Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind listener mail.
Speaker 2: My name is Robert.
Speaker 3: Lamb and I am Joe McCormick, and it is Monday,
Speaker 3: the day of each week that we read back messages
Speaker 3: from the Stuff to Blow your Mind mail bag. If
Speaker 3: you would like to get in touch with us, and
Speaker 3: you haven't done it before, why not give it a shot.
Speaker 3: You can email us at contact at stuff to Blow
Speaker 3: your Mind dot com. We accept messages of all kinds,
Speaker 3: you know, feedback to recent episodes, anything interesting you want
Speaker 3: to add to a topic we've talked about, or just
Speaker 3: if you want to say hi, let us know how
Speaker 3: you found out about the show, how you listen, things
Speaker 3: like that. It's all welcome. Contact at stuff to Blow
Speaker 3: your Mind dot com.
Speaker 2: All right, well, let's go ahead and dive into the
Speaker 2: mail bag here. First one here comes to us from
Speaker 2: Kenny and it's a response to our episodes cicadas and
Speaker 2: also some weird house cinema thoughts. Kenny says, Hi, Rob,
Speaker 2: Joe and JJ, we don't have any cicadas in Scotland.
Speaker 2: We have solitary noisy insects like grasshoppers, but nothing as
Speaker 2: exciting as swarms of insects that synchronize their emergence from beneath.
Speaker 2: I checked to see if there were any cicada species
Speaker 2: in the British Isles, and apparently the only native species
Speaker 2: hasn't been sighted or heard from in over fifteen years. Anyway,
Speaker 2: in twenty eighteen, my wife and I went on a
Speaker 2: honeymoon to Japan. I have always loved studio, ghibli and
Speaker 2: other anime, and I've often noted a particular kind of
Speaker 2: establishing shot for scenes set in the heat of summer.
Speaker 2: These are accompanied by a strange, warbling, buzzing noise that
Speaker 2: feels like a long, humid afternoon and the call of
Speaker 2: a cool drink and a shady tree. Having no other
Speaker 2: experience with such a sound, I had always considered it
Speaker 2: uniquely Japanese. I had no idea what caused it. A
Speaker 2: side note here, I spent many summer holidays in France
Speaker 2: and worked at a summer camp in Connecticut for many
Speaker 2: for more than a decade, so I have no idea
Speaker 2: how I didn't notice circada song in those settings. Anyway,
Speaker 2: our first day involved a walk in Tokyo, and we
Speaker 2: decided to make for the Imperial Palace. Leaving the hotel
Speaker 2: was like walking into a wall of heat. It was
Speaker 2: forty two degrees celsius and the humidity was one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: Now, wait a minute. I had to stop for a
Speaker 3: second here because I was a little skeptical. Forty two
Speaker 3: degrees celsius. If you're more familiar with the fahrenheit scale,
Speaker 3: that's like a one oh seven one o eight fahrenheit.
Speaker 3: And it just wasn't in my mind that Japan normally
Speaker 3: got that hot in the summer, you know, like the
Speaker 3: area around Tokyo would normally get that hot. So I
Speaker 3: looked it up, Kidny, nothing personal, but I did want
Speaker 3: to check, and I what I found was astonishing in
Speaker 3: the summer of twenty eighteen, that that was a time
Speaker 3: of extreme temperatures in Japan. I found a weather Underground
Speaker 3: article from Lily twenty third, twenty eighteen about an all
Speaker 3: time heat record of forty one point one degrees celsius
Speaker 3: in Kumagaya, which is like seventy kilometers from Tokyo. And
Speaker 3: as with many places around the world, it seems that
Speaker 3: most of Japan's hottest summer month temperatures on record are
Speaker 3: all within the last decade. So, Kenny, I apologize for
Speaker 3: doubting you. It seems like you were right about on
Speaker 3: the money. That was a hot, hot summer, and Japan
Speaker 3: does indeed have some hot, hot summers.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, My family, of course, just just came back
Speaker 2: from Japan a couple of weeks ago, and we had
Speaker 2: been warned about the summer heat, and you know, we
Speaker 2: didn't visit during the height of the summer heat, but
Speaker 2: there were some definitely steamy days in Kyoto and Osaka.
