When his son Dino died at just 24 years old, the great Enzo Ferrari learned that engineers can’t fix bodies. In the world of Alita: Battle Angel, the opposite is true: With most people being at least partially cyborg, Dr. Dyson Ido, played by Christoph Waltz, repairs bodies all day long.
When he finds a special soul, a mysterious teenage girl robot—or what’s left of her—in the scrapyard, he restores her completely. Now in a cyborg body that was reserved for Ido’s deceased daughter, Alita, the now-eponymous main character starts discovering who she is. Naturally, she completely wrecks her new frame in the process.
Thankfully, before returning to pieces, Alita found an old battle torso—the very kind she used to operate in her past life. So for a second time, Dr. Ido mends Alita’s body, and it is here that her journey comes to a crossroads. “Now you know who you are,” Ido tells her, pointing at the shiny nanotech covering Alita from head to toe. “But that’s just a shell. It’s not bad or good. That part’s up to you.” And sure enough, soon thereafter, Alita must choose how to use her newfound power—and choose wisely and fast.
Maybe one day, we, too, will be able to replace body parts as easily as we swap broken screens on our phones. Until then, however, our mortal forms will remain something even the most gifted engineer can’t fix—and yet, a body is just a shell. Why endlessly preserve a vessel with an expiry date if we don’t intend to put it to good use? However capable or limited your physical frame, make sure you fill it with good while you can—and don’t worry about a little wear around the edges.