SPOILER ALERT! The plot
will be discussed.
Just some advice, don’t
watch this movie or the other film by director Robert Zemeckis, Cast Away,
before taking an airplane trip. The title of this film, Flight,
suggests rising above problems, but through most of the film it also implies
running away from those problems. Also, since the main character has a drug and
substance abuse addiction, the title can refer to getting high. There is a
spiritual element in this story too, raising the possibility that divine
intervention could be at play, in addition to practical and coincidental
reasons, in causing what happens.
The movie starts in an
airport hotel room where the alarm clock blares music (a moral wake-up call?)
and the time is 7:14 a.m., which IMDb says refers to a biblical quote from
“Chronicles” that notes that people must “humble” themselves and turn away from
their “wicked ways” so that God can forgive their sins. The lines fit what is
happening to pilot Captain Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington, in an
Oscar-nominated performance). There is a glass with residual whiskey in it on
an end table. We are immediately presented with the problem. Whitaker is in bed
with a woman, Trina (Nadine Velazquez), when he gets a phone call. He is
hungover and has trouble answering the phone. He can’t even have a conversation
until he has some leftover beer from a bottle that is next to several empty
bottles, which shows there has been excessive alcohol consumed. The call is
from his ex-wife, Deana (Garcelle Beauvais), and we are quickly shown that
there is conflict in his life as she wants tuition for their son’s schooling
and he wants to talk it over with the boy to see if he wants to attend. So he
has left (flown away from?) his family. Trina is a flight attendant and they
are in Orlando with a plane leaving in only two hours. He says he feels “a
little lightheaded,” and to counter the numbing effects of his alcohol
consumption, he snorts cocaine. In the background, as the coke kicks in, a Joe
Cocker song plays with the lyrics underlining the pilot’s up and down (flying
high and crashing?) drug dilemma with the words, “I’m feeling alright/ I’m not
feeling too good myself.”
At takeoff, there is a
strong storm. Whitaker slips a bit as he tries to go up the stairs to the
plane, showing his precarious state of mind. Margaret Thomason (Tamara Tunie)
is another flight attendant, and she and Whitaker jokingly talk about how she
wants him to get her on time to her church meeting in Atlanta. Here the movie
adds to the religious theme, with Whitaker irreverent in the exchange, and
Margaret saying she will save a seat for him at the service, implying his need
to be saved. Whitaker wants black coffee and aspirin, suggesting he is fighting
a hangover. He takes whiffs of oxygen from his mask and asks if his co-pilot,
Ken Evans (Brian Geraghty), wants a “hit.” The word shows that for Whitaker
even inhaling air is like taking a drug, so submerged is he in the need for
intoxicants. Evans is a bit taken aback by Whitaker’s need to right himself
before taking on the responsibility of the welfare of 102 lives. Whitaker is
brushing his hair, acting like he just got out of bed, which is close to the
truth. The co-pilot has to remind Whitaker they are approaching the departure
time, and that pushes Evans to ask him how he’s doing. Whitaker only concedes
that he is tired from several flights in three days.
There is a cut to an
attractive woman, Nicole (Kelly Reilly), coming out of the Hotel Atlanta with
her luggage, (even though we soon discover she has an apartment). She is
another traveler, like Whitaker, not rooted in her existence. Her track marks
are visible as she counts the small amount of cash in her hands. She and
Whitaker will meet up soon. She calls a man named Kip (Conor O’Neill), for
some drugs, but hopes he won’t answer the phone, knowing she is in trouble with
her addiction. He does answer and as she arrives to meet him he is snorting
cocaine. He makes pornographic movies and suggests that she be in the one he is
shooting. She is outraged, but she offers to give Kip a hundred dollars for a
fix. Kip says he thought she had gotten clean, which shows Nicole wants to
quit, and she even says she stopped using needles. Kip won’t take her money,
gives her some heroin, tells her not to inject it because it is strong, and
then gives her some cocaine to help get herself “back up” if the heroin makes
her too sedated. Nicole’s up and down drug use parallels that of Whitaker,
showing the shared connection.
