Rapid Response is a 2019 documentary about a man who gets the opportunity of a lifetime when he is asked to volunteer at the Indianapolis 500 on their medical team.
Sports are dangerous. It’s part of the game. Autoracing, however, can be deadly, especially in the early days when a horrific number of drivers met their end at the hands of a violent crash. Nonetheless, the popularity of very fast cars going round in circles continued to rise, and while technology advanced greatly in making them go faster, getting them safer and having the right people on the track when things went bad was slow to come.
Enter Stephen Olvey, now a doctor, who was, in 1966, a medical student and racing fan, invited to be a volunteer at the Indianapolis 500, seeing first hand the tragedy of a bad accident and more so, the truly appalling lack of medical care available on the track. Seeing a need, he went about making change. Hence, a thirty-year odyssey began where he and many others set dramatic new standards in protecting drivers and getting them the immediate attention they need.
Co-directors Roger Hinze and Michael William Miles track the advancements of open wheel racing, concentrating on Olvey and Dr. Terry Trammell, a team that formed some of the most influential contributions to safety, both of whom came to see and attend to truly horrific crashes. The filmmakers don’t hold back in showing many of this colossal impacts … and the carnage that followed. It’s not always easy to watch as some of these accident show drivers in their last moments.
Either way, this commitment to exposing why safety is necessary actually helps in giving the story far greater weight, and while the film shines its light primarily on only two men, it’s a very compelling take on their work. We meet many famous drivers from the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, who reflect on their time behind the wheel, many who suffered traumatic accidents, including Mario Andretti, Bobby Unser, Rick Mears, and more, who couldn’t let an injury stop them from getting back in the driver’s seat. You can’t help but wonder why, the film not really exploring the compulsion in these men to put themselves in such danger, but that’s not really what this is about, instead, looking at the results of these accidents and how many led to vast improvements in survival and recovery rates, including concussion and other head injuries. This meant car and driver testing that eventually made its way to advancements in passenger vehicles as well.
This is not a typical face-to-face documentary. There is no interviewer or narrator, only the people in the story talking to us. This might leave some gaps in giving the whole thing a larger sense of investment as maybe a few questions are left unanswered for those not entirely familiar with the sport, but on the other side of that, it feels deeply personal, allowing these people to simply and freely tell it as they remember. You don’t need to be a fan of car racing to appreciate what’s on screen, the efforts of these men and drivers they have helped inspiring.