1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,440 Speaker 1: Too Much Information is a production of I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:07,720 --> 00:00:10,240 Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to Too Much Information, the show 3 00:00:10,280 --> 00:00:13,039 Speaker 1: that brings you the secret histories and little known fascinating 4 00:00:13,119 --> 00:00:16,759 Speaker 1: facts and figures behind your favorite movies, music, TV shows 5 00:00:16,800 --> 00:00:21,120 Speaker 1: and more. We are today's Mission Control of Minutia. I'm 6 00:00:21,160 --> 00:00:25,240 Speaker 1: Alex Heigel and I'm Jordan Run Talk and Jordan's Today 7 00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:27,960 Speaker 1: we're talking about another jewel in the great mid nineties 8 00:00:28,080 --> 00:00:32,600 Speaker 1: run of sci fi space movies. We are talking about Contact. 9 00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:35,600 Speaker 1: I didn't realize that we had programmed another outer space 10 00:00:35,800 --> 00:00:39,000 Speaker 1: movie from the late nineties into the rotation so quickly 11 00:00:39,040 --> 00:00:42,440 Speaker 1: after Men and Black and Bob Zamecha's who did Roger Rabbit? 12 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:46,200 Speaker 1: So we're really showing our biases here. Yeah. Um, it's 13 00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:48,559 Speaker 1: a great movie though. It's a beautiful movie. It's a kindler, 14 00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:53,120 Speaker 1: gentler version of space than Independence Day or Men and Black, 15 00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:56,720 Speaker 1: and certainly more than Event Horizon, which, uh do you 16 00:00:56,760 --> 00:01:00,360 Speaker 1: remember that movie vaguely where they take a space ship 17 00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:06,319 Speaker 1: to hell? Um? That movie whips. But anyway, Yeah, it's 18 00:01:06,319 --> 00:01:08,880 Speaker 1: a unique film in the genre. It's the like staring 19 00:01:08,959 --> 00:01:10,920 Speaker 1: up at space when you're a little kid. It's Scott 20 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:13,600 Speaker 1: brings that kind of wide eyed innocence to it and 21 00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:19,360 Speaker 1: us no death Rays was putting eggs in your chest. 22 00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:24,080 Speaker 1: Um uh you know. All that being said, I missed 23 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:27,000 Speaker 1: this movie when I was a kid somehow. Yeah, really 24 00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:30,160 Speaker 1: a kid's movie. Yeah that's true. Yeah, I mean it 25 00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:33,160 Speaker 1: also came out in between Independence Day and Men in Black, 26 00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:36,960 Speaker 1: which occupied like three straight years of my life, so 27 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:40,440 Speaker 1: I didn't really have room for this one. But we 28 00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:42,480 Speaker 1: watched it again recent at some point I watched it. 29 00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:46,240 Speaker 1: Then we watched it again recently, like during a pandemic 30 00:01:46,319 --> 00:01:49,960 Speaker 1: freshman year, and I was just struck a new It's 31 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:53,160 Speaker 1: such a beautiful film. You know, I'm assuming you have 32 00:01:53,280 --> 00:01:57,160 Speaker 1: much more history with it. Yeah. I was incredibly fascinated 33 00:01:57,200 --> 00:01:59,320 Speaker 1: with space as a kid. I mean, I'm a veteran 34 00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:01,840 Speaker 1: of Space Camp. Anything I had to do with space 35 00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:04,760 Speaker 1: I eagerly watched. And this is probably one of the 36 00:02:04,800 --> 00:02:06,800 Speaker 1: last ones I saw, because, I mean, compared to Men 37 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:08,840 Speaker 1: in Black and Independence Day and all these other movies, 38 00:02:09,320 --> 00:02:12,000 Speaker 1: it kind of looked boring. The poster was just Joe 39 00:02:12,080 --> 00:02:16,360 Speaker 1: Foster with headphones on outside of a big satellite dish. 40 00:02:16,360 --> 00:02:18,440 Speaker 1: But good lord, this is the one that stuck with 41 00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:20,600 Speaker 1: me the longest because, as you say, it's so different, 42 00:02:20,639 --> 00:02:24,160 Speaker 1: it's so much more gentle, and it really has Carl Sagan, 43 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:26,120 Speaker 1: who wrote the novel that this was based on and 44 00:02:26,160 --> 00:02:28,799 Speaker 1: spent the last seventeen years of his life trying to 45 00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:31,280 Speaker 1: get this made. It has his sense of wonder the 46 00:02:31,320 --> 00:02:34,239 Speaker 1: whole you know, billions and billions of stars, which I'm 47 00:02:34,240 --> 00:02:36,480 Speaker 1: totally never actually said that. That's kind of like the 48 00:02:36,639 --> 00:02:39,680 Speaker 1: catchphrase that everyone says when doing a Carl Sagan reference, 49 00:02:39,680 --> 00:02:41,200 Speaker 1: but I don't think it actually said that. I think 50 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:43,520 Speaker 1: that was a Johnny Carson impression. Do you watch Cosmos 51 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:47,720 Speaker 1: years ago? Like back in this era, I was just 52 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:50,560 Speaker 1: so into this stuff. Yeah, I mean, he's just such 53 00:02:50,560 --> 00:02:53,880 Speaker 1: a fascinating figure. And he once said by finding out 54 00:02:53,919 --> 00:02:56,680 Speaker 1: what the other planets are like, by finding out whether 55 00:02:56,720 --> 00:02:59,639 Speaker 1: there are civilizations on planets and other stars, we re 56 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:03,720 Speaker 1: established a meaningful context for ourselves. And I think that's 57 00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:06,639 Speaker 1: such an important ethos for this movie. Jodie Foster called 58 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:09,360 Speaker 1: it a movie about people and their passions rather than 59 00:03:09,400 --> 00:03:13,160 Speaker 1: an aliens movie, and it's true. The whole story of contact, 60 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:17,440 Speaker 1: it just captures this delicate intersection of religion, science, and politics, 61 00:03:17,840 --> 00:03:19,600 Speaker 1: and I think it does it in a really beautiful 62 00:03:19,639 --> 00:03:23,160 Speaker 1: way in a really challenging way. But yeah, this movie 63 00:03:23,280 --> 00:03:26,080 Speaker 1: gave me my favorite online model when it comes to 64 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:28,160 Speaker 1: how I feel about being life on other planets. You know, 65 00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:30,560 Speaker 1: if we're alone in the universe, sure seems like an 66 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:33,800 Speaker 1: awful waste of space. Such a great line. I just 67 00:03:33,840 --> 00:03:36,560 Speaker 1: think this is it's such a beautiful way of illustrating 68 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:41,200 Speaker 1: that science and faith, however you want to define faith, 69 00:03:41,240 --> 00:03:43,960 Speaker 1: aren't mutually exclusive. There are things that that we don't 70 00:03:44,040 --> 00:03:46,760 Speaker 1: understand and don't know, and I think that's a beautiful thing. 71 00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:49,000 Speaker 1: And you know, Carl Sagan was a man who lived 72 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:51,160 Speaker 1: his life by science, but I think he allowed for 73 00:03:51,200 --> 00:03:53,760 Speaker 1: the i'll call it magic, you know, the things that 74 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:55,760 Speaker 1: that we we don't know about yet. And I think 75 00:03:55,760 --> 00:03:58,480 Speaker 1: that that frightens some people, but I think other people 76 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:01,600 Speaker 1: are exhilarated by that, and I think that's a really 77 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:03,680 Speaker 1: cool way to live your life. You know, this movie, 78 00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:05,560 Speaker 1: there will be many moments in this episode when I 79 00:04:05,600 --> 00:04:07,920 Speaker 1: choked up, because I really do think it's a beautiful 80 00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:13,400 Speaker 1: meditation on the mysteries of why we're here. Yeah. Well, 81 00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:16,600 Speaker 1: from the whopping advance that Mr Sagan secured for the 82 00:04:16,680 --> 00:04:24,479 Speaker 1: novel More, he was able to transform his incredible view 83 00:04:24,560 --> 00:04:28,479 Speaker 1: of the universe. It's a cold hardcast they'll see lucre 84 00:04:29,279 --> 00:04:33,960 Speaker 1: uh to the film's prolonged stay and speaking of event Horizon, 85 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:37,240 Speaker 1: the prolonged stay that this movie spent in development, hell 86 00:04:37,839 --> 00:04:40,760 Speaker 1: to the truly out of this world filming locations that 87 00:04:40,800 --> 00:04:43,560 Speaker 1: they went to for it. Here is everything you didn't 88 00:04:43,560 --> 00:04:54,919 Speaker 1: know about contact Carl Sagan growing up in benson Hurst. 89 00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:58,440 Speaker 1: In benson Hurst, Brooklyn, I like to imagine him rolling 90 00:04:58,480 --> 00:05:01,000 Speaker 1: around with a baseball bat like weeping people's gus on 91 00:05:01,080 --> 00:05:05,160 Speaker 1: the street corners, singing singing doo wop, played a spaghetti 92 00:05:05,480 --> 00:05:09,600 Speaker 1: boxing stickball weather offensive Italian American stereotypes screen putting here. 93 00:05:09,800 --> 00:05:12,440 Speaker 1: He had a number of formative experiences that shaped his 94 00:05:12,520 --> 00:05:14,520 Speaker 1: life's work growing up. The first one was the nineteen 95 00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:17,120 Speaker 1: thirty nine New York World's Fair, which he attended it 96 00:05:17,240 --> 00:05:20,200 Speaker 1: four years old, and he would later speak of being 97 00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:23,320 Speaker 1: very moved by the America of Tomorrow exhibit. And he 98 00:05:23,400 --> 00:05:26,080 Speaker 1: spent a lot of time at the Museum of Natural History, 99 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:33,760 Speaker 1: but he quickly got off Earth and away from well 100 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:36,360 Speaker 1: you can only see the big polar bears so many times. 101 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:40,200 Speaker 1: But his interest in space was really sparked by science 102 00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:44,320 Speaker 1: fiction writers, guys like H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, Robert Heinland, 103 00:05:44,440 --> 00:05:50,080 Speaker 1: Isaac Asimov, Arthur clark Edgar Rice Burrows, and he wrote 104 00:05:50,120 --> 00:05:51,680 Speaker 1: in The New York Times or told the New York 105 00:05:51,680 --> 00:05:55,280 Speaker 1: Times for a peace in n science fiction has led 106 00:05:55,320 --> 00:05:58,039 Speaker 1: me to science, which I love. Yeah, I mean, you 107 00:05:58,040 --> 00:05:59,840 Speaker 1: think about it. So much of the joy and one 108 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:02,960 Speaker 1: that comes across in his work and particularly the show Cosmos, 109 00:06:03,160 --> 00:06:05,800 Speaker 1: comes down to the fact that the sci fi dreams 110 00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:09,080 Speaker 1: of his childhood, like space exploration and space travel, were 111 00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:12,320 Speaker 1: becoming a reality in his young adulthood. Like how cool 112 00:06:12,440 --> 00:06:14,440 Speaker 1: is that he was in his thirties when the Gemini 113 00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:17,560 Speaker 1: and Apollo space programs began. So yeah, I mean this 114 00:06:17,600 --> 00:06:19,719 Speaker 1: stuff just went from the realm of science fiction to 115 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:23,159 Speaker 1: reality in a few short decades. And his delight in 116 00:06:23,240 --> 00:06:26,160 Speaker 1: this was so palpable in everything that he did, I 117 00:06:26,160 --> 00:06:28,880 Speaker 1: think is what made him so popular. But in nineteen 118 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:34,000 Speaker 1: forty seven he discovered Astounding Science Fiction magazine, which coincidentally 119 00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:37,120 Speaker 1: was the same year that Flying Saucers hit the national consciousness, 120 00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:39,920 Speaker 1: and Sagan talked to the New York Times piece about 121 00:06:39,960 --> 00:06:42,600 Speaker 1: sort of abandoning science fiction as he got older, as 122 00:06:42,600 --> 00:06:45,520 Speaker 1: he learned more about actual science, saying that he could 123 00:06:45,520 --> 00:06:48,120 Speaker 1: no longer make the leaps of logic and suspensions of 124 00:06:48,160 --> 00:06:51,760 Speaker 1: disbelief that sci fi reading required. And so it's funny. 125 00:06:51,839 --> 00:06:54,680 Speaker 1: He singles out a short story written by l Ron Hubbard, 126 00:06:54,720 --> 00:06:56,479 Speaker 1: The End Is Not Yet. He read it first at 127 00:06:56,560 --> 00:06:58,600 Speaker 1: nineteen and he loved it, and then he read it 128 00:06:58,680 --> 00:07:00,800 Speaker 1: years later as an adult, and he said, I was 129 00:07:00,839 --> 00:07:03,479 Speaker 1: so amazed at how it declined in the intervening years 130 00:07:03,480 --> 00:07:06,560 Speaker 1: that I seriously considered the possibility that there were two 131 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:09,560 Speaker 1: novels of that title by the same author, of vastly 132 00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:12,080 Speaker 1: differing quality. So I guess in the years that he 133 00:07:12,120 --> 00:07:16,000 Speaker 1: started becoming interested in actual science, as NASA was formed 134 00:07:16,040 --> 00:07:18,600 Speaker 1: and people were actually going this space, he starts to 135 00:07:18,600 --> 00:07:21,600 Speaker 1: take a dimmer review on science fiction. Uh. He also 136 00:07:21,760 --> 00:07:23,840 Speaker 1: doesn't really have nice things to say about Star Trek, 137 00:07:23,960 --> 00:07:27,480 Speaker 1: but hey, he liked doing Yeah, he likes Martian Chronicles too, 138 00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:29,800 Speaker 1: by Bradberry, which is cool. The piece is just so 139 00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:31,800 Speaker 1: funny because like there's some things in there where he's 140 00:07:31,840 --> 00:07:34,280 Speaker 1: just like, this is bulls science, and there's other where 141 00:07:34,320 --> 00:07:36,640 Speaker 1: he's like, I don't know, though, it's well written. So 142 00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:38,880 Speaker 1: I liked it. I like the I like little Nerdy. 143 00:07:38,920 --> 00:07:42,239 Speaker 1: Carl just read an astounding science fiction magazine in between 144 00:07:42,440 --> 00:07:46,600 Speaker 1: meetings of his doo wop group, But that disillusionment presumably 145 00:07:46,640 --> 00:07:48,920 Speaker 1: fed into his desire to write his own work of 146 00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:51,480 Speaker 1: science fiction, which has helped along by his third wife, 147 00:07:51,480 --> 00:07:54,480 Speaker 1: who is a woman named Ann dreen Uh. They met 148 00:07:54,520 --> 00:07:59,280 Speaker 1: at a dinner party hosted by Nora Ephron. This producer 149 00:07:59,440 --> 00:08:02,480 Speaker 1: who worked on Contact, Linda Obst, has talked about how 150 00:08:02,520 --> 00:08:06,960 Speaker 1: great Nora Ephron's dinner parties were, which is adorable. They 151 00:08:06,960 --> 00:08:10,280 Speaker 1: may work, seems so much smaller back then many, especially 152 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:14,880 Speaker 1: if you're rich and white. Um back in four they met, 153 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:17,040 Speaker 1: so this was just a year after Sagan had become 154 00:08:17,040 --> 00:08:20,840 Speaker 1: a really truly public figure celebrity with his first book 155 00:08:20,840 --> 00:08:24,880 Speaker 1: called The Cosmic Connection. But she is a fascinating figure 156 00:08:24,880 --> 00:08:27,360 Speaker 1: within her own right. She grew up in Queen's and 157 00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:30,800 Speaker 1: attended the nineteen sixty four World's Fair as a teenager. 158 00:08:31,120 --> 00:08:34,480 Speaker 1: Parents did too, and according to family legend, they went 159 00:08:34,760 --> 00:08:36,240 Speaker 1: even though they didn't know each other. They went the 160 00:08:36,280 --> 00:08:38,320 Speaker 1: same weekend. Might have made that up, but I think 161 00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:40,760 Speaker 1: some of my family did from Harrisburg as well. But 162 00:08:40,840 --> 00:08:43,480 Speaker 1: she also described that as a as a watershed moment 163 00:08:43,520 --> 00:08:46,840 Speaker 1: for her interest in space. She attended NYU for three 164 00:08:46,920 --> 00:08:49,240 Speaker 1: years but left and sort of spend some time is 165 00:08:49,280 --> 00:08:53,360 Speaker 1: this interesting kind of creative gad fly around town. She 166 00:08:53,440 --> 00:08:56,679 Speaker 1: was working at a bookstore and rubbing elbows with famous 167 00:08:56,760 --> 00:08:59,880 Speaker 1: New York creative types like John Lennon and u Do 168 00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:03,319 Speaker 1: Duke Ellington. She told the Chicago Tribune that she was 169 00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:05,840 Speaker 1: friends with Duke Ellington and his family and he would 170 00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:08,120 Speaker 1: drive around to black churches so that they could hear 171 00:09:08,120 --> 00:09:11,800 Speaker 1: like gospel music, which is incredible. And she and Sagan 172 00:09:12,040 --> 00:09:14,840 Speaker 1: they started out as friends, but he asked her for 173 00:09:14,960 --> 00:09:19,280 Speaker 1: help with the Voyager space probes, which is, you know, 174 00:09:19,480 --> 00:09:21,920 Speaker 1: quick rundown for anyone who doesn't know that. They're gold 175 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:26,120 Speaker 1: plated records containing a number of things that were deemed 176 00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:30,960 Speaker 1: central to a prospect of aliens understanding of human culture. 