Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema.
Speaker 3: This is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And
Speaker 3: today we are going to be covering the nineteen ninety
Speaker 3: five action sci fi thriller Virtuosity, a movie that you
Speaker 3: will probably remember even if you haven't seen it, because
Speaker 3: in nineteen ninety five you could not help but be
Speaker 3: exposed to the trailer where Russell Crowe struts through a
Speaker 3: future mall in a baggy purple suit and the tune
Speaker 3: is the Beege's Staying Alive. It was like one of
Speaker 3: the most iconic uses of a needle drop in a
Speaker 3: trailer from the nineties.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right. And this one, as we'll discuss,
Speaker 2: does have quite a needle drop score. It also has
Speaker 2: an original score as well, but a lot of needle
Speaker 2: drops in here. It really really sets the tone for
Speaker 2: the mid nineties looking to late nineties. Feet.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I want to briefly tell a story of
Speaker 3: the roundabout way we came to feature this movie today.
Speaker 3: So next week is going to be our two hundredth
Speaker 3: episode of Weird House Cinema. I think we still haven't
Speaker 3: picked the movie for next week, but that makes today
Speaker 3: the one hundred and ninety ninth episode. And Rob, when
Speaker 3: you and I were batting ideas around, you mentioned the
Speaker 3: possibility of doing a movie set in the year nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety nine for the one ninety ninth episode. I think
Speaker 3: that was a stroke of genius, and folks, there are
Speaker 3: a lot of dope movies set in ninety nine, usually
Speaker 3: made in the eighties or nineties, imagining nineteen ninety nine
Speaker 3: as a terrible dystopian turning point. So I was looking
Speaker 3: at our options and for a while I thought that
Speaker 3: we were going to be talking about End of Days
Speaker 3: starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. For those of you who mainly remember
Speaker 3: Arnold's roles as a terminator or an elite commando of
Speaker 3: some kind, this is a bit outside his normal range.
Speaker 3: It is a Y two k Anti Christ movie in
Speaker 3: which Arnold has to shoot the devil with a machine
Speaker 3: gun to prevent the titular end of Days.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a movie in which Arnold plays sort of an everyman. Also,
Speaker 2: I guess, sort of a super cop. But yeah, it
Speaker 2: gets type. I don't want to see Arnold play in
Speaker 2: every man. I want to see Arnold play like a
Speaker 2: crom chosen champion that has been forged out of trauma
Speaker 2: and loss into a human weapon. That's what I want
Speaker 2: out of my Arnold roles.
Speaker 3: Well, I think the even weirder thing is the context
Speaker 3: that it's like a religious supernatural thriller. It's like The Omen,
Speaker 3: but with Arnold in it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I haven't seen End of Days in a long time.
Speaker 3: I barely remember it. But Rob, didn't you say there's
Speaker 3: something about the year nineteen ninety nine in it that
Speaker 3: plays into a prophecy? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah. The only things I remember are that, a, there's
Speaker 2: a really cool bat creature in it, but also very
Speaker 2: like brown and dark, very saturated looking, but still monster.
Speaker 2: And then there's this whole thing about how well six'
Speaker 2: sixty six really means nine ninety nine because in dreams
Speaker 2: numbers are inverted or upside down or. Something IT'S i
Speaker 2: remember it sounded pretty cool until you thought about it
Speaker 2: for like two.
Speaker 3: Seconds so, Anyway end Of days that is deliciously weird
Speaker 3: as a. Pitch it does apparently have glorious delivery on
Speaker 3: the theme of nineteen ninety, Nine but UNFORTUNATELY i started
Speaker 3: watching that one MAN i was just not feeling it
Speaker 3: for this. Week the vibes were a little too serious and,
Speaker 3: grim a little too much kidnapping of babies and pouring
Speaker 3: rattlesnake blood on. Them it just kind of bummed me,
Speaker 3: Out SO i bailed On end Of. Days maybe we'll,
Speaker 3: COME i don't. Know maybe if you get past those early,
Speaker 3: scenes it gets. Funnier BUT i wasn't feeling it this,
Speaker 3: week And i'm GLAD i ended up bailing because the
Speaker 3: next MOVIE i checked out was another one said in
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety, nine but in in a very different, direction
Speaker 3: and that is AS i. Said nineteen ninety Five's, virtuosity
Speaker 3: Starring Denzel washington as an ace cop with a with
Speaker 3: a tragic, backstory a redemption, arc and a rarely mentioned
Speaker 3: bionic arm h and also Starring Russell crowe as a
Speaker 3: synthetic computer game villain raised in a sort of digital
Speaker 3: nursery with a great teacher to student. Ratio but all
Speaker 3: the teachers are serial.
Speaker 2: Killers you, Know i'm just now realizing that this movie
Speaker 2: does have something in common With end Of. Days both
Speaker 2: of these films are about like a sort of everyman
Speaker 2: cop type figure going up against evil incarnate An end
Speaker 2: Of days it's evil incarnate because it Is Gabriel byrne
Speaker 2: as the devil who in one SCENE i believe peace
Speaker 2: fire is peace straight. Fire and in this in this,
Speaker 2: movie we have pure evil in the sense that we
Speaker 2: have a SUPER ai trained on serial killers and mad
Speaker 2: men that will mild spoiler, here it's it's it's in
Speaker 2: the trailer will take physical form in the real world
Speaker 2: thanks to THREE d printing exactly.
Speaker 3: Right and that actually brings us to one of the
Speaker 3: main THINGS i wanted to talk about at the top,
Speaker 3: here and that is that virtuosity is like a core
Speaker 3: example of a nineteen nineties subgenre THAT i love THAT
Speaker 3: i would here like to dub cyberslop movies from the
Speaker 3: nineties where somebody gets sucked into a computer where The
Speaker 3: internet tries to kill, you where a virtual reality game becomes.
Speaker 3: Sentient you, know he's, learning he's evolving at a geometric,
Speaker 3: rate and then at the end you've got a hack
Speaker 3: into the main frame to kill the. Monster, now it
Speaker 3: might take more than one episode for us to like
Speaker 3: fully refine our definition of, cyberslop BUT i was just you,
Speaker 3: know WHEN i was working on the outline, HERE i
Speaker 3: was trying to think of a few things these movies
Speaker 3: seem to have in common that make them interesting to.
Speaker 3: Me one of the things they have in common is
Speaker 3: that they almost always have atrocious EARLY CGI cgi that
Speaker 3: was not ready but here it is. Anyway and usually
Speaker 3: like at some, point either the villainous entity or the
Speaker 3: mcguffin of the movie will be represented as a, floating spinning,
Speaker 3: icosahedron and then when it's, destroyed it shatters into a
Speaker 3: bunch of. Triangles you know exactly What i'm talking.
Speaker 2: About, yeah kind of a mind's eide death star sort of. Moment,
Speaker 2: Yeah and thinking about this made ME i went back
Speaker 2: AND i watched a few scenes from the Original tron
Speaker 2: BECAUSE i was. Curious it's, like did they have a
Speaker 2: moment like this where where the MAIN ai THE, mcp
Speaker 2: does it? Explode it doesn't, explode but so maybe there's
Speaker 2: another film that really got there first with the exploding digital.
Speaker 3: HEAD i think for, Me tron is not. Cyberslop it
Speaker 3: sort of pre dates, it and the cyber slab genre
Speaker 3: is derived from movies Like tron and also kind of
Speaker 3: Degrades tron's level of, imagination if that makes. Sense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah speaking of, THOUGH i was glancing at those
Speaker 2: scenes From, tron AND i was really taking back at
Speaker 2: how colorful and vivid everything. Is and this is probably
Speaker 2: BECAUSE i haven't Watched tron since it was like ON
Speaker 2: tv on an old school television back in the. Day
Speaker 2: BUT i was, Like, wow maybe we really need to
Speaker 2: come back and Watch.
Speaker 3: Tron, Oh i'd definitely be down for doing. IT i
Speaker 3: watched that one a lot WHEN i was a. Kid,
Speaker 3: okay another thing about cyberslap, MOVIES i feel like they
Speaker 3: tend to stylize, technology like the technology of the, setting
Speaker 3: in amusing and sometimes even sort of thought provoking. Ways
Speaker 3: so if this makes, sense it is not just that
Speaker 3: the characters within the cyberslop movie have a particular style
Speaker 3: and fashion, choices but it's like the technosphere itself has
Speaker 3: chosen a, style a personal. Style so you get movies
Speaker 3: where tech is goth or movies where tech Is Miami.
Speaker 3: Vice you, know neon colors and the shoulder. Pads sometimes
Speaker 3: tech is, preppy and very often tech is pun. Punk.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah because of course tech should be, punk because
Speaker 2: the whole genre has its roots in, cyberpunk, generally with
Speaker 2: very strong connections to the literary work Of William, Gibson
Speaker 2: but we could do a deeper dive easily that gets into,
Speaker 2: like you, know what are the earliest examples of sci
Speaker 2: fi plot lines in which someone is inside of a
Speaker 2: simulation or a virtual world and it goes back several.
Speaker 3: Decades, yeah and a lot of these movies are essentially
Speaker 3: borrowing From William gibson type, writing but very much dumbing it.
Speaker 3: Down another thing THAT i think is interesting about these
Speaker 3: movies is not unique to. Them they share this with
Speaker 3: a lot of other nineties. Subgenres they feel very much
Speaker 3: like they're from the end of. History and one reason
Speaker 3: for that is that every piece of actual specific culture
Speaker 3: that we get in these movies feels meaningless and, interchangeable
Speaker 3: like it could be swapped out with any other piece
Speaker 3: of culture from the same object. Class, so you, know
Speaker 3: it's just a world where it's like insert work of art,
Speaker 3: here insert political issue. Here the cultural objects do not
Speaker 3: seem to really mean anything in. Themselves they don't bring
Speaker 3: their specific meanings and values from. Reality they're just examples
Speaker 3: of a type of. Thing it feels, like you, know
Speaker 3: they're selected from a drop down. MENU i really associate
Speaker 3: this kind of storytelling with movies from the nineties in,
Speaker 3: general but especially These cyberslot movies have.
Speaker 2: THIS i wonder if there's a, case and to be,
Speaker 2: clear very broad, case And i'm sure there are plenty
Speaker 2: of counter examples, here BUT i wonder how much of
Speaker 2: this might have to do with having like a lot
Speaker 2: of up and coming filmmakers in the, nineties maybe more
Speaker 2: like tech first style first directors and you, know screenwriters as,
Speaker 2: well tackling these films informed by the models that they
Speaker 2: grew up on from the. Eighties from this AND's especially
Speaker 2: that are taking a more like, direct thoughtful approach in
Speaker 2: some cases to actual social issues and political, issues and
Speaker 2: so there's sort of maybe in some cases at, least you,
Speaker 2: know echoing the, form but without really grasping the. Substance.
Speaker 3: Yeah, YEAH i think that may be on to. Something
Speaker 3: i'll have to think some more about. That but then,
Speaker 3: also this very last POINT i want to make About
Speaker 3: cyberslop IS i think the most important, one and that
Speaker 3: is that these movies are at the same time both
Speaker 3: quaint and uncanny in the way they depict technologies like virtual, REALITY,
Speaker 3: ai The, internet and digital. Media and WHAT i mean
Speaker 3: by that, is on one, hand it's genuinely so cute
Speaker 3: that somebody in the year nineteen ninety three decided to
Speaker 3: write a whole screenplay about like The. Internet you, know
Speaker 3: it's some kind Of internet, thriller and it obviously has
Speaker 3: such a vague understanding of what The internet is and
Speaker 3: how it. Works you'll have like characters navigating cyber space
Speaker 3: with a, joystick you, know that's how you get through The,
Speaker 3: Internet and so it's just. Adorable thinking about that kind
Speaker 3: of relationship to technology is like looking at a puppy falling.
Speaker 3: Asleep on the other, hand stories like, this with their very,
Speaker 3: loose technically, inaccurate overly, concrete overly, personalized almost symbolic depictions
Speaker 3: of these, technologies can feel weirdly prescient on the metaphorical,
Speaker 3: level usually in their ability to imagine what it feels
Speaker 3: like to be acted upon by these technologies in their
Speaker 3: maturity in the future we live in. Now, so for,
Speaker 3: example imagine a hypothetical cyberslop movie from nineteen ninety six
Speaker 3: where somebody hacks The internet so that The net becomes
Speaker 3: a self evolving malevolent entity that wants to destroy. You
Speaker 3: it's both like dumb in nineteen ninety, six and it
Speaker 3: takes a kind of technological ignorance to write, it but
Speaker 3: it also captures something very real about what it would
Speaker 3: come to feel like to be An internet user in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: Five. Yeah, Yeah, PLUS i guess we have to remind
Speaker 2: ourselves that a lot of these, films they are exploitive
Speaker 2: to a certain. Extent there's some sort of like t exploitation,
Speaker 2: film and you, know you're often ex you're exploiting a,
Speaker 2: fear and fears are not always completely formed and certainly not.
Speaker 2: Rational Like i'm thinking about smart killer smart house movies
Speaker 2: from the. NINETIES i remember one in The Sci Fi
Speaker 2: channel where there was like a hand that went around
Speaker 2: on a little track on the ceiling in the house
Speaker 2: and like all, That like that's completely, Ridiculous but, LIKE
Speaker 2: i don't doubt for a second that it comes from
Speaker 2: a legitimate fear that arises based on just what people were,
Speaker 2: saying like the houses of the future are going to be,
Speaker 2: Like and that fear maybe is not completely, gone maybe it's,
Speaker 2: matured maybe it's changed form a, bit BUT i think
Speaker 2: we still have that sort of fear and it still
Speaker 2: gets poked and kindled by various news stories about, oh
Speaker 2: your toaster is. Watching even, so.
Speaker 3: Forth, yeah, exactly like that vision was overly simplified and overly,
Speaker 3: concrete but actually reality did catch up to the feeling
Speaker 3: of that plot in a. Way so perhaps we can
Speaker 3: explore more about this as we go, On BUT i
Speaker 3: really think that irony is the case with. Virtuosity on one,
Speaker 3: Hand virtuosity is quite simple minded and literal in its
Speaker 3: engagement with the technology, themes but there are some things
Speaker 3: in it that feel unsettlingly resonant in twenty twenty, five
Speaker 3: especially in the context of a movie that is in
Speaker 3: most ways extremely nineteen ninety five's version of nineteen ninety.
Speaker 2: Nine. Yeah, yeah we'll get into this a lot, more
Speaker 2: but CERTAINLY i think there are various world building details
Speaker 2: and choices And virtuosity that hit with a kind of
Speaker 2: almost idiocracy like, accuracy you, know like there's a certain
Speaker 2: amount of maybe in a loose black comedy to the, Choice,
Speaker 2: yeah you're, like, oh that's a little. Close and then
Speaker 2: its main, focus of, course we have an out of
Speaker 2: CONTROL ai menace that gets itself THREE d printed so
Speaker 2: that it can go on a viral killing, spree and
Speaker 2: it really does sweep up various pressing anxieties about The
Speaker 2: internet artificial, intelligence and in a limited, way the future
Speaker 2: of THREE d printing of inorganic and organic.
Speaker 3: Materials i'd agree with you that the themes hit harder
Speaker 3: on like THE ai and digital media front than on
Speaker 3: the robotics. Front but STILL i don't. Know maybe one
Speaker 3: day we'll catch up to the robotics.
