WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Nemesis 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:05.519 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:15.960 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. My name is Rob. 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:19.120 Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And today on Weird House Cinema, 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:21.520 we're going to be talking about the nineteen ninety two 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:27.440 cyberpunk action film Nemesis, directed by the cyborg dream weaver 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:33.440 Albert Pune, starring French kickboxing champion Olivier Grunaire, as well 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:37.800 as our old acquaintance Tim Thomerson, who listeners might remember 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:41.960 from our episodes about Trancers two we're in which the 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:47.360 Trancer's franchise. He plays the hero of the franchise, Jack Death. 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:50.240 I think that's just d et they leave out the A. 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:54.600 And he was also in Metal Storm The Destruction of 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:57.600 Jared Sin. I mentioned that right at the beginning of 0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:01.800 this episode, because did you notice that this movie today 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:04.320 also has a Jared sin in it? 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:07.160 We have a Jared I didn't I somehow overlook the 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:08.520 fact that they were a Jared Sin. 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:13.400 Well, she is named Jared, and she is a robot, 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:17.319 a cyborg, a synthetic organism. She frequently mentions the fact 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:21.360 that she is synthetic. So I don't know, interesting overlap. Yeah, 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:25.200 so this is somehow our first Albert Pune movie on 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:28.120 Weird House Cinema. Not the first time I've considered doing 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:31.280 an Albert Pune movie, but the first time we've actually 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:34.680 gone ahead. We've gone across the starting line with one. 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:37.880 It will absolutely not be our last. I kind of 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:40.319 I feel that I am at the beginning of a 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:44.520 magnificent personal journey, which is a journey into the Pewn zone. 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:48.480 And who knows how I will be transformed if I 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:51.920 return from this journey, but I'm very excited to see 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:52.600 what it holds. 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:57.240 I too, have been hypnotized by the Albert the cinematic 0:01:57.360 --> 0:02:00.680 Albert Puniverse, if you will, and I think I currently 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:04.240 have the next three Nemesis movies in my shopping card. 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:07.920 See Too takes Out. I was trying to figure out 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:10.480 what's the best disc to get, but I don't know 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:12.880 if there is actually a good disc release of these, 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:15.440 so we may just have to go with what we 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:15.880 can get. 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:19.000 Yeah, Nemesis, as we'll discuss, though, Nemesis is I think 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:22.720 widely considered the best first stop if you're getting into 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:25.640 the works of Albert Pune. I should also mention, this 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:28.200 is our first Albert Pune movie. We have mentioned him before. 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:31.400 I believe in all previous mentions we have pronounced his 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:34.919 name wrong, and we have said Albert Pyune. An easy 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:36.920 mistake to make, especially if you're just kind of in 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:41.240 the reading the boxes and reading IMDb and letterboxed and 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:43.959 sort of you know, just processing it all in your head. 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:46.800 But it is Pune, p y u n. I had 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:50.040 always said Pyun, but I went to make sure this time, 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:52.480 and all the interviews I found of people saying his name, 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:55.000 they were saying Pune. I could not find a video 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:56.600 of him saying his own name, which is what I 0:02:56.680 --> 0:03:00.000 always try, and then I couldn't find it anywhere. But anyway, 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:02.600 to set the stage, I just want to read from 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:09.160 the back of the VHS box, because this the description 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:12.480 of the movie on the box both gives you some 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:16.440 incorrect ideas about the movie, but also explains more about 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:20.120 the movie than you will understand from watching it. So 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:25.040 it says Los Angeles twenty twenty seven, and not that year. 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:29.240 We're almost there, were almost there. Japan and America have 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:34.760 merged politically and economically. Man and machine have merged as well. 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:39.040 The scientific community has perfected cybergenics to the degree that 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:43.240 any body part can be replaced. Nemesis is an action 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:48.920 packed sci fi thriller where information is the ultimate power. Systems, cowboys, 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:54.680 information terrorists, bio enhanced gangster, and cyborg outlaws all play 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:58.200 a part in this battle of man versus machine. In 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:01.880 the future it pays to be more than human. Is 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:06.320 information the ultimate power in this story? I think guns, Yeah, 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:09.960 machine guns definitely are the dominant power in the film. 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:16.000 Sometimes rocket launcheris as well, and volcanoes can't forget so. 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:20.200 To start off, As reviewers have noted over the years, 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:25.599 Nemesis is, yes, in many ways, derivative of the big 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:29.560 movies in this like tech noir or cyberpunk subgenre, whatever 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:33.080 you call the subgenre of action movies from the eighties 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:36.360 and nineties where people wear sunglasses and long trench coats 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:41.200 and shoot machine guns, so it is definitely derivative. You 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:47.680 will notice scenes and images lifted, sometimes quite blatantly, from 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:51.960 movies like Blade Runner, Terminator, and RoboCop. That's true of 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:54.680 most of the lower budget sci fi action movies of 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:59.159 this early nineties era. It's certainly true here, but once 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:04.240 you get past that I found myself really being one 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:08.640 over by Nemesis. It started to feel fairly unique. It 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:12.080 was absolutely entertaining. I was not bored by this movie, 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:16.479 and in a strange, hard to describe sort of way, 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:21.640 I even found it kind of lovable, like it charmed me. Yeah. 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:26.040 Yeah, I had a very similar experience with the film. Yeah, 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:30.600 I kind of had my guards up. I've long been 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:33.440 aware of this movie, but I've just never gotten around 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:35.400 to seeing it. And I think for a long time 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:37.839 I kind of thought that I was better than this 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:39.760 movie in some way, like that it was going to 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:42.960 be too derivative. And it's a that's a weird kind 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:46.440 of stance to sort of subconsciously take because I love 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:49.480 a lot of derivative films. I love a lot of 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:54.760 trashy and less than perfect examples of cinema. So I 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:57.400 don't know, it's just go to I would see Nemesis 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:01.800 on the shelf, because Nemesis is definitely a video rental 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:05.240 store superstar. If you grew up going to vhs and 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:08.600 DVD rental stores, you're familiar with the poster or at 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:11.479 the box art here, and yeah, I just was always like, 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:14.360 that's not for me. I'm gonna rent Terminator instead. I'm 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:16.720 gonna rent more of the alien movies instead, I'm gonna 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:20.000 watch RoboCop or Escape from New York or whatever it 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:22.160 may be. But yeah, it's like, this is an example 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:25.240 where all of these influences have been added to the soup, 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:29.120 but then everything has come together with some unique flavors 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:31.120 and I think some unique takes. 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:34.080 Yeah. Yeah, Now I'm not gonna lie. All of those 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:36.719 movies you mentioned I think are clearly much better movies 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:40.920 than this, But that doesn't mean Nemesis is without its 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:45.919 own charms. So there's a lot that makes Nemesis a 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:50.960 counterintuitively endearing film. And one of those things, again, this 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:53.120 is gonna sound weird, but I'm gonna try to explain 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:57.000 one of those charming things about it is how incredibly 0:06:57.360 --> 0:07:02.640 unnecessarily complicated the plot is. Yes, to watch Nemesis in 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:07.880 real time without the aid of supplemental explanatory materials or 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:12.400 notes is to find yourself in this constant, rolling state 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:16.440 of who is this? What are these people talking about? Oh? Oh, okay, 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:19.600 I guess that lady was a cyborg. But somehow it 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:22.960 all works out like you never know what's going on, 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:24.880 but it just comes out in the wash. 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:27.680 And we have to stress when we watch a movie 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:31.680 for Weird House Cinema, we're giving these films dedicated viewings, 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:34.880 that it is not always a guarantee, you know, especially 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:39.360 today in our very distracted mindset where if we're watching 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:41.800 one thing, we probably have a phone in our hand 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:43.960 or we're trying to do three other things at the 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:48.360 same time. But yeah, we gave this film dedicated viewings 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:51.440 and it's still it still was very hard to make 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:51.920 sense off. 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:56.080 Still, so I usually for Weird House, I watch the 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:59.400 movie twice. I make notes, so like we are really 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.880 diving in. But still there were things that I was 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:10.320 really struggling with. But somehow in Nemesis, the confusingness itself, 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:15.440 like the baffling list of political factions and the tenuously 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:20.920 established third parties referenced in every scene, and this feeling 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:24.040 that the movie is just rushing past you and not 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:27.440 the least bit concerned if you have managed to get 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:31.000 abored and get buckled in all of this becomes a 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:38.000 hilarious and delicious texture of its own, Like it's really 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:41.640 pleasant the way the movie trades off between these long 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:46.840 stretches of baffling non exposition with sudden irruptions of like 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:52.040 demented cyborg bullet mania. Another thing I was thinking about 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:55.280 on my second viewing of the film is that it's 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:58.160 not just hard to follow because of the writing, Like 0:08:58.200 --> 0:09:02.320 the writing is very complicated and elliptical and has this 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:07.160 leaving you behind quality, But it's also because a lot 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:10.880 of the expository dialogue is hard to hear or hard 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:13.720 to understand, Like much of it is spoken by the 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:17.880 film's star, Olivier Grenaire, who no offense to him like 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:20.719 I greatly enjoyed him in this movie, but his delivery 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:26.760 is quite often flat and uninflected in a way that 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:29.560 makes it kind of hard to actually track the meaning 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:30.520 of the sentences. 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:33.480 Yeah. Another thing that I think about the I was 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:36.040 thinking about regarding the plot here is this is a 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:40.520 film that could have greatly benefited narrative wise, from an 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:43.520 outsider character who needs things explained to them, you know, 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:46.400 Jack Burton, if you will, Who's like, who are all 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:48.640 these guys we're fighting and then someone has to explain 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:51.600 it to them, or or a you know, a damsel 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:54.080 in distress, which would be, as we'll discuss, vastly out 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:57.480 of place in in a Pune movie. But you know, 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:00.360 someone like that, a character, a trope character like that, 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:02.400 he needs to be told who everyone is. We don't 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:05.199 have that. Everybody knows who everybody is. We're the ones 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:06.240 you need answers. 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:10.360 We're the exactly Yeah, we're the odd characters out here. 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:13.360 But the other thing that makes this movie confusing is 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:16.360 that multiple characters keep changing what they look like. 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:20.320 Yes, and not only like different wigs, different outfits, but 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:23.720 like this is a cyberpunk film. This is like a 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:28.199 transhuman future in which you may have a different body 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:31.240 and it can take a while to realize that. 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:31.880 In the narrative. 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:33.920 For me, that was the case where I was like, oh, 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:37.080 this is actually that character from earlier with a different 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:38.160 mind in their body. 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:41.839 Wait a minute, Jack Death is actually now has the 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:44.640 brain of the lady in the blonde wig from earlier. 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:47.000 Yeah that I didn't get that till the second time 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:47.440 I saw it. 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:49.040 Yeah. 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:54.760 Anyway, with this confusing rushing past you quality, it started 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:57.840 to feel to me like Pune is having some kind 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:01.400 of amazing in joke with himself elf, where you have 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:05.920 these scenes where characters are arguing about the Brazil Triad 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:08.840 and the Red Army hammerheads and talking about who's a 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:13.360 cyborg and who's not. And then like, obviously the target 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:16.520 audience of this film, like the VHS sci fi action 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:20.160 movie audience, zero percent of them are following all of this. 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:23.560 And then just in the middle of this conversation, oh, 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:26.440 cyborgs are cutting holes in the wall with machine guns, 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:28.000 and now it's a gunfight. 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:31.880 Yeah, machine guns in this film can be used as 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:35.280 demolition tools. They can be used to clear cut jungle. 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:37.800 Everything is on the table. 