How Did This Get Made? - Last Looks: The Arrival

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

This week Paul's on his own and dishing out advice on the Paul Help Line, going over everything we might have missed from last week's movie The Arrival, and Paul announces next week's movie! Our movie picking producer needs some words of support, fan art, anything to lift her spirits up while she fights brain cancer. You can email Andrew at [e-mail] or you can send something to Av directly (nothing perishable or scented) Avaryl Halley PO BOX 641 Agoura Hills CA 91376-0641 • Go to hdtgm.com for tour dates, merch, FAQs, and more• Have a Last Looks correction or omission? Call 619-PAULASK to leave us a voicemail!• Submit your Last Looks theme song to us here• Join the HDTGM conversation on Discord: discord.gg/hdtgm• Buy merch at howdidthisgetmade.dashery.com/• Order Paul’s book about his childhood: Joyful Recollections of Trauma• Shop our new hat collection at podswag.com• Paul’s Discord: discord.gg/paulscheer• Paul’s YouTube page: youtube.com/paulscheer• Follow Paul on Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/paulscheer• Subscribe to Enter The Dark Web w/ Paul & Rob Huebel: youtube.com/@enterthedarkweb• Listen to Unspooled with Paul & Amy Nicholson: unspooledpodcast.com• Listen to The Deep Dive with June & Jessica St. Clair: thedeepdiveacademy.com/podcast• Instagram: @hdtgm, @paulscheer, & @junediane• Twitter: @hdtgm, @paulscheer, & msjunediane  • Jason is not on social media• Episode transcripts available at how-did-this-get-made.simplecast.com/episodesGet access to all the podcasts you love, music channels and radio shows with the SiriusXM App! Get 3 months free using the link: siriusxm.com/hdtgm

lozenges, love, and letterbox. All these things will be discussed today on how did this get made. Last looks, hit the theme. I don't understand anything in this world, but I know one thing for sure. The exclamation, hope, lie, corrections, and omissions. Maybe we'll do just chat. And right before the end of cover next week's movie, what do you all think of that? The Last Books.

Taking last books. Everybody taking last books. Right now. Hello all my fellow McDLT lovers. That's right. You all know the importance of keeping the hot side hot and the cool side cool. Don't worry. It's in Styrofoam.

We don't have to worry about it. It's the eighties. Uh, I love that McDLT run that we did in the last episode. So much so that we made a shirt, a McDLT arrival shirt. That is one of my favorite designs. Um, by the way, speaking of t-shirts, we just released our Toronto t-shirts, which are equally good. Uh, now in addition to balcony monsters, we have gallery urchins.

Oh, I hope we get to play another theater with a gallery. I wanna see more urchins out there. I am your host, Paul Scheer, and welcome to How Did This Get Made? Last Looks, where you, the listener, get to voice your issues on Charlie Sheen's The Arrival. A movie that Discord user Zilla21 thinks could have been called Some Aliens Like It Hot.

I like it, good. All right, thank you, Zillow21 for that alt title. Remember, if you have an alt movie title or a tagline, submit it to us on our Discord at discord.gg slash HDTGM and we might just read it on the show. All right, coming up on today's episode, I will do my best to solve your problems on the return of Paul's helpline.

That's right, baby, it is back. We'll be hearing all your corrections and omissions for the arrival. And lastly, I will reveal the movie for next week. But first, before we get into anything, I wanna give a shout out to the one, the only Rob from Long Island. Rob, you bring in the heat all the time.

You created that opening theme and I love it. It's really good. We love these songs. If you have any last looks episode themes, go to HDTGM.com and click on submit a song button on your home page. You can also find the submission link in the show notes for this very episode. Remember, keep them short. 15 to 20 seconds is best. Now, before we jump into Paul's helpline, I do want to talk about something very serious. Um, since I can remember, I actually remember the day that I hired Averill to work on how did this get made? She has been a part of the show for such a long time.

