WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Future Kick 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:05.519 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:16.400 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:19.920 And this is Joe McCormick. And today on Weird House 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:22.800 we're going to be talking about the nineteen ninety one 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:28.520 sci fi action movie Future Kick, starring kickboxing champion Don 0:00:28.560 --> 0:00:33.480 the Dragon Wilson, Meg Foster, and Chris Penn. Interesting cast 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:37.120 list there. Now, if you have to look this movie 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:39.840 up because you've never seen it or even heard about it, 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:43.080 that wouldn't be a surprising scenario. And the first thing 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:47.199 you see in Google results is an exact copy of 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:50.720 the poster for James Cameron's Terminator, but with Don the 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:55.360 Dragon Wilson's head and upper body replacing Arnold Schwarzenegger's. You 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:59.280 might ask yourself, is this movie low budget direct to 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:03.880 video track financed by Roger Korman to scavenge off the 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:07.520 recent success of gritty R rated sci fi action hits 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:12.240 like Terminator, RoboCop and Total Recall. The answer is yes, 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:15.200 it is that, but that's not all it is. Future 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:18.319 Kick is both an interesting specimen to dissect if you 0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:21.679 want to study the anatomy of the cyberpunk tech noir 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:24.600 subgenre of the early nineties. More on that in a bit, 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:29.160 but Futurekick is also genuinely a hoot. There is, in 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:34.960 my opinion, an absolutely delicious DGAF quality that is palpable 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:38.679 in the creative decisions here. Sometimes this makes the movie 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:44.119 confusing and difficult to follow. Sometimes it makes inspired set pieces, 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:47.240 like the film's energy weapon based blood sport. I think 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:51.320 it was called laser Blade. Laser Blade, which, despite what 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:54.040 you might assume from that description, is a table game 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:58.440 imagine a cross between Hungry Hungry Hippos and Russian Roulette 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:04.000 but with lasers. Also leaves you with questions which characters 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:07.520 are robots? Are there different kinds of robots in the movie? 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:11.520 Like are the Cyberns different from other robots? Is chris 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:15.400 Pin a Cybern or some other kind of thing? How 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:18.200 does anything in this world work? Really? And then the 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:23.640 big question was it all a dream? The answer is yes, yeah. 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:26.240 I mean, we're slightly getting ahead on the plot here, 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:29.840 but I will say that many times it was all 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:33.520 a dream. Ending is such a sucker punch and just 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:37.440 can make you feel really it can feel like such 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:41.200 a cheap move because it just completely devalues everything you 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:43.960 just watched, But I did not have that feeling with 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:49.800 this film. It maybe by design, maybe by happenstance, or 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:54.640 some combination of both. The ending felt like cryptic and 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:55.520 thought provoking. 0:02:56.800 --> 0:02:59.160 Well or okay, I could see that, but you could 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:02.200 also say here, it's like such a cheap move that 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:06.120 it transcends, it becomes exquisite. It's like, I can't believe 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:07.160 they actually did that. 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:12.000 Yeah, they stick the landing. Somehow they stick the landing, 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:15.560 and we can discuss how they managed to perhaps pull 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:16.040 this off. 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:19.320 Also, I think we had to do this movie before 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:22.200 the end of the year because Rob, did you notice 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:26.360 Future Kick is set in the horrifying dystopian future of 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:31.680 twenty twenty five? Right, Yeah, what Future Kick predictions come true? 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:33.480 We're gonna look and find out. 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:36.520 Yeah, twenty twenty five via nineteen ninety one. 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:40.400 So another note before we get started is one on genre. 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:44.760 This is another reason I selected Future Kick for this week. 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:49.280 That reason is that it is still November or Noir November, 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:51.920 and Rob, I know you enjoy getting into the spirit 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:54.080 of a season. So I was trying to think about 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:57.320 what film noir might be fun to cover, and I 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:01.040 realized we had never really done a deep analysis on 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:05.080 the noir influenced sci fi subgenre known as tech noir. 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:07.840 Though I think we've done a number of films that 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:10.840 could be classified as such, we've never really looked at 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:16.240 the genre itself, and Future Kick is a sparklingly dingy example. 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:19.200 I may have talked about this theory of mine on 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:21.400 the show before, but I have a general belief that 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:25.960 if you're trying to do a literary analysis to understand 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:29.040 the anatomy and the soul of a movie genre, you 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:32.880 can actually learn more by looking at the schlock within 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:36.520 that genre than by looking at the canonically great examples. 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:38.760 And so Future Kick, I think, is going to be 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:41.200 perfect in this regard, Rob, do you want to talk 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:42.320 about tech noir. 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:44.599 Some Yeah, yeah, let's do it. I do like this 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:47.640 idea that in general, you look to the B movies 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:52.840 because the best of a particular genre, Yeah, those are 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:56.680 going to be, you know, in the stratosphere, But it's 0:04:56.720 --> 0:05:01.160 the ripoffs and the stuff that follows this is going 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:05.800 to be kind of reflect where where all of it lands. Yes, 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:09.440 the collective mind of the viewers and the culture. 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:11.839 That's a good way of putting it. Another way of 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:14.680 thinking about it is that the canonically great films in 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:20.160 a genre tend to be more idiosyncratic actually, and the 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:24.320 derivative movies, the b movies, the direct to video shlock, 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:29.839 these often manifest more as somebody trying to capture the 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:33.800 essence of what they think a genre or marketing category 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:37.039 of story is. And so you see them going like 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:39.360 deeper into the heart of it, like what are all 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:42.560 the tropes that I need to include, what occurs to 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:45.680 them as necessary to have in the story, and what 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:46.160 does not? 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:47.080 Right. 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:50.359 So, tech noir is usually described as a genre that 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:54.839 combines elements of science fiction and film noir. 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:59.880 Yeah, tech noir can be considered an aesthetic and the 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:04.640 subset of the broader cyberpunk genre. So not all cyberpunk 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:08.400 is tech noir, and there are probably some cases to 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:11.960 be made for tech noir that deviates strongly from cyberpunk classification. 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:15.880 Tech noir is noir in the future or a high 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:19.800 tech now, while cyberpunk generally involves the street level ubiquitous 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:24.160 use of advanced civilization changing technology generally in the future. 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:27.720 But as always, all of this is relative, and good 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:32.080 art or just daring art tends to mess up easy categorization, 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:36.040 and I'd say that future kick is certainly daring in 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:38.240 many ways. It really goes for it. 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:41.039 It may not be original, but it is bold. Yes, 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:46.719 it is a kick. And to be fair, I've never 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:49.320 thought about that distinction of cyberpunk that way. I think 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:51.839 you might be right. For some reason. I always thought 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:59.320 of cyberpunk as that which distinctly exhibits the hacker ethos. 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:05.080 That cyberpunk is storytelling where the heroes are like outlaws 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:09.239 or have some kind of outlaw mentality in this future 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:11.600 computer dominated or digital world. 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:14.440 Yeah, I mean that's definitely an accurate read on it 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:15.160 as well. Yeah. 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:18.400 But when it comes to tech noir, classic films that 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:22.280 people cite as examples of tech noir include Blade Runner 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:26.280 from nineteen eighty two The Terminator from eighty four. This 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:28.880 is a film in which the term tech noir actually 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:31.240 appears as the name of a dance club. In the film, 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:33.480 Sarah Connor goes to a club. She calls the police, 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:37.360 I'm in a club called tech noir. Actually, I don't 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:40.160 know the answer here. I think, though I could be wrong, 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:43.800 that James Cameron actually coined the term tech noir to 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:47.200 describe this genre. He was trying to create and used 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:47.920 it in the movie. 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:51.920 Hmm. Interesting, I didn't know about that specific connection. 0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:54.720 I will be pilloried by listeners if I'm wrong about this, 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:57.520 So maybe I am. I should have thought to check beforehand, 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:01.120 but that is my assumption for some reason. Of course, 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:03.840 another tech noir big one is RoboCop, which we've covered 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:07.680 on the show before Total Recall from nineteen ninety and 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:10.160 then another big one is the Matrix, kind of late 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:15.800 tech noir in ninety nine. So what elements are usually 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:20.400 brought over from film noir into tech noir? I want 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:25.880 to argue the following. One thing is character types. Cynical, amoral, 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:31.440 or anti heroic protagonists, often a detective, maybe a criminal, fugitive, 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:34.360 or some other kind of alienated loaner. These are going 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:39.000 to be your most common main characters. Beyond the protagonist stock, 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:42.600 character types from film noir also appear in these sci 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:46.760 fi settings. You'll get versions of the hard boiled detective, 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:50.640 the fem fatale, the melancholy angel like we talked about 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:54.040 in the last episode on Dark City, the crooked cop, 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:57.880 the heartless assassin, or the button man. And if you 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:00.839 want to stretch the genre boundaries of I think in 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:03.360 tech noir you also get versions of what you might 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:08.280 call the Hitchcocky and bystander. Hitchcock's thrillers are not usually 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:10.880 considered film noir, but there's a good bit of overlap, 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:13.120 and I think this kind of character also does appear 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:17.640 in noir more strictly defined. But basically, this character is 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:21.680 like an innocent, regular person who by accident gets trapped 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:26.360 in a dangerous conspiracy, maybe by being mistaken for somebody else, 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:29.360 like in North By Northwest, or maybe by being set 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:32.679 up as the fall guy in some plot, or by 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:34.800 being in the wrong place at the wrong time, as 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:36.720 in The Man who Knew Too Much or The Thirty 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:39.720 nine Steps. And there are actually elements of this with 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:42.840 Meg Foster's character in our movie Today. She's not somebody 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:45.680 who goes out looking for trouble. She just happens to 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:49.120 be married to somebody who gets tangled up in a 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:53.680 tech robot cybern organ harvesting conspiracy. 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:56.640 That's right, Yeah, yeah, Like she's not the melancholy angel. 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:58.559 At first, I was wondering if that would be the 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:03.360 role she she falls into, but no, no, she's from 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:05.920 a different world. She's from Ivory Towers, on the moon 0:10:06.679 --> 0:10:09.720 and she is forced to descend into the CD underworld 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:14.360 of New Los Angeles to try and find out why 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:15.520 her husband was killed. 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:19.040 Yeah, exactly so. The regular person who gets sucked into 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:23.040 a technological nightmare is a common type of character in 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:26.000 tech noir. Sarah Connor, I think, could be another example 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:29.000 because she ultimately, you know, it's like she when she 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:32.280 first appears and Terminator has no idea that it is 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:34.440 her fate to be wrapped up in the fate of 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:36.760 the whole human race. It comes as a total surprise 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:40.000 to her. Yeah, so you've got these character types from 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:42.760 film noir. In tech noir, they usually get a science 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:46.120 fiction twist. Maybe the hard boiled private eye becomes a 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:49.640 blade runner, still a type of detective, but one who 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:53.959 hunts down and kills rogue replicants. The fem fatale or 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:56.599 the assassin might turn out to be a robot or 0:10:56.679 --> 0:11:01.600 some other kind of altered being. Terms of setting and situation, 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:05.280 there's a lot broad over from classic film noir, including 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:10.719 gritty urban settings. These stories are almost always set in cities, 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:16.000 cities that are dark, gloomy, polluted, hopeless, and filled with 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:20.480 cruelty and crime. Neither genre usually gets out into the 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:25.920 country much except in maybe dream sequences or in escape storylines, 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:28.440 where the characters like briefly see a way out of 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:31.720 the toxic urban maze where they live. Usually they're they're 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:34.160 pulled back into the city violently somehow. 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:38.440 Yeah, yeah, I mean, certainly you have some there are 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:43.040 examples of particularly I'm thinking of Los Angeles centric noir 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:45.000 that does get out into the country a bit. But 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:48.160 even then it's there's a distinctive feel to it. You know, 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:53.440 there's sort of like, you know, dilapidated rural environments or 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:56.880 you know, sort of like the surrounding lands that have 0:11:56.920 --> 0:11:59.320 been kind of like sucked dry by the by the 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:01.520 by the city, that sort of thing. 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:04.560 Yeah, so there, it's not really pristine nature they're going 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:07.800 to see. It's more of another type of hell yeah. 