My Top Ten Impactful Films as a Quadriplegic

Warning: proceed with caution, spoilers ahead. I will mark the movie spoilers with a red font if you want to skip them.

Number 1: “Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot”

This movie is on Amazon prime video and is an extremely well put together biopic following the life and trials of Portland cartoonist & quadriplegic John Callahan.

John had a hard upbringing and never came to terms with it and self treated his anxiety with alcohol. This film follows him dealing with quadriplegia among many other obstacles after a drunk driving accident that left him paralyzed. The main focus on the film is the way that John fights his addiction to alcohol by joining AA.

Sober & with a clear mind, John finds love in an old nurse he had and he begins to draw crude and satirical comics. It gets very mixed reviews but John ignores the critics and becomes a comic staple item in Portland, OR. A few different things really stick out for me from this movie.

The first thing that I had to ask myself is the potential John could've had with the technology that I do have now. If John had an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil and 3-D printed splints what could he have done with his career? I also draw a lot of similarities from his style of art. Simple, shaky imperfect lines. Simplistic pieces. I also love drawing satire revolved around my handicap and I love making questionably offensive memes. I guess in a way, John & others like him pioneered this work?

Another thing that stood out to me was John's outlook on life. He had a bleak outlook before he was sober but he was a no-nonsense man before and after becoming injured. He also let the injury shape him for the better which is something that I've tried to do since becoming injured. Life is going to move on whether you want it to or not so the best thing you can do is move on with it! That has been my outlook this entire time.

The third thing that I realized is that I can draw a lot of similarities in the grieving process as I do in the 12 step program for AA. Acceptance and forgiveness are two huge parts of Alcoholics Anonymous. It was pretty cool to see similarities in two completely different spectrums. One being alcoholism and addiction and the other being injury and handicap.

Number 2: “Collateral Beauty”

I thoroughly enjoy Will Smith as an actor but my God, his dramatic roles are unmatched in my opinion.

Collateral Beauty is an emotional journey of a father who is in denial about the early death of his young  daughter. He meets three different actors embodying 'love', 'time' & 'death' and they help him process his grief and denial.

There are also a few different emotional subplots going on at the same time but the main focus is around the grieving father and, more specifically his stages of grief.

The grief process alone as described in this movie is powerful enough to stand alone with me, but what l really took away from this movie and what made me a absolute blubbering mess was the outside perspective of a parent grieving.

All I could think of when I was watching Will Smith's spiral in this film was the effect that my injury could've had on my mother and father and other loved ones if I had not survived getting shot.

It was realistically the first time that I had sat back and actually thought about my injury from the perspective of others. It was also one of the first times that I allowed myself to process my own mortality & the fickleness of life. Processing that left an extremely profound impact on me!

Number 3: “The Shack”

The shack is a powerful Christian film circling around the theme of forgiveness.

In the film, a religious man and his family go on a camping trip and his daughter goes missing and was later found to have been the victim of a serial killer. It dives heavy into the grief that follows the father & his personal spiral into anger and depression. He revisits the site where his daughter was found with intentions to kill himself and instead he is meant by the holy Trinity. They help him see things from a new perspective & he forgives the man as well as his past demons.

Although grieving the loss of a daughter especially in such a horrific way is arguably harder than my injury, I could draw a lot of similarities with my own grief at the time.

I watched this movie with my family pretty fresh into my hospital visit and recovery after I was shot. I was not dealing with my situation in a healthy way and I was blaming a lot of my new struggles on God and the man who shot me. My main internal struggle was that the man who shot me was actually a really good friend of mine & I was extremely conflicted in my grief. That honestly made it easier to aim my frustrations at God for what had happened to me.

This movie put my thought process into a perspective where I realized that I needed to process things healthier and forgive. Forgive my friend, forgive God & forgive myself. This film really opened my eyes to God's plan and His will.

Number 4: “The Upside”

This movie follows the life after a wealthy man becomes injured and becomes a quadriplegic. It also pays homage to the strong bond he forms w/ a very unorthodox caregiver. The man that Kevin Hart plays is a troubled man struggling to find his place in the world. His life changes just as much when he walks into a job interview to be a quadriplegics caretaker & is hired despite having no experience or training.

This movie was a roller coaster of emotions as well as humor and it tied both together beautifully. I remember seeing it with my girlfriend in the movie theater and I sat in the back of AMC next to the handicap seats. I was the only one there in a wheelchair so anytime there was an uncomfortable scene, you could see everyone's heads turning and looking back at us.

Luckily for me at that point, I had moved on and found acceptance in my new reality in this wheelchair so I didn't mind people staring and being inquisitive.

Number 5: “Breathe”

This film follows the life & trials of Robin Cavendish. Robin developed polio while visiting Kenya with his new wife. Within the span of the day he goes from perfectly healthy to paralyzed from the neck down and breathing with aid of the ventilator.

