Former president Ronald Reagan makes an appearance in Wonder Woman 1984?
As the title suggests, Wonder Woman 1984 is set in the year 1984. Like many films set in the 1980s, the Wonder Woman sequel embraces a glossy, colorful aesthetic, along with a synth-inspired score to boot. The film is surprisingly light on 1980s needle drops, and instead does something most other films set during the decade are too afraid to do: talk politics. The film's politics are not exactly clear, but it is interesting that director Patty Jenkins, who grew up in the '80s herself, would look back on the decade through a political, rather than cultural lens. The result is some light commentary on Middle Eastern geopolitics, as well as an extended sequence with Ronald Reagan.
Reagan appears as a bit of a megalomaniac, wishing for a bigger nuclear arsenal to use against the Soviets. It's worth noting that the character is officially credited as just "POTUS," but his politics and his actions make it rather clear that the character is indeed Reagan. This becomes especially apparent once Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) asks the president about a series of posters sitting in the Oval Office. Reagan explains that these are part of his SDI program, which was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from nuclear attack. The initiative was nicknamed "Star Wars" by several congressmen and of the media, much to Reagan's chagrin. However, the program was allegedly inspired by various military and sci-fi films that Reagan appeared in during his acting career.
The Star Wars program included many components. Some of these were more outlandish, like building an array of plasma or particle-beam weapons in outer space. At its core, however, the program intended to use reactors in space to detect, divert, and destroy nuclear missiles. Very little of the program was ever implemented, never making it past conceptualization or testing. In the world of Wonder Woman 1984, however, Reagan has succeeded in implementing his Strategic Defense Initiative, including a fictional component that never existed in reality.
As Reagan explains the SDI to Maxwell Lord, he mentions a complex network of satellites that would allow someone to broadcast to the entire world from a remote location at sea. This kind of technology was never included in Reagan's Star Wars program, although it is certainly in line with the kind of pie-in-the-sky research that Reagan so believed in. In the Wonder Woman 1984 climax, Lord ultimately travels to the broadcasting base in an attempt to grant wishes to everyone worldwide. Wonder Woman follows him there and defeats him by interrupting his broadcast via her Lasso of Truth.
While the broadcasting component of the Star Wars program is entirely fictional, its role in Wonder Woman 1984 does carry a shred of truth. Like many of Reagan's actual policies as president, the ability to broadcast worldwide proves destructive and misguided for Maxwell Lord, who represents a uniquely American obsession with mass consumption in the film. That Lord is able to provide counsel to Reagan is also not too far-fetched. Reagan and his wife Nancy reportedly relied on an astrologist at times to make political decisions. Wonder Woman 1984 is not as clear as it might want to be in its politics, but it certainly makes a bold choice by including president Ronald Reagan and his out-of-this-world Star Wars program.
