Somewhere in the Skies - No One Will Save You: Movie Review (w/ Andrew Sanford and Nick Westemeyer)

Episode Date: October 12, 2023

Ryan is joined by actors/filmmakers, Andrew Sanford and Nick Westemeyer, to discuss the recently released movie, No One Will Save You. Written and directed by Brian Duffield, the film introduces Brynn, a young woman who’s been alienated from her community. Lonely, she finds solace within the walls of the home where she grew up--until she's awakened one night by strange noises from unearthly intruders. What follows is a terrifying face-off between Brynn and the intruders, who threaten her future while forcing her to deal with her past. Follow Andrew Sanford on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/SanfordMinusSon Follow Nick Westemeyer on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/Nwestemeyer Read Ryan’s Articles by CLICKING HERE Opening Theme Song, "Ephemeral Reign" by Per Kiilstofte Copyright © 2023 Ryan Sprague. All rights reserved. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/somewhere-in-the-skies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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This episode is brought to you by Netflix. Most valuable promotions in Netflix are hosting a blockbuster triple headliner Saturday, May 16th. Ronda Rousey returns to face fellow woman's MMA pioneer Gina Carano in the main event. Plus co-main's Nate Diaz versus Mike Perry and the best heavyweight in the world, Frances Angano versus Felipe Lins. Watch Rhonda Rousey versus Gina Carrano, live only on Netflix. Saturday, May 16th at 9 p.m. Eastern Center time, 6 p.m. Pacific time. Hey guys, Ryan here. If you listen to the podcast on Apple, there's a very simple way for you to help out the show.

Just click the Apple Premium subscriber button at the top of the feed, and you'll instantly become a premium member where you get all the same rewards as our Patreon members do, early access to all main episodes and bonus episodes and content. Join our Apple Premium subscription today, and thank you for your support. There's nothing to hide. There's nothing to hide at all. Welcome to a very special Halloween edition of somewhere in the live stream where we are going to break down the movie. No one will save you tonight.

Tonight, I say, here in the UK, it's 1.30 p.m. Eastern Standard for my guests today. So how they are reviewing a horror movie at 1.30 in the afternoon is beyond me. But I thank them immensely for doing that. I thank all of you for being here. whether you're on the West Coast, East Coast, UK, wherever you are, Australia. Welcome, welcome. We're going to be taking your comments tonight, guys, getting your thoughts and opinions. No one will save you this kind of sleeper movie that came out of nowhere

and has become kind of a cult classic for us here in the UFO field very quickly. But before we even get to the movie, I'm going to bring in our guests for today. You know them well. They do our movie reviews here every year. here at somewhere in the skies and somewhere in the live stream. And that are my, that are, that is of my actor and filmmaker friends, Nick Westemeyer and Andrew Sanford. So let's bring them in.

Gentlemen, what is going on? You only see my hat? Yes, I can. All right, and the fighting nun behind me? I love it. I love it, man. This is from my sister-in-law, she gets me. Oh my gosh.

That thing is a little scary. I'm not going to like the face. It is. It's pretty terrifying. The face looks extremely hyper real. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, she's right.

I'm bringing up really bad flashbacks of all my education. Yeah, dude. I don't know about you guys, but our nuns at my Catholic school, they were a little, a little punitive when it came to wearing hats in school. Yeah, I know. I know. I find you, Ryan. We, I didn't go. I went to a public school, but I did attend CCD on Sundays until I got my confirmation.

And I primarily remember having a teacher that got really mad when somebody questioned George W. Bush. I don't even know how he got brought up. But yeah, so that's what I learned about the Bible. Wow. Love it. Love it. The name I didn't think would come up in this conversation, but it did. Oh, I'm only going to talk about Bush for the rest of the podcast. Fair enough. Fair enough.

There are some, let's be fair. There are some religious undertones in this movie, which I think we can maybe touch on. A little bit of allegory, maybe. But we'll get there. We'll get there. Before we get to the movie, did you guys know about this?

Like, had you heard anything about this movie coming out prior to me being like, hey, there's a new alien abduction movie out. I would love to know what you two think as filmmakers, as actors, as writers, and before I threw this this pretty impromptu review session together, did you know anything about no one will save you? No.

You go ahead, Nick, because now I have to check it. I knew it was out only because I have another filmmaker friend of mine who's doing kind of like, like we used to do like a shocktober thing, but he just watched his bunch of more movies and then posts just his review on them. And so this is one of the first ones he did. Oh, okay.

Oh, I really liked it. So that's the only reason why I had known about it And then you can't get to watch it probably like two or three days after that. So it had been on my radar because of that. But otherwise, no. I'm also admittedly a little behind of my scary movie watching. That's fair. That's fair.

I'm there you. Yeah. You're not fueling me anymore. I work for a pop culture slash politics slash politics. A little bit of everything website called P-J-I-B-C-A. P-A-J-I-B-A. And so I had seen the trailer for this ahead of time and was really new.

It was one of those things where, actually, I think I didn't see the trailer. What I think happened is I saw people start to talk about this about a month ago when the trailer came out. And I was like, ooh, interesting. And then I remember seeing that there was kind of an overwhelmingly positive response for it. And if something like that happens,

I will stop watching trailers or looking up things or anything like that and kind of just take the movie as it is. Sometimes that'll happen to if there's an overwhelmingly negative response to something. But when there's kind of no like middle of the road and like I'm not interested, I try to like cut myself off. So this one I did that for. And then I think, it's funny. I think I might have watched it the day you texted us about this.

Lesz. So I was, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was, I was ready to go. Well, and I mean, let's just say it up front here. We're looking at like an 82% certified fresh on rotten tomatoes right now. It's pretty damn for a movie like that had no fanfare, really. No real true marketing came out on a streaming platform, which is something I want to talk to you guys about.

and yeah, just kind of really came out of nowhere. And again, whenever these alien abduction movies come out, and I know we covered, I think maybe two years ago, the found footage film, Alien Abduction found footage films that we watched.

Very scary, very, some of them brutal, which is this film as well. But whenever they come out, I think us in the UFO field are like, oh, no, it's just going to be another, big Hollywood horror movie where the aliens are putting people down and it's going to be torture

and when in reality a lot of the abduction cases that have been on record as, you know, quote unquote credible and whatnot, aren't like this. They're not, they're not like fire in the sky or like that or like this movie. So when this came out, I think all of us were immediately a little on the defensive and then I watched it. And, oh, my God, like, this, I, again, I know I'm kind of putting the cart before the horse, but I was thoroughly impressed by this. Not from a, not from a UFO researcher standpoint, but as a film enthusiast, as someone who hopes to and inspires to create films like this someday. Yeah, really blew me away. So that's kind of by my cart before the horse, but let's not do that.

Let's start for the beginning, right? Let's get the old stream, or excuse me, the old... What do they call that? Slideshow. Yeah, right? Very good initial marketing, I think. But like I said, this came out on Hulu, and not everyone has Hulu. And this film, in my personal opinion, I think, needed to be seen on a big screen.

Oh, see, I disagree. I think Kulu is the right place for it. As you were saying all that, I think that, like, it's... Well, anyway, I think that a streaming platform for movie like this was the right venue for it. Oh, okay. Which I can talk about, as we get into the movie, why I feel that way. Okay. From, like, a movie-going perspective.

Cool, cool. Yeah, I kind of fall somewhere in between on that as well, because it's... I also would have loved to see it on a big screen, similar to Prey, which was all also put on Hulu last year, that also has a singular female lead fighting against monsters from space. So Hulu has clearly found their niche. But I do think that there is a chance that it wouldn't have reached as many people if it wasn't on a streaming service initially. I don't know how this would have done in theaters. I think, like, dubbed Tienoff that, like what interesting with, especially with Pray. Like, I would agree with Pray. Like, Pray I would have loved

to have gone seen in the theaters, but Pray still felt, maybe because it's Predator, maybe because it's this very like marketable known franchise like that it feels more big budget to me in that way. It feels more like I'm watching a commercial

a Hollywood commercial movie. I know they did a ton of risks and different stuff but like because it's the Predator. This movie to me takes a lot of like indie risks to do a lot of risky underlying risky filmmaking things that I think

being not on a big screen, being on a streaming service, allows it that opportunity because you're not, you don't have to cater to like bringing in as much money, right? It's not looking for revenue in the same way. And so they can do a lot of stuff, which I'll talk about with that actress, I think for her, especially I think is great. That it being a streaming service movie allows us to take these chances a little bit more,

which is what I like that makes sense. That makes a lot of sense. It does make sense in a very depressingly accurate way. I know. There used to be a point where studios would take risks on stuff like this in theaters, and it could probably surprise them. But I thank you, Nick, for being our studio representative and accurately saying that this wouldn't have met enough money.

