120 KURT RUSSELL RETROSPECTIVE!

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120 KURT RUSSELL RETROSPECTIVE!

The gang drools over the burningest hunk of churning funk ever, Kurt Russell! Other films discussed include Skull World, The Mutilator, The Power, Harley Quinn.

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Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:03):
Oh, sorry, did I break your concentration?
Somewhere betweenscience and superstition?
sites to show youStrange Aeons. Welcome Strange

(00:28):
Aeons radio over there, Stefan.
Welcome to Strange Aeons radio.
That's Vanessa over there.
Hi.
That's Eric over there.
Hello.

(00:49):
Interrupting podcast or Knockknock. Who's there?
interrupting podcast?
interrupting podcasterHey, speaking of assholes, my
neighbors. Fuck, man. And I'vegot one other couple in this
building right now. And they arethe fucking worst.

(01:12):
Really?
Well, did you notice the thelaundry detergent and stuff out
there in the hallway?
I think I was just so rushed toget in here. I did not. I did.
Yeah, they, I mean, they willleave their laundry in the
washer dryer. In fact, let'ssee. We are recording on Sunday.

(01:34):
That laundry has been sitting inthe washer since Wednesday.
Oh, no. That's, that's notclothing anymore.
And that's a bio Dido do mylaundry here. So I don't care.
But it's like, you know, thereused to be other residents here
that would use it. And and theseguys just, they will also leave

(01:55):
shit out there in the hallway.
You've seen it? VCRs for somereason. A big look like the leaf
of a dining table. Why? And Iknow, it's just like, hey, do
you guys kind of know how thisworks? in unity?
Are they like, what kind of agerange are they in?

(02:17):
A younger than me, which is justabout everybody, but 30?
Oh my god. So they should know.
They're notkids know, if they were 18 year
olds, you could maybe take themaside and say, Hey, I get it.
You've never lived with otherpeople. Yeah, but these are
people who now I do know talkingwith the guy. And he is admitted

(02:37):
to me that he has some kind ofhandicap. And that might be why
I have had to have a talk withhim about drilling things at
three in the morning. Weird. Butthat doesn't sound
like a handicap. I'm just gonnathrow that out sounds
like a certain kind. But nowwhen you get from genetics.

(03:01):
Obviously I was really trying towrack my brain. I was like,
What? What possible disabilitywould result in that? Stupid has
a disability I think. I mean, Iliterally, I had been
complaining, you know that Ihave had problems with the
people down stairs, the newowners. And I thought that they
were doing construction in themiddle of the night. And I

(03:22):
complained to the propertymanager and she assured me they
were not doing that anymore. AndI kept hearing this. We're
drilling sound. And so finally Igo storming down there at 4am.
And there's nobody down there.
And I'm like, Am I crazy? Maybethis and as I come back up to my
unit, I hear it again and it'scoming from my next door
neighbor, right? So I pound onhis door and he answers the door

(03:46):
holding a power drill. And Isaid Hey, man, you can't be
doing sorry.
We all just and we by we I meanyou and I Vanessa just live in
the most boring place. really dolook, I pay a price for having

(04:06):
this kind of artsy fartsyapartment. And that price is you
get weirdos.
Oh my god. That's insane.
So I'll put it out there now Ihaven't made it public but I am
now currently looking for a newplace to live and I'm slowly
packing things up so we will bemoving the Strange Aeons radio
and if you have aroom he could use maybe a bed

(04:26):
just to bread to share you justlet us know.
Right away attractive I'm happyto share a bed divider.
COVID divider doesn't mean itfolks.
Hey guys. I believe the finalepisode of the second season of

(04:48):
creep show was the episode withoh you haven't watched it for
three weeks now. I will not thisweek's I mean last week's or if
I think was the final withJustin Long Did you See that and
the horror Express?
I have not seen. Yes, yes. Okay.
I finally just saw the firsttwo.
The first season thesecond season. Okay, I just

(05:09):
jumped right in.
Yeah, not too bad. The lastepisode I liked a lot. Although
I have spoken to a couple ofpeople who thought it was shit.
I was like, ah, maybe I'm justnot expecting as much from it as
I was. And that's why I liked itso much. But it incorporates
footage from the movie, thehorror Express, which I fear. So

(05:35):
I have a seagull right outthere. You're
really upset cuz you said youwere leaving? And you haven't
told them yet? Right?
Who'sgonna feed us? Cheerio hook up
going away, I thought was prettygood. The the problem that I had
with it was he became sohateful. I hated his characters
so much. But Tales from theCrypt is that's not really a

(05:58):
problem. Right? But yeah, thatwas hell of a season. Man. I
like the season so much morethan the first.
Yeah. And it, for sure is notgreat television. But I felt
like they kind of figured outwhat they did wrong in that
first season. Sowell, I just finished the first
season of something that wasrecommended to me by you, Kelly,

(06:20):
which is Harley Quinn. Oh, andit is one of my favorite all
time. Not surprised is comingback for third season too.
Nice.
I'm kind of putting off watchingthe second season because I
enjoyed it so much. I don't wantto like plow through it and have

(06:40):
nothing left. It was just sowonderful. So well written and
the female relationships in it.
And I guess I just mean Harleyand Ivy feel so authentic. That
it It blew me away. And I waslooking through the credits
trying to figure out like whatfemales were on board and there
is like one female writer on theteam, which I thought there'd be

(07:00):
more because it just feels sorealistic. Yeah, I just I just
loved it just absolutely lovedit.
Me too. Yeah. Yeah. It's one ofthose things. I think Mike Davis
from the Lovecraft easing kepttelling me Are you watching the
Harley Quinn cartoon? And I waslike, no. I watch important
thing so and that was probablythe most satisfying thing.

(07:24):
I watched all your gossel isreally good.
No, yeah, I am not. Team HarleyQuinn. I have generally have not
super enjoyed a Harley. Exceptfor really recently. I do like
the latest. The latest movie ofHarley Quinn. And I like that
they make fun of the most recentversion of Harley Quinn in the

(07:47):
Batman white knight comic, Ithink. But yeah, this was like
this really blew me away.
Yeah. Pretty good.
I was nothing remotely relatedto anything like that.
I'm surprising you never dothis weird documentary on Arrow.
Oh, called skull world.

(08:12):
Cool World, okay.
Directed by Justin McConnell,who did a movie called The
collapse which I screened tocrypto con many years ago, I
think was like the second yearof the festival cool. And
follows the life of Greg summer,aka scholar man, as he builds
the Canadian chapter of boxwars.

(08:33):
And I don't know these words.
Box wars is something thatstarted in Australia by a bunch
of guys who basically putcardboard all over themselves
and beat the crap out of eachother with cardboard weapons.
Okay, this sounds very bad.
It was great. Really, becauseit's not about that. It's sort
of like you know, King of consis not about Donkey Kong. This

(08:56):
is about that guy in the worldhe lives in and he's a weird
over the top and tense. The kindof guy he really wanted a party
for about 10 minutes. And thenhe like, we're done with you
now. Please go away. So he thespacing of the storyline of him
doing variety of weird littlethings sorted to get more or

(09:17):
less known. But then hediscovers these box wars and
gets completely into it andbuilds these incredibly
elaborate cool cardboard armorand being sort of like the
what's the group that getstogether and recreates like d&d,
live action, sort of LARPingkind of like that, but they

(09:38):
don't really get that elaboratewith the storylines. They just
kind of get together and beatthe shit out of each other. And
they have little rules of whatyou can and can't do. And it's
actually a lot of fun. It'sreally good. It did well enough
that while they're shooting thedocumentary, he did well enough
with his chapter that they weretalking to Canadian television,
for doing it to do a TV showbased On box wars, which didn't

(10:02):
happen, butwhat's the name of this again?
skull world skullworld. All right, and what did
you watch the arrow? Oh, shit, Igot to get air
box. That's another one of thosereally cheap ones at least
I watched on shutter the power.
Oh, how is itslow but good, genuinely creepy

(10:23):
in parts it's based I like thetitle because it refers to two
things it's based on back in the70s in Britain, they were, you
know running out of power. Sothey would actually schedule
citywide blackouts and thiswoman is wearing or not wearing

(10:45):
but working in a hospital duringone of these scheduled
blackouts. So that's the powerin one sense. But there is also
a ghost in this hospital that istrying to get a clear message
across to her by possessing herand doing some very creepy shit.
And so that is the other thepower in this story. And it's

(11:06):
it's got a grim story that youcan kind of figure out where
it's going and you know, theremight be some stuff there that
would trigger some folks, but Ithought it was very well acted.
And I I didn't love it, but Iliked it enough. And you know, I
feel like shutter just keeps onthrowing up pretty decent

(11:30):
movies. Thank you shatter.
Yeah, I was I was looking atwatching that one. I've got that
on the list to watch because itdid look pretty good. Because
sort of like was it starry eyes?
Where the woman's in the policestation alone. This
This didn't give me any of thatkind of you always do this
you're thinking ofI know. I know. That's not the

(11:51):
rashshift or something like that.
But yeah, it is kind of likethat. It is a bare bones
skeleton crew of nurses weren'ton there. It just, but it looks
great. I mean, it doesn't looklike an indie film.
There's I believe I watched lastshift and starry eyes at the

(12:11):
same time back to back. And theyhad similar posters or something
at the time and stars onthe eyes and then the last ship
I think has a pentagram orsomething. Yeah.
You know, and then neither onewas good enough to be
distinctive.
Or sorry is kind of lukewarm onit.