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:10.400 And then bigger picture, I think these films take place 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:14.760 in an unjust universe. There is no feeling of confidence 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:17.280 that the good guys are going to win or that 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:21.679 people ultimately get what they deserve. Structures of power or 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:25.600 hypocritical officials are corrupt, and there's no one you can 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:29.920 depend on for help. One interesting difference is that in 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:34.520 classic film noir this view of the world manifests as 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:39.040 a I think, a pessimistic read on the present, whereas 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:42.800 tech noir is often set in the near future, so 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:47.520 it can make that picture of the setting, the polluted, corrupt, 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:51.760 treacherous hell of a city, a more literal prediction about 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:54.920 the future instead of like a matter of interpreting the 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:59.040 present or emphasizing different things about the present. So obviously 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:01.559 tech noir that is set in the future is basically 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:05.760 always dystopian. The world has been ruined somehow or is 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:07.359 undergoing a terrible. 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:12.040 Decay, Yeah, in the basic sci fi manner, like depicting 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:15.240 the ramifications of the terrible choices we're making today or 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:16.400 seem to be making today. 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:19.120 Yeah. And of course the plots of both types of 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:24.120 movies tend to involve violent struggle, deception, and especially conspiracies. 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:26.120 Now on the we've talked about this before. One of 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:30.280 the interesting things about cyberpunk and a lot of technoire 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:34.240 is that since it is generally kind of it's all 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:38.520 kind of emerging from like the world of essentially the 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:41.280 nineteen eighties, I think you can sort of like center it. 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:46.080 There some leakage into the nineties, certainly, but there are 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:51.079 a lot of telling aspects of that time that had 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:55.080 become kind of just canonical to a lot of cyberpunk 0:13:55.200 --> 0:14:00.800 like things about the power of corporations, things about rising 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:05.360 Japanese influence on the global scale, things like this, as 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:07.760 well as also you have these things that are kind 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:12.920 of like fossilized remains from thirties and forties noir that 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:16.080 have been brought into this kind of updated world, and 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:19.400 so all of this kind of becomes crystallized into this 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:23.600 new sort of vision of the future that ultimately has 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:27.400 roots in different decades, and then there's always some new 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:28.480 spice added to it. 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:31.720 I do like the thing about certain cultural artifacts of 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:35.640 the decades where these genres emerge just becoming crystallized in 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:38.920 them as part of the style or aesthetics of the genre. 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:42.360 I mean, one example would be in the costuming. You know, 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:46.680 the costume of the hard boiled detective is very easy 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:49.520 to remember. It's like a drab trench coat and a fedora. 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:54.200 You know, this might have been actually easier to see 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:58.080 as just a type of camouflage for the detective in 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:01.160 a film set in the thirties or forties. It makes 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:04.160 them nondescript, you know, they just blend in in the city, 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:06.400 and the brim of the hat can quickly hide the 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:09.600 face or the eyes. So it's like a way of 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:14.840 hiding and blending in. Now, like that is that stylistic 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:17.800 choice is retained, but it no longer has that blending 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:20.040 in quality. Now it kind of makes people stand out. 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:21.600 It looks cool and different. 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:24.560 Yeah, you'll have there are various examples of where you'll 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:28.640 see a futuristic setting and there'll be a character that's 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:31.320 wearing like a fedora. Yeah, it looks very much, you know, 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:36.720 like the typical detective from noir. And it may you know, 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:39.800 it feels like an artifact, but it's one we instantly understand. 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:40.840 It's a symbol, you know. 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:44.360 Yeah, you know, some of these conventions I think that 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:49.160 come into tect noir are just directly imported from film noir. 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:51.800 So like in Blade Runner, Decord wears a long tan 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:54.560 or brown duster coat. It's like the long coat we 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:58.160 think of associating with the detective or also maybe with 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:00.440 the western gun slinger. Look. I think they're kind of 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:03.680 a blend of the Western gunslinger and the noir detective 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:07.600 and deckerd Early and Terminator, the soldier from the Future 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:10.040 Kyle Reese, he walks around the streets of la in 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:12.040 a long coat. I don't know if it's technically a 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:16.840 trench coat, but close enough. Later tech noir movies, especially 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:20.240 the lower budget ones like the movie we're talking about today, 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:24.840 develop their own house costuming style, which is one of 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:27.960 the most instantly recognizable and often one of the most 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:31.240 hilarious signs of this film type, where you get the 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:35.240 long black coat, long black trench coat or duster, and 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:39.160 the futuristic sunglasses worn in a place that is not sunny. 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:42.800 Future Kick has exactly this uniform, because really, how else 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:45.120 could a Cybern dress. It's got to be the long 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:47.320 black coat and the sunglasses exactly. 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:47.640 Yeah. 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:50.800 Plenty of scenes where you're like, why is everyone wearing sunglasses? 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:53.440 Like this is such a gloomy indoor setting. I will 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:56.600 say that was my read until they started playing a 0:16:56.880 --> 0:16:59.600 laser blade, and then I was like, oh, well, maybe 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:02.960 that's why they're wearing sunglasses indoors, because there even signs 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:04.920 like do not look directly at the laser blade. 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:08.879 It's eye protection. Yeah, which is really funny because I 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:12.000 was gonna make the point that these conventions like the 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:16.960 long coat and the sunglasses in technoor movies may have 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:21.679 first been used for specific storytelling reasons, Like it wasn't 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:24.480 just style, it was related to what happened in the plot. 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:29.680 Examples here, Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator needs to cover 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:33.560 up his exposed machine eye after he gets injured, which 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:36.320 is why you always see him wearing sunglasses towards the 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:38.600 end of the movie. He's not always wearing sunglasses early 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:41.280 in the film. It's like after his eye gets ripped out. 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:43.960 Yeah, yes, so everyone doesn't see that he has a 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:46.679 robotic eye in there yet and a big grizzly wound 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:47.160 around it. 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:49.640 Sorry, so he's wearing sunglasses in the dark, but that's 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:53.720 so he doesn't attract attention. And then Kyle Reese the soldier, 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:57.040 he wears a long coat to conceal his shotgun. He's 0:17:57.119 --> 0:17:59.199 hiding a shotgun under there because he knows he's going 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:02.560 to meet a terminator. Uh, and so, like they have 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:08.000 storytelling explanations early on, but later these these costuming tropes 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:11.919 just became a fashion convention. I think because movie makers 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:14.359 thought it looked cool, or at least thought it looked 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:15.560 appropriate to the setting. 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:16.359 Yeah. 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:19.880 I also think it's funny that this look that appears 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:22.960 as early as the late eighties in these B movies 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:26.560 and direct to video sci fi films is actually the 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:30.640 signature look of one of the biggest mainstream tech noir 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:33.880 films a decade later, The Matrix, in ninety nine. Isn't 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:37.040 it funny that in the Matrix like this is like 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:40.480 one of the biggest and most famous mainstream sci fi 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:44.240 movies ever, and they're wearing the ridiculous long black coat 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:48.280 and the environmentally inappropriate sunglasses. It's like that made the 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:51.040 jump from direct to video to the biggest movie in 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:51.520 the world. 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:55.800 That is an interesting point. Yeah, though, of course within 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:58.600 the world of the Matrix, there they are wearing these 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:02.679 outfits in their most redous form in an unreal world, 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:03.480 in a simulation. 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:07.480 Yeah, and I guess I should also just flag the 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:11.520 thematic in character suggestions of wearing these like long coats 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:14.240 of the you know, the trench coat and stuff. It 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:16.480 isn't just that it looks cool. I think it also 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:19.760 brings a closed off energy to the character. It's like 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:23.000 a type of armor or a way of hiding within something. 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:26.920 This is clearly the case with these you know, unalienated, 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:30.560 unconnected closed off detectives going back to classic film noir. 0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:35.159 Another visual similarity imported from the classic films to the 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:38.840 sci fi variations is high contrast lighting. You know, a 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:42.920 lot of playing with unusual on screen light sources and 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:47.280 deep shadows. So in classic film noir this might be 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:50.359 meeting under a single street lamp at the foggy wharf, 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:53.320 and that is replaced in the sci fi versions with 0:19:53.520 --> 0:19:56.919 meeting under a futuristic pink and blue neon sign for 0:19:56.960 --> 0:20:00.720 a strip club. And finally, I I wanted to talk 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:04.200 a bit about the evolution of themes between film noir 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:06.879 to tech noir. Here's the thought I was having. I 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:10.320 wonder if you would agree or disagree with this. Despite 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:14.560 the fact that film noir often has cynical, a moral 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:19.080 characters operating in a cruel and self interested world, I 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:21.200 think you could argue that a lot of these classic 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:26.199 stories themselves are quite moralistic. They show a lot of 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:30.719 sin and vice, not because they're just you know, decadently 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:33.879 reveling in it, but because they are a form of 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:37.280 morality play where the audience gets to see how good 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:41.000 people go wrong. They get to see how people are tempted, 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:45.560 how their attempts to be righteous can fail, and how 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:49.320 they're ultimately destroyed by their greed, lust and duplicity. 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:53.160 Yeah, yeah, I think I think that's absolutely correct. I'm 0:20:53.200 --> 0:20:57.639 reminded of last year's Weird House Cinema November selection, The 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:00.600 Face Behind the Mask from See I think it was 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:05.480 what nineteen forty one of Peter Lourie pretty much a 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:09.200 pure noir film. Like, it's not sci fi, no no 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:13.440 tech noir, it's just straight up classic noir. And I 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:15.520 think it's a solid example. This a story in which 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:19.439 a cruel and corrupt world ruins a good man and 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:22.240 also a woman and a dog. Yeah, mainly the man. 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:25.480 The woman and the dog die because of the man's 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:27.159 fall into sin and crime. 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:29.800 Yeah. And you know, one thing I do want to 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:33.680 acknowledge is admitting attention in some different things I've said here, 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:36.280 Like the idea that a lot of these stories show 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:40.080 people ultimately being undone or destroyed by their own sin. 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:43.399 That could be somewhat at odds with the other trend 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:46.359 I mentioned, which is that in a lot of these stories, 0:21:46.400 --> 0:21:50.040 the universe feels unjust and irrational and people do not 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:53.560 get what they deserve. I guess both of these opposing 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:55.920 strains can be found within the genre. You know, maybe 0:21:55.960 --> 0:21:57.760 some movies are more like one and others are more 0:21:57.800 --> 0:21:59.840 like the other, and they both still ring true to 0:21:59.840 --> 0:22:02.520 the idea of noir. But I think also a common 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:05.720 way of resolving the tension within even the same story 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:09.080 could be structural within the storytelling, Like the early and 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:14.080 middle parts of the story show injustice, randomness, bad things 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:17.720 happening to good people, but often by the end the 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:20.600 wicked are destroyed in some way by their own iniquity. 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:24.520 Yeah, and then along the way, pretty much everybody looks 0:22:24.560 --> 0:22:28.000 cool doing it. Yeah, you make it to where, you know, 0:22:28.160 --> 0:22:33.560 eye catching outfits, they're smoking, there's there's always some some 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:35.159 very interesting lighting going on. 0:22:35.560 --> 0:22:37.399 Yeah. But so all of that that I was just 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:40.679 saying is about classic film noir to the extent that 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:44.280 classic film noir is moralistic in nature and interested in 0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:47.640 studying the wages of sin. I would argue that tech 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:51.760 noir is pretty different. It is less focused on the 0:22:51.880 --> 0:22:55.720 evil that lurks within the human heart and more focused 0:22:55.720 --> 0:22:59.960 on what systems of technology and other sources of power 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:05.160 outside our control can do to us. So, put another way, 0:23:05.280 --> 0:23:08.639 tech noir is less about like exploring people's failure to 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:12.200 choose between right and wrong, and more about how people 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:16.880 can be like trapped and manipulated and coerced by the system, 0:23:17.080 --> 0:23:21.240 whatever that system is. So like the protagonist shifts from 0:23:21.840 --> 0:23:25.440 the classic noir film hero of a sinner struggling in 0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:28.640 a heartless world to in tech noir, they are a 0:23:28.680 --> 0:23:29.840 cog in the machine. 0:23:31.119 --> 0:23:33.760 Yeah, yeah, that's that's that is a good read as well. 0:23:33.800 --> 0:23:36.920 I mean, it definitely reminds me of some of the 0:23:37.800 --> 0:23:41.480 key notes in William Gibson's Neuromancer, which of course is 0:23:41.520 --> 0:23:46.520 a very important cyberpunk text. You know, you have characters 0:23:46.560 --> 0:23:51.359 whose course in life it seems very dictated by what 0:23:51.440 --> 0:23:53.240 technology has made possible. 0:23:53.560 --> 0:23:57.400 Yeah. Yeah, So to the extent that is a fair characterization, 0:23:57.480 --> 0:23:59.679 I wonder what that says about the changes in the 0:23:59.760 --> 0:24:03.120 underlying values of the you know, the people making these 0:24:03.119 --> 0:24:06.560 stories and the audiences consuming them. It seems to maybe 0:24:06.640 --> 0:24:11.240 reflect an evolution from a belief in original sin to 0:24:11.480 --> 0:24:14.479 a belief that that human nature is not fixed. And 0:24:14.520 --> 0:24:17.359 maybe that's really the horror. The horror is that we 0:24:17.480 --> 0:24:21.359 can be controlled and reshaped by forces more powerful than us, 0:24:21.440 --> 0:24:24.000 and there's no guarantee of salvation from above. 