1 00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:05,120 Speaker 1: Cool media. 2 00:00:05,240 --> 00:00:08,480 Speaker 2: Hello, everybody, it could happen here or here, And this 3 00:00:08,680 --> 00:00:12,360 Speaker 2: is Robert Evans. We're a show about things falling apart, 4 00:00:12,400 --> 00:00:15,400 Speaker 2: and boy howdy, they sure seem to be doing just that, 5 00:00:16,079 --> 00:00:19,600 Speaker 2: as they always are and have been four years, you know. 6 00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:21,919 Speaker 2: In fact, anticipation of the end times I think is 7 00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:24,800 Speaker 2: probably close to the number one hobby in the United 8 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:27,680 Speaker 2: States at this point. I suspect if you counted up 9 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:30,880 Speaker 2: the dollar value of all the collapse themed movies, books, 10 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:35,000 Speaker 2: prepping gear, monetize social media content, and of course religious 11 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:38,040 Speaker 2: sects in the country, the apocalypse would be one of 12 00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:42,160 Speaker 2: our big industries. Doomsday prepping alone was an almost one 13 00:00:42,159 --> 00:00:45,199 Speaker 2: point two billion dollar business last year, and it's expected 14 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:48,840 Speaker 2: to more than double by twenty thirty. Our popular fiction 15 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:52,120 Speaker 2: can't even imagine a better future right now. Ninety percent 16 00:00:52,159 --> 00:00:55,840 Speaker 2: of modern future media takes place during or shortly after 17 00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:59,640 Speaker 2: an apocalypse. The odd exception today, like Bong Jun Ho's 18 00:00:59,680 --> 00:01:03,600 Speaker 2: recent Mickey seventeen, is so rooted in Trump's politics that 19 00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:07,720 Speaker 2: we only catch occasional glimpses of anything beyond it. In 20 00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:10,520 Speaker 2: other words, in our fiction, there's no respite from the news. 21 00:01:10,840 --> 00:01:14,720 Speaker 2: We watch a slow motion self inflicted global economic collapse, 22 00:01:14,760 --> 00:01:17,920 Speaker 2: and then relax with shows about mushroom zombies or literal 23 00:01:17,959 --> 00:01:21,720 Speaker 2: wage slaves created by mind control surgery. In other words, 24 00:01:22,040 --> 00:01:24,880 Speaker 2: it's bleak out there. Tomorrow could be the day Trump 25 00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:28,920 Speaker 2: invokes the Insurrection Act or uses the military to occupy Greenland, 26 00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:31,559 Speaker 2: or like one of a dozen equivalent horrors. We all 27 00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:34,559 Speaker 2: just know our coming in some form or another, even 28 00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:37,040 Speaker 2: if no one can say win. And I'm not here 29 00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:39,399 Speaker 2: today to tell you how we're going to get past 30 00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:41,880 Speaker 2: all of that or fix it, because I don't know. 31 00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:45,399 Speaker 2: So today I'm just here as a merchant of hope. 32 00:01:45,680 --> 00:01:47,960 Speaker 2: My job is to convince you that our species will 33 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:52,560 Speaker 2: someday get past our bullshit and perhaps even lay claim 34 00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:54,920 Speaker 2: to the stars. And no Elon Musk isn't going to 35 00:01:54,960 --> 00:01:58,200 Speaker 2: have anything to do with that. But in order to 36 00:01:58,400 --> 00:02:00,160 Speaker 2: convince you of all this, I'm going to have to 37 00:02:00,200 --> 00:02:04,120 Speaker 2: talk about a movie. It's called Roar, and it is 38 00:02:04,240 --> 00:02:08,079 Speaker 2: technically a nineteen eighty one comedy adventure film about an 39 00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:11,480 Speaker 2: American naturalist. This guy lives on a nature preserve in 40 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:15,440 Speaker 2: Tanzania filled with big cats. His family comes to visit 41 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:17,440 Speaker 2: at the same time as a grant committee shows