(12:32):
I liked them both, but I didn't.
Anyways, wow,what else my PVC. Well,
yeah, speaking speaking ofshutter, I've definitely been
watching some of the Joe Bobstuff. Sure. Yeah, I'm actually
a couple weeks behindunfortunately, because I keep
having life stuff come up. Butit it's been interesting because

(12:54):
he's had some guests on thathave been pretty cool. So the
first episode he had Eli Roth,commenting on both, both of the
films and Eli Rothwell. I don'tlike his movies is such a like
eloquently spoken person. Andreally, really smart really
knows what he's talking aboutloves horror.

(13:17):
Horror about that.
Yeah. So one of the movies theytalked about was, was Mother's
Day that Eli Roth had, likeinsisted be played at his Bar
Mitzvah.
Yeah.
And he's like, really into it.
And as they were talking, herealized he'd like, stolen a
bunch of stuff without quiterealizing. And he's like, wait,

(13:39):
oh, I did use this in thismovie. Pretty fun. And then he,
Joe, Bob did have Jeff or Yeah,Jeffrey combs on it. I think it
was two weeks ago. So yeah, it'sbeen a little bit of a different
approach. You know, you'refeel like you're getting a
little older and stuff when JoeBobby generally does weird

(13:59):
obscure films what I think ofbut he's like doing gingersnaps
he did D Jones or smart classme. So
that's now a weird, obscurefilm.
Well, I think that you know, itall. It all shifted when he got
picked up by shutter. So he'sgot their library too. And I
don't think that he could justnormally get the license to show

(14:19):
something. gingersnapsYeah, I think the ni anytime he
does do something that's notpart of shutters library. I
think he has a list of filmshe'd like to do to see if they
can get the rights to do so.
That's been my impression.
I mean, it's a great film. Sure.
It's a greatWell, yeah, I mean, he did. I
think the first one he did thisseason was audition. So okay,

(14:40):
yeah, I hadn't seen that in awhile. And I was like, Oh, I
remember has like one bad bitand I was like, Oh my God. Oh,
my God, the whole fucking film.
Well, I guess I think of Joe Bobmark, because I haven't watched
a lot of his stuff. I love hiswriting. I've read A lot more
than I've watched. But he alwaysfeels more like he should be

(15:04):
doing. Not quite Mystery Science3000, but something closer to
that, where he's like, comment.
He's taking really, reallyobscure weird stuff and pointing
out what's good about it orwhat's making fun of it. And
neither one of those films like,although he's knowledge of film
probably makes it veryinteresting. But those are both
great. Well,yeah, no, he does. He really

(15:26):
brings weird stuff. Like hetalked a lot during audition
about the guy who's in the bag.
And like the, the, like hiswhole story, and like how he
like method acted, and he likereally prepped for the role and
all this crazy stuff. So hestill does bring a lot of really
interesting content. But theonly thing that bothers me I

(15:49):
think about the job series ishe's clearly not watching the
films in real time. Becausesometimes he'll he'll mentioned
something be like now in thatlast scene, blah, blah, blah.
And I'm like, that's not whathappened.
I'm like, I just saw this asecond ago.
You know, I I don't watch theshows live. But I love that I

(16:11):
can sometimes pop on toInstagram or Facebook, and I can
see a bunch of people talkingabout it in lifetime and I'm
like, this is a neat thing thatpeople get share. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, it'sso yeah, everything around it is
just so well intentioned, andthe male girl they have Darcy
she's just a fan of Joe Bob. AndI guess she is the reason why it
exists. Like she approached himat a convention It was like,

(16:32):
please, you have to do this andshe helped broker the deal and
she like she's behind so much ofit.
I think it's mutually beneficialfor both shutter and him I mean,
basically brought him out offading away. Yeah. Gave shutter
a nice big punch in the arm. Sothat's really cool. Well, what I
watched would probably be morewhat I might expect Joe Bob to

(16:55):
talk about. Maybe not quite thatgood. That mutilator aka fall
break. Those are Sointerestingly, oppose they
love it whenthe titles just are like so
different. So different. So asI'm prime from 1984, I don't
know why I watched it, or werechopped up from but you know,

(17:16):
sometimes something pops uphere. If you like this, you like
that? No, probably not. Butokay. The whole thing is about a
kid who accidentally kills,commits matricide. And then
above him, it is a bunch of hisfriends go up to the house where
he did that and find out thatmaybe he wasn't so successful

(17:37):
and killing his parents. It'spainfully 80s I mean, painfully,
painfully, so it's not 80s in agood way. Oh, no, I
made in the 80s or 1984.
Gotcha. There's too painfully80s that I'm thinking about
Yes, very, very true. But Imean, I could see where this has

(18:00):
a cold following. It does a lotof things right. It does some
fun kills. It does some weirdstuff. It's just got that what
the fuck is wrong with youmoments time and time again, and
it does the old Hey, let's golook over here. I'll go look
over there. You know, just the,the bad parts of 80s crap that
we make fun of. not quite thereenough to be so bad. It's good.

(18:23):
So it's just like, if you're aslasher completus it's
definitely worth adding to yourlist but who not? I wouldn't
seek out hard for the mutilatoror fall break.
Wow. Wow. I will be notwatching. Yeah.

(18:44):
Well, how do you guys feel abouttaking a little break? And then
we're coming back?
It is spring though.
Why don't you leave the jokes ofthe funny people.
It's not here so I got to try.
We're coming back. We're talkingKurt Russell films.

(19:12):
On the wonderful world ofDisney. Your laughter your tears
with Fred MacMurray zero milesin Kirtland Solon? his first
film appearance to capture yourheart in Walt Disney's following
the boys.
It begins with one littletough guy we don't have a kid of
our own and we want and becomesa family of 1000s on the

(19:33):
wonderful world of Disney.
Follow me boys Saturday at twoon Kp TV.
Joel darner for darner Christ. Afinal thing here is Kurt Russell
starring in a film here on ourlot. Let him tell you about it.
Thank you, Joe. Yes, we'reshooting a picture called use
cars for Columbia Pictures andeven we haven't got deals

(19:56):
like this. Because 79 Chryslerhere you get a $300 rebate
directly from Chrysler plusDonner's discount
of 17 $100. If you can beat itgo somewhere else. I
don't think you can the bestwheels best deals on wheels.
Right, Joe? Right. Absolutely.
Kurt. That's a darner Chryslerpromo.

(20:19):
back, I'm yawning right into themic because she would call a
professional.
This is why.
There you go cut yourself offthis time.
Okay, Eric, this was you know,previously, we had done a lance
henriksen thing. And so when youbrought this up, I was like, Oh,

(20:41):
yeah, I forgot. We can pickpeople. Yeah. And say, let's do
movies by this particularperson.
Yeah. And it was, holy shit.
He's done a lot of films. Somany god, he's been working.
He's basically been an actorsince he's been alive.
Yeah.
And a lot of his content isgood. Yeah, I think that's like

(21:01):
the this stark contrast to a lotof people who have like, you
know, 150 credits or whatever,like, his movies are like so
notable.
But I think part of what makesit distinctive, too, is he's a
lot of people have 100 160credits are secondary actors or
third level actors or something,but he's very often the lead or
the second lead. He's usually abig part of whatever movie he's

(21:23):
in.
And, you know, and this mightjust be a public persona, but
he's so goddamn likable. Like,Oh, you know what, even though I
didn't love this movie, he wasin it so that made it good.
I mean, he I think he's actuallymy favorite actor at this point.
Oh, yeah.
I hope that he's listening.
Probably make him feel goodafter after tag him on his

(21:45):
whole thing. Twitter make himfeel
hashtag the real Kurt Russell.
Well, I picked awell it's sort of him going back
to his roots. Because you know,he started off doing the
computer wore tennis shoes andstuff like that. Well start even
before that, but 2005 sky highwill just want you to know how

(22:06):
proud I am to be attending milemonitor. From the moment we'll
stronghold started high school.
He knew he was in for the rideof his life. Here we go.
Welcome to sky high. You are thedescendants of the world's most

(22:30):
legendary superheroes. All hewants
is to live up to his familyname.
My parents are the greatestsuperheroes on the planet.
But he's not sure he's got whatit takes to step
up here and show me your power.
Hero. If you don't make hero,you just society.

