Firing people. That’s what he does for a livng. And one can imagine what that was like “back then”. Back then being smack dab in the middle of the Great Recession. The one many of us are still in. You could sure rack up a lot of frequent flyer miles doing that. And he did. In fact, he was closing in on 10,000,000. That’s a lot of wrecked lives behind him.
That’s where Natalie comes in. She wants to “revolutionize” the way they fire folks. On line, for example. That means you don’t need guys like Ryan to actually get on a plane and fly to all those destinations. He can do it right from the home office.
Of course in corporatespeak they don’t fire folks with white collars so much as give them a nudge into the future. Thus they are referred to euphemistically as “career transition counselors”. And how comforting does that sound? Maybe that’s why you don’t run into many career transition counselors if your collar is blue. You get fired the old fashioned way: as though you don’t even exist at all. Which, to the employer, you don’t.
Natalie does change the terminology though. When you fire someone over the internet you are what she calls a “termination engineer”. And to make it all more impersonal still everyone is required to learn the “script”. To follow the “process”.
Then there’s the other part of the movie. The part where we delve into the personal lives of the three main protagonist. We follow the evolution of their relationships. That’s the part they should have trimmed.
In the end you are left to wrestle with the possibility that this might be the best of all possible worlds. And how fucking depressing is that?
IMDb
A large amount of the people we see fired in the film are not actors but people who were recently laid off. The filmmakers put out ads in St. Louis and Detroit posing as a documentary crew looking to document the effect of the recession. When people showed up, they were instructed to treat the camera like the person who fired them and respond as they did or use the opportunity to say what they wished they had. A way to discern who are the actors and who are the real people is that the real people do not have dialogue with George Clooney or Anna Kendrick, as they were shot separately. Jason Reitman did this intentionally, feeling that the real people would freak out Clooney and Kendrick.
By all means, let’s spare them.
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_in_the_Air_(2009_film
trailer: youtu.be/rTL1FmvVCuA
UP IN THE AIR [2009]
Written in part and directed by Jason Reitman
[b][They just got fired]
Man: “This is what I get in return for 30 years of service for my company? And they send some yo-yo like you in here, to try to tell me that I’m out of a job? They should be telling you you’re out of a job.”
Woman: “You have a lot of gall, coming in here and firing your No.1 producer. Then you’re going to go home tomorrow and make more money than you’ve ever made in your life and I’m going to go home without a pay check. Fuck you.”
Man: “I guess you leave me dumbfounded. I don’t know where this is coming from. How am I supposed to go home as a man and explain to my wife I lost my job?”
Man: “On a stress level, I’ve heard that losing your job is like a death in the family. But personally, I feel more like the people I worked with were my family and I died.”
Woman: “I can’t afford to be unemployed. I have a house payment, I have children.”
Man: “I don’t know how you can live with yourself, but I’m sure that you’ll find a way while the rest of us are suffering.”
Man: “Who the fuck are you, man?!”
…
Ryan [voiceover]: Excellent question. Who the fuck am I? Poor Steve has worked here for seven years. He’s never had a meeting with me before or passed me in the hall, or told me a story in the break room. That’s because I don’t work here. I work for another company that lends me out to pussies like Steve’s boss who don’t have the balls to sack their own employees. And in some cases for good reason, because people do crazy shit when they get fired.
…
Ryan [before an audience]: How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you’re carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life. You start with the little things. The shelves, the drawers, the knickknacks, then you start adding larger stuff. Clothes, tabletop appliances, lamps, your TV…the backpack should be getting pretty heavy now. You go bigger. Your couch, your car, your home. I want you to stuff it all into that backpack. Now try to walk. This is what we do to ourselves on a daily basis We weigh ourselves down until we can’t even move. And make no mistake…moving is living. Now, I’m gonna set that backpack on fire. What do you want to take out of it? Photos? Photos are for people who can’t remember. Drink some ginkgo and let the photos burn. In fact, let everything burn and imagine waking up tomorrow with nothing. It’s kind of exhilarating, isn’t it?
…
Alex: Oh, my God. I wasn’t sure this actually existed. This is the American Airlines…
Ryan: It’s a Concierge Key, yeah.
Alex: What is that, carbon fibre?
Ryan: Graphite.
Alex: Oh, I love the weight.
Ryan: I was pretty excited the day that bad boy came in.
Alex: I’ll say. I put up pretty pedestrian numbers. 60 thousand a year, domestic.
Ryan: That’s not bad.
Alex: Don’t patronize me. What’s your total?
Ryan: It’s a personal question.
Alex: Please.
Ryan: And we hardly know each other.
Alex: Come on, show some hubris. Come on, impress me. I bet it’s huge.
Ryan: You have no idea.
Alex: How big? What is it, this big? This big?
Ryan: I don’t want to brag.
Alex: Oh, come on! Come on.
Ryan: Let’s just say I have a number in mind and I haven’t hit it yet.
Alex: This is pretty fucking sexy.
Ryan: Hope it doesn’t cheapen our relationship.
Alex: We’re two people who get turned on by elite status. I think cheap is our starting point.
Ryan: There’s nothing cheap about loyalty.
…
Craig [the boss]: I’m thrilled that everyone’s back under one roof. Welcome home, boys. I know there’s been a lot of whispering about why we’re here, so let me jump right in. Retailers are down 20%. Auto industry is in the dump. Housing market doesn’t have a heartbeat. It is one of the worst times on record for America. This is our moment.
…
Ryan: Bingo - Asians.
Natalie: You can’t be serious.
