Somewhere in the Skies - The Arrival v.s. Arrival: A Cosmic Movie Showdown

Episode Date: September 21, 2020

On episode 179 of SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES, Ryan is joined by writer, podcast host, and Bigfoot hunter, Andrew Sanford. On the heels of the scientific breakthrough of finding signatures of life on Venus, Ryan and Andrew discuss two films that asked the questions: Are we alone, and if not, how do we make contact? Those films are The Arrival (1996) and Arrival (2016). These films could not have been more diametrically opposed on how they decided to answer these questions. Join the guys as they navigate their way through both films and ride the cosmic rollercoaster of emotions from laughing to immediately crying. This is the whiplash of The Arrival(s)! Follow Andrew on Twitter @SanfordMinusSon  Patreon: www.patreon.com/somewhereskies Website: www.somewhereintheskies.com YouTube Channel: CLICK HERE Official Store: CLICK HERE Order Ryan's Book by CLICKING HERE Twitter: @SomewhereSkies Instagram: @SomewhereSkiesPod Watch Mysteries Decoded for free at www.CWseed.com Episode edited by Jane Palomera Moore Opening Theme Song, "Ephemeral Reign" by Per Kiilstofte SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES is part of the eOne podcast network. To learn more, CLICK HERE 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

This is Somewhere in the Skies with Ryan's Bread. Today on the show, we are joined by television writer, comedian, Bigfoot Hunter, and podcast host, Andrew Sanford. Hot on the heels of the exciting news of signatures of alien life, possibly being detected on Venus. We are taking a look at two movies that ask the questions, are we alone? And if not, how can we make contact? Although these movies, these movies, couldn't be any more diametrically opposed with how they decide to answer these questions.

First step, we look at 1996's The Arrival. Best line of the movie, Zane says, actually, I look like a can of smashed assholes. And then we jump ahead 20 years to 2016's arrival. The movie is sad because it's so hopeful. When the movie came out, it felt more within grass. but since then, I've just gone further away from that kind of hopefulness and what humanity is capable of.

And like, don't get me wrong, it was humanity under extreme circumstances, but, you know, we're in pretty fucking extreme circumstances right now, and we're not doing it. It is a roller coaster of emotions as we navigate our way through both films in all their amazing and ridiculous glory. You have arrived to the arrivals. Welcome everyone to a very special episode of Summer in the Skies. Today we are joined by one of my best friends, colleagues, and just all-around awesome dude.

Andrew Sanford is joining us for an epic movie showdown between 1996's The Arrival and 2016's Arrival. Andrew, how you doing, buddy? Ryan! Hello, hello. I'm happy to be here for the... Oh, God. How many, I'm trying to think of the amount of movies we've talked to, like, because we've got, we talked about it on here.

Yep. We talked about fire in the sky. We talked about communion. The other sky, communion. Fuck, I forgot about communion. How could you forget that one? I don't know. What was the other one we did?

The other, the other sky one, the great skies, dark skies. Dark skies. Dark skies. Dark skies. Oh, gritty, gritty sky. I want to see that movie. Gritty Skies. It sounds like an early Oliver Stone movie or something.

No, it's Gritty Skies. It's just that hockey mascot. Gritty. Is that his name? I don't know. It doesn't matter. I'm happy to be here. I'm thrilled to be here to talk to you, to talk about these movies.

It's going to be great. It'll be fun. It'll be emotional. It'll be traumatizing. and everything. Yes. Yeah. And then we'll talk about the movies.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Exactly. If anyone can't tell Andrew is a comedy writer, boom. Ooh. Oh, no. Nah. So what's been going on in your world during this continued lockdown of the world?

Are you staying busy? I have a feeling we're going to have a creative renaissance after this is all done. I friggin hope so, man. Yeah. I've absolutely, I think that staying busy is a perfect way to put it. I've been just trying to write as much as humanly possible until I run out of ideas, which luckily hasn't happened yet. Working on a pilot with a like a project pilot thing with an old teacher and good friend

of mine, which I'm very excited about, or just wrote another pilot on my own, which was something that I just wanted to like, get out there. I'm just trying to, you know, make sure that I don't, like, to use my free time well, because while New York is not the war zone slash housecape that some people have tried to claim that it is anymore, even though, I mean, I don't have to tell you things. We're rough there for a couple months. We talked about that last time we talked.

But, you know, things have gotten a lot better, but it's still not like, you know, I'm not riding the subway every day or I'm not hopping around all over the place. And as far as my day jobs are concerned, none of that has come back yet. So I'm just trying to make sure that I stay productive and stay sane and watch movies. My wife and I watch a movie almost like almost every day, if not every other day. We'll just like, all right, it's dinner time. Let's watch a movie. And at first it was like a fun like, oh, we'll try to like watch more movies this way.

And as we're in month six now, it's been like, all right, can we not watch a movie tonight? It's a real champagne problem. It is, right? And I mean, I watched, I think, all six seasons of Lost within like a two-week span. So I will never get that time back. But I love Lost. It's my third time watching it all the way through. And I'm the same way.

You know, it's like a movie a night or 10 episodes of the office for the one millionth time. Oh, dude, same. Yeah, yeah, it's comforting. And I think that's why a lot of people watch these shows, Parks and Rec, the office, over and over. I put it on to go to sleep because you know what comes next and it's comforting. And God forbid, like we feel some sense of, you know, normalcy or comfort during these uncertain times. Yeah, no, yeah. I, at the beginning of this, watched through 30 Rock.

and now recently my wife joy has been watching it for the first time like watching through it she seems like after here and there but yeah and i was just like oh cool i'll pop in whatever whenever or what have you because i've seen that show just a bunch it's one of my favorite small time and instead i'm just i'm constantly just like oh you put on 30 rock i'll stop what i'm doing and come right like it's just it you're right it's it's something it hits a little part of my brain where I'm just like, hey, you want to feel good for like 25 minutes? Yeah, yeah, I know, man. I mean, and I'm, the next one on my list is this new show on Netflix called Away with

Hillary Swank, and it's about them going to Mars for the first time, the first man or woman, I guess, you know, expedition to Mars. So as a lot to do with what we're going to be talking about today. Yeah. But I got to ask you, before we get to these two. movies. The latest news that broke this week as of us recording this is on Monday, scientific researchers published showings of phosphine, a possible signature of life present in the atmosphere of Venus. What do you think of this, man? Did you wake up to this news just as surprised as the

rest of us? I was totally surprised. I think I saw somebody put it perfectly, which is that, Like, because I even got like a little Apple alert on my phone. The Apple news of just like signs of life discovered on Venus. And it's just this quick like your heart palpitates a little bit. You're like, it's very exciting. But then when I looked into it, I was like, I don't know what this means. I'm going to wait until Thursday for Ryan to explain it. So I kind of like stayed away.

So what do, as someone who I'm sure looked into it much more than I did, what do you think? Well, it's exciting. I mean, a lot of, you know, it's. It's not the aliens are on Venus that we're all hoping for or ever expected. I mean, Venus was not a planet that most scientists ever thought could harbor life. It's so damn hot that it would be impossible for anything to really live there, according to our standards and our, you know, carbon makeup, as it were. So, I mean, it wasn't somewhere they were looking, but lo and behold, they found these gases

floating in the clouds in the atmosphere there. and they believe that there are signatures of phosphine, which shouldn't exist there. And the scientists are completely dumbfounded and surprised. And just like we are, they're like, what the F? Like, we've been searching for life elsewhere in other galaxies, but we never thought we would find it in our own solar system. So, hey, look, it's early stages, but it's exciting nonetheless.

And it shows that, you know, just because, we don't think it could exist or thrive somewhere else because of how we were evolved and all of that doesn't mean it can exist. So this is pretty exciting. I'll add this. NASA, they have an extensive astrobiology program that is always searching for life. And they were quoted on this story as saying, you know, we look for life in many different ways across the solar system and beyond. Over the past two decades, we've made new discoveries that collectively imply a significant increase of the likelihood to find life elsewhere. I'll add this too. As with an increasing number of planetary bodies, Venus is proven to be an exciting place of discovery. And there are missions now going to Venus to try to capture this, man, see if we can get any more information. And it is possible. That's how some horror movies start. Yep. And hey, look, we have brought back things for Mars or, you know, various other places where there have been signs of life.

So it's a little creepy, man. I mean, you know, that stuff breaks free and gets out. That's how you have, like you said, these Michael Crichton stories popping up. Yeah, that's right. So it kind of leads into what we're going to be talking about today, the possibility of alien life and the possibility of making contact. So we're going to start with 1996's The Arrival, directed by David Tui. Station 5. Is my voice even vaguely familiar to you, Zane?

I really don't want to repeat of last week. Look, if I say I'm going to be there, I will be there. End of story. There's nothing more important to me right now than I. Searching for ETs in this political environment is a tough cell. I come to you with what possibility of extra solar life. I can't for it. They're acting like it never happened.

It's like we never gave him any tape. The first signal is definitely sky-based, but this one is earth-based. Something's going on here, Shar. What is it that they're trying to hide? It's a troubled young man. Why are you telling them lies about me? I want my tape back. I want it back. They've branded his theory, paranoid.

There are some DOD guys here going through our stuff. I don't know who these guys are, but I do know that they're lying to you. And the only ones who believe what's coming. If they're not here now, they will be soon. Who's a... Are the ones who've already arrived. Right now, it's... As much as you think you know, you don't know the half of it.

Why did they leave? They didn't. How do you know? Because we aren't dead yet. Watching the skies. I know why they're here. Start watching. Look back.

Ron Silver, the arrival. Like I said, see, you didn't know the half of it, too. Now, before we get to the premise of this movie, Andrew, David Tewy, you know anything about this guy? I don't. I saw that it was written and directed by it. I didn't. I didn't dig too much deeper. I feel like I almost did.

This was one, I'll get into my watching experience of both of these movies in a minute. But yeah, I didn't. But, you know, anybody who's able to write and then direct a movie that they wrote is a hard enough thing to be given anyway. You have to have at least usually some sort of a proven track record unless you're Madonna. And that is not even, that is like half a joke. That's really happening. I know. But so I was kind of, I was like, oh, somebody wrote and directed this.

Interesting. What do you know about it? All right. Well, talk about a track record. You ready for this? David Tewy. Sure. He wrote pitch black.

Oh, G.I.J. After this then. Yeah. Oh, wow. What else? Waterworld. You're going to like these last two, though, Andrew. Wait a minute.

You think that's bad. Wait, wait. for this. I think you like this movie, if I can, if I remember correctly, the fugitive. He wrote The Fugitive. Yeah. Wow. Fine. You know what? I, yes. I love that. Great movie.

And last but not least, he wrote Critters 2. Yeah. Wow. So yeah, he's no slouch, man. Wow. I was about to say, it does not surprise me, because I think Fugitive probably would have been a couple of, like probably two or three

years before this went into production. and he was, I'm sure, a hot property after that. That movie blew up. It was huge, huge, huge. Let's get to the cast here before the premise. We've got pre-insane crazy version of this man. We've got Charlie Sheen, Lindsay. Who was my same age when he made this movie.

Are you serious? Yes, he was 31 years old. Unless I read that incorrectly, he was born in 1965. And when I read that he was 31 years old, I was like, I don't know, if he looks bad or if I look great. Dude, trust me, the older you get, the more of those existential comparisons you'll start to make. Yeah, or vice versa.

I was like, maybe he looks great and I look bad. Because at first, at one point, Ron Silver calls him a young man. And I was like, try this he's like 45 years old in this movie. That I looked it up. possible. Oh, God. Don't remind me, man. Who else we got

Lindsay Krauss, who I'm not. Lizzie Krauss, yes. She, I looked her up because I thought that was Shar at first. But it's not. It's the green woman because, and she's had a pretty expensive career.

Not this, not that this defines her, but she was married to David Mamet for a while. Oh, wow. And yeah, and has like a bit like that's a heavy her and richard chiff both being in this movie those are and rod silver there's some heavy hitters actor wise in this movie yeah there are i know what a great cast and you know what honestly uh besides our main protagonist which we'll get to uh pretty damn well acted in my opinion they really gave their all yeah no everybody there's definitely something to be said for the fact that like everybody was taking the movie seriously yes um which always helps or whether are good or bad, you want people to like, especially when it comes to like heavier themes. And it's also something where I would wonder, because the movie was ironically enough too,

especially because having Ron Silver, who was at the time a Democrat, but the movie is very liberal and progressive in its message. It's talking about climate change. They take a shot at the NRA at one point. They say global warming at a time when I was like, this is 1996. Like you didn't, if you talked about global warming you got laughed off like i mean there was some of that happened talk was happening but like it wasn't you know that was i would almost call it like just as fringe of a belief as like believing in aliens right it was it was definitely this this premise and overall theme of this movie was definitely i think ahead of its time um and a lot of people have compared this and the other movie we're going to talk about to uh you know the

groundbreaking film contact, you know. Oh, sure. And very similar sort of premise, but this movie came two years prior to that. So, I mean, you gotta give credit where credits do. They were kind of pioneering this idea of the making contact with aliens via the actual way in reality that we are trying to do that.