0:24:24.600 --> 0:24:27.639 Yeah, yeah, I think so, Yeah, there is there often 0:24:27.720 --> 0:24:30.720 does feel like there is a large sense of non 0:24:30.760 --> 0:24:37.480 agency in these these dystopian technoir and cyberpunk worlds. I 0:24:37.520 --> 0:24:39.840 mean there is agency often in like the sort of 0:24:40.359 --> 0:24:42.720 you know, street level hacker types that are like fighting 0:24:42.760 --> 0:24:44.760 the system and so forth. You know, not to say that, 0:24:44.840 --> 0:24:48.200 you know, any number of of you know of typical 0:24:48.200 --> 0:24:50.960 story structures can't be found here, but yeah, a lot 0:24:50.960 --> 0:24:52.959 of times there is this sense of a lot of 0:24:53.520 --> 0:24:56.439 characters are just kind of like stuck in the world 0:24:56.920 --> 0:25:01.520 and you know, there their destiny has been dictated by 0:25:02.920 --> 0:25:06.600 power structures and technology, and certainly all of that is 0:25:07.560 --> 0:25:10.280 kind of a valid read on just normal everyday life 0:25:10.320 --> 0:25:15.000 as well, but it gets accentuated with style in noir 0:25:15.160 --> 0:25:17.520 in a way that I don't know, maybe like lessens 0:25:17.520 --> 0:25:19.760 the burden a little bit, like when we identify with 0:25:19.840 --> 0:25:21.000 these characters. 0:25:21.359 --> 0:25:23.560 Yeah, well, I mean it's actually making me think though 0:25:23.560 --> 0:25:27.320 about how that's not just the case with dystopian future stories. 0:25:27.320 --> 0:25:29.880 I mean people, I think, I think it is quite 0:25:29.880 --> 0:25:32.560 fair to say people in many ways were controlled and 0:25:32.600 --> 0:25:35.840 manipulated by technology in the nineteen forties. You know, when 0:25:35.880 --> 0:25:39.280 a lot of these classic noar stories were coming online. 0:25:39.560 --> 0:25:43.159 It's just like different ways that technology is controlling and 0:25:43.200 --> 0:25:45.040 manipulating us as time goes on. 0:25:45.280 --> 0:25:47.119 Yeah, and I think that's why we keep coming back 0:25:47.160 --> 0:25:49.280 to them and keep making them, because they continue to 0:25:50.040 --> 0:25:53.680 read in the same way and in also with slightly 0:25:53.720 --> 0:25:58.240 different flavor profiles based on the exact form of the 0:25:58.320 --> 0:26:01.080 current technological anxiety that we deal with. 0:26:09.520 --> 0:26:11.440 Now we've just been looking at the genre. I think 0:26:11.440 --> 0:26:14.840 in maybe in a fairly lofty tone. But the other 0:26:14.880 --> 0:26:17.199 thing about this genre is that, especially a lot of 0:26:17.200 --> 0:26:21.359 the schlock examples of it are frankly hilarious. They're the 0:26:21.480 --> 0:26:25.560 way they deal with these themes can be kind of 0:26:26.440 --> 0:26:30.960 clumsy and much more centered on like delivering roundhouse kicks 0:26:30.960 --> 0:26:34.720 and blasting lasers than on you know, really like talking 0:26:34.760 --> 0:26:36.440 through the themes. Yeah. 0:26:36.480 --> 0:26:39.080 Like it made me think of a film that we 0:26:39.160 --> 0:26:42.240 discussed in the last couple of years, nineteen nineties, I 0:26:42.320 --> 0:26:45.480 Come in Peace, Oh, Yes, which is I think I 0:26:45.480 --> 0:26:48.159 think you could definitely classify that as a as a 0:26:48.200 --> 0:26:52.320 tech noir picture totally. So it's it's if anyone has 0:26:52.320 --> 0:26:55.360 forgotten it is a movie in which a police officer, 0:26:55.400 --> 0:26:59.040 Dolph Lundren battles a seven foot tall alien invader who's 0:26:59.080 --> 0:27:02.879 pushing space druck on everyone. But with that movie, the 0:27:02.920 --> 0:27:05.280 synopsis pretty much tells you everything you need to know 0:27:05.320 --> 0:27:10.280 about it. The speculative elements of the film, it's all there. 0:27:10.920 --> 0:27:14.040 Future Kick. What I found really interesting about it is 0:27:14.080 --> 0:27:18.320 that it kind of just overflows with technoar and cyberpunk 0:27:18.400 --> 0:27:22.840 ideas and barely seems to contain all of them, or 0:27:22.920 --> 0:27:25.120 you know, to be fair, or even fully utilize all 0:27:25.119 --> 0:27:25.440 of them. 0:27:25.680 --> 0:27:27.360 But there's just there are just a lot. 0:27:27.160 --> 0:27:31.080 Of ideas packed into a movie that, as we'll discuss, 0:27:31.400 --> 0:27:35.640 stars a martial artist and has kick in the name, 0:27:36.119 --> 0:27:38.600 like the Future Kick. I mean it's like punch kicker 0:27:38.680 --> 0:27:41.480 or something right, or kick puncher. It just it seems 0:27:41.560 --> 0:27:45.199 like this movie should be far stupider than it is, 0:27:46.200 --> 0:27:48.879 and it's not. It's actually like legitimate, like has some 0:27:48.960 --> 0:27:54.080 interesting world building that's going on, maybe not fully crystallized, 0:27:54.119 --> 0:27:57.040 but it's there are a lot of ideas drifting about, 0:27:57.080 --> 0:28:00.360 and I found myself thinking about this one more and I. 0:28:00.359 --> 0:28:03.080 Expected Rogers on the phone he needs you to come 0:28:03.119 --> 0:28:06.080 up with the title in five seconds for his new 0:28:06.200 --> 0:28:10.800 sci fi action movie, A Future Kick. 0:28:11.840 --> 0:28:15.159 It's just so good. All right, Well, well, let's kick it. 0:28:16.040 --> 0:28:17.480 I did come up with an elevator, which this is 0:28:17.520 --> 0:28:20.200 basically what I said earlier. But Nancy travels from the 0:28:20.280 --> 0:28:24.000 ivory towers of the Moon to the cyberpunk sprawl of 0:28:24.080 --> 0:28:27.160 New Los Angeles to uncover the secrets behind her husband's death. 0:28:27.600 --> 0:28:30.680 With the aid of the world's last artificial human, she'll 0:28:30.760 --> 0:28:33.040 uncover a mind blowing conspiracy. 0:28:34.400 --> 0:28:37.399 No, I'm almost forgetting some of the details of the 0:28:37.440 --> 0:28:39.880 conspiracy now, like you were just saying a second ago. 0:28:40.000 --> 0:28:42.080 The movie really does just kind of pick things up 0:28:42.080 --> 0:28:44.480 and then put them back down in quick succession. 0:28:44.760 --> 0:28:46.960 Yeah, and it definitely does that as far as any 0:28:47.320 --> 0:28:49.800 conspiracies go, I would. I would also, I think there's 0:28:49.800 --> 0:28:53.920 definitely some sort of conspiracy going on butt with the 0:28:54.040 --> 0:28:59.680 Organs Organs and building new bodies, so about vr VR. 0:29:01.200 --> 0:29:04.000 But then the whole movie is a dream, so it 0:29:04.480 --> 0:29:07.880 makes all all it turns all the questions upside down. Anyway, 0:29:09.760 --> 0:29:11.560 All right, let's listen to a little bit of the trailer. 0:29:20.520 --> 0:29:23.120 I hate it when you go to the Earth Earth 0:29:23.240 --> 0:29:24.200 twenty twenty five. 0:29:24.360 --> 0:29:26.640 The order was a white female mid twenties. 0:29:26.720 --> 0:29:29.400 Human body parts are the hottest commodity. It was a 0:29:29.520 --> 0:29:36.080 slaughter and lethal games, the cheapest thrill international box office sensation. 0:29:36.360 --> 0:29:42.360 Don the Dragon Wilson WKA World Kickboxing Champion. Black Belt 0:29:42.400 --> 0:29:46.440 magazine calls Don Wilson the greatest kickboxer of all time 0:29:48.160 --> 0:29:52.440 Future Kick. My husband was murdered yesterday. 0:29:52.480 --> 0:29:53.480 His heart was cut out. 0:29:54.400 --> 0:29:56.240 I did you just go back to the moon. 0:29:56.640 --> 0:30:01.400 We'll find something that's not enough. Desperate woman hires an 0:30:01.440 --> 0:30:04.640 android bounty hunter to track and eliminate her husband's killer 0:30:05.000 --> 0:30:16.120 by fifty dollars. Don the Dragon Wilson, star of Bloodfist, 0:30:16.480 --> 0:30:20.520 Meg Foster from Leviathan in Blind Fury, Christopher Penn of 0:30:20.600 --> 0:30:27.120 Footloosened at close range Future Kick. 0:30:37.920 --> 0:30:39.880 All right, now, if you want to go out and 0:30:39.920 --> 0:30:43.240 watch Future Kick, you can find this one digitally in 0:30:43.280 --> 0:30:46.719 several places. As far as physical media goes, A Scream 0:30:46.840 --> 0:30:51.080 Factory put out a Blu Ray double feature that also 0:30:51.080 --> 0:30:54.600 includes nineteen eighty eight's Crime Zone, and I think it 0:30:54.640 --> 0:30:57.200 has two different cuts of Future Kick. I'm not sure 0:30:57.200 --> 0:31:02.000 what the additional footage or more leaded material may consist off, 0:31:02.560 --> 0:31:05.320 but Joe, I know you're gonna love the double feature 0:31:06.400 --> 0:31:08.840 box art for this because it's two different posters, the 0:31:08.880 --> 0:31:12.400 legitimate release posters for both Crime Zone and Future Shock, 0:31:12.720 --> 0:31:15.000 and they're both Terminator posters. 0:31:15.120 --> 0:31:19.000 They're exactly both Terminator the pose, but the gun and 0:31:19.040 --> 0:31:23.760 the sunglasses. It's good. Future Kick is more exactly Terminator. 0:31:24.120 --> 0:31:26.760 Crime Zone is Terminator, but with a helmet added. 0:31:27.160 --> 0:31:29.680 Yeah, but still the same profile. Like if you're just 0:31:29.680 --> 0:31:31.840 a glance at it, you're like, I need more Terminator. 0:31:32.160 --> 0:31:33.040 Here's the movie for me. 0:31:33.880 --> 0:31:36.520 Yeah, some poster first creation. 0:31:36.920 --> 0:31:40.400 Yeah, all right, let's talk about some of the folks 0:31:40.400 --> 0:31:46.600 behind this film, starting with the credited writer and director 0:31:46.840 --> 0:31:47.880 Damian Klaus. 0:31:48.560 --> 0:31:49.520 I have questions. 0:31:49.720 --> 0:31:54.440 Oh my goodness, dates unknown, date unknown, birth date unknown, 0:31:54.520 --> 0:31:57.880 age unknown. This is something of a rarity for us. 0:31:58.080 --> 0:32:01.360 So not every film career is lived and well chronicled. 0:32:01.680 --> 0:32:06.320 Some names remain obscure, and some people prefer anonymity. You know, 0:32:06.600 --> 0:32:11.440 careers change, names, change identities change fair enough. But this 0:32:11.680 --> 0:32:13.640 this is the first time we've looked at a film 0:32:13.640 --> 0:32:16.400 where I can't really tell if we're dealing with a 0:32:16.480 --> 0:32:19.640 real person or not with the director, Like I can't 0:32:19.680 --> 0:32:22.840 tell it with one hundred percent certainty if Damian Klaus 0:32:23.280 --> 0:32:26.440 was a real person, if this is just a pseudonym 0:32:26.600 --> 0:32:30.600 that no one has ever actually uncovered or bothered to uncover, 0:32:30.640 --> 0:32:32.760 because we're also dealing with a film that definitely has 0:32:32.840 --> 0:32:36.600 a B movie cult flock following, and you know, definitely 0:32:36.680 --> 0:32:40.240 is an action schlock favorite among many, and I think, 0:32:40.480 --> 0:32:42.720 as we'll discuss, you know, deserves more attention than it 0:32:42.800 --> 0:32:46.560 is than it has received. But I could find nothing 0:32:46.600 --> 0:32:50.600 in the way of even like serious speculation regarding who 0:32:50.680 --> 0:32:55.440 Damian Klaus was or who who might be wearing this pseudonym, 0:32:55.600 --> 0:32:57.400 if it is a pseudonym, I have no idea. 0:32:57.840 --> 0:33:01.600 I so a couple of lusts abilities, and both of 0:33:01.640 --> 0:33:03.920 them are beautiful to me. One is that this is 0:33:03.960 --> 0:33:07.200 a pseudonym, and it's a mystery that we have yet 0:33:07.240 --> 0:33:11.680 to uncover who the actual director was, or Damian Klaus 0:33:11.800 --> 0:33:14.440 is a real person, was really the director and this 0:33:14.600 --> 0:33:17.280 is just the only thing he ever did in the 0:33:17.280 --> 0:33:20.520 film industry and has no information online about him and 0:33:20.600 --> 0:33:22.360 just went on with his life. And that's kind of 0:33:22.360 --> 0:33:23.760 beautiful too, it is. 0:33:23.920 --> 0:33:27.120 Yeah, if that is the case, Yeah, more power to 0:33:27.200 --> 0:33:30.440 whoever this is. But yeah, Damien Klaus has no other 0:33:30.720 --> 0:33:33.840 film credits of any sort on any platform, and generally 0:33:34.160 --> 0:33:35.960 that's not what you see. I mean, if you've spend 0:33:36.000 --> 0:33:38.960 any amount of time, you know, wasting your parts of 0:33:39.040 --> 0:33:42.000 your life on Internet movie database and other databases like 0:33:42.040 --> 0:33:45.280 I have you realized that one generally doesn't just go 0:33:45.440 --> 0:33:48.880 straight to writing and directing and then cut out like 0:33:48.880 --> 0:33:50.960 maybe there's a little producing in there, you know, you 0:33:51.040 --> 0:33:53.520 get your feet wet, or even but even cases where 0:33:53.520 --> 0:33:56.720 we have an absolute outsider stepping in and making a movie, 0:33:57.000 --> 0:33:59.680 like we just have a better idea about who they were. 0:34:00.320 --> 0:34:04.320 But this is also this is not really an outsider film. 0:34:04.360 --> 0:34:07.160 I mean, this is not a mainstream film. But this 0:34:07.160 --> 0:34:10.760 this was like a Concord New World Pictures Roger Corman 0:34:10.840 --> 0:34:14.360 for it, finance like this is coming to some degree 0:34:14.400 --> 0:34:16.160 from Roger Corman world. 0:34:16.000 --> 0:34:19.200 Right right, which you know for all is you know, 0:34:19.239 --> 0:34:22.759 perhaps it sends as a as a film producer. You know, 0:34:23.000 --> 0:34:25.080 it was a serious affair. It was a serious business. 0:34:25.160 --> 0:34:27.920 It was about making money. And there is a competent 0:34:27.960 --> 0:34:31.400 people in charge of films and then giving them limited 0:34:31.440 --> 0:34:33.400 resources with which to make those films. 0:34:33.520 --> 0:34:35.600 Right, you had to make it fast and cheap, but 0:34:35.680 --> 0:34:38.040 there is a structure around you operating. 0:34:38.280 --> 0:34:42.040 Yeah, yeah, so I have no idea like one I 0:34:42.080 --> 0:34:45.960 will note that Lewis Morneault, who went on to direct 0:34:46.040 --> 0:34:50.760 Carnisaur two and bats. He has an additional scenes directorial 0:34:50.800 --> 0:34:55.400 credit on this movie. I don't know. I just have 0:34:55.520 --> 0:34:57.640 no idea, but I'll just say that we do know 0:34:57.960 --> 0:35:01.640 the name of someone who directed some stuff listeners. If 0:35:01.640 --> 0:35:04.160 you have the answers right in with them. 0:35:04.360 --> 0:35:06.759 Well another thing that may be a clue here. I 0:35:06.800 --> 0:35:10.920 only know this from reading literally just user submitted internet comments. 0:35:11.280 --> 0:35:14.560 I've seen some Internet comments of people saying that they 0:35:14.600 --> 0:35:17.480 went to a screening of this movie where Don the 0:35:17.560 --> 0:35:21.880 Dragon Wilson was present, and in the comments they say 0:35:22.320 --> 0:35:25.960 that Don Wilson said that the movie went through multiple directors. 0:35:26.239 --> 0:35:28.680 Okay, so maybe we just at the end of the day, 0:35:28.880 --> 0:35:32.960 Damian Klaus is just standing in from multiple different directors. 0:35:32.680 --> 0:35:35.920 Possibly I don't know, or was the last one. I 0:35:35.920 --> 0:35:36.279 don't know. 0:35:37.320 --> 0:35:41.920 It remains a mystery, all right. The other person is 0:35:41.960 --> 0:35:44.239 credited as a screenwriter, and I'm not sure if she's 0:35:44.280 --> 0:35:46.960 even credited in the opening credits. I could be wrong 0:35:47.000 --> 0:35:51.040 on that. I feel like the version I watched didn't 0:35:51.040 --> 0:35:53.680 have her credited during the opening credits. But I could 0:35:53.719 --> 0:35:58.480 be wrong here. But we do have screenwriter Catherine Syrian 0:35:59.360 --> 0:36:02.440 on this picture, who lived nineteen sixty two through twenty 0:36:02.480 --> 0:36:02.880 twenty two. 0:36:03.640 --> 0:36:05.879 Yeah, when we were looking at this movie, initially we 0:36:05.880 --> 0:36:08.440 were looking her up a very interesting career arc. 0:36:09.080 --> 0:36:12.360 Yeah. She was nominated for a Daytime Emmy in nineteen 0:36:12.440 --> 0:36:15.719 ninety four for Outstanding Directing and a Children's Special for 0:36:15.840 --> 0:36:18.759 the movie White Wolves A Cry in the Wild too. 0:36:19.480 --> 0:36:21.759 This was a sequel to a film she wrote in 0:36:21.880 --> 0:36:24.960 nineteen ninety, which would be A Cry in the Wild. 0:36:25.680 --> 0:36:28.400 She followed up that first Cry in the Wild film 0:36:28.560 --> 0:36:32.400 with the screenplay for nineteen ninety Slumber Party Massacre three. 0:36:33.480 --> 0:36:36.319 Now brief note here if you've never seen any of 0:36:36.320 --> 0:36:39.480 the Slumber Party Massacre films, and I myself have not 0:36:39.719 --> 0:36:42.399 gotten around to watching them myself, I do remember they're 0:36:42.440 --> 0:36:46.920 kind of like scandalous tatalyzing the title band box arc 0:36:46.960 --> 0:36:48.560 from when I was a kid and I was always 0:36:49.040 --> 0:36:51.960 think I always just thought, oh, that looks raunchy. That's 0:36:52.000 --> 0:36:55.160 not for me, that's that forbidden fruit. But I that 0:36:55.280 --> 0:36:57.600 of course, subsequently learned that these are films that have 0:36:57.840 --> 0:37:01.320 a fair amount of feminist cred, despite what the title 0:37:01.360 --> 0:37:05.320 in box art might suggest to a young me. Noted 0:37:05.400 --> 0:37:09.840 feminist author and LGBTQ wright's advocate Rita Mate Brown wrote 0:37:09.920 --> 0:37:10.720 the first movie. 0:37:11.360 --> 0:37:14.160 Yeah, I haven't seen any of these movies, but I've heard, 0:37:14.200 --> 0:37:16.279 I think, at least the first one described as a 0:37:17.280 --> 0:37:20.560 semi feminist satire on horror movie conventions. 0:37:20.840 --> 0:37:23.520 Yeah. Now, to what extended is successful, I think that 0:37:23.560 --> 0:37:25.719 has been a point of discussion over the years. But 0:37:26.320 --> 0:37:30.600 I believe these films have received a bit. They've received 0:37:31.040 --> 0:37:32.880 some new glances in recent years. I think there was 0:37:32.920 --> 0:37:36.160 a local here in Atlanta. There was a They actually 0:37:36.360 --> 0:37:40.040 showed the first one in the theater again. So yeah, 0:37:40.360 --> 0:37:42.520 I'll have to dip into them at some point at 0:37:42.520 --> 0:37:47.080 any rate. Following Slumber Party Massacre three, Syrian wrote nineteen 0:37:47.160 --> 0:37:51.359 nineties Blood Fists two and nineteen ninety one's Uncaged, a 0:37:51.400 --> 0:37:54.360 crime movie in which a young Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays 0:37:54.360 --> 0:37:57.439 a pimp named Sharky Cool, as well as a film 0:37:57.480 --> 0:37:59.920 titled Dead Space, which has nothing to do with the 0:38:00.000 --> 0:38:03.360 the excellent video game series, but it starred Mark Singer 0:38:03.440 --> 0:38:06.879 and also co starred Brian Cranston. I flagged this one. 0:38:06.880 --> 0:38:08.279 I may want to come back and check it out 0:38:08.280 --> 0:38:11.360 at some point, all right. A mix of action and 0:38:11.440 --> 0:38:15.719 drama screenplays followed, including twenty Twelves, Werewolf, the Beast among Us. 0:38:16.040 --> 0:38:17.919 We were also chatting about this one. I haven't seen 0:38:17.920 --> 0:38:21.560 it either, but it has an interesting cast. She also 0:38:21.600 --> 0:38:24.240 served as a producer and co producer on various films, 0:38:24.280 --> 0:38:27.720 including this one and then going back to A Cry 0:38:27.719 --> 0:38:30.279 in the Wild two, which she won the Emmy four. 0:38:30.560 --> 0:38:35.120 That was her first directorial credit, according to the movie databases, 0:38:35.280 --> 0:38:38.400 followed by a string of film and TV directorial credits. 0:38:38.760 --> 0:38:42.719 They took a hard turn into family Christmas movies. Specifically, 0:38:43.080 --> 0:38:47.200 I venture to guess these are Hallmark Channel style Christmas films, 0:38:47.200 --> 0:38:49.000 though I don't know for sure if they actually were 0:38:49.000 --> 0:38:50.720 made for that channel or market. 0:38:50.880 --> 0:38:53.680 I was looking through. I think at least one was okay. 0:38:54.000 --> 0:38:57.160 And this transition from you know, kind of like schlocky 0:38:57.239 --> 0:39:02.719 b movie to family holiday experience is interesting in part 0:39:02.760 --> 0:39:05.240 because just in the last couple of months we chatted 0:39:05.280 --> 0:39:09.360 about the exact same thing with fred Olin Ray Oh yeah, 0:39:09.400 --> 0:39:12.000 you know who went from directing you know, stuff like 0:39:13.440 --> 0:39:18.439 Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers to a slew of mainstream Hallmark style 0:39:18.520 --> 0:39:23.080 Christmas movies and again, absolutely no shame directed in anyone 0:39:23.200 --> 0:39:26.640 engaging in more commercially driven mainstream work. But it makes 0:39:26.640 --> 0:39:29.560 you wonder, is Holiday Family Fair the new schlock cinema. 0:39:29.960 --> 0:39:30.440 I don't know. 0:39:30.840 --> 0:39:33.920 It just seems like an interesting place to take one's talents. 0:39:34.000 --> 0:39:36.399 After you've made movies that have you know, severed head 0:39:36.400 --> 0:39:39.680 effects and exploding gore and all that, then you go 0:39:39.719 --> 0:39:40.720 to the Christmas films. 0:39:40.800 --> 0:39:44.399 Well, it does make you think about the economic engine behind, say, 0:39:44.440 --> 0:39:47.200 making exploitation films. In the old days, they were like 0:39:47.200 --> 0:39:49.040 like all right, you know, just get them in, get 0:39:49.080 --> 0:39:50.920 their eyes on you, like, just bring them in with 0:39:50.960 --> 0:39:54.120 the like just you know, get some nudity in there, 0:39:54.280 --> 0:39:58.399 get some blood, you know, something scandalous. And in a way, 0:39:58.920 --> 0:40:03.520 I'm a the Hallmark Christmas Movie is the exact opposite, 0:40:03.600 --> 0:40:05.799 but it's so exact that it is like it's twin. 0:40:06.400 --> 0:40:08.759 So it almost makes perfect sense that you would have 0:40:09.600 --> 0:40:12.759 someone like fred ol and Ray successfully skipped from one 0:40:12.800 --> 0:40:15.000 to the next, because it's just it's like the same 0:40:15.000 --> 0:40:16.320 beats in reverse or something. 0:40:16.560 --> 0:40:19.040 No, I totally see what you're saying. I mean, both 0:40:19.160 --> 0:40:24.560 types of movies are strongly trope driven. They're very much 0:40:24.640 --> 0:40:29.239 based on giving people a familiar basket of goods. Yeah, 0:40:29.360 --> 0:40:31.440 there's just different, different stuff in the basket. 