By Geno McGahee
The great thing about film is ability to paint a picture in any way that you see fit. The producers have a blank slate to create something that is made for entertainment and to keep eyes on the film. Without the restrictions of reality, the movies have been responsible for some of the most interesting moments and have given birth to some characters that had more than good luck when it came to a hopeless situation. It may not be realistic, but this is art and there are no bounds. So, we take a look at the luckiest film characters that got away with something that seemed nearly impossible.
One form of luck that you often see in film is the big win at a casino or the lottery. For instance, WAKING NED DEVINE was a film that saw the lead character cash in. Ned Devine won the Irish Lottery, only to die of shock, creating quite the stir among the town of under sixty people. Written and directed by Kirk Jones, the film showed a great deal of heart and that every dark cloud has a silver lining.
Marty McFly of BACK TO THE FUTURE, played by Michael J. Fox is one of the luckiest characters in the history of film. When his dear friend, Doc (Christopher Lloyd), invites him for a time-traveling demonstration, a group of terrorists attack. They kill Doc and chasing down McFly. At the moment they are going to shoot and kill McFly, their gun jams and he is able to escape. Later on, McFly would have his car stall, only to start up just in time to catch lightning and get home. McFly has eluded death in all three entries of the series through the luckiest of means.
In the 1997 film “TITANIC,” Caledon Hockley, played by William Zane, was easy to hate. Trapping a young woman, Rose (Kate Winslet), into a loveless marriage, while trying to rid the world of her newfound love, Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio), showed how much of a villain he was. In film, there is usually some justice and the fans awaited the death of Hockely, only to find out that he escapes the boat, nabbing a young boy at the last minute to get on an escape boat and live the rest of his life while Jack would see his demise.
The A-TEAM was one of the most popular action sitcoms of all time and it was translated into a feature film in 2010 with a great cast and spirit. It was fair to expect the film to be over the top, but it led to some of the luckiest moments in film history. When Hannibal (Liam Neeson), Face (Bradley Cooper), B.A. (Quinton “Rampage” Jackson) and Murdoch (Sharlto Copley) get dropped from a tank in the sky, they find a way to fly the tank and land in a lake, safely. They also avoid heat-seeking rockets as they fly a helicopter. The group is easily the luckiest group of friends in film history.
INDEPENDENCE DAY brought the audience unbeatable aliens focused on destroying the world. Buildings are being destroyed, people are being killed, and only two people seem to have the answer to save humanity, a soldier, Hiller (Will Smith), and a scientist, David (Jeff Goldblum). With an outrageous storyline, it should be no surprise that the film would showcase a lot of unrealistic scenes, including one of the most absurd inside the mother ship. Hiller and David hijack a spaceship to fly into the mother ship to plant a computer virus and somehow escape an impossible situation, making it back down to earth in one piece, making them about as lucky as you can be.
Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels may not have been that smart in the 1993 film “DUMB & DUMBER”, but they were very lucky at several moments. After stumbling upon a million dollars, they barely escaped a murder attempt, accidentally killing the goon that was planning on taking them out. When the police were hot on their trail, the duo changed up their vehicle for a motorbike, once again showing that luck was on their side and kept them away from any trouble. It may be rare to consider Harry and Lloyd lucky characters considering their lack of intelligence and overall silly nature of the film, it’s hard to argue when you look at all the situations they got out of that saved their skin.
What makes film so great is escapism. There is no need to be reality-based. Watching the hero make impossible jumps like The Rock did in SKYSCRAPER or Tom Cruise defying the odds in the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE films make for a great experience for the viewer and it exactly why the producers keep injecting luck into the characters because if reality struck, the movies would be a lot less exciting.
