Blank Check with Griffin & David - T2 Trainspotting with Scott Aukerman & Shaun Diston

Episode Date: April 23, 2023

First they were addicted to heroin, now they’re addicted to *nostalgia* (but also still heroin)! Danny Boyle returns to the squalid Scottish world of Renton, Sick Boy, Spud, and Begbie for T2: Trainspotting, and Scott Aukerman and Sprague (aka the Artist Formerly Known as Shaun Diston) join us to talk about this under-seen legacy sequel. How did Danny Boyle and Ewan McGregor’s real-life feud influence this film? Is Spud’s arc in this basically just Bubbles’ arc in season 5 of The Wire? Which is the better “much-later sequel starring Ewan McGregor in an iconic role” - this, or the Obi Wan Kenobi series on Disney+? This episode is sponsored by: Bombas (bombas.com/check CODE: CHECK) ExpressVPN (ExpressVPN.com/check) Join our Patreon at patreon.com/blankcheck Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter and Instagram! Buy some real nerdy merch at shopblankcheckpod.myshopify.com or at teepublic.com/stores/blank-check

You know, since we're having this conversation, I can tell you that fully consensual, emotionally driven, not-for-profit podcasting has been attained. You know, I just, every time, I just never know. I'm sorry that I smile at the accent. I give you a smile. I feel like the Johnny Lee Miller one's particularly tough to do. Sure.

Because he's also the only one who is not natively Scottish. And he's kind of doing a posh, posher guy. Yes. Will I be happy to be over with our most British miniseries? You got one more in you, I think. I got one more. You got to do Yesterday and that's it. Yes. That's kind of a funny line.

Yeah, it's a funny line. I was trying to find a tagline for this movie, but didn't have one. Tagline was, we did it. Can you guys stop asking us? Yeah, right. You know, Griffin, I'm kind of upset because I feel like

you should have done Choose Life and then done the big monologue and then at the end found a way to say, choose your future. Choose podcasts.

Now, I did that for the first train. You did that for the first one you did that for the first one okay i did the entire thing because is this one longer in this movie or shorter feels longer it feels longer but that might be because it's a little less like yeah it feels like he's getting random at a certain point you're like all right when's this by the way he's not running sprague i thought you would be upset at his bad accent well look we look, we can't get into accents today. It's an accent-heavy pod. I...

Look, I'm not mad about the accent, but really quick. Hey, David. Yeah. I'm listening to your voice now. I'm thinking to myself, something ringing very familiar about it. Oh, yeah? What's that? Please, go right ahead. A little... Do you hear a little...

Do you hear a little something? Like, I feel ahead A lilty here, a little lilty here I feel like David, tell me what you call a toilet I don't call it a loo If that's what you're trying to set me up for Are you British? Look, I was on your podcast And you didn't bring this up Because we were so distracted by how weird Gigi was.

Yeah, and we were in, right, we were in turn of the century France. We were just, we were transported. Today I'm thinking to myself, this guy's got a little British lilt to him. That's nice of you to say. You can hear the U in flavor. It's subtle, but you can hear it. You can hear me turning those Zs into Ss. The Zs.

You say Z instead of Z. I know. I actually, when I lived in England, I really struggled to say Z. That was one of the ones I could never do. I could never quite say Z. Yeah. I did used to have a lilts spray. I don't think I have a lilts anymore.

You spent some time working it off. Don't worry. In about an hour, I'll work mine off as well. Yeah, maybe you will. Right, yeah. Maybe it'll just it'll just sort of slowly it'll still have two hours to go little is a soft drink yes well welcome to scott hasn't seen the podcast that explores the movie blinds no no welcome to sprague hasn't seen the podcast that explores the movie blind spots okay okay i gotta say sprague you were uh you were saying you were surprised that I didn't do the True's Life monologue. I have to say

I'm mildly surprised that you are the guest on this episode. It almost felt like it was a bit of a coin toss who would show up on the Zoom. It's true. And then as soon as I started talking, I said to myself, what feels natural? And it was this. When you're talking about movies, you're talking about Sprague.

That's very true. But true but you know the fans of of course blank check i'll be having a serious conversation about movies i'm here to dissect well it's important to that we that we got someone from the uk to be on this episode absolutely look i'm no movie expert i will sort of fill the sort of ben role where if something comes up that i think is gnarly or cool, I'll say that's fucking cool. You know, I'll just do that. I don't really think of that as being your game, but for this episode, it might be. This episode, it might be. Look, this is a No Bits podcast.

I think we need to make that very clear, reestablishing right up at the top. This is a No Bits podcast, which is why we have two normal human guests today. This is Blank Check with Griffin and David. It's 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. This is a mini series on the films of danny boyle yep it's called trains podcasting there you go good job or for the sake of today's episode t2 trains podcasting worst titles in the history it actually quietly might be one of the worst titles in the history secretly one of the worst for a movie that i want to say right up front generally very positive on this movie i I think it's very interesting. I just don't know what they were thinking. No, and even just some of the choices of no colon.

Every part of it. Not calling it T2 Trainspotting 2. T20 I almost think would be better. No, just drop it. What would you call it? Trainspotting 2. I think I appreciate the title because I guess I read somewhere that they were like,

this is what the characters would have called the movie. And I thought, that makes perfect sense to me. Based on Terminator 2? That makes sense. No, just based on how fucking dumb they are, you know? T2 Trainspotting. But like, they also, and I'll tell you this, you know, they sort of were like, oh, James Cameron wouldn't

like that. That's funny. That's a weird way. That is funny. It's kind of funny. It'd be funnier if they called it T2 Judgment Day Trainspot. That would be, if they really want to twist the knife in him. Look, our two guests today, as they said,

are the co-hosts of the hit podcast, the hit movie podcast, are fierce rivals over at Scott Hasn't Seen. Yes. But as you were saying, it's Sprague the Western,

Scott Ackerman. Hello, guys. Hello, how are you? Thanks for having us on. This is the second part of a doubleheader for us. This is what, this is what I was getting at.

You've been doing a Sprague Hasn't Seen week. Yes. Month. Month. Month. Month! But this same week,

this episode's coming out, you just did the first Trainspotting, which, Spray, you had never seen before. I had never seen this film. And, um, I liked it. You know, I was pleasantly surprised. It's a tough watch. But, um, by the end of it, I thought, gosh, this Ewan McGregor

guy, I want him to be Obi-Wan Kenobi. And, of course, that was your main... Since then, you watched a whole bunch of Star Wars films. Then I caught up on Star Wars, and I was like, thank God, this guy really did it. It's worked out. Scott, we... Hey.

Reach out... Hello, hi. Hi. Hey, Scott. Hello. Reach out a while ago. Said we were doing Danny Boyle. Had a feeling you might like the guy.

Asked if you had any preferences. This was one you threw out pretty quickly, which was surprising only because I think you might be one of five people who saw this in theaters. I saw it opening day at the Arclight, Hollywood. And yeah, me and, I remember coming out of it going, I had zero expectations going in

because I was like, I love the first movie and they, what are they doing? Why are they making another one? It can't possibly compete possibly compete and i and it's a very different movie but i walked out of it just saying like holy shit that was very moving and and that really spoke to kind of where i am personally in life and i really enjoyed it and the only other person i ever talked to who liked it was jake fogel nest who had the same opinion that i did and i was like yeah it was good so yeah i i've i've thought about this movie since i saw it and this is my second time watching it for this show um and uh yeah i really enjoy it by the way you you guys have both been on our show separately yes and uh what i i find it really interesting

in a glimpse into people's personal finances with how long they take to respond to the email. When I say, Hey, I want to send you a check for being on the show. Griffin six months, David six minutes. Well, look,

I will also say that actually speaks less to our finances. Although I, I don't, I mean, maybe, maybe you got more cash in the bank than me. Griff, you're not paying, you're not paying daycare costs. I don't got no baby mean, maybe you got more cash in the bank than me, Griff. You're not paying daycare costs.

I don't got no baby. Exactly. But that more speaks, I would say, to general email responsiveness. I think that's the takeaway. Trigger finger there. The takeaway is, wow, Griffin is so consistent in his poor response time that even if there is money to be made from responding to an email, it still will take him six months.

I want the money. I gave you the money. I thank you. It just is, is very bizarre. The, the, there, there is maybe I would say 5% of the people who never respond to that email and it's, it's baffling to me because I'll take, I'll take the money every time. I mean, look, if someone's going to pay me $50,000 to be on a podcast, I'll take it. Yes, yes. Which is, let's say, one of the better rates in podcasting. We pay too much. We do offer. Yeah, that's pretty good.

One of the best guest rates. Yes. I just, if I get an email, I have to reply to it right away or I'll forget about it. Well, that's the other thing. We all have our phones in our pockets and are looking at them constantly. Why are we pretending that we can't just email someone back? Right. I don't play that. I don't play hard to get. You can confirm that too. Correct. I don't play hard to get either.

I want to make it clear. I also need to respond to an email right away or else I forget about it. And what I do is forget about it. Forget about it. I don't respond to it. I go, oh, right. You'll remember this. Forget about it. Forget about it.

Get the fuck out of here no this is if they had been able to make a third analyze movie sure yeah if the late great harold ramis hadn't left us analyze the great jelly that analyze with a whiff of all that. Well, that's good. It feels like that's what it would have been. If they made the 20 years later Analyze sequel, if they made A3 Analyze This, it would have been De Niro's character struggling to do, like, virtual sessions. Yeah.

Oh, it would have been like a pandemic. It would have been during the pandemic. Yeah. Right. It would have been forget about it with the emails. See, I thought you were talking about like, okay, Hillary's emails. Right. Well, we'll get to that. Don't worry. That's a serious thriller. I've been writing and we are going to talk about Hillary's emails on this episode, right? Also, Beau Biden's computer, all that kind of stuff is all of it. You never hear about bows. Yeah.

or all that kind of stuff is... All of it. All of it's coming up. You never hear about Bose. Bose, the dog? That's Bose Obama. His little doggy computer. Oh, that's Bose Obama. Every key is shaped like a paw.

Wait, does the first dog get like a dog computer? Absolutely. Yeah, okay. All right, sure. Arfputer? I don't know. Scott, come on. This is a serious podcast.

We're talking about movies with two brilliant movieologists over here. Oh, okay, good. Get out of here. So serious. Is there a first laptop? Like, you know the thing... Or is it like Air Force One

where any computer Joe Biden uses is like laptop one? Does it become laptop one the second he types on it? All the news stories about Pelosi's laptop that they were trying to steal on that wonderful day, January 6th. They've taken great pains to say in all the stories

what she used it for as to not have there be any confusion about, oh, this was a laptop that if it fell into the wrong hands had state secrets on it or something like that. Right. No, this is her laptop that she only fell into the wrong hands had state secrets on it or something like that. You know. Right. No, this is her laptop that she only uses for Neopets. This is her gaming PC.

Right. That's her rig. It's her Steam Deck for Counter-Strike. She plays Diablo on there. Yeah, she does. She's a sorcerer. She's got two fridges and five gaming PCs. Yeah, what if they

had broken into her office and it was all like black with like neon lines? Is that called BioWare? Is that the gaming PC company? Alienware. Alienware. Yeah.

I don't know. Funny. Is that funny? That's hilarious. Clearly, the four of us clearly know so much about gaming PC I'm a little bit younger than you guys So I'm not getting these references Yeah you're too young

Scott imagine she's using him for TikTok Oh thank you thank you thank you I guess What is TikTok named after? I've never been able to understand that Scott come on now That's actually a great question I have no idea Why is it called TikTok? It's named

after the Kesha song. Oh, okay, yeah. Thanks, Grandpa. Okay, but it's like this second-tier Oz character, TikTok the Mechanical Man. Oh, I've never heard of this guy. Who played him? He's in Return to Oz. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Oh, you thought Oz

the Prison Show? I thought you meant the Prison Show. Remember TikTok the Mechan mechanical man in Oz? And I was like, I don't know, there could be a totally white supremacist called that. It's a rusty robot who shivs people. You got Harold in the wheelchair. Yes. His nickname could have been the mechanical man because he has wheels for legs. That's true.

That's true. Scott, we can't be coming on other people's podcasts and bringing our shit to it. Why not? We invited you on for this. Now, can I ask you guys, I didn't listen to the Trainspotting episode that you guys did. Well, you just saw the film. Just saw the film.

We didn't want to be influenced by all of your incredible thoughts. But I know you guys have already talked about it. And generally, was this one in the sort of Danny Boyle-iverse that you liked? Were you guys big fans? Oh, love this one. Certainly. Massive is. And I grew up in England, as you referenced. Oh, is that right?

It's true. Burley Road, in fact. Burley Road? Burley Road, NW5. I used to kick the old ball. I used to kick the old ball. My classic old British thing.W5. I used to kick the old ball. I used to kick the old ball. My classic old British thing. Nothing Brits do more than kick the old ball. Pouring the vinegar on my fish and chips, of course.

I did do that. Sprig, where exactly did you grow up? Yeah, exactly. What year were you on? Of course, I developed my accent very young when I was in merry old England. But then my parents up and moved to Tampa, Florida, where I grew up. I'm a central Florida guy. But originally, were you from the Sherwood Forest?

Yes, yes. Right near Robin of Locksley, of course. Oh, yes. Your neighbor. Of course, that normal thing people always say. I developed my accent very young. This accent? I came by it honestly.

It's true no hanky panky here no no no um but but i'm i i wanted to ask you guys because i'm interested to talk about this film because i really liked the first movie for very specific reason and i the main reason is it made me feel like i was doing heroin like it it's it's a movie that's like a great approximation of what it's like to be addicted to heroin. By the way, he's addicted to watching the movie now. He watches it three times a day. I go home and I fucking tie off my arm and I rent it on iTunes again and again.

Right. Just buy it. You would collapse on the floor in ecstasy. Exactly. I'm under my sheets. You're neglecting your family because of it. Scott's under my sheets. He's like, hey, why are you watching the movie again? I'm like, get away from me!

But this movie, I feel like, is different. It's like a totally different thing. I was very confused by it, I would say. I think that's fair. I think that's what I like about it. It could so easily have, I guess, tried to be like be like well let's just kind of keep

these guys as they were let's do it with the exact same energy let's do it with the exact same filming style right rather than being like well what would those guys be like if they were in their 40s i don't know they'd be like annoying and tired right like kind of grumpy that's true yeah i mean this is what this is one of those examples of a sequel that uses the amount of and tired. Right. Like, kind of grumpy. That's true. Yeah, I mean, this is one of those examples of a sequel that uses the amount of time that's passed really well.

Yes. But yes, for such a long time, and we'll get into all of this, but Irvin Welsh, Irvin Welsh, Irvine Welsh. Irvin.

Irvin. Irvin Welsh had written the sequel book, Porno, with the same characters that was more of a lateral sequel, maybe. This book is Irvin. Irvin. Irvin Walsh had written the sequel book, Porno, with the same characters. That was more of a lateral sequel, maybe. This book is somewhat inspired by that. There's another adventure from those guys.

Right, yeah. Taking place sooner. Yeah. And I think it just would have been more of like, here are these guys with their energy up to some new tricks. They're up to new transgressive stuff. Have you read Porno, Scott? Or have you read either of the books? Oh, the books.

