What’s in Your Backpack When Life’s “Up in the Air”?

Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) has an empty backpack at the beginning of “Up in the Air”. His job as a professional “downsizer” allows him to live according to his philosophy of living this way- always travelling and never developing close relationships. He believes this philosophy so much that he gives “motivational talks” from time to time about the value of emptying the backpack of your life- your things and people. It’s people who weigh Bingham down and keep him from moving. Moving is life he says, and he’s the most alive person he knows. He says all this with a knowing smirk.

It wouldn’t be a movie (a good one anyway) if our hero didn’t change in some way. Enter Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga). She’s just like him, except with different plumbing. An air warrior like himself, they meet at an exclusive airport lounge and plan their get-togethers according to their flight itineraries. She’s not in his backpack, but he gets all the advantages as if she were. Perfect, right? As Ryan deals with changes at work and with his sister getting married, his heart starts to warm to the idea of putting Alex in his backpack. They’re so similar. They get along so well. They grow close, and he invites her to his sister’s wedding.

At a big motivational speech that he’s making near the end of the film, he pauses as he’s giving his initial address. He realizes that he doesn’t want an empty backpack anymore. He wants Alex in there, and he wants to be in hers. Leaving mid-speech, he rushes to fly to her house. I won’t give away the ending, but what he learns is a powerful lesson in the desire for relationship. He learns that people don’t weigh him down. He learns that what he wanted before isn’t what he wants now. Ryan is like us, trying to figure out life when it’s all up in the air. At the end of the film, he stares at an airport board with hundreds of flights listed. Where will he go? Who will be in his backpack?

Where will you go? Who’s in your backpack?