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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of

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Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This

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Speaker 1: is Rob Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And today we

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Speaker 1: are discussing We're not only discussing an ANT movie, which

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Speaker 1: of course is a subset of Killer Bug movies in general.

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Speaker 1: We're discussing what might be the ANT movie, the most

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Speaker 1: ambitious AUNT movie, um in many ways, the most perplexing

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Speaker 1: and thought provoking AUNT movie. I'm super excited to talk

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Speaker 1: about it. Actually just had as a as a pre

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Speaker 1: recording snack a couple of ants on a log I

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Speaker 1: got out there, the salary and butter and the raisins.

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Speaker 1: It just felt appropriate, you know. I feel like that

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Speaker 1: reflects our higher AUNT consciousness now, because the important thing

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Speaker 1: to understand about ants is they don't even mind if

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Speaker 1: you eat a few of them. You know. But that's

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Speaker 1: sort of like the It's like the skin cells that

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Speaker 1: you would scrape off of somebody's hand while hugging them,

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Speaker 1: you know, it just like doesn't bother the colony as

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Speaker 1: a whole. And I would say that's actually reflective of

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Speaker 1: the movie we're talking about today overall. Uh, the movie

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Speaker 1: is the nineteen seventies sci fi ant flick Phase Four,

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Speaker 1: which we alluded to possibly doing an episode on in

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Speaker 1: our In our in our Core episode about ants building traps,

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Speaker 1: we talked about some biology papers about about aunt behaviors,

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Speaker 1: whether and whether these structures ants build should be understood

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Speaker 1: as traps or not. But this movie came up because

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Speaker 1: we were talking about ant movies and I said, you know,

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Speaker 1: there's this aunt movie I've been looking at in the

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Speaker 1: video store for years, just based on the DVD cover.

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Speaker 1: It's called Phase four. The cover is like this kind

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Speaker 1: of cool design, but it's got ants crawling out of

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Speaker 1: a hole in somebody's hand. Never seen it, and we

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Speaker 1: went in just based on the DVD cover and I'd

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Speaker 1: say this was a hit. Yeah, yeah. After we had

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Speaker 1: we had, I decided this is the one. UM. I

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Speaker 1: actually received word from someone on the stuff to blow

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Speaker 1: your mind discord emails if you want to invite to

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Speaker 1: that who They were like, yeah, this is this one's good.

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Speaker 1: You're gonna want to cover this one for a weird house. UM.

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Speaker 1: I also have, of course looked it up when we

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Speaker 1: were talking about I looked up in Michael Weldon Psychotronic

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Speaker 1: Encyclopedia film in which he called it quote a great

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Speaker 1: science fiction thriller starring countless real ants. So that that

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Speaker 1: was a solid endorsement, but it still wasn't able to

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Speaker 1: prepare me for all that was to come. Well, So

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Speaker 1: when I look at the other side of the critical

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Speaker 1: response to this movie, uh, I think some people have

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Speaker 1: been kind of critical of it lacking in human depth.

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Speaker 1: And I'll say, okay, I'm with them there. I mean

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Speaker 1: that this is not really a humans movie, and the

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Speaker 1: human characters there are few of them, and the ones

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Speaker 1: that are there, we don't learn much about them, and

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Speaker 1: they're not super dimensional. But I think that's okay, because

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Speaker 1: this is a movie that encourages you to also see

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Speaker 1: humans as sort of just a sells on the whole

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Speaker 1: body of the human species. Yeah. Yeah, and in very

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Speaker 1: delightful ways. It is a It is a movie almost

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Speaker 1: by ants, four ants. It is a movie that is

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Speaker 1: fresh on aunt Rotten Tomatoes. It is um it it is.

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Speaker 1: It is such an interesting film in so many ways,

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Speaker 1: like um, just it's it's gonna be fun to discuss everything.

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Speaker 1: Um I'm almost not sure where to start here. You know,

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Speaker 1: the funny thing about Aunt Rotten Tomatoes. Is there are

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Speaker 1: no in between scores. It's either a dent or zero

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Speaker 1: percent every time they're unified. Well, maybe we should talk

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Speaker 1: about ant movies more generally, because this is, of course

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Speaker 1: not the only one. In fact, I had a very

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Speaker 1: uh powerful, vivid memory that came rushing back to me

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Speaker 1: just the other day when when I started trying to

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Speaker 1: recual if I'd seen other AUNT movies before, and it

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Speaker 1: was a memory of being about twelve years old and

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Speaker 1: watching this terrible for TV killer ant movie that I

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Speaker 1: think was on the Fox Network or one of those

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Speaker 1: you know, um, it was one of those made for

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Speaker 1: TV movies that they used to advertise in the weeks

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Speaker 1: leading up to it. So they have a commercial with

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Speaker 1: you know, Don la Fontaine or somebody on there saying

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Speaker 1: this Sunday at eight nine Central, you will learn the

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Speaker 1: true meaning of terror ants and you get a music

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Speaker 1: sting and and man that I don't know if they

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Speaker 1: focus group tested that or whatever, but that worked on

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Speaker 1: my twelve year old brain I had That was like

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Speaker 1: I had to make an appointment to watch a movie

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Speaker 1: that that I went back and looked up and I

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Speaker 1: found out it is called Marabunta Colon Legion of Fire,

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Speaker 1: and I rewatched the trailer and oh, this looks stinky.

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Speaker 1: It looks like it is no good. It has some

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Speaker 1: absolutely atrocious c g I ants stripping a moose clean

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Speaker 1: down to the bone like piranhas on Land. Uh does

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Speaker 1: have Mitch Peleggie from the X Files and Shocker. And

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Speaker 1: it also has something that's common to some of these

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Speaker 1: ant movies where there are scenes of columns of army

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Speaker 1: ants that are treated like rivers of molten lava and

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Speaker 1: a volcano movie. So you get, I don't know, a

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Speaker 1: kid stranded up on top of a crate and then

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Speaker 1: on all sides of them, the ants are just flowing

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Speaker 1: and they've got to jump over them to get to

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Speaker 1: safety or something. What is it with Shocker connections, We're

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Speaker 1: gonna have another one of those coming up, that's right.

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Speaker 1: Uh So, I guess when I think of of ant

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Speaker 1: movies that I saw as a kid, I I my

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Speaker 1: mind probably goes to nineteen fifty four is them because

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Speaker 1: this one was in I think it was in pretty

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Speaker 1: pretty um tight rotation on like the Turner stations back

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Speaker 1: in the day, Like there's a pretty good chance you're

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Speaker 1: gonna catch part of them, uh, you know, especially on

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Speaker 1: like a Sunday afternoon. But but other notable AUNT movies

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Speaker 1: include nineteen seventy seven's Empire of the Ants. Uh. There's

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Speaker 1: also nineteen seventy seven's TV movie Ants with an exclamation point,

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Speaker 1: starring everyone's favorite Brooke, Robert Foxworth of um of what

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Speaker 1: was it? I can't remember the name of that movie

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Speaker 1: death Moon or some Moon, Death Moon Faint, but that

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Speaker 1: one also starred Suzanne Summers, Brian Dennah he uh, Anita Gillette.

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Speaker 1: This is the actor who played Liz Lemon's mom on

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Speaker 1: Dirty Rock, and also Bernie Casey. So does Foxworth play

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Speaker 1: another work beast in this movie? Um? I don't, and

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Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm guessing, like, yeah, maybe a laid

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Speaker 1: back work beast that has to go up against in

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Speaker 1: this case ants. I haven't seen it, but okay, it

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Speaker 1: sounds good. Um. Question about them though? Them is a

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Speaker 1: movie not with regular ants but with big ants. Right.

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Speaker 1: It's like an atomic age mutation movie. Correct? Correct? And

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Speaker 1: I think that that leads into our next major distinction

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Speaker 1: to make here. When we're talking about ant movies, you're

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Speaker 1: gonna either deal with giant ant movies or you're gonna

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Speaker 1: deal with normal sized ants. So it's either gonna be

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Speaker 1: a giant bug feature or it's gonna be a swarm feature.

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Speaker 1: And what's interesting about that is when you have the

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Speaker 1: giant ant um, it's going to be more about individual ants.

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Speaker 1: That's the spectacle of it, right. Uh this generally you're

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Speaker 1: doing a lot to get one giant ant on the screen,

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Speaker 1: But when you're dealing with the swarm, of course, you

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Speaker 1: have this more accurate reflection of what ants are. They

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Speaker 1: are not the individual, they are the group. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: think that's right, and I would say broadly, I think

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Speaker 1: i'd break ant movies into three categories. So you've got

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Speaker 1: your giant ant movies, in which case the ant is

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Speaker 1: not really important. It's not important that it's an ant.

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Speaker 1: It's just a giant bug, and it could be any bug.

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Speaker 1: Could be a giant praying manness, giant spider is just

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Speaker 1: a giant bug that attacks. So I think that's probably

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Speaker 1: gonna be my least favorite kind overall, because that you

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Speaker 1: lose the essential anti nous, you know, the formic the

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Speaker 1: formic aromas of the premise is just like any giant

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Speaker 1: bugle do because they're just big and they'll tear you apart.

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Speaker 1: Might as well go with a more interesting solitary um

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Speaker 1: a bug, you know, in like arachnet, like a scorpion

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Speaker 1: for example. Sure, giant scorpion would be great. Giant spider obviously, okay,

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Speaker 1: but then when you break it down, you keep the

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Speaker 1: ants small. I think they're basically two ways you can go.

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Speaker 1: One is the um just ants as ants, like you know,

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Speaker 1: they're kind of an environmental threat almost that this comes

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Speaker 1: back to the like they're like rivers of molten lava

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Speaker 1: and a volcano movie. You know, they're just like as

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Speaker 1: the floor is lava, accept instead of lava, it's ants.

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Speaker 1: But then the other way to go is to think

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Speaker 1: about ants as a sort of organization principle and and

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Speaker 1: have the horror lie there. And that's actually where Phase

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Speaker 1: four goes, which I think is interesting to think about

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Speaker 1: ants not just as something that turns the floor into lava,

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Speaker 1: but something that has has organized behaviors that can surprise

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Speaker 1: you and make you afraid. Yeah. Yeah, that And that's

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Speaker 1: definitely the the realm that we're going to be venturing

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Speaker 1: into with Phase four. Here. I guess the real distinction

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Speaker 1: there is that like it does the danger of the

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Speaker 1: ants lie in their in their numbers alone or in

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Speaker 1: their youth sociality. And phase four it's in their youth sociality. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and this is what we have to drive home. This

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Speaker 1: is definitely one of the more, if not the most

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Speaker 1: ambitious ANT movies and intelligent AUNT movies like there. They

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Speaker 1: really went for it with this particular film, trying to

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Speaker 1: to to use ants to their their full potential cinematically. So, uh,

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Speaker 1: it's it's a rare beast. I think it's a work

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Speaker 1: beast in many ways, because I would say this is

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Speaker 1: also a highly technical film as as we've already said,

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Speaker 1: you know, it may be lacking in some human depth,

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Speaker 1: but as a sort of visual art project, I'd say

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Speaker 1: this movie is is a home run. I mean it

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Speaker 1: is a a beautiful, weird celebration of geometry of like

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Speaker 1: colors and lines and angles and close up photography of ants,

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Speaker 1: and I would say very good special effects. There are

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Speaker 1: parts where the puppetry is so good. I sometimes couldn't

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Speaker 1: tell if I was looking at uh, you know, micro

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Speaker 1: photography of real ants or if it was one of

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Speaker 1: the puppets. Yeah, it was very difficult to tell. And

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Speaker 1: and I should also throw in that not only are

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Speaker 1: the visuals great, but the sound design and music is

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Speaker 1: also really noteworthy, and we'll we'll touch on that as

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Speaker 1: we go. Yeah. Now, Phase four was something of a

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Speaker 1: flop at the time. Apparently maybe he was ahead of

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Speaker 1: its time. Um, but over the years it's been particularly

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Speaker 1: influential on various visionary filmmakers. Apparently, um, I know it's

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Speaker 1: Michael Weldon liked it. I've read that um uh, Penas

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Speaker 1: Cosmontos was a fan of it. Apparently inspired Beyond the

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Speaker 1: Black Rainbow. Yeah, yeah, which is a film I have

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Speaker 1: a lot of admiration for. Um and and certainly having

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Speaker 1: seen Phase four now I can I can definitely see

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Speaker 1: where those inspiration points are. Um. Apparently apparently as well. Uh,

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Speaker 1: this was also a film that was riffed in the

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Speaker 1: kt m A like like basically proto uh season of

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Speaker 1: Mystery Science Theater three thousand and uh. And that's an

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Speaker 1: episode you can actually find places, you know, uploaded on

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Speaker 1: video servers and all. I've never watched it because the

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Speaker 1: kt M A episodes are, um, you know, it's a

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Speaker 1: different beast. It was the first season. It's it's not

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Speaker 1: quite like watching a full blown MST. Three K episode. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I would say in general, they're not as engaging, not

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Speaker 1: as good. And the weird thing about it is, I

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Speaker 1: recall some of the movie, so this is like when

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Speaker 1: they were a public access show in Minnesota or wherever

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Speaker 1: it was before they got syndicated became a national show.

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Speaker 1: But the weird thing about that early season is I

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Speaker 1: haven't seen a lot of them, but I know they

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Speaker 1: do some movies that are kind of seems like higher

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Speaker 1: budget maybe better movies than they do in the later seasons. Actually,

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Speaker 1: like I think they end up doing The Green Slime,

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Speaker 1: which is a movie we may come back to on

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Speaker 1: Weird House Cinema someday, especially because it's got its own

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Speaker 1: really groovy rock theme song. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think

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Speaker 1: they'd quite calibrated what was an in st three K

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Speaker 1: film at that point. Um So at any right, if

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Speaker 1: if if our discussion here perks your interest and you're

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Speaker 1: not quite ready to watch it without some sort of

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Speaker 1: riffing structure in place, then you know, I guess you

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Speaker 1: could check out that Katie and A episode. But for

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Speaker 1: the most part, I think this is a film that

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Speaker 1: stands on its own and is richly enjoyable on its

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Speaker 1: own and more to the point, in high visual quality

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Speaker 1: that you're not going to get with the rip of

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Speaker 1: an old public access television broadcast. Now, while we're talking

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Speaker 1: about looking up this movie, I gotta say, also, as

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Speaker 1: a bizarre coincidence, as weird of a name as Phase

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Speaker 1: four with the Roman numeral for ivy is for a movie,

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Speaker 1: there is actually a totally unrelated other movie called Phase

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Speaker 1: four that came out in the early two thousands. It

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Speaker 1: looks like some kind of Dean Cane conspiracy action thriller. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: So word of warning, Uh, I don't get in too

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Speaker 1: much for a hurry when you're buying and renting this

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Speaker 1: when you don't want to wind up with the Brian

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Speaker 1: boss Worth film. If you watch Brian Bobsworth film, you

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Speaker 1: want to watch Stone Cold from So I've never seen

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Speaker 1: that one, but while we were chatting about this, uh,

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Speaker 1: you got me to look up stills from it and

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Speaker 1: Brian Buzzworth and Stone Cold is fresh. I mean, like, God,

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Speaker 1: look at his hair at the sunglasses. Yeah, it's ridiculous. Uh,

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Speaker 1: that was and I remember being a fun action B

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Speaker 1: movie because you have Lance Hendrickson's in it. William Forsythes

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Speaker 1: is in it. So it's a yeah, it's ridiculous. It's

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Speaker 1: like a biker fighting movie or something. Okay, okay, give

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Speaker 1: me the elevator pitch on phase four before we hit

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Speaker 1: the trailer audio. Okay, So, um, what if there was

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Speaker 1: some sort of a solar conjunction and it caused all

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Speaker 1: ants to suddenly declare a peace treaty and turn their

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Speaker 1: attention on other species on the rest of the world.

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Speaker 1: So basically a nature strikes back, but this time it

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Speaker 1: strikes smart and with you social precision. Great premise. Let's

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Speaker 1: hear some audio in the next few moments. We will

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Speaker 1: try to give you an impression of a new kind

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Speaker 1: of film experience. If your curiosity is aroused, you are

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Speaker 1: ready for phase four. How do you fight a horse

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Speaker 1: that knows what your next move will be before you

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Speaker 1: think of it? All right, that's a solid trailer right there.

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Speaker 1: I agree. And now one of the things we've already

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Speaker 1: talked about is that you know, I've had my theory

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Speaker 1: that really the star of this movie. If it is

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Speaker 1: not ants, you could say it's ants. But if it's

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Speaker 1: not ants, it's still not humans. It is visual geometry.

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Speaker 1: It's colors and lines and shapes and design. And I

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Speaker 1: think that totally makes sense once you realize who the

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Speaker 1: director of this film was, because I think the director,

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Speaker 1: Saul Bass, this was his only movie. Am I right

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Speaker 1: about that? This was his only feature length film. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he did some other short films and experimental films and

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Speaker 1: some you know, sort of documentary style shorts, but this

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Speaker 1: is the the only full length film he did. And

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Speaker 1: it seems to me very much a graphic designers or

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Speaker 1: art director's kind of film. It's it's not really an

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Speaker 1: actor's film. It's not really very script driven. It's a

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Speaker 1: movie about showing you pictures, and the style of those

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Speaker 1: pictures reads very much to me. Is that that that

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Speaker 1: mid century modern design style, the kind of thing that

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Speaker 1: you see a lot on on mad Men or whatever.