Oh, no, I have read Porno. You haven't read any Porno in life. Oh, Scott, or have you read either of the books? Oh, the books. Oh, no, I haven't read porno in life. Oh, yes, the book. The dirty books. No, I read the original Trainspotting when the first movie came out. And then I remember when porno came out and I was kind of like, oh, should I buy it and read it? And I think it didn't get great reviews, so I stayed away from it. It didn't.

No one was... It was honestly a perfect example of why you don't do a sequel to Trancebug when that book came out. Everyone was like, oh, yeah, right, this is tough. But yet, even though people didn't like the book, they were like, well, are you going to do the sequel? And I think everyone was like,

well, maybe we would only take a little bit from the book. But that's when the conversation started in earnest of people going like get the gang back together despite not really wanting to see that book adapted literally yeah well I know that Danny Boyle he's he said he wanted to do it 10 years later but everyone looked exactly the same because they're actors and they take good care of their faces. Right, they're hot. Yeah. Right. Ewan McGregor's hairline had somehow gone down. He had less forehead than he did in the 90s. Yeah, Scott, I want to ask you about,

like, did you see Trainspotting in the theater, Scott? Like, that's what, that's 96? Yeah, I saw it at the Sunset Five here in Los Angeles on opening night. Was very, very into it. I was super into the music that was on the soundtrack. Of course. So I was very into Britpop at the time. And so to have, and then I also was into Shallow Grave, which I had seen on video, not in the theater.

But so I was really primed for it. I was like, oh, Ewan McGregor, Danny Boyle, the music of Pulp and Blur. Yeah, I think I'm going to see this on opening night and be into it. And then it really just kind of exceeded expectations. You know, I think Danny Boyle is a really interesting filmmaker. Even when his films don't work, I think they're interesting at the very least. his films don't work i think they're interesting at the very least always so uh you know life less ordinary i also saw an opening night and was was less than really impressed with that so but um yeah train spotting i was i was very into it didn't take over my personality or anything like i didn't i didn't sit there like thinking about the fashion and the lifestyle of it and try to emulate it this the way i did say with ducky and pretty and pink in 1986 yes that's a wise choice but but that's what you're saying it's like the whole thing with transponding is that it is

incredibly cool and it's incredibly plugged into the moment it's coming out and but it's not some airy movie about enough you, it's a very tough, you know, gritty, awful movie. I think that's why it's lasted. Yeah, exactly. I don't know if this is what you were sort of surprised by going into its break, but it feels like it could be

a perfect example of a movie where if you haven't seen it before, you watch it for the first time, and your response is, I get why this was big 20 years ago. I understand why at this moment, these new people, new star, new director coming out, hitting their stride, this would have made a big cultural impact. You can sort of view it within context, but you watch it today and it's

like, it's just as fresh. I think it works as well re-watching it as it does watching it for the first time now. But it's interesting, the counterpoint between the two of you of like you seeing it opening night scott in the bag for it sticking with you and then going to see the sequel in theaters like 20 years later in real time aging with these characters and sprague just basically watching the two of them back to back and being like they're different they're totally weird no but you know swerve i think the first one and and i i'm not saying i don't like the second one i actually do like it but i had more to like reckon with after watching it the first one is like the thesis statement of the movie is so broad and like in my opinion the movie is just a great depiction of addiction and i i just don't think that's something that's gonna age like addiction

is happening right now so like the that part of the movie felt very relevant to me. Then the next one is like, it just feels like, okay, no, no. Now we're building a big story. Like, which the first one, the story of it is like, neither here nor there. I did read a review that said it was the addiction has changed from heroin to nostalgia. That's what I, that's, I was like looking for some sort of broad thesis statement to it. And I think that that, if you were to look at it in that way, I do think it does hold up in that it's just telling you like, yes, they're all trying to pine for the good old days. I mean, at the end of the first one, it's a character that gets away from his social group in order to save his own

life. And this one is him realizing, Hey, what if I had never done that and going back? And it's, it's something that at this age, I think you think about a lot is like, what if I had made different choices 20 years ago?

You're sort of like, hopefully a little more settled in your life. And you're like, just still thinking about, but what if I had done that? What if I had done that? Should I have done that better? Should I have, you know, mended that relationship with this person? Should I still in the, and that's what's really interesting about it is, to me, yes, the first one is a heroin movie, but it's not really. It's about people at a certain time in their lives of a certain social class, and now what are they like 20 years later? Yeah. What's also, like, the first movie,

these guys will not admit how much they mean to each other. Like, they're so caught up in the energy of everything they're doing and the lifestyle. We were sort of saying, like, on our episode in the first movie, it's one of those movies where you're like, why are these my friends? You know? That thing where you're young and you sort of just, like, really

bond to the people you just happen to be close to physically, proximity of. Yeah, literally, like, you live next to them. I thought that was such an incredible part of this movie is the sort of, uh, it's not actual found footage,

but the footage of these kids playing as kids together. And then that just is all throughout the movie up till the very end where, you know, he's, he's about to be murdered by Robert Carlyle. And he's saying like, remember that day that this woman sat me next to me next to you and you introduced yourself I mean that's happened to me with someone that I then was friends with all

throughout you know up until after I graduated high school and I still talk to you know it's like yeah it's just a very none of that stuff is important when you're in your early 20s so that's why the first film doesn't cover any of like how they got together but but it is very important to you later in life where you're going back and reminiscing over like all of the choices that you've made well there's this this aspect that i think the movie gets at well of like um at the end of the day you know you maybe go through a period of time where you're like i can curate my friend group right i can seek out people i, you know, you maybe go through a period of time where you're like, I can curate my friend group. I can seek out people.

I can, you know, I can get jobs. I can find people who have the same interests as me, who work in the same field as me, who go to the same places as me. Rather than friends who are sort of circumstantial and like handed to you as a child through school, through proximity, whatever it is. I had friends who like my babysitter was friends with their babysitter. Right. Like, that's it. It's like, oh, we both got kids to watch. Like, okay, weird.

All right, weirdo. Your babysitter had friends? That's freaking weird. You're friends with your babysitter? Babysitter? Paint the town red? Wait, did you not have that experience? Like, I had the babysitters all knew each other.

There was, like, a sort of a network of babysitters. They would all go hang out at the same like playgrounds and spots. Oh, I understand what you're saying. And like, that's how I made, I had like friends where it's like, like in retrospect, it's like my mom, like, wait, he didn't go to my school. How did I know that kid? And my mom was like, his babysitter was friends with your babysitter.

I'm realizing maybe all my babysitters were loners. I know a guy who only had 12 friends and he did pretty well for himself his name was jesus christ scott this is a no bit podcast you know what's funny is we're talking about this and i'm realizing this movie was hitting for me and i couldn't really realize what i was like it's not the same as the first one but something about this is hitting and i'm realizing what you guys are talking about now i could relate to it so much because of course i came up in florida after developing my accent in london of course of course but as a growing up as someone in florida like rooting for them devil rays of course but the fucking the the knuckleheads that you came up with like i had i was a group of

four friends that we were fucking we were maybe as we weren't addicted to heroin but we were now i'm thinking about it like holy shit this was my friend group i had an ultra violent friend i had a friend who was just like yeah sad and addicted to whatever and i remember one day i woke up and i had texted my friends i was like what are we doing today kind of because you just every day hung out with them and they're like oh we went to the beach and we didn't tell you and i remember thinking like okay i'm not i'm not gonna be these guys like i remember making the choice that you and mcgregor made to the first one of like i'm gonna escape this friend group and i think that's

that's the choice you make in your 20s exactly Exactly. And I think my life, I think it improved my life to a certain extent. But for this character to just like go live a normal bullshit life, the choose life that he kind of was like shitting on in the first movie, he ends up choosing it and then is like, wait, this sucks too. So I do like that. I think both the whole choose life of it all is with two characters. It's with Rent Boy and it's with Spud. And with Rent Boy, in the first one, he chooses life, which you think is the right choice. And he realizes it's the wrong choice for him because he's gone back against everything that makes him who he is. And who he is is this guy who likes hanging out with losers

and likes making fun of shit on TV and likes just sitting around and not doing anything. And he did choose what he thought was life, going to Amsterdam and getting married and about to start a family. And it's not for him. But meanwhile, Spud literally chooses life

in this movie. The first time you see Spud in the movie, he's trying to commit suicide. And instead, he chooses life by choosing art and choosing to write everything down. And so it's like,

it's these two characters making the exact opposite choice, but for the right reasons for them. No, Tony, it's also interesting, you know, Renton trying to sell Spud on,

like, you need to find a new addiction. It's boxing, or it's running, or it's hiking, or whatever it is. And he's that sort of type A, like need to find a new addiction. It's boxing or it's running or it's hiking or whatever it is. And he's that sort of type A, like, there's just a way.

It's okay, just switch your track. You just get your life together. Right. And it's like, we're seeing him try to help Spud through that maybe 20 minutes before he finally breaks down and goes, like, my life sucks. It's like a shambles.

Spud actually has to find a thing that is an expression of himself. It's not like, you can't just put the energy into a thing. Right. Yeah. You know? I feel like what is powering this movie more than anything is the meta-narrative.

Okay. Yes. It's so, like, of, like, these guys getting back together, having not spent time together for many years. Ewan, obviously, reuniting with Danny Boyle, which we can talk about. Yeah. But then also just the weirdness of, like, not that the other guys

are, the other guys are doing fine, but you and Greg are reemerging in their midst and they're being like, the fuck, man? You're all like hot. Like,

what's your deal? Like, Jesus. Right. You're Obi-Wan Kenobi and you're coming back hanging out with us. Fuck you. I don't want to deal

with whatever your problems are if you're swinging through town. Like, this movie comes out when John A. Lee Miller is on, like, season seven of Elementary. Like, he's making, like,

big fucking CBS procedural Sherlock Holmes money. And even still, Ewan McGregor walks on screen and you're like, oh, right, that's what a movie star looks like. That's like, there's a difference.

This is why you guys are the connoisseurs of context. Because... Because we know Elementary got seven seasons. I just think it's... I mean... Not a bad show the meta

the meta-ness of this movie was a little lost on me because obviously i'm watching these movies back to back yeah i'm not really thinking about the like moment in time and when i looked at this movie came out in 2017 i was like i don't even fucking remember this coming maybe because it wasn't on my radar at all well during the. Yeah, it's crazy that it was that recent. It's like not that long ago. The first time I watched this sequel, I think I rewatched Trainspotting in order to remind myself of everything, but I feel like it was weeks before. This time, we literally just watched it a few days ago, and the meta textualness of it all was really hitting me because there are just iconic parts of that first movie that they are fully embracing and sometimes replicating. I mean, the part where he rolls over a car hood and smiles at the driver, just so alive.

They totally, they reshoot that. You know, it's just so much, you know, him falling backwards is an iconic shot. Like so much of it, you even hear the songs from the soundtrack, and I know the soundtrack better than you, Spray, but you hear, like, certain songs from the soundtrack playing as if they're really far away a lot of times. Yeah. Like, you hear the pulp songs super far away,

almost as if it's in a dream or it's... It's a memory. It's a memory. Or a shadow. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You see the mother's's shadow they do a lot with shadows yeah but yeah but there's so much of it is is about a person like you know even him just putting the the needle drop down on lust for life and immediately taking it off going no that's the that's the energy of the first one so much of this movie is it has no music and is so quiet

which is not like the first one at all i thought it was such an amazing choice to go totally stylistically away from it and and and just go like no of course they're not going to have the same energy that they had when they were in their 20s they're going to be old they're going to be quieter and that's what the movie is, you know? And plus, I do enjoy that Danny Boyle has embraced the Dutch angles 20 years later. At this point, right. He's very...

I mean, and of course, it's an homage to Renton having lived in Amsterdam. You know, the movie goes very much. It's a very subtle homage, yes. Right, right. Do you think Danny Boyle, like if someone brings a level on set,

he smashes it in half? Get the fuck out of here. I don't even want to see it. Tilt the camera, goddammit. Yeah. No, I think there are the two meta angles. There's the sort of reuniting the four guys of McDonald, Boyle, Hodge, and McGregor, which we'll get into, and also obviously bringing these four actors back together at the same time.

And then I also think, as you said, Sprague, I think very wisely, this movie is sort of about nostalgia as this new heroine. I mean, I said that, but okay. No, I'll take credit. Scott, I thought Sprague said very wisely. I think Sprague was quoting Scott.

Sprague was quoting Scott. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sprague was quoting squat. Jeez. Yeah, you know. It's sort of a Tampa trick, one of his Tampa tricks. But this has become such a... It's Tampa tricks. This has Yeah. You know, it's sort of a Tampa trick. One of his Tampa tricks, but this has become such a,

it's Tampa tricks. This has become such a thing. The, like the legacy sequel, the bring, they'll cast back 20 years later. The where are they now thing. And I think people asking Boyle and McGregor to get back together and make

this movie predates that, but they're sort of cashing in on like the one audience. The second I think this has is the before sunrise trilogy, which we recently covered the first one. We have not watched the next two yet okay um and so i but but as i was watching this i was like it feels like it's going to be more like that than it is going to feel like top gun which top gun is trying to sort of beat for beat do exactly what the first one did and almost trying to say like, get out of here, age. No, it's not going to take us.

Yeah, sure, he's going to have a slightly different job, but he's still going to look exactly the same and he's still going to fly around like he's 20. This one is like, hello, age. This fucking sucks. It starts with, I mean, Ewan McGregor literally running like he did in the first movie and having a heart attack yeah and also i think this movie is he's he's on this

metal level interrogating like why is this a thing we want right like this whole thing of like oh these guys a little depressing to see them and the energy's gone and you're like well if they kept that energy up they would not all still be alive 20 years later. They'd be dead. Right. Right, almost certainly. Things need to have shifted or slowed down. Or if they had miraculously survived, they would just still be doing heroin in an apartment. Right.

Like, that's not... There's no movie. But you get to these things where people are bringing dusting characters off decades later, right? There's always this question of, do you want to see them be the same as they always were? Do you want to see old, incorrigible Maverick?

They can't change him. They tried to make him in structure, didn't take. He's still just a pilot. He's never moved up the ranks. He's the bad boy, right? And to some degree, that movie pulls off the magic trick of making it work. It does. It pulls it off. It's great.

Sequels in general and not even just these legacy sequels, that's the question of them is, how much of it has to have the spirit of the original? Because I've watched sequels and I go, that didn't feel like what I like about the first one. Like, why do I care? So it's a real balance between how much you embrace and try to replicate the first one and also try to make it different.

I mean, one of the classic examples is Alien Aliens, you know, where it's like, hey, we're not even going to try to be it different. I mean, one of the classic examples is Alien, Aliens, you know, where it's like, hey, we're not even gonna try to be the same movie. We're just gonna literally pluralize the aliens. Same with Gremlins and Gremlins 2. Totally different tone. We talked about that one of like, okay, it's not hitting, for

me, what I like about Gremlins. Because I was a big fan of the first one. It was my first date movie right and I have watched it several times over the years and and for me it was not what I wanted out of a Gremlin sequel because it's not scary it's not doing any of the things that the what I love about the original that said it's it's successful in a different way yeah it's successful in a different way I wanted, successful in a different way. I wanted to ask you guys,

because one thing I was thinking about a lot with this, and now that you guys even mentioned the meta-textualness of it, I was thinking about the new Matrix sequel. Oh, yeah. A movie we love. I'm a huge fan of that film. Another film about the limits of nostalgia. It's literally about the...