up 42 00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:20,400 Speaker 2: to evaluate his project, which has an unclear goal. He's 43 00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:23,119 Speaker 2: apparently just trying to prove people and giant cats from 44 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:25,840 Speaker 2: all over the world can live together, which the movie 45 00:02:25,919 --> 00:02:30,200 Speaker 2: shows they can't. It's really immaterial what happens in the plot. 46 00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:32,840 Speaker 2: All I can tell you is how Wikipedia describes it. 47 00:02:33,160 --> 00:02:35,280 Speaker 2: I've watched this movie dozens of times, and I have 48 00:02:35,400 --> 00:02:38,120 Speaker 2: very little idea what it's supposed to be about. This 49 00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:40,800 Speaker 2: is because in any given scene, the script is only 50 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:44,760 Speaker 2: ever a vague suggestion, as each scene starts with actors 51 00:02:44,760 --> 00:02:47,440 Speaker 2: trying to read lines and evolves into those same actors 52 00:02:47,480 --> 00:02:50,919 Speaker 2: trying to survive while being mauled by dozens of lions, tigers, 53 00:02:50,960 --> 00:02:54,400 Speaker 2: and panthers. I should probably step back a minute to 54 00:02:54,480 --> 00:02:58,920 Speaker 2: explain some things. Roor is largely the brainchild of Tippyhedron 55 00:02:58,960 --> 00:03:02,120 Speaker 2: and her husband Noel Marshall. If you're on the younger side, 56 00:03:02,240 --> 00:03:04,960 Speaker 2: Tippy Hedron was the female lead in a little movie 57 00:03:05,040 --> 00:03:07,920 Speaker 2: called The Birds. It is a horror film and also 58 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:11,919 Speaker 2: an early apocalypse flick by Alfred Hitchcock. It's often credited 59 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:16,560 Speaker 2: with inventing modern horror cinema. Hitchcock himself sexually and psychologically 60 00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:20,000 Speaker 2: harassed Hedron, but his worst actions came during a crucial 61 00:03:20,040 --> 00:03:22,560 Speaker 2: scene where Hedron was attacked by a flock of birds. 62 00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:25,919 Speaker 2: Up to the day of filming, Hitchcock had assured Tippy 63 00:03:25,960 --> 00:03:29,560 Speaker 2: the birds used in this scene would be animatronic, but 64 00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:32,200 Speaker 2: when the time came to shoot it, she spent five 65 00:03:32,280 --> 00:03:35,320 Speaker 2: days having hundreds of live birds hurled at her in 66 00:03:35,480 --> 00:03:40,040 Speaker 2: huge numbers by the crew. Hedron later described it as brutal, ugly, 67 00:03:40,160 --> 00:03:43,600 Speaker 2: and relentless. Carrie Grant, her co star, told her she 68 00:03:43,720 --> 00:03:47,520 Speaker 2: was the bravest woman he'd ever seen. Now, whatever other 69 00:03:47,640 --> 00:03:50,960 Speaker 2: impacts this had on Tippy, she has no discernible fear 70 00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:53,600 Speaker 2: of animals after this point in her life, though she 71 00:03:53,640 --> 00:03:56,360 Speaker 2: really should. Her husband, Nol is a bit more of 72 00:03:56,400 --> 00:03:58,920 Speaker 2: a mystery to me. He was an agent, a producer, 73 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:02,080 Speaker 2: a film investor in, a serial entrepreneur whose best financial 74 00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:05,640 Speaker 2: decision was putting money mind what became the Exorcist. In 75 00:04:05,720 --> 00:04:08,240 Speaker 2: nineteen sixty nine, he and Hedron were in mosam Beaque 76 00:04:08,240 --> 00:04:11,119 Speaker 2: while she starred in the film Satan's Harvest, about which 77 00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:13,960 Speaker 2: less is said the better. This is only relevant because 78 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:16,159 Speaker 2: during their time in Africa, they observed a pride of 79 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:19,320 Speaker 2: lions lounging about an abandoned home, and this gave them 80 00:04:19,360 --> 00:04:22,479 Speaker 2: an idea. They wanted to make a movie about poaching 81 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:25,480 Speaker 2: and conservation, something that could use the power of film 82 00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:29,400 Speaker 2: to save these majestic creatures being threatened by humanity. All 83 00:04:29,480 --> 00:04:31,600 Speaker 2: four of their children agreed to star in it and 84 00:04:31,640 --> 00:04:35,000 Speaker 2: to help with production, but there were immediate snags. They 85 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:37,520 Speaker 2: wanted the film to be set in a big cat sanctuary, 86 00:04:37,600 --> 00:04:39,880 Speaker 2: but actual lion tamers warned them that it was flat 87 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:43,240 Speaker 2: out impossible to keep so many large fee lines together safely. 