The Flop House - FH Mini #19: Miseed That Movie! - Brainstorm

Episode Date: November 28, 2020

Elliott gives us a report from the field about the Douglas Trumbull directorial effort Brainstorm!

Hey floppers, it's that time again, the witching hour. And you know what that means. Another flop house mini episode, or mini-sode, or mini-soda, if you think this is a soda, it's not though, it's a podcast. I'm your host for this evening, Elliot Kalen, and joining me are two handsome hunks of the heart waves and they'll name their own names right now. What are your names, dudes? Uh, I'm Dan McCoy.

I'm a handsome heart wave. I'm like willing to. Hey, you guys look a little uncomfortable. Why don't you take those shirts off and stay alive. Hey, let me just... You can have a little comfortable because... Let me just peel the shirt off. Wait a minute.

I gave you a... Steakin' all my chest hair. Okay. You ask whether you should just totally drive this one and like just from the start just kick it off and we're like, yeah, we trust you. And then immediately you got creepier than I ever saw before.

Yeah, now I'm really going for a, the same feel as those Calvin Klein commercials, they pulled off the air years ago where they were interviewing shirtless models next to ladders in basements. Do you remember those? No I do. They were gross. They're really gross and creepy. Guys, why do you have so many ladders in the basement? Well it's not how tall is that basement going to be?

Well they're paying the job. It's a huge basement. They are paying to see. It's Michelangelo's basement. He's always paying to see a link. So, guys, now normally Guys on the flop house normally as our regular listeners know and if you're not a regular listener This may not be the best episode to start with or maybe we'll be let's find out We usually watch a bad movie and all three of us and then we talk about it And then we do a lot of other stuff too. Today, however, it's a mini episode. That means we didn't all watch a movie,

but I watched a movie. That's right. It's another installment of our irregular mini episode series missed that movie, in which what? What movie? Thank you. How's that story? That's cool, right?

That worked out pretty well, right? No, that was great. That's Stuart's new? That worked out pretty well, right? No, that's great. That's Stuart's new character, far away guy. Hey, far away guy, how's it going? Far away! It's not evenly far away. He's like falling off a cliff or something.

There's a stopper effect going on. Yeah, we had to step pretty far back to get far away, and he fell off the flip. So in Miss That Movie, one of us has watched a movie and we describe it to the other ones and they tell us whether they wish we had covered the movie or if they watched it or not. And so I watched a movie and I'm gonna tell you guys about it. Are you guys ready? Strap in boys, get ready.

Buckle up, am I being creepy enough? Almost. Yeah. Oh, so I should get creepy enough. Okay, oil up, boys. Let's dive into this one. You got it. You got there.

Okay, so the movie that I watched, I want to tell you about, is the film Brain Storm from 1983, starring Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood in her final film role. She actually died during the production of the movie. Louise Fletcher and Cliff Robertson. That's right, so it is a star-studded cast. That's three Oscar winners, one Oscar nominee in this film directed by Douglas Trumbull, best known as a special effects master, and also directed the movie Silent Running. So, brainstorm, not to be confused with the movie Brain Scan from 1994 starring Eddie Furlong and Frank Langella. So

Sorry guys, we're not talking about Brain Scan tonight. We're talking about Brain Storm. Are you okay with that? I mean, let's see, we're talking about Brain Storm. I mean a storm sounds more exciting than a scan. Yes, you would be wrong. It's not a very exciting movie, but yeah, you'd think a storm would be more exciting than a scan. Yes, you would be wrong. It's not a very exciting movie, but yeah, you'd think a storm would be more exciting than a scan Now would you guys rather have your brain storms though or would you have your brain scanned? Well, okay, who storming it storm enormous words goff the hero of the Persian Gulf war I'll have to go with scan But the scanning is being done by the scanners. So they're gonna make your head explode.

Oh, no. I mean, I really should have might as well. Yeah, it's a real Hobbsy's choice. You're gonna end up with a bruised brain either way. I feel bad for all the Norman's out there who are never stormin'. Yeah. Yeah.

What other nickname do they get? I mean, like, I just had a pill they could help them with that. Yeah, like the Lorman. Lorman. Yeah, possibly. Yeah. Or a or a chairman, like they do all the chores or the Chorman long. Chorman. Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Poor man, poor man, Norman. I mean, that's if he's poor, you're just kicking him when he's down. If he's written, if you're if he's rich, it's an ironic nickname, like when you call big guy, tiny or a bald guy, curly. Yeah. Norman, Norman, just a guy likes Roger Corman movies. Or when you call big guy tiny or a bald guy curly. Yeah. Norman. Norman. Just a guy likes Roger Corman movies. Or when you call Norman.

Norman Corman. Who could just be Roger Corman's brother? Who knows? Norman Corman. Or guys, I got it. It's like when you have a really stiff guy, but you call him stretch. Mm hmm. What?

Wait, stiff. Stiff. Stiff guy. I don't understand. I don't know. The stiff guy. I don't know. I don't really really like my friends, but it's flexible. They are. I told a joke. I don't really bring my friends by how flexible they are.