Speaker 2: Element, YEAH i MEAN I at different times when there
Speaker 2: have been accelerations in THREE d, printing there have been
Speaker 2: moments Where i'm, like, oh this is like The internet
Speaker 2: in all its, awfulness can now take physical. Form and
Speaker 2: maybe on some LEVEL i was Remembering virtuosity trailers And i'm,
Speaker 2: like this is Like. Virtuosity it's like you thought of
Speaker 2: it that The, internet and now it's on your. Desk
Speaker 2: and granted we've had a little more time to sort
Speaker 2: of grow with that. ONE i feel, like though there
Speaker 2: are some still dangerous concerns out there in the THREE
Speaker 2: d printing, world but for the most, PART i feel
Speaker 2: like we've gotten a little more accustomed to what it
Speaker 2: can do for us. NOW i also find it interesting
Speaker 2: in these various films of this, subgenre ones that often
Speaker 2: include like a digital or virtual, character and they really
Speaker 2: get to WHAT i will refer to as job. About,
Speaker 2: yes referencing Lawnmower man, here which has a very, close
Speaker 2: very close kinship with this, film in which you have
Speaker 2: a character or AN ai entity that becomes a kind
Speaker 2: of god complex black hole of negative personal. Attributes AND
Speaker 2: i think this too nicely mirrors fears then as well
Speaker 2: as fears and sometimes realities now about the virtual realm
Speaker 2: of expression and consumption that we have in the digital
Speaker 2: realm that might allow too many barriers of behavior to
Speaker 2: erode in the shape of our virtual self than becomes something, grotesque,
Speaker 2: dangerous and maybe even.
Speaker 3: Evil, yeah once, again right. On i'm not going to
Speaker 3: SAY i Think virtuosity did this on. PURPOSE i think
Speaker 3: it may be a kind of accidental stumbling into this.
Speaker 3: Theme but you're exactly, right it's there and it hits. Hard. Now,
Speaker 3: now another THING i want to mention at the. Top
Speaker 3: it is an interesting parallel With end Of days as
Speaker 3: the almost choice as the alternate reality of this. Week
Speaker 3: what's really exquisite about the pitch For end Of days
Speaker 3: is the mismatch between the premise and the. Star, Right
Speaker 3: like Whatever Arnold schwarzenegger was made, for it was not
Speaker 3: to like march Through cathedrals by Candle light trying to
Speaker 3: Stop satan from fathering a child On. Earth that is
Speaker 3: a weird, fit and with today's movie there is something
Speaker 3: similar going, on a. VIRTUOSITY i looked it. Up it
Speaker 3: did have a mid sized. Budget it wasn't huge, budget
Speaker 3: but it wasn't small budget. Either it was you, know
Speaker 3: mid sized action sci fi kind of you, know in
Speaker 3: the realm of what you'd. Expect, yeah, Yeah but it,
Speaker 3: is in both content and, execution a, bizarre trashy b.
Speaker 3: Movie and yet its two main stars are two of the,
Speaker 3: biggest most sought, after most RESPECTED a list, actors certainly
Speaker 3: in the two, thousands definitely in the case Of Denzel.
Speaker 3: Washington like the last three decades Of, hollywood it's almost
Speaker 3: like If Tom hanks was in Lawnmower. Man it's just, like,
Speaker 3: oh such a strange thing to. Imagine like When Russell
Speaker 3: crowe did this, movie his big period was still ahead of.
Speaker 3: Him but When denzel did, this he already had MULTIPLE oscar,
Speaker 3: nominations he'd Won Best Supporting actor. Once so it's already
Speaker 3: deeply strange and amusing that you've got the top tier
Speaker 3: of Future hollywood in this dumb killer computer. Movie but
Speaker 3: what's even more odd is that neither of them are
Speaker 3: phoning it. In but both of THEM i think are
Speaker 3: fantastic in this. Movie they're giving full, efforts really getting
Speaker 3: into the. Characters in, FACT i would SAY i have
Speaker 3: never seen A Russell crowe performance in which he seems
Speaker 3: to be expressing as much joy through acting as he does.
Speaker 3: Here this is The. Pinnacle like His oscar nominated roles
Speaker 3: are comparatively grim and. Subdued in this. Movie you get
Speaker 3: him is a disco, strutting synthetic serial killer and he comes.
Speaker 2: Alive, yeah, YEAH i think you're. RIGHT i think we've
Speaker 2: really only seen him get back into broad performances like,
Speaker 2: this maybe in the likes of twenty twenty two's thor Leven,
Speaker 2: thunder in which he gets to Play zeus with a
Speaker 2: Ridiculous greek. Accent i'll come back to that one BECAUSE
Speaker 2: i ACTUALLY i actually like that performance quite a.
Speaker 3: Bit, OH i haven't seen. That that makes me want
Speaker 3: to see, it, Though BUT.
Speaker 2: I, agree, like, yeah both of these guys are arguably
Speaker 2: better than this, movie but both of them really. DELIVER
Speaker 2: i would, say In Denzel washington's, case he is almost
Speaker 2: too good for this. Movie in the sense that not
Speaker 2: that he's not great in, it but a role of
Speaker 2: the sort sometimes hits a little better if you have
Speaker 2: a less skilled actor or an actor that makes stranger,
Speaker 2: choices whereas Like, denzel like all his choices are, Solid
Speaker 2: like he's just a complete pro. Here you need somebody
Speaker 2: maybe a little, sloppy a little, greener so that they
Speaker 2: can shine in a role like. This but that being,
Speaker 2: said he's still.
Speaker 3: Terrific they're two very different kinds of performances that are
Speaker 3: beyond what is required by. Virtuosity denzel gives a much
Speaker 3: more human performance than you would expect his character to,
Speaker 3: have And Russell crowe gives a much more just like
Speaker 3: scenery ingesting huge improvisational energy kind of. Performance.
Speaker 2: Yeah, YEAH i would say his performance is like a
Speaker 2: little Bit, joker a little Bit joe from Lawnmower, man and,
Speaker 2: also at least in the visual, sense a little bit
Speaker 2: Ninety's Peter. Gabriel, yeah there you.
Speaker 3: Go H, okay are we ready for the elevator? Pitch?
Speaker 3: Yeah hit us sid six point seven is a computer.
Speaker 3: Program he is a sidistic virtual super criminal designed for
Speaker 3: A vr training environment that will be used to test
Speaker 3: the cops of the, future but the developers are still
Speaker 3: working the kinks, out and in the meantime they are
Speaker 3: TESTING sid against players from the prison. Population the only
Speaker 3: one who has ever beaten him Is Parker, barnes a
Speaker 3: former police officer who is incarcerated after his vendetta killing
Speaker 3: of a terrorist who murdered his family and also killing
Speaker 3: several other people in the. Process but, when through a
Speaker 3: series of implausible, EVENTS sid six point seven gets brought
Speaker 3: into our world and turned into a kind of meat
Speaker 3: SPACE t one thousand and with blueberry, blood there's only
Speaker 3: one man who can stop.
Speaker 2: Him, yep that's right. ON i would also present the
Speaker 2: idea of, oops we THREE d printed a mass. Murder,
Speaker 2: yeah that's also kind of. It this is the one
Speaker 2: thing we didn't want to, happen and here we. Are all,
Speaker 2: Right let's go ahead and listen to part of the
Speaker 2: teaser trailer because the main, trailer the one most people
Speaker 2: have heard it prominently features the beg staying, alive and
Speaker 2: we want to stay alive here on the. Show SO
Speaker 2: i didn't want to feature that. SONG i love that,
Speaker 2: song but you, know this is what we're playing.
Speaker 4: In this high tech crime prevention. Facility one man has
Speaker 4: been recruited to play a simulated game the objective to
Speaker 4: hunt down The Ultimate Virtual Reality KILLER sid six point.
Speaker 2: Seven there's only one.
Speaker 4: Problem the computer change the. Program now he's in the real.
Speaker 4: World he's.
Speaker 2: Interactive he doesn't enjoyed a game unless he's playing against
Speaker 2: his favorite.
Speaker 3: Opponent that's me.
Speaker 2: From the director Of Lawnmower.
Speaker 3: Matt he's recreating mass. Murders so what you're saying' sus
Speaker 3: a compika since six ten on improving the. ORIGINAL i
Speaker 3: Love Denzel. Washington just Because i'm carrying around the joy
Speaker 3: of killing your family inside me doesn't mean you can't be.
Speaker 4: Friends virtuosity game.
Speaker 3: Over speaking Of Beg Staying, ALIVE i bet The virtuosity
Speaker 3: trailer is HOW i first learned about that. Song, HUH i,
Speaker 3: MAY i may not have ever heard it before.
Speaker 2: THAT i, mean somebody needs to be strutting when that
Speaker 2: song is, Played and if that song is, playing you
Speaker 2: will soon find yourself. Strutting that's just how it.
Speaker 3: Works, oh this may be too embarrassing to say out,
Speaker 3: loud BUT i bet as a, kid WHEN i Saw
Speaker 3: Russell crowe walking in the blue in the purple Suit
Speaker 3: beg's are, PLAYING i probably like strutted around my house
Speaker 3: AFTER i saw that no.
Speaker 2: Joke all, right you might be, wondering, well, HEY i
Speaker 2: want to See virtuosity as well before listening to the
Speaker 2: rest of the, episode OR i want to watch it
Speaker 2: later and so. Forth, Well virtuosity was a major, release
Speaker 2: so you can find it pretty much wherever you choose
Speaker 2: to get your. Movies for physical, media, however there's no
Speaker 2: beating the recently Released Vinegar Syndrome ultra, release which gives
Speaker 2: us the film newly scanned and restored in FOUR k
Speaker 2: from its thirty five millimeter original camera, negative along with
Speaker 2: tons of extras like new extras interviews with the director
Speaker 2: and other. Folks, it's without a, doubt the finest physical
Speaker 2: release this film has ever.
Speaker 3: GOTTEN i can't Believe Vinegar syndrome release Of virtuosity is
Speaker 3: as close as we're ever going to get to A
Speaker 3: criterion collection disc of Lawnmower.
Speaker 2: Man, Yeah Vinegar syndrome does, great great, work and this
Speaker 2: is certainly the case. HERE i rented this From Video
Speaker 2: drome here In, atlanta and, yeah it looks. GREAT i,
Speaker 2: mean the digital effects are only going to look so,
Speaker 2: polished as we'll. Discuss but then, again that only really
Speaker 2: potentially hurts the film during the NON vr, segments as we'll,
Speaker 2: discuss AND i will say that the goofy android makeup
Speaker 2: and other practical effects look really.
Speaker 3: Great oh, YEAH i mean you wouldn't want THE cgi
Speaker 3: to look too. GOOD i mean that's part of the.
Speaker 2: Charm, yeah especially in those the simulation. Sequences.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well SO i streamed, it but you, KNOW i
Speaker 3: got a feeling this might not be the last TIME
Speaker 3: i Watch, virtuosity SO i might have to snag this.
Speaker 2: Disc all, right let's talk about the people who made this,
Speaker 2: film starting at the top With Brett leonard born nineteen fifty,
Speaker 2: Nine american director of films and music, videos best known
Speaker 2: for his pivotal work in nineteen nineties virtual reality inspired,
Speaker 2: media as he directed Both Today film and nineteen ninety
Speaker 2: Two's the Lawnmower. Man, that of, course is The bonker's
Speaker 2: virtual reality, film born out of an original script inspired
Speaker 2: by the work Of Jaron lanier and the production company's
Speaker 2: desire to keep Adapting Stephen king stories they own the rights,
Speaker 2: to basically by slapping the title Lawnmower man onto a
Speaker 2: pre existing.
Speaker 3: Script this has nothing to do with The king story
Speaker 3: is this one of the ones he sued.
Speaker 2: Over, yes it's my understanding that he successfully got his
Speaker 2: name taken off of this, one because, yeah has the
Speaker 2: original stories about like a crazy satanic lawnmower man who
Speaker 2: eats grass or something to that, effect worships the God,
Speaker 2: PAN i. Believe, Yeah, yeah there's Some pan worship in.
Speaker 2: There nothing to do with virtual reality. Now Brett leonard's
Speaker 2: first directorial credit was nineteen eighty Nine's The Dead. Pit
Speaker 2: this is a supernatural horror film with like the features The.
Speaker 2: Undead i've never seen, it BUT i am super familiar
Speaker 2: with ITS vhs box art because and you probably are
Speaker 2: as well if you were of a certain, age because
Speaker 2: this was A vhs rental store box that had light
Speaker 2: up eyes powered by a little battery pack. Inside it
Speaker 2: might have made sound. TOO i don't remember if it made,
Speaker 2: sound but they definitely light. Up and this, one i'm to,
Speaker 2: understand is very much a collector's item AMONG vhs.
Speaker 3: Enthusiasts rob this we may have even mentioned this idea
Speaker 3: on the show, before BUT i have thought that at
Speaker 3: some point we should do a series of weird house
Speaker 3: cinema episodes just focusing on films that had gimmick, packaging
Speaker 3: stuff that had light up components or anything on the
Speaker 3: box that's different than normal to get people to pick
Speaker 3: it up and, say what's.
Speaker 2: This, YEAH vhs shell shaped like a, coffin something like.
Speaker 2: That i'm definitely here for.
Speaker 4: It.
Speaker 2: Okay so Lawnmower man was his follow up To Dead.
Speaker 2: Pit and the thing, is we can all laugh about
Speaker 2: what did and didn't work about Lawnmower, man but it
Speaker 2: made a lot of, money especially given its small. Budget
Speaker 2: it connected with A vr curious, audience and along with
Speaker 2: this film paved the way for pretty much EVERY vr
Speaker 2: film to follow up to and Including The.
Speaker 3: Matrix that's, right, folks without Lawnmower, man No matrix probably.
Speaker 2: Probably there was An Indie wire headline from earlier this,
Speaker 2: year an article By jim Hemp hill that covers the
Speaker 2: vinegar syndrome re release of the, picture and its title
Speaker 2: Is virtuosity walked so The matrix could. Run so this
Speaker 2: seems to be the opinion of various, folks and it's
Speaker 2: discussed a bit in some of the extras on The
Speaker 2: virtuosity DISC i buy. It So leonard did not come
Speaker 2: back for the Lawnmower man, sequel which is also pretty,
Speaker 2: bonkers But hollywood did say, yes more of this. Please
Speaker 2: so nineteen ninety five saw the release of the psychic
Speaker 2: serial killer Film, hideaway based on The Dean koontz novel
Speaker 2: and Starring Jeff. Goldbloom and Then. Virtuosity, so like we said,
Speaker 2: Earlier Virtuosity Paramount pictures, production bigger. Budget it ultimately did
Speaker 2: not have quite the cultural or commercial impact that everyone
Speaker 2: was banking, on but it received a fair amount of
Speaker 2: reevaluation in recent, years especially with That Vinegar Syndrome Blu ray.
Speaker 2: Release as we'll discuss the, film sci fi commentary hits
Speaker 2: home in various ways given where we are now, politically,
Speaker 2: socially and above all. Technologically and, YEAH i think a
Speaker 2: strong case could be made that this helped pave the
Speaker 2: road for things like The, matrix and then once The matrix,
Speaker 2: explodes like how many folks are running around with machine,
Speaker 2: guns sunglasses and some sort of like black latex garb
Speaker 2: shooting in slow motion and going in and out of.
