The Watch - What ‘Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One’ Says About the State of Action Movies. Plus, Checking in on ‘Hijack’ and ‘Full Circle.’

Episode Date: July 17, 2023

Chris and Andy talk about SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher’s impassioned speech during the press conference announcing the impending actors strike, as well as the current status of the picket lines (1:04). They discuss what makes ‘Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One’ so impressive, the high-variance state of action movie filmmaking, and whether or not the film’s villain worked (11:35). Then, they talk about why the television series ‘Hijack’ and ‘Full Circle’ are worth your time (44:51). Hosts: Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald Producer: Kai Grady and Kaya McMullen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Ask your doctor about trimfaya. Tap this ad to learn more about trimfaya, including important safety information. This episode is brought to you by Brooks. Running connects us to a rush of energy that flows through our world. The cheers of friends that unlock a new gear within us, the intersection of interest that inspires a run crew, the support that gets you over the finish line. Connection is why we move forward

and what inspires us to keep going. Let's run there. Learn more at brooksrunning.com. I need supports to have to clear the room. Stand up and walk now. Hello and welcome to The Watch. My name is Chris Ryan. I am an editor at the ringer.com.

And joining me in the studio, better known as the entity it's Andy Greenwald do you think of me that way? No, I think you would be a terrible AI, honestly. I would be the worst AI. Like if your consciousness was the one that was inhabiting the AI and we're talking about Mission Impossible

Dead Reckoning Part 1 today. We're going to talk a little bit about full circle. We might talk a little hijack. Yeah. I just wanted to get a temperature in the water here. Okay. And the temperature is rising. Just, you know, we had... About what you're dealing with today? Well, I personally think that you have lots of qualities.

Thank you. But I don't think omniscience would be like your strong suit. Scraping the world of data and processing, it doesn't seem like something you want to be doing with your time. I don't. I would say that at least performative omniscience is one of the jobs of podcaster. That's true. That's true.

So I have no hesitation claiming some sense of omissions. No, I would be terrible at that. Chris, we have to get into all the content. to discuss today, but I think there's something more pressing. Well, I was going to ask. I noticed that you've grown a Che Guevara Beard. Many people can't see that. And I wonder, was that just strictly off of Fran Drescher's speech?

Fran Dresher's speech with the ether beat, placed under it, which I think you sent me. Well, because we had this conversation on Thursday. I think it got, as our pods have gotten over the last couple weeks, a bit dark at times. I don't see it that way, but go on. And then Friday, you know, as the actors walked out, Fran Drescher, who's the head of the SAG, did this speech in front of a lot of press where she just let Bob Iger have it.

She let the big shots. People know this by now, but it was kind of amazing because Duncan Crabtree Jones, who was the chief negotiator, gave remarks, telling everyone what everyone at that point knew was going to happen, that SAG after was on strike and would be hitting lines that morning. I think it's Duncan Crabtree Ireland.

I think Duncan Crabtree Jones is like, right. He plays, holding midfielder for Southampton? Also, he is my AI data scraped mashup between the chief negotiator for SAGAFTRA and David Bowie's son who directed the Warcraft film. And that's why we fight.

A dishonest podcast would fix that. But we are transparent. So he gave his, whoever he was, he gave his remarks. Actually, he's a really compelling figure and he's on your second favorite podcast. Matt Bellan, he's the team. town. My second favorite podcast actually is Wiser than me, hosted by Julie Lue Dreyfus,

where she interviews older women about what they've learned. But my third favorite podcast is... I can't tell if you're being serious. I am being serious. That podcast rules. So number one, Bill Simmons. Yeah. Number two, wiser than me? Well, number three, Terry Gross, fresh air. Oh, yeah. Number four is what? Maybe that I'm listening to a lot of the town, yeah. I'm a really special when you're on it. Right? No need to take a shot at Sheel and Reim. I love Sheel Rehom and Ben Soak. I just like, when you're, I listen to my guy.

That's nice. That's nice of you. Anyway, he's really good. He's on the town with Matt Bellany last week. But after he finished speaking, Fran Drescher stepped to the mic. And it was the first of what would be many. Oh, right. The actors are in now moments because she spoke off the cuff. No prompter.

Just like Jay-Z. Yeah. And she really brought it. And she was really compelling. And I'm like, this is, this is a different, this is a different animal now. So that was my big topic for you. Yeah. I wanted to see how you were feeling about that.

What did you want to talk about? Oh, no, I was feeling, I mean, I was out there Friday morning and within minutes of arriving. It was a little bit of a warm day, I would say. Yeah, it was hot Friday. And the first, I was waiting for my friend, Allison, to meet me. We were going to walk. And then I saw someone in full Mandalorian armor with the microphone, like in his helmet.

and people would be like the writers are walking by being like uh and he was holding a sag after sign and he was his companion was was it pedro pascal it was as much pedro pascal as the actual mandolorean as far as i know and with him his companion on the lines also with a sag after sign was a woman who was like a lady grito and they were wearing like full leather full cosplay and i was like this is different now this is going to be cool this is going to be cool this is cool yeah uh anyway it was awesome it was awesome Because there's so many more people out, the energy is very different. And I think this is going to change things. Yeah.

I'm pretty fired up about it. Yeah, I was at Sun Valley this weekend. Oh, yeah, what was the mood? Lots of people were talking about the Mandalorian guy outside of the Disney Gates. They're like, guys, how are we going to come back from this? That guy has a code. That guy has a code. So, yeah, that's my update from the lines.

It's hot, but it was good. It was warm. On Thursday, we talked about Indiana Jones on the Dial of Destiny. No, I know you want to actually do work, but I wanted to bring this up because I might actually be relevant to our recent conversations that you've characterized as, I believe the word you used was dark. Yeah, a little bit. To me, when is it the most dark, Chris? Before the dawn, that's right. No, before my next podcast.

I make it darker. Shout out Leonard Cohen. And this weekend, we were socializing. I believe you were talking to a good guy, Alex. What was the framework of the conversation? Was it like, do you guys disagree on things outside of the podcast? podcast. Because there was some conversation about how we get along when

we're not. Oh, I don't remember. I don't remember what the prompt was, but it must been that. Because the next thing I knew. Our buddy Alex Natus, we were talking to him and he was like, somehow we got onto the subject of our life outside of these walls. Oh, because he was asking, I think he was asking you like if our music tastes align. Oh, and I said no.

