canon event coincidence
"canon event" is a rather indifferent way to describe a formative childhood experience, isn't it?
within 24 hours, i had watched both "baby driver" and "mickey 17" for the first time, in that order. a friend of mine told me, after finishing the latter, "wow, two movies that started because of a car accident, back to back?" you know what? yeah. they sure did have accidents as a core memory.
baby, in the first film, lost his parents in an accident. they rear ended an 18-wheeler and died instantly, presumably, from an all-too-distracting argument taking their attention away from the road. baby was mostly unscathed, physically. he has a few scars on his face, and a tape of his mother singing. mickey mentioned not having anyone considered "family" left when he signed up to be an expendable. his last memory of his mother is being in the car with her, him pressing an inconspicuously conspicuous red button on the car console, and then she was gone.
baby had an ipod on him, playing music before the untimely collision. music is keeping him in a cozy enough oblivion that keeps the pain--manifested as irreparable tinnitus--at a comfortable distance, all so he can do his job. the right song has to be playing at specific moments at work.
mickey seems to relive this with every version of himself that's 3D printed (mickey #1-17), convinced more each time that it was his fault and he'll repent until his real death (that is, until mickey #18's sobering remark of the accident happening due to a manufacturer defect).
mickey's route into being an expendable is as interrogative as it is atonement. he questions his circumstances but it all seems to tie to the sentiment of "it's because of me that my mother isn't with me anymore." baby holds music in such a high regard that he was determined, by any means, to get the tape back of his mother singing "easy" by the commodores. being an expendable is a penance, and music is a reprieve (tinnitus who?)
i very much enjoyed both films. i didn't anticipate going down a literal trip down memory lane--neither did they.