In the movie “Need for Speed,” which filmed in numerous spots in Georgia and hits theaters today, star Aaron Paul’s character makes excellent time and some questionable choices.
With a tight deadline to move a muscle car from coast to coast, he zooms up and down and occasionally over the road, hitting 100 miles per hour in midday traffic, roaring up exit ramps and through parking lots, swerving from lane to lane. His destination: a secret and illegal street race in California. Look out, other drivers!
The $66 million movie was inspired by the bestselling video game by the same name. Depending on which review you read, it is a “thrilling stunt fest” (Associated Press), “aggressively idiotic” (The Wrap) or “so bad it’s good” (Forbes).
Voiceover artist Kelly Stevens of Roswell does not plan to find out. Two years and eight surgeries after a head-on collision on Georgia 400 — which left him with compound fractures in his left leg and left arm, a shattered left elbow, cracked ribs and vertebrae and other injuries — he can still recall the horror of metal crashing into metal in real life. He has no interest in seeing it in the theater.
“I saw the hood of my car crinkle in,” he said. “It made this huge explosion like something I’ve never heard before. My car flipped. I ended up somehow in the back seat, lying on the roof. It seemed like it took forever for the fire department to get there. They started breaking windows and they used the Jaws of Life. They needed me to crawl out. I remember the sensation of not wanting to do it because I didn’t want to leave my arm behind.”
For months after the wreck, which killed the driver whose car was traveling on the wrong side of the highway, Stevens couldn’t pass the crash site without a full flashback. He’d literally smell the charred metal again. Airbag powder would seem to fill the air. Grateful to be alive, he still suffers survivor’s guilt.
“I play this game sometimes: What if I’d left two minutes later or two minutes sooner?” he said. “And then I think if I had, she might have hit somebody else, in a smaller car, who might not have survived.”
His crash was one of a cluster that happened in just a couple of weeks in August 2012. In all, five people died. Audio of 911 calls released after one of the wrecks recorded a frantic onlooker describing the carnage as it happened.
“I just watched a truck just running down the wrong lane. He just ran head-on. … It turned into a fireball. … Oh my God!” the caller told a Fulton County operator. A driver heading southbound in the northbound lanes of I-85 had collided head-on with another vehicle, killing the wrong-way driver and a passenger in the second vehicle.
So, ready for the movie? You can have Stevens’ seat.
“To think that Hollywood would somehow glorify something without showing the consequences is somewhat irresponsible,” he said. “When you’re driving a motor vehicle you’re driving a multi-ton missile. Doing so irresponsibly has consequences.”
It’s not hard to find academic research studying a potential link between on-screen and real-life driving.
“Teens who play mature-rated, risk-glorifying video games may be more likely than those who don’t to become reckless drivers who experience increases in automobile accidents,” begins a report by the American Psychological Association, based on a study, led by Dr. Jay G. Hull of Dartmouth College, of more than 5,000 U.S. teenagers.
A much larger study of more than 80,000 participants, led by Dr. Peter Fischer of the University of Graz, looked at the “surge of media content that glorifies risk-taking behavior, such as risky driving” and found a link to risk-taking inclinations.
But come on. A movie about crazy driving isn’t going to turn viewers into crazy drivers, right? Tons of funny movies hit theaters every year. How many people suddenly turn hilarious after viewing them?
The studio sent Paul, costar Scott Mescudi and director Scott Waugh back to Atlanta for a recent promotional tour stop, and it’s ridiculously obvious to state that no one associated with “Need for Speed” wants you to drive to the theater on the wrong side of the road.
“Kids are smarter than we give them credit for,” Mescudi said.
“Our audiences are very smart,” Waugh said.
“Just be safe,” Paul said.
All three sounded hopeful about a sequel.
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