March 19, 2025 • 65 mins
Did someone really hang themselves on camera in the Wizard of Oz? Did Stanley Kubrick hide a secret message in Eyes Wide Shut? It's no secret that the world of film is fraught with conspiracy -- both on and off the screen. But do any of these strange rumors and urban myths hold any sand? Join the guys with their special guest and long-time friend, Charles W. "Chuck" Bryant, cohost of Stuff You Should Know and creator of the Movie Crush podcast, as they separate fact from fiction in the world of conspiracies and film in tonight's Classic episode.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fellow conspiracy realist. We are returning to you with a
fantastic blast from the past. We had our big podcasting brother,
none other than Charles W. Chuck Bryant, join us back
in twenty nineteen to talk about the wide world of
conspiracies in Phil.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, we touch on everything from Stanley Kubrick and his
potentially fake moon landing, hidden messages in many of his films,
The Wizard of Oz, lots of crazy juice about that film,
things that happened behind the scenes.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
And guys, we have breaking movie news. Conan O'Brien will
be hosting Oscars again next year.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Okay, second day, and thank god for that.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
He was.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
He did a fine job.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Good one. But I like his podcast too. But thanks
for tuning into ours. Here's the tape.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
From UFOs to Psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. Can turn back now or learn
this stuff they don't want you to know. A production
of iHeart Radios How Stuff Works.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Hello, Welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Noah.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
They call me Ben. We were joined as always with
our super producer Paul Mission Control Decant. Most importantly, you
are here, and that makes this stuff they don't want
you to know. As our fellow longtime listeners know, we're
all film buffs here and stuff they don't want you
to know, big fans of cinema in almost any form.
(01:40):
And today we're diving into the film conspiracies of all types,
right like we would say, we're film buffs.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
I only like movies.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Oh yeah, you are here, you're a movie man.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Well you know, I officially have a degree in filmmaking,
although without the actual film.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
You're a professor of cinema.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
No oh, I feel like you're right now, all right, No, no,
I'm just saying like, I'm all about this kind of
stuff as we all are, so we have an interest
in it. But we're not here alone.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
That's true, Matt. Today we are joined with our collective
pal pioneer of podcasting, a friend of the show, and
an actual outside of work personal friend of ours, to
boot Charles W. Chuck Bryant, host of Movie Crush, as
well as stuff you should know. Thanks for coming on
the show, Chuck.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Hey guys, hey man, I've got so many questions already.
Oh yeah, Ben, question for you fans of almost all
kinds of film? What kinds of film are you're not
a fan of?
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Oh I was. I just wanted to leave people in
out in case one of the guys is like, you
know what, screw spaghetti westerns. I hate any omorcone, I
love any o'morecone. So it would have been driving some
tension into our relationship. But not all films are for
all people.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
You're probably not a fan of snuff films for example.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, actually, I hope that's not a hot take. I'm
not you know, there you go call me old fashioned?
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Good answer.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
So for backgrounds, how would you describe Movie Crush the podcast?
Like how you the germ of the idea, how you
grew it? What you guys do? And I know Nol's
on there as well.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Well.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Movie Crust started as Hey, let me interview a celebrity
and release every Friday and they talk about their favorite
film all time favorite movie is The Conceit and it
is still that at times, but it is morphed over
the past two years. Just had the two year anniversary
and now we do these mini crushes on Monday with
Nol as co host, where we have a great movie
(03:41):
going community on Facebook and we post questions and polls
and through a lot of interactive fan stuff, which is
a lot of fun, and then Fridays. Now it turns
out booking celebrities is a hard thing to do what
and it got kind of sick of it. If they
come my way, now, great, I'll do that. But I
have a stay full of friends and family and colleagues
(04:01):
now that come in and we do film series and
filmmaker series and just whatever you want to talk about
about a specific film.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
And just really quickly, just to make sure this is
crystal clear, this is Chuck reaching out doing this booking solo.
We don't have like a staff of like booking agents
that are trying to guests.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
For interviewing celebrities, not my friend's family and colleagues. Now
it's great, though, These are great conversations no matter who
it is. And it turns out the listening community was like,
I don't care if it's a celebrity, these are great conversations, Maddie.
We're doing I don't even know what to college. Originally
it was just hit movies. We're just gonna go with
ninety nine.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
I think, okay, it's nineteen ninety nine in movies yeah, man,
well is speaking of your colleagues and friends that you interview.
You have a whole sery. By the way, Paul has
been on that show.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Were Saul and I are doing a Sophia couple of series.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Oh, you just want to hear Paul's voice. He never
speaks on this here podcast. You can hear him speak
on Chucks.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
That's right true.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
But another person you interview as a colleague named Casey Pegrim,
and that is what we really want to get into first.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Ah, yes, Casey Pegrim aka LaBouche as he's known in France,
and then a couple of different podcasts. What it's a
We have this idea that Casey is in addition to
be a super producer in Atlanta. You know this is
a true story, you guys, We all know how he
disappears for like at least three weeks once a year
to France. Yeah, so we have this vision of him
(05:29):
leading a completely different double life where he's LaBouche. He
has like an ear ring and a leather jacket.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Is he an assassin or is he just he is
just an international man of mystery. Okay, assassing is probably
on the table, but if it comes up, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Really thought you were going into the mighty Boush thing there.
For a second, I thought that's what this means the mouth.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Yeah, I'm mistaken. Yeah, he's he's.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Kind of like a broker of film related crime. We
haven't really figured it out, but we're pretty sure he
has maybe two secret families of France that are aware of.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
What you do. Is guys, is one of us before
next year, say hey, Casey, I saved up some Doman
and I would love a your guide and can we
co incide our trips and just see if he's like,
how weird he gets? It's what I'd like to do
my own thing, not actually going this year.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Let's you know what. That sounds like a plan and
we have enough time to do it right.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Great, But the series you make with him, yes, is
focused on a particular filmmaker, at least several. You've made
several in that vein talking about Stanley Kubrick, which is
somebody we've spoken about before on this show. We kind
of want to get your take.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yeah, yeah, let's let's start with this is one of them.
When we think of conspiracy theory and film, Yeah, one
of the things that will be most apparent in the
front of the mind of the mainstream listener, whatever is
going to be stuff related to Stanley Kubrick, Right, So
we wanted to get your takes on some of the
(07:01):
most prevalent conspiracy theories or fringe theories regarding Kubrick and
his body of work. So you've heard the one about
Stanley Kubrick faking the moonlanding? Sure, okay, well, let's just
really fast. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Do you think there's anything to that with the technology
that was being developed to shoot that film in tandem
with our efforts to get to the Moon. Do you
have any feeling that something weird was going on there
or it's just all I mean, it's just all happened
to be coinciding.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
I don't think anything was going on there, Okay, I know.
Part of the credence to this theory is that two
thousand and one of Space Odyssey looked so realistic and
who else would you go to? But you know, he
enlisted real people from NASA, if I'm not mistaken, and
astronauts and engineers like that's why that movie looks so great.
(07:54):
Not to say he couldn't have done that to fake
the moon landing as well.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
I guess well, just also as such an odd tour
who's famous for having so many multiple takes of things,
it seems like he'd be a real pill to work
with faking a moon landing, Like, how many takes do
you have to have of the like each step? Right?
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Yeah, I'm okay. Here's my.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Kind of updated take after doing a little more research
on this, And it's slightly tangent here, but it's coming
right back and it's related. Okay, stay with me here.
When Steven Spielberg made Close Encounters of the Third Kind,
allegedly he received a lot of criticism from NASA for
producing that movie. And the way the story goes is
(08:39):
that they were worried that audiences would have a similar
reaction to the concept of extraterrestrials visiting as they did
to the concept of giant sharks being in the waters
near places where people just go hang out and swim
in the ocean. But also, I've not ever read this letter,
(09:00):
this strongly worded twenty page letter that NASA sent to Spielberg,
twenty pages allegedly, I've never read it, and I've not
seen anyone actually write out, you know, points from it.
But It's been alluded to several times over the years,
and it just goes back to that concept of creating
a movie like Space two thousand and one, a Space Odyssey,
(09:22):
like the concept that it could possibly be dangerous to
society by releasing it because it puts these images into
our brains, these ideas of like with close encounters, an
extraterrestrial force visiting us and what that would mean.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Interesting are you saying that, like from a pr standpoint,
it would have been a bad move.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
It's like, we don't want to.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Cause a panic, public panic. I don't get worrying about
this stuff. Better to think of other things, you know, Like.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
See, I always heard it was different. I always heard
that these films had supposedly been commissioned by the government
to soften us up to the idea, yes, alien invaders
or whatever.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
So again, like you're talking about essentially different people's viewpoints
and the way they're thinking about these concepts of conspiracy.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
I guess could go either way.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Well, it could be right.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
It softens you up or scares the heck out on you.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
It's interesting because we see if we look at the
trends in sci fi, we see something happening with AI,
which was a pretty cool correlation that I didn't discover,
but one of our friends, Dan actually discovered this one.
And we see how in times past, right, especially during
(10:37):
nuclear scares or communist scares, technology or androids were depicted
as this other, this dangerous thing. But now increasingly we've
moved from a terminator franchise to a more friendly thing, right,
like more of a Wally world. And so without getting
too far away from the alien stuff and the NASA stuff,
(10:58):
I did find. I found this quoted in a couple places,
a quotation purporting to be from Steven Spielberg regarding this
NASA letter, and I would like to read it, just
to see what our reactions are to this. I really
found my faith when I heard that the government was
opposed to the film Close Encounters. If NASA took the
(11:20):
time to write me a twenty page letter, then I
know there must be something happening. I had wanted cooperation
from them, but when they read the script, they got
very angry and felt that it was a film that
would be dangerous. I felt they mainly wrote the letter
because Jaws convinced so many people around the world that
there were sharks and toilets and bathtubs, not just in
the oceans and rivers. They were afraid the same kind
(11:41):
of epidemic would happen with UFOs. Difference being sharks are
proven to exist.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
And I mean, now, I haven't seen close encounters in
a long time, possibly not even all the way through.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
But aren't the Aliens nice? Are they not nice? Yeah?
I mean the only time you actually, I mean, should
we spoil alert this? Yeah, let's this old old movie. Yeah,
in the nineteen seventies. The only time you actually see
the aliens the final third encounter is at the very
very end of the film. And all that happens really
(12:12):
is Richard Dreyfuss goes up the plank and is greeted
very warmly. Ben. We don't know what happens after that
door shuts, but that's true. They appear to be very friendly. Yeah,
as that door is shutting, it's sort of a handholding thing,
if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
It seems weird, though, with all the stuff that NASA
has on its plate back then and now, it seems
weird that they would take so much time to write
to this guy about a fictional film.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
And God, how much they have felt about Independence Day,
am I right?
Speaker 4 (12:46):
Right, That's what I'm saying, man, pandemonium.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
They knew that the extraterrestrials that are very much real
my friends that are out there are dangerous, and they
didn't want us to think they were nice and friendly
and we could talk to them our keyboard.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Like don't go up the gangplank, Richard Treyfus, you fool,
They're going to put things in your butt already knows that.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
I mean, that's yeah, that's I think that's in the
original script that was close Encounters of the butt exactly.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
So let's take it all the way back just really fast,
is Stanley Krubrick, and then we'll we'll end there with
the moon landing conspiracies in general. If you take it
away from Stanley Krubrick, do you do you have any
doubts that we went to the moon?
Speaker 4 (13:30):
Of course not okay? And then the you know the
things everyone knows sort of the why they believe it
was faked with the flag flying and the shadows not
being quite right. What else is there? Is there a
footprint situation that's an issue? Did I make that up?
In situation?
Speaker 1 (13:47):
There's the idea that the lunar dust would have moved differently.
But it's also it's a question of the film technology
at the time.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
And also we had never been to the moon, so
we're not quite sure what stuff like when filmed on
a camera. Stilly question.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Do we have access to, like what the camera looked
like they shot this on.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
I've never Well, that's one. Well, actually that's the still camera.
That's one of the theories is that in the reflection
of I think Armstrong's face whatever you call it, face plate,
you can see the photo being take, a very clear
(14:26):
reflection of the astronaut taking the photo. But like you
can't see a camera man, there's no camera. But apparently
the camera is embedded. Yeah, it's attached to the suit.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
That makes sense.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
And his hands were sort of right at chest level,
so it all checks.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yeah, the stories that there they could barely move their
hands at all.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
And it camera.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Dexterity. Also, this this is interesting because it ties into,
of course, one of Kubrick's one of Kubrick's most well
known films, the adaptation of Stephen King's The sh Shining
Right or The Thing, inspired by the novel. Because there
are people who people who believe that Kubrick was somehow
(15:07):
involved in faking the moon landing, also believe that he
decided the best way to tell people this was through
some sort of Rube Goldberg esque series of clues hidden
in a completely unrelated film.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Oh, there's an absolute laundry list of weird hidden stuff
in The Shining. Much of it doesn't refer to that
at all. That refers to like an Indian genocide, Native
American genocide.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
And the gold standard Room to two thirty.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Seven exactly, yes the film, Yes for sure.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Yeah, so Chuck, I am I am not surprised and
also immensely reassured that this was not the moment where
we learned that you were convinced that you were a mooner.
I like that phrase. Do you guys like mooner?
Speaker 4 (15:52):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Let's put that on a T shirt.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
So in The Shining, it's supposedly like Danny's sweater with
the hollow rocket as he stands up the carpet. That
now iconic pattern is one of the launch like the
launch pads and what I mean these are all that's
very flimsy stuff to be delivering a message, you know.
And then there was the fake video, you know, from
it's like four years ago where someone had a video
where Stanley Kubrick came clean about the whole thing. And
(16:18):
this is like the twenty fifteen Did you ever see this?
I did, Yeah, And it was this long interview where
he capt to the whole thing. It was all very believable.
But it's not Stanley Kubrick. Wow. That was the one problem.
It was a guy who was making a movie about
Stanley kub Kubrick and this was a guy who played
like old Kubrick. But I watched it today and I
looked at it. I was like, well, that's not even him.
There is a fool so many people.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
There is a tape of Kubrick that came out not
terribly very long ago where he explains the ending of
two thousand and one a space Odyssey, which is interesting
just to listen to. He kind of ex I can't
remember exactly what he said.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Hold on, it.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Gets confirmed. It's from a BBC interview. That's a legit.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
I had source has no idea there were counterfeit Kubrick's
just running amuck.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Well, nowadays, with all this deep fake stuff, we got
to figure out how to really, you know, confirm the
validity of footage.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
True nowadays, you can't believe people unless you meet in person.