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Speaker 1: And I think that makes sense because I've read that

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Speaker 1: mad Men was in many ways trying to copy the

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Speaker 1: style of the director of this film, Saul Bass. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: because Sall Bass is something of a legend um and

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Speaker 1: certainly in the graphic design field here. Uh. He lived

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Speaker 1: nineteen twenty through nineteen six and he was for Starters,

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Speaker 1: the title sequence title design guy of the day. He

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Speaker 1: crafted title sequences from for major films from the mid

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifties all the way through the mid nineties. We're

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Speaker 1: talking about the likes of the Seven Year Itch, Vertico, Psycho, Spartacus,

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Speaker 1: West Side, Story, Seconds, Broadcast News, Big Good Fellows, Cape, Fear,

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Speaker 1: and Casino. UM. I should also note note that in

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Speaker 1: addition to directing Phase four, he of course did the

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Speaker 1: title design. You're not gonna You're not if you're Seal Bad,

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Speaker 1: You're not gonna trust that to anybody else. This is

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Speaker 1: your baby. You're doing the titles, and the title design

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Speaker 1: is great. It is um. Like you said, The The

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Speaker 1: Madman is often credited as kind of an homage to

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Speaker 1: his work and some of the visual elements there. He

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Speaker 1: did logos as well for a number of big name

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Speaker 1: companies throughout the sixties, seventies, and eighties, and I was

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Speaker 1: reading something to about the longevity of his design lines

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Speaker 1: on that front. He also did some pretty famous movie posters,

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Speaker 1: including uh, the aforementioned films, but also Stanley Kubrick's The

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Speaker 1: Shining Oh that's interesting. Did did Saul Bass do the

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Speaker 1: credit sequence for Doctor No? The first James Bond movie? Uh?

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Speaker 1: That's I think he had some connection with the Bond film.

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Speaker 1: I didn't put it in my notes, but that sounds right,

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Speaker 1: if not dr No one of the Bond films he

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Speaker 1: has connections to. It seems to kind of fit into

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Speaker 1: his design clade that I was looking at some of

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Speaker 1: the rejected poster designs that he did for the Shining

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Speaker 1: uh stuff, Like he he had one that that heavily

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Speaker 1: featured the the Hedge Labyrinth, the Hedge Maze, and Kubrick

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Speaker 1: had rejected that one because he didn't want too much

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Speaker 1: focus to be put on that. But I was I

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Speaker 1: was reading a post about this that far out magazine

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Speaker 1: dot co dot uk, and it had images from the

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Speaker 1: original correspondence between Bass and Kubrick, and you can see

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Speaker 1: that Saul Bass has has signed like the cover letter here,

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Speaker 1: and he includes this wonderful It's either an illustration or

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Speaker 1: a stamp of himself as a fish. So it's like

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Speaker 1: his sort of mild mannered, mustached, bespectacled uh face here

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Speaker 1: on a fish's body. Uh. It's pretty amusing. Is that

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Speaker 1: a joke on him being a Bass? I guess? So Yeah,

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Speaker 1: his Shining poster is worth looking up because I love

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Speaker 1: the design. It's like it shows just three sort of

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Speaker 1: silhouettes heading into the opening of of a maze, and

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Speaker 1: and part of me wonders if did Kubrick reject this

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Speaker 1: just because he was in a bad mood and he

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Speaker 1: was being difficult or yeah, maybe so because it's a

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Speaker 1: great poster now, Like we said, Phase four was Bass

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Speaker 1: is only full length film, though he made six other

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Speaker 1: short films, including Why Man Creates, from which won an

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Speaker 1: Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject. His other films

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Speaker 1: include the nineteen eighty Robert Redford produced the Solar film

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Speaker 1: promoting solar energy over fossil fuels. He also made a

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Speaker 1: very interesting looking nine four short titled Quest, based on

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Speaker 1: the Ray Bradberry story Frost and Fire. I was like,

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Speaker 1: I looked this one up. I found a like a

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Speaker 1: rip of it on one of the video streaming sides,

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Speaker 1: but I didn't watch it because part in part it

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Speaker 1: it looks too interesting. I feel like I need to

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Speaker 1: see this in a uh like a higher visual format

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Speaker 1: or something I wonder discount there that collects his his

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Speaker 1: smaller works, or something I would hope to say yea,

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Speaker 1: or or perhaps there's one of the blue rays that

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Speaker 1: we allude to later on for this film has some

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Speaker 1: extras like that, but it looks very cool and definitely

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Speaker 1: has that the sort of the sci fi visual sensibilities

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Speaker 1: that will discuss in relation to this film. I also

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Speaker 1: want to point out that he often worked with his

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Speaker 1: wife and creative partner, Elaine Bass on these projects. Right, So,

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Speaker 1: so if you've heard us talk in the past about

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Speaker 1: Rubbed the Firm movie, I would say this is a

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Speaker 1: really excellent example of one of those. This is a

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Speaker 1: design first movie and the pleasure of it is almost

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Speaker 1: all about texture. It is a celebration of surfaces. Now,

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Speaker 1: it did have a writer, um Mayo Simon Born. This

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Speaker 1: is the screenwriter who wrote the West World sequel Future

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Speaker 1: World in seventy six. This had Peter Fonda and youle

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Speaker 1: Brenner in it. Also the nineteen sixty nine film Maroon

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Speaker 1: starring Gregory Peck and Gene Hackman. That one won an

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Speaker 1: Academy Award for Visual Effects. But Simon went on to

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Speaker 1: create the NBC TV show Man from Atlantis, which I've

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Speaker 1: never heard of before, starring Patrick Duffy of Dallas Fame

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Speaker 1: and Belinda Montgomery, who some of you might remember as

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Speaker 1: being Doogie Howser's mom, I do not remember. It looks

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Speaker 1: very fun in a mid like mid seventies TV sci

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Speaker 1: fi sort of way. Now, we we've already said that

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Speaker 1: this is not really an actor's film. In fact, it's

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Speaker 1: not even really a very human film. But we I

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Speaker 1: guess we should mention some of the cast members. Right

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Speaker 1: first and foremost, we have a Nigel Davenport playing Dr

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Speaker 1: Ernest D. Hubbs Um now Davenport Live, two thousand and thirteen,

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Speaker 1: English actor known for nineteen sixty six is a Man

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Speaker 1: for All Seasons, in which he played the Duke of Norfolk,

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Speaker 1: and es Chariots of Fire, in which he played Lord Birkenhead.

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Speaker 1: Um that that one had. I've only seen parts of

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Speaker 1: Chariots of Fire and it was many years ago. Um.

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Speaker 1: It's got a pretty extensive cast, so I I don't

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Speaker 1: specifically remember where he fit into that, But of course

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Speaker 1: it's a a famous movie, has a tremendous score by evangelist.

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Speaker 1: Nigel Davenport seems like an actor you call in for gravitas. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he has a great presence and a great presence in

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Speaker 1: this where he plays the um determined and at times

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Speaker 1: reckless at times later on the film he basically becomes

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Speaker 1: kind of an ant focused captain ahab in anyways, so

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Speaker 1: he has just a terrible case of mad scientist disease. Yes,

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Speaker 1: so he's He's perfect casting for this. I can't imagine

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Speaker 1: anyone else here. Uh he was. He was also in

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Speaker 1: the nineteen seventy seven adaptation of H. G. Wells The

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Speaker 1: Island of Dr Moreau. This is when I fondly remember

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Speaker 1: from catching on TBS or t n T back in

397
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Speaker 1: the day this one started Burt Lancaster and Michael york Um.

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Speaker 1: He apparently plays Scrooge's dad in the nineteen eighty four

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Speaker 1: George C. Scott adaptation of a Christmas Carol, And he's

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Speaker 1: also in nineteen eighty four is Gray Stoke, the Legend

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Speaker 1: of Tarzan, Lord of the Ape, starring Christopher Lambert. Oh wow, well,

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Speaker 1: who is he in Gray Stoke? Is he? Is? He?

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Speaker 1: Is he Tarzan's dad or something? Um? You know? Gray

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Speaker 1: Stoke is another one that I've only seen parts of

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Speaker 1: on TV when I was much younger. I'm not I

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Speaker 1: don't think I've watched it in full. Uh, I'm I

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Speaker 1: believe he plays one of the the grumpy British guys

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Speaker 1: generally that's all. I think there're a few of those. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's that's generally you're casting for Davenport. Well, all right,

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Speaker 1: So the basically the two main characters of this movie

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Speaker 1: are the two scientists who go in to investigate the

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Speaker 1: ant phenomenon, and so Davenport plays one of them, he

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Speaker 1: plays Hubs and then the other scientist is one named LESCo,

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Speaker 1: who was played by the actor Michael Murphy. That's right,

415
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Speaker 1: born American actor best known for his work with Robert Altman. Uh.

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Speaker 1: He did seven pictures for Altman Um. They include the

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Speaker 1: likes of Countdown, The Cold Day in the Park, mash

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Speaker 1: the original film, Bruster, McLeod McCabe, and Mrs Miller Nashville,

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Speaker 1: Kansas City. He also appeared in Woody Allen's Manhattan, Peter

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Speaker 1: Weir's The Year of Living Dangerously, and Oliver Stone's Salvador.

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Speaker 1: He also worked with John Saylis Silver City. He was

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Speaker 1: in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnola Yea and of course he

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Speaker 1: was in he was in Tim Burton's Batman returns Um.

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Speaker 1: He also oh yeah, yeah, he's the mayor of Gotham City. There.

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Speaker 1: I guess he was only one term because I don't

426
00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:16,320
Speaker 1: think he pops something another Batman film, But he was

427
00:24:16,359 --> 00:24:20,600
Speaker 1: also in a movie called count yorga vampire, and uh,

428
00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:22,960
Speaker 1: this is our other Shocker connection because he was in

429
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:26,680
Speaker 1: West Craven Shocker. He plays Peter Bergh's dad in Shocker.

430
00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:29,960
Speaker 1: He's like a detective who's on the case trying to

431
00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:34,800
Speaker 1: chase down Mitch Pelegi. Yeah, so Murphy. Murphy's fine in this.

432
00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:38,280
Speaker 1: You know, he's uh, you know, far younger than many

433
00:24:38,280 --> 00:24:43,399
Speaker 1: of these other film appearances that we noted. But yeah,

434
00:24:43,480 --> 00:24:46,879
Speaker 1: he's a he's a he's a numbers guy. He plays

435
00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:52,359
Speaker 1: um what, he's a game theorist and mathematician doesn't really

436
00:24:52,359 --> 00:24:55,720
Speaker 1: know or care anything about ants. But it's ultimately like

437
00:24:55,800 --> 00:24:59,840
Speaker 1: the younger, more compassionate of the duo here, right. I

438
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:01,919
Speaker 1: think they do a kind of strange thing where they

439
00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:06,560
Speaker 1: have to scientists. One is a like entomologist who cares

440
00:25:06,600 --> 00:25:09,840
Speaker 1: deeply about ants, and the other is a mathematician who

441
00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:12,639
Speaker 1: doesn't care about ants. And so you would think that

442
00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:15,440
Speaker 1: the one who goes ahab and just wants to destroy

443
00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:17,919
Speaker 1: all of ants would be the mathematician, but no, they

444
00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:22,600
Speaker 1: switch them. It's kind of counterintuitive. Yeah, but if if

445
00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:26,320
Speaker 1: if the other guy. If Davenport's Hubs is Captain Ahab,

446
00:25:26,600 --> 00:25:29,960
Speaker 1: then Murphy's LESCo is Ishmael. Yeah, he's kind of along

447
00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:33,040
Speaker 1: for the ride. Yeah, he decided well. In fact, he

448
00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:35,160
Speaker 1: even says he was like, I just wanted to get

449
00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:37,000
Speaker 1: away for a few weeks. That's why I took this job.

450
00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:38,959
Speaker 1: So it's like he wanted to go see the watery

451
00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:42,439
Speaker 1: part of the world, all right. We UM. We ultimately

452
00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:44,760
Speaker 1: have a very small human cast. And this is one

453
00:25:44,760 --> 00:25:46,399
Speaker 1: thing I noticed before we even watched the film, and

454
00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:49,560
Speaker 1: it's like like five or six people are credited UM

455
00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:52,920
Speaker 1: and the two we covered have most of the screen time,

456
00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:54,840
Speaker 1: but there is another there's a third human character that

457
00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:57,960
Speaker 1: plays a UM I don't want to I guess a

458
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:01,000
Speaker 1: crucial role. It's not a great part because she's kind

459
00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:03,080
Speaker 1: of a damsel in distress for a lot of it.

460
00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:06,399
Speaker 1: But we have uh. The the actor Lynn Frederick playing

461
00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:13,400
Speaker 1: Kindra Eldridge UM. Now Frederick lived ninety through British actor

462
00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:16,520
Speaker 1: of the seventies who um had had a really promising

463
00:26:16,520 --> 00:26:19,720
Speaker 1: career going died too young, known for roles in The

464
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:24,119
Speaker 1: Amazing Mr Blundin, Nicholas and Alexandria and the Prisoner of Zenda.

465
00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:26,960
Speaker 1: She was also in the nineteen seventy two horror film

466
00:26:27,080 --> 00:26:30,600
Speaker 1: Vampire Circus. I didn't realize she was in Nicholas and Alexandra.

467
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:32,320
Speaker 1: I gotta look that up and see what she was in.

468
00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:35,840
Speaker 1: That's where I also very much appreciate the textures. There's

469
00:26:35,880 --> 00:26:38,680
Speaker 1: some really good sets and locations in it. Yeah, I've

470
00:26:38,720 --> 00:26:41,399
Speaker 1: heard you. You talked about that one before. Basically, she

471
00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:44,919
Speaker 1: is what we'll discussed like. She's a a an innocent

472
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:50,240
Speaker 1: human who gets uh swept into this aunt takeover drama.

473
00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:54,200
Speaker 1: She has a has a couple of grandparents that are

474
00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:57,240
Speaker 1: are doomed, and we'll discuss their doom in a bit.

475
00:26:57,920 --> 00:27:01,320
Speaker 1: But the the actor who plays Emma Grandma Eldridge in

476
00:27:01,359 --> 00:27:05,359
Speaker 1: this is the actor Helen Horton, who lived two thousand

477
00:27:05,359 --> 00:27:08,480
Speaker 1: and seven. She pops up in Superman three, did a

478
00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:10,399
Speaker 1: lot of TV work. But she's also the voice of

479
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:14,840
Speaker 1: Mother from n Alien. Now this is funny because I

480
00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:18,040
Speaker 1: didn't remember Mother in Alien having this. The name of

481
00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:21,680
Speaker 1: the computer is the computer that controls everything. I only

482
00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:25,320
Speaker 1: remember Dallas communicating with Mother through like a command line

483
00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:28,160
Speaker 1: on a computer screen. Though maybe Mother has a voice

484
00:27:28,160 --> 00:27:30,880
Speaker 1: when there's like a self destruct countdown on the ship

485
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:33,920
Speaker 1: or something. I think that is it. Yeah, okay, where

486
00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:36,959
Speaker 1: mothers given the countdown and Ripley is trying to get

487
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:39,439
Speaker 1: out of there with a cat right right. I don't know.

488
00:27:39,640 --> 00:27:41,880
Speaker 1: Maybe next time I watch Alien, I'll gotta keep I'll

489
00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:45,440
Speaker 1: keeping an ear out for Helen Horton, who in this

490
00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:49,920
Speaker 1: movie just plays like a suspicious grandma. It's it's Mildred

491
00:27:50,040 --> 00:27:52,600
Speaker 1: is just not very happy about the government telling them

492
00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:55,360
Speaker 1: that they need to flee the ant menace. Alright, let's

493
00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:57,320
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the music on this one.

494
00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:01,480
Speaker 1: Normally we highlight a single individual that's involved, but this

495
00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:05,040
Speaker 1: time like three different individuals. At least they're worth noting here.

496
00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:09,399
Speaker 1: So first of all, Brian gascoign Is is credited with

497
00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:13,359
Speaker 1: the music. Born three British composer and musician who also

498
00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:18,000
Speaker 1: scored The Emerald Forest in and worked in the music

499
00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:21,360
Speaker 1: department on such films as Godsford Park. He did piano

500
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:24,240
Speaker 1: on that, Uh, Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire.

501
00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:28,119
Speaker 1: He did keyboards and synthesizer on that. He did synthesizers

502
00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:32,200
Speaker 1: on Cherry two thousand and uh. Most exciting of all,

503
00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:34,560
Speaker 1: at least to me, He was also in the music

504
00:28:34,640 --> 00:28:38,960
Speaker 1: department on Jim Henson's two masterpiece, The Dark Crystal. I'm

505
00:28:38,960 --> 00:28:40,520
Speaker 1: a huge fan of that film and I think the

506
00:28:40,600 --> 00:28:44,040
Speaker 1: music for that for that movie is tremendous. Um. The

507
00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:47,920
Speaker 1: score was composed by Trevor Jones, but gascogn provided quote

508
00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:52,760
Speaker 1: synthesized electronic sounds. So I'm guessing it was like, Okay,

509
00:28:52,800 --> 00:28:55,520
Speaker 1: the Crystals doing something. We need to get gascoygn in

510
00:28:55,560 --> 00:28:59,520
Speaker 1: here to start start tickling the synth. What is the

511
00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:03,760
Speaker 1: sound of draining essence? Now we also have Desmond Briscoe

512
00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:07,320
Speaker 1: on this, who lived through two thousand and six. He's

513
00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:11,880
Speaker 1: credited it as composer additional electronic music, British composer and

514
00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:16,640
Speaker 1: sound engineer, co founder of the original BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

515
00:29:17,120 --> 00:29:20,520
Speaker 1: Now this is the group that included pioneering electronic artist

516
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:24,640
Speaker 1: Delia Derbyshire who lived ninety seven through two thousand and one.

