Twilight Zone: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet

[00:00:01] Blank Check with Griffin and David, what's a say or two expert? All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension.

[00:00:26] A dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into the podcast! Da-na-na-na! Hello everybody, this is Blank Check with Griffin and David. My name is Griffin Newman.

[00:00:45] My name is David Sims. That is, you had to check there for a second. You seem to hesitate. Well, you know, this is a weird one, so I just have to make sure nothing had changed about me. Oh, this one's a little bit spooky if you will.

[00:00:59] This is a Thursday bonus, if you will. Yes, I will. One of these little minis that we throw out there to finish up our thoughts on a filmmaker at the end of a miniseries.

[00:01:14] And this one is in a way perhaps the start of a new little secret miniseries, right? Yes. Because we're talking about one segment from an anthology film, but it remains incredibly likely that we will cover two of the other filmmakers behind two of the other segments

[00:01:35] in this anthology movie at some point in the future, at which point we will discuss those segments. And then there is a fourth director that we will NEVER discuss on this podcast. We never will. We have to commit to that, right?

[00:01:50] I don't know how he has made arguably five incredible films. Yep. Maybe six? Look, I've thought about it. I mean, the guy has made at least... I think he's made four masterpieces and two other great movies and the thriller music video,

[00:02:07] which is probably the most famous music video of all time. Right, but let's talk about that. His most famous music video of all time? Problematic. His son? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, is something up with Michael Jackson? We don't have time for this!

[00:02:24] Wait, you just said we don't have time for something? Yes. The Twilight Zone. We are truly within it. We're in the zone, baby. Auto-zone. Yes, we don't really want to talk about John Landis, but we certainly will talk about Joe Dante one day.

[00:02:38] We certainly will talk about the pre-1993 Spielberg and we have been talking about George Miller. Yes. And so today we are talking about his segment in this film, which is considered to be the best segment. I think pretty undisputed, the best segment of this film.

[00:02:56] The film is, of course, Twilight Zone. The movie from the 19- No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I guess in Miller's career does it... it comes between Mad Max's... No, it comes after Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome before... No, no, no, no. No?

[00:03:11] No, sorry. It's between Mad Max's two and three. That's crazy. It is crazy. I made the same assumption. I wasn't looking up the years, but I made the same assumption that it was between Thunderdome and Witches of Eastway.

[00:03:23] Like, when here... like, I'll just... the other people who contributed to this movie. Okay, so with Landis, it's... this is coming in between trading places and, like, you know, spies like us. So, like, he is... he's a big deal. Spielberg, obviously, this is coming in between...

[00:03:40] Well, Jesus, let me... it's in between E.T. and Temple of Doom. Woo! He's doing alright. He's doing alright. And then Dante is coming in between the Howling and Gremlins. So I guess Dante and Miller are the slightly younger, more up-and-coming directors, right?

[00:03:56] Yes. I'm gonna read to you Roger Ebert's quote from the review of this. Did you say what this was between for Landis? I know we're not talking about him but out of curiosity. Yeah, I said... geez, I already forgot.

[00:04:07] But it's in between... he had just made... I believe trading places came out the same year. Yeah, so that had just come out and in 85 he has both Into the Night and Spies Like Us. So he's a little bit on the down slope.

[00:04:21] But I mean trading places is huge and then he does two more Eddie Murphy movies after this. I mean, he's sort of in a transition point to switching from those first wave SNL guys and being their director to now being Eddie Murphy's director.

[00:04:36] Right. And of course... yeah, he still has like three amigos and right, as you say, coming into America on the horizon. But I do feel like trading places is Landis' peak. So right he's just maybe just about... because he's behind him is like Animal House, Blues Brothers,

[00:04:50] American Werewolf, like though they know his most influential... Hey, but look, once again we're not talking about him. This is what Roger Ebert said. Because this film, Landis and Spielberg get producer credits. This was very much hatched by them.

[00:05:03] Those two guys were in the pocket, they were in the zeitgeist. Spielberg could not have been bigger. And they both grew up with this TV show so they had a lot of love for it. Right, and you have like Spielberg works with Lucas, Lucas works with Coppola.

[00:05:18] It's like in a certain degree this was the movie brats, the serious movie brats allowing Landis into their sphere as like, you're now part of the system, we all help each other, we make our passion projects together and then he is promptly pushed out during this

[00:05:34] when he commits a voluntary manslaughter. Yes, when there is a horrifying accident on the set of his segment time. We're not talking about it! We're never gonna talk about it on this podcast. It's horrible, it's one of the worst things that has ever happened

[00:05:52] in relation to the movie industry. And I don't say that lightly. Even worse than X-Men Origins Wolverine. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. So this is Ebert's quote from the review of the film. He said, the surprising thing is the two superstar directors

[00:06:11] are thoroughly routed by two less known directors whose previous credits have been horror and action pictures. Spielberg could produce the whole project perhaps since that he and Landis had the weakest results since he assembles the story in an ascending order of excitement.

[00:06:26] Right, Ebert reviewed the movie in like, he chopped it into segments and he gave two stars for the prologue in first segment, which is Landis' is the first, correct? Right, yes. And then he gave Spielberg's segment one and a half stars,

[00:06:41] which I feel like widely regarded as the worst. You have contended it is not only the worst segment of this film but the worst thing Spielberg has ever directed and there's a really good argument there. And then three and a half stars for the third,

[00:06:53] the one we're gonna discuss tonight, right? No, the fourth! The fourth! This ends the film! The Dante and the three and a half stars also for this one, the Miller, right? Right, and I would say maybe this Miller deserves four. It's pretty inarguable. Yeah.

[00:07:10] Like it's just 20 minutes of, it's great. It rules. And 20 minutes of just sheer bravera filmmaking above all else. It fucking rules. Yeah, it's so good. Have you... Okay, so we, I only watched it because I wanted to respect our whole experiment

[00:07:26] of just, you know, we'll talk about the other ones whenever we talk about the other ones, right? Sure. Yeah. So I just, I cued up Twilight Zone the movie. I skipped to like, you know, one hour 25 minutes or whatever this become. And I just watched Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.

[00:07:43] Now have you seen the original Nightmare at 20,000 Feet? The William Shaker ones. Many times. Many times and many times in the recent past. In the recent past? Like you watched it a lot? Yeah, I watched it a lot. I loved Twilight Zone. I watched it a lot.

[00:07:58] I had never really watched it outside of like, you know, you're a kid and occasional episode comes on on like a weekend afternoon or whatever. But about five years ago, it all went up on Netflix and I started watching it a lot.

[00:08:11] And my goal was to get through all of them. There are a lot of them, many seasons and they're long the seasons. But I've never made it all the way through to the end. A, because there's one season that's bad,

[00:08:24] which is the season where they're hour long episodes. I think it's the second to last season. Also because I get caught up wanting to rewatch some of them a lot. And the two Shatner episodes, Nightmare and then the other one is,

[00:08:39] I'm forgetting the name but it's the one with the fortune teller and the diner are two of the best episodes. I think they're both Richard Matheson episodes. I've probably seen each of those five times. Nick of Time, I believe is the name of the other one, yeah.