177 00:09:31,080 --> 00:09:35,720 Speaker 1: There's like whale songs, there's music, there's um the sound 178 00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:39,000 Speaker 1: of people kissing, I think is on their different many 179 00:09:39,040 --> 00:09:41,920 Speaker 1: many different languages too, I think. And these gold records 180 00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:44,960 Speaker 1: were affixed to the side of these space probes, which 181 00:09:44,960 --> 00:09:48,160 Speaker 1: were designed to be the I think, the first objects 182 00:09:48,200 --> 00:09:51,600 Speaker 1: that were designed to leave the Solar system. UH and 183 00:09:51,840 --> 00:09:54,640 Speaker 1: there was a little kind of gram that would show 184 00:09:54,679 --> 00:09:57,840 Speaker 1: alien prospective aliens how to actually play this record makes 185 00:09:57,840 --> 00:09:59,640 Speaker 1: some kind of device to be able to listen to 186 00:10:00,200 --> 00:10:03,640 Speaker 1: really cool, like one of the cooler things we have done. 187 00:10:03,640 --> 00:10:10,520 Speaker 1: As they should have sent a pono. Just Neil Young 188 00:10:10,640 --> 00:10:14,040 Speaker 1: riding it along is the first thing that alien here's 189 00:10:14,080 --> 00:10:20,760 Speaker 1: the piste off Young explaining, explaining bit rates. It's actually 190 00:10:20,800 --> 00:10:23,800 Speaker 1: closest to the true master you get off of a 191 00:10:23,920 --> 00:10:28,360 Speaker 1: vinyl anyway, on sixty minutes. What I love about Anne 192 00:10:28,440 --> 00:10:31,000 Speaker 1: is that she advocated in particular for the notion of 193 00:10:31,040 --> 00:10:35,240 Speaker 1: including Chuck Berry's Johnny Be Good because that song defined 194 00:10:35,400 --> 00:10:38,839 Speaker 1: the music of motion, of moving getting to someplace you've 195 00:10:38,880 --> 00:10:41,600 Speaker 1: never been before and the odds are against you, but 196 00:10:41,679 --> 00:10:44,840 Speaker 1: you want to go. That was Voyager. I love that 197 00:10:45,040 --> 00:10:46,960 Speaker 1: so much. There was a I think it was an 198 00:10:47,040 --> 00:10:49,600 Speaker 1: SNL bit in the seventies where they talk about aliens 199 00:10:49,640 --> 00:10:53,480 Speaker 1: making contact with Earth after coming into contact with Voyager, 200 00:10:53,720 --> 00:10:57,720 Speaker 1: and their messages send more Chuck Berry, Yeah, it'd be weird. 201 00:10:57,760 --> 00:11:00,520 Speaker 1: Of the aliens were like perverts, and they're like similar 202 00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:06,439 Speaker 1: people kissing, just similar mouth sounds gross anyway. Their love 203 00:11:06,520 --> 00:11:09,800 Speaker 1: story is adorable. Um Drean wanted a piece of Chinese 204 00:11:09,840 --> 00:11:12,240 Speaker 1: music for the record, and she settled on a twenty 205 00:11:12,320 --> 00:11:15,760 Speaker 1: five hundred year old song called Flowing Stream, which actually 206 00:11:15,800 --> 00:11:17,880 Speaker 1: is in my vows. Yeah, it's a it's a famous 207 00:11:17,920 --> 00:11:21,000 Speaker 1: piece of music because there's a very famous Chinese uh 208 00:11:21,440 --> 00:11:23,600 Speaker 1: chin is the instruments has played on. I'm sure I'm 209 00:11:23,640 --> 00:11:28,000 Speaker 1: butchering that pronunciation. But he had a buddy, this chin player, 210 00:11:28,040 --> 00:11:30,040 Speaker 1: who I think is credited with writing the song, had 211 00:11:30,080 --> 00:11:32,760 Speaker 1: a friend and they were just the best of friends. 212 00:11:33,440 --> 00:11:37,720 Speaker 1: And when this guy died, the player broke his instrument 213 00:11:37,800 --> 00:11:40,000 Speaker 1: a vow never done, never to play again, because no 214 00:11:40,040 --> 00:11:42,520 Speaker 1: one would ever love his music and understand it the 215 00:11:42,600 --> 00:11:45,360 Speaker 1: same way that this guy did. And so there's a 216 00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:49,360 Speaker 1: phrase or word for close friend in Chinese that translates 217 00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:54,280 Speaker 1: to someone who understands my music, and that's the composition 218 00:11:54,320 --> 00:11:57,679 Speaker 1: that he is most associated with. Anyway, So they settled, 219 00:11:57,720 --> 00:12:00,160 Speaker 1: they decided to put that song on this record, and 220 00:12:00,280 --> 00:12:03,040 Speaker 1: she leaves a message for Carl at his hotel and 221 00:12:03,080 --> 00:12:05,679 Speaker 1: he called back within an hour, and apparently by the 222 00:12:05,800 --> 00:12:09,040 Speaker 1: end of this phone call they were engaged to be married, 223 00:12:09,120 --> 00:12:14,080 Speaker 1: which good on your Carl. What is that game like? 224 00:12:14,920 --> 00:12:17,200 Speaker 1: It became clear to two people who had never been 225 00:12:17,200 --> 00:12:20,000 Speaker 1: alone together. That we were madly in love, she said 226 00:12:20,080 --> 00:12:22,760 Speaker 1: later on, which and they were married for the rest 227 00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:26,640 Speaker 1: of his life. Right, yeah, wow, that's really beautiful. But 228 00:12:26,720 --> 00:12:29,000 Speaker 1: so by this point, during had already written and published 229 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:31,640 Speaker 1: a novel called A Famous Broken Heart. And then so 230 00:12:31,679 --> 00:12:35,040 Speaker 1: she subsequently goes on to collaborate with Sagan Uh to 231 00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:40,120 Speaker 1: co write thes documentary series Cosmos, which is Sagan also 232 00:12:40,200 --> 00:12:44,120 Speaker 1: hosts at one, two Emmys and a Peabody. Has since 233 00:12:44,160 --> 00:12:47,360 Speaker 1: been broadcast in over sixty countries and seen by more 234 00:12:47,400 --> 00:12:51,120 Speaker 1: than five dred million people. As of two thousand and nine, 235 00:12:51,160 --> 00:12:54,240 Speaker 1: he was still the most widely watched PBS series in 236 00:12:54,280 --> 00:12:58,960 Speaker 1: the world. Pumping Wishbone in the second place. I'm imagining 237 00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:03,520 Speaker 1: Wishbone in acute Sagan turtleneck, and I love it. I 238 00:13:03,559 --> 00:13:06,520 Speaker 1: love in contact. When she's um when John hurt is 239 00:13:06,559 --> 00:13:09,280 Speaker 1: watching her on TV, she's dressed in the turtleneck and 240 00:13:09,320 --> 00:13:14,000 Speaker 1: blazer combo as a nod to him so much. Just 241 00:13:14,040 --> 00:13:16,840 Speaker 1: finished work on an episode of Cosmos about Hypatia, the 242 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:20,839 Speaker 1: mathematician and leader of the Great Library of Alexandria, whose 243 00:13:20,880 --> 00:13:24,240 Speaker 1: work on the Diophantine equations would later inspire Newton. I 244 00:13:24,240 --> 00:13:27,319 Speaker 1: have no idea what any of those words mean, but unfortunately, 245 00:13:27,320 --> 00:13:29,800 Speaker 1: for political reasons that I tried to learn about in 246 00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:32,800 Speaker 1: paraphrase and are very long and complicated and related to 247 00:13:32,880 --> 00:13:37,319 Speaker 1: primarily misogyny and religion. She was dragged from her chariot 248 00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:40,440 Speaker 1: and torn to pieces and mutilated by a violent mob. 249 00:13:41,120 --> 00:13:43,320 Speaker 1: So they wanted to write a narrative about a female 250 00:13:43,320 --> 00:13:46,560 Speaker 1: scientist that wouldn't end in such a way. One of 251 00:13:46,559 --> 00:13:49,240 Speaker 1: the more horrifying things I read about this that Drewrean 252 00:13:49,280 --> 00:13:55,240 Speaker 1: talks about was supposedly, uh, this mob carved out Hypatia's 253 00:13:55,320 --> 00:14:00,320 Speaker 1: eyes with either broken shells or um. I think what 254 00:14:00,360 --> 00:14:05,040 Speaker 1: they supposedly used was abalone shells, and so consequently, and 255 00:14:05,080 --> 00:14:08,240 Speaker 1: this is maybe kind of a weird thing, Sagan gave 256 00:14:09,040 --> 00:14:12,679 Speaker 1: and a piece of abalone that she wore around her 257 00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:15,440 Speaker 1: neck for the rest of her life because of the 258 00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:19,600 Speaker 1: story of Hypatia, whose eyes were gouged out by the material. Anyway, 259 00:14:22,280 --> 00:14:25,080 Speaker 1: that's what goes into the making of contact. The couple 260 00:14:25,120 --> 00:14:27,680 Speaker 1: were staying in West Hollywood when another friend from Nora 261 00:14:27,760 --> 00:14:30,560 Speaker 1: Ephron's dinner party, who I mentioned earlier producing named Linda 262 00:14:30,600 --> 00:14:34,520 Speaker 1: opst ops. We gotta start asking and find out how 263 00:14:34,560 --> 00:14:36,600 Speaker 1: these people's names are pronounced before I know, we're never 264 00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:40,400 Speaker 1: going to do that. That's the too much information guaranteed, 265 00:14:40,440 --> 00:14:42,760 Speaker 1: We'll never learn how to pronounce your name right. That 266 00:14:42,800 --> 00:14:45,320 Speaker 1: woman has had a hand in Flash Dance, Adventures and 267 00:14:45,360 --> 00:14:50,080 Speaker 1: babysitting the Fisher King, one of my favorite blesser known 268 00:14:50,200 --> 00:14:54,400 Speaker 1: Robin Williams, Terry gilliam Joints, Jeff Bridges, Sleeps in Seattle, 269 00:14:54,520 --> 00:14:58,920 Speaker 1: and Interstellar, among many others. She suggested that they write 270 00:14:58,920 --> 00:15:02,520 Speaker 1: a screenplay, so they finished their treatment in nineteen eighty 271 00:15:02,840 --> 00:15:05,600 Speaker 1: and the vulture oral history of contact is the gift 272 00:15:05,600 --> 00:15:07,960 Speaker 1: that keeps on giving. There's so many stounding quotes in there, 273 00:15:08,960 --> 00:15:11,720 Speaker 1: and is of course we were stoned right in contact, 274 00:15:13,160 --> 00:15:17,920 Speaker 1: as if she's offended by then. And this gets into 275 00:15:17,960 --> 00:15:20,520 Speaker 1: the hands of a guy named Peter Goober who is 276 00:15:20,920 --> 00:15:23,720 Speaker 1: at the time head of Casablanca Records. He launched his 277 00:15:23,760 --> 00:15:27,160 Speaker 1: career as a film producer with Midnight Express in He 278 00:15:27,320 --> 00:15:31,440 Speaker 1: Is a Big Deal Um. He produced Rainman, Batman, The Color, Purple, 279 00:15:31,560 --> 00:15:35,040 Speaker 1: Guerrillas in the Mist, which is of Eastwick, also Flash Dance. 280 00:15:35,240 --> 00:15:37,440 Speaker 1: He also co owns The Golden State Warriors and the 281 00:15:37,560 --> 00:15:39,720 Speaker 1: l A Dodgers among a bunch of stuff. He's a 282 00:15:39,800 --> 00:15:45,480 Speaker 1: big mover and shaker. His partner for a long time 283 00:15:45,560 --> 00:15:47,920 Speaker 1: was this guy John Peters, who was the guy that 284 00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:50,920 Speaker 1: Bradley Cooper is playing in Liquorice Pizza. He was kind 285 00:15:50,960 --> 00:15:56,360 Speaker 1: of an icon of clastic. Have you seen it pizza? Yah? Yeah? 286 00:15:56,440 --> 00:15:59,160 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, dude, that monologue is so funny. I love 287 00:15:59,200 --> 00:16:02,240 Speaker 1: it so much. You gotta there. I'm gonna choke him out, 288 00:16:02,360 --> 00:16:04,520 Speaker 1: choke him out right in front of you. Yeah. Peters 289 00:16:04,600 --> 00:16:08,280 Speaker 1: is Peters is wacky. Yeah, definitely a weird guy. I 290 00:16:08,360 --> 00:16:11,800 Speaker 1: love how Carl Sagan basically refused to bend to any 291 00:16:11,880 --> 00:16:14,920 Speaker 1: kind of like Hollywood script constraints. Every time this Linda 292 00:16:14,960 --> 00:16:17,720 Speaker 1: Opes woman would try to suggest any kind of rules 293 00:16:17,720 --> 00:16:20,920 Speaker 1: of conventional screenplay drama, Carl Sagan would say, is this 294 00:16:20,960 --> 00:16:26,320 Speaker 1: an argument by authority or an argument of convention? He's amazing. 295 00:16:26,400 --> 00:16:28,520 Speaker 1: I think she says at one point that Spielberg had 296 00:16:28,520 --> 00:16:30,560 Speaker 1: been tapped to direct this and they said no because 297 00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:33,320 Speaker 1: it would have been too much alpha male energy in 298 00:16:33,360 --> 00:16:36,600 Speaker 1: the room between him and Carl, which is so damn 299 00:16:36,600 --> 00:16:39,240 Speaker 1: funny to imagine the two of them is alpha males, 300 00:16:39,320 --> 00:16:43,040 Speaker 1: Like just these two schnurdy dudes. But yeah, they both 301 00:16:43,040 --> 00:16:46,400 Speaker 1: had very strong ideas about their art. So that tracks. 302 00:16:47,120 --> 00:16:53,160 Speaker 1: Um okay, so ops, Linda, Sorry Linda. They brought Peter 303 00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:58,040 Speaker 1: the one and ten page treatment. That's insane, Like you were, like, 304 00:16:58,080 --> 00:17:01,520 Speaker 1: I went to screenwriting school and basically told I was 305 00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:04,400 Speaker 1: literally told by my professor, these people don't read. Make 306 00:17:04,440 --> 00:17:08,159 Speaker 1: your treatments. If it's more than five pages, it's probably 307 00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:11,680 Speaker 1: too long. If if you're hitting ten, absolutely no way, 308 00:17:11,720 --> 00:17:14,200 Speaker 1: I mean, granted I was not then, nor now am 309 00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:17,399 Speaker 1: Carl Sagan. Way do you get to uh, Happy Feet 310 00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:21,200 Speaker 1: director George Miller's two paid treatment, which is supposedly still 311 00:17:21,240 --> 00:17:24,840 Speaker 1: out there anyway, Goober immediately begins with it in the 312 00:17:24,920 --> 00:17:29,160 Speaker 1: time honored tradition of male producers everywhere, changing the plot 313 00:17:29,200 --> 00:17:32,160 Speaker 1: to be about a woman scientist who abandons her son 314 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:36,679 Speaker 1: and has to go searching for him because this dude. Um, 315 00:17:36,720 --> 00:17:38,960 Speaker 1: and he starts shopping it to what Linda calls all 316 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:42,160 Speaker 1: the wrong directors. Um. And she adds that Peter tried 317 00:17:42,280 --> 00:17:45,480 Speaker 1: very hard to separate contact from Carl. Among the other 318 00:17:45,720 --> 00:17:47,600 Speaker 1: changes that he wanted to push was having like this 319 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:52,320 Speaker 1: sort of cliched Native American character who becomes an astronaut, 320 00:17:52,320 --> 00:17:55,080 Speaker 1: and I guess was spouting all kinds of like, you know, 321 00:17:55,760 --> 00:18:00,280 Speaker 1: Native American by way of white Hollywood producer platitudes. Uh. 322 00:18:00,440 --> 00:18:03,720 Speaker 1: This Peter Goober guy was really pushing for the Jodie 323 00:18:03,720 --> 00:18:06,479 Speaker 1: Foster character, Ellie to having a strange son, because, in 324 00:18:06,560 --> 00:18:09,320 Speaker 1: his words, here was a woman consumed with the idea 325 00:18:09,359 --> 00:18:12,159 Speaker 1: that there was something out there worth listening to, but 326 00:18:12,240 --> 00:18:14,760 Speaker 1: the one thing she could never make contact with was 327 00:18:14,800 --> 00:18:17,720 Speaker 1: her own child. To me, that's what the film had 328 00:18:17,760 --> 00:18:21,480 Speaker 1: to be about. Yeah, I would argue that that's lazy 329 00:18:21,560 --> 00:18:24,720 Speaker 1: and also unfair to turn this woman's passion into a negative, 330 00:18:25,359 --> 00:18:28,000 Speaker 1: But I gotta say a little bit of this sort 331 00:18:28,040 --> 00:18:32,840 Speaker 1: of slightly misanthrollopic tendencies does show up in Jodie Foster's betrayal. 332 00:18:32,960 --> 00:18:37,159 Speaker 1: She's this person who's desperately looking to connect, but she 333 00:18:37,400 --> 00:18:40,800 Speaker 1: really doesn't get along well with other human beings. There's 334 00:18:40,800 --> 00:18:44,200 Speaker 1: an interview that Tom Skarrett, who plays her boss David Drummond, gave, 335 00:18:44,560 --> 00:18:46,760 Speaker 1: and that's kind of his observation that she was this 336 00:18:47,240 --> 00:18:50,240 Speaker 1: uh gentle soul whose father died as a little girl 337 00:18:50,280 --> 00:18:52,399 Speaker 1: and kind of left her calloused and really having a 338 00:18:52,400 --> 00:18:55,200 Speaker 1: tough time connecting with people. It's much easier to try 339 00:18:55,240 --> 00:18:57,920 Speaker 1: to look outward, out into the solar system, to try 340 00:18:57,920 --> 00:19:01,440 Speaker 1: to connect with spirits out there. After dealing with Hollywood producers, 341 00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:04,240 Speaker 1: can you really blame anyone for never having to want 342 00:19:04,280 --> 00:19:09,080 Speaker 1: to deal with humanity again? Anyway? Uh So, with this 343 00:19:09,119 --> 00:19:13,400 Speaker 1: thing hung up in this guy's greasy hands, greasy cocaine 344 00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:16,360 Speaker 1: flecked hands, Carl and Ann decided to turn it into 345 00:19:16,359 --> 00:19:19,119 Speaker 1: a novel, and before it's even written, Simon and Schuster 346 00:19:19,240 --> 00:19:23,880 Speaker 1: PLoP down two million bucks for one, which I've heard 347 00:19:23,960 --> 00:19:27,600 Speaker 1: that as a record for the largest advanced payout for 348 00:19:27,680 --> 00:19:30,399 Speaker 1: a novel that was not yet written. Damn bumping the 349 00:19:30,440 --> 00:19:35,080 Speaker 1: novelization of Wishbones in the second place, Wishbones. We gotta 350 00:19:35,119 --> 00:19:37,520 Speaker 1: keep Wishbones as a running bit. The book doesn't come 351 00:19:37,520 --> 00:19:42,359 Speaker 1: out until but Goober goes I think to Warner Brothers 352 00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:45,399 Speaker 1: in two and he tries to bring the rights over there, 353 00:19:45,760 --> 00:19:49,160 Speaker 1: And in this intervening time, it sells one point seven 354 00:19:49,240 --> 00:19:52,840 Speaker 1: million copies in its first two years, but film version 355 00:19:52,880 --> 00:19:56,240 Speaker 1: stays in development hell until when he splits from Warner 356 00:19:56,280 --> 00:19:59,760 Speaker 1: Brothers to go co Heed Sony Pictures with John Peters. 357 00:20:00,400 --> 00:20:02,800 Speaker 1: And this is what's so funny man Karma. I am 358 00:20:02,920 --> 00:20:05,399 Speaker 1: don't necessarily believe in it, but when an examples of 359 00:20:05,440 --> 00:20:07,400 Speaker 1: it pop up and I it does warm my heart. 360 00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:11,280 Speaker 1: The rights to the picture stay at Warner. He tries 361 00:20:11,320 --> 00:20:15,359 Speaker 1: to buy them for Sony, and Linda Oakes has landed 362 00:20:15,400 --> 00:20:18,400 Speaker 1: at Warner as a producer and refuses to sell them. 363 00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:21,760 Speaker 1: Warner Brothers apparently gave her this movie to develop without 364 00:20:21,800 --> 00:20:24,680 Speaker 1: having any idea she had a hand in the original. 365 00:20:25,359 --> 00:20:27,000 Speaker 1: They were like, hey, do you have any do any 366 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:30,160 Speaker 1: interested in space movie? We have the rights to called Contact, 367 00:20:30,160 --> 00:20:34,680 Speaker 1: and she's like, you have no idea? Um. So they 368 00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:37,800 Speaker 1: bring on writer James V. Hart, who wrote the screenplay 369 00:20:37,880 --> 00:20:41,760 Speaker 1: for Hook bram Stoker's Dracula, the Coppola movie which put 370 00:20:41,800 --> 00:20:44,160 Speaker 1: a bookmark by that name. Will come back to him later, 371 00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:48,119 Speaker 1: and the attempted to cash in on the success of 372 00:20:48,160 --> 00:20:51,560 Speaker 1: bram Stoker's Dracula, which is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. That is 373 00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:54,800 Speaker 1: a misbegotten film if ever there was one. Uh. He 374 00:20:54,920 --> 00:20:59,399 Speaker 1: said no multiple times. Um, he told Vulture, there have 375 00:20:59,440 --> 00:21:03,800 Speaker 1: been seven screenwriters on this thing, and the most embarrassing thing, 376 00:21:04,080 --> 00:21:06,639 Speaker 1: not one of them or any of the directors who 377 00:21:06,680 --> 00:21:09,600 Speaker 1: had been brought on Border pitched ever, even contacted carl 378 00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:14,560 Speaker 1: Or Ann about it. Just Hollywood horse Man. They ran 379 00:21:14,640 --> 00:21:16,760 Speaker 1: through so many people trying to get this thing made. 380 00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:19,560 Speaker 1: Roland Jaffee, who had done the Killing Fields and the 381 00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:23,159 Speaker 1: mission he was attached to direct, he dropped out, and 382 00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:27,040 Speaker 1: they bring in George Miller, who a bit of a 383 00:21:27,040 --> 00:21:31,639 Speaker 1: problem child. George Miller did the mad Max films, UM, 384 00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:37,320 Speaker 1: Babe Pig in the City, Uh too, Happy Feet movies, UM, 385 00:21:38,160 --> 00:21:43,280 Speaker 1: and his vision for the film was much less mainstream 386 00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:47,840 Speaker 1: than the final version. Um. People talk, is this script 387 00:21:47,840 --> 00:21:50,040 Speaker 1: out there? Did you google it? I haven't been able 388 00:21:50,080 --> 00:21:53,040 Speaker 1: to find it yet. But Jodie Foster likened it to 389 00:21:53,080 --> 00:21:57,480 Speaker 1: erase her head. Yes, yes she did. Uh. And Lorenzo's oil, 390 00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:03,199 Speaker 1: Um to dance is what I'm hearing, danse and inaccessible. 