This is something that's fascinating because it still sticks around
in the cultural zeitgeist even though it's very easily debunked. Right,
you can you first off, moonlanding stuff. Last thing I'll
say about it. You don't need a particularly advanced telescope
to look at the moon and see reflections of man
(17:28):
made things on there or see sorry, signs of man
made things, right.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Yeah, And you can shoot a laser if you have
the right equipment, and it will reflect back on that
laser reflector that's there.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
And if you don't have a giant laser. Let us
tell you today's episode is brought to you by Gigantic
by two get three free. It's an economy of scale.
There is a thing here that happens. There is a thing,
a thread rather a thematic narrative thread when we talk
(18:01):
about Kubrick that goes across several of his movies, and
it's the idea that somehow this creator is speaking to
us the audience through code, right, and that these films
are somehow you know they're they're multi layered, right, But
that one of those lower layers is a is a
(18:23):
message of some sort and this sure it's it's prevalent
when we hear discussion of the Shining, But then when
we get to his last film, Eyes Wide Shut, it's
like the door is blown off the hinges. Right, you know,
I think we've all heard this, and I want your opinion.
(18:43):
Was Eyes Wide Shut actually coded expos on some elite
cabal or some real real cult thing? Uh?
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Why is everyone looking at me?
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Well, because Schuck, you're host of stuff. You should know
one of the biggest podcasts out there. You were clearly
one of the elite.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
My friend, right, you also host our film podcast.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
There's a lot of crossover here. Uh No, I don't
know if it was supposed to be. I think the
idea is that it is a depiction of an elite
group of a secret society, but not necessarily that it
was supposed to be any particular one, right, or are
there concrete theories there are? I mean, is it's supposed
(19:27):
to be.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah, of course, I mean it's always the Illuminati, you
know what I mean, Like, should.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Put that on a T shirt.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
It's always they're the free bird of secret societies, you
know what I mean? In the Great Karaoke Conspiracy Conversation
The Yeah. So Tom Cruise plays this guy, doctor Bill Harford,
and he learns that his what they're taught. They have
a wild night, right, one of those should be nice
parties that gets really weird. And then he's talking with
(19:56):
his wife, Alice, and he's talking about affairs because this older,
I think hungarian guy tries to seduce the wife and
then someone's also concurrently trying to seduce him. They make
it out and skate. They go home and he's like, well,
it was crazy. I can't believe that, honey. And then
she says, good by the way, thank you, thank you.
I learned it from Connell and and uh, there's there's
(20:21):
this moment where his wife says, actually, I have seriously
considered having an affair. There was this one guy. There's
one real smoke show. I you know, I thought about
leaving you and the kid. And this this is sort
of the impetus that sets Tom Cruise's doctor character out
into this this world of murky secrecy. People who believe
(20:45):
there's some sort of hidden message there point to what
they say are numerous occult symbols in the film and
the film's heavy on symbols, that's true. You know, it's
a lot of masked, indelicate interaction.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
There's a lot of CGI sex stuff. They had to
like cover things up to get to make it get
an R rating.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
I think like during the orgy scene.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
They actually had to like insert fake people to cover
up some of the penetrative moments.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Yeah, I would watch it cut where they where they
did a purposely bad job of that. You know, we're
like some guy from Cateringe is walking.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Out from the Nirvana video just kind of walks through
the frame with his mob.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
And the mob is of course in rhythm to yea God.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
So I just want to inject something here that has
to do with our discussions of these nineteen ninety nine movies,
because Eeswad Shoud is also a nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Yeah, we covered the Matrix and fight Club so far.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Yeah, one of the major themes in these movies, all
three of these movies from nineteen ninety nine, is that
there's something very wrong with society. We either as just
a regular human being existing within it, can't either see it,
can't do anything about it, or we need to change it,
or we're all of a sudden made aware of it.
So within I why I shut in the matrix all
(22:01):
of a sudden, Tom Cruise in this the scenario you
been you talked about, He's just all of a sudden
made aware of this crazy elite secret society. Neo becomes
aware of the matrix. The narrator in Fight Club becomes
aware of just how society.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Actually how banal his life and his existence is, and
how futile the whole thing is.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Well, yeah, so it's and it's kind of maybe it's
that whole concept of coming up on the new millennium
that perhaps in people's heads. Yeah, I'd like to know
if you think there's anything too that with Stanley Kubrick
deciding to depict this secret society and the way he
did the people who truly pull the strings, it's almost
(22:44):
it's not a comment or a response to any of
that stuff, but maybe it's kind of showing us here's
the real Here are the real people that pull the
strings in our society. They're people who go to board
meetings and have crazy parties because they just have all
the power and money.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Yeah. But I mean, if you look at the end
of Eyes Wide Shut though, spoiler and you believe what
the movie has to say, then they are nothing but
a group of sort of horned up rich people exactly.
And the girl is not dead, she's this this, you know.
Sidney Pollack explains it all at the end, and it's like,
(23:23):
you know, all these crazy ideas that you've got about
what's going on there, and that there's shadowy murders and
cover ups it basically we're just like a bunch of perverts.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Well, it's kind of like we talked about with Hodgman
when he was on Stuff that I Want you to Know,
and he sort of shed some light into his entree
into the book and Snake in Yale when he was
his time at Yale. And now at the end of
the day, it was just kind of like a swanky
party for people to do some networking.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
And he's much more if we're being honest, he's much
more focused on his medallion status rather than any sort
of secret collegiate society.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Medallion status dot bit L Y all capital letters.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
So it's it's weird because whenever we get to the
point of any theorizing, when we're whenever we get to
the point where we're asking people to interpret a symbol, right,
something subjective. We're no longer looking at something quantitative, like
a mathematical equation. We're looking at someone who's saying, well,
(24:26):
I think I think that looks like a triangle with
an eye in it. And I'm pretty sure. I mean,
what's the difference, Like, at what point are we just.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
Reading tea leaves?
Speaker 1 (24:35):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (24:37):
I I see what you're saying there, But isn't there
some isn't there an extra onion layer to this? Didn't
correct me if I'm wrong. Didn't Stanley Kubrick die before
this movie?
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Yes, released six days after he had a screening he died,
which is such fertile territory.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
But didn't somebody else have to go in? And no,
that's not true. I'm thinking of Ai. Right.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
He got in a fight with this udo about how
to cut it, which I think you alluded to earlier
nol for eyesweight chut mm to get that the I
guess it was too too racy for an R rating.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Yeah, right, But then I guess here's my question that
I don't have an answer to. Is like, in the theory,
they were pretty close to releasing this movie, but somebody,
maybe the distributor could go through and make changes. Whoever
owns the rights to it after his passing, like could
go through and make some sweeping changes to the story
(25:31):
before it comes out in theaters. Maybe that's one of
the reasons that some of the conspiracy theories continue to proliferate,
because something could have happened that we would never be
privy to.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
It's true.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
I'm just gonna okay, I'm just gonna say it. This
is just one person's opinion. I don't think there's much
sand to conspirat. Like as tempting and as juicy as
it is cognitively to say Stanley Kubrick, an immensely talented director,
went too far and crossed the line, and the powers
(26:04):
that be were like, don't tell people about our orgies.
Now we're going to kill you. As tempting as that
is to believe, and as frankly fun as it is
to believe, he was an older man who was not
in the best shape, you know, and taken very great
care of himself. I believe he's seventy years old. It's
not like he was twenty one years old and found
(26:25):
with two gunshots to the back of his head, right,
But it does bring out something I think could be
it could have much more credibility to it, which is
the idea that a government, or the idea of specifically
the US government, may be able to play a role
in determining what kinds of films get created or what
(26:48):
kind of films get depicted.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
Like.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
It blew my mind when I learned that this is
for all our aspiring filmmakers out there. You can get
the US military to do stuff for you on screen.
Oh yeah, as long as you depict them as heroes, right.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
Or at least in a way that they agree upon.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Yeah, which I had no idea.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Like, I'm not sure how much say they have and
whether or not something gets made these days, but they
can certainly if you're making a war movie or anything
that involves the army, then they can make it really
easy for you, or they can sit on their hands
and make it tougher. But they'll be like, sure if
they like what you're doing. How many tanks you need?
(27:28):
You need some helicopters?
Speaker 1 (27:30):
WHOA, we're wasting your time podcasting?
Speaker 4 (27:33):
You know what the fees are for that? I No,
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Oh man, we need to find out what about it?
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Even on like a branding level, like if you know,
are we allowed of our filmmakers allowed to use Army, Navy, etc.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
Without permission? Like yeah, you've got to clear everything. Yeah yeah,
And I imagine yeah they would they ask for the
use and what are you going to do with it
and then either say yes or no.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Hey, have you guys seen the trailer for the new
Top Gun movie. I'm actually kind of excited.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
I am too.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Okay, I feel obligated to watch it. You know, I
feel like it's inevitable.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
It's just a teaser, right, Like you don't really see
his face there.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
No, there's a full trailer.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
I saw the teaser one, Okay, I gotta I got
a buddy check it out.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
I gotta say I was not like I saw Top
Gun enough because it was just the zeitgeist. But I
wasn't some big Top Gun nut. But when I saw
that trailer, I found myself going, why do I Why
am I so in love with the idea of this movie?
I know, well, they it's probably pure nostalgia.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
It's the way they shoot for me, at least the
way they actually shoot the jets, because it brings out
the kid in me that played with a little toy
F fourteen and I was just like, oh man, this
is so cool. We hit on something really important here,
ben of the concept of controlling what can be seen
(28:54):
and like government involvement with that, and I really want
to get into that after a quick word from our.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
Spall, wo.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
So as you can tell one of the reasons that
we all are so passionate about film is because we're
passionate about stories. We're passionate about communicating this way. But
film isn't the only way to encounter a story. As
a matter of fact, one of our other favorite ways
to participate in a story or listen to a story
is through an audiobook. And that's why we recommend Audible.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
And hey, Wonder of Wonders. It's the holidays, it's the
perfect time to think about getting yourself or a friend
or family member and Audible membership. And right now, with
this special offer, you can get fifty three percent off
your first three months.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
That's right. You can choose three titles every month, one
audiobook and two exclusive Audible originals you cannot hear anywhere else.
And right now, for a limited time, you can get
those three months of Audible for just six ninety five
a month. As you said, Matt, that's more than half
off the regular price.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
And with Audible you can access and unbeatable selection of
audio books, including bestsellers, motivation, mysteries, thrillers, memoirs, even stuff
like cloud at Lists.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Yes, that's correct. One of the books that I've been
enjoying very much via Audible is cloud at List by
David Mitchell. You may have heard of the film, check
out the novel. I gotta say it's astonishing and the
way it's constructed makes it incredibly immersive to listen to.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
So don't delay. Right now, for a limited time, get
those three months of Audible for just six ninety five,
again half off the regular price. Choose one audiobook and
two Audible originals absolutely free. All you have to do
is visit audible dot com slash conspiracy or text Conspiracy
to five hundred dash five hundred.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
That's Audible dot com slash Conspiracy or Text Conspiracy to
five hundred, five hundred and we're back. So the question
the question at.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
At the table, Sure we're at a table.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Okay, there we go, Thanks guys. The question that we're
looking at currently is whether the weather a government specifically,
the US government can influence the kind of films that
get made or the kind of narratives we see. The
answer to that in days of your was yes, you know,
(31:32):
to some degree or another. But the answer now maybe
becomes a little more complicated.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
Right.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
We have indeed, there's this democratization of filmmaking technology, so
we have more people who don't have to be beholden
to a studio. But I don't know, man, I know
it's very on brand for me to be like the
CIA is dictating MCU or something like that. I don't
think they would bother.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
I would say that the control mechanisms, to a large
part are still in place, but it's mostly the distribution arms.
Like you, you could make the coolest indie film ever,
but you may not get anyone to see it, no
matter how trending something becomes. If it's not you know,
fully out there somewhere. Uh, and you've got ads popping up. Ever,
(32:22):
somebody's paying for ads, somebody's paying for posters, somebody's paying
for all this stuff. You're not gonna have the same reach.
Maybe that's maybe that's wrong thinking though, because anything that
goes viral online could be potentially seen by.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
Well, that's true.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
I mean, that's why no one's cracked the code on
how to make things go viral per se.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
This is the This is one of those things that
you and I have different your pains.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
Okay, what do you think? Well, I think it's all
like stage.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Well, there's more, sure, there are more opportunities to spread things,
but there are fewer people holding the faucets of that information.
To say that Facebook could not artificially make something quote
unquote viral, to say that they don't have that capability is.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
Willfully I'm not saying they don't nofully wrong. I absolutely
think they do.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
But I also would like to believe that things succeed
or fail on their own merits, at least some of
the time.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
I would think. So, Yeah, I mean I don't think.
I don't think we're in the grips of some corporate
sith overlord.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
I mean, if that cat playing the piano video didn't
succeed just because of its sheer awesomeness, and I don't.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
Know what I believe in?
Speaker 1 (33:30):
What a chaotic universe? Yeah, there's a Oh, this is
one example that I think is very real. Have have
you guys' film buffs noticed the tendency like the growth
of the Chinese mainland film market, right, it's huge. Have
you guys noticed that the tendency for blockbuster films to
(33:52):
be recut, have scenes added or deleted for the Chinese market.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
We've talked about this, right, Like they they don't like ghosts.
There's certain thing they don't like they have to take out.
I think ghost is one of them. If I'm not
totally just out on a limb with that one. No
ghosts and Chinese cut, So now I'm not okay, maybe
that's not that, but there are definitely some cultural things
that like they have to soften and language that they
have to soften.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
Paul said, true ghost Yeah, yeah, I thought I didn't
make that up.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Have you seen examples of this?
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Well, I mean, the only thing I can think of
is something sort of obvious like H and not for
the Chinese market necessarily, But didn't they fully recut or
not recut, but digitize the enemy for the Red Dawn REMAKEH?
If I'm not mistaken it was originally I'm not sure.
