Flight, starring Denzel Washington, is a poignant step-one story of an alcoholic’s journey to admitting powerlessness. Riveting, emotional and true to the reality of the suffering addict, this 2012 film is packed with action, tension and of course – frothy emotional appeals!
Following the life of a troubled airline pilot Captain ‘Whip’ Whitaker, played by Denzel Washington, we see a man who has a penchant for alcohol, cocaine and airline stewardesses. We are quickly brought into the harrowing experience of a routine flight gone terribly wrong. Captain Whitaker and his crew narrowly escape a storm and while he makes an announcement to a cabin full of passengers, the smooth-talking pilot covertly opens a few mini-vodka bottles and pours himself a stiff drink. Suddenly a catastrophic mechanical malfunction causes the engines to fail and the plane plunges into a nose dive. What unfolds is a terrifying scene that brought tears to my eyes and was rather difficult to watch. Captain Whitaker gives commands to the co-pilot and flight attendant and he turns the plane upside down to avoid a nose dive, buying time and landing the plane (albeit, crashing) in a farmer’s field. He saves most of the passengers and gains a reputation as a hero, but that’s not all.
Whip discovers that the National Transportation Safety Board will be conducting a routine investigation into the crash. Thus begins a series of promises Whip makes to quit drinking. The Doctor’s Opinion in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous refers to this trademark move of every untreated addict, “They are always ‘going on the wagon for keeps’. They are over-remorseful and make many resolutions, but never a decision.” (AA, p. xxvii)
In the hospital following the plane crash, we are introduced to Whip’s friend and dealer, Harlan Mays (John Goodman) who supplies Whip with liquor and pornography. Whip tells Harlan he is done drinking. He genuinely believes he can stop drinking it if he sets his mind to it, but Whip is an alcoholic who is not armed with the facts about himself and his habit of drinking.
Then Whip meets Nicole, an attractive hard-drug user who survived an overdose. During a smokebreak in the hospital stairwell, a charismatic cancer patient emerges from the basement and waxes poetic about God. Whip and Nicole are introduced to the concept of a Higher Power of their own understanding. “We spend all this time trying to control things – it’s bullshit.” says the cancer patient. He speaks of God’s plan and alludes to Whip surviving the airplane crash and Nicole surviving an overdose and being brought together in the stairwell. A romance begins.
As recovered addicts we know that a belief in a power greater than ourselves is essential, but also that “Faith without works is dead.” (AA, p. 15) Whether he has faith or not, Whip looks for easier, softer ways. We call these ‘logs’, strategies that we cling to which may keep our heads above water for “maybe a day, a week, a month, a year, maybe longer, but at some point, the logs fail us as a power and we slip and drown.” (Big Book Sponsorship Guide, p. 4)
Whip attempts various strategies to quit drinking including will power, resolutions, oaths, promises, environmental changes, avoiding triggers, relationships, having a body-guard, frothy emotional appeals, threats, ultimatums, guilt, shame, remorse, suffering, humiliation, pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. Strategies we all know too well! We employ tremendous effort to avoid admitting powerlessness. Furthermore, Whip is operating on a swath of defects of characters, namely fear, selfishness, dishonesty and of course the number one offender –resentment. He knows he is facing major consequences for flying a commercial airline under the influence of drugs and alcohol and he tries to convince the lead flight attendant and the co-pilot to vouch for him that it was a normal day at work. Afterall, it was in fact a normal day, since Whip was normally hung-over and drunk at work.
Of course Whip continues to drink and promises that he will quit and remains unable to do so. We see Nicole, now his girlfriend, get sober through attending AA meetings, following the instructions of the Big Book and working with a sponsor. Though Whip attends a meeting with her, he is unable to hear the message. Nicole leaves him shortly after this as she becomes aware of the Big Book suggestion, “If he does not want to stop drinking, don’t waste time trying to persuade him.” (AA, p. 90)
The climax of the film remains vivid in my mind. Whip has nine days of sobriety, and is sequestered in a hotel room with a body guard the night before national hearing where he plans to testify that he was sober on the day of the crash. We see an untreated addict drying out; he is restless, irritable and discontent. The tension is palpable. Then we hear a knocking sound in the room. Whip discovers the door to the adjoining hotel room is unlocked and clanging in the wind. He enters the empty room to close the balcony doors. Then he sees the mini fridge. He opens it and it glows with unnatural luminosity. This is often the case with our drug of choice, it seems to emanate a sort of supernatural power and we are undoubtedly under the spell of “the mental twist which leads to the first drink of a spree.” (AA, p. 92) Whip removes a mini-vodka bottle, opens it and smells it. Somehow, he puts the cap back on and leaves it on top of the fridge. Wow. There is a moment of victory. We see the mini-vodka bottle sitting in the dimly lit room. At the last moment, Whip’s hand swipes the bottle. Insanity ensues.
This is our reality as untreated addicts. How many times do we succeed in having short bouts of sobriety and then without even thinking, our hand grabs a joint, a bottle, or texts a problematic person in our life and we are back at it in the blink of an eye? “The insane idea won out. Next day we would ask ourselves, in all earnestness and sincerity, how it could have happened.” (AA, p. 37) Whip is discovered the next morning bloody and unconscious, the hotel room utterly trashed. With less than an hour before the trial, his dealer Harlan Mays is summoned and Whip is restored to somewhat a functioning state and ready for the trial, high on cocaine.
Under oath Whip lies about his alcohol and drug use and it seems as though he is about to escape a sentence of imprisonment. And then, in the final scene of the trial, Whip reaches a point where he could not tell even one more lie. Against all odds, he admits that he was intoxicated on the day of the crash, and that he is drunk even at this moment, because he is an alcoholic. Tears sprung to my eyes hearing him say “Because I’m an alcoholic.” To watch an addict go to such lengths to try and run the show, to exhaust all other options and then eventually submit to the fact that there is nothing left to do…this could be any of our stories. We all walked this path as untreated addicts, and gratefully our addiction “finally beat us into a state of reasonableness.” (AA, p. 48) We are able to admit our own powerlessness, work the 12 Steps and discover the “spiritual principles would solve all our problems.” (AA, p.42)
The act of admitting powerlessness brings us a new chance at life. Whip is sentenced to many years in prison but we see him speaking to his inmates at an AA meeting and he shares that through his sobriety he has never felt so free. He speaks of the amends he made, we see that his relationship with Nicole and with his family have been restored. Whip knows “a new freedom and a new happiness.” (AA, p. 83) We see a man, who through admitting powerlessness, working the 12 Steps and carrying the message gets “A new life…“a design for living’’ that really works. (AA, p. 28).
Review by MarLa