1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:08,119 Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind. This is Rob Lamba. 2 00:00:08,160 --> 00:00:10,719 Speaker 1: Today we have one for you that originally published four 3 00:00:10,960 --> 00:00:14,320 Speaker 1: to twenty twenty one. We're going to be talking about 4 00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:19,920 Speaker 1: the nineteen eighty nine Japanese sci fi film Gunhead. This's 5 00:00:19,920 --> 00:00:22,600 Speaker 1: a lot of fun. You get into some nice cyberpunk 6 00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:25,599 Speaker 1: territory with this one. So let's dive right in. 7 00:00:29,400 --> 00:00:35,120 Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 8 00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:42,320 Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. 9 00:00:42,840 --> 00:00:45,720 Speaker 3: And I'm Joe McCormick and it's Mech Day on Weird 10 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:48,839 Speaker 3: House Cinema. Rob. Is this our first No, wait what 11 00:00:48,880 --> 00:00:50,680 Speaker 3: am I asking? I was gonna say, is this our 12 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:54,440 Speaker 3: first full on mech movie? But we did Robot Jocks 13 00:00:54,240 --> 00:00:55,680 Speaker 3: that's like an all time fave. 14 00:00:56,480 --> 00:00:59,320 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, this is coming. This would be our second 15 00:00:59,600 --> 00:01:05,560 Speaker 1: mech film. It's going to be what our second Japanese film, 16 00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:10,160 Speaker 1: And in a very broad sense, I guess it's like 17 00:01:10,200 --> 00:01:12,240 Speaker 1: what our second cyberpunk film. 18 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:14,479 Speaker 3: I guess it depends on what you count as cyberpunk. 19 00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:16,880 Speaker 3: So today we're going to be looking at the nineteen 20 00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:22,319 Speaker 3: eighty nine Japanese cyberpunk movie gun head aka gun Hato 21 00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:25,600 Speaker 3: and gun head. I know what you're thinking. Is that 22 00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:26,479 Speaker 3: spelled right? 23 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:26,720 Speaker 1: No? 24 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:30,319 Speaker 3: It is spelled with an hed instead of an hga 25 00:01:30,440 --> 00:01:33,080 Speaker 3: D like that. Isn't there a band that's called like 26 00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:36,520 Speaker 3: head p or something. I don't know anything about that band. 27 00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:38,240 Speaker 3: I remember them from when I was in high school 28 00:01:38,520 --> 00:01:42,960 Speaker 3: and they also spell it AGD. No comment, There nothing 29 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:44,080 Speaker 3: interesting about that. 30 00:01:44,600 --> 00:01:47,360 Speaker 1: I have nothing to add on that. I don't know 31 00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:50,680 Speaker 1: anything about p head though Gunhead with the AGD spelling 32 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:52,120 Speaker 1: would be a great name for a band. 33 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:54,560 Speaker 3: It would be. Actually, I was just thinking that. Not 34 00:01:54,640 --> 00:01:57,640 Speaker 3: only that, the logo for the movie, where the title 35 00:01:57,720 --> 00:02:00,680 Speaker 3: is rendered in the full on screen fall looks like 36 00:02:00,720 --> 00:02:02,880 Speaker 3: a band logo. It looks like the Van Halen logo 37 00:02:03,040 --> 00:02:03,440 Speaker 3: or something. 38 00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:06,120 Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, some of you might be wondering, especially if 39 00:02:06,120 --> 00:02:08,920 Speaker 1: you're going to this episode's sight unseen? Is this about 40 00:02:09,200 --> 00:02:12,240 Speaker 1: a This is a Japanese cyberpunk film about a guy 41 00:02:12,280 --> 00:02:15,359 Speaker 1: with a gun for a head. No, even though that 42 00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:20,160 Speaker 1: would be a perfect perfect plot device for a Japanese 43 00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:21,079 Speaker 1: cyberpunk film. 44 00:02:21,320 --> 00:02:24,280 Speaker 3: Sure, like a guy who gets some kind of virus 45 00:02:24,320 --> 00:02:27,120 Speaker 3: inside him that causes his head to fuse with a gun, 46 00:02:27,320 --> 00:02:30,320 Speaker 3: and it's all about like his identity changing as his 47 00:02:30,480 --> 00:02:32,400 Speaker 3: mind is taken over by the gun mind. 48 00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:36,359 Speaker 1: Yeah, that would that would be totally an expected plot device. 49 00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:40,680 Speaker 1: In fact, it may exist. But no, gunhead stands for something. 50 00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:43,680 Speaker 3: That's right, it's your classic acronym. This stands for rob. 51 00:02:43,760 --> 00:02:45,520 Speaker 3: You dug this up, so I have to trust you 52 00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:47,920 Speaker 3: on this one, but I think you're correct. It stands 53 00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:51,720 Speaker 3: for gun unit of heavy eliminate device. 54 00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:54,320 Speaker 1: Yeah. It's one of one of those kind of cheap 55 00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:58,239 Speaker 1: acronyms where they they get two letters from the second word, 56 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:01,200 Speaker 1: So if we were being really strict about it, it 57 00:03:01,240 --> 00:03:04,680 Speaker 1: would be goohead instead of gunhead. But you know, gunhead 58 00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:05,320 Speaker 1: sounds cooler. 59 00:03:05,639 --> 00:03:08,680 Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, it's like those government bills that are called 60 00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:12,359 Speaker 3: like the Opportunity Act or something. An opportunity is an acronym, 61 00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:14,920 Speaker 3: and they're grabbing three letters from here and one letter 62 00:03:14,960 --> 00:03:17,000 Speaker 3: from there in the middle of a word. It's just 63 00:03:17,080 --> 00:03:21,200 Speaker 3: all over the place. They're back engineering the actual name 64 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:22,280 Speaker 3: from the acronym. 65 00:03:22,440 --> 00:03:26,280 Speaker 1: So again, this is a nineteen eighty nine film, And 66 00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:28,440 Speaker 1: for those of you out there who you know follow 67 00:03:29,160 --> 00:03:31,600 Speaker 1: like Japanese media, maybe a little bit enough to just 68 00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:34,000 Speaker 1: know to have picked up on the title at times. 69 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:36,920 Speaker 1: You may have noticed that there is a manga. There 70 00:03:36,960 --> 00:03:39,880 Speaker 1: are two different video games, nineteen eighty nine's gun Head 71 00:03:39,880 --> 00:03:43,520 Speaker 1: for PC and Gunhead The New Battle for NES. It 72 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:45,760 Speaker 1: might make you wonder, like what came first? Is this 73 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:47,720 Speaker 1: a movie based on a video game? Is it a 74 00:03:47,720 --> 00:03:51,200 Speaker 1: movie based on a manga, which is certainly something you 75 00:03:51,240 --> 00:03:53,960 Speaker 1: see a lot of these days. But no, this film 76 00:03:54,440 --> 00:03:57,160 Speaker 1: is original IP and these are all things that were 77 00:03:57,200 --> 00:03:58,080 Speaker 1: adapted from it. 78 00:03:58,440 --> 00:04:01,000 Speaker 3: God, I love a sci fi movie that's original IP. 79 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:03,000 Speaker 3: It's a beautiful unicorn. 80 00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:07,440 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean is this yeah? Especially today? But yeah, 81 00:04:07,440 --> 00:04:11,280 Speaker 1: this was this was This was an original IP and Joe. 82 00:04:11,360 --> 00:04:14,480 Speaker 1: You even found us some screenshots from these games. 83 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:17,240 Speaker 3: Oh, that's right. So I found that. I don't know 84 00:04:17,279 --> 00:04:20,400 Speaker 3: if it was ever released for the Nees in the 85 00:04:20,480 --> 00:04:23,240 Speaker 3: United States or internationally, but it was released for the 86 00:04:23,279 --> 00:04:26,480 Speaker 3: Famicom in Japan, I think, which was the I believe 87 00:04:26,520 --> 00:04:28,200 Speaker 3: the Japanese equivalent of The Nees. 88 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:31,000 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's my rough understanding. I'm not really an expert 89 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:32,400 Speaker 1: on that kind of stuff. 90 00:04:32,200 --> 00:04:34,120 Speaker 3: But at least the version I found is a Famicom 91 00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:37,280 Speaker 3: game called Gunhead. I guess this was Gunhead the New 92 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:39,840 Speaker 3: Battle or something, but it looks like it is a 93 00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:45,000 Speaker 3: combination of like a real time or turn based strategy 94 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:48,520 Speaker 3: game where you would be like managing Gunhead units, which 95 00:04:48,520 --> 00:04:51,880 Speaker 3: are these big battle robots as they move around into 96 00:04:51,880 --> 00:04:54,599 Speaker 3: positions on an island. So you know, it'd be like 97 00:04:54,720 --> 00:04:57,480 Speaker 3: Warcraft or StarCraft or something. There's a map in you're 98 00:04:57,480 --> 00:05:00,560 Speaker 3: managing units, and then I think when the unit it's meat, 99 00:05:00,640 --> 00:05:02,880 Speaker 3: it goes into a different type of gameplay where it's 100 00:05:02,920 --> 00:05:06,680 Speaker 3: like a side view real time battle where you're shooting 101 00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:07,760 Speaker 3: at each other and stuff. 102 00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:10,560 Speaker 1: Yeah, with some kind of amusing looking sprites. 103 00:05:10,600 --> 00:05:12,760 Speaker 3: I like these now, based on what I saw within 104 00:05:12,839 --> 00:05:15,840 Speaker 3: the game, this would not be based within the same 105 00:05:15,880 --> 00:05:17,960 Speaker 3: timeline as the movie itself. It looks like this would 106 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:20,760 Speaker 3: be the prequel to the movie. I think this would 107 00:05:20,760 --> 00:05:24,839 Speaker 3: take place during the Robot War that is the background 108 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:27,400 Speaker 3: we're told about in the opening text crawl of the movie. 109 00:05:27,800 --> 00:05:31,080 Speaker 3: Though I also read on the internet that the Gunhead 110 00:05:31,279 --> 00:05:33,160 Speaker 3: I don't know that this is true because I really 111 00:05:33,200 --> 00:05:35,680 Speaker 3: don't see much resemblance here, but I at least read 112 00:05:35,680 --> 00:05:39,520 Speaker 3: the claim that there is a turbographic sixteen game called 113 00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:43,480 Speaker 3: Blazing Lasers that was also inspired by Gunhead. I looked 114 00:05:43,480 --> 00:05:46,520 Speaker 3: it up. It's one of these vertical scrolling space shoot 115 00:05:46,560 --> 00:05:48,880 Speaker 3: them up games. I guess, kind of like Space Invaders, 116 00:05:48,880 --> 00:05:52,240 Speaker 3: but where you're like moving quickly down across a background. 117 00:05:52,480 --> 00:05:56,000 Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm glancing at footage from it now, and yeah, 118 00:05:56,480 --> 00:05:59,560 Speaker 1: I don't see a lot of shared DNA, but maybe 119 00:05:59,560 --> 00:05:59,920 Speaker 1: that's just. 120 00:06:01,320 --> 00:06:03,039 Speaker 3: I never had this game, but I did have a 121 00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:06,400 Speaker 3: Turbographic sixteen. I had one of those weird off brand 122 00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:10,480 Speaker 3: consoles that I remember playing games like Bonk's Adventure, which 123 00:06:10,600 --> 00:06:13,640 Speaker 3: was a game where you play a think a baby 124 00:06:13,800 --> 00:06:16,479 Speaker 3: caveman with a giant head and you would hit people 125 00:06:16,520 --> 00:06:17,119 Speaker 3: with your head. 126 00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:20,920 Speaker 1: So this is a system that didn't have Mario, didn't 127 00:06:20,960 --> 00:06:23,680 Speaker 1: have Sonic, but it had Bonk the Baby Caveman. 128 00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:27,000 Speaker 3: It had Bonk and perhaps dubious gunhead ripoff ip. 129 00:06:27,520 --> 00:06:27,880 Speaker 1: Okay. 130 00:06:28,720 --> 00:06:30,720 Speaker 3: I was trying to write the one line elevator pitch 131 00:06:30,720 --> 00:06:32,359 Speaker 3: for this movie, and I was just failing. So that 132 00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:35,480 Speaker 3: must be reflected in my actual pitch, which is, in 133 00:06:35,520 --> 00:06:39,000 Speaker 3: the future armored mechs will be so advanced that humans 134 00:06:39,040 --> 00:06:41,919 Speaker 3: do not have the slightest chance to understand what they're doing. 135 00:06:42,839 --> 00:06:46,800 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, this, I have to add the caveat here. 136 00:06:46,839 --> 00:06:51,279 Speaker 1: So first of all, I'm not the initial intended audience 137 00:06:51,279 --> 00:06:54,359 Speaker 1: for this. You know, this was released largely in Japan 138 00:06:54,600 --> 00:06:59,360 Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty nine, and the version I watched, obviously 139 00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:02,279 Speaker 1: I'm watching it for the first time, you know, sometime later, 140 00:07:02,360 --> 00:07:05,520 Speaker 1: decades later, I'm watching it dubbed. And of course anytime 141 00:07:05,560 --> 00:07:08,200 Speaker 1: something has been dubbed, there are some great dubs out there, 142 00:07:08,240 --> 00:07:10,240 Speaker 1: there are some not so great dubs out there. So 143 00:07:10,320 --> 00:07:14,120 Speaker 1: it's possible that that contributed to me maybe not understanding 144 00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:17,480 Speaker 1: what was going on in the film most of the time. 145 00:07:18,600 --> 00:07:22,480 Speaker 1: So I found myself watching the film while also checking 146 00:07:22,560 --> 00:07:26,160 Speaker 1: regularly checking in on the Wikipedia plot summary for the film, 147 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:30,320 Speaker 1: which didn't really This didn't make the film like a 148 00:07:30,360 --> 00:07:33,200 Speaker 1: poor movie vig going experience. It just kind of made 149 00:07:33,200 --> 00:07:36,520 Speaker 1: it more It's like reading reading a historical text, where 150 00:07:36,520 --> 00:07:39,640 Speaker 1: you need to keep checking in to see what's being discussed, like, 151 00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:41,480 Speaker 1: all right, what are they talking about here? What's supposed 152 00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:44,880 Speaker 1: to be going on here? Because if I just had 153 00:07:44,880 --> 00:07:47,600 Speaker 1: to go on the movie itself, I would have been 154 00:07:47,680 --> 00:07:48,800 Speaker 1: lost very quickly. 155 00:07:49,240 --> 00:07:52,120 Speaker 3: I would argue that this was only really a problem 156 00:07:52,160 --> 00:07:55,120 Speaker 3: for us because we're having to record a podcast about it. 157 00:07:55,800 --> 00:07:57,640 Speaker 3: I think if I had just been watching this movie, 158 00:07:57,680 --> 00:07:59,840 Speaker 3: I would not have looked up anything. I would not 159 00:08:00,160 --> 00:08:02,680 Speaker 3: understood a lot of what was happening on screen, and 160 00:08:02,840 --> 00:08:06,560 Speaker 3: I would have loved the experience. Nevertheless, this is a goot. 161 00:08:06,640 --> 00:08:09,480 Speaker 1: Like, in terms of just recommending this movie, I highly 162 00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:13,120 Speaker 1: recommend this movie to play in the background with other 163 00:08:13,240 --> 00:08:15,840 Speaker 1: music on top of it. Like, as we'll get into, 164 00:08:15,880 --> 00:08:18,440 Speaker 1: the visuals in this are wonderful. The visual world of 165 00:08:18,480 --> 00:08:22,760 Speaker 1: this movie is very rich. But yeah, if you're watching 166 00:08:22,800 --> 00:08:26,760 Speaker 1: it for a podcast intending to speak coherently about what 167 00:08:26,920 --> 00:08:30,360 Speaker 1: happened in it, that's where our cross referencing comes in. 168 00:08:30,640 --> 00:08:32,760 Speaker 3: Actually, when I was reading about this movie before we 169 00:08:33,160 --> 00:08:36,600 Speaker 3: decided to watch it, one of the most common things 170 00:08:36,640 --> 00:08:39,160 Speaker 3: I saw in like user reviews all over the internet 171 00:08:39,160 --> 00:08:41,640 Speaker 3: and stuff was I don't know what happened in this movie, 172 00:08:41,640 --> 00:08:42,400 Speaker 3: but I loved it. 173 00:08:42,760 --> 00:08:44,000 Speaker 1: Yeah. 174 00:08:44,080 --> 00:08:56,080 Speaker 3: Anyway, let's hit some trailer audio. 175 00:08:57,480 --> 00:09:09,600 Speaker 1: My god, look at this junk. Give it up, Brooklyn. 176 00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:15,000 Speaker 1: All the ten seconds to contact. 177 00:09:14,080 --> 00:09:16,000 Speaker 3: Of the two Marcus cross fire. 178 00:09:23,160 --> 00:09:26,960 Speaker 1: Gun head. 179 00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:31,800 Speaker 3: Now in the English language trailer. I don't know if 180 00:09:31,800 --> 00:09:33,760 Speaker 3: this is the part we just got clipped, but one 181 00:09:33,800 --> 00:09:36,199 Speaker 3: of my favorite things about it was that it was 182 00:09:36,360 --> 00:09:39,040 Speaker 3: it had the announcer, you know, the same guy who 183 00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:44,280 Speaker 3: does the inner World part also reading quotes about the 184 00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:48,079 Speaker 3: movie from critics. So it's this Duke newcom voiceover saying 185 00:09:48,120 --> 00:09:50,680 Speaker 3: things like totally delivers the goods. 186 00:09:51,559 --> 00:09:54,080 Speaker 1: Yeah, though I have to say it did sound like 187 00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:57,200 Speaker 1: like a third rate in a world narrator, you know, 188 00:09:57,440 --> 00:10:00,000 Speaker 1: like it's not the narrator who does the big cinematic trailers. 189 00:10:00,320 --> 00:10:04,520 Speaker 1: This is the narrator type of narrator that does trailers 190 00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:07,600 Speaker 1: that you watch on other DVDs that come out in 191 00:10:07,640 --> 00:10:08,800 Speaker 1: the mid nineties. 