Was the young Kirk trying to commit suicide by driving the Corvette off the edge of quarry? Of course, he certainly changes his mind and tries to save his life at the very last minute - but was he trying to kill himself before his last minute escape?
On the one hand, we might think not. Kirk generally, and the rest of the movie, emphasizes the "never say die" ethos. The scene is shot in an ebullient, action-packed style that seems at odds with Kirk being depressed. And Kirk at the close works hard to save his life, and proudly shouts his name to the policeman.
But there's more to the story.
In the novelization, as we know, Kirk's suicidality is explicit:
We know Kirk was fleeing in a 300-year old antique Corvette. We know he passed an older friend or relative hitchhiking on the shoulder of the road, the kid he shouted to. We know his stepfather threatened to "whip" him.
We can infer from all this that Kirk and the other boy had been mistreated by the step-father, angering them so much that they fled. Whatever was done must have really angered Kirk and the other kid, to cause them both to run away or destroy a priceless car.
So certainly Kirk was terribly upset about something. Something horrible must have happened. Indeed, we know, we just saw what one terrible thing was: his father's death. This death was not just a personal tragedy, but it was caused by a wrenching and displacement of Kirk's entire intended timeline. He lost his father in the first scene, and also in a way his real time, his timeline, just like Spock would later lose his planet. So Kirk is bereft and stranded out of time, apart from whatever abuses we can infer from the brief scene shown.
It's true Kirk acts ebulliently in that scene. But if you look more closely, you can see his eyes look like he's just been crying. In the first shot of Kirk, the whites of his eyes are red, and in the later shots, his eyes seems more sad than reckless. We know to look carefully at Kirk's eyes because in the very next scene, the Vulcan bullies mock Spock for his "sad, human eyes."
Furthermore, Kirk upshifts the Corvette into top gear and accelerates, when he is about 100 feet from the edge of the quarry. A few seconds later, he changes his mind, downshifts, and jumps out.
Why did he upshift?
Maybe he was trying to evade the cop, as if he had not seen the quarry. I don't think the movie supports this interpretation. The quarry seems to have been near his home - that's why the kid hitchhiking, a brother or step-brother presumably, was nearby. Obviously, Kirk would have been very familiar with exactly where a huge quarry right near his house was, so it is not very likely he just forgot about the presence of the quarry.
Maybe he was just an incredibly bad driver, as in fact most kids his age are. But that would not really explain why he accelerated just before he reached the edge of the quarry. He would more likely have accelerated as soon as he saw the cop, if he was just a wild and reckless driver.
And of course the suicide theory explains very simply one of most common questions on this board: why didn't Kirk stop for the hitchhiker? He didn't stop because he only wanted to end his own life, not his brother's (or step-brother's, or whomever the other kid is) as well.
Finally, this scene immediately follows the opening sequence of the movie, in which Kirk's father, George Kirk, intentionally ends his life - by crashing the Kelvin (as Spock tries to end his own life later on in the Jellyfish). So it is not much of a stretch to think that the filmmakers intended by the juxtaposition to suggest that crashing was likewise on Jim's mind.
On the one hand, we might think not. Kirk generally, and the rest of the movie, emphasizes the "never say die" ethos. The scene is shot in an ebullient, action-packed style that seems at odds with Kirk being depressed. And Kirk at the close works hard to save his life, and proudly shouts his name to the policeman.
But there's more to the story.
In the novelization, as we know, Kirk's suicidality is explicit:
But the novelization is not definitive: the interesting question is whether Kirk's state of mind can be inferred only from what's shown in the movie. The question is not what we can infer from the novelization, because the director might have changed his mind about what to shoot. The question is what can we infer from the film. Was Kirk, even briefly, trying to end his life?
We know Kirk was fleeing in a 300-year old antique Corvette. We know he passed an older friend or relative hitchhiking on the shoulder of the road, the kid he shouted to. We know his stepfather threatened to "whip" him.
We can infer from all this that Kirk and the other boy had been mistreated by the step-father, angering them so much that they fled. Whatever was done must have really angered Kirk and the other kid, to cause them both to run away or destroy a priceless car.
So certainly Kirk was terribly upset about something. Something horrible must have happened. Indeed, we know, we just saw what one terrible thing was: his father's death. This death was not just a personal tragedy, but it was caused by a wrenching and displacement of Kirk's entire intended timeline. He lost his father in the first scene, and also in a way his real time, his timeline, just like Spock would later lose his planet. So Kirk is bereft and stranded out of time, apart from whatever abuses we can infer from the brief scene shown.
It's true Kirk acts ebulliently in that scene. But if you look more closely, you can see his eyes look like he's just been crying. In the first shot of Kirk, the whites of his eyes are red, and in the later shots, his eyes seems more sad than reckless. We know to look carefully at Kirk's eyes because in the very next scene, the Vulcan bullies mock Spock for his "sad, human eyes."
Furthermore, Kirk upshifts the Corvette into top gear and accelerates, when he is about 100 feet from the edge of the quarry. A few seconds later, he changes his mind, downshifts, and jumps out.
Why did he upshift?
Maybe he was trying to evade the cop, as if he had not seen the quarry. I don't think the movie supports this interpretation. The quarry seems to have been near his home - that's why the kid hitchhiking, a brother or step-brother presumably, was nearby. Obviously, Kirk would have been very familiar with exactly where a huge quarry right near his house was, so it is not very likely he just forgot about the presence of the quarry.
Maybe he was just an incredibly bad driver, as in fact most kids his age are. But that would not really explain why he accelerated just before he reached the edge of the quarry. He would more likely have accelerated as soon as he saw the cop, if he was just a wild and reckless driver.
And of course the suicide theory explains very simply one of most common questions on this board: why didn't Kirk stop for the hitchhiker? He didn't stop because he only wanted to end his own life, not his brother's (or step-brother's, or whomever the other kid is) as well.
Finally, this scene immediately follows the opening sequence of the movie, in which Kirk's father, George Kirk, intentionally ends his life - by crashing the Kelvin (as Spock tries to end his own life later on in the Jellyfish). So it is not much of a stretch to think that the filmmakers intended by the juxtaposition to suggest that crashing was likewise on Jim's mind.