And you know, what you love about the show is what I love about Averill. She has a great eye. She has amazing taste. She has been fighting cancer for the last few months and she just finished two weeks of whole brain radiation therapy. Um, I am sending my love to Averill. Uh, her family is supporting her and surrounding her right now. And we are asking our, how did this get made listeners to send Averill some love? You can send it virtually by emailing Andrew at Averill.com. and surrounding her right now. And we are asking our, how did this get made listeners to send Avril some love?

You can send it virtually by emailing Andrew at movie bitches dot X Y Z, or you can actually mail Avril something at PO box six four one Agora Hills, California nine one three seven six, nothing scented, nothing perishable. Um, you can find out all this information on our Discord and our social media channels as well. She asked for this. So we want to make sure that we are overwhelming her with love and positivity. They asked for fan art or just notes, just to give her an extra push because she really, really needs it. Um, and yeah, we have just been sending her good vibes and prayers and wishes. Whatever you do when someone, you know, is sick, uh, we would love you to do for Averyl.

Uh, she is just a, a cornerstone of this show. Um, and she needs all the love and support we can give her. So, like I said, you can find out that address and that email address anywhere on our social media. And if you have two minutes, just send an email. Send an email. Send a card, whatever. I really appreciate you doing this. And now for something that has no weight in the world, uh, after that, uh, it is now time for

Paul's helpline. Oh, Paul, fear an explanation of a different kind. Paul's sheer explanation, all blind. Thank you, Action Jackson 5, I did you dirty by making you come in after that moment where we talked about Averill, but we had to switch topics because now I'm here to help you. Jameson from DC, what do you got?

Hi Paul, this is Jamison from DC. You might remember me as the father of Rowan, AKA Jason's godson. Hi Jason. I'm wondering, he's almost five now. What age would it be appropriate to get him into the terrible awesomeness that is the Fast and the Furious franchise? Come on, Paul. He's almost five now. What age would it be appropriate to get him into the terrible awesomeness

that is the Fast and the Furious franchise? How fear of me? This is a great question. I am a parent who values my kids' opinion of my taste. So I never want to introduce something to them before they are ready for it, right? I try to find a really good entry point and you know, we often think, well, I have to start at the beginning. If I'm going to show them fast and furious, no, no, no, no, no.

You don't, you don't. As a matter of fact, I started showing my kids mission impossible, but I started with ghost protocol. That's right. Number four, because they knew it would be the one that was the most fun for them. And I'm going to avoid a five rogue nation and I'm going to go to fallout. We already saw the final reckoning. They did not see dead reckoning.

Uh, but they are, uh, they are interesting kids and you want to make sure that you support them by delivering something that is not satisfactory for you, but for them So I would say you gotta at least Wait until they're 8 to 10 in my opinion. That is the appropriate age. Yes, they'll watch it, but they won't get it They won't love it. I made that mistake with Raiders of the Lost Ark. They liked it But you know what when I brought my 8 and 11 year old to Goonies, they fucking loved it. So you gotta make sure your kids are, you know,

are ready for it. You gotta find the right entry point. There's something about Fast and Furious, like Fast Five might be your prime example of it. And I think you'd have to wait in about 10 or 11. That's my gut. And I know people don't wanna hear that. They wanna be like, oh, Paul, shoot them when they're five.

They won't get it. It's my same rule for Disney. Don't bring kids there people don't want to hear that. They want to be like, Oh, Paul, shoot them when they're five. They won't get it. It's my same rule for Disney. Don't bring kids there that can't ride on the rides and not until they're five years old. Don't bring them to Disney. They're not going to remember it, but this is where we have to get our own ego out of the way.

Be a good parent by making them think that you have good taste, but you show them something early. You show them Monty Python, you give them all this stuff and they don't get it. They will not like it. They won't respect you. They will be mad at you. Now, what have I shown my kids that they love? Dodgeball.