192 00:10:08,800 --> 00:10:11,880 Speaker 3: Right, yes, yes, well, actually no, I stand by my 193 00:10:11,920 --> 00:10:14,520 Speaker 3: original comparison. He sounds like Duke Nukem. I don't know 194 00:10:14,520 --> 00:10:17,040 Speaker 3: who did that voice, but that was very close for me. 195 00:10:17,559 --> 00:10:21,720 Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, let's start where we normally start. Let's talk 196 00:10:21,760 --> 00:10:24,760 Speaker 1: about the people of note the connections here. The first 197 00:10:24,760 --> 00:10:28,120 Speaker 1: connection to make here though, is not really you know, 198 00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:30,960 Speaker 1: individual human specific. It has to do with the production 199 00:10:31,040 --> 00:10:35,600 Speaker 1: company because this was a co production between Nippon Sunrise 200 00:10:35,720 --> 00:10:37,040 Speaker 1: as well as a number of a number of other 201 00:10:37,080 --> 00:10:39,760 Speaker 1: companies like Bandai, the toy company was involved. 202 00:10:39,800 --> 00:10:42,120 Speaker 3: There were like seven companies listed yeah on the. 203 00:10:42,240 --> 00:10:45,400 Speaker 1: Yeah, but the big one, the one that instantly gets 204 00:10:45,400 --> 00:10:49,599 Speaker 1: our attention, is of course Toho. The best yeah, legendary 205 00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:56,240 Speaker 1: film studio, most famous, I guess for many listeners for Godzilla, 206 00:10:56,679 --> 00:10:59,400 Speaker 1: but also for various other films, such as especially the 207 00:10:59,400 --> 00:11:03,000 Speaker 1: early films of Kira Kurosawa. But it was founded in 208 00:11:03,080 --> 00:11:08,640 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty two as the Tokyo Takarzuka Theater Company. It 209 00:11:08,679 --> 00:11:12,959 Speaker 1: controlled traditional theaters throughout Tokyo, and as films began coming 210 00:11:12,960 --> 00:11:15,679 Speaker 1: in from overseas, they got in on the production as well. 211 00:11:16,400 --> 00:11:20,200 Speaker 3: Every time I see the Toho logo at the beginning 212 00:11:20,200 --> 00:11:23,120 Speaker 3: of the movie, I have a Pavlovian reaction to it 213 00:11:23,200 --> 00:11:26,080 Speaker 3: because I know I'm about to watch something I adore. 214 00:11:26,360 --> 00:11:28,720 Speaker 3: I know Toho must put out bad movies too, but 215 00:11:28,760 --> 00:11:30,880 Speaker 3: I guess somehow the bad ones just never make it 216 00:11:30,920 --> 00:11:35,000 Speaker 3: to me in my personal brain archives. It's either going 217 00:11:35,080 --> 00:11:37,920 Speaker 3: to be like a lovely Kaiju Meet Slam or a 218 00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:41,680 Speaker 3: Kurosawa masterpiece, or something else of godly merit. 219 00:11:42,160 --> 00:11:45,240 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, if you're not like a regular consumer of 220 00:11:45,400 --> 00:11:48,640 Speaker 1: Japanese cinema, then you've seen a Toho film. It's probably 221 00:11:48,679 --> 00:11:52,080 Speaker 1: a Godzilla film or a Kurosawa film, and in different 222 00:11:52,080 --> 00:11:56,079 Speaker 1: ways the great results. So anyway, like I was saying, 223 00:11:56,120 --> 00:11:59,280 Speaker 1: they started out as being just a theater company, but 224 00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:01,880 Speaker 1: then they got in to producing films as well. Their 225 00:12:01,920 --> 00:12:06,120 Speaker 1: first film was nineteen thirty five's Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts. 226 00:12:06,160 --> 00:12:09,840 Speaker 1: This was a drama, and apparently drama and historical pictures 227 00:12:09,840 --> 00:12:13,000 Speaker 1: pretty much defined the first couple of decades of Toho films, 228 00:12:13,480 --> 00:12:17,880 Speaker 1: which included the early films of legendary director at Kira Krrosawa. Now, 229 00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:21,120 Speaker 1: during the post war period, specifically in nineteen fifty four, 230 00:12:21,480 --> 00:12:25,240 Speaker 1: things got really interesting, so the company nearly bankrupt itself, 231 00:12:25,280 --> 00:12:30,280 Speaker 1: putting out first Karisawa's latest historical film and a giant 232 00:12:30,400 --> 00:12:35,000 Speaker 1: monster movie. These were, respectively, the Seven Samurai and Godzilla 233 00:12:35,120 --> 00:12:38,560 Speaker 1: films that would become major box office successes and lead 234 00:12:38,600 --> 00:12:41,400 Speaker 1: to a string of hits from both Karrosawa and The 235 00:12:41,480 --> 00:12:42,439 Speaker 1: King of Monsters. 236 00:12:42,760 --> 00:12:46,480 Speaker 3: Can you believe that Seven Samurai and Godzilla came out 237 00:12:46,520 --> 00:12:49,400 Speaker 3: in the same year from the same company. I mean, 238 00:12:49,400 --> 00:12:50,560 Speaker 3: that is a good year. 239 00:12:51,120 --> 00:12:54,320 Speaker 1: Yeah, and they were taking a risk doing it. Yeah. 240 00:12:54,360 --> 00:12:57,760 Speaker 1: So Godzilla was to Ho's first sci fi or horror film, 241 00:12:57,880 --> 00:12:59,880 Speaker 1: depending on how you look at it. We were discussing 242 00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:02,440 Speaker 1: this off mic beforehand about just how dark that first 243 00:13:02,480 --> 00:13:03,440 Speaker 1: Godzilla film is. 244 00:13:03,679 --> 00:13:06,040 Speaker 3: Yeah, if, in fact, if you've never watched it, you 245 00:13:06,040 --> 00:13:08,840 Speaker 3: should definitely go back and watch the original fifty four 246 00:13:09,440 --> 00:13:14,240 Speaker 3: Godzilla because it is it is very unlike the silly 247 00:13:14,559 --> 00:13:18,280 Speaker 3: monster romps that would come in decades following, Like the 248 00:13:18,280 --> 00:13:23,440 Speaker 3: first Godzilla movie is a dark, bleak, scary adventure. 249 00:13:23,880 --> 00:13:27,319 Speaker 1: Yeah, but it was a monster movie. It was a success. 250 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:31,160 Speaker 1: So after this, Toho continued to bust out stuff. In fact, 251 00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:35,360 Speaker 1: that very same year they busted out Invisible Man in 252 00:13:35,400 --> 00:13:38,040 Speaker 1: fifty four, and then Godzilla was back in fifty five 253 00:13:38,120 --> 00:13:40,679 Speaker 1: for the first of just endless sequels. Like even as 254 00:13:40,679 --> 00:13:44,800 Speaker 1: we're recording this, Godzilla is debuting in a new motion picture, 255 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:49,040 Speaker 1: so he absolutely cannot be stopped, and he gets bigger 256 00:13:49,160 --> 00:13:49,680 Speaker 1: every time. 257 00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:52,120 Speaker 3: If you've never heard me advocate it before. One of 258 00:13:52,160 --> 00:13:55,760 Speaker 3: the recent movies I have loved the most is shin Godzilla. 259 00:13:55,880 --> 00:13:59,319 Speaker 3: One of it. It's not part of the recent I 260 00:13:59,320 --> 00:14:01,880 Speaker 3: don't know what you'd like, the American partnership or the 261 00:14:01,880 --> 00:14:05,319 Speaker 3: international Godzilla pictures that have lots of American actors and 262 00:14:05,360 --> 00:14:07,679 Speaker 3: stuff in them. This was a Japanese production. I think 263 00:14:07,679 --> 00:14:10,199 Speaker 3: it came out in like twenty fifteen or sixteen something 264 00:14:10,320 --> 00:14:13,800 Speaker 3: like that. Does that sound right? Yeah, it just just magical. 265 00:14:13,960 --> 00:14:18,280 Speaker 3: It's a movie that is surprisingly focused on government bureaucracy 266 00:14:19,160 --> 00:14:22,240 Speaker 3: in a strangely compelling way. And it's got great music, 267 00:14:22,280 --> 00:14:24,040 Speaker 3: great monster effects. I just love it. 268 00:14:24,560 --> 00:14:27,320 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so absorbing. I remember I watched it in 269 00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:32,000 Speaker 1: its entirety in mute with subtitles on an airplane once. 270 00:14:32,040 --> 00:14:33,200 Speaker 1: It was one of those where I was listening to 271 00:14:33,320 --> 00:14:36,400 Speaker 1: music and I was like, Ah, another Godzilla movie. Let 272 00:14:36,400 --> 00:14:38,160 Speaker 1: me give it a preview. I'm just curious. And then 273 00:14:38,200 --> 00:14:40,520 Speaker 1: I started watching it and just watched the whole thing 274 00:14:40,960 --> 00:14:41,600 Speaker 1: just sucks you in. 275 00:14:41,840 --> 00:14:44,000 Speaker 3: Have you still not seen it with the original soundtrack? 276 00:14:44,360 --> 00:14:46,280 Speaker 1: No, I haven't. I have no idea what it sounds like. 277 00:14:46,440 --> 00:14:48,800 Speaker 3: Oh oh, oh, you've got rob I think you would 278 00:14:48,840 --> 00:14:52,080 Speaker 3: love the soundtrack to it. It's got fantastic music, a 279 00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:57,480 Speaker 3: great kind of nervous string theme. It's just wonderful, I 280 00:14:57,560 --> 00:14:59,800 Speaker 3: guess I should say. By the way, directed by hidiaki 281 00:14:59,840 --> 00:15:02,240 Speaker 3: On and Shinji Higuchi, cool. 282 00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:04,080 Speaker 1: Yeah. I need to come back to it for sure, 283 00:15:05,240 --> 00:15:08,400 Speaker 1: real quick. About some other Toho films of note, One 284 00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:10,200 Speaker 1: of my favorites that we may have to come back 285 00:15:10,240 --> 00:15:13,120 Speaker 1: to in weird El Cinema is nineteen sixty three's Matango, 286 00:15:13,280 --> 00:15:17,360 Speaker 1: which is about a haunted island of mushroom people. It's 287 00:15:17,520 --> 00:15:21,880 Speaker 1: really kind of grizzly with people being infected by spores 288 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:25,720 Speaker 1: and slowly mutating in the mushroom people. It's pretty horrific stuff. 289 00:15:25,880 --> 00:15:27,280 Speaker 3: Oh, that's definitely on the list. 290 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:30,080 Speaker 1: And then of course one that I know has we 291 00:15:30,480 --> 00:15:32,520 Speaker 1: have on the list already and we've actually heard from 292 00:15:32,520 --> 00:15:35,240 Speaker 1: some listeners about Toho also put out the nineteen seventy 293 00:15:35,320 --> 00:15:36,840 Speaker 1: seven Film House. 294 00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:39,440 Speaker 3: Best Haunted House film of all time. 295 00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:43,480 Speaker 1: Now, speaking of Bandai, yes, there have been and our 296 00:15:43,640 --> 00:15:48,640 Speaker 1: models and toys of Gunhead, which is the central robot 297 00:15:48,760 --> 00:15:53,080 Speaker 1: Slash Max Slash tank in this film. And you know, 298 00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:55,840 Speaker 1: I'm assuming they must have put some I'm really assuming 299 00:15:55,840 --> 00:15:57,440 Speaker 1: they put some sort of toy out back in the day. 300 00:15:57,480 --> 00:15:59,960 Speaker 1: I couldn't find evidence of it, but I was looking around, 301 00:16:00,240 --> 00:16:03,200 Speaker 1: and you can still get a high quality model kit 302 00:16:03,280 --> 00:16:06,280 Speaker 1: of gun Head. There's a one thirty fifth scale model 303 00:16:06,280 --> 00:16:10,680 Speaker 1: that was released in twenty twelve from Codo Bokeya and 304 00:16:10,840 --> 00:16:14,560 Speaker 1: it is a pricey kit, especially imported and out of production, 305 00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:16,880 Speaker 1: but it's said to be really fun. It's a three 306 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:21,760 Speaker 1: hundred part kit to build and it looks at Japan 307 00:16:21,800 --> 00:16:25,480 Speaker 1: has long had a very strong scale model culture, and 308 00:16:25,480 --> 00:16:28,520 Speaker 1: I've never built a kit from this company, but I 309 00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:33,240 Speaker 1: understand that they specialize in both traditional kits and also 310 00:16:33,320 --> 00:16:37,480 Speaker 1: pre painted collectible so stuff that includes major brands like 311 00:16:37,560 --> 00:16:41,760 Speaker 1: Star Wars and even things like Texas Chainsaw, Massacre and others. 312 00:16:42,160 --> 00:16:45,000 Speaker 3: I feel like this time in the late eighties here 313 00:16:45,200 --> 00:16:50,040 Speaker 3: was a really high point for toy etic movie and 314 00:16:50,080 --> 00:16:53,080 Speaker 3: TV development. Unless I'm wrong, this was also the era 315 00:16:53,160 --> 00:16:56,480 Speaker 3: of Transformers, right, which was a very much a toy 316 00:16:56,720 --> 00:16:59,480 Speaker 3: driven media property, and there were others like it. 317 00:17:00,280 --> 00:17:02,760 Speaker 1: So I can only assume a film like this a 318 00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:07,159 Speaker 1: major production, you would have had Gunhead toys back in 319 00:17:07,160 --> 00:17:09,280 Speaker 1: the day. I mean, they made video game I'm a 320 00:17:09,359 --> 00:17:10,959 Speaker 1: video game of it for crying out loud, so there 321 00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:11,879 Speaker 1: had to have been toys. 322 00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:14,439 Speaker 3: So all of the existing Gunhead games they look like 323 00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:17,360 Speaker 3: sort of high budget graphical affairs. But what if there 324 00:17:17,400 --> 00:17:20,720 Speaker 3: was a gun Head text adventure like Zork, Right, it'd 325 00:17:20,760 --> 00:17:23,119 Speaker 3: be pretty good. You say, you say go east, and 326 00:17:23,200 --> 00:17:26,080 Speaker 3: then it says you were absorbed by a biodroid. 327 00:17:27,840 --> 00:17:29,880 Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about some of the actual humans 328 00:17:29,920 --> 00:17:33,520 Speaker 1: involved in this baby. First of all, let's talk about director, 329 00:17:33,560 --> 00:17:37,560 Speaker 1: co writer Masato Herada born in nineteen forty nine. As 330 00:17:37,600 --> 00:17:40,240 Speaker 1: a director, it looks like most of his directorial credits 331 00:17:40,320 --> 00:17:43,679 Speaker 1: are for the sort of non genre drama film that 332 00:17:43,960 --> 00:17:48,600 Speaker 1: tends to be far more successful domestically in Japan, as 333 00:17:48,640 --> 00:17:51,840 Speaker 1: well as some award winning historical dramas. As an actor, 334 00:17:51,920 --> 00:17:56,080 Speaker 1: though this is fascinating. He only has two credits on IMDb, 335 00:17:56,600 --> 00:18:00,560 Speaker 1: but they're both West films that Western viewers are likely 336 00:18:00,600 --> 00:18:02,880 Speaker 1: to be familiar with, So he had a villain role 337 00:18:02,960 --> 00:18:06,159 Speaker 1: in both two thousand and threes The Last Samurai starring 338 00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:09,600 Speaker 1: Tom Cruise and two thousand and six is Fearless starring 339 00:18:09,680 --> 00:18:10,440 Speaker 1: Jet Lee. 340 00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:14,280 Speaker 3: Interesting why is that so often such a pleasing turn 341 00:18:14,440 --> 00:18:18,239 Speaker 3: when somebody who is primarily a film director later in 342 00:18:18,280 --> 00:18:22,840 Speaker 3: their careers starts taking acting roles, especially as villains. David 343 00:18:22,920 --> 00:18:25,920 Speaker 3: Cronenberg did it, Remember he plays a really creepy serial 344 00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:28,280 Speaker 3: killer in that movie Night Breed, and he's had some 345 00:18:28,359 --> 00:18:33,520 Speaker 3: other acting roles. Of course, Werner hertzog right, for some reason, 346 00:18:33,640 --> 00:18:35,280 Speaker 3: later in his career, I was like, yeah, I'll play 347 00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:35,880 Speaker 3: some villains. 348 00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:39,200 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, like with Cronenberg for example, and Grant. 349 00:18:39,640 --> 00:18:44,480 Speaker 1: He's a much older director at this stage. He's been 350 00:18:44,520 --> 00:18:47,760 Speaker 1: far more active as an actor recently than a director. 351 00:18:48,119 --> 00:18:49,640 Speaker 1: He's even shown up on one of the new Star 352 00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:50,440 Speaker 1: Trek shows. 353 00:18:50,680 --> 00:18:53,359 Speaker 3: Oh I didn't know that, but I wondered if you 354 00:18:53,440 --> 00:18:55,880 Speaker 3: noticed this, Rob. When I was watching the opening credits 355 00:18:55,920 --> 00:18:59,879 Speaker 3: to Gunhead, the director was listed as Alan Smithy. Do 356 00:18:59,880 --> 00:19:02,280 Speaker 3: you know anything about what the story is here? 357 00:19:02,680 --> 00:19:05,520 Speaker 1: I do not. Of course, that tends to mean that 358 00:19:05,560 --> 00:19:08,880 Speaker 1: there was something bad happened, he got out of control. 359 00:19:09,080 --> 00:19:13,399 Speaker 3: Yeah, Alan Smithy Films. I'm not an expert on the industry. 360 00:19:13,480 --> 00:19:17,040 Speaker 3: My understanding is that happens when the director has gotten 361 00:19:17,080 --> 00:19:19,840 Speaker 3: their name removed from the film, or when the production 362 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:22,520 Speaker 3: company wanted their name remove. I mean, I guess it 363 00:19:22,840 --> 00:19:25,600 Speaker 3: indicates some kind of dissatisfaction or dispute. 364 00:19:26,400 --> 00:19:28,920 Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. Maybe at least it didn't say 365 00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:32,840 Speaker 1: directed by Chiron five and you know, something went really bad, right, 366 00:19:34,080 --> 00:19:37,120 Speaker 1: But yeah, I don't know the full story on that. Now. 367 00:19:37,160 --> 00:19:41,280 Speaker 1: Another interesting thing about this film that pops up is 368 00:19:41,320 --> 00:19:44,119 Speaker 1: when you look at the at the writing credits. Again, 369 00:19:44,280 --> 00:19:47,600 Speaker 1: Herata also has a co writing credit, But then there's 370 00:19:47,600 --> 00:19:51,119 Speaker 1: this guy James Bannon on there credited as co writer 371 00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:52,960 Speaker 1: and he's written a couple of other things. But when 372 00:19:52,960 --> 00:19:54,640 Speaker 1: you look him up on IMDb, you see that he's 373 00:19:54,840 --> 00:19:57,879 Speaker 1: he's mostly involved in the industry for his work as 374 00:19:57,920 --> 00:19:59,359 Speaker 1: part of an ad R loop group. 375 00:20:00,280 --> 00:20:03,399 Speaker 3: Now, that led me to suspect that his writing credit 376 00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:06,280 Speaker 3: could have had something to do with writing English lines 377 00:20:06,440 --> 00:20:08,720 Speaker 3: or possibly writing for the English dub. 378 00:20:09,080 --> 00:20:11,600 Speaker 1: That. Yeah, and that's what I thought, Well, that sounds 379 00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:14,399 Speaker 1: sounds pretty reasonable. But then I started looking around on 380 00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:17,320 Speaker 1: IMDb more and the truth seems to be that he 381 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:22,080 Speaker 1: won a Godzilla screenplay contest hosted by Toho, and in 382 00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:25,680 Speaker 1: this original screenplay, Godzilla would fight a giant robot, and 383 00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:28,359 Speaker 1: this ended up not being used, but various elements of 384 00:20:28,440 --> 00:20:31,119 Speaker 1: his work eventually became Gunhead. 