It's true. I think about like insidious, right? Which made like, was made on like a really small budget, but made like tons of money. And at the time, I think it was a pretty risky. studio movie, right? But you still had like Patrick Wilson, you still have like some name names. And I'm forgetting her name at the moment. And like, I know her from

Roseburn. I would, I would argue neither of them were very big names with that. What? Patrick Wilson? At the time. Yeah, yeah. Patrick Wilson, what did he done? He had done the conjuring. No, Conjuring was out of course. Insidious was before that. Insidious was before the conjuring. I think as far as like bigger

things are concerned, Patrick Wilson and had done like Watchman. Yeah. And the real question is, had he done Phantom of the Opera yet? Yes. Yes, he had. Okay. So, okay.

So he had, yeah. And I remember specifically for Watchman, Zach Snyder went about casting that movie with actors that were like actors, like not like no, like not really named people for the most part. Like you had Jack Earl Haley in there, but even he was still kind of like a long-time character actor. But it, um,

it would, I would, I, also, insidious produced by James Juan, written by Lee Wannel, I just don't think that one in particular was as much of a risk, if that makes sense. That's, yeah, I get totally. Yeah. It didn't do many risky things as this did as a film. Yeah, sure. I think what we're all trying to get at is like, there were no big names in this. Just right.

Writing wise, director wise, acting wise. But Caitlin Dever, who will get to, our main protagonist, had a very very very. very, very challenging mission in this movie, which we will get to. It's pretty much the one thing everyone's really talking about with this movie. But let's give a little, I'm going to give a little plot synopsis before we start really digging in. No one will save you. This came out, gosh, just about a month ago at this point on Hulu. This introduces Bryn Adams, a creative and talented young woman who's been alienated from her

community. Lonely but ever hopeful, Bryn finds solace within the walls of the home where she grew up until she's awakened one night by strange noises from decidedly unearthly intruders. What follows as an action-packed face-off between Bryn and a host of extraterrestrial beings who threaten her future while forcing her to deal with her past. I love that. That's a very concise thing. This is written and directed by Brian Duffield, who is known for Love in Monsters, Underwater, which is the only one of his I've seen, and The Babysitter. Were you guys familiar with this guy's movies at all? I know the babysitter.

That's not one that I've seen, but that movie is phenomenal. Okay. Yeah, I have seen Babysitter and underwater and did not particularly care for either of them. But I do think that underwater was less him. I remember the big, the spoilers for under, like, I won't get into spoilers for underwater, but I remember very specifically, that movie felt like something that it was changed in post.

That wasn't what it was originally. All of a sudden, there is this like Lovecraft angle that almost by the director's own admission is kind of like forced in after they filmed the movie. And this is, I will only say this because I'm about to say that I absolutely loved. No one will save you. And I'm a big horror comedy fan.

There were some elements of the babysitter that I found to be very racist. So that was a little bit harder. That's fair. That's good. And it's kind of one of those tough things that just happens when you do in comedy. But at the end,

and he didn't direct that either. You know what I mean? I think what we're seeing now, I heard love and monsters is pretty fantastic. And sometimes when you write a script, especially for Netflix, which babysitter was written for to tanned it off to somebody else

and you're probably not involved in the slats, right? So, no one will save you, and I've also heard Love and Monsters is very good. It was kind of like a surprise hit. I think it's nice to see this guy just really fully control of what he is doing. Like this movie has a kind of confidence that I think personally those other two movies do not have.

And he's done a lot of work, too. He's a really smart guy. He's really funny. And I, yeah, I don't, I don't think the other stuff was his fault. So I was very excited to watch this movie and just kind of enjoy it. It's so hard when you see written and directed by, because you're immediately like, okay, well, what could this have been, how could this movie have done if it was seen through the vision of someone other than the writer? You know, so I always think it's very risky.

when someone writes and directs their own film. But I think you're right, Andrew. I think with this one, this was him in complete control of the story he set out to tell with not a ton of studio backing. You had 20th Century Fox, obviously. But we're not talking, you know, this control like Netflix has over sorts of things like that.

Or huge, huge Hollywood studios. They kind of just let him make his movie, which 20th, 20th century Fox is pretty well known for doing. It's kind of letting their creatives go off and do what they want to do, at least in the history of this stuff I've seen from that. And that's the whole point we'd come back earlier about where the medium, where we get to watch it, right?

And I think that that's where, like, streaming is lucky. Because, again, you can be like, all right, fine, go make this. And listen, if he makes this movie and it doesn't do well, and you're like, it kind of sucked, then it lives. forever floating on Hulu with a small audience that maybe really likes it. Like they're I mean I know there's always but their risk reward ratio. Maybe. Maybe it lives forever.

Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. But like the risk reward is so much. Go watch Willow the TV show. Oh, yeah, don't hurt me that way. Which is also Disney by the way. Oh, which is also what 20th century studios is, I'm just saying. You just now. I just never did it. You know why?

I never have to finish it. I was like three episodes away from finishing it and didn't get it done. Anyway. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Willow. Remorce Tower. Yeah, Willow Memorial here. So one day, can I,

this doesn't matter about the storytelling. I loved, I again, I loved the costumes in this her costumeing in this film. I just love. Like, she came out and I was like, that's cute. She looks cute.

Like, they just, whoever the Costum designers did a really great job with her. One of the things about this actress that I like is she's one of the actors who's going to look way younger than roles she plays for a very long time. Because she still

looks like a teenager. And I know she's in her 20s in this because of something I'll bring up later, which made me feel old. But I thought the costumer did such a great job at like tying her aesthetic into the house that she lives in, like making the way that she dresses and the house were all to meet characters in this film. And I thought that was fantastic.

And that was like a huge kudos to that design team. And I just, I really, maybe it's because I'm teaching design right now in my class. But I just noticed that. I'm like, she looks great. It aesthetically looks really good. It sets a clear vibe for who like she is or who she wants to be. And her, the costumes just popped, especially at the beginning and at the end, which I'm sure we'll talk about. Yeah.

I feel like the aesthetic really popped, like, bookended in terms of, like, how the movie starts, how the movie ends. And, yeah, it was so colorful. It was so rustic. It was so, it really served, I think, the beginning of this story, which is we don't really know who this girl is. We just know that she lives in this big sort of farm, almost farmhouse. and she's very kind of what's the word I'm looking for? Isolated?

Isolated, eccentric. You know, she's got a dollhouse. So immediately kind of like, hmm, this is interesting. Where is this story going? Especially when you know inevitably what is going to happen. Right. Well, and I think too, Nick,

I actually think it does do some stuff storytelling-wise because they have to endear you to a character that we get details about very slowly throughout the film. Like they have to give you on somebody's side while also hiding why no one is on her side. Because I think if they revealed like kind of the twist earlier on, which I think they easily could have and maybe a less confident filmmaker might have,

it would have been hard to be on her side while she's getting chased. think. I think it's not. The only reason you can, and look, there's also the, like, there's stuff that happened. Like, the thing, the big incident that necessitates her loneliness happens when she's, like, 12. And I think anybody would be like, well, clearly that was a mistake. But we're standing, you know, we're removed from the situation. Yeah. But it was a nice, you know, they spent the her, like, she's dancing by herself. Oh, that's making the food. Like, I love that. Yeah. It was, it was all stuff that. was very, um, you just kind of get on her side pretty quick, or at least I did. You just kind of,

it makes you go like, oh, here's a fun, quirky person that's doing things alone. And, you know, just a year and a half, two years ago, we were all doing a lot of similar things. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's like so. And um, very cute yard. Her yard decoration on, on, I'm playing. I know all right. Guys, I think you guys bring up so many good points. You know, we're thrust into the life of this young, lonely girl who's, you know, writing letters that were not really sure why or to whom she has, as someone pointed out in the chat, a diorama of the town. It wasn't a dollhouse. Excuse me. It was sort of this really cool diorama that she made.

