“Get me the data. That’s what counts.”
At the weltering elder age of 36, as Mother Nature painstakingly reclaims my rotting flesh back into the soil of which I once scornfully emerged, I doubt anyone could have convinced me that my favorite film of this cosmic cycle would be about the imprecise science of...meteorology. Yet, Pressure is a flick about so much more than that. Pressure is a film about how if, all of the poor thinking that went into COVID-19 policymaking under the Biden Administration went into the planning of the D-Day landings, well...we would all currently be speaking the Fuhrer’s German.
While many cinephiles insist that Eddington was the definitive account aboutthe early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, it fumbles into an uninformed false equivalency. Pressure is a dramatization about a lone scientist, Britain’s top meteorologist: James Stagg, who is tasked with forecasting adequate conditions for one of the most critical moments of human history that has been depicted in cinema, videogames, etc. to death: the D-Day landings that changed the world of 1944. For younger readers, here is a bite-sized compilation of what that was like:
The Physics of Moistness
Now just why might the humble and imprecise science of meterology be important in war planning? That’s an excellent question! If the waves are too rough, your landing craft can’t safely arrive to shore, and chaotic ocean currents can wreak havoc on the accuracy of your naval-based artillery support.
If the fog is too thick and the clouds too low, your air cover are now flying blind & can’t provide CAS (Close Air Support). Worse yet, inclement weather can disrupt radio communications between all sorts of different yet interconnected units: tanks, infantry, bombers, fighters, transports, the annual Royal Canadian Air Farce’s Chicken Cannon, high command, and so on. Oh, and by the way, did you know that trillions of your American taxpayer dollars were burned on developing a “stealth” “next-generation” fighter VTOL (vertical-takeoff-and-landing) jet that can’t even fly in the rain and is only mission capable 25% of the time?
In the midst of a well-deserved and most glorious Brendan Fraissance, Pressure is most clearly an Andrew Scott film, most notable for his role as Moriarty in the BBC Sherlock show starring, ah, what was his name again? Bendy-Dick Come-On-Me-Bats? Alongside the Marvel Cinematic Universe superstar Martin “CIA Agent Who Remotely Commits Drone Murders in Defense of a Monarchy” Freeman. It’s obvious by the end who was the strongest actor of the trio of 2010 heartthrobs.
I had no idea that this was a meteorology film. I had no idea you could make a compelling drama about meteorology. Yet, “Pressure” is so much more than that. For all of the jokes about “Vibes-Based Epidemiology” made over these past years, here is a dramatization about a scientist with imperfect information struggling to make the case to save countless lives from a hopeless calamity against established structures of power that couldn’t care less about the facts.
An Anime Assisted Plot Summary
Brendan Fraser plays General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who in his last days as President warned about the horrors an unrestrained military industrial complex might inflict upon the world:
Eisenhower’s earlier successes in Africa relied upon his right-hand meteorologist, a charismatic singer-and-dancer named Irving Krick. Krick’s idea of meteorology, based upon stable desert climates, was to try and pretend that decades old weather charts were an accurate way to predict what the weather was going to be in the chaotic English Channel just a few days from now. This is, quite clearly...
Dramatizations aside, Pressure features Brendan Frasier playing a balding elder leader choosing to make decisions based upon the advice of a cautious, disciplined scientist over a charismatic bullshit artist. Earlier, we listen to his critical introspection and how he considers himself a failure for getting young men killed. A leader who takes his responsibility gravely seriously. Hey, does that sound like the precise opposite of anyone you might remember? Clip unrelated:
Fear-Based Epidemiology
If you ever thought that a dramatic montage of an international coalition of weather balloons couldn’t get your heart pumping, well, Pressure is here to prove you wrong. Even better, this film is a brutal stake in the hearts of the “Evidence Based Medicine” zealots who insist that you can only take an action after having performed seventeen impossible, unethical, and utterly imagined randomized control trials that’ll never happen. In the real world, you have to make tough choices based upon the best evidence available, not ranting impotently at others trying to resolve a crisis.
Which leads me to my favorite scene and quote of the film, and, minor spoilers, this is something I wish I could tattoo backwards on the foreheads of so many, just so it’s the first thing and the last thing they see every day:
“He’s selecting the data that suits him and ignoring the rest, and we must face the facts, THE FACTS! However frightening they may be!”
Unfortunately, the United States and the United Kingdom learned little in the turning of the millennium and instead chose to become realms of shying away from frightening truths. Emotionally stunted runts who insist that their uninformed rantings overrule tangible scientific fact. Leaders who have no qualms about casually throwing young innocent lives into the English Channel, all whilst they celebrate their own unearned glory.
Pressure is an important reminder of how we’re supposed to respond to a crisis, and a pivotal moment in history in which hard science had to stand against powerful, egotistical men. It’s a painful reminder that the exact opposite happened when it came to COVID-19 policy debates, in which boorish arrogance shouted over people who actually knew what they were talking about. As it stands, with all of the wrong lessons learned from COVID-19, we are at risk of stumbling into an even greater calamity should another pandemic emerge in our lifetimes.
Which might just end up being sooner than you think. Have fun!