Speaker 3: Cyberspace though it's funny because the black latex look you
Speaker 3: only see from secondary characters in this. FILM i can't
Speaker 3: emphasize enough the weird fashion sensibility Of Russell crowe in this,
Speaker 3: movie he wears like brightly colored big, suits like, loose,
Speaker 3: baggy double breasted suits of either the green, Set latin
Speaker 3: or purple.
Speaker 2: Variety, yes, well he likes. Attention he wants an attention grabbing.
Speaker 2: Outfit in the, extras particularly interview With, leonard he points
Speaker 2: out That russell crow is essentially an influencer like he.
Speaker 2: Is he's going after that influencer. Space he wants eyes
Speaker 2: on what he is, doing like that is his prime,
Speaker 2: Drive like not merely to do awful, things but to
Speaker 2: be seen doing awful things and to get those hits
Speaker 2: and get those subscribers.
Speaker 3: Up oh my, God i've got too many deep thoughts
Speaker 3: comments about this later on in the. Outline but, yes, yes,
Speaker 3: yes that's what's going on here before that thing even,
Speaker 3: existed all.
Speaker 2: Right so virtuosity hits post. Virtuosity leonard directed AN imax,
Speaker 2: film T Rex back to The. CRETACEOUS i might have
Speaker 2: seen this one at this. Point there have been so
Speaker 2: MANY imax and THREE d dinosaur, films especially as a,
Speaker 2: parent That i've seen THAT i don't know where one
Speaker 2: ends and the other one. BEGINS i always enjoy. Them
Speaker 2: this one is apparently actually a huge hit for An imax.
Speaker 3: Film at the, time WHEN i as a, TEENAGER i
Speaker 3: worked selling tickets to tourist, attractions and one of the
Speaker 3: PLACES i worked was An imax. THEATER i don't recall
Speaker 3: if they ever had this, one BUT i remember a
Speaker 3: general awareness of. It all, right.
Speaker 2: There's a chance it. Happened. Now later, On leonard. Directed
Speaker 2: he directed a pair of two thousand and five films
Speaker 2: that seemed very. Skippable one Is Man. Thing this was
Speaker 2: an Early marvel entertainment film that missed the mark for various.
Speaker 2: Reasons i've read, that like it was one of those
Speaker 2: cases where the production was just too far away And
Speaker 2: marvel wasn't able to like really have their hands in
Speaker 2: it as much as they. Wanted and then he also
Speaker 2: did a movie Called, feed which seems like one of
Speaker 2: the many bad taste horror films to spring up in
Speaker 2: the wake of ninety five to. Seven it also looks very.
Speaker 2: Skippable then he directed two thousand and Sevens highlander The.
Speaker 2: Source this was the final trickle of cinematic juice thus
Speaker 2: far squeezed from the husk of The highlander.
Speaker 3: FRANCHISE i assume No Christoph limbert.
Speaker 2: No he's in.
Speaker 3: It oh he.
Speaker 2: Is, yeah this. Kid this is the period of films
Speaker 2: where they had combined the movies and THE tv show
Speaker 2: and like they were literally just throwing everything in and
Speaker 2: just squeezing as much as they could out of. It
Speaker 2: and maybe they'll relaunch it here in the next year
Speaker 2: or two and we'll have so much more juice to.
Speaker 2: Squeeze but this was like the last. Trickle but, hey
Speaker 2: somebody had to direct these. Movies might as well have
Speaker 2: Been Leonard. Okay, Now more, recently he directed the twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one Drama, triumph and seems to be returning to
Speaker 2: his roots with an upcoming project Called Dark, star not
Speaker 2: not related To John Carpenter's Dark, star in which quote
Speaker 2: a trio Of Astral warriors battle And ai. Threat it's
Speaker 2: in pre production as of this, recording So i'm. Interested
Speaker 2: it would be interesting to see what the director Of
Speaker 2: lon More man In virtuosity would have for us in
Speaker 2: like twenty twenty five or twenty twenty. SIX i am mighty.
Speaker 3: Curious. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now his music video filmography Includes Peter Gabriel's Kissed That
Speaker 2: frog from ninety. Three this was off of a terrific
Speaker 2: album THAT i totally wore out in the. Nineties the
Speaker 2: video is notable for its use OF cgi and A cgi.
Speaker 2: Frog it was actually the first ALL cgi music. Video
Speaker 2: apparently the cgi frog has really really red. Lips it's
Speaker 2: like lipstick. Lips this was obviously a pioneering music, video
Speaker 2: which is to say it doesn't look that great by today's,
Speaker 2: standard not like a lot of Other Peter gabriel videos Like,
Speaker 2: sledgehammer you, know which has all this great stop motion
Speaker 2: and you, know totally stands the test of.
Speaker 3: Time, no But Peter gabriel has a presence on the
Speaker 3: soundtrack of this movie as. Well Guess I'm Your Party, Man.
Speaker 2: That's, right a track co written By Tory. Amos. Wow,
Speaker 2: Yeah SO i look forward to talking about the music
Speaker 2: as we proceed.
Speaker 3: Here, Okay, okay don't want to get ahead of, you.
Speaker 2: But to finish With, leonard it is notable that he's
Speaker 2: not just a nineteen nineties popularizer OF, vr sci fi and.
Speaker 2: Tear he also co founded two different companies involved in
Speaker 2: the use OF vr is the term he prefers as
Speaker 2: virtual experiences for therapeutic. Purposes so There's Virtual, Psychedelics. Inc
Speaker 2: And UBIQUITY.
Speaker 3: Vx, okay no offense To Brett leonard at all about,
Speaker 3: this but it is kind of an odd choice to
Speaker 3: like the stories you have created and sent into the
Speaker 3: world ABOUT, vr all about murder and about LIKE VR vr,
Speaker 3: psychos you, know taking control and unleashing havoc on the,
Speaker 3: world but then also like literally being involved and actually
Speaker 3: USING vr for allegedly good. Purposes And i'm not trying
Speaker 3: to impune what he's, doing.
Speaker 2: No, no, NO i mean he based on the interview
Speaker 2: THAT i watched on that, disk he does seem to
Speaker 2: recognize the irony of, this and he's frames it is
Speaker 2: sort of Like i'm giving back having having first helped
Speaker 2: to create these visions of. Paranoia, yeah so fair, enough all.
Speaker 2: Right moving on to the. Screenplay it is By Eric,
Speaker 2: burnt screenwriter perhaps best known for his work on this,
Speaker 2: film but his first credit to his screenplay was nineteen twenty
Speaker 2: Four surviving The, game directed By ERNEST. R. Dickerson we've
Speaker 2: talked about this before because we've talked About ERNEST Ar dickerson,
Speaker 2: Before but this is the most dangerous game but with Iced,
Speaker 2: tea hunted By, Rugger, Howard Gary, BUSEY F Murray, abraham
Speaker 2: And JOHN. C.
Speaker 3: McGinley, yeah Was, dickerson the director of The tales from
Speaker 3: The crypt Movie Demon.
Speaker 2: Knight he, Was, yes we talked about before on the.
Speaker 2: Show he also wrote the screenplay for two Thousand's Romeo
Speaker 2: Must die and has a story credit on two Thousands
Speaker 2: Highlander End.
Speaker 3: Game all, Right highlander connections from different. Directions, yeah there
Speaker 3: was a lot of Work highlander. World you, know so
Speaker 3: you got paid where you could get. Paid, OKAY i
Speaker 3: think it's time to talk about our IMPLAUSIBLE a list actors.
Speaker 2: Here, yes Playing Lieutenant Parker. Barnes you know his name
Speaker 2: Is parker because it's set a bazillion times in this.
Speaker 3: Picture, Hey, corker this one's for.
Speaker 2: You. Yeah this, is of Course Denzel washington born nineteen fifty.
Speaker 2: Four this is one of those moments where it's, LIKE
Speaker 2: i don't have to tell anyone out there Who Denzel washington,
Speaker 2: is BUT i will say it's just so easy to
Speaker 2: take a talent like him for, granted because for people
Speaker 2: around my, age it feels like he's always been. There you,
Speaker 2: know he's always been there at the top of his.
Speaker 2: Game he's always been. Established he's stuck near the top
Speaker 2: of The hollywood. Pantheon for decades and just continues to
Speaker 2: bust out, powerful often award winning performances in, big big budget.
Speaker 2: Films all, told he's currently a nine Time Academy award
Speaker 2: nominee and two time. Winner at this point in his,
Speaker 2: career as we already pointed, out he'd been nominated three
Speaker 2: times and won. Once so you, know DARE i say
Speaker 2: he's coming into this one, hot having been nominated for
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty Eight's Cry, freedom in nineteen ninety Three's MALCOLM,
Speaker 2: x and having won again for nineteen Nineties. Glory subsequent
Speaker 2: nominations would include two thousands Of The, hurricane twenty Thirteen's,
Speaker 2: flight twenty Seventeens, fences twenty Eighteen's Roman Jay Israel, esquire
Speaker 2: and twenty twenty Two's The tragedy Of. Macbeth to, date
Speaker 2: only other Oscar win Was Best actor for his excellent
Speaker 2: performance as the dirty Cop Alonzo harris in two thousand
Speaker 2: and One's Training. DAY i keep getting a wild hair
Speaker 2: to rewatch that, one because that's a film that when
Speaker 2: it came OUT i was really captivated. By it was
Speaker 2: just like really, intense had some excellent twists and in
Speaker 2: just a phenomenal sense of danger as well, as of
Speaker 2: course at a terrific i'll, say villain, performance but it's
Speaker 2: a little more complicated than, that you, know it's almost
Speaker 2: like A shakespearean villain, performance which of course brings us
Speaker 2: to The tragedy Of. Macbeth, that of course Is Joel
Speaker 2: cohen's adaptation of The scottish play that also co Stars francis,
Speaker 2: McDormand and it is also awesome and of course features
Speaker 2: an amazing supporting cast that features a Few Cohen brothers
Speaker 2: regulars as well As Brian. Thompson you might Remember Brian
Speaker 2: thompson from such films as the Second Moral kombat, movie
Speaker 2: in which you Played Shao, khan and loads of like
Speaker 2: ACTION b. Movies you, know he was often an action.
Speaker 2: Star but he shows up in THE a is one
Speaker 2: of the murderers and is. Terrific, oh in The tragedy Of.
Speaker 2: Macbeth not In, Virtuosity, no not in. VIRTUALLY i would
Speaker 2: be ashamed.
Speaker 3: IF i had missed him In Virtuosity.
Speaker 2: Somewhere, Yeah Brian thompson was also one of the punks
Speaker 2: that gets beat up and or killed by the.
Speaker 3: Terminator yeah that sounds. Right, Yeah, well AS i said,
Speaker 3: Earlier Denzel washington is so much better than this movie calls.
Speaker 3: For he's giving the more subdued and humanistic performance and
Speaker 3: Allowing Russell crowe the space to just be. Wacky but
Speaker 3: it's both funny and genuinely like a pleasure to see
Speaker 3: him in this. Role.
Speaker 2: Yeah, leonard in the interview On The Blu ray commented
Speaker 2: That denzel was pretty much at the top of his game,
Speaker 2: here you, know requiring only mild suggestions here and, there
Speaker 2: and otherwise you just, like you just let him run with,
Speaker 2: it and he nails it right out of the, gate
Speaker 2: possessing what he described as an almost like superhuman ability
Speaker 2: to know exactly where his face is in a given
Speaker 2: shot and just maximize his, expression.
Speaker 3: Which is interesting because that's a a very film specific.
Speaker 3: Talent AND i, Know i've read That Denzel washington very
Speaker 3: much thinks of himself as like a stage. Performer. FIRST i, mean,
Speaker 3: obviously you, know more people know him from his, movies
Speaker 3: but he you, know he's a very like stage and
Speaker 3: theater focused actor in a.
Speaker 2: Way. Yeah, Yeah, yeah he's back on the stage currently
Speaker 2: as we're recording this as. Well but as far as
Speaker 2: sci fi movies, goes it. Goes it's actually. Interesting this
Speaker 2: is only one of three sci fi movies That denzel
Speaker 2: has ever appeared, IN i, believe alongside two thousand and
Speaker 2: six Is Deja vus and twenty Ten's The book Of.
Speaker 2: Eli and of course he's still going strong. Today just
Speaker 2: came off of a key role In Ridley Scott's gladiator,
Speaker 2: too which is fitting given who our next star.
Speaker 3: Is that's all, Right rachel AND i were just talking
Speaker 3: about this that it's got two Different gladiator actors at
Speaker 3: the top, here and of, course, yeah of course that
Speaker 3: brings us To Russell crowe AS sid six point.
Speaker 2: Seven that's. Right do you think it.
Speaker 3: Would have been different actors in the role of PREVIOUS sid,
Speaker 3: releases like WAS sid three point Nine michael dudikof and
Speaker 3: then by the time he get to six point, seven
Speaker 3: That's Russell.
Speaker 2: Crowe that that would be. Interesting that would if they
Speaker 2: do A VIRTUOSITY tv, series you, know they could do different,
Speaker 2: sids different. Actors it could be a sit of the weak.
Speaker 2: Situation So Russell crowe born nineteen sixty, Four New zealand
Speaker 2: born actor Of welsh And malory. Ancestry as With, DENZEL
Speaker 2: i really don't need to tell you Who Russell crowe
Speaker 2: is very famous, actor but with a DECIDEDLY i would,
Speaker 2: say wilder reputation in a. Filmography to fit that, reputation
Speaker 2: crow starred started off in music and, theater Including i'm
Speaker 2: delighted to say Playing eddie in A New zealand production
Speaker 2: Of The Rocky Horror Picture.
Speaker 3: Show oh that's surprising.
Speaker 2: But also kind of. Perfect you, KNOW i think he
Speaker 2: was in he was like in a band at one,
Speaker 2: point very, early you, know before he really got into.
Speaker 2: Acting SO i can definitely See Russell crowe As. Eddie
Speaker 2: he has Meat, yeah, Yeah eddie was by Meat loaf
Speaker 2: in The Rocky Art Picture show for anyone who's trying
Speaker 2: to remember the. Casting, Now crowe broke Into australian cinema after.
Speaker 2: THIS a couple of big hits here were ninety ninety
Speaker 2: One's proof and nineteen ninety Two's Romper stomper rather famous
Speaker 2: role in which he plays A melbourne, skinhead and these
Speaker 2: films helped to springboard him Into american pictures and that's
Speaker 2: really where virtuosity. Comes in the same, year he also
Speaker 2: appeared in The Sam raimi Western The quick and The.
Speaker 3: Dead Never seen that one is that one that also
Speaker 3: Has Sharon. Stone, YEAH i believe she's the lead in.
Speaker 2: It, yeah so. Yeah leonard also talked about about working
Speaker 2: With Russell crowe and Said Russell crowe is also a
Speaker 2: situation where you turn him loose and you just follow
Speaker 2: him and, maybe you, know give him a few few
Speaker 2: directions here and. There but he Described crowe as being
Speaker 2: kind of like a bundle of improvisational, energy and so
Speaker 2: a lot of his lines here that we, get some
Speaker 2: of the great, ones our improvisations that he brought to the,
Speaker 2: script that he brought to the.
Speaker 3: SCENES i think you can detect that without even knowing.
Speaker 3: It it just comes through in the. Movie there's this
Speaker 3: might sound like a wild, comparison but there is almost
Speaker 3: A Jim carrey quality to him in.
Speaker 2: This, yes, yes absolutely, yeah that kind of Like, Batman,
Speaker 2: Joker riddler kind of energy where it's just you, know
Speaker 2: laughing and. Goofy like our man here is doing backflips
Speaker 2: into THE ufc octagon and landing on his head seemingly on.
