After three members of a BASE jumping community—where jumpers fling themselves off mountains—die, someone asks, “What’s this stupid thing they do?” One of the jumpers we follow over seven years says, “You jump and you fall. But when you jump in a wingsuit, you fly.” And then he adds the existential question: ”Is it okay to risk for fun?”
The documentary “Fly” brings us into the world of BASE jumpers: people who jump off very high places. It’s filled with stunning images of some of the world’s most beautiful mountains and canyons and heart-stopping GoPro footage that takes us into the air with the jumpers. It’s sometimes thrilling and sometimes horrifying as we see and hear terrible accidents.
BASE stands for the four categories of places you can jump off: buildings, antennas, spans (bridges), and Earth (cliffs). The people in this documentary jump from cliffs or mountain ledges in some of the most beautiful places on earth, including the Alps, Korea, and Utah’s Moab. For these people, the whole world is divided into just two categories: places to jump from and everywhere else. They are almost as happy finding enticing new jump spots, which they call “exits,” as they are jumping from them.
They are just about as binary when it comes to people. There are BASE jumpers and everyone else. Those in the first category clearly do not want to have “everyone else” lives with school, jobs, and children. It’s not a coincidence that each spouse we meet is married to someone from a different country. The jumper community is small, and the most important thing the jumpers have in common is not culture or language but a love for the adrenaline rush of flying like a bird and landing safely, so much so that they are willing to risk their lives.
Jimmy and Marta are the heart of the jumper community. The high-spirited Jimmy tells us he is the only person who married the woman who taught him how to BASE jump. He fell in love with Marta, originally from Brazil, as he fell in love with jumping, and they founded a company that provides equipment and classes. They give an annual party like a jumper version of Burning Man. Jimmy is especially proud of finding a new and especially exciting “exit” point in Moab, which gives him the right to name it. He calls it “Dragon’s Nest.” At the annual party, they take a group photo, explicitly acknowledging that some of the people in the photo will die in jumping accidents before the next gathering.
Scotty and Julia are another American/Brazilian couple and they, too, teach BASE jumping. Scotty was in the military and had some difficult experiences but found a purpose in jumping. He says he has jumped at least once a week for nine years. Julia left her job as a lawyer to jump full-time. experiences
Espen, who is Norwegian, and Amber, from the UK, are professional competitive jumpers. As we learn in the film, while a few years ago the jumpers were outlaws, now it is a recognized sport and was even featured in the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show. Espen and Amber don’t just jump; they do a coordinated routine like synchronized swimming in the air.
“Fly” goes a little further in acknowledging the risks and responsibility or lack thereof involved than the recent “Skywalkers: A Love Story,” but perhaps not far enough. The BASE jumpers admit that their sport is “selfish” and say they understand the risks. Some even know that it is the people left behind who experience the pain of loss. We see the impact on one member of a couple when the other is seriously injured. She wonders whether they will still have a relationship if she cannot keep jumping. And he wonders if it would be easier for him to keep jumping if she had been killed.
The body cameras and microphones show us spectacular beauty and literal death-defying jumps. Still, they also let us see and hear what happens when things go terribly wrong, and there may be a disconcerting disconnect between our sense of dismay and the more stoic reactions of the other jumpers. The filmmakers ask two of their subjects what they want people who see the film to know in case they are no longer alive when they see it. One is willing to answer. His response is wrenchingly poignant. His choice to recognize the preciousness of every moment is not for everyone, but “Fly” can help us appreciate the urgency of finding our own.
Now on Nat Geo.