It is about making sequels. I wish the new Matrix one had embraced the interesting ideas of the first 20, 25 minutes of it a little more. Yeah. Because after that, it just turns into the Matrix. I love the whole movie. I do think the opening chunk is the best. But yeah, that thing that these two films touch on that I think very, I don't, I cannot think of any other legacy sequels that do this really, that really try to interrogate what is the impulse here as an audience

to want to see these actors and these characters back in this sort of time loop way of like, you have to go back to do the thing you already did before, right? And do we want to see the characters we love just be the same? Be just as we left them? Or do we want to see them change and evolve?

And if so, is it want to see them change and evolve? And if so, is it like depressing to see them grow and lose the traits we found interesting about them? I was watching a Legacy sequel called Disenchanted and I was a little bummed that the animal talked. It was weird that the animal No, but they lost

what people liked in the first movie. Griffin, what you're talking about, and it really feels like you're dog whistling fans of the last jedi because i movie i love i love the last jedi and i think yeah the people give that movie shit because they're like i wanted luke to just be in a black robe shoot like slicey people up in a fucking lightsaber and i'm like that's boring to me like at the time that movie came out the more interesting choice for me is like show me like the a version of luke that has changed and grown in an interesting way and i think like if you know to watch the movie and be like oh i'm pissed at

this and and it's a movie that's constantly yelling at you like forget about the past like fuck the past it's all about the future and i think that's interesting so movies that will i think sequels where people have changed dramatically and the movie is almost about exploring that is interesting to me so i'm excited to see more of these uh the sunset movies the sunrise i want to see more of those because i feel like it'll have the same kind of energy but the one thing about the Top Gun sequel that I want to know is who's the photographer that they hired to take the

pictures of them when they get off the planes after the successful missions because he's always got these like always got a picture always got these really beautiful pictures that he pins up on his bulletin board and they're there and it's like they're not iPhone pictures or anything so does does the Navy literally hire a photographer for this purpose?

It's Ed Harris. It's Ed Harris? Yeah, yeah. He's just an amateur. He's really good at it. I don't like him, but the man knows his angles. I want to see the movie about that guy. That's the movie.

See, that's the movie. That's the movie I want to see. Top Gun pictures. Yeah, no, it is it is like also who's filming it like we're watching it who are these people with cameras filming it from different angles or something and by the way it's not one-on-one broken take like there are cuts who's editing this it goes from one cockpit to another but by the way sometimes there are lights in it who's lighting oh my god Who's lighting this fucking,

it's not, I can see people's faces. It's dark. And by the way, it's a talkie. I don't know if you guys picked up on this. They must all be wearing

like lav mics or something. And someone has to be checking the levels on those in real time? Who fed these people on the day of shooting? Yeah, and by the way, I don't think this movie's improvised.

I think someone pre-planned what they were going to say. Well, when the strike happens, that's what movies are going to be like, boy. Anyway. Yeah, then it'll be

Top Gun chat GPT. Oh, boy. That's what it's going to get about. No, but yes, for this movie to start and be like, oh, remember that movie, the first movie, so much fun. These guys's going to get about. No, but yes, for this movie to start and be like, oh, remember that movie, the first movie,

so much fun. These guys had so much energy, so much fun. And this movie starts and you're like, Eugen McGregor's morbidly depressed. Right. Spud is suicidal.

And also is crashing off the treadmill. Yes. Is the actual jail. And his mom died. Begbie's in jail. Begbie is in jail. Well, if Begbie wasn't in jail, that would make jail well if beggy wasn't in jail that would make no

sense begby being in jail makes total sense and uh a sick boy has basically like is the closest to where we left him but he's sort of just like formalized his operation he's become like a professional sort of scammer yeah yeah right and addicted to a different thing. He's now addicted to cocaine. Yes. Yes. Right. But he's sort of the one who's moved laterally and it's,

you know, this thing of like these friends you try to get away from and then the four of them as they're in the same place, or really mostly the

main three, not Begbie as much, it does feel like this thing this movie gets at really well is when they're all in the same place, it's like,

oh fuck, right, these guys know me better than anyone ever will. They might not be my favorite people. There are just levels in which these guys understand me,

the history we have, that it's just like, there's undeniably a charge to this. And is it more depressing to roll back to the good old times that were actually kind of bad? If you really look at them you don't even have to look at them that hard i mean like a baby dies in that all the time yeah well you know

what i wanted to what i wanted to ask sprague is is at the end of our train spotting uh episode sprague you were saying like ewan mcgregor obviously blows the 16 grand or two or i guess 12 or whatever however much is his take home after spud um on heroin were you surprised at what the reality of it yeah i was trying to guess what the sequel would be about and i thought maybe he blew all the money on heroin is right back to where he started or something but i was i surprised i mean i was no not really because as soon as the movie started i was like okay the context of this movie coming out in 2017 they have to address like a long time jump and they couldn't have been addicted to heroin the whole time you know so right i i when i saw that like they were all

sort of coming from different angles it made sense to me what what I thought was surprising was Ewan McGregor pretty quickly being like no that life was bullshit I actually want to be back in like that was an interesting choice to me I thought this movie was going to be about Ewan McGregor like actually like going around to all his friends and looking down on them and trying to change them but it was really him going back being like what was what did i choose before which i thought was an interesting choice i also think it ties into the structure of the first one which we talked a lot about on our episode of how anti sort of after school special that first one is structured like where he gets off heroin kind of early in the movie and then gets back on it and then gets off it again and then gets back on it at the very end you know it's like it it it twists those expectations in this

way where he comes back and you're right there there is that fear that it's like okay now i'm the you know white savior of our friend group i'm gonna come back and help all these guys and and even that spud scene where he takes him out jogging is like flirting perilously close to that. And when he lies to his friend about like, I have a wife and two kids and all this other shit. I thought that was interesting. You think it's going to be like, okay, let's help these guys out. Or it's going to be these guys dragging against his will. And to have him be like, no, I actually.

The other thing that I thought was really interesting was the fact that he has 30 years left on his heart. And that's the depressing part to him is that these guys have always, and I sort of was the same way when I was 20. I was like, there's no way I see 40. And then you, or 30 even, then you get there and then you get to 40 and then you get to 50. And it's kind of like, what do you do with all the time? You know, every single person I know who's old turns into a lunatic. You know, like they all turn into these fucking like anti-vax weirdos who spend all their time online. So it's like, I can really relate to him going like, give me three years, sure, but 30?

How am I supposed to fill up the time with 30 years? There's something too concrete about it where it's like, you live your life being like, I don't know, I could live or die at any moment, right? If they give you a prognosis that's bad and short-term like that, you're like, well, I know how to make the most of the three years I have left.

30, it's like you've now put a clock on a thing that is still far off right yeah i i don't know what i do in the meantime i also think he looks at his dad and it's like well my dad is clean my dad chose this life that i was choosing right but now his wife is dead and he's just sad all the time so i think he's like i think of a man yeah i think he's looking at it like well what even if i have this 30 years like is it just gonna be fucking boring like and so he goes back to the most exciting time in his life which was hanging out with his best friend and just watching football matches and like you know getting high running scams and it's like yeah and and there is no what i like is that there is

no comeuppance for those two characters like yes right they get ripped off by veronica and ostensible i was i was thinking about that this morning i was kind of like okay so they're they lost the hundred grand do they just renege on the the loan the loan or do they do they go like hey we got ripped off here's the here's the signatures we got ripped off or like but the the movie's not concerned with that at all because the last time we see these two guys they're just hanging out on the couch and they're just watching tv still and that's their happy ending there's like it's not a it's not a movie about getting back in touch with the dangerous people from your youth and getting dragged back down into it with dangerous consequences.

It's about, like, embracing that and that being a happy ending for this guy. Yeah, the ending's weirdly kind of tidy, despite the fact that they get ripped off. Because you're like, well, Begbie's back in jail. Spud figured this thing out, and the two of them have each other. Yeah, it's romantic. Yeah. In this sort of uh small and large it's small r and capital r way where you're like huh i guess this really just was about these two

flawed people renton and sick boy i would say so kind of figuring out that like yeah they're better off friends even if like they're not going to accomplish much in their life. The scene where the two of them do heroin together again, you know, in the sort of like after school special, you're like, oh fuck, is the next 40 minutes of the movie going to be them getting addicted and trying to kick it again? And you're like,

no, this is kind of like a sex scene for them. It really is. They cut to it like, here we go. That's it then. And you're like, what the fuck are they doing?

And there are no consequences to doing heroin the way that there would be in another movie. Right. You can kind of think that maybe they still kind of keep doing it

or they do, or they flirt with it. They do it occasionally. They do it with cocaine. I don't know, you know. The movie's not about that. No, it feels like you're watching

like a screwball movie about fighting exes and you're getting to the scene where they finally admit they kind of like each other and kiss. The awful truth, essentially. About the two exes getting divorced and they get back together.

Yeah. Like this whole movie has been them being like, you know, complaining mostly to Veronica about each other. Yeah. And being like, I have the better angle on this. Yes.

I don't know him this yes i don't know him anything i don't know him anything i'm gonna fuck him over right immediately hurried on them when she's talking in bulgarian it's like you two should just fuck each other i don't really even know what the situation is i'm barely interested in sick boy i had sex with him once and it was clearly disappointing and then renton like you're pretty cute but you know i can tell you're kind of a flash in the pan you're obi-wan kenobi but you know what's interesting it's weird that everyone keeps saying that to him the entire film it's what's another interesting thing about rent boy and sick boy is that what they are renton and sick boy um the fact where when you see sick

boy in the beginning he's like all right i'm gonna fucking make him my friend and then i'm gonna fucking double cross his ass right i'm good and i'm watching the movie like okay this movie's a lot plottier than the first one because it seems like it's going to be a noir plot yeah i'm like okay here we go and then the thing we were talking about is like they do start hanging out and they're like actually this is fun and he kind of forgets about this revenge plot that he has. I thought that was another interesting choice where another movie might have gone another direction. But this one was just like, no, no, no. They're angry about each other, but all this is lip service

because once they get together, it's like, Mike, let's do heroin. The one sort of nod to plotiness, I think, and where it does turn into sort of a noir plot is Begbie coming back into their lives. The only time all four of them are on screen together is that last set piece. And that's where it kind of, to me,

turns a little shallow gravy. Like it started to feel like shallow grave at this point where it's like, okay, now there's an antagonist. They're trying to kill him him there's a set piece where there's a you know the hanging and all that kind of stuff but even during that to me it was just punctuated by so much you know so many beautiful lines you know about the the the film's theme and even beg be yes he's on the warpath and like yes the movie does have him kind of rattling around in the background where you're like oh he'll eventually get loose and it's gonna be a

problem yeah there's this stuff but also it's like begby does just want to hang out with them yeah that is his plot line really in both trains so he really just wants to be invited to hang out and they don't want him to hang out because he's crazy it's ostensibly a movie about a guy who fucked some uh his friends out of sixteen thousand dollars but it really is like you left we were friends yes right it's the personal offense of the thing it's less the money they lost and more the idea that he would want to pull one over on them i don't know if you guys have had this experience with friends who you've kind of lost touch with but when you talk to them again there is this like anger slash resentment slash longing that comes in these conversations where it's like oh good to see you motherfucker it's like beg me's whole character i'm like i understand this hunt exclusively yeah it turns into something that i really

understand and i was reading that so i i also kind of read that beg they they say that begby's character is gay in the movie like yeah this was kind of hinted at in the first film obviously hinted at in the first film going on it's hinted at in this one where he chases him down and that's when he finally could get a boner or whatever and at the end of the movie where ewan mcgregor is like hanging and begby starts to like pull on him i was just reading that as like an embrace like oh yeah he is he is trying to kill him but he's like he's also hugging him and like i was sort of wondering what it because to me it could have gone either way it could have been like him apologizing going here here let me help you yeah i was like is he gonna is he helping him or is he trying to i think he's pulling down

going like come on like he is trying to help him technically help him die yeah he's like he's trying to do it in a like hey stop struggling it's both violent and loving in such an interesting way like that i thought was a really like the beg me stuff to me was the stuff that was working the least it was the most like, okay, so he escapes from prison and now he's on a war path to kill his friend. Like totally plotty kind of thing. But that ending moment

where he's just like kind of hug slash killing him really worked. And the other part of it that totally defies expectations is where he as the, you know, primeval force of nature and the, you know, the Tasmanian devil in the plot

who's just supposed to fuck shit up, when he goes to Spud's and has Spud read him all of his writing, and he loves it and starts acting it out, like, that to me is another great reason to have Begbie doing what he's doing. He's the most nostalgic of them all. Of course.

Because he's literally in prison. Mythologizing. Even when the stories that are embarrassing about him, it's like, yeah, there's a power to this. You're putting importance on these dumb events. The best line is he goes, I remember that night. And that is the movie. I remember that night.

But I agree with you guys that, like, the thing with Begbie is, you know, the way he talks about losing 20 years of his life, right? How angry he is that he's been in jail this entire time. It's about what he's missing out on. And it really feels like he's like, I could have been getting up to so much shit with my guys.

Yeah. Well, that's the line that Johnny Lee Miller says where he's like, oh, okay, you've given me the money back. What am I going to buy? A time machine? Right. You know, and that's what all these characters want is a time machine. And that's, it's very relatable, I think, when you get to a certain point in your age where you're like,

shit, what, you know, like, you know, you start thinking about, that's why I think reincarnation is such an interesting idea for people when they start to approach death. It's like, oh, maybe I'll come back and get to do it all over again, you know? Well, the way, like, Johnny Lee Miller talks veronica and begbie talks to his his wife his his son's mother they're just like you don't understand it was four thousand dollars and everyone responds to them like look four thousand dollars isn't nothing sorry four thousand pounds startling i wasn't gonna correct him david but thank you for stepping in and it's not scott hasn't seen guest money but that's That's true. That's true.

And they're Scottish pounds, too, although at that point... Look, I would obviously be furious if I wasn't getting my $50,000 for appearing on your podcast six months later. Well, also, you're giving us $50,000 to be on your podcast. So it's kind of a walk. It's fair play. I actually think it would be funny if we literally gave each other $50,000. Yeah, our tax people would get back and forth.

Well, it's like how Black Adam was profitable because WB bought the rights from itself for streaming or whatever, and The Rock was like, see, this thing's a moneymaker. But the way that everyone

in the movie, when one of these guys complains, sort of goes like, yeah, I get it, like 4,000 pounds, but you're this upset about 4,000 pounds 20 years later, and they keep on sort of reasserting it get it like four thousand pounds but you're this upset about four thousand pounds 20 years later and they keep on sort of reasserting it the thing they won't say

is like he fucked me over i i'm like he left he left me he left he went in the middle of the night he went out for cigarettes and took the money with him like that's the fucking thing he is no longer he he denied our friendship he's no longer part of our core group. Begbie's upset that he left. He's upset that he was put in jail and couldn't hang out with anybody. Right, they feel abandoned. The thing that makes him most upset is to get out of jail and be like,

wait a second, you guys have started hanging out together again? Mm-hmm. Yeah. You wonder what would have happened if Sick Boy would have said, hey, Begbie, guess what? Rent Boy is here.

