PicoBlog

“A shoe is just a shoe until somebody steps into it. The rest of us just want a chance to touch that greatness. And we need you in these shoes not so you have meaning in your life, but so we have meaning in ours. You’re Michael Jordan, and your story is going to make us want to fly.”

-Sonny Vaccaro, ‘Air’

‘Air’ does one very remarkable thing: It makes us feel nostalgia for a time many of us never experienced. It takes us back to the 1980’s, where it seems there was real optimism and lightness in the USA.

And Ben Affleck’s trick is to not only show this lightness, but make us feel it and give us the sensation that we’re flying like Michael as we watch.

‘Air’ is one of the best films of 2023, and I wanted to break down a couple hidden details you might’ve missed that will add more meaning to this movie for you.

Let’s get to it, baby.

P.S. If you want the video version of this article, you can watch it right here:

Ben Affleck uses a lot of aerial shots in “Air,” and look—aerial shots aren’t anything special in filmmaking, but I can’t help but think he was adding these on purpose.

When we’re shown the “market share” for Converse, Adidas, and Nike in 1984, we get aerial shots of Converse’s and Adidas’ HQ, but a grounded one for Nike’s.

That 17% is supposed to hit hard. It’s a visual WAH-WAH-WAH. Showing the buildings of Converse and Adidas from the air makes them look more monstrous and intimidating. 

Showing Nike’s HQ from the ground, well, makes the company look puny and weak.

Beyond that, though, is the idea that Converse and Adidas were “flying” at this point in time. They were dominating the basketball market while Nike was struggling to sign anybody.

I think an A+ filmmaker like Ben Affleck would’ve put these aerial shots into his film on purpose to connect with the title and the message of the movie. Dare to fly. Dare to dream.

And as Sonny’s plan materializes more and more, we see Nike HQ from the air more and more, too.

When Sonny negotiates the Nike deal with Deloris Jordan at the end of the movie, her curtains and window dressings have sunflowers on them.

This doesn’t mean much until we realize that in their first meeting, Sonny talks about how his mother named him Sonny.

“My mother had trouble bearing children, so when it finally happened she said that when she was staring up at the bright hot light in the hospital, all she could think about was the sun.”

What do sunflowers do?

They turn and face the sun wherever it is in the sky. They follow the sun.

I thought this was a nice visual metaphor from the filmmakers showing us that the Jordans did indeed follow Sonny, and Nike, like sunflowers follow “the sun,” adding a fun easter egg to this great movie.

Before Sonny discovers how awesome Michael Jordan is at home, he gets a Slurpee and some Wheaties at 7/11. He walks down the aisle where we see a few brands that were popular at the time like a Mr. T cereal, Mr. Stache, twinkies, and wax lips.

Before approaching the counter, we’re shown three products in succession:

World’s King Size Candy, Larger Size twinkie cakes, and BIG wonder bread.

Hmm.

King size candy. Larger size twinkies. BIG wonder bread.

Are you seeing the pattern here?

Sure, bigger is better in the USA—we have an entire state that’s all about that—but why would the filmmakers show in rapid fire a bunch of jumbo-sized products?

I think they were meant to send Sonny a message. Like think bigger. Find a big idea and really go for it. They’re calling him to rise to the challenge.

Let’s talk about brands for a second…

Brands are so important in Air, which makes sense because the entire movie is about the birth of one of the biggest brands in the world.

But sometimes I hate brands. They can be tacky and fake and ridiculous. 

I mean, Wonder Bread says they help build strong bodies in 8 ways. Yeah right.

And Air is made with this idea front and center. Advertising is part of our DNA in America, and it’s ridiculously fake.

Converse and Adidas are presented as mega-professional, mega-successful enterprises. They wear suits, convene in monolithic buildings, and have big meeting rooms.

Nike workers seem normal. Sonny never wears a suit once. Phil walks around in ridiculous track gear half the time. And Nike’s meeting room is dwarfed by Converse and Adidas’.

Nike’s HQ is also out in the middle of nowhere. 

How did they win? Well, by being honest with MJ. By telling him the truth about how America will build him up only to tear him back down, and that he can take it because he’s Michael Jordan.