I told a joke. I am laughing Stuart, but a different way than normal. You're dancing to a good job. It's not up me out here. Sorry, I got distracted looking up Norman Corwin to see if there was a joke about him to be made and there was not so Yeah, yeah, no The stiff guy stretch. Yeah, cuz he's stretching it all out real stiff. Okay guys So have you ever seen the movie brainstorm from 1983? No, okay?

Well, let me give you a little taste of what we're in for. Let me read you the tagline on the poster Wait, is this the one with Eddie for a long in it? No, no, that's Scan, easy mistake to make. This is about storming of brains and not scanning of brains. In Brain Scan, which I have not seen, I have to assume Eddie for a long is an MRI technician who is just making sure people's brains are scanning good. Okay.

He plays a video game where a character named Trickster shows up and then Swallows is head at one point. It's really great. Wait, he plays a video game in the movie, so his character is a video game where a character named Trickster shows up and then Swallows is head at one point It's really great. He plays a video game in the movie so his character is a video game Well in a way yes For parts of the movie yes, you're actually right So it's so is this finally that adaptation of Toe Jam and Earl that I've been waiting for for so long? There's it's not unlike Toe Jam and Earl They both have attitude They both have names that I guess don't completely make sense in context of the narrative

Yeah, I'm gonna help I got up. I got a fantastic one I haven't seen this I can't help you know the other question We're still no now Stewart. I've never seen the movie me and Earl and the dying girl Is that about to jam and I have a brain scheme? Now Stuart, I've never seen the movie Me and Earl in the Dying Girl. Is that about Toe J. Manorolle and a Dying Girl? Uh huh. Yep. Okay. The Me is Toe J.

Yes, that's what I'm implying, Daniel. Thank you. The weird thing is the Dying Girl is the girl with a pearl earring, which you never would have asked. Wow. So toe J. Manorolle and the Dying Girl with a pearl earring on a train. Okay, so here's the tagline on the poster for brainstorm. The door to the mind is open.

Imagine a machine that records sites, sounds, sensations, thoughts, feelings, emotions, even your dreams and nightmares. Then at the touch of a button, transfers these personal experiences from one mind to another, not done with the tagline. Any person, any experience, anything you can imagine. And then the tagline concludes brainstorm, the ultimate experience.

Now that's a lot of text for a poster, right? Yeah, I mean, it seems like that last part in and of itself would just be a tagline that you could use. The ultimate experience, no, but they had to explain what a brainstorm was. It seems like it's also... It's also like in the razor's edge between poster and novella. Yeah, it really, it feels like it is the text from the back of the paperback of brainstorm. I mean, do you think that they were afraid that people would think that it was the creativity

exercise brainstorming? I think they were afraid people would think it was the movie Brain Scan, which wouldn't come out for 11 more years. Oh, well, that's, I mean, that's four-sided at least. No, yeah. I got a little bit of a side tangent, but when I was growing up, I was super into superhero characters, right? Superheroes, like Superman, and Sam Mayer with them.

Yeah, it's Stan, it's a niche thing. Nobody knows with them. It's so real. Yeah, it's Stan. It's a niche thing. Nobody knows about them. So I bought myself a old notebook and I was also I was also I got to go on a side side tangent. I was also really. Tell us about the brand of notebooks, too. Is that what you're going to talk to us about? I was also really into Marvel cards because they had like, you know, like they had a picture on the front and then the back had like a little bit a little bit of bio and then like power levels. Yeah, like they're like, they're typical trading cards. Yeah, it's how I got into, it's how I got into comics was Marvel Universe Series 2, the

best comic book card said ever. Yeah, but it's kind of how I got to college was by being Anthony Edwards. Yeah. So, so I, I created my own life universe of heroes and villains in this in this notebook that I was filling out and they were it was in the style of those Marvel Marvel cards and the like the the first hero the hero that was like my Superman character was a character named brainstorm who's basically Superman but hadn't exposed brain in a jar.

Oh, okay. That's pretty cool. I mean DCS three different characters named brainstorm that I bet you could still use that name. I mean, I don't have to go back in time and make myself not create that original character brainstorm, right? Unfortunately, yes, you're being sued by Warner Brothers right now okay uh... does that also include dot or just wacko nico

just the brothers dot is to is sitting on the sidelines for this okay well i just just echoing wacko i mean i don't know steward that you now you're playing uh... like a uh... a brain man and a jar It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it.

It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it.

It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it.

It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. It's totally worth it. will not starring, but Movie Roll has Tube Man in the movie Psycho-Dormant. That should be good. Now, VOD and Shutter in the Not-Tudist and Future. And also, we are all brains and jars being fed stimuli that leads us to believe that we are physical beings. So, there's that too. Okay, brainstorm, let's talk about it guys. So, the opening credits are real like kind of 90s PC game style floating graphics. It looks like the computers and hackers vomited all over the screen.

