WEBVTT - Why Watching Actors Get Maimed By Big Cats Gives Me Hope For The Future

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<v Speaker 1>Cool media.

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<v Speaker 2>Hello, everybody, it could happen here or here, And this

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<v Speaker 2>is Robert Evans. We're a show about things falling apart,

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<v Speaker 2>and boy howdy, they sure seem to be doing just that,

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<v Speaker 2>as they always are and have been four years, you know.

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<v Speaker 2>In fact, anticipation of the end times I think is

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<v Speaker 2>probably close to the number one hobby in the United

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<v Speaker 2>States at this point. I suspect if you counted up

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<v Speaker 2>the dollar value of all the collapse themed movies, books,

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<v Speaker 2>prepping gear, monetize social media content, and of course religious

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<v Speaker 2>sects in the country, the apocalypse would be one of

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<v Speaker 2>our big industries. Doomsday prepping alone was an almost one

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<v Speaker 2>point two billion dollar business last year, and it's expected

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<v Speaker 2>to more than double by twenty thirty. Our popular fiction

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<v Speaker 2>can't even imagine a better future right now. Ninety percent

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<v Speaker 2>of modern future media takes place during or shortly after

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<v Speaker 2>an apocalypse. The odd exception today, like Bong Jun Ho's

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<v Speaker 2>recent Mickey seventeen, is so rooted in Trump's politics that

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<v Speaker 2>we only catch occasional glimpses of anything beyond it. In

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<v Speaker 2>other words, in our fiction, there's no respite from the news.

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<v Speaker 2>We watch a slow motion self inflicted global economic collapse,

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<v Speaker 2>and then relax with shows about mushroom zombies or literal

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<v Speaker 2>wage slaves created by mind control surgery. In other words,

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<v Speaker 2>it's bleak out there. Tomorrow could be the day Trump

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<v Speaker 2>invokes the Insurrection Act or uses the military to occupy Greenland,

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<v Speaker 2>or like one of a dozen equivalent horrors. We all

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<v Speaker 2>just know our coming in some form or another, even

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<v Speaker 2>if no one can say win. And I'm not here

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<v Speaker 2>today to tell you how we're going to get past

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<v Speaker 2>all of that or fix it, because I don't know.

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<v Speaker 2>So today I'm just here as a merchant of hope.

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<v Speaker 2>My job is to convince you that our species will

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<v Speaker 2>someday get past our bullshit and perhaps even lay claim

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<v Speaker 2>to the stars. And no Elon Musk isn't going to

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<v Speaker 2>have anything to do with that. But in order to

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<v Speaker 2>convince you of all this, I'm going to have to

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<v Speaker 2>talk about a movie. It's called Roar, and it is

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<v Speaker 2>technically a nineteen eighty one comedy adventure film about an

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<v Speaker 2>American naturalist. This guy lives on a nature preserve in

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<v Speaker 2>Tanzania filled with big cats. His family comes to visit

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<v Speaker 2>at the same time as a grant committee shows up

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<v Speaker 2>to evaluate his project, which has an unclear goal. He's

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<v Speaker 2>apparently just trying to prove people and giant cats from

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<v Speaker 2>all over the world can live together, which the movie

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<v Speaker 2>shows they can't. It's really immaterial what happens in the plot.

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<v Speaker 2>All I can tell you is how Wikipedia describes it.

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<v Speaker 2>I've watched this movie dozens of times, and I have

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<v Speaker 2>very little idea what it's supposed to be about. This

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<v Speaker 2>is because in any given scene, the script is only

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<v Speaker 2>ever a vague suggestion, as each scene starts with actors

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<v Speaker 2>trying to read lines and evolves into those same actors

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<v Speaker 2>trying to survive while being mauled by dozens of lions, tigers,

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<v Speaker 2>and panthers. I should probably step back a minute to

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<v Speaker 2>explain some things. Roor is largely the brainchild of Tippyhedron

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<v Speaker 2>and her husband Noel Marshall. If you're on the younger side,

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<v Speaker 2>Tippy Hedron was the female lead in a little movie

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<v Speaker 2>called The Birds. It is a horror film and also

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<v Speaker 2>an early apocalypse flick by Alfred Hitchcock. It's often credited

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<v Speaker 2>with inventing modern horror cinema. Hitchcock himself sexually and psychologically

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<v Speaker 2>harassed Hedron, but his worst actions came during a crucial

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<v Speaker 2>scene where Hedron was attacked by a flock of birds.

