M. Night Shyamalan - Split

0:00 Okay, so we want we want the twelve o'clock show for Trap. Yeah, that sounds about right. Now. There's not enough seats left for that one, so there's a four thirty five. I guess it's gonna have to do, isn't it. Okay, I'll think I'm getting them buying the tickets. Now, I'll tell you what. We got some time to kill. Why don't we talk. About uh, since we're since we're go see Trap, let's let's talk about a film by m Night Shyamalan. Yeah, let's do it, all right, Let's let's do his twenty sixteen psychological thriller Split. Hello, everybody, I'm Jeff Johnson, I'm David Byrne, and this is a film by podcast.

1:05 Before we get. Going, Dave, I wanna, I want to do a quick shout out to one of our one of our Patreon subscribers. Let's do it. We actually did an episode for this member. But I saw this and it just made me. It just made me smile, talking about Nan Lewis, who recently shouted us out on Facebook. All capitals love this episode. Robert Altman, the player. I love that she loves the episode. Dave, if you listen to me and Amber talk. I was not much of a I didn't have much love for the player. Amber did, but ever loved it.

1:48 But Nan Nan goes on to write, such fantastic points of view, so much fun. If you like the movie, you'll love this podcast. Nan. We love your feedback. We always love when you when you shout us out on social media. So thank you very much. We we appreciate you, and we're very happy that you you enjoyed the episode. Absolutely, thanks man. So Dave, I know you're excited to see Trap. I'm excited to see Trap. But before we get to that, I want to talk about one one of my favorite M Night movies. And listen, here here's the deal. So we got we got an m Night Shyamalan movie in the theaters next month. We've got that. Remember we saw the trailer for Speak No Evil.

2:29 Yeah, that creepy. Uh looks like a like a like a thriller with with James McAvoy, who is clearly the villain. Oh clearly. Yeah. So how you know we got We got Macavoy back as a villain. We got m Night Shyamalan back. You know we got we got we gotta talk Split. Right, clearly it's meant to be off. Yeah. For for listeners that have not seen Split, you wanna you wanna break it down for us, you wanna give us little synopsis I do. I just want to give a warning though, if you've not seen this movie, please go watch it first. I know we don't usually give thee the warning of spoilers, but we're gonna be talking about spoilers in this one, so please, oh yeah, go watch it. Casey and her friends just finish celebrating a birthday. When heading home, something horribly goes wrong. The girls are abducted by Dennis, a man with twenty three different personalities. He locks them in a room together, seemingly toying with them, wanting something. As the girls trying to find an escape, Dennis starts to unravel more and more, even with the help of his psychiatrist, leading him to a frightful twenty fourth personality, one that changes them into something unknown by human standards, and one that will lead to a confrontation with those he has held hostage.

3:43 That is fantastic. Thank you for that. You mentioned. You mentioned that James McAvoy the character Dennis, and this is one of twenty twenty three, twenty four personalities. And I know this for our listeners, this might get a little confusing, especially if you haven't seen the movie. So I hope you took Dave's you heeded Dave's advice, and you you just hit pause and you went to go check out this film. But I want to talk a little bit about the background. M Knight wrote the Kevin Wendell Crumb character to be the antagonist in Unbreakable. Correct. He didn't feel it was right, so he heads in a different direction with Samuel Jackson's Elijah Price character who becomes mister Glass, but then decides to revisit the Kevin Wendell Crumb character fifteen years later and brilliant.

4:36 Go ahead, sorry, but this was it was brilliant. In my opinion, I'm giving us the story revisiting it fifteen years later. It kind of worked out to his advantage that he left this to do it fifteen years later in my. Opinion, Well, yeah, I absolutely agree with you, and think about this. You and I huge fans of Unbreakable. I've said it before. It is one of my all time favorite superhero films. Two thousands Unbreakable that M night Shyamalan did and think about this. What we learn in Split is that Kevin as a child was abused by his mother and that his father died. In a train wreck.