And we're introduced to our two main scientists, Christopher Walken and Louise Fletcher. Louise Fletcher's main character trait is she is tough and also constantly smoking. I think in the first four minutes of the movie she lights three separate cigarettes in one scene. They are scientists. They're making kind of a cerebro type brain helmet that can telepathically transmit Sensations to someone else wearing another helmet and can also record those sensations on a huge reel of real to real digital like magnetized tape. That's right. The technology in this is super 80s. It's really fantastic

Everything is as analog as possible and there's just like huge clunky machines everywhere Lots of old video screens and like computers where when you want to press a keyboard button You got to press real hard and it makes a big like thunk sound. Yeah, it's really fantastic They are transmit a lot of different sensations using their test subject Gordy who is the Joker of the group He's constantly just learning and joking. No, not Gordy how hockey great Gordy how just a guy named Gordy, who is the Joker of the group. He's constantly just flirting and joking. No, not Gordy how, Hockey Great Gordy how, just a Guineham Gordy. And he's a steak. Not no, he's a steak covered with marshmallows. And he briefly puts the helmet on an angry chimp so that Christopher Wacken knows what it feels like to be an angry chimp. He's

like, they have him riding horses riding go carts. He's with some babes at a water park and he's transmitting all these sensations to Christopher walkin. Now, obviously, you can just imagine the amazing applications of being able to transmit sensations to another person, right? Guys, just name them. Just name some of these amazing applications. Well, you could send somebody to a water park with babes. You could have them drive a race car. You could have those are all things people can do already. Oh, right. Like how would how would how would being able to send those sensations to somebody over a helmet and record them on tape. How is that profitable? I mean, that's basically the plot of strange days, right?

The people recording their memories and other people get to enjoy that shit. That's true, I guess. That's the way to be in size of what else does mine. You could, one person can watch the movie Gordy about the pig and broadcast it to other people. So they can also see Gordy. Oh, so Dan, you've seen Brain Scan. You've seen Brain Storm.

Because that's what happens. That's what happens later in Brain Storm. It becomes about the, who owns the copyright to Gordy, the pig movie. Because can you copyright the sensation of seeing a film? That's the question that they ask. So I got hung up on Gordy because I was remembering there was like a questions from the movie answer man back when Roger Ebert was alive or someone wrote in and they're like, um, did you actually write like on the VHS cover of Gordy it says kids will

squeal over Gordy and he's like, good I gave Gordy a bad review that was a headline that my editor wrote for me. Anyway, so looking at the at the poster, the theatrical release poster for Gordy, the quote they have actually there is four stars, rollover Beethoven, C. Asimba. This is the year of the pig. Wow. That's pretty big talk for a movie about a pig wearing sunglasses. I think the quote that they decided not to use

was, scar couldn't kill Asimba, but Gordy could. Mm-hmm. So Chris for Walkin and Louise Fletcher, they made a breakthrough. Walken wants to celebrate. He'd be Rudd's home on his ridiculously future recumbent bike to his future house, where he has a son and his ex-wife, Natalie Wood. She also works the same company.

She's going to work at turning this helmet that they've just invented into a product that can be on Christmas store shelves in the near future. And also at this house, I should mention, Chris for walking has achieved every kid's dream. He has a refrigerator in his bedroom, and it is stocked with soda. So he is living the dream. I feel like every kid's dream is getting a soda gun from a bar in their home,

so they could just get soda on demand. Oh yeah, just squirt it right in their mouth. They don't even have to measure it. It's just like bulk barn, just scoop as much as you want at any moment type stuff, yeah. Yeah, yeah, and you can be like, no, no, no, no, no. You can put ice in it. Don't worry.

You can have as much soda as you want. The ice isn't blocking your soda quantities. No, that's how they get you is what my dad would say. Anyway, everyone in this movie I should mention is really sedate all the time, like really just kind of, they all seem like they're on some kind of tranquilizer. And we see this the most when they present

to the board at their company. This amazing invention that allows you to experience exciting things like flying a hang lighter, right in your own brain. And everybody sitting at the table just looks very pleasantly just gonna like, huh, okay, sure. All right, literally at one point, they're in a truck that flies over a cliff and crashes,

and they're just like, all right, okay, yeah, this is a good product. And I gotta be honest, I don't know, I say this now, certainly during a pandemic, this product would appeal to me, be able to, you know, jack into the matrix and experience things out there. Well, no, no, you're not jacking into the matrix, Dan. You have to get a big, real to real spool of experiences and then play it on

the machine and then that will go to your helmet. So is there a pitch that you just like wet wear? Yeah, there's no wet wear would be some kind of organic extent existence type thing. This is very much hardware running software. The hardware is the helmet, the software is these big real tapes of experiences. So you don't like carry around like a fleshy controller that like that throb slightly while you push it. no, and it doesn't you don't have to have a port put into your body To operate it or anything like that's just a helmet No, you know, I'm thinking about like say

Say one of these reels is skydiving, right? If I haven't gotten around a skydiving in my regular life the things that have keeping me from doing skydiving I'm not necessarily, I don't think, buying one of these reels so I can skydive through this brainstorm. Wait, you wouldn't, just because you haven't skydived, you wouldn't, you wouldn't, you wouldn't want to experience it.

