From The Last of Us to The Mandalorian, Pedro Pascal has emerged as Hollywood’s premier choice for portraying fatherly roles. Need a paternal figure? Pascal is the man!

However, this privilege carries a heavy weight, as audiences continually pose a harrowing question to Pascal’s characters: Choose between saving your child or saving the world?

The initial occurrence of a Pascal character grappling with this conflict arises in the Season 1 finale of The Last of Us. Joel (Pascal) discovers that the Fireflies possess the ability to cure the Cordyceps fungus (huzzah!), but it requires taking Ellie (Bella Ramsey)’s life to access her brain (oh no!).

Later, in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pascal) learns that Galactus (Ralph Ineson) will allow Earth to escape total destruction (huzzah!) on the condition that he and Sue Storm/the Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby) relinquish their infant son Franklin (oh no!).

Each predicament reshapes the trolley problem, an ethical thought experiment originally proposed by philosopher Philippa Foot. (The term “trolley problem” was subsequently introduced by philosopher Judith Jarvis Thomson.) In the scenario, a runaway trolley is rushing toward five individuals, certain to kill them. If you pull a lever, the trolley will redirect onto another track, resulting in one death instead. Will you remain passive and let five perish, or intervene and condemn one?

The Last of Us and The Fantastic Four: First Steps escalate the stakes of the trolley problem significantly, both regarding magnitude and emotional resonance. For instance, on one track stands the entire planet, while the opposite track holds Ellie and Franklin, children cherished by Joel and Reed. Throughout The Last of Us Season 1, Ellie becomes a daughter figure to Joel, a particularly poignant relationship following the loss of his daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) at the series’ onset. Conversely, Franklin is Reed’s sole offspring. In the opening scene of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, he and Sue even express how they had given up on the prospect of parenthood, rendering Franklin a miracle baby (even aside from the whole resurrection powers aspect).

So, how do Pascal’s characters confront these hauntingly similar dilemmas? In strikingly contrasting manners, yet completely aligned with the essence and tone of their individual narratives.

Consider The Last of Us. Across both the game and the series, there’s already been extensive dialogue surrounding Joel’s decision to save Ellie and slaughter the Fireflies. Should we criticize him for denying the world a cure, even if he protected someone dear to him? Was a cure feasible considering the Fireflies’ limited resources? And what would Ellie have desired?

These are all external elements that may have shaped Joel’s choice, yet the reality is, it ultimately comes down to him doing what he does throughout Season 1: striving to safeguard the person he cares about most in the world. There’s no contemplation of the millions who rest on the other trolley track, because for Joel, there’s no scenario where he doesn’t prioritize Ellie. Like the entirety of The Last of Us Season 1, his decision is undeniably harsh, but it is founded on the love and bond that emerged in a desolate apocalypse. Any parent would act similarly. Nevertheless, the ramifications are significant — and a whole heart-wrenching Season 2 awaits to demonstrate this!

In The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Pascal’s Reed adopts an entirely different stance towards the trolley problem posed by the film. Reed firmly declares that he and Sue will not surrender Franklin to Galactus, but that doesn’t imply he hasn’t contemplated it. He even claims that sacrificing Franklin is both ethical and calculative, which, understandably, disturbs Sue. Great job putting your foot in it, Reed! (Though, with your super-stretchy powers, that’s likely not overly challenging.)

Naturally, it’s in Reed’s character to overanalyze every potential scenario. This means that an ethical dilemma like the trolley problem is, to borrow some lore from another summer superhero release, his Kryptonite.

However, there are two elements the trolley problem overlooks: superpowers and advanced teleportation technology. Indeed, Reed concludes that he, Sue, Ben Grimm/the Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and Johnny Storm/the Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) need not choose between the tracks at all. Instead, with the collective assistance and resources of the global community, they can teleport those tracks (i.e., the Earth) to another region of the universe, allowing the Galactus-trolley to pass unobstructed. At least, until he locates another planet to add to his cosmic buffet. Why not?