One Last Wave: Point Break and Saying Bye to Summer

By Frankie Larry

The fact that summer must end is a pill that gets harder to swallow every year. I have nothing but love for the time between May and September. It’s a time of freedom, when I feel like I can go anywhere, do anything, and every thought for a plan or a project has reinstated itself as The Best Idea Ever. Stripped of the countless layers of winter clothes, the building academic fatigue, and opaque dullness of the weather, there is a distinct sense of renewal that comes with the summer season. But as we find ourselves at that fateful time of the year once again, the end of summer, I wanted to cheer one last hurrah to my favorite season with a film that perfectly encapsulates the liberatory spirit that makes those few months so special.

The premise of Kathryn Bigelow’s 1991 film Point Break is simple: A young federal agent must infiltrate a group of bank-robbing surfers and put a stop to their crimes. But it is no ordinary action flick. Beyond the high-speed chases and explosive shootouts, surfing is what lies at the heart of the film and is what imbues it with that free-wheeling quality, especially when contextualized through Patrick Swayze’s Bodhi. Bodhi, short for Bodhisattva, is a maverick soul surfer who’s tired of the “system” and always chasing new thrills. The whole reason he and his crew rob banks is to fund their travels to different surf spots around the world. To him, surfing is the vehicle through which one revives the human spirit. Each wave chased is another thrill, exhilarating the body so as to prove one is still alive. As Bodhi tells Keanu Reeves’ young FBI recruit Johnny Utah, “it’s that place where you lose yourself, then find yourself.” Surfing is renewal. We see Bodhi’s philosophy play out through Johnny.

Johnny begins surfing as a way to get in with Bodhi’s group but, as the film progresses, it quickly becomes something more. A subtle change occurs in Johnny’s character that becomes entirely prominent by the end of the film. It begins with Utah being late to a raid after a night of surfing with Bodhi’s gang, then jumping out of a plane without a parachute in order to catch Bodhi, and culminates in Utah letting Bodhi surf the world’s biggest wave instead of catching him (after chasing him for a year). Surfing drives the plot all the way, and symbolizes total freedom.

However, that’s not to say this perspective on surfing is communicated without criticism. Bodhi is a spree bank-robber who kills people and puts people in positions to be killed. While he rides with a gang of four other guys, there’s a keen sense that he really only counts on himself. Also, his name, Bodhisattva, describes a person striving towards enlightenment who delays Nirvana in order to help others obtain it. We can see that his name sort of rings true, if we count his influence over Johnny’s relationship to surfing, but Bodhi has an entirely negative effect on all those associated with him. All of his friends have died as a result of his actions, and Johnny has become so disillusioned to the point of presumably quitting his job as a federal agent (after one case), solely because of Bodhi. He is an entirely corrupted, western version of a noble concept, typified by a self-centered, macho quality.

Point Break is a film that is endlessly rewatchable. It feels fresh and new every time I turn it on, and it totally captures that specific sense of letting go that comes with the summer season. At the same time, it serves as a warning. There really can be too much of a good thing, and it’s all too easy to lose appreciation for something you have too much of. As much as I love summer, I accept that I’m probably better off packing up my umbrella and stepping off the beach. There’s things to be done and other seasons to appreciate. I love summer, but only when it ends.