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You've been trying to tell me death isn't the end, don't back out on me... now that I finally believe.
Gray Edwards
Captain Gray Edwards is a character in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. He is a military Captain and leader of the elite Deep Eyes squadron which patrols the vast restricted wasteland overrun by Phantoms. He was one of the first ever photo-realistic computer-generated human characters ever to be created and used in film. Gray is voiced by Alec Baldwin.
Appearance and Personality
Determined, practical, focused, intrepid, honorable, and valiant, Gray is a loyal soldier, effective leader, and trustworthy friend. He lets his conscience guide him in his decisions and will trust the decisions of those he respects, even from those such as Aki, whose beliefs he may not personally understand or believe in.
Throughout the movie Gray is associated with comments and scenes involving eagles that recur in throughout the movie. This may be a reflection upon him as having "eagle-like" character traits much in the same way Squall Leonhart from Final Fantasy VIII possesses "lion-like" character traits in his association with the lion motif and Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII possesses "wolf-like" traits in his association with the wolf motif.
Story
Born in Chicago in 2034, Gray Edwards was raised in a loving family. The eldest son of a civil engineer, Gray's father tried to keep his family safe and intact during the years before the barrier cities were developed. Forced to care for his family alongside his father at an early age, Gray showed strong signs of leadership. Prior to the construction of the Chicago Barrier City, Gray was active in the youth task force, providing protection and assistance to the remaining citizens of Chicago. In the draft of 2050, Gray was enlisted in the Los Angeles USMF. Praised for his quick thinking and skilled athleticism, Gray quickly rose to the rank of Cadet leader.
Aki and Gray meet again, months later, in the New York Wasteland
Gray trained at the Houston Military Academy (HMA), the institution responsible for all military training in the United States Military Force and United States Air Force. It is during this period that he began a relationship with fellow military student Aki Ross. Upon her graduation, Aki returned to New York Barrier City to complete her doctorate, while Gray was subsequently assigned to the Deep Eyes military unit. Despite the distance, they continued their relationship between Gray's missions and Aki's commuting to other barrier cities. However, one day, Aki cut off their relationship abruptly without explanation.
Many months pass with Gray seeing or hearing nothing from her, until one night his squad is called to retrieve her from an unauthorized venture in the New York wasteland. Managing to keep his identity from her until well into the extraction, the two began bickering as soon as Aki found out who he was and the bickering continued through the city's contamination detector where Aki managed to bypass it by saving Gray from a Phantom infection he had sustained during the extraction.
Aki saves Gray from a Phantom infection
When Aki announced her contained Phantom infection to the committee, Gray realized the reason for why she had left him and sought her out, finding her embarking on a scan of the city for the seventh spirit. The two were given the chance to rekindle their relationship through the mischievous actions of Neil and Ryan. Their time together was helped furthermore unwittingly by a suspicious General Hein, who temporarily assigns Gray's Deep Eye squad to accompany Aki on her remaining voyages and orders him to report any suspicious behavior immediately. To ensure Gray's compliance he orders Major Elliot to insert some of his own men into the squad.
Aki's search for the seventh spirit leads her, Gray's team and Major Elliot's support to the Tucson wasteland and the remnants of the Phantom Cleansing Mission. Deducing that the spirit was the living energy inside the OVO pack of a dead soldier, Aki retrieved the pack however, almost immediately after the spirit's retrieval, the Phantoms in the area begin reacting to the Phantom infection inside her and start chasing after her. Aki falls into a coma as the Phantom infection overcomes her, forcing Gray to carry her the remaining way to the evacuation ship. During the escape Major Elliot's men attempt to take control, however Gray's team resists, resulting in the former group members' deaths.
