The Bechdel Cast - Star Wars: The Force Awakens with Demi Adejuyigbe

Episode Date: December 28, 2017

The Force is strong with Jamie and Caitlin as they chat about Star Wars: The Force Awakens with special guest Demi Adejuyigbe!(This episode contains spoilers)For Bechdel bonuses, sign up for our Patreon at patreon.com/bechdelcast. Follow @electrolemon on Twitter! While you're there, you should also follow @BechdelCast, @caitlindurante and @hamburgerphone  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th 2017 was assassinated. Crooks Everywhere unearthed the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty and I'm the host of On Purpose. This week, I had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Andrew Huberman. Dr. Huberman is a neuroscientist and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, known for his research on brain function, behavior, and neuroplasticity,

the brain's ability to adapt and rewire itself. The expectation on us is not perfections, being able to toggle between these different states. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Trust me, you won't want to miss this one. Back in 1969, four young musicians from Texas were hired to impersonate Trust me, you won't want to miss this one. are available now. Listen to the true story of the fake zombies on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search true story of the fake zombies and start listening. On the Bechdel cast, the questions asked if movies have women in them. Are all their

discussions just boyfriends and husbands or do they have individualism the patriarchy's effing vast start changing it with the bechdel cast hello and welcome to the bechdel cast my name is caitlin my name is jamie and we are here to talk about the portrayal of women in movies as we do every single every single damn week week you're welcome every single listeners i today have uh second day, second episode in a row, I've elected to go for a Mike's Harder Blood Orange. Wow. It's my new flavor. It's alcoholic tang. Would you call it your flavor-it?

I would never say that. But as all the Mike's products are, it is very bad. It's bad for you when you tell people you drink it, they think that you are kidding. So crack open a Mike's Harder Blood Orange today and embarrass yourself in front of your friends and colleagues. Yes.

Yeah. Welcome to the Bechdel cast. Yeah. If you are like, Bechdel? What could that ever be? What on earth? Well, we borrowed from the Bechdel test, which is a test that you apply to movies or shows or whatever, anything with characters. Whatever media. Yeah.

And it requires that two female characters have names, talk to each other, and their conversation cannot be about a man too much to ask most of the time. Ooh, do you want to demo it really quick? I'd love to. Okay. So we're two female characters, right? Yes, she says. Let's try it out. Hey, Jamie.

Hi, Caitlin. I have a question for you. Oh, for sure. I love answering questions. Yeah, great. Yes, she says. Let's try it out. Hey, Jamie. Hi, Caitlin. I have a question for you. Oh, for sure. I love answering questions. Yeah, great. I love asking them. Have you ever seen Star Wars A New Hope, episode four? No, I haven't seen that movie.

I haven't seen it before. That's interesting because we actually, we did an episode about it about a year ago. Did we? Yeah. That's wild. If I recall correctly i was also very late for that you were extremely late yes i was 45 minutes late and had not watched the movie yeah and i'm just finding this out so can i just say caitlin female character who i'm

always rooting for and love so much i'm sorry And I know I also didn't watch The Matrix and I still haven't watched The Matrix. And I would encourage our listeners to go back to those, revisit those episodes and really just see a woman at the end of her rope grasping at straws,

desperately trying to participate in a conversation. Well, the funniest thing about the Star Wars episode that you did not watch the movie for is that you reference Princess Leia in a number of other episodes that we've done as if like, wow, it's just like Princess Leia. I was listening to what you were saying about her. She sounds like a, I mean, well, now I've seen this movie for real, have seen the movie we're

talking about today. Great. And she today great and she seems great she seems great seems like there's a lot of fan service done but but i can't be sure sure well i cannot be sure maybe one day you'll go back and i'll break the bechdel test now to say that harrison ford is our worst actor the world's worst actor disagree oh, he's bad. No, he's not great in this movie, but... Name a movie Harrison Ford is like, wow, what a good actor. Maybe he's not versatile. Maybe he only plays a version of himself. That's not what actors do.

When he's doing that, he's doing a great job. Oh, God. He's always manipulating a woman into making out with him. And he's bad at his job. That I do want to mention when we get into the discussion. We will. Okay. Well, some of that conversation passed the Bechdel test, so I feel good about that. Until I had to really abuse Harrison Ford in the past. Well, without much further ado, I think we should introduce our wonderful guest. Yeah. You know him from Gilmore Guys. He's written for The Good Place. Hell yeah.

Demi Adjuibe. Hello. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me. Oh my God, we're so excited. I'm excited too. I want to make so many Star Wars references and then just look at Jamie like, eh?

Uh-huh. Yeah. I love this franchise. It is my favorite one. So tell us about your history with this. We're talking about The Force Awakens. Yes. Episode 7.

There's been several of these movies. Yes. And you haven't seen a single one except for this one. Not a one. Question. How many Star Wars movies do you think there have been? There's been eight. Is eight correct?

Technically. Well, there's also Rogue One, which is a Star Wars story. A Star Wars story, so a Star Wars story a Star Wars story so a Star Wars movie but it doesn't count it's in the universe it's canon it counts I think

I'm exhausted it's like the Tokyo Drift of the franchise it's oh see now we're talking a language I can speak okay now we're

okay if it's a Tokyo Drift okay that makes sense but there's also the Star Wars Christmas special I'm not sure how much that counts yeah I don't know either

there's an Ewok movie there's like the Great Ewok special. I'm not sure how much that counts. Yeah, I don't know either. There's an Ewok movie. There's like the Great Ewok Adventure or something. Oh, I feel like I would like that. That sounds fun. I'm a big fan of Ewoks and I'm a big fan of Porgs now. Is that polarizing? Wait, people do not really like Ewoks. People don't like Ewoks, but I think they're fine.

They're cute. But I'm also the one who has taken a liking to Minions, mostly because people hate Minions, and I'm just like, they're fine. And by people being like, I hate them, I'm like, actually, I love them now. As an act of resistance. Sure. Hey, speaking of the resistance, The Force Awakens. Yeah, let's bring it back to Star Wars.

Minions are fun. There's nothing wrong with them. I agree. My history with The Force Awakens, funny enough, I feel like this is like me throwing stones in glass houses

because up until The Force Awakens came out, I had not seen any of the Star Wars movies except for episode three, which I only saw in theaters because everyone was like very excited about it

and I was like 13. I was like, fine, I'll see what this is all about. And I was like, yeah, I had a pretty good time. I don't know. And then I just didn't see any of them until for The Force Awakens, humble brag, I was invited to go to the premiere. Wow.

And then I was like, well, everyone I know is going to kick my ass if I don't see the other Star Wars movies first. So I, like, buckled down and had a marathon of the original trilogy. And then I really liked it. I was like, oh, this is a cool universe. I'm very excited. And then I saw The Force Awakens and I was like, it's really fun. And then I went to see it again

on opening night with my friends and that was the last time I'd seen it up until two days ago. And I really like The Force Awakens. I like this entire universe. Yay, me too. Oh, well, Caitlin, this is your favorite besides Back to the Future

or in terms of franchises? It's right up there. Yeah, I'm a, you know, a Back to the Future, in terms of franchises? It's right up there. A Back to the Future, an Indiana Jones, a Star Wars. The classics. Those are my faves. I like A Series of Unfortunate Events. I like Doubt. That's all I like. That's my favorite movie of all time.

I've seen Doubt like 30 times. I've seen Doubt so many times. Isn't the last line of that movie, I have doubt? Follow, comma, I have such doubt. Okay. And cut to credits. It's the greatest movie of all time. It's an actor's film.

It's a tone poem. There's a lot of horny depth in Doubt. I saw this movie this morning. I thought it was a fun romp. I enjoyed it. I grew up, my brother and my mom were very into star wars when i was growing up and it was like their bonding thing and so i knew that i didn't like sci-fi that much and so i was like oh well that's their thing so i'm just gonna let them do that

and then my dad and i would watch peewee's playhouse and that was the division of the home you've got your star wars half of the family you've got your peewee's Playhouse. And that was the division of the home. You've got your Star Wars half of the family, you've got your Pee Wee's Playhouse half of the family. And so I never, I've heard a lot of Star Wars talk. I'm able to recognize a lot. I do think I saw half of the third movie. Now, I think I did see half of it in theaters, but we did leave because my grandfather fell asleep.

And some people were concerned that he had passed away. I feel like I might have told you this story before. I don't think so. I have not seen, I don't remember anything. I know Ewan McGregor's in it, and that he has a line that he yells.

I have such doubt. An all Ewan McGregor reboot of Doubt? Not that I would say. Would you? 100% would. Hard pass for me. I've seen Doubt 30 times, and then I've also seen several high school productions of Doubt.

What? I seek them out. Because it's too heavy for high school to be performing, and they fumble it every single time. heavy for high school to be performing. Absolutely. And they fumble it every single time. I love high school productions of Doubt. They're wild. Wait, did Doubt exist before the movie?