391 00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:05,679 Speaker 1: He brought it a writer who remained uncredited on the 392 00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:08,560 Speaker 1: film again named men O mayas Um to work with 393 00:22:08,600 --> 00:22:11,280 Speaker 1: him on the script. And so Miller and May's craft 394 00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:14,240 Speaker 1: this new different vision for the film. And it was 395 00:22:14,320 --> 00:22:17,320 Speaker 1: Jodey's quote about it, she said that it was stranger 396 00:22:17,359 --> 00:22:20,240 Speaker 1: than the version that was ultimately made. Quote, because that 397 00:22:20,320 --> 00:22:23,359 Speaker 1: was the idea, The universe is strange. There were scenes 398 00:22:23,400 --> 00:22:25,719 Speaker 1: with like road kill that you wouldn't think we're right 399 00:22:25,760 --> 00:22:28,080 Speaker 1: on the path of the story, but which I felt 400 00:22:28,119 --> 00:22:33,920 Speaker 1: had the power to expand the viewer's consciousness. Sure, why 401 00:22:33,960 --> 00:22:38,160 Speaker 1: not sounds lynch into ma Drean said Miller had seminars 402 00:22:38,200 --> 00:22:41,679 Speaker 1: with military experts and social scientists to get a handle 403 00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:44,800 Speaker 1: on how the world react in an actual first contact situation. 404 00:22:44,880 --> 00:22:46,959 Speaker 1: I think I don't know if I put this in here, 405 00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:48,720 Speaker 1: but I think I remember reading at one point that 406 00:22:48,800 --> 00:22:53,440 Speaker 1: this script was two hundred pages long. That sounds about right. Yeah, 407 00:22:53,600 --> 00:22:57,280 Speaker 1: I mean, how society would react to being contacted by 408 00:22:57,440 --> 00:23:00,600 Speaker 1: aliens is to me the most interesting point in the 409 00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:03,679 Speaker 1: whole movie. The complex ways that would impact culture and 410 00:23:03,720 --> 00:23:06,760 Speaker 1: all the different responses from all sides, I mean, religious, political, 411 00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:09,280 Speaker 1: even down to the late night comedians. They had Jay 412 00:23:09,359 --> 00:23:12,160 Speaker 1: Leno in this, and the movie does a really good job. 413 00:23:12,200 --> 00:23:13,840 Speaker 1: The final movie, I should say, there's a really cool 414 00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:17,239 Speaker 1: job of illustrating this in a pretty economic way. They 415 00:23:17,280 --> 00:23:20,320 Speaker 1: just have like four TV screens and they go through 416 00:23:20,359 --> 00:23:23,320 Speaker 1: and just show all the channel flicking through TV news 417 00:23:23,480 --> 00:23:29,760 Speaker 1: anchors and crossfire type political commentator shows and late night 418 00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:32,359 Speaker 1: stand up comedians, and they have Rob Lowe as this 419 00:23:32,520 --> 00:23:35,719 Speaker 1: like head of a conservative coalition complaining this is another 420 00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:39,159 Speaker 1: example of science intruding into matters of faith, which I 421 00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:42,120 Speaker 1: feel like is probably something that would be said if 422 00:23:42,119 --> 00:23:45,200 Speaker 1: aliens actually did contact us. I just think it's such 423 00:23:45,200 --> 00:23:48,960 Speaker 1: a cool way of illustrating all the how pedestrian we 424 00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:53,280 Speaker 1: would make it, how partisan we would make, how much 425 00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:55,719 Speaker 1: we would just it would almost turn us all against 426 00:23:55,800 --> 00:23:58,920 Speaker 1: each other. It's like the opposite of Watchman. It's hilarious. 427 00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:01,840 Speaker 1: And also Jodie Foster character, probably one of my favorite 428 00:24:01,840 --> 00:24:03,879 Speaker 1: scenes is when she's driving through the desert on the 429 00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:08,240 Speaker 1: way to uh, the very larger Red Quarters. Yeah, the 430 00:24:08,359 --> 00:24:11,440 Speaker 1: very large array with all the satellite dishes, and there's 431 00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:14,480 Speaker 1: this basically a giant tailgating party, and you see the 432 00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:19,280 Speaker 1: spectrum of reactions firsthand. You've got partiers, You've got prayers 433 00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:22,760 Speaker 1: from the devout and choirs. You've got neo Nazis, you've 434 00:24:22,800 --> 00:24:26,879 Speaker 1: got Elvis fans. I saw one review where they described 435 00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:30,080 Speaker 1: it as part tent revival, part grateful Dead concert, which 436 00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:32,239 Speaker 1: I think is perfect. I don't know. I just think 437 00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:35,399 Speaker 1: the whole reaction to getting contacted by aliens is so 438 00:24:35,480 --> 00:24:38,640 Speaker 1: much more nuanced than say, like an Independence Day when 439 00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:41,119 Speaker 1: people are just like having a giant rooftop party before 440 00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:43,320 Speaker 1: the Aliens blow them up, Like it just seems so 441 00:24:43,400 --> 00:24:47,679 Speaker 1: much more like that's so fast, right, Well, you're right, 442 00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:49,879 Speaker 1: that was l a but just yeah, every other Alien 443 00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:53,159 Speaker 1: Encounters movie either has like a close encounter style just 444 00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:56,639 Speaker 1: like mouth a gape reaction, or the War of the 445 00:24:56,640 --> 00:25:01,720 Speaker 1: World's like the nation is gripped by fear type of response. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 446 00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:05,119 Speaker 1: So it's funny that CNN is the principal news outlet 447 00:25:05,119 --> 00:25:09,479 Speaker 1: in there because twenty five plus news reporters from CNN 448 00:25:09,520 --> 00:25:13,040 Speaker 1: whoever rolls in there, um, Larry King Live and Crossfire 449 00:25:13,119 --> 00:25:15,879 Speaker 1: in there, And then a few years later, CNN bans 450 00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:18,880 Speaker 1: the use of its logo in fictional movies and CNN 451 00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:21,520 Speaker 1: reporters are not allowed to do movie cameos, with the 452 00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:25,440 Speaker 1: exception of Larry King, who does what he wants. He's 453 00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:28,040 Speaker 1: the gig baby. Yeah. I guess it was an ethics 454 00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:31,359 Speaker 1: thing because CNN were owned by Time Warners where Warner 455 00:25:31,359 --> 00:25:33,679 Speaker 1: Brothers parent company, and Warner Brothers made the movie, so 456 00:25:33,720 --> 00:25:35,720 Speaker 1: they didn't want to make it seem like these impartial 457 00:25:35,800 --> 00:25:39,440 Speaker 1: journalists were being manipulated by a major media company. H 458 00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:42,439 Speaker 1: I think there was a statement at the time that 459 00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:45,600 Speaker 1: it quote blurred the line between fact and fiction and 460 00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:48,439 Speaker 1: erohods the credibility of journalists by having them appear in 461 00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:51,119 Speaker 1: these movies. So yeah, future cameos had to be cleared 462 00:25:51,119 --> 00:25:53,960 Speaker 1: by an ethics officer at CNN. But just getting back 463 00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:56,760 Speaker 1: to the scene where Ellie's driving through the big party 464 00:25:56,760 --> 00:25:58,960 Speaker 1: in the desert, I just think that's such a cool scene. 465 00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:03,199 Speaker 1: Apparently required three thousand extras who answered ads in a 466 00:26:03,240 --> 00:26:07,639 Speaker 1: local paper seeking UFO enthusiasts, And one of my favorite 467 00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:10,560 Speaker 1: little bits is that they're driving by there's a big 468 00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:14,960 Speaker 1: banner that says UFO Abduction Insurance. Uh, that's a real company. 469 00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:17,480 Speaker 1: I actually saw a table for them when I went 470 00:26:17,480 --> 00:26:21,400 Speaker 1: out to the do that ridiculous area fifty one raid 471 00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:24,000 Speaker 1: thing a couple of years ago, and Warner Brothers paid 472 00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:29,520 Speaker 1: them to use their idea in the movie, which is hilarious. Yeah, 473 00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:31,480 Speaker 1: you know what, I actually know this offhand. I believe 474 00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:34,760 Speaker 1: it's twenty five dollars flat fee, and then if anything 475 00:26:34,800 --> 00:26:37,239 Speaker 1: happens that you can prove you get I think it's 476 00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:39,639 Speaker 1: either tenderly or twenty five million, you get a size 477 00:26:39,840 --> 00:26:44,000 Speaker 1: shay out. Yeah, right, so right, but this does a 478 00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:46,840 Speaker 1: scene is also I believe the first scene when Jodie 479 00:26:46,840 --> 00:26:50,320 Speaker 1: Foster's character sees that truly terrifying blonde Zell a guy 480 00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:54,000 Speaker 1: who ends up I mean spoilers, you have a couple 481 00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:56,960 Speaker 1: of seconds to passport to this part. Okay, who blows 482 00:26:57,080 --> 00:27:02,080 Speaker 1: up the spacecraft? Initially, Uh, he's so creepy, and you know, 483 00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:04,879 Speaker 1: it kind of makes sense. His name is Jake Busey. 484 00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:08,520 Speaker 1: He's Gary Busey's son. So that intensity, that that Bausey 485 00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:12,040 Speaker 1: family's intensity that is there. He also plays a serial killer, 486 00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:15,240 Speaker 1: I think in The Frighteners, which is Peter Jackson movie 487 00:27:15,240 --> 00:27:18,080 Speaker 1: starring Michael J. Fox Um, which is I also think 488 00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:21,640 Speaker 1: from this exact span, so I think you're so yeah. 489 00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:27,320 Speaker 1: He playing to type yes yes, And speaking of murder 490 00:27:27,320 --> 00:27:29,359 Speaker 1: of Cell said, you know that Contact was the last 491 00:27:29,359 --> 00:27:33,360 Speaker 1: film that fashion designer Johnny Versacci ever saw. He saw 492 00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:35,320 Speaker 1: in the theater night before he died, before he got 493 00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:41,679 Speaker 1: assassinated the next day. The more you know. Um. Supposedly 494 00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:46,359 Speaker 1: Jody and the studio didn't like the Maya's and Miller's script, 495 00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:49,560 Speaker 1: although she diplomatically told Vulture that she liked both versions. 496 00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:52,760 Speaker 1: Uh so they bring in Michael Goldenberg, who had actually 497 00:27:52,760 --> 00:27:56,880 Speaker 1: done a draft before Miller brought Maya's on board. How 498 00:27:56,880 --> 00:27:59,920 Speaker 1: many versions this go through. That's why it took set 499 00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:02,959 Speaker 1: and teen years to get made. And uh, what Goldenberg 500 00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:05,199 Speaker 1: called it was right a draft for the studio to 501 00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:07,800 Speaker 1: make them happy and Jody happy to get it back 502 00:28:07,840 --> 00:28:11,760 Speaker 1: on track. It was just a lot more complicated this 503 00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:15,800 Speaker 1: earlier version and just really, like I said Inaccessible. Miller, 504 00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:18,359 Speaker 1: for his part, believes that his version of the movie 505 00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:21,520 Speaker 1: would have been a lot more like Interstellar than Contact, 506 00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:24,919 Speaker 1: which is interesting to say both star Matth McConaughey. Uh. 507 00:28:25,280 --> 00:28:27,879 Speaker 1: George Miller has said that he's never seen the final 508 00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:32,280 Speaker 1: Contact movie, which ouch, but he read the screenplay and 509 00:28:32,320 --> 00:28:35,280 Speaker 1: said that it quote basically regressed into a much safer 510 00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:39,560 Speaker 1: and more predictable kind of thing. Um. Jodie Foster again 511 00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:42,320 Speaker 1: with these, I think she's trying to be diplomatic, but 512 00:28:42,360 --> 00:28:45,280 Speaker 1: there's definitely an edge there. Described George Miller as quote 513 00:28:45,480 --> 00:28:47,160 Speaker 1: the kind of director that would make a two and 514 00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:50,040 Speaker 1: a half movie about an eye blinking and it would 515 00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:55,200 Speaker 1: be the most extraordinary, deep and beautiful film. Um, not 516 00:28:55,320 --> 00:28:57,720 Speaker 1: totally related, but want to hear a fact, but Interstellar 517 00:28:57,800 --> 00:28:59,719 Speaker 1: that will make you cry. Just learned it like an 518 00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:02,880 Speaker 1: hour before we hopped onto this call. I learned this 519 00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:06,520 Speaker 1: from the film Facts Twitter account, which is very good, uh. 520 00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:10,400 Speaker 1: For Interstellar, director Christopher Nolan asked Hans Zimmer to compose 521 00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:13,360 Speaker 1: the score, which is the one page story about a 522 00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:16,520 Speaker 1: father who leaves his child to do an important job. 523 00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:20,400 Speaker 1: It contained only two lines of dialogue. I'll come back 524 00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:25,320 Speaker 1: when it's a great soundtrack. That's maybe my favorite Hans 525 00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:31,120 Speaker 1: Center score on the pipe organ. So good. Yeah, I've 526 00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:34,320 Speaker 1: complicated failings about that movie. I think it's got a 527 00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:35,760 Speaker 1: lot of cool shit, and I think it's got a 528 00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:38,160 Speaker 1: lot of dumb stuff in it. To the fourth dimension 529 00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:43,520 Speaker 1: being love like you're gonna talk about it, it's funny 530 00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:47,200 Speaker 1: to me that they're setting on this producer's idea that 531 00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:51,080 Speaker 1: this woman has to go find her strange daughter or whatever, 532 00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:56,240 Speaker 1: and then that's the plot of Interstellar where father transcends 533 00:29:56,360 --> 00:29:59,120 Speaker 1: space and time and goes through a wormhole to get 534 00:29:59,120 --> 00:30:01,200 Speaker 1: back to his daughter. The wormhole thing is funny too, 535 00:30:01,240 --> 00:30:04,080 Speaker 1: because Sagan, i think, initially wrote that he wanted to 536 00:30:04,120 --> 00:30:06,640 Speaker 1: have her go through a black hole in the first draft, 537 00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:08,400 Speaker 1: and then he called a guy from cal Tech who 538 00:30:08,560 --> 00:30:11,880 Speaker 1: later won a Nobel Prize for his astrophysics work. And 539 00:30:11,920 --> 00:30:13,560 Speaker 1: the guy was like, no, you don't want a black hole, 540 00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:16,160 Speaker 1: you want a wormhole. And with an Einstein Rosen Bridge. 541 00:30:17,080 --> 00:30:20,880 Speaker 1: Uh whatever the hell that man cigar shopping executive out 542 00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:26,880 Speaker 1: wormhole in UM and as you may have gleaned, Miller 543 00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:29,280 Speaker 1: in the studio start budding heads around this point. UM 544 00:30:30,600 --> 00:30:33,080 Speaker 1: Entertainment Weekly does a feature on end which includes the 545 00:30:33,120 --> 00:30:36,320 Speaker 1: details that Warner wanted a big Close Encounters style ending 546 00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:40,080 Speaker 1: and various pitched ideas that included the aliens giving the 547 00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:44,480 Speaker 1: Earth a laser show. From Wit it was like seventies 548 00:30:44,520 --> 00:30:49,960 Speaker 1: styles like pink Yeah, aliens just start broadcasting roller skating 549 00:30:50,040 --> 00:30:53,160 Speaker 1: blue oyster cult into everybody's brain in the world at 550 00:30:53,200 --> 00:30:56,680 Speaker 1: the same time. Uh. And a wormhole swallowing Earth and 551 00:30:56,720 --> 00:30:59,600 Speaker 1: transporting it to the center of the galaxy, which sounds 552 00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:03,360 Speaker 1: like a movie exects idea Earth at the center of 553 00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:06,040 Speaker 1: the galaxy. And what were they gonna make Hollywood the 554 00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:09,800 Speaker 1: center of the galaxy too? Just gonna say, oh boy, 555 00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:12,960 Speaker 1: oh yes. And Miller was supposedly angling for a lengthy 556 00:31:13,040 --> 00:31:19,000 Speaker 1: subplot involving the pope enter a cigar shopping executive, don't 557 00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:21,400 Speaker 1: help me on this. I know what the kids are 558 00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:23,959 Speaker 1: into these days. Gave me some white sheets and gold chains. 