Up in the Air - discussion guide

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Summary

Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) has an unusual job: he flies around America firing people on behalf of their employers. Equipped with motivational anecdotes, a winning smile and a pamphlet purported to contain ‘all the answers you’re looking for’, he is confident that he makes the experience bearable, even dignified.

One might wonder what attracts a person to this role. Ryan doesn’t do it out of spite or goodwill; he does it for the miles. He wants to become the seventh person ever to reach ten million frequent flyer miles. Ryan also wants to continue meeting frequent flyer Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga), the female version of himself.

His goal is put in jeopardy when his boss, Craig Gregory (Jason Bateman), is won over by Natalie Keener’s (Anna Kendrick) idea of sacking people over the internet rather than in person. Ryan is adamant that Natalie knows nothing about firing people, so Craig shrewdly insists that whilst the necessary preparations for Glocal (the name given to Natalie’s concept) are being made, Ryan should show her how it’s done.

As Ryan and Natalie travel together, making people redundant as they go, they build a friendship. Ryan thought he was completely content with his life, but Natalie and Alex make him question his goals and long for deeper relationships.

Background

Up in the Air is loosely based on Walter Kirn’s 2001 novel of the same name. Director and co-writer Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking and Juno) took Kirn’s central character and created a new set of circumstances and characters (Alex and Natalie) to challenge him. The recession began whilst the screenplay was being written, making the film all the more relevant. Reitman decided to cast ordinary recently-fired people from Detroit and St. Louis for the redundancy scenes. He explains the significance of this move:
'Every day you see news stories about job cuts but it’s usually about a number, so it’s easy to forget who these people are. What I’m most proud of is that the movie puts real faces to those numbers.'*

However, Reitman insists that unemployment is only the backdrop to Ryan’s internal journey:
'The book spoke to me on multiple levels . . . But as I was writing, my own life changed. I met my wife, fell in love and had a child. And in that process, Ryan Bingham also started to mature and look for more in life. The script grew into being about how imperative connections are in our daily lives.'

The film received six Oscar nominations and won a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay and a Bafta for Adapted Screenplay. Clooney’s performance has been lauded as one of his best, but Farmiga and Kendrick’s portrayals have also received notable praise. 90% of the 235 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes were positive, including all 12 of the top critics.

Questions for Discussion

1. What did you think of the film? How did it make you feel? What surprised you about it?

2. What was your first impression of Ryan? Did you relate to him, and if so, in what ways? What did you think of the way he did his job?

3. ‘Imagine for a second that you're carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life . . . Your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. Your husband, your wife, your home. We weigh ourselves down until we can’t even move. Make no mistake, moving is living.’

How do you respond to this philosophy? What are the benefits of an ‘empty backpack’ life? What are the drawbacks? Why is moving so important to Ryan?

4. How does Ryan’s concept of home evolve through the film? What makes a place a home?

5. ‘I saw it as a story about a guy who has to deal with the fact that, even though he thinks his life is complete, he’s been ignoring something very important, which is the responsibility to be part of something larger. Ryan Bingham is so scared off by the burdens of joining a community that he’s been missing out on the value of that.’

What are the burdens of joining a community? What is the value of living in a community? Is community something that you crave? Why/why not?

6. Ryan’s philosophy states, ‘We are not swans, we’re sharks,’ but in the course of his relationship with Alex he discards this theory. How did you respond when Ryan found out Alex’s secret? How do we continue relationship-building after we’ve experienced betrayal?

7. Glocal aside, what were Natalie’s opinions about relationships? How did Natalie inspire Ryan to change?

8. Natalie tells Ryan that his life is ‘a cocoon of self-banishment’. She continues, ‘You have set up a way of life that basically makes it impossible for you to have any kind of human connection.’ How are our own lives set up? What happens if we ignore our need for human connections?

9. ‘Ryan Bingham speaks to the disconnect and insulation of our times. All the things meant to bring us together have only driven us apart.’ Can you think of any examples of things designed to bring us together that in practice have driven us apart? How can we strive to make real connections with people?

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