WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Ghost in the Machine 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:08.840 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:16.480 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. My name's Rob Lamb. 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:19.680 And I'm Joe McCormick. In Today's the Day. I get 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:22.520 to admit that, you know, Rob, sometimes I just want 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:25.720 to live in a cyber panic movie from the early nineties. 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:27.920 Why is that? 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:30.800 Well, there were a lot of movies like these, and 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:35.440 something about them is so cool, these movies from like 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:40.959 say nineteen eighty nine to nineteen ninety five or so 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:47.000 that we're clearly obsessed with the thrilling and terrifying potential 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:50.879 of email and the World Wide Web and usually for 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:55.600 some reason, virtual reality at the same time. So one 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:59.520 of the greats in this genre is Hackers, which came 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:02.280 out in Night teen ninety five, full cast of Matthew 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:07.679 Lillard's and associated Lillardians all just hacking it up, hacking 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:11.479 with joysticks, hacking with video game controllers. They square off 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:15.920 against Fisher Stevens in a hacker versus hacker battle. It's 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:19.160 absolutely glorious. This is an all time great, worthy of 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:20.800 an episode of its own someday. 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:23.800 Yeah. I never saw this one, but this one, Hackers 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:29.600 is like, really, really attractive, cool hacker dudes and chicks 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:30.479 battling it out right. 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:34.640 Absolutely, they're like super punk. And that's a thing that 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:39.520 these early nineties movies really like. They're made by adults 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:42.039 who don't know how to use email and they're scared 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:44.760 of it, but they're writing a movie about it, and 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:50.160 so you know, they can't tell the difference between say, 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:53.920 like anarco punk subculture and kids who know how to 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:56.960 use computers. It all just blends together for them, so 0:01:57.040 --> 0:02:01.520 like computers and hacking are basically the same as skateboarding 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:02.320 and graffiti. 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:06.320 And I guess it's probably complicated too by the existence 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:10.400 of cyberpunk as a genre that tends to have the 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:14.839 punk elements and industrial elements combined with some of these 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:18.399 the same cutting edge technological ideas, right. 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:21.440 And then, of course, another nineteen ninety five movie was 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:25.000 The Net, which had Sandra Bullock. She watched Sandra Bullock 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:27.320 get caught in the Net. This is one where the 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:31.200 hacker becomes the hacked. Sandra Bullock plays like a computer 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:35.720 nerd who is so obsessed with computers she even orders 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:42.120 pizza over the internet. Can you imagine. And then it's 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:45.800 supposed to like just absolutely melt your mind with this concept. 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:49.520 But then somebody hacks her back and a deadly game 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:52.960 of hacking cat and mouse, ensus she has to like 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:55.399 run around, and you know, there was a common thing. 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:57.840 It shows up in the movie We're going to be 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:00.360 talking about today as well. There's a common thing in 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:05.400 these early nineties cyber panic movies that that, like, by 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:09.560 hacking into a computer or an electrical grid, you could 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:14.160 always get a full like blueprint schematic of any building 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:17.960 and have access to all of the appliances in that 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:19.919 building and control over them. 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:24.600 Yeah, it's just absolute power. And of course, this is 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:27.880 the confusing thing about all of this, it is that 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:32.160 is that, yes, there there are concerns about hacking, hackers 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:35.520 being able to access things like, you know, electrical grid 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:38.280 systems and infrastructure and so forth. Like these are not 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:42.840 in and of themselves unrealistic concepts, but the ease of 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:47.880 access is often way overstated, or it's or certainly it's 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:50.120 it's visually presented to the audience in a way that 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:51.160 seems to simplify it. 