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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb.

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Speaker 3: And this is Joe McCormick. And today on Weird House

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Speaker 3: we're going to be talking about the nineteen ninety one

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Speaker 3: sci fi action movie Future Kick, starring kickboxing champion Don

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Speaker 3: the Dragon Wilson, Meg Foster, and Chris Penn. Interesting cast

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Speaker 3: list there. Now, if you have to look this movie

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Speaker 3: up because you've never seen it or even heard about it,

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Speaker 3: that wouldn't be a surprising scenario. And the first thing

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Speaker 3: you see in Google results is an exact copy of

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Speaker 3: the poster for James Cameron's Terminator, but with Don the

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Speaker 3: Dragon Wilson's head and upper body replacing Arnold Schwarzenegger's. You

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Speaker 3: might ask yourself, is this movie low budget direct to

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Speaker 3: video track financed by Roger Korman to scavenge off the

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Speaker 3: recent success of gritty R rated sci fi action hits

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Speaker 3: like Terminator, RoboCop and Total Recall. The answer is yes,

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Speaker 3: it is that, but that's not all it is. Future

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Speaker 3: Kick is both an interesting specimen to dissect if you

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Speaker 3: want to study the anatomy of the cyberpunk tech noir

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Speaker 3: subgenre of the early nineties. More on that in a bit,

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Speaker 3: but Futurekick is also genuinely a hoot. There is, in

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Speaker 3: my opinion, an absolutely delicious DGAF quality that is palpable

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Speaker 3: in the creative decisions here. Sometimes this makes the movie

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Speaker 3: confusing and difficult to follow. Sometimes it makes inspired set pieces,

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Speaker 3: like the film's energy weapon based blood sport. I think

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Speaker 3: it was called laser Blade. Laser Blade, which, despite what

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Speaker 3: you might assume from that description, is a table game

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Speaker 3: imagine a cross between Hungry Hungry Hippos and Russian Roulette

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Speaker 3: but with lasers. Also leaves you with questions which characters

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Speaker 3: are robots? Are there different kinds of robots in the movie?

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Speaker 3: Like are the Cyberns different from other robots? Is chris

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Speaker 3: Pin a Cybern or some other kind of thing? How

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Speaker 3: does anything in this world work? Really? And then the

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Speaker 3: big question was it all a dream? The answer is yes, yeah.

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Speaker 2: I mean, we're slightly getting ahead on the plot here,

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Speaker 2: but I will say that many times it was all

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Speaker 2: a dream. Ending is such a sucker punch and just

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Speaker 2: can make you feel really it can feel like such

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Speaker 2: a cheap move because it just completely devalues everything you

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Speaker 2: just watched, But I did not have that feeling with

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Speaker 2: this film. It maybe by design, maybe by happenstance, or

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Speaker 2: some combination of both. The ending felt like cryptic and

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Speaker 2: thought provoking.

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Speaker 3: Well or okay, I could see that, but you could

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Speaker 3: also say here, it's like such a cheap move that

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Speaker 3: it transcends, it becomes exquisite. It's like, I can't believe

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Speaker 3: they actually did that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they stick the landing. Somehow they stick the landing,

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Speaker 2: and we can discuss how they managed to perhaps pull

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Speaker 2: this off.

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Speaker 3: Also, I think we had to do this movie before

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Speaker 3: the end of the year because Rob, did you notice

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Speaker 3: Future Kick is set in the horrifying dystopian future of

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty five? Right, Yeah, what Future Kick predictions come true?

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Speaker 3: We're gonna look and find out.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, twenty twenty five via nineteen ninety one.

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Speaker 3: So another note before we get started is one on genre.

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Speaker 3: This is another reason I selected Future Kick for this week.

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Speaker 3: That reason is that it is still November or Noir November,

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Speaker 3: and Rob, I know you enjoy getting into the spirit

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Speaker 3: of a season. So I was trying to think about

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Speaker 3: what film noir might be fun to cover, and I

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Speaker 3: realized we had never really done a deep analysis on

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Speaker 3: the noir influenced sci fi subgenre known as tech noir.

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Speaker 3: Though I think we've done a number of films that

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Speaker 3: could be classified as such, we've never really looked at

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Speaker 3: the genre itself, and Future Kick is a sparklingly dingy example.

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Speaker 3: I may have talked about this theory of mine on

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Speaker 3: the show before, but I have a general belief that

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Speaker 3: if you're trying to do a literary analysis to understand

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Speaker 3: the anatomy and the soul of a movie genre, you

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Speaker 3: can actually learn more by looking at the schlock within

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Speaker 3: that genre than by looking at the canonically great examples.

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Speaker 3: And so Future Kick, I think, is going to be

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Speaker 3: perfect in this regard, Rob, do you want to talk

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Speaker 3: about tech noir.

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Speaker 2: Some Yeah, yeah, let's do it. I do like this

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Speaker 2: idea that in general, you look to the B movies

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Speaker 2: because the best of a particular genre, Yeah, those are

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Speaker 2: going to be, you know, in the stratosphere, But it's

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Speaker 2: the ripoffs and the stuff that follows this is going

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Speaker 2: to be kind of reflect where where all of it lands. Yes,

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Speaker 2: the collective mind of the viewers and the culture.

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Speaker 3: That's a good way of putting it. Another way of

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Speaker 3: thinking about it is that the canonically great films in

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Speaker 3: a genre tend to be more idiosyncratic actually, and the

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Speaker 3: derivative movies, the b movies, the direct to video shlock,

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Speaker 3: these often manifest more as somebody trying to capture the

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Speaker 3: essence of what they think a genre or marketing category

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Speaker 3: of story is. And so you see them going like

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Speaker 3: deeper into the heart of it, like what are all

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Speaker 3: the tropes that I need to include, what occurs to

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Speaker 3: them as necessary to have in the story, and what

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Speaker 3: does not?

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 3: So, tech noir is usually described as a genre that

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Speaker 3: combines elements of science fiction and film noir.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, tech noir can be considered an aesthetic and the

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Speaker 2: subset of the broader cyberpunk genre. So not all cyberpunk

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Speaker 2: is tech noir, and there are probably some cases to

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Speaker 2: be made for tech noir that deviates strongly from cyberpunk classification.

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Speaker 2: Tech noir is noir in the future or a high

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Speaker 2: tech now, while cyberpunk generally involves the street level ubiquitous

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Speaker 2: use of advanced civilization changing technology generally in the future.

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Speaker 2: But as always, all of this is relative, and good

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Speaker 2: art or just daring art tends to mess up easy categorization,

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Speaker 2: and I'd say that future kick is certainly daring in

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Speaker 2: many ways. It really goes for it.

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Speaker 3: It may not be original, but it is bold. Yes,

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Speaker 3: it is a kick. And to be fair, I've never

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Speaker 3: thought about that distinction of cyberpunk that way. I think

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Speaker 3: you might be right. For some reason. I always thought

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Speaker 3: of cyberpunk as that which distinctly exhibits the hacker ethos.

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Speaker 3: That cyberpunk is storytelling where the heroes are like outlaws

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Speaker 3: or have some kind of outlaw mentality in this future

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Speaker 3: computer dominated or digital world.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's definitely an accurate read on it

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Speaker 2: as well. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: But when it comes to tech noir, classic films that

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Speaker 3: people cite as examples of tech noir include Blade Runner

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Speaker 3: from nineteen eighty two The Terminator from eighty four. This

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Speaker 3: is a film in which the term tech noir actually

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Speaker 3: appears as the name of a dance club. In the film,

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Speaker 3: Sarah Connor goes to a club. She calls the police,

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Speaker 3: I'm in a club called tech noir. Actually, I don't

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Speaker 3: know the answer here. I think, though I could be wrong,

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Speaker 3: that James Cameron actually coined the term tech noir to

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Speaker 3: describe this genre. He was trying to create and used

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Speaker 3: it in the movie.

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Speaker 2: Hmm. Interesting, I didn't know about that specific connection.

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Speaker 3: I will be pilloried by listeners if I'm wrong about this,

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Speaker 3: So maybe I am. I should have thought to check beforehand,

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Speaker 3: but that is my assumption for some reason. Of course,

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Speaker 3: another tech noir big one is RoboCop, which we've covered

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Speaker 3: on the show before Total Recall from nineteen ninety and

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Speaker 3: then another big one is the Matrix, kind of late

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Speaker 3: tech noir in ninety nine. So what elements are usually

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Speaker 3: brought over from film noir into tech noir? I want

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Speaker 3: to argue the following. One thing is character types. Cynical, amoral,

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Speaker 3: or anti heroic protagonists, often a detective, maybe a criminal, fugitive,

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Speaker 3: or some other kind of alienated loaner. These are going

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Speaker 3: to be your most common main characters. Beyond the protagonist stock,

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Speaker 3: character types from film noir also appear in these sci

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Speaker 3: fi settings. You'll get versions of the hard boiled detective,

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Speaker 3: the fem fatale, the melancholy angel like we talked about

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Speaker 3: in the last episode on Dark City, the crooked cop,

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Speaker 3: the heartless assassin, or the button man. And if you

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Speaker 3: want to stretch the genre boundaries of I think in

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Speaker 3: tech noir you also get versions of what you might

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Speaker 3: call the Hitchcocky and bystander. Hitchcock's thrillers are not usually

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Speaker 3: considered film noir, but there's a good bit of overlap,

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Speaker 3: and I think this kind of character also does appear

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Speaker 3: in noir more strictly defined. But basically, this character is

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Speaker 3: like an innocent, regular person who by accident gets trapped

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Speaker 3: in a dangerous conspiracy, maybe by being mistaken for somebody else,

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Speaker 3: like in North By Northwest, or maybe by being set

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Speaker 3: up as the fall guy in some plot, or by

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Speaker 3: being in the wrong place at the wrong time, as

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Speaker 3: in The Man who Knew Too Much or The Thirty

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Speaker 3: nine Steps. And there are actually elements of this with

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Speaker 3: Meg Foster's character in our movie Today. She's not somebody

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Speaker 3: who goes out looking for trouble. She just happens to

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Speaker 3: be married to somebody who gets tangled up in a

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Speaker 3: tech robot cybern organ harvesting conspiracy.

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Speaker 2: That's right, Yeah, yeah, Like she's not the melancholy angel.

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Speaker 2: At first, I was wondering if that would be the

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Speaker 2: role she she falls into, but no, no, she's from

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Speaker 2: a different world. She's from Ivory Towers, on the moon

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Speaker 2: and she is forced to descend into the CD underworld

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Speaker 2: of New Los Angeles to try and find out why

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Speaker 2: her husband was killed.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly so. The regular person who gets sucked into

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Speaker 3: a technological nightmare is a common type of character in

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Speaker 3: tech noir. Sarah Connor, I think, could be another example

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Speaker 3: because she ultimately, you know, it's like she when she

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Speaker 3: first appears and Terminator has no idea that it is

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Speaker 3: her fate to be wrapped up in the fate of

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Speaker 3: the whole human race. It comes as a total surprise

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Speaker 3: to her. Yeah, so you've got these character types from

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Speaker 3: film noir. In tech noir, they usually get a science

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Speaker 3: fiction twist. Maybe the hard boiled private eye becomes a

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Speaker 3: blade runner, still a type of detective, but one who

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Speaker 3: hunts down and kills rogue replicants. The fem fatale or

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Speaker 3: the assassin might turn out to be a robot or

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Speaker 3: some other kind of altered being. Terms of setting and situation,

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Speaker 3: there's a lot broad over from classic film noir, including

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Speaker 3: gritty urban settings. These stories are almost always set in cities,

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Speaker 3: cities that are dark, gloomy, polluted, hopeless, and filled with

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Speaker 3: cruelty and crime. Neither genre usually gets out into the

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Speaker 3: country much except in maybe dream sequences or in escape storylines,

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Speaker 3: where the characters like briefly see a way out of

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Speaker 3: the toxic urban maze where they live. Usually they're they're

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Speaker 3: pulled back into the city violently somehow.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean, certainly you have some there are

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Speaker 2: examples of particularly I'm thinking of Los Angeles centric noir

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Speaker 2: that does get out into the country a bit. But

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Speaker 2: even then it's there's a distinctive feel to it. You know,

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Speaker 2: there's sort of like, you know, dilapidated rural environments or

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Speaker 2: you know, sort of like the surrounding lands that have

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Speaker 2: been kind of like sucked dry by the by the

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Speaker 2: by the city, that sort of thing.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so there, it's not really pristine nature they're going

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Speaker 3: to see. It's more of another type of hell yeah.

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Speaker 3: And then bigger picture, I think these films take place

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Speaker 3: in an unjust universe. There is no feeling of confidence

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Speaker 3: that the good guys are going to win or that

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Speaker 3: people ultimately get what they deserve. Structures of power or

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Speaker 3: hypocritical officials are corrupt, and there's no one you can

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Speaker 3: depend on for help. One interesting difference is that in

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Speaker 3: classic film noir this view of the world manifests as

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Speaker 3: a I think, a pessimistic read on the present, whereas

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Speaker 3: tech noir is often set in the near future, so

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Speaker 3: it can make that picture of the setting, the polluted, corrupt,

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Speaker 3: treacherous hell of a city, a more literal prediction about

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Speaker 3: the future instead of like a matter of interpreting the

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Speaker 3: present or emphasizing different things about the present. So obviously

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Speaker 3: tech noir that is set in the future is basically

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Speaker 3: always dystopian. The world has been ruined somehow or is

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Speaker 3: undergoing a terrible.

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Speaker 2: Decay, Yeah, in the basic sci fi manner, like depicting

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Speaker 2: the ramifications of the terrible choices we're making today or

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Speaker 2: seem to be making today.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. And of course the plots of both types of

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Speaker 3: movies tend to involve violent struggle, deception, and especially conspiracies.

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Speaker 2: Now on the we've talked about this before. One of

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Speaker 2: the interesting things about cyberpunk and a lot of technoire

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Speaker 2: is that since it is generally kind of it's all

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Speaker 2: kind of emerging from like the world of essentially the

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Speaker 2: nineteen eighties, I think you can sort of like center it.

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Speaker 2: There some leakage into the nineties, certainly, but there are

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Speaker 2: a lot of telling aspects of that time that had

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Speaker 2: become kind of just canonical to a lot of cyberpunk

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Speaker 2: like things about the power of corporations, things about rising

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Speaker 2: Japanese influence on the global scale, things like this, as

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Speaker 2: well as also you have these things that are kind

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Speaker 2: of like fossilized remains from thirties and forties noir that

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Speaker 2: have been brought into this kind of updated world, and

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Speaker 2: so all of this kind of becomes crystallized into this

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Speaker 2: new sort of vision of the future that ultimately has

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Speaker 2: roots in different decades, and then there's always some new

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Speaker 2: spice added to it.

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Speaker 3: I do like the thing about certain cultural artifacts of

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Speaker 3: the decades where these genres emerge just becoming crystallized in

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Speaker 3: them as part of the style or aesthetics of the genre.

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Speaker 3: I mean, one example would be in the costuming. You know,

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Speaker 3: the costume of the hard boiled detective is very easy

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Speaker 3: to remember. It's like a drab trench coat and a fedora.

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Speaker 3: You know, this might have been actually easier to see

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Speaker 3: as just a type of camouflage for the detective in

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Speaker 3: a film set in the thirties or forties. It makes

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Speaker 3: them nondescript, you know, they just blend in in the city,

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Speaker 3: and the brim of the hat can quickly hide the

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Speaker 3: face or the eyes. So it's like a way of

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Speaker 3: hiding and blending in. Now, like that is that stylistic

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Speaker 3: choice is retained, but it no longer has that blending

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Speaker 3: in quality. Now it kind of makes people stand out.

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Speaker 3: It looks cool and different.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you'll have there are various examples of where you'll

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Speaker 2: see a futuristic setting and there'll be a character that's

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Speaker 2: wearing like a fedora. Yeah, it looks very much, you know,

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Speaker 2: like the typical detective from noir. And it may you know,

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Speaker 2: it feels like an artifact, but it's one we instantly understand.

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Speaker 2: It's a symbol, you know.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, some of these conventions I think that

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Speaker 3: come into tect noir are just directly imported from film noir.

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Speaker 3: So like in Blade Runner, Decord wears a long tan

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Speaker 3: or brown duster coat. It's like the long coat we

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Speaker 3: think of associating with the detective or also maybe with

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Speaker 3: the western gun slinger. Look. I think they're kind of

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Speaker 3: a blend of the Western gunslinger and the noir detective

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Speaker 3: and deckerd Early and Terminator, the soldier from the Future

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Speaker 3: Kyle Reese, he walks around the streets of la in

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Speaker 3: a long coat. I don't know if it's technically a

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Speaker 3: trench coat, but close enough. Later tech noir movies, especially

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Speaker 3: the lower budget ones like the movie we're talking about today,

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Speaker 3: develop their own house costuming style, which is one of

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Speaker 3: the most instantly recognizable and often one of the most

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Speaker 3: hilarious signs of this film type, where you get the

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Speaker 3: long black coat, long black trench coat or duster, and

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Speaker 3: the futuristic sunglasses worn in a place that is not sunny.

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Speaker 3: Future Kick has exactly this uniform, because really, how else

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Speaker 3: could a Cybern dress. It's got to be the long

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Speaker 3: black coat and the sunglasses exactly.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Plenty of scenes where you're like, why is everyone wearing sunglasses?

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Speaker 2: Like this is such a gloomy indoor setting. I will

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Speaker 2: say that was my read until they started playing a

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Speaker 2: laser blade, and then I was like, oh, well, maybe

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Speaker 2: that's why they're wearing sunglasses indoors, because there even signs

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Speaker 2: like do not look directly at the laser blade.

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Speaker 3: It's eye protection. Yeah, which is really funny because I

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Speaker 3: was gonna make the point that these conventions like the

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Speaker 3: long coat and the sunglasses in technoor movies may have

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Speaker 3: first been used for specific storytelling reasons, Like it wasn't

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Speaker 3: just style, it was related to what happened in the plot.

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Speaker 3: Examples here, Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator needs to cover

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Speaker 3: up his exposed machine eye after he gets injured, which

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Speaker 3: is why you always see him wearing sunglasses towards the

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Speaker 3: end of the movie. He's not always wearing sunglasses early

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Speaker 3: in the film. It's like after his eye gets ripped out.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, so everyone doesn't see that he has a

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Speaker 2: robotic eye in there yet and a big grizzly wound

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Speaker 2: around it.

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Speaker 3: Sorry, so he's wearing sunglasses in the dark, but that's

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Speaker 3: so he doesn't attract attention. And then Kyle Reese the soldier,

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Speaker 3: he wears a long coat to conceal his shotgun. He's

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Speaker 3: hiding a shotgun under there because he knows he's going

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Speaker 3: to meet a terminator. Uh, and so, like they have

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Speaker 3: storytelling explanations early on, but later these these costuming tropes

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Speaker 3: just became a fashion convention. I think because movie makers

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Speaker 3: thought it looked cool, or at least thought it looked

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Speaker 3: appropriate to the setting.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I also think it's funny that this look that appears

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Speaker 3: as early as the late eighties in these B movies

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Speaker 3: and direct to video sci fi films is actually the

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Speaker 3: signature look of one of the biggest mainstream tech noir

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Speaker 3: films a decade later, The Matrix, in ninety nine. Isn't

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Speaker 3: it funny that in the Matrix like this is like

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Speaker 3: one of the biggest and most famous mainstream sci fi

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Speaker 3: movies ever, and they're wearing the ridiculous long black coat

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Speaker 3: and the environmentally inappropriate sunglasses. It's like that made the

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Speaker 3: jump from direct to video to the biggest movie in

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Speaker 3: the world.

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Speaker 2: That is an interesting point. Yeah, though, of course within

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Speaker 2: the world of the Matrix, there they are wearing these

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Speaker 2: outfits in their most redous form in an unreal world,

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Speaker 2: in a simulation.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and I guess I should also just flag the

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Speaker 3: thematic in character suggestions of wearing these like long coats

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Speaker 3: of the you know, the trench coat and stuff. It

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Speaker 3: isn't just that it looks cool. I think it also

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Speaker 3: brings a closed off energy to the character. It's like

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Speaker 3: a type of armor or a way of hiding within something.

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Speaker 3: This is clearly the case with these you know, unalienated,

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Speaker 3: unconnected closed off detectives going back to classic film noir.

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Speaker 3: Another visual similarity imported from the classic films to the

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Speaker 3: sci fi variations is high contrast lighting. You know, a

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Speaker 3: lot of playing with unusual on screen light sources and

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Speaker 3: deep shadows. So in classic film noir this might be

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Speaker 3: meeting under a single street lamp at the foggy wharf,

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Speaker 3: and that is replaced in the sci fi versions with

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Speaker 3: meeting under a futuristic pink and blue neon sign for

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Speaker 3: a strip club. And finally, I I wanted to talk

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Speaker 3: a bit about the evolution of themes between film noir

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Speaker 3: to tech noir. Here's the thought I was having. I

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Speaker 3: wonder if you would agree or disagree with this. Despite

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Speaker 3: the fact that film noir often has cynical, a moral

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Speaker 3: characters operating in a cruel and self interested world, I

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Speaker 3: think you could argue that a lot of these classic

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Speaker 3: stories themselves are quite moralistic. They show a lot of

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Speaker 3: sin and vice, not because they're just you know, decadently

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Speaker 3: reveling in it, but because they are a form of

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Speaker 3: morality play where the audience gets to see how good

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Speaker 3: people go wrong. They get to see how people are tempted,

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Speaker 3: how their attempts to be righteous can fail, and how

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Speaker 3: they're ultimately destroyed by their greed, lust and duplicity.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think I think that's absolutely correct. I'm

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Speaker 2: reminded of last year's Weird House Cinema November selection, The

360
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Speaker 2: Face Behind the Mask from See I think it was

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Speaker 2: what nineteen forty one of Peter Lourie pretty much a

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Speaker 2: pure noir film. Like, it's not sci fi, no no

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Speaker 2: tech noir, it's just straight up classic noir. And I

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Speaker 2: think it's a solid example. This a story in which

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Speaker 2: a cruel and corrupt world ruins a good man and

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Speaker 2: also a woman and a dog. Yeah, mainly the man.

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Speaker 2: The woman and the dog die because of the man's

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Speaker 2: fall into sin and crime.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. And you know, one thing I do want to

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Speaker 3: acknowledge is admitting attention in some different things I've said here,

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Speaker 3: Like the idea that a lot of these stories show

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Speaker 3: people ultimately being undone or destroyed by their own sin.

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Speaker 3: That could be somewhat at odds with the other trend

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Speaker 3: I mentioned, which is that in a lot of these stories,

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Speaker 3: the universe feels unjust and irrational and people do not

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Speaker 3: get what they deserve. I guess both of these opposing

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Speaker 3: strains can be found within the genre. You know, maybe

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Speaker 3: some movies are more like one and others are more

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Speaker 3: like the other, and they both still ring true to

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Speaker 3: the idea of noir. But I think also a common

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Speaker 3: way of resolving the tension within even the same story

382
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Speaker 3: could be structural within the storytelling, Like the early and

383
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Speaker 3: middle parts of the story show injustice, randomness, bad things

384
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Speaker 3: happening to good people, but often by the end the

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Speaker 3: wicked are destroyed in some way by their own iniquity.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and then along the way, pretty much everybody looks

387
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Speaker 2: cool doing it. Yeah, you make it to where, you know,

388
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Speaker 2: eye catching outfits, they're smoking, there's there's always some some

389
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Speaker 2: very interesting lighting going on.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. But so all of that that I was just

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Speaker 3: saying is about classic film noir to the extent that

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Speaker 3: classic film noir is moralistic in nature and interested in

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Speaker 3: studying the wages of sin. I would argue that tech

394
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Speaker 3: noir is pretty different. It is less focused on the

395
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Speaker 3: evil that lurks within the human heart and more focused

396
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Speaker 3: on what systems of technology and other sources of power

397
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Speaker 3: outside our control can do to us. So, put another way,

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Speaker 3: tech noir is less about like exploring people's failure to

399
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Speaker 3: choose between right and wrong, and more about how people

400
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Speaker 3: can be like trapped and manipulated and coerced by the system,

401
00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:21,240
Speaker 3: whatever that system is. So like the protagonist shifts from

402
00:23:21,840 --> 00:23:25,440
Speaker 3: the classic noir film hero of a sinner struggling in

403
00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:28,640
Speaker 3: a heartless world to in tech noir, they are a

404
00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:29,840
Speaker 3: cog in the machine.

405
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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's that's that is a good read as well.

406
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Speaker 2: I mean, it definitely reminds me of some of the

407
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Speaker 2: key notes in William Gibson's Neuromancer, which of course is

408
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Speaker 2: a very important cyberpunk text. You know, you have characters

409
00:23:46,560 --> 00:23:51,359
Speaker 2: whose course in life it seems very dictated by what

410
00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:53,240
Speaker 2: technology has made possible.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, So to the extent that is a fair characterization,

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Speaker 3: I wonder what that says about the changes in the

413
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Speaker 3: underlying values of the you know, the people making these

414
00:24:03,119 --> 00:24:06,560
Speaker 3: stories and the audiences consuming them. It seems to maybe

415
00:24:06,640 --> 00:24:11,240
Speaker 3: reflect an evolution from a belief in original sin to

416
00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:14,479
Speaker 3: a belief that that human nature is not fixed. And

417
00:24:14,520 --> 00:24:17,359
Speaker 3: maybe that's really the horror. The horror is that we

418
00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:21,359
Speaker 3: can be controlled and reshaped by forces more powerful than us,

419
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Speaker 3: and there's no guarantee of salvation from above.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think so, Yeah, there is there often

421
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Speaker 2: does feel like there is a large sense of non

422
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Speaker 2: agency in these these dystopian technoir and cyberpunk worlds. I

423
00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:39,840
Speaker 2: mean there is agency often in like the sort of

424
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Speaker 2: you know, street level hacker types that are like fighting

425
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Speaker 2: the system and so forth. You know, not to say that,

426
00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:48,200
Speaker 2: you know, any number of of you know of typical

427
00:24:48,200 --> 00:24:50,960
Speaker 2: story structures can't be found here, but yeah, a lot

428
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Speaker 2: of times there is this sense of a lot of

429
00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:56,439
Speaker 2: characters are just kind of like stuck in the world

430
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Speaker 2: and you know, there their destiny has been dictated by

431
00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:06,600
Speaker 2: power structures and technology, and certainly all of that is

432
00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:10,280
Speaker 2: kind of a valid read on just normal everyday life

433
00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:15,000
Speaker 2: as well, but it gets accentuated with style in noir

434
00:25:15,160 --> 00:25:17,520
Speaker 2: in a way that I don't know, maybe like lessens

435
00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:19,760
Speaker 2: the burden a little bit, like when we identify with

436
00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:21,000
Speaker 2: these characters.