Okay. Sure, I don't think that. But Dan only does things virtually that he's done in person. That's why he plays Mario Brothers because he has jumped on turtles to kill them. No, no, I mean, I don't know why I went to that one. There are certainly experiences out there that I would never have that I would certainly.

Well, Dan, maybe some of them are going to come up here maybe, because for instance, I mean, this is an experience I assume you have had. But for some reason, the preview they're showing to these people ends with a sort of glitzy, ends with you being at a glitzy hooters where busty ladies have trays of our derves. And they're like, oh, sorry, sorry, we don't know how that got into the reel. But the thing is, the movie is shot in one aspect ratio. And then for these scenes, it's a much wider aspect ratio. And the whole part of it is like, oh, so they invented iMacs, I guess.

Like it's just iMacs, but it's not a helmet. I should mention that Christopher, so the company loves it. Unfortunately, they going to get the right answer. I'm not sure if I'm going to get the right answer. I'm not sure if I'm going to get the right answer. I'm not sure if I'm going to get the right answer. I'm not sure if I'm going to get the right answer. I'm not sure if I'm going to get the right answer. I'm not sure if I'm going to get the right answer. I'm not sure if I'm going to get the right answer. I'm not sure if I'm going to get the right answer.

I'm not sure if I'm going to get the right answer. I'm not sure if I'm going to get the right answer. I'm not sure if I'm going to get the right answer. I'm not sure if I'm going to get the right answer. I don't know what, again, I don't know what sensations are helpful for the military in recording, but maybe we'll find out later. Christopher Walken, he just wants success. He doesn't care how it happens.

And he and Louise Fletcher have this weird relationship where they're co-workers, and it's not quite clear if they are in a relationship or not. Walken is always kind of touching her and very kissy with her, and at one point because they disagree on the direction of the project. She runs into ladies room and he runs in after her and is just screaming at her in this like futuristic

80s ladies room and she has some kind of panic attack or maybe a cardiac event. It's not quite clear yet. But here's Dan why you're gonna buy this helmet because what is the real use of a helmet where you can record Sensations and then play them back in the comfort of your own home. I'm sure you guessed it by now Yes, exactly because Gordy talks about right spirit. You got it right on the first try Helmets He gets to I guess Yeah, Dan's prizes he gets one of I guess, so, you know, dance prizes.

He gets one of these helmets when they're invented. Gordy, that that level of scamp has recorded himself having sex with one of the lab technicians. And we almost get a scene where Christopher Walken's 12 year old son accidentally puts the headset on when that reel is playing, but this isn't that kind of movie. So that's, that's, this, if this was a crass or movie, it's not like squid or something. Yeah, it's not like Squidward or something.

No, no, but it's like the squid of the way. So what version of Squidward has a scene like that? That's the one with the helmet. I mean, he does wipe some semen on some library books and that, but I would not have, yeah, I wouldn't go with that one. So what was, was it a specific book that he was wiping the Seaman on is that what he gets off on is that that he's disrespecting that one book like take this minecom I think it's just a general, you know like acting out kind of thing going on. I see

No, he there's there's none of that in this. There's no helmets in the squid in the whale and there's no on camera Seeming in this okay, but here's another Each other way use another way this plenty of off-camera scene With Inside the testicles of all the male members of the cast you have to assume I mean, I guess it's kind of like a building block of all the people in the movie too, right? I you got assumed this movie to be the coolest made it.

I mean, it's shot 1982. Oh, boy. You couldn't get, you couldn't hold on. You could not yet create a human life and then raise it to adulthood without in some way using human semen. So you gotta assume it was used for everyone on the film, yeah.

Let's go backwards. The technique is called a building block, though. I don't know. As a point of semantics and biology, to call it a building to call it a building block though. I don't know. I as a as a point of semantics and biology. I don't know that like they you know the semen obviously fertilizes the egg. We all know the story. But I don't know. We all know the tale. We all know the famous love story. Stuart's arm isn't made up of a bunch of it. What? Stuart's arm isn't made up of a bunch of it, see me? Uh, what? That's not like, okay, anyway, let's still move on.

I think I, you know what, as judge of this episode, I'm gonna allow, I'm gonna allow building block, even though that that now creates in my mind an image of like dried sperm used into, it put in like a Lego type mold, and put together into some sort of licensed, maybe Hogwarts castle set. Not gonna think about that, but here's another use for it, aside from sex stuff, where Dan's mind instantly went to. Because for Woken, he gets a glimpse of a tape that his ex-wife recorded on it and sees her feelings about him, but also the memories of their marriage, which involved mostly him being a real jerk.

He hands a dirty diaper, a kid with a dirty diaper to one point, and at their wedding, it's the strangest memories. He starts talking about, let's do the twist in like a vampire voice that they're wedding. It's very, they're very Christopher Walkenny memories, and he gives her a reel of his memories, which are mostly him kind of explaining the right brothers to her at a trip they must have taken

to Kitty Hawk. This allows them to have a moment of emotional connection. They have a night of hanging out together, reenacting their wedding, and having sex. And it ends with them back together as a couple and him making fart noises to make her laugh. The most romantic thing that someone can do. I mean, that sounds oddly charming. I'd like to see Christopher Wulke and do those things.