And that's through, you know, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, SETI, trying to look for radio wave transmissions or stuff like that. So I think, you know, again, original idea at the time. Yes, we've had many movies throughout the decades of trying to make contact with aliens and this and that. Right. And even before this film, we had my stepmother as an alien, which deals with a very similar way of contacting aliens.

And it's funny you mentioned contact company, because I would think of contact being both quality and like kind of in the middle of both these movies. I actually saw contact for the first time this summer. I had never seen that movie. Really? Yeah, yeah. Yep, just had never seen it.

And I watched it and I was like, oh, like there's plenty. Like there's a lot of it that's really good. And a lot of it like, you know, there's some stuff that hasn't aged like super well. But one thing that that movie has over both of these is that it has Jake Busey in it. And I don't get enough,

I don't get enough Jake Busey in my life. Oh, man. Could you imagine Jake Bucie was in this movie with Charlie Sheen? It would have been so good. Like, hey, I'll throw a pitch out. I would have rather had Jake Bucy in it instead of Charlie Sheen. Let's do it. Retroactive movie.

Yeah, right? Yeah, we'll do one of those deep fake things. They've got basically the same kind of haircut. What is going on with this haircut? I don't want to like, listen. Listen, it was 1996. There's a lot of different. But I was like, I don't understand.

this man's weird, like... The buzz cut? It's almost like a haircut that, like, started as a buzz cut. It's like if you take long hair and make it a buzz cut, you know what I mean? Like, it's not a close cut. It's just, it was an odd look for him. Somebody who was... And who knows, maybe this still would have been the case.

But I think, you know, Charlie Sheen was a bit of a sex symbol for a while. And to see him like this, to see him like this, I was like, huh. I was like, maybe they're trying to... dumb him down because he is a, what would his exact title be, like a radio astrologer or astronomer? Astronomer, yep, exactly. It's just astronomer, but I feel like he added some extra qualification because he's an astronomer that's looking for sound waves. He's not looking for like constellations or anything. Right, right. They all add, you know, credits, all these scientists to what they are.

But, you know, the official synopsis calls him a radio astronomer. I don't know. Gotcha. He's not an astrobiologist or astrophysicist or anything of that sort. So, yeah, I guess I would just go with radio astronomer. Gotcha. Speaking of it, do you want me to read the synopsis? Yes. Yes.

So we have the arrival. Zane, an astronomer, discovers intelligent alien life. But the aliens are keeping a deadly secret and will do anything to stop Zane from learning it. Love it. Love it. Wee-wee. Let's dive right in, man. I want to talk about this opening scene

because I actually love this hook. Like, this is like the cold open you'd see on the X-Files. Sure. You know, the outer limits or something. Yeah. The whole thing felt very, like, he makes a tales from the dark side reference at one point.

Yeah, he did. And the whole story felt very much like that. It did. Like a longer episode. Yep, it did. It felt like it could have been, you know, shaved down to 45 minutes and called the day. But, uh, right.

They stretched this thing out to almost two hours. Jesus Christ. Um, and oh, I mean, it was even more than that because I watched it for free on Oh, God. So you got all. And it had commercials. Oh, my God. It was like, I, I think I was texting you at like two.

It's like what time? Like 345 right now. I was texting you at 2.45 having pretty much just. finished this movie because I started in it around like noon and I and then I was like oh no because I wanted it to be fresh because I had never seen it before so you're going to have plenty to say then you're going to oh boy well let's talk about the opening soon yeah we're talking for the opening sure uh this woman who we learn is uh Ilana green she is a climatologist and she is in a field taking photos,

picking out some poppies, a poppy field as it were. And then we get the line, it shouldn't be here, which was like, okay, why? And then what do we do? It was super zoom out. And she's like the tundra,

the Antarctic or something like that, which whoa, when I didn't remember that opening scene, because I saw this movie when it first came out or was put on VHS. And I don't remember this opening scene having as much impact. probably because I was too young to understand what global warming and climate change

actually was because like you said, it wasn't taken seriously back then. So when they zoomed out and it was in the Antarctic and I watched it this time, I'm just like, holy shit, we are living this right now. Like look at San Francisco. Look at everything. All these horrible things going on in the world

environmentally and it was terrifying. So in that sense, I think the message of this movie, which we will get to is very vital. Yeah, man. Yeah, it was one of those things where I really liked that opening hook and then was just like, oh, cool, so they're going to be going up to the Arctic. No, no.

Like, it's just like, we'll show you that. Give you no, at least unless I missed something, there's no real explanation. She's in the middle of Antarctica when they pull back. Right. How? How? How did she get all the way out?

there. She's got no, like, I was just kind of flabbergasted by that. I was like, this is a cool hook, but then it like, the whole, the whole movie to me kind of rested on some of these ideas that are like fun to present and then have like no follow-up

or no like really, like there's stuff about it later. Like if you think about it for more than two seconds, it makes no sense. Oh, absolutely. The logic of this movie is just... It's all over the place. It's all over. And we'll hit some of those plot points for sure.

Sure. All right. So then we get our opening titles. All right. Sorry. God, I'm going to be doing this so much tonight. The arrival. Right.

There we go. And we meet, we meet Zane and we meet Kelvin, the odd couple of radio astronomy. And I, now that, that signal comes, so they're doing the radio astronomy business.

They have happened. what anyone in their position only dreams of, right? Like that's their life's mission is to find something like this to happen. And the way they react felt like they were reacting to like, like their favorite song just came on the radio or something like that. You know what I mean? Yeah, they were just like, yeah, who, woo, woo! Like they just, it was, it seemed like such a strange.

I was like, guys, you should be like, I cry at the drop of a hat, so I don't assume that everybody should just be, like, in tears, but I'm like, this is what you wanted. This is what you've been working your whole life towards. Like, and it's happening right now, and it's just kind of like, it's not even like it's like a stunned reaction. I mean, Richard Schiff pees on his shoes a little bit.

But there's, like, aside from that, I'm just like, guys, this is, like, this is it. And they're just like, yeah, okay, record, quit. Like, and they get it, and then it stopped. And they're like, oh, man, all right, got to go talk to, on silver like the next day like it just yeah right here's my argument to that um and i'm not defending their acting choices or anything um right character standpoint i'm thinking you know yes they they wait for this their whole life but they get some of false positives when it comes sure you know and i've spoken to actual people who worked at setty and dude like yeah they get little small blips here and

there constantly and then their job is to either figure out what it actually was and it's usually always a radio wave or television wave bouncing back at us um you know from our you know what retracted i retract my criticism of that so they're they're trained to kind of keep cool when these things do happen in my opinion i think that's it was going on in the scene is that like okay we need to follow protocol like just make sure it's recording make sure this um let's deduce this So that's kind of how I took it. I also think Charlie Sheen is just a terrible actor, but we will get to that. Yeah.

But you do make a good point. Like, okay, we're dropped into this movie where probably for most of their careers, this has never happened. And then, of course, the minute the film drops us in there, it happens, which is, you know, that's what movies and plays are. We're dropped into the lives of these people at the most pivotal moment of their lives. And this is probably right. So, yeah. So they get this message and they are not sure. what the hell to make of it. It's this really weird radio wave signal audio. And like you said,

they're super excited. They get all of the data down, this, that, this, that. And they're trying to call other, you know, radio astronomers throughout the country to make sure someone else heard this. And they can't get a hold of anyone, which I thought it was kind of weird. Like, there's got to be somebody else out there hearing this or listening. Right. Or you're just telling me every, university or astronomer is asleep right now while this is happening? You know, so at least they do the due diligence to say like, oh, tribe reaching out to this person. They didn't answer. Oh, this person didn't answer either.

So I'm like, okay, at least they answered that question of just like, why is no one else hearing this? But yeah, it is kind of silly for that answer to be like, they're asleep. Because we're the only ones that are taking this series. So it's just, yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, rewinding a little bit, too, before they get the message, I think we have to, we have to give them credit for this. They show how fucking boring it is for these people. Yes. Like, they're just waiting. Calvin is asleep, dream. And then we've got, we've got Zane, whose girlfriend calls him and says, when are you coming home? Like, I, like, this is her exact line. I want your ass in bed. That's what she says to you. Yes. Yes. We'll get to more of that movie. Oh, I mean, some of the dialogue is,

one point she says to him, put your paranoia back in your pants. And I was just like, okay. Okay. I've got direct quotes written down. These are going to be. Yeah. So, okay.

So this message they get, it's like 45 seconds long. And like you mentioned, they bring it to their boss at JPL, the Jet Propulsion. laboratory in California. And dude, this place has like a super strong mythology within

um, really UFO world and, uh, the occult world as well. Um, the dude who started JPL was working with like weird Satanists and occultists before he started this company.

Um, what? Really weird. Like really like proven like that's, I hate to be that. Yes. But yes. Wow. If you go back. I think it was even on drunk history when they covered, they covered like the beginnings of NASA and JPL. And they did cover this.

Oh, God. The guy's name is escaping me right now. But he was big into occultism in America. He was in New York City. And the guy who started JPL was like in this weird love triangle with this guy and his wife. And they did all these weird sex rituals and like just super strict. stuff, man. And then he went on to form like one of the most

prestigious jet propulsion places in the world. So yeah, really, really weird when some of these companies are steeped in. Yeah, but moving on from that, they go to their boss to give this news. And who

was this again? Their boss? Ron Silver is his name. And he's somebody he's all, he was all over the place, especially in the 90s. You ever see time cop he's the bad guy it's oh yes yes um and he was noted

for he was a democrat at this time I was looking at this up because I thought I was like oh man it must have been weird for him to be in this movie because he was uh so he essentially he was somebody who was a Democrat until 9-11 happened and then he

thought the democratic response to that and terrorism was not strong enough so he became an independent started supporting George Bush was working hand in hand with George Bush up until his death in 2009. However, it was, it was revealed by his brother, like, a year after his death, that he had voted for Obama because he very much wanted to see an African-American president. So he had an interesting, like, last decade of his life.

Yeah. Interesting. A real interesting guy. But you can see, like, if somebody was, like, a Democrat. It almost made me start wanting to look into the, like, the, like, political line leanings of everybody in this movie, especially the director, because again,

like it's very much, like it's very, very much a progressive movie. It has its midsteps, like Kiki. We'll get to that. Yep. But, you know,

it's like the overall message of the movie centering on climate change in a time when, like, mainstream, like, you know, Independence Day doesn't even really get into it. Like, a lot of those mainstream action movies and stuff,

especially in the 90s are like apolitical. and sometimes. Sometimes, yeah. That's a good point, though, and I think that might be why this movie didn't do as well for many reasons, but I think this is one of them, is it did have a strong stance on things that not all Americans or not all humans agree with. And that's hard when you're kind of putting your foot down in your film and saying, this is my message, this is my theme.

Right. I think it's interesting. And again, we'll get to why. global warming plays such a big part in this. But, okay, so they gave, so. Yes, because I will need you to explain it to me because there are a couple of times. I can't pretend I didn't know it all, but we will try. Zane and Calvin bring this information to their boss at JPL slash, I guess they're kind of working with NASA.

They're not, you know, directly related, but their boss is like, I don't know what you want me to do with this. like also you're fired. Right, right. You bring him, and I think Zane actually says, I bring you the most groundbreaking discovery we've had in forever, and you're firing me. And she's like, what the hell is going on here? Why won't your boss do this?

It's even more confusing because that starts with him being like, there's nothing here. Oh, oh, you mean the signal came on? And then it didn't repeat and then we didn't see it again. And then moments later, he's like, This is a huge scientific climb. This is exactly what you've been looking for. But I got to let you go.

I'm just like, what? We just took like a big shift. Yeah, it was a very unbalanced scene, I would say. Yeah. So he fires Zane and then we see his boss destroy the tape. So what's going on there? We'll get to it. What else here?

Oh. And then, so Zane. he's fired and he kind of you know he tells his girlfriend and we've come to find out yeah he's been doing this job forever he's kind of lacked in the boyfriend department

and the relationship is very strained in many ways but he does immediately God wouldn't this be nice you get let go from a job and then like days later you get another job but uh he starts working for like a satellite company you know very run of the mill

blue collar job Does he? Yeah, why do you ask? Well, because I was confused all of the sudden. Like, let me be very clear about something. I was going to say that I was, I watched both of these movies in the last 24 hours. Okay. So last night, last night I was a little tired and I put on arrival.