Yeah, it was a Pulitzer winning play. Oh, okay. I thought that you've just seen a ton of high schoolers since 2014 put down plays of Doubt. They're super into it. I feel bad for old people in that the older you get, you can't fall asleep anywhere without people being worried about you. That's unfortunate.

Yeah. Hey, let's bring it back to Star Wars, though. What's your history with the Star Wars franchise? I'd love to tell you. Unlike all the freaking posers in this room, I'm a... Sorry. Sorry, bitch.

I'm a Star Wars fan through and through. I saw the original trilogy as a kid many times. I actually grew up watching a TV edit of Return of the Jedi that we taped off of TV. And it's actually a much better movie than the theatrical version of Return of the Jedi. Is it shorter? It's shorter. And they just like they cut out some like stupid stuff that doesn't need to happen. And it like makes for because people are like Return of out some like stupid stuff that doesn't need to happen and it like

makes for, because people are like Return of the Jedi is stupid because of all the Ewoks and they're just like little, they have like a big teddy bear party at the end. It's cute. I've only seen pics. They're very cute. So people like generally I think don't like Return of the Jedi that much but it's always been my favorite because I grew up seeing

this like much more streamlined better cut of the movie that I didn't this much more streamlined better cut of the movie that I didn't realize wasn't the actual cut of the movie until I got it on DVD. I was like, oh, what's all this extra shit that is dumb? I grew up with Star Wars. I saw The Force Awakens on

opening night. I was so excited. The premiere, though? Didn't go to the premiere. I guess maybe I'm a poser, too. Fake fans only. Exactly. And I have also seen The Last Jedi, which I don't want to get into except to say that it does pass the Bechdel test on more than one occasion, which I was very pleasantly surprised about.

Yes. Got it. That's the new one. Okay. But we're here to talk about The Force Awakens. So I will do the recap. Got it. That's the new one. Okay. But we're here to talk about The Force Awakens. So I will do the recap. All right. So in the scrolling, open and crawl.

The part with the score and the words on the screen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The book. The book of the movie. Yes, the reading parts. We learn that Luke Skywalker has vanished. And the First Order is like this new empire so that they're the new bad guys and they're very bad and Leia aka General Organa is the leader of the resistance which is basically the rebels from the original trilogy okay so there's this guy

Poe Dameron and he's like here's he like, I've got this flash drive. Poe Dameron, unreal. So hot. Unreal. Everyone in this movie. Full body panic. Hot. He's like, I have this flash drive, and on the flash drive contains information about where Luke Skywalker is. And then he gives it to his droid, this little BB-8 unit.

Very cute. Oh, that's another polarizing character, right? People are like, BB-8's annoying? No. I don't think so. BB-8 queer icon Very cute. Oh, that's another polarizing character, right? People are like, BB-8's annoying? No. I don't think so. BB-8 queer icon. Queer icon. Absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I think people generally like BB-8, but I might be wrong. It's weird. I had some friends that were making fun

of BB-8 around the time of this movie. Those are not real friends. Yeah, you need to drop those friends. Bad friends. They've got to go. I feel like it's weird.

People are always like, I love the droids. Give me more of the droids. And then if it's like an alien, they're like, no, stop that. It's like, what's the difference? Right, right. BB-8, cute. Very cute. Poe Dameron hot.

Yeah. Indeed. So BB-8 runs off with this flash drive, and they're on this planet Jakku. And Kylo Ren shows up aka Diet Darth Vader and he's like, where's Skywalker? I want to find him too because he wants to kill him. He is Adam Driver.

God. Baffling. Baffling that he's in these movies. Yes. Got it. So Kylo Ren captures Poe Dameron. Meanwhile there's this stormtrooper FN-2187 hot. Hot87, hot. Hot.

Sorry, I was just waiting. Very hot. And he's like, I don't really like being a stormtrooper. Like, this isn't for me. Yeah, and then he takes off his helmet and you're like, oh, hot. Yeah. Now I'm invested. Right.

So then we meet Rey, Daisy Ridley's character. She's a freelance scavenger on Jakku. And Jakku is a very gross sand planet that no one likes. And she's lonely and she doesn't have any family. She's sad. But then she comes across BB-8. She's like, oh, wow, who are you? First she's like, let's

not hang out. But then she's like, let's hang out. They become friends. I do like that BB-8 is just sort of this adorable thing that we are for sure going to put onto a backpack at some point. Oh, yeah. Who people just say exposition to. There's that whole part where she's like, my family is not here. Anyways, what are you?

I'd like a lunchbox with you on it. She's just like saying exactly who she is to someone who cannot respond. Which I think is a great way to reveal, like, what needs to be expository dialogue in a way that's, like, fun for the whole family. Yeah. And a lot of their conversations are just, like, repeating what BB-8 said. It's just like, you have a flash drive? Yeah. Okay. All right.

I like that that's one of the ways they choose to modernize the Star Wars universe. It's like, we have flash drives now. Yeah. No they choose to modernize the Star Wars universe. It's like, we have flash drives now. No more floppy disks in the Star Wars universe. I bet in episode nine they're just going to be like, give me your iPad. Yeah, there's going to be some really creative product placement. Let's get in the self-driving Millennium Falcon. Or Uber ourselves to the next planet. Subscribe to Poe Dameron on Snapchat.

Oh, I would. He's so cute. Oh, yeah. He's hot. I'm real. So, Kylo Ren has captured Poe Dameron. Kylo Ren, not hot. Agree.

All right. We have to just say it. For some, hot. For most, not hot. no i agree so he like force tortures poe dameron trying to find out where this information about where luke skywalker is and he figures out this bb8 has it so he's like okay i'm gonna go get it but then fn 2187 breaks poe out of like whatever ship they're. And he's like, let's escape. I'm helping you.

What a great scene between the two of them. You're just like, wow, it's charged. Launched a thousand ships. Yeah. Man. I keep thinking you're saying effin. Like this effin 2187 here. This effin motherfucking effin.

Sorry, I'm sick, but I also cannot articulate words very well. They also just chose two letters that sound like another thing. It's their fault. It is their fault. Let us write Star Wars. Yes, please. We'll do a good job. Well, he's about to not be called that anymore because Poe is like, I'm going to call you Finn.

So now he's Finn. Another great moment where he's like, hee hee, okay. You can call me whatever you want. He's like, I've been a stormtrooper this whole time, but now suddenly have a personality whatever oscar isaac tells you your name is is probably your name from then on oh yeah that's for sure definitely new law so they escape from the first order but they crash land on jakku and maybe poe dies we're not sure and then finn thinks poe dies right finn thinks poe dies and then he encounters ray and b dies. And then he encounters Rey in BB-8, and he lies to her, and he's like,

yeah, I'm a member of the Resistance. Stormtroopers show up, they start shooting, then they find the Millennium Falcon, so they go off on that. They encounter Han Solo and Chewie, and everyone's very excited. It was a big applause moment in the theater. I could, like, in the back of my head,

hear a bunch of losers applauding when stupid Harrison Ford and his dumb mug. He literally he practically pauses for a place. I guess it's the trailer moment. Yeah. Right. And same thing when you see the Millennium Falcon for the first time. Oh, definitely.

It's just anything that was like that's from the old movie. There was like, yeah. Remember this? Yeah. A lot of like little fans. I mean, and I there's I truly could not identify them all, but anytime there was a needless pause, it's like, oh, that's probably relevant to people.

And the score gets all bright for a sudden. Right, right. But it was so exciting to see in the theaters. Harrison Ford not hot. Harrison Ford used to be hot. Harrison Ford is what I call legacy hot in that he used to be hot so much so that now it's just kind of like, yeah, yeah. He still carries himself as if he's hot. Harrison Ford is what I call legacy hot, in that he used to be hot so much so that now it's just kind of like,

yeah, yeah. Yeah. He still carries himself as if he's hot. Yes. Which goes a long way. Right. Like, he is acting as if he's extremely hot, which is maybe his greatest role,

is convincing us that he's hot. Just going back to what you said about how he's not a good actor, I don't know if I agree, but I will say he clearly gave up somewhere around the 90s. Oh, definitely. Trying to be good at acting, and now it's just kind of like, everyone's just like, well, it's Harrison Ford, so we don't have to think about it. Well, he's so bankable that, yeah, people just throw him in his movies, and then he'll give it 50%.

But here's the thing. I guess it is kind of interesting that it's like most actors his age, because he's got to be in his early 70s now. Yeah. That most actors his age would be at this point being like, ooh, I better win a good award before I die. Nope. And that doesn't seem to be on his list. No. He is trying to leave every franchise he's ever done.

He's trying to constantly crash a plane every month or so. And then also, he's high every time he acts. So it's just like. Oh, amazing. Yeah. He's trying to constantly crash a plane every month or so. And then also, he's high every time he acts. So it's just like... Oh, amazing. Yeah. He's a mess. He has got a record of saying he does not like Star Wars. Yeah.

He doesn't think it's very cool. Well, it shows. It shows. For sure. And then I also think he's not happy about more Indiana Jones movies happening. Oh, no. Because he phoned it in for the fourth one. He thought Shia LaBeouf would be taken over.

