Terrorists on wheelchairs

June 17, 2011 5:53 PM

Stuck. On their way home from photographing Formula Drift Palm Beach, Joe Ayala & Larry Chen found themselves stranded over night in Dallas Fort Worth as their flights home were canceled
posted by growabrain (34 comments total)

I saw this and loved it this morning. I think it's a worthy reboot of the film Career Opportunities. Just needs a sexy female accomplice role.
posted by mathowie at 5:57 PM on June 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

That's exactly what I thought, mathowie. Also, at some point they should have built an elaborate fort out of (whatever they have a lot of at airports).
posted by ShutterBun at 6:06 PM on June 17, 2011

wow. New stuff. Wow

And ...I wanna do that escalator thing.
posted by tomswift at 6:06 PM on June 17, 2011 [2 favorites]

That was really cool.

That being said, I have a question about the framing of the post. I don't really understand why it is terrorists/wheelchairs. Is that pointing out the absurdity of a 'terrorist' in a wheelchair?

If so, I really wish the post had been titled different. I use a wheelchair and sometimes I can be a total asshole, although rarely do I rise to terrorist levels.
posted by angrycat at 6:19 PM on June 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

Very reminiscent of Bored Girl In Pittsburgh Airport except she doesn't vandalise or steal anything...
posted by benzo8 at 6:21 PM on June 17, 2011 [3 favorites]

Ah kids. This rated a full :)
posted by Mike Mongo at 6:24 PM on June 17, 2011

They could have spent their time hacksawing the armrests off of a row of chairs so people could sleep on them.
posted by Camofrog at 6:26 PM on June 17, 2011 [2 favorites]

When I got to the parts where they crushed a beer or tossed the wet T.P., I was thinking "uh-oh, that's gonna piss some people off." Then, I thought back to being stranded for days during that airport blizzard shutdown circle of hell this winter -- I think they should have had a few more sundae cups full of beer.

Actually, maybe those airport bars just leave those taps open for any unfortunate soul that has to sit in those coma-like airports overnight. AND, now that I think about it, when I finally got a flight after days of that frozen-in-time-and-snow hell this past winter, they did give us all a free drink on the flight for wasting our lives. It was, however, 6:00am, and the thought of alcohol was a bit repulsive, but you can be damn sure I took it and it sat on my tray table half-sipped as some small token of payback for destroying my soul (and my bank account) for that torturous week.
posted by This_Will_Be_Good at 6:30 PM on June 17, 2011 [3 favorites]

I don't really understand why it is terrorists/wheelchairs. Is that pointing out the absurdity of a 'terrorist' in a wheelchair?

I think it's highlighting the absurdity of "security measures" taken at airports. When the day ends, apparently it's anyone's game.
posted by Max Power at 6:30 PM on June 17, 2011 [2 favorites]

except she doesn't vandalise or steal anything..

This is such a completely minor case of vandalism and theft that I feel like this is some real finger wagging.
posted by josher71 at 6:50 PM on June 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

I, too, have spent the night in DFW, and these guys definitely had way more fun than I did.

(Except at 3AM that fateful night, when someone gave me a foil blanket...that part was cool.)
posted by whimsicalnymph at 6:58 PM on June 17, 2011

This article has a great interview with them.

LC: I washed the cup and put it back in the fridge. I wanted to leave no trace. I didn't want to cause any trouble. Next time we go to that airport I'll get a beer and leave a $20 tip.

- -

LC: We talked with one of the reps from the DFW airport and he was really cool about it.

JA: He told us that he used to shoot films or something and he appreciated of some of the shots we did. And he showed it to the CEO of the Airport and he really liked it.

So great :)
posted by june made him a gemini at 7:15 PM on June 17, 2011 [9 favorites]

Larry's grin while tearing it up in the wheelchair is marvelous and infectious!
posted by Lemmy Caution at 7:15 PM on June 17, 2011

Ha, this is great. Their editing and cinematography is clean, and the video's pacing is well thought out.
posted by spiderskull at 7:27 PM on June 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

Very, very cool.
posted by odinsdream at 7:33 PM on June 17, 2011

I would absolutely love the chance to explore and mess around a place like that, but I'm pretty sure I'd be too scared of being told off to actually do anything fun.