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<v Speaker 2>Up to the day of filming, Hitchcock had assured Tippy

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<v Speaker 2>the birds used in this scene would be animatronic, but

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<v Speaker 2>when the time came to shoot it, she spent five

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<v Speaker 2>days having hundreds of live birds hurled at her in

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<v Speaker 2>huge numbers by the crew. Hedron later described it as brutal, ugly,

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<v Speaker 2>and relentless. Carrie Grant, her co star, told her she

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<v Speaker 2>was the bravest woman he'd ever seen. Now, whatever other

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<v Speaker 2>impacts this had on Tippy, she has no discernible fear

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<v Speaker 2>of animals after this point in her life, though she

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<v Speaker 2>really should. Her husband, Nol is a bit more of

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<v Speaker 2>a mystery to me. He was an agent, a producer,

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<v Speaker 2>a film investor in, a serial entrepreneur whose best financial

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<v Speaker 2>decision was putting money mind what became the Exorcist. In

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<v Speaker 2>nineteen sixty nine, he and Hedron were in mosam Beaque

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<v Speaker 2>while she starred in the film Satan's Harvest, about which

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<v Speaker 2>less is said the better. This is only relevant because

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<v Speaker 2>during their time in Africa, they observed a pride of

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<v Speaker 2>lions lounging about an abandoned home, and this gave them

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<v Speaker 2>an idea. They wanted to make a movie about poaching

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<v Speaker 2>and conservation, something that could use the power of film

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<v Speaker 2>to save these majestic creatures being threatened by humanity. All

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<v Speaker 2>four of their children agreed to star in it and

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<v Speaker 2>to help with production, but there were immediate snags. They

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<v Speaker 2>wanted the film to be set in a big cat sanctuary,

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<v Speaker 2>but actual lion tamers warned them that it was flat

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<v Speaker 2>out impossible to keep so many large fee lines together safely.

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<v Speaker 2>This would eventually prove to have been very accurate advice.

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<v Speaker 2>After a while, one tamer introduced them to their first

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<v Speaker 2>tame lion, and, for reasons known only to God, he

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<v Speaker 2>suggested to this traumatized movie star and her family of

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<v Speaker 2>charmingly deranged Californians that they could just get their own

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<v Speaker 2>bigg and trained them by adopting animals confiscated from their

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<v Speaker 2>previous owners, generally sketchy zoos and circuses. So a lot

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<v Speaker 2>of these cats had never known the wild, and they'd

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<v Speaker 2>often been badly mistreated given them. This was the nineteen seventies.

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<v Speaker 2>We must assume that some had been confiscated property of

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<v Speaker 2>Coke dealers, Tippy and Noll had no professional or legal

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<v Speaker 2>qualifications to care for dozens of big cats. When the

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<v Speaker 2>authorities eventually found out, there was trouble, although since Hedrid

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<v Speaker 2>and Marshall were rich, they bought their way out of

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<v Speaker 2>said trouble by purchasing a rural compound and having a

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<v Speaker 2>house built specifically for they and their dozens of apex

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<v Speaker 2>predators to live. While lions had inspired the initial vision,

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<v Speaker 2>the compound in California soon filmed with big adopted cats

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<v Speaker 2>of every kind. Tippy and her husband took them in

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<v Speaker 2>and raised them among and around their own children, who

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<v Speaker 2>came to see the animals as something between pets and family.

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<v Speaker 2>When they actually started filming the movie that became Roar.

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<v Speaker 2>Making any kind of movie had become secondary to the

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<v Speaker 2>act of caring for these men any many giant traumatized kiddies.

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<v Speaker 2>As I noted earlier, the plot to Roar is kind

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<v Speaker 2>of immaterial. I've never watched it with the sound on.

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<v Speaker 2>I can tell you, though, that none of these cats

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<v Speaker 2>were trained in any really meaningful way, which meant that

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<v Speaker 2>every scene devolved into the same spectacle. The casts surrounded

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<v Speaker 2>by dozens of giant cats, stumbled through a few lines

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<v Speaker 2>before one or all of the cats began to bite

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<v Speaker 2>and claw them, at which point each scene becomes about

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<v Speaker 2>surviving from one moment to the next. Roar took more

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<v Speaker 2>than five years to film in more than a decade

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<v Speaker 2>to actually make. No cats were harmed during the production

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<v Speaker 2>of this movie, but more humans were injured than in

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<v Speaker 2>any other film production on record. Of the one hundred

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<v Speaker 2>and twenty or so cast and crew on Roar, more

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<v Speaker 2>than one hundred suffered significant injury, often more than once.