I was like, I might fall asleep just because I was like, be it was a long day. But I was like, you know what? I've seen this movie a bunch. I really like this movie. I put it on. and I couldn't look away. Like I was woken up by that movie. I love that movie.

I was attentive the entire time I watched it. I put this on today. I woke up this morning. I went for a run. I came back. I had breakfast. I had two big cups of coffee. I had to write an article for Pajiba.com.

No big deal. Check out Pajibah. And I, um, smooth. Smooth. Very smooth. And then I put this movie on. I'm like, all right. I'm ready to pay attention to a movie.

When I tell you that this thing, I had the hardest time staying engrossed in this movie. So at a certain point, and Joy watched it with me, at a certain point, I looked at the TV and I was like, wait a minute, is he a handyman now? Because all of a sudden he starts running, he runs into that little, um, the, uh, Ted talk or whatever it is that the guy is attending, right?

Yeah. And his former boss is attending. And he's mad because he found out that like, didn't share the tape. Yeah. Right? And he's got that outfit on, and the name tag isn't his name. And then that becomes a recurring thing as he's like working on other people's satellites.

Yeah. So I just started to wonder. I was like, is this a real, and this could have happened. Did I miss the scene where he's just like, well, I got this job now, or well, I got to do this for money now? Or did he just all of a sudden had this van and several different things. name tags and outfits. Holy shit. I didn't even, I didn't, yeah, where's the, um, where is the connector between that? I don't know. That's a really good point, man. Like, he, and if I missed it, yeah, if I missed it, if somebody wants to start flaming me on Twitter, that's fine. Like,

that's why you got to really pay attention to a movie. But I swear to God, it was like, I, I clinked. And all of a sudden, he's rushing into this place with his outfit on. And I was just like, Oh, okay. So he's pretending to be a handyman to get in there. And then I was like, wait, what's, why is that not his name? Like, never once did he wear a name tag that says Zane on it. Right. Zane Ziminski.

That's some classic, classic name stuff going on. That was a Stan Lee name right there, man. Yeah, for real, yes. Matt Murdoch, Peter Parker. I could go on. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Bruce Banner. It's all, it's all, this is just superheroes in general.

Yeah, you can. could tell this writer definitely was a comic book fan um yeah such a good point um okay well you know let's let's suspend our our disbelief for a moment and say done um he he's working for some satellite repair company so fell on hard time fell on some hard times it really does and you know just like any guy when you're that beaten down and and whatnot like it starts to take a toll on you and uh you know you don't feel your self-worth anymore. But before he loses all self-worth, we get our first shot of Zane post-coitus, I think,

or pre-coitus, I can't really tell. Out on his dock, his, he's not fishing. Out on his deck. Yep, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. In the news, what do you think, Andrew? Well, here's a question for you, Ryan. Why was he wet? And why was she not?

He was very perspiring, yes. For certain, during several points of the movie, to the point where I almost thought, like, not to jump ahead too far, but there's later on where he's wearing a disguise that starts to fail, and it looks like he's sweating through it. Yeah.

And I was like, have they been showing him being perpetually sweaty for this entire movie just to set up that one bit? Because if so, that's almost kind of genius. Yeah. But then they don't get into, like, they don't elaborate on what. whether or not that's why the costume was failing.

But yeah, I saw that scene happen, and I was just like, wait, why is he wet? And why is she not? It seemed like maybe she was getting out of the show. I don't know. Yeah, that was something where I was just like, there were several times where I said out loud, what is this movie?

Yep, yeah. What is it trying to be? And we'll definitely get to that. It is. It's trying to be a lot of different things. But so, okay, so we get our first scene of his more of his body than I think any of us truly wanted to see. But like you said, he was kind of a sex symbol back then.

And I guess I kind of blacked that out of my memory. I don't remember many films he did. I did watch the Hot Shots movies. Oh, really? What was that other thing? Platoon? Was that his? No, he was in, uh, man.

He did one of those like Vietnam movies. Yeah. Yes, I don't want to see. It might have been Platoon. I don't think it was full metal jacket. No, no. But it was, hold on, I'm going to pull up his Wikipedia right now because we're just going to be those kind of people.

Exactly. People scream that way. Oh, it was platoon. Yeah, you know it. 86. And I saw, I definitely saw the hot shot. I loved hot shots part deuce. So funny.

Growing up. And a major league, which he was in the first two. Oh, my God, dude. I think. And I loved those. Yeah, what was his name in that? Oh, shoot. Let me see. Wild thing. Rick Vaughn.

Wild thing, Rick Vaugh. Dude, I didn't even look that up. I was obsessed with, I was obsessed with Major League 2. So much so that the Cleveland Indians became my team after I saw the first movie. And I only liked them because of these movies. So there's your allegiance right there for a baseball team. Oh, in this scene, too, we should mention on the shelf. in, I think, his bedroom, we get a shot of Carl Sagan's Cosmos book, which is what the movie Contact is based on. So there's a nice little Easter egg or homage right there.

Sure. Yeah. I almost feel like it was like a race to do movies about that kind of stuff in the late 80s into the 90s. And it wasn't until you do one. Because I would argue, like, of the three that we mentioned this contact and, my stepfather is an alien, contact is the most successful of those movies. That directly, like, you, like, they jokingly,

I think Carl Sagan, like, Carl Sagan's voice, quote unquote, but it's actually Harry Shearer is in, my stepmother is an alien, and then you have the book in this movie, and then you have the actual, I think Carl Sagan died, like, right before contact came out. Yeah, yeah, I think you're right.

Like, I think it's dedicated to him, so it's, it's not, until you get the actual man's formula going that you have more of a success story. Right. Yeah, that's a really, really good point. Okay, so, all right, whatever. It's clear that he's a very insecure guy. His girlfriend's trying to build him up and be like,

I think you're special and, like, you've always had conviction, but, like, you've got to just accept this and move on. Like, it was a fluke, you know, this, that. but he's convinced like he heard something. He found probably one of the biggest things in, in history, a message from aliens. So what does he do? He uses what we're saying was his new job as a repairman for satellite dish,

like a dish sort of situation. This is pretty cool. He goes to all these houses to quote unquote repair their satellites, and he makes it so they all triangulate to like one specific, coordinate so that he can now do what he was doing at his old job from, I'm guessing, the attic of his house and set this up. So now he's got his own little mini-Sety radio astronomer headquarters in his house. This is pretty cool. Yeah, absolutely. No, yeah. And it was one of those things, too, where I, um, I, I like, at the beginning, like, there are moments where this

movie where I was like, oh, I like where this is heading. Like, this is an interesting kind of like, like let's see and and it it I made the mistake of watching a rival first because I can't I can't lie yes yep I can't lie and say that I wasn't like projecting on this movie but I was like oh cool maybe he's going to try to still contact these aliens despite being fired from his official position like he's going to try to do like almost like the opposite of what's done in arrival where he's not getting government support and he's just trying to he's like he's like he's like he's like trying to he's like Like, well, government damned, these things are going to try to talk to us, and I'm going to try to talk to them. And then instead, it just gets much more confusing. Yes, yes! A Lego set is a gift that always clicks, and clicks and clicks. For kids who love to save the day, choose a Lego set.

A gift that always clicks. It does. It does. You know what confused me, too, were those steampunk sunglasses. he was rocking this whole film. Bro, oh my God, I'm so glad you just said something. I, oh, holy shit. Those look so awful.

And it's so 90s. And what's even worse is at one point, I feel like they were using the sunglasses to show us that, like, he's over the deep end because when we see him like over the deep end, he's got these weird giant yellow sunglasses. Yeah, yeah. Like, but yeah.

There's one point where he's got both of them, hanging from his shirt. He's got two pairs. What is going on with this guy? I think you're just losing it, dude. He's losing it. And that's a big part of this character, we should mention. He is very paranoid in many parts of his life. And he has a reason to, clearly,

for, when it comes to him and his girlfriend, dude, like, what a piece of shit, possessive asshole he was. I mean, like, he's accusing his girlfriend of cheating on him because a guy talked to her at one point. And I'm just like,

this is the kind of guy you have to stay away from because A, Zane is not in a good place and B, Charlie Sheen acting this part, it looks like he wants to beat the shit out of everyone he talks to.

Yeah, yeah. That's true. And it's one of those things too where you're watching it and you're just like, so wait, why is he like, it's almost like,

did we miss a scene? Did the young, like the dude who's like 10 years old, younger than the both of them, like say something? something untowards to him earlier? Has he heard about him before?

Or was that literally just a random guy in her office? He's like, yes, he's going to? Like, you're just going to go. Or in the very beginning, he's on the phone call. Don't talk to any strangers on your way out of the bar. He's pissed that she's out at a bar. Yeah. Yeah.

Right. Yes. Yeah. He's like, you're out of a bar while I'm at work. It's like, motherfucker, you don't know. She, maybe she's not working right now. What's supposed to do? Wait at home for you?

Like, when you can she go to a bar by yourself? He's not a likable lead by any stretch of the imagination. Which makes it a slog to follow him through this. But the only thing that really kept me going was, you know, I've been there. I'm, you know, shout from the rooftops every day. Like, UFOs are real. Please, somebody believe me. And, you know, that's kind of happening in today's society.

We're getting closer and closer in many ways. So I understand that need and want for people to. you want vindication. And he's been put smack dab in the middle of this huge conspiracy and no one will believe him. So I understand that. But this is just a poorly, poorly written character. And on top of having an actor who doesn't understand it,

just makes it even worse. But let's, uh, okay. Now, there were several times where he's like ringing off, like saying certain, like, jargon as far as being like a radio astrotummer. And I was just like, you don't know anything. anything that you just said. You have no idea what you're saying. I do a little research. You know, it's really funny.

Before we go any further. So I told before we got on, I told you I was writing down notes. I've got one, two, three, four, five. I've got six full pages for the arrival, which makes no sense.

How does that happen? How does that happen? Because one movie makes sense and another one doesn't. Like, and there's something to be said about the fact that arrival is very minimalist. It's a big budget, like big, like it's a big movie, but it's still like in the grand scheme of things, we're in like three locations. We're at Herra College.

We're at the site where everything's going on and we're inside the ship. Aside from that, we really don't go anywhere else. This movie, for some reason, goes fucking everywhere. Antarctica, California, Mexico. Mexico, back to California, back to like the middle of the desert, I guess. Like just all these things right, just like none of this is like helping. And it's probably why the movie costs $25 million to make. Holy shit.

In 1996. Oh, you know where most of that went to to our mansion. Oh, yeah, yeah. And the stunning special effects, which we will get to. Let's get back to, I guess, our next character we're introduced to, Andrew, and I know you're going to have a lot to say about this, and I'm going to shut up about it. Let's get to it. So he's got his little radio astronomy makeshift thing in his house,

and someone's spying on him from the window, and we are introduced to Kiki. Who is Kiki, Andrew? Yes. Kiki is a little black boy that lives next door, but doesn't really live next door. he's there because the place he comes from in L.A. is like super dangerous, so he's living with his grandma for a while. He makes it very clear pretty quick that he's not packing heat because he's not like the other people at his school or whatever. It's just this. It's weird. When you find out when there's a reveal about him later, it could almost be looked at as purposeful because both times there's two things where I'm just going to jump ahead. Like, everybody knows it's going to be spoilers for this.

Oh, yeah. So just make that clear. Kiki, it turns out, is an alien. And one of the only other times where you get three interactions, like main interactions with people that end up being aliens. There's Ron Silver's character, his boss. There is Kiki. And there is a stereotypical Mexican cab driver.

Now, I was very lucky enough to take my, for Joy and I to have our honeymoon in Mexico. We had several Mexican cab drivers and tour guides, and none of them spoke broken English the way that that character did. So it was one of those weird things where I was just like, oh, maybe it's just that the aliens, like maybe in some deeper way, the guy was trying to go like, oh, you know, if aliens come to this planet, they're going to be stereotypes of whoever they are.

I feel like that's giving them too much credit. when it's also one of those tough things, it's like, listen. And we're both, people will probably heard Jamie Lamb's voice at the beginning of this episode. And she imparted a great bit of a great thing to me at one point within the last like year or two, where you can't, it's hard to have expectations on older movies to be culturally sensitive. It's just hard. You're fighting a losing battle. Some of the best movies have these blind spots, and not saying that this is one of the best movies.

But some of the movies before anything before, like, I don't know, 2005. And that needle moves all the time where you're just like, well, at least if you see a movie after like 2010 and they don't do anything culturally insensitive like you're in. Or if they do something culturally insensitive, you're just like, come on, man, we got black president. But it's before that, like, in 1996 is the time we're like, I'm sure. and is it the most offensive portrayal of a little black boy? No, but it's pretty bad. It's close, yeah, it's pretty bad. Like, he's talking about not packing heat.