They love dodgeball. They love goonies. Uh, they love Elf. I mean, Elf is a classic. Uh, I have a whole list on my letter box of movies that my kids are into. So you want to check that out. You can see what I am watching with my kids that they love.

Nutty Professor, another great one. Okay, Rachel from Baltimore, what do you got? Hey Paul, this is Rachel. And I had a question about something that I have now done that is very out of character for myself. I just booked a family camping trip for me and my two young kids and my husband. And we are not campers. We don't, we've never gone camping. So I wanted to know if you have any tips or tricks or anything to kind of get us

through two days of car camping technically, but camping them less. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks so much. Have no idea for you. I don't. You know, look, here's the thing. I have a big rule of thumb about this.

Again, same rule that Jameson had. You want to make it fun for the kids. So where are you camping? What are you doing? A lot of keep the activities coming. Now my wife will argue that one activity a day is enough. I'm going to argue that when you're camping, you got to do a lot of activities and you've got to be able to move.

You got to have a day that is flexible. You're going to go fishing and you're going to go over here. You know, you got to make it fun. It it's got to be the family friendly Disney version of camping, in my opinion, to make them want to go and do it again. You don't want to make them feel like they're being tortured, right? Like they don't want to be like, Oh, I can't get iPad service. I can't do this.

I can, you know, you have to work overtime. If that's cutting your vacation down a day to make it more jam packed, then do it. They're going to love sleeping outside. They're also going to be scared about that too. There's a lot of things here. So I would say get some good games, fun games, uh, create like challenges. Do they like survivor create like a little survivor thing out there? You know, you have to gamify a lot of stuff. I think in that way, I love sleeping outside, but you get bored. You get bored. Uh,

I think it can be done. I want to know, Rachel, let me know when we bring back this segment, Jason from Minneapolis. What do we got? Hey, Paul, had a question about how you handle picking movies and making them available. Like, Date with an Angel was the movie that you showed here in November of 2023, but that never got a podcast episode. So I'm wondering, I've heard from other discussions, disconnected discord, that you don't always share the podcast if the film

isn't available to stream. And I know it's complicated with licensing rights, and movies disappear from online. So I'm just wondering if that's the issue, or if there was some other problem, because I'd like to hear that episode and also welcome you back. So please return. Thanks. You know, this is a great question. I've seen this a few times. The movie got pulled from all streaming and rental services right after the live show. And we want to release it when it's actually available again. So, you know, it's just so people can watch the movie. I know that not everybody watches a movie, but we have, we sometimes keep episodes in our back pocket.

You know, so, and part of the fun of the show is having you all be able to correct and omit and all that sort of stuff. I know that they're doing a DVD re-release because the actual director writer reached out to me about it. So we will see, we will keep our eyes on it. Don't think we're hiding anything.

We're not gatekeeping. We just wanna create a great experience for the home audience. And that's always our rule. The live show is a live show. The home audience is a whole different beast and we treat them differently. So one day soon, we hope.

All right, that is it for all the calls today. Remember, you can always reach out to the show by leaving a message at 619-P-A-U-L-A-S-K. That's 619-Paul-ASK. Now, before we head to the break, Joyful Recollections of Trauma is out in paperback, which means what? It's easier to carry. You can throw it in a backpack and it has 20 extra pages.

Yes, it's a New York Times bestseller and I wanted to do something special just like the hardcover. What I actually decided to do was I created a whole special section on my website. Pictures, videos. There's a whole section on UCB added to the book and also added to the website. You can get a lot more context for many pieces in the book. I hope you enjoy what I did because I really built it for no other reason than for your own enjoyment. And let your booksellers know whether it's Barnes & Noble, whether it is an airport bookshop, get Paul Scheer's book in here. We got to get it in there. We've been selling the book really well, but it's

always a challenge when a new version of it comes out. So I want to tell you that. I also want to remind you that if you're listening to today's episode on the day it's released, that Friday, The Dark Web, our weekly series that I do with Rob Hubel, is having a live watch-along of Sister Sensei. The guy who did Karate Rap the video made a movie called Sister Sensei. It should be on How Did This get made, but we figured out that Dark Web, that audience wants to see it. You can watch our live watch along tonight. But if you don't have that, you can watch it whenever.

