The Xs and the Ohs

You’re perched atop a 12 1/2-foot wall, and one thing is clear: Like it or not, you’re going down. As the ground rushes toward you, the wall curves into the floor. Suddenly, being on horizontal ground never felt so good. Until, some 14 feet later, the next wall comes. You ascend 12 1/2 feet, to a shelf so high that Mama dare not hide the cookies up there.

Feeling scared? A little sick? Remember, in skateboarding and other action sports, to be sick, dude, leads to being stoked. And “ESPN’s Ultimate X,” an Imax film from Disney opening Friday, tries to get audiences to feel that stoke, without risking life or limb.

The movie chronicles events at last year’s Summer X Games in Philadelphia, including vert skateboarding, held in the aforementioned U-shaped half-pipe; Moto X, featuring acrobatic motorcycle jumps; inline skating; street luge; and BMX stunt biking. It does so through interviews with athletes and fans as well as through action footage taken from tight and unusual angles, even from the athletes’ point of view, more or less.

Add to that a soundtrack ranging from Ozzy Osbourne to Cypress Hill, and “Ultimate X” marks the spot where documentary, music video and Imax thrill ride intersect.

Weaving those elements into one film was no easy task for Imax-virgin director Bruce Hendricks, who jokingly volunteered to do the job about a month before the games began in August. The original director, Michael Bay (“Pearl Harbor,” “Armageddon”), had dropped out because of other commitments.

Hendricks’ initial challenge was nailing down the concept, in a format prone to overemphasizing sheer visual and aural experience at the expense of storytelling.

“I felt that if I just did a 40-minute highlight reel, it would be very cool for five or six minutes, and then it would get repetitive,” Hendricks said. “So I focused on the stories and how to best represent the sports.”

Certain personalities emerged, like BMX rider Cory “Nasty” Nastazio, who boasts of a degree in “anger management”; and Moto Xers Brian Deegan, leader of the hard-edged Metal Mulisha riders’ group, and Travis Pastrana, the sport’s Mr. Nice Guy.

One thing that sets action sports apart from others is an emphasis on camaraderie. “Some guys are very competitive, but there’s no rivalry,” said Bob Burnquist, a 25-year-old skateboarder from Brazil. “It’s more of an against-yourself kind of thing.”

While Hendricks immersed himself in the culture, he and the crew also dealt with technical difficulties. “A great majority of large-format films involve beautiful, gorgeous shots, waiting for just the right light,” said Art Repola, “Ultimate X’s” producer. “Here, there were no take-twos. We worked with the available light, and it was a very run-and-gun approach.”

Because two middle-aged guys with no particular expertise in action sports were at the helm, a key to solving such problems was the cooperation of the athletes. Most videotape their friends’ tricks and are aware of the best--and safest--angles from which to shoot.

“If someone’s doing a 360, and you’re shooting it from the front, for half of the time you’re going to see” the rider’s backside, said Ryan Nyquist, a 23-year-old BMX rider from North Carolina. “If you shoot it more underneath, you’re going to see more of the body for a longer time.”

But first, the filmmakers had to gain the trust of the competitors. Many cast a wary eye, because mainstream media tend to portray them as slacker daredevils rather than as athletes who train seriously.

Having ESPN, which launched the X Games in 1995, in the Disney corporate family helped open doors. In the end, several athletes assisted. Meanwhile, “Ultimate X” crew members, many of whom had worked on last year’s “Pearl Harbor,” added visual tricks from their own repertoire.

The film that resulted from this unusual alliance seems to please the athletes who’ve seen it.

“I was a little worried on the way to the premiere. You never know how they’re going to do it,” skateboarder Burnquist said. “But it turned out amazing.... You’re surrounded by, like, this poetry in motion right in your face.”

That’s not to say that the point-of-view shots are always representative of what the athletes see, however. A skateboard-mounted camera, for example, shows the view from close to the ground, not from the skater’s eye level. “It’s definitely a different feeling,” Burnquist said.

In contrast, the cameras on the street luges were behind the sliders’ heads, giving more of the athlete’s perspective of hurtling down the road at up to 80 mph. You can see the sparks flying from the wheels of competing luges, the bales of hay awaiting those who skid away on the turns.

What you won’t feel, though, are the G-forces of each sport--or, aside from possible dizziness, the injuries. Burnquist has broken 19 bones over the years and endured countless cases of “swellbow,” from smacking his elbows. Pastrana, at 18 the winningest freestyle Moto X rider, has had 26 broken bones and nine concussions.

Danger figures prominently in all these sports, but Moto X somehow seems most treacherous. Competitors launch themselves and their motorcycles into the air, where they perform tricks with such names as the Superman Seat Grab, the Sterilizer and the Kiss of Death. All involve the hope that when you land, you’re back on the bike in an upright position.

Such was not the case for Carey Hart, the first man in competition to complete a back-flip, a move now known as the Hart Breaker. He tried this trick at the Moto X Big Air event. While Hart was upside down, his right hand lost its grip; he fell away from the bike and landed hard, breaking a couple of ribs and bones in his feet and bruising his tailbone.

As with any sport, though, you can’t focus on injuries. Instead, you strive to achieve “flow.” For some, that involves music. Few activities other than dancing are as inextricably linked with it as action sports.

Hendricks, a musician on the side, helped put together the soundtrack, which is being released on Disney’s Hollywood Records. After he and the crew consulted with athletes, they went mainly with hard-rock acts such as P.O.D., 3rd Strike and Pennywise. But there’s also Fatboy Slim, Moby and, for a montage of crashes, Janis Joplin’s “Cry Baby.”

If Burnquist had had his way, the film would have some Brazilian pop, African drums and solo guitar. Nevertheless, he said the soundtrack captures the X Games’ spirit and that the audiovisual experience is inspirational.

“It’s just a tease of what we actually feel out there,” he said. “I think if kids see this, they might think it’s cool to try themselves.”

Hendricks agrees but, being older and a bit more cautious, offers advice for those so inspired: “I would say, ‘Wear padding.’”