Yeah. Right. I mean, yet another mistake. That movie was the first date I went on ever. Oh, no. Was that Indiana Jones movie. Oh, God. It's so bad.

I'd like to hold that movie personally accountable for the failure of that high school relationship. One of my first dates was to National Treasure 2, Book of Secrets. Also didn't last. It makes a difference. It makes a difference. You gotta pick a good movie.

Okay, so the rest of The Force Awakens is basically Han Solo and Rey are now friends and he's like, maybe do you want a job? And she's like,

I don't know. I don't know about this whole thing. She touches a lightsaber. She freaks out about it. There's a character named Maz and she's like, the don't know, I don't know about this whole thing. She touches a lightsaber. She freaks out about it. There's a character named Maz and she's like, the force is strong with you. Sure is. So weird.

What a weird choice to be like, Lupita, the most beautiful woman currently living, we're going to make you into a little alien troll. How do you like it? Right. She nails it. She does an old voice very well too. Yeah.

I had to check. It's also like a very, I feel like more so in The Last Jedi, which I don't want to spoil, but like it's a very old Nigerian woman voice. And I just in the back of my head, I'm like, that's my aunts. That's all of my aunts. It's great. Yeah. So she's like, wow, here's a lightsaber. And then Rey gets captured by Kylo Ren because he figures out that she has seen the map

that shows where Luke Skywalker is. So he's like, I'm going to take you. I'm going to capture you. And then Finn and Han Solo and Chewie go. And then they're like, oh, but there's this whole planet destroyer. It's like a Death Star, but even worse. It starts blowing up all the resistance planets or whatever. And then they're like we

gotta stop this we gotta blow this up and then there's this final showdown between finn is there but it's mostly between ray and kylo ren and she's like wow i'm actually like getting pretty good this force thing and then but also how hard is it to beat adam driver in a fight anyone in this room could easily take Adam Driver down in 45 seconds. I mean, sure, him. He's got bird bones. But Kylo Ren as a character. He's got some anger. He's got some issues.

Huge daddy issues. True. Really crazy daddy issues. That he explains in monologue frequently. Yeah, especially including one time to his father just before. Yeah, because it's revealed that Kylo Ren is Han Solo and Leia Organa's son. Because they used to, I guess, be married. And then they had a baby.

And then they're like, actually, whenever our son, Ben, Ben Ren. Or no, Ben Solo. Ben Solo. Ben Solo, he goes and tries to be a Jedi. Sounds like a YouTuber. He goes and tries to be a Jedi and then he turns bad. I guess it breaks up Leia and Han Solo's marriage. So then they blow up the big planet destroyer planet.

And at the very end, they figure out where Luke Skywalkerwalker is because r2d2 is like in a coma or whatever and he's like actually i'm awake now and then they match the maps together they figure out where luke is ray and chewy go to the planet that he's on and she's like here here's your lightsaber and then smash cut to black that's the the end of the movie. Yeah. Fun movie. A fun movie. I think so too. That was my review. A fun movie. Thank you for that analysis.

Adam Driver is a scab. I don't like him. I think I like him in this franchise. Although I remember in the theater, the first moment where he takes off his helmet, there was a lot of giggling. Oh, yeah. Same. You're expecting him to be all scarred or something. But he's just, yeah. And there's just this

chode that you've seen on HBO before. It's weird. Aristotle is shaking his head in such disappointment. Aristotle's literally in love with Adam Driver. I like it. The thing is, I like Adam Driver as an actor. i feel like everything i see him and i'm like okay you you got some stuff but like just the moment of having this

like very deep voice like evil force take off a helmet it's just like this like angry looking high schooler it's just kind of like oh oh yeah we're like oh was he just caught masturbating to anime on free wi-fi like that's very much vibe. That's why he hates his dad so much. He cut off the Wi-Fi. My brother texted me maybe a month ago, Adam Driver bus driver movie dot dot dot enjoyed against all odds.

Adam Driver plays a bus driver in a movie and apparently it's fine. I did not. Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. I can't call it bad but I can't call it much. Listen, Adam Driver in a nutshell. I did not. Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. I can't call it bad, but I can't call it much. There's, listen, Adam Driver in a nutshell. I want to see an all Adam Driver reboot of Speed in which he is the bus driver. He is whatever other characters are in that movie.

Yeah, I want to see him playing Keanu. I want him as Sandra Bullock. If Adam Driver ever dared to be in a theatrical adaptation of Doubt, I would pick it. Get him out of Doubt. He doesn't belong in Doubt. So what you're saying is you have doubt about his abilities. I have such doubt. I have such doubt. Well, this conversation has not passed the Bechdel test in a good many minutes.

Okay, so I just want to start out by saying this movie, much like the original trilogy of Star Wars, I mean, I don't know episodes one, two, and three. Fuck those movies. I don't care. But of episodes four, five, and six, similar to them, Force Awakens is sort of an ensemble cast. But you can argue that Luke Skywalker is the main character of the original trilogy. Here in The Force Awakens, we have Rey as the main character. So we have a female protagonist. It's still an ensemble cast. There's still lots of, you know, Finns right up there among the main characters.

Poe Dameron's pretty important. You know, you've got all these other people. But Rey is the protagonist of the story. So we get a female protagonist in a Star Wars movie. And she's great. Hooray! She's amazing. I mean, with Rogue One, we swear to get two in such a small span of time.

Have you guys already talked about the original trilogy? I know you said you talked about it. We did an episode on A New Hope. How did that one fare? There's Aunt Beru, who gets murdered almost instantly, and then there's Princess Leia, who we said was a strong character who makes active choices and does things in the movie, but she has no... The plot fucks her over at every turn and gives her no one to talk to. Right.

She's captive immediately. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She needs to be rescued, all this stuff. much better compared to the original trilogy in terms of a female character doing things influencing the plot and having it be her story like her journey largely um there's subplots that focus around other characters but and as we see not to spoil anything for the last jedi but like it's a continuation of sort of her journey of like her force powers and honing them and whatnot so yeah it was so exciting for me to see this movie for the first time and be like,

holy fucking shit, we have a female protag in a Star Wars movie. And she is so good at what she does. Okay, so she doesn't have a family. She's on this planet Jakku. She's scavenging stuff, but she somehow also knows how to speak BB-8's droid language. I am constantly confused about what language BB-8 is speaking,

how literally everyone he meets can understand it. Communicate clearly, no problem. Finn cannot, but yeah, somehow Rey can. Because Finn only speaks Stormtroopers, I don't know. It's unclear why. Although everyone speaks English. Everyone speaks English. True.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would like to argue, there's all this question about who is Rey? Who are her parents? Da, da, da. I'm going to go ahead and say that I think that C-3PO is Rey's father because he was an interpreter. He speaks so many languages, and she does too. She understands. Whoa.

She knows how to speak wookiee she speaks with another alien on jakku she understands bb8 somehow i think that she is part droid and that c-3po is her father when c-3po makes love oh heavens oh this goes back into a previous discussion we've had about when Beetlejuice makes love. Oh, no. No, neither not. Caitlin hates this discussion. Beetlejuice for sure comes scabs, but are they wet or dry?

No. Is the question. Dry. Dry? Dry. Oh, why are we talking about this again? Wait, interesting because I would say like a wet deck of cards being flipped would be the sound. I have to go home.

A wet deck of cards. If you dunked a deck of playing cards into a bucket of water and then shuffled them, That would be the sound. C-3PO. Bolts? Does he come bolts? Yeah. Sure. Anything to move this conversation along. Caitlin hates this conversation. I don't think C-3PO comes. How does he get someone pregnant? Oh. Look,

he comes in binary code somehow. Oh, nice. Like a printout. Yeah. Just a printout. Yeah. Like a slip of paper just with zeros and ones slips out of... It becomes a receipt, basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Just like wherever his genitals are because there's also nothing there. Right, like I feel like we would know. Unless it's like a compartment. Just like in The Matrix, that other movie that you didn't see. I wouldn't know. Although I will say

I don't think you're missing much with The Matrix. Thank you. I don't care about it. That was my impression. Does the Matrix pass the Bechdel test? Kind of. That was a sort of pass.

Yeah, it was like a just barely kind of thing. But anyway, okay. So I want to start by talking about the scene where she and Finn first encounter each other on Jakku. Here's what happens. Rey gets attacked by these two guys who are trying to steal BB-8 because they're like, he's a droid. He's worth so many portions of muffin, blueberry muffins or whatever their currency is. I love a muffin portion based economy.

I hope this entire economy is based on muffins. I don't think they say. They just say quarter portions. Right. But then you see her like empty that little packet into like a little dish of water and then it like bakes into a blueberry muffin. Honestly, super cool.

