Summary
- Many films feature adult-child duos, and their chemistry can greatly enhance the movie.
- The dynamics between adult and child characters can vary, from troubled adults teaming up with children to children being the strong ones who teach adults.
- Some adult-child duos, such as Roy and Alexandria in “The Fall” or Logan and Laura in “Logan,” form deep bonds that help them heal and overcome challenges together.
Many movies have an adult and a child as their main characters, and though not all pairs have had good on-screen chemistry, many others did and elevated their movies. Adult-child duos in films are not just found in children’s movies, and there are many kids who stole the spotlight in drama, action, and even horror movies either with their performances or their characters’ stories. In many other cases, the chemistry between the child actors and their adult companions was so good and strong that they were key to the movie’s success, and they shared the spotlight by complementing each other’s performances.
Although there’s a trope of a strong, possibly troubled adult and a child teaming up, a successful adult-child duo in films doesn’t need to follow that blueprint. Many great adult-child duos see both characters dealing with the same issues or just sharing life together, and in some cases, the trope is flipped with the child being the strong one and the adult the one who learns from them. Good adult-child duos can be found in movies of all genres, and some of them have been so memorable they ended up becoming part of pop culture.
11 The Fall – Roy & Alexandria
Played by Lee Pace & Catinca Untaru
Tarsem’s 2006 adventure fantasy film The Fall introduced viewers to stuntman Roy Walker (Lee Pace) and seven-year-old Romanian girl Alexandria (Catinca Untaru). Roy and Alexandria meet at a hospital, where Alexandria is recovering from a broken arm and Roy from a stunt gone wrong that left him paralyzed. Roy begins to tell Alexandria a story about six heroes on a quest to kill an evil ruler, with Alexandria imagining those around her, as well as Roy and herself, as part of it, but Roy has an ulterior motive when befriending Alexandria. The bond between Roy and Alexandria is a very special but heartbreaking one, and even though they went through some obstacles, they ultimately helped each other heal beyond their physical injuries.
10 Interview with the Vampire – Louis & Claudia
Played by Brad Pitt & Kirsten Dunst
Interview with the Vampire tells the story of Louis (Brad Pitt), who after the death of his wife and unborn child is transformed into a vampire by Lestat (Tom Cruise). After refusing to drink human blood, Louis feeds on Claudia (Kirsten Dunst), a young girl whose mother had died in the plague. Claudia becomes Louis’ companion, but even though physically she looks like a child, she continues to grow and mature mentally and emotionally. Claudia falls in love with Louis and so does he, though in a non-romantic way, but their story ends in tragedy when Claudia and her new companion are killed by another group of vampires. Louis and Claudia’s love was complex, but it was bound to end badly.
9 Doctor Sleep – Danny & Abra
Played by Ewan McGregor & Kyliegh Curran
Doctor Sleep is the adaptation of Stephen King’s novel of the same name and a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. As such, it reunites viewers with Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor), now an adult working at a hospice where he’s nicknamed “Doctor Sleep” after using his shining to comfort dying patients. When a group of psychic vampires targets Abra (Kyliegh Curran), a young girl with exceptional shining, Danny does his best to protect her. Danny and Abra bond over their special abilities and the struggles that come with them, and their bond is so strong that not even Danny’s death is able to break it.
8 Uptown Girls – Molly & Ray
Played by Brittany Murphy & Dakota Fanning
Uptown Girls follows Molly Gunn (Brittany Murphy), a free-spirited 22-year-old who lives off the trust fun of her late rockstar father. Unfortunately for her, she learns that her father’s accountant had embezzled her money, so she’s actually broke and homeless. Molly is forced to work for the first time in her life, and she lands a job as the nanny of Ray Schleine (Dakota Fanning), a hypochondriac eight-year-old with obsessive behaviors and who acts like an adult instead of like a child. Molly and Ray soon realize their roles of adult/child are flipped, but once they accept each other and become friends, they open up to each other about their traumas, allowing them to heal and take their respective roles of adult and child.