He's like an idiot. He's got his hat on sideways and wearing these big baggy clothes. And I know some of that was the style at the time, but like, so is fucking Steve Urkel. So, like, you know, you can't like, it's, there's this idea where it's just like, oh, we got a little black. Yeah, like, you know, you're talking jazz. You're just like, he's like, you want me to press. this button right here, this one that my fingers above, like, I'm just like, what is

happening right now? And then, yo, I have even, oh my God, I just realized something because he's an, oh, I'm so confused about what Kiki's role in the movie is. Okay. Yeah. Let's see if it unfurls as we explore this

extremely deep film. Um, let's see. Oh, yeah, Charlie Sheen does tell Kiki shouldn't you be out tagging something? Jesus Christ. Oh, yes. Oh. And that was one where I was like,

I hate you, Zademinski. Like, I don't understand. Like, that's what you have to say. Like, and it's one of those tough things. It's, it's, honestly, it's made even more glaring by the fact that and unless I miss somebody, this is the only African American character in the film. Yes, it is. Yeah.

The only one. Yeah. So that's when you start to get to a point where it's like, what are we saying here? like this is how you're going to react to the only black person like i don't know it's just it was it was pretty wrong that was that that made me like as a person of color i saw that happen and i was just like this it's cringeworth it really it's it's bad but again i can only i can only get so mad it was 1996 i like it just at a certain point it just fucking is what it is and it's hard too man it goes it always goes back to that whole, you know, debate we've, we've been having a lot lately with

the Me Too movement and stuff like this. Like, how do, when, when can you separate the artists work from like what? Yeah. And that's such a hard thing with a lot of people. So I understand. I think I, you know what, it's funny. I think there was an interview with Chris Rock in the New York Times this week where he talked about the fact that Jimmy Fallon, um, it did a blackface impersonation.

payment in the year 2000, right? And which Jimmy Fallon came under fire for recently, something that was 20 years old. And Chris Rock was just like, just said that he wasn't offended by it because A, he's friends with Jimmy Fallon and he likes him a lot, but also he said that the intent is very important, which is something that intent and context is something that often gets overlooked when people are trying to attack somebody for a certain reason. Yeah. When it's not, like if you can have, like, if you can line up intent and context and it's like

you can tell that something is like meant to be hurtful or meant to be mean-spirited or meant to be offensive, that's when you start to come into problems. But it's when something is not done for those kind of reasons. That's when you have to go, well, what do we like, is this the hill that we want to die on? Yeah. You know what I mean? This little kids, I do not think that the filmmakers were set out to be like, yeah, you

know he's going to be like a little we're just got to like make fun of black people with this little kid like i don't think that was the intention um it's just something where it's like i said it's a blind spot it's something where they when you don't have any other black people on set or behind the camera um and probably the same the same with mexican people you will find yourself doing things that you don't know you know what i mean like you just don't know yeah that's a good point hindsight is always 20 20 but um yeah of course yeah All right. Well, let's, I want to try to breeze through some of these pop points because this honestly doesn't deserve as much attention as our next one. But, um, yeah. So Kiki and Zane, they get the

signal back, which is fucking incredible. Like how the hell did that happen? But, um, amazing. And within the, the message or signal, they hear Mexican music coming from a, right, a Mexican radio station. So, right. Um, that's where we're at with that. And then meanwhile, Calvin, our other radio astronomer, wakes up and to his alarm and he goes to turn it off, but someone else turns it off. And then we see that there are two men in suits in his bedroom and a little creepy.

And then boom, after Zane gets the signal, he goes to Calvin's to be like, oh my God, I got the signal again, I got the signal. And Kelvin is dead. Something's going on. Something weird is going on. One of those men in suits, I have to have. Leon Rippy is the man's name. You'd know him if you saw, he's the one that, like, you see a little bit more of him later.

Anyway, just classic character after. Like, that's a guy. You've probably seen him before. You'll see him again. Real good stuff. I always remember him very vividly from the movie, the Patriot from the year 2000 was Mel Gibson. And, yeah, Heath Ledger. and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that movie's pretty stacked,

but he's in there. He has a moment where he, like, blows his brains out when he finds out his family who's been killed, just like real solid stuff. He was in 11, 22, 63, this is one of the best Stephen King adaptations that's ever been made. If you've never seen that, check that out.

But just want to give a shout-out to Leon Rippey. That guy's a, like, he's a classic character actor actor right there. Again, this cast is stacked. It really is. Oh, yeah, yeah. God, God, I just feel so bad for them, though. Okay. Hey, they got paid.

They got paid. Nobody's career ended after this movie. Except Keyes. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, you can't really find anything else on him. No, unfortunately. All right. So, clearly there's a conspiracy

going on. Calvin's Day. And then Zane decides to up and go to Mexico. Yay, because that's super easy when you live in California. So he does it. And he gets there to. try to figure out where this signal came from,

a radio headquarters or something in Mexico. And then that's when our character from the beginning, Alana Green comes back up. And she pops up every now and again in different scenes, talking about global warming, global warming, global warming, global warming. So her and Zane kind of end up in the same hacienda or something, motel. I'm not sure, Andrew. You stayed at one of these places.

I don't know Mexico. Oh, yeah. I think it's just a regular motel. Hacienda is more. of when it's a little bit more secluded. And it's just like, a hacienda would be more of just like, oh, it's like several houses in one area that are all like the same facility. Yeah, they were just staying in like a hotel.

Gotcha. No big deal. I know. I know. You're talking to the guy who stays at budget ins. Yeah. Yeah. But so, right?

Just to like freeze through a little bit because I have to have a, I have a like, and this is one of the things where the movie starts. I was happy that they didn't take the opportunity to when he sees Ilana Green for the first time. He does it like something catches his eye about her, I guess because she's another white person and they're in Mexico. But I was just like, if he talks to her right now, I'm going to be furious because I was like it was the most coincidental meeting possible. Oh, yeah. But he doesn't. They save that.

So I'm like, okay, that's fine. But so he is later on, he's taken a bath because we get. Gotta see more Charlie Sheen chest. More. And, yes. And water starts dripping in. And then suddenly the tub falls from above him. It was actually like a fun, like, when it happened, I was like, oh, cool.

And then it starts breaking through all the other floors. And I was like, loony tunes, man. Yeah, exactly. I was just like, what is this? But okay, that was probably like, you know, $50,000 you could have saved. to not have that extra stuff happen, but whatever. So they do that and he chases this guy who's like was thereafter or like who did that.

And not to get like to this other point yet, but it's like an assassin, right? Yeah, yeah. When he later on, yeah, pulls another assassination attempt, he just puts a bunch of scorpions in someone's room. Yes. In Alama's room.

Alana Gray's. So he goes from, I'm going to do the biggest, messiest thing possible to try to kill this person to, I'm just going to leave some scorpions here and like, you know, hope it all works, hope it all works out for the best.

Like, whoa, what? He's a very uneven assassin for sure. Yeah. And he, like, regresses. Like, you would think that it's like, oh, shit, the scorpions didn't work. Well, I'll try to drop a tub on him now. Yeah. Like, but no, it's the other way around. It's so weird, dude. This, oh, God. Well, yeah. Okay. So we got Charlie Sheen chasing this assassin who tried to

kill him with five tubs going through floors of a motel, hotel. And he catches up to this guy. and all of a sudden this guy, the Mexican assassin, as it were, we get our first special effects in the movie where he's... Oh, my God, and it took so fucking long to get to them. Again, I was watching it with commercials too,

and it would be one thing if the first like 45, 50 minutes was pace a little bit better. But at one point, Joy was just like, not enough aliens for me so far, I'll tell you that much. And I was like, right? Like, what is happening? Why, where are the aliens? Yeah.

Which is funny, because I'm actually the opposite. I wanted to, I wanted more of like the messages from space and like more of a. You know what? That would have been great too. Yeah, yeah. But instead we go straight sci-fi with this thing. And this assassin, his, his knees bend backwards. So imagine that your knees going the other way.

And clearly, he, he's. He's not human. He leaps about 200 feet over a wall and disappears. So clearly we're dealing with something not human, supposedly. And he's kind of mystified, but it's okay because he still has to meet up with Alana. And they need to talk about global warming some more and why they're both in Mexico. And they kind of become a team at this point, like trying to unravel this stuff that's going on. we get probably one of the most awkward flirting things ever when it comes to these two,

which again shows how much of a dirt bag. Yes, yeah, it was so weird. He's not quite broken up with his girlfriend, but he's like, are we going to fuck tonight? Like, what's the deal here? Yeah, with Alana Green. So let's see. I'm going to kind of fast forward here, Andrew.

Yeah, that's totally fine. So Alana's out there doing some experiments and she gets arrested by the police. Zane just happens to show up when this happens and tries to stop the police. And who does he see? But his boss, but it's not his boss because the guy has a mustache, a mustache. So what's going on here? Well, that's an excellent question because I have some like, Because here's, here's, like, something I would like, yeah, I would like to ask you.

So is the insinuation that it is literally just him in a mustache, or is the insinuation that these aliens are just like, yeah, we only got so many aliens get, or human skins to use. I think that's it, man, because later in the film he does say, like, yo, your aliens, they should have broke the mold when they made you, man, because I saw you in Mexico. with a mustache. Boom. Perfect. That's what I'm taking from it at least. Okay, good. That's fine.

I guess I missed that line. But I was just like, when that first happened, I was like, even that, I'm just like, that's kind of like lazy. It is. It is. There's so much logic leaps in this movie. But, um, yeah. All right. Let's fast forward.

So this assassin puts scorpions in Alana's room. And I guess does she die? I didn't even notice. Like, is she gone? Eventually, we learned that she is. But the last thing that we see happened to her, she sits up in bed and screams

after they, like, tease the scorpion thing for however many minutes. I think I went to the bathroom and left the movie playing at that point. Yeah. Oh, I did that several times. There, but I, so they do that,

and then we jump forward later and we see her corpse when he's arrested. Oh, shit. I missed that whole part. Yeah, because they, like, he's arrested, and the guy,

the police chief or captain or detective or whatever in Mexico is just like, oh yeah, you're going to see the like, you know, it's like, well, somebody was hit a drunk track because this is after he goes to the facility, he hits Ron Silver's character with his car, and then keeps driving, because he goes into this deep alien facility underground thing, which is honestly like we can just skip that whole thing.

Yeah, it was. Just know that he'd find. He finds this huge underground facility with all the... Right. And they're doing something. It's a hidden plan. Yeah. And he runs that and that's when he finds out that, like, you know, the cab driver that he had is also an alien.

And he pushes him out of an elevator that doesn't have a door for some reason. And, like, is able to, like, and puts on this really weird makeup at one point. And he finds out that these aliens, like, he sees aliens. And he's playing, like, action hero for whatever he's. and he sees aliens and it was just like they're using these lights that give them skin oh and i'm sorry we can't skip it entirely because here's another thing that doesn't make any sense so the aliens stand in their little area to have the skin put on them right yeah yeah when that happens before they put the skin on their body starts to change and the things that show that their body is changing

is their fingers get smaller and their knees go to the way that a normal humans would. Right. So this has to happen before they put the skin on. But then we see, but we had already seen pretty clearly that one of them is able to do that, and we see it again later with the human skin on, and it makes no difference.

So why even show us that that's what happens? Andrew, do not question our alien overlords. And by that, I mean, I mean, what's this guy's name again? David Toowie wrote this. Do not question. David Tui. Who, I was just looking it up a little bit. I won't question him because he has written and directed not just Pitch Black,

but also Chronicles of Riddick and Riddick. And is supposed to be making a new Riddick movie soon. So it's like, you know what? I don't have any successful franchises under my belt. So, you know, Like, good on you. Oh, good, good, bud. So, yeah, so it's weird.

We're moving along. He decides to go back to California because he's escaping all the stuff that happened in Mexico. They use Alana Green's dead body to say that that's the person he hit. Instead of, like, using the body of a police officer, which seems like would have been a little bit more effective. And he goes back to California, and now he's in crazy mode. He's wearing a big black duster.

he's got the crazy sunglasses on. Dude, I got to stop you here. Did you ever watch Renegade on USA? Renegade? No. It was like a bounty hunter show. He was like, it was basically dog the bounty hunter, but fictionalized. And like 10 years earlier.

But it reminds me so much of this TV show, like the duster and like he's all, you know, the desert. This is all what the show is about. So no. I like this little. I'm guessing David Tui had something to do with Renegade too. But yeah. Anyway, sorry to interrupt.