But well, brainstorm is the movie for you, but watch out. Hey friends, Jesse here, the founder of Maximum Fun, and I have some really great news to share with you. This year has brought a lot of changes for all of us, and one tradition that we were grateful to be able to hold onto is our annual pin sale to benefit charity. This year, through your generosity and love of pins, you helped raise $95,400 for give directly. If you're a member and you bought pins, they'll ship in January. In the meantime, your support will provide direct cash relief to families impacted by

COVID-19 across the United States. Even in this incredibly tough year, the Max Fund community remains extraordinarily kind. And whether or not you bought pins, you can continue to help by heading to give directly.org. And that's always thank you. That's always thank you. Guys can we picture can we picture TV show called Christopher Watkins memories? Sure, okay, let's tell me what it's like on the executive. I'm it now first you have Christopher Watkins for this show I haven't nailed them down I mean don't do that because that I don't want you to actually nail him to anything. Yeah, I assume that he'd be interested in the the the the property once I explained it to him.

Because it's you know, it's sort of a masterpiece theater slash masterpiece theater situation. Okay. Where we come across Christopher Walken, you know, in his leather chair and his library, you know, by the fire. Uh-huh. Sure. And he opens a book of... The library is on fire? The leather-bound book. The leather... Well, there's a fire in the fireplace.

A leather-fire. Oh, okay. Yeah, leather-fire. It sounds like an indie band, leather-fire. Yeah. Mm-hmm. He opens a leather-bound, you know, photo album and he starts telling us a story of one of his memories and then we sort of enter the memory. Uh-huh. Okay.

Kind of the way that Mario Jones threw a painting. Okay, sure. Yeah. Okay. Now, Christopher, so what kind of memories, these would be memories of him and his famous pals making movies together? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

You know, like memories of the bakery that his family owned when he was a kid. It's mostly him hanging around the set of a weapon of choice. The Spike Jones Fat Boy Slim video. Just that one shoot, not any of the other things he made. Just mostly. Just to have been a choice. Well, that's, we have the rights to that right now. And then we do. So you don't have Christopher walking

yet. You have rights to weapon a choice. You don't have that. Well, I mean, weirdly Sony owns his memories of that shoot. The rest of it is under, you know, just Christopher walking himself, but so you have to you have Sony, you have Sony on board

already. Yes, Sony is on board. Of course. I mean, that's huge. You should have mentioned that right away, right away. Because I don't know. I'm pitching it to you. I don't know. I've got Sony on board. Yeah, but Sony doesn't have a streaming platform.

My name's maybe we need to meet. My name's Billy Netflix. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, any relation to the streaming service? No, actually, I work at Hulu. That's why you're talking to me.

It's actually, it's my family, my family. When we first came over from Greece, we were Netflix op office. It was changed to Ellis Island to Netflix. And it's just a coincidence that I happen to be in the streaming industry. I'm a development executive at Hulu. But anyway, so why should Hulu be interested in,

I'm gonna call it Christopher Feast Theater. What makes you think that this is a show that works on Netflix, or sorry on Hulu, I guess, thinking of myself. Cause let me tell you what Hulu is all about. Hulu is about providing the most incredible, syndicated, and original programming, and then packaging them in a menu

that makes it nearly impossible to find the things that you wanna watch. That's the Hulu mission statement. That's our big objective is we want to tantalize you with the knowledge that there are shows you want to watch. And yet you cannot find them. And my favorite thing is when you find a show that you want to watch and you are on an episode and you're like,

wait a minute, I want to see a different episode. It's like, well, no, no, figuring it out. We don't want you to do that. And if you finish an episode, we want you to watch that same episode the next time you come on Hulu Yeah, just because we know you watched it and enjoyed it. Hulu is all about making you really work For the enjoyment and we think you're gonna like it more because for instance, okay, have you guys ever ran a marathon? Okay, that's not gonna analogy

No, I have it. I have a plan. Okay, what about skydiving? Have you guys ever skydove? No, I haven't done that. Would you put a helmet on your head that gives you the impressions of skydiving? Actually, I'd be kind of scared of that. Okay, well, we don't have that technology, but if we did, we would make it very difficult to access the thing you want to do. In fact, we'd make it difficult for you to find the helmet. We probably paint it like invisible paint, so you could need, you'd have to stumble around feeling for it.

But anyway, so Christopher Walken, you got him for the project? Yeah, well, again, we haven't locked down his memories beyond him being on the set of weapon of choice, but I think that, you know, if we're in negotiations, we could have him be on the set of weapon of choice. But I think that, you know, if we're in negotiations, we could have him be on the set of all kinds of things. We could have his memories from being on the set of pennies from heaven. I mean, it's just in one scene, but okay, sure.

