WEBVTT - Pit of Serpents 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.360 Welcome to scust to Blow Your Mind production of My 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:14.680 Heart Radio. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:17.800 My name is Robert Lamb, and I'm Joe McCormick. And 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:21.000 I'm so excited because today we're diving into the snake pit. 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:25.040 That's right. Um, not slashes snake pit, which we were 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:29.080 discussing before we started recording the show, but this idea 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:32.920 of a pit of snakes, the sort of place you 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:37.479 might want to drop a doomed hero or a damsel 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:40.360 in distress, that sort of thing, right, And what I 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:43.280 think the great place to start here is by discussing 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:46.559 a sort of snake pit. I think it's very much 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:49.680 a snake pit that we encounter in Raiders of the 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:51.959 Lost Dark, a film that we've we've spent a lot 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:54.600 of time talking about on the show we did. We 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:56.320 did a couple of episodes on the Ark of the 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:58.920 Covenant that I encourage everyone everyone to go back and 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:02.000 listen to. Where we we spin off. We frequently refer 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:05.400 back to Raiders for examples of things that Raiders does 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:11.760 that refers to various uh qualities of the arc in 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:15.600 ancient traditions. I was just thinking back on those Ark 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:18.120 of the Covenant episodes, because I remember we talked about 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:21.880 this one professor from the the nineteen twenties or thirties 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:24.160 who had this crank theory that the Ark of the 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:26.720 Covenant was a real historical artifact and it was a 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:31.679 giant electrical capacitor. Yes, yeah, that was pretty good. Yeah. 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:33.520 But what I was laughing at when you were talking, 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:35.960 I'm sorry if I sort of interrupted, but I was 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:38.440 laughing the fact that you called the pit in Raiders 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:42.399 a sort of snake pit. Yeah. I mean, it's definitely 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:44.000 a snake pit. I don't I don't want to beat 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:47.440 around the bush here. It's very much a snake pit. Um. 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:51.360 It is an amazing and really game changing one of 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:54.720 the many amazing and game changing sequences in the film. Uh, 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:59.280 it is the Well of Soul sequence. Now to refresh everybody. Uh. 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:01.960 First of all, the Well of Souls is an actual place. 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:05.080 It's a partially man made cave located inside the foundation 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:09.320 stone under the Dome of the Rock Shrine in Jerusalem. Uh. 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:12.280 The name itself Pit of Souls. Well of Souls stems 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:15.520 from medieval Islamic legend and this is where the spirits 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:18.920 of the dead or supposedly awaiting judgment day, but that 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:22.359 that it has nothing or very little to do with 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:25.840 the Well of Souls that we encounter in Raiders of 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:29.800 the Lost Ark in Raiders the Well of Souls, and 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:32.760 this is straight from the Indiana Jones wiki is quote 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:35.440 part of a temple built within the ancient city of 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:38.000 Tennis where the Ark of the Covenant was placed after 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:43.240 Pharaoh Shishak stole it from Jerusalem. Again, that is entirely 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:47.000 within the context of the Indiana Jones world. Don't confuse 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:50.720 that with actual history right now, there is no indication 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:53.919 that there's an actual pit of snakes in any archaeological 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:57.080 site in ancient Egypt, right but it makes for a 0:02:57.120 --> 0:02:59.560 great scene because, of course, as we remember, what happens 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:03.400 is that uh Indiana Jones and his cohorts discovered that, oh, 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:05.640 this is the actual resting place of the arc. The 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:09.560 Nazis are off, they're digging in the wrong spot. So 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:11.679 they open it up, and of course they immediately see 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:14.440 it's full of snakes. He hates snakes. They lower him 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:18.000 down anyway, they go his his friend, who is it, 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:22.079 Sala Sala, Yes, Sala goes down with him. They crank 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:25.360 the the arc up, and then that's when Belloc and 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:28.120 the Nazis show up. They steal the arc and just 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.320 for sheer meanness, they throw Marian down there into the 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:34.560 pit with him, and then they seal him inside with 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:38.440 a bazilion snakes. Uh, there there are some bad dudes. 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:41.240 And so now, yes, now are our hero and heroine 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:43.680 are stuck down in the dark with a bunch of snakes. 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:46.040 Actually they're not in the dark. I just remember that. 