Continue. Oh, yeah, that's fine. So he, yeah, so they go in to, he goes back to California. He first he calls out Ron Silver and gets him to like admit what he was doing so he can like have it on tape. When he meets up with his boss again,

Ron Silver, and he says, hey, Zane, not looking so good. Best line of the movie, Zane says, actually, I look like a can of smashed assholes. That's when I'm like,

what is this movie trying to do? What are we doing here? Is this a comedy? Are we to take this seriously? Like, what the fuck is this movie? Yeah, like, that was one of those things where I remember when you first announced that we were going to be covering

this movie on Twitter months ago. That was the thing that everybody kept saying, They're like, oh, yeah, can't have smashed assholes. And I'm like, yeah, is that the body you want to pull out of this car wreck? Like, that's what you're trying to say in? He was like, oh, but can't a mashed asshole. Like, so what?

That means nothing. It's absolutely nothing. I guarantee you that Charlie Sheen improvbed that line. And they were like, oh, Charlie. Oh, gold. Cut, wrap, print, save. Like, this is just done. We nailed it.

Everybody go home. We'll pick back up tomorrow. Do you think he thought? you think he thought, ah, in 20 years, two guys during a pandemic are going to be doing a review of this. And that's what they're going to talk about. Yeah, yeah, I hope so. I sure should hope so, man. But, okay.

So, yeah, his boss, he kind of admits, like, I'm not who you think I am. But you don't want to dig deeper. Like, this is going to be the end of you, brother. And he kind of does the. evil boss thing and tells Zane everything, you know, like, this is what we're doing here. And Zane is kind of like, I think I know what you're doing, but I'm not quite sure yet. Tell me. And he's threatening him with a fake gun.

And then we find out that he pulled a candid camera. It's like, there's a camera, there's a camera. It's just one camera. But yes, he did record his boss telling him all this. So now Zane's got the proof, silent invasion occurring. Yes. which I have questions. Okay.

Because I am not sure what their plan. So are they trying to terraform the planet? Is that what's happening? Yep. Yep. Okay. Honestly, I think it's that simple.

And I think what they're doing is, you know, we've got a lot of green saying global warming's real like this, you know, it's gradual. And they're accelerating it. Yes. And they're accelerating it to the point where humans won't be able to live there anymore and they can take over the planet. So I think that's why. they have these terraforming things probably all over the planet.

And it is. It's underground. It's insidious. And that's kind of what global warming is in real life. You know, it's gradual until the point where we can't reverse it. So I think there is some good subtext going on here with how they handled it, especially towards the end.

But we'll get to that. But yes, I believe, you know, in the simplest of terms, the plan is that these aliens are disguises. themselves in prominent places to gain influence

and also to terraform the planet and take it over. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, so he meets up with Kiki again who Kiki saw. So at one point the two guys that were in suits, go to Charlie Sheen's place, they dropped this little steampunk style looking ball. Hellraiser box, yeah. Hell razor box.

That's what it reminded me of in a way. Yeah, that's fair. No, and then it opens up, swallows everything in his apartment, and that's like, you know, gets rid of all his evidence. So him and Kiki, you're like, what are we going to do? And it's like, all right, we got to go to this satellite that's elsewhere that we're going to. I couldn't tell what his exact purpose was there. I guess he was trying to broadcast what was happening. Basically, that tape that he had of his boss explaining the entire plan.

And that's, this is weird too. Like, does he really think this is the be all and all of evidence that this is going on? Is some. You know, the movie, the movie does. The movie thinks that. The movie really does. I was pretty bored by that ending. I was like, yeah, guys.

Oh, that's it. Yeah. We'll get to that. Yeah. So, yeah, Zane's plan is to broadcast this across the world using all these satellites, kind of like he did in the beginning where he triangulated everything to go to one place. he wants to now send this message out to humanity that aliens are trying to silently take us over. So he kind of, you know, reconnects with his girlfriend.

I feel so bad. What was her name? Shar. Char. Reconnects with her and she kind of believes him, kind of doesn't, and she follows him and Kiki to this satellite place. And they get there and boom. The goons are back. his boss is back, but how did they get there so quick and know what he was doing, Andrew?

I don't know. I got nothing. And it was just one of those things, too, where, like, that starts to happen. Oh, wait, no, sorry. Ha-ha. So they tease at first that Shar is an alien. And I got to say, for a half second, I was just like, oh, you know what? That would be a fun and enough twist, I guess.

Yeah, me too. But now, instead, it is kind of revealed, not fully yet, though, that he can. Kiki is an alien. Right, right. So basically... And presumably tipped off Ron Silver and his goons as to where they were going. Yes. So Zane puts Kiki in control of pressing the red button, the quintessential red button,

to broadcast this message to the world. And Kiki doesn't do it. Instead, he opens the door for our goons and our boss, our big bad alien boss, and to come in and stop Zane from doing this. Right. So, yeah, we get the door. these inklings that Kiki's not who we think he is.

Yeah. So Zane finds some tanks of liquid nitrogen. He freezes all the aliens. He gets his tape back. Am I missing anything before that? I don't think so. No. No. Okay. Oh, there's some nitrous nitroglycerin or whatever. Nitrous oxygen. What is it? Something that was like, I feel like super popular in the 90s.

It's like this. They do it. in what's it called oh shoot why can't I remember the name of it? I have no idea what you're trying to say. Demolition, man. Oh, yes. Freezes you instantly.

That movie was awesome. Oh, man. Liquid nitrogen, thank you. Like something, I feel like that was something that was like popular in action movies. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, he uses liquid nitrogen to freeze round silver to get the tape back.

and then cuts his hand off to get it and eventually and then they destroy the whole satellite because of the ball that was in Rod Silver's hand. The ball, what do they call that? D.S.S. Machina or whatever. Deiasex Machina, yeah, pretty much. Like, it's just, so all that happens,

everybody's destroyed. And then they barely get off of, like, the satellite that's out there. And we see Kiki standing nearby who managed to avoid all the destruction. And this is where I got even, I've already confused, right? Like, because Kiki, we find out is a bad guy. Kiki could have stopped Charlie Sheen multiple times at the beginning of the movie.

But instead is actively helping him. So, oh, but yes. So then he's helping Ron Silver. And then Charlie Sheen's yelling at him. He's like, this is what you wanted? Like, if you guys wanted help, you could have, like, asked. Why didn't it have to be like this? Why couldn't you just come and ask for our help?

Then you tell them. You go back and tell them that I know. That she knows. That others will know. It's not going to be easy. Not anymore. And then I'm like, so wait, was Kiki trying to take down Ron Silver? That's what I thought, too.

I think he's like the reluctant. stormtrooper who realizes that and join the rebellion. But no, no, he he's just an alien in disguise and went about it a really ass-backwards way

of, you know, monitoring Charlie Sheen when he could have stopped him from the beginning. Dude, he could have thrown him out the window. He could have at any point, he could have stopped from putting all of this into motion, this entire movie. He straight up tells him, he's like, oh, we're looking for a big

signal or a small signal, because this is a big one. It's just like he could have just not told him that there was a signal and not sent him to Mexico, where he effectively learned everything that was happening. He also, there's that weird look between him and Phil's two goons when they show up

and he's watching them. And I'm like, I guess you could say like, oh, he let them do it because he's, they're all aliens, but then I'm just like, what, but what is he going to yeah. We don't get that. It looks like he's super suspicious of what going on. Yeah. Yeah. And then it also raises the question of just like, are they replacing humans? Are they

able to just like was Ron Silver's character? Like he's just been an alien for so long. And I don't get me wrong. I know this is like really splitting hairs. But I'm just like, he's able to get to the top level of this facility as an alien or did he replace the guy who was already in the top level of this facility? Right. Did this kid really live with his grandma? next door or did he replace the kit like or is he like sweeping just because he's just like I'm just an alien so I'm going to sleep and help clean up things because I got nothing else to do like it was just this so many I was left with so many more questions than answers at the end of this movie in a way that felt lazy it was lazy welcome to aliens 101 it's just yeah always more questions than answers

but yeah so basically Kiki's go backwards, he runs off into the distance, and we don't know what happens after that. But let's see. We just cut to the next thing that happens is like radio breath. We're seeing that like global, like, whatever the aliens are doing is working because everything's like, it's like 120 degrees in California. And like, you know, it's like still 90 degrees in New York, but it's like September or October or whatever. And so all this is happening. And it's interrupted with footage of runs of the footage.

Like at some point they got the signal out, that footage is out there of Ronald Sturtoning, what the plan is. Entirely without context, entirely without like any idea of what these people are seeing. It just plays it and that's supposed to be the big like, oh, like everybody knows now. Right.

And it's like, no, what? What? No, because again, we have a million questions. You showed us a video of a dude saying, yeah, you're kind of right. Oh, yeah. Don't say any, don't dig any deeper. Like, what, what context are we supposed to put this in as the innocent viewer whose broadcast is interrupted? It's just like how, I understand what the writer was going for. This, you know, boom, everything's about to change. The plan has been unveiled. Zane wins. But again, I would just be like, huh, that was a weird prank that someone put on the,

TV, you know, this is happening before, you know, the Max Headroom prank back in like the 90s, you know, that got broadcast across England and whatnot. Like, this shit happened. So I don't know what they were really trying to do, but, but the overall message is global warming's real, NRA is bad, apparently, to Charlie Sheen, because he got a gun really easily. And like you mentioned, that was one of the many comments in this movie that I'm like, right, right, you have a clear stance on the NRA NRA good sir. But yeah,

that's it. That's the movie. We can only hope that Zane convinced the world of this alien invasion and they stop it. But Andrew,

they didn't stop it because I don't know if you knew, but there was a sequel, The Arrival 2. I saw that, yep. Came out in 1998 starring Patrick Muldoon

from Starship Troopers fame. Love it. Love me to Muldoon. That was a big year for him. It was. I watched the trailer. Holy shit. Next level sci-fi original right there.

Hey, a fun little connector here, too, because you've been on my podcast plenty of times. Predominantly for, like, we've done some regular episodes, but also you've come on to do some Shocktober episode. Yep. Right? And one time, we watched a little movie called Night of the Demon. Right?

So the director, of Arrival 2 is a man named Kevin S. Tenney, who also directed Night of the Demons. You're welcome. It means nothing in the grand scheme of the universe, but I just thought that was a fun little connection there. That's awesome. So I could only assume that Arrival 2

is some Oscar-worthy stuff going on. Oh, big time. He also directed movies like Pinocchio's Revenge, demolition university. Like he, yeah. If you were going to say demolition man, that's a different story, but come on. It is. No, demolition university.

And then witchboard and witchboard to the devil's doorway. There's just a lot of, and people, I think I've even said that he directed a movie called Bigfoot at one point. We don't have to get into it. That was one of the last movies that's directed. But y'all, if you haven't seen Night of the Demons, do yourself. favor question mark and watch that movie it's real bad i concur yeah oh all right we made it through oh jesus grace our poor listeners um i know final thoughts on the arrival um i really i just it was a real bummer to watch i'm not going to lie and again because of people like almost active like

immediately the response when you put this out on twitter was people saying arrival sucks, the arrival is much better. That's such a fun movie. And maybe it's like nostalgia for people. Maybe it's just like, I don't know. And like at this point in my life and where we're at in the world, I'm like, yo, if you can get enjoyment out of something, fuck everybody else. Yep.

Enjoy that thing that you enjoy and stay and don't listen to a word I just said. That's awesome. Enjoy it. Have fun. There's probably people that watch this movie like once or twice. a year and that's great. If you're enjoying yourself, awesome. I did not.

I totally understand it. Well, hey, this is going to be my new tradition. I'm going to watch this every year. There you go. I thought it was fun, goofy, unhinged. What else did I write here? Good commentary on global warming and that we don't serve our planet. And I agree with that fullheartedly.

So I'm giving a two out of five smashed asses. assholes. There you go. I will say like, you know what? I've watched plenty of bad movies that had nothing to say. So at the very least, this was talking about global warming at a time when that was like just becoming like, you know, something to that when we should have really been talking about. Yeah. So good on them for that. You know, like that. And again, got some heavy hitters in that cast. It's a cast full of workhorses, like people that they are not coming to fuck around. But what I, they even, they make a note of this that this movie came out and are right around when they started marketing Independence Day. So, I mean, talk about stealing your thunder.

You've got this kind of, you know, not, you know, a huge budget movie, although it was pretty big, like you said, for, for what it turned out. $25 million is a lot in 1996. The scoff. You know, yeah, not at all. I can't imagine how much Independence Day's budget was. But look, I mean, those, I remember when the Independence Day marketing came out, and I was just like, I sounded. So, again, that might have had something to do with this movie performing poorly,

but there are many variables to why this movie did not do as well. Yeah. Let's move on to Brighter Pastures, Andrew, and talk about 2016's arrival. This is the day they arrived. The object touched down 40 minutes ago. Mama, it's going to happen. I don't know. Dr. Banks, you're at the top of everyone's list when it comes to translations.

Do you hear any words? Is that? Yes. Am I the only one having trouble saying aliens? To what do they look like? You'll see soon enough. They need to see me. Dr. Banks?