5:17 Correct. Now, Dave, let's go down the rabbit hole a little bit here, let's do. Let's go back to Unbreakable where Bruce Willis is discovering his power at the stadium. That great moment, right, a woman brushes past him and he sends his child abuse like he gets that flash yep, and we understand this one's beating her kid, right yep. Now go forward to twenty nineteen's Glass, where it's confirmed that the train wreck Kevin's dad died in was in fact the one that Bruce Willis was in at the beginning of Unbreakable. Yep. More, during the gallery visit and Unbreakable, there's this wonderful moment where Elijah Price's mother is discussing the quote unquote the soldier villain with Bruce Willis. Her description of the villain is a perfect match for the beast. Which is this this twenty fourth persona that James mcave always playing right, correct, Dave M. Knight is quietly building a shared universe, right, under our noses the entire time.

6:22 This is way before Marvel was doing anything. Yeah, it blows my mind when you think. Back to what he was was he was doing like he it was just it's brilliant. It's so brilliant. Well, what's brilliant about this too, is the fact that we had no clue this was happening. Okay, And I remember you, you and I could not, for some reason work it out where we could go see this movie together. I remember, and I know you went to see it and then you got back and you could not tell me anything about it. But you were pleading with me, go see this movie before it is ruined for you. And I got lucky I didn't get it ruined. I remember there's you know, you always you always talk to your friends.

7:03 You always tell your buddies go see it. You got to check it out. I was begging you, I know you were. I was absolutely begging you to go see Split. Yep. And I remember I still remember this, Dave. You were like, I'm gonna get to it, you know, because you were you were a little cold. On him night at that point. If I recall, I was. You know, you're still a fan, but you got a little cold. I was just bursting to tell you about the big I wanted to talk about the big reveal because I it blew my mind. We're going to get to that. I want. I want to talk about it later. But yeah, I was I just could not wait to talk about this with you, of all people, because I knew, remember you loved Unbreakable as much as I did.

7:46 Well, you were bursting at the seams to tell you. I could just see it when you were trying to go see this movie. Please just call off, call off work. I'll buy your ticket. Just just go, man. Just fucking go. But I'm glad you didn't get room for me because when that does happened again, we'll talk about it later. It was just mind blowing. Yeah, So listen. Shamalan known for his twists. M h, I'm gonna through Shamalan twist that you're right now. At the end of the episode or near the end of the episode, we always talk about, you know, we mentioned a few things about the director and talk about the phomography. Shyamalan twist. I'm going into his background right now. I'm gonna tell you a couple of things about him. Night, all right, let's do it all right.

8:27 His middle name night completely made up? Is it? He made it up in college? I wanted to find out some more, but there's you know, my my, my internet sleuthing did not come up with anything other than the fact that it is not a real name. He just created it. It's a cold it's a cold name. It is, Yeah, David Knight burns. It sounds cool, right, I've got a rink it does? It does. Let's talk about what he didn't do, or I should say, chose not to do. Dave. He was asked and turned down the chance to direct not one, but three different Harry Potter movies. They offered him The Sorcerer's Stone. And keep in mind this was based off of Steven Spielberg's recommendation.

9:15 Wow, I mean back then, m Knight. You know he's you know, this is around the time that Unbreakable was happening, right, correct, when when Warner Brothers says, hey, we want you to do this, this big uh what's. Gonna be a big franchise film? And uh, oh, by the way, Steven Spielberg wants you to do it, and you say. No, that's bold. I don't know if I could tell Spielberg. No, I'm not telling Spielberg, but he M Knight said, or I'm happy he did, because he did, in fact say no because he wanted to finish the post production on Unbreakable and given their timeline, he knew that wasn't going to be possible, so he turned it down. But he also yeah, he also turned down Prisoner of Oscarbon and Goblet of Fire, okay, just to just to work on stuff that he wanted to work on.