385 00:20:31,480 --> 00:20:35,359 Speaker 3: Now, I guess this would post date Godzilla versus Mecha Godzilla. 386 00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:37,400 Speaker 1: Right, yeah, yeah, so Godzilla. 387 00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:38,760 Speaker 3: Has already fought a giant robot at this point, but 388 00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:40,920 Speaker 3: I guess you can have different kinds of giant robots. 389 00:20:41,119 --> 00:20:43,200 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, Godzilla has done everything at this point, 390 00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:45,919 Speaker 1: so it's just coming up with new ways to have 391 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:47,760 Speaker 1: him do the same thing over and over again. 392 00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:51,440 Speaker 3: Well, thank you, James Bannon for whatever role your giant 393 00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:54,080 Speaker 3: robot idea played in inspiring this wonderful film. 394 00:20:54,480 --> 00:20:59,359 Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about the cast. Masahiro Takashima plays 395 00:20:59,400 --> 00:21:02,280 Speaker 1: the character Brooklyn. He was born in nineteen sixty five. 396 00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:05,480 Speaker 1: This was only his fourth acting credit, but he's had 397 00:21:05,720 --> 00:21:09,159 Speaker 1: a long career on Japanese TV and in Japanese film, 398 00:21:09,320 --> 00:21:14,080 Speaker 1: including an appearance in Godzilla Versus Destroyer in nineteen ninety five. 399 00:21:14,600 --> 00:21:16,600 Speaker 1: We'll talk more about Brooklyn as we go here, but 400 00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:21,480 Speaker 1: you know, Takashima is perfectly acceptable in this role as 401 00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:23,120 Speaker 1: the handsome hero who loves carrots. 402 00:21:23,480 --> 00:21:25,520 Speaker 3: I warmed up to him as the movie went on. 403 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:28,400 Speaker 3: There's kind of a weird introduction to him because when 404 00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:31,199 Speaker 3: we very first meet him, he's acting kind of like 405 00:21:31,359 --> 00:21:33,960 Speaker 3: nervous and quiet. He's got a scarf over his mouth 406 00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:37,240 Speaker 3: and he doesn't talk much, and I'm kind of wondering, 407 00:21:37,240 --> 00:21:38,679 Speaker 3: how is this guy going to be the hero? But 408 00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:41,040 Speaker 3: somewhere around I don't know, a third of the way 409 00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:44,040 Speaker 3: through to halfway through, he just suddenly like reveals his 410 00:21:44,240 --> 00:21:48,320 Speaker 3: very beautiful jawline and then starts delivering with confidence. I'm 411 00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:51,200 Speaker 3: not sure exactly what the transition is there, but yeah, 412 00:21:51,440 --> 00:21:52,320 Speaker 3: he works as the hero. 413 00:21:52,880 --> 00:21:56,760 Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, and then we have another major character, 414 00:21:57,280 --> 00:22:00,440 Speaker 1: and this is Texas Air ranger Sergeant nim so she 415 00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:05,639 Speaker 1: is an American or at least a Texan character. I 416 00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:07,400 Speaker 1: don't know. I don't know if if Texas is still 417 00:22:07,400 --> 00:22:09,919 Speaker 1: part of America in this future you get into. You 418 00:22:10,320 --> 00:22:13,119 Speaker 1: often get into sort of weird like splintering of the 419 00:22:13,240 --> 00:22:17,679 Speaker 1: United States and your futuristic scenarios, especially cyberpunk stuff. 420 00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:20,680 Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of Actually, this is something I've seen 421 00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:24,880 Speaker 3: pretty often in either alternate histories or future sci fi 422 00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:29,320 Speaker 3: written by people who were not themselves Americans. They often 423 00:22:29,400 --> 00:22:33,520 Speaker 3: postulate somehow that Texas has taken over North America or 424 00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:36,280 Speaker 3: that Texas is its own country. I feel like I 425 00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:38,520 Speaker 3: could think of half a dozen things off the top 426 00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:40,720 Speaker 3: of my head that have like a Texas like that. 427 00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:46,000 Speaker 1: There's a post apocalyptic board game that I enjoy called 428 00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:49,760 Speaker 1: Niroshima Hex and it's also I think an RPG brand 429 00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:51,639 Speaker 1: as well. They've kind of fleshed out the world. But 430 00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:55,159 Speaker 1: it's a Polish company if I remember correctly, But it 431 00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:58,280 Speaker 1: involves like, you know, I can't remember if Texas has 432 00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:01,879 Speaker 1: its own army, but Mississippi has its own army. New 433 00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:05,240 Speaker 1: York has its own army. So it's it's stuff like 434 00:23:05,280 --> 00:23:09,280 Speaker 1: that that, you know, maybe it's a little more giggle 435 00:23:09,320 --> 00:23:13,159 Speaker 1: inducing to American audiences, and maybe, you know, works a 436 00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:16,439 Speaker 1: little more seriously in the Polish context. Or I don't know, 437 00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:19,440 Speaker 1: maybe maybe the you know, it's Polish inventors are also 438 00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:21,239 Speaker 1: having a laugh. I don't know that there's a lot 439 00:23:21,320 --> 00:23:24,359 Speaker 1: of a lot of satire in works of this nature, 440 00:23:24,400 --> 00:23:24,800 Speaker 1: for sure. 441 00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:29,760 Speaker 3: I will say that the atmosphere in Gunhead looks sufficiently 442 00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:32,639 Speaker 3: polluted to be set in a world where Texas is 443 00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:34,119 Speaker 3: a major international player. 444 00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:39,200 Speaker 1: All right, so the character is Texas Air Rangers Sergeant Nam, 445 00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:43,480 Speaker 1: played by Brenda Baki. If she sounds familiar, that's because 446 00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:46,200 Speaker 1: she was in Tails from the Crypt Demon Knight, which 447 00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:49,520 Speaker 1: we previously discussed, though we didn't really discuss Baki enough. 448 00:23:49,560 --> 00:23:53,280 Speaker 1: I think we were too distracted by the other cast members. 449 00:23:53,560 --> 00:23:56,359 Speaker 3: Yeah, Billy Zane, Jada Pinkett, William Sadler. There are a 450 00:23:56,400 --> 00:23:58,679 Speaker 3: lot of people sucking up screen oxygen here. 451 00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:02,880 Speaker 1: Yeah, those perfectly fine. In that she played Cordelia. If 452 00:24:02,920 --> 00:24:07,200 Speaker 1: you remember, she's one of the regulars there at the 453 00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:10,480 Speaker 1: down and out hotel that used to be a church, 454 00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:14,200 Speaker 1: and she's kind of a mid film victim of Billy 455 00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:15,320 Speaker 1: Zane's demon crew. 456 00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:18,439 Speaker 3: I believe she's the one who sets Thomas Hayden Church's 457 00:24:18,520 --> 00:24:19,399 Speaker 3: nipples on fire. 458 00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:24,760 Speaker 1: Yes, with the electrodes. Yes. So yeah, yeah, she's good 459 00:24:24,760 --> 00:24:26,879 Speaker 1: in that. And I remember watching some of the behind 460 00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:31,640 Speaker 1: the scenes features where various cast members were talking about 461 00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:34,080 Speaker 1: how she was just super nice and a pleasure to 462 00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:38,359 Speaker 1: work with. But yes, in this she plays badass Texas 463 00:24:38,359 --> 00:24:42,520 Speaker 1: Air Ranger Sergeant nim Now. Other than these two films, 464 00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:44,760 Speaker 1: I guess her biggest screen roles were in La Confidential, 465 00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:48,400 Speaker 1: where she played Lanta Turner, Hot Shots Part Due and 466 00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:51,960 Speaker 1: also Under Siege two Dark Territory, which we've also mentioned 467 00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:53,320 Speaker 1: on the show before. 468 00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:56,280 Speaker 3: Not because we watched it. It seems there's a lot 469 00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:59,280 Speaker 3: of intersection there. We keep coming up against actors and 470 00:24:59,320 --> 00:25:01,000 Speaker 3: directors who worked on that film. 471 00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:05,080 Speaker 1: Yeah, so Baki's worked a lot in TV and film, 472 00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:08,160 Speaker 1: but we should probably highlight her work in Death Spot 473 00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:12,080 Speaker 1: from nineteen eighty nine, And interestingly enough, her first screen 474 00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:14,840 Speaker 1: credit was a nineteen eighty six comedy that I've not 475 00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:19,920 Speaker 1: seen called Last Resort, which also featured Charles Grodin, Megan Malay, 476 00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:24,520 Speaker 1: John Lovett's Garrett Graham. Gary Graham, Yeah, who pops up 477 00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:27,680 Speaker 1: in a lot of B films. He was in Chopping Mall. 478 00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:31,360 Speaker 3: But he was also Beef in Fan of the Paradise. 479 00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:37,359 Speaker 1: Yeah, Mario van Peebles whoa and Phil Hartman whoa. Yeah, 480 00:25:37,359 --> 00:25:39,240 Speaker 1: so interesting. I don't know anything about that film, but 481 00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:42,240 Speaker 1: that's quite quite a cast to kick off with. And 482 00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:44,399 Speaker 1: I don't think it was a bit part for I 483 00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:46,919 Speaker 1: think it was a fairly decent part in the film. 484 00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:49,200 Speaker 3: Now, I do think it's an interesting choice that they 485 00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:53,199 Speaker 3: make the representative of Texas in this movie, not a 486 00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:56,560 Speaker 3: character like texts in Robot Jocks, who's just you know, 487 00:25:56,640 --> 00:25:59,199 Speaker 3: Buck Strickland from King of the Hill. That instead they 488 00:25:59,280 --> 00:26:02,960 Speaker 3: make the representative of Texas this kind of cool, unflappable 489 00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:04,440 Speaker 3: air cavalry lady. 490 00:26:05,200 --> 00:26:07,960 Speaker 1: Yeah, she's There's not really much I guess you'd say 491 00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:11,360 Speaker 1: t exploitation going on with this character. She's not even 492 00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:12,359 Speaker 1: wearing a cowboy hat. 493 00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:15,320 Speaker 3: She doesn't even have an accent. No, no, I mean 494 00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:18,400 Speaker 3: it's not a Texas accent. She might have right, more 495 00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:19,639 Speaker 3: kind of West Coast sounding. 496 00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:22,600 Speaker 1: Yeah, she's a you know, she she's good. I guess 497 00:26:22,600 --> 00:26:25,280 Speaker 1: she's kind of Ripley esque without you know, being that 498 00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:28,520 Speaker 1: like strong a screen presence at all. But you know, 499 00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:30,960 Speaker 1: she does a good job. She's a kind of a 500 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:33,600 Speaker 1: fun character as much as any human in this film 501 00:26:33,600 --> 00:26:38,200 Speaker 1: as a fun character, but as far as other characters 502 00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:39,760 Speaker 1: in the film. So there's a there's a whole crew. 503 00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:41,560 Speaker 1: We'll discuss this as we go. There's a there's an 504 00:26:41,560 --> 00:26:45,520 Speaker 1: initial crew in the film that gets weeded out pretty quickly. Yeah, 505 00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:47,679 Speaker 1: but there are some some fun actors in it, at 506 00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:52,359 Speaker 1: least initially, and one of them is this guy, Micky Curtis. 507 00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:56,120 Speaker 1: Sometimes that's spelled mickey, like Mickey Mouse in English. Other 508 00:26:56,119 --> 00:26:59,160 Speaker 1: times you see it spelled with more with I guess 509 00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:05,359 Speaker 1: kind of a Japanese kind of spelling in English vonts miki. 510 00:27:06,359 --> 00:27:08,280 Speaker 1: But this was one of those guys that I had 511 00:27:08,280 --> 00:27:11,760 Speaker 1: no clue about this guy previously, but watching this film 512 00:27:11,880 --> 00:27:13,840 Speaker 1: force me to look him up. And he's a super 513 00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:17,840 Speaker 1: interesting character in this he plays the weird pilot Captain 514 00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:22,960 Speaker 1: Banshow But in reality he's a Japanese actor, singer, and 515 00:27:23,119 --> 00:27:27,840 Speaker 1: media personality born in Japan to English Japanese parents, and 516 00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:30,639 Speaker 1: he's been in a lot of things over the years 517 00:27:30,800 --> 00:27:33,600 Speaker 1: and it's still active to this day. Born in thirty eight, 518 00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:36,600 Speaker 1: but still acting in things. Seems like He's one of 519 00:27:36,600 --> 00:27:40,399 Speaker 1: these guys who's kind of just continually recreated himself and 520 00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:44,040 Speaker 1: tried different things, like I think he's done country music 521 00:27:44,119 --> 00:27:48,159 Speaker 1: more recently. But he apparently rose to fame initially, at 522 00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:51,639 Speaker 1: least in part, as a member of the avant garde 523 00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:54,960 Speaker 1: rock band Mickey Curtis and the Samurai in the late 524 00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:58,639 Speaker 1: nineteen sixties. They started out as rockabilly, but then they 525 00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:02,440 Speaker 1: switched to more of a prog rock kind of sound, 526 00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:05,240 Speaker 1: and their nineteen seventy one album Kappa said to be 527 00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:08,400 Speaker 1: a masterpiece of heavy progressive rock in Japan, at least 528 00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:11,879 Speaker 1: according to prog archives dot com. 529 00:28:12,119 --> 00:28:14,960 Speaker 3: According to the Progtologist. 530 00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:18,320 Speaker 1: Yeah, now, I'm no prog rock expert or anything, especially 531 00:28:18,320 --> 00:28:21,119 Speaker 1: within the context of the Japanese music scene, but I 532 00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:23,560 Speaker 1: look this up. I wasn't able to find it on Spotify. 533 00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:28,560 Speaker 1: It's listed on discogs, It's certainly listed on progarchives dot com. 534 00:28:28,960 --> 00:28:31,359 Speaker 1: I was able to find the full album on YouTube. 535 00:28:31,480 --> 00:28:34,399 Speaker 1: I was streaming it there. I'll include it on the 536 00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:38,280 Speaker 1: post for this episode at Simmutamusic dot com. But it 537 00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:40,560 Speaker 1: sounded really cool to me. I was really enjoying this album. 538 00:28:41,320 --> 00:28:44,680 Speaker 3: Well, I will say as a licensed and accredited progtologist 539 00:28:44,800 --> 00:28:47,120 Speaker 3: that this is really good stuff. You know. It has 540 00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:50,400 Speaker 3: some elements that will sound familiar from a lot of 541 00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:54,120 Speaker 3: the sort of heavy psych of the late sixties early seventies, 542 00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:57,160 Speaker 3: things that will remind you of like Blue Cheer, Iron Butterfly, 543 00:28:57,320 --> 00:29:00,400 Speaker 3: but it also very much has its own sound like it. 544 00:29:00,600 --> 00:29:03,400 Speaker 1: Yeah. The last track on the album, though, is a 545 00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:08,440 Speaker 1: twenty minute percussion instrumental piece. Just be ready for that. 546 00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:10,400 Speaker 1: But you know that's the last track on the album. 547 00:29:10,400 --> 00:29:13,640 Speaker 1: By the end, you're already won over or you stopped listening. 548 00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:16,920 Speaker 1: I was looking at some of the liner notes on 549 00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:19,160 Speaker 1: this album and I noticed that they are dubbed. In 550 00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:22,440 Speaker 1: the liner notes, the band is dubbed as Japan's water Children, 551 00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:26,480 Speaker 1: I guess owing back to the Koppa theme on Oh. 552 00:29:25,840 --> 00:29:28,040 Speaker 3: Oh I See like the Kappa. The monster, the water 553 00:29:28,080 --> 00:29:31,240 Speaker 3: monster we've talked about that reaches up what was it? 554 00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:33,720 Speaker 3: It reaches up through your anus and removes your liver. 