Blank Check with Griffin & David - Twilight Zone: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet

Episode Date: May 28, 2020

You're entering a world of a b-b-b-bonus ep! We couldn't wrap up George Miller series without covering the totally bizarre Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). We specifically dive into Miller's remake of the Serling/Shatner classic, his talent for chaotic action, and Lithgow's oddball career. Stay tuned as we announce the director for our next series!

Blank Check with Griffin and David Blank Check with Griffin and David Don't know what to say or to expect All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension. A dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. Moving into a land of both shadow and substance of things and ideas.

You've just crossed over into the podcast! Dun-dun-dun-dun! Hello, everybody. This is Blank Check with Griffin and David. My name is Griffin Newman. My name is Griffin Newman. My name is David Sims. That is. You had to check there for a second. You seemed to hesitate.

Well, you know, this is a weird one, so I just have to make sure nothing had changed about me. Oh, this one's a little bit spooky, if you will. This is a Thursday bonus, if you will. Yes, I will. One of these little minis that we throw out there to finish up our thoughts on a filmmaker at the end of a miniseries.

And this one is, in a way, perhaps the start of a new little secret miniseries, right? Yes. Because we're talking about one segment from an anthology film, but it remains incredibly likely that we will cover two of the other filmmakers

behind two of the other segments in this anthology movie at some point in the future, at which point we will discuss those segments. And then there is a fourth director that we will never discuss. On this podcast.

We never will. We have to commit to that. Even though he has made. Arguably five incredible films. Maybe six. I've thought about it. I mean the guy has made at least. I think he's made four masterpieces.

And two other great movies. the Thriller music video, which is probably the most famous music video of all time. So like... Right, but let's talk about that. His most famous music video of all time, Problematic. His son, Problematic. Wait, wait, wait.

Is something up with Michael Jackson? We don't have time for this! Wait, you just said we don't have time for something? Yes. The Twilight Zone, we are truly within it. We're in the zone, baby. Auto zone. Yes, we don't really want to talk about John Landis,

but we certainly will talk about Joe Dante one day. We certainly will talk about the pre-1993 Spielberg. And we have been talking about George Miller. Yes. about the pre-1993 Spielberg. And we have been talking about George Miller. Yes. And so today we are talking about his segment in this film, which is considered to be the best segment, I think pretty undisputed, the best segment of this film.

The film is, of course, Twilight Zone, the movie from 1983. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I guess in Miller's career, it comes between Mad Max's... No, it comes after Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Yes. No, no, no, no. No? No, sorry. It's between Mad Max's two and three.

That's crazy. It is crazy. I made the same assumption. I wasn't looking up the years, but I made the same assumption that it was between Thunderdome and Witches of Eastwick. Like, I'll just... The other people who contributed to thiswick. Like, when here, like, I'll just, to the other people who contributed to this movie. Okay, so Atlantis,

this is coming in between Trading Places and, like, you know, Spies Like Us. So, like, he is, he's a big deal. Spielberg, obviously, this is coming in between, well, Jesus, let me, it's in between E.T. and Temple of Doom. Woo! He's doing all right, it's in between E.T. and Temple of Doom. Woo! He's doing all right.

He's doing all right. And then Dante is coming in between The Howling and Gremlins. So I guess Dante and Miller are the slightly younger, more up-and-coming directors, right? Yes, I'm gonna read to you Roger Ebert's quote from the review of this. Did you say what this was between for Landis?

I know we're not talking about him, but out of curiosity. Yeah, I said, geez, I i already forgot but it's in between um he had just made twice i believe trading places came out the same year yes okay that had just come out and the neck in 85 he has both into the night and spies like us so he's a little bit on the down slope but i mean trading, Trading Places is huge. And then he does two more Eddie Murphy movies after this. I mean, he's sort of in a transition point to switching from those first wave SNL guys and being their director to now being Eddie Murphy's director.

Right. And of course, yeah, he still has like three amigos. And right, as you say, coming into America on the horizon. But I do feel like Trading Places is landis's peak so right he's just maybe just about because he's behind him is like animal house blues brothers american werewolf like though you know his yeah his most influential hey but look once again we're not talking about him uh this is what roger ebert said because this film landis and spielberg get producer credits this This was very much hatched by them. Those two guys were in the pocket. They were in the zeitgeist.

Spielberg could not have been bigger. And they both grew up with this TV show, so they had a lot of love for it. Right. And you have like Spielberg works with Lucas. Lucas works with Coppola. It's like in a certain degree, this was the movie brats, the serious movie brats allowing landis into their sphere as like you're now part of the system we all help each other we make our passion projects together and then he is promptly pushed out uh during this when he commits involuntary manslaughter so uh yes when

there is a horrifying uh accident on the set of his segment. We're not talking about it. We're not going to talk. We're never going to talk about it on this podcast. It's horrible. It's one of the worst things that has ever happened in relation to the movie industry. And I don't say that lightly. Even worse than X-Men Origins Wolverine.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. So this is Ebert's quote from the review of the film he said the surprising thing is the two superstar directors are thoroughly routed by two less known directors whose previous credits have been horror and action pictures spielberg who produced the whole project perhaps sensed that he and landis had the weakest results since he assembles the story in an ascending order of excitement.

Right. Ebert reviewed the movie, he chopped it into segments, and he gave two stars for the prologue and first segment, which is Landis' is the first, correct? Right. Yes. And then he gave Spielberg's segment one and a half stars, which is, I feel like, widely regarded as the worst. You have contended it is not only the worst segment of this film, but the worst thing Spielberg has one and a half stars which is I feel like widely regarded as the worst you have contended it is not only the worst segment of this film but the worst

thing Spielberg has ever directed and there's a really good argument there yeah and then three and a half stars for the third the one we're going to discuss tonight right and then no for the fourth this ends the film three and a half stars for the Dante and then three and a half stars also for this one the Miller right

and I would say maybe this Miller deserves four. It's pretty inarguable. Yeah. It's just 20 minutes of it's great. It rules. And 20 minutes of just sheer bravura filmmaking above all else. It fucking rules. Yeah.

It's so good. Okay. yeah it's okay so we i only watched it because i wanted to respect our whole experiment yep of of just you know we'll talk about the other ones whenever we talk about the other ones right sure yeah so i just i queued up twilight zone the movie i skipped to like you know one hour 25 minutes or whenever this begun and i just watched nightmare at 20 000 feet now have you seen the original nightmare at 20 000 feet the uh william many times many times and many times uh in the recent past um i i love recent past like you watch it a lot yeah i watch it a lot i love twilight zone i watch it a lot i had never really watched it outside of like you know you're a kid an

occasional episode comes on on like a weekend afternoon or whatever um but about five years ago it all went up on netflix and i started watching it a lot um and my goal was to get through all of them there are a lot uh of them many seasons and they're long uh the seasons um but i've never made it all the way through the end a because there's one season that's bad, which is the season where they're hour-long episodes. I think it's the second to last season. Also because I get caught up

wanting to re-watch some of them a lot. And the two Shatner episodes, Nightmare and then the other one is, I'm forgetting the name, but it's the one with the fortune teller in the diner, are two of the best episodes. I think they're both Richard Matheson episodes. I've probably seen each of those five times.

