Friday, March 6, 2015

Harrison Ford Crashes Plane, But He'll Be All Right



If you are just now hearing this news from my blog, I'm kind of disappointed in you.  And also wondering what hole you've been hiding in for the last day.  Yesterday afternoon in Los Angeles, Harrison Ford crashed his plane into a golf course.  The news broke very shortly after it happened, and I was informed by one of you fine people, and then I immediately went to Twitter and Google, mostly in the hopes that it was a hoax.  This would not be the first time that someone went on the internet and tried to convince everyone that Harrison was dead.  Unfortunately, further research indicated that it looked pretty darn true, and then I spent the next hour with an unreasonably high heart rate, just sitting still and looking for updates.  Just for your own future reference, I've found Twitter to be the best source of developing stories.  Millions of users and easily searchable, and some of the information is instantly available directly from people who were actually there to witness it.  It is both amazing and frightening sometimes, this world we live in.

After some initial panic and reading a lot of headlines that said "critical condition" which you should all know is basically a death sentence, further updates revealed that he had been awake and talking and stable when they got him out of the plane.  Then eventually his son Ben used Twitter to send a message telling us all that his dad was going to be ok.  See?  I told you Twitter was a great resource.

According to Ben:

"At the hospital. Dad is ok. Battered, but ok! He is every bit the man you would think he is. He is an incredibly strong man."

Now that was comforting in two ways: First, that Harrison will be all right.  Second, to learn that he is just what we all like to think he is.  Now that we know that, I don't think we need any more evidence, like having him crash his plane and come out all right.

I'll be honest, I've thought before about how I'll feel when he dies.  I mean, unless I die pretty young, and that would be a bigger problem I think, I'm going to be around to learn of his death.  I don't know what it is, as I don't really have much attachment to any other celebrities, but I just know I'm going to be really upset when he dies.  Which is why he is not allowed to die for at least twenty more years.  Minimum.  Only when he is old enough that he has done and seen everything there is to see and do, then he is allowed to go peacefully.  Hopefully not in a fiery plane crash.  Seeing that news and all that critical condition talk, I really did get nervous.  And I thought I might be ok if he only made it ten more years, but then last week Spock died, and I have never even seen an episode of Star Trek, and only seen the new movies (plus I think once my parents had us sit through Wrath of Khan when we were kids, but I don't remember anything about it)  and he is about ten years older than Harrison and even that sort of made me sad and made me realize that early eighties is still not old enough for us to be able to say, "Well, it was just his time."  No.  We are not done with him yet.

For any of you who haven't read details, he is banged up pretty good but should make a full recovery.  Although there were reports that he had a pretty major gash on his forehead, so one wonders if he may have a new scar to balance out the one on his chin but that remains to be seen.  There are also reports of some other broken bones but nothing confirmed there and no new updates today.  Trust me, I check constantly.  All I seem to get when I check are more jokes about the Kessel Run and Boba Fett taking him down or the classic line from Indy, "Fly?  Yes. Land? No."  As well as some creative pictures.  I admit the humor does help, especially since it means that it's not serious enough that we are not allowed to joke about it.

One good thing that has come out of this is that Harrison is all over the news.  Not just the bad news either, but clips from his movies.  I for one would like to see this push the Academy to finally give him the Lifetime Achievement Oscar he needs because there is apparently no chance they will ever give him one for acting.  Or, even better, nominate him and give him one for his portrayal of Han Solo in Episode VII.  How amazing would that be?  I mean, that will never, EVER happen, but it would be pretty awesome.

One thing has become clear through all of this, although I had suspected it anyway: Everyone freaking loves Harrison Ford.  Seriously.  I mean, everyone was going crazy at the thought of the loss of this iconic actor.  And then there is all of this talk about how "heroic" he was by being able to bring the plane down like he did, because the engine totally failed.  There was nothing he could've done, and he did everything "right" under the circumstances.  It is oddly comforting that it appears that most people love him as much as I do.  (ok, maybe not quite as much, but still)  I mean, the second person I heard the news from was my brother, who even through text sounded genuinely concerned before I reassured him that the first reports of "critical injuries" were not true.  This may also help anyone who was previously joking about not wanting to see this old man in the new Blade Runner movie.  I mean, now that we almost lost him, let's put him in all the movies!  I'm not kidding.  ALL the movies.

When I heard the news I was actually watching Crystal Skull on TV.  I had the frightening thought as I watched that the old Indy on screen was actually SEVEN YEARS YOUNGER than Harrison when he reprized the role of Han Solo.  I mean, he's gotten so old.  I get even more depressed when I realize how old he really has gotten, and how long ago he was actually my age (hint: he was my age before I was even born, and I'm no spring chicken anymore) But we're definitely still not ready for him to go yet.  I do hope that he heals quickly and makes at least a few more awesome movies before he's done.  And that when he does die, he is super duper old and we will be at peace with it.

And hopefully this will be just like the broken leg a few months ago (he's had a rough year, hasn't he?) and in a month or so he'll be totally fine and we'll have forgotten what we were so concerned about.  You know, I've always worried that he would die in a plane crash and last night for a little while I thought I was right.  If he does, I hope it is not for a very, very long time.  Ok, that is probably enough babbling about my love for Harrison and relief that he will be all right. 

21 comments:

  1. Actually, I think Mr. Ford will enjoy the visual jokes that have sprung up on the Internet. Like some of my colleagues, there are people with too much time on their hands and too much access to PhotoShop.