437
00:25:21,359 --> 00:25:23,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I mean it's actually making me think though

438
00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:27,320
Speaker 3: about how that's not just the case with dystopian future stories.

439
00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:29,880
Speaker 3: I mean people, I think, I think it is quite

440
00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:32,560
Speaker 3: fair to say people in many ways were controlled and

441
00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:35,840
Speaker 3: manipulated by technology in the nineteen forties. You know, when

442
00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:39,280
Speaker 3: a lot of these classic noar stories were coming online.

443
00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:43,159
Speaker 3: It's just like different ways that technology is controlling and

444
00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:45,040
Speaker 3: manipulating us as time goes on.

445
00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:47,119
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that's why we keep coming back

446
00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:49,280
Speaker 2: to them and keep making them, because they continue to

447
00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:53,680
Speaker 2: read in the same way and in also with slightly

448
00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:58,240
Speaker 2: different flavor profiles based on the exact form of the

449
00:25:58,320 --> 00:26:01,080
Speaker 2: current technological anxiety that we deal with.

450
00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:11,440
Speaker 3: Now we've just been looking at the genre. I think

451
00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:14,840
Speaker 3: in maybe in a fairly lofty tone. But the other

452
00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:17,199
Speaker 3: thing about this genre is that, especially a lot of

453
00:26:17,200 --> 00:26:21,359
Speaker 3: the schlock examples of it are frankly hilarious. They're the

454
00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:25,560
Speaker 3: way they deal with these themes can be kind of

455
00:26:26,440 --> 00:26:30,960
Speaker 3: clumsy and much more centered on like delivering roundhouse kicks

456
00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:34,720
Speaker 3: and blasting lasers than on you know, really like talking

457
00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:36,440
Speaker 3: through the themes. Yeah.

458
00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:39,080
Speaker 2: Like it made me think of a film that we

459
00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:42,240
Speaker 2: discussed in the last couple of years, nineteen nineties, I

460
00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:45,480
Speaker 2: Come in Peace, Oh, Yes, which is I think I

461
00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:48,159
Speaker 2: think you could definitely classify that as a as a

462
00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:52,320
Speaker 2: tech noir picture totally. So it's it's if anyone has

463
00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:55,360
Speaker 2: forgotten it is a movie in which a police officer,

464
00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:59,040
Speaker 2: Dolph Lundren battles a seven foot tall alien invader who's

465
00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:02,879
Speaker 2: pushing space druck on everyone. But with that movie, the

466
00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:05,280
Speaker 2: synopsis pretty much tells you everything you need to know

467
00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:10,280
Speaker 2: about it. The speculative elements of the film, it's all there.

468
00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:14,040
Speaker 2: Future Kick. What I found really interesting about it is

469
00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:18,320
Speaker 2: that it kind of just overflows with technoar and cyberpunk

470
00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:22,840
Speaker 2: ideas and barely seems to contain all of them, or

471
00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:25,120
Speaker 2: you know, to be fair, or even fully utilize all

472
00:27:25,119 --> 00:27:25,440
Speaker 2: of them.

473
00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:27,360
Speaker 3: But there's just there are just a lot.

474
00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:31,080
Speaker 2: Of ideas packed into a movie that, as we'll discuss,

475
00:27:31,400 --> 00:27:35,640
Speaker 2: stars a martial artist and has kick in the name,

476
00:27:36,119 --> 00:27:38,600
Speaker 2: like the Future Kick. I mean it's like punch kicker

477
00:27:38,680 --> 00:27:41,480
Speaker 2: or something right, or kick puncher. It just it seems

478
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:45,199
Speaker 2: like this movie should be far stupider than it is,

479
00:27:46,200 --> 00:27:48,879
Speaker 2: and it's not. It's actually like legitimate, like has some

480
00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:54,080
Speaker 2: interesting world building that's going on, maybe not fully crystallized,

481
00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:57,040
Speaker 2: but it's there are a lot of ideas drifting about,

482
00:27:57,080 --> 00:28:00,360
Speaker 2: and I found myself thinking about this one more and I.

483
00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:03,080
Speaker 3: Expected Rogers on the phone he needs you to come

484
00:28:03,119 --> 00:28:06,080
Speaker 3: up with the title in five seconds for his new

485
00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:10,800
Speaker 3: sci fi action movie, A Future Kick.

486
00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:15,159
Speaker 2: It's just so good. All right, Well, well, let's kick it.

487
00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:17,480
Speaker 2: I did come up with an elevator, which this is

488
00:28:17,520 --> 00:28:20,200
Speaker 2: basically what I said earlier. But Nancy travels from the

489
00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:24,000
Speaker 2: ivory towers of the Moon to the cyberpunk sprawl of

490
00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:27,160
Speaker 2: New Los Angeles to uncover the secrets behind her husband's death.

491
00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:30,680
Speaker 2: With the aid of the world's last artificial human, she'll

492
00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:33,040
Speaker 2: uncover a mind blowing conspiracy.

493
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:37,399
Speaker 3: No, I'm almost forgetting some of the details of the

494
00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:39,880
Speaker 3: conspiracy now, like you were just saying a second ago.

495
00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:42,080
Speaker 3: The movie really does just kind of pick things up

496
00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:44,480
Speaker 3: and then put them back down in quick succession.

497
00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:46,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it definitely does that as far as any

498
00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:49,800
Speaker 2: conspiracies go, I would. I would also, I think there's

499
00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:53,920
Speaker 2: definitely some sort of conspiracy going on butt with the

500
00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:59,680
Speaker 2: Organs Organs and building new bodies, so about vr VR.

501
00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:04,000
Speaker 2: But then the whole movie is a dream, so it

502
00:29:04,480 --> 00:29:07,880
Speaker 2: makes all all it turns all the questions upside down. Anyway,

503
00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:11,560
Speaker 2: All right, let's listen to a little bit of the trailer.

504
00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:23,120
Speaker 4: I hate it when you go to the Earth Earth

505
00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:24,200
Speaker 4: twenty twenty five.

506
00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:26,640
Speaker 3: The order was a white female mid twenties.

507
00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:29,400
Speaker 4: Human body parts are the hottest commodity. It was a

508
00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:36,080
Speaker 4: slaughter and lethal games, the cheapest thrill international box office sensation.

509
00:29:36,360 --> 00:29:42,360
Speaker 4: Don the Dragon Wilson WKA World Kickboxing Champion. Black Belt

510
00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:46,440
Speaker 4: magazine calls Don Wilson the greatest kickboxer of all time

511
00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:52,440
Speaker 4: Future Kick. My husband was murdered yesterday.

512
00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:53,480
Speaker 2: His heart was cut out.

513
00:29:54,400 --> 00:29:56,240
Speaker 3: I did you just go back to the moon.

514
00:29:56,640 --> 00:30:01,400
Speaker 4: We'll find something that's not enough. Desperate woman hires an

515
00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:04,640
Speaker 4: android bounty hunter to track and eliminate her husband's killer

516
00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:16,120
Speaker 4: by fifty dollars. Don the Dragon Wilson, star of Bloodfist,

517
00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:20,520
Speaker 4: Meg Foster from Leviathan in Blind Fury, Christopher Penn of

518
00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:27,120
Speaker 4: Footloosened at close range Future Kick.

519
00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:39,880
Speaker 2: All right, now, if you want to go out and

520
00:30:39,920 --> 00:30:43,240
Speaker 2: watch Future Kick, you can find this one digitally in

521
00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:46,719
Speaker 2: several places. As far as physical media goes, A Scream

522
00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:51,080
Speaker 2: Factory put out a Blu Ray double feature that also

523
00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:54,600
Speaker 2: includes nineteen eighty eight's Crime Zone, and I think it

524
00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:57,200
Speaker 2: has two different cuts of Future Kick. I'm not sure

525
00:30:57,200 --> 00:31:02,000
Speaker 2: what the additional footage or more leaded material may consist off,

526
00:31:02,560 --> 00:31:05,320
Speaker 2: but Joe, I know you're gonna love the double feature

527
00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:08,840
Speaker 2: box art for this because it's two different posters, the

528
00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:12,400
Speaker 2: legitimate release posters for both Crime Zone and Future Shock,

529
00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:15,000
Speaker 2: and they're both Terminator posters.

530
00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:19,000
Speaker 3: They're exactly both Terminator the pose, but the gun and

531
00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:23,760
Speaker 3: the sunglasses. It's good. Future Kick is more exactly Terminator.

532
00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:26,760
Speaker 3: Crime Zone is Terminator, but with a helmet added.

533
00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:29,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, but still the same profile. Like if you're just

534
00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:31,840
Speaker 2: a glance at it, you're like, I need more Terminator.

535
00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:33,040
Speaker 2: Here's the movie for me.

536
00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:36,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, some poster first creation.

537
00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:40,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, let's talk about some of the folks

538
00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:46,600
Speaker 2: behind this film, starting with the credited writer and director

539
00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:47,880
Speaker 2: Damian Klaus.

540
00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:49,520
Speaker 3: I have questions.

541
00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:54,440
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, dates unknown, date unknown, birth date unknown,

542
00:31:54,520 --> 00:31:57,880
Speaker 2: age unknown. This is something of a rarity for us.

543
00:31:58,080 --> 00:32:01,360
Speaker 2: So not every film career is lived and well chronicled.

544
00:32:01,680 --> 00:32:06,320
Speaker 2: Some names remain obscure, and some people prefer anonymity. You know,

545
00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:11,440
Speaker 2: careers change, names, change identities change fair enough. But this

546
00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 2: this is the first time we've looked at a film

547
00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:16,400
Speaker 2: where I can't really tell if we're dealing with a

548
00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:19,640
Speaker 2: real person or not with the director, Like I can't

549
00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:22,840
Speaker 2: tell it with one hundred percent certainty if Damian Klaus

550
00:32:23,280 --> 00:32:26,440
Speaker 2: was a real person, if this is just a pseudonym

551
00:32:26,600 --> 00:32:30,600
Speaker 2: that no one has ever actually uncovered or bothered to uncover,

552
00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:32,760
Speaker 2: because we're also dealing with a film that definitely has

553
00:32:32,840 --> 00:32:36,600
Speaker 2: a B movie cult flock following, and you know, definitely

554
00:32:36,680 --> 00:32:40,240
Speaker 2: is an action schlock favorite among many, and I think,

555
00:32:40,480 --> 00:32:42,720
Speaker 2: as we'll discuss, you know, deserves more attention than it

556
00:32:42,800 --> 00:32:46,560
Speaker 2: is than it has received. But I could find nothing

557
00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:50,600
Speaker 2: in the way of even like serious speculation regarding who

558
00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:55,440
Speaker 2: Damian Klaus was or who who might be wearing this pseudonym,

559
00:32:55,600 --> 00:32:57,400
Speaker 2: if it is a pseudonym, I have no idea.

560
00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:01,600
Speaker 3: I so a couple of lusts abilities, and both of

561
00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:03,920
Speaker 3: them are beautiful to me. One is that this is

562
00:33:03,960 --> 00:33:07,200
Speaker 3: a pseudonym, and it's a mystery that we have yet

563
00:33:07,240 --> 00:33:11,680
Speaker 3: to uncover who the actual director was, or Damian Klaus

564
00:33:11,800 --> 00:33:14,440
Speaker 3: is a real person, was really the director and this

565
00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:17,280
Speaker 3: is just the only thing he ever did in the

566
00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:20,520
Speaker 3: film industry and has no information online about him and

567
00:33:20,600 --> 00:33:22,360
Speaker 3: just went on with his life. And that's kind of

568
00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:23,760
Speaker 3: beautiful too, it is.

569
00:33:23,920 --> 00:33:27,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, if that is the case, Yeah, more power to

570
00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:30,440
Speaker 2: whoever this is. But yeah, Damien Klaus has no other

571
00:33:30,720 --> 00:33:33,840
Speaker 2: film credits of any sort on any platform, and generally

572
00:33:34,160 --> 00:33:35,960
Speaker 2: that's not what you see. I mean, if you've spend

573
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:38,960
Speaker 2: any amount of time, you know, wasting your parts of

574
00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:42,000
Speaker 2: your life on Internet movie database and other databases like

575
00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:45,280
Speaker 2: I have you realized that one generally doesn't just go

576
00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:48,880
Speaker 2: straight to writing and directing and then cut out like

577
00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:50,960
Speaker 2: maybe there's a little producing in there, you know, you

578
00:33:51,040 --> 00:33:53,520
Speaker 2: get your feet wet, or even but even cases where

579
00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:56,720
Speaker 2: we have an absolute outsider stepping in and making a movie,

580
00:33:57,000 --> 00:33:59,680
Speaker 2: like we just have a better idea about who they were.

581
00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:04,320
Speaker 3: But this is also this is not really an outsider film.

582
00:34:04,360 --> 00:34:07,160
Speaker 3: I mean, this is not a mainstream film. But this

583
00:34:07,160 --> 00:34:10,760
Speaker 3: this was like a Concord New World Pictures Roger Corman

584
00:34:10,840 --> 00:34:14,360
Speaker 3: for it, finance like this is coming to some degree

585
00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:16,160
Speaker 3: from Roger Corman world.

586
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:19,200
Speaker 2: Right right, which you know for all is you know,

587
00:34:19,239 --> 00:34:22,759
Speaker 2: perhaps it sends as a as a film producer. You know,

588
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:25,080
Speaker 2: it was a serious affair. It was a serious business.

589
00:34:25,160 --> 00:34:27,920
Speaker 2: It was about making money. And there is a competent

590
00:34:27,960 --> 00:34:31,400
Speaker 2: people in charge of films and then giving them limited

591
00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:33,400
Speaker 2: resources with which to make those films.

592
00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:35,600
Speaker 3: Right, you had to make it fast and cheap, but

593
00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:38,040
Speaker 3: there is a structure around you operating.

594
00:34:38,280 --> 00:34:42,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so I have no idea like one I

595
00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:45,960
Speaker 2: will note that Lewis Morneault, who went on to direct

596
00:34:46,040 --> 00:34:50,760
Speaker 2: Carnisaur two and bats. He has an additional scenes directorial

597
00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:55,400
Speaker 2: credit on this movie. I don't know. I just have

598
00:34:55,520 --> 00:34:57,640
Speaker 2: no idea, but I'll just say that we do know

599
00:34:57,960 --> 00:35:01,640
Speaker 2: the name of someone who directed some stuff listeners. If

600
00:35:01,640 --> 00:35:04,160
Speaker 2: you have the answers right in with them.

601
00:35:04,360 --> 00:35:06,759
Speaker 3: Well another thing that may be a clue here. I

602
00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:10,920
Speaker 3: only know this from reading literally just user submitted internet comments.

603
00:35:11,280 --> 00:35:14,560
Speaker 3: I've seen some Internet comments of people saying that they

604
00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:17,480
Speaker 3: went to a screening of this movie where Don the

605
00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:21,880
Speaker 3: Dragon Wilson was present, and in the comments they say

606
00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:25,960
Speaker 3: that Don Wilson said that the movie went through multiple directors.

607
00:35:26,239 --> 00:35:28,680
Speaker 2: Okay, so maybe we just at the end of the day,

608
00:35:28,880 --> 00:35:32,960
Speaker 2: Damian Klaus is just standing in from multiple different directors.

609
00:35:32,680 --> 00:35:35,920
Speaker 3: Possibly I don't know, or was the last one. I

610
00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:36,279
Speaker 3: don't know.

611
00:35:37,320 --> 00:35:41,920
Speaker 2: It remains a mystery, all right. The other person is

612
00:35:41,960 --> 00:35:44,239
Speaker 2: credited as a screenwriter, and I'm not sure if she's

613
00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:46,960
Speaker 2: even credited in the opening credits. I could be wrong

614
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:51,040
Speaker 2: on that. I feel like the version I watched didn't

615
00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:53,680
Speaker 2: have her credited during the opening credits. But I could

616
00:35:53,719 --> 00:35:58,480
Speaker 2: be wrong here. But we do have screenwriter Catherine Syrian

617
00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:02,440
Speaker 2: on this picture, who lived nineteen sixty two through twenty

618
00:36:02,480 --> 00:36:02,880
Speaker 2: twenty two.

619
00:36:03,640 --> 00:36:05,879
Speaker 3: Yeah, when we were looking at this movie, initially we

620
00:36:05,880 --> 00:36:08,440
Speaker 3: were looking her up a very interesting career arc.

621
00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:12,360
Speaker 2: Yeah. She was nominated for a Daytime Emmy in nineteen

622
00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:15,719
Speaker 2: ninety four for Outstanding Directing and a Children's Special for

623
00:36:15,840 --> 00:36:18,759
Speaker 2: the movie White Wolves A Cry in the Wild too.

624
00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:21,759
Speaker 2: This was a sequel to a film she wrote in

625
00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:24,960
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety, which would be A Cry in the Wild.

626
00:36:25,680 --> 00:36:28,400
Speaker 2: She followed up that first Cry in the Wild film

627
00:36:28,560 --> 00:36:32,400
Speaker 2: with the screenplay for nineteen ninety Slumber Party Massacre three.

628
00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:36,319
Speaker 2: Now brief note here if you've never seen any of

629
00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:39,480
Speaker 2: the Slumber Party Massacre films, and I myself have not

630
00:36:39,719 --> 00:36:42,399
Speaker 2: gotten around to watching them myself, I do remember they're

631
00:36:42,440 --> 00:36:46,920
Speaker 2: kind of like scandalous tatalyzing the title band box arc

632
00:36:46,960 --> 00:36:48,560
Speaker 2: from when I was a kid and I was always

633
00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:51,960
Speaker 2: think I always just thought, oh, that looks raunchy. That's

634
00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:55,160
Speaker 2: not for me, that's that forbidden fruit. But I that

635
00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:57,600
Speaker 2: of course, subsequently learned that these are films that have

636
00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:01,320
Speaker 2: a fair amount of feminist cred, despite what the title

637
00:37:01,360 --> 00:37:05,320
Speaker 2: in box art might suggest to a young me. Noted

638
00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:09,840
Speaker 2: feminist author and LGBTQ wright's advocate Rita Mate Brown wrote

639
00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:10,720
Speaker 2: the first movie.

640
00:37:11,360 --> 00:37:14,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, I haven't seen any of these movies, but I've heard,

641
00:37:14,200 --> 00:37:16,279
Speaker 3: I think, at least the first one described as a

642
00:37:17,280 --> 00:37:20,560
Speaker 3: semi feminist satire on horror movie conventions.

643
00:37:20,840 --> 00:37:23,520
Speaker 2: Yeah. Now, to what extended is successful, I think that

644
00:37:23,560 --> 00:37:25,719
Speaker 2: has been a point of discussion over the years. But

645
00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:30,600
Speaker 2: I believe these films have received a bit. They've received

646
00:37:31,040 --> 00:37:32,880
Speaker 2: some new glances in recent years. I think there was

647
00:37:32,920 --> 00:37:36,160
Speaker 2: a local here in Atlanta. There was a They actually

648
00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:40,040
Speaker 2: showed the first one in the theater again. So yeah,

649
00:37:40,360 --> 00:37:42,520
Speaker 2: I'll have to dip into them at some point at

650
00:37:42,520 --> 00:37:47,080
Speaker 2: any rate. Following Slumber Party Massacre three, Syrian wrote nineteen

651
00:37:47,160 --> 00:37:51,359
Speaker 2: nineties Blood Fists two and nineteen ninety one's Uncaged, a

652
00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:54,360
Speaker 2: crime movie in which a young Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays

653
00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:57,439
Speaker 2: a pimp named Sharky Cool, as well as a film

654
00:37:57,480 --> 00:37:59,920
Speaker 2: titled Dead Space, which has nothing to do with the

655
00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:03,360
Speaker 2: the excellent video game series, but it starred Mark Singer

656
00:38:03,440 --> 00:38:06,879
Speaker 2: and also co starred Brian Cranston. I flagged this one.

657
00:38:06,880 --> 00:38:08,279
Speaker 2: I may want to come back and check it out

658
00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:11,360
Speaker 2: at some point, all right. A mix of action and

659
00:38:11,440 --> 00:38:15,719
Speaker 2: drama screenplays followed, including twenty Twelves, Werewolf, the Beast among Us.

660
00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:17,919
Speaker 2: We were also chatting about this one. I haven't seen

661
00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:21,560
Speaker 2: it either, but it has an interesting cast. She also

662
00:38:21,600 --> 00:38:24,240
Speaker 2: served as a producer and co producer on various films,

663
00:38:24,280 --> 00:38:27,720
Speaker 2: including this one and then going back to A Cry

664
00:38:27,719 --> 00:38:30,279
Speaker 2: in the Wild two, which she won the Emmy four.

665
00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:35,120
Speaker 2: That was her first directorial credit, according to the movie databases,

666
00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:38,400
Speaker 2: followed by a string of film and TV directorial credits.

667
00:38:38,760 --> 00:38:42,719
Speaker 2: They took a hard turn into family Christmas movies. Specifically,

668
00:38:43,080 --> 00:38:47,200
Speaker 2: I venture to guess these are Hallmark Channel style Christmas films,

669
00:38:47,200 --> 00:38:49,000
Speaker 2: though I don't know for sure if they actually were

670
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:50,720
Speaker 2: made for that channel or market.

671
00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:53,680
Speaker 3: I was looking through. I think at least one was okay.

672
00:38:54,000 --> 00:38:57,160
Speaker 2: And this transition from you know, kind of like schlocky

673
00:38:57,239 --> 00:39:02,719
Speaker 2: b movie to family holiday experience is interesting in part

674
00:39:02,760 --> 00:39:05,240
Speaker 2: because just in the last couple of months we chatted

675
00:39:05,280 --> 00:39:09,360
Speaker 2: about the exact same thing with fred Olin Ray Oh yeah,

676
00:39:09,400 --> 00:39:12,000
Speaker 2: you know who went from directing you know, stuff like

677
00:39:13,440 --> 00:39:18,439
Speaker 2: Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers to a slew of mainstream Hallmark style

678
00:39:18,520 --> 00:39:23,080
Speaker 2: Christmas movies and again, absolutely no shame directed in anyone

679
00:39:23,200 --> 00:39:26,640
Speaker 2: engaging in more commercially driven mainstream work. But it makes

680
00:39:26,640 --> 00:39:29,560
Speaker 2: you wonder, is Holiday Family Fair the new schlock cinema.

681
00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:30,440
Speaker 2: I don't know.

682
00:39:30,840 --> 00:39:33,920
Speaker 3: It just seems like an interesting place to take one's talents.

683
00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:36,399
Speaker 3: After you've made movies that have you know, severed head

684
00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:39,680
Speaker 3: effects and exploding gore and all that, then you go

685
00:39:39,719 --> 00:39:40,720
Speaker 3: to the Christmas films.

686
00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:44,399
Speaker 2: Well, it does make you think about the economic engine behind, say,

687
00:39:44,440 --> 00:39:47,200
Speaker 2: making exploitation films. In the old days, they were like

688
00:39:47,200 --> 00:39:49,040
Speaker 2: like all right, you know, just get them in, get

689
00:39:49,080 --> 00:39:50,920
Speaker 2: their eyes on you, like, just bring them in with

690
00:39:50,960 --> 00:39:54,120
Speaker 2: the like just you know, get some nudity in there,

691
00:39:54,280 --> 00:39:58,399
Speaker 2: get some blood, you know, something scandalous. And in a way,

692
00:39:58,920 --> 00:40:03,520
Speaker 2: I'm a the Hallmark Christmas Movie is the exact opposite,

693
00:40:03,600 --> 00:40:05,799
Speaker 2: but it's so exact that it is like it's twin.

694
00:40:06,400 --> 00:40:08,759
Speaker 2: So it almost makes perfect sense that you would have

695
00:40:09,600 --> 00:40:12,759
Speaker 2: someone like fred ol and Ray successfully skipped from one

696
00:40:12,800 --> 00:40:15,000
Speaker 2: to the next, because it's just it's like the same

697
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:16,320
Speaker 2: beats in reverse or something.

698
00:40:16,560 --> 00:40:19,040
Speaker 3: No, I totally see what you're saying. I mean, both

699
00:40:19,160 --> 00:40:24,560
Speaker 3: types of movies are strongly trope driven. They're very much

700
00:40:24,640 --> 00:40:29,239
Speaker 3: based on giving people a familiar basket of goods. Yeah,

701
00:40:29,360 --> 00:40:31,440
Speaker 3: there's just different, different stuff in the basket.

702
00:40:31,560 --> 00:40:38,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, let's talk about the cast here, starting

703
00:40:38,120 --> 00:40:40,480
Speaker 2: of course at the top with Don the Dragon Wilson,

704
00:40:40,520 --> 00:40:44,279
Speaker 2: whose fighting credentials are listed in the opening credits, like

705
00:40:44,320 --> 00:40:47,279
Speaker 2: were the title of the film, And I was like why,

706
00:40:47,600 --> 00:40:50,680
Speaker 2: Like I was assuming some of these actors are also

707
00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:53,680
Speaker 2: like screen actors guild members or something, but they don't

708
00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:57,320
Speaker 2: get any of that mentioned, but Don the Dragon Wilson

709
00:40:57,719 --> 00:40:58,479
Speaker 2: certainly does.

710
00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:00,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, I figured I should go into go ahead and

711
00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:03,600
Speaker 3: say exactly what it reveals. So again, like the first

712
00:41:03,600 --> 00:41:06,080
Speaker 3: thing you see in this movie is the heavy dramatic music,

713
00:41:06,360 --> 00:41:08,040
Speaker 3: you know, sounds kind of like a tiny version of

714
00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:12,200
Speaker 3: the Terminator score black screen, And then before anything else,

715
00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:14,600
Speaker 3: just a bit of text that says Don the Dragon

716
00:41:14,640 --> 00:41:19,200
Speaker 3: Wilson World Kickboxing Association World light Heavyweight Champion.