Back at the airport the
plane takes off experiencing, as Whitaker says, severe turbulence. We hear the
Joe Cocker song lyrics again as Whitaker sings them quietly as he flies the
plane, again reminding us of his unstable life. Despite his condition, Whitaker
is cool and able to read the weather radar, and sees an opening between the
storm clouds to level off the plane. As the aircraft shakes and the passengers
become alarmed, Evans invokes the Lord, but Whitaker’s disconnect from religion
shows as he smiles and says to him, “He can’t help you now, brother.” Whitaker
levels off the plane at this point which is not standard procedure while taking
off. He also insists, despite Evans’s warning that he is going too fast, that
they need to speed up to get through the bad weather. By trusting his
unorthodox flying instincts, Whitaker gets the plane through to an opening, and
it soars upward. He turns the plane over to Evans and tells Margaret he is
coming out of the cockpit area.
Nicole goes to her
apartment, finds the door already open, and is upset when she sees a man named
Fran (Adam Tomei) there in a robe. He is her landlord holding her camera, which
she tells him never to touch, implying that her photography is her real
passion. She is behind in her rent, and says she will come down to give him the
money after she takes a shower. There is a suggestion that she has been
intimate before with this sleazy fellow, which points to how far she has
stooped to get by in her life. She uses her wits to get him to step out of the
apartment by pretending she wants to take a picture of him. She is angry at her
life so she slams things around, and then a hypodermic needle falls out of a
box. As she stares at it, we see how she is almost hypnotized by its seductive,
penetrating appearance. She injects the heroin that Kip said not to do because
of its potency. She overdoses, falling to the floor as Fran bangs at her door
after smelling the heated drug.
Back on the plane,
Whitaker uses a reassuring address to the passengers as an excuse to pour small
bottles of vodka into some orange juice with one hand as he holds the
microphone in the other, the split aspects of his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
personality displayed here. Whitaker falls asleep in his chair as Evans flies
the plane. As they are ready to descend, the aircraft becomes unstable, waking
up Whitaker. The attendants try to get the passengers strapped down. The
airplane goes into an uncontrollable dive. Whitaker dumps fuel to avoid
explosion in a crash. A flight attendant goes down the aisle to help secure
overhead bins, but sustains a head injury as the plane’s motion slams her
around. Whitaker acts controlled while Evans starts to panic as they head
toward houses on the ground. With the help of Margaret and Evans, Whitaker
turns the plane upside down in order to control the dive, which in a way
symbolizes how Whitaker must turn his life upside down to right himself. In
that inverted position, the aircraft flies over where Fran is with a paramedic
who is taking Nicole in a stretcher for medical attention. The fate of Whitaker
and Nicole is visually linked here, and the lives of people are also
figuratively flipped upside down. As some passengers are tossed about and
engines start to catch fire or lose power, Whitaker rights the airplane and
glides it down onto a field where there are some who are dressed in white (like
angels?) who we later learn are from the John the Baptist Pentecostal Mission
associated with a nearby church. One of the plane’s wings smashes the church
steeple, suggesting both that Whitaker’s self-indulgent and careless life has
hurt him and others, but that he is a man capable of saving people and is
worthy of redemption if he can turn his life around.
Whitaker wakes up in a
hospital bed watching TV footage of the crash and rescue operations. Charlie
Anderson (Bruce Greenwood), the representative from the pilot’s union is there,
and he says he is now “flying a desk” which shows he is an ex-pilot and friend
of Whitaker’s. He calls Whitaker by his nickname, “Whip,” which could suggest
whiplash, and thus Whitaker’s dangerous nature. Two crew members and four
passengers died in the accident. Craig Matson (E. Roger Mitchell) and others
from the National Transportation Safety Board enter and start the
investigation, putting an audio recorder on Whitaker’s bed as the nurse changes
an IV. This shot stresses the immediacy of the inquiry as Whitaker has just
become conscious after sustaining head and arm injuries. In particular, he has
an injury to his left eye, which is covered with a patch and bandages. Eyes and
vision are significant symbols in films (Blade Runner, Bonnie and Clyde),
and can suggest a lack of moral vision, or just not seeing things as they
really are. Katarina Marquez (Trina, the woman he was with in the hotel room)
and Camelia Satou (Boni Yanagisawa) were flight attendants who were killed.
Margaret suffered a broken collar bone. The co-pilot Evans sustained a serious
head injury and was placed in a medically induced coma. Anderson asks if he
should reach out to Whitaker’s ex-wife and son Will (Justin Martin), age
fifteen, but Whitaker says no, he’ll do it.