(22:55):
Or you would say that'sall I ever wanted for him was to
save the world. To transformhimself.
We can't change who he is.
without dropping them in a vatof toxic waste.
Where we even find a vat of youhave to test his limits. You
have three minutes to mobilizeyour opponents and save the

(23:16):
citizens.
Remember when we used to usereal citizens and unleash
with their stronghe's super strong.

(23:41):
Walt Disney Pictures.
discovering his powers was justthe beginning.
Great because the heroes oftomorrow will have to save the
world today. My old enemyalways swore he'd have his
revenge on me. Put my dad down.

(24:10):
The sky is the limit.
Sky High boy has super strengthsorry you are strong.
This one's on Disney plus one.
That is not something wereference very rare.

(24:36):
I have watched so. God damn manyItalian rape filled nasty
movies. I'm going to I'm goingto do a fun freakin movie. And
this is fun. Yeah, I like thismovie. Rotten Tomatoes as I said
73 for critics and 57 by crowdfor you. Okay, whatever. Budget

(24:58):
no funds no a budget of 35million and did 87 million
worldwide. Not too shabby didfine. This was directed by Mike
Mitchell, who you might rememberfrom Shrek Forever. Forever,
forever after, oh, trolls, andthe Lego Movie too. So, you

(25:25):
know, the usual kind of guyswere rattling off here written
by Paul Hernandez who wrotesomething called turbo dates.
Bob skoolie, who is best knownfor New Kids on the Block TV
show when I didn't even knowsuch thing existed. And the I
think it was the 90s Swamp Thingminiseries, which is another

(25:46):
thing I haven't seen. And KimPossible, which I haven't seen,
but I'm aware of Mark McCorkle,who's a writing partner with
Bob. They basically were almostall the exact same writing
shoes. Stars Kurt Russell. FromHey, Captain Ron. Once I wrote
down, Dennis the Menace,Gilligan's Island and lost in

(26:10):
space,I remember his Gilligan's Island
episode.
I don't know, man.
He was a kid, wasn't it? Was hea kid or was he more of a team?
Yeah, he was. He looked likehimself. Yeah, he wasn't a kid.
Oh, and a lady who unfortunatelylost in 2020. Kelly Preston
places why well, that's right asshe died at 57. You probably

(26:34):
know her from Jerry MaguireTales from the Crypt. They
listed from dusk till dawn. Herand I do not remember. I wonder
if that was the TV seriesbecause I don't remember her
from the movie. No. Not in themovie. Daniel punna Becker,
Killer Frost on the front on theflash TV show. justified and
something shark TV show notShark Tank. And a couple others

(26:58):
Michael and Toronto who's analmost famous This is us.
redstate 24. Steven straight whowas in the covenant. And the
expanse TV show. Is thatregular? He's like one of the
leads on that 50 some oddcredits on that. So this, this
is a heavy, deep plot film ofwhich you have never seen
anything like before. Dammit, Ikeep saying the opposite of what

(27:21):
the movies are. This is a funfilm. But you know, this movie
and the storyline by heartunless you just started watching
movies. It's opens up with acomic book panel, a panel
describing how Kurt Russell andKelly are the superheroes of the

(27:41):
planet. They are the mostpowerful duo of superheroes
watching over the planet. Andthe stories about their son
getting ready to go to Sky High,which is a superhero High
School.
Yes.
So a little bit of Harry Potterconcept going on here.
Vanessa, have you seen thismovie?
I have not. You should I yeah,I'm like really excited, just

(28:04):
like hearing about it. Because Ithought it was gonna be some
garbage movie.
This my, like, two minutes andI've got the note. This is gonna
be a fun film.
And it's one of those ones ofprobably falls into my I think
they had the title before theyhad the movie. Yes, but it
really works, I think.
Yeah, this sounds like somethingI'm gonna watch with my mom.

(28:25):
Oh, yeah. It's team based. Yeah,I mean, Kurt, Russell and Kelly
are in it a lot. It's not liketheir secondary, their secondary
leads, but they're in it a lot.
So basically, Sky High is asecret high school that's
floating in the sky that Ronthese name is the bus driver
takes them up to it's aninteresting trip to get there.
The class got some great cameosright off the bat. We've got

(28:47):
Linda Carter in here. She's theprincipal. And Bruce Campbell is
the basically the gym teacher.
They have to they have to decideif their powers are heroes or
sidekicks. So they go in andBruce has them show whatever

(29:08):
their superpower is, and if it'shero, or a sidekick, like the
kid who turns into a pool ofslime is a sidekick while the
police are coming to pick up andthen while the kid who spits is
a is a sidekick until he sees hespits acid hero stuff like that,

(29:32):
and they do a few of those butthe embarrassment for this kid
is his parents are knownworldwide as the most powerful
superheroes in the world and hehis powers haven't manifested
yet. So he has no power at all.
But he gets he gets to hang outwith his psychic friends and
buddies because, oh, all of hisfriends are psychics even though
What's your name? The lady fromthe flash definitely is not a

(29:54):
psychic power. She's basicallypoison ivy but She doesn't use
her powers. Unless she has tobut and his dad doesn't know he
hasn't manifested because he'spretty he does these fakeout
things to make it look like hehas real strength and stuff. So
he does dad doesn't know. Hisdad does the Oh, I'm so proud of
you thing and shows finallytakes him to the secret layer

(30:15):
when he was just about to tellhim that he has no powers yet.
So I mean, this is very, verytrope filled. This is right.
Yeah, it'sa Disney film. I don't know
another thing that came to mindwatching this movie. I don't
know if either if you ever readthe xanth books by Pierce
Anthony Yeah. Okay. It's kind oflike that where the world of

(30:36):
xanth is. Everybody has magicpowers. But is your power
something really cool? Or is itlike you can make a spot on the
wall? This film has a lot ofthat going for it? They've got
the dickhead bully guys who ofcourse already have their powers
and the rebel guy whose is hebad? Is he good? But he's

(30:56):
brooding and hot. And of coursehis his powers are flame via the
he's got the confession to hisdad when he finally confesses
how he's a psychic. And, and ofcourse, he's gets in with one of
the popular girls because thehottie senior likes him and they

(31:19):
do the homecoming thing, whichleads to him having a fall out
with his older friends andstuff. So it's all there. And
it's all fun. And it all worksperfectly fine. So yeah, like
their party at the house whereeverybody Oh, it's just a small
gathering, of course. Next sceneis 100 some odd people wandering

(31:41):
around his house and but hissidekick buddies didn't get
invited. But they find out aboutit. Yeah, it's just yeah. And
eventually his side, his powersdo come in, but they don't come
all at once to do a fun littlething, the way they play that
and the I'm not gonna get into alot of detail about it. There's

(32:01):
actually some pretty good triviawith this film, but because it
is everything you expect, and Imean, the final scene is a
formal dance.
I do love films that end with adance
joy. Find out wait. Yeah. Isshe gonna ever get his powers?
Yes, they manufac they manifesta couple times. He gets he gets

(32:27):
well his dad has super strength.
And his mom can fly. Will he getone? Or will he get both? So so
as you can see, like my notesfor this are really simple
because it's it was acombination of two things. It's
so basic, that you don't need towrite necessarily a lot, but
it's also so much fun to watch.

(32:49):
I find myself going Oh, I shouldprobably
Yeah, take some notes here. It'sit's definitely a kid's movie,
but it's super cute.
They have this was before theMarvel movies really kicked in.
So the suits they're wearing.
look kind of warm. It's verythick, almost vinyl looking
stuff. I don't know what it was.