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:42.160 I also just wanted to mention you ever go on 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:45.800 IMDb and you can look at the sort of theme 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:49.120 or content tags for a movie that it gets sorted by, 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:52.640 and like the themes that people are most that people 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:57.160 most associate with a particular film. The top tags for 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:02.280 this movie on IMDb were male, rear, nudity, nude fighting, 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:06.680 man in a shower, man carries a woman over his shoulder, 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:08.160 and cyborg. 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:12.160 Those are all spot on. I think cyborgs should really 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:16.560 go first. Yeah, but yes, those are all definitely in play. 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:19.760 You know, we're going to talk later about the career 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:23.960 of Albert Pune, but he if you know anything about him, 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:27.280 you probably know that he made cyborg movies like most 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:30.559 of his movies are about cyborgs fighting in some post 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:34.640 apocalyptic landscape, and yet there is a quote by him 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:37.960 that's featured at the top of his wiki page. He 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:41.439 gave some interview years ago where he's saying, basically, I'm 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:45.000 not really interested in cyborgs or post apocalyptic stories. It 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:47.080 was just it was just a way that I could 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:50.800 make movies for the budget that I had, and I 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:52.800 don't that did not make a lot of sense to me. 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:57.120 But also I found that I found that also like sweet. 0:12:57.440 --> 0:12:59.520 I just love that. 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:04.079 Yeah, so Nemesis eff for my money. Several things really 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:07.400 impressed me with it. For starters, I think the film 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:10.640 looks great, especially with the you know, the remastered version 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:15.200 that is widely available now. It makes tremendous use of 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:22.120 like cool, ruinous locations, and especially some great locations from Tucson, Arizona, 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:26.360 and the Big Island in Hawaii, including the other worldly 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:31.080 locations in Volcano National Park, one of the most amazing 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:35.040 places I've ever traveled to. And I can't think of 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:37.320 another film off the top of my head that actually 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:40.080 utilized these landscapes. But it looks great here. 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:44.840 Absolutely, the outdoor locations featured in the film are excellent. 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:47.960 They are well chosen for the scenes that take place 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:51.240 in them, and they look beautiful. I know, I think 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:53.200 Pune was from Hawaii, wasn't he? 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:54.800 He was Hawaii born for sure. 0:13:54.880 --> 0:14:00.280 Yeah, And so I started wondering if Hawaii is just 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:03.800 like a common setting in his films. I don't know, 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:07.160 but it feels I don't know what the term is. 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:10.040 It's just like very well integrated with the narrative here, 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:12.440 even though it's not actually set in Hawaii. It's supposed 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:14.880 to be supposed to be taking place somewhere in the 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:19.960 island of Java, but the Hawaii locations just feel very 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:22.280 lived in from a creative point of view. 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:25.480 Yeah. Absolutely. And on top of those locations, you just 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:31.920 have cool atmospheric lighting in general cinematography via George Mohradian, 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:35.920 and all this helps to bring this cyberpunk dream to life. 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:39.240 And on the whole, the film achieves what it sets 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:41.960 out to do with its special effects, which is no 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:47.960 small feet. It almost never reaches beyond its grasp, which 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:51.400 is saying something for a nineties low budget me movie. 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:54.600 We've seen plenty of examples of some of films, even 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:58.000 high budget films, where you're like, yep, you try to 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:01.280 look for something you really couldn't quite achieve yet, either 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.880 from a technological standpoint or a budgetary standpoint. But I 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:07.280 feel like most of the effects in this film are like, Yeah, 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:09.360 they nailed it. I bought that. That totally worked. 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:14.160 Yeah. By contrast, you've got these nineties high budget movies 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:16.880 in the same genre that you see GI that now 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:19.880 looks like, oh, get that out of my eyes. But 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:25.520 this movie looks way better than its budget. The special effects, 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:27.600 by and large, I thought were excellent. 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:31.280 Yeah and yeah. I would also say that if Put 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:35.720 definitely creates a cyberpunk dystopia that is certainly confusing, but 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:38.600 it feels rich and fully formed, Like even though I 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:42.640 don't understand everything that's going on, I trust that he 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:46.400 understood what was going on here. Yeah, yeah, and it 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:49.360 Yeah again, it doesn't feel too derivative in the long run, 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:53.560 like everything comes out fresh, the vision feels pure. And 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:56.120 on top of that, this is an action movie and 0:15:56.160 --> 0:16:01.200 there are just absolute badasses everywhere. Yes, like everybody's a 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:04.040 badass and generally convincingly so. 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:09.400 Yes, the exact format of the badasses is it varies 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:11.960 and in all the different ways that it has made 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:15.360 manifest here. It's pleasing in each way. So some of 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:18.480 them are like comical in the way that movies from 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:20.880 this era off and are with these like big beefy 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:24.760 cyborg guys wearing sunglasses in suits going down you know, 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:28.960 hallways with gigantic guns that just looks so funny. And 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:30.920 then on the other hand, you've got you've got like 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:35.800 kerri Hiroyuki Tagawa in this movie, who is just I 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:38.040 don't know exactly what he's doing with the accent he 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:40.720 puts on in the movie, but he bring he brings 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:46.440 that like amazing villain turning hero sneer in it. Yeah, yeah, 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:48.720 awesome screen presence as always. 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:52.520 Absolutely, you know, this is something else that surprised me 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:56.400 about the film. So again it's it's cyberpunk. Cyberpunk brings 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:59.560 in a lot of noir elements. And as we've discussed 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:03.080 before in the show, if you're if you're doing doing noir, uh, 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:06.720 and then if you're doing cyberpunk in various forms, you 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:09.560 know you're gonna bring in a lot of like grittiness. 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:13.720 So we're talking about genres here that often come with 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:17.200 a great deal of baked in sexism, exploitation, and even 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:20.840 a meanness at times. And yes, Nemesis is a super 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:24.000 violent tale with ample nudity, and it's set in a 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:28.600 cyberpunk dystopia, but I found it like refreshingly kind of 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:32.800 neutral on gender and sexuality. I'm not saying it really 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:37.159 does anything with the with this neutrality, but but the 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:40.479 male and female form seem equally fetishized by the camera. 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:45.479 Character names seem somewhat randomly assigned, regardless of any gendered 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:48.800 weight that the name itself might have. Pretty much again, 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:51.960 everybody gets to be a badass, and even when with 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:54.320 a we even have a fair amount of body jumping 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:56.719 as well. That kind of blurs the like the gender 0:17:56.800 --> 0:17:59.600 line here as well. So again not arguing that Nemesis 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:03.920 is exactly progressive or anything, but it feels refreshingly free 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:06.560 of some of the shackles you might expect it to have. 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:12.240 I don't know exactly what this play is oriented toward, 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:16.360 but it does feel intentionally playful with the gender themes. 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:23.399 That the majority of the named characters have a name 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:26.399 that is more often applied to the opposite gender, or 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:29.920 have a gender neutral name, which is kind of interesting. 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:33.800 You have like dudes named Marion and women named Jared 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:39.240 and and like yeah, and characters are like body hopping 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:43.879 between different cyborg bodies of different genders and stuff. I 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:48.000 don't really know exactly what, if anything, Pewan was trying 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:49.840 to say or do with that, but it at least 0:18:49.880 --> 0:18:53.119 does feel kind of liberated and playful in that regard. 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:57.600 Yeah, it seem everything seems to play out on an 0:18:57.640 --> 0:19:02.480 assumption that in this future gender just doesn't matter anymore, 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:05.680 you know, And then but nothing's really like, you don't 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:07.840 we don't really dwell on that per se, but that 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:19.840 seems to be the case, all right, elevator pitch for 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:21.840 this movie, Joe, how would you sum this up? 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:25.520 It's a it's a magical tale of cyborgs yelling at 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:30.240 cyborgs about cyborgs. There are so many conversations of one 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:33.719 character accusing another character of being a cyborg, but then 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:36.560 you later find out that the accusing character is also 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:38.919 a cyborg, and the other character already knew that. 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:43.440 So I don't know, I think maybe three characters are 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:44.360 not cyborgs. 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:49.160 Almost everybody is a cyborg. Everybody, every character, you're either 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:51.800 going to get a revelation that, oh, turns out they 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:54.360 were a Cyborg or you're going to get a revelation 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:57.360 that they were secretly a member of the Red Army hammerheads. 0:19:57.480 --> 0:20:01.560 Yes, yeah, right, Well, if you would like to watch 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:05.240 or rewatch Nemesis before proceeding here, it is widely available 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:08.879 for home viewing, as it's pretty much always been the 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:13.080 current remastered version, you'll find streaming or for digital rental 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:16.879 most places. Looks really good. I ended up streaming this time. 0:20:17.280 --> 0:20:20.480 I believe the MVS Rewind Blu Ray, which came out 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:23.560 in twenty nineteen, is the prime physical media choice. And 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:26.880 this company also put out its sequels Nemesis two, three, 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:30.359 and four on a single release that again, I have 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:33.520 to admit it's calling to me after this viewing experience. 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:35.480 Currently hanging out in my shopping cart. 0:20:35.840 --> 0:20:38.359 I am currently having to resist the urge to bolt 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:41.320 physically away from the microphone to go click purchase on 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:43.600 the two, three and four set. So we may be 0:20:43.720 --> 0:20:47.240 coming back to the Nemesis first. 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:49.720 Yeah, especially since it's my understanding. We'll touch on this later, 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:52.480 but two, three and four are radically different, so they're 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:55.880 basically different movies. We'll definitely come back connect more about 0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:57.440 that here in a minute. But yeah, let's talk about 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:00.640 Albert Pune a bit more, the director and the rider here. 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:04.560 He lived nineteen fifty three through twenty twenty two, Hawaiian 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:08.560 born American filmmaker, best remembered for his various action packed 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:12.520 and often dystopian, cyborg themed B movies, many of which 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:15.560 have become cult classics, and a number of them were 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:18.000 commercial hits in their own ride like this is the guy, 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:21.760 I think is people have really begun to widely realize 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:25.399 like this guy had kind of, you know, almost Roger 0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:28.320 Corman energy when it came to, you know, a scrappiness 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:31.240 when it came to putting together low budget films and 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:32.159 making them work. 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:35.719 Though, can I make a point of contrast love Roger 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:41.159 No shade to Roger Corman here, but Pune Pune's movies 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:45.800 to me feel a little bit less business oriented than 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:49.639 Corman's productions. I mean, clearly there was some love of 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:52.440 cinema with Roger Corman as well, but Corman was very 0:21:52.480 --> 0:21:56.960 concerned with with you know, cranking them out and having 0:21:56.960 --> 0:21:59.439 a mind toward the budget and being on schedule and 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:02.560 all that sort of thing. The Pune movies I've seen 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:07.440 feel to me more driven by a pure and unadulterated 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:12.800 love of cinema, an infectious joy and desire to make movies. 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:16.000 I don't know if I know enough about Pute's biography 0:22:16.040 --> 0:22:18.159 to be sure of that, but that's how the movies. 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:21.080 Feel, absolutely yeah. So let's talk a little bit about 0:22:21.119 --> 0:22:25.520 his filmography here. His first film, first credited film, was 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:27.919 nineteen eighty two is the Sword and the Sorcerer, starring 0:22:27.960 --> 0:22:31.760 Lee Horsley and Richard Lynch. This became a huge hit 0:22:31.840 --> 0:22:35.439 at the time on a very small budget, so that 0:22:35.560 --> 0:22:37.480 you know, kind of like, you know, punch the card 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:41.159 moving forward. After this, he took on his first of 0:22:41.280 --> 0:22:45.520 many trips to the dystopia with eighty four's Radioactive Dreams. 0:22:45.640 --> 0:22:48.680 I've heard good things about that one. His output after 0:22:48.720 --> 0:22:52.199 this was pretty steady for decades, with him averaging at 0:22:52.280 --> 0:22:55.920 least two films a year. Some for a while anyway, 0:22:56.240 --> 0:22:58.639 And some of the highlights from this period from the 0:22:58.680 --> 0:23:02.200 period on and the run up to Nemesis included eighty 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:06.800 six is Vicious Lips, eighty eight's Alien from La MST 0:23:06.880 --> 0:23:08.880 three K fans may be familiar with that one. That's 0:23:08.880 --> 0:23:11.560 when i'd had seen Ages Ago in MST three K 0:23:11.640 --> 0:23:16.760 form eighty nine Cyborg, Joe, you're familiar. 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:18.879 With that one. I've seen that one. That is a 0:23:19.000 --> 0:23:23.359 movie about Cyborg's in a future dystopia. Sound familiar, but 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:26.040 it stars Jean Claude van Dam. I think as a 0:23:26.600 --> 0:23:31.119 non cyborg, he's just a human martial artist. That movie 0:23:31.119 --> 0:23:35.080 is notable for several things. One is, I remember when 0:23:35.080 --> 0:23:37.080 I was growing up, my dad is a big fan 0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:39.159 of that one, so like, I think we rented that 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:42.800 and watched it. It has a character. It has an 0:23:42.840 --> 0:23:47.280 actor who appears in multiple Albert pun movies named Vincent Klein, 0:23:47.640 --> 0:23:49.920 who is He's in this movie too, as like a 0:23:50.000 --> 0:23:53.119 Hinchman later who shows up in the second act. But 0:23:53.240 --> 0:23:56.919 in Cyborg he is the main villain and he plays. 