You can join our Patreon. You can watch that live feed. Now it would be recorded. And you can, if you have no money, that's totally fine too. You could just watch Dark Web every single Monday. Check it out. Like, subscribe, hit that bell. And as always, Jason is on Taskmaster and he is killing it.

I'm loving watching him this season. He is absolutely stellar, stellar. Oh, it's so good. I wish I was on that show. I want Jason and I to host that show. Can we do that? Can someone out there create a Taskmaster where Jason and I are the two?

You know, we run that show. We would do it so good. It would be so good Anyway, stick around because we will be right back with your questions comments and concerns about Charlie Sheen's The Arrival Welcome back everybody last week. We talked at length about The Arrival Well, you know we had questions and we might've even missed a few things. Here's your chance to set us straight. Fact check us if you will. It is now time for Corrections and Omissions. We're baking the confections and dissecting the submissions.

We're faking the directions and collecting the musicians. It's time for Corrections and omissions. Thank you, thank you. Brand new song submitted by Bears in Love. Thank you, Bears in Love. Love to meet you. Let's go to the Discord. Danny the wall says, the biggest question I had throughout the movie

is if the aliens are terraforming the earth so they're able to live on it, how are they able to live on it while they are terraforming it? Bam, boom, bang. Now, Danny, I didn't are they able to live on it while they are terraforming it? Bam, boom, bang. Now, Danny, I didn't get that. I didn't get that they were terraforming it for them to live on it. I thought they were terraforming it to, uh, uh, like to bring back to their planet or maybe like to destroy it.

So then it would be good for there. But you're right. Huh? Maybe they're wearing oxygen packs. I don't know. Like that little breath thing that Obi-Wan Kenobi has and the phantom menace you know what I'm talking about you know his underwater breathing apparatus Mitch Capa you know Mitch I don't know if I ever realized that your

name is from old how did I not forget that Mitch Capa writes something about the mundanity of the day to day for most of the aliens we see in the movie got me thinking are these aliens happy that they're just on earth? Is working in a greenhouse gas factory here better or worse or the same as what they'd be doing back home? I know somebody has to do it, pave the way for the full takeover, but once that happens, will it be party city for them

or just the same shit different day? Mitch, I love this way you're thinking. I mean, this is like the people who built the Death Star. Like, are they getting satisfaction? I mean, these are construction workers. That's all they're doing, right? These are, they're just looking for the next gig. They are union workers.

They're getting a good wage. They're, this is neither, they don't, they're not like, oh my gosh, my race is going to live on. It's like the people who built the Death Star, they're just like, yeah, this is a, it's a gig. It's a gig. I'm, I'm, I'm working on an oil rig for a couple months. That's kind of what I get from them.

Farfag Nugent, oh wow, old reference, love'm, I'm working on an oil rig for a couple of months. That's kind of what I get from them. Farfag Nugent. Oh wow. Old reference. I love that. Was amused to hear the diversion about the classic Nazareth song, Hair of the Dog. I loved it. I was understandably confused about the name of the song and band and why a song with the refrain, now you're messing with a son of a bitch would be called Hair of the Dog.

Now, the way I heard the story that was originally called son of a bitch, but you can't say that on the radio. So they figured, oh, well, bitch is a dog and son is an heir. So since, you know, heir of the dog sounded more like a common expression like hair of the dog, that's why they named the song that. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I love that.

That is great. Perfect. All right, let's go to the phones. I'm loving here. I love that we can talk about Nazareth on this show. Now you're messing with a son of a bitch. I love that song so much. All right, here we go.