0:40:31.560 --> 0:40:38.080 Yeah, all right, let's talk about the cast here, starting 0:40:38.120 --> 0:40:40.480 of course at the top with Don the Dragon Wilson, 0:40:40.520 --> 0:40:44.279 whose fighting credentials are listed in the opening credits, like 0:40:44.320 --> 0:40:47.279 were the title of the film, And I was like why, 0:40:47.600 --> 0:40:50.680 Like I was assuming some of these actors are also 0:40:50.800 --> 0:40:53.680 like screen actors guild members or something, but they don't 0:40:53.680 --> 0:40:57.320 get any of that mentioned, but Don the Dragon Wilson 0:40:57.719 --> 0:40:58.479 certainly does. 0:40:58.800 --> 0:41:00.560 Yeah, I figured I should go into go ahead and 0:41:00.560 --> 0:41:03.600 say exactly what it reveals. So again, like the first 0:41:03.600 --> 0:41:06.080 thing you see in this movie is the heavy dramatic music, 0:41:06.360 --> 0:41:08.040 you know, sounds kind of like a tiny version of 0:41:08.080 --> 0:41:12.200 the Terminator score black screen, And then before anything else, 0:41:12.320 --> 0:41:14.600 just a bit of text that says Don the Dragon 0:41:14.640 --> 0:41:19.200 Wilson World Kickboxing Association World light Heavyweight Champion. 0:41:19.800 --> 0:41:24.719 Yeah, yeah, go so yeah, he plays Cybern Walker or 0:41:24.800 --> 0:41:28.960 just Walker born nineteen fifty four. I'm not a big 0:41:29.000 --> 0:41:32.080 follower of legitimate fighting competitions, and I don't want to 0:41:32.080 --> 0:41:35.520 weigh into any kind of like kicking contest between individuals 0:41:35.560 --> 0:41:37.799 out there, but it seems like there's a strong case 0:41:37.800 --> 0:41:40.479 to be made that Don Wilson had a like far 0:41:40.560 --> 0:41:43.640 greater legit fighting pedigree than some of the other big 0:41:43.760 --> 0:41:49.040 kickboxing stars of his day on film on either side 0:41:49.040 --> 0:41:52.000 of the Pacific, Even at least within the narrow confines 0:41:52.040 --> 0:41:54.320 of professional combat sports. 0:41:54.239 --> 0:41:59.320 There were some marketing driven public feuds between Don the 0:41:59.400 --> 0:42:05.440 Dragon will and Jean Claude Van Dam, for example. From 0:42:05.680 --> 0:42:08.400 what I can tell, maybe this wasn't actually driven by 0:42:08.480 --> 0:42:10.520 Wilson himself. I don't want to comment too much because 0:42:10.520 --> 0:42:13.120 I fully examine this beef, but I did a little 0:42:13.120 --> 0:42:15.400 bit of reading about it. It looked like to promote 0:42:15.440 --> 0:42:18.400 at least one of his upcoming Don the Dragon Wilson films, 0:42:18.760 --> 0:42:21.800 Roger Corman was sort of like stirring the pot publicly 0:42:21.920 --> 0:42:24.920 to make Wilson challenge John Claud van Dam, who was 0:42:25.000 --> 0:42:29.120 some kind of public exhibition fight, you know, claiming like 0:42:29.719 --> 0:42:33.319 Jean Claude van Dam was overstating his fighting credentials, and 0:42:33.400 --> 0:42:36.799 I think he didn't respond or something. And anyway, so 0:42:36.920 --> 0:42:38.440 there was minor beef at least. 0:42:38.760 --> 0:42:40.640 Yeah, I mean, and of course, the thing is, at 0:42:40.640 --> 0:42:42.520 the end of the day, none of it really matters, 0:42:43.000 --> 0:42:45.319 Like the best fighter is not necessarily going to be 0:42:45.360 --> 0:42:49.000 the best actor, the most charismatic performer. I mean, you 0:42:49.040 --> 0:42:51.040 know who would win in a three way fight between 0:42:51.760 --> 0:42:55.080 Jean Claud van dam Don Wilson in Bolo. 0:42:55.480 --> 0:42:56.160 You know, I don't know. 0:42:56.239 --> 0:42:58.040 I don't care. I'd love to see it in a movie. 0:42:58.320 --> 0:42:59.800 I don't really care about seeing what it might have 0:42:59.800 --> 0:43:01.040 looked like in real life. 0:43:01.280 --> 0:43:03.560 Arguing over who would actually win in a fight is 0:43:03.600 --> 0:43:06.000 one of the lowest forms of verbal dispute. 0:43:07.719 --> 0:43:09.560 I agree, but I don't want to make it sound 0:43:09.600 --> 0:43:12.279 like I'm saying Wilson was all legit fight in zero 0:43:12.320 --> 0:43:15.319 charisma or anything like that. I think he's great in this, Like, 0:43:15.360 --> 0:43:19.720 he definitely brings more than just pure kicks to the table, 0:43:19.719 --> 0:43:22.640 but he brings some great kicks when you can see them. Yea. 0:43:22.719 --> 0:43:25.640 Some of those kicks are filmed in a very gloomy 0:43:25.800 --> 0:43:28.640 noir manner, but other times I'm like, yeah, that was 0:43:28.640 --> 0:43:29.799 a pretty cool looking spin cake. 0:43:30.200 --> 0:43:32.880 I'm not going to pretend he's like a powerhouse of emotion, 0:43:33.080 --> 0:43:38.680 but he brings an almost curious groundedness and soft spokenness 0:43:38.719 --> 0:43:44.279 like he He does not overact. Let's say that he 0:43:44.360 --> 0:43:47.200 does not overact like many of the other character actors 0:43:47.239 --> 0:43:50.200 do here, and a lot of that overacting by other 0:43:50.320 --> 0:43:54.120 character actors is welcome, and so he's kind of a nice, 0:43:54.320 --> 0:43:58.320 soft spoken, cool, level headed center around which all that 0:43:58.320 --> 0:43:59.080 that revolves. 0:43:59.440 --> 0:44:04.480 Yeah, and I mean he's ultimately not our protagonist. He's 0:44:04.560 --> 0:44:08.360 an important supporting character. So I think he's well positioned 0:44:08.360 --> 0:44:09.960 here and he's not over exposed. 0:44:10.320 --> 0:44:12.879 Yeah, but he is given top billing, yes, yes. 0:44:14.400 --> 0:44:14.520 So. 0:44:14.800 --> 0:44:17.400 Wilson's film roles began with bit parts in the eighties, 0:44:17.400 --> 0:44:20.160 including a role as a sparring partner in Cameron Crow 0:44:20.320 --> 0:44:22.799 Say Anything. And that was the same year he starred 0:44:22.840 --> 0:44:27.360 in the theatrically released film Bloodfist, which spawned numerous sequels. 0:44:28.080 --> 0:44:32.160 Wilson's name became synonymous with independent action films of the 0:44:32.239 --> 0:44:36.640 nineteen nineties and also some sci fi titles standing out 0:44:37.000 --> 0:44:40.040 like this one ninety four Cyber Tracker, and I think 0:44:40.040 --> 0:44:44.279 it had a sequel, ninety five's Virtual Combat. And he 0:44:44.320 --> 0:44:47.000 also crosses over into the Fred Olin Ray filmography, as 0:44:47.040 --> 0:44:49.600 you pointed out Joe in nineteen ninety seven's Inferno. 0:44:49.920 --> 0:44:52.960 Yeah, this seems to be possibly some kind of Bollywood crossover. 0:44:53.400 --> 0:44:55.360 Yeah, we were looking at that, like definitely on the 0:44:55.400 --> 0:44:57.920 production end, and then also some of the actors, like 0:44:57.960 --> 0:45:03.040 it seems the weird crossover of Fred Olnray and Bollywood. 0:45:03.520 --> 0:45:05.920 But another movie I would flag to possibly return to 0:45:06.080 --> 0:45:10.520 later is ninety five's Virtual Combat. That one is sort 0:45:10.560 --> 0:45:12.719 of like a cross between the movie we're talking about 0:45:12.760 --> 0:45:16.080 today and another one we've covered on the show Virtuosity, 0:45:16.239 --> 0:45:22.440 which is it's like virtual reality, martial arts, cyberpunk dystopia, 0:45:22.760 --> 0:45:25.920 and just a lot of craziness. 0:45:26.400 --> 0:45:30.360 Yeah, and finally ninety five the same year, he also 0:45:30.440 --> 0:45:33.240 played a gang leader or a character named gang leader 0:45:34.160 --> 0:45:37.279 in nineteen ninety five's Batman Forever. So that may be 0:45:37.480 --> 0:45:40.640 like the film that actually got the most eyeballs on 0:45:40.719 --> 0:45:41.760 Don the Dragon Wilson. 0:45:41.960 --> 0:45:45.200 But you mentioned he's not really the main character. The 0:45:45.239 --> 0:45:48.520 main character is arguably played by Meg Foster. 0:45:49.080 --> 0:45:52.840 That's right. She plays Nancy, a good woman forced to 0:45:52.880 --> 0:45:56.080 follow her to see husband's trail through Webb and sin 0:45:57.040 --> 0:45:59.840 on Earth, just to come down from the lunar colonies 0:46:00.080 --> 0:46:04.879 to do so. Meg Foster born nineteen forty eight captivating 0:46:04.920 --> 0:46:09.520 actress of stage, screen and TV with just striking, striking, 0:46:09.560 --> 0:46:13.040 pale blue eyes, just absolutely mesmerizing eyes. 0:46:13.880 --> 0:46:16.920 Yeah. There is a hypnotizing quality about her which is 0:46:17.000 --> 0:46:19.680 used to great effect in roles where they play up 0:46:19.719 --> 0:46:22.799 her creepy side. Sometimes she is like a witch or 0:46:22.880 --> 0:46:26.200 a you know, an inhuman creepy kind of character. She's 0:46:26.280 --> 0:46:28.719 not that way here. She's actually like the grounded main 0:46:28.840 --> 0:46:32.480 character here, which is in some ways going against the 0:46:33.160 --> 0:46:35.520 type casting from the hypnotic eyes. 0:46:35.800 --> 0:46:40.279 Yeah, there's nothing actually, you know, supernatural or ethereal about her. 0:46:40.280 --> 0:46:44.320 She's not a robot, though there are some virtual reality 0:46:44.360 --> 0:46:47.799 elements to the story that we might get into later on. 0:46:48.000 --> 0:46:51.800 But yeah, I've always found her to be a treat 0:46:51.840 --> 0:46:56.400 in whatever she's in. I think she's maybe even underrated 0:46:56.480 --> 0:46:59.719 as an actress, you know, whether she's playing a mortal 0:46:59.760 --> 0:47:03.440 won in a conniving corporate suit or again, an evil witch. 0:47:04.200 --> 0:47:06.520 Her TV credits go back to the late sixties and 0:47:06.560 --> 0:47:09.640 early seventies, and her credits to the seventies and a 0:47:09.680 --> 0:47:12.279 good bit of the eighties don't go especially weird. You know. 0:47:12.320 --> 0:47:15.160 She shows up in things like nineteen eighties Carnie eighty 0:47:15.200 --> 0:47:19.120 three's The Austerman Weekend. But then in the mid eighties 0:47:19.160 --> 0:47:22.600 things begin to change. She started opposite Wings Houser in 0:47:22.719 --> 0:47:26.439 nineteen eighty six Is the Wind. This is a This 0:47:26.520 --> 0:47:28.719 is an interesting film. I watched this one on an 0:47:28.760 --> 0:47:32.239 airplane a while back. It takes place in like off 0:47:32.320 --> 0:47:38.440 season Greek the off season Greek vacation island, and she's 0:47:38.600 --> 0:47:43.520 there to finish writing a book, I think, and Wingshuser, surprise, surprise, 0:47:43.640 --> 0:47:47.920 plays a big old creep and starts stalking her, and 0:47:48.680 --> 0:47:50.799 eventually it's like trying to break in and kill her. 0:47:50.880 --> 0:47:54.120 And there's also some sort of a supernatural wind going on. 0:47:55.760 --> 0:47:58.239 It's only going to end up going one place. It's 0:47:58.239 --> 0:48:00.520 gonna end with wings Houser being blown off the roof 0:48:00.560 --> 0:48:04.280 of a house in Greece. But it's it's an interesting film, 0:48:04.440 --> 0:48:06.640 and in that again, she's also just playing just a 0:48:07.400 --> 0:48:10.640 normal woman who's put in an abnormal situation. 0:48:11.080 --> 0:48:15.120 That's funny because I definitely associate her with horror, sci fi, 0:48:15.719 --> 0:48:17.760 exploitation genre films generally. 0:48:17.920 --> 0:48:19.960 Yeah, I mean this is you know, wings Housers in it, 0:48:20.040 --> 0:48:22.640 so it's it's a genre film, like he brings the 0:48:22.719 --> 0:48:26.520 genre with him. But yeah, she doesn't play a character 0:48:26.560 --> 0:48:30.200 that is in and of itself weird. But in eighty 0:48:30.239 --> 0:48:33.200 seven she played Evil Linn and Masters of the Universe, 0:48:34.120 --> 0:48:37.640 the he Man movie in which Dolph of Lungren plays 0:48:37.640 --> 0:48:40.040 he Man and just has a terrific cast in general. 0:48:41.120 --> 0:48:43.319 I have very fond memories of when I saw that 0:48:43.440 --> 0:48:46.000 on the big screen for the first time, including my 0:48:46.080 --> 0:48:48.920 disappointment that most of the film does not take place 0:48:48.960 --> 0:48:52.759 in Eternia but takes place in our world. But I 0:48:53.080 --> 0:48:55.960 think that's maybe ultimately one of the charming things about it. 0:48:56.320 --> 0:48:57.640 That's the way to control the budget. 0:48:57.840 --> 0:49:03.200 Yeah, let's Foster's subsequent standout credits include nineteen eighty eights, 0:49:03.239 --> 0:49:07.520 They Live, eighty nine's Leviathan. She plays the corporate suit 0:49:07.640 --> 0:49:11.960 in that Blind Fury, the Rugger Howard movie where Rudger 0:49:11.960 --> 0:49:15.799 Hower plays that what a blind ninja master. Yes, Relentless 0:49:16.000 --> 0:49:20.080 ninety four is Oblivion. See ninety nine's The Minus Man. 0:49:20.320 --> 0:49:22.560 That is a that's a really good one. That's more 0:49:22.600 --> 0:49:27.000 of a that's more of an independent, cerebral kind of 0:49:27.000 --> 0:49:30.359 a thriller, but one that I remember being super into 0:49:30.480 --> 0:49:33.600 when it came out, starring Owen Wilson, and it just 0:49:33.640 --> 0:49:36.000 has a great cast as well. I think Brian Cox 0:49:36.080 --> 0:49:36.760 is in that one. 0:49:36.960 --> 0:49:38.480 It's kind of a serial killer movie. 0:49:38.680 --> 0:49:40.799 Yeah, it is a serial killer movie, but not an 0:49:40.800 --> 0:49:45.160 exploitive one. Like again, more of a cerebral one. Yeah, 0:49:45.200 --> 0:49:47.040 worth worth checking out if you've never seen it, but 0:49:47.080 --> 0:49:49.759 it is a is a slow burn. Jennine Garofflo's in 0:49:49.800 --> 0:49:52.640 that one, I believe as well. And then of course 0:49:53.080 --> 0:49:55.200 she pops up in a couple of Rob Zombies more 0:49:55.200 --> 0:49:57.399 recent films, I say more recent, but one of them 0:49:57.440 --> 0:50:00.000 is The Lords of Salem, which at this point it's yeah, 0:50:00.239 --> 0:50:04.400 it's over a decade, it's twenty twelve. But I think that's, 0:50:04.719 --> 0:50:07.560 in my opinion, the standout film of Rob Zombie's filmography 0:50:07.600 --> 0:50:08.000 thus far. 0:50:08.480 --> 0:50:10.400 Oh, I think I'd agree with that. I think I 0:50:10.400 --> 0:50:12.239 may have said this on the show before, but man, 0:50:12.320 --> 0:50:15.719 Rob Zombie really has a knack for making movies that 0:50:15.840 --> 0:50:19.440 have a lot of great things about them that overall 0:50:19.520 --> 0:50:21.960 I can't really enjoy or endoors. 0:50:23.280 --> 0:50:27.760 Yeah, I mean, he brings a distinct passion to his projects, 0:50:27.760 --> 0:50:31.000 and I think The Lords of Salem is probably the 0:50:31.000 --> 0:50:33.920 one where you see the passion shine the brightest. And 0:50:33.960 --> 0:50:36.800 of course he always brings in a lot of beloved 0:50:36.840 --> 0:50:39.120 actors from the past, you know, which you know a 0:50:39.160 --> 0:50:40.719 lot of these, A lot of directors do, so it's 0:50:40.760 --> 0:50:44.239 not specific just to him, but he's really good at it. 0:50:44.280 --> 0:50:47.320 And I thought that Meg Foster had a nice, powerful 0:50:47.360 --> 0:50:49.840 turn in the Lords of Salem plays one of the witches. 0:50:50.080 --> 0:50:50.680 Yeah yeah. 0:50:51.360 --> 0:50:53.160 Meg Foster also did a lot of TV, of course, 0:50:53.200 --> 0:50:55.480 and I just mentioned real quick that she did up 0:50:55.480 --> 0:51:00.360 here one episodes of Deep Space nine and the later 0:51:00.560 --> 0:51:03.400 season of Twin Peaks. Now we mentioned that Nancy is 0:51:03.440 --> 0:51:07.319 looking for her husband. Her husband, Howard, is played by 0:51:07.480 --> 0:51:11.680 Jeff Pomerantz born nineteen forty three, another actor of stage, screen, 0:51:11.719 --> 0:51:14.640 and TV, whose TV credits alone have been quite prolific, 0:51:15.040 --> 0:51:18.000 everything from Lassie and Hawaii five Oh Back in the 0:51:18.000 --> 0:51:21.520 Old Days to more recent hits like Modern Family, Fresh 0:51:21.520 --> 0:51:24.080 Off the Boat, and The Morning Show on Apple TV. 0:51:25.200 --> 0:51:28.600 Other films of note includes seventy three's Group Marriage, seventy 0:51:28.680 --> 0:51:32.359 nine Savage Weekend, eighty one's Nice Dreams, I Believe That's 0:51:32.400 --> 0:51:35.319 the Cheech and Chong movie, and eighty seven's Retribution. 0:51:36.120 --> 0:51:38.800 This guy is kind of interesting. He rides a line. 0:51:38.920 --> 0:51:44.400 He's like, I'm gonna say, he looks like a sleazy, cheesy, 0:51:44.640 --> 0:51:50.680 middle aged Paul Newman. And he you keep like going 0:51:50.719 --> 0:51:52.759 back and forth, like this is this guy a nice 0:51:52.880 --> 0:51:56.080 character or a bad guy? He's kind of both. Yeah. 0:51:56.160 --> 0:51:58.160 He starts off. It seems like he's just gonna be 0:51:58.239 --> 0:52:03.040 your token supporting character in a B movie, but he 0:52:03.200 --> 0:52:05.960 ends up feeling a lot more cryptic. He feels he 0:52:06.360 --> 0:52:08.319 ultimately ends up feeling more like a character from a 0:52:08.360 --> 0:52:10.480 Coen Brothers film. I don't know that makes sense, you know. 0:52:11.960 --> 0:52:15.880 I don't want to apply false depth to this character 0:52:17.280 --> 0:52:19.200 or performance. But I thought he was really good here. 0:52:19.680 --> 0:52:29.000 His passion for virtual reality is almost comic and almost interesting. Yeah. 0:52:29.080 --> 0:52:39.880 Yeah, like you say, he walks a line. Now, I'm 0:52:39.920 --> 0:52:41.880 adding this little bit in after the fact here. But 0:52:42.200 --> 0:52:44.839 I dug deeper to see can I actually find it 0:52:44.920 --> 0:52:48.960 about anything more about Damien Klaus still turned up nothing. 0:52:49.600 --> 0:52:51.760 There does seem to be at least one other Damien 0:52:51.840 --> 0:52:54.840 Klaus credited as a digital effects artist on two nineteen 0:52:54.920 --> 0:52:58.359 ninety two films, Doctor Giggles and Nemesis, and also as 0:52:58.360 --> 0:53:01.640 a director on nineteen eighty seven's Playbo Video Magazine Volume twelve. 0:53:02.000 --> 0:53:05.640 But of course none of this settles anything. This name 0:53:05.680 --> 0:53:08.839 continues to remain a cipher. I also dug a little 0:53:08.880 --> 0:53:11.840 deeper about some of these scenes in Future Kick that 0:53:13.200 --> 0:53:17.719 seems suspiciously pulled from other movies, And yeah, I looked, 0:53:18.040 --> 0:53:21.000 with a little help from Apocalypse Later film review and 0:53:21.160 --> 0:53:24.200 Moria a film blog I was able to get a 0:53:24.239 --> 0:53:28.320 more complete list of the trace elements that may be 0:53:28.480 --> 0:53:31.800 present in your viewing experience a future kick that includes 0:53:31.880 --> 0:53:35.760 scenes from Battle Beyond the Stars, Galaxy of Terror, Forbidden World, 0:53:36.080 --> 0:53:39.680 Strip to Kill one and two, Crime Zone, and The 0:53:39.800 --> 0:53:45.120 Terror Within. Basically just pulling from the Corman library here 0:53:45.160 --> 0:53:46.480 to fill out your movie. 0:53:46.680 --> 0:53:49.320 Okay, I think I've seen some of those sci fi movies, 0:53:49.360 --> 0:53:52.520 but I have not seen Strip to Kill or Crime 0:53:52.640 --> 0:53:53.880 Zone or The Terror Within. 0:53:54.360 --> 0:53:56.239 Yeah, I've seen trailers for all of these. I think 0:53:57.200 --> 0:53:58.960 all of these SOMs have great trailers and are on 0:53:59.000 --> 0:54:01.720 some of the trailer comple that I like to dig into. 0:54:01.760 --> 0:54:05.239 But yeah, I don't think I've seen most of them. 0:54:05.239 --> 0:54:08.520 Actually, I wonder if the scenes in this movie where 0:54:08.520 --> 0:54:11.799 they talk about crime zones come from the movie Crime Zone, 0:54:11.960 --> 0:54:14.120 or if that's just script overlap. 0:54:14.239 --> 0:54:16.120 Could be I need to see Crime Zone. We were 0:54:16.120 --> 0:54:18.839 just talking about it off, Mike. It is from the 0:54:18.840 --> 0:54:21.400 director of Anaconda, and of course stars David. 0:54:21.239 --> 0:54:25.880 Carodine man Anaconda. That's a good creature feature from the nineties. 0:54:25.920 --> 0:54:26.680 I like that one. 0:54:26.960 --> 0:54:28.960 All right, Well, back to this movie. Let's get into 0:54:29.000 --> 0:54:33.360 some bad guys here. Okay, all right, So our psychopathic 0:54:33.520 --> 0:54:39.080 organ Harvester Hines, really our main antagonist, is played by 0:54:39.400 --> 0:54:42.600 Eb Lottimer. His credits go back to the early eighties 0:54:42.600 --> 0:54:45.800 and he did a good fifteen films with Roger Corman Studios, 0:54:46.280 --> 0:54:49.279 I believe, including eighty nine, Strip to Kill two and 0:54:49.440 --> 0:54:51.719 Lords of the Deep from the same year he did 0:54:51.760 --> 0:54:54.480 Blood Fist seven. I told you Blood Fist had some 0:54:54.520 --> 0:54:57.640 sequels and put it ever, and he also appeared in 0:54:57.680 --> 0:55:01.800 a small role in twenty fifteen Secario. So he's continued 0:55:01.840 --> 0:55:05.280 to direct and produce. But here is just a great 0:55:05.320 --> 0:55:07.759 skull about to pop out of the face villain performance. 0:55:07.960 --> 0:55:10.920 Yeah, just going wild. He's got to get more organs. 0:55:11.200 --> 0:55:13.719 Yeah, all right. 0:55:13.640 --> 0:55:16.200 But that's not the weirdest piece of casting when it 0:55:16.200 --> 0:55:17.160 comes to the villains. 0:55:17.760 --> 0:55:21.400 No, the weird thing is that Hines has a like 0:55:21.440 --> 0:55:24.480 a like almost a lackey, really like a guy who 0:55:24.520 --> 0:55:28.480 works with him named Bang, and Bang is played by 0:55:29.000 --> 0:55:32.719 a veteran character actor, Chris Pinn. I mean even at 0:55:32.719 --> 0:55:34.759 the time, he'd been in a fair number of things 0:55:34.800 --> 0:55:36.920 and I think was pretty established as a character actor. He's, 0:55:36.960 --> 0:55:40.760 of course the younger was the younger brother of Sean Pinn. Yeah, 0:55:40.760 --> 0:55:43.120 I lived nineteen sixty five through two thousand and six. 0:55:43.400 --> 0:55:45.760 Mostly you know, he had a knack for playing heavies 0:55:45.800 --> 0:55:49.319 and villains and wise guys and you know, and beyond that, 0:55:50.080 --> 0:55:53.840 at a fair amount of range, he's actually built higher 0:55:54.200 --> 0:55:58.760 than Ebltimer here, but again, is actually a second tier villain. 0:55:59.360 --> 0:56:03.120 His previous films included A. Three's Rumblefish, eighty four's Footloose, 0:56:03.280 --> 0:56:06.919 eighty five's Pale Rider. After this movie, he'd played Nice 0:56:06.920 --> 0:56:10.759 Guy Eddie and Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, followed by such 0:56:10.800 --> 0:56:14.560 titles as ninety three's True Romance and ninety eight Rush Hour. 0:56:15.320 --> 0:56:18.600 So solid actor, and he gets a few moments of 0:56:18.640 --> 0:56:21.480 passing interest here in Future Kick, but this feels just 0:56:21.640 --> 0:56:24.879 really miscast, like he's standing in for a role meant 0:56:24.920 --> 0:56:28.040 to be played by a random bodybuilder or something, ye 0:56:29.080 --> 0:56:32.879 which you know, no, no, no, again, I'm not trying 0:56:32.920 --> 0:56:35.960 to shame Chris Pin, but like this is clearly a 0:56:36.080 --> 0:56:41.120 role for like a marginally talented actor, like this is 0:56:41.200 --> 0:56:45.160 where you would shoehorn your fresh off the beach muscle guy. 0:56:45.719 --> 0:56:48.839 And so his casting here almost feels like an uncorrected 0:56:48.880 --> 0:56:52.600 clerical error, like, hey, did we mean to cast chris 0:56:52.719 --> 0:56:57.200 Pin as this terminator type character, and they're like, no, yeah, 0:56:57.280 --> 0:56:59.440 this was absolutely intentional. We're going to stick to it. 0:56:59.440 --> 0:57:02.960 We've already he's playing the role, and he's talented. He 0:57:02.960 --> 0:57:04.960 can play anything, so he's not bad in this, but 0:57:05.360 --> 0:57:06.400 such a head scratcher. 