Directors: Christina Clusiau and Shaul Schwarz
Stars: Christina Clusiau and Shaul Schwarz
Synopsis: Over seven years, three couples involved in the extreme sport of BASE jumping test the limits of love and life itself. Risking everything for the thrill of the jump, their dedication is put to the ultimate test.
Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Fly.
While watching Jeff Zimbalist and Maria Bukhonina’s competently made but inert Skywalkers: A Love Story, I kept saying to myself, “These people are so goddamn selfish,” concerning Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus literally risking their lives for social media clout. There’s little reward in what they’re doing other than proving to a digital tapestry that they’re the best at what they do. Their approach to the documentary never peered into the couple’s desire for adrenaline as deeply as it should and left a middling impression on me, as vertigo-inducing as the photography was. The only message I got out of it was that if you want to be internet famous (and fix your relationship), you should climb the second tallest building in the world. Not a great plan.
Christina Clusiau and Shaul Schwarz’ Fly, which has an exclusive IMAX engagement on September 2 and 3 before making its way to Disney+ on September 25, acts as the antidote to Skywalkers. It’s a documentary that explores head-on how purely selfish the act of BASE jumping is and the risks that come with wanting to selfishly test fate as they try new ways to kill themselves through the act of doing something no man or woman should ever attempt. For the first hour or so, Clusiau and Schwarz focus on the joyful passion of BASE jumping, and the adrenaline rush one gets when jumping out of a bridge or cliff and immediately deploying a parachute.
Some have even taken it to the extreme, using Wingsuits to speed their descent and parachute at the (almost) last minute. Strikingly captured with death-defying GoPro footage, the movie is a must witness on the largest possible IMAX screen you can find, with many figures presented in its BASE scenes on the verge of getting severely injured or, worse, dying. There isn’t a first (or third) person scene in which you’re not on the edge of your seat, attempting to wonder if someone will make it out of their favorite sport alive.
That’s not something that initially worries a jumper like Scotty Bob Morgan, who tells Schwarz he won’t answer his question on what he wants audiences to grasp out of his story if he is not alive by the time the film releases, because he’ll be around, dammit! This egotistical mentality is at the heart of the three relationships that make the core of the film: Scotty and his newfound lover Julia Botelho, Espen Fadnes and Amber Forte, and Jimmy Pouchert and Marta Empinotti. The latter act as the first generation of BASE jumpers, teaching the new generation the fundamentals of the sport and ensuring everyone can perform it safely.
Marta has been doing it for over thirty years with zero injuries and knows her limits, while Jimmy continuously pushes them forward and wants to prove that he can do more than he did when he started over twenty years ago. While their relationship is immensely passionate, the movie uses their union as a catalyst for the real and immediate dangers of BASE jumping.
Marta has already lost a past lover to the sport but keeps going. She’s now afraid to lose Jimmy, too, who is taking more risks than he should. The thrilling, edge-of-your-seat GoPro footage quickly becomes terrifying as we see direct footage of people nearly injuring themselves, then severely injuring themselves until a friend takes the last successive photographs of Jimmy performing his wingsuit jump that ultimately led to his tragic demise.
By far, the film’s scariest scene occurs when we directly see footage of Amber’s almost life-altering injury from her first-person point of view. Her agonizing screams, barely breathing as her parachute went out of control, dislocating and breaking her spine, will stay with me for a long time. The promise of a rip-roaring adrenaline rush is quickly dissipated when Clusiau and Schwarz showcase the grim reality of participating in such a sport. Of course, physical activity comes with a certain set of risks, but some sports are far less dangerous than the ones shown here.
The filmmakers never treat these moments with an exploitative lens but rather question the subjects as they grapple with the direct dangers of an activity like the one they do every day. When Julia ultimately becomes pregnant with her first child, Scott begins to ask himself if all of this is worth it. When you don’t have anything to lose, it may not seem like a big deal if something goes wrong. But when you have something (and, in this case, someone) to lose, why go on? Why take the leap that could end your life in an instant? Yet, Julia still jumps while pregnant. What’s the benefit here? Especially if something goes wrong.
Questions like these are at the heart of Fly’s darker half after personal tragedy strikes Marta. The sharp cut to her, who is still alive to recall what occurred, is of pure devastation. The two have constantly known their lifestyle to be a dangerous one but is incredibly fulfilling. Marta and Jimmy’s philosophy is simple: it’s best to live a little more than to always sit on the sidelines in fear. But that lifestyle has severe consequences, and no one is ever truly prepared for death to drastically alter their perception of what they believe is the best way to live.
Jimmy tells Schwarz, “Don’t feel too sorry for me. Just be happy that I lived my life how I wanted to live it.” when asked the same question Scotty is asked earlier in the movie. But when we get a first-look account of Marta and Jimmy’s “Celebration of Life” event in Las Vegas every year, it takes on a different significance once Jimmy dies. The leader of the group, the most fearless who’s guided so many people in pursuing the sport, is no longer here to celebrate this incredibly crazy life he’s been at the forefront of with Marta for so long.
One of the subjects interviewed tells the filmmakers that a class photo is taken at each event with the attendees present. It’s not only a great way to end the event, but it’s also the last time that many will see people here alive because they always lose many to a BASE-jumping accident each year. The person explains this tradition in the most cogent way, fully realizing that this lifestyle will end in injury or death and will still wake up the following day to do it all again.
Of course, it’s selfish, Scotty Bob explains. It may be the most selfish sport ever created, even worse when it’s performed by people who only think about themselves (in one earlier scene, Jimmy almost gets injured and says, “I thought that was it. I thought about Marta…how pissed she was gonna be at me!” Zero regards for anyone else but you.). But it’s also the closest thing anyone can have to experiencing the frailty of human life head-on, one that challenges their beliefs when someone closest to them gets injured or dies tragically. Do you keep doing it, or do you find new ways to live a little?
Clusiau, Schwarz, and the subjects depicted in their documentary don’t have the answers. Nor should they. It’s up to us to figure out how to live our lives, and perhaps this documentary will urge us to do more with the finite time we have left. We never know when it will be our time. We never know when this life will be taken away from us. Why not do something before it’s too late?