Ryan: Never get behind people traveling with infants. I’ve never seen a stroller collapse in less than 20 minutes. Old people are worse. Their bodies are littered with hidden metal and they never seem to appreciate how little time they have left on earth. Five words: randomly selected for additional screening. Asians, they pack light, travel efficiently, and they’ve got a thing for slip-on shoes, God love em.
Natalie: That’s racist.
Ryan: I’m like my mother, I stereotype. It’s faster.
…
Employee being fired [holding up a photo of his kids]: What do you suggest I tell them?
Natalie: Perhaps you’re underestimating the positive effect that your career transition can have on your children.
Employee being fired: The positive effect? I make about 90 grand a year now. Unemployment is what - 250 bucks a week? Is that one of your positive effects? We’ll get to be cosier cause I’m not gonna be able to pay my mortgage on my house. So maybe we can move into a nice fucking one-bedroom apartment somewhere. And I guess without benefits, I’ll be able to hold my daughter as she, you know, suffers from her asthma that I won’t be able to afford the medication for.
Natalie: Well…tests have shown that children under moderate trauma have a tendency to apply themselves academically as a method of coping.
Employee being fired: Go fuck yourself.
…
Natalie: Okay, you got to fill me in on the miles thing. What is that about? You’re talking about, like, frequent flyer miles?
Ryan: You really want to know?
Natalie: I’m dying to know.
Ryan: I don’t spend a nickel, if I can help it, unless it somehow profits my mileage account.
Natalie: So, what are you saving up for? Hawaii? South of France?
Ryan: It’s not like that. The miles are the goal.
Natalie: That’s it? You’re saving just to save?
Ryan: Let’s just say that I have a number in mind and I haven’t hit it yet.
Natalie: That’s a little abstract. What’s the target?
Ryan: I’d rather not…
Natalie: Is it a secret target?
Ryan: It’s ten million miles.
Natalie: Okay. Isn’t ten million just a number?
Ryan: Pi is just a number.
…
Natalie [to ryan]: Please, for the love of God, can I fire the next one?
…
Ryan [to Natalie after the woman she fired threatened to commit suicide]: They say crazy things. They get worked up.
Natalie: She was really calm.
Ryan: I think that’s a good sign.
Natalie: So they don’t ever actually do it?
Ryan: No. No. It’s just talk.
Natalie: How do you know? Do you follow up?
Ryan: I mean, no, nothing good’s gonna come of that, but… I wouldn’t worry about it. This is what we do, Natalie. We take people at their most fragile and we set em adrift.
…
Ryan [speaking to audience]: Now I want you to fill your backpack with people. Start with casual acquaintances, friends of friends, folks around the office… and then you move into the people you trust with your most intimate secrets. Your brothers, your sisters, your children, your parents and finally your husband, your wife, your boyfriend, your girlfriend. You get them into that backpack, feel the weight of that bag. Make no mistake your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. All those negotiations and arguments and secrets, the compromises. The slower we move the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living. Some animals were meant to carry each other to live symbiotically over a lifetime. Star crossed lovers, monogamous swans. We are not swans. We are sharks.[/b]
This is the actual mentality that many key components in the capitalist system subscribe to: everyone is expendable in the end. It’s always us or them.
[b]Natalie: How does it not cross your mind that you might want a future with someone?
Ryan: It’s simple. You know that moment when you look into somebody’s eyes and you can feel them staring into your soul and the whole world goes quiet just for a second?
Natalie: Yes.
Ryan: Right. Well, I don’t.
…
[Natalie fires Mr. Samuels over the internet]
Mr Samuels: What’s all this? What’s going on?
Natalie: Hello, Mr Samuels. I wish I were here with better news. However, your position here at Wertheimer’s is no longer available.
Mr Samuels: What are you talking about?
Natalie: You’ve been let go.
Mr. Samuels: Just like that? Who are you?
Natalie: My name is Miss Keener and I’m here today to talk about your options.
Mr Samuels: I worked for this company for 17 years and they send a 4th-grader to can me? What the fuck is this?
Natalie: It’s perfectly normal to be upset. However, the sooner you can tell yourself that greater opportunities…
Mr. Samuels: Greater opportunities? I’m 57 fucking years old!
Natalie: Anybody who ever built an empire or changed the world sat where you are now. And it’s because they sat there that they were able to do it. There’s a packet in front of you. I want you to take some time and review it. All the answers you’re looking for are inside those pages. The sooner you trust the process, the sooner the next step of your life will unveil itself. I need you to go back to your office now and put together your personal things.
[Mr. Samuels breaks down into tears]
Natalie: Mr Samuels, that’s all we can discuss now. Mr Samuels. Mr Samuels. Mr Samuels![/b]
One down, 50 more to go.
Karen: Don’t you talk for a living? Motivational type stuff?
Ryan: I tell people how to avoid commitment.
Karen: What kind of fucked up message is that?!
Ryan: It’s a philosophy.
Karen: It’s stupid.
Ryan: Hey, it could have helped you.
Karen: Look, you haven’t been around much. Fuck…basically, you don’t exist to us. I know you wanna be there for her. Well, here it is. This is your chance.
Sure, this works for most folks.
Craig: Do you remember Karen Barnes, part of a 30-person reduction a few weeks back in Wichita? Natalie fired her.
Ryan: We fired dozens of people a day. I…
Craig: She killed herself - jumped off a bridge.
Ryan: Fuck.
Craig: I need to know if you remember any woman that gave you any signals, depression…
Ryan: They’re all depressed. We’re firing them.
Craig: Hey, I need to ask you this stuff, OK?
Ryan: No, I don’t remember anything. You never think that they’re…
Craig: You don’t remember any woman that gave you any signals? Anything at all, Ryan?
Ryan: No, nothing stands out. Is Natalie all right?
Craig: Natalie quit.