The Big Bopper Story

So I read a couple weeks back that they were going to exhume the Big Bopper and see if a long-past-post-mortem examination would yield any clues as to what exactly happened in that doomed airplane, that fateful, fateful night. I think they were going to x-ray his skeleton and maybe see if they could tell whether he must have died immediately in the crash, or whether he might have survived for a little while after only to die in the cold cold of that frigid Iowa farmland night, or maybe he might even have been shot!

No, really. They seemed to think it was a possibility that he might have been shot.

Now, none of that made much sense to me, just from reading the article. "What exactly is the angle here?" I asked myself, and I had no ready answer. But after a while I think I figured it out: they're going to come out with a big-budget Big Bopper biopic!

I never liked that term: "biopic." It looks like it should be pronounced so as to rhyme with "myopic," and it sounds like an unpleasant medical procedure where they poke you in the eye. Albeit, that's a fitting descriptor for most biopics.

Anyway, we've seen La Bamba and we've seen The Buddy Holly Story. They're both good movies, but they share a problem: that ending. It's too abrupt. It's like the movie just ends in midair, when it feels like it should be only the middle! Plus, not to mince words, but it's a real downer. But hey! What if by answering a few previously unasked questions, we could provide a new twist on that ending - and a more satisfying dramatic arc overall?

Here's how I would envision the film: it would open right at the git-go. Those three rock legends board that fateful plane, and the plane takes off, and there are some quite witty dialogue exchanges where Holly and Valens both hail the Big Bopper AKA "Jiles Perry Richardson" as fully their musical equal, to the Bopper's humble protestations. Then they all settle in and begin playing a round of cards as the Bopper divulges his secret - he is in fact a swashbuckling government agent! As his tale told in flashback fills the screen, the film begins in earnest...

Cut to the early years as young Jiles Richardson, a talented up-and-comer, is courted by the United States Government to help them wage a desperate struggle. Rock and roll threatens to undermine society as we know it - and yet, courageous and altruistic individuals highly-placed within the government believe that the influence of rock can be turned to the good of all! Jiles agrees to join their covert program. He is then code-named "The Big Bopper," given extensive training in combat and stealth techniques, and sworn in as the star operative for the Alert Covert Rock Operatives National Youth Movement. His job is to infiltrate the world of rock and roll from the inside, so as to help direct its raw fury and power to good ends instead of bad!

For beknownst only to the members of A.C.R.O.N.Y.M., there exists an evil mastermind named Garfield Nastov - a former government agent gone bad, a washout from an earlier black-ops program involving barbershop quartets. Posing as anything from an unscrupulous piano-man to an unscrupulous booking agent, Nastov has managed to worm his way deeply into the rock and roll establishment, recruiting agents of his own and laboring to make rock and roll work for the cause of evil!

We see the Bopper's career progress as he builds his musical reputation and clashes in secret with his arch-nemesis Nastov, all culminating in the show at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. The Bopper's performance is an absolute triumph. Then they all go off in the plane and we're back to where we started, on the plane.

Fade back from flashback. Cue the twist ending.

Three of Nastov's key terrorist henchmen have stowed away on board that very plane! They hijack the plane, but our heroes fight back with the Big Bopper leading the fray! They win, but the plane is going down! The Bopper seizes the controls (the pilot was killed in the scuffle) and pulls out a miraculous emergency landing! Then we see how Valens and Holly, so impressed by a man they now realize is not only a musical giant but a true national hero, pledge their lives to fight in the service of that same cause. They tragically have to fake their own deaths, in order to fight on secretly as governmental special agents. This is necessary in order to lull Nastov into a false sense of security by letting him think his evil plan was successful in killing them.

Which neatly sets up the sequel! In the sequel, the Big Bopper, Valens and Holly get down to business averting threats, kicking ass, and secretly shaping rock and roll to the ends of good instead of evil in the dangerous world of high-stakes counter-espionage!

So as you can see, there's really a lot of story potential there. I eagerly await the Bopper film, and I think that if done right, it could lead to a new kind of appreciation for one of rock's underrated icons.