At the time, paralysis complications were very hard to deal with which made the average lifespan of someone with this type of injury or illness only a few months. This movie shows life after paralysis. Robin decides to leave the hospital at the risk of his health and have his wife take care of him. Throughout his journey, he developed the first power wheelchair with a ventilator attached in Britain. He also becomes an advocate for people living lives outside of the hospital after they contracted polio and spent years in the iron lung.

This movie really open my eyes to the breakthroughs in medical technology and to the people who pioneered them. This left a pretty profound impact on me because it showed life after paralysis and also reminded me how thankful I should be that I didn't need to stay on the ventilator. I spent two or three weeks breathing with the aid of the vent and it is something I will never do again.

Do me a favor, go into my blog and search "took my breath away". I wrote a post strictly about my struggles breathing after my injury and more specifically about my time on a ventilator while I was in the ICU.

Number 6: “Facing the Giants”

This is a faith based & powerful film based around perseverance and finding strength through God.

From the football side of things, it's similar to most film about a struggling football team that rallies together to win the championship. What resonates with me is how they do it in this film.

Aside from pulling together, the movie dives deep into the head coach who keeps getting beat up by life and life's struggles. The turning point is when he casts his worries unto the Lord.

My dad actually recommended watching this when I was in the hospital, we watched it together and at the end of it I remember being very emotional. It made me think about all of my new worries and stresses and that I had blamed a lot of my new situation on God. A Huge turning point for me came when I stop blaming God & instead thanked Him.

I thanked Him for so much regarding my injury. (I won't go into the details but if you read through my blog you can easily find huge posts were right about my struggle with faith) When I started praising Him again, I could physically manage each day and my mental strength grew incredibly. It honestly was THE turning point for me in the hospital.

"The Lord will never give you more than you can manage."

Number 7: “Crip Camp”

Crip camp is a film on Netflix that follows the lesser known civil rights movement for the handicapped and disabled starting in the late 60s.

33 day's sitting in and taking a government building accompanied with protests all over California and Washington and NY for the signing of the 504 act which was a piece of legislation worked into the constitution pertaining to equal rights and job opportunities for everyone.

This group of activists pioneered the signing of the ADA or the Americans with disabilities act. There's still work to do and there will always be accessibility issues, but because of these strong men and women who put their health & well being on the line, I am able to go up a ramp or use an elevator or hit a button that opens the door for me, or use public transportation. Because of them, I will never have to know a life before these luxuries.

Number 8: “Stronger”

In keeping with the 'based on a true story' theme, "Stronger" follows the real life struggle of Boston Bombing survivor Jeff Bauman.

The Boston Bombing was an attack in April 2013 during the Boston Marathon which took three lives, left many injured physically & mentally & left 17 people with amputated limbs.

This movie follows a double-leg amputee's journey navigating his catastrophic injury.

The movie came out about six months after my injury and when it came out on DVD, I watched it in my hospital bed with my girlfriend. I remember getting so mad at the movie that I cried. 

At the time I was still grieving everything that I had lost and I remember being so angry that this guy still had use of his arms and that he was complaining.

That was the first time that I "stepped" back and realized that someone always has it worse. Someone has it worse off than I do & that I should be thankful for what I do have. This movie helped put that into perspective for me.

My main take away from this film was that you need to enjoy the little things, even after a life altering injury. Jeff uses humor and a stubborn attitude similar to me and that really resonated with me!

Number 9: “Awakenings”

This movie is based off of a real life story involving Dr. Oliver Sacks and a groundbreaking drug trial in the late '60s.

Dr. Sacks uses drug therapy to reverse the effects of Encephalitis Lethargica which put patients in a catatonic state in the 1910's. It is now termed L-dopa and is commonly used to treat symptoms caused by Parkinson's disease.

I first watched this film as a junior in high school in my psychology class. I didn't know then how important it would be.

For me, this movie shows that there are always going to be strides in the medical field and that, maybe one day a doctor will find an experimental drug that will reverse a spinal cord injury. I am convinced that this will be cured in my lifetime!

Number 10: “Miracles From Heaven”

I watched this film with Kass shortly after I got home from the hospital. 

It is a faith-based true story about a little girl w/ an incurable disease who falls into a hollowed out tree that she was climbing. While unconscious, she visits Heaven & meets Jesus. Shortly after her near death experience, her disease vanished w/o a trace.

What resonated w/ me were two powerful messages.

1. A mother will go to any length to protect their child. I saw this incredible strength in my own mom. I appreciate this maternal superpower beyond words.

2. There are miracles all around us. Every day that I am on this Earth is a blessing. We never truly know what each moment can bring, We just have to trust His process.

"I can do all things through Christ" 

I know that some of this blog may not be very relatable without reading a little bit of the spoiler alerts but I highly recommend if you haven’t seen these films, give them a watch! I promise you won’t be disappointed!

God Bless!