I have watched more than eighty movies in this lockdown period (seven months) and the most fascinating of all has been Wheels. When I found out it has an 8.8 IMDB score, I googled about it. Well, I didn’t find much about the plot and the summary of the movie, which made me want to write about it myself.
I could relate the movie somehow with the book series by David James Pelzer where he has mentioned about his abusive mother and his life story. If I had not read the book called A Child Called It and its series, I might would judge this movie as a completely fictional one. But as I have read the book, I can agree this drama has a point and yes, the movie has a great story.
Wheels – a 2014 movie directed by Donavon Warren and Timothy Gagliardo, is an Award-Winning drama with Mickey (Donavon Warren) as the lead artist. Mickey is portrayed as a suicidal freak who attempts but fails to suicide at the beginning of the movie to capture attention of the audience as a depressed individual. The movie ends with another dramatic suicide attempt of Mickey where he realizes he wants to live instead! The 2 hours between two failed suicides take the audience into a roller coaster ride of viewing life with different perspectives. The movie adds a lot of curiosity and suspense as the story does not go linearly.
By the name and movie cover, it is quite clear, there has to be two individuals who support themselves with wheels or wheelchairs. Yes, Mickey and his only friend Drake Jones (Pattrick Hume) are handicapped as their lower bodies are paralyzed. I’ll come back to Drake again as he is a shining star of the movie. Both of them require wheelchair to support walking. Here’s another twist! Though both of them use wheelchairs, not both of them are physically handicapped. Mickey is mentally handicapped. That means, it is just inside his mind that he cannot walk. Well, isn’t it quite interesting how our brains can keep us under such an illusion?
Lets get back to why Mickey is suicidal and why is he under such an illusion! The movie begins with his first failed suicide attempt where he tries to slit his wrists but still does not die. Mickey had a tragic childhood. His dad was Police and mostly away from the home. He was living with his mother and an elder brother. Well, his mother was going through some mental illness. If you have read the book by David Pelzer (as mentioned above), you can understand what I mean. Though it has not been mentioned in the movie what kind of illness his mother had, but she was obsessed with killing her children and herself. She attempted to kill the kids by asking them to drink rat poison, detergent, paints, etc. which was found in their stomach once they were taken to hospital by their dad. Later, the mother finally decides to end their and her life by drowning in the bathing tub. She tries to drown Mickey first in the tub, but his brother saves him by pulling her mother’s hair. As Mickey runs out of the house, the mother kills herself and Mickey’s brother by drowning in the tub (that’s what I guess).
The point is, Mickey has no idea how evil or ill his mum had been. His dad tells Mickey that both the mother and the elder brother have left the house but Mickey has no idea that they were no longer alive. Suddenly the movie takes the audience to Mickey’s adulthood where the dad confesses Mickey what had actually happened, while both of them are in the rooftop. Mickey faints after hearing the story and his dad brings him down. After he wakes up, he is in the hospital and his lower body is paralyzed.
Mickey believes his father had been the culprit all the time. He thinks it was his father who asked his mother and elder brother to leave the house, and it was his father who pushed him down the roof. Yes! He thinks he fell down the roof, therefore, his mind tells him his lower body is paralyzed.
Lets bring Drake back to the story! I have never seen such a cool character before! He is just a homeless junkie, who is not afraid of anything. Mickey meets Drake in the street and asks Drake to kill Mickey with a gun for $500 which Drake accepts without thinking much. You can get back to movie cover and notice the guy in the first wheelchair is aiming a gun on the guy in the second wheelchair. Yes, the one with the gun is Drake and the other one is Mickey. Lucky Micky, the gun was blank and boooom they turn out to be best friends in next minute. What more? Mickey, who has never slept with a girl, who had never tried drugs before, and who had zero friends became ‘Drake Number 2’ after his company! Drake took him to brothel, where instead of having sex with the prostitute named Janet (Diana Gettinger), he snorts coke for the first time. He becomes addicted to drugs, and involves in several crimes like robbery, and killing just for money to buy some cocaine.
Unfortunately, two prostitutes – Janet and her friend, cheat both of them and take all their robbed money which was to be handed to Elvis (Nathanyael Gray) – the drug dealer. After they could not return the money to Elvis, they were both scared, well, Drake mainly. Therefore, Drake jumps into the ocean to end his life. What next? The suicidal freak Mickey jumps too. But both of them end up into the nearest island and again fail to kill themselves. Poor Drake tells how he was paralyzed. He confesses he was drunk driving and got into car accident where his pregnant wife dies and he ends up in wheelchair forever. After pleading to Mickey to die peacefully, Mickey asks one last favor with Drake to kill his dad as he had abandoned his mother, brother, and later pushed him off the roof (that’s what he had believed). Drake agrees and they both go to their last mission together.
After reaching his dad’s house, Mickey is enlightened with the reality! His dad again explains what had actually happened and he was never paralyzed because he had never fallen off the roof. After this tragic truth reveal without Mickey being faint, Mickey and Drake both leave the house but are still trying to escape from Elvis (drug dealer). When they both go to Drake’s place to fetch his engagement ring which he wanted to wear while dying, Elvis shows up and shoots Drake while Mickey manages to hide.
Mickey recalls what his dad had said and tries to stand up on his feet and he actually stands up! Then, he goes back to save his only friend’s life who he had considered as his brother eventually (Drake). Well, what next? Mickey shoots Elvis and takes Drake to the same ocean where they had decided to end their lives after the mission was over. As Drake was already injured with the gun shot on his belly, he drowns and dies. Mickey, when he is under the water, realizes that his life had just begun, and he was willing to live now.
He could not kill himself but instead began his new life!
The movie shows how incidents from childhood are attached with individuals and can create a huge hole in a person’s brain. Overall, I loved the drama and its moral. I would blame Mickey’s dad, who did not take Mickey to psychiatrists but instead took things casually. If he had been looked after by professionals, his life might had been better.
But we are looking for an interesting story, right? So, that’s that. Just enjoy!
Aleena Rayamajhi
10/2/2020