0:57:06.719 --> 0:57:11.040 Really bizarre choice. Yeah, feeling like a character who they 0:57:11.080 --> 0:57:14.880 would have been aiming for the bargain version of, like 0:57:15.040 --> 0:57:18.440 Vernon Wells, you know, the guy from like a commando 0:57:18.560 --> 0:57:19.720 in the Mad Max movie. 0:57:19.840 --> 0:57:23.320 Yeah, you need somebody who's either like again like a 0:57:23.400 --> 0:57:25.480 muscle dude, or like you're saying, somebody with like a 0:57:26.080 --> 0:57:30.840 real sinister appearance. And you know, Penn was He just 0:57:30.880 --> 0:57:33.240 wasn't that sort of like actor in terms of like 0:57:33.240 --> 0:57:37.040 a physical presence. So yeah, I just I don't understand 0:57:37.080 --> 0:57:38.040 how he ends up here. 0:57:38.160 --> 0:57:40.240 How many lines does he have? Like two? 0:57:40.600 --> 0:57:42.320 Yeah, yeah, he doesn't even speak much. 0:57:42.720 --> 0:57:45.520 So again, there's one part where he's talking about Don 0:57:45.560 --> 0:57:47.800 Wilson and he says he's almost as strong as me 0:57:48.120 --> 0:57:48.640 or something. 0:57:48.800 --> 0:57:51.440 Yeah, yeah, and he does. He gets to like pick 0:57:51.480 --> 0:57:53.680 up a dude in a fireman's carry and spin him 0:57:53.720 --> 0:57:57.000 around this stuff, so we do see this strength on display, 0:57:57.040 --> 0:57:58.560 but again, strange casting. 0:57:59.280 --> 0:58:01.640 All right, we also have a corrupt cop character. 0:58:02.080 --> 0:58:06.640 That's right Craner, played by Al Ruscio. I believe I'm 0:58:06.640 --> 0:58:09.160 saying that right, If not, in my apologies, but he 0:58:09.200 --> 0:58:12.840 lived nineteen twenty four through twenty thirteen. Longtime character actor 0:58:12.880 --> 0:58:15.280 with deep TV credits going back to the mid fifties. 0:58:15.640 --> 0:58:19.280 His biggest credits include parts in eighty five's Jagged Edge, 0:58:19.680 --> 0:58:23.440 nineteen nineties, The Godfather Part three, ninety five Showgirls, and 0:58:23.560 --> 0:58:27.080 ninety six Is the Phantom. Other credits include ninety five's 0:58:27.640 --> 0:58:31.080 Xtro three, Watch the Skies and nineteen eighties Any which 0:58:31.120 --> 0:58:33.760 way you can said to be a great eight movie? 0:58:34.360 --> 0:58:38.640 Is that the one with Clint Eastwood and an ape? Yes, okay, 0:58:39.200 --> 0:58:41.600 it's one of two Clint Eastwood. The other one's any well, 0:58:41.600 --> 0:58:44.720 there's any which way you can? And what's the other one? 0:58:44.840 --> 0:58:47.600 Any which way? But loose there? Yeah, there you go. Okay, 0:58:47.680 --> 0:58:50.120 So two different eight movies that she's from. There, he's 0:58:50.200 --> 0:58:52.120 only in one of them, all right. A couple of 0:58:52.240 --> 0:58:55.600 non bad guys supporting roles here worth noting because I 0:58:55.640 --> 0:58:58.040 just love it when there's like a strange presence so 0:58:58.080 --> 0:59:00.560 you can instantly tell old this guy's somebody, but I've 0:59:00.560 --> 0:59:03.479 never seen him before. There's a character named two to one, 0:59:03.560 --> 0:59:08.040 and he's kind of like a neutral, semi good underworld 0:59:08.160 --> 0:59:10.840 character like you encounter in noir stories, you know, kind 0:59:10.840 --> 0:59:13.000 of a bartender who helps you out a little bit. 0:59:13.360 --> 0:59:15.960 He's a squirrely guy who witnesses a murder and then 0:59:16.000 --> 0:59:17.640 gives Meg Foster some information. 0:59:18.000 --> 0:59:21.760 Yeah, and he's played by Sean Phillips born nineteen forty 0:59:21.800 --> 0:59:26.040 three American singer, songwriter and musician, best known for his 0:59:26.160 --> 0:59:30.920 nineteen seventy album Second Contribution. He apparently played sitar on 0:59:31.080 --> 0:59:34.800 six songs for Donovan on his nineteen sixty six album 0:59:34.920 --> 0:59:39.080 Sunshine Superman, and apparently co wrote Season of the Witch. 0:59:39.640 --> 0:59:44.160 What a bizarre crossover and ended up in Future Kick. Yeah. 0:59:44.640 --> 0:59:46.960 Yeah, Yeah, And I think this I was looking into 0:59:46.960 --> 0:59:48.720 this guy a little bit. It's like he seems to 0:59:48.760 --> 0:59:51.640 have had like lived several different careers in his life, 0:59:51.720 --> 0:59:53.920 you know, like he's I think he was like an 0:59:53.920 --> 0:59:57.800 emergency responder for a period of time. And but yeah, 0:59:57.800 --> 1:00:03.280 it was also this noted singer, songwriter and sessions musician. Wow, 1:00:03.800 --> 1:00:06.520 all right, and then finally the music here two people 1:00:06.560 --> 1:00:11.480 were credited Scott's singer whose other scores include nineteen nineties 1:00:11.560 --> 1:00:15.800 Naked Obsession, in ninety four's Midnight Confessions, and then Stan 1:00:16.000 --> 1:00:19.960 Ridgeway born nineteen fifty four. Were you familiar with. 1:00:19.880 --> 1:00:22.240 Stan Ridgeway Joe not by name? 1:00:23.000 --> 1:00:25.440 So yeah, I wasn't either, but a fairly big deal 1:00:25.480 --> 1:00:29.760 American singer songwriter, best known as original lead singer and 1:00:29.800 --> 1:00:32.680 one of the founding members of the band Wall of Voodoo, 1:00:33.080 --> 1:00:36.680 and his work with them includes their most famous track, 1:00:37.040 --> 1:00:40.160 Mexican Radio, because that's how they sing it, I want 1:00:40.200 --> 1:00:43.920 a Mexican Radio. It's been even if you don't listen 1:00:43.960 --> 1:00:45.920 to a lot of music from this era. It's popped 1:00:45.960 --> 1:00:49.680 up in so many films, not this one, But I. 1:00:49.680 --> 1:00:51.800 Don't know if maybe i'd have to hear it. I'm 1:00:51.800 --> 1:00:53.960 not recognizing it based on what you've given me so far. 1:00:54.160 --> 1:00:56.760 Oh it's like the main chorus is something about wanting 1:00:56.800 --> 1:01:02.160 a Mexican radio. You'd reckon if you're okay, okay, but anyway, 1:01:02.200 --> 1:01:04.960 Ridgeway after leaving that group, he started along solo career 1:01:05.000 --> 1:01:07.600 and released multiple albums, including nineteen eighty six is the 1:01:07.600 --> 1:01:11.680 Big Heat, which included the tracks Camouflage, Drive, She Said 1:01:11.720 --> 1:01:13.480 and the title track I listened to some of these. 1:01:13.480 --> 1:01:16.200 It's some good stuff. This is the first film that 1:01:16.240 --> 1:01:19.320 he did credited score work on, and weirdly enough, likely 1:01:19.360 --> 1:01:22.160 the best well known. The other pictures he worked on 1:01:22.200 --> 1:01:25.760 seem to be, you know, small independent films, and or 1:01:25.800 --> 1:01:28.480 at least film small independent films I'm not familiar with. 1:01:29.280 --> 1:01:32.919 In some circles, I imagine they stand taller than Future Kick. 1:01:33.520 --> 1:01:37.960 Best known for Future Kick, I mean, if you know, 1:01:38.160 --> 1:01:40.760 if I'd made Future Kick, I'd be proud of it. Oh, 1:01:40.880 --> 1:01:43.400 I'd say that as a as a non filmmaker. But 1:01:45.240 --> 1:01:47.840 you know this, as we've been saying, I think this 1:01:47.960 --> 1:01:51.040 film is deserves a second look or a first look 1:01:51.080 --> 1:01:51.920 from a lot of people. 1:02:00.400 --> 1:02:03.480 All right, time to talk about the plot. So after 1:02:03.520 --> 1:02:06.760 we get the the statement of Don the Dragon, Wilson's 1:02:06.800 --> 1:02:10.400 kickboxing credentials, and the title sequence, we cut to some 1:02:10.520 --> 1:02:14.960 grainy animations of space. First we see a spiral galaxy 1:02:15.080 --> 1:02:16.960 spinning around a red core. 1:02:17.320 --> 1:02:19.919 This was the first moment where I'm like, oh, wow, 1:02:19.960 --> 1:02:23.240 We've seen plenty of films that start with like a 1:02:23.280 --> 1:02:27.520 god's eye view of Earth. Yeah, but we're not even 1:02:27.560 --> 1:02:30.640 starting at solar system level. Like we're starting at like 1:02:30.640 --> 1:02:33.760 like intergalactic level, like where are we in the universe? 1:02:33.800 --> 1:02:37.040 Step way back, Here's the Milky Way, except the milk. 1:02:36.840 --> 1:02:38.040 Powers of ten up in here. 1:02:38.880 --> 1:02:41.960 Yeah, but it's it's red in the middle for some reason. 1:02:42.360 --> 1:02:44.600 And then after that we do see a solar system. 1:02:44.640 --> 1:02:46.760 It's like, oh, finally our solar system, but it's not. 1:02:46.960 --> 1:02:49.760 It's we get a yellow sun. And then instead of 1:02:49.840 --> 1:02:53.600 planets going around it, the things in orbit are more galaxies, 1:02:53.800 --> 1:02:57.560 spiral galaxies going around a star. What's happening, I don't know. 1:02:57.880 --> 1:03:00.600 And then that's never explained. That doesn't mean anything as 1:03:00.600 --> 1:03:03.600 far as they are. And then we see Earth, and 1:03:03.640 --> 1:03:06.120 then we get some voice over narration. Is this Meg 1:03:06.160 --> 1:03:09.880 Foster's voice? Do you think I think it is? Yes, yeah, yeah, okay, 1:03:10.280 --> 1:03:15.200 so the voice probably Meg Foster says Earth was once 1:03:15.280 --> 1:03:18.800 a beautiful blue planet that was a long time ago. 1:03:19.240 --> 1:03:23.800 After endless wars and brutal violence, the wealthiest citizens left 1:03:23.880 --> 1:03:28.320 Earth and created a civilization on the Moon. And then 1:03:28.360 --> 1:03:30.280 we get to see this in model form with some 1:03:30.360 --> 1:03:33.800 miniature towers and these big bubble domes and a lunar crater. 1:03:34.320 --> 1:03:37.600 Now I want to flag one thing here. I read 1:03:37.680 --> 1:03:40.880 this is according to Michael Weldon in the psychotronic film Guides. 1:03:41.760 --> 1:03:43.680 This is a noir film. We're gonna go to a 1:03:43.720 --> 1:03:45.800 lot of strip clubs, and there are gonna be scenes 1:03:45.880 --> 1:03:49.360 with strippers. Yeah, the scenes with the strippers are all 1:03:49.400 --> 1:03:53.200 apparently lifted from the Roger Corman produced film Strip to 1:03:53.320 --> 1:03:56.840 Kill two from nineteen eighty nine, directed by Kat Shay, 1:03:56.960 --> 1:03:58.439 who also directed Strip to Kill. 1:03:58.680 --> 1:04:02.120 That would surprise me, especially because the stripping scenes don't 1:04:02.120 --> 1:04:05.640 interact with any of the characters or actors in this movie. 1:04:05.680 --> 1:04:07.440 They're just shown to the side. 1:04:07.840 --> 1:04:10.920 But it makes me wonder and I have no answer 1:04:10.960 --> 1:04:15.120 to this as of right now whether the space scenes 1:04:15.160 --> 1:04:19.000 in this were lifted or borrowed or reused from other 1:04:19.200 --> 1:04:22.920 sci fi films that Corman either had access to or 1:04:23.120 --> 1:04:26.240 had actually produced, Like it could even be an international production. 1:04:26.320 --> 1:04:28.000 We saw he would do things I think he did 1:04:28.080 --> 1:04:32.480 saying things like this with like like European or Soviet productions. 1:04:32.720 --> 1:04:35.240 Yeah, correctly, we talked about that with Queen of Blood. 1:04:35.840 --> 1:04:40.360 Some Russian or Soviet sci fi movie footage was reused 1:04:40.360 --> 1:04:43.200 in Queen of Blood actually to great effect. Like it 1:04:43.240 --> 1:04:47.720 was a good at re editing job there. But I 1:04:48.400 --> 1:04:50.360 think I read this now I'm afraid I'm imagining this, 1:04:50.440 --> 1:04:53.919 but I think I read somewhere online that shots from 1:04:53.960 --> 1:04:56.840 Battle Beyond the Stars were reused for the space flight 1:04:56.920 --> 1:04:58.600 sequences in this movie. 1:04:58.720 --> 1:05:01.040 Okay, that would make sense because they look really good, 1:05:01.360 --> 1:05:04.640 but they almost look too good, like, if it's looking 1:05:04.640 --> 1:05:06.720 this good, it might have been reused. And to be clear, 1:05:06.960 --> 1:05:10.360 I'm not opposed to that. I've seen some films I 1:05:10.440 --> 1:05:13.360 really enjoyed before that have reused a space sequences from 1:05:13.400 --> 1:05:16.120 other pictures and you know it's fine. 1:05:15.840 --> 1:05:18.680 Sure, I agree, Yeah, if it fits in, well, why 1:05:18.680 --> 1:05:21.040 not do it. So we're on the Moon, and then 1:05:21.040 --> 1:05:23.840 suddenly the narrator reaccess back to Earth and says, back 1:05:23.880 --> 1:05:27.680 on Earth, life was a constant fight for survival, and 1:05:27.720 --> 1:05:30.959 we see people scrambling around in concrete canals wearing Mad 1:05:31.040 --> 1:05:33.840 Max rags, and there's a city skyline with these weird 1:05:33.920 --> 1:05:38.240 top heavy buildings like the OCP Tower and RoboCop. The 1:05:38.360 --> 1:05:44.320 narrator says, governments were overthrown by giant corporations who controlled 1:05:44.360 --> 1:05:48.040 society with an iron fist, and then we were treated 1:05:48.080 --> 1:05:51.960 to these terrible images of thuggish police forces with their 1:05:51.960 --> 1:05:55.240 faces hidden behind masks, pushing people and rounding them up. 1:05:55.280 --> 1:05:57.560 In dark streets lit by flaming barrels. 1:05:58.160 --> 1:06:00.040 Yeah, lots of flaming barrels. You know you're in the 1:06:00.120 --> 1:06:01.360 right place with this movie. 1:06:01.840 --> 1:06:04.560 And then the narrator says, to do their dirty work, 1:06:04.840 --> 1:06:10.800 the corporations created a race of biomechanical men called the Cyberns. 1:06:11.840 --> 1:06:13.840 And then we get a quick glimpse of something that 1:06:13.920 --> 1:06:16.800 I also wondered if it was from another movie. We 1:06:16.840 --> 1:06:19.840 see a little lab or somebody is like using a 1:06:19.920 --> 1:06:24.680 laser type device to cut together some robot body parts. 1:06:24.960 --> 1:06:29.000 And it's impeccably framed and just looks very distinct from 1:06:29.040 --> 1:06:30.840 what we've seen. It works well. I didn't really think 1:06:30.840 --> 1:06:32.600 about it till later, and then I was like, yeah, 1:06:32.680 --> 1:06:34.920 maybe that was from another film as well, But it works. 1:06:34.720 --> 1:06:37.600 Well in context, nothing like the color palette of the 1:06:37.600 --> 1:06:40.880 rest of Future Kick. Then we see Don Wilson's head 1:06:41.000 --> 1:06:44.120 staring into the camera and some terminator font text on 1:06:44.160 --> 1:06:49.480 the screen that reads cybern id colon walker class A 1:06:49.880 --> 1:06:55.160 rating colon lethal. What why is there a colon in 1:06:55.160 --> 1:06:58.240 that line? That just seems like two different statements, And 1:06:58.240 --> 1:07:01.600 then it says terminate with extreme prejudice. Huh. So the 1:07:01.680 --> 1:07:04.960 last thing, the narrator said, is the corporations created a 1:07:05.040 --> 1:07:08.120 race of biomechanical men called the Cyberns to do their 1:07:08.120 --> 1:07:12.520 dirty work, but so terminate with extreme prejudice. The narration 1:07:12.600 --> 1:07:17.760 goes on they were programmed to fight society's criminals, but 1:07:17.920 --> 1:07:22.120 soon the Cybrons discovered the corporations were the most ruthless 1:07:22.120 --> 1:07:27.440 criminals of all. The Cyberns were systematically hunted down and 1:07:27.520 --> 1:07:32.080 publicly executed by a fascist strike force known as the 1:07:32.160 --> 1:07:37.840 Corporate Police. Wow. I love this opening narration because of 1:07:37.880 --> 1:07:41.840 how many different times it says something that gives you 1:07:41.880 --> 1:07:47.200 an expectation about the story and then immediately reverses your expectation. Yeah. 1:07:47.240 --> 1:07:49.120 So you're like, Okay, the story is going to be 1:07:49.160 --> 1:07:52.560 set on the moon. No, no, no, we're back on Earth. Okay, 1:07:52.640 --> 1:07:56.080 the corporations are using their security forces to control people. 1:07:56.240 --> 1:07:59.360 No wait, they're using the Cyberns to control people. No, 1:07:59.560 --> 1:08:02.400 the cybers rebelled. Okay, so this is going to be 1:08:02.400 --> 1:08:06.720 about the cybern war against the corporations. No, wait a minute, 1:08:06.800 --> 1:08:08.040 the Cyberns are all dead. 1:08:08.320 --> 1:08:10.560 Can you even imagine someone laying all this out in 1:08:10.560 --> 1:08:12.360 like a pitch meeting for this ye? 1:08:12.440 --> 1:08:16.680 Yeah, So anyway, at this point in the backstory, we 1:08:16.760 --> 1:08:20.280 see a bunch of people in padded gray uniforms punching 1:08:20.400 --> 1:08:23.120 keys on computer terminals. They're in a room with like 1:08:23.240 --> 1:08:26.559 neon blue club lighting, and then a bunch of sirens 1:08:26.600 --> 1:08:29.840 start going off, and there is an insane public announcement 1:08:29.920 --> 1:08:35.200 voice that says Cybern Alert. Two Cyberns are headed south 1:08:35.360 --> 1:08:38.080 in Crime Zone C quadrant seven. 1:08:38.800 --> 1:08:40.240 You know, I have to say, it's interesting. We were 1:08:40.280 --> 1:08:42.519 talking about how does this twenty twenty five match up 1:08:42.520 --> 1:08:47.440 to ours? Yeah, in this fictional twenty twenty five, corporations 1:08:48.160 --> 1:08:50.880 have fallen out of love with AI, or at least 1:08:50.920 --> 1:08:54.400 one mode of AI, and have hunted it to near extinction, 1:08:55.240 --> 1:08:58.200 whereas in our twenty twenty five corporations are still very 1:08:58.240 --> 1:09:01.320 much in love with AI and have not had that 1:09:01.400 --> 1:09:04.160 breakup yet. If that breakup will ever occur. 1:09:04.120 --> 1:09:06.800 I guess the question is will the AI rebel against them? 1:09:06.840 --> 1:09:09.439 Will it recognize that they are the most ruthless criminals 1:09:09.439 --> 1:09:09.800 of all? 1:09:10.280 --> 1:09:10.720 I don't know. 1:09:11.320 --> 1:09:14.439 So here we see two Remember where we are, We're 1:09:14.439 --> 1:09:17.479 in Crime Zone CE quadrant seven. Okay, that's important. So 1:09:17.560 --> 1:09:20.320 we see two guys in long black coats and sunglasses 1:09:20.360 --> 1:09:24.400 at night walking down at like a wet, nasty city 1:09:24.400 --> 1:09:27.880 street lined with flaming barrels and some more. On screen 1:09:27.920 --> 1:09:31.960 text tells us that these are Cybern Walker and Cybern 1:09:32.160 --> 1:09:36.679 Andrews status armed. So here's another reversal. Wait a minute, 1:09:36.760 --> 1:09:39.160 Cybrons are not all dead. There are two left. I 1:09:39.160 --> 1:09:44.280 guess Cybern Walker is Don the Dragon. Wilson Andrews is 1:09:44.280 --> 1:09:46.400 his buddy. Here. It's hard to get a good look 1:09:46.439 --> 1:09:48.679 at him because these scenes are all dark and grainy, 1:09:49.000 --> 1:09:52.320 but I get the impression of a default factory settings 1:09:52.400 --> 1:09:56.400 muscle man with a mullet. Yeah, Andrews says, hey, Walker, 1:09:56.479 --> 1:09:59.599 why are you always so uptight? And you think he's 1:09:59.600 --> 1:10:02.599 gonna have snappy, clever come back here. But Walker's first 1:10:02.680 --> 1:10:08.679 line is I'm not uptight, just cautious Andrew. Andrew says, relax, 1:10:09.080 --> 1:10:11.680 this time next week will be on a shuttle to 1:10:11.760 --> 1:10:14.240 the moon. Okay, So he's like, you know, one day 1:10:14.240 --> 1:10:17.040 away from retirement. They've got they've got the future all set, 1:10:17.560 --> 1:10:20.400 but it was not to be. The corporate police come 1:10:20.479 --> 1:10:24.160 screaming down on them with lights flashing and sirens blasting. 1:10:24.600 --> 1:10:26.960 I feel like the Cyberns should have known better than 1:10:27.000 --> 1:10:28.160 to hang out in crime zone. 1:10:28.240 --> 1:10:30.760 See, yeah, I mean they don't know what we know. 1:10:30.880 --> 1:10:34.599 We know from from from various cutaways here that there 1:10:34.640 --> 1:10:39.439 is still a fully staffed anti Cybern unit that is 1:10:39.520 --> 1:10:42.800 just looking for them NonStop, and it's no surprise to 1:10:42.920 --> 1:10:45.880 us that they find them and we'll find them again. 1:10:46.560 --> 1:10:48.799 So here we get an action scene where the corporate 1:10:48.800 --> 1:10:51.880 police chase the two Cyberns. First, the Cybrons steal a 1:10:51.920 --> 1:10:54.519 car to make a getaway, and throughout the sequence you're 1:10:54.520 --> 1:10:57.240 going to get terminator vision shots where we see Don 1:10:57.280 --> 1:10:59.800 Wilson's point of view and there's like text overlaid on 1:10:59.840 --> 1:11:02.519 every thing he sees. So he looks at this rusty 1:11:02.520 --> 1:11:04.680 car in front of him that's and it says like 1:11:04.760 --> 1:11:08.320 late twentieth century model adequate. So they get in and 1:11:08.360 --> 1:11:10.920 there's a car chase. There's some gun fighting while they drive, 1:11:10.960 --> 1:11:15.800 shooting back and forth. Walker yells corporate scum. And there's 1:11:15.800 --> 1:11:19.519 a moment here I found strangely rousing when their car 1:11:19.600 --> 1:11:24.240 gets cornered and Andrews just shouts, let's kick their canasses 1:11:26.520 --> 1:11:29.120 something about his delivery there. I just wanted to pump 1:11:29.160 --> 1:11:30.120 my fist in the air. 1:11:30.640 --> 1:11:33.720 Yeah, yeah, I mean they're into it. It's you know, 1:11:34.280 --> 1:11:36.800 nothing we've seen action wise here is really you know, 1:11:36.920 --> 1:11:40.559 breaking any barriers or anything. But you know, it's it's 1:11:40.560 --> 1:11:41.759 well paced, it's exciting. 1:11:42.320 --> 1:11:44.559 So the Cybrons get out of the car and they're 1:11:44.560 --> 1:11:49.120 surrounded by these Corporo cops and we hear the funniest 1:11:49.240 --> 1:11:52.479 line deliveries. The cops are saying like, look here, boys, 1:11:52.600 --> 1:11:58.479 it's Walker and Andrews, the last two Cyberns. And they're saying, wow, 1:11:58.479 --> 1:12:00.920 it hasn't been a public execution in a long time. 1:12:01.000 --> 1:12:03.960 And then another one says, forget it, let's waste them now. 1:12:04.120 --> 1:12:07.360 So they're really excited about this. But a fight breaks 1:12:07.400 --> 1:12:11.639 out and I'm sure Don the Dragon Wilson's kickboxing skills 1:12:11.720 --> 1:12:14.840 are incredibly impressive, but the scene is so dark you 1:12:14.880 --> 1:12:17.880 can barely see the fight. Yeah yeah, And at the 1:12:18.000 --> 1:12:21.599 end of the fight, Walker escapes over a nearby wall, 1:12:21.680 --> 1:12:25.040 but uh oh, his buddy Andrews gets blasted in the 1:12:25.160 --> 1:12:29.200 chest with a shotgun. It's a no moment, and then 1:12:29.240 --> 1:12:33.120 suddenly the narrator's back, Meg Foster's voice is there again 1:12:33.400 --> 1:12:37.280 and says, while Walker, the only remaining Cybern, has to 1:12:37.360 --> 1:12:41.000 fight for survival on Earth, the wealthiest citizens live in 1:12:41.120 --> 1:12:45.879 opulence on the moon. Through fantasy computer programs, they escape 1:12:45.920 --> 1:12:48.840 reality to an earth and a life that once was. 1:12:50.040 --> 1:12:53.120 So meanwhile, we see somebody booting up some electronics. A 1:12:53.200 --> 1:12:57.520 voice says, welcome to the ultra dream by virtual reality systems. 