And then you stepped away, and he came over to me and said, like, Chris was talking about your music taste and I was like, we're in lockstep. Oh, yeah, because I said Andy's more twee. Yeah. And I was like, get back over here right now. And I was like, yeah, that was probably true in the late 90s, but I think I'm a little edgier now. Not compared to, you know, you are more resolutely hardcore. But then I think the conversation became, do we disagree about other things? Because we often agree generally about TV and

movies. And you were saying, for example, that your favorite pizza in Los Angeles is some Detroit nonsense. Do daddy. And I gave you a look. Can I quote you or do you want to say what you said? No, I don't like how you, you don't allow me to have like, my things. It's just like, yeah, I don't like how you, you have like a very defined sense of aesthetics that I think applies to almost everything in the world. Right. And you, like, aren't like, oh, that's cool. You like that pizza? It's like, no, no, no, no. And I'm just like, it's not your mouth. You're not eating the pizza. I wasn't angry. I was just disappointed in you. Because it's Detroit style. But so you were saying, why can't I have this? And that was fair. But then- We're definitely in dog days of summer.

podcast. People were escalating it. And then they were like, well, could you guys, somehow it became like, could you guys run something other than a podcast? You make it sound like we were fighting in the Coliseum and there were thousands of people cheering us on. It was Alex who was probably trying to figure out how much longer he had to stand there for that conversation.

And then Mallory came over to make fun of your socks. Yes. And I took your side. Thank you. But the bigger point was, could we run a bar together? Well, the question was that I posed was like, would we be able to be able to be able to to settle on a shared bar aesthetic. Aesthetic, right. If we were managing a bar, because we can do it on a podcast.

Let's say, let's say your agent came to you and they were like, Andy, we need to find another revenue stream that's equally as dependable as screenwriting. Let's open a bar. I had this phone call except for the last part. Yes. And I was like, and you and I were going in on a spot together. I'm thinking about this a lot because in Philly in my mother's neighborhood, O.S. is my favorite bar in America, bad brother. And it's really made me think a lot about bar aesthetics. I think they have the perfect bar aesthetic for my tastes, right? I was talking to you, and we were really drilling down on what would CR and AG's

pint spectacular look like? Pint Palace. My thing is, we agreed almost entirely. Almost 95% except down to, like, snacks. I think we got it. Well, no, we didn't disagree on snacks because we just didn't narrow it down. We agreed on a lot of things. Like, no fucking mixology.

Yeah. Just like fewer choices. You said at one point when you were like talking about the snacks, you were like, I would love a bowl of almonds and olives. And I gave you a straight up day of the soldado look back. That's fair. I didn't say, to my defense, I was like light. I would like there to be like one or two things done well.

But then we were like, we both agree with some good potato chips you can buy like at a pub in England. That would be good. But then you, by the way, you were like a hot plate in the back with a guy, making burgers. I was saying that's an option. It's a cool option. Like a flat, a flat top where a guy can throw down some smash burgers. But no, but my thing was no, and I feel like we agreed on this, no alterations. No like lettuce. You know what I mean? It's just like squishy bun cheese burgers and he'll make that for you. Sure. Yeah. With a lit cigarette in his mouth. Like Jamie Lee in the bear. She's, she's prepared. Jamie Lee Curtis in the bear is our chef. And my favorite moment, and we'll move on from

this, because I do think, I do think the only. thing we want to talk about other than Dead Reckoning, which I'm very excited to talk about, is this bar. Yeah. Alex was like, jukebox, and we both gave him the Detroit pizza look.

Yeah, well, no, first of all, like, my Detroit pizza look is two thumbs up. You gave him my look. And I said, I said, fuck, no. I'm not interested in other people's ideas

about what they want to listen to. Now, when I was young, when I was young, and we would go to, like, boat or Great Lakes or whatever, and the jukebox would be there? Did I go on some, legendary runs, you're damn right I did.

But I'm pulling up the ladder, man. Like, we're not fucking, we're not doing this. Like, when you see nephew Kyle at Frolick Room and he's like, I'm on song 52 of my run here, I'm like, that's not what I'm interested in my experience being. I want the

bartender to put on a playlist that he has decided is the vibe of the night. And we have the same vibe. People were like, we're going to play Tom Petty's Damn the Torpedoes every night three times. People talk about your presence on the jukebox at Commonwealth in like 2003

they talk about Gonzaga in certain certain tournaments you know you just ran through it I invented the fucking McConaughey's smoking gift from True Detective because it was me the first time they started digitizing jukeboxes and I was just like plotting a goddamn ICBM

launch it's worth the days okay so fucking archers of loaf but then Otis Redding but then this be on the lookout for this be on the lookout for this this. Just sorry. This is Kai's first time producing us and I'm sure he's enjoying

himself quite a bit. Oh, did we tell him to I thought we were starting now? Here's what we're going to do. We're about nine minutes into this. I feel bad. On Thursday, I feel great. You were like we have a necrotic dying culture. I said it. And then on Thursday afternoon, immediately

after recording you went and saw Mission Impossible, Dead Reckoning Part 1 and texted me as soon as you got out of the theater and you were like, can we start recording right now? We are fucking back. Hollywood's back. I want you to let them know we are back up.

I saw it Friday. I loved it. I wanted to ask you something, though. Yeah. How can I be taken seriously? Do you think that your reaction to those two films speaks to the thing

that I was talking about that I don't think is even exclusive to you? It's this idea that we're swinging from these poles of it can either be the saving grace of cinema itself or the thing that is

like planted inside of it to destroy it from within. Like, was Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning just really good? We don't have a middle anymore. And when you say we, do you have a mouse in your pocket? What?

Do you have a mouse in your pocket? Who's we? America. Okay. Why would it be a mouse? No, you ever heard that phrase? Like a little friend. Somebody's like, we can't do this.

And it's like, do you have a mouse in your pocket? I've never heard. Who has said that? I think my wife. Okay. I think it's like my wife thing. That's incredible, though. I would like to commission a full report, a house report.

But point, Jack Smith can investigate this because that is a wild phrase that I'm into. But with the confidence with which you just said that to me, was completely. I think that you're right. If you guys think, do you have a mouse in your pocket as a cool phrase, send your replies to add Andy Greenwald on Twitter? you'll get a vibrant response. I think, yeah, I think that that is one way to look at it, that everything is too extreme. It's either the best or the worst.

That's both generally how I react to things, but also where we are as a culture, because there's not that much middle ground anymore. Yeah. But not just in terms of consensus, but in terms of quality. I also think that, I thought that, I mean, yeah, I don't want to bury the lead.

I thought Dead Reckoning was great. It's bangers. It's great. I thought it was great. And I thought it was great in a way that I'm interested in talking about specific to it. But then also it reminded me how hard it is to make things that are good, certainly on this level. But that quality, I think, does show and does win out. And I think the reasons for doing things also matter.