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:53.600 Yeah, and a lot of times it's hard to tell 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:57.760 whether the oversimplification that's going on of the computer stuff 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:01.760 in these nineties movies, whether that is is just trying 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:04.800 to make the story go along more smoothly. You know, 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:06.920 they're simplifying it in the same way that you would 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:10.040 have you know, technobabble in any other science fiction movie 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:13.280 that's massively oversimplified, just to make it clear. Okay, here's 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:15.240 what the plot stakes are. Now we can move on. 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:18.000 Or whether it's just like people had no idea what 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:19.760 they were talking about. 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:22.000 Right, Yeah, there's always that element of yeah, they don't 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.960 really they know it's cutting edge and they know that 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:27.360 we should be afraid of it to some extent, but 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:29.920 that's it doesn't go a lot deeper than that. But 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:32.560 of course the fear is key, I mean, because you're 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:35.480 dealing with science fiction. Really in all these cases, even 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:40.240 in something like The Net, it is about modern day 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:44.480 anxieties and fears over where technology is taking us, and 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:49.000 this concern that technology will not just purely reflect the 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:51.480 best of us, but will also reflect the worst of us, 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:53.800 and the worst of humanity will be tied up in it. 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:56.520 And really the movie we're going to look at today 0:04:56.600 --> 0:05:00.840 is a very literal exploration of the latter theme. 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:04.560 Right, So today we're going to be talking about an 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:08.200 early ninety cyber panic movie that came before Hackers, before 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:12.599 the Net. It is Rachel Talalay's Ghost in the Machine 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:14.200 from nineteen ninety. 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:17.440 Three, not to be confused with nineteen ninety five's Ghost 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:22.680 in the Shell. Mamoru Oshi's anime adaptation of Massive Mooney 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:24.960 Shiros nineteen eighty nine manga. 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:28.719 Nothing really I've never seen. I know it's quite popular. 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:32.520 It's is it also about like people getting their brains 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:33.240 in computers? 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:36.680 I mean yeah, to the extent that yeah, I mean 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:39.080 to a certain extent, but it's like it's total like 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:43.760 futuristic cyberpunk anime and really quite good, especially especially the 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:46.560 first two films that came out, Ghost in the Shell 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:49.000 and Ghost in the Shell too. There's a lot of 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.040 other stuff out there they did, like a TV series, 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:54.960 but yeah, I mean it's it's it's pivotal cyberpunk anime 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:56.320 for sure, Okay, but it. 0:05:56.400 --> 0:06:00.280 Like full on embraces like like deep future thinking about 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:03.560 the you know, extreme possibilities. This is not like there's 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:06.479 a demon in the ATM, which is probably the speed 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:07.440 we're talking about. 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:10.400 Yeah. Yeah, this So this is Ghost in the Machine 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:13.000 from nineteen ninety three, which I have to mention is 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:17.080 one year after The Lawnmower Man, which of course, is 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:21.200 the virtual reality film that is ever so loosely, ever 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:23.960 so loosely based on a Stephen Kings short story about 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:24.960 a man who eats grass. 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:27.240 Could you even say based? I mean, I don't even 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:29.359 know what is the same other than the fact that 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:30.840 there is a lawnmower in it. 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:33.839 Yeah, virtually nothing. I feel like there might have even 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:36.719 been some thread where they had to like remove King's 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:38.960 name from it. I don't know there was a I'm 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:41.560 not sure if that's that's true or not, but it 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:44.440 was supposedly a Stephen King adaptation, but it was just this, 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:48.640 you know, crazy virtual reality cyber escape film. 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:51.120 Okay, So I got to give the elevator pitch on 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:54.599 Ghost in the Machine, and I was looking at the 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:57.680 VHS box art, and I feel like I cannot do 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:00.520 any better than the copy on the VHS. So I 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:04.120 got to read straight from that. Last night, a serial 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:08.080 killer died. His body was laid to rest, but his 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:12.920 soul has come online, free to continue his reign of 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:17.679 terror by using electronic circuitry. The serial killer's next target 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:22.600 is the unsuspecting Terry Monroe. Karen Allen and her teenage son. 