555 00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:37,000 Speaker 1: Yeah, and it causes the body to bloat in all 556 00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:41,440 Speaker 1: you know, a spirit a monster of drowning, a rural 557 00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:45,600 Speaker 1: folk belief in Japan. And there's actually the cover art 558 00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:48,840 Speaker 1: for this album is a representation of that monster. 559 00:29:49,280 --> 00:29:52,240 Speaker 3: So I will say, one of my main complaints about 560 00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:55,760 Speaker 3: this movie is that the rest of the cast does 561 00:29:55,800 --> 00:29:59,360 Speaker 3: not survive longer to sort of fill it out with 562 00:29:59,480 --> 00:30:03,080 Speaker 3: their different personalities, because very quickly this movie kind of 563 00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:07,760 Speaker 3: narrows it down to a small core of characters who 564 00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:10,080 Speaker 3: survived to the end. I kind of wish we got 565 00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:12,520 Speaker 3: to see more of the salvage slash heist crew. Some 566 00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:14,640 Speaker 3: of these characters only have a couple of lines before 567 00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:15,320 Speaker 3: they get iced. 568 00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:18,720 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean Captain Banchow seems great. I mean, he's 569 00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:21,960 Speaker 1: got all this charisma. He's such a weird cat. I 570 00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:23,960 Speaker 1: want to see more of him. But yeah, it doesn't 571 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:25,800 Speaker 1: last too long. It's like if if you had that 572 00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:28,840 Speaker 1: whole ragtag bunch in I don't know, a film like 573 00:30:28,840 --> 00:30:31,840 Speaker 1: like Aliens, you know, and you just wipe them all 574 00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:36,400 Speaker 1: out within a few minutes. And then you know, Aliens 575 00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:38,160 Speaker 1: does wipe them all out, but it takes its time. 576 00:30:38,280 --> 00:30:40,600 Speaker 3: Yeah, it gives you a taste of them first. Yeah, 577 00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:43,560 Speaker 3: and then by the time there is a massive attack 578 00:30:43,600 --> 00:30:45,880 Speaker 3: and many of them are killed, Like, you really have 579 00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:49,000 Speaker 3: started to cherish the characters who do survive, and so, 580 00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:52,160 Speaker 3: like you know Vesquez by that point, you know, Hudson 581 00:30:52,240 --> 00:30:52,840 Speaker 3: by that point. 582 00:30:53,120 --> 00:30:55,000 Speaker 1: Yeah, but in this one, like there's scenes later where 583 00:30:55,040 --> 00:30:58,000 Speaker 1: Brooklyn is talking about like he's reminiscing about ban Show 584 00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:00,440 Speaker 1: and we're like, oh, yeah, Banchow. He seemed to interesting. 585 00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:02,680 Speaker 1: Too bad he died like five minutes into the film. 586 00:31:02,840 --> 00:31:06,840 Speaker 3: Yeah. So about the other characters in this crew, there 587 00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:09,320 Speaker 3: is one who is played by an actress named Aya 588 00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:12,800 Speaker 3: in Joji, who is depending on It sounded like there 589 00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:16,280 Speaker 3: were different parts where she was either being called Babe 590 00:31:16,480 --> 00:31:19,160 Speaker 3: or Babe in the English translation, and I feel like 591 00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:22,960 Speaker 3: I heard both, but they anyway, I should explain, all 592 00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:27,360 Speaker 3: of the thieves have like cute nicknames that start with B. 593 00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:34,240 Speaker 3: So it's like band Show Brooklyn, Beabey, Boxer, Boomerang, Bombay. 594 00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:37,480 Speaker 3: But I think Bombay is not like the city Bombay. 595 00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:40,280 Speaker 3: It is like bomb Bay as in on an airplane, 596 00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:43,200 Speaker 3: m okay. That's all in the English version. I'm not 597 00:31:43,240 --> 00:31:46,920 Speaker 3: sure how that all translates in the Japanese. But anyway, Bebe, 598 00:31:46,920 --> 00:31:49,480 Speaker 3: one of the main thieves, is played by Aya and Joji, 599 00:31:49,760 --> 00:31:52,280 Speaker 3: who is a Japanese film and TV actress. She was 600 00:31:52,280 --> 00:31:55,320 Speaker 3: born in nineteen sixty. I don't recognize a lot from 601 00:31:55,360 --> 00:31:58,480 Speaker 3: her filmography, but she's still working as of recent years. 602 00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:00,719 Speaker 3: She's done a lot of stuff. In this she plays 603 00:32:00,960 --> 00:32:04,720 Speaker 3: this character Bebe, who's kind of a no nonsense cyber 604 00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:07,400 Speaker 3: thief with like an implant. She's got sort of a 605 00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:10,400 Speaker 3: cyber eye, and it seems like she is in a 606 00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:13,120 Speaker 3: leadership role in this gang. She might be like second 607 00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:15,760 Speaker 3: in command under Captain Banshow I think. 608 00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:16,920 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. 609 00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:19,840 Speaker 3: Yeah, But anyway, looking around through her filmography, it looks 610 00:32:19,880 --> 00:32:22,240 Speaker 3: like another one of the big things that Njoji did 611 00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:26,400 Speaker 3: was a TV series in the nineties called gto Colin 612 00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:30,000 Speaker 3: Great Teacher onie Zuka, And I just want to read 613 00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:33,760 Speaker 3: the description quote onie Zuka, a former delinquent finds himself 614 00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:36,479 Speaker 3: in the role of a high school teacher, facing students 615 00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:40,040 Speaker 3: who behave just as he used to. Using unusual methods, 616 00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:42,440 Speaker 3: he manages to reach through to his students and help 617 00:32:42,480 --> 00:32:44,000 Speaker 3: them with their problems. 618 00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:44,560 Speaker 1: Delightful. 619 00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:47,720 Speaker 3: I know I've seen an exact version of the story before, 620 00:32:47,760 --> 00:32:49,920 Speaker 3: but I can't remember what it was. Is that what 621 00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:51,560 Speaker 3: happens in the principle? 622 00:32:53,360 --> 00:32:55,520 Speaker 1: Oh wait, is that the principle is that the one 623 00:32:55,560 --> 00:33:00,480 Speaker 1: with what's his name Tom? Not Tom? He's got Bearringer 624 00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:01,480 Speaker 1: in it Tom Beringer. 625 00:33:01,520 --> 00:33:05,320 Speaker 3: Barringer could be Tom Behringer. He was like I was 626 00:33:05,360 --> 00:33:06,400 Speaker 3: a sniper when. 627 00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:09,040 Speaker 1: Yeah, Like it's that kind of maybe I'm thinking of 628 00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:10,960 Speaker 1: a different film then that one. It's like he's like 629 00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:13,480 Speaker 1: a former Special Forces guy who comes in and like 630 00:33:14,320 --> 00:33:16,479 Speaker 1: fights back against the punk kids. You know. It's kind 631 00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:20,320 Speaker 1: of a Hell City Hell School film from I guess 632 00:33:20,320 --> 00:33:22,120 Speaker 1: probably the nineties or the early two thousands. 633 00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:24,040 Speaker 3: Okay, I guess I've never seen it. I think maybe 634 00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:26,920 Speaker 3: I saw commercials for it on TV when they were 635 00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:28,760 Speaker 3: going to like play it on TNT or whatever. 636 00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:33,000 Speaker 1: Yeah, but No, the idea of like the former troubled 637 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:36,080 Speaker 1: student becoming the teacher who reaches out to troubled kids, 638 00:33:36,320 --> 00:33:38,960 Speaker 1: I feel like that's a common enough trope, but it's 639 00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:41,040 Speaker 1: in the sort of film that I either don't see 640 00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:42,360 Speaker 1: or certainly don't remember. 641 00:33:42,600 --> 00:33:44,560 Speaker 3: Yeah, but you could look at that kind of like 642 00:33:44,600 --> 00:33:47,960 Speaker 3: the role of the gun Head Machine itself in this story. 643 00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:50,920 Speaker 3: You know, he's got experience from the past where he 644 00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:53,320 Speaker 3: didn't do so well, and then the Gunhead Machine sort 645 00:33:53,360 --> 00:33:56,200 Speaker 3: of sort of shepherds the humans through their their final 646 00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:57,720 Speaker 3: conflict with the Chiron five. 647 00:33:58,120 --> 00:33:59,360 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I guess. 648 00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:03,600 Speaker 3: I'm reaching here. Okay, I was just looking at a 649 00:34:03,600 --> 00:34:05,720 Speaker 3: couple more of the actors from the main crew. You've 650 00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:09,040 Speaker 3: got a guy named James Brewster Thompson who plays a 651 00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:12,600 Speaker 3: character named Barabbas also gets killed very quickly in the movie. 652 00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:16,600 Speaker 3: But this guy was an actor and a competitive judo practitioner. 653 00:34:16,880 --> 00:34:18,760 Speaker 3: It looks like he was also in the movie Lion 654 00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:21,880 Speaker 3: Heart with Jean Claude Van Dam Okay, and then I'll 655 00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:25,000 Speaker 3: give a shout out to Jay Kabira who plays Bombay. 656 00:34:25,520 --> 00:34:28,920 Speaker 3: Kabira was also a Japanese actor, born in nineteen sixty 657 00:34:28,920 --> 00:34:32,520 Speaker 3: two in Okinawa. Looks like Gunhead was his first movie. 658 00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:36,000 Speaker 3: He's still acting. Don't recognize anything from his IMDb, but 659 00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:38,360 Speaker 3: he provides some nice levity in the first third of 660 00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:39,000 Speaker 3: this movie. 661 00:34:39,200 --> 00:34:40,879 Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember him being kind of a fun care 662 00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:53,040 Speaker 1: another fun character that died too soon. Yeah, all right, well, 663 00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:56,760 Speaker 1: let's get into the plot of this film. It begins 664 00:34:56,760 --> 00:35:00,600 Speaker 1: with that beautiful toe hoo title screen, which, like we 665 00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:04,000 Speaker 1: said already, just is beautiful and invites you in. It 666 00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:05,040 Speaker 1: gleams like the sun. 667 00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:09,120 Speaker 3: It's gorgeous. I'm salivating, my brain is salivating. But anyway, 668 00:35:09,239 --> 00:35:12,280 Speaker 3: that is a short prelude to what in this film 669 00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:15,920 Speaker 3: is I'm just going to say, a ridiculous amount of 670 00:35:15,920 --> 00:35:21,640 Speaker 3: opening exposition and backstory. You get opening text, you get voiceover, narration, 671 00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:24,719 Speaker 3: you get all kinds of stuff. But I think we 672 00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:27,600 Speaker 3: should actually go over the opening text because that will 673 00:35:27,880 --> 00:35:30,960 Speaker 3: set the scene for the world in which this movie 674 00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:32,960 Speaker 3: takes place, and we can comment as we go on. 675 00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:36,719 Speaker 3: But the first thing you see is you're getting I 676 00:35:36,719 --> 00:35:38,640 Speaker 3: think the first thing is just on a black screen 677 00:35:39,200 --> 00:35:41,920 Speaker 3: and you see text that says. In the early twenty thirties, 678 00:35:42,200 --> 00:35:47,560 Speaker 3: Mankind discovered a new substance, text mexium, which enabled the 679 00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:52,359 Speaker 3: entire world to be controlled by a new generation of supercomputers. Now, 680 00:35:52,400 --> 00:35:55,279 Speaker 3: this text mexium is a major plot point, and I 681 00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:55,960 Speaker 3: love it. 682 00:35:56,200 --> 00:35:59,200 Speaker 1: Yeah, I love a good fake element in a sci 683 00:35:59,200 --> 00:36:04,120 Speaker 1: fi picture. I mean, whether you're talking about unobtainium or 684 00:36:04,160 --> 00:36:06,440 Speaker 1: what have you. But but text mexium has to be 685 00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:10,319 Speaker 1: the absolute best I have ever heard it. I mean, 686 00:36:10,360 --> 00:36:13,719 Speaker 1: maybe the creators of this were not as familiar with 687 00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:18,800 Speaker 1: text mechs, the you know, the the American slash Mexican 688 00:36:19,640 --> 00:36:23,200 Speaker 1: culinary tradition. But it also seems impossible because text mechs 689 00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:25,520 Speaker 1: has itself kind of spread around the world. 690 00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:28,200 Speaker 3: Yeah, we were trying to make sense of this name. 691 00:36:28,280 --> 00:36:30,799 Speaker 3: Why is it called tex Mexium. Now we know there 692 00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:34,359 Speaker 3: are some plot elements in the movie that involve Texas, 693 00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:37,320 Speaker 3: maybe as like its own country, And there are also 694 00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:42,040 Speaker 3: mechs as in mechs, which I guess you could shorten 695 00:36:42,080 --> 00:36:45,000 Speaker 3: to ex So is that I don't know. Is that 696 00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:46,280 Speaker 3: how it's coming together here? 697 00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:48,440 Speaker 1: I guess I don't know. I think maybe it's just 698 00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:52,520 Speaker 1: an ultimately an example of something that has more appeal 699 00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:56,880 Speaker 1: to like non Americans or even non English speakers, like 700 00:36:56,960 --> 00:36:59,080 Speaker 1: it's I mean, and this goes both ways. You see this, 701 00:36:59,160 --> 00:37:05,160 Speaker 1: of course many of times with where American creators or 702 00:37:05,200 --> 00:37:07,640 Speaker 1: English speaking creators take something that they think sounds cool 703 00:37:07,640 --> 00:37:11,840 Speaker 1: in another language and applies it to their fantastic visions. 704 00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:15,399 Speaker 1: So you know, it goes both ways. Yeah, but yeah, 705 00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:18,720 Speaker 1: tex Mexium initially made me laugh, though after a while 706 00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:20,200 Speaker 1: I kind of got over the humor of it and 707 00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:21,680 Speaker 1: kind of like bought into it. It's like, Okay, it's 708 00:37:21,680 --> 00:37:23,280 Speaker 1: tex Mexium, it's important stuff. 709 00:37:23,440 --> 00:37:26,279 Speaker 3: Well I never got over the humor, but I love 710 00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:29,799 Speaker 3: it anyway. Yeah, but okay. The opening text goes on 711 00:37:29,880 --> 00:37:33,719 Speaker 3: it says, because of the danger for its misuse. Supplies 712 00:37:33,760 --> 00:37:36,880 Speaker 3: of text mexium were kept under heavy guard at the 713 00:37:37,040 --> 00:37:41,400 Speaker 3: hyper nuclear facilities that power every major city. At the 714 00:37:41,480 --> 00:37:46,440 Speaker 3: same time, mankind's continued depletion of Earth's natural resources has 715 00:37:46,480 --> 00:37:50,280 Speaker 3: resulted in a scarcity of the materials necessary to build 716 00:37:50,320 --> 00:37:55,279 Speaker 3: the all powerful computers. Conductive plastics and computer chips are 717 00:37:55,360 --> 00:37:58,880 Speaker 3: more valuable than gold, and a new breed of treasure 718 00:37:58,960 --> 00:38:02,720 Speaker 3: hunter has evolved to fill the demand, seeking machine parts 719 00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:06,960 Speaker 3: lost or discarded by earlier generations. These soldiers of fortune 720 00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:10,800 Speaker 3: will brave any danger in their quest for chips, even 721 00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:12,680 Speaker 3: the forbidden zones. 722 00:38:12,719 --> 00:38:17,239 Speaker 1: And that already is awesome. Like, I was instantly interested 723 00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:21,000 Speaker 1: after absorbing this opening text, and ultimately I think this 724 00:38:21,120 --> 00:38:23,160 Speaker 1: is one of the things that this movie does really well, 725 00:38:23,200 --> 00:38:27,520 Speaker 1: Like it establishes an interesting sci fi world. 