Tell me a little bit about your relationship to the franchise itself. I have seen all of them. Have you long held it as like the crowning? No. No. And in fact, I feel like I'm certainly part. of the larger conversation shift towards that. I think when McCory took over in 15...

McHugh, yeah. I mean, that's what big picture hosts call him. No, that's what they call him on set. They're like, McHugh, came up with this idea. Like, McHugh, what do you got a mouse in your pocket? Yeah, right. So that's the vibe on set. I wondered if that's, like, the way, like, Bill calls UCR,

but I've never heard anyone else call UCR. So, like, on set. A lot of people, I think, now do that. But not a lot of people, like, just in my life, like, I feel like... They do? Like, Amanda calls me. are sometimes. Amanda calls you Sierra?

Go ahead. What were we going to say? Hold on. I got to text Amanda. There was a huge shift both in the type of movies they were making and I think the general vibe of them, but then certainly in the way that they were received. And I think that actually speaks to your original question, which is, did they, did the movies get appreciably better or did they just maintain a level of quality that made them outliers increasingly? So that's a good way of looking at it. Necrotic development process. Did Hollywood get so bad at making big movies that the fact that Mission Impossible remained good at making good movies, big movies, like make it into the shining

city on the hill of blockbuster filmmaking. So I'm not sure. I think that these movies are just broadly, I think they are good. And I don't think it's necessarily a comparison in a one-to-one thing. But my experience going whiplashing from Dial of Destiny to Dead Reckoning was really remarkable, not just in terms of my opinions about them on the podcast, but when I was watching Dial of Destiny and there's car chase after car chase, and I feel nothing. and I just want to look at my phone

but I would never do that in the theater but in the same way that I would at like with the Marvel action scenes. It's like oh, this is time to power down for a while. That's like comparing like single A baseball to like the 27 Yankees. Although Clearwater threshers are crushing it in the Phillies.

I sent you an article about it I don't think you read. But my point is about that I was wondering in Dial of Destiny if it was me. Like am I just, do I just not care about action sequences anymore? I understand what you're saying.

I think that You know it when you see it. You know, and it's like when I watch John Wick, I'm like, Stahelsky is just operating at a different level than 99% of the other people. And I think the other person that 1% is McCory and his team. There's a car chase relatively early on in on the streets of Rome. We're going to be spoiling that Dead Reckoning port phone from now on. It is staged with such wit and verve and style and it's coherent. And more than anything, my takeaway from the movie was that it felt like it had a real connection

and connection to an understanding of what has historically made action movies compelling. Going back to the 60, like Hitchcock, which I would, you wouldn't necessarily call Hitchcock an action director, but there's a sense of tension and, and movement, you know, that I'm talking about. And when you watch something like Dead Reckoning, there's all these cutaway shots to clocks. There's always clocks on things, and clocks makes you feel something. You have a sense of time. There are these establishing shots of what the physical space is. What's going to happen?

You see it land on the character's faces what might happen in this time frame, if they don't, whatever. And you are drawn in and you're drawn in. And when the characters are human or handcuffed together, or there's some other hijinks, like it awakens other senses other than just being beaten to a pulp with spectacle. And it's a wonderful feeling to have that in the movie theater. You know, it matters. and the entire I mean I could be glib

and being like I was all the way out and I'm all the way back in because I also saw the Killers the Flower Moon trailer in the Alpenheimer trailer and D-DU trailer and I was like all this is sick.

Hollywood's awesome. But it made me feel really good that these things can still be made but it also it reminded me A, how hard it is to make good things and we can talk about what we think it might take

to do those things but also just how especially hard it is to make good things in an atmosphere that does not necessarily encourage or support those good things. You know, it was interesting coming out of this weekend

because there has been some chatter about the disappointing domestic performance of this movie and that it was like underperforming and if not even Tom Cruise can open a movie, like, what are we doing? And I think that when you go back and if you look at some of the numbers and I'm not like particularly beholden to these

and nor am I, do I give a shit, honestly? but Mission Impossible actually is much more of a global franchise. Like here it does about 250 and then everywhere else. Yeah, everywhere else is where like, I mean, and that also suggests why they shoot it in Abu Dhabi and then they shoot it in London and then they shoot it in, you know, in Ghost Protocol, they have, you know, a huge India sequence. Like it does very well around the world. It is a global franchise.

I think that it takes care to have a kind of like flattened geopolitics, whether or like the Russians are typically like the bad guys, but then it's more like usually like secret syndicates of... The Russians were victims of the entity too, buddy. That's true. RIP, all the guys on the Savaspoil. They really thought they dodged one.

They had a brief moment. We did it. There was a lot of that. I'm trying to picket something here that I've been having a hard time articulating, which is basically that when Ghost Protocol came out, which is the Brad Bird movie, and especially when Rogue Nation

came out. I think by the time Fallout came out, we had sort of established like this revived fascination with this franchise and with Tom Cruise as the last action hero kind of thing. That's when that really that narrative really took hold and I was interested to see that in the sort of

adjacent chatter to this movie coming out, Fallout is considered to be the best of them. Yes, and I think I've seen some people say like it would be impossible for it to reach the heights of Fallout because you probably die as a human being, making fallout again.

Right. But when Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation came out, I kind of felt like those movies almost were in the zone of like the edge of tomorrow, like where it was like real heads know these are good, but for the most part, they are one of a huge buffet of movie choices that you had in the mid-2010s, right, or the early 2010s. And Ghost Pro definitely was like after a dormant period after Mission Impossible 3, and I think it was like getting its footing

and there's the whole like Jeremy Renner part of Ghost Protocol where it's like are they turning this over and then Midway decide, nope, nope. And then Rogue Nation is quite cool and very convoluted but quite cool and then obviously fallout is Fallout. As the movies start to go through the,

obviously like the, I wouldn't want to say death rattles, but as the movies start to really become shaky as time goes on, now this film has taken on this sort of outsized importance where I fucking love this movie. But this movie is almost

like a self-erasing algorithm when you're watching it. Do you remember that there's like a whole sequence in the desert in this movie by the time you get to the 90th minute of this movie? Oh, I remember nothing about any of the movies. Right, because it actually, as a story, as a narrative, it's not like

one plus one equals two in this movie. It's basically like listening to a playlist of a movie. It's a greatest hits of a movie. And it takes whatever it needs and discards the rest. So in this movie, in part seven, for the first time, it suggested that Ethan... Part seven, part one. Part one.