517
00:29:24,800 --> 00:29:27,920
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah. She's the one who provided the electronic

518
00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:31,960
Speaker 1: arrangement of the original Doctor Who theme and uh and

519
00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:36,080
Speaker 1: ultimately influenced many future big names and electronic music. So

520
00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:38,040
Speaker 1: I've said on the show before that I am not

521
00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:40,440
Speaker 1: a hoovie and I don't really know much Doctor Who,

522
00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:42,640
Speaker 1: But when I did very first try to watch a

523
00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:45,440
Speaker 1: few episodes, the main thing that actually hooked me about

524
00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:48,040
Speaker 1: it more than the show itself was the theme song.

525
00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:51,600
Speaker 1: I got briefly obsessed with the theme music and with

526
00:29:51,640 --> 00:29:53,720
Speaker 1: the different versions of it from over the years, and

527
00:29:53,800 --> 00:29:56,360
Speaker 1: ended up going on the steep dive about Delia Derbyshire

528
00:29:56,840 --> 00:29:58,720
Speaker 1: and like how she created it with I guess it

529
00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:01,960
Speaker 1: was analog tape effects that time, right, Yeah, yeah, I

530
00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:06,760
Speaker 1: mean yeah, digital manipulation. Um, And you know what a

531
00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:10,480
Speaker 1: great piece of classic electronic and tape effects music. And

532
00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:13,200
Speaker 1: then one one more individual I want to mention in

533
00:30:13,240 --> 00:30:17,280
Speaker 1: reference to Phase four, and that is u Stomu Yamashta,

534
00:30:17,640 --> 00:30:23,520
Speaker 1: who is credited with composer Montage Music. Born seven, Japanese percussionist,

535
00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:27,800
Speaker 1: keyboardist and composer known for helping to fuse traditional Japanese

536
00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:32,200
Speaker 1: percussive music with Western Prague rock. In the sixties and seventies,

537
00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:35,360
Speaker 1: he was a member of the supergroup Go, alongside such

538
00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:38,800
Speaker 1: names as Steve Winwood, best known for the track Higher Love,

539
00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:43,520
Speaker 1: but also German electronic music pioneer Claus Schultz, of whom

540
00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:45,640
Speaker 1: I'm I'm a big fan, oh I don't know if

541
00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:48,600
Speaker 1: I know him. Oh you you would, you would dig.

542
00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:50,880
Speaker 1: I'll have to send you some stuff after we record,

543
00:30:50,920 --> 00:30:54,800
Speaker 1: because Claus Shults put out some some some wonderful material. Now,

544
00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:58,320
Speaker 1: yamashta On on his own scored the nineteen seventies six

545
00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:00,840
Speaker 1: David Bowie sci fi film The Man Who Fell to

546
00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:06,760
Speaker 1: Earth as well as Tempest, starring John Cassavetti's Susan Sarandon,

547
00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:10,120
Speaker 1: Molly Ringwald and Ralph Julia. Now this is a movie

548
00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:12,560
Speaker 1: where I don't think there was ever like a melody

549
00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:15,560
Speaker 1: from the score that's stuck with me. But in general

550
00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:21,400
Speaker 1: I loved the sound design and the ambient electronic music. Yeah,

551
00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:24,080
Speaker 1: this is a film that's very concerned with computers and

552
00:31:24,080 --> 00:31:28,000
Speaker 1: computer technology. Uh, and and all that computer technology is

553
00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:30,360
Speaker 1: also seen as a very much plot wise, is a

554
00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:32,920
Speaker 1: way of translating the way of the ant in a

555
00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:36,560
Speaker 1: way that ants and humans might communicate. So it uses

556
00:31:36,600 --> 00:31:39,640
Speaker 1: electronic music well and providing a sense of the cosmic

557
00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:42,520
Speaker 1: and other worldly and even like the sense of the

558
00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:46,160
Speaker 1: cosmic and other worldly to be found in the mind

559
00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:48,960
Speaker 1: of of the ants. Uh. There are a few places

560
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:52,520
Speaker 1: where it gets a little uh melodic and traditional, almost

561
00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:55,040
Speaker 1: as if somebody like the producers were like, hey, what

562
00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:57,400
Speaker 1: are you doing here? So this is a human movie

563
00:31:57,400 --> 00:31:59,880
Speaker 1: for humans, and this scene has humans doing human stuff.

564
00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:03,520
Speaker 1: Let's get some human music in here. But but otherwise, yeah,

565
00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:07,000
Speaker 1: it's it's it's pretty great. Lots of electronic touches their

566
00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:11,080
Speaker 1: stretches without music, but those tend to revolve around one

567
00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:15,320
Speaker 1: of two soundscapes I found, either wind swept desert or

568
00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:19,640
Speaker 1: the insides of their spaceship like research station that also

569
00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:23,240
Speaker 1: has a supercomputer there. So lots of lots of computer noises.

570
00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:26,400
Speaker 1: Oh and fair warning, I wouldn't normally mention this, but

571
00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:28,720
Speaker 1: there was one part of like if you're listening with

572
00:32:28,840 --> 00:32:32,080
Speaker 1: like loud headphones or something, there is one segment of

573
00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:34,920
Speaker 1: this movie where for like several minutes they start making

574
00:32:34,920 --> 00:32:39,120
Speaker 1: this excruciating high pitch noise, which I imagine do you

575
00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:41,720
Speaker 1: know what the part I'm talking about? Rob? Yes, Yeah, absolutely,

576
00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:44,200
Speaker 1: because I was. I was watching it with the sound

577
00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:46,280
Speaker 1: up part of it with the sound up while my

578
00:32:46,320 --> 00:32:49,560
Speaker 1: wife was trying to work like the next drame, and

579
00:32:49,760 --> 00:32:51,040
Speaker 1: so I was a little I was like, oh, this

580
00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:52,440
Speaker 1: is getting a bit much. I'll have to plug in

581
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:54,760
Speaker 1: the headphones for this. Yeah. So if you go watch

582
00:32:54,840 --> 00:32:57,560
Speaker 1: it yourself, just be wary, keep keep your finger on

583
00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:00,200
Speaker 1: the volume button. All right, let's get into the the

584
00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:03,120
Speaker 1: plot of this baby. We we have to have to

585
00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:07,360
Speaker 1: mention this is a movie that is not afraid to narrate. No, no, Yeah,

586
00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:10,280
Speaker 1: there's plenty of voice over narrat near. In fact, I

587
00:33:10,320 --> 00:33:13,160
Speaker 1: wonder if there is just if you go by word count,

588
00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:16,959
Speaker 1: I wonder if there's more voiceover narration than there is dialogue.

589
00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:19,560
Speaker 1: Probably so I I you know, I have to be one.

590
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:22,920
Speaker 1: Anytime I think about narration and film, I always go

591
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:25,560
Speaker 1: back to like various threads I would read and arguments

592
00:33:25,560 --> 00:33:28,720
Speaker 1: about really Scott's Blade Runner, where people are like, get

593
00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:31,880
Speaker 1: that narration out of here, narration in a film by god?

594
00:33:32,520 --> 00:33:34,160
Speaker 1: And I was always like, always I kind of like

595
00:33:34,200 --> 00:33:37,960
Speaker 1: the narration. What's what's wrong with the narration? Give me

596
00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:41,560
Speaker 1: the narration? Yeah. I don't have strong general feelings about

597
00:33:41,560 --> 00:33:43,320
Speaker 1: it one way or another. You know, sometimes it's good,

598
00:33:43,400 --> 00:33:45,360
Speaker 1: sometimes it's not. Yeah, it can be good, it can

599
00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:48,760
Speaker 1: be bad. Um. It can also help along a movie

600
00:33:48,800 --> 00:33:51,360
Speaker 1: that maybe, um, you know, it just needs a little

601
00:33:51,440 --> 00:33:54,000
Speaker 1: narration help and letting you know what's supposed to be

602
00:33:54,040 --> 00:33:56,760
Speaker 1: going on. Well, yeah. And also in this movie without

603
00:33:56,800 --> 00:33:59,800
Speaker 1: the narration, you would either need to make it way

604
00:33:59,840 --> 00:34:03,160
Speaker 1: more were dialogue heavy and add totally different types of

605
00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:06,160
Speaker 1: characters and stuff, or you just gotta have the narration

606
00:34:06,200 --> 00:34:10,200
Speaker 1: in there um because they begin by explaining the whole situation.

607
00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:14,799
Speaker 1: The opening narration includes shots of space, uh, where you're

608
00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:18,600
Speaker 1: seeing these planets and stars, apparently a line that they're

609
00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:20,879
Speaker 1: very vague about what's going on, but in a way

610
00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:23,600
Speaker 1: that I found pleasing rather than frustrating. I think some

611
00:34:23,640 --> 00:34:26,560
Speaker 1: people might be more frustrated, but they don't say exactly

612
00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:28,960
Speaker 1: what's going on is but there's some kind of weird

613
00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:34,840
Speaker 1: astronomical event and this this astronomical event gets scientists and

614
00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:38,520
Speaker 1: mystics alike very excited, but nobody knows what it means

615
00:34:39,120 --> 00:34:42,000
Speaker 1: except you are told that there's a researcher named Ernest

616
00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:47,160
Speaker 1: Hubbs who documents that right after this astronomical event, ants

617
00:34:47,160 --> 00:34:51,160
Speaker 1: around the world start doing things that ants don't do.

618
00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:56,919
Speaker 1: It says that they're meeting, communicating, making decisions, again, being

619
00:34:57,040 --> 00:34:59,000
Speaker 1: very vague about what that means, but I guess we'll

620
00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:01,759
Speaker 1: find out more. Is the Vivie goes on uh and

621
00:35:01,880 --> 00:35:05,120
Speaker 1: while the narration explains the situation. We get to watch

622
00:35:05,239 --> 00:35:11,280
Speaker 1: this beautiful ballet of ants running around in tunnels, fighting, reproducing,

623
00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:14,359
Speaker 1: doing all kinds of things. And I'm want to say

624
00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:17,840
Speaker 1: also that the effects and photography in this opening ant

625
00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:20,719
Speaker 1: ballet are just wonderful. There were plenty of parts where

626
00:35:20,760 --> 00:35:22,960
Speaker 1: I couldn't tell if I was looking at real ants

627
00:35:23,080 --> 00:35:25,600
Speaker 1: or at special effects. Even some of the close ups

628
00:35:25,640 --> 00:35:29,040
Speaker 1: that were obviously puppets look very good. I love the

629
00:35:29,040 --> 00:35:33,640
Speaker 1: the textured surfaces, the exoskeleton, the eye, the sand grains,

630
00:35:33,719 --> 00:35:37,440
Speaker 1: the antennae. Uh. At this point I immediately felt like

631
00:35:37,480 --> 00:35:39,360
Speaker 1: we were in very good hands as far as the

632
00:35:39,400 --> 00:35:42,640
Speaker 1: look and design of the movie was going. Absolutely but

633
00:35:42,680 --> 00:35:47,080
Speaker 1: then we get tons more voiceover narration. I started transcribing it,

634
00:35:47,160 --> 00:35:49,160
Speaker 1: but I think later on I realized, like, I don't

635
00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:51,879
Speaker 1: need to read all of this verbatim. But essentially there

636
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:54,520
Speaker 1: is a different voice coming in that we will later

637
00:35:54,560 --> 00:35:58,719
Speaker 1: find out is doctor Hubbs. And he's dictating some kind

638
00:35:58,719 --> 00:36:01,759
Speaker 1: of government memorandum. He's issuing a memo to like the

639
00:36:01,800 --> 00:36:05,279
Speaker 1: bio Control division of some kind of agency, and he

640
00:36:05,400 --> 00:36:09,040
Speaker 1: is explaining alarming reports of something going on in the

641
00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:14,080
Speaker 1: American Southwest. He says that the traditional antagonisms between different

642
00:36:14,080 --> 00:36:17,960
Speaker 1: ant species have come to a dramatic halt and uh.

643
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:19,799
Speaker 1: And he says, at the same time, there has been

644
00:36:19,800 --> 00:36:23,440
Speaker 1: an apparent disappearance of those insects which prey on ants,

645
00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:28,520
Speaker 1: specifically mantis is, beetles, millipedes, and spiders. And he says

646
00:36:28,600 --> 00:36:30,480
Speaker 1: that if this goes on, we're going to see some

647
00:36:30,520 --> 00:36:34,520
Speaker 1: real booms and ant populations. And then meanwhile we we

648
00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:37,840
Speaker 1: see beautiful time lapse footage of ants swarming over and

649
00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:41,440
Speaker 1: devouring a big tarantula. And he ends up offering in

650
00:36:41,480 --> 00:36:44,879
Speaker 1: this memo a a proposal. He's like, look, what we've

651
00:36:44,880 --> 00:36:47,759
Speaker 1: got to do is a full scale attack on on

652
00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:51,799
Speaker 1: the ants, otherwise they're going to represent a threat to

653
00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:54,719
Speaker 1: all other life forms in the area. So we need

654
00:36:54,800 --> 00:36:57,560
Speaker 1: to build an experiment station out near aunt ground zero.

655
00:36:57,760 --> 00:37:00,480
Speaker 1: And he says he needs more personnel and needs another

656
00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:03,520
Speaker 1: researcher to join him. So the leader here is going

657
00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:06,520
Speaker 1: to be this this ant researcher Hubs, but he also

658
00:37:06,600 --> 00:37:11,960
Speaker 1: requests somebody named j. R. LESCo, who is a senior

659
00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:18,080
Speaker 1: scientist who is a qualified information specialist with cryptological background. Yeah,

660
00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:20,359
Speaker 1: and so we're already getting getting the idea that there's

661
00:37:20,400 --> 00:37:24,160
Speaker 1: going to be some sort of communication aspect to this,

662
00:37:24,160 --> 00:37:27,920
Speaker 1: this study, this this project which which again seems to

663
00:37:27,920 --> 00:37:33,719
Speaker 1: be about understanding and combating ants who have declared like

664
00:37:33,760 --> 00:37:37,840
Speaker 1: an aunt wide peace treaty and are turning their attention

665
00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:40,600
Speaker 1: to other things in a way that makes us feel threatened. Uh.

666
00:37:40,600 --> 00:37:44,319
Speaker 1: And it seems like HUBS has just been granted an

667
00:37:44,440 --> 00:37:48,440
Speaker 1: enormous budget for this project, but also, as we'll find out,

668
00:37:48,600 --> 00:37:51,920
Speaker 1: a very limited window in which to operate. Yeah, it's funny.

669
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:55,120
Speaker 1: So they build him a geodesic dome out in the

670
00:37:55,160 --> 00:37:58,480
Speaker 1: desert that's full of the world's most sophisticated technology and

671
00:37:58,520 --> 00:38:02,879
Speaker 1: it's got supercomputers and off in nineteen four. But he's

672
00:38:02,920 --> 00:38:05,919
Speaker 1: also constantly getting calls on the radio that are like

673
00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:08,200
Speaker 1: they're like, can you hurry this up? We you know,

674
00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:10,200
Speaker 1: we don't have enough budget to fund you for two

675
00:38:10,200 --> 00:38:14,000
Speaker 1: more days. Yeah. Well maybe, I mean, maybe it's on HUBS, like,

676
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:17,000
Speaker 1: maybe you should have scaled down on the facilities here.

677
00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:21,360
Speaker 1: Maybe you didn't need this. Uh. This what what seems

678
00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:23,279
Speaker 1: like a spaceship, you know, it feels like it should

679
00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:25,520
Speaker 1: be on the surface of Mars, uh, not in the

680
00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:28,840
Speaker 1: wet of the Arizona Desert. We've only got these supercomputers

681
00:38:28,880 --> 00:38:32,720
Speaker 1: rented through Friday. After that there are late fees well anyway,

682
00:38:32,800 --> 00:38:34,840
Speaker 1: So that's the setup and then we get to the

683
00:38:34,920 --> 00:38:37,400
Speaker 1: actual narrative part of the film. So we see a

684
00:38:37,440 --> 00:38:40,440
Speaker 1: car blasting through the desert, kicking up clouds of dust

685
00:38:40,520 --> 00:38:43,840
Speaker 1: from the road, and it goes past signs for a

686
00:38:43,920 --> 00:38:46,680
Speaker 1: golf course and a country club and then a sign

687
00:38:46,719 --> 00:38:49,520
Speaker 1: that says welcome to Paradise City. But it's one of

688
00:38:49,520 --> 00:38:53,319
Speaker 1: those comedic, ironic reveals because when you peel back from

689
00:38:53,320 --> 00:38:56,600
Speaker 1: all those signs, it's just a cursed land of emptiness

690
00:38:56,600 --> 00:38:59,839
Speaker 1: and dust. Yeah. I think they refer to it as

691
00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:04,280
Speaker 1: another desert development that didn't develop. Right. It's some half

692
00:39:04,280 --> 00:39:07,919
Speaker 1: built houses and a grid of dirt roads. But when

693
00:39:07,920 --> 00:39:10,440
Speaker 1: they go down to the end of the longest of

694
00:39:10,440 --> 00:39:13,759
Speaker 1: the dirt roads, we see something very strange and in

695
00:39:13,800 --> 00:39:16,480
Speaker 1: the middle of the nothingness there is that this grove

696
00:39:16,680 --> 00:39:20,920
Speaker 1: of seven pillars, just pillars reaching straight up out of

697
00:39:20,960 --> 00:39:24,560
Speaker 1: the out of the ground like like Greek columns. And

698
00:39:24,640 --> 00:39:26,600
Speaker 1: so they drive up and parked the car and out

699
00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:29,680
Speaker 1: hoop a couple of guys. These would be our protagonists again.