10:00 I mean again, Wow, I can see it is a while factor there, for sure, because we know how big and incredible the Harry Potter films are and were. But M knight has given us something that somebody else had created and it was a terrible movie. And I'm sure we'll talk about that. We'll get to that. Yeah, and all this other stuff that is good is his original stuff, with an exception right here and there. But so I kind of see where he's coming from. It seems like he's more of I want to direct and write my own stuff instead of what somebody else has written and created. So I kind of side with him on this, to be honest with you. Well, it's clearly the case because he has also famously turned down offers to direct versions of Spider Man, Batman and Superman. He's because he was focused on his own superhero project. That being the East Rail one seventy seven trilogy is what he calls And I never knew that before before now, but that's kind of what he refers to, you know, when you're talking Unbreakable, Split and Glass. Yeah, he calls it the East Rail one seventy seven trilogy.

11:08 But you know the train that starts the whole the whole story in emotional makes sense. I like that. I think you're gonna like this, you know. I love on a film at forty five when you and Scott do let's quote this and you come up with a great quote. Talking about his influences, M Knight had this to say at fourteen, I was at the airport dropping off my grandmother. I went into the bookstore and picked up Spike Lee's book Gotta Have It, documenting his early filmmaking experiences. If I hadn't picked up that book, I don't know if I would have been a filmmaker. Lee was from the East Coast and had no family in the business. He just found the way to make movies and somehow it demystified it for me. Perhaps that was his intention, and I was like, I'm gonna do this for real at ten.

12:00 That was it. There was no way of talking me out of anything. Nice. I love the fact that. I love the fact that at fourteen he's picking up a Spike Lee book about his filmmaking experiences. So I guess we know we we owe a big thing. I mean, we've we've covered Spike Lee. A couple of times on a film buy. We love his work. But thank you Spike Lee for for inspiring m Night Shyamalan. I wish I was that strong and daring at fourteen years old. So that absolutely absolutely what's talk about this cast and crew. Let's start with Anya Taylor Joy.

12:43 She's playing Casey Casey Cook, one of those alliterative names like most superheroes. You know, Peter Parker, Yeah, read Richards Buncky Barnes, Lois Lane, Jeff Johnson. We're not going to go there. So she makes her feature film debut the year before, in twenty fifteen's The Witch. I haven't seen that weird? Is it weird? I've heard good things about it, but it is creepy. It's entertaining, And it's just one of those movies that I don't know if I want to revisit just because it bothered me so much. Really, Yeah, but you recommend it, yeah, at least once. First off, I got Yeah, I'm getting ready. I'm gearing up for scary movie season. I'm gonna put on my list.

13:29 I think she's one of. The most talented actresses to come along in the last ten years. Well, she proves herself in this movie brilliantly with her performance. Oh my gosh, numerous times in this movie you just watch her and just amaze on the talent that she puts in front of the camera. But yeah, I mean she's in furios She is furious. Yeah, and she's incredible. Yeah. Everyone, everyone loved her in The Queen's Gambit. I personally love her in Last Night and soho I covered that Yeah, I covered that one with Dayton Johnson on the docum based seventy seven podcasts. Yep. And like you said, nowadays she answers to the name Furiosa. But the fact that as young as she is in this film, this is again, this is twenty sixteen. It's a year after her feature film debut yeah, I think this role, her role as Casey Cook is some of her best work.

14:17 Agreed, Yeah, oh yeah, they're hands down, Jeff. Just just the opening man of when she's in the car and Dennis gets in the car with her and she doesn't recognize it at first. She reaches over to grab her seat belt, and then when she goes to pull it over and she slow starts to look to see who's in the driver's seat. That and just her stare on how frightened she looks. Without a word, she's froze, like, you know, like you're watching that moment and think about this, the abduction that happens right there in broad daylight. He takes down four people.