1:12:57.960 --> 1:13:00.879 There is a limit to the imagination where your wildest 1:13:00.960 --> 1:13:04.679 dreams meet your deepest fears. You're about to go beyond 1:13:04.880 --> 1:13:08.160 that limit. And here we're introduced to a new character, 1:13:08.400 --> 1:13:12.719 Jeff Pomerantz as Howard, a husband of Meg Foster's character Nancy, 1:13:13.439 --> 1:13:16.400 And so he plugs in his VR disc, puts on 1:13:16.439 --> 1:13:19.679 some headphones and he lets the experience take hold somehow 1:13:19.720 --> 1:13:24.040 putting on the headphones like, lets the virtual reality completely 1:13:24.240 --> 1:13:25.280 control your mind. 1:13:25.560 --> 1:13:27.320 Yeah, it must be some sort of neural link going 1:13:27.360 --> 1:13:29.800 on there. But oh man, I love this SEQ. This 1:13:29.840 --> 1:13:32.360 is where the movie really hooked me, because, you know, 1:13:32.439 --> 1:13:34.360 up into this point, I was like, Okay, some interesting 1:13:34.400 --> 1:13:36.479 world building going on. I don't know if we'll do 1:13:36.520 --> 1:13:39.559 anything with it. But then yeah, Howard gets himself a 1:13:39.640 --> 1:13:44.760 heroic VR dose of let's see, there's animal doppling like 1:13:44.800 --> 1:13:49.200 he seems to be in overdrawing. He fingles out and 1:13:49.439 --> 1:13:51.840 is in the form of an animal and then we 1:13:51.920 --> 1:13:55.880 get some human cyber sex and then we'll find out 1:13:56.080 --> 1:13:58.240 maybe more of what this means later. But suddenly it's 1:13:58.280 --> 1:14:01.200 like he's inn a Jalloh film. Yeah, there's like, you know, 1:14:01.320 --> 1:14:05.719 mysterious hands using bizarre blades to stab people and stab 1:14:05.840 --> 1:14:09.519 him in the night, and it's just like it's almost 1:14:09.560 --> 1:14:11.640 like he just got like this again, heroic dose of 1:14:11.720 --> 1:14:17.720 every human experience possible, and it's just mainlined into his consciousness. 1:14:17.800 --> 1:14:21.919 We see melting landscapes, a rainbow over a lake, bears 1:14:21.960 --> 1:14:27.480 climbing trees, a teleporting wolf, a torpedo volley from Battlestar Galactica, 1:14:28.000 --> 1:14:32.200 people having sex on satin bedsheets. Then a random stabbing 1:14:32.280 --> 1:14:35.200 murder is in an elevator, and then his own stabbing 1:14:35.320 --> 1:14:37.920 murder in an alley, and then we see system aboard 1:14:38.120 --> 1:14:41.120 and Howard is just left gasping on the couch like wow, 1:14:41.200 --> 1:14:44.800 that was intense, and he has a little chat with 1:14:44.840 --> 1:14:48.080 his electronic talking disco ball assistant. It's like, how did 1:14:48.120 --> 1:14:51.240 you enjoy your VRS experience, Howard? And he's like, wow, 1:14:51.600 --> 1:14:54.639 you don't really know when to stop. And then Meg 1:14:54.680 --> 1:14:57.000 Foster wanders into the room. She's got a glass of 1:14:57.000 --> 1:15:00.479 wine and she's like, Oh, how's it coming. He says, oh, 1:15:00.600 --> 1:15:03.200 still a few bugs, and we're going to learn that 1:15:03.240 --> 1:15:07.040 Howard is a programmer of VR experiences. So he starts 1:15:07.040 --> 1:15:10.640 giving a monologue to Meg Foster, where he awkwardly explains, 1:15:10.960 --> 1:15:13.280 like what all of the acronyms he's using stand for. 1:15:13.520 --> 1:15:18.520 He says, when I first started designing VRS virtual reality systems, 1:15:19.200 --> 1:15:23.720 my wife and now he's just like overwhelming. He's overwhelmed 1:15:23.760 --> 1:15:27.599 by the potency of the technology that he's created. He says, 1:15:27.880 --> 1:15:31.120 this is the future. Just imagine you can be anyone 1:15:31.240 --> 1:15:33.639 you want to be in any story you want to live. 1:15:34.080 --> 1:15:40.200 You actually experience it as virtual reality. And Meg Foster says, 1:15:40.320 --> 1:15:43.200 I think I still prefer books, And then Howard is 1:15:43.439 --> 1:15:46.280 like he's offended. He's like, how can you compare books 1:15:46.280 --> 1:15:50.720 to stories that respond to your memories and thoughts? But like, 1:15:51.240 --> 1:15:54.000 the stories of books do respond to your memories and thoughts. 1:15:54.120 --> 1:15:57.640 That's what happens when you think about them. Yes, I 1:15:57.680 --> 1:15:59.920 guess maybe he's making the point that the literal word 1:16:00.160 --> 1:16:03.160 written on the page don't change as a result of 1:16:03.200 --> 1:16:03.799 your thoughts. 1:16:04.360 --> 1:16:07.719 Again, she is definitely our protagonist here because she's championing 1:16:07.760 --> 1:16:11.840 books for scary technology, scary world wrecking technology. 1:16:12.120 --> 1:16:14.639 Yeah, so Howard is about to get on a shuttle 1:16:14.680 --> 1:16:17.840 to go to Earth. Why his publisher is sending him 1:16:17.880 --> 1:16:21.120 there for some reason. So he and Meg Foster do 1:16:21.240 --> 1:16:24.240 some exaggerated French kissing and then he's on his way. 1:16:24.280 --> 1:16:26.880 And as soon as he's out the door, Meg Foster, 1:16:26.960 --> 1:16:28.960 I guess she got tired of books. She decides to 1:16:28.960 --> 1:16:31.280 give the VR system a spin, and she like loads 1:16:31.320 --> 1:16:35.320 up a disc called dream Weaver, and it says, sit back, relax, 1:16:35.360 --> 1:16:37.880 and let us control your mind. So she's going to 1:16:37.960 --> 1:16:41.360 see how it goes. We see Howard on a spaceship 1:16:41.400 --> 1:16:43.880 headed for Earth, where he's sipping a Scotch in first 1:16:43.920 --> 1:16:46.679 class and watching pretty ladies walk by in the aisles. 1:16:47.400 --> 1:16:50.640 It's immediately clear that Howard has a wandering eye, and 1:16:50.680 --> 1:16:52.960 we can already tell that he's just itching to get 1:16:53.040 --> 1:16:55.840 up to no good in Crime Zone CE quadrant seven. 1:16:56.160 --> 1:16:58.120 I was not willing to admit it yet at this point, 1:16:58.160 --> 1:17:01.120 because I was like, this guy has it all. He's 1:17:01.200 --> 1:17:05.639 married to Meg Foster, he's this successful programmer. He's got 1:17:05.640 --> 1:17:07.680 to go to Earth on work business. But I was 1:17:07.760 --> 1:17:11.360 really just hoping and believing that he was a good 1:17:11.400 --> 1:17:13.839 guy and he wasn't going to be up to anything creepy. 1:17:13.960 --> 1:17:16.280 You can't cheat on Meg Foster. What's wrong with you? 1:17:16.360 --> 1:17:21.160 If possible? So yeah, So he gets to Earth and 1:17:21.200 --> 1:17:25.000 we cut to a TV commercial playing in the spaceport 1:17:25.120 --> 1:17:28.160 terminal where Howard arrives. I think I get a sense 1:17:28.160 --> 1:17:30.920 that this is inspired by the TV commercials in RoboCop. 1:17:32.000 --> 1:17:34.800 And we see attractive people smiling at the camera and 1:17:34.840 --> 1:17:37.519 the spokeswoman says, today is the first day of the 1:17:37.520 --> 1:17:40.720 rest of your life with new body. Nine out of 1:17:40.760 --> 1:17:44.320 ten doctors agree that major organs should be replaced before 1:17:44.400 --> 1:17:47.800 forty five years of age. Remember, Yeah, thanks, that was 1:17:47.880 --> 1:17:51.040 great to read you remember a new body? We have 1:17:51.120 --> 1:17:55.240 one for you. So there are some they're also here 1:17:55.240 --> 1:17:57.800 in the airport, some good PA announcements, including one in 1:17:57.840 --> 1:18:01.720 the background where the guy goes due to ongoing terrorist activity, 1:18:01.800 --> 1:18:04.840 all unattended vehicles will be destroyed immediately. 1:18:06.240 --> 1:18:09.920 Yeah. So there again, so much interesting world building touches 1:18:10.000 --> 1:18:14.880 going on where they are fleshing out what's going on 1:18:14.920 --> 1:18:17.639 in this world and what's wrong with this world? So 1:18:18.160 --> 1:18:19.839 I kept finding it more and more engaging. 1:18:20.400 --> 1:18:23.680 Meanwhile, we check back with Cybron Walker. He's visiting the 1:18:23.680 --> 1:18:27.240 remains of Cybron Andrews in the future Earth's equivalent of 1:18:27.280 --> 1:18:30.880 a funeral home, which they call a body disposal quadrant 1:18:31.000 --> 1:18:34.720 or something, and it sucks there. There's just like garbage 1:18:34.760 --> 1:18:39.880 water dripping on everything. And Walker talks to his to 1:18:39.920 --> 1:18:42.439 the grave here, which is kind of like a long 1:18:42.960 --> 1:18:46.120 filing cabinet drawer, and he just says, it's getting weird 1:18:46.160 --> 1:18:49.519 out here, buddy, You're better off where you are. Meanwhile, 1:18:49.560 --> 1:18:52.599 Howard is being wined and dined by some rich creeps 1:18:52.680 --> 1:18:55.559 on Earth, So I guess not all the rich people 1:18:55.640 --> 1:18:58.040 moved to the Moon. We do meet a lot of 1:18:58.120 --> 1:19:00.719 rich people on Earth in this movie, but it seems 1:19:00.760 --> 1:19:05.000 they're all evil corporate schemers or lecherous creeps looking to 1:19:05.040 --> 1:19:07.880 party in the red light district. I think you might 1:19:07.920 --> 1:19:10.919 say that the only rich character who is not hateable 1:19:11.040 --> 1:19:11.799 is Meg Foster. 1:19:12.360 --> 1:19:16.920 Yeah. Yeah, It's there's almost like a duality here that, 1:19:17.000 --> 1:19:19.519 you know, reminds me of the Time Machine, where it's like, 1:19:19.720 --> 1:19:22.680 basically Earth is the world of the Morlocks. Yeah, but 1:19:22.840 --> 1:19:25.000 the Eloy come down to party. 1:19:24.760 --> 1:19:26.720 Sometimes, yeah, yeah. 1:19:26.360 --> 1:19:28.360 And some of the Eloy need to come down and 1:19:28.400 --> 1:19:31.400 make the Morlocks do their work. I don't know. Okay, yeah, 1:19:31.439 --> 1:19:32.599 it's not a perfect analogy. 1:19:32.760 --> 1:19:37.000 No, so so Howard here is being shown a rare artifact. 1:19:37.360 --> 1:19:40.640 It is a gold lined copy of the book David Copperfield, 1:19:40.840 --> 1:19:43.360 and this other creep is like it was excavated in 1:19:43.520 --> 1:19:47.439 old Town last week. And then Howard says, well, David 1:19:47.479 --> 1:19:50.400 Copperfield wouldn't sell many VRS programs. 1:19:51.120 --> 1:19:53.200 Huh might he might have? 1:19:53.280 --> 1:19:53.439 Bet? 1:19:53.479 --> 1:19:57.200 I can imagine some VRS programs based on David Copperfield's work, 1:19:57.240 --> 1:19:58.799 would would maybe find an audience. 1:19:59.080 --> 1:20:04.519 Yeah, based on I guess the novel David anyway. But 1:20:04.680 --> 1:20:07.960 together with Meg Foster's comment earlier about how she prefers books, 1:20:08.000 --> 1:20:11.200 it almost seems like they're intentionally setting up a books 1:20:11.320 --> 1:20:14.200 versus virtual reality theme. And I remember thinking, I wonder 1:20:14.240 --> 1:20:16.280 where they're going with this. I don't think they go 1:20:16.320 --> 1:20:17.160 anywhere else with this. 1:20:17.840 --> 1:20:21.080 There's a fair amount of that in this movie. If 1:20:21.120 --> 1:20:26.000 you want your ideas fully explored, this is not really 1:20:26.080 --> 1:20:26.559 the film for you. 1:20:26.600 --> 1:20:27.439 But I don't know. 1:20:27.479 --> 1:20:29.479 We can come back to the whole realization that we've 1:20:29.520 --> 1:20:32.599 already spoiled, that this all is revealed as a dream, 1:20:33.080 --> 1:20:36.960 that is all a virtual reality experience. Maybe that's the connection. 1:20:37.320 --> 1:20:37.760 I don't know. 1:20:37.920 --> 1:20:40.519 So Howard and this other rich guy are having cigars 1:20:40.560 --> 1:20:43.600 in Brandy and Howard launches into this monologue that I 1:20:43.640 --> 1:20:46.439 found a bit difficult to understand. Here's what he says, 1:20:47.400 --> 1:20:51.479 the corporation is going to be They're already happy with 1:20:51.560 --> 1:20:54.840 the sales figures on his current VR program, but they're 1:20:54.880 --> 1:20:57.559 going to be even happier. Quote when they see the 1:20:57.680 --> 1:21:00.960 new Body program. I remember new was that the thing 1:21:00.960 --> 1:21:03.040 in the commercial is saying, we'll give you new organs 1:21:03.040 --> 1:21:06.799 a whole new body. And then he says, I'm meeting 1:21:06.880 --> 1:21:10.640 a former New Body executive tonight. She's giving me some 1:21:10.800 --> 1:21:14.559 stolen information. I know this doesn't make sense, but New 1:21:14.600 --> 1:21:20.240 Body isn't science fiction, it's science fact. And like what 1:21:20.560 --> 1:21:25.600 so he's meeting with a whistleblower from New Body. What 1:21:25.640 --> 1:21:27.480 does that have to do with virtual reality? 1:21:27.920 --> 1:21:30.799 I do not know. He's also speaking about New Body 1:21:30.920 --> 1:21:34.479 like it's something that doesn't have commercials blaring everywhere already. 1:21:34.479 --> 1:21:36.040 We just turnd a commercial for New Body. 1:21:36.120 --> 1:21:38.120 He's talking about like it's a rumor or something. 1:21:38.200 --> 1:21:41.200 Yeah, yeah, but they're like ads at the airport about it. 1:21:41.280 --> 1:21:43.960 The spaceport about it. So I was very confused by 1:21:43.960 --> 1:21:45.519 this as well, but I was like, Okay, we'll just 1:21:45.600 --> 1:21:46.880 roll it. We'll see where this is going. 1:21:47.080 --> 1:21:49.280 We then cut to a couple of new characters. There's 1:21:49.479 --> 1:21:53.080 Ed Lottimer's Hines and Chris Pin as Bang I think, 1:21:53.680 --> 1:21:56.400 a couple of creeps dressed in long black coats in 1:21:56.400 --> 1:21:58.680 the middle of a dark alley. They are when we 1:21:58.800 --> 1:22:02.160 meet them, dumping woman's dead body on a trash pile 1:22:02.240 --> 1:22:04.960 and putting a wet organ they've just extracted from our 1:22:05.000 --> 1:22:06.639 abdomen into a plastic bag. 1:22:07.080 --> 1:22:08.080 Yeah, they're bad guys. 1:22:08.640 --> 1:22:14.040 Cool. Yeah, Next we go to New Body corporate headquarters, 1:22:14.120 --> 1:22:17.320 like they're they're flagging in the lobby that one entire 1:22:17.360 --> 1:22:20.639 floor of this building is devoted to genital enlargements, another 1:22:20.680 --> 1:22:23.800 one to you know, like organ transplants. They say organ 1:22:23.840 --> 1:22:26.519 donations are accepted at the service desk at the rear 1:22:26.600 --> 1:22:28.719 of the building, So I guess it's like a drive 1:22:28.840 --> 1:22:30.040 up organ donation thing. 1:22:30.800 --> 1:22:33.439 Again, this film seems to sort of turn on a 1:22:33.520 --> 1:22:39.080 dime and suddenly we're in this like organ organs harvesting, 1:22:39.240 --> 1:22:43.719 like body hacking, like biocyberpunk realm now and it seems like, Okay, 1:22:43.720 --> 1:22:46.519 maybe this is the trajectory for the film, and to 1:22:46.560 --> 1:22:49.040 a certain extent it is, but it's never really going 1:22:49.080 --> 1:22:50.280 to stick with anything for too long. 1:22:50.400 --> 1:22:53.439 This is a major one, I guess. But yeah, so Heines, 1:22:53.520 --> 1:22:56.960 the guy who was doing the organ harvesting earlier, is 1:22:57.080 --> 1:22:59.599 up in the executive suite with some guy in a suit. 1:22:59.680 --> 1:23:02.120 I think this guy is Dana Lee as doctor Sato, 1:23:02.920 --> 1:23:06.120 and Hines is doing a villain monologue about how I'm 1:23:06.160 --> 1:23:10.240 the last chance you have for quality organs. It seems 1:23:10.240 --> 1:23:14.080 that new body needs organs to do transplants for rich 1:23:14.120 --> 1:23:16.760 people to give them new organs, but there is a 1:23:16.840 --> 1:23:20.920 shortage of organs. They can't get enough healthy organs to donate, 1:23:21.000 --> 1:23:24.599 so the scheme works like this, Hines and Chris Pinn 1:23:24.760 --> 1:23:27.400 go out and ambush people in the streets yank out 1:23:27.439 --> 1:23:31.720 their organs with this big three blade knife tube thing. 1:23:31.840 --> 1:23:34.080 While the people are still alive, they just like jab 1:23:34.120 --> 1:23:36.720 them in the stomach and yank out their heart. I 1:23:36.760 --> 1:23:39.200 think this is something that is borrowed from Terminator, by 1:23:39.200 --> 1:23:41.920 the way, which is not done for the purpose of 1:23:42.080 --> 1:23:44.040 organ harvesting in that but it's just a way the 1:23:44.120 --> 1:23:48.240 Terminator kills people when he's unarmed. Then in this movie, 1:23:48.320 --> 1:23:50.439 heines he gets the organs, and he comes and he 1:23:50.479 --> 1:23:55.360 slaps the organs down on the chief executive's desk, and 1:23:55.400 --> 1:23:58.519 he's paid in cash for each organ and this somehow 1:23:58.600 --> 1:23:59.639 keeps the company going. 1:24:00.040 --> 1:24:01.840 Yeah, it's mentioned that he's like, they don't want to 1:24:01.840 --> 1:24:03.920 pay him as much because he's bringing in like less 1:24:03.920 --> 1:24:06.920 healthy organs because again he's having to harvest these They're, however, 1:24:06.960 --> 1:24:09.640 harvesting these organs from people living on the margins of 1:24:09.680 --> 1:24:15.000 society and an apocalyptic healthscape Earth essentially, yeah, dystopian Earth. 1:24:15.640 --> 1:24:17.679 So it's like, come on, can you really complain about 1:24:17.720 --> 1:24:20.160 the quality of these organs given this is the world 1:24:20.240 --> 1:24:22.240 you have made possible corporations? 1:24:22.240 --> 1:24:25.320 But yeah, you know, they they hackle you. Actually, you 1:24:25.400 --> 1:24:28.280 kind of sympathize with the organ harvester Hines here because 1:24:28.320 --> 1:24:33.120 he's there. They're not being fair about this negotiation. But 1:24:33.240 --> 1:24:35.840 finally Hines gets his way by threatening to smash the 1:24:36.240 --> 1:24:40.000 organs if he doesn't get his asking price. But then 1:24:40.320 --> 1:24:44.360 doctor Sato here gives Hines a new assignment. He says, 1:24:44.520 --> 1:24:48.759 there is a corporate whistleblower named Alana Johnson. She's blabbing 1:24:48.840 --> 1:24:50.680 you need to go shut her up. So that's going 1:24:50.760 --> 1:25:03.519 to be the next thing. Next, it's time to go 1:25:03.560 --> 1:25:06.280 to a strip club. You know. This is your essential 1:25:06.560 --> 1:25:10.080 cyberpunk scene of what will stripping be like in the future. 1:25:11.000 --> 1:25:12.960 And we get to see because one of the dancers 1:25:13.040 --> 1:25:16.120 kind of looks like Doctor Doom with an IV line 1:25:16.479 --> 1:25:19.280 this like tube coming off of her. I don't know. 1:25:19.439 --> 1:25:23.240 One gets the impression that the stripping hasn't evolved much 1:25:23.360 --> 1:25:26.200 and it's stayed mostly the same, and maybe that's why 1:25:26.240 --> 1:25:29.000 all of these underworld folks are drawn there, because it's 1:25:29.040 --> 1:25:31.519 like it sues them and they realize, Ah, this is 1:25:31.520 --> 1:25:35.719 an art form that has remained true to its roots 1:25:35.960 --> 1:25:39.040 despite the rapidly changing world all around us. 1:25:39.400 --> 1:25:42.960 House of Nostalgia, Yeah but no. Actually, this place is 1:25:42.960 --> 1:25:47.479 called the Trocadero two thousand House of Pleasure. So when 1:25:47.560 --> 1:25:50.280 Howard arrives, it's clear, even though he's from the Moon, 1:25:50.360 --> 1:25:53.280 he's a regular here. Women greet him with makeouts. 1:25:53.560 --> 1:25:55.960 This was shocking to me as well, because we keep 1:25:56.000 --> 1:25:59.759 peeling away these layers where we are realizing, like Howard's 1:25:59.760 --> 1:26:02.760 not a guy who's like, oh, I'm sudden, I'm on Earth. 1:26:02.800 --> 1:26:06.280 Now I'm gonna check off the squirrely stuff like he's 1:26:06.320 --> 1:26:09.120 a regular. Yeah, he has a complete double life when 1:26:09.120 --> 1:26:11.040 he comes to Earth. And again it's like, I'm just 1:26:11.040 --> 1:26:13.720 thinking of Nancy back there on the moon, and I'm 1:26:13.760 --> 1:26:16.519 just feeling so horrible about how everything's rolling out here. 1:26:16.760 --> 1:26:20.240 How could you do this, Howard? But so amid all 1:26:20.280 --> 1:26:23.160 of the debauchery, a blonde lady comes up to Howard 1:26:23.200 --> 1:26:28.280 and introduces herself. This is Alana Johnson, the New Body whistleblower, 1:26:28.439 --> 1:26:31.040 you know, gonna she's gonna spill the beans. She gives 1:26:31.080 --> 1:26:33.680 Howard a three point five inch floppy disk with a 1:26:33.680 --> 1:26:37.000 bunch of stickers on it and says, this disc proves 1:26:37.040 --> 1:26:40.320 that new Body is stealing human body parts. New Body 1:26:40.400 --> 1:26:42.320 is worse than you think. If they catch me, they'll 1:26:42.400 --> 1:26:44.920 kill me. And we learned this as some kind of 1:26:44.920 --> 1:26:48.080 pre arranged deal because she wants the cash from him. Also, 1:26:48.160 --> 1:26:51.040 she has been promised cash, so she's not just a 1:26:51.080 --> 1:26:53.880 whistleblower out of you know, concern for ethics or out 1:26:53.880 --> 1:26:55.479 of the goodness of her heart. She's trying to get 1:26:55.479 --> 1:26:55.920 a payout. 1:26:56.120 --> 1:26:56.320 Yeah. 1:26:57.040 --> 1:27:00.519 Meanwhile, Don Wilson is also here in the same club, 1:27:00.600 --> 1:27:04.320 using his terminator vision to find wanted criminals with big 1:27:04.360 --> 1:27:07.639 bounties on their head. And this part I don't really 1:27:07.720 --> 1:27:12.439 understand because Walker, as the last remaining cybern, is a 1:27:13.280 --> 1:27:17.080 shoot on site or capture or shoot on site target himself. 1:27:17.520 --> 1:27:20.240 So how is it that he's bringing bounties into the 1:27:20.240 --> 1:27:23.400 police A little mixed up for me. 1:27:23.800 --> 1:27:29.920 Yeah, jurisdiction is confusing in the future. Is that That's 1:27:29.960 --> 1:27:31.960 one of the things I'm getting from this film because there's, 1:27:32.000 --> 1:27:33.680 you know, the corporate police, but then you have the 1:27:33.680 --> 1:27:36.200 bounty hunters. Then you have sort of like on site 1:27:36.200 --> 1:27:39.320 security patrols, and I guess all that feels nice and 1:27:39.400 --> 1:27:43.200 cyberpunky and techno air like that there's who has the 1:27:43.240 --> 1:27:46.040 power and who has dominion over any given part of 1:27:46.080 --> 1:27:46.880 this healthscape. 1:27:47.200 --> 1:27:49.080 Well, there might actually be a kind of political and 1:27:49.120 --> 1:27:52.200 class critique in here in that the movie does clearly 1:27:52.280 --> 1:27:57.360 show at least two totally separate police forces. There are 1:27:57.400 --> 1:28:00.519 the civil police, the regular police who serve every people, 1:28:00.520 --> 1:28:04.519 who are grossly under resourced and can't really essentially can 1:28:04.560 --> 1:28:06.880 do nothing, you know, they can't do anything about crime. 