Right. Let's patch this. Let's, you know, we've hashed it out. Let's patch it up. Yeah. Maybe, you know, like... Maybe he punches him or something.

Maybe he punches him and then they all start hanging out again. But no, yeah, you're right. That's an interesting thing is like to be duped like that is just another just indignity. It's the final thing that I think turns him into Jaws.

Right. Fundamentally, Sick Boy does not want to hang out with Begbie. Begbie is a horrible hang. He's only gotten worse. And Sick Boy's like, I figured my thing out. I don't need any drama and chaos. I have a basic con I run. Right.

Yeah. But that, yeah, it's true. Like, Begbie is so obviously, you know, desperate to prove his masculinity in every situation because of whatever reasons, right? Because he's a little guy. Uh-huh. Because he's possibly closeted homosexual.

Uh-huh. Because he never was given the chance to learn about hotel management. That generation didn't have the opportunity. And so he has to be motivated by vengeance yeah but yeah if renton was just like hey man i'm really sorry i took the money right he'd be like all right you cunt and he'd punch him and he'd be like all right let's you know what you'd get over it you get over it and meanwhile you have spud saying like heroin is the only friend who never left him you know

i want to i think maybe we should do some of the context about getting here and then I, and then talk about spot. Cause spot is very much the heart of this movie. Yes. Uh, and I think an unbelievable performance, but I want to talk about this film coming about. Cause yeah,

you were, you were asked about this break, but basically like shallow grave, you know, comes out and it is these four guys together. It's Boyle has discovered Ewan McGregor the film is written by John Hodge it's produced by Andrew McDonald and the four of them don't forget about Doctor Who my friend uh but but the four of them carry on to the second film and the

third film and it's like this is the team right these four guys are going to keep on doing this together in this configuration and then the beach is the big moment These four guys are going to keep on doing this together in this configuration. And then the beach is the big moment where he had written the movie for Ewan McGregor. Fox goes, if you could get Leonardo DiCaprio, that would kind of change things. Yes.

He drops McGregor for DiCaprio. It was a thing. Was DiCaprio coming off Titanic? Is that what it was? Yes. It was his immediate follow-up to Titanic. And basically Fox went, we hear DiCaprio is interested. Because he's hot.

You know, Danny Boyle is very cool at that moment. And like, everyone wants to make DiCaprio's next movie. Right. And it was, by all accounts, a thing that was sort of like, they never really had the direct conversation about it. No, they did. And they talk about it here, which is interesting. But I think, yeah, it's a combo of... I'm saying in the moment there was which is interesting but i think yeah it's a combo of i'm saying in the moment there was okay okay it's a combo of

it's tough to get dumped anyway and boyle says like we didn't handle the dumping well at all like we did not finesse that and mcgregor was like i held a grudge i didn't try to make things better the story that's really interesting that mregor tells, because basically, right, it's like, so the beach is what, 1999? Yes. And this movie's 2017. And so there's basically

an intervening 20 years of these guys, like, really not talking to each other except being ships passing once in a while. I feel like 15 years in, you hear, oh, they've sort of

started to talk again, maybe Trainspotting 2 could happen. But there really was, like, a 15-year gap of nothing. Yeah, so, you hear, oh, they've sort of started to talk again, maybe Trainspotting 2 could happen. But there really was like a 15-year gap of nothing. Yeah, so, you know, exactly. So, sorry, I'm trying to find the specific anecdote in the research that I found just very interesting. McGregor talks about a lot, though.

It's kind of similar to the way we're talking about the idea of the money in this movie. Yeah. In sort of recent interviews. It's not that Leo DiCaprio was in the beach. Exactly. It's that you didn't come up and talk to me about it. You feel betrayed by your friends.

And like he had made three movies in a row with him. It was his guy. Yes. They were coming up together. They were the new exciting British cinema guys together. And then all of a sudden it's like, wait, what the fuck? Has basically said now with perspective, like, I think the thing I couldn't verbalize at the time is

I thought that's what my career was going to be forever. My entire sense of my career as a movie actor was the four of us make things together. And the second I was removed, the three of them were doing something with a different guy. It was less about ego of like, he's the bigger star and more about who am I if not working with these dudes. Now, of course,

this is happening at the same time he's already been cast as Obi-Wan Kenobi. Yeah. As the actor part of it, he gets to go off and do these other fun jobs and what he expects to be in every single thing they do. Right. He's just like, this is the team. This is the creative process. All of this. And then there's just like 15 years where

they would sort of be like, I don't know. It it feels weird so the most interesting one that he recalls is that apparently boyle gave the news about the beach to mcgregor at a place called the union club in soho but london's so yes and years later uh ewan mcgregor is there meeting a different director at the same table and danny boyle walks walks in yeah and they see each other and mcgregor like said i went white i got up i went over and he said oh god you're not sitting at that table are you and ewan was like it was truly like bumping into an egg like it was that level of awkwardness yeah especially given the location yeah so they clearly there had been some conversation Of like I'm sorry but We're doing this The other anecdote just quickly

The plain one Oh sure say the plain one In 2009 Boyle and McGregor were on the same Flight back from the Shanghai Film Festival First class had Danny Boyle, Ewan McGregor Ewan McGregor's wife, director Stephen Daldry For whatever reason

And that was it There were only four people in first class And McGregor said, Daldry went to sleep My wife went to sleep They turned their lights off, went to sleep So it's just me and Boyle Sitting like, you know, a couple seats away from each other And it's a, like, 12 hour flight

And I'm just thinking, like, I really should go talk to him And I never left my seat yeah so like it's very it's clearly like deep for this you know this is not just some casual you know feud didn't ewan mcgregor see the beach like and just it's a good point it's a good question like does he see the beach and think oh bullet dutch right or does he think like well i would have been good in that his ph Phantom Menace come out the same year? Yeah, Phantom Menace trashes that movie. Right.

No, the other anecdote... I would rather watch The Beach than Phantom Menace. Yeah. The detail of it is basically, we covered this in our Beach episode, but like, they were prepping that movie, suddenly it became clear like,

oh, this is a movie that's going to cost $40 million, not $20 million, which has been Danny Boyle's range. And Fox goes, we feel uncomfortable giving you $40 million if Ewan McGregor's the lead. Especially since their last movie was Life Less Ordinary, which is not exactly like the world of the play.

Now, if DiCaprio's the lead, we'll give you $60 million. We'll give you more, right? Because he needs 20. Right, right. We'll tack the 20 on and free up the 40 for whatever'll give you more. Right. Because he needs 20. Right, right. We'll tack the 20 on and free up the 40 for whatever the fuck

you want to do. And it was this sort of, like, the money, but the money was representing the idea of the freedom and the growth and all that sort of shit.

So when, when does, when do things finally get mended between the two of them? So, Boyle, I mean, Boyle's perspective is basically,

I didn't treat him well. I think he's been magnanimous about it. Like, Boyle is definitely not like, he should get over it. He feels bad about it. It felt like 15 years of them both not wanting to have the difficult conversation more than they were, like, actively angry at each other. And you, by the way, you never have to have that conversation.

Like, many people's lives end and they never have those conversations. Yes, it's true it's it's it's great that they did yes apparently at some point mcgregor says he was asked to present boyle for an award i think this is around the slumdog era okay and he said they'd given me mcgregor said they gave me some garbage to read and instead i just talked about like you know sort of from from off the dome like how much i loved him how much i loved working with him how happy i was always just you know to look over and see him on the set and i trusted him and then and then he said after i stopped working with him i

went on to make and i listed all his subsequent movies you know in order yeah so ewan was sort of like clearly doing the olive branchy thing of like, I haven't sort of been ignoring you. Yeah. Like I, you know, I've been paying attention

to what you're doing. Yeah. Right? That's kind of nice. It's kind of sweet. And I think the bigger thing about this movie is it's not just the two of them.

It's like, it's the other actors. It's not like none of these guys had really been hanging out. They were in their early 20s. some of the other actors had issues as well with each other? I don't know if they had deep resentment.

I read some weird quote that it's like, some of the other actors had some stuff going on, but they all solved it and were all back together. I think John Lee Miller has always been a little touch and go as a guy. He's touch and go as a guy? What does that mean? He was married to Angelina Jolie. Very aware of that.

I think he can be... You okay, Sprig? I had a visceral reaction to that. I'm not like thinking about the two of them together kissing. Off of hackers. You know Johnny Miller does Muay Thai boxing. I did not know that.

Apparently he does that. I don't know. Anytime I read about like an actor where they're like, in my 40s, I got in touch with like exotic boxing. I'm like, okay. I feel like I've heard stories about him being a moody guy. And I'm not using that as a euphemism for anything else. You heard that story from Watson.

I did hear that from Watson. Yeah, you know, he was always on Watson's case. He showed no respect to hot lady Watson. No, okay, fair enough. Maybe I'm just jumping to an assumption. No, but it also, I mean, obviously, Robert Carlyle does the full Monty. It's not like he wasn't a movie star,

but the man had a long character actor career And Ewan Bremner Really kind of feels like a guy who's like I'm happy to be here I like a good role Incredible jobbing actor And even just looking through his Wikipedia last night Those are the pretty boys of the 90s

At the same time There's probably a little more Competition We were talking about Bub. We were talking about Spud. Yes. And we were getting into some of the context, and I don't know where you guys are going with this,

but the only thing I could think about the entire time I was watching the movie is this guy is Bub's from The Wire. It's the end of the story. No, he's Spud from Trainspotting. No, I know. Oh, yeah, that's so close. But it's the end of the story, and spud from transpotting no i know oh yeah that's so close but it's the end of the story and now all of a sudden someone's writing the story that we're watching like

the final season of the wire this guy's like i'm gonna be a writer now and i remember being like oh this is an interesting story to end with so the final season of the office hey we're the guys filming it's like a weird but so when this was ending and that started to sort of materialize i was like how do i feel about this the like person who's writing something in the movie you find out is writing the book you know what i mean like the thing you've been watching is the inspiration for the thing you've been watching yeah like they do it at the end of game of thrones they do it at the end of a bunch of like narratives lord of the rings as well like they do at the end of lord of the rings

so i'm thinking to myself i'm like do i like this or do i think this is like bad i like the idea of spud and the rest of them gaining something through him writing it down i don't know if i need him to be like and it should be called train spot i'm so right at the end before the name

at the end by the way that's babu frick that is babu frick yeah so That is Babu Frick. That's a must-back. So she, of course, slaps. But at the end where it's like, I think I've got a title for this, I think it's a little bit of a cheap narrative trick. But because this movie, like you said, Scott,

is about that addiction of nostalgia, I do think it works on a thematic level. It doesn't just feel like oh it's a plot device to make i have to say what what makes it work for me is the fact that it's so it's so foreshadowed in the movie like it's it's not something where it's like a surprise they're pulling out at the end it it really is something where it's like halfway through the movie um you know he's he's hey, you should write all this stuff down. And then you know what's going to happen then.

He's essentially the stand-in for the writer of the novel. To me, the end, having that be his redemptive arc is very powerful because it's like you knew it was going to happen. It's about the execution of it and the fact that this, out of all of the characters, this is the one that got saved. That's the thing. Because I think in general, I find this type of device a little too cute and a little too neat. And I was surprised by how much it wasn't bugging me watching this. Yeah. I think... You can do it for a reason. The choice to make it spud is a masterstroke. If it was written doing it,

I would throw this movie out of the way. Yeah, right. Unnecessary, right? And I think it's the same reason it works in The Wire. Because this character who's like been the victim of almost all of the show. Yeah.

But he's not an uninsightful person. Like Bob's much like, you know, these are people who clearly understand things about what's going on around them. They're not. So I think it works in the wire and in this for similar reasons. And they do such a good job of setting up this character and his state at the beginning where you really want to see him find any way forward.

He needs something, and you don't just want him to have stability. You want him to have some sort of joy in his life. I find that first sort of meeting scene you see with him where he just explains the chain

of events that fuck up being ten minutes late and then ten minutes late and then ten minutes late and then ten minutes late. One hour because of his daylight savings. But then from then on out, he's late to everything in the rest of the day, and he's losing custody, and now it's like, well, now we're just back down to heroin.

He tried so hard to structure a proper life for himself, and it goes away so quickly, and he falls back to the thing he knows. But it's a good evocation also of his storytelling skill yeah slash whatever like i also think it's important by the way that the movie doesn't end with like him at a book signing or something the move where the movie ends is with babu frick reading the stuff that's right that's all we need is just loosely his he now has the respect of his

family long hand and i also think it's like it's part of it is just he that he now has the respect of his family. Longhand. And I also think it's like, it's part of it is just, he's not like, I'm a novelist now. He's like, I needed to put this down. Like, I need to sort of like do something to exercise this energy. All these things I've been sort of like. And I love that Ewan McGregor is like, who's going to read it? No one. Like, no one's interested.

But then he says, I don't know, maybe my grandson or something. Right. And I think that is what happens at the end. It's just like someone from his family reading and understanding his story is all he maybe needed.

There's also this beautiful thing. I mean, it's like another meta level, but this, you know, transpiring as a book, then they do it as a stage play. And when they did it

as a stage play, Ewan Bremmer played Rent Boy. Yes. And it was kind of the thing where they set this up as a movie. He's like, I got it. They needed a movie star. They needed someone who was more conventionally handsome.

I'm not going to play Rent anymore. I'll be spud. That's fine. I appreciate that they let me play the goofy sidekick part. So there's something kind of nice to having him suddenly be the guy telling the story.

You know, doing... I love this quote from Ewan Bremner. He says, it opens with someone running and going nowhere. I mean, it's fucking brilliant. You read it and you think, this is how the sequel starts. Oh, it's ambitious.

Like, you know, he... But the other thing is like, this is, you know, basically just the idea of like, we've all been running for 20 years to stand still. Not to invoke U2, the great band U2. Hey, you talking U2 to me? I might be.

But this is a less, you talking U2 to me? I might be But this is a less You know, this is a less gnarly movie Than the original Trainspotting They're doing less drugs But the sight of him barfing Into the bag during his suicide It starts him off really Like a barf helmet basically That is tough

Like it's already tough to be discovered In this sad apartment Mid-suicide attempt He can't even pull that off helmet basically that is tough like it's already tough being discovered in this you know sad apartment mid-suicide attempt he can't even pull that off but then just throwing in the barf to really drive home like this guy is is you know it was interesting to me because the first movie is very obsessed with shit and there's a lot of like nasty shit in the first movie and in the beginning of this when when he barfs into his like suffocation bag i'm like okay here we go like there's gonna be four or five times where i'm gonna be totally grossed out by something happening but it doesn't really do that yeah that was the only one but i but i what i like about it is they're kind of telling you that you're like no well he's still

in that he's still the closest to that world yeah the last time he saw him he was spreading his shit all over the family now he's kicking it to a bag yeah and i thought it was successful in that like a reminder of where they came from in a way yeah i thought that was fun i thought that here's a question for you guys because i think you've you might know this but so the the Trainspotting on our episode, the previous episode, we talked about what it means and where it came from in the book.