    Based on what I recall from my engineering classes back while dinosaurs roamed the Earth, he is a very highly skilled pilot. Any amateur trying that would have been dead. As for getting old, well, it beats the alternative. He's had a long and illustrious career and doesn't seem ready for retirement just yet. The big issue as he gets older is if he can be insured to completion of film projects. So far, that doesn't seem to be an obstacle.

    I became a fan in 1977 at the tender age of 21. When VII hits the screen, I'll be 60 and still a fan. That's kind of nice.

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  2. Last night my husband and daughter kept reading me evil internet rumors and finally I got mad and said he was not dead, because if he was dead I would know. And my daughter was like, what, you could FEEL it through the Force? And I was like, of course not, because that would be silly.

    But really, just between us? I think maybe I would know.

    Jzhanfan

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    1. Lol that you would know. When I saw the plane wreckage and the words "critical condition" I really thought that might be it. Especially since I'd always worried that was how he would go, though not this soon, damn it! So then I made it my mission for the next two hours or so to continue searching for updates that would tell me that he would be OK. Fortunately this strategy paid off. But it was a tense few hours! Although I've been annoyed that there haven't really been ant updates since the first one that night. I need to know what is happening. I did see some new pictures on the news last night. It was actually clear enough to see the blood on his face and recognize him. It was from the side and of course his head was wrapped up and he was lying on the stretcher. It is very different seeing real blood on his face as opposed to the maybe 50% of his movies where he winds up with blood on his face. Definitely scary. Although I was glad to see it was actually a little less than i expected based on bystander talk. I'm just so glad he'll be OK and I'll be even happier when most of the talk about him is in reference to Star Wars and the new Blade Runner movie.

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  3. Zyra,

    I know you love the man, as do we all. And I know you didn't mean this line:
    "Only when he is old enough to really no longer be of any use to us," in any sense other than with an open heart and a wish for Harrison Ford to live a long, long, wonderful life. But please please tweak that line, because it's reading a little creepy, and I know you don't mean that!
    xx
    Cammie

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    1. And I really really don't say that in a meanspirited way at all. I'm sure it's just that I'm really hypersensitive to any hint of utilitarianism with regard to older folks, as I have two parents a few years older than Harrison, and the way we look at and talk about older folks in US society is a huge problem.

      Cammie

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    2. No, that's not really what I meant, I can change that line. I'm not knocking old people, but I do believe there does come a time in a person's life when you finally can feel the most all right you will ever feel about them finally departing. When they've done everything and seen everything and there is just nothing left that they want or need to do. It's always going to be sad, but it's less sad after a certain point, which is going to be different for everyone.

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  4. Spock didn't die, BTW. Leonard Nimoy, a great man and a great actor, died.

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  5. Also, as a little update, Ben just tweeted again thanking everyone for their concern (it has to be kind of amazing to see thousands, perhaps millions, of people, voicing their concern) and telling us that he is "on the mend" and doing well. I admit I'm relieved, I was getting worried without any updates on his condition!

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  6. I about had a heart attack when I saw this news last night. Lol, Zyra I was watching Crystal Skull at the time too. Was pretty frustrated by lack of updates and was glad when one of us said his son tweeted. And thanks for the update. He certainly is every bit of the man we think he is. Glad he is such a good pilot. But good gravy, could he stay in bed already? Or find a safer hobby?

    I get what you mean about attachment to celebrities. This one and Carrie might be pretty hard. Robin Williams passing struck me more than I thought it might. That one really got to me.

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  7. I suspect that UCLA Medical Center has been requested to not make updates. They get a lot of celebrity clients and they tend toward discretion.

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  8. Poor guy, he's not having much luck is he? Broken leg only mere months ago and now this. He has to be one tough cookie, but I wish he wouldn't keep scaring me like this. I couldn't go to bed that night until I read that tweet from Ben saying he was going to be ok.

    Harrison, please get some safer hobbies. You should be PLAYING golf at your age not crashing planes into golf courses, lol :)

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    1. Speaking of bad luck, Carrie Fisher has a theory. She said: “Things happen in threes. I’m about to call (co-star) Mark Hamill to make sure he’s OK. I have a horrid feeling there’s a curse going on here... What is funny is that last Sunday it was raining hard in L.A. I was driving to the art store and I got into an accident. It wasn’t that serious and I wasn’t hurt but it’s the first car accident I’ve ever had. I drove home and that’s when the wheel came off my BMW. My assistant told me I could have died if the wheel had come off when I was on the freeway. Then I was watching the news and saw Harrison had his crash. I’m a bit worried it’s the curse of Star Wars.” :)

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    2. Lol, Claire, I'm with you. I hope he has a safer hobby he can devote his time to. At least everyone says he's a experienced pilot. It makes you wonder how nervous Leia would get about Han flying.

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  9. On the bright side, this unfortunate incident gave us some interesting info about our favorite pair of actors. I read in the Toronto star the following: "Fisher goes on to reveal she has sent a case of beer to Ford as he recovers from his plane crash injuries in hospital as part of a long-running joke between the pair. She explains, “(One time) he said, ’Look, do you want to fly or can we have a beer?’ He wouldn’t have a drink if we were going to fly. It became something of a joke between us that I chose to have a beer that time rather than fly. I sent him some beers to the hospital with the message, ’You should have had a beer this time’.”
    I think it's sweet and funny!

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    1. I saw that article the other day, it made me smile.

      In other news, they have confirmed that the engine failed and he had no choice but to do what he did, so that is good. Nothing else he could've done.

      And I need to stop checking for updates because there never are any. I even went back to the blog post on the broken leg incident and there weren't any updates then either so I don't know why I expected anything different!

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  10. Hi.

    I love this fan page. I love this post. Great reading. Thanks.

    iluvkoalas

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