Rad - Top Ten Script Anomalies (10-6)

The Final Script to "Rad" has been uploaded to the internet. The movie itself has been uploaded to youtube. What does it this mean? It means that everyone in the world can watch the movie while following along with their own copy of the script, noting any differences between the two. Anyone in the world can do it and I expect everyone in the world will.

But just in case they don't, I've compiled my own list. The movie and the script differ in innumerable ways, some minor, some fairly sizable, listing all of them is a job best left to the world of academia. Let someone else get a doctoral thesis out of it. Nevertheless, I've compiled a list of the "top ten" that are the most significant in my opinion.

This article will focus on #10 through #6.

#10. Cru Is Always Drinking Beer

Cru is supposed to be the prototypical all-American kid living in America. The script is very explicit that he's in high school (what with those scenes of him in high school and all). And yet, in the script he's constantly drinking beer. Coors to be specific.

Dude's pouring beer in his Lucky Charms! Not just beer but beer in cereal. That's hardcore. And it's only breakfast time.

How are you gonna walk Hell Track when your balance is compromised from alcohol?! The above snippet is from the scene where the gang is hanging out in the lumber yard just before Sgt. Smith arrives. But that's not the only time in the script that he's seen drinking. When it looks like Cru won't get to race Hell Track and he's at his lowest ebb, he's seen back in the lumber yard, back in the shack, drowning his sorrows in more Coors.

There's your lesson, kids!

#9. Sgt. Smith's Full Name

In the movie, the legend of Sgt. Smith follows naturally from the mystery of Sgt. Smith. Is he man or machine? Does he have a home? Does he ever take off his police uniform? Was he born or was he built in a lab from the parts of lesser policemen? Who knows. We only see him without his aviator sunglasses one time, and only at the very end of the movie. That means that by the end of the movie we've only learned that he has eyes.

But that's why it's so interesting that the script contains a small morsel of extra information.... his name!

Eugene?! Eugene T.... One question answered but another raised: what does the "T" stand for? I say it's "Thunder".

Look at that character description. One definitely gets the feeling that he's intended to be more of a "bad guy" in the script than in the movie. But, of course, that would make this all the more eerie:

#8. The Origin of the Phrase "Balls Out"

"Cru! You can do it. Just pretend you're in a lumberyard.... Go balls out."

It's one of the, if not the, most important Rad quotations. A group of NASA Engineers studied it for two years before deeming it the greatest movie quote of all-time and said that it single-handedly lead to several important technological advancements - each of which enabled BMX tricks to be more gnarly in some way.

The main thing that makes it stand out is that it's so insanely random.There's no reason a grizzled policeman should be using the phrase "balls out" to a teenager. There's no reason any adult should be using the phrase "balls out" to anyone. I shouldn't even be typing it now.

"Balls out."

But the script can explain it... kind of. Here's the scene where Cru IS in the lumber yard, just as they begin to play the "cat and mouse" game with Sgt. Smith:

The movie (and script) lead us to believe that their Sgt. Smith/lumberyard shenanigans are not a one-time occurrence. This is an ongoing, regular game. And it's also quite conceivable that Cru regularly shouts the phrase "Balls out!!!" to his fellow competitors as the start signal. So it's much more natural, then, to think that when the final race is about to start, Eugene isn't reaching that particular phrase just from the top of his head. He's showing that he's "down with the kids" by repeating Cru's own phrase back to him. It's encouragement and it's an inside joke at the same time.

So in light of the script, it doesn't feel so weird anymore. So then later, during the Hell Track race:

Hmm, nope, it just got weird again.

#7. Cru's Name Isn't Christopher

All throughout the movie, everyone consistently calls Cru, "Cru". There's only a single allusion to the fact that "Cru" is just a nickname. In the scene where Cru is trying to convince his mom that she should allow him to race Hell Track, he gives her the "Dad always said, 'When your gut talks to you, you listen.'" argument. To which she replies, "Aw, Christopher, that won't wash with me. Just because he's dead that doesn't mean that anything has changed."

Uh... well.... are you sure that his death hasn't changed anything?! Nothing at all? I'll be honest, it really should change some things... quite a few things, in fact.

Oh, anyway, from that small moment, a small bit of Rad trivia is born: Cru's real name is Christopher. Or is it? Here's what that exchange looks like in the script:

It's gone! And the name "Christopher" never shows up anywhere. Going from only the script, Cru's name is indeterminate. That line must have been added later - perhaps on the day of shooting.

If you ask me, there's a strange bit of symmetry going on. Sgt. Smith's name is ONLY in the script. Cru's name is ONLY in the movie. Perhaps both the script and movie are coordinated to be viewed as halves of a cohesive whole. Each is one piece of a greater puzzle. If you ask me, we are through the looking glass and there's no telling how far this thing goes.

#6. No Skull Kid

Rad experts agree that "The Skull Kid", as he's most commonly known, is the single most mysterious element in the entire movie "Rad". To see the Skull Kid, see this small moment here.

From the existing film footage, let's list exactly what we know:

1) An unnamed teenager approaches a desk.
2) He places a human skull on the desk.
3) He says, "Thank you."
4) He walks away.

That's what we know. That's ALL we know.

It's inexplicable. It's unexplainable. If you think about it too long, blood will come out of your ears. It's kept me up nights, that's the God's-honest truth. But it's all for naught. There's no way to rationalize it. It's an eternal mystery.

That is, unless the script can provide some sort of insight that can't be gleaned from the movie.... Here's that exact moment as described in the script:

SON OF A BUSINESS. That's it?! The script doesn't just echo the same information, it deletes information. That moment is not in the script at all. We have to assume, as elsewhere, that that moment was invented on the day of shooting (or at least sometime after the final script). But who would do such a thing and why?

Rad's greatest mystery remains just that...