And I was like, that was the part where I was genuinely like, whoa, this is a wondrous world. After seeing three of the movies, that was the part where I was like, holy shit. I know, it's amazing. I love how people talk about Jakku in this movie of like every time she's like i have to get home they're like but

but it sucks it's just like aliens giving out pieces of muffin why would you ever come back who is space florida oh yeah it's like every time they're like but i'm from there they're like forget it you're you left. Don't go back. Okay, so these two guys are trying to steal BB-8 back from Rey. And she fights them off. She beats them up. She doesn't need to be saved. She holds her own.

Then Finn sees this happening. And then he spots BB-8 because Poe Dermott had just been like, I've got a droid. It's white and orange. It's one of a kind. He's like, hey, that's the droid they're looking for. And then, which if you'd ever seen a Star Wars movie, you would realize that that was a great reference. We had a magnet that said that. You had a magnet that said that? Yeah, we had a refrigerator magnet that said that at my house.

Cute. Okay. There's like a little misunderstanding about like, oh, did Finn steal Poe's jacket? What happened? But then they clear up this misunderstanding. Oh, really? Titanic reference. up this misunderstanding. Ooh, really? Titanic reference. A jacket stealing.

Oh, yeah. Being a plot point of can we trust this person? He stole a jacket. Leonardo DiCaprio steals a jacket in Titanic. Can we trust him? Yes.

Why do you look confused? Because I saw Titanic one time in, I think, 2001. Oh, yikes. And all I remember is the scene where ship captain jumps off and then hits his head and does a bunch of flips.

That's an iconic scene. That's one of the most iconic scenes. I was on the verge of tears when that happened and I was just like oh I'm laughing now. I mean it's not EJ Smith the captain. It's just a random guy. But yeah that does. Yeah. Oh okay. Again I saw it once. It was three hours. I was nine. You'll have to take

our word for it. Yeah. For sure. He steals a jacket and that's supposed to be like, can we trust Leonardo DiCaprio? He stole a jacket. I believe it. Yeah. And Finn.

And in both cases you can trust him. He just happened to take a jacket. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. He was cold. So, okay. So,

uh, Ray goes after Finn and she's just like, what the fuck? And then the stormtroopers show up. Finn grabs Rey's hand, and then they start running. And she's just like, what are you doing? Why are you grabbing my hand? And I would like to say that I don't think that he would have done that if she were not a woman.

Oh, absolutely not. If she was a man, he would have never grabbed her hand and run off. They would have just been like, come with me. He didn't do that with Poe. Right. And I wish that he had. I want them to hold hands. I want them to hold hands with John Boyega and Oscar Isaac holding hands. That's a horny scene.

Such a horny scene. I know. It would be the most screen capped scene of 2015. So then they start running off. Finn's like, come on, we got to move. And then she's like, I know how to run without you holding my hand. So she is like, don't fucking touch me I can do this on my own

I love that in the theaters just because it was such a weird thing to see him grab her hand and then for her to immediately be like I don't need this and then sort of run a little bit ahead of him I was like that's a great touch just such good character development she doesn't know him he's a stranger

we see in movies so often where that does happen where a guy grabs a girl's hand and they have to run off and she does not protest because

she doesn't have a character probably or my favorite egregious example Brendan Fraser lunges through at you through a cage and starts making out

with you and you fall in love with him instantly is that the mummy the mummy yeah I haven't even seen the mummy and I know. That's so little.

He's feral in a cage and makes Rachel Weitz fall in love with him instantly. Oh boy. That's the Brendan Fraser touch. Yeah. So they're running away. They take cover for a second and then they have to run again because he hears something and then he grabs her hand again. She's like, stop taking my hand.

So she keeps protesting and then an explosion happens and he gets knocked. And then he grabs her hand again. She's like, stop taking my hand. So she keeps protesting. And then an explosion happens and he gets knocked out and then she shakes him awake. And then he immediately says, are you okay? And she's just like, yeah, I'm fucking okay, bitch.

Like you're the one who passed out. But again, I don't think he would have asked her that if she was a man. He would have been like, are you okay? Let's go. Right, exactly.

Right. So then they start running again and she's like, we got to go to this ship. Like you said, it's worth noting that she's running ahead of him. So she never needed him to grab her and pull her along. She's a faster runner. She's in the lead for so much of this movie. And he's the one who had to escape his own sort of capture and was worried for so much. And then finds this woman and is like,

I have to save her. And she's like, I'm good for so much. Yeah, she's like, I'm fine. Yeah. I mean, the one point of leverage he has over her is that lie that falls apart halfway through the movie anyways. Oh, that he's a member of the Resistance, right.

Right. I think that's the one thing he has, but that kind of falls apart in the middle of the movie anyways. And he never really, he doesn't use it to manipulate her in an evil way. Like in a nefarious way, I would say. He's never like, oh, you should fall in love with me because I'm a handsome resistance fighter.

But he's lying hard enough that Harrison Ford has to be like, you're lying, bitch. And that's not good. That's not a good precedent. If Harrison Ford has to say you, you're lying, bitch. And that's not good. That's not a good precedent. If Harrison Ford has to say you're doing something wrong. Okay. And I'm high, so I should know this. My lines are being fed to me through an earpiece right now. No, he's not Johnny Depp.

Sir. Does Johnny Depp have to do that? Yeah, he did. Because he's an alcoholic fucking mess. Why? All right. This isn't the Johnny Depp cast. No. Okay, so she's like, we got to outrun them. And he's like, we can't. And she's right. This isn't the Johnny Depp cast. No.

Okay, so she's like, we got to outrun them. And he's like, we can't. She's like, we can't in that quadrumper. And then he's like, we need a pilot. And she's like, we've got one. He's like, you? He assumes that she's not a pilot, probably because she's a woman. I'm going to make the guess.

That happens a couple of times. I mean, that happens when they encounter Han Solo, too, where she has to keep reminding people. She's like, no, I am a pilot. And even then, and I think that this is kind of a common experience of, you know, she keeps telling people, I'm a pilot. And I feel like with most male characters, and this happens in comedy all the fucking time, too. It's like where people won't be like, oh, wow, you really are a pilot until they've already seen you do it successfully. Whereas with male characters, it's like, I'm a pilot. And they're like, oh, great.

Perfect. Every time I see a woman do stand up, I'm always surprised that they're also a pilot. Right. Yeah. Yeah. No, I can fly a plane. I gotta be better about that. Watch me do a tight five and then let me fly your plane.

I've been like standing in a circle at like a comedy venue with several men and have like a guy approach us and ask every single person in the circle except for me if they are comics and none of the guys that they asked were comics and I was the only comic in the bunch but because they're just like well you must be a comic right? Kill them all all the guys who I was standing with who I'm friends

with none of them were like no we're not comics but she is so fuck all of those people it's weird that they had to act like every single person before like I feel like if you get like two in you'd probably probably not comics right circle at all but I know that's and I wasn't gonna be like I'm a comedian that was like that was one of the parts of this movie where I was like oh yeah I feel I feel that where it's like you have to tell someone that this is your job but they still don't believe you until they see you do it. And she has to do that a couple times in this movie. And whether or not it's a gender thing doesn't get explicitly commented on, but I feel like it's safe to assume.

I feel like just the fact that it happens. Yeah. And I think the fact that it wasn't explicitly mentioned as a gender thing is one of the strengths of this movie. Because I think if they had, then you just lose so many of the people who don't want to learn the lesson explicitly. Like all the guys who are like, oh, they're trying to push it in my face. But like, if you don't do that, then you can't really claim that they're trying to.

It's like, if they don't mention that she's a woman, then you are just taking this on yourself and you're complaining about something that you had to interpret. Totally. So I liked it. It was sort of unspoken. Same.

Yeah. Definitely. And then they board the millennium falcon and immediately ray is like the gunner position is down there so she like kind of like tells him what to do he just goes and does it and then she gets in the cockpit and having never flown this thing before i don't know how she knows how to be a pilot but i don't even question it i'm like yeah she's a force i. Plus, I mean, she's a scavenger. She goes into all these empire ships that crashed on Jakku.

And so I'm like, okay, she probably knows ship apparatus because she scavenges that shit all the time. But somehow she knows how to be a pilot. And she's very good at it. She does it all by herself, doesn't need a co-pilot. And then they escape the stormtroopers and then they fly off and then the scene that immediately follows that after they've escaped she and Finn meet in the middle

somewhere and they're like wow good job that was amazing oh you did a great job too you totally set me up for this and that was so great for me to see

because I feel like so often in movies you'd see a guy being like well I guess you did okay okay yeah not bad kid

yeah right right like Finn and Rey have such team vibes throughout this movie guy being like, well, I guess you did okay. Not bad, kid. Right, right. Like, Finn and Rey have such team vibes throughout this movie that it's great. I love it. It's the opposite of Harrison Ford's Don't Get Cocky in the original. Yeah. Yeah. They're immediately just like, you were great.

You did that. We did this. It's such a nice moment. They like each other. Yeah. It's like, this is great. Yeah. Because, yeah, like, usually you'd see either the guy be like, well, that wasn't that hard.