Nick of Time, I believe, is the name of the other one. I've seen both of those at least five times. I love them. So, yeah, I had a very strong comparison point watching this. And much like you, I only watch this segment, although I also watch the prologue and the epilogue because the epilogue ties into this segment and the prologue sets up the epilogue.

Uh-huh, right. The prologue and epilogue were directed by Landis, right? Landis, unfortunately, yes, yes. The man made the Glogaboot. Look, it's okay to denounce his nightmarish record as a person and acknowledge that, yes, obviously, he was involved in some good projects. Yes, he was.

Yeah. But have you not seen the original? No, I have. I've seen it, but only once years ago. And I have never done the Twilight Zone properly, which is, I guess, a bit of a gap in my pop culture. I've seen random episodes, like you mentioned, they might pop up on TV.

I feel like I sought this one out because, one, I'm scared of flying. Two, I love Star Trek. And three, it's famous. And there's a Simpsons parody of it yes so like i feel like this one was on my radar early yeah and i watched it and it's great but obviously it is a tv episode and the the demon is like a guy in a big fursuit and it's you know it's a different vibe than than the sort high-octane vibe of the Miller movie.

Yeah, I think, I mean, the single biggest difference, aside from the fact that Lithgow versus Shatner really changes the tone of the thing, but the characters are also conceived differently, the single biggest difference is that the original is very talky. Like a lot of Twilight Zones, it's like a fiction short story that was then adapted into something that in many ways resembles a teleplay over a film. The Twilight Zones, I think of them as talky. They're usually...

Right, and I love them. They're also very cinematically stylish. I mean, there's a lot of really interesting directing going on in those, and they're all directed by different people. The original directed by Richard Donner, correct? Yes donner correct yes yes i mean one of his breakthroughs but um it is very talky it is uh uh shatner's character on the plane with his wife i believe he has a wife and isn't it also that he's like just out of a sanitarium so he's like everyone assumes he's crazy because right but it like, you're finally ready to deal with this again. Remember the last time you were on a plane, you freaked out.

Right. But there's a lot of that. There's a lot of explained backstory. The whole thing is him having the conversation with his wife. Right. This one very much exists in this guy's head. And there's very little dialogue overall. And he probably has the least dialogue of any primary character.

He mostly is just groaning and yelling right so this really is kind of just like a director showcase and an actor showcase it rules it and i do love it we rules it like there's no exposition really we don't start with like the plane taking off we don't start with him taking his seat we start like in the middle of an insane thunderstorm the plane is just just rattling around. Right. And he is just basically 99% of his way to losing his mind. Which I don't say this is any criticism of the original. It's just an interesting counterpoint.

The original is great for what it is. This is great for what it is. Oh, yeah. But do something different, especially if you're going to do this. This is the only one and it is a direct remake, right? The other ones, the Dante one is a remake as well well but it's a looser remake right the steel the um the other two are remake kick the other two are looser remakes uh the landis one is kind of a combination of two unofficially right right right but it's the most original one of them um

this is the most direct adaptation i will say even though it takes so many chances and changes because it's still the same it's a chamber piece and it's the same basic i mean the thing is the same ending you know twilight zone yes right like twilight zones obviously the ending matters a lot and this has basically the ending where they're like variation he was right right um as the guy gets carted away they realize he was right. Spoilers. But yes, as I was going to say, and it's like, you know, they're both elegant in their different ways. But the Shatner one starts with, as we were alluding to, like him and his wife explaining every element of their backstory elegantly in a sort of classical way.

But just like, honey, this isn't going to be like last time. You spent that time in the sanatorium. You've gotten fixed. this time you're going to be able to fly without freaking out like it's that and shatner is very shatnery he's in that pre uh kirk mode where he is perfecting how to be a tv leading man um and so everything is very like you you know. That's his thing. Totally. And so he's playing a very different type of mania. It is a very controlled, very sort of expressionistic mania that does not resemble actual human behavior. Whereas Lithgow is very theatrical. But I do feel like this performance and this short film really capture the feeling of having a panic attack. I don't know if you as someone who is particularly terrified by planes feel that.

Well, I will say as someone who's afraid of flying in a plane, whenever I'm on a plane, because I know how I feel, it's this part of the panic is just this balance between like being afraid and not wanting to be too publicly afraid because then you're going to like everyone's going to be paying attention to you that is what chatner is playing and i think chatner does this down right chatner does it very cannily it's a they're asking a very different thing of him and that is it's all about he is more of a conventional protagonist and you're trying to see if this guy can play calm enough to be able to stop the problem without someone stopping him. Right. And he's also just out of his sanitarium, so he's like, you know, doesn't want to go back in. And he's learned coping skills, all this sort of stuff.

But it's him being like, this is a real threat. No one else recognizes it. No one else believes me. It's a boy who cried wolf situation. Right. And it's the tension comes from how do you solve that this is just a man losing it right the the premise by the way just in case anyone doesn't know is that right they're in a plane it's in a storm things are bad he's having a panic attack and then as he looks out the window he sees a big monster on the wing

just wailing on the engines just i feel like also in the shatner one, the monster is more like mischievous, but isn't exactly like antagonistic. Like it's more just sort of messing with things. Whereas this, it's like a demon that's like, I am trying to bring this plane down. Like I am, this is happening. And he originally is basically in like a, one of those camouflage like bush costumes

and he's like dancing on the wing. Whereas in this one it looks like a meatloaf album cover you guys know yes you know what this creature is supposed to be in both of these versions uh go ahead it's supposed to be a gremlin yeah gremlin yeah that's what i think of it as but the classical gremlin the sort of uh urban legend of uh the american fighter pilot yes that if something went wrong in your plane something went wrong in your engine there's a little gremlin who's attacking your plane uh it's just it's a pretty big gremlin this is a big boy well this is my

point in the original it's huge it's a it's a full-sized human being in a puffy suit with puffy hair and funny makeup and in this it's a large g, but it's also like a puppet, and it doesn't have human proportions. No. As Ange said, it's right. It's a bat out of hell. It looks like a really large lemur. And he's kind of got some, like, predator hair going on. He's got some predator dreads. I just find it particularly funny because the year after this is Gremlins, produced by Spielberg, directed by Joe Dante.

Sure. And those gremlins, they're little fellas. Yes. But now when people hear... They fit in your hand. When people hear... Well, no, they're not that tiny. Please, David.