Let's go to the phones. Alex from Pasadena, what do you got? Hi Paul, love the podcast. I'm calling in for the arrival. They filmed this movie at the house behind mine in Pasadena And I was about seven or eight years old and I remember trying to look through the fence with my brother See what was going on, but we couldn't really see anything except through a small hole

So we fought over who could look through there and there was a grapefruit tree So naturally we started throwing grapefruits at each other and then my brother decided to throw him over the fence at the film. So about 10 minutes later, two police officers came to our house and apparently the grapefruit landed next to Charlie Sheen and he was not happy. So I told the cops what had happened and I got blamed for it, but no big deal.

The funny thing is instead of getting in trouble though, my family was invited to watch the film. And I think the scene we saw was where he was in the backyard yelling. I don't really remember too much, but I do remember the crew being nice and giving me a ton of snacks. So yeah, I can thank this movie

for my first interaction with the police. Thanks. Whoa! Oh! That was great. Oh man. Why did you throw a grapefruit at Charlie? He's just trying to work.

You know, Pasadena has the piss bandit, right? You're not the piss bandit, are you? You know about the piss bandit of Pasadena? He's leaving his piss on these. Doesn't do anything, just leaves piss on electrical transformers, just a jug of piss. Check it out. There's a good documentary on,

I think, Last House on the left. All right, back to the Discord, Dr. Guts, 10.03 writes, when Charlie Sheen comes back from Mexico and confronts actor activist Ron Silva, he at one point takes something out of his mouth. It looks like a red cough drop or a sucking candy, but then he holds onto it for the rest of the conversation. And at one point he even points his finger

with it stuck at the end of his finger. Is this just an actor choice? Is it meant to be a callback or reference to something I missed? I mean, all I know is that I was disgusted stuck at the end of his finger. Is this just an actor choice? Is it meant to be a callback or reference to something I missed? I mean, all I know is that I was disgusted to see him keeping that sticky, slimy thing on his hand. Whoa, and you've included a screen grab of it.

Now this movie has been long erased from my mind. It wasn't a recording device? No? It wasn't like some way that he was using to get past security? I don't know. Aliens aren't red. Maybe they hate cherry. I'll be ashamed. Gotta like cherry. I don't know. Anyone know the answer to that? No one answered Dr. Gutz. So let's see. I do want to get to the bottom of that. But I'm gonna say this. Everything I know about Charlie Sheen, that is an actor's choice. Keep the lozenge on the finger.

I learned that in Michael Klain's acting class where he said, don't blink. SpicyLYF writes, here's a how did this get made connection I've been thinking about since hearing the arrival episode. We learned in the classic speed two episode that one of the many actors who passed on the role of Jack after Keanu dropped out was Patrick Muldoon. This is in 97 and at this point

he's a soap actor with small film roles but nothing major. That's weird enough. But then in this episode Paul tells us that Patrick Muldoon plays the lead in Arrival 2, which comes out right around the same time as Speed 2. So what on earth could have been so attractive about a direct to video sequel of The Arrival that made him say, compared to a terrible, but theatrically released sequel to speed. Make it make sense. Uh, spicy. I'm going to guess paycheck, paycheck, paycheck, paycheck. Here's the thing you do arrival to no one sees it.

No one talks about it. You get that money and you go away. You take speed to everyone's looking at you. You never get a movie again. So there's a part of me that feels like, it may seem like, oh, a bad career choice, but actually might be a great career choice because he got to be a lead in a movie

and he could say, oh, that's a rival too. And then he could get a bigger movie instead of being the lead of speed two and everyone going, that guy sucks. But Jason Patrick, I don't think really took the brunt of that either, so who knows? I don't know. Can someone ask Patrick Maldoon? Does anyone know Patrick Maldoon? Let's ask him. Ian Soldout says, okay, I did not watch