(33:12):
Kurt Russell had a coolingsystem and hit him with tube
water and circulates to coolKelly Preston was able to unable
to have one because her uniformwas too tight. And his was
definitely buffed out. Becausehe's he's a little seen when
he's got a shirt. It's got likea little little dadbod going on

(33:33):
in this movie. But his hiscostume is Hello I am so far
powerful. Apparently there'sweird references to real world
stuff where it's it's a bad ideawhen sidekicks costumes clash
with Heroes is supposed to be ajab at Batman and Robin, where

(33:55):
you can their costumes don't gotogether at all. And he was a
sidekick the teacher talkingabout it was a sidekick for Kurt
Russell. So he still has his allred white and blue uniform
because that's what curtainKelly both wear red, white and
blue. Each of the maincharacters to follow that have a

(34:16):
color scheme throughout thewhole movie, their son, his
color scheme, his clothes arealways red, white and blue.
Laila, the lady who controlsplants is always green. Of
course, the bad guy who's fineguys black. Sure, there's some
magenta who's always purple. Soevery single one of them has a

(34:37):
color scheme, which is kind ofnice. The first Disney movie
that was not offered on VHSOh, was it like a DVD or just
didn't?
Disney realized thatthey can. We can't do our
clamshell boxes or whatever. Wecan make zillions
from that. This is not the firsttime that current Also has

(35:00):
played a superhero. He played asuperhuman strength character in
the strongest man in the worldin 1975. That's right.
They put there's a phone numberin the movie for a realty
company which is actually was atthe time a rogue working number
that if you called said thankyou for calling ABC the
numbering of ratio is afictional nonworking number used

(35:21):
for Motion Picture andTelevision Production.
Oh, how interesting,which is kind of cool, but
doesn't exist anymore. LikeWell, why not? Because that 555
is just that subtle. Zap out ofthe movie moment. But during the
making of the movies, all of theteenage actors had their own
trailers not because of thebecause they had big budget

(35:43):
maybe they wanted that theproduction wanted to keep all
the teams separated, so theydidn't start dating and maybe
break up during production. Andapparently, it worked.
Good. So Oh, myguys rule had to be enacted
because something had happened,or regular occurrence. I

(36:06):
was gonna say they should dothat with the adult.
film crew altro.
Mitchell the director is a scifi fan admitted that this
project was kind of a dream forhim because it brought together
a bunch of his favorite cultfilm actors. He had Linda
Carter, who was originallysupposed to be wearing gold

(36:27):
bracelets. But Warner Brothers Ithink, who held the rights at
the time said no, you can't dothat.
That's really firmridiculousness.
Disney then said you know what,fuck you. Let's buy Marvel
not have this problem now.

(36:48):
And of course, Snake plissken isplayed by Kurt Russell ash from
Evil Dead played by BruceCampbell. And Cloris Leachman
not because of the Brady Bunchbecause he loved Young
Frankenstein was just goinground blue. That's a sign 2016
Disney announced that they'regoing to do a sequel. But

(37:09):
obviously, that never cameabout. There's also been talk of
doing a regular TV series, whichhas also never really come about
and obviously Kelly Preston,well can be involved now. So at
this point, it's sort of lookslike there's not going to be
anything done, but you neverknow. It's Disney.

(37:30):
Oh, that's, that's a bummerbecause this would be the
perfect time for them to do a TVshow. Especially with I mean,
superheroes are ubiquitousright? Every my mom watches the
Avengers movies. And this kindof stuff is just ripe for

(37:53):
picking apart and making fun ofyou know, right now.
So and it means being done bythe boys but it's being done
like in a really raw caustic.
Yeah, parents manner. This couldbe like a fun version of
Absolutely.
Yeah, good. Good call.
Nice tech for sure. And likeyeah, Kurt Russell. This is I

(38:14):
just love this topic so much.
He's ever so dreamy.
I'm gonna call this Kurt RussellParwan. Yeah.
I love it. Um, yeah, I mean, Igrew up with Kurt Russell in the
household, my mom, Kurt Russelland we we saw overboard, nanny,
nanny and bird on a wire. Idon't know why bird on a wire,

(38:38):
but many times bird on a wire.
So I've got overboard prettymuch memorized. I chose for my
Kurt Russell movie, the 1996film, escape from LA.
Welcome to the theater. foreveryone's enjoyment. We'd like
to remind you that the followingrules, no talking, no smoking,

(39:03):
no littering. No red meat, nofreedom of religion. And
remember, all marriages must beapproved by the Department of
Health. Failure to obey theserules will result in immediate
loss of citizenship anddeportation to the island of Los
Angeles. Enjoy the show.

(39:26):
Your rules are only beginning tounwind
redcycle profiling using adatabase of 5 million
sociopathic personalities he hitthe bottom of the curve catches
on quick.

(39:49):
loves the winnerof Bangkok rules.
Nobody draws until this hits theground.
Draw.

(40:12):
Which, while it may or may notbe one of his better movies,
depending on your thoughts. Ichose this one because it is the
only john Carpenter movie that Ihaven't really seen.
Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah.
Wow.
Part of the reason why I havenot seen this is because I was
going through my wholeretrospective of watching all of

(40:34):
them. And for this one a friendhad invited me over. And to
watch it, and at the start waslike, hey, like, do you want to
get high? Now, I would like tomake it very clear that I don't
really do drugs. Like that's notit's just not my thing I drink
but I don't do drugs. Now I getit Your mom's listen. Because my

(41:00):
mom is gonna hear this. So she'sgonna now know. And I'm sorry.
But I was like, okay, sure, whynot? Like, I'll do some weed or
whatever. I don't know what yourweed sounds great. I don't know
anything about it. And so likeif I was offered a thing, and
then I didn't do a good job onhow you approach the thing.

(41:21):
Was it an edible? You mean? No.
hype?
Oh,and yeah. And so I was like, oh,
okay, sorry, and did it again,and then looked up at my friend
whose eyes had like tripled insize and when you did too much.
I was like, Okay. And he's like,okay, let's just find a spot for

(41:43):
you to sit. And so I sat down,and they put in this movie, and
I was really excited. And then Iwas furious, because I could not
keep track of anything. And Iwas like, locked in, like, I
couldn't move. And I was sopissed off, because I'm not good
at losing control. And this iswhy I shouldn't do you most

(42:05):
drugs, because I need to be incontrol. Like, to the point
where I was miserable. I waslike, I need to watch this
movie. And I care about thismovie, and I can't see anything.
And like, every time I look atsomething 20 minutes of best and
I don't knowif I'm listening to this, and it
sounds to me, like you'reexactly the type of person who
needs to dotrust I am such a miserable take

(42:29):
about it. I was pretty pissyabout this whole entire
situation and never reallyforgave my friend about this and
was really I was sure that I'vekind of seen this movie at least
a little bit. But rewatching itI will say the I remembered one
scene. And the thing thathappened in it did not happen. I
was so sure that I saw herRussell surfing and high fiving

(42:52):
a shark jugs bad kids in school.
They will only ruin Kurt. KurtRussell john Carpenter movies
for you. So don't have theheartache that I went through,
please. Um, so Okay, let's getinto it. Um, this movie has a
Rotten Tomato score of 53% fromcritics and 39%. From audiences.

(43:16):
That's generous on both counts.
I was definitely surprised bythe critics. I was also
surprised by the audience. Ithought I had a higher audience
rating that budget 50 millionbox office 25 point 5 million.
Oh, yeah. Big Ouch. Directed byjohn carpenter, written by john

(43:38):
carpenter and Deborah Hill. AndKurt Russell is only writing
credit.
I didn't know that. Yeah,it's the only project he ever
wrote on. He jumped on board. Hewas really enthusiastic about
continuing the story of snakeplissken really wanted to
reprise the role, and was a big,big part of this process
produced by Kurt Russell andDeborah Hill, starring Kurt

(44:00):
Russell snake plissken. He'sbeen in 101 things. He's played
Elvis, Elvis, and Elvis. Youmight remember him as Elvis
Yeah. One of which wasuncredited. You might not
remember him as being the voiceof Elvis and Forrest Gump. But
he is Oh,that's interesting. Yeah.