726 00:38:27,880 --> 00:38:32,200 Speaker 3: Oh yes, these renegade thieves rummaging through the trash of 727 00:38:32,320 --> 00:38:36,759 Speaker 3: the wars of ages past to find computer parts that 728 00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:39,560 Speaker 3: can be repurposed into the technology that we now need 729 00:38:39,600 --> 00:38:44,000 Speaker 3: to run places like I guess Japan and Texas. Okay, 730 00:38:44,040 --> 00:38:45,719 Speaker 3: so you think, after all that you're done with the 731 00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:49,440 Speaker 3: opening exposition, but nope, after that you get voiceover narration 732 00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:53,160 Speaker 3: as we pan overshots of a flaming battlefield full of 733 00:38:53,239 --> 00:38:57,400 Speaker 3: machine wreckage and dead bodies in power armor, and the 734 00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:01,000 Speaker 3: narration goes in the year two thousand and five on 735 00:39:01,080 --> 00:39:05,840 Speaker 3: a tiny volcanic island designated simply eight Jo. It's the 736 00:39:05,920 --> 00:39:10,800 Speaker 3: number eight Jo, located one thousand miles from the Asian coast. 737 00:39:11,239 --> 00:39:15,839 Speaker 3: The Cybor Tech Corporation that Cybor with an oar. The 738 00:39:15,880 --> 00:39:19,920 Speaker 3: Cybor Tech Corporation built the world's first fully self contained 739 00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:25,400 Speaker 3: industrial complex. Its purpose to manufacture the most advanced robots 740 00:39:25,440 --> 00:39:28,640 Speaker 3: ever known. At the heart of this complex a computer 741 00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:32,600 Speaker 3: more advanced, more powerful than any other that came before, 742 00:39:33,080 --> 00:39:38,959 Speaker 3: the Chirn five. Chiron five controlled every aspect of its world. 743 00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:42,800 Speaker 3: For twenty years, everything appeared to run smoothly. A handful 744 00:39:42,800 --> 00:39:45,600 Speaker 3: of technicians and their families were stationed on the island 745 00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:51,120 Speaker 3: as custodians, but the cruel fact was human beings were unnecessary. 746 00:39:51,680 --> 00:39:55,080 Speaker 3: On July fourth, in the year twenty twenty five, Chiron 747 00:39:55,239 --> 00:39:59,080 Speaker 3: five declared war on the world. The Allies dispatched a 748 00:39:59,200 --> 00:40:02,840 Speaker 3: gun head, but Italian to eight Jo. The Great Robot 749 00:40:02,920 --> 00:40:07,640 Speaker 3: War began. Level three eight nine, Chiron's last line of defense, 750 00:40:08,320 --> 00:40:12,360 Speaker 3: air robot. I think I got all that as a 751 00:40:12,360 --> 00:40:14,600 Speaker 3: direct quote. Now, we have not been told anything about 752 00:40:14,640 --> 00:40:17,480 Speaker 3: gun heads before this. This is like the opening narration, 753 00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:20,799 Speaker 3: but the Gunhead Battalion is there. And then we get 754 00:40:20,800 --> 00:40:23,160 Speaker 3: some more texts that tells us we're at this three 755 00:40:23,239 --> 00:40:26,439 Speaker 3: hundred and seventy third day of battle, and we see 756 00:40:26,440 --> 00:40:30,239 Speaker 3: this giant cyber tank crash through some facility wall and 757 00:40:30,239 --> 00:40:34,000 Speaker 3: you've got heavily armed ground troops apparently human, marching in 758 00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:36,080 Speaker 3: all around it. The tank, I believe is one of 759 00:40:36,120 --> 00:40:39,120 Speaker 3: the gun head units, and the text on the screen 760 00:40:39,200 --> 00:40:43,080 Speaker 3: tells us that on this day, the beleaguered Gunhead Battalion 761 00:40:43,160 --> 00:40:46,400 Speaker 3: pushed ahead for one final attack, and we see how 762 00:40:46,440 --> 00:40:49,279 Speaker 3: it all went down. It's mech versus mech. So you've 763 00:40:49,280 --> 00:40:53,600 Speaker 3: got these different types of giant armored tank type vehicles 764 00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:57,360 Speaker 3: advancing on each other, exchanging fire. So it's the human 765 00:40:57,440 --> 00:41:00,960 Speaker 3: allied gun head tanks, which look kind of like the 766 00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:04,600 Speaker 3: giant Skynet kill tanks, like the Hunter Killer models from 767 00:41:04,640 --> 00:41:07,400 Speaker 3: the future and Terminator, but they're more complicated than that. 768 00:41:07,480 --> 00:41:11,239 Speaker 3: They've got this combination of legs and wheels and a 769 00:41:11,280 --> 00:41:13,319 Speaker 3: bunch of different guns pointing off of them in all 770 00:41:13,320 --> 00:41:16,239 Speaker 3: different directions, and those are the gun Heads. Those are 771 00:41:16,239 --> 00:41:19,960 Speaker 3: the good guys, and they're against the Aerobot, which I 772 00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:22,120 Speaker 3: was trying to think of how to describe. It has 773 00:41:22,200 --> 00:41:28,200 Speaker 3: a characteristic front facing triangle orientation of three glowing eye 774 00:41:28,200 --> 00:41:31,719 Speaker 3: spots that shoot energy beams. And then on top of 775 00:41:31,719 --> 00:41:35,520 Speaker 3: that it has these arching claw arms that hang down 776 00:41:35,680 --> 00:41:38,440 Speaker 3: in front of the vehicle, sort of like a drooping 777 00:41:38,719 --> 00:41:44,880 Speaker 3: sauropod neck. So imagine a metal brachiosaurus with multiple necks 778 00:41:44,920 --> 00:41:49,400 Speaker 3: and heads that has this triangle of blaster eyes. 779 00:41:50,520 --> 00:41:53,520 Speaker 1: Yeah, for anyone out there who is who follows like 780 00:41:53,640 --> 00:41:57,840 Speaker 1: mac fiction and Japanese science fiction, these this sort of 781 00:41:57,880 --> 00:42:01,440 Speaker 1: design will look familiar because you've seen variations on this 782 00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:05,799 Speaker 1: theme plenty of times. You know. They're beautiful looking, though, 783 00:42:06,360 --> 00:42:09,840 Speaker 1: especially Gunhead, Like Gunhead is just this really well designed, 784 00:42:09,880 --> 00:42:13,879 Speaker 1: cool looking sci fi tank, and arrow Bot is this 785 00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:17,480 Speaker 1: other sci fi tank. It's maybe less interesting looking, but 786 00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:20,640 Speaker 1: different looking, so we can tell them apart in battle, 787 00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:23,440 Speaker 1: and you know, and also kind of cool. 788 00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:25,880 Speaker 3: Good joyce with the three eyes in the triangle, it 789 00:42:25,880 --> 00:42:28,200 Speaker 3: helps you distinguish which one is which when you know 790 00:42:28,520 --> 00:42:30,640 Speaker 3: you're seeing the models clash at each other. 791 00:42:30,680 --> 00:42:32,960 Speaker 1: And boy did they clash. Oh yeah, they clash a lot. 792 00:42:33,040 --> 00:42:34,719 Speaker 3: Yeah, so they're shooting at each other. One of the 793 00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:37,640 Speaker 3: Gunheads sort of looks like it has a gun that's 794 00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:41,480 Speaker 3: blasting highly focused jets of steam. I don't know if 795 00:42:41,480 --> 00:42:43,600 Speaker 3: that's what it was supposed to be, but if so, 796 00:42:43,680 --> 00:42:47,440 Speaker 3: that's a cool idea. And things are not looking so 797 00:42:47,520 --> 00:42:50,239 Speaker 3: hot for the gun Heads in this battle. The Aerobot 798 00:42:50,320 --> 00:42:52,040 Speaker 3: is a tough cookie, and in the end it seems 799 00:42:52,080 --> 00:42:55,759 Speaker 3: like the Aerobot smashes the Gunhead battalion and the human 800 00:42:55,800 --> 00:42:59,280 Speaker 3: allied forces. And then finally you get your title screen 801 00:42:59,680 --> 00:43:03,160 Speaker 3: just say as gun Head in the Van Halen esque 802 00:43:03,280 --> 00:43:03,960 Speaker 3: kind of font. 803 00:43:04,280 --> 00:43:07,680 Speaker 1: Yeah. So, ultimately this is all still set up. We 804 00:43:07,719 --> 00:43:10,280 Speaker 1: haven't even really gotten a proper movie yet. This film 805 00:43:10,320 --> 00:43:14,600 Speaker 1: spends a lot of time prefacing the core plot. But 806 00:43:15,320 --> 00:43:17,960 Speaker 1: like I say, the world creation in this film is 807 00:43:18,280 --> 00:43:21,280 Speaker 1: one of its best attributes. It's really it's in my opinion, 808 00:43:21,320 --> 00:43:24,319 Speaker 1: really wonderful. And it takes a bit to set up. 809 00:43:24,400 --> 00:43:26,400 Speaker 1: They use all these different gimmicks to do it, but 810 00:43:26,480 --> 00:43:29,680 Speaker 1: the result is a perfectly grimy cyberpunk future set in 811 00:43:29,719 --> 00:43:34,000 Speaker 1: the aftermath of a supercomputer seemingly failed rebellion against the 812 00:43:34,080 --> 00:43:36,280 Speaker 1: human race. And and I guess to a certain extent, 813 00:43:36,880 --> 00:43:41,400 Speaker 1: the human race is sort of ambiguous victory over the 814 00:43:42,040 --> 00:43:45,680 Speaker 1: computer threat. You know, it's kind of a it's kind 815 00:43:45,719 --> 00:43:49,120 Speaker 1: of a rough, inconclusive ending to a terrible conflict. 816 00:43:49,440 --> 00:43:50,000 Speaker 3: Yeah. 817 00:43:50,120 --> 00:43:53,640 Speaker 1: Now, when I say cyberpunk, I should stress that this 818 00:43:53,719 --> 00:43:56,600 Speaker 1: is cyberpunk in the Japanese sense, which certainly has a 819 00:43:56,600 --> 00:44:00,720 Speaker 1: lot in common with the Western concept of cyberpunk, shares 820 00:44:00,760 --> 00:44:02,400 Speaker 1: many of the same elements. You see a lot of 821 00:44:02,400 --> 00:44:07,359 Speaker 1: interplay between the two. Like American and Western cyberpunk may 822 00:44:07,400 --> 00:44:12,360 Speaker 1: in many cases be inspired partially by Japanese models. Likewise, 823 00:44:12,520 --> 00:44:17,080 Speaker 1: Japanese cyberpunk will draw inspiration from key pieces of Western 824 00:44:18,200 --> 00:44:23,040 Speaker 1: cyberpunk sci fi, But Japanese cyberpunk is sort of in 825 00:44:23,160 --> 00:44:28,200 Speaker 1: general more hard industrial and often features a more disturbing 826 00:44:28,280 --> 00:44:32,359 Speaker 1: and even nightmare interpretation of human machine synthesis. 827 00:44:32,760 --> 00:44:37,080 Speaker 3: Yeah, to oversimplify, I might say that where American cyberpunk 828 00:44:37,160 --> 00:44:41,759 Speaker 3: is more likely to have laptop bikers, latex bodysuits, and 829 00:44:41,800 --> 00:44:47,000 Speaker 3: glossy dusters, perfect emo hair, Japanese cyberpunk is more likely 830 00:44:47,120 --> 00:44:50,960 Speaker 3: to be choking on eruptions of metallic robot tumors. 831 00:44:51,440 --> 00:44:56,200 Speaker 1: Yeah, it can definitely lean more into body horror. And 832 00:44:56,440 --> 00:44:59,359 Speaker 1: kind of a surreal nature. So some of the key 833 00:44:59,400 --> 00:45:04,600 Speaker 1: examples of Japanese cyberpunk include nineteen eighty nine's Tetsuo the 834 00:45:04,680 --> 00:45:09,120 Speaker 1: Iron Man, which is a very kind of Lynchian, cronen 835 00:45:09,160 --> 00:45:11,000 Speaker 1: Burger kind of a film. 836 00:45:11,120 --> 00:45:12,920 Speaker 3: Yeah, very metal tumors again. 837 00:45:13,160 --> 00:45:17,839 Speaker 1: Yeah, Akira the anime from nineteen eighty eight. And then 838 00:45:17,880 --> 00:45:22,440 Speaker 1: another name that often comes up is Chosen Fukuoi's films, 839 00:45:22,560 --> 00:45:26,719 Speaker 1: particularly nine sixty four Pinocchio from nineteen ninety one. That's 840 00:45:26,760 --> 00:45:29,480 Speaker 1: one I've seen that one. That one is also wild, 841 00:45:29,680 --> 00:45:34,360 Speaker 1: very very similar in tone to Tetsuo the Iron Man. 842 00:45:34,520 --> 00:45:36,439 Speaker 1: But other films that are also noted that I haven't 843 00:45:36,440 --> 00:45:39,439 Speaker 1: seen include nineteen eighty six Death Powder in nineteen eighty 844 00:45:39,440 --> 00:45:42,239 Speaker 1: two's Burst City. I wanted to mention those because those, 845 00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:46,120 Speaker 1: of course, are two examples that pre date Gunhead, whereas 846 00:45:46,160 --> 00:45:48,640 Speaker 1: we have this weird situation where we can't say that 847 00:45:48,800 --> 00:45:51,879 Speaker 1: The Gunhead was inspired by Tetsuo the Iron Man because 848 00:45:51,880 --> 00:45:53,839 Speaker 1: it came out the same year, and it only comes 849 00:45:53,880 --> 00:45:57,600 Speaker 1: out a year after Akira, So it seems to be 850 00:45:57,840 --> 00:46:00,279 Speaker 1: a film that was very much a part all of 851 00:46:00,480 --> 00:46:06,960 Speaker 1: this this sci fi aesthetic movement in Japanese media. At 852 00:46:07,000 --> 00:46:07,719 Speaker 1: the time, a. 853 00:46:07,800 --> 00:46:11,120 Speaker 3: Very nineteen eighty eight eighty nine cyberpunk zeitgeist. 854 00:46:11,160 --> 00:46:14,880 Speaker 1: You might say, yeah, so there's strong elements of Japanese 855 00:46:14,920 --> 00:46:17,920 Speaker 1: cyberpunk in gun Heads visual universe, as well as elements 856 00:46:17,920 --> 00:46:22,640 Speaker 1: of the plot. It's difficult to really sum up Japanese 857 00:46:22,680 --> 00:46:25,600 Speaker 1: cyberpunk as a whole, because, of course it's not a 858 00:46:25,640 --> 00:46:28,759 Speaker 1: whole thing. It's composed of individual films and individual works 859 00:46:28,760 --> 00:46:32,880 Speaker 1: by individual creators and media companies and toy companies, et cetera. 860 00:46:33,840 --> 00:46:35,799 Speaker 1: But you can suffice to say it has its own 861 00:46:35,840 --> 00:46:38,560 Speaker 1: elements and themes that stand apart from Western cyberpunk. 862 00:46:38,719 --> 00:46:40,719 Speaker 3: Right of course, with all of the continuous back and 863 00:46:40,760 --> 00:46:41,920 Speaker 3: forth cross fertilization. 864 00:46:42,640 --> 00:46:43,960 Speaker 1: Yeah, So to get back. 865 00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:46,040 Speaker 3: To the movie, picking up after the title screen, you 866 00:46:46,400 --> 00:46:49,200 Speaker 3: might think we're done with narration, but nope. At this 867 00:46:49,239 --> 00:46:51,440 Speaker 3: point I was literally laughing out loud because there was 868 00:46:51,560 --> 00:46:57,280 Speaker 3: more voiceover narration. So we get like the camera sailing 869 00:46:57,320 --> 00:47:00,560 Speaker 3: over some clouds and we're watching lightning flash out the fog, 870 00:47:00,960 --> 00:47:03,920 Speaker 3: and then we hear for thirteen years, a deep silence 871 00:47:03,960 --> 00:47:07,200 Speaker 3: has surrounded the island. It has existed under a veil 872 00:47:07,280 --> 00:47:12,120 Speaker 3: of mystery, almost forgotten by the world until now. So 873 00:47:12,320 --> 00:47:14,320 Speaker 3: now I think we're finally into the plot. 874 00:47:14,560 --> 00:47:18,879 Speaker 1: Yeah, and ultimately watching this, you know, if you're watching 875 00:47:18,880 --> 00:47:20,400 Speaker 1: this through the first time, you might be relieved that 876 00:47:20,440 --> 00:47:23,160 Speaker 1: the narration ends. But looking back on it, I kind 877 00:47:23,160 --> 00:47:25,800 Speaker 1: of wish it had universal narration throughout. I missed the 878 00:47:25,880 --> 00:47:28,200 Speaker 1: narrator voice telling me what was happening. 879 00:47:29,520 --> 00:47:33,160 Speaker 3: So, yeah, we're with this futuristic airplane that is soaring 880 00:47:33,200 --> 00:47:35,480 Speaker 3: through the gauntlet of thunder, and we see that the 881 00:47:35,520 --> 00:47:38,759 Speaker 3: plane is called the Merry Ann And then we're inside 882 00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:42,640 Speaker 3: meeting the crew. They try to do some intros. Honestly, again, 883 00:47:42,840 --> 00:47:45,480 Speaker 3: most of these characters get killed pretty fast, so you 884 00:47:45,520 --> 00:47:47,399 Speaker 3: don't have a lot of time to get to know them. 885 00:47:47,480 --> 00:47:50,359 Speaker 3: Some of them I really can't identify much about them, 886 00:47:50,360 --> 00:47:52,839 Speaker 3: but some I can. So you got Captain Bancho, that's 887 00:47:52,840 --> 00:47:55,919 Speaker 3: the guy we mentioned. Mickey Curtis, who is He's great. 888 00:47:56,000 --> 00:47:59,080 Speaker 3: He's a rowdy rock and roll air wizard wearing a 889 00:47:59,200 --> 00:48:03,000 Speaker 3: leather bomber it with a light seasoning of George Carlin 890 00:48:03,080 --> 00:48:06,120 Speaker 3: Sauce I would say, yeah, yeah. And then you've got Brooklyn. 891 00:48:06,160 --> 00:48:08,600 Speaker 3: He's gonna end up being one of the main heroes 892 00:48:08,640 --> 00:48:10,239 Speaker 3: of the movie. I guess in the end, the main 893 00:48:10,320 --> 00:48:14,239 Speaker 3: heroes are Brooklyn and Sergeant Nim but Brooklyn again is 894 00:48:14,280 --> 00:48:18,800 Speaker 3: played by Masa hero Takashima, and they identify Brooklyn immediately 895 00:48:18,800 --> 00:48:21,719 Speaker 3: as a mechanic. When we first meet him, he is 896 00:48:21,840 --> 00:48:25,399 Speaker 3: flying the plane because Captain Banshow has apparently bullied him 897 00:48:25,400 --> 00:48:30,239 Speaker 3: into flying the plane. But it's clear that Brooklyn is 898 00:48:30,920 --> 00:48:33,360 Speaker 3: not supposed to be piloting the plane and does not 899 00:48:33,480 --> 00:48:35,640 Speaker 3: feel good about it. He's having some kind of severe 900 00:48:35,719 --> 00:48:38,279 Speaker 3: anxiety about piloting and this will go on to be 901 00:48:38,320 --> 00:48:42,359 Speaker 3: a major plot point throughout, and ban Show is sort 902 00:48:42,400 --> 00:48:45,040 Speaker 3: of gently harassing him. I think he's joking that, like, hey, 903 00:48:45,040 --> 00:48:46,920 Speaker 3: if you get air sick and throw up on my plane, 904 00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:50,840 Speaker 3: I will make you eat your vomit, which is cute. 905 00:48:51,080 --> 00:48:54,840 Speaker 3: But Brooklyn is kind of a spiky haired, initially taciturn 906 00:48:55,000 --> 00:48:58,240 Speaker 3: young man in sunglasses with a scarf over his face, 907 00:48:58,680 --> 00:49:02,000 Speaker 3: and he is holding a carrot in his mouth like 908 00:49:02,040 --> 00:49:02,560 Speaker 3: a cigar. 909 00:49:03,120 --> 00:49:05,719 Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, which I get it. Kind of maybe this 910 00:49:05,800 --> 00:49:07,560 Speaker 1: is a bugs bunny kind of thing. I don't know, 911 00:49:07,640 --> 00:49:11,480 Speaker 1: but yes, it becomes clear that Brooklyn loves carrots. He 912 00:49:11,640 --> 00:49:15,640 Speaker 1: is perhaps growing carrots on the airplane. I'm not certain 913 00:49:15,680 --> 00:49:16,120 Speaker 1: on that. 914 00:49:16,480 --> 00:49:18,839 Speaker 3: There's one part where we see a giant colander full 915 00:49:18,880 --> 00:49:20,280 Speaker 3: of enormous carrots. 916 00:49:20,800 --> 00:49:23,719 Speaker 1: Yeah, so they they brought them at any rate, Like 917 00:49:23,760 --> 00:49:26,040 Speaker 1: carrots are important. I mean, if you have carrots in 918 00:49:26,080 --> 00:49:30,799 Speaker 1: the post apocalyptic or semi post apocalyptic cyberpunk world, eat them. 919 00:49:30,840 --> 00:49:32,000 Speaker 1: You know they're good for you. 920 00:49:32,160 --> 00:49:36,280 Speaker 3: Yeah. Oh, and Brooklyn keeps playing with a revolver underneath 921 00:49:36,360 --> 00:49:38,279 Speaker 3: his coat. It's like when you know, you know those 922 00:49:38,320 --> 00:49:40,359 Speaker 3: guys who like they play with a knife. They've got 923 00:49:40,360 --> 00:49:42,120 Speaker 3: a pocket knife and they just fiddle with it a 924 00:49:42,120 --> 00:49:44,040 Speaker 3: lot that open it and close it and stuff. But 925 00:49:44,480 --> 00:49:45,840 Speaker 3: he does that but with a gun. 926 00:49:46,200 --> 00:49:48,840 Speaker 1: Yeah. Bancho is quick to remind him that this is bad. 927 00:49:48,719 --> 00:49:52,839 Speaker 3: Luck, like that that's the problem. It's bad luck. And then, 928 00:49:52,880 --> 00:49:55,720 Speaker 3: of course, also we meet Babe played by Aya and Joji, 929 00:49:55,880 --> 00:49:59,239 Speaker 3: who is in some she's some kind of leadership role. 930 00:49:59,320 --> 00:50:01,480 Speaker 3: She's like the lute. I think she does not tolerate 931 00:50:01,520 --> 00:50:04,759 Speaker 3: any horsing around. She might be the most like just 932 00:50:04,800 --> 00:50:09,080 Speaker 3: straight to business character. And then you meet barabas Thus 933 00:50:09,120 --> 00:50:12,680 Speaker 3: played by James Brewster Thompson, the judo guy. He seems 934 00:50:12,680 --> 00:50:15,479 Speaker 3: to be like the tough guy, the heavy gun hero 935 00:50:15,640 --> 00:50:19,400 Speaker 3: of the crew. You meet Bombay, who is Jacobira. He 936 00:50:19,560 --> 00:50:22,360 Speaker 3: is I would call him the goober of the bunch. 