Ethan Hunt had a life before the first movie. Yes. And it retcons this Issaim Morales character as a villain that's haunted him his whole life. I can't wait to talk about Gabriel. I watch. It basically dismisses the Michelle Monaghan marriage plot, which was resolved in the last one. Well, yeah, because they've done... They've done a bunch of Bondian kind of like writing in,

like Michelle, my Michelle Mana Hunter Man is dead for most of course protocol, but then is back, and then she's back at the end of fallout. And then she's back at the end of fallout. But my, I guess, I mean,

there are a couple reasons, I think before we get into the specifics as to why I really think these movies are good. One of which is it absolutely, this is, I think this is Cruz and McHugh. I'm going to try it. Doesn't feel great,

but I'll try it. Absolutely know what movie they're making. Yeah. What movies they're not making. And because, of that, the ratio of emotional, I do this for my friends with just almost, almost like, utilitarian expositional conversational dumps versus just action. Like, it's correct. You know, this movie takes itself just seriously enough to land, but it is light on its feet. You know,

that's very hard to do. And I think it understands that. Another idea that's occurring to me, almost as we're talking, is in a moment when filmmaker after filmmaker walks into Marvel and then does the press circuit and something that we love to make fun of, where they're like, well, you know, this is really our parallax view. Or Secret Invasion is our La Care story in the MCU. You know, all the things that they themselves probably do like that they claim they are, they are riffing on or whatever. Mission Impossible might be the only actually film literate franchise of the modern era,

not just because it almost began as an attempt to bring in film POVs, right? The first movies. A notorious sensibility with the franchise's legs. It's De Palma. It's Wu, and then it was JJ Abrams and Brad Bird. And even if the last two don't necessarily match up to the first two, they have very specific aesthetics that they brought to the franchise. The thing that McCory seems to do, and I don't really know that much about him.

I've listened to him on podcasts, including talking to Sean. and he's very erudite and witty about how these things get made. He clearly, like Tom Cruise, loves movies. And so when he sets the beginning of this one in a submarine, you know he had a blast rewatching Hunt for Red October and Crimson Tide and whatever else. And maybe Kelsey Grammer film Up Periscope or Down Periscope. I think that was pretty cool. And Tarantino's print of that, though, you have to watch that.

At the new bet, at 10 a.m. He's excited to play with that and bring it to the franchise. The finale of this movie and the train is legitimately breathtaking and thrilling and does make people like, oh, it's a thrill ride. When I go on thrill rides at amusement parks, usually the best ones make you laugh. Like, you cannot believe you have a loop-to-loop or whatever. That scene made me laugh because it was so exciting. And it was classy, and it had like a sense of filmic storytelling and language that in a classy, you know, it just, he's doing that. Yeah.

It is aware that it is a movie in a really exciting way. It's not just saying I had open-a-eye scrape what is movie and then showed up to set. It was interesting because, so obviously, Andy and I are spoiling now some major plot points of this film. So if you haven't seen it, I think we can't discuss it anymore without really revealing some stuff. And I wanted to get to one that's sort of the main spoiler of the movie, which is the scene in Venice where Rebecca Ferguson's character, Ilsa, gets killed. Right. although I've seen some speculation that they're going to try it and that she's going to be revived somehow.

I found myself deeply moved by that scene. First of all, it's just incredibly well orchestrated and operatic and like these two people like having a sword fight on a bridge in Venice as Ethan is misdirected by an AI that's taken over his comm, so he keeps getting sent down the wrong alley and around the wrong corner. And not just any bridge, like the best bridge. It's just like when the car chase is in Rome and they're always in front of the Coliseum somehow.

Like, use this. Don't just go to Atlanta and be in a volume. Do this. She gets felled by Issa Mora Alice's character, Gabriel, who is working for the entity. I have a lot of follow-ups about that. And I was like, fuck, this is, like, really amazing. Like, this is, like, some Sergio Leone,

like, beautiful showdown shit. And I was like, who the fuck is Ilsa? Like, I was like, I don't remember. I mean, like, no, I, let me tell you something. I have watched multiple times within the last three years, Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation, fallout, and I've seen this once. I don't know that even I who actually cares about, like, trying to be like,

what did the syndicate want? And how did he pretend to be John Lark? And all this other stuff, I don't really know, like, who also was. And also, like, I'm sad that she's dead. But it was just one of those things where it's like you can have almost every, gesture towards like you can get very far on gesture alone without actually having the baseline of like oh the audience has developed this like multi-year relationship to this complicated character who's always playing her allegiance is one way or the other and you're never sure

where she is but she seems to have finally right at the ship and right then as she sacrifices herself for the greater good like that's when she loses and i i was like yeah you know i guess i guess i get it on that level and i'm obviously very like emotionally invested in the scene but i actually have no idea why she went to the bridge other than it was written by the entity that it would happen. But also, that's what movies are good at. One of the things that has broken movies, if not entertainment, is the comic book sensibility of everything has a backstory and there's an asterisk in the word bubble that says, remember that, dear readers from Avengers 271, who cares? Some people, and that's great for them, and that's a fun rabbit hole to go down. But you don't

actually need to know these things because visual storytelling can compel. you without the burden of too much information. And I think they understand that very, very, very clearly, you know, that we understand everything we need to understand about the Ilsa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Ethin-Hun relationship when they stand at a balcony in Italy for 20, not even for 12 seconds. Yeah. 12 seconds that, you know, I'm sure in a different franchise or in a different moment, that would be the first thing that would be advised, you'd be advised to cut. You have that moment and they're there together. We get it. Yeah. Done. Yeah. Fine. Anybody could walk to this movie and get that that's a tragedy.

And the other reason is because it's Rebecca Ferguson. And she's good. And that scene in, by the way, one of my favorite subgenres of movie scenes is AI future raves. Anytime there's a big party where people like in pansexual robes are raving, I am all in and I love it. And this one was the DJ was an AI. Terrific.

Terrific. In that scene, you have our guy, T.C. and Ysai as Gabriel. And you also have Rebecca Ferguson. You have Haley Atwell. You have Vanessa Kirby. And? Yes.

Palm Clementeve, who might be the MVP of the movie. So you have all four of them. Yeah. They're all awesome. Yeah. And it's an embarrassment of riches because, again, McCorrey's casting people who are really, really, really good

and going to be good at this. And not to take unfair backward shots, but, like, I don't know about Palm, because French is her native language, but although she's very good in Guardians as Mantis. The other three, any of the other three, I think, would have been better in Dial of Destiny than the beloved Phoebe Waller Bridge. Hmm.