Now that's a proper introduction. More objects have left. landed around the world. It's their language. Got 21 hours. The phone base our global war. They're not our enemy. We need to talk to them.

It's more complicated than it? How is it more complicated? Are you dreaming in their language? What does it say? weapon. So how do we clarify their intentions? I go back in. What is she doing?

You are committing an act of treason. Do you trust me? May I read the synopsis? Please. A linguist works with the military to communicate with alien lifeform after 12 mysterious spacecraft appear around the world. Very straightforward.

Denny Villanuevo, I'm sure I'm pronouncing his last name incorrectly, but this is like... Yeah, I'm not sure. Dude has just got like hit after hit for the last like three, four movies he's made. What do we have? But we've got Sicario, I believe, was him.

We've got this. We've got Blade Runner, 2049 and now we've got. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love that movie. Love, love, loved it. Oh, man, Ryan, I'm going to out myself right now and I intend to change this soon. I haven't seen it yet because I haven't seen the original Blade Runner.

That's fair. Dude, I'd never seen Blade Runner until about a month ago when my girlfriend introduced it to me. Nice. Ooh, yeah. Go watch it. Go watch it. Nice. I will.

2049. 2049, dude, I was bawling my eyes out. I'll leave it. Oh, nice. a sensitive guy to begin with, as my listeners very well know, but the fact that this director made that does not surprise

me in the least. He just has a complete grasp on emotion and like... Yeah, man. Profoundity, is that a word? I don't know. Sure. Yeah, we'll say yes. Oh, he did, he did the, he's doing the new Dune movie, I see. Right.

Yes. Cool. Cool. Okay. Yeah, man, which looks pretty neat. I've got to say. And I'm never, that's another one. I like I'll out myself again. I think last year I tried to watch the 80s tune and I was I was I got stoned. I was like it was like a day off. I was like, I'm just going to have a good time.

Watch this movie that everybody always says crazy. I made it like 35 minutes in and I think I fell asleep or I might have just like turned it off. And it was like I'm going to be something else. And I've never been able to get into those books because I've heard they're like like they're pretty dense. Yeah. But but I just yeah. Like so the new one. And, you know, it looks like it might be have some more like action elements to it.

Maybe I'll like, you know, people will get rightfully mad that it's just like, well, that's not what, I don't know. I don't know enough. It looked good, man. And hey, Aquaman's in it. That's all I really came about. Boom. Yo, speaking of stacked cast, that thing is insane. Oof, I know.

I know. I'm so happy all these movies got made before the pandemic because now we have so much to be film. Yeah. Even though, I mean, productions, there's plenty of things. getting made right now. I will say. Like, they, they are really putting money over health right now, which, like,

I guess, do what you're going to do. Yeah, like, but anyway, we're not here to talk about that. Yeah. Yeah. Arraybos. Now, based off a book, have you read the book? It's a short story by Ted Chang. And I actually read it for the first time last night.

Oh, nice. Yeah, I'd been hounded to read it for, um, ever since the movie came out. And I just never did, but I read it last night after watching the movie. Maybe I should have done the opposite. Beautiful. It's like 40 pages maybe. Okay. But, and I was, you know, this is what I hate when you see a movie and then read the book. You've just got the actors in your mind. You've got, like, what the director's vision was in your mind when you should be separating it completely. So, um, but is it different? Is it

like a different kind of a take or is it relatively the same? It's relatively the same. there is yeah yeah there I would definitely suggest reading it it's you know same premise and everything obviously um and outright but yeah there's some cool stuff in between that the movie doesn't touch on and vice versa okay but um yeah so based on the short story and uh oh let's talk about the cast we've got amy adams oh yeah we got amy adams forest wicker jeremy renner okay michael stoolbarg baby who's that which one's a Michael Stulbarg, he's the CIA agent. Poor meds, Jo, Wachim Phoenix.

I think he looks like Wachian Phoenix. Am I wrong? No, no, you're not because I actually, back in 2008 or 2009, I saw a production of Hamlet in Central Park. It was a public theater thing. I was able to, it was like one of those lucky times where I was able to get like those free tickets for that. And he was the lead. He played Hamlet.

And he was much, he was much thinner then. that it matters, but I remember thinking at the time, like, man, this guy looks like walking Phoenix and not putting that together until later. Like, I eventually saw him on, he was on Boardwalk Empire. He was a big part of that show, and he kind of like blew up much more significantly after that. But he, yeah, I would agree. He looks, he looks very much like walking Phoenix. And he is a beast. Like, I love Michael Stoobart. He's somebody who, if you get a chance, Like, I guarantee you you probably already see a movie that he's been in where he shows up just kind of like owns and then leaves. But he's, yeah, I was, I was super, I kind of forgot that he was in that movie.

And then when I saw, when I was watching it last night, I was like, oh, I literally yelled stoolbug. Oh, that's good to know. That's good. Yeah. I saw that production of Hamlet as well, dude. That thing blew me. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah.

Oh, cool. Talk about changing the ending to something. We won't get into it. Nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah. All right. Well, let's get to the plot. So we've got Amy Adams, Luis. She is a linguistics extraordinaire, I guess. Yeah, teacher, expert, whatever you want to say.

Yep, yep. And we start with what we perceive as flashbacks of her and her daughter. And she's giving her daughter messages of, you know, memory is a strange thing you know we're all bound by time and in the order of time and and uh and whatnot and yeah we see that right in the beginning here as we get these flashbacks that uh her daughter is unfortunately diagnosed with a very rare disease and right and presumably passes away at some point and then boom we're put into the present time of when this movie starts so yeah this is this is interesting. She goes into class at her college to teach her class and right away, something's up.

You know, everyone's phones start digging all at the same time. So that's never a good thing. Clearly, something's going on. There's either an active shooter on campus or a natural disaster is about to happen. Something. Something's going on. And we learn that something or some things have landed on the planet. So yeah, boom. We don't waste. much time getting into what's going to? No, you really don't. I mean, the movie itself, I mean, it's so wonderfully constructed. First of all, it's a little less than two hours, and it makes such good use of that time. There's very little fat. Everything is leading us towards the end game, and it's something where I almost wish, because there's a big twist in this movie.

We'll get to it. Yeah, and I can only kind of remember what it was like watching a the first time without knowing the twist. But watching it the second time, it's almost like experiencing a completely different film. And this is probably like maybe the third or fourth, maybe even fifth time I've seen it because I saw it twice in theaters. I saw it originally.

And then a friend of mine was going to like a sag screening where I actually got to, there was a talk back with Amy Adams afterwards and I got to ask her question. Like it was, so it's, I absolutely love this movie and there's little things that you pick up on each time

that you don't necessarily pick on up on before because of course it's like six cents or anything you're now looking for because it's a good movie there are clues to the ending if anything they're telling you the ending throughout the movie absolutely oh it's just so well

structured it's wonderful man yeah it's well structured it's incredibly shot. It's when they're doing the first, like, so she gets picked up by the government to go because they're contacting these aliens and they don't know how to talk to them. And she helped them translate some Farsi a couple years before. And she still has classified, high classified clearance or whatever.

So they asked her to, and at first they don't like, she tells them that she needs to go there and they're like, no, we're going to use somebody else. And when she finds out who it is, she asks them like, this interpretation question, I wish I could remember specifically what it was right now. Yeah, it was like a certain word. And what is something mean mean in Sanskrit? And it was basically the guy, like the guy who answered for them had a more violent answer, if I wrote correctly.

So she's brought in and the first time that they're flown over in the helicopter and they're looking at the ship and the first time we see it up close is the most beautiful shots. I have that ring. Yeah, it's just, you get this wide landscape. It's in Montana, I believe, is where they are. I think so. I think so. So you see the first craft in, like, in the shot,

and it's, this mist is rolling over, and it's just so, that's, when I first saw this in theaters, that was the moment where I was like, this is unlike any alien movie I have ever seen. Yeah. This is art. This is high art at its, yes. And, well, let's say, so Forrest Whitaker plays the colonel who hires her.

Yes, one question I do have. Okay. Neither criticism nor I can say it was just something. What's going on with his accent? I don't know. That's one of the people have, yeah. I was just like, is he from Boston? Is he from, like, it's so weird.

Yeah, and I'm just like, maybe it's a Montana accent that I just have never, like, you know, I don't think I've ever been to Montana, so maybe I just didn't recognize it. But I thought it was so strange. It was weird. But that's like a minor great. A minor. In this movie, in my opinion, has minor, minor, minor, if any. We'll get to that.

For real. But, well, okay, so we have the craft in Montana, but we should mention we learn that there's 12 of these craft. Yes, yes. Throughout the world, we don't know why, why they are, where they are, what's in them, what purpose they're there for. So that's what we're trying to figure out. And that's why they hire. this linguistics communication person is let's not immediately assume they are going to destroy us,

but that is the military's job to protect us. So yeah, let's figure the shit out. And I will say I was happy that, like, listen, we don't have to get into current events too much, but one of the things that is, like, one of the things that's wonderful about this movie is it's very hopeful. And one of the things that's terrible about this movie is that now we live in such a world where we have now been proven.

It's been shown how we as a country would react in a situation like this, in a situation where there is a possible world-bending scenario or like whatever. Obviously, what's going on right now is not as serious as if, well, giant spacecraft landed and started hovering over certain areas. But it's not hard to think that based on how we are reacting to things currently, that there are people that would just assume that these things aren't real. There are people that would try to fly planes into them. There are people, there would be way more, like, we would have to stop attacks on these way more regularly,

like just from like Joe Schmo in the middle of nowhere who doesn't want to believe. Like, it's just there's so much of a more hostile reaction. And it's not like we don't get out into that in this movie. but the actual unfortunately how we are in real life would have been much more like things would have gone much more poorly

than they do in this movie. That's a good point. Bottom line. Yeah, yeah. The movie is very timely which is interesting too because the short story was written long before the movie came out and also the movie came out I want to say within weeks

maybe a month or so of the most you know contentious election in like American history. Yeah, a very interesting time for this movie to come out. Okay, so 12 of these objects are all over the world. People start panicking, like you mentioned, a little bit. And this is interesting. They get the press secretary on the news, say,

regardless, we have protocol for situations like this. And I'm like, wait, hold on, what? So I go in, I'm like, is this just in the fictitious world that this writer created? And no. And I should have known this as a U.S. folk guy. And there have been rumblings of it. But yeah, supposedly there is military briefings from the 1950s outlining potential military responses to alien contact. It's called the seven phases to contact. You know, it's rumor, it's speculation. But yeah, it's interesting to think,

yes, our governments do have somewhat protocol for things like this. But we know the minute it actually happens that that's going to be thrown out the window. as we saw in a pandemic. We were told we had protocol for the pandemic, and clearly we did not. So, yeah, yeah, very interesting dichotomy there. Yeah, and to see how things are reacted, like it starts, what I love is like, you know,

we see it's a very, like, clean operation, and we see that they are, like, following protocol and things like that and communicating with other countries where this is happening. And I love that it, like, kind of starts that way, and then things start to dovetail out of the control. role once we're actually getting information from these people. Like she starts doing her job.

And ironically enough, that's when things start to go wrong in their eyes. Yeah, that's a good point. Well, okay, so let's get into what she's doing and with who. So we have a astrophysicist who's played by Jeremy Renner. His character name is Ian. And he's being brought on because, yeah, we need someone there who can theoretically tell us possibly how they got here. and what we might be dealing with in terms of the physical craft they're in and stuff like that.

So I thought it was really interesting. I think the military did a good job of bringing in someone who needs to decipher how to communicate and someone who might decide how these things got here and stuff like that. Right. Yeah, what did you think of Jeremy Renner's character when he first came out? I liked him, and I liked that, like, I mean, he's instantly trying. was honestly one of those things where I was like, you know, Charan Rutter is a good actor.

He's not bad, yeah. No, yeah, like he's, he is somebody who I think does what needs to be done for this role. Is it a little bit more of a straightforward role? Absolutely. But what I like is he's got like this kind of heart and humanity to him that it make him like appealing as a character. Like, you know what I mean? Like, he is somebody who you understand.

why they would get together, why he's like a good choice for this. And you understand why, I mean, I love the idea that they're bringing in like a scientist as well. But yeah, no, I really enjoyed him and I enjoyed that character especially because it's like,

it's second fiddle. And that's like, that's for somebody who's an established actor to take a role like that. Like, you know, men aren't always like, that is not all men or whatever bullshit. But it's like, obviously I don't, be that, but it's just like he was an established

start, he took on this role, even though it's like it's a support system. It's a support role. I think that's a testament to, he probably was like, this is a good script. Yeah, man. And it's something we're like, you know, we're never really hearing his side of it,

especially when things get more into detail about their life together or their life after this. We don't ever really get his side of things. It's all about her, but he took it on anyway. So it's just night like yeah I really I thought like I just thought it really worked and he's got some of the last lines in the movie and it's something it's this speech that could almost in the hands of a lesser actor would have come across as very hokey and it wasn't so I so yeah I really enjoyed Jeremy Ryder in this movie and I liked um I liked the role that he played um not just like in a literal sense but like the role that his character played in that movie and how it it laid out and he much more important than we think.

