Beyond Reality

Nate looked at me and exclaimed, “Wow I have so much adrenaline, I want to fight the next person I see. “ I agreed, “me too,” knowing we wouldn’t actually do it, but excited at the thought, nonetheless.  We had just watched 300: Rise of an Empire at a crowded movie theatre in Boulder, Colorado.  I’m sure many others have experienced the thrill Nate and I felt after watching an intense movie such as 300.

Whether it is racing expensive cars at dangerous speeds, shooting guns at bad guys, or having sex with supermodels, movies allow us to experience all the things we truly want to do but can’t because reality gets in the way.  When I was little my Dad and I would watch lots of action movies where shootouts were constant.  I would always tell my dad how I wanted to be in a shootout.  He would always reply, “If you got into a real shootout you would shit your pants.”  I might shit my pants, but I still think it would give me a cool adrenaline rush.  In fact, for most of my childhood, my friends and I would try to act like the characters we saw on the big screens and replicate what we saw.  We all had violent childhoods.  Growing up we saw men get gunned down everyday – in the movies and on television.  Naturally, by 4^th grade we each had an air soft gun (a gun that shoots a plastic bullet that hurts but won’t cause long term damage.)  Some of us had 20 and body armor.  And everyday after elementary school we would dress up in camo and shoot each other with plastic bullets.

A few times, air soft guns were used for more than just “friendly wars.”  There were these 2 kids from a nearby private school who lived in our town who did not get along my peers and I.  One time, our feud got especially heated.  Once my friend and I were walking when those two kids pulled up on bikes armed with air soft guns and began shooting at us.  We were hit multiple times and we ran into the forest.  An hour later, we had regrouped with more of our friends and all our guns.  We went by this kids house, and saw them playing basketball in the driveway.  We shot them multiple times and they ran into their house.  We returned to our friend’s house full of adrenaline and pride: feeling like we just killed the 2 of the most evil people in the world, when in reality, we just left a couple red marks on neighborhood kids.    Our replication of movies also included a pyro phase involving tiki oil and axe spray cans.  Also, I’m pretty sure in middle school I dropped lines I heard from movies on a number of girls.

Why did we enjoy movies so much and then try to replicate them in our actual lives?  It is because movies allow us to go beyond our reality, to escape constraints of our reality.  All of us have deep primal instincts that we cannot satisfy in reality.  I know my friend Nate would love to be a Spartan and fight a crazy battle like the one in 300.  But unfortunately, if Nate dressed up in armor and walked around wielding a sword he would either be arrested or forcefully mentally evaluated.  I would love to race expensive cars recklessly through the streets of Nashville, but reality doesn’t let me.  Getting chased by Metro PD would probably put my ambitions on hold.

As humans we have primal instincts that go unsatisfied.  We have fantasies that we cannot fulfill in reality.  Movies allow us to live these fantasies out –only if for a meager two hours.  We love movies because they allow us to escape our mundane and monotonous lives.  The man who is a fighter deep down, can be a fighter when he watches Fight Club.  The inner Ricky Bobby in my brother comes out for the 90 minutes when he watches Talladega Nights.  Movies are so essential to American life because they represent us.  At least versions of us that we are not able to live out in our normal lives.