I really thought about them. Not because I don't love Phoebe Waller Bridge. It's that I do think that being a contemporary action star is a skill set. Yeah, right. It's a skill set to be Haley-Atwell and to be clever and charming and also fierce and balletic and able to pull off these things in a certain way. Ferguson is the best at it, maybe. And I like, again, that even when they make Mission Impossible,

they respect what it is that they are doing. They are not looking down on it, but they are casting up towards it. And I feel like that was really just baked through throughout the entire thing. I've been thinking a lot about the mechanics of modern blockbusters and action movies specifically, because my other favorite film of the year so far

is probably John Witt, Chapter 4. I mean, I talked about it on the big picture with Sean and Amanda. It's not dissimilar from Dead Reckoning in that it is essentially a two and a half hour collection of truly awe-inspiring, like take me to the temple and show me this action scenes with relatively sleepy or forgettable chamber dialogue scenes.

And it's an inversion of what like kind of movies sort of are supposed to be in some ways where it's like these giant sort of set pieces subsume the rest of the film. So that I do think it's like pretty enjoyable to just kind of sit there and every 12 minutes you have your mind blown but in between it's going to be Simon Pegg and Ving Rames

being like, we're doing it because we're friends because we believe in you, Ethan. And you're just like, whatever. You know, I could, I honestly, like, this is cool but like the idea of trying to like divine some kind of like through line of their, you know, what their friendship is and what they mean to each other.

I am generally contemptuous of this idea, but I actually would be interested in the Paramount Plus prestige drama that just tells the story of Luther's life in between the movies since 1996. Somebody should do the Luther cut, where it's just Luther's scenes throughout these movies? Didn't, when I read somewhere

that it's possible that Ving Rames has not been filmed standing up? I know. Since 2010. Tom Cruise was like, look, buddy, you're never going to have to stand in a movie again. Or I got you. I think being a movie other than these. He's has a, I'm sure he has a great life.

Yeah. I mean, he gets to travel the world. He gets to sit in vans all over the place. So my point was more just that like when you think about a film, like, say, War of the World, it's another Tom Cruise film directed by Steven Spielberg that has five or six amazing jaw-dropping sequences. There's also this incredible investment in the relationship between Tom Cruise and his kids as they try to repair their relationship. on this road trip to get from New York to Boston, which you and I have done that trip.

We've had similar. We haven't repaired shit, you know? So shout at to Stephen Spielberg. This bar is going to be a reality show. And yeah, so have we, quote, unquote, lost that, the ability to make a movie like that or like the fugitive where you're as equally invested in Dr. Richard Kimball as you are, Dr. Richard Kimball jumping off a dam. Yes, I think we have lost a little bit of our,

Because I don't know that they really I mean like you know part of it is part of it is that McHugh apparently does a lot of like we'll figure it out when we get to set you know and we're gonna write this movie as we go Haley Atwell's talked about like I didn't really know who this person was they kind of cast me for me

we did a lot of stuff that's not in the movie we did stuff on the day of that I didn't like that I then had to like revise. Also remember everyone's like it's going to be great for Paramount because they're going to knock these sequels out and just film them back to back and they started filming this one in like 20, 19 in 2020 and

first headline when the SAG strike hits is that Mission of Possible 8 stops Oh my God, are they still shooting it? Yes. Oh, fuck. Still shooting it. So it's maybe not cost effective. To your point, you're asking the right question, I think, in terms of what we should expect from our entertainment.

I would argue that something like Spider-Man No Way Home, which I think generally we would be castigating because we are looking for something that can We're looking for a movie that can do both that isn't big franchise or like big IP, but that movie did. I was, I was,

you know, and that's the secret sauce of Spider-Man as a character that I cared about Peter and MJ and et cetera, et cetera. I think ultimately it's not fair to expect that of Mission Impossible because, again, Mission Impossible knows what it is, and it is the cinematic manifestation of Tom Cruise's mania. Yeah.

He's just a, he's a piston, and this is the train car. And that scene when the locomotive goes off the exploding bridge and it's, you know, it's little, little gears are pumping. I'm like that train looks like Tom Cruise running. Yeah. So a Tom Cruise movie, War of the World is an outlier. It's also more of a Spielberg movie than it is a Tom Cruise movie necessarily.

This is a Tom Cruise movie, and he is doing this for us. That's a good point. He hasn't made movies with, you know, he spent a lot of the 90s and aughts making films with the biggest filmmaker. with Paul Thomas Anderson and Steven Spielberg and all these people, he was just working with all the great directors. And as various different things have happened over the course of his life,

and I think he lives a different kind of life now, he works with Christopher McCorry. On everything. And I think that he's like his own industry unto himself. What life after Dead Reckoning Part 2 means is for him, and if he doesn't make another top gun and he takes a break for Mission Impossible,

Like, do we get Tom Cruise acting in a normal movie again? I don't know. It's really curious what will be next because you can't say no to him for anything. He will not stop. So any suggestion that these are the capper of these movie series, I don't believe. Yeah. But he's going to mean his 60s. He is in his 60s.

I mean, like, he's going to be in his later 60s once they, if they were like, let's do another one. I don't know how much longer he can do this kind of movie. I wanted to ask you a couple of things. First of all, you know, the train sequence, I think, is obviously one that will think. about and diagram for the rest of our lives. It was so good. What was your, what was another? Like, I personally was super into the Abu Dhabi airport stuff.

Like, I thought that was great. Shea Wiggum was awesome in that scene. Shea Wiggum is awesome in the movie. Like, we're, look, we're big Shea heads here. Yeah. Right? He has entered that zone where he's good in everything and you're always happy to see him. But again, that's just smart casting.

Like that's, you want that to be the guy chasing him with that look. I have a lot of questions about his wardrobe, which was just like, it was just like Talbitt's plus. I want to know about Gabriel just showing up to like train fights in Banana Republic Did you see his kerchief collection? Both word spelled with a K.

He looked immaculate. I'm sure like it's much more expensive than Banana Republic. I'm glad you brought, you mentioned the Abu Dhabi thing though because it is all the types of things we love in movies in one movie. The Abu Dhabi piece.

The Abu Dhabi piece is crucial. It's crucial. Yeah, because that is, you know, that's fun spycraft shit. And then there's the car chase that is both incredible car chase, but it's also comedy because they're in the little yellow car. It feels celebratory. It did not feel turgid and long to me. I love that. I also got to say, shout at Henry Churney. Incredible, bringing my guy back. I fucking love the green

powder explosion scene with Delaney and Adir Varma and like that and Marquette and Charles Parnell. Yeah. My guy Charles Parnell is like just, and by the way, at this point in his career, Tom is just like, let's just do solids to all my buddies from the 80s. So, Issaim Morales is the villain. Carrie Elways. Yeah. As the secretary or the head of national security. Director of National Intelligence.