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:25.920 Their only chance for survival is with the help of 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:31.120 a brilliant quote computer hacker. In this suspenseful techno thriller, 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:35.000 terror strikes when it's least expected, and the only cure 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:37.520 for this virus is to destroy it. 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:40.360 All right, Well, well, let's let's go the next step 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:42.760 and just have a splash of that audio trailer. 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:44.760 Oh. I think it'll probably repeat some of the same 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:49.800 words I just said, So ready yourself. This is good 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:51.360 to beforing terry. 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:53.160 Oh is this I'm. 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:56.640 Killing your friends? Looks like there were someone else in 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:58.440 there with us. 0:07:58.760 --> 0:07:59.800 The killer died in this. 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:09.640 And it was plugged into your computer. There's no way 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:14.960 anyone can kill somebody with a computer ghost in the machine, 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:24.120 plug into your worst nightmare. Man. I love that trailer, 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:28.680 so so so good. When I was reading about this movie, 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:31.040 I hadn't seen it yet, and so I had to. 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:33.160 I watched the trailer to see, like, is this gonna 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:35.720 be worth watching? And that pulled me in hard. 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:38.160 Yeah, I agree. When you sent the trailer to me. 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:40.439 When I when I watched it all the way through, 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:41.960 I'm like, yeah, I think this is going to be it. 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:45.000 I think Joe's gonna gonna go for this one once 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:47.080 he gives it a test run. 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:49.760 So I guess maybe we should start by talking about 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:51.640 some of the people of Note, and then we can 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:54.560 talk about the plot a little bit and then get 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:58.040 into some ideas and connections. And I guess the best 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:01.280 place to start is with the director, Rachel Talala, who 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:06.239 is the brain behind a number of great Bad Taste classics. 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:09.680 For example, Yeah, fred Freddy's Dead, the Final Nightmare. It 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:12.480 was not the final one, but it was the sixth one. 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:15.280 It came out in nineteen ninety one, and in a minute, 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:17.520 I wanted to talk about how she worked her way 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:21.800 up to directing that movie. But if you don't remember 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:25.120 which one that is, it's the one where Robert England 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:27.960 has become a full on, just stand up comedian or 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:33.160 maybe more applicably applicably a prop comic. He's like Carrot 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:37.280 Top in this movie, just full comedian jokes as he 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:38.360 kills people. 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:40.920 Like he kills so that he can make puns at 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:41.800 this point y right. 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:46.280 Yeah, absolutely, I remember this movie also, for some reason, 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:48.920 has Tom Arnold and Roseanne Barr, and I think they're 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:49.680 just cameos. 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:52.120 The only thing I remember about it is that it 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:54.440 had a notable or I think it was notable in 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:57.120 a goya Avita scene where they're playing iron butterflies in 0:09:57.160 --> 0:09:59.720 a goya Avita and there's like Freddy's coming out of 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:02.200 televi vision or something, or maybe somebody sucked into a 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:03.760 television I don't remember. 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:07.400 Yeah, that sounds right. Another movie she made one that 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:09.600 I haven't seen but I really want to see now 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:12.640 because reading about it it sounds pretty great. Is tank 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:15.760 Girl from nineteen ninety five. This is a sort of 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:18.600 post apocalyptic Warrior of the Desert movie. 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:21.600 Yeah, now, tank Girl. I remember when it came out, 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:24.560 and I remember catching clips of it, either there were 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:26.240 just clips on a clip show where maybe I saw 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:28.840 part of it on TV, and I remember like really 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:32.640 digging it and wanting to see it at the time, 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:35.440 because you know, it has all these crazy elements going on, 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:37.480 and you got Malcolm mcdowe with some sort of a 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:38.680 crazy robot arm. 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:42.200 He's like an evil corporate overlord who like's trying to 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:44.079 buy up all the water, yeah. 