Speaker 2: I felt though, like we could handle it because Kyoto
Speaker 2: felt a lot like Atlanta, Georgia, and Osaka felt in
Speaker 2: many ways like New Orleans in terms of heat. But
Speaker 2: also I think Osaka has some qualities to it that
Speaker 2: are kind of like New Orleans other ways. You know,
Speaker 2: it's a big food city and so forth.
Speaker 3: Oh, but I apologize for interrupting the message. So yes,
Speaker 3: Kenny and his fiance they go out into the wall
Speaker 3: of heat on the way to the Imperial Palace.
Speaker 2: That's right, Kenny was saying it was hot, and he continues,
Speaker 2: as we had yet to acclimatize in any meaningful way.
Speaker 2: The walk quickly became pretty uncomfortable. As we bolted from
Speaker 2: one patch of shade to another. As we climbed towards
Speaker 2: a beautiful temple surrounded by modern buildings, I realized I
Speaker 2: could hear that strange buzzing noise I'd always associated with anime.
Speaker 2: We were so uncomfortable by this point that we just
Speaker 2: weren't thinking about it terribly clearly, and it was only
Speaker 2: when my wife turned to me and asked, why is
Speaker 2: that tree screaming that I really considered it. I had
Speaker 2: no idea anyway. We did acclimatize and had an amazing
Speaker 2: experience in Japan, though it was months before I figured
Speaker 2: out what that sound had been. Kenny from Glasgow, well,
Speaker 2: you know Kenny's not done here though, because he does
Speaker 2: have a weird house cinema recommendation. He writes, I've had
Speaker 2: an image burned into my brain. I was a wee boy,
Speaker 2: but I could never remember the movie it came from.
Speaker 2: It was almost a still image from an eighty sci
Speaker 2: fi animation. I recalled a sleek white robot with a
Speaker 2: hunched over elongated torso. In my memory, it stepped forward
Speaker 2: to protect a princess before being riddled with blaster bolts.
Speaker 2: I was on YouTube last week, and the algorithm served
Speaker 2: of a clip. Something about it tickled my brain, and
Speaker 2: I scrolled through one hundred or more comments looking for
Speaker 2: the name of the movie from which the clip had come. Eventually,
Speaker 2: a generous soul put me out of my misery. Starchaser
Speaker 2: the legend of orin the entire thing was available on YouTube,
Speaker 2: so I settled in to watch it. It was an
Speaker 2: obvious Star Wars ripoff, but I thought perhaps a little
Speaker 2: less kid friendly. About halfway through the runtime, a white
Speaker 2: robot made an appearance, and I practically levitated from my sofa.
Speaker 2: That was him. I'd finally found the movie my tiny
Speaker 2: past self had mostly forgotten. Anyway, the movie itself was
Speaker 2: an eye opener, and I would love to hear your
Speaker 2: take on it, have a good one.
Speaker 3: I haven't seen the movie, so I can't comment on
Speaker 3: how similar it is in terms of plot, but the
Speaker 3: poster looks like a really blatant Star Wars ripoff, except
Speaker 3: if if Darth Vader was sort of a water buffalo.
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, I have not seen this one either.
Speaker 2: This is a yeah. This This is one I don't
Speaker 2: know much about. I'm just kind of kind of scanning it.
Speaker 2: Looks like maybe it Maybe Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel
Speaker 2: didn't care for it, But you know, like a lot
Speaker 2: of things from this time period, I guess it's it's
Speaker 2: kind of accumulated a cult following, and certainly these various
Speaker 2: shows that we just got a glimpse of when we're young,
Speaker 2: they often, yeah, they grow in our minds and we
Speaker 2: have to rediscover them later.
