KTLA: Director Tony Scott jumps from San Pedro Bridge

[JackRiddler]

It blows my mind that people on here think that it is normal for someone ALLEGEDLY terminally ill, with a FAMILY, to commit suicide in such a public, spectacular fashion. Had he wanted to off himself, he could have done it painlessly, and discretely in any number of ways with his family at his side.

It may blow your mind, but the most common case for suicide in the US is that of older men, especially if they get sick. That doesn't mean it's "normal," since most people don't kill themselves. However, suicides happen. Being thoughtful isn't always the prime factor. "FAMILY" has very different meanings to different people, and even to the same person in one given moment as opposed to an hour later.

Does this stuff really need to be explained?

If you don't want to believe it, the data says otherwise. Decisively. As for the method, "spectacular" is a question of definition. Bridge-jumping is common.

Instead, he allegedly jumps off a bridge and turns the whole thing into a spectacle with the foreknowledge that his family will have to deal with the aftermath. Imagine his kids, going to school with the knowledge that all their classmates know how their father died.

You're right. This is why no one with family ever, ever kills themselves.

However, I'm not saying he wasn't that insensitive, but merely that the allegation that he had a brain tumor or had financial troubles doesn't automatically lead to suicide by leap to death.

Certainly not automatic. You're reversing the causality here, see? It's already happened. Now that it has, it fits the most common profile for suicide in the United States by age, sex, and health factor. "The assassination of Tony Scott" is about four billion times less likely than "the suicide of Tony Scott."

Also, suicide doesn't solve financial problems. Life insurance won't pay out for suicide.

I merely listed another typical factor associated with suicides of old men. Not likely a factor in Scott's case! Furthermore, death by any means solves all financial and all other problems, for the dead one. This is why people kill themselves. Except, apparently, it's unbelievable to you that anyone ever would.

Whoever said Blackhawk Down was by Ridley: Correct. Sorry.

It's antiwar only if you care to see that a thousand-plus Somalis are being killed. This is not how the film was promoted or received. It was a document of the bravery and goodness of our men thrust by a questionable policy into a den of barbaric killers who do not value any life. The Somalis were filmed like reptilian creatures.

.

[Jeff]

When I first heard the news about T Scott, Claude Jutra came to mind first thing... I thought, "Maybe he was very sick and did a Claude Jutra."

Yes. And a Spalding Gray.

There's a bridge not far from my home that was the second most popular jumping-off point, after the Golden Gate, before a suicide barrier was erected nine years ago. Before it went up HS Bhabra leapt from it, blaming his writer's block.

When they can't do anything else, sometimes dramatists want to write their own exits.

[8bitagent]

I'm curious if Jlaw has had serious depression. I'm ok with admitting I've kind of *been* there, that seriously messed up dark dark depression where suicide doesn't seem so foreign. I can't imagine
the pathology or situation of people under really dire situations(terminal stage cancer, for instance) While some 'find God and peace', for other it may be hopeless. And they dont want their loved ones to see them deteriorate. You dont think clearly in those situations, and of course suicide doesnt solve financial issues. But theyre not thinking clearly.

Look at the big Belgium nobleman investor who committed suicide because of the Madoff Ponzi scheme. He felt remorse for having lead so many people to him, even tho he may not necessarily have known the plot. Or look at Kurt Cobain. Many reasons why people do it.

[82_28]

Can nasal spray help prevent military suicides?

Could the solution to increasing suicide and depression rates among members of the U.S. military lie in a nasal spray? The Army hopes so.

In the midst of a crisis that saw its highest rate of suicide in July, the Army has greenlighted a grant for Dr. Michael Kubek, an Indiana University of Medicine professor, to dig deeper into whether a nasal spray could be a safe and effective way to administer a specific antidepressive neurochemical to the brain and help calm suicidal thoughts.

The Army counted 38 confirmed or suspected suicides in July, a tally that took into account both active- and non-active-duty members of the Army National Guard or Reserve. Three of those active-duty soldiers were deployed at the time of their deaths. Before July, the highest monthly level suicide rate for soldiers was 33 in June 2010 and July 2011, according to statistics released by the Army.

Kubek helped discover thyrotropin-releasing hormone, or TRH, which is known to have antisuicidal and antidepression effects. The problem is that the naturally occurring chemical cannot easily cross the “blood-brain barrier.” The barrier is meant to protect the nervous system by keeping out any substances in the blood that could injure the brain, including hormones and neurotransmitters. But it also makes it extremely difficult to get TRH to the brain, rendering normal methods of delivering the chemical, through pills or injection, largely unhelpful.