Brutal honesty has no place in business. Brands simply do not talk about ANYTHING negative, which makes Sonny’s speech a breath of fresh air at the end of this movie. A breath of fresh AIR that the Jordans loved.

Did you notice the blue car on Sonny’s computer? That’s a Shelby Cobra, which is a funny nod to Matt Damon’s portrayal of Carrol Shelby in 2019’s Ford vs. Ferrari.

There’s actually many mentions of cars in this movie, whether it’s Michael’s red Mercedes 380SL, Phil Knight’s Porsche, or the Mercury with the telephone in it that Sonny drives to the Jordan’s house.

Remember what MJ’s dad is doing when Sonny pulls up to their house? That’s right, he’s working on a car, and there’s a couple more in the driveway. 

When Rob, Phil, Sonny, Peter, and Howard bunk up at Nike to work all weekend, Affleck shows their cars parked outside next to one another.

Cars seem to be important in this movie. Let’s take a closer look to figure out why.

Sonny’s drives two cars in this movie. The rental car with the telephone in it is a Mercury, an American brand. Sonny’s car in Oregon is a Lincoln Continental— also an American brand.

Porsche and Mercedes—Phil Knight and MJ’s preferred cars—are German-made. Kind of like Adidas. This could represent the general sentiment that foreign-made stuff is better, cooler, more preferable.

This movie is very much an American success story. The fact that Sonny drives American-made cars subtly communicates that I think.

The choice of cars also connects back to this movie’s obsession with the value of brands, and makes Sonny seem hard-working and scrappy instead of professional and stylish like Converse and Adidas.

It’s funny that Sonny doesn’t seem to care about style that much. This connects back to Nike’s Principle that “It won’t be pretty.” The whole reason MJ and Air Jordan was so popular wasn’t because of style, it was because Michael performed on the court through hard work, grit, toughness, and competitive fire.

It was those intangibles, those non-style-related traits, that made Air Jordan so popular with all of us. Like Sonny said, “A shoe is just a shoe, until someone steps into it.” If MJ wasn’t great, we wouldn’t have cared about this shoe, no matter how stylish it was.

Sonny drives dinky American-made cars, far from the stylish Porsche or Mercedes-Benz’s of the world, but he got the job done. He got MJ. 

Cars are just a metaphor telling us that the meaningful traits in life are the un-pretty ones. Hard-work, grit, toughness, and competitive spirit. The stuff that made MJ a legend.

There’s a sculpture of a perfect body holding a ball in Adidas’ office.

It’s only shown for a moment but I think it has great significance.

I think this connects back to Sonny’s comments about how America will build Michael Jordan into something that doesn’t exist. Like an icon or a legend—like the logo on every pair of Jordan shoes.

But I can’t help but laugh at this ridiculously perfect representation of athleticism in Adidas’ office. One major point of this movie is that it’s the falling down from the mountain and the rising up again that makes us truly great.

Not perfection, and not the sweat-less, spotless bronze sculpture energy. 

Even in Converse’ office, there’s towering posters of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, like giants overlooking their meeting. These great players were built into something they couldn’t even live up to.

It is not perfection that builds athletes into legends, it’s sweat, blood, tears, and a refusal to give up. 

And I think this statue at Adidas, of them glorifying a perfect picture of athleticism, shows the disconnect they had with this simple idea.

Here’s a couple quick easter eggs I noticed that you might find interesting.

There’s a ton of bridges shown in this movie. Like, an alarming amount. Sonny is shown driving over a couple of them and I can’t help but think it’s just a visual metaphor for Sonny being that person who acted as a bridge between Nike and the Jordans.

In one scene Phil Knight tells Sonny that there is no self, to which Sonny quips back “says the guy who drives a grape-colored Porsche.”

I thought this was interesting, since the whole concept of the Air Jordan brand was to sell MJ’s identity—his traits, his SELF—to the public.

ncG1vNJzZmiemaG6orjYrKCsZqOqr7TAwJyiZ5ufonyxe5dmn6KclJq7brnErKqan5Woeqq6jJqgq2WppMJuucign62ulQ%3D%3D