Speaker 3: Well, now I'm really confused because I just googled starchaser
Speaker 3: legend of Orrin Villain, and I'm just seeing a guy.
Speaker 3: He's just like a guy wearing a cape and he
Speaker 3: looks mean, so like, what is the buffalo? And maybe
Speaker 3: it's a helmet he wears.
Speaker 2: Maybe, So you know, I do recognize the title now
Speaker 2: because I am reminded by the poster that it is
Speaker 2: a three D movie, So I know it came up
Speaker 2: in some of my our recent searches for three D
Speaker 2: films to cover on Weird House Cinema. And indeed, one
Speaker 2: of the posters that I've turned up says the best
Speaker 2: three D movie ever made. Why would they put it
Speaker 2: on the poster if it's not true? Yeah, And I
Speaker 2: have looked up some of the robots from it. It looks
Speaker 2: like there are several robots, and I do see the
Speaker 2: kind of hunched over robot that I believe Kenny was
Speaker 2: talking about.
Speaker 3: There's one still I found of a robot menacing a
Speaker 3: tied up human guy with what looked like I don't know, gardening.
Speaker 2: Shears, ugh, all right, Well we'll have to explore in
Speaker 2: greater detail and come back to you.
Speaker 3: All right. We got a number of responses about Weird
Speaker 3: House Cinema this week. This message comes from Brian. Brian says, hey, guys,
Speaker 3: you said the mailbag was a little low this week.
Speaker 3: My theory is that you just dive so deep every
Speaker 3: show there are no questions remaining. Well, that is categorically untrue, right,
Speaker 3: there are always questions remaining. But I appreciate the cinnamon.
Speaker 3: We do our best. Brian says, I do have a
Speaker 3: movie to watch when it's hot, when it's too hot
Speaker 3: to go outside. There is only one movie to watch,
Speaker 3: or at least one series, Predator. I would argue that
Speaker 3: it should only be watched when the temperature is ninety plus.
Speaker 3: I found myself alone for a weekend. Of course, ninety
Speaker 3: plus degrees out this would be fahrenheit and trapped inside
Speaker 3: with a heat sensitive octagenarian poodle. I assume that's in
Speaker 3: dog years. We only had one choice. Watch every Predator
Speaker 3: movie ever made. We did, but it was hard work
Speaker 3: and required a lot of beer. The classic first movie
Speaker 3: is certainly worthy of weird house treatment. Great plot, great character,
Speaker 3: is a unique villain, some folklore, gruesome deaths, and a
Speaker 3: second half featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger at his finest. I know
Speaker 3: you normally stay away from big stars worth the exception.
Speaker 3: Do we normally stay away from big stars? Not really?
Speaker 2: I mean we've covered some movies with some of the
Speaker 2: biggest stars ever in them. You know, it just varies.
Speaker 2: You know, I've always said the weirdness qualifier can be
Speaker 2: found in various places in.
Speaker 3: A film, right. I've specified this about the show a lot.
Speaker 3: We do movie We do very well known movies, big movies,
Speaker 3: and obscure and very small. We try to take them all.
Speaker 3: But Brian goes on about the Predator movies suffering through
Speaker 3: the others was brutal. In particular Predator two, with its
Speaker 3: la settings starring Danny Glover. The gym in the series
Speaker 3: was twenty twenty two's Prey, a prequel to the original
Speaker 3: by one hundred years. It was exceptional. And then Brian
Speaker 3: helpfully includes like a screenshot of all the Predator movie
Speaker 3: posters lined up with an arrow pointing to pray. So
Speaker 3: thank you, Brian. Yeah, I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 3: I haven't seen. Let's see what's my quick rundown on
Speaker 3: the series. Of course, the first one's a classic. I
Speaker 3: think it just really does not get better than the
Speaker 3: first Predator movie. If you are looking for a straight,
Speaker 3: you know, straight to the bone, macho action horror movie,
Speaker 3: that it's the best.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean it's so over the top and it's
Speaker 2: and it's machismo that if you're just if you're here
Speaker 2: for it and you just want to accept it all
Speaker 2: straight and you're like, yes, this is what it means
Speaker 2: to be masculine and great, it's it's here for you.