Speaker 2: PURPOSE i, mean he's completely. Unhinged. Yeah So Russell crowe
Speaker 2: followed all this with well received performances in such hits
Speaker 2: As La confidential in ninety, Seven The insider in ninety.
Speaker 2: Nine he got An oscar nomination for that, one before
Speaker 2: his award winning star performance In Ridley Scott's gladiator in
Speaker 2: two thousand and. One he was nominated the following year
Speaker 2: FOR A Beautiful. Mind subsequent films of note include the
Speaker 2: likes of two thousand and, Threes Mastering, Commander The Far
Speaker 2: side of The world and One's American gangster With Denzel,
Speaker 2: washington And Ridley Scott's Robin hood in twenty. Ten now
Speaker 2: around twenty, Ten i'd say to credits start getting a little,
Speaker 2: weirder and it feels like he gets he's getting to
Speaker 2: flex his muscles and supporting roles half the, time and
Speaker 2: even some villain work, again appearing in the likes of
Speaker 2: twenty Twelve's The man with The Iron, fists twenty Thirteen's
Speaker 2: man Of, steel twenty Fourteen's, noah twenty Seventeens The, mummy
Speaker 2: twenty twenty Two's love And, thunder which again this is
Speaker 2: where he Plays zeus and he gets to just be
Speaker 2: over the top and, comedic but also has at least
Speaker 2: one key scene that he's just oozing with villainous. Energy
Speaker 2: so it's very fun to watch a lot of people
Speaker 2: did not Like love And Thunder all that. MUCH i
Speaker 2: didn't like it as much the first TIME i watched,
Speaker 2: it BUT i really came around to it the second.
Speaker 2: Time if nothing, else it's a wacky film with some
Speaker 2: incredibly talented actors in. It you could See Christian bale
Speaker 2: play a mad god killing, alien so you know it's
Speaker 2: worth the. Ticket, Okay but then he's Lately crow has
Speaker 2: been playing a lot of. Exorcists twenty twenty three Is
Speaker 2: The Pope's exorcist and twenty twenty Four's The. Exorcist these
Speaker 2: are apparently not related to each. OTHER i haven't seen,
Speaker 2: them SO i can't fully. Comment BUT i don't know
Speaker 2: he's just saying yes to exorcist.
Speaker 3: PICTURES i haven't Seen The Pope's. Exorcist in, FACT i
Speaker 3: don't know what it's about other than what one might
Speaker 3: surmise from the. Title but it like pops up on streaming,
Speaker 3: services and so in our house we keep making The
Speaker 3: Pope's exorcist.
Speaker 2: Jokes is he an exorcist working for The pope or
Speaker 2: is he exercising the?
Speaker 3: Pope many good? Questions is The pope possessed by a
Speaker 3: devil and he has to exercise, it or do people
Speaker 3: get possessed by the spirit of The pope and he
Speaker 3: has to go exercise The pope from?
Speaker 2: PEOPLE i don't. Know we're going to have to await
Speaker 2: listeners to tell us how this all plays.
Speaker 3: Out CAN i read a quote from The Janet Maslin
Speaker 3: New York times review Of virtuosity when it came? Out oh,
Speaker 3: yes please don't fully agree with Everything maslin says, here
Speaker 3: but just for how it was received at the, Time she,
Speaker 3: writes Mister washington is usually an actor audiences will follow
Speaker 3: into any, dimension but here his role is, limited too,
Speaker 3: often leaving him to play second fiddle to the film's
Speaker 3: weirdly hypnotic special. Effects Mister, crowe as a psychotic yuppie
Speaker 3: type bearing a disconcerting resemblance to the Writer Brett Easton,
Speaker 3: ellis does a memorable job making himself frightening until the
Speaker 3: film becomes numbingly frantic in the manner of many video.
Speaker 3: Games while it excoriates the vicious sid as the techno
Speaker 3: spawn of monsters Like Adolf hitler And John Wayne, Gacy
Speaker 3: virtuosity also revels in his exploits with more enthusiasm than
Speaker 3: is really. Necessary you, Know i'm gonna agree with the
Speaker 3: later part of. That one of the downsides of the
Speaker 3: film is like it's like mostly, silly but then sometimes
Speaker 3: the violent scenes just get a little too. Real it's,
Speaker 3: like oh, man that went harder than it needed. To
Speaker 3: but the other thing, IS i like the characterization Of
Speaker 3: Russell crowe here is as a psychotic yuppie type because
Speaker 3: that captures something about the role THAT i didn't quite
Speaker 3: put together WHEN i was just reacting to it. Myself but,
Speaker 3: yeah there is a kind of urbanity to, him do
Speaker 3: you know WHAT i? Mean like he's kind of he's
Speaker 3: kind of suave and sophisticated at the same time that
Speaker 3: he is supposed to be an, uncontrollable, manic psycho, killer
Speaker 3: and that is clearly it's part of what the appeal
Speaker 3: of the character. Is but it also, FEELS i don't,
Speaker 3: know it's like a very unfocused. Characterization this character is
Speaker 3: just a lot of things thrown at the, wall you
Speaker 3: know WHAT i.
Speaker 2: Mean, yeah but of course that also is exactly what he. Is, Like,
Speaker 2: yeah there's like a multiple personality situation going. On but,
Speaker 2: yeah then also as it's you, know it's brought to
Speaker 2: life on the, screen you can see so many different influences,
Speaker 2: there all, right getting into the rest of the, cast
Speaker 2: AND i should say the rest of the cast is
Speaker 2: very much the rest of the cast. Here, yeah you,
Speaker 2: know they're all supporting what our two stars are. Doing
Speaker 2: but we Have Kelly lynch playing the Character Madison carter
Speaker 2: born nineteen fifty Nine american, actress best known for performances
Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty Nine's Drugstore, cowboy as well As roadhouse
Speaker 2: from the same. Year she's continued to work steadily in
Speaker 2: film AND, tv appearing in such series As THE L,
Speaker 2: Word Magic, City Mister, mercedes And.
Speaker 3: Physical you know how whenever a copy gets thrown off
Speaker 3: the force is brought back for one last. Job he
Speaker 3: always has to get a new. Partner here's your new partner.
Speaker 2: Exactly and so it is very much a supporting role
Speaker 2: in the most limited sense of the. Word like everything
Speaker 2: she's doing is here to support the characterization Of Denzel
Speaker 2: washington's character and have her kid.
Speaker 3: Kidnapped we'll. Discuss she does get to shoot the human
Speaker 3: bad guy at the.
Speaker 2: End that's. True that's. True. Oh in speaking of human bad, guy,
Speaker 2: yep it Is Lynden, meyer played By Steven. Spinella for
Speaker 2: nineteen fifty. Six this was only his third film. Appearance but,
Speaker 2: man this guy has tremendous weird energy because he's the
Speaker 2: creator OF sid six point. Seven but also it's clear
Speaker 2: that he's now completely enraptured by his creation and is
Speaker 2: worshiping his creation and wants to do anything he. Can
Speaker 2: he has a true love for this awful thing that he's.
Speaker 2: Made he's. Continued spinell has continued to milk his weird
Speaker 2: energy and some other great weird productions over the. Years
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety Nine's. Ravenous another film THAT i think would
Speaker 2: be interesting to revisit in twenty twenty, five twenty Ten's,
Speaker 2: rubber and that's one that's been recommended to us. Before
Speaker 2: and then Also Steven Soderberg's The, nick WHICH i am
Speaker 2: struggling to remember who he. Played there were a lot
Speaker 2: of actors coming in and out of that shows what
Speaker 2: two season. Run But i'm a big fan Of The.
Speaker 2: Nick all. Right we also Have William forsyth Playing William.
Speaker 2: Cochrane this is this character is the what he's the police, chief.
Speaker 2: Right he's, Like you're the best COP i ever worked,
Speaker 2: With you're the absolute. Best i'm the in as well
Speaker 2: as he's, Like i'm gonna get you out of prison
Speaker 2: and get you back on the, force that sort of.
Speaker 3: Thing there's only one man who can stop this, thread
Speaker 3: and that's the protagonist of this.
Speaker 2: Film that's. Right SO i don't know how we've avoided
Speaker 2: watching A William forth wife movie up until now because
Speaker 2: his tons of. Credits The american character actor who's made
Speaker 2: a career out of playing mostly heavies and, cops exactly
Speaker 2: like his role in this. Film but he also played
Speaker 2: the escape Convict evil in nineteen eighty Seven's Raising. Arizona
Speaker 2: you know is that great line he's, Like, hi you're,
Speaker 2: young and you got your. Health what you want with the.
Speaker 3: Job he has the great scene where he holds up
Speaker 3: the general store to steal diapers AND i think he
Speaker 3: steals balloons and he says these blow up into funny
Speaker 3: shapes and the guy, says not unless round is. Funny.
Speaker 2: Yeah so he's great in, that and that role like
Speaker 2: definitely stands apart from most of what he's known. For
Speaker 2: other films of note include he played the mutant Gangster
Speaker 2: Flat top in nineteen Nineties Dick tracy And Pops up
Speaker 2: in three different Rob zombie, projects his Two halloween, Movies
Speaker 2: The Devil's, rejects and also the episode OF Csi miami
Speaker 2: That Robs zombie.
Speaker 3: Directed it's hard for me to recommend any of Those
Speaker 3: Rob zombie. Movies Devil's rejects is a little, rough BUT
Speaker 3: i Remember William forsyth being pretty great in.
Speaker 2: It. Yeah, Yeah like he gets in there and he
Speaker 2: does his, thing very. Dependable, oh we have Another oscar winner.
Speaker 2: Here we Have Louise fletcher playing the Character Elizabeth. Dean
Speaker 2: SHE'S i guess what she's, like A ceo or something
Speaker 2: of the company.
Speaker 3: That she's the police, commissioner a police.
Speaker 2: Commissioner, okay, YEAH.
Speaker 3: I feel Like Louise fletcher is a great, actress absolutely wasted.
Speaker 3: Here it's like the character has nothing to. Do she
Speaker 3: just stands around being the authority figure in several. Scenes.
Speaker 2: Yep she lived nineteen thirty four through twenty twenty, two
Speaker 2: best known for a role in nineteen seventy Five's One
Speaker 2: Flew over The Cuckoo's, nest for which she won A
Speaker 2: Best Supporting Actress Academy. Award also known for nineteen eighty
Speaker 2: Seven's flowers in The attic and episodes of SUCH tv
Speaker 2: shows AS D space nine And. Shameless All, right we
Speaker 2: also Have William fitchner Playing wallace in this born nineteen fifty.
Speaker 2: Six Another william character. Actor this one best known for
Speaker 2: playing kind of a mix authority figures and also slimy suit.
Speaker 2: Types his credits include nineteen ninety Eight's, armageddon two thousand
Speaker 2: and Four's, crash and twenty Fourteen's Teenage Mutant Ninja, turtles
Speaker 2: in which he plays a version of The.
Speaker 3: Shredder that's weird. Casting, yeah once, again nothing Against William.
Speaker 3: Fitchner he's doing what he. Can BUT i don't even
Speaker 3: know why this character. Exists does this character have any
Speaker 3: distinct role to play in the. Story?
Speaker 2: Yeah does this character do anything that could not have
Speaker 2: been combined into another? Character?
Speaker 3: YEAH i don't think.
Speaker 2: So oh, Man but we also have this, Character Clyde.
Speaker 2: Riley you mentioned that the developers of the, technology THE vr,
Speaker 2: technology were working out some of the. Kinks this guy
Speaker 2: was definitely working out some kinks with the. Technology played
Speaker 2: by the Excellent KEVIN. J O'Connor born nineteen sixty, three
Speaker 2: great creep character actor who of course plays a creep
Speaker 2: in this.
Speaker 3: FILM i feel like he was on a role in
Speaker 3: the nineties of playing various kinds of, squirming pathetic.
Speaker 2: Dweeves, yes frequently cast By Stephen sommers and such films
Speaker 2: as nineteen ninety eight S Deep, rising nineteen ninety Nine's The,
Speaker 2: mummy and then later on two thousand and Four's Van.
Speaker 2: Helsing but he's also worked steadily in a lot of
Speaker 2: high quality mainstream, productions like the likes Of Paul Thomas
Speaker 2: Anderson's There Will Be blood in two thousand and, Seven
Speaker 2: The master in twenty. Twelve you also might recognize him
Speaker 2: from another nineteen ninety five, Film Clive Barker's lord Of,
Speaker 2: illusions in which he plays the Magician Philip. Swan what
Speaker 2: was his role In The. MUMMY i haven't Seen The
Speaker 2: mummy in so.
Speaker 3: Long, oh He's benny in The. Mummy he's the. Guy
Speaker 3: so this Is The mummy With Brendan fraser And Rachel,
Speaker 3: weiss also the year nineteen ninety. Nine but his thing
Speaker 3: in the movie is that he like he's a. Coward he's,
Speaker 3: like while everybody else is being dashing and rushing into,
Speaker 3: danger he's always running away from danger and trying to
Speaker 3: save his. Skin so he is a comic relief coward.
Speaker 3: CHARACTER i remember, thinking AFTER i Watched The mummy one
Speaker 3: time we were joking in my. HOUSE i thought a
Speaker 3: good photoshop job would be to do A People Magazine
Speaker 3: Sexiest Man alive cover from like nineteen ninety, nine two,
Speaker 3: thousand the millennial. Style but it's just O'Connor in character
Speaker 3: from The, mummy and it Says. BENNY i mean no
Speaker 3: offense To Kevin connor. Personally it's just like he plays
Speaker 3: these pathetic dweeb characters very, well and in The mummy
Speaker 3: his vices cowardice in virtuosity and, jeez it's Lust.
Speaker 2: Yep, yeah we'll come back to, him all. Right we
Speaker 2: have this, Character John, donovan who's not in it for very,
Speaker 2: long played By Costas mandelar born nineteen. Six i'm only
Speaker 2: mentioning him because Apparently mandela would going to play a
Speaker 2: pivotal role in the Later saw. SEQUELS i had asked
Speaker 2: my Friend David streepy about this because he's he's really
Speaker 2: up on The saw, movies the soap, opera noess of,
Speaker 2: them not so much the murder of. Them but he, says,
Speaker 2: quote the back half of the franchise can't happen without
Speaker 2: him so fair.
Speaker 3: Enough he's a load bearing element.
Speaker 2: Exactly, oh and then we Have Kaylee quoco playing the
Speaker 2: Character Karen, carter a little girl in this born nineteen eighty.
Speaker 2: Five this little girl would go on to Become penny
Speaker 2: On The Big Bang.
Speaker 3: Theory i'm not A Big Bang theory, watcher SO i
Speaker 3: don't know the, character but when she shows up as
Speaker 3: the child in this, movie you just like instantly are,
Speaker 3: like oh, no the conversation with this child is going
Speaker 3: on too, long and that means definitely the child will
Speaker 3: be in peril in the third.
Speaker 2: Act where you're gonna get into A Gene siskal situation
Speaker 2: with this.
Speaker 3: Character Yeahs Russell crowe is going to kidnap her and
Speaker 3: tire to a bomb like we saw on The. Flat
Speaker 3: it's very. Predictable.
Speaker 2: Yeah quoco has been in a bunch of interesting projects
Speaker 2: Post Big Bang, theory INCLUDING TVs The Flight, attendant WHICH
Speaker 2: i did. WATCH i thought she was very good in.
