George Clooney and Vera Farmiga in "Up in the Air"
We saw the film "Up in the Air" back over the Christmas holiday, and I watched it again on my flight to Amsterdam last Saturday. It's quite a bit more than your average holiday-season romantic comedy. Since the main character, Ryan Bingham (played by George Clooney) is a Road Warrior, I have some travel-related thoughts on the film that went a bit outside the scope of the full-blown review I did.
Let's put those thoughts after the jump as a SPOILER ALERT.
Ryan Bingham, the protagonist of "Up in the Air" fires people for a living. He works for a company that is hired by other companies to lay off their employees. Given the legal trips and pitfalls involved with firing someone, a lot of companies bring in people who are trained in the process so their regular managers don't screw up and say something that can get them sued. Bingham is one of those consultants, and travels to 3-4 cities a week to ply his trade. He's in the top flight of road warriors, and his travel goal is ten million miles with American Airlines. The romantic connection of the film stems from the road warrior aspect of Bingham's life--he encounters Alex Goran (played by Vera Farmiga) in a hotel bar and they start talking about life out of a suitcase.
It's all quite believable. While most of the "mine-is-bigger-than-yours" discussions I've encountered are between men, there are enough competitive women out there that I can see it happening. Folks who don't travel regularly may look at the scenes full of AA, Hilton, and Hertz as product placement, but it's all true: Hertz #1 and Avis Preferred folks get to bypass the regular rental desk. AA elite fliers walk the red carpet; we Delta elites do the blue "Breezeway." I've personally experienced the pissed-off-hotel-guest scene when you walk up to the "Hilton Honors" desk position in the lobby and the desk clerk abandons the regular line to check you in.
As a Delta elite flier, I enjoyed seeing things from the AA perspective. Seeing DFW, and Admiral's Clubs rather than ATL, SLC, and Skyclubs held my attention. Of course, the movies never really can portray the cramped quarters of a commercial jet. For example, there is no way Sam Elliot would be able to walk past George Clooney on an AA MD-88 without Clooney having to stand up and back out first. Even in first class, it would be awkward.
Then there's the long-distance-relationship in the movie. Yes, this is also very believable. Most road warriors have a different persona when working/traveling than when home. It's often an extension of the "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" philosophy. Sometimes it's a hookup between a serious road warrior and a casual convention-goer who's up for a fling, sometimes two warriors connect and start a LDR. Online messaging and chatting with a road warrior also creates the "girl in every port" scenario as well, something I'm often accused of. It's true, too, because I enjoy meeting and going out with folks I'd never meet face-to-face otherwise. I consider it a fringe benefit of hours of waiting on planes and in airports, as well as having to give up New Orleans food when I travel.
But, of course, sometimes what happens on the road doesn't stay there. With any relationship where there are "rules," one or the other of the principals is bound to break them. When that happens, lives get complicated, families suffer, and it's just not fun anymore.
But for many road warriors, it's part of the allure of the lifestyle. We all have a little bit of gambler in us.