559 00:31:25,360 --> 00:31:28,400 Speaker 1: So Linda Hope says, the studio organized quote a really 560 00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:31,560 Speaker 1: big dumb to dumb kind of meeting to give Miller 561 00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:34,320 Speaker 1: essentially the ultimatum that he had to get committed to 562 00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:37,719 Speaker 1: getting this film on track or kick rocks. And uh. 563 00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:40,800 Speaker 1: She recalled that his partner back in Australia was saying 564 00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:44,960 Speaker 1: to him there, they're just bluffing, and she kept saying, George, 565 00:31:45,040 --> 00:31:49,280 Speaker 1: they're not bluffing. So he's fired and he does sue 566 00:31:49,280 --> 00:31:51,480 Speaker 1: them for breach of contract, and she says they got 567 00:31:51,560 --> 00:31:56,120 Speaker 1: Zemeckis to come on board the very next day, which 568 00:31:56,160 --> 00:31:59,960 Speaker 1: is good turnaround time. I mentioned earlier that Steven spiel 569 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:02,160 Speaker 1: we could turn this film down, and actually they had 570 00:32:02,200 --> 00:32:05,320 Speaker 1: offered Zamechis the film before Miller, but he was more 571 00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:07,880 Speaker 1: interested in film about making a move about Harry Houdini, 572 00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:12,960 Speaker 1: which he would then exit in favor of contact. I 573 00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:15,640 Speaker 1: don't know of this now, I don't know, but basically 574 00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:17,560 Speaker 1: what happened in the intervening amount of times at Forrest 575 00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:20,920 Speaker 1: Gump became the world beating phenomenon that it that was 576 00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:25,640 Speaker 1: and guaranteed zemeckis the leverage to secure final cut on 577 00:32:25,720 --> 00:32:29,080 Speaker 1: everything that he ever made since. And he believe still 578 00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:31,120 Speaker 1: has that, and he had it on he has it 579 00:32:31,200 --> 00:32:36,800 Speaker 1: on this, So good on him. We're going to take 580 00:32:36,800 --> 00:32:39,080 Speaker 1: a quick break, but we'll be right back with more 581 00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:52,520 Speaker 1: too much information in just a moment. Friend of the Pod. 582 00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:56,960 Speaker 1: Bob zameckis Lord, he of Roger Rabbit fame. What an 583 00:32:56,960 --> 00:33:00,320 Speaker 1: insane run this guy had. I mean, I just to 584 00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:03,000 Speaker 1: think about it. The love that I have for most 585 00:33:03,040 --> 00:33:05,440 Speaker 1: of the movies he's made. I think I might have 586 00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:09,240 Speaker 1: the name of my favorite director is Romancing the Stone classic. 587 00:33:09,520 --> 00:33:11,920 Speaker 1: The Back to the Future movies might be my favorite 588 00:33:11,960 --> 00:33:15,040 Speaker 1: movies of all time. Very you know, I love them. 589 00:33:15,560 --> 00:33:17,640 Speaker 1: Roger Rabbit, of course for his gump. Of course, Death 590 00:33:17,680 --> 00:33:22,800 Speaker 1: Becomes Her, What Lies beneath? Castaway and Contact, and I 591 00:33:22,840 --> 00:33:25,400 Speaker 1: think either was first or a second movie was called 592 00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:27,480 Speaker 1: I Want to Hold Your Hand and it's about kids 593 00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:30,320 Speaker 1: trying to sneak into the Beatles hotel room Sweet when 594 00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:32,680 Speaker 1: they're gone on at Sullivan. So he's definitely a Beatle 595 00:33:32,720 --> 00:33:35,400 Speaker 1: nerd too. I love this guy. I know he made 596 00:33:35,440 --> 00:33:39,640 Speaker 1: the Polar Express and some other stuff. But but let's 597 00:33:39,720 --> 00:33:42,920 Speaker 1: let's forget about that for a while. You kind of 598 00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:45,560 Speaker 1: have to pretend that a whole latter phase of their 599 00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:50,360 Speaker 1: career doesn't exist. I mean, most most great artists probably, 600 00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:54,200 Speaker 1: but yeah, Robert Sebecca said that at least at the time, 601 00:33:54,280 --> 00:33:57,320 Speaker 1: Contact was his most challenging movie ever because the book 602 00:33:57,360 --> 00:34:02,200 Speaker 1: spans years and countries and planets and parts of the universe. 603 00:34:02,320 --> 00:34:05,600 Speaker 1: Was just the biggest span across the board that he'd 604 00:34:05,600 --> 00:34:07,600 Speaker 1: ever had the tackle before. So this was that's a 605 00:34:07,680 --> 00:34:11,160 Speaker 1: tough one for him. Yeah. So Linda said that Julia 606 00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:13,680 Speaker 1: Roberts and Uma Thurman were both floated for the role 607 00:34:13,719 --> 00:34:17,160 Speaker 1: of Elliot air Away. Goldenberg said that every actress in 608 00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:20,360 Speaker 1: Hollywood one of the part. Foster has a one of 609 00:34:20,400 --> 00:34:24,040 Speaker 1: the better mic drop moments in that Vulture history. She says, quote, 610 00:34:24,160 --> 00:34:27,280 Speaker 1: I didn't have to audition, pretty sure I had already 611 00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:33,440 Speaker 1: won two Oscars by then. She had. Oh my god, 612 00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:36,160 Speaker 1: this reminds me of that incredible story. I'm pretty sure 613 00:34:36,160 --> 00:34:39,960 Speaker 1: I've told more about Shelley Winters dropping the Oscars on 614 00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:43,000 Speaker 1: the table. Yeah, She's like, you don't ask people of 615 00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:45,719 Speaker 1: that calibert audition, But I guess they whoever was making 616 00:34:45,719 --> 00:34:47,480 Speaker 1: this movie. I don't even know what movie wasn't assisted 617 00:34:47,560 --> 00:34:50,520 Speaker 1: she come in and uh, she comes in with a 618 00:34:50,560 --> 00:34:53,640 Speaker 1: big bag and reaches in, slams one oscar on the 619 00:34:53,680 --> 00:34:56,920 Speaker 1: table and says, here's my head shot, reaches in, slams 620 00:34:56,920 --> 00:34:58,760 Speaker 1: the other oscar on the table, and here's my resume. 621 00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:02,520 Speaker 1: Any quite Jen's She doesn't talk like that. I don't 622 00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:04,280 Speaker 1: know why I made a sound like that. I'm sorry, Shelley, 623 00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:06,319 Speaker 1: wherever you are. Oh, I just googled it. I don't 624 00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:13,200 Speaker 1: know if that's true. What? No? Oh? What? Tony Curtis 625 00:35:13,239 --> 00:35:16,520 Speaker 1: of all people, in the introductory to his autobiography, said, 626 00:35:17,120 --> 00:35:20,000 Speaker 1: I'm not interested in the Shelley Winters approach. There's already 627 00:35:20,080 --> 00:35:23,600 Speaker 1: enough bullshit around she maybe maybe she made it up, 628 00:35:25,560 --> 00:35:27,600 Speaker 1: didn't that she donated her first oscar to the Anne 629 00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:31,920 Speaker 1: Frank House. Oh yeah, because she wanted for playing um 630 00:35:32,080 --> 00:35:38,040 Speaker 1: the van anyway, possible, possible, Possibly an apocryphal story from 631 00:35:38,280 --> 00:35:41,280 Speaker 1: she flew to the n Frank House retreating her oscar. 632 00:35:41,960 --> 00:35:45,640 Speaker 1: Further thought, she just to make a point. Um So. 633 00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:48,719 Speaker 1: The character of Ellie is named after Eleanor Roosevelt and 634 00:35:48,840 --> 00:35:53,759 Speaker 1: Voltaire um Arroway is an Americanized phonetic transliteration of Voltaire's 635 00:35:53,760 --> 00:35:57,120 Speaker 1: actual last name, which is Arroway. And also she was 636 00:35:57,160 --> 00:36:00,720 Speaker 1: going to fly through the cosmos like an arrow, according 637 00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:03,880 Speaker 1: to Dula. It has been frequently reported, including by The 638 00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:06,440 Speaker 1: New York Times, that the character is based on Jill Tartar, 639 00:36:07,080 --> 00:36:09,360 Speaker 1: who's an astronomer who worked on the real life SETI 640 00:36:09,440 --> 00:36:12,040 Speaker 1: that search for Extra Trust your Own Intelligence. She met 641 00:36:12,080 --> 00:36:14,839 Speaker 1: with Foster while Foster was researching the role, but Drian 642 00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:17,719 Speaker 1: told Vulture that is not explicitly the case, and that 643 00:36:17,800 --> 00:36:20,760 Speaker 1: she had not herself met Tartar until after she finished 644 00:36:20,760 --> 00:36:24,479 Speaker 1: writing the character. And uh, Foster met with a few 645 00:36:24,520 --> 00:36:27,279 Speaker 1: different women scientists to get a handle on how tough 646 00:36:27,320 --> 00:36:29,680 Speaker 1: it was for them in the field, including a woman 647 00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:32,920 Speaker 1: named Caroline Porko. I guess to get all the technical 648 00:36:32,960 --> 00:36:35,640 Speaker 1: jargon right, Joddie Foster asked for Q cards for the 649 00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:38,879 Speaker 1: first time in her career, which is understandable. But these 650 00:36:38,920 --> 00:36:42,120 Speaker 1: real life scientists, yeah, like you said, share their experiences 651 00:36:42,160 --> 00:36:44,960 Speaker 1: as women in this industry which was and probably still 652 00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:48,160 Speaker 1: is predominantly a boys club, and they were really just 653 00:36:48,280 --> 00:36:52,560 Speaker 1: undermined and questioned and not taken seriously. And ellier Away 654 00:36:52,640 --> 00:36:55,200 Speaker 1: has been cited as a landmark character for portraying a 655 00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:58,200 Speaker 1: strong female scientist. I mean, you had your Sigourney Weaver 656 00:36:58,400 --> 00:37:01,600 Speaker 1: and the Alien movie is and Lynda Hamilton's and the 657 00:37:01,719 --> 00:37:05,000 Speaker 1: Terminator movies and Karen Allen and Indiana Jones. I guess 658 00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:07,399 Speaker 1: she's not really a scientist, but but go with me here. 659 00:37:07,719 --> 00:37:10,960 Speaker 1: But Jodie Foster's character had so much more depth. She's 660 00:37:11,400 --> 00:37:14,040 Speaker 1: lonely and isolated. We talked about this earlier. Everyone in 661 00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:16,160 Speaker 1: a professional life has given up on her. She's going 662 00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:19,799 Speaker 1: off chasing little green men and they are so incredibly 663 00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:23,600 Speaker 1: condescending to her, especially Tom Skarrett's character Scarrets also addck 664 00:37:23,719 --> 00:37:27,840 Speaker 1: to Sigourney Weaver and aliens. Oh my god, you're everything 665 00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:30,439 Speaker 1: bad that happens in the Alien movies is Sigourney Weaver 666 00:37:30,719 --> 00:37:32,960 Speaker 1: telling men not to do things, and they're like a 667 00:37:33,440 --> 00:37:36,719 Speaker 1: quiet lady, and then terrible things happened to them. Um, 668 00:37:37,360 --> 00:37:39,480 Speaker 1: it's also silent to Lambs. It's like the exact thing 669 00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:43,000 Speaker 1: that Clarice has in signs lambs every man around hers. 670 00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:46,400 Speaker 1: She had, um no segue for this next one. The 671 00:37:46,480 --> 00:37:49,719 Speaker 1: character that William Fitner plays, Kent Clark, is based on 672 00:37:49,719 --> 00:37:53,040 Speaker 1: a real life set he scientist Kent Colors, who was 673 00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:57,080 Speaker 1: blind actually, and uh. He said that he originally was 674 00:37:57,120 --> 00:37:59,200 Speaker 1: supposed to play himself in the film, but that as 675 00:37:59,239 --> 00:38:02,520 Speaker 1: the part grew bigger and expanded drafts, it required the 676 00:38:02,560 --> 00:38:04,840 Speaker 1: skills of a real actor. But he's kind of like 677 00:38:04,840 --> 00:38:07,279 Speaker 1: the secret m v P in the movie because it's 678 00:38:07,360 --> 00:38:12,240 Speaker 1: his hearing that's able to hear that there's another tone, 679 00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:16,120 Speaker 1: because the aliens communicate through these tone frequencies that are 680 00:38:16,160 --> 00:38:18,080 Speaker 1: sent over the radio, and he's able to hear things 681 00:38:18,120 --> 00:38:21,560 Speaker 1: that people with you know, average hearing, are unable to hear. 682 00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:24,960 Speaker 1: And I guess the implication being is because he's blind, 683 00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:27,799 Speaker 1: and you have all these stories about people who I 684 00:38:27,800 --> 00:38:29,719 Speaker 1: think I heard a story about Stevie Wonder being able 685 00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:32,040 Speaker 1: to tell the denomination of a coin by the sound 686 00:38:32,040 --> 00:38:35,239 Speaker 1: that it made when it clinked on the floor or something. Yeah, 687 00:38:35,320 --> 00:38:37,600 Speaker 1: I mean, it's your brain has the different areas of 688 00:38:37,600 --> 00:38:39,440 Speaker 1: it that are marked for I'm sure I'm getting all 689 00:38:39,480 --> 00:38:42,719 Speaker 1: the science of this all wrong, but if you're unable 690 00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:47,160 Speaker 1: to see, then the auditory area starts to take over 691 00:38:47,200 --> 00:38:49,200 Speaker 1: that section of the brain as well, and you develop 692 00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:51,600 Speaker 1: a really really acute sense of hearing. It's just like 693 00:38:51,640 --> 00:38:55,200 Speaker 1: some kind of evolutionary tactic for lack of a better term, Well, 694 00:38:55,200 --> 00:38:56,759 Speaker 1: I don't know how blind you'd have to be to 695 00:38:56,880 --> 00:38:59,759 Speaker 1: actually pull out the tones from the sety thing. Then 696 00:38:59,840 --> 00:39:02,160 Speaker 1: the website, they had a thing that came out after 697 00:39:02,200 --> 00:39:06,640 Speaker 1: this movie, and um, they said, Project Phoenix examines twenty 698 00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:12,520 Speaker 1: eight million channels of audio simultaneously. So they say, we 699 00:39:12,600 --> 00:39:16,240 Speaker 1: can't afford that many earphones, let alone the graduate students 700 00:39:16,360 --> 00:39:20,799 Speaker 1: required to listen. So computers scanned for the signals, and 701 00:39:20,840 --> 00:39:23,759 Speaker 1: then they I guess they're automated to paying researchers when 702 00:39:24,200 --> 00:39:27,799 Speaker 1: interesting deviations occur. So the whole nonation of you being 703 00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:30,360 Speaker 1: able to hear anything on headphones to begin with is 704 00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:34,560 Speaker 1: kind of a cinematic construction, but necessary evil. Speaking of 705 00:39:34,880 --> 00:39:38,759 Speaker 1: speaking of cinematic constructions, the romance between l A and 706 00:39:38,840 --> 00:39:43,120 Speaker 1: Matthew McConaughey's character of Palmer Joss not in the What 707 00:39:43,160 --> 00:39:46,560 Speaker 1: a Stupid Name, not in the book. I have two 708 00:39:46,680 --> 00:39:50,600 Speaker 1: qualms with this movie. Mcconaughe's character's name is one of them. Uh, 709 00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:53,480 Speaker 1: you know, not in the book. But it's Tinseltown baby, 710 00:39:53,560 --> 00:39:57,600 Speaker 1: And McConaughey was hot, still is hot, but it is hot, 711 00:39:57,640 --> 00:40:00,799 Speaker 1: hotter than I don't know what am I saying Time 712 00:40:00,840 --> 00:40:02,360 Speaker 1: to Kill was a big hit, and so he was. 713 00:40:02,600 --> 00:40:07,960 Speaker 1: Han Event July Stevie Wonder Callback, Comedy Works and threes. UM. 714 00:40:08,120 --> 00:40:10,759 Speaker 1: Sasha Sagan, who's Carl and Annie's daughter, had this to 715 00:40:10,760 --> 00:40:14,640 Speaker 1: say about being next to nineties. McConaughey on that film 716 00:40:14,800 --> 00:40:20,080 Speaker 1: Proxy to him, I think expedited my puberty. Um. George 717 00:40:20,120 --> 00:40:24,560 Speaker 1: Miller had apparently approached Raye Finds for the part Yeah 718 00:40:24,640 --> 00:40:30,080 Speaker 1: to to sinister, to quietly sinister. Ah. McConaughey said that 719 00:40:30,080 --> 00:40:31,800 Speaker 1: it took Hm a really long time to read the 720 00:40:31,840 --> 00:40:35,279 Speaker 1: script for Contact because he quote kept running upstairs to 721 00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:38,359 Speaker 1: my attict to get my old college papers on technology 722 00:40:38,400 --> 00:40:42,720 Speaker 1: and society. I love that. Robert Sebeka's I guess always 723 00:40:42,760 --> 00:40:46,640 Speaker 1: thought of Ellie Arraway and Palmer Joss as the classic 724 00:40:46,680 --> 00:40:49,880 Speaker 1: movie romance, two people who were physically attracted to one 725 00:40:49,920 --> 00:40:52,960 Speaker 1: another but separated by their ideologies like you and me. 726 00:40:54,840 --> 00:40:58,400 Speaker 1: McConaughey has some also great quotes natural history. He told Vulture, 727 00:40:58,840 --> 00:41:01,520 Speaker 1: I had spent time in my life considering becoming a monk. 728 00:41:03,400 --> 00:41:07,480 Speaker 1: I believe that, yeah uh, And then he said I 729 00:41:07,520 --> 00:41:10,319 Speaker 1: went on a little spiritual walk about for twenty two 730 00:41:10,400 --> 00:41:13,520 Speaker 1: days with myself in Peru too, I guess deal with 731 00:41:13,680 --> 00:41:17,799 Speaker 1: the aftermath of time to kill being hit uh. And 732 00:41:17,960 --> 00:41:20,359 Speaker 1: he came back and he accepted the role. He also 733 00:41:20,480 --> 00:41:24,320 Speaker 1: did not audition, but met with Zamakis and Jodie Foster, 734 00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:26,480 Speaker 1: who had approval over who's going to play the character. 735 00:41:26,680 --> 00:41:28,520 Speaker 1: My favorite part is that he wanted to play the 736 00:41:28,600 --> 00:41:32,520 Speaker 1: role with a giant lumberjack beard, and Zamakas was like, no, 737 00:41:32,680 --> 00:41:35,160 Speaker 1: you're like a media expert. You don't look like a 738 00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:37,759 Speaker 1: Beauni bomber on TV. And I think kind of was like, 739 00:41:38,640 --> 00:41:42,960 Speaker 1: damn it, here's a goofy little casting. Aside, the brief 740 00:41:43,080 --> 00:41:46,200 Speaker 1: role of Major John Russell, who was the guy who 741 00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:48,480 Speaker 1: was gonna get the gig to go on the spacecraft 742 00:41:48,560 --> 00:41:51,480 Speaker 1: until he dropped out. Was that like really heartbreaking news 743 00:41:51,480 --> 00:41:53,719 Speaker 1: conference when he's standing there with his kids and they're like, 744 00:41:53,760 --> 00:41:57,239 Speaker 1: don't go, Daddy, don't go. That guy. He's played by 745 00:41:57,320 --> 00:42:01,360 Speaker 1: Stephen Ford, who's the son of former Press Ssident Gerald Ford, 746 00:42:01,760 --> 00:42:04,800 Speaker 1: And this is some inspired casting because Gerald Ford was 747 00:42:04,840 --> 00:42:07,839 Speaker 1: a member of the House Select Committee on Astronautics and 748 00:42:08,000 --> 00:42:11,520 Speaker 1: Space Exploration and he helped draft the original Space Act 749 00:42:11,520 --> 00:42:16,799 Speaker 1: that gave Nassett's Charter, so kind a full circle there. Um. Yeah, 750 00:42:16,880 --> 00:42:20,160 Speaker 1: this guy was an actor. He was initially cast to 751 00:42:20,200 --> 00:42:23,560 Speaker 1: be the dopey jock that Olivia Newton John hangs out 752 00:42:23,600 --> 00:42:26,440 Speaker 1: with in Grease to make Danny Zuko jealous, but he 753 00:42:26,560 --> 00:42:29,759 Speaker 1: dropped out the last minute due to stage fright apparently, 754 00:42:30,239 --> 00:42:34,200 Speaker 1: and Fernando Lamas's son, Lorenzo Lamas got the gig instead. 