The Darwin Awards....Anybody????
I haven't seen the movie, but just from the poster and title of the film, it would appear that these filmmakers just used the Darwin Award-winner "Larry Lawnchair" and changed the name.
Am I mistaken?
“Oh I'm sorry, did I break your concentration?”
It would appear your correct! And this site convinced me it wasnt just an urban myth, but also says larry survived so why are the darwin awards involved?
http://www.markbarry.com/amazing/lawnchairman.html
I'll check the credits to see if they give larry a mention.
"would appear that these filmmakers just used the Darwin Award-winner "Larry Lawnchair" and changed the name."
not really , they did so much more, the only part borrowed was "guy ties ballons to chair and floats off" You need a lot more than that to make a 90 minute film!
In fact the deck chair sequence is just a um plot device / catalyst / scene setter . The bulk of the film is about the people he meets in the small town he lands in.
Okay, thanks.
“Oh I'm sorry, did I break your concentration?”
Not sure, but I thought I've read in one of its publicity materials that it's actually based on a true story.
share[deleted]
Yeah, I' pretty sure I remember hearing some of this mentioned in the DVD commentary, as well.
But this isn't the first fictionalized version of Larry Walters' story to turn up. I saw a musical called "The ballad of Larry the Flyer," performed at the Piccolo Spoleto festival in Charleston, SC, in 2001.
It was mostly just the shared inspiration that that show and "Danny Deckchair" had in common. If I remember correctly, it stayed much closer to the factual version, including keeping real names, and the overall mood of the piece was quite a bit darker. It was about the flight itself, and what might drive a man to do something like that, rather focusing primarily on the (fiction) story of what happens after our hero lands. Still, the number of plays/movies/etc. involving guys strapping helium-filled weather balloons to a lawn chair and taking off is a pretty short one. I remember thinking in 2001, "what a curious story to base a musical on," and so of course I was floored when it happened again a couple of years later!
It was in the Darwin Awards as an honorable mention, since this guy survived.
He shot a few of his balloons with a pellet gun, and then dropped the gun. Luckily, he shot enough, and he slowly descended. He disrupted air traffic. He caused a blackout when he crashed into power lines.
He was a suitable candidate.
The Darwin Awards were only supposed to be awarded posthumously but somehow (don't ask me how) they must have run low on idiots killing themselves in order to award survivors honorable mentions.
shareI saw a musical called "The ballad of Larry the Flyer," performed at the Piccolo Spoleto festival in Charleston, SC, in 2001
Saw this movie a few days ago, it's quite funny and yeah, apparently several people have actually done this.
There's an article about it on Wikipedia -
And it's Lawnchair Larry... not Larry Lawnchair.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_ballooning
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawnchair_Larry_flight