As a kid, I didn’t understand the climax of Pixar’s 2006 movie, Cars.
Of course, as Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) slammed on the brakes to reverse and push a broken-down Strip “The King” Weathers (Richard Petty) across the finish line in his final race, I got the point — selflessness and empathy and what not.
But watching McQueen give up his dream of a first-ever Piston Cup win, little Maia couldn’t quite grasp why. Why wouldn’t he just win the race and then go back to help “The King”? He could’ve walked away with both the championship and the sportsman’s grace.
It’s what I would’ve done, little Maia thought.
Now, nearly 20 years after the movie was released, and as I’m about to embark on the highway of my adult life, I understand.
Growing up, my brothers and I watched Cars on our family’s frequent road trips on a portable DVD player squished between the car’s two front seats. We watched it so many times that my mom says she can recite the movie from memory.
“You know who you’re talking to? This is Lightning McQueen. I can handle anything,” the brash, race-win-hunting rookie proclaims during one of his first nights in Radiator Springs.
Even when he’s in a Route 66 town haunted by its heyday and completely out of his element, McQueen is full of bravado and belief in his ability to achieve great things — often to a fault.
I recognize the feeling. Since a young age, I’ve wanted to live life in the fast lane. I’ve gotten in too deep or overestimated myself.
Like McQueen, I’ve been in pursuit of the trophy and determined to handle anything thrown in my way before the finish line.
Stuck in Radiator Springs, far from the big race in Los Angeles, McQueen forms relationships with the town’s ragtag group of residents. He realizes the town he initially dismissed as a brief stop on his journey is filling a hole in his hot-shot racing life that he maybe couldn’t feel before.
And as four years pass in the national capital, I start to realize that maybe, just maybe, the high-powered, award-focused life of fantasy isn’t the be-all and end-all.
The realization doesn’t come all at once. It comes in the small smile on McQueen’s face after Mater calls him his best friend, in the laughter with my friends in the Reader’s Digest Centre that warms my heart more than making a new LinkedIn post ever will.
It comes when former race car Doc Hudson, played by Paul Newman, tells McQueen that all the trophies the rookie is striving for are just “a bunch of empty cups,” or when I wonder what the latest piece of paper with fancy embossing actually means to me.
It sinks in when McQueen sees cars cutting through the valley on the Interstate, getting to their destinations quicker but passing by all the charming towns, chance connections and possible memories along the way. As the gentle twang of James Taylor’s “Our Town” starts to play, tears always roll down my face.
“They’re driving right by, they don’t even know what they’re missing,” McQueen says.
As in every Pixar film, the main character doesn’t get what they want — but what they need. While McQueen doesn’t end up winning the Piston Cup or the shiny new sponsorship with Dinoco, he finds a chosen family and a place to call home.
In subsequent films, we learn that McQueen goes on to become a world-famous and championship-winning race car. To me, this adds important nuance — you shouldn’t give up on your dreams or settle for less. Ambition is important, and it will drive you and bring you moments of happiness. However, it will not fulfill you and it will not love you back.
I still love the fast lane.
Being proud of my work, career and achievements will always bring a smile to my face. But during my journey from my hometown of Calgary to Ottawa, like McQueen’s through Radiator Springs to Los Angeles, my definition of success and happiness has changed.
I don’t need to make it to my destination at lightning speed. I’ll be just as happy getting there a little bit later, having taken the time to pile my loved ones into the car and enjoy the scenic route.
Watching Cars at nearly 22 years old — on the precipice of real adulthood — I resonate with McQueen slamming on the brakes at the movie’s peak in a way I didn’t when I was seven.
Now, I understand that life is not all about the trophies, but just as much about the pit crew you celebrate with after the chequered flag flies.
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