So clearly she's very creative. She's a seamstress as well. She makes a lot of her own clothes. These are clearly things that she does to fill her time and essentially fill these voids in her life of loneliness as we will slowly find out why. But let's kind of go there. Before we really even get to, you know, the crux of the film, we see that she's having a lot of trouble stepping outside of this bubble, of this home, of this yard. and when she does we get kind of our first glimpses of

something's off like I think she first sees it's the postman maybe or somebody she sees the postman and then she sees a neighbor that just kind of like stares at her yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah right

and you're immediately like why are these people like so standoffish to her what's what's going on here and that was the first moment where I'm like okay something's up I'm sure we will slowly learn why and I'm trying

I don't know before sorry not to interrupt but before she goes outside it's been I think a little about a week or more since I watched this is that because we do see the letters but then she she said something about like or she writes something about like I thought it was my fault or like I still feel like it was my fault

so I had kind of started I assumed it had something to do with that but it was still, you know, again. So just because I watched it last night. So you have that. And then also I think in that beginning, if I remember you see some of the pictures of her and her friend. So you are,

you get this illusion. And then she does the thing, which again, the acting work that she does in this. When you know, she's doing all the stuff around her house. And she like practices smiling, like to be able to like get,

and you see her to go into the town. And it is just like, you mean, those. little things like you're saying you're saying you were such a nice setup for what's coming later on um yeah i liked her so much like as we've done even before like the a minute's like i i felt with this character so much i got the point in this movie where like i didn't care what happened like i got to that point too i was like something bad happened and if i don't find out then i don't find out yeah because i

mean yeah at the front of this this is a quote-a-quote like alien invasion movie. And I think that's kind of what even I went in wanting. And they waste no time. We've spent some good time setting up this character, but we spent more time than the movie did. I mean, these were very concise snippets of this girl's life before

she is thrust into something literally unbelievable. Great storytelling, because if you can do all that, especially with film, I think, Andrew, can attest to this. Like to do all that, like that's one of the hallmarks of film, right? You can do all this storytelling

really fast, do pictures and moments and to get an audience to connect to her and to relate to her and to root for her. With spending very little, like very little fat of the bone. Like really, you know, do not waste a beat to get you to like

the action that's happening. Because it's really just her in this movie for the most part. Right. I think that that, the director did I just great job at that. It's executed really, really well. Let's get to it. So we, you know, we see that she has a pretty routine life of kind of whatever,

selling these dresses or whatnot on like Etsy or whatever. This is how she kind of makes her living. And then, you know, she goes to bed one night and this is where it all starts to happen. you get this kind of prototypical beginning of a alien abduction scenario. Something, a craft of some sort, appears over someone's home or their light shows up in their yard. And then, boom, we start to see shadow figures going past windows and whatnot. She starts hearing things in the home, some sort of inch. intruder. And it was very, very well done. I mean, this is how a lot of these abduction

scenarios basically begin. But again, the film really wastes no time with ambiguity. We're not, we're not going to see that this is like someone robbing her house. We're not going to see that this is like an animal that snuck in. Almost immediately, we are shown that this is an alien. So what did you guys think of the first, I guess, reveal? I was actually, and I was going to ask you about this as well, because I know you and I have talked about the image of Greys specifically on here before, me being a little bit more of the layman when it comes to some of that stuff. And I thought it was a smart choice to go with something that is pretty universally recognizable as a design and then kind of

doing variations on that design. Because again, we don't have the time to be like, these are the clerks from Revlon 7. Like, we don't have the time to get into their mission or any of that and stuff. It need to be like, these are aliens and they're invading. So you go with the easiest kind of, you know, easy being a relative term. Yeah. The most recognizable design options and then kind of play with that as the film goes on,

which is very smart, I thought. And it does kind of, not that I think they weren't. focused on that stuff, but they were like the important part of this movie, and I think the better genre movies are this way, is the story that it's telling about a

woman dealing with a tragic accident in her past and dealing with kind of just being stuck that way. The alien stuff is secondary to a certain extent. At least as far as like what their main focuses. So because of that,

I thought they just, that was a very smart reveal. I thought it was still very scary because I thought they look very because I thought they looked scary. And I just thought it's really it just kind of smacks you. Like, you know what I mean? Like we're, again,

like you said, it happens so quickly and then you're just kind of off to the races. And then, I mean, as soon as we see one of these things for the first time, she kills one. So it's like, Yep, there we go. Within minutes. Which is, like, I expected this to be one of those movies where they're hunting her throughout the entire film.

And then finally she gets the comeuppance and escapes. But no, like almost immediately we see almost the, I guess you could call it like the fallibility of this supposedly advanced race of aliens coming to abduct her. or whatnot. She immediately takes a piece, like you said, Andrew, from like the diorama and steps this thing straight up at the side of the head and essentially Mert kills it. Does it die? Yeah, I think it dies. Yeah, it dead dead.

It's real dead. Yeah. It dead. It dead. Yeah, you know, it's something that with the alien design, too, that I'm sure we'll talk to as we get more towards the end, but I like that they took a very recognizable. design concept and then even in this first one then did like little things with it to make it unique like i thought the the way it stood up on its appendages like on its toes oh man what a great

holy shit what a great shot right because it's just those those little things that like uh make it off or make it off to us right like it also allows you i think a little bit of leeway in the budget since you're doing a cg i alien like you make these little things that feel off like a can be a little less realistic, but like that movement work, the other thing I love that I thought was such a good choice along those same lines was the movement of the aliens themselves. That was very like almost in a different, would be a frame rate.

Like they moved like a clock almost ticking. I felt like that unnatural movement, like almost out of time with her movement or our movement, is simply a great, great choice. Like it just makes, thank you, thank you. It makes this humanoid thing, right, that we are used to seeing, seem different and different in a way that, like, I don't know if it creep me out, but it just was like, it was just off-putting. You're like, this, they're not, it isn't right.

Like, it's- You know what, radically- Would you baby say that they're alien? Alien. Alien. Oh. Oh. Hey-o. You know what that reminded me.

I'm so happy, I'm so happy you brought that up. Like, it seemed like the alien was someone that is. at a different pace. It reminded me so much of that, and I know he's controversial, but that Casey Affleck movie, the ghost one, a ghost story, I believe it was called. Where they literally filmed Casey Affleck, who is the ghost, they filmed him at a different frame rate from the rest of the movie, and then digitally inserted him into the scenes,

because they wanted to show that, you know, a non-entity, a non-human entity, even a ghost could be considered that, would not be moving in the same sort of space and time as we are, as we know it. And this reminded me so much of that when you saw the aliens moving of, yeah, like they traveled vast distances. They probably are able to sort of bend space and time to get here. So it is going to be a little different the way they move or interact with our environment. And that really stuck out to me.

like they're not, anatomy, like, they're not, they're not flesh and bone in the same way. So, like, their bodies aren't going to work

and mechanically work the way that, like, things on this earth do, which I thought was interesting as well. Like, you don't know, are they bone or they muscle, are they,

because there's a lot of, like, turns, the way it turns itself is not anatomically how, like, we can turn. And I thought that just those little, those little,

like, details in the creature design or alien design were just realized. Yeah. Let's touch on the sound for a minute. Not the dialogue, but the sound. I watched this with like my stereo headphones, and that is really the only reason I thought this needed to be seen in a theater.

I would have loved to have seen this with like real big Dolby surround sound sort of feel. But it was the sound design, and I think I have the guy's name here, sound designed by Smokey Cloud. That's the sound designer's name. Smokey Cloud. At least he was the sound. Oh, my God. I loved it.

Everything from the score to just the house, the way she interacted with the house. And then the sounds of the alien when it first shows up. The creaking and the kind of grovely, I wouldn't even know what to call it, like almost breathing that the alien did when it first arrived. And then when eventually she kills this first one, I mean, you feel that diorama piece going into its head

and you hear every single moment of that like penetration into its head and it's dying, last dying breaths. It was just so visceral. Yeah. You know, with that, I think one reason it makes that so important, and we haven't talked about this, but might as well. Like there's also almost no dialogue in this movie.

Does she speak? I mean, does she have a movie? There is. I think they said there's collective like three lines of dialogue. I have one of the lines here, which I think is the most important. But we'll get to that when we get to it. Yeah, yeah, let's go there. Right, that's right.

No, she talks. Go ahead, Andrew. I was just to say she talks. Yeah, she talks at a point when. It's in her mind, essentially. But, like, there's no, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think that that, that I'm like, it reminds me a lot of, what's the, oh, Gar, I'm forgetting his name.

He's like the Netflix horror guy now. And he made the whole movie with the death person who's being. Mike planning. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you're doing something, I think, when you're an actor who doesn't speak or you're doing something that, you lose dialogue in the film, the sound, right, becomes, just like the setting,

becomes the character in of itself. So, I think that, like, stuff like that, you know, what sounds, the aliens make, what sounds, the house makes, what sounds, she does make, like, all that stuff becomes really important. So your sound designer, to me, the sound designer and your cameras are taking, are taking place of all that dialogue. Right. And because of that, I think it's got to be just perfect. Again, we talk about the aliens, like, even when they move, the sound of their movements, right? That, like, creaky, like, I don't know, unearthly alien sounds, Andrew would say. All that stuff pops out at you because you're not listening,

like there's because you're not listening for anything said. And this designer did a great job at that. I mean, just there's so many good ambient sounds throughout the film. Yeah. And then she, you know, as the actress, like when she does create a dialogue, but sound, like just like her, her moating through non-dialogue. Her panting, her kind of small, like. All that stuff.

So breath intakes, everything was just so spot on. I can't imagine the work, like the physical work that the director had to do with her. And just what she naturally brought to that role. When you show up for a movie and you see that you have no dialogue, I can't even imagine what she must have been thinking. The Summer in the Sky's podcast is free to listen to every week. But if you would like to help support the show, we have a very active Patreon page where you give what you think the show is worth.

