• Steve McQueen in Bullitt, which contains one of the most famous chases in movie history

I didn’t acknowledge it in my review of Mad Max: Fury Road, but one reason I love the film is that it contains so many chase sequences. I’m especially partial to a good chase, as I spent a few years at a job where chasing people was a regular part of my day, and now that several years have passed since I’ve had to pursue anyone, I get a little nostalgic for the activity when I see it onscreen. I’ve written before about having worked as a direct-care provider at a day center on the far northwest side for severely and profoundly mentally retarded adults. (Severe and profound mental retardation, by the way, are clinical terms, “severe” referring to an IQ score of roughly 20-40 and “profound” referring to an IQ score of 20 or below.) Some of these adults we called “runners,” meaning they would try to flee the day center when they were feeling upset. And one of those runners was the middle-aged autistic man with whom I worked one-on-one for about a year and whom I called “Daryl” in an earlier post. Among other things, Daryl taught me that a good chase can really perk up an otherwise ordinary day.

Most people thought that Daryl was antisocial because of incidents like that (also because he hated groups and rarely initiated contact with other people). But once you got him one-on-one, as I’ve noted before, he could be playful and affectionate. He could be industrious too, agreeing to help with all sorts of chores that needed to be done around the center. A favorite phrase of his limited vocabulary—he knew about as many words as an average four-year-old, though he rarely spoke unless spoken to—was “work hard, play hard.” Every day after performing a chore or taking part in a socialization activity, I would treat Daryl with an hour of music. He loved to listen to the radio—indeed it was one of the few things that made him calm when he was stressed. If his fingers were in his ears, he’d take them out at the sound of jazz or classic R&B. Sometimes he even moved his body to the music. I encouraged him to do this, as it constituted a form of physical activity that didn’t involve running out of the room.