Speaker 2: But also it's so silly. It's the cheesemo that you
Speaker 2: can you can have plenty of laughs at it's expense
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 3: It's great Predator too. I haven't seen in many, many years,
Speaker 3: but I have kind of fond memories of you know,
Speaker 3: I remember liking Danny Glover and some of the minor cast.
Speaker 3: I think it's got Bill Paxton playing a kind of
Speaker 3: sleazy guy, and uh, you know it's set in like
Speaker 3: a in the middle of like a drug gang war,
Speaker 3: and I don't know how that setting works out well,
Speaker 3: but oh I remember it's also got Gary Busey.
Speaker 2: Oh yes it does.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Gary Busey is some kind of government agent who's
Speaker 3: like hunting the Predator to collect its technology or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is the only point where I disagree with Brian.
Speaker 2: I think Predator Too is exquisite, and it would be
Speaker 2: it would probably be my main choice for weird house
Speaker 2: cinema because it has all these strange elements to it.
Speaker 2: You've got Gary Busey, You've got a like the what's
Speaker 2: supposed to be like the Voodoo King of La or something.
Speaker 2: You've got Danny Glover as your hero, who's great in it.
Speaker 2: I mean I totally bought him as the hero. And
Speaker 2: what goes in some interesting directions with the Predators. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I love it. I think it's it's weird enough to
Speaker 2: discuss on weird Hoose.
Speaker 3: It's the movie that established the Aliens and Predator franchise
Speaker 3: crossover by showing the skull of a xenomorph inside the Predatorship.
Speaker 2: Yeah, whether that's that's possible at all now based on
Speaker 2: current cannon, but still it gave birth to a lot
Speaker 2: of really cool Alien Versus Predator media, and eventually, you know,
Speaker 2: we kind of killed that off with a couple of
Speaker 2: abysmal films.
Speaker 3: I agree about the rest of the series, Brian. So yeah,
Speaker 3: Alien Versus Predator and not good good things.
Speaker 2: I like the monsters in it, like, if you're just
Speaker 2: going to watch the monsters. It has some great shots
Speaker 2: of the enamore is the you know, the predators look cool,
Speaker 2: but everything else about it is a misstep in my opinion.
Speaker 3: I remember they made a second Alien Versus Predator movie
Speaker 3: that was just abysmal. I remember it made me feel bad.
Speaker 3: I was like, I regretted watching it, which you know,
Speaker 3: I watch a lot of bad movies and usually don't
Speaker 3: regret it. I find a way to have fun, but
Speaker 3: that one just ugh. There was the one where it
Speaker 3: had like Adrian Brody and all the people on the
Speaker 3: Predator planet and.
Speaker 2: Credit for cours. I think, yeah, and that one, I mean,
Speaker 2: I remember that one is being fun, but that's not
Speaker 2: one that stuck in my head at all afterwards.
Speaker 3: Yeah, then there was the Predator, which was the one
Speaker 3: directed by Shane Black, which I who was a cast
Speaker 3: member on the first movie. I watched that on an airplane.
Speaker 3: I remember not good, not good. But Pray. I loved Pray.
Speaker 3: I thought was great.
Speaker 2: Pray is exceptional. Yeah, I think I think Pray may
Speaker 2: be the best film in the Predator franchise at this point.
Speaker 2: I think it's my favorite, and I would and I
Speaker 2: know they're going to do I think there's talks of
Speaker 2: even in like pre production, they're talking about doing Prey too.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I'm I'm I feel like they did
Speaker 2: such a great job with one that I'm with Pray,
Speaker 2: with the first Prey film that on one hand, yes,
Speaker 2: I would love to have that experience again, or something
Speaker 2: akin to it in a different time period maybe, or
Speaker 2: the same characters. I thought Amber Mid Thunder was incredible
Speaker 2: as the as the lead in that, I thought it
Speaker 2: was yeah, solid just across the board. But also it's
Speaker 2: like it's so perfect. I'd hate for them to come
Speaker 2: back and not hit it out of the park again.
