Blank Check with Griffin & David - 28 Years Later

Episode Date: June 22, 2025

Blank Check is going back to the British Isles with Danny Boyle, Alex Garland, and one extraordinarily well-endowed zombie this week as they discuss 28 Years Later. This movie has so much to love in it – wet bones, third-act Ralph Fiennes, Jodie Comer doing a thing, the Angel of the North, Teletubbies, the aforementioned well-endowed zombies, mind-bending digital photography, and did we mention THE WET BONES??? Be prepared for David to get REAL British, for Marie to cry on mic, for Griffin to bring up the manosphere, and for Ben to learn about Operation Yewtree. Gosh, we love this movie so much. Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your  pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Blackjack with Griffin and David Blackjack with Griffin and David Don't know what to say or to expect All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blackjack 120 podcasts later. Oh, so you counted from our last. It has been 120 episodes on main feed since we covered the Danny Boyle, 2002 in the UK, 2003 in the US release, 28 days later. Wow! 120 episodes.

Was it like a couple years ago then? It's about two. 2003? Oh, oh.'s about two. 2003? Oh, oh. 2023, yeah. 2003 was the US release. Oh no, I was like, I forgot the two. 2023 was our podcast release.

So we covered 28 days later, 20 years later, and now two years later, we are covering 28 years later. And we were just talking off mic before we start recording. We all love math here. We're just all, well, Ben, are you good at math? I'm looking at a group of math heads. You're listening to some math heads right now. Not really.

No. I always thought it was cool though, the guys who got into like really abstract mathematics. Good will hunting shit. Yeah, I always thought that that, I always respected that. This is the most Ben answer. Like he just likes people writing in hieroglyphics.

Yes. Totally. I know some math you're good at Ben. Fucking the ones and zeros. Hey. You only need to know two numbers. That's the kind of key thing there. You can tap out before you get to two. Two?

Two. That's not an audio number. No. All right, there you go. He admit it. He admit it. He admit it. That was a low energy start.

No, it's a great start. I just had to start out with some math. You said to me, I don't even know if you know about that. Talking about a bit that was set up, right? And I came into the studio yesterday to pick up some stuff and noticed that our own producer, Ben, had very carefully and deliberately placed bones on each of our desks. Bones!

Oh my God, I didn't even- Bones. That's what you were referencing, right, David? I didn't even notice that you guys had bones too. We our desks. Bones! Oh my God, I didn't even- Bones, bones. That's what you were referencing, right, David? I didn't even notice that you guys had bones too. We all have bones. The reason that I thought Griffin might not have noticed is that he's got, and I'm not shaming him, a little bit of stuff on his desk.

And it's a little more hidden from his view. I wanna make my desk feel like home, but I came around the other side. When I walked in yesterday and I got a clear shot of the bones and Ben has really, he's made specific choices of who has what. Yeah. What do I have exactly? I arranged the bones on each station and I, you know,

I tried to kind of match each bones, each person, but I wanted to make Marie feel special. So she got the head of the stall. Let's just say these are not human bones. I think the listener needs to know because they're not seeing this. These are not human bones. I think the listener needs to know because they're not seeing this Right. These are not human bones. It also bet we played a bit of a guessing game where I tried to guess what animal these bones came from and I didn't It took her a while. Worse than that than I am at math. Do we have an answer?

Yes, we do. These are pig bones? And here's the other thing. I, not all of them, but the skull, I can guarantee is a pig. If you saw this, would you think this is a pig skull? No, the problem is it looks like a giant rat skull. I thought it was a fox. But then once you say pig, it makes sense.

Now I also would like to add that I consumed that pig. What? He had a whole thing. Yeah. So, uh. Okay, let's just say, this is Blank Check with Griffin and David. I'm Griffin.

We're not moving away from this. I just think we need to do a little table setting on a fucking new release blockbuster movie episode before we get too deep in our own arcana. We are recording this episode within the Bone Temple. It is a podcast about filmographies, directors who have massive success early on in their careers and are given a

series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. And sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they bounce baby into the Bone Temple. Two years ago, we did a main series on the films of Danny Boyle, a very successful filmmaker, best picture, best director winner has had hits, has had critically he's had hit and miss, he's got an Oscar. Best Picture, Best Director winner has had hits, has had critically totemic films. He's got an Oscar. The only blank check director to have made

an Olympic opening ceremony? Well, Spielberg worked on the Chinese one. We don't, mm. But he did a pass? I think he, didn't he contribute to that in some way? He did like a Sin City special guest director. But when I think of that, I think of the Beijing Olympics, I think of Zhong Yimou.

Zhong Yimou was obviously... He's the auteur. Danny Boyle was the auteur of London 2012. I'm backing you up here. Thank you. Absolutely. Well, I'm just now I'm like, now I want to know though, who's done every Olympics opening ceremony.

Yeah. My point here is we covered Danny Boyle and at the time we covered him, like his career had weirdly kind of ground to a halt. It seemed in a bit of a sort of what's he... Yeah. Emblematic. What's his move? What's all that then?

What's all this then? The industry, where it's like, it's weird that he made yesterday. And I remember saying that to you at the time when it came out and you were like, he can't get anything else made. He's got to attach himself to a fucking... He was going to make that Methuselah movie. There's a lot of things that have been announced. He also did a lot of TV.

He did two full seasons of FX shows. That'll just eat time. Wait, what shows? He did a Sex Pistols show. Oh, right, I forgot, I watched that. That was okay. Remember the movie, All the Money in the World? The movie devoid of controversy and scandal. I mean, we talked about this when we did the show.

He did, right, the same thing. He did a TV show about the exact same thing that aired six months after that movie came out and bombed. Well, yeah, that's crazy. It was just a weird thing because we've covered directors where it's like, there's clearly a reason why they're in movie jail. Their career went off a ledge, right?

They're like fighting a perception they can't kind of overcome, or directors who have died. And we were like, it is weird that Danny Boyle should still be in like the prime of his career and he just kind of feels a little stuck and on the bench. And we end that series by being like, it feels like they should just do another 28, right? And now here we are, it's happening.

I mean, but it was also, once Killian took the stage at the Oscars, I do feel like everyone was like, all right, like making phone calls, being like, let's do some zombies. And yet today we are talking about 28 years later, a movie that Killian Murphy does not appear in. He has an executive producer credit,

but a thing that I don't think is being messaged very loudly to the public, and certainly Ben didn't know when we saw it, is that this is the first of a trilogy of new movies. The second one is already in the can, and the third one is scripted and is basically waiting on this film having a good opening weekend

to officially get the green light. And since this one wasn't too expensive, I think, like, it won't take much. I think it's safe. Right. I think it's safe, but Killian, theoretically, is in, introduced in the next one. I don't think theoretically, they confirmed that.

He's in it, he's in it. I don't know how big his role is. They said that his role in it is smaller and that his role in the third one would be larger. But there is not a whisper of him in this. Well, yeah, that's true. They had a scene where he found the Infinity Gauntlet. Yes.

But they cut it. And he went, I guess I'll have to do this myself. I guess I'll have to do it, yeah. As Killian pulling a fucking gauntlet out of a washing machine. He did do it himself. He did do it himself. Thanos. I'm just saying, like, do we give him enough credit?

Well, David, you said himself, he did have his five children. Of course. Proxima Midnight. Yes. Ebony Maw. Keep going. Cole Obsidian? I think so.

Or Obsidian Cole, it's one or the other. I think I'm tapped out. I know they're all... They're pretty good. All of them have one word is a riff on black, and the other word is some other nonsense. Great. Yeah.

Anyway, Ben, pig bones that you ate. Corvus clave. Yeah, that was never gonna get that one. Gun to my head, I wasn't gonna get that one. So my former roommate, Nate Patterson, who's also been helping out, he curates playlists that we put together at the end of each miniseries.

Major friend of the show. He also made the chain display. Well, this is the thing. He made this piece of visual art for you that was a chain display that then at our art show got modified by him into being a chains and bone display. I mean, it makes sense. So it's not like these bones came out of nowhere.

These bones have been in the office, but as part of a very controlled installation. This is art, baby. It's art. Wait, so this was part of the, this was part of the chain installation? Right there. Look, you'll see it. Are these brand new?

No. This is from the... I want to chain display its low on bones. I want to defend Spielberg. He pulled out of working on the 2008 opening Olympics ceremony in protest of China's support of violence in the Darfur region. Okay. But, Ang Lee apparently also was possibly someone involved. He's an Oscar.

But he wasn't the main auteur. I'm going through. Fernando Merelles did 2016, but he doesn't have a trophy, just a nom. But we also haven't covered him. She's a blank check director. That's the qualifier. Oh, I was just talking about Oscar winners check director. That's the qualifier. Oh, I was just talking about Oscar winners.

I'm just interested. We're both. Both. Yeah. Just interesting. Uh, producer Ben Housley. Remember the French one when it was like wet? It was just like raining all day.

And then Celine Dion showed up in the end and you were like, all right, she took it home. By the way though, most French shit ever. It was so funny. If they had like hired Godard to like do the French ceremony he'd be like here's my pitch it's just raining and just do whatever you want to do in spite of the rain he would have made that happen in a controlled way he would have somehow just clowered enough to know if you also would have said fuck you more likely was what were you gonna say Marie Barty

party I'm here no no I was just gonna say? Marie Barty party, Barty Salinas. Oh yeah, I'm here. No, I was just gonna say that I like the French opening ceremony. Remember when they had like a threesome at one point? Yeah, that's right. And then all the people got mad. Yeah, it was cool. It was too Libby. It was so Libby.

They were cutting to the crowds and everyone was struggling to light their cigarettes. Yeah. The little Assassin's Creed man with the torch forgot about our core That was so good. You know what good job friends friends killed it. Where aren't we next? Yeah Do you know what we did as like our show of like alright, we're bringing it home to America Maybe the torture whatever we did Tom Cruise fucking jump into the stadium and then land on the Hollywood side. Oh wait, great news though.

I'm seeing they've hired a major filmmaker. No, I was gonna say America's Greatest Autor, Rostin Marshall Thurber. I just think it'd be funny if he was Macquarie and he was like, oh, I've cracked the ceremony. I cracked it already. It's gonna have 18 flashbacks. No, there's gonna be cracked the ceremony. I cracked it already. It's going to have 18 flashbacks. No. There's going to be no plan.

We'll figure it out. We'll explain all the rings being united together over and over and over again. Right. Cut to four years later, 8,000 hours of podcasting that all also sound like therapy sessions, where he's like, the mistake I made was I was trying to figure out how to not do the torch.

There is no. I said, is there a way to skip the torch? And then in post realized, we've made a terrible mistake. I have to undo this. Nobody has more turned into a corn cob than Christopher O'Carrie doing that fucking Empire magazine, like Final Reckoning podcast. And also Happy Side Confused and also Light the Fuse. Those I haven't listened to, but I listened to the Empire one, which I said I wasn't going to. And then you were like, David, you got it.

And I was like, I think I got it. I think I got it here. Like, what's going on? I basically now started taking the hits, and then you just go text me the highlights. Well, because you're doing all the other one, right? I can't listen to all of them. I mean, I'm just fast.

I feel like I'm finally getting answers. But Ben, you ate the pig. Right. We really need to close out that important part. You ate the pig. We had we really need to close out that important part. You ate the pig. We had a pig roast in our backyard, and then the next day I come home from work

and the apartment kind of stinks, and I'm like, what the fuck? And then Nate presents to me a clean, wet pig skull. Which apartment was this? When I was in Williamsburg. Oh, so these are old ass bones. This is a long time ago. These are old bones.

And he just sat on them. You know what else are old bones? These bones right here. Hey. Jeez, don't get me started. Waking up achy. Someone's got a birthday coming up. Yep.

Yep. Well, look, very on topic, because this is a movie that has some of the best on-screen skull washing I have ever seen. Incredible. Incredible. Incredible. This is probably peak wet skull.

There... Ben, am I correct in saying you did not know that much going into this movie? I heard whispers. Yeah. What were the whispers? Bone temple. Bone temple. Now temple. Bone temple.

Now of course. As he walked into the Regal, the guy took your ticket and you were like, thank you. He's like, theater 17 bones. I'm sorry, what's the bones? Bones. Also concessions are only on this floor.

You don't usually care about collectible popcorn buckets, but you were yelling at the Regal employees that there was no collectible bone temple popcorn. Are you sure? I grabbed them by a shirt collar and lifted them. Is there not a collectible bucket? I don't think there's a bucket. I don't think there's anything.

It does, maybe, did they pitch that to Danny Boyle and he's like, you what? Maybe we don't need that about. I think there's so much in this film that is so profound that it would cheapen almost. Yeah, there's always a risk with these popcorn buckets. They're right. You're interfering thematically. David, David vessels.

We've changed the language to vessels. But in a way, calling it a vessel makes it a little more respectful. Like that feels more in tune with the way this movie feels about like death, the body and what remains. Yes, I, I agree. This is a movie, you and Marie sat together, Ben and I sat together, it ends, I look over my shoulder, I see that six rows behind us,

David is literally dancing in the aisle, and I turn to Ben and I go, he's vibrating. You were so on cloud nine, I was pretty amped up. And I felt it. Like 20 minutes in, I was like, fuck, he's going to be losing. This is the Simsiest shit. It's check in every box. That's interesting. I mean, I agree with you both.

So, okay, what are the boxes that you felt it check? Extremely British. It's so British. And not just extremely British, but it is like in a way I need you to kind of parse, because I could tell it was doing stuff and I knew I didn't have the algorithm to solve all of it. But in a way that I feel Danny Boyle does a lot is like,

He didn't have like a podcova. Is about British culture. Like has like insight. Isn't just like depicting Britishness. Right. It's sort of like interrogating. And it also feels like a specific type of Britishness. It felt very, like, northern.

Yes, it's set where I went to college. Although I then said that to someone, they went, you go to college at the Bone Temple? I thought that was funny. Full scholarship, right? I just, I want to acknowledge my privilege in that sitting next to David for this movie really added like a 4DX element.

It was a 4DX experience. That, you know, I pity everyone else who's not going to sit next to David. It's fun to sit next to Marie, who basically anytime anyone like walked in one direction was just like, -"Ah! Ah! What's going on? Like, what's gonna happen?" I was freaking out. And he, like, David was like, it's okay, you know, you's gonna happen? I was freaking out. And he, like, David was like, it's okay, you know, you can Bob-a-duke, not Bob-a-duke.

Skinnamorink. Skinnamorink it if you need to, because I like... You are, as you famously watched Skinnamorink largely from inside your jacket, as you described it to us. Correct. It's like, you can put your headphones in and just, you know, hide inside your jacket and you'll be fine. And I'm like, I can't do that for this podcast. Like, I have to pay, my eyes need to be, Put your headphones in and just, you know, hide inside your jacket and you'll be fine.

And I'm like, I can't do that for this podcast. Like I have to pay, my eyes need to be, I need to witness this film. I think this movie, I mean, maybe you're going to push back on this. I think this movie is intense. It is. I don't think it's like profoundly scary. It's no, I would agree. Well, it can be disturbing.

It's disturbing, but there aren't like the jump scares where it's definitely holding you in a space of, like, intense sensitivity the entire time, but it's not a movie that's, like, doing things to make you go, like, oh, it, like, once every 10 minutes, it is a movie that is keeping you in that squirmy space. I think we were kind of trying to figure out why Sony kept the embargo on this movie for so long.

Yeah, it's a bit baffling. Well, let's also say that we saw many of our friends, past and future guests of this show, were in attendance at the same screening we went to. Thank you to the folks at Sony Pictures for helping us see this a little early so that we could get this episode out quickly. And you're literally still dancing while we're outside on the street in Union Square and then like Ehrlich would walk by and he was like yeah I'm trying to get my head around it and you'd go like fuck you!

Go away! Go away! And Vilga's like it's interesting and you were like nope! Bye! That is the thing that I deal with a lot right and you guys don't see me at press screens we're like if I am really high on a movie, I do not, right, you've seen, like, I do not want, especially my good and dear friend who I truly love and sometimes am a bit too mean about on this podcast, David Erlich. You did say out loud, fuck Erlich.

Coming near me and being like, sometimes David will outright dislike the movie and will be like, oh yeah, and I'm just like, no, no, no, bad vibes, they're like, shoot, shoot, shoot. Because I really just want to walk out of there in a little egg, like Lady Gaga, and go home in my egg and then hatch out of my egg and write down my thoughts later or whatever.

Or like Mork from Mork. But I think, I like this movie tremendously. I have one pumping point on it that we'll talk about surely, probably soon, but it is incredibly weird. It is a weird film. It is an odd film in every sense, but especially within the framework of like, hell yeah, finally, Danny Boyle returns.

He's just not trying, it's not a victory lap movie. It's not a like safe kind of, I'm going back to the proven franchise and doing the same thing again. But I would say, obviously he's done this once before. He made T2 Trainspotting. This movie is more straightforwardly entertaining. No question.

Than that was. That was a real kind of like, oh, you wanted this or that from a transplanting sequel? You're not gonna get it. I also feel like this can exist. I mean, maybe we'll see how Hylian's character comes back. I think you're right. But this movie does feel like it exists on its own

without the legacy of the previous films. My brother asked me this on behalf of a friend being like, hey, my friend's never seen 28 Days, like does he need to? And I'm like, no, I'm sure he knows. Sure, sure. But I was like, I'm sure he knows the other basics of like, there was a zombie thing.

That's all you need to know. I ran into a friend of the podcast, past, very recent past and future guest, Hilary Beusis online for popcorn. We love her, and she was there, of course. And she said like, I just watched 28 Days for the first time. So I'm like buzzing about ready to go this.

Sandra Bullock movie? Later. And she was like, I saw 28 days opening weekend in theaters. But then was like, I didn't get to weeks. Do you think that's gonna be a problem? And I said to Hillary, I would be astounded if anything in this movie directly ties into Weeks in any important way.

And I was like, and by the way, I saw Weeks in theaters. We rewatched it for the podcast two years ago. If they made a vague Weeks connection, I don't think I'd pick up on it. And this movie really does kind of stand on its own. I just want, I wanna say- It makes one reference to Weeks, which I think is mostly Garland cleaning something up that

he doesn't like from... Undoing the Paris thing, right? Yeah. Yeah. Which, that ending also felt very tacked on as a like... In Weeks, totally. It's just like, okay, if you want another one of these... Let's see something for the future.

That is my only issue with this movie, is I am like so fundamentally over the multi-part sequel thing. I admire how much this movie really largely stands on its own. It tells a full story, I would say. The actual ending of the movie is very much a, like Marvel post credits, teeing up the next... Would it be better if it was post credits? I don't know. We were having that discussion right afterwards. Because everyone's so sick of the post credits, right? I am philosophically sick of the post credits, and yet, once it happened, I'm like, I would kind of rather...

The movie has a really good emotional resolution that doesn't close any doors, that is clearly setting you up in a way where you're like, I'd be really excited to see what happens next with this character. But then the ending is a direct tee-up of, here's what we're going to pick up from next time, that feels a little like the ending of an episode of Lost. Right? Like a crazy thing. You emotionally resolve the conflict of that episode and then a crazy thing happens in the last two minutes.