Well, Mogwai could fit in your hand. Yeah. Okay, David, shut the fuck up and show some respect, okay? There's a difference. They could fit in your hand yeah okay david shut the fuck up and show some respect okay there's a difference in two hands yeah gremlins i'd say are probably uh knee to waist high terrors sure right yeah not waist knee yeah ankle to knee they're not too small we should do dante yeah yeah oh my god yeah wait a second david you think we should do dante oh my god what a radical idea i should give you a medal for being such a forward thinker doing dante i've never considered all right um you're gonna have to work hard to sell me though david oh boy you're gonna have to butter me up on the idea of Joe Dante. I thought the cartoons in the Anthony sketch reminded me a lot more of Gremlins.

But yeah, that is a Dante segment. Sure, sure. Yes, it is just funny to me. Yes, of course that resembles Gremlins the movie more because Dante was in that headspace. It's his style and whatever. I just find it funny that this guy makes a Gremlins movie and the next year Spielberg's like, hey, you, the guy who made the segment before this,

make a Gremlins movie. And not only that, but that becomes the association in the public when you say the word Gremlins. Like Gremlins stop being a thing on a plane. Which there's also in the 50s, it's like the great unmade Walt Disney animated film. Do you know about this?

Uh, no. Walt Disney and Roald Dahl were going to make an animated film called Gremlins about Gremlins, uh, on planes. Roald Dahl famously flew planes in the war as well. Famous anti-Semite famously flew planes. Famous slut.

Yeah. Famous slut. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. He was horny AF. Yeah. Famous slut. Yeah, famous slut. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, he was horny AF. Yeah. On Maine too. Horny, he was occasionally horny on the Maine Roald Dahl.

People forget this, but like if you read S.E.O. Trott, the Roald Dahl book, like page The turtle one? Yes. Page 45 is just a bunch of nudes. He would just slip nudes

onto Turtle's backs and then they would crawl over to the neighbor's house. Is that the Turtle one? Yes. I think it just passes messages. No, I double checked. Yes, correct. It's corresponding through Turtle. Anyway, my joke is that Roald Dahl put nudes inside the book. I forgot about this. I'm seeing the book have heard of this that there's there is a book of it

like um that he wrote for walt disney see when i think gremlins i think looney tunes well so yes and then and then looney tunes run with it but it's like there's the the book that never becomes a film that's ralph doll in disney i think the book came out either instead of the film or they released it because they thought it would lead to the film later then there's looney tunes gremlins then there's twilight zone gremlins and then there's joe dante gremlins and joe dante gremlins become so big that they usurp all public consciousness of sure right they just become gremlins tm that's why gremlins are mischievous it was like working off the idea of like these things that fuck with technology and

fuck with us just to drive us crazy um and in this it's like yeah it's it's back to this idea of like you don't have fighter pilots you have commercial flight which i think is pretty clever yeah like if gremlins exist to fuck with planes then they would be a threat to any any flight we talk jumbo jet yeah um but this thing starts with as you said no backstory just john lithgow having a panic attack in a bathroom losing his fucking mind and they they attended to trying to do the whole like hey like i know it's scary we're shaking around but like you're safer up here than you are down there you know they're giving him the whole spiel right right and they're trying to get him to take uh you know a sedative right the woman comes up to the flight attendants and is like is there something i should be worried about is there

a problem it's such a perfect little moment of that flight thing where a certain person thinks like i should go up and ask the flight attendants if there's something bad going on that they're not telling all of us. They'll tell me. It's all I think about. Right. I just want to go up to them and be like, so, come on, what have you heard? Give me the real scoop.

Give me the deets. Yeah. And I remember once being on a plane and suddenly turbulence was really bad and I was very close to a flight attendant station or whatever and he picked up the phone, like suddenly turbulence was really bad and I was next to, I was very close to a flight attendant station or whatever and he picked up the phone, put it back down

and then he looked at his coworker and he was like, 10 minutes of this. And so I was like, damn, like the pilot can literally be like, yeah, it's going to be this for 10 minutes.

Wow. So do you like that, David? Do you like having that knowledge or did that freak you out more? I mean, I didn't love at the time knowing that it was going last for a while but yes no i liked the weird precision of the pilot being like not being like oh no but being like annoying like you know like that's all

it is just like another day well because you said you watch like videos like simulations of oh no no no not simulations my friend i watch there's so many videos inside the cockpit of a jumbo jet where it's just like you know 777 taking off at san francisco and you can just watch the entire process like 777 landing it's there you know you could just and it's just them sitting there being like so boring and just like occasionally touching a button or saying something and you're like god it's so automatic and so chill that's like a lo-fi playlist for you it's like what you put on to like yeah calm you down yeah i can't believe it took me so long to come to this realization of course you love sully yeah yeah dude he does his job no i mean i obviously of course you love Sully because you're a big special boy and you're smart and you have good opinions.

And Sully's an American masterpiece. Correct. Yes. But also it's the ultimate competent man movie in the situation that scares you the most. He remains calm. He understands exactly how to solve it. It's basically the word, as Sully tells us, no one could have predicted it. No one could predict it. And much like Donald Trump told us, no one could have predicted it no one could predict it

and much like and much like donald trump told us no one could have predicted it this isn't like that sully's not lying when he says it um right two great americans never compare those two it's why i love it because it's such a risky movie for me to watch because it's you know uh up against i mean the opening is terrifying terrifying and like so when i saw it i think i saw it also because it was an eastwood movie i just figured it is terrifying terrifying and like so when i saw it i think i saw it also because it was an eastwood movie i just figured it would be chill and it's not no and no and and like so i'm gripping the seats but also as you say right it is a masterpiece of professionalism right so you watching sully feel like john lithgow in this plane um yes uh anyway

but yeah but obviously this plane not doing so hot although i still like it when the pilot comes out and he's like look we lost one engine i'll admit it one engine is down we have four chill about that can we talk a little lithgo here can we go go lithgo for a little lithgo touch the two oh yeah go go gadget lift yeah this is when he's in that classic in that diploma zone right like well no this is sort of the start of it i was in the twilight zone well well and correct good point correct you go like 1979 all that jazz that's his first big movie small part but his first big film in which he has a part of some substance right no no his first film is upset is the diploma film oh

i'm sorry he's like the third. Correct. He's the villain in that. Correct. He's a classic De Palma villain. He plays a lot of De Palma. 1976, Obsession. But you're right.

Then All That Jazz, Bit of a Breakout. 81, Blowout. Yeah, which he's the villain in and he's great. Then 82, World According to Garp. I'm skipping over ones I haven't heard of. Yeah, but he gets an Oscar nomination.

Correct. And then 83, same year as this movie, Terms of Endearment, second Oscar nomination. Right, and he's only two Oscar nomos. He's never gotten another one. It's pretty crazy for him to get them in back-to-back years, especially for Terms, which we talked about in that episode, is such an understated performance.