Speaker 3: You know, I really loved Prey for multiple reasons. Yeah,
Speaker 3: Amber Mid Thunder is great. I loved the way that
Speaker 3: it it does something the first one does, which is
Speaker 3: that it's very tactle like. It's very about like traps
Speaker 3: and like the tools that the that the heroes use
Speaker 3: against the predator, because we know all the predator's tools,
Speaker 3: you know, the blades and all their technology and stuff.
Speaker 3: But yeah, yeah, I really like the way she like
Speaker 3: builds that perhaps physically implausible but movie amazing tool that's
Speaker 3: like the retractable hatchet on the rope. Yeah, I thought
Speaker 3: that one was really good.
Speaker 2: I will say that the Predator the one that you
Speaker 2: watched on a plane, and I watched on a plane
Speaker 2: as well. I did find it enjoyable and funny. It
Speaker 2: has a lot of cool and hilarious back and forth
Speaker 2: rapport and it's some great effects and some callbacks that
Speaker 2: are a lot of fun. But I don't know, it's
Speaker 2: no Prey, It's no Predator one or two. So it's
Speaker 2: still worth watching on an airplane, probably if memory serves.
Speaker 2: It had some problematic choices in some of its plot
Speaker 2: elements that ended up, you know, being a bit of
Speaker 2: a misfire, but still it has some very cool Predator effects.
Speaker 2: It's it's ultimately a fun Predator flick, and you know,
Speaker 2: I'm not completely opposed to predators going up against xenomorphs. Again,
Speaker 2: like I say, I think there was a lot of
Speaker 2: great alien versus Predator media and comic books and novels
Speaker 2: and video games. I think the two do go well together.
Speaker 2: That's why they ended up being brought together. It seemed
Speaker 2: like a great versus matchup. I think that the big
Speaker 2: issue in those AVP films is that they bring the
Speaker 2: xenomorphs to Earth, and they do so in a contemporary setting,
Speaker 2: and that just should not be. That's what you need
Speaker 2: to do, is you need to do what most of
Speaker 2: I think the secondary media was doing. You need to
Speaker 2: put the Predators in the alien universe. That's where the
Speaker 2: magic happens.
Speaker 3: I think that makes more sense. So essentially the setting
Speaker 3: is like the movie Aliens. You have Alien, you have Xenomorphs,
Speaker 3: and you have space marines or something in that kind
Speaker 3: of you know, whaleen Utawni Corporation kind of stuff, and
Speaker 3: then Predators appear as the wild card.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. And I know there have been at least
Speaker 2: some comic books that have have gone into the alien world,
Speaker 2: you know, post Prometheus and Covenant and added in the Predator.
Speaker 2: I think Dan Abnett wrote one of them. I was
Speaker 2: just looking around his stuff, but I haven't read it.
Speaker 2: But still, yeah, there's still a room for a predator
Speaker 2: in there, if it's written correctly, if it's introduced in
Speaker 2: a way that I think honor is both xeno morphin
Speaker 2: predator and of course the intelligence of the audience. All right,
Speaker 2: Our next one comes fittingly from David. David says, hey,
Speaker 2: they're Robert and Joe. Just listen to your episode on Creature.
Speaker 2: Weird House Cinema is my favorite part of the podcast.