[00:08:52] I've seen both of those at least five times. I love them. So yeah, I had a very strong comparison point watching this. And much like you, I only watched this segment, although I also watched the prologue and the epilogue because the epilogue ties into this segment

[00:09:11] and the prologue sets up the epilogue. Right. The prologue and epilogue were directed by Landis, right? Unfortunately, yes. The man made a glogaboot. Look, it's okay to denounce his nightmarish record as a person and challenge that, yes, obviously, he was involved in some good projects. Yes, he was.

[00:09:36] But have you not seen the original? No, I have. I've seen it but only once and years ago and I have never done the Twilight Zone properly, I guess a bit of a gap in my pop culture. I've seen random episodes,

[00:09:53] like you mentioned they might pop up on TV. I feel like I sought this one out because one, I'm scared of flying. Two, I love Star Trek. And three, it's famous. And there's a Simpsons parody of it. Yes.

[00:10:07] So I feel like this one was on my radar early and I watched it and it's great but obviously it is a TV episode and the demon is like a guy in a big first suit and it's a different vibe

[00:10:21] than the sort of high octane vibe of the Miller movie. Yeah, I think, I mean, the single biggest difference aside from the fact that Lithgow versus Shatner really changes the tone of the thing but the characters are also conceived differently. The single biggest difference is that

[00:10:41] the original is very talky. Like a lot of Twilight Zones, like a fiction short story that was then adapted into something that in many ways resembles a teleplay over a film. The Twilight Zones, I think of them as talky. Right, and I love them.

[00:10:57] They're also very cinematically stylish. I mean there's a lot of really interesting directing going on in those and they're all directed by different people. The original directed by Richard Donner, correct? Yes, yes. I mean one of his breakthroughs but it is very talky.

[00:11:11] It is Shatner's character on the plane with his wife, I believe. He has a wife and isn't it also that he's just out of a sanitarium so he's like everyone assumes he's crazy? Right, but it's like you're finally ready to deal with this.

[00:11:25] Again remember the last time you were on a plane you freaked out. But there's a lot of that. There's a lot of explained backstory. The whole thing is him having the conversation with his wife. This one very much exists in this guy's head

[00:11:38] and there's very little dialogue overall and he probably has the least dialogue of any primary character. Mostly is just groaning and yelling. Right, so this really is kind of just like a director showcase and an actor showcase. It rules. It rules. Fucking rules. There's no exposition really.

[00:11:55] We don't start with the plane taking off. We don't start with him taking his seat. We start in the middle of an insane thunderstorm. The plane is just rattling around and he is basically 99% of his way to losing his mind.

[00:12:09] Which I don't say this is anchorsism of the original. It's just an interesting counterpoint. The original is great for what it is. This is great for what it is. But do something different, especially if you're going to do this the only one that is a direct remake, right?

[00:12:21] The other ones, the Dante and Vincent remake as well but it's a looser remake. The other two are looser remakes. The landest one is kind of a combination of two unofficially. Right, right, right. But it's the most original one of them.

[00:12:39] This is the most direct adaptation, I will say. Even though it takes so many chances and changes because it's a chamber piece and it's the same basic. And it has the same ending. You know, Twilight Zone, right? Like, Twilight Zone obviously the ending matters a lot

[00:12:57] and this has basically the ending where they're like, oh, right. He was right, right. As the guy gets carted away they realize he was right. Spoilers. But yes, as I was going to say and it's like, you know, they're both elegant in their different ways

[00:13:10] but the Shatner one starts with as we were alluding to like him and his wife explaining every element of their backstory elegantly in a sort of classical way. But just like, honey, this isn't going to be like last time.

[00:13:23] You spent that time in the Sanatorium, you've gotten fixed. This time you're going to be able to fly without freaking out. Like it's that and Shatner is very Shatnery. He's in that pre-Kirk mode where he is perfecting how to be a TV leading man.

[00:13:38] And so everything is very like, you know. That's his thing. Totally. And so he's playing a very different type of mania. It is a very controlled, very sort of expressionistic mania that does not resemble actual human behavior. Whereas Lethgo is very theatrical

[00:13:58] but I do feel like this performance and this short film really capture the feeling of having a panic attack. I don't know if you as someone who's particularly terrified by planes feel that. Well, I will say as someone who's afraid of flying in a plane

[00:14:15] whenever I'm on a plane because I know how I feel it's this part of the panic is just this balance between like being afraid and not wanting to be too publicly afraid because then you're going to like everyone's going to be paying attention to you.

[00:14:30] That is what Chattner is playing. And I think Chattner does it very cannily. They're asking a very different thing of him and that is it's all about he is more of a conventional protagonist and you're trying to see if this guy can play calm enough

[00:14:45] to be able to stop the problem without someone stopping him. Right. And he's also just out of his sanitarium. So he's like, you know, doesn't want to go back in. And he's learned coping skills, all this sort of stuff.

[00:14:56] But it's him being like, this is a real threat. No one else recognizes it. No one else believes me. It's a boy who cried wolf situation. Right. And as the tension comes from, how do you solve that? This is just a man losing it.

[00:15:07] Right. The premise, by the way, just in case anyone doesn't know is it right. They're in a plane. It's in a storm. Things are bad. He's having a panic attack. And then as he looks out the window, he sees a big monster on the wing

[00:15:17] just wailing on the engines. Just terrible. I feel like also in the Chattner one, the monster is more like mischievous, but isn't exactly like antagonistic. Like it's more just sort of messing with things.

[00:15:29] Whereas this, it's like a demon that's like, I am trying to bring this plane down. Like I am. This is happening. And the original is basically in like a one of those camouflage like bush costumes and dancing on the wing.

[00:15:43] Whereas in this one, it looks like a meatloaf album cover. You guys know what this creature is supposed to be in both of these versions. Go ahead. It's supposed to be a gremlin. Yeah, gremlin. Yeah. That's what I think of it as.

[00:15:58] But the classical gremlin, the sort of urban legend of the American fighter pilot. Yes. Something happened to the engine. That something went wrong in your plane. Something went wrong in your engine. There's a little gremlin who's attacking your plane.

[00:16:12] Except it's a pretty big gremlin. This is a big boy. Well, this is my point. In the original, it's huge. It's a full sized human being and a puffy suit with puffy hair and funny makeup. And in this, it's a large gremlin, but it's also like a puppet

[00:16:27] and it doesn't have human proportions. No. As Ange said, it's right. It's a bad out of hell. It looks like a really large lemur. And he's got some like predator hair going on. He's got some predator dreads. I just find it particularly funny because the year after this

[00:16:44] is gremlins produced by Spielberg directed by Joe Dante. Sure. And those gremlins, they're little fellas. Yes. But now when people hear... Well, no, they're not that tiny, please. David. Well, Mogwai could fit in your hands. Yeah. Okay, David. Shut the fuck up and show some respect. Okay?

[00:17:04] There's a difference. I could fit in two hands. Yeah. Gremlins, I'd say are probably knee to waist high terrors. Sure. Right. Not waist high. Knee. Yeah. Knee high. Knee. They're not too small. We should do Dante. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah.

[00:17:27] Wait a second, David, you think we should do Dante? Oh my God. What a radical idea. I should give you a medal for being such a forward thinker. All right. Doing Dante I've never considered. All right. You're going to have to work hard to sell me though, David.

[00:17:40] Oh boy. You're going to have to butter me up on the idea of Joe Dante. I thought the cartoons in the Anthony sketch reminded me a lot more of Gremlins, but yeah, that is a Dante segment. Sure. Sure. Yes. It is just funny to me. Yes.

