Children Are Too Young To Die

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1395031/

Children Are Too Young To Die, also known as "The Elevator Movie" is a film about not playing on elevators or inside the elevator shafts. It was made in 1989 and released on January 3, 1990 by the NYC Housing Authority Police Department. It was directed by Marc Cerutti and produced by Cerutti Productions.

## Synopsis:

The film graphically calls attention to the brutal dangers of playing on top of elevators in public housing high-rise 30-story buildings in New York City. The slang is called "elevator surfing", "elevator action" or "elevator chicken" and it is a deadly game in which groups of children ride up and down the elevator shafts on top of a moving elevator car and jump from one moving car to the top of another. At times, a child waits in the pit of the elevator shaft. When a car pauses on the lowest floor, he grabs the electrical cable and rides upward. "Children Are Too Young To Die" begins with a bloody reenactment of an elevator accident in which a 10-year-old boy gets his arm cut off by the counterweight in an elevator shaft. The story unfolds and reveals real issues and deaths resulting from such dangerous activities.

Content Advisory: Contains a graphic reenactment of an elevator accident, a mother at a morgue, and gruesome photos of actual elevator fatalities along with graphic descriptions of how people get injured and killed in elevator shafts. The simulated 911 call may be distressing to some viewers.

## Plot

The film opens with a piece of text that reads:

> This film portrays injured children very graphically with vivid pictures and sound that some viewers may find frightening. The producers encourage young viewers to discuss any questions or feelings that may have about this film with their parents or teachers.
>
>

A shot of the Polo Grounds Towers housing complex is shown as a man talks about how the modern elevator was invented in the 19th Century, and that there are six elevators in the building. As the narrator says, it's nice to live in the building when the elevators are working, but not if they aren't working...

We then cut to inside an elevator shaft, where a young kid named Jerome Green is riding one of the elevators on the outside. As he's riding the elevator, the heavy counterweight comes down at the exact same speed, crushing Jerome's arm, and ripping it off as he screams in agony. The aftermath is shown as we see authorities rush to the complex and hear a frightened woman call 911 to report the incident. The police reach the building, and several officers and a maintenance worker rush upstairs to the elevator shaft Jerome was in. The worker opens the elevator door, as one of the cops peers inside, and finds Jerome's unconscious body on top of the elevator.

Jerome is pulled out of the elevator shaft, strapped to a gurney, and rushed outside the building as witnesses watch in horror. The paramedics reach the ambulance and put him inside before he is rushed to the hospital. Meanwhile, firefighters and police are able to salvage Jerome's arm, and try to prep it for reattachment as Jerome reaches the hospital. As he is rushed inside for surgery, the narrator reveals that the horrifying incident we witnessed actually happened to Jerome, and that the operation to reattach Jerome's arm failed, as we see a surgeon fail to complete the surgery.

Meanwhile, two housing police detectives visit Jerome's mother and inform her about the accident, horrifying her. The narrator reveals that while Jerome was lucky to have survived, not all kids are lucky, as we cut to a morgue and witness a grieving mother identify her dead child. Given the film's nature of elevator safety, it's possible that her child was killed in an elevator accident similar to Jerome's. We are then shown photos of children who have been injured or killed in elevator accidents, with the narrator mentioning one who died jumping from one elevator to another, and confirming that the whole point of this was to scare you, as it's the only way to hammer home the point that playing with elevators is a very, very bad idea.

The narrator is finally shown on screen, and introduces himself as Sgt. Peters, a member of the Elevator Vandalism Squad of the New York City Housing Authority Police Department. After apologizing for using scares to get our attention, Peters talks about how he once caught a kid riding an elevator on the outside, and expressed his desire to show him photos of the once he didn't catch, lamenting about how kids keep getting themselves killed or injured in accidents caused by their own stupidity.

Peters enters an elevator, and talks about how safe an elevator is meant to be. According to him, elevators are meant to be one of the safest modes of transportation, as every possible emergency was anticipated, and there are lots and lots of safety mechanisms (emergency lights, emergency exits, and braking systems that have backups), before advising on one very important rule: Never attempt to leave a stalled elevator. Press the emergency alarms and wait for help, no matter how long it takes.