I could have done that. Or the guy to a woman, him seeing that, and then he'd be like, oh, I'm so horny now. What the hell is she going to do? I'm a boner. So the fact that, yeah, they're like, wow, the woman did a thing, and now I have to put my face on her face. Nothing turns me on more than seeing a woman do something I thought only men could do. Yeah, exactly.

So the fact that neither of those reactions happened from Finn was refreshing, and I really liked it. Well, neither of those reactions happened for a little bit from Finn. It takes a bit. Yeah. It takes a bit. But I kind of like seeing him in crisis a little bit, too. And Han Solo is, thank God, is not in it so much that we have to deal with it plot-wise. But when the scene where Han Solo is offering Rey a job is you see, I mean, because he's not a feminist icon, let's say.

And you see sort of him struggling with like, you know, any time that he compliments her, it's backed by an insult of like, well, I'm not going to pay you enough, which is like, well, she's a woman. Of course, you're not going to pay her enough. He'll be like, Chewie likes you. So I guess I can keep you around when it's clearly like an example of him unable to express himself because he's a man. He cannot be caught saying that a woman is capable. Right. He can be caught saying that a woman is capable. Right. He can't be on record. If he was better at expressing his emotions,

Kylo Ren might not exist. True. He could have saved everyone a lot of trouble. He's just like, hey, I'm proud of you. I love you and you are my son. Yeah, this whole movie is Han Solo's fault. God, he's a nightmare. I love you.

I love my wife. We did a great job raising you. I cherish her input into your life. And then none of this. He's just a nice boy. Adam Driver could have been a space accountant. Yes. But instead we get a fun movie. Oh, and then, okay.

So right after Ray and Finn have their little like great job, then something like poisonous gas starts leaking in the Millennium Falcon. And then like Rey just like jumps at it immediately. She's like, she knows exactly what to do. She's like, hand me that fucking wrench. Hand me this screwdriver. He doesn't really know what he's doing. He doesn't know tools.

This is all to say this whole long sequence is something we haven't seen before in a Star Wars movie. I mean, maybe it's in the prequels. Who gives a shit? I don't think. But just a competent woman who is driving the narrative, making choices, and being better than everyone else at what they're doing was just so fucking cool. And kind of like you were saying, Demi,

it's like a lot of attention isn't called to like, whoa, look at, this woman did it. Because that is a weird thing that happens in movies. A lot of like, never seen a girl do this thing before. And it's like, you know what they're going for. But it is kind of a dated, weird approach to it. I'm also so glad they didn't do that thing where like, Ray successfully maneuvers. And she's just like, what?

I grew up with four brothers. Exactly. So frustrating. And from moment one when Rey is on screen, I watched the first scene she appears in a couple times. There's like, I don't think any dialogue in it when we first see her. But she's just like, even the way she's framed by the movie, she's framed like a protagonist and like a hero and not like how a woman would normally be framed in any sort of

action movie which i thought was so great and i watched it a couple of times i'm like oh we're just seeing a straight shot of the main character of the movie which shouldn't seem like a big deal but it was nice to see just her being framed like a hero and not like although a thing happens and i don't know if this was intentional or not but but the first time you see her on screen, you don't know the gender of this person because they're like in a big mask and goggles and you can't see her face or anything like that. And this happens sometimes in movies where like... This happens in these movies a lot. A lot of mask removals. Yeah. And it'll be like, in fact, it happens in Return of the Jedi and Jabba's Palace whenever Leia is the person who comes in and he's like trying to negotiate for Han Solo's life, she's got a thermal detonator and it's a whole thing. And then later she takes

off the mask and it's Leia and we're like, holy fucking shit. But it happens a lot where someone you would probably assume to be a male character is in a mask or they've got like a helmet on or something like that. And then they take it off and surprise, it's a woman. And it's like meant to be this like, well, reveal the thing that you thought was a man is actually a woman and i don't like i said i don't know if that's intentional in this movie or not but it sort of it happens right it for sure happens so like i said it wasn't like just kidding it's a woman i don't know that i mean obviously i know literally next to nothing about this franchise but just given the fact that we get a kind of similar shot of fucking adam driver in the same i don't know yeah it might not be like a meant to be like a well i don't know that

was a gender decision i feel like because it happens before any sort of major action it was just kind of like uh here's an introduction to who this person is. But if it was like, we see her in a fight, and then she removes the mask, then I'd be like, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The context is important for that. Yeah. Because often when it happens in movies, when it's like very annoying is they'll take off the helmet, and then she's got this long flowing hair that she whips around. And then she's like, it was me all along, boys. And it's just like really egregious and stupid it's like the uh you know in little rascals when uh she takes off her helmet and it's like reba or whatever it's that i'm like what my hero was a girl right exactly i need to have it's reba

it's always reba and i'm always surprised I love Reba remember when Kylo Ren took off the mask and it was Reba it was Reba okay so there's a few more scenes I want to talk about starting with the scene where

they have met Han Solo and Chewie and there's these like wrath towers running around in Han Solo's ship and what

what they're like these big monster creatures oh okay scary guys yeah yeah they've got like tentacles and stuff yeah and finn gets grabbed by one of them and like carried off and then ray ends up having to save him so it's the reverse of what we often see of a man having to save a woman but she like does this whole thing where she's like looking at these monitors she like figures out when the exact moment is to shut the doors to like sever the tentacles

that the wrath tower is holding Finn with. Yeah. Right. And then he's like, wow, the door, did you see that? And she's like, yeah, that was lucky. So didn't feel the need to gloat about it and be like, yeah, that was me. So I just liked that you saw a woman having to save a man. I also love that at no point does it feel like you go like,

what, how did she know how to do this? Like she's been on her own for so long you could understand that like she's had to survive and learn how to do things. She's probably

a like brilliant person so all of the like development skills that she goes like the things that she does to save other people in this movie

and like the actions she takes never feel like when Luke Skywalker was just a farm boy and like suddenly she's like I'm gonna be a warrior now.

It's like, well, she's been on her own for so long and is straight up defending herself from scavengers and saving people in the desert. It makes sense that she could be like, I'm going to chop off that raptor's arm or whatever. Yeah, totally. And then in the next scene, Han and Rey are trying to escape in the Millennium Falcon,

and they're having trouble getting the Millennium Falcon started there's like beeping and like she keeps being like no it's this thing the compressor hit that switch da da da and then like at one point she like pulls out this like mechanical thing oh yeah she pulls out a thingy and then she's like I bypassed the compressor

and he's just like okay I liked that because she was so that was like one of the few moments where I'm like oh she is so stoked right now so proud of herself and everyone's just like, okay. I liked that because she was so, that was like one of the few months where I'm like, oh, she is so stoked right now. Yeah. So proud of herself. No, I loved it. And everyone's just like, um, what? Again, it's showing you that she knows her shit.

She's kind of better than everyone at what she's doing and just like is so competent. Because, again, you don't see like if a woman's doing machinery things in movies, like she can't do anything. And but maybe it's also that thing that annoys me where like a woman's good at fixing a car. But that never I feel like that doesn't apply to this movie at least. Yeah, she knows. I mean, like there aren't any of those like cheesy lines of like a female character justifying why she would know how to fix a car because her daddy was a mechanic or something dad wanted a boy exactly so he just raised me like one like a like a like it was just yeah where that's just an element of the story that exists and it isn't because often when we see it and it's uh really stupid like it is in transformers for example it's a skill that's like

somehow sexualized they're like, look at how hot I look when I bend over the hood of this car and reach into the thing. There's so much oil in this thing. Exactly. But for Rey, it's just like she just knows how to do that because that's her character

and it works. Right. So there's that. Now, sorry, I've got an agenda. You're so prepared. All my notes are, I just keep writing, name of actor hot. Is there anyone in this movie that isn't hot, though?

Personal taste, Adam Driver, not hot. Pretty much everyone else hot, and I include Andy Serkis. Andy Serkis, hot. As Snoke, or just Andy Serkis as Andy Serkis? Andy Serkis as hot. As Snoke or just Andy Serkis as Andy Serkis? Andy Serkis as a person is amazing. Andy Serkis as Snoke, I'll take it. Okay. Why not?

Sure. You can tell there's some hotness there. There is some hotness, yeah. Also, he's got an attitude. I like it. Snoke, he's a brooder. I like it. Snoke used to be hot, I think.

He's emo. Oh, definitely. Yeah, before he got whatever weird scar down the front of his... I want to see a young photo of Snoke. Young Snoke. He's like, oh, it's Paul Newman. Give us a young Snoke series. Please.

So the next scene I wanted to talk about is when Kylo Ren captures Rey. Presumably, she would need to be saved. However, what's different about this is that in so many movies you see when a bad guy captures a woman, it's because she needs to be used as bait so that the male hero can come and save her, or it's like, we're taking this woman that you love to hurt you, or something like that.

This is about her value and her abilities and also her knowledge, where at first when that happened, I was like, oh, it's maybe. But it's not really a damsel kind of. No. Yeah. Because she has to bail a million people out through the course of this movie. And then, yeah, she's being I mean, she's captured, but she but she's captured because of her and not because of her value as it pertains to another male. Exactly.

