William!
William, wake up,
Let\'s go to my house,
Has the plane been found?
I\'m sure it will be soon,
Don\'t treat me like I\'m a little kid,
I\'m 11,
Tell me the truth,
The truth is we last heard from them three hours ago--
Did the plane crash?
Who said that?
Look, we\'re all tired,
Let\'s just go to my house, okay?
No,
I\'m not leaving until Edie is found,
Dead or alive,
Don\'t say that,
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday, dear Willy
Happy birthday to you
-Hooray! -Okay, Blow out the candle,
How did you know it was my birthday?
A little bird told us,
We thought you should make a wish,
-Do you know what you\'ll wish for? -Yes, ma\'am,
EZEIZA AIRPORT, BUENOS AIRES
Let\'s go, guys! Let\'s go!
This is the police! You\'re completely surrounded!
Open the door!
Hands in the air!
I said hands up, dammit!
Okay!
Take it easy,
Keep your hands up! Nice and slow,
That\'s it, Keep moving,
On your knees, Let\'s go,
-Cuff him! -Easy,
-I\'m not a terrorist, -I\'m going in,
Where are they?
Don\'t shoot!
Let us out,
Take these blindfolds off,
Holy shit!
It\'s okay, I\'m a cop,
Sorry,
Where are the terrorists?
They\'re gone,
Gone?
They escaped,
They took the captain with them,
The bastards got away!
-Let\'s follow that car, -A few words,
Ms, Pérez, tell us how you\'re doing,
-Anything to say? -Is that blood yours?
Out of the way, Move,
Are you accomplices?
What is your message for the country? Are you hurt?
Are you hurt? Please,
-What happened to your hand? -Miss!
THE HIJACKING OF FLIGHT 601
CHAPTER 6 THE WOMAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
EL DORADO AIRPORT
Good evening, Tokyo, Good morning, Bogotá,
The excitement over the moon landing
pales in comparison to the whirlwind of emotions
swirling through this airport,
Emotions shared by Flaco Marulanda,
who is just yards away from the doors
that separate this family of mine from their long-awaited freedom,
The first hostage has been released, Please, come with me,
Miracles really do happen,
This man who was presumed dead has emerged unscathed,
Lazarus has risen,
He wasn\'t dead, He was celebrating in the skies,
I see the captain of the cycling team,
Chucho!
It\'s a very emotional and quite… intimate reunion,
Love knows no borders, Love knows no bounds,
Love speaks no languages, although, apparently, it does speak in tongues,
The common man, Any words for our viewers?
Four hundred twenty-six chicks,
My little birds gave their lives,
You heard it here first, Not a peep from the chicks,
Here\'s another romantic reunion,
Once my lawyers are done with you,
you\'ll have to go back to renting an apartment in the inner city,
-Her ring, -For your expenses,
-Anything else to say? -Marta!
Well, as Aristotle said,
"Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god,"
Any comments?
How\'s that for a comment?
There\'s clearly nothing godly about him, let me tell you,
Okay,
"No pain, no gain" also seems to apply to journalism,
Edie!
William!
Edie!
Willy!
Come with me, please, ma\'am,
-Let\'s go, -Edie?
Edie!
AEROBOLÍVAR OFFICES
If you refuse to tell us where Wilches and the two hijackers disembarked,
you will be detained under the antiterrorist mandate,
Do you understand?
Of course I do, Do you think I\'m an idiot?
Surely you saw or overheard something,
I\'m a flight attendant,
I serve coffee and smile,
How am I supposed to know where we landed?
Well, you weren\'t blindfolded,
Your ears weren\'t covered,
If you don\'t tell us what you know, you\'ll be held as an accomplice,
An accomplice to what?
The hijacking of Flight 601,
Sorry, but you said I could leave after answering a few questions,
You\'re screwing with me, right?
No, I\'m not screwing with you,
If I was screwing with you,
you\'d have this finger right here shoved up your ass,
And we\'d be having a real party,
So do me a favor and tell me where your co-conspirators got out,
I don\'t know,
I\'m just a flight attendant,
I\'m a mother who should be at home with her kids,
Not here,
I\'m the most efficient bureaucrat in this country,
I have a knack for complicating even the simplest tasks,
It\'s an easy question,
Where did they get off the plane?