We need playgrounds for adults.
posted by lucidium at 7:40 PM on June 17, 2011 [3 favorites]

If you sit in the DFW terminal long enough, everyone in the US will walk past you.
posted by and for no one at 7:51 PM on June 17, 2011 [4 favorites]

Cool hack.
posted by dhartung at 9:17 PM on June 17, 2011

I can't imagine calling this 'vandalism' -- these guys obviously planned out every frame of this - meticulously. It was perfect timing and perfect juxtaposition for high comedy. I just assumed they got clearance to do it (and cleaned up the wet toilet paper). They are pros.

Thanks, growabrain - that was the biggest laugh I've had for an fpp in a long time!
posted by Surfurrus at 9:51 PM on June 17, 2011

I laughed my ass off, and more than once -- fun! These guys totally infectious, their grins worth millions, or more, and it was shot so pretty, to boot. Thanx for the post!
posted by dancestoblue at 10:08 PM on June 17, 2011

We need playgrounds for adults

We have a masonic lodge near my hometown that never locked their doors. Breaking in and doing shit like this was pretty much a regular Friday night.

I just wish we could have filmed it so well.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 11:06 PM on June 17, 2011

I loved these guys, but Bored Girl in Pittsburgh Airport (see above), precedes them and beats them hands down. She even does the escalator thing.
posted by Faze at 4:26 AM on June 18, 2011

Having just spent four hours in the airport in Chicago staring at a perfectly sound United plane we couldn't board because of computer glitch, and wishing I wasn't still wired-sleepless at 4:30am ...I don't get it.
posted by ecourbanist at 4:36 AM on June 18, 2011

Yeah, the wheelchair joke still doesn't scan. I get hassled by TSA as much as the average, non-wheelchair person.

And it's too similar to the "punching a kid in a wheelchair" joke. I really wish people would realize that this is some fucked up shit. But whatevs.
posted by angrycat at 7:06 AM on June 18, 2011

Very entertaining. Bored girl was not bad, either.
posted by Glinn at 7:15 AM on June 18, 2011

Yeah, the wheelchair joke still doesn't scan

I read it as "These people would be arrested if they were racing wheelchairs in the airport normally because 'ZOMG AIRPORT SECURITY TERRORISM ALERT'". Whereas, it's just some kids fucking around, not terrorism.
posted by josher71 at 7:26 AM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wow. I'm truly surprised at how deserted the place seems to be (or rather how deserted they have managed to make it seem). I landed at Helsinki-Vantaa International at 4 AM on Monday, and that place was a lot more crowded than this, despite being a lot less busy than DWF.
posted by daniel_charms at 7:31 AM on June 18, 2011

Or it could be, terrorists on escalators, or terrorists on layover, instead of "wheelchairs ha ha ha imagine a dangerous person in a wheelchair oh no that's absurd." A person in a wheelchair has, in a variety of contexts, has become a stand-in for harmlessness.

But I'll take my ax-grinding away from this truly delightful video.
posted by angrycat at 7:43 AM on June 18, 2011

"except she doesn't vandalise or steal anything.." Overstatement/generalization coming. That is why women should run the world. Yes, what the lads do is trivial and relatively harmless but it is different. Boys will be boys, men will be boys but girls may be girls but women will usually be women. Regardless, both videos are charming but I will give the young lady two thumbs up.
posted by rmhsinc at 12:24 PM on June 18, 2011

"minor case of vandalism and theft"

I dunno. I find it easier not to vandalize or steal anything. Parsing out the level of vandalism and theft that is ok is too tricky for my conscience.
posted by diogenes at 12:27 PM on June 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

I thought it was an Infinite Jest reference. You know, DFW airport.
posted by domo at 2:35 PM on June 18, 2011

I'm almost 100% sure the title of the post is referencing the movie Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. The main characters are an Indian and a Asian (Korean) guy, like the guys in this short.
Cute short, I'm glad they didn't get caught stealing beer though.
posted by anotherkate at 6:43 PM on June 18, 2011

The whole wheelchair thing just seemed like a fun thing to do. No one's around - you're bored as shit, it's late. Wheelchair race!

Great video, and I'm jealous I've never had a similar experience with a friend.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 5:52 AM on June 19, 2011

I thought the 'terrorists in wheelchairs' thing was a reference to Infinite Jest because this took place in DFW.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:44 AM on June 23, 2011