755 00:42:35,280 --> 00:42:39,359 Speaker 1: This has been your Stephen Ford update of the episode. Uh, 756 00:42:39,440 --> 00:42:42,240 Speaker 1: speaking of presidents, they initially wanted to cast Sydney Potier 757 00:42:42,400 --> 00:42:44,480 Speaker 1: as the president of the film, but he dropped out 758 00:42:44,520 --> 00:42:49,800 Speaker 1: in favor of the Jackal he chose poorly, which supposedly 759 00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:53,279 Speaker 1: McConaughey turned down in favor of Contact. So you know, 760 00:42:53,520 --> 00:42:55,439 Speaker 1: the we're takeaway from all of these is that there's 761 00:42:55,440 --> 00:42:58,160 Speaker 1: only like six things happening in Hollywood and like two 762 00:42:58,200 --> 00:43:01,359 Speaker 1: dozen people making them in any given to I'm uh 763 00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:05,080 Speaker 1: well before streamers anyway. But fortunately they luked out because 764 00:43:05,160 --> 00:43:08,720 Speaker 1: in August of NASA announced that had maybe found signs 765 00:43:08,719 --> 00:43:12,120 Speaker 1: of life in a Martian meteorite, and so President Bill 766 00:43:12,120 --> 00:43:15,600 Speaker 1: Clinton gave a speech on it, and Zamaica said Clinton 767 00:43:15,600 --> 00:43:18,919 Speaker 1: gave his Mars Rock speech, which a little dismissive, but sure, 768 00:43:19,719 --> 00:43:21,279 Speaker 1: he says, and I swear to god, it was like 769 00:43:21,280 --> 00:43:24,160 Speaker 1: it was scripted for this movie. When he said the line, 770 00:43:24,239 --> 00:43:26,560 Speaker 1: we will continue to listen closely to what it has 771 00:43:26,600 --> 00:43:29,440 Speaker 1: to say. I almost died. I stood there with my 772 00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:32,320 Speaker 1: mouth hanging open. So they basically just used that speech 773 00:43:32,360 --> 00:43:34,920 Speaker 1: in the film with some you know, movie magic to 774 00:43:34,960 --> 00:43:38,879 Speaker 1: make it look like he's saying the contact relevant stuff. Right. 775 00:43:40,800 --> 00:43:46,000 Speaker 1: Executive party dropped out, get me, Clinton, you gotta do this, 776 00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:50,560 Speaker 1: Chopping said, yeah, I mean, Zamica's has a history of 777 00:43:50,560 --> 00:43:53,400 Speaker 1: manipulating footage. I mean, in addition to doing all of 778 00:43:53,400 --> 00:43:56,240 Speaker 1: the stuff that he did for Roger Rabbit that was crazy, 779 00:43:56,320 --> 00:43:58,560 Speaker 1: and the stream he also made for a scump or 780 00:43:58,600 --> 00:44:01,879 Speaker 1: he has Tom Hanks hanging out with JFK and Dick 781 00:44:01,960 --> 00:44:04,560 Speaker 1: Cavin and John Lennon and all those people. But this 782 00:44:04,640 --> 00:44:08,160 Speaker 1: Clinton thing was different because there were no actors dubbing 783 00:44:08,239 --> 00:44:11,120 Speaker 1: voices or special effects at play, really, so his own 784 00:44:11,200 --> 00:44:14,880 Speaker 1: words were what we're being manipulated. And this caused a 785 00:44:14,920 --> 00:44:18,080 Speaker 1: bit of a firestorm, I guess. Three days before Contacts, Premier, 786 00:44:18,160 --> 00:44:21,120 Speaker 1: the White House issued a letter on formal White House 787 00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:24,400 Speaker 1: stationary and everything. The whole bit addressed to Robert Zemeckis, 788 00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:27,720 Speaker 1: condemning the use of the footage, calling it quote inappropriate 789 00:44:27,920 --> 00:44:31,320 Speaker 1: because parody and satire are protected on the First Amendment, 790 00:44:31,360 --> 00:44:33,960 Speaker 1: but you can't make someone appear to say something they 791 00:44:33,960 --> 00:44:37,600 Speaker 1: didn't actually say. No legal action was threatened, but it 792 00:44:37,719 --> 00:44:39,800 Speaker 1: was basically seen as a shot across the bottle the 793 00:44:39,840 --> 00:44:43,400 Speaker 1: war in Hollywood against taking other liberties with the president's image. 794 00:44:43,719 --> 00:44:46,320 Speaker 1: The whole thing blew over, But it started this whole 795 00:44:46,719 --> 00:44:51,560 Speaker 1: debate by copyright and fair use lawyers about digitally recreating 796 00:44:51,560 --> 00:44:55,120 Speaker 1: people's images on screen. And the technology for this wasn't 797 00:44:55,160 --> 00:44:59,399 Speaker 1: really advanced back but now you get things like there 798 00:44:59,480 --> 00:45:02,120 Speaker 1: was gonna be a case of James Dean starring in 799 00:45:02,160 --> 00:45:06,200 Speaker 1: a Vietnam drama called Finding Jacks something like sixty five 800 00:45:06,280 --> 00:45:09,120 Speaker 1: years after he died, something like that. I think that 801 00:45:09,200 --> 00:45:11,319 Speaker 1: was canceled, but yeah, it was pretty bad. And then 802 00:45:11,360 --> 00:45:15,080 Speaker 1: the actor Peter Cushing returned to life twenty two years 803 00:45:15,120 --> 00:45:17,440 Speaker 1: after he died for a cameo in two thousand and 804 00:45:17,480 --> 00:45:21,000 Speaker 1: sixteen's Rogue one, the Star Wars movie, and they did 805 00:45:21,440 --> 00:45:24,880 Speaker 1: they did Carry in that one too, like Young Carry. 806 00:45:25,080 --> 00:45:28,480 Speaker 1: It's gotten so bad that um when she died Disney 807 00:45:28,520 --> 00:45:30,680 Speaker 1: put out a statement that was like, don't worry, We're 808 00:45:30,680 --> 00:45:33,239 Speaker 1: not going to digitally recreate her for the next you know, 809 00:45:33,520 --> 00:45:36,840 Speaker 1: piece of Star Wars branded excrement. They shoved down our throats, 810 00:45:37,239 --> 00:45:41,200 Speaker 1: but we'll see how long that holds. It was like 811 00:45:41,239 --> 00:45:44,960 Speaker 1: that commercial where Audrey Hepburn was selling like Dove chocolates. 812 00:45:45,239 --> 00:45:47,600 Speaker 1: It's bad. I mean it comes down to the estate, 813 00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:50,360 Speaker 1: which is the thing about it, Like if your kids 814 00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:55,080 Speaker 1: are greeny heads and they want to you know, resurrector corpse, 815 00:45:55,680 --> 00:45:58,840 Speaker 1: they're going to do it. Yeah. It was like they 816 00:45:58,840 --> 00:46:02,080 Speaker 1: even get started on the hologay am stuff, but TUPAC 817 00:46:02,160 --> 00:46:11,560 Speaker 1: forgot about two we forgot and I think someone recently, yeah, boy, 818 00:46:11,760 --> 00:46:13,399 Speaker 1: look it up if you want to get really bummed out. 819 00:46:14,520 --> 00:46:17,080 Speaker 1: But speaking of people who were sort of pissed at 820 00:46:17,080 --> 00:46:21,680 Speaker 1: the makers of Contact, let's talk about NASA. According to 821 00:46:21,760 --> 00:46:24,960 Speaker 1: the DVD commentary track, the scene where Jodie Foster is 822 00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:27,200 Speaker 1: about to get into the spacecraft and she's given a 823 00:46:27,200 --> 00:46:30,800 Speaker 1: cyanide pill in case of emergencies caused a rift between 824 00:46:30,840 --> 00:46:34,080 Speaker 1: Carl Sagan and NASA's adviser on the film, a guy 825 00:46:34,080 --> 00:46:37,279 Speaker 1: by the name of Gerald D. Griffin, and this guy 826 00:46:37,360 --> 00:46:40,960 Speaker 1: as they say, was a serious ham sandwich. He was 827 00:46:41,000 --> 00:46:43,600 Speaker 1: working for NASA during the Apollo program, where he was 828 00:46:43,640 --> 00:46:48,600 Speaker 1: a flight director for Apollo thirteen, among others, among others. 829 00:46:48,960 --> 00:46:51,400 Speaker 1: Um in the eighties, he was the director of the 830 00:46:51,480 --> 00:46:54,880 Speaker 1: Johnson Space Center in Houston, and he insisted that NASA 831 00:46:54,960 --> 00:46:57,640 Speaker 1: has never given any astronaut a cyanide pill, you know, 832 00:46:57,800 --> 00:47:00,440 Speaker 1: just in case, uh, and that I don't know if 833 00:47:00,440 --> 00:47:02,200 Speaker 1: this makes it better or worse. If it asked to 834 00:47:02,320 --> 00:47:04,759 Speaker 1: not truly wish to commit suicide in space, all they 835 00:47:04,760 --> 00:47:08,880 Speaker 1: would have to do is cut off their oxygen supply. However, 836 00:47:08,960 --> 00:47:13,680 Speaker 1: Carl Sagan, who I think was a consultant on these 837 00:47:13,719 --> 00:47:17,200 Speaker 1: same space programs in the sixties and seventies, insisted that 838 00:47:17,320 --> 00:47:19,879 Speaker 1: NASA did indeed give out cyanide pills, and it did 839 00:47:19,880 --> 00:47:22,480 Speaker 1: it for every mission that an astenau has flown. So 840 00:47:22,840 --> 00:47:24,560 Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe they didn't want that secret out 841 00:47:24,640 --> 00:47:27,040 Speaker 1: or what. Yeah, I don't know. I did some googling 842 00:47:27,040 --> 00:47:28,960 Speaker 1: about it, and it seems like Carl Sagan was like 843 00:47:29,000 --> 00:47:32,920 Speaker 1: the only person who like is advocating for that. It 844 00:47:32,920 --> 00:47:34,840 Speaker 1: seemed like one of those things that's kind of appeared 845 00:47:34,880 --> 00:47:37,319 Speaker 1: on like the IMDb trivia page and people are like 846 00:47:37,560 --> 00:47:39,839 Speaker 1: Carl Sagan said this, and Carl saying, I don't maybe 847 00:47:39,920 --> 00:47:42,960 Speaker 1: pitch for it once, but yeah, I would cut off 848 00:47:43,000 --> 00:47:45,880 Speaker 1: my oxygen before I took a Cyanide pill. Sianide seems painful. 849 00:47:46,320 --> 00:47:49,680 Speaker 1: Oxygen is kind of like black out right? How would 850 00:47:49,680 --> 00:47:53,279 Speaker 1: you kill yourself in deep space? Jordan's Well, let me 851 00:47:53,320 --> 00:48:02,920 Speaker 1: ask um. David Kerradine commercial break. I'm not sure if 852 00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:08,480 Speaker 1: he's keeping that. Oh man, I was unable to verify this, 853 00:48:08,560 --> 00:48:11,279 Speaker 1: but preparedly. The sound of the alien transmission makes that 854 00:48:11,360 --> 00:48:14,160 Speaker 1: Ellie hears is a variation of the sound made in 855 00:48:14,239 --> 00:48:19,040 Speaker 1: Doctor Who that the doctors ship Tartess powers up in 856 00:48:19,040 --> 00:48:23,680 Speaker 1: the original nine series. Oh my God, Wow. Yeah, I 857 00:48:23,719 --> 00:48:27,320 Speaker 1: saw a really great or really dumb or both video 858 00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:30,400 Speaker 1: on YouTube where they have the whole scene of Juddie 859 00:48:30,400 --> 00:48:34,000 Speaker 1: Foster hearing something in her headphones and running back to 860 00:48:34,080 --> 00:48:36,640 Speaker 1: the headquarters and getting all the equipment set ups that 861 00:48:36,680 --> 00:48:39,480 Speaker 1: she could play whatever it is. It's coming through the 862 00:48:39,480 --> 00:48:42,560 Speaker 1: frequencies to all the gathered dignitaries and all the people 863 00:48:42,600 --> 00:48:45,520 Speaker 1: that are there, and then they're trying to, you know, 864 00:48:45,560 --> 00:48:47,360 Speaker 1: get all the monitors hooked up because they're trying to 865 00:48:47,360 --> 00:48:49,680 Speaker 1: figure out what frequency it's on doing all this stuff. 866 00:48:49,680 --> 00:48:51,680 Speaker 1: It's just dragged on and on and on, and then 867 00:48:51,680 --> 00:48:54,480 Speaker 1: they finally get it to play, and it's Rick Astley, 868 00:48:54,880 --> 00:48:58,800 Speaker 1: never going to give you up, and you love you 869 00:48:59,280 --> 00:49:04,200 Speaker 1: love roll. You're trying to rick roll me on this. No, 870 00:49:04,280 --> 00:49:06,879 Speaker 1: but you're trying. You pitch that for us, the son 871 00:49:06,920 --> 00:49:10,640 Speaker 1: of a bitch. I think we're shod for April Fools. 872 00:49:10,680 --> 00:49:12,319 Speaker 1: We should like claim that it's going to be about 873 00:49:12,360 --> 00:49:15,200 Speaker 1: some other topic. They start listening and it's just us 874 00:49:15,239 --> 00:49:19,960 Speaker 1: talking about the history of rick rolling. Uh. Perhaps unsurprisingly, 875 00:49:19,960 --> 00:49:22,399 Speaker 1: there were a number of experts brought onto the set 876 00:49:22,480 --> 00:49:24,880 Speaker 1: to help the cast get to grips with this you 877 00:49:24,920 --> 00:49:29,600 Speaker 1: know world that they were inhabiting. Above the average actors 878 00:49:30,160 --> 00:49:34,600 Speaker 1: intellectual rigor um. Sagan was increasingly ill at the time 879 00:49:34,600 --> 00:49:38,560 Speaker 1: of the disease that would eventually kill him my ello dysplasia. Uh. 880 00:49:38,760 --> 00:49:41,520 Speaker 1: Delivered a slide show lecture about space to the cast 881 00:49:41,520 --> 00:49:46,040 Speaker 1: while they were in d C, which McConaughey remembers as follows, 882 00:49:46,080 --> 00:49:50,279 Speaker 1: let me see if I can do the McConaughey voice. Um. Uh, 883 00:49:51,400 --> 00:49:53,759 Speaker 1: it's a hard quote to say in his voice. I 884 00:49:53,800 --> 00:49:55,600 Speaker 1: was on the edge of my seat the entire time. 885 00:49:55,840 --> 00:49:58,040 Speaker 1: Everything he'd say was filling me up and making me 886 00:49:58,120 --> 00:50:00,719 Speaker 1: more of a believer now already was. He got to 887 00:50:00,719 --> 00:50:03,440 Speaker 1: the very end and goes, and therefore God doesn't exist, 888 00:50:03,480 --> 00:50:05,200 Speaker 1: and I went, wait a minute, you have I mean 889 00:50:05,280 --> 00:50:08,080 Speaker 1: believe in God existed more than ever and that's your punch. 890 00:50:09,680 --> 00:50:13,440 Speaker 1: He lives more on God God. But because now we're 891 00:50:13,440 --> 00:50:17,319 Speaker 1: getting into like true detective, like crazy crazy maccamaughey, he 892 00:50:17,400 --> 00:50:21,080 Speaker 1: was like, yep, I'd love to discuss. It just kills me, 893 00:50:21,600 --> 00:50:23,839 Speaker 1: saying it tells you God doesn't exist, and you're like, 894 00:50:23,880 --> 00:50:26,080 Speaker 1: you just blew my whole world, and saying goes, yep, 895 00:50:26,280 --> 00:50:31,799 Speaker 1: debate me, coward. Jodie Foster's this great memory from this 896 00:50:31,880 --> 00:50:34,080 Speaker 1: Q and A that she said went on for hours 897 00:50:34,120 --> 00:50:36,719 Speaker 1: and hours, and I guess Carl was eating at one point, 898 00:50:36,800 --> 00:50:39,640 Speaker 1: probably because it's coming off for six hours. He was starving. 899 00:50:39,920 --> 00:50:41,960 Speaker 1: But he was so engrossed in the discussion that he 900 00:50:41,840 --> 00:50:44,480 Speaker 1: held a fort full of food in his hands for 901 00:50:44,560 --> 00:50:47,200 Speaker 1: twenty minutes as he spoke. And he was just so 902 00:50:47,280 --> 00:50:50,240 Speaker 1: caught up in the conversation that he didn't either didn't 903 00:50:50,239 --> 00:50:52,160 Speaker 1: think two or didn't have a moment to just stick 904 00:50:52,200 --> 00:50:55,120 Speaker 1: the fork in his mouth. I love that. God bless 905 00:50:55,160 --> 00:50:57,960 Speaker 1: Carl Sigon. Perhaps obviously they watched two thousand one, A 906 00:50:58,000 --> 00:51:00,200 Speaker 1: Space Odyssey on the set to help get them in 907 00:51:00,239 --> 00:51:02,960 Speaker 1: the mood. I want to say, I'm just imagining McConaughey 908 00:51:03,040 --> 00:51:06,400 Speaker 1: just like baked his and his trailer watching, uh, watching 909 00:51:06,440 --> 00:51:11,479 Speaker 1: two thousand one and be like, wow, Carl's that. What's 910 00:51:11,520 --> 00:51:18,719 Speaker 1: really like? Carl Sagan's over there, like feeling his turtleneck. Ah, 911 00:51:19,840 --> 00:51:24,560 Speaker 1: this is excellent weed, Matthew, much better than what Anne 912 00:51:24,560 --> 00:51:28,440 Speaker 1: and I have in the seventies. Uh. Speaking of research, 913 00:51:28,760 --> 00:51:31,280 Speaker 1: Samaica's and the team made several visits to the Kennedy 914 00:51:31,400 --> 00:51:34,560 Speaker 1: Space Center in kate Canaveral, Florida, where they were brought 915 00:51:34,640 --> 00:51:38,000 Speaker 1: onto launch Pad five prior to launch the Space Shuttle 916 00:51:38,080 --> 00:51:40,680 Speaker 1: to get a handle on the mechanics of the elevator 917 00:51:40,719 --> 00:51:42,960 Speaker 1: in the gantry area the loading arm of the craft. 918 00:51:43,840 --> 00:51:46,560 Speaker 1: Among the many locations that they've shot at was the 919 00:51:46,640 --> 00:51:49,520 Speaker 1: what we mentioned earlier, the Very Large Array or v 920 00:51:49,680 --> 00:51:51,800 Speaker 1: l A, which is the field of twenty seven linked 921 00:51:52,360 --> 00:51:56,800 Speaker 1: dish radio telescopes located in the desert of Socorro, New Mexico, 922 00:51:57,680 --> 00:52:02,640 Speaker 1: um and they actually had to uh coordinate with the 923 00:52:02,680 --> 00:52:06,680 Speaker 1: facility because they wanted to you know, they're the dishes 924 00:52:06,719 --> 00:52:09,239 Speaker 1: all move and they wanted to shoot them when they 925 00:52:09,280 --> 00:52:12,600 Speaker 1: were closest to one another because it would provide a 926 00:52:12,600 --> 00:52:16,520 Speaker 1: better visual And the producer named Steve Starkey uh very 927 00:52:16,600 --> 00:52:19,319 Speaker 1: early online promotional site for the move. I think it's 928 00:52:19,360 --> 00:52:21,799 Speaker 1: called Contact the Movie dot com, but you have to 929 00:52:21,800 --> 00:52:23,960 Speaker 1: get it on the way back machine. He says. Shooting 930 00:52:24,000 --> 00:52:26,640 Speaker 1: at the v l A was, of course spectacular, but 931 00:52:26,760 --> 00:52:29,360 Speaker 1: also one of the most difficult aspects of our filming. 932 00:52:29,680 --> 00:52:31,960 Speaker 1: It is a working facility, so in order for us 933 00:52:32,000 --> 00:52:34,560 Speaker 1: to accomplish shots for the movie, we had to negotiate 934 00:52:34,600 --> 00:52:38,239 Speaker 1: with the National Science Foundation for Dish Control in order 935 00:52:38,280 --> 00:52:40,520 Speaker 1: to move the dishes in the direction we needed for 936 00:52:40,560 --> 00:52:45,480 Speaker 1: the most dramatic shot for the story. They did scenes 937 00:52:45,520 --> 00:52:48,600 Speaker 1: for the v l A Control Center on a sound stage. 938 00:52:48,600 --> 00:52:51,400 Speaker 1: I guess they built not one, but two replicas that 939 00:52:51,480 --> 00:52:54,600 Speaker 1: were so exact that they had the same wall posters 940 00:52:54,680 --> 00:52:58,600 Speaker 1: and carpet color and they even borrowed photos of researchers 941 00:52:58,680 --> 00:53:06,279 Speaker 1: family staff on That's weird. Um. Yeah, Jody said, we 942 00:53:06,280 --> 00:53:09,000 Speaker 1: were able to jump the line and do this shot 943 00:53:09,120 --> 00:53:12,000 Speaker 1: in eight months ahead of schedule, but then the weather 944 00:53:12,040 --> 00:53:16,400 Speaker 1: picked us and we were behind. Um. She's referred to 945 00:53:16,440 --> 00:53:19,879 Speaker 1: this production as weather cursed and for good reason. Yeah. 946 00:53:20,040 --> 00:53:22,880 Speaker 1: They spent a week in Arecibo, Puerto Rico shooting the 947 00:53:22,960 --> 00:53:29,640 Speaker 1: largest radio telescope in the world. Uh, and terrible storms happen, mudslides. Um, 948 00:53:29,719 --> 00:53:32,880 Speaker 1: you have much to say about the Radio telescoop and Arasibo, 949 00:53:33,000 --> 00:53:36,320 Speaker 1: Puerto Rico. It's so cool. It's built into the side 950 00:53:36,320 --> 00:53:38,960 Speaker 1: of this mountain crater. It's it's supposed to be. It's 951 00:53:39,000 --> 00:53:41,879 Speaker 1: it's where it is because it's far away from radio interference. 