Ben doesn't know that they have a sequel in a can. He turns to me and he goes, well, that ending was cool, but I kind of wish I could watch a whole movie of that. And I went, Ben, I got great news for you. It's coming in six months. Directed by a friend of the pod, Nia DaCosta. And not only that, I said to Ben, and guess what it's fucking called,

28 years later, part two, The Bone Temple. And now Ben is in the aisles dancing, telling Ehrlich to fuck off. I didn't have the 40X experience of the two of you being able to jam on each other's body energy. I did have the moment where I turned to Ben and I hit him and I went, look, and the camera pans out as you see how significant the Bone Temple is, in particular the pillar, and Ben just did like Spielberg face and I felt like he was on the verge of crying.

And then just kind of, maybe without breaking eye contact from the screen, leaned over to me and said, that's a lot of bones. That's a lot. So many bones. But, oh my God, to see them, it's just, it's so moving. It's moving. It's so moving.

That's why it rocks. Yeah. The one take obviously is like Mount Sinai skulls. Cool iconography. And news though. Yeah, yeah. Right? Or also just cool visual idea.

It's prominent in the marketing. It's like the centerpiece of most of the posters. The trailer which like kind of broke fucking YouTube records. This trailer like wildly. I just want to shout out, someone sent us a DM on Instagram after I posted a story on our account from the screening saying that they're a listener

and they helped cut the trailer. Well, the trailer was so good that Boyle put that, you know, piece of radio, whatever you want to call it, the broadcast of the Roger Kipfering poem in the movie, because of the trailer. Oh, interesting. It was like, that rocks! Wait, let's just put it in!

Because that whole sequence in the movie where it's in there is just kind of him being like, well, I loved the vibe. But that's the interesting thing is that the trailer was, forgive me for being a little lofty here, kind of just like a tone poem. Like, people were jamming on it, but when we sat down at the theater, I realized right as the lights went down. I actually don't know I know the three actors was an idol I knew there was the one thing I knew was there was like a Colony on an island and as the trailer was I was not like

Rewatching the trailer going like I wonder what this is. I like let it wash over me and I was like, yeah It looks cool And then I sit down and I'm like, I know finds Taylor Johnson and Jodie Comer in this. I know Killian isn't and I know Bones are involved. And I actually don't know how this is gonna play out. And it is a movie that is kind of unconventionally plotted. And I kept every 15 minutes going like, I actually don't know what the spine of this movie is.

What's the next act? Right, I do think that's part of maybe their like embargo fear. This is what I was going to get at is when we were trying to figure out why they held the embargo for so long, it was it because they didn't want people to know that the main character of the movie was an unknown. I think there's some spoiler fear. Yeah. And I think studios can kind of talk themselves out of building buzz for a movie with that. There are no like crazy twists in this movie, but it is a movie that kind of plays off you being like,

I don't know where this is going next. So I sort of get that. And I like, right, that feeling of like, not only is the marketing not telling you that the little boy is the main character, the movie starts and you're not sure if he's the main character. He's certainly central, but by the end of the movie he is the guy. I was like 90% sure as we were watching the first third of the movie that we would never go back to the island again. That it would just be like a survival thing with Aaron Taylor Johnson and the little boy. And Jodie Comer would, I don't know.

I found this whole aspect of it thrilling. I'm watching it going like, I don't know where this is going. I don't understand like exactly what the utility of all these characters are yet. The world building is so incredible, which is a thing where I'm just like, Sims must be buzzing. But it's also a salute to Garland. Like, well, we have a lot to talk about here, but I just think Garland is so good at that stuff. This movie, I was, so I was talking about a friend of the show, Chris Ryan, past and future guest.

As he texted me being like, you've seen it, right? We gotta talk about it, you know? And we were both saying like, Garland as writer for hire essentially, I've missed it a little bit. I like what he does. Same. Same. He's doing interesting stuff. I was mad.

But I kind of like putting some genre guardrails around the guy and being like, you can still be weird. Also, I'm just gonna say it like, there's some deeply disturbing shit in the text of this movie, and I feel like Danny Boyle does bring, like, a sensitivity and a heart. Yes, there's an emotional film maker. Which Garland doesn't do, and that's what... Well, I think Garland has a very bleak, dim and bleak view.

He's so fast-fuming. He's very clinical. I feel like you gotta meet somewhere in the night. No, I agree. But that's why I'm like, look, Garland, when he's doing his own thing, it's a totally different vibe and that's fine. Yeah. Hey, I support.

We like it. I think that, you know, privileged British guys who grew up in a lot of, with a lot of culture around them should be making movies all the time. No, I do like movies a lot. But then it's so interesting to see this former collaborator of his taking on one of his works again. You're like, right, this was a secret sauce for a recent, like... And by the way, like this movie starts, it's 28 years later. It doesn't spend time holding your hand and explaining to you what's happened in between.

I think it very elegantly... It does. It gives you what you need to know over the course of the movie very, very well. But it is my favorite kind of like commercial filmmaking where where it's like it trusts the audience to be like, we're gonna show you stuff and let you fill in the blanks. And you can fill in the blanks really clearly, right? But there's no fucking info dump. No. But I do want to say we don't start on 28 Years Later. We do have the prologue.

We do, yeah. Which we need to talk about. We'll talk about it. We'll talk about it. No, because we need to talk about... Okay'll talk about it. We'll talk about it. No, because we need to talk about, okay, do the joke, and then we have to go into the teletubbies. Why did nobody go to an aircraft carrier, though, and write down, like, give an envelope that had, like,

the first of November 2002 written down on it. You know what I mean? And they open it and it says that. Information's the death of emotion. I mean, this is my case, is this movie just hits the ground running, and you're filling in the gaps, and the things you don't have immediate answers to are engaging,

where you're trying to suss out, like, so what is happening here? I think the core animating idea in this movie, which is so obvious, but I didn't think about it, even when it was announced, is like, if it's been 28 years later, this means that, like, this is set in a world in which we didn't solve the problem, but we have figured out a way to rebuild culture around it, right? The idea that we're-

We can live with it. That we're building this movie around a little boy and you're like, this is the second generation of children to be born into this world. Right. You start the movie with a prologue set, basically concurrent with the first film, that is kids who are experiencing the rage virus overtake, and then you jump ahead 28 years

and here's a little kid who like theoretically is the children of... The children. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, I guess like how old is ATJ, Mr. Farrar? I think he and I are around the same age. They're young parents I mean, no, no, I know I know but right so to be like if you think

You know the calmer like maybe they're playing younger or maybe they're playing people who are five when the raid that's what I'm saying If Aaron Daylor Johnson is playing his age, he's playing someone who's about 10 11 and Right. And so he did live life before The apocalypse but only a little. Right, they're like the Teletubby kids. Yes, they sure are. So Teletubby kids. And every, Weeks also begins in the same way.

Every movie in this series has begun with a vision of the apocalypse and then cut to black and then 28 Blas later. Also, I just found that in our weird world and the weird years that we've lived through, right? When people go like in a post pandemic and people go like, ah, we're still in the pandemic and you're like, right That sounds like a teletype II noise That's what this movie is of just like

Something seismic happens. There's no actual hard endpoint to it We start to figure out like what, what is the balance of, like, what aspects of life can we bring back and what has changed us forever? You know? And, like, this movie just drops you into that, and you're looking at all of what's happening, the things the characters are doing, the actual way the landscape reads on camera,

and you're going, like, oh, fuck, so this... They must have made this decision ten years ago. This stuff that just fucking animates the brain. It's a movie about how to live with death and pain and tragedy surrounding you and how... The ways in which you can build a life around it. You can resort to violence. You can resort to, like...

Like militarism. And, you know, or you can resort to what, uh, to bone temples. It's almost like a post-post-apocalyptic movie, right? Yeah. It's like, okay, so like societal collapse happens and then rebuilds. You know? And we're like starting this movie in the reset, and when you realize that's the landscape and that the movie is not gonna explain it all, you're like, I totally get why they said,

hey, we got three movies ready to go because there's so much you can do here. And this movie kind of focuses on one central emotional story that is a good prism for that as its spine. But as we said, it doesn't even touch on Killian Murphy. At the end, it tees up a whole nother idea of things where you're like, right, of course, this would happen too.

I think we all think it's quite a good film. I think it's a total triumph. And I really like it for all the story stuff that you're talking about, but it also just looks so interesting and cool, and it's like, again, the Danny Boyle thing, which was slightly absent in yesterday. You know, we all felt a little thrown by yesterday, but generally his whole thing of like,

okay, I wanna think about a million cool ways to depict all this stuff that you're giving me, right? Like, I'm not just gonna do, you know, whatever, whatever's expected of a zombie movie. I want to like flip, you know, the visuals as much as I can. The colors are so vivid. Like, you think zombies... And that crazy motherfucker, Anthony Dodd Mantle.

Oh, my God, fucking Dodd Mantle, man. Like, whoa! This movie was exclusively shot on iPhones? Which I find so fast. Although they say, like, with, uh... Modification lenses and rigs and... Right. But the base of it is all iPhones,

and of course, like, 28 years... Or 28 days is one of the original... Filmed on a potato. Right, filmed on a potato movies that look so fucking bad now. It's so funny they announced a 4K steelbook, and I'm like, what is that going to be? But looking bad, as we talked about on that episode,

it's so part of the gestalt of that movie. But even that shift of, like, at the time, But looking bad as we talked about on that episode, it's so part of the gestalt of that movie. But even that shift of like, at the time, the aesthetic experiment was film on the worst thing possible. And now, quote-unquote, the worst thing possible. Looks so good. Looks so fucking good. It looks better than like 90% of bigger budget digitally shot movies.

The colors in this movie alone, you're like, what is the excuse for movies that are shot on like the fucking most expensive cameras in the world, all looking like fucking wet concrete? And this is like a movie that's like set in the post-apocalypse, and you and I were just outside that you're being like, the greens! The reds! The greens, the yellows, the reds, the blues, my god! It's so beautiful!

But there was this, it went viral, but this image from filming of this insane rig they made where they surrounded one of the zombies. It's sort of like a budget bullet time. And Ben was like, what was that? And I was like, it's like broken bullet time on purpose. Because it's very choppy. Yes, well, because the idea of bullet time, obviously,

is like they're in a green screen and they have a million cameras that takes a picture of every single train. And it's so controlled and fluid, and then you also slow it down. Right. Yeah. But this was like, right, if we basically just like take two pictures, you know, in a chain, the skipping is also so cool. It felt like a Mortal Kombat fatality. It felt like video games,

but it didn't feel like The Last of Us is a video game. It felt like when they do that scene in the beach where he becomes like, isn't there like a moment in the beach where it's like a video game style? Like Leonardo DiCaprio is like running. Oh, the beach. I thought you were talking about. Yes. Yes. No, like it's very like Gameboy. Yes. Like this movie does feel very video game inspired to me.

And I think that's the thing to talk about at some point. But yes, like that feels like... And Ben was like, what was that? And I'm just like, Danny Boyle's like fucking 65 now? Who else works at his level and is actually thinking... 68! You old bastard! And he's still like getting cool music and right like finding new visual tricks

But also not just visual tricks, but it feels like every time maybe save yesterday. He's going like Why are we limited to like a set language? What are we trying to like discover we can do this break things and remake things and like? Explore like it always just feels like he's exploring new boundaries. And also you know to defend him on yesterday or whatever like Dodd Mantle didn't even shoot that movie and I'm sure he wasn't like I need to right put the camera in a blender for this one. All my problems with that movie that movie looks great.

It looks fine it's just it's also just not a movie where you need it to look a little more straight forward. It's more on rails. That's the work of whether Richard Curtis. And then T2 Trainspotting honestly I remember having some cool like ideas. That has some great of Richard Curtis. And then T2 Trainspotting, honestly, I remember having some cool ideas. That has some great stuff. Yeah. The ending shot in particular is unbelievable. Right, right. But it's still a more muted, obviously, experience. He's also riffing on a kind of visual and editing language

that he created. Yes. Right, he's returning to that. I feel like this is him being like, look, if I'm going gonna do another 28 days later That movie was so villain visually challenging and I was trying so like I can't just I kind of try stuff again And I can't just do like weird DV grain, you know Like I did last time because that would feel like TV green was like well this makes us like a coca-lippec

Yeah, making a movie. It was a great idea. Right. And then this is like, in a way that syncs up with the themes of the movie. Like society has moved on. Nature has returned. The consumer camera is now good enough to actually shoot a movie on that doesn't look like Potato Fusion.

That's true. But also it's like a movie where like, they're going back to the mainland and it's like, there aren't people here anymore. It's beautiful. And like, and scary. Little scary. But like, there aren't people here anymore. It's beautiful. And like, and scary, a little scary, but like I want to capture the beauty of like, this like apocalypse of like, yeah, people are gone.

But this almost sort of video game structure of, the only sort of title card table setting happens at the very beginning where they say like, they quarantine the mainland. People have rebuilt sort of societies on the fringes. It is this weird sort of modern day medieval sort of like small village society. Yes, yes.

Without like totally losing all our trappings. So the kid still lives in a house with a bedroom that has posters on the wall and Power Rangers action figures and whatever. All of that stuff is frozen in the late 90s. Right, he's inheriting, right. And also like Boyle is cutting in these comparison points. He's showing you footage of like depictions

of medieval culture and movies, right? Yeah, well, the Henry V stuff and all that. That we've like kind of gone tribal a little bit. And basically there is this video game structure to society which is like the quarantined area. Like our children age to a point where they can graduate, where they can elect to say basically, I want to enter the battlefield.

And it's kind of like mowing the lawn, right? These people go past the gates with bows and arrows and just try to see if they can knock down some zombies. And also, you guys would know this, but essentially where they are is Lindisfarne. This is what I need. I need you to break this down. Which is like a tourist place in Britain.

It's called Holy Island, which in like, I think they show you on a map that it's Holy Island, but like, I think they tried and it's not really Lindisfarne. I do think they shot at least some on the island, on the actual place. They shot it all in the north of England, like where it's set, Northumberland. But like, that is this weird fucking tidal island off the coast with a causeway that you can only access it every so often. And famously, cars are always getting, because there's a road you can drive down, but then cars will get stuck

and they have to go rescue the cars. And it's funny. And like, it is that like, it's hearkening to, I feel like what Garland is clearly interested in, what you're talking about that, like return to like feudal British life. Where it's like, we have a fortress, we're on an island. Britain's like an island nation.

Yeah. And there is that kind of like sturdiness to like old Brit, you know, where it's just like, nobody could fucking come here because like, it's hard to get here, get all your shit here. The last guys who did it, it happened in 1066, it never happened again. Did happen in 1066.

Here's the other thing, and we don't need to talk about this for long, but my... No, so the Vikings came before them. The Vikings would come all the time, and for a while, you might like this, most of Britain was under Viking control, and it was called the Dane Law. Like that part of Britain. But then the Normans came and drove the Vikings away. The Normans are the last to invade.

They're from like the north of France. What about the Goths? The Goths were fucking up the rest of Europe, but they never set their sights on Britain. Okay. No They came back around when like, you know Right and then hot topic kind of gave them like a safe haven yeah kind of like corporatized it made it a little bland Right. It's an old Malini joke of like you think they wake up in the morning So bummed out because I gotta put all that shit on my face.

What I was going to say is this movie, and the way the great movies do kind of make you start thinking about a ton of other things, right? They just sort of like launch off different streams of thought. Something was coalescing while watching this of like... And I'm not gonna harp on this, just let me say this for like... four sentences. He's gonna harp on it.

There's something in the like... He's gotta harp out. The messaging of all the weird like... grifter, Man-O-Sphere shit. Oh my God. Let me say this for four sentences. Wait, where... How do we... That is...

I'm going to eat his my egg. That is That is about like you have room for me in your egg That is about like we gotta reset we gotta get back to our programming, right? Like this shit like fucking paleo diets and like we need to eat the way the fucking cavemen ate We just explained return with a v to you before we got on my bad. I don't know that one Yeah, but this is what i'm saying, and like the obsession with the fall of Rome, right? And this idea that we've like lost our programming and whatever. This movie is kind of going like,

okay, like is this what you guys want? I don't think as a retort. I don't think as a retort. But you know what I'm saying? I do think there's this weird obsession. And I think we're stuck in this time that is very much about like... You're beyond four sentences. Are we...

I'm going off into a slight side tangent off of this. Oh, okay. Are we like living on the precipice of like the end of existence, which we've been talking about, like the fucking Y2K canon having that kind of feeling, right? And there's this other sort of version of it now, which this movie is just like, okay Here's like if things actually collapse. Here's what it's like like two decades later. We have to fucking like incorporate like feudal England into our daily routine while also having like pub hooliganism well

Indeed. Yes. I don't think there's no Roman Empire shit here though. No. I think right, the nostalgia is for right, for medieval Britain, not in some kind of, we need a king way. No. But more in that kind of like, yeah, the land and the sea. Well, aren't we talking, isn't this also like a Brexit thing too?

Oh, for fuck's sake, is it? God. Well, it's like, what do you mean? Well, just the whole like- What do you mean, like the whole of Europe does kind of want to draw a line or something or something and Brandon be like, don't go there.

This sort of return to like British nationalism and like a specific identity and like, but I don't think that that is necessarily- This movie is not about a national identity. I don't think it's, well, I don't think it's explicitly about a national identity and that like, I think there are allusions to nationalism, the fact that they still have the portrait of the queen up,

which I thought was funny. Well, but that's one of the many gags Garland's getting at that you're not clocking until the final gag as a Brit. Of like, right, time stopped in 2002. Not now. We're in an alternate timeline stopped for the thing in 2002. Not now. Right. We're in an alternate timeline. Yes. Right.

And I also think- Now did the Queen get the rage virus? She had to have. Absolutely. Bwaaah. Bwaaah. Bwaaah. But I also like-

She ate the corgis. Oh. I also like the sort of, Oh! I also like the sort of... the long history of British folk horror. Which Garland is obviously so interested by, and Men is so interested in the Green Man and stuff like that.

And so, like, you have some of the aspects of this New Island society do feel like the masks, it does seem very ritual-based which is rich to me feels like it's part of like that. But also this sense of ritual of like, when you are a teenager, if you feel up to it, they go like, okay, you fucking practice your aim long enough. You can try to go take down some fucking zombies. You can try to go take down some fucking zombies and they give this very bracing speech where they're like you get what the rules are, right? If you fall, no one comes back to rescue you. We lost too many people that way. When you walk past this point, you understand that you are ostensibly fending for yourself. Yeah, it's like you're climbing Everest or whatever where it's like look, you'll probably come back, but we're not going to come get you. But it's like, you know probably come back, but we're not gonna come get you but but it's like you know, it's a version of like a Draft it's a version of a like, you know cultures that didn't allow youth to have a youth Where they're like at some point we've just decided like you're a man now and you got to fucking solve the problem and we're throwing You at it as a body. It made me think of walkabout

Yeah, sure walkabout, any kind of right teenage, uh, sort of ancient ritual of like, now this is how you become a man is like, go and live by yourself for a month or you go into the wilderness or yeah, exactly. It's all of that, but combined with this, like, and by the way, this is life and death stakes, you know, it's, it, they're being this weird sport to it, because as we've said, it's like the thing is contained. Right. They're doing this like you have to question how much for fun, how much for pride, how much for identity and how much do they still kind of believe twenty eight years later? OK, if we keep chipping away at this, maybe in 50 years they're all gone.