Speaker 2: That she also Voices Harley quinn on the Current Harley
Speaker 2: quinn animated.
Speaker 3: Series oh, Cool.
Speaker 2: Oh Tracy lords is. Back we talked about her In.
Speaker 2: Blade she's one of the Vampire hinchmen In. Blade here
Speaker 2: she Plays Media zone. Singer SO i think she's sort
Speaker 2: of playing herself. Here this is another film where we
Speaker 2: have some major nineties rave, energy AND i think that's
Speaker 2: like where she was at this point with Her, like you,
Speaker 2: Know reinvention is a musical, act and so she kind
Speaker 2: of plays herself here performing the Track Fallen, angel which
Speaker 2: is also on the. SOUNDTRACK i was.
Speaker 3: Going to talk about this, later but you kind of
Speaker 3: can't have a really, complete Coherent cyberslot movie without a
Speaker 3: techno club. Scene you always have to have. One not
Speaker 3: all the movies have, one but when you don't have,
Speaker 3: one you feel it's. Apt it's like the movie is,
Speaker 3: impure it is.
Speaker 2: Incomplete, Yeah like people Watch The matrix and they're, like
Speaker 2: where's the club? Scene and everyone was, like, well we
Speaker 2: got to do that in the sequel and they.
Speaker 3: Did, no there is a club scene In The. Matrix,
Speaker 3: well it's only very. Brief it's at the beginning in
Speaker 3: the real, world when they're, like, okay they like some
Speaker 3: friends coming To Keanu reeves's apartment and they take him
Speaker 3: out to a club AND i think he Meets trinity.
Speaker 3: There it's only. Good it goes by in a few.
Speaker 2: Seconds, okay it's been a while Since I'm i'm the
Speaker 2: cusp of rewatching the, matrix AND i mainly remember there's
Speaker 2: definitely like a real world rave scene in the, sequel
Speaker 2: or maybe the third. ONE i can't remember one of
Speaker 2: the two sequels where they're, like, hey it's the eve
Speaker 2: of The Big, battle let's have a, rager and they.
Speaker 3: DO i still haven't seen the.
Speaker 2: Sequels oh, WHAT i Guess i'm on the cusp of
Speaker 2: rewatching the sequels as, well So i'll report.
Speaker 3: Back, okay all.
Speaker 2: Right, finally the composer here Is Christopher young born nineteen fifty,
Speaker 2: eight and Essentially young built an electronic orchestral score here
Speaker 2: around the movie's needle drop score of mostly electronic dance
Speaker 2: music with some rock and even A Peter gabriel track thrown,
Speaker 2: in AND i would SAY i Think young does a
Speaker 2: pretty seamless job. Here the soundtrack features music by the
Speaker 2: likes Of Live, Black, Grape Juno, Reactor Tricky, William, Orbit London,
Speaker 2: Beat lords Of, Acid Tracy, Lords Debbie, Harry The, beg's
Speaker 2: and again That Party man track From Peter gabriel co
Speaker 2: written By Tory.
Speaker 3: Amos The Party man track is surprisingly emotionally gripping like you, know,
Speaker 3: oh you really feel the strain in his. Voice it's
Speaker 3: a weird thing to hear right after you just saw
Speaker 3: them like DESTROY sid six point seven's personality module by
Speaker 3: having it run over by a track after you, know
Speaker 3: they had to like shoot a computer. Programmer Guess i'm
Speaker 3: your party.
Speaker 2: Man, YEAH i. Believe it's a track that The gabriel
Speaker 2: And company did for this, production was later collected on
Speaker 2: an album that collected different songs that he did for
Speaker 2: different film, productions.
Speaker 3: And has the same title as a song from The
Speaker 3: Prince batman. Soundtrack, yes it seems to refer To Jack Nicholson's,
Speaker 3: joker but it's not the same SONG i. Checked all,
Speaker 3: right let's dive into the plot of. Virtuosity so the
Speaker 3: opening titles are made of pixels that slither in and
Speaker 3: out of. Form the opening, track by the, way Is
Speaker 3: it's A Big day in The north by The english
Speaker 3: Band Black, grape which is a powerfully nostalgic sound ROB
Speaker 3: i don't know if you felt the same WAY i,
Speaker 3: did but hearing, this it's like a Nineties English you
Speaker 3: might call this jazz pop or maybe pop, funk that
Speaker 3: sort of. Sound it's got something in, it like electronic.
Speaker 3: SAXOPHONE i mainly encountered this type of music through movie,
Speaker 3: soundtracks SO i associate it with seeing movies in the
Speaker 3: theaters in the. Nineties, yep, Absolutely, sorry we just had
Speaker 3: an extended a side Off mike where we're talking about
Speaker 3: what genre of music this, is and we did not
Speaker 3: come to a. Conclusion so maybe we'll revisit that in the,
Speaker 3: future maybe for listener. Mail but, Anyway, so what's actually
Speaker 3: happening in the opening Scene when the credits are, Done
Speaker 3: we pop up in a, sleek futuristic train station full
Speaker 3: of polished steel and sterile white, lighting and it's filled
Speaker 3: with people dressed almost. Identically everybody. Is it's like men
Speaker 3: in gray suits with black ties carrying. Briefcases they're walking
Speaker 3: around synchronized in, pairs and the only people who don't
Speaker 3: match are two men in blue full body leather police
Speaker 3: uniforms wearing wearing black, caps, boots and. Gloves so we
Speaker 3: watched these two policemen step cautiously off of an elevated
Speaker 3: train onto the. Platform they're looking, around and one of
Speaker 3: the men Is Denzel. Washington this is our, Hero Parker. Barnes,
Speaker 3: now while both men look. Vigilant we quickly realize That
Speaker 3: barnes is the more assured of the. Two he's being
Speaker 3: cautious and, observant and the other guy seems a little more.
Speaker 3: Afraid and the other guy, goes, MAN i can't get
Speaker 3: over how different we, look And barnes, says maybe it's the.
Speaker 3: Uniforms SO i think this opening is supposed to be
Speaker 3: a bit of a fake, out like you're supposed to
Speaker 3: wonder what they're talking about, here why everything looks a little.
Speaker 3: Odd but, THIS i think really does not work because
Speaker 3: it's obvious they're in a virtual reality. World you can
Speaker 3: guess this if you've seen the. Trailer and it's even
Speaker 3: more obvious because you keep seeing people like glitching and
Speaker 3: turning into pixels and. Stuff, yeah so they did not
Speaker 3: have me going here. Anyway they start running around looking for,
Speaker 3: somebody and eventually they end up in this business district
Speaker 3: plaza where there is a, green floating cgi head made
Speaker 3: out of polygons giving a news report about a bunch
Speaker 3: of gruesome. Crimes i'm pretty sure it's Actually Russ crows
Speaker 3: doing doing the voice of this, thing but in a
Speaker 3: kind of tight Newscaster cadence and he, says the three
Speaker 3: adjectives which best describe this killer are, sidistic, intelligent and.
Speaker 3: Dangerous what does that spell spell?
Speaker 2: SID i thought we were going to say, stink, stank,
Speaker 2: stunk but that that would have been great.
Speaker 3: Too this is six point. Seven So denzel eventually traces
Speaker 3: their quarry to A japanese. Restaurant he knows to look
Speaker 3: there because he looks over the restaurant entrance on the
Speaker 3: building and sees a an emoticon smiley face like the
Speaker 3: colon parentheses smiley face over the. Entrance it's a, joke
Speaker 3: And sid six point seven likes. Jokes and when we
Speaker 3: first Find, sid he is repeatedly eating a piece of
Speaker 3: sushi that regenerates every time he picks it up off
Speaker 3: the plate and eats. It SO i think it suggests,
Speaker 3: that you, know here in this, world no matter how
Speaker 3: how much he, eats he never gets. Full it's like
Speaker 3: he's unsatisfied with the tangible pleasures of the fake.
Speaker 2: WORLD i like. THIS i also like how the NPCs
Speaker 2: are like glitching as they eat their. Sushi they're just
Speaker 2: kind of like sushi floating into their. Mouth so this
Speaker 2: is definitely the section of the section of the picture
Speaker 2: one of the sections of the picture in the digital
Speaker 2: world where the roughness of the digital effects is one
Speaker 2: of the charms and absolutely. Works doesn't feel dated at
Speaker 2: all because, like this is exactly the look they were going.
Speaker 3: For, Yeah and so this of course turns into a
Speaker 3: big gunfight. Scene both the cops AND sid just start
Speaker 3: blasting everywhere with machine, guns and the NPCs eating in
Speaker 3: the restaurant mostly appear to not notice this and they
Speaker 3: just keep sitting at their. Tables so in this, world
Speaker 3: by nineteen ninety, nine virtual reality has nearly one hundred
Speaker 3: percent immersion and totally realistic graphical, fidelity BUT npc behavior
Speaker 3: has like not quite reached the level of the Mid
Speaker 3: Grand theft auto, games where people at least like scream
Speaker 3: and run away when something.
Speaker 2: Explodes but you, know this is how the Mid Grand
Speaker 2: theft auto games. Felt when the Mid Grand theft atto
Speaker 2: games felt out like they felt like this level of,
Speaker 2: immersion LIKE i actually live In miami in the nineteen it's,
Speaker 2: like you, know, yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah so, anyway this fight goes, On sid and the
Speaker 3: cops keep shooting at each. Other at one point it
Speaker 3: is revealed That Russell crowe has like caught and electrocuted
Speaker 3: the other. COP i think you see him on ice
Speaker 3: and like a sushi. Tray and at one point they
Speaker 3: borrow a page From, speed And barnes gets the upper
Speaker 3: hand by shooting a digital. Hostage he will later. Explain
Speaker 3: they later are, Like, barnes why did you shoot the?
Speaker 3: Hostage that doesn't make any, Sense but then he has
Speaker 3: a clever. Answer he's, like the hostage wasn't. Real didn't
Speaker 3: think of, That.
Speaker 2: Sid, Yeah because what we're going to learn shortly is
Speaker 2: this is a training simulation for police. Officers BUT i
Speaker 2: really have to, add like clearly for cinematic police, officer
Speaker 2: there's nothing in this training that indicates any kind of
Speaker 2: like actual police, training any. Procedure, yeah it's just like
Speaker 2: what if you had a Big hollywood action scene with
Speaker 2: a super criminal.
Speaker 3: Exactly. Yeah so at the end of This sid gets
Speaker 3: the upper hand in the fight and he starts choking
Speaker 3: Out barnes Until barnes like glitches, out which looks super,
Speaker 3: funny and then he sort of fades out of existence
Speaker 3: like he's being sucked out of THE vr, world and
Speaker 3: we're treated to a shot of A cgi bullet wound
Speaker 3: On sid's. Body rapidly healing with classic electrical zap z app.
Speaker 3: Fully but then our human characters come out of THE.
Speaker 3: Vr so we zoom out into a room in the
Speaker 3: real world in meat, space where we See sid standing
Speaker 3: there in his green suit on a GIANT tv, Screen
Speaker 3: so like in the virtual reality, studio there's a huge,
Speaker 3: screen it's like fifteen feet, tall where we see what's
Speaker 3: happening in the virtual, world and we immediately hear the
Speaker 3: sounds of like men groaning in, agony and we see
Speaker 3: them writhing in THEIR vr, seats and an automated voice
Speaker 3: is saying warning subjects exceeding the maximum dose of neural. Information,
Speaker 3: now maybe we should briefly hear comment on what it
Speaker 3: looks like when you see the people in the physical
Speaker 3: space in THE vr. RIGS i thought this was also
Speaker 3: quite funny because they're like jiggling around and miming the
Speaker 3: motions they do in the virtual. World like there's a
Speaker 3: part later where we See denzel running in the rig
Speaker 3: ye and he's like pumping his arms and legs but
Speaker 3: not going, anywhere and it's hilarious.
Speaker 2: That, yeah it really looks hilarious later when they're running yes,
Speaker 2: here you, know they're just squirming in. Pain so, yeah but,
Speaker 2: yeah it looks a bit goofy later.
Speaker 3: On, yeah so they're strapped into these dangling like combine
Speaker 3: dentist chairs WEARING vr. Advisors they're not going. Anywhere and
Speaker 3: then also you see a little computer read out that
Speaker 3: shows a THREE d representation of the player's heads and
Speaker 3: there are like these red and yellow explosions inside the. Skulls,
Speaker 3: fortunately it Seems denzel gets out just in. Time he's like,
Speaker 3: rattled but he's. Okay but the other, guy, oh the
Speaker 3: other guys having violent. Seizures he gets pulled off onto
Speaker 3: a hospital gurney and you see them like doing a
Speaker 3: defibrillator on, him and you learn he.
Speaker 2: Dies, yeah they try really hard for darn near ten
Speaker 2: seconds to save, him but in la up roll him,
Speaker 2: out he's done.
Speaker 3: For also in the, scene we meet basically all of
Speaker 3: the film's major. CHARACTERS i don't think there's anybody major
Speaker 3: we have to meet. Later we already talked about them.
Speaker 3: Earlier all of the various, functionaries commissioners and company. Guys
Speaker 3: i'm not gonna dwell on, them but they're all standing around.
Speaker 3: Watching you can kind of group them as like who's
Speaker 3: good and who's bad based on their. Reaction you've got
Speaker 3: the good guys like the police chief And Kelly lynch's,
Speaker 3: character Doctor Madison. Carter they're concerned about the test. Subjects they're, like,
Speaker 3: oh get those men out of. There he's going into.
Speaker 3: Shock and then we've got the kind of middle to bad,
Speaker 3: guys like the indifferent. Characters That's William fitchner And Louise.
Speaker 3: Fletcher they're just kind of standing there watching. Coldly and
Speaker 3: at some, Point dean, said there's like some very klutzy
Speaker 3: exposition dialogue Where Louise fletcher's character says virtual reality was
Speaker 3: supposed to be a safe place to train my law enforcement,
Speaker 3: officers and one of The williams is, like that's why
Speaker 3: we were using convicts to ferret out any glitches in the.
Speaker 3: System and they have this exchange as they're driving away
Speaker 3: in a golf cart by the, way and then finally
Speaker 3: we meet this the obvious bad, Guy Darryl lindenmeyer that
Speaker 3: again is played By Steven, spinella who looks confusingly similar
Speaker 3: To William, fitchener like they look alike and dress the.
Speaker 2: Same it's almost like they accidentally cast both actors as
Speaker 2: the same, character and they're, like, well, crap we've got
Speaker 2: to pick one and just make a role for the other.
Speaker 3: Guy yeah, yeah yeah. Yeah William fitchener also could have
Speaker 3: played this other. Guy yeah. Yeah but he's like the
Speaker 3: creator of THE vr system and they're sort of grilling
Speaker 3: him about the fail. Safes he seems squirrely and. Untrustworthy
Speaker 3: but we get some backstory in the scene as. Well
Speaker 3: The chief Tells Parker, barnes you, know he acknowledges that
Speaker 3: they're old, friends and he, says it was good to
Speaker 3: see you in uniform, again even if it was only virtual. Reality,
Speaker 3: Meanwhile barnes is he's got. Insights he's LIKE sid six point.
Speaker 3: Seven he's. Cheating AND i know he's cheating BECAUSE i
Speaker 3: hacked the main frame before we went, in and he's
Speaker 3: not allowed to use electricity as a, weapon but he did,
Speaker 3: anyway and he goes and he like tries to show the,
Speaker 3: chief But, lindenmeyer whose first name Is darryl by the,
Speaker 3: Way Darryl, Lindenmeyer he's, like, no get away from, there
Speaker 3: and so obviously that's setting up a.