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<v Speaker 2>Jan Debout, the cinematographer, had his scalp ripped off by

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<v Speaker 2>a lion, requiring one hundred and twenty stitches. He went

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<v Speaker 2>on to make Speed and Twister. Melanie Griffith, Tippy's daughter

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<v Speaker 2>and a future star herself, left production at one point

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<v Speaker 2>because she was worried a big cat might rip her

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<v Speaker 2>face off. She ultimately returned and immediately had a large

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<v Speaker 2>chuntic of her face ripped off, requiring extensive surgery. This

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<v Speaker 2>all sounds horrifying and impossible to justify, but before you

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<v Speaker 2>make a final judgment, I want to remind you of

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<v Speaker 2>two things. One, for all its horrors and severe injuries,

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<v Speaker 2>fewer people were killed on the set of War Than

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<v Speaker 2>in Alec Baldwin's recent film Rust. The second thing that

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<v Speaker 2>you must remember is that Roar is a work of

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<v Speaker 2>art on the level of Moby Dick. If you watch

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<v Speaker 2>it enough, among the right people and in the right headspace,

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<v Speaker 2>you can come to a deeper understanding of every facet

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<v Speaker 2>of human existence. I've taken a lot out of it

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<v Speaker 2>over the years. Recently it has convinced me that we

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<v Speaker 2>will one day get over our bullshit and escape the

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<v Speaker 2>present hell that our species seems mired in. I know

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<v Speaker 2>that doesn't make much sense now, but give me some time.

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<v Speaker 2>I'll explain why. But first it's probably time for some ads.

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<v Speaker 2>We're back, and the first thing I need you to

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<v Speaker 2>understand about all of these fucking cats is that in

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<v Speaker 2>every mauling caught on tape, and there are dozens of them,

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<v Speaker 2>I see no anger or malice in the actions of

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<v Speaker 2>these cats. I don't even see hunger. It's clear to me,

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<v Speaker 2>as a cat owner that the cats didn't see these people,

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<v Speaker 2>Tippy and her family and the cast and crew as

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<v Speaker 2>prey or as a threat. If anything, they saw them

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<v Speaker 2>as fellow big cats, cousins and close kin who they

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<v Speaker 2>extend to kind of familiarity and perhaps even a kind

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<v Speaker 2>of love that, since they are cats, is expressed primarily

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<v Speaker 2>by batting at them with claws that hit like bowie

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<v Speaker 2>knives embedded in the hood of a speeding camri. If

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<v Speaker 2>you have cats of your own, you understand now. Given

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<v Speaker 2>that nearly every person on this film was badly injured,

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<v Speaker 2>including Tippy, who got ganggreen from infected cat wounds, and

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<v Speaker 2>all of her children, you might feel inclined to judge

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<v Speaker 2>who are a knol or both of them for risking

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<v Speaker 2>their kids' lives to make this insane movie. I understand

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<v Speaker 2>the impulse, but I believe it to be an error.

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<v Speaker 2>The first thing you need to see to understand the

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<v Speaker 2>deeper dynamics going on with War is a picture from

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<v Speaker 2>a Playboy magazine photoshoot of Tippy's husband and co star,

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<v Speaker 2>Noel Marshall. He's in his office on his typewriter and

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<v Speaker 2>this fully grown male lion gets up on his desk

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<v Speaker 2>because it wants attention again normal cat behavior, And despite

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<v Speaker 2>the best efforts of this animal, who has to weigh

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<v Speaker 2>five hundred pounds, no Old Marshall won't stop focusing on

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<v Speaker 2>his work, and so the cat inches away from his

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<v Speaker 2>face roars. The sound of a male lion's roar is

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<v Speaker 2>deeply imprinted on all of us, an epigenetic memory passed

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<v Speaker 2>down by the handful of our ancestors who heard the

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<v Speaker 2>sound up close and lived to tell the tale. It

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<v Speaker 2>has such a foundational impact on our mind that Metro

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<v Speaker 2>Goldwyn Meyer the film Studio, used it to open every

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<v Speaker 2>movie they made from nineteen twenty eight on. I believe

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<v Speaker 2>they did this because the sound is a sort of

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<v Speaker 2>hack to compel our attention. It pulls an audience out

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<v Speaker 2>of whatever state of mind dominates their outside lives and

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<v Speaker 2>makes them more attentive to the film that is to come.