(34:40):
I think it may be originally was China and they
had to go back and digitally replace the insignias and
the flags and make it another country. If I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
That's interesting, and I wouldn't doubt that, especially seeing what
we're seeing with China holding so much sway over like
American like like American companies having to censor stuff like
the NBA for example, you know, like wanting to play
ball with China because they have so much control over
the purse strings. And that's true because a lot of
(35:11):
movies that flop in the States do Gangbusters business over
in China Pacific Rim, So you know.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
You don't want China.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Yeah, it's the reason they made the second one really
entirely because of what happened in China. And then when
they made the second Pacific Rim, there's this very there's
this very apparent leaning into this Chinese market. Charlie Days
character for some reason, it is like the white guy
who speaks Mandarin, and then there's also a Chinese general
(35:43):
who I believe gets a lot. He doesn't really get
many lines in the American version. It's just that thing
where there's a conversation between like two principal characters, and
the camera keeps cutting to this guy just sort of reacting,
and he's like oh yeah, oh no, oh yeah, And
so I think it gets actual lines in the Chinese version.
(36:03):
But that's a clear example that gives truth to this
conspiracy theory. On some level, there are governments are able
to control entertainment media.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
Yes, absolutely, And just to confirm it was originally the
Red Dawn remake was originally Chinese flags and it got
changed to North Korean flags. And so they don't miss
out because it's a billion billion human beings that they.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
Had a garbage movie on their hands, and that American
audiences wouldn't go see it. Well, have y'all.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Just to bring this back into I guess current pop culture.
In twenty nineteen, the new season of South Park is out,
and one of the things they hit early on in
the season is this concept of Disney and films and
all these things changing their scripts specifically so that the
film in its regular it's an original form would just
(36:58):
perform and be able to be released in China as well,
like catering the full thing, not just recutting a version
of it or something. It's just fascinating to me, But
it was all about Disney and all the varying properties
and how they were.
Speaker 4 (37:12):
Doing this so they're just making Chinese friendly movies.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
Yeah, again, this is South Park commenting on a situation.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
Then it must be true.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
You got to remember too, it's like, it's not like
every American movie ends up in China. They have very
tight control over which ones get in, right, So therefore
you want to level the playing field by like, oh,
maybe China. Hopefully China will take our big, giant, expensive
movie so that we have this whole other.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
Because Charlie money makes Mandarin's right, right. Yes, not only that,
I was just looking it up. Apparently in gravity.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
In the Sandra Bullock movie, Sandra Bullock survives by hiding
in a Chinese space station. The movie twenty twelve, humanity
is saved because the Chinese government builds these life saving
kind of like arc.
Speaker 4 (38:00):
Ships or whatever. So there's you know, there's definitely thought.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Being put into, like how can we please China so
that we can get that sweet sweet you know Chinese business.
Speaker 4 (38:10):
Your show is probably not in China, right.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Well, no, I don't know if we can get into China.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
After your show is in China. There's no way, No,
you guys do I think I remember at one point
someone said that we were not available in China for
stuff you should know.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Huh, guys, we got to learn Mandarin or cantonese. Okay,
just we've got the weekend coming up. Well we'll solve that, right.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
This so the spoiler alert there, there was another historical
conspiracy we wanted to talk about that perhaps is an
episode of its own, the Red Scare and the House
on American Activities Committee, But we want to give that
due diligence. And also, I think this is something that
we're wondering and our fellow listeners are wondering for you, specifically, Chuck,
(38:55):
what are some of your favorite, like most out there
fan theories about films or franchises, not even like real
quote unquote conspiracy theories, but like the craziest stuff that
fans have come up with. And also do you believe
it or disbelieve it?
Speaker 4 (39:12):
So are we doing blacklist? Are we doing fan theories theories?
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, we could do We could do do
fan theories. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (39:21):
Well, I'm glad you asked. Ben. There's a few popular
ones available on the internet. I'm not sure if you
know this. It's real pository for stuff like what the
heck is the internet? There's the Toy Story one which
is pretty good, which is that Andy's mom was the
original owner of Jesse the Cowgirl. WHOA Okay, why did
(39:46):
that blow your mind so much?
Speaker 3 (39:47):
Matt, Well, it just connecting it up that much because
it was such an important part of this.
Speaker 4 (39:51):
Yeah, because that would make you know, Jesse sings the
song about Emily, you know that really said song about
her previous owner. That would be Andy's mom toy story too.
I think that was in Toy Story. Yeah, when she
loved me that you met.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
Well, I mean, I have a four year old man.
We've been watching that movie all the time.
Speaker 4 (40:11):
That one is actually could be true. And Disney and
and Pixar certainly does a lot of this stuff. I
think they recently admitted that everything is in the same
shared universe, right, Yeah, Like there's a Frozen theory too
about the ship that.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
Els and Ana's parents are on or the same the
same ship that they find in The Little Mermaid.
Speaker 4 (40:27):
Oh well, and also that that Tarzan is frozen. I
don't know the ladies and Frozen that they are siblings,
Yeah to Tarzan's.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Because of the the Elson an A parents that were
on this voyage and.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
They had a boy they had a boy that is
yeund and.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
And geographically where they would have been passing through, it
might have made sense for him to, you know.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
Wash up on it. Ferris Bueller is a creation of
Cameron's mind. That's always that's been an old one, but
a good.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
I remember hearing that when and then it made me
go back and rewatch Ferris Bueller, which I thought was
like I thought day Off was the coolest film growing up. Yeah,
it was a very very safe and ocuous way to
fight the power.
Speaker 4 (41:12):
Yeah, what was the tagline for that? We heard today?
One man struggled to take it?
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Why do you think they didn't franchise Ferris Bueller, He
has his day off?
Speaker 4 (41:22):
Why didn't they do? Like that was going to be
a sequel for a while to the Beach like.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
And then there was there was a a very Ferris
Bueller esque television series called Parker Lewis Can't.
Speaker 4 (41:34):
Lose That He was the Heath kind of looked like
Parker Lewis.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Oh, thanks, man, I think he was the he was
sort of the Heathcliff to the Garfield of Ferris Bueller.
Speaker 6 (41:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (41:43):
I actually liked that show.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Yeah, it was cool. Yeah, he's like cutting a cardboard
cut out of himself in half with a chainsaw.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (41:49):
There, of course is the breaking bad meth led to
the Walking Dead. What apocalypse? You never heard that one
to me? Yeah, there's a bunch of stuff. Glenn in
season one drives that red Dodge Challenger which looks like
Walter's car, and when Walter went to return that car,
the manager of the car dealership's name was Glenn. Darryl
(42:15):
is trying to bring down the fever of this other
guy at one point, so he pulls out of sash
of drugs and there's clearly like blue myth, like Walter
White's blue meth in the bag and then one more merle.
You know Michael Rookers character early on he was a
former drug dealer, and they described his on the show,
(42:38):
his supplier as a janky little white guy who threatened
him with a gun and said, I'm gonna kill you.
Can I say the word probably can't a curse on here,
just yeah, I'm gonna kill you.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
WHOA so JANKI looky white guy?
Speaker 4 (42:53):
And I what I think is going on is I
think Vince killing or the Walking Dead creators put some
like fun little references totally. Yeah, but you know, they
have fun with that kind of thing filmmakers do, I think.
Speaker 6 (43:04):
Yeah, people love the ster eggs and yeah, the best
ever though.
Speaker 4 (43:15):
Guys, you know the Tommy Westfall universe theory, right, Tommy
Westfall from Saint Elsewhere. Okay, So Saint Elsewhere was a
show in the eighties hospital show and very famous for
the ending final episode, which was one of the doctor's son.
His name was Tommy Westfall, doctor west Fall's kid, and
(43:38):
he looks into a snow globe. Well, first of all,
a character that has already died is is is alive
in the living room and is a different person. His
dad comes home, the doctor, and he's a construction worker,
and so this is the very very last scene of
this whole long series. And then Tommy looks into his
little snow globe that he's always playing with, and it
(43:59):
is sant Eligi's hospital inside the snow globe. Basically, the
idea is that this whole thing think Tommy had autism
and it was all this world that he created. Oh
so that's the beginning, that's the seed. There were so
many crossovers and uh, guest spots and characters appearing, like,
(44:21):
for instance, the two doctors went to the Cheers bar
one time as those doctors and Dittle cameo. So there
are all these little tendrils to where they have now
linked four hundred and nineteen TV shows to say and elsewhere.
Meaning if that was all in his head, then all
of these shows are in the head of young Tommy Westfall,
whoa concluding the X Files, all of Star Trek and Dude,
(44:45):
if you looked at the list you can go to
I mean they have full websites on this, and you
look at down the list of four hundred nineteen shows,
you're like, how does mash have anything to.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Do with Wait?
Speaker 4 (44:54):
Wait, so there's real connections. Yeah, yeah, real connections. Really
the Marine universe sort of thin, but some of them aren't,
Like you know, Cheers, Begat Fraser. Fraser had like a
guest star that was ended up on something else and
then somehow that connects to like Law and Order, and
Law and Order has tendrils all throughout because all the
different shows and all the guest stars and not just
(45:16):
like someone guested on the show, but like in character
in the fictional worlds.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
Like Munch from uh He's been in like I think
X Files and a bunch of true crime shows. He's
in law and order, so.
Speaker 4 (45:27):
That ties all that stuff together, or like MASH was
something I mentioned one of the doctors once and elsewhere
at one point made a little reference to working with
Trapper John. Who is that one of the doctors in MASH,
So like that's how that fits in. And then MASH
reaches another couple of things.
Speaker 3 (45:43):
Oh my god, I'm looking at the grid. Uh there
is a visual grid online that you can find. Oh
and it's this is at eleven percent. I'm looking at
eleven Oh wow, it goes all the way in to Chicago.
Speaker 4 (45:57):
Pretty funny to pick it. Fences, like a rested development
is on there, great shows, Alpha is on there. So
this spans and they all yeah, I mean they're basically saying,
like close to four hundred and twenty shows, simulation theory
very much.
Speaker 6 (46:13):
What this is.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
He's the He's like the god of the matrix, basically
Tommy Westfel. If you guys are familiar with the PBS
Digital Studios show Idea channel, which I don't know if
they produced that anymore, but I used to love it.
I think I gotta start watching it again if they do.
But there is a Tommy Westfell west Fall excuse me,
universe episode of that show.
Speaker 4 (46:31):
Really, he goes through and does it does all of
the connections, so we should credit the original guy too.
It's a comic book and TV writer named Dwayne McDuffie
put this forward in a two thousand and two blog post.
It's very two thousand and two bloggie.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
It is also about this theory, guys, do you I mean,
I kind of miss that that idea. You know, I
don't watch television is kind of changing anyway, but I
I don't watch a ton of stuff, but I would
love it if I was watching. I don't know if
Black Mirror had a Stranger Things reference in there somewhere
(47:08):
that kind of.
Speaker 4 (47:09):
Now I'm with you, and it is a little harder
these days because I think back then, with like three networks,
there could be more crossover, but it's hard to like,
you know, Apple's making TV shows now, are they going
to reference something from like CBS? You know, are they
going to reference Everybody Loves Raymond or something? Right, think
it's a lot easier to cross over in those days.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
That's true.
Speaker 4 (47:31):
I do miss it, do though. They'd be kind of cool.
I'm sure this one continues, and now I'm sure people
are trying to write in Tommy Westfall connections. Oh yeah, yeah,
you know, just to be a part of the whole thing.
I'm obsessed with this. There's even cartoons like Dexter's Laboratories
on here and well then you can click on it
and see what the link is to to Tommy Westfall.
(47:53):
It's so cool. Yeah, it's pretty neat. I was unaware
of this. We can really spend some time. Is real
rabbit hole.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
I love that these kind of rabbit holes are inspiring
to me because they think, like, Okay, this guy was
doing other stuff with his life. He discovered this, and
now Dwayne McDuffie, Dwayne McDuffie is two thousand and two
blog posts and now it's taken on a life of
its own, and like.
Speaker 4 (48:18):
Getting paid for this did he? I don't know.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
It feels like a passion project. It feels like a mission.
And you know, I fell asleep trying to put on
a pair of pants one time, so like, this guy
is really being productive.
Speaker 4 (48:30):
Yeah, it's sort of like the Kevin Bacon I think,
if I'm not mistaken. At one point in the mid
nineties when I was living in New Jersey. I met
the guy who created the Kevin Bacon degrees of separation.
I was gonna call it a meme. Wasn't a meme
back then, guys, wasn't a rumor. You know what our
memes are. We would draw pictures and hand them around
at one another. That's so charming.
Speaker 3 (48:53):
What a distribution lot.
Speaker 4 (48:55):
I don't know what to call it though, But if
I'm not mistaken, and this just popped into my head,
I think I met that guy at a party one
Tommy Westwall No, the guy who created the Kevin Bacon
separation thing, seven degrees of separation?
Speaker 1 (49:08):
Did he did degrees introduce himself as that guy?
Speaker 4 (49:13):
He was introduced to me as such. And the reason
I remember because I think he was developing a board
game at the time, and you know, supposedly, I guess
he owned this idea. I don't know Reynolds trademark that
did you look it up? I'm making it the Oracle
of Bacon, I would, now I'm hungry. I don't know,
I don't remember. I certainly wouldn't remember who it was.
(49:35):
This is just some random Barney.
Speaker 1 (49:37):
This this is strange, Okay, So this I mean researching
this interconnected universe is very much there goes my weekend moment.
Speaker 4 (49:47):
So sorry, Oh no, it's good for a while, It's
gonna be worth it.
Speaker 1 (49:51):
But I do want to let everybody know we had
mentioned briefly. House on American Activities Committee, would you be
interested in making a return appearance for us to do
an episode just on that. Sure, okay, because I feel
like maybe we did and this is my bad. We
did a bit of a tease. There's like no cut that,
(50:12):
let's go to fan theories. But I have no regrets
because I feel like we learned a lot.
Speaker 2 (50:18):
Absolutely. I mean, I've certainly got a rabbit hole to
play in a sandbox. Rabbit box.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
This is gonna be one of those times in the
box where you and I hang out at the local bar,
reading the same web page and just not talking to
each other.
Speaker 4 (50:31):
Let's do it. Let's do it after this.
Speaker 3 (50:33):
Can I ask one last thing before we please? Do
you think we mentioned and you just mentioned it again
in the House of an American Activities saying, do you
think there could be a time, specifically in the United
States of America where something like that could happen again?
Like where yes, the government steps up, you think, so.
Speaker 4 (50:52):
I think it's happening. I mean, not necessarily just that,
but for sure, yeah, I think. I think lately we've
all seen out of pain. Things can get.