14:58 You know, Dad is walking the three girls to the car. They're getting in the car. They're in their own world, takes out. Dad, sits in the car, knocks out the two girls with the the gas spray or whatever that is. And you're sitting there screaming at the screen like get out of the car, get out of the car. But in reality someone like that, they are frozen, Oh yeah, with fear. Yeah, there is no movement and she does such Yeah, she does such a great job conveying that. Yep, I don't wanna. I know we're I know we're got to move on to to a couple other characters in this but before we do, you know, like I said, last ten years, she has just done incredible work. Think listen to this man.

15:43 You know we're because we're talking about Split. In twenty sixteen, she follows us up a year later with Thoroughbreds in twenty eighteen. In twenty nineteen, she's in Glass, you know, the follow up to this film. Yep, she does the New Mutants, and twenty twenty she's done Last Night and Soho. In twenty twenty one, she was on Peaky Blinders for a little while. Don't know if you watch that show, but it's a great show. I would strongly recommend that one. And then she this is where she explodes in popularity, because in twenty twenty two, she's got the Menu, She's got Amsterdam. Twenty twenty three, she's Princess Peach in the Super Mario Brothers movie, which you and I saw and loved. Yep. And this year already she's she's in Dune Part two and she's Furiosa a mad Max saga.

16:27 The woman is on fire as far as I'm concerned. And she's heading to an Academy Award, there's no doubt in my mind. Yes, get her. Hollywood needs to get her the right project so we can get we. Can get her up on the on that stage to accept that award. I would love to see that. Yep, me too. James McAvoy as Kevin Wendell Crumb and other twenty three other alternate personalities, Jeff, I got to tell you something, So, James McAvoy's always been a really talented actor, but he blows it out of the water in this film. And there are scenes in this film where he just changes personalities on a dime, man, And that has got to be difficult as an actor to be being one person then all of a sudden shifting immediately to another person, in making sure it is shown in your facial expressions, your body language, everything. But man, he did it so well with frightening.

17:29 This I've said, I've been saying this for years, Dave, and you know because we've had this, we've had this conversation. This is one of the greatest performances you can see from an actor working today. And it angers me, It bothers me. Dude, Like, look, okay, can we just take a minute and talk about the twenty seventeen Academy Awards. Sure, all right, Casey Affleck won Best Actor from Manchester by the Sea. That is a very compelling film. It's a very it's a heartbreaking film. It's a it's amazing, it's amazing film. And I'm not taking anything over anything away from what Casey Afflick does in that movie. All right.

18:09 Other nominees for Best Actor Andrew Garfield and Hacksaw Ridge, Ryan Gosling for La La Land, Vigo Mortensen for Captain Fantastic, and Denzel Washington for Fences. How does James McAvoy get snubbed so egregiously? I agree he should at least had a nomination for this movie, at least a nomination. Yeah. I mean, Denzel's fantastic and everything and Fences his he was amazing in Fences, and and Casey Affleck was kind of being Casey. He's playing Casey Affleck. Yeah, but James. McAvoy is playing what, like we're talking like maybe eight people on screen, but we don't get.

18:52 All of them. Yeah, we don't get all of them. And I would say about eight, Yeah, I mean, we got We've got the We got Barry, who's like the designer, the fashion designer. He's always smiling, he's he kind of controls the lights, as they say, right, Dennis is the enforcer, very o c D. He's the strength of the team, right, not the team, but you get what I'm saying, Patricia, very gentle, very soothing, very motherly, very motherly, but also in control, correct and incredibly terrifying when he is walking around in that turtleneck and skirt and necklace. And I'll make you a sandwich like ough.

19:33 You got Hedwig, who is like the the nine year old, very playful, obviously childlike, et cetera. And then you got you know, you got the Beast, who we keep hearing about throughout the film. You know about his arrival. So I want to I want to put you in an alternate universe here. This film was almost made with Joaquin Phoenix. Yeah, I saw that, and I think Joaquin Phoenix could have pulled it off, to be honest with you, because Joaquin is incredible. I mean, look what he has done with a Joker, and I know we're gonna get see a Joker too this fall. And he's a great actor.

