Background information
The End: 3 rules for a perfect film ending
by Luca Fontana
And cut! What’s up with «India Golf Niner-Niner is buddy-spiked» in The Incredibles?
14.2.2019
Translation: Jessica Johnson-Ferguson
In one of the most memorable scenes in the movie «The Incredibles», mum and superhero Helen Parr is desperately sending radio messages to save her family. All along she’s using cryptic terms. What’s ingenious about this? All of them were deliberate.
In «The Incredibles», the retired superhero family deals with everyday problems we’re all familiar with: pubescent kids, midlife crisis and dirty laundry. But then a threat rears its head and forces them to, once again, slip into their superhero costumes. Only the baby stays at home.
Back in 2004, Pixar’s animation movie bagged both critical acclaim as well as Oscars. The tongue-in-cheek homage to the American superhero genre is typical for the production studio: jam-packed with jokes yet surprisingly dark, scary and realistic at the same time.
A particularly impressive scene is when the mother, Helen Parr (Holly Hunter), is piloting a Learjet 35 and is attacked by guided missiles.
Why is it impressive? The desperate radio messages she sends (from minute 2:00) are by no means random. For a movie, she’s impressively accurate when it comes to military pilot protocol. That’s what makes the scene so haunting.
Time for me to get to the bottom of it.
Island approach, requesting vectors to the initial
«Island approach, India-Golf Niner-Niner checking in, VFR on top, over.»
Static noise.
«Island Tower, this is India-Golf Niner-Niner, requesting vectors to the initial, over.»
This is what the radio messages reveal: Helen’s call sign is «India-Golf Niner-Niner», so IG99. By the way, that’s an allusion to «The Iron Giant» released in 1999 and the first movie by director Brad Bird. What’s more, Helen is using Visual Flight Rules, or VFR for short. In more casual terms, this means flying with the help of your eyes only. So without the help of instruments or the instructions from an air traffic controller. It also means she’s obliged to dodge other planes (and not vice-versa). This is only possible if visibility is good, so above the clouds or «on top».
Helen requests the vector data for the first phase of her landing approach. To put it in simpler terms: «Where’s your landing strip and how do I approach it?». That’s basically what «VFR Flight Following» is. Helen wants instructions from the air traffic controller during VFR. This would pass the responsibility over to the controller to avoid potential conflict with other planes. At least to a certain degree. Not a smooth move. Strictly speaking, the controller is [not obliged] (https://www.quora.com/In-practice-how-often-is-VFR-flight-following-denied-due-to-controller-workload) to accept and may refuse the request (even if this only happens very rarely). Unless it’s an emergency situation.
However, in this particular scene, the loudspeakers are still only emitting static noise. Helen is not aware that her destination – a remote volcanic island on which her husband is being held captive – is hostile towards her. She starts to feel nervous and slips into her superhero costume to be on the safe side. While doing so, she discovers that her children have snuck on board without her permission. Helen Parr says and does everything any mum would in this kind of situation.
There’s a shrill sound.
India Golf Niner-Niner is buddy-spiked!
Helen immediately recognises it. It’s the howling of a proximity alarm. She rushes back to the cockpit and spots two missiles heading for their plane at full speed. The previously annoyed mum puts on her headset and goes into pro mode. Her voice changes immediately.
All she wants to do now is keep her family safe.
Helen doesn't resort to an emotional outburst. Instead, she applies the military’s official radio protocol. That’s the first clue that this woman has had professional training. Or might even have been in the Air Force. All the audience knows: the situation is deadly serious.
«India-Golf Niner-Niner, transmitting in the blind guard – disengage, repeat, disengage!»
That’s her call sign again. Then she sends the following radio message «in the blind guard». It means she can’t make contact with the tower but still hopes they can hear her. She shouts «disengage!», which means abort attack.
Helen fires off a cloud of chaffs to guide the missiles towards the wrong target. It doesn’t work. It’s only thanks to her piloting skills that her aircraft isn’t hit. Another radio message follows.
«Disengage, repeat, disengage!»
Three more missiles approach. Helen tries to make the attackers realise that they’re attacking a non-hostile target. A «friendly».
«Friendlies at two-zero miles south-southwest of your position, angels 10, track east. Disengage, over!»
Her position: «Two-zero miles south-southwest of your position». In other words, 20 miles south-southwest from the tower, and at 10,000 feet altitude, i.e. «angels 10». Another thing Helen says is «track east», so to fly eastward. She turns the control wheel like crazy to avoid being hit by the missiles.
By the way, as a military term, «angels» stands for feet. In civil aviation, you’d use the term «flight level». This is the second clue that Helen’s had military pilot training at some stage. This detail was added by Holly Hunter, the actress who lent her voice to the animated character. She refused to do the scene unless she understood the protocol.
«Mayday! Mayday! India-Golf Niner-Niner is buddy-spiked! Abort-abort!»
Helen correctly says «mayday» before her call sign. Something that is often done incorrectly in movies. However, she should have said «mayday» three times. «Buddy-spiked» is another term taken from the US army’s code. Put simply, it means: «a friendly aircraft has missile lock. Don’t shoot!»
A desperate cry for help. Helen’s experience as a pilot is undisputable, but her fear is real. She’s fully aware of the fact that she cannot ward off any further attacks.
«There are children aboard, say again, there are children aboard this plane! Abort-abort-abort!»
Children are on board. Instead of saying «repeat», she says «say again», which is in line with military jargon.
There’s nothing else she can do to avert the collision. The missiles tear her plane into shreds.
Luckily, Helen's a superhero. The name she goes by: Elastigirl. This is because she can stretch any part of her body as if it were elastic. She jumps out of the plane at the very last moment. Wrapping her overlong arms tightly around her children; using her body as a parachute.
The three of them land in the water.
Luca Fontana
Senior Editor
Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.chI'm an outdoorsy guy and enjoy sports that push me to the limit – now that’s what I call comfort zone! But I'm also about curling up in an armchair with books about ugly intrigue and sinister kingkillers. Being an avid cinema-goer, I’ve been known to rave about film scores for hours on end. I’ve always wanted to say: «I am Groot.»
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