Speaker 2: And thought of something while you were talking about how
Speaker 2: the suit in the movie is basically an inversion of
Speaker 2: how Burke was in Aliens. In the movie Jurassic Park,
Speaker 2: the bloodsucking lawyer Gennaro comes across as slimy, going so
Speaker 2: far as to run away during the t Rex attack,
Speaker 2: leaving the kids in the car. In the book, however,
Speaker 2: Gennaro is almost the complete opposite. It ends up being
Speaker 2: quite the uh. I don't want to use the curse word,
Speaker 2: let's say phenomenal butt kicker here hero at the end
Speaker 2: helping Grant clear out velociraptor nests. Anyways, thought it was
Speaker 2: interesting that both creature and aliens feature opposite soup type characters,
Speaker 2: and both the novel and movie of Jurassic Park do
Speaker 2: as well. Thanks for all the awesome and informative episodes
Speaker 2: you put out, David.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember about it. So I was a big
Speaker 3: fan of Jurassic Park when I was in elementary school,
Speaker 3: and I went movie first, and then I grabbed the
Speaker 3: novel and read it. And one of the most shocking
Speaker 3: things about it was the difference in how Gennaro is
Speaker 3: depicted and in how Hammond is depicted. You know, in
Speaker 3: the movie, Hammond is a sweet old man with a
Speaker 3: maybe he's a bit naive, but he has a dream of,
Speaker 3: you know, really just doing something magical. In the book,
Speaker 3: he is a much nastier character, just a greedy old
Speaker 3: man who you know, doesn't care who he harms making money.
Speaker 3: And I Gennaro also, I think, I don't know if
Speaker 3: i'd say in the end he comes off great, but
Speaker 3: he certainly is the opposite of cowardly the way he's
Speaker 3: portrayed in the movie, Like at one point he does
Speaker 3: punch of a loss raptor in the face.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I read the book around the time the movie
Speaker 2: came out. I honestly can't remember if I read it
Speaker 2: in anticipation of the movie or afterwards, but it's been
Speaker 2: a long time, so I remember some things were different.
Speaker 2: I mainly remember the different characterization of Hammond, and I
Speaker 2: remember the t Rex having a prehensile tongue.
Speaker 3: Yeah. But I was thinking, actually a little bit more
Speaker 3: about this difference between the lyman Ward character and Creature
Speaker 3: and Burke in Aliens, and somehow I feel like it
Speaker 3: works in both cases. But it works especially because of
Speaker 3: the different age vibes they have. I don't know how
Speaker 3: old each actor actually was when they did these roles,
Speaker 3: but so lyman Ward in Creature is at first he
Speaker 3: seems like a completely selfish, cowardly, you know, corporate suit.
Speaker 3: But he's an older guy, and something about the way
Speaker 3: that he's older and off more like a dad kind
Speaker 3: of makes it make more sense when he comes around
Speaker 3: in the end and is actually, uh, sort of self sacrificing.
Speaker 3: There's something about the way that Burke reads is very boyish.
Speaker 3: His charm is very young and boyish. He's got a
Speaker 3: young kind of handsomeness Paul Reiser does in Aliens that
Speaker 3: makes it make more sense when he is actually all
Speaker 3: his charm initially is revealed to be a facade, and
Speaker 3: he's just a total slime ball.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it makes it all the more slimy when
Speaker 2: he calls Ripley kid. Yeah, it's like, like really like,
Speaker 2: she's even if we take out the cry of Sleep,
Speaker 2: like like, don't call Ripley kid. Come on, she not
Speaker 2: older than him, He's yeah, she's a great deal older
Speaker 2: than him with of course, you know, cry sleep added in.
Speaker 3: One of my all time favorite slimeballs. By the way,
Speaker 3: I just think of Burke so often he kudos to
Speaker 3: Paul Riiser. It's he does the role so well that
Speaker 3: you almost want to hate him. Yeah, but it's just
Speaker 3: acting folk. Yes, all right, let's do one last message.
