On Feb. 14, 2008, “Jumper” opened in theaters.
When protagonist, Davy finds he can teleport he leaves Ann Arbor for New York City. There he attracts the attention of Roland, leader of a group dedicated to murdering teleporters. The hunt, filmed in 20 cities in 14 nations, is on. It cost $84 million and grossed $221,865,173 by mid June.
“Jumper” was developed from the 1992 Steven Gould novel. “Reflex” is the sequel. These depart from the movie and, to me, are more interesting. In the novels Davy deals with his abusive father, a brutal New York City cop, Shiite terrorists and Federal agents interested in Davy’s hostage rescues. Then there’s Davy’s girlfriend Millie. Here is their meeting.
Millie: “I’m here for a week of the touristy stuff. Gotta go back to school in two weeks.”
Davy: “Where’s that? “
Millie: “Oklahoma State, majoring in psych.”
Davy: (thinks a moment) “Stillwater? … My grandfather went to school there, back when it was Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical.”
Davy moves to Stillwater where most of “Jumper” takes place. “Reflex”, picks up Davy and Millie in Stillwater 10 years later. Davy is kidnapped by sinister forces, Millie rescues him.
“Jumper” Amazon rank no. 1 in Science Fiction and no. 2,579 overall, and “Reflex,” no. 2 in Science fiction and 2,607 overall, are both set in Stillwater. There is one reference to an FBI agent poorly disguised in an orange Pistol Pete T-shirt. Otherwise, Stillwater and OSU are completely generic.
My first clue that Gould knows nothing about us was when Davy took Millie to “Stillwater’s finest restaurant.” Stillwater does not have a ‘finest restaurant.’
Then there is their condo just off campus with an underground parking garage. Condo? Underground parking? They walk from a movie back to campus. Walk? The Airport Road National Guard Armory has a fence and a guard at the gate where ours has no fence, gate or guard.
There is a K-Mart. Except for orange and Pistol Pete, OSU and Stillwater are any college, any town.
Some of the fault is our own. I have listened to city leaders’ ‘vision’ of a Target or an Outback Steakhouse coming and past OSU leader-imports celebrated mediocrity without getting to know what makes us special.
We have wonderfully quirky features. The inability of our engineers to spell ‘Oklahoma’ correctly on their monument outside Engineering South; Vi’s pies at Mom’s Café; Carolyn Whitener’s West Sixth Honk and Holler, the convenience store that gave America equal rights; Dick Tracy’s creator, Chester Gould; Angie Debo; the oil wells pumping downtown on South Main and across from the Library; the grain elevator forcing Highway 51 to bend around it and its owner, the late Haskell Cudd; the Pig Barn once welcoming visitors from the west with its ‘pig country’ smell; The Otoe-Misouria tribe just to the north and the Iowa just to the south; and OSU’s social science building celebrating racist anti-Semite Bill Murray. Stillwater and OSU are worth getting to know.
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Freddie Pauls is Stillwater’s finest resturant.
The Rancher’s Club is the finest dining in Stillwater, and there used to be a movie theater on Main near Cooper’s Bicycle Shop. Perhaps the author mentions a Kmart because Wal-Mart policy prohibits the release of Wal-Mart’s name or trademarks in literary publishings? There is an apartment complex on Hester and University which is a pair of converted condos and has parking spaces slightly below street level beneath the building. The National Guard Armory has a gated fence around the lot, and as to a guard at the gate, you’re questioning the author’s creative liberties in a book about people who can teleport?
Lastly, I’m an engineering student here at Oklahoma State University, and I apologize that many of us engineers may not have extraordinary spelling capabilities, but I’m sure that we could find fault in your exams or homework assignments from an Algebra or Math Functions course. Though I may not approve of all of the decisions our administration makes, I’m proud of my school and my town. Perhaps Sooner country could use a new opinion columnist? Send them this bit of writing.. they’ll love it!