But Whitaker instead
calls his drug supplier, Harling Mays (John Goodman), appropriately laid back
in shorts and a ponytail. He walks through the hospital listening to The
Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil,” so we know that he is the enabler of
Whitaker’s demon addictions. He is loud and is crude with the nurse. He has
brought pornographic magazines for the invalid Whitaker. Mays shows him the
media outside staked out around the hospital and says they are at Whitaker’s
condo and even interviewed Mays. Whitaker says the drugs the hospital gave him
were not working, probably because he is used to street-level doses. Mays looks
at the list of medications and dismisses them, showing he has brought vodka and
Red Bull, again pointing to the sedative and stimulant ranges of intoxicants in
Whitaker’s life. So, the outward appearance of the pilot, one who is supposed
to be in control of the flight, is that of a hero, but the private, personal
life of Whitaker is chaotic. But Whitaker, shaken by the crash, tells Mays to
take the vodka away, and says he is not drinking. He is grateful for the
cigarettes Mays brought, which is another form of addiction. Before he leaves,
Mays lays his hand on Whitaker’s head, and the image is one of a demonic
priest, bestowing a blessing.
Whitaker wakes up
startled by thunder, which probably reminds him of the crash, and he escapes to
the stairwell for a smoke. It is here where he encounters the smoking Nicole,
who was brought to the same hospital after her overdose. Whitaker humorously
says, “Devious minds think alike.” The joke is funny on the surface, but is
actually revealing of his character. She asks if he was on that plane, and
says, since he survived, he must have sat at the back (which we later discover
was the unusually fatal area to be in, stressing the opposite of what is
expected). He says he was, not feeling like the hero who piloted the
craft.
In a pivotal scene,
another patient, listed in the credits as Gaunt Young Man (James Badge Dale),
bald and dragging an IV pole, arrives and he references Apocalypse Now,
saying. “I like the smell of nicotine in the morning. It smells of victory.”
Again, there is humor, but at the same time it brings with it the destructive
nature of war, and the end of things, as these sick people share time together,
but by indulging in something that can only add to their ills. The GYM, voicing
what addicts know, says, “I should quit,” smoking and adds that “My cancer might
get cancer,” another funny line with a dark edge as he multiplies his
carcinogenic threats. The GYM recognizes Whitaker as the pilot of the downed
aircraft, and says Whitaker was lucky to survive. Whitaker says he will be
going home soon. The man says home for him is in the basement, which is where
cancer is kept. This line conveys that people don’t want to think about disease
so they shove it into an unseen place, as those with addictions may do. He
reveals that his soft tissue cancer is rare, and “God chose me.” We have
another religious reference, and the patient is being ironic, combining divine
intervention that sounds blessed with what is actually deadly. The implication
is that the Lord varies the good with the bad in his actions. The GYM says he
believes in God because it’s easier to think that all the things that happen
are out of one’s control, like the plane crashing. He says people either act
like they don’t see him, probably because he reminds them of human mortality,
or are drawn to him because being closer to the end he has some insights. He
admits, “Death gives you perspective. It all makes sense, somehow.”
The GYM notices that
Nicole has track marks, and she admits that she is an addict. In answer to his
question about her work, she says she was a photographer and then a masseuse,
and also washes hair in a salon. These are jobs that are dependent on other
things or people, almost in service to what is outside of herself. He asks her
if she thinks she is going to die, but she is quiet, which implies that she is
worried that is the case. He says to Whitaker, “Don’t you just love her?” and
he seems to know that the two will come together. Whitaker says he doesn’t know
Nicole, but the GYM does seem to have insight, and says, “random act of God? I
don’t think so,” concerning this meeting. He is sort of a divine messenger. He
keeps saying things are a “trip” which fits in with Whitaker’s profession, and
refers generally to life’s journey. His closeness to death heightens
experiences for him, so, “every morning is special now. I’m grateful for that,”
he says, and “I wish I could bottle this feeling that I have about how
beautiful every last breath of life is.” Whitaker gives him his pack of
cigarettes, possibly in the moment at least transferring the tools of death to
the grim reaper to take them away. The man picks up on the ironic act, saying
he’ll pass them around the cancer ward. He tells Nicole that she is going to be
okay. A premonition?