(44:22):
I also in john Carpenter's TVmovie Elvis and the so I'm sure
that Kelly will have other rolesso I will skip on by we also
have In this movie we have kindof interesting cast we have
Steve Buscemi who plays map ofthe stars, Eddie. He's been in
164 things. He's a Tarantino andJim Jarmusch favorite actor. But

(44:45):
but I personally loved him andCon Air and Boardwalk Empire.
You we also have Peter Fonda assurfer named pipeline. He's been
in 117 things my favorite ofwhich is future world. Click If
Robertson as president Adam hasbeen 116 things I knew him as
spider man's Uncle Ben. Valeriegulino as a test Lima 106

(45:13):
credits she's a Greek actresswho was in Rain Man and hot
shots as Ramit Ramada Ramada,Ratan Haman. It's impossible so
and she's recently been inportrait of a lady on fire.
Stacy Keach as commander MackMalloy. 250 things. Lots of TV

(45:35):
like Prison Break and Titus butI think, I think she's the one
who isn't starch.
Stacy Keach is a guy so theirminds
income IQ, I'm retracting thatthere is one person here who is
on Star Trek and I didn't writethem down anyway. It's fine.
Don't worry about it. StacyKeach a guy Pam Grier plays

(45:59):
cardiac Malone aka her. Her shelost Hamas. She's been 104
things like Jackie Brown andgoes to Mars. I can see from
here, Kelly's just having amoment. And just a couple more
people including Bruce Campbellplays Surgeon General Beverly

(46:22):
Hills. AJ Langer as utopia thepresident's daughter and George
orifice as Corvo Jones, youprobably don't know him. He's a
European actor, but he's been ina lot of stuff, the plots. So
let's just break down thesituation here. All right.
Because once it happens, itreally happens. So 1998 la is a

(46:47):
crime ridden decadent town asbeing directly governed and
patrolled by the US policeforce.
That's true. But what about thismovie?
Two years later, in August 2000,a massive earthquake strikes the
San Fernando Valley which floodsin LA turns into an island from

(47:08):
Malibu to Anaheim, Anaheim, big,big island. The President
predicted this, or I should saywould be president he gets
elected and becomes presidentfor life. He declares LA to be
sinful and punished by God. Hemoves the capital of the United
States to Lynchburg, Virginiaand creates a pheo kradic

(47:31):
totalitarian state. Anyone notcorn conforming to the new
morale America, which banstobacco, alcohol, drugs, red
meat, firearms, profanity,atheism, non Christians. I know
guys, I know. homelessness,being an orphan and extra

(47:52):
marital sex, all of which arecriminal and results in being
punished and stripped ofcitizenship and deported to LA
islands unless they repent andaccept a death by electrocution.
Wow.
Good option.
Thanks.
I containment Wall Of course,much like in New York is built

(48:14):
around the island with armedguards and watchtowers.
Meanwhile, in 2013, clairvauxJones, not at all like the kind
of Cuban revolutionary Who'sthat guy?
He's on all the all thetequila, then. Chavez Yeah, but
he'sthat's what they're really go in

(48:36):
for a Peruvian revolutionaryseduces the president's daughter
utopia via her VR hologramworld, which she spends time in
and brainwashes her intostealing her father's remote
control. Sort ofI gotta say you're actually
making me want to watch thisagain, cuz Holy shit.

(49:02):
Guys, there's a lot going on. Ijust really want to set up the
universe because I think it'simportant to understand. So this
sort of, I am pronouncing thiswrong. Demand, demand damarcus
Damocles Sword ofDamocles dhammika mascus
Damascus, it's whatever thatthing is, let's just keep saying

(49:23):
it.
Somebody's screen through ittimes so loudly by the podcast
recently suddenly know. It's asuper weapon that controls a
series of satellites capable ofrendering all electronic devices

(49:45):
anywhere on the planet that itchooses to pinpoint useless. The
President intends to use this todestroy the US his enemy's
ability to function andeventually to dominate the world
while traveling aboard Air Forcethree utopia, the seduce
daughter steals the device andtakes an escape pod to LA island

(50:07):
to join her boyfriend corbeau.
Corvo intends to use this deviceto take back the US with the
assistance of an Allied invasionforce of third world nations
that are standing by to attack.
If the president tries to stophim he will black out the
capital. All right, that's theworld. So Meanwhile, Snake

(50:29):
plissken is captured for anotherseries of crimes and scheduled
to be deported to the islandcall me snake commies. When he
is in the processing center, heneeds some military officials
who attempt to make a deal withhim to clean his record in
exchange for help retrieving theweapon and killing the
president's daughter utopia. ThePresident knows this and he

(50:51):
himself walks out of the shadowsand is like Yo, I will give you
a pardon. snicker Of courserefuses because fuck the man.
But when what he doesn't know ishe's already been scratched on
his arm and infected with themanmade plucks. Sorry, clue
toxins seven virus that willkill him within 10 hours unless

(51:13):
he completes the mission. Andthey administer the cure left
with no choice and a wish tosurvive. Snake agrees. At this
point, it becomes an escape fromNew York sequel it is just
Escape from New York but in LAit's like a remake almost. It's
kind of Yeah,it's very similar beat every
very wonder why every beatis remade now very much very

(51:36):
much.
So instead of the cabbie youhave. You have Steve Buscemi
who's in like a Cadillac. He'sthe one who knows how to
navigate space. Instead ofhaving to fight to the death
with like, beating each otherup. He asked to play basketball.
Oh, that's right.

(51:58):
He can't miss a basket.
The basket he has 10 seconds togo from each end to the other.
And I think it's like 10 timeshe has to get 10 in a row. But
there's not enough time. So eachtime he makes a basket. He's
further away from the oppositeends. Oh, yeah.
So at the end, he has to shootacross the court completely and
make it in?

(52:18):
Does he?
You'll have to watch and see.
I'm gonna guess Yes. is a reallyshort what
happens midway through? Um,yeah, it's very, very one to
one, just down to pretty muchevery single beat you can
imagine. But the LA version sowhere it's dirty and grimy New

(52:40):
York style like dark, it becomessilly and campy. I am going to
go ahead and take a stab and saythat this was intended to be a
ridiculous movie. There is noway that this was written in
like a serious note. I am prettysure two friends got drunk
together, sat around and wrotethe script. And when Wouldn't it

(53:00):
be hilarious ifthe audio commentary for the
thing would indicate thatthere's a strong probability?
Unfortunately, I have the shoutfactory version of this and it
did not come with an audiocommentary. Which I was like,
why did you even put this out?
This is stupid because like,that's the whole joy. John's
kind of become acrotchety old guy. No, I'm not

(53:22):
talking about that embarrassing,I'm sure but to sit around and
hang out with Kurt and likedrink. That's like his favorite
thing to do.
Yeah, the bigger question is whywouldn't you go back to the
screenwriter have escaped fromNew York, which was not john
carpenter. Yeah. and say, Hey,we're thinking of doing a

(53:43):
sequel. I know for a fact thathe was not even approached. He
had no idea the movie was comingout of the trailer.
Yeah, I think I think it wasagain because john Carpenter's
friends with Kurt Russell andRussell was really the one
pushing it and going, I reallywant to do this role again. It
was so much fun. So he's,I'll say this. He looks great as
snake plissken. Oh, yeah.

(54:06):
And we'll get we'll get intothat in a second. I'm gonna just
really quickly gloss over acouple of things that happen on
there la high jinks cuz I wantto really sell to you guys.
The minutes later.
No, now. I have a bullet list.
I know what you mean when yousay I'm gonna gloss over
something.
I have a bullet list. It onlyhas 84 items the size

(54:28):
10. I'm looking at it right now.
We have in this movie a minidon't just take off your
headphones and leave. I thoughtI'd
go take a small croissants andI'll be right.
In this movie, we have a minisubmarine with the jaws shark.
We have surfing down the LAreservoir. That place where the

(54:50):
Terminator had that scene andthen jumping off of the
surfboard onto a moving car fora fight scene. We have
basketball. We have glide Wehave holograms. We have plastic
surgery attics, starring BruceCampbell as a crazy plastic
surgery surgeon almostunrecognizable to I honestly did

(55:13):
take me a minute because I knewhe was in it and I was pretty
sure it was him but I reallywasn't sure until the end
credits. I was like the jaw hasto be him. It has to be the jaw
is everything's extreme. Yeah,it's almost like grotesque it
is and his eyebrows just theeyebrows, being like, plastered
over and then repainted. Thatthrows you off.

(55:35):
It's he's very creepy in hisvoice is like a normal human
voice. It's not like a coolBruce Campbell voice that might
have actually been instead ofthe Geico cavemen that might
have been the inspiration forthe supernova. And Koufax for
the creature, because that'skind of sounds like you're
describing him.
You're talking about somethingwe talked about last week, as if

(55:55):
we only talked about it hoursago? Because I know how am I
supposed to remember this? Idon't.
We also have fake Disneylandbecause they could not get the
rights. It's clearly Disneylandthat there's a castle and
everything. We have CGIbuildings where glass literally

(56:16):
falls out in giant sheets. It'spretty great. And we have the
practical as opposed to thepractical apocalyptic style sets
with really beautiful workstunning, like actual set
building work. And here, theytook their fucking time. And I
the favorite part of that, to meis inside the sub, there's this
weird like, coiling aroundsnake's head that kind of gives

(56:40):
him this sort of Halo, but thecoil is this sort of big silver
cabling. That looks like a snakeskin. Oh, it looks so fucking
cool. It's like straight out ofGeiger. So this, this film is
amazing.
And are you saying ironically,did you like it?