0:23:57.040 --> 0:23:59.560 In fact, all the characters in Cyborg are named after 0:23:59.680 --> 0:24:03.800 guitar are guitar brands or guitar techniques. So the villain 0:24:03.840 --> 0:24:07.880 of Cyborg is named Fender Tremolo and he plays that. 0:24:07.920 --> 0:24:10.360 The hero also is named Gibson Rickenbacker. 0:24:10.480 --> 0:24:12.200 I was about to say, it's like there's got to 0:24:12.200 --> 0:24:13.080 be a Gibson in here. 0:24:13.520 --> 0:24:17.000 There's a Gibson Ricken. That's John Claude van Dam. But 0:24:17.080 --> 0:24:20.160 the villain is Fender Tremolo, and he plays a pirate 0:24:20.200 --> 0:24:24.159 who wanders around the future wasteland just talking about how 0:24:24.200 --> 0:24:27.640 he enjoys the misery. So at one point they capture 0:24:27.640 --> 0:24:29.679 a cyborg who's like, I've got a cure for the 0:24:29.720 --> 0:24:32.359 plague that destroyed the world. I can stop all this 0:24:32.480 --> 0:24:36.199 death and disease, and Vincent kleines as but I like 0:24:36.280 --> 0:24:37.760 the death and disease. 0:24:39.200 --> 0:24:42.520 Awesome. Yeah, I've never seen that. This one that that 0:24:42.640 --> 0:24:45.480 has I've long been aware of. Now I have seen 0:24:45.520 --> 0:24:48.119 the next one. I'm gonna mention nineteen nineties Captain America. 0:24:49.000 --> 0:24:50.960 I saw this a long time ago, and we've talked 0:24:51.000 --> 0:24:53.679 about doing this on the show. It may happen not 0:24:53.840 --> 0:24:54.800 too far in the future. 0:24:54.960 --> 0:24:58.600 Yeah, that's that's the Salinger one with Red Skull. Yeah. 0:24:58.640 --> 0:24:59.920 Yes, let's see. 0:25:00.000 --> 0:25:03.160 We also have ninety ones Kicks, Kickboxer two, ninety one's 0:25:03.280 --> 0:25:06.520 doll Man, that's Tim Thomerson as we'll come back to, 0:25:06.680 --> 0:25:10.480 and then of course Nemesis. Following Nemesis, some of the 0:25:10.560 --> 0:25:14.720 key highlights include ninety threes Nights as in Knights the 0:25:14.760 --> 0:25:18.680 Roundtable with Lance Hendrickson and Chris Christofferson. I was having 0:25:18.680 --> 0:25:21.520 a look at this one more dystopia here. 0:25:22.080 --> 0:25:26.520 Yeah, it's got Chris Christop's I think cyborgs wandering around 0:25:26.600 --> 0:25:30.880 one desert of wandering around in the desert in Utah. 0:25:31.320 --> 0:25:34.800 Maybe it has cyborg martial artist monks. I think in 0:25:34.840 --> 0:25:36.479 the future dystopian desert. 0:25:36.960 --> 0:25:41.040 Yeah, cool, unless see Another one is ninety three's Arcade. 0:25:41.080 --> 0:25:43.920 This is one you've been batting around for a while 0:25:44.000 --> 0:25:45.640 as the potential weird house selection. 0:25:47.000 --> 0:25:49.840 I greatly enjoyed this one as well, except for it 0:25:49.880 --> 0:25:54.239 has an incredibly distasteful element in it later on, but 0:25:54.320 --> 0:25:56.159 we we may just have to get over that and 0:25:56.200 --> 0:25:57.720 do it. I think it's going to be a Christmas 0:25:57.720 --> 0:26:02.560 movie for us, Yeah, because it's ours a young Peter 0:26:02.760 --> 0:26:06.719 Billingsley from the movie A Christmas Story. It's not actually 0:26:06.720 --> 0:26:09.600 said at Christmas, but it's a movie about an arcade 0:26:09.640 --> 0:26:12.680 game that comes alive and kills people. It's Christmas enough, 0:26:13.080 --> 0:26:15.120 Christmas enough, all right. 0:26:15.160 --> 0:26:18.040 And then Nemesis two in ninety five, so this was 0:26:18.119 --> 0:26:21.440 the first to feature bodybuilder Sue Price as the new 0:26:21.520 --> 0:26:26.000 cyborg character Alex Sinclair, so different last name, different Alex, 0:26:26.040 --> 0:26:28.920 but still an Alex and still very much a cyborg 0:26:29.320 --> 0:26:32.920 and definitely a roll crafted around it. Like an impressive 0:26:32.960 --> 0:26:38.280 physical specimen. Then came Nemesis three and four in ninety six, 0:26:38.560 --> 0:26:41.840 Omega Doom in ninety six as well, starring Rutger Hower, 0:26:42.480 --> 0:26:46.879 and Pune remained active, but I believe several projects didn't 0:26:46.920 --> 0:26:50.119 see completion late in his life due to declining health. 0:26:51.560 --> 0:26:55.000 So Nemesis had a long gestation period apparently, and Pune 0:26:55.040 --> 0:26:58.680 was apparently at one point intending Alex Rain our main 0:26:58.760 --> 0:27:01.879 character to be played by thirteen year old girl. But 0:27:01.920 --> 0:27:05.359 the producers, the Shaw brothers, this is saj h not 0:27:05.560 --> 0:27:09.760 the sahaw Hong Kong Shaw brothers. They were the producers 0:27:09.760 --> 0:27:12.560 on this, and they're like, we love what you have 0:27:12.600 --> 0:27:15.440 in mind here, we love the vision, but we have 0:27:15.680 --> 0:27:18.000 a secret weapon that we're about to unleash, or you 0:27:18.280 --> 0:27:22.280 have already unleashed on an unsuspecting box office. We have 0:27:22.400 --> 0:27:26.720 this thirty year old male kickboxer and want we want 0:27:26.800 --> 0:27:28.840 him to play the main character. So just make make 0:27:28.880 --> 0:27:33.320 adaptions adaptations here as needed. But shoehorned him in and 0:27:33.359 --> 0:27:34.000 we're good to go. 0:27:34.720 --> 0:27:38.520 Perfect. Wait, so was the thirteen year old girl in 0:27:38.560 --> 0:27:41.280 the original draft going to be an lap d east 0:27:41.359 --> 0:27:42.080 Rite commando? 0:27:42.400 --> 0:27:44.720 Like this guy is pretty much I think she was 0:27:44.760 --> 0:27:48.040 going to be, like I mean, okay, possibly a cyborg, 0:27:48.320 --> 0:27:50.720 very strong possibility, so it might not have been a 0:27:50.720 --> 0:27:53.520 thirteen year old mind in the body. And I think 0:27:53.880 --> 0:27:56.440 she was going to be like an infiltrator, so kind 0:27:56.440 --> 0:27:59.360 of like the like the street Urchins of Sherlock Holmes, 0:27:59.720 --> 0:28:03.320 but imagine that they work for an LAPD that is 0:28:03.880 --> 0:28:08.400 discussed as actually an international paramilitary force, and she would 0:28:08.400 --> 0:28:09.960 have been like reconnaissance or something. 0:28:10.520 --> 0:28:11.560 Okay, there you go. 0:28:12.119 --> 0:28:17.560 Yeah, so again, additional Nemesis movies have a cure have occurred, 0:28:17.600 --> 0:28:21.280 but Pune only directed the first four, but again, plenty 0:28:21.320 --> 0:28:25.000 of other cyborg films from Pune, two, three, and four 0:28:25.160 --> 0:28:29.080 All star Sue Price a little information about the sequels, 0:28:29.119 --> 0:28:32.120 just so I've written in case Smione was curious. Nemesis 0:28:32.160 --> 0:28:34.359 two is going to take place seventy three years in 0:28:34.400 --> 0:28:37.880 the future and it's a desert chase movie. Nemesis three 0:28:38.000 --> 0:28:40.320 is a time travel movie that takes place in nineteen 0:28:40.360 --> 0:28:44.120 ninety eight, made at least partially with leftover footage from two, 0:28:45.120 --> 0:28:49.280 and then allegedly I've read that Nemesis four was kind 0:28:49.320 --> 0:28:52.920 of an fu to Bob Weinstein when Pune was sent 0:28:53.120 --> 0:28:56.160 back to Slovakia to do reshoots on a film titled 0:28:56.200 --> 0:29:01.240 Adrenaline Fear the Rush. This had Christoph Lamber and Natasha 0:29:01.360 --> 0:29:04.840 Heinstridge chasing a ghoule in some sort of a dilapidated 0:29:05.440 --> 0:29:09.280 set or location, and he was He just went ahead 0:29:09.320 --> 0:29:11.960 and shot a fourth Nemesis movie while he was there, 0:29:12.840 --> 0:29:15.240 and it's generally considered his most naked film. 0:29:15.760 --> 0:29:18.080 Wait. Sorry, I just had to look something up because 0:29:18.120 --> 0:29:20.480 I wanted to make sure I was remembering this right. 0:29:20.800 --> 0:29:23.560 I remember, this is not the only Albert pun movie 0:29:23.720 --> 0:29:28.560 starring Christoph Lambert. He also did an action movie starring 0:29:28.600 --> 0:29:32.400 Can you believe this this duo? Could you even imagine 0:29:32.400 --> 0:29:36.520 the power of Christoph Lambert and Iced Tea? Oh god, 0:29:37.120 --> 0:29:40.520 it's like a buddy action movie with those two. That's perfect. 0:29:40.560 --> 0:29:41.720 I mean it had to be. 0:29:42.360 --> 0:29:46.040 Called Mean Guns nineteen ninety seven. I haven't seen it, 0:29:46.080 --> 0:29:48.560 so I can't vouch, but I mean, what could it be? 0:29:48.600 --> 0:29:49.280 A bit amazing? 0:29:49.400 --> 0:29:51.280 I think it has a following. I was looking around 0:29:51.320 --> 0:29:54.360 at different threads for people were recommending Pean films and 0:29:54.400 --> 0:29:59.000 some were naming that film. So yeah, again, I'm kind 0:29:59.000 --> 0:30:01.120 of excited about watching or Nemesis films I'm at the 0:30:01.320 --> 0:30:02.960 you know, I'm at that point where I have to 0:30:02.960 --> 0:30:05.840 ask a real existential question, like how many more movie 0:30:05.920 --> 0:30:08.560 viewings do I have left in my life? Do three 0:30:08.600 --> 0:30:11.760 of them really need to be Nemesis movies? I don't 0:30:11.760 --> 0:30:12.680 know hard to answer. 0:30:13.320 --> 0:30:15.840 You got at least three left, and I think I 0:30:15.880 --> 0:30:20.600 think we know what those three are gonna be. Yeah, yeah, 0:30:20.640 --> 0:30:24.120 So you know how to describe what's going on with 0:30:24.200 --> 0:30:27.680 Albert Pune. I loved a Nemesis and I have and 0:30:27.760 --> 0:30:34.600 it has this cheery, in just deeply kind of goofy 0:30:34.800 --> 0:30:40.520 enjoyable quality. I have seen some people online comparing Pune 0:30:40.560 --> 0:30:47.120 to more famous directors of just notably failed movies, like 0:30:47.160 --> 0:30:50.640 comparing him to ed Wood, and I can see the 0:30:50.640 --> 0:30:54.640 comparison in the sense of making low budget B movies 0:30:54.760 --> 0:30:58.040 with an infectious sense of joy and excitement. But I 0:30:58.080 --> 0:31:00.880 do not see that comparison in in terms of the 0:31:01.000 --> 0:31:04.200 level of competence in making the films. I think the 0:31:04.800 --> 0:31:08.719 Pune movies I've seen, and especially Nemesis, are definitely several 0:31:08.760 --> 0:31:11.120 steps above what you're getting with Edwood movies. 0:31:11.320 --> 0:31:13.959 Yeah, with ed Wood, I feel like there was there 0:31:14.000 --> 0:31:17.320 was definitely passion there. There were also you know, various 0:31:17.360 --> 0:31:20.720 problems going on for him, he had his demons, but 0:31:22.160 --> 0:31:24.600 there was also a sense of like, my passion has 0:31:24.640 --> 0:31:27.600 been realized as cinema and so now we're good to go. 0:31:27.600 --> 0:31:30.440 It doesn't matter how good that cinema is, but it 0:31:30.480 --> 0:31:34.120 has been cemented where you know, with Pune, like, yeah, 0:31:34.520 --> 0:31:37.800 I feel like, especially with Nemesis, here there does seem 0:31:37.800 --> 0:31:41.000 to be a real passion and determination to make it 0:31:41.040 --> 0:31:42.440 look good and make it entertaining. 0:31:43.040 --> 0:31:48.600 Yeah, Like Nemesis is funny, but it also has genuine virtues. 0:31:50.400 --> 0:31:53.720 Yeah, And so I think you it seems to me 0:31:53.960 --> 0:31:58.360 you see more sort of historic Pune dismissal. And since 0:31:58.440 --> 0:32:01.280 his passing, I think there has been a critical reevaluation 0:32:01.360 --> 0:32:04.920 of his work, certainly in the circles of film fans, 0:32:05.240 --> 0:32:08.360 where people you know, admire BAT movies and find things 0:32:08.440 --> 0:32:10.760 to love about BT movies. Certainly that the world that 0:32:10.760 --> 0:32:14.360 we occupy, And so I've seen him singled out for 0:32:14.440 --> 0:32:19.040 his visual style. He's resourceful and even guerrilla style production sensibilities, 0:32:19.320 --> 0:32:23.120 his serious treatment of cyberpunk themes even when embedded in 0:32:23.240 --> 0:32:27.040 just delirious crazy action, and the strong use of female leads, 0:32:27.080 --> 0:32:30.160 which you know certainly can be found in multiple productions 0:32:30.160 --> 0:32:30.400 of his. 0:32:31.160 --> 0:32:33.880 Yeah, this is the place in the outline where I 0:32:33.880 --> 0:32:36.760 actually took down that quote of his about cyborgs. So 0:32:37.000 --> 0:32:40.280 what he said was, I have really no interest in 0:32:40.320 --> 0:32:43.120 cyborg's and I've never really had any interest in post 0:32:43.200 --> 0:32:47.200 apocalyptic stories or settings. It just seemed that those situations 0:32:47.240 --> 0:32:49.960 presented a way for me to make movies with very 0:32:49.960 --> 0:32:53.280 little money and to explore ideas that I really wanted 0:32:53.280 --> 0:32:57.760 to explore. And you know what, I believe him. Obviously 0:32:57.800 --> 0:33:01.160 he made lots of cyborg movies, post to apocalyptic movies, 0:33:01.680 --> 0:33:05.000 but it's clear that at some level he just wanted 0:33:05.040 --> 0:33:09.000 to tell stories and hash out something about conflicts about 0:33:09.040 --> 0:33:12.680 identity within a character or maybe like fear of loss 0:33:12.680 --> 0:33:15.680 of humanity or something, and the cyborg setting was a 0:33:15.720 --> 0:33:18.760 way that you could do that with, you know, maybe 0:33:18.800 --> 0:33:20.200 a way that you could do that in a way 0:33:20.200 --> 0:33:23.640 that you could secure funding to make a movie that 0:33:23.760 --> 0:33:27.240 touched on those kinds of themes. So I don't know, 0:33:27.720 --> 0:33:31.520 hats off to Albert Pune. I am loving what I'm 0:33:31.560 --> 0:33:32.280 seeing so far. 0:33:32.880 --> 0:33:35.239 All Right, Well, let's get into the cast here, and 0:33:37.120 --> 0:33:39.840 I'm going to try and lay things out based on faction, 0:33:40.440 --> 0:33:43.800 which might be might be a mistake, but hopefully this 0:33:43.880 --> 0:33:46.640 will make things a little easier to follow. 0:33:47.160 --> 0:33:50.040 Well, well, hold on, before we do that, can I 0:33:50.080 --> 0:33:51.880 just say I think this is a good idea because 0:33:51.880 --> 0:33:54.680 it'll make more sense to talk about the movie this way. 0:33:55.280 --> 0:33:57.560 But I do just want to flag before we lay 0:33:57.600 --> 0:34:01.080 things out by faction that I fear by doing that 0:34:01.440 --> 0:34:04.360 and by talking about the plot the way we normally do, 0:34:04.640 --> 0:34:08.359 like explaining all the details and organizing the characters into 0:34:08.400 --> 0:34:12.440 their factions, we might give the wrong idea about the 0:34:12.520 --> 0:34:15.839 feeling created when you're watching this movie for the first time, 0:34:15.880 --> 0:34:19.640 which is again, you're watching and it's like a for me, 0:34:19.920 --> 0:34:24.160 a thoroughly entertaining, enjoyable experience. But also I have no 0:34:24.280 --> 0:34:27.359 idea what's going on. I don't know who's working for who. 0:34:27.840 --> 0:34:30.600 I don't know who these characters are, or or like 0:34:30.640 --> 0:34:32.000 who's a Cyborgan why? 0:34:33.440 --> 0:34:36.839 Or who indeed is the villains the I mean we exactly, Yeah, 0:34:37.160 --> 0:34:39.879 I really it's a tough question to answer for sure. 0:34:40.760 --> 0:34:44.080 So anyway, just please listeners keep that in mind. We're 0:34:44.120 --> 0:34:46.960 going to be presenting the story to you in a 0:34:46.960 --> 0:34:52.000 way that I think is maybe artificially well organized and clear. 0:34:52.560 --> 0:34:55.239 Just try to imagine if you're watching the movie, this 0:34:55.400 --> 0:34:58.560 information is coming at you in random order in a 0:34:58.600 --> 0:35:01.919 way that like you will be baffled by. Yes. 0:35:02.080 --> 0:35:05.000 And also nobody stays in their faction pretty much. 0:35:05.040 --> 0:35:08.680 There. It's a lot of faction jumping. But sorry, you 0:35:08.719 --> 0:35:10.400 wanted to start with the LAPD faction. 0:35:10.760 --> 0:35:13.800 Yes, And really that's where our main character, I guess, 0:35:13.880 --> 0:35:16.080 sort of starts off. Like he's essentially kind of like 0:35:16.120 --> 0:35:20.320 a freelancer for them for the majority of the picture, 0:35:20.480 --> 0:35:23.920 sort of. This is the character Alex Rain, played by 0:35:24.000 --> 0:35:29.160 Olivier Greunaire born nineteen sixty French martial artist and kickboxer 0:35:29.520 --> 0:35:32.840 turned actor. This was only his second film role, following 0:35:32.880 --> 0:35:35.600 his starring role in the nineteen ninety martial arts film 0:35:35.600 --> 0:35:39.000 Angel Town, and he followed Nemesis up with a long 0:35:39.120 --> 0:35:43.200 and ongoing career of action roles, a little fight choreography 0:35:43.200 --> 0:35:46.120 here and there, and I'm not familiar with the vast 0:35:46.120 --> 0:35:50.320 majority of it. I say this with love, but I 0:35:50.360 --> 0:35:53.040 think a lot of it gets into that realm of 0:35:53.280 --> 0:35:56.920 pure action shlock that is generally not my thing. A 0:35:56.960 --> 0:35:58.879 lot of people love it, and there's some pure action 0:35:58.960 --> 0:36:02.799 shlock that I love. This guy went on to be 0:36:02.920 --> 0:36:06.680 like a major force, I would say, in the home 0:36:06.760 --> 0:36:08.400 video action schwock. 0:36:08.080 --> 0:36:13.960 World, Yeah, the body oil centric action film. Yeah. I 0:36:14.080 --> 0:36:17.360 was watching a bit of behind the scenes documentary footage 0:36:17.760 --> 0:36:21.440 and there's a snippet of Grenaire reflecting on his experience 0:36:21.520 --> 0:36:25.520 making this film. I genuinely can't tell if he's talking 0:36:25.520 --> 0:36:28.880 about his acting performance in the movie or his personal 0:36:28.920 --> 0:36:33.080 behavior on set, but he says something like, I'm sure 0:36:33.120 --> 0:36:35.759 I was acting very strange, but that is unavoidable when 0:36:35.800 --> 0:36:38.480 you're at four percent body fat. 0:36:39.239 --> 0:36:42.520 Well, he's definitely keeping it very tight in this film, 0:36:42.760 --> 0:36:46.200 as are most of the actors. I get the impression 0:36:46.239 --> 0:36:50.279 that's kind of a pune standard at least a fair 0:36:50.360 --> 0:36:52.920 number of actors in like tip top physical shape. 0:36:53.400 --> 0:36:57.360 Yeah sos. We get scenes of him shirtless, just exercising, 0:36:57.440 --> 0:37:00.840 running in the sand dunes, and a lot of I 0:37:00.840 --> 0:37:04.239 don't know, accentuation of the of the muscled form, like 0:37:04.320 --> 0:37:07.600 it's it's all there. But you know what, Actually, there's 0:37:07.600 --> 0:37:10.200 a there's a lingering on all sorts of body types 0:37:10.200 --> 0:37:13.720 in the movie, because it's not just muscleman. We also 0:37:13.800 --> 0:37:18.880 get the camera has a protracted love affair with Thomas James, 0:37:18.960 --> 0:37:22.759 but later on and yeah, so there's just all kinds 0:37:22.760 --> 0:37:24.200 of stuff going on with bodies. 0:37:24.400 --> 0:37:26.719 Yeah, Like I say that the camera is kind of 0:37:27.520 --> 0:37:31.240 pan sexual in this film. That's what I got from it. Yeah, 0:37:31.280 --> 0:37:34.600 all right, moving on through the LAPD again, not the LAPD, 0:37:34.760 --> 0:37:37.040 you know, but a future LAPD that may go on 0:37:37.160 --> 0:37:38.719 random missions to Indonesia. 0:37:39.239 --> 0:37:45.560 Yeah, international as I think you said, international paramilitary organization. Yeah, yeah, 0:37:45.600 --> 0:37:48.480 with like a strike force. And only one scene as 0:37:48.520 --> 0:37:50.480 far as I know, takes place in LA which is 0:37:50.520 --> 0:37:57.200 the opening scene. 0:38:00.280 --> 0:38:02.960 All right. The leader, I guess, of this faction, or 0:38:02.960 --> 0:38:05.120 at least for the purposes of our plot. The main 0:38:05.719 --> 0:38:10.120 LAPD figure is Commissioner Farnsworth, and he was played by 0:38:10.200 --> 0:38:13.760 Tim Thomerson born nineteen forty six. Yeah, this is Jack Death. 0:38:14.840 --> 0:38:18.040 Thomason started out, as we've discussed discussed before on the 0:38:18.080 --> 0:38:21.160 show as a stand up comic, but then did a 0:38:21.239 --> 0:38:23.800 whole lot of TV and film work, during which he 0:38:23.840 --> 0:38:28.040 became a frequent player in Charles Band films. This is 0:38:28.040 --> 0:38:31.480 our third Thomerson movie. We've covered eighty three's Metal Storm, 0:38:32.080 --> 0:38:36.399 we've covered ninety one's Transfers two, and I'm sure we'll 0:38:36.400 --> 0:38:38.239 cover more of his films in the future. As His 0:38:38.280 --> 0:38:41.880 filmography includes the likes of eighty five Zone Troopers, eighty 0:38:41.920 --> 0:38:45.280 seven's Cherry two thousand, that's one that I fondly remember, 0:38:45.520 --> 0:38:48.279 ninety one's doll Man, ninety two's Bad Channels, and of 0:38:48.320 --> 0:38:50.000 course the other Transfers movies. 0:38:50.920 --> 0:38:54.080 I think Dollman is also a Pune film, is it? Yeah, 0:38:54.400 --> 0:38:59.040 where Thomerson plays like a dirty, hairy alien cop who 0:38:59.080 --> 0:39:00.280 is only a foot tall. 0:39:02.760 --> 0:39:04.520 But he's not the titular doll. 0:39:04.320 --> 0:39:07.360 Man I think he is. He's like a foot tall, yeah. 0:39:07.280 --> 0:39:10.279 Yeah, yeah, Okay, but he's not a hairy alien. He's 0:39:10.280 --> 0:39:11.360 battling a hairy alien. 0:39:12.200 --> 0:39:15.640 No, he's playing Sorry, he's like a dirty hairy style, 0:39:16.040 --> 0:39:20.319 dirty tough, dirty Harry, like a tough talking, no nonsense, 0:39:20.840 --> 0:39:24.319 brutal cop. Okay, but he's an alien who's only the 0:39:24.360 --> 0:39:25.080 foot tall. 0:39:24.960 --> 0:39:29.800 Okay, okay, gotcha? Uh? In this he is an lapd 0:39:30.120 --> 0:39:34.400 guy wearing a suit, sunglasses, generally has a machine gun, 0:39:34.920 --> 0:39:38.000 and it's just a I think, generally a great villain here. 0:39:38.360 --> 0:39:41.800 We've seen him with natural hero swagger in the Transfers films. 0:39:41.800 --> 0:39:44.520 He's great in those those movies, just a real joy, 0:39:45.120 --> 0:39:47.960 but here effortlessly eases into the role of a silver 0:39:48.040 --> 0:39:49.240 hair at authority villain. 