Speaker 2: CONFLICT i want to mention that at this point in
Speaker 2: the real, World Denzel washington's, Character Parker, barnes has great.
Speaker 2: Hair he has like really, cool like futuristic feeling. Hair
Speaker 2: he's not going to get to keep his hair for
Speaker 2: the rest of the, picture AND i was a little
Speaker 2: disappointed by.
Speaker 3: That, yeah they give him a haircut before they send
Speaker 3: him out on a mission.
Speaker 2: Later why is his hair super cool and cultivated in?
Speaker 2: Prison but then once he's, free it's. CUT i don't,
Speaker 2: KNOW i don't, KNOW i don't.
Speaker 3: Know but, Anyway, okay so they send him back to.
Speaker 3: Prison there's one brief thing here where they, show, oh
Speaker 3: he's got a metallic. Limb he like goes through a
Speaker 3: scanner and it's, like remember, that. Folks it doesn't look it
Speaker 3: just looks like a normal arm from the, outside but
Speaker 3: they show you'll scan as he's going through and it's
Speaker 3: apparently a metal. Arm When barnes is sent back to,
Speaker 3: prison he randomly has to fight a Neo. NAZI i
Speaker 3: did not understand why this occurred WHEN i first watched.
Speaker 3: It it was almost like suggesting this fight was arranged
Speaker 3: by the powers that, be like they were trying to
Speaker 3: silence him about THE vr program or. Something BUT i
Speaker 3: don't think there's any follow through to confirm, That SO
Speaker 3: i don't know why this.
Speaker 2: Happened it's also very, stylistic so you could almost think
Speaker 2: we're back, simulation just because it does not look like
Speaker 2: you're it's a future, PRISON i, guess. Yeah and you
Speaker 2: don't see any of the inmates. Directly they're all behind
Speaker 2: like some sort of a like a some sort of
Speaker 2: a glass or a, screen so you just see their.
Speaker 3: Silhouettes, yes, Yes So denzel goes into this big. Hall
Speaker 3: there's nobody else in. It all these silhouettes of prisoners
Speaker 3: lined up like an audience mocking and jeering at. Him
Speaker 3: you only see them behind these silk. Screens and then
Speaker 3: from the opposite end of the, hall this gross guy
Speaker 3: with a white power tattoo and an improvised stabbing weapon comes,
Speaker 3: out and then they, fight and Then barnes defeats him
Speaker 3: with superior training and, tactics as well as at least
Speaker 3: one brutal uppercut to the, groin and then a bunch
Speaker 3: of guards rush in and beat Up, Barns AND i
Speaker 3: don't understand why this.
Speaker 2: Happened, yeah it's so stylistic THAT i was expecting him
Speaker 2: to beat The nazi to death with an Apple, macintosh
Speaker 2: but it is HOW i went. Down.
Speaker 3: Okay then we go on to another scene with our bad.
Speaker 3: Guys this is the let me tell you a secret,
Speaker 3: scene which is pretty pretty. Solid so Remember Daryl lindenmeyer
Speaker 3: the computer Company. Creep he's in THE vr space and
Speaker 3: he walks up to THE sid screen where the screen
Speaker 3: is on And sid is in there playing a piano
Speaker 3: in a green satin suit in a beyond The MIND'S
Speaker 3: I done sea, landscape And darryl tells, him you know, What, Sorry,
Speaker 3: Sid i'm gonna have to deactivate. You he, SAYS i
Speaker 3: know it was you who increased the neural sensitivity. Calibrations
Speaker 3: you murdered that. Prisoner and Then sid, SAYS i can't
Speaker 3: change WHAT i, Am. Darryl i'm a fifty terabyte self
Speaker 3: evolving neural network double backflip off the high. Platform i'm
Speaker 3: not a swan. Dive AND i have to tell you
Speaker 3: killing for. Real it was a real. RUSH i always love.
Speaker 3: These see a lot Of cyberslot movies have a monologue like,
Speaker 3: this LIKE i am a masterpiece of. Evil. Evil i'm
Speaker 3: pretty Sure job and Lawnmower man has a speech a
Speaker 3: lot like. This this one is relatively. Short, also when
Speaker 3: he lands after doing his, backflips he explodes into a
Speaker 3: bunch of, bats and you know, what beyond the, MINDS
Speaker 3: i had a bat. SWARM i think that must have
Speaker 3: been part of a STANDARD cg package in the, nineties
Speaker 3: Because sid is not really associated with. Bats it's not,
Speaker 3: like you, know what else does he have to do with?
Speaker 3: Bats it seems out of. Nowhere but, anyway after he,
Speaker 3: says you, KNOW i love killing for, real it was really.
Speaker 3: Good Lynden meyer, goes oh My, god and then the monologue.
Speaker 3: Continues it's quite. Good sid, says What god would that?
Speaker 3: Be the one who created you or the one who created.
Speaker 3: Me you, see in your, world The lord giveth and
Speaker 3: The lord taketh, Away but in my, world the one
Speaker 3: who gave me life doesn't have any. Balls you are
Speaker 3: frightfully inadequate for a, Deity darryl AND i will not
Speaker 3: be shut. Down, okay so that's, corny but for what
Speaker 3: it is that slaps.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah AND i should add this whole sequence is
Speaker 2: just very well. Shot it's the great integration between the
Speaker 2: live action performance and the use of the, screens which
Speaker 2: Was i'm to understand all the screens in the film
Speaker 2: were in. Camera i'm assuming at least some of it
Speaker 2: was not live to. Screen leonard points out that a
Speaker 2: lot of skill went into making sure all these screens
Speaker 2: were set upright and you could be seen on camera
Speaker 2: in the optimal. Way.
Speaker 3: Yeah i'm impressedly achieved. That but, anyway so in the,
Speaker 3: Scene darryl, says you, Know, sid you cannot exist without
Speaker 3: the approval of the. Authorities you are software and you
Speaker 3: need hardware to run. On So sid comes up with a.
Speaker 3: Plan what is that? Plan he, says sacrifice your. Queen,
Speaker 3: ooh cryptic, meaning and then the camera kind of creeps.
Speaker 3: IN i like, this there's this slow creep in and he,
Speaker 3: says let me tell you a.
Speaker 2: Secret. Yeah. Yeah the scene lands in an excellent place.
Speaker 2: Here at that being, Said i'm not exactly sure where
Speaker 2: the secret. WAS i, MEAN i don't need to, know
Speaker 2: because the scene still connected on an emotional level and
Speaker 2: certainly established our villain and some semblance of his plot
Speaker 2: with his creator turned. Worshiper BUT i have some guesses
Speaker 2: what the secret might, be but it's not really.
Speaker 3: Clear maybe we can come back to, that all, Right
Speaker 3: so we also get the scene Where barnes meets with
Speaker 3: Doctor Madison Carter Kelly. Lynch she comes. In they have
Speaker 3: an interview in the. Prison she introduces. Herself she's a
Speaker 3: criminal psychologist And William forsyth asked her to do a
Speaker 3: profile On barnes that may be useful in reducing his.
Speaker 3: Sentence so they. Talk she asks him about the. Fight
Speaker 3: he says he was defending. Himself she asks him about
Speaker 3: whether he was attracted to violence as a. Child he's, like,
Speaker 3: yeah three, Stooges Wiley coyote was. Great nice. Answer and
Speaker 3: as they keep, talking it starts to seem like what
Speaker 3: she's really interested in Is Russell. CROWE i, mean what's
Speaker 3: everybody interested? IN i think she wants to write a
Speaker 3: book on the criminal genius Of sid six point. Seven
Speaker 3: so she starts kind of Quizzing denzel about his virtual.
Speaker 3: Me he's, like how did you know he'd be in
Speaker 3: The japanese? Restaurant And barnes explains what an emoticon.
Speaker 2: Is.
Speaker 3: Yeah we also here get the first hints Of barnes's tragic,
Speaker 3: backstory which gets revealed in a trickle throughout the. MOVIE
Speaker 3: i Think i'm gonna cut to the chase and just
Speaker 3: summarize the whole thing, here so we don't trickle it.
Speaker 3: In so the deal Is barnes was some kind of
Speaker 3: elite detective on the case of a man Named Matthew,
Speaker 3: grimes which they Call they say he was a quote political,
Speaker 3: terrorist AND i like how they specify a political terrorist
Speaker 3: to make it clear he's not like a culinary. Terrorist
Speaker 3: but if he's a political, terrorist what were his? Politics
Speaker 3: that is not really. Clear at one point we see
Speaker 3: him speaking to the media about the haves and have,
Speaker 3: nots but mostly THAT i don't. Know that's back to
Speaker 3: the THING i said at the beginning about like cultural
Speaker 3: objects just feeling like they're meaningless in, Themselves like he
Speaker 3: could have inserted any kind of of political rhetoric there
Speaker 3: and it would be the same.
Speaker 2: Thing, yeah this this particular detail of his, backstory like
Speaker 2: the basic shape of. It, okay some some sort of
Speaker 2: a killer took out his. Family, yeah you, know obviously
Speaker 2: that's a necessary part of what they're building. Here but
Speaker 2: all the details about this guy, JUST i don't, know
Speaker 2: they're not very. Convincing, like, yeah like we could have
Speaker 2: we should have known less about, it because what we
Speaker 2: do learn is not convincing or certainly doesn't have as
Speaker 2: much of an emotional.
Speaker 3: Impact it has a real anti verisimilitude about his political.
Speaker 3: Terroristiness it suggests more that he just like simply loved
Speaker 3: crime and. Murder, yeah and so, anyway but they tell
Speaker 3: the story of how this guy Kidnapped barnes's wife and.
Speaker 3: Child he put them in a booby trapped room so
Speaker 3: that When barnes came to rescue, them it would trigger a,
Speaker 3: bomb and the bomb killed his. Family and it's also
Speaker 3: the Reason barnes now has the bionic. Arm. Uh and
Speaker 3: So carter is like asking him questions about like his
Speaker 3: backstory in the, scene and we we get to learn
Speaker 3: that we see that he is a, haunted broken.
Speaker 2: Man all.
Speaker 3: Right, now from here we move on to The sheila.
Speaker 3: Scene so we're back in THE cid, warehouse you, know
Speaker 3: where THE vr world is projected on the big. Screen
Speaker 3: and currently the person in here is a geeky roboticist Named.
Speaker 3: Clyde Here's KEVIN. J, O'Connor and he's playing would you
Speaker 3: call this sexy? Chess, Yes like like they're playing a chess,
Speaker 3: game moving around these GIANT cgi pieces on a. Board
Speaker 3: but he's playing against this blonde seductress character Named. Sheila
Speaker 3: three point two and she's like stretching out on the
Speaker 3: chase long in her silk. Pajamas so while like the
Speaker 3: big chess pieces zoom around and she's, Like, Oh, clyde you,
Speaker 3: KNOW i really would like you to come visit me
Speaker 3: in THE vr. World there are so many games we could.
Speaker 3: Play And clyde is basically drooling at the. Screen, meanwhile
Speaker 3: the creepy computer Guy daryl comes up behind him and he's,
Speaker 3: like you, Know, clyde she's very interactive. Here they sort
Speaker 3: of imply that THE vr chairs that are being used
Speaker 3: in the police training simulator earlier that day have some
Speaker 3: kind of sexual. Interface we never see specifics on what
Speaker 3: these peripherals would look. Like i'm really curious how this
Speaker 3: was going to be used for training. Purposes and by the,
Speaker 3: way once, again no offense To kevin j, O'Connor BUT
Speaker 3: i feel like they really go out of their way
Speaker 3: to make him, gross like come off as. Gross he's
Speaker 3: filmed slightly from below while he's leering at the, screen
Speaker 3: so we're like looking a bit up his nose and
Speaker 3: seeing his wet front. Teeth they're like wet with spit
Speaker 3: and shining in the light and he's just gazing like
Speaker 3: he's in a trance at the. Screen and Then clyde is, like, oh, Yeah,
Speaker 3: DARRYL i need to use your, gear But darryl tells, him, no, no,
Speaker 3: No i've got a better. Idea you are a nano,
Speaker 3: roboticist AND i know that you have created the technology
Speaker 3: to THREE d print a nanotech android out of blue.
Speaker 3: Goop why don't you use your Blue goop machine to
Speaker 3: Make sheila three point two THE vr model into a
Speaker 3: full THREE d robot in the real, World and THEN
Speaker 3: i guess y'all can get. MARRIED i don't.
Speaker 2: Know so this is so. Ridiculous, obviously it's like you're
Speaker 2: storing the technology to print bodies for digital beings right
Speaker 2: next to the place where you store your digital mass murderer. Beings,
Speaker 2: Yes but then also it's like he's putting, This darrel's
Speaker 2: putting this together For. Clyde Like clyde was, like you,
Speaker 2: KNOW i could bend out a woman for all of
Speaker 2: my creepy. Lusts i'd never thought about that. Before this
Speaker 2: is my life's, work BUT i never put this.
Speaker 3: Together you're exactly, RIGHT i mean once like and also
Speaker 3: this character is depicted as he has no attributes other
Speaker 3: than dozen nanotechnology robots and experiences. Lust, yeah so you
Speaker 3: might think those would connect his, mind because that is
Speaker 3: all his mind is as a. Character but, yeah, Anyway
Speaker 3: clyde agrees and then walks off looking a kind of
Speaker 3: grimly determined in a very funny. Way and So daryl
Speaker 3: hangs back to Grab sheila's quote module from the computer.
Speaker 3: Bank this is an important mcguffin in the. Movie EVERY
Speaker 3: vr character has a little like plastic polyhedron that's got
Speaker 3: their brain inside. It but uh, Oh darryl pulls a
Speaker 3: switcheroo and instead of Taking sheila's, module he TAKES sid
Speaker 3: six point, seven.
Speaker 2: And then he just Kicked sheila underneath the you, know some,
Speaker 2: furniture which, YEAH i thought was very disappointing because first of,
Speaker 2: ALL i kind of Wanted sheila to have a chance
Speaker 2: to be born to the real. World, yeah but also,
Speaker 2: imagine like the The cringey comedy that could have resulted
Speaker 2: if we have like a stinger at the end where
Speaker 2: police are going into train and they're going up Against
Speaker 2: sheila instead of a super.
Speaker 3: Criminal, oh that would be funny. TOO i thought maybe
Speaker 3: you were gonna, say like what If sheila was, created
Speaker 3: but instead of just becoming a sex, robot she's the
Speaker 3: one who has to hunt Down sid six point. Seven, yeah,
Speaker 3: yeah all. Right, anyway we move on to the nano robotics.
Speaker 3: Lab clyde shows off a robot, snake which you think
Speaker 3: is a real snake at, first like he shoves it
Speaker 3: in Linden meyer's, face but then he cuts it in
Speaker 3: half with some shears and reveals it is made of
Speaker 3: blue Goop and, then critically for the, plot we learn
Speaker 3: that if you cut part of it, off since it's
Speaker 3: made out of, silicon it can regenerate itself by absorbing
Speaker 3: glass it finds in the. Environment so the snake like
Speaker 3: rebuilds its severed tail by reaching out these blue tendrils
Speaker 3: that suck up glass from a. Beaker and, honestly this
Speaker 3: premise sets up several of the best moments in the
Speaker 3: movie Where sid will get injured and then later he'll
Speaker 3: start like sucking glass out of windows while he's got
Speaker 3: like the goop arm and the window and he's making
Speaker 3: this rage, face or at one point he's literally like
Speaker 3: eating fistfuls of glass in the middle of a car.