(57:02):
You know what, I really didenjoy it. It's not a good movie.
Like it's not. It's enjoyable,but it's not good. Like, but
watching it. There's no point inwhich I was like, bored. There's
no point in which I was like,well, this is really really
stupid. Like, everything feltlike they were giving it their
all and because they committedto it. It worked. I'm sure at

(57:24):
the time people were justfucking furious. But um, yeah, I
don't know. It just it's a funfilm. It feels a lot like fun
Blade Runner. That's what Ipicked out. It's like if Blade
Runner was fun. And it's just asinsane about la in the same way
that New York is insane. And itfeels really satisfying because

(57:45):
it's made by people who live inLA, and are kind of commenting
on what's going on in LA at thetime. In fact, it's inspired by
the earthquake that happened.
And they sat around, they werelike, oh, man, like what would
have like, Can let's take thisfurther. What would have
happened if like the bigearthquake in LA and what was 94
had these knock on effects, andthey just kept going and going

(58:05):
going with a little bit oftrivia. This is the fifth and as
of 2020 final collaborationbetween Kurt Russell and john
carpenter, which sucks. And I'mfurious about it. It took 10
years to develop some kind ofsurprise. The screenwriter
wasn't aware of it.

(58:25):
I just know that I have heard aninterview with him. And he was
like, I didn't even know themovie was happening. But that's
Yeah, they approached me. And hewas a friend of carpenters.
How weird. How is very, veryweird. I don't know Carpenter
can be a little bit of a weirdone that times. And at one
point, the scripts script wascommissioned in 87. It was
written by Coleman luck, but acarpenter described it as too

(58:47):
late and too can be beautiful.
And I already talked about theLA earthquake, and Carpenter
insists that it was Russell'spersistence that allowed this
film to be made since snakeplissken was a character he
loved and wanted to play again.
The ending was written by KurtRussell. The president the idea

(59:08):
of the way the President waswritten was also Kurt Russell's
idea. It's based on thetelevangelist pat robertson.
Ghosts from Mars, as wasmentioned before on this podcast
by Mr. Kelly,his favorite john carpenter.
The look having flashbacks youkeep mentioning this,
paint your body more and more.
It's kind of at some point,you're going to be a ball on the

(59:30):
corner of the room. Because Marswas meant to be the third snake
plissken film, but after thismovie failed so dramatically. It
was rewritten several referencesin this film to snake plissken
keep talking about Cleveland andhow snake was in Cleveland a
bunch, which I was like What isgoing on? I guess it's an in
joke. reference to the fact thatjohn Carpenter knew a guy or

(59:52):
john Carpenter tours friend knewa guy from Cleveland named snake
plissken which is where He gotthe idea for this character. So
that's what's going on there.
Um, Russell was 45 when he madethis film and it took him
several months to get back intothe plissken shape. However, at
the beginning of this film, heis wearing the original Sega

(01:00:14):
snake plissken costume, whichfit after 15 years. Yeah, good.
Yeah, exactly. The eyepatch wasespecially was made special for
this movie, so that it was semitransparent because Kurt Russell
kept getting headaches to makeit so he could see a little bit.
Um, plus skins in new costumewas inspired by the stealth

(01:00:36):
bomber. The costume designerRobin Bush said we actually
invented a fabric for it. It'sunfortunate because I think the
costume is hideous. It's just methough. Kurt Russell practice
playing basketball betweenscenes as he wants to make all
of his shots legitimately in thebasketball scene. And he
actually did do it purely on hisown talent. Including perhaps

(01:01:00):
maybe making a full court shot.
His Hail Mary was actually onethat was
he actually did it. That'scrazy. It's not nuts. I wire
wrestle is in this movie as anorphan in the detention
processing center. She's wearinga hat. Kate Hudson actually
auditioned for the role ofutopia but did not get it.

(01:01:22):
Russell originally wanted hispartner Goldie Hawn to play
utopia, but she was hospitalizedat the time with a particularly
bad case of Turco mononucleosis.
trichomoniasis I don't know whatit is, but it sounds bad.
She read the script.
Russell's jack Russell Terrier,Schindler supplied the gowling

(01:01:46):
have actually dropped it thatwere dropped an octave for the
film's climactic escape scene.
Kurt Russell made 10 milliondoing the film. So out of that
budget 10 went directly to him.
Steve Buscemi took this film inpart to fund his directorial
debut trees lounge. And to getinto the character of a

(01:02:08):
transgender gender woman, PamGreer put a sock in her pants
during shooting. JOHN Carpenterkind of helped sell the
transgender character bylowering her she's voiced by an
octave and a half in postproduction. And something that I
do think is important to notethe bad CGI in this movie, which
is one of the bigger complaintsYeah, yeah. And it was because

(01:02:29):
the employees at Buena Vistavisual effects had never dealt
with CG before and didn't knowhow to achieve it properly. It
took over 150 computer generatedeffects to create one underwater
sequence. Wow. Yeah, it's theonly sequel john Carpenter ever
directed. He refused to doHalloween too. And it's the

(01:02:54):
soundtrack for this movie I doneed to say you guys is amazing.
It is insane. It has music fromtool, stabbing westward, white
zombie butthole, surfers, SugarRay, Tory Amish, Jesus ministry
and the Deftones. The score wasreleased on both CD and cassette

(01:03:15):
by Milan records in 96. Andagain, with special late
additions by law and run LandRecords in 2014. Using tracks
that were cut from the film,john Carpenter has actually
said, escape from LA is isbetter than the first movie 10
times better. It's got more toit. It's more mature. It's got a

(01:03:36):
lot more to it. I think somepeople didn't like it because
they felt it was a remake, not asequel, I suppose. That's the
old question. And whether youlike Rio Bravo or Eldorado
better, they're essentially thesame movie. They both have their
strengths and weaknesses. Idon't know. You never know why a
movie is going to make it ornot. This is obviously a direct

(01:03:57):
quote. Didn't want to see escapeat the time, but they really
didn't want to see the thing.
You just wait, you've you've gotto get a little while longer
because you know, people willsay you know what, what's wrong
with me?
Wow, desperately crying there.
Yeah, by the way comic there wasa comic book released the

(01:04:19):
adventures of snake plissken in1997. That was some set some
time between Escape from NewYork and has the famous
Cleveland escape, mentioned init. And there was a video game
that was announced and thenshelved.
So there we go. I have thesoundtrack on vinyl. Oh, really?

(01:04:42):
I should I have the scoresoundtrack. Oh, okay. And I
bought it simply because it's adouble LP. It was like $20 and
the second LP is the is thesoundtrack to escape from New
York, which is better soundYeah. Honestly, as soon as they
start playing, they opened withthe Escape from New York game

(01:05:02):
and it's one of my favorite johnCarter tracks. So I just was
like, yeah, and also boom. Yeah,of course I went into like tool.
So I this is just a frustratingfilm because they there is a
good movie in hair hidden inhere. The stuff with Bruce

(01:05:24):
Campbell is really interesting,I think. And if they had gone
that route, instead of a, likeyou said a beef or beat rag. I
think I do like the idea ofbecause it's LA, everything is
bright and glitzy and, you know,making fun of what LA is. But I

(01:05:44):
didn't need all of the samebeats.
I agree. You know, thecharacters and the little
segments are super fun. And Ithink if they'd explored those
areas, like you're sayingbetter, like they have the whole
Queen Mary ship in there at onepoint, and that's where her
she's hanging out. And I'm like,bam, we should spend more time

(01:06:05):
here. And then they talk aboutthis. I want to say that it's a
Korean gang. And like you seethem at one point for like two
seconds. And it's a bunch oflike little kids with like,
machine guy. Yes. This is socool. Like, let's spend more
time in this lore. And I dothink that if they done that
rather than like the Chevys orwhatever, like that whole

(01:06:26):
section just it's a lot. It's abit too much.
Yeah, I mean, this could havebeen like a warrior's Type Heavy
instead. And that would havebeen more interesting with him
just kind of having to traverseand get away. That would have
been interesting. I love theidea of, of the theme park. That
seems like a brilliant idea tomake fun of. Yeah. And it just

(01:06:48):
all you know falls apart becausethe story you know, that's not
what that's not what madeescaped from New York. So
interesting here. And thatantihero is super interesting.
Yeah. That's Kurt Russell. Boom.
Kurt Russell. JOHN carpenter.
latinum play. Yeah,exactly. Like his character is
something that we will followthrough any, any setup. Yeah,

(01:07:10):
you know, it could be snakeplissken goes to hell. Snake
person goes to Canada. Snake.
Escape from Canada. Oh, youknow what I like to
hang out. It's great. You know,climbs Mount Everest, we would
just follow that story for forsure. And I think you're right,

(01:07:30):
because I've watched Escape fromNew York so many times. And it
really isn't amazing. In there'sa lot of like, misstep in that
movie. And it sometimes fallsflat and boring, whatever. But
again, Snake is just like, yeah,you just want to see what
happens every time he walks inthe room and meet somebody.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I will sayyou've made me want to give it

(01:07:53):
another shot. I think it's worthit. I think it's worth checking
it back out and seeing what youthink. Because I don't know
like, especially if you thinkit's going to be shitty, then
maybe you'll like it alittle bit more.
I do remember just beinghorrified in the theater, at the
effects, effects justif you can look past or just
wrap that up like into atortilla. Like you know what,

(01:08:15):
that's just part of this ride.
Then I think if you're notspending all your time looking
at it, then there is a film inthere that's worth watching.
Well, cool. I mean, so manygreat films to choose from. I
chose from two years after that1998 soldier.