In return, you'll get early access to the main show, bonus episodes, and priority to ask our guests your listener questions. Your support truly makes the show continue and grow. So to learn more and to join, visit patreon.com slash somewhere skies. Yeah, and more likely than that, too, she is spending 80, percent of the movie, 70 percent of the movie reacting to a tennis ball on a stick or like maybe, maybe somebody in a green suit if she's lucky, you know, so it's a lot of, um, it's, yeah, enough can't be said about how much heavy lifting she does as well, just, um, with her expressions, but it is, I think all that is right, especially. Like, it's, there is so much

needed to support, um, the dialogueness-less nature. of the film that, and I think every piece is holding it together really nicely. Yeah. And also, just from like an audition standpoint, like doing commercial auditions where a lot of times you have very little dialogue or you might have no dialogue and it's all like, here's a camera. Like you're saying, Andrew, like, okay, act. Pretend like you're doing.

Like that work as an actor, I don't think people realize how hard it is because we rely so much, especially if you come from like a theater training, you realize so much on that word, right? The ability to speak and use language. And when you do, when you lose that, like on a film set, you know, you're doing a close up shot or reaction shot. Like you're, you know, what? One scene, two scenes. Like, it's, you still have that language to fall back on. So, um, yeah, Andrew, you're 100% right. Like acting without something there, right, a tennis ball. And to do, to be able to have to tell that whole story. I mean, yeah, you have a good director and you have a good, you know, DP who's capturing these moments and they're going to edit that together. But like, that is,

that is super challenging for an actor. You're like, great, you don't have to minimize lines, but like the weight you're going to pull on camera is monumental. I mean, it's a whole other type of masterclass. I'm going to show a page of the screenplay. I don't know if you guys have seen this. It kind of went viral. I'm familiar.

Okay, okay. We will show that in a little bit. Just to show how you write a screenplay. play like this because if anyone knows, I mean, most of a screenplay is dialogue. Right. You know, there's a lot of white on a page, but not with this one. This page in particular sparked a little bit of debate. And it was also, I remember seeing a similar thing happening with promising young woman.

In short, when you are taking screenwriting classes and you are looking at things and a lot of what you're taught at the beginning is the exact. opposite of what this guy did for this script, which I think is pretty hilarious. And it was the same for Promising Young Woman. And it's, and look, there are different, Duffield already had a career going. The writer of Promising Young Woman, Nepo Baby. So like they have ways to get in that are a little bit easier. But it is kind of one of those things where you just, one of my favorite quotes about writing is ever, is from Len Ween, who is a comic book writer, who was also editor on Watchman

and did all kinds of incredible things over at DC Comics. He said he spent most of his early career learning what to take out of his work and the rest of his career learning what to lead in. Because there is this kind of, it's one of these things, yes, you need to get the format down. You need to have the basics, your exterior, interior, interior, all that kind of stuff.

But you also still need people to read your script. read and be entertained by the script. So it's kind of this, it's, it's a constant fight. It is. You know, I've been working with a couple screenwriters on one of my scripts right now, because

I, you know, I, I, I did go to school for playwriting, but I took like one screenwriting course and essentially, like, that's what the world is now, movies. And I wanted to adapt to that. And, um, I

I've worked very closely with a few of these screenwriters and them sort of showing me. Like, you're coming from a different world now, dude. Like, you're showing instead of telling, where in plays you're telling instead of showing. So it is, it's such a fine line when you're writing a script as opposed to what you actually see on film. Let's show it. Let me just show the page. Why not? So what I was kind of.

Oh, my God. Yeah. So this looks nothing like what you're typically. screenplay will look like. I know it's a little small. Let me see if I can actually, I'm going to bring it full screen. And I will say I had seen this page before I saw the movie and

I, this scene that is being described here is much later in the film, right? Yes, yes, it's much later. Since we'll probably have to jump ahead a little bit anyway, it gets to a point, she's fighting all these grays and then she sees that there are these it almost looks like a

watery dragon fruit with with octopus testicles. There we go. There we go. I think I was pretty spot on. They, that are going into people and like possessing them. And it's very black mercy plant

from my DC fans out there. We come to learn. But this script, the script page is describing one of these things going into her mouth. And there's really, you could very easily say, it gets in her mouth. But instead, if I may do a dramatic

reading. Shkamu, Shikamu, it's all got the gray is there. Shkamu, slow move towards a camu, camo, camo, rising up to face to face, way. It's something's coming out of his fucking mouth. I was fucking about. Like, that, to me, if I had been reading a screenplay like this, got to that page, and I'm sure there are other examples in the screenplay of him doing stuff like this. Maybe there's not.

I would have been all in at this point. I think he does such a great job setting us up to this point. And you're so entrenched in what's going on that this is such a, great way to keep momentum going while also offering a little bit of a like, like this is as almost like visual writing in a certain way. Yeah. Like there is something. This shows what, yes, thanks, man.

You're like saving the director a million steps. You're showing them the intensity of the scene. What's going through the character's head? When, you know, a lot of screen owners are saying, no, no, you got to leave that up to the actor. But when you have such a specific moment where, you know, these things are happening to her, I think this is fantastic. This is up to the actor, though, because if I pick that screen up, you're like, you know, Andrew, if you're directing me, you're like, here's your script. I'm like, all, dude. And I get to this scene.

Like, that's all up to me. There is nothing. Besides that I cannot move, like, there is nothing there that's telling me, like, what that camera's going to do. You know, you pick up some scripts. And I can see, like, ideally, I think about, like, I was reading about James Gunn and his writing process. Like, James Gunn will have, like, his script and pictures, right? Because he's going to direct the thing, probably. He's drawing his storyboards in his script.

So if you're an actor and you get that, you're like, oh, well, okay, I know roughly what this shot is going to look like and what they're going to try to do. And, like, I, for better or worse, like, I pick that up. And you're just like, oh, cool. Okay, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. So it's, you're just, you're captioning this moment, but it's completely. open at that point between me and my director and my DP, how this moment is going to play out or what you need to see from it. I think that's really, really crazy, but also kind of brilliant.

I mean, I think I would pick it up and be like, I don't, what do I do? The main debate came from, and this happens a lot with, quote, unquote, screenwriter, Twitter, which is you just get a lot of people who have been told, especially, like, you know, younger writers, earlier writers and stuff like, you are told not to do shit like this. And then you see successful people doing stuff like this and that it becomes this kind of like, there has to be a point in your career where you as a writer, where you realize like, am I, I've learned what I need to learn. Now I need to do.

And if that comes out one way or it comes out, it just kind of, you kind of have to take over your own process at a certain case. It's like, again, with auditions, right, same many moving to auditions. They're like, here are all the things you never do in an audition. Right. And then you read about someone doing it, and you're like, well, mother. But I think that you're writing it. But it's also knowing, like, it's knowing time and place, right?

Like, there's a time in place where you need to write, I'm sure. Again, I'm not a writer, but like write a clean screenplay that is standard to, like, I'm going to turn this in. And the studio that's reading this is going to be like, oh, I know what I'm reading. Just like there's a time when, like, you go into an audition room, you're like, okay, I, the risks and chances I'm going to take are risks and chances that I understand that this casting director is going to like. And then there's other times where you can do the actor from Stranger Things, who was also on Power Rangers because my son's watching it

from Australia. Like they talk about his, for Billy, his audition for Billy, which is a great choice. Like he went on camera and he just stood there silently for like two minutes, I think. And like the cast director's like, that's when he booked it. It was in that moment of him just, But like, you could send that same self-tape to something else and a cast member to be like, I wanted 90 seconds. Totally. And you gave me two minutes before you talked. Nope. It's just, well, it's knowing time and place, right?

Knowing when you can do it. And keeping in mind, like, he knew he was going to be directing this. So we do have to wonder what would it have been if this was just a spec script that he was selling, you know, trying to pay. If anything, I wish, I think it's out there, but I would like to see the first. 10 pages of this script, especially my assumption is with how quickly it moves and how little dialogue it is, the aliens are

probably showing up my page 9 or 10. So that's like, they always say like, you want to grab people with 10 pages. Well, and he, I will say this, I watched an interview with him. And then I do want to fast forward a little bit through the plot before, because we're going up on the hour already. I knew this would happen.

I knew this always happens. Every time. You guys are too, you guys are too acty and and directie and writing. No, I'm kidding. That's why you're here. That is in my bio. I'm going to put that on my bio now.

Very specifically. But in this type, just one big block of words. I love it. What was I saying? God damn. Moving forward to the plot, I would actually like to help with that because you said something at the beginning here

that made me feel like such an idiot, which is the cane and able aspect of this, which I didn't even catch on to. Yes, because. the biblical allegories. Yeah, because it's, you know, she basically has the mark of cane on her. Because she, and not only that, so we come to learn through this thing going inside of her, or like right before that.