717
00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:24,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, go so yeah, he plays Cybern Walker or

718
00:41:24,800 --> 00:41:28,960
Speaker 2: just Walker born nineteen fifty four. I'm not a big

719
00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:32,080
Speaker 2: follower of legitimate fighting competitions, and I don't want to

720
00:41:32,080 --> 00:41:35,520
Speaker 2: weigh into any kind of like kicking contest between individuals

721
00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:37,799
Speaker 2: out there, but it seems like there's a strong case

722
00:41:37,800 --> 00:41:40,479
Speaker 2: to be made that Don Wilson had a like far

723
00:41:40,560 --> 00:41:43,640
Speaker 2: greater legit fighting pedigree than some of the other big

724
00:41:43,760 --> 00:41:49,040
Speaker 2: kickboxing stars of his day on film on either side

725
00:41:49,040 --> 00:41:52,000
Speaker 2: of the Pacific, Even at least within the narrow confines

726
00:41:52,040 --> 00:41:54,320
Speaker 2: of professional combat sports.

727
00:41:54,239 --> 00:41:59,320
Speaker 3: There were some marketing driven public feuds between Don the

728
00:41:59,400 --> 00:42:05,440
Speaker 3: Dragon will and Jean Claude Van Dam, for example. From

729
00:42:05,680 --> 00:42:08,400
Speaker 3: what I can tell, maybe this wasn't actually driven by

730
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:10,520
Speaker 3: Wilson himself. I don't want to comment too much because

731
00:42:10,520 --> 00:42:13,120
Speaker 3: I fully examine this beef, but I did a little

732
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:15,400
Speaker 3: bit of reading about it. It looked like to promote

733
00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:18,400
Speaker 3: at least one of his upcoming Don the Dragon Wilson films,

734
00:42:18,760 --> 00:42:21,800
Speaker 3: Roger Corman was sort of like stirring the pot publicly

735
00:42:21,920 --> 00:42:24,920
Speaker 3: to make Wilson challenge John Claud van Dam, who was

736
00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:29,120
Speaker 3: some kind of public exhibition fight, you know, claiming like

737
00:42:29,719 --> 00:42:33,319
Speaker 3: Jean Claude van Dam was overstating his fighting credentials, and

738
00:42:33,400 --> 00:42:36,799
Speaker 3: I think he didn't respond or something. And anyway, so

739
00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:38,440
Speaker 3: there was minor beef at least.

740
00:42:38,760 --> 00:42:40,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, and of course, the thing is, at

741
00:42:40,640 --> 00:42:42,520
Speaker 2: the end of the day, none of it really matters,

742
00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:45,319
Speaker 2: Like the best fighter is not necessarily going to be

743
00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:49,000
Speaker 2: the best actor, the most charismatic performer. I mean, you

744
00:42:49,040 --> 00:42:51,040
Speaker 2: know who would win in a three way fight between

745
00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:55,080
Speaker 2: Jean Claud van dam Don Wilson in Bolo.

746
00:42:55,480 --> 00:42:56,160
Speaker 3: You know, I don't know.

747
00:42:56,239 --> 00:42:58,040
Speaker 2: I don't care. I'd love to see it in a movie.

748
00:42:58,320 --> 00:42:59,800
Speaker 2: I don't really care about seeing what it might have

749
00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:01,040
Speaker 2: looked like in real life.

750
00:43:01,280 --> 00:43:03,560
Speaker 3: Arguing over who would actually win in a fight is

751
00:43:03,600 --> 00:43:06,000
Speaker 3: one of the lowest forms of verbal dispute.

752
00:43:07,719 --> 00:43:09,560
Speaker 2: I agree, but I don't want to make it sound

753
00:43:09,600 --> 00:43:12,279
Speaker 2: like I'm saying Wilson was all legit fight in zero

754
00:43:12,320 --> 00:43:15,319
Speaker 2: charisma or anything like that. I think he's great in this, Like,

755
00:43:15,360 --> 00:43:19,720
Speaker 2: he definitely brings more than just pure kicks to the table,

756
00:43:19,719 --> 00:43:22,640
Speaker 2: but he brings some great kicks when you can see them. Yea.

757
00:43:22,719 --> 00:43:25,640
Speaker 2: Some of those kicks are filmed in a very gloomy

758
00:43:25,800 --> 00:43:28,640
Speaker 2: noir manner, but other times I'm like, yeah, that was

759
00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:29,799
Speaker 2: a pretty cool looking spin cake.

760
00:43:30,200 --> 00:43:32,880
Speaker 3: I'm not going to pretend he's like a powerhouse of emotion,

761
00:43:33,080 --> 00:43:38,680
Speaker 3: but he brings an almost curious groundedness and soft spokenness

762
00:43:38,719 --> 00:43:44,279
Speaker 3: like he He does not overact. Let's say that he

763
00:43:44,360 --> 00:43:47,200
Speaker 3: does not overact like many of the other character actors

764
00:43:47,239 --> 00:43:50,200
Speaker 3: do here, and a lot of that overacting by other

765
00:43:50,320 --> 00:43:54,120
Speaker 3: character actors is welcome, and so he's kind of a nice,

766
00:43:54,320 --> 00:43:58,320
Speaker 3: soft spoken, cool, level headed center around which all that

767
00:43:58,320 --> 00:43:59,080
Speaker 3: that revolves.

768
00:43:59,440 --> 00:44:04,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I mean he's ultimately not our protagonist. He's

769
00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:08,360
Speaker 2: an important supporting character. So I think he's well positioned

770
00:44:08,360 --> 00:44:09,960
Speaker 2: here and he's not over exposed.

771
00:44:10,320 --> 00:44:12,879
Speaker 3: Yeah, but he is given top billing, yes, yes.

772
00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:14,520
Speaker 4: So.

773
00:44:14,800 --> 00:44:17,400
Speaker 2: Wilson's film roles began with bit parts in the eighties,

774
00:44:17,400 --> 00:44:20,160
Speaker 2: including a role as a sparring partner in Cameron Crow

775
00:44:20,320 --> 00:44:22,799
Speaker 2: Say Anything. And that was the same year he starred

776
00:44:22,840 --> 00:44:27,360
Speaker 2: in the theatrically released film Bloodfist, which spawned numerous sequels.

777
00:44:28,080 --> 00:44:32,160
Speaker 2: Wilson's name became synonymous with independent action films of the

778
00:44:32,239 --> 00:44:36,640
Speaker 2: nineteen nineties and also some sci fi titles standing out

779
00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:40,040
Speaker 2: like this one ninety four Cyber Tracker, and I think

780
00:44:40,040 --> 00:44:44,279
Speaker 2: it had a sequel, ninety five's Virtual Combat. And he

781
00:44:44,320 --> 00:44:47,000
Speaker 2: also crosses over into the Fred Olin Ray filmography, as

782
00:44:47,040 --> 00:44:49,600
Speaker 2: you pointed out Joe in nineteen ninety seven's Inferno.

783
00:44:49,920 --> 00:44:52,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, this seems to be possibly some kind of Bollywood crossover.

784
00:44:53,400 --> 00:44:55,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, we were looking at that, like definitely on the

785
00:44:55,400 --> 00:44:57,920
Speaker 2: production end, and then also some of the actors, like

786
00:44:57,960 --> 00:45:03,040
Speaker 2: it seems the weird crossover of Fred Olnray and Bollywood.

787
00:45:03,520 --> 00:45:05,920
Speaker 3: But another movie I would flag to possibly return to

788
00:45:06,080 --> 00:45:10,520
Speaker 3: later is ninety five's Virtual Combat. That one is sort

789
00:45:10,560 --> 00:45:12,719
Speaker 3: of like a cross between the movie we're talking about

790
00:45:12,760 --> 00:45:16,080
Speaker 3: today and another one we've covered on the show Virtuosity,

791
00:45:16,239 --> 00:45:22,440
Speaker 3: which is it's like virtual reality, martial arts, cyberpunk dystopia,

792
00:45:22,760 --> 00:45:25,920
Speaker 3: and just a lot of craziness.

793
00:45:26,400 --> 00:45:30,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, and finally ninety five the same year, he also

794
00:45:30,440 --> 00:45:33,240
Speaker 2: played a gang leader or a character named gang leader

795
00:45:34,160 --> 00:45:37,279
Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety five's Batman Forever. So that may be

796
00:45:37,480 --> 00:45:40,640
Speaker 2: like the film that actually got the most eyeballs on

797
00:45:40,719 --> 00:45:41,760
Speaker 2: Don the Dragon Wilson.

798
00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:45,200
Speaker 3: But you mentioned he's not really the main character. The

799
00:45:45,239 --> 00:45:48,520
Speaker 3: main character is arguably played by Meg Foster.

800
00:45:49,080 --> 00:45:52,840
Speaker 2: That's right. She plays Nancy, a good woman forced to

801
00:45:52,880 --> 00:45:56,080
Speaker 2: follow her to see husband's trail through Webb and sin

802
00:45:57,040 --> 00:45:59,840
Speaker 2: on Earth, just to come down from the lunar colonies

803
00:46:00,080 --> 00:46:04,879
Speaker 2: to do so. Meg Foster born nineteen forty eight captivating

804
00:46:04,920 --> 00:46:09,520
Speaker 2: actress of stage, screen and TV with just striking, striking,

805
00:46:09,560 --> 00:46:13,040
Speaker 2: pale blue eyes, just absolutely mesmerizing eyes.

806
00:46:13,880 --> 00:46:16,920
Speaker 3: Yeah. There is a hypnotizing quality about her which is

807
00:46:17,000 --> 00:46:19,680
Speaker 3: used to great effect in roles where they play up

808
00:46:19,719 --> 00:46:22,799
Speaker 3: her creepy side. Sometimes she is like a witch or

809
00:46:22,880 --> 00:46:26,200
Speaker 3: a you know, an inhuman creepy kind of character. She's

810
00:46:26,280 --> 00:46:28,719
Speaker 3: not that way here. She's actually like the grounded main

811
00:46:28,840 --> 00:46:32,480
Speaker 3: character here, which is in some ways going against the

812
00:46:33,160 --> 00:46:35,520
Speaker 3: type casting from the hypnotic eyes.

813
00:46:35,800 --> 00:46:40,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's nothing actually, you know, supernatural or ethereal about her.

814
00:46:40,280 --> 00:46:44,320
Speaker 2: She's not a robot, though there are some virtual reality

815
00:46:44,360 --> 00:46:47,799
Speaker 2: elements to the story that we might get into later on.

816
00:46:48,000 --> 00:46:51,800
Speaker 2: But yeah, I've always found her to be a treat

817
00:46:51,840 --> 00:46:56,400
Speaker 2: in whatever she's in. I think she's maybe even underrated

818
00:46:56,480 --> 00:46:59,719
Speaker 2: as an actress, you know, whether she's playing a mortal

819
00:46:59,760 --> 00:47:03,440
Speaker 2: won in a conniving corporate suit or again, an evil witch.

820
00:47:04,200 --> 00:47:06,520
Speaker 2: Her TV credits go back to the late sixties and

821
00:47:06,560 --> 00:47:09,640
Speaker 2: early seventies, and her credits to the seventies and a

822
00:47:09,680 --> 00:47:12,279
Speaker 2: good bit of the eighties don't go especially weird. You know.

823
00:47:12,320 --> 00:47:15,160
Speaker 2: She shows up in things like nineteen eighties Carnie eighty

824
00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:19,120
Speaker 2: three's The Austerman Weekend. But then in the mid eighties

825
00:47:19,160 --> 00:47:22,600
Speaker 2: things begin to change. She started opposite Wings Houser in

826
00:47:22,719 --> 00:47:26,439
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty six Is the Wind. This is a This

827
00:47:26,520 --> 00:47:28,719
Speaker 2: is an interesting film. I watched this one on an

828
00:47:28,760 --> 00:47:32,239
Speaker 2: airplane a while back. It takes place in like off

829
00:47:32,320 --> 00:47:38,440
Speaker 2: season Greek the off season Greek vacation island, and she's

830
00:47:38,600 --> 00:47:43,520
Speaker 2: there to finish writing a book, I think, and Wingshuser, surprise, surprise,

831
00:47:43,640 --> 00:47:47,920
Speaker 2: plays a big old creep and starts stalking her, and

832
00:47:48,680 --> 00:47:50,799
Speaker 2: eventually it's like trying to break in and kill her.

833
00:47:50,880 --> 00:47:54,120
Speaker 2: And there's also some sort of a supernatural wind going on.

834
00:47:55,760 --> 00:47:58,239
Speaker 2: It's only going to end up going one place. It's

835
00:47:58,239 --> 00:48:00,520
Speaker 2: gonna end with wings Houser being blown off the roof

836
00:48:00,560 --> 00:48:04,280
Speaker 2: of a house in Greece. But it's it's an interesting film,

837
00:48:04,440 --> 00:48:06,640
Speaker 2: and in that again, she's also just playing just a

838
00:48:07,400 --> 00:48:10,640
Speaker 2: normal woman who's put in an abnormal situation.

839
00:48:11,080 --> 00:48:15,120
Speaker 3: That's funny because I definitely associate her with horror, sci fi,

840
00:48:15,719 --> 00:48:17,760
Speaker 3: exploitation genre films generally.

841
00:48:17,920 --> 00:48:19,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean this is you know, wings Housers in it,

842
00:48:20,040 --> 00:48:22,640
Speaker 2: so it's it's a genre film, like he brings the

843
00:48:22,719 --> 00:48:26,520
Speaker 2: genre with him. But yeah, she doesn't play a character

844
00:48:26,560 --> 00:48:30,200
Speaker 2: that is in and of itself weird. But in eighty

845
00:48:30,239 --> 00:48:33,200
Speaker 2: seven she played Evil Linn and Masters of the Universe,

846
00:48:34,120 --> 00:48:37,640
Speaker 2: the he Man movie in which Dolph of Lungren plays

847
00:48:37,640 --> 00:48:40,040
Speaker 2: he Man and just has a terrific cast in general.

848
00:48:41,120 --> 00:48:43,319
Speaker 2: I have very fond memories of when I saw that

849
00:48:43,440 --> 00:48:46,000
Speaker 2: on the big screen for the first time, including my

850
00:48:46,080 --> 00:48:48,920
Speaker 2: disappointment that most of the film does not take place

851
00:48:48,960 --> 00:48:52,759
Speaker 2: in Eternia but takes place in our world. But I

852
00:48:53,080 --> 00:48:55,960
Speaker 2: think that's maybe ultimately one of the charming things about it.

853
00:48:56,320 --> 00:48:57,640
Speaker 3: That's the way to control the budget.

854
00:48:57,840 --> 00:49:03,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's Foster's subsequent standout credits include nineteen eighty eights,

855
00:49:03,239 --> 00:49:07,520
Speaker 2: They Live, eighty nine's Leviathan. She plays the corporate suit

856
00:49:07,640 --> 00:49:11,960
Speaker 2: in that Blind Fury, the Rugger Howard movie where Rudger

857
00:49:11,960 --> 00:49:15,799
Speaker 2: Hower plays that what a blind ninja master. Yes, Relentless

858
00:49:16,000 --> 00:49:20,080
Speaker 2: ninety four is Oblivion. See ninety nine's The Minus Man.

859
00:49:20,320 --> 00:49:22,560
Speaker 2: That is a that's a really good one. That's more

860
00:49:22,600 --> 00:49:27,000
Speaker 2: of a that's more of an independent, cerebral kind of

861
00:49:27,000 --> 00:49:30,359
Speaker 2: a thriller, but one that I remember being super into

862
00:49:30,480 --> 00:49:33,600
Speaker 2: when it came out, starring Owen Wilson, and it just

863
00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:36,000
Speaker 2: has a great cast as well. I think Brian Cox

864
00:49:36,080 --> 00:49:36,760
Speaker 2: is in that one.

865
00:49:36,960 --> 00:49:38,480
Speaker 3: It's kind of a serial killer movie.

866
00:49:38,680 --> 00:49:40,799
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is a serial killer movie, but not an

867
00:49:40,800 --> 00:49:45,160
Speaker 2: exploitive one. Like again, more of a cerebral one. Yeah,

868
00:49:45,200 --> 00:49:47,040
Speaker 2: worth worth checking out if you've never seen it, but

869
00:49:47,080 --> 00:49:49,759
Speaker 2: it is a is a slow burn. Jennine Garofflo's in

870
00:49:49,800 --> 00:49:52,640
Speaker 2: that one, I believe as well. And then of course

871
00:49:53,080 --> 00:49:55,200
Speaker 2: she pops up in a couple of Rob Zombies more

872
00:49:55,200 --> 00:49:57,399
Speaker 2: recent films, I say more recent, but one of them

873
00:49:57,440 --> 00:50:00,000
Speaker 2: is The Lords of Salem, which at this point it's yeah,

874
00:50:00,239 --> 00:50:04,400
Speaker 2: it's over a decade, it's twenty twelve. But I think that's,

875
00:50:04,719 --> 00:50:07,560
Speaker 2: in my opinion, the standout film of Rob Zombie's filmography

876
00:50:07,600 --> 00:50:08,000
Speaker 2: thus far.

877
00:50:08,480 --> 00:50:10,400
Speaker 3: Oh, I think I'd agree with that. I think I

878
00:50:10,400 --> 00:50:12,239
Speaker 3: may have said this on the show before, but man,

879
00:50:12,320 --> 00:50:15,719
Speaker 3: Rob Zombie really has a knack for making movies that

880
00:50:15,840 --> 00:50:19,440
Speaker 3: have a lot of great things about them that overall

881
00:50:19,520 --> 00:50:21,960
Speaker 3: I can't really enjoy or endoors.

882
00:50:23,280 --> 00:50:27,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, he brings a distinct passion to his projects,

883
00:50:27,760 --> 00:50:31,000
Speaker 2: and I think The Lords of Salem is probably the

884
00:50:31,000 --> 00:50:33,920
Speaker 2: one where you see the passion shine the brightest. And

885
00:50:33,960 --> 00:50:36,800
Speaker 2: of course he always brings in a lot of beloved

886
00:50:36,840 --> 00:50:39,120
Speaker 2: actors from the past, you know, which you know a

887
00:50:39,160 --> 00:50:40,719
Speaker 2: lot of these, A lot of directors do, so it's

888
00:50:40,760 --> 00:50:44,239
Speaker 2: not specific just to him, but he's really good at it.

889
00:50:44,280 --> 00:50:47,320
Speaker 2: And I thought that Meg Foster had a nice, powerful

890
00:50:47,360 --> 00:50:49,840
Speaker 2: turn in the Lords of Salem plays one of the witches.

891
00:50:50,080 --> 00:50:50,680
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah.

892
00:50:51,360 --> 00:50:53,160
Speaker 2: Meg Foster also did a lot of TV, of course,

893
00:50:53,200 --> 00:50:55,480
Speaker 2: and I just mentioned real quick that she did up

894
00:50:55,480 --> 00:51:00,360
Speaker 2: here one episodes of Deep Space nine and the later

895
00:51:00,560 --> 00:51:03,400
Speaker 2: season of Twin Peaks. Now we mentioned that Nancy is

896
00:51:03,440 --> 00:51:07,319
Speaker 2: looking for her husband. Her husband, Howard, is played by

897
00:51:07,480 --> 00:51:11,680
Speaker 2: Jeff Pomerantz born nineteen forty three, another actor of stage, screen,

898
00:51:11,719 --> 00:51:14,640
Speaker 2: and TV, whose TV credits alone have been quite prolific,

899
00:51:15,040 --> 00:51:18,000
Speaker 2: everything from Lassie and Hawaii five Oh Back in the

900
00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:21,520
Speaker 2: Old Days to more recent hits like Modern Family, Fresh

901
00:51:21,520 --> 00:51:24,080
Speaker 2: Off the Boat, and The Morning Show on Apple TV.

902
00:51:25,200 --> 00:51:28,600
Speaker 2: Other films of note includes seventy three's Group Marriage, seventy

903
00:51:28,680 --> 00:51:32,359
Speaker 2: nine Savage Weekend, eighty one's Nice Dreams, I Believe That's

904
00:51:32,400 --> 00:51:35,319
Speaker 2: the Cheech and Chong movie, and eighty seven's Retribution.

905
00:51:36,120 --> 00:51:38,800
Speaker 3: This guy is kind of interesting. He rides a line.

906
00:51:38,920 --> 00:51:44,400
Speaker 3: He's like, I'm gonna say, he looks like a sleazy, cheesy,

907
00:51:44,640 --> 00:51:50,680
Speaker 3: middle aged Paul Newman. And he you keep like going

908
00:51:50,719 --> 00:51:52,759
Speaker 3: back and forth, like this is this guy a nice

909
00:51:52,880 --> 00:51:56,080
Speaker 3: character or a bad guy? He's kind of both. Yeah.

910
00:51:56,160 --> 00:51:58,160
Speaker 2: He starts off. It seems like he's just gonna be

911
00:51:58,239 --> 00:52:03,040
Speaker 2: your token supporting character in a B movie, but he

912
00:52:03,200 --> 00:52:05,960
Speaker 2: ends up feeling a lot more cryptic. He feels he

913
00:52:06,360 --> 00:52:08,319
Speaker 2: ultimately ends up feeling more like a character from a

914
00:52:08,360 --> 00:52:10,480
Speaker 2: Coen Brothers film. I don't know that makes sense, you know.

915
00:52:11,960 --> 00:52:15,880
Speaker 2: I don't want to apply false depth to this character

916
00:52:17,280 --> 00:52:19,200
Speaker 2: or performance. But I thought he was really good here.

917
00:52:19,680 --> 00:52:29,000
Speaker 3: His passion for virtual reality is almost comic and almost interesting. Yeah.

918
00:52:29,080 --> 00:52:39,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, like you say, he walks a line. Now, I'm

919
00:52:39,920 --> 00:52:41,880
Speaker 2: adding this little bit in after the fact here. But

920
00:52:42,200 --> 00:52:44,839
Speaker 2: I dug deeper to see can I actually find it

921
00:52:44,920 --> 00:52:48,960
Speaker 2: about anything more about Damien Klaus still turned up nothing.

922
00:52:49,600 --> 00:52:51,760
Speaker 2: There does seem to be at least one other Damien

923
00:52:51,840 --> 00:52:54,840
Speaker 2: Klaus credited as a digital effects artist on two nineteen

924
00:52:54,920 --> 00:52:58,359
Speaker 2: ninety two films, Doctor Giggles and Nemesis, and also as

925
00:52:58,360 --> 00:53:01,640
Speaker 2: a director on nineteen eighty seven's Playbo Video Magazine Volume twelve.

926
00:53:02,000 --> 00:53:05,640
Speaker 2: But of course none of this settles anything. This name

927
00:53:05,680 --> 00:53:08,839
Speaker 2: continues to remain a cipher. I also dug a little

928
00:53:08,880 --> 00:53:11,840
Speaker 2: deeper about some of these scenes in Future Kick that

929
00:53:13,200 --> 00:53:17,719
Speaker 2: seems suspiciously pulled from other movies, And yeah, I looked,

930
00:53:18,040 --> 00:53:21,000
Speaker 2: with a little help from Apocalypse Later film review and

931
00:53:21,160 --> 00:53:24,200
Speaker 2: Moria a film blog I was able to get a

932
00:53:24,239 --> 00:53:28,320
Speaker 2: more complete list of the trace elements that may be

933
00:53:28,480 --> 00:53:31,800
Speaker 2: present in your viewing experience a future kick that includes

934
00:53:31,880 --> 00:53:35,760
Speaker 2: scenes from Battle Beyond the Stars, Galaxy of Terror, Forbidden World,

935
00:53:36,080 --> 00:53:39,680
Speaker 2: Strip to Kill one and two, Crime Zone, and The

936
00:53:39,800 --> 00:53:45,120
Speaker 2: Terror Within. Basically just pulling from the Corman library here

937
00:53:45,160 --> 00:53:46,480
Speaker 2: to fill out your movie.

938
00:53:46,680 --> 00:53:49,320
Speaker 3: Okay, I think I've seen some of those sci fi movies,

939
00:53:49,360 --> 00:53:52,520
Speaker 3: but I have not seen Strip to Kill or Crime

940
00:53:52,640 --> 00:53:53,880
Speaker 3: Zone or The Terror Within.

941
00:53:54,360 --> 00:53:56,239
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've seen trailers for all of these. I think

942
00:53:57,200 --> 00:53:58,960
Speaker 2: all of these SOMs have great trailers and are on

943
00:53:59,000 --> 00:54:01,720
Speaker 2: some of the trailer comple that I like to dig into.

944
00:54:01,760 --> 00:54:05,239
Speaker 2: But yeah, I don't think I've seen most of them.

945
00:54:05,239 --> 00:54:08,520
Speaker 3: Actually, I wonder if the scenes in this movie where

946
00:54:08,520 --> 00:54:11,799
Speaker 3: they talk about crime zones come from the movie Crime Zone,

947
00:54:11,960 --> 00:54:14,120
Speaker 3: or if that's just script overlap.

948
00:54:14,239 --> 00:54:16,120
Speaker 2: Could be I need to see Crime Zone. We were

949
00:54:16,120 --> 00:54:18,839
Speaker 2: just talking about it off, Mike. It is from the

950
00:54:18,840 --> 00:54:21,400
Speaker 2: director of Anaconda, and of course stars David.

951
00:54:21,239 --> 00:54:25,880
Speaker 3: Carodine man Anaconda. That's a good creature feature from the nineties.

952
00:54:25,920 --> 00:54:26,680
Speaker 3: I like that one.

953
00:54:26,960 --> 00:54:28,960
Speaker 2: All right, Well, back to this movie. Let's get into

954
00:54:29,000 --> 00:54:33,360
Speaker 2: some bad guys here. Okay, all right, So our psychopathic

955
00:54:33,520 --> 00:54:39,080
Speaker 2: organ Harvester Hines, really our main antagonist, is played by

956
00:54:39,400 --> 00:54:42,600
Speaker 2: Eb Lottimer. His credits go back to the early eighties

957
00:54:42,600 --> 00:54:45,800
Speaker 2: and he did a good fifteen films with Roger Corman Studios,

958
00:54:46,280 --> 00:54:49,279
Speaker 2: I believe, including eighty nine, Strip to Kill two and

959
00:54:49,440 --> 00:54:51,719
Speaker 2: Lords of the Deep from the same year he did

960
00:54:51,760 --> 00:54:54,480
Speaker 2: Blood Fist seven. I told you Blood Fist had some

961
00:54:54,520 --> 00:54:57,640
Speaker 2: sequels and put it ever, and he also appeared in

962
00:54:57,680 --> 00:55:01,800
Speaker 2: a small role in twenty fifteen Secario. So he's continued

963
00:55:01,840 --> 00:55:05,280
Speaker 2: to direct and produce. But here is just a great

964
00:55:05,320 --> 00:55:07,759
Speaker 2: skull about to pop out of the face villain performance.

