In Defense of Randall Boggs—Facts and Ideas

Hey, it’s Camaro6. Warning: this post is incredibly long. This is a subject is something I’ve been wanting to talk about for a while, and, as the title suggests, it has to do with reasons why Randall Boggs, Monsters INC’s main antagonist, is not as bad as he seems. Here they are:

1. That Randall actually handles Boo gently whilst putting her in the Scream Extractor seat. Watch his hands. They do not slap or pinch her. He puts her gently into the seat, and gently ‘handcuffs’ her. I suspect the only reason that Randall actually put her into the Scream Extractor was that Waternoose was watching. I do not think that Randall ever really wanted to hurt Boo.

2. Randall seems hesitant to get up and chase Sullivan, Wazowski, and Boo. He waits until Waternoose harshly orders him to “Get up! There can’t be any witnesses!” Randall replies by saying “There won’t be.”, but he seems to have a resentful gleam in his eyes as he gets up, and that resentful gleam was directed towards Waternoose, not Sullivan, Wazowski, or Boo. Also, right before this occurred, Waternoose has to tell Randall to stop Sullivan from escaping with the kid. As Randall disappears, he growls: but was the growl directed towards Sullivan? Or was it directed towards Waternoose? This occurred just after Waternoose insulted Randall by saying, “Sullivan was twice the scared you’ll ever be!” This obviously ticks Randall off. So maybe he was just mad that Waternoose said that to him—or maybe there is a deeper motive.

3. It’s extremely hard to believe that a smart monster like Randall would coincidently look the other way each time that Sullivan and Boo are nearby. This occurs in at least three places. Now, this is just an idea, but suppose that, despite Randall’s hatred of Sullivan, the only reason that he was trying to get Boo was Waternoose. Say that he looked the other way on purpose, so as to not get Sullivan, Wazowski, or Boo hurt. It is highly unlikely, given that Randall heard the splash Wazowski made in the bathroom scene, that Randall would choose to not look inside the very stall that the noise had come from. Also, he didn’t check the other stalls. This is very telling. Any other monster would have shooed Fungus out, and then come right back and checked the other stalls before Sullivan, Wazowski, and Boo has a chance to escape. Randall obviously had a secondary motive; perhaps it was, in a fashion, protecting Sullivan and Boo.

4. In that scene near the beginning, with the infamous “Painted?” question by Wazowski, Randall shows Wazowski how a clock works. However, what Randall did when he said “When the big hand points down....” ...doesn’t hurt. I’ve tried it myself in the exact same way and the exact same arms. It doesn't hurt! Now, I know that monsters’ anatomy is different from that of humans, but Wazowski’s joints appear to function like a human’s. Therefore, if that is true, Wazowski was not whimpering from pain—he was whimpering in case anyone saw or heard his interrogation. Randall would be in trouble, and that would make Wazowski happy.

5. Sullivan and Wazowski never gave Randall a chance to explain himself. They just chucked him through the door. If they had listened to him, then chances are they would’ve gotten an very good explaination for what happened, such as Waternoose possibly blackmailing Randall into obedience. Sullivan and Wazowski should have taken Randall to the proper authorities, instead of banishing him. Both parties would have gotten a higher credibility level if they had done what was right: which was to hear Randall out, then, if needed, turn Randall over to the authorities. Also, Sullivan didn’t have the authority to banish Randall. Only the CDA has that command. So, Sullivan broke the law.

6. Notice that when Sullivan and Wazowski are banished, while it is Randall who opens the door, Waternoose closes it. Even though Randall was standing right next to the door (closer than Waternoose), Waternoose had to walk over and close the door that Randall, interestingly enough, was still holding open. And, although everyone blames everything on Randall, i have good reason to believe otherwise.

7. As a follow-up to what I mean in the last point: I believe that it was all Waternoose’s fault. It is highly probable that Waternoose blackmailed Randall into getting him the kid. I believe that Waternoose harnessed Randall’s hunger for first place, and made Randall help in this secret plan of the Scream Extractor. Waternoose would then be forced to cheat for Sullivan, meaning that the Scream can totals were inaccurate. If Randall had gotten first place for more that a few seconds, then Waternoose couldn’t have used Randall in his plan, because Randall would’ve had no motive, and he might’ve used Sullivan instead. Besides, like I have already mentioned, Randall appears to be very gentle with Boo, especially compared to how he treated Wazowski in the Scream Extractor scenes. Most people believe that the Scream Extractor was all Randall’s idea, but Waternoose says “I never should have requested you with this!” That proves that the Scream Extractor was all Waternoose’s idea. The rest is based upon speculation—and common sense. Randall always hesitated before chasing after Sullivan and Boo. Randall was gentle with Boo. He seemed resentful of Waternoose. It would have been very easy to control Randall. If Randall had told someone of Waternoose’s plan, or said “No” to him, then Waternoose could have done any number of things to him. He could have banished Randall, turned him over to the CDA, fired him—the list goes on. Randall would no power or say in what happened. All he was able to do was follow Waternoose’s instructions—be banished—or worse.