[00:17:56] Of course that resembles Gremlins the movie more because Dante was in that head space. It's his style and whatever. I just find it funny that this guy makes a Gremlins movie and the next year Spielberg's

[00:18:07] like, hey you, the guy who made the segment before this make a Gremlins movie. And not only that, but that becomes the association in the public when you say the word Gremlins. Like Gremlins stop being a thing on a plane.

[00:18:20] Which there's also in the 50s, it's like the great unmade Walt Disney animated film. Do you know about this? No. Walt Disney and Rawl Doll were going to make an animated film called Gremlins about Gremlins on planes. Rawl Doll famously flew planes in the war as well.

[00:18:37] Famous anti-Semite, famously flew planes. Famous slut? Yeah, famous slut. Oh yeah, he was horny AF. Yeah, on main too. Horny was occasionally horny on main. Horny on the main Rawl Doll. People forget this but like if you read SEO Trot, the Rawl Doll book. The Turtle one?

[00:18:58] Yes, page 45 is just a bunch of nudes. He would just slip nudes into. Onto Turtle's backs and then they would crawl over to the neighbor's house. Is it the Turtle one? Yes, yes. SEO Trot, I think it just like passes messages. No, I double checked. Yes, correct.

[00:19:19] It's corresponding through Turtle anyway. My joke is that Rawl Doll put nudes inside the book. Right, I forgot about this. I'm Gremlins seeing the book. I have heard of this that there is a book of it like that he wrote for Walt Disney.

[00:19:31] See when I think Gremlins, I think Looney Tunes. Well, so yes. And then Looney Tunes run with it. But it's like there's the book that never becomes a film that's Rawl Doll in Disney.

[00:19:43] I think the book came out either instead of the film or they released it because they thought it would lead to the film later. Then there's Looney Tunes, Gremlins. Then there's Twilight Zone, Gremlins. And then there's Joe Dante, Gremlins.

[00:19:56] And Joe Dante, Gremlins become so big that they usurp all public consciousness of Gremlins. Sure. They just become Gremlins' TM. That's why Gremlins are mischievous. It was like working off the idea of these things that fuck with technology and fuck with us just to drive us crazy.

[00:20:11] And in this, it's back to this idea of you don't have fighter pilots, you have commercial flight, which I think is pretty clever. If Gremlins exist to fuck with planes, then they would be a threat to any flight we talk about. They mean jumbo jet. Yeah.

[00:20:28] But this thing starts with, as you said, no backstory. Just John Lithgow having a panic attack in a bathroom, losing his fucking mind. And the attendants are trying to do the whole like, hey, I know it's scary.

[00:20:39] We're shaking around, but you're safer up here than you are down there. They're giving him the whole spiel. Right. And they're trying to get him to take a sedative. Right. The woman comes up to the flight attendants and is like, is there something I should be worried about?

[00:20:53] Is there a problem? Is there a perfect little moment of that flight thing where a certain person thinks like, I should go up and ask the flight attendants if there's something bad going on that they're not telling all of us. They'll tell me. Oh, man.

[00:21:07] It's all I think about. Right. I just want to go up to them and be like, so like, you know, what's come on? What have you heard? Give me the real scoop. Give me the deeds. Yeah.

[00:21:19] And so, you know, I had a flight attendant that was like, I was driving to the plane for a few months, being on a plane. And then suddenly turbulence was really bad.

[00:21:29] And I was next to, I was very close to a flight attendant station or whatever, and he picked up the phone, put it back down and then he looked at his co-work and he was like, 10 minutes of this.

[00:21:39] And so I was like, damn, like the pilot can literally be like, yeah, it's going to be this for 10 minutes. Wow. So do you like that David? I liked the weird precision of the pilot being like, not being like, oh no, but being like,

[00:21:53] annoying, like that's all it is. Just like another day. Well, because you said you watch videos, like simulations of flying, right? Oh, no, no, no, no, not simulations my friend. I watch there's so many videos inside the cockpit of a jumbo jet

[00:22:09] where it's just like, 777 taking off at San Francisco and you can just watch the entire process or like 777 landing and say, and it's just them sitting there being like so boring and just like occasionally touching a button or saying something and you're like, God,

[00:22:24] it's so automatic and so chill. That's like a low five playlist for you. It's like what you put on to like calm you down. Yeah, I can't believe it took me so long to come to this realization. Of course you love Sully. Yeah, dude.

[00:22:41] He does his job. Have you not talked about this? No, I mean, obviously of course you love Sully because you're a big special boy and you're smart and you have good opinions and Sully's an American masterpiece. Correct, yes. But also it's the ultimate competent man movie

[00:22:54] in the situation that scares you the most. He remains calm. He understands exactly how to solve it. It's basically the word, as Sully tells us, no one could have predicted it. No one could predict it. And much like Donald Trump told us, no one could have predicted it.

[00:23:08] This isn't like that. Sully's not lying when he says it. Right, two great Americans not lying. Never compared those two. It's why I love it because it's such a risky movie for me to watch because it's up against my ultimate fear. I mean the opening is terrifying.

[00:23:22] Terrifying, and so when I saw it, I think I saw it also because it was an Eastwood movie. I just figured it would be chill and it's not. No. And so I'm gripping the seats, but also as you say, right, it is a masterpiece of professionalism.

[00:23:36] Right, so you watching Sully feel like John Lithgow in this plane? Yes, anyway, but yeah, but obviously this plane not doing so hot. Although I still like it when the pilot comes out and he's like, look, we lost one engine. I'll admit it. One engine is down.

[00:23:52] We have four. He's pretty chill about that. Can we talk a little Lithgow here? Can we go go Lithgow for a moment? A little Lithgow, touch the two, just a little Lithgow. Oh yeah, go go gadget Lithgow. This is when he's in that classic,

[00:24:03] in that diploma zone, right? Well no, this is sort of the start of it. How do you say the twilight zone? Well, well, and? Correct. Good point. You go like 1979, All That Jazz. That's his first big movie, Small Part, but his first big film in which he has

[00:24:20] a part of some substance, right? No, no, his first film is upset, is the diploma film obsession. Oh, I'm sorry. He's like the third, he's the villain in that. Correct, correct. He's a classic diploma villain. He plays a lot of diploma. 1976 obsession.

[00:24:30] But you're right, then All That Jazz, bit of a breakout. All That Jazz, 81 blowout. Yeah, which he's the villain in and he's great. Then 82, World According to Garb. I'm skipping over ones I haven't heard of. He gets an Oscar nomination, right? Correct.

[00:24:44] And then 83, same year as this movie, Terms of Endearment's second Oscar nomination. Right, and he's only two Oscar notes. He's never gotten another one. It's pretty crazy for him to get them in back-to-back years, especially for Terms, which we talk about in that episode,

[00:24:58] is such an understated performance. Never gets it again. Very good performance, right. But it was surprising he beat out Jeff Daniels that year for that. And then this unlocks Gonzo Lithgow, which like DePaulma had started to play with. But DePaulma really plays a bit later

[00:25:15] with like Rees and Kane, things like that. But like this, he's got this this year. The following year he's got Footloose, which is a villain but reserved villain. But then Buckaroo Bowns Eye, which is complete fucking whack-a-doo, crazy potato pants, right? And then you get like shit,

[00:25:31] like he turns down back to the future to play Doc Brown was the first choice. Huh, yeah, I think I knew that, but that's yeah, that's a totally different movie. Turns down the Joker for Burton. Totally different movie. Yeah, like to a certain degree,

[00:25:47] he now tries to resist the whack-a-doo thing that he had showed everyone he can do so well. 2010, Santa Claus the movie, and then he's starting to go into like Harry and the Handersons like family, like I'm boring waspy guy zone.