His presence starts up a
conversation between Nicole and Whitaker, establishing a connection. After he
leaves, Nicole says the GYM has “chemo brain,” which is what happened to her
mother, who became chatty during treatment. She died of breast cancer at age
fifty-four, and Whitaker asks if that is why she thinks she’s going to die. She
reveals more about herself when she says that female heroin addicts who use
needles statistically don’t have a long life. She says that the GYM made her
feel like she and Whitaker were the last two people on earth, sort of like an
upside-down version of Adam and Eve. Whitaker says, sadly, like it’s an
impossibility, that “together we’ll save the world,” And they laugh at the
absurdity of the statement. Whitaker gets her address and says he will visit
her.
Mays gives Whitaker a
ride as the song “Gimme Shelter” plays, which is what Whitaker is searching
for. They go the “farm,” which belonged to Whitaker’s father, so he can avoid
the press. He feels badly about the deaths on the plane and probably wants no
scrutiny of his flawed inner life. He appears to want solitude in his battle to
become sober. He flushes his pills and pours booze down the drain. There is a
one-prop plane in the garage and pictures on the wall of the house showing that
flying is a family tradition. But, he can’t escape the specter of the crash as
it is on the television. Also, Anderson calls to have a meeting about the
crash.
Whitaker goes to a
brunch with Anderson and Hugh Lang (Don Cheadle) an attorney. Anderson tells
Whitaker that the religiously devout wife of co-pilot Evans said that “God
landed the plane,” which stresses the movie’s exploration of whether divine
intervention occurs in our lives. Lang specializes in criminal negligence,
which surprises Whitaker and angers him. Lang states that because there were
deaths, someone has to be made responsible. Anderson says that the airline will
argue the plane’s manufacturer was at fault, but Lang says the possibility of
pilot error will be examined. He says that evidence was gathered to develop a toxicology
report. Lang informs Whitaker that the pilot’s blood was drawn at the hospital
for this purpose and his blood alcohol level was .24, way above the .08 limit.
Whitaker says that his intoxication didn’t cause the engines to burn up, and
maintains that he was put in a “broken” plane. He argues that if it wasn’t for
him, all aboard would have died. But Lang says that the investigators also
found cocaine in Whitaker’s system, and that is a felony which would land him
in jail for twelve years. Plus, if it is decided that his intoxication led to
the onset of the plane’s problems that resulted in deaths to those onboard,
then he can be charged with manslaughter of six lives and sentenced to life
imprisonment. Lang wants to kill the toxicology report. Anderson says that will
allow Whitaker to remain a hero, thus creating a cover-up. Whitaker says he is
not worried because the one thing that he is sure of, what anchors him, is that
he knows he is the only person who could have landed that plane.
Whitaker appears assured
in his flying abilities, but he is stressed out about the evidence of his
inebriation. He leaves the meeting, and at first orders an orange juice at the
bar, but then asks for hard liquor while the TV there continues to talk about
his flight and the investigation that will follow, adding pressure on Whitaker.
He stops to buy beer and alcohol and drinks while he drives. It’s as if he was
given a second chance, but he is failing the test to keep his sobriety.
He heads to Nicole’s
place, as if instinctively seeking the person who can understand his problem,
but who also has caregiver skills. He happens (or is it fate?) to see her
outside in the parking lot of her apartment house. She is loading up her car,
ready to take “flight,” as it were, from her responsibility to pay rent.
Whitaker hears Fran the landlord threatening Nicole. Whitaker throws Fran to
the ground and gives him some cash to settle Nicole’s debt. Nicole’s car won’t
start, so Whitaker gives her a ride and says she can stay at his place. He
saves her here, but can she save him? She starts out trying, back at the farm,
as he continues to drink, and she refuses to join him. She puts a pillow under
his injured leg and massages his knee. She then continues to touch him, and
removes the glass of booze from his hand. She replaces the alcohol with her
lips, kissing him. The next shot is her naked in his bed. She is trying to heal
him physically and emotionally.
Lang shows up at the
farm and takes Whitaker to the crash site. Lang says that the left wing of the
plane hit the ground, but if it had sheared off completely, everyone would have
survived. Instead that part of the wing then “drove the engine cowling into the
rear fuselage,” thus causing the fatalities. Is this another instance of bad luck
or was it the result of God acting in “mysterious ways?” Out in the field Ellen
Block (Melissa Leo) shows up and Lang says she heads the investigation.