8. In addition to being gentle with Boo, after putting Boo in the Scream Extractor seat, Randall laid his hand on her arm twice. Not on the arm locks, but on her arm. You will probably need to watch this scene several times, because that comforting gesture is hard to find.

*spoiler alert!*

9. Have you watched Monsters University, the prequel to Monsters INC? If you have, you will probably remember why Randall hates Sullivan. Sullivan cheats for Wazowski, and roars so loud that he causes an earthquake, which knocks Randall onto the pink heart rug in the Simulator room. Randall, who then wasn’t able to control his color changes as well as he does now, accidentally turned the same color as the rug. Unfortunately for his, everyone—and I mean eveyone—was watching. Including the cool kids, who were Randall’s “friends”. Those “friends” ditch him because of this humiliating incident. Now, all that Randall knows is that Sullivan has spent his life cheating and making excuses. However, even though his rep isn’t exactly clean, Sullivan can skate by and never get in trouble. He stays in first place, probably because he’s cheating, but also because Sullivan was born a Sullivan. Randall, however has to actually work hard to be known and appreciated. His life has been forever spent trying to catch up. Everyone knows that 2nd Place is the worst place in a competition: it creates frustration, anger, and even hate towards the one who is ahead, namely Sullivan.

10. Randall has tried everything to be a good friend. He has tried being cool. That failed. He tried being nice. That also failed. In his mind, the only other way was to win it aggressively, so that’s what he did.

11. I know I am kinda repeating myself here, but most everyone watches the movie without looking deeper into it. There are many hidden concepts. Those hidden details will stand out once you look for them. What, you may ask, drives Randall to try to kidnap a child? The answer: as I have already said, I believe Waternoose was blackmailing Randall. Like I said before, Randall was powerless to stop Waternoose, because Waternoose was the CEO and held all authority. Now, Randall could’ve, and probably would’ve, refused and tried to stop this illegal plot, but Waternoose would’ve gotten revenge at some point. He could have done anything to Randall. And I’m sure that the fact that Randall was searching for revenge against Mr. Cheater (Sullivan) helped drive his motive. What proof do I have that Sullivan cheats? Look at the scream board records. Sullivan gets a much higher score than Randall did, and both had full Scream cans. I have also seen that Randall always gets the lowest score on the scare board. Watch the scene near the beginning, the only detailed scene of the scaring process. Everyone gets scores in between 40 and 100 in that short scene. Everyone, that is, except for Randall, who gets 21 points. Yet, Randall had a full Scream can. Unfair? Yes, definitely. Also, how could Sullivan have held the top employee spot for eleven months in a row? To hold the top scarer spot for only one month would’ve been hard enough! With thousands of other scarers working many other scare floors, the odds would be nigh impossible. And that’s for the top scarer spot. To hold the top employee spot would be practically impossible for two months. Let alone eleven consecutive months. It’s rigged.

12. Randall is not the kind of monster who would just walk up to the CEO of a company and ask for help in an obviously illegal plot. Obviously Waternoose came to him first. How would you feel if you were forced into an illegal plot, and you had the same tragic history as Randall, would you just up and refuse? No. Either you would sit and wait it out, looking for a way to stop it or at least get out of it, or you would feel so terrified at what would happen if you refused that you would do whatever it takes to not get hurt again. Let me remind you: Randall has absolutely no one, NO ONE, to call a friend. No one cares about him. In fact, they hate him, call him names, etc. How would you respond? Would you continue being nice to the ones who had hurt you? No. Everyone has a breaking point. Randall has no one to ask for help, so he gives in to helping Waternoose out of desperation.

I hope this post has given you many reasons to believe me when I say that Randall Boggs is innocent: or at least not a villain. He was manipulated into obeying Waternoose. I hope you all see that now. Have a great day and thanks for reading this enormous post. :)

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