965
00:55:07,960 --> 00:55:10,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, just going wild. He's got to get more organs.

966
00:55:11,200 --> 00:55:13,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right.

967
00:55:13,640 --> 00:55:16,200
Speaker 3: But that's not the weirdest piece of casting when it

968
00:55:16,200 --> 00:55:17,160
Speaker 3: comes to the villains.

969
00:55:17,760 --> 00:55:21,400
Speaker 2: No, the weird thing is that Hines has a like

970
00:55:21,440 --> 00:55:24,480
Speaker 2: a like almost a lackey, really like a guy who

971
00:55:24,520 --> 00:55:28,480
Speaker 2: works with him named Bang, and Bang is played by

972
00:55:29,000 --> 00:55:32,719
Speaker 2: a veteran character actor, Chris Pinn. I mean even at

973
00:55:32,719 --> 00:55:34,759
Speaker 2: the time, he'd been in a fair number of things

974
00:55:34,800 --> 00:55:36,920
Speaker 2: and I think was pretty established as a character actor. He's,

975
00:55:36,960 --> 00:55:40,760
Speaker 2: of course the younger was the younger brother of Sean Pinn. Yeah,

976
00:55:40,760 --> 00:55:43,120
Speaker 2: I lived nineteen sixty five through two thousand and six.

977
00:55:43,400 --> 00:55:45,760
Speaker 2: Mostly you know, he had a knack for playing heavies

978
00:55:45,800 --> 00:55:49,319
Speaker 2: and villains and wise guys and you know, and beyond that,

979
00:55:50,080 --> 00:55:53,840
Speaker 2: at a fair amount of range, he's actually built higher

980
00:55:54,200 --> 00:55:58,760
Speaker 2: than Ebltimer here, but again, is actually a second tier villain.

981
00:55:59,360 --> 00:56:03,120
Speaker 2: His previous films included A. Three's Rumblefish, eighty four's Footloose,

982
00:56:03,280 --> 00:56:06,919
Speaker 2: eighty five's Pale Rider. After this movie, he'd played Nice

983
00:56:06,920 --> 00:56:10,759
Speaker 2: Guy Eddie and Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, followed by such

984
00:56:10,800 --> 00:56:14,560
Speaker 2: titles as ninety three's True Romance and ninety eight Rush Hour.

985
00:56:15,320 --> 00:56:18,600
Speaker 2: So solid actor, and he gets a few moments of

986
00:56:18,640 --> 00:56:21,480
Speaker 2: passing interest here in Future Kick, but this feels just

987
00:56:21,640 --> 00:56:24,879
Speaker 2: really miscast, like he's standing in for a role meant

988
00:56:24,920 --> 00:56:28,040
Speaker 2: to be played by a random bodybuilder or something, ye

989
00:56:29,080 --> 00:56:32,879
Speaker 2: which you know, no, no, no, again, I'm not trying

990
00:56:32,920 --> 00:56:35,960
Speaker 2: to shame Chris Pin, but like this is clearly a

991
00:56:36,080 --> 00:56:41,120
Speaker 2: role for like a marginally talented actor, like this is

992
00:56:41,200 --> 00:56:45,160
Speaker 2: where you would shoehorn your fresh off the beach muscle guy.

993
00:56:45,719 --> 00:56:48,839
Speaker 2: And so his casting here almost feels like an uncorrected

994
00:56:48,880 --> 00:56:52,600
Speaker 2: clerical error, like, hey, did we mean to cast chris

995
00:56:52,719 --> 00:56:57,200
Speaker 2: Pin as this terminator type character, and they're like, no, yeah,

996
00:56:57,280 --> 00:56:59,440
Speaker 2: this was absolutely intentional. We're going to stick to it.

997
00:56:59,440 --> 00:57:02,960
Speaker 2: We've already he's playing the role, and he's talented. He

998
00:57:02,960 --> 00:57:04,960
Speaker 2: can play anything, so he's not bad in this, but

999
00:57:05,360 --> 00:57:06,400
Speaker 2: such a head scratcher.

1000
00:57:06,719 --> 00:57:11,040
Speaker 3: Really bizarre choice. Yeah, feeling like a character who they

1001
00:57:11,080 --> 00:57:14,880
Speaker 3: would have been aiming for the bargain version of, like

1002
00:57:15,040 --> 00:57:18,440
Speaker 3: Vernon Wells, you know, the guy from like a commando

1003
00:57:18,560 --> 00:57:19,720
Speaker 3: in the Mad Max movie.

1004
00:57:19,840 --> 00:57:23,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, you need somebody who's either like again like a

1005
00:57:23,400 --> 00:57:25,480
Speaker 2: muscle dude, or like you're saying, somebody with like a

1006
00:57:26,080 --> 00:57:30,840
Speaker 2: real sinister appearance. And you know, Penn was He just

1007
00:57:30,880 --> 00:57:33,240
Speaker 2: wasn't that sort of like actor in terms of like

1008
00:57:33,240 --> 00:57:37,040
Speaker 2: a physical presence. So yeah, I just I don't understand

1009
00:57:37,080 --> 00:57:38,040
Speaker 2: how he ends up here.

1010
00:57:38,160 --> 00:57:40,240
Speaker 3: How many lines does he have? Like two?

1011
00:57:40,600 --> 00:57:42,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, he doesn't even speak much.

1012
00:57:42,720 --> 00:57:45,520
Speaker 3: So again, there's one part where he's talking about Don

1013
00:57:45,560 --> 00:57:47,800
Speaker 3: Wilson and he says he's almost as strong as me

1014
00:57:48,120 --> 00:57:48,640
Speaker 3: or something.

1015
00:57:48,800 --> 00:57:51,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and he does. He gets to like pick

1016
00:57:51,480 --> 00:57:53,680
Speaker 2: up a dude in a fireman's carry and spin him

1017
00:57:53,720 --> 00:57:57,000
Speaker 2: around this stuff, so we do see this strength on display,

1018
00:57:57,040 --> 00:57:58,560
Speaker 2: but again, strange casting.

1019
00:57:59,280 --> 00:58:01,640
Speaker 3: All right, we also have a corrupt cop character.

1020
00:58:02,080 --> 00:58:06,640
Speaker 2: That's right Craner, played by Al Ruscio. I believe I'm

1021
00:58:06,640 --> 00:58:09,160
Speaker 2: saying that right, If not, in my apologies, but he

1022
00:58:09,200 --> 00:58:12,840
Speaker 2: lived nineteen twenty four through twenty thirteen. Longtime character actor

1023
00:58:12,880 --> 00:58:15,280
Speaker 2: with deep TV credits going back to the mid fifties.

1024
00:58:15,640 --> 00:58:19,280
Speaker 2: His biggest credits include parts in eighty five's Jagged Edge,

1025
00:58:19,680 --> 00:58:23,440
Speaker 2: nineteen nineties, The Godfather Part three, ninety five Showgirls, and

1026
00:58:23,560 --> 00:58:27,080
Speaker 2: ninety six Is the Phantom. Other credits include ninety five's

1027
00:58:27,640 --> 00:58:31,080
Speaker 2: Xtro three, Watch the Skies and nineteen eighties Any which

1028
00:58:31,120 --> 00:58:33,760
Speaker 2: way you can said to be a great eight movie?

1029
00:58:34,360 --> 00:58:38,640
Speaker 2: Is that the one with Clint Eastwood and an ape? Yes, okay,

1030
00:58:39,200 --> 00:58:41,600
Speaker 2: it's one of two Clint Eastwood. The other one's any well,

1031
00:58:41,600 --> 00:58:44,720
Speaker 2: there's any which way you can? And what's the other one?

1032
00:58:44,840 --> 00:58:47,600
Speaker 2: Any which way? But loose there? Yeah, there you go. Okay,

1033
00:58:47,680 --> 00:58:50,120
Speaker 2: So two different eight movies that she's from. There, he's

1034
00:58:50,200 --> 00:58:52,120
Speaker 2: only in one of them, all right. A couple of

1035
00:58:52,240 --> 00:58:55,600
Speaker 2: non bad guys supporting roles here worth noting because I

1036
00:58:55,640 --> 00:58:58,040
Speaker 2: just love it when there's like a strange presence so

1037
00:58:58,080 --> 00:59:00,560
Speaker 2: you can instantly tell old this guy's somebody, but I've

1038
00:59:00,560 --> 00:59:03,479
Speaker 2: never seen him before. There's a character named two to one,

1039
00:59:03,560 --> 00:59:08,040
Speaker 2: and he's kind of like a neutral, semi good underworld

1040
00:59:08,160 --> 00:59:10,840
Speaker 2: character like you encounter in noir stories, you know, kind

1041
00:59:10,840 --> 00:59:13,000
Speaker 2: of a bartender who helps you out a little bit.

1042
00:59:13,360 --> 00:59:15,960
Speaker 3: He's a squirrely guy who witnesses a murder and then

1043
00:59:16,000 --> 00:59:17,640
Speaker 3: gives Meg Foster some information.

1044
00:59:18,000 --> 00:59:21,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he's played by Sean Phillips born nineteen forty

1045
00:59:21,800 --> 00:59:26,040
Speaker 2: three American singer, songwriter and musician, best known for his

1046
00:59:26,160 --> 00:59:30,920
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy album Second Contribution. He apparently played sitar on

1047
00:59:31,080 --> 00:59:34,800
Speaker 2: six songs for Donovan on his nineteen sixty six album

1048
00:59:34,920 --> 00:59:39,080
Speaker 2: Sunshine Superman, and apparently co wrote Season of the Witch.

1049
00:59:39,640 --> 00:59:44,160
Speaker 3: What a bizarre crossover and ended up in Future Kick. Yeah.

1050
00:59:44,640 --> 00:59:46,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, And I think this I was looking into

1051
00:59:46,960 --> 00:59:48,720
Speaker 2: this guy a little bit. It's like he seems to

1052
00:59:48,760 --> 00:59:51,640
Speaker 2: have had like lived several different careers in his life,

1053
00:59:51,720 --> 00:59:53,920
Speaker 2: you know, like he's I think he was like an

1054
00:59:53,920 --> 00:59:57,800
Speaker 2: emergency responder for a period of time. And but yeah,

1055
00:59:57,800 --> 01:00:03,280
Speaker 2: it was also this noted singer, songwriter and sessions musician. Wow,

1056
01:00:03,800 --> 01:00:06,520
Speaker 2: all right, and then finally the music here two people

1057
01:00:06,560 --> 01:00:11,480
Speaker 2: were credited Scott's singer whose other scores include nineteen nineties

1058
01:00:11,560 --> 01:00:15,800
Speaker 2: Naked Obsession, in ninety four's Midnight Confessions, and then Stan

1059
01:00:16,000 --> 01:00:19,960
Speaker 2: Ridgeway born nineteen fifty four. Were you familiar with.

1060
01:00:19,880 --> 01:00:22,240
Speaker 3: Stan Ridgeway Joe not by name?

1061
01:00:23,000 --> 01:00:25,440
Speaker 2: So yeah, I wasn't either, but a fairly big deal

1062
01:00:25,480 --> 01:00:29,760
Speaker 2: American singer songwriter, best known as original lead singer and

1063
01:00:29,800 --> 01:00:32,680
Speaker 2: one of the founding members of the band Wall of Voodoo,

1064
01:00:33,080 --> 01:00:36,680
Speaker 2: and his work with them includes their most famous track,

1065
01:00:37,040 --> 01:00:40,160
Speaker 2: Mexican Radio, because that's how they sing it, I want

1066
01:00:40,200 --> 01:00:43,920
Speaker 2: a Mexican Radio. It's been even if you don't listen

1067
01:00:43,960 --> 01:00:45,920
Speaker 2: to a lot of music from this era. It's popped

1068
01:00:45,960 --> 01:00:49,680
Speaker 2: up in so many films, not this one, But I.

1069
01:00:49,680 --> 01:00:51,800
Speaker 3: Don't know if maybe i'd have to hear it. I'm

1070
01:00:51,800 --> 01:00:53,960
Speaker 3: not recognizing it based on what you've given me so far.

1071
01:00:54,160 --> 01:00:56,760
Speaker 2: Oh it's like the main chorus is something about wanting

1072
01:00:56,800 --> 01:01:02,160
Speaker 2: a Mexican radio. You'd reckon if you're okay, okay, but anyway,

1073
01:01:02,200 --> 01:01:04,960
Speaker 2: Ridgeway after leaving that group, he started along solo career

1074
01:01:05,000 --> 01:01:07,600
Speaker 2: and released multiple albums, including nineteen eighty six is the

1075
01:01:07,600 --> 01:01:11,680
Speaker 2: Big Heat, which included the tracks Camouflage, Drive, She Said

1076
01:01:11,720 --> 01:01:13,480
Speaker 2: and the title track I listened to some of these.

1077
01:01:13,480 --> 01:01:16,200
Speaker 2: It's some good stuff. This is the first film that

1078
01:01:16,240 --> 01:01:19,320
Speaker 2: he did credited score work on, and weirdly enough, likely

1079
01:01:19,360 --> 01:01:22,160
Speaker 2: the best well known. The other pictures he worked on

1080
01:01:22,200 --> 01:01:25,760
Speaker 2: seem to be, you know, small independent films, and or

1081
01:01:25,800 --> 01:01:28,480
Speaker 2: at least film small independent films I'm not familiar with.

1082
01:01:29,280 --> 01:01:32,919
Speaker 2: In some circles, I imagine they stand taller than Future Kick.

1083
01:01:33,520 --> 01:01:37,960
Speaker 2: Best known for Future Kick, I mean, if you know,

1084
01:01:38,160 --> 01:01:40,760
Speaker 2: if I'd made Future Kick, I'd be proud of it. Oh,

1085
01:01:40,880 --> 01:01:43,400
Speaker 2: I'd say that as a as a non filmmaker. But

1086
01:01:45,240 --> 01:01:47,840
Speaker 2: you know this, as we've been saying, I think this

1087
01:01:47,960 --> 01:01:51,040
Speaker 2: film is deserves a second look or a first look

1088
01:01:51,080 --> 01:01:51,920
Speaker 2: from a lot of people.

1089
01:02:00,400 --> 01:02:03,480
Speaker 3: All right, time to talk about the plot. So after

1090
01:02:03,520 --> 01:02:06,760
Speaker 3: we get the the statement of Don the Dragon, Wilson's

1091
01:02:06,800 --> 01:02:10,400
Speaker 3: kickboxing credentials, and the title sequence, we cut to some

1092
01:02:10,520 --> 01:02:14,960
Speaker 3: grainy animations of space. First we see a spiral galaxy

1093
01:02:15,080 --> 01:02:16,960
Speaker 3: spinning around a red core.

1094
01:02:17,320 --> 01:02:19,919
Speaker 2: This was the first moment where I'm like, oh, wow,

1095
01:02:19,960 --> 01:02:23,240
Speaker 2: We've seen plenty of films that start with like a

1096
01:02:23,280 --> 01:02:27,520
Speaker 2: god's eye view of Earth. Yeah, but we're not even

1097
01:02:27,560 --> 01:02:30,640
Speaker 2: starting at solar system level. Like we're starting at like

1098
01:02:30,640 --> 01:02:33,760
Speaker 2: like intergalactic level, like where are we in the universe?

1099
01:02:33,800 --> 01:02:37,040
Speaker 3: Step way back, Here's the Milky Way, except the milk.

1100
01:02:36,840 --> 01:02:38,040
Speaker 2: Powers of ten up in here.

1101
01:02:38,880 --> 01:02:41,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's it's red in the middle for some reason.

1102
01:02:42,360 --> 01:02:44,600
Speaker 3: And then after that we do see a solar system.

1103
01:02:44,640 --> 01:02:46,760
Speaker 3: It's like, oh, finally our solar system, but it's not.

1104
01:02:46,960 --> 01:02:49,760
Speaker 3: It's we get a yellow sun. And then instead of

1105
01:02:49,840 --> 01:02:53,600
Speaker 3: planets going around it, the things in orbit are more galaxies,

1106
01:02:53,800 --> 01:02:57,560
Speaker 3: spiral galaxies going around a star. What's happening, I don't know.

1107
01:02:57,880 --> 01:03:00,600
Speaker 3: And then that's never explained. That doesn't mean anything as

1108
01:03:00,600 --> 01:03:03,600
Speaker 3: far as they are. And then we see Earth, and

1109
01:03:03,640 --> 01:03:06,120
Speaker 3: then we get some voice over narration. Is this Meg

1110
01:03:06,160 --> 01:03:09,880
Speaker 3: Foster's voice? Do you think I think it is? Yes, yeah, yeah, okay,

1111
01:03:10,280 --> 01:03:15,200
Speaker 3: so the voice probably Meg Foster says Earth was once

1112
01:03:15,280 --> 01:03:18,800
Speaker 3: a beautiful blue planet that was a long time ago.

1113
01:03:19,240 --> 01:03:23,800
Speaker 3: After endless wars and brutal violence, the wealthiest citizens left

1114
01:03:23,880 --> 01:03:28,320
Speaker 3: Earth and created a civilization on the Moon. And then

1115
01:03:28,360 --> 01:03:30,280
Speaker 3: we get to see this in model form with some

1116
01:03:30,360 --> 01:03:33,800
Speaker 3: miniature towers and these big bubble domes and a lunar crater.

1117
01:03:34,320 --> 01:03:37,600
Speaker 2: Now I want to flag one thing here. I read

1118
01:03:37,680 --> 01:03:40,880
Speaker 2: this is according to Michael Weldon in the psychotronic film Guides.

1119
01:03:41,760 --> 01:03:43,680
Speaker 2: This is a noir film. We're gonna go to a

1120
01:03:43,720 --> 01:03:45,800
Speaker 2: lot of strip clubs, and there are gonna be scenes

1121
01:03:45,880 --> 01:03:49,360
Speaker 2: with strippers. Yeah, the scenes with the strippers are all

1122
01:03:49,400 --> 01:03:53,200
Speaker 2: apparently lifted from the Roger Corman produced film Strip to

1123
01:03:53,320 --> 01:03:56,840
Speaker 2: Kill two from nineteen eighty nine, directed by Kat Shay,

1124
01:03:56,960 --> 01:03:58,439
Speaker 2: who also directed Strip to Kill.

1125
01:03:58,680 --> 01:04:02,120
Speaker 3: That would surprise me, especially because the stripping scenes don't

1126
01:04:02,120 --> 01:04:05,640
Speaker 3: interact with any of the characters or actors in this movie.

1127
01:04:05,680 --> 01:04:07,440
Speaker 3: They're just shown to the side.

1128
01:04:07,840 --> 01:04:10,920
Speaker 2: But it makes me wonder and I have no answer

1129
01:04:10,960 --> 01:04:15,120
Speaker 2: to this as of right now whether the space scenes

1130
01:04:15,160 --> 01:04:19,000
Speaker 2: in this were lifted or borrowed or reused from other

1131
01:04:19,200 --> 01:04:22,920
Speaker 2: sci fi films that Corman either had access to or

1132
01:04:23,120 --> 01:04:26,240
Speaker 2: had actually produced, Like it could even be an international production.

1133
01:04:26,320 --> 01:04:28,000
Speaker 2: We saw he would do things I think he did

1134
01:04:28,080 --> 01:04:32,480
Speaker 2: saying things like this with like like European or Soviet productions.

1135
01:04:32,720 --> 01:04:35,240
Speaker 3: Yeah, correctly, we talked about that with Queen of Blood.

1136
01:04:35,840 --> 01:04:40,360
Speaker 3: Some Russian or Soviet sci fi movie footage was reused

1137
01:04:40,360 --> 01:04:43,200
Speaker 3: in Queen of Blood actually to great effect. Like it

1138
01:04:43,240 --> 01:04:47,720
Speaker 3: was a good at re editing job there. But I

1139
01:04:48,400 --> 01:04:50,360
Speaker 3: think I read this now I'm afraid I'm imagining this,

1140
01:04:50,440 --> 01:04:53,919
Speaker 3: but I think I read somewhere online that shots from

1141
01:04:53,960 --> 01:04:56,840
Speaker 3: Battle Beyond the Stars were reused for the space flight

1142
01:04:56,920 --> 01:04:58,600
Speaker 3: sequences in this movie.

1143
01:04:58,720 --> 01:05:01,040
Speaker 2: Okay, that would make sense because they look really good,

1144
01:05:01,360 --> 01:05:04,640
Speaker 2: but they almost look too good, like, if it's looking

1145
01:05:04,640 --> 01:05:06,720
Speaker 2: this good, it might have been reused. And to be clear,

1146
01:05:06,960 --> 01:05:10,360
Speaker 2: I'm not opposed to that. I've seen some films I

1147
01:05:10,440 --> 01:05:13,360
Speaker 2: really enjoyed before that have reused a space sequences from

1148
01:05:13,400 --> 01:05:16,120
Speaker 2: other pictures and you know it's fine.

1149
01:05:15,840 --> 01:05:18,680
Speaker 3: Sure, I agree, Yeah, if it fits in, well, why

1150
01:05:18,680 --> 01:05:21,040
Speaker 3: not do it. So we're on the Moon, and then

1151
01:05:21,040 --> 01:05:23,840
Speaker 3: suddenly the narrator reaccess back to Earth and says, back

1152
01:05:23,880 --> 01:05:27,680
Speaker 3: on Earth, life was a constant fight for survival, and

1153
01:05:27,720 --> 01:05:30,959
Speaker 3: we see people scrambling around in concrete canals wearing Mad

1154
01:05:31,040 --> 01:05:33,840
Speaker 3: Max rags, and there's a city skyline with these weird

1155
01:05:33,920 --> 01:05:38,240
Speaker 3: top heavy buildings like the OCP Tower and RoboCop. The

1156
01:05:38,360 --> 01:05:44,320
Speaker 3: narrator says, governments were overthrown by giant corporations who controlled

1157
01:05:44,360 --> 01:05:48,040
Speaker 3: society with an iron fist, and then we were treated

1158
01:05:48,080 --> 01:05:51,960
Speaker 3: to these terrible images of thuggish police forces with their

1159
01:05:51,960 --> 01:05:55,240
Speaker 3: faces hidden behind masks, pushing people and rounding them up.

1160
01:05:55,280 --> 01:05:57,560
Speaker 3: In dark streets lit by flaming barrels.

1161
01:05:58,160 --> 01:06:00,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, lots of flaming barrels. You know you're in the

1162
01:06:00,120 --> 01:06:01,360
Speaker 2: right place with this movie.

1163
01:06:01,840 --> 01:06:04,560
Speaker 3: And then the narrator says, to do their dirty work,

1164
01:06:04,840 --> 01:06:10,800
Speaker 3: the corporations created a race of biomechanical men called the Cyberns.

1165
01:06:11,840 --> 01:06:13,840
Speaker 3: And then we get a quick glimpse of something that

1166
01:06:13,920 --> 01:06:16,800
Speaker 3: I also wondered if it was from another movie. We

1167
01:06:16,840 --> 01:06:19,840
Speaker 3: see a little lab or somebody is like using a

1168
01:06:19,920 --> 01:06:24,680
Speaker 3: laser type device to cut together some robot body parts.

1169
01:06:24,960 --> 01:06:29,000
Speaker 2: And it's impeccably framed and just looks very distinct from

1170
01:06:29,040 --> 01:06:30,840
Speaker 2: what we've seen. It works well. I didn't really think

1171
01:06:30,840 --> 01:06:32,600
Speaker 2: about it till later, and then I was like, yeah,

1172
01:06:32,680 --> 01:06:34,920
Speaker 2: maybe that was from another film as well, But it works.

1173
01:06:34,720 --> 01:06:37,600
Speaker 3: Well in context, nothing like the color palette of the

1174
01:06:37,600 --> 01:06:40,880
Speaker 3: rest of Future Kick. Then we see Don Wilson's head

1175
01:06:41,000 --> 01:06:44,120
Speaker 3: staring into the camera and some terminator font text on

1176
01:06:44,160 --> 01:06:49,480
Speaker 3: the screen that reads cybern id colon walker class A

1177
01:06:49,880 --> 01:06:55,160
Speaker 3: rating colon lethal. What why is there a colon in

1178
01:06:55,160 --> 01:06:58,240
Speaker 3: that line? That just seems like two different statements, And

1179
01:06:58,240 --> 01:07:01,600
Speaker 3: then it says terminate with extreme prejudice. Huh. So the

1180
01:07:01,680 --> 01:07:04,960
Speaker 3: last thing, the narrator said, is the corporations created a

1181
01:07:05,040 --> 01:07:08,120
Speaker 3: race of biomechanical men called the Cyberns to do their

1182
01:07:08,120 --> 01:07:12,520
Speaker 3: dirty work, but so terminate with extreme prejudice. The narration

1183
01:07:12,600 --> 01:07:17,760
Speaker 3: goes on they were programmed to fight society's criminals, but

1184
01:07:17,920 --> 01:07:22,120
Speaker 3: soon the Cybrons discovered the corporations were the most ruthless

1185
01:07:22,120 --> 01:07:27,440
Speaker 3: criminals of all. The Cyberns were systematically hunted down and

1186
01:07:27,520 --> 01:07:32,080
Speaker 3: publicly executed by a fascist strike force known as the

1187
01:07:32,160 --> 01:07:37,840
Speaker 3: Corporate Police. Wow. I love this opening narration because of

1188
01:07:37,880 --> 01:07:41,840
Speaker 3: how many different times it says something that gives you

1189
01:07:41,880 --> 01:07:47,200
Speaker 3: an expectation about the story and then immediately reverses your expectation. Yeah.

1190
01:07:47,240 --> 01:07:49,120
Speaker 3: So you're like, Okay, the story is going to be

1191
01:07:49,160 --> 01:07:52,560
Speaker 3: set on the moon. No, no, no, we're back on Earth. Okay,

1192
01:07:52,640 --> 01:07:56,080
Speaker 3: the corporations are using their security forces to control people.