From being on the set of Catch Me If You Can. Okay. His memories of being on the set for that live production of Peter Pan. Sure, where he was Captain Hook in the chair. He was playing the part of, he was playing the part of Captain Hook with calcium density issues. A lot of people don't know that that's the way he was

playing that character. Because where is he going to get enough calcium and never never land? I don't see any cows. There's no milk or cheese. Answer me. Answer me. The question, Dan, where is Captain Hook getting milk or cheese. Answer me. Answer me. The question, Dan, Dan, where's

Captain Hook getting his milk from? Answer me. Maybe he milks that alligator. That's why he's on it. I mean, sure, it doesn't make any sense, but maybe never, never land alligators are mammals and feed live young milk from their own bodies. Hey, speaking of bad streaming interfaces, so I signed up for... Go on. Because we eventually want to watch the new Bill and Ted movie. Oh, okay. Like I was watching the old ones with some friends and Audrey who hadn't seen it.

And we signed up for stars because like you could get a free month and... And they spell it in a fun way. Yeah, I spell it in a fun way. That Z makes me know that that's a party. But I was even though Z is usually the letter of people used to register sleeping. Interesting. Like a slumber party. But if you use the stars app and you go to their movies section, they just have all of

the movies in the interupt uh... movies spelled with a z at the end ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha experimental film. Right. Now I'm just saying that like all of their movies are just sort of dumped in a section know like genre divisions and not alphabetize. Well, that's a great job right? Do they have slumber party massacre with which is both a sleeping movie and a party movie? I think they cancel each other out so that's a lot. Okay. Okay. Yeah, it's a double negative Dan you may not realize that stars is tagline is actually a big old dump of movies So guys let me tell you about what happens in this movie, so okay Sorry, the army wants to use it for obvious reasons, but it's best applications are for sex or are they because one of the one of Christopher Walken's co-workers he takes that sex tape home and becomes addicted to it.

Although, he soon feels fine. He gets over it pretty quickly. Like Robert Palmer, he's addicted to love. Yeah, in a way. Sure. And he's also, what's the other song they did? Simply, or is this the one? Uh-huh.

Yeah. Did he have any other songs? Those are kind of the same song, right? Those are the same song. Yeah. I believe they basically have the same video as well. Yeah just those ladies dancing. So one night in the lab Louise Fletcher,

she accidentally seems to cut her wrist on a boom box if I understood correctly and has a heart attack and dies. And she records her dying sensations using the helmet. Now Christopher Watkinson charged the project and he tries to play back that tape. But it's too much for him. So he sets up his computer machine so that it's not as intense as otherwise it would be. So it's all the computers. Okay, sure.

And the government guys, like moves the intensity slider down so it isn't quite as intense. I mean, he turns off a few of the sensory outputs, but the government guys, they tap into the feed and play it to Gordy and they do not it safer, and Gordy dies while listening to it. And Christopher Walken experiences the sensation of Louise Fletcher dying and then her soul leaving her body and entering a universe of bubbles containing her memories. It's too much for me to wake up in the hospital, and his boss is like, I'm pissed at you. This tape is locked away, and I'm played by Cliff Robertson. So I know a thing or two about scientific experimentation. That's right. I was in the movie Charlie. I wanted to Academy Award for it, dude. And he's

like, whoa, okay, okay, I also have an Academy Award. I wanted Academy Award too. And Louise Fletcher's character has died. He's like, I also have one. So they talk about their Academy Awards for a little bit. Christopher Walken though, he's determined to play that tape to the end. He gets tipped off to hack into the computers of the company, the computer machines, Dan, and use look for a project file called BrainStorm. This appears to be a secret government project to record the minds of people having extreme

psychotic episodes so that they can, I don't know, throw it at people in war. I'm not quite sure, sure again what the plan is. They're gonna put this helmet on. Yeah, and it's one of these movies where Christopher Wacken hacks in and someone's like, hey, he's trying to hack into the system and then the guy's like, hold on, let him do it.

I wanna see how far he can get. And he gets all the way. He gets the thing that he wants. And he gets the matter wars. And it's so, will they put the helmets on like a little flying guillotine, contraption and guys like, like, gonna chuck them on the enemy's head. So it lands on their head and then drives them,

yeah, drives them psychotic. Yeah, I have to assume that's what it is. The no word on the one-armed boxer program that they were also putting together. So he plays that psychosis thing. It's too much. He rips his helmet off, but uh oh, this is the kind of movie where his 12 year old son will put on the helmet and experience

an extreme psychotic break. So that happens. Now Christopher walking is taking it personally. He's so mad. Is that played for laughs or is it? No, it is not like he's not like, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, glory. No, it's it's played for tragedies. It's played for his tears.

His boss is like back off take a vacation. So he does. He and Natalie would go on a vacation together, but it's all a ruse. They pretend to have a public fight while they're being spied on. And their fight is hilarious. She goes, you go to hell and he goes, you go to hell too.