[00:26:00] That's the thing, he got shoved into that zone into this sort of funny duddy zone. Right, and then it takes up- Which is what third? No, go ahead, go ahead. No, no, it's Third Rock from the Sun is playing off of the funny duddy,

[00:26:11] but it's a whack-a-doo inside the funny duddy. It's combining them, right, exactly. Which was sort of what was great. Is Third Rock from the Sun good though? Yes, yes, yes it is. It's one of those shows that was on for years and I certainly watched it,

[00:26:26] but like is it good? I think it is, I haven't rewatched it, is probably pretty, like depending on how long COVID quarantine lasts, I will watch all of Third Rock from the Sun. I just bought fucking News Radio on DVD. I will find a way.

[00:26:43] News Radio, you gotta buy, because that one's always been weird. They're always weird. There are like four random episodes on Crackle. But News Radio is like a masterpiece of 90s sitcomery, right? And I just remember as a kid being like, as a kid who likes science fiction,

[00:26:56] I'm like this sitcom is about aliens and I feel like no one talks about it ever. Third Rock from the Sun is about aliens? Yes, they're aliens! I don't remember this at all. I watched it as a kid, like with my parents. They're alien and human bodies.

[00:27:11] The oldest of them get stuck in Joseph Gordon Levitt, who is the youngest. Yes. The most masculine of them get stuck in Kristen Johnson, who is the one woman of the group. Like it's all like, oh look, they're all in the wrong bodies.

[00:27:24] They live in a house together. It's called Third Rock from the Sun because that's what they view Earth as. Right. And they're trying to assimilate into culture. I haven't thought about this show in year. Like I vaguely remember the intro, but honestly in my head I'm like,

[00:27:36] yeah, this and Frasier are like the exact same thing. There was that crazy run where Wayne Knight was on both shows at the same time. At the same time. And it just, I remember a show that was kind of raunchy. It was weirdly world-building.

[00:27:50] Like it had the big giant head. Like it had a lot of stuff going on. But also at the same time, it also was in the vibe of every other 90s sitcom where it's like, you know, at the end of the day, it's mostly just hijinks.

[00:28:03] Was Shaddon the big giant head or I miss remembering? So that's crazy. So it's the two versions of this character. All comes around. What's wild is he swings back to Fuddy Dutty, right? And then it seems like he goes like,

[00:28:16] fuck I might have backed out on that villain thing too soon. So then he does like Ricochet, Raising Kane, Cliffhanger. Like then he gets back into it, but he's playing a little more like Tony villain. And then Raising Kane is weird

[00:28:30] because he's doing Wackadoo, but he's also the lead. Yes. And then I feel like at a certain point, it was just too late and it's like too bad, buddy. Now you're the old guy. Right. And then he's... Like post third rock, it's like you're just the old guy.

[00:28:44] Well, you guys forgot his most famous villain. Lord Farquaad. Well, well, well. He's pretty good. Well, well, well. Yes, he's a real Farquaad in that movie. I like using Farquaad as an adjective. I remember at the time being a pretentious 15 year old,

[00:29:02] and seeing Shrek being like, well, it goes the stand out. You know, like coming out of that being like, well, he was really funny. That was sly humor. It's sly humor. He's got a razor sharp wit. Yes. He was like Taruk the first flight in that. No, he's...

[00:29:18] Jesus Christ. It's no, it is. There's a subtle sly humor much like Taruk. He's the most Farquaddy performance in that film. No question. But that's the run. It's like after Cliffhanger, like a couple other movies, then he gets on Taruk from the Sun,

[00:29:32] and he does like six seasons and he wins like five Emmys. He won it. How many Emmys did he win? He won. Well, now I need to find out. I feel like for years, it was just either Kelsey or Lithgow, and they were like swapping.

[00:29:46] They were playing badminton together. It is truly wild as a former Emmys nerd. I'm not as much as the... But like in the 90s, like the 90s obviously, like sitcoms are plenty, right? You know, Fran, Seinfeld, like all the legendary sitcoms.

[00:30:00] And it's like, you look at the Emmys and like every year they were just like, Frazier does deserve a fifth Emmy, but like... I think I got there wrong. Maybe. And like, I love Frazier. It's not like, but like Frazier was the weird sort of

[00:30:11] like award-seek sitcom among like critical and commercial favorites. It was sort of in the middle. He won one, two, three, four Emmys. I know, I'm sorry. Three Emmys for Third Rock, one for Amazing Stories. And then of course he won Subsequent Emmy

[00:30:28] for Dexter and another one for the Crown. So he has six Emmys. I remember, do you remember there was the one season if even that, Tambor, Lithgow, CBS sitcom? It was called like a few good years or something like that. Like it's like two old friends enjoying retirement.

[00:30:47] Yes, I'm trying to, I wanna remember the exact, yeah, 20 good years. Or it's basically like, I think they're 65 or whatever. And they like, the pilot episode is them being like, look, we probably at max have 20 more years. I just remember at the Emmys that year,

[00:31:03] Lithgow and Tambor presented together and Lithgow went, I'm so thrilled to be here at the first Emmy ceremony in eight years. And Tambor says, what do you mean? And he went, well it's been eight years since the last Emmy ceremony

[00:31:17] because that's when Third Rock from the sun ended. And he goes, they've been doing it all the time since Third Rock ended. And Lithgow in Amazing Delivery says, well then who have they been giving the awards to? Good shit. Good shit, but also he won fucking three times

[00:31:33] for Third Rock from the sun in the midst of Kelsey Grammer's reign of terror. He still leased out three wins. I just love that for so long the Emmy for comedy would go to whoever best played a sort of erudite snob with a mid-Atlantic accent.

[00:31:53] Like it was like Larraket give him all the Emmys we got. Grammer, Lithgow. Larraket had to issue a sherman-esque statement where he's like, no more Emmys. He's like, I withdraw. Lithgow, yes. Larraket is the only man to retire from winning awards by choice.

[00:32:11] I believe Chance Bergen as well. Buckets Bergen, LeBron, Buckets Bergen? Yeah, because I think she won either four in a row for Murphy Brown, something like that and she finally was enough. I stopped nominating me. I don't have any more room on my shelf. Like please stop.

[00:32:26] She won five Emmys in seven years for Murphy Brown. Wait, David, you're telling me that Candice, Florence, LeBron, Pew, Bergen pulled herself out of Emmy consideration because she got too many buckets? Yeah. Wow. That'd be like LeBron winning 10 rings and being like, guys, I'm not even gonna,

[00:32:48] I'm gonna take a year. Yeah. I'm sailing around the world in a weird sailboat. This is no fun anymore. But as you said, then Lithgow, I think he's done consistently good work but it is weirdly all over the place because you go like, oh, it's far quad.