The military is hoping Kubek, an associate professor of anatomy and cell biology and of neurobiology, can use a three-year grant to work with other researchers to use a nasal spray to get TRH safely into the brain and calm soldiers' thoughts.

Kubek's research was spotted by Navy physician Capt. Neal Naito several years ago, according to a news release from Indiana University. Naito, who had been the director of public health for the Navy but is now retired, reached out to Kubek to see whether his research might be applied to active military members and veterans.

The Army has confirmed 120 suicides for both active- and non-active-duty soldiers in 2012, with 67 other deaths suspected as suicides but still under investigation. Twenty-five of those were attributed to soldiers who did not have any previous deployments. The Army reported 242 suicides in 2009, 305 in 2010 and 283 in 2011.

“These deaths are troubling and tragic,” Kubek said in a statement. “Today’s commonly used anti-depressants can take weeks to have an effect and carry a black box warning label for suicidal ideation in young adults. That is why we hope to develop a quick-acting, easy-to-use, non-invasive system that delivers a compound that’s been shown to reduce suicidal thoughts.”

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told a congressional committee last month that the U.S. military was facing an "epidemic" of suicides and was in need of improvements in mental health services for active-duty and returning troops.

The military spends about $2 billion a year on mental health for its members. But many who study and report on military suicides say the stigma attached to depression as well as the red tape involved in implementing a program make it difficult to attack the problem in the aggressive way that is needed.

Time magazine Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Mark Thompson says a former high-ranking Army officer told him, “there are promising techniques that the military could deploy against suicide, but they involve an initial two-hour screening, a sit-down, a one-on-one with a psychiatrist that this nation is just not willing to pay for.”

Kubek's techniques could be promising. It will take a few years to know, but it's research the Army knows is important.

"Suicide is the toughest enemy I have faced in my 37 years in the Army. And it's an enemy that's killing not just Soldiers, but tens of thousands of Americans every year," Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, vice chief of staff of the Army, said in a written statement after the July release of suicide statistics. "That said, I do believe suicide is preventable. To combat it effectively will require sophisticated solutions aimed at helping individuals to build resiliency and strengthen their life coping skills."

Kubek will work with pharmacology professor Abraham Domb from Hebrew University in Jerusalem to figure out how to deliver the drug effectively. That process, according to Indiana University’s School of Medicine, should take about a year. Kubek would then work with researchers at Purdue University on clinical trials in the second and third years of the grant.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/20/ca ... ?hpt=hp_t2

Really, bro? WTF? Jesus, I wasn't meant for here, this planet. Fuck. But interesting this comes on the heels of the director of the most pro-war feel good movie of all time offing himself.

[Jeff]

So where did the "inoperable brain cancer" story come from?

Tony Scott did NOT have inoperable brain cancer, or for that matter brain cancer at all ... this according to Scott's family.

TMZ has learned ... Scott's wife told investigators the rumor that Tony had inoperable brain cancer is "absolutely false."

Although the autopsy results have been deferred pending more tests, our sources say there is no evidence of brain cancer.

What's more ... we're told Scott's wife says Tony did not have any other severe medical issues that would have caused him to take his own life.

http://www.tmz.com/2012/08/20/tony-scot ... cer-tumor/

(And geez, TMZ makes the most bizarre use of ellipses.)

[JackRiddler]

So where did the "inoperable brain cancer" story come from?

Tony Scott did NOT have inoperable brain cancer, or for that matter brain cancer at all ... this according to Scott's family.

TMZ has learned ... Scott's wife told investigators the rumor that Tony had inoperable brain cancer is "absolutely false."

Although the autopsy results have been deferred pending more tests, our sources say there is no evidence of brain cancer.

What's more ... we're told Scott's wife says Tony did not have any other severe medical issues that would have caused him to take his own life.

http://www.tmz.com/2012/08/20/tony-scot ... cer-tumor/

(And geez, TMZ makes the most bizarre use of ellipses.)

Okay, now this is what you call a first piece of evidence. Interesting. Where did it come from?

[luv2dive]

he took the Highway to the Danger Zone

I heard the news of Mr. Scott's death this morning on NPR and guess what song they played to lead to the break for the next story....

yep... Kenny Loggins wailing "highway to the danger zone" from Top Gun.

I realize there was a connection, but it really creeped me out and made my skin crawl that they would actually play it right after the report on Mr. Scott's death.

Very callous and poor taste from NPR

[8bitagent]

He must have been in great shape to scale such a high fence...I have the worst sort of fear of heights, can't imagine how he managed to do that at night of all times.
He must have really been hiding some sort of deep, deep stuff mentally.