Very good performance, right. But it was surprising he beat out Jeff Daniels that year. Totally. For that, yeah. And then this unlocks Gonzo Lithgow, which De Palma had started to play with. But De Palma really plays a bit later with Raising Cain, things like that.

But he's got this this year. The following year, he's got Footloose, which is villain, but reserved villain. But then Buckaroo Banzai, which is complete fucking wackadoo crazy potato pants right and then you get like shit like he turns down

Back to the Future to play Doc Brown was the first choice huh yeah I think I knew that but that's yeah that's a totally different movie turns down the Joker for Burton totally different movie yeah like to the Joker for Burton. Totally different movie. Yeah, like to a certain degree, he now tries to resist the wackadoo thing

that he had showed everyone he can do so well. 2010, Santa Claus the movie, and then he's starting to go into like Harry and the Hendersons, like family, like I'm boring waspy guy zone. That's the thing. He got shoved into that zone, into the sort of fuddy duddy zone

right and then which is what third no go ahead go ahead no no it's the rock from the sun is playing off of the fuddy duddy but it's a wackadoo inside combining them right exactly which is which was sort of what was great is third rock from the sun good though yes yes yes is it yes it is it's one of those shows that was on a lot of on for years and i certainly watched it but Yes, it is. It's one of those shows that was on for years, and I certainly watched it. But like, is it good? I think it is. I haven't rewatched it. It's probably pretty, like, depending on how long COVID quarantine lasts, I will watch

all of Third Rock from the Sun. I just bought fucking news radio on DVD. I will find a way. News radio, you gotta buy, because that one's always been weird they're always weird they're like four random episodes on crackle but news radio is like a masterpiece of 90s sitcomery right i just remember as a kid being like as a kid who liked science fiction i'm like this sitcom is about aliens and i feel like no one talks about it ever they're from the sons about aliens yes're aliens! I don't remember

this at all. I watched it as a kid like with my parents. They're alien and human bodies. The oldest of them gets stuck in Joseph Gordon Levitt who is the youngest. The most masculine of them gets stuck in Kristen Johnson who is the one woman of the group. Like it's all like oh

look they're all in the wrong bodies. They live in a house together. It's called Third Rock from the Sun because that's what they view Earth as. Right. And they're trying to assimilate into culture. I haven't thought about this show in years.

Like, I vaguely remember the intro, but honestly, in my head, I'm like, yeah, this and Frasier are like the exact same thing. There was that crazy run where Wayne Knight was on both shows at the same time.

At the same time. And like, and it just, I remember a show that was kind of raunchy. It was weirdly world-building. It had the big giant head. It had a lot of stuff going on. But also at the same time, it also was

in the vibe of every other 90s sitcom where at the end of the day, it's mostly just hijinks. Was Shatner the big giant head or am I misremembering it? So that that's crazy so it's the two versions of this character all comes around what's wild is he swings back to fuddy duddy right and then it seems like he goes like fuck i might have backed out on that villain thing too soon so then he does like ricochet raising cane cliffhanger like then he gets back into it but he's playing a little more like Tony villain. And then Raising Cane is weird because he's doing wackadoo, but he's also the lead.

Yes. And then I feel like at a certain point it was just too late and it's like too bad, buddy. Now you're the old guy. Right. Post Third Rock, it's like you're just the old guy. Well, you guys forgot his most famous villain. Which one? Lord Farquaad.

Well, well, well. He's pretty good. Well, well, well. Yes,

he's a real Farquaad in that movie. I like using Farquaad as an adjective. I remember at the time being a pretentious 15 year old and seeing Shrek

being like, well, Lithko's the standout you know like like coming out of that being like well he was really funny it's it that was sly humor it's sly humor he's got a razor sharp wit yes he was like taruk the first flight in that um uh no jesus christ no it is there's a subtle sly humor much like taruk uh he's the most far quality performance in that film, no question. But that's the run.

It's like after Cliffhanger, like a couple other movies, then he gets on Third Rock from the Sun, and he does like six seasons, and he wins like five Emmys. He won, how many Emmys did he win? He won, well, now I need to find out. I feel like for years, it was just either Kelsey or Lithgow. And they were, like, swapping. They were playing badminton together.

It is truly wild as a former Emmys nerd. Not as much as the... But, like, in the 90s. Like, the 90s, obviously, like, sitcoms aplenty, right? You know, Friends, Seinfeld. Like, all the legendary sitcoms. And it's like, you look at the Emmys, and, like, every year they were just like, Frasier does deserve a fifth Emmy.

Like, could we maybe? And like, I love Frasier. But like, Frasier was the weird sort of like awards-y sitcom among like critical and commercial favorites. It was sort of in the middle. He won one, two, three, four Emmys. Oh no, I'm sorry. Three Emmys for Third Rock, one for Amazing Stories, and then of course he won

a subsequent Emmy for Dexter and another one for The Crown. So he has six Emmys. I remember, do you remember there was the one season, if even that, Tambor, Lithgow, CBS sitcom? It was called like,

A Few Good Years, or something like that. It's like, Two Old Friends Enjoying Retirement. Yes, I'm trying to, I want to remember the exact, it was called like a few good years or something like that like it's like two old friends enjoying retirement yes i'm trying i want to remember the exact uh yeah 20 good years or it's basically like i think they're 65 or whatever and they like the pilot episode is them being like look we probably at max have 20 more years i just remember at the Emmys that year, Lithgow and Tambor presented together and Lithgow went, I'm so thrilled to be here at the first Emmy ceremony in eight years.

And Tambor says, what do you mean? And he went, well, it's been eight years since the last Emmy ceremony. Cause that's when third rock from the sun ended. And he goes, they've been doing it all the time since third rock ended.

And Lithgow in amazing delivery says, well then who have they been giving the awards to? Good shit. Good shit. But also, he won fucking three times for Third Rock from the Sun in the midst of Kelsey Grammer's reign of terror. He still leaked out three wins. wins i just love that for so long the emmy for comedy would go to whoever best played a sort of erudite snob with a mid-atlantic accent like it was like laraket give him all the emmys we got had to like issue a sherman-esque statement where he's like no more and he's like i withdraw let's go yes lyracat is the only man to retire from winning awards i believe chris bergen as well buckets bergen lebron yeah because

i think she won either four in a row for murphy brown something like that and she finally was like enough i like stop nominating me i don't have any more room on my shelf like please stop she won she she won five emmys in seven years for murphy wait david you're telling me that candace florence lebron pew bergen pulled herself out of emmy consideration because she got too many buckets yeah wow that'd be like lebron winning 10 rings and being like guys i'm not even i'm gonna take a year yeah i'm sailing around the world in a weird you know sailboat like i this is no fun anymore but as you said like then uh lithgow i i think he's done consistently good work but it is weirdly all over the place because you go like, oh, it's like it's Farquaad.