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<v Speaker 2>And so the first thing you need to understand about

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<v Speaker 2>the people who made Roar is that Marshal, upon having

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<v Speaker 2>a living adult lion inches from his face roar, gives

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<v Speaker 2>the creature a look that says, hey, man, can you

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<v Speaker 2>give me a second. I'm like, I'm in the middle

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<v Speaker 2>of something. I bring this up so that you will

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<v Speaker 2>understand that these were not people operating on anything close

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<v Speaker 2>to the same wavelength as you and I. Their lives

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<v Speaker 2>and their choices are to outsiders inconceivable. There's another great

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<v Speaker 2>photo from the set of that Playboy's shoot. While the

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<v Speaker 2>camera people roamed the Heddron compound, one of them caught

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<v Speaker 2>a shot of Tippy's adolescent daughter, Melanie, jumping into a pool.

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<v Speaker 2>An adult male lion, which he must have considered to

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<v Speaker 2>be in some way. A member of the family sees

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<v Speaker 2>this girl passing by in the corner of its eye,

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<v Speaker 2>and that motion ignites an instinct inside it, so like

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<v Speaker 2>any cat of that size in the same situation, it

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<v Speaker 2>reaches out to bite her. Afterwards, the Hedron family and

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<v Speaker 2>the cast and crew had complicated feelings about what happened

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<v Speaker 2>that extended to the present day. Tippy divorced Mark almost

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<v Speaker 2>as soon as the filming finally wrapped. She is alleged

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<v Speaker 2>that while Roar was being made, he utterly ignored her

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<v Speaker 2>well being. She also does not seem to have ever

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<v Speaker 2>seriously considered leaving. She later wrote that she quote was

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<v Speaker 2>into it every bit as much as he was, and

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<v Speaker 2>that production was an obsessive, addictive drama. John Mitchell Nol's son,

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<v Speaker 2>who acted in the movie and like everyone else, was

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<v Speaker 2>mauled repeatedly, came to own the rights to Roar when

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<v Speaker 2>his dad died in twenty ten. Dad was a fucking

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<v Speaker 2>asshole to do that to his family, he said recently.

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<v Speaker 2>He also said this, it was amazing to live through that.

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<v Speaker 2>I should have died many times, but I kind of

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<v Speaker 2>want to do it again. If you have any friends

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<v Speaker 2>or family who have survived extended periods of every combat,

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<v Speaker 2>there's a good chance they may have expressed a variation

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<v Speaker 2>of the same feeling. This is because trauma is sometimes

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<v Speaker 2>a drug taking. It can be more than just hell.

0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:53.880
<v Speaker 2>It's often also a high, which is one thing that

0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:56.760
<v Speaker 2>drives a lot of people crazy. I need to take

0:11:56.800 --> 0:11:59.679
<v Speaker 2>a moment away from Roor to talk about some people

0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:02.800
<v Speaker 2>that I'm in twenty seventeen in Iraq during the desperate

0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:06.600
<v Speaker 2>and ferocious urban combat against ISIS. The closer I drew

0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:08.360
<v Speaker 2>to the front, the more guys I met who were

0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:11.280
<v Speaker 2>elite veterans of the Iraqi Special Forces. They did the

0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:14.640
<v Speaker 2>bulk of the fighting. These were mostly young men, ranging

0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:16.600
<v Speaker 2>from the tail end of their teens to their twenties.

0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:19.880
<v Speaker 2>Many had grown up in places like Fallujah fighting from

0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:22.800
<v Speaker 2>the time they were seven or eight. Sometimes younger, they'd

0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:25.920
<v Speaker 2>been born into the US occupation. In many cases, their

0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:29.679
<v Speaker 2>earliest memories were as runners ferrying supplies and information to

0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:32.320
<v Speaker 2>the older men and teenage boys who did most of

0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:36.000
<v Speaker 2>the fighting. When the opportunity presented itself, they sometimes dropped

0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:39.640
<v Speaker 2>grenades or improvised explosive devices on US troops, most of

0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:43.520
<v Speaker 2>whom were teenagers themselves. Now. They fought against ISIS in

0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:46.320
<v Speaker 2>close quarters, building to building a few weeks at a time.

0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:48.880
<v Speaker 2>Periodically they'd rotate off the front and would go to

0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:51.440
<v Speaker 2>Erbil an hour or two away. Many of them were

0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:54.679
<v Speaker 2>gangsters in their spare time, running drugs and guns and brothels.