Whitaker admits that he drank and then used cocaine to counter the effects of
the alcohol. But, he says that is not why the plane failed. Lang says he knows
it was clearly mechanical error. But, he says, “this was an act of God.” He
says he will fight to get the NTSB “to add ‘Act of God’ as one of the probable
causes.” That line mirrors what the GYM in the hospital stairwell was saying
about things not being in our control. Or, is that just a belief that makes us
feel good, as he also said, or a way of abdicating our responsibilities?
Whitaker voices skepticism by asking “Whose god would do this?” He is trying to
understand how a benevolent being would also allow such horror to occur. Lang
says that the airline is on their side and there will be a meeting the next
morning. He tells Whitaker he must stay sober since he is “under the
microscope” now, even though that is exactly not where Whitaker wants to be
given his frailties. He promises that he can be abstinent on his own, as he is
in denial about needing help.
In the meeting with the
head of the airline, Avington Carr (Peter Gerety), an interesting name for an
airline boss, admits he wishes he was in the baseball business, obviously
something that exists safely on the ground. He is mostly concerned about
how much it is going to cost him in terms of lawsuits, instead of thinking
about the loss of life. Lang is quick to assure him that only the four
civilians are involved, since the two flight attendants’ families will come
under the workman’s compensation claim which is associated with the union.
Anderson says he flew with Whitaker in the Navy and says that Whitaker is a
great pilot. But Carr just wants to know if he is a drunk, and Anderson admits
that Whitaker is a heavy drinker. Lang says he will kill the toxicology results
through technicalities, saying that the testing devices had not been calibrated
for a long time, so were not recently checked for accuracy, the labeling was
incomplete, and a preservative was used that was known to cause fermentation,
thus inflating the alcohol measurement. Carr doesn’t care if the airline fails,
he just doesn’t want the liability to extend to his own wealth. The coldness of
the mentality of the wealthy is attacked here, which shows no compassion for
victims or workers. The union doesn't want the airline to fail because that
would mean the loss of jobs, so they want to put all the blame on the airplane
manufacturer. Despite Lang saying his clients don’t go to jail, Carr says
Whitaker will be. In any event, everyone here is trying to place responsibility
onto someone else.
Back at the farm,
Whitaker is surrounded by empty bottles of booze as he drinks so much he can’t
speak coherently and passes out when he tries to get up. He watches home movies
that show his son as a child as he tosses a football with his grandfather.
Whitaker seems to be mentally escaping into a time that was innocent and
hopeful, when he was encouraging his son to follow the family tradition of
becoming a pilot. In contrast to Whitaker’s inebriated state, Nicole has come
back from a sobriety meeting, as she continues to try to tend to Whitaker.
The next morning
Whitaker says to Nicole he threw out the beer and vodka, as he bounces back and
forth between attempts at sobriety and falling off the wagon into intoxicated
binges. Nicole has her camera, her lifeline to keep her afloat, saying she took
some beautiful pictures of the sky, the place that is Whitaker’s domain, (and
supposedly God’s), though Whitaker keeps flying in a self-destructive way,
allowing his addictions to pilot him. He says the farm originally belonged to
his grandfather, where his own father grew up. After his father’s death,
Whitaker has been trying to sell the place, but it still represents a sort of
pastoral retreat (maybe even a religious one?) for him. Whitaker doesn’t say
much about his mother, only that she was dead, which in the absence of words
says a great deal about the lack of a relationship. Nicole also was estranged
from a parent, her father, but her mother was loving until she died, and
possibly that love is what keeps Nicole alive.
At the funeral service
for the two flight attendants, Trevor (Ron Caldwell), Margaret’s son, thanks
Whitaker for saving his mother’s life. Even though that is true, Whitaker is
still in denial as to his unfit status to fly on the day of the crash. He can’t
look at the bodies in the coffins and tells Margaret he can’t go to the
counselors to help deal with the crash. He tells her that he only had two
glasses of wine at dinner, and just wants Margaret to say at the investigation
there was nothing out of the ordinary concerning the crew. She knows he is a
drinker and Trina told her that she and Whitaker had not slept the night
before. He tries to manipulate her emotionally as he says if he wasn’t flying
the plane, her son would be at her funeral, and how terrible it would be for
Whitaker’s son to see his father in jail, She says it’s a lie to say he was fit
to fly, but Margaret seems to want to help him.
