The man who flew at the speed of a bullet A documentary that tells about the record of Felix Baumgartner.
Or rather, a few fantastic achievements he set on October 14, 2012. On that day, the 43-year-old Austrian skydiver, skydiver and base jumper wrote his name in history, breaking the speed of sound in free fall. It was 1342 km per hour, while the Austrian jumped from a record height of 39 km 450 meters, measuring in parallel and the longest free fall (36.5 km). In addition, flying 4 minutes and 20 seconds in free fall, he only 10 seconds did not reach the official record of our countryman, a native of Novosibirsk Yevgeny Andreyev, established in 1962. However, the last fact in the film is silent, but tells something else.
Baumgartner from 1999, the year beat one after another different records related to skydiving, until he made this, according to him, the main leap of life. Such records are broken no more than once in half a century, at least as much and even a little more held the previous highest achievement of the American astronaut Joseph Kittinger, who jumped from a height of 31 km 300 meters in August 1960. And this time the former record holder helped Baumgartner and led the operation from the ground.
A non-fiction film by the British National Geographic Channel and BBC Television Centre, not only in technical detail, but in all dramatic detail, recreates the story of this project, which stretched for four years, instead of the planned one, many times exceeding budget spending, and being several times on the verge of complete stoppage. Disputes, intrigues, fears, misunderstandings, unforeseen circumstances that almost became fatal accidents, confusion and just an organizational mess - all this completely fell not the share of the team and its chief newsmaker in the process of preparing and implementing the plan. Up to the very start, new shoals came out, so it seems that even there could not do without the traditional Russian “maybe”.
Thanks to this film, it became possible to watch how the athlete almost crashed during one of the last training sessions, when he accidentally unfastened the parachute and only at the last moment managed to use the reserve. Or when already during a record jump he entered an insidious flat corkscrew, which many seriously feared, but then still coped with the situation. This movie is almost an hour and a half suspense that no feature film can imitate. In any case, suspense for the author of these lines, which even a short stay on the balcony of an ordinary nine-story building does not dispose of unnecessary body movements.
Actually, the jump itself (filmed by twenty cameras), which almost live (with a directive delay of 20 seconds - in case of a possible blackout of the broadcast in an adverse development of events) was watched on YouTube by more than seven million people, in the film was supplemented by significant details that turned it from a news fact into a serious drama, almost turning into a tragedy. In addition, the film chronicles the unsuccessful attempt to break Kittinger’s record, which on May 1, 1966, was undertaken by 33-year-old lover of long jumps Nick Piantineda. But during the ascent to an altitude of 38 km, his suit shield opened halfway, after which everything ended quite sadly.
And this was not the first victim (among the dead is our tester Pyotr Dolgov) record jumps from the stratosphere, which due to too high risk were suspended for many years. The greater the price of what we see here: Felix’s childhood dream of flying has become not just a reality, but the transcendence of human capabilities. That’s why, without false pathos, I’ll say: Space Immersion is an inspiring and life-affirming film about the boundless power of the human spirit. Along with such non-fiction masterpieces as Touching the Emptiness (2003) and Ropewalker (2007), also, incidentally, shot by the British, I would include it in a kind of trilogy about outstanding personalities of our time.