I don't know. Oh, no, I don't think so I mean, I don't know no one on the island. No one in this movie talks about like way back to Britain They're like we live on our islands. Yeah The first movie ends with the notion that the zombies will star they mention this like that like if we just kind of wait long enough, we can starve them out and, you know, stop whatever the pandemic is, whatever the virus is. And Boyle has had to, obviously, with this, be clear, like, no, they figured out

ways to survive. They eat worms and shit. Sure. But also, us trying to kill them means that we're constantly feeding them. Yeah, but it does... Even if not in the numbers. Yeah, there's not too many people left. I mean, the implication you get, and we'll see what these future movies have, is that like the most there is are these little town towns, right? Like these like...

Hamlets. The extent of civilization. That are isolated. And if someone from Europe shows up, well, the rest of Europe is still going. Right. They're basically the only place that is still dealing with these conditions. That's turned back. That reset the clock, basically.

Yeah. David, we did a live show. No. On stage. You're right. I swear to you it's true. Wow. We celebrated King Ralph. We demanded an audience with His Majesty We did a live show. No. On stage. You're right. I swear to you it's true. Wow.

We celebrated King Ralph. We demanded an audience with his majesty. Two fans. Two people who were like, oh, it was okay. For the show. But it was fun. It was fun, it was a good show. Let's be clear.

You were doing an impression of people reacting to the movie, King Ralph, not to our show. Cause here's my impression of the audience reacting to our show in real time. Woo! Yeah! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Good!

And right now, you the listener, here's my impression of you. FOMO, FOMO, wish I could have been there. Ah! Bent over in pain. Ah! FOMO! My ribs untickled!

We have news for you. Me dickling! It sounded like you said dickling. My news for you, the Fling. It sounded like you said dickling. My news for you, the FOMO-er, is that we filmed this show. Yes we did. Professional crew, multi cameras.

Running around. Edited. Yeah, we're working with a new company called Stage Pilot, and I think we've really upped our game as far as production value goes. I think this is gonna be a good video that we are offering up as a VOD. Yes, that's a video that has been demanded.

It has. We are responding to your demand. Ben, can you drop some of the details here? VOD will be premiering on June 26 at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. And that, folks, is a Thursday. It is indeed the Devil's Day. The cost will be $15. But Ben, is this a one night only streaming event?

No, of course not. It will be available to view and purchase for two months. You got a two month window. So closes out on August 24. Can watch it unlimited times within that window. Absolutely. You can goon our live show until your heart content put on multiple devices goon it so you just can go to stream blank check pod comm to get your tickets some exclusive

merch offers available there as well you can get some bundles or some a la carte items we have some limited edition King Ralph inspired merch. I resemble a certain regal hamburger logo. How dare you. Yeah we have a poster designed by Nakatomi. Yes. As well as some Joe Bowen design hats t-shirts and stickers. It's great stuff and let's say honestly I think we're very proud of how the show turned out. It was a lot of fun. It, dare I admit it, bits, including one prominent bit that was perhaps unretired for one night only. One night. We are a family. Once again, the VOD premiere is June 26th at 8 PM Eastern Standard Time.

And actually Griffin Newman will be live in the chat. Did I agree to that? You sure did. Well, well, well. Eventually, Griffin Newman will be live in the chat. Did I agree to that? You sure did. Well, well, well. So you can watch along with Griffin Newman and maybe some surprise guests I might join. No, not me. Maybe I will.

I don't know. Please get your tickets now and enjoy. Please enjoy. This movie opens with the Sony Pictures logo and the familiar sounds of the Teletubbies theme song. A moment where I just immediately went, fuck, this thing's gonna be dancing in David's brain. Already Boyle is doing the like, what is British culture and what is our relationship to it thing? So David, please give me your interpretation of the Teletubbies. And then we have this prologue where a bunch of children

are told by their parents, like, just sit here and watch this. Watch the Teletubbies. It is like a really insightful kind of like... A scene we didn't get in the previous two films. But like, yeah, if you have kids that small where they can't really wrap their heads around what they're doing, you put all the kids in a room and you go like, just watch the TV show. Doesn't 28 Weeks have kids that small where they can't really wrap their heads around what they're doing. You put all the kids in a room, you go like just watch the TV show. Don't doesn't 28 weeks have 20 kids and then that whole opening is very disturbing to right

because it's like when they run to the boat. Yeah. Yeah. But no, this is very distressing. But indeed, I do think Garland and boil maybe, you know, picked Teletubbies for a reason. One, it's period appropriate. But two, Teletubbies is post-apocalyptic. I'm not the only person to have this interpretation of it. It is like these weird creatures have built some new society on the, yeah. Or something.

They feel like radioactive creatures because they're colorful. They live in a bunker. Right? Like their home is a... Their tummies are TV. Their tummies are television. So they've got this sort of like cyborg like energy to them. Their best friend is like a fucking mutated vacuum cleaner.

That's what I love about Teletubbies is that there's no one here, but there's a voice that comes through the tubes. And there's a face in the sky. So there's this face in the sky. So there's this sort of sense of like, yeah, something happened to earth. And we all left, but we're sort of monitoring this weird situation now.

Trying to grow new people maybe. And they're like babies. It's like a beautiful, lush post-apocalyptic landscape. With bright colors. Right, this is the brightest sun and the greenest grass. And then they get these, you know, part of Teletubbies is that they watch videos on their tummies that are of real kids.

But it feels like transmissions from the past. Exactly. And that's what's so... And then of course, and they eat goo and pancakes. You know, they eat this like sort of what feels like, you know, kind of bunker food. Anyway, it's all great. Naughty Noo Noo, of course, is their friend, the vacuum cleaner. I forgot that was his name. Naughty Nunu.

I remember when Teletubbies debuted in Britain. I was saying this to Marie. You know, Teletubbies is this like... It's 97 or 97? 97. Designed by child psychologists where they're like, let's make a show that actually speaks toddler language

rather than like English. Pre-K. It's one of those shows where when it aired, every grownup who didn't have kids was like, what the fuck is this? And the media had a field day making jokes about how bizarre it was. And then you put any kid in front of it or even turn on a TV with a kid four rooms away and like a magnet.

It was just like, this is speaking directly to my brain. I will say I put it on for my daughter once and she did not respond to it very strongly and my wife was like turn this off It's disturbing me, which I understood like it is a bit odd I was obsessed with it when I was 11 when it arrived for the you know, this is kind of like what the fuck is this? Yeah, my sister Romley was born in 98. I think it maybe doesn't start airing on yeah 98 or 99, but I would absolutely watch it with her because I was fascinated by how strange it was. And obviously there were the dumb social controversies

that emerged from it, but the first controversy was more the kind of thing of like, should children even be watching TV at this age? Because it's sort of what it's advancing. It's this indoctrination. Yeah, like shouldn't 18 month olds be in front of a screen at all, right? And it's like a fucking show about

screen tummy creatures. It is. And it's like a fucking show about the screen tummy creatures. And it's also very boring to watch because they repeat everything and you're like, why do they repeat everything again? The child psychologists were like, you know toddlers like repetition Tag yourself. I said to Marie who are you? I know who you are, but tag yourself Marie Marie's obviously Lala. That one is not in dispute. Okay, you said you got stuck on me I'm curious to hear how so I am I feel like unfortunately or fortunately also I'm very obvious That's not again those two are not tough But so then we had I think I'm po we agree that you're po and Ben is obviously dips

Yes, so I don't understand what the confusion was here. Dipsy. What's Dipsy? Thank you. Thank you Dipsy! What's Dipsy? Dipsy! Lala! Pow! They all have a thing and Dipsy's thing is that he has a hat that's a cow print. Look him up! You are so Dipsy!

Dipsy's fairly extra. Tends to have a lot of... And so I was like, Dipsy's performative. Dipsy's got the curly Q on the hat. No, Dipsy's got a straight point. So the thing about Dipsy is like, oh, Dipsy's performative. Dipsy's got like the curly Q on the head. No, Dipsy's got a straight point. Yes. So the thing about Dipsy is like, if I'm thinking like which one of these,

Lala is curly. Which one of these fucking Teletubbies would be a skateboarder? For me, that is Dipsy. Dipsy would be like the skateboarder. Lala is like the little princess. Poe is the baby. Poe is the baby.

Poe is a little guy. But he also is kind of the- It's a little girl. Poe is the little girl. Poe is like the center of everything now. Poe's a little guy. But he also is kind of the- It's a little girl. Po is girl coded. Po is like the center of everything now. Po is a little one. Po is the baby.

And also we were like, Po can't do things, you can't drive. Yeah, Po can't drive, right? Po definitely can't drive. Well, I think Po has a scooter. Yeah, well, I had a scooter. Well, we all know, Griffin did have a scooter. I was into scooters and the fucking inline skates.

Po's favorite object is her scooter, which of course she calls Poe Cooter. That makes sense. And Ben, are you looking at Dipsy now? Yeah, I like his hat. His hat's good. I mean, his hat's good. The only thing with Dipsy I will say,

and I will acknowledge this for all listeners, is Dipsy is black. Like Dipsy's skin is darker. Wait, Dipsy's black? And Poe is sort of Asian. Like, they made... Wait, what? I'm sorry to blow everyone's mind. They made some effort to acknowledge racial diversity

when they created the characters, which is funny because they are aliens. Yeah, I was gonna say... It's one of those things where you're like, huh, but it's very... When you watch it, you're like, yes, Dipsy has darker skin. I thought he was just tan. Well, okay.

They have different tones. I think to say they are black and Asian is to imply... The dipsey has darker skin. I thought it was just tan. Well, okay. They have different tones. I think to say they are black and Asian is to imply that you can look this up. Abide by our... Like society that raised the construct of race has made it to the Teletubby world. Yes.

Yeah, I just don't... Wait, the creators of Teletubbies have stated the dipsey is black. I had no idea. Yes, it was, you know, they're like, we want this to reflect the kids are watching, you know, for them to see things, yada, yada, yada. I'm obviously Tinky Winky, who's an absolute unit,

who is also a little fabulous, I suppose. Do you remember the Tinky Winky controversy, Ben? The little handbag. I kind of recall, please refresh my memory. Jerry Falwell was like, Tinky Winky is gay He carries a handbag He also wears a dress sometimes he wears a dress Yeah, and did they did they have a problem with the triangle did they yeah?

Some people thought the triangle was and the purple coloring was subtle coating well the purple yes But I'm trying to remember what they read the triangle I think is a sign of pink triangle has always been a sign of queerness. They were just basically every part of Tinky Winky is indoctrination. Lala's object, of course, is a ball. I just want to point that out. Big ball.

You look a big ball. Who doesn't? That's a clean tag yourself, I gotta say. I think it's pretty clean. I think we were just unsure if you would recognize that he was close. But also Lala and Tiki Winky were layups that a child could do.

It was just a little bit more of a question. You know what we're also layups? Dipsey and Pau. Okay. Yeah. Well, the opening scene's quite distressing. Now, I don't know if you guys agree, but I'm pretty sure the blonde child we see

in this opening scene is Jack O'Connell, right? Yes, because of the cross necklace. And so, initially, of course, I'm watching the scene being like, okay, I guess this is the origin of one of the characters we're going to spend time with. It's Aaron Taylor Johnson. I assumed it was Aaron Taylor Johnson, but it's basically a standalone coda that does not tie directly

back into anything until the final scene, which is the tee up. But it does have this culty overtone when he goes to see the priest. Which is his father. I wasn't sure about that. He says father. But of course one does address a priest as father. I read it as also being his dad. I did too, but then I was second guessing myself.

Yeah. And then the fact that he's a little chaotic. Movie doesn't give you clear answers. The fact that the guy is like really excited about being mauled to death by rage zombies. Because he's basically like, this is God's will. This is a judgment. If this isn't happening, it's because.

That's fucking crazy, man. And then he immediately turns and you're like, what a waste, what a stupid thing you just did. No, but that's the thing about the rage virus. It gets you within seconds, which is why it doesn't spread beyond England. You turn fast, but also then you get to run fast. And you get to hang dong.

Wow, if you're very lucky. We get out of this movie, we turn our phones back on and our thumbs are catching on fire, texting the Doughboys going, 28 years later is maybe the hog movie of the decade. And I can't believe we've gone this long without calling it out. This is-

You're swinging some sledgehammer. You know, fucking wide release studio picture. True, weird British studio picture, but you're not wrong. There are some absolute units flapping around. At one point, I went to David, I was like, forearm. Yeah. Forearm, and then I did this. I did this little forearm. That big boy, yeah.

And I also, I said, as always, I said, by the way, sneaky sack movie. Yeah, no, sure, you're right. You spend so much time thinking about the dicks. Let's not forget the sack. And there's even a couple shots where Boyle's doing some weird camera angles, and you're just like, you're really going to just let the sack get that close to the lens. You guys know about scrotox So it's that getting Botox in your balls much like the world building of 20 years later I don't know about it But I can start to fill in the gaps with the information I've been given

Apparently someone on this this Bravo show the valley. Why would you want to smooth out wrinkles? You don't want on wrinkled balls. That's going to look weird. So I thought scrotox... So someone on this reality show got this procedure which is Botox for your balls. And I thought it was to remove the wrinkles. So the balls are for the sack?

It's for the sack. It's for the scrotum. For the scrotum. The scrote. But it's not just about the wrinkles. It's about keeping them hanging low. Why would you want to, okay, whatever. That's a temperature control. That's gravity. It's gravity, but it's also your body heat.

You know, if you're like, you know, if you're warmer, they go further away. But you know how like when you get, women get Botox in their underarms so they don't sweat? I think this just paralyzes the scrotum. So it doesn't suck up as much because I think people find like apparently it's an aesthetic thing. OK, I'm taking out the gavel and my ruling is all of this sucks.

You're not pro scrotox. I'm not mad at you for bringing it to our attention, but I'm mad at it for being a thing. It only lasts three or four months, so you gotta keep going back. Oh, fun. Great, so three times a year, I get someone injecting my balls?

Sounds worth it. That's an outpatient procedure, according to Healthline here. And I bet when you walk out, that's a clean walk with zero irritation I'm glad they don't keep you overnight Takes anywhere from two to four minutes out of there Wow They do recommend that you call a variety of licensed for reputable providers before you get your scrotox done to compare costs

You don't want to just take the first price you're given. Right. Does Wirecutter have Scriptox recommendations? Because it's not just like go for the cheapest. It just depends on what you want out of it. Did you see Men? Yeah. Do you like it? Yeah. You know what? I didn't see... Remember when he made a movie called Men?

I do. Everyone was so normal about that. I liked it okay. I mean, I'm like, the thing with Garland is even when he doesn't totally hit for me I find the ideas so Provocative and I do think he's become a very good visual stylist and I'm like That movie feels a little bit It has a little bit of Twilight Zone syndrome to me

But also he's throwing enough in there that it doesn't feel like it's just stalling one idea. Twilight Zone Syndrome is... This is something that can fill 30 minutes of TV, but... Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And I think most bad Twilight Zone Syndrome movies just stall for time and get you stuck in the middle, right? And then he's just like, well, here's my core animating idea and that's basically a short story. Why was Angus T. Jones? and get you stuck in a middle, right? And Men, he's just like, well, here's my core animating idea,

and that's basically a short story. Where was Angus T. Jones? Two and a Half Men. The movie's not called Half Men. No, it's a... It's called Men. It's a sequel. It's that one and a half entries before the sitcom.

And you might remember that Ashton Kutcher, John Cryer, and Charlie Sheen all had prominent roles in the movie. Angus T. Jones was on the all had prominent roles in the movie. Angus T. Jones was on the sidelines. I liked that movie. All right, what did you think? I'm just thinking about it.

I mean, I was- Some of it I really loved. I was thinking about the folklore thing that you said because that movie has the green man, which is similar, right? Like kind of like, let's think about Britain even before the Normans came here, right? Like let's think about like kind of Celtic Britain.

And it has the shield and the gigs. I'm so into that. Yeah, I know. He's into it too. And I'm into it, and I'm gonna start a Manosphere podcast where I'm like, specifically, Stonehenge shit! We need that! That's the route to masculinity or whatever. This is the thing that like...

This movie doesn't have too much of that, but... The Bone Temple stuff, the third act stuff... has a strand of that in its DNA, although I also think it has this strand of like... Essentially, Ray Finds doing like public art. Right? Like the angel of the north, which is a big... Just to be clear, I don't think this movie's commenting on the Manosphere. Watching this movie made me think about the Manosphere in a different way where I'm like,

is there this core underlying thing that there's this feeling that existence has become overwhelming and unmanageable? So you're saying you relate to this now. You're seeing it from their perspective. I'm reacting very differently, but there are pockets where I think the core idea is this, like, do we gotta get back to something primal, right?

And I think that's out of a panic. And I think this movie is sort of like contending with those same instincts, not in the same way, but also guys who see at the end of the movie have a little bit of Manosphere energy. Who fucking knows? I don't know. Now, we'll get to them.

We'll get to them. We'll get to them. Now, Ashton Kutcher has one Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. Oh my God. He's got one nomination? Yeah, now it's for an ensemble, you know, but even that sort of surprises... What the fuck? For a movie ensemble? Yeah. It's crazy that they handed this one out.

You'll never, ever get it. Wait, no. We're gonna get it. But he has five Razzie nominations. That makes sense. Yes. He doesn't have that many movie roles. So I'm like, it's not Dude, Where's My Car? It's not fucking The Guardian.

It's not New Year's Eve. I don't think it would be Butterfly Effect. It's not Butterfly Effect. You don't think it was Butterfly Effect? It's not Steve Jobs. Well, he's not in that. Is it Cheaper by the Dozen? He is, or he's in Jobs. He's in Jobs.

It's not Cheaper by the Dozen. No. Is it one of the Valentine's Day, New Year's Eve? No, Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. David, his role must be small, right? It's an ensemble film, I'll tell you that much. I've never seen it, but I believe everyone's role

in it is kind of small. Oh, oh, oh, I know what it is, because it is one of the most absurd, sag ensemble nominations. Yes, exactly. Where you're just like, they truly just went most ensemble cast. Yeah, isn't it Valentine's Day or New Year's Eve

or something? It is Emilio Estevez's Bobby, is it not? Wait, what? Correct. Yeah. Oh my God, I forgot about Bobby. A movie that has four trillion actors in it. Got Lindsay Lohan in it.

It does. But that's why I was like, I don't know for a fact that Ashton Kutcher's in it, but he must be in it. Correct. I don't know what his role is. I don't either. Fisher.

Great. Nick Cannon and Harry Belafonte. Everyone's in that movie. Yeah. Rum Holtz is in the movie, Scoot McNary. Of course. He's been nominated for worst actor three times by the Razzie's. For Jobs.

In 2011, a combo of Killers and Valentine's Day. And in 2004, a triple combo of... Butterfly. Nope. She provided the dozen, just married and my boss's daughter. That was sort of the launch pad. Nope. Cheap by the dozen, Just Married and My Boss's Daughter. Wow, that was sort of the launch pad. Kind of a we're sick of you. And then he also got a worse screen couple nod for Just Married and My Boss's Daughter

shared with Brittany Murphy and Tara Reid. That also seems rude to me. And he got a worse screen couple nod for What Happens in Vegas. Like I'm like, none of those movies are that good. But like, I mean, like, did they hurt anyone's feelings? Like all those dumb Kutcher rom-coms, like it was fine. We talk about it a lot.