Nicole has a job at a
food market and is grateful for her AA sponsor. She is going to a meeting later
and invites Whitaker to go as she continues to try to rescue him. He goes to
the meeting but won’t raise his hand when the group asks who is an alcoholic.
Whitaker is dead serious as others laugh at “Two Beer Barry” (Dylan Kussman)
who when drunk and driving told the cop he only had two beers. The two beer
line sounds like Whitaker’s two glasses of wine lame excuse. Barry talks about
how his lying about drinking became contagious to the point he lied about
everything, and his life was “a series of lies strung together.” Barry is
echoing what Whitaker’s life has become, which the pilot can’t deal with. He
leaves the meeting, taking “flight” from confronting his demons as Barry,
appropriately, says, “my lies would walk me out that door.”
But Whitaker can’t
escape the circumstances of the fatal flight. He sees on TV that his now awake
co-pilot Ken Evans and his wife Vicky (Bethany Anne Lind) are being
interviewed. Evans says that he is sure the truth about the flight will be
revealed. Worried about what Evans might say, he visits him and his wife in the
hospital where Evans is a patient. Evans says that he is “glad” to be alive,
but his wife wants to substitute “blessed.” The co-pilot and his wife seem
unwelcoming at first, as Evans says his legs were crushed and his pelvis was
severely injured. He says he’ll have trouble walking again and will never be
able to fly. He called his wife while on the plane saying Whitaker was
intoxicated and felt the flight was doomed as soon as Whitaker sat in the
pilot’s seat. Evans’s demeanor seems to soften and admits he hasn’t told anyone
about Whitaker’s unfit condition. He says what happened was “preordained,” as
his wife keeps interjecting, “praise Jesus.” Evans says that God has “a higher
plan” for Whitaker. The co-pilot says that although tragic, the event was also
a celebration of life. He basically is saying that God reminds us of the good
that exists in life by allowing the bad to occur, since everything happens
according to a divine plan. The film shows the husband and wife as overly
immersed in their beliefs, but it also puts out the possibility that what they
are saying is possible. They ask Whitaker to pray with them as Evans says that
they thank God for guiding Whitaker to save them. Whitaker seems uncomfortable,
although he acquiesces. He is not willing to take responsibility for any
wrongdoing on his part, but is not able to accept that his broken self could be
an instrument of God.
A friend drops Nicole
back at the farm after the AA meeting to find Whitaker working on his father’s
Cessna, implying he still has hopes of soaring again into God’s realm. But she
also sees the small mirror and rolled up bill that he used to snort cocaine, so
he is still flying high through the use of drugs, and his inability to stay
grounded on earth conflicts with his ability to be a safe pilot. Whitaker
symbolizes both the opposing baser and exalted qualities that dwell in all
humans. The poet Andrew Marvell, in “A Dialogue between the Soul and the Body,”
touches on a belief during his time that we walk upright because our sinful
selves weigh us down but our spiritual nature points us upward. Thus, we are
caught between both sides of our nature. So, he said we walk on our own
“precipice,” always in danger of falling out of grace.
Whitaker relates how he
once flew to Jamaica in the Cessna and seriously suggests that he and Nicole
take off for the island the next day. He is still trying to escape his problem,
but she tells him she is worried about him and he needs to go into rehab. She
says they are the same, the truth of which he can’t deal with. His
defensiveness kicks in and attacks her for being self-righteous, using her
mother’s death as an excuse to use heroin, and condemns her for prostituting
herself to get high, which she denies. He says he chooses to drink, but she says
she doesn’t see the ability to choose here, implying that he is denying that
addiction has taken away his ability to act freely.
Nicole is on the phone,
probably to her sponsor, saying she can’t stay there anymore, understanding
that Whitaker is toxic for her. He goes into the house sounding calmer, but
still needing to take a drink of beer before speaking, showing his need for the
alcoholic crutch. On the wall of the bedroom where the two are is a plaque on
the wall with hands together in an act of praying. The movie continues to
stress the religious theme, possibly suggesting that we all seek some sort of
salvation. He admits to her that he was drunk when he piloted the flight and
says he has to get away so he won’t get sent to jail for the rest of his life.