Speaker 3: Chase in the, Scene clyde also explains. Quote if you
Speaker 3: separate the character module from the polymer, matrix you get nano.
Speaker 2: Death.
Speaker 3: Yeah so, anyway they start growing the robot inside of a,
Speaker 3: pod which is a good set.
Speaker 2: Piece oh, YES i love all this stuff because then practical.
Speaker 2: Effects it's this blue like it it's, inorganic but it
Speaker 2: has this kind of organic nature to. It it's like
Speaker 2: this like weird blue alien egg that this being is growing.
Speaker 2: Inside and then when it finally opens and there's like blue.
Speaker 2: Goo of, course what rises up initially is just this
Speaker 2: kind of like neutral blue. Humanoid, oh has kind of
Speaker 2: like a, OH i don't, know almost like a crash
Speaker 2: test dummy kind of vibe to, it like it's not
Speaker 2: completely finished, yet to the point that our creep researcher
Speaker 2: here is like, like, oh it's. You i'm ready to.
Speaker 2: Party but then it finishes its. Form it like everything
Speaker 2: smooths out digitally and it becomes Not sheila But sid
Speaker 2: six point seven naked terminator style.
Speaker 3: Who immediately Kills clyde like it like chokes.
Speaker 2: Him.
Speaker 3: Yeah the, pod by the, way it looks like a
Speaker 3: cross between a venus fly trap and a pool. Float and,
Speaker 3: yeah the being is the freakiest looking thing in the
Speaker 3: movie is when sid comes out not fully. Finished, yeah but.
Speaker 2: That's why if you look through the credits for this,
Speaker 2: film you'll see somebody like credit with like creature effects
Speaker 2: because it is essentially like it's somewhere blurring the line
Speaker 2: between creature and.
Speaker 3: Technology, yeah and by the, way and the Scene Russell
Speaker 3: crowe is really stretching his ham, legs just goofing it up,
Speaker 3: stupendously you. Know clyde says he's Like, sheila but it's
Speaker 3: Obviously Russell, crowe and he Instead russell crow says, No
Speaker 3: I'm oedipus and then chokes. Him and then meanwhile the
Speaker 3: Daar old character is watching seemingly in horror and then
Speaker 3: runs away and. Hides but why is he? Horrified didn't
Speaker 3: he do this on?
Speaker 2: Purpose, yeah this is exactly what you wanted to. Do
Speaker 2: what did you think was gonna happen?
Speaker 3: Here so we get to see Naked Russell crowe having
Speaker 3: fun feeling gravity for the first. Time he like kind
Speaker 3: of shifts, Around he's, like ooh. Gravity he also picks
Speaker 3: up a random knife and starts doing naked tai chi
Speaker 3: with a knife in his. Hand then he recreationally cuts
Speaker 3: off his own finger and then licks the blue goop and, says,
Speaker 3: huh that was a good. Year like it's like it's a.
Speaker 3: Wine that's the, joke but you know, what It's Russell
Speaker 3: crowe kind of sells. It even the bad jokes sort of.
Speaker 2: Land. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Oh and then also in the scene we get a
Speaker 3: LINE i think it was obviously meant for the. Trailer
Speaker 3: it's sort of AN i got to get me one
Speaker 3: of those moments Where sid looks directly into the camera and,
Speaker 3: SAYS i Think i'm gonna like it, here.
Speaker 2: And he does like it. Here that's that's pretty much
Speaker 2: what happens for the next like forty minutes or.
Speaker 3: So SO i have a question about the. Plot maybe
Speaker 3: you knew something about this Rob is there? Something it
Speaker 3: felt like something was missing in the subplot of the.
Speaker 3: Villains here they would explain why the computer company guy
Speaker 3: Wanted sid six point seven unleashed into the. World there
Speaker 3: are some scenes that kind of imply a, conspiracy like
Speaker 3: motivated by. Business there are OTHER i, mean but only very.
Speaker 3: Vaguely there are other scenes that to me implied the
Speaker 3: computer guy is like a psychotic acolyte of the religion
Speaker 3: Of sid six point, Seven like AM i remembering right
Speaker 3: that one time later he's shown in a motel room
Speaker 3: decorated like A Charles manson murder. Scene yeah, Yeah and
Speaker 3: it's not like a crime, scene it's like his own motel.
Speaker 3: Room and it implied just he just decorated it that
Speaker 3: way because he likes. It like just major confusion on
Speaker 3: what is the motivation of the non virtual meat human,
Speaker 3: villain what was their, goal and who's in on.
Speaker 2: IT i, mean it seems like his direct creator here
Speaker 2: just comes to worship his, creation but we don't really
Speaker 2: get enough details on how this comes to, pass you,
Speaker 2: know we're just sort of left to assume that's the.
Speaker 2: Case this is an example WHERE i probably need WELL
Speaker 2: i don't need. TO i would probably get some answers
Speaker 2: IF i read the novelization for the, movie which was
Speaker 2: By Terry, bisson who has come up on the show
Speaker 2: before because we've had a couple of people right in
Speaker 2: about his. Work he won A Hugo award and A
Speaker 2: Nebula award for the short Story They're made out Of.
Speaker 2: Meat i'm, assuming as is typical with, novelizations he probably
Speaker 2: had to fill in the gaps here and create some
Speaker 2: connective tissue for these. Characters but, yeah back to your,
Speaker 2: point why is any of this? Happening, yeah, like why
Speaker 2: really did you orchestrate the escape of this? Being why
Speaker 2: did you help it print itself in in physical form
Speaker 2: so it can run on Rampage like you, clean you
Speaker 2: seem to like him and you're into what he's doing
Speaker 2: but also scared by, him but also scared by. Him,
Speaker 2: yeah it's like it seems like we needed him to
Speaker 2: be killed by the creator here as, well if he
Speaker 2: because it's not like he's he's sort Of frankenstein's here
Speaker 2: where he's, like, Ah i've gone too far and runs,
Speaker 2: away but then he continues to worship his. Creation so either.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Anyway so at this point in the, movie the
Speaker 3: premise has been. Delivered you, KNOW sid six point seven
Speaker 3: is unleashed in physical form upon our, world the world
Speaker 3: of nineteen ninety. Nine in the words Of William forsyth,
Speaker 3: quote SOMEHOW sid six point seven got himself out of
Speaker 3: the computer and at this point only one man can stop,
Speaker 3: him because Again barnes is the only prisoner who ever
Speaker 3: BEATS sid in THE vr. Training So barnes has granted
Speaker 3: conditional early release from prison so he can find and STOP.
Speaker 3: Sid now at this, point what is a renegade cop
Speaker 3: who gets results always need a new, Partner so he's
Speaker 3: getting paired up With Madison, carter the criminal. Psychologist so
Speaker 3: a few scenes to talk about from the middle portion
Speaker 3: of the, movie a lot of chasing around an investigation
Speaker 3: in that there's sort of a detective portion Where barnes
Speaker 3: And carter investigates some crime scenes where LIKE sid has
Speaker 3: done random murders and one of them is staged as
Speaker 3: a copycat of The Tate lobbianca. Murders but they end
Speaker 3: up At Darryl lindenmeyer's, house the guy who PROGRAMMED, sid
Speaker 3: in a scene THAT i found extremely funny because so
Speaker 3: they learn HOW sid six point seven was. Created they
Speaker 3: go Into lindenmeyer's computer and they're like looking at the
Speaker 3: PREVIOUS sid, models and these heads just start popping up
Speaker 3: on the computer. Screen and the first one we see
Speaker 3: is A hitler head that's like a THREE d sort
Speaker 3: of polygon model of, it so it's got like a
Speaker 3: little like, mustache but it's a little. Polygon and then
Speaker 3: they're showing serial killers and, stuff And carter, says, quote
Speaker 3: this is using some kind of genetic Algorithms sid's too
Speaker 3: complex to. Design lindenmeyer had to grow him up psychologically
Speaker 3: like a real person with multiple personality. Disorder the program
Speaker 3: learns like a, child but much. Faster it's like he
Speaker 3: put all these killers In sid's nursery and let him
Speaker 3: watch them cannibalize each. Other and Then barnes, says and
Speaker 3: only the strong ones. Survive but what does that mean
Speaker 3: in this context the strongest serial killers or?
Speaker 2: Hitlers so on one, level absolutely this is technobabble that
Speaker 2: doesn't literally stand up to close, scrutiny but it also
Speaker 2: does kind of neatly forecast of some of the topics
Speaker 2: we've been discussing in the past several years ABOUT ai
Speaker 2: and about about training on content and how sometimes the
Speaker 2: content that these models train on are not the best
Speaker 2: models of human behavior or human. Expression and so, it's you,
Speaker 2: know it's, silly but it also rings a little bit
Speaker 2: true in some.
Speaker 3: Ways, yeah but this is more, like what if you
Speaker 3: limited the reinforcement training, exclusively the training data is only
Speaker 3: a pyramid of two HUNDRED cgi serial killer heads and
Speaker 3: With hitler in there.
Speaker 2: Too, Yeah, WELL i, mean in, retrospect why would we do?
Speaker 2: This but now we're kind of, like well that GU
Speaker 2: i guess that could, happen you.
Speaker 4: Know.
Speaker 3: Yeah so also in the, Scene barnes figures out that
Speaker 3: one of the heads in there Inside sid belonged to
Speaker 3: the guy who murdered his. Family there was a lot
Speaker 3: made of, this, like, oh that would be extra, bad you,
Speaker 3: know much scarier Than Ted bundy And. Hitler but much
Speaker 3: is also discussed, about like whether this personality is dominant
Speaker 3: Within sid or. NOT i found that a not very fruitful. Subplot.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Same the decor of Lynden meyer's APARTMENT i thought was really.
Speaker 3: Funny it's like a cross Between Patrick bateman's apartment and
Speaker 3: the house In The. Hunger so there's a lot of
Speaker 3: Soulless Wall street furniture and computers and, stuff but also
Speaker 3: a single purple rose in a glass bell. Jar now after,
Speaker 3: you let's talk about the club, scene, because as we,
Speaker 3: said every one of these movies has to have a
Speaker 3: techno dance club. Scene what would you, so, Like sid
Speaker 3: six point seven goes to a, club he fights his way.
Speaker 3: In how would you describe this this club?
Speaker 2: Rob? Oh, WELL i mean it's just absolute cinematic portrayal
Speaker 2: of the nineties rave, situation you, know the, lights the,
Speaker 2: outfits the presence Of Tracy. Lord everything is in place
Speaker 2: here and we get that great scene where he's like
Speaker 2: strong arming his way to the front of the line
Speaker 2: to get. In it's it's very like futuristic and. Hip
Speaker 2: BUT i do generally like the music. Here good.
Speaker 3: Track there's live music and they've got like a Star
Speaker 3: TREK dj station with these milky white orbs instead of,
Speaker 3: turntables so you can see them like doing record scratches
Speaker 3: with the.
Speaker 2: Orbs, yeah infrared footage of everything's gone to so many, screens.
Speaker 3: Yes screens. Everywhere there are people walking around with video
Speaker 3: cameras that are projecting a live feed with crazy color
Speaker 3: effects onto the huge screens on the. Walls just cables
Speaker 3: dangling everywhere and like running to the helmets that are
Speaker 3: being warned by the. DJs, also you access this club
Speaker 3: through a freight, elevator so it's like a basement club
Speaker 3: you have to go down to through the. Elevator one
Speaker 3: THING i thought is, that, oh you, KNOW i went
Speaker 3: to a concert earlier this, week and it's like this
Speaker 3: is kind of like going to a concert today because
Speaker 3: you see people holding up their devices recording the performers
Speaker 3: standing right in front of.
Speaker 2: Them, yeah that's a good. Point that's a good. Point
Speaker 2: but yeaople do. THAT i mean it only the world
Speaker 2: only makes sense if you're viewing, it experiencing it through
Speaker 2: the digital through the, technology you. Know but in this, case,
Speaker 2: yeah the performer Is Tracy lord's up there with what
Speaker 2: one or two DJs on. Hand she's kind of, singing
Speaker 2: kind of dancing around wearing this kind of like matrixy latex,
Speaker 2: attire and then Income sid and we get this one
Speaker 2: moment cinematography at its. FINEST i guess they're, like what
Speaker 2: if we Shot sid Through Tracy lord's legs from, behind
Speaker 2: like through her thighs from, behind and that's the. Shot,
Speaker 2: Yeah SO i giggled at. THAT i was, like, okay,
Speaker 2: yeah a little over the. Top.
Speaker 3: Yeah, also the fashion in the scene is, chaotic we,
Speaker 3: get but we do get an early glimpse of a
Speaker 3: guy in a purple double breasted suit That sid is
Speaker 3: going to steal and wear for much of the. Film but,
Speaker 3: again coming back to the kind of themes we talked about,
Speaker 3: earlier there's something kind of interesting here where in this
Speaker 3: scene it becomes apparent That sid loves that people are
Speaker 3: aiming cameras at him in the club and projecting him
Speaker 3: onto the big, screen and he. Smiles he's like overwhelmed with.
Speaker 3: JOY i think sincere, Joy like he's not making a,
Speaker 3: joke and he, SAYS i am. Beautiful and this is
Speaker 3: one of the themes of the movie THAT i thought
Speaker 3: was actually kind of accidentally. Interesting there's something about the
Speaker 3: information environ in the setting that says there's a. Desire
Speaker 3: there's like a link between the desire to be famous
Speaker 3: and the center of everybody's attention and sadism or. Psychopathy
Speaker 3: LIKE i haven't fully fleshed out exactly what this, means
Speaker 3: but it's like a latent assumption of the film that
Speaker 3: is not just the common assumption that there's something kind
Speaker 3: of tacky or shallow or misguided about wanting to be
Speaker 3: the center of everybody's, attention or especially wanting to be
Speaker 3: the center of everybody's attention as mediated through technology like
Speaker 3: video and The, internet but actually goes a step farther
Speaker 3: and suggests the desire for attention like this is related
Speaker 3: to a kind of, dominance, strive a desire to have
Speaker 3: power over others and even inflict pain on. Them and
Speaker 3: that hit home for.
Speaker 2: Me.
Speaker 3: Somehow, AGAIN i don't want to SUGGEST i think this
Speaker 3: was explicitly thought out in the, script but it feels
Speaker 3: like a potent theme the movie stumbles into. Here there's
Speaker 3: something about this obsession with like being on camera and
Speaker 3: having people far away all watching you at the same
Speaker 3: time that is like a kind of power and domination and.
Speaker 2: Sadism yeah, Yeah and they do come back to it
Speaker 2: later on as, well.
Speaker 3: Anyway and the Scene sid gets a drink made for
Speaker 3: him by A Johnny cab And sid is like to,
Speaker 3: think you constitute one of my. Ancestors and then of
Speaker 3: course that's.
Speaker 2: A lot of a couple of moments in here though
Speaker 2: with The, androids WHERE i was, like they're kind of
Speaker 2: getting into some of the territory That Ridley scott would
Speaker 2: later get into With david and the The alien, prequels
Speaker 2: but with less nuance and and more just outright. Meanness that's.
Speaker 3: Funny. Yeah. Uh he starts rampaging in the, club of,
Speaker 3: course and then this will be a type of scene that.