The dragon fruit. Yes, the dragon fruit. That the thing that everyone is mad at her for is that when she was 12, her best friend pushed her, she grabbed her rock and killed her best friend, like just one hit and it killed her best friend. done and then since then everyone in the town has despised her like again she has this mark of King because in the Bible small town everyone probably knew knew them yeah yeah yeah

God told Kane to slay Abel then he did with a rock and then wandered here for the rest of his life with this mark of being a murderer I think of the Bible the first murder so I didn't catch that at all when I was watching it and literally just took you saying and the biblical stuff. And then what does she do to this alien? She takes one

swing with something and kills it. I mean, it's the mirroring of a lot of this is so interesting. Yeah. Well, and we'll get to the religious, the allegory a little bit later because I have a quote from Guillermo

del Toro about that because he actually tweeted out about how much he absolutely loved this film and the religious undertones he found it. Stephen King as well, I think, commented on it in some respects. But yeah, yeah, Andrew, thank you. Stephen King compared it, and I think this is actually a great companion piece. And I would imagine that a lot of your audience has already seen this, but there's a Twilight's own episode that is also almost entirely silent. We will get to that.

Yep. And Stephen King compared it to that specifically. I cannot think of a higher compliment for a filmmaker to receive. Absolutely. from Stephen King, from Rod Serley. I mean, this guy's getting the top horror people out there saying how much they enjoy this movie. And I would have to agree. There was someone on my Instagram when I posted, we were going to be doing this. And they said, why would you cover such a stupid film?

What a waste of time. And I just feel sorry for that person. I'm just going to say, everyone has, everyone's entitled to their opinion. And I know a lot of people probably didn't like this movie. You could do a poll that says, says, do you like having money? and you will always get that person who's like, no. No. No.

No. No. Anyways. I have to learn to not take those things so personally. But, okay. So, we find out that she, through all these reveals, the town's not talking to her, whatnot. We also see that it's not just her home that was invaded. We're seeing a full-on invasion happening.

We start to meet all different types of these gray aliens that come to hunt. her down. Did you like that? That's what I want to ask both of you guys. Yeah. Like the variety of grays, especially Jimo, Praying Mantis Gray. Because I, the praying mantis one especially because the it coming over the house I thought looked incredible. And like signaling, signaling to the spaceship I thought was interesting.

Yep. Special effects also were amazing. Let's just say that off the bat. I agree. And I would actually, I'm a little bit curious about what the budget will be because I would be surprised but it was that low. 22 million. That's not super low. That's around what most movies should cost.

That's, can I say something? 22 million dollars is the exact amount of money that was given to the secret Pentagon UFO program. There's got to be something to that. I'm just saying. I'm just saying it. But I think

the different designs of the grays having a different kind of grays, it's a beautiful, there's a beautiful, there's a beautiful simplicity to it because you are still upping the stakes while not getting into oh here's an I was I just kind of immediately go like all right

that little one is kind of like their attack animal and this one is it's like bigger one and like there's you know I I personally really enjoyed that and I thought it was a smart simple way to keep raising the stakes because we just you know we start with gray and it's like all right well where do you go from there like we have aliens within the first

15 minutes so where do you where do you go from there it's like I was curious because I was on the fence I liked it I was on the fence about it I just wasn't sure like I was once like oh this is cool again I like the one was like signaling to the ship which I thought was really a cool like touch but then there's also part of me there was like man that is that is a big old alien that's a that's a big ass dude it was a bold it was a bold choice I mean because When you think of the gray aliens, they're often thought of to be very prototypical, very robotic, very uniform.

So they all look like the same exact thing. A lot of people believe they're just like drones. They're just like AI robots that the actual intelligence sent here. Like we would send a probe to another planet. So you would kind of expect them to all be the same. But what I'm seeing in this movie is the writer did not see them as just, I do think he sees them as a type of drone, and I will get to that as we start to wrap things up.

But I think he wanted to give them some sort of uniqueness. And he said in a lot of interviews, I wanted to give these aliens like some sort of culture. Like they're not just a typical gray alien. They have motives. They have agenda. It's not just to eradicate these people. No. I mean, they don't have really seemingly get pissed until she kills what, like, starts knocking them off.

You know, and I'm right. Like, it's almost like getting annoyed. Yeah. Sorry, Andrew. I think that's why they paid attention to her. Like they saw, oh, whoa, she's not like just, you know, praising us and like becoming mind overpowered in the mind like the rest of these people are. Like she's fighting back against us. Yeah. Thank you. Yes. Yes. And that was something that I actually love too was the aliens seem to, at least like you have the gray that dies. You have the gray that's the other gray who like seemed a little more advanced like throw, when she goes to stab and like pushes her away. Big old mantis gray and then tiny little tack dog gray. I just like the each alien felt weird. Like but they have personality. Right. It was a really nice like the little alien when I was like that little dude is here to like mess some people up. Like, it is not messing around. It just, like, I just liked it. Like, they were a character and of themselves.

And you're like, I thought that was cool. I thought that actually really liked that. Like, yeah, yeah. Like, oh. I would like to get a little bit into the ending if we can. Yes, let's do it. Let's do it. So we get through.

She has this thing going in her throat. She's shown a vision of what her friend, like, basically her friend now. And what I love this is, again, a, like, Black Mercy. If you ever read one Superman comic book, read for the man who has everything written by Alan Moore. And I can't remember the artist ran a Curtis Swan maybe.

But it is about a like this plant that basically gives Superman the life he always wanted, which is the like he grows up on Krypton and has a family and all this stuff. But it's all fake. And it takes him realizing that it's fake because he knows he doesn't have that to escape it. Sorry if I just spoiled the comic book for you.

But it's still, incredible to watch and they actually did a great adaptation of it in the Justice League cartoon. Or a Justice League Unlimited. Yes, thank you. So she sees this grown-up version of her friend. She realizes that's impossible and pulls this thing out of her, at which point the aliens kind of like leave her alone and we see her at the end, now dancing with all the rest of the town being accepted by all of these people who have no control.

themselves. I thought it was incredibly dark and fucked up. Oh my God. Really wonderful, like really messed up and really, because the twist already, you're just like, oh, God, she killed her friend. Like that, that's heavy. And it's even darker where she's just like,

oh, okay, well, everybody was really mean to me before, but now because they all have zero control over themselves and these aliens like me, I get to dance with people instead of by myself. How perfect. To me, that's like, how human do you take this person who's like never had anything?

And like, you had it like, again, like a really loved pet. These aliens are like, no, all right, cool. We'll make it good for you. Ray, if she's just writing them how to be human, she's doing a very bad job. Ray, well, I, I, I, I actually. That's just a joke. I agree. I agree with that.

Yeah. I agree with Ray wholeheartedly. Because the big thing about these gray aliens is that, They lack emotion. They don't understand emotion. They don't understand a lot of what humans are. And that's why they are here and curious in experimenting and doing these things. So I loved this idea that they like,

we're trying to figure out what is different about this girl from the rest of these people? Right. And you kind of see them on the ship as they have her in their grasp, like trying to understand. And they kind of look into her. past and see what had happened in that she has become so isolated and forgive the pun alienated. And they kind of make her confront that. And oh my God.

This is like, yeah, twist, but also like the fact that these aliens who are here to like take over the planet gave this person the like finally, um, a way to confront her quote unquote demons, confront what she did and find that for. forgiveness in herself. I think really that is the core of this story, right? It's kind of learning to accept something and, I guess, overcoming tragedy, overcoming guilt. Does she overcome it, though, because she lives in a town where everyone's now nice to her because they're made to be nice to her. Like, I don't know if that's overcoming as much as it's like, again, the people come back to like, we're going to get, like, here's your atrium. Like, here is like, we, you are our dog now. You got lucky and we are nice to our dog.

And so we're going to give you all the things that we think our tiny little human dog wants, which is to be accepted, to be loved, to be happy. Here's all these things you've been doing on your own. Now you get to do them with people. Like, I don't know if she finds goodness as much as she finds happiness because she's been so ostracized. Yes. Well, and I think that's why the aliens give her happiness. But I think it really depends on how you.

you take this ending. Sure. That's kind of, I think, Andrew, I talk to you offline a little about this. I still don't know if this ending is real or not in terms of the reality of the movie that just played out. Like, did this actually happen at the end? Is she really happy?

Is she really amongst these people? I envisioned, I thought like we were going to get this happy ending, and then we were going to find out she's still on the ship. And she's still like being experimented on and the world is still being taken over. but that didn't happen. So you're kind of less wondering. Well, and I think I would air more on the side of the darker version of it, which is that these people are all slaves,

and she's okay with that now because they're treating her nice. I think you're right. If she goes to trial, file, police report anymore. You know what I mean? That moment, I think, is really important to this ending working, right? Because then you have to like her. But, like, to me, I remember watching those fortifying part of this movie, is when she gets spit on.