700
00:39:29,719 --> 00:39:33,040
Speaker 1: This is Nigel Davenport is Dr Hubbs and Michael Murphy

701
00:39:33,160 --> 00:39:37,120
Speaker 1: is Dr LESCo, and I immediately noticed some very interesting

702
00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:39,560
Speaker 1: color coading. This was another thing that tipped me off

703
00:39:39,640 --> 00:39:44,040
Speaker 1: early how sort of visual and design oriented this movie

704
00:39:44,040 --> 00:39:46,440
Speaker 1: would be. Because Rob, I don't know if you noticed

705
00:39:46,480 --> 00:39:49,880
Speaker 1: the same thing, but the color coating of the wardrobes

706
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:53,640
Speaker 1: of the two actors is so starkly different. Let's Go

707
00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:57,840
Speaker 1: is just blue, blue blue. He's blue jeans, blue shirt,

708
00:39:58,120 --> 00:40:02,479
Speaker 1: blue jacket, and blue hat, whereas Hubs is all, uh

709
00:40:02,560 --> 00:40:06,400
Speaker 1: these earth tones and earth energy. So he's wearing khaki pants,

710
00:40:06,800 --> 00:40:09,800
Speaker 1: a brown jacket, he's got long hair and a dark beard,

711
00:40:10,280 --> 00:40:14,200
Speaker 1: and he's carrying a staff or stick of some kind. Yeah,

712
00:40:14,239 --> 00:40:16,680
Speaker 1: so I was immediately wondering what's going on with this?

713
00:40:16,760 --> 00:40:19,600
Speaker 1: So it again seems like a graphic designer's touch. But

714
00:40:19,960 --> 00:40:22,760
Speaker 1: is Le's Go supposed to be the sky while Hubbs

715
00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:25,759
Speaker 1: is the earth? Or is it a blue wizard and

716
00:40:25,880 --> 00:40:28,880
Speaker 1: radigas the brown thing. I didn't really notice this as

717
00:40:28,920 --> 00:40:31,360
Speaker 1: much when I was watching it, but I guess I

718
00:40:31,400 --> 00:40:34,040
Speaker 1: was focusing more on the the environment there in, which

719
00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:37,200
Speaker 1: is pretty brilliant because this is the place where where

720
00:40:37,440 --> 00:40:41,919
Speaker 1: human organization and human development has has uh, the wave

721
00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:45,120
Speaker 1: is crashed and fallen back right. It is where human

722
00:40:45,160 --> 00:40:48,840
Speaker 1: development has has failed, but it is where this new

723
00:40:49,040 --> 00:40:53,719
Speaker 1: sign of of ant civilization has has sprung forth right.

724
00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:56,120
Speaker 1: And so they walk around in these half built or

725
00:40:56,160 --> 00:40:59,359
Speaker 1: abandoned houses and Let's go asks if there are any

726
00:40:59,360 --> 00:41:03,080
Speaker 1: dead bodies out here, and Nigel Nigel Davenport says, no,

727
00:41:03,560 --> 00:41:07,080
Speaker 1: the people, the population moved itself out days ago. Um.

728
00:41:07,160 --> 00:41:09,440
Speaker 1: And then they start talking about their background, and we

729
00:41:09,520 --> 00:41:14,000
Speaker 1: learned that LESCo has achieved scientific fame by applying game

730
00:41:14,040 --> 00:41:17,279
Speaker 1: theory to the language of killer whales, and Hubs is

731
00:41:17,440 --> 00:41:19,759
Speaker 1: very intrigued by this. He wants to know, did you

732
00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:23,440
Speaker 1: ever actually make contact with a whale? And LESCo says,

733
00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:28,280
Speaker 1: only with the emotionally disturbed ones and uh. And Hubbs

734
00:41:28,320 --> 00:41:30,560
Speaker 1: is like, well, how did you determine that? And and

735
00:41:30,800 --> 00:41:33,680
Speaker 1: LESCo says, well, we talked. I think he's supposed to

736
00:41:33,719 --> 00:41:36,640
Speaker 1: be kidding, but they never clarified this. Yeah, I think

737
00:41:36,680 --> 00:41:40,360
Speaker 1: it's math nursery. Uh. And and also this is the

738
00:41:40,360 --> 00:41:42,080
Speaker 1: point in the movie where if you don't know anything

739
00:41:42,080 --> 00:41:44,279
Speaker 1: about it, you can easily imagine we're going in the

740
00:41:44,280 --> 00:41:49,200
Speaker 1: direction of of like a computer literally translates what ants

741
00:41:49,239 --> 00:41:51,799
Speaker 1: are saying in some sort of computer voice, in the

742
00:41:51,840 --> 00:41:53,560
Speaker 1: same way that you have films where this is happening

743
00:41:53,600 --> 00:41:57,080
Speaker 1: with dolphins and other creatures. But and this is a

744
00:41:57,120 --> 00:42:01,560
Speaker 1: film that is about communication, or at communication between two

745
00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:06,360
Speaker 1: drastically different intelligent species. But it it does so in

746
00:42:06,480 --> 00:42:09,120
Speaker 1: very clever ways that I think really like takes the

747
00:42:09,200 --> 00:42:12,920
Speaker 1: question seriously and takes the uh, you know, the gulf

748
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:19,080
Speaker 1: between different you know, possibly evolved intelligences. Uh, the gulf

749
00:42:19,080 --> 00:42:22,040
Speaker 1: between them, and how difficult it would be like for

750
00:42:22,120 --> 00:42:25,400
Speaker 1: one side to even realize the other side is intelligent. Yeah,

751
00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:27,480
Speaker 1: that's something I really liked about this movie is that

752
00:42:27,640 --> 00:42:32,759
Speaker 1: it takes the confusing nature of cross species communication seriously.

753
00:42:32,920 --> 00:42:35,520
Speaker 1: Like there's a great scene I want to talk about

754
00:42:35,600 --> 00:42:39,600
Speaker 1: later that involves communication between humans and ants and how

755
00:42:39,680 --> 00:42:51,120
Speaker 1: it's hard to understand what it means. But anyway, here

756
00:42:51,120 --> 00:42:53,560
Speaker 1: at the beginning, it's clear that LESCo does not see

757
00:42:53,640 --> 00:42:57,480
Speaker 1: himself as a biologist or a zoologist or somebody who

758
00:42:57,560 --> 00:43:00,279
Speaker 1: who cares about or understands animals. He says, is I'm

759
00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:04,040
Speaker 1: strictly a pencil and paper guy. The two scientists approach

760
00:43:04,239 --> 00:43:07,719
Speaker 1: the seven pillars, and uh, Rob, how would you describe

761
00:43:07,760 --> 00:43:10,400
Speaker 1: these pillars. I love this feature of the movie, and

762
00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:13,239
Speaker 1: there won't be the last pillars we see. They Yeah,

763
00:43:13,280 --> 00:43:16,440
Speaker 1: they're pretty great because they're they're monolithic, but they don't

764
00:43:16,480 --> 00:43:20,799
Speaker 1: you know, they're not They're not as perfect, to say,

765
00:43:20,800 --> 00:43:23,719
Speaker 1: the monolith from two thousand and one A Space Odyssey. Though.

766
00:43:23,960 --> 00:43:25,640
Speaker 1: You know, you can't help but imagine some of that

767
00:43:25,719 --> 00:43:28,480
Speaker 1: DNA is present there. I mean, certainly the uh this

768
00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:32,040
Speaker 1: is a film that um that exists, you know, in

769
00:43:32,080 --> 00:43:34,920
Speaker 1: the ultimately in the very long shadow of two thousand

770
00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:38,160
Speaker 1: and one A Space Odyssey. But but these feel they

771
00:43:38,160 --> 00:43:43,640
Speaker 1: feel very organic. They're reminiscent of termite mound cooling towers. UM.

772
00:43:43,719 --> 00:43:46,839
Speaker 1: They have these little crevices towards the top that feel

773
00:43:46,840 --> 00:43:49,640
Speaker 1: like they're intended to do something with the air. Um.

774
00:43:49,680 --> 00:43:51,040
Speaker 1: It's the kind of thing that you think in ant

775
00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:54,560
Speaker 1: researcher would be very interested in, but they ultimately don't

776
00:43:54,560 --> 00:43:57,000
Speaker 1: seem to investigate that much. But yeah, they feel like

777
00:43:57,040 --> 00:44:01,120
Speaker 1: they are at this place where where organic animal construction

778
00:44:01,400 --> 00:44:06,359
Speaker 1: and human construction meets and the distinction becomes blurred, right.

779
00:44:06,480 --> 00:44:09,239
Speaker 1: I mean it's the angles I think that make them unusual.

780
00:44:09,280 --> 00:44:11,480
Speaker 1: I mean, if they were just sort of rounded pillars,

781
00:44:11,480 --> 00:44:14,080
Speaker 1: you might think, well that those are very tall and strange,

782
00:44:14,120 --> 00:44:16,759
Speaker 1: but they're more like termite mounds. It's the fact that

783
00:44:16,800 --> 00:44:19,840
Speaker 1: they have like a diamond shape with sharp angles that

784
00:44:19,920 --> 00:44:22,200
Speaker 1: makes it look like, oh, this shouldn't be something ants

785
00:44:22,200 --> 00:44:25,920
Speaker 1: are doing. It looks very alien and cool. Oh, and

786
00:44:25,960 --> 00:44:27,960
Speaker 1: of course we're see in close ups that ants are

787
00:44:28,040 --> 00:44:31,080
Speaker 1: looking out at the scientists through crevices in the in

788
00:44:31,120 --> 00:44:33,840
Speaker 1: the pillars. So anyway, after this, they go to a

789
00:44:33,880 --> 00:44:35,759
Speaker 1: farm where they find some dead sheep, and there are

790
00:44:35,800 --> 00:44:38,720
Speaker 1: shots of them walking through the tall grass that's rippling

791
00:44:38,719 --> 00:44:41,120
Speaker 1: in the wind. It's very elegant. But they eventually come

792
00:44:41,160 --> 00:44:44,960
Speaker 1: across a crop circle with geometric designs inside it. There's

793
00:44:45,000 --> 00:44:47,439
Speaker 1: like a diamond in the middle and then a ring

794
00:44:47,520 --> 00:44:51,759
Speaker 1: around the outside. Um and uh and Hubs is talking

795
00:44:51,800 --> 00:44:54,040
Speaker 1: about how there are some ant species that will attack

796
00:44:54,120 --> 00:44:57,759
Speaker 1: anything that threatens their food supply, and so what are

797
00:44:57,760 --> 00:45:01,239
Speaker 1: these patterns in the field represent. Well, it's not clear yet,

798
00:45:01,239 --> 00:45:03,560
Speaker 1: and in fact, I don't know if it ever becomes clear.

799
00:45:03,600 --> 00:45:06,200
Speaker 1: It's just like the ants make this pattern in the

800
00:45:06,239 --> 00:45:08,799
Speaker 1: field for some reason, and I don't even think our

801
00:45:08,880 --> 00:45:12,400
Speaker 1: characters perhaps realized that pattern is there. This is like

802
00:45:12,480 --> 00:45:17,319
Speaker 1: the privileged information that is, uh, that is for the viewer. Uh,

803
00:45:17,640 --> 00:45:19,920
Speaker 1: there's no indication that they notice that they are standing

804
00:45:19,960 --> 00:45:22,600
Speaker 1: in the midst of of this strange crop circle, right,

805
00:45:22,960 --> 00:45:24,399
Speaker 1: And I will say, by the I don't know if

806
00:45:24,400 --> 00:45:26,440
Speaker 1: this is true, but I just read briefly on the

807
00:45:26,480 --> 00:45:29,919
Speaker 1: Internet some people alleging that this film may have inspired

808
00:45:30,280 --> 00:45:32,680
Speaker 1: some of the people who made crop circles, and then

809
00:45:32,719 --> 00:45:35,920
Speaker 1: said that they were made by aliens because apparently this, uh,

810
00:45:36,000 --> 00:45:39,719
Speaker 1: this pre date some of the big crop circle craze. Huh.

811
00:45:39,719 --> 00:45:42,239
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that. I did read somewhere that this

812
00:45:42,320 --> 00:45:46,040
Speaker 1: is this is arguably the first appearance of a crop

813
00:45:46,120 --> 00:45:49,240
Speaker 1: circle in a film, but that that would be interesting

814
00:45:49,239 --> 00:45:50,759
Speaker 1: and certainly it would match up with what we know

815
00:45:50,840 --> 00:45:54,799
Speaker 1: about about crop circles in there they're very human origin. Yeah,

816
00:45:54,840 --> 00:45:58,239
Speaker 1: apparently there are a few reports of things sort of

817
00:45:58,320 --> 00:46:01,279
Speaker 1: like crop circles that date to before the seventies, but

818
00:46:01,360 --> 00:46:04,799
Speaker 1: I think the real crop circle craze started sometime in

819
00:46:04,840 --> 00:46:07,160
Speaker 1: the mid to late seventies. That's when it like really

820
00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:09,720
Speaker 1: took off. Well anyway, So they're going around this farm

821
00:46:09,800 --> 00:46:11,879
Speaker 1: that still does have a few people in it, and

822
00:46:12,200 --> 00:46:14,799
Speaker 1: we we meet a farmer named Mr. Eldridge. I don't

823
00:46:14,800 --> 00:46:17,600
Speaker 1: think we ever learned his first name. And he's explaining

824
00:46:17,800 --> 00:46:20,960
Speaker 1: a fuel ditch trap for ants, Like they dig a

825
00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:23,879
Speaker 1: big moat around the farmhouse and fill it with gasoline

826
00:46:23,960 --> 00:46:28,120
Speaker 1: or something. Yeah. Um, yeah, it's it's kind of a

827
00:46:28,120 --> 00:46:30,680
Speaker 1: crazy sounding plan. They're like, yeah, for the aunt get

828
00:46:30,680 --> 00:46:34,240
Speaker 1: across the water, we'll just we'll just light this trough

829
00:46:34,360 --> 00:46:37,640
Speaker 1: of a fuel on fire and then that'll do him,

830
00:46:38,040 --> 00:46:40,560
Speaker 1: and then we'll just keep this trough of fire going

831
00:46:41,640 --> 00:46:45,480
Speaker 1: for the rest of our lives. Yeah. So the family

832
00:46:45,560 --> 00:46:49,440
Speaker 1: is Mr. Eldridge and then his wife Mildred Eldridge, who

833
00:46:49,840 --> 00:46:52,799
Speaker 1: is skeptical of the scientists who have arrived to tell

834
00:46:52,840 --> 00:46:56,880
Speaker 1: them they're in danger. Uh. And their granddaughter Kendra Eldridge,

835
00:46:56,880 --> 00:47:00,000
Speaker 1: who she she kind of rides horses and waves uh.

836
00:47:00,040 --> 00:47:02,080
Speaker 1: And then there's another guy named Cleat, who I guess

837
00:47:02,120 --> 00:47:05,120
Speaker 1: is their their aunt burning guy. It's like, oh, you

838
00:47:05,200 --> 00:47:07,359
Speaker 1: got an aunt burning guy. Yeah, his name's Cleat. Yeah,

839
00:47:07,360 --> 00:47:10,160
Speaker 1: I'll put you in touch. Yeah. But but Kendra is

840
00:47:10,160 --> 00:47:11,759
Speaker 1: the main character. Again, this is the character played by

841
00:47:11,840 --> 00:47:15,040
Speaker 1: Lynn Frederick. Um spoiler, She's the only one that is

842
00:47:15,040 --> 00:47:17,879
Speaker 1: going to survive for any length of time here, right,

843
00:47:18,320 --> 00:47:20,840
Speaker 1: But anyway, Hubbs tells them they're gonna have to evacuate

844
00:47:20,840 --> 00:47:23,400
Speaker 1: in a few days for their own protection. Mildred is

845
00:47:23,440 --> 00:47:26,759
Speaker 1: not happy about that, but strangely Mr. Eldridge is like, hey,

846
00:47:26,840 --> 00:47:30,040
Speaker 1: listen to them, it's for our own protection. So that

847
00:47:30,160 --> 00:47:32,359
Speaker 1: was Phase one, and then we get a transition where

848
00:47:32,360 --> 00:47:35,640
Speaker 1: we see phase two and it's not clear what has changed,

849
00:47:35,800 --> 00:47:38,520
Speaker 1: but that's that's what we get. And that's the interesting

850
00:47:38,560 --> 00:47:41,160
Speaker 1: thing about this film, Like the title phase four is

851
00:47:41,200 --> 00:47:44,600
Speaker 1: not referring to to most of the film, Like phase

852
00:47:44,640 --> 00:47:46,919
Speaker 1: four is the place we are going to arrive at

853
00:47:47,400 --> 00:47:50,160
Speaker 1: at the end of the film, right. So the next

854
00:47:50,160 --> 00:47:52,600
Speaker 1: thing we do is we go to the two scientists

855
00:47:52,600 --> 00:47:55,920
Speaker 1: in their self contained research facility, which is a geodesic

856
00:47:56,000 --> 00:48:00,000
Speaker 1: dome within antenna tower next to it, and then um,

857
00:48:00,040 --> 00:48:02,480
Speaker 1: a bunch of little nodes coming off of it, like

858
00:48:02,520 --> 00:48:06,239
Speaker 1: these pipes leading out to these little spheres planted out

859
00:48:06,280 --> 00:48:09,200
Speaker 1: in the perimeter around the geodesic dome, which we later

860
00:48:09,280 --> 00:48:13,200
Speaker 1: learned are for spraying beautiful poison. Yes, of which they have.