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:46.400 In the desert for some reason. You've got I think 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:48.840 it's a post apocalyptic like a commets hit the earth 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:52.320 or something. You got Iced Tea as a Ripper, which 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:55.400 is like a mutant kangaroo person, and then you got 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:59.040 Lori Petty as tank Girl, who was just you know, 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:04.080 overflowing with manic energy and nineties coolness along with just 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:07.480 you know, just a cool aesthetic vibe to it. So 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:09.360 I remember, I remember really wanting to see it, and 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:11.520 then I didn't see it, and by the time it 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:16.000 had become available to watch on VHS or whatever, I 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:19.560 had forgotten about it. So I I've never actually seen 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:21.199 it all the way through. I think I picked it 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:24.920 up a time or two, and the bad taste aspect 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:26.920 came into play, Like like you said, some of these 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:29.400 films are kind of bad taste films where you know 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:32.160 there's maybe some bits of it are a little bit 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:33.800 cruder than you think they're going to be, and you 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:35.959 just I don't know. In my case, I might have 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:37.880 decided previously, like I don't know if I'm in the 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:40.800 mood for this right now. I after we finished, after 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:43.600 I finished watching Ghost in the Machine, I put Tank 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:46.280 Girl back on again because it's as is this recording 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:49.640 available on Amazon Prime in the in the United States, 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:52.440 and I have to say it's it's I'm enjoying it 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:54.480 thus far. There continue to be some of those those 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:57.320 bad taste touch points where I'm like, oh, this is 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:00.600 kind of a mixed bag, but there are things about 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:03.280 it that I like. So we'll see. I'm gonna probably 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:04.120 keep watching it. 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:06.400 Well, So she's got a new movie out just this 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:09.600 year called A Babysitters Guide to Monster Hunting, which I 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:13.120 haven't seen, but looking at her resume, it seems like 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:18.719 in recent years Taloy mostly directs TV episodes, including episodes 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:22.800 of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, of Sherlock, and of course 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:26.760 of Doctor Who, so our beloved Hoovioids out there? Like, 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:28.600 what do you think of her episodes? I think they're 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:30.599 mostly in the Peter Capaldi seasons. 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.679 I don't think they're called hoovioids though, I think I think, no, 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:37.200 that's it. That's what it is, all right. 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:39.920 Yeah. 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:42.080 Yeah, she's done a great deal of TV work, though, 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:45.199 Like it's just a lot of top tier genre stuff. 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:47.760 I know, she did an episode of Doom Patrol, which 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:49.959 is a show that I've been enjoying. 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:53.120 Yeah, Talla has got a pretty interesting career trajectory. So, 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:57.000 like both of her parents were scientists and starting sometime 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:59.560 in her childhood. I think she was like four years old. 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:02.760 She was living in Baltimore because both of her parents 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:05.679 were working at Johns Hopkins, and according to her bio 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:11.360 on IMDb, she studied mathematics at Yale and then went 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:13.760 to work for a while as like a computer programmer 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:19.000 at Johns Hopkins. Somehow she got connected with John Waters. 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:21.360 I don't know if this is a being in Baltimore thing. 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:23.680 I guess in you know, there's always a chance you'll 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:28.400 stumble into a marilynd Nest of John Waters's. Somehow she did. However, 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:30.920 they got connected. Tala ended up working with the John 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:34.600 Waters crew, and so she also worked with John Waters 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:39.199 associates like Divine as a production assistant on Polyester and 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:43.199 then on movies like Hairspray and cry Baby. At some point, 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:46.960 John Waters was the officiant at Talalay's wedding, which is 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:48.440 an amazing honor. 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:49.440 That's a good get. 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:52.840 Yeah yeah. And then from there she ended up working 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:55.280 on the production of a number of the Nightmare on 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:58.440 ELM Street movies for New Line Cinema. So I think 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:01.720 the way it worked. I watching an interview with Talay 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:05.679 that she did for Netflix, recently, and she started in 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:07.360 the first night Mare on ELM Street movie as a 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:11.000 location manager, and then in the subsequent films she just 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:14.480 kept working her way up. She was production manager, then 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:18.120 line producer, then producer, and then eventually by Freddy six 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:20.080 she was like, well, I'm going to direct and she did. 