Because to me, there is nothing more, like, degrading and just dehumanizing than, like, to be spat on. And so at that point, I was like, well, like, I couldn't imagine doing that to, like, even, again, we're both, you know, Andrew, you and I are parents.

Like, that, to me, is my greatest fear. Like, my, my, like, you losing my kid would just crush me inside now. I still don't know if I could spit on some. I don't know if I could do that because it's such a, like, dehumanizing thing that when you get to the end, you're like, well, you know, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Who's right behind your dancing?

It's those parents. It's hilarious. And she lets everybody else get literally dehumanized. So gentlemen, on that note, I have to run. Yes. My friend. Yes. So much.

I love you both. Love you. Love you. Love you. Love you. Thank you, Andrew. ...you guys are in good hands. And, yeah, I'm around.

Go find me. Thank you, buddy. We'll put links for all your stuff in the show notes. Thank you. Oh, he's amazing. Thanks. You're amazing. Get out of here.

Thank you, Suzanne. Bye. Bye. Bye, Alfa. And then there were two. Nick, how long do you have, buddy? Oh, I have some more time. Okay, cool.

Yeah, let's... Well, I'm trying to think if there's nothing we really need to rewind back to, we are sort of, you know, uh, towards the end. end of like this story but yeah what do you make of what is like your overall I guess um what's your takeaway from the story that played out that's a big question but yeah yeah no I mean overall kind like I think Andrew was talking about and you were talking about like I liked it I mean um I did not find so in some ways uh you know because we've watched these the alien about two movies together

and I know that like from listening to the podcast like the controversy talked about like around these type of movies and how they paint these these incidents So it didn't scare me. Like it didn't feel the movie in itself, the monster movie part, it did not feel revolutionary to me, right? Like so I watched them like, oh, okay, yeah, monsters come down.

She fights monsters. She takes out some monsters. Ultimately, like, monsters kind of win, I guess, because you're not going to beat the aliens one-on-one. And so, like, in that way, I was like, okay, this feels nothing. Like, I'm not watching anything revolutionary. but I did love, like I loved the nuances of the aliens.

I love the nuances of how it was set up and how it was executed. So to me, like, it's a really, really well executed film that I enjoyed. It's, like, it's not the best thing I've ever watched, but it definitely, like, it would merit me saying, like, you should watch this movie if you like movies. Just the silence part, just the way that, like, that director executed the whole storytelling without dialogue. Anytime a movie does that, be it the Mike Flanagan film,

which I'm forgetting the name of it off the top of my head. Was it hush? Yes. Whenever there's no dialogue, and I just, I think that it's such a challenge to watch a movie do that, and then to do something like this

and do it successfully. I also, again, said this earlier on, the thing that I loved about this movie that I think it did so well, is I, by the end, by the time we find out what happened, I didn't care. I just, I was like, I know something bad happened.

I figured that somehow someone died. Like, I had gotten to that point. And I was like, but I don't, if I didn't find out, I didn't find out. Because I was too invested in like, how is she going to get out of this? What's going to happen to her? Like, I just, it didn't, no one mattered to me. And I thought that was really interesting that that's where I went as a viewer. But it was great.

But again, I don't know if I would have seen this movie in theaters. When I talk about it being accessible as a streamer, I don't know if I'm choosing my, again, in my time, when you have a kid and you have to make those decisions, if I'm choosing a scary movie, I don't know if this is the one that I'm going to the theater to watch. But having it on a streaming platform, I was like, well, yeah, of course,

this is a great way for me to watch this film. Yeah, I do. Yeah. The more I think about it, the more I'm like, yeah, this is meant to be like, I had to watch it twice because the first time I was like, what? Like, wait, what? And those last like 20 minutes, I think,

is where people are really having big debates about like if they like the movie or not. But I stress to people, like, go back, rewatch it first as like a fun trying to escape an alien invasion. No, because that's what it is most primarily. This film is like her fighting against the aliens and whatnot.

But then go watch it again and look at the bigger picture and sort of these allegories we've talked about and what the filmmaker was trying to sort of get across. I think you're right. Being able to go back and stream this again, you do gain a better respect for it. I think, yeah, it didn't like break any barriers. It's not like revolutionary.

But what it did and the form it took, I think it knocked it out of the park. It's executed really well. And I do think, and this is why I wish we still had Andrew, like, to me, it's a really risky film. Again, not because it's, you know, but just by like, for that director, we're like, okay, so here's the deal. I'm going to make this movie and, like, we're not going to say anything.

And someone could be like, okay, but there's so much storytelling that happens to take, to make that choice in a monster movie that is not like the quiet, because even think about the quiet place. there's dialogue. That movie is based around being quiet. Yet there's... And there's dialogue everywhere. You know what I mean?

And so to really be like, I'm going to, I'm going to lean into this. And the only dialogue you really get are aliens that you can't understand. And I just think that the execution of that is great because it never dropped. It's always moving. It's always frenetic. The aliens are all unique characters. She does a great job portraying her character, the world around her as a character. All that stuff that you're looking for when you lack other actors and dialogue, the director creates.

To me, in that way, it is filmed remarkably. It's not too short. It's not too long. Like, it runs the right amount of time as a viewer. And that just makes it a really good movie. Was it scary? I mean, there's some moments, but I just thought it was just a good, like, just a good movie. I just really enjoyed watching it.

really surprised me. Really surprised me. The one line that is spoken, I do want to bring up. What is her? It's her, I have it here. I'm sorry, Maud.

Okay. Nice. Which, you know, you could have even done without that. Like, she was such a good actor that she could have conveyed that. But again, the fact that the one line we get is kind of the pinnacle of the crux of the entire movie is feeling sorry about what you did,

confronting it, and finally moving on. I really feel like that's what the aliens wanted to do. They wanted to give her something. Because they found her so incredibly unique for some reason. And maybe it is because she killed one of them. And as they started to hunt her down, they realized, oh, interesting. the choices she's making.

Let's go back and see why she's making those choices. The will, too. I think that was when I got out of it, too, was like just her will, her will to live, her will to fight. I think is what, like, when I was watching, like, the aliens making this decision, right? Because that's, the other thing, it's really well done from a directorial standpoint, because the aliens are all CGI. So that's all, you know, your animators and your director is watching them make that choice, like, watching them be like, okay, because I knew when it was over, like, she was going to live. Like I was like, she's going to make it out somehow,

whatever this looks like. And I felt that conclusion coming, right? And to me, it was more about like, she had so much fight in her. She had so much will to live beyond what the other people had that they encountered in this town, that that then sets her apart. And that's what I like,

that's what I liked so much about it. And again, you know, I always harking back, I'm sure this is not like, I'm going to get into controversial territory, but like, I wish I was better than names. He's the physicist. He's a black dude. He's very smart. He's very funny. Oh, Neil DeGratzitist. Thank you. Like, and he always talks about like, well, if there are aliens, they're going to look, if they're that smart and can do these things, like we're bugs to them. And I know that can be a, a controversial statement. But this I like, I like, because they kind of did that with her, where it's like, okay, we are beyond. these emotions or our emotion, we

understand emotions differently, right? Because we're putting human, you know, human stuff on something that would be inhuman. And that's kind of how I always think about it. It's like, well, if they exist, then it's more like how we view animals that can be incredibly intelligent and experience things

similar to we do, but it's so different that we constantly strive to figure that out. Like, I think about dogs a lot because I have an older dog, and it's funny how little studied dogs are. Like, we really don't know a lot. about it, like how, like we do and we don't, we equate them to walls, but that's not 100% correct. So we're just kind of like, here's this thing. We know is smart and we know

feels, emotions, but like we do our best as pet owners. And if we should have pets to like create a life for them. And I just, that's the feeling they got. They like have this thing, this person who has gone against some of their conceived notions and like, okay, well, let's, you know, let's create a life for it and see what happens. Like, and we can just hang up here and watch. It's like a great experiment, but like, but they're caring, but they are caring for her. Yeah. Right. But then we as people be like, but wait, is that caring for her?

Right. That's like the pet debate, right? Well, and I think that's the genius of it. Right. Because they, to then, the aliens are like, no, yes. We're doing. Yeah. We are caring for her.

Like they feel like they're doing the right thing. Right. And then as people you can be, there's going to be some people would be like, yeah. I mean, that's what a person would want, honestly. Yep. Like, and then there's some of the other people who are like, absolutely not. All those people are mind controlled. Right.

It's that like, you know, I was reading this article about like having a pet, you know, should we have pets? And some people are like, well, yes, it's love and companionship. And other people are like, well, absolutely not because is your pet's life really that great? Even if it's a good life. I, you know, I was just thinking a lot of a lot about that because it's not parent-child, but because the intelligent level is different. Oh, that's interesting. I just thought that was cool.

Just that's to me the ending. Like that's what I grapple with is like, is this a happy ending? Is it not a happy ending? Like, what is this choice being made? What is? Because she is also basically a rat in a cage, right? Right. It's just a very, for her at that moment, a great cage.