861
00:48:14,080 --> 00:48:17,320
Speaker 1: Do they have just two colors or are there three colors? Um,

862
00:48:17,360 --> 00:48:19,239
Speaker 1: there are only two we learn about that there may

863
00:48:19,280 --> 00:48:22,920
Speaker 1: be others. There's yellow and there's blur, so the scientists

864
00:48:22,960 --> 00:48:25,520
Speaker 1: are inside doing experiments. There are lots of machines that

865
00:48:25,600 --> 00:48:28,880
Speaker 1: make beeping and worrying noises, sometimes a big air pressure

866
00:48:29,000 --> 00:48:31,719
Speaker 1: hiss as well. And this might sound kind of hard

867
00:48:31,760 --> 00:48:34,080
Speaker 1: to believe, but I believe. I think there are several

868
00:48:34,239 --> 00:48:38,520
Speaker 1: just extremely pleasurable shots of Michael Murphy just flipping lots

869
00:48:38,600 --> 00:48:43,399
Speaker 1: of switches. Yeah, yeah, we're not exactly sure what he's

870
00:48:43,520 --> 00:48:46,080
Speaker 1: he's doing here necessarily, but you have you have that

871
00:48:46,200 --> 00:48:49,600
Speaker 1: nice computer electronic ambiance going on in the background, and

872
00:48:50,080 --> 00:48:53,479
Speaker 1: he's very chill about this, and yeah, it's a nice vibe. Now.

873
00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:57,680
Speaker 1: I love, love, love this research facility they have here.

874
00:48:58,239 --> 00:49:00,840
Speaker 1: In general, I love it when Reese matures and or

875
00:49:00,880 --> 00:49:05,200
Speaker 1: adventurers in a film are just drastically technologically overprepared for

876
00:49:05,200 --> 00:49:09,759
Speaker 1: a mission, overfunded as well, perhaps here. Um. I love

877
00:49:09,800 --> 00:49:13,280
Speaker 1: it when it's as simple as an antarctic research facility

878
00:49:13,400 --> 00:49:16,520
Speaker 1: or an underwater station that just happens to have a

879
00:49:16,560 --> 00:49:20,319
Speaker 1: flamethrower on hand. I also love it when it's an

880
00:49:20,320 --> 00:49:23,120
Speaker 1: eight mission into the jungle and you bring along tripod

881
00:49:23,160 --> 00:49:27,600
Speaker 1: gun drones and your own talking techno ape uh congo, yeah,

882
00:49:27,760 --> 00:49:30,319
Speaker 1: congo uh. And I and I guess that's the thing too.

883
00:49:30,320 --> 00:49:32,080
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, it's very crighton me, and this

884
00:49:32,120 --> 00:49:35,399
Speaker 1: film does feel very crighton the in many respects. Well, yeah,

885
00:49:36,200 --> 00:49:37,920
Speaker 1: I don't want to say it's ripping it off, but

886
00:49:38,000 --> 00:49:41,080
Speaker 1: I say I think there are some very clear parallels

887
00:49:41,120 --> 00:49:44,239
Speaker 1: between this movie and The Andromeda Strain, Michael Creighton's first

888
00:49:44,239 --> 00:49:48,000
Speaker 1: big novel, which is also about a group of scientists

889
00:49:48,000 --> 00:49:51,080
Speaker 1: that go into a self contained facility in the American

890
00:49:51,160 --> 00:49:55,200
Speaker 1: Southwest in order to fight some kind of novel biological

891
00:49:55,200 --> 00:49:57,759
Speaker 1: menace that has been caused by an astronomical event. So

892
00:49:57,960 --> 00:49:59,719
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised if there's a little bit of

893
00:49:59,719 --> 00:50:02,319
Speaker 1: ins ration going on there, but that would make sense. Yeah.

894
00:50:02,360 --> 00:50:05,800
Speaker 1: But but again, what we have here is a weird

895
00:50:06,280 --> 00:50:08,560
Speaker 1: station that seems like it's built for the surface of Mars,

896
00:50:08,600 --> 00:50:12,279
Speaker 1: full of supercomputers, NASA style living conditions, you know, like

897
00:50:12,320 --> 00:50:14,759
Speaker 1: this wonderful scene where they're they're picking out what kind

898
00:50:14,800 --> 00:50:16,840
Speaker 1: of food they're gonna eat, or they're getting some coffee

899
00:50:16,920 --> 00:50:19,799
Speaker 1: or something, and it's it's like a spaceship, but not

900
00:50:19,840 --> 00:50:23,200
Speaker 1: only a spaceship, a spaceship that has been engineered to

901
00:50:23,440 --> 00:50:28,080
Speaker 1: stand is like the last redoubt against the ant on slot. Uh,

902
00:50:28,120 --> 00:50:31,120
Speaker 1: and yet it is not ant proof, um, though there

903
00:50:31,120 --> 00:50:33,400
Speaker 1: seemed to be measures taken to try and make it so,

904
00:50:33,440 --> 00:50:36,719
Speaker 1: Like there's essentially like a decontamination airlock that you have

905
00:50:36,800 --> 00:50:40,880
Speaker 1: to get nude for. Um. They're the poison sprayers with

906
00:50:40,920 --> 00:50:43,880
Speaker 1: two different flavors that we mentioned. Uh, it's it's great.

907
00:50:44,280 --> 00:50:47,960
Speaker 1: And there's some drama inside about cost overruns that we

908
00:50:48,000 --> 00:50:50,120
Speaker 1: alluded to earlier, Like there's a guy on the radio

909
00:50:50,160 --> 00:50:52,680
Speaker 1: who's calling hubs and being like, hey, you got to

910
00:50:52,680 --> 00:50:54,799
Speaker 1: speed up your research. We're running out of money here.

911
00:50:55,719 --> 00:50:57,759
Speaker 1: And I guess this is this is important to to know.

912
00:50:57,880 --> 00:50:59,960
Speaker 1: Like one of the things that they keep driving home.

913
00:51:00,080 --> 00:51:03,360
Speaker 1: I think with the human interaction is that ants have

914
00:51:03,440 --> 00:51:06,520
Speaker 1: it all together, not only and previously they did, you know,

915
00:51:06,560 --> 00:51:09,760
Speaker 1: species to species or colony to colony in some cases

916
00:51:09,960 --> 00:51:13,600
Speaker 1: and super colonies. But now all ant kind is one

917
00:51:14,400 --> 00:51:17,560
Speaker 1: is on the same page. They are working in unison. Meanwhile,

918
00:51:18,360 --> 00:51:20,719
Speaker 1: none of our humans can get along completely. They all

919
00:51:20,719 --> 00:51:24,319
Speaker 1: have different ideas and different views. Uh. You know, our

920
00:51:24,320 --> 00:51:27,200
Speaker 1: two researchers are arguing with each other. They're having conflicts

921
00:51:27,280 --> 00:51:30,160
Speaker 1: ultimately with the other human character and with these people

922
00:51:30,160 --> 00:51:33,520
Speaker 1: on the phone, right. But the way they come up

923
00:51:33,560 --> 00:51:36,920
Speaker 1: with to speed up the research, by the way, is

924
00:51:37,040 --> 00:51:40,279
Speaker 1: hilarious because what it means is, Okay, we gotta get

925
00:51:40,280 --> 00:51:42,399
Speaker 1: the ants to do something. So Hubbs is like, well,

926
00:51:42,440 --> 00:51:44,640
Speaker 1: I guess I'll go blow up these towers in the

927
00:51:44,680 --> 00:51:49,480
Speaker 1: desert with a handheld grenade launcher. Yes. Um, And you

928
00:51:49,520 --> 00:51:52,000
Speaker 1: know we have the stress that we're talking again, like

929
00:51:52,040 --> 00:51:55,200
Speaker 1: a handheld grenade launcher like the one Arnold has a

930
00:51:55,320 --> 00:51:59,239
Speaker 1: terminator to. He just casually uses it to blow up

931
00:51:59,640 --> 00:52:04,879
Speaker 1: all the ant monoliths that are there, which which which

932
00:52:04,920 --> 00:52:07,319
Speaker 1: is interesting too because later on, like the voice on

933
00:52:07,360 --> 00:52:09,440
Speaker 1: the phone is like, you should try destroying one of

934
00:52:09,440 --> 00:52:12,160
Speaker 1: the monoliths to see if you can provoke a reaction.

935
00:52:12,239 --> 00:52:14,239
Speaker 1: He didn't. He didn't mess around. He just blows them

936
00:52:14,280 --> 00:52:17,000
Speaker 1: all up. Um. Well, I think he's already done it.

937
00:52:17,080 --> 00:52:22,719
Speaker 1: When they suggest that, he's like, oh, I'll think about it, okay, Yeah,

938
00:52:22,840 --> 00:52:24,839
Speaker 1: And I just again it comes back to the fact

939
00:52:24,880 --> 00:52:28,400
Speaker 1: that this grenade launcher I'm I'm assuming or hoping it

940
00:52:28,719 --> 00:52:31,279
Speaker 1: is slash, was illegal to actually own one of these

941
00:52:31,360 --> 00:52:35,360
Speaker 1: that fires actual grenades and not flares. Um, so I

942
00:52:35,440 --> 00:52:38,200
Speaker 1: guess it is part of the specialized kit that he

943
00:52:38,600 --> 00:52:42,360
Speaker 1: he requested and was approved for use in this research experiment.

944
00:52:42,440 --> 00:52:45,120
Speaker 1: So that means it has it's like its own shelf

945
00:52:45,160 --> 00:52:47,279
Speaker 1: in the in the research station, or maybe it's in

946
00:52:47,320 --> 00:52:50,400
Speaker 1: a it's it's mounted behind glass with a sign that

947
00:52:50,440 --> 00:52:56,160
Speaker 1: reads break if study. Dandelion is rapidly approaching. But we

948
00:52:56,280 --> 00:52:57,960
Speaker 1: just see him out there in the middle of the road.

949
00:52:58,000 --> 00:53:00,400
Speaker 1: He's standing there like like Mill Gibbs sin in the

950
00:53:00,520 --> 00:53:03,920
Speaker 1: Road Warrior poster with the young and he's just shooting

951
00:53:03,960 --> 00:53:07,439
Speaker 1: these ant colonies. Yeah, he's got a whole ammunition box

952
00:53:07,480 --> 00:53:10,520
Speaker 1: of grenade and he's just letting it, letting the monolithts

953
00:53:10,560 --> 00:53:13,799
Speaker 1: have it. Um. But anyway, so from this they do

954
00:53:13,920 --> 00:53:16,760
Speaker 1: learn some things because LESCo figures out that the ants

955
00:53:16,760 --> 00:53:19,680
Speaker 1: are communicating by sound that he's like, they're talking to

956
00:53:19,719 --> 00:53:23,360
Speaker 1: each other, and he starts recording the sounds they're making

957
00:53:23,440 --> 00:53:27,200
Speaker 1: and trying to decode it and understand their language in anyway,

958
00:53:27,520 --> 00:53:30,200
Speaker 1: so we knew this was coming. Later that night, the

959
00:53:30,280 --> 00:53:33,919
Speaker 1: ants apparently attack the Eldridge farm. They're the only other

960
00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:36,880
Speaker 1: humans left around and the ants set upon them. So

961
00:53:36,920 --> 00:53:39,759
Speaker 1: they start attacking the horse out in the field, and

962
00:53:39,800 --> 00:53:42,440
Speaker 1: then the fire trap is triggered and then the ants

963
00:53:42,440 --> 00:53:45,040
Speaker 1: swarmed the house and then the humans have to flee

964
00:53:45,080 --> 00:53:49,040
Speaker 1: in a truck, and Mildred is all like they warned us,

965
00:53:49,480 --> 00:53:52,000
Speaker 1: And then I think ants attack the truck and attack

966
00:53:52,120 --> 00:53:56,320
Speaker 1: inside the truck. Yeah, yeah, they're they're they're suddenly inside.

967
00:53:56,400 --> 00:54:00,319
Speaker 1: They're crawling in Grandpa's hair. There's a results in a rack.

968
00:54:00,440 --> 00:54:03,200
Speaker 1: And so they're fleeing on foot at this point towards

969
00:54:03,239 --> 00:54:06,640
Speaker 1: the research facility, um and towards the buildings that you know,

970
00:54:06,680 --> 00:54:09,719
Speaker 1: the remains of this housing development. They're still there, right,

971
00:54:09,760 --> 00:54:13,520
Speaker 1: So they basically get to the research facility, but they're

972
00:54:13,520 --> 00:54:16,600
Speaker 1: attacked by ants when they get out of the truck. Uh.

973
00:54:16,640 --> 00:54:19,480
Speaker 1: And at the same time, LESCo is showing off his

974
00:54:19,600 --> 00:54:23,640
Speaker 1: work to Hubs on decoding the ant language. And while

975
00:54:23,680 --> 00:54:27,120
Speaker 1: he's doing that, ants cut the power to the facility.

976
00:54:27,200 --> 00:54:28,920
Speaker 1: They cut the power. Man, how can they cut the

977
00:54:28,920 --> 00:54:32,399
Speaker 1: power their animals? But they do and uh and the

978
00:54:32,719 --> 00:54:36,440
Speaker 1: so Hubs responds by spraying the ants outside with this

979
00:54:36,600 --> 00:54:40,280
Speaker 1: gorgeous yellow poison. It's like coming out of these spheres.

980
00:54:40,760 --> 00:54:43,320
Speaker 1: It's weird to say it's beautiful, but it is beautiful.

981
00:54:43,360 --> 00:54:46,080
Speaker 1: And and they call the poison yellow. It's just called

982
00:54:46,160 --> 00:54:49,239
Speaker 1: the yellow and I think again, it makes a lot

983
00:54:49,239 --> 00:54:51,520
Speaker 1: of sense for this movie to call its poison, to

984
00:54:51,680 --> 00:54:54,319
Speaker 1: not have a chemical name, to not let it have

985
00:54:54,360 --> 00:54:57,320
Speaker 1: a brand name. It's just the yellow and that that

986
00:54:57,520 --> 00:55:01,480
Speaker 1: indicates like that that color and line reigned supreme in

987
00:55:01,480 --> 00:55:04,600
Speaker 1: in the world of Phase four. Yeah. Absolutely, But the

988
00:55:04,640 --> 00:55:07,080
Speaker 1: poison defense here it seems to work. In fact, it

989
00:55:07,280 --> 00:55:10,160
Speaker 1: works a little too well. Right, So it kills most

990
00:55:10,239 --> 00:55:12,879
Speaker 1: of the ants, though some ants get away, and then

991
00:55:12,960 --> 00:55:15,480
Speaker 1: meanwhile they come out the next morning, and so the

992
00:55:15,480 --> 00:55:18,400
Speaker 1: two scientists are in these environment suits they look like

993
00:55:18,440 --> 00:55:21,600
Speaker 1: they're like, you know, like E v A suits in space,

994
00:55:22,560 --> 00:55:24,840
Speaker 1: and they go out to see that they're spraying of

995
00:55:24,880 --> 00:55:28,320
Speaker 1: the poison has killed the people who came from the farm.

996
00:55:28,360 --> 00:55:31,799
Speaker 1: It killed Mildred and Mr Eldredge and and Cleat. Yeah,

997
00:55:32,040 --> 00:55:37,040
Speaker 1: it killed grandma and grandpa. Um. But but as it

998
00:55:37,080 --> 00:55:39,000
Speaker 1: turns out, as we find out in a bit, Kindred

999
00:55:39,080 --> 00:55:41,200
Speaker 1: is fine. She was actually in the basement of one

1000
00:55:41,239 --> 00:55:44,520
Speaker 1: of those houses, right, she hid in the cellar. Oh.

1001
00:55:44,640 --> 00:55:47,680
Speaker 1: But also there you start getting some hints that things

1002
00:55:47,760 --> 00:55:51,360
Speaker 1: are going in a weird direction because uh, Hubbs is

1003
00:55:51,400 --> 00:55:53,320
Speaker 1: trying to like figure out what the ants did to

1004
00:55:53,400 --> 00:55:57,759
Speaker 1: sabotage their generator in the truck, and meanwhile Less goes

1005
00:55:57,800 --> 00:56:00,800
Speaker 1: like there are dead people. And then Hubbs is like, um, yes,

1006
00:56:00,960 --> 00:56:08,040
Speaker 1: a tragedy. Um but he uh so, you're starting to

1007
00:56:08,040 --> 00:56:10,359
Speaker 1: get the sense that maybe he's a little disconnected from

1008
00:56:11,040 --> 00:56:14,720
Speaker 1: from from the value of human life. But anyway, he says, Okay,

1009
00:56:14,719 --> 00:56:17,319
Speaker 1: so I think the yellow should hold its potency for

1010
00:56:17,400 --> 00:56:21,719
Speaker 1: three or four days, which was a great phrase. I thought, Oh,

1011
00:56:21,800 --> 00:56:23,960
Speaker 1: but then there's something very weird. So when they find cleat,

1012
00:56:24,160 --> 00:56:27,640
Speaker 1: remember the ant burning guy. Uh So they find cleat

1013
00:56:27,760 --> 00:56:30,120
Speaker 1: and his hand is tightly closed and they pry it

1014
00:56:30,200 --> 00:56:33,879
Speaker 1: open with a metal rod, and it has three symmetrical

1015
00:56:34,080 --> 00:56:37,160
Speaker 1: holes in the palm of the hand like dots, and

1016
00:56:37,200 --> 00:56:40,480
Speaker 1: then we see ants crawling out of the holes. Yeah,

1017
00:56:40,520 --> 00:56:43,839
Speaker 1: this is um. This really gave me the willies watching this.