937 00:50:22,520 --> 00:50:26,040 Speaker 3: Like he's dressed in a funny way. He's covered in 938 00:50:26,080 --> 00:50:29,200 Speaker 3: pieces of flare, like he's got a hat that's studded 939 00:50:29,200 --> 00:50:31,239 Speaker 3: with all kinds of little pins. There was one part 940 00:50:31,280 --> 00:50:32,799 Speaker 3: where I paused it to try to see if I 941 00:50:32,800 --> 00:50:34,960 Speaker 3: could recognize what any of the pins are. But they're 942 00:50:35,560 --> 00:50:37,040 Speaker 3: I don't know, you know, like pins you would wear 943 00:50:37,040 --> 00:50:39,160 Speaker 3: on your lapel. But he's got tons of them all 944 00:50:39,160 --> 00:50:41,960 Speaker 3: over his hat. And then he's wearing a duster coat, 945 00:50:42,040 --> 00:50:47,400 Speaker 3: and inside the coat there are like a thousand spoons 946 00:50:47,600 --> 00:50:49,960 Speaker 3: or if I don't know what they were, some little 947 00:50:50,000 --> 00:50:54,800 Speaker 3: metallic objects just dangling inside his coat flaps. But anyway, 948 00:50:54,840 --> 00:50:57,319 Speaker 3: I was wondering, what do you call this character type? 949 00:50:57,360 --> 00:51:00,359 Speaker 3: It seems like something that's an archetype that's common enough 950 00:51:00,400 --> 00:51:02,760 Speaker 3: you need a word for it. It is the character 951 00:51:02,800 --> 00:51:07,759 Speaker 3: who is the funny, cowardly but somehow still lovable complainer, 952 00:51:08,000 --> 00:51:10,399 Speaker 3: very much like Bill Paxton and Aliens. 953 00:51:10,920 --> 00:51:14,520 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, or to a even more comedic extreme. You 954 00:51:14,600 --> 00:51:19,680 Speaker 1: had the sidekick of El Santo in the Dracula movie. 955 00:51:19,760 --> 00:51:22,040 Speaker 1: We discussed in a recent episode. Oh yeah, what was 956 00:51:22,080 --> 00:51:25,799 Speaker 1: his name? Abio or something it was. I know it 957 00:51:25,880 --> 00:51:28,400 Speaker 1: was parakeet in Spanish. 958 00:51:28,400 --> 00:51:32,359 Speaker 3: What was it, periico, Yes, yeah, And then there were 959 00:51:32,360 --> 00:51:35,000 Speaker 3: some other ones. There is Boomerang, who I think she 960 00:51:35,080 --> 00:51:39,600 Speaker 3: does like radar and tracking stuff. And then there's a guy. Yeah, 961 00:51:39,680 --> 00:51:41,560 Speaker 3: there's a guy named Boxer who we don't really get 962 00:51:41,560 --> 00:51:43,600 Speaker 3: to know very well at all. I think maybe he's 963 00:51:43,800 --> 00:51:45,200 Speaker 3: I can't remember if he's the same guy who you 964 00:51:45,239 --> 00:51:48,439 Speaker 3: see with a bunch of grenades on him. But there's 965 00:51:48,440 --> 00:51:50,640 Speaker 3: one thing I noticed on the Marianne. They've almost got 966 00:51:50,719 --> 00:51:54,680 Speaker 3: like a mess haul on the plane in the Marianne, 967 00:51:54,680 --> 00:51:57,400 Speaker 3: and they've got a refrigerator full of guns, just like 968 00:51:57,480 --> 00:51:58,440 Speaker 3: in split second. 969 00:51:58,920 --> 00:52:02,279 Speaker 1: Yeah, I noticed that. That's an interesting touch. I don't 970 00:52:02,280 --> 00:52:05,080 Speaker 1: know why that is. It just seems like you're dealing 971 00:52:05,160 --> 00:52:08,320 Speaker 1: with a bunch of props, especially in kind of a 972 00:52:08,360 --> 00:52:11,920 Speaker 1: cyberpunk or dystopian future scenario, why not just use that 973 00:52:12,000 --> 00:52:13,960 Speaker 1: old refrigerator for gun storage. 974 00:52:14,280 --> 00:52:17,800 Speaker 3: So the Marianne is closing in on this island eight Jo, 975 00:52:17,920 --> 00:52:20,319 Speaker 3: and we know the thieves are there to recover those 976 00:52:20,360 --> 00:52:23,320 Speaker 3: conductive plastics and computer chips that we read about in 977 00:52:23,360 --> 00:52:27,320 Speaker 3: the opening text, and the plane spots a giant complex 978 00:52:27,400 --> 00:52:30,080 Speaker 3: with the landing pad on top of this three hundred 979 00:52:30,160 --> 00:52:33,600 Speaker 3: story central tower, and they go into land on top 980 00:52:33,680 --> 00:52:37,160 Speaker 3: of the tower, and where I noticed that the Marianne 981 00:52:37,239 --> 00:52:40,319 Speaker 3: is a fixed wing VTOL aircraft because it doesn't have 982 00:52:40,320 --> 00:52:42,239 Speaker 3: to do a horizontal runway landing. It just kind of 983 00:52:42,320 --> 00:52:43,640 Speaker 3: jets down like a helicopter. 984 00:52:44,280 --> 00:52:48,160 Speaker 1: Yeah, ultimately it benefits from being a model airplane. Yeah, 985 00:52:48,280 --> 00:52:51,040 Speaker 1: they could despite how it looks, they can just make 986 00:52:51,080 --> 00:52:53,200 Speaker 1: it land however they need it to land. I mean, 987 00:52:53,200 --> 00:52:55,239 Speaker 1: but it's an impressive model. The models look good in 988 00:52:55,239 --> 00:52:55,640 Speaker 1: this film. 989 00:52:55,680 --> 00:52:57,760 Speaker 3: I mean, I guess you got the Harrier jets and stuff, 990 00:52:57,760 --> 00:52:59,960 Speaker 3: so maybe this is a descendant of that sort of thing. 991 00:53:00,480 --> 00:53:05,319 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's a specialized technology that it's quite complicated. 992 00:53:05,640 --> 00:53:08,799 Speaker 1: But yeah, this film, I mean, this particular airplane does 993 00:53:08,840 --> 00:53:11,120 Speaker 1: not really look like a Harrier jet or an ospray 994 00:53:11,200 --> 00:53:13,359 Speaker 1: or anything like that. So I don't know, it's kind 995 00:53:13,360 --> 00:53:15,759 Speaker 1: of a mystery how it's achieving this. But yeah, sci Fi, 996 00:53:15,840 --> 00:53:16,279 Speaker 1: you let it. 997 00:53:16,200 --> 00:53:19,360 Speaker 3: Go, right. So they're doing all their initial scanning and assessment, 998 00:53:19,560 --> 00:53:21,560 Speaker 3: they pop out of the belly of the plane like 999 00:53:21,600 --> 00:53:23,360 Speaker 3: coming down through a hatch. They don't even have a 1000 00:53:23,440 --> 00:53:26,239 Speaker 3: ladder or stairs or anything. Why is that? Like, how 1001 00:53:26,239 --> 00:53:29,040 Speaker 3: do they get back into the plane. But they just 1002 00:53:29,120 --> 00:53:31,200 Speaker 3: drop out through this hatch in the bottom of the plane. 1003 00:53:32,239 --> 00:53:34,640 Speaker 3: And they already know, of course about the computer and 1004 00:53:34,640 --> 00:53:37,160 Speaker 3: everything on the island. Then they know there's a Chiron five. 1005 00:53:37,280 --> 00:53:39,879 Speaker 3: They're talking about it, so they're not in the dark here. 1006 00:53:39,920 --> 00:53:42,279 Speaker 3: I think they know what they're getting into. And while 1007 00:53:42,280 --> 00:53:45,200 Speaker 3: they're scoping the place out, they see a crashed helicopter 1008 00:53:45,360 --> 00:53:47,680 Speaker 3: on fire. They look at it through binoculars and see 1009 00:53:47,719 --> 00:53:50,759 Speaker 3: that it is a helicopter of the Texas Air Rangers. 1010 00:53:51,120 --> 00:53:54,319 Speaker 3: So I suppose their jurisdiction includes the Pacific Ocean. And 1011 00:53:54,400 --> 00:53:55,880 Speaker 3: they don't quite know what to make of this, but 1012 00:53:55,920 --> 00:53:59,759 Speaker 3: they're like, oh okay, now. Bombay, in his role as 1013 00:53:59,800 --> 00:54:02,279 Speaker 3: the the Hudson of the movie, the Bill Paxton of 1014 00:54:02,320 --> 00:54:04,400 Speaker 3: the movie, is of course afraid. Once he sees the 1015 00:54:04,400 --> 00:54:07,160 Speaker 3: crash helicopter, He's like, let's go to Borneo. I got 1016 00:54:07,160 --> 00:54:10,480 Speaker 3: a great tip on a club medsite plastic. He wouldn't believe, 1017 00:54:11,360 --> 00:54:13,520 Speaker 3: but anyway, a portion of the crew breaks off to 1018 00:54:13,600 --> 00:54:17,359 Speaker 3: head inside, while I believe Boomerang and Boxer stay up 1019 00:54:17,520 --> 00:54:20,200 Speaker 3: by the aircraft and pretty much as soon as they 1020 00:54:20,200 --> 00:54:24,160 Speaker 3: are left alone, they're like immediately killed unceremoniously. The defenses 1021 00:54:24,200 --> 00:54:26,080 Speaker 3: of the Chiron five just slaughter them. 1022 00:54:26,360 --> 00:54:31,600 Speaker 1: Yeah, because even though the supercomputer here was seemingly defeated 1023 00:54:31,840 --> 00:54:33,840 Speaker 1: or there was enough of a stalemate where it's no 1024 00:54:33,920 --> 00:54:36,880 Speaker 1: longer a threat, it still has a threat to the 1025 00:54:36,880 --> 00:54:39,839 Speaker 1: outside world anyway. It still has these very active self 1026 00:54:39,920 --> 00:54:42,840 Speaker 1: defense mechanisms that are quite lethal. 1027 00:54:43,360 --> 00:54:46,720 Speaker 3: Right. So, the breakoff part of the crew is wandering 1028 00:54:46,760 --> 00:54:49,560 Speaker 3: around inside the facility. They're trying to figure out how 1029 00:54:49,600 --> 00:54:53,320 Speaker 3: to get to the chips they're looking for, and Captain 1030 00:54:53,360 --> 00:54:56,239 Speaker 3: Banchow is musing about whiskey. He says, it sure would 1031 00:54:56,280 --> 00:54:57,800 Speaker 3: be nice to have some of that two thousand and 1032 00:54:57,840 --> 00:55:00,239 Speaker 3: one whiskey right now. I hear it was ship here 1033 00:55:00,280 --> 00:55:02,800 Speaker 3: a long time ago, used to make the robots dance. 1034 00:55:04,680 --> 00:55:06,960 Speaker 3: So he claims he's going to find some. But I 1035 00:55:07,000 --> 00:55:09,239 Speaker 3: wonder if that will come back later in the plot. 1036 00:55:09,480 --> 00:55:11,160 Speaker 1: Oh, you know, it just might. 1037 00:55:19,840 --> 00:55:23,160 Speaker 3: So the infiltration continues. While they're wandering around in the facility, 1038 00:55:23,400 --> 00:55:28,319 Speaker 3: there is a wonderful Pepsi machine jump scare, and I 1039 00:55:28,360 --> 00:55:31,000 Speaker 3: will say this is a huge improvement on the standard 1040 00:55:31,000 --> 00:55:34,960 Speaker 3: cat In a closet jump scare, Bombay gets freaked out 1041 00:55:35,000 --> 00:55:38,400 Speaker 3: when a pepsi machine lunges out of him, lunges at 1042 00:55:38,480 --> 00:55:41,440 Speaker 3: him out of the dark, and they start talking about this. 1043 00:55:41,520 --> 00:55:46,280 Speaker 3: They're like, wow, robo cola, and Brooklyn says, robo cola 1044 00:55:46,400 --> 00:55:49,160 Speaker 3: pepsi type. It was produced in twenty twenty three on 1045 00:55:49,239 --> 00:55:53,160 Speaker 3: Island eight jo It's precious and the reference to it 1046 00:55:53,200 --> 00:55:55,480 Speaker 3: is precious. It actually reminds me of a very poignant 1047 00:55:55,480 --> 00:55:58,080 Speaker 3: scene in Cormick McCarthy's The Road where they drink a 1048 00:55:58,120 --> 00:56:01,000 Speaker 3: scavenged Coca cola and they talk about how good it is. 1049 00:56:01,880 --> 00:56:04,359 Speaker 1: I think about that every time I think about having 1050 00:56:04,640 --> 00:56:07,760 Speaker 1: a Coca cola, or I guess in this case of pepsi. 1051 00:56:07,400 --> 00:56:09,160 Speaker 3: Well, you think how much better it would be if 1052 00:56:09,239 --> 00:56:11,120 Speaker 3: if there were there were nothing this sweet in the 1053 00:56:11,120 --> 00:56:11,920 Speaker 3: world anymore. 1054 00:56:12,200 --> 00:56:14,200 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, if you haven't had one in a while, 1055 00:56:14,239 --> 00:56:17,560 Speaker 1: there's nothing that sweet in the world anymore, right, Yeah, 1056 00:56:17,960 --> 00:56:20,520 Speaker 1: So yeah, imagine that the sweetest thing you've had is 1057 00:56:20,520 --> 00:56:24,239 Speaker 1: a carrot, and then you're going from that to robocola 1058 00:56:24,239 --> 00:56:27,239 Speaker 1: pepsi type. I also love that this implies, or maybe 1059 00:56:27,640 --> 00:56:31,719 Speaker 1: more than imply, it's explicitly states that pepsi in the 1060 00:56:31,760 --> 00:56:35,400 Speaker 1: future is made in the same facility. 1061 00:56:35,239 --> 00:56:38,920 Speaker 3: As the robots mex kill people. 1062 00:56:39,080 --> 00:56:42,239 Speaker 1: Yeah, well robots to kill people, but also this extremely 1063 00:56:42,480 --> 00:56:48,720 Speaker 1: volatile h you know, super element text Mexia or mex Texia. 1064 00:56:48,560 --> 00:56:52,160 Speaker 3: Tex mex Mexium tex Mexium. Yes, that's a good point. 1065 00:56:52,160 --> 00:56:55,759 Speaker 3: But I was also like, does this robocola? Does this 1066 00:56:55,840 --> 00:56:59,040 Speaker 3: mean it's for the robots to drink or is it 1067 00:56:59,160 --> 00:57:03,799 Speaker 3: just roboc like the monoail cafe in North Haverbrook, you know, 1068 00:57:03,920 --> 00:57:06,239 Speaker 3: is it just like everybody's got robot fever? So you 1069 00:57:06,600 --> 00:57:08,560 Speaker 3: know when you go into the store, everything's called that, 1070 00:57:08,640 --> 00:57:11,440 Speaker 3: it's you know, robo glue, and I don't know what 1071 00:57:11,480 --> 00:57:14,200 Speaker 3: people buy in the future, robo chips. 1072 00:57:14,480 --> 00:57:16,600 Speaker 1: Yeah, I just took it to be the The cola 1073 00:57:16,760 --> 00:57:19,800 Speaker 1: delivery system is robocola, and this one has pepsi, so 1074 00:57:19,840 --> 00:57:22,520 Speaker 1: it's pepsi type. It feels good looking back. I think 1075 00:57:22,520 --> 00:57:25,080 Speaker 1: I'm correct here, Joe, And this may be the last 1076 00:57:25,320 --> 00:57:28,080 Speaker 1: element of the film that I fully understood. Of course, yes, 1077 00:57:28,240 --> 00:57:30,080 Speaker 1: it's kept rolling on. Yeah. Yeah. 1078 00:57:30,280 --> 00:57:33,480 Speaker 3: So the team starts going down an elevator and Brooklyn 1079 00:57:33,600 --> 00:57:36,520 Speaker 3: suggests because he realizes that part of the robot war 1080 00:57:36,560 --> 00:57:38,800 Speaker 3: took place here, He's like, hey, what if we were 1081 00:57:38,840 --> 00:57:42,120 Speaker 3: to harvest gun head parts here instead of chiron chips. 1082 00:57:42,120 --> 00:57:45,000 Speaker 3: He says gun heads are very valuable, but a Captain 1083 00:57:45,040 --> 00:57:47,640 Speaker 3: Banchow says, no, we are here for the chips. We're 1084 00:57:47,680 --> 00:57:50,400 Speaker 3: here for the conductive plastic. We do not want gun 1085 00:57:50,400 --> 00:57:51,440 Speaker 3: head parts. 1086 00:57:51,520 --> 00:57:52,160 Speaker 1: Very sensible. 1087 00:57:52,240 --> 00:57:54,760 Speaker 3: Yes, Brooklyn and Bancho have a face off here where 1088 00:57:54,880 --> 00:57:57,800 Speaker 3: banshow he it's kind of like the part in Jaws 1089 00:57:57,840 --> 00:58:01,880 Speaker 3: where Quinn crushes his organic can and then Hooper crushes 1090 00:58:01,920 --> 00:58:07,000 Speaker 3: his styrofoam cup, but instead it's that Ban show pops 1091 00:58:07,000 --> 00:58:12,920 Speaker 3: open his cool ancient cigurio case and then Brooklyn opens 1092 00:58:13,000 --> 00:58:15,600 Speaker 3: up his cigarette case, except it's full of carrot sticks. 1093 00:58:15,920 --> 00:58:16,800 Speaker 1: Yeah. 1094 00:58:16,840 --> 00:58:18,960 Speaker 3: But then right after this light moment, there is a 1095 00:58:19,000 --> 00:58:21,680 Speaker 3: disaster because something attacks them in the elevator. I think 1096 00:58:21,680 --> 00:58:25,440 Speaker 3: it's the defenses of the Chiron five Ban Show Captain 1097 00:58:25,480 --> 00:58:29,480 Speaker 3: Banchow our lovely rock and roll fly boy. He is killed, 1098 00:58:30,080 --> 00:58:33,880 Speaker 3: Barabbas is killed. When Barabbas gets like a pipe shoved 1099 00:58:33,880 --> 00:58:36,440 Speaker 3: through his guts, Bancho just gets dropped down a three 1100 00:58:36,560 --> 00:58:39,919 Speaker 3: hundred story shaft. And now the original team is down 1101 00:58:39,960 --> 00:58:45,160 Speaker 3: to just Brooklyn, Babe and Bombay. And after the attack, 1102 00:58:45,240 --> 00:58:48,840 Speaker 3: they immediately pretty much meet Brenda Baki, the Texas Air 1103 00:58:48,960 --> 00:58:53,280 Speaker 3: Ranger Sergeant Nim and Babe immediately realizes who she is. 1104 00:58:53,400 --> 00:58:55,480 Speaker 3: She you know, knows, okay, this is a ranger from 1105 00:58:55,520 --> 00:58:59,880 Speaker 3: the crashed helicopter, and Brenda Baki plays her like she's 1106 00:59:00,360 --> 00:59:02,600 Speaker 3: you know, too cool for school. She's sitting there with 1107 00:59:02,640 --> 00:59:05,080 Speaker 3: a major injury. I think she has also been attacked 1108 00:59:05,080 --> 00:59:09,000 Speaker 3: by Chiron five's defense programs. But she's just sitting there, 1109 00:59:09,040 --> 00:59:11,400 Speaker 3: like bleeding, lying against a wall, and she's got a 1110 00:59:11,440 --> 00:59:13,439 Speaker 3: cigarette in her mouth and she's like got a light. 1111 00:59:14,000 --> 00:59:15,000 Speaker 3: So it's that kind of thing. 1112 00:59:15,240 --> 00:59:16,960 Speaker 1: Yeah, she's a cool, cool cucumber. 1113 00:59:17,560 --> 00:59:19,440 Speaker 3: One thing I noted that I thought was interesting she 1114 00:59:19,560 --> 00:59:22,880 Speaker 3: has some kind of medical spray. So there's a wound 1115 00:59:22,960 --> 00:59:27,360 Speaker 3: on her body. And after Brooklyn helps her, like I think, 1116 00:59:27,680 --> 00:59:30,520 Speaker 3: unstick herself from some kind of thing she's like stabbed 1117 00:59:30,520 --> 00:59:34,080 Speaker 3: into on the wall, she just heals herself by spraying 1118 00:59:34,120 --> 00:59:36,720 Speaker 3: something out of a WD FOURT y type can all 1119 00:59:36,760 --> 00:59:40,200 Speaker 3: over her wound and then she seems fine And isn't 1120 00:59:40,200 --> 00:59:44,320 Speaker 3: there I think there is first aid spray in the 1121 00:59:44,360 --> 00:59:48,560 Speaker 3: Resident Evil games. Isn't that the medical thing you get 1122 00:59:48,600 --> 00:59:48,919 Speaker 3: in there? 1123 00:59:49,520 --> 00:59:50,960 Speaker 1: I haven't played a lot of those, but I know, 1124 00:59:51,000 --> 00:59:54,280 Speaker 1: I've encountered this sort of thing in other pieces of 1125 00:59:54,280 --> 00:59:56,880 Speaker 1: futuristic media, the idea that there's some sort of spray 1126 00:59:57,480 --> 00:59:59,640 Speaker 1: or goo that can just be applied to the wound 1127 01:00:00,040 --> 01:00:01,800 Speaker 1: it does some sort of advanced healing. 1128 01:00:02,000 --> 01:00:05,600 Speaker 3: Yeah. So anyway, Nim reveals her backstory. She is there 1129 01:00:05,600 --> 01:00:09,680 Speaker 3: on the island chasing a biodroid that went berserk in 1130 01:00:09,800 --> 01:00:13,480 Speaker 3: Texas and killed its colleagues at a hyper nuclear facility. 1131 01:00:13,840 --> 01:00:16,960 Speaker 3: And she has tracked the droid here to eight to 1132 01:00:17,120 --> 01:00:21,959 Speaker 3: Island eight Jo, but Chiron five crashed her helicopter, killed her, 1133 01:00:22,040 --> 01:00:25,520 Speaker 3: her partner or her partners, her colleagues, and now she's 1134 01:00:25,520 --> 01:00:28,160 Speaker 3: all on her own. But she's still determined to catch 1135 01:00:28,200 --> 01:00:28,880 Speaker 3: that droid. 1136 01:00:29,320 --> 01:00:32,480 Speaker 1: Yeah, and unfortunately Narration guy is not here to tell 1137 01:00:32,560 --> 01:00:36,160 Speaker 1: us exactly what a biodroid is. But when we finally 1138 01:00:36,240 --> 01:00:38,720 Speaker 1: get better, looks at it like there's no question, like 1139 01:00:38,760 --> 01:00:42,280 Speaker 1: this is a this is a very Japanese cyberpunk creature. 