to stop her own fall this time.
Another unfortunate and violent encounter with Balem ends with both of them in free fall. This time there's nothing nearby that's stationary. She has no reasonable hope of rescue. She won't go splat on a sidewalk this time though, she'll burn with the rest of the refinery and her family too. So she screams as she falls, the sound ripping from her throat as though gravity is pulling it out of her.
At least it won't be for naught. Earth's population will be safe from harvest whether she survives or not.
Then a miracle happens. Caine catches her. It means so much more now than it did the first time. The first time, it was his job. This time he came for her, because he wants to, because he can, because he thinks she's worth it, because maybe he's falling in love with her like she has with him? She doesn't know, but she hopes.
They land on the balcony of a building that's still intact and seconds later space suits encase them.
A second after she catches her breath and finds out that he's saved her family, he says "oh no," flips her onto his back without warning, and takes off toward a bright shimmer of light in the distance. She clings to him like a barnacle as he surfs the gravity that remains in the refinery. This time, she uses what she learned to hang on and she shifts with him as he frantically dodges debris and flies them through sheets of fire to reach...
Actually, she's not sure exactly what it is until after she sees the earth. Then she realizes that the bright shimmer is what portaling looks like to an observer.
She's practically an expert at falling and hanging on now, but she really needs to stop falling and counting on Caine to catch her.
So she acquires her own pair gravity surfing boots and learns to use them. Not having Caine's training or reflexes, she'll never achieve his level of skill, but that doesn't matter. The next time she falls, she won't need him to catch her.
But nothing will stop her from holding onto Caine for as long as he'll let her.