1193
01:07:56,240 --> 01:07:59,360
Speaker 3: No wait, they're using the Cyberns to control people. No,

1194
01:07:59,560 --> 01:08:02,400
Speaker 3: the cybers rebelled. Okay, so this is going to be

1195
01:08:02,400 --> 01:08:06,720
Speaker 3: about the cybern war against the corporations. No, wait a minute,

1196
01:08:06,800 --> 01:08:08,040
Speaker 3: the Cyberns are all dead.

1197
01:08:08,320 --> 01:08:10,560
Speaker 2: Can you even imagine someone laying all this out in

1198
01:08:10,560 --> 01:08:12,360
Speaker 2: like a pitch meeting for this ye?

1199
01:08:12,440 --> 01:08:16,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, So anyway, at this point in the backstory, we

1200
01:08:16,760 --> 01:08:20,280
Speaker 3: see a bunch of people in padded gray uniforms punching

1201
01:08:20,400 --> 01:08:23,120
Speaker 3: keys on computer terminals. They're in a room with like

1202
01:08:23,240 --> 01:08:26,559
Speaker 3: neon blue club lighting, and then a bunch of sirens

1203
01:08:26,600 --> 01:08:29,840
Speaker 3: start going off, and there is an insane public announcement

1204
01:08:29,920 --> 01:08:35,200
Speaker 3: voice that says Cybern Alert. Two Cyberns are headed south

1205
01:08:35,360 --> 01:08:38,080
Speaker 3: in Crime Zone C quadrant seven.

1206
01:08:38,800 --> 01:08:40,240
Speaker 2: You know, I have to say, it's interesting. We were

1207
01:08:40,280 --> 01:08:42,519
Speaker 2: talking about how does this twenty twenty five match up

1208
01:08:42,520 --> 01:08:47,440
Speaker 2: to ours? Yeah, in this fictional twenty twenty five, corporations

1209
01:08:48,160 --> 01:08:50,880
Speaker 2: have fallen out of love with AI, or at least

1210
01:08:50,920 --> 01:08:54,400
Speaker 2: one mode of AI, and have hunted it to near extinction,

1211
01:08:55,240 --> 01:08:58,200
Speaker 2: whereas in our twenty twenty five corporations are still very

1212
01:08:58,240 --> 01:09:01,320
Speaker 2: much in love with AI and have not had that

1213
01:09:01,400 --> 01:09:04,160
Speaker 2: breakup yet. If that breakup will ever occur.

1214
01:09:04,120 --> 01:09:06,800
Speaker 3: I guess the question is will the AI rebel against them?

1215
01:09:06,840 --> 01:09:09,439
Speaker 3: Will it recognize that they are the most ruthless criminals

1216
01:09:09,439 --> 01:09:09,800
Speaker 3: of all?

1217
01:09:10,280 --> 01:09:10,720
Speaker 2: I don't know.

1218
01:09:11,320 --> 01:09:14,439
Speaker 3: So here we see two Remember where we are, We're

1219
01:09:14,439 --> 01:09:17,479
Speaker 3: in Crime Zone CE quadrant seven. Okay, that's important. So

1220
01:09:17,560 --> 01:09:20,320
Speaker 3: we see two guys in long black coats and sunglasses

1221
01:09:20,360 --> 01:09:24,400
Speaker 3: at night walking down at like a wet, nasty city

1222
01:09:24,400 --> 01:09:27,880
Speaker 3: street lined with flaming barrels and some more. On screen

1223
01:09:27,920 --> 01:09:31,960
Speaker 3: text tells us that these are Cybern Walker and Cybern

1224
01:09:32,160 --> 01:09:36,679
Speaker 3: Andrews status armed. So here's another reversal. Wait a minute,

1225
01:09:36,760 --> 01:09:39,160
Speaker 3: Cybrons are not all dead. There are two left. I

1226
01:09:39,160 --> 01:09:44,280
Speaker 3: guess Cybern Walker is Don the Dragon. Wilson Andrews is

1227
01:09:44,280 --> 01:09:46,400
Speaker 3: his buddy. Here. It's hard to get a good look

1228
01:09:46,439 --> 01:09:48,679
Speaker 3: at him because these scenes are all dark and grainy,

1229
01:09:49,000 --> 01:09:52,320
Speaker 3: but I get the impression of a default factory settings

1230
01:09:52,400 --> 01:09:56,400
Speaker 3: muscle man with a mullet. Yeah, Andrews says, hey, Walker,

1231
01:09:56,479 --> 01:09:59,599
Speaker 3: why are you always so uptight? And you think he's

1232
01:09:59,600 --> 01:10:02,599
Speaker 3: gonna have snappy, clever come back here. But Walker's first

1233
01:10:02,680 --> 01:10:08,679
Speaker 3: line is I'm not uptight, just cautious Andrew. Andrew says, relax,

1234
01:10:09,080 --> 01:10:11,680
Speaker 3: this time next week will be on a shuttle to

1235
01:10:11,760 --> 01:10:14,240
Speaker 3: the moon. Okay, So he's like, you know, one day

1236
01:10:14,240 --> 01:10:17,040
Speaker 3: away from retirement. They've got they've got the future all set,

1237
01:10:17,560 --> 01:10:20,400
Speaker 3: but it was not to be. The corporate police come

1238
01:10:20,479 --> 01:10:24,160
Speaker 3: screaming down on them with lights flashing and sirens blasting.

1239
01:10:24,600 --> 01:10:26,960
Speaker 3: I feel like the Cyberns should have known better than

1240
01:10:27,000 --> 01:10:28,160
Speaker 3: to hang out in crime zone.

1241
01:10:28,240 --> 01:10:30,760
Speaker 2: See, yeah, I mean they don't know what we know.

1242
01:10:30,880 --> 01:10:34,599
Speaker 2: We know from from from various cutaways here that there

1243
01:10:34,640 --> 01:10:39,439
Speaker 2: is still a fully staffed anti Cybern unit that is

1244
01:10:39,520 --> 01:10:42,800
Speaker 2: just looking for them NonStop, and it's no surprise to

1245
01:10:42,920 --> 01:10:45,880
Speaker 2: us that they find them and we'll find them again.

1246
01:10:46,560 --> 01:10:48,799
Speaker 3: So here we get an action scene where the corporate

1247
01:10:48,800 --> 01:10:51,880
Speaker 3: police chase the two Cyberns. First, the Cybrons steal a

1248
01:10:51,920 --> 01:10:54,519
Speaker 3: car to make a getaway, and throughout the sequence you're

1249
01:10:54,520 --> 01:10:57,240
Speaker 3: going to get terminator vision shots where we see Don

1250
01:10:57,280 --> 01:10:59,800
Speaker 3: Wilson's point of view and there's like text overlaid on

1251
01:10:59,840 --> 01:11:02,519
Speaker 3: every thing he sees. So he looks at this rusty

1252
01:11:02,520 --> 01:11:04,680
Speaker 3: car in front of him that's and it says like

1253
01:11:04,760 --> 01:11:08,320
Speaker 3: late twentieth century model adequate. So they get in and

1254
01:11:08,360 --> 01:11:10,920
Speaker 3: there's a car chase. There's some gun fighting while they drive,

1255
01:11:10,960 --> 01:11:15,800
Speaker 3: shooting back and forth. Walker yells corporate scum. And there's

1256
01:11:15,800 --> 01:11:19,519
Speaker 3: a moment here I found strangely rousing when their car

1257
01:11:19,600 --> 01:11:24,240
Speaker 3: gets cornered and Andrews just shouts, let's kick their canasses

1258
01:11:26,520 --> 01:11:29,120
Speaker 3: something about his delivery there. I just wanted to pump

1259
01:11:29,160 --> 01:11:30,120
Speaker 3: my fist in the air.

1260
01:11:30,640 --> 01:11:33,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean they're into it. It's you know,

1261
01:11:34,280 --> 01:11:36,800
Speaker 2: nothing we've seen action wise here is really you know,

1262
01:11:36,920 --> 01:11:40,559
Speaker 2: breaking any barriers or anything. But you know, it's it's

1263
01:11:40,560 --> 01:11:41,759
Speaker 2: well paced, it's exciting.

1264
01:11:42,320 --> 01:11:44,559
Speaker 3: So the Cybrons get out of the car and they're

1265
01:11:44,560 --> 01:11:49,120
Speaker 3: surrounded by these Corporo cops and we hear the funniest

1266
01:11:49,240 --> 01:11:52,479
Speaker 3: line deliveries. The cops are saying like, look here, boys,

1267
01:11:52,600 --> 01:11:58,479
Speaker 3: it's Walker and Andrews, the last two Cyberns. And they're saying, wow,

1268
01:11:58,479 --> 01:12:00,920
Speaker 3: it hasn't been a public execution in a long time.

1269
01:12:01,000 --> 01:12:03,960
Speaker 3: And then another one says, forget it, let's waste them now.

1270
01:12:04,120 --> 01:12:07,360
Speaker 3: So they're really excited about this. But a fight breaks

1271
01:12:07,400 --> 01:12:11,639
Speaker 3: out and I'm sure Don the Dragon Wilson's kickboxing skills

1272
01:12:11,720 --> 01:12:14,840
Speaker 3: are incredibly impressive, but the scene is so dark you

1273
01:12:14,880 --> 01:12:17,880
Speaker 3: can barely see the fight. Yeah yeah, And at the

1274
01:12:18,000 --> 01:12:21,599
Speaker 3: end of the fight, Walker escapes over a nearby wall,

1275
01:12:21,680 --> 01:12:25,040
Speaker 3: but uh oh, his buddy Andrews gets blasted in the

1276
01:12:25,160 --> 01:12:29,200
Speaker 3: chest with a shotgun. It's a no moment, and then

1277
01:12:29,240 --> 01:12:33,120
Speaker 3: suddenly the narrator's back, Meg Foster's voice is there again

1278
01:12:33,400 --> 01:12:37,280
Speaker 3: and says, while Walker, the only remaining Cybern, has to

1279
01:12:37,360 --> 01:12:41,000
Speaker 3: fight for survival on Earth, the wealthiest citizens live in

1280
01:12:41,120 --> 01:12:45,879
Speaker 3: opulence on the moon. Through fantasy computer programs, they escape

1281
01:12:45,920 --> 01:12:48,840
Speaker 3: reality to an earth and a life that once was.

1282
01:12:50,040 --> 01:12:53,120
Speaker 3: So meanwhile, we see somebody booting up some electronics. A

1283
01:12:53,200 --> 01:12:57,520
Speaker 3: voice says, welcome to the ultra dream by virtual reality systems.

1284
01:12:57,960 --> 01:13:00,879
Speaker 3: There is a limit to the imagination where your wildest

1285
01:13:00,960 --> 01:13:04,679
Speaker 3: dreams meet your deepest fears. You're about to go beyond

1286
01:13:04,880 --> 01:13:08,160
Speaker 3: that limit. And here we're introduced to a new character,

1287
01:13:08,400 --> 01:13:12,719
Speaker 3: Jeff Pomerantz as Howard, a husband of Meg Foster's character Nancy,

1288
01:13:13,439 --> 01:13:16,400
Speaker 3: And so he plugs in his VR disc, puts on

1289
01:13:16,439 --> 01:13:19,679
Speaker 3: some headphones and he lets the experience take hold somehow

1290
01:13:19,720 --> 01:13:24,040
Speaker 3: putting on the headphones like, lets the virtual reality completely

1291
01:13:24,240 --> 01:13:25,280
Speaker 3: control your mind.

1292
01:13:25,560 --> 01:13:27,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, it must be some sort of neural link going

1293
01:13:27,360 --> 01:13:29,800
Speaker 2: on there. But oh man, I love this SEQ. This

1294
01:13:29,840 --> 01:13:32,360
Speaker 2: is where the movie really hooked me, because, you know,

1295
01:13:32,439 --> 01:13:34,360
Speaker 2: up into this point, I was like, Okay, some interesting

1296
01:13:34,400 --> 01:13:36,479
Speaker 2: world building going on. I don't know if we'll do

1297
01:13:36,520 --> 01:13:39,559
Speaker 2: anything with it. But then yeah, Howard gets himself a

1298
01:13:39,640 --> 01:13:44,760
Speaker 2: heroic VR dose of let's see, there's animal doppling like

1299
01:13:44,800 --> 01:13:49,200
Speaker 2: he seems to be in overdrawing. He fingles out and

1300
01:13:49,439 --> 01:13:51,840
Speaker 2: is in the form of an animal and then we

1301
01:13:51,920 --> 01:13:55,880
Speaker 2: get some human cyber sex and then we'll find out

1302
01:13:56,080 --> 01:13:58,240
Speaker 2: maybe more of what this means later. But suddenly it's

1303
01:13:58,280 --> 01:14:01,200
Speaker 2: like he's inn a Jalloh film. Yeah, there's like, you know,

1304
01:14:01,320 --> 01:14:05,719
Speaker 2: mysterious hands using bizarre blades to stab people and stab

1305
01:14:05,840 --> 01:14:09,519
Speaker 2: him in the night, and it's just like it's almost

1306
01:14:09,560 --> 01:14:11,640
Speaker 2: like he just got like this again, heroic dose of

1307
01:14:11,720 --> 01:14:17,720
Speaker 2: every human experience possible, and it's just mainlined into his consciousness.

1308
01:14:17,800 --> 01:14:21,919
Speaker 3: We see melting landscapes, a rainbow over a lake, bears

1309
01:14:21,960 --> 01:14:27,480
Speaker 3: climbing trees, a teleporting wolf, a torpedo volley from Battlestar Galactica,

1310
01:14:28,000 --> 01:14:32,200
Speaker 3: people having sex on satin bedsheets. Then a random stabbing

1311
01:14:32,280 --> 01:14:35,200
Speaker 3: murder is in an elevator, and then his own stabbing

1312
01:14:35,320 --> 01:14:37,920
Speaker 3: murder in an alley, and then we see system aboard

1313
01:14:38,120 --> 01:14:41,120
Speaker 3: and Howard is just left gasping on the couch like wow,

1314
01:14:41,200 --> 01:14:44,800
Speaker 3: that was intense, and he has a little chat with

1315
01:14:44,840 --> 01:14:48,080
Speaker 3: his electronic talking disco ball assistant. It's like, how did

1316
01:14:48,120 --> 01:14:51,240
Speaker 3: you enjoy your VRS experience, Howard? And he's like, wow,

1317
01:14:51,600 --> 01:14:54,639
Speaker 3: you don't really know when to stop. And then Meg

1318
01:14:54,680 --> 01:14:57,000
Speaker 3: Foster wanders into the room. She's got a glass of

1319
01:14:57,000 --> 01:15:00,479
Speaker 3: wine and she's like, Oh, how's it coming. He says, oh,

1320
01:15:00,600 --> 01:15:03,200
Speaker 3: still a few bugs, and we're going to learn that

1321
01:15:03,240 --> 01:15:07,040
Speaker 3: Howard is a programmer of VR experiences. So he starts

1322
01:15:07,040 --> 01:15:10,640
Speaker 3: giving a monologue to Meg Foster, where he awkwardly explains,

1323
01:15:10,960 --> 01:15:13,280
Speaker 3: like what all of the acronyms he's using stand for.

1324
01:15:13,520 --> 01:15:18,520
Speaker 3: He says, when I first started designing VRS virtual reality systems,

1325
01:15:19,200 --> 01:15:23,720
Speaker 3: my wife and now he's just like overwhelming. He's overwhelmed

1326
01:15:23,760 --> 01:15:27,599
Speaker 3: by the potency of the technology that he's created. He says,

1327
01:15:27,880 --> 01:15:31,120
Speaker 3: this is the future. Just imagine you can be anyone

1328
01:15:31,240 --> 01:15:33,639
Speaker 3: you want to be in any story you want to live.

1329
01:15:34,080 --> 01:15:40,200
Speaker 3: You actually experience it as virtual reality. And Meg Foster says,

1330
01:15:40,320 --> 01:15:43,200
Speaker 3: I think I still prefer books, And then Howard is

1331
01:15:43,439 --> 01:15:46,280
Speaker 3: like he's offended. He's like, how can you compare books

1332
01:15:46,280 --> 01:15:50,720
Speaker 3: to stories that respond to your memories and thoughts? But like,

1333
01:15:51,240 --> 01:15:54,000
Speaker 3: the stories of books do respond to your memories and thoughts.

1334
01:15:54,120 --> 01:15:57,640
Speaker 3: That's what happens when you think about them. Yes, I

1335
01:15:57,680 --> 01:15:59,920
Speaker 3: guess maybe he's making the point that the literal word

1336
01:16:00,160 --> 01:16:03,160
Speaker 3: written on the page don't change as a result of

1337
01:16:03,200 --> 01:16:03,799
Speaker 3: your thoughts.

1338
01:16:04,360 --> 01:16:07,719
Speaker 2: Again, she is definitely our protagonist here because she's championing

1339
01:16:07,760 --> 01:16:11,840
Speaker 2: books for scary technology, scary world wrecking technology.

1340
01:16:12,120 --> 01:16:14,639
Speaker 3: Yeah, so Howard is about to get on a shuttle

1341
01:16:14,680 --> 01:16:17,840
Speaker 3: to go to Earth. Why his publisher is sending him

1342
01:16:17,880 --> 01:16:21,120
Speaker 3: there for some reason. So he and Meg Foster do

1343
01:16:21,240 --> 01:16:24,240
Speaker 3: some exaggerated French kissing and then he's on his way.

1344
01:16:24,280 --> 01:16:26,880
Speaker 3: And as soon as he's out the door, Meg Foster,

1345
01:16:26,960 --> 01:16:28,960
Speaker 3: I guess she got tired of books. She decides to

1346
01:16:28,960 --> 01:16:31,280
Speaker 3: give the VR system a spin, and she like loads

1347
01:16:31,320 --> 01:16:35,320
Speaker 3: up a disc called dream Weaver, and it says, sit back, relax,

1348
01:16:35,360 --> 01:16:37,880
Speaker 3: and let us control your mind. So she's going to

1349
01:16:37,960 --> 01:16:41,360
Speaker 3: see how it goes. We see Howard on a spaceship

1350
01:16:41,400 --> 01:16:43,880
Speaker 3: headed for Earth, where he's sipping a Scotch in first

1351
01:16:43,920 --> 01:16:46,679
Speaker 3: class and watching pretty ladies walk by in the aisles.

1352
01:16:47,400 --> 01:16:50,640
Speaker 3: It's immediately clear that Howard has a wandering eye, and

1353
01:16:50,680 --> 01:16:52,960
Speaker 3: we can already tell that he's just itching to get

1354
01:16:53,040 --> 01:16:55,840
Speaker 3: up to no good in Crime Zone CE quadrant seven.

1355
01:16:56,160 --> 01:16:58,120
Speaker 2: I was not willing to admit it yet at this point,

1356
01:16:58,160 --> 01:17:01,120
Speaker 2: because I was like, this guy has it all. He's

1357
01:17:01,200 --> 01:17:05,639
Speaker 2: married to Meg Foster, he's this successful programmer. He's got

1358
01:17:05,640 --> 01:17:07,680
Speaker 2: to go to Earth on work business. But I was

1359
01:17:07,760 --> 01:17:11,360
Speaker 2: really just hoping and believing that he was a good

1360
01:17:11,400 --> 01:17:13,839
Speaker 2: guy and he wasn't going to be up to anything creepy.

1361
01:17:13,960 --> 01:17:16,280
Speaker 3: You can't cheat on Meg Foster. What's wrong with you?

1362
01:17:16,360 --> 01:17:21,160
Speaker 3: If possible? So yeah, So he gets to Earth and

1363
01:17:21,200 --> 01:17:25,000
Speaker 3: we cut to a TV commercial playing in the spaceport

1364
01:17:25,120 --> 01:17:28,160
Speaker 3: terminal where Howard arrives. I think I get a sense

1365
01:17:28,160 --> 01:17:30,920
Speaker 3: that this is inspired by the TV commercials in RoboCop.

1366
01:17:32,000 --> 01:17:34,800
Speaker 3: And we see attractive people smiling at the camera and

1367
01:17:34,840 --> 01:17:37,519
Speaker 3: the spokeswoman says, today is the first day of the

1368
01:17:37,520 --> 01:17:40,720
Speaker 3: rest of your life with new body. Nine out of

1369
01:17:40,760 --> 01:17:44,320
Speaker 3: ten doctors agree that major organs should be replaced before

1370
01:17:44,400 --> 01:17:47,800
Speaker 3: forty five years of age. Remember, Yeah, thanks, that was

1371
01:17:47,880 --> 01:17:51,040
Speaker 3: great to read you remember a new body? We have

1372
01:17:51,120 --> 01:17:55,240
Speaker 3: one for you. So there are some they're also here

1373
01:17:55,240 --> 01:17:57,800
Speaker 3: in the airport, some good PA announcements, including one in

1374
01:17:57,840 --> 01:18:01,720
Speaker 3: the background where the guy goes due to ongoing terrorist activity,

1375
01:18:01,800 --> 01:18:04,840
Speaker 3: all unattended vehicles will be destroyed immediately.

1376
01:18:06,240 --> 01:18:09,920
Speaker 2: Yeah. So there again, so much interesting world building touches

1377
01:18:10,000 --> 01:18:14,880
Speaker 2: going on where they are fleshing out what's going on

1378
01:18:14,920 --> 01:18:17,639
Speaker 2: in this world and what's wrong with this world? So

1379
01:18:18,160 --> 01:18:19,839
Speaker 2: I kept finding it more and more engaging.

1380
01:18:20,400 --> 01:18:23,680
Speaker 3: Meanwhile, we check back with Cybron Walker. He's visiting the

1381
01:18:23,680 --> 01:18:27,240
Speaker 3: remains of Cybron Andrews in the future Earth's equivalent of

1382
01:18:27,280 --> 01:18:30,880
Speaker 3: a funeral home, which they call a body disposal quadrant

1383
01:18:31,000 --> 01:18:34,720
Speaker 3: or something, and it sucks there. There's just like garbage

1384
01:18:34,760 --> 01:18:39,880
Speaker 3: water dripping on everything. And Walker talks to his to

1385
01:18:39,920 --> 01:18:42,439
Speaker 3: the grave here, which is kind of like a long

1386
01:18:42,960 --> 01:18:46,120
Speaker 3: filing cabinet drawer, and he just says, it's getting weird

1387
01:18:46,160 --> 01:18:49,519
Speaker 3: out here, buddy, You're better off where you are. Meanwhile,

1388
01:18:49,560 --> 01:18:52,599
Speaker 3: Howard is being wined and dined by some rich creeps

1389
01:18:52,680 --> 01:18:55,559
Speaker 3: on Earth, So I guess not all the rich people

1390
01:18:55,640 --> 01:18:58,040
Speaker 3: moved to the Moon. We do meet a lot of

1391
01:18:58,120 --> 01:19:00,719
Speaker 3: rich people on Earth in this movie, but it seems

1392
01:19:00,760 --> 01:19:05,000
Speaker 3: they're all evil corporate schemers or lecherous creeps looking to

1393
01:19:05,040 --> 01:19:07,880
Speaker 3: party in the red light district. I think you might

1394
01:19:07,920 --> 01:19:10,919
Speaker 3: say that the only rich character who is not hateable

1395
01:19:11,040 --> 01:19:11,799
Speaker 3: is Meg Foster.

1396
01:19:12,360 --> 01:19:16,920
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, It's there's almost like a duality here that,

1397
01:19:17,000 --> 01:19:19,519
Speaker 2: you know, reminds me of the Time Machine, where it's like,

1398
01:19:19,720 --> 01:19:22,680
Speaker 2: basically Earth is the world of the Morlocks. Yeah, but

1399
01:19:22,840 --> 01:19:25,000
Speaker 2: the Eloy come down to party.

1400
01:19:24,760 --> 01:19:26,720
Speaker 3: Sometimes, yeah, yeah.

1401
01:19:26,360 --> 01:19:28,360
Speaker 2: And some of the Eloy need to come down and

1402
01:19:28,400 --> 01:19:31,400
Speaker 2: make the Morlocks do their work. I don't know. Okay, yeah,

1403
01:19:31,439 --> 01:19:32,599
Speaker 2: it's not a perfect analogy.

1404
01:19:32,760 --> 01:19:37,000
Speaker 3: No, so so Howard here is being shown a rare artifact.

1405
01:19:37,360 --> 01:19:40,640
Speaker 3: It is a gold lined copy of the book David Copperfield,

1406
01:19:40,840 --> 01:19:43,360
Speaker 3: and this other creep is like it was excavated in

1407
01:19:43,520 --> 01:19:47,439
Speaker 3: old Town last week. And then Howard says, well, David

1408
01:19:47,479 --> 01:19:50,400
Speaker 3: Copperfield wouldn't sell many VRS programs.

1409
01:19:51,120 --> 01:19:53,200
Speaker 2: Huh might he might have?

1410
01:19:53,280 --> 01:19:53,439
Speaker 3: Bet?

1411
01:19:53,479 --> 01:19:57,200
Speaker 2: I can imagine some VRS programs based on David Copperfield's work,

1412
01:19:57,240 --> 01:19:58,799
Speaker 2: would would maybe find an audience.

1413
01:19:59,080 --> 01:20:04,519
Speaker 3: Yeah, based on I guess the novel David anyway. But

1414
01:20:04,680 --> 01:20:07,960
Speaker 3: together with Meg Foster's comment earlier about how she prefers books,

1415
01:20:08,000 --> 01:20:11,200
Speaker 3: it almost seems like they're intentionally setting up a books

1416
01:20:11,320 --> 01:20:14,200
Speaker 3: versus virtual reality theme. And I remember thinking, I wonder

1417
01:20:14,240 --> 01:20:16,280
Speaker 3: where they're going with this. I don't think they go

1418
01:20:16,320 --> 01:20:17,160
Speaker 3: anywhere else with this.

1419
01:20:17,840 --> 01:20:21,080
Speaker 2: There's a fair amount of that in this movie. If

1420
01:20:21,120 --> 01:20:26,000
Speaker 2: you want your ideas fully explored, this is not really

1421
01:20:26,080 --> 01:20:26,559
Speaker 2: the film for you.

1422
01:20:26,600 --> 01:20:27,439
Speaker 3: But I don't know.

1423
01:20:27,479 --> 01:20:29,479
Speaker 2: We can come back to the whole realization that we've

1424
01:20:29,520 --> 01:20:32,599
Speaker 2: already spoiled, that this all is revealed as a dream,

1425
01:20:33,080 --> 01:20:36,960
Speaker 2: that is all a virtual reality experience. Maybe that's the connection.

1426
01:20:37,320 --> 01:20:37,760
Speaker 2: I don't know.