Yeah. She's captured because she has the information that he needs, not because she's going to be used as bait. You can capture people. You just have to respect their abilities. Exactly. Yeah. And granted, Finn and Han Solo and Chewie go to save her. But like you said, she's never damsel.

She never has to be like picked up and carried away or anything like that. She doesn't need to be physically saved because the first thing she does is like stop Kylo Ren from like getting the information he needs. She like totally resists. Right. And then she uses the force to make a stormtrooper like release her from the shackles that she's in. A stormtrooper that I might add is hot because it's Daniel Craig. It is Daniel Craig. What? Yeah. He has like a add is hot because it's Daniel Craig. It is Daniel Craig.

What? Yeah. He has like a little cameo. Where's Daniel Craig hiding in this movie? He's just in a stormtrooper suit? Yes. Oh, that's so weird. That's very cute. Did he just ask? I think so. I think the story was they were shooting Bond nearby and they were just like, do you want to have a

cameo? And of course he's going to say yes. It's everyone's dream. That's so exciting for him. And in the new one, Prince Harry and Prince someone else, William, I think, are Stormtroopers, and so is Tom Hardy. Really? Yes, not a joke. So weird.

I saw Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the credits. I don't know what he does, but he's somewhere. I don't know. And then Nigel Godrich, who is a producer, does all the Radiohead albums, is also in The Force Awakens. It's just like anyone who's British and nearby. Alfred Molina should be in one. He should.

I bet he is, and he's so humble. Oh, you don't have to credit me for this. It's fine. Yeah, it was just a pleasure to be a part of it. People forget he's British. The star of Chewing Gum, whose name I forget. Yes, Michaela Cole. Yeah, she's got a little cameo. I love that show.

Very exciting. Anyway, okay. She makes Daniel Craig untie her and then give her his weapon. She's like, drop your gun. And he just does it because she's so good at the force already. And then she sneaks her way around the base. And then eventually when Finn finds her,

she was fine. She didn't need to be grabbed and saved away. She was already pretty much... Basically all she needed was a ride home she's more found than rescued yeah exactly yeah yeah totally yeah at one point they even just like look out a window and she's like scaling a wall so she's like way ahead she's fine she's good i love that yeah and then that is followed by the lightsaber battle at the end between Rey and Kylo Ren. And she gets knocked out early on. And then Finn fights with the lightsaber for a few minutes. But then he gets injured and almost dies.

And then Rey is like, actually, it's my turn. She finishes it. This was the most cathartic thing to see in the theater. Both times, like, the moment where, like, Kylo Ren is trying to grab the lightsaber and it flies back and she catches it, everyone just went fucking crazy.

And I just felt like the adrenaline was like, yes, this is what we wanted! I know. It's so good. I love it so much. And it's like another cool team moment

where they did it together. It was great. Not that she even needed his help, but... No. It's great. But they did it together. I liked it.

Yeah, I know. I liked it. Yeah, I know. I feel like Finn's arc for this entire movie is him trying to be like, I gotta save her. And it's her being like, thank you, but I really can do this myself. Which is nice. And they still do work together a lot of the time. Yeah.

Definitely. Yeah. So those are the main scenes I wanted to talk about that star Rey. But we've got other female characters in this movie as well. Unlike the original trilogy when there's pretty much just Princess Leia, she makes a return. She's really smurfetted. Yeah. So Leia's in this.

She is General Organa now. She's leading the resistance. Hot. She's so fucking good at her job. Rise in Paradise. Hot. Yes. Awesome.

And then we've got Maz Kanata. Yes. She's the Lupito character who's like, oh, here's a lightsaber. The force calls to you. It's a great Maz Kanata. Please keep going. Please keep going. Yeah, what else does she say? Can you read Moby Dick to us in this voice?

Quee, quay. Yeah, so she gives exposition largely and then she's just basically like hey han solo quit fucking running away from this fight you stupid coward go talk to leia figure shit out about your son yeah she's basically just a therapist i don't know yes i don't know what her role is in the most recent movie. But it's funny because I feel like this happens with, we've seen this a few times with like older female characters who are in the movie for a little bit of just like this is another female character for our like younger protagonist to interact with that in parts, you know, just is like, hey, you've got this.

And then, you know, Ray's like, OK. And then we can move forward. It's it's I don't know. Yeah. I mean, she doesn't do that much. But the fact that she's there. I like her. Yeah.

I like her. She's pretty fun, too, I feel like. She's got a little personality there. She's sassy. She's got that one line where when Han comes in where she's like, where's my boyfriend to talk about chewing i love that i know yeah do you think i've been flirting for a thousand years absolutely unreal and she's a business owner so it's true i wrote i wrote down small business

well wait as in she owns a small business or she owns a business and it's small a little bit of both yeah you get the best of both there wait is that like cantina hearse i think so yeah okay i wasn't sure exactly what her she's not a clean business owner but she is a small business owner the other main female character is captain phasma oh yeah so we get a lady villain and she's like pretty badass she's pretty badass. She's a leader of some sort. You know that because her thing's shiny, and no one else's costume's shiny.

She's the coolest design of any of the villains. I wish we got more of her, though. Same, yes. It might not make much sense for her character to be in the story more, but I don't know. I feel like... It was a look. It's such a look. It's such a look. It's such a look. I want more like

well developed lady villains if that sounds like weird but I feel like you get so many villains where they have good development but at the end of it their motivation is just like I'm angry and it's like I want more than that but I also want I feel like so many times in

movies their version of being progressive is just like, well, if we make the lady the hero, then that's good. But it's like, you can make a woman a villain, just do it well. And I wish that there were more of those. Anyway. Yeah, yeah. No, I agree. It's interesting.

And there was that brief trend. I think that probably Wicked would be the first huge, huge example of it, of famous female villains going back and sort of revising it to humanize and like like wicked is all about humanizing a female villain which is and that's been done a number of times since it was like that weird angelina jolie maleficent movie of like you can't just have a hard female bad villain it's like here's the, here's why she's actually very feminine and gentle and soft in the world made her this way.

Uh, I don't, I don't have a conclusive thought on that, but I think it's interesting. They're doing the same thing with Cruella. Are they? Yeah, with Emma Stone.

Why can't she just be a mean? Cool. Why can't she just be mean? I don't know if it, I don't know if I want there to be an equal number of humanizing male villains or if I just want to just let a villain be bad. I don't know which side of that spectrum I fall on. I think it's more fun to kind of let them be bad, maybe. I don't need to know about when their heart was broken in college.

Right. Wicked. Is that how wicked goes? Yeah. It's like, well, she had a friendship and then she had a boyfriend and then and then now she's mean i do like when a villain is like when their reasoning for being evil is understandable but you still are like but you are definitely the villain but yeah the world did not force you to do this you are choosing to do this like when it's

a villain where they're like oh i'm doing this because this company wronged me and I'm actually trying to be the good guy. It's just I have to kill a bunch of people in the process. Then it's like, okay, well, I know you want to do a good thing, but you are evil. But you're bad. Yeah, but you're bad. Look at your outfit. You're bad. You're bad. There's a skull on it. Right. And unfortunately, we don't get that

much backstory for Phasma, so we don't really know. But the point remains that the movie was like hey let's put more female characters in it than just one so the fact that you do see a female villain at all and then that even in like the original trilogy any scenes where there's like just extras running around or like the people in like the rebel bases they're almost all populated by men and in this movie i feel like it's still pretty male heavy, but you see more sprinkles

of women. There's like whenever they go to Maz's cantina, where there's a werewolf? I don't know. There's like a wolf man. I don't know. I loved it. The world of Star Wars is so populated by these insane creatures that you will only see

for one second. I'm just like thinking about the production designer production designer being like yeah we'll make a werewolf man for a background and then it'll be on screen first i love that though and then 20 years from now there will be a series of young adult novels about that character who's on screen for one second yeah extended universes are fun yeah but uh like in in that scene so people are still looking for bb8 and there's like this evil lady who's got crazy eye makeup and I love it. Oh, yeah. She's like, the droid is over, he's here. Possibly my favorite look of the whole movie.

Yeah. What was her name? I don't know if you ever find out. She gets a name. She only has that one line. Unreal. She's like lounging on a big fat alien. And then gets off to deliver a very hot line and she's got this crazy look and you're just like, wait, who's that?

No one in the world looks like her either. No. No, I don't think other women in the universe are wearing makeup. She looks like she's like. Especially to that extent. Yeah, she looks like a Marc Jacobs mom. Like, what did you, why are you humping this? She's not humping him, but she's lounging on a wet looking alien.

So, yeah, basically my point is just that unlike the Star Wars movies we're used to seeing, this galaxy has more than one woman in it, as you might imagine any galaxy would have. Yeah. In order to exist. Right. Exactly. Who knows? Maybe so many of these alien species are asexual and they just reproduce by like cutting off their arm and then suddenly it's a new person. Or the C-3PO theory of printing out a binary receipt and then just feeding it to someone. I don't know. Well, because most of the main characters we see in these Star Wars movies are humans who presumably procreate in a sexual way.