Then it's like Orange County, Blake Edwards and the Peter Sellers HBO movie. He plays Kinsey's dad, Cameo and Dreamgirls. Yeah, he's, you know, he often would play like a guy in bow tie and suspenders sort of riffing on 30 Third Rock. But then like Rise of the the apes he's incredibly good in playing james franco's uh dementia leading father right that's like his interstellar zone yes where he's like he's the grandpa he's maybe gonna die in the course of the movie he's real sense of sadness a real broken he's good at that yes yes uh he's really good in rise he's really good in interstellar he's good in like he's really good in love is He's really good in Interstellar. He's good in like, he's really good in Love is Strange.

The Erosaxon. He's amazing in. Oh, he's in Leap Year for like five whole seconds. He's the one who tells her about the Leap Year, right? Yeah, he's her dad who like gambled away like their life savings or whatever. And he meets her in a bar and he's like, oh, you got to live a little. And she's like, I'm Amy Adams and I'm very uptight. He plays one of the Koch brothers

in the campaign. Yeah, he's had a lot going on recently because he was in like, he's in The Accountant, he's in Miss Sloan, he's in Late Night, he's in A Pitch Perfect, the number three for some reason? Well, of course he's in the group. I'm sorry, he plays Fergus Hobart in Pitch Perfect 3.

How do you not remember that? What a name. I thought he was bad in Pet Cemetery, which in the most crucial role. That sucks. I didn't see it. He's not terrible terrible, but I feel like that role is very specific and he's a little too patrician for it. That's supposed to be a real manor, armor

type guy. And he's doing the same thing that he did in Interstellar and Rise, but I didn't love it. I thought he was terrible in Bombshell. Are you going to disagree with me? I mean, I'm not going to strongly defend any element of that movie. I don't think he's terrible in it, but it's a big performance. He's swimming in the river of ham.

He's doing the backstroke. He's doing the butterfly. He is. I would agree with that. But at the same time, he's also not as hammy or as compelling as Russell Crowe was the same year. Well, I haven't seen that. Crowe had a better balance on how insane to be. Because obviously you're playing a deeply insane person.

You're saying Russell Crowe? Oh, Roger Ailes, yes. It's a tough one to go over the top with because he is over the top. Of course he is. He's a tough one to go over the top with because like he is over like that. Of course he is. He's like, he's a grand guignol human. And if you just, it's like, you know, imagine like I told you, like, you know what? One of the people most responsible for the ills of modern society is this guy who founded Fox News.

I'm like, what does he look like? And they're like this. I'm like, you made that. He doesn't look like that. Are you kidding me? He looks like the bullet farmer. He looks like the bully farmer he looks like the bully farmer yeah he looks like a freaking like roll doll twit villain like you know who's gonna like grind

children into paste oh god and he's like eating constantly and i'm like okay but he was just like he was just bad because of his politics right they're like no no no no no no no there was a consumed him yeah no he'd make women show him his their panties and then lick his fingers and eat a donut while it was happening like everything about him is just so overcranked in its awfulness yes um so anyway so yeah you're right like kind of fine hard to find you know where where to hit the target there but he wasn't very good in that i don't he is good in like dexter like dexter is the one where it's like they're like give us diploma again give us like a big goofy villain yeah i mean look the guy's got a pretty incredible career in a lot of ways and this is a big sort of turning point for him despite the fact that this is coming in between oscar nominations this is showing a very

i mean first of all this is the first time that he's really playing a leading man even if it's in a short film uh yeah i guess you're right yeah for a guy who did a lot of character actor parts and a lot of villain parts he did have a surprising amount of leading man roles and this is the first time that he is the center of a film yeah and i think it in its own way even though this doesn't follow a model of what he ever did as a leading man shows that he can hold your attention at the center of the frame um a hundred percent but yeah and also it also just like even it's those guys even young lithgow looked like that he's a very specific he's very tall yes he has the the you know the hair like this male pattern baldness like he's always had that was always at the middle of his skull yeah he's always had that

like preppy frankenstein kind of look right frankenstein is perfect it's why i mean look it's why putting him in daddy's home 2 is really funny right the trailer for daddy's home 2 is really successful as a piece of filmmaking just because the reveal of lithgow on the escalator is is a pretty like close to a slam dunk i have not watched that movie no i mean the thing with me is i because i watched daddy's home or i tried to after like sophia coppola was like i mean a masterpiece right like people sort of started speaking up for it and like 10 minutes in i was like i gotta turn this shit off it blows no it gets good the first one gets good thomas hayden church is really fucking good in it the first 10 minutes

was just so much of like farrell being like you know a dweeb and walbert being a bad boy and i'm just like i get it like this is boring like the fun of other guys is how quickly they start messing with those dynamics yes i agree other guys is a better film oh cool there's a thunderstorm going on right now oh my god there's a severe thunderstorm uh well that might pick up in the background of our audio and it will make this feel even more like a twilight zone installment so let's get back on i just heard that like a minute later after you guys that's so wild yep pretty scary i mean this takes place in the middle of a thunderstorm i mean in terms of uh plotting there's not much he sees the thing yeah uh the but the stuff i find most compelling is just him looking out the window every time like

first him just gazing at it then him like shutting it and trying to ignore it and then peeking back up like just the way miller like doles it out is so perfect when he's like inching towards it with his fingers it's like you know it's gonna be bad and it's it's so enticing this is another thing i love about it is um when it goes from him freaking out in the bathroom to the flight attendants, he goes back to his seat. They try to talk him down. He's largely nonverbal.

She gives him these sedatives. I was like, oh, this is going to be their twist on it. The flight attendant sits down with him and she serves the function of his wife in the original thing except it's a stranger it's not someone who knows him but that's the person who he's bouncing off of who he's talking to is trying to counsel him who he ultimately has to like go around in order to stop the gremlin and instead she gives him the set of and she walks away and then it

becomes about for me that feeling when you're having a panic attack and any degree of stimuli is so overwhelming that the girl is sitting in front of him with the polaroid camera this sort of like gluttonous air marshal the stewardess is going up and down the aisle everyone's speaking everyone making any small amount of sound all of it is triggering to him which is great that it's just like we're not gonna have this guy really speak to anyone we're not gonna have him explain himself we're just gonna put you in this guy's head like it's like fucking repulsion it's like using this really really overcranked filmmaking to make you feel the amount of terror and paranoia he feels so that anything happening on screen becomes some sort

of breaking point and we will cover him in a bucket of water. All the water. All the water. He's sweating. But yes, this does become like a film of looks. It's really about, you know, it's in that repulsion, that rear window kind of zone

of just putting you in a single character's headspace as much as possible and showing you how terrifying everything looks to them. Yeah. And, and it's trying to sort of get you to the place where he thinks the only thing I can do is shoot a gun out the window. Like,

right. That's my only recourse, even though like initially he's like, I'm crazy. I'm making it up up there's no way that like he's talked down and then he you know then things escalate but i love that he never behaves in a way that seems heroic even if he is doing the heroic thing unlike um shatner who becomes a little bit more of a like conventional sort of like matinee hero as he's shooting at the gremlin,

even if the other passengers don't see it. Lithgow just gets crazier and crazier as this thing goes on. He's totally manic at that point. Yes. And down to Miller giving him the toe cutter Joe eyeball shot. Yes, which rules.