(01:08:41):
In the future,technology will allow us to
explore new worlds and changethe way we live like never
before. But there is one thingthat will never change.

(01:09:03):
He was programmed from birth tobe part of the most invincible
army in history.
scientific advancements arepractically manufactured using
DNA profiles. He was destined tobecome obsolete for endurance.
Better hand I told him stat.

(01:09:25):
What do we do with him wastedisposal. His training
had prepared him for anythingexcept this.
Now, on a remote planet, acommunity of outcasts faces
extermination. I want thatplanet secured by Oh 600

(01:09:47):
portable opposition that will beofficially classifiable as
hostilesfind weapons and prepare to
fight to organizethis soldier it may be too late
to view here. When How do youknow they'll be back? Because
they're soldiers like me, butit's never too late to be a
hero.
I'm going to kill them all.
wrestle soldierremember seeing this in the

(01:10:37):
theater and liking it. Iremember watching it about 10
years ago and thinking it wasreally slow and then watching it
for this again, just the othernight and loving it. budget of
$60 million 20 million of thatbudget went to Kirk directly.
Wow, thisguy. He makes money box

(01:10:59):
office have about $15 million,which didn't even pay for Kurt
somaybe made a little less after
soldiers.
Rotten Tomatoes. The criticshave it at 13% the audience has
oh 44% oh shit.
people hated that more thanescape from here.

(01:11:19):
People are wrong.
This is directed by Paul WsAnderson. I'm the director of
event horizon the evil or theResident Evil franchise Death
Race Aliens vs predator writtenby David Webb peoples who wrote
12 monkeys. Unforgiven BladeRunner. Wow, holy shit. And the

(01:11:42):
Blade Runner connection isinteresting as we'll get into,
it starts Kurt Russell.
Whatfrom the computer wore tennis
shoes. strongest man in theworld. It also says Jason Scott
Lee, who Eric would know fromDragon the Bruce Lee story. He
was also in the live actionJungle Book movie from years
ago. Not the most recent one.

(01:12:03):
And also the Milan live actionfilm. Oh, Sean Pertwee from
Event Horizon dog soldiers andhe plays Alfred in the Gotham TV
series. And Connie Nielsen fromGladiator one hour photo and
just recently she was it poetablada Hipple Hipple in wonder

(01:12:24):
woman. She's like a woman's mom.
Oh, okay. So this starts in thedistant future 1996, where we
see a bunch of orphaned infantsbeing selected at birth, and
then we get this kind of montageand we see them being raised as
highly disciplined soldiersdedicated to a holy military
routine. So even when you seethem in the classroom, like the

(01:12:47):
ABCs, the a word I can'tremember what it was, but you
know, like C was combat, and Dwas death, and stuff like that.
So they are trained to beruthless soldiers with zero
morals, and any of them deemedphysically or mentally unworthy
are executed. There is one scenewhere we see the kids at about

(01:13:09):
12 years old, and they arerunning. Kurt Russell's
character being in the lead. Andthere is the group of kids
running and then there's astraggler at the end, we see a
car pull up to him and then thecamera goes off of him. And we
hear a gunshot Oh my god. Whoa.

(01:13:29):
Russell is Todd Todd 3465 is thename of his character. So we
jump ahead to the future 2036and at the age of 40. Todd 3465
is a battle hardened veteran andthe best soldier of this group.
Colonel Macomb comes in theleader of the original project

(01:13:50):
who is played by Jason Isaacs,you would know him as Lucius
Malfoy comes in and introduces anew group of genetically
engineered soldiers designedwith superior physical
attributes and a complete lackof emotion except for they're
fucking aggressive as fuck.
Captain church who is thecommander of Todd's unit, played

(01:14:11):
by a fairly normal Gary Busey inthis film. He insists on testing
the abilities of these newsoldiers against those of his
group, which is Kurt Russell'sgroup. And the new soldiers
outperform in every single waythey send Todd 33465 off and
say, you know, get to it 12miles right now and he just goes

(01:14:35):
off and starts running. And thenthey wait 30 minutes, I send one
of the new soldiers Jason ScottLee, and he overtakes Todd very
quickly and then you know, runsthe 12 miles and something like
15 minutes and then Todd comesin about an hour later. It's not
that long, but he's he's wellbehind and so For the very last

(01:14:56):
test, they put Jason Scott Leeup on this chain. And then they
send three other soldiers up onthese other chains and they
fight basically to the death.
And even though Kurt Russellmanages to gouge his eye out,
Jesus got lead dumps into thefloor and the three soldiers are

(01:15:20):
assumed to dead. pert is not buthe looks like it. And I think
it's, it's shot, interestinglyenough, because I think that
what you're seeing, he's lyingthere with his eyes open, but he
looks dead. And I think you'reseeing like the death of his of
his will. He's never beendefeated. Before. You know, when
we, when we watched him grow up,we saw all these little tiny

(01:15:44):
scenes a montage of all thesebattles. So he's in the desert,
and then it goes likeimmediately to a snowy
wasteland. And then it's like ona different planet and shit like
this. And so he is just kickingass and killing people
constantly. And all of a sudden,he's killed. Supposedly, he is
dumped into the trash,basically, this big huge trash

(01:16:04):
thing and then dumped on a wastedisposal planet where he is
found and nursed back to healthby a colony, this colony, the
residents there, they crashlanded there years earlier, and
they were believed to have beendead and so no rescue team was
ever sought out for them. Sothey have managed to, you know,

(01:16:25):
build a little colony on thistrash planet. And he tries to
kind of integrate into thesociety.
It's it's funny andheartbreaking because he cannot
he just does not even know howto talk to regular humans. And
they're a little scared of himbecause he is like Terminator,

(01:16:48):
like, almost, you know, heanswers questions with one word
calls everybody, sir. And he hejust reacts to everything like a
soldier would. So he's he's alsohaving horrible PTSD, which is
an interesting way to, to dealwith this character. As a
writer. I was like, oh, wow,this is really sad. Like the

(01:17:08):
colonists are having like, youknow, fireworks go off. And he's
like, he's just standing there.
But they're showing flashbacksreally quick, and then doing a
slow zoom on his eyes, andyou're like, Oh, my God, my
heart is breaking for this guy.
He does build this, this kind ofrapport with a young mute child,
and they, they make a connectionby not speaking. And he's also

(01:17:34):
having these weird issues thathe's never had to deal with
females before, or sexuality inany way. So he's attracted very
much to this woman who kind ofnursed him back to health, but
she is the Connie Nielsencharacter. She is married to
Sean Pertwee, and their kid isthe mute child. So they brought
him into their family. And theonly one he can actually connect

(01:17:55):
with is the kid. So at 1.1 ofthe colonists asks, If he's a
deserter, and you can see thatkind of pisses him off, but he
says, he would, he says, I wasreplaced, sir. And I like what
you mean replaced. And he says,by a better soldier, sir, and
his eye kind of twitches, andyou're just like, Oh, my God,

(01:18:16):
I'm gonna start crying. Butvarious little things, start
worrying the colonists, and theyfeel compelled to kick him out
after a while, like one of themtaps him on the shoulder, and he
almost kills the guy and stufflike that. And they're just
like, we, we appreciateeverything that you do, we just
don't feel very safe around you.
And he then goes and walks offinto the desert. And it's this

(01:18:39):
super horrible scene where he'ssitting in this gigantic piece
of garbage. And he's been, he'sbeen rejected by every society
he's ever known no military,these refugees have even said,
you know, not good enough. Andhe finally shows emotion, and
you see him crying, alone, andHe's surprised that he's crying.