And the scene from the novel that gives it its title, Trainspotting, is not in the first movie. Right. But then they show it in this movie.

I was wondering if it was a deleted scene or whether they reshot it and shot it dark and shot it from far away. Oh, that's far away question because they reuse so much footage from the first movie yeah it started to make me go oh i wonder if they actually shot it for the first movie realized it didn't work and cut it out but now they're

they're showing this footage in it because if you don't if you haven't seen the movie for the listener it's it's where the old man in the train station yeah uh sees them all and says, what are you guys doing? Are you train spotting? Which is an allusion to shooting heroin. And then it turns out to be Begbie's father. I don't think that's some deleted scene that they revived

or anything like that. But it is interesting that they... And I didn't mention that when porno came out, they were like all right John Hodge you know take a crack at it and he said he did like a screenplay that was basically an adaptation of the book and everyone was like this sucks right we're not getting back together for

this like like genuinely like Hodge that's hard that's hard uh feedback to get from people hey this sucks this sucks like Danny Boyle was like I didn't even want to show it to any of the actors like to try and tempt them into like hey do you want to do a sequelle was like I didn't even want to show it to any of the actors like to try and tempt them into like hey do you want to do a sequel because I was like that because I knew it would just kill the idea so porno is like mostly about them trying to make a porno right no it's about them trying to open a brothel

in Holland mostly it is this so this movie borrows stuff from it and Begbie is kind of has a similar arc in it of like he's in prison trying to get out and all that I thought it was like similar arc in it of like he's in prison trying to get out and all that i thought it was like full zach and miri like let's get the gang together muses there we'll fuck each other on camera yeah um no uh so right that's the thing like when he then eventually is like all right let me try writing a sequel uh screenplay again i think

he takes some stuff from porno but not all of it takes some stuff maybe that's kind of inspired by real life but maybe he's kind of inspired by real life. But maybe he's also going back to the original book and being like, what didn't I use here that I could conjure up? I think I read they used some stuff from the original book. And I think what's really brilliant about that scene with the train station is like, it is in a moment where they're reading a story from, like, it is in the past. Like, it is almost like, this happened in the first movie, but we didn't show it to you.

I think it's just sort of a clever way of not, like, including it in this movie as a flashback. Well, it also isn't just on its own. It's there to inform Begbie's choices of him realizing, oh, shit, I need to be a better father than my father was for my son. That scene where they're eulogizing Johnny, basically. Right? Johnny is the character I'm thinking of from the first movie. Yeah, the kind of kid character. Right.

They go back to the train station and the hiking center. Yeah, exactly. And then it turns into them attacking each other for the worst things they ever did. That's when he's finally playing the baby card at Jeremy Lee Miller.

And then the fact that that goes straight into them doing heroin again. It's really fucking interesting. Right. This weird, like, this is the most intimate thing they can do. They're summoning up the ghosts. Is finally have the conversation. Right? It feels like the much more extreme version of

boyle and not and mcgregor not talking to each other about the thing in the center for 15 years and then it immediately cuts to them doing the most intimate thing i thought you were gonna say it's the more interesting sam and diane kiss where they're like yelling at each other they're screaming they're mad it's like are you turned mad. It's like, are you turned on? And it's like, are you turned on as I am? More. And then they kiss. But in this movie, they do heroin.

Yes. No, but it is. It's the same sort of like what we're talking about. The screwball banter thing of like you have to fight up to a fever pitch before you acknowledge. Like the thing here is we just want to fuck each other. I also, I mean, I don't know that I necessarily feel that it's one of those Sam and Diane things. I think that the heroin, like them addressing these worst things that ever happened in their lives puts them back in it. Yeah, makes them need the heroin.

Makes them need the heroin. They've been running away from it. Right, yeah. Just like when the baby dies in the first one, the first thing they do is shoot up. Yeah. So it's almost like bringing up those ideas again. It's just you got to go right back to the thing that was helping you in the first place.

I mean, Sick Boy does not strike me as a retrospective person. No. In any way. No. Right. Renton a little bit more. But even Renton has obviously tried to build up a tidy backstory for himself when he returns to be like,

hey, I'm not like you. I mean, I think it's so funny when he returns and he's got a movie star scarf. Yeah. It's like with the perfect knot. Right. And it's just, it's Ewan McGregor. It's like Ewan McGregor is walking in. That's the thing.

Yeah. Being like, hey guys. It feels like that thing where a big star sort of returns to their roots and they're like, but they're not going to drop the stylist. They have a look cultivated that they're not going to let go of now and he has wait he has the long hair on the treadmill right that's the yeah he has more of an obi-wan uh yeah you know sort of revenge of the sith obi-wan you know long hair i was gonna ask can we talk about the veronica character yeah oh sure yeah the one new character is the one new sort of main character i i i find her interesting in this movie i think like i keep

trying to think about like what is the purpose of her character and i think i don't know there's like a she brings a bit a bit of reality for being like an outsider in this friend group like i like when she's saying all that stuff like you should fuck each other and she like has a perspective that is outside there i don't know but it also is i think you know contributing to what you may feel is sort of plot plotiness of it because she has the typical femme fatale role in a noir movie which is essentially the two guys are gonna fight over her she's gonna fuck them over at the end but it never it also never really crosses over into like in a noir movie it feels like you know these people getting fucked over is is life and death

life and death consequences and they just kind of like shrug it off at the end and it's like yeah well you know we would have done the same thing i i feel like it was everyone trying to replicate knowing they need to replicate basically what renton does in the first one fucking everyone over sort of the book ending with those and having it be ironic but but it is the most like movieish yeah of of of the of the entire movie. Boyle loves making a fucking bag of money movie. It's like insane. Even when he made his children's film,

it's about a little boy finding a big old bag of money and scary men chasing after him. But I think he just likes having that as like the actual object in the center of the room that you can build all the drama around. But it's weird because the bag of money in the first Trainspotting is, yes, technically it's what the entire choice at the end hinges on,

but we were talking about in our episode. It comes in late. It comes in late, but it also is not dealt with in the typical, like, 90s Pulp Fiction-y type of way, which is, like like they're going after this big score and then it all goes awry and every you know they just basically they go after this

big score they get it they get it and they all go yeah they just celebrate right you know like this this is like they they get their big score they get a hundred grand and then she slowly fucks them over the way that it happens in noir movies so it's it's a little not exactly true to what the first movie did which was be a little more realistic about it i i don't know if i assume neither of you has seen trance uh no okay so that's two movies before this sure boyle his big noir twisty who's conning who thriller rosario dawson yes it stars rosario dawson james mcavoy and a distinct lack of pubic hair uh but that movie because this is that's a huge plot point scott seemed like a weird comment you bristled at me saying that it's almost the central plot point of the movie um well i didn't bristle because most of the times

that i talked to you you're talking about somebody somebody's pubic hair and you leaned in when i said it um i was like oh here we go veronica set up at the beginning of this movie i was just like fuck is bull doing this again because that movie gets although i kind of like it gets a little exhausting with how many like yeah it's every 10 minutes right someone's fucking destabilizing doing this again? Because that movie gets, although I kind of like it, gets a little exhausting with how many, like... Yeah, it's every 10 minutes. Right. Someone's fucking someone else over.

Disabilizing everything. And even just her having conversations with both of them, I was like, are you going to have an ending where you realize this whole complicated thing

she's been doing the entire time? I like that it's pretty low stakes. It's low. It's lower stakes, which I think makes it work for me because it's just like you're expecting that moment where she's been playing both people against each other and then she fucks them both over. And it's pretty much obvious she's going to and she does it in a low

stakes way and she does it. And I think what also makes it work is the fact that she's going to give Spud his cut. Yes. and he turns it down you know realistically says i would just spend it on heroin she goes well i'll give it to your family then you know it's like it all feels very low-key in a way that most noir movies don't but can i give you my take on it yeah i think she's vitally important in the movie because at the end of it i was thinking i was like what is her role in this movie and at the end she ends up screwing them over and taking the money oh i think she saves their relationship because she knows from learning these guys they're gonna fuck one of them's gonna fuck you over and then it's gonna be total bullshit again so the fact that she pulls the

money out of the situation it is allows for the happy ending of them just sitting on the couch. That's interesting, yeah. And I totally was like, oh, interesting. Like, it is a little bit of a like, oh, you find out about the signature thing. And then I like that Spud is like, what would I do with the money? I would just do heroin.

Him refusing the money made me think it's right. Like the money is bad for them. Yes. So the fact that they get the money is like kind of the ticking clock of like, what's going fact that they get the money is like kind of the ticking clock of like what's gonna happen next yeah because i guess it could have been like is ewan mcgregor gonna fuck johnny lee miller over or is johnny lee miller gonna fuck him over and you know johnny lee miller is motivated to fuck him over at this point because it's like

well you fuck me over in the past yeah and they're both they're both doing it with the other bag of money which is essentially her yeah like they're trying to it with the other bag of money, which is essentially her. Yeah. Like, they're trying to fuck each other over when it comes to her as well. And so the fact that she goes, like, I'm removing myself and the money, it gives them the happy ending. They're not going to succeed at being criminal. No. Like, when the criminal guy kidnaps them and takes them to the woods, he's like, listen, so I am in charge of brothels and such.

Yes. You know, this is organized crime and that's my job. So you guys won't be doing that. Right. And they're like, no. And he's like, all right, great. Right. Like he doesn't even have to threaten them.

He's just kind of like, look, listen. Walk home naked and you're fine. Exactly. Not even the money, but the idea of the money is like the final space between them, which he's able to remove that, that gets them to be able to fit on the couch together again. Just like jerk off together. Right, and like the tragedy of Spud is like, you know, Renton comes to him and is like,

what about the money? You were the one guy who gave the money. He's like, I'm a fucking heroin addict. I spent it on drugs. I spent it on heroin. When Begbie comes to him and finds out that he got extra money, that he was the one guy who was given money by Renton,

he's twice as irate, you know, that the money went to him and that he blew it on heroin you know and it's like oh he didn't abandon you completely like it is yeah well that's the other thing is is you okay what if they never got fucked over and they split the money would anyone's life be different no would begby's life be different i doubt it was not that much money yeah he's and he's not in forgive me if and correct me forgive me and correct me if i'm wrong but um he's not in prison for what he did in the first movie no no he's he he's he's been in because he's gotten married and

had a kid since and he has all these other connections the film is also beginning with him getting an addition his lawyer is telling him you're getting another five years clearly because of some shit he did in prison right yeah like so so yeah i mean i don't i don't think the money changes their lives at all no i i think the only one who's changed by it is is renton running away from them but i think those three guys are in the exact same place regardless of what amount of money he does or doesn't give and renton's change is temporary like he eventually comes right back to where they were yeah but but spud's whole introduction regardless of what amount of money he does or doesn't give them. And Renton's change is temporary. Like, he eventually comes right back to where they were. But Spud's whole introduction is this sort of like,

I tried so hard to be a person. I genuinely love Babu Frick and my child. I tried to do right by them. I keep fucking up. Our little Fricks. I keep shitting in the bed. I keep shitting in the bed, and she keeps weirdly criticizing my healthy-sized penis. Right, yeah.

I don't know if you guys touched on that. She hates his giant flaccid cock. Right. Yeah, that somehow is a small penis. Yeah. Listener feedback was, is she disappointed that he's not still hard while passed out? Yes, maybe that's what it is.

But I don't know. Which makes her a dang ass freak, if I dare say. But yes, no, it's like, Veronica says the thing to him that he's never been able to put together, which is, I'll give the money to them.

He's like, well, I'll fuck it up if you give it to me. And she's like, I know what your intention is. You wish you could give it to them. You don't trust yourself. I'll give it to them. And I think it's interesting, you're talking trust yourself i'll give it to them and and i

think it's interesting you're talking about her her being veronica being a vital part of this movie right we're basically only two female characters of any real size begby's wife to a much lesser degree right but you have the one big kelly mcdonald scene and veronica kelly mcdonald's function in this movie is to be like fuck we need help do we know anyone legitimate right and it's sort of like embarrassing that for mcgregor for renton it's like who's the most upstanding person i know that teenager i fucked 20 years ago right she made something of herself they show up in the office she's not being rude but she has this sort of cocked eyebrow of like you're really coming to me about this you don't know anyone better right yeah he

doesn't understand the difference between an hourly rate and like an overall yeah that's a good like what was the rate that he thought it was gonna be like oh uh i'm gonna pay you fifty dollars that's reasonable hourly rates right well i i think her other role is is and it's so brief it's it's just for it's the tiny scene where he's looking at her in the office later and reminiscing about well what if i had stayed and tried to make something which is just ridiculous because she's a teenager yes in the first one if he had really tried to make a go at it like what that it doesn't make any sense but he sees her as like well what if i had been with her what would my life have been like you know like i maybe

i would be living the same life you're living right meanwhile he's walking to an office with a new young woman and the thing she says is she's way too young for you don't fucking do this right yeah right and and like for him we see her family in the first movie she's got a good home life she's got a support system her time with these guys is very much like youthful rebellion. But she's never sinking all the way to the bottom with them.

You know, it's like a little bit of tourism. It's a little bit of fun. It's a little bit of learning. She was never, ever gonna get stuck in this shit. Whereas these guys,

it's like bone deep their lifestyle. And Veronica feels like she exists in the trenches with them. But then you're like, no, she's like a fucking immigrant.

She's here out of circumstances. She's young. She's trying to get back to her kid. An actress. Which she never mentions. You just see at the end. But it's like, it's so the final piece is like everything she does is out of necessity. These guys, it's bone deep.

This is who they are. It's where they're comfortable. Right. And like for Kelly McDonaldDonald it was a phase and for Veronica it was a necessity and for the two of them this is where they will always be this is their ceiling I mean her name is Angela Nedjalkova

she's Bulgarian she's done very few films I don't know where they found her essentially she's quite good she's very beautiful she's fun, she's kind of loose she essentially. She's good. I think she's pretty good. She's very beautiful. Yeah. She's fun. She's, like, kind of loose.

She's, like, got the energy they need, I feel like. Yeah. I also will say... I couldn't tell she was beautiful because I was looking at her eyes the whole time. Oh, okay. And never lower. And she says,

Scott, my tits are down here. I also think it's interesting that Broad City walked so this movie could run when it comes to pegging scenes. Well, sure. Sure. Because I do think that when this started,

I was like, when did this come out? And so I kind of looked it up, and I was like, oh, yeah. Pegging had come on the scene as a phrase everyone knew, I don't know, around 2015 or something, and then it's the big part of the beginning of this movie. You're forgetting something though, Sprague. What am I forgetting? 2016, a little murk with the mouth.

Deadpool. Yes, of course. Got pegged on screen. $300 million domestic. Suddenly it's popular. You know, that's what it was. You know, Danny Boyle was watching Deadpool and he was like, I got a little something for my movie.