1018
00:56:43,840 --> 00:56:46,560
Speaker 1: This is how you know. The makeup effects that they

1019
00:56:46,560 --> 00:56:50,200
Speaker 1: did on this um are are really convincing. They really

1020
00:56:50,320 --> 00:56:52,480
Speaker 1: feel like they are holes in a hand, and we

1021
00:56:52,520 --> 00:56:55,600
Speaker 1: get close ups, and usually, like an extreme close up

1022
00:56:55,600 --> 00:56:58,600
Speaker 1: on an effect like this will reveal the flaws in

1023
00:56:58,600 --> 00:57:01,000
Speaker 1: the design, but this one just makes me feel more

1024
00:57:01,040 --> 00:57:02,759
Speaker 1: and more like I'm looking at three holes in a

1025
00:57:02,840 --> 00:57:06,759
Speaker 1: human hand with an ant crawling out of it. So, um, yeah,

1026
00:57:06,800 --> 00:57:09,040
Speaker 1: if you have the if you have the fear of holes,

1027
00:57:09,280 --> 00:57:11,200
Speaker 1: I would maybe make sure you're ready to fast forward

1028
00:57:11,239 --> 00:57:13,839
Speaker 1: through this scene. Uh. There's also an earlier scene where

1029
00:57:13,840 --> 00:57:15,560
Speaker 1: they're looking at a hole in like the neck of

1030
00:57:15,560 --> 00:57:18,440
Speaker 1: a sheep. Sheep that also gave me the willies, agreed,

1031
00:57:18,560 --> 00:57:21,880
Speaker 1: And again the effects look great. Um. But also, like

1032
00:57:21,920 --> 00:57:24,280
Speaker 1: we said, they discovered that Kinder survived with a storm,

1033
00:57:24,680 --> 00:57:28,960
Speaker 1: so she takes refuge with the scientists inside the geodesic dome. Uh.

1034
00:57:28,960 --> 00:57:31,400
Speaker 1: And we get a scene where Hubs is explaining the

1035
00:57:31,400 --> 00:57:34,800
Speaker 1: beauty of ants. He's like, so defenseless in the individuals,

1036
00:57:34,920 --> 00:57:39,000
Speaker 1: so powerful in the mass. But here we start getting

1037
00:57:39,040 --> 00:57:42,160
Speaker 1: some real conflict between Let's go and Hubs because Let's

1038
00:57:42,160 --> 00:57:45,520
Speaker 1: Go quite sensibly wants to call a helicopter to evacuate

1039
00:57:45,600 --> 00:57:48,120
Speaker 1: Kindred to safety while they keep fighting the aunt menace,

1040
00:57:48,720 --> 00:57:50,840
Speaker 1: and Hubs is against it. He's like, I think the

1041
00:57:50,840 --> 00:57:55,880
Speaker 1: bureaucrats would be rather unhappy to learn of our casualties. Yeah,

1042
00:57:55,880 --> 00:57:59,560
Speaker 1: because I mean to let's goes point two people have died.

1043
00:57:59,560 --> 00:58:02,760
Speaker 1: Three people have died, two of them were killed seemingly

1044
00:58:02,800 --> 00:58:07,000
Speaker 1: by the experiment. Itself. They have uh this this poor

1045
00:58:07,040 --> 00:58:10,480
Speaker 1: woman who needs to be taken to safety. Uh yeah,

1046
00:58:10,520 --> 00:58:12,480
Speaker 1: but Hubbs is like, I don't know if we want

1047
00:58:12,480 --> 00:58:14,520
Speaker 1: to realigness up the experiment for this, we don't want

1048
00:58:14,520 --> 00:58:17,880
Speaker 1: act exactly. Yeah. So Hubbs is he's trending into mad

1049
00:58:17,960 --> 00:58:22,000
Speaker 1: scientist mode and it helps that while saying all this stuff,

1050
00:58:22,000 --> 00:58:23,920
Speaker 1: he's in the middle of staging an experiment where he

1051
00:58:23,960 --> 00:58:26,000
Speaker 1: puts ants in a maze with a bunch of praying

1052
00:58:26,000 --> 00:58:29,720
Speaker 1: mantis is uh, and eventually he's let's go gets him

1053
00:58:29,720 --> 00:58:32,000
Speaker 1: to promise that he will call the helicopter to come

1054
00:58:32,040 --> 00:58:35,640
Speaker 1: collect Kindra, but he's obviously lying. Yeah, there's there's there

1055
00:58:35,680 --> 00:58:40,600
Speaker 1: are no helicopters in this movie. Never. But then at

1056
00:58:40,600 --> 00:58:43,120
Speaker 1: some point Kindrack gets mad while staring at an aunt.

1057
00:58:43,240 --> 00:58:46,400
Speaker 1: She's like, ants killed my horse, and she smashes a

1058
00:58:46,440 --> 00:58:50,120
Speaker 1: bunch of the glass lab equipment, which sends ants everywhere

1059
00:58:50,200 --> 00:58:53,200
Speaker 1: inside the lab. Hubbs gets bitten by one of them

1060
00:58:53,200 --> 00:58:55,320
Speaker 1: before he can seal the room and gas it to

1061
00:58:55,400 --> 00:58:57,720
Speaker 1: kill all the ants. Yeah, this is another one of

1062
00:58:57,720 --> 00:58:59,520
Speaker 1: those scenes. It really feels like it was it was

1063
00:58:59,520 --> 00:59:03,160
Speaker 1: written and filmed by ants, like displaying you know, okay,

1064
00:59:03,200 --> 00:59:06,520
Speaker 1: loose understanding of how humans work inaccurate. Yes, the human

1065
00:59:06,560 --> 00:59:11,040
Speaker 1: motivations are yeah, the ants are doing most of the

1066
00:59:11,080 --> 00:59:22,400
Speaker 1: acting here, yes, But from there we move on to

1067
00:59:22,600 --> 00:59:25,800
Speaker 1: some ant business. It's back to like basically, you know,

1068
00:59:25,840 --> 00:59:28,040
Speaker 1: this is a game. It is one side moves and

1069
00:59:28,040 --> 00:59:29,560
Speaker 1: then the other side moves, and now it is the

1070
00:59:29,560 --> 00:59:33,000
Speaker 1: ants turn. Right, So what the ants do? I'm not

1071
00:59:33,120 --> 00:59:35,880
Speaker 1: sure I understood this scene right. Maybe you can correct

1072
00:59:35,880 --> 00:59:37,840
Speaker 1: me if you've got a different impression. What it looks

1073
00:59:37,880 --> 00:59:42,240
Speaker 1: like is happening is that there's this sequence of ants

1074
00:59:42,240 --> 00:59:46,080
Speaker 1: repeatedly trying to move a wad of some yellow white

1075
00:59:46,120 --> 00:59:48,680
Speaker 1: material through the tunnels. And I think the wad is

1076
00:59:48,680 --> 00:59:52,000
Speaker 1: supposed to be the poison, the yellow Yeah, and like

1077
00:59:52,040 --> 00:59:55,680
Speaker 1: one will die or become exhausted, probably die, pass it

1078
00:59:55,720 --> 00:59:58,600
Speaker 1: on to another ant, and that ant will keep journeying

1079
00:59:58,680 --> 01:00:01,560
Speaker 1: with the poison. So we see this handoff. It's a

1080
01:00:01,600 --> 01:00:04,200
Speaker 1: relay of the poison kills one at the next ant

1081
01:00:04,240 --> 01:00:07,640
Speaker 1: takes it along on the journey, eventually bringing it, I think,

1082
01:00:07,680 --> 01:00:11,280
Speaker 1: to the queen. And then the queen like sniffs the

1083
01:00:11,360 --> 01:00:15,760
Speaker 1: poison and breathes heavily while examining it, and then starts

1084
01:00:15,800 --> 01:00:19,640
Speaker 1: to give birth. To a yellow green object like Strewd's.

1085
01:00:20,040 --> 01:00:24,400
Speaker 1: It seems to be an egg that has been like

1086
01:00:24,600 --> 01:00:28,760
Speaker 1: infused with the spirit of the yellow. Yeah, and this

1087
01:00:28,800 --> 01:00:30,479
Speaker 1: is one of those scenes where, Yeah, if you're gonna

1088
01:00:30,480 --> 01:00:33,680
Speaker 1: come in and you're gonna be very critical about everything,

1089
01:00:33,680 --> 01:00:35,800
Speaker 1: you're gonna say, is this something ants can do? Is

1090
01:00:35,840 --> 01:00:38,360
Speaker 1: this What's what's going on here? And I think you know,

1091
01:00:38,440 --> 01:00:40,440
Speaker 1: this is a movie that is that largely takes the

1092
01:00:40,520 --> 01:00:42,720
Speaker 1: viewpoint of like, look, if I explained it to you,

1093
01:00:43,000 --> 01:00:45,200
Speaker 1: I'd probably get it really wrong and it would feel

1094
01:00:45,280 --> 01:00:47,880
Speaker 1: kind of dumb. But if you're just viewing it, if

1095
01:00:47,880 --> 01:00:50,000
Speaker 1: you just kind of like breathe it in, taking the

1096
01:00:50,000 --> 01:00:54,640
Speaker 1: colors um, then everything's gonna be fine. Right, So from

1097
01:00:54,640 --> 01:00:58,080
Speaker 1: here the arms race continues. The ants after this build

1098
01:00:58,320 --> 01:01:01,840
Speaker 1: a series of g M trip pillars right outside the

1099
01:01:01,880 --> 01:01:05,920
Speaker 1: geodesic dome, and uh, the scientists are like, what are

1100
01:01:05,920 --> 01:01:07,960
Speaker 1: they doing? What is this? And we discovered that they

1101
01:01:08,000 --> 01:01:12,840
Speaker 1: have built solar reflectors to direct beams of sunlight at

1102
01:01:12,880 --> 01:01:16,560
Speaker 1: the dome and this immediately starts bringing up the temperature

1103
01:01:16,560 --> 01:01:19,520
Speaker 1: in the lab above the level where the computers can

1104
01:01:19,560 --> 01:01:22,120
Speaker 1: tolerate it. Yeah, I love it. They answered it all

1105
01:01:22,120 --> 01:01:25,800
Speaker 1: in one night reflective monoliths to fry the humans and

1106
01:01:25,840 --> 01:01:31,000
Speaker 1: perhaps more importantly, to overheat their their delicate thinking machine. Um,

1107
01:01:31,040 --> 01:01:33,400
Speaker 1: it's the sort of heat based warfare that is actually

1108
01:01:33,520 --> 01:01:38,480
Speaker 1: used specifically to my knowledge, by bees. Uh. Now, bees

1109
01:01:38,520 --> 01:01:42,320
Speaker 1: do not construct monoliths to fry supercomputers, but they will

1110
01:01:42,360 --> 01:01:45,480
Speaker 1: swarm around an invader and overheat it with their own

1111
01:01:45,720 --> 01:01:49,919
Speaker 1: their own body heat. So um, it's that alone makes

1112
01:01:49,960 --> 01:01:55,360
Speaker 1: this feel like a in I mean, a speculative leap, certainly,

1113
01:01:56,000 --> 01:01:58,760
Speaker 1: but but kind of a believable tactic that you might

1114
01:01:58,800 --> 01:02:02,520
Speaker 1: conceivably have some sort of advanced ants used, right, right,

1115
01:02:02,600 --> 01:02:05,160
Speaker 1: So that's their new offense, but also the ants of

1116
01:02:05,160 --> 01:02:09,160
Speaker 1: a new defense, because the researchers see that, like, the

1117
01:02:09,200 --> 01:02:12,120
Speaker 1: ants have started a new generation of workers that are

1118
01:02:12,200 --> 01:02:15,560
Speaker 1: yellow like the poison, and Hubbs says, we challenge them

1119
01:02:15,560 --> 01:02:19,880
Speaker 1: with yellow chemistry, they respond with yellow creatures. Uh. So it's,

1120
01:02:19,880 --> 01:02:23,000
Speaker 1: you know, the answer, adapting to the poisons they're using.

1121
01:02:23,000 --> 01:02:25,080
Speaker 1: And Hubs says, we can try the blue, of course,

1122
01:02:25,120 --> 01:02:30,280
Speaker 1: but they'd only adapt again. So of course mad scientists progression.

1123
01:02:30,400 --> 01:02:34,360
Speaker 1: Hubs starts talking monologueing about how he believes the ants

1124
01:02:34,400 --> 01:02:36,600
Speaker 1: are a new type of intelligence, one that can be

1125
01:02:36,640 --> 01:02:40,200
Speaker 1: harnessed and educated by humans. Oh yeah, And he's like,

1126
01:02:40,200 --> 01:02:43,560
Speaker 1: oh yeah, I didn't call the helicopter. So so Lesgo

1127
01:02:43,680 --> 01:02:45,680
Speaker 1: tries to call, but when he goes to flip the

1128
01:02:45,720 --> 01:02:47,960
Speaker 1: switch on the radio, it shorts out, and you know,

1129
01:02:48,040 --> 01:02:50,520
Speaker 1: sparks go all over the place, and we find that

1130
01:02:50,600 --> 01:02:53,400
Speaker 1: the circuit board, oh no, is covered in ants that

1131
01:02:53,440 --> 01:02:57,360
Speaker 1: have sacrificed their bodies to short out the electronics. And

1132
01:02:57,400 --> 01:02:59,600
Speaker 1: they managed to get in here. Yeah, they've penetrated the

1133
01:02:59,600 --> 01:03:03,920
Speaker 1: perimeter their sabotaging equipment. And then there's this ensuing battle.

1134
01:03:04,000 --> 01:03:06,760
Speaker 1: They're they're fighting a war over like the air conditioning.

1135
01:03:06,760 --> 01:03:09,400
Speaker 1: The ants are trying to burn out the lab computers

1136
01:03:09,720 --> 01:03:12,040
Speaker 1: and the humans are trying to keep the environment cool.

1137
01:03:12,440 --> 01:03:14,920
Speaker 1: And so there's this cool great stuff like shots of

1138
01:03:14,960 --> 01:03:17,480
Speaker 1: an ant crawling all the way down a spiraling copper

1139
01:03:17,520 --> 01:03:21,960
Speaker 1: coil inside the air conditioning units and uh, and let's go.

1140
01:03:22,040 --> 01:03:24,240
Speaker 1: On the other hand, tries to create a sonic weapon

1141
01:03:24,320 --> 01:03:27,480
Speaker 1: to broadcast at the ants, except it as excruciating to

1142
01:03:27,600 --> 01:03:31,160
Speaker 1: humans and cracks all the glass. Uh. And the sonic

1143
01:03:31,200 --> 01:03:34,280
Speaker 1: weapon works, it does shatter the and crumble the pillars,

1144
01:03:34,920 --> 01:03:38,080
Speaker 1: but then we also get ants attacking continuing to attack

1145
01:03:38,120 --> 01:03:42,200
Speaker 1: the electric wires inside the facility, and there's a great

1146
01:03:42,200 --> 01:03:44,320
Speaker 1: scene of ant revenge. I mean, this movie really does

1147
01:03:44,400 --> 01:03:47,520
Speaker 1: kind of have ant characters, Like you can see them

1148
01:03:47,520 --> 01:03:50,120
Speaker 1: fighting their side of the battle too, because like some

1149
01:03:50,160 --> 01:03:52,760
Speaker 1: of the mantis is from the experiments have gotten loose

1150
01:03:52,760 --> 01:03:54,920
Speaker 1: and they're trying to prey on ants as they're doing

1151
01:03:55,000 --> 01:03:57,960
Speaker 1: their business. But but there's some ant revenge when an

1152
01:03:58,000 --> 01:04:00,600
Speaker 1: ant grabs a praying mantis is le egg and pulls

1153
01:04:00,640 --> 01:04:03,760
Speaker 1: it into a circuit board and it is fried. Yeah.

1154
01:04:03,840 --> 01:04:05,760
Speaker 1: I mean, how often do you see a bug movie

1155
01:04:05,800 --> 01:04:09,960
Speaker 1: with with two bugs battling it out? Um, like actual

1156
01:04:10,040 --> 01:04:14,000
Speaker 1: bugs in miniature in this artificial set like this must

1157
01:04:14,040 --> 01:04:16,840
Speaker 1: have been quite a challenge to put together. Now, Hubs

1158
01:04:17,000 --> 01:04:19,640
Speaker 1: is not doing well because of the venomous ant bite

1159
01:04:19,680 --> 01:04:22,080
Speaker 1: on his hand, and we get some narration where he says,

1160
01:04:22,120 --> 01:04:24,560
Speaker 1: I'm taking one of my less painful moments to record

1161
01:04:24,600 --> 01:04:28,000
Speaker 1: these notes. Our equipment only functions for a few hours

1162
01:04:28,040 --> 01:04:31,640
Speaker 1: at night. LESCo believes we're being allowed this time for

1163
01:04:31,720 --> 01:04:34,920
Speaker 1: some purpose, a hypothesis I do not share. If this

1164
01:04:34,960 --> 01:04:37,600
Speaker 1: were so, it would it would raise questions I had

1165
01:04:37,640 --> 01:04:41,360
Speaker 1: not considered. And here's a really cool part where Let's

1166
01:04:41,360 --> 01:04:43,720
Speaker 1: Go tries sending a message to the ants. It's an

1167
01:04:43,720 --> 01:04:47,640
Speaker 1: audio message, but he uses it to encode because he

1168
01:04:47,680 --> 01:04:49,720
Speaker 1: figures out that the ants have a code that they

1169
01:04:49,760 --> 01:04:53,600
Speaker 1: communicate in about directions, and so he can send them images.

