The main protagonist of the film ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ is Kevin Lomax, a Floridian small-town lawyer with a perfect case record. After his latest case win defending, an obviously guilty, Lloyd Gettys, Kevin is recruited by the firm ‘Milton, Chadwick, Waters’. John Milton, one of the namesake partners of the firm is, unbeknownst to Kevin, Kevin’s father and the literal Satan. Through the interaction between Kevin and Milton as the ‘Devil’, the movie deals with the ideas of “free will” and “determinism” throughout. Free will, as defined by the Collins Dictionary, is defined as “the freedom of the will to choose a course of action without external coercion but in accordance with the ideals or moral…show more content… Mary Ann initially encourages her husband in his pursuit of success regardless of the moral implications and follows Kevin to New York. Mary Ann begins experiencing visions and her mental state grows increasingly unstable as the movie progresses. As her sanity continues to decline, Milton overhears a phone call between Kevin and the doctor attending to Mary Ann and tells Kevin, against his protest, he is being taken off the Cullen case. “What are you doin’ Kevin? She’s sick. Everyone will understand. I’ll understand” . Here we see Milton almost insisting Kevin go home and see to his wife, offering him a way out of the case with no consequence. Kevin’s decision to carry on with the case at the expense of his wife appears to be that of free will; However, we know it was never Milton’s intention to remove Kevin from the case. He knows from Kevin’s drive and need to prove himself that Kevin will only insist on staying with the case, which Milton accepts with little opposition. This subtle manipulation by Milton becomes relevant later in the movie where he finally reveals himself as the Devil as well as the plans he has for Kevin. Conversely, comparing Kevin’s decision with the definition of determinism, we see that it was likely determined by his drive and need to prove
