A documentary by Marah Strauch. Rating unavailable.

The timing couldn’t be better for the opening of Sunshine Superman, with human missiles hurling themselves off everything from the CN Tower and Blackcomb’s gondola to Yosemite Park’s Taft Point—that last one with disastrous results.

But as much as Marah Strauch’s adrenaline-gushing portrait of BASE–jumping father Carl Boenish links directly to today’s extreme sports, it also becomes a vivid ode to the optimism of the shiny, sunny ’70s, and the sense of invulnerability that era carried compared to today.

Set to retro radio tunes by the likes of the Hollies and Donovan (whose song inspired the film’s title), Sunshine Superman has a wealth of exhilarating archival footage at its disposal. That’s thanks in part to Boenish’s other job as an aerial cinematographer who loved to fasten his camera to his helmet when he jumped off planes, aerial towers, and cliffs—footage as thrilling today as it was three or four decades ago.

The ever-smiling Boenish comes off as an eccentric mix of science nerd, adrenaline junkie, and feel-good philosopher who’s inspiring enough to convince a fascinating mix of colourful followers to jump off buildings and cliffs with him, even when law enforcement is waiting on the ground. He’s prone to Me-generation sayings like “There’s no future in growing up” and “We don’t want to be limited by anything except nature.”

But you’ll be left wanting to know more about what drives him. Strauch speeds over his youth, which included surviving polio. And his last doomed act at Norway’s foreboding Trollveggen range—one of recklessness? hubris? fatigue?—remains a mystery today, though it does make for a dramatic, extended climax.

Strauch asks more probing questions of Boenish’s wife, Jean, the preternaturally calm and stoic opposite of her high-flying partner. Both she and Strauch push a positive message about the triumph of the human spirit, despite Boenish’s death—something those who think BASE jumping is an act of insanity might be uncomfortable with.

But don’t worry: even if you’d never consider strapping on a wingsuit, you’ll find more than enough to get liftoff here.