And so she realizes that she is ostensibly alone. Then what? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How long does that last, right? Yeah. Exactly.

I just think those. things are really, I think that's a lot of stuff to play with, which makes a much more advanced film to me, storytelling wise, than had it not had that ending. Agreed. Yeah, this is so much more than what you would think it would be. And that's what I loved about it. I want to play Nick, before we wrap this up, because we both got to get going soonish. A very brief clip with the director, Brian, about his inspiration for making the movie. I'm going to play that really quick. It's like a minute long. And then, yeah, we'll get some final thoughts. I do want to touch on that Twilight Zone thing that Andrew brought up to, because it is pretty strikingly similar. So we'll get to that.

But let me play this clip really quick. And we'll talk about it. It started with the character that Caitlin Dever plays, Bryn. I had this idea for the character. There's some spoilery inspirations for her. But I was just like, this is such an interesting character. She's so young. to have gone through so much. And what does that person look like in the day-to-day world? And as I was kind of working on that, I have like the movie theater in my mind that's playing all the different ideas I have. And, you know, the walls crashed down between these two movies.

And I was like, that's really interesting. You know, it's the idea of like, you know, if this event happens, you know, it's going to happen to everybody no matter it's going to happen on someone's wedding day. It's going to happen five minutes before or after someone dies. You know, it's just going to happen. It doesn't care what you're going through or who you are. And that felt like a really fun way into an alien invasion thing from the least likely person possible, this kind of recluse girl who is going through quite a lot in her life already and then

has to deal with this other layer of drama on top of it. So I just got married in my mind. and then it's kind of off to the races, man. As the crispy chicken sandwich from 7-Eleven, people always call me loud. And I'm like, yeah, I know. I'm crispy. Did you expect me to whisper? If you want quiet, go eat some soup and reflect.

Like, I know I'm a handful. I'm bold, I'm juicy. Throw some pickles and barbecue sauce on me, and baby, I'm a whole meal. And with seven rewards, I'm just $4. Quiet, no. Krispy, saucy, and $4? Very. Only at 7-Eleven.

326 participating stores only while supplies last the app for full terms. I love that. I love that he's like, this could have happened to anyone. This is who I chose to highlight. And that's the story he wanted to tell. And such a good point, too, of like, those who claim these alien abductions or close encounter experiences, like, it's not, most of them don't expect it. Like, it happens at the least expected moment or it, it, It happens in their life and it dramatically changes them forever. And it doesn't care.

It doesn't care what you did before. It doesn't care what happens to you after. It's just they're doing it for their reason. And, you know, the aftermath of that is for you to wrestle with. So I kind of like that he said like, yeah, this will happen on this. This could happen on your wedding day. This could happen after, like, oh, that was so cool. And it can happen to the person.

you least expect. And he chose this very interesting young character to base this around. And when we talk about storytelling, I think, you know, you talk about some a writing perspective or like when I'm teaching theater or teaching into the theater. You know, like that's kind of what I think good storytelling does. Like I feel like there's two ways you tell a story. It's either like an exceptional person and an exceptional time who steps up, right? Like, you know, so even when you have like, I'm watching from right now, which is great.

but you know like that character in that in that show you know like he was an army person who like his whole thing was problem solving so like while he's a everyday person like he has this exceptional trait right I think that's one way to tell stories like it's this moment but I also think when you can take uh much like life where you think about like things happen in your life that are not movie like the biggest things happen when you like least expect it or like it doesn't it doesn't matter so I always thinking like recently uh you and I were all talking before and I said like I had gotten COVID like my wife is traveling for work for a month. So it's just me and our small son, some single parenting. In my mind, I'm like the worst possible moment for me to get COVID would be like while she is gone. And sometimes that's how it happens and that's like out of the script. And sometimes like you get COVID randomly when you're like, it just that's how life. Like it just, I think that he plays with the ideas that, um, yeah,

it can happen to any time. It can happen to an extraordinary person or unextorinary person. I think that going either direction, I think it's really good storytelling. Um, even if, she is kind of extraordinary because she is such a recluse that lives this, this creating a life for herself. I'm rambling. I'm sorry. No, no, no. It's such a good point.

Like it can happen to anyone. And a lot of people are like, well, then why don't like presidents get abducted by aliens or like, these nuclear physicists? Like, why are they the ones that aliens are interested in? And, um, I mean, that's the very question though, right? Yeah, it's a great question. So for someone who's more, I mean, you and I have talked about this. I definitely believe there is life beyond us because to me mathematically there's no way that there isn't.

You know what I mean? Like, however that aliens exist, I think that, you know, that it's, you're silly to think that there is not something else beyond us. But that is always the question, right? Like, why is it only people like lesser, like people who aren't in these high positions of notoriety? Not that some people do experience that, to be fair. But like, it's always like the person that you least expect, right?

And I think that that's why it can be hard for some people sometimes because they're like, well, why is it Joe Smow down the alley as opposed to me or like, why me? Why me or why not me? Exactly. That's what a lot of experiencers ask themselves and even ask me. I think that's why the military one is such a big deal. Like when you have like, which you know, as you follow news, like when a pilot for all intense purposes, like when you talk to like hardcore military person, my brother was in the army, you know, you know or someone like that when they experience that you're like oh okay well something's going on here because they have they have no horse in the race to have to have that experience like it's there's no benefit to them not saying there's benefit to other people but like if i'm like oh i had this

experience or like i'm also an actor and i'm also like you could be like well that dude just wants tension so he could but like a dude flying a jet has no like there's no there's no incentive there to me to be like by the way i saw this crazy crazy thing. And, uh, yeah. For sure. That's, I think that's why military witnesses lend so much credibility to a lot of what's, and we're seeing it play out right now. I mean, I need to talk about that separately because we will. I'm fully in the weeds and trying to figure that stuff out. But I'll, we'll go through it. Um, I do want to, um, touch on the Twilight Zone thing, um, because I also have to get going to. Um, but let's, let's, let's

I'm here for you guys. I'll stay. Nick's going to continue this channel. You're amazing. I love you. So this was an episode, season two, episode 15 of the Twilight Zone called The Invasion.

And this revolves around an old woman who lives alone in a remote cabin, and after hearing strange, deafening noises above her kitchen roof, she's accosted by small intruders that come from a miniature flying saucer that has landed on a rooftop, two

tiny figures which appear to be robots or beings wearing pressure suits emerge from the craft. Small figures attack the woman. Let's see here with pistol-like weapons that leave radiation burns on her skin. And after following her into her cabin, slashing her ankle in hand with her own kitchen knife, she eventually kills one, wrapping it in a blanket and beating it until it's still, then throwing it into the burning fireplace. She follows the other to the saucer ship at a roof, which she proceeds to attack with a hatchet. This is kind of the

this last paragraph is the twist. You know, the Twilight Zone twist. Yeah. They always do. A voice speaking in English emanates from within the craft. The intruder frantically warns that his partner, Gresham, is dead and that the planet is inhabited by a race of giants and impossible to defeat.

The side of the ship reads U.S. Air Force Space Probe number one. The tiny invaders were human from Earth and the woman in the small farmhouse belongs to a race of giant humanoids native to another planet. She finishes destroying the ship

and then climbs back down from the roof into the house exhausted. And the distinctive features of this episode include a near solo performance by one character and an almost complete lack of dialogue. I mean,

this clearly had to be the biggest inspiration. Yes, I mean, 100%. It's crazy, the parallels. That, well, the Mad Zone is brilliant in of itself. Yeah. And they always, I love those twists.

Like, there was another episode where like, these people are trying to get off of a planet because they know the world's about to end. And they're like, oh, who are we going to bring with us? Who are we going to bring with us? And then they finally get off the planet. And they start heading to this new planet and come to find out that new planet is Earth. So they were aliens all along.

And the apes have taken over Earth and soil and green is people, Ryan. Soil and green is people. But yeah, I mean, we have a clear example here. This isn't the first time this device of no dialogue has been used. However, what isn't inspired by the Twilight Zone? And a lot has been and a lot of it has been complete and utter shit. But when you look at something like no one will save you. Again, I feel like this is, this is done right.