I'm un-fucking-believable oh and then and when he shoots at the thing the the the uh the gremlin pulls a matumbo it goes like yes but also he's a little slimy face he's sticking his head fully out the window at that point and his face is freezing over from the air temperature it's great I mean he just becomes more and more monstrous as it goes on I love everything about this I mean it's hard to talk about because it is

so purely a visual kinetic exercise right exactly and it's you know 20 minutes it's just in and out and it's you know 20 minutes it's just in and out and uh it's incredibly compelling in the original do they show the rest of the plane being affected by like the window opening because that was my favorite part is just like the second he shoots the window is

the cabin goes totally insane and then you see everyone you've seen throughout just like flying all over the place the like unattentive mom is holding onto her annoying kid. In the original it opens a door right? Yes. And it's certainly it's less insane and in the original they're not building

up the rest of the passengers as characters in the same way. Yes right this has the kid. I mean, they're all little, little George Miller stock characters. Right. But I love that you keep on going back to them and getting their opinions

and perspectives on things that they're like this Greek chorus of doubt. And all of them are sort of such heightened, grotesque characters in their own way. Yeah. The air Marshall in particular is like, feels like something out of mad max yes yes yeah yeah he's kind of yeah he's kind of gross kind of gross um but then there's this beautiful thing when the plane lands i mean it's textually the same as the ending of the

twilight zone short but um you have this amazing one-er that starts with Lithgow being like, see, I was right. I was right. I stopped it. I saved everybody. That then pulls back to reveal that he is strapped to a gurney being wheeled off to a sanitarium. That he looks like a ranting madman. A raving madman is what I meant to say. And then the camera keeps on pulling back and pulling back. And you get the conversation between all the people

who are on the planes, the flight attendants, the air marshal, everybody, the pilot, all talking about how crazy he was, making it seem like the terror was for them. They were also in a Twilight Zone episode, but the Twilight Zone episode was, what if you were stuck on a plane with a madman who shoots out the window? Which is an equally scary thing to imagine yeah definitely not my cup of tea

no um but then it keeps on pulling back and pulling back and pulling back until you get to um the guys on the ground inspecting the wing of the plane and noticing what's wrong and that's when you get the first cut in like a minute and it's such a good one or because it's not for show it's not like a fucking like look at me magic trick it's about sustaining the tension of the unease of all of these people misreading the situation with no cut with no cut with no cut the more all of these characters are telling us that lithgow was crazy and by association making us feel crazy for knowing that Lithgow was right until you finally get the one break in tension,

which is the guy validating that there was in fact something wrong with the plane. And it looks so goddamn gnarly. You see the wing and it is so busted up. It's so unnatural. And then you get the epilogue, which ties into the prologue of the film, which is good. It's Ackroyd and Albert Brooks driving in a truck

and listening to Midnight Special. And I realized watching this, Dan Ackroyd was kind of the Bill Hader of his time in that he was like comedian, SNL cast member nerd who all like the film nerds love to use whether it's a small part or big part they're just like this guy is one of us we'll throw him in there he's a movie star but also he'll do two lines in our thing this is what this is the year before ghostbusters yeah the year before yeah um and uh and brooks was also sort of in that zone and the prologue is the two of Ghostbusters? Yeah, the year before. Yeah. And Brooks was also sort of in that zone.

And the prologue is the two of them driving around. It's really fucking good. It's them in total pitch darkness. It is what is my scariest scenario, David. The way you view a plane, me being stuck in a truck at night when you can't see anything and it's deathly silent scares the shit out of me. And there's just a really long slow build i mean they really take their time teasing it out which is just the radio goes down the tape gets busted they don't have any music to listen to they want to entertain each other they start singing theme songs then they do the twilight zone theme then they start talking about their favorite Twilight Zone episodes.

And then it ends with Ackroyd saying, do you want to see something really scary? He makes Albert Brooks pull over to the side of the road and then reveals his large Marge face and seemingly eats Albert Brooks. And then transitions into Burgess Meredith doing the narration. The only reason I bring this up is because

at the end of this segment, and I believe this part was directed by George Miller as well and not by Landis. Really? Landis is credited. Really? Okay. Even scarier. He did the first segment epilogue prologue.

Well then, I'm sorry. I was wrong. And for that, I am eternally ashamed. That's quite right. It's not. It's not. And people are going to call for my head once this episode comes out. Yes, the end segment is that Lithgow is in the ambulance being driven to a mental institution

and screaming and Akward turns turns around he's the ambulance driver and he he says you want to see something scary and then that's the end of the movie uh it does feel like a bit of a step down from the the miller of it all yeah it's a little bit of a deflation even if it you know bookends the thing nicely anyway george miller though george miller though yeah i mean it's like this is his first time uh working outside of australia working within a studio system but within a very controlled environment because it's spielberg essentially passing him a check and saying just do a little 20 minute thing um and that's what gets him sort of in with warner

brothers which leads to him doing witches of east, which then leads to him never making an American studio film again without him having the keys to the kingdom, without him ultimately being the person steering the ship. He will work with American distributors, but he will always sort of get his own financing as much as he can work within other countries. It's like, you know, he can work within but also it's like you know he can do their shit better than them like it's just like you know give that guy 20 minutes and a few million bucks and he'll totally you know he'll thrill you yeah no it's it's just kind of incredible like you know you have landis and spielberg uh spielberg continues a good run uh landis drives his entire life off a cliff and then this sort of like transitions George Miller out of Mad Max and into, you know, the beyond of what everything else he can do. And Joe Dante, it kickstarts his career in a major way, which really happens via the continuing apprenticeship and support of Spielberg.

We'll talk about those segments another time. You want to do the box office game? Oh, yeah. Actually, let's do the box office game but also we should rank our Millers shouldn't we? yeah but let's do box office game first while I solidify my Miller ranking

alright so Twilight Zone the movie came out 1983 it came out on June 24th it opened a disappointing 4 fourth at the box office. It only cost $10 million, and Warner Brothers was very confident. This would be a big hit for us, but also this can be an ongoing series.

We can do every couple of years, have a couple superstar directors, make it for cheap. It only cost $10 million. They thought it was going to perform like a Spielberg movie. Right. And at the end of the day it didn't hurt anyone it made 30 million dollars but it was it was quickly like ah now forget it forget it forget it and the movie had some negative associations with it so uh let's talk about wait what was something in it anyway i also feel like every twilight zone revival

basically just never took hold i was so sure the the Jordan Peele bomb was going to work, and it's not bad, but it just doesn't. Nothing ever comes close to the original series. Wasn't that also only on CBS All Access? It never aired on TV? Yeah, that was an issue. America's favorite platform, Ang. I do pay for it.