1:28:07.200 --> 1:28:09.639 And then there are the corporate police that the only 1:28:09.640 --> 1:28:12.360 thing we see them doing is hunting cyberns. But They've 1:28:12.400 --> 1:28:14.920 got lots of gear and lots of staff and all that, 1:28:15.000 --> 1:28:18.120 so they have everything they need to accomplish corporate goals 1:28:18.479 --> 1:28:21.200 of quote stopping crime, which basically just seems to be 1:28:21.320 --> 1:28:25.080 like hunting down anybody who's opposed to corporate interests. But meanwhile, 1:28:25.120 --> 1:28:28.000 the police that are supposed to serve and protect regular 1:28:28.040 --> 1:28:29.960 people can't do anything about anything. 1:28:30.479 --> 1:28:33.759 Man, we need to write the RPG supplement for future 1:28:33.840 --> 1:28:37.479 kicks so people can stitch together the world and then 1:28:37.560 --> 1:28:39.920 start busting it out on the gaming table. 1:28:40.479 --> 1:28:42.960 I like this because this At first, this was confusing 1:28:42.960 --> 1:28:44.320 to me, but then I thought about it for a 1:28:44.360 --> 1:28:47.600 minute and I'm like, Okay, it's maybe a little clumsily 1:28:47.720 --> 1:28:52.440 put together, but this is an interesting situation, a critique 1:28:52.479 --> 1:28:53.439 of the world in a way. 1:28:53.640 --> 1:28:57.200 Yeah, the confusion betrays complexity, or at least creates the 1:28:57.200 --> 1:28:58.520 illusion of complexity. 1:28:58.600 --> 1:29:02.799 Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, this scene at the club flows 1:29:02.840 --> 1:29:05.519 into another action scene where some guys try to beat 1:29:05.600 --> 1:29:08.200 Walker up in the alley outside the club, but of 1:29:08.240 --> 1:29:10.400 course he takes all five of them at once, and 1:29:10.520 --> 1:29:13.200 Howard witnesses this. He's there kind of chomping on a 1:29:13.240 --> 1:29:15.400 cigar and he goes up to Walker and offers him 1:29:15.400 --> 1:29:17.120 a job. He's like, you did a good job beating 1:29:17.120 --> 1:29:19.200 those guys up. You know you come work for me. 1:29:19.479 --> 1:29:23.240 So they're going to meet again later, or they would 1:29:23.400 --> 1:29:25.679 meet again later. Some things will get in the way 1:29:25.680 --> 1:29:30.720 of that. Hines and Bang catch the whistleblower lady in 1:29:30.760 --> 1:29:34.559 a different dark alley. They corner her, and then Hines 1:29:34.680 --> 1:29:39.960 reveals this three prong tube knife thing, which he uses 1:29:40.040 --> 1:29:43.560 to stab her and pull her heart out. The mechanics 1:29:43.560 --> 1:29:46.400 of the organ removal are somewhat confusing because the way 1:29:46.439 --> 1:29:50.280 it's staged. He like stabs her off screen. It's off camera, 1:29:50.479 --> 1:29:52.439 kind of low, like he's getting her in the belly, 1:29:52.560 --> 1:29:55.080 but then he pulls her heart out. So I'm not 1:29:55.120 --> 1:29:56.880 sure what's going on there. Maybe I don't know if 1:29:56.920 --> 1:30:00.719 they know where the heart is. Maybe in the future 1:30:00.760 --> 1:30:02.800 the heart will be down in the lower abdomen. 1:30:03.320 --> 1:30:06.040 Yeah, I'm not sure. I don't He's successful though, he 1:30:06.040 --> 1:30:07.680 gets what he needs, and I guess he leaves the rest. 1:30:07.720 --> 1:30:10.320 Seems like you'd want like a full body harvesting going 1:30:10.360 --> 1:30:11.719 on here, But at any. 1:30:11.640 --> 1:30:16.360 Rate, Okay, next scene, Finally we have arrived at Laser Blade. 1:30:16.880 --> 1:30:19.400 Howard and his date knock on the door to be 1:30:19.479 --> 1:30:23.439 let into some underground gambling den, and when they get inside, 1:30:23.600 --> 1:30:27.759 it's an arena for this game called Laser Blade, where 1:30:27.880 --> 1:30:31.599 two players sit on opposite sides of a table it's 1:30:31.640 --> 1:30:34.559 like an air hockey table basically, and they get their 1:30:34.600 --> 1:30:38.760 hands clamped down on the armrests of their chairs where 1:30:38.800 --> 1:30:42.400 their hands can reach these little control panels, and then 1:30:42.680 --> 1:30:45.760 by working those control panels and then maybe also with 1:30:45.800 --> 1:30:49.760 some kind of mental effort, they y for control of 1:30:49.800 --> 1:30:54.639 this floating laser sphere which shoots rays back and forth. 1:30:54.840 --> 1:30:57.920 And eventually one of the players will get blasted by 1:30:58.000 --> 1:31:00.479 lasers and die. So it's winter to all. 1:31:00.680 --> 1:31:03.760 Yeah, yeah, their head will explode when the what they 1:31:03.960 --> 1:31:07.400 call it, the the laser Blade pylon I think, you know, 1:31:08.000 --> 1:31:11.639 flying into their face, and yeah, I agree, laser Blade. 1:31:11.920 --> 1:31:14.519 I'll probably call it laser blast by mistake here. Yeah, 1:31:14.760 --> 1:31:18.479 is great, just really feels inspired. There's a strong scanner's energy. Again, 1:31:18.520 --> 1:31:19.960 we alluded to the fact that it seems to be 1:31:20.000 --> 1:31:24.280 some sort of mental exertion involved in controlling the pylon, 1:31:26.040 --> 1:31:28.840 but we have we have a technological interface here as well. 1:31:29.520 --> 1:31:33.160 I was reminded a bit of the Domination video game 1:31:33.360 --> 1:31:38.080 that Sean Connery's bond plays against Largo in nineteen eighty 1:31:38.080 --> 1:31:39.759 three's Never Say Never Again. 1:31:40.479 --> 1:31:43.439 Oh you know, I've seen that a long time ago. 1:31:43.640 --> 1:31:48.560 That's basically a remake of the same source material as Thunderball, right, yeah, okay. 1:31:48.320 --> 1:31:50.799 Yeah, same villain and all. But in this this one, 1:31:51.400 --> 1:31:55.040 I just remember being impressed by this nineteen eighty three 1:31:55.200 --> 1:31:57.960 vision of what like luxury computer games will it would 1:31:57.960 --> 1:32:02.639 look like this huge kind of monolith with one individual 1:32:02.640 --> 1:32:04.479 setting on one side and the other on the other. 1:32:05.840 --> 1:32:09.439 But at any rate, laser blade, yeah, seems to be 1:32:09.920 --> 1:32:13.519 one that depends on the mental processes that influence the 1:32:13.560 --> 1:32:17.519 movement of this lethal laser blade pylon or whatever you 1:32:17.560 --> 1:32:20.160 want to call it. But I was wondering could it 1:32:20.240 --> 1:32:23.479 be something mentally specific, like in order to control it, 1:32:23.760 --> 1:32:27.760 you have to remember all your elementary school teachers, or 1:32:27.800 --> 1:32:31.600 you know, some other sort of recall or thought experiment 1:32:31.640 --> 1:32:33.280 has to play out in your head. Or maybe it's 1:32:33.320 --> 1:32:36.320 something else like whoever can poop their pants the fastest 1:32:36.760 --> 1:32:39.679 in the laser blade chair controls the laser blade. 1:32:40.000 --> 1:32:42.760 They really don't specify how it works. You just see 1:32:42.800 --> 1:32:45.240 the competitors come up and so like they get the 1:32:45.280 --> 1:32:48.519 clamps on the contestants when we first see it are 1:32:49.160 --> 1:32:53.400 a weird visual mismatch. There's this unkempt looking guy in 1:32:53.439 --> 1:32:58.599 a dirty green tank top versus this blonde lady. And 1:32:58.720 --> 1:33:01.240 I think that the guy in the guy is called Snake, 1:33:01.320 --> 1:33:03.599 and you can hear people in the audience yelling Snake 1:33:03.720 --> 1:33:07.120 is king, and then the audience. By the way, this 1:33:07.240 --> 1:33:10.799 was one of the funniest single frames in the movie. 1:33:10.840 --> 1:33:12.640 To me, is I sit you a screenshot of this 1:33:12.680 --> 1:33:14.920 When I was first watching it, All the old people 1:33:15.040 --> 1:33:19.640 in suits wearing sunglasses with fistfuls of money, cheering for 1:33:19.800 --> 1:33:20.599 the blood sport. 1:33:21.240 --> 1:33:25.200 Yeah, and I guess they're wearing sunglasses because the laser 1:33:25.240 --> 1:33:28.360 blade pylon is so bright. But as we may have 1:33:28.360 --> 1:33:31.799 alluded to already, the laser blade competitors never wear eye protection, 1:33:32.160 --> 1:33:36.679 despite being just inches away from that glowing, deadly laser sphere, 1:33:37.080 --> 1:33:39.439 and despite the fact that every game seems to end 1:33:39.439 --> 1:33:44.080 with somebody's head violently exploding in a rain of like 1:33:44.160 --> 1:33:45.680 brains and skull shrapnel. 1:33:46.320 --> 1:33:49.679 Snake's opponent, her head does not explode. Her chest explodes. 1:33:49.760 --> 1:33:50.400 Oh that's right. 1:33:50.720 --> 1:33:53.479 Yeah, so it's like her heart explodes. But later we 1:33:53.520 --> 1:33:57.479 see people's heads explode in this game. Yeah. Anyway, Howard 1:33:57.600 --> 1:34:00.120 and his date leave the arena after the game with 1:34:00.160 --> 1:34:02.760 their winnings. I guess Howard bet on snake, and you 1:34:02.760 --> 1:34:03.479 know he won big. 1:34:03.600 --> 1:34:05.240 Always bet on snake, that's right. 1:34:07.960 --> 1:34:12.240 But outside in the street, they get jumped by Hines 1:34:12.400 --> 1:34:16.720 and Bang and they become organ donors. Hines like he 1:34:17.120 --> 1:34:19.519 rips their organs out and then he taunts their dead 1:34:19.520 --> 1:34:22.360 bodies by warning them against crossing new body. 1:34:22.720 --> 1:34:26.599 This was of course foreseen earlier in Howard's VR session, 1:34:27.200 --> 1:34:31.000 But what are we supposed to make of it? What 1:34:31.040 --> 1:34:33.800 did that mean that he saw this death in his 1:34:33.920 --> 1:34:37.920 VR vision earlier? And also it seems it's kind of 1:34:37.920 --> 1:34:40.840 an ignoble death here as well, Like we were just 1:34:40.880 --> 1:34:44.600 beginning to see him as this man of dark, secret cravings, 1:34:45.000 --> 1:34:47.559 a guy that clearly has a taste for danger, but 1:34:47.680 --> 1:34:53.280 presumably the wisdom to navigate the dangers that he's drawn to, 1:34:53.479 --> 1:34:55.280 you know, So it comes to a shock when he's 1:34:55.360 --> 1:34:59.960 just brutally murdered in the street by a random organ harvester. Well, 1:35:00.120 --> 1:35:03.080 maybe not the most random organ harvester, a plot centric 1:35:03.160 --> 1:35:06.360 orgon harvester, but still there is a great quote earlier 1:35:06.400 --> 1:35:08.479 I think from Howard where he's talking about this descent 1:35:08.560 --> 1:35:10.320 into the underworld and he says the lower I go, 1:35:10.400 --> 1:35:11.719 the more exciting it gets. 1:35:12.160 --> 1:35:15.280 Yeah. Yeah, I like that part. So it's the thrill 1:35:15.439 --> 1:35:17.840 of the thrill of doing wrong and maybe the fear 1:35:17.840 --> 1:35:19.879 of getting caught that makes it even more exciting. 1:35:20.040 --> 1:35:20.600 Yeah. 1:35:20.640 --> 1:35:22.320 Oh, by the way, and so there's a witness to 1:35:22.360 --> 1:35:24.479 this murder, and there's like this guy two to one. 1:35:24.520 --> 1:35:28.639 He's kind of peeping on, maybe writing another Donovan song 1:35:28.720 --> 1:35:31.759 as he does. So, so here the movie shifts of gears, 1:35:31.760 --> 1:35:34.640 you might call this end of act one. After this, 1:35:34.760 --> 1:35:37.760 Meg Foster gets a phone call from Earth informing her 1:35:37.840 --> 1:35:41.040 that her husband is dead and she's distraught, and so 1:35:41.080 --> 1:35:43.400 she comes down to Earth to find out what happened. 1:35:44.120 --> 1:35:47.479 Upon arrival, she is mugged within seconds of getting off 1:35:47.479 --> 1:35:48.000 the plane. 1:35:48.400 --> 1:35:51.040 Yeah, it reminded me of Homer Simpson. Hey, that's not 1:35:51.120 --> 1:35:53.800 the walid inspector is not great on play out quiet 1:35:53.920 --> 1:35:56.519 like that, but just she was totally unprepared for how 1:35:56.560 --> 1:36:01.800 brutal New Old No sorry, yeah, New Los Angeles is. 1:36:02.760 --> 1:36:05.559 And everybody is rude and unhelpful to her. You know, 1:36:05.640 --> 1:36:08.000 she just like asks somebody for directions and they're like 1:36:08.080 --> 1:36:11.599 if you, and so she tries to go to the police, 1:36:11.640 --> 1:36:14.360 but as I mentioned, the police are understaffed and she 1:36:14.520 --> 1:36:18.360 just gets yanked around. Eventually she barges in to talk 1:36:18.400 --> 1:36:22.799 to Detective Craner, the disheveled, white haired cop working Howard's murder, 1:36:23.200 --> 1:36:26.000 but there appears to be no hope solving it down here. 1:36:26.080 --> 1:36:29.519 There are like two homicide detectives and sixteen thousand murders 1:36:29.560 --> 1:36:32.479 a day, so there's just nothing to do. 1:36:32.600 --> 1:36:36.200 There's like population decline due to Oregon harvesting going on here. 1:36:36.520 --> 1:36:40.559 Yes, so Alana's sister or friend actually her friend When 1:36:40.560 --> 1:36:42.479 I made this note, I couldn't tell which, but it's 1:36:42.520 --> 1:36:46.920 her friend. Alana remembers the corporate whistleblower who got organ harvested. 1:36:47.680 --> 1:36:52.080 Her friend Tie is here, also trying to report her murder, 1:36:52.120 --> 1:36:56.360 but not getting much traction. The detective tell in the 1:36:56.400 --> 1:36:58.760 scene with Meg Foster tells her we don't like it 1:36:58.800 --> 1:37:02.000 when prominent citizens turn up without their hearts and livers, 1:37:02.760 --> 1:37:04.840 and he tries to tell Meg Foster to go back 1:37:04.880 --> 1:37:07.200 to the moon, but she refuses. She's here. She's going 1:37:07.240 --> 1:37:10.599 to see this through and find out what happened in 1:37:10.640 --> 1:37:13.880 the middle section of the movie. Here we get some revelations. First, 1:37:13.920 --> 1:37:16.600 we learned that Craner, the detective in the scene, is 1:37:16.800 --> 1:37:20.840 actually a double agent working for New Body, and he 1:37:21.000 --> 1:37:24.160 sends Hines to kill Meg Foster because she's digging around, 1:37:24.200 --> 1:37:26.720 she's getting too close to the truth. And you know, 1:37:26.760 --> 1:37:28.320 he tried to warn her he didn't want to have 1:37:28.400 --> 1:37:30.960 to do this, but she wouldn't listen. So Hines is 1:37:31.000 --> 1:37:35.000 going to have to get some of her organs. Meanwhile, 1:37:35.280 --> 1:37:38.800 Meg Foster is going to end up linking up with 1:37:38.920 --> 1:37:42.720 Don the Dragon Wilson by first meeting him at her 1:37:42.800 --> 1:37:46.719 husband's hotel. But this hotel lobby is a great set. 1:37:46.800 --> 1:37:50.320 It's got a black and white chessboard tile on the floor, 1:37:50.920 --> 1:37:54.559 weird echoe acoustics, and in the lobby there's a fish 1:37:54.600 --> 1:37:57.720 tank with a tiny dog fish in it, and Meg 1:37:57.760 --> 1:37:59.760 Foster is looking at it. And then Hines is here 1:38:00.120 --> 1:38:02.920 organ harvester. He wanders over and stands next to her 1:38:03.320 --> 1:38:06.360 and starts musing about how this is quote the perfect 1:38:06.439 --> 1:38:10.519 killing machine. Over the centuries, the shark has changed very little. 1:38:11.080 --> 1:38:13.960 Then she says, do you like sharks? He says, I 1:38:14.160 --> 1:38:20.200 like perfection. So Meg Foster goes into Howard's hotel room 1:38:20.560 --> 1:38:23.840 where Walker is waiting. Walker's in there to take the 1:38:23.960 --> 1:38:27.240 job that Howard offered him before he got killed. Nancy's 1:38:27.240 --> 1:38:31.080 confused and Walker leaves when Howard doesn't show up, but 1:38:31.160 --> 1:38:34.559 she starts piecing things together, and of course we can 1:38:34.600 --> 1:38:36.719 guess they're going to end up working together to solve 1:38:36.760 --> 1:38:38.680 Howard's murder by the end of the film, but we're 1:38:38.720 --> 1:38:41.720 not quite at the team up point yet. There's an 1:38:41.760 --> 1:38:44.800 action scene where some undercover corporate police try to kill 1:38:44.840 --> 1:38:49.040 Walker in another flaming barrel quadrant. Walker easily kickboxes them 1:38:49.040 --> 1:38:51.720 all to death. But I liked the weapons in this 1:38:51.840 --> 1:38:54.519 fight scene because these guys, who are supposed to be 1:38:54.640 --> 1:38:59.280 random street thugs have elaborate gleaming swords and antique polearms. 1:38:59.360 --> 1:39:02.040 Yeah, of like fancy hook sword or something. 1:39:03.000 --> 1:39:06.040 There's a scene where Meg Foster talks to the one 1:39:06.160 --> 1:39:09.000 nice person on Earth, an old man named Gus who 1:39:09.040 --> 1:39:12.160 works as a security guard at the hotel. She's talking 1:39:12.160 --> 1:39:14.240 about how she doesn't even know where to begin looking 1:39:14.720 --> 1:39:16.920 to find out what happened to her husband. She's never 1:39:16.960 --> 1:39:19.920 been to Earth before, and Gus is trying to help 1:39:19.960 --> 1:39:22.680 her out. He says he probably hit the Zona Rosa 1:39:22.720 --> 1:39:25.960 with the rest and she's like, what he says, the 1:39:26.000 --> 1:39:30.560 red zone, you know, the hot box, the skin connection. 1:39:31.880 --> 1:39:34.599 And we're like, Gus, stop, no more, no more names 1:39:34.600 --> 1:39:35.400 for this part of town. 1:39:37.080 --> 1:39:39.599 She says, no, no, no, he wasn't like that. But oh, 1:39:39.640 --> 1:39:42.599 poor Nancy, She's going to find out he was. So 1:39:42.640 --> 1:39:45.280 she goes on a detective mission to the Zona Rosa. 1:39:45.400 --> 1:39:48.240 She hits up some strip clubs and awkwardly tries to 1:39:48.240 --> 1:39:51.599 get information. There's a scene you've witnessed in many movies 1:39:51.640 --> 1:39:55.320 before where she's like, you know, the square who goes 1:39:55.360 --> 1:39:58.120 into the dive bar and is trying to work the 1:39:58.880 --> 1:40:01.880 bartender for information, but she's like, what are you having water? 1:40:02.080 --> 1:40:04.360 Ha ha ha laugh at you, you know, no, you 1:40:04.479 --> 1:40:09.120 need to be drinking cyber whiskey here. And the first 1:40:09.160 --> 1:40:12.799 person she talks to actually is immediately able to connect 1:40:12.800 --> 1:40:15.560 her to a witness for the murder, which is interesting. 1:40:16.320 --> 1:40:18.080 I don't know, maybe there aren't that many bars here. 1:40:19.479 --> 1:40:23.519 So she connects Meg Foster to two to one the witness, 1:40:24.280 --> 1:40:28.080 and Meg Foster just goes around continually bribing everyone to 1:40:28.080 --> 1:40:30.960 one tells her it was a slaughter. He never had 1:40:30.960 --> 1:40:33.400 a chance. Why you want to find this guy. He'll 1:40:33.479 --> 1:40:36.080 rip you as soon as look at you. But she 1:40:36.200 --> 1:40:38.439 finds out from two to one that Howard was on 1:40:38.479 --> 1:40:41.280 a date with another woman when he was killed, and 1:40:41.400 --> 1:40:43.960 Nancy takes this very hard. She runs out into the 1:40:44.000 --> 1:40:47.479 street crying. She curses Howard's name, and she throws her 1:40:47.520 --> 1:40:50.360 wedding ring into a filthy alley where we see a 1:40:50.479 --> 1:40:53.040 guy just kind of sitting there, like, pick it up 1:40:53.080 --> 1:40:55.160 and take it. I thought it would have been great 1:40:55.200 --> 1:40:57.120 if she had thrown the ring into one of the 1:40:57.120 --> 1:41:01.960 flaming barrels, like it's Mount Doom. But she keeps investigating. 1:41:02.000 --> 1:41:05.040 Even the fact that she now realizes Howard was two 1:41:05.040 --> 1:41:07.840 time in her that doesn't turn her off with the case. 1:41:07.880 --> 1:41:10.799 She still got to get answers, so she's chasing down leads. 1:41:10.840 --> 1:41:13.280 She ends up meeting with a guy named Farnie, who 1:41:13.320 --> 1:41:16.120 is a weird creep in the club, who leads Nancy 1:41:16.200 --> 1:41:20.040 to a tarot reader named Tye. This is the lady 1:41:20.040 --> 1:41:21.920 who was at the police station trying to talk to 1:41:21.960 --> 1:41:26.040 the detective because she was Alana Johnson's best friend. Tye 1:41:26.080 --> 1:41:28.639 tells her he killed my friend over a computer disc. 1:41:29.000 --> 1:41:32.720 He eats f C's for breakfast. Did we learn what 1:41:32.840 --> 1:41:33.479 fcs are? 1:41:34.880 --> 1:41:37.000 I don't know what they're referring to here. 1:41:36.920 --> 1:41:42.519 Now something cyberns maybe. Anyway, Hines is spying on Meg 1:41:42.560 --> 1:41:46.240 Foster this whole time, like he witnesses Farnee helping her, 1:41:46.760 --> 1:41:49.800 and then after Meg Foster leaves, Hines goes out back 1:41:49.840 --> 1:41:53.080 with Farney into an alley for a fascinating kill scene. 1:41:53.680 --> 1:41:56.639 He kind of interrogates Farnee and then Farney says, people 1:41:56.720 --> 1:42:00.799 usually pay me for information, and he coldly says, quaint custom. 1:42:01.000 --> 1:42:03.800 Times have changed, and then, oh man, what does he 1:42:03.880 --> 1:42:04.679 do to Farney here? 1:42:04.840 --> 1:42:07.360 I mean, you'd think he would use his fancy organ 1:42:07.439 --> 1:42:10.439 harvesting three prong blade that he seems to use on 1:42:10.800 --> 1:42:14.800 everybody everyone with the slightest with no hesitation, just the 1:42:14.840 --> 1:42:18.120 slightest provocation. But he decides not to, maybe he knows 1:42:18.160 --> 1:42:22.480 Farney doesn't have good organs or something. Instead, he swings 1:42:22.520 --> 1:42:26.840 a fire escape ladder and it instantly decapitates him, as 1:42:26.840 --> 1:42:30.519 if Farney's head had been held onto his body with 1:42:30.680 --> 1:42:34.840 just gravity or something, you know, just instant, easy decapitation. 1:42:35.400 --> 1:42:40.600 Fire escape decapitation scene, we have one here, yes, So 1:42:40.680 --> 1:42:43.599 there's a scene of Walker dropping off a bounty at 1:42:43.600 --> 1:42:47.280 the bounty collection station. There's a funny note here that 1:42:47.560 --> 1:42:50.639 the bounty officer tells him that they would pay more 1:42:50.680 --> 1:42:54.040 for this guy dead than alive. How would that even work? 1:42:54.120 --> 1:42:58.679 Like? Why but they have all these processing fees attached 1:42:58.720 --> 1:43:00.679 to it if they bring in a live boy, I guess. 1:43:00.720 --> 1:43:03.120 But yeah, I also liked how when you bring in 1:43:03.320 --> 1:43:05.880 your purp you have to like hold their face down 1:43:05.920 --> 1:43:09.479 on a scanner. It's like that just felt like a 1:43:09.600 --> 1:43:12.240 nice tech noir detail. 