Or whatever it is. Who cares? It's great. It's a great scene. But Henry Churny, like, had it for a minute was always that guy. Wasn't he clear and present danger or something? Like, he was always... He's always this.

He's the bureaucrat, evil bureaucrat. Yeah. And he had a 30, almost 30-year hiatus. and they bring him back and great. He's great at this. Nobody delivers those those like just chewy speeches like he does about the nature

of what it is that we do. Can we unpack the entity and Gabriel for a second? This is when we might go a little wobbly. So Gabriel has been a presence at Ethan's life for more than 30 years where he killed an other agent who maybe Ethan was involved with named Maria.

Or we learned that Ethan was a criminal before he was given a choice to give up his life of crime, but also his life. And become an IMF agent. And that may have come post-Gabriel? Right. Okay. Possibly?

I will. Okay. And then Gabriel was not working for a fledgling AI at that time, I imagine. Because that's way more Nokia wave era. He had an Apple Newton. He's just holding it to his ear like a seashell. Hold on, I need to plug into the main.

I need to get my DSL. My information is. on the BBS. Right. The entity is sending me an ALL instant message. The entity says I have mail. But then are we supposed to kind of,

did you view Gabriel as a kind of true believer character the way Sean Harris' character was in the, like, or kind of, I guess, I guess sort of Sean Harris' character was in the previous two films? First of all, Sean Harris' character in the previous two films. What more can I say about him? Do you know what I'm talking about?

He was a true believer. Yeah. That's one thing we'll definitely say about him. He was very, very... Why do you sound like the manager of the Cincinnati Reds? Repeating my... Do you know who I'm talking about? I, broadly, he was the villain.

Yes. I guess you could say he was committed to his core beliefs. Do you think that Issaim Morales has... He's evil in his own right, but do you think that, like, the entity... Right. Like, what's his, like, compensation package, like, with the entity? That's what I'm just asking. It's so great when he's like...

They're like, the thing about Gabriel is he loves to hurt. Oh, did you just come up with that on set? He's a ghost. Remember? Like, you can't see him on the software. No, again, this idea that there's just a rogue computer that's mad about shit, okay. Yeah. Fine.

Like, let's just move on. And I think that's what the movie does so well. Drive this fucking fiat into my face. That's the only reason. These movies do not. exist to teach us collectively a lesson about the perils of AI driving nuclear subs. Yeah. I feel like we're good.

We're good on that. One of the reasons why most of those action scenes work, especially the Rome car chase, is that Palm Comptiv is actually acting her action. Like, she actually has a character in those. I mean, and her character might just be like, I am strangely vibing on the fact that I am driving a Humvee at your fucking face. She wants to break stuff. But it's awesome.

She's so good in this movie. Do you think... If it had just been Isai Morales, you'd be like, Ethan, you have come to the place that we always knew you would come to. He's really handsome, though. He's beautiful, man.

But, like, if that had just been the vibe and there wasn't someone who was like, I have slicked back peroxide hair, and I like to fucking drive my truck over stuff? What I think you're saying... She has fucking gemstone energy. I think what you're saying is she likes your tracks on her Fourth of July playlist.

more than she likes my tracks. Yeah. She likes post-hardcore a lot. Like, that's the vibe she's giving off. No, there's... Yeah, I agree with you broadly because the ethos of this movie is we don't take any plays off. We don't, we don't, like, just throw away an opportunity or a character or a story or a plot. You know, we just...

Everything is turned up. Yeah. And it knows what it is, you know? And I don't want to get super grandiose about it because I just loved it, and that's a fun experience. but I do think if you pinpoint or if I did this everyone has their own

taste matrix but if I like made a mood board of the 10 movies that I've seen and come on this podcast to say I absolutely fucking love this movie and I'm hype about it and they would range from

Spiderverse to the Nicole Hollifson or movie to TAR to Mission Impossible I feel like people be like you are not a focus group they really are only 10 movies I've only seen 10 movies that is correct

But the reason I point this out is because a common thread in those would be they absolutely have a deep aesthetic and creative understanding of what they are and they push all the way in on being that thing, which is the antithesis of we have a superhero movie scheduled for release on June 25th. That's simply what it is to me, you know? And no matter how many butterworths you throw at an expensive movie project, if the reason for the movie, existing is a corporate release date for a mandate. There were two Butterworths writing on Dial of Destiny. Oh, Jess. I got you. Okay.

For me, oh, I'm sorry, sorry, Chris. It's like, it's like, do you have a mouse in your pocket? Got, got you got. This is just a phrase that I. How many Butterworths do you got in the pocket? Well, it is a, it is in the Kathy Kennedy who runs Lucasfilm Playbook, right? Which is if there's a problem, you throw talent at it, which has worked historically in Hollywood.

Sure. I don't mean to make light of that as an instinct. but you have, if you're going to make an Indiana Jones movie and then she just pushes all of these talented people into it to try to make the best of it, you're not going to end up with the best of anything. You're going to end up with what you end up with.

You know, it's just a different way to make movies, but I don't know if that is a way to make movies that is sustainable for the way these companies work and the way people see movies and bring it all to bring it full circle. It's bizarre to me. the narrative that, oh, well, this is actually a failure of this movie. It didn't save Hollywood for the second straight year.

It didn't end the strike. It didn't end the strike the day it began for the actors. But it's like, can anyone? What can? You know what I mean? It just feels like there are a lot of very, very heavy conversations being, possibly. But there are a lot of very heavy questions being thrown around all the time about the fate of theatrical and blah, blah, blah. this one movie can't do all of it.

And as you said, McHugh just getting to Rome being like, just catching a vibe here. Yeah. $600 million later for two movies, that might not be the best way either. Well, I think they had to shut it down a bunch of times. I mean, obviously, like, that film was like right in the, like, mouth of the line when it came to COVID stuff.

Yes, but still, it might not be a repeatable way. I mean, we said this last week. This might just be singular. Yeah. But, God, it made me really happy. The playoffs are here, and you can predict the action all the way. to the finals with Fandul Predicts. Follow all the playoff dishes, swishes, wishes, wishes, and misses.

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Download the Priceline app or visit Priceline.com. Actual prices may vary, limited time off. What do you want to talk about? Would you like to talk about Full Circle episode two or would you like to just touch on hijack? I do have a hijack point

I'd like to take to you. I think we should touch on both. I think going from our action brain to TV action brain and hijack is not bad. You know how like when you're watching

Mission Impossible and you're just like I'm not even going to really try to kind of fill in the blanks here or make this make sense because what are we talking about? You know? So last night I was watching

hijack. I was watching episode three. Mm-hmm. I fucking really like this show a lot. Yeah, me too. I am mesmerized. This is like an old school Harrison Ford performance from Idris Elba.

