Strap yourself in as four Aussie blokes swap wheelchairs for quad bikes and embark on the ride of their lives. This documentary charts their 5,000km adventure across the outback, as they visit the crash sites where their lives changed forever. Three men are paraplegics and one a quadriplegic, making this no ordinary road movie.
Their encounters with mud, deserts, floods and exhaustion test their resilience and endurance to breaking point. Fuelled by bold humour and disarming honesty, The Ride is a wild traverse across the terrain of the human spirit, as four men make peace with the tragedy of their past.
Director’s Statement by Sandra Cook
When Jim Cairns (Executive Producer and one of the main characters in The Ride) asked me to make a film about the expedition, I was instantly drawn to the project. I was intrigued and inspired by the concept of four ‘broken’ men making such an ambitious trek to confront their past. I felt the story had many dynamic and exciting elements – heartbreaking stories of loss, a cautionary tale, and extreme adventure travel… all against a backdrop of survival and resilience. The fact that one of the characters was getting married along the way meant that it would be a love story too!
The timeframe was incredibly tight, with just two weeks to pull together a crew together and go. I had just finished my previous project and was in Northern NSW for a well-earned vacation. My vacation turned into pre-production and I interviewed the four main characters and their wives over the phone. When I asked Eileen – Craig, the quadriplegic’s wife – to describe him, the first word she said was ‘sporty’. Call me naïve, but I couldn’t grasp how someone confined to a wheelchair with limited arm movement could be described as ‘sporty’. I was hooked; I wanted to learn more. I knew I had to make the journey to Perth and find out what these men were all about.
The Ride is a road movie unlike any other: it’s a “boy’s own adventure”, a turbocharged travel story, and an intensely personal cathartic journey reflecting on the past. Through the characters’ confessions, we delve into their darker days, and relive what it was like to become disabled. We also explore the other consequences surrounding it, such as sex, finding a life partner, and dealing with catheters. The audience is given an insight into their worlds and the film breaks down the barrier between able bods and those with disabilities.
The men are honest, open and vulnerable, whilst also being bold, funny, and profound. Above all, they are determined to show that despite the impact their accidents, they are not defined by their disability but by their enormous strength of character.
The Ride takes place in some of Australia’s harshest yet most visually stunning locations. We made our way through rarely-travelled parts of the country, initially with a crew of two; myself and Conan (camera). We worked 24/7 in a complex, challenging and ever-changing environment. Our biggest challenges turned out to be keeping up with the men – the trip was fast , furious and relentless. Recording sound without a sound recordist is a complete nightmare when you have four characters, helmets, and the constant background noise of bike engines. We also had to deal with delicate laptops, cameras and hard drives in a technologically unfriendly environment where dust is unforgiving and everywhere.
The very real threat of danger from the Australian environment created the perfect piece of third act drama: who could have imagined the Simpson Desert would flood and threaten to prevent our gang from reaching the final, climactic crash site?
Refusing to be broken by insurmountable odds, the heroes of The Ride ultimately offered the most inspiring of adventure tales as they strove to make peace with the tragedies that forever changed their lives.
Read more here: www.theridemovie.org/