If I tell you, the captain dies,
Tell me what you know, or I\'ll make your life a living hell,
Vice Minister…
I\'m going to tell you, I swear,
But first, I\'d like to explain what happened right before their escape,
May I?
When the hijackers heard the army was waiting for us at El Dorado,
they pulled out a grenade,
They said they\'d blow up the plane if we landed,
-Let go! -Let it go!
-You won\'t go to jail, -Bárbara!
-I don\'t want to… -There was no way out,
We were as good as dead,
But Captain Wilches did everything in his power to stop them,
Lequerica!
You crazy bitch!
The hijackers stabbed him in the leg with a screwdriver,
immobilizing him, making it impossible for him to pilot the plane,
He was desperate, so he let his copilot take over,
-I knew you were after my spot! -Shut up!
I don\'t know how he did it,
He still had the screwdriver in his leg, but he took on the hijackers,
We\'re not going to Bogotá! We changed course,
We\'re not going to jail,
I have a way out!
Stop!
Revolution or death!
Give me the grenade, and I swear I\'ll help you escape,
There is no way out! It\'s over!
-Don\'t- -I don\'t want to go to jail,
I saved your life,
You owe me,
Let me live!
I don\'t owe you a damn thing,
-You should\'ve let me die, -Easy, Look at me,
I\'d rather be dead,
You\'re not going to jail, Toro,
This is over,
Don\'t let go, Toro,
I know what it feels like to be trapped in a dark world
that ignores you
and spits in your face
and steps all over you,
Get up, brother!
And to feel like you\'re nothing,
Toro!
Freedom!
I know what it\'s like,
But we have two options,
We can despise the world,
or we can fight to find a way out,
To find
a light,
No matter what,
My life is in your hands,
Let go,
Let\'s go home, Torito, Please,
Let\'s go home,
You may not believe me, but this is what happened,
The captain was able to disarm them with the power of his words alone,
And then, he told us about his plan,
One that would allow us all to survive,
Let me ask you something, Please be honest,
Do I look like a toilet to you?
No, No, sir,
Then why are you giving me this shit?
Vice Minister, I\'m right in front of you,
You heard my story, You know what we went through,
You have to believe me, I\'m telling you the truth,
Are you accusing the captain
of being the brains behind the escape plot to deny your obvious involvement in this?
I\'m not accusing the captain,
It wasn\'t a plot,
It was a gentlemen\'s agreement,
He offered to land at a secret location if they spared our lives,
My life,
Where was that?
This is where the captain told me to turn the transponder off,
He asked me to descend 3,000 feet,
Radars don\'t pick up planes at that altitude,
It\'s what smugglers do to transport illegal goods,
Why would I lie to you, sir?
I used to smuggle pigs,
And you have no idea how hot it gets when you\'re hauling two tons of pig shit
over Barranquilla,
That\'s when you closed your eyes,
and the captain magically disappeared with the terrorists?
No, they didn\'t just disappear,
They accepted the deal on one condition,
They needed collateral,
So we wouldn\'t tell their whereabouts for 72 hours,
Two people as collateral,
My colleague and I,
And that was the worst part of this nightmare,
They were desperate,
They grabbed me, dragged me, manhandled me, and beat me,
They brought us to the exit to take us as their hostages,
It was horrible, sir,
Bárbara,
Put this one on him,
And you, put this on,
Get changed, You\'re coming with us,
-What? -She\'s not going anywhere,
I\'m taking her for 72 hours,
If the press doesn\'t find out where we disembarked, we\'ll free her,
No, She\'s staying with me, You\'re not taking her,
Get changed, then, You\'re both coming,
Take Wilches,
A man like him is worth 1,000 of us,
-He isn\'t worth shit, -He is,
He\'s the only one who could disclose your location,
Fine, Then get that bastard ready,
Hurry up, or I\'m taking her,
The captain is an old-fashioned gentleman,
The moral compass of a man like him…
He would never let two ladies go through that,
He didn\'t allow it,
He traded his life for theirs,
Some people think heroes don\'t exist,
That they\'re the stuff of movies or cartoons,
But do you know who\'s a real-life hero?