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:48.560 I guess there are torches throughout the room. Yeah, they 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:52.480 dropped a lot of torches. So it's actually remarkably and 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:57.240 unrealistically well lit. Right, So this the scene, of course, 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:00.440 is ultimately above reproach. Like like, there's so much in 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:02.760 the film that if you think about it too hard, 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:05.600 it doesn't make a lot of sense. But if you're 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:08.400 just writing the roller coaster that is the film, it's 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:12.880 pretty great. It famously required some I think seven thousand snakes, 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:18.680 including cobras, which were the only venomous snakes used. Reticulated pythons, 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:22.200 which are native to Asia, not Egypt, but they're there. Uh, 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:25.440 there's a Kenyan sand boa that you can find in Egypt, 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:28.839 but not a reticulated python. Uh. In the In the sequence, 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:32.520 they also used legless lizards known as glass lizards, and 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:35.240 if you look around online you'll frequently see that the 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:37.120 herpetologist seems to have seemed to have a lot of 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:40.479 fun watching the sequence and picking out as many snakes 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:45.400 species as possible, because they apparently just were like, bring 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:47.400 us all the snakes. If you have snakes that can 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:49.640 be a part of our film, we need them. Dude. 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:54.039 I breat that brought out some weird guys. It's like, why, yes, 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:58.200 I have quite a few snakes. Yeah. So herpetologists have 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:02.760 spotted other python species in that sequence, garter snakes and 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:06.880 um and while actual cobras are used to wonderful effect 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:10.479 in there, Jonathan Crow on Snakes on Film, a website 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:13.320 which you can look up, points out that we see 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:17.440 a monocled cobra rather than an Egyptian cobra, probably due 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:20.440 to the Egyptian cobra's infamous temperament. So it's just ultimately 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:23.440 easier to shoot with a monocled cobra. Nobody's going to 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:27.039 notice the difference except herpetologists anyway. I think this is 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:30.520 the cobra that you can actually see slightly reflected in glass. 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:34.000 When there's glass between Harrison Ford and and the snake 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:37.120 that's not supposed to be there. It's a it's an effect, 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:40.000 I guess, to create safety. Uh. And I remember that 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:42.520 being one of the first movie goofs I ever spotted 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:44.760 that you could actually see the reflection in the glass 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:47.719 when you when there was not supposed to be glass there. Huh. 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:51.840 You know, I watched that film um constantly at one 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:53.920 point as a kid, and I don't think I ever 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:55.560 noticed that. But part of that might have been that 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:58.679 our copy was like a VHS copy that my aunt 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:01.720 had made when it aired on HBO or something like that, 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:05.320 So maybe the details of that were lost in the transfer. 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:10.040 That's what they were counting on. Also just on snake Magic, 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:12.360 because hey, you can get carried away in snake Magic. 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:17.000 It kind of makes you lose focus to the finer points. So, 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:20.560 as we said, herpetologists have a great time sort of 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:24.120 spotting the the different species ultimately kind of spotting the 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:26.680 flaws in the sequence. But of course one of the 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:29.240 big questions, one of the guess the big flaws that 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:31.440 comes up that and if you've watched this as an 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:35.039 adult or watched it too many times, you've probably wondered this, Hey, 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:38.440 what are all those snakes doing down there? To begin with? Right, 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:41.799 I always had this exact same thought. Why are they there? 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:44.560 Do they live there all the time or do they 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:47.120 come and go? If they come and go, why do 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:49.920 they come to the Well of Souls? What's for them there? 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:52.960 If they live there all the time, how do they survive? 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:55.280 Don't they need to eat something? Is somebody coming in 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:58.719 and feeding them? Like? Do they just eat each other? 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:00.839 That wouldn't make any and so we've talked on the 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:05.080 show before about how like a closed, exclusively cannibalistic population 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:08.080 can't survive for any significant period of time because you 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:11.600 need inputs of energy from the outside. It just it 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:14.480 just doesn't make sense. Well, there's your there's some room 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:19.360 for expanded universe fiction. There the secret cult of of 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:22.760 priests who take care of the Well of Souls and 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:27.000 feed seven thousand snakes weekend and week out throughout you 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:29.200 know the history of the place. That's a lot of gerbils. 