952 00:53:41,880 --> 00:53:45,279 Speaker 1: It's basically like the audio equivalent of light pollutions. It's 953 00:53:45,320 --> 00:53:47,160 Speaker 1: easier to hear things that are coming in from out 954 00:53:47,160 --> 00:53:51,719 Speaker 1: of space. But apparently I was devastated to learn that 955 00:53:51,760 --> 00:53:54,880 Speaker 1: this dish is in the process of being dismantled after 956 00:53:54,920 --> 00:53:59,600 Speaker 1: it started to fall apart in December. Main structure of 957 00:53:59,600 --> 00:54:02,279 Speaker 1: the ant and a collapse due to poor maintenance in 958 00:54:02,360 --> 00:54:06,480 Speaker 1: recent years, especially after Hurricane Maria in and the steel 959 00:54:06,520 --> 00:54:08,960 Speaker 1: cables that kept the platform in the air dropped and 960 00:54:08,960 --> 00:54:11,759 Speaker 1: it crashed against the dish and it just destroyed it 961 00:54:11,800 --> 00:54:15,719 Speaker 1: in the fall. And um. Yeah, the National Science Foundation, 962 00:54:15,760 --> 00:54:20,640 Speaker 1: who owned the radio telescope since the sixties. I think um, 963 00:54:20,840 --> 00:54:22,600 Speaker 1: I just decided that it it was going to be closed 964 00:54:22,640 --> 00:54:26,120 Speaker 1: and dismantled after fifty seven years of active service. So 965 00:54:26,200 --> 00:54:27,880 Speaker 1: that's a real bomber. You look at pictures of it 966 00:54:27,920 --> 00:54:33,360 Speaker 1: now and it's all being ripped out. Oh that's a bummer. Um. 967 00:54:33,520 --> 00:54:36,319 Speaker 1: Not the only weather issue though. Second unit photography in 968 00:54:36,360 --> 00:54:40,040 Speaker 1: Newfoundland at gross More National Park. Ken Ralston, who's a 969 00:54:40,080 --> 00:54:43,560 Speaker 1: BFx supervisor, explained we were shooting in helicopters and the 970 00:54:43,600 --> 00:54:47,480 Speaker 1: weather turned really ugly. It started snowing like crazy. You 971 00:54:47,520 --> 00:54:50,320 Speaker 1: could barely see what was happening. Imagine being up in 972 00:54:50,320 --> 00:54:53,759 Speaker 1: a helicopter shooting second unit photography. It starts snowing. Good. 973 00:54:53,960 --> 00:54:56,680 Speaker 1: You're not even doing You're not even with Jodie Foster. 974 00:54:56,719 --> 00:55:01,919 Speaker 1: You're just shooting landscapes. I'm gonna I photographing for second unit. 975 00:55:02,719 --> 00:55:06,200 Speaker 1: Um the extras, seeming, the extras in the desert. This 976 00:55:06,320 --> 00:55:10,040 Speaker 1: is my god, this is more. I got secondhand embarrassment 977 00:55:10,120 --> 00:55:12,680 Speaker 1: for this guy. They went to change a film cartridge 978 00:55:12,800 --> 00:55:15,919 Speaker 1: and exposed it, losing an entire days of work with 979 00:55:16,000 --> 00:55:19,879 Speaker 1: the what did you say extras? Ruining The entire day's 980 00:55:19,920 --> 00:55:22,760 Speaker 1: work had to be redone uh, and he was fired. 981 00:55:23,200 --> 00:55:27,360 Speaker 1: Oh oh, I'm just imagining it like cartoonishly, like dropping 982 00:55:27,360 --> 00:55:30,040 Speaker 1: out and rolling down like a whole row affirmation. And 983 00:55:30,560 --> 00:55:33,439 Speaker 1: because everyone turns on Mass and looks at this guy, 984 00:55:33,520 --> 00:55:36,840 Speaker 1: he's like, I'm fired, aren't I? And they're like, yeah, buddy. Um. 985 00:55:36,960 --> 00:55:40,680 Speaker 1: Jodie Foster remembers continually hitting her head take after take 986 00:55:40,760 --> 00:55:42,880 Speaker 1: for a shot in which she has duck into a plane. 987 00:55:43,360 --> 00:55:45,719 Speaker 1: She also says she got stung by a bee during 988 00:55:45,760 --> 00:55:48,000 Speaker 1: a scene, and she claims in the final films she 989 00:55:48,040 --> 00:55:50,680 Speaker 1: can see both what she calls the goose egg on 990 00:55:50,719 --> 00:55:53,360 Speaker 1: her head from bumming her head and a red spot 991 00:55:53,440 --> 00:55:55,560 Speaker 1: on her neck from being stung by a bee. Just 992 00:55:55,640 --> 00:56:00,520 Speaker 1: think that's hilarious. As you met at tight on that. 993 00:56:00,840 --> 00:56:03,600 Speaker 1: We'll be right back with more too much information after 994 00:56:03,640 --> 00:56:19,840 Speaker 1: these messages. In the book, the message is received over 995 00:56:19,920 --> 00:56:22,560 Speaker 1: a long amount of time, but in the movie it's crunched. 996 00:56:22,920 --> 00:56:27,399 Speaker 1: So production contacted advisers from City NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab 997 00:56:27,480 --> 00:56:30,000 Speaker 1: and Caltech to ask them how this time frame could 998 00:56:30,000 --> 00:56:33,160 Speaker 1: be adjusted for the Big Scream. Who sent them seven 999 00:56:33,280 --> 00:56:38,359 Speaker 1: pages of calculations about how that would work, and they 1000 00:56:38,600 --> 00:56:42,919 Speaker 1: duly forwarded that just Carl Sagan, who approved it sure, 1001 00:56:43,000 --> 00:56:46,880 Speaker 1: whatever do have buty pot left? You? Remember in the movie, 1002 00:56:46,920 --> 00:56:50,000 Speaker 1: the aliens send back a transmission of Hitler opening the 1003 00:56:50,080 --> 00:56:54,239 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty six Olympic Games in Berlin, which obviously left 1004 00:56:54,280 --> 00:56:57,919 Speaker 1: scientists and politicians horrified. We know why these people, why 1005 00:56:58,040 --> 00:57:00,160 Speaker 1: our alien life forms sending us back a pick or 1006 00:57:00,160 --> 00:57:03,759 Speaker 1: of the greatest mass murderer of the twentieth century. Uh. 1007 00:57:03,800 --> 00:57:06,680 Speaker 1: And then they realized that this was the first television 1008 00:57:06,680 --> 00:57:10,000 Speaker 1: transmission that had enough strength to beam out into the cosmos. 1009 00:57:10,000 --> 00:57:12,160 Speaker 1: So the aliens sent back as a way of saying 1010 00:57:12,200 --> 00:57:15,799 Speaker 1: message received, We hear you. However, in real life there 1011 00:57:15,880 --> 00:57:18,240 Speaker 1: is some debate about this and some of the research 1012 00:57:18,440 --> 00:57:22,080 Speaker 1: that got really granular about like radio waves and stuff 1013 00:57:22,080 --> 00:57:24,120 Speaker 1: that I won't bore you with. Uh. They say that 1014 00:57:24,160 --> 00:57:27,200 Speaker 1: the transmission of this broadcast was only strong enough to 1015 00:57:27,240 --> 00:57:30,880 Speaker 1: be received no further than the suburbs of Berlin, but 1016 00:57:31,320 --> 00:57:34,080 Speaker 1: still made a very impactful moment in the movie. They 1017 00:57:34,120 --> 00:57:38,440 Speaker 1: should have sent Nixon saying, soccer to me on laughing 1018 00:57:43,880 --> 00:57:47,520 Speaker 1: now we miss talk, as we inevitably do in times 1019 00:57:47,560 --> 00:57:52,480 Speaker 1: like this, A man's thoughts turned towards the pod, not 1020 00:57:52,640 --> 00:57:59,200 Speaker 1: the podcast. Early conceptual designs of the pod were based 1021 00:57:59,280 --> 00:58:01,600 Speaker 1: as in the novel on one of the primary shapes 1022 00:58:01,640 --> 00:58:07,280 Speaker 1: in geometry do decahedron or twelve sided figure. Um. Eventually 1023 00:58:07,320 --> 00:58:11,200 Speaker 1: that was modified into a spherical capsule. In cases the 1024 00:58:11,200 --> 00:58:16,240 Speaker 1: traveler designer Steve to miss this guy's last name, so 1025 00:58:18,000 --> 00:58:22,880 Speaker 1: it's no, it's not if is out there listening. Designer 1026 00:58:23,480 --> 00:58:29,480 Speaker 1: Steve pod Contact Terminator to Google this is this guy's name, 1027 00:58:29,640 --> 00:58:34,840 Speaker 1: could just say the desire I know, okay, whatever, I'm 1028 00:58:34,840 --> 00:58:37,160 Speaker 1: not gonna find that right now. Um. The guy who 1029 00:58:37,200 --> 00:58:40,160 Speaker 1: designed it was also working on He had been working 1030 00:58:40,200 --> 00:58:44,040 Speaker 1: on Terminator too, and he based his design for Contact 1031 00:58:44,160 --> 00:58:46,120 Speaker 1: on one that he had already done for Terminator two 1032 00:58:46,160 --> 00:58:48,720 Speaker 1: that didn't get used in the film. The concentric ring 1033 00:58:48,880 --> 00:58:52,680 Speaker 1: design for it and Sony image works. Designers working there 1034 00:58:53,000 --> 00:58:56,680 Speaker 1: lifted visual references from physics like the nucleus supposed to 1035 00:58:56,680 --> 00:58:58,760 Speaker 1: look like the nucleus the son of an Adam, and 1036 00:58:58,880 --> 00:59:01,240 Speaker 1: nature like the pollinat Shan that occurs at the center 1037 00:59:01,280 --> 00:59:03,480 Speaker 1: of a flower for the design of the machine. The 1038 00:59:03,520 --> 00:59:06,400 Speaker 1: actual physical construction of the pod, the interior of the 1039 00:59:06,400 --> 00:59:09,160 Speaker 1: elevator of the gantry took almost four months to build, 1040 00:59:09,200 --> 00:59:11,600 Speaker 1: and then they digitally composited the rest of it. In 1041 00:59:12,320 --> 00:59:15,439 Speaker 1: this movie was Jody's first time filming in a blue 1042 00:59:15,440 --> 00:59:18,880 Speaker 1: screen situation. It took two to three weeks of just 1043 00:59:19,040 --> 00:59:22,880 Speaker 1: her in that Joan of Arc inspired space suit. As 1044 00:59:22,920 --> 00:59:26,400 Speaker 1: not me editorializing, they said they based it on actual armor. 1045 00:59:26,840 --> 00:59:28,680 Speaker 1: Uh and that thing, by the way, was bolted into 1046 00:59:28,760 --> 00:59:32,480 Speaker 1: the chair. And they trained her for this experience by 1047 00:59:32,520 --> 00:59:35,920 Speaker 1: sending her to Magic Mountain for what she calls like 1048 00:59:36,120 --> 00:59:39,240 Speaker 1: ten rides back to back with no time in between, 1049 00:59:40,280 --> 00:59:43,160 Speaker 1: talk about running. They couldn't send her to Nasada train, 1050 00:59:43,240 --> 00:59:46,720 Speaker 1: so like just go to Disney. Magic Mountain was the 1051 00:59:46,800 --> 00:59:50,760 Speaker 1: Six Flags, which is owned by Warner Brothers who were 1052 00:59:50,760 --> 00:59:56,400 Speaker 1: making this movie, so they got her camped. Also, very 1053 00:59:56,440 --> 00:59:58,920 Speaker 1: early in the production of this they were considering making 1054 00:59:59,000 --> 01:00:02,600 Speaker 1: a contact i'd which kind of would have been I 1055 01:00:02,600 --> 01:00:04,360 Speaker 1: can kind of see that, like you know, they have 1056 01:00:04,520 --> 01:00:07,040 Speaker 1: the like the little pod on like a slingshot and 1057 01:00:07,240 --> 01:00:09,240 Speaker 1: the thing they fired. I can almost see them doing 1058 01:00:09,240 --> 01:00:11,400 Speaker 1: the opposite of that for this, like the like the 1059 01:00:11,440 --> 01:00:14,800 Speaker 1: big machine. But yeah, they apparently had Jodie Foster filmed 1060 01:00:14,800 --> 01:00:17,320 Speaker 1: the scene in the pods six different times, with a 1061 01:00:17,360 --> 01:00:20,760 Speaker 1: different expression each time, one of joy, one of fear, 1062 01:00:20,840 --> 01:00:23,800 Speaker 1: one of sadness, et cetera. And then the visual effects 1063 01:00:23,800 --> 01:00:27,240 Speaker 1: crew morphed her face from one take to the next. Uh, 1064 01:00:27,640 --> 01:00:29,960 Speaker 1: you'll notice, I mean some of them. When she's like, 1065 01:00:30,640 --> 01:00:33,960 Speaker 1: I don't know what she's doing for astral projected through space, 1066 01:00:34,720 --> 01:00:37,760 Speaker 1: her face just kind of something weird happens to it. 1067 01:00:37,880 --> 01:00:39,800 Speaker 1: I guess that's how they did it. They just superimposed 1068 01:00:39,840 --> 01:00:42,440 Speaker 1: all these faces of her again and again. Someone on 1069 01:00:42,520 --> 01:00:45,760 Speaker 1: the internet. I don't really have any any more information 1070 01:00:45,800 --> 01:00:50,520 Speaker 1: on that, Yeah, exactly. Um has noted that she screams 1071 01:00:50,560 --> 01:00:52,560 Speaker 1: Oh God, over and over and over again all on 1072 01:00:52,640 --> 01:00:56,080 Speaker 1: the pod, which some have theorized as kind of an 1073 01:00:56,080 --> 01:00:58,560 Speaker 1: Easter egg, considering this was the moment when she had 1074 01:00:58,680 --> 01:01:02,280 Speaker 1: a breakthrough in regard to faith. She's kind of rejecting 1075 01:01:02,480 --> 01:01:06,560 Speaker 1: all of Matthew McConaughey's characters talks of God throughout the movie, 1076 01:01:06,600 --> 01:01:09,200 Speaker 1: but this is the moment that really changes her. So 1077 01:01:09,440 --> 01:01:12,560 Speaker 1: I just thought that was an interesting observation. She keeps 1078 01:01:13,040 --> 01:01:16,160 Speaker 1: the mantra I'm good to go becomes it's like the 1079 01:01:16,200 --> 01:01:18,840 Speaker 1: actual Mount NASA call sign, but it becomes her like 1080 01:01:18,960 --> 01:01:21,560 Speaker 1: accepting her situation and comedy terms with the fact that 1081 01:01:21,560 --> 01:01:25,439 Speaker 1: she might die horrifically. So I was like that part. 1082 01:01:25,800 --> 01:01:29,880 Speaker 1: Um more prosaically, there was an electrical fire burned down 1083 01:01:29,960 --> 01:01:32,960 Speaker 1: one of the film's sets. Jodie Foster's stunt double was 1084 01:01:33,080 --> 01:01:37,760 Speaker 1: bolted into this thing. Oh my god. Oh, I mean 1085 01:01:37,800 --> 01:01:41,800 Speaker 1: that sounds like the Apollo one fire when for the 1086 01:01:41,840 --> 01:01:45,360 Speaker 1: first Apollo mission in nineteen sixty seven, the astronauts were 1087 01:01:45,800 --> 01:01:48,760 Speaker 1: doing a run through just on the launch pad and 1088 01:01:49,080 --> 01:01:52,160 Speaker 1: it was very oxygen rich environment and I think, just 1089 01:01:52,200 --> 01:01:55,280 Speaker 1: like a there was some electrical problem and a fire 1090 01:01:55,320 --> 01:01:58,280 Speaker 1: broke out and and yeah, and they all died. Good lords. 1091 01:01:58,280 --> 01:02:01,160 Speaker 1: So I mean, that's terrified, angly close to that. I'm 1092 01:02:01,200 --> 01:02:03,080 Speaker 1: sure a lot of the people involved with the production 1093 01:02:03,120 --> 01:02:05,760 Speaker 1: would have been very aware of the Apollo one fire. Wow, 1094 01:02:05,800 --> 01:02:09,560 Speaker 1: that's horrifying. The whole beach scene with Jody and David Morrise, 1095 01:02:09,640 --> 01:02:13,240 Speaker 1: that was a way shoot at Leo Cardio, I don't know, 1096 01:02:13,360 --> 01:02:16,600 Speaker 1: Carrillo Beach and Malibu. Rest of it is VFX. The 1097 01:02:16,680 --> 01:02:19,200 Speaker 1: interesting thing about that is the elevint the waves are 1098 01:02:19,280 --> 01:02:22,360 Speaker 1: rolling in the wrong direction and the trees leaves are 1099 01:02:22,400 --> 01:02:24,440 Speaker 1: swaying too fast, kind of out of sync with that. 1100 01:02:24,840 --> 01:02:27,240 Speaker 1: Um Zamka said he wanted to make it sort of 1101 01:02:27,760 --> 01:02:29,920 Speaker 1: we'll get to the bid in the end about this 1102 01:02:30,080 --> 01:02:32,480 Speaker 1: about how they made the ending ambiguous. He said he 1103 01:02:32,520 --> 01:02:34,720 Speaker 1: did that because he wanted to plant the idea that 1104 01:02:35,080 --> 01:02:37,920 Speaker 1: maybe Elliott had a mini stroke or something and was 1105 01:02:38,000 --> 01:02:43,240 Speaker 1: hallucinating the whole thing. Fun The art on that is 1106 01:02:43,280 --> 01:02:44,720 Speaker 1: so cool. I mean, it reminds me when we were 1107 01:02:44,720 --> 01:02:47,480 Speaker 1: talking about The Truman Show. There's just this like hyper 1108 01:02:47,520 --> 01:02:50,080 Speaker 1: reality to the point where it looks unreal, like the 1109 01:02:50,120 --> 01:02:54,200 Speaker 1: beach is glowing white but there's no visible light source. Yes, 1110 01:02:54,280 --> 01:02:58,240 Speaker 1: it's all slightly off. It's so cool. I'd read that 1111 01:02:58,320 --> 01:03:02,120 Speaker 1: they did most of that seen in three sixty Green Scream, 1112 01:03:02,160 --> 01:03:03,680 Speaker 1: which is one of the first times that they had 1113 01:03:03,720 --> 01:03:06,240 Speaker 1: ever done on anything like that. But they also filmed 1114 01:03:06,280 --> 01:03:09,200 Speaker 1: the backgrounds on a beach in Fiji, so maybe they 1115 01:03:09,240 --> 01:03:12,200 Speaker 1: did some in person pickups at this Leo Carrillo beach 1116 01:03:12,360 --> 01:03:15,040 Speaker 1: in Malibu. In fact, I'm going to hope that they did, 1117 01:03:15,080 --> 01:03:17,160 Speaker 1: because I have a lot to say about this go on. 1118 01:03:17,760 --> 01:03:20,240 Speaker 1: I was looking up stuff for Grease just for my 1119 01:03:20,280 --> 01:03:22,840 Speaker 1: own amusement the other night Grease the movie, and the 1120 01:03:22,840 --> 01:03:26,560 Speaker 1: beach where they apparently filmed this father daughter scene in 1121 01:03:26,600 --> 01:03:29,800 Speaker 1: Contact was the same beach where Danny met Sandy. The 1122 01:03:29,840 --> 01:03:32,720 Speaker 1: beginning of Greece, the scene that opens the movie, and 1123 01:03:32,880 --> 01:03:35,960 Speaker 1: the producers of Greece chose that beach because that's the 1124 01:03:36,080 --> 01:03:38,640 Speaker 1: scene of the famous beach kiss from Here to Eternity 1125 01:03:38,720 --> 01:03:41,800 Speaker 1: with Burt Lancaster and Debora care You know, the waters 1126 01:03:41,840 --> 01:03:43,560 Speaker 1: coming up on the shore and they're in the sand. 1127 01:03:43,920 --> 01:03:47,120 Speaker 1: Very famous classic movie kiss. So that is our second 1128 01:03:47,120 --> 01:03:51,200 Speaker 1: grease connection of this episode. Damnit, Stephen Ford being Sandy's 1129 01:03:51,600 --> 01:03:56,160 Speaker 1: we should degrees, we should degrees. Um. Also, it's the 1130 01:03:56,160 --> 01:03:59,640 Speaker 1: same beach where the Dude and Walter subject spread Donnie's 1131 01:03:59,640 --> 01:04:03,680 Speaker 1: ashes is at the end of The Big Lebowski and 1132 01:04:06,320 --> 01:04:10,120 Speaker 1: John John Goodman doing is I love to serve from 1133 01:04:10,120 --> 01:04:19,240 Speaker 1: the beaches too? Lahoya oh man? Yeah? Um, very historic beach, yeah, 1134 01:04:19,440 --> 01:04:21,680 Speaker 1: Moore said, instead of being in Fiji, Jodi and I 1135 01:04:21,720 --> 01:04:26,880 Speaker 1: spent three days downstage in front of a green screen. Ah. 1136 01:04:26,880 --> 01:04:29,520 Speaker 1: That's so funny. Anyway. So the film's opening scene, that 1137 01:04:29,600 --> 01:04:32,160 Speaker 1: three minute computer generated sequence that begins with the view 1138 01:04:32,200 --> 01:04:34,960 Speaker 1: of the Earth from the exosphere and then Kareem's out 1139 01:04:34,960 --> 01:04:37,440 Speaker 1: through the Solar System out to the Milky Way. Eventually 1140 01:04:37,480 --> 01:04:40,760 Speaker 1: the whole thing terminates in the Iris of Baby Ellie. 1141 01:04:41,160 --> 01:04:43,320 Speaker 1: That general alone at that point or she just comes 1142 01:04:43,320 --> 01:04:46,080 Speaker 1: like in her eye. At that time, that was the 1143 01:04:46,160 --> 01:04:50,760 Speaker 1: longest continuous computer generated sequence and a live action film, 1144 01:04:50,840 --> 01:04:54,160 Speaker 1: eventually surpassed by the opening of The Day After Tomorrow 1145 01:04:54,640 --> 01:05:00,720 Speaker 1: in two thousand four. Anybody remember Day After Tomorrow? That 1146 01:05:00,840 --> 01:05:04,560 Speaker 1: opening is so mind blowing to me, much more so 1147 01:05:04,680 --> 01:05:06,840 Speaker 1: than the psychedelic freak out part of Do That as 1148 01:05:06,840 --> 01:05:10,440 Speaker 1: I want to space. Honestly, this scene was inspired by 1149 01:05:10,480 --> 01:05:13,400 Speaker 1: the short documentary by Charles and ray EAMs called The 1150 01:05:13,480 --> 01:05:16,800 Speaker 1: Powers of Ten. Have you ever seen this? It's like 1151 01:05:16,840 --> 01:05:20,040 Speaker 1: a famous Little Kids documentary. It's like nine minutes long. 1152 01:05:20,080 --> 01:05:22,640 Speaker 1: I say little kids, I mean like an elementary school documentary. 1153 01:05:23,040 --> 01:05:25,040 Speaker 1: The subtitle kind of gives it away. It's a film 1154 01:05:25,080 --> 01:05:27,560 Speaker 1: dealing with the relative size of things in the universe 1155 01:05:27,640 --> 01:05:30,280 Speaker 1: and the effect of adding another zero, which is a 1156 01:05:30,320 --> 01:05:32,800 Speaker 1: bit on the nose. But it starts with this view 1157 01:05:32,880 --> 01:05:35,560 Speaker 1: of a couple having a picnic, and it zooms out 1158 01:05:35,720 --> 01:05:38,520 Speaker 1: at a rate of one power of ten every ten 1159 01:05:38,640 --> 01:05:41,880 Speaker 1: seconds until the field of view is a hundred million 1160 01:05:41,960 --> 01:05:45,640 Speaker 1: light years, and it just gives you this incredible perspective 1161 01:05:46,000 --> 01:05:49,240 Speaker 1: of you know, both both mathematically and also just for 1162 01:05:49,280 --> 01:05:52,200 Speaker 1: the cosmos, and then zooms back in, and then it 1163 01:05:52,280 --> 01:05:53,880 Speaker 1: zooms in and in and in and in and in 1164 01:05:54,120 --> 01:05:57,160 Speaker 1: at a rate of you know, negative ten per ten 1165 01:05:57,240 --> 01:06:00,040 Speaker 1: seconds until you're looking at quirks and a carbon and 1166 01:06:00,120 --> 01:06:03,080 Speaker 1: adam in this man's hand. It's really cool. And so 1167 01:06:03,120 --> 01:06:05,560 Speaker 1: the whole zooming out, zooming in thing was I think 1168 01:06:05,600 --> 01:06:08,880 Speaker 1: what was what inspired this opening scene for Contact and 1169 01:06:09,320 --> 01:06:12,400 Speaker 1: the ending credit scene of men in Black. Oh, that's right, 1170 01:06:12,480 --> 01:06:15,320 Speaker 1: which I love. I love so much. Yeah, speaking of 1171 01:06:15,360 --> 01:06:20,080 Speaker 1: extremely difficult shots, there's this one that's baffled cinephiles for years. 