[00:33:06] Then it's like Orange County, Blake Edwards and the Peter Sellers HBO movie. He plays Kinsey's dad, cameo and Dream Girls. Yeah, he often would play a guy in bow tie and suspender riffing on third rock. Rise of the Plampy apes, he's incredibly good in

[00:33:26] playing James Franco's dementia-leading father. Right, that's like his interstellar zone now where he's like, he's the grandpa, he's maybe gonna die in the course of the movie, he's maybe got some real brokenness with it. He's good at that. He's really good in Rise, he's really good in interstellar,

[00:33:43] he's good in love is strange, the other sex movie. He's a dinner? He's amazing in. Oh, he's in leap year for like five whole seconds. He's the one who tells her about the leap year, right? Yeah, he's her dad who like gambled away

[00:33:56] like their life savings or whatever and he meets her in a party. He's like, oh, you gotta live a little. And she's like, I'm Amy Adams and I'm very uptight. Mm-hmm. He plays one of the Koch brothers in the campaign. Yeah, he's had a lot going on recently

[00:34:09] because he was in like, he's in the accountant, he's in Miss Sloan, he's in late night, he's in a pitch perfect, number three for some reason. Well, of course. Well, he's in the group. I'm sorry, he plays Fergus Hobart in Pets Perfectly. How do you not remember that?

[00:34:22] Great character. Fergus Hobart. I thought he was bad in pet cemetery, which in the most crucial role. That sucks, I didn't say it. He's not like terrible, terrible, but like I feel like that role is very specific and he's a little too patrician for it.

[00:34:35] Like that's supposed to be like a real manor, armor type guy. And he's doing the same thing that he did in like Interstellar and Rise, but it's just, I didn't love it. And then I thought he was terrible in Bombshell. Are you gonna disagree with me?

[00:34:47] I mean, I'm not gonna strongly defend any element of that movie. I don't think he's terrible in it, but it's like, it's a big performance. He's swimming in the river of Ham, he's doing the backstroke, he's doing the butterfly. He is, I would agree with that,

[00:35:01] but at the same time, he's also not as Hammy or as compelling as Russell Crowe was the same year. Well, I haven't seen that. Crowe had a better balance on how insane to be, because obviously you're playing a deeply insane person. You're saying Russell Crowe?

[00:35:18] Oh, Roger Ailes, yes. Like that, it's like, you know, it's a tough one to go over the top with because he is over it, like that of course he is. He's like... He's a grand gunnule human, innately. Yeah, if you just, it's like, imagine like I told you,

[00:35:31] like one of the people most responsible for the ills of modern society is this guy who founded Fox News. And I'm like, what does he look like? And they're like this, and I'm like, you made that, he doesn't look like that. Are you kidding me?

[00:35:42] He looks like the bully farmer. He looks like the bully farmer. He looks like a fricking, like, rolled-doll, twit villain, like, you know, who's gonna like grind children into paste. Oh God, and they're like... And he's like eating constantly. And I'm like, okay, but he was just like,

[00:35:59] he was just bad because of his politics, right? They're like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. There was a spark in support. It looks like evil consumed him. Yeah, no, he'd make women show him their panties and then lick his fingers

[00:36:10] and eat a donut while it was happening. Everything about him is just so over-cranked in its awfulness. Yes, so anyway, so yeah, you're right. Like kind of hard to find where to hit the target there. But he wasn't very good at that. He is good in like Dexter.

[00:36:27] Dexter is the one where it's like, they're like give us diploma again. Give us like a big goofy villain. Yeah, I mean look, the guy's got a pretty incredible career in a lot of ways. And this is a big sort of turning point for him

[00:36:40] despite the fact that this is coming in between Oscar nominations. This is showing a very, I mean first of all, this is the first time that he's really playing a leading man even if it's in a short film. Yeah, I guess you're right, yeah.

[00:36:54] For a guy who did a lot of character actor parts and a lot of villain parts, he did have a surprising amount of leading man roles and this is the first time that he is the center of a film. And I think it in its own way

[00:37:06] even though this doesn't follow a model of what he ever did as a leading man shows that he can hold your attention at the center of the frame. 100%, but yeah, and also it also just like even, it's those guys, even young Lithgow looked like that.

[00:37:20] He's a very specific, he's very tall. He has the hair, like this male pattern baldness. Like he's always had that. Well, he was always at the middle of his skull. Yeah, he's always had that like preppy Frankenstein kind of look. Preppy Frankenstein is perfect.

[00:37:35] It's why, I mean, look, it's why putting him in Daddy's Home 2 is really funny. Right. The trailer for Daddy's Home 2 is really successful as a piece of filmmaking, just because the reveal of Lithgow on the escalator is pretty like close to a slam dunk.

[00:37:53] I have not watched that movie. No. I refuse. The thing with me is because I watched Daddy's Home or I tried to after like Sophia Coppola was like, I mean a masterpiece, right? Like people sort of started speaking up for it and like 10 minutes in I was like,

[00:38:05] I gotta turn this shit off. It blows. No, it gets good. The first one gets good. Thomas Hayden Church is really fucking good. The first 10 minutes was just so much of like Farrell being like a, you know, a Dweeb and Wahlberg being a bad boy.

[00:38:20] And I'm just like, I get it. Like this is boring. Like the fun of other guys is how quickly they start messing with those dynamics. Yes, I agree. Other guys is a better film. Oh cool. There's a thunderstorm going on right now. Oh my God.

[00:38:35] It's a severe thunderstorm. Well, that might pick up in the background of our audio and it will make this feel even more like a Twilight Zone installment. So let's get back on to- I just heard that like a minute later after you guys said so wild.

[00:38:48] Yep, pretty scary. I mean, this takes place in the middle of a thunderstorm. I mean, in terms of plotting, there's not much. He sees the thing. Yeah. The stuff I find most compelling is just him looking out the window every time.

[00:39:06] Like first him just gazing at it, then him like shutting in and trying to ignore it. And then poking peeking back up. Like just the way Miller doles it out is so perfect. When he's like inching towards it with his fingers,

[00:39:18] it's like you know it's gonna be bad and it's so enticing. This is another thing I love about it is when it goes from him freaking out in the bathroom to the flight attendants, he goes back to his seat. They try to talk him down. He's largely nonverbal.

[00:39:34] She gives him these sedatives. I was like, oh, this is gonna be their twist on it. The flight attendant sits down with him and she serves the function of his wife in the original thing except it's a stranger. It's not someone who knows him.

[00:39:47] She's trying to counsel him. But that's the person who he's bouncing off of who he's talking to, he's trying to counsel him. Who he ultimately has to like go around in order to stop the gremlin. And instead, she gives him the sedative and she walks away.

[00:39:59] And then it becomes about, for me, that feeling when you're having a panic attack and any degree of stimuli is so overwhelming that the girl sitting in front of him with the Polaroid camera, this sort of like gluttonous air marshal,

[00:40:14] the sewers is going up and down the aisle. Everyone's speaking, everyone making any small amount of sound. All of it is triggering to him. Which is great that it's just like we're not gonna have this guy really speak to anyone. We're not gonna have him explain himself.

[00:40:26] We're just gonna put you in this guy's head. Like it's like fucking repulsion. It's like using this really, really over-cranked filmmaking to make you feel the amount of terror and paranoia he feels so that anything happening on screen becomes some sort of breaking point.

[00:40:43] And we will cover him in a bucket of water. All the water. All the water. He's sweating. But yes, this does become like a film of looks. It's really about, you know, it's in that repulsion, that rear window kind of zone

[00:41:00] of just putting you in a single character's headspace as much as possible and showing you how terrifying everything looks to them. Yeah. And it's trying to sort of get you to the place where he thinks the only thing I can do is shoot a gun out the window.