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:32.320 Now I decided to think about I thought about this 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:34.440 long and hard the other day, probably harder than I've 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:37.440 I've ever thought about. The snake sequence in Ark of 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:41.720 the Covenant and I did. I decided to try and 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:44.000 give it a grain of salt here, you know, and 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:46.680 try and you know, think about a reason for all 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:49.400 this to happen. And you could, I guess you could argue, Okay, 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:51.920 the Arc of the Covenant is down there, and as 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:54.280 we know from the film, as you know from other 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:57.000 accounts in those past episodes of stuff to boil your mind, 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:00.240 that the Arc is supposed to do weird thing. It 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:04.560 has weird properties. It does magical and sort of doomy 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:08.440 things to its immediate surroundings. Right, it strikes the sons 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:11.360 of Aaron dead after they bring strange fire in front 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:14.280 of it. Yeah, so I started thinking, well, what if 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:17.240 it actually generated the snakes. I don't know that this 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:20.320 option has ever been explored, and maybe it has, because 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:22.840 one thing to think about is the Arc, after all, 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:26.760 was said to contain, among other relics, Aaron's rod, which 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:29.040 Moses was said to have cast down so that it 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:32.679 might transform into a snake and eat the snakes transfigured 0:08:32.679 --> 0:08:34.480 out of the rods that were cast down by some 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:39.400 Egyptian magicians. That myth sounds a lot funnier when you 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:43.560 paraphrase it. Yeah, Yeah, it's it's presented better in you know, 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:47.160 the original text, but at any rate, it's rods turning 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:52.000 into snakes duking it out for magicians. But you're saying 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:54.280 it might be magic. I think that makes sense in 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:56.680 the context of the movie. Maybe those snakes are magic 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.480 snakes generated somehow by the arc and they don't need 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:03.040 to eat. Right. But if you're gonna be a you know, 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:05.760 a total major todd about the whole deal and shout 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:08.679 the ARC's power, then the question remains, why would a 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:12.240 bunch of snakes species details aside, you know, ignoring the 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:14.400 fact that it seems to have drawn in snakes from 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:17.000 around the world, why would they be holding up in 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:20.360 a desert tomb like this, because, like you said, surely 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:22.960 there's nothing down there for them to eat, right, I mean, 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:25.160 why would there be rats down there? And what would 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:28.960 the rats be feasting on? Um. The The other big idea, 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:30.760 and one that will discuss a lot in this episode, 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:34.240 are would be with the question are the snakes, you know, 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:36.520 seeking shelter there? And if so, what are they seeking 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:40.240 shelter from? Are they seeking shelter from the desert heat? Uh? 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:42.679 That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. Because, uh, 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:45.480 if you remember from the film, Indiana's descending into the 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:48.000 tomb at the coolest part of the night, like it's 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:51.560 the it's like the the very late portion of the evening, 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:54.040 very early morning that they're descending. They go in when 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:55.880 it's dark and they come out when it's daylight. Yes, 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:57.680 it seems like that'd be the time the snakes should 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:00.360 be out and about on the hunt. So we're going 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:04.199 to continue to chew on this question as we continue 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:07.160 on through this episode, because we're gonna be looking at 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:10.560 the very idea of a pit of serpents as it 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:15.920 appears throughout fiction, human mythology as well as the natural world, 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:19.000 and the the science of snake pits turned out to 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:21.960 be far more interesting than I would have imagined going in. 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:24.520 So uh so that's gonna be the last thing we 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:26.480 get to and I promise you it's a pretty darn 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:29.760 good payoff. Yes. Now, the next place obviously goes to 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:34.160 look at other cinema cinematic snake pits that have occurred before, 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:36.760 some of them before Raiders of the Lost Arts, some 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:39.760 of them afterwards. But I think they serve to sort 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:42.920 of further illustrate the trope and we we have to 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:46.000 point out that we used a website that was actually 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:50.760 recommended to us by our compatriot, Lauren vogelbaumb. It's um. 