0:39:50.000 --> 0:39:53.600 There is something beautiful about the way that Tim Thomerson 0:39:54.600 --> 0:39:58.879 simultaneously has no idea what's going on in this movie, 0:39:58.960 --> 0:40:02.040 much like the audience, but also is on fire in 0:40:02.120 --> 0:40:05.400 this role. It's kind of captured. And again, I was 0:40:05.400 --> 0:40:08.799 looking at some behind the scenes interviews and they're talking 0:40:08.840 --> 0:40:11.680 to him. He says something like, I'm playing the villain 0:40:11.760 --> 0:40:16.200 of this film. Basically I'm some kind of robot. But 0:40:16.280 --> 0:40:21.000 in his scenes he brings this like the smoldering Skynet 0:40:21.040 --> 0:40:24.960 eyes intensity. So I don't know, that's like a really 0:40:25.080 --> 0:40:29.279 wonderful combination. It's obviously over his head, but also he's 0:40:29.320 --> 0:40:30.600 all in. Yeah. 0:40:30.680 --> 0:40:33.560 Now, obviously his character has some underlings. One of the 0:40:33.680 --> 0:40:38.439 underlings is Germaine. Germaine is played by Nicholas Guests born 0:40:38.520 --> 0:40:41.840 nineteen fifty one and Guest, I think without a doubt 0:40:42.000 --> 0:40:44.720 is best known to moviegoers for his role as Todd 0:40:45.120 --> 0:40:48.480 of Todd and Margo, the much traumatized neighbors of Clark 0:40:48.520 --> 0:40:51.320 Griswold in nineteen eighty nine's Christmas Vacation. 0:40:51.880 --> 0:40:54.000 Oh okay, I didn't make this connection that it was 0:40:54.040 --> 0:40:59.080 the same guy. Yeah, So he plays a I guess 0:40:59.080 --> 0:41:01.680 he's supposed to be aind of pitiable but also not 0:41:01.960 --> 0:41:04.799 very sympathetic character in that movie. In this movie, he's 0:41:04.920 --> 0:41:06.040 just a slimy creep. 0:41:06.360 --> 0:41:11.359 Yeah, yeah, he's slimy. This actor had a bit part 0:41:11.360 --> 0:41:14.680 in Wrath Khan and it's also notable that he's the 0:41:14.719 --> 0:41:16.360 younger brother of Christopher Guest. 0:41:17.040 --> 0:41:21.799 Okay, in this movie, his character's name is Germane and 0:41:21.880 --> 0:41:25.560 he has a German accent. I don't know if they 0:41:25.600 --> 0:41:28.640 ever explained like his nationality being German and if that 0:41:28.680 --> 0:41:30.400 has any significance in the film. 0:41:30.600 --> 0:41:33.759 Yeah, he's not the only German member of the LAPD though, 0:41:33.800 --> 0:41:37.600 because we also have the character what Merits played. 0:41:37.320 --> 0:41:41.480 By Brian James Blade runner y Yeah. Yeah. 0:41:41.520 --> 0:41:44.640 Most well known for playing the replicant Leon and eighty 0:41:44.680 --> 0:41:48.040 two's Blade Runner. He lived forty five through nineteen ninety nine, 0:41:48.760 --> 0:41:51.120 but he also had a million other tough guy, heavy 0:41:51.120 --> 0:41:55.120 and weirdo roles throughout his career. Played a general in 0:41:55.200 --> 0:41:58.280 ninety seven's The Fifth Element. He's also in Cherry two thousand, 0:41:58.560 --> 0:42:01.440 did a lot of sequels, a lot of TV's, a 0:42:01.440 --> 0:42:06.120 lot of TV shows. So here though, solid goon performance 0:42:06.680 --> 0:42:09.200 but with a weird phony German accent for some reason. 0:42:09.320 --> 0:42:12.480 Yeah, he just stands around saying like we have him 0:42:12.520 --> 0:42:18.640 in our sights now. He comes off like he feels 0:42:18.680 --> 0:42:21.400 like a like a Nazi dentist from an old movie. 0:42:21.640 --> 0:42:26.560 Yes, we also have a cyborg villain. I think this 0:42:26.600 --> 0:42:29.920 guy's lapd but maybe not. Again, maybe it doesn't even matter. 0:42:31.120 --> 0:42:33.160 Maybe he's Marion Mary. 0:42:33.239 --> 0:42:34.440 I don't know who this guy is. 0:42:34.560 --> 0:42:37.920 Yeah, he's he has a thing where his face opens 0:42:38.000 --> 0:42:39.799 up and there's a blaster and then we get that 0:42:39.880 --> 0:42:42.279 he's in that awesome slide battle late in the movie. 0:42:42.760 --> 0:42:45.560 I love that part. He's one of the characters who, oh, 0:42:45.680 --> 0:42:47.640 guess he was a cyborg because he's got a gun 0:42:47.680 --> 0:42:48.399 inside his face. 0:42:48.480 --> 0:42:50.239 Yeah, and I don't know who he works for, but 0:42:50.280 --> 0:42:53.360 he is opposed to our hero, so he is. 0:42:53.400 --> 0:42:56.480 I think he's he's described as a systems cowboy. 0:42:56.800 --> 0:42:59.879 Okay, whatever that is. He's one of those. He's played 0:42:59.880 --> 0:43:02.839 by Tom Matthews born nineteen fifty eight. Who is this guy? Well, 0:43:02.880 --> 0:43:05.680 American actor whose other credits include eighty five is the 0:43:05.719 --> 0:43:08.280 Return of the Living Dead and eighty six is Friday 0:43:08.320 --> 0:43:09.840 the Thirteenth Jason Lives. 0:43:10.400 --> 0:43:13.720 That's Friday Part six. The first one with a zombie. 0:43:13.800 --> 0:43:18.200 Jason in Oh Nice, Yeah he plays he plays what's 0:43:18.239 --> 0:43:22.919 his name, Tommy Jarvis in that one the hero, but yeah, 0:43:23.000 --> 0:43:25.160 also love him in Return of the Living Dead, where 0:43:25.160 --> 0:43:28.440 he is the unfortunate new employee of the storage unit 0:43:28.480 --> 0:43:30.000 where they find the zombie. 0:43:30.239 --> 0:43:34.080 The toxin gotcha, all right, So that's LAPD. Then we 0:43:34.120 --> 0:43:36.319 have this other faction that we've already referred to, the 0:43:36.400 --> 0:43:41.360 Red Army Hammerheads. This is a militant anti cyborg rebel 0:43:41.400 --> 0:43:44.040 group and they also seem multinational. 0:43:44.800 --> 0:43:47.839 Yes, I did not figure out what was going on 0:43:47.920 --> 0:43:50.520 with them until towards the end of my first viewing 0:43:50.560 --> 0:43:52.600 of the movie, but they are actually a major player 0:43:52.600 --> 0:43:56.640 in the plot. And yeah, their politics are they are 0:43:56.719 --> 0:43:58.439 anti cyborg in some way. 0:43:58.800 --> 0:44:02.359 So these characters made the only characters we can we 0:44:02.360 --> 0:44:04.799 can give like a ninety five percent guarantee that they're 0:44:04.840 --> 0:44:07.120 not cyborgs, but no more than ninety five. I think 0:44:07.200 --> 0:44:10.520 ninety five is the cap for any Albert pun movie, 0:44:10.600 --> 0:44:12.080 regardless of genre. 0:44:13.120 --> 0:44:16.160 Exactly because they The thing is with most of the 0:44:16.200 --> 0:44:20.440 Red Army Cyborg the Red Army Hammerhead characters, they dress 0:44:20.600 --> 0:44:23.080 like cyborgs, so like some of them show up in 0:44:23.160 --> 0:44:26.320 the all black or with the trench coat and the sunglasses, 0:44:26.360 --> 0:44:29.040 which is how the cyborgs are signaled when we see them. 0:44:29.160 --> 0:44:30.239 So I don't know. 0:44:30.440 --> 0:44:32.080 Yeah, they're using a lot of the tech, but it's 0:44:32.080 --> 0:44:34.319 like somebody at some point comes along and says, that's 0:44:34.320 --> 0:44:36.080 a cool remote you got. Wouldn't it be better if 0:44:36.080 --> 0:44:38.160 it were like integrated with your body? And they're like, nope, 0:44:38.160 --> 0:44:40.480 I draw the line right there, but I'll still use 0:44:40.520 --> 0:44:44.160 the remote. So the leader of this group again at 0:44:44.280 --> 0:44:46.760 least for the purposes of our plot, is this character 0:44:46.960 --> 0:44:51.919 ang You Live, played by Carrie Hirooki Takawa, who lived 0:44:52.040 --> 0:44:54.920 nineteen fifty through twenty twenty five. So we we previously 0:44:54.960 --> 0:44:58.440 talked about Takawa in our episode on ninety five's Mortal Kombat, 0:44:58.480 --> 0:45:00.640 in which you of course played the villain sh Con, 0:45:01.360 --> 0:45:04.960 and sadly the actor passed away late last year. So 0:45:05.080 --> 0:45:06.640 in general, I would say go back and listen to 0:45:06.680 --> 0:45:09.560 our Mortal Kombat episode if you if you want to 0:45:09.560 --> 0:45:12.400 hear more about him, more about his other film roles. 0:45:12.440 --> 0:45:15.200 But yeah, this is a guy, a guy who always 0:45:15.239 --> 0:45:19.360 had great villain swagger, great in large roles, great in 0:45:19.400 --> 0:45:23.160 small roles. Yeah, he'll be missed, but he's pretty pretty 0:45:23.200 --> 0:45:26.320 great here, and he is surprisingly not really the villain. 0:45:26.880 --> 0:45:29.759 He's the leader of the good guy faction to the 0:45:29.840 --> 0:45:31.920 extent that you can trust any faction in this film. 0:45:32.480 --> 0:45:35.080 He seems like a villain when we first meet him, 0:45:35.160 --> 0:45:37.640 but I get well, actually, this may be kind of 0:45:37.640 --> 0:45:40.440 a grim dark, post apocalyptic world in which the factions 0:45:40.440 --> 0:45:46.400 are morally gray. Even the relatively good faction is pretty ruthless. 0:45:46.440 --> 0:45:49.000 So yeah, so he's the leader of them. We don't 0:45:49.040 --> 0:45:51.400 realize he's the leader when we first meet him, but 0:45:51.800 --> 0:45:54.640 as with his roles in the other movies we've watched, 0:45:54.680 --> 0:45:57.640 as within Mortal Kombat, he just owns the screen in 0:45:57.680 --> 0:45:58.640 every scene he's in. 0:45:59.080 --> 0:46:04.080 Yeah, absolutely, even with that weird accident. Yeah, okay. Another 0:46:04.160 --> 0:46:09.880 member of the Hammerheads is Max Impact. Max Impact pops 0:46:09.960 --> 0:46:13.520 up late in the movie, and she is played by 0:46:13.719 --> 0:46:16.960 Merle Kennedy born nineteen sixty seven. This is our scrappy 0:46:17.000 --> 0:46:20.960 tour guide and rebel in Java. She previously appeared in 0:46:21.040 --> 0:46:23.439 ninety one's Dollar Man and was active on screen tool 0:46:23.440 --> 0:46:26.520 around in two thousand and two, with lots of appearances 0:46:26.520 --> 0:46:29.319 in TV shows and such genre pictures as ninety four's 0:46:29.440 --> 0:46:33.040 Night of the Demons. Two ninety five's Leprechaun three and 0:46:33.120 --> 0:46:34.919 the two thousand and two film May. 0:46:37.200 --> 0:46:39.680 I don't want to be unkind, but I'm gonna say 0:46:39.719 --> 0:46:46.160 some curious, curious acting choices with this character here especially, 0:46:46.600 --> 0:46:48.520 it really comes out in the scenes that are just 0:46:48.680 --> 0:46:53.240 Olivier Grenier and Max Impact talking to each other where 0:46:53.480 --> 0:46:56.360 You're just like, what is happening here? Yeah? 0:46:56.400 --> 0:46:59.920 These are not the heavy lifters when it comes to 0:47:00.080 --> 0:47:03.960 dialogue in this movie. They're both in tremendous physical shape though, 0:47:04.080 --> 0:47:06.720 so there's at least halfway there. 0:47:07.280 --> 0:47:10.560 Well, you know what, though I loved her scenes, like 0:47:11.000 --> 0:47:17.400 the line deliveries were very bizarrely formed, and so the 0:47:17.480 --> 0:47:21.960 character brings an incredibly strange energy. But I was never 0:47:22.000 --> 0:47:24.120 bored while I was watching them, Like their scenes were 0:47:24.160 --> 0:47:25.080 highly entertaining. 0:47:25.520 --> 0:47:28.799 She felt to me like a combination of Peter Pan 0:47:28.960 --> 0:47:32.160 and tinker Bell, but with a rocket launcher. 0:47:32.719 --> 0:47:37.560 Yes, yeah, like highly violent martial arts Peter Pan tinker Bell. Yeah, 0:47:37.640 --> 0:47:38.920 I agree, all right. 0:47:38.960 --> 0:47:41.160 And then another member of the Hammerheads we have the 0:47:41.239 --> 0:47:46.560 character Yoshirohan, played by Yuji Okamoto born nineteen fifty nine, 0:47:46.560 --> 0:47:49.000 American actor with credits going back to eighty four. He 0:47:49.040 --> 0:47:51.040 even pops up in eighty six is The Karate Kid 0:47:51.080 --> 0:47:55.480 Part two. Other credits, often small or background roles, include 0:47:55.560 --> 0:47:59.799 ninety three's Robot Wars, ninety seven's Contact, two thousand's Fortress two, 0:48:00.239 --> 0:48:02.839 two thousand and six is Big Mama's House two, and 0:48:02.880 --> 0:48:08.280 twenty ten's Inception. Still Active also produces all right, okay, 0:48:08.800 --> 0:48:11.799 freelance cyborgs and associates. This is kind of this isn't 0:48:11.800 --> 0:48:13.759 really a faction. This is kind of I guess the 0:48:13.840 --> 0:48:15.440 rest and I think all. 0:48:15.320 --> 0:48:16.960 The Lost and Found bucket of gay. 0:48:17.040 --> 0:48:21.000 Yeah, and they're all cyborgs. So we have this character, Jared, 0:48:21.080 --> 0:48:23.600 who's going to be important later on. Played by Marjorie 0:48:23.880 --> 0:48:28.720 Monahan born nineteen sixty four American actress, active from nineteen 0:48:28.800 --> 0:48:31.240 ninety through about two thousand and five, mostly on TV, 0:48:31.760 --> 0:48:34.800 but with small supporting roles in such films as nineteen nineties, 0:48:34.840 --> 0:48:37.640 The Bonfire, The Vanities, and ninety ones. Regarding Henry, she 0:48:37.719 --> 0:48:42.399 did seven episodes of Babylon five, and she was also 0:48:42.480 --> 0:48:45.400 in a mid ninety sci fi series called Space Rangers. 0:48:46.840 --> 0:48:51.239 I would say, cool presence, very cool voice. She's going 0:48:51.280 --> 0:48:53.200 to not have a body for a large Porsche of 0:48:53.239 --> 0:48:55.120 the picture. She's going to be in a essentially in 0:48:55.160 --> 0:48:55.880 an iPhone. 0:48:56.040 --> 0:48:59.120 Did you get the sense that this character they were 0:48:59.160 --> 0:49:02.680 trying to create a Meg Foster like presence with her. 0:49:02.920 --> 0:49:05.320 That's the feeling I got, and I think she mostly 0:49:05.360 --> 0:49:05.879 gets there. 0:49:06.080 --> 0:49:08.640 I think so, yeah, yeah, but this was Yeah, you 0:49:08.640 --> 0:49:11.839 could easily imagine Meg Foster doing this role. All right, 0:49:11.920 --> 0:49:15.360 Another cyborg character we have, Sam, Sam is going to 0:49:15.400 --> 0:49:18.520 be very important? Is Sam kind of the leader of 0:49:18.560 --> 0:49:21.680 this group or the second and hard to say? 0:49:22.239 --> 0:49:24.680 Hard to say. Sam is a character who does not 0:49:24.960 --> 0:49:28.359 seem important at all when you actually meet her, but 0:49:28.440 --> 0:49:32.680 then many scenes later, characters are talking about her and 0:49:32.800 --> 0:49:35.160 making you realize, like, oh, I really should have paid 0:49:35.160 --> 0:49:36.279 attention to who that was. 0:49:36.360 --> 0:49:38.319 Yeah, it's like, I guess she's the main villain now 0:49:38.400 --> 0:49:40.640 you've realized later in the film, But. 0:49:40.760 --> 0:49:43.600 You never see her again in the form she took 0:49:43.640 --> 0:49:46.040 when you've originally met her. You only see her in 0:49:46.080 --> 0:49:48.240 an altered body later on. Yes. 0:49:48.840 --> 0:49:52.560 So Sam is played by Margene Holden born nineteen sixty four, 0:49:52.600 --> 0:49:55.440 and we have another Mortal Kombat connection because she played 0:49:55.880 --> 0:50:01.400 Shiva the fore Armed Warrior in ninety seven's Annihilation. She 0:50:01.480 --> 0:50:04.040 also had parts in eighty nine Strip to Kill Two 0:50:04.120 --> 0:50:08.239 Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure eighty nine's Doctor Caligari, and 0:50:08.320 --> 0:50:12.480 two John Carpenter films, Vampires and Ghost of Mars. All right, 0:50:13.000 --> 0:50:17.320 so some fun flicks in there. Okay, we also have Julian. 0:50:17.920 --> 0:50:21.200 Julian is definitely a cyborg and has some great scenes. 0:50:21.360 --> 0:50:25.279 Played by Deborah Shelton born nineteen forty eight. She was 0:50:25.280 --> 0:50:28.160 Miss USA nineteen seventy. She was a nineteen seventy four 0:50:28.200 --> 0:50:31.920 Playboy cover girl. I had to look this up. This 0:50:32.000 --> 0:50:35.000 episode of this edition rather of Playboy that she's in, 0:50:35.120 --> 0:50:38.360 also featured a spread on Sean Connery and Charlotte Rampling 0:50:38.880 --> 0:50:42.960 about the movie Zardas, and featured fiction by Joyce Carol Oates. 0:50:43.840 --> 0:50:47.920 Wow. Yeah, what does that issue your sell for on eBay? 0:50:49.560 --> 0:50:52.160 I don't know some of these I think you can 0:50:52.200 --> 0:50:55.160 pick them. They publish so many copies of these things. 0:50:55.160 --> 0:50:57.000 You can probably get them reasonably cheap if you don't 0:50:57.000 --> 0:50:57.880 care about quality. 0:50:58.560 --> 0:51:02.560 Does Playboy still published literary fiction? That would be hilarious 0:51:02.600 --> 0:51:03.319 if it still did. 0:51:03.640 --> 0:51:06.160 Yeah, I don't know that bit. I mean, I don't know. 0:51:06.280 --> 0:51:10.240 Playboy reachers right in and let us know. But certainly 0:51:10.280 --> 0:51:13.920 back in the day they did other credits for Shelton 0:51:14.000 --> 0:51:19.080 include eighty two's Blood Tide that has let's say we've 0:51:19.080 --> 0:51:21.640 looked at that one before. That's like a sea creature movie. 0:51:22.400 --> 0:51:25.520 She's also in Brian de Palmer's Body Double from eighty four. 0:51:26.239 --> 0:51:28.080 I think she plays a pretty major character in that 0:51:28.280 --> 0:51:32.080 and has high billing. Certainly, I think brings the body 0:51:32.160 --> 0:51:35.440 to that picture circuitry Man two and ninety four in 0:51:35.520 --> 0:51:40.200 three seasons of TV's Dallas's. 0:51:39.560 --> 0:51:43.080 She is confident and commanding in this movie. She plays 0:51:43.080 --> 0:51:46.600 a cyborg who has to set our hero right when 0:51:46.640 --> 0:51:49.200 our hero is at one of his lowest points and 0:51:49.360 --> 0:51:53.040 get him, like launch him on his true mission after 0:51:53.120 --> 0:51:56.120 he has been set astray on a false mission. Yeah, 0:51:56.160 --> 0:51:59.680 and she does so with great confidence and verve. And 0:51:59.719 --> 0:52:02.640 then she gets shot like ten thousand times by other 0:52:02.719 --> 0:52:04.879 cyborgs and exploded. Yeah. Yeah. 0:52:04.920 --> 0:52:08.120 It's a commanding presence here, and she seems all in 0:52:08.200 --> 0:52:12.640 on the performance. Yeah, all right. We also have Rosaria. 0:52:12.880 --> 0:52:15.440 This is like a minor Cyde Work character played by 0:52:15.480 --> 0:52:18.719 Jennifer She's not a cyborg. She was I thought she 0:52:18.840 --> 0:52:20.640 was a cyborg at first. She's one of the anti 0:52:20.680 --> 0:52:23.279 cyborg people. Oh see, sometimes you gets hard to tell 0:52:23.320 --> 0:52:27.240 in this future. She's played by Jennifer Gotti born nineteen 0:52:27.280 --> 0:52:29.960 sixty eight, American actress of TV and film who started 0:52:30.040 --> 0:52:32.719 out with a whole bunch of episodes of the soap 0:52:32.800 --> 0:52:35.400 Search for Tomorrow in eighty three, and she'd go on 0:52:35.520 --> 0:52:39.040 to do two different tracks, two different CSI's, and a 0:52:39.040 --> 0:52:42.480 supporting cast member on TV's Vice Principles from twenty sixteen 0:52:42.520 --> 0:52:47.439 through twenty seventeen. All right, Thomas Jane is in this Yes, 0:52:47.480 --> 0:52:51.279 plays a character named Billy Moon born nineteen sixty nine, 0:52:51.320 --> 0:52:54.200 the star of nineteen ninety nine's Deep Blue Sea, which 0:52:54.200 --> 0:52:58.120 we previously covered Jane. You know, go back and listen 0:52:58.200 --> 0:53:00.000 to that if you want to hear more about Thomas Jane. 0:53:00.000 --> 0:53:02.560 And his character is kind of a bit roll here, 0:53:02.840 --> 0:53:05.600 and he stays naked for the entire duration of his 0:53:05.680 --> 0:53:06.600 screen time. 0:53:06.920 --> 0:53:10.239 His entire arc in this movie, never puts his clothes on, 0:53:10.440 --> 0:53:12.399 never leaves the room where we meet him. 0:53:12.600 --> 0:53:16.520 That's right, And as IMDb points out, ye ample shots 0:53:16.520 --> 0:53:19.520 at his butt much younger here though that I'm used 0:53:19.520 --> 0:53:21.840 to seeing him, so Honestly, if I didn't know it 0:53:21.840 --> 0:53:25.920 was him, I'm not sure I would have recognized Thomas Jane. Yeah, 0:53:25.960 --> 0:53:28.279 this was pretty early in his filmography. 0:53:29.160 --> 0:53:32.080 I you know, mainly now I associate him with his 0:53:32.160 --> 0:53:33.160 role in The Expanse. 0:53:33.560 --> 0:53:34.800 Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. 0:53:34.880 --> 0:53:35.080 Yeah. 0:53:35.160 --> 0:53:39.759 Certainly some strong cyberpunk elements to that role as well. 0:53:39.800 --> 0:53:42.440 And he yeah, I think Thomas Jane's terrific, But this 0:53:42.560 --> 0:53:44.439 was very early, good, early days for him. 0:53:45.000 --> 0:53:48.040 He is a great actor, but he has almost nothing 0:53:48.080 --> 0:53:50.360 to do in this movie. He just stands there naked 0:53:50.400 --> 0:53:54.320 looking out a window for several scenes smoking a cigarette, 0:53:54.360 --> 0:53:58.360 and then the bad guy from Cyborg the movie Cyborg 0:53:58.960 --> 0:54:00.399 just comes into the room and kill him. 0:54:01.560 --> 0:54:04.279 Let's see. Jackie Earle Haley could say the same thing 0:54:04.280 --> 0:54:06.880 about him, who plays the character Einstein in this who's 0:54:07.000 --> 0:54:12.280 like basically what a cyborg tech dude, cyborg doctor. 0:54:13.120 --> 0:54:16.960 I think he is affiliated with the Red Army hammerheads. Okay, 0:54:17.120 --> 0:54:18.879 we only meet him at the very end of the movie. 0:54:18.920 --> 0:54:21.600 He's the guy there to do some cyborg patch up 0:54:21.680 --> 0:54:24.879 and be a tech wizard at the end who unleashes 0:54:25.040 --> 0:54:29.320 the data chip on the to do whatever it's supposed 0:54:29.360 --> 0:54:30.120 to do. Yeah. 0:54:30.320 --> 0:54:32.680 Yeah, But of course, Haley, as an American child actor 0:54:32.719 --> 0:54:36.080 turned grown up character actor, always had a knack for 0:54:36.160 --> 0:54:39.560 weirdos credits. Going back to seventy two. His films include 0:54:39.600 --> 0:54:42.719 ninety one's Dollar Man, ninety two's Maniac Cop three, two 0:54:42.760 --> 0:54:46.880 thousand and nine's Watchman, Shutter Island in twenty ten, A 0:54:47.000 --> 0:54:49.480 Nightmare on Elm Street in twenty ten, which he of 0:54:49.520 --> 0:54:53.840 course plays Freddy Krueger, twenty twelves Lincoln, and much more 0:54:54.120 --> 0:54:56.080 so small role. And again I don't know if I 0:54:56.080 --> 0:54:59.040 would have recognized him or even had time to recognize 0:54:59.120 --> 0:55:00.399 him if I didn't know he going to. 0:55:00.320 --> 0:55:04.120 Be in it. What a strange and interesting and varied career. 