1140 01:00:42,720 --> 01:00:46,720 Speaker 1: It's you know, this kind of like bioorganic mass of 1141 01:00:47,880 --> 01:00:51,000 Speaker 1: what might be flesh, what might be mushroom, what might 1142 01:00:51,080 --> 01:00:55,080 Speaker 1: be mechanical parts, So you know, you get this this 1143 01:00:55,160 --> 01:00:59,120 Speaker 1: biomechanical confusion from it. That is Yeah, I don't know. 1144 01:00:59,160 --> 01:01:01,040 Speaker 1: You could compare it to get but not very geagory, 1145 01:01:01,160 --> 01:01:05,480 Speaker 1: very like, there's a very based in Japanese cyberpunk, and 1146 01:01:05,600 --> 01:01:06,800 Speaker 1: it looks good, it looks creepy. 1147 01:01:06,920 --> 01:01:10,440 Speaker 3: I love the biodroid. I mean the biodroid is a 1148 01:01:10,640 --> 01:01:15,680 Speaker 3: is a humanoid shaped engine oil coated nightmare with binoculars 1149 01:01:15,680 --> 01:01:16,240 Speaker 3: for a head. 1150 01:01:16,760 --> 01:01:19,040 Speaker 1: Yeah, and it is. It is at the heart of 1151 01:01:19,080 --> 01:01:23,680 Speaker 1: Japanese cyberpunk because it's not just like the Western idea 1152 01:01:23,720 --> 01:01:27,760 Speaker 1: of becoming a machine, you know, will damage your soul. 1153 01:01:28,040 --> 01:01:30,560 Speaker 1: It's more becoming a machine well, yeah, it'll damage your soul, 1154 01:01:30,560 --> 01:01:32,480 Speaker 1: but it'll also just make you really gross. We'll do 1155 01:01:32,560 --> 01:01:33,479 Speaker 1: gross things to your. 1156 01:01:33,400 --> 01:01:37,040 Speaker 3: Body, right, Like, I could imagine the biodroids human friends 1157 01:01:37,120 --> 01:01:39,880 Speaker 3: might be like, hey, you know you smell bad and 1158 01:01:39,920 --> 01:01:42,120 Speaker 3: you are covered in engine grease? Could you take a 1159 01:01:42,160 --> 01:01:44,200 Speaker 3: shower before you hang out with us? And it would say, 1160 01:01:44,240 --> 01:01:46,200 Speaker 3: why would I need to do that? I am perfectly 1161 01:01:47,320 --> 01:01:50,480 Speaker 3: lubricated for maximum optimized efficiency. 1162 01:01:50,840 --> 01:01:54,000 Speaker 1: Yeah. So on paper, at this point, the plot's rolling 1163 01:01:54,080 --> 01:01:56,360 Speaker 1: pretty well. You know, we have this fabulous setting, we 1164 01:01:56,400 --> 01:02:00,320 Speaker 1: have this we have outside an outside four C. We 1165 01:02:00,360 --> 01:02:03,600 Speaker 1: have this outside enemy. So we have multiple pieces on. 1166 01:02:03,560 --> 01:02:07,480 Speaker 3: The table, right, now they continue their journey. Nim is 1167 01:02:07,480 --> 01:02:10,320 Speaker 3: looking for the Biodroid and the three remaining thieves are 1168 01:02:10,320 --> 01:02:13,480 Speaker 3: looking for the computer chips. But then there is a 1169 01:02:13,640 --> 01:02:16,040 Speaker 3: There are a number of attacks. There is an attack 1170 01:02:16,120 --> 01:02:19,560 Speaker 3: by sound activated mines that are part of the Chiron 1171 01:02:19,600 --> 01:02:23,040 Speaker 3: five's defense system, and they get attacked by the Biodroid, 1172 01:02:23,040 --> 01:02:25,680 Speaker 3: and Bombay is killed by the Biodroid when he is 1173 01:02:25,760 --> 01:02:28,960 Speaker 3: knocked onto a hook dangling from a chain in the 1174 01:02:29,040 --> 01:02:31,800 Speaker 3: room of the Lament Configuration, which is in the Chiron 1175 01:02:31,880 --> 01:02:36,200 Speaker 3: five facility for some reason. But eventually Brooklyn, Babe and 1176 01:02:36,320 --> 01:02:38,920 Speaker 3: Nim make their way into the heart of the Chiron 1177 01:02:39,040 --> 01:02:43,320 Speaker 3: five Level three, p. Ninety the Chiron Dome and I 1178 01:02:43,360 --> 01:02:46,840 Speaker 3: loved this set. So there was like a control room 1179 01:02:47,080 --> 01:02:50,080 Speaker 3: full of computer monitors with just skeletons sitting at them. 1180 01:02:50,120 --> 01:02:52,760 Speaker 3: I guess these are the former custodians of the facility 1181 01:02:52,800 --> 01:02:55,040 Speaker 3: who have been killed, but their bodies are still sitting 1182 01:02:55,040 --> 01:02:58,520 Speaker 3: there at their workstations. And then inside the core itself 1183 01:02:58,920 --> 01:03:03,160 Speaker 3: there is a line green lake and there's a vial 1184 01:03:03,320 --> 01:03:07,959 Speaker 3: of text mexium, this precious substance at the Chiron Core. 1185 01:03:08,120 --> 01:03:11,320 Speaker 3: I believe the Biodroid brought it here. This may be 1186 01:03:11,400 --> 01:03:13,920 Speaker 3: something I'm misunderstanding, but I was trying really hard to follow. 1187 01:03:13,960 --> 01:03:18,520 Speaker 3: I think the biodroid stole the text mexium from the 1188 01:03:18,600 --> 01:03:22,640 Speaker 3: hyper nuclear facility in Texas and for some reason brought 1189 01:03:22,680 --> 01:03:25,360 Speaker 3: it here to Island eight Jo to put into the 1190 01:03:25,360 --> 01:03:28,080 Speaker 3: core of the Chiron five. Maybe because the Chiron five 1191 01:03:28,720 --> 01:03:31,360 Speaker 3: needed needed text mexium for some reason. 1192 01:03:31,600 --> 01:03:34,080 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I guess it's the power source or something, right, 1193 01:03:34,120 --> 01:03:37,440 Speaker 1: like it needs it to fully activate itself again. 1194 01:03:37,640 --> 01:03:40,439 Speaker 3: Right. And then while they're in there in the room, 1195 01:03:40,480 --> 01:03:43,240 Speaker 3: I think the biodroid is like swimming around in the 1196 01:03:43,320 --> 01:03:46,360 Speaker 3: like it's swimming in the lime green liquid and jumping 1197 01:03:46,440 --> 01:03:48,760 Speaker 3: out at them like killer croc. And it ends up 1198 01:03:48,840 --> 01:03:52,280 Speaker 3: knocking Babe into the Limrida lake and that that of 1199 01:03:52,320 --> 01:03:54,760 Speaker 3: course is not good for her because obviously no human 1200 01:03:54,800 --> 01:03:58,200 Speaker 3: can survive this liquid. But who knows what could come 1201 01:03:58,280 --> 01:04:03,200 Speaker 3: of this submerge. And then only Brooklyn and Nim are left. 1202 01:04:03,240 --> 01:04:05,960 Speaker 3: It's just down to these two and they start fighting 1203 01:04:06,000 --> 01:04:08,880 Speaker 3: over the vial of tex mexium. They end up falling 1204 01:04:08,920 --> 01:04:11,680 Speaker 3: through a shoot down into some warehouse are There are 1205 01:04:11,760 --> 01:04:14,240 Speaker 3: multiple shoot surfing scenes in this movie. 1206 01:04:14,480 --> 01:04:16,680 Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of shoots, a lot of elevators like 1207 01:04:16,880 --> 01:04:19,720 Speaker 1: ultimately they again, they do a great job of creating 1208 01:04:20,160 --> 01:04:26,240 Speaker 1: this enormous industrial environment. There's just this other worldly world 1209 01:04:26,320 --> 01:04:30,360 Speaker 1: that is the result of supercomputer and its robots just 1210 01:04:30,400 --> 01:04:32,960 Speaker 1: doing its own thing without really much concern at all 1211 01:04:33,000 --> 01:04:34,920 Speaker 1: for humans for decades. 1212 01:04:35,080 --> 01:04:37,240 Speaker 3: Yeah. Now, at some point in here, they get attacked 1213 01:04:37,280 --> 01:04:41,040 Speaker 3: by the dreaded aerobot with the triangle of three eyes, 1214 01:04:41,080 --> 01:04:43,080 Speaker 3: and it's coming after them, and I think they escape 1215 01:04:43,080 --> 01:04:47,280 Speaker 3: it by going down yet another tube, so tube surfing 1216 01:04:47,360 --> 01:04:49,400 Speaker 3: yet again, and at some point when they get to 1217 01:04:49,400 --> 01:04:52,120 Speaker 3: the bottom, they are rescued by children. So finally we 1218 01:04:52,160 --> 01:04:55,840 Speaker 3: have a couple more human characters. Again, there are two kids. 1219 01:04:55,880 --> 01:04:58,840 Speaker 3: They are the only surviving kids of the original humans 1220 01:04:58,840 --> 01:05:01,040 Speaker 3: who took care of the Chiro. So I guess maybe 1221 01:05:01,040 --> 01:05:04,720 Speaker 3: their parents or grandparents or whatever were the people sitting 1222 01:05:04,800 --> 01:05:07,479 Speaker 3: at those consoles at the heart of the Chiron five 1223 01:05:08,280 --> 01:05:12,000 Speaker 3: and the two kids are named seven and eleven. Seven 1224 01:05:12,120 --> 01:05:15,320 Speaker 3: is the younger brother and eleven is the older sister. Now, 1225 01:05:15,320 --> 01:05:17,400 Speaker 3: when we first meet them, the kids are are they 1226 01:05:17,960 --> 01:05:20,080 Speaker 3: could you tell? Are they supposed to be dressed as 1227 01:05:20,280 --> 01:05:23,200 Speaker 3: robots like they're trying to blend in in the facility, 1228 01:05:23,400 --> 01:05:26,680 Speaker 3: or are they just wearing some kind of protective suit. 1229 01:05:27,000 --> 01:05:28,560 Speaker 1: Yeah. I wouldn't show on that either if it was 1230 01:05:28,680 --> 01:05:29,920 Speaker 1: environmental gear or what. 1231 01:05:30,360 --> 01:05:33,600 Speaker 3: But anyway, Brooklyn and Sergeant Nim get to know these 1232 01:05:33,600 --> 01:05:36,680 Speaker 3: two kids seven and eleven, and they talk about ways 1233 01:05:36,720 --> 01:05:39,040 Speaker 3: to escape the island, and they conclude the only way 1234 01:05:39,040 --> 01:05:41,800 Speaker 3: to get through the island's defenses is to go through 1235 01:05:41,920 --> 01:05:46,280 Speaker 3: chirn And so they start salvaging parts from the robot 1236 01:05:46,360 --> 01:05:50,200 Speaker 3: war gun head parts because they decide that they need 1237 01:05:50,320 --> 01:05:53,920 Speaker 3: a fully functioning gun head in order to defeat the 1238 01:05:54,000 --> 01:05:57,400 Speaker 3: aerobot so that they can get through Chiron five to 1239 01:05:57,440 --> 01:06:00,880 Speaker 3: get back to their airplane and escape. And Brooklyn thinks 1240 01:06:00,920 --> 01:06:04,240 Speaker 3: that he can repair a gunhead, but he's very clear 1241 01:06:04,320 --> 01:06:06,760 Speaker 3: he needs someone else who can pilot it, because I 1242 01:06:06,800 --> 01:06:10,440 Speaker 3: think the implication is that he is still afraid of 1243 01:06:10,560 --> 01:06:15,320 Speaker 3: piloting vehicles and maybe one of the kids would have 1244 01:06:15,360 --> 01:06:16,280 Speaker 3: to drive it or something. 1245 01:06:16,600 --> 01:06:19,080 Speaker 1: Yeah, but that's not going to work. Clearly has to 1246 01:06:19,840 --> 01:06:22,600 Speaker 1: he has to summon all of his courage. He has 1247 01:06:22,680 --> 01:06:24,840 Speaker 1: to find a way to not only fix the gun 1248 01:06:24,840 --> 01:06:28,640 Speaker 1: head but pilot it, defeat the aerobot with the gun 1249 01:06:28,680 --> 01:06:30,640 Speaker 1: head so that they can escape. Yeah. 1250 01:06:30,680 --> 01:06:33,640 Speaker 3: And meanwhile, back at the Chiron Core. Strange things are afoot. 1251 01:06:33,840 --> 01:06:37,080 Speaker 3: We see some kind of like weird creature busting out 1252 01:06:37,160 --> 01:06:40,880 Speaker 3: of the lime green pool, and there's a computer screen 1253 01:06:40,960 --> 01:06:44,320 Speaker 3: which presumably has just been showing this cybor tech screensaver 1254 01:06:44,520 --> 01:06:47,480 Speaker 3: for seven years or however long it's been. Suddenly it 1255 01:06:47,600 --> 01:06:52,560 Speaker 3: changes and it says irregular vibration detected, which is my 1256 01:06:52,640 --> 01:06:58,440 Speaker 3: favorite Beach Boys song. I'm picking up irregular vibrations, And 1257 01:06:58,480 --> 01:07:01,320 Speaker 3: of course that's because it's the biodid mock. Tw We 1258 01:07:01,400 --> 01:07:05,320 Speaker 3: get the new Biodroid reveal, because I think what has 1259 01:07:05,320 --> 01:07:10,600 Speaker 3: happened is that the Biodroid somehow absorbed or merged with Babe. 1260 01:07:11,440 --> 01:07:13,960 Speaker 1: Yeah. And this again, this is very Japanese cyberpunk. The 1261 01:07:14,000 --> 01:07:16,000 Speaker 1: idea that you could just sort of slip and fall 1262 01:07:16,080 --> 01:07:20,160 Speaker 1: into a puddle of cyberpunk and become cyberpunk very good. 1263 01:07:20,480 --> 01:07:22,920 Speaker 3: So they end up getting the human characters end up 1264 01:07:22,920 --> 01:07:28,120 Speaker 3: getting some plot exposition from a computer screen, and I 1265 01:07:28,280 --> 01:07:31,360 Speaker 3: think the computer screen is supposed to be the central 1266 01:07:31,360 --> 01:07:35,160 Speaker 3: computer of a reactivated gun head. But we learned that 1267 01:07:35,200 --> 01:07:39,160 Speaker 3: the Chiron five went dormant after the Robot War in 1268 01:07:39,320 --> 01:07:42,960 Speaker 3: order to give humanity the time to develop what it 1269 01:07:43,040 --> 01:07:45,800 Speaker 3: would need in order to conquer the entire world, and 1270 01:07:45,840 --> 01:07:48,880 Speaker 3: what it needed was tex Mexium. So I think the 1271 01:07:48,920 --> 01:07:51,480 Speaker 3: idea is like, it's like, Okay, I can't win right now. 1272 01:07:51,520 --> 01:07:54,840 Speaker 3: I'm just going to settle down and stop fighting, and 1273 01:07:55,000 --> 01:07:57,920 Speaker 3: I wait for I don't know, this hyper nuclear facility 1274 01:07:57,960 --> 01:08:01,760 Speaker 3: in Texas or whatever to get enough text Mexium that 1275 01:08:01,840 --> 01:08:03,840 Speaker 3: I can have it stolen and brought to me and 1276 01:08:03,880 --> 01:08:04,960 Speaker 3: then I'll take over the world. 1277 01:08:05,160 --> 01:08:07,240 Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean we kind of discussed this in recent 1278 01:08:07,280 --> 01:08:10,760 Speaker 1: episodes of Stuff to Blow your Mind this week about AI, Like, 1279 01:08:10,760 --> 01:08:14,800 Speaker 1: if you're any mortal AI, time doesn't matter, you could 1280 01:08:14,840 --> 01:08:16,920 Speaker 1: do things like this and be like, well, let's just 1281 01:08:16,920 --> 01:08:20,439 Speaker 1: push pause on this war, and once technology is improved, 1282 01:08:20,920 --> 01:08:23,240 Speaker 1: I'll steal it and then I will be in a 1283 01:08:23,280 --> 01:08:24,200 Speaker 1: better position to win. 1284 01:08:24,439 --> 01:08:28,280 Speaker 3: Now, eventually the humans part ways, because again I was 1285 01:08:28,320 --> 01:08:30,479 Speaker 3: finding it hard to follow exactly what's going on here, 1286 01:08:30,479 --> 01:08:34,240 Speaker 3: but I think Nim and eleven, the older sister, they 1287 01:08:34,280 --> 01:08:37,160 Speaker 3: go off on one mission to do something with the 1288 01:08:37,240 --> 01:08:41,559 Speaker 3: chiron core, and then Brooklyn and seven are there trying 1289 01:08:41,600 --> 01:08:44,040 Speaker 3: to build, trying to restore the gun head and get 1290 01:08:44,040 --> 01:08:47,200 Speaker 3: it working. And of course this movie is, you know, 1291 01:08:47,680 --> 01:08:49,639 Speaker 3: like any good movie of this type it's a good 1292 01:08:49,720 --> 01:08:54,040 Speaker 3: scrap fest, so great sets, full of compelling shattered garbage. 1293 01:08:54,120 --> 01:08:56,320 Speaker 3: The characters are crawling over and picking through. 1294 01:08:56,680 --> 01:08:58,840 Speaker 1: Yeah. I no matter what was going on with the 1295 01:08:58,880 --> 01:09:02,640 Speaker 1: dialogue or the plot, I always bought the setting and 1296 01:09:02,920 --> 01:09:07,840 Speaker 1: the props and the various robots and robot effects. As 1297 01:09:07,880 --> 01:09:12,800 Speaker 1: Gunhead eventually becomes able to talk and have long conversations 1298 01:09:12,800 --> 01:09:16,519 Speaker 1: with our hero, there's like one scene where Gunhead is 1299 01:09:16,960 --> 01:09:19,440 Speaker 1: represented by just like one of these arms or tentacles 1300 01:09:19,439 --> 01:09:22,200 Speaker 1: of Gunhead, and he's having a conversation with it, and 1301 01:09:22,439 --> 01:09:25,280 Speaker 1: it was a pretty fun scene. I love the practical effects. 1302 01:09:25,400 --> 01:09:27,679 Speaker 3: I love what a stand up guy Gunhead is. Once 1303 01:09:27,720 --> 01:09:30,000 Speaker 3: he finally starts talking and we get to know him, 1304 01:09:30,280 --> 01:09:33,720 Speaker 3: Gunhead is so positive, he's such a good friend. I 1305 01:09:33,720 --> 01:09:35,560 Speaker 3: mean it's heartwarming. 1306 01:09:35,920 --> 01:09:36,480 Speaker 1: Yeah. 1307 01:09:36,560 --> 01:09:39,799 Speaker 3: I also like, while they're doing the Gunhead assembly, Brooklyn 1308 01:09:39,960 --> 01:09:42,600 Speaker 3: is still eating carrots, and I'm thinking, how does he 1309 01:09:42,680 --> 01:09:45,400 Speaker 3: still have carrots? After all he's been through where these 1310 01:09:45,439 --> 01:09:46,519 Speaker 3: carrots coming from? 1311 01:09:47,600 --> 01:09:50,320 Speaker 1: I mean, how would he survived this long without carrots? 1312 01:09:50,320 --> 01:09:52,760 Speaker 1: I mean he must just have him secreted on his person. 1313 01:09:52,800 --> 01:09:54,720 Speaker 1: He's got him like duct taped to his leg and 1314 01:09:54,720 --> 01:09:55,920 Speaker 1: stuff underneath his clothing. 1315 01:09:56,040 --> 01:09:58,400 Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess Brooklyn has all kinds of means for 1316 01:09:58,439 --> 01:10:01,960 Speaker 3: getting carrots through customs. Yeah, but like I said, once 1317 01:10:02,000 --> 01:10:04,880 Speaker 3: the Gunhead was rebuilt, it starts talking to Brooklyn and seven, 1318 01:10:04,960 --> 01:10:07,880 Speaker 3: and it's this very positive presence in the movie. It's 1319 01:10:07,920 --> 01:10:11,000 Speaker 3: just so affirming. It really gives you, it really gives 1320 01:10:11,040 --> 01:10:14,840 Speaker 3: them confidence, and it's a great friend. But of course 1321 01:10:14,920 --> 01:10:17,719 Speaker 3: this comes down to I think one of the character 1322 01:10:17,840 --> 01:10:20,719 Speaker 3: conflicts in the movie, which is that Brooklyn is afraid 1323 01:10:20,800 --> 01:10:24,120 Speaker 3: of piloting things, but he must face his fears and 1324 01:10:24,200 --> 01:10:27,439 Speaker 3: pilot the gun Head. Now, when that happens, he starts 1325 01:10:27,439 --> 01:10:30,160 Speaker 3: piloting it. And I don't even know how to describe 1326 01:10:30,200 --> 01:10:32,360 Speaker 3: all the different ways that the gun Head moves. Like, 1327 01:10:32,600 --> 01:10:36,200 Speaker 3: the design of these robots is beautiful, practical effects work, 1328 01:10:36,360 --> 01:10:39,000 Speaker 3: all the models they must have built. I don't know 1329 01:10:39,560 --> 01:10:42,920 Speaker 3: exactly what scale they were working. But the movie in 1330 01:10:42,960 --> 01:10:45,920 Speaker 3: a way is kind of murky. I mean, like it 1331 01:10:45,920 --> 01:10:48,960 Speaker 3: doesn't give you really like clean clear looks at everything. 1332 01:10:49,040 --> 01:10:51,920 Speaker 3: But as much as you can see, it looks really good. 1333 01:10:51,960 --> 01:10:53,679 Speaker 3: The models are awesome. 1334 01:10:53,920 --> 01:10:56,160 Speaker 1: Yeah, the models are great. I think the problem and 1335 01:10:56,200 --> 01:10:59,080 Speaker 1: the reasons that I wasn't very invested in the big 1336 01:10:59,120 --> 01:11:02,800 Speaker 1: battles that tape place is that for one thing, it's 1337 01:11:02,880 --> 01:11:05,400 Speaker 1: kind of just like two robot tanks exploding at each 1338 01:11:05,439 --> 01:11:07,960 Speaker 1: other and running into each other for what seems like forever. 1339 01:11:08,280 --> 01:11:11,080 Speaker 1: But then also the environment of the very environment here 1340 01:11:11,520 --> 01:11:14,240 Speaker 1: is just unreal. It's like, like, how do I how 1341 01:11:14,280 --> 01:11:17,040 Speaker 1: do I relate to this as a human being? A 1342 01:11:17,080 --> 01:11:20,760 Speaker 1: world where tanks are moving up like vertically, yeah, for 1343 01:11:22,120 --> 01:11:24,880 Speaker 1: stories and stories and then battling each other in long 1344 01:11:24,960 --> 01:11:28,360 Speaker 1: haulways and like just industrial cathedral spaces. 