[00:41:17] Like that's my only recourse. Even though, like initially he's like, I'm crazy, I'm making it up. There's no way that, like he's talked down and then things escalate, obviously. But I love that he never behaves in a way that seems heroic,

[00:41:36] even if he is doing the heroic thing, unlike Shatner who becomes a little bit more of a conventional sort of like matinee hero as he's shooting at the gremlin, even if the other passengers don't see it. Lethgo just gets crazier and crazier as this thing goes on.

[00:41:52] He's totally manic at that point. Yes. Yeah. And down to Miller doing, giving him the toe cutter, Joe eyeball shot. Yes, which rules. I'm fucking believable. And then when he shoots at the thing, the gremlin pulls him a tumbo, it goes like, uh-uh. Yes. But also his-

[00:42:17] Gives him a little slimy face. He's sticking his head fully out the window at that point and his face is freezing over from the air temperature. Yeah. It's great. I mean, he just becomes more and more monstrous as it goes on. I love everything about this.

[00:42:32] I mean, it's hard to talk about because it is so purely a visual kinetic exercise. Right, exactly. And it's 20 minutes, it's just in and out and it's incredibly compelling. In the original, do they show the rest of the plane being affected by like the window opening?

[00:42:56] Because that was my favorite part. It's just like the second he shoots the window is the cabin goes totally insane and then you see everyone you've seen throughout just like flying all over the place. The like unattentive mom is holding onto her annoying kid.

[00:43:13] And the original opens the door, right? Yes. And it's certainly, it's less insane and in the original they're not building up the rest of the passengers as characters in the same way. Yes, right. This has the kid. I mean, they're all little George Miller stock characters.

[00:43:29] But I love that you keep on going back to them and getting their opinions and perspectives on things that they're like this Greek chorus of doubt and all of them are sort of such height and grotesque characters in their own way. Yeah. The air marshal in particular

[00:43:43] is like feels like something out of Mad Max. Yes, yes. He's kind of, yeah. He's kind of gross. Kind of gross. But then there's this beautiful thing when the plane lands. I mean, it's textually the same as the ending of the Twilight Zone short.

[00:43:58] But you have this amazing oneer that starts with Lithgow being like, see, I was right. I was right. I stopped it. I saved everybody that then pulls back to reveal that he is strapped to a gurney being wheeled off

[00:44:13] to a sanitarium that he looks like a ranting madman. A raving madman is what I meant to say. And then the camera keeps on pulling back and pulling back and you get the conversation between all the people who are on the planes, the flight attendants,

[00:44:28] the air marshal, everybody, the pilot, all talking about how crazy he was, making it seem like the terror was for them. They were also in the Twilight Zone episode. But the Twilight Zone episode was what if you were stuck on a plane with a madman

[00:44:44] who shoots out the window, which is an equally scary thing to imagine. Yeah, definitely not my cup of tea. No, but then it keeps on pulling back and pulling back and pulling back until you get to the guys on the ground

[00:44:58] inspecting the wing of the plane and noticing what's wrong. And that's when you get the first cut in like a minute. And it's such a good oneer because it's not for show. It's not like a fucking like look at me magic trick.

[00:45:10] It's about sustaining the tension of the unease of all of these people misreading the situation with no cut, with no cut, with no cut. The more all of these characters are telling us that Lithgow was crazy and by association

[00:45:26] making us feel crazy for knowing that Lithgow was right until you finally get the one break intention which is the guy validating that there was in fact something wrong with the plane and it looks so goddamn gnarly. You see the wing and it is so busted up.

[00:45:40] It's so unnatural. And then you get the epilogue which ties into the prologue of the film, which is good. It's Ackroyd and Albert Brooks driving in a truck and listening to Midnight Special. And I realized watching this, Dan Ackroyd was kind of the Bill Hader of his time

[00:46:03] and that he was like comedian, SNL cast member, nerd who all the film nerds love to use. Whether it's a small part or big part, they're just like this guy is one of us. We'll throw him in there.

[00:46:16] He's a movie star but also he'll do two lines in our thing. This is what, this is the year before Ghostbusters? Yeah, the year before. And Brooks was also sort of in that zone and the prologue is the two of them driving around. It's really fucking good.

[00:46:30] It's them in total pitch darkness. It is what is my scariest scenario, David. The way you view a plane, me being stuck in a truck at night when you can't see anything and it's deathly silent scares the shit out of me.

[00:46:45] And there's just a really long slow build. I mean they really take their time teasing it out which is just the radio goes down, the tape gets busted, they don't have any music to listen to, they wanna entertain each other. They start singing theme songs,

[00:47:00] then they do the Twilight Zone theme and they start talking out their favorite Twilight Zone episodes and then it ends with Ackward saying do you wanna see something really scary? He makes Albert Brooks pull over to the side of the road and then reveals his large marge face

[00:47:13] and seemingly eats Albert Brooks. And then transitions into Burgess Meredith doing the narration. The only reason I bring this up is because at the end of this segment, and I believe this part was directed by George Miller as well and not by Landis. Really, Landis is credited.

[00:47:34] Really? Okay. Even scarier, yeah. Oh, gosh. You did the first segment, Epilogue Prologue. Well then, I'm sorry. I was wrong and for that I am eternally ashamed. That's quite right. It's not, it's not. And people are gonna call for my head once this episode comes out.

[00:47:54] But yes, the end segment is that Lithgow is in the ambulance being driven to mental institution and screaming and Ackward turns around. He's the ambulance driver and he says you wanna see something scary and then that's the end of the movie.

[00:48:11] It does feel like a bit of a step down from the Miller of it all. Yeah. It's a little bit of a deflation even if it bookends the thing nicely. Anyway, George Miller though. George Miller though. Yeah, I mean it's like this is his first time

[00:48:27] working outside of Australia, working within a studio system but within a very controlled environment because it's Spielberg essentially passing him a check and saying just do a little 20 minute thing. And that's what gets him sort of in with Warner Brothers

[00:48:44] which leads to him doing which is of Eastwick which then leads to him never making an American studio film again without him having the keys to the kingdom without him ultimately being the person steering the ship. He will work with American distributors

[00:48:59] but he will always sort of get his own financing as much as he can work within other countries. But also like it's like, he can do their ship better than them. Like it's just like give that guy 20 minutes and a few million bucks and he'll,

[00:49:11] you know, he'll thrill ya. Yeah, no it's just kind of incredible. Like you have Landis and Spielberg. Spielberg continues a good run. Landis drives his entire life off a cliff and then this sort of like transitions George Miller out of Mad Max and into, you know,

[00:49:28] the beyond of what everything else he can do. And Joe Dante, it kick starts his career in a major way which really happens via the continuing apprenticeship and support of Spielberg. We'll talk about those segments another time. You wanna do the box office game?

[00:49:44] Oh yeah actually let's do the box office game but also we should rank our Miller shouldn't we? Yeah. But let's do box office game first. While I solidify my Miller ranking. All right so the Twilight Zone movie came out 1983. It came out on June 24th.