0:55:04.239 --> 0:55:07.120 So he's in these Albert Pewan movies in the early nineties, 0:55:07.160 --> 0:55:11.200 doing doll Man and doing Nemesis. Then he's in Watchman, 0:55:11.200 --> 0:55:12.480 he plays Rorshak. 0:55:12.320 --> 0:55:14.680 He does yeah so may it major a character? 0:55:15.000 --> 0:55:18.000 And then he's also in Lincoln. That's Steven Spielberg Lincoln. 0:55:18.080 --> 0:55:20.960 Yeah, yeah, I forget who he plays in Lincoln, but yeah. 0:55:20.800 --> 0:55:23.120 I think he plays he plays one of the Confederate leaders. 0:55:23.160 --> 0:55:25.240 He's Jefferson Davis or somebody. 0:55:24.920 --> 0:55:28.400 Okay, yeah, And and Freddy Krueger, and on the whole. 0:55:28.800 --> 0:55:30.960 The two bousand ten's Nightmare on Elm Street. I know 0:55:31.280 --> 0:55:33.080 people are very divided on it, or maybe they're not 0:55:33.080 --> 0:55:36.200 even divided. Most people don't like it, but I enjoyed 0:55:36.239 --> 0:55:38.760 it at the time, and I kind of liked his 0:55:38.760 --> 0:55:41.560 his Freddy, but you know, it was a different, different Freddy. 0:55:41.600 --> 0:55:45.360 It was mostly a no jokes Freddy, all right. And 0:55:45.360 --> 0:55:49.319 then finally, the composer is Michael Rubini born nineteen forty two. 0:55:49.360 --> 0:55:52.320 We've talked about him before because he did the score 0:55:52.520 --> 0:55:55.360 for eighty Three's The Hunger, and he also did the 0:55:55.360 --> 0:55:58.200 score for eighty six is Man Hunter. He was a 0:55:58.239 --> 0:56:02.200 prolific Sessions musician, piano fighter, if you will, a member 0:56:02.200 --> 0:56:04.920 of the Wrecking Crew, a Sessions musician collective that was 0:56:05.160 --> 0:56:08.800 active in the sixties and seventies. I'd say the score 0:56:08.880 --> 0:56:11.880 here is fine. It maybe a little cheesy at times. 0:56:11.880 --> 0:56:14.879 Maybe it should be a little cheesy at times. But 0:56:14.960 --> 0:56:17.000 there were a couple of stretches in the film where 0:56:17.000 --> 0:56:20.080 I was thinking to myself, man, everything that's happening visually 0:56:20.120 --> 0:56:25.680 on the screen is just so impressive. The score feels 0:56:25.680 --> 0:56:28.280 like it should be like a step or two higher 0:56:28.320 --> 0:56:31.600 in quality to really meet what I'm seeing on the screen. 0:56:31.640 --> 0:56:33.400 But again, this is highly subjective. 0:56:34.080 --> 0:56:36.040 I know what you like, I know what you want. 0:56:36.200 --> 0:56:37.400 You want that sense. 0:56:37.120 --> 0:56:40.000 Score if it had been a little sentier, Yes, I 0:56:40.040 --> 0:56:42.200 think it would have. It would have tickled me more, 0:56:42.239 --> 0:56:43.719 but again that's just me. 0:56:45.080 --> 0:56:48.120 You know. Yeah, it's it didn't really stand out much 0:56:48.120 --> 0:56:51.560 to me, but there were some good elements. But it 0:56:51.600 --> 0:56:53.799 also had the kind of thing where, you know, it's 0:56:53.800 --> 0:56:56.600 the sort of movie where a character, two characters start 0:56:56.680 --> 0:57:01.839 kissing and then there's a saxophone lick comes in. Yeah, 0:57:02.000 --> 0:57:02.719 they gotta love that. 0:57:03.120 --> 0:57:15.560 Yeah, Okay, you're ready to talk about the plot? 0:57:15.600 --> 0:57:15.960 I think so. 0:57:16.080 --> 0:57:19.120 I think we've set the pieces on the table on 0:57:19.200 --> 0:57:21.760 the game board, and now it's time to get out 0:57:21.920 --> 0:57:25.040 the five hundred page rule book to determine how to 0:57:25.080 --> 0:57:25.800 play it. 0:57:25.960 --> 0:57:28.320 Perfect amazing. Yeah, we're about to begin a game of 0:57:28.360 --> 0:57:33.120 Warhammer and it's ten pm and we're starting. Okay, So, 0:57:33.800 --> 0:57:37.200 as we said earlier, you will somewhat get the wrong 0:57:37.280 --> 0:57:40.000 idea of the feeling of the movie from the level 0:57:40.160 --> 0:57:42.360 which we're about to explain it, because this is with 0:57:42.520 --> 0:57:45.600 the aid of a second viewing and notes, So we're 0:57:45.640 --> 0:57:49.160 bringing some organization here that it doesn't feel like when 0:57:49.200 --> 0:57:52.880 you watch the movie. So just imagine being more kind 0:57:52.920 --> 0:57:57.120 of lost and bathing in the vibes, bathe wallowing in 0:57:57.200 --> 0:58:01.400 the cyborg pools as you will. One thing I did 0:58:01.480 --> 0:58:03.360 want to flag at the beginning of the movie is 0:58:03.400 --> 0:58:07.800 that the production company, Imperial Entertainment, has two different logos 0:58:07.840 --> 0:58:10.520 and they both play before the movie. The first one 0:58:10.680 --> 0:58:12.760 looks like it should be on a beer bottle. Did 0:58:12.800 --> 0:58:13.360 you notice this? 0:58:13.480 --> 0:58:15.040 Yeah, it does remind me a little bit of what 0:58:15.080 --> 0:58:17.720 am I thinking of? A sing high? Is that the one? 0:58:18.040 --> 0:58:20.360 I make the name wrong, But I don't know what 0:58:20.400 --> 0:58:20.920 It reminds me. 0:58:22.520 --> 0:58:24.880 The beer that you get at Thai restaurants. 0:58:25.520 --> 0:58:29.200 Yeah, that's what I get anyway. Yeah, so it's got 0:58:29.200 --> 0:58:32.200 like a like a lion griffin type thing. It looks 0:58:32.240 --> 0:58:37.560 like it should be like Imperial genuine draft. But then anyway, 0:58:37.680 --> 0:58:41.560 The film begins with mysterious flute music and a fade 0:58:41.560 --> 0:58:45.600 in on a man's head staring off to the side, expressionless, unmoving. 0:58:46.160 --> 0:58:51.120 He is wearing these double rimmed sunglasses that rob would 0:58:51.160 --> 0:58:53.480 you say that these are borgie sunglasses? 0:58:53.560 --> 0:58:55.600 They're a little borgie. Yeah, you get the sense there 0:58:55.680 --> 0:58:57.720 might not be humanized behind those glasses. 0:58:58.240 --> 0:59:02.080 Yeah, so opening my, you'll have to imagine this. I 0:59:02.120 --> 0:59:05.880 can't pretend to do the accent or the delivery perfectly, 0:59:05.920 --> 0:59:10.200 but think of this with a very uninflected, flat delivery 0:59:10.240 --> 0:59:14.040 with a heavy French accent. When the uplink came through 0:59:14.080 --> 0:59:17.280 with the work orders, I had a strange feeling everything 0:59:17.400 --> 0:59:20.080 was about to change for me. Maybe it just had 0:59:20.120 --> 0:59:22.880 something to do with the way the world is today, 0:59:23.400 --> 0:59:29.680 bio enhanced gangsters, information terrorists, cyborg outlaws. And then we 0:59:29.920 --> 0:59:33.120 fade in on a shot of the Los Angeles City skyline, 0:59:33.280 --> 0:59:36.960 which we see behind this translucent orange haze. I think 0:59:37.000 --> 0:59:39.920 this is supposed to show how polluted the future is, Like, 0:59:39.960 --> 0:59:42.040 oh no, they're putting all this orange in the air. 0:59:42.560 --> 0:59:44.640 And what year is it? The screen tells us we 0:59:44.720 --> 0:59:47.920 mentioned this earlier. It's twenty twenty seven, baby. So I 0:59:48.120 --> 0:59:50.600 was thinking at this point, like, damn, should we have 0:59:50.760 --> 0:59:53.880 waited one more year to cover Nemesis? But I couldn't wait. 0:59:54.120 --> 0:59:56.840 Yeah, oh, the vault will be timely, so it'll work 0:59:56.840 --> 0:59:57.280 here you go. 0:59:57.360 --> 1:00:01.560 Yeah yeah. So the monologue goes on. He continues saying 1:00:01.760 --> 1:00:05.520 everything's so congested with high tech overload that you start 1:00:05.560 --> 1:00:08.520 to feel a little numb. There's an old saying in 1:00:08.560 --> 1:00:12.000 my business, it pays to be more than human. I'm 1:00:12.040 --> 1:00:13.120 not so sure anymore. 1:00:13.280 --> 1:00:15.360 I think we're on track. I think we think things 1:00:15.360 --> 1:00:18.280 are gonna match up. This feels like the twenty twenty 1:00:18.320 --> 1:00:19.360 seven we're moving towards. 1:00:19.560 --> 1:00:23.880 Yeah future correctly predicted. Good job, Albert Pume. But one 1:00:23.880 --> 1:00:27.200 thing I wanted to know, so we've said that there 1:00:27.200 --> 1:00:30.960 are things like this. Again, the setting is funny in 1:00:31.000 --> 1:00:32.840 a lot of ways, but every now and then I'm like, 1:00:32.920 --> 1:00:36.480 that's kind of interesting. And the interesting thing here at 1:00:36.480 --> 1:00:41.160 the beginning is that we're getting this inversion of expectations 1:00:41.600 --> 1:00:45.720 with the idea that in this world, the age old 1:00:45.960 --> 1:00:50.200 conventional wisdom is it's good to become a cyborg. That 1:00:50.240 --> 1:00:53.680 pays off, it's a good thing. But as of late, 1:00:53.920 --> 1:00:58.600 our protagonist has a dawning awareness that possibly it is 1:00:58.800 --> 1:01:01.600 bad to become a side. 1:01:01.080 --> 1:01:03.840 Yeah, and that again, I think a lot of us 1:01:03.880 --> 1:01:06.320 can relate to that when we, you know, we don't 1:01:06.360 --> 1:01:08.560 actually have metal parts. Well, some of us the metal 1:01:08.600 --> 1:01:11.400 parts in our bodies, but we are not cyborgs in 1:01:11.440 --> 1:01:14.000 the sense that this movie sees cyborgs. But there is 1:01:14.040 --> 1:01:18.640 a certain amount of technological integration with the average person's 1:01:18.680 --> 1:01:20.960 life today that I think a lot of us are 1:01:21.000 --> 1:01:24.680 like sort of halfway through the transformation and we're realizing, 1:01:24.720 --> 1:01:27.600 you know, some of these augments were not a good 1:01:27.640 --> 1:01:29.480 idea exactly right. 1:01:29.640 --> 1:01:32.760 So I think this is actually interesting and clever. Where 1:01:32.960 --> 1:01:36.640 we're halfway through the transformation, as you say, we're already 1:01:36.680 --> 1:01:40.920 becoming part machine. And it's just standard conventional wisdom that 1:01:41.000 --> 1:01:43.800 this is the correct way to optimize yourself, to become 1:01:43.880 --> 1:01:48.560 more valuable, to increase your opportunities. You have to integrate 1:01:48.640 --> 1:01:52.480 with the new technology to become a better human. But 1:01:53.120 --> 1:01:56.040 at some point you start wondering, wait, was this a 1:01:56.080 --> 1:02:00.920 bad idea? Anyway, the action begins. You've got Olivier Greunair 1:02:01.000 --> 1:02:04.560 here playing this cop named Alex Rain. He busts into 1:02:04.600 --> 1:02:07.520 a hotel room with a woman. They're making out, rolling 1:02:07.600 --> 1:02:10.000 on the walls and panting, and the room is also 1:02:10.120 --> 1:02:13.240 orange inside too, so like the air quality alert is 1:02:14.160 --> 1:02:18.080 it got the inside air too? It's not good. Then 1:02:18.120 --> 1:02:21.280 suddenly the woman grabs Alex Rain by the throat and 1:02:21.360 --> 1:02:24.120 starts choking him with one hand, and she says, move 1:02:24.200 --> 1:02:27.960 and I'll crush your throat, and she frisks him for weapons, 1:02:28.000 --> 1:02:30.440 And while she's frisking him, the hubb a hubb a 1:02:30.520 --> 1:02:35.320 saxophone riff plays and eventually she seems satisfied. I guess 1:02:35.360 --> 1:02:37.520 that he doesn't have any weapons, and she lets off 1:02:37.560 --> 1:02:39.919 the pressure on his throat and she says, you can't 1:02:39.960 --> 1:02:44.240 be too careful these days, there's undercover police everywhere. So 1:02:44.400 --> 1:02:47.760 then she starts getting sexy again, but out of nowhere, 1:02:47.800 --> 1:02:49.840 Alex Rain pulls out a handgun. 1:02:50.000 --> 1:02:52.520 I think it's her handgun, right, I think he pulls 1:02:52.880 --> 1:02:55.320 her okay, like a holster at the small of her back. 1:02:55.800 --> 1:02:58.160 Yeah, she's got a gun tucked into her skirt. He 1:02:58.200 --> 1:03:01.800 pulls out her handgun shoots her and I was like, 1:03:01.880 --> 1:03:05.600 oh no, But then sparks fly everywhere and she turns 1:03:05.640 --> 1:03:08.240 back to him, revealing a big hole in her head 1:03:08.240 --> 1:03:12.040 with wires and circuit boards dangling out everywhere. So, oh, 1:03:12.280 --> 1:03:15.680 I guess she was a cyborg or a robot. Many 1:03:15.720 --> 1:03:18.960 such moments to come like this in the film. So 1:03:19.000 --> 1:03:21.480 she curses at him and says he's a cop, and 1:03:21.600 --> 1:03:24.680 he curses at her and calls her a terrorist, and 1:03:24.720 --> 1:03:27.080 then we get the title screen looks kind of like 1:03:27.120 --> 1:03:29.680 the Transformer's logo. Do you notice that? 1:03:29.760 --> 1:03:34.080 Yeah? Yeah, Nemesis. Not sure what the title really means. 1:03:34.080 --> 1:03:37.000 Who is the Nemesis? Who is it? Where we're talking 1:03:37.000 --> 1:03:39.680 about Nemesis in the Greek sense, or are we talking 1:03:39.720 --> 1:03:42.160 about it in the sense of just bad guys, and 1:03:42.600 --> 1:03:43.840 of which we seem to have plenty. 1:03:43.880 --> 1:03:46.720 I don't know, you know, I'm ashamed to say this. 1:03:46.760 --> 1:03:48.760 I feel like I would need to refresh myself on 1:03:48.800 --> 1:03:51.520 the myth to understand if the myth has much connection 1:03:51.680 --> 1:03:52.600 with the film. 1:03:52.800 --> 1:03:55.320 If I remember correctly, and I could be wrong. Yeah, 1:03:56.080 --> 1:04:00.520 the mythic origin of Nemesis is it is it's divine 1:04:00.520 --> 1:04:03.440 retribution against like abusers of. 1:04:03.440 --> 1:04:05.680 Power and tyrants and so forth. 1:04:06.760 --> 1:04:07.960 So I don't know that's the kind of thing that 1:04:08.000 --> 1:04:13.320 could fit into a cyborg dystopian cyberpunk world, but I'm 1:04:13.360 --> 1:04:14.600 not sure if we really see that here. 1:04:15.480 --> 1:04:18.920 Yeah, So anyway, the scene resumes and the robot Lady's 1:04:18.960 --> 1:04:21.439 body is lying on the floor with its head blown off, 1:04:21.480 --> 1:04:24.040 and it's got the little servos worrying and a rubber 1:04:24.080 --> 1:04:28.360 tongue flicking back and forth. Alex Rain is strapping up 1:04:28.360 --> 1:04:31.040 for an action scene, so we see him like packing 1:04:31.120 --> 1:04:33.959 a bunch of guns under his duster coat and taking 1:04:34.120 --> 1:04:37.960 drags of a cigarette. Some cool electric guitar music lets 1:04:38.000 --> 1:04:40.560 us know that things are about to get super sick, 1:04:41.240 --> 1:04:44.480 and before he leaves the hotel room, he stops to 1:04:44.520 --> 1:04:47.360 get some one liners in on the dead robot. It's 1:04:47.440 --> 1:04:50.160 like the laying there still shooting sparks on the bed, 1:04:50.480 --> 1:04:54.280 and he says, again, imagine that French accent flat delivery. 1:04:54.520 --> 1:04:58.480 He says, you see, laundering data can be dangerous. And 1:04:58.520 --> 1:05:00.840 then it's like maybe that one didn't work, so he 1:05:00.880 --> 1:05:03.560 does another one liner. He says, you break the law, 1:05:03.680 --> 1:05:04.400 you go to hell. 1:05:04.720 --> 1:05:07.480 Well, now's the time to workshop some one liners, you know, 1:05:07.560 --> 1:05:11.000 because it's a captive audience that's not gonna they can't 1:05:11.000 --> 1:05:12.160 really criticize you too much. 1:05:12.680 --> 1:05:16.160 Yeah, So Alex Rain leaves the hotel room and he 1:05:16.160 --> 1:05:18.560 heads down the hall. On the way to the elevator, 1:05:18.600 --> 1:05:21.760 he passes a group of four people, two men, two women, 1:05:21.920 --> 1:05:26.320 all wearing sunglasses indoors. He's also wearing sunglasses indoors. These 1:05:26.360 --> 1:05:29.360 four seem like bad news, like maybe they're gangsters or something, 1:05:30.080 --> 1:05:34.440 and Alex Rain escapes down the employee elevator. The gangsters 1:05:34.480 --> 1:05:37.720 here find the mutilated robot or cyborg or whatever it 1:05:37.760 --> 1:05:41.560 is who they call their courier, and they figure out 1:05:41.680 --> 1:05:43.720 that the guy they passed in the hall was an 1:05:43.840 --> 1:05:47.320 lapd agent and that he I think he took something 1:05:47.360 --> 1:05:51.080 from the machine lady, though it's never very clear what that. 1:05:51.240 --> 1:05:53.520 Was, and maybe a drive something. 1:05:53.600 --> 1:05:58.040 Yeah, So they chase him out of the hotel and 1:05:58.240 --> 1:06:01.600 into an abandoned and dust real park that is full 1:06:01.640 --> 1:06:05.360 of these crumbling, half collapsed factory buildings where they are 1:06:05.360 --> 1:06:08.160 going to have an extended gunfight that I'm not going 1:06:08.200 --> 1:06:10.200 to narrate blow by blow, but I do want to 1:06:10.240 --> 1:06:13.640 note some interesting and funny things about it, many of 1:06:13.680 --> 1:06:17.000 which are true of the other action scenes that will 1:06:17.040 --> 1:06:21.720 come later in the movie. So interesting, good and funny 1:06:21.720 --> 1:06:25.040 things about it. One thing that's good about it is 1:06:25.320 --> 1:06:28.640 this action scene has beats. Yeah, long time long time 1:06:28.720 --> 1:06:33.320 listeners will have heard me complaining before about gunfight scenes 1:06:33.320 --> 1:06:36.400 in action movies, which at least half the time I 1:06:36.400 --> 1:06:40.120 think are actually quite boring because usually the reason is 1:06:40.160 --> 1:06:41.760 they don't have any drama in them. 1:06:41.880 --> 1:06:44.400 Yeah, it's just one side shoots, the other side shoots, 1:06:44.400 --> 1:06:48.280 people are talking and seeking cover or they're getting hit, 1:06:48.560 --> 1:06:50.439 but that's about all there is to it. Yeah, these 1:06:50.480 --> 1:06:54.560 action sequences tell a story, like there is a language 1:06:54.560 --> 1:06:58.640 of action here that just absolutely works. But it is also, 1:06:58.760 --> 1:07:01.960 you know, kind of impossible to to summarize for the podcast. 1:07:02.520 --> 1:07:06.200 Yeah, exactly. So. The normal action scene that I get 1:07:06.240 --> 1:07:09.160 bored by is is when where there are no interesting 1:07:09.240 --> 1:07:11.920 developments or exchanges of power. It's like you said, it's 1:07:11.960 --> 1:07:14.680 just close up of one person shooting, then close up 1:07:14.680 --> 1:07:18.160 of another person shooting, until somebody gets shot. They don't 1:07:18.200 --> 1:07:22.760 feel unpredictable or like anything changes. Not the case with Nemesis. 1:07:24.000 --> 1:07:27.440 In one sense, the action scenes are usually funny because 1:07:27.440 --> 1:07:31.280 of how much overkill there is in the amount of gunfire. 1:07:31.480 --> 1:07:34.520 Like it's not just too much shooting, it is beyond 1:07:34.760 --> 1:07:38.200 too much shooting. Yes, it has these like Lady Terminator 1:07:38.320 --> 1:07:43.240 levels of gunplay, which is in once it's that's so 1:07:43.400 --> 1:07:46.000 over the top it becomes funny. But the action scenes 1:07:46.080 --> 1:07:49.880 also have this level of drama in that they're interesting 1:07:49.960 --> 1:07:54.640 and unpredictable. They're kind of playful with this whimsical fantasy 1:07:54.760 --> 1:07:58.240 logic at work. Lots of things happen in them that 1:07:58.280 --> 1:08:02.720 you could not do in reality. So, for example, Alex 1:08:02.800 --> 1:08:05.600 Rain is running into this industrial park and he's got 1:08:05.640 --> 1:08:08.200 a shotgun in his hands, and he's got to run. 1:08:08.440 --> 1:08:10.520 There's like a chain link fence in front of him, 1:08:10.760 --> 1:08:13.560 and he just shoots the chain link fence with his shotgun, 1:08:13.600 --> 1:08:15.720 and the fence pops open. There's like a hole in 1:08:15.760 --> 1:08:18.960 it for him to go through. I'm no shotgun expert. 1:08:18.960 --> 1:08:20.720 I don't think that would work. I don't think you 1:08:20.760 --> 1:08:23.600 can do that. But yeah, so he like does that. 1:08:23.680 --> 1:08:27.479 But it works as just a cartoony, dramatic beat in 1:08:27.600 --> 1:08:31.559 this story that makes it continually interesting because things like 1:08:31.560 --> 1:08:32.439 that keep happening. 1:08:32.560 --> 1:08:36.240 Yeah, it's almost like there's almost like an anime level 1:08:36.360 --> 1:08:41.000 of action to this film. Things that don't really make 1:08:41.040 --> 1:08:43.200 sense in the real world, but they make sense within 1:08:43.280 --> 1:08:46.559 the action economy of the action language of the picture. 1:08:46.640 --> 1:08:49.760 Here it is just how their world. 1:08:49.479 --> 1:08:54.880 Works, unnatural extensions of things where like like he will 1:08:54.920 --> 1:08:58.799 be like fall down on his back and slide down 1:08:58.920 --> 1:09:02.360 something on his back while shooting and fighting someone, and 1:09:02.520 --> 1:09:06.160 there's this time dilation effect where while he's sliding down 1:09:06.160 --> 1:09:09.120 the hill, all these different things happen while you can 1:09:09.160 --> 1:09:11.559 be fighting somebody that would like there's no way all 1:09:11.600 --> 1:09:14.160 of that could be fit into the time it would 1:09:14.200 --> 1:09:17.160 take to slide down the hill, but they do it. 1:09:17.160 --> 1:09:22.160 It's got that fantasy extension of time and I love it, yea. 1:09:22.520 --> 1:09:25.000 But on the other hand, you've got like these really 1:09:25.080 --> 1:09:28.599 funny things, like the way everybody is dressed. So Alex 1:09:28.720 --> 1:09:32.599 Rain is wearing a suit and a skinny tie under 1:09:32.600 --> 1:09:35.560 a long, heavy trench coat, and it looks hot outside, 1:09:36.080 --> 1:09:38.160 and you can see that the material of this coat 1:09:38.200 --> 1:09:42.520 is very thick. Of course, everybody's got these cool cyber sunglasses. 1:09:43.439 --> 1:09:45.960 And then in this scene you see the first four 1:09:47.280 --> 1:09:50.479 henchmen that come after him are like three huge dudes 1:09:50.520 --> 1:09:55.280 in sunglasses, blazers and suit jackets with guns, and also 1:09:55.400 --> 1:09:58.640 one lady in this extremely short party dress with a 1:09:58.680 --> 1:10:00.360 duffel bag full of weapons. 