Wes Anderson’s 2004 film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou focuses on the idea of fatherhood along with the inability to be a father.
Steve Zissou has an obsession throughout the film to capture footage of the jaguar shark and to seek revenge for his friend Esteban. Along the way Steve comes to find his possible son, Ned Plimpton, providing another obsession for Steve to get closer to his son. The problem with this obsession is that Steve is unable to have children.
Although Steve knows he cannot have children, and therefore Ned cannot be his son, he still tries his best to get closer to him to fill the void of his desire to be a father. Steve wants to fill the role that he knows he will never truly be able to. Steve accepts Ned into his crew and become a member of Team Zissou. When questioned about allowing Ned to join with no experience to aid with their documentary, Steve expresses how Ned looks up to him.
Not long after this event, pregnant Jane Winslett-Richardson comes about to interview Steve while he and his crew are making the documentary. Steve tries to get closer to her soon after she arrives but largely fails to make things of their relationship. Instead, Ned moves in to attempt to fill the role of the father of Jane’s child even though he knows of Steve’s desire for her.
Steve realizes that Ned betrayed him by going after the woman he was vying for and begins to alienate Ned as being his son. They even get into a physical altercation about the situation and their relationship as father and son begins to fade.
Even after their falling-out, Steve still refers to Ned as his son. Steve seems to come to terms with his faults as a bad father for Ned. He tells Ned of how important he is to him at this time in his life. Essentially he tells Ned he is Steve’s son. “You are my son to me, almost more so.”
During their journey to track down the jaguar shark, Ned is killed in a plane crash, removing the potential to be a father from Steve even more than he possessed before.
The successful discovery of the jaguar shark by the entire crew exemplifies Steve’s coming-of-age. He does not have the ability to kill the shark and get the revenge for his friend, but it does not seem like he would want to either way. Steve embraces his castration, continues the documentary and presents it, receiving an award. In the final scene Steve is seen sitting outside of the theater in which is documentary is being screened. A young boy walks up to him and sits down and Steve gives him the Team Zissou ring that belonged to Ned. After lifting the boy up on his shoulders and walking toward the camera, the viewer can see that Steve has accepted his inability to be a father but still wants to fill the void.
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