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:54.680 It's maintained by Gary Nafis, who runs a website titled 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:57.720 Guide A Guide to the Amphibians and Reptiles of California. 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:01.080 And he has this list snakes in movies. So if 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:04.439 you go to California herbs dot com slash films slash 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:07.920 Snakes in Movies list at html, that's the website. And 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:11.800 it's really just a great database of films that have 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:15.880 featured snakes in general pits in some cases, but many 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:20.080 times mostly without pits. Uh. And then uh, Gary adds 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:23.360 his thoughts about the snakes. We see how realistic it is. 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:25.800 And there are pictures as well. Yeah, and you might 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:27.680 be thinking, well, I don't need to be told there's 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:30.760 a snake in the movie Anaconda, for say, it's it's 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:33.960 got more obscure ones as well. Yeah, it's it's you 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:36.600 think you know snakes in films, but but you don't 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:39.440 know them as well as Gary does. I actually I 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:41.440 exchanged a couple of emails with him to make sure 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:45.040 he was crediting him correctly on this website, and he 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:48.000 did point out that he rarely sees an actual snake 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:51.200 pit in a film. And uh, but but we're gonna 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:54.600 list a few examples here that that do, according to Gary, 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:57.439 have snake pits. Okay, what's first? All right, Well, the 0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:00.640 first one here, and these are not in any picular order. 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:04.079 There's one from nineteen seventy four titled The Snake Girl, 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:06.959 in which an evil woman throws her adopted sister into 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:09.400 a snake pit to die, but she mates with a 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:14.240 snake and a snake girl is born. Apparently it's a 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.960 it's a Taiwan, Hong Kong, Cambodia production. Uh And and 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:19.960 this is all we need to know from Gary's right 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:22.600 up quote. Big Madame's henchman throws her into a snake 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:24.920 pit to die. Instead, she lies down and caresses a 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:27.280 big snake, and the next thing we see is baby 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:31.719 snake girl surrounded by snakes. Okay, now, the next one, 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:36.000 this is actually one from his list that I accidentally included. Um, 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:40.480 there are several different plays on like evil snake Girl 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:44.160 or devil woman, Like there's this devilish femininity that is 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:49.040 assigned to snakes at times and this particular one is 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:52.800 Devil Woman, Evil Snake Girl from nineteen seventy and you 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:55.079 should definitely look up the trailer for this one, because 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:57.800 the English language trailer from you know, kind of has 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:01.360 this this weird grindhouse vibe to it, and it's it's 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:05.760 absolutely amazing. The picture itself is from the Philippines and 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:09.000 it has loads of snakes and Medusa hair and uh 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:13.040 a bunch of like extended martial arts action sequences. The 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:17.840 narration promises the movie will strip your nerves screamingly raw, 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:22.440 screamingly raw. Yeah. Now, another one that Gary includes on 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:25.280 the list is one that that we're both very familiar with, 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:28.760 The Blade Master, better known especially to fans of Mystery 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:32.600 Science Theater three thousand as Cave Dwellers from N four. 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:37.240 Absolute classic. Yeah, this is this is a Joe Dermato film. 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:41.200 Um and I've I've seen it multiple times, yet I 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:43.600 completely forgot about the snake pit, probably because it's a 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:47.120 pretty skimpy snake pit, not many snakes. Yeah, it looks 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:50.280 kind of like a very small concrete pool that has 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:53.640 been drained of water and filled with just a puddle 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:58.200 of snakes. Um, and that's about it. Yeah, so Cave 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:01.000 Dwellers is one of the great leather type or Barbarian movies. 