Captain Wilches,
I can\'t stop thinking about all he did for us, all he risked,
and all he sacrificed,
I still can\'t believe that heroes like him exist,
Fuck! You crazy bitch!
-Apply pressure to the wound, -Jesus!
-You\'re going to wear this, -How the fuck…?
We\'re honoring the deal, Wilches,
There is no deal, I\'m not helping these guerrillas,
I won\'t say where you disembarked, I also won\'t say that you turned on us,
-I didn\'t turn on anyone, -No?
I stayed true to my values,
You know what my mistake was?
I should\'ve landed this plane when I had the chance,
You better pray that these terrorists kill me or that I die from an infection,
Because if I get off this plane alive,
I\'ll tell the entire world that you\'re a terrorist,
-Why don\'t you tell the truth? -The truth?
Why don\'t you tell them you wanted to escape when it wasn\'t necessary?
That you would have let the army massacre us?
I would do it again,
Bitch, terrorist, traitor, liar…
-Bitch-- -This can go one of two ways,
With everyone in jail, accused of being terrorists,
And everyone will know you\'re a coward who betrayed us,
Or we can tell the whole world what they want to hear,
That this wonderful man
heroically risked his life to save us with a gentlemen\'s agreement,
How do you want to be seen?
As a hero?
Or as the coward you really are?
Use your head,
Use it,
Who do you think they\'ll believe?
The captain?
Or a lowly stewardess?
I trust you,
I trust the captain,
But I can\'t trust those subversives who break the rules
just because their mommy didn\'t give them enough attention,
Do you want to see the captain again?
Then help me find him,
Tell me where you landed,
Here,
At the end of the runway,
Far away from witnesses and the control tower,
That\'s where I landed,
And when I turned the corner, they jumped out,
Through the escape hatch,
Let\'s go,
And I kept going,
full speed ahead,
and took to the sky,
So, you didn\'t land in the middle of nowhere?
You landed at an airport,
Which airport was that?
Sorry, but my oath as an aviator doesn\'t allow me to break
the gentlemen\'s agreement I have with the captain,
You understand, right?
You\'re shitting me,
Would you give us a minute, please?
Cut the crap, Lequerica,
Look,
I\'m tired of you jerking me around,
If you don\'t tell me exactly where you left them,
I\'ll make sure you\'re put in the nicest block in Modelo prison,
where a bunch of locked-up homos
will whisper sweet nothings in your ear while they rail your ass,
"My cuddly bear…"
Okay,
Mendoza, This is where we landed,
Put me through to the president,
And in Resistencia,
Don\'t screw with me, Lequerica,
I\'m not screwing with you,
If I was, you\'d be whispering, "Sweet cheeks" in my ear,
Where did you leave them? Mendoza or Resistencia?
Or in Asunción,
We also landed there,
They jumped out on one of those runways,
I can\'t tell you which one,
Airplanes don\'t have rearview mirrors,
Where the hell did they jump out?
Mendoza, Resistencia, or Asunción?
Your friends already talked,
We\'re in the loop,
Where the hell did they disembark?
Mendoza, Resistencia, or Asunción?
I swear that I\'ll tell you in 47 hours,
I promise,
But right now, I can\'t,
We need to make sure the captain survives, Please,
In 47 hours, those commies will have escaped with the money
and the drive to spread their revolutionary ideals,
-What if they\'re not guerrillas? -Doesn\'t matter,
What matters here is how that revolutionary discourse
is going to encourage other idiots to do the same,
To rebel against the state,
Can you imagine if the guerrillas take over this country?
Decades of kidnappings, attacks, and bombings…
Rivers of blood,
Is that what you want for your children?
You can tell you don\'t have kids,
If you did, you wouldn\'t be keeping me here,
Actually, I have two,
Álvaro, he\'s four years old,
Jerónimo, he\'s seven,
If anything happened to them, I\'d be crushed,
What if…
someone in power with strings to pull…
called Child Protective Services?
And told them that…
I\'m not mentally fit to raise them anymore,
Just imagine,
Mr, Calderón, how are you?
