I love the SR-71 Blackbird sequence at the end of 1985’s D.A.R.Y.L. for many reasons. It’s the culmination of an already-good film, and it shows that it still has a few tricks up its sleeve. Plus, it contains a lesson we might be able to benefit from.

Escape Sequence

If you haven’t seen D.A.R.Y.L., I highly recommend you give it a watch because it’s just wonderful. The film is about a mysterious boy possessing all kinds of special abilities who gets adopted by a loving family. It turns out that he’s the product of a government experiment to put a computer brain into a human child. He learns that astonishing fact after he falls into the government’s clutches once more.

He desperately tries to escape from his captors who want to dissect him. Thankfully, he comes up with a creative way to outsmart the government authorities. He hijacks an SR-71, the fastest airplane ever made, and hightails it back to his adopted home.

The Simplest Solution

During Daryl’s daring escape, he demonstrates complex abilities to reprogram computers, defeat attack dogs, and more. But what I find most compelling is when it comes to his ultimate defeat of his enemies. He doesn’t use any high-tech knowledge. He simply realizes a camera is watching him in the cockpit of the SR-71, and he covers the lens with a piece of gum he’s been chewing. This enables Daryl to complete his escape plan.

As one government official notes to another, “A child with a stick of chewing gum has just rendered your hundred-million-dollars’ worth of hardware useless.”

I’m not saying that complex problems never need complex solutions. But sometimes we would be wise to take a step back from a major problem we’re dealing with to ask ourselves if there might be a simple solution we’re overlooking.

The film could have shown Daryl outsmarting his pursuers by reprogramming the cockpit camera to show the wrong feed, but he had already done that to the security guards at the military base he took the SR-71 from. In this case, the filmmakers decided to go in a different direction. They cleverly showed that sometimes the best solution is the simplest.

Daryl may have a computer brain, but he’s also a child. And what would a kid do in a situation like this? He’d literally gum up the works.

Using Common Sense

While we’re faced with all kinds of complex problems in our lives, sometimes we don’t need to rack our brains coming up with equally complex solutions. The simplest way out of a predicament might just be the best way. Or the only way.

If I hurt someone’s feelings, I can humbly apologize and try to be kinder. If I make a wicked choice, I can repent. If I want to be a good father, I can spend time with my children getting to know them. If I want to write a great article or book, I can just start writing and not worry about doing it perfectly the first time.

For all our hundred-million-dollars’ worth of ideas on how to tackle big problems, sometimes all we need is a little common sense. That’s my two cents, anyway.

This is the Deja Reviewer bidding you farewell until we meet again.

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