Before I get into the meat of this article, I want to give a clearer idea of my perspective. I was diagnosed with autism and ADHD when I was six. I am also verbal, so while I am, to an extent, aware of the issues of non-verbal autistic representation, my perspective on this is that of a verbal autistic person. It should go without saying that I am not every autistic person and there may be things I have experience with that others have not and vice versa.

You would have thought that we would have gotten better representation of autism since Rain Man (1988) crapped out two hours of pure ableism that somehow landed it four Oscars. But looking at more modern portrayals, especially Sia’s new film Music (2021), the only real change is that we now have more examples of ableist representation.

Not only is this sort of representation inaccurate and ableist, but perpetuating it can cost lives. Literally, while I was taking a break to have some food between writing this, I saw a leaked clip from Music. In the clip, we see the titular character, Music, having a meltdown and getting pinned to the ground by her supposed ‘carer’.

If this sounds familiar, that’s because recently a news story has been gaining traction about a sixteen-year-old kid who died after being restrained this way.

Of all the films I endured as research for this, all but one, Power Rangers (2017), had the autistic character have a meltdown at some point. Every time, they would scream and start hitting themselves.

While it’s not to say that meltdowns are not a real thing, personally I have not had one for many years and would not hit myself. You’d think that with the four in Rain Man (1988), two in The Predator (2018), and the single meltdown in Loop (2020), that they’d be a constant occurrence for autistic people, but from my perspective and experience that’s not the case at all.

Instead, myself and many others, will shutdown; we’ll completely withdraw into ourselves, becoming unable to talk or move. They don’t show this in films - it’s not as exciting to watch and is much more socially acceptable. Instead we’re shown a mass of unchecked emotions and pure destruction. The autistic character is used as a moment for the heroic protagonist to selflessly take the burden of care.

It would be one thing if it was just showing autism like this, but they can’t quite make up their minds with the representation. Instead you get stuff like The Predator (2018), and the dumpster fire that is Rain Man (1988), with the absolute bullshit that is the Autistic Savant™.

If it’s not showing autism as completely debilitating, making you in capable of functioning like a “normal” person, it’s making you into an Ultimate Warrior; the next stage of human evolution.

It’s either, “Screw this guy who was kicking the other Predator’s (very nice) ass. Nah, I - the alpha predator - want to fight this child because he’s autistic.”

Or it’s, “Nice, between ordering him pancakes and assaulting him, I noticed my autistic brother can count real good…I wonder how I can exploit him for personal gain?”

So as an autistic person, am I incapable of functioning or am I a secret genius?

That’s what autism is, right? It means you can’t maintain eye contact, you fiddle with your hands needing stimulation, and you’re secretly a living supercomputer on par with a space alien. I must have missed getting those last two, instead I got stuck with this neurological disability.

Only one of the films I watched for research cast an autistic actor. Loop not only had an autistic character but Renee’s actor, Madison Bandy, is also a non-verbal autistic person. And in terms of theatrical releases, Power Rangers (2017) reboot had the best autistic representation. Let that sink in: the fucking Power Rangers reboot. I’m a lifelong Power Rangers fan, so I wanted it to be bad, but Billy was pretty well done. Not to say the film doesn’t have issues…unlike Loop, Power Rangers cast an actor who isn’t autistic.

But Billy (RJ Cyler) is portrayed pretty well. He stims with his hands; a cliché, but something I do too. He overshares. He has his “special interest” in geology. While he isn’t keen on physical contact, he doesn’t have a meltdown because a friend hugged him. In fact, he never has a meltdown. He was the only one to worry about Zack while fleeing the quarry, so he doesn’t have the whole “lack of empathy” bullshit that keeps getting perpetuated. He gets meta in his conversation, talking about the conversation itself, which apparently autistic people do (at least I do it)…although he does this while saying that he doesn’t get jokes which is yet another inaccurate cliché.

All of this to say, we need better and more varied representation. Filmmakers worldwide, I implore you, autistic representation needs to improve. The goddamn Power Rangers reboot should only be allowed the title of “Second worst Power Rangers film.”

Not: “One of the best examples of Autistic Representation in recent cinema.”