July 21, 2010 – Lompoc, California, USA
“You think you can pull it off?” one of the other young stunt drivers asked Skyler Birch.
“I know I can. I do it every time on the test track,” replied Skyler confidently.
“Yeah but those cars were lighter and the pavement was slick. This is a real road and you’re practically driving a tank. The Charger was never meant for any kind of drifting.”
“Pulling off a good spin is 10% the car and 90% the driver,” said Skyler with a cocky smirk.
In the distance someone waved two hands over their head. That was Skyler’s cue. He got inside the black 1970 Dodge Charger and fired up the engine.
“Good luck!” the other driver called.
Skyler smirked again and held up his left thumb in reply. He let the car’s engine rumble for a few seconds. He loved the sound. He had gravitated toward engines and speed since he was old enough to steer. He started with go karts and worked his way up to machines which could be considered actual race cars. He was only happy at a track or maybe an abandoned parking lot, perfecting his slides, spins, and donuts.
With an easy shift into first gear, Skyler got the big Charger rolling toward the cluster of crew members standing in the middle of the road. He stopped in front of the director, Paul, for last minute instructions. Skyler was brand new to movie making, but as far as he could tell, Paul was in charge of everything. Skyler liked that Paul was fanatical about cars while also seeming easygoing. He was not much older than Skyler and he wanted everyone to like him, especially the stunt drivers.
“You know what you’re doing, right?” asked Paul, leaning over to talk through the Charger’s open window.
“Yeah, just like we’ve been practicing,” replied Skyler eagerly.
“Go down the road a quarter mile before making the turns. I’ll be in the camera truck following you. Don’t get too far in front of us.”
“Okay, I got it.”
“The cameras will be rolling but this first time is mostly for practice. We’ll see how it looks. If you can pull it off and we like it, we’ll do it for real this afternoon.”
“It’s gonna be cool. You’re gonna love it,” said Skyler with a confident grin.
“That’s what I like to hear,” replied Paul. “Just be careful with the car. It’s the only Charger we’ve got out here.”
“No worries,” replied Skyler, holding up two thumbs.
Paul walked toward the camera truck and slowly climbed aboard. Skyler was eager to get going. So far, movie making seemed like a lot of setting up and waiting around. This stunt would be the first chance for some real action, and as far as Skyler understood it, they would only be shooting a few seconds worth of footage. But if they wanted to pay him to practice or sit around, he was not going to argue. It was much better money than he was making as a grunt employee at an air conditioning shop and he was mostly working there simply to support his racing addiction.
If Skyler could impress Paul, he might have a whole new life ahead of him. The shoot they were on was supposed to take a few days, but they were one of three crews making Fast and Furious 5. Skyler might also get hired at one of the other locations and have a job for months. If he was serious about stunt driving, there was no better movie to start with. Fast and Furious was hugely popular and known for real stunts that did not use a lot of computer animation.
Directly in front of Skyler was an empty two lane road outside of Lompoc, California. The stretch of pavement had been closed off for filming. The terrain was gently rolling hills with gold-colored, dry grass growing on both sides of the highway. No buildings were visible, at least when viewed in the direction the cameras would be pointed.
Skyler could see the flat section of pavement a quarter of a mile up ahead where he would pull off the moves he had practiced. Paul was now in the truck and signaling that he was ready. Skyler shifted into first gear and gunned the engine, squealing the Charger’s rear wheels. He grinned over his flashy takeoff, but knew he had to take it easy and let the truck catch up. He held steady when he reached 45 miles-per-hour. This was what Skyler lived for and now there was a camera right behind him recording his every move. He felt like he could make the Charger lift off the ground and start flying if Paul asked him to do it.
Skyler was grinning with anticipation when he reached the quarter mile mark. He eased the Charger toward the left side of the road and then yanked the steering wheel to the right while stomping on the brake. The Charger’s fat rear end slid clockwise as the tires screeched. This was the point where most drivers would lose their nerve and try to correct so that the car would not roll, but Skyler coolly turned with the slide and feathered his foot off the brake. The car ended up parallel to the road but facing the opposite direction. Skyler immediately hit the clutch and jammed the gearshift into reverse.
The Charger’s wheels screeched again as they spun backwards. Now the car was traveling in the same direction as the camera truck but with the cameras facing the Charger’s windshield instead of its taillights. The scene was supposed to include the Charger’s driver aiming a laser pointer through the window to temporarily blind a bus driver supposedly following at the same distance as the camera truck. The bus would swerve, which would lead to a crash.
In order to avoid the crashing bus hurdling toward him, Skyler needed to cleanly execute his next move, a Rockford turn. After reversing at high speed for a few seconds, he cut the wheel again, slamming on the brakes. The Charger again flipped around clockwise. As soon as he was parallel with the highway, Skyler slammed the Charger into first gear and floored it. The car fishtailed before rocketing down the road. Skyler shifted into second, third, and fourth gears, no longer worried about the distance from the camera truck. He reached 70 miles-per-hour and then screamed triumphantly. The slides had been perfect and Skyler knew they looked incredible on camera.
Skyler let the Charger run for another half mile before turning around and coasting back to the crew. The people in the camera truck raised their arms in appreciation and flashed him two thumbs up. The look on Paul’s face showed he was impressed. He hurried over from the camera truck to greet Skyler.
“It looked very tight! Very nice!” called Paul.
“I know,” replied Skyler smugly. “You’re going to use it, right?”
“We’ll have to reshoot to get the angles right. You can do it again, can’t you?”
“I can do it a hundred times if you want,” replied Skyler.
Paul laughed. “Cool. I like that gunslinger attitude. We gotta figure out a nickname for you. All the best drivers have nicknames.”