[00:50:04] It opened a disappointing fourth of the box office. This was, it only cost $10 million and Warner Brothers was very confident. Like this would be a big hit for us but also this can be an ongoing series. Like we can do every couple of years

[00:50:16] have a couple superstar directors make it for cheap. It only cost 10 mil. We can, they thought it was gonna perform like a Spielberg movie. Right and at the end of the day it didn't hurt anyone, it made $30 million

[00:50:28] but it was quickly like, ah now forget it, forget it. And the movie had some negative associations with it. So let's talk about it. Oh no wait what was something about it? Anyway I also feel like every Twilight Zone revival basically just never took hold.

[00:50:42] I was so sure the Jordan Peeleblum was gonna work and it's not bad but it just doesn't, nothing ever comes close to the original series. Wasn't that also only on like CBS All Access? Like it never aired on TV. Yeah that was an issue. America's favorite platform and.

[00:50:56] I do pay for it, I love it. I love that Star Trek. All right, number one at the box office. The most successful film of 1983. It's a sequel, we've talked about it many times. But it hasn't gotten its own episode, it just comes up a lot.

[00:51:12] Oh no it's had its own episode. And the film is called Return of the Jetty. That's right. Which in its fifth weekend is still number one. It's made $141 million. Not big enough. It's very good, it has Ewoks in it. I don't know if you guys know this

[00:51:27] but there's a character called Wicked and he has a furry little butt. Got a furry little butt. And that's what's important about that movie. It's the big takeaway. All right, number two is another third entry in a franchise. Is it the final?

[00:51:43] No, there are many more to come. There's another direct sequel to come than other efforts at Reboots and so on. This was at the time regarded as a big flop and is still pretty, I mean this movie is hilariously bad but in a way that's sort of compelling.

[00:52:00] Interesting, it's a hilariously bad third film. Is it Superman 3? That's right. Okay. Where they were like, you know what Superman needs? How do we top this? We have Richard Pryor be the second lead as a regular guy. And it was also one of those things

[00:52:16] where he was on Johnny Carson and Johnny was like, show Richard what kind of movies do you like there? And he was like, I like those Superman movies. And the next day someone ran to the studio and they were like, he likes those Superman movies.

[00:52:28] Let's make a Superman movie almost as much about him as Superman. That's fine. Do you know they almost did that with Eddie Murphy in Star Trek 4? Yes, of course. Of course there's a role in Star Trek 4 that is supposed to be Eddie Murphy.

[00:52:46] And at one point was gonna be ostensibly a co-lead of the film. Exactly, yeah, 100%. And they jumped that, the role I believe as a woman and it was completely overhauled and that movie actually rules didn't need Eddie Murphy. It'd be interesting to see it with him though.

[00:53:01] Number three is another sequel to a huge surprise hit of a 1981 comedy. It's a first sequel, the original? Yes, it's a two. And it's not European vacation? No, it is a comedy. It is a comedy. Is it like an SNL national lampoon-enjacent comedy? No, it's outside.

[00:53:25] No, much worse, much junkier. Much junkier. Is it Porky's two? That's right. And what's the subtitle? The next day? That's right. Here's the tagline. I do like that as a subtitle. Yeah. It took decent subtitle. Yeah. If you thought the night before was funny,

[00:53:42] wait till you see the next day. Yeah, and people walked out of the theater saying, I think the night before was funnier. Also just weird because it's called Porky's two. I believe Porky is not involved. No, I've never seen any of them. I've seen all of them

[00:53:59] because they used to play on British TV constantly. They're terrible, but he returns for Porky's revenge, which is truly bad. Oh, for fuck's sake. David, you saw them all the time on vacation? What they were playing on an endless list. Yeah, I was on a European vacation.

[00:54:15] Why weren't you going outdoors? You were spending all your time inside at a hotel room watching Telly? Watching the Telly? Yeah, I was watching the Telly. I lived in Britain from 1995 to the way. Oh my God. Number four was Twilight Zone. Watching Mr. Bean.

[00:54:30] Number five was a film we've talked about. I did watch Mr. Bean. Mr. Bean Rolls. Another comedy from a director we have extensively discussed. Did just... Extensively or ostensibly? Extensively. It's a comedy in 1993. Is it Terms of Endearment? No, comedy, real comedy. Real comedy. Like funny.

[00:54:53] A movie I adore, it's so funny. It's so funny. Some parts don't hold up. Yeah, there's one scene in particular that does not hold up. There's one really bad scene. Yes. I mean, you're just sort of like, in the moment, I don't know why this was a move,

[00:55:08] but now this is fucking demented. Like... Well, it sounds like you're describing the ghost blowjob and ghostbusters, but that's the following year. That's true. That's true. 1983. One scene that's particularly egregious. We talked about this movie in this episode and we talked about this director a lot.

[00:55:28] It's a landis movie? Yeah. And it's not Trading Places or it is? It is Trading Places. So you talk about the blackface scene. Yeah, yeah. I love Trading Places. I think it's so funny. I also think it's just a beautifully written movie.

[00:55:42] It's like, you know, it's very concise. Eddie Murphy is fantastic. Murphy is absolutely insane in it. Jamie Lee Curtis is amazing. That one scene you're just like, whose idea was this? I think it was Eddie Murphy's idea, but it's still... It goes on for a while.

[00:55:53] It's like the last, like 15 minutes of the movie. Yeah. I'm more of a Coming to America fan. I think that film's beautiful. I love Coming to America, but I think Trading Places is a little better. But I don't know. I do like them both, obviously.

[00:56:08] Look, we can agree on one thing. John Landis has never done anything wrong. What else is in this hot 10? You got Octopussy. Mm. A truly bizarre movie. You got War Games. A great one. War Games. I had forgotten until I was doing my deep dive at Twitter stumping.

[00:56:29] Martin Brest was hired to direct War Games and directed the first week of the film and was fired. OK. Because they thought... Who was directed by... John Borman. Badham, Badham. Badham, yeah, yeah, yeah. They thought his take was too serious. That's weird. That movie is very serious.

[00:56:45] Yeah, but his... In a fun way. His weird battle. Well, that's the thing. I think it started out a lot goofier. He made it more serious. He filmed a week. They thought it was too serious. They hired Badham, but it still really was the film that he developed.

[00:56:58] And he was the one who fought so hard for Broderick and then made Broderick a star. There's also Flash Dance and Psycho 2, one of the weirdest horror sequels ever. What a weird week. What's the gap between Psycho and Psycho 2? I believe it's 23 years?

[00:57:13] It was for a while the longest gap between a first and a second, right? Yeah, right. And then... It's so long that they can plausibly be like, he's out of prison. Like, it's been over 20 years. Man, more sequel should wait that long. Right.

[00:57:29] I think Tron Legacy ends up being the longest. Yeah, that one's 26 or 27 years. That's the long one. All right, here's my... Actually, you do yours first. I always have to go first. Okay, well, fine. Okay. I'm intrigued. I just want to see how it goes the other way.

[00:57:45] So did not include this in the ranking, right? We're doing the nine features. No, no, we're doing nine. We're doing nine. Okay. And it's tough to make the nine. And let's also say this is a guy, like many directors we've covered recently,

[00:57:58] you look at it and you go, God, that's a good filmography. If this is your ninth best film, your worst film, then you're a good fucking director. There is only one movie that I do not basically like a lot in days nine. Agree.

[00:58:11] And I think it's probably the same for both of us. And it's a movie that a lot of people like and I do not hold it against them. It just doesn't work for me. Here's my ranking. Number one, Mad Max Fury Road. Number two, The Road Warrior.