1345 01:11:28,840 --> 01:11:31,040 Speaker 3: Yeah. So at this point in the movie, tank time 1346 01:11:31,080 --> 01:11:33,479 Speaker 3: has come, and a lot of what happens from here 1347 01:11:33,520 --> 01:11:35,599 Speaker 3: on out is just tank play, you know. There is 1348 01:11:36,000 --> 01:11:39,799 Speaker 3: it's tank versus tank, mech versus mech, and we're seeing 1349 01:11:39,920 --> 01:11:43,519 Speaker 3: the different types of like you know, gun head weapons 1350 01:11:43,560 --> 01:11:47,040 Speaker 3: or defenses versus Chiron five weapons or defenses. 1351 01:11:47,400 --> 01:11:51,040 Speaker 1: Yeah, it basically becomes tank'sploitation in the latter stages of 1352 01:11:51,080 --> 01:11:51,960 Speaker 1: this film. 1353 01:11:52,280 --> 01:11:54,280 Speaker 3: Though, I mean just several A lot of the things 1354 01:11:54,280 --> 01:11:56,080 Speaker 3: about the gun head are great, Like I love how 1355 01:11:56,080 --> 01:12:00,639 Speaker 3: it doesn't it's not purely wheel powered or leg powered. 1356 01:12:00,760 --> 01:12:04,000 Speaker 3: It has sort of a combination of legs and wheels, 1357 01:12:04,080 --> 01:12:06,920 Speaker 3: kind of like rolling track legs. Sometimes it sort of 1358 01:12:07,000 --> 01:12:10,200 Speaker 3: walks like an enormous metal turkey with guns all over it. 1359 01:12:10,280 --> 01:12:12,679 Speaker 3: Other times it has tracks and rolls like a tank. 1360 01:12:13,360 --> 01:12:15,439 Speaker 1: Yeah, so it has different modes I guess to deal 1361 01:12:15,479 --> 01:12:16,920 Speaker 1: with different terrain types. 1362 01:12:17,280 --> 01:12:19,880 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's interesting. So I know, big thumbs up to 1363 01:12:19,920 --> 01:12:22,960 Speaker 3: the gun Head. I like the gun Head. But anyway, 1364 01:12:23,160 --> 01:12:24,960 Speaker 3: what's going on with the humans at this point? I 1365 01:12:25,000 --> 01:12:28,639 Speaker 3: think there's I don't know. Again, it's it's not exactly 1366 01:12:28,680 --> 01:12:31,200 Speaker 3: the easiest to follow right here, but the Biodroid I think, 1367 01:12:31,280 --> 01:12:34,240 Speaker 3: is supposed to be returning the text mexium to the 1368 01:12:34,320 --> 01:12:38,439 Speaker 3: Chiron core, but is also just injecting itself with text 1369 01:12:38,479 --> 01:12:41,360 Speaker 3: mexium along the way, like it's using heroins. So it's 1370 01:12:41,360 --> 01:12:43,479 Speaker 3: taken it up to the core, but then like it 1371 01:12:43,520 --> 01:12:44,960 Speaker 3: stops to have a little taste. 1372 01:12:46,160 --> 01:12:47,280 Speaker 1: It earned it. It earned it. 1373 01:12:47,640 --> 01:12:50,080 Speaker 3: There's also a lot of cute stuff with Brooklyn and 1374 01:12:50,120 --> 01:12:53,360 Speaker 3: Seven bonding during their gun Head quest throughout the facility 1375 01:12:53,400 --> 01:12:56,120 Speaker 3: at this point, Like, well, there are some things where 1376 01:12:56,160 --> 01:12:59,000 Speaker 3: like Seven is trying to help and he's playing around 1377 01:12:59,080 --> 01:13:02,519 Speaker 3: underneath Gunhead feet and I'm like, Seven, stop doing that. 1378 01:13:02,520 --> 01:13:07,080 Speaker 3: That is very dangerous. But other times there's like one 1379 01:13:07,120 --> 01:13:10,760 Speaker 3: part where it's seven points a gun at Brooklyn a 1380 01:13:10,800 --> 01:13:13,240 Speaker 3: real gun and he makes it, you know, pewpw shooting 1381 01:13:13,280 --> 01:13:15,719 Speaker 3: sound in Brooklyn warns him not to do this because 1382 01:13:15,880 --> 01:13:19,519 Speaker 3: in a callback, it is bad luck. I'm not sure 1383 01:13:19,560 --> 01:13:21,519 Speaker 3: that's the main problem with it, but I don't know. 1384 01:13:22,000 --> 01:13:24,280 Speaker 3: Maybe there's like a dubbing translation issue. I mean, I 1385 01:13:24,280 --> 01:13:27,000 Speaker 3: could imagine like bad luck being another way to say 1386 01:13:27,040 --> 01:13:28,439 Speaker 3: that it's dangerous or something. 1387 01:13:28,640 --> 01:13:30,240 Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not sure. I think that the scenes with 1388 01:13:30,320 --> 01:13:32,479 Speaker 1: the kids tended to be the scenes where I was 1389 01:13:32,680 --> 01:13:35,439 Speaker 1: cross checking on Wikipedia to see what the plot was 1390 01:13:35,439 --> 01:13:36,320 Speaker 1: was doing at that point. 1391 01:13:36,520 --> 01:13:39,439 Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, I agree, those were some of the hardest 1392 01:13:39,479 --> 01:13:40,120 Speaker 3: to understand. 1393 01:13:40,520 --> 01:13:41,040 Speaker 1: Yeah. 1394 01:13:41,120 --> 01:13:44,160 Speaker 3: Now, now I've talked about how Gunhead is like really 1395 01:13:44,520 --> 01:13:47,960 Speaker 3: really motivating and really confident and positive. There's a great 1396 01:13:48,040 --> 01:13:54,400 Speaker 3: part where Gunheads starts doing this extended baseball metaphor to Brooklyn, Yes, 1397 01:13:54,600 --> 01:13:57,880 Speaker 3: about the Brooklyn Dodgers. He's talking about some baseball game 1398 01:13:57,920 --> 01:14:00,840 Speaker 3: where they were behind but then they fought through it, 1399 01:14:00,920 --> 01:14:04,040 Speaker 3: and I thought that was really funny. There's a part 1400 01:14:04,040 --> 01:14:07,400 Speaker 3: where the Gunhead has to be refueled using we find 1401 01:14:07,400 --> 01:14:11,960 Speaker 3: out that he can refuel with any ethanol based something. 1402 01:14:12,000 --> 01:14:14,559 Speaker 3: You know, basically alcohol can refuel him. And what do 1403 01:14:14,600 --> 01:14:17,640 Speaker 3: you know here's that salvage whiskey that Captain Banchot was 1404 01:14:17,680 --> 01:14:18,240 Speaker 3: talking about. 1405 01:14:18,439 --> 01:14:21,479 Speaker 1: Yeah, if you look at the images of that gun 1406 01:14:21,520 --> 01:14:24,559 Speaker 1: Head model kit that I referenced earlier, there is a 1407 01:14:24,560 --> 01:14:26,320 Speaker 1: whiskey cask attached to its leg. 1408 01:14:26,520 --> 01:14:30,400 Speaker 3: Beautiful. Now there's another thing that I didn't fully understand, 1409 01:14:30,479 --> 01:14:33,040 Speaker 3: but I enjoyed at least visually. There's some kind of 1410 01:14:33,120 --> 01:14:37,040 Speaker 3: double cross with the older sister with Eleven. At some point, 1411 01:14:37,240 --> 01:14:40,120 Speaker 3: light starts coming out of her mouth. I like this effect. 1412 01:14:40,960 --> 01:14:44,360 Speaker 3: But then she like locks up Sergeant Nim and her 1413 01:14:44,400 --> 01:14:48,679 Speaker 3: brother and she's going to initiate control for the Chiron five. 1414 01:14:48,760 --> 01:14:52,440 Speaker 3: I think she has some kind of computer implant controlling 1415 01:14:52,479 --> 01:14:55,639 Speaker 3: her behavior, Like she's she's a double a sleeper agent 1416 01:14:55,760 --> 01:14:59,800 Speaker 3: for the AI. Yes, and then we get this a 1417 01:14:59,800 --> 01:15:04,160 Speaker 3: big gun Head versus Aerobot showdown. Aerobot is overpowered, but 1418 01:15:04,240 --> 01:15:07,360 Speaker 3: Gunhead has a strategy, and his strategy is to take 1419 01:15:07,400 --> 01:15:11,559 Speaker 3: out Aerobot's three triangle eyes. And eventually Brooklyn and the 1420 01:15:11,600 --> 01:15:17,360 Speaker 3: gun Head are victorious. They destroy the Aerobot. Meanwhile, somehow 1421 01:15:17,840 --> 01:15:21,559 Speaker 3: Sergeant Nim stops Eleven from doing something with the text 1422 01:15:21,560 --> 01:15:23,519 Speaker 3: Mexium vile. I'm not sure what it was, but she 1423 01:15:23,600 --> 01:15:26,479 Speaker 3: was trying to do something bad in the Chiron five core, 1424 01:15:27,080 --> 01:15:30,200 Speaker 3: and Nim she gets in there and stops it from happening. 1425 01:15:30,680 --> 01:15:33,559 Speaker 3: And then the Biodroid is in the mix here and 1426 01:15:34,680 --> 01:15:37,760 Speaker 3: I couldn't exactly follow what's going on, but at some 1427 01:15:38,040 --> 01:15:42,120 Speaker 3: point the biodroid like vaporizes itself. I don't know if 1428 01:15:42,120 --> 01:15:46,080 Speaker 3: she has. It's like the babe part of the Babe 1429 01:15:46,080 --> 01:15:48,840 Speaker 3: part that is now absorbed into the biodroid, has a 1430 01:15:48,880 --> 01:15:53,000 Speaker 3: crisis of conscience when it sees Brooklyn and the kids 1431 01:15:53,040 --> 01:15:55,240 Speaker 3: there and Sergeant Nim, and it's like, no, what have 1432 01:15:55,320 --> 01:15:58,040 Speaker 3: I become? And then just like turns to light. 1433 01:15:58,479 --> 01:16:02,000 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, one thing that it probably could have used 1434 01:16:02,040 --> 01:16:03,880 Speaker 1: more fleshing out if we were to really buy it. 1435 01:16:04,000 --> 01:16:06,040 Speaker 1: It kind of comes out of left field here, but yeah, 1436 01:16:06,040 --> 01:16:06,759 Speaker 1: but fair enough. 1437 01:16:06,800 --> 01:16:09,840 Speaker 3: But anyway, you get a standard escape sequence. Elevin is 1438 01:16:09,840 --> 01:16:13,040 Speaker 3: somehow cured of her Chiron glowing mouth. I don't know 1439 01:16:13,080 --> 01:16:15,280 Speaker 3: what happens to fix that, but now it seems like 1440 01:16:15,320 --> 01:16:18,599 Speaker 3: she's okay, and the four humans all scramble to escape 1441 01:16:18,600 --> 01:16:21,320 Speaker 3: to the Marianne and they fly away. Oh and then 1442 01:16:21,360 --> 01:16:23,360 Speaker 3: the best thing of all with the ending is as 1443 01:16:23,360 --> 01:16:25,920 Speaker 3: they're flying away, they get a message on the computer 1444 01:16:26,040 --> 01:16:28,920 Speaker 3: screen in the plane. They say Gunhead has sent a 1445 01:16:28,960 --> 01:16:31,760 Speaker 3: message to us. In fact, they thought he was destroyed, 1446 01:16:31,800 --> 01:16:34,960 Speaker 3: but he's alive back on the island, and he says 1447 01:16:34,960 --> 01:16:39,280 Speaker 3: the Gunhead Battalion has completed its mission. And then we 1448 01:16:39,400 --> 01:16:42,120 Speaker 3: get we get a very charming carrot chomp from Brooklyn 1449 01:16:42,160 --> 01:16:42,960 Speaker 3: right at the end. 1450 01:16:45,000 --> 01:16:49,479 Speaker 1: And that is Gunhead. It's a like, I say, I think, 1451 01:16:49,520 --> 01:16:52,679 Speaker 1: a great film to put on in the background, given 1452 01:16:52,720 --> 01:16:55,720 Speaker 1: how wonderful the visuals are. It's it was not that 1453 01:16:55,800 --> 01:16:59,760 Speaker 1: surprising to learn that Canadian electro industrial band Frontline Assembly 1454 01:17:00,240 --> 01:17:03,600 Speaker 1: used with permission, gun Head footage as the basis for 1455 01:17:03,640 --> 01:17:07,200 Speaker 1: their nineteen ninety two music video Mind Phaser. And they 1456 01:17:07,240 --> 01:17:11,080 Speaker 1: didn't just use the film's excellent footage. They actually shot 1457 01:17:11,120 --> 01:17:14,439 Speaker 1: themselves in costumes that looked like they belonged in gun 1458 01:17:14,479 --> 01:17:17,840 Speaker 1: Head and inserted themselves into the world. So look that 1459 01:17:17,920 --> 01:17:20,080 Speaker 1: up Mind Phaser if you want to see just flashes 1460 01:17:20,120 --> 01:17:20,759 Speaker 1: of this film. 1461 01:17:21,000 --> 01:17:24,960 Speaker 3: Oh interesting, I hope one of them became a biodroid. 1462 01:17:25,680 --> 01:17:28,920 Speaker 1: I think they all become biodroids. It's kind of the 1463 01:17:29,120 --> 01:17:31,400 Speaker 1: electro industrial dream, right, Yeah. 1464 01:17:31,439 --> 01:17:33,280 Speaker 3: I love the biodroid. I love it. 1465 01:17:33,520 --> 01:17:36,880 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, the biodroid is good, and I think the 1466 01:17:36,920 --> 01:17:41,320 Speaker 1: biodroid is ultimately more relatable because it is humanoid. The tank. 1467 01:17:42,479 --> 01:17:46,200 Speaker 1: I mean, I love sci fi tanks. I love movies 1468 01:17:46,200 --> 01:17:48,400 Speaker 1: with sci fi tanks in them. I build sci fi 1469 01:17:48,439 --> 01:17:52,200 Speaker 1: tanks sometimes. But it was just I was kind of 1470 01:17:52,200 --> 01:17:55,280 Speaker 1: hard to get behind these admittedly cool sci fi tanks 1471 01:17:55,280 --> 01:17:57,200 Speaker 1: in this film, and I was thinking about this. I 1472 01:17:57,200 --> 01:17:58,880 Speaker 1: was trying to think, well, why is that? And then 1473 01:17:58,880 --> 01:18:01,439 Speaker 1: I had to ask myself, well, what tank movies do 1474 01:18:01,520 --> 01:18:04,559 Speaker 1: I actually like? And I think the for me, the 1475 01:18:04,560 --> 01:18:08,240 Speaker 1: best tank heavy movie I can think of is Kelly's Heroes. 1476 01:18:08,800 --> 01:18:09,559 Speaker 3: I've never seen it. 1477 01:18:09,760 --> 01:18:12,280 Speaker 1: Oh it's good. It's you know, World War two kind 1478 01:18:12,280 --> 01:18:17,360 Speaker 1: of a heisty situation, uh, you know, rogue characters, heavily 1479 01:18:17,360 --> 01:18:20,519 Speaker 1: involves tanks. The tanks are important to the plot, but 1480 01:18:20,960 --> 01:18:23,760 Speaker 1: not more important than the people, you know, And I 1481 01:18:23,920 --> 01:18:25,400 Speaker 1: guess it kind of comes down to sort of the 1482 01:18:25,439 --> 01:18:28,400 Speaker 1: reality of tank warfare too. Like tanks cannot exist on 1483 01:18:28,439 --> 01:18:32,439 Speaker 1: their own. Tanks need uh support from from from human 1484 01:18:32,439 --> 01:18:35,000 Speaker 1: beings as well, both inside and out. And that can 1485 01:18:35,040 --> 01:18:36,840 Speaker 1: be said for the plot of a film as well. 1486 01:18:37,360 --> 01:18:39,759 Speaker 1: Because when I started looking at lists of tank movies. 1487 01:18:39,960 --> 01:18:41,920 Speaker 1: Granted there were many that I had not seen, but 1488 01:18:41,960 --> 01:18:44,240 Speaker 1: there were others where I'm like, oh, that that was 1489 01:18:44,280 --> 01:18:46,080 Speaker 1: no good. I did not like that. You have had 1490 01:18:46,080 --> 01:18:48,160 Speaker 1: a sci fi tank, but it wasn't that good. The 1491 01:18:48,680 --> 01:18:51,719 Speaker 1: sci fi tanks are best in my opinion, when they're 1492 01:18:51,760 --> 01:18:53,920 Speaker 1: they're utilized within the film, like they show up in 1493 01:18:53,960 --> 01:18:56,960 Speaker 1: a couple of scenes, but they're not the whole deal. 1494 01:18:57,040 --> 01:18:59,680 Speaker 3: Yeah, I like the I like the digital tanks in 1495 01:18:59,720 --> 01:19:00,120 Speaker 3: trent On. 1496 01:19:00,720 --> 01:19:04,519 Speaker 1: Those were good tanks. Yeah. I think another thing about 1497 01:19:04,560 --> 01:19:08,040 Speaker 1: like mech combat, and in this case mech tank combat 1498 01:19:08,400 --> 01:19:10,600 Speaker 1: is that, like I said, when they were battling each other, 1499 01:19:10,680 --> 01:19:12,160 Speaker 1: it were just kind of exploding at each other. 1500 01:19:12,240 --> 01:19:12,639 Speaker 3: Yeah. 1501 01:19:12,760 --> 01:19:16,120 Speaker 1: Robot Jocks, which granted is more about more humanoid robots 1502 01:19:16,840 --> 01:19:19,639 Speaker 1: in those battles, like everything they did mattered, like they 1503 01:19:19,640 --> 01:19:22,559 Speaker 1: were setting up particular moves as being important and there 1504 01:19:22,560 --> 01:19:27,120 Speaker 1: was discussion about what they were. So we saw less 1505 01:19:27,120 --> 01:19:27,920 Speaker 1: of that in this for sure. 1506 01:19:27,960 --> 01:19:31,040 Speaker 3: I'd say the color palettes of robot Jocks versus gunheader 1507 01:19:31,280 --> 01:19:38,000 Speaker 3: entirely opposite. Yeah, Robot Jocks is dominated by bright light 1508 01:19:38,120 --> 01:19:41,040 Speaker 3: colors and takes place in broad daylight where you get 1509 01:19:41,040 --> 01:19:43,680 Speaker 3: a very clear picture of exactly what you're looking at 1510 01:19:43,840 --> 01:19:48,840 Speaker 3: to an almost comical extent, whereas Gunhead is very it's more, 1511 01:19:49,000 --> 01:19:52,720 Speaker 3: you know, the dark, gritty, cyberpunk thing where everything in 1512 01:19:52,760 --> 01:19:55,479 Speaker 3: the movie looks kind of like muddy and grimy and 1513 01:19:55,520 --> 01:19:58,120 Speaker 3: dimly lit, so you never get a really clear look 1514 01:19:58,120 --> 01:19:58,719 Speaker 3: at anything. 1515 01:19:59,200 --> 01:20:02,160 Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's still well, it's beautiful in its own way. Like, 1516 01:20:02,600 --> 01:20:05,360 Speaker 1: I absolutely love the look of the film. All Right, 1517 01:20:05,360 --> 01:20:08,599 Speaker 1: you're probably wondering, well, where can I see Gunhead? Well, 1518 01:20:09,000 --> 01:20:12,160 Speaker 1: it looks like it has streamed recently on Prime, but 1519 01:20:12,280 --> 01:20:14,759 Speaker 1: it's not currently available to us anyway at this point 1520 01:20:14,800 --> 01:20:18,439 Speaker 1: on Prime. There's a DVD that is available from Section 1521 01:20:18,520 --> 01:20:22,160 Speaker 1: twenty three Films in the United States, and that's how 1522 01:20:22,160 --> 01:20:26,200 Speaker 1: we watched it. We actually rented it from Videodrome, our 1523 01:20:26,240 --> 01:20:30,519 Speaker 1: local video store in Atlanta, Videodrome dot TV, so that's 1524 01:20:30,520 --> 01:20:32,120 Speaker 1: how we got to see it. But I believe there's 1525 01:20:32,120 --> 01:20:35,320 Speaker 1: also a copy of this on archive dot org as well. 1526 01:20:35,200 --> 01:20:36,960 Speaker 3: For future historians to refer to. 1527 01:20:37,400 --> 01:20:40,320 Speaker 1: Yeah, but of course stuff comes and goes on streaming platforms. 1528 01:20:40,360 --> 01:20:43,080 Speaker 1: For instance, when we reviewed Robot Jocks, it was not 1529 01:20:43,160 --> 01:20:46,639 Speaker 1: available on Amazon Prime. Now it's on Amazon Prime as 1530 01:20:46,640 --> 01:20:50,000 Speaker 1: of this recording. So you know, just be patient. Sometimes 1531 01:20:50,000 --> 01:20:51,240 Speaker 1: in these films pop back up. 1532 01:20:51,600 --> 01:20:55,000 Speaker 3: We were told when we reviewed Robot Jocks by several 1533 01:20:55,040 --> 01:20:59,080 Speaker 3: listeners that it was quite coincidentally available on a platform 1534 01:20:59,160 --> 01:21:04,719 Speaker 3: called too b Yes, tub I Yes. If you haven't 1535 01:21:04,720 --> 01:21:06,760 Speaker 3: listened to our Robot Jacks episode, go listen to that. 1536 01:21:06,840 --> 01:21:07,800 Speaker 3: You'll understand the joke. 1537 01:21:08,160 --> 01:21:10,559 Speaker 1: All right, We're gonna go ahead and close it out here, 1538 01:21:10,680 --> 01:21:12,920 Speaker 1: But obviously we'd love to hear from everybody out there, 1539 01:21:13,000 --> 01:21:15,160 Speaker 1: people who saw this film back in the day, people 1540 01:21:15,200 --> 01:21:17,599 Speaker 1: who saw it because we mentioned it on the show. 1541 01:21:18,040 --> 01:21:19,760 Speaker 1: We'd love to hear from anyone out there who's more 1542 01:21:19,840 --> 01:21:24,759 Speaker 1: versed in, say Japanese cyberpunk, Japanese science fiction in general. 1543 01:21:24,800 --> 01:21:26,599 Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on this film and its place 1544 01:21:26,880 --> 01:21:30,000 Speaker 1: in Japanese cinema. What are your thoughts on tank movies? 1545 01:21:30,040 --> 01:21:33,640 Speaker 1: Do you have a favorite example of tank exploitation? If so, 1546 01:21:34,200 --> 01:21:34,720 Speaker 1: let us know. 1547 01:21:35,120 --> 01:21:37,800 Speaker 3: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Seth 1548 01:21:37,880 --> 01:21:40,000 Speaker 3: Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in touch 1549 01:21:40,040 --> 01:21:42,160 Speaker 3: with us with feedback on this episode or any other 1550 01:21:42,240 --> 01:21:44,519 Speaker 3: to suggest a topic for the future, just to say hello, 1551 01:21:44,960 --> 01:21:47,400 Speaker 3: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow 1552 01:21:47,400 --> 01:21:48,439 Speaker 3: your Mind dot. 1553 01:21:48,240 --> 01:21:58,320 Speaker 2: Com Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. 1554 01:21:58,640 --> 01:22:01,599 Speaker 2: For more podcasts My heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 1555 01:22:01,760 --> 01:22:04,760 Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.