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:20.760 Oh wow. 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:23.400 But also in this interview, she talks about how when 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:26.280 she was a kid, she was obsessed with movies, like 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:29.640 she wanted to tap dance along with fred Astaire, but 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:32.360 she realized she couldn't tap dance. She wanted to sing 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:35.360 like Barbara streisand she wanted to be like in the 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:39.480 way we were, but she couldn't sing. But movies provided 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:42.400 this fantasy framework in which she could imagine living out 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:45.040 the things she wanted to do, and so she got 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:47.240 very into the idea of working in the movies. And 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:51.280 apparently her her parents strongly encouraged her and I guess 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:53.480 all of their children to go into the sciences, like 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:55.920 they bought them microscopes and wanted them to go to 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:58.800 university and all that, and she says she very much 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:02.040 rebelled against this kind of encouragement. She wanted to push 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:05.120 off into the arts and while the arts were her passion. 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:07.440 Her parents actually did convince her to go to college, 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:10.120 so she, like I said, she majored in math. I 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:12.760 think they expected she would end up working for IBM 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:15.520 or have some kind of tech career. But after she 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:18.360 completed her education and worked in Cytech for a bit, 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:21.640 she migrated to these passion projects, which at the time 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:24.520 wore low budget horror films. And she talks about how 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:28.040 her parents were not huge fans of these movies. 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:32.440 But that's great that she has the like the mathematical 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:35.680 and programming background going into this film, yeah. 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:38.600 Which is hilarious, which makes me think, Okay, so Rachel 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:41.240 Talalay understood how computers work. Now, I was like, she 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:43.240 didn't write the script for this movie. So yeah, that 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:46.160 is a lot of the really off the wall stuff 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:49.040 about how the computers and the electrical grid and everything work. 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:51.880 You know, that's not out of her brain, but at 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:54.080 least she seems comfortable with it. So I'd say that 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:59.480 this is a narrative convenience. And you know, another thing 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:02.800 about her movies is that you never get the sense 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:06.680 that she's taking anything too seriously, Like she wouldn't necessarily 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:11.240 get hung up on plausibility, questions about how the technology works. 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:14.440 I feel more like her style is very much in 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:15.120 the flare. 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:17.880 Yeah, yeah, yeah, certainly like this is This is a 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:21.320 movie that, yeah, has some dumbness to it, but but 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:23.360 it has a lot of style to it. Some of 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:25.800 the style, I don't know. You might you might have 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:29.400 needed to be a television viewer in the nineties to 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:31.720 get it all and to feel, you know, a sense 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:33.760 of nostalgia for it. But it's it's evident. 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:44.560 Now. As for the cast, You've got some great luminaries here. 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:48.200 The main character in this movie, Terry Monroe, is played 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:50.760 by Karen Allen, and hey, what's not to love about 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:55.920 Karen Allen? She's always great. She's I would say she's 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:59.320 great in this But her character, the way it's written 0:16:59.800 --> 0:17:03.320 is basically Kathy from the comic strip. She's just like computers, 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:04.359 computers act. 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:07.600 Yeah. I was instantly the scene where she goes into 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:10.720 a computer store. I was instantly reminded of the Everything 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:14.920 is Terrible video Woman versus Computer. Have you seen this? 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:19.639 Yeah, we're It's some kind of early nineties training video 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:23.200 that's about like, why can't why are computers so hard 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:24.560 for women to understand. 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:28.280 Yeah, And so she kind of embodies this kind of 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:29.120 attitude in this. 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:32.800 Was that a thing even back then? Did people actually 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:33.239 think that? 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:37.359 I mean, they made that video. I'm to assume that 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:40.320 was kind of the vibe that at least some people 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:44.040 thought and thought and decided to market things around it. 