Like I'm starting to get like a little distracted where I'm like, if you just want to sit in your plane seat and badger the guy next to you for the entire time, like, that is actually entertaining television. But all this stuff that happens in this show, so my wife was like half watching. And she would like look at her phone and then she would look up and then she'd be like, well, why haven't they done this? And I was like, they actually addressed that. like it is pretty watertight so far. Right. As crazy as it is, I don't know, I'm sure episode, maybe you've watched episode four or five,

and it's going to get, like, less explained or, like, you know, a little bit more high, like, far-fetched. But so far, and the three episodes that I've seen. I mean, there are things like the pilot, they catch the pilot chatting with another passenger while playing a pirate game, and they're like, who are you talking to? And then he says nothing, and they hit him with a gun, and they forget to ask him again.

Yes, right. There's a little water leaking through there. Okay, yeah. But that doesn't bother me. I guess what I'm saying is... They could also just have somebody... The pilot could just be in the cockpit with a guy with a gun to his head the entire time

and they could be like, don't you change the course? Yes. Every time they're radio, say something. It's a TV show. I'm just saying the whole thing with the blanks. Yeah. I was like, this is pretty cool.

I thought that's where I want to start. Sorry, and this is for episode three on. I hope people are watching I Jack. I guess I would say my argument for why I like the show isn't that it's accurate to lived experience of hijacking, you know, or that they've thought of everything.

I think they thought of enough. And the rest they get by with gumption and Indra Selba. Yeah. And didn't you guys have a word on big picture for this type of movie? Like the Jard Butler movies. Sky Trash. Yeah.

I mean, isn't this sky trash? It feels more like a British thriller in the air to me. Yeah. I think a lot of what we're seeing is essentially like a very well, done however many, I think it's like six episodes. Six episodes. A very well done six episode British thriller that they then put

jobs money on and so they were able to get the fucking full Dubai air set. And so it's just, Kingdom 2-9 is like, it feels enormous. But for the most part, there's a version of this show that's just Archie Punjabi running around London. Yeah. I'm on the phone. I'm on the phone. I'm on the phone.

It does have the energy of some of the BBC shows. It's not on like vigil. I agree. It just has a bigger budget and a bigger star. I agree. I, you know, similar to what I was saying about movies, like I just feel like they knew what they were making. Yes. And they enjoy what they're making.

And there's no nose. They're not holding their nose about any of it. Like, this is the type of story that it is. So let's go. And I find it really entertaining, really compelling, enjoying it much more than I thought. I felt like we'd just check it out on a lark. I wanted to ask you a question. It's fun.

And I don't mean to make light of any kind of hijacking situation. No, God forbid. But since we're talking about a show called Hijack, I thought I threw this hypothetical at you. Right. Were you to be on Kingdom 29? What was I, can I get a little background from my character? What was I doing in Dubai?

Stopping over on, like, it's like your connection from maybe you were going to Asia. Maybe you're going to Safari. I don't know. Maybe there was an art fair that I wanted to check out, you know, in Dubai. Yeah. So you're in Dubai. You make your connection. I'm going to put you in premium economy.

Is that like comfort plus? Yeah. Like I get a sandwich. I'm not giving you Delta 1, but I'm giving you like a nice enough seat. Okay. So middle of the plane. Right. Towards first class, not in coach, whatever.

And this happens. When do you start like, I guess I'll just read my book or maybe I'll watch Inception? Like when would you start to be like I'm thinking about anything else but what's happening? Thank you for this question. I've spent 40% of my time watching this. show running through some scenarios. Kind of like Dr. Strange at the end of Infinity War. Yeah.

And finally in episode three, I did feel represented on screen because we do see a woman who is just furiously trying to listen to a headspace meditation. Yes. That's what I would do. Because the usual avenues towards blacking out reality were not available to this. I don't believe the beverage service had begun and I don't know what kind of how robust the mixology program. in air from a Dubai flight is going to be anyway.

So that's not going to be possible for me. The guy, the bloke in 18C with the pills, I don't think he's near me. You know, so I don't feel like I can get anything from him. So I would definitely be scrolling through. But he collected the phones, didn't they? Yes. No phones, no Wi-Fi. So I imagine maybe movies aren't playing.

I don't know. But, well, on some airlines, they have like an audio component in the onboard entertainment. They have some ringer pods on some planes. They have some ringer pods. Yeah. Just some. And they have a couple like headspace meditation apps, but I feel like none of them would be relevant to so you're being hijacked at this moment. But I would do that.

What would you do? You're a pretty chill flyer. I'm a chill flyer, but I'm like, I like to stretch my legs and I like to go, honestly, take a leak. You know, like, I just like if I'm, like, if you're going to be sitting for that long, I'm just like, you know, I'm going to get up and. go to the bathroom, just walk a little bit. So I think that the hostility that the hijackers are exhibiting towards anyone needing anything, like say, insulin would probably be a neg for me. You know, I think it would be a mark in the con column.

But, yeah, I was trying to figure out, like, at what point would my, like, undiagnosed ADD kick in? And I'd just be like, well, I guess I'm just going to start writing down every Premier League player I can think of or whatever. Yeah, I wouldn't be at my best. No, I don't think so. Because they're flying together, we could really get a lot of planning done on our bar. Well, it's interesting because wasn't, like, didn't recently like Sean and Amanda flew together? Yes.

Like, next to each other? Yes. On a long flight. For a 10-hour flight. And I think they were both, I think they had a great time because they're friends. Yes. But also, there was a moment, right, where they were like maybe we have different flying energies. I feel like we could get through it even with our disparate flying energies.

No, you and I would be fine. We're both only children. We would have like subterranean understanding of when the other needed to go and do the thing. That's probably true. That's beautiful. I also think that our general strategy would be different from the guy in episode three who really zagged. Oh, that guy is such a cuck. Which guy?

The guy's like, let's find the blanks. I bet we can just rush these dudes. Actually, I'm not going to do that. But also, I'm very good at making myself throw up on command. Sure. Respect. I could do that. could you do that?

Yeah. I don't think I could do that. Yeah. If somebody had a gun to my head, I'd be able to make myself throw up. I mean, I would throw up constantly. What a weird pod. Because the gun to my head. No, no, I meant the guy who's just like, oh, no, Uncle is dying.

Oh, yeah. And he's cut to Uncle, clearly dying. And he's like, Uncle needs his insulin. They're like, ask the other Muslim guy. And he's like, cool. And he stands up. And he's like, I'm getting his insulin, asshole. That's not how the scene.