[justdrew]

he took the Highway to the Danger Zone

I heard the news of Mr. Scott's death this morning on NPR and guess what song they played to lead to the break for the next story....

yep... Kenny Loggins wailing "highway to the danger zone" from Top Gun.

I realize there was a connection, but it really creeped me out and made my skin crawl that they would actually play it right after the report on Mr. Scott's death.

Very callous and poor taste from NPR

Scott actually "directed" the video too. It's possible they just did it cause of it being the most famous movie he did and didn't make the 'humor' connection.

[8bitagent]

Strange...Tony Scott is one of the biggest and most prolific directors of mainstream US cinema...yet his passing isn't even on the front page of many of the news sites and didn't seem to get much coverage. Heck when third rate actors or faded singers pass, they get a big headline. Not sure it means anything other than I find it odd.

[JackRiddler]

Strange...Tony Scott is one of the biggest and most prolific directors of mainstream US cinema...yet his passing isn't even on the front page of many of the news sites and didn't seem to get much coverage. Heck when third rate actors or faded singers pass, they get a big headline. Not sure it means anything other than I find it odd.

It means either that people are stupid, or the media assume they're so stupid that they don't know or care what a director is, only whoever's in front of the camera.

Or wait, maybe they picked up a new, more accurate sense of these things overnight, and the coverage is merely commensurate with his actual stature as an artist? What kind of coverage should it get when a unit leader in the Propaganda Ministry passes on?

Or maybe they're being circumspect in not over-spectacularizing a suicide by one of their own?

[brekin]

Tony Scott Spent His Final Days Researching 'Top Gun 2' With Tom Cruise
http://www.businessinsider.com/director ... z24CCCUSQA

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/director ... z24CCw2hff

Tony Scott, the British film director, spent the final days before his death with Tom Cruise researching Top Gun 2 at an American naval airbase, it emerged today. Scott, 68, was closely working with the 50 year-old Hollywood actor on the sequel to the director’s biggest hit more than 25 years ago.

The pair, close friends since first working together on the 1986 blockbuster, met last Friday, just two days before Scott plunged to his death from a Los Angeles suspension bridge.According to industry reports, a Top Gun 2 script was close to being finalized and the pair were scouring locations with a view to shortly begin filming the remake.
They reportedly toured a naval air station in Fallon Nevada last week as part of their research for the military drama, in which Cruise would reprise his celebrated role as a naval fighter pilot Lt Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.
Today it remains unclear whether studio executives will continue with the film in the wake of the father-of-two’s sudden death on Sunday.

A clearly devastated Cruise was photographed looking disheveled as he left a West Hollywood restaurant, hours after Scott's suspected suicide.In a statement last night, the Mission Impossible star described his grief at the loss of his “dear friend”, originally from North Shields, North Tyneside.
"Tony was my dear friend and I will really miss him,” he said.
“He was a creative visionary whose mark on film is immeasurable. My deepest sorrow and thoughts are with his family at this time."

He led tributes from a shocked Hollywood to the director, who was frequently seen behind the camera in his signature faded red baseball cap.American reports had suggested the 68 year-old committed suicide by leaping from a Los Angeles suspension bridge after he was diagnosed as terminally ill.

But it was claimed today that his widow, actress Donna Wilson, has told police that her husband and the father of their twin boys, did not have any major health problems.Top Gun 2 was one of Scott’s three directing projects in “advanced development” before his death, according to The Hollywood Reporter (THR) .

He operated Scott Free Productions with his 74 year-old brother Ridley in Los Angeles almost 40 years after the pair formed London-based commercial production company Ridley Scott Associates.
"Studios have to compete for directors who are in demand, and Tony was in great demand," said one studio insider who met with Scott for lunch a fortnight ago. "Hyper-qualified directors are really rare."
Top Gun, a film about the US fighter jets starring Cruise and Kelly McGillis, was one of the highest-grossing films of the 1980s and quickly became a cult classic.

Since its release in 1986, it has grossed almost $354 million (£225 million) worldwide. It catapulted Scott to fame and resulted in a lasting friendship with Cruise.
Top Gun's producers, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, signed Scott to direct the movie after being impressed by a commercial he had done for Swedish automaker Saab in the early 1980s in which a car races a fighter jet.

The trio worked together again in 1990 on the NASCAR-set Days of Thunder, which also starred Cruise and his soon to become wife Nicole Kidman. She said: "I'm so, so sad. I loved Tony and he was always so good to me."
Paramount Motion Picture Group president Adam Goodman disclosed the plans for a in May.