We then see the inside of an elevator shaft, as Sgt. Peters talks about the many things that makes being in an elevator shaft dangerous.

* The counterweight is something that kids don't think about, and it's a ton of steel moving down at a fast speed as the elevator rises at the same speed.
* There are wheels and pulleys raising and lowering the elevator at the top and bottom of the shaft. If you're on the roof of the elevator when it reaches the top, you could get crushed, or get knocked off and fall all the way to the bottom, and if the latter happens, you might survive that and the descent of the elevator unless you land on the buffer springs.
* There are also steel wafers that tell the elevator what floor it's on, and they can serve as little guillotines and slice off the arms and legs of those who ride the elevator on the outside (and have).

As Sgt. Peters says, there are lots of ways to die in a shaft, and it's always the safest bet to ride an elevator on the inside, where it's perfectly safe, and not outside (as Jerome learned the hard way).

Sgt. Peters heads outside an elevator (not by entering the shaft), and prepares to show us about another side of elevator vandalism that can be equally serious as the dramatic stuff abot kids riding elevators on the outside. He then introduce 3 members of the Tenant Patrol: Ben Gardner, George, and Maria. Mr. Gardner takes over, and walks over to an elevator door, pointing to a small window with steel matting between the glass panes. He explains that the window used to be bigger, and could be punched out. It was punched out several times, but people would also stick their heads through the broken window and into the shaft as the elevator was going down. After George confirms that many people (kids and adults alike) got decapitated this way, Mr. Gardner explains that the elevator was shortened and given the steel matting, yet people still got themselves hurt with it, which doesn't please the workers, as no matter what they do, another generation of kids is able to find a way to get themselves maimed or killed.

Maria then talks about a more devastating incident: 3 young men had the idea to run water from the emergency firehoses into an elevator shaft, nearly destroying the elevator and causing huge problems: electrical systems exploded, 2 maintenance men were badly injured, and the elevator was shut down for 6 weeks. As George and Maria explain, an elevator breaking down forced another elevator to carry more load, and no working elevators can cause problems, especially for a heart patient or asthmatic person who lives on a higher floor. Mr. Gardner complains about how people think it's cool to do dumb things like those, such as opening the elevator doors when they're supposed to be closed. George explains that he used to be one of those types of people until his younger brother died in an elevator accident.

George confirms that if you go into an elevator with intentions other than going to another floor, there's a chance you could suffer, and Maria clains that there's a lot of undramatic vandalism that can cause a lot of trouble, such as kicking an elevator door while it's moving, which can damage the elevator, or tearing apart or playing with the buttons just because they're not working fast enough. Everything is interconnected, and if you damage even one part of an elevator, you could cause a ton of damage, and worst of all: someone could get badly hurt, or even die...

Sitting on a bench outside, Sgt. Peters says that without Mr. Gardner, George, or Maria, he has nothing, and no way to stop the violence that occurs in elevator accidents, and warn you away from doing stupid things that could cost a life. He then recaps everything that occured in the film (Jerome Green's accident, the aftermath, the mother identifying her dead child, the graphic accident photos, the tour of an elevator and it's shaft, and the discussion with the Tenant Patrol), before closing out the film, hoping that the kids watching will take everything they were told to heart, and never do anything stupid and dangerous with elevators.

The film ends with scrolling text detailing an actual elevator accident that occurred at Polo Grounds Towers after filming had wrapped up and before the film was released.

> Incredible as it may seem, on November 25th, 1989, exactly 22 days after this film was made on location at Polo Grounds Towers, the shattered body of 12-year-old Walter McMillan, was found on top of an elevator in the same project, The New York City Medical Examiner said that "multiple skeletal fractures" were the cause of death. Walter's friends said that the popular, shy young man was playing "*elevator action*" -- riding on top of the elevator cars when he was killed.
>
>

## Trivia:

* It won two awards, the first place Telly Award for "Safety Video", and the second place Telly Award for "Instructional Video".
* The film was shown translated in German in schools in Germany to students from 3rd to 7th Grade, but it was shown to warn students about global accidents that could happen if they didn't look around. The film was no longer shown in those schools a few years later as it was too scary for the students.
* A 12-year-old boy named Walter McMillan died in an elevator shaft in the same building this film was made in 22 days after filming had ended.