1427
01:20:37,920 --> 01:20:40,519
Speaker 3: So Howard and this other rich guy are having cigars

1428
01:20:40,560 --> 01:20:43,600
Speaker 3: in Brandy and Howard launches into this monologue that I

1429
01:20:43,640 --> 01:20:46,439
Speaker 3: found a bit difficult to understand. Here's what he says,

1430
01:20:47,400 --> 01:20:51,479
Speaker 3: the corporation is going to be They're already happy with

1431
01:20:51,560 --> 01:20:54,840
Speaker 3: the sales figures on his current VR program, but they're

1432
01:20:54,880 --> 01:20:57,559
Speaker 3: going to be even happier. Quote when they see the

1433
01:20:57,680 --> 01:21:00,960
Speaker 3: new Body program. I remember new was that the thing

1434
01:21:00,960 --> 01:21:03,040
Speaker 3: in the commercial is saying, we'll give you new organs

1435
01:21:03,040 --> 01:21:06,799
Speaker 3: a whole new body. And then he says, I'm meeting

1436
01:21:06,880 --> 01:21:10,640
Speaker 3: a former New Body executive tonight. She's giving me some

1437
01:21:10,800 --> 01:21:14,559
Speaker 3: stolen information. I know this doesn't make sense, but New

1438
01:21:14,600 --> 01:21:20,240
Speaker 3: Body isn't science fiction, it's science fact. And like what

1439
01:21:20,560 --> 01:21:25,600
Speaker 3: so he's meeting with a whistleblower from New Body. What

1440
01:21:25,640 --> 01:21:27,480
Speaker 3: does that have to do with virtual reality?

1441
01:21:27,920 --> 01:21:30,799
Speaker 2: I do not know. He's also speaking about New Body

1442
01:21:30,920 --> 01:21:34,479
Speaker 2: like it's something that doesn't have commercials blaring everywhere already.

1443
01:21:34,479 --> 01:21:36,040
Speaker 2: We just turnd a commercial for New Body.

1444
01:21:36,120 --> 01:21:38,120
Speaker 3: He's talking about like it's a rumor or something.

1445
01:21:38,200 --> 01:21:41,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but they're like ads at the airport about it.

1446
01:21:41,280 --> 01:21:43,960
Speaker 2: The spaceport about it. So I was very confused by

1447
01:21:43,960 --> 01:21:45,519
Speaker 2: this as well, but I was like, Okay, we'll just

1448
01:21:45,600 --> 01:21:46,880
Speaker 2: roll it. We'll see where this is going.

1449
01:21:47,080 --> 01:21:49,280
Speaker 3: We then cut to a couple of new characters. There's

1450
01:21:49,479 --> 01:21:53,080
Speaker 3: Ed Lottimer's Hines and Chris Pin as Bang I think,

1451
01:21:53,680 --> 01:21:56,400
Speaker 3: a couple of creeps dressed in long black coats in

1452
01:21:56,400 --> 01:21:58,680
Speaker 3: the middle of a dark alley. They are when we

1453
01:21:58,800 --> 01:22:02,160
Speaker 3: meet them, dumping woman's dead body on a trash pile

1454
01:22:02,240 --> 01:22:04,960
Speaker 3: and putting a wet organ they've just extracted from our

1455
01:22:05,000 --> 01:22:06,639
Speaker 3: abdomen into a plastic bag.

1456
01:22:07,080 --> 01:22:08,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're bad guys.

1457
01:22:08,640 --> 01:22:14,040
Speaker 3: Cool. Yeah, Next we go to New Body corporate headquarters,

1458
01:22:14,120 --> 01:22:17,320
Speaker 3: like they're they're flagging in the lobby that one entire

1459
01:22:17,360 --> 01:22:20,639
Speaker 3: floor of this building is devoted to genital enlargements, another

1460
01:22:20,680 --> 01:22:23,800
Speaker 3: one to you know, like organ transplants. They say organ

1461
01:22:23,840 --> 01:22:26,519
Speaker 3: donations are accepted at the service desk at the rear

1462
01:22:26,600 --> 01:22:28,719
Speaker 3: of the building, So I guess it's like a drive

1463
01:22:28,840 --> 01:22:30,040
Speaker 3: up organ donation thing.

1464
01:22:30,800 --> 01:22:33,439
Speaker 2: Again, this film seems to sort of turn on a

1465
01:22:33,520 --> 01:22:39,080
Speaker 2: dime and suddenly we're in this like organ organs harvesting,

1466
01:22:39,240 --> 01:22:43,719
Speaker 2: like body hacking, like biocyberpunk realm now and it seems like, Okay,

1467
01:22:43,720 --> 01:22:46,519
Speaker 2: maybe this is the trajectory for the film, and to

1468
01:22:46,560 --> 01:22:49,040
Speaker 2: a certain extent it is, but it's never really going

1469
01:22:49,080 --> 01:22:50,280
Speaker 2: to stick with anything for too long.

1470
01:22:50,400 --> 01:22:53,439
Speaker 3: This is a major one, I guess. But yeah, so Heines,

1471
01:22:53,520 --> 01:22:56,960
Speaker 3: the guy who was doing the organ harvesting earlier, is

1472
01:22:57,080 --> 01:22:59,599
Speaker 3: up in the executive suite with some guy in a suit.

1473
01:22:59,680 --> 01:23:02,120
Speaker 3: I think this guy is Dana Lee as doctor Sato,

1474
01:23:02,920 --> 01:23:06,120
Speaker 3: and Hines is doing a villain monologue about how I'm

1475
01:23:06,160 --> 01:23:10,240
Speaker 3: the last chance you have for quality organs. It seems

1476
01:23:10,240 --> 01:23:14,080
Speaker 3: that new body needs organs to do transplants for rich

1477
01:23:14,120 --> 01:23:16,760
Speaker 3: people to give them new organs, but there is a

1478
01:23:16,840 --> 01:23:20,920
Speaker 3: shortage of organs. They can't get enough healthy organs to donate,

1479
01:23:21,000 --> 01:23:24,599
Speaker 3: so the scheme works like this, Hines and Chris Pinn

1480
01:23:24,760 --> 01:23:27,400
Speaker 3: go out and ambush people in the streets yank out

1481
01:23:27,439 --> 01:23:31,720
Speaker 3: their organs with this big three blade knife tube thing.

1482
01:23:31,840 --> 01:23:34,080
Speaker 3: While the people are still alive, they just like jab

1483
01:23:34,120 --> 01:23:36,720
Speaker 3: them in the stomach and yank out their heart. I

1484
01:23:36,760 --> 01:23:39,200
Speaker 3: think this is something that is borrowed from Terminator, by

1485
01:23:39,200 --> 01:23:41,920
Speaker 3: the way, which is not done for the purpose of

1486
01:23:42,080 --> 01:23:44,040
Speaker 3: organ harvesting in that but it's just a way the

1487
01:23:44,120 --> 01:23:48,240
Speaker 3: Terminator kills people when he's unarmed. Then in this movie,

1488
01:23:48,320 --> 01:23:50,439
Speaker 3: heines he gets the organs, and he comes and he

1489
01:23:50,479 --> 01:23:55,360
Speaker 3: slaps the organs down on the chief executive's desk, and

1490
01:23:55,400 --> 01:23:58,519
Speaker 3: he's paid in cash for each organ and this somehow

1491
01:23:58,600 --> 01:23:59,639
Speaker 3: keeps the company going.

1492
01:24:00,040 --> 01:24:01,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's mentioned that he's like, they don't want to

1493
01:24:01,840 --> 01:24:03,920
Speaker 2: pay him as much because he's bringing in like less

1494
01:24:03,920 --> 01:24:06,920
Speaker 2: healthy organs because again he's having to harvest these They're, however,

1495
01:24:06,960 --> 01:24:09,640
Speaker 2: harvesting these organs from people living on the margins of

1496
01:24:09,680 --> 01:24:15,000
Speaker 2: society and an apocalyptic healthscape Earth essentially, yeah, dystopian Earth.

1497
01:24:15,640 --> 01:24:17,679
Speaker 2: So it's like, come on, can you really complain about

1498
01:24:17,720 --> 01:24:20,160
Speaker 2: the quality of these organs given this is the world

1499
01:24:20,240 --> 01:24:22,240
Speaker 2: you have made possible corporations?

1500
01:24:22,240 --> 01:24:25,320
Speaker 3: But yeah, you know, they they hackle you. Actually, you

1501
01:24:25,400 --> 01:24:28,280
Speaker 3: kind of sympathize with the organ harvester Hines here because

1502
01:24:28,320 --> 01:24:33,120
Speaker 3: he's there. They're not being fair about this negotiation. But

1503
01:24:33,240 --> 01:24:35,840
Speaker 3: finally Hines gets his way by threatening to smash the

1504
01:24:36,240 --> 01:24:40,000
Speaker 3: organs if he doesn't get his asking price. But then

1505
01:24:40,320 --> 01:24:44,360
Speaker 3: doctor Sato here gives Hines a new assignment. He says,

1506
01:24:44,520 --> 01:24:48,759
Speaker 3: there is a corporate whistleblower named Alana Johnson. She's blabbing

1507
01:24:48,840 --> 01:24:50,680
Speaker 3: you need to go shut her up. So that's going

1508
01:24:50,760 --> 01:25:03,519
Speaker 3: to be the next thing. Next, it's time to go

1509
01:25:03,560 --> 01:25:06,280
Speaker 3: to a strip club. You know. This is your essential

1510
01:25:06,560 --> 01:25:10,080
Speaker 3: cyberpunk scene of what will stripping be like in the future.

1511
01:25:11,000 --> 01:25:12,960
Speaker 3: And we get to see because one of the dancers

1512
01:25:13,040 --> 01:25:16,120
Speaker 3: kind of looks like Doctor Doom with an IV line

1513
01:25:16,479 --> 01:25:19,280
Speaker 3: this like tube coming off of her. I don't know.

1514
01:25:19,439 --> 01:25:23,240
Speaker 2: One gets the impression that the stripping hasn't evolved much

1515
01:25:23,360 --> 01:25:26,200
Speaker 2: and it's stayed mostly the same, and maybe that's why

1516
01:25:26,240 --> 01:25:29,000
Speaker 2: all of these underworld folks are drawn there, because it's

1517
01:25:29,040 --> 01:25:31,519
Speaker 2: like it sues them and they realize, Ah, this is

1518
01:25:31,520 --> 01:25:35,719
Speaker 2: an art form that has remained true to its roots

1519
01:25:35,960 --> 01:25:39,040
Speaker 2: despite the rapidly changing world all around us.

1520
01:25:39,400 --> 01:25:42,960
Speaker 3: House of Nostalgia, Yeah but no. Actually, this place is

1521
01:25:42,960 --> 01:25:47,479
Speaker 3: called the Trocadero two thousand House of Pleasure. So when

1522
01:25:47,560 --> 01:25:50,280
Speaker 3: Howard arrives, it's clear, even though he's from the Moon,

1523
01:25:50,360 --> 01:25:53,280
Speaker 3: he's a regular here. Women greet him with makeouts.

1524
01:25:53,560 --> 01:25:55,960
Speaker 2: This was shocking to me as well, because we keep

1525
01:25:56,000 --> 01:25:59,759
Speaker 2: peeling away these layers where we are realizing, like Howard's

1526
01:25:59,760 --> 01:26:02,760
Speaker 2: not a guy who's like, oh, I'm sudden, I'm on Earth.

1527
01:26:02,800 --> 01:26:06,280
Speaker 2: Now I'm gonna check off the squirrely stuff like he's

1528
01:26:06,320 --> 01:26:09,120
Speaker 2: a regular. Yeah, he has a complete double life when

1529
01:26:09,120 --> 01:26:11,040
Speaker 2: he comes to Earth. And again it's like, I'm just

1530
01:26:11,040 --> 01:26:13,720
Speaker 2: thinking of Nancy back there on the moon, and I'm

1531
01:26:13,760 --> 01:26:16,519
Speaker 2: just feeling so horrible about how everything's rolling out here.

1532
01:26:16,760 --> 01:26:20,240
Speaker 3: How could you do this, Howard? But so amid all

1533
01:26:20,280 --> 01:26:23,160
Speaker 3: of the debauchery, a blonde lady comes up to Howard

1534
01:26:23,200 --> 01:26:28,280
Speaker 3: and introduces herself. This is Alana Johnson, the New Body whistleblower,

1535
01:26:28,439 --> 01:26:31,040
Speaker 3: you know, gonna she's gonna spill the beans. She gives

1536
01:26:31,080 --> 01:26:33,680
Speaker 3: Howard a three point five inch floppy disk with a

1537
01:26:33,680 --> 01:26:37,000
Speaker 3: bunch of stickers on it and says, this disc proves

1538
01:26:37,040 --> 01:26:40,320
Speaker 3: that new Body is stealing human body parts. New Body

1539
01:26:40,400 --> 01:26:42,320
Speaker 3: is worse than you think. If they catch me, they'll

1540
01:26:42,400 --> 01:26:44,920
Speaker 3: kill me. And we learned this as some kind of

1541
01:26:44,920 --> 01:26:48,080
Speaker 3: pre arranged deal because she wants the cash from him. Also,

1542
01:26:48,160 --> 01:26:51,040
Speaker 3: she has been promised cash, so she's not just a

1543
01:26:51,080 --> 01:26:53,880
Speaker 3: whistleblower out of you know, concern for ethics or out

1544
01:26:53,880 --> 01:26:55,479
Speaker 3: of the goodness of her heart. She's trying to get

1545
01:26:55,479 --> 01:26:55,920
Speaker 3: a payout.

1546
01:26:56,120 --> 01:26:56,320
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1547
01:26:57,040 --> 01:27:00,519
Speaker 3: Meanwhile, Don Wilson is also here in the same club,

1548
01:27:00,600 --> 01:27:04,320
Speaker 3: using his terminator vision to find wanted criminals with big

1549
01:27:04,360 --> 01:27:07,639
Speaker 3: bounties on their head. And this part I don't really

1550
01:27:07,720 --> 01:27:12,439
Speaker 3: understand because Walker, as the last remaining cybern, is a

1551
01:27:13,280 --> 01:27:17,080
Speaker 3: shoot on site or capture or shoot on site target himself.

1552
01:27:17,520 --> 01:27:20,240
Speaker 3: So how is it that he's bringing bounties into the

1553
01:27:20,240 --> 01:27:23,400
Speaker 3: police A little mixed up for me.

1554
01:27:23,800 --> 01:27:29,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, jurisdiction is confusing in the future. Is that That's

1555
01:27:29,960 --> 01:27:31,960
Speaker 2: one of the things I'm getting from this film because there's,

1556
01:27:32,000 --> 01:27:33,680
Speaker 2: you know, the corporate police, but then you have the

1557
01:27:33,680 --> 01:27:36,200
Speaker 2: bounty hunters. Then you have sort of like on site

1558
01:27:36,200 --> 01:27:39,320
Speaker 2: security patrols, and I guess all that feels nice and

1559
01:27:39,400 --> 01:27:43,200
Speaker 2: cyberpunky and techno air like that there's who has the

1560
01:27:43,240 --> 01:27:46,040
Speaker 2: power and who has dominion over any given part of

1561
01:27:46,080 --> 01:27:46,880
Speaker 2: this healthscape.

1562
01:27:47,200 --> 01:27:49,080
Speaker 3: Well, there might actually be a kind of political and

1563
01:27:49,120 --> 01:27:52,200
Speaker 3: class critique in here in that the movie does clearly

1564
01:27:52,280 --> 01:27:57,360
Speaker 3: show at least two totally separate police forces. There are

1565
01:27:57,400 --> 01:28:00,519
Speaker 3: the civil police, the regular police who serve every people,

1566
01:28:00,520 --> 01:28:04,519
Speaker 3: who are grossly under resourced and can't really essentially can

1567
01:28:04,560 --> 01:28:06,880
Speaker 3: do nothing, you know, they can't do anything about crime.

1568
01:28:07,200 --> 01:28:09,639
Speaker 3: And then there are the corporate police that the only

1569
01:28:09,640 --> 01:28:12,360
Speaker 3: thing we see them doing is hunting cyberns. But They've

1570
01:28:12,400 --> 01:28:14,920
Speaker 3: got lots of gear and lots of staff and all that,

1571
01:28:15,000 --> 01:28:18,120
Speaker 3: so they have everything they need to accomplish corporate goals

1572
01:28:18,479 --> 01:28:21,200
Speaker 3: of quote stopping crime, which basically just seems to be

1573
01:28:21,320 --> 01:28:25,080
Speaker 3: like hunting down anybody who's opposed to corporate interests. But meanwhile,

1574
01:28:25,120 --> 01:28:28,000
Speaker 3: the police that are supposed to serve and protect regular

1575
01:28:28,040 --> 01:28:29,960
Speaker 3: people can't do anything about anything.

1576
01:28:30,479 --> 01:28:33,759
Speaker 2: Man, we need to write the RPG supplement for future

1577
01:28:33,840 --> 01:28:37,479
Speaker 2: kicks so people can stitch together the world and then

1578
01:28:37,560 --> 01:28:39,920
Speaker 2: start busting it out on the gaming table.

1579
01:28:40,479 --> 01:28:42,960
Speaker 3: I like this because this At first, this was confusing

1580
01:28:42,960 --> 01:28:44,320
Speaker 3: to me, but then I thought about it for a

1581
01:28:44,360 --> 01:28:47,600
Speaker 3: minute and I'm like, Okay, it's maybe a little clumsily

1582
01:28:47,720 --> 01:28:52,440
Speaker 3: put together, but this is an interesting situation, a critique

1583
01:28:52,479 --> 01:28:53,439
Speaker 3: of the world in a way.

1584
01:28:53,640 --> 01:28:57,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, the confusion betrays complexity, or at least creates the

1585
01:28:57,200 --> 01:28:58,520
Speaker 2: illusion of complexity.

1586
01:28:58,600 --> 01:29:02,799
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, this scene at the club flows

1587
01:29:02,840 --> 01:29:05,519
Speaker 3: into another action scene where some guys try to beat

1588
01:29:05,600 --> 01:29:08,200
Speaker 3: Walker up in the alley outside the club, but of

1589
01:29:08,240 --> 01:29:10,400
Speaker 3: course he takes all five of them at once, and

1590
01:29:10,520 --> 01:29:13,200
Speaker 3: Howard witnesses this. He's there kind of chomping on a

1591
01:29:13,240 --> 01:29:15,400
Speaker 3: cigar and he goes up to Walker and offers him

1592
01:29:15,400 --> 01:29:17,120
Speaker 3: a job. He's like, you did a good job beating

1593
01:29:17,120 --> 01:29:19,200
Speaker 3: those guys up. You know you come work for me.

1594
01:29:19,479 --> 01:29:23,240
Speaker 3: So they're going to meet again later, or they would

1595
01:29:23,400 --> 01:29:25,679
Speaker 3: meet again later. Some things will get in the way

1596
01:29:25,680 --> 01:29:30,720
Speaker 3: of that. Hines and Bang catch the whistleblower lady in

1597
01:29:30,760 --> 01:29:34,559
Speaker 3: a different dark alley. They corner her, and then Hines

1598
01:29:34,680 --> 01:29:39,960
Speaker 3: reveals this three prong tube knife thing, which he uses

1599
01:29:40,040 --> 01:29:43,560
Speaker 3: to stab her and pull her heart out. The mechanics

1600
01:29:43,560 --> 01:29:46,400
Speaker 3: of the organ removal are somewhat confusing because the way

1601
01:29:46,439 --> 01:29:50,280
Speaker 3: it's staged. He like stabs her off screen. It's off camera,

1602
01:29:50,479 --> 01:29:52,439
Speaker 3: kind of low, like he's getting her in the belly,

1603
01:29:52,560 --> 01:29:55,080
Speaker 3: but then he pulls her heart out. So I'm not

1604
01:29:55,120 --> 01:29:56,880
Speaker 3: sure what's going on there. Maybe I don't know if

1605
01:29:56,920 --> 01:30:00,719
Speaker 3: they know where the heart is. Maybe in the future

1606
01:30:00,760 --> 01:30:02,800
Speaker 3: the heart will be down in the lower abdomen.

1607
01:30:03,320 --> 01:30:06,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not sure. I don't He's successful though, he

1608
01:30:06,040 --> 01:30:07,680
Speaker 2: gets what he needs, and I guess he leaves the rest.

1609
01:30:07,720 --> 01:30:10,320
Speaker 2: Seems like you'd want like a full body harvesting going

1610
01:30:10,360 --> 01:30:11,719
Speaker 2: on here, But at any.

1611
01:30:11,640 --> 01:30:16,360
Speaker 3: Rate, Okay, next scene, Finally we have arrived at Laser Blade.

1612
01:30:16,880 --> 01:30:19,400
Speaker 3: Howard and his date knock on the door to be

1613
01:30:19,479 --> 01:30:23,439
Speaker 3: let into some underground gambling den, and when they get inside,

1614
01:30:23,600 --> 01:30:27,759
Speaker 3: it's an arena for this game called Laser Blade, where

1615
01:30:27,880 --> 01:30:31,599
Speaker 3: two players sit on opposite sides of a table it's

1616
01:30:31,640 --> 01:30:34,559
Speaker 3: like an air hockey table basically, and they get their

1617
01:30:34,600 --> 01:30:38,760
Speaker 3: hands clamped down on the armrests of their chairs where

1618
01:30:38,800 --> 01:30:42,400
Speaker 3: their hands can reach these little control panels, and then

1619
01:30:42,680 --> 01:30:45,760
Speaker 3: by working those control panels and then maybe also with

1620
01:30:45,800 --> 01:30:49,760
Speaker 3: some kind of mental effort, they y for control of

1621
01:30:49,800 --> 01:30:54,639
Speaker 3: this floating laser sphere which shoots rays back and forth.

1622
01:30:54,840 --> 01:30:57,920
Speaker 3: And eventually one of the players will get blasted by

1623
01:30:58,000 --> 01:31:00,479
Speaker 3: lasers and die. So it's winter to all.

1624
01:31:00,680 --> 01:31:03,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, their head will explode when the what they

1625
01:31:03,960 --> 01:31:07,400
Speaker 2: call it, the the laser Blade pylon I think, you know,

1626
01:31:08,000 --> 01:31:11,639
Speaker 2: flying into their face, and yeah, I agree, laser Blade.

1627
01:31:11,920 --> 01:31:14,519
Speaker 2: I'll probably call it laser blast by mistake here. Yeah,

1628
01:31:14,760 --> 01:31:18,479
Speaker 2: is great, just really feels inspired. There's a strong scanner's energy. Again,

1629
01:31:18,520 --> 01:31:19,960
Speaker 2: we alluded to the fact that it seems to be

1630
01:31:20,000 --> 01:31:24,280
Speaker 2: some sort of mental exertion involved in controlling the pylon,

1631
01:31:26,040 --> 01:31:28,840
Speaker 2: but we have we have a technological interface here as well.

1632
01:31:29,520 --> 01:31:33,160
Speaker 2: I was reminded a bit of the Domination video game

1633
01:31:33,360 --> 01:31:38,080
Speaker 2: that Sean Connery's bond plays against Largo in nineteen eighty

1634
01:31:38,080 --> 01:31:39,759
Speaker 2: three's Never Say Never Again.

1635
01:31:40,479 --> 01:31:43,439
Speaker 3: Oh you know, I've seen that a long time ago.

1636
01:31:43,640 --> 01:31:48,560
Speaker 3: That's basically a remake of the same source material as Thunderball, right, yeah, okay.

1637
01:31:48,320 --> 01:31:50,799
Speaker 2: Yeah, same villain and all. But in this this one,

1638
01:31:51,400 --> 01:31:55,040
Speaker 2: I just remember being impressed by this nineteen eighty three

1639
01:31:55,200 --> 01:31:57,960
Speaker 2: vision of what like luxury computer games will it would

1640
01:31:57,960 --> 01:32:02,639
Speaker 2: look like this huge kind of monolith with one individual

1641
01:32:02,640 --> 01:32:04,479
Speaker 2: setting on one side and the other on the other.

1642
01:32:05,840 --> 01:32:09,439
Speaker 2: But at any rate, laser blade, yeah, seems to be

1643
01:32:09,920 --> 01:32:13,519
Speaker 2: one that depends on the mental processes that influence the

1644
01:32:13,560 --> 01:32:17,519
Speaker 2: movement of this lethal laser blade pylon or whatever you

1645
01:32:17,560 --> 01:32:20,160
Speaker 2: want to call it. But I was wondering could it

1646
01:32:20,240 --> 01:32:23,479
Speaker 2: be something mentally specific, like in order to control it,

1647
01:32:23,760 --> 01:32:27,760
Speaker 2: you have to remember all your elementary school teachers, or

1648
01:32:27,800 --> 01:32:31,600
Speaker 2: you know, some other sort of recall or thought experiment

1649
01:32:31,640 --> 01:32:33,280
Speaker 2: has to play out in your head. Or maybe it's

1650
01:32:33,320 --> 01:32:36,320
Speaker 2: something else like whoever can poop their pants the fastest

1651
01:32:36,760 --> 01:32:39,679
Speaker 2: in the laser blade chair controls the laser blade.

1652
01:32:40,000 --> 01:32:42,760
Speaker 3: They really don't specify how it works. You just see

1653
01:32:42,800 --> 01:32:45,240
Speaker 3: the competitors come up and so like they get the

1654
01:32:45,280 --> 01:32:48,519
Speaker 3: clamps on the contestants when we first see it are

1655
01:32:49,160 --> 01:32:53,400
Speaker 3: a weird visual mismatch. There's this unkempt looking guy in

1656
01:32:53,439 --> 01:32:58,599
Speaker 3: a dirty green tank top versus this blonde lady. And

1657
01:32:58,720 --> 01:33:01,240
Speaker 3: I think that the guy in the guy is called Snake,

1658
01:33:01,320 --> 01:33:03,599
Speaker 3: and you can hear people in the audience yelling Snake

1659
01:33:03,720 --> 01:33:07,120
Speaker 3: is king, and then the audience. By the way, this

1660
01:33:07,240 --> 01:33:10,799
Speaker 3: was one of the funniest single frames in the movie.

1661
01:33:10,840 --> 01:33:12,640
Speaker 3: To me, is I sit you a screenshot of this

1662
01:33:12,680 --> 01:33:14,920
Speaker 3: When I was first watching it, All the old people

1663
01:33:15,040 --> 01:33:19,640
Speaker 3: in suits wearing sunglasses with fistfuls of money, cheering for

1664
01:33:19,800 --> 01:33:20,599
Speaker 3: the blood sport.