0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:57.319
<v Speaker 2>They spent their days off in a drunken haze of

0:12:57.360 --> 0:12:59.920
<v Speaker 2>Turkish amphetamines. Than they would drive back to the front

0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:03.600
<v Speaker 2>new brightly colored Mustangs and dodged chargers. The trunks fold

0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:06.200
<v Speaker 2>to bursting with so many machine guns and rocket launchers

0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:09.280
<v Speaker 2>they can only be closed with bungee cords. The guns

0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:11.760
<v Speaker 2>and rockets were useful at a distance to soften up

0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:15.280
<v Speaker 2>enemy positions and the impossibly dense warrenlike urban environment of

0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:18.600
<v Speaker 2>Mosl's old city. In every building, on every block, the

0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:21.600
<v Speaker 2>fighting terminated with door to door, room to room battles,

0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:24.880
<v Speaker 2>where the most useful weapons were hand grenades, combat knives,

0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:27.960
<v Speaker 2>and pistols. In that order. I don't know if any

0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:30.280
<v Speaker 2>of these guys were, at that point that I met them,

0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:33.160
<v Speaker 2>capable of feeling what u Ori would recognize as fear.

0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:36.040
<v Speaker 2>These were the men and boys whose bodies formed the

0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:38.680
<v Speaker 2>petting edge of the fighting against ISIS and MOSL on

0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:41.240
<v Speaker 2>occasion when they kidnapped Ice. As fighters, some of them

0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:43.480
<v Speaker 2>committed war crimes with the ease and with as much

0:13:43.520 --> 0:13:46.280
<v Speaker 2>thought as you and I give to breathing. This is bad,

0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:49.640
<v Speaker 2>of course, unforgivable, but I've never really given much thought

0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:52.040
<v Speaker 2>to judging them for it. Where would I even start.

0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:54.959
<v Speaker 2>A thing I've come to understand in my travels is

0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:57.800
<v Speaker 2>that human beings are capable of contorting themselves into the

0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:00.880
<v Speaker 2>most incredible shapes in order to fit into the times

0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:03.480
<v Speaker 2>they're forced to live in. This has been the story

0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:05.800
<v Speaker 2>of our entire long journey on this earth, and if

0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:08.400
<v Speaker 2>there is one reason our species has survived above all

0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:11.800
<v Speaker 2>the others, it is our capacity for infinite variety and

0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:15.840
<v Speaker 2>infinite contexts. We can make ourselves into anything if we're

0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:18.679
<v Speaker 2>given the right incentives, and to an extent, you can't

0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:22.200
<v Speaker 2>judge individual humans without judging the incentives The world we

0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:26.240
<v Speaker 2>collectively create presents for them. We evolved, and we still

0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:28.920
<v Speaker 2>live in a world where trauma and pain are inevitable,

0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:31.320
<v Speaker 2>and those of us who survive the worst things that

0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:34.560
<v Speaker 2>life can throw at us tend to become addicted, sometimes

0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:37.000
<v Speaker 2>to the cause of the trauma, but nearly always to

0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:40.520
<v Speaker 2>the people we experience it with. This is why the

0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:43.600
<v Speaker 2>cast and crew of Roar often reported feeling almost addicted

0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:47.040
<v Speaker 2>to spending time among these gigantic predators, and it's why

0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:51.560
<v Speaker 2>many kept coming back despite being repeatedly maimed. Roar happened

0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:55.120
<v Speaker 2>because the core cast and crew exhibited radical empathy for

0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:58.280
<v Speaker 2>roughly one hundred and forty large cats and for each other,

0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:03.120
<v Speaker 2>and almost exercised z hezero critical judgment Beyond that point. Now,

0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:06.200
<v Speaker 2>I will understand if you still feel that nothing could

0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:09.160
<v Speaker 2>justify the decision of two parents to risk their children's

0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:11.880
<v Speaker 2>lives in such folly. And I know this essay is

0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:15.480
<v Speaker 2>supposed to be my ultimate enduring optimism about mankind's potential,

0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:17.520
<v Speaker 2>and I'm going to get to that, but you know,

0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:30.160
<v Speaker 2>we still live in twenty twenty five. So first, here's ads.