Speaker 2 (51:03):
Just inching towards totalitarianism, you know, I mean one day
at a time, and it's like we always say, it's
like the whole you know, frog in boiling water situation,
where it happens slowly and then before you know it,
you're dead.
Speaker 1 (51:16):
Well, one thing, since I know we're past Halloween, but
it feels like it's always Halloween in America nowadays. It's true.
One thing that we have that we have to consider
is that the most vulnerable point of any nation's life
cycle is always going to be the succession of power,
(51:39):
the secession of power. And so when I was studying
North Korea years and years back in a different lifetime,
that was the thing that put everybody on international alert.
When one of the Kims is going to say, Okay,
my son, this chosen Kim is now going to be
in charge. Hope everyone's cool with that, because there are
a bunch of other there's all this internal stuff. We
(52:02):
have been very fortunate that we are in the US.
We're not a country like Italy. Italy has not had
a very good run of contiguous governance for what the
past fifty plus years, But here in the US, we
sort of take it for granted that when an election happens,
whether local, regional, or federal, the person who wins the
(52:24):
person who loses shake hands. We don't know if that's
gonna happen. Now, boy really took this in a depressing note.
Speaker 4 (52:34):
You know, I think if Donald Trump loses in the
twenty twenty eighth, then it'll be a really, really interesting transition.
Speaker 3 (52:46):
I'm already digging in my backyard to make a place
where my family and I can hide for several months.
Hopefully everything goes great and won't need to use it.
Speaker 4 (52:57):
I don't think like violence will break out necessarily, but
I'm having a hard time just picturing him playing nice
about it all.
Speaker 2 (53:04):
Well, that's what we're talking about too, right, Like where
you know, the normal channels, the normal ways things are
done that we've all accepted are the ways things are done.
Speaker 4 (53:12):
This is kind of proven that, like, maybe it's only
done this way if people play nice. That's right. I
think that's absolutely true.
Speaker 1 (53:19):
Yeah, the rule of law is a tenuous thing.
Speaker 4 (53:23):
You know.
Speaker 1 (53:23):
The example we always use on this show is we
think we take the tack of or the perspective of
future historians looking back on twenty nineteen. So many things
now that we do we're going to seem ridiculous in
like twenty years, forget one hundred. One of the silliest
examples that still holds water is, of course, driving on
(53:44):
the interstate, explaining to like one of your grandkids, well,
we used to hop in these things that would go
ninety plus miles an hour, and.
Speaker 4 (53:52):
How is it not one hundred percent mortality?
Speaker 1 (53:54):
You know, right? And like, well, we have this system
of lines that we painted on the ground walls between
the cars. No, just paint, just paint, And we all
kind of agreed that we would treat these lines as
though they were barriers. So it was kind of an
honor system.
Speaker 4 (54:10):
We have even had a saying stay in your lane, yeah,
very quaint time.
Speaker 3 (54:14):
Don't text or you'll die.
Speaker 1 (54:17):
Right, They're like, oh, so did that work? And the
answer would be like, kind of, I don't know. A
ton of people died.
Speaker 4 (54:22):
They'll just say, like, you drove your own cars exactly
with your hand.
Speaker 2 (54:26):
It reminds me exactly reminds me of that scene from
Back in the Future too, where Martin mcfid does his
like fancy you know gun video game moves and the
little kids, one of which I believe is young young
Elijah Wood says, you have to use your hands, idiot,
you know Boomer?
Speaker 1 (54:40):
Yeah, okay, Boomer, I love Boomer. That's a weird one.
Speaker 3 (54:44):
So last question that we're wrapping, what was in Marcello's
Wallace's briefcase.
Speaker 4 (54:49):
Oh, look like a yellow light bulb are apartment.
Speaker 1 (54:55):
Wait, do you have behind the scenes? You get some
juice on that? Oh? I got no juice.
Speaker 4 (54:59):
I really got into the pulp fiction theories of the
portal in Marcella Swallows's neck. He was the devil or something,
or it being his soul and the soul is in that.
I never got into that stuff. I just always kind
of took it at face value.
Speaker 2 (55:12):
I always thought it was gold bars. Yeah, I mean
that's what I thought in Dinner in the California Sun.
Speaker 4 (55:18):
Yeah, and just just a hyper stylized hey, here's something
valuable in here. Thing. Mm That's what it was, though they.
Speaker 2 (55:25):
Big up it a lot harder than if it were
just gold bars. In the movie they treated it like
it's sort of sacred.
Speaker 1 (55:30):
And irreplaceable, unique object. But you know what else is
interesting too. We have to think of Quentin Tarantino's personality.
I've never met the guy. Yeah, he seems like he
can get you know, carried away, passionate dude. Sure, so,
I you know, maybe he has an explanation to himself
or or I want to be like the party pooper here.
(55:52):
Maybe he was just like, okay, just put it, put
a light bulb in it and make it bright. And
someone's like, okay, well what is it. He's like, no, no, no,
just roll one of the yellow gels on it.
Speaker 3 (56:04):
Yeah, we're playing off of his personality and the weird
things that end up on camera for him. Maybe it
was a pair of solid gold stilettos.
Speaker 1 (56:13):
Yeah, I was gonna say, maybe it's just like a
foot maybe Yeah.
Speaker 2 (56:18):
He's yeah, speaking of shared universes though he does a
pretty good job of of that.
Speaker 4 (56:23):
And it's it's I think it's right. I can't remember
how we where I was discussing this.
Speaker 2 (56:28):
It might have been not on a podcast weird, but like, yeah,
you know, Vincent Vega is vic Vega from Reservoir Dogs.
Speaker 4 (56:36):
I think their Yeah, yeah, there's more.
Speaker 2 (56:41):
Cigarettes, there's more there's there's more stuff and moving into exactly.
Speaker 4 (56:44):
I just think that's fun. I like it. Yeah, same here.
Speaker 1 (56:47):
I like that it's not over Yeah, it's world building,
but it's not over the top. It's not it's not
beating like there's not there's no exposition about it, which
I think is very strong.
Speaker 2 (56:57):
You're not required to keep it in mind, but if
you feel like it and want to dig deep, it's
a fun thing to like pay attention to.
Speaker 4 (57:04):
Yeah, the TV show lost Mede a whole However, many
seasons they counted on fans really overdoing it.
Speaker 1 (57:11):
That's true payoff. Yeah, were you one of those guys
when it was.
Speaker 4 (57:16):
All oh dude, I was waiting the fuselage that was
the website. I went to that thing. I was all
over it, man, I thought it was really really cool.
Speaker 1 (57:22):
I was on spoilerforums dot net. Yeah, talking to Russians
about like getting the new not even the new episode early,
getting the new teaser.
Speaker 4 (57:32):
It waned for me as the show went on, but
those first few seasons I was in deep. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (57:37):
It got to the point where you realized there was
no way they were going to be able to cash
this check that they wrote, like there's just not enough
episodes left, you know. Yeah, But thinking back, and this
is how I feel oftentimes when shows that I love
initially kind of jumped the shark. I don't know that
it affected my overall. I still enjoyed my time with
the show. It didn't make me just like completely thrown
(57:59):
into the bus forever.
Speaker 4 (58:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (58:02):
But they did a great job. Was shared universe fan
theories too. Even tied into clover Fields a bit tenuously.
Speaker 4 (58:11):
Oh sure, yeah, I like that, which was the one
with the the Cloverfield movie with an underground layer.
Speaker 1 (58:18):
Oh yeah, that was great. Really, I thought it was cool.
That's John Goodman, right.
Speaker 4 (58:25):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, in a real nasty s o B.
Speaker 1 (58:29):
And I was like, come on, man, you're the guy
from Roseanne. Be cool.
Speaker 4 (58:33):
Do you want to hear my little name dropy loss story.
Speaker 1 (58:36):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (58:36):
So I went to meet our friend John Hodgman, he's
been on this very show. I went to meet him
for dinner one time in la at the Chateau Marmont,
and the dining room there very cool. The only time
I've been there is by his invitation. And I was
waiting in the lobby, waiting, waiting, waiting, and he said,
I'm finishing dinner. It was just like right behind me
(58:57):
with a friend, just like, hang out there for a minute.
We'll go get it drink. Also, when I happened to
see John Krasinsky and Emlee Blunt, they walked right by me.
Caught eyes with Krazinski and he gave me a very
nice acknowledging smile and nod and I was like, he
is a good guy. You can tell just because he
looked at me. He went just kind of smiled that aside.
That's one name drop. Hodgman finally texted me and said,
(59:19):
come on over to the table because we're going to
be a little bit longer. It's Damon Linda Lindelof sitting
there and I was like, oh hi, And it was
right after Lost.
Speaker 1 (59:30):
Oh wow.
Speaker 4 (59:31):
And I sat down and within like two minutes he
went all right, you got to be honest and he
was like, I've just met you. I don't know you.
John and I were talking about the end of Loss
and he was like, were you a fan? I was
like yeah, And he's like, what did you think about
the last episode? No? No pressure, no pressure at all.
And I was honest and I went, yeah, I was like,
(59:53):
it was all right. I was like, I gotta say,
I said, I love the show. I said, but I
didn't love the ending. And he was very sweet about it,
and he said see because I guess John was saying like, no,
people loved it, and he took that as ammunition to
be like, see there, this guy's being honest. Like I
think he might have thought. His contention might have been
that we dropped the ball a little bit. But you
gotta remember too, like that show, they didn't intend for
(01:00:15):
it to run that long.
Speaker 6 (01:00:17):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
I think they were like doing well, and then the
studios are like, keep it going, guys, keep that juice flowing.
Speaker 4 (01:00:24):
And so then they kind of write themselves into a
corner and like what are.
Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
They gonna do? I bet you Tella novella, you know,
and it's almost like the Dark Tower novel series. You know,
it keeps, it keeps going, and at some point, like
there's this beautiful moment when you're writing a story in
your created world where you're in the middle of it,
anything's possible, right, and you get toward the end you're like, well,
Polar Bears, Yeah, what happened to those guys, right.
Speaker 4 (01:00:49):
I'll never forgive a monster.
Speaker 3 (01:00:50):
Yeah, I'll never forgive them for the smoke monster. I
thought I wanted that to be something so much more.
Speaker 4 (01:00:56):
Yeah, what it ended up being? Again, can I.
Speaker 3 (01:00:58):
Can't even remember?
Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
It was the embodiment of the spooky bad guy in
black because there were the two there were the two siblings,
right and ask Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't even remember.
Speaker 3 (01:01:10):
Any too much, guys, this too much lost, too much lost.
Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
We have we have people yelling at their podcast player
of choice right now.
Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
David is making Watchmen right now on HBO.
Speaker 4 (01:01:22):
And it looks dope.
Speaker 3 (01:01:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:01:25):
I saw the pilot. I liked it.
Speaker 1 (01:01:26):
It's it's really well done. And of course Alan Moore
hates it.
Speaker 4 (01:01:29):
He is uh means he's already vocal that he hates it. Well,
that's my point though. Is he actually spoken about it
or is there we just assuming.
Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
That he has. He's a great writer who only writes
to support his habit of being a full time curmudget
like that's his first love.
Speaker 3 (01:01:43):
I know.
Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
He lives in a very small village, uh and has
lived in the same place, a very small, modest home.
He worships a snake god called glican and he is
very into you know, witchcraft and Alistair Crowley asked.
Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
You to have these amazing YouTube video. It was about
magic where it starts out with like, Okay, we'll get
this because we've all worked in production. Starts out with
like an empty chair, just in an empty room, and
then there's a there's like a hard cut and he's
just sitting there and he's like, oh magic. On that note, though,
(01:02:18):
I think Almore is a fantastic writer, genius.
Speaker 5 (01:02:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
And so barring a Lost, a Lost reboot, a gritty
reboot of Lost, what if we call that? I don't know, befuddled?
Speaker 4 (01:02:33):
Yes, found found see that movie crusher symbiosis.
Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
Nice and where can people find movie Crush if they
want to learn more about the world of film.
Speaker 4 (01:02:47):
Well, you know, Ben and the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts
or wherever you find your favorite podcast. That's our official cca.
Speaker 3 (01:02:54):
I heard that somewhere.
Speaker 1 (01:02:57):
Sounds familiar. This is thank you so much for coming
on having me. Yeah, it's long overdue.
Speaker 4 (01:03:04):
Yeah, I think year ten or whatever is a good
time to have me on.
Speaker 3 (01:03:09):
What I said, I would say, if you are, if
you like this show and you've maybe joined our Facebook group.
Movie Crush has a Facebook group that has just the
most fantastic people on it.
Speaker 1 (01:03:21):
To discuss things movie Crushers.
Speaker 4 (01:03:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:03:24):
Movie Crush is similar to our hears where it gets crazy.
So it's just another great place to a group to
join if you are a fan of movie Crush or.
Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
If you like the show.
Speaker 4 (01:03:32):
Yeah, and if you like movies. It's just a nice
community of people who aren't jerks to each other and
who share ideas about movies that are very respectful and
it's cool and check.
Speaker 2 (01:03:41):
I might be being a dumb dumb and asking this,
but do you post the many Crush questions on the
page or on the actual like on the group or
on the page I posted on the Movie Crush facebook
page facebook page, So if you want to get in
on that, and you want to join the group, which
is its own thing, and join the conversations, but join
the conversation for the show. Chuck literally posts questions the
(01:04:02):
day before we do these many Crush episodes where it's
just he and I kind of having conversation starters that
folks on the Facebook page submit, Yeah, and I read
your name, you.
Speaker 4 (01:04:11):
Read your name.
Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
You can become an old pal stet a good friend,
like it's really a whole thingy.
Speaker 1 (01:04:17):
You've got some recurring suggestions and people right in the
page because it a very supportive community.
Speaker 4 (01:04:23):
Yeah, that's great, and.
Speaker 1 (01:04:28):
That's our classic episode for this evening. We can't wait
to hear your thoughts.
Speaker 4 (01:04:33):
It's right. Let us know what you think. You can reach.
Speaker 2 (01:04:34):
You to the handle Conspiracy Stuff where we exist on
Facebook x and YouTube on Instagram and TikTok work Conspiracy
Stuff Show.
Speaker 3 (01:04:42):
If you want to call us dial one eight three
three std WYTK. That's our voicemail system. You've got three minutes,
give yourself a cool nickname and let us know if
we can use your name and message on the air.