I love it. I love that Star Trek. All right. Number one at the box office, the most successful film of 1983. It's a sequel. We've talked about it many times. But it hasn't gotten its own episode.

It just comes up a lot. Oh, no. It's had its own episode. And the film is called Return of the Jetty. That's right. Which in its fifth weekend is still number one. It's made $141 million. It's very good. It has ewoks in it i

don't know if you guys know this but uh there's this character called wicket and he has a furry little butt and that's what's important about that movie it's the big takeaway all right number two is another third entry in a franchise is it? No, there are many more to come. There's another direct sequel to come with other efforts at reboots and so on. This was, at the time, regarded as a big flop and is still pretty...

I mean, this movie is hilariously bad, but in a way that's sort of compelling. Interesting. It's a hilariously bad third film. Is it Superman 3? That's right. Okay. Where they were like, you know what Superman needs? How do we top this? We have Richard Pryor be the second lead.

And it was also one of those things where he was on Johnny Carson and Johnny was like, Richard, what kind of movies do you like there? And he was like, I like those Superman movies. And the next day someone ran to the studio and he was like, I like those Superman movies. And the next day someone ran to the studio and they were like, he likes those Superman movies. Let's make a Superman movie almost as much about him as Superman. That's fine. Do you know they almost did that

with Eddie Murphy in Star Trek IV? Yes, of course. Of course there's a role in Star Trek IV that is supposed to be Eddie Murphy. And at one point was going to be ostensibly a co-lead of the film. Exactly, yeah, 100%. And they junked that,

the role, I believe, is a woman, and it was completely overhauled, and that movie actually rules. Didn't need Eddie Murphy. Be interesting to see it with him, though. Number three is another sequel to a huge surprise hit of a 1981 comedy. It's a first sequel, the original?

Yes, it's a two. It's a two. And it's not European Vacation? No. It is a comedy. It is a comedy. Is it like an SNL National Lampoon adjacent comedy? No, it's outside of that.

No, much worse, much junkier. Much junkier. Is it Porky's 2? That's right. And what's the subtitle? The Next Day? That's right. Here's the tagline.

I do like that as a subtitle. Yeah. It's a decent subtitle. Yeah. If you thought the night before was funny, wait till you see the next day. Yeah. And people walked out of the theater saying, I think the night before was funny wait till you see the next day yeah and people walked out of the theater saying i think the night before was funnier um also just weird because it's called porky's too i believe porky is not involved no i've never seen any of them i've seen all of them because they used to play on british tv constantly they're terrible

but he returns for porky's Revenge, which is truly bad. Oh, for fuck's sake. David, you saw them all the time on vacation? Like what they were playing on an endless list? Yeah, it was on a European vacation. Why weren't you going outdoors? You were spending all your time inside at a hotel room watching telly?

Watching the telly? Yeah, I was watching the telly. I lived in Britain from 95 to 08. Oh my God. All right. Number four was Twilight Zone. Watching Mr. Bean. Number five.

Number five was a film we've talked about. I did watch Mr. Bean. Mr. Bean rules. Another comedy from a director we have extensively discussed. Extensively or ostensibly? Extensively. It's a comedy. 1903. Is it of endearment no comedy real comedy real comedy like funny a movie i adore it's so funny it's some parts don't hold up yeah there's there's one scene in particular that does not hold up yeah there's

one like really bad scene yes i. I mean, it's just, you're just sort of like in the moment, I don't know why this was a move, but now this is fucking demented. Like, well, it sounds like you're describing

the ghost blowjob and Ghostbusters, but that's the following year. That's true. That's true. 1983. One scene that's particularly egregious. We talked about this movie.

We talked about this movie in this episode and we talked about this movie we talked about this movie in this episode and we talked about this director a lot it's a landis movie yeah as is it's not trading places or it is it is trading places so you're talking about the blackface scene yeah yeah yeah i i love trading places i think it's so funny i also think it's just a beautifully written movie it's like you know it's very concise eddie murphy's fantastic murphy is absolutely insane in it jamie lee curtis is amazing that one scene you're just like whose idea was this i think it was eddie murphy's idea but it's still a while it's like

the last like 15 minutes of the movie yeah yeah um i'm more of a coming to america fan i i think that film's beautiful i love coming to america America, but I think Trading Place is a little better. But I don't know. I do like them both, obviously. Look, we can agree on one thing. John Lannis has never done anything wrong. Oh, Jesus. What else is in the top ten?

You got Octopussy. Mm. A truly bizarre movie. You got War Games. Never seen them more. A great one. War Games, I had forgotten until I was doing my deep dive Twitter stumping.

Martin Brest was hired to direct War Games and directed the first week of the film and was fired. Huh. Okay. Because they thought- It was directed by- John Borman. Badum. Badum.

Badum. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They thought his take was too serious. That's weird. That movie's very serious. Yeah, but his- In a fun way. His weird battle. too serious that's weird that movie is very serious yeah but his fun way his weird battle well that's the thing i think it started out a lot goofier he made it more serious he filmed a week they thought it was too serious they hired badum but it still really was the film that he developed um and he was the one who fought so hard for broderick and it made

broderick a star there's also flash dance Dance and Psycho 2, one of the weirdest horror sequels ever. What a weird week. What's the gap between Psycho and Psycho 2? I believe it's 23 years? It was for a while the longest gap between a first and a second, right? Yeah. Right. I mean, like, it's so long

that they can plausibly be like, he's out of prison. Right. It's been over 20 years yeah more sequels should wait that long i think tron legacy ends up being the longest yeah that one's that one's uh 26 or 27 years that's the long one yeah all right here's my actually you do yours first i always have to go first okay oh fine um okay i'm intrigued i just want to see how it goes the other way uh so did not include this in the ranking right we're doing the nine features we're doing Okay. Oh, fine. Okay. I'm intrigued. I just want to see how it goes the other way. So it did not include this in the ranking, right?

We're doing the nine features? We're doing nine. We're doing nine. Okay. And it's tough to make the nine. And let's also say, this is a guy, like many directors we've covered recently, you look at it and you go, God, that's a good filmography. If this is your ninth best film, your worst film, then you're a good fucking director. There is only one movie that I do not basically like a lot in these nine.

And I think it's probably the same for both of us. And it's a movie that a lot of people like, and I do not hold it against them. It's just, it doesn't work for me. Here's my ranking. Number one, Mad Max Fury Road. Number two, The Road Warrior. Number three, Loren Max Fury Road. Number two, The Road Warrior. Number three, Lorenzo's Oil. Yeah.