0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:33.960
<v Speaker 2>So here's my best step at explaining why I find

0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:38.000
<v Speaker 2>Rar inspirational. There's a scene about three quarters of the

0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:40.960
<v Speaker 2>way through this movie, after roughly an hour straight of

0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:43.760
<v Speaker 2>watching the Hedron, Marshall family and their friends get repeatedly

0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:47.000
<v Speaker 2>mulled for real by giant cats, and in this scene,

0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:50.200
<v Speaker 2>John Marshall finds a dirt bike and engineers a scenario

0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:52.480
<v Speaker 2>that I am certain has never happened before or since

0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:55.400
<v Speaker 2>in the history of this planet. He rides away from

0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:57.880
<v Speaker 2>the home where his family is trapped and draws several

0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:01.680
<v Speaker 2>dozen lions, panthers, and tigers away by making them chase him.

0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:04.640
<v Speaker 2>The cats assume this is a game and repeatedly try

0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:07.760
<v Speaker 2>to murder or maim him, but he continues building up

0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:10.000
<v Speaker 2>speed in an ever greater tale of the most lethal

0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:13.680
<v Speaker 2>killing machines to evolve on this planet. You can see

0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:16.320
<v Speaker 2>from the look in John's eyes in this scene that

0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:19.240
<v Speaker 2>he has no idea. If he seconds away from death,

0:16:19.600 --> 0:16:22.600
<v Speaker 2>it would have been physically impossible to stop or control

0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:26.360
<v Speaker 2>this number of giant cats. The only reason this number

0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:29.360
<v Speaker 2>and variety of lions, panthers, and tigers would ever have

0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:32.800
<v Speaker 2>existed together at any previous point in world history would

0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:35.240
<v Speaker 2>have been across a distance of thousands of miles of

0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:39.520
<v Speaker 2>rugged wilderness. But thanks to Tippean Knowles insane dream, and

0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:43.000
<v Speaker 2>thanks to the deranged and utterly unjustifiable commitment of many

0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:45.760
<v Speaker 2>of the crew and their family, a moment of utter

0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:50.240
<v Speaker 2>novelty occurs where this singular assortment of big cats watches

0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:52.360
<v Speaker 2>as a man fleeing in terror from them on a

0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:55.800
<v Speaker 2>dirt bike does one of the sickest jumps in film

0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:59.760
<v Speaker 2>history and lands directly into a river, and then keeps

0:16:59.800 --> 0:17:03.760
<v Speaker 2>right until he is charged by a juvenile African elephant,

0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:08.160
<v Speaker 2>which the Hedrons also kept on their property. In its uniqueness,

0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:11.560
<v Speaker 2>this moment has to rival, if not exceed, the moon landing.

0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:14.879
<v Speaker 2>After all, considerably more men have stepped foot on the

0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:17.680
<v Speaker 2>Moon than have achieved what John Marshall does in this scene,

0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:19.640
<v Speaker 2>although some of that may be due to the fact

0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:23.320
<v Speaker 2>that it is extremely illegal for anyone today to even try.

0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:26.359
<v Speaker 2>And this is why I encourage you to watch Roar

0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:29.520
<v Speaker 2>My Dear Friends during the Dark Times, not because it's

0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:32.520
<v Speaker 2>a good movie, but because it reveals what is best

0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:36.119
<v Speaker 2>about humanity. What piece of art could better illustrate the

0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:39.680
<v Speaker 2>infinite possibilities within us. If a group of human beings

0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:42.720
<v Speaker 2>can learn to live among lions and tigers, despite the

0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:47.440
<v Speaker 2>constant guarantee of severe injury without really understanding why is

0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:49.720
<v Speaker 2>it so mad to think that perhaps we two can

0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:52.960
<v Speaker 2>transcend the barbarities of our age and become something better,

0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:56.680
<v Speaker 2>or at least something far stranger than money grubbing fascists.

0:17:57.440 --> 0:17:59.720
<v Speaker 2>I don't know how we escape the darkness that seems

0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:02.800
<v Speaker 2>to quach a bit further with each passing day, but

0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:06.040
<v Speaker 2>I do know this. If we can make war, we

0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:06.840
<v Speaker 2>can do anything.

0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:12.200
<v Speaker 1>It could Happen Here is a production of cool Zone Media.

0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:15.440
<v Speaker 1>For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website

0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:19.119
<v Speaker 1>coolzonmedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app,

0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:22.760
<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can

0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:25.119
<v Speaker 1>now find sources for it could Happen here, listed directly

0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:27.440
<v Speaker 1>in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.