If you got more to say than can fit in
that voicemail, why not instead send us a good old
fashioned email.
Speaker 1 (01:04:59):
We are the entities that read every single piece of
correspondence we receive. Be aware, yet not afraid.
Speaker 5 (01:05:06):
Sometimes the void writes back.
Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
Conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 3 (01:05:30):
Stuff they Don't Want you to Know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Fellow conspiracy realist. We are returning to you with a
fantastic blast from the past. We had our big podcasting brother,
none other than Charles W. Chuck Bryant, join us back
in twenty nineteen to talk about the wide world of
conspiracies in Phil.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, we touch on everything from Stanley Kubrick and his
potentially fake moon landing, hidden messages in many of his films,
The Wizard of Oz, lots of crazy juice about that film,
things that happened behind the scenes.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
And guys, we have breaking movie news. Conan O'Brien will
be hosting Oscars again next year.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Okay, second day, and thank god for that.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
He was.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
He did a fine job.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Good one. But I like his podcast too. But thanks
for tuning into ours. Here's the tape.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
From UFOs to Psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. Can turn back now or learn
this stuff they don't want you to know. A production
of iHeart Radios How Stuff Works.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Hello, Welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Noah.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
They call me Ben. We were joined as always with
our super producer Paul Mission Control Decant. Most importantly, you
are here, and that makes this stuff they don't want
you to know. As our fellow longtime listeners know, we're
all film buffs here and stuff they don't want you
to know, big fans of cinema in almost any form.
(01:40):
And today we're diving into the film conspiracies of all types,
right like we would say, we're film buffs.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
I only like movies.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Oh yeah, you are here, you're a movie man.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Well you know, I officially have a degree in filmmaking,
although without the actual film.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
You're a professor of cinema.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
No oh, I feel like you're right now, all right, No, no,
I'm just saying like, I'm all about this kind of
stuff as we all are, so we have an interest
in it. But we're not here alone.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
That's true, Matt. Today we are joined with our collective
pal pioneer of podcasting, a friend of the show, and
an actual outside of work personal friend of ours, to
boot Charles W. Chuck Bryant, host of Movie Crush, as
well as stuff you should know. Thanks for coming on
the show, Chuck.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Hey guys, hey man, I've got so many questions already.
Oh yeah, Ben, question for you fans of almost all
kinds of film? What kinds of film are you're not
a fan of?
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Oh I was. I just wanted to leave people in
out in case one of the guys is like, you
know what, screw spaghetti westerns. I hate any omorcone, I
love any o'morecone. So it would have been driving some
tension into our relationship. But not all films are for
all people.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
You're probably not a fan of snuff films for example.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, actually, I hope that's not a hot take. I'm
not you know, there you go call me old fashioned?
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Good answer.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
So for backgrounds, how would you describe Movie Crush the podcast?
Like how you the germ of the idea, how you
grew it? What you guys do? And I know Nol's
on there as well.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Well.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Movie Crust started as Hey, let me interview a celebrity
and release every Friday and they talk about their favorite
film all time favorite movie is The Conceit and it
is still that at times, but it is morphed over
the past two years. Just had the two year anniversary
and now we do these mini crushes on Monday with
Nol as co host, where we have a great movie
(03:41):
going community on Facebook and we post questions and polls
and through a lot of interactive fan stuff, which is
a lot of fun, and then Fridays. Now it turns
out booking celebrities is a hard thing to do what
and it got kind of sick of it. If they
come my way, now, great, I'll do that. But I
have a stay full of friends and family and colleagues
(04:01):
now that come in and we do film series and
filmmaker series and just whatever you want to talk about
about a specific film.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
And just really quickly, just to make sure this is
crystal clear, this is Chuck reaching out doing this booking solo.
We don't have like a staff of like booking agents
that are trying to guests.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
For interviewing celebrities, not my friend's family and colleagues. Now
it's great, though, These are great conversations no matter who
it is. And it turns out the listening community was like,
I don't care if it's a celebrity, these are great conversations, Maddie.
We're doing I don't even know what to college. Originally
it was just hit movies. We're just gonna go with
ninety nine.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
I think, okay, it's nineteen ninety nine in movies yeah, man,
well is speaking of your colleagues and friends that you interview.
You have a whole sery. By the way, Paul has
been on that show.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Were Saul and I are doing a Sophia couple of series.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Oh, you just want to hear Paul's voice. He never
speaks on this here podcast. You can hear him speak
on Chucks.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
That's right true.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
But another person you interview as a colleague named Casey Pegrim,
and that is what we really want to get into first.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Ah, yes, Casey Pegrim aka LaBouche as he's known in France,
and then a couple of different podcasts. What it's a
We have this idea that Casey is in addition to
be a super producer in Atlanta. You know this is
a true story, you guys, We all know how he
disappears for like at least three weeks once a year
to France. Yeah, so we have this vision of him
(05:29):
leading a completely different double life where he's LaBouche. He
has like an ear ring and a leather jacket.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Is he an assassin or is he just he is
just an international man of mystery. Okay, assassing is probably
on the table, but if it comes up, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Really thought you were going into the mighty Boush thing there.
For a second, I thought that's what this means the mouth.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Yeah, I'm mistaken. Yeah, he's he's.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Kind of like a broker of film related crime. We
haven't really figured it out, but we're pretty sure he
has maybe two secret families of France that are aware of.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
What you do. Is guys, is one of us before
next year, say hey, Casey, I saved up some Doman
and I would love a your guide and can we
co incide our trips and just see if he's like,
how weird he gets? It's what I'd like to do
my own thing, not actually going this year.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Let's you know what. That sounds like a plan and
we have enough time to do it right.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Great, But the series you make with him, yes, is
focused on a particular filmmaker, at least several. You've made
several in that vein talking about Stanley Kubrick, which is
somebody we've spoken about before on this show. We kind
of want to get your take.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Yeah, yeah, let's let's start with this is one of them.
When we think of conspiracy theory and film, Yeah, one
of the things that will be most apparent in the
front of the mind of the mainstream listener, whatever is
going to be stuff related to Stanley Kubrick, Right, So
we wanted to get your takes on some of the
(07:01):
most prevalent conspiracy theories or fringe theories regarding Kubrick and
his body of work. So you've heard the one about
Stanley Kubrick faking the moonlanding? Sure, okay, well, let's just
really fast. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Do you think there's anything to that with the technology
that was being developed to shoot that film in tandem
with our efforts to get to the Moon. Do you
have any feeling that something weird was going on there
or it's just all I mean, it's just all happened
to be coinciding.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
I don't think anything was going on there, Okay, I know.
Part of the credence to this theory is that two
thousand and one of Space Odyssey looked so realistic and
who else would you go to? But you know, he
enlisted real people from NASA, if I'm not mistaken, and
astronauts and engineers like that's why that movie looks so great.
(07:54):
Not to say he couldn't have done that to fake
the moon landing as well.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
I guess well, just also as such an odd tour
who's famous for having so many multiple takes of things,
it seems like he'd be a real pill to work
with faking a moon landing, Like, how many takes do
you have to have of the like each step? Right?
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Yeah, I'm okay. Here's my.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Kind of updated take after doing a little more research
on this, And it's slightly tangent here, but it's coming
right back and it's related. Okay, stay with me here.
When Steven Spielberg made Close Encounters of the Third Kind,
allegedly he received a lot of criticism from NASA for
producing that movie. And the way the story goes is
(08:39):
that they were worried that audiences would have a similar
reaction to the concept of extraterrestrials visiting as they did
to the concept of giant sharks being in the waters
near places where people just go hang out and swim
in the ocean. But also, I've not ever read this letter,
(09:00):
this strongly worded twenty page letter that NASA sent to Spielberg,
twenty pages allegedly, I've never read it, and I've not
seen anyone actually write out, you know, points from it.
But It's been alluded to several times over the years,
and it just goes back to that concept of creating
a movie like Space two thousand and one, a Space Odyssey,
(09:22):
like the concept that it could possibly be dangerous to
society by releasing it because it puts these images into
our brains, these ideas of like with close encounters, an
extraterrestrial force visiting us and what that would mean.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Interesting are you saying that, like from a pr standpoint,
it would have been a bad move.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
It's like, we don't want to.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Cause a panic, public panic. I don't get worrying about
this stuff. Better to think of other things, you know, Like.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
See, I always heard it was different. I always heard
that these films had supposedly been commissioned by the government
to soften us up to the idea, yes, alien invaders
or whatever.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
So again, like you're talking about essentially different people's viewpoints
and the way they're thinking about these concepts of conspiracy.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
I guess could go either way.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Well, it could be right.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
It softens you up or scares the heck out on you.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
It's interesting because we see if we look at the
trends in sci fi, we see something happening with AI,
which was a pretty cool correlation that I didn't discover,
but one of our friends, Dan actually discovered this one.
And we see how in times past, right, especially during
(10:37):
nuclear scares or communist scares, technology or androids were depicted
as this other, this dangerous thing. But now increasingly we've
moved from a terminator franchise to a more friendly thing, right,
like more of a Wally world. And so without getting
too far away from the alien stuff and the NASA stuff,
(10:58):
I did find. I found this quoted in a couple places,
a quotation purporting to be from Steven Spielberg regarding this
NASA letter, and I would like to read it, just
to see what our reactions are to this. I really
found my faith when I heard that the government was
opposed to the film Close Encounters. If NASA took the
(11:20):
time to write me a twenty page letter, then I
know there must be something happening. I had wanted cooperation
from them, but when they read the script, they got
very angry and felt that it was a film that
would be dangerous. I felt they mainly wrote the letter
because Jaws convinced so many people around the world that
there were sharks and toilets and bathtubs, not just in
the oceans and rivers. They were afraid the same kind
(11:41):
of epidemic would happen with UFOs. Difference being sharks are
proven to exist.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
And I mean, now, I haven't seen close encounters in
a long time, possibly not even all the way through.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
But aren't the Aliens nice? Are they not nice? Yeah?
I mean the only time you actually, I mean, should
we spoil alert this? Yeah, let's this old old movie. Yeah,
in the nineteen seventies. The only time you actually see
the aliens the final third encounter is at the very
very end of the film. And all that happens really
(12:12):
is Richard Dreyfuss goes up the plank and is greeted
very warmly. Ben. We don't know what happens after that
door shuts, but that's true. They appear to be very friendly. Yeah,
as that door is shutting, it's sort of a handholding thing,
if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
It seems weird, though, with all the stuff that NASA
has on its plate back then and now, it seems
weird that they would take so much time to write
to this guy about a fictional film.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
And God, how much they have felt about Independence Day,
am I right?
Speaker 4 (12:46):
Right, That's what I'm saying, man, pandemonium.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
They knew that the extraterrestrials that are very much real
my friends that are out there are dangerous, and they
didn't want us to think they were nice and friendly
and we could talk to them our keyboard.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Like don't go up the gangplank, Richard Treyfus, you fool,
They're going to put things in your butt already knows that.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
I mean, that's yeah, that's I think that's in the
original script that was close Encounters of the butt exactly.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
So let's take it all the way back just really fast,
is Stanley Krubrick, and then we'll we'll end there with
the moon landing conspiracies in general. If you take it
away from Stanley Krubrick, do you do you have any
doubts that we went to the moon?
Speaker 4 (13:30):
Of course not okay? And then the you know the
things everyone knows sort of the why they believe it
was faked with the flag flying and the shadows not
being quite right. What else is there? Is there a
footprint situation that's an issue? Did I make that up?
In situation?
Speaker 1 (13:47):
There's the idea that the lunar dust would have moved differently.
But it's also it's a question of the film technology
at the time.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
And also we had never been to the moon, so
we're not quite sure what stuff like when filmed on
a camera. Stilly question.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Do we have access to, like what the camera looked
like they shot this on.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
I've never Well, that's one. Well, actually that's the still camera.
That's one of the theories is that in the reflection
of I think Armstrong's face whatever you call it, face plate,
you can see the photo being take, a very clear
(14:26):
reflection of the astronaut taking the photo. But like you
can't see a camera man, there's no camera. But apparently
the camera is embedded. Yeah, it's attached to the suit.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
That makes sense.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
And his hands were sort of right at chest level,
so it all checks.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yeah, the stories that there they could barely move their
hands at all.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
And it camera.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Dexterity. Also, this this is interesting because it ties into,
of course, one of Kubrick's one of Kubrick's most well
known films, the adaptation of Stephen King's The sh Shining
Right or The Thing, inspired by the novel. Because there
are people who people who believe that Kubrick was somehow
(15:07):
involved in faking the moon landing, also believe that he
decided the best way to tell people this was through
some sort of Rube Goldberg esque series of clues hidden
in a completely unrelated film.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Oh, there's an absolute laundry list of weird hidden stuff
in The Shining. Much of it doesn't refer to that
at all. That refers to like an Indian genocide, Native
American genocide.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
And the gold standard Room to two thirty.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Seven exactly, yes the film, Yes for sure.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Yeah, so Chuck, I am I am not surprised and
also immensely reassured that this was not the moment where
we learned that you were convinced that you were a mooner.
I like that phrase. Do you guys like mooner?
Speaker 4 (15:52):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Let's put that on a T shirt.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
So in The Shining, it's supposedly like Danny's sweater with
the hollow rocket as he stands up the carpet. That
now iconic pattern is one of the launch like the
launch pads and what I mean these are all that's
very flimsy stuff to be delivering a message, you know.
And then there was the fake video, you know, from
it's like four years ago where someone had a video
where Stanley Kubrick came clean about the whole thing. And
(16:18):
this is like the twenty fifteen Did you ever see this?
I did, Yeah, And it was this long interview where
he capt to the whole thing. It was all very believable.
But it's not Stanley Kubrick. Wow. That was the one problem.
It was a guy who was making a movie about
Stanley kub Kubrick and this was a guy who played
like old Kubrick. But I watched it today and I
looked at it. I was like, well, that's not even him.
There is a fool so many people.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
There is a tape of Kubrick that came out not
terribly very long ago where he explains the ending of
two thousand and one a space Odyssey, which is interesting
just to listen to. He kind of ex I can't
remember exactly what he said.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Hold on, it.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Gets confirmed. It's from a BBC interview. That's a legit.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
I had source has no idea there were counterfeit Kubrick's
just running amuck.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Well, nowadays, with all this deep fake stuff, we got
to figure out how to really, you know, confirm the
validity of footage.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
True nowadays, you can't believe people unless you meet in person.