Number four, Babe, Pig in the City. He's in that city. Number five, Happy Feet 2, A Surprise Masterpiece. Wow. It has only grown on me. I ordered the 3D blue. I'm ready to watch it in another dimension. I now have double dipped on

happy feet 2 number 6 mad max number 7 witches of eastwick number 8 beyond thunderdome number 9 happy feet we have very similar rankings but a little different so let me give you mine all right number one fury road it's kind of just inarguable right i mean you're just like how does someone what a towering undeniable achievement. I think so. I think so. And the culmination of a career. Number two, Babe Big in the City. Wow. Wow.

Number three, The Road Warrior. Wow. Wow. Number four, Gimme That Oil. Yeah. Slide some oil to you. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna marinate. In the words of Nipsey Russell. Yeah. Number five. You wanna lubricate your mind. okay which is a beastwick um which these are all close yeah yeah uh but yeah really i do like the witches of isaac a lot uh number six mad max number seven happy feet two and you

know maybe i'll watch it again and maybe it'll inch up more. Who knows? Yeah, I think that thing honks. And then we have the same final two, Thunderdome 8 and Happy Feet 9. But I like Thunderdome a lot and even Happy Feet. Yeah, me too. Like, you know, it's enjoyable. Yeah. Look, I mean, and here's the other thing about the guy, and I feel like we've sort of said this in other episodes.

A, king of the sequels. That's the thing. I think undisputed king of the sequels yeah i mean my top three for him are all sequels secondly there's an argument to be made that he elevates every genre he chooses to work in i would agree yeah like mad max elevates action as a genre lorenzo's oil elevates the like prestige drama babe Feet to elevate the children's film. The guy is pretty wild in that sense. Witches of Eastwick is just such a bizarre, bizarre film,

but was a massive hit. And it makes me wish he would do more of an out-and-out comedy again, like an adult comedy. His next film still remains largely a mystery. What's it called? 10,000 Years of Longing? 100,000 Years of Longing? I believe 10,000.

But I do think it's more of a drama, but maybe not. 3,000 Years of Longing, that's what it's called. It also sounds like a romance, like a romantic drama about a genie starring Idris Elba and Tilda Swain. Here for it. I mean, talk about a guy where whatever he

thinks I want to see, apparently I want to see. If that's what he wants to make, then I guess that's the movie I want to see right now. Is there anything to the rumor about The Furiosa? Is it a prequel with Anya Taylor-Joy? It now appears to be a prequel

that seems to be the vibe, this Anya Taylor-Joy rumor. But, I mean, it's one of those projects that I feel like has been talked about consistently for the last five years and we will wait and see what actually gets greenlit. I mean, look, Mad Max 4 seemed like a rumor that would never come to fruition

for 15 years plus. And every time you heard a rumor about it, you went like, that can't actually be what they're doing. He did right after Fury Road came out, say, I got two movies I could make as a sequel. One is about Max and one is about Furiosa. I wouldn't be surprised. All of that makes sense.

I could see that happening. We'll see. I mean, once again, if he wants to make a Furiosa movie, then I want to see a Furiosa movie. If he wants to make a furiosa movie then i want to see a furiosa movie if he wants to do a mad max sequel without furiosa then that's what i want to see if he never wants to make another mad max then i don't want to see another mad max like it's it's like the james cameron avatar equation uh you know i think people have more faith in george miller

right now than they do in the avatar sequels. But I do feel like whatever that guy wants to follow is, I will follow him. You trust it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm trying to find anything else about 3000 Years of Longing. It seems like they did. They certainly started production this year.

I don't know if they finished it. I pray that they did before coronavirus shut down everything. But I feel like I saw on set photos and that the film at least made it through principal photography. Am I wrong about that? It's listed as pre-production. I don't know. Okay. Well, I hope we get to see it soon.

Either way. pre-production i don't know okay well i hope we get to see it soon either way um but the rumor yes was that he was apparently in pre-production on um the furiosa movie you know early early pre-production that it was on the runway that could be complete bullshit but that's what was being reported all right uh any final thoughts, Davey? No, it's been, it's been good. Happy Feet 2 is sort of the biggest surprise

of the whole thing, but it's been, been a good time. Not one bummer among them. I'm looking here, there's a deadline interview with George Miller from December

where they're talking about the start date for this movie, and I can't find the date. But maybe they didn't start it. With Miller, I'll believe it when I see it. I'm just very believable when I see it.

Yeah. Okay, well, that has been our miniseries on the films of George Miller. Coming up next week is Stargate, a Ben's choice. We're going to venture through Al Gore's Stargate. Hell yeah. And then the week after that, we're starting our miniseries on Nora Ephron. Nora Ephron.

So that's Nora Ephron coming up next, followed by our March Madness winner, Bobby Z. That's right. Robert Zanekas himself. And he will take us through the end of the year. Yeah, and a little bit into 2021 um in terms of what else might be on our calendar i'm just gonna say this now we don't know because the interruptions we scheduled between now and then were tied to releases of films that are maybe up in the air now you know in theory we maybe do a wonder woman

episode we maybe do a tenant episode we maybe do a Wonder Woman episode. We maybe do a Tenet episode. We maybe do a West Side Story episode. But all those things are big question marks. So if we do not put up an official schedule for these episodes, or it takes a little while, or the schedule changes,

don't, at Ange, don't fucking yell at us because the world is on fire and best laid plans of mice and men can completely go out the window at this point but going through all the Nora Ephrons including When Harry Met Sally and then going through

all of the Zemeckis including Welcome to Marwen but I've had a good time on this Fury Road it's been weird. This was overdue. He had been a guy in like this sort of a bag of, you know, immediate contenders for us. He came really close to March Madness twice.

We finally settled on him because we thought it would be good to do a more sort of commercial franchise-y filmmaker after Demi and a shorter filmography. And little did we know after recording six episodes, the world would turn into the wasteland. It has been odd timing. It has been weird listening back to the episodes we recorded eight weeks ago that feel like they were recorded 12 years ago. It has been weird talking about other movies after the fact,

or not after the fact, during our current crisis. It's been an odd miniseries, but I think a pleasant journey through these films. And I hope people enjoyed watching them or rewatching them. Yeah, for sure. And thank you all for listening.

And please remember to rate, review, and subscribe. Thanks to Andrew Guto for co-producing the show and doing our social media. Thanks to Lane Montgomery for our theme song, Joe Bone and Pat Reynolds for artwork. Go to blankies.reddit.com for some real nerdy shit.

Go to patreon.com backslash BlinkCheck for BlinkCheck special features where we will have covered the first babe earlier this month. That will only be on Patreon because he didn't technically direct it. And we'll also be doing a Toy Story commentaries in which I will behave like a very, very proper gentleman. I will be very, very serious and sophisticated and calmly spoken.

Oh, I'm so excited. And definitely will not be all horned up. And tune in next week for Stargate. And as always, toodoodoodoodoodoodoo!