the movie and I did zero research, but I came up with a theory when Paul read the logline for Arrival 2, which contained the phrase, backwards need aliens. Did the writers who, I got the impression, were trying to be a little too clever, create backward needs aliens because aliens have backwards needs IE they need a hot atmosphere with lots of pollution, which is the opposite of human needs And sold out. I don't think this movie is that clever, but I love that you are All right, so many great corrections and omissions this week, but there can only be one winner And look I would normally give it to somebody

who throws a grapefruit at Charlie Sheen, but you know what? In my entire time of doing the show, I have not been left stumped in a very long time. And Dr. Guts, you stumped me. So Dr. Guts, you are the winner this week for your lozenge question. And you know what?

You get nothing, but you do get this amazing song from Super Flavor World. Hit it! You win, you win, you win, you win, you win. Nothing. Okay, if you wanna chime in with your thoughts about the latest episode, hit up our Discord or call 619PaulAsk. Once again, you can find our new song submission link at HDTGM.com and on the show notes for this very episode. Okay, coming up after the break, I will finally announce next week's new movie.

Be right back. Welcome back. By now, I'm sure you've noticed that every Tuesday we re-release a classic How Did This Get Made episode. This week, we covered the Stephen King film Dreamcatcher with Jess McKenna and Curtis Gwynne. Next week's matinee will feature a character who definitely appreciates the cool staying cool in a McDLT. That's right. We'll be talking about Mr. Freeze. That's right, because we are covering Joel Schumacher's Batman and Robin with Matt Nira and Jesse Falcon. No June, no Jason, that's a rare one.

So keep on checking out all of our replays of classic episodes every Tuesday. All right, without any further ado, it is finally time to announce our next movie. All right, we are going from Backwards Knees to Seven Seas. That's right, because next week we are watching the 1989 fantasy adventure, Simbad of the Seven Seas, starring Lou Ferrigno as Simbad. Here's a short breakdown of the plot. Simbad now must recover five magical stones to free a city from a wizard's

evil spell to help a prince win the hand of a beautiful princess. There are not enough reviews on Rotten Tomatoes for a score, you think. So instead we turn to Letterboxd where user LilCommandil writes, it's quite possibly the worst movie I've ever watched would watch again. You know what? That's how I felt too. Take a listen to the trailer. Mighty Lou Ferrigno brings to light

the amazing adventures of Sinbad. Sinbad faces epic heralds and mighty armies. His quest to save the beautiful princess from the clutches of an evil sorcerer. Grant me the power to crush him. Magical monsters and mighty warriors. Magical monsters and mighty warriors. You can stream Simbad of the Seven Seas on Amazon Prime Video, Fubu and MGM Plus and Filo or rent it on Apple TV. And make sure you are watching the live action Lufrigno version, not the 2003 animated film

Simbad Legend of the Seven Seas. Also and totally unrelated to this week's movie, I encourage you to check out Hoopla Canopy and Libby. They are digital media services offered by your local public library that allow you to consume movies, TV, music, audio books, eBooks and comics for free. Support your library. Okay. Because we want to make sure that they are still standing.

Okay. We can't get rid of our libraries. That's a beautiful place for people to do so many different things. We need to keep our public libraries open. So rent a movie, go there, just hang out. It is a great place. And thank you to librarians for fighting the good fight. All right, that is it for our show.

Remember, rate and review it. That's important, rate and review our show. Wherever you listen, on Spotify, on Apple Podcasts, we love it. And make sure you're following the show as well. I also want to remind you all to hit up Avril, send her an email, send her a card, send her your love, and make sure that you visit us on social media. You can find out all of Avril's information on our social media at HDTGM and a big thank you to our producers, Scott Sonny, Molly Reynolds,

and our movie picking producer who I've talked about quite a lot today, Averill Halley, our engineer Casey Holford and Jess Cisneros who makes our social videos. Next week we will see you for Simbad of the Seven Seas.