Less than 1%.

I watched the documentary The Bridge last night.  Definitely the most haunting documentary that I have ever seen.  The Bridge takes a look at suicide jumpers at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.  The film makers filmed for over a year and captured several suicide jumps from the bridge.  The aspiring photo journalist side of me understood why they did this but the ethical side of me questions why anyone would want to film suicide.  I watched the film on hulu (watch it here) Unfortunately I didn't get to see the extra features.  However, I did a little research and found out the filmmakers could only call 911 if      someone went over the railing (which they did call on several occasions).  People walk up and down the bridge all day long so you can't just call the police if someone appears suicidal.


The best part of the film was the beautiful photography.  I mean, visually it was amazing.  I was absolutely drawn in by the beautiful time lapses.  They did a wonderful job at capturing the scale of this gigantic bridge.  They filmed it from every possible location.  I mean, it was really top knotch work.


The interviews with the family and friends of the suicide jumpers that they filmed were okay.  Some of them were terrific but others were long and drawn out.  Overall, it was pretty touching.


The film even included an interview with a Golden Gate Bridge suicide survivor Kevin Hines.


From an interview with TIME:


"I got off the bus at the bridge, and stood there crying. I went onto the span very slowly. Almost reluctantly. The whole time begging myself not to jump, but the voices were too strong, I just couldn't fight them.

There were tons of people, it was 10 in the morning, bikers, joggers, tourists, workers, cops biking around. I found my spot. And I said to myself, if just one person, just one, comes up to me and asks me if I need help, I'll tell [them]everything. And this beautiful woman walked up to me, and she goes, "Will you take my picture?" And I thought, "What? Lady, I'm going to kill myself, are you crazy?" But she had sunglasses on, her hair blowing in the wind, she was a tourist, all she could see was this guy standing right where she wanted her picture taken. I must have taken five pictures of this lady. She had no clue. I thought at that moment, nobody cares. Nobody cares. So I handed her her camera. She walked away. I walked as far back to the railing closest to the traffic as I could, I ran, and I catapulted myself over the bridge. I didn't get on the ledge to have people talk me down. I just jumped."


I remember every second of it. When my hands left that rail — and my legs curled over — as soon as I left the bridge, I thought, "I don't want to die." It's a four-second fall, and in those four seconds I said, "God, please save me." I had no idea that you could jump off the Golden Gate Bridge and live. That was foreign to me. You see these websites, they say, "If you want to kill yourself, go to the Golden Gate Bridge." I'm trying to shut them down now.


So I was in the air, I threw my head back, my feet came around, and I landed at a 45-degree angle. [The doctors] said if I had landed 1 centimeter to the left or right, I would have severed my spinal cord and drowned. What I did do was shatter two vertebrae [in the middle of my back], and they shattered into tiny little pieces. I felt the explosion in my stomach, the vertebrae shot right into my organs.

I went under. I didn't know I was alive. I was all turned around. I couldn't see. It was all dark, very scary. Then I said, "Wait a minute — I'm alive, I can move. [But] I couldn't move my legs. I swam with my arms to surface. I got to the surface, took a big gasp of air, and begged God to save me. I couldn't yell, I couldn't scream for help. The current was so strong.


At that moment, I said, "I jumped, I'm in the water, no one is going to save me, I might as well just let go." But I went down in the water, and I hated that drowning feeling. I thought, "No, I can't drown, that's just horrible, I'm alive." Then I thought, "This is a dream, it cannot be happening." I actually pinched my right cheek to check.

[Then] the Coast Guard came. Two men jumped in the water, two more pulled me up with their hands. They saved my butt"


Pretty intense stuff.  I started the movie at about 10pm and finished it about midnight.  I tried to sleep but I couldn't.  It was that haunting.  I think, the story needs to be told.  There needs to be a barrier at the golden gate bridge just like there needs to be a barrier at the cold springs bridge. 


The film is an important one.  If you're interested in the subject definitely check it out!