The Razzie's are super chauvinistic. They hate women's movies and they hate male stars in women's genres, right? Like they'll slam like dumb meatheads to loan shit, but the amount of like across the board, major nomination films that are romance films, whether drama or comedy, and especially erotic thrillers they hate.

Yes, they don't like boobs. Or they like to yell at people for having them or something. So 28 years later. This movie jumps ahead after the prologue, there's a little table setting of the quarantine, the one title card. I got so excited they used the same font.

28 years later, dot, dot, dot. And also, right, the exact same iconography, the fade to black. The movie's building to like, right, a point of mania, and then it just goes quiet and the title card comes up. And the main structure we're introduced to is this small house in a small village on an island where Aaron Taylor Johnson and Jodie Comer are parents to a young boy. He's

12. What's the Spike? Spike is his name. This guy is played by Alfie Williams or something. Alfie something. Alfie Williams. He has very few credits before this. I've certainly not seen anything. No, I think there's no credit I think this is his debut Boyle from yeah, Newcastle sneaky good with child actors so good with I said to Marie I was like millions baby millions and fucking slumdog

Yeah, dog, baby Like how much of slumdog becoming a phenomenon was just that people couldn't believe how good the kid performances were for the first No, the kids are cute. Yeah, and that people couldn't believe how good the kid performances were for the first... Oh, the kids are so cute. Yeah. And right, you're sort of slowly filling in the information of this kid is being prepped for some rite of passage, which turns out to be, as we said, this sort of like going past the gate, entering the mainland.

Uh, what do you... What's the fucking term for putting the fucking, put the quiver? Yeah, sure, whatever, fuck you. What did I do? I don't know, I just am angry that I didn't have the language at my fingertips. Are you an archer, David? No, I always found it very hard,

and like, I actually appreciated when they have him draw before he goes out, and they're like, yeah, you're not wobbling. Because that's the thing, when you're a kid, you're like, yeah, it's easy, right? It's a big string, you just go like this, and then you pull it, you're like, huh, huh, this is kind of like she's holding my hands.

I've never, I've never. Part two, you just make it look like it's a rubber band, and you just go, boing. I've never shot an arrow. It sucks. Have you shot an arrow, Ben? No. It hurts your hands.

Yeah, I think it sucks and it's for losers. Did something happen to you at summer camp or something? This is screaming. Yeah, my parents made me go to fucking sports camp with my brother, and I had to do all this shit and I hated it. But I feel like archery is the one where like a kid like you would have a good chance.

No, I was bad at it. I have no fucking arm strength. I have thrown a bunch of axes. Well, of course. And that became such a bougie, you know, Brooklyn bar thing. And I weirdly was so good at it. Fucking bachelor party. What do you mean weirdly? I feel like you would be really good at throwing axes.

I mean, yeah, I don't know. I took to it immediately. Yeah, that's not surprising at all. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is this kid's young dad who... This feels like Aaron Taylor-Johnson trying to bridge the gap between he has in the past when I've talked about him, he is one of the actors I'm most allergic to. And it was always when Aaron Taylor Johnson is playing charming, I shut down.

I'm like, fuck off the last four or five years. It feels like he's really started to lean into being a little bit of a shit bag and being a little greasy. And he's starting to win me over. And this is sort of putting a like, he is fundamentally a good dad into a guy who just seems a little too slick, a little brash. Right? Slick, no one's really slick

because it's pretty dirty with moving. Yeah. But like, I know what you mean in terms of like his charm or his kind of like, yeah, it'll be all right. You know, like, you know, that kind of. He's playing a lad. He's a lad, yeah. Yeah, he's a bit of a jack the lad kind of... He's still in a land. He's a lad, yeah.

Yeah, he's a bit of a Jack the Lad. Yes. He's... I liked him in this. I agree, I think he's good in the movie. I generally have just, I turned around on him with Outlaw King, which was the first time... I never saw that, yeah.

Yeah, nobody ever did. Right. The first time he played what he's doing now, so like big beardy guy, who's like, rawr! And then it was like Tenet, Bullet Train, which... But he's really good in both of the Leech movies. But whatever complaints you have with him. That movie kind of irritates me,

but he's having fun. He's really good, yep. I feel like there was another one. Well, the other one's Nosferatu. Well, yeah, I also just, right. Which... Him and Nosferatu, he's to every, I don't even know how to describe that performance.

He's so oddly cast in that movie. I didn't hate the performance. I mean, I thought it was really funny. It's such a weird part of that movie, is that part. I mean, I'm thrilled at the notion that Craven the Hunter, which by the way, I don't think he's terrible in, you still have not seen that movie, right?

Which one? Craven the Hunter. No, I keep meaning, it's on HBO or something, right? I gotta enjoy the hunt. And you still have not seen that movie, right? Which one? Craving the Hunt. No, I keep me it's on HBO or something. When you finally watch it, I'm going to get 40 texts from you. Yeah, it is the kind of bad movie that you're going to get hyperfixated on. A bunch of elements being like, but fuck, Crow's really good. Well, that's why I want to watch it. Have you seen, by the way, that Crow's playing is it? What is it?

Himmler? No, it's not Himmler. It's some Nazi, right? Okay. They're making a Nuremberg movie. Right. Which like, it's like we've done that. Perfect.

We've done that a lot. Yeah, exactly, but I believe for this fall, we're getting a new Nuremberg movie. Oh, he's playing, right, Goring. And that's what I just, where they're like, Russell, we want you to play one of the Nazis on trial. And he was like, hmm, was there a husky Nazi? Which Nazi like to pound the Steins?

I just think that blessing and disguise for everyone, including ADJ, that Kraven the Hunter seems to have killed his Bond hype. And I'm like, that's the worst thing we could do with him at this point in time. He needs to keep the beard. He needs to constantly play characters who are like two pints in. The hair needs to be greasy as hell. I agree with you that he shouldn't be Bond,

but I don't think that him being Bond is out of the question because whatever watchmaker, like Omega or whatever, just signed him to a thing, which is they're like, this is the way that they prep for Bond. People are freaking about the Omega thing. I didn't clock the Omega thing. I have, I mean, everyone assumes that now that Bond is fully in the hands of MGM, Amazon, that an announcement's coming soon.

Because they picked two, like, huge producers, obviously. Pascal and Heyman. They're very much trying to be like, press de... Like, we are putting our best people on this, you know. It will surprise me if they pick him. I think he's just just a horrible choice. A horrible choice. Like I really like bad for him.

That's the thing. If I'm his agent, I'm like, you better be really sure you want to do this because it will completely derail everything you can do. And it absolutely felt like maybe you do. Maybe you want to be James Bond. ...spent like eight years actively running for it. But it feels like in the effort for him trying to get that part, he ended up identifying what he actually should be doing, which is the polar opposite of Bond.

Unless James Bond's about to, yeah, be like... Be a mad lad. ...pounding pints rather than drinking martinis. So that's this character, right? The mother is Jodie Comber, who is stuck with some sort of mystery illness. Is upstairs, in bed. She's almost like a fucking Mrs. Haversham. Right, she's hot.

Like, temperature-wise, she's somewhat delusional. She's having hallucinations, she's a dementia. She's got headaches. Right, she's sort of slipping in time or whatever. She seems, yes. No one else in the movie is really talking about it, She's having a kind of mood swing. Right. She's sort of slipping in time or whatever. Yes. No one else in the movie is really talking about it. Although it does seem like people are aware

because there's the older guy who comes and helps. And that's his grandfather. That's her dad, I think. I assumed so. Yeah, who she talks about later in the film. But it is like, it's another good idea of like, hey, you know what would be the situation 20 years, 28 years later? We like have gotten rid of fucking medicine. We've gotten rid of doctors and health care,

you know? And like her dad, the grandfather, this elderly man at some later point refers to a character as a GP and the kid goes, what is that? Okay, but I'm stupid. I also was like, I thought it was a military thing and then they explained it. In Britain, that's what you call your, what do you call primary care physicians that call here? And in Britain, you just call your GP. I feel like I always say GP. I used to work at a GP's office. I was the receptionist.

Oh, my God, I'm sure you did a great job. I think I did fine. Did you have an accent at that point or did people go like, who the fuck are you? I mean, I always... You're like, hello hello doctor's office here That I did talk like the movie phone man. It was weird How you had to talk on the phone at that point in time people don't know that I was like 17 years old

So, uh, I had my silly accent that I had which was what accent did you have? You had your fucking I've called it a transatlantic your mark ronson If you want to watch like home videos of me at the time. I do. I'll find them sometime. But like certainly British people thought I had an American accent. And I did.

I had largely. But American people said, why the fuck are you talking like that? Did you sound like Madonna? That's what I always say. I sounded like Madonna. Like I just sounded like an English, an American person who just, for one,

I spoke in so many British idioms, but for two, there is a weird tinge to my voice. The mother is just kind of like fucked. And as you said, no one really talks about it because like the nature of this reality is, well, there's like no way to cure her. We're not gonna like euthanize her. So she's just upstairs, right?

And it basically feels like they're just sort of like... Well, she'll just run her course. There's nothing we can do. We have no answers. And I immediately fell for, I think, a trick that the movie's playing, of like, I start to wonder like, does she have the rage virus in some like... This clearly must be connected in some way. Slow acting way, right? I didn't think she had the rage virus? There's some, like, slow-acting way. This clearly must be connected in some way.

Right. I didn't think she had the rage virus, but I thought, I'll tell you what my actual fear was. Are they setting up some magic blood thing? That she is some weird evolution that they will figure out actually within her physical condition contains? That's what they kind of do in 28 weeks later, right?

They do. Because in 28 weeks later, there's the concept of people who are immune or whatever. Yeah. Which, again, I feel like Boyle and Garland are like, we don't want to deal with that. Right. But I was like, well, I could see them doing something where they're like, the immunity comes at a great cost, right? The immunity is a sickness that takes away from you. No. To spoil this movie.

It's not doing that. I know. Right. To spoil this movie, It's not doing that. I know. Right. To spoil this movie, I think it is the crux of what Garland is doing with the movie and Boyle is doing with the movie, which is basically like people still die in normal ways too. Even though the world has ended, she's sick and it's sad and it's a thing the kid has to go through. But it's... Yeah, yeah.

Remember you will die. It is the inciting incident. But it is not some plot magic and it is not some, you know... Do you know what I was thinking the whole time that happened? When it was revealed that she had cancer? Which Marie said to me early on. I was like, she's got cancer. She's got cancer.

But you know, when we talked about Mission Impossible, we were talking about Luther and how we didn't like that he just didn't die from being ill, that he had to die in some, like, savior-esque way that was, like, connected to the plot versus connected to themes. Which, by the way, I've heard that the reason he's sick is because in order to build the fucking poison pill, they have to build that room around him, which is essentially a giant Faraday cage. So him programming the thing that can stop the entity

is the thing making him sick. Which is a cool idea. Why do they talk about that in the movie? They cut that out of the movie. Yeah. Okay. Sorry, Marie, finish your point. No, no, my point was just like, oh, this movie is doing

what we wanted the other movie to do. Because it's just, it's telling the whole story through these characters, you know? And it's like telling you what they know and not telling them what they don't know and like investing you in the same mysteries that like drive their lives. The real inciting incident of this movie

is he goes out for this ritualistic first time on the mainland with his dad, which clearly kind of shakes him. And I also love that it's pretty quick. Yeah. You know, we're on the causeway and then getting out of there within 15 minutes of like, -"All right, baby." -"I thought that was going to be the movie." Me too. Right, they get stuck, shit happens.

And I am thinking, like, then what does Jodie Comer have to do in this film, right? I also was sort of like, are they gonna fucking Bryan Cranston Aaron Taylor Johnson Is the movie gonna have that thought too because they set up the so much you can't go back and save people I'm like the misdirected you think the kids in danger his dad's gonna die in the movie Yeah, that's what I was assuming Instead what happens is they go on a run, he kills some zombies, he's overwhelmed by some of it, a lot of it.

Right, he kills the easy zombies, struggles with the scary ones. We gotta talk about these zombies are new. The idea is that it's been so long that some zombies have gotten fat because they eat so much worm. And they like walk on all fours. They're like deers. It's pretty cool. We also see deers.

They're like worms themselves. They're kind of just like wr riving on the ground, right? Like, moving really slowly. They kind of look like the whale. Look, it's not untrue that they kind of look like the whale. But they're also- They're slimy like slugs. Right.

Yeah. And at no point does the whale in the movie, the whale go on the ground. Yeah, David just did a perfect impression. But- Just imagine a horizontal. And David, remind me, how does Killer Croc swim in the movie Suicide Squad?

I don't remember. You have to tell us. It was the movement you just did. Right. Just like, faster. Right. So, you got the... If you asked a hundred people on the street, like, remember Killer Croc was in Suicide

Squad? They would be like, you don't know. What are you talking about? Movie won an Oscar for the Killer Croc makeup. You could argue. It was pretty good makeup. It was incredible makeup, but people were like, they gave it won an Oscar for the killer croc makeup? You could argue good makeup It was incredible makeup, but people were like they gave it a fucking Oscar for the Joker tattoos Because everyone forgets that killer croc is in it He doesn't do anything that's why they don't remember

Excuse me David he does this And by the way for the listener we're all doing perfect impressions of the way killer croc swims Get David get David. I'm ordering myself some lunch, by the way. Jesus Christ. Because I'm realizing I'm doing another podcast after this, so I have to... David, can you do the Killer Croc thing with your phone in your hand, like 28 Years Later style?

Oh, yeah, can we get like a human rig on this? Oh, oh, oh... Sorry. Okay, that's good. They make it back to the mainland, but they have like a pretty scary close call with what we are introduced to as an alpha. Right, so right, we're learning things.

We're learning that the wilderness has come. We've got really skinny, fast ones. We've got alphas, which are the ones with the big dicks. The roided up ones, but you can't take them down with a single arrow. These guys got some real hoes on them. We also, something is introduced where we see Griff, um, a man is being like hung from like the ceiling.

Letters are carved into his chest. Let's say Jimmy. Yeah. So though you don't see the J, I think they, they kind of do a good job teasing out what that is. And then his head is in a bag that is, has pulled up blood. An anti-bity bag, I had to interpret that as. Right. They think, why was this human tortured

and left for dead? And then they realize that it has turned. But I mean, I really liked, throughout all of this, that Aaron Taylor Johnson is not that careful, because I think partly he's like, well, he's gonna have to figure it out. And also probably it's just his character. Cause like in that scene, you know,

there's a way for you to be watching that scene where you're like, ugh, this sucks. Like they're taking too long so that we get a jump scare. Right? But you're like, no, that's not how you behave. Or he'd be like, yeah, don't get too close to her. I'm like, I would be a million miles away from this. But that's what I'm saying.

They're bringing in a little bit of the ATJ's hot. The kid is constantly walking behind him. And I'm like, this is terrible parenting. You would want to keep an eye on him. It feels like the parent forcing the kid to go on a hunting trip when he's far too young. 100%. A little too young.

It's like he's two years too young. He can't go on the roller coaster yet, but the dad's like, I want wanna sneak him on the roller coaster. Yeah, and the kid is, he's not that kind of kid. He's really sensitive. He is. I mean, look, unsurprisingly, a character detail I love is when he's packing

to go on the trip. He looks at the action figure on the mantle piece. And he's like, mm. He's like walking out the door, he goes back, he grabs it, and then he puts it down. You related to that. I did. Every morning.

If you wonder why I'm late for podcast recordings, it's because I'm looking at the action figure on the mantle and I go, do I bring it? Which one did you bring today? Well, I have my Macready from The Thing here, courtesy of Reese Thompson. But like, right? I mean, we all agree. Like, the kid is a really good kid performer.

And if you told me going in, like, hey, yeah, the movie's the main character's a kid, I would have been like... I would have been like, look, Boyle is good at that. I'm not automatically freaked out, but I don't love, I never love to hear that a 12-year-old is going to be the big thing in a genre movie. No, but 28 years, it is the two generations later thing. It is that like this kid is like two degrees removed from a world before this, which is

smart. You're like, that should be the center of the film. It does make sense, but it is obviously a risky proposition unless you find the right kid, which they fucking did. And Bull directs him to perfection. They narrowly make it back, the other side of the gate, and then you're sort of like, what is the movie now? But while they're there, they go.

Yeah, a couple more things. So they clock that there is a fire in the distance that looks like signs of human life. And the artillery jumps like, oh, it must be a fire. And he's like, is it a village? He's like, no, it's not a village. He's like, what is it? He's like, oh, I don't know.

And I don't want to talk about it. Covering a little too fast. It's coming out of a pillar, let's say. So there's that. There's also the first time I think we see infrared footage. So that shit rocks. And I also want to- So fucking scary and cool. And also the first time I think we see the infrared footage. So that shit rocks. And I also want to- So fucking scary and cool.

And also when they're marching over the causeway to begin their journey is when he cuts in the recitation of the Kipling poem, which was this like 1915 radio broadcast, right? Is what that is. And then he's cutting in like all this footage of like Britain going to war, medieval, World War I, right? And I was just- is, and he's cutting in like all this footage of like Britain going to war, medieval World

War one, right? You know, like, and I was just like 40s movies, depictions of nights. It reminded me a lot of the opening ceremony where he cuts to like the Olympic opening ceremony, we cuts to to each territory or whatever, scoring a rugby goal or a soccer goal. That like this use of, again, like tone poems, montage, using archival footage. I was like, oh, this is fucking cool. But this is where-

I was just rocking. Yeah. Because I was remembering our Olympics episode where you're just sort of like slamming your fist on the table and going like this is so British He gets it right and he's just saying like this is the DNA Right. He's not like making a statement on the nation in the same way as he's talking about the lineage of the people in a way We we we reveal this on social media

But we record an episode recently with Marc Maron a decade of dreams come true that will come out in later months We, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, It must be nice to grow up in a place with old stuff. And that guy... And he was like, like he got walls there that are like older than 300 years. We talked about castles for a minute. That's true. But that's like a thing this movie is getting at. It's like this is a place that has history. And it repeats itself and it echoes and it rhymes. It's what to me is charming about America, but a lot of Europeans will make fun of, right?

Where America's like, look at this old house! It's from the 19th century and everyone in Europe is like, all of us just live in houses from then. Like, what? This is why Margaret is one of the best movies I've ever made about America, because it's the one movie that identifies like, we are fucking teenagers who think we're grownups.

Right, right, right, right. That's what that movie's about for me. Someday we will cover it. Anyway, they make it back and you're sort of like, what is the movie now? Where is this going? Right? Which I love. I love that feeling of, I truly don't know. I mean, I know zombies will be involved, I guess. Yeah.

But there's anywhere this could go, right? Like, this could go in any direction. I also just want to shout out the sequence where they are running across the causeway back to Holy Island, where it's like the Northern Lights. How is, yes. How is he fucking shooting this? I have no idea.