(01:19:00):
The tears start coming, and he'stouching his face gun, you know,
what the fuck is this? In thecredits roll. That would be at
one point, though, the mute kidactually saves his parents from
the snake. And they realize thatone of the things they were very
worried about, which was himkind of teaching this kid to, to
be a little aggressive, theyrealize, wait a second, these

(01:19:23):
lessons he taught the kidactually helped him survive on
this planet, and maybe we bent alittle hard on him. So the guy
shumpert we goes back to findhim and apologizes to him. And
even though the other colonistshave said, No, no, no, we can't
have him. He's too dangerous. Hegoes and he's like, Look, I get
it. I get what you're trying todo, and we'll make it all work

(01:19:44):
out. And you know, you're one ofus, so come back. Meanwhile,
meachum and church, the militaryguys, they coincidentally have
decided to use this planet forcombat training and they are
going to use the old soldiersverse. As the new soldiers, but
they discovered the colonistsare there and meachum who is the
Lucius Malfoy? He, he says,look, we've got no record of

(01:20:09):
these guys. And this is anexcellent way to test our new
soldiers. No, we'll just use thecolonists as combat practice. So
that starts happening. And justafter Sean Pertwee brings Todd
3465 back, he is killed.
And you and Todd is just like,you know, oh, Christ, okay.

(01:20:32):
Well, the one guy who wasfighting for me just got killed
by the soldiers who I know arebetter than me. And he's like,
Okay, I'm gonna whip the, heactually kills one of the new
soldiers. And the, the militaryguys are kind of like, Wait a
second, we weren't expectingthem to fight back What's going
on? And so it's for Russell kindof whipping this group into

(01:20:54):
shape very quickly. But whatwhat also happens is he comes
across one of his old soldiers,because they were going to be
used to fight the new soldiersin combat training. And he basic
they're basically like, youknow, order sir. And he says,
defend the colonists. So he'sgot now is obsolete soldiers,

(01:21:16):
and him fighting these newsoldiers. And it turns into, you
know, this movie hits everybeat, you know, you kind of know
what's going to happen prettymuch it but it's super
satisfying. And it's got thisone final scene where he is
addressing his soldiers and thelittle mute kid comes up to him,

(01:21:36):
and he, he picks the kid up, andthe other soldiers Just look at
him and he's holding a baby,basically, you know, a little
more than a toddler. And thesoldiers kind of are looking at
him like with a question intheir eyes, and he looks at them
just kind of stares at them andthey all kind of go Okay,
without saying a word. And hewalks away holding this kid and
so just get back to what they'redoing. And that's kind of where

(01:21:59):
the movie ends. It's just like Isaid, super satisfying. Wyatt,
Russell. Please, please, Todd3465 at the age of 11 it was so
funny because I didn't know thatback then. And why a wrestler
courses become a very good actorin his own right now. But

(01:22:19):
looking at him, you're justlike, Oh my God, that's totally
what pure Russell like at 11 soI just thought they found a
great, you know, a great kidthat look like him. So
how they cast that guy.
So at one point very early on inthe montage, we get Todd's
service wrecker service recorddisplayed displayed on a

(01:22:41):
computer screen and it includesthe following the battles of
tannhauser gate and the shoulderof Orion which are references to
Blade Runner, receipt of theplissken patch. receipt of the
O'Neill ring award, which isstargates. That was his
character was O'Neal receipts ofthe cash Medal of Honor, Tango

(01:23:01):
and cash receipt of the mccreedycross receipt of the captain Ron
trophy. receipt of the McCaffreyfire award which is this
character and backdraft receiptof the Dexter Riley award. That
was his character in thestrongest man in the world and
the tennis shoes. And thenfinally citations for the Libyan

(01:23:25):
moons campaign the AntaresMaelstrom war and the war of
predictions flames locationsreferred to in Star Trek to
Todd's unit statistics referencethe dungeons the dragons ability
scores so when you see all ofhis stuff, its strength,
dexterity, intelligence, wisdom,and it also shows stats for his
damage hit points. And even RSR,which apparently means

(01:23:49):
resurrection. Despite beingadvertised in UK cinemas. The
film performed so badly on itsUS release that Warner Brothers
decided not to release ittheatrically in the UK Wow. That
it went straight to pay perview. David Webb people's the
writer started writing thescreenplay to soldier while
Blade Runner was being filmed.
As the screenwriter of bothfilms he has long maintain that

(01:24:11):
they are set in the sameuniverse a side quo if you will.
The fact that the vehicles usedby the Blade Runner spinners are
also in soldier you can see acouple of them on the junk
worlds crazy reverse.
The premise of soldier wasactually based on an unused

(01:24:34):
opening scene for Blade Runnerwhere a group of replicants are
dumped and left for dead on anoffworld colony. Wow. Both films
are released by Warner Brothersand both were box office
failures.
Both are damn good.
commentary for Big Trouble inLittle China. Kurt Russell
stated that he only took anotheraction film at that age because
he wanted the paycheck and onlystuck with it after breaking an

(01:24:55):
ankle and a foot during thefilming because he still wanted
that paycheck.
put up a lot of pain for $20million.
Yeah, no kidding. That was mymovie soldier. It is available.
I believe on prime. I thinkthat's how I watched it.
I'm with you, man. This I lovethis fucking movie. This is one

(01:25:15):
that I just never understood whyit was so? Well, I kinda
understand why it's so rippedapart. But I disagree. There's
so good.
Eric knows and probably a lot ofthe listeners know that one of
my favorite movies is Shane. Andthere's a strong Shane vibe to
this film. So that's part of thereason I love it so much.

(01:25:36):
Well, I was getting excited justlistening to you describe it.
It's just Oh,Have you not seen I've not seen
I think you would like this onevery much. He's 47 when he films
this if it's two years afterthat one. And he is built like a
brick shithouse I bet he there'sa lot of shots of him with just
you know, gigantic muscles. So47 years old. Yeah, pretty

(01:25:57):
fucking great.
We shoot soldier real soon. Ipray. I did here kind of a
bittersweet thing from KurtRussell, that he wants Santa
Claus to be the last characterhe ever plays. Now. I don't know
if that means he wants to domore Santa Claus. And he might
do other movies in between. Butwhatever his final, you know, or

(01:26:19):
if he's kind of nearing I'm justdone.
I hope not. Because he's just Imean, I think he took that Santa
Claus character, and like, madeit fresh, which isn't sane. And
just, he's my favorite SantaClaus. And well,
we'll see. He's already in thenext Chris Fast and Furious

(01:26:39):
movie, so that's true.
But he was in Vegas, which Ididn't realize
she was supposed to be inguardians three to
know, I think his character wasMarvel.
I like that. Come on. Marvel isenough to go Oh, yeah.
Vanessa, I believe you're up.

(01:27:00):
Yes. So um, I have had an ideaon my list for a little bit I
think I'd like to throw outthere which is, as seen on TV.
So this doesn't mean necessarilyto bad products you
buy from that section ofWalgreens? That its products are
amazing.
I've never had such a wellchopped tomatoes in my life

(01:27:22):
I've seen on Shark Tank.
This is gonna mean as eithermovies that became TV shows or
TV shows that ended up having amovie made after them.
That could be fun. I love thisidea. Yes. I can't believe it
took this long to get to thisidea. Okay,
I'm excited. I'm so glad. Yay.
Good one.

(01:27:42):
I'm choosing the fog.
I did do the fog right. I'm notkidding myself. Right? Because I
know that did happen. I didn'tdream that.
Okay, Hey, everybody, as usual.
Big Huge thanks to everyonewho's playing along with us in
the value for value model. Igotta say I'm just blown away by

(01:28:04):
the reaction.
So it's been crazy. It's beenjust an absolute incredible you
guys, thank you so much. Notonly for being great listeners,
but for contributing in allthese other great ways.
Yep, definitely. Yeah. Don'tfade away. If you feel you're
losing you bring us back.

(01:28:26):
I don't know what that means.
Exactly.
That's what I want prettywell, all right then. So on that
note, I will say goodbye to youweirdos. goodbye to you weirdos
listening and we'll see in oneweek we are talking As Seen on
TV. Our show is recordedsomewhere high above Naval
Station Everett at the nexus ofall realities, and is engineered

(01:28:48):
and produced by Eric Margaret.
Our theme music is Strange Aeonspart one by the band and he is
using permission. Fine StrangeAeons radio on Facebook, Twitter
and Instagram, wherever findpodcasts