And she goes, you go to hell and he goes, you go to hell, go to hell. They just say go to hell each other And she goes, you go to hell. And he goes, you go to hell. Go to hell. They just say go to hell each other a bunch of times. They storm out. David Mammoth wrote that fight for them. That's why they say reputation-based. I mean, it was all of the Meisner technique

they could really make it sing. But it was all a trick to escape surveillance. They go to their separate places. And while they talk on the phone and pretend to have a meaningful conversation about the relationship, they're actually both hacking into brainstorm. Christopher Walken manages to hack into the assembly line making brainstorm helmets and makes the robots go haywire, they're shooting firehouses at security guards, the factories throwing

up with foam, it's real silly. And then Christopher Walken loads in, leaves Fletcher's death tape. He reenters that crazy vision of a world where memory bubbles are flying around and he gets, I forget why, but he has to run away. He gets pulled out of the system. He has a, now he has a mobile computer

that I don't remember him that he brought to the on vacation with him. He uses it on a pay phone and he dials up that death tape again. This time he watches it all the way and he sees. That's right, Louise Fletcher has recorded hell and heaven in it is a very a very goopy kind of like in the mouth of madness hell that you see for a moment and then he ascends from earth into space and is watching angels floating towards heaven and basically and just look normal style or do they look

like old testament style where they're like I don't know like a flame with a crown and like a spiral of goat legs or like that movie where like they fight all those angels that we watched and the region where the region where the angels were actually weaker than normal humans classic they are they look kind of like fluttery sheets like a sheets fluttering in on a clothesline so So they're not- Not sheets, the convenience store. No, not like that. It's, they're like, it doesn't look like an angel where it's a person with wings.

And it also, yeah, it's not an old testament angel where it's just an alien's flying saucer that primitive people saw. And thought, where's the divine thing? Cherry, it's the gods, guys. Look it up. How could pyramids, a very simple shape that anyone, any child can make at a blocks? How could that emerge in two different parts of the world at the same time, unless aliens

were coming down to build pyramids so that predators could hunt aliens and xenomorphs in them? Guys, explain to me. How is it possible? Guys, just open the star gate in your mind, you know? I know two people invented the telephone and two people invented the telegraph and two people invented the television separately. And the theory of natural selection also come up with

by multiple different people. But pyramids, only one possible explanation, aliens flying around the globe, dropping pyramid seeds like a regular Johnny pyramid seed. Mm hmm. Well, I'll fact check that with my time life mysteries of the unknown series and I'll get back to Elliot. That'd be great. What if they, do you think there's a guy who has, does the new additions, and he's like,

I have to fact check and make sure all these things are still unknown. Oh, wait, we know about this now. Remove it from the book. Do they like send out updates to people? They're like, hey, news flash, we know the Loch Ness Monster was a fake now. So a dendom, please insert this into book.

So he first of all, can seems to collapse and die. And Natalie would have like, come back, come back, come back. And he goes, okay, and gets up. And he goes, things are great. I love you. And they could become a memory bubble in space. And then the credits roll. So it ends with Christopher Walken having a transcendent vision of heaven

and realizing that, ooh, heaven is a place on earth for them. So guys, that's brainstormed. The art bubble at the end? Well, all memories become bubbles. It's more a way to graphically transition out of the film than anything else. Okay, so this movie is like if in flatliners instead of dying they rented the movie flatliners, uh-huh, and they experienced what it would be like for their character and flatliners to die

Yeah through the movie. What? Cast in that flatliners. Am I right? Oh wow. Yeah. So many young stars. Keep your southern end. Boris Karloff, Lillian Gish, Algerau, and the Armstrong, and the thin man, Lassie, Rintin, Tin,

Cups, all the big dogs. It was Cups of Dog. Cups is a movie that features Tony Goldman and Christian Slater and me, Joe. So what am I thinking? And is there a dog in it? Probably. I mean, don't most movies have a stipulation

that there has to be at least one dog in it, or else it isn't technically a movie? Yeah, that's the 13th Amendment. Yeah, actually, 30th Amendment is the anti-slavery amendment. I should have chosen a less important amendment to say that's the 13th amendment. Yeah, actually, 30th amendment is the anti slavery amendment. I should have chosen a less important amendment to say that about. Let's say that the what number is the amendment that lowered the voting age to 18? That could be. Yeah. But guys, so brainstorm is a story of

science gone amuck and people being very calm and occasion and in one part, in one part you do see boobs. So it's great. Is brainstorm a movie that you are glad you missed, sad you missed or you have to go un-miss it. Yeah, that's, that's, I don't know. It sounds pretty, it sounds pretty good. Like I'm tempted to say had to go un-miss it.

Like I'm going to go watch it right now. How does one watch brainstorm? Do I have to go back in time? What's... I mean, going back in time to 1983 when it was in the theaters would help. I recorded it off of Turner Classic movies. I don't know if it's brain streaming anywhere. Oh, so I can just go to LA at the house and watch it.

No, I deleted it from my DVR after I watched it. Seems they consider it to Stuart. Yeah, I mean, I already know. Are you? Yeah, I'm in a car. That Yeah, I mean, I already know. That's true. Are you? Yeah, I mean, I can't. That's why I'm always so good. You're in like Kansas right now, like kind of halfway between you and me.

OK. I'm going to sit. I mean, like, I'll just go with sad. I missed it because you know I mean part of me wants to miss it but if look silent running is great but it's not known for being zippy and I've got I've got a feeling that brainstorm also might have that that trumble drag to it. And just because I haven't heard much about this movie. You would be correct. It is a movie that really takes its time all the time.