Skyler smiled, thinking of all the potential nicknames he would like.
“Let’s grab a quick lunch everyone!” Paul shouted toward the camera truck. “Can you radio the others and have them meet us in town?”
Someone in the camera truck waved an acknowledgment and then, unexpectedly, Paul walked to the passenger side of the Charger and got in. “We might as well drive this into Lompoc,” he said to Skyler.
“Sounds good!” Skyler responded excitedly. He turned the car around and drove with Paul toward the town.
Lompoc sat on a lonely piece of California’s Central Coast. It existed because of the nearby federal prison and Vandenberg Air Force Base. Although Lompoc was close to the ocean, the surf was dangerous and its beaches were not a draw for visitors. Lompoc remained relatively small, but it did have some good local diners, which had been discovered by the film crew.
“So what do you think of Lompoc?” Paul asked Skyler as they started on their way to town.
“It’s okay. I’ve seen a lot worse places,” Skyler answered with a shrug.
“I don’t know how much you’ve figured out yet, but all we’re doing here is shooting the opening scene. It’s important because it’s the first thing people see, but the whole thing is going to be like one-minute long. Most of the shooting will be in other places.”
“What other places?”
“Puerto Rico, Atlanta, out in the Mojave Desert. I think the coolest stuff will be in Puerto Rico. I need to get the Lompoc scenes shot quickly so I can get down there. You ever been to Puerto Rico?”
“No. I’ve been to Florida. I liked that.”
“I’m sure you’d like Puerto Rico too. You got anything keeping you in California, like a full time job?”
“Nothing I wouldn’t be happy to quit,” said Skyler with a laugh.
“Well, I might be able to arrange something. The more drivers we’ve got, the smoother the shoots go. And someone young and thin like you can pass for any of the actors when you’re in a wig. But I can’t promise anything. I’m just a stunt director, not the big boss.”
“Oh, you seem like the big boss to me,” said Skyler.
“Someday, I hope,” replied Paul with an appreciative smile.
Everything sounded so good to Skyler that a spike of adrenaline surged through him. He felt bold, even reckless, and was eager to prove to Paul that he was worth taking to Puerto Rico. They had reached the first intersections on the outskirts of Lompoc and Skyler scanned for other cars while stopped at a red light. No one else was around.
“How about I do a donut right here?” Skyler said to Paul in a cocky voice.
Paul scanned the roads in both directions. He chuckled and said, “Go ahead if you really want to. Just don’t hurt the car.”
“As soon as the light turns green,” said Skyler.
The light switched and he eased into the intersection with the back wheels spinning. Then he flipped the car around in a full circle with smoke flying up from the tires.
“Okay, okay!” cried Paul with a laugh. “I love it but we need some tread on the tires.”
Skyler straightened out the Charger and crept further into town. He eased back in the seat, rolled down the window and confidently stuck his elbow outside. When he had to stop at an intersection, he loudly revved the engine before moving along.
“Okay, there’s that place we liked,” called Paul. “On the corner.” He pointed toward a diner with plenty of seating. It was located in a single-story stucco building with large glass windows. “There’s no parking lot around here,” continued Paul. “You’ll have to find a spot and park on the street.”
Skyler continued past the diner until Paul pointed out an open spot between two pickup trucks. The gap was just big enough for the Charger. “Let’s see you fit this in there,” said Paul.
Skyler was still in the mood to impress. He was not going to parallel park like some nervous student driver. He was going to slip the Charger into place with power and speed. He pulled up closely to the first pickup truck, looked casually behind his shoulder, and jolted backwards. He wanted to execute a single smooth turn, but he underestimated the width of the Charger’s hood. He cut the wheel too soon and too fast. The sickening sound of metal on metal shrieked from the Charger’s right front panel. The car came to rest against the sidewalk. Paul jumped out immediately.
“No! What did you do?” Paul screamed. “I told you we only have one Charger to work with!”
Skyler sheepishly opened his door and crept to the other side of the car. Paul was rubbing the huge dent and scrape in the Charger’s quarter panel where it had dragged across the truck’s bumper. The bumper’s white paint had rubbed off onto the Charger’s black finish.
“No hiding that!” yelled Paul.
Skyler pinched up his face like the sight of the damage physically hurt. “I’m sorry,” he muttered.
“One minute you’re doing donuts in the intersection and the next minute you can’t even parallel park! What’s wrong with you?”
“I don’t know. I’m sorry,” said Skyler in humiliation.
“There goes the scene we had planned. We can’t shoot it like this. We’ll have to think of something else so we can hide the damage. Oh, this is going to throw us off schedule. It’s all going to be on my head. First scene and it’s already screwed up.”
Skyler thought maybe some paint would hide the long scratch, but he did not want to mention it to Paul. He kept his head down and wished he could go back only a few minutes in time.
As the rest of the crew arrived, Paul pointed out angrily why the afternoon’s shoot was a total bust. People shook their heads like it was a shame and started brainstorming different ways the damaged Charger could still be used. They would simply have to rely more on the other cars that were supposed to be part of the scene.
Paul did not sit next to Skyler at the diner. Instead of what should have been a casual, happy lunch, everyone tensely discussed a new shooting strategy. After the meal, Skyler was no longer allowed near the Charger. He rode back to the film site in one of the vans used by the camera technicians.
The change in plans pushed filming back by two days. Someone yelled at Paul on his phone and he yelled at the crew. When the essential people left for Puerto Rico, Skyler did not get an invite, although he still got paid for his time sitting around Lompoc.
Skyler still talks about his role in Fast and Furious 5 to anyone willing to listen. He also performs donuts on any empty piece of pavement he finds. But he swears he has learned his lesson about one thing. He will never again, under any circumstance, parallel park.
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