I mean, I know there's like CGI involved. It looks, it's so insane and it's so striking. I, it took my breath away and you also just have a just giant penis. That's true. Just flapping in the moonlight. Flapping. It's got a fucking piece on it.

Well, it's prosthetic, I believe. It was very rubbery. Do we know? No, I don't know. But the physics and the sort of machine to use like. I feel like we had a similar reaction to Yaya Abdul-Mateen's giant blue hanger in Watchmen. Where you and I are texting back and forth

and I'm like, is he just fucking stacked to the high heavens? And you were like, it's gotta be fake. But because the actors are already wearing makeup over their body, it's hard to know where the reality is. Do they give Billy Crud up a big dick in the Watchmen movie? Average. I would say it was a perfectly... I'm looking it up.

...blue penis. But fucking HBO Watchmen, he's got... an absolute Pringles skin on him. I'm just leaving you to this. Anyway, they narrowly escape the dick, they make it back. There's a party. And in the, well this is the thing, in the same time where he's like doing this sort of tone poem,

like cutting in historical footage, cutting in movies, reenacting different eras of Britain, the footage of them out on the hunt, right? He's also giving you these images that are clearly new stuff from the movie, but you don't know what they are. And you're seeing people wearing masks. You feel like, is this some weird cult thing? Is this a tribal thing? Where's this going? And then finally you cut into that space proper and you're like,

this has been a preview of what's on the other side for him after his first hunt, which is basically you're a man now. You get to fucking engage with pop culture, right? And it's like some weird version of like a bar mitzvah combined with like, now you get to like, chug pints and like be yelled at by people, that this is how they've maintained their like football hooliganism,

is by rebuilding it around the idea of hunting zombies. It just breaks my heart that, you know, that Aaron Taylor Johnson's like, my son, he, you know, killed so many. He was incredible. He's clearly so proud of him. He's crying as he's... He's so violent. You know, he like smashed those guys.

He ripped them to shreds. He's so brave. And the kid is like very traumatized. Right. He's not into it. He thinks he did a bad job. He doesn't like that he was scared, but he also is correctly like, that was very fucked up.

I didn't enjoy any of that. Basically, like maybe nailed two and there were eight where his dad had to step in and he's fixated on the ones that he couldn't. I'm with or I'm sympathetic to Aaron Taylor Johnson because it's like, yeah, we live on a tiny island, like a little village town of however, what do you think it's like 100 people or something, you know, like whatever. That's where I'm alive, you know,

like it's the only thing that we get to do. He gets a rush. Right? Yeah. They don't even have the Wurdle. They don't even have the Wurdle. They don't even have old ones. Nary a Cinematrix to be seen. Wirtle didn't exist in 2002.

It was never created in this universe. It's so frightening to me to think about a world without Wirtle. Yeah. I'm joking. Do you think they still have Doody.com though? Please tell me what that is. D-O-D-D-Y and every day there was a new flash animation about poop. Is it still going?

Um, I think so. I'm gonna guess that that one might have died on the vine. I did in the last five years go like, I should check up on Doody.com and I can't remember if I had to use Internet Archive to find it, but they're definitely not posting new content. What I was going to say is I like that you're getting this preview imagery

of the fucking pub party afterwards that is more terrifying to this kid to be in the center of than being on the mainland with the zombies, right? He is so overwhelmed, they're making him drink beer, he's vomiting immediately. I don't think it's more terrifying, I think they're equating the two. They're similar, but it's so overstimulating.

Yes, it is. And the major thing that happens at this party. He steps outside the puke. ...and he witnesses his father go down on the local Hua in an alleyway. She's a nice lady. She's a nice lady. She's at the local Hua. I mean, she could be.

Fucking Pantaleano has entered the chat. Thank you. That was exactly what I was going for. But the thing that absolutely, like, destroys his idea of his father, I think it definitely combined with him feeling so freaked out by what he just experienced in being like... I'm sympathetic to ATJ. Jodie Comer is not really with him anymore. No, she doesn't really exist. Also, the kid doesn't have all of the context. Well, I also think the kid to bring back the Manasphere thing is he's more of a DJ Khaled type where he's like, Kings don't do that.

Craig. Like, I think that's what he's thinking. And even though he's still there's a cut scene where he actually says that he's still finding a sense of self, but he knows without a doubt he self identifies as a king and Kings don't do that. But OK, so you did say, by he knows, without a doubt, he self-identifies as a king. And kings don't do that. But, okay, so... You did say, by the way, walking out, you went, what a year for Cunnilingus, you did say pussy eating, in mainstream studio horror film.

And I said, in mainstream studio Jack O'Connell horror. That's right. J.O.C. and sits in his rider. Do you think that's his... If I'm in a movie, someone has to eat a pussy. I don't have to do it. In either see and sits in his ride. Do you think that's a movie someone has to do it in either case? He's doing it, but do you think that's his first script? No when he gets it's why it's why he never made the MCU Get eaten out. They're like what yeah, they offered him every eternal Wish I could name another eternal Kengo Gilgamesh. No, GILGAMESH.

Oh, there you go. DREWIC, ICHARUS. Can I name them all? SPRIGHT, FASTOS. Yup, that's Brian Tyree Henry. I'm getting hung up on Gemma Chan. Yup. She's the only one I know because I actually,

she's the well-known comic character. Well, well-er-known. Well, she's not Cersei, right? Angelina Jolie... No, Gemma Chan is Cersei. Angelina Jolie is... Lara Croft, Tomb Raider. Oh, one of them is Ajax. Yeah, that's Salma Hayek is Ajax.

I'm too away. Remember how there were ten attorneys? There were a fair amount. They may be over... I'm not counting, I think it's ten. Angelina Jolie's character is Athena. Is just Theena counting, I think it's 10. Angelina Jolie's character is Athena? Is just Theena, but I think it's supposedly. Because the idea is that all of them are names that were misinterpreted as.

Okay, and then the only one I don't have is the fast one. Macari? Lauren Ridloff's character, Macari. You did have. My brain sucks so much. No, you just love Eternals. I do love Eternals and I watch it every night. I'm a little embarrassed for you. I'm embarrassed for me. I do love Eternals and I watch it every night. I'm a little, like, embarrassed for you.

I'm embarrassed for me. Icarus is the one that really amuses me. Who was the Irish guy? He was Druig. He's a bad boy, but he's actually a lover. Yeah, right. He probably is the one, the most likely. Let's be honest.

He might be taking a knee if you know what I'm saying. I do like that. I do like that she's standing and Aaron Taylor-Johnson Let's be honest. He might be taking a knee if you know what I'm saying. I do like that. I do like that she's standing and Aaron Taylor Johnson takes a knee like a gentleman. Yeah. Okay, wait. He bows before his queen. I just have like a little follow-up thing because I just listened to the, like everyone

else who is listening to this podcast. I just listened to the loser episode. You guys briefly bring up Saving Silverman. I haven't seen it. I have gotten five texts in the week since the episode came out. Did I say it was bad? All caps saying, saving Silverman is good and you are right. So you're it's good.

And I was like, isn't it bad? I said, saving Silverman is good. And I believe you said, oh, fuck off. It is not. You refuse to even enter. I remember that being like go one star Empire magazine review But that's not it's been a little while Yeah, I will admit I've been watching it in chunks every night when I'm trying to fall asleep I have not made

Like a god-tier bit in the beginning where Jack Black is like trying to prove that he's good at training employees of Subway on how to make sandwiches, which is so fucking simple, but. The guy puts the meat on the outside of the bread. That movie's a year after High Fidelity. I do remember at the time where I was just like, I'm interested in Jack Black, like Jack Black's being peppered into anything,

I wanna know what it is. My take on that movie is that that movie is chaos. Like what's funny about it is like, Jack Black's being peppered into anything, I want to know what it is. My take on that movie is that that movie is chaos. Like, what's funny about it is, like, it is, like, one of the most deeply misogynistic studio films ever made. That's what I remember, right? Bad vibes. So, I just want to go on the record as saying, like, Amanda Peet, I get where she's coming from. I think it's amazing that the only sexual activity

she will have with her boy toy is... David, take a guess. He just goes down on her. She asked Jason Biggs to take a knee. She doesn't ask. She tells Jason Biggs to take a knee. And then when he says, you know, there are things that one can do in return, she hands him porno mags.

Out of her bedside table, porno mags, lotion, and a box of clean antibiotics. This is so insane. It says, have fun. You're not making it sound good. You're making it sound bad. I'll agree with you, it's got some juice. It's got some juice. I was laughing. But is it like, you know, like weird garbage juice?

Yeah, it's weird. It's weird garbage juice, yeah. But garbage juice, you're like, doesn't this stuff start it with a base of real juice? Also, I know other things have gotten mixed in at this point. All of the Neil Diamond stuff is funny to me. Neil Diamond's really good. Neil Diamond's really good. Neil Diamond's really good.

Neil Diamond's really good. Neil Diamond's really good. Neil Diamond's really good. Neil Diamond's really good. Neil Diamond's really good. Neil Diamond's really good. Neil Diamond's really good. Neil Diamond's really good. Neil Diamond's really good. Neil Diamond's really good. Neil Diamond's really good. But in Harpits Juice, you're like, I'm supposed to have started with a base of real juice. Also, I know other things have gotten mixed in. All of the Neil Diamond stuff is funny to me.

Neil Diamond's really good. And then, I basically stopped watching it because my husband was like, actually, can we pause? So neither of us have made it to the end. No, they just kidnapped her. Oh, okay. Where I stopped. But we stopped watching the movie because my-

Have you seen this piece of shit? No. Okay. My husband was like- That's actually damning that Ben has yeah, right even Comedy Central was like But now we had we had to watch the Neil Diamond storytellers from SNL. That's one of the greatest That is I haven't seen that in So good I've seen that in a long time. It's so good. I like that we're bringing up deeper SNL cuts of like, because I got some Rocket Dog Log, and then the Seth Meyers Lonely Island podcast talked about it.

I know, right after. Because they were discussing that episode. Synchronicity. I've been jamming on some sort of like forgotten side feral sketches, but I remember in a pre-YouTube era where I would go to SNLtranscripts.JT and the Neil Diamond Storyteller sketch was one that I would read and laugh out loud. Because I was like, well, there's no way to re-watch this. It's on daily motion.

Now. Now it is. But I'm saying like 2004, you were like, I just have to read it. What is.JT? I don't know, but it was what that fucking website had. I just I just love like the SNL sketches sketches that are like not on YouTube. The ones that like the most ones that have music. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because Rocket Doggett's Life is a Highway is the problem, I think.

Right. I think. Yes. I found it again on Dailymotion or somewhere. But yeah, I think there's just some conversation that happens. So like, do we clear Life is a Highway? And they're like what? That's like a 1255 sketch There's a Paul Rudd vilkman sketch that aired once and has never been legally reposted I guess that makes sense. But in my in my head, it's like, okay the ones that are like deemed too spicy for YouTube

Like we want to scrub them from the internet The music is more of it I mean they talk about on on the fucking Lonely Island podcast that when they started doing the digital shorts and they would sample songs, they were like, yeah, because you make a license that this just airs one time on late night and it costs fucking five dollars.

And the second they started putting them up on YouTube, they got sued. I mean my guess is it's also sometimes someone like Tom Cochran, who of course is the guy who sang saying life is a highway Might be like yeah life is a highway is my whole like income stream I I'm asking for the maximum quote right like some guys might just be like yeah, whatever fuck you can have it Also, you have to remember rocket dog is post cars

So cars has been like funneling money into his pockets and he he's like, you don't get this for free anymore. I know my value. Life is a highway. You're gonna have to clue this man. I wanna ride it all night long. That was Rascal Flatts, right? Correct. You're going my way.

And then I don't know the next lyric. It might honestly be, I wanna ride it. In my mind, it's I wanna ride it. In my mind, it's, I wanna ride it again. David. Yeah. It's the summertime. It's the summer, summer, summer, summer time. In the summertime, David likes to go chill.

Sure, time to take it easy. You like to go to the beach with a laptop and file reviews. Sometimes happens. Sometimes that happens. Put on some sunglasses. Sunscreen. Blast some beach tunes. Hit up a volleyball. David happens. Sometimes that happens. Put on some sunglasses.

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equivalent to $15 a month. New customer offer for first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees, cement mobile for details David yes, this episode of blank check is brought to you by booking.com booking. Yeah, I got confused for a second Oh, no, I thought my glasses were fogged up Okay, cuz I'm looking across the room at your handsome mug confused for a second. Oh no. I thought my glasses were fogged up. Okay. Because I'm looking across the room at your handsome mug.

For a second I thought, is Matt LeBlanc here? Why did you think that? Because I'm looking at a man with a plan. I'm looking at a man who likes making plans. You don't like leaving things up to chance. No, I hate, I like to plan things very, very carefully actually. You like to organize a trip. And you know what's helpful for that?

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I'm always booking for that group chat. Yeah, well, your family's a bit of a group chat. True. You can find exactly what you're booking for on booking.com. Tell me about your hotel preferences, David. I love a sauna. Okay, okay. Anything spa, you know what I love?

A robe. Give me a robe. Custom. Okay. Anything spot. I love you know what? I love a robe. Give me a robe Customize give me a fluffy road. Now. Are we talking hot tub in room like like kind of Comically shaped hot tub a heart a big a big Martini glass is that what you want in room? Um, sure some strawberries you want strawberries I don't know. They're always fun. You want strawberries in your stay. Uh, David, you know what I like when I'm on vacation? Uh, what do you like? A giant bed. I like to get a comically large California king. Yeah. You know what? Yeah. I feel like a Hollywood king. Sure. I get the kind of bed you couldn't

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Here's something I appreciate. We get moving pretty quickly. Again, no offense to the town, which is an interesting environment But every time we were in the town I kind of had this fear of like are we about to do 20 minutes to sort of? Where we go politics he runs home? He has this long conversation with who we assume is the grandpa which is a lovely scene He asked him about the pillar in the fire that he saw and he's like, oh your dad didn't want to tell you and

Says that guy used to be a GP and the movie now starts tilting at the character that is basically the Colonel Kurtz of this movie. Or at least you'll think though he'll be Kurtz. They're framing him that way. And there's certainly parallels. Right, because ATJ, what the fuck's the character's name? I keep calling my name.

Jamie says, like, right, I had one disturbing encounter with that person a long time ago where I just saw him lining up bodies and then he like waved to me. And he was so cheery about it, like nothing was wrong. And I was like, that's a psychopath. Now, you see it. You see it from a distance, his face is covered.

You don't see the guy. But we know there's a third name above the title on the poster. I know who's coming. And I think Ben doesn't know. You had a real kind of like positive jump scare when the actor shows up on screen, but I'm like, oh fuck, they're saving Rafe Fiennes.

Is one of the first things you said walking out of the theater. Third act Rafe. Third act Rafe. Third act Rafe is huge in Bruges, Hurt Locker, Harry Potter, Goblet of Fire. Is there another one? I was saying that the reader's kind of a third act rave,

although most people don't make it to the third act. Or remember that movie if they saw it yesterday. Yeah, there has to be another one though. I don't know. It's a classy move. It's a gentleman's move and it's a genius move. Especially because he's schmeared. Yes, he's really.

He is covered in iodine. But I mean, okay so. We don't know that at first, we think it's like genius move. Especially because he's schmeared. Yes. He's really... He is covered in iodine. But I mean, okay, so... We don't know that at first. We think it's like blood or something. Right. I think I... I guess I was... I sort of...

Because they were setting him up so malevolently, I did sort of think like, okay, I don't think he's going to be like the psycho that he's being portrayed as by Aaron Taylor Johnson because that feels too easy, right? So then I was trying to puzzle out, like, is it going to be... He was doing something with the bodies to, you know, ward off the zombies or whatever? But we're sitting there and we're both... We're all like, they wouldn't do something that easy, but what's it going to be? And when Rafe appears on screen, the first six line readings,

I would say the first 10 minutes he's on screen, the audience laughed at everything he did because it is so, he is somehow doing something that is so unexpected and yet you still can't pin it down. You're like, this is not who I thought this guy would be and yet I still can't figure this guy out. And it doesn't feel like he's just doing weird line readings. No, he's it's like it's it's a gentleness that's really surprising.

Yeah, it's like macabre, but sentimental. I was like, he's doing another actor. Who is he doing? And it took me a moment. And then I was like, he's doing Bill Nye. Sure. OK. Not like ripping him off, but it felt like he's capturing that odd energy to Bill Nye. Uh, sure, okay. Not like ripping him off, but it felt like he's capturing that odd energy to Bill Nye. Where you're like, is this guy like emotionally disconnected or more connected?

He's kind of just on his own wavelength. He's another take on he's gone, not crazy, but he doesn't interact with people anymore. And like, he's not malevolent, but he is odd. He's still polite. Yeah. And like, he's not malevolent, but he is odd. He's still polite. Yeah, well that's the naive part of it, is he sort of like makes jokes to entertain himself. What Bill Nye performance are you thinking of? I think that's Bill Nye's like default kind of like demeanor.

I don't agree with you. I'm sorry. I love Bill Nye, I just think he usually plays really mordant guy. Are we talking about the science guy? We're not talking mordant guy. Are we talking about the science guy? We're not talking about the science guy. I was talking about the science guy. And I love Bill Nye. He...

I have no problem with Bill Nye. I don't know him very well. You have no problem with him? Give him some credit. Put some flowers on that name. Do I have to? Yeah, I think so. I think it's a little desperate that he's trying to appeal to the TikTok generation.

Well, I haven't been clocking this. Bill Nye. Anyway. The cool of this movie is that he has this infor- Pfft. Hell yeah, brother. Maybe Bill Nye's taking a knee. Hey, I think so. And for that, we salute.

I think this podcast should- Maybe this is it. This is the last episode. Yeah, maybe we gotta wrap it up. Wow, we recorded with all the celebs for the code. I know, and we'll just never release them. is it. This is the last episode. Yeah, maybe we gotta wrap it up. Wow, we recorded with all the celebs for the code. I know, and we'll just never release them. Fuck it. Like five A-listers are just gonna keep them

like fucking day the clown cried in a vault. Just be like when people ask us, why? And we're like, I don't know, we started talking about Bill Nye eating pussy. Like, it kind of felt like it was gone. It felt like maybe. We've run our course. His grandfather explains that this guy was a GP.

And he goes, you know, I think all of this experience like brings me closer to his mother and this feeling of a need to protect her and a feeling that his father is not, that his father seemingly has kind of moved on and he doesn't want his mother to be seen as like a finished cause. And so he convinces his mother to go onto the mainland with him. There's a couple of really good scenes. I mean- She's kind of, I feel like she's almost in a fugue at this point or like she's in the past.

She doesn't understand what is happening until- Like minute to minute. Yes. Like he gets her, I feel like, out of there, because she's just kind of like, yeah, sure, where are we going? She gains a cogency once they're deep on the other side. Right, and he's like, yeah. We're on the mainland?

But he does this whole kind of trick to convince the people at the watchtower that there's a fire they have to put out to get them off the guard. He has this really good scene where he kind of like holds Aaron Taylor Johnson at knife point because he's so angry at his father. Um, do you guys like Comer in this movie?