Speaker 3: I think this is in response to us generally talking
Speaker 3: about alien knockoffs. A Creature was one of those movies
Speaker 3: considered an alien knockoff. Nathan says, hello again. The X
Speaker 3: Men have a recurring nemesis that are a fairly obvious
Speaker 3: attempt to ride the alien wave, called the Brood. Though
Speaker 3: the Brood are sentient, psychic, sadistic spacefarers with a more
Speaker 3: wasp like design. They first appeared in the time between
Speaker 3: alien and Aliens, March eighty two, Uncanny x Men number
Speaker 3: one fifty five, and like Joe mentioned about the film,
Speaker 3: creature seemed to anticipate some tropes later established by Cameron
Speaker 3: and Fincher at all, like the concept of a queen
Speaker 3: slash hive mind and hatchlings that incorporate traits from the
Speaker 3: host organism. Robert, do you, I know you've been into
Speaker 3: X Men lately? You know something about the Brood?
Speaker 2: I know them mainly from the Marvel Snap you know
Speaker 2: mobile game. They're they're in that, But I don't think
Speaker 2: I've ever consumed any X Men media that features them,
Speaker 2: like I think they're they there's some sort of alien
Speaker 2: creature that's similar to the Brood that were used on
Speaker 2: the old X Men animated series, but it's not the Brood,
Speaker 2: and I honestly don't remember what they did anyway, so
Speaker 2: I am only vaguely familiar with them. But yeah, this
Speaker 2: is a great point about it, and just another another
Speaker 2: one of the ripples in the media universe that alien
Speaker 2: and aliens generated.
Speaker 3: Nathan goes on to say another quick knockoff honorable mention
Speaker 3: contra for the nes uh, and then Nathan says, up up, down, down, left, right,
Speaker 3: left right be a start, that of course, being the
Speaker 3: Konami code that would give you what ninety nine lives
Speaker 3: in Contra or something.
Speaker 2: I think that was the case. I never I never
Speaker 2: owned this one. I think I'm only played at one
Speaker 2: through twice that it always felt seemed I don't know,
Speaker 2: it looked rather rough. I didn't. I wasn't sure I
Speaker 2: was ready for it. I neither like Castle Vania was
Speaker 2: kicking my butt. I didn't think I was ready for
Speaker 2: Contra Contra.
Speaker 3: I remember being very hard, but I enjoyed playing it.
Speaker 3: I had friends who had it, and we would give
Speaker 3: it our best. I don't I don't know if we
Speaker 3: ever beat it back then. I think I did come
Speaker 3: back and play it like as an adult with friends
Speaker 3: in my twenties, and we did finally beat it then because.
Speaker 2: There's a couch co op right like that was the
Speaker 2: feel of it, like you can hang with your buddies
Speaker 2: and play it. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, But speaking, oh man speaking, this connects several things
Speaker 3: we've talked about today. So yes, there is imagery in
Speaker 3: some of the marketing for Contra, and I think actually
Speaker 3: in its final boss that really does resemble a zeno
Speaker 3: more if it's trying to ride aliens in some way,
Speaker 3: but it also rips off Predator, specifically in its box arts.
Speaker 3: If you look up the cover of the original Contra game,
Speaker 3: look at there are two like muscly, you know, like
Speaker 3: marine guys on the front, who are I guess the
Speaker 3: characters who play as fighting these aliens and the guy
Speaker 3: on the left. That is just a line tracing of
Speaker 3: Arnold Schwarzenegger from the poster for Predator. Have you ever
Speaker 3: noticed that?
Speaker 2: And no, I don't think i'd really put one and
Speaker 2: two together on that, but you're right.
Speaker 3: They changed his face somewhat, but otherwise, like his body
Speaker 3: and clothing, it's the same. Oh yeah, I even found
Speaker 3: an image online side by side showing how it's exactly
Speaker 3: the same.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like Arnold. But if his face was a
Speaker 2: young Brian James.
Speaker 3: Well, why doesn't that exist? It should make that meat happen.
Speaker 3: All right? Should we wrap it up there?
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's go ahead and close up the mail bag here,
Speaker 2: but we'll be back in the future. There will be
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Speaker 3: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway.
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