How are the well-being indexes looking?
Listen, I wanted to tell you something…
If I tell you right now,
do you promise it won\'t be leaked to the press?
My oath as vice minister requires me to maintain confidentiality,
Attention, Fujiyama, Attention, Sutatenza,
Shocking new developments in this aerospace odyssey,
Authorities in the Southern Cone are tracking the whereabouts
of the hijackers who still haunt my nightmares,
They\'re searching near the airport where they escaped,
leaving a political statement,
Resistencia, resistance, Resistencia, Argentina,
Resistance, Captain Wilches,
You really screwed things up now,
Why did you have to open your mouth, Edilma?
They\'re going to kill Captain Wilches,
He\'s a goner,
-What if I did kill him? -No,
No,
You didn\'t kill him,
They won\'t kill him, They\'re not murderers,
If they\'re backed into a corner, who knows?
In the jungle, all alone…
If Wilches dies, we\'ll go to jail for murder,
If he turns up alive and opens his mouth, we\'ll end up in jail as terrorists,
You did what you had to do,
I still haven\'t done what I have to do,
You two can\'t pay for my mistakes,
Look, There\'s the river,
If we follow it, we\'ll reach Asunción,
Stop, Toro,
Why are we going there?
They\'ll put us in prison,
I want to see my dad,
There\'s no point in going to Asunción, Come on,
This trophy is for them,
For everyone who believed in me,
I\'m not going, Toro,
I\'ve had a miserable life,
I was all alone,
Until I met you, brother,
You\'ll always be my brother, wherever you go,
Thank you, brother,
And thank you for not letting me die,
How romantic,
Sure you don\'t want to kiss?
How about we hurry up? I want to take a shower,
On your feet!
Get in the water! Move!
I won\'t rat you out,
I know you won\'t,
Where you\'re going, no one talks, Walk straight ahead, and don\'t look back,
Get in the water!
Look where being a God-fearing, hardworking citizen got you,
Before you go, I want you to know that the only difference between us
is that you were born in a crib, with a loving family,
while I was born on a dirt floor,
That\'s all,
Move!
Please don\'t kill me,
I was just lucky,
Please don\'t kill me,
I was just lucky,
Edilma Pérez,
what correction would you like to make?
Sleep, little one, until the morning sun
Bitch, terrorist, traitor, liar…
-Edie! -I\'m the worst mom,
Edilma Pérez,
Ms, Pérez, we\'re listening,
Tell us the truth,
Captain Richard Wilches, at your service,
I understand you have some questions for me,
I\'m Vice Minister Esguerra, Colombia is relieved that you\'re alive,
This way, please,
-Edilma, -Yes?
-Give us a second, -No, she can stay,
Good morning, Edilma,
Captain Wilches,
I\'m happy to see you\'re all right,
Please take a seat, Captain,
Thank you,
Edilma,
Captain, these are the transcripts of the interviews with the crew,
-Take a look, please, -Sure,
-Let me know if you have any comments, -Of course,
Anything you\'d like to add?
Any comments?
Could you be more specific?
Please?
Of course I can,
I want to make something clear,
Except for the hairpiece thing, it\'s all true,
Good,
Thank you,
Edie!
ONE MONTH LATER
Pirateque, you have a visitor,
I snuck out of the salon to ask what happened with your sentence,
I got it yesterday,
They gave me 17 months,
But it\'s not so bad in here,
-Really? -Really,
I feel…
kind of relieved,
Like the weight of 13 planes has been taken off my shoulders,
I\'m keeping busy,
Getting my hands dirty,
I feel like
it helps me think, and…
What do you think about?
You,
About our romps,
In my office,
In first class,
In Chavarriaga\'s office,
I don\'t know why, but that gives me faith in the future,
I think a lot about the future,
I\'ve also thought about the future,
It\'s strange how things happen, huh?