Gray, Aki, Sid and the Deepeyes are incarcerated
Returning to the New York Barrier city Gray, Aki and his men are arrested on grounds of suspicions of collaborating with the Phantoms. This incarceration however was short-lived as soon after, due to General Hein's attempts to stage a Phantom invasion, the Barrier City's power grid went off-line. Released the group escaped from the prison ward to discover the Barrier City being overridden by Phantoms. Eventually acquiring transport they made their way to the hangars where the Black Boa was being detained, however only three (Aki, Sid, and Gray) escaped to safety aboard the ship, as the others were killed in the events surrounding its launch.
Resting in space Gray and Aki comfort each other over the death of their friends, leading to them becoming intimate in their grief. Dr. Sid, meanwhile, begins the search for the eighth spirit and enlarges the search field to include the Phantom crater in the Caspian Mountains. Successfully locating it as a Phantom, Aki and Dr. Sid, despite Gray's skepticism, devise a plan to obtain the eighth spirit by lowering Aki and Gray into the crater and fusing the spirit with the other seven spirits on location.
Gray attempts to fend off the growing number of Phantoms moving towards himself and Aki
When an energy beam from the Zeus Cannon hits the meteor, the eighth spirit is seemingly destroyed. As the Cannon continues its attack, the Phantom Gaia appears from the meteor and begins to grow, dragging down the pod Aki and Gray were in. Despite pleading for them to stop, saying that they were doing more harm than good, Aki's cries fell on deaf ears, as General Hein continued to fire the cannon despite warnings of a system overload.
The pod damaged Aki and Gray discover that they had landed right between the Earth Gaia and the emerging alien Gaia. Being this close to Gaia also incidentally meant that they were in the best possible location to find another eighth spirit and indeed after falling comatose again Aki discovers the final spirit had become the Phantom infection within her. Linking to the chest plate that contained her infection and using the OVO pack of Gray's gun she managed to reroute power back into the pod's shields and emit the combined wave of all eight spirits.
Using his own spirit as a conduit, Gray infests the Phantom Gaia with the Spirit Wave
The combined wave was working as the Phantoms were destroyed but a final beam from the overloading Zeus Cannon penetrated and weakened Gaia, allowing the Phantom Gaia to grow and begin infecting the planet's soul. With the pod rendered inoperable due to the blast there was no way to transmit the wave however Gray, mortally wounded, comes up with a plan; he would sacrifice himself as a way to transmit the completed wave inside Aki directly into the Phantom Gaia. The plan works, at the cost of Gray's life and soul, and the Phantoms and their Gaia are destroyed.
As Dr. Sid, on board the Black Boa, winches her from the crater, Aki cradles Gray's body in her arms and watches the world's wildlife return.
Other appearances
Thriller Easter Egg
Gray confronts Hein in a "Thriller" parody
Gray makes an appearance (along with the rest of the film's virtual cast) in a hidden Easter egg parody of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" music video created for the DVD release of the film.
The parody is set shortly after Douglas Hein inadvertantly causes the destruction of the New York Barrier City's barrier control room. As he runs away he runs into Aki, Gray, Ryan, Jane, Neil, Dr. Sid, Major Elliot and three alive Phantoms who proceed to, as a group, perform the dance number to "Thriller" with Aki as the lead.
Gallery
Etymology
"Edward" is a common English given name that means "rich" and "prosperous"; several kings and nobles have shared this name.
Trivia
- When Gray is being operated on by Aki (he is on the medical table) you can clearly see a reddish-brown scar on the lower left side of his neck (it is not a recent wound). It appears off and on for the rest of the film. After the same operation, Aki turns around to pick up the canister containing the plant off a table where there is no table or ledge. If you watch the movie with the commentary one of the members involved with the movie says that it is floating on nothing.
- In the work print, right before Gray dies, Aki tells him that he must not die because she is pregnant with his child. The audience at the movie's preview screenings hated this plot point so much that it was cut out from the theatrical release.
- Gray Edwards loses four guns over the course of the film. The first one in old New York, the second when he picks up Aki in the Tucson wasteland, the third when jumping onto the Black Boa, and the fourth one he leaves in the Quatro before it blows up.
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