Pegging's mainstream now. We can talk about it. But it's funny. I do think that that's an interesting choice because I think like a lot of the movie, like being emasculated and your masculinity, there's like so much of that in this movie with Begbie and other characters. I think that's an interesting choice. I think there's a little bit of like life philosophy to even this con for sick boy that is like there is

an intellectual dishonesty right uh hypocrisy to these guys being able to like being so terrified by the notion of anyone knowing their sex life sure that it plays against. I think he's having no moral judgment about what they're doing. No, he doesn't care. Right. He's just trying to get money out of it. But he just sort of knows, like, the idea of an upstanding citizen being pegged, a thing you can never admit to your wife, that you need to do in secret, in a shady, clandestine kind of way, is the greatest threat to this delicate sort of, like, life, the type of

life that McGregor has been trying to live. The white picket fence, the straight job, all of that sort of stuff. The sort of like, just what do you enjoy? What's your pleasure, you know? Needs to be shameful, needs to be in dark rooms. Can we get that as a drop for the next episode? What's your pleasure?

What's your pleasure? It needs to be shameful. It needs to be in it needs to be dark i'll i'll send it as a doughboys drop next week okay good thank you we should start doing that we should start doing drops of our own audio and sending it to doughboys just just our just our our producer brett for scott hasn't seen did a uh cut out cutout for David's episode that we did about the movie Gigi. He cut out me just reciting the lyrics to Thank Heaven for Little Girls. And a couple of the lines, he's like, should I release this?

I was like, absolutely not. Incriminating. Incriminating. The movie is rated G. Cold open to that movie, and they were rushing to hand it Oscars. There were not enough Oscars that year. St. Kevin, the four little girls. The little way they walk.

And you were like, what? Don't get into specifics. T2 Trainspotting is 100% less depraved than Gigi. That is undoubtedly true. What about G2? G-Lee. Can we talk about my favorite scam in this movie, please? Yeah.

I think my favorite scam... Is pretending you've written a song. That I love. But it's in that moment, like, I really thought that scene where they go to the, like, 1619... Yeah, 1690. Sort of, whatever it is, gathering,

and then that's everyone's pin number. Like, I thought that was just a nice little inventive like it's really fun it's a small like episode in the movie but i thought it was really fun well also i have the specificity of like it's midnight we can get more out yeah it's like such a such a you know coming from a background where it's like where i ran tiny little scams here and there it's like oh yeah that's the kind of thing that you think about a lot when you're in the heroin brain of like how do you get to but but then the fact that it like is hinged on them singing this song like yes i want what's the story with this song like what is up with that in the script it was such a weird moment but i like i also i also think it's like it to me was the

where suddenly the movie started to feel like the first one. Because the first one we were talking about on our episode about how Sprague here had thought that it was maybe going to be more of a Requiem of a Dream type of movie where tonally where it was going to be like all about the perils of heroin. And instead, the first Trainspotting is so much of a fun movie where they're going around doing like, you were talking about them shooting the pellet gun in the park. You know, so that suddenly they're doing a scam. Suddenly Ewan McGregor starts to feel like

his old self again. The movie starts to feel like the first movie where it's suddenly like this, it's kind of a broad comedy scene, you know? It's the first time there's a broad comedy scene

in the movie. And then they get back in the car, and that's where Lust for Life starts to play, and the old music starts to play, and it's like, oh, okay, we're back into the world of Trainspotting again. But then you also have the Choose Life scene in this, right? The inversion of the original Choose Life

that is like, oh, this kind of doesn't feel fun anymore. Where she's like, what is that? And she's like what is that he's like ah it's this great bit we used to let me let me try and dust this off well him going to his childhood bedroom with the trains and putting on lust for life and then taking it right off right right like where he's

like I can't I can't handle that but it's that thing I mean like Scott I'm sure you have seen this too many times something Scott has seen like comedians trying to do like angry bits I mean, like, Scott, I'm sure you have seen this too many times. Something Scott has seen. Like, comedians trying to do, like, angry bits. And that fine line between someone being funny angry and the entire audience going like, oh, we just saw a little too much of something.

Not like danger, but it's like uncomfortable anger. Well, it's so funny because, like, the difference between normal stand-up comedy, which is usually done in clubs and theaters. And then what we used to do when we would book the comedy death ray show at the UCB was we were trying to get rid of the barrier between the audience and the, and the performer. So that's why we would have the, the audience sitting on stage with the,

the performer and everything would be up close and the lights would be turned up that's why todd glass would always yell at us like turn the lights on the audience down because he wanted there to be a barrier right he wanted reverb obviously yeah obviously but but but you would see he wanted to check drop he asked you to make fake checks to drop yes you would see comedians used to performing with in clubs where there's a barrier where it's a performance, and they would do the angry bits like that to applause because everyone is watching a bit like that of like, whoa, you performed, you memorized a thing, yay! Right, right. And you would see people do that at our show, and people would be uncomfortable because it's like, dude, you're doing this rehearsed bit? Yeah. uncomfortable because it's like dude you're doing this rehearsed bit what what is happening here and

that's what it feels like in this movie when ewan mcgregor does the choose life thing and she just kind of like sits there just like okay really what is this because well i mean you know it amused us at the time that is so funny because in the first one it's kind of just happening right he's just maybe to the audience yeah and the audience is like yeah this is fucking cool yeah and now in this one it's like someone's sitting there listening to it and you're like oh this is what it would be like if i was sitting next to someone saying and i think that's a great yeah i mean also yeah if some guy in his mid-40s was like yeah man i mean i don't do what normal i don't choose like that everyone else thinks would be like okay like but this is proud of you it goes back to what i actually like about the the spud

writing the stories element of the movie is like and i believe i didn't mention this before like his stories are written they're right out of the book right out of the urban it's urban dialect and all that wording right so it's the kind of stuff that he would have played as Renton on stage. Right. Right. Right. But also, like, I have not read the Trainspotting book, right? But, you know, similar to, let's say, Clockwork Orange, I remember reading that and thinking, like, this is weird. So was the internal logic supposed to be that this guy actually sat down at a typewriter and wrote this? When you have a book like that by a character that extreme like alex delarge right or written and the book is

first person they're like let me tell you a story i'm like i don't think this guy wants to write also right who was filming top gun i mean that's the movie i want to see well no i but i mean back to the choose life monologue though i i i think now that we're that's the movie I want to see. Well, no, I mean, back to the Choose Life monologue, though, I think now that we're talking about it, it is sort of the thesis for making a sequel 20 years later is like, how embarrassing would it be

if we were doing that? Still. Like, we're all old. How embarrassing would it be if we were still doing that? You know, and it's something you could say about Star Wars. Yeah.

It's like, how embarrassing is it that you're still making the movies and the tv shows exactly the way that they were made in 1977 that's why i think that scene is so perfectly written because it ends and then he goes i don't know some shit we thought was fun that is so mcgregor nails it but i like that distance too of just like if you're asking the question like why does train spotting as a book exist if i'm supposed to take these characters as real people sharing their story with novelists right and you're like oh it's spud is the one who 20 years later has the distance the fact that he's not quote unquote in the main character yes and he's like i get that renton's kind of the leader of this group i could retell this i could do it in this sort of voice

i can take this perspective and that and theell this. I could do it in this sort of voice. I can take this perspective. And the language, you know, being the same as in the book, that he's not doing some flowery memoir. It is also justifying you to think of Ewan McGregor as the man who replaced Alec Guinness to play Obi-Wan for a new generation. And then by the time this movie came out,

people were like, I'm nostalgic for your take on Obi-Wan Kenobi. Your refreshment of that character, I am now nostalgic for it. Can you do a similar legacy sequel

in which you're like, oh, I haven't been a Jedi in a while though, these old bones. Okay, what's more successful? T2 Trainspotting or the Obi-Wan miniseries? I think T2 Trainspotting is wildly more successful t2 train spotting or the obi-wan miniseries i think t2 is wildly

more successful yeah there was a kathleen kennedy interview like a year ago where she was like the main lesson they were like what are the lessons the mistakes you've learned from these last eight years of doing star wars and she was like i think the main lesson we learned was like so low you can't recast the classic characters like people want the integrity of the original actor right and she's saying that in an interview promoting Obi-Wan. Right. But she's basically like,

Ewan's Obi-Wan has now become a legacy character almost distinct from Yes. Guinness Obi-Wan. I think she's wrong, but I do think

this new Obi-Wan show would have been better if there was a long monologue where he says, I choose the force. Mm. Mm-hmm. That would be fun.

I think it would have been, that would have been fun for me. He was like running on Tatooine and he got like hit by a speeder. He sort of rolls over the dashboard. He smiles and says, hello there. Can I ask you guys a question? Anything.

And this might be a little bit of a zig here. General Grievous gets out of prison. He's trying to get him. No, it's like, go on. What's up? We can keep doing that. No, it's fine. Another movie we watched in Sprague hasn't seen month is Raging Bull. And there's a Raging Bull reference in this movie.

I was so happy that you'd seen Raging Bull before. So I could get it. So you could get it. But I think it's so funny because it's such a random choice. Like, the movie does have a little bit of magical realism in it. Like the first one. Is there a connection to raging bull in this movie? Like why choose to do that raging bull moment?

Is it just, I think it's just a, I think it's just a comedy thing. I think it's like, it's, it's to me like freeze framing in the middle of action scenes. It's just purely a stylistic choice of like, here's a,

here's a dash of comedy yeah i mean the the the connection we kind of were making was like they're both movies about people who are like shitty yeah and right they're like moralizing about those people in different ways yes yeah unsympathetic protagonist element of LaMotta standing up on stage trying to, like, amuse people with the stories of his wild days, you know? Truly. There are some parallels to the stories. Right, right. Pauline's a very young girl in the very beginning.

Right. I do think, you know, I was asking Scott, or not asking, but sort of bringing up how quickly you jumped to... You ordered me. I ordered you. I demanded... No, we asked if you had any bold thoughts, how quickly you jumped to it. You ordered me. I ordered you. I demanded. No, we asked if you had any bold thoughts,

and you pretty quickly threw out your love of this one. And it's like, I maybe knew three other people in the span of doing these episodes since they've been coming out who have messaged me as they've been listening and going like, have you watched T2 yet? Because it's kind of great. And no one talks about it.

And what I find fascinating is everyone I know who's seen this movie thinks it's really good and underrated. Right. And then outside of that, everyone I know

who hasn't seen it either completely forgot it existed. Or they're like, well, there's no way that's good, right? Because if it was good, I wouldn't have heard about it.

Didn't know it existed. Right. Or I have now heard from so many people listening to the show who think that this is a bit we've been doing for weeks. That there's a transpiring sequel?

Right, that we're just like, we make dumb bits where we're like. Right, that we're going to be like, yeah, see you next week for the, you know, the beach too hardly beachin' or whatever. Right, and then someone was like, oh, and it's called T2? Like, that's the joke you guys would make is comparing it to a different sequel title. Well, I think that's why i went in with such low expectations yes and why i was so pleasantly surprised um yeah it's it's weird i i i sometimes feel like i'm the only person other than jake fogelness who's seen it well i think the thing of like 20 years of people being like do it do do it. And then Zoolander 2 comes out and everyone's like,

pass, I'm busy that day. Right? That's a great example of like a sequel that totally misses the mark for whatever reason. And is it because they hew too closely

to the original? Or is it because it doesn't feel tonally like the original? I don't know. No, that movie, yeah, it's like you say, it's plagued by all the problems

these legacy sequels often have where they're like, well, we have to pay homage to all of the stuff from Don't Know. No, that movie, yeah, it's like you say, it's plagued by all the problems these legacy sequels often have where they're like, well, we have to pay homage to all of the stuff from the first movie, right? It's been too long. Yes. Everyone wants us to do that, right? And then they release that, and then they've thrown in some new stuff,

and everyone's just like, why the fuck did you do this? I hate this. Like 20 years of any interview, Stiller, Farrell, or Wilson does, Hey, so when's Zoolander 2 coming? And it was just like, I guess people need us to make this fucking thing. And then not only did it not work out, but also like it made so much less money than the first movie, which bombed at the time coming out two weeks after 9-11.

Like no one even went to see it out of curiosity. And then this, you're like, how is this? And I saw it opening weekend and i i i couldn't quite tell while i was watching it because i was actively hating it right and i was like but i like the first one it have i changed has movie taste changed or i just think it wasn't done well i don't know i mean fundamentally sure. It could have been done better. But I'm like, is this truly the only example of the like, quote unquote, fan demanded decades later legacy sequel or revival of TV show or whatever that comes out, everyone basically ignores and is good? Yeah. Right.

I know. I mean, yeah. Ignored is the part that you can't really find. Yeah, because they're being good ones. Yes. There's probably, although we haven't seen it yet, the Before Sunrise trilogy that we've talked about. And Maverick is good. Yeah, you know, but this is one that people legitimately don't know about. And I think when they hear about it, they just go like, well, that couldn't possibly be good. 2017? Yeah, no way.

Yeah, so why would I ever watch it? And then it does feel different. And so I think if you do watch it, people could go like, well, it's too different. I don't like it. But when I think of Danny Boyle movies, and I don't know if you guys rank them

at the end of your season or whatever, but for me, this is one of his top three, I think. Oh, yeah. I think it's top five for me. Yeah. I'm still working top five for me. Yeah. I'm still working on my ranking. It's so well done and so meaningful, and I don't know whether you have to be my age to truly...

Because the same thing happened when we were watching Before Sunrise, where I am the exact age of those characters, right? Yeah. And so I'm watching it now at a remove the same way sprague watched the first one where it's like oh shit i could have been that guy if i had watched this the year it came out would i have been as pretentious as ethan hawke is in the movie would i have said like that's the way i want to act right you know whereas now i'm looking at it

going like this guy's embarrassing you know and and so And so it's, yeah, I don't know. It's very interesting. Yeah, look, I mean, we are younger than you, Scott, a humble brag. But even just— Are you using that correctly? I think it's pretty perfect. We have people who regularly write in and go, it's driving me crazy Griffin doesn't understand the application of humble brag.

Right. For me, the application is— It is doesn't understand the application of humblebrag. Right. For me, the application is... It is a big pet peeve of mine. Yes. Because people have been using it incorrectly for so long that now I think it's come, it's swung back around to now people are using it correctly because people were saying it when they just meant brag.

Right. Like they'd go like, hey, I have a lot of money, humble brag. And I would go, that's just bragging. But now I feel like it's a way to humble brag by saying humble brag. Right. Actual humble brag.

Now I feel like if you go humble brag and make a joke about it, it's like, hey, I'm bragging, but I'm joking about it. So now it's become the way to humble brag about i'm not i'm bragging i'm joking about it yeah so now it's become the way to humble brag about actual humble bragging is saying like oh i'm having such a headache with my taxes because of how much i donated to charity last year like that's like a humble brag i am still that's more brag planing i i feel like you know you know you're right you're

right but but anyway i mean we, we could discuss it for months. I'm fighting the fight for using it incorrectly. That's my stance is I'm trying to be the last one out here only using it when it doesn't apply at all. It's the torch I'm holding above my head. But my point was watching these, spending the last couple months living in Boyle Headspace as the two of us have and watching these largely in chronological order, it did hit me hard just being like, oh, and here we are, like rounding the end of our Danny

Boyle journey and how much things have changed. We've been watching fucking 30 years of film culture, like, zoom by week by week and talking about these movies. And the only bummer is like, I obviously want Danny Boyle to keep making movies i would like him to make another film soon it does feel like this would be the perfect end to

our miniseries for where to leave him off right where you're like perfect grace now oh next week you got to cover yesterday yeah it is odd that we're ending on yesterday yeah maybe we should have done this miniseries three years ago right Right. It's so funny because like directors just, I'm trying to, I'm trying to think, and that's maybe why Tarantino was saying he's retiring, but it's like, I'm trying to think of any director who has a perfect final film, you know, it's, it's just so hard to come by because it's usually you get to those like, you know, Billy Wilder, what's his last movie, you know? Buddy Buddy.