1665
01:33:21,240 --> 01:33:25,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I guess they're wearing sunglasses because the laser

1666
01:33:25,240 --> 01:33:28,360
Speaker 2: blade pylon is so bright. But as we may have

1667
01:33:28,360 --> 01:33:31,799
Speaker 2: alluded to already, the laser blade competitors never wear eye protection,

1668
01:33:32,160 --> 01:33:36,679
Speaker 2: despite being just inches away from that glowing, deadly laser sphere,

1669
01:33:37,080 --> 01:33:39,439
Speaker 2: and despite the fact that every game seems to end

1670
01:33:39,439 --> 01:33:44,080
Speaker 2: with somebody's head violently exploding in a rain of like

1671
01:33:44,160 --> 01:33:45,680
Speaker 2: brains and skull shrapnel.

1672
01:33:46,320 --> 01:33:49,679
Speaker 3: Snake's opponent, her head does not explode. Her chest explodes.

1673
01:33:49,760 --> 01:33:50,400
Speaker 2: Oh that's right.

1674
01:33:50,720 --> 01:33:53,479
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's like her heart explodes. But later we

1675
01:33:53,520 --> 01:33:57,479
Speaker 3: see people's heads explode in this game. Yeah. Anyway, Howard

1676
01:33:57,600 --> 01:34:00,120
Speaker 3: and his date leave the arena after the game with

1677
01:34:00,160 --> 01:34:02,760
Speaker 3: their winnings. I guess Howard bet on snake, and you

1678
01:34:02,760 --> 01:34:03,479
Speaker 3: know he won big.

1679
01:34:03,600 --> 01:34:05,240
Speaker 2: Always bet on snake, that's right.

1680
01:34:07,960 --> 01:34:12,240
Speaker 3: But outside in the street, they get jumped by Hines

1681
01:34:12,400 --> 01:34:16,720
Speaker 3: and Bang and they become organ donors. Hines like he

1682
01:34:17,120 --> 01:34:19,519
Speaker 3: rips their organs out and then he taunts their dead

1683
01:34:19,520 --> 01:34:22,360
Speaker 3: bodies by warning them against crossing new body.

1684
01:34:22,720 --> 01:34:26,599
Speaker 2: This was of course foreseen earlier in Howard's VR session,

1685
01:34:27,200 --> 01:34:31,000
Speaker 2: But what are we supposed to make of it? What

1686
01:34:31,040 --> 01:34:33,800
Speaker 2: did that mean that he saw this death in his

1687
01:34:33,920 --> 01:34:37,920
Speaker 2: VR vision earlier? And also it seems it's kind of

1688
01:34:37,920 --> 01:34:40,840
Speaker 2: an ignoble death here as well, Like we were just

1689
01:34:40,880 --> 01:34:44,600
Speaker 2: beginning to see him as this man of dark, secret cravings,

1690
01:34:45,000 --> 01:34:47,559
Speaker 2: a guy that clearly has a taste for danger, but

1691
01:34:47,680 --> 01:34:53,280
Speaker 2: presumably the wisdom to navigate the dangers that he's drawn to,

1692
01:34:53,479 --> 01:34:55,280
Speaker 2: you know, So it comes to a shock when he's

1693
01:34:55,360 --> 01:34:59,960
Speaker 2: just brutally murdered in the street by a random organ harvester. Well,

1694
01:35:00,120 --> 01:35:03,080
Speaker 2: maybe not the most random organ harvester, a plot centric

1695
01:35:03,160 --> 01:35:06,360
Speaker 2: orgon harvester, but still there is a great quote earlier

1696
01:35:06,400 --> 01:35:08,479
Speaker 2: I think from Howard where he's talking about this descent

1697
01:35:08,560 --> 01:35:10,320
Speaker 2: into the underworld and he says the lower I go,

1698
01:35:10,400 --> 01:35:11,719
Speaker 2: the more exciting it gets.

1699
01:35:12,160 --> 01:35:15,280
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I like that part. So it's the thrill

1700
01:35:15,439 --> 01:35:17,840
Speaker 3: of the thrill of doing wrong and maybe the fear

1701
01:35:17,840 --> 01:35:19,879
Speaker 3: of getting caught that makes it even more exciting.

1702
01:35:20,040 --> 01:35:20,600
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1703
01:35:20,640 --> 01:35:22,320
Speaker 3: Oh, by the way, and so there's a witness to

1704
01:35:22,360 --> 01:35:24,479
Speaker 3: this murder, and there's like this guy two to one.

1705
01:35:24,520 --> 01:35:28,639
Speaker 3: He's kind of peeping on, maybe writing another Donovan song

1706
01:35:28,720 --> 01:35:31,759
Speaker 3: as he does. So, so here the movie shifts of gears,

1707
01:35:31,760 --> 01:35:34,640
Speaker 3: you might call this end of act one. After this,

1708
01:35:34,760 --> 01:35:37,760
Speaker 3: Meg Foster gets a phone call from Earth informing her

1709
01:35:37,840 --> 01:35:41,040
Speaker 3: that her husband is dead and she's distraught, and so

1710
01:35:41,080 --> 01:35:43,400
Speaker 3: she comes down to Earth to find out what happened.

1711
01:35:44,120 --> 01:35:47,479
Speaker 3: Upon arrival, she is mugged within seconds of getting off

1712
01:35:47,479 --> 01:35:48,000
Speaker 3: the plane.

1713
01:35:48,400 --> 01:35:51,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, it reminded me of Homer Simpson. Hey, that's not

1714
01:35:51,120 --> 01:35:53,800
Speaker 2: the walid inspector is not great on play out quiet

1715
01:35:53,920 --> 01:35:56,519
Speaker 2: like that, but just she was totally unprepared for how

1716
01:35:56,560 --> 01:36:01,800
Speaker 2: brutal New Old No sorry, yeah, New Los Angeles is.

1717
01:36:02,760 --> 01:36:05,559
Speaker 3: And everybody is rude and unhelpful to her. You know,

1718
01:36:05,640 --> 01:36:08,000
Speaker 3: she just like asks somebody for directions and they're like

1719
01:36:08,080 --> 01:36:11,599
Speaker 3: if you, and so she tries to go to the police,

1720
01:36:11,640 --> 01:36:14,360
Speaker 3: but as I mentioned, the police are understaffed and she

1721
01:36:14,520 --> 01:36:18,360
Speaker 3: just gets yanked around. Eventually she barges in to talk

1722
01:36:18,400 --> 01:36:22,799
Speaker 3: to Detective Craner, the disheveled, white haired cop working Howard's murder,

1723
01:36:23,200 --> 01:36:26,000
Speaker 3: but there appears to be no hope solving it down here.

1724
01:36:26,080 --> 01:36:29,519
Speaker 3: There are like two homicide detectives and sixteen thousand murders

1725
01:36:29,560 --> 01:36:32,479
Speaker 3: a day, so there's just nothing to do.

1726
01:36:32,600 --> 01:36:36,200
Speaker 2: There's like population decline due to Oregon harvesting going on here.

1727
01:36:36,520 --> 01:36:40,559
Speaker 3: Yes, so Alana's sister or friend actually her friend When

1728
01:36:40,560 --> 01:36:42,479
Speaker 3: I made this note, I couldn't tell which, but it's

1729
01:36:42,520 --> 01:36:46,920
Speaker 3: her friend. Alana remembers the corporate whistleblower who got organ harvested.

1730
01:36:47,680 --> 01:36:52,080
Speaker 3: Her friend Tie is here, also trying to report her murder,

1731
01:36:52,120 --> 01:36:56,360
Speaker 3: but not getting much traction. The detective tell in the

1732
01:36:56,400 --> 01:36:58,760
Speaker 3: scene with Meg Foster tells her we don't like it

1733
01:36:58,800 --> 01:37:02,000
Speaker 3: when prominent citizens turn up without their hearts and livers,

1734
01:37:02,760 --> 01:37:04,840
Speaker 3: and he tries to tell Meg Foster to go back

1735
01:37:04,880 --> 01:37:07,200
Speaker 3: to the moon, but she refuses. She's here. She's going

1736
01:37:07,240 --> 01:37:10,599
Speaker 3: to see this through and find out what happened in

1737
01:37:10,640 --> 01:37:13,880
Speaker 3: the middle section of the movie. Here we get some revelations. First,

1738
01:37:13,920 --> 01:37:16,600
Speaker 3: we learned that Craner, the detective in the scene, is

1739
01:37:16,800 --> 01:37:20,840
Speaker 3: actually a double agent working for New Body, and he

1740
01:37:21,000 --> 01:37:24,160
Speaker 3: sends Hines to kill Meg Foster because she's digging around,

1741
01:37:24,200 --> 01:37:26,720
Speaker 3: she's getting too close to the truth. And you know,

1742
01:37:26,760 --> 01:37:28,320
Speaker 3: he tried to warn her he didn't want to have

1743
01:37:28,400 --> 01:37:30,960
Speaker 3: to do this, but she wouldn't listen. So Hines is

1744
01:37:31,000 --> 01:37:35,000
Speaker 3: going to have to get some of her organs. Meanwhile,

1745
01:37:35,280 --> 01:37:38,800
Speaker 3: Meg Foster is going to end up linking up with

1746
01:37:38,920 --> 01:37:42,720
Speaker 3: Don the Dragon Wilson by first meeting him at her

1747
01:37:42,800 --> 01:37:46,719
Speaker 3: husband's hotel. But this hotel lobby is a great set.

1748
01:37:46,800 --> 01:37:50,320
Speaker 3: It's got a black and white chessboard tile on the floor,

1749
01:37:50,920 --> 01:37:54,559
Speaker 3: weird echoe acoustics, and in the lobby there's a fish

1750
01:37:54,600 --> 01:37:57,720
Speaker 3: tank with a tiny dog fish in it, and Meg

1751
01:37:57,760 --> 01:37:59,760
Speaker 3: Foster is looking at it. And then Hines is here

1752
01:38:00,120 --> 01:38:02,920
Speaker 3: organ harvester. He wanders over and stands next to her

1753
01:38:03,320 --> 01:38:06,360
Speaker 3: and starts musing about how this is quote the perfect

1754
01:38:06,439 --> 01:38:10,519
Speaker 3: killing machine. Over the centuries, the shark has changed very little.

1755
01:38:11,080 --> 01:38:13,960
Speaker 3: Then she says, do you like sharks? He says, I

1756
01:38:14,160 --> 01:38:20,200
Speaker 3: like perfection. So Meg Foster goes into Howard's hotel room

1757
01:38:20,560 --> 01:38:23,840
Speaker 3: where Walker is waiting. Walker's in there to take the

1758
01:38:23,960 --> 01:38:27,240
Speaker 3: job that Howard offered him before he got killed. Nancy's

1759
01:38:27,240 --> 01:38:31,080
Speaker 3: confused and Walker leaves when Howard doesn't show up, but

1760
01:38:31,160 --> 01:38:34,559
Speaker 3: she starts piecing things together, and of course we can

1761
01:38:34,600 --> 01:38:36,719
Speaker 3: guess they're going to end up working together to solve

1762
01:38:36,760 --> 01:38:38,680
Speaker 3: Howard's murder by the end of the film, but we're

1763
01:38:38,720 --> 01:38:41,720
Speaker 3: not quite at the team up point yet. There's an

1764
01:38:41,760 --> 01:38:44,800
Speaker 3: action scene where some undercover corporate police try to kill

1765
01:38:44,840 --> 01:38:49,040
Speaker 3: Walker in another flaming barrel quadrant. Walker easily kickboxes them

1766
01:38:49,040 --> 01:38:51,720
Speaker 3: all to death. But I liked the weapons in this

1767
01:38:51,840 --> 01:38:54,519
Speaker 3: fight scene because these guys, who are supposed to be

1768
01:38:54,640 --> 01:38:59,280
Speaker 3: random street thugs have elaborate gleaming swords and antique polearms.

1769
01:38:59,360 --> 01:39:02,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, of like fancy hook sword or something.

1770
01:39:03,000 --> 01:39:06,040
Speaker 3: There's a scene where Meg Foster talks to the one

1771
01:39:06,160 --> 01:39:09,000
Speaker 3: nice person on Earth, an old man named Gus who

1772
01:39:09,040 --> 01:39:12,160
Speaker 3: works as a security guard at the hotel. She's talking

1773
01:39:12,160 --> 01:39:14,240
Speaker 3: about how she doesn't even know where to begin looking

1774
01:39:14,720 --> 01:39:16,920
Speaker 3: to find out what happened to her husband. She's never

1775
01:39:16,960 --> 01:39:19,920
Speaker 3: been to Earth before, and Gus is trying to help

1776
01:39:19,960 --> 01:39:22,680
Speaker 3: her out. He says he probably hit the Zona Rosa

1777
01:39:22,720 --> 01:39:25,960
Speaker 3: with the rest and she's like, what he says, the

1778
01:39:26,000 --> 01:39:30,560
Speaker 3: red zone, you know, the hot box, the skin connection.

1779
01:39:31,880 --> 01:39:34,599
Speaker 2: And we're like, Gus, stop, no more, no more names

1780
01:39:34,600 --> 01:39:35,400
Speaker 2: for this part of town.

1781
01:39:37,080 --> 01:39:39,599
Speaker 3: She says, no, no, no, he wasn't like that. But oh,

1782
01:39:39,640 --> 01:39:42,599
Speaker 3: poor Nancy, She's going to find out he was. So

1783
01:39:42,640 --> 01:39:45,280
Speaker 3: she goes on a detective mission to the Zona Rosa.

1784
01:39:45,400 --> 01:39:48,240
Speaker 3: She hits up some strip clubs and awkwardly tries to

1785
01:39:48,240 --> 01:39:51,599
Speaker 3: get information. There's a scene you've witnessed in many movies

1786
01:39:51,640 --> 01:39:55,320
Speaker 3: before where she's like, you know, the square who goes

1787
01:39:55,360 --> 01:39:58,120
Speaker 3: into the dive bar and is trying to work the

1788
01:39:58,880 --> 01:40:01,880
Speaker 3: bartender for information, but she's like, what are you having water?

1789
01:40:02,080 --> 01:40:04,360
Speaker 3: Ha ha ha laugh at you, you know, no, you

1790
01:40:04,479 --> 01:40:09,120
Speaker 3: need to be drinking cyber whiskey here. And the first

1791
01:40:09,160 --> 01:40:12,799
Speaker 3: person she talks to actually is immediately able to connect

1792
01:40:12,800 --> 01:40:15,560
Speaker 3: her to a witness for the murder, which is interesting.

1793
01:40:16,320 --> 01:40:18,080
Speaker 3: I don't know, maybe there aren't that many bars here.

1794
01:40:19,479 --> 01:40:23,519
Speaker 3: So she connects Meg Foster to two to one the witness,

1795
01:40:24,280 --> 01:40:28,080
Speaker 3: and Meg Foster just goes around continually bribing everyone to

1796
01:40:28,080 --> 01:40:30,960
Speaker 3: one tells her it was a slaughter. He never had

1797
01:40:30,960 --> 01:40:33,400
Speaker 3: a chance. Why you want to find this guy. He'll

1798
01:40:33,479 --> 01:40:36,080
Speaker 3: rip you as soon as look at you. But she

1799
01:40:36,200 --> 01:40:38,439
Speaker 3: finds out from two to one that Howard was on

1800
01:40:38,479 --> 01:40:41,280
Speaker 3: a date with another woman when he was killed, and

1801
01:40:41,400 --> 01:40:43,960
Speaker 3: Nancy takes this very hard. She runs out into the

1802
01:40:44,000 --> 01:40:47,479
Speaker 3: street crying. She curses Howard's name, and she throws her

1803
01:40:47,520 --> 01:40:50,360
Speaker 3: wedding ring into a filthy alley where we see a

1804
01:40:50,479 --> 01:40:53,040
Speaker 3: guy just kind of sitting there, like, pick it up

1805
01:40:53,080 --> 01:40:55,160
Speaker 3: and take it. I thought it would have been great

1806
01:40:55,200 --> 01:40:57,120
Speaker 3: if she had thrown the ring into one of the

1807
01:40:57,120 --> 01:41:01,960
Speaker 3: flaming barrels, like it's Mount Doom. But she keeps investigating.

1808
01:41:02,000 --> 01:41:05,040
Speaker 3: Even the fact that she now realizes Howard was two

1809
01:41:05,040 --> 01:41:07,840
Speaker 3: time in her that doesn't turn her off with the case.

1810
01:41:07,880 --> 01:41:10,799
Speaker 3: She still got to get answers, so she's chasing down leads.

1811
01:41:10,840 --> 01:41:13,280
Speaker 3: She ends up meeting with a guy named Farnie, who

1812
01:41:13,320 --> 01:41:16,120
Speaker 3: is a weird creep in the club, who leads Nancy

1813
01:41:16,200 --> 01:41:20,040
Speaker 3: to a tarot reader named Tye. This is the lady

1814
01:41:20,040 --> 01:41:21,920
Speaker 3: who was at the police station trying to talk to

1815
01:41:21,960 --> 01:41:26,040
Speaker 3: the detective because she was Alana Johnson's best friend. Tye

1816
01:41:26,080 --> 01:41:28,639
Speaker 3: tells her he killed my friend over a computer disc.

1817
01:41:29,000 --> 01:41:32,720
Speaker 3: He eats f C's for breakfast. Did we learn what

1818
01:41:32,840 --> 01:41:33,479
Speaker 3: fcs are?

1819
01:41:34,880 --> 01:41:37,000
Speaker 2: I don't know what they're referring to here.

1820
01:41:36,920 --> 01:41:42,519
Speaker 3: Now something cyberns maybe. Anyway, Hines is spying on Meg

1821
01:41:42,560 --> 01:41:46,240
Speaker 3: Foster this whole time, like he witnesses Farnee helping her,

1822
01:41:46,760 --> 01:41:49,800
Speaker 3: and then after Meg Foster leaves, Hines goes out back

1823
01:41:49,840 --> 01:41:53,080
Speaker 3: with Farney into an alley for a fascinating kill scene.

1824
01:41:53,680 --> 01:41:56,639
Speaker 3: He kind of interrogates Farnee and then Farney says, people

1825
01:41:56,720 --> 01:42:00,799
Speaker 3: usually pay me for information, and he coldly says, quaint custom.

1826
01:42:01,000 --> 01:42:03,800
Speaker 3: Times have changed, and then, oh man, what does he

1827
01:42:03,880 --> 01:42:04,679
Speaker 3: do to Farney here?

1828
01:42:04,840 --> 01:42:07,360
Speaker 2: I mean, you'd think he would use his fancy organ

1829
01:42:07,439 --> 01:42:10,439
Speaker 2: harvesting three prong blade that he seems to use on

1830
01:42:10,800 --> 01:42:14,800
Speaker 2: everybody everyone with the slightest with no hesitation, just the

1831
01:42:14,840 --> 01:42:18,120
Speaker 2: slightest provocation. But he decides not to, maybe he knows

1832
01:42:18,160 --> 01:42:22,480
Speaker 2: Farney doesn't have good organs or something. Instead, he swings

1833
01:42:22,520 --> 01:42:26,840
Speaker 2: a fire escape ladder and it instantly decapitates him, as

1834
01:42:26,840 --> 01:42:30,519
Speaker 2: if Farney's head had been held onto his body with

1835
01:42:30,680 --> 01:42:34,840
Speaker 2: just gravity or something, you know, just instant, easy decapitation.

1836
01:42:35,400 --> 01:42:40,600
Speaker 3: Fire escape decapitation scene, we have one here, yes, So

1837
01:42:40,680 --> 01:42:43,599
Speaker 3: there's a scene of Walker dropping off a bounty at

1838
01:42:43,600 --> 01:42:47,280
Speaker 3: the bounty collection station. There's a funny note here that

1839
01:42:47,560 --> 01:42:50,639
Speaker 3: the bounty officer tells him that they would pay more

1840
01:42:50,680 --> 01:42:54,040
Speaker 3: for this guy dead than alive. How would that even work?

1841
01:42:54,120 --> 01:42:58,679
Speaker 2: Like? Why but they have all these processing fees attached

1842
01:42:58,720 --> 01:43:00,679
Speaker 2: to it if they bring in a live boy, I guess.

1843
01:43:00,720 --> 01:43:03,120
Speaker 2: But yeah, I also liked how when you bring in

1844
01:43:03,320 --> 01:43:05,880
Speaker 2: your purp you have to like hold their face down

1845
01:43:05,920 --> 01:43:09,479
Speaker 2: on a scanner. It's like that just felt like a

1846
01:43:09,600 --> 01:43:12,240
Speaker 2: nice tech noir detail.

1847
01:43:12,479 --> 01:43:14,439
Speaker 3: I like that it thumbs up. It's like a new

1848
01:43:14,520 --> 01:43:16,800
Speaker 3: variation on the fingerprint scanner. But it can't just be

1849
01:43:16,880 --> 01:43:20,800
Speaker 3: a photo from a distance. So yeah, so they pay

1850
01:43:20,880 --> 01:43:23,519
Speaker 3: more dead than alive. But Walker brings him in alive anyway,

1851
01:43:23,560 --> 01:43:26,519
Speaker 3: so what a swell guy. And here Meg Foster meets

1852
01:43:26,560 --> 01:43:29,880
Speaker 3: up with them. There is a scene with doctor Sado

1853
01:43:30,040 --> 01:43:33,200
Speaker 3: and Crainer talking about how Hinz has lost his mind

1854
01:43:33,280 --> 01:43:35,519
Speaker 3: and they don't know how to control him. This really

1855
01:43:35,520 --> 01:43:37,800
Speaker 3: does seem to be the case, because now there are

1856
01:43:37,840 --> 01:43:41,080
Speaker 3: also scenes of him just killing random people and harvesting

1857
01:43:41,160 --> 01:43:44,320
Speaker 3: organs for pleasure. There is one part where he's got

1858
01:43:44,320 --> 01:43:47,400
Speaker 3: a lady from the strip club chained up in a

1859
01:43:47,439 --> 01:43:51,400
Speaker 3: torture chamber and he's showing her the organ coreing device,

1860
01:43:51,840 --> 01:43:54,439
Speaker 3: and he says, there are only two things I'm going

1861
01:43:54,479 --> 01:44:00,120
Speaker 3: to take from you, your body and your soul. And

1862
01:44:01,080 --> 01:44:03,280
Speaker 3: I just wanted to have a quick note here. Did

1863
01:44:03,320 --> 01:44:06,400
Speaker 3: you notice the same thing I did? That? The plot

1864
01:44:06,479 --> 01:44:11,479
Speaker 3: is about harvesting organs and Howard and Nancy's last name

1865
01:44:11,800 --> 01:44:15,160
Speaker 3: is Morgan, which everybody is always calling them, so it

1866
01:44:15,240 --> 01:44:18,400
Speaker 3: often sounds like they're saying organ when they're saying Morgan.

1867
01:44:18,920 --> 01:44:23,080
Speaker 2: Oh my, that's interesting. That might play into our attempt

1868
01:44:23,120 --> 01:44:24,719
Speaker 2: to understand the ending of this film.

1869
01:44:24,960 --> 01:44:28,240
Speaker 3: Maybe so. Doctor Sadow and Craner call Hines and they

1870
01:44:28,240 --> 01:44:30,240
Speaker 3: tell him, look, you got to hurry up and kill Nancy.

1871
01:44:30,280 --> 01:44:34,160
Speaker 3: We need her dead now. Nancy recruits Walker for help.

1872
01:44:34,280 --> 01:44:37,120
Speaker 3: She goes into our hotel room, but she knows somebody

1873
01:44:37,160 --> 01:44:39,360
Speaker 3: is hiding in there and so calls him for help.

1874
01:44:39,920 --> 01:44:42,960
Speaker 3: She also calls security for help, and then the friendly

1875
01:44:42,960 --> 01:44:45,680
Speaker 3: old man Gus comes in to check everything out, but

1876
01:44:45,720 --> 01:44:48,800
Speaker 3: then Hines and Bang throw him out the window. Oh no,

1877
01:44:49,560 --> 01:44:52,760
Speaker 3: And they are about to yoink Nancy's organs in a stairwell,

1878
01:44:52,800 --> 01:44:55,360
Speaker 3: but at the last second Walker arrives to save her.

1879
01:44:55,400 --> 01:44:58,080
Speaker 3: He beats them up and helps Nancy escape, so they're

1880
01:44:58,120 --> 01:45:08,360
Speaker 3: going to be working together. Now there's a scene after

1881
01:45:08,400 --> 01:45:11,200
Speaker 3: this where chris Pin is damaged. I guess we found

1882
01:45:11,240 --> 01:45:14,280
Speaker 3: out he's definitely is some kind of robot. And then

1883
01:45:14,400 --> 01:45:16,360
Speaker 3: I was wondering, did you have an opinion on is

1884
01:45:16,360 --> 01:45:18,960
Speaker 3: it just chris Pin that's a robot or is Heines

1885
01:45:19,000 --> 01:45:19,880
Speaker 3: a robot too?

1886
01:45:20,720 --> 01:45:23,600
Speaker 2: I don't think Heines is a robot because there's a

1887
01:45:23,680 --> 01:45:26,439
Speaker 2: later scene we're gonna get to where Heines is injured

1888
01:45:26,840 --> 01:45:30,040
Speaker 2: and he seems to be bleeding blood and he seems

1889
01:45:30,080 --> 01:45:34,439
Speaker 2: to have like crazy psychopath resistance to pain and injury,

1890
01:45:34,520 --> 01:45:37,080
Speaker 2: but not robotic resistance to pain and injury.