Speaker 3: Recurs he takes everybody, hostage forces the camera to like film. Him.
Speaker 3: Uh and then in one.
Speaker 2: Funny, Bit Crazy lords gets, away though she does run.
Speaker 2: Away the guy behind her gets, shot but she makes it.
Speaker 3: And then he. Starts he starts making everybody record screams
Speaker 3: that he can play back and remix at THE dj.
Speaker 3: Station this scene is really, something And Russell crowe is
Speaker 3: just like roaring with improvisational. Energy.
Speaker 2: YEAH i mean it's a weird mix, though because on one,
Speaker 2: hand like a scene where someone terrorizes a bunch of
Speaker 2: people with a, gun, yes it's LIKE i don't like.
Speaker 2: It but on the other, hand so many other aspects
Speaker 2: of this sequence are so over the top that and
Speaker 2: the performance at the center of it is is so
Speaker 2: over the top you kind of like it as.
Speaker 3: WELL i mentioned this earlier that one of the WAYS
Speaker 3: i think this movie kind of really sits weird is
Speaker 3: a tonal. MISMATCH i think this is actually true With
Speaker 3: barnes's backstory as. Well the thing about like his family being.
Speaker 3: Murdered it's a Weird it's weird because The barnes backstory
Speaker 3: is on one, hand like, hackneyed, obvious overly familiar for
Speaker 3: this type of, character you, know the, Copy he's taken
Speaker 3: it too, personal and at the same time it is
Speaker 3: excessively cruel and horrible for the context of this goofy,
Speaker 3: movie AND i felt a similar way about a lot
Speaker 3: of these. Scenes like the club scene is at once
Speaker 3: like goofy but also just a little too. Nasty it's like,
Speaker 3: both it's going off in both.
Speaker 2: Directions, yeah, yeah SO i THINK i think you're right
Speaker 2: there that the tone is off.
Speaker 3: Here of, course this all gets interrupted When barnes shows,
Speaker 3: up and this leads to a shootout and a car.
Speaker 3: Chase i'm not going to narrate all the action, scenes
Speaker 3: but a lot of the rest of the movie follows this.
Speaker 3: Format sid goes, somewhere he starts. Rampaging he wants to
Speaker 3: be on. Camera he's killing, people taking. Hostages barnes, arrives
Speaker 3: there is a fight and a, chase and Then sid gets.
Speaker 2: Away, yeah and then they need to go find, him
Speaker 2: and they realize that he is going to go where
Speaker 2: the attention. Is he's going to go where the media. Is,
Speaker 2: yeah and that's how we end up following, him for,
Speaker 2: instance to the to the.
Speaker 3: Octagon oh, Boy, okay so, YEAH i think we're near
Speaker 3: the end of our plot recap, here but we do
Speaker 3: have to talk about THE ufc.
Speaker 2: Scene, Yeah SO i was EXPECTED i Had, AGAIN i
Speaker 2: hadn't seen virtuosity in its, ENTIRETY i. Think BUT i
Speaker 2: was looking over the cast AND i, noticed, oh, Well
Speaker 2: ken shamrocks in, this it looks like there's going to
Speaker 2: be SOME ufc. Action SO i was prepared for some
Speaker 2: potentially HAMMY ufc product. Integration AND i would have to
Speaker 2: SAY i was a bit shocked by how negatively the
Speaker 2: film PORTRAYS mma AND mma, fandom yes.
Speaker 3: Virtuosity it depicts THE ufc as like a blood cult
Speaker 3: in which the the the audience are fanatical acolytes that
Speaker 3: chant in unison for death even as people are like
Speaker 3: murdered in the audience around.
Speaker 2: Them, yeah it's like they're a bunch of, bloodthirsty half
Speaker 2: naked savages who only pause in their chanting to violently
Speaker 2: attack or grope each other like. That how that's how
Speaker 2: the movie is PRESENTING. Ufc and even action in the
Speaker 2: octagon doesn't even resemble an ACTUAL mma. Match it's like
Speaker 2: two different fights are going. ON i think there's a
Speaker 2: ref in, there but it's just pure.
Speaker 3: Chaos it was only their ambitious image of what the
Speaker 3: future could.
Speaker 2: Hold, yeah and So sid shows up notices that like
Speaker 2: a pretty lady is on like the what The Titan
Speaker 2: tron or whatever the heck the big screen is. There
Speaker 2: he goes up and is creepy towards her and then
Speaker 2: like pulls out a, gun does a backflip into the,
Speaker 2: octagon intentionally landing like on his head and, back and
Speaker 2: then gets up and starts intimidating all the dudes in the,
Speaker 2: octagon Including Ken. SHAMROCK i was a little disappointed that
Speaker 2: The World's Most Dangerous man didn't make a move On,
Speaker 2: sid but fair.
Speaker 3: ENOUGH i don't know about Most Dangerous man's. STATUS i
Speaker 3: only Remember Ken. Shameron wasn't he in THE wwf in the?
Speaker 2: Nineties he, Was, yeah, okay that's ALL i. Remember he
Speaker 2: had some matches With. Vader so it's, like if he's
Speaker 2: going to stand up To, vader you'd think he'd stand
Speaker 2: up To. Sid but you, know he's, like it's, LIKE
Speaker 2: i see you got blue blood coming out of. You fair,
Speaker 2: Enough i'm standing.
Speaker 3: Back that's smart, Move. Ken don't be a.
Speaker 2: Hero so basically the same thing is going to happen, here, Right,
Speaker 2: Yeah parker shows, up runs shoots at, him more blue,
Speaker 2: blood more, violence and then he gets. Away.
Speaker 3: Yeah and, now AS i, mentioned or MAYBE i didn't
Speaker 3: mention this, earlier there's a whole. Thing i'm not gonna bother.
Speaker 3: Explaining in the middle of the, Movie barnes gets framed
Speaker 3: for a, murder so he gets re arrested and all
Speaker 3: this stuff. Happens sid actually sets him free because he
Speaker 3: wants to. Play it's like The joker In. Batman it's,
Speaker 3: LIKE i need, you you complete. Me the climax of
Speaker 3: the film takes place in a skyscraper that is the
Speaker 3: home of A tv station where there is a televised debate.
Speaker 3: Happening that's what Draws sid there because he's, like he
Speaker 3: wants attention about a current political controversy over. Immigration this
Speaker 3: part kind of came out of nowhere and hit uncomfortably.
Speaker 3: Hard but so there's like one guy ON tv saying
Speaker 3: like immigration breathes life into the, culture and another guy
Speaker 3: demagoguing against immigrants and saying we got to close the,
Speaker 3: border and Then sid shows up and does the same.
Speaker 3: Thing he shoots, people takes hostages and takes over the live.
Speaker 2: Broadcast he takes over, it redubs it what MURDER, Tv
Speaker 2: MURDER tv or DEATH TV. Tv, yeah and also has
Speaker 2: his own like.
Speaker 3: Logo yeah he brought a graphics. Package yeah he really.
Speaker 2: DID i MEAN i guess he's a virtual reality, thing
Speaker 2: so he can do that sort of sort of.
Speaker 3: Thing so as he torments and terrorizes the hostages on,
Speaker 3: air he's he's still he's like obsessed with checking out his.
Speaker 3: Ratings he's, like, look what what Ratings i'm? Getting? Oh,
Speaker 3: Yeah the viewers love. This they love the way you're
Speaker 3: screaming more tuning in every, minute and once again this
Speaker 3: surprisingly interesting theme Linking sid's sadism and cruelty fundamentally with
Speaker 3: his desire for attention mediated by, technology and in, fact
Speaker 3: the good guys sort of defeat him, here at least in,
Speaker 3: part distract him by cutting the. Feed they, like turn
Speaker 3: off the broadcast and limit his access to his, audience
Speaker 3: And zid hates, this and this leads to a final
Speaker 3: chain and fight in the network building Between barnes And.
Speaker 3: Sid of, course as one could have guessed from developments,
Speaker 3: Earlier sid has Taken carter's daughter, hostage and they while
Speaker 3: they're chasing, around they're, like where's the Girl and there's
Speaker 3: a there's a booby trap bomb and all that kind of.
Speaker 3: Stuff BUT i don't, Know, rob are there any elements
Speaker 3: of the climax you want to?
Speaker 2: Hit? YEAH i mean they get. It, Basically parker And
Speaker 2: sid get a, big die hard sque battle on top
Speaker 2: of the, skyscraper And sid plummets through a whole bunch
Speaker 2: of glass panels and is impaled on like a million
Speaker 2: pieces of. Glass and Then parker goes down to, like you,
Speaker 2: know check, out see if he's. Dead he's not dead.
Speaker 2: Yet we get a nice tight scene where he's trying
Speaker 2: to Pull parker into the the sharp shards of. Glass
Speaker 2: he's regenerating off of the, glass because, remember eating glass
Speaker 2: and touching wounds to glass is how he. Heals but
Speaker 2: there's a lot of repair work that needs to happen,
Speaker 2: here and before he can do, It parker reaches in
Speaker 2: through the back of his skull and rips out his
Speaker 2: little module and seemingly defeats the. Villain but then they're,
Speaker 2: like but we don't know where the girl is, hidden
Speaker 2: and then we get. IT i thought this was a nice.
Speaker 2: Twist they like load him back up in the virtual
Speaker 2: they replay what just, happened but but they let him
Speaker 2: get the upper hands so that he'll spill where the
Speaker 2: girl is. Hiding.
Speaker 3: RIGHT i thought this was actually a pretty clever twist
Speaker 3: where s, yeah that's. Right so they what they need
Speaker 3: is information From, sid so they killed. Him they defeated
Speaker 3: him too, early so they have to go back into
Speaker 3: the virtual world trick him into thinking he's still in
Speaker 3: the real world so that he will spill the, beans you,
Speaker 3: know really give his villain monologue where he reveals the,
Speaker 3: information Which parker AND u and doctor And madison both
Speaker 3: that they work together to figure that.
Speaker 2: Out, yeah so that was, solid and of course we.
Speaker 2: Do we also get a scene Where sid realizes he's
Speaker 2: been caught and he jokes out real, hard and we
Speaker 2: get this scene with like multiple sid, faces digital sid
Speaker 2: faces making angry expressions extreme. Jobing, yes, yeah but then
Speaker 2: the plot requires us to also just arm of bomby
Speaker 2: that The Little girl's place of concealment is booby trapped
Speaker 2: With and this scene just feels very anticlimactic to. Me it's,
Speaker 2: like we just had like a really awesome final. Fight
Speaker 2: we had this nice little twist on top of that final,
Speaker 2: fight but now we're just doing like a standard you,
Speaker 2: know LIKE tv show bomb.
Speaker 3: Disartment, yeah which wire is? It and the final solution
Speaker 3: to the bomb deactivation Involves barnes using components from his bionic.
Speaker 3: Arm did you remember that he had a bionic arm
Speaker 3: at this.
Speaker 2: POINT i only thought of it when he ripped the
Speaker 2: module out of the. HEAD i was, LIKE i guess
Speaker 2: because it CLEARLY i felt like we'd sprinkled this detail
Speaker 2: enough to where it would have to come back and have,
Speaker 2: meaning AND i, thought, WELL i guess that was. It
Speaker 2: it was because he used the prosthetic arm to rip
Speaker 2: out the, Module so it kind of surprised. Me, Again it's, like, Oh,
Speaker 2: okay this is how we're actually going to make use
Speaker 2: of this.
Speaker 3: Detail he like pulls fiber optics out of his forearm
Speaker 3: and then like inserts them into the bomb to defuse.
Speaker 3: It that's pretty. Good. Yeah also in the, end when
Speaker 3: they Defeat barnes DESTROYS sid six point seven's character module,
Speaker 3: bite throwing it off the top of the. Skyscraper, MAN
Speaker 3: i feel LIKE i would have done something a little more. Certain,
Speaker 3: yeah we do like follow up and we see it
Speaker 3: run over by a, truck so it's all. Good sid's.
Speaker 3: Gone but wouldn't you would you want to make sure
Speaker 3: it was. Destroyed you don't even know where it.
Speaker 2: Lands, yeah what it landed in the back of like
Speaker 2: a shipment of? Pillows or something OR i don't. KNOW
Speaker 2: i don't. Know there are so many ways that could
Speaker 2: have been. Saved or maybe it hits somebody in the
Speaker 2: head and gets embedded in their. Brain what happens, THEN
Speaker 2: i don't.
Speaker 3: Know Guess i'm your party.
Speaker 2: Man so that is virtuosity in all its.
Speaker 3: GLORY i feel like we still actually didn't hit everything
Speaker 3: that's potentially interesting about. It but, YES i will vouch for.
Speaker 3: It the viewing. Experience despite some tonal, mismatch some things
Speaker 3: that are just just go a little bit harder than
Speaker 3: they need to or a little bit nastier than they
Speaker 3: need to, be it is still a, pretty uh in,
Speaker 3: fact quite, funny nostalgic and enjoyable.
Speaker 2: Experience, yeah it is A it's a movie that will
Speaker 2: make you laugh and it will make you think there's.
Speaker 2: There there are various parts of this film that the
Speaker 2: do connect in interesting ways with with where we are, now, technologically, socially,
Speaker 2: politically and.
Speaker 3: MORE i just want to, say one last, time hats
Speaker 3: off To russell And. DENZEL i MEAN i advocate. THIS i,
Speaker 3: think like a list actors should take the time to do,
Speaker 3: weird trashy little b movies and just and just go
Speaker 3: all the, way don't hold, back do give it your.
Speaker 2: Best absolutely all, Right we're gonna go and close out
Speaker 2: this episode Of Weird House, cinema but we would love
Speaker 2: to hear from everyone out. There what do You what
Speaker 2: do you think Of? Virtuosity did you see it back
Speaker 2: in the nineties when it came out or do you
Speaker 2: at least remember the? Trailers have you rediscovered it or
Speaker 2: watched it for the first time in recent, Years we
Speaker 2: would love to hear your. Thoughts as a, reminder Stuffed
Speaker 2: Able Your mind is primarily a science and culture podc
Speaker 2: asked with core episodes On tuesdays And, thursdays but On
Speaker 2: fridays we set aside most serious concerns to just talk
Speaker 2: about a weird film On Weird House. Cinema we've been
Speaker 2: doing this for one hundred and ninety nine, films and
Speaker 2: the next episode we do will be the two Hundredth
Speaker 2: Weird House cinema, Selection so check back in and see
Speaker 2: what we finally decide on for. That and if you
Speaker 2: want to stay abreast of all the movies we've covered thus,
Speaker 2: far a great way to do it is to head
Speaker 2: on over to letterbox dot com our profile there Is
Speaker 2: weird house and you can find a nice list of.
Speaker 3: Everything do you know what two hundred is when it's
Speaker 3: upside down in? Dreams?
Speaker 2: Oh what is? It it's double as? Seven is?
Speaker 3: IT i don't? Know it's gonna say almost maybe it's ooh, okay,
Speaker 3: anyway huge thanks as always to our excellent audio Producer.
Speaker 3: Jjposway if you would like to get in touch with
Speaker 3: us with feedback on this episode or any, other to
Speaker 3: suggest a topic for the, future or just to say,
Speaker 3: hello you can email us at contact at stuff To
Speaker 3: blow Your mind dot.
Speaker 1: Com stuff To Blow Your mind is production Of. iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: for more podcasts From, iHeartRadio visit The iHeartRadio, App Apple,
Speaker 1: podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite.
Speaker 2: Shows