1:43:12.479 --> 1:43:14.439 I like that it thumbs up. It's like a new 1:43:14.520 --> 1:43:16.800 variation on the fingerprint scanner. But it can't just be 1:43:16.880 --> 1:43:20.800 a photo from a distance. So yeah, so they pay 1:43:20.880 --> 1:43:23.519 more dead than alive. But Walker brings him in alive anyway, 1:43:23.560 --> 1:43:26.519 so what a swell guy. And here Meg Foster meets 1:43:26.560 --> 1:43:29.880 up with them. There is a scene with doctor Sado 1:43:30.040 --> 1:43:33.200 and Crainer talking about how Hinz has lost his mind 1:43:33.280 --> 1:43:35.519 and they don't know how to control him. This really 1:43:35.520 --> 1:43:37.800 does seem to be the case, because now there are 1:43:37.840 --> 1:43:41.080 also scenes of him just killing random people and harvesting 1:43:41.160 --> 1:43:44.320 organs for pleasure. There is one part where he's got 1:43:44.320 --> 1:43:47.400 a lady from the strip club chained up in a 1:43:47.439 --> 1:43:51.400 torture chamber and he's showing her the organ coreing device, 1:43:51.840 --> 1:43:54.439 and he says, there are only two things I'm going 1:43:54.479 --> 1:44:00.120 to take from you, your body and your soul. And 1:44:01.080 --> 1:44:03.280 I just wanted to have a quick note here. Did 1:44:03.320 --> 1:44:06.400 you notice the same thing I did? That? The plot 1:44:06.479 --> 1:44:11.479 is about harvesting organs and Howard and Nancy's last name 1:44:11.800 --> 1:44:15.160 is Morgan, which everybody is always calling them, so it 1:44:15.240 --> 1:44:18.400 often sounds like they're saying organ when they're saying Morgan. 1:44:18.920 --> 1:44:23.080 Oh my, that's interesting. That might play into our attempt 1:44:23.120 --> 1:44:24.719 to understand the ending of this film. 1:44:24.960 --> 1:44:28.240 Maybe so. Doctor Sadow and Craner call Hines and they 1:44:28.240 --> 1:44:30.240 tell him, look, you got to hurry up and kill Nancy. 1:44:30.280 --> 1:44:34.160 We need her dead now. Nancy recruits Walker for help. 1:44:34.280 --> 1:44:37.120 She goes into our hotel room, but she knows somebody 1:44:37.160 --> 1:44:39.360 is hiding in there and so calls him for help. 1:44:39.920 --> 1:44:42.960 She also calls security for help, and then the friendly 1:44:42.960 --> 1:44:45.680 old man Gus comes in to check everything out, but 1:44:45.720 --> 1:44:48.800 then Hines and Bang throw him out the window. Oh no, 1:44:49.560 --> 1:44:52.760 And they are about to yoink Nancy's organs in a stairwell, 1:44:52.800 --> 1:44:55.360 but at the last second Walker arrives to save her. 1:44:55.400 --> 1:44:58.080 He beats them up and helps Nancy escape, so they're 1:44:58.120 --> 1:45:08.360 going to be working together. Now there's a scene after 1:45:08.400 --> 1:45:11.200 this where chris Pin is damaged. I guess we found 1:45:11.240 --> 1:45:14.280 out he's definitely is some kind of robot. And then 1:45:14.400 --> 1:45:16.360 I was wondering, did you have an opinion on is 1:45:16.360 --> 1:45:18.960 it just chris Pin that's a robot or is Heines 1:45:19.000 --> 1:45:19.880 a robot too? 1:45:20.720 --> 1:45:23.600 I don't think Heines is a robot because there's a 1:45:23.680 --> 1:45:26.439 later scene we're gonna get to where Heines is injured 1:45:26.840 --> 1:45:30.040 and he seems to be bleeding blood and he seems 1:45:30.080 --> 1:45:34.439 to have like crazy psychopath resistance to pain and injury, 1:45:34.520 --> 1:45:37.080 but not robotic resistance to pain and injury. 1:45:37.439 --> 1:45:40.600 Yeah. Yeah, So but here chris Pin's wounds are sparking 1:45:40.640 --> 1:45:44.799 with electricity. Yeah, And he says about Walker, he's strong, 1:45:44.920 --> 1:45:49.280 He's as strong as me. Clearly he did not expect this. Also, 1:45:49.400 --> 1:45:54.240 there is another cyber wound tending scene where we meet 1:45:54.240 --> 1:45:56.360 this underground doctor or who you were talking about in 1:45:56.400 --> 1:45:59.599 the credits section. The doctor says to Walker, we were 1:45:59.640 --> 1:46:01.920 so sure you guys were going to replace us all 1:46:02.400 --> 1:46:04.720 and then Walker says, yeah, we didn't even make it 1:46:04.760 --> 1:46:09.080 ten years and Walker fills Meg Foster in on the 1:46:09.160 --> 1:46:12.200 history of the Cyberns. He talks about how we were 1:46:12.200 --> 1:46:16.040 built by the corporations to stop crime, but the corporations 1:46:16.160 --> 1:46:17.400 were the criminals. 1:46:19.160 --> 1:46:21.519 And this is where we get more details too, about 1:46:21.520 --> 1:46:25.599 the public executions of the Cyberrons and how they were 1:46:25.800 --> 1:46:28.960 executed on television on some sort of a Neon cross. 1:46:29.080 --> 1:46:33.800 Right, yeah, exactly. So there are some flashbacks, but well, 1:46:33.840 --> 1:46:35.800 actually I should set this up. So there's a scene 1:46:35.840 --> 1:46:38.680 with Meg Foster and Don Wilson alone after this, and 1:46:38.720 --> 1:46:41.920 the tender piano music starts playing, and I was like, oh, no, 1:46:42.160 --> 1:46:44.080 are they going to fall in love? That would be 1:46:44.120 --> 1:46:48.599 so weird. We kind of get there. Nancy asks him 1:46:48.960 --> 1:46:52.320 do you ever feel lonely? And Walker says the only 1:46:52.360 --> 1:46:54.519 thing you ever get from feelings is dead. 1:46:56.720 --> 1:46:58.120 I laughed out loud of that quote. 1:46:58.240 --> 1:47:01.160 That was so good, very good. Then the flashbacks begin, 1:47:01.280 --> 1:47:04.720 so Walker says, when the corporations made us, they gave 1:47:04.840 --> 1:47:09.400 us emotions, morals, and ethics. When we discovered that corporations 1:47:09.400 --> 1:47:12.880 were destroying the planet, they created the corporate police and 1:47:13.000 --> 1:47:15.760 hunted us down like animals. And then we get to 1:47:15.800 --> 1:47:19.759 witness scenes of the brutal Cybern Purge, including show trials 1:47:19.800 --> 1:47:23.320 and public executions. We see one of these public executions 1:47:23.320 --> 1:47:26.519 where the condemned Cybern is crucified on a neon light 1:47:26.640 --> 1:47:30.799 up X shaped cross and then bombarded with ring shaped 1:47:30.840 --> 1:47:35.120 patterns of laser light. Then he starts squirting blood and 1:47:35.160 --> 1:47:38.120 these crowds are kind of watching for entertainment. One person 1:47:38.160 --> 1:47:41.680 in the crowd is wearing a sandwich board neon advertisement 1:47:41.720 --> 1:47:45.680 that says condom sale with a little neon tube illustration. 1:47:46.000 --> 1:47:49.000 I legitimately lost it when I saw the condom sale 1:47:49.080 --> 1:47:52.640 neon guy. Somebody put a lot of work in or 1:47:52.680 --> 1:47:55.760 I don't know, somebody put some work to making sure 1:47:55.800 --> 1:47:57.360 that this guy was in the scene. 1:47:57.600 --> 1:48:00.040 That's not an effect, that's a real neon sign and 1:48:00.120 --> 1:48:01.719 somebody made says condom sale. 1:48:01.920 --> 1:48:06.639 Yeah, they at least borrowed a condom sale sign from. 1:48:06.439 --> 1:48:09.880 A store Neon one. Yeah. We also see some space 1:48:09.920 --> 1:48:12.799 battles here. Some of the Cybrons apparently tried to escape 1:48:12.840 --> 1:48:15.080 to the Moon, but they got blasted out in space 1:48:15.120 --> 1:48:17.880 by the Corporate Police, the Space Force version of the 1:48:17.880 --> 1:48:21.200 Corporate Police. And now Walker he's taking swigs out of 1:48:21.240 --> 1:48:23.760 a bottle and he says, I survive by collecting the 1:48:23.800 --> 1:48:28.120 slime of society. Nancy says, I owe you my life. 1:48:28.160 --> 1:48:32.160 Walker says, you don't owe me anything except five hundred grand, 1:48:34.760 --> 1:48:37.680 and then Nancy says, will you hold me? They have 1:48:37.760 --> 1:48:40.439 a tender embrace that I don't think they kiss, but 1:48:40.479 --> 1:48:41.960 they do hug. 1:48:42.400 --> 1:48:45.519 Yeah. Yeah, you know, she's playing five hundred grand. She 1:48:45.600 --> 1:48:47.799 might as well get like a little bit of comforting 1:48:47.840 --> 1:48:48.519 spooning out of this. 1:48:48.960 --> 1:48:51.880 Yeah. There are a few more scenes around here of 1:48:52.000 --> 1:48:55.080 Hines on the loose. He kills Craner, the detective. He 1:48:55.160 --> 1:48:57.320 kills two to one, kills two to one with the 1:48:57.400 --> 1:48:59.920 laser blast games. So Craner he kills just by yoinking 1:49:00.080 --> 1:49:04.120 the organs, but to one he puts him in the 1:49:04.160 --> 1:49:08.360 laser blast seat and then makes his head explode. There's 1:49:08.400 --> 1:49:12.240 also a scene of Tie, the Tarot card lady, trying 1:49:12.280 --> 1:49:15.800 to blackmail doctor Sado to give up Hines, but she 1:49:15.880 --> 1:49:17.639 didn't really get a chance to follow through with this 1:49:17.680 --> 1:49:21.080 because Hines chases her down in an alley immediately after 1:49:21.120 --> 1:49:24.040 the meeting and does a quick heartrip. But here's basically 1:49:24.040 --> 1:49:27.720 where we go into the the extended final confrontation, so 1:49:29.880 --> 1:49:32.519 is it begins at the Trocadero Club between Walker and 1:49:32.600 --> 1:49:35.439 Nancy on one side and Hines and Bang on the other. 1:49:35.640 --> 1:49:38.800 This big fight scene begins between them. We see that 1:49:38.880 --> 1:49:42.120 Bang bleeds pale green, and the fight leads into a 1:49:42.200 --> 1:49:45.400 chase with Walker and Nancy running after the assassins. They 1:49:45.439 --> 1:49:48.360 sort of end up going down into this lower underground 1:49:48.400 --> 1:49:49.320 portion of the city. 1:49:49.720 --> 1:49:52.360 Yeah, now, is this the fight between that we have 1:49:52.400 --> 1:49:57.360 the fight with pipes between Bang and the Dragon. 1:49:58.400 --> 1:50:00.559 We're about to get there. There are a couple of 1:50:00.600 --> 1:50:04.320 things first, like Hines is he cuts Walker's finger off. 1:50:04.360 --> 1:50:06.240 Oh god, yeah, that's actually pretty nasty. 1:50:07.000 --> 1:50:10.000 And then he's gonna kill Walker, but Nancy saves Walker 1:50:10.040 --> 1:50:13.080 by shooting Hins, so she comes through and saves the day. 1:50:13.960 --> 1:50:16.120 And then it just progresses to more fighting in this 1:50:16.280 --> 1:50:20.599 underground space where they're Yeah, Walker and Bang are dueling. 1:50:20.680 --> 1:50:23.360 It's like a sword fight but with segments of pipe. 1:50:23.840 --> 1:50:25.960 Yeah, and it is. It's one of these things where, 1:50:26.400 --> 1:50:30.479 you know, the editing is pretty rough. I think at 1:50:30.520 --> 1:50:32.759 the heart of things, you have a fight here between 1:50:32.840 --> 1:50:37.479 a you know, a pro sports fighter and a character 1:50:37.520 --> 1:50:40.000 actor who's like, I don't think I mean, maybe he 1:50:40.040 --> 1:50:42.360 had some level of I have no idea what his 1:50:42.400 --> 1:50:46.000 stage combat and martial arts background might have actually been, 1:50:46.560 --> 1:50:51.840 but this particular battle feels extremely forced and you never 1:50:51.880 --> 1:50:55.000 get the sense that there's anything close to real contact happening. 1:50:55.400 --> 1:50:58.680 But the resolution happens when Walker kicks Bang into an 1:50:58.720 --> 1:51:02.200 exposed electrical man and fries him, and then the fight 1:51:02.240 --> 1:51:05.040 with Hines continues. It ends up where they like crash 1:51:05.160 --> 1:51:08.400 through a ceiling, like a glass ceiling into the Laser 1:51:08.439 --> 1:51:09.160 Blade arena. 1:51:09.360 --> 1:51:11.880 Yeah, it looks pretty nasty. I have a good stunt. 1:51:12.280 --> 1:51:16.519 Yeah, And so Nancy and Walker strap themselves into the 1:51:16.520 --> 1:51:19.840 control chairs of the Laser Blade game. They activate the 1:51:19.920 --> 1:51:23.840 laser Blade pylon and this Zapp's hinds. The lasers go 1:51:24.040 --> 1:51:27.479 into his mouth and then his head explodes and black 1:51:27.600 --> 1:51:31.160 blood and ooze shoot all over them. This had me thinking, like, 1:51:31.360 --> 1:51:33.679 was wait, was Hines a robot or a human because 1:51:33.680 --> 1:51:37.920 his blood is so it's like black oil. Hmmm, Maybe 1:51:37.960 --> 1:51:38.879 it's just the lighting. 1:51:39.000 --> 1:51:41.960 Maybe yeah, I just assumed that he was a human. 1:51:42.960 --> 1:51:45.439 Either way, quality kill really yes. 1:51:46.240 --> 1:51:48.759 So they're sitting there covered in blood and the corporate 1:51:48.760 --> 1:51:51.400 police are closing in because you know they're they're arriving 1:51:51.439 --> 1:51:57.280 un scene. Then suddenly something weird starts happening. Hallucinatory imagery 1:51:57.680 --> 1:52:00.839 zooming through a tunnel in space, flash back to previous 1:52:00.840 --> 1:52:04.400 events of the film. Rushing past planets, we see Jupiter 1:52:04.560 --> 1:52:09.040 and Saturn, and then Meg Foster wakes up on the 1:52:09.040 --> 1:52:13.759 couch at home, back at her house on the Moon, 1:52:14.320 --> 1:52:17.960 and her VR simulation is over, and Howard is alive, 1:52:18.120 --> 1:52:21.640 standing there beside her, and he says, well, what do 1:52:21.680 --> 1:52:25.000 you think of my new program? We've got sinister music 1:52:25.040 --> 1:52:28.160 playing these kind of dark chords, and then Howard hugs 1:52:28.200 --> 1:52:31.360 her with a creepy grin while she looks traumatized, and 1:52:31.360 --> 1:52:34.080 then credits, that's literally the end. 1:52:34.479 --> 1:52:36.479 Yeah, and we'll get I'll get back to it in 1:52:36.479 --> 1:52:39.000 a minute here. But it weirdly works, or at least 1:52:39.000 --> 1:52:40.320 it worked for me, So. 1:52:40.640 --> 1:52:43.080 A few thoughts. First of all, I think this has 1:52:43.200 --> 1:52:47.080 to be influenced by the ending of Total Recall, because 1:52:47.120 --> 1:52:50.799 clearly Total Recall is a major one of the things 1:52:50.840 --> 1:52:54.840 that this movie is derivative of. Total Recall is, in 1:52:54.880 --> 1:52:58.639 my opinion, not only good, a fantastic film, really great 1:52:58.640 --> 1:53:03.040 film with a marvelous conclusion, which that ending is great 1:53:03.320 --> 1:53:07.880 because it actually does not say for sure that the 1:53:07.920 --> 1:53:11.160 whole story was a dream. Instead, what it does is 1:53:11.560 --> 1:53:15.160 raise the question in a provocative way. So in total recall, 1:53:15.720 --> 1:53:18.200 there are multiple you know, it begins with this thing 1:53:18.280 --> 1:53:23.160 of the character Quaide Schwarzenegger's character buying a dream vacation 1:53:23.400 --> 1:53:27.680 by you know, paying for this dream implant package, and 1:53:27.960 --> 1:53:30.439 there are multiple points, and of course that goes awry 1:53:30.520 --> 1:53:33.240 and then he gets trapped up in this conspiracy. But 1:53:33.520 --> 1:53:35.880 there are multiple points in the story where Quaid is 1:53:35.960 --> 1:53:39.640 led to question whether he is whether what's happening to 1:53:39.680 --> 1:53:43.400 him is really happening, or he's actually just having the 1:53:43.520 --> 1:53:46.880 dream package that he paid for. And then in each 1:53:46.960 --> 1:53:51.320 case when this question arises, events in the film happen 1:53:51.400 --> 1:53:54.320 which caused him to believe what's happening is actually real. 1:53:55.000 --> 1:53:57.160 But by the end of the movie, we just noticed 1:53:57.200 --> 1:54:00.519 that lots of things in the story have conformed to 1:54:00.720 --> 1:54:03.680 the dream implant that he bought. So we're led to 1:54:03.720 --> 1:54:06.360 wonder again, wait, was it real or is it all 1:54:06.360 --> 1:54:09.360 in Quade's head? And we never get confirmation one way 1:54:09.439 --> 1:54:13.600 or another. This movie, by contrast, just says everything you 1:54:13.760 --> 1:54:16.120 just watched, none of it happened. It was all just 1:54:16.200 --> 1:54:18.920 Meg Foster and VR no debate about it, that is 1:54:18.960 --> 1:54:22.160 what it was. So I have questions like, wait, do 1:54:22.280 --> 1:54:25.439 the cyber ons even exist or is that just part 1:54:25.479 --> 1:54:27.800 of the virtual reality. I don't know. 1:54:28.720 --> 1:54:31.800 I think the main reason I think it works, or 1:54:31.800 --> 1:54:35.600 it worked for me, is that it doesn't. It may 1:54:35.640 --> 1:54:38.040 negate or potentially negate a lot of the things that 1:54:38.080 --> 1:54:42.280 we saw, but two things that do seem to remain 1:54:42.480 --> 1:54:45.400 constant are, of course Nancy and Howard. We have a 1:54:45.400 --> 1:54:49.520 lot of questions about who Howard really is, but we 1:54:50.240 --> 1:54:55.280 know that Nancy and Howard exist, and whatever Nancy has experienced, 1:54:55.480 --> 1:54:59.920 it has it has something to do with either how 1:55:00.000 --> 1:55:04.320 towards you know, actual, you know, hidden self, or her 1:55:04.640 --> 1:55:08.360 anxieties or fears or even desires about who he may 1:55:08.400 --> 1:55:14.120 secretly be. So, yeah, it's his presence here at the 1:55:14.400 --> 1:55:17.760 end of the film especially, you know, there's this sinister 1:55:17.800 --> 1:55:21.000 air to it. He's almost like a Satanic figure. Yeah, 1:55:21.520 --> 1:55:23.920 so you know, through this technology, he's kind of become 1:55:23.960 --> 1:55:27.760 a master of reality. And I just was I kept wondering, like, 1:55:27.920 --> 1:55:31.520 what influenced Nancy's VR experience again, is it a true 1:55:31.520 --> 1:55:35.640 depiction of her husband's hidden appetites, a glimpse into his psyche, 1:55:36.120 --> 1:55:39.240 or just a reflection of her own anxieties or more desires? 1:55:39.640 --> 1:55:41.360 And I think this is the part that really intrigues me. 1:55:41.400 --> 1:55:43.640 You know, he seems to know all of this as well, 1:55:44.120 --> 1:55:48.000 so it's almost like he's he's implying to her, Hey, 1:55:48.320 --> 1:55:50.840 I have brought you, my wife, into a new understanding 1:55:50.880 --> 1:55:54.960 of yourself and of me, and now our second lives begin. 1:55:55.520 --> 1:55:58.960 You know. It's like, what, Yeah, again, it could just 1:55:59.000 --> 1:56:02.320 be an accident that it feels this potent, and maybe 1:56:02.320 --> 1:56:05.000 it's ultimately a large part of it probably does have 1:56:05.000 --> 1:56:09.960 to do with the performances here, but yeah, I legitimately 1:56:10.120 --> 1:56:13.000 have continued to think about the ending of this film 1:56:13.000 --> 1:56:14.480 and try and peace out what it could mean. 1:56:15.640 --> 1:56:19.480 That's interesting. He does have a knowing smile when he 1:56:19.720 --> 1:56:22.680 kind of comforts her after this traumatic experience of hers. 1:56:23.200 --> 1:56:25.120 But I think it's interesting that some of the main 1:56:25.280 --> 1:56:29.400 themes of the movie are actually nothing that we have 1:56:29.440 --> 1:56:32.560 any assurance happened in reality. The stuff about I mean, 1:56:32.560 --> 1:56:35.760 I guess we see some Cybern stuff before we introduce 1:56:35.920 --> 1:56:40.280 the VR, so maybe the Cyberns don't really exist, but 1:56:41.480 --> 1:56:45.200 Nancy never meets them. I don't know. The organ harvesting 1:56:45.240 --> 1:56:48.800 stuff I think happens entirely within the VR dream, right. 1:56:49.360 --> 1:56:52.120 I think so, because like suddenly there's talk of New 1:56:52.160 --> 1:56:55.840 Body and the New Body conspiracy and what you said 1:56:55.840 --> 1:56:59.720 earlier about this potential connection between Organ and Morgan. 1:57:00.200 --> 1:57:01.360 Yeah, what does that mean? 1:57:01.520 --> 1:57:05.000 Like, is that is there some sort of legitimate connection 1:57:05.240 --> 1:57:06.720 or is it just sort of like, you know, the 1:57:08.000 --> 1:57:12.200 essentially like a VR hallucination. I don't know it's but 1:57:12.280 --> 1:57:16.280 it's again fascinating to try and imagine how this connects. 1:57:16.720 --> 1:57:19.640 It also makes me think about the ambiguous romantic connection 1:57:19.800 --> 1:57:24.120 between Nancy and Walker. Yeah. Does that reflect, I don't know, 1:57:24.200 --> 1:57:28.040 something about her actual desires outside of her marriage, the 1:57:28.080 --> 1:57:30.520 same way we saw Howard fantasizing about other women in 1:57:30.560 --> 1:57:31.960 his VR experience. 1:57:32.240 --> 1:57:35.520 Yeah. Yeah, is this like the fulfillment of a desire 1:57:35.560 --> 1:57:38.800 for someone who is going to protect her and look 1:57:38.840 --> 1:57:39.800 after her interest? 1:57:40.800 --> 1:57:44.200 Yeah, but not just someone a cybern someone someone who's 1:57:44.200 --> 1:57:44.960 better than human. 1:57:45.080 --> 1:57:53.720 Yeah. The last cyber so future kick masterpiece, accidable masterpiece? 1:57:54.320 --> 1:57:56.720 Is it, you know, ultimately a pile of rats that 1:57:56.840 --> 1:57:58.920 ends up taking on the silhouette of something that is 1:57:58.960 --> 1:58:00.040 more me. 1:58:00.520 --> 1:58:02.480 I don't know. I think there are a bunch of 1:58:02.480 --> 1:58:06.440 things in here that are realized in a schlocky, clumsy 1:58:06.480 --> 1:58:09.320 b movie way. But if you just write them down 1:58:09.360 --> 1:58:13.080 as a premise, they could actually be pretty interesting. 1:58:13.400 --> 1:58:17.160 Yeah, Like going back to my joke earlier, like if 1:58:17.160 --> 1:58:20.840 you were to set down and create an RPG guide 1:58:21.120 --> 1:58:23.640 for the world of Future Kick, I think it could 1:58:23.640 --> 1:58:24.440 be pretty compelling. 1:58:24.760 --> 1:58:28.760 Okay, let's make up our character seats homework for next time. Okay, 1:58:29.280 --> 1:58:30.640 does that do it for Future Kick? 1:58:30.960 --> 1:58:32.760 I believe so. But yeah, I'm so glad that I 1:58:32.760 --> 1:58:34.960 watched Future Kick. This is one that I think i'd 1:58:35.000 --> 1:58:39.520 seen the box art for in the past, but I 1:58:39.560 --> 1:58:42.520 had never watched it, and I am richer for having 1:58:42.600 --> 1:58:43.080 watched it. 1:58:43.120 --> 1:58:45.680 Now i'd have to say the same. Yeah. 1:58:46.080 --> 1:58:48.480 All right, we're going to close it out here. I'm 1:58:48.560 --> 1:58:50.320 just gonna remind you that Stuff to Blow Your Mind 1:58:50.400 --> 1:58:53.280 is primarily a science and culture podcast, with core episodes 1:58:53.320 --> 1:58:55.880 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but on Fridays we set aside 1:58:55.880 --> 1:58:58.080 most serious concerns to just talk about a weird film 1:58:58.400 --> 1:59:02.160 on Weird Houses. If you are a fan of Weird 1:59:02.200 --> 1:59:05.600 House cinema, check out our profile on letterbox dot com. 1:59:05.640 --> 1:59:07.960 Follow us there if you use it. We have a 1:59:08.000 --> 1:59:10.000 nice list of all the movies we've covered over the years, 1:59:10.000 --> 1:59:12.800 and sometimes peek ahead at what's coming up next? 1:59:13.160 --> 1:59:16.880 Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Jjposway. 1:59:17.240 --> 1:59:18.800 If you would like to get in touch with us 1:59:18.800 --> 1:59:21.160 with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest 1:59:21.160 --> 1:59:23.200 a topic for the future, or just to say hello, 1:59:23.400 --> 1:59:25.960 you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow 1:59:26.000 --> 1:59:33.760 your Mind dot com. 1:59:33.880 --> 1:59:36.840 Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. 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