88 00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:46,600 Speaker 2: This would eventually prove to have been very accurate advice. 89 00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:50,240 Speaker 2: After a while, one tamer introduced them to their first 90 00:04:50,320 --> 00:04:52,919 Speaker 2: tame lion, and, for reasons known only to God, he 91 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:56,120 Speaker 2: suggested to this traumatized movie star and her family of 92 00:04:56,240 --> 00:04:59,640 Speaker 2: charmingly deranged Californians that they could just get their own 93 00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:03,320 Speaker 2: bigg and trained them by adopting animals confiscated from their 94 00:05:03,360 --> 00:05:08,240 Speaker 2: previous owners, generally sketchy zoos and circuses. So a lot 95 00:05:08,240 --> 00:05:10,400 Speaker 2: of these cats had never known the wild, and they'd 96 00:05:10,440 --> 00:05:13,960 Speaker 2: often been badly mistreated given them. This was the nineteen seventies. 97 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:16,880 Speaker 2: We must assume that some had been confiscated property of 98 00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:20,559 Speaker 2: Coke dealers, Tippy and Noll had no professional or legal 99 00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:24,080 Speaker 2: qualifications to care for dozens of big cats. When the 100 00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:27,599 Speaker 2: authorities eventually found out, there was trouble, although since Hedrid 101 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:29,600 Speaker 2: and Marshall were rich, they bought their way out of 102 00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:32,440 Speaker 2: said trouble by purchasing a rural compound and having a 103 00:05:32,480 --> 00:05:35,560 Speaker 2: house built specifically for they and their dozens of apex 104 00:05:35,600 --> 00:05:39,560 Speaker 2: predators to live. While lions had inspired the initial vision, 105 00:05:39,680 --> 00:05:42,799 Speaker 2: the compound in California soon filmed with big adopted cats 106 00:05:42,839 --> 00:05:45,720 Speaker 2: of every kind. Tippy and her husband took them in 107 00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:48,840 Speaker 2: and raised them among and around their own children, who 108 00:05:48,880 --> 00:05:52,120 Speaker 2: came to see the animals as something between pets and family. 109 00:05:52,640 --> 00:05:55,640 Speaker 2: When they actually started filming the movie that became Roar. 110 00:05:56,120 --> 00:05:58,720 Speaker 2: Making any kind of movie had become secondary to the 111 00:05:58,760 --> 00:06:02,359 Speaker 2: act of caring for these men any many giant traumatized kiddies. 112 00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:06,080 Speaker 2: As I noted earlier, the plot to Roar is kind 113 00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:08,719 Speaker 2: of immaterial. I've never watched it with the sound on. 114 00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:10,880 Speaker 2: I can tell you, though, that none of these cats 115 00:06:10,920 --> 00:06:14,320 Speaker 2: were trained in any really meaningful way, which meant that 116 00:06:14,360 --> 00:06:17,880 Speaker 2: every scene devolved into the same spectacle. The casts surrounded 117 00:06:17,880 --> 00:06:20,560 Speaker 2: by dozens of giant cats, stumbled through a few lines 118 00:06:20,600 --> 00:06:22,799 Speaker 2: before one or all of the cats began to bite 119 00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:25,359 Speaker 2: and claw them, at which point each scene becomes about 120 00:06:25,360 --> 00:06:28,720 Speaker 2: surviving from one moment to the next. Roar took more 121 00:06:28,720 --> 00:06:30,880 Speaker 2: than five years to film in more than a decade 122 00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:34,279 Speaker 2: to actually make. No cats were harmed during the production 123 00:06:34,320 --> 00:06:36,680 Speaker 2: of this movie, but more humans were injured than in 124 00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:39,559 Speaker 2: any other film production on record. Of the