He grants that he needs help and says that he’ll check into a hospital when
they get to Jamaica, and she can leave if he doesn't sober up. He is just
saying whatever he can to get her to be with him, but he may recognize that she
cares for him, and he needs that. But, she is like him, so he may have
gravitated to her as a fellow addict, hoping she would enable him. She says she
can’t use drugs again, because she realizes she won’t be able to save herself
anymore. She hugs him, but she needs to take “flight,” not to deny her
problems, but to face the necessity of having to leave Whitaker because she
knows the power of addiction. She departs the next day while Whitaker sleeps,
and leaves him a note. As the GYM in the hospital predicted, she will be okay.
Whitaker finds Nicole’s
note and flings a bottle of vodka against the wall, which shows his anger but
symbolically indicates that it is the alcoholism that caused him to lose
Nicole. He receives a call from Anderson telling him of “good news.” On the way
to meet Anderson, he pours vodka into orange juice and drives while drinking,
again demonstrating his recklessness. At an airport hangar Lang and Anderson
offer congratulations since Lang was able to insert his “Act of God” clause
into the investigation and had shifted responsibility away from Whitaker’s
condition to the “condition of the plane.” This announcement takes place next
to the reconstructed remains of the wrecked aircraft that sits as a looming
reminder of the horrible crash which contrasts with the “good news.” They tell
Whitaker he just must stay “sharp” for the inquiry, which translates to him
being sober, an almost impossible requirement for him now. There were however
two unopened bottles of vodka found in the plane. Since there was no beverage
service allowed due to turbulence, and toxicology screens for other flight crew
members were negative, Whitaker is the likely candidate to have consumed the
liquor. Whitaker arrogantly says that he drank three bottles, so one is
missing. Lang says he found the pilot to be a “scumbag” when they first met,
but after multiple simulations showed nobody could have landed the plane
safely, Lang was “in awe” of Whitaker. Lang says he is trying to save
Whitaker’s life, but the pilot is so spiritually empty now he says, “What
Life?” Lang says it’s all up to Whitaker since the lawyer has “no more moves.”
Lang walks away frustrated telling Anderson to just get Whitaker “to the church
on time.” It is an interesting choice of words. The phrase is consistent with
the religious theme of the story and stresses the need for Whitaker to redeem
himself. But, Whitaker only sees the union acting selfishly to save
itself.
Images show how out of
touch Whitaker is in doing the right thing. He storms out of the meeting with
Anderson, cursing his old friend. He drives too fast and when he gets back to
the farm, the press are there and he can’t be honest with them, so he speeds
off. He parks illegally in front of a fire hydrant near where his ex-wife and
son live. He swigs some more booze before leaving his car and is combative when
Deana says he should call first and then accuses him of being drunk. A guilty
person changes the argument and blames those pointing out his infractions. So,
Whitaker counters by saying nobody has been calling him, and says Deana, within
a few seconds, jumped to saying he has been drinking. His responses are lame
because Deana’s words are due to his bad actions. His grown-up son confronts
him, calls him a drunk, and tells him to get out. He grabs his boy, and after
Deana holds up the phone showing she is calling the police, he leaves. But, the
press have been staking out the house, and ask why he has not been open to the
public about the crash. He is able to cover up his bad behavior again by saying
that he will be forthcoming later but now is a time for grieving and to give
his family some space.
Whitaker, still running
away from basically himself, goes to Anderson’s house. His old friend is fed up
with him following his public display at his ex-wife’s place. Whitaker says he
will stay with Anderson since the press are staking out his places, and will
not leave until the day of the hearing. He sticks to his promise and is sober
for the nine days prior to the inquiry. Anderson and Whitaker meet Lang at a hotel
near the airport where Whitaker will stay the night. The next day Whitaker will
go before Ellen Block, who heads up the investigation, and who is not happy
about Lang killing the toxicology report. Lang leaves Whitaker his defense
records, including possible questions that may be asked and suggestions for
safe answers. They even place a guard in front of Whitaker’s room to make sure
he won’t go looking for booze, which shows how precarious Whitaker’s condition
is.
