By KAREN JAEN
Raising five fingers in the air, the Wake Forest community honors the memory of Luke Abbate.
Based on a true story, The 5th Quarter (PG-13) tells an inspirational story of hope and acknowledges Abbate’s memory.
In 2006, the Abbate family lost their youngest son in a car accident because of reckless driving. Luke was a lacrosse player who, after practice, got in a car with four other team members. The driver was going over the speed limit and lost control of the vehicle, killing Luke.
He experienced severe brain damage from the crash and the doctors determined that Luke was brain dead.
Luke’s older brother, Jon was a football player on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. After the tragedy, he began honoring his brother’s memory by wearing his brother’s number, 5. The number five also represents the number of organs Luke donated.
He also created a hand gesture where five fingers were held up at the beginning of the fourth quarter, which came to be known as the fifth quarter.
The hand motion became a trademark of the Wake Forest team with the student body joining in on the tradition.
“[The movie] reminds me of how mortal we are and how everyone can come together in a hard time,” junior Kinsey Seacord, cousin of Luke and John Abbate, said.
The 2006 ACC season became the most successful for Wake Forest; they won the ACC championship the same year, gaining attention from the press. Luke’s trademark hand gesture also caught attention from the media.
ESPN did a special on Jon, which drew the attention of Hollywood director Rick Bieber. Bieber approached Maryanne and Steven Abbate, Luke’s parents, about making a film; it took three years to put the screenplay together because Bieber wanted to portray the story as accurate as possible.
The actors, Ryan Merriman (Jon Abbate), Aidan Quinn (Steven Abbate) and Andie MacDowell (Maryanne Abbate) spent hours with the family to better understand their characters and the roles they were portraying. Maryanne and Steven also spent days on the set of the film giving pointers to Bieber, so he could grasp their story as accurately as possible.
“I had mixed emotions [about making a movie]. Initially I didn’t think it was going to happen, but each step was more of reality. I feel like there are a lot of incredible messages in it. It’s always hard to put your story out there for everyone to see. [Bieber] put his heart and soul into it; he was passionate about it,” M. Abbate said.
The film focuses on how a family comes together after the loss of a family member. It also raises awareness on the importance of not driving recklessly. Following the speed limit and using a seatbelt are factors that can influence the loss of a life in an accident.
“[I hope] people realize the consequences of their choices we make when we get in a car. The ripple effect of our choices affect our family and everyone around us,” Joanmarie Seacord, sister of Maryanne, said.
The film also raises awareness on the importance of organ donation. Luke was a healthy althete who donated five organs, one of which was his heart.
His heart was donated to a young mother with a fatal heart disease and the transplant saved her life. M. Abbate found Luke’s restricted license after the accident and saw that he wanted to be an organ donor, informing her that she had made the right choice.
“[Organ donation] sounds [like the] right [thing] to do, and it is the right thing to do but it’s hard to think about your child’s organs being donated. It was bittersweet and painful because we lost a family member,” J. Seacord said.
The 5th Quarter won Best Screenplay in the Boston Film Festival. The movie is releasing in six different states, including Florida, on March 25.