1:10:00.800 --> 1:10:02.920 Yeah, and the weapons are all you know. I don't 1:10:02.960 --> 1:10:05.160 have a great eye for guns. Some people love to 1:10:05.240 --> 1:10:07.760 like identify what guns are being used, what's been done 1:10:07.800 --> 1:10:10.519 to them, what sort of little additions have been like 1:10:10.680 --> 1:10:12.759 say put on an old World War two era pistol 1:10:12.800 --> 1:10:15.240 to make it a Star Wars pistol. But to my eye, 1:10:15.280 --> 1:10:18.360 at any rate, these guns are gussied up in a 1:10:18.360 --> 1:10:21.800 fun way where they take on these like additional cyberpunk 1:10:21.840 --> 1:10:24.479 dimensions where I don't know, there are different extra tubes, 1:10:24.840 --> 1:10:27.440 extra rocket launchers, extra components. 1:10:27.960 --> 1:10:31.080 Yeah, they're more like there're things like Decord's gun and 1:10:31.160 --> 1:10:34.200 blade run or like Robocops gun. They're like not really 1:10:34.240 --> 1:10:38.839 existing types of things, sort of sci fi. Also, eventually 1:10:38.880 --> 1:10:42.080 in this gunfight, another gangster shows up. It's this woman 1:10:42.200 --> 1:10:46.200 named Rosaria who is dressed like a like a cyborg 1:10:46.400 --> 1:10:49.800 elf who works for Captain Hook. She's got the tech 1:10:49.840 --> 1:10:55.120 noir sunglasses, a black pirate coat with an upturned Dracula collar, 1:10:56.080 --> 1:11:00.160 black gloves, tight brown pants, thigh high black boots that 1:11:00.240 --> 1:11:03.759 have almost a Santa's Workshop kind of feeling to them. 1:11:04.240 --> 1:11:07.599 And then she's holding this enormous long gun with like 1:11:07.720 --> 1:11:09.680 four supplemental scopes on it. 1:11:10.080 --> 1:11:12.679 And you're telling me, though, this lady not a cyborg. 1:11:13.360 --> 1:11:16.040 Not that's the crazy thing I'm watching. I'm like, okay, 1:11:16.040 --> 1:11:19.240 so he's fighting cyborgs. She's obviously a cyborg, but if 1:11:19.280 --> 1:11:22.600 you listen to their dialogue later, she's very anti cyborg. 1:11:22.680 --> 1:11:25.800 So she could be a cyborg who's anti cyborg. But 1:11:25.840 --> 1:11:28.040 we never see wires pop out of her when she 1:11:28.080 --> 1:11:31.360 gets hurt like we do with the other cyborgs. We 1:11:31.479 --> 1:11:34.559 do meet other cyborgs who are anti cyborg, Like Jared 1:11:34.640 --> 1:11:37.360 turns out to be anti cyborg even though she's a cyborg. 1:11:38.200 --> 1:11:41.360 But I don't know, I guess case may be partially open, 1:11:41.439 --> 1:11:44.160 but I'm like ninety five percent sure that's as high 1:11:44.200 --> 1:11:47.439 as we can go on the Pewan scale. Ninety five 1:11:47.479 --> 1:11:50.759 percent sure that Rosaria here is not a cyborg. She's 1:11:50.840 --> 1:11:54.000 flesh and blood. So in this fight, Alex Rain gets 1:11:54.080 --> 1:11:57.920 chased off the roof of this half collapsed building by 1:11:58.000 --> 1:12:01.479 two remaining gangsters or terrors whatever they are. It's the 1:12:01.520 --> 1:12:04.040 two women who are left, and he hides in a 1:12:04.080 --> 1:12:07.000 nearby building while they shoot bullets and rockets at him. 1:12:07.640 --> 1:12:09.640 At one point they blow him up pretty good and 1:12:09.680 --> 1:12:12.320 we see sparks and metal coming out of his leg 1:12:12.840 --> 1:12:17.240 and he says arc that knee was brand new, So, oh, okay, 1:12:17.280 --> 1:12:20.000 here's where we find out. I guess our protagonist is 1:12:20.040 --> 1:12:23.760 a cyborg too, or at least he had a robot knee. 1:12:23.960 --> 1:12:26.320 And this is the part where I'm wondering, like, wait 1:12:26.320 --> 1:12:28.639 a minute, are the people he's fighting cyborgs? I thought 1:12:28.680 --> 1:12:29.040 they were. 1:12:30.040 --> 1:12:34.840 But luckily the movies, the movie moves so quickly you 1:12:34.880 --> 1:12:36.960 don't have too much time to worry about these things 1:12:37.000 --> 1:12:38.599 because then something else is going to explode. 1:12:39.280 --> 1:12:43.400 Yeah. Also, Alex Rain finds a terribly cute puppy in 1:12:43.479 --> 1:12:46.439 this exploding abandoned factory that's on fire. 1:12:46.880 --> 1:12:50.720 Yeah yeah, completely extra but absolutely adorable. 1:12:50.560 --> 1:12:53.559 Fuzzy puppy in there, and he's like, I must protect puppy. 1:12:53.680 --> 1:12:56.479 So he protects the puppy by hiding it in a 1:12:56.520 --> 1:13:00.800 metal locker. And then, despite his injury, ra Alex Rain 1:13:00.880 --> 1:13:03.920 continues to fight. He kills one of the two other fighters, 1:13:04.240 --> 1:13:06.960 and then the only one left is Rosaria, the pirate elf. 1:13:07.520 --> 1:13:10.519 And oh we also see on her hand she has 1:13:10.560 --> 1:13:12.960 a little tattoo in the shape of a hammerhead shark. 1:13:13.760 --> 1:13:17.720 So Alex gets incapacitated by an explosion and then Rosaria 1:13:17.760 --> 1:13:21.479 comes to confront him and she stands over his mangled body, 1:13:21.760 --> 1:13:25.400 and then these two exchange some acting. This is funny 1:13:25.400 --> 1:13:30.719 because Olivier here he continues that the uninflected delivery, while 1:13:30.720 --> 1:13:35.679 the actress playing Rosaria positively just spits every line at him. 1:13:36.160 --> 1:13:39.800 She says, cops are animals. You don't know who that 1:13:39.880 --> 1:13:42.360 woman was back in the room. You don't know who 1:13:42.479 --> 1:13:46.400 I am. And he says, you're a terrorist, and she says, 1:13:46.439 --> 1:13:51.040 you're confused. We're trying to save humankind and you you 1:13:51.120 --> 1:13:55.320 protect the machines. Well, no, wonder you protect them, and 1:13:55.360 --> 1:13:58.080 then she looks down at the wiggling metal parts that 1:13:58.120 --> 1:14:00.640 are blown out of his leg. She says, you are 1:14:00.800 --> 1:14:05.400 mostly machine. You're not really human anymore, are you, And 1:14:05.479 --> 1:14:08.160 he counters he's got a good comeback. He says, eighty 1:14:08.200 --> 1:14:12.919 six point five percent is still human, and then she sneers, 1:14:12.920 --> 1:14:15.960 and she says, none of you is human, never was, 1:14:16.560 --> 1:14:19.479 and then she starts shooting him in the machine parts. 1:14:19.520 --> 1:14:22.559 It's sort of a gun torture scene resembling the death 1:14:22.600 --> 1:14:27.040 of Alex Murphy and RoboCop. But before she finishes him off, 1:14:27.080 --> 1:14:29.679 she has to get in some more insults. She tells 1:14:29.760 --> 1:14:31.679 him he has no idea what's going on. She says 1:14:31.680 --> 1:14:34.679 he's just stupid, and when she's done with him, there's 1:14:34.840 --> 1:14:37.200 no way that they'll be able to put him back together. 1:14:38.280 --> 1:14:41.800 But Alex Rain the thirteen point five percent cyborg has 1:14:41.840 --> 1:14:45.479 some tricks up his sleeve. So while she's leaning over 1:14:45.560 --> 1:14:48.720 him heaping on all of the scorn, he thrusts his 1:14:48.800 --> 1:14:51.880 knee up at her and one of the exposed metal 1:14:51.960 --> 1:14:55.200 parts from his knee stabs her in the side, so 1:14:55.560 --> 1:14:59.439 he got her, and then a hovering police drone shows up. 1:14:59.520 --> 1:15:02.800 Rosari crawls away. The cute puppy comes out of the 1:15:02.840 --> 1:15:06.760 locker and begins to lick Alex's wounds, And I was 1:15:06.840 --> 1:15:08.920 just thinking, I hope that puppy does not cut its 1:15:08.960 --> 1:15:12.679 tongue on the robot parts. That's a complication. You didn't 1:15:12.680 --> 1:15:13.160 think about it. 1:15:13.400 --> 1:15:14.320 I didn't think about that. 1:15:15.680 --> 1:15:17.760 After this, we get a copy of the sequence in 1:15:17.880 --> 1:15:21.040 RoboCop where we see from Alex Murphy's perspective as his 1:15:21.080 --> 1:15:24.439 body is being reassembled by the scientists and modified with 1:15:24.479 --> 1:15:28.800 the machine parts, and it's got all the things from 1:15:28.840 --> 1:15:31.240 that scene are playing through, so it's complete with the 1:15:31.280 --> 1:15:36.080 traumatic echoing memory of a woman saying something emotionally painful. Now, 1:15:36.080 --> 1:15:40.799 in the case of RoboCop, it's Murphy remembering something something 1:15:41.040 --> 1:15:44.200 sharp that his wife said. In the case of Nemesis, 1:15:44.240 --> 1:15:47.800 it is Alex Rain remembering things that the terrorist Rosaria 1:15:47.880 --> 1:15:50.840 said to him directly before she shot him. So we 1:15:50.920 --> 1:15:54.520 get the you're not really human? Are you not really human? 1:15:54.840 --> 1:15:59.400 Not really human echoing in his mind, and presumably after 1:15:59.439 --> 1:16:01.960 all this he is actually now less than eighty six 1:16:02.000 --> 1:16:04.280 point five percent human, though I don't remember if they 1:16:04.320 --> 1:16:08.639 state what percent human he's down to after each modification. 1:16:08.160 --> 1:16:10.880 Yeah, we should have had like a running percentile on 1:16:10.920 --> 1:16:12.559 the corner of the screen. That would have been helpful. 1:16:21.560 --> 1:16:24.400 So next we cut to sometime in the future. A 1:16:24.439 --> 1:16:27.519 text legend tells us that this is a place called Baja, 1:16:27.680 --> 1:16:30.360 New America. I'm guessing this is Baja and what is 1:16:30.360 --> 1:16:36.120 now Mexico. And we see a man running shirtless, barefoot 1:16:36.120 --> 1:16:38.559 in the desert, crunching over the tops of sand dunes, 1:16:38.600 --> 1:16:40.320 and he has a dog running with him. It's a 1:16:40.320 --> 1:16:43.080 big husky that looks like it's probably not enjoying the 1:16:43.120 --> 1:16:43.559 hot weather. 1:16:43.840 --> 1:16:44.920 It's the puppy from earlier. 1:16:45.360 --> 1:16:48.720 Yeah, exactly, the puppy grew up. And Alex says in voiceover, 1:16:49.040 --> 1:16:51.479 it took them six months to put me back together, 1:16:52.040 --> 1:16:57.559 synthetic flesh, bioengineered organs. It always scared me that they 1:16:57.640 --> 1:17:00.320 might take out my soul and replace it with some 1:17:00.560 --> 1:17:06.040 goddamn matrix chip. Is that a thing that can happen 1:17:06.040 --> 1:17:07.080 in this world? We don't know. 1:17:07.280 --> 1:17:09.920 I don't know, yeah, being is he being ridiculous here, 1:17:10.200 --> 1:17:13.639 or is that just like straight up matrix chips will 1:17:13.640 --> 1:17:14.439 replace your soul? 1:17:14.640 --> 1:17:17.960 Don't know? He says, I ended up in this god 1:17:18.000 --> 1:17:20.840 forsaken place on the edge of existence, the kind of 1:17:20.840 --> 1:17:23.400 place where people on the run go to be forgotten. 1:17:23.760 --> 1:17:26.720 I was there to recuperate. And we see Alex rain 1:17:26.880 --> 1:17:29.719 now in better shape than ever. So he's lean, muscle 1:17:29.760 --> 1:17:32.800 bound with a new haircut. In the earlier scenes his 1:17:32.880 --> 1:17:35.680 hair was short but still kind of shaggy. Here it 1:17:35.760 --> 1:17:39.320 is a military fade, so he looks like he's peak peak, 1:17:39.600 --> 1:17:44.080 you know, condition uh, and he he injects himself in 1:17:44.160 --> 1:17:46.680 the neck with some kind of capsule. There will be 1:17:46.800 --> 1:17:49.439 much made of this later. I think it is some 1:17:49.600 --> 1:17:53.320 kind of painkiller. It's unclear to what extent this drug 1:17:53.400 --> 1:17:56.320 use is legal or illegal, but they call this behavior 1:17:56.560 --> 1:17:57.960 speed loading. 1:17:58.040 --> 1:18:01.479 So the way, there's certainly a character judgment involved when 1:18:01.520 --> 1:18:03.320 someone is accused of being a speedloader. 1:18:03.800 --> 1:18:06.439 So there's a scene where Alex goes to a bar 1:18:07.080 --> 1:18:09.840 which looks like it looks like a movie set. It 1:18:09.880 --> 1:18:12.120 looks like a built western town movie. 1:18:12.280 --> 1:18:14.519 Yeah. This feels like something straight out of a Fallout 1:18:14.600 --> 1:18:17.599 video game, where yes, you're out in the in the 1:18:17.640 --> 1:18:19.800 midst of the wilds and you need to stop in 1:18:19.880 --> 1:18:23.160 and spit a few caps on some water, and I'm 1:18:23.640 --> 1:18:24.840 like a lizard on a stick. 1:18:25.479 --> 1:18:29.480 Yeah, yeah, howdy, partner, I'll sell you some rat away. Yeah. 1:18:29.640 --> 1:18:31.519 So he goes to a bar. He's still barefoot, by 1:18:31.520 --> 1:18:34.000 the way, He's wearing bored shorts and a T shirt. 1:18:34.280 --> 1:18:37.000 He sits down, he orders a beer, and he sits 1:18:37.040 --> 1:18:40.040 there wearing sunglasses across from a man and a woman 1:18:40.160 --> 1:18:43.559 also wearing sunglasses. And the lady comes up to him 1:18:43.600 --> 1:18:47.880 and introduces herself as Rosaria, and Alex sees a hammerhead 1:18:47.920 --> 1:18:50.559 tattoo on her hand, and he says he's here to 1:18:50.600 --> 1:18:53.559 get even. He calls her a terrorist, and then she 1:18:53.720 --> 1:18:55.960 and the other dude in the bar they freak out. 1:18:56.280 --> 1:18:58.719 The other dude tries to draw a gun and Alex 1:18:58.760 --> 1:19:03.400 shoots them both, saying remember la. So the implication is 1:19:03.439 --> 1:19:05.800 that this is the same woman who blew him up 1:19:05.800 --> 1:19:08.640 in the opening scene, the elf Pirate lady, but she 1:19:08.760 --> 1:19:13.599 looks different here. Also, she doesn't recognize him now. That 1:19:13.720 --> 1:19:17.080 could be because he is further borged. He's more borged 1:19:17.120 --> 1:19:19.559 than he was in the opening scene. Andy's got a 1:19:19.560 --> 1:19:23.000 new marine recruit haircut. Andy's down to four percent body fat, 1:19:23.040 --> 1:19:25.800 I guess, so that could throw anybody off. But I 1:19:25.880 --> 1:19:28.559 don't know why. She looks different than she did before. 1:19:29.520 --> 1:19:33.240 But I don't know again, never established one hundred percent 1:19:33.439 --> 1:19:36.800 whether these two were cyborgs, but I think they probably 1:19:36.840 --> 1:19:40.840 were not because it seems their politics are anti cyborg. 1:19:41.560 --> 1:19:44.559 So Alex, in his voiceover, says, I wanted to tell 1:19:44.640 --> 1:19:46.960 this terrorist that I had given a lot of thought 1:19:47.000 --> 1:19:49.519 to what she said back in La about whether I 1:19:49.640 --> 1:19:52.160 was more machine than human. I wanted to tell her 1:19:52.240 --> 1:19:54.920 she started me thinking, I really wanted to tell her 1:19:54.960 --> 1:19:58.080 all this as usual, to tell her you could have 1:19:58.160 --> 1:19:59.879 handled that a little differently, then. 1:20:01.240 --> 1:20:02.519 You should have told her yes. 1:20:03.400 --> 1:20:06.799 So he sits there drinking his beer while he listens 1:20:06.840 --> 1:20:10.040 to what he says are the sound of jet engines approaching, 1:20:10.200 --> 1:20:13.680 the kind of jet engines that LAPD used in their vehicles. 1:20:14.960 --> 1:20:17.880 Now we're going to meet two new characters. Two women 1:20:17.960 --> 1:20:21.200 are suddenly standing over his table at the bar. They're 1:20:21.280 --> 1:20:25.200 hitting poses like fashion models. They are both wearing skirt 1:20:25.280 --> 1:20:28.599 suits and wigs, one blonde wig, one a brunette wig. 1:20:29.080 --> 1:20:31.640 One of them in a long green trench coat, the 1:20:31.640 --> 1:20:36.600 other wearing black leather gloves. And again must emphasize the 1:20:36.600 --> 1:20:39.599 first time I saw this scene no idea who these 1:20:39.680 --> 1:20:43.519 characters are, and did not understand the conversation that followed. 1:20:43.880 --> 1:20:47.479 But these two women are Sam and Jared. Sam is 1:20:47.479 --> 1:20:49.920 the one in the blonde wig, and she starts caressing 1:20:49.960 --> 1:20:53.640 Alex's body and she's like, hmm, the cyber transplants have 1:20:53.680 --> 1:20:56.880 really taken to you. You'll be all machine soon. And 1:20:57.040 --> 1:20:59.000 I guess she likes that she wants him to be 1:20:59.040 --> 1:21:02.800 all machine. And the other woman, Jared, says shut up, 1:21:02.840 --> 1:21:07.080 Sam and sends her away, and then Jared, the other woman, 1:21:07.240 --> 1:21:11.280 tells Alex that somebody named Farnsworth needs him back online. 1:21:11.960 --> 1:21:16.240 Alex refuses, explaining that he is addicted to drugs, and 1:21:16.280 --> 1:21:19.839 he says, quote, nothing has been mine since I met you, Jared. 1:21:20.520 --> 1:21:22.680 And then she goes on a monologue and ends up 1:21:22.720 --> 1:21:25.559 saying you can't handle the job. You've lost the edge, 1:21:25.720 --> 1:21:29.240 become too emotional. And then he says, I can't feel 1:21:29.240 --> 1:21:32.960 anything anymore. You turned me into an efing machine. I 1:21:33.000 --> 1:21:36.640 don't know what's right or wrong. So but at the 1:21:36.680 --> 1:21:39.240 same time, like they're in this deep conversation, but I'm 1:21:39.320 --> 1:21:42.719 just like, who is who's the boss here? Who are they? 1:21:43.240 --> 1:21:46.519 I guess they used to like no what Jared is 1:21:46.560 --> 1:21:50.479 a former lover of his right yeah, and Sam and 1:21:50.600 --> 1:21:57.800 Jared both currently work for Farnsworth at the lapd and right, 1:21:58.640 --> 1:22:01.160 I think, because aren't they Yeah, I mean I could 1:22:01.160 --> 1:22:03.679 be wrong here, but I think they are. They arrived 1:22:03.680 --> 1:22:06.439 with the sound of the jets, like the lapd uses, 1:22:06.880 --> 1:22:09.160 and then they're saying, hey, Farnsworth wants you back, and 1:22:09.200 --> 1:22:13.000 he's like, I can't do it because drugs. Yeah, that's 1:22:13.240 --> 1:22:14.200 that's my best. 1:22:14.000 --> 1:22:17.840 Path, Alex says to Jared. He says, I cared about 1:22:17.840 --> 1:22:20.799 you once, which is like, huh, you know, the scene 1:22:21.040 --> 1:22:23.920 didn't feel like that up until there. And then Jared says, 1:22:24.160 --> 1:22:27.519 I'm synthetic, so oh, I guess she's a cyborg. And 1:22:27.560 --> 1:22:30.880 then Alex says, and I thought you were real, and 1:22:30.880 --> 1:22:33.000 then Jared says, I never said I wasn't. 1:22:34.760 --> 1:22:36.920 It's a little confusing, but there they also seem to 1:22:36.960 --> 1:22:39.360 be getting it, Like, you know, it's something a little 1:22:39.400 --> 1:22:43.120 deeper here about authenticity and being in this world where 1:22:43.120 --> 1:22:44.200 everything can be changed. 1:22:44.880 --> 1:22:48.880 Sure, but I feel like there is a rapidly shifting 1:22:49.040 --> 1:22:51.439 valance of what it means to be a cyborg. Does 1:22:51.479 --> 1:22:54.479 being a cyborg mean that you can no longer feel 1:22:54.640 --> 1:22:57.519 and you no longer know right from wrong? Because multiple 1:22:57.600 --> 1:23:00.559 characters have already said that at this point, or does 1:23:00.600 --> 1:23:03.400 it mean that you're the same as a human and 1:23:03.439 --> 1:23:05.360 you can still know right from wrong and you can 1:23:05.360 --> 1:23:10.040 still feel hm. I I don't know if the movie 1:23:10.080 --> 1:23:14.479 answers that. Also, while this conversation is going on, Sam, 1:23:14.560 --> 1:23:16.759 the lady in the blonde wig, is just pacing around 1:23:16.760 --> 1:23:19.559 in the background, like pretending to examine props in this 1:23:19.680 --> 1:23:23.599 dusty bar. But Jared says that her motives are pure. 1:23:23.880 --> 1:23:25.920 She says she is just part of the group that 1:23:26.400 --> 1:23:28.320 part of a group of people trying to make the 1:23:28.320 --> 1:23:31.800 world better. And then Alex says to her, what do 1:23:31.840 --> 1:23:34.960 you care about a better world? You're a cyborg but 1:23:35.160 --> 1:23:38.680 he's a cyborg. Yeah, And then he leaves the bar, 1:23:39.320 --> 1:23:41.639 but she gets the last word. At an empty table, 1:23:41.720 --> 1:23:45.760 she says, I live here too, okay, talking about the world, 1:23:45.840 --> 1:23:52.559 I guess. And then after Alex leaves Sam, Alex's dog 1:23:52.680 --> 1:23:55.800 is there, the husky, and Sam holds a hand out 1:23:55.840 --> 1:24:00.360 to Alex's dog. The dog bites her finger off arks 1:24:00.360 --> 1:24:02.400 shoot out of her hand. So I guess Sam's a 1:24:02.439 --> 1:24:07.320 cyborg too, and then off screen she shoots the dog. Yeah. 1:24:07.400 --> 1:24:11.000 Yeah, cute puppy did get to grow up, but now it's. 1:24:10.880 --> 1:24:15.960 A Jared says, you're too excessive, Sam, and I love 1:24:16.040 --> 1:24:19.200 the modifier too in that sentence, Like without it, the 1:24:19.200 --> 1:24:22.160 implication might be that she's the correct amount of excessive. 1:24:22.360 --> 1:24:25.120 Yeah, like you're expected to be excessive. It's an excessive world, 1:24:25.160 --> 1:24:26.440 but don't be too excessive. 1:24:26.520 --> 1:24:30.240 Con there After, this is a moody shot of Alex 1:24:30.280 --> 1:24:34.240 and silhouette. He's standing against this pink orange sunset. He's 1:24:34.280 --> 1:24:36.760 at four percent body fat. He's digging a grave for 1:24:36.840 --> 1:24:39.840 his dog, and then he holds up across in the 1:24:39.880 --> 1:24:43.400 shadow as the grave marker. So is Alex Rain a 1:24:43.479 --> 1:24:46.800 Christian cyborg or maybe just culturally a Christian cyborg? 1:24:47.640 --> 1:24:50.599 He is a potential savior, a potential martyr. I don't know, 1:24:50.640 --> 1:24:53.000 but it feels aut you know, we're talking about what 1:24:53.200 --> 1:24:56.000 episode could we do to follow up the last Temptation 1:24:56.080 --> 1:25:00.720 of Christ. Clearly it is ordained that said this was 1:25:00.760 --> 1:25:01.400 the correct thing. 1:25:02.560 --> 1:25:06.000 I think it was Destiny. So later we cut to 1:25:06.240 --> 1:25:09.120 a shot of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio 1:25:09.680 --> 1:25:12.160 tells us we're now in Rio and it's one year later, 1:25:12.360 --> 1:25:15.080 and we panned down to the steamy industrial area with 1:25:15.080 --> 1:25:17.799 a bunch of smashed machinery all over the place, venting 1:25:17.920 --> 1:25:22.360 fog into the air, and Alex's voiceover says the next 1:25:22.439 --> 1:25:25.160 year was as grim as it gets. I slipped into 1:25:25.200 --> 1:25:28.719 the black market network that thrived in the new Rio Grid. 1:25:29.160 --> 1:25:31.640 I wanted to try my hand at smuggling, but I 1:25:31.640 --> 1:25:34.679 guess I didn't really have the knack for it. My deals, 1:25:34.760 --> 1:25:37.479 when I could get one, usually ended up with somebody 1:25:37.520 --> 1:25:40.600 getting dead. Not a good thing for staying in business. 