Buddy Buddy. Usually they all, everyone just has like two stinkers at the end of their last movie you know buddy buddy usually you they all that everyone just has like two stinkers at the end of their career you know and it's just where they're basically like yeah i am bad at it okay okay i'll stop i had to check i stayed one movie too long right uh it's not i don't think it's one of his best movies but i have always argued that prairie home companion is a good final film. Like, it's a good, like, final sort of thoughts. And Garrison Keller is a great guy.

I think he's a perfect guy. Because that movie is eleganic. Yeah. Like, sure. But it's also like the sort of... I don't put it anywhere near his... First best movie that guy ever made. But I'm like, that's kind of a good final statement,

even if it's not ending on a high note, you know? But you rarely get to plan that out. Usually when someone has a good final movie, not to be morbid, it's because they died.

Yeah. Yes, it's because their career was cut short for some sad reason. Usually to incorporate the title of your show, you know, when someone has

a great movie, they get that blank check again. Yeah. And they make things like, you know, that last Christopher Guest Netflix miniseries. You know, Yeah. And they make things like, you know, that last Christopher Guest Netflix miniseries. Yes.

You know, I mean, it's just like, Netflix is a perfect example of people giving enormous blank checks to directors, myself included.

And them fucking it up. Yeah, they paid you like two. Myself included. They paid you like two podcast guest appearances to direct that. I know,

yeah, it was crazy. The check itself they gave him was very, was over-sized. Right, know, yeah. It was crazy. The check itself they gave him was very over-sized. Netflix only has novelty-sized checks. No, but yes. Christopher Guest did an interview recently

where he was like, I don't think I'm ever making a mockumentary ever again. I think it's sort of been overdone. And you go like, I wish you had realized that like three mockumentaries ago. Sure.

You know, can we talk about one other thing in this movie no and it speaks to scott okay scott says no uh but it speaks to sort of the final film of it all and like the meta narrative that's happening i do like that the movie ends with spud hitting him with a clean toilet yeah the movie is hinged on a toilet as you've seen the allusions to the like you know the shitty toilet he goes into the shitty toilet and goes oh i haven't seen one of those in 20 years so i i keep like this movie does things where i'm like oh what an interesting like take on a sequel but then they do the other thing where it's like oh that's a fun little

easter egg for the first one he hits it with. Yeah, and you end with replicating, like, the shot of the room stretching out from the first movie. Like, they sort of start to play the hits and the remix of Lust for Life and whatever. You were talking about the way the, like, the soundtrack from the first movie kind of echoes around this film. Right, something that Boyle insists on.

He's like, if we're going to use any songs from the past soundtrack, they need to be remixed. They need to have a new flavor. But I also like they use Born Slippy almost the way the first Creed movie uses Gonna Fly Now, where it's like, they need to be remixed they need to have a new flavor but i also like they use born slippy almost the way the first creed movie uses gonna fly now where it's like they tease you and they're like is it gonna play now right yeah i think it's about to happen and then they sort of cut it short or they obscure it and you're just waiting for like when are you gonna give me the full thing again

oh man but it's like yeah there's this kind of sad ending of him being like i guess like okay here i this is where I want to be. I want to be with Sick Boy. These are my friends. But the other thing I've been running away from is like, I guess I just got to get to know my dad as a person. Yeah, he seems really sad. Really sad. I guess I got to just live in this.

Well, you know, you mentioned the soundtrack, and it's so interesting because there's this temptation to be like, well, this soundtrack is going to be of this moment. And how sad would that be if it's like a bunch of, you know, 45-year-olds going, hey, this music is pretty cool. Charlie Dix or whatever. Yeah, you know, instead they do really great allusions to like, oh, no, listening to music is like a young person's thing. You know? But then that having been said. This group Young Fathers. I was going to say the end credit song, which is so good.

And I looked up and it's from like 2017. And it was like a B-side single. And I'm like, where's he fucking pulling these? Oh, I mean, he likes music. I know.

Fundamentally throughout Danny Boyle's career. Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do. He loves that. And he's always trying to get that in and the studio always does that. Thank you so much. I wasn't going to ask.

But thank you for gracing us with that on the show. Of course. Lex G, king of internet movie commentators would always just be like, it's so funny to think about Danny Boyle

in his mid-50s still being plugged in on all this stuff. Pumping the iPod. But it's impressive that it never feels that desperate or pathetic where you're like,

he is somehow still fine and good shit. I like the music he picks. Yeah. But how embarrassing would it be if, like, you know, Ewan McGregor's character, you know, Rent Boy is listening to Billie Eilish or whatever. Oh, yes. You know, it's just like, you know. Right. No, that would suck.

What you would fear. Yes. That's the old guy at the club where you're like, why is this guy here? Right. Yeah. I think 30% of being a good director, and this kind of is like a John Waters thing too, of like 30% of being a good director is you got to have good taste in music. That's right.

There are so many directors where I'm like, oh, I see your good taste in music making this movie better. And I think- That is the one thing about about my movie that the the the person who did the music was very complimentary to me he was like you have such a really good ear because you know i had to plug in a lot of temp music yeah and then work with him very late in the process of like you know this is what it's got to sound like and all that and he's like you have such an amazing you know it is something that i think helps when you're trying to evoke a feeling from a movie.

And that's why what is so fascinating about this movie to me is that so much of it has no music. Yes. And it's so quiet. They're deprived of you. Yeah. You hear like burnt nature sounds throughout a lot of it. Or if there's music, you find that it's diegetic in a certain way. Like it's on someone's headphones or the jukebox or something.

I mean, Scott, last time you were on the show was Something Wild in our Jonathan Demme miniseries. And that's similarly a movie where you watch it and you're like, God, Jonathan Demme's cool.

This guy's cool. Like every time there's a music choice in that movie, you're like, what a cool fucking dude. I want to go to shows with him. There's not only a music choice, but a choice of like

where to set a scene or where to, what background artists to put in the scene. And, you know, yeah, just his taste level is so exemplary. Yes. And Boyle generally has that. Even his movies that kind of like swing and miss, I'm like, he does seem like a cool guy. I think he's a fun guy.

Yeah, even Slumdog, there's some like freaking bangers in there, right? What's it? Jai Ho. Paper Planes. Paper Planes. Well, yeah, Paper Planes and? What's it, Jai Ho? Paper planes. Paper planes. Well, you have paper planes, and yeah. But yeah, Jai Ho, shout out. But yeah, I think, you know, going back to this thing,

how does this movie have no reputation, right? I think what's weird about it is, like, we can list so many examples of the things, like Zoolander 2, where it's like, they went back to the well one too many times, they overstayed, it's depressing now, or whatever, that it feels like any time this works, it feels like they went back to the well one too many times, they overstayed, it's depressing now or whatever, that it feels like any time this works, it feels like such a magic trick that it either becomes like a hit,

even a bigger hit than expected, or at least like in a before sunset sunrise way is like so lauded by critics as like, you know what, on paper, bad idea, but it fucking worked. That it's weird that this one works and I do not know, like you're making the point, Scott, of, like, I could see someone being disappointed that it's not fun like the first movie.

I don't know anyone who has that complaint. It's like, I only know people who like it or haven't seen it. Yeah, that's the thing is, I also feel like the movie business essentially is not the same in 2017 as it was in 1996, where you don't have a lot of people getting this hyped to see an indie film

like this. Um, you know, I, I think, I think it's a lot of people my age who are nostalgic for the nineties when it was like, what indie film is coming out this week?

You know? Yeah. Um, I, like I said, I saw it at the arc light and I think, you know, the Avengers was playing, you know yeah um like i said i saw it at the arc light and i think you know the avengers was playing you know probably across the theater you know it's just like not the same not the same

as it was well we should play the box office game but um i mean i will note this film did do very well in britain okay uh it made like of course of course 17 million pounds there me and david know of course which is like, you know, I think there may have just been a sort of a quick realization from Sony who distributed it. Like, oh, we're getting no Pulse out of America. This is a European play. They kind of went too big too quickly and then just abandoned. Yes.

The film came out March 17th. Okay. 2017. 2017. Okay. So film came out March 17th. Okay. 2017. 2017. Okay. So we're very early into the Trump administration, so everyone's, you know, feeling great. Things are good.

Right. The vibe is just fucking hitting. Things are starting to get great again. It's different. Yeah. It's opening number 29. Okay. On how many screens?

On five screens. Okay. To a okay $? On five screens. Okay. To a okay $34,000 per screen average. And then did they go like a thousand screens the next weekend? It never got that far. Okay. It, it, it, it's, it's biggest, it was at 330 screens. Wow. And then they just kind of dropped.

And what does it top out at? $2.3 million. Mmm. Less than half a black hat. But internationally, it made $40 million. So it made twice its budget. That's our ultimate metric, is how many black hats a flop takes. And it probably only made money

because all the actors were like, we don't need any money for this. They famously took no money for this, right? Yeah, no. They were all paid the exact same amount of money. The four stars were paid equal scale, essentially. Yeah. Number one at the box office this week, Griffin,

is making, I would say, roughly about... God, I'm so bad at math. You know, about 85 times what Trainspotting made in its total run. Oh, okay. So it's a huge movie. Yes, it's opening to $174 million. You know, about 85 times what Trainspotting made in its total run. Okay. So it's a huge movie. Yes, it's opening to $174 million. It's a family film.

17. It's a family film. Is it Beauty and the Beast? Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Another movie that is completely memory-holed, as forgotten as T2 Trainspotting, except it made a billion dollars at the time. I am wondering if there's a Trump thing here. If we were all in such a goddamn

daze at the beginning of that year, like Beauty and the Beast comes out and we see it and we're like, yeah, sure, I guess that happened to me. I don't know. I can't really think about too much. Well, Beauty and the Beast, I mean, I saw that, of course, at the Santa Roba Dome. Of course. Opening weekend, but I don't remember that being a,

like, having any sort of Trump stink on it. I just remember seeing it and everyone in the theater being sort of like, huh. He's saying we had Trump stink on us. Yeah, I'm not saying like. Oh, okay. It was just like we were all in a bit of a daze. But I guess I don't remember my point of view. Sure.

Being like I was. In fact, if you had said like like did that come out when trump was president i i wouldn't have been able to put that together i just assume all four of us were still feeling pretty guilty for voting for him i mean this is only four or five months i made a mistake at this point no at this point you know it was starting to pay off he's been proven right yeah i i pretty much was still with him up till about January 19th of 2020. I think the day he got elected, if I remember correctly. He just didn't fight hard enough.

I think if I remember correctly, I was in a writer's room and we all got really sad. And I believe we went to go see the movie, The Accountant. And if you were to ask me one detail about it, I couldn't tell you. Other than that, I think it's a problematic movie. This is the Ben Affleck? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, Ben Affleck is an accountant.

He's so OCD, it makes him the greatest killer in the world, right? Isn't that the premise of the movie? Essentially correct. Yeah, correct, yeah. He's really OCD about bullets. He's really good at being a mob accountant

and also shooting people. Ending up in the right place. Speaking of which, I've been watching The Bachelor, and they keep having ads for The Good Doctor and they make me laugh every single time I see them. I don't know what to think about that.

It's the guy who played Norman Bates and he's going, well, I do believe we need to have a baby now. It's like, I'm like going, this is a fucking show? And it seems to be doing well. Oh, huge, huge hit. What if we took the cancer out? I want to be doing well. Oh, huge hit. What if we took the

cancer out? I want to operate on you. Damn, this doctor's good. Bobby, I'll sell propane. Number two at the box office. Sure. Was number one the week before. Okay.

It's like a quasi remake, quasi sequel. Quasi remake, quasi's like a quasi-remake, quasi-sequel. Quasi-remake, quasi-sequel. It's part- Flatliners? No. That was a good guess. I suppose.

Because they brought Kevin Bacon back. You realize it's not a remake. It's like a continuum thing. Or maybe they brought Kiefer back. They didn't bring Bacon back. They brought Kiefer back. Did they? I think.

Okay. No, it's a big hit. Okay. A reasonably sized hit. It's part of a verse. It's part of a verse. It's part of a verse. It was number one the week before. Big epic action movie.

What studio? The Good People at Warner Brothers. The Good People at Warner Brothers. It's part of Warner. It's part of a verse. Kong Skull Island? It's Kong colon Skull Island. Sure.

Brie Larson. Tom Hiddleston. Samuel L. Jackson. John C.leston, Samuel L. Jackson. John C. Reilly. Samuel L. Jackson, famously. Eugene Cordero. Hey, we got there. We got him.

And it's just one of those movies where it didn't even actually do that well. No. 168 domestic. Yeah. But Warner Brothers was kind of just like, ah, full speed ahead, I guess. Yeah.

I don't know. He's got to fight Godzilla. Yes. Like, who cares if people didn't even really like it's so weird that this was in march because in that summer i was at comic-con and uh the director was still doing press and i remember like i was part of this really weird rotten tomatoes program and i ended up having to apologize to him like that i was a part of it. Because I was like, I was just the host.

This was not my deal. At a party later. So it felt like Kong Skull Island had way more juice than Disney's Beauty and the Beast. But I think it was also them being like, he's going to fight Godzilla. You're in on this.

Is this less about people loving that movie and more about the like, can we please commit to this? Is this the director who's supposed to make the Metal Gear Solid movie? Correct. Yes, although... I need someone to make the fucking movie.

I'd like someone to make it. I'd like someone to make it. Maybe not that guy. With Oscar Isaac, I think it would be fucking fantastic. I've seen... There's like storyboards and stuff for it. I believe that is the plan. I believe that film is in pre-production.

It's been in pre-production for a bit. It sure has. It's a long time. Yeah, I don't know. Number three is a genuine hit. Also part of a verse, I suppose. You suppose it's part of a verse. Well, it's a very long-running verse.

A very long-running verse. A very long-running verse. But this film is R-rated. Ooh, it's a long-running verse. A very long-running verse. A very long-running verse. But this film is R-rated. Ooh, it's a long-running verse. Is it a horror

franchise? No. No. It's unusual for a film to be R-rated. In this series? In this series. Interesting.

Is it Logan? It's Logan. Good call. Good call. Did I just scoop Griffin in the box office game? Hold on,

but David's gonna to tell you something, that's going to blow your fucking mind. A little secret about that movie. A little secret. Actually, quietly a Western. It's a Western. What? If you think about it.

No, when I think, holy shit. You see Wolverine, you think, oh, yellow spandex. A superhero, yeah, but it's actually a Western? Kind of a Western. And look up, I see a long brimmed hat upon his head. There's some subtle hints in the movie such as characters keep watching the movie Shane and being like, this is familiar.

All I think about when I think about that movie is the guy going, the Wolverine. I've only seen it once. Yeah, same here. It was like an Oscar nominated huge hit. Yeah. And I liked it when I saw it. I've only seen it once. Yeah, same here. It was like an Oscar-nominated huge hit. Yeah. And I liked it when I saw it.