one hundred 125 00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:41,600 Speaker 2: and twenty or so cast and crew on Roar, more 126 00:06:41,600 --> 00:06:44,839 Speaker 2: than one hundred suffered significant injury, often more than once. 127 00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:48,880 Speaker 2: Jan Debout, the cinematographer, had his scalp ripped off by 128 00:06:48,880 --> 00:06:52,040 Speaker 2: a lion, requiring one hundred and twenty stitches. He went 129 00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:55,600 Speaker 2: on to make Speed and Twister. Melanie Griffith, Tippy's daughter 130 00:06:55,600 --> 00:06:58,599 Speaker 2: and a future star herself, left production at one point 131 00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:00,880 Speaker 2: because she was worried a big cat might rip her 132 00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:04,200 Speaker 2: face off. She ultimately returned and immediately had a large 133 00:07:04,279 --> 00:07:08,280 Speaker 2: chuntic of her face ripped off, requiring extensive surgery. This 134 00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:12,240 Speaker 2: all sounds horrifying and impossible to justify, but before you 135 00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:14,200 Speaker 2: make a final judgment, I want to remind you of 136 00:07:14,240 --> 00:07:18,080 Speaker 2: two things. One, for all its horrors and severe injuries, 137 00:07:18,360 --> 00:07:20,560 Speaker 2: fewer people were killed on the set of War Than 138 00:07:20,560 --> 00:07:24,200 Speaker 2: in Alec Baldwin's recent film Rust. The second thing that 139 00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:26,640 Speaker 2: you must remember is that Roar is a work of 140 00:07:26,760 --> 00:07:29,000 Speaker 2: art on the level of Moby Dick. If you watch 141 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:31,560 Speaker 2: it enough, among the right people and in the right headspace, 142 00:07:31,920 --> 00:07:34,360 Speaker 2: you can come to a deeper understanding of every facet 143 00:07:34,360 --> 00:07:37,040 Speaker 2: of human existence. I've taken a lot out of it 144 00:07:37,120 --> 00:07:40,320 Speaker 2: over the years. Recently it has convinced me that we 145 00:07:40,360 --> 00:07:43,400 Speaker 2: will one day get over our bullshit and escape the 146 00:07:43,400 --> 00:07:46,000 Speaker 2: present hell that our species seems mired in. I know 147 00:07:46,240 --> 00:07:48,400 Speaker 2: that doesn't make much sense now, but give me some time. 148 00:07:48,560 --> 00:07:58,440 Speaker 2: I'll explain why. But first it's probably time for some ads. 149 00:08:03,320 --> 00:08:05,080 Speaker 2: We're back, and the first thing I need you to 150 00:08:05,160 --> 00:08:07,760 Speaker 2: understand about all of these fucking cats is that in 151 00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:10,920 Speaker 2: every mauling caught on tape, and there are dozens of them, 152 00:08:11,200 --> 00:08:13,800 Speaker 2: I see no anger or malice in the actions of 153 00:08:13,840 --> 00:08:16,600 Speaker 2: these cats. I don't even see hunger. It's clear to me, 154 00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:19,760 Speaker 2: as a cat owner that the cats didn't see these people, 155 00:08:19,840 --> 00:08:22,280 Speaker 2: Tippy and her family and the cast and crew as 156 00:08:22,360 --> 00:08:25,200 Speaker 2: prey or as a threat. If anything, they saw them 157 00:08:25,200 --> 00:08:28,560 Speaker 2: as fellow big cats, cousins and close kin who they 158 00:08:28,640 --> 00:08:31,240 Speaker 2: extend to kind of familiarity and perhaps even a kind 159 00:08:31,240 --> 00:08:34,760 Speaker 2: of love that, since they are cats, is expressed primarily 160 00:08:34,800 --> 00:08:37,120 Speaker 2: by batting at them with claws that hit like bowie 161 00:08:37,160 --> 00:08:40,120 Speaker 2: knives embedded in the hood of a speeding camri. If 162 00:08:40,160 --> 00:08:43,880 Speaker 2: you have cats of your own, you understand now. Given 163 00:08:43,880 --> 00:08:46,320 Speaker 2: that nearly every person on this film was badly injured, 164 00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:49,880 Speaker 2: including Tippy, who got ganggreen from infected cat wounds, and 165 00:08:49,960 --> 00:08:52,520 Speaker 2: all of her children, you might feel inclined to judge 166 00:08:52,520 --> 00:08:54,400 Speaker 2: who are a knol or both of them for risking 167 00:08:54,440 --> 00:08:57,760 Speaker 2: their kids' lives to make this insane movie. I understand 168 00:08:57,800 --> 00:08:59,920 Speaker 2: the impulse, but I believe it to be an error. 