This is something that's fascinating because it still sticks around
in the cultural zeitgeist even though it's very easily debunked. Right,
you can you first off, moonlanding stuff. Last thing I'll
say about it. You don't need a particularly advanced telescope
to look at the moon and see reflections of man
(17:28):
made things on there or see sorry, signs of man
made things, right.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Yeah, And you can shoot a laser if you have
the right equipment, and it will reflect back on that
laser reflector that's there.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
And if you don't have a giant laser. Let us
tell you today's episode is brought to you by Gigantic
by two get three free. It's an economy of scale.
There is a thing here that happens. There is a thing,
a thread rather a thematic narrative thread when we talk
(18:01):
about Kubrick that goes across several of his movies, and
it's the idea that somehow this creator is speaking to
us the audience through code, right, and that these films
are somehow you know they're they're multi layered, right, But
that one of those lower layers is a is a
(18:23):
message of some sort and this sure it's it's prevalent
when we hear discussion of the Shining, But then when
we get to his last film, Eyes Wide Shut, it's
like the door is blown off the hinges. Right, you know,
I think we've all heard this, and I want your opinion.
(18:43):
Was Eyes Wide Shut actually coded expos on some elite
cabal or some real real cult thing? Uh?
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Why is everyone looking at me?
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Well, because Schuck, you're host of stuff. You should know
one of the biggest podcasts out there. You were clearly
one of the elite.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
My friend, right, you also host our film podcast.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
There's a lot of crossover here. Uh No, I don't
know if it was supposed to be. I think the
idea is that it is a depiction of an elite
group of a secret society, but not necessarily that it
was supposed to be any particular one, right, or are
there concrete theories there are? I mean, is it's supposed
(19:27):
to be.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Yeah, of course, I mean it's always the Illuminati, you
know what I mean, Like, should.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Put that on a T shirt.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
It's always they're the free bird of secret societies, you
know what I mean? In the Great Karaoke Conspiracy Conversation
The Yeah. So Tom Cruise plays this guy, doctor Bill Harford,
and he learns that his what they're taught. They have
a wild night, right, one of those should be nice
parties that gets really weird. And then he's talking with
(19:56):
his wife, Alice, and he's talking about affairs because this older,
I think hungarian guy tries to seduce the wife and
then someone's also concurrently trying to seduce him. They make
it out and skate. They go home and he's like, well,
it was crazy. I can't believe that, honey. And then
she says, good by the way, thank you, thank you.
I learned it from Connell and and uh, there's there's
(20:21):
this moment where his wife says, actually, I have seriously
considered having an affair. There was this one guy. There's
one real smoke show. I you know, I thought about
leaving you and the kid. And this this is sort
of the impetus that sets Tom Cruise's doctor character out
into this this world of murky secrecy. People who believe
(20:45):
there's some sort of hidden message there point to what
they say are numerous occult symbols in the film and
the film's heavy on symbols, that's true. You know, it's
a lot of masked, indelicate interaction.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
There's a lot of CGI sex stuff. They had to
like cover things up to get to make it get
an R rating.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
I think like during the orgy scene.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
They actually had to like insert fake people to cover
up some of the penetrative moments.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Yeah, I would watch it cut where they where they
did a purposely bad job of that. You know, we're
like some guy from Cateringe is walking.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Out from the Nirvana video just kind of walks through
the frame with his mob.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
And the mob is of course in rhythm to yea God.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
So I just want to inject something here that has
to do with our discussions of these nineteen ninety nine movies,
because Eeswad Shoud is also a nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Yeah, we covered the Matrix and fight Club so far.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Yeah, one of the major themes in these movies, all
three of these movies from nineteen ninety nine, is that
there's something very wrong with society. We either as just
a regular human being existing within it, can't either see it,
can't do anything about it, or we need to change it,
or we're all of a sudden made aware of it.
So within I why I shut in the matrix all
(22:01):
of a sudden, Tom Cruise in this the scenario you
been you talked about, He's just all of a sudden
made aware of this crazy elite secret society. Neo becomes
aware of the matrix. The narrator in Fight Club becomes
aware of just how society.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Actually how banal his life and his existence is, and
how futile the whole thing is.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Well, yeah, so it's and it's kind of maybe it's
that whole concept of coming up on the new millennium
that perhaps in people's heads. Yeah, I'd like to know
if you think there's anything too that with Stanley Kubrick
deciding to depict this secret society and the way he
did the people who truly pull the strings, it's almost
(22:44):
it's not a comment or a response to any of
that stuff, but maybe it's kind of showing us here's
the real Here are the real people that pull the
strings in our society. They're people who go to board
meetings and have crazy parties because they just have all
the power and money.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Yeah. But I mean, if you look at the end
of Eyes Wide Shut though, spoiler and you believe what
the movie has to say, then they are nothing but
a group of sort of horned up rich people exactly.
And the girl is not dead, she's this this, you know.
Sidney Pollack explains it all at the end, and it's like,
(23:23):
you know, all these crazy ideas that you've got about
what's going on there, and that there's shadowy murders and
cover ups it basically we're just like a bunch of perverts.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Well, it's kind of like we talked about with Hodgman
when he was on Stuff that I Want you to Know,
and he sort of shed some light into his entree
into the book and Snake in Yale when he was
his time at Yale. And now at the end of
the day, it was just kind of like a swanky
party for people to do some networking.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
And he's much more if we're being honest, he's much
more focused on his medallion status rather than any sort
of secret collegiate society.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Medallion status dot bit L Y all capital letters.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
So it's it's weird because whenever we get to the
point of any theorizing, when we're whenever we get to
the point where we're asking people to interpret a symbol, right,
something subjective. We're no longer looking at something quantitative, like
a mathematical equation. We're looking at someone who's saying, well,
(24:26):
I think I think that looks like a triangle with
an eye in it. And I'm pretty sure. I mean,
what's the difference, Like, at what point are we just.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
Reading tea leaves?
Speaker 1 (24:35):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (24:37):
I I see what you're saying there, But isn't there
some isn't there an extra onion layer to this? Didn't
correct me if I'm wrong. Didn't Stanley Kubrick die before
this movie?
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Yes, released six days after he had a screening he died,
which is such fertile territory.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
But didn't somebody else have to go in? And no,
that's not true. I'm thinking of Ai. Right.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
He got in a fight with this udo about how
to cut it, which I think you alluded to earlier
nol for eyesweight chut mm to get that the I
guess it was too too racy for an R rating.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Yeah, right, But then I guess here's my question that
I don't have an answer to. Is like, in the theory,
they were pretty close to releasing this movie, but somebody,
maybe the distributor could go through and make changes. Whoever
owns the rights to it after his passing, like could
go through and make some sweeping changes to the story
(25:31):
before it comes out in theaters. Maybe that's one of
the reasons that some of the conspiracy theories continue to proliferate,
because something could have happened that we would never be
privy to.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
It's true.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
I'm just gonna okay, I'm just gonna say it. This
is just one person's opinion. I don't think there's much
sand to conspirat. Like as tempting and as juicy as
it is cognitively to say Stanley Kubrick, an immensely talented director,
went too far and crossed the line, and the powers
(26:04):
that be were like, don't tell people about our orgies.
Now we're going to kill you. As tempting as that
is to believe, and as frankly fun as it is
to believe, he was an older man who was not
in the best shape, you know, and taken very great
care of himself. I believe he's seventy years old. It's
not like he was twenty one years old and found
(26:25):
with two gunshots to the back of his head, right,
But it does bring out something I think could be
it could have much more credibility to it, which is
the idea that a government, or the idea of specifically
the US government, may be able to play a role
in determining what kinds of films get created or what
(26:48):
kind of films get depicted.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
Like.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
It blew my mind when I learned that this is
for all our aspiring filmmakers out there. You can get
the US military to do stuff for you on screen.
Oh yeah, as long as you depict them as heroes, right.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
Or at least in a way that they agree upon.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Yeah, which I had no idea.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Like, I'm not sure how much say they have and
whether or not something gets made these days, but they
can certainly if you're making a war movie or anything
that involves the army, then they can make it really
easy for you, or they can sit on their hands
and make it tougher. But they'll be like, sure if
they like what you're doing. How many tanks you need?
(27:28):
You need some helicopters?
Speaker 1 (27:30):
WHOA, we're wasting your time podcasting?
Speaker 4 (27:33):
You know what the fees are for that? I No,
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Oh man, we need to find out what about it?
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Even on like a branding level, like if you know,
are we allowed of our filmmakers allowed to use Army, Navy, etc.
Speaker 4 (27:46):
Without permission? Like yeah, you've got to clear everything. Yeah yeah,
And I imagine yeah they would they ask for the
use and what are you going to do with it
and then either say yes or no.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Hey, have you guys seen the trailer for the new
Top Gun movie. I'm actually kind of excited.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
I am too.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Okay, I feel obligated to watch it. You know, I
feel like it's inevitable.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
It's just a teaser, right, Like you don't really see
his face there.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
No, there's a full trailer.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
I saw the teaser one, Okay, I gotta I got
a buddy check it out.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
I gotta say I was not like I saw Top
Gun enough because it was just the zeitgeist. But I
wasn't some big Top Gun nut. But when I saw
that trailer, I found myself going, why do I Why
am I so in love with the idea of this movie?
I know, well, they it's probably pure nostalgia.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
It's the way they shoot for me, at least the
way they actually shoot the jets, because it brings out
the kid in me that played with a little toy
F fourteen and I was just like, oh man, this
is so cool. We hit on something really important here,
ben of the concept of controlling what can be seen
(28:54):
and like government involvement with that, and I really want
to get into that after a quick word from our.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
Spall, wo.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
So as you can tell one of the reasons that
we all are so passionate about film is because we're
passionate about stories. We're passionate about communicating this way. But
film isn't the only way to encounter a story. As
a matter of fact, one of our other favorite ways
to participate in a story or listen to a story
is through an audiobook. And that's why we recommend Audible.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
And hey, Wonder of Wonders. It's the holidays, it's the
perfect time to think about getting yourself or a friend
or family member and Audible membership. And right now, with
this special offer, you can get fifty three percent off
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Speaker 1 (29:41):
That's right. You can choose three titles every month, one
audiobook and two exclusive Audible originals you cannot hear anywhere else.
And right now, for a limited time, you can get
those three months of Audible for just six ninety five
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Speaker 3 (29:59):
And with Audible you can access and unbeatable selection of
audio books, including bestsellers, motivation, mysteries, thrillers, memoirs, even stuff
like cloud at Lists.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Yes, that's correct. One of the books that I've been
enjoying very much via Audible is cloud at List by
David Mitchell. You may have heard of the film, check
out the novel. I gotta say it's astonishing and the
way it's constructed makes it incredibly immersive to listen to.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
So don't delay. Right now, for a limited time, get
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Speaker 1 (30:49):
That's Audible dot com slash Conspiracy or Text Conspiracy to
five hundred, five hundred and we're back. So the question
the question at.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
At the table, Sure we're at a table.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Okay, there we go, Thanks guys. The question that we're
looking at currently is whether the weather a government specifically,
the US government can influence the kind of films that
get made or the kind of narratives we see. The
answer to that in days of your was yes, you know,
(31:32):
to some degree or another. But the answer now maybe
becomes a little more complicated.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
Right.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
We have indeed, there's this democratization of filmmaking technology, so
we have more people who don't have to be beholden
to a studio. But I don't know, man, I know
it's very on brand for me to be like the
CIA is dictating MCU or something like that. I don't
think they would bother.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
I would say that the control mechanisms, to a large
part are still in place, but it's mostly the distribution arms.
Like you, you could make the coolest indie film ever,
but you may not get anyone to see it, no
matter how trending something becomes. If it's not you know,
fully out there somewhere. Uh, and you've got ads popping up. Ever,
(32:22):
somebody's paying for ads, somebody's paying for posters, somebody's paying
for all this stuff. You're not gonna have the same reach.
Maybe that's maybe that's wrong thinking though, because anything that
goes viral online could be potentially seen by.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
Well, that's true.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
I mean, that's why no one's cracked the code on
how to make things go viral per se.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
This is the This is one of those things that
you and I have different your pains.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
Okay, what do you think? Well, I think it's all
like stage.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Well, there's more, sure, there are more opportunities to spread things,
but there are fewer people holding the faucets of that information.
To say that Facebook could not artificially make something quote
unquote viral, to say that they don't have that capability is.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
Willfully I'm not saying they don't nofully wrong. I absolutely
think they do.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
But I also would like to believe that things succeed
or fail on their own merits, at least some of
the time.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
I would think. So, Yeah, I mean I don't think.
I don't think we're in the grips of some corporate
sith overlord.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
I mean, if that cat playing the piano video didn't
succeed just because of its sheer awesomeness, and I don't.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
Know what I believe in?
Speaker 1 (33:30):
What a chaotic universe? Yeah, there's a Oh, this is
one example that I think is very real. Have have
you guys' film buffs noticed the tendency like the growth
of the Chinese mainland film market, right, it's huge. Have
you guys noticed that the tendency for blockbuster films to
(33:52):
be recut, have scenes added or deleted for the Chinese market.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
We've talked about this, right, Like they they don't like ghosts.
There's certain thing they don't like they have to take out.
I think ghost is one of them. If I'm not
totally just out on a limb with that one. No
ghosts and Chinese cut, So now I'm not okay, maybe
that's not that, but there are definitely some cultural things
that like they have to soften and language that they
have to soften.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
Paul said, true ghost Yeah, yeah, I thought I didn't
make that up.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Have you seen examples of this?
Speaker 4 (34:19):
Well, I mean, the only thing I can think of
is something sort of obvious like H and not for
the Chinese market necessarily, But didn't they fully recut or
not recut, but digitize the enemy for the Red Dawn REMAKEH?
If I'm not mistaken it was originally I'm not sure.
(34:40):
I think it may be originally was China and they
had to go back and digitally replace the insignias and
the flags and make it another country. If I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
That's interesting, and I wouldn't doubt that, especially seeing what
we're seeing with China holding so much sway over like
American like like American companies having to censor stuff like
the NBA for example, you know, like wanting to play
ball with China because they have so much control over
the purse strings. And that's true because a lot of
(35:11):
movies that flop in the States do Gangbusters business over
in China Pacific Rim, So you know.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
You don't want China.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Yeah, it's the reason they made the second one really
entirely because of what happened in China. And then when
they made the second Pacific Rim, there's this very there's
this very apparent leaning into this Chinese market. Charlie Days
character for some reason, it is like the white guy
who speaks Mandarin, and then there's also a Chinese general
(35:43):
who I believe gets a lot. He doesn't really get
many lines in the American version. It's just that thing
where there's a conversation between like two principal characters, and
the camera keeps cutting to this guy just sort of reacting,
and he's like oh yeah, oh no, oh yeah, And
so I think it gets actual lines in the Chinese version.