Yeah. And I also, I didn't mention the subplot about Christopher Walken selling his house. Oh wow. And having second thoughts about that, there's some other stuff going on with some of the other characters. I didn't tell you everything that was going on in it. It's a slow movie. It's a slow,

stately movie. It's like the Barry Lyndon of science fiction movies. And that was all lit with candles. I mean, it's beautiful if you like looking at old analog 80s technology, which I do. Honestly, that's the highlight for me, is just seeing all these old computer monitors and stuff like that. But there is a scene where Christopher Walken learns they are assembling brainstorm helmets

to send out to consumers. And he's just watching the assembly line for quite some time, at least four minutes, I think. Three or four minutes, he's just standing there watching robots moving stuff as if we've never seen an assembly line before. Yeah, that sounds great. Do you think that Douglas Trumbull ever got

Dalton Trumbull's mail back to them? Probably, well, they lived together. They were roommates. So all the time, yeah, yeah. Very confusing. Yeah. Well, that was all I had. Yeah.

Fair to say. Sure, to you have any any other jokes by people whose names sound kind of like Douglas Trumbull kind of like okay Wait I do Trouble Big Trumble in little China. Yeah, sure Wait a minute. I mean, we all know the famous story of when the movie Nothing But Trouble came out. And Douglas Trumble sued them, thinking it was called Nothing But Trumble. I don't appear in this movie.

He was like, wait a second. Have they been following all my movements with hidden cameras? So they can make a movie about me. I didn't agree to this Dan Ac Acroyd, you purve, and then he sued him in court in the case of Trumble V Trouble. And of course, the judge quickly was able to put things across. The judge made it through the first 25 minutes or so

of nothing but trouble before having a serious psychotic break of his own and having to give up. And at that point, it was considered that Douglas Trumble dropped the case and nothing but Trouble was marked unfit for human viewing by the FDA. Yes, it was put in a barrel and sent to that medical supply shop from Return of the Living Day. It was rated R for real bad.

Yeah. And this whole story was collected in the movie Trumble with the curve, right? Yeah. Exactly. The adit we folded all together. Now you can finally rest. Let me just walk over to this freshly dug grave climb in and put a third on down there. Lie down in there. Yeah. All right. Well, well, we did it guys. This has been another missed that movie. We missed the movie. If anyone has thoughts about brainstorm or this episode,

please write to Dan McCoy at his home address. Daniel McCoy, one, two, three, fake street, any town USA, Brooklyn, New York, or just write to the Flawpouse podcast. I don't have the email address off the top of my head. We can find it on the website, the URL of which I also don't remember. Please feel free to tweet about the podcast, Instagram about the podcast, or TikTok about the podcast.

Anything you want to do to help us spread the word of the flop house. I want to give thanks to my boys, Dan McCoy, and Stuart Wellington, and also my viewers sense at my boys, the TV show, and underrated Jim and to our editor Jordan Cowling for hopefully making this episode make some sort of semblance of sense. Guys, do you have any final words before I murder both of you at the end of the episode? The final, my final words are the email is the Flop House Podcasts at gmail.com.

How was I to remember that? And the website is www.flophousepodcast.com. So the email is the flop house podcast, but the website is just flop house podcast. Here's the answer to that question, the applied question there. You didn't actually answer one, but ask me. No, okay, I'll ask you. My real question is, what happened to brand standardization, Dan? I'll cross the line.

Well the answer is back when we started this podcast, no one thought it would be worth a lick. And that we would have listeners who would care and that there was a reason that we would need to optimize growth, funnel people into the right places. And so a lot of real shoddy work got done in those first few years. Luckily, it's a tight meme machine now. Yeah, and we push through it and we are now worth one lick or one third of a Tootsie Roll Pop. Stuart, what did you want to say?

I just want to say on the subject of streaming services that are not particularly well organized HBO Max. Not a very good service to use. It fails half the time, and when I do get to use it, it takes me forever to navigate the menus. Now, I love HBO Max in some ways. I don't like that I cannot use it on my Roku brand television, and instead have to stream it off my laptop using a program that I purchased for that purpose. But here's the great thing about HBO Max. If I'm looking for a particular Looney Tunes cartoon, HBO Max says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I can't find those.

I'm gonna give you all of them. And it means that I never know what Looney Tunes cartoon I'm gonna show my children because I can't find the particular one I'm looking for. Just watch the undoing with them. They'll find that. They get to watch Hugh Grant's shockingly more lined face than I expected.

And Nicole Kidman's alabaster-like, uh, unlined face. It's pretty amazing. It's kind of a, like, a studying contrast. It's a collection of faces. What are you gonna do there, Emilection? I don't know. Trade it. Trade it?

I mean, there's something that a, there is something a serial killer would have. It's a collection of faces. Like in the Glendale's and film Veronica. Yeah, okay, so the wheels have come off in this. The wheels are no longer on the bus, they are off the bus and the bus is getting over a cliff to explode as in the season and series finale of the young ones. And so I will thank my co-host, Dan and Stewart and I'll thank you, the listener, and I'll say, good night.