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:04.080 I think it's not quite as exquisite as your Hunter 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:07.000 from the Future, but it's up there. Uh. And I 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:09.280 think the snake pit scene in this is a kind 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:12.760 of straightforward attempt to rip off the snake tower pit 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:15.480 in Cone in the Barbarian but in a very cheap 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:19.960 and shaggy way. I remember one of the supposedly hilarious 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:22.880 things about this scene in the movie is that the 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:26.840 snakes growl instead of hissing, which, of course you know, 0:14:26.880 --> 0:14:29.400 that's the source of much amusement, kind of like if 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:31.280 you had a pack of dogs in a movie that 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:35.840 started to move. But here is where science intrudes, because 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:39.160 we who laughed at that are now we are officially 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:42.400 clowned by reality. I decided to look at the scientific 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:45.240 literature just real quick to check and make sure there 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:48.560 were no records of actual snakes that growl, and there 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:52.360 absolutely are, so just to look at one paper. This 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:55.560 was published in the Journal of Experimental Zoology in nineteen 0:14:56.160 --> 0:15:00.680 by Bruce A. Young, called Morphological Basis of Rowling in 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:06.600 the King Cobra Opheophagus Hannah So Bruce Young notes anecdotal 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:09.760 reports that while many snakes, of course produce a hissing sound, 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:12.400 we all know that they'll they'll hiss in response to 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:15.400 a thread as a kind of defensive signal. A couple 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:18.280 of species of snake have been noted to emit a 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:21.640 hiss that is so low in frequency really people say 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:24.440 it sounds more like a growl, almost like the growl 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:28.200 of a dog. And most notably this includes the king 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:32.640 cobra Opheophagus Hannah, which seems to attain a deeper growl 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:35.320 as it gets larger with age. And the snake grows 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:37.760 longer as it gets older, and I think that this 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:41.800 deepens the frequency of its vocalization. Right. Actually, I think technically, 0:15:41.840 --> 0:15:44.800 in scientific terms, it would not be called a vocalization 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:49.000 because it's more based in the hissing emission of air. 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:53.960 But so Young did a bioacoustic analysis of the defensive 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:57.880 sounds produced by twenty one different species of snakes, and 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:01.240 he writes quote, the typical a kiss is described as 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:04.240 having a broad frequency span from roughly three thousand to 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:09.080 thirteen thousand hurts and a dominant frequency near hurts. The 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:13.000 growl of the king cobra differs from the typical snake 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:17.360 kiss in consisting solely of frequencies below undred hurts with 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:20.520 a dominant frequency near six hundred herds. So that's pretty 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:23.480 low for a snake. And this growl appears to be 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:26.800 an adaptation created by changes in the shape of the 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:32.880 upper respiratory tract what Young calls quote tracheal diverticula, functioning 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:37.440 as a low frequency resonating chamber. And they tested this 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:40.880 idea a couple of ways. First of all, they constructed 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:45.600 a fake mechanical model of the cobra's trachea, and then finally, 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:49.200 their second test is just out of the park. You 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:51.400 know that trick where you suck a helium balloon and 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:55.160 then your voice gets really good. Well, they tried that 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:59.160 on another type of growling snake known as the mangrove 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:04.960 rat snake or ganio Soma oxy cephalum quote. Flushing the 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:08.639 respiratory tract of G. Oxy cephalum with helium produces a 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:11.399 shift of over a thousand hurts in the growl, a 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:15.520 shift that is indicative of a resonance effect. So, anyway, 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:19.679 king Cobra's growl, these mangrove rat snakes growl, and that 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:22.280 that's so good. So perhaps this is a Do you 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:25.880 think this is a situation where the film accidentally gets 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:28.760 something right about the natural world, or do you think 0:17:28.760 --> 0:17:33.560 the filmmakers we're just familiar with the sort of sounds 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:37.040 that some snakes actually make. I mean, I like to 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:40.719 have a generous estimation of other people, but I don't know. 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:42.880 I think in this case, they might have just bumbled 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:46.000 into it. I don't know if we had herpetological geniuses 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:48.560 on set here. Yeah, yeah, I guess it. I've seen 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:50.880 some other Joe Diamatto films, and I would say that 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:53.800 that that level of detail doesn't really match up with 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:56.000 what I know of his work. I think this is 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:59.639 just a dog mooing and then maybe later people found 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:01.840 out that there are some breeds of dogs that move. 