(36:03):
But that's a clear example that gives truth to this
conspiracy theory. On some level, there are governments are able
to control entertainment media.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
Yes, absolutely, And just to confirm it was originally the
Red Dawn remake was originally Chinese flags and it got
changed to North Korean flags. And so they don't miss
out because it's a billion billion human beings that they.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
Had a garbage movie on their hands, and that American
audiences wouldn't go see it. Well, have y'all.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Just to bring this back into I guess current pop culture.
In twenty nineteen, the new season of South Park is out,
and one of the things they hit early on in
the season is this concept of Disney and films and
all these things changing their scripts specifically so that the
film in its regular it's an original form would just
(36:58):
perform and be able to be released in China as well,
like catering the full thing, not just recutting a version
of it or something. It's just fascinating to me, But
it was all about Disney and all the varying properties
and how they were.
Speaker 4 (37:12):
Doing this so they're just making Chinese friendly movies.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
Yeah, again, this is South Park commenting on a situation.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
Then it must be true.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
You got to remember too, it's like, it's not like
every American movie ends up in China. They have very
tight control over which ones get in, right, So therefore
you want to level the playing field by like, oh,
maybe China. Hopefully China will take our big, giant, expensive
movie so that we have this whole other.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
Because Charlie money makes Mandarin's right, right. Yes, not only that,
I was just looking it up. Apparently in gravity.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
In the Sandra Bullock movie, Sandra Bullock survives by hiding
in a Chinese space station. The movie twenty twelve, humanity
is saved because the Chinese government builds these life saving
kind of like arc.
Speaker 4 (38:00):
Ships or whatever. So there's you know, there's definitely thought.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Being put into, like how can we please China so
that we can get that sweet sweet you know Chinese business.
Speaker 4 (38:10):
Your show is probably not in China, right.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Well, no, I don't know if we can get into China.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
After your show is in China. There's no way, No,
you guys do I think I remember at one point
someone said that we were not available in China for
stuff you should know.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Huh, guys, we got to learn Mandarin or cantonese. Okay,
just we've got the weekend coming up. Well we'll solve that, right.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
This so the spoiler alert there, there was another historical
conspiracy we wanted to talk about that perhaps is an
episode of its own, the Red Scare and the House
on American Activities Committee, But we want to give that
due diligence. And also, I think this is something that
we're wondering and our fellow listeners are wondering for you, specifically, Chuck,
(38:55):
what are some of your favorite, like most out there
fan theories about films or franchises, not even like real
quote unquote conspiracy theories, but like the craziest stuff that
fans have come up with. And also do you believe
it or disbelieve it?
Speaker 4 (39:12):
So are we doing blacklist? Are we doing fan theories theories?
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, we could do We could do do
fan theories. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (39:21):
Well, I'm glad you asked. Ben. There's a few popular
ones available on the internet. I'm not sure if you
know this. It's real pository for stuff like what the
heck is the internet? There's the Toy Story one which
is pretty good, which is that Andy's mom was the
original owner of Jesse the Cowgirl. WHOA Okay, why did
(39:46):
that blow your mind so much?
Speaker 3 (39:47):
Matt, Well, it just connecting it up that much because
it was such an important part of this.
Speaker 4 (39:51):
Yeah, because that would make you know, Jesse sings the
song about Emily, you know that really said song about
her previous owner. That would be Andy's mom toy story too.
I think that was in Toy Story. Yeah, when she
loved me that you met.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
Well, I mean, I have a four year old man.
We've been watching that movie all the time.
Speaker 4 (40:11):
That one is actually could be true. And Disney and
and Pixar certainly does a lot of this stuff. I
think they recently admitted that everything is in the same
shared universe, right, Yeah, Like there's a Frozen theory too
about the ship that.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
Els and Ana's parents are on or the same the
same ship that they find in The Little Mermaid.
Speaker 4 (40:27):
Oh well, and also that that Tarzan is frozen. I
don't know the ladies and Frozen that they are siblings,
Yeah to Tarzan's.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Because of the the Elson an A parents that were
on this voyage and.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
They had a boy they had a boy that is
yeund and.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
And geographically where they would have been passing through, it
might have made sense for him to, you know.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
Wash up on it. Ferris Bueller is a creation of
Cameron's mind. That's always that's been an old one, but
a good.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
I remember hearing that when and then it made me
go back and rewatch Ferris Bueller, which I thought was
like I thought day Off was the coolest film growing up. Yeah,
it was a very very safe and ocuous way to
fight the power.
Speaker 4 (41:12):
Yeah, what was the tagline for that? We heard today?
One man struggled to take it?
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Why do you think they didn't franchise Ferris Bueller, He
has his day off?
Speaker 4 (41:22):
Why didn't they do? Like that was going to be
a sequel for a while to the Beach like.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
And then there was there was a a very Ferris
Bueller esque television series called Parker Lewis Can't.
Speaker 4 (41:34):
Lose That He was the Heath kind of looked like
Parker Lewis.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Oh, thanks, man, I think he was the he was
sort of the Heathcliff to the Garfield of Ferris Bueller.
Speaker 6 (41:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (41:43):
I actually liked that show.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Yeah, it was cool. Yeah, he's like cutting a cardboard
cut out of himself in half with a chainsaw.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (41:49):
There, of course is the breaking bad meth led to
the Walking Dead. What apocalypse? You never heard that one
to me? Yeah, there's a bunch of stuff. Glenn in
season one drives that red Dodge Challenger which looks like
Walter's car, and when Walter went to return that car,
the manager of the car dealership's name was Glenn. Darryl
(42:15):
is trying to bring down the fever of this other
guy at one point, so he pulls out of sash
of drugs and there's clearly like blue myth, like Walter
White's blue meth in the bag and then one more merle.
You know Michael Rookers character early on he was a
former drug dealer, and they described his on the show,
(42:38):
his supplier as a janky little white guy who threatened
him with a gun and said, I'm gonna kill you.
Can I say the word probably can't a curse on here,
just yeah, I'm gonna kill you.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
WHOA so JANKI looky white guy?
Speaker 4 (42:53):
And I what I think is going on is I
think Vince killing or the Walking Dead creators put some
like fun little references totally. Yeah, but you know, they
have fun with that kind of thing filmmakers do, I think.
Speaker 6 (43:04):
Yeah, people love the ster eggs and yeah, the best
ever though.
Speaker 4 (43:15):
Guys, you know the Tommy Westfall universe theory, right, Tommy
Westfall from Saint Elsewhere. Okay, So Saint Elsewhere was a
show in the eighties hospital show and very famous for
the ending final episode, which was one of the doctor's son.
His name was Tommy Westfall, doctor west Fall's kid, and
(43:38):
he looks into a snow globe. Well, first of all,
a character that has already died is is is alive
in the living room and is a different person. His
dad comes home, the doctor, and he's a construction worker,
and so this is the very very last scene of
this whole long series. And then Tommy looks into his
little snow globe that he's always playing with, and it
(43:59):
is sant Eligi's hospital inside the snow globe. Basically, the
idea is that this whole thing think Tommy had autism
and it was all this world that he created. Oh
so that's the beginning, that's the seed. There were so
many crossovers and uh, guest spots and characters appearing, like,
(44:21):
for instance, the two doctors went to the Cheers bar
one time as those doctors and Dittle cameo. So there
are all these little tendrils to where they have now
linked four hundred and nineteen TV shows to say and elsewhere.
Meaning if that was all in his head, then all
of these shows are in the head of young Tommy Westfall,
whoa concluding the X Files, all of Star Trek and Dude,
(44:45):
if you looked at the list you can go to
I mean they have full websites on this, and you
look at down the list of four hundred nineteen shows,
you're like, how does mash have anything to.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Do with Wait?
Speaker 4 (44:54):
Wait, so there's real connections. Yeah, yeah, real connections. Really
the Marine universe sort of thin, but some of them aren't,
Like you know, Cheers, Begat Fraser. Fraser had like a
guest star that was ended up on something else and
then somehow that connects to like Law and Order, and
Law and Order has tendrils all throughout because all the
different shows and all the guest stars and not just
(45:16):
like someone guested on the show, but like in character
in the fictional worlds.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
Like Munch from uh He's been in like I think
X Files and a bunch of true crime shows. He's
in law and order, so.
Speaker 4 (45:27):
That ties all that stuff together, or like MASH was
something I mentioned one of the doctors once and elsewhere
at one point made a little reference to working with
Trapper John. Who is that one of the doctors in MASH,
So like that's how that fits in. And then MASH
reaches another couple of things.
Speaker 3 (45:43):
Oh my god, I'm looking at the grid. Uh there
is a visual grid online that you can find. Oh
and it's this is at eleven percent. I'm looking at
eleven Oh wow, it goes all the way in to Chicago.
Speaker 4 (45:57):
Pretty funny to pick it. Fences, like a rested development
is on there, great shows, Alpha is on there. So
this spans and they all yeah, I mean they're basically saying,
like close to four hundred and twenty shows, simulation theory
very much.
Speaker 6 (46:13):
What this is.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
He's the He's like the god of the matrix, basically
Tommy Westfel. If you guys are familiar with the PBS
Digital Studios show Idea channel, which I don't know if
they produced that anymore, but I used to love it.
I think I gotta start watching it again if they do.
But there is a Tommy Westfell west Fall excuse me,
universe episode of that show.
Speaker 4 (46:31):
Really, he goes through and does it does all of
the connections, so we should credit the original guy too.
It's a comic book and TV writer named Dwayne McDuffie
put this forward in a two thousand and two blog post.
It's very two thousand and two bloggie.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
It is also about this theory, guys, do you I mean,
I kind of miss that that idea. You know, I
don't watch television is kind of changing anyway, but I
I don't watch a ton of stuff, but I would
love it if I was watching. I don't know if
Black Mirror had a Stranger Things reference in there somewhere
(47:08):
that kind of.
Speaker 4 (47:09):
Now I'm with you, and it is a little harder
these days because I think back then, with like three networks,
there could be more crossover, but it's hard to like,
you know, Apple's making TV shows now, are they going
to reference something from like CBS? You know, are they
going to reference Everybody Loves Raymond or something? Right, think
it's a lot easier to cross over in those days.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
That's true.
Speaker 4 (47:31):
I do miss it, do though. They'd be kind of cool.
I'm sure this one continues, and now I'm sure people
are trying to write in Tommy Westfall connections. Oh yeah, yeah,
you know, just to be a part of the whole thing.
I'm obsessed with this. There's even cartoons like Dexter's Laboratories
on here and well then you can click on it
and see what the link is to to Tommy Westfall.
(47:53):
It's so cool. Yeah, it's pretty neat. I was unaware
of this. We can really spend some time. Is real
rabbit hole.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
I love that these kind of rabbit holes are inspiring
to me because they think, like, Okay, this guy was
doing other stuff with his life. He discovered this, and
now Dwayne McDuffie, Dwayne McDuffie is two thousand and two
blog posts and now it's taken on a life of
its own, and like.
Speaker 4 (48:18):
Getting paid for this did he? I don't know.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
It feels like a passion project. It feels like a mission.
And you know, I fell asleep trying to put on
a pair of pants one time, so like, this guy
is really being productive.
Speaker 4 (48:30):
Yeah, it's sort of like the Kevin Bacon I think,
if I'm not mistaken. At one point in the mid
nineties when I was living in New Jersey. I met
the guy who created the Kevin Bacon degrees of separation.
I was gonna call it a meme. Wasn't a meme
back then, guys, wasn't a rumor. You know what our
memes are. We would draw pictures and hand them around
at one another. That's so charming.
Speaker 3 (48:53):
What a distribution lot.
Speaker 4 (48:55):
I don't know what to call it though, But if
I'm not mistaken, and this just popped into my head,
I think I met that guy at a party one
Tommy Westwall No, the guy who created the Kevin Bacon
separation thing, seven degrees of separation?
Speaker 1 (49:08):
Did he did degrees introduce himself as that guy?
Speaker 4 (49:13):
He was introduced to me as such. And the reason
I remember because I think he was developing a board
game at the time, and you know, supposedly, I guess
he owned this idea. I don't know Reynolds trademark that
did you look it up? I'm making it the Oracle
of Bacon, I would, now I'm hungry. I don't know,
I don't remember. I certainly wouldn't remember who it was.
(49:35):
This is just some random Barney.
Speaker 1 (49:37):
This this is strange, Okay, So this I mean researching
this interconnected universe is very much there goes my weekend moment.
Speaker 4 (49:47):
So sorry, Oh no, it's good for a while, It's
gonna be worth it.
Speaker 1 (49:51):
But I do want to let everybody know we had
mentioned briefly. House on American Activities Committee, would you be
interested in making a return appearance for us to do
an episode just on that. Sure, okay, because I feel
like maybe we did and this is my bad. We
did a bit of a tease. There's like no cut that,
(50:12):
let's go to fan theories. But I have no regrets
because I feel like we learned a lot.
Speaker 2 (50:18):
Absolutely. I mean, I've certainly got a rabbit hole to
play in a sandbox. Rabbit box.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
This is gonna be one of those times in the
box where you and I hang out at the local bar,
reading the same web page and just not talking to
each other.
Speaker 4 (50:31):
Let's do it. Let's do it after this.
Speaker 3 (50:33):
Can I ask one last thing before we please? Do
you think we mentioned and you just mentioned it again
in the House of an American Activities saying, do you
think there could be a time, specifically in the United
States of America where something like that could happen again?
Like where yes, the government steps up, you think, so.
Speaker 4 (50:52):
I think it's happening. I mean, not necessarily just that,
but for sure, yeah, I think. I think lately we've
all seen out of pain. Things can get.
Speaker 2 (51:03):
Just inching towards totalitarianism, you know, I mean one day
at a time, and it's like we always say, it's
like the whole you know, frog in boiling water situation,
where it happens slowly and then before you know it,
you're dead.
Speaker 1 (51:16):
Well, one thing, since I know we're past Halloween, but
it feels like it's always Halloween in America nowadays. It's true.