1172 01:06:20,240 --> 01:06:23,000 Speaker 1: I have to admit I had never really noticed it 1173 01:06:23,200 --> 01:06:27,160 Speaker 1: because I just take things at face value in movie 1174 01:06:27,200 --> 01:06:30,040 Speaker 1: magic and don't really think about how they do things. 1175 01:06:30,040 --> 01:06:32,800 Speaker 1: I'm the worst film student. It's the famous medicine chest 1176 01:06:32,840 --> 01:06:36,320 Speaker 1: mirror shots, a scene when Ellie's father, David Morris's character dies. 1177 01:06:36,720 --> 01:06:40,120 Speaker 1: Young Ellie runs upstairs to try to retrieve her father's medicine, 1178 01:06:40,120 --> 01:06:42,480 Speaker 1: and it looks like she's running straight towards the camera, 1179 01:06:42,920 --> 01:06:45,160 Speaker 1: but then the shot resolves to show that this was 1180 01:06:45,240 --> 01:06:49,120 Speaker 1: a reflection in the cabinet's mirror, and so then they 1181 01:06:49,160 --> 01:06:51,520 Speaker 1: pull back and have Ellie opened the cabinet and get 1182 01:06:51,560 --> 01:06:54,280 Speaker 1: her father's medication. And when the mirror door swing shut, 1183 01:06:54,480 --> 01:06:56,360 Speaker 1: you see a reflection of a photo of her and 1184 01:06:56,360 --> 01:07:00,760 Speaker 1: her dad in the background. It's a brilliant bit of filmmaking, 1185 01:07:00,840 --> 01:07:04,600 Speaker 1: both technologically speaking and just economically. It says so much. 1186 01:07:04,680 --> 01:07:07,960 Speaker 1: And also just the absence of her father in that 1187 01:07:08,040 --> 01:07:10,600 Speaker 1: scene is so much cooler too, because they're originally going 1188 01:07:10,640 --> 01:07:12,880 Speaker 1: to do a bit where they were going to have 1189 01:07:12,960 --> 01:07:16,160 Speaker 1: almost like bullet time and the matrix. When Ellie's dad 1190 01:07:16,160 --> 01:07:17,760 Speaker 1: starts to have a heart attack, he was he was 1191 01:07:17,800 --> 01:07:20,160 Speaker 1: just going to kind of freeze as he dies, which 1192 01:07:20,200 --> 01:07:23,960 Speaker 1: is horrifying and understand Yeah, which is both horrifying and 1193 01:07:23,960 --> 01:07:25,720 Speaker 1: I don't really understand how that was supposed to look. 1194 01:07:25,720 --> 01:07:28,920 Speaker 1: And apparently neither did Robert Semacus, because as they started 1195 01:07:28,960 --> 01:07:32,800 Speaker 1: the production they just weren't happy with the results. So yeah, 1196 01:07:32,840 --> 01:07:38,160 Speaker 1: the scene where you only really see the look of 1197 01:07:38,160 --> 01:07:43,440 Speaker 1: this frightened child, it's so much more arresting emotional, like 1198 01:07:43,600 --> 01:07:46,760 Speaker 1: really really gripping scene, but in a sunny your anecdote 1199 01:07:47,840 --> 01:07:51,720 Speaker 1: in the movie, Young Ellie's father affectionately calls her Sparks. 1200 01:07:52,080 --> 01:07:55,240 Speaker 1: You know, a name for a radio operator. Uh Coincidentally, 1201 01:07:55,280 --> 01:07:58,680 Speaker 1: gentle Alone, the actress who plays Young Ellie is from Sparks, Nevada. 1202 01:07:58,880 --> 01:08:02,720 Speaker 1: I did not know that. And yet another uh large 1203 01:08:02,760 --> 01:08:05,440 Speaker 1: plane air Force one connection. She was the one who 1204 01:08:05,520 --> 01:08:08,320 Speaker 1: was supposed to play Harrisonford's daughter in Air Force One, 1205 01:08:08,400 --> 01:08:10,439 Speaker 1: but she turned it down because she thought the role 1206 01:08:10,480 --> 01:08:12,720 Speaker 1: was boring. It basically consisted of crying the whole movie, 1207 01:08:12,800 --> 01:08:15,320 Speaker 1: so she wanted to do something else, which I think 1208 01:08:15,480 --> 01:08:20,479 Speaker 1: is cool. But before we move on, we have to 1209 01:08:20,520 --> 01:08:23,080 Speaker 1: talk about by far and away, my favorite character in 1210 01:08:23,080 --> 01:08:27,519 Speaker 1: this movie. S R had Yes, John Hurt had no 1211 01:08:27,640 --> 01:08:30,599 Speaker 1: business going this hard in this movie, but hot damn. 1212 01:08:31,080 --> 01:08:36,160 Speaker 1: He is the slightly malevolent, seeming eccentric billionaire who's basically 1213 01:08:36,200 --> 01:08:39,200 Speaker 1: Ellie's guardian angel. He helps her solve some of the 1214 01:08:39,240 --> 01:08:43,519 Speaker 1: alien engineering problems and assists with helping her score funding. Uh. 1215 01:08:43,600 --> 01:08:47,880 Speaker 1: He's basically Howard Hughes with Keith Richard's voice. According to 1216 01:08:47,960 --> 01:08:51,519 Speaker 1: Robert Zemeckis, Hadden was based on what would happen if 1217 01:08:51,520 --> 01:08:53,840 Speaker 1: a Bill Gates type lost his mind? I think that 1218 01:08:53,960 --> 01:08:56,880 Speaker 1: was his almost direct quote. But yeah, this Hadden character, 1219 01:08:57,040 --> 01:09:00,639 Speaker 1: he's endlessly quotable. You know, first rule and government been spending. 1220 01:09:01,080 --> 01:09:03,599 Speaker 1: Why build one when you can have two for twice 1221 01:09:03,640 --> 01:09:06,280 Speaker 1: the price? But you said you were working on a 1222 01:09:06,360 --> 01:09:09,320 Speaker 1: John Hurt. I had a long time to make enemies, doctor, 1223 01:09:10,360 --> 01:09:14,840 Speaker 1: so many governments, business interests, even religious like you have 1224 01:09:14,880 --> 01:09:16,439 Speaker 1: to like put air in it, and you gotta like 1225 01:09:16,960 --> 01:09:19,880 Speaker 1: I'd like to see me to park this earth. I'm 1226 01:09:19,920 --> 01:09:24,720 Speaker 1: just remembering. I'll grant them my wish soon enough. I 1227 01:09:24,800 --> 01:09:31,639 Speaker 1: am not an animal. I am a human being. Uh. Yeah, 1228 01:09:31,880 --> 01:09:34,000 Speaker 1: let's see. There's there's a line when he says something. 1229 01:09:34,160 --> 01:09:37,000 Speaker 1: He says something that I kept using from via Vendetta, 1230 01:09:37,080 --> 01:09:41,080 Speaker 1: which was, we are being buried beneath the avalanche of 1231 01:09:41,120 --> 01:09:47,400 Speaker 1: your inadequacies and sparse your professional annotations, Mr Sunday are relevant. 1232 01:09:49,439 --> 01:09:51,479 Speaker 1: See me that it sounds like a slightly more sober 1233 01:09:51,560 --> 01:09:56,439 Speaker 1: Keith Richards like, that's what that sounds like. Uh, that's 1234 01:09:56,479 --> 01:09:59,320 Speaker 1: one of the ones that um Steve Coogan does in 1235 01:09:59,400 --> 01:10:02,760 Speaker 1: one of the trips, right, Oh, you're right, yes, yes. 1236 01:10:03,560 --> 01:10:06,719 Speaker 1: Jodie Foster first meets Hadden on his private jet parked 1237 01:10:06,760 --> 01:10:10,720 Speaker 1: on an airport tarmac. This is Van Nuys Airport in Burbank, 1238 01:10:10,800 --> 01:10:16,400 Speaker 1: which is where Casa Blanca was filmed, very famous historians. Yeah. Now, 1239 01:10:16,439 --> 01:10:18,920 Speaker 1: in the book, Hadden is in his fifties and in 1240 01:10:19,240 --> 01:10:22,559 Speaker 1: perfect health, and he decides to go into space orbit 1241 01:10:22,640 --> 01:10:24,920 Speaker 1: to extend his life, and at the end of the 1242 01:10:24,960 --> 01:10:28,960 Speaker 1: book he fakes his death, is cryogenically frozen and sent 1243 01:10:29,040 --> 01:10:32,240 Speaker 1: off into deep space, and hopes of becoming immortal when 1244 01:10:32,240 --> 01:10:36,559 Speaker 1: an advanced civilization comes upon his spaceship, which rules. But 1245 01:10:37,160 --> 01:10:39,920 Speaker 1: in the movie he has cancer and goes to live 1246 01:10:39,920 --> 01:10:43,840 Speaker 1: aboard the space station Mirror in order to prolong his life. Yes, 1247 01:10:44,040 --> 01:10:47,960 Speaker 1: Mirror nineties Russian space station Mirror making his first appearance 1248 01:10:47,960 --> 01:10:52,120 Speaker 1: on the pod Who remembers Mirror a friend of the pod? 1249 01:10:52,240 --> 01:10:55,719 Speaker 1: Mirror exactly? I mean, as I said, as an attendee 1250 01:10:55,760 --> 01:10:58,559 Speaker 1: of space Camp, I was very fascinated by Mirror, even 1251 01:10:58,560 --> 01:11:02,479 Speaker 1: though by many accounts it was kind of a trash heap. 1252 01:11:02,880 --> 01:11:06,559 Speaker 1: It literally caught fire in orbit at one point. So yeah, 1253 01:11:06,560 --> 01:11:08,840 Speaker 1: my main memory of Mirror is back in two thousand 1254 01:11:08,880 --> 01:11:11,599 Speaker 1: one when it was de orbited, which is a fancy 1255 01:11:11,600 --> 01:11:13,280 Speaker 1: way of saying that they were done with it and 1256 01:11:13,320 --> 01:11:15,200 Speaker 1: just let it fall back to Earth and to integrate 1257 01:11:15,280 --> 01:11:19,240 Speaker 1: upon re entry. Taco Bell put a giant floating forty 1258 01:11:19,280 --> 01:11:22,240 Speaker 1: by forty target in the South Pacific and if any 1259 01:11:22,280 --> 01:11:24,760 Speaker 1: fragments from the space station hit it, they said they 1260 01:11:24,760 --> 01:11:27,240 Speaker 1: would give everyone in the US a free taco. And 1261 01:11:27,280 --> 01:11:30,479 Speaker 1: this is per their VP of brand Communications, quote, Taco 1262 01:11:30,520 --> 01:11:33,760 Speaker 1: Bell is capturing the imagination of millions of people as 1263 01:11:33,760 --> 01:11:37,240 Speaker 1: they eagerly await mirrors returned to Earth. It's very optimistic 1264 01:11:37,280 --> 01:11:40,000 Speaker 1: way of phrasing it. If mirror rings our bell, we 1265 01:11:40,040 --> 01:11:43,960 Speaker 1: will offer a free taco to everyone in America. Sadly 1266 01:11:44,000 --> 01:11:48,599 Speaker 1: it did not. That is incredible, Yeah, no, it's that's 1267 01:11:48,680 --> 01:11:52,599 Speaker 1: incredible bit of marketing. But anyway back to contact. Mirror 1268 01:11:52,640 --> 01:11:56,479 Speaker 1: is where hadden't went to live at the remainder of 1269 01:11:56,520 --> 01:12:00,040 Speaker 1: his days, and in the scene when they have a 1270 01:12:00,040 --> 01:12:02,479 Speaker 1: a video conference call and when Ellie comes home to 1271 01:12:02,520 --> 01:12:05,519 Speaker 1: her apartment, it finds that somebody broke in and set 1272 01:12:05,560 --> 01:12:07,800 Speaker 1: up a satellite phone in her living room, which she's 1273 01:12:08,400 --> 01:12:11,080 Speaker 1: not as freaked out about as I would be. And 1274 01:12:11,280 --> 01:12:14,120 Speaker 1: they talked to Hadden and he's floating in his room 1275 01:12:14,200 --> 01:12:16,840 Speaker 1: up in mirror. It looks like really terrible c g 1276 01:12:16,960 --> 01:12:20,320 Speaker 1: I as he's floating around, but it's apparently real. They 1277 01:12:20,400 --> 01:12:23,639 Speaker 1: filmed this weightlessness by putting a camera on the floor 1278 01:12:23,960 --> 01:12:26,519 Speaker 1: pointing it up, and they had John Hurt hanging down 1279 01:12:26,680 --> 01:12:29,559 Speaker 1: from like a bungee cord. Cable and they moved them 1280 01:12:29,600 --> 01:12:31,679 Speaker 1: around and had him float around. I don't know why 1281 01:12:31,680 --> 01:12:35,080 Speaker 1: it looks so bad. It's always bothered me. This and 1282 01:12:35,400 --> 01:12:38,559 Speaker 1: Palmer Joss are the two parts of this movie that 1283 01:12:38,600 --> 01:12:41,400 Speaker 1: I love so much that just really annoyed me. Oh 1284 01:12:41,439 --> 01:12:44,479 Speaker 1: that's funny anyway. So we talked earlier about how the 1285 01:12:44,560 --> 01:12:48,160 Speaker 1: film is changes the ending of the book. In the book, 1286 01:12:48,400 --> 01:12:52,040 Speaker 1: it ends with the capsule returns to Earth with a 1287 01:12:52,080 --> 01:12:55,559 Speaker 1: small amount of sand on the floor, So that Sagan 1288 01:12:55,840 --> 01:13:00,559 Speaker 1: and Ann's unambiguous pitch to make sure that people knew 1289 01:13:00,560 --> 01:13:04,120 Speaker 1: that this thing actually happened. Now for the movie, the 1290 01:13:04,160 --> 01:13:08,000 Speaker 1: guy who wrote the first draft, how many drafts? Yeah, 1291 01:13:08,040 --> 01:13:10,600 Speaker 1: I was gonna say, one of the many differen drafts. 1292 01:13:10,720 --> 01:13:13,240 Speaker 1: He said that Sagan told him Carl was very specific 1293 01:13:13,240 --> 01:13:15,599 Speaker 1: to me when we were working that he absolutely wanted 1294 01:13:15,680 --> 01:13:19,080 Speaker 1: faith to be an issue, but ultimately what really happened 1295 01:13:19,120 --> 01:13:21,599 Speaker 1: to Ellie and the galaxy could be proven and it 1296 01:13:21,640 --> 01:13:25,280 Speaker 1: was real. Then Goldenberg, who does he had another one 1297 01:13:25,280 --> 01:13:27,400 Speaker 1: of the drafts, said there were a number of versions 1298 01:13:27,400 --> 01:13:30,360 Speaker 1: of this ending. He says he met with Steven Spielberg 1299 01:13:30,360 --> 01:13:33,760 Speaker 1: about it, and at one point Spielberg was considering doing 1300 01:13:33,760 --> 01:13:35,880 Speaker 1: the film because he wanted to make it. I guess 1301 01:13:35,960 --> 01:13:39,080 Speaker 1: the third of his trilogy about aliens close encounters, et 1302 01:13:39,280 --> 01:13:43,439 Speaker 1: and then contact and uh yeah. Zamachez ultimately got his 1303 01:13:43,520 --> 01:13:46,840 Speaker 1: way with making it an ambiguous ending. He said, I 1304 01:13:46,840 --> 01:13:50,120 Speaker 1: wouldn't dare to make it anything other than ambiguous, because 1305 01:13:50,120 --> 01:13:54,920 Speaker 1: it would just be false. I never got the sense 1306 01:13:54,960 --> 01:13:57,800 Speaker 1: that it was an ambiguous ending, though everybody on Earth 1307 01:13:57,840 --> 01:14:02,280 Speaker 1: sees her fall. Her raft just fall into the water, 1308 01:14:02,439 --> 01:14:06,000 Speaker 1: doesn't go anywhayer, doesn't visibly leave the planet. It all 1309 01:14:06,040 --> 01:14:09,160 Speaker 1: takes place in a matter of seconds. But the footage 1310 01:14:09,160 --> 01:14:12,240 Speaker 1: from her body camera, which is just static so it 1311 01:14:12,280 --> 01:14:15,280 Speaker 1: didn't actually capture anything, had hours and hours and hours 1312 01:14:15,280 --> 01:14:20,360 Speaker 1: of it. So I thought that was pretty unambiguous to me. No, 1313 01:14:20,479 --> 01:14:24,479 Speaker 1: because remember the Congression they formed the Congressional Committee is like, oh, 1314 01:14:24,520 --> 01:14:27,120 Speaker 1: they said it was a hoax designed by Hatton, right, 1315 01:14:27,280 --> 01:14:30,519 Speaker 1: so right. But then at the very after the conference 1316 01:14:30,600 --> 01:14:35,120 Speaker 1: is over, Angelabasas character has the National Security advisor into 1317 01:14:35,120 --> 01:14:37,320 Speaker 1: her office and was like, yeah, well we looked at 1318 01:14:37,360 --> 01:14:40,240 Speaker 1: the camera. You're right, it was static in it, but 1319 01:14:40,400 --> 01:14:43,360 Speaker 1: fourteen hours of it, how do you explain that? And 1320 01:14:43,400 --> 01:14:48,280 Speaker 1: that to me, I thought meant she went somewhere because 1321 01:14:48,320 --> 01:14:49,920 Speaker 1: the whole movie. I don't know. I mean, have you 1322 01:14:49,920 --> 01:14:52,920 Speaker 1: ever had like a mislabeled file on a camera that 1323 01:14:52,960 --> 01:14:57,240 Speaker 1: says it was recorded? I mean, I don't know. I 1324 01:14:57,240 --> 01:14:59,600 Speaker 1: mean I would agree with you if it wasn't for 1325 01:14:59,600 --> 01:15:03,240 Speaker 1: the fact Jodie Foster math McConaughey keep talking about Einstein's 1326 01:15:03,240 --> 01:15:07,280 Speaker 1: theory of relativity, about how if Ellie traveled X number 1327 01:15:07,320 --> 01:15:09,960 Speaker 1: of light years, she would come back four years older, 1328 01:15:10,040 --> 01:15:12,200 Speaker 1: but everyone on Earth will be fifty years older. So 1329 01:15:12,240 --> 01:15:15,040 Speaker 1: there's a lot of discussion about travel in the nature 1330 01:15:15,080 --> 01:15:17,120 Speaker 1: of time and how it gets the stored when you're 1331 01:15:17,160 --> 01:15:20,680 Speaker 1: going long distances and stuff. So if that hadn't been 1332 01:15:20,720 --> 01:15:22,479 Speaker 1: such a major theme in the movie, I would agree 1333 01:15:22,479 --> 01:15:25,320 Speaker 1: with you. But I have to assume because they laid 1334 01:15:25,360 --> 01:15:27,400 Speaker 1: the groundwork for that in so many scenes in the 1335 01:15:27,439 --> 01:15:30,360 Speaker 1: movie that this whole nature of it looked like a 1336 01:15:30,400 --> 01:15:32,880 Speaker 1: blink of an eye for us and I, as in 1337 01:15:32,920 --> 01:15:35,439 Speaker 1: the image that opens the movie. Every act of this 1338 01:15:35,479 --> 01:15:39,240 Speaker 1: movie starts with a close up on our ways I 1339 01:15:39,720 --> 01:15:42,400 Speaker 1: and then zooms out in the cosmos. So blink of 1340 01:15:42,439 --> 01:15:44,760 Speaker 1: an eye. Maybe that was some kind of an analogy. 1341 01:15:44,800 --> 01:15:47,439 Speaker 1: There was actually something that was a lot longer a 1342 01:15:47,479 --> 01:15:50,559 Speaker 1: lot more profound for Ellie. I don't know. I'm just 1343 01:15:50,600 --> 01:15:52,760 Speaker 1: we're just spit on here. No bad ideas in brain 1344 01:15:52,800 --> 01:15:58,439 Speaker 1: starring first up, best thought. Um, yeah, so you know, 1345 01:15:58,800 --> 01:16:03,400 Speaker 1: I don't know. You you think it's ambiguous. I don't know. 1346 01:16:03,520 --> 01:16:07,240 Speaker 1: I don't really care. I really know, because I think 1347 01:16:07,240 --> 01:16:09,400 Speaker 1: it's I think it's it's supposed to be all things 1348 01:16:09,439 --> 01:16:12,439 Speaker 1: to all people, right right. I mean, I do think 1349 01:16:12,479 --> 01:16:14,120 Speaker 1: that this whole movie, and I know I touched on 1350 01:16:14,160 --> 01:16:15,479 Speaker 1: this at the start of the episode, is such a 1351 01:16:15,479 --> 01:16:19,439 Speaker 1: beautiful depiction of the nature of faith. And that's faith 1352 01:16:19,479 --> 01:16:21,920 Speaker 1: and whatever you wanna call it, call it God, call 1353 01:16:22,000 --> 01:16:25,520 Speaker 1: it an experience, as Jodie Foster's character does when she testifies, 1354 01:16:25,520 --> 01:16:27,439 Speaker 1: she's I don't I don't know why. I can't explain it, 1355 01:16:27,439 --> 01:16:30,879 Speaker 1: but I had an experience. You know. There's that great 1356 01:16:32,160 --> 01:16:35,360 Speaker 1: bit of debate Socratic logic, I don't know what you 1357 01:16:35,400 --> 01:16:38,439 Speaker 1: want to call it, where Matthew McConaughey and Jodie Foster 1358 01:16:38,720 --> 01:16:42,080 Speaker 1: are arguing about the nature of faith at the beginning 1359 01:16:42,080 --> 01:16:46,160 Speaker 1: of the movie, and uh, and Jodie Foster's character says, 1360 01:16:46,160 --> 01:16:47,960 Speaker 1: you know, I only want to believe in things I 1361 01:16:47,960 --> 01:16:51,639 Speaker 1: can prove and McConaughey's character says, did you love your father? 1362 01:16:52,040 --> 01:16:54,960 Speaker 1: And you know she's kind of taken aback. Well, yeah, 1363 01:16:55,120 --> 01:16:59,120 Speaker 1: yeah I did. And he says, we'll prove it. And 1364 01:16:59,520 --> 01:17:00,960 Speaker 1: what do you say to that. I just thought that 1365 01:17:01,000 --> 01:17:04,719 Speaker 1: was such a brilliant way of illuminating that which can't 1366 01:17:04,760 --> 01:17:08,880 Speaker 1: be proven or quantified um. And that's such a part 1367 01:17:08,880 --> 01:17:10,719 Speaker 1: about this whole movie that I really like. Is somebody 1368 01:17:10,720 --> 01:17:14,440 Speaker 1: who again dedicated their life to science, and so many 1369 01:17:14,800 --> 01:17:18,679 Speaker 1: people think that science and faith. I won't call it religion. 1370 01:17:18,720 --> 01:17:22,600 Speaker 1: I'll say faith and science are diametrically opposed, and I 1371 01:17:22,600 --> 01:17:25,519 Speaker 1: think this movie argues against that. I think it gets 1372 01:17:25,560 --> 01:17:27,160 Speaker 1: back the way I said at the beginning of the episode. 