But we'll get to that as it unravels. But let's see. Oh, this was another interesting thing. So, okay, so now we need these two to go to the craft and try to communicate with whatever's in the craft. But what I thought was interesting is they show like someone in like either a containment thing or a body bag. I can't tell which.

But they ask what happened to this guy. And the Army doctor says, look, this is, some people just cannot process this. And that hit me so hard, man, because I'm like, yeah, what if you were hired to be the first to ever make contact with aliens? Like face to face, not through radio waves, as Zane would do, but like literally go up into a craft and talk to these things. And the human mind, I could imagine with a lot of people, just simply could not do that. Right. Yeah. So that really puts it into like, you know, perspective of how weighty this actually is.

Yeah. And it's something too where you, when you stay, it's a bit of foreshadowing as well to see some of the problems that they're going to face with other people. So it's, I was, I was, I liked that, like that nice little tease. And we see elements of her, like, you know, things don't go great the first time they go up there. They see these things, these, when we see these aliens for the first time, and, you You only kind of get a clutch on them at first, and I love their design, too.

Like, I love, like, I hate giving credit to H.P. Lovecraft. I know he did great work, but he also called his cat the N-word. Super racist. A horrible racist. Like, a horrible racist. And it's always funny when I see people try to, I read an article the other day that were trying to excuse his racism. Like, he was nice to some people, and it's like, no, like, I'm sorry. Yeah, exactly.

Like, he, like, did he cause physical harm to other people? people, not that we know of. Did he make his racism part of his identity and are most brown people in his books described as swarthy and gross? Yes. So it's, I, I, whatever. However, his big thing was that in his opinion, aliens aren't, it weren't alien enough. Even in the early 1900s of the stories that were told, they're always like bipedal and they look like they're humanoid. So I'd love to see the alien. in this movie be like, it's something that we wouldn't be able to wrap our heads around.

I don't know what I would do if I saw something like that in real life. Dude, I don't even understand how does it breathe? How does it move? How do they communicate? Like, it's just, it's something where it's not an easy, it's not an easy answer, whereas like in the arrival, you know,

it's like, ooh, their knees been back. Even that's imaginative. Usually we get just humanoid figure. or these little gray aliens with big heads and black eyes. So, I mean, the arrival, at least they tried a little something different, but then arrival, like, boom, you're right. This is like, this is the epitome of the word alien. It's so foreign to us and so not human that, wow, it was, and I'm sure,

I think I read somewhere, they went through so many art concepts to create these aliens and what they would look like. because the short story doesn't describe them that well. So it really was put into a, I mean, they were definitely heptopod in the way that like they have seven feet or legs or whatever, however you want to define that. But other than that, man, I would love to see all the different concepts they came up with. But I think they're going to buy something truly unique in this one for sure. Yeah, man. That's the other thing, dude.

Like first seeing these things, it probably was not what they expected. at all, or if they expected anything. What would you expect when you're first? They didn't brief them, which I think is weird. They didn't psychologically prepare these two for what they were about to see. And maybe that's good. Maybe that's bad. I don't know.

I think it is like it's something where it's almost like time as of the essence kind of a situation because there's a competition aspect of this as well, where the countries you're trying to figure out. And it exposes like something that's like a very real probable, my thing, where it's just like, ooh, some people, like, are trying to figure out things before other people. Right. And trying to be the ones to get these answers. So I, I understand, like, it's almost like they ease them in.

It's like, all right, every time that thing opens, you're going to go up there and talk to them and, like, try to communicate with them. The first time, we don't even see the full interaction. Like, they see it, and then they're brought down to be, like, cleaned off or whatever. And she's, like, kind of jittery, and she's, like, runner just confused. I was like, that's pretty fantastic. That's what I would have done, yeah, for sure. Yeah, oh, yeah. So, yeah, I mean, okay, so now we've got like this,

this kind of regiment set up where these two are going to try to find out how can we communicate with this and figure out why they're here. That's the big question. Why are they here? What do they want? And that remains the way it is in the real world here. You know, we had a secret Pentagon UFO program. And their sole purpose was to figure out if these UFOs that our Navy are witnessing and our military are they a threat.

And of course, to the military, they will always remain a potential threat because we don't know what they are. Right. Who's in control of them. So I understand every side of this movie. I understand Forrest Whitaker as a military person. I understand her as a linguist. It makes perfect sense. And I think this movie just does it so, so brilliant. brilliantly. Oh, okay. So now she's trying to teach these aliens words. You like the human

interactions, like how we do. Right. So what did you think of this whole concept of like how did this? I like that like it brought us into that world a little bit. Something that I like, and you don't always have to do this. It's not an easy thing to do without boring your audience. but they had simple enough explanations as to why she was doing the things that she did it and did. And like, funny enough, we are kind of Forrest Whitaker in that situation where he, she has to explain to him why she's doing, needs to do things the way that she's doing. And through that, she's explaining it to us as well.

And we find out like, oh, like, you know, we find out about like what a linguist would be doing, like what she would be doing in this situation to try to communicate with these things. how you have to break down, like, okay, I can't even, like, ask them a question unless they know, I know they know what a question is. Oh, my God, yeah. Like something I would never think about. Yeah, like when she breaks down that one sentence, though, what is your purpose here or whatever? Like, the ways that she breaks it down, I was like, it's smart, it's interesting, it's well explained. Like, there's so much of it where I was like, yeah, this is like, you know, this is what it's about. and this, it made the movie more interesting.

And it helped it rest on something that felt tangible. And yeah, I loved all of that stuff. Like I thought it was so well done. And again, and then like the difference between an Amy Adams and a Charlie Sheen and, you know, maybe Charlie Sheen and I've actually never seen Platoon. So maybe in Platoon he makes a very believable soldier or something. Like, you know what? Like the guy was famous for a reason. Don't have to get to that.

But his character in The Arrival, does not know, like, does not seem like he really knows what he's talking about when he talks about astronomy. Amy Adams in this movie, I believe every fucking word that she says. Oh, absolutely. Like, she really, like, it felt like she studied this stuff. Like, it just feels natural to her and how she's explaining it. Right. And I, I remember reading, they had, like, several world-renowned linguists come in to, uh, to, to, that's awesome. Yeah, so that, that, that right there. Um, yeah, in like, this other idea, too, like, you mentioned this one

sentence she breaks down. Like, what is your intentions here? Like, and she, she focuses on the word you're. Like, we don't know, we don't want to know the individual alien why you're here. We want to, as a race, why are you here? So that,

again, it's just so brilliantly done. Everything you're doing there, I have to explain to a roomful of men whose first and last question is how can this be used against us? So you're going to have to give me more than that. Kangaroo. What is that?

In 1770, Captain James Cook's ship ran a ground off the coast of Australia, and he led a party into the country, and they met the Aboriginal people. One of the sailors pointed at the animals that hop around and put their babies in their pouch, and he asked what they were, and the aborigines said, kangaroo. An appointee? It wasn't until later that they learned that kangaroo means, I don't understand. So, I need this so that we don't misinterpret things in there. otherwise this is going to take 10 times as long.

I can sell that for now, but I need you to submit your vocabulary words before the next session. And remember what happened to the aberrations? A more advanced race, nearly wiped them out. It's a good story. Thanks. It's not true.

But it proves my point. So we get these montages of like they're slowly learning how to communicate with these aliens who use a really interesting way of communicating, and that's this like almost like squid ink, because they have these technical like things that produces this ink that turns into a mist and makes these circles with all different splatters.

So it's like, whoa, like, this is interesting, not how we would ever imagine communicating, but wow, we get the concept of the Zepper-Warf hypothesis, which is the language you should. speak determines how you think. And we don't think about that. We always think the words come first when in reality, like how we describe something or whatnot determines our way of thinking of it, like a color. There's a billion different versions of yellow, but then when you say the word, then it then it produces the image in your head. Oh, God. This stuff goes so deep. It really does.

And what I love to is like our first breaking moment as you start to see like I love when they take off their suits for the first time because she's like they have to see me and she walks up to them and like she does it and they're like should we abort it and they're like no keep going and then Jeremy Redder does it and the guys are like permission to abort like can we leave please like and they're just like no stay um but to see that guy like the guy who gives them their like badges and who introduces them first we start to see his slow mental break with what's going on and how he feels scared and then like we have our first bit of um action quote unquote and this is not an action movie by any stretch of the imagination oh no this is a slow burn just not yeah yep um but he like he does this um he takes it upon himself after talking to his wife like you see or not himself there's several of them these soldiers that are just like we're gonna blow this thing up because it's not good like they're scared of it because They don't understand it.

And it's because there's also they, like, she interprets the word weapon at first because, like, language is tricky through these things. So he, like, to see that happen and to see the aftermath that it's something. And then you start to see all the country, like the weapon thing gets out and other countries start shutting down and, like, not talking to each other. Just on this one word that they're not even 100% sure of yet. Right. It's just, I thought, I thought, like, again, that stuff. is just so grounded and feels so real in this unrealistic situation. Exactly.

I just love it. And we also get to, like, not to go over too much, but when she first analyzes the way they're communicating with her, these circular squid ink things, she starts to have flashes of her daughter. Yes, yes, please. Yeah, touch on that. Yeah. And what's so wonderful about it is if you're watching,

it, and this is the way the movie plays out, when you're watching it initially, just to kind of get into the big twist here, is when you're watching it initially, you're thinking like, oh, she's having flashbacks of this daughter of hers that died of this awful deceased, but that's not the case. She's seen because when she learns this language, she gains the ability to see the future. So the first time, she's really, and not even, like they say see the future, but I feel like it's so much deeper than that. She's experiencing in time all at once essentially. Yeah. And that's the way

their language plays out. So when she sees this, the first time she's experiencing this language and really digging and doing to it, we see those powers and those gifts start to manifest. But when you first watch the movie, you think that she's just having visions of her

daughter who already passed. Memories. But in actuality, yeah, when you're rewatching it, you're like, holy shit the first time she looks at that language, the power starts to see into the future. And I just think it's so well made. It's so subtly done in that aspect. Like the way they handle that twist and the way that it plays out,

like, they leave just enough red crumbs for you to where you don't like. I, like, when the little, when the daughter, they have a flash forward of the daughter asking the question about the zero sum game. And she's like, ask your father, he's a science. I can't remember if that was, I'm having a hard, because Joy was telling me that that wasn't the time when I first realized it because I talked, like we had talked about it before, but I don't know.

Yeah, I just, I love the way that that plays out. And there's some, there's certain times where I think at a certain point you're like, oh, duh, this is it. But now, like, yeah, I just, I thought it's a, it's just a beautifully done twist. And it's incredibly impactful to the story as a whole. But then it opens up some crazy questions in my mind. Oh, yeah, yeah. And we start dealing with...

You end up where we all do when time plays a big part in a movie. Right. You're going to have endless debate on it. And that's completely understandable. Well, yeah, you know, bringing it back to the sort of circular nature of their language, it is. It is like it's just a concept that we create here on earth, which is time and that it is malleable. And, you know, she even brings up as a linguistics person, you know, nonlinear orthography, which is language has no forwards or backwards.

That's why she named her daughter eventually as a paladrome, Hannah, you know, same backwards and forwards. And it's just the way they deal with all these things. It really is. It really is, man. Let's rein it in a little in terms of, I guess, how the plot is playing up. So they, like you said, we get the word weapon from them. and other countries start freaking out, and everyone's like, oh, God, like, what does this mean?

And this is when, you know, these rogue military guys decide, we're going to blow up the ship here in Montana. And we get Ian and Luis go into the craft, not when they're supposed to, to talk to the aliens. Right. And the bomb has been set in the craft by these rogue military guys. And what happens? The aliens literally forcefully,

get Luis and Ian out of the direction of the explosion and presumably save their lives. But boom, now we have a whole other level to this. We have now provoked an act of war on these aliens that we still don't know why they're here. And what I love to is they don't leave. They just raise like a mile higher. Oh, my talk about a flex, dude. Yes, yeah. And Forrest Whitaker's got that great line of he's just like, why does this feel worse?

like this it's such a like and it's true it's and it's also almost a way of them going like bro we're not trying to hurt you guys yeah yeah we're trying to communicate we're trying yep and you're right

it like it was maybe I don't know maybe 100 feet off the ground originally and now it's like a mile and a half up so it's like the most mentally psychological warfare at its finest like well, nice try, but we're not done yet. We still have more to communicate to you in which they do.