What do you guys think of Jodie Comer? Here's the thing. I think she is a phenomenal actress. Yeah, in your favorite movie, Free Guy. But apart from that. I feel like you sometimes feel like she goes a little ham sandwich. And I think she is someone who knows how to make a great ham sandwich. I think they're handing her a pretty extreme part.

And like some friends of mine who saw that I logged this on Letterboxx were like, how's Comer? I know you're holding Comer stock the way I am. And I'm like, it's not her best performance, but it's like it's a really tricky part. And I do think she does it Well, I think she especially nails the last couple of scenes But I feel like Marie I was getting a little I was getting you and I loved bike riders and you walked out of the theater And we're like fuck that fuck the voice. She's doing fuck the whole thing. Certainly. This is high school play

I think when we were still in the dark as to what her actual illness was I Was not loving her performance because I thought it was a mental issue and to me it was a little trope right There's the worry of like right are you doing a little too yet like yeah? Yeah, yes I didn't think it was bad, but I thought it was a little too broad. The more her kind of consciousness comes back, the better she gets. Did any of you see Prima Fasci? No, I wanted to.

Fuck that. It is just like one of the most impressive things I've ever seen an actor do. Wait, why'd you say fuck that? I hate those one person shows on Broadway. And I think it's like, you know, it's impressive. Like it's like a cool trick. I mean, I'm like, similarly like,

I don't really want to see Dory and Grey, but that I was like, it was one of the most technically astounding things I have ever seen. I was, I bought all of my Jodie Comber. So I did watch the first season of Killing Eve. I never watched Killing Eve. Which I thought was really fun.

I did what everyone did. I thought the first season was good. I watched like one episode of the second season. Yeah, and I'm like, I'm out. fun. Yeah, I did what everyone did. I thought the first season was good I watched like one episode the second season I bought all of my Jodie Comer stock after the last duel which I thought she was I mean everyone's right it was it was that and free guy in the same year where I was like free guy is Rancid dogshit, and I think she's kind of good in this It's my favorite movie and then last of all, I think she is unbelievable Right. Yeah, I'm did I give her best actress that year? I certainly not everyone's great in that movie

Should have been nominated for an Oscar Yeah, the people don't ask me I don't know why People need to not sleep on that movie. But you're right. No, because I hadn't watched Killing Eve... People need to not sleep on that movie? People need to wake the fuck up. People need to wake up! It's time to open your third eye.

You're right that that was my exact arc, which was I saw Free Guy without having seen Killing Eve and was like, huh, she's kind of interesting. Then I saw Last Duel and I was like, she's fucking unbelievable. Is this like actress of her generation? It is the reason... DREW VO I think some people think like, that's kind of what she is.

It is the reason I went to see Prima Fashi. DREW VO You nominated her and you gave it to Rebecca Hall. Oh, right. Okay. Yeah. DREW VO Which a performance I know you love. Yeah. I adore. But I think it's why I saw Prima Fashi, even though I do think I'm kind of allergic to that type of show, because I was just like, I gotta see her in person.

Yeah, sure. I'm sure she was good. She was incredible. Um, but yes, no, it's a tough performance. I think she's really good in the movie. And I think, like you said, those final scenes, the big emotional scenes. It's why you hire her. And she underplays this so beautifully.

I will say, there is a single look she gives in this movie. It is a one-second reaction shot where I'm like, that's worth $20 million. You know, where I'm just like, it was, we'll get to it, remind me of this, it's in the final moment. But the movie then becomes Act 2 is this almost like Wizard of Oz quest to make it to. Yeah, to the Doctor. Right. To see this mystery man.

You're like, right, they can't just get to the Doctor. So they do have to, and I think the sidetracks are good and are cool. We meet a character who we haven't mentioned yet. Eric. Eric, a Swedish... Edvin Reiding. A Swedish soldier. So we're also introduced to the fact that, like,

they retconned the end of 28 weeks later, like, the, they have successfully... They don't even fully retcon it, but they're like, it was driven back. Yeah. So whatever you saw there was not a problem. Yeah, France is fine. Because they figured it out.

Yes. So... France's so good at repel invaders. Yes. So, but... It rained and all the zombies Yeah, France is fine. Because they figured it out. So, France's so good at repairing invaders. Yes, so, but. It rained and all the zombies went back to the UK. But there's like an EU, yeah. Or Macron just greeted them, people like, eh, don't love your.

Erich was getting big laughs in the theater. Oh, Erich. He's fun. They introduce a really fun element through this Swedish soldier who is stranded after his quarantine boat. Right, and we see them getting annihilated by the zombies, which is cool. And he's the one survivor.

There's the whole thing with the alphas where they like pull your head off and you have the spinal column. That was so sad. They go full like fucking predator mode. Yeah, predator, board queen, whatever. They like the full spine. And then they use the spine as a fucking weapon.

Yeah, I mean, they'll do that. As a weapon, but also as a piece of art. I'm realizing this movie really feels like Ben was in the punch-up room. 100%. There were like six ideas in this movie that like, it doesn't feel like Ben wrote it from beginning to end,

but it does feel like they said like, do you have any ideas? And he threw them five and they used all of them. If he's ripping out their heads with their spines on it, let them use it. Yes. But also make it an art piece. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. But with the Swedish guy, they introduced this element of, oh yes, the rest of the world is exactly as it is now. Yes. And basically they're just like, yeah, we just don't go there. He has a smartphone. And Eric knows, he does have an iPhone.

Eric knows. It's my favorite, I'm sorry, it's my favorite joke in the movie. Oh, that he has the insane girlfriend. The picture of his girlfriend, and he goes, what's wrong with her face? And you're like, oh right, part of UK culture ending in 2002 is that they never had

the modern horrors of... Love Island face. Yes. Yeah. Or it had only begun, the sickness had not spread. I feel like I am going insane every time Instagram shows me a person who has that face. I feel like Ben, you and I have complained about this,

that now suddenly, increasingly, everyone has the same face. Yeah. And the face freaks me out. I don't like the face. And it's weird that everyone's sort of, like, starting to look identical in this pod person way. And this movie just has the best in for a joke about that I have ever seen. I'm trying to remember. There were, like, three things

that the kid, that the Swedish guy referenced that the kid didn't understand because he was talking about radio, like he referenced radio. Was that about the phone? Like literally the phone itself. He's like, oh yeah, it's like a radio. Because the kid's like, what is,

the kid's reaction to seeing a smartphone for the first time was amazing. But the also seeing the picture of the ex-fiance, he goes, that's what happens to my friend when he eats. Oh, it was it was when he was describing his friends an Amazon delivery driver. Oh, yeah. And he was like, I thought that was shitty. So I signed up to join the Navy.

And that's how I ended up here in this shitty situation. And the kids just like, I had no idea what any of what do you mean? And like when you order stuff online, I don't know what that is. But also this guy's like, why the fuck did you bring your mom here? Why does your mom seemingly think that you're her husband? Well, it actually is her dad. Her dad.

Or dad, right. But I think it's interesting that Eric is like, I am doomed. I'm not allowed to go back home. Like the minute you set foot on this place, that's it. Like you are considered contaminated and like you, there's no, you know, escape. Right. And he's just like, you're a child.

Your mother does not have her wherewithal. Why would you bring her here? Like what the fuck is happening? He's angry that he saved them. Cause he's like, you guys are doomed. Why did I bother saving you? I wasted bullets. Like again, like it would be too easy to make him an out and out villain. And we've already kind of done that with the fucking.

Yeah, the Eccleston and all those guys, 100 percent. And like, but he's also not particularly heroic or nice. Spends the kind of the whole time being like, Jesus, like, why am I even hanging out with you guys? But he's also clearly, he's like, nothing else for me to do. Like, what am I gonna do? Just walk into the woods?

It's nice, and where it lands in the movie, it sort of settles you a little bit, takes the tension away for a little while. Yeah, it was nice to have that, because they're really, because of the way that this movie is set up, we don't have the... I love the moment in the grocery store,

in 28 Days Later, where they're playing the granddaddy song, and there's like a moment of fun and joy. And like the closest we get to that in this film is when they're having a picnic and they're eating apples and they're talking about smartphones. And it's like this nice little... Yeah, it's like a reset. The membrane, right. It's like bringing it back to our mentality

for a moment by bringing in an outsider. This is when of course the pregnant, which we've already spotted her pregnant. I wasn't sure if it was gonna be followed up on, but I was like, this is another interesting idea. It's like 28 years later, they would of course just basically settle into being their own species. They would start like sexually reproducing. It's the I am legend thing, right? Like not I'm legend the movie, I'm legend the original story, the element that every movie has failed

to execute, which is like this character realizing like, am I the endangered species? And it's not about me needing to eradicate them to save humanity. They've become something else now. And I'm disturbing that. I want to talk about something that is like Marie's Griffin morbid pandemic corner, but like not, I mean, it's not specifically that, but I am a married 36-year-old woman who wants to have a child. And that is something that I am like actively pursuing. But I am constantly like wavering on the ethical implications of bringing a new life into a world that feels like it's on the precipice of ending.

And to see this movie kind of make the argument for new life will go on in the worst of circumstances. We exist to live as long as we- Also the world's been ending for a long time. The world's been ending forever. And it was like, it was so... The baby is born. There's this beautiful moment. It's another scene that Jodie Comer destroys.

Yes. We've seen her sort of like weirdly, the further she gets away from home, the more she's out in the world, she starts to, probably because she's no longer in a bubble. Right. It's sort of she's coming back to life a little bit. She's going in and out and they start asking her questions about her You know her comprehension whatever but they end up in this like trailer where the pregnant zombie is and is clearly on the precipice Of giving birth and rather than run into here. It's in a train. It's in a you know

Which is a very cool set that are overgrown tree Jodie Comber walks over to her and grabs her hands and sort of like in this silent... helps her through labor. Yes. In this sort of through eye contact, gives the like, I get it, I know. Offers her hands too. Right. Helps her give like the pressure to push back against, right? To like exert her effort.

I thought the baby was gonna be born like a little demon Rosemary's baby. Yeah, I mean, Eric is having a rational reaction of like, shoot, shoot, destroy it, it's a zombie baby. Yes. But they have this kind of elemental like, no, like it's okay, we have to, we can't, you know. The placenta is strong.

Yes, Ray Fiennes does shout out the placenta. At the checkpoint of the barrier to the mainland, it's like check the eyes, make sure the eyes are clean, right, before you let them in. There's this great tension built into the delivery of the baby, which is the baby comes out, it's covered in blood, and its eyes are closed. So at first, you're sort of like, I don't know if the baby's fine, right? And even if the baby is infected. How do you, how do they show, I was like,

are they gonna show them killing a baby? Truly. That's the thing I was immediately like, no, like you kind of always know when a property's gonna make the like very, very daring decision of killing a baby. Yes. No, even a kid is different. That's not a baby, but you know what I'm saying.

When a movie is ramping up the, we're about to do something really insidious. Very transgressive and you're like, yeah, no, this is not. Because that would just be, not because it's like, that's not allowed. It's just because it's like, yeah, you'll lose the audience. They'll just be so bummed out. But Jodie Comer basically draws the line. And it'll be kind of like, why'd you do that? She draws the line before she can tell that the baby isn't infected.

There is the first like, this is life. We can't kill it. It's an innocent. It's done nothing wrong. And it takes a little bit before they're just like, the baby's clean. Interesting. Eric does get fucking spined. He gets spined.

He gets spined so fucking hard. In just a horror kill that I just always love. Yeah. Dragged away. Yeah. Blah! Bullets firing down. Piece of them returns. A horror kill that I just always love. Dragged away. Blah! Bullets firing down.

A piece of them returns. I just always love that. Always. It just always works for me. So now they got a baby. Now it's a sick woman, a little boy and a baby. I know. It's kind of like Quiet Place where you're like, here's a fucking baby.

It's also just like, how are they going to get out of this scenario because they are trapped in this train with the alpha with the big dick. Right, and it's pretty canonical. Like alpha cannot be killed by- Bow and arrows or any, you know. And then all of a sudden, the alpha gets tranquilized by our new friend, Ray Fiennes. Ray Fiennes, who immediately shows up,

winks to the camera- Dr. Carlson. And goes, hey, Griff. Good luck not putting me on your best supporting act. Blank is valid. Not to backtrack, but I just want to quickly, because it did feel important. There's this scene where they're hiding out in the church,

sleeping during the night, and the boy falls asleep. Right, they wake up. And the mom trashes one of the zombies. He wakes up and they see a zombie just lying there dead. And he goes, how did that happen? And she goes, I don't know. And then it flashes back to her waking up in the middle of the night and bashing his head against a fucking...

Like some kind of instinctual thing clicking for her, but she doesn't remember doing it. I just felt like there's something important about that. Well, see, but my question is, is it that she doesn't remember doing it? Or is it... Or does she want to ruin the kid by exposing him or something? Right. Because also our first introduction to her at the beginning of the movie is her, in this

sort of days, she knocks over a glass of water, they go upstairs to try to calm her down, right? And she goes like, why aren't you in school? And Aaron Taylor Johnson says like, I told you, remember today's the day I'm taking him. And she flips out. He's a 12 year old, he's a boy. You can't take away his childhood like this. They lie to her and they go do it without her.

I interpreted it as she was aware of what she was doing. I think so too. She's just protecting. I think it's a moment of cognitive clarity combined with like a mother's instincts that she in that moment makes the decision of like, I don't need to sully him with the notion of me having to do something that brutal. I'm trying to still protect him in a way.

Do you think in Bigger Splash he's more of a second act entrance? I guess it's not really third act. Yeah, he's on fire in that. I certainly gave that a nomination as well. If not win? Maybe. I might've given him the win. I don't know.

Look it up, Davey. Look it up. I'll do my best. So we meet Dr. Kelson. He's covered in iodine. He looks like he's covered in blood, but he's actually covered in iodine, which is a repellent. Prophylactic.

This guy has basically just been spending decades doing like R&D, right? Sure, I guess so, but it's not just been spending decades doing R&D. Right? Sure. I guess so. But it's not just that. He's also been doing art, land art. There's a scene earlier where they find the Angel of the North, which is... This whole movie is set in the Northumberland region.

I went to school at Newcastle. Everyone's got a Geordie accent. Biting through my tongue right now. Relax. And the Angel of the North is this beautiful piece of public art that was built in like the 90s of the 2000s. It's not that old. It was built in the, I believe the early 2000s.

It was famously the most expensive valuation on antiques roadshow in the UK. Someone had the original maquette. Sure. It was built in 1998. Sort of symbolizes the northern, you know, sort of resurgence, posts, you know, the minor strikes and all, you know, it's a beautiful thing. And I feel like that's what fucking Fiennes is doing. He's building this art that will last beyond him. But it's also a memorial.

Right? It is. But this is his version of like a... It is, but it's like... It's for like the people, whoever they might be, right? This is like a version of like a it is but but it's like it's for like the people whoever they might be Right, like who might one day come across these like Cairns It's part of the tradition of like kind of all human civilizations more or less of leaving these monuments Yeah, it's like an AIDS quote

Because it is about like each of these was a person now. What is the medium? It's called like each of these was a person. Now, what is the medium? It's called the medium is bone. Yes. The medium is calcified. So the whole time they're, you know, being introduced, introduced to Ray Fiennes, they're carrying around the spine and head of Eric, our dearly departed Swedish friend. It's... Wow, Griff, you did not... Oh, no, you nominated him in LEAD.

Yeah, interestingly. We fought about this. I think he's undeniably the lead, because then he runs the table on the movie. They're both leads. I would put them both in LEAD. Nope. Well, you're wrong. I'm not wrong. Um, but the...

He kind of refines... He takes this very... Did I give him the winner or I just nominated him? You gave him a nom and you gave Tom Hanks the win for a little film called Sully. Smart. I of course gave Ray Fiennes my best of the decade win for Grand Budapest. So good memory. Marie, sorry. Go on.

So they're carrying around Swedish guy's head and spine. Yeah, they hold on to it a little too long. And Ray Fiennes explains to Spike that what he's doing is he is... He thinks it's important to sort of recognize that death is a part of this existence and recognize, like, it's kind of a beautiful tribute to these people to, you know, de-skin their skeletons. He's built a whole system of how he fucking cleans them off. And puts them in this beautiful sculpture. He's had time to hone it. He's really refined the process.

He really, I mean, he gets Comer's head back out there fast. Yeah, but it is like this weird balance of what he's doing is like he is friendly, he is sophisticated, he has clearly gone a little mad just in not communicating with other people, but not in a way that feels dangerous at all, is just hard to sort of figure out how to connect to. And I think finds this quietly one of the best chemistry actors, not even that he's a great listener, but he just knows so well how to really lock in with any scene partner and can adjust so beautifully

to anyone and doing any kind of thing, like understanding what he needs to do to tell the story. I think it's such a, it's a beautiful, it's like an additional male role model for this really sensitive kid who's only like example of what you're supposed to do with these creatures is kill them. And there's just so much violence and machismo. This is one of the only people in the movie, if not the only one who is fully engaging

with the reality of their world is really thinking about what has happened, what is happening, you know? And he's just so, like, sensitively attuned to it. He's really sensitive. And it's... it's... it's so nice. He's phenomenal. The longer the movie... It's just so good....spent setting him up, the more I was like, I don't have any doubt he's gonna deliver,

but I can't even imagine what he's gonna do. And it just, it was disarming. And as I said, the audience laughs for like the first 10 straight minutes he's on screen at our screening, because they're just like, what is this guy? And I think there's also the classic horror movie thing of like, I'm so relieved that it's, the tone has shifted. It's comfort.

Yes. Even if it's odd. I like the ending of 28 Days Later, the third act. But a lot of people at the time definitely were like, eh, it loses in the third act. I like the zombie movie stuff. I don't like the creepy soldier stuff. The men is the worst of all.

Right. And like, now you watch the movie and you're like, no, it was kind of... It was kind of out of money. That's the juice. Maybe created the manuscript. But I do like that he doesn't do that again. No, third act is emotional. It's emotional and it's not, man, is simply, you know, cannot be trusted.

They finally get a diagnosis for mom. Well, he clocks that the baby is pure and he says the placenta line. Yes. Um, and then he... God, the scene of him inspecting her is so good, because he is not overplaying it, but you get this bit of... He is so happy to be doing this again. You know? Like, it is so comfortable for him to go back into doctor mode,

a thing he has had to abandon in terms of the actual part of interacting with other people and trying to help them. With people who are alive. Yes, right, yes. And he does this sort of very gentle, I'm going to have to feel under your armpits and under your breasts, is that okay? And you see her dealing with the intensity, he, asking the questions about, you know, like are the phases, Marie's like choking up just thinking about this.

But it's really profound stuff. And then they're sitting by the fire. And he just says, like, obviously, I don't have the equipment to do a proper test. I can't say for certain. All of the evidence points towards cancer. I don't know if it was All of the evidence points towards cancer. I don't know if it was cancer of the body that spread to the brain or cancer of the brain

that spread to the body, but that explains the hallucinations and all of this. And you're sort of like, well, what does the movie do now? And without wasting time, he starts basically transitioning into the bedside conversation for the boy. When she, it's the moment that's, it's the moment that's the $20 million reaction shot for me is he says, I believe it's cancer.