169 00:09:00,520 --> 00:09:02,680 Speaker 2: The first thing you need to see to understand the 170 00:09:02,720 --> 00:09:05,520 Speaker 2: deeper dynamics going on with War is a picture from 171 00:09:05,559 --> 00:09:08,680 Speaker 2: a Playboy magazine photoshoot of Tippy's husband and co star, 172 00:09:09,040 --> 00:09:12,280 Speaker 2: Noel Marshall. He's in his office on his typewriter and 173 00:09:12,320 --> 00:09:14,720 Speaker 2: this fully grown male lion gets up on his desk 174 00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:19,040 Speaker 2: because it wants attention again normal cat behavior, And despite 175 00:09:19,080 --> 00:09:21,240 Speaker 2: the best efforts of this animal, who has to weigh 176 00:09:21,280 --> 00:09:24,880 Speaker 2: five hundred pounds, no Old Marshall won't stop focusing on 177 00:09:24,960 --> 00:09:27,640 Speaker 2: his work, and so the cat inches away from his 178 00:09:27,679 --> 00:09:31,720 Speaker 2: face roars. The sound of a male lion's roar is 179 00:09:31,760 --> 00:09:35,080 Speaker 2: deeply imprinted on all of us, an epigenetic memory passed 180 00:09:35,120 --> 00:09:37,280 Speaker 2: down by the handful of our ancestors who heard the 181 00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:40,320 Speaker 2: sound up close and lived to tell the tale. It 182 00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:43,320 Speaker 2: has such a foundational impact on our mind that Metro 183 00:09:43,400 --> 00:09:46,640 Speaker 2: Goldwyn Meyer the film Studio, used it to open every 184 00:09:46,679 --> 00:09:49,720 Speaker 2: movie they made from nineteen twenty eight on. I believe 185 00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:51,720 Speaker 2: they did this because the sound is a sort of 186 00:09:51,840 --> 00:09:54,760 Speaker 2: hack to compel our attention. It pulls an audience out 187 00:09:54,800 --> 00:09:57,800 Speaker 2: of whatever state of mind dominates their outside lives and 188 00:09:57,880 --> 00:10:00,000 Speaker 2: makes them more attentive to the film that is to come. 189 00:10:00,679 --> 00:10:02,640 Speaker 2: And so the first thing you need to understand about 190 00:10:02,679 --> 00:10:05,320 Speaker 2: the people who made Roar is that Marshal, upon having 191 00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:10,240 Speaker 2: a living adult lion inches from his face roar, gives 192 00:10:10,280 --> 00:10:12,880 Speaker 2: the creature a look that says, hey, man, can you 193 00:10:12,920 --> 00:10:14,760 Speaker 2: give me a second. I'm like, I'm in the middle 194 00:10:14,760 --> 00:10:17,400 Speaker 2: of something. I bring this up so that you will 195 00:10:17,480 --> 00:10:20,960 Speaker 2: understand that these were not people operating on anything close 196 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:23,640 Speaker 2: to the same wavelength as you and I. Their lives 197 00:10:23,679 --> 00:10:28,200 Speaker 2: and their choices are to outsiders inconceivable. There's another great 198 00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:30,560 Speaker 2: photo from the set of that Playboy's shoot. While the 199 00:10:30,600 --> 00:10:33,240 Speaker 2: camera people roamed the Heddron compound, one of them caught 200 00:10:33,280 --> 00:10:36,840 Speaker 2: a shot of Tippy's adolescent daughter, Melanie, jumping into a pool. 201 00:10:37,400 --> 00:10:39,920 Speaker 2: An adult male lion, which he must have considered to 202 00:10:39,960 --> 00:10:42,480 Speaker 2: be in some way. A member of the family sees 203 00:10:42,520 --> 00:10:44,720 Speaker 2: this girl passing by in the corner of its eye, 204 00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:47,400 Speaker 2: and that motion ignites an instinct inside it, so like 205 00:10:47,480 --> 00:10:50,160 Speaker 2: any cat of that size in the same situation, it 206 00:10:50,200 --> 00:10:53,640 Speaker 2: reaches out to bite her. Afterwards, the Hedron family and 207 00:10:53,679 --> 00:10:56,840 Speaker 2: the cast and crew had complicated feelings about what happened 208 00:10:56,840 --> 00:11:00,520 Speaker 2: that extended to the present day. Tippy divorced Mark almost 209 00:11:00,559 --> 00:11:03,480 Speaker 2: as soon as the filming finally wrapped. She is alleged 210 00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:05,960 Speaker 2: that while Roar was being made, he utterly ignored her 211 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:08,480 Speaker 2: well being. She also does not seem to have ever 212 00:11:08,600 --> 00:11:12,240 Speaker 2: seriously considered leaving. She later wrote that she quote was 213 00:11:12,280 --> 00:11:14,480 Speaker 2: into it every bit as much as he was, and 214 00:11:14,520 --> 00:11:19,760 Speaker 2: that production was an obsessive, addictive drama. John Mitchell Nol's son, 215 00:11:19,800 --> 00:11:22,120 Speaker 2: who acted in the movie and like everyone else, was 216 00:11:22,200 --> 00:11:24,959 Speaker 2: mauled repeatedly, came to own the rights to Roar when 217 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:28,280 Speaker 2: his dad died in twenty ten. Dad was a fucking 218 00:11:28,320 --> 00:11:30,840 Speaker 2: asshole to do that to his family, he said recently. 