Yeah, you would think there'd be more women around. I mean, you'd think because they're so hot. Right. Right. They're procreators for sure. Yeah. Again, you know,

it's not like a perfect like 50-50 split of men and women that you see on screen, but it does better than the original trilogy, certainly. Is BB-8 definitively a boy?

Big question I had. If BB-8 identifies female a boy? Big question I had. If BB-8 identifies female, this movie is a masterpiece. And passes the Bechdel test four million times. They probably say he at some point, but I'm just going to... I think they do use he pronouns, but I'm not sure. But what if they're wrong and BB-8 isn't able to tell them? What if they're misgendering BB-8? Oh, and she's just too nice to say anything.

Oh my God. What if in the next one, whenever the next one comes out, we find out that BB-8's been being misgendered and that's a major plot point. Wait, Aristotle, are you looking it up? I actually, I looked it up and the Star Wars wiki, Wookiepedia,

says gender, masculine programming. That doesn't answer the question. It's true. Why would they? Just because she gives off a masculine vibe does not mean. Also, does that mean that she can be reprogrammed to have feminine programming? Oh. Whoa.

But why would there need to be feminine or masculine programming for a droid? Why would that be a thing? And what about BB-8? Does Wikipedia think Reed's masculine? There's a lot of bias going on here. I feel like it's like when you set up your Google Home and it's like, what kind of voice do you want? Or like Siri when it's like, you want a man voice or you want a woman's voice? Yeah, who do you want telling you what to do?

I like the theory that bb8 is a queer icon yeah i think bb8 is for sure queer i want to meet bb8's boyfriend yeah or girlfriend we don't know or bb8's very private yes bb8 is very private yeah bb8 is giving a lot of information but not like sharing you know well maybe it's taking in a lot of information, but not like sharing, you know? Maybe it's taking in a lot of information. They, because I'm going to use the they pronoun. Smart, respectful. Ray will be like, where are you from? And they will say, classified.

That's their right. Classified. You don't even know everything, Ray. Yeah. I think that was a big when we talked about the Bechdel test, I'm like, this movie could pass the Bechdel test maybe 50 times if BB-8 identifies female. We don't know. We don't know.

We don't know. And you know what? It's not our business to ask. Yeah, that's true. They'll tell us when they're ready. That's true. Yeah. BB-8 queer icon.

The last thing I want to say about this movie is great that we get a female protagonist who's driving the story very competent very good at what she does we're never if she is captured it's because she's the one who has the information that's needed not because she's going to be used as bait or something like that of the other female characters we see not many of them get that much screen time like uh leia doesn't get a ton. And it's usually her talking to fucking Han Solo. And he's all like. Well, that's all like fan service though, right? Yeah.

For the most. Yeah. I mean, she's like kind of delivering some exposition and stuff like that. So she is not a hugely active character in the story. But it's good that she's there and in charge of the whole resistance right it is i mean it also it's a definite choice and this could go into like behind the scenes stuff that i would not be aware of but it was a definite choice to make han solo the main character to bring back versus you know han solo and leia both take a prominent role in this movie but Han Solo we see a lot more

he does a lot more and that felt like a choice and I don't know if that was like a story choice or just like a Carrie Fisher wasn't feeling a choice I don't know I feel like it was partially because in the original series he's so much more active and she's like a royalty and like a leader so they're probably just like what are the parallels of that what if he's still active and she's like leading the resistance now but right that's possible also well his reveal in the force awakens whenever they're like i don't remember this character here he is popping out into the screen decaying is like this big like you said like a big exciting moment everyone's clapping in the theater her reveal which happens a few scenes later gets like immediately interrupted because c-3po is like hey it's me remember me

here's my red arm so i feel like she doesn't even get like that she gets like a disservice by like her reveal which isn't very exciting because she's just sort of like slowly walking out into the grass from a ship and then gets immediately interrupted. So I hadn't thought about that. It was still really exciting to see her, but true. It's also like on the heels of his introduction, at which point you're like, oh, yeah, she'll probably be back too. Right, yeah.

Does anyone have any final thoughts about The Force Awakens? Bechdel-wise, the Maz Kanata scene is entirely two women talking. Although I guess they do sort of turn it into a conversation about Luke at one point. Okay, yeah. How much do you have it passing? Because I had it passing, from what I noticed, at least two times between Rey and Maz. That scene where she's afraid because lightsaber and the force, it's about Han and Luke up until a point, and then it passes.

It passes in like the second half of that conversation. I am prepared to argue that pretty much the whole conversation passes, and although both Luke and Han are mentioned, but their conversation is not really about them. So it's basically Rey has her whole force vision whenever she touches Luke's lightsaber. And then she freaks out and she's like, what was that? A shark got in there? Sexual in nature.

And then Maz says that lightsabers Luke's and his father's before him. Now it calls to you. So those people get mentioned, but that's still not what the conversation is about. It's about the force calling to her and the lightsaber itself and not really and then she's like i have to get back to jack who and she says han told me but then he does again it's not about han they're not talking about han any other movie any other franchise though that wouldn't fly i don't think i mean and and that's not to say this conversation doesn't pass the Bechdel test, because it does, but it doesn't for a while. I mean, I don't know.

I think if we're naming male characters by name and saying literally the word fathers, we're talking about men. We are. Here's a logistical question. Would a conversation pass the Bechdel test if it was like two women talking about what they did that day and then they were like and then I drove Dave's car to blah blah blah the way we have interpreted and there's like a bunch of different permutations but we have it just being two lines of dialogue exchange between women where a man isn't mentioned at all so this conversation does pass because there are multiple times where two lines of dialogue

are exchanged without mentioning a man i don't know i feel like saying han and luke and fathers is not passing the battle test um see i don't know i feel like i mean i don't know if we've talked about this before but the context of the conversation is not about those characters they get mentioned but they're not specifically talking about luke and luke's shit in life and all that stuff nor are they talking about han they get mentioned but it's almost in passing right the rest of the conversation definitely passes without any men being mentioned because ray's like i gotta get back to jakku and she's like dear child i see it in your eyes you already know the truth whoever whoever you're waiting for the saber is not they're not coming back the belonging you seek is not behind you it's ahead of you you know i know the force

and then ray's like i've never she's like take oh my favorite my favorite line that i could deeply relate to i'm never touching that thing again i don't want any part of this. Exits. You're just like, we've all been there. Sure. Yeah. Again, the conversation is more about her figuring out if this force thing is something that she wants to pursue. And while men do get mentioned, that's not really what their conversation is about. I'm happy to disagree on it for for me mentioning men doesn't pass yeah but i'm i i understand what you're saying yeah all right well

well uh either way hot discourse i know hot discourse alert did you you said there were it passes at two moments what was the other uh there was like one exchange when they're in the same scene with han and finn where they exchanged literally two lines like it's two lines what fight the only fight and they are speaking to each other directly that's leia and ray leia uh no uh mazen oh okay got it okay so that was those were the two between those characters that I noticed. I think I missed that one. But speaking of Ray and Leia, they do interact, but their interactions never pass the Bechdel test. Because the first time, Leia and Ray just hug right after Han Solo dies.

And they do not exchange any words. And then at the end of the movie, whenever Ray is about to go off and find Luke Skywalker, Leia says, may the force be with you. Ray just sort of looks at her and nods and then turns around. So close. I know, an opportunity was so, it was right there. Those moments are so painful. It's like, say anything! It's like the crazy, not to bring it back to Spider-Man 2,

my favorite fucking movie, but like that scene. It's very good. It's so good. Alfred Molina shines but there that scene was like Aunt May and Mary Jane are in the same scene

the whole time and they're saying vague stuff but they're not saying it to each other or like there's a scene where Aunt May is like alright go make some food

which is already like oof yikes and then Kirsten Dunst nods and then slowly backs out of the scene without saying anything. You're just like, why? It could have.

Frustrating. Indeed. Yeah. This scene wasn't that bad. I do wish there were more female. Because there's opportunities for, because there are more women now in this movie, for more women to interact. But it does happen so seldom in this movie. Like, it would be so easy for Leia to kind of take Rey on as a, like, I'm going to mentor you.

And, like, I've been there before. No, you're not. I mean, it's like just any significant interaction where I wouldn't even, I mean, I'm sure from a Star Wars perspective, this would be an issue. But even if, like, Leia didn't like Rey or, like, took issue with her in some way,

that could be something to talk about where it's like not every time two female characters are on screen together they don't have to be supporting each other they don't have to be like we're we're allies and we're gonna take them down you know whereas i love two female characters in conflict just like male characters in conflict have been every movie ever up until recently. But they just don't get to do it. There's no interaction really.

But hey, what are you going to do? It's a movie. But that's the point of the show! That's the point of the show! We gotta stop cutting Star Wars breaks. They get no breaks. Can't change the industry. Oh, well.