1170
01:04:54,240 --> 01:04:57,920
Speaker 1: And so he sends them an image of a square, reasoning,

1171
01:04:58,120 --> 01:05:00,000
Speaker 1: I didn't fully make the connection here, but I think

1172
01:05:00,000 --> 01:05:03,240
Speaker 1: gets something about geometry. He says, like, mathematics is the

1173
01:05:03,320 --> 01:05:07,360
Speaker 1: universal language among intelligent creatures. If there's intelligence there, I

1174
01:05:07,440 --> 01:05:10,240
Speaker 1: want it to know there's intelligence here. So he sends

1175
01:05:10,240 --> 01:05:12,600
Speaker 1: it a square. Yeah, I love this because you know

1176
01:05:12,600 --> 01:05:15,920
Speaker 1: it's getting to the I buy into this idea. And

1177
01:05:15,920 --> 01:05:19,000
Speaker 1: in mathematics he's going to be the universal language that

1178
01:05:19,080 --> 01:05:21,960
Speaker 1: on some level the ants understand it, we understand it,

1179
01:05:22,320 --> 01:05:24,920
Speaker 1: and and I really love this this idea that like,

1180
01:05:24,960 --> 01:05:28,400
Speaker 1: the ants might not realize that we are intelligent too,

1181
01:05:29,120 --> 01:05:31,440
Speaker 1: you know, they could just be blind to this fact.

1182
01:05:31,480 --> 01:05:35,240
Speaker 1: And how do we possibly communicate with ants and let

1183
01:05:35,280 --> 01:05:39,120
Speaker 1: them know this? But things get progressively worse inside the dome.

1184
01:05:39,360 --> 01:05:42,120
Speaker 1: There's a creepy scene where where Kendra is menaced by

1185
01:05:42,160 --> 01:05:45,520
Speaker 1: ants while she's sleeping. She she sees an uh An

1186
01:05:45,520 --> 01:05:48,480
Speaker 1: aunt on her pillow and says go away, please go away,

1187
01:05:49,160 --> 01:05:52,520
Speaker 1: and then hubs uh, possibly because of his venomous aunt

1188
01:05:52,600 --> 01:05:55,440
Speaker 1: bite or or possibly from the interaction of that bite

1189
01:05:55,440 --> 01:05:59,040
Speaker 1: with his his pre existing mad scientists disease. He starts

1190
01:05:59,080 --> 01:06:01,680
Speaker 1: going nuts and small sushing things, trying to kill ants

1191
01:06:01,680 --> 01:06:05,480
Speaker 1: he sees or believes he sees um. He gets a

1192
01:06:05,520 --> 01:06:08,080
Speaker 1: really bad case of I attached a picture for you

1193
01:06:08,120 --> 01:06:11,120
Speaker 1: to look at here, Rob kind of mad scientist eyes like.

1194
01:06:11,160 --> 01:06:13,120
Speaker 1: He looks like he's about to start talking about how

1195
01:06:13,120 --> 01:06:15,480
Speaker 1: he should have won a Nobel Prize but the narrow

1196
01:06:15,480 --> 01:06:19,200
Speaker 1: minded academics stole it from him. And he thinks he

1197
01:06:19,320 --> 01:06:21,880
Speaker 1: kills an aunt, but I can't tell if he actually did.

1198
01:06:22,360 --> 01:06:24,640
Speaker 1: He just sort of pulls back a bloody hand. I'm

1199
01:06:24,640 --> 01:06:26,800
Speaker 1: not sure he had to go some shattered glass on

1200
01:06:26,840 --> 01:06:28,840
Speaker 1: the floor and he managed just cut his hand up.

1201
01:06:28,880 --> 01:06:32,680
Speaker 1: We don't see an ant. Hey then his Phase three buddy, Yeah, yeah,

1202
01:06:32,680 --> 01:06:36,320
Speaker 1: we're getting down to the final that this is the penultimate.

1203
01:06:36,360 --> 01:06:40,000
Speaker 1: Phase Phase four is going to really blow you away,

1204
01:06:40,080 --> 01:06:42,040
Speaker 1: and this is this is where we're getting there. So

1205
01:06:42,120 --> 01:06:44,840
Speaker 1: we see Less going Hubs in their bunks, and Less

1206
01:06:44,840 --> 01:06:46,920
Speaker 1: goes wondering, why don't they kill us? You know, they

1207
01:06:47,040 --> 01:06:49,400
Speaker 1: roast us in here all day and then they dare

1208
01:06:49,480 --> 01:06:51,640
Speaker 1: us to come out at night. Why why do they

1209
01:06:51,960 --> 01:06:53,920
Speaker 1: Why do they play these games? Why don't they just

1210
01:06:54,000 --> 01:06:56,720
Speaker 1: kill us? Now? What do they want? And Hubbs talks

1211
01:06:56,720 --> 01:06:59,680
Speaker 1: about aunt specialization. He says, you know, aunts are organized

1212
01:06:59,720 --> 01:07:02,560
Speaker 1: into roles by the queen in order to keep her alive.

1213
01:07:02,680 --> 01:07:04,600
Speaker 1: He says, she's at the center. It is she who

1214
01:07:04,640 --> 01:07:08,479
Speaker 1: speaks if she were to die. And then they hash

1215
01:07:08,520 --> 01:07:11,120
Speaker 1: out their different views about what should be done next,

1216
01:07:11,160 --> 01:07:14,840
Speaker 1: how to proceed. Hubbs thinks, uh, let's locate the queen

1217
01:07:14,960 --> 01:07:18,280
Speaker 1: and killer. That's our only way and lets go, says, uh,

1218
01:07:18,320 --> 01:07:20,600
Speaker 1: aunts have all the cards. The only way to survive

1219
01:07:20,680 --> 01:07:25,120
Speaker 1: is to convince them that we're worth keeping alive. It

1220
01:07:25,200 --> 01:07:28,280
Speaker 1: is interesting here where um, you know, Hubbs ends up

1221
01:07:28,280 --> 01:07:30,440
Speaker 1: focusing more and more on the queen, and so he

1222
01:07:30,520 --> 01:07:33,240
Speaker 1: ends up focusing more and more on the individual as

1223
01:07:33,240 --> 01:07:35,840
Speaker 1: opposed to the group. Whereas I think lesgo is still

1224
01:07:35,880 --> 01:07:38,240
Speaker 1: seems to be more of the mindset. It's like it

1225
01:07:38,480 --> 01:07:41,240
Speaker 1: it is h it's the mass we need to communicate with.

1226
01:07:41,840 --> 01:07:44,040
Speaker 1: Uh So I feel like the focus on the individual

1227
01:07:44,200 --> 01:07:47,480
Speaker 1: is perhaps just more a part of hubbs is madness, right,

1228
01:07:47,640 --> 01:07:49,840
Speaker 1: and oh, and here's a scene I did love. So

1229
01:07:49,880 --> 01:07:53,280
Speaker 1: the ants want to communicate that he let's go, transmitted

1230
01:07:53,320 --> 01:07:57,080
Speaker 1: the square to them earlier. They transmit back. They make

1231
01:07:57,160 --> 01:08:01,200
Speaker 1: vocalizations that the computer can interpret and it prints what

1232
01:08:01,240 --> 01:08:03,880
Speaker 1: they say. And what they say is in response to

1233
01:08:03,880 --> 01:08:06,720
Speaker 1: the square. They say, a circle with a dot in it?

1234
01:08:07,120 --> 01:08:10,280
Speaker 1: What does that mean? Yeah, they started saying, well, maybe

1235
01:08:10,360 --> 01:08:12,600
Speaker 1: that's here, it's a map. They want something in here

1236
01:08:12,760 --> 01:08:14,560
Speaker 1: when we should look around and see if we find it.

1237
01:08:15,040 --> 01:08:17,839
Speaker 1: And it's pretty great because Kendras is suddenly like, oh,

1238
01:08:17,960 --> 01:08:21,200
Speaker 1: they must mean me, because I I I smashed an

1239
01:08:21,240 --> 01:08:25,160
Speaker 1: ant in the research room earlier. I will go out

1240
01:08:25,200 --> 01:08:27,840
Speaker 1: into the wild without my shoes on. He's like, all

1241
01:08:27,920 --> 01:08:31,559
Speaker 1: ready to sacrifice herself for these scientists. Yes, She's like,

1242
01:08:31,920 --> 01:08:34,759
Speaker 1: the ants want me, and if I go, I commit

1243
01:08:34,800 --> 01:08:37,479
Speaker 1: aunt suicide, then the scientists will get away, all right.

1244
01:08:38,840 --> 01:08:41,160
Speaker 1: Rub there's a picture I included here, not because anything

1245
01:08:41,200 --> 01:08:44,280
Speaker 1: interesting is going on. It's just tubs sitting at a desk.

1246
01:08:44,720 --> 01:08:46,400
Speaker 1: But I included it because I don't know what these

1247
01:08:46,400 --> 01:08:48,839
Speaker 1: boxes are. But there it looks like he has several

1248
01:08:48,880 --> 01:08:51,599
Speaker 1: sticks of butter sitting on the console in front of him.

1249
01:08:51,800 --> 01:08:53,599
Speaker 1: It does look like it. There's also a scene where

1250
01:08:53,680 --> 01:08:55,599
Speaker 1: because basically he's convinced, I gotta go out and kill

1251
01:08:55,600 --> 01:08:58,080
Speaker 1: the queen. They I what they where? They think the

1252
01:08:58,080 --> 01:09:00,479
Speaker 1: mound is where the queen can be found. And he

1253
01:09:00,520 --> 01:09:03,040
Speaker 1: goes to get the grenade launcher out again, but there

1254
01:09:03,040 --> 01:09:05,160
Speaker 1: are no grenades left because he used all of them

1255
01:09:05,160 --> 01:09:10,320
Speaker 1: to blow up the monoliths earlier. Why why buddy. So

1256
01:09:10,360 --> 01:09:11,880
Speaker 1: he's gonna he's gonna have to do it the old

1257
01:09:11,880 --> 01:09:15,120
Speaker 1: fashioned way. He's gonna have to take a canister of

1258
01:09:15,160 --> 01:09:18,719
Speaker 1: the blue out there and uh poison his way across

1259
01:09:18,800 --> 01:09:22,879
Speaker 1: the the ant dominated waste land and make his way

1260
01:09:22,920 --> 01:09:26,000
Speaker 1: to the queen and trying poisoner there. That seems to

1261
01:09:26,000 --> 01:09:29,439
Speaker 1: be the plan, but Hubbs goes outside to attack the queen,

1262
01:09:29,680 --> 01:09:33,120
Speaker 1: and so Kendra has already gone out to sacrifice herself

1263
01:09:33,160 --> 01:09:35,320
Speaker 1: to the ants and we see her just sort of disappear.

1264
01:09:35,680 --> 01:09:38,680
Speaker 1: Hubbs goes out and falls into a pit trap. The

1265
01:09:38,720 --> 01:09:42,519
Speaker 1: ants construct a pit trap. This is amazing connection to

1266
01:09:42,560 --> 01:09:44,840
Speaker 1: the core episode we did. Yeah, yeah, we were talking

1267
01:09:44,840 --> 01:09:47,559
Speaker 1: about pit traps and why we don't sit like studies

1268
01:09:48,360 --> 01:09:51,240
Speaker 1: about why we don't see more pit traps in nature?

1269
01:09:51,479 --> 01:09:53,400
Speaker 1: You know, how about how ultimately a pit trap is

1270
01:09:53,880 --> 01:09:56,880
Speaker 1: is easy to build, It doesn't core acquire that much energy.

1271
01:09:56,960 --> 01:10:00,360
Speaker 1: And when we talk about ants potentially building traps as well,

1272
01:10:00,400 --> 01:10:03,000
Speaker 1: and so because of all that, and then having sort

1273
01:10:03,000 --> 01:10:05,559
Speaker 1: of developed a vague interest in this film based on

1274
01:10:05,600 --> 01:10:09,439
Speaker 1: our our previous episode about aunts potentially building traps, to

1275
01:10:09,479 --> 01:10:13,280
Speaker 1: suddenly be hit with this scene, I think I exclaimed aloud.

1276
01:10:13,320 --> 01:10:14,880
Speaker 1: It was just it's it's such a shock. It's a

1277
01:10:14,880 --> 01:10:17,519
Speaker 1: great sequence. Yeah, it is. And of course he's immediately

1278
01:10:17,520 --> 01:10:20,240
Speaker 1: swarmed by ants. He gets land perauted by by the

1279
01:10:20,280 --> 01:10:23,679
Speaker 1: ants um and so now it's just down to LESCo

1280
01:10:24,040 --> 01:10:26,280
Speaker 1: Is Michael Murphy. He's like, I gotta do it. So

1281
01:10:26,360 --> 01:10:29,840
Speaker 1: he delivers this monologue that's full of regret. He says, like,

1282
01:10:30,200 --> 01:10:31,920
Speaker 1: I would still like to believe that if we've had

1283
01:10:31,920 --> 01:10:34,240
Speaker 1: more time, we could have come to an understanding, some

1284
01:10:34,439 --> 01:10:38,040
Speaker 1: rational accommodation of interest, some agreement. But that's not the

1285
01:10:38,080 --> 01:10:40,640
Speaker 1: way it's going to be. So he suits up, just

1286
01:10:40,680 --> 01:10:44,639
Speaker 1: starts spraying the blue everywhere, and finally he's come around

1287
01:10:44,680 --> 01:10:47,000
Speaker 1: to Hub's position. He's like, we only have one chance.

1288
01:10:47,080 --> 01:10:50,320
Speaker 1: We got to assassinate the queen. So he goes up

1289
01:10:50,360 --> 01:10:52,760
Speaker 1: to the mound where the queen is supposed to be.

1290
01:10:53,280 --> 01:10:55,479
Speaker 1: But then I guess there's sort of another pit trap

1291
01:10:55,560 --> 01:10:57,439
Speaker 1: because he's as he's trying to go in, he ends

1292
01:10:57,479 --> 01:11:00,360
Speaker 1: up sliding and he falls in. Oh but but oh,

1293
01:11:00,439 --> 01:11:02,640
Speaker 1: we should mention on the way to the mound, like

1294
01:11:02,680 --> 01:11:04,600
Speaker 1: he's having all sorts of mishaps. He starts out in

1295
01:11:04,640 --> 01:11:08,000
Speaker 1: his full protective suit, but he like falls and breaks

1296
01:11:08,040 --> 01:11:10,479
Speaker 1: the glass. Ants get into the mask and are biting

1297
01:11:10,520 --> 01:11:12,639
Speaker 1: his face, and so by the time he gets here

1298
01:11:13,000 --> 01:11:15,720
Speaker 1: he has no productive gear on it all, he has

1299
01:11:15,760 --> 01:11:20,080
Speaker 1: no shoes on it all. It's uh, and and we

1300
01:11:20,160 --> 01:11:22,840
Speaker 1: have the narration of, you know, of just how worn

1301
01:11:22,840 --> 01:11:25,160
Speaker 1: out and on the end of things he is. But

1302
01:11:25,240 --> 01:11:27,400
Speaker 1: then here we get to the ending, and the ending

1303
01:11:27,520 --> 01:11:31,800
Speaker 1: is so weird. Uh and I love this, And there

1304
01:11:31,840 --> 01:11:33,120
Speaker 1: are a couple of things I think we can say

1305
01:11:33,120 --> 01:11:35,840
Speaker 1: about what the ending could have been also. But in

1306
01:11:35,920 --> 01:11:38,439
Speaker 1: the end, he goes down in to find the queen,

1307
01:11:38,520 --> 01:11:41,840
Speaker 1: and instead of finding the queen, he finds a room

1308
01:11:41,880 --> 01:11:44,960
Speaker 1: with a with a like a rectangular doorway as if

1309
01:11:45,000 --> 01:11:48,599
Speaker 1: it was built for humans inside the ant mound. And

1310
01:11:48,680 --> 01:11:52,479
Speaker 1: inside this room, buried underneath the sand, is Kendra, who

1311
01:11:52,520 --> 01:11:55,480
Speaker 1: appears to be maybe still alive or in some suspended

1312
01:11:55,520 --> 01:11:59,760
Speaker 1: animation state, and Michael Murphy sort of surrenders to the

1313
01:12:00,000 --> 01:12:03,840
Speaker 1: ants and he knows that the ants have one and

1314
01:12:03,880 --> 01:12:07,200
Speaker 1: they're going to keep winning, and essentially that the ants

1315
01:12:07,240 --> 01:12:09,280
Speaker 1: are going to be the new rulers of the Earth,

1316
01:12:09,680 --> 01:12:12,120
Speaker 1: but they're not going to be killed. The ants have

1317
01:12:12,320 --> 01:12:15,160
Speaker 1: some kind of plans for them, and he's just ready

1318
01:12:15,200 --> 01:12:17,600
Speaker 1: to obey. Yeah, it is a it's a it's a

1319
01:12:17,640 --> 01:12:23,639
Speaker 1: great like suddenly just very trippy and psychedelic sequence. Um,

1320
01:12:23,680 --> 01:12:26,560
Speaker 1: you know, with with with images of a setting a

1321
01:12:26,720 --> 01:12:29,000
Speaker 1: rising sun. I guess ultimately it's supposed to be rising

1322
01:12:29,040 --> 01:12:31,080
Speaker 1: though I feel like they might have filmed a setting

1323
01:12:31,120 --> 01:12:34,920
Speaker 1: sun and then reversed it or something. Um, but very

1324
01:12:35,200 --> 01:12:41,439
Speaker 1: very orange, very very warming, beautiful um sequence that again

1325
01:12:41,520 --> 01:12:44,200
Speaker 1: just really kicks the film into high gear, Like suddenly

1326
01:12:44,200 --> 01:12:49,120
Speaker 1: we're in purer visionary filmmaking mode and we're gazing into

1327
01:12:49,120 --> 01:12:51,799
Speaker 1: the future. These two have been chosen by the ants.