So I just, oh, here's another moment I really liked. I love when Luis has this really intimate conversation with Ian while the craft is just floating in the background. And it's just like, it's the dichotomy of humans interacting while an alien craft is present attempting communication. And then we have these two humans communicating about like, oh, I'm not. so good with women, blah, blah, blah. And it's just, I love this moment. You've just got a UFO flowing in the background, and these two are having the most, like, human conversation

that turns out to be something much more powerful than just like a... Yeah, dude. Like flirtation or whatnot. But I loved that. But this is when we get all the countries who have been in really good communication and trying to decipher each craft in each region. what it's doing, what they've discovered, everyone starts to disconnect and go offline and stop talking.

Right. Yeah, and it's because China and Russia do it first, I guess, in the U.S. is just like, well, we got to do it now. Like, it's, it becomes this, like, pissing contest in this very serious situation. Yeah. And it's, yeah, it just bombs me out. That was the moment in the film where I'm like,

this is how this would play out in real life, and it fucking depresses the hell. of me. Yeah, I literally, I turned to joy. I was just like, and this is fictional. Like, it's not a real thing. And I was just like, this fucking sucks. Like, I just like, I was, I get so enthralled when I watch this movie that it feels like that stuff is happening. God. Okay. So all the countries stop communicating with one another. Clearly China is taking a very aggressive stance. And if they do not figure out why these things are here, they're going to assume it's not going to. It's not and they're going to attack.

So this is scary, man. Now we might have a war on our hands. And America and more specifically this location in Montana, they want to evacuate the entire operation. And Luis is like, no, we have to go back and deal with this. Like we have to continue the work we've done so much on with these things before that happens. So she kind of goes rogue herself. She goes out to the craft.

and the craft sends down a pod to get her, because it's like a mile up now. Right. Oh, man. What do you think of this? Well, and this is the moment where I first really thought about this is, and this is always the tough, there's no right answer to this. Let me say that right away.

But this is like a Dr. Manhattan kind of question, like a predetermination type thing, is she has visions of herself going out and a pod coming down and picking up, and then herself in the ship. So she envisions those things happening. So because she has those visions, she goes out so that pod can pick her up. So the question is, like, did she have a choice?

Did she, she does this because she did it already? Like, and that starts to get into, that plays a little bit with the end game too, which we'll get into a little bit later, like in a minute. But I, yeah, like that was the first moment where I was like, huh, like, she must have already done it or else she wouldn't be having those visions.

Or does she have a choice? She's having visions of the future already. So it's like, ah, that's again, this is where it's like there's so much left to interpretation, which is what language is all about. So presumably, let's say she did get up there. She's actually beyond the glass or beyond the separation that has been there this time.

And she is in there with who we've deemed, Abbott and Costello, according to Jeremy's character, which I love. Except just Abbott. Just Abbott. Costello was killed in the explosion. Right. Costello is in death process, is what the... Yeah.

So now, man, we're getting subtitles from our heptopods. So we're at next level communication now. She is directly talking to them without, you know, converting anything or the symbols, like, oh it's gorgeous like she's having a full-on conversation with with peptopod and um let's get let's just let's dive in because this is the moment where we start to get some big reveals what is yeah communicate to her um that she has so they communicate that we're here to help they were there to help the humans because in 3,000 years humans they're going to help them um and they say to her that they're like she has this gift to see the future because

of her ability to read the language. It's like once you're able to read, and I think it's implied this way anyway, is that once you're able to read the language, you basically start seeing time differently. So once she realizes that and she has these flashes of this daughter, she's like, who is this girl?

Like who is this daughter that I keep having flashes up? And that's when they tell her she can see the future. So it's the daughter she hasn't had yet. And it's just heartbreaking. And especially rewatching those scenes too like I said because there's some moments where you're like any time when you're rewatching the movie and you see one of these flash forwards happen you realize like she knows yeah she knows the entire time she has this daughter that this girl is not going to live past like

14 15 years old right and it's and to make that like to still go through that and that's where I start to get so so anyway so she says that she can see the future they tell her she can see the future and she's sent back down, and she tries to communicate with China. She takes the CIA guy's special cell phone that he's had, which I want one of those things, man. The general of China's arm on speed dial, you know. Yeah, well, it's not even just speed dial either. It's that she has a vision of the future. And again, we get into the predetermination things where she's at this party when everything has worked out.

And when she's at this party, the general from China approaches her and says like it's 18 months later and that he knew that he needed to, the only reason he came there was to see her. And he gives her his cell phone number, his phone number to his private phone. Because he tells her, you called my phone. She's like, I don't have your number. If he shows it to her, he's like, now you do. And he's like, you also told me my wife's dying words. And he tells her the words 18 months in the future because of that. She's able to tell him that over the phone when this happens,

even though they're like under threat of death and treason and all this stuff in the military. And then so she calls China and then she says this dude's words to him. And then the next thing you know, it cuts to a moment. And at this moment, like, I'm even getting choked up thinking about it right now. You start to see these TV screens pop up and you find out that everything, like things have worked. everybody's decided to work together now. Yeah. Like they're going to start sharing information.

They're going to start communicating. And because of that, the aliens leave. Like, and what's beautiful about that is it's not even like the aliens were like, there is a pressing issue right now. It's like, no, it's almost like a more advanced Bill and Ted. It's just like, let's see you guys start working together now. The future will be a better place. And it's like, it's so simple, but it's so effective.

And you find out that Jeremy Renner was her daughter, is her daughter's father, like father in the future. And that he left because he finds out from her that he, like that she knew this was going to happen. Yeah, would die. Yeah. And decided to have the daughter anyway. And I will say like I said,

you have these great moments where Jeremy Renner says, like, you know what? I thought the most surprising thing. about being here, but it was meeting you. And like he's, I know, dude,

and that's just like fucking, again, and the hands of the lesser actor, that would have sounded real corny, but it just, he does it real well. And then you have this moment where you find out like,

you see to the moment, like he asked her, do you want to make a baby? And she says yes. And I love that moment. And I think it's beautiful and that's like where the movie ends, kind of like where it begins,

because we see that house in the beginning. And I will say, Now this is like where we'll get a little heavy predetermination-wise is did she have a choice in that moment? At first, I didn't think it was real. I woke up to this blinding light and I was transported to another place. Pluto TV. Then I heard a voice. Come with me if you want to live.

There were thousands of movies and shows and they were all free. The truth is our scene. It's just so beautiful. On Pluto TV, free streaming of Terminator 2, Fringe Arrow, the 100 NX files may cause excitement. loss of sleep and sudden belief in extraterrestrials no credit cards or alien encounters necessary pluto tv stream now pay never that's the question that that's i think that's what really that's one of the biggest questions with all these time sort of ideas of time and concepts of time is like what is determined what is not um you know if the the general of the chinese army uh general shang if he gave her his phone number in the future and then

we go back and she remembers the number and calls and blah, blah, blah. Like, again, it's so nonlinear and circular, like their language that it's like, what is choice, what is free will, what is predestimate, but does it even matter? You know? Right. Like, we could spend our entire lives questioning if destiny exists or not or fate. Yeah. When in reality, we're just living it. Right.

And I mean, in this one, though, she's seeing visions of the future where she had that daughter. And it's, it's almost like she has the daughter be cut. Like, it's just, again, like, we can go on and on, but it was the first time that it really hit. That really hit me last night. Yeah. But yeah, and I just love, it. It's just got this very simple ending where she's just like,

she says yes. And it's, that's like, that's kind of where it ends, where she chooses to live this life anyway. Yeah. And it's just beautiful. It's just that, and the soundtrack, like, Joy brought up a wonderful point. Like, the soundtrack, like, it's so minimalist,

leading up. And then it's just got these big swells of music towards the end that just really paint this full, it's this full picture of just a gorgeous movie. It is, it is. The score was, absolutely love it. The score was beautiful, like you said. I don't know who the composer is, but just everything. You're right. The cinematography, beautiful. The acting spot on, the concepts, the questions, the, ah, God, I, um, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I cry every time I watch this because, like you said, it will mean something different to everyone. And I remember seeing this in theaters. And I was with my girlfriend and she was just bawling her eyes out.

And when we left, I said, well, oh, my God. Well, that was so emotional and powerful. And she, I was like, is that what made you cry? And she was like, no, it just made me so sad. And I was like, I left the theater being like, what, I feel so happy and hopeful. I think it was beautiful. But again, I think that's what's awesome is everyone finds small moments in this movie that is going to mean something special to them. If you knew your child was going to die, would you still have the child?

And that's, look, many parents have struggled with that choice, I'm sure, in their lives. And that is a big question, you know? Like, if you knew what was going to be tomorrow, how does it affect you today and how you live your life? I would argue I think the movie is sad because it's so hopeful you know what I mean like we just we don't live in that kind of world

unfortunately and at the time I would even argue that when the movie came out it felt more within grasp but I like since then it's just gone further away from that kind of hopefulness of what humanity is capable of and like don't get me wrong

humanity under extreme circumstances, but you know, we're in pretty fucking extreme circumstances right now, and we're not doing great. I'd have to agree with that. Yeah. Yeah. So it's something where like you watch it and you're just like, well, shit, I want like, you know. It's a movie. So, of course, things work out a little bit easier, but like it's just like a nice resolution like that would be wonderful. That'd be nice. Yeah, but as we've earned, the older we get, life doesn't seem to wrap up that way.

But I don't know. What do you think, man? I'm given this seven out of seven heptopods. I think this is a perfect. I think that's an accurate rating. I would agree. I would agree. I really like, you know, there's, there's, I, every time, every time I watch it, I have fewer complaints.

Yeah. Like, and not that I had complaints really to begin with. Like this time, the most I had was I was like, yeah, force weather's good. That's kind of funny. That's it. And that is, that is small potatoes. Because I just think everything else about it, I agree, adds up to, like pretty much a perfect movie. Like, I just love it.

Well, I can only watch this like once every two years now because it's that powerful. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got to let it lay for a while. You really do, unlike the arrival. Which, we're, oh, two times a year, baby, from here on out. Every six months. I need more Kiki in my life. Oh, man, this was a marathon. But, hey, I appreciate you taking the time, not just to do this today, but to watch these two movies.

It was my pleasure. All of it led me to, it's, it's, I was Amy Adams in the sense that I was like, I know if I watch these movies, I get to talk to Ryan about them. So I'm going to watch them. This was all meant to happen. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, Andrew, before we go, before we leave today, I have to ask, what are you up to? Where can we find everything you're doing? Tell us all of the next coming up for Andrew. Sanford. Let's see. If you are, again, I've been writing for Progiva.com, which is a wonderful little website. There's stuff on there that's much better than what I'm doing for them. But just check that out. P-A-J-I-B-A. I love that website. So it's a pleasure to be amongst a lot of really talented writers. If you're like anybody, I think it has to have like a certain kind of

coverage, but a lot of my screenplay stuff is on coverfly.com. So if there's some industry professionals that just happen to be listening right now, go ahead, check that out. Of course, I have the backlog of Half White's on the Blackman. We haven't been back yet, but the old episodes today, you can still listen to them, including plenty with you, some Shocktober ones. And we're not going to do Shocktober as per usual this year, which is when I usually just throw out the purpose of my podcast and talk about horror movies, because we're not doing the podcast proper. What I'm going to do instead, and Ryan, I'll just like officially invite you to do this now with me is I'm going to one movie, one guest, and we're going to talk about it

on Instagram Live, pretty much. Like, it's a little like 45 minutes to 55 minute segments, talk to somebody about a movie that we just watched. So I'll be hitting you up about that soon, but if you want to follow along with that, my name is, it's because I didn't understand at the time how Instagram works when I first started it. It's half white. It's half white son of a black man, but there's underscores in between each word. But it's pretty easy to find me out of there. And yeah, so stay tuned for that.

I was just like, man, I love me some horror movies. I'm not going to let this pandemic stop me from, like, I might not be able to do the podcast right now, but I'm still going to like talk to some friends and people I respect about horror movies. So be on the lookout for that. Awesome, man. Yeah. Hey, we need communication.

now more than ever if arrival has taught us anything. We, we, we, I know people out there, probably people listening, myself included, like, it's so easy to feel very alone and trapped right now and out of control of, of your life and what's going on, but just know that there's always someone out there to listen, as all of you have done with us today. God bless everyone listening to this. Yeah, for real. Yo, if you made it all the way to end to the end of this, like, you like both of these movies or you like hearing us talk

or you're trying to make sure you have all your ducks in a row before you give a shit on Twitter or later. So either way, either way, props to you. But this has been an epic arrival showdown. I hope everyone enjoyed.

Andrew, stay safe, brother. I will talk to you soon. My life, buddy. Once again for coming on Somewhere in the Skies Now, thank you. I love you. Somewhere in the Skies is produced by Third Kind Productions

in association with the Entertainment One podcast network. Actually, I look like a can of smashed assholes.