219 00:11:31,160 --> 00:11:33,920 Speaker 2: He also said this, it was amazing to live through that. 220 00:11:34,200 --> 00:11:36,520 Speaker 2: I should have died many times, but I kind of 221 00:11:36,559 --> 00:11:39,400 Speaker 2: want to do it again. If you have any friends 222 00:11:39,480 --> 00:11:42,319 Speaker 2: or family who have survived extended periods of every combat, 223 00:11:42,640 --> 00:11:44,880 Speaker 2: there's a good chance they may have expressed a variation 224 00:11:45,040 --> 00:11:48,880 Speaker 2: of the same feeling. This is because trauma is sometimes 225 00:11:48,960 --> 00:11:51,280 Speaker 2: a drug taking. It can be more than just hell. 226 00:11:51,559 --> 00:11:53,880 Speaker 2: It's often also a high, which is one thing that 227 00:11:53,960 --> 00:11:56,760 Speaker 2: drives a lot of people crazy. I need to take 228 00:11:56,800 --> 00:11:59,679 Speaker 2: a moment away from Roor to talk about some people 229 00:11:59,679 --> 00:12:02,800 Speaker 2: that I'm in twenty seventeen in Iraq during the desperate 230 00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:06,600 Speaker 2: and ferocious urban combat against ISIS. The closer I drew 231 00:12:06,640 --> 00:12:08,360 Speaker 2: to the front, the more guys I met who were 232 00:12:08,360 --> 00:12:11,280 Speaker 2: elite veterans of the Iraqi Special Forces. They did the 233 00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:14,640 Speaker 2: bulk of the fighting. These were mostly young men, ranging 234 00:12:14,679 --> 00:12:16,600 Speaker 2: from the tail end of their teens to their twenties. 235 00:12:17,040 --> 00:12:19,880 Speaker 2: Many had grown up in places like Fallujah fighting from 236 00:12:19,880 --> 00:12:22,800 Speaker 2: the time they were seven or eight. Sometimes younger, they'd 237 00:12:22,800 --> 00:12:25,920 Speaker 2: been born into the US occupation. In many cases, their 238 00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:29,679 Speaker 2: earliest memories were as runners ferrying supplies and information to 239 00:12:29,760 --> 00:12:32,320 Speaker 2: the older men and teenage boys who did most of 240 00:12:32,360 --> 00:12:36,000 Speaker 2: the fighting. When the opportunity presented itself, they sometimes dropped 241 00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:39,640 Speaker 2: grenades or improvised explosive devices on US troops, most of 242 00:12:39,679 --> 00:12:43,520 Speaker 2: whom were teenagers themselves. Now. They fought against ISIS in 243 00:12:43,559 --> 00:12:46,320 Speaker 2: close quarters, building to building a few weeks at a time. 244 00:12:46,640 --> 00:12:48,880 Speaker 2: Periodically they'd rotate off the front and would go to 245 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:51,440 Speaker 2: Erbil an hour or two away. Many of them were 246 00:12:51,480 --> 00:12:54,679 Speaker 2: gangsters in their spare time, running drugs and guns and brothels. 247 00:12:55,120 --> 00:12:57,319 Speaker 2: They spent their days off in a drunken haze of 248 00:12:57,360 --> 00:12:59,920 Speaker 2: Turkish amphetamines. Than they would drive back to the front 249 00:13:00,200 --> 00:13:03,600 Speaker 2: new brightly colored Mustangs and dodged chargers. The trunks fold 250 00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:06,200 Speaker 2: to bursting with so many machine guns and rocket launchers 251 00:13:06,240 --> 00:13:09,280 Speaker 2: they can only be closed with bungee cords. The guns 252 00:13:09,280 --> 00:13:11,760 Speaker 2: and rockets were useful at a distance to soften up 253 00:13:11,840 --> 00:13:15,280 Speaker 2: enemy positions and the impossibly dense warrenlike urban environment of 254 00:13:15,320 --> 00:13:18,600 Speaker 2: Mosl's old city. In every building, on every block, the 255 00:13:18,600 --> 00:13:21,600 Speaker 2: fighting terminated with door to door, room to room battles, 256 00:13:21,679 --> 00:13:24,880 Speaker 2: where the most useful weapons were hand grenades, combat knives, 257 00:13:24,960 --> 00:13:27,960 Speaker 2: and pistols. In that order. I don't know if any 258 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:30,280 Speaker 2: of these guys were, at that point that I met them, 259 00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:33,160 Speaker 2: capable of feeling what u Ori