And it cuts a Jodie Comer shifting eyeline from Ray Fiennes over to her son. And she gives him a look like, well, it's a very gentle sort of like smile of like, well, that's not great. But like we have an answer. She's like, well, it's a very gentle sort of like smile of like, well, that's not great. But like we have an answer. She's like in that she kind of knew she kind of knew she kind of felt it. All the adult her husband, they all kind of knew and they just weren't telling the kid.

But she's giving him this look of like, well, we have an answer now. Like she's sort of trying to make it a little bit lighter while acknowledging like not great news. And she's like conveying like 40 lines of dialogue in like the tilt of a head of an raise of her eyebrows. And it speaks so much to her relationship to her son and why she's tried to protect him. And even in this moment, doesn't receive the news before she can even process what it means for herself, she feels the need to say something to him with a look, right? Like, she needs to assuage him immediately.

And the movie just immediately gets into this dialogue of, everyone has to die. There are many ways of dying. We have the ability to choose the way we die in certain ways. And it's not something to necessarily be scared of or to treat as like... The fucking, you know, virus or whatever has not robbed us of that completely. No. Like as much as the world has ended and changed and all. Right. And there's this feeling of like, how do you want her to die?

Like, are you going to keep out running the alphas? Are you going to let the cancer completely take her? Right. Like her brain is obviously right. She's already losing her sense of reality or whatever. going to keep out running the alphas? Are you going to let the cancer completely take her? Right, like her brain is obviously right. She's already losing her sense of reality or whatever. Or now that we know, is there like... A humane dignified... To do it with agency and to not let her suffer anymore. And also like not let him suffer

anymore. Yeah. And so they, she, you know, gives her son a big hug as he's hysterical He's hold she's holding him in order for Ray finds to trunk him so he can't fight it This is totally blackout. He is lose it. Yeah lying down with the baby and We just see like life new life death What is her final line to him? I wish I had it. But it might even be something simple as, I love you so much.

And then she like walks Pat away from the fire, and then the next thing we see is... He hits her. Finds returning. He hits her with the trink, and then he does what he needs to do. And he comes back with the skull cleaned and hands it to the boy and says, you need to put it in a really important spot or something akin to that.

Yeah, choose where to put her on the... Right. Which once again, it's like these are the choices we have, are how we die and how we process that death and how we pay tribute to it and all of it. And he climbs up and he places the skull there And this is the moment. I'm just like this movie rules who else Would fucking think to make this their fucking legacy. Well, well, that's why it's even cooler, right? Like it'd be cool anyway, but right the fact that it's kind of like we got to make this sequel after years of like, yeah No one's interested and now it, nah, no one's interested.

And now it's like, okay, people are interested. What do you want to do? His career got stuck in a rut and he's got this magic key, which is like, you know, the reason why it was so hard to see fucking 28 days and 28 weeks at the time we did the episode two years ago where it wasn't streamable and it wasn't rentable. They've been taken off of platforms is like 20 years later, the rights reverted back to Garland Boyle and McDonald. And they didn't resell them immediately because they were trying to do the auction of rights for the previous two and we have scripts for three more, right? And he knows like this is the

hot hand he's holding to be able to get something greenlit. And with that hand, he's, like, making a pretty fucking profound movie about the human condition and our, like, relationship to the actual idea of life and death. Right, right, right, right. But you know who else has a hot hand? They know, Swarnie, that's the Infinity Gauntlet. Which he did himself. He did it all himself. He did it all himself. It's really good shit, in my opinion.

And it's also, like, as we're saying, it's, like, perfect boil and garland stuff. Neither one of them could have done this without the other. I agree with you. Absolutely. And I like the stuff they've done separately. Exactly. Right. Well... You know, I think of, like, fucking Charlie Kaufman as well, where I'm like, I love all the movies he has directed.

There is still a part of me that's like, can he, like, let Jones or Gondry direct a thing again? Yeah, because... It's just fun to, sometimes you get things that are... It's the magic of movies, this collaboration. The whole is greater than the parts. Totally. Yeah, right.

So... And by the way, Boyle, of course we should acknowledge, has been in interviews acknowledging like, oh yeah, Garland had like Sunshine sequel pitches that were insane and rocked. Do you know this, Ben? Like, and it's, you know. That in recent press, interviews acknowledging like, Oh yeah, Garland had like sunshine sequel pitches that were insane. Do you know this Ben? Like that in recent press, he's like, what we wrote was a triptych of three movies that were connected in that they were each centered around a different planet in the solar system. They were not literally like sunshine too, but they had like a fucking Jupiter movie and whatever. And they were like, and then sunshine bombed and they were

like, well, no one wants these scripts. And he was like, but they were good. Right. That's the thing. Boyle's like, yeah, they were good out late. I'll let Alex explain. And people were like, what, what? No, you explain now. What are you talking? He's like, oh, I don't remember, but they were cool. Right. Anyway, nobody liked that movie. And then people like, no, we like it. Now. And he's like, oh, that's nice. He's also called out that like Rothman was the head of Fox at the time that sunshine came out and mishandled the movie and hated it

and fought him on it. He hated it and thought it was too bleak. Rothman is the guy who fucking bought the 28 package. Right, who's now at Sony. Yes. Yes, time heals all wounds, of course. And also it's like this guy supported us strongly in what we wanted to do,

which was not the obvious thing to do with these movies. What is the obvious thing? It's the only thing that I, I don't know what I expected. The obvious thing is, I mean, obviously, open on fucking Killian Murphy. That's true. Sure. Eyes opening up and he's like a fucking badass survivor or whatever. Right. Yeah.

Like even like within this story, the obvious thing is the kid makes it past the other side and rather than Eric finding them at the 30 minute mark, Killian Murphy is the one who finds them and guides them. Or Killian Murphy is the fucking doctor. Or, you know, any of those things. It's a walking dead thing of like, right, you find some village where we're like, here's our deal, you know, like, you know, we live this way and there's a villain. But I think, wisely, like, they kind of fucking use Killian Murphy that exact way

in Quiet Place Part II. And I do think this movie, as you called out, has something to come out the Quiet Place movies, which I remember when you saw David, and you were like, look, like, I didn't think I'd give him credit, but Krasinski locked into the right thing, which is like, this is a movie about how terrifying

it feels to be a parent in a world where you don't feel like you can protect your children. And this movie is doing the same thing from a different angle. And it's why it activated the shit you're saying, Marie, and why it pokes these bruises. It's not fatalistic about it, but it is scary that we don't ever feel like

there's any way to actually keep our children safe. And in a world that is this intense, those fears are intensified. The stakes are intensified. Yeah The movie does have a cliffhanger after all this wonderful stuff And it does feel like the movie could close here But I mean this emotional day Mont the music swelling and he sends the baby back to the border In a basket like Moses style

Basically like hi dad to his dad explaining himself. This baby is not infected. I'm gonna stay out here. I'm gonna stay out here. I have unfinished business. Right. And then it does, and I'm like great ending, right? This movie could go in any direction and obviously it's opening up like what does this boy do next? But it does feel like this movie is a complete story. Then it does another 28 days later.

And you're like, huh, what is this? as a complete story. Then it does another 28 days later. And you're like, huh, what is this? You're saying the text flashes on screen. And yes, it literally does the title card and he is like fucking throwing arrows at... Yeah, he's improved his... Right, he's gotten a little better. His kill shot. Within reason, right?

And he sort of finds himself in a dead end where he's able to take down one, but there are more coming and he's not gonna make it. And who presents himself very loudly at the top of this wall, but Jack O'Connell. The grownup version of the little boy from the Teletubby scene in the beginning of the movie. Who I did not put it together,

but it did blow my mind when you called it out, David, he is dressed like Jimmy Savile. And all of his minions, he's with a bunch of other people. They're called the Jimmies. Are all dressed like Jimmy Savile. And they're all named Jimmy and they're called the Jimmies. I'm watching this movie in an audience full of Americans.

I am American. I was born in this country. I'm not trying to say I'm fucking John Bull over here. It's America's version. But look, the audience reacts, they laugh and they just go like, who the fuck is this guy? They're just like, weird. And I'm just like... There's no clocking of the semiotic.

Part of why I'm vibrating is you guys are like, oh, you like that, right? I was freaking the fuck out. He's dressed like Jimmy Savile. And then I, then I took me a second to be like, right, right. Alex Garland's's you sick fuck has Is going like yeah, they wouldn't know that Jimmy Savile was you know anything about Jimmy Savile Ben? So I feel like I know more about Jimmy Savile than most Americans and yet I did not

Get this at all. I've read I actually rewatched. There's like a Netflix You've watched whatever Netflix garbage. I didn't rewatch it, but I watched it. You rewatched it after this? After this. Because I was like, we're going to go into it, so I need to make sure. Well, we don't have to go into it. Well, the thing that I forgot about is how important Jimmy Savile was to the North, and the fact that he was a former coal miner from Leeds.

He's from Leeds, yeah. He's a Yorkshire boy. Was like very much like identified with the North of England, which this movie also is. That is true. I think he came up in like even once he started being a DJ and stuff, like he was still in the North. He was in Salford or Manchester or wherever.

And like, but like the whole thing, I was trying to explain him to people who were like, who are you talking about? And I was kind of like, whole thing I was trying to explain him to people who were like who are you talking about and I was kind of like I guess it was kind of like mr. Rogers was a pedophile or whatever But it's not like with like Pee-wee Herman and also so philanthropic and all these things He was this incredibly bizarre cartoonish. That was the whole thing I was like, it's not quite right because mr. Rogers his whole thing was that he was super normal Jimmy Savile was always weird, like he was cartoonish.

And he also did like Top of the Pops, he's like teen stuff. A light entertainer and all this sort of stuff. And a personality whose persona was so bizarre and his look was so bizarre and his energy was so bizarre. But he also had this show called Jim Will Fix It for many years. It was just kind of like a make-a-wish show. Where he would help sick kids. Like a Mr. Beast kind of like,

I'm making philanthropy cool kind of thing. But they weren't always like sick a Mr. Beast kind of like, I'm making philanthropy cool. But they weren't always like, sick kids. They would just be like, every little kid would write in and be like, my dream is, one of the things was like, I want my duck to fly. I feel bad that my duck can't fly. That's so much of his cultural reputation is also like, his support of children's hospitals and things like this. Like, some of the stuff's entertaining,

and he always downplays his status, and, like, he's fucking knighted by the queen and shit. He was, like, the reason why, like, the main spinal injury hospital in the UK, like, why they, like, the main source of their fundraising. He was knighted. He was really close with Margaret Thatcher and really close with Prince Charles.

Sure. I mean, he was right. Like he advised... For charity stuff, yeah. He advised the... He advised Prince Charles when Diana died. Within a very short period after his... No, sorry, it wasn't Diana. It was Lockerbie. It was how do we respond to the British public after Lockerbie. And so they're like in Jimmy Savile's papers,

all of these notes to Prince Charles like how they should address the public. Within very few years of his death, it came out that he was just a horrendous. It was but it was like Cosby where people knew. Yeah, there were always the Louis Theroux documentary where he asks him about it. Like it was one of those things that people had just kind of chosen to sort of not think about. And like decades of child sexual assault just to save the thing. And you have him like be on talk shows in the 2000s where he would be like, someone would be like, oh, you were a wrestler, right?

And he'd be like, yeah, I'm the most feared, you know, man in all of the girls' schools in England or whatever. Like he would joke openly and people would laugh. He was like a lifelong bachelor and they sort of like presented as sort of a joke of like, is this guy asexual? And then there'd be the whispers of like, it's kind of weird. And he would always diffuse it with this attitude of like, I hate children. I don't like talking to children. Any, look. Anyway, the whole thing with him was...

This movie is like saying, what if Bill Cosby was never exposed and you had a gang of people who were all wearing Cosby sweaters and were like, we're the Huxtables. Yeah. You know? Where it's intentionally just so important to British people. It's so disturbing. Yes.

He was retired by the time I moved to Britain. He was still known. He was still a figure. He was never that important. He was just sort of famous, like in a weird way. He was just a weird famous guy. And like a light entertainer, like Britain has lots of light entertainer celebrities where you're like, what do you do exactly? It's like, I don't know, host TV shows. Looks like this, Ben, where everyone in retrospect is like, why weren't we like raising flags about this guy all the fucking time?

And to be clear, like when he was exposed, it was part of also just this big sort of investigation of a lot of figures who had abused people and... It was a little similar to the... Culture of silence. ...the scandal here of just like, right, how systemic the cover-up was. But what I think Garland is playing with, right, is that it's so disturbing, they're so disturbing,

but also, right, this sort of warped sensibility of Britain, like, had, like... And this oddibility of Britain, like, had. Like, and they got through the looking glass. And this odd kind of weaponized, avuncular kind of like friendliness, right, that is like feels eerie. Yeah, it's so scary. But it is quite a third rail for them to be touching. In Britain, everyone else will just kind of be like,

whatever, you know. And let's be clear, the movie also ends at this point. That sure does. You're introduced to a whole new silo of culture, including the face of it being a known actor who is then third-billed in the end credits of the movie, and you're like, okay, so that's the fucking second movie. But it is just like there is a kind of period at the end of a paragraph of him, the voiceover of the letter to the dad and the baby arriving at the gates of a paragraph of him, the voiceover of the letter to the dad

and the baby arriving at the gates and everything. And then this is absolutely just a next week on Lost. I fucking love it. It reminded me of like the filmmaking is kind of like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the way the action is filmed. They're all kind of like doing little cartwheels and shit. Like brightly colored jumpsuits.

It's so fun. It was so silly and ridiculous. You have, what's her name, Erin Kellyman here. Yes, and there was another known actor. Emma Laird, who I think is in whatever, she's in The Brutalist in a small role. She's coming up. Isn't she the wife, Navola's wife?

Am I wrong? That's right. Yeah. But that was why- Remember The Brutalist? No. The Savile? What about that? That's right, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But that was why- Remember the Brutalist? No. The Savile- What was that?

I'm hearing about this for the first time. The Savile stuff is why I thought they kept the embargo. Maybe, I mean, yeah. I don't think it would have made a difference in this country, but I have no idea. I haven't read any UK critics. How are people- Look, dude, look, I can't speak to how Sony does business

But in my opinion they do business a little weird We're deep enough in the podcast that I can slightly cast shade on yeah, this is a lot like I don't know why It's a really good movie. Everyone was like this movie must be bad because Instances of this not just Sony in the last couple years I think see a movie like a touchy like see, there are movies you've seen like 36 hours or less before they start screening publicly, commercially, where you're like, why the fuck weren't they showing this to us three weeks ago?

Everyone likes this. I also think there's... This movie's obviously a little more odd. There's something about a lot of publicists who I love and respect a lot of publicists that I work with, but where, like, they seem to think the closer to sort of release that a critic sees the movie, the better. Like, kind of like, well, we need it to be fresh!

Like, you need to write your review with, you know, it needs to be this sort of exciting, and I'm just like... I feel like this is a bane of your existence where you think a lot of... It's not mine. And I'm just like, I don't think that's true. Where you think a lot of it's not mine because I'm not like poor David Ehrlich, who has to hit every embargo. If you look for a trade, when I say, I think not that you feel like you're struggling with it, but you feel like it's detrimental to film culture. Yeah, I mean, sure.

I mean, look, we're all we all want the best for movies right now. But look, materialists, a movie I liked a tremendous amount. You did not really like Marie Maybe is in between the two of us, right? Marie and I were talking about last night, it is one of the great conversational movies or rather, let me say conversation movies in recent memory, where every conversation I've had about this film in the last week has been fascinating to me. And like not even argumentative. I'm like, you know, there's shit like Last Jedi where I'm like, I'm so tired. I know what I think

about this. I'm not interested in litigating it with other people anymore. Whereas materialist, I'm talking to people who I strongly disagree with. And I'm like, this is interesting. And I think the movie's kind of designed to provoke these conversations. And yet, I completely understand why they did not have that film play at a single fucking festival and went wide in the first weekend

because they were selling it as a thing that it is absolutely the antithesis of. It is one of the most antagonistic, like, bite the hand movies, based on the expectations that they sold people. And I'm like, that's a movie that you don't want too many people writing about before the weekend. They do that all the time. Totally.

It's just they've never done it with a comedy before. 28, it's- They usually do it with horror movies. Exactly. Right. It is the first time they have successfully figured out how to do their horror thing on a different genre. But 28 years later is not like that. It's not like, oh, fuck, audiences are gonna be furious when they see this.

I am seeing stuff on Reddit, sorry, but like, people being like, oh, I think people are going to be disappointed because it's not as much of a zombie movie. The scares aren't there. It has a lot of zombie action. I find that kind of odd. I was stressed out, like, for the first two-thirds of the movie.

Can I go back to my popcorn line conversation with the great Hilary B. Ossess and telling her I don't think the previous movies are going to tie in that much to this? And I said, you know what I'm really hoping for? Like in this moment of realizing I don't actually really know much about this movie, but I want it to be good obviously. I'm like, I just want fucking the Romero approach.

You know, like every 10 years, George Romero made a different zombie movie. And the connective tissue was, this is a zombie movie made by George Romero. Right? They are basically like anthology films. They're tracking this culture and this world he's built, but we're not following characters that are not building off the plot of each other. And he is just going like, what's another thing I want to say about the idea of this happening to a society? And I do think that's what this movie's doing first and foremost. Right?

It's like Boyle and Garland being like, you know what? We got different shit We can say about zombies than the very specific shit we said in 2002 that's what I want. I don't know if people want this to be The kind of like I don't know. It's an odd question of like what does 28 days later as like a brand? Representing people's minds? Yeah, what are they, right. What are they, what fans are they being denied? I mean, you're right that it's Killian, I guess.

But I think you kind of hit the nail on the head with my reaction to rewatching 28 Days Later for the Boyle series, where I remember it... I remember it being good and scary from when I first saw the movie. And then as I saw it, I watched it again. I'm like, this is profound. This is political. This is so interesting. Our episode with David Rees, very good.

A great episode. But it's also like a punishing movie. Like a movie that keeps you in a miserable space. But as I'm watching it, I'm like, this movie's really smart, and it does not feel like, like, it is now at the top of my Boyle rankings, but it was like, it doesn't really feel like as much of a classic horror movie to me. No, but I also think that's the Romero approach, and you watch those films and there are less horror films

than even like the other straight horror movies that Romero made in his career. And it's like, it's him being like, I other straight horror movies that Romero made in his career. And it's like, it's him being like, I have no interest in making Night of the Living Dead 2. I won't make a different zombie movie. Well, that's why I'm just like, if you talk about like, what is the fan, like, what are the fandom expectations?

Like, I don't know. Because as much as obviously Killian is like, you know, in his like coronation moment, it's not like Killian Murphy in 28 Days Later is like Snake Plissken, right? It's not like we're dealing with like one of the great icons of horror where people are just like, I wanna see him fucking rip in the head. So you had a Snake Plissken, that alpha. That's like a, that's like a, like a 5D joke.

That's a joke riffing on- It's a glowing riffing on glowing Riffing on our 20-minute side tangent of do you think snake pliskin is back in Okay, so we can't really do the box office no I was about to say we're gonna be done I'm gonna go to around 30. It's doing very well in pre-sales I'm hoping it over performs, but 30 would be a total triumph for this movie. Basically, it seems like this week's box office is going to be kind of like three movies making around 30. Like, How to Train Your Dragon, you know, Second Weekend, this, and Elio, which is not Italian. Do you guys know about Ooo?