1328
01:12:52,000 --> 01:12:53,880
Speaker 1: They don't know what their purpose is going to be

1329
01:12:53,960 --> 01:12:55,840
Speaker 1: or what this new world is going to consist of,

1330
01:12:55,880 --> 01:12:58,080
Speaker 1: but there I guess they're they're going to be the

1331
01:12:58,360 --> 01:13:00,720
Speaker 1: profits of the New Age, or the oaks people of

1332
01:13:00,760 --> 01:13:04,439
Speaker 1: the Ants, or anti ambassadors. They're like the Yeah, I

1333
01:13:04,479 --> 01:13:05,960
Speaker 1: was thinking, are they going to be used as the

1334
01:13:06,000 --> 01:13:09,400
Speaker 1: ambassadors to the rest of humanity to like explain to

1335
01:13:09,439 --> 01:13:12,280
Speaker 1: them that the answer in charge. Now that's sort of

1336
01:13:12,320 --> 01:13:15,240
Speaker 1: the the idea I got there, the I for one

1337
01:13:15,280 --> 01:13:19,599
Speaker 1: welcome our new aunt overlords. Yeah, exactly. Um, it's it's

1338
01:13:19,600 --> 01:13:21,240
Speaker 1: also hinted like maybe they're gonna it's gonna be the

1339
01:13:21,280 --> 01:13:23,320
Speaker 1: beginning of a new species there, like that the Adam

1340
01:13:23,360 --> 01:13:26,720
Speaker 1: and Eve of the New ant World. But so the

1341
01:13:26,840 --> 01:13:29,120
Speaker 1: version of the movie I saw had the shorter ending,

1342
01:13:29,160 --> 01:13:33,080
Speaker 1: but there actually is an alternate ending. Yes, now this one.

1343
01:13:33,160 --> 01:13:35,840
Speaker 1: According to Michael Weldon, this one was was cut at

1344
01:13:35,880 --> 01:13:39,880
Speaker 1: the request of the studio because the lost ending, the

1345
01:13:39,920 --> 01:13:44,880
Speaker 1: original ending is even more nuts so psychedelic it um.

1346
01:13:44,920 --> 01:13:47,280
Speaker 1: It reminds me a lot of how Disney's The Black

1347
01:13:47,280 --> 01:13:50,720
Speaker 1: Hole from nine nine also originally had a far trippier,

1348
01:13:50,800 --> 01:13:55,640
Speaker 1: weirder like quasi religious ending with our characters emerging in

1349
01:13:55,680 --> 01:13:59,679
Speaker 1: the afterlife and humans and robots merging together and then

1350
01:13:59,680 --> 01:14:01,880
Speaker 1: like this duty Apparently it's like that that is too weird.

1351
01:14:01,880 --> 01:14:05,800
Speaker 1: This is this is a mainstream motion picture. But yeah,

1352
01:14:06,240 --> 01:14:08,519
Speaker 1: similar thing going here because the lost ending, like the

1353
01:14:08,560 --> 01:14:10,320
Speaker 1: actual ending, and we get in the you know, the

1354
01:14:10,320 --> 01:14:13,799
Speaker 1: theatrical cut of the film is very satisfying, very trippy,

1355
01:14:14,000 --> 01:14:17,800
Speaker 1: very visual, but the lost ending is just an absolute

1356
01:14:17,840 --> 01:14:23,400
Speaker 1: heroic dose of cinematic surrealism. So this ending is even longer.

1357
01:14:23,439 --> 01:14:27,240
Speaker 1: I think it's like seven or eight minutes total, and

1358
01:14:27,280 --> 01:14:30,040
Speaker 1: it gives us this sort of mua dib fever dream

1359
01:14:30,160 --> 01:14:34,879
Speaker 1: vision of a future world in which ant civilization dominates humans.

1360
01:14:35,080 --> 01:14:37,800
Speaker 1: And all of this is presented very you know, surreally

1361
01:14:37,960 --> 01:14:42,760
Speaker 1: and abstractly, with visual flashes um and confused occasionally, like

1362
01:14:42,840 --> 01:14:47,280
Speaker 1: confusing number tags. We see flashes of ant megaprojects and

1363
01:14:47,400 --> 01:14:51,080
Speaker 1: humans scampering across them like ants. We see visions of

1364
01:14:51,160 --> 01:14:55,040
Speaker 1: human beings I guess in servitude to ants, strangers with

1365
01:14:55,160 --> 01:14:59,559
Speaker 1: magnifying loops uh on their heads, you know, magnification devices

1366
01:14:59,600 --> 01:15:01,360
Speaker 1: over there eyes, so I guess they can see their

1367
01:15:01,400 --> 01:15:05,760
Speaker 1: masters better. Uh. There's a faceless human that pops up,

1368
01:15:06,439 --> 01:15:09,200
Speaker 1: perhaps the result of some sort of ant derived human

1369
01:15:09,320 --> 01:15:11,680
Speaker 1: you know, he's like a drone or something. Uh. We

1370
01:15:11,760 --> 01:15:16,360
Speaker 1: see James and kin dress faces becoming one. Um. There's

1371
01:15:16,560 --> 01:15:20,840
Speaker 1: you know, some sort of erotic flashes of human bodies.

1372
01:15:21,040 --> 01:15:23,200
Speaker 1: There's oh and there's just so much going on that

1373
01:15:23,280 --> 01:15:26,080
Speaker 1: like it's it's like a crazy music video with all

1374
01:15:26,120 --> 01:15:30,200
Speaker 1: sorts of strange surreal sequences. There's a bald guy buried

1375
01:15:30,200 --> 01:15:32,200
Speaker 1: in the sand with a hole in his head and

1376
01:15:32,240 --> 01:15:38,320
Speaker 1: ants come crawling out the whole. It's just yeah, yeah,

1377
01:15:38,360 --> 01:15:42,519
Speaker 1: it's like it just goes into like just extreme visual mode.

1378
01:15:43,200 --> 01:15:46,479
Speaker 1: And and I think it works into a large extent

1379
01:15:46,560 --> 01:15:51,120
Speaker 1: because it is it is the the ant future loosely

1380
01:15:51,240 --> 01:15:54,519
Speaker 1: translated into some sort of visual form that the humans

1381
01:15:54,560 --> 01:15:57,000
Speaker 1: can understand. I would say actually that I think with

1382
01:15:57,080 --> 01:15:59,160
Speaker 1: the long ending, the whole point of like the the

1383
01:15:59,200 --> 01:16:01,920
Speaker 1: abstract image are and stuff is is to say that

1384
01:16:01,960 --> 01:16:04,960
Speaker 1: we can't understanding. Yeah, yeah, when we can, we can.

1385
01:16:05,200 --> 01:16:07,160
Speaker 1: We can sort of glimpse it. Yeah, we can't fully

1386
01:16:07,240 --> 01:16:09,600
Speaker 1: understand like why the ants have done this, that and

1387
01:16:09,640 --> 01:16:12,400
Speaker 1: the other. Like what the full vision is here? Yeah,

1388
01:16:12,479 --> 01:16:16,040
Speaker 1: that that the future of humans under an earth controlled

1389
01:16:16,040 --> 01:16:19,400
Speaker 1: by ants is going to be so bewildering and incomprehensible

1390
01:16:19,439 --> 01:16:21,840
Speaker 1: to us. It would be like, you know, like what

1391
01:16:21,960 --> 01:16:24,679
Speaker 1: we do with an experiment like ants trying to understand

1392
01:16:24,680 --> 01:16:26,640
Speaker 1: why they're in a maze in a laboratory. It just

1393
01:16:26,680 --> 01:16:29,559
Speaker 1: doesn't make any sense to them. Yeah, and in this

1394
01:16:29,960 --> 01:16:33,080
Speaker 1: extended um, you know, ultimately rejected ending. I think it

1395
01:16:33,160 --> 01:16:37,519
Speaker 1: also it Uh, it's beautiful but also horrifying at times,

1396
01:16:37,560 --> 01:16:40,599
Speaker 1: like the dude with no face. Um, there's another guy

1397
01:16:40,640 --> 01:16:42,599
Speaker 1: with like some sort of weird implants in his head,

1398
01:16:42,680 --> 01:16:45,479
Speaker 1: Like you get the sense that, yeah, the an ant

1399
01:16:45,800 --> 01:16:49,599
Speaker 1: dominated world in which humans still have a role, it's

1400
01:16:49,640 --> 01:16:52,040
Speaker 1: going to be very different. It's not going to be

1401
01:16:52,120 --> 01:16:56,719
Speaker 1: altogether pleasant. Uh, it's it's yeah, this is a strange ending.

1402
01:16:56,760 --> 01:17:00,000
Speaker 1: It is a strange message to potentially hit the view

1403
01:17:00,040 --> 01:17:02,840
Speaker 1: were with. And I have to say, I I understand.

1404
01:17:02,880 --> 01:17:07,479
Speaker 1: I understand why the studio probably came in and they're like, Saul, Saul,

1405
01:17:07,600 --> 01:17:09,080
Speaker 1: what are you doing? What are you doing with this?

1406
01:17:09,680 --> 01:17:12,439
Speaker 1: You know we can't do this ending? You know. I

1407
01:17:12,479 --> 01:17:14,439
Speaker 1: like it. I like the long, weird ending. I like

1408
01:17:14,479 --> 01:17:16,240
Speaker 1: the part of the at least humans are up on

1409
01:17:16,320 --> 01:17:20,000
Speaker 1: like a zigaratte that that's interesting. No, I I love

1410
01:17:20,120 --> 01:17:22,760
Speaker 1: everything about the extended ending. And I think if you

1411
01:17:22,760 --> 01:17:24,639
Speaker 1: go out and watch this film, you need to make

1412
01:17:24,640 --> 01:17:26,840
Speaker 1: sure you get to see the extended ending as well.

1413
01:17:27,280 --> 01:17:29,639
Speaker 1: And you can choose which one you prefer, but I

1414
01:17:29,720 --> 01:17:32,559
Speaker 1: totally get one of the studio was like, you can't

1415
01:17:32,600 --> 01:17:35,519
Speaker 1: do this, No, no, you've got a scale back on this.

1416
01:17:35,520 --> 01:17:38,080
Speaker 1: This is too weird. Well, I guess that's it. Phase

1417
01:17:38,080 --> 01:17:41,840
Speaker 1: four an ode to our our future use social overlords. Uh,

1418
01:17:42,240 --> 01:17:44,559
Speaker 1: that's a. That's a. That's a pretty great ant movie.

1419
01:17:45,360 --> 01:17:47,160
Speaker 1: This is the best AUNT movie I've ever seen. This

1420
01:17:47,200 --> 01:17:49,720
Speaker 1: may be the best um when I don't know if

1421
01:17:49,720 --> 01:17:52,320
Speaker 1: it's the best animal Tach movies I've seen. It's certainly

1422
01:17:52,560 --> 01:17:56,320
Speaker 1: an animal Tach movie where the animals have the best strategy.

1423
01:17:56,600 --> 01:17:59,639
Speaker 1: They're not just swarming us, they're out thinking us. So, hey,

1424
01:17:59,760 --> 01:18:01,880
Speaker 1: you to watch phase four as well? You want to

1425
01:18:01,880 --> 01:18:04,960
Speaker 1: reach phase four? Well, you can watch this film pretty

1426
01:18:05,040 --> 01:18:08,000
Speaker 1: much wherever you rent or purchase digital movies. All of

1427
01:18:08,160 --> 01:18:09,920
Speaker 1: Films put out of what seems like a nice blue

1428
01:18:10,000 --> 01:18:12,240
Speaker 1: ray of it in the US. Not too long ago.

1429
01:18:13,080 --> 01:18:15,360
Speaker 1: One oh one Films put out a really nice blue

1430
01:18:15,439 --> 01:18:17,360
Speaker 1: ray in the UK, and I believe they also put

1431
01:18:17,360 --> 01:18:20,360
Speaker 1: one out in the US as well. Um, I highly

1432
01:18:20,360 --> 01:18:22,840
Speaker 1: recommend you find a version that includes the original ending

1433
01:18:22,920 --> 01:18:25,479
Speaker 1: as an extra. Sometimes you might be able to find

1434
01:18:25,479 --> 01:18:28,440
Speaker 1: that extra, you know, floating around online, but that's not reliable,

1435
01:18:28,479 --> 01:18:31,519
Speaker 1: and ultimately, you want high quality for this so I

1436
01:18:31,640 --> 01:18:34,719
Speaker 1: know the one on one films Blue has the extended

1437
01:18:34,800 --> 01:18:37,960
Speaker 1: ending as an extra, and if you purchase the movie

1438
01:18:38,160 --> 01:18:40,920
Speaker 1: but not rent it on Apple TV, then you get

1439
01:18:40,960 --> 01:18:45,320
Speaker 1: access to this uh, this extra uh, but you do

1440
01:18:45,400 --> 01:18:47,240
Speaker 1: have to purchase it through there. Otherwise you just rent

1441
01:18:47,240 --> 01:18:50,280
Speaker 1: it and you get the theatrical ending. Oh and as

1442
01:18:50,320 --> 01:18:54,680
Speaker 1: for the soundtrack, Waxwork Records put out a really beautiful

1443
01:18:54,920 --> 01:18:59,400
Speaker 1: yellow vinyl of this with stunning jacket design, full of

1444
01:18:59,400 --> 01:19:02,840
Speaker 1: production are by Saul Baths, stills from that lost ending,

1445
01:19:02,920 --> 01:19:05,639
Speaker 1: and expansive liner notes. So this is really cool work looking.

1446
01:19:05,680 --> 01:19:07,760
Speaker 1: If you're if you, if you collect vinyl and this

1447
01:19:08,040 --> 01:19:10,439
Speaker 1: kind of soundtrack is your thing, uh, you should check

1448
01:19:10,479 --> 01:19:12,120
Speaker 1: this out. I think they might have put out a

1449
01:19:12,160 --> 01:19:15,760
Speaker 1: CD release as well, but I couldn't find a good

1450
01:19:15,760 --> 01:19:19,559
Speaker 1: place to just stream the soundtrack, you know, Like, I

1451
01:19:19,560 --> 01:19:21,479
Speaker 1: don't think it's up on any of the streaming sites

1452
01:19:21,720 --> 01:19:24,240
Speaker 1: at least as of this recording. All right, well, we're

1453
01:19:24,240 --> 01:19:26,040
Speaker 1: gonna go and close it out then, but we'd love

1454
01:19:26,080 --> 01:19:29,040
Speaker 1: to hear from everyone out there your thoughts on Phase

1455
01:19:29,160 --> 01:19:32,000
Speaker 1: four having seen it recently, having seen it back in

1456
01:19:32,040 --> 01:19:33,360
Speaker 1: the day, did you see it? Were you one of

1457
01:19:33,360 --> 01:19:35,280
Speaker 1: the few people that apparently saw it in theaters back

1458
01:19:35,280 --> 01:19:38,360
Speaker 1: in the nineties seventies. Whatever your answer is, we'd love

1459
01:19:38,439 --> 01:19:42,040
Speaker 1: to hear from you. UM. As always, Weird How Cinema

1460
01:19:42,439 --> 01:19:45,360
Speaker 1: publishes every Friday. You can find it in the Stuff

1461
01:19:45,400 --> 01:19:48,200
Speaker 1: to Blow your Mind podcast feed. Were primarily a science podcast,

1462
01:19:48,280 --> 01:19:50,759
Speaker 1: but you know, we like to to set most serious

1463
01:19:50,760 --> 01:19:53,320
Speaker 1: matters aside on Fridays and just discuss a strange film

1464
01:19:53,320 --> 01:19:55,160
Speaker 1: and in this case, you know, sometimes it's a film

1465
01:19:55,200 --> 01:20:00,680
Speaker 1: that ties in with recent serious episodes who we've recorded. Um,

1466
01:20:00,720 --> 01:20:04,160
Speaker 1: if you want to follow Weird House Cinema on Instagram,

1467
01:20:04,240 --> 01:20:06,559
Speaker 1: I created an Instagram for it. It's Weird House Cinema.

1468
01:20:06,840 --> 01:20:08,840
Speaker 1: That's the name of the show. That's the name of

1469
01:20:08,840 --> 01:20:11,479
Speaker 1: the Instagram account. Uh. And then also I put up

1470
01:20:11,520 --> 01:20:16,120
Speaker 1: blog posts about uh these episodes at Simuta music dot com.

1471
01:20:16,120 --> 01:20:18,280
Speaker 1: That's linked on the Instagram if you want to get there.

1472
01:20:18,800 --> 01:20:22,200
Speaker 1: But whenever we refer to other pieces of media that

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Speaker 1: are related to it, other trailers, other bits of music,

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Speaker 1: that's often where I will stash that for your easy consumption.

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Speaker 1: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Seth

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01:20:32,360 --> 01:20:34,679
Speaker 1: Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in touch

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01:20:34,720 --> 01:20:36,880
Speaker 1: with us with feedback on this episode or any other,

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01:20:37,000 --> 01:20:39,439
Speaker 1: to suggest topic for the future, just to say hello.

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01:20:39,800 --> 01:20:42,400
Speaker 1: You can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

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01:20:42,400 --> 01:20:51,920
Speaker 1: your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is

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01:20:51,960 --> 01:20:55,240
Speaker 1: production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio,

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01:20:55,439 --> 01:20:58,120
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

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01:20:58,160 --> 01:20:59,920
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.