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:47.560 But yeah, yeah, I mean that's basically her character in this. 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:50.239 But I mean she's still Karen Allen. She's always going 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:52.159 to be Mary and Raven Wood from Raided to the 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:55.040 Lost Arc, So she's she's kind of untouchable in my book. 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:58.159 You know, this doesn't doesn't take anything away from her. 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:02.720 She's an oddly ground presence because this movie is both 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:08.680 tonally and conceptually absolutely bonkers, Like it is full of 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:13.280 like bad taste and just exceeding weirdness, but the down 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:16.119 to earth charm of Karen Allen somehow makes it seem 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:18.679 less off the wall than it would otherwise. 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:22.800 Yeah. Yeah, she's totally believable as this working mom who's, 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:24.879 you know, just trying to keep it together between work 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:27.359 and this kid who will get to in a bit, 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:30.720 oh I can't. And then of course other worldly hackers 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:33.080 messing with their life on top of everything. 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:35.760 Right, and then you've got another character who's played by 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:39.320 this guy, Chris Mulky. He plays a hacker, a good 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:43.400 hacker named Bram Walker. They just had to name him Brahm. 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:45.159 I don't know something about that. It's very funny. But 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:50.159 Chris Mulky is like, he's like sinister Bill Murray. Do 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:53.400 you need Bill Murray? But less funny and more possibly 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:55.960 of a criminal element. Here's your guy. 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:59.119 Yeah, he looks kind of like Bill Murray, but he 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:01.600 has straight up has Alec Baldwin's voice. Like a few 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:04.239 times I looked away from the screen I heard his 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:07.040 voice and I thought it was Jack Donagy from thirty Rock. 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:10.119 You know, he has such that same gravelly voice. 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:11.440 Oh that's exactly right. 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:14.639 Yeah, he's an actor who, especially in this film, but 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:18.320 I think in general he tends to have that overpowering 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:21.000 divorced cop vibe to him. So he plays that sort 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:23.239 of character a lot. Yeah, but he's been in a 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:26.119 ton of stuff, like lots of stuff that is not 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:29.080 even worth mentionings just you know, a very full professional 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:31.800 resume of work on TV and film. He was in 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:35.720 Twin Peaks, and more to the point, he was in Dreamscape, 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:38.919 which is a wonderful film and that we'll have to 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:42.560 think about doing someday, as well as Runaway, the nineteen 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:46.160 eighty four Michael Crichton Tiny Robot Movies starring Tom Sellick, 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:49.040 Cynthia Rhodes, Gene Simmons, and Christia Halley. 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:51.640 I do not know anything about this movie. I don't 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:54.320 think I even knew this existed, so well, we should 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:58.040 revisit that. But I was thinking about how in Twin 0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:01.400 Peaks they bring in Chris Smulk as a Level three 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:03.639 bad guy, because you know how in the first season 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:07.119 of Twin Peaks there's this constant escalation of like some 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:09.480 guy you think is a really scary guy, but then 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:12.679 there's another guy that he's even scared of. And so 0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:16.199 I don't remember the other characters' names, but like the 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:20.280 really bad ponytail guy is afraid of off brand Bill Murray. 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:23.000 We'll have to take your word for it, because you know, 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:25.560 I haven't actually sat down and watched Twin Peaks yet. 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:28.320 Oh wow, Oh okay, it's on the list. It's just 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:30.040 hard to make time for it. I want to watch it, 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:32.040 but I don't know. That seems like a lot of show. 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:35.480 So there's a cameo in this movie by the guy 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:39.439 who plays Toby Ziegler on the West Wing. Richard Schiff 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:41.920 is the actor's name, and in this movie he plays 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:45.240 an MRI technician whose voice gets featured in the credits. 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:46.840 So you might have heard it just a minute ago 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:50.760 because he's actually operating the machinery in the movies Pivotal, 0:20:50.920 --> 0:20:52.159 She's Gonna Blow scene. 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:55.080 Hah, Yeah, I looked him up. He was also in 0:20:55.119 --> 0:20:57.280 Tank Girl, so oh, okay, I'm not sure what the 0:20:57.280 --> 0:20:59.480 exact connection there was, but he's in both of those 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:01.160