1:25:42.000 --> 1:25:46.040 And then he goes on to say, just when I 1:25:46.080 --> 1:25:48.400 was about to give up on Brazil, I got word 1:25:48.520 --> 1:25:51.880 this morning that some hot shot Systems cowboy wanted to 1:25:51.920 --> 1:25:54.719 see me. So here we get a look at Alex, 1:25:54.800 --> 1:25:58.840 and once again he's different. He looks different. So he's 1:25:58.880 --> 1:26:02.200 got the trench coats unglasses, but trench coat and sunglasses, 1:26:02.200 --> 1:26:05.160 but now he has long hair, like glam rock hair like. 1:26:05.400 --> 1:26:07.000 He looks like he could be a drummer in a 1:26:07.040 --> 1:26:07.920 new wave band. 1:26:08.520 --> 1:26:11.240 Yeah, you know. I This is another way that this 1:26:11.280 --> 1:26:13.880 film is kind of like feels like a video game experience, 1:26:13.920 --> 1:26:16.840 and the way that your player character may rapidly change 1:26:16.880 --> 1:26:20.479 their looks in between different chapters just because you're messing 1:26:20.479 --> 1:26:22.960 around with how they look and you're just spicing it up. 1:26:23.880 --> 1:26:24.360 Yeah. 1:26:24.400 --> 1:26:26.160 Also, it's kind of like a video game where you 1:26:26.200 --> 1:26:29.600 skip all the cutscenes so you know what's going on 1:26:29.680 --> 1:26:30.280 at times. 1:26:30.760 --> 1:26:32.800 Yeah, you skip it so you don't So people are 1:26:32.800 --> 1:26:35.360 referencing characters where you literally you don't know if you're 1:26:35.360 --> 1:26:37.519 supposed to know who they are already or not. Yeah. 1:26:37.600 --> 1:26:39.200 Yeah, sorry I held X on that one. 1:26:39.760 --> 1:26:42.360 Yeah. So Alex has a meeting here with a guy 1:26:42.439 --> 1:26:45.200 named Marian, and this is Tom Matthews, the guy from 1:26:45.439 --> 1:26:48.599 a Return of the Living Dead. Didn't recognize him initially 1:26:48.600 --> 1:26:52.519 here because he's got long, stringy hair. His energy in 1:26:52.560 --> 1:26:56.720 this scene is Gary Busey with blackened teeth, and the 1:26:56.800 --> 1:26:59.880 conversation is also hard to follow, but I'll try to summarize. 1:27:00.120 --> 1:27:03.120 Marian tells Alex that he's getting a bad reputation with 1:27:03.160 --> 1:27:06.800 the Brazil triad. You really don't want that. And then 1:27:06.840 --> 1:27:09.920 Alex gets nervous and he pulls a gun and he says, 1:27:10.040 --> 1:27:13.799 where's the Japanese tech with the chip? And then Marion 1:27:14.439 --> 1:27:18.280 reassures him and talks him down, but then gets Alex 1:27:18.320 --> 1:27:22.200 with the old cyborg face ambush where Marian's face opens 1:27:22.320 --> 1:27:25.280 up and a laser gun pokes out from a crack 1:27:25.320 --> 1:27:29.160 between his nose and his eye and then blasts Alex. 1:27:29.280 --> 1:27:31.360 So I guess this guy was a cyborg too. Yeah. 1:27:31.400 --> 1:27:32.960 This effect is one of the ones that I was 1:27:32.960 --> 1:27:34.719 talking about where I felt like it looks really good, 1:27:34.920 --> 1:27:37.040 like they knew exactly what they could accomplish and it 1:27:37.040 --> 1:27:37.519 looks great. 1:27:38.000 --> 1:27:42.799 Yeah it is. It is funny when it happens because 1:27:42.840 --> 1:27:46.960 of the situation, but the effect looks really great. Yeah. 1:27:46.960 --> 1:27:49.880 So Alex is lying on the ground damaged, and then 1:27:49.960 --> 1:27:51.960 Marian comes up to him and he's like, you know, 1:27:52.080 --> 1:27:55.080 no worries. LAPD wants you for an assignment, so they're 1:27:55.080 --> 1:27:57.720 going to patch you up. Goods new even better, so 1:27:57.800 --> 1:28:00.000 that human percentage decreasing everyone more. 1:28:00.320 --> 1:28:02.880 Yeah, the same thing that happened earlier has now happened again. 1:28:03.560 --> 1:28:05.640 Somebody's gotten the better of him, shot him all up, 1:28:05.640 --> 1:28:07.200 and now he gets more cyborg parts. 1:28:07.680 --> 1:28:10.599 So Alex gets handed over to LAPD and he wakes 1:28:10.680 --> 1:28:13.160 up in a sort of outdoor dungeon cell in the 1:28:13.200 --> 1:28:15.880 desert somewhere, and he looks like Rambo. Now he's got 1:28:15.880 --> 1:28:20.880 Sylvester stallone hair from First Blood Part two, and we 1:28:20.920 --> 1:28:24.240 meet three new characters that we meet. Farnsworth played by 1:28:24.240 --> 1:28:27.240 Tim Thomerson. Here's Jack Death in a business suit and 1:28:27.280 --> 1:28:31.040 a long coat, a very square jaw. We meet Jermaine 1:28:31.120 --> 1:28:33.960 played by Nicholas Guest in a business suit in sunglasses 1:28:34.040 --> 1:28:37.439 German accent. We meet Merritt's played by Brian James in 1:28:37.479 --> 1:28:42.120 a business suit in sunglasses German accent. Farnsworth comes and 1:28:42.160 --> 1:28:44.360 looks in at Alex through the bars and he says 1:28:44.439 --> 1:28:47.439 he used to be one of my best hops. And 1:28:47.680 --> 1:28:51.000 the gist of the scene that follows is Farnsworth needs 1:28:51.080 --> 1:28:53.639 Alex to do one last job for him, just one 1:28:53.640 --> 1:28:58.519 more job, and he explains that what happened is Jared, 1:28:58.680 --> 1:29:03.400 Remember Jared and the Brune wig from the bar scene. 1:29:03.520 --> 1:29:08.320 Jared has stolen a data chip containing crucial information about 1:29:08.360 --> 1:29:12.400 an approaching summit between the President of the United States 1:29:12.479 --> 1:29:15.920 and the Prime Minister of Japan, who we learned from 1:29:15.960 --> 1:29:18.479 the back of the box. Now the United States and 1:29:18.560 --> 1:29:21.680 Japan are merged into one political and economic body. I 1:29:21.680 --> 1:29:23.040 don't think they say that in the movie. 1:29:23.160 --> 1:29:26.200 Yeah, don't ask too many questions about how this actually works. Ye. 1:29:27.400 --> 1:29:31.120 For some reason, Jared is going to leak the leak 1:29:31.280 --> 1:29:34.720 data about this summit to a terrorist group known as 1:29:34.760 --> 1:29:39.160 the Red Army Hammerheads. Alex needs to find Jared within 1:29:39.200 --> 1:29:41.799 the next three days before she meets with the leader 1:29:41.840 --> 1:29:44.920 of the Red Army Hammerheads. And by the way, Alex, 1:29:44.960 --> 1:29:47.439 we have surgically implanted a bomb in your heart and 1:29:47.479 --> 1:29:49.880 it will explode if you don't succeed in your mission 1:29:50.000 --> 1:29:52.000 or if you try to defy us in any way. 1:29:52.479 --> 1:29:54.320 So he's going to have to fly to a city 1:29:54.360 --> 1:29:56.479 on the island of Java. The city is known as 1:29:56.520 --> 1:29:59.559 shang Lu with a So he's gonna have to go 1:29:59.720 --> 1:30:01.599 and go with the bomb in his heart and get 1:30:01.600 --> 1:30:02.320 things done. 1:30:02.600 --> 1:30:05.240 So obvious shades of Escape from New York here, But 1:30:05.960 --> 1:30:07.160 I like the way they did. And they have the 1:30:07.200 --> 1:30:10.400 little like the little lights on his flesh that show 1:30:10.439 --> 1:30:11.960 like how long he has until the bomb and in 1:30:12.000 --> 1:30:12.880 his heart goes off. 1:30:13.360 --> 1:30:17.799 Well, I think that's after the character the other Julian 1:30:17.960 --> 1:30:19.559 later decrypts the bomb. 1:30:19.720 --> 1:30:23.360 Yeah, she has a little patch that she gives him, 1:30:23.400 --> 1:30:26.760 the little tech patch that helps him out with this. 1:30:26.960 --> 1:30:32.200 Yeah. So both Merrits and Jermaine are these nasty Weasley characters. 1:30:32.240 --> 1:30:37.040 They're always acting suspicious and superior. Merits has I was saying, 1:30:37.160 --> 1:30:41.200 he has an accent like Doctor Strangelove. And Jermaine just 1:30:41.280 --> 1:30:45.360 makes non stop threats against Alex and also totally random 1:30:45.479 --> 1:30:49.760 racist comments about Japanese people, for which Alex calls him 1:30:49.840 --> 1:30:53.519 racist and then knocks him out cold. So alexid intolerating that, 1:30:54.320 --> 1:30:58.280 and then Farnsworth simply comments, you haven't lost your edge, Alex, 1:30:59.240 --> 1:31:03.599 so yeah, But then Alex tries to refuse the mission, 1:31:04.760 --> 1:31:08.599 but Farnsworth calls out, remember the bomb in your heart, Alex, 1:31:08.760 --> 1:31:11.160 and Alex is like, oh, yeah, the bomb in my heart. 1:31:11.680 --> 1:31:13.800 So I guess he's gonna go, and there are three 1:31:13.880 --> 1:31:16.920 days until his heart explodes, so Alex leaves in a helicopter. 1:31:17.760 --> 1:31:21.439 But then when he's not present, we see Farnsworth scheming 1:31:21.520 --> 1:31:24.680 with Germaine and we learn it's a double cross. They 1:31:24.760 --> 1:31:28.320 fed Alex a fake story about what happened with Jared, 1:31:29.960 --> 1:31:32.519 about what they want and why he's going. The truth 1:31:32.680 --> 1:31:35.760 is they need to find Jared and they think that 1:31:36.240 --> 1:31:39.160 he's the only one she trusts, so she'll come out 1:31:39.160 --> 1:31:42.280 of hiding when she sees him show up in town. 1:31:42.640 --> 1:31:44.800 So he heads off to Java with the tip that 1:31:44.800 --> 1:31:47.400 he's supposed to meet up with somebody named Julian, who 1:31:47.560 --> 1:32:00.559 can I don't know, I don't remember what the idea is. Anyway, 1:32:00.600 --> 1:32:04.400 here we transition to Shanglu and in this part of 1:32:04.439 --> 1:32:06.920 the movie it starts to have a feeling like Yo jimbo, 1:32:07.120 --> 1:32:09.800 or like a fistful of dollars, where a guy comes 1:32:09.800 --> 1:32:13.320 into a small town where the streets are empty. Violence 1:32:13.360 --> 1:32:16.559 is ready to erupt, and everybody sits around inside peeking 1:32:16.560 --> 1:32:18.719 out the windows at the new guy while he walks 1:32:18.720 --> 1:32:19.719 around in the streets. 1:32:19.800 --> 1:32:24.639 And these streets are everything in Shanglo is definitely Big Island, 1:32:25.360 --> 1:32:28.599 and the street you know, everything's lid and shot for 1:32:28.760 --> 1:32:31.680 effect here and to look cyberpunky. But yeah, these are 1:32:31.720 --> 1:32:33.879 just like the streets still look like this in various 1:32:34.400 --> 1:32:37.640 towns on the Big Island, and yeah, these are great locations. 1:32:38.320 --> 1:32:41.400 Once again, Olivia Grenaire has a different look. You've got 1:32:41.400 --> 1:32:45.200 a different haircut, different clothes here. While walking around on 1:32:45.240 --> 1:32:48.280 the streets, he is repeatedly attacked by gangs of big 1:32:48.360 --> 1:32:50.640 men who I'm sorry to stereotype, but they do not 1:32:50.760 --> 1:32:54.760 look dressed for crime or for the tropical climate. It's 1:32:54.800 --> 1:32:56.880 like he's being jumped by a bunch of guys who 1:32:56.880 --> 1:33:00.120 work for the Rand Corporation. They're all just like or 1:33:00.560 --> 1:33:04.000 pleated khakis and tucked in shirts with belts, but also 1:33:04.120 --> 1:33:08.599 black leather gloves, and so they attack him, but Alex 1:33:08.640 --> 1:33:11.519 easily beats them up, and after he knocks them all out, 1:33:11.600 --> 1:33:16.080 he says to no One in particular undercover, and then 1:33:16.160 --> 1:33:18.880 Alex walks away, and then all of the guys stand 1:33:18.960 --> 1:33:21.680 up at the same time without comment or expression. So 1:33:21.760 --> 1:33:24.240 I think these guys might be cyborgs. And one of 1:33:24.280 --> 1:33:25.639 them is Finoli Thorson. 1:33:25.840 --> 1:33:28.360 Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't think we even mentioned him 1:33:28.400 --> 1:33:32.120 in our cast. But of course this is longtime co 1:33:32.280 --> 1:33:35.160 star of Arnold. Pops up in a number of Arnold 1:33:35.160 --> 1:33:38.520 films and sometimes in some very very fun roles, sometimes 1:33:39.080 --> 1:33:40.559 very forgettable little roles like this. 1:33:40.800 --> 1:33:43.760 Yeah, he's in like the Conan movies and stuff, and 1:33:43.840 --> 1:33:45.439 he he. 1:33:45.400 --> 1:33:47.759 Has a memorable he's one of the underlings of Thulsa 1:33:47.840 --> 1:33:49.120 Doom I think so. 1:33:49.320 --> 1:33:52.439 Yeah. But he also has a memorable turn as the 1:33:52.479 --> 1:33:57.480 main villain of a very funny B movie called Abraxas 1:33:57.600 --> 1:34:02.000 starring Jesse Ventura. Yeah you have seen this. Yeah, he 1:34:02.000 --> 1:34:05.400 plays the villain named Secundas, who is often referenced by 1:34:05.479 --> 1:34:09.280 Jesse Ventura in sudden lines where he just turns to 1:34:09.320 --> 1:34:15.880 someone and says, I must locate secundas. But anyway, in 1:34:15.920 --> 1:34:18.200 this segment of the movie, we also see a character 1:34:18.240 --> 1:34:20.559 who will become major in the second half of the movie. 1:34:20.600 --> 1:34:24.519 This is Max Impact. Max spends a long time just 1:34:24.600 --> 1:34:27.200 tailing Alex around town and keeping an eye on him. 1:34:27.560 --> 1:34:31.919 She has a weird, nervous bird like energy, often cocking 1:34:31.960 --> 1:34:36.400 and bobbing her head like a chicken. Yeah yeah. And also, 1:34:36.520 --> 1:34:40.040 we're gonna just keep meeting new characters. They're just piling 1:34:40.080 --> 1:34:43.280 the characters on. We meet Julian played by Deborah Shelton 1:34:43.360 --> 1:34:46.280 and Billy Moon played by Thomas Jane. They like to 1:34:46.479 --> 1:34:51.440 stand around naked and disgustingly sweaty and peep out the window. 1:34:51.760 --> 1:34:55.080 The camera is very interested in both of their butts 1:34:55.120 --> 1:34:58.679 and in their sweat, where it's just showing the dripping 1:34:58.800 --> 1:34:59.720 with sweat. 1:35:00.080 --> 1:35:03.599 High level of sexual humidity in this room without a doubt. 1:35:04.320 --> 1:35:06.720 But also this makes all of the bad guys in 1:35:06.760 --> 1:35:10.360 the suits and the pleated khakis especially funny. By contrast, 1:35:11.720 --> 1:35:13.720 I guess just because like it's well, I don't know, 1:35:13.760 --> 1:35:16.800 maybe you're saying like it's just the heat of the 1:35:16.840 --> 1:35:18.960 passion that's making them this sweaty, But I was thinking 1:35:19.000 --> 1:35:19.960 it's supposed to be the weather. 1:35:20.560 --> 1:35:22.280 I mean, I think it's the passion. I don't think 1:35:22.320 --> 1:35:24.920 these two have been setting around talking about politics the 1:35:24.960 --> 1:35:25.400 whole time. 1:35:26.120 --> 1:35:29.760 So plot wise, I truly cannot explain the full deal 1:35:29.800 --> 1:35:31.800 with Julian and Billy Moon. Even now I've seen it 1:35:31.840 --> 1:35:34.599 twice and made notes, and I still don't understand what's 1:35:34.600 --> 1:35:37.400 going on with them. They're involved in some kind of 1:35:37.479 --> 1:35:41.479 setup or trap for the hero because Farnsworth and the 1:35:41.520 --> 1:35:44.200 German creeps are scheming about this. We hear them scheming 1:35:44.200 --> 1:35:46.400 about it. But what is the nature of the trap? 1:35:46.760 --> 1:35:51.880 Well uncertain, Okay, at least in my viewing. Yeah, and 1:35:52.040 --> 1:35:54.320 you know, it is a very distracting scene because again, 1:35:54.400 --> 1:35:57.160 these are these two people are naked the entire time, 1:35:57.840 --> 1:36:00.120 so you'd be forgiven to sort of maybe lose the 1:36:00.120 --> 1:36:04.400 thread of the conversation given what's visually going on here. 1:36:04.479 --> 1:36:06.920 So yeah, and they're naked, and we see on Billy 1:36:06.960 --> 1:36:09.200 Moon's army as a tattoo on his arm that says 1:36:09.240 --> 1:36:15.800 Billy Moon I love Yeah exactly. It's like a name tag, 1:36:16.080 --> 1:36:20.880 but only if you're naked. So Billy Moon does not 1:36:21.040 --> 1:36:23.479 last long in this movie. He just stands there naked 1:36:23.560 --> 1:36:25.960 for a long time. The camera gets these angles on 1:36:26.000 --> 1:36:28.800 his butt cheeks, and then finally Vincent Kleines shows up, 1:36:28.840 --> 1:36:31.320 comes into the room and kills him. So, as we 1:36:31.360 --> 1:36:34.120 said earlier, Billy Moon never leaves the hotel room where 1:36:34.120 --> 1:36:34.679 we meet him. 1:36:34.840 --> 1:36:38.160 Now, Julian beats up Billy Moon a bit here, and 1:36:38.200 --> 1:36:41.479 apparently Deborah Shelton really did sort of rough up Thomas 1:36:41.560 --> 1:36:44.439 Jane a little bit. Oh no, and then it's fine, 1:36:44.479 --> 1:36:46.880 It's fine. Maybe even helped him out and helped him 1:36:46.920 --> 1:36:48.439 have a little more rugged good looks. 1:36:48.479 --> 1:36:51.400 You know. Deborah Shelton is one of the actors that 1:36:51.479 --> 1:36:53.960 I saw an interview with from behind the scenes, and 1:36:54.160 --> 1:36:56.439 seemed to me that she was taking her role in 1:36:56.479 --> 1:37:00.240 this film and the themes of the film quite seriously. She 1:37:00.400 --> 1:37:02.960 was like, it is an interesting movie that has something 1:37:03.000 --> 1:37:05.840 to say about humanity, and so I'm all, I'm invested 1:37:05.840 --> 1:37:06.120 in this. 1:37:06.200 --> 1:37:07.920 Yeah, And I think she also did like some sort 1:37:07.920 --> 1:37:10.439 of crazy workout regime to make sure that she was 1:37:11.560 --> 1:37:14.320 trying off for this. Yeah, she's buffing intimidating here. 1:37:14.640 --> 1:37:19.720 Yeah. So Alex checks into the hotel where Julian is 1:37:19.720 --> 1:37:23.960 staying and he meets another character named Yoshirohan. He's the 1:37:23.960 --> 1:37:27.000 guy who runs the hotel desk. This guy puts on 1:37:27.040 --> 1:37:29.400 an act first like at first, like he's just a 1:37:29.400 --> 1:37:32.639 hapless employee. He later turns out to be a serious 1:37:32.720 --> 1:37:37.080 Red Army Hammerheads operator. So again, basically everybody in the 1:37:37.120 --> 1:37:39.559 movie either turns out to be a cyborg or a 1:37:39.600 --> 1:37:43.920 Red Army Hammerhead. And then Alex he goes checks into 1:37:43.920 --> 1:37:47.360 his room. He starts to prepare one of his painkiller injections, 1:37:47.600 --> 1:37:49.559 so he's about to speed load. Uh oh, you know 1:37:49.600 --> 1:37:51.800 what that means. But then he thinks better of it 1:37:51.840 --> 1:37:53.960 and he smashes it on the floor. So it seems 1:37:53.960 --> 1:37:56.120 like he's going to quit the drugs, and he says 1:37:56.120 --> 1:37:59.320 to himself, no more of their drugs. If Farnsworth is 1:37:59.360 --> 1:38:01.400 going to kill me tomorrow. I want to be clear. 1:38:01.840 --> 1:38:05.519 I hope Jared really hurts Lapd. I really do. She 1:38:05.640 --> 1:38:08.160 can sell her data to the dogs for all I care. 1:38:08.560 --> 1:38:14.120 Damn all right, but taking a stand against something for reasons. 1:38:14.240 --> 1:38:17.439 Okay, So we still have not met all the characters 1:38:17.439 --> 1:38:19.600 that are around to me. We got to meet Angie 1:38:19.840 --> 1:38:23.600 Live played by Kerrie Hiroyuki Tagawa, first presented as some 1:38:23.680 --> 1:38:26.559 kind of gangster or crime boss. Later becomes clear he's 1:38:26.600 --> 1:38:30.760 a Red Army Hammerhead. He's all swagger and sneer. He 1:38:30.760 --> 1:38:36.400 speaks with this strange, interesting, synthetic future accent. He says, bra, 1:38:36.640 --> 1:38:39.639 yeah constantly, Bra. So Angie and a bunch of henchmen 1:38:39.640 --> 1:38:42.160 and sunglasses go up to Alex's room. They beat him 1:38:42.200 --> 1:38:45.519 up and interrogate him, and he says, make it easy 1:38:45.520 --> 1:38:48.120 on yourself, Bra, I can find a place on you 1:38:48.200 --> 1:38:50.920 that's still human, where you can still feel something, bra, 1:38:51.120 --> 1:38:57.400 and then he just knees him and crotch found. Angie 1:38:57.400 --> 1:39:00.920 says that the Hammerheads are freedom fighters, were not terrorists, 1:39:00.920 --> 1:39:06.280 were freedom fighters against information systems, and that the taunting 1:39:06.320 --> 1:39:09.320 and the sneering continues until Alex reveals that he has 1:39:09.360 --> 1:39:12.479 a bomb inside his heart, and this freaks out Angie 1:39:12.520 --> 1:39:15.600 and his dudes. They get spooked and they leave, but 1:39:15.680 --> 1:39:18.680 before he leaves, Angie stops to ask Alex how he 1:39:18.720 --> 1:39:21.840 feels about becoming less and less human one surgery at 1:39:21.880 --> 1:39:25.759 a time, and Alex says he never had a choice. 1:39:26.120 --> 1:39:29.839 So next we get the meeting between Alex and Julian, 1:39:30.000 --> 1:39:33.599 so Julian takes her henchman Michelle again. This is Vincent 1:39:33.680 --> 1:39:37.879 Kleine to Alex's room. Michelle attacks Alex in the shower, 1:39:38.000 --> 1:39:41.080 so here's their nude fight scene mentioned in the themes 1:39:41.479 --> 1:39:45.720 list here. But Alex shoots Michelle in the bathroom and 1:39:45.760 --> 1:39:48.040 sparks fly, so it turns out he was a cyborg, 1:39:49.080 --> 1:39:52.920 and Alex comes out of the shower naked. Julian explains 1:39:52.960 --> 1:39:55.759 that she needs to do a surgery on his cyber 1:39:55.880 --> 1:40:01.080 eye to remove a surveillance device implanted by Farnsworth. Obviously, 1:40:01.200 --> 1:40:04.720 the ensuing eye surgery scene is inspired by Terminator with 1:40:04.800 --> 1:40:07.280 the self eye surgery scene in that, but it is 1:40:07.360 --> 1:40:11.240 I think this is truly gross and unique, like it's 1:40:11.439 --> 1:40:14.040 very good, like they put She's got a suction cup 1:40:14.360 --> 1:40:17.320 that she puts on his eyeball, yanks his eyeball out 1:40:17.360 --> 1:40:20.840 on this big stalk it's a metal robot stalk for 1:40:20.920 --> 1:40:23.920 the eye, and just stands there working on it while 1:40:23.920 --> 1:40:27.320 Alex is like uh, and then eventually puts it back in. 1:40:28.400 --> 1:40:31.320 She also does a kind of digital hacking surgery on 1:40:31.360 --> 1:40:35.879 the bomb in Alex's heart, which is going to mean basically, 1:40:35.880 --> 1:40:37.920 it means the bad guys cannot blow up the bomb 1:40:37.960 --> 1:40:41.000 in his heart without decrypting her code first. And so 1:40:41.040 --> 1:40:44.000 he's got four lights under his skin. When all four 1:40:44.080 --> 1:40:46.640 lights go out, it will be decrypted and they can 1:40:46.680 --> 1:40:48.880 blow him up. Okay, now, as we're getting into the 1:40:48.880 --> 1:40:50.559 back half of the film, I feel like we need 1:40:50.600 --> 1:40:53.599 to be more summary here in our discussion. So I'm 1:40:53.600 --> 1:40:55.519 just going to try to do my best to This 1:40:55.560 --> 1:40:58.040 is again not in the order that the information is 1:40:58.080 --> 1:40:59.800 actually revealed, but I'm just going to try to put 1:40:59.840 --> 1:41:03.200 all together what we eventually learned is going on. Julian 1:41:03.280 --> 1:41:08.520 explains that Jared remember her, Yeah, his former lover Slash, 1:41:08.600 --> 1:41:13.960 the cyborg who's kind of his boss from Baha. She 1:41:14.439 --> 1:41:17.559 her body was destroyed while she was trying to escape La, 1:41:18.040 --> 1:41:21.360 but her mind and soul were uploaded to a data 1:41:21.439 --> 1:41:24.080 chip which Julian has in her hand, and she gives 1:41:24.120 --> 1:41:27.599 the chip to Alex. Julian gives Alex his mission. He's 1:41:27.640 --> 1:41:31.200 got to take the Jared chip to the Red Army Hammerheads, 1:41:31.200 --> 1:41:32.960 who were just in the room a few minutes ago, 1:41:33.120 --> 1:41:37.040 so missed opportunity there. He's got to take the chip 1:41:37.080 --> 1:41:40.560 to them at a meeting on top of the volcano 1:41:40.680 --> 1:41:45.360 at sundown. For some reason, this will stop Farnsworth. But 1:41:45.439 --> 1:41:48.400 wait a minute, what is Farnsworth doing that needs to 1:41:48.439 --> 1:41:51.640 be stopped. Even on the second watch notes, I was 1:41:51.640 --> 1:41:54.759 a little confused about this, but I think eventually they explain. 