1373 01:17:27,160 --> 01:17:30,120 Speaker 1: I think that you allow for things that that you 1374 01:17:30,160 --> 01:17:33,559 Speaker 1: don't know and can't explain. Yeah, I don't know. I 1375 01:17:33,600 --> 01:17:35,600 Speaker 1: never thought it was ambiguous. I always thought it was 1376 01:17:35,720 --> 01:17:40,360 Speaker 1: very clear that it was unexplained how that occurred, how 1377 01:17:40,560 --> 01:17:42,160 Speaker 1: it looked like a blink of an eye on Earth. 1378 01:17:42,200 --> 01:17:44,640 Speaker 1: But to her it had, however, many hours of footage 1379 01:17:44,960 --> 01:17:47,519 Speaker 1: of static that she had with her. But I, yeah, 1380 01:17:47,560 --> 01:17:49,519 Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe again, maybe it says more about 1381 01:17:49,560 --> 01:17:53,679 Speaker 1: me in my view of space and faith and aliens 1382 01:17:53,680 --> 01:17:58,559 Speaker 1: and all that stuff. But well, I mean, regardless in 1383 01:17:59,040 --> 01:18:02,479 Speaker 1: pure movie the sense of the movie. Uh. And didn't 1384 01:18:02,479 --> 01:18:07,240 Speaker 1: like it. She said, I would have preferred the Yeah, Andrew, 1385 01:18:07,760 --> 01:18:09,759 Speaker 1: she said, I would have preferred the ending to be different. 1386 01:18:09,800 --> 01:18:11,680 Speaker 1: I think it's beautiful. But if Carl and I had 1387 01:18:11,680 --> 01:18:15,200 Speaker 1: been all powerful and Carl was healthy, if Carl and 1388 01:18:15,240 --> 01:18:18,760 Speaker 1: I had been all powerful, then I would have made 1389 01:18:18,800 --> 01:18:21,840 Speaker 1: it differently and he would have too. And that is 1390 01:18:21,880 --> 01:18:26,479 Speaker 1: sadly where we have to come to, um Man. You know, 1391 01:18:26,720 --> 01:18:32,280 Speaker 1: Carl went home. Um he on December six He died 1392 01:18:32,280 --> 01:18:35,759 Speaker 1: at the age of sixty two, literally working in providing 1393 01:18:35,760 --> 01:18:38,080 Speaker 1: notes on this film until about two weeks from his death. 1394 01:18:38,600 --> 01:18:40,720 Speaker 1: Um And it was, as you said, it was a 1395 01:18:40,760 --> 01:18:44,000 Speaker 1: miracle that he hung on as long as he did. Yeah. 1396 01:18:44,000 --> 01:18:45,960 Speaker 1: He was given I think something like six months to 1397 01:18:46,000 --> 01:18:49,719 Speaker 1: live when he was diagnosed in and he underwent bone 1398 01:18:49,720 --> 01:18:53,280 Speaker 1: male transplants, which are extremely painful, but they extended his 1399 01:18:53,360 --> 01:18:55,960 Speaker 1: life so that even though we didn't get to see 1400 01:18:56,000 --> 01:18:58,360 Speaker 1: his passion project completed, he got to see it in 1401 01:18:58,400 --> 01:19:00,280 Speaker 1: the final stages of it coming to get there, and 1402 01:19:00,280 --> 01:19:02,640 Speaker 1: he knew it was going to happen, which is you know, 1403 01:19:02,880 --> 01:19:04,760 Speaker 1: I think something that is loved ones took a lot 1404 01:19:04,800 --> 01:19:07,960 Speaker 1: of comfort from. Did they. I know they they blasted 1405 01:19:08,000 --> 01:19:10,599 Speaker 1: some of Geene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Treks Ashes 1406 01:19:10,600 --> 01:19:12,840 Speaker 1: into space. Did they do that for Carl Sagan? Oh 1407 01:19:12,920 --> 01:19:15,920 Speaker 1: that's a good question, no, because I mean they had 1408 01:19:15,920 --> 01:19:18,760 Speaker 1: a funeral for him. Um. Yeah, But I think they 1409 01:19:18,800 --> 01:19:21,080 Speaker 1: only took a little bit of rodenberries up in a 1410 01:19:21,160 --> 01:19:24,479 Speaker 1: later date. I don't know. Oh, there's blue marbles on 1411 01:19:24,560 --> 01:19:31,280 Speaker 1: it because of the the Perl blue marble. That's so sad. No, 1412 01:19:31,400 --> 01:19:33,960 Speaker 1: on his gravestone, people leave blue marbles there you go 1413 01:19:34,800 --> 01:19:39,000 Speaker 1: up to in Ithaca. Oh, man, I guess he was 1414 01:19:39,000 --> 01:19:41,799 Speaker 1: supposed to have a cameo in the movie in Contact 1415 01:19:41,800 --> 01:19:45,599 Speaker 1: as a member of the committee selecting the occupant for 1416 01:19:45,640 --> 01:19:48,160 Speaker 1: the space machine, but he died before the scene was filmed. 1417 01:19:48,200 --> 01:19:52,680 Speaker 1: But there's a photo of Sagan in Ellie's apartment. It 1418 01:19:52,800 --> 01:19:55,200 Speaker 1: was like a little tribute to him. And as you 1419 01:19:55,200 --> 01:19:57,360 Speaker 1: said earlier in the episode, the outfit that she wears 1420 01:19:57,360 --> 01:20:00,240 Speaker 1: while are you going for funds in the boardroom for 1421 01:20:00,240 --> 01:20:02,920 Speaker 1: for more money to uh, you know, to continue her 1422 01:20:03,000 --> 01:20:06,920 Speaker 1: work at CT is based on Carl's famous blazer and turtleneck, 1423 01:20:08,000 --> 01:20:11,920 Speaker 1: but Yeah, his widow Andreien had a cameo as one 1424 01:20:11,960 --> 01:20:14,960 Speaker 1: of the guests on the TV show Crossfire. So that 1425 01:20:15,120 --> 01:20:22,120 Speaker 1: was funny an insult, okay. So we mentioned earlier at 1426 01:20:22,160 --> 01:20:24,560 Speaker 1: the top of the episode the virial villain of Contact, 1427 01:20:25,800 --> 01:20:33,000 Speaker 1: Francis Ford Copa. Just days after Carl Sagan died, Dream 1428 01:20:33,120 --> 01:20:37,519 Speaker 1: was served court papers after getting back to their home 1429 01:20:37,600 --> 01:20:44,519 Speaker 1: in Ithaca after his funeral. H God Coppola was suing 1430 01:20:44,680 --> 01:20:48,240 Speaker 1: Sagan posthumously, along with Warner Brothers, who claims that he 1431 01:20:48,320 --> 01:20:52,360 Speaker 1: had the idea for Contact in nineteen and approached Sagan 1432 01:20:52,400 --> 01:20:56,720 Speaker 1: about collaborating on TV program for the Children's Television Workshop 1433 01:20:57,200 --> 01:21:02,560 Speaker 1: justifiably so and was pissed. Yes, she told e w 1434 01:21:03,520 --> 01:21:05,519 Speaker 1: all I can say is when a man writes a 1435 01:21:05,560 --> 01:21:08,360 Speaker 1: complaint with his lawyer while your husband is dying after 1436 01:21:08,400 --> 01:21:11,360 Speaker 1: a third bone marrow transplant and then waits for him 1437 01:21:11,360 --> 01:21:15,120 Speaker 1: to die so we can file it. It's outrageous. Also, 1438 01:21:15,320 --> 01:21:18,519 Speaker 1: it was for two d and fifty dollars, which seems 1439 01:21:18,600 --> 01:21:21,760 Speaker 1: like peanuts for Hollywood types. Like that's unless he was 1440 01:21:21,800 --> 01:21:24,040 Speaker 1: like still paying off Apocalypse now or so. Yeah, well, 1441 01:21:24,080 --> 01:21:27,760 Speaker 1: it's like it's like the the dr evil thing. He's like, 1442 01:21:27,800 --> 01:21:31,599 Speaker 1: we're going to sue him for two hundred and fifty 1443 01:21:31,760 --> 01:21:35,560 Speaker 1: thousand dollars, and they're like, for inces, you're you're the 1444 01:21:35,800 --> 01:21:42,040 Speaker 1: wine makes two thousand dollars like a quarter anyway, And 1445 01:21:42,080 --> 01:21:44,840 Speaker 1: would also later say I couldn't believe anyone could be 1446 01:21:45,000 --> 01:21:48,960 Speaker 1: so heartless. She said, I was deposed many times by 1447 01:21:49,000 --> 01:21:51,479 Speaker 1: his lawyers, and I'd be sitting there in the months 1448 01:21:51,479 --> 01:21:54,160 Speaker 1: following Carl's death, when I was just barely holding it 1449 01:21:54,200 --> 01:21:58,080 Speaker 1: together in such pain and despair. They would show me 1450 01:21:58,200 --> 01:22:02,200 Speaker 1: manuscripts of Carl's with his beautiful little Brooklyn Public School 1451 01:22:02,280 --> 01:22:05,240 Speaker 1: handwriting in the corners, and I would just start weeping 1452 01:22:05,320 --> 01:22:09,040 Speaker 1: at the sight of it. Oh, this really makes me 1453 01:22:09,160 --> 01:22:12,840 Speaker 1: hate Coppola. That's just furious. May we all have a 1454 01:22:12,880 --> 01:22:15,960 Speaker 1: love supure that our loved ones weep at the sight 1455 01:22:16,040 --> 01:22:19,719 Speaker 1: of our handwriting. That hurts? Yeah, Ope, said said. Nobody 1456 01:22:19,760 --> 01:22:22,919 Speaker 1: took it very seriously, but it was very vicious. Um 1457 01:22:22,960 --> 01:22:29,080 Speaker 1: he sued and lost. I was dismissed in the judge. 1458 01:22:29,120 --> 01:22:32,160 Speaker 1: This is really weird. The judge actually agreed that Carl 1459 01:22:32,200 --> 01:22:35,200 Speaker 1: Sagan had violated some terms of the contract with Coppola, 1460 01:22:35,400 --> 01:22:37,360 Speaker 1: but he also said the couple had waited too long 1461 01:22:37,400 --> 01:22:41,240 Speaker 1: to file his suit, and it's believed that the root 1462 01:22:41,520 --> 01:22:46,200 Speaker 1: of all this involves Pinocchio. Couple really wanted to make 1463 01:22:46,240 --> 01:22:48,400 Speaker 1: I guess it was his childhood dream to do a 1464 01:22:48,400 --> 01:22:51,519 Speaker 1: live action film based on Pinocchio because this was the period. 1465 01:22:51,520 --> 01:22:54,200 Speaker 1: But he was just going hard on literary classics. He'd 1466 01:22:54,200 --> 01:22:58,479 Speaker 1: done Brams Focus, Dracula, Secret Garden, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. He 1467 01:22:58,520 --> 01:23:01,200 Speaker 1: either directed or produced the and so a movie version 1468 01:23:01,200 --> 01:23:03,320 Speaker 1: of Pinocchio was the one that he really wanted to do, 1469 01:23:03,640 --> 01:23:06,040 Speaker 1: but Warner Brothers said they owned the rights and prevented 1470 01:23:06,120 --> 01:23:09,040 Speaker 1: him from making the film in another studio. That's a 1471 01:23:09,320 --> 01:23:13,960 Speaker 1: gross oversimplification of this not very interesting contractual wrangling, but 1472 01:23:14,080 --> 01:23:17,599 Speaker 1: that's the gist. Couple wanted to make Pinocchio and sued 1473 01:23:17,680 --> 01:23:24,960 Speaker 1: Carl Sagan's widow when he couldn't. It's that's that's just Graham, 1474 01:23:25,080 --> 01:23:27,120 Speaker 1: especially when you think of Copple as someone who's like 1475 01:23:28,000 --> 01:23:30,439 Speaker 1: a tour like art above all else. It's like you 1476 01:23:32,040 --> 01:23:37,920 Speaker 1: he's seen Godfather three? Well, uh or Jack, I said, 1477 01:23:38,000 --> 01:23:42,040 Speaker 1: Jack bumped me out. Anyway, we have to get out 1478 01:23:42,040 --> 01:23:46,400 Speaker 1: of this somehow. The crew literally raced to the last 1479 01:23:46,400 --> 01:23:49,600 Speaker 1: minute to finish this movie. U s f X supervisor 1480 01:23:49,680 --> 01:23:52,880 Speaker 1: Ralston said that when it premiered in August of it 1481 01:23:52,960 --> 01:23:55,360 Speaker 1: had shots in it that weren't finished, but he said 1482 01:23:55,400 --> 01:23:58,599 Speaker 1: no one could tell. The movie nearly doubled it's ninety 1483 01:23:58,640 --> 01:24:01,800 Speaker 1: million budget the box office, although it did come into 1484 01:24:01,840 --> 01:24:05,320 Speaker 1: second to Men and Black and Uh. Linda Hopes in 1485 01:24:05,360 --> 01:24:08,639 Speaker 1: particular was upset that it was upstaged by Independence Day. 1486 01:24:08,680 --> 01:24:11,360 Speaker 1: She has a tremendous quote. We all talked about Contact, 1487 01:24:11,360 --> 01:24:15,040 Speaker 1: wanting to beat the stupid version Independence Day, which had 1488 01:24:15,080 --> 01:24:17,160 Speaker 1: come out of here earlier and been a big hit. 1489 01:24:17,680 --> 01:24:20,880 Speaker 1: It's a movie that I irrationally despised for this reason. 1490 01:24:21,280 --> 01:24:24,800 Speaker 1: I hated them disproving Coral Carl believed that if you 1491 01:24:24,880 --> 01:24:29,320 Speaker 1: gave somebody entertainment that stimulated their cerebral cortex, made them 1492 01:24:29,360 --> 01:24:31,600 Speaker 1: have to think in a thrilling way, it would be 1493 01:24:31,640 --> 01:24:35,439 Speaker 1: more successful than appealing to their reptilian brain. I wanted 1494 01:24:35,479 --> 01:24:38,160 Speaker 1: Contact to be number one. Then it opened against Men 1495 01:24:38,200 --> 01:24:40,719 Speaker 1: and Black and came in second. It made me really 1496 01:24:40,760 --> 01:24:43,439 Speaker 1: angry for a long time that the stupid movies won, 1497 01:24:44,200 --> 01:24:47,280 Speaker 1: which I don't think is entirely fair. Independence Day is stupid. 1498 01:24:47,320 --> 01:24:50,680 Speaker 1: Men and Black is much less stupid. Yes, us they 1499 01:24:50,680 --> 01:24:53,240 Speaker 1: called men and Black Independence Day for smart people, So 1500 01:24:53,600 --> 01:24:55,680 Speaker 1: I will stand by that. Yeah. While we're on the 1501 01:24:55,720 --> 01:24:59,400 Speaker 1: topic of snubs. For this movie, Jodie Foster failed to 1502 01:24:59,400 --> 01:25:03,960 Speaker 1: receive apparently much anticipated OSCAR nomination for her performance as 1503 01:25:04,000 --> 01:25:07,639 Speaker 1: Ellie air Away. Some have speculated that this is because 1504 01:25:07,640 --> 01:25:10,080 Speaker 1: she was pregnant at the time and refused to name 1505 01:25:10,120 --> 01:25:13,559 Speaker 1: the father, which was viewed by many as confirming that 1506 01:25:13,600 --> 01:25:16,960 Speaker 1: she was a lesbian, a fact which she had not 1507 01:25:17,040 --> 01:25:20,120 Speaker 1: corroborated at that time. So there's the possibility that this 1508 01:25:20,240 --> 01:25:23,439 Speaker 1: stigma was the reason why she was snubbed. I really 1509 01:25:23,479 --> 01:25:26,000 Speaker 1: hope that's not the case, but I wouldn't put it 1510 01:25:26,000 --> 01:25:31,320 Speaker 1: past anybody. Yeah, I have no I did some googling 1511 01:25:31,320 --> 01:25:34,120 Speaker 1: around on that thing. I was not able to find 1512 01:25:34,160 --> 01:25:37,599 Speaker 1: anything about that, but I'm sure somebody said it at 1513 01:25:37,600 --> 01:25:41,920 Speaker 1: some point in Hollywood. Yeah, but there is still a 1514 01:25:41,960 --> 01:25:45,599 Speaker 1: happy coda to the story of contact. Nearly fifteen years later, 1515 01:25:46,520 --> 01:25:50,920 Speaker 1: the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute in California was hit 1516 01:25:50,960 --> 01:25:54,200 Speaker 1: with some budget cuts both federal and on the state level. 1517 01:25:54,400 --> 01:25:58,160 Speaker 1: Basically had to stop operating in April two eleven, but 1518 01:25:58,439 --> 01:26:01,920 Speaker 1: they put out a public camp pain for funds, launching 1519 01:26:01,920 --> 01:26:05,680 Speaker 1: their website and with a goal of two dollars, and 1520 01:26:05,800 --> 01:26:10,920 Speaker 1: they received two three thousand dollars in donations from just 1521 01:26:11,040 --> 01:26:16,760 Speaker 1: over one of whom was Jodie Foster. She really was 1522 01:26:16,800 --> 01:26:20,920 Speaker 1: good to go. Oh God, that I mean, they'll look 1523 01:26:20,960 --> 01:26:24,880 Speaker 1: good to go. That voice coming through the static and 1524 01:26:24,880 --> 01:26:27,479 Speaker 1: the noise just I'm good to go, I'm good to go. 1525 01:26:27,600 --> 01:26:29,960 Speaker 1: It just gets mean. She should have gotten an oscar 1526 01:26:29,960 --> 01:26:33,400 Speaker 1: for that scene when she's finally out there and this 1527 01:26:33,520 --> 01:26:36,360 Speaker 1: look of I don't know how to describe it. It 1528 01:26:36,920 --> 01:26:42,360 Speaker 1: transcends childlike wonder when she's just experiencing space and these 1529 01:26:42,400 --> 01:26:46,759 Speaker 1: other galaxies. It's beautiful, and she has that incredible choked line. 1530 01:26:46,960 --> 01:26:51,880 Speaker 1: You know, no words should have sent a poet one 1531 01:26:51,880 --> 01:26:54,080 Speaker 1: of our favorite lines from this movie, right, Yeah. I 1532 01:26:54,120 --> 01:26:56,880 Speaker 1: love that line, and I was trying to find where 1533 01:26:56,880 --> 01:26:59,599 Speaker 1: it may have actually come. I don't think that it did. 1534 01:26:59,600 --> 01:27:02,080 Speaker 1: There's a message board thread with a couple of different things. 1535 01:27:02,120 --> 01:27:05,360 Speaker 1: You know, Walter Cronkite may have said it at one point, 1536 01:27:05,520 --> 01:27:08,640 Speaker 1: referring to the first manned space flights. He said, uh, 1537 01:27:08,880 --> 01:27:12,120 Speaker 1: those of us on Earth wondered how it looked the poets. 1538 01:27:12,280 --> 01:27:16,160 Speaker 1: I there's a book by Nancy Friedman called Joshua, Son 1539 01:27:16,200 --> 01:27:18,719 Speaker 1: of None, which is a sci fi novel from Entree 1540 01:27:18,840 --> 01:27:22,000 Speaker 1: with a contains the line of dialogue astronaut. That kind 1541 01:27:22,040 --> 01:27:24,920 Speaker 1: of job, astronaut is for the technician type without the 1542 01:27:24,960 --> 01:27:28,760 Speaker 1: imagination to be scared. Another character replies, you're wrong. What 1543 01:27:28,920 --> 01:27:32,760 Speaker 1: better place for a poet than space? Uh. There's a 1544 01:27:32,800 --> 01:27:36,559 Speaker 1: short story called a Rose for Ecclesiastes from nineteen sixty 1545 01:27:36,600 --> 01:27:41,200 Speaker 1: three by Rogers Lasnie where they send a poet to Mars. Oh, 1546 01:27:41,320 --> 01:27:46,760 Speaker 1: here's one. Here's an unattributed claim for Um. Sergei kora Leev, 1547 01:27:46,880 --> 01:27:49,439 Speaker 1: who is the chief designer and scientists behind the Soviet 1548 01:27:49,600 --> 01:27:53,639 Speaker 1: space race, once remarked they should have sent a poet 1549 01:27:53,760 --> 01:27:57,200 Speaker 1: and not a pilot. So I don't know. I could 1550 01:27:57,200 --> 01:28:00,479 Speaker 1: see Carl Sagan wanting to bridge the space race, you know, 1551 01:28:00,560 --> 01:28:07,240 Speaker 1: American Russians, but incorporating that quote. That's interesting. Well, folks, 1552 01:28:07,240 --> 01:28:09,479 Speaker 1: if you can pin down the exact origin in that phrase, 1553 01:28:09,760 --> 01:28:15,640 Speaker 1: we'll send you five bucks. There's I just want to 1554 01:28:15,760 --> 01:28:19,160 Speaker 1: end with um, a line that Karl Sagan said at 1555 01:28:19,200 --> 01:28:22,000 Speaker 1: one point said sometimes to me, I feel like this 1556 01:28:23,320 --> 01:28:29,080 Speaker 1: sums up the generous, imaginative spirit of the right kind 1557 01:28:29,080 --> 01:28:34,320 Speaker 1: of scientist. He said, science is sometimes attacked for supposed arrogance, 1558 01:28:34,640 --> 01:28:37,280 Speaker 1: but I think it's the most humble occupation and discipline 1559 01:28:37,280 --> 01:28:41,120 Speaker 1: around because instead of trying to impose our preconceptions on 1560 01:28:41,160 --> 01:28:44,240 Speaker 1: the universe, we are open for the universe to see 1561 01:28:44,320 --> 01:28:49,160 Speaker 1: what the universe has to offer. Go outside and look 1562 01:28:49,240 --> 01:28:52,800 Speaker 1: up at space tonight. Yeah, everyone should just do that, 1563 01:28:53,600 --> 01:28:57,920 Speaker 1: and uh, you know, use that to try and fight 1564 01:28:58,000 --> 01:29:01,719 Speaker 1: the miserable pool towards our that the rest of your work, 1565 01:29:01,880 --> 01:29:06,040 Speaker 1: the rest of your work week will impose upon you. Yeah. 1566 01:29:06,120 --> 01:29:10,280 Speaker 1: I don't know. This is an uncharacteristically sincere episode from US. 1567 01:29:10,280 --> 01:29:12,680 Speaker 1: I have nothing snark you to offer. And when you 1568 01:29:12,680 --> 01:29:15,280 Speaker 1: do come back inside, watch this movie again. It holds 1569 01:29:15,400 --> 01:29:19,839 Speaker 1: up man. Yeah, well, folks, thank you for listening. As always, 1570 01:29:19,960 --> 01:29:22,800 Speaker 1: this has been too much information. I'm Alex Hegel and 1571 01:29:22,800 --> 01:29:30,040 Speaker 1: I'm Jordan run Talk. We'll catch you next time. Too 1572 01:29:30,120 --> 01:29:32,720 Speaker 1: Much Information was a production of I Heart Radio. The 1573 01:29:32,760 --> 01:29:35,880 Speaker 1: show's executive producers are Noel Brown and Jordan run Talk. 1574 01:29:36,040 --> 01:29:39,280 Speaker 1: The supervising producer is Mike John's. The show was researched, 1575 01:29:39,400 --> 01:29:42,080 Speaker 1: written and hosted by Jordan run Talk and Alex Hegel, 1576 01:29:42,400 --> 01:29:45,519 Speaker 1: with original music by Seth Applebaum and the Ghost Funk Orchestra. 1577 01:29:46,000 --> 01:29:48,040 Speaker 1: If you like what you heard, please subscribe and leave 1578 01:29:48,120 --> 01:29:50,639 Speaker 1: us a review. For more podcasts and I heart Radio, 1579 01:29:50,760 --> 01:29:53,759 Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever 1580 01:29:53,840 --> 01:30:02,840 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. Wes Bendenton, at Last, 1581 01:30:02,960 --> 01:30:04,640 Speaker 1: Baston and