I think they\'re going to kick me out soon,
-How much time do we have left? -The rest of our lives,
-Okay, -If you\'re up for it,
Yes,
Pirateque and Manchola urged the prison chaplain
to marry them before Pirateque finished his sentence,
Once he was released, the couple moved to Guaduas,
Neither of them worked in the aerospace industry again,
All the brave love,
Because only he who has love to fight for is brave,
Both in the battles of daily life
and in the battles we all fight for the heavens,
from the day we\'re born until the day we die,
As the manager and owner of Aerobolívar,
I\'ve been inspired by Captain Wilches\'s bravery
to continue this fight for everyone who trusts us with their lives in the skies,
Minister of Defense Esguerra, please do us the honor,
Mr, President,
Good afternoon,
Captain Richard Wilches,
it\'s an honor to present you with the Grand Cross of the Order of Boyacá,
the most illustrious distinction our nation has to offer,
for showing our people
that heroism does not lie in the desire to put yourself first at any cost,
but in the desire to serve others at any cost,
Congratulations, Captain,
Captain Richard Wilches continued flying commercial planes
until he died in a plane crash in Florida seven years later,
Faster than a refrigerator, more daring than an avocado,
it\'s Captain Wilches!
A round of applause! Bravo!
And his hair, The way he brushes it to the side,
He was crying and everything,
I really needed this,
To see you, We almost didn\'t make it,
No better place to say goodbye,
Are you going on vacation? Getting away?
Something like that,
I want to get out of here,
I\'m saying goodbye,
Goodbye?
For Bárbara,
Since we came back, I…
feel lost,
I don\'t feel grounded,
What did you feel up there when you thought you were going to die?
I don\'t know what to say,
I felt relief,
Like I could finally take a break
from pretending to be Bárbara,
And that scared me,
I wasn\'t scared to die,
I was scared because I felt relieved,
Life is weighing on me,
I\'m sorry I couldn\'t give you more,
That I couldn\'t do more for you,
Every single day, I regret letting you get on that plane,
But I\'m so thankful you came with me,
Edie, if I hadn\'t boarded that plane,
I wouldn\'t have realized that I needed to get my head out of the clouds,
I\'m going to miss you, my sister from the skies,
I\'m going to miss you so much,
Toro!
-That\'s our Toro! -Toro!
Are you ready?
Let\'s take you to jail,
Francisco "Toro" Solano gave the money from the hijacking
to the people of his neighborhood, which drew the attention of authorities,
He was extradited to Colombia where he served a five-year prison sentence,
It\'s rumored he died in Buenos Aires while attempting to rob a bank,
Toro!
SOMEWHERE IN BRAZIL
END OF THE ROAD
-Good morning, -Good morning,
I wasn\'t sure you\'d come,
Me neither,
After landing in Resistencia, Eusebio Borja disappeared,
He was never captured, and it\'s believed he\'s still alive today,
Dear María Eugenia,
I was so happy to receive your last postcard,
I\'ve always dreamt of visiting Brazil,
Honestly, I don\'t have much to share,
The other day, I was thinking about what you asked me,
What I felt the day I thought I was going to die,
Now I know the answer,
I haven\'t told anyone about this,
But when I said goodbye to my kids and to my life,
I saw I had a rip in my stockings,
The sun hit it in a way that made it seem as though it was alive,
As if it was a breathing thing with a beating heart,
And suddenly, everything around me seemed alive,
It was alive,
And the only one who had given up on life was me,
The dots on my wrist were alive,
I looked at the sky, and it was alive,
I accepted that the end had come,
To save the world!
That tear, those dots, and the sky made me realize
that we\'re just passing through,
Life goes by in the blink of an eye,
Even the most difficult moments in our lives are a miracle,
Just being able to breathe is,
Smelling my children\'s necks every morning is a miracle,
Embracing the pleasure and the fear…
of unconditional love…
Being able to look out at the endless sky amidst the turbulence
and living with your feet on the ground
and your head in the sky,
Edilma Pérez was able to keep her job at Aerobolívar despite having children,
but she never received the raise she was promised,
Three years later, she was fired for smuggling alcohol,
Edie and María Eugenia ("Bárbara") are still friends to this day,
Even though it\'s inspired by real events and people,
some characters, incidents, dialogue, and names are fictitious,
Any similarity to reality is for dramatic purposes only,
OUR THANKS TO EDIE AND MARÍA EUGENIA
Subtitle translation by: Carolina Salazar and Meredith Cannella