1:41:56.400 --> 1:42:00.920 Jared figured out that cyborgs have figured out a way 1:42:01.000 --> 1:42:05.000 to make copies of powerful human beings, and they are 1:42:05.080 --> 1:42:08.519 one by one replacing powerful humans in the world with 1:42:08.640 --> 1:42:13.800 cyborg copies for the eventual goal of taking over the 1:42:13.840 --> 1:42:18.200 world for the machines and destroying humankind. 1:42:19.360 --> 1:42:23.440 Okay, and this is going to have a direct influence 1:42:23.520 --> 1:42:26.880 on a character that we've seen a lot of so far, 1:42:27.000 --> 1:42:29.640 but apparently never really understand who. They've understood who they 1:42:29.680 --> 1:42:30.519 were right. 1:42:30.600 --> 1:42:33.200 So it turns out the Farnsworth we've met in the 1:42:33.240 --> 1:42:38.840 movie Jack Death Tim Thomerson is not really Farnsworth. He 1:42:39.040 --> 1:42:43.960 is a cyborg cloned copy of the original human Farnsworth 1:42:43.960 --> 1:42:46.880 who I think we never meet in the film, who 1:42:47.040 --> 1:42:51.200 was created by it seems Sam, remember the cyborg lady 1:42:51.320 --> 1:42:53.439 with the blonde wig in the earlier scene, the one 1:42:53.439 --> 1:42:56.680 who was sexually harassing Alex. She's like, ooh, I like 1:42:56.720 --> 1:42:57.480 your augments. 1:42:57.840 --> 1:43:01.680 Yeah, So Sam is now Sam consciousness is in a 1:43:02.000 --> 1:43:07.439 cybernetic Farnsworth. And interestingly enough, this character and like the 1:43:07.479 --> 1:43:11.880 IMDb credits is credited as Sam Farnsworth, So I guess 1:43:11.960 --> 1:43:14.160 you could think of Sam Farnsworth as sort of like 1:43:14.240 --> 1:43:20.120 the combination of Farnsworth's in Sam. Yeah, that's where we are. 1:43:20.720 --> 1:43:24.480 So this exposition dump with Julian turns into an insane 1:43:24.640 --> 1:43:29.200 gunfight where Farnsworth merits. Remember the German guy. A bunch 1:43:29.280 --> 1:43:32.880 of other beefy cyborg hinchmen and sunglasses with these comically 1:43:32.960 --> 1:43:36.360 huge guns start blasting their way into the hotel room. 1:43:36.400 --> 1:43:40.559 They're literally cutting doorways into the wall with bullets, and 1:43:40.920 --> 1:43:44.240 Alex escapes the room by cutting a hole in the 1:43:44.280 --> 1:43:47.919 floor with bullets and falling through multiple levels of the hotel, 1:43:48.320 --> 1:43:50.320 cutting holes as he goes by shooting. 1:43:50.439 --> 1:43:54.719 Yeah, this is absolutely bonkers. There's just so much machine 1:43:54.720 --> 1:43:58.920 gun fire, just blistering action. It's just unreal. I was 1:43:58.960 --> 1:44:00.759 really impressed, entertained. 1:44:01.640 --> 1:44:05.160 Meanwhile, Julian covers Alex's escape, so she she and the 1:44:05.160 --> 1:44:08.000 cyborgs just kind of stand there shooting each other like 1:44:08.080 --> 1:44:12.080 thousands of times, like the scene in RoboCop with Ed 1:44:12.160 --> 1:44:15.920 two nine. But if we didn't establish this already, Julian 1:44:16.040 --> 1:44:18.840 is a cyborg too. After the fight, she's kind of 1:44:18.880 --> 1:44:21.120 all blown up and all her motor parts are all 1:44:21.160 --> 1:44:24.679 over the place. And then Farnsworth comes in and kneels 1:44:24.720 --> 1:44:27.840 over Julian and pokes her eyes out with his fingers. 1:44:28.080 --> 1:44:31.240 Yeah, kind of like doesn't rea like he gets information 1:44:31.400 --> 1:44:33.120 from doing it too or something. 1:44:33.000 --> 1:44:36.800 He's trying to Apparently, how cyborgs get information from each 1:44:36.800 --> 1:44:39.160 other is poke their eyes out to download the data. 1:44:40.000 --> 1:44:43.479 But then it's discovered that she already wiped her memory banks, 1:44:43.560 --> 1:44:47.639 so there's nothing left to get and he goes He's like, oh, 1:44:47.840 --> 1:44:49.960 very good, smart move. You know you wiped it before 1:44:50.000 --> 1:44:53.719 I got it. Julian says, you always were an extremist, Sam, 1:44:53.920 --> 1:44:58.240 so she's talking to him as Sam. And then Farnsworth says, 1:44:58.520 --> 1:45:07.240 you're a cyborg and then Julian says killing all the 1:45:07.320 --> 1:45:11.000 humans isn't going to make you more real, and Farnsworth says, 1:45:11.200 --> 1:45:16.200 I am real, okay. So then Farnsworth destroys her memory 1:45:16.240 --> 1:45:19.559 banks and then he tells Merits. He says to him, 1:45:19.600 --> 1:45:24.200 Alex Rain will be destroyed somehow, some way. He's human 1:45:24.320 --> 1:45:27.759 after all. But I was like, wait a minute, he's human. 1:45:28.000 --> 1:45:30.160 I thought he was a cyborg. They're making a big 1:45:30.240 --> 1:45:34.200 deal about how he's a cyborg. There is some distinction 1:45:34.320 --> 1:45:38.360 in this movie that is obviously crucial to the meaning 1:45:38.479 --> 1:45:42.120 of the story that is not coming through about some 1:45:42.280 --> 1:45:47.600 difference like cyborgs as either fundamentally machines or robots with 1:45:47.680 --> 1:45:51.760 human tissue and human appearance, versus a different kind of 1:45:51.800 --> 1:45:56.599 cyborg that is fundamentally a human with machine augmentations. Both 1:45:56.680 --> 1:45:59.920 seem to exist in the movie, and they're both called cyborgs, 1:46:00.040 --> 1:46:04.080 but they're not really differentiated, except we're supposed to understand 1:46:04.120 --> 1:46:06.280 that there is a big difference between them. 1:46:06.720 --> 1:46:09.040 Yeah. Plus, it does seem like it's more of a 1:46:09.120 --> 1:46:13.320 linear spectrum going on here, Like everybody is probably to 1:46:13.439 --> 1:46:16.760 some degree cybernetic. It's just how cybernetic are you? 1:46:17.560 --> 1:46:23.280 Yeah? Anyway, Like on one on one hand, it's confusingly 1:46:23.320 --> 1:46:25.519 rendered in the story. On the other hand, I find 1:46:25.560 --> 1:46:29.120 it kind of interesting. It's like something is like stimulating 1:46:29.160 --> 1:46:32.280 my brain with the themes here. Yeah, something about this like 1:46:33.040 --> 1:46:39.000 linear spectrum of a linear spectrum of cybernicity where characters 1:46:39.040 --> 1:46:42.200 are arguing about who's over what kind of line on 1:46:42.240 --> 1:46:43.719 the spectrum. 1:46:43.040 --> 1:46:43.240 Yeah. 1:46:44.400 --> 1:46:47.960 So anyway, from here, the movie is largely a string 1:46:48.240 --> 1:46:51.080 of chase and action scenes just kind of racing to 1:46:51.120 --> 1:46:55.320 the conclusion. There's one part where Alex plugs the Jared 1:46:55.400 --> 1:47:00.559 data chip into this handheld computer and talks to he's 1:47:00.560 --> 1:47:03.639 got an iPhone, Yeah, and she's talking about the cyborg 1:47:03.720 --> 1:47:07.120 double cross. Jared is talking about Sam and she says 1:47:07.479 --> 1:47:10.559 she was retro cloned into a perfect cell or cell 1:47:10.720 --> 1:47:13.920 duplicate of Farnsworth. But if it's a clone, wouldn't that 1:47:14.000 --> 1:47:16.200 be organic not not a machine? Right? 1:47:16.200 --> 1:47:17.320 And we're gonna say this is. 1:47:20.240 --> 1:47:23.920 Sam. She says, Sam intends to replace humans with cyborgs. 1:47:24.000 --> 1:47:26.360 Sam has to be stopped before she starts a war 1:47:26.439 --> 1:47:29.920 between humans and cyborgs. The question comes up, why is 1:47:30.000 --> 1:47:34.320 Jared helping? Because she's because what Sam is doing is wrong. 1:47:34.439 --> 1:47:37.520 Isn't that enough? So even though Jared is a cyborg, 1:47:37.600 --> 1:47:40.639 she knows right from wrong, something that multiple characters say 1:47:40.640 --> 1:47:44.679 in the movie cyborgs are incapable of. And then Jared says, 1:47:44.680 --> 1:47:47.599 for what it's worth, Alex, I loved you, and Alex 1:47:47.680 --> 1:47:52.639 makes a dismissive comment. He's like, yeah, terrific cyborg love. 1:47:53.280 --> 1:47:55.559 But then she says it takes more than flesh and 1:47:55.600 --> 1:47:59.040 blood to be human, Alex, and then Alex just gets 1:47:59.040 --> 1:48:02.720 into a bunch more gun fights with cyborgs. Oh, there's 1:48:02.760 --> 1:48:05.400 this great scene where a little old lady is being 1:48:05.439 --> 1:48:09.120 harassed by spin Ole Thorson as a cyborg, and she 1:48:09.240 --> 1:48:11.920 pulls out a forty five and blasts him and then 1:48:12.000 --> 1:48:14.920 just walks away swearing about cyborgs. 1:48:14.400 --> 1:48:17.759 Just for comedic effect, just kind of out of nowhere. 1:48:27.360 --> 1:48:29.080 The main thing that has to happen after this is 1:48:29.120 --> 1:48:31.600 Alex has to get this Jared data chip to the 1:48:31.600 --> 1:48:34.920 Red Army Hammerheads guy. Before sundown, there are a bunch 1:48:34.960 --> 1:48:39.040 of action scenes Alex fights. Remember that guy from Rio Marion, 1:48:39.200 --> 1:48:41.559 the Tom Matthews guy with the gun inside his face. 1:48:41.640 --> 1:48:44.920 They fight again while going down a water slide that's 1:48:44.960 --> 1:48:45.839 covered in mud. 1:48:46.000 --> 1:48:49.679 Yeah, it's like one of these rolling slides that you'll 1:48:49.720 --> 1:48:52.240 see at like fall festivals that people will ride down 1:48:52.240 --> 1:48:55.640 in potato sacks, except this one's covered with mud. And 1:48:56.560 --> 1:48:59.320 yet the way I'm describing it, it might make it 1:48:59.360 --> 1:49:02.040 seem like it looks fake, but it doesn't. Like it 1:49:02.080 --> 1:49:05.400 feels entirely. I don't know, it just works. It's just 1:49:05.520 --> 1:49:08.679 a crazy action sequence with a crazy slide. 1:49:09.240 --> 1:49:11.800 I loved this action scene. I was like cheering in 1:49:11.840 --> 1:49:14.840 the middle of it. Alex and the wins in this 1:49:14.920 --> 1:49:18.479 fight by smashing Marion's face on an overhead object as 1:49:18.520 --> 1:49:23.200 they're sliding beneath it. He still but it's like the 1:49:23.320 --> 1:49:27.280 end of Speed with Dennis Hopper, you know. So Alex 1:49:27.439 --> 1:49:31.679 ends up being both attacked and assisted by a guide 1:49:31.760 --> 1:49:35.559 by Max Impact, the lady we met earlier. It turns 1:49:35.560 --> 1:49:38.840 out she is the sister of Rosaria, the terrorists that 1:49:38.880 --> 1:49:42.839 he killed in Baja. She wants revenge against Alex. Instead, 1:49:42.880 --> 1:49:46.320 she takes him to Angie again. That's Kerrie Hiroyuki Takawa, 1:49:47.000 --> 1:49:49.719 who is revealed to be the Red Army Hammerhead leader. 1:49:50.600 --> 1:49:53.959 But while they're negotiating what's going on, there's an ambush 1:49:53.960 --> 1:49:58.360 by the cyborgs. So just fighting all across Hawaii, Farnsworth, 1:49:58.680 --> 1:50:02.720 Farnsworth's bad guys, Ill Angie and the other Hammerheads, and 1:50:02.800 --> 1:50:05.479 the fighting and chasing continues. They go through like they 1:50:05.520 --> 1:50:07.479 go down a zip line at one point, and then 1:50:07.520 --> 1:50:11.519 they're fighting in the forest. Max and Allex diving as well, 1:50:11.560 --> 1:50:15.559 I believe, Yes, some beautiful locations with like waterfalls and 1:50:15.920 --> 1:50:21.160 the volcanic rocks and streams cutting through them, and beautiful locations. 1:50:21.920 --> 1:50:26.400 At one point, either Max or Alex I don't remember 1:50:26.400 --> 1:50:29.519 which one shoots Farnsworth with a rocket, so it seems okay, 1:50:29.560 --> 1:50:33.080 he's done for he's been killed, but uh oh, Farnsworth 1:50:33.360 --> 1:50:36.679 is a terminator indoskeleton underneath, so he just turns into 1:50:36.720 --> 1:50:38.240 a stop motion terminator. 1:50:38.560 --> 1:50:40.960 Yeah, and you know, this is maybe an effect that 1:50:41.240 --> 1:50:43.439 isn't as great as you might want it to be, 1:50:43.560 --> 1:50:46.559 but I don't know. I still love stop motion effects, 1:50:46.560 --> 1:50:48.519 even when there may be a little crunchy, and so 1:50:48.680 --> 1:50:50.679 this is still fine as far as I'm concerned. 1:50:50.920 --> 1:50:54.800 It doesn't look realistic, but I like it. I like 1:50:54.840 --> 1:50:59.280 the way it looks, so so yeah, he's now chasing 1:50:59.320 --> 1:51:02.760 them as a term indoskeleton. Max and Alex meet up 1:51:02.800 --> 1:51:07.360 with Yoshirohan remember him from earlier, the other Red Army Hammerhead. 1:51:07.640 --> 1:51:09.479 They meet him on I think, on top of the 1:51:09.560 --> 1:51:13.240 volcano to escape in this futuristic jet plane, but the 1:51:13.400 --> 1:51:17.240 terminator Farnsworth grabs on for a ride. Rob can you 1:51:17.280 --> 1:51:18.599 describe this fight scene? 1:51:18.760 --> 1:51:20.519 Oh? I mean, it's everything you'd want it to be. 1:51:20.680 --> 1:51:24.040 It is a stop motion fight sequence between the in 1:51:24.160 --> 1:51:30.080 the indoskeleton and Alex, with both Alex and the endoskeleton 1:51:30.400 --> 1:51:34.000 rendered in stop motion, you know, like a little little 1:51:34.040 --> 1:51:38.000 stop motion puppets. So yeah, it doesn't really feel real 1:51:38.240 --> 1:51:42.000 but looks amazing in its own way. They're fighting on 1:51:42.080 --> 1:51:44.360 the back of like kind of like the the opening, 1:51:44.439 --> 1:51:48.280 like the rear opening of this hovercraft or whatever it is. 1:51:49.120 --> 1:51:51.599 And but they're also getting in some like final back 1:51:51.640 --> 1:51:55.120 and forth jabs about what it means to be human 1:51:55.360 --> 1:51:59.360 and who owns what parts and so forth. And I 1:51:59.360 --> 1:52:02.200 think that that basically comes down to how he frees himself, 1:52:02.280 --> 1:52:04.719 Like he's like something about like you know, you belong 1:52:04.800 --> 1:52:07.120 to us, and he's like, well, here you can have it, 1:52:07.200 --> 1:52:11.160 and it's not. His arm detaches, and so Farnsworth indoskeleton 1:52:11.520 --> 1:52:15.360 with his side with Alex. The cybernetic arm plummets and 1:52:15.520 --> 1:52:18.080 explodes in the volcano, or explodes in the way into 1:52:18.080 --> 1:52:19.080 the volcano. 1:52:18.960 --> 1:52:24.720 Is dropped into a volcano and explodes. Amazing quality cut, wonderful, excellent. 1:52:24.920 --> 1:52:27.160 So after this there is a sort of a coda 1:52:27.479 --> 1:52:31.000 where they meet up with Jackie Earl Haley, the playing 1:52:31.080 --> 1:52:34.320 character named Einstein at some red Army Hammerhead lab I 1:52:34.360 --> 1:52:39.280 think they say in the Marshall Islands maybe. So whatever 1:52:39.280 --> 1:52:42.880 the mission was, it is accomplished. It is accomplished. To 1:52:42.960 --> 1:52:48.200 quote the last temptation of Christ though somehow the mission 1:52:48.439 --> 1:52:52.439 requires the digital death of Jared, so the Jared computer 1:52:52.560 --> 1:52:55.080 program data has to be erased, which will mean she 1:52:55.360 --> 1:52:59.519 ceases to exist. And then after this there is a 1:53:00.200 --> 1:53:04.080 there is sort of a coda coda where Alex and 1:53:04.120 --> 1:53:07.040 now Max are working together and I think what they're 1:53:07.040 --> 1:53:09.439 doing is they're going back to LA and they're like 1:53:09.520 --> 1:53:12.640 tracking down and killing all of the cyborgs that have 1:53:12.760 --> 1:53:15.599 copied people and infiltrated whatever. 1:53:15.840 --> 1:53:18.519 Yeah, they're having like taking a smoke break in the 1:53:18.560 --> 1:53:21.160 pouring rain, yes, very soaked. 1:53:21.520 --> 1:53:26.680 Very Yeah. There is a scene where remember Germaine, the 1:53:26.720 --> 1:53:29.800 guy the like the sniveling German accent guy who was 1:53:29.840 --> 1:53:32.920 making racist comments earlier. Well, Alex shows up on the 1:53:33.000 --> 1:53:35.320 roof of the L A p. D Building and shoots 1:53:35.360 --> 1:53:38.320 him in the crotch. Yuh so that guy's that that. 1:53:38.520 --> 1:53:41.920 I guess he was a cyborg too, so done with him? Uh. 1:53:41.960 --> 1:53:45.280 And then after this, oh yeah, the very ending is 1:53:45.360 --> 1:53:48.120 Max and Alex they're like, Okay, we're gonna we're gonna 1:53:48.160 --> 1:53:51.160 do it all. We're gonna work together, and Max is like, 1:53:51.200 --> 1:53:53.080 how are we going to get your your body through 1:53:53.120 --> 1:53:55.640 airport security? Now that you're a cyborg and you have 1:53:55.720 --> 1:53:58.320 all this you know, metal in you, and he says 1:53:58.600 --> 1:54:02.439 piece by piece Max. That doesn't answer the question. Yeah, 1:54:02.640 --> 1:54:05.559 peace would trigger security. Yeah, but seriously, how are we 1:54:05.600 --> 1:54:06.040 going to do it? 1:54:06.920 --> 1:54:10.240 I don't know. So there are apparently a few different 1:54:10.320 --> 1:54:14.160 endings out there for this film. The one I got 1:54:14.200 --> 1:54:17.840 on the version that I streamed, features the endoskeleton battle, 1:54:17.840 --> 1:54:21.320 which we already described, and then this bit of dialogue 1:54:21.360 --> 1:54:24.240 where we hear I think Farnsworth or somebody talking to 1:54:24.280 --> 1:54:27.880 Farnsworth saying should we take them out now, like somebody 1:54:27.880 --> 1:54:33.560 that's following Max and Alex. But then other versions shuffle 1:54:33.600 --> 1:54:37.720 things around. I think other versions don't have the endoskeleton battle, 1:54:37.920 --> 1:54:42.160 so like don't establish the ultimate demise of Farnsworth. Or 1:54:42.600 --> 1:54:45.160 then there's versions that have the endo skeleton battle but 1:54:45.240 --> 1:54:47.200 don't have to should we take them out now? And 1:54:47.240 --> 1:54:50.000 in some versions we actually seen see Farnsworth at the 1:54:50.120 --> 1:54:52.840 end saying should we take them out now? Or someone 1:54:52.880 --> 1:54:57.640 telling him that. So I don't know. I guess you 1:54:57.680 --> 1:54:59.280 can sort of pick and choose how you want it. 1:54:59.320 --> 1:55:01.920 But I think the the intended vision here is that, 1:55:02.160 --> 1:55:04.840 of course the battle is not over a sequel of 1:55:04.920 --> 1:55:09.360 some sort might be required. The threat has not been eradicated. 1:55:10.600 --> 1:55:12.880 Well, I say boo to any version that does not 1:55:13.200 --> 1:55:16.040 end with them dropping Jack death into a volcano. 1:55:15.800 --> 1:55:18.760 Exactly like, why did you got a film at Volcano 1:55:18.840 --> 1:55:21.400 National Park if you weren't going to do this? You know, 1:55:21.880 --> 1:55:24.840 I hate to see stop motion effects go to waste, 1:55:24.880 --> 1:55:26.240 so absolutely include that. 1:55:26.720 --> 1:55:29.800 Okay, Well, this episode has run very long, but obviously 1:55:29.800 --> 1:55:32.800 we had a lot to say about Albert Pune's Nemesis. 1:55:33.720 --> 1:55:38.520 Bravo. Yes, I loved it. Yeah, absolutely entertaining this. I 1:55:38.600 --> 1:55:41.160 highly recommend this one, whether you're intending to give it 1:55:42.040 --> 1:55:45.000 a very attentive viewing or you just need some just 1:55:45.120 --> 1:55:49.040 absolute delirious action to take place in the background. Either 1:55:49.080 --> 1:55:52.200 way you want to experience, Nemesis is completely valid. It's 1:55:52.240 --> 1:55:53.040 a wild ride. 1:55:53.720 --> 1:55:54.320 All right. 1:55:54.480 --> 1:55:56.000 We're going to go and close it out here, but 1:55:56.040 --> 1:55:57.600 we'd love to hear from everyone out there. Do you 1:55:57.640 --> 1:56:01.640 have memories of Nemesis or other Albert punefilms from the 1:56:01.720 --> 1:56:04.600 past right in We would love to hear from you. 1:56:04.840 --> 1:56:06.320 Just a reminder that Stuff to Blow your Mind is 1:56:06.360 --> 1:56:08.840 primarily a science and culture podcast, with core episodes on 1:56:08.880 --> 1:56:11.520 Tuesdays and Thursdays. But on Fridays we set aside most 1:56:11.560 --> 1:56:13.880 serious concerns to just talk about a weird film on 1:56:14.000 --> 1:56:15.360 Weird House Cinema. 1:56:15.560 --> 1:56:16.040 If you're on. 1:56:16.040 --> 1:56:18.800 Letterbox dot com, look us up. We're on lighterbox We're 1:56:18.840 --> 1:56:22.600 Weird House, and you can follow our episodes there. We 1:56:22.640 --> 1:56:24.360 have a nice list of all the movies we've covered 1:56:24.360 --> 1:56:26.160 over the years, and sometimes a peek ahead of what 1:56:26.240 --> 1:56:26.920 comes up next. 1:56:27.200 --> 1:56:30.640 Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway. 1:56:30.920 --> 1:56:32.400 If you would like to get in touch with us 1:56:32.400 --> 1:56:34.640 with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest 1:56:34.680 --> 1:56:36.600 a topic for the future, or just to say hello, 1:56:36.720 --> 1:56:39.320 you can email us at contact stuff to Blow your 1:56:39.320 --> 1:56:46.640 Mind dot com. 1:56:46.760 --> 1:56:49.720 Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. 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