Fly
Fly
After three members of a BASE jumping community – a community in which jumpers get themselves out of mountains – get killed, a voice says, “What is this stupid thing they do?” One of the jumpers we follow for seven years gives us a perspective, Thomas, who says, “You jump, you fall. But, no. You wear a wing suit. You fly.” And then he asks the real interesting question, “Is it realistic to die for fun?”
In the documentary “Fly” directed by Oksana Bardach, we are introduced to a narrowly defined social group, which is entirely populated by BASE jumpers, people who jump from very high spots. This is accompanied by breathtaking pictures of some of the most beautiful mountains and canyons in the world and breath-taking GoPro ads filming the jumpers tumbling through the sky immersed in the heart-pounding action. It is sometimes frightening and sometimes exciting as we see and hear dreadful accidents and some people dying from them.
BASE stands for Building, Antena, Span and Earth, the four types of terrains where people base jump from. These cliffs or mountain ledges are located in some of the most stunning landscapes this documentary covers, the Alps, Korea and Utah’s Moab. Inexplicably however, for these people – the entire world can be neatly categorized into two options: the places to jump from and the rest.
They appear no less excited in locating and exploring new jump sites, which they refer to as “exits,” than when leaping off them.
They have no loyalists to the cause except those very patrons. There are the BASE jumpers and there are (almost) all others. Those in the first category clearly do not want to have normal lives even vaguely resembling everything average because everyone else has: schooling, jobs, children. It is pertinent to note that every partner we meet has a spouse from abroad. The jumper community has a few numbers residing in it and the one common factor that the jumpers had is not any culture or even a language but the euphoric essence of leaping and soaring like a bird and rather narrowly avoiding death, to the extent of cheating it.
The unions comprising Jimmy and Marta makes them pioneers of the jumper group. The overexcited Jimmy informs us that he is the luckiest man and the only person who was able to marry the lady who taught him BASE jumping. The man engaged to a Brazilian named Marta, who he fell in love with just as he did jumping and they created a company that offers equipment and lessons. Like jumpers, they raise a party every year which can be described as burning man for them.
Jimmy, in particular, cannot help but boast of having discovered a new and uniquely “exciting” exit point in Moab – thereby granting himself the right to name it. He names it as ‘Dragon’s Nest’. There is a group photograph taken at the annual party and it is made known to all that some members of the group will perish in jumping accidents before the next photo is taken.
Scotty and Julia are also an American/Brazillian couple but they however teach BASE jumping also. Scott was a soldier and had some bad experiences but he got a redemption in the form of jumping. He claims that it has been nine years since he last went without at least one jump in a week. Julia was practicing law and shifted to full time jumping. experiences
Espen native to Norway and Amber who is British from the UK are also professional jumpers. Also, it is amazing in the film that a few years back those who jumped became proclaimed outlaws but now jumpers are properly regarded as sportsmen and there were even jumpers in the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show. Plungers as the pair refer to themselves do not just jump they engage in simplified synchronised swimming but midair.
“Fly” goes a bit closer to recognizing more of the risks and responsibility or lack thereof when compared to the last one “Skywalkers: A Love Story,” but probably not the way it should have been done. There is a consensus amongst BASE jumpers that the sport is “selfish” and they cop to the risks involved. Some even realize that it is the people left behind who bear the burden of loss. The reverse is true, and we witness the effect on one member of a couple who has been seriously injured.
She thinks whether they would be together if she does not keep jumping. And he wonders whether he would be better off in the competition if she were dead.
The cameras attached to us and the microphones allow us to see an eye-popping and thrilling sport that lacks gravity-defying leaps. Nevertheless, they also allow us to see and hear things when it goes very wrong, albeit it is not very satisfying to feel aghast while the other jumpers sit in stoic calm. The filmmakers question two of their subjects what they want advise the audience who views the film in case they are never going to be around to see it anymore. There is a volunteer among them ready to answer that question. The sense of loss the author’s words evoke, the dread cry of hopelessness in one’s heart which is just beyond the reckoning is painful. It is not everybody for whom the decision to appreciate and adore each and every moment of one’s existence is, however, “Fly” will make sure that we know how important it is to hurry up and seek our own.
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- Genre: Documentary
- Country: united states
- Director: Mark Duplass, Mel Eslyn
- Cast: Megan Stott, Krisha Fairchild, Cynthia Geary