This is homage to something that came before it done almost to perfection in my personal opinion. Well, it's like, I mean, it's like anything we talk about like writing or performances or, you know, it's like playing. I think Shakespeare is great, right? Because like you're going to do, you've got to play Hamlet, right? And there are, you know, Hamlin has been played by the most amazing actors ever. And so you watch that and you have to.

think like, well, how do I do this? How do I tackle this? And I think one of the ways when you when you do something that's been done or you're doing something that's an adaption of something else, you need to keep what works about it. Right. So that's what I think he did. You know, this person alone in a cabin, you know, very little dialogue. So it's all about like creating the characters in the world around you. But then understanding like, well, what do I bring to it that makes it unique and makes it new? And again, I think it's like theater acting. So, important. So if you're playing Hamlet, right? Hamlet's is very intellectual character and thinks through all his feelings. Well, there is a level of that that's inherent to the story. But then if

you're an actor who isn't that, right? Like you are a physical actor, someone who isn't as cerebral. Like, you can do that. You just have to make it your own. You have to find those things that then make unique. So in this film, I think that's what this director, writer did, is like, okay, there's this idea that's inspired me about it. I'm going to do a story like that, but I'm going to add in these other dynamics that make it different. And then I'm going to execute it really well. It's in the execution that I think it works. An example would be, you know, you look at like the honeymooners, the Flintstones,

and the Simpsons, and then Family Guy, which do all four, right? Like, they're all kind of the same thing. Right. And they're all variations of the like stupid dad sitcom family type thing. But they're all executed if you like those shows. I mean, the Simpsons, I think we can really lay down as a very well executed. a TV show. It's how they are executed, right? Or, you know, you, a really good cover of a song. It's all in that execution of it. Like, it's the same thing. It's the same notes. It's the same

lyrics. That's the same, all that jazz. But it's just a matter of like, how am I going to put a spin on this and how am I going to make sure it works really well? It's why something like the Vince Vaughn's Psycho doesn't work, even though it's a shot for shot remake. you can't do that. But you can do something like let the right one in or let me in versus let the right one in, which is not shot. It's very similar in terms of the American adaption to the Swedish adaption. The Denmark-Denish.

Yeah, I'm not sure. But either way, and I'm reading the book right now, too, like that adaption is so well done because it makes just enough tweaks. Yes. to make it its own thing for an American audience while still adhering to what made the first thing so successful. And the movie, the Danish movie, does just enough from the book that makes it still successful.

I think that with a movie like this, taking that idea, executing it really well, understanding how to tell a story, making it really tight, and then making the tweaks you need like different-sized aliens or how the aliens move, like those little things, those little touches, are what makes such a good story.

And a different twist too, right? Like a really good twist that you can think about. You can parse out like, is as happy, is as sad? Is it? I'm still thinking about it, which is key. Like, if you can leave watching a movie or a play and think about it for days, weeks, months after, like, you've done your job.

I mean, how many plays have you been to or movies where like you leave and you're like, yep, wait, wait, what did I just see or what happened? Yeah. Even we think about like the movie that we did together, like that ending when you talk about like, is this a happy ending? Is this a sad ending? Do two people still come together or not? Like letting his audience kind of feel that out, I love, but I do love it.

It's still an ending, right? Like you get a definitive like there's a period, right? Like I, you know, I know the ending of this story. It's just a matter of like. how do I feel about it? Right? How can I... And how do you get there?

And right. And what does that say about me as a human? I think that someone said it earlier. Was it Ray? Like, what does it say about me and how I feel about this ending as a human being? Like, what does that... How does it paint me as a person?

Because if I'm like, no, this is a happy ending, well, then does that mean that I think all these people should be enslaved? Should be? Like, does my happiness override, you know, the unhappiness of the rest of society. Freedom of society. Yeah. There's a lot of big questions to be asked. And I think the movie did it brilliantly.

All right, man. Let's wrap it up. Would you recommend no one will save you? Oh, one million percent. I think it's also, I also think it's a really good movie for if you have like a teenager. It's a really good scary movie for like a 13 year old too. If you want to give them some more scary and fun to watch and like you can, because I think about stuff as a parent.

parent, like, and you want to have a conversation later, because I think that's something that's fun about plays and movies and TV shows of stuff that you can talk about. And I think this is a good movie that you could, like, watch and then talk about it. And so, yeah, I would recommend it just for fun, but especially if you're a parent who wants to, like, get your kids into, like, kind of scary movies, that is a little bit on the safer side, but still deals with a lot of, like, complex things, both, like, with the death of her friend and like the ending and also, you know, loneliness and isolation. I just think that it deals a lot of stuff that I think would be are good conversation starters.

If you're trying to get some young person in the world. I didn't even think about that. Yeah, like a lot of these struggles as the character in the movie, who's maybe a little older, but does deal with a lot of... The date on the gravestone was 2000 to 2012. They made that very simple. 23 years old. I watched that going... My...

Yeah, I know that feeling. Born in 2000. Just let that... Don't mind me. I just... The X-Files just celebrated their 30th anniversary. So I'm going through a lot of existential crisis right now, buddy. You're older than me.

Well, it's okay, buddy. I hate you. No, I love you, Nick. I love you. Before I let you go, my man, where can we find anything you're up to? Are you visible on social media or yeah. I'm primarily visible on Instagram.

That's probably the best. I mean, Facebook too. Both those things are live. But like Instagram is probably the one. If you're looking for more, the less personal follow, I have a Twitter X, whatever. I don't use it, though.

I'm going to be honest. I don't blame you. But yeah, Instagram. It's just N. Westmeyer. I'm the only one. That's why I put all my baking and stuff that's going out with acting or just pictures of my dadding,

my dad life, which is just me posting memes from the dad. I love it. It brings so much joy to my life. Unlike this movie. No, I'm kidding. I recommend this movie wholeheartedly.

I thought it was fantastic. Whether you're indie UFOs or not, guys, it tells a very human story from a very non-human perspective. It can be a funny movie or a monster movie. It really can be either way you want to look at. I think that's what nice about it. Do you wonder for like a monster movie?

It's that, too. I love that. I love that, brother. All right, I'm going to let you go. And I'm going to debrief with the audience here for a little bit, but thank you so much for sticking. Of course. Thank you, man, for me. You know, I love doing it. All right. We'll talk soon.

Bye. Bye. All right, guys. That is it. My special thanks to Andrew Sanford and Nicholas Westermeyer. This was awesome. I knew, I always tell them this would be 45 minutes, maybe an hour, never happens. That's what happens, and you get friends together who have a huge appreciation for film. And this is definitely, I think all three of us could agree. that we appreciate this film and it really did, it really did a lot in the amount of time

that we had with it. So definitely check it out. No one will save you available on Hulu to stream right now. I saw that Suzanne start a couple things here. So I'm going to go ahead and check those out. And then we will wrap things up, guys. We have here, Bill says, Ryan, is Ryan going to watch the Tom Dog movie, Monster to California? Yes, Bill. I have watched it. I did a mini review of it, actually, on last week's live stream. So if you go back and look at last week, excuse me, last week's live stream, towards the end, I do give a mini review of monsters at California. But for right now, I liked it. It was fun. A lot of inside baseball, for those of us in the UFO field, who have been following Tom DeLong's work. It found its way subtly into, and not so subtly in some ways. into Monsters of California. It's a total dude movie, total Blink 182,

skater, West Coast sort of movie. But yeah, I thought it had some heart to it. Acting was fantastic all around. The story was interesting. But yeah, I would definitely recommend people check it out.

It was a lot of fun. It was a labor of love for Tom DeLong. And as his directorial debut, I thought he did a pretty good job. I think he will learn and grow as a director from here and hopefully that will influence his future projects. But

yeah, I thought it was a good first time out for him as a director. And the soundtrack was amazing. The cinematography was gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. Special effects were good. There's some UFO stuff, some Bigfoot

stuff. I thought they did a really good job. So definitely check out Monsters of California as well, guys. And then let me just go right back up to the chat one more time here. Then I'm going to say goodbye to you guys. Do you recommend no one will save you?

I'd love to know what you guys think. Let me see. Let me see. Susan, or excuse me, Susan, says the actress has every talent to tell in our emotions with our actions. That's why it's so amazing. Different for sure. I agree.

I agree. Bill says, I like Nope too. Nope is one of my favorite movies, Bill. It's skyrocketed up in terms of UFO content. So, for sure. All right, guys. I think that's going to do it for tonight. Thank you so much for joining me.

Again, go check out. No one will save you right now on Hulu. My special thanks to Nick, to Andrew, and, of course, as always, to Suzanne, for running the chat tonight. She did an awesome, awesome job. And that's it, guys. And just to let you know, there will be no live stream this upcoming Sunday.

I will be somewhere in the skies flying to Nova Scotia to hunt ghosts for the next month. But you can be there on my social media to follow my endeavors over there in Canada as I investigate some of Canada's most haunted locations for the television show, haunted. So be on the lookout for that. And be on the lookout for a brand new episode of Summer of the Sky's premiering this. upcoming Monday where we explore the Exeter UFO incident. And we've got some awesome interviews coming your way. After that, we've got an astrophysicist, Diana Walsh Poslka. We had an incredible conversation.

So I can't wait for you to hear that. But other than that, guys, I will leave you, as always, with our mantra here. And that is keep your feet on the ground, but never stop searching somewhere in the skies. Take care. Keep looking up. There's nothing to hide. There's nothing to hide at all. You're great at protecting your data, but lots of places could still expose you to identity theft. I thought it was safe.

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