Disney Emoji Blitz just started its Elio event. I've been introduced to a new character named Ooo. Like, O-O? Oh? Five O's. Ooh. Yes. And it is a tiny little blue supercomputer that looks like a bubble with eyes and a mouth

voiced by Shirley Henderson. That sounds all right. And I'm like, I'm getting excited about Elio for the first time. I've heard Elio's kind of charming. I've heard it's kind of charming, but who might have the juice? It just seems to be... Is who about to have a mini-me summer? Is who gonna do what Claude couldn't?

I mean, one hopes he can at least do what Claude couldn't. Claude did zilch. There is one thing that's not related to this film. Claude has a mannisfiered podcast. We have to talk about it. Wait, wait, just to say the other movies. I think Lilo and Stitch, I guess, is still hanging around. Ballerina has sunk like a stone.

Mission Impossible held really well last weekend, but is that a Father's Day thing? It's a little Father's Day pop. I mean, it's funny for how much they tangled themselves in knots to try to course correct from what they saw as the underperformance of Dead Reckoning. This movie is going to end up within a 10% difference of what Dead Reckoning did at like double the budget.

I mean, but it's good and normal and they're not owned and everyone who worked on it. And you know, it has just the right amount of exposition to explain everything for the emotions. For the emotions that pay off. Uh, I mean, I made a dismissive face. We all remember that the last 20 minutes of Mission Impossible final reckoning are akin to big fish.

I mean, I feel like he thinks that's true or whatever. But we had a point to make about Mission Impossible. Like, I don't need there to be another one. So I don't need it to do well, per se. I mean, I want movies to do well. The great news is Macquarie's cracked if he knows what he would do for nine. The actual great news is that Tom Cruise will be getting an honorary Oscar. Now, you text us this and you go, does this mean

they're shooting his chances of a competitive in the foot? And I call out they finally gave Paul Newman the honorary Oscar 12 months before he wins competitively for color of money a film co-starring Tom Cruise and then we clocked a couple other examples Charlie Chaplin they give him the very odd kind of multi asterisk score limelight award One year before they give him or one year after they give me an after and then Spike Lee wins one year before they give him, or one year after they give him the honorary. And then Spike Lee wins screenplay for Black Clansman after he was given an honorary career award. I think the thing that is, right, it's bizarre that it feels like Tom is about to transition back into making a tour,

serious acting movies again, so here's a moment where he's maybe gonna be gunning for the Oscar again. Why give him the award now? Also, the stunt category is being introduced. Yeah, I also think, like, I'm sorry, like, I, they gotta have this in the ceremony. This is my fucking thing. I'm like, you guys are demented. If you're giving Tom Cruise an honorary award and it's gonna be fucking part of a clip package

that they throw to and go like, six months ago we had a fun dinner. Yeah, no. And he's like fucking dancing with Debbie Allen on stage. Yeah, yeah, no. Okay, so... Dolly Parton too. I'm like fucking Dolly Parton and Tom Cruise getting Oscars.

Put it on my TV. It's TV gold. Don't, don't, I'm all for it. I support you guys. I'm interested in that production designer too. Give him ten minutes. Yeah. Seems like a cool guy. Yeah, everyone.

Worked with Spike Lee and stuff. I love honorary Oscars. Me too, but I cannot deny that back in the day, even me who loves the Oscars, you know, you would be kind of in the momentum of like, okay, it seems like this movie. And then it would be like, screech 20 minutes of Blake Edwards, where you're like, I love Blake Edwards. But remember when he came out and he did a physical stunt in his wheelchair? Yes, Marie, I remember that.

But then he talked for a while. Remember when Stanley Donin did soft shoe? Yeah, I mean, that's just great. Robert Allman talking about his baboon heart? I can't remember if it was a baboon heart, but it's heart transplant. Griffin has a really important announcement. For the listeners. Everyone in this room knows. Everyone in this room knows.

The David Lynch Estate Auction was happening a couple weeks ago, when JJ and AJ, our J's were in town, we were all hanging out and looking at our phones and being like, we should have something, right? It just feels like we should get something from it. And at that moment, the item with the lowest listed price was, do you have- He's gonna have to read it aloud

because he doesn't know what the fuck it's called even though he spent $$$ on it. Excuse me, we spent $$$ on it? I have to actually bleep how much you paid. I'm a little mad if you spent the company's money on that, I will say. Well, we will say we did look it up and face value more expensive. I don't care. This is below MSRP. I don't give a shit, guys.

The E.Colo Blue Atm.O. Blue atmospheric water generator. It is a water cooler that makes water from the air. It extracts the moisture in the air. That's called a dehumidifier. No, it's not. It's called an E.C.O.L.O. Blue. That we're gonna, I suppose, store it in? Windows. No, no.

Where do you think? I don't know. I didn't tell you to buy that. I think this is where me and Ben are gonna be like, you know what, it's time to have a conversation about stuff that goes through. We have the measurements, it's not that big, but we're not taking it out of the packaging. I don't care.

Because the packaging is addressed to David Lynch, care of David Lynch. Yes, I'm aware of that. He must've sent it to himself. But isn't that cool? No, this whole thing is scammy to me. I find it distasteful. This whole thing is scammy?

The Lynch auction thing. I found it all a little like, ooh, sorry. Sorry, we bought the cheapest lot. I'm aware of what you did. Yes, I'm well aware. A cheap is by a good distance. And to be clear, I put it on my own credit card. Oh, OK, well, then I don't care.

You do what you want. OK. But it is living in the studio. Where? Point. Over there, we can put see the stuff that's like we'll move the water, you know, like we're going to have like a dirty box with like a weird. I just looks pretty clean to me. Yeah, it's people are going to be really people are going to be like,

oh, my God, that's the David Lynch water. Ben is like rubbing Ben, I just looks pretty clean to me. Yeah, it's people are going to be really people are going to be like, oh, my God, that's the David Lynch water. Ben is like rubbing Ben, please weigh in because I feel on an island right now. I feel like I'm on Linda's party. I mean, what about like right? We've been trying to make small improvements to the office. We've been doing a lovely job. The porch now looks incredible. Ben's made it looks so nice in here.

And I think there's a lot of other improvements, for example. Yes And I think there's a lot of other improvements. There's zero garbage in here, for example. Yes, yes. There's a lot of other improvements. I think at some point we maybe want to get the arcade cabinet. Like, I just think like... What about like right there in that little alcove right there? Yeah, there's so many spots where the log is.

That could be the David Lynch alcove. We can put the log on top of the box for the water machine. 47 by 20 by 20. I don't know. I mean, sure. 20 20 inches more than a foot. Almost two 47 by 20 by 20. Ben, I need you to join me or else I'll give up. Okay. I mean, I think, listen, there's a reason we're talking about this. I'm like, we're going to have to except for you, the listener to weigh in.

We're at some point going to run out of room. It's not that big a space. And there's I have some I have plans and I want to make some further improvements, especially because we're resigning our lease. We want to build a bone temp. I mean, and we should talk about that. We're resigning our lease. Yeah, there's, you know, there's certain investments and things I want to do. So I would say, how about we compromise and we allow for it to live here for a select

period of time. That feels like quite the compromise on our side. Like, where's it going to go eventually? I'm saying that it's not perverted, David. Here's what I will say. I'm trying to find a nice, sweet spot in the middle. Here's what I was I'm trying to find What I will agree to okay a Provisional trial period

If we all fight I don't want it baked in that it is temporary. I will agree to Give it some time and if we all dislike it, I will figure out somewhere else for it to live. But I want it to have its trial period and to be given an honest shake. That's all right. I foresee, oh, they're shaking hands. I think that's fine. I mean, I foresee this as a really important conversation piece.

I think people are going to come in to record and be like, oh, is that the David Lynch water thing? And you go, yes, look at it. Wait, wait, wait. Can you continue the conversation or is he kind of wrapping up? Oh wow, he delivered it to himself. Cool. And also-

Okay, and then what's the next step? By the way, if some fucking rage virus takes over and our fucking water system collapses, then guess what? We got this fucking hyper useful machine for a hundred dollars off retail price. Have you put this, have you updated your overall rankings? I haven't. I'm just curious if you already did.

Yes, I have. And I put it fifth. I put it, so at my top four, I feel like is pretty ironclad of like Job Sunshine Transponding 28 Days Later. And I put it fifth. I put it above Shallow Grave, Which I had six and some you know like the sort of next package of like shallow grade t2 Slumdog millions hundred twenty seven hours the kind of like good But not great sort of see I I probably put it at the bottom of that here But I like this more tremendous amount it maybe has more to say about me liking wait

You would put this below like 127 hours I love 127 hours. I put this I don't know. I like this way This is like maybe number three for me. I put this below 127. I definitely put it above millions Sure some dog. I put it above slum dog shallow grave. I put it above shallow grave train spotting, too I put it below train spotting 2, which I also love. That movie hits really high. My ranking, I have 28 Days Later, the... That's your number one.

That's my number one. The Isles of Wonder opening ceremonies, I included in my rank at number two. And then I... Great, great call. I mean, we love it, obviously. This movie, number three. 28 years, number three. I just really like this world. Yeah, that's a great world. Then Steve Jobs, Trainspotting Sunshine, T2,

Slumdog, Millions, Yesterday, Shallow Grave, Lifeless Ordinary. You have Yesterday over Shallow Grave? I liked Yesterday. I really liked Yesterday. What is going on? I just think it's really nice that there's a movie about how the Beatles are really special. You know, no one's ever acknowledged that the Beatles are special. Can I say it?

I think our fucking episode helped the reputation of that movie Was so poor that even a lowly podcast episode could be a shot of like fucking Zachary's the magic man. It's so hard to disagree with him as you put it no one beats the Zackster I found on that movie for you like I don't do helped rollerball He wasn't attempting to help roll no he was like I had fun He was litigating his history with it Whereas I think he was making the case and I think it made people watch He's litigating his history with it, whereas I think he was making the case, and I think it made people watch yesterday who hadn't seen it before.

And I just increasingly will have people come up to me and say, you know what's quietly one of the best episodes you guys ever did? Yesterday. And by the way, psst, I like that movie. I've had that conversation a lot. Right. Strangers and friends, both. Right. President Trump said that to you. He did.

When you had your summit with him. And I said, I'm hearing this for the, both. Right. President Trump said that to you. He did. When you had your summit with him. And I said, I'm hearing this for the first time. Wow. OK, here at the end of the episode, I just want to do a quick shout out. Past and future guest, Ben David recently. Ben David Grabansky. Attended a wedding. Yes.

Do you know about this? Did I send this to the group? I'm not sure. But I just wanted to shout out Taylor and Kyle. Congratulations. They actually met through their shared love of the podcast. Taylor was the editor on A Different Man.

One of my favorite movies of last year. He's a wonderful editor. But horribly edited. I met him. I knew he was a listener. I'm a fan of his work. I love that. It's an old episode where I'm like love that movie except for whatever fucker had to do with it. Real weird reliance on Star Wipes

But he he had not told me that they fucking bonded over the podcast and that's no So yes, congrats to them speaking of and also to call out And also to call out past and future guest friend of the show, as of right now on the calendar, January 2026, 28 years later, part two, colon, the Bone Temple directed by Nia da Costa. And we're going to do it, right? We're doing it. All right, cool. Yeah, but it's just, it's funny that like-

We will. I mean, I suppose we kind of have to. I mean, it's not a Boyle film. No, but I think we have to. I don't know. I think we got it. If we do it on Mainfeeder Patreon, we have to cover it in some way. It is funny that we had fucking Nia on trance. Yeah, right. That's true. Talking to Danny Boyle and then like six months later.

Did she know at the time? No, no. Did he listen to that episode? Who knows? I have questions, but I don't have answers. Okay, well, Danny Boyle, let us know if you know who we are. We love you. Especially David. David really loves you.

Can I say a really annoying thing in my life? I keep getting emails inviting me to screenings of movies. I am very eager to see. This is not a thing that has happened often and it's been ramping up the last couple of months. They keep sending me fucking LA screenings. They just think you're a big Hollywood boy. Who thinks that and why? I try so hard to message to everybody.

I'm downtown Griffey Nooms. I'm eating a dirty water dog. I'm walking a pigeon. I'm saluting the Statue of Liberty. Hey, Griffin, do you like your bagels toasted? Oh, I feel like I can't answer this. Because you have the wrong opinion. Oh, I have the opinion that's not seen

as the real New Yorkers. Right. Which is you like toasted bagels. I like to like toast. Yeah, I don't I don't fuck with you. But I think it's about the water. Do you tell them why? It depends on the place. It depends on the place and depends on

how fresh the bagels are. I walk in, I do a sniff test. I hold my hands up. I see what kind of heat is radiating off of the bagel baskets. And then I lick my finger, I hold it up to the wind, and I go 425, 90 seconds. Didn't you grow up by Murray's?

Yeah, Murray's is a great example of a place where you don't, they have a no-toasting rule, and with them it's not necessary. Well, Murray's to me, that was like, okay, the Greenwich Village, the bagel spot. So I go to NYU, it's not necessary. Well, that that because they do their job well. That was like okay the NY Greenwich Village the bagel spot so I go to NYU there's like oh New York bagels and that's where I'm like oh I could never ask for my bagel to be toasted. Absolutely but when I walk into Murray's I'm not like oh god I hate they won't let me toast it. I'm like yeah no toasting necessary but some competitors. If it's a bad bagel yeah if I ever eat like a bagel outside

of New York City sure I'll get it toasted because I don't know where that's fucking something in New York depends on the place. Look, this has been our episode in 28 Years later a movie about bagels and toasting preference in a way and it's so important Wow, we went long. Okay, which is great. Oh, I'm not mad. It's a new release. It's a big movie. Big episode, yeah. Yeah, it's exciting. Yeah, I hope it does well. I want more. But as we said, they're saying that the all-in cost on this one was 60 something.

And I think they saved money by shooting one and two back to back. It was like a straight through production. The new one has a different cast, I imagine. But some return. The bullets probably weren't that expensive in terms of like set deck, right? I think because they were hiding the kid in general.

But it seems like Rafe is not in the next one. I think it's like the kid's in it for sure. I think Aaron Taylor-Johnson is. In some capacity. Obviously Jack O'Connell has a much bigger part, which is why his billing is so high in this one. Right. And he's a name of sorts.

Yeah, well he's having a great comeback. Before we sign off, I just want to wish our dear Ben a very happy birthday. It's about to be birthday, Benny. Yep, next week. Yeah, and of course, for the record, he is turning 25. That's right. Forever 25.

No, he's turning 28 in honor of this movie. That is what's nice about Ben. Yeah, and I feel really good about it, and I'm just excited for the future. I don't want to call my shop, but I got a great present coming for you. My love language is GIFs, and I really, I think, I will say you'll know it when you see it,

and we'll post it on social media, because I think it does need to be shared, but it was in conjunction with a friend of the show who was like, you know what's a good idea? And I was like, yes, let's make this happen together. Interesting. I can't wait to find out what this is. And then, you know, of course, I'm going to have a barbecue on the roof coming up.

And I wonder if someone might make an appearance. This isn't a work day for me. Right. Exactly. Oh, you know, you want a big wall between work and playing. I don't walk in someone else's office and try to do their paperwork. You know, knock the dick out of my mouth. Tell me. My favorite joke.

It's so funny. I don't go to where you're sleeping and knock the dick out of your mouth. Do you have something special prepared? For Ben or for the barbecue? For Ben's barbecue. I do think... I don't want to make that day about me. The best way to complete this bit would be for you to become an expert smoker of meats.

We need to get you on... Great news update for you. I'm just saying like... That bit was completed a decade ago. I know, but imagine like, I don't know how, some event, some podcast event, where you successfully like, you know, smoked ten pounds of risk. What is this weird framing of a future hypothetical? Do they sell a little smoker at the Target?

I'm just gonna buy one for the party and then we'll set it up. It's gonna really limit the range of flavors on those guys. Yeah, I imagine some disposal. It's probably not gonna be. You're not getting the full bouquet of the taste of the wood. I'm just thinking about it from a social media perspective. I feel like that might get us more likes than merit. But that's sort of like, is that me like fucking posting and bragging about the fact that I watched a movie for the podcast on my phone? Do you know what I'm saying? Like that's not

the culture we're trying to present here. You know what I've been fucking around with a lot lately is teak. Oh yeah? Getting that teak on there. I haven't cracked it yet, but it's interesting. Thank you all for listening Next week we return to and finish out our Amy heckerling mini-series Pod times of Ridgewind cast with the final two films to date in her filmography just reading here that apparently teak You know vapers have a strong narcotic effects on the central nervous I said I haven't cracked it yet. I told you I haven't cracked it yet And I might not by the way, but I'm not saying I don't cracked it yet. I told you I haven't cracked it yet. And I might not by the way.

But I'm not saying I don't think it makes it fully illegal. But I think it's a it's a it's a yeah. I gotta figure out how to harness it. And by the way, if I don't, I'll walk away. It's not ready for public consumption yet. But I just it's been interesting. It's been interesting. It's been it's been a a fruitful spring of experimentation for me. Which is fine, because I usually tend to lean on the fruit woods.

Next week, I could never be your woman. One of the most normal movies we have ever covered in the history of this podcast. How do I watch this one? Is this one that I... You just got to close your eyes and think. No, I mean, like, is this available? I imported a Dutch Blu-ray. You can rent it on Marines or whatever.

It is on, like, Tubi, Pluto, all of the... I think I might have watched it on, like, Peacock or like peacock might be on the roku channel. It's actually weirdly prevalent Are you willing to give Murray your copy or is it something? I don't have an all-region player I know which is like really embarrassing. Yeah, and that's a shame because the transfer on this one is really bad They worked really hard on that They pressed a button and went to lunch They worked really hard on that. They pressed a button and went to lunch.

Right. Tamir the Vaseline rubbed on the lens in the filming of the movie. They rubbed Vaseline all over the bottom of the disc. Greasy. Next week, I Can Never Be Your Woman with the great Karen Shee returning to the show. Yep. Wonderful. She's so funny.

She is the funniest. It's a funny episode about a movie that is... funny? I guess. Thank you all for listening. And as always... That's my rage noise. I was going to say, this zombie has the biggest dick I've ever seen in my life. Blank Check with Griffin and David is hosted by Griffin Newman and David Sims.

Our executive producer is me, Ben Hossley. Our creative producer is Marie Bardy Salinas. And our associate producer is AJ McKeon. This show is mixed and edited by AJ McKeon and Alan Smithey. Research by J.J. Birch. Our theme song is by Lane Montgomery and the Great American Novel, with additional music by Alex Mitchell. Artwork by Joe Bowen, Ollie Moss, and Pat Reynolds.

Our production assistant is Minick. Special thanks to David Cho, Jordan Fish, and Nate Patterson for their production help. Head over to blankcheckpod.com for links to all of the real nerdy shit. Join our Patreon, Blank Check Special Features, for exclusive franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us on social at blank check pod. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter checkbook on sub stack. This podcast is created and produced by blank check productions.