1891
01:45:37,439 --> 01:45:40,600
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, So but here chris Pin's wounds are sparking

1892
01:45:40,640 --> 01:45:44,799
Speaker 3: with electricity. Yeah, And he says about Walker, he's strong,

1893
01:45:44,920 --> 01:45:49,280
Speaker 3: He's as strong as me. Clearly he did not expect this. Also,

1894
01:45:49,400 --> 01:45:54,240
Speaker 3: there is another cyber wound tending scene where we meet

1895
01:45:54,240 --> 01:45:56,360
Speaker 3: this underground doctor or who you were talking about in

1896
01:45:56,400 --> 01:45:59,599
Speaker 3: the credits section. The doctor says to Walker, we were

1897
01:45:59,640 --> 01:46:01,920
Speaker 3: so sure you guys were going to replace us all

1898
01:46:02,400 --> 01:46:04,720
Speaker 3: and then Walker says, yeah, we didn't even make it

1899
01:46:04,760 --> 01:46:09,080
Speaker 3: ten years and Walker fills Meg Foster in on the

1900
01:46:09,160 --> 01:46:12,200
Speaker 3: history of the Cyberns. He talks about how we were

1901
01:46:12,200 --> 01:46:16,040
Speaker 3: built by the corporations to stop crime, but the corporations

1902
01:46:16,160 --> 01:46:17,400
Speaker 3: were the criminals.

1903
01:46:19,160 --> 01:46:21,519
Speaker 2: And this is where we get more details too, about

1904
01:46:21,520 --> 01:46:25,599
Speaker 2: the public executions of the Cyberrons and how they were

1905
01:46:25,800 --> 01:46:28,960
Speaker 2: executed on television on some sort of a Neon cross.

1906
01:46:29,080 --> 01:46:33,800
Speaker 3: Right, yeah, exactly. So there are some flashbacks, but well,

1907
01:46:33,840 --> 01:46:35,800
Speaker 3: actually I should set this up. So there's a scene

1908
01:46:35,840 --> 01:46:38,680
Speaker 3: with Meg Foster and Don Wilson alone after this, and

1909
01:46:38,720 --> 01:46:41,920
Speaker 3: the tender piano music starts playing, and I was like, oh, no,

1910
01:46:42,160 --> 01:46:44,080
Speaker 3: are they going to fall in love? That would be

1911
01:46:44,120 --> 01:46:48,599
Speaker 3: so weird. We kind of get there. Nancy asks him

1912
01:46:48,960 --> 01:46:52,320
Speaker 3: do you ever feel lonely? And Walker says the only

1913
01:46:52,360 --> 01:46:54,519
Speaker 3: thing you ever get from feelings is dead.

1914
01:46:56,720 --> 01:46:58,120
Speaker 2: I laughed out loud of that quote.

1915
01:46:58,240 --> 01:47:01,160
Speaker 3: That was so good, very good. Then the flashbacks begin,

1916
01:47:01,280 --> 01:47:04,720
Speaker 3: so Walker says, when the corporations made us, they gave

1917
01:47:04,840 --> 01:47:09,400
Speaker 3: us emotions, morals, and ethics. When we discovered that corporations

1918
01:47:09,400 --> 01:47:12,880
Speaker 3: were destroying the planet, they created the corporate police and

1919
01:47:13,000 --> 01:47:15,760
Speaker 3: hunted us down like animals. And then we get to

1920
01:47:15,800 --> 01:47:19,759
Speaker 3: witness scenes of the brutal Cybern Purge, including show trials

1921
01:47:19,800 --> 01:47:23,320
Speaker 3: and public executions. We see one of these public executions

1922
01:47:23,320 --> 01:47:26,519
Speaker 3: where the condemned Cybern is crucified on a neon light

1923
01:47:26,640 --> 01:47:30,799
Speaker 3: up X shaped cross and then bombarded with ring shaped

1924
01:47:30,840 --> 01:47:35,120
Speaker 3: patterns of laser light. Then he starts squirting blood and

1925
01:47:35,160 --> 01:47:38,120
Speaker 3: these crowds are kind of watching for entertainment. One person

1926
01:47:38,160 --> 01:47:41,680
Speaker 3: in the crowd is wearing a sandwich board neon advertisement

1927
01:47:41,720 --> 01:47:45,680
Speaker 3: that says condom sale with a little neon tube illustration.

1928
01:47:46,000 --> 01:47:49,000
Speaker 2: I legitimately lost it when I saw the condom sale

1929
01:47:49,080 --> 01:47:52,640
Speaker 2: neon guy. Somebody put a lot of work in or

1930
01:47:52,680 --> 01:47:55,760
Speaker 2: I don't know, somebody put some work to making sure

1931
01:47:55,800 --> 01:47:57,360
Speaker 2: that this guy was in the scene.

1932
01:47:57,600 --> 01:48:00,040
Speaker 3: That's not an effect, that's a real neon sign and

1933
01:48:00,120 --> 01:48:01,719
Speaker 3: somebody made says condom sale.

1934
01:48:01,920 --> 01:48:06,639
Speaker 2: Yeah, they at least borrowed a condom sale sign from.

1935
01:48:06,439 --> 01:48:09,880
Speaker 3: A store Neon one. Yeah. We also see some space

1936
01:48:09,920 --> 01:48:12,799
Speaker 3: battles here. Some of the Cybrons apparently tried to escape

1937
01:48:12,840 --> 01:48:15,080
Speaker 3: to the Moon, but they got blasted out in space

1938
01:48:15,120 --> 01:48:17,880
Speaker 3: by the Corporate Police, the Space Force version of the

1939
01:48:17,880 --> 01:48:21,200
Speaker 3: Corporate Police. And now Walker he's taking swigs out of

1940
01:48:21,240 --> 01:48:23,760
Speaker 3: a bottle and he says, I survive by collecting the

1941
01:48:23,800 --> 01:48:28,120
Speaker 3: slime of society. Nancy says, I owe you my life.

1942
01:48:28,160 --> 01:48:32,160
Speaker 3: Walker says, you don't owe me anything except five hundred grand,

1943
01:48:34,760 --> 01:48:37,680
Speaker 3: and then Nancy says, will you hold me? They have

1944
01:48:37,760 --> 01:48:40,439
Speaker 3: a tender embrace that I don't think they kiss, but

1945
01:48:40,479 --> 01:48:41,960
Speaker 3: they do hug.

1946
01:48:42,400 --> 01:48:45,519
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, you know, she's playing five hundred grand. She

1947
01:48:45,600 --> 01:48:47,799
Speaker 2: might as well get like a little bit of comforting

1948
01:48:47,840 --> 01:48:48,519
Speaker 2: spooning out of this.

1949
01:48:48,960 --> 01:48:51,880
Speaker 3: Yeah. There are a few more scenes around here of

1950
01:48:52,000 --> 01:48:55,080
Speaker 3: Hines on the loose. He kills Craner, the detective. He

1951
01:48:55,160 --> 01:48:57,320
Speaker 3: kills two to one, kills two to one with the

1952
01:48:57,400 --> 01:48:59,920
Speaker 3: laser blast games. So Craner he kills just by yoinking

1953
01:49:00,080 --> 01:49:04,120
Speaker 3: the organs, but to one he puts him in the

1954
01:49:04,160 --> 01:49:08,360
Speaker 3: laser blast seat and then makes his head explode. There's

1955
01:49:08,400 --> 01:49:12,240
Speaker 3: also a scene of Tie, the Tarot card lady, trying

1956
01:49:12,280 --> 01:49:15,800
Speaker 3: to blackmail doctor Sado to give up Hines, but she

1957
01:49:15,880 --> 01:49:17,639
Speaker 3: didn't really get a chance to follow through with this

1958
01:49:17,680 --> 01:49:21,080
Speaker 3: because Hines chases her down in an alley immediately after

1959
01:49:21,120 --> 01:49:24,040
Speaker 3: the meeting and does a quick heartrip. But here's basically

1960
01:49:24,040 --> 01:49:27,720
Speaker 3: where we go into the the extended final confrontation, so

1961
01:49:29,880 --> 01:49:32,519
Speaker 3: is it begins at the Trocadero Club between Walker and

1962
01:49:32,600 --> 01:49:35,439
Speaker 3: Nancy on one side and Hines and Bang on the other.

1963
01:49:35,640 --> 01:49:38,800
Speaker 3: This big fight scene begins between them. We see that

1964
01:49:38,880 --> 01:49:42,120
Speaker 3: Bang bleeds pale green, and the fight leads into a

1965
01:49:42,200 --> 01:49:45,400
Speaker 3: chase with Walker and Nancy running after the assassins. They

1966
01:49:45,439 --> 01:49:48,360
Speaker 3: sort of end up going down into this lower underground

1967
01:49:48,400 --> 01:49:49,320
Speaker 3: portion of the city.

1968
01:49:49,720 --> 01:49:52,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, now, is this the fight between that we have

1969
01:49:52,400 --> 01:49:57,360
Speaker 2: the fight with pipes between Bang and the Dragon.

1970
01:49:58,400 --> 01:50:00,559
Speaker 3: We're about to get there. There are a couple of

1971
01:50:00,600 --> 01:50:04,320
Speaker 3: things first, like Hines is he cuts Walker's finger off.

1972
01:50:04,360 --> 01:50:06,240
Speaker 2: Oh god, yeah, that's actually pretty nasty.

1973
01:50:07,000 --> 01:50:10,000
Speaker 3: And then he's gonna kill Walker, but Nancy saves Walker

1974
01:50:10,040 --> 01:50:13,080
Speaker 3: by shooting Hins, so she comes through and saves the day.

1975
01:50:13,960 --> 01:50:16,120
Speaker 3: And then it just progresses to more fighting in this

1976
01:50:16,280 --> 01:50:20,599
Speaker 3: underground space where they're Yeah, Walker and Bang are dueling.

1977
01:50:20,680 --> 01:50:23,360
Speaker 3: It's like a sword fight but with segments of pipe.

1978
01:50:23,840 --> 01:50:25,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it is. It's one of these things where,

1979
01:50:26,400 --> 01:50:30,479
Speaker 2: you know, the editing is pretty rough. I think at

1980
01:50:30,520 --> 01:50:32,759
Speaker 2: the heart of things, you have a fight here between

1981
01:50:32,840 --> 01:50:37,479
Speaker 2: a you know, a pro sports fighter and a character

1982
01:50:37,520 --> 01:50:40,000
Speaker 2: actor who's like, I don't think I mean, maybe he

1983
01:50:40,040 --> 01:50:42,360
Speaker 2: had some level of I have no idea what his

1984
01:50:42,400 --> 01:50:46,000
Speaker 2: stage combat and martial arts background might have actually been,

1985
01:50:46,560 --> 01:50:51,840
Speaker 2: but this particular battle feels extremely forced and you never

1986
01:50:51,880 --> 01:50:55,000
Speaker 2: get the sense that there's anything close to real contact happening.

1987
01:50:55,400 --> 01:50:58,680
Speaker 3: But the resolution happens when Walker kicks Bang into an

1988
01:50:58,720 --> 01:51:02,200
Speaker 3: exposed electrical man and fries him, and then the fight

1989
01:51:02,240 --> 01:51:05,040
Speaker 3: with Hines continues. It ends up where they like crash

1990
01:51:05,160 --> 01:51:08,400
Speaker 3: through a ceiling, like a glass ceiling into the Laser

1991
01:51:08,439 --> 01:51:09,160
Speaker 3: Blade arena.

1992
01:51:09,360 --> 01:51:11,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, it looks pretty nasty. I have a good stunt.

1993
01:51:12,280 --> 01:51:16,519
Speaker 3: Yeah, And so Nancy and Walker strap themselves into the

1994
01:51:16,520 --> 01:51:19,840
Speaker 3: control chairs of the Laser Blade game. They activate the

1995
01:51:19,920 --> 01:51:23,840
Speaker 3: laser Blade pylon and this Zapp's hinds. The lasers go

1996
01:51:24,040 --> 01:51:27,479
Speaker 3: into his mouth and then his head explodes and black

1997
01:51:27,600 --> 01:51:31,160
Speaker 3: blood and ooze shoot all over them. This had me thinking, like,

1998
01:51:31,360 --> 01:51:33,679
Speaker 3: was wait, was Hines a robot or a human because

1999
01:51:33,680 --> 01:51:37,920
Speaker 3: his blood is so it's like black oil. Hmmm, Maybe

2000
01:51:37,960 --> 01:51:38,879
Speaker 3: it's just the lighting.

2001
01:51:39,000 --> 01:51:41,960
Speaker 2: Maybe yeah, I just assumed that he was a human.

2002
01:51:42,960 --> 01:51:45,439
Speaker 2: Either way, quality kill really yes.

2003
01:51:46,240 --> 01:51:48,759
Speaker 3: So they're sitting there covered in blood and the corporate

2004
01:51:48,760 --> 01:51:51,400
Speaker 3: police are closing in because you know they're they're arriving

2005
01:51:51,439 --> 01:51:57,280
Speaker 3: un scene. Then suddenly something weird starts happening. Hallucinatory imagery

2006
01:51:57,680 --> 01:52:00,839
Speaker 3: zooming through a tunnel in space, flash back to previous

2007
01:52:00,840 --> 01:52:04,400
Speaker 3: events of the film. Rushing past planets, we see Jupiter

2008
01:52:04,560 --> 01:52:09,040
Speaker 3: and Saturn, and then Meg Foster wakes up on the

2009
01:52:09,040 --> 01:52:13,759
Speaker 3: couch at home, back at her house on the Moon,

2010
01:52:14,320 --> 01:52:17,960
Speaker 3: and her VR simulation is over, and Howard is alive,

2011
01:52:18,120 --> 01:52:21,640
Speaker 3: standing there beside her, and he says, well, what do

2012
01:52:21,680 --> 01:52:25,000
Speaker 3: you think of my new program? We've got sinister music

2013
01:52:25,040 --> 01:52:28,160
Speaker 3: playing these kind of dark chords, and then Howard hugs

2014
01:52:28,200 --> 01:52:31,360
Speaker 3: her with a creepy grin while she looks traumatized, and

2015
01:52:31,360 --> 01:52:34,080
Speaker 3: then credits, that's literally the end.

2016
01:52:34,479 --> 01:52:36,479
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we'll get I'll get back to it in

2017
01:52:36,479 --> 01:52:39,000
Speaker 2: a minute here. But it weirdly works, or at least

2018
01:52:39,000 --> 01:52:40,320
Speaker 2: it worked for me, So.

2019
01:52:40,640 --> 01:52:43,080
Speaker 3: A few thoughts. First of all, I think this has

2020
01:52:43,200 --> 01:52:47,080
Speaker 3: to be influenced by the ending of Total Recall, because

2021
01:52:47,120 --> 01:52:50,799
Speaker 3: clearly Total Recall is a major one of the things

2022
01:52:50,840 --> 01:52:54,840
Speaker 3: that this movie is derivative of. Total Recall is, in

2023
01:52:54,880 --> 01:52:58,639
Speaker 3: my opinion, not only good, a fantastic film, really great

2024
01:52:58,640 --> 01:53:03,040
Speaker 3: film with a marvelous conclusion, which that ending is great

2025
01:53:03,320 --> 01:53:07,880
Speaker 3: because it actually does not say for sure that the

2026
01:53:07,920 --> 01:53:11,160
Speaker 3: whole story was a dream. Instead, what it does is

2027
01:53:11,560 --> 01:53:15,160
Speaker 3: raise the question in a provocative way. So in total recall,

2028
01:53:15,720 --> 01:53:18,200
Speaker 3: there are multiple you know, it begins with this thing

2029
01:53:18,280 --> 01:53:23,160
Speaker 3: of the character Quaide Schwarzenegger's character buying a dream vacation

2030
01:53:23,400 --> 01:53:27,680
Speaker 3: by you know, paying for this dream implant package, and

2031
01:53:27,960 --> 01:53:30,439
Speaker 3: there are multiple points, and of course that goes awry

2032
01:53:30,520 --> 01:53:33,240
Speaker 3: and then he gets trapped up in this conspiracy. But

2033
01:53:33,520 --> 01:53:35,880
Speaker 3: there are multiple points in the story where Quaid is

2034
01:53:35,960 --> 01:53:39,640
Speaker 3: led to question whether he is whether what's happening to

2035
01:53:39,680 --> 01:53:43,400
Speaker 3: him is really happening, or he's actually just having the

2036
01:53:43,520 --> 01:53:46,880
Speaker 3: dream package that he paid for. And then in each

2037
01:53:46,960 --> 01:53:51,320
Speaker 3: case when this question arises, events in the film happen

2038
01:53:51,400 --> 01:53:54,320
Speaker 3: which caused him to believe what's happening is actually real.

2039
01:53:55,000 --> 01:53:57,160
Speaker 3: But by the end of the movie, we just noticed

2040
01:53:57,200 --> 01:54:00,519
Speaker 3: that lots of things in the story have conformed to

2041
01:54:00,720 --> 01:54:03,680
Speaker 3: the dream implant that he bought. So we're led to

2042
01:54:03,720 --> 01:54:06,360
Speaker 3: wonder again, wait, was it real or is it all

2043
01:54:06,360 --> 01:54:09,360
Speaker 3: in Quade's head? And we never get confirmation one way

2044
01:54:09,439 --> 01:54:13,600
Speaker 3: or another. This movie, by contrast, just says everything you

2045
01:54:13,760 --> 01:54:16,120
Speaker 3: just watched, none of it happened. It was all just

2046
01:54:16,200 --> 01:54:18,920
Speaker 3: Meg Foster and VR no debate about it, that is

2047
01:54:18,960 --> 01:54:22,160
Speaker 3: what it was. So I have questions like, wait, do

2048
01:54:22,280 --> 01:54:25,439
Speaker 3: the cyber ons even exist or is that just part

2049
01:54:25,479 --> 01:54:27,800
Speaker 3: of the virtual reality. I don't know.

2050
01:54:28,720 --> 01:54:31,800
Speaker 2: I think the main reason I think it works, or

2051
01:54:31,800 --> 01:54:35,600
Speaker 2: it worked for me, is that it doesn't. It may

2052
01:54:35,640 --> 01:54:38,040
Speaker 2: negate or potentially negate a lot of the things that

2053
01:54:38,080 --> 01:54:42,280
Speaker 2: we saw, but two things that do seem to remain

2054
01:54:42,480 --> 01:54:45,400
Speaker 2: constant are, of course Nancy and Howard. We have a

2055
01:54:45,400 --> 01:54:49,520
Speaker 2: lot of questions about who Howard really is, but we

2056
01:54:50,240 --> 01:54:55,280
Speaker 2: know that Nancy and Howard exist, and whatever Nancy has experienced,

2057
01:54:55,480 --> 01:54:59,920
Speaker 2: it has it has something to do with either how

2058
01:55:00,000 --> 01:55:04,320
Speaker 2: towards you know, actual, you know, hidden self, or her

2059
01:55:04,640 --> 01:55:08,360
Speaker 2: anxieties or fears or even desires about who he may

2060
01:55:08,400 --> 01:55:14,120
Speaker 2: secretly be. So, yeah, it's his presence here at the

2061
01:55:14,400 --> 01:55:17,760
Speaker 2: end of the film especially, you know, there's this sinister

2062
01:55:17,800 --> 01:55:21,000
Speaker 2: air to it. He's almost like a Satanic figure. Yeah,

2063
01:55:21,520 --> 01:55:23,920
Speaker 2: so you know, through this technology, he's kind of become

2064
01:55:23,960 --> 01:55:27,760
Speaker 2: a master of reality. And I just was I kept wondering, like,

2065
01:55:27,920 --> 01:55:31,520
Speaker 2: what influenced Nancy's VR experience again, is it a true

2066
01:55:31,520 --> 01:55:35,640
Speaker 2: depiction of her husband's hidden appetites, a glimpse into his psyche,

2067
01:55:36,120 --> 01:55:39,240
Speaker 2: or just a reflection of her own anxieties or more desires?

2068
01:55:39,640 --> 01:55:41,360
Speaker 2: And I think this is the part that really intrigues me.

2069
01:55:41,400 --> 01:55:43,640
Speaker 2: You know, he seems to know all of this as well,

2070
01:55:44,120 --> 01:55:48,000
Speaker 2: so it's almost like he's he's implying to her, Hey,

2071
01:55:48,320 --> 01:55:50,840
Speaker 2: I have brought you, my wife, into a new understanding

2072
01:55:50,880 --> 01:55:54,960
Speaker 2: of yourself and of me, and now our second lives begin.

2073
01:55:55,520 --> 01:55:58,960
Speaker 2: You know. It's like, what, Yeah, again, it could just

2074
01:55:59,000 --> 01:56:02,320
Speaker 2: be an accident that it feels this potent, and maybe

2075
01:56:02,320 --> 01:56:05,000
Speaker 2: it's ultimately a large part of it probably does have

2076
01:56:05,000 --> 01:56:09,960
Speaker 2: to do with the performances here, but yeah, I legitimately

2077
01:56:10,120 --> 01:56:13,000
Speaker 2: have continued to think about the ending of this film

2078
01:56:13,000 --> 01:56:14,480
Speaker 2: and try and peace out what it could mean.

2079
01:56:15,640 --> 01:56:19,480
Speaker 3: That's interesting. He does have a knowing smile when he

2080
01:56:19,720 --> 01:56:22,680
Speaker 3: kind of comforts her after this traumatic experience of hers.

2081
01:56:23,200 --> 01:56:25,120
Speaker 3: But I think it's interesting that some of the main

2082
01:56:25,280 --> 01:56:29,400
Speaker 3: themes of the movie are actually nothing that we have

2083
01:56:29,440 --> 01:56:32,560
Speaker 3: any assurance happened in reality. The stuff about I mean,

2084
01:56:32,560 --> 01:56:35,760
Speaker 3: I guess we see some Cybern stuff before we introduce

2085
01:56:35,920 --> 01:56:40,280
Speaker 3: the VR, so maybe the Cyberns don't really exist, but

2086
01:56:41,480 --> 01:56:45,200
Speaker 3: Nancy never meets them. I don't know. The organ harvesting

2087
01:56:45,240 --> 01:56:48,800
Speaker 3: stuff I think happens entirely within the VR dream, right.

2088
01:56:49,360 --> 01:56:52,120
Speaker 2: I think so, because like suddenly there's talk of New

2089
01:56:52,160 --> 01:56:55,840
Speaker 2: Body and the New Body conspiracy and what you said

2090
01:56:55,840 --> 01:56:59,720
Speaker 2: earlier about this potential connection between Organ and Morgan.

2091
01:57:00,200 --> 01:57:01,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, what does that mean?

2092
01:57:01,520 --> 01:57:05,000
Speaker 2: Like, is that is there some sort of legitimate connection

2093
01:57:05,240 --> 01:57:06,720
Speaker 2: or is it just sort of like, you know, the

2094
01:57:08,000 --> 01:57:12,200
Speaker 2: essentially like a VR hallucination. I don't know it's but

2095
01:57:12,280 --> 01:57:16,280
Speaker 2: it's again fascinating to try and imagine how this connects.

2096
01:57:16,720 --> 01:57:19,640
Speaker 3: It also makes me think about the ambiguous romantic connection

2097
01:57:19,800 --> 01:57:24,120
Speaker 3: between Nancy and Walker. Yeah. Does that reflect, I don't know,

2098
01:57:24,200 --> 01:57:28,040
Speaker 3: something about her actual desires outside of her marriage, the

2099
01:57:28,080 --> 01:57:30,520
Speaker 3: same way we saw Howard fantasizing about other women in

2100
01:57:30,560 --> 01:57:31,960
Speaker 3: his VR experience.

2101
01:57:32,240 --> 01:57:35,520
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, is this like the fulfillment of a desire

2102
01:57:35,560 --> 01:57:38,800
Speaker 2: for someone who is going to protect her and look

2103
01:57:38,840 --> 01:57:39,800
Speaker 2: after her interest?

2104
01:57:40,800 --> 01:57:44,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, but not just someone a cybern someone someone who's

2105
01:57:44,200 --> 01:57:44,960
Speaker 3: better than human.

2106
01:57:45,080 --> 01:57:53,720
Speaker 2: Yeah. The last cyber so future kick masterpiece, accidable masterpiece?

2107
01:57:54,320 --> 01:57:56,720
Speaker 2: Is it, you know, ultimately a pile of rats that

2108
01:57:56,840 --> 01:57:58,920
Speaker 2: ends up taking on the silhouette of something that is

2109
01:57:58,960 --> 01:58:00,040
Speaker 2: more me.

2110
01:58:00,520 --> 01:58:02,480
Speaker 3: I don't know. I think there are a bunch of

2111
01:58:02,480 --> 01:58:06,440
Speaker 3: things in here that are realized in a schlocky, clumsy

2112
01:58:06,480 --> 01:58:09,320
Speaker 3: b movie way. But if you just write them down

2113
01:58:09,360 --> 01:58:13,080
Speaker 3: as a premise, they could actually be pretty interesting.

2114
01:58:13,400 --> 01:58:17,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like going back to my joke earlier, like if

2115
01:58:17,160 --> 01:58:20,840
Speaker 2: you were to set down and create an RPG guide

2116
01:58:21,120 --> 01:58:23,640
Speaker 2: for the world of Future Kick, I think it could

2117
01:58:23,640 --> 01:58:24,440
Speaker 2: be pretty compelling.

2118
01:58:24,760 --> 01:58:28,760
Speaker 3: Okay, let's make up our character seats homework for next time. Okay,

2119
01:58:29,280 --> 01:58:30,640
Speaker 3: does that do it for Future Kick?

2120
01:58:30,960 --> 01:58:32,760
Speaker 2: I believe so. But yeah, I'm so glad that I

2121
01:58:32,760 --> 01:58:34,960
Speaker 2: watched Future Kick. This is one that I think i'd

2122
01:58:35,000 --> 01:58:39,520
Speaker 2: seen the box art for in the past, but I

2123
01:58:39,560 --> 01:58:42,520
Speaker 2: had never watched it, and I am richer for having

2124
01:58:42,600 --> 01:58:43,080
Speaker 2: watched it.

2125
01:58:43,120 --> 01:58:45,680
Speaker 3: Now i'd have to say the same. Yeah.

2126
01:58:46,080 --> 01:58:48,480
Speaker 2: All right, we're going to close it out here. I'm

2127
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Speaker 2: just gonna remind you that Stuff to Blow Your Mind

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Speaker 2: is primarily a science and culture podcast, with core episodes

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01:58:53,320 --> 01:58:55,880
Speaker 2: on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but on Fridays we set aside

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Speaker 2: most serious concerns to just talk about a weird film

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Speaker 2: on Weird Houses. If you are a fan of Weird

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Speaker 2: House cinema, check out our profile on letterbox dot com.

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Speaker 2: Follow us there if you use it. We have a

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Speaker 2: nice list of all the movies we've covered over the years,

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Speaker 2: and sometimes peek ahead at what's coming up next?

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Speaker 3: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Jjposway.

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Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us

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Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

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Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

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Speaker 3: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

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Speaker 3: your Mind dot com.

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Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

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Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.