Later, in the hotel
room, Whitaker says to himself, “just like flying,” which is where he excels,
up in the sky, in his job, but he is always at risk in his personal life. He
checks out the refrigerator in the room, probably instinctively checking to see
if there is any alcoholic temptation inside. But, the hotel stocked it only
with non-alcoholic beverages. He eats a steak dinner and flips through some TV
stations, one of which significantly displays a TV evangelist on it, again
inserting the call to a religious reckoning. He doesn’t look at the files Lang
left, showing how he is still not committed to defending himself. While
stretched out on his bed, he hears what sounds like knocking coming from the
adjoining room. The door has been left open and it is striking against his
door. Nobody occupies the other room. Whitaker goes to the window and sees and
hears a plane taking off, seeming like it is calling to him, maybe for the last
time. He then hears the room’s refrigerator go on which of course is filled
with booze. Is it a coincidence or temptation placed in his path to show
Whitaker that just by being sober for nine days is not a commitment to sobriety
and does not get him off the hook for his past transgressions.
For a moment it looks as
if Whitaker will overcome his self-destructive drive. He opens the
refrigerator, takes a bottle, opens it, then screws the cap back on, places the
bottle on the counter and walks away. For a suspenseful few seconds the camera
lingers on the bottle. Then Whitaker’s hand sweeps it up. The next morning Lang
and Anderson find Whitaker completely wasted in the bathroom, implying his life
is going down the toilet. We again hear “Sympathy for the Devil” as they only
have an hour before the hearing and Whitaker asks for Mays, his satanic dealer,
to bring cocaine to make him alert. Mays knows his drugs, and orders Anderson
and Lang about, demanding a cigarette with a little tobacco removed so he can
stuff it with cocaine that Whitaker smokes after snorting a couple of lines of
coke. Mays leaves a gram of the drug for later. The words to “I’m feeling
alright” play which again points to the false appearance of being okay. Mays
says he’ll see them later “On the dark side of the moon,” an album reference,
but which also points to how he represents that scary side of the human soul.
Block says that the
investigation found a part on the plane failed and caused the elevator
mechanism to lock and place the plane in a downward dive. Whitaker says he just
acted on “instinct” to invert the plane. Block asks him if he ever had a
problem with alcoholism or was intoxicated before the flight and Whitaker says
no. Trina’s blood alcohol level was high. He lies when he denies he knew her
outside work and did not know she had an alcohol drinking problem. Block notes that
she was treated for her addiction. Block displays her picture up on the screen
and asks if it was Whitaker’s opinion she drank on the flight which would
explain the empty liquor bottles. Whitaker looks at her picture and hesitates.
He then says, “God help me,” which shows at this point he is actually reaching
for some divine aid. He says that Trina was just trying to save a boy when she
died, and did not drink the vodka. He confesses that he drank the vodka, and
was drinking heavily the days prior to the flight, the day of the flight, and
is drunk at that moment. He finally admits to his problem, saying, “I am an
alcoholic.”
There is a voice-over
and we find Whitaker in prison at a sobriety meeting, saying, “It was as if I
had reached my lifelong limit of lies. I could not tell one more lie.” If he
had lied one more time he could have kept flying and not been in prison for the
last thirteen months and not have to spend another four or five more years
incarcerated. He finds that sentence to be fair along with having his pilot’s
license revoked because “I betrayed the public trust.” He sent apologies to
those that lost loved ones and to those who tried to help him. Even though he
may never be forgiven by those he wronged, he says at least he is sober. He is
now devoutly grateful as he says, “I thank God for that.” Even though he is
physically locked up in prison, he says he feels “free,” implying addiction no
longer controls him. He is now the pilot of his own destiny. He has a book
that’s titled I’ll Fly Away, but now he is not high on drugs or looking
to escape but desires to have his soul rise to the heavens where he once
physically flew, but not spiritually. There are pictures of him with AA members
including Nicole next to the AA pledge to sobriety, which shows he reconciled
with his angel of mercy and accepted help from others who had fallen from grace
but were on the mend.
His son visits Whitaker
now and is there to interview him for a college application essay entitled “The
most fascinating person that I never met.” Here is a chance for him to bond
with his boy. The first question is “Who are you?” Whitaker says it’s a good
question, which is one that may be difficult for any of us to answer
truthfully.
After the holidays, the
next film is Blackboard Jungle.
