The clear protagonist throughout this movie is Ewan Mcgregor's character, Bob Wilton, an American journalist trying to find a story. Fate takes a hold when Wilton stumbles upon the jedi warriors amidst his search for action during the Iraqi war. He clearly goes through the most change throughout the film, eventually learning the ways of the jedi warrior, and realizing that he himself, is the story that he has been trying to uncover the whole time. During his adventure along side Lyn Cassaday he gets thrown into the jedi warrior clash between good and evil, Hooper vs. Lyn Cassaday and the jedi warriors mentor Bill Django (Jeff Bridges). The battle between these three men is brilliant. A mental dual, where their brains and psychic powers resemble (here comes another Star Wars reference)... light sabers! Yes, they are so nimble and quick with their mental powers that it is almost like they are having light saber fights with their intellectual minds. In the midst of the struggle against the "dark side," Lyn Cassaday starts to believe he is slowly becoming an evil jedi. This belief leads him to think that he has been stricken with cancer because during a training program he used his powers to kill an innocent goat by merely staring at it, hence the movie title. This death, according to Lyn is the only reason he is trapped in the "dark side" mental state of mind. Along with Lyn's battle with himself, the movie has its fair share of turmoil, ending with the good and evil jedi's along with hundreds of U.S. army soldiers engaged in an acid trip. Turns out, Bill Django the mentor put LSD in the army bases' water supply, resulting in Lyn Cassaday and Bill Django freeing himself, all his jedi companions, and the prisoners of war being held captive from the terrors of the dark side. Hooper, the dark side leader, is last seen happily frolicking throughout the army base, while Bob Wilton is left behind by Lyn and Bill. As Bob's two jedi companions are starting up their helicopter, they instruct to him that he needs to tell the world about what he had witnesses and all about the secret jedi warrior training. This left Bob with an amazing story to write about, although his story ends up getting no attention throughout the media. A common phenomenon in todays society, possibly because stories that get blown up in the media regarding military actions are controlled by the government...? Who knows, it's just a conspiracy.
Men Who Stare at Goats, both the movie and the book cover common topics that our current society is always pondering such as; military conspiracies, secret training programs, psychic powers unveiled by the most intense mental training, Illuminati references, Star Wars references and the jedi ways (strange enough, "Jediism" is the fourth largest religion in Great Britain supported by UK census research, having over 300,000 followers! what??)... Back to the movie, and finally Men Who Stare at Goats is about getting away from your problems by conquering yourself within and becoming at peace with everything life has to give, and in return realizing what your place is on this planet. Or in other terms finding your destiny, because as Lyn Cassaday proclaims regarding finding ones destiny... "Your life is like a river. If you're aiming for a goal that isn't your destiny, you will always be swimming against the current. Young Gandhi wants to be a stock-car racer? Not gonna happen. Little Anne Frank wants to be a high school teacher? Tough titty, Anne. That's not your destiny. But you will go on to move the hearts and minds of millions. Find out what your destiny is and the river will carry you!"