would recognize as fear. 260 00:13:33,920 --> 00:13:36,040 Speaker 2: These were the men and boys whose bodies formed the 261 00:13:36,040 --> 00:13:38,680 Speaker 2: petting edge of the fighting against ISIS and MOSL on 262 00:13:38,760 --> 00:13:41,240 Speaker 2: occasion when they kidnapped Ice. As fighters, some of them 263 00:13:41,240 --> 00:13:43,480 Speaker 2: committed war crimes with the ease and with as much 264 00:13:43,520 --> 00:13:46,280 Speaker 2: thought as you and I give to breathing. This is bad, 265 00:13:46,320 --> 00:13:49,640 Speaker 2: of course, unforgivable, but I've never really given much thought 266 00:13:49,640 --> 00:13:52,040 Speaker 2: to judging them for it. Where would I even start. 267 00:13:52,760 --> 00:13:54,959 Speaker 2: A thing I've come to understand in my travels is 268 00:13:55,000 --> 00:13:57,800 Speaker 2: that human beings are capable of contorting themselves into the 269 00:13:57,840 --> 00:14:00,880 Speaker 2: most incredible shapes in order to fit into the times 270 00:14:00,880 --> 00:14:03,480 Speaker 2: they're forced to live in. This has been the story 271 00:14:03,520 --> 00:14:05,800 Speaker 2: of our entire long journey on this earth, and if 272 00:14:05,800 --> 00:14:08,400 Speaker 2: there is one reason our species has survived above all 273 00:14:08,400 --> 00:14:11,800 Speaker 2: the others, it is our capacity for infinite variety and 274 00:14:11,920 --> 00:14:15,840 Speaker 2: infinite contexts. We can make ourselves into anything if we're 275 00:14:15,920 --> 00:14:18,679 Speaker 2: given the right incentives, and to an extent, you can't 276 00:14:18,760 --> 00:14:22,200 Speaker 2: judge individual humans without judging the incentives The world we 277 00:14:22,280 --> 00:14:26,240 Speaker 2: collectively create presents for them. We evolved, and we still 278 00:14:26,280 --> 00:14:28,920 Speaker 2: live in a world where trauma and pain are inevitable, 279 00:14:29,240 --> 00:14:31,320 Speaker 2: and those of us who survive the worst things that 280 00:14:31,400 --> 00:14:34,560 Speaker 2: life can throw at us tend to become addicted, sometimes 281 00:14:34,600 --> 00:14:37,000 Speaker 2: to the cause of the trauma, but nearly always to 282 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:40,520 Speaker 2: the people we experience it with. This is why the 283 00:14:40,600 --> 00:14:43,600 Speaker 2: cast and crew of Roar often reported feeling almost addicted 284 00:14:43,680 --> 00:14:47,040 Speaker 2: to spending time among these gigantic predators, and it's why 285 00:14:47,080 --> 00:14:51,560 Speaker 2: many kept coming back despite being repeatedly maimed. Roar happened 286 00:14:51,720 --> 00:14:55,120 Speaker 2: because the core cast and crew exhibited radical empathy for 287 00:14:55,200 --> 00:14:58,280 Speaker 2: roughly one hundred and forty large cats and for each other, 288 00:14:58,560 --> 00:15:03,120 Speaker 2: and almost exercised z hezero critical judgment Beyond that point. Now, 289 00:15:03,160 --> 00:15:06,200 Speaker 2: I will understand if you still feel that nothing could 290 00:15:06,360 --> 00:15:09,160 Speaker 2: justify the decision of two parents to risk their children's 291 00:15:09,160 --> 00:15:11,880 Speaker 2: lives in such folly. And I know this essay is 292 00:15:11,880 --> 00:15:15,480 Speaker 2: supposed to be my ultimate enduring optimism about mankind's potential, 293 00:15:15,560 --> 00:15:17,520 Speaker 2: and I'm going to get to that, but you know, 294 00:15:17,680 --> 00:15:30,160 Speaker 2: we still live in twenty twenty five. So first, here's ads. 295 00:15:31,640 --> 00:15:33,960 Speaker 2: So here's my best step at explaining why I find 296 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:38,000 Speaker 2: Rar inspirational. There's a scene about three quarters of the 297 00:15:38,040 --> 00:15:40,960 Speaker 2: way through this movie, after roughly an hour straight of 298 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:43,760 Speaker 2: watching the Hedron, Marshall family and their friends get repeatedly 299 00:15:43,880 --> 00:15:47,000 Speaker 2: mulled for real by giant cats, and in this scene, 300 00:15:47,120 --> 00:15:50,200 Speaker 2: John Marshall finds a dirt bike and engineers a scenario 301 00:15:50,240 --> 00:15:52,480 Speaker 2: that I am certain has never happened before or since 302 00:15:52,520 --> 00:15:55,400 Speaker 2: in the history of this planet. He rides away from 303 00:15:55,440 --> 00:15:57,880 Speaker 2: the home where his family is trapped and draws several 304 00:15:57,920 --> 00:16:01,680 Speaker 2: dozen lions, panthers, and tigers away by making them chase him. 305 00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:04,640 Speaker 2: The cats assume this is a game and