Well, Anne, that'll be a wrap on this. My dream is for everyone to know about this podcast, including, like, all the bigwigs in Hollywood, and then for them to be like, for sure, they're gonna know about us, and then they're gonna be like, wow, we gotta change this movie, because the way it is now,

the Bechdel cast would tear it apart. We'll take them down. I mean, I feel like the Bechdel test is famous enough that there's really no excuse. It's true. Just have two women in a diner say, get me more coffee, Marge. Sure thing, Liz. You did it. High five.

We did it. It's very easy to do. But not even, I mean, most of what we talk about is how active the female characters are in the story, how important they are to the story, all that stuff. Like, I mean,

you should be better than that, but I'm just like better than just the exchange, but it seems like a very easy thing for totally. Yeah. Yeah. But most movies still don't bother. Damn. Anyway.

Hey, let's rate the movie on our nipple scale. Okay. So we have a scale of 0 to 5 nipples. Okay. On which we rate the movie's portrayal of women and how good or bad it does. I'm going to give it 3, I think. I was going to go for 3.

Yeah, cool, cool, cool. Yeah, 3 nipples because it does much better than the previous Star Wars movies. Wow, we now have a female protagonist in this one. She has a little queer friend in BB-8, and it's great. And more people of color in this movie than we see in Star Wars movies, which have been very historically white. Infinitely white. Oh, my God. So, yeah, Three Nipples.

We've got a female character who's leading the story she's the main character she's doing a bunch of stuff she's very good at her job and she is never damseled or objectified or anything like that but because there are still not as many female characters as there could be or should be it doesn't get a higher score than three nipples. I'm going to give my nipples to... Give them away? Oh, it's going to be... This is hard. There's so many hot people.

I want to give a nipple to everybody. Wait, you give away the... You can... Yeah. I know. So, Kaylin has three nipples today. Who's she going to give them to? Ah, okay.

I'm going to give one to Finn. Cool. Hot. Yeah, hot. Hot nippler. gonna give them two okay i'm gonna give one to finn cool yeah hot hot nipple one two ray and i'm going to give the third nipple to a porg who we don't see in this movie the invisible porg the invisible porg that sounds like a really sad dystopian novel yeah the invisible porg you might see one like fluttering around in the background on the Jedi planet that Luke is on at the very end. Hard to say. By the time they release like the trilogy box set, there will be like CG Porgs added to everything. Exactly.

So, yeah, this is for the Porg that will retroactively be put into The Force Awakens. One of my nipples goes to that Porg. What's a porg? A porg is a... Imagine if a rodent were a bird. Oh, okay. I like it. And that's a porg. I think I like it. Right? Is that a pretty good... It's like a chicken meets a penguin.

I like it. But also... But they can fly? But their faces... I can't tell. Whoa, I love the porgs. But they don't have beaks or bird faces they have like kind of hamster face kind of hamster faces yeah like a little rabbit face sort of thing

anyway they're cute and I love porgs okay I'm on board for porgs I'm gonna give it three nipples as well as an objective don't give a fuck about Star Wars party like Rey is awesome there's no I mean, she's the best there. This world is still not realistically populated with women in order for any universe to subsist. So in that way, and it's just frustrating to see where in the original trilogy, i understand it right because you do not know have not seen it princess leia is the female character where we're given a lot of tertiary female characters in this

series in addition to our female protagonists but they're still not given i don't know they're for me they're not doing enough and they're, the main thing is like they're not talking to each other. And there's at least 30 to 50 tiny scenes in this movie where men are talking to each other. It shouldn't be that hard to get two women in the same scene. Always frustrating. Three nippies. Giving one to little BB-8. And we don't know.

We don't know what the story is there. I look forward to the confessional to the medium.com piece coming out from BB-8 I can't wait for the BB-8 spinoff movie it's all beep written entirely in beep code love it

give us the 22 minute BB-8 short before the movie please, oh fuck Frozen and that stupid ass Olaf short anyway. I have never seen a movie before. I've never seen a movie. Wait, can I just say that there is... Coercion's seeing Lady Bird

and I didn't like it. What? Why does everyone like Lady Bird so much? It's really good. She's a whiner. She's gonna calm down. A lot of people whine. Yeah.

Wait, what are you... Sorry. I was gonna say that there is one other notable female character in the original trilogy who I think appears for the first time in Empire Strikes Back. Her name is Mon Mothma. Oh. But she has like two lines of dialogue and then you pretty much don't see her again.

Oh, same. I think she's in Rogue One, too. Yeah. Rogue One, Tokyo Drift. Yes. Rogue One. Rogue One. And I'll give my second nippy to Daniel Craig, because I didn't know he needed one.

That was fun. And then I'll give my final nipple to Maz. Great. Wonderful. Cool. I'm also going to give it three nips, and I'm giving one nipple to Rey, because she does so much in this movie. And I feel like, as much as I appreciated it all three times that I've seen it, I feel like in discussing it now, I'm just like, yeah, holy shit, they did a great job with her.

And then those remaining two nips are going to BB-8. Excellent. BB-8's got three nips. Wow. Well, he needs them. What are they going to do with them? They need them. We don't know.

He's going to store them in his little compartment that he has. Oh, yeah. He's got a lighter in there. He's got a flash drive holder. Stop gendering BB-8. I'm going to scream. Oh, sorry. He's got a lighter in there. He's got a flash drive holder. Stop gendering BB-8. I'm going to scream. Oh, sorry. They.

They, they, they. Well, if Poe says he, I feel like it's safe for us to say he. Although... It's safe to say Poe is an ally to all. Yeah, that's true.

As far as we know. If Poe says he, then they seemed pretty close and BB-8 would not have been so torn up at the thought of no more Poe if Poe had been... Constantly mis Poe had been constantly misgendering him.

So we might have to let that drain. BB-8 possibly not a feminist icon, but still a queer icon. Also could be a trans male robot. We don't know. We don't know. There's so many stories untold in regards to BB-8. Wait, Aristotle, do you have something you wanted to say? He is male.

The entire designing process, they were planning on female. What changed? Who gave that note? Was it J.J. Abrams? Worth saying that this movie was written and directed by all men. It was. Oh, yeah. J.J. Abrams, I think not feminist icon.

Why couldn't a woman help write this? Hey, this was our The Force Awakens episode. I liked this. Star Wars looks fun. It is. It is.

People like it. You should watch the new one. I think you'd like it. Yeah? I don't have to. I mean, at this point, I can just skip the old ones, right? If I enjoyed this one,

I'll enjoy the next one. I'm going to be honest, yes. Yeah? Okay, I don't have to, I mean at this point I can just skip the old ones, right? If I enjoyed this one, I'll enjoy the next one? I'm gonna be honest, yes. Yeah? Okay, good. And you're gonna get a lot of angry tweets about that, but I'm gonna say, yeah, if you enjoyed this one,

just keep going forward. Alright. Yeah, I don't think you necessarily need to go back and rewatch the old ones. Alright, I'll go see it. Leave the past in the past. Is BB-8 in it?

In the old ones, no. No, but the new one? Yeah. More. Yeah. Wow. Okay. No, I won't give anything away

more screen time for BB-8 there's just a lot of porgs I'll say that a lot of porgs I want to get a BB-8 lunchbox

that was what I was thinking and I was like I know this is what the movie wants me to be thinking is how can I get merchandise

but there's a tiny thing on it but I want one I saw a child with a BB-8 suitcase and I was like good Demi

thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me on. This has been so much fun. Yeah, I really enjoyed this. Hooray! Where can people find you online or follow your things? You can follow me at ElectroLemon and I've just started a new podcast called Punch Up the Jam. It's a music podcast where we make fun of

music and then rewrite the music. You can check that out at punchupthejam.com. Amazing. music so you can check that out at punch up the jam.com amazing yeah uh hey you can follow the bechtel cast on twitter instagram you can go to our website bechtelcast.com hey another great thing you could do is to rate and review us on itunes that helps us out with like people you know finding out about us also go to our patreon and subscribe to it it's five dollars a month and you get two bonus episodes. And it helps us out with our production costs and it helps you out with just getting more Bechtelcast.

Yeah, we've got a lot of fun stuff on there. Totally. And may the force be with us all. God bless us, everyone. All right. Talk to you later. Bye. Bye. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th 2017 was

assassinated. Crooks Everywhere unearths the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, and I'm the host of On Purpose. This week, I had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Andrew Huberman. Dr. Huberman is a neuroscientist and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, known for his research on brain function, behavior, and neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to adapt and rewire itself. The expectation on us is not perfections, being able to toggle between these different states. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Trust me,

you won't want to miss this one. Back in 1969, four young musicians from Texas were hired to impersonate the British psychedelic rock band, The Zombies. It was one of the most bizarre and audacious cons in rock and roll history. And now the entire story has been uncovered in a new podcast. All episodes are available now. Listen to the true story of the fake zombies on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search true story of the fake zombies and start listening.