Do you love Logan? I watched the black and white version not too long ago. And I think it's fun. It's really good. It maybe gets slightly comic book-y in the last 20 minutes. But other than that, it is the most realistic of all X-Men films. See, Sims and I are both big defenders of the Wolverine. I do like the Wolverine.

I like that until Act 3, and it just totally falls apart. You didn't enjoy Silver Samurai. Yes, yes, yes. I mean, that is, it's a tough needle to thread. That's the one I like. I'm a fan of that movie. Maybe we'll do the Wolverines. Yeah, it's kind of fun.

Actually, Scott hasn't seen X-Men Origins Wolverine. That is a tough one. Yeah, but that's like a fun, tough one. That's a real cup of vinegar. Because we do film series on Patreon, and we can never do X-Men because it's 75% directed by different sexual predators. But we could just do the three Wolverines. Wait, you got Bryan Singer, and wait, who's the other sexual predator?

Brad Ratter. Oh. Oh, yeah. All right. Yeah. Number four at the box office, Griffin, is a surprise horror hit. Horror hit.

Okay. That has been out for a month. It's made $133 million. Wow. And it's a... Quiet Place? It's not a Quiet Place.

Huh. But a big hit. It's a directorial debut. Is it the Babadook? Nope. Babadook did not make that much money. Is it the Vavitch? It's not the Vavitch.

130. How many weeks has it been out? Four. Four? A directorial debut? Yes. It's screamingly obvious what this is, and you're going to be annoyed at yourself.

I'm going to be so fucking... Oh, it's Get Out. Here's another clue. It won an Academy Award. It's Get Out. It's Get Out. It's Get Out. It's very, it's screamingly obvious what this is, and you're going to be annoyed at yourself. I'm going to be so fucking, oh, it's Get Out. Here's another clue. It won an Academy Award. It's Get Out. It's Get Out. It's Get Out. It's Get Out.

Which, you know, not only opened really well, but then had such great word of mouth that it, you know, barely dropped. It had like a 1% drop in its second weekend. Yeah. So, Get Out. Obviously a big one there. Now, number five. Oof.

Okay. America said, let's get in to the theater. They did say that. And see that again. Number five is, the title of this film is, let's get out of this theater. Right, because they need to clean it. Right, yeah, yeah.

Someone said to them at a certain point as well, can you please get out? The next film is a faith-based film, I think. Heaven is for real. It's not heaven is for real. I always want it to be burpopo I always want it to be Burpo You always want it to be Burpo Is it

Uh Fuck Is it Is it the Jennifer Garner one No I think it's not quite as directly Like One of those

It's not the shack It is It is the shack Uh Do you guys remember The shack The shakazam Steel No I would call him The great shack Uh No Uh It's uh Do you guys remember the shack? Do you mean Kazam? Steel.

No, I would call him the Great Shack. No, it's, you know, Sam Worthington. Octavia Spencer, Tim McGraw. Yes, Jake Sully himself. Tim McGraw is in it as well, yes. Radha Mitchell looks like is in this cast. That's like a magical shack that allows you to atone for your sins or something. I couldn't tell you.

I know it's magical. So, like, Jacob in Lost? I think so. he lived in a magic shack yeah okay so if you believe in the bible already why are we adding magic to it well we may be using the word magic somewhat blasphemously well i mean it you know it's like miracles and stuff like that are already kind of magic but it's like you don't it's a hat on a hat here you don't need to be like oh oh, also there's a magical house. There's a magical shack.

I'm looking up what the exact premise of the shack is. David, you brought up Lost. Before we end this episode, I want to ask you guys a Lost question. Please. Let's table that. You think they're about to end the episode? Oh, I don't know when they're going to end the episode. We're definitely before they end the episode. I just want some of the other films in the top ten.

Lego Batman. Masterpiece. Big fans of. New this other films in the top 10. Lego Batman. Masterpiece. Which we're both big fans of. Yes, yes. New this week is the Belko experiment. Remember that? Oh. It was like The Office, but they murder each other.

Yeah, James Gunn wrote that. And produced it? Yeah. He sure wrote it. Yes. And you also have Hidden Figures, sort of a holdover from Oscar season. You've got John Wick Chapter 2.

Now he's up to Chapter 4. I don't know if you know this. Uh, and something called Before I Fall. Is that Haley Lou Richardson? Is that a time loop movie? I think so. Or a time travel? Or Zoe Deutsch?

Zoe Deutsch. There you go. The IMDb, just one sentence synopsis for The Shack is, a grieving man receives a mysterious personal invitation to meet with god oh at a place called the shack so the shack is apparently where god hangs out where god hangs out well the god shack is a little old place where god goes and hangs out there with jake scott scott pulled out a script for that. He had been writing that for a while.

Thank you so much. It's also the same premise as that TV show, God Friended Me, right? Yes. The show where God is friending people on Facebook. Well, in that case, right.

The shack was online. It was not a physical shack. It's a little bit different. This fun little shack I like to hang out at called Facebook. What's your last question, Spr i believe that lost is a piece of ip that is it's interesting it ended so poorly in the eyes of the people who watched it of the beholder of the beholder that i mostly enjoyed the ending but

yes it has a weird sort of reputation now but i know know for sure that ABC has been open to any sort of reboot. Right. Does someone have a pitch? Does someone have a pitch? And it got me thinking because I was like, this is. What if they weren't lost? What if they were found? They were like, hey, I know where I am.

I know exactly where I'm dropping a pin. I'm sharing location with friends. You got the horn blare and, you know, the camera goes in on them. If they made Lost now, you know that, like, the first 10 minutes would be people going like, I can't live without my tweets. Yeah, that's true. Oh, my God. The algorithm isn't working. I want to see the movie about that guy.

Wait a second. It's such an interesting show that's already about like people's past and the future and all that making sense so to be making a sequel about loss like there has to be a take that like is going to encapsulate some of that sure i'm always thinking like what's the type of thing they would make is it people like is it the version of it where they're just recapturing what worked in the first one playing crashes on another island they're just doing it again or would you need to come at it from another angle would you need the old characters from the old show well or right or or do they does someone pitch something really arcane like right it's a dharma initiative show yeah like

we go we go all in on lore like we we get even more niche that's the thing i think there is this sort of uh there's this sort of false perception that people's problem is with the finale of Lost. And I think they make jokes about, we all remember the finale of Lost as like shorthand. But it's like,

no, you're, like, the finale was when people realized, oh, all this shit isn't going to get answered. I think people have less of an issue with that episode itself

and more with the like, oh, maybe the last two seasons weren't what I wanted. Well, the fifth season's incredible. I think people have a problem with the final season of Lost. I mean, Scott, you were a Lost super fan, right? I think we were both Lost fans. I really like, I even like the last season. Look, I don't think it's perfect

of course, but I always think about like... Hey, your accent's back. My accent just clicked back. I said Scott. But I think to myself, I think to myself like what a wonderful is a version of this is a version of the lost thing like you have to find a whole new story and then find a way to connect it to the lost universe the only reason it was popular is or as popular as the like not wish fulfillment, but the, like, modern people

having to survive on a desert island. So if you strip it of that and make it the Dharma Initiative or whatever, then you're getting way too into... The lore and all your stuff. And so I think for a take to really be successful, you would need to do that part of it and then try to make the mythology of it

make more sense. Right. I'm sure that's part of the assignment, is you need to start answering some shit, but also... What was the answer going to be? I went with you. I've talked about this before. It should have been something scientific, and those guys wanted to do something

that was more theology-based. They set up so many things of, like, pushing a button that were tech-based, and, like, a polar bear being... You move the wheel and then yeah that's suddenly for them to go like oh no no no it's all magic it's the light if it is like people going like okay but you'll tell us at the finale right right but i actually like it because at a certain extent like Thor said of course some people call it technology some people call it magic but on what was their name?

Asgard In Asgard they're one and the same He said that during an episode Thor flies down He's like look magic, technology Also what a wonderful world voice One more last thing I need to bring up.

The song that is in Trainspotting, where it's like their reflection song, where it's like... That's the Underworld song. Yeah. Now, is that sampled in Future Island's season song? Sprague? Because every time it came up,

I was like, this Future Island song is going to start playing. Exact same thought. That is one of my most listened to songs. I've listened to Berwyn Slippy a number of times. They do sound similar. I only, this time, watching T2,

picked up on how similar the openings are. But I think it's pretty cool. The voice reminded me. But it really is interesting. I will say this. Someone once asked the lead singer of Underworld, I believe his name is interesting. I will say this. Someone once asked the lead singer of

Underworld, I believe his name is Carl Hyde, that question. Okay. Being essentially like, are you aware of this song, Seasons? It kind of sounds like Born Slippy. And he was like, it was intentional. I appreciate it. If it's a coincidence, that's nice. I wish them all the best. Oh, that's nice. They asked the Future Islands guy and his response

was, people change. Love that guy, to be clear. We love him. One of the greats. Yeah. That song, by the way, Born Slippy, I think, is incredible. And it is, like, as groundbreaking as New Order's Blue Monday. I agree.

That's a good argument. It's also, speaking as a Brit and speaking of nostalgia, and I believe I said this on the Trainspotting episode, it is the number one needle drop in a club full of 30-somethings where when it comes on, everyone is like, and like runs to the dance floor. I'm like, what even is that for Americans? I don't know.

The fucking Rugrats theme or some shit? The Whisper song. The Whisper song. Like, it is just sort of universal, like, oh, we all have had, like, our time with this song. Yes. Now, was it Hit Me Baby One More Time? Sure.

You know, it's probably... It's also funny, David, because even when I hear the song for the first time, I'm like, I feel like I've had time with this song, even though I'm hearing it for the first time. It has that instant sort of feeling of nostalgia to it, which is pretty wild. Well, it also is just like this 10-minute banger. They don't even play all of it in the movie.

It's just like where it gets like super heavy. It just felt like, oh my God, no one's ever done this before. In the same way that the first time I heard Blue Monday with the dum-dum-dub-dub-dub-dub-dub, I thought it was kind of a joke or something. And I sort of laughed at it. But yeah, I don't know.

I love that song so much. Guys, thank you so much for coming on the show. We really appreciate it. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Everyone should listen to Scott Hasn't Seen. Our episodes first. Yes.

Griffin and I. But then the other ones. I did Princess Diaries. Griffin, you did Princess Diaries. And Kindergarten Cop. You did Kindergarten Cop, then Princess Diaries. And then, David, you just did Gigi with us. I did Princess Diaries. And Kindergarten Cop. You did Kindergarten Cop, then Princess Diaries, and then David, you just did Gigi with us. I did Gigi, and I'd love to return

anytime, of course. Yes, please come back. Next time you have a movie with creepy pedo vibes, have David on again. I was just trying to finish my best picture list. It's weird that that was your first choice, David. By the way, David, do you like how he sort of sold you out in the intro before you were able to

rebut? I was like, well, this guy picked this movie. Apparently he must like the content in it or something. I haven't seen it before. But I had to cop to the fact that I knew this movie was weird. Everyone talks about it. It's a fucking weird movie. Yeah. That's the first thing they ever said about it.

Weird, but obviously, beyond Just, Scott hasn't seen, which people should listen to. Scott, that's the first thing they ever said about it. Weird. But obviously, beyond just Scott Hasn't Seen, which people should listen to, Scott, the Comedy Bang Bang book is about to come out. Yes, that's what I really want to promote. Thank you for... It's out... I don't know what day this comes out.

This episode is posting on April 23rd, the day before my birthday. Okay, so it comes out in a couple of days. It comes out on Tuesday. April 25th, the day after. And if you if you don't know what comedy bang bang is it's it's essentially this podcast i do where i'm myself and then uh sprague is himself occasionally but then we have comedians on playing characters

show where you're talking unlike sprague yes not like, no. I come on. I'm pretty true to myself. I try to keep it cool. I'm British. Just vibes. And so the book is essentially what if all of those characters wrote stuff for a book? And so it's a collection of... I have the book right here in front of me.

It's a collection... Humblebrag. It's a collection of like... It's not really humble... Okay. It's a collection of like, it's not really humble. Okay. It's a collection of, uh, uh,

like, you know, text pieces and lists and posters and flyers and games and, and strange ephemera, uh, that I think, uh, fans of the show will really enjoy.

But I think if you're not a fan of the show, it's just a book packed with comedy. I also, yeah, as a, as a guest not a fan of the show it's just a book packed with comedy i also yeah as a as a guest and a fan of the show i think this book it is over a decade's worth of comedy history on this podcast and i think there's there's stuff from really early on in the show there's stuff from very recent in the show so i think if you're a fan of comedy bang bang or you want to get into it i think this is a great book to get. Hey, that's good. It's really quality.

I'm very, very excited. I'm excited. He's a longtime listener and fan. Yeah. David, didn't you interview me, rather, in the Ace Hotel theater years ago? Like, season one of the TV show, right? It was right after season one of the TV show, I believe.

Yeah, yeah. I think we just started doing the podcast and you came back and were like, I just, I just got an acronym. Hey, David, who's your favorite sort of character on the, who's your guy? Oh, wait a second. I don't want to make anyone upset.

You know, I don't want to play favorite. Well, you could make someone really happy right now. Well, you're, you're not a character. No, no, but I just know, you know, my client, Sean Diston, of course, he's come on. I'd say Rudy North, maybe. Yeah, that's right. That guy's really funny. Rudy wrote something for the book.

Yes, yes, yes. Speaking of, I have something I want to plug. Sprague, your client, Sean Diston, I try to plug this once a year if I can as the greatest acting reel in history. Whoa, thank you i always plug this and i went on to the youtube recently because i watch it about once or twice a year and i've seen that like there are comments spread out by a year of griffin sent me here and we all appreciate it my my client of course he loves it he's not booking anything from it but this is why i'm telling people watch it watch it do reels work at all

yeah I don't know I thought I think he thought oh let me do something interesting it is I don't want to spoil it for anyone

it's the greatest acting reel of all time Sean Diss an incredibly funny guy thank you so much we'd love to have him on the podcast sometime yeah but you know

whatever he's never been able to pin him down he's a tough one to book yeah thought we had him once and then someone else showed up.

Ah, yes, of course. Scott. Thank you all for listening. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe. Thank you to Marie Barty for our social media, helping to produce the show. Lee Montgomery and the Great American Novel for our theme song. AJ McKeon, Alex Barron for our editing.

Joe Bowen, Pat Reynolds for our artwork. JJ Birch for our research. You can go to blankcheckpod.com for links to some real nerdy shit, including our Patreon, Blank Check Special Features, where we do film series commentaries, as we were saying. And we're now doing the Planet of the Apes. I think we are, yeah. We're going ape in April.

We've just begun the apes. Yes. One of my favorites. Tune in next week for the final Danny Boyle movie. Yesterday. Next week. Yesterday. All my troubles.

Yes. So far away. Yes. And as always, justice for Spud's dick. Yeah. As always. You for Spud's dick. Yeah. As always. Do you say that every episode? I say it every weekend for the first time.

It finally made sense after the first trade spot. It's relevant now. Okay. Yeah. It's why Zach Braff is our best living filmmaker.