Let’s face it: sometimes we all wish our daily lives could be like the movies. It may be true that the stars of many blockbusters find themselves in stressful, potentially world-ending situations, but who wouldn’t sink their teeth into a purposeful adrenaline rush in the face of increasingly dystopian humdrum?
At the very least, if we can’t live such commotion ourselves, we should get to watch it happen in the real world with our own two eyes. TikTok‘s @nelina.jade lucked out in this regard when her commute to work turned into a shoestring-budget Fast & Furious event.
As Nelina and her friend painstakingly made their way through the unforgiving pachinko game of California traffic, they spotted a police vehicle not far ahead of the congestion. Its lights were going off, so whatever it was responding to likely had a hand in slowing down this particular flow of traffic.
Sure enough, beef was brewing between a cop and pedestrian who appeared to be taking a stroll in the middle of the freeway, and 25 seconds into the video saw that beef explode into a full-on foot race. The cop charged at the man in the name of order and the man charged away from the cop in the name of freedom. The chase got severe enough that multiple officers and the police vehicle itself had to get involved to pin the suspect down.
Of course, this little incident is, on the whole, less Fast & Furious and more Brisk & Miffed. And while we can’t be quite sure why the police aren’t particularly fond of this guy, worse things could have happened in a setting like a busy freeway. According to Karlin & Karlin, roughly 250,000 road accidents resulting in injury are reported in California each year, and roughly a quarter of people who die from car accidents globally are pedestrians. Perhaps, then, this on-camera loose cannon should count himself lucky that the vehicular onlookers didn’t get too impatient.
All we’re left wondering now is what this scene could have been if the VFX and writing budget had been given a bit more heft. Narratively, the chase failed to capture the mental state of both chaser and chasee, and while the choreographers should arguably shoulder most all of that blame, they can only do so much with a thinly-plotted script. And if nothing else, it would have been cool to get a dragon rendered somewhere in that scene. Beyond being objectively badass, dragons provide a very good reason to run. It’s a win-win. Indeed, the producers really seemed to whiff 2 Baby 2 Driver here. Oh well, at least no one seemed to be hurt.