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:05.920 I think you're right. All right, let's let's roll through 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:08.479 a few other films here. Worth mentioning. Gunga Din from 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:11.440 nine is certainly a film I've heard of before, I've 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:14.640 never actually seen it. Uh, Indian cultists who I think 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:18.760 are supposed to be um buggies, uh torturing British soldier 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:20.879 by threatening to throw him into a snake pit. And 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:24.840 this is again a famous film, probably an influence on Raiders, 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:28.400 and almost certainly an influence on its follow up slash 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:32.040 prequel Temple of doom Um. Again, haven't seen it, but 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:34.640 I looked at a picture on on Gary's website, and 0:18:34.720 --> 0:18:37.440 I have to say, snake pit looks pretty shabby. I 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:41.280 guess it's just yeah, there are a few. I mean, 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:43.200 I guess there are two ways looking at it. Either 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:46.280 you build that set and then you just you your 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:47.960 eyes are bigger than your stomach when it comes to 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:49.720 how many snakes you can actually fill it with, you know, 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:52.000 or it's just hard to fill a space with snakes. 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:55.320 Or it's a situation if you're if you're really afraid 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:58.359 of snakes, if you're building designing that pit with a 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:01.080 rich fear of snakes in mind, you don't have to 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:03.480 add that mini they're right because you think, oh, they're 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:06.320 gonna be after me. One snake is terrifying enough. I 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:09.120 guess that's true. But snakes are not like lions. I mean, 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:11.280 the snake would not want to be anywhere near you. 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:13.520 I think the idea of a snake pit sort of 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:15.960 works is something that's really scary. If it's just full 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:19.280 of snakes, where the snakes couldn't even get away from you. Yeah, 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:22.480 I agree. A few other ones that are worth mentioning 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:24.960 Off of Gary's list, there's Entered the Devil from nineteen 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:27.840 seventy two, which which sounds pretty fun, he says, it's 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:30.320 it involves quote a cult of monks with torches and 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:34.040 brown hooded robes chanting in high church Latin. Uh, perform 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:37.159 human sacrifices in an old mine in the desert. When 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:39.280 they're not stabbing people through the heart, they like to 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:42.520 throw their enemies into pits of rattlesnakes for a slower death. Okay, 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:46.840 sounds fun. Uh. Seven's Angel of Vengeance or war Cat 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:49.919 has a woman who is abducted and gets revenged by 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:53.159 throwing one of her captors into a pit full of rattlesnakes. Uh. 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:55.879 And this seems to be like a California grindhouse style 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:58.919 film with a with a with a sort of California 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:01.560 style rattler pit. It sounds like there's a whole subgenre 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:05.359 of rattlesnake pit movies. Yeah. Because, of course, the big 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:08.840 examples of this would be uh, the nineteen sixty nine 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:12.239 film adaptation of True Grit and the Cohen Brothers two 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:15.280 thousand ten adaptation of True Grit. In both of them, 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:18.080 a girl falls into an abandoned mine that is full 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:22.080 of rattlesnakes, and uh, yeah, I've I've actually only seen 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:24.720 the Cohen Brothers version of this, and I've never read 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:26.880 the book, but but I like that what I saw 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:30.120 quite a bit. The rattler den scene is quite memorable, 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:33.280 and Gary offers this critique of the original version on 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:37.320 his website. Quote, snakes do hibernating groups underground during the winter, uh, 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:39.760 to keep them from freezing, and during summer to keep 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:42.399 them from overheating. And if threatened by a girl with 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:45.200 a stick, a rattlesnake would surely strike to protect itself. 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:48.520 And it's only the one snake she gets too close 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:51.000 to that bites her. The others just dispersed to get 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:53.520 away from her. So uh. In other words, as far 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:56.919 as snake pits and films go, this seems to be 0:20:56.960 --> 0:20:59.040 like one of the best examples, as in like the 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:02.600 most realistic, most scientifics Yeah, the most realistic example. So 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:05.359 there there are a few rattlers down there, presumably maybe 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:08.040 maybe taking shelter from the heat of the sun or 0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:10.480 or sheltering for the winter. I guess that I think 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:12.200 that takes place in a cold part of the year 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:14.760 in true great The book by Charles Portis is a 0:21:14.760 --> 0:21:16.760 great read, by the way. Oh cool. Yeah, it's one 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:19.120 of those that I've had recommended to me before. Maybe 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:21.480 the next time I'm in the mood for a good Western, 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:24.000 I'll finally pick it up. So, but that's one of 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:27.199 the more believable ones in the movies. Maybe maybe we 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:30.280 should look back to the sources that that go back 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:33.200 beyond these movies. Uh, I guess looking at the idea 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:37.000 of snake pits in mythology and snake pits in reality. Yeah, 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:39.240