7 Kick-Ass – Big Daddy & Hit-Girl
Played by Nicolas Cage & Chloë Grace Moretz
Kick-Ass follows Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), who decides to become a real-life superhero and takes the name of “Kick-Ass”. During one of his missions, he comes across vigilantes Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit-Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz), who are on a revenge mission against mafia boss Frank D’Amico. Big Daddy and Hit-Girl not only had a strong bond as vigilante/sidekick but also as father/daughter, as they both dealt with grief following the death of Big Daddy’s wife and Hit-Girl’s mother, which led them to seek revenge against D’Amico. What those closest to them failed to see was that, although Big Daddy trained Hit-Girl in combat and weapons, he did it from a place of love, in an effort to protect the only family he had left.
6 Logan – Logan & Laura
Played by Hugh Jackman & Dafne Keen
Logan is the final chapter in the Wolverine trilogy, and as such, it follows an aged Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and an ill Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) as they defend a young mutant, Laura (Dafne Keen), from the Reavers. Logan sees a lot of himself in Laura, allowing him to let his guard down and open up to her, creating a unique and heartwarming bond with the young girl, which also allows the audience to see a side of Logan that previous X-Men movies never explored.
5 The Professional – Leon & Mathilda
Played by Jean Reno & Natalie Portman
Luc Besson’s The Professional is the story of Léon (Jean Reno), a loner and professional hitman. Léon’s life takes a turn when drug-addict DEA agent Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman) and his agents murder the family of Léon’s young neighbor, Mathilda (Natalia Portman), and he reluctantly takes her in so she won’t be killed. Mathilda soon becomes Léon’s apprentice and they develop an unusual and complex relationship as Mathilda falls in love with Léon, but he struggles to feel and show his emotions. The audience sees Léon gradually warming up to Mathilda, and both find a family in each other, even if it wasn’t meant to last.
4 Aliens – Ripley & Newt
Played by Sigourney Weaver & Carrie Hen
Aliens is the second film in the Alien franchise and reunites viewers with Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), who travels with a new crew to the darkest corner of the universe after contact with a human colony is lost. Once there, Ripley meets Newt, a young girl traumatized by the massacre she witnessed. When Ripley and Newt find themselves trapped with two alien facehuggers, they stay together and do their best to survive. Her relationship with Newt brought out a side of Ripley that wasn’t shown in Alien, and was key in establishing her as an icon of the sci-fi genre, as she is a true hero.
3 Paper Moon – Mo & Addie
Played by Ryan O’Neal & Tatum O’Neal
Based on the 1971 novel Addie Pray by Joe David Brown, Paper Moon follows Moses “Mo” Pray (Ryan O’Neal), a con man who travels from place to place selling Bibles. One day, he meets Addie (Tatum O’Neal) at her mother’s graveside service, where the neighbors believe he’s her father. Mo agrees to take Addie to her aunt’s home in Missouri, but on their way there, Addie ends up learning his tricks and scams and poses as his daughter. Mo and Addie form a special bond where Addie often plays the role of the smart adult, with Mo learning more from Addie than she learned from him. Mo and Addie were the company that each other needed, and they both had a unique talent for tricking people.
Tatum O’Neal won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Paper Moon, at the age of nine.
2 Cinema Paradiso – Alfredo & Salvatore
Played by Philippe Noiret & Salvatore Cascio
Set in a small Sicilian town, Cinema Paradiso is the story of Salvatore Di Vita (Salvatore Cascio), an eight-year-old boy fascinated by movies and who spends every free moment at the local movie house, the title Cinema Paradiso. The projectionist, Alfredo (Philippe Noiret), is initially annoyed by Salvatore’s presence, but they soon develop a special friendship. Not only does Alfredo let Salvatore watch movies from the projection booth, but he also teaches him how to operate the film projector, further feeding Salvatore’s love for films. Salvatore and Alfredo found a family in each other, and Alfredo became one of the most important and influential people in Salvatore’s life.
1 Terminator 2: Judgment Day – T-1800 & John Connor
Played by Arnold Schwarzenegger & Edward Furlong
Terminator 2: Judgment Day brought a twist with T-1800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) being a hero rather than a villain, flipping his role from the first movie. Terminator 2, then, saw T-800 traveling to the past (1995) as part of the resistance with the mission of protecting John Connor (Edward Furlong) when he was a child. However, Skynet sent a Terminator (Robert Patrick) to kill John Connor. T-800 and John’s relationship soon goes from complete strangers to friends to father/son, with John teaching T-800 to be more human – and, of course, they starred in some of the movie’s most memorable action sequences.