One thing that we have that we have to consider
is that the most vulnerable point of any nation's life
cycle is always going to be the succession of power,
(51:39):
the secession of power. And so when I was studying
North Korea years and years back in a different lifetime,
that was the thing that put everybody on international alert.
When one of the Kims is going to say, Okay,
my son, this chosen Kim is now going to be
in charge. Hope everyone's cool with that, because there are
a bunch of other there's all this internal stuff. We
(52:02):
have been very fortunate that we are in the US.
We're not a country like Italy. Italy has not had
a very good run of contiguous governance for what the
past fifty plus years, But here in the US, we
sort of take it for granted that when an election happens,
whether local, regional, or federal, the person who wins the
(52:24):
person who loses shake hands. We don't know if that's
gonna happen. Now, boy really took this in a depressing note.
Speaker 4 (52:34):
You know, I think if Donald Trump loses in the
twenty twenty eighth, then it'll be a really, really interesting transition.
Speaker 3 (52:46):
I'm already digging in my backyard to make a place
where my family and I can hide for several months.
Hopefully everything goes great and won't need to use it.
Speaker 4 (52:57):
I don't think like violence will break out necessarily, but
I'm having a hard time just picturing him playing nice
about it all.
Speaker 2 (53:04):
Well, that's what we're talking about too, right, Like where
you know, the normal channels, the normal ways things are
done that we've all accepted are the ways things are done.
Speaker 4 (53:12):
This is kind of proven that, like, maybe it's only
done this way if people play nice. That's right. I
think that's absolutely true.
Speaker 1 (53:19):
Yeah, the rule of law is a tenuous thing.
Speaker 4 (53:23):
You know.
Speaker 1 (53:23):
The example we always use on this show is we
think we take the tack of or the perspective of
future historians looking back on twenty nineteen. So many things
now that we do we're going to seem ridiculous in
like twenty years, forget one hundred. One of the silliest
examples that still holds water is, of course, driving on
(53:44):
the interstate, explaining to like one of your grandkids, well,
we used to hop in these things that would go
ninety plus miles an hour, and.
Speaker 4 (53:52):
How is it not one hundred percent mortality?
Speaker 1 (53:54):
You know, right? And like, well, we have this system
of lines that we painted on the ground walls between
the cars. No, just paint, just paint, And we all
kind of agreed that we would treat these lines as
though they were barriers. So it was kind of an
honor system.
Speaker 4 (54:10):
We have even had a saying stay in your lane, yeah,
very quaint time.
Speaker 3 (54:14):
Don't text or you'll die.
Speaker 1 (54:17):
Right, They're like, oh, so did that work? And the
answer would be like, kind of, I don't know. A
ton of people died.
Speaker 4 (54:22):
They'll just say, like, you drove your own cars exactly
with your hand.
Speaker 2 (54:26):
It reminds me exactly reminds me of that scene from
Back in the Future too, where Martin mcfid does his
like fancy you know gun video game moves and the
little kids, one of which I believe is young young
Elijah Wood says, you have to use your hands, idiot,
you know Boomer?
Speaker 1 (54:40):
Yeah, okay, Boomer, I love Boomer. That's a weird one.
Speaker 3 (54:44):
So last question that we're wrapping, what was in Marcello's
Wallace's briefcase.
Speaker 4 (54:49):
Oh, look like a yellow light bulb are apartment.
Speaker 1 (54:55):
Wait, do you have behind the scenes? You get some
juice on that? Oh? I got no juice.
Speaker 4 (54:59):
I really got into the pulp fiction theories of the
portal in Marcella Swallows's neck. He was the devil or something,
or it being his soul and the soul is in that.
I never got into that stuff. I just always kind
of took it at face value.
Speaker 2 (55:12):
I always thought it was gold bars. Yeah, I mean
that's what I thought in Dinner in the California Sun.
Speaker 4 (55:18):
Yeah, and just just a hyper stylized hey, here's something
valuable in here. Thing. Mm That's what it was, though they.
Speaker 2 (55:25):
Big up it a lot harder than if it were
just gold bars. In the movie they treated it like
it's sort of sacred.
Speaker 1 (55:30):
And irreplaceable, unique object. But you know what else is
interesting too. We have to think of Quentin Tarantino's personality.
I've never met the guy. Yeah, he seems like he
can get you know, carried away, passionate dude. Sure, so,
I you know, maybe he has an explanation to himself
or or I want to be like the party pooper here.
(55:52):
Maybe he was just like, okay, just put it, put
a light bulb in it and make it bright. And
someone's like, okay, well what is it. He's like, no, no, no,
just roll one of the yellow gels on it.
Speaker 3 (56:04):
Yeah, we're playing off of his personality and the weird
things that end up on camera for him. Maybe it
was a pair of solid gold stilettos.
Speaker 1 (56:13):
Yeah, I was gonna say, maybe it's just like a
foot maybe Yeah.
Speaker 2 (56:18):
He's yeah, speaking of shared universes though he does a
pretty good job of of that.
Speaker 4 (56:23):
And it's it's I think it's right. I can't remember
how we where I was discussing this.
Speaker 2 (56:28):
It might have been not on a podcast weird, but like, yeah,
you know, Vincent Vega is vic Vega from Reservoir Dogs.
Speaker 4 (56:36):
I think their Yeah, yeah, there's more.
Speaker 2 (56:41):
Cigarettes, there's more there's there's more stuff and moving into exactly.
Speaker 4 (56:44):
I just think that's fun. I like it. Yeah, same here.
Speaker 1 (56:47):
I like that it's not over Yeah, it's world building,
but it's not over the top. It's not it's not
beating like there's not there's no exposition about it, which
I think is very strong.
Speaker 2 (56:57):
You're not required to keep it in mind, but if
you feel like it and want to dig deep, it's
a fun thing to like pay attention to.
Speaker 4 (57:04):
Yeah, the TV show lost Mede a whole However, many
seasons they counted on fans really overdoing it.
Speaker 1 (57:11):
That's true payoff. Yeah, were you one of those guys
when it was.
Speaker 4 (57:16):
All oh dude, I was waiting the fuselage that was
the website. I went to that thing. I was all
over it, man, I thought it was really really cool.
Speaker 1 (57:22):
I was on spoilerforums dot net. Yeah, talking to Russians
about like getting the new not even the new episode early,
getting the new teaser.
Speaker 4 (57:32):
It waned for me as the show went on, but
those first few seasons I was in deep. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (57:37):
It got to the point where you realized there was
no way they were going to be able to cash
this check that they wrote, like there's just not enough
episodes left, you know. Yeah, But thinking back, and this
is how I feel oftentimes when shows that I love
initially kind of jumped the shark. I don't know that
it affected my overall. I still enjoyed my time with
the show. It didn't make me just like completely thrown
(57:59):
into the bus forever.
Speaker 4 (58:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (58:02):
But they did a great job. Was shared universe fan
theories too. Even tied into clover Fields a bit tenuously.
Speaker 4 (58:11):
Oh sure, yeah, I like that, which was the one
with the the Cloverfield movie with an underground layer.
Speaker 1 (58:18):
Oh yeah, that was great. Really, I thought it was cool.
That's John Goodman, right.
Speaker 4 (58:25):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, in a real nasty s o B.
Speaker 1 (58:29):
And I was like, come on, man, you're the guy
from Roseanne. Be cool.
Speaker 4 (58:33):
Do you want to hear my little name dropy loss story.
Speaker 1 (58:36):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (58:36):
So I went to meet our friend John Hodgman, he's
been on this very show. I went to meet him
for dinner one time in la at the Chateau Marmont,
and the dining room there very cool. The only time
I've been there is by his invitation. And I was
waiting in the lobby, waiting, waiting, waiting, and he said,
I'm finishing dinner. It was just like right behind me
(58:57):
with a friend, just like, hang out there for a minute.
We'll go get it drink. Also, when I happened to
see John Krasinsky and Emlee Blunt, they walked right by me.
Caught eyes with Krazinski and he gave me a very
nice acknowledging smile and nod and I was like, he
is a good guy. You can tell just because he
looked at me. He went just kind of smiled that aside.
That's one name drop. Hodgman finally texted me and said,
(59:19):
come on over to the table because we're going to
be a little bit longer. It's Damon Linda Lindelof sitting
there and I was like, oh hi, And it was
right after Lost.
Speaker 1 (59:30):
Oh wow.
Speaker 4 (59:31):
And I sat down and within like two minutes he
went all right, you got to be honest and he
was like, I've just met you. I don't know you.
John and I were talking about the end of Loss
and he was like, were you a fan? I was
like yeah, And he's like, what did you think about
the last episode? No? No pressure, no pressure at all.
And I was honest and I went, yeah, I was like,
(59:53):
it was all right. I was like, I gotta say,
I said, I love the show. I said, but I
didn't love the ending. And he was very sweet about it,
and he said see because I guess John was saying like, no,
people loved it, and he took that as ammunition to
be like, see there, this guy's being honest. Like I
think he might have thought. His contention might have been
that we dropped the ball a little bit. But you
gotta remember too, like that show, they didn't intend for
(01:00:15):
it to run that long.
Speaker 6 (01:00:17):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
I think they were like doing well, and then the
studios are like, keep it going, guys, keep that juice flowing.
Speaker 4 (01:00:24):
And so then they kind of write themselves into a
corner and like what are.
Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
They gonna do? I bet you Tella novella, you know,
and it's almost like the Dark Tower novel series. You know,
it keeps, it keeps going, and at some point, like
there's this beautiful moment when you're writing a story in
your created world where you're in the middle of it,
anything's possible, right, and you get toward the end you're like, well,
Polar Bears, Yeah, what happened to those guys, right.
Speaker 4 (01:00:49):
I'll never forgive a monster.
Speaker 3 (01:00:50):
Yeah, I'll never forgive them for the smoke monster. I
thought I wanted that to be something so much more.
Speaker 4 (01:00:56):
Yeah, what it ended up being? Again, can I.
Speaker 3 (01:00:58):
Can't even remember?
Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
It was the embodiment of the spooky bad guy in
black because there were the two there were the two siblings,
right and ask Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't even remember.
Speaker 3 (01:01:10):
Any too much, guys, this too much lost, too much lost.
Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
We have we have people yelling at their podcast player
of choice right now.
Speaker 3 (01:01:20):
David is making Watchmen right now on HBO.
Speaker 4 (01:01:22):
And it looks dope.
Speaker 3 (01:01:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:01:25):
I saw the pilot. I liked it.
Speaker 1 (01:01:26):
It's it's really well done. And of course Alan Moore
hates it.
Speaker 4 (01:01:29):
He is uh means he's already vocal that he hates it. Well,
that's my point though. Is he actually spoken about it
or is there we just assuming.
Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
That he has. He's a great writer who only writes
to support his habit of being a full time curmudget
like that's his first love.
Speaker 3 (01:01:43):
I know.
Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
He lives in a very small village, uh and has
lived in the same place, a very small, modest home.
He worships a snake god called glican and he is
very into you know, witchcraft and Alistair Crowley asked.
Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
You to have these amazing YouTube video. It was about
magic where it starts out with like, Okay, we'll get
this because we've all worked in production. Starts out with
like an empty chair, just in an empty room, and
then there's a there's like a hard cut and he's
just sitting there and he's like, oh magic. On that note, though,
(01:02:18):
I think Almore is a fantastic writer, genius.
Speaker 5 (01:02:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
And so barring a Lost, a Lost reboot, a gritty
reboot of Lost, what if we call that? I don't know, befuddled?
Speaker 4 (01:02:33):
Yes, found found see that movie crusher symbiosis.
Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
Nice and where can people find movie Crush if they
want to learn more about the world of film.
Speaker 4 (01:02:47):
Well, you know, Ben and the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts
or wherever you find your favorite podcast. That's our official cca.
Speaker 3 (01:02:54):
I heard that somewhere.
Speaker 1 (01:02:57):
Sounds familiar. This is thank you so much for coming
on having me. Yeah, it's long overdue.
Speaker 4 (01:03:04):
Yeah, I think year ten or whatever is a good
time to have me on.
Speaker 3 (01:03:09):
What I said, I would say, if you are, if
you like this show and you've maybe joined our Facebook group.
Movie Crush has a Facebook group that has just the
most fantastic people on it.
Speaker 1 (01:03:21):
To discuss things movie Crushers.
Speaker 4 (01:03:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:03:24):
Movie Crush is similar to our hears where it gets crazy.
So it's just another great place to a group to
join if you are a fan of movie Crush or.
Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
If you like the show.
Speaker 4 (01:03:32):
Yeah, and if you like movies. It's just a nice
community of people who aren't jerks to each other and
who share ideas about movies that are very respectful and
it's cool and check.
Speaker 2 (01:03:41):
I might be being a dumb dumb and asking this,
but do you post the many Crush questions on the
page or on the actual like on the group or
on the page I posted on the Movie Crush facebook
page facebook page, So if you want to get in
on that, and you want to join the group, which
is its own thing, and join the conversations, but join
the conversation for the show. Chuck literally posts questions the
(01:04:02):
day before we do these many Crush episodes where it's
just he and I kind of having conversation starters that
folks on the Facebook page submit, Yeah, and I read
your name, you.
Speaker 4 (01:04:11):
Read your name.
Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
You can become an old pal stet a good friend,
like it's really a whole thingy.
Speaker 1 (01:04:17):
You've got some recurring suggestions and people right in the
page because it a very supportive community.
Speaker 4 (01:04:23):
Yeah, that's great, and.
Speaker 1 (01:04:28):
That's our classic episode for this evening. We can't wait
to hear your thoughts.
Speaker 4 (01:04:33):
It's right. Let us know what you think. You can reach.
Speaker 2 (01:04:34):
You to the handle Conspiracy Stuff where we exist on
Facebook x and YouTube on Instagram and TikTok work Conspiracy
Stuff Show.
Speaker 3 (01:04:42):
If you want to call us dial one eight three
three std WYTK. That's our voicemail system. You've got three minutes,
give yourself a cool nickname and let us know if
we can use your name and message on the air.
If you got more to say than can fit in
that voicemail, why not instead send us a good old
fashioned email.
Speaker 1 (01:04:59):
We are the entities that read every single piece of
correspondence we receive. Be aware, yet not afraid.
Speaker 5 (01:05:06):
Sometimes the void writes back.
Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
Conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 3 (01:05:30):
Stuff they Don't Want you to Know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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