He told THR: "Jerry Bruckheimer would produce, with Tony Scott returning to direct.
“All parties are moving ahead. We've hired Peter Craig to write the script."
Scott, famed for other films including Beverly Hills Cop II, Crimson Tide and Enemy of the State, died on Sunday after plunging almost 200 feet from the Vincent Thomas Bridge, in the city's south.

He was said to be wearing the signature faded-red baseball cap that he wore on set while directing Hollywood blockbusters.
Investigators found a suicide note in his office, the contents of which have not been disclosed.
Post mortem examination results are not due for up to eight weeks.

http://www.businessinsider.com/director ... z24CCCUSQA

[Hunter]

So did he have brain cancer/tumor or not?

[brekin]

Alchemy wrote:

So did he have brain cancer/tumor or not?

No.

Coroner, director Tony Scott's family dispute cancer report
http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/21/showbiz/t ... ?hpt=hp_t1

By Alan Duke, CNN
updated 12:44 PM EDT, Tue August 21, 2012

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Tony Scott's fatal plunge from a California bridge Sunday remained a public mystery Tuesday as medical investigators and his family disputed a report that the British director suffered from inoperable brain cancer.

Scott, best known for the films "Top Gun" and "Beverly Hills Cop II," apparently committed suicide by jumping from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro, California, about 12:30 p.m. Sunday, said Lt. Joe Bale of the coroner's office.
Scott, 68, wrote two notes before his death, including a message left in his Los Angeles office that was apparently for family members, a coroner official said.

The second note, detailing contact information for authorities investigating his death, was found in his Toyota Prius parked nearby, the official said. Investigators would not say what clues those notes may have given them concerning Scott's motivation for suicide, which Bale said was the apparent cause of death."There's nothing to indicate it is anything else at this time," he said Monday.


It will be weeks before the findings of Monday's autopsy are made public, the coroner's office said Tuesday.
"Our examination is complete and we will be working towards a comprehensive document once we close the case," Deputy Chief Coroner Ed Winter said.

An ABC report Monday suggested the director was scripting his own death after being told by a doctor that he was dying of inoperable brain cancer. The network did not name the source of its information. "I did talk to the family yesterday late afternoon, and according to his wife, he did not have brain cancer as reported, and (she) does not know who told ABC that information, which is absolutely false," Winter said.

[jlaw172364]

I read both Black Hawk Down and saw the film.

I did not perceive the Somalis to be portrayed as inhuman reptiles. They looked more like emaciated black people dressed in rags armed with AK-47s who were attacking white invaders for meddling in their politics. The film seemed to be a faithful rendering of the book, namely, the depiction of a battle. The notion of heroism is subjective. People can watch BHD and think it portrayed the Americans as heroic, but I perceived it portray them mostly as better-armed, better-organized, and better-funded, period. The Delta Force operatives went on a suicide mission to rescue the Rangers because they're selected and brainwashed to do things like that; it's what they live for, and the military refines them through a process of selection. Frankly, I think the Somalis deserve credit for having the balls to attack a well-armed imperial power with the ability to project nuclear weapons into their country.

Many older white males may kill themselves, and many may do it in a public spectacular fashion, but many of these have NOTHING to live for.

You can't tell me someone with two adolescent children has absolutely nothing to live for.

I'm not saying it is impossible, I'm merely saying its highly improbable.

The will to live is strong, and when you are facing imminent death, it gets even stronger. Climbing up high would trigger a lot of resistance.

Why didn't he just take a neurotoxin that acted near-instantaneously?

Plus, I found no mention of the "inoperable brain cancer" allegation within theses stories, yet it was plastered on the headlines. So where did it come from? I also found it odd that a candid photo of him was transmuted into him looking disheveled and disoriented, when the more likely explanation was it was simply a mediocre (not even bad) photo.

I think your analysis of Top Gun as pro-military propaganda is over simplistic. If you want to do a war movie, and you want military cooperation, you have to at least have a veneer of presenting the military in a good light. But if you look beneath the surface, Top Gun could be viewed as an informational or educational video on U.S. military force projection capability to people who might otherwise have no clue about it. How often do average people, of their own initiative, educate themselves on what the U.S. military is capable of? That's where these mass market films can educate, under the guise of entertaining.

Doesn't the guy get any credit for Enemy of the State? Why are you assuming that the second Top Gun movie would be nothing more than pro-war propaganda?

I know people who have been suicidally depressed, but they refrained from acting because they thought of their friends and families. Many more people get these thoughts than act on them.