repeatedly try 306 00:16:04,680 --> 00:16:07,760 Speaker 2: to murder or maim him, but he continues building up 307 00:16:07,800 --> 00:16:10,000 Speaker 2: speed in an ever greater tale of the most lethal 308 00:16:10,080 --> 00:16:13,680 Speaker 2: killing machines to evolve on this planet. You can see 309 00:16:13,720 --> 00:16:16,320 Speaker 2: from the look in John's eyes in this scene that 310 00:16:16,400 --> 00:16:19,240 Speaker 2: he has no idea. If he seconds away from death, 311 00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:22,600 Speaker 2: it would have been physically impossible to stop or control 312 00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:26,360 Speaker 2: this number of giant cats. The only reason this number 313 00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:29,360 Speaker 2: and variety of lions, panthers, and tigers would ever have 314 00:16:29,480 --> 00:16:32,800 Speaker 2: existed together at any previous point in world history would 315 00:16:32,800 --> 00:16:35,240 Speaker 2: have been across a distance of thousands of miles of 316 00:16:35,280 --> 00:16:39,520 Speaker 2: rugged wilderness. But thanks to Tippean Knowles insane dream, and 317 00:16:39,560 --> 00:16:43,000 Speaker 2: thanks to the deranged and utterly unjustifiable commitment of many 318 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:45,760 Speaker 2: of the crew and their family, a moment of utter 319 00:16:45,840 --> 00:16:50,240 Speaker 2: novelty occurs where this singular assortment of big cats watches 320 00:16:50,280 --> 00:16:52,360 Speaker 2: as a man fleeing in terror from them on a 321 00:16:52,400 --> 00:16:55,800 Speaker 2: dirt bike does one of the sickest jumps in film 322 00:16:55,920 --> 00:16:59,760 Speaker 2: history and lands directly into a river, and then keeps 323 00:16:59,800 --> 00:17:03,760 Speaker 2: right until he is charged by a juvenile African elephant, 324 00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:08,160 Speaker 2: which the Hedrons also kept on their property. In its uniqueness, 325 00:17:08,520 --> 00:17:11,560 Speaker 2: this moment has to rival, if not exceed, the moon landing. 326 00:17:12,080 --> 00:17:14,879 Speaker 2: After all, considerably more men have stepped foot on the 327 00:17:14,880 --> 00:17:17,680 Speaker 2: Moon than have achieved what John Marshall does in this scene, 328 00:17:17,760 --> 00:17:19,640 Speaker 2: although some of that may be due to the fact 329 00:17:19,680 --> 00:17:23,320 Speaker 2: that it is extremely illegal for anyone today to even try. 330 00:17:24,119 --> 00:17:26,359 Speaker 2: And this is why I encourage you to watch Roar 331 00:17:26,480 --> 00:17:29,520 Speaker 2: My Dear Friends during the Dark Times, not because it's 332 00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:32,520 Speaker 2: a good movie, but because it reveals what is best 333 00:17:32,600 --> 00:17:36,119 Speaker 2: about humanity. What piece of art could better illustrate the 334 00:17:36,200 --> 00:17:39,680 Speaker 2: infinite possibilities within us. If a group of human beings 335 00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:42,720 Speaker 2: can learn to live among lions and tigers, despite the 336 00:17:42,800 --> 00:17:47,440 Speaker 2: constant guarantee of severe injury without really understanding why is 337 00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:49,720 Speaker 2: it so mad to think that perhaps we two can 338 00:17:49,720 --> 00:17:52,960 Speaker 2: transcend the barbarities of our age and become something better, 339 00:17:53,160 --> 00:17:56,680 Speaker 2: or at least something far stranger than money grubbing fascists. 340 00:17:57,440 --> 00:17:59,720 Speaker 2: I don't know how we escape the darkness that seems 341 00:17:59,720 --> 00:18:02,800 Speaker 2: to quach a bit further with each passing day, but 342 00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:06,040 Speaker 2: I do know this. If we can make war, we 343 00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:06,840 Speaker 2: can do anything. 344 00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:12,200 Speaker 1: It could Happen Here is a production of cool Zone Media. 345 00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:15,440 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website 346 00:18:15,520 --> 00:18:19,119 Speaker 1: coolzonmedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, 347 00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:22,760 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can 348 00:18:22,800 --> 00:18:25,119 Speaker 1: now find sources for it could Happen here, listed directly 349 00:18:25,160 --> 00:18:27,440 Speaker 1: in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.