It essentially does. He's like, hey, I'm getting this. He's like, sir, can I get the insulin? He's like, sit the fuck down. Right, but then when he decides to get the insulin, he isn't like, I know we discussed this, and you told me to, and I quote, sit the fuck down, but like my uncle's dying, look at him, you know, guy to guy. Instead, he gets up and he's like, I'm doing this shit bag. He's real aggressive. Well, I mean, no. I don't have an uncle. I don't have an uncle, but I wouldn't like, I mean. Wow. You don't. No, I have an uncle, but I don't travel with him. So I don't know. What is the level of, what is the level of familial connection that would get you up at gunpoint? You know what I mean? an uncle, a parent, yeah.

Co-bar manager. A business partner. Also, no child would crawl through the aisles. Speaking of family, I wanted to ask you about episode two full circle. Yeah. A tale of two families. But we're coming back to hijack, right? Eventually.

Great. Yeah. We're really enjoying it. What did you think of a second episode? Because we had talked about it. I had watched the two. You had just seen the first one. You were like, this is sick.

Second one, Charger, which is essentially, it's a very short, very nail biting episode of very confusing stuff. So I think that it helps actually to watch two and think of it as the second part of the first episode. And also that this will all sort of start to be revealed as the season goes on. I was interested. I understand why they put two up because they very much are parts one and part two of something and have different energies because one is very expansive in expanding the circle,

if you will. Yeah. Two is much more focused. I will say, and I hope this isn't controversial, that my only slight, slight, slight, slight criticism of episode two is that I didn't understand a single fucking thing that happened. Right. Do you think that's a problem?

I don't. Like when you were like, who is this guy who just died of a heart attack playing chess? That was the least of my concerns. I genuinely, genuinely did not understand what any of them were doing or why. Like, I understood what Timothy Allofant was doing. I understand, I understood that part.

And they got the money and they signed the autograph and what they thought they were doing. They were working hard to save a kid that they didn't know. And and or maybe they didn't know as we learned at the conclusion. The everything coming from Mrs. Mahabir and her rice circle and Garvin comes and they, they have a, they think someone is a rat, but they shoot someone. Yeah. But then also the acupuncturist sister has the bike in the place that they, none of them knew they were going, but they're going.

And so they shoot the dummy. So maybe I understood it. I mean, that's essentially what happened. It is a really, really, it's one of the most complicatedly plotted shows that I have maybe ever seen. And I mean that as a sign of just like absolute like tip of the cap to Ed Solomon and to see. Sure. This is, I am always like don't insult the intelligence of the audience. And this is like, boy, you guys must have some fucking smart guys in the audience.

Yes, there's no handholding. Yeah, there's no handholding on any of it. And also, I think there's like, there's some stuff that's just like, just go with it. And there's also some stuff that's like, I don't really understand the vagaries of the postal inspection service or, you know, what's going on with the Mahabir, like, crime family and what's going on with Chef Jeff. I'm enjoying all of it. But, yeah, in that second episode, I think if you just watched like the Oliphant driving around being freaked out and finding out that he was late. and he obviously has some sort of secondary secret that he's thinking about. Like, that's all you really need.

I would also say that in like, if I had a personal crime family rankings, the maha beers would be up very high because I love a 2 a.m. champagne party. You know, like, that was just a wild vibe for the middle of the morning. Yeah. Like, that was pretty chill. I think it's interesting. We talked a lot about Soderberg and his inimitable style and particularly like this run that he's on.

And I think run is the right word because he's just, he's a shooter. You know, he's just, he's just filming stuff and going through story. This is not fair to make as a blanket statement because he's made so many things in so many genres. And you can't really hold up, I mean, there are many things in common, but I wouldn't hold up traffic and the informant and say that they're just one guy shooting stuff. He pays attention to the type of stories that he's telling. That said, one of the things that I find interesting. and it might be slightly discordant to people watching it,

is that Soderberg is just run and gunning the show and he's shooting it in a very, like, hyper-real, it's a nighttime in New York style. Yes. Solomon is a little bit more of a stylist in the way that he writes, and so sometimes the humor in the show feels like, wait, what?

Like the camera's almost racing past it. Yeah. Or the kind of, like, for example, there's a Z-Beats character, whose name is, I believe, Melanie Harmony, Mm-hmm. Isn't it Melody Harmony? Oh, Melody?

Yeah. Oh, is it Harmony also? Harmony is her last name. Her name is Melody Harmony? I believe so. See, I was just, that's incredible. Yeah. Everything about her is just so extra.

The way that she behaves professionally, which is legitimately insane, that she breaks up with her girlfriend to do a unsupervised stakeout. Yeah. of a potentially major crime. And her approach to the stakeout is to illegally park and then immediately get a, some sort of

hero sandwich and a rum raisin ice cream. Yeah. I like it. I like it too. It's all the details. It is the detail. This is what I love, but I'm just trying to like almost devil's advocate be like, it's really, it's just, I like this. Yeah. But I think it's interesting the way Soderberg

never pause to like wink wink that this is a little bit of extra extra here. You know what I mean? No, I know what you mean. He's just running it all through the bucket. We're making a thriller fast and loose.

Filter. I'm still in. This one's also only, I think, six episodes. So it's like the summer of limited kind of time investments. Why do we wrap it up there? Do you carry an extra phone charger? Yeah, I do.

I think I have two in my bag right now. Can I borrow one? On Thursday's show, why don't we do this? Okay. We'll talk a little bit about Justified. And maybe we'll have a broader conversation about our guy, Elmore Leonard, because for as much as Justified, the series, was drawn from Elmore Leonard's fiction. I think it really took on its own identity.

City Primeval, which I believe airs Wednesday, is in some ways a return to Leonard. And it is like a marriage of the justified sensibility. with the Leonard Detroit crime sensibility. And also, it's been updated for 2023. So there's a lot of different things happening there. I have watched a little bit of it. I think people will be very happy with it when they see it.

So I can't wait to talk about that with you. Anything else? I'm excited. Okay. Also, look out. I'm into movies. So what's next for you? I think I'm going to see that movie about the most important figure of the mid-20th century,

who changed everything. It's coming out. Barbie? All right. Thank you to Kai for producing us today. And we'll be back on Thursday. Hey, Mama. Thanks for making all my favorite recipes.

Hi, Ma. Thanks for your unfiltered advice. Hi, Mom. Thanks for always being by the phone. Hey, Mom. Happy Mother's Day. When you ship UPS Air at the UPS store, your items arrive on time or your money back.

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