Fly, BASE Jumping in IMAX

BASE jumping (off buildings, antennas, spans, and earth) is a sport that makes lawn darts look safe—almost. Everyone in this documentary remembers a fellow jumper who did not make it. Unfortunately, at least one of the featured athletes also dies during a jump. The stakes are high, but that is how the BASE jumpers say they like it in Christina Clusiau & Shaul Schwarz’s Fly, a National Geographic documentary, which has special IMAX screenings this Monday and Tuesday.

Apparently, couples that jump together stay together. Jimmy Pouchert and Marta Empinotti are sort of the First Couple of BASE jumping, who have taught scores of student jumpers, many of whom regularly return for their events, including an annual Thanksgiving turkey dinner. Norwegian Espen Fadnes and British Amber Fortes found each other through the sport and started competing as a couple, sort of like figure skaters in the year, as they explain. Scotty Bob Morgan started jumping when he believed he had nothing to lose. Eventually, he meets and marries Julia Botelho. When she gets pregnant, Morgan realizes he suddenly has a great deal to lose.

Two of these jumpers will have gravely serious mishaps, but not the pregnant Botelho Morgan. Things get heavy, but not that horribly heavy. However, there is real tragedy, which the jumpers address before-the-fact, thanks to some pertinent questioning from Clusiau and Schwarz.

Clearly, this is a dangerous sport, but the stunning footage—shot via drones, helicopters, and go-pros—shows viewers why they keep doing it. The more conservate BASE jumpers simply jump into the void, using larger chutes than skydivers. However, the younger, more daring jumpers prefer to glide close to the ground, wearing their Batman-like wingsuits, before releasing their chute. Wingsuit jumping is considerably riskier, but the videos sure can pull in the likes on YouTube.

Indeed, those visuals are the whole point of Fly and primary reason for its IMAX showings. Considering how good it looks via screener, it must be eye-popping on the huge screen. While the interview segments are honest and revealing, they largely confirm viewers’ expectations of the jumpers’ mindsets. They talk extensively about their pursuit of freedom, which entails risk. In fact, they consider one a necessary precondition for the other.

Fly is one of the more notable recent sports documentaries, but almost entirely due to its impressive visuals, some of which were shot by the subjects. The insights Clusiau and Schwarz glean are rarely revelatory, but they vividly capture the inherent dangers. Recommended for fans of arial and extreme sports, Fly screens in IMAX Monday (9/2) and Tuesday (9/3), including the AMC Lincoln Square, before its broadcast debut 9/24 on the Nat Geo Channel.