Understanding Adam Banks

The Mighty Ducks Trilogy are some of my favorite childhood films. My siblings and I loved watching them and I believe that D3 was the first film I saw in theaters (I would have 5 almost 6). I seem to have some vague memory that I had a massive crush on Adam Banks (sorry Obi-Wan), and it would make sense that he would be any little girl's first fictional character crush. He's cute, sweet, sensitive and moreover can never seem to catch a break. Even as a child I saw the constant hardships that Adam had to face throughout the series. 

And upon my most recent rewatch (which led to another rewatch), I have only now realized what an absolute injustice was done to the writing of Adam Banks by the time we get to the third movie.

The first two films built up a growing character arc for Adam through constant life alterations, severe injuries, setbacks, jealous teammates, and having to stay true to himself. You would think by the third film that it would come full circle, but unfortunately that was not the plan.

     

The Mighty Ducks (1992) - The bully gets bullied

When we first meet Adam in the first 92' film, he's around 10 or 11 years old and is the golden boy of his team, the legendary Hawks. He's a brilliant hockey player but is also a bully. He relentlessly tackles the opposing District 5/Mighty Ducks team members and heckles them at every opportunity. He's no different when he's off the ice as well. So, needless to see he has completely earned the nickname cake-eater (rather interesting history about that name too)

Then Adam's life gets a reality check when he is told to play for the District 5 Mighty Ducks, the former team he loved to harass. No one is happy about this decision, including Adam's strict father who claims Adam would rather not play then play for the Ducks. Adam isn't too sure about his dad's opinion and whatever arguments may have ensued in the Bank's household later on, Adam obviously won. Now he is the lonely one, the outcast at the bottom. Not only does he have to earn his respect from his new team, but he also has to deal with losing his friends from his former team. Adam is completely alone at this point.

Adam's face in the actual scene was so much better

However, it doesn't take long for Adam's talent to speak for itself, and he soon wins over most of the team. As the Ducks progress to the finals, Adam's commitment and hard work pays off. Now no longer influenced by the elitist and privileged Hawks, Adam is shown to have a kind and even sensitive nature. These were clearly suppressed to survive Coach Reilly and stay on his team. This is where the difference between the Hawks and the Ducks comes into sharp contrast.

With Reilly's Hawks it was about uniformity, everybody is the same and individuality is strongly discouraged. With Gordan Bombay's Ducks it was the opposite. Every one of the Ducks had their own personality traits that came through in their hockey playing. Bombay saw this and encouraged his team to embrace their own uniqueness, strengths and weaknesses. It dispensed with team rivalry and jealousy and fostered respect and understanding. In reality Adam wasn't a bratty bully, he was a shy kid with a great deal of talent and insurmountable pressure put on his shoulders. On the ice he was an absolute threat, but when he got off, he was allowed to truly be himself and not have to face a demanding coach for it.

At the championship game against the Hawks, Adam is brutally attacked from his former teammates and is finally pulled out of the game due to a severe concussion. Yet, he left the game a hero and proved to everyone that he was truly a Mighty Duck.

D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994) - Adam "Anxiety" Banks

A year later Adam and the Ducks are chosen to participate in the Junior Goodwill Games, this time skating as Team U.S.A. While the Ducks are enjoying their time in the competition, Adam is stressing about scouts. It's more than winning for him, it's about what's in his future. As fate would have it, just as Adam scores one for his team, his wrist is badly hurt by an opposing team player. Adam shakes it off and continues to play and never mentions it to anyone.

However, Gordan finally confronts Adam on his silence regarding his growing injury and informs him that he has to bench him before his wrist gets worse. In a rare moment of defiance and emotion, Adam pleads for his coach to reconsider, citing that he was going to let his dad down if they scouts didn't see him. Gordan assures him that he isn't letting anyone down. And this is where I picked up on something that I had never noticed before about Adam and his upbringing.

Part of Adam Banks' character is that he comes from a wealthy family. It's subtly hinted at in the first film that Adam's dad, Philip, is a well-known lawyer. Adam has lived a lifestyle vastly different from that of his teammates. Yet in spite of all of his privilege it seems that Adam was raised with an ethic of working for what you want. Why else would Adam be so concerned about scouts? And go so far as to play with a secret injury?

It's possible Philip Banks has no desire to raise a nepo baby and is teaching his son about success through his own merit. This is an attitude not seen in generational wealth, so Philip may have come from humble beginning and worked his way to the higher echelons of society. It might also explain why he lost it when he was told Adam had to play for the Ducks. If Adam was scoring for the Hawks, he was bound to be noticed by scouts, not so much for an underdog team from a poor neighborhood.

Adam's reaction to being benched speaks volumes. It shows that he's having to not only prove himself to his father through his own talent and hard work, but to everyone else by showing he doesn't need his father's money and influence to succeed. 

D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996) - I detect no lies

Now, we get to the final film where you would think that after everything Adam has endured and fought for and gained, he would reap some kind of reward. Wrong. When the Ducks get scholarships to study at the prestigious prep school, Eden Hall, Adam basically finds himself among his own kind. Rich, elitist, condescending...a bakery full of cake-eaters. To add insult to injury Adam is once again removed from his team to play on Varsity, with teammates 3-4 years older than him.

This is where worlds now collide and how Adam's choices have detrimental consequences. While it was no fault of Adam’s that he was put onto Varsity there was no sign of him trying to get off of it either. He seemed pretty complicit in whatever his new teammates did or said. And that makes you wonder where his true loyalty was. With his former team or his future dreams.

Adam is so set on his own future that he is unwilling to accept the present moment. If that means having to play on a team that is a throwback to the Hawks, then so be it. It's almost as his discussion with Bombay in D2 never existed. Yet, for some reason the writers and producers reduce Adam to being a spineless follower only interested in his own advancement.

What an injustice.

Eventually there's a falling out...between Adam and the Ducks. And then 10 minutes later, Adam is back with his former team. That's it. There are no interventions, no Adam confronting Varsity for their bullying, no apologies for what Adam and the Ducks have put each other through and worse of all, no discussion between Adam and Charlie, the first friend he made on the team. Just Adam at Hans' funeral and then the next time we see him, he's back with his team. They completely cut the cord on Adam's character development and literally left his arc hanging. Adam had more character as the bratty bully from the first film then he does in the ending of D3.

It's aggravating that so much build up was put into Adam's character in the first two films and then they just dropped him, either from laziness or just not caring. While Adam does celebrate his victory at the end of D3 as a Duck, it's sad that after four years of being a Duck and finding himself because of the Ducks, he couldn't be bothered to defend and protect them. Just when we finally got to understanding Adam, the writers only made him more of a mystery.