Welcome to our new feature, where we link movies with the happenings at the latest MotoGP event. This time out we try to find tenuous connections between the Portugal MotoGP and 3 movies.
The Action
Movie: Mad Max 2
Australia had no business producing one of the greatest action movies of all time. It’s a backward, snake-infested hellhole, ruled by people you couldn’t trust to watch a saucepan of baked beans for 90 seconds while you nipped out of the room. But the convicts defied the odds and amazed the world to create Mad Max 2.
Jack Miller had no business being one of the stars at Portimao. Pre-season testing saw him languishing well outside the top ten, and unsurprisingly all out of ideas. But when the lights went out in Portugal, Jack was kicking ass left right and centre. And not just in the Sprint, where Jack has the advantage of not having to remove his brain like most of the other riders do. He was outstanding in the feature race too. If there had been less than 20 Ducatis on the grid then the Aussie might have grabbed a podium.
The Drama
Movie: And Then There Were None
The Agatha Christie story has had its name changed twice due to the previous titles being serious hate crimes against various minority groups. Basically a bunch of people get bumped off one by one.
At Portimao, riders started disappearing all over the place. The entry list for the next round is almost as short as the one for Jorge Lorenzo’s birthday party. If this carries on, they won’t have to run the dubiously scheduled races in India and Kazakhstan as there won’t be any riders left anyway, and the less talented commentators will literally have to go out there on their scooters as they keep threatening to do when there’s a high attrition rate.
The Horror
Movie: A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Krueger became a cultural icon in this horror where he kills teenagers in their dreams with his knifey glove. It spawned a ton of sequels, some of them surprisingly inventive, such as Wes Craven’s New Nightmare where Freddy shows up in real life and starts wiping out the actors who appeared in A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Miguel Oliveira was lapping blisteringly fast towards the front of his home race. Then he was brought back to Earth with a crash. Like Freddy Krueger, Marc Marquez attacked the hapless Portugee in his dreams. And like Freddy, Marquez just keeps going on the rampage in sequel after sequel. Other riders will be terrified of having a dream start at their own home races later in the year.