One of the action and romance actors of the 80s and early 90s, Patrick Swayze passed away on Monday 14th September. He was 57, an age where most people are beginning to enjoy the fruits of their labour and retire and hopefully live for another 25 to 30 years. Given modern day healthcare advancement and life expectancy,living till over 80 and even 90 years of age is possible and probable if one takes care of one's health,eating right and exercising regularly. Unfortunately for diseases like pancreatic cancer and leukaemia, the survival rate beyond 5 years upon late stage detection is still quite low.
Point Break
According to newspaper reports,Patrick had discovered that he had late stage pancreatic cancer in January 2008 and sought aggressive treatment to counter in. He once commented that even drinking water had a feeling of 'acid dropping into your gullet' to describe the pain and discomfort.
The one film which defined the genre of action films in my mind was Point Break where he played the bad guy Bodhi. Bodhi and his gang of surfer dudes lived by the beach and enjoyed a debaucherous lifestyle of parties, sex and alcohol. There was no need for drugs because they always got an adrenalin 'high' from surfing and skydiving - and robbing banks during the off season when there were no strong winds, normally in autumn.
To supplement their income, they robbed banks, using masks form the past American Presidents, Nixon, Carter, Reagan and Ford. Their motto early in the film was to steal just enough to finance their surfing lifestyle and when the winter came, they would all take a break and work day jobs.So they timed their heists to under 60 seconds, taking only what was at the tellers' booths and not bothering to break into the vault where the big money was as it would compromise their getaway.
In comes Johnny Utah, the top rookie from FBI put on the case to catch these part-time bank robbers and played by Keanu Reeves, it was a case of one-upmanship against each, Johnny the new guy tried to infiltrate the gang and in the process win the heart of Bodhi's girl and then finally join in the gang for their robberies. So their are skydiving antics, surfing competitions, beach football - all Brokeback mountain stuff where male bonding and macho ideals are displayed.
Bodhi found out Johnny was an FBI agent and the kidnapped his girl and forced Johnny to join in on one of their heists, it went horribly wrong from there. They had 2 gang members killed in the heist and during the getaway, Johnny's police mate was killed. Bodhi managed to escape into the desert.
The ending of this film was a classic in my opinion, where, Johnny chased him all the way to Indonesia - 2 years later where Bodhi was waiting for the 'once in 50 years wave'.It was a massive typhoon and everyone was running away from the beach to safety, for their lives. Only 1 guy - Bodhi - was going in the opposite direction. Johnny followed him.
Too Wong Foo
They fought on the beach, and Johnny Utah handcuffed Bodhi. Bodhi finally convinced Utah to let him go to attempt the Ultimate Wave, a 200 foot monster. He told Johnny "thanks" and surfed into the wave. He did not want to die in an enclosed place like the prison where he would get 20 years at least, preferring to kill himself attempting the ultimate challenge and adrenalin rush.
" Get him when he comes back " Another cop told Johnny
"He ain't coming back" - Johnny Utah.
Bodhi swam towards the Big One and killed himself with the wave.
What a way to go.
Thats how I will remember Bodhi aka Patrick Swaze.
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