Joyride Analysis

"Joyride" is a short film by Jim Gillespie, it follows the eventful evening of an engineer who neglects to fix a problem on the job because he is running late, and the people he runs into on his way home who kidnap him and steal his car. Our first task was to think about the character at the start of the film, and what the short film was trying to say, as stories in their earliest form were a way of passing on a message. For example prior to disney fairy tales all had particularly gruesome endings for the villains of the story, and the reason was that the stories contained a message, each were themed around something you shouldn't do, and the gruesome ends the characters who didn't pay attention served as a demonstration of what would happen to you if you didn't do as you were told. And the vast majority of films in some way have a message, whether its political or just something simple.

Describe the Character at the beginning of the film
At the beginning of the film the main character is very confident, perhaps over-confident, he neglects to finish his the job he is working on (fixing a sparking pylon) because he is already late for a date.

Sum up what the film is about
The film demonstrates the idea that making a choice can have a big impact on your life, ie if he had called and said he had to work late and finished the job he might not have ran into the men on the way home the events of the film could have been avoided.

Dont put off tomorrow what you can do today.


We were also tasked with thinking about how the short is divided into three act structure.

Act One
In act one we are introduced to the character of the engineer, and introduced to his choice not to finish the job he is working on because he is running late for a date. On his way home he sees someone lying near the road and decides to stop.

Act Two
Upon getting out of the car the engineer is hit over the back of the head, he wakes up, his hands bound in the boot of his car. Being a technical man he disables one of the back lights of the car by pulling the wiring out, this causes the car to draw the attention of two police officers sat waiting for speeding motorists. Sure enough they pull the car over to bring the drivers up on the offense of driving with only one rear light. Whilst they are talking to the joyriders, the engineer makes lots of noise to draw the attention of the police, who are about to question the joyriders, but are attacked and killed. The joyriders threaten the engineer and drive off, the engineer spends some time freeing him from his bonds. His car is now being chased by another police car, the police car hitting the back of the car causes a can of petrol in the boot to spill on the engineer. The engineer pulls out a fuse causing the headlines to fail and the joyriders crash his car.

Act Three
The engineer struggles free of the wreck, thinking himself free, the police car is still on the road and cant see the car from where they are. He is suddenly grabbed from behind by the surviving joyrider. In desperation he shoves his attack backwards hitting the back bumper of the car, setting off the car alarm and drawing the police's attention. A short stand off ensues but the police manage to negotiate the engineers safety. He is then lead towards the police car, its now that he realises hes back where he start earlier that night at the job he didnt finish, He looks up at the sparking pylon and as the final shot pulls up we hear the sound of petrol being set fire by a spark.

The film was interesting and did have some underlying message mentioned earlier, but whilst I'm thinking about it there were a few irregularities in the film. First of all the second police car that enters a high speed chase with the joyriders appears out of nowhere, in the previous scene whilst you didn't see the police officers die (so they could have called it in) the emphasis was very much that they had been killed. And to me whilst it wasnt the end of the film that was enresolved, there was some serious problems with how the kidnapping situation was resolved. After the joyrider grabs the engineer, after crashing the car, he holds a sharp implement to his neck, but the engineer is able to draw the polices attention, and here is where the resolution is very poor. The joyrider tells the police not to come any closer and that he wants their car. The police respond saying great just let him go, but we dont see anything happen (the scene cuts to the police officer and the engineer walking towards the car, which has obviously not been given to the joyrider) which means the joyrider just gave him up, which seems like a very odd way for a kidnapper to react. But these are just my musings on the film.

And on another note the true message behind the film is to drive a diesal car, as diesal cant be ignited by open flame or spark, which would have saved our engineers life whether he finished his work or not