[00:58:26] Number three, Lorenzo Zoyle. Number four, Babe Pig in the City. He's in that city. Number five, Happy Feet 2, a surprise masterpiece. Wow. It has only grown on me. I ordered the 3D blue. I'm ready to watch it in another dimension. I now have double dipped on Happy Feet 2.

[00:58:48] Number six, Mad Max. Number seven, Witches of Eastwick. Number eight, Beyond Thunderdome. Number nine, Happy Feet. We have very similar rankings, but a little different. So let me give you mine. Number one, Fury Road. It's kind of just inarguable, right? I mean, you're just like, how does someone

[00:59:03] then what a towering undeniable achievement? I think so. And the culmination of a career. Number two, Babe Pig in the City. Wow. Number three, The Road Warrior. Wow. Number four, Gimme that oil. Yeah. Slides of money to you. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In the words of Nipsey Russell.

[00:59:24] Yeah. Number five. You want to lubricate your mind. Yeah, okay. Witches of Eastwick. Which these are all close. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, really I do like the Witches of Eastwick a lot. Number six, Mad Max. Number seven, Happy Feet two. And you know, maybe I'll watch it again

[00:59:41] and maybe it'll inch up more. Who knows? Yeah, I think that thing honks. And then we have the same final two, Thunderdome eight and Happy Feet nine. But I like Thunderdome a lot. And even Happy Feet. Yeah, me too. Like, you know, just enjoyable. Yeah.

[00:59:55] Look, I mean, and here's the other thing about the guy. And I feel like we've sort of said this in other episodes. A, King of the Sequels. I think Undisputed, King of the Sequels. Yeah, I mean my top three for him are all sequels.

[01:00:09] Secondly, there's an argument to be made that he elevates every genre he chooses to work in. I would agree. Yeah. Like Mad Max elevates action as a genre. Lorenzo's oil elevates the like prestige drama. Babe, Happy Feet to elevate the children's film.

[01:00:28] Like the guy is pretty wild in that sense. And Witches of Eastwick is just such a bizarre, bizarre film but was a massive hit. And it makes me wish he would do more of an out now comedy again, like an adult comedy.

[01:00:43] His next film still remains largely a mystery. What's called 10,000 years of longing? 100,000 years of longing? I believe 10,000. I think, but I do think it's more of a drama but maybe not 3,000 years of longing. It also sounds like a romance, like a romantic drama about a genie

[01:01:00] starring Idris Elba and Tilda Swin. Here for it, I mean, talk about a guy where whatever he thinks I want to see, apparently I want to see. If that's what he wants to make then I guess that's the movie I wanna see right now.

[01:01:15] Is there anything to the rumor about the Furiosa? Is it a prequel with Angel of Joy? It now appears to be a prequel that seems to be the vibe, this Angel of Joy rumor. But I mean, it's one of those projects

[01:01:28] that I feel like has been talked about consistently for the last five years and we will wait and see what actually gets going. Look, Mad Max 4 seemed like a rumor that would never come to fruition for 15 years plus. And every time you heard a rumor about it

[01:01:44] you went like, that can't actually be what they're doing. He did right after Fury Road came out say, I got two movies I could make as a sequel. One is about Max and one is about Furiosa. I wouldn't be surprised, all of that makes sense.

[01:01:58] I could see that happening. We'll see. I mean, once again, if he wants to make a Furiosa movie then I wanna see a Furiosa movie. If he wants to do a Mad Max sequel without Furiosa then that's what I wanna see.

[01:02:10] If he never wants to make another Mad Max then I don't wanna see another Mad Max. Like it's like the James Cameron Avatar equation. I think people have more faith in George Miller right now than they do in the Avatar sequels

[01:02:22] but I do feel like whatever that guy wants to follow is, I will follow him. You trust it? Yeah. Yeah and I'm trying to find anything else about 3,000 years of longing. It seems like they did, they certainly started production this year. I don't know if they finished it.

[01:02:42] I pray that they did before coronavirus shut down everything but I feel like I saw on set photos and that the film at least made it through principal photography. Am I wrong about that? It's listed as pre-production, I don't know.

[01:03:02] Okay, well I hope we get to see it soon either way. But the rumor yes was that he was apparently in pre-production on the Furiosa movie. Early, early pre-production that it was on the runway. That could be complete bullshit but that's what was being reported. All right.

[01:03:22] Any final thoughts, Davey? And you? No, it's been good. Happy Fee 2 was sort of the biggest surprise of the whole thing but it's been a good time. Not one bummer among them. I'm looking here, there's a deadline interview with George Miller from December

[01:03:40] where they're talking about the start date for this movie and I can't find the date. But maybe it didn't start from there. With Miller, I'll believe it when I see it. I'm just very believing when I see it. Yeah. Okay, well that has been our mini series

[01:03:57] on the films of George Miller. Coming up next week is Stargate, a Ben's choice. We're gonna venture through Al Gore Stargate. Hell yeah. And then the week after that we're starting our mini series on Nora Ephron. Nora Ephron. So that's Nora Ephron coming up next

[01:04:15] followed by our March Madness winner Bobby Z. Robert Zanakis himself. That should give- And he will take us through the end of the year. Yeah, and a little bit into 2021. In terms of what else might be on our calendar, I'm just gonna say this now.

[01:04:33] We don't know because the interruptions we scheduled between now and then were tied to releases of films that are maybe up in the air now. You know, in theory we maybe do a Wonder Woman episode. We maybe do a Tenet episode.

[01:04:46] We maybe do a West Side Story episode. But all those things are big question marks. So if we do not put up an official schedule for these episodes or it takes a little while or the schedule changes, don't at Ange.

[01:05:03] Don't fucking yell at us because the world is on fire and best laid plans of Mice and Man can completely go out the window at this point. But going through all the Nora Afrons including when Harry met Sally and then going through all of those amegasins

[01:05:20] including Welcome to Marwan. But I've had a good time on this Fury Road. It's been weird. This was overdue. He had been a guy in like this sort of a bag of, you know, immediate contenders for us. He came really close to March Madness twice.

[01:05:37] We finally settled on him because we thought it would be good to do a more sort of commercial franchisey filmmaker after Demi and the shorter filmography. And little did we know after recording six episodes the world would turn into the wasteland. It has been odd timing.

[01:05:53] It has been weird listening back to the episodes we recorded eight weeks ago that feel like they were recorded 12 years ago. It has been weird talking about other movies after the fact or not after the fact. During our current crisis. It's been an odd mini series

[01:06:13] but I think a pleasant journey through these films and I hope people enjoyed watching them or rewatching them. Yeah, for sure. And thank you all for listening and please remember to rate, review, and subscribe. Thanks to Andrew for co-producing the show and doing our social media.

[01:06:29] Thanks to Layman coming for our theme song Joe Bonaparte Rounds for Art Work. Go to blankies.red.com for some real nerdy shit. Go to patreon.com backslash blank check for blank check special features where we will have covered the first babe earlier this month

[01:06:49] that will only be on Patreon because he didn't technically direct it. And we'll also be doing a Toy Story commentaries in which I will behave like a very, very proper gentleman. I hope you're very, very serious and sophisticated

[01:07:05] and calmly spoken and definitely will not be all horned up. And tune in next week for Stargate. And as always, tududududududududududu!