20:17 It might have looked differently. I don't know, because James McAvoy did such an incredible job, but I think Jaquin Phoenix could have pulled it off. To I think the only place that Phoenix comes up short. I think he could have done all of the alternate personalities. But I can't buy Joaquin as the Beast, like a physical physicality of that. And hats off to m Night because McAvoy, you know, throughout the throughout the film, no matter which personnelity he's playing, he looks like he's in fantastic shape. Yeah, but when he becomes the Beast, it it's. Like a whole other level. Even there's that great moment where where Dennis is telling the doctor about the Beast and you know he he has the thing. He has the comment, oh he's much bigger than me, and I'm and I'm the biggest.

21:09 You know, it's scary how they how he describes him. But when you see the transformation, and I know some of it we got we gotta go with some some effects work, you know, like his eyes, you know, the black pupils and the enlarged pupils and a little bit of the vascularity in his arms and chest, but. Still he is huge. He just looks jacked so amazingly enough. I'm sure you saw this because uh, because we're con men, right. Uh. McAvoy bumps into Shyamalan at Comic Con right after he finished work on X Men Apocalypse, so he's still bald because he was playing Professor X. Shamala took one look at him and said, that's the Beast. Yeah, do you do You.

21:50 Normally see Charles Xavier and go, yep, that's that's my scary bad guy. No, you don't, no man. But apparently in. Yeah, a couple other things, And this is a callback to our David Leech episode where we covered Atomic Blonde. A few months ago. John Wright and I were discussing macavoy's character wearing wearing a cast over a movie because he famously broke his hand doing pickup shots for this film while the Toomic Blonde was on a filming hiatus. So turns out he was He was just kind of amping himself up because the Beast was supposed to. Come in charging. He was punching what he thought was a fake a fake wall turned out to be made of metal.

22:34 It wasn't so fake, not so fake. He breaks, he breaks his hand, shoots the scene. Anyway, it looked mildly, you know it, mildly in shock, in immense pain. But his performance is all the better for it. I guess. It amazes me that some of these actors just go on with the performance. They don't even miss a beat. It kind of reminds me of Leonardo with Django, Remember with the cut his hand, he just kept going and that was just real blood. But I'm gonna how these actress can do that. But yes, they had so much to mention to it. Let me let mean we talkt we mentioned comic Con. I got a nerd out here real quick because I don't I don't think. I don't know if you know this one, Dave, I might, I might get you on this one. So the thing about this, McAvoy played Professor X in the uh the later trilogy. Right in the X Men comics, Charles Xavier had a son named David who became a mutant called Legion. And he was called Legion because he suffered from a disassociative identity disorder.

23:34 Oh much like Kevin Wendall Crumb. How about that? Interesting? Wow, that's a deep cut, Jeff, thank you. I thought you'd appreciate that. I thought, I thought, you know, if Scott and Wayn are listening to. This or they'll be proud, but they will be. Betty Buckley as doctor Karen Fletcher fantastic. That's amazing performance, right, amazing, Yes, long successful career in TV and film she worked. She worked with Shyamalan in The Happening, where she played like the crazy old Lady Yep. Probably most famous for her role as Mss Collins, the gym teacher from Carrie. Quick Thought here, Dave, if you've got a if youve got a a mentor type, a teacher, a doctor who's trying to help a troubled individual who's gonna end up just wrecking havoc on society, do you just as Betty Buckley the first person on the call sheet like she couldn't help.

24:29 She tried to help carry, couldn't help carry. She tried to help Kevin Wendell Crumb. That did not well, you know, go good. Yeah, she didn't go over too well for her. She's she's fantastic. I love her performance in this as Kevin's doctor, she's treating him for d I D which you know I mentioned was a disassociative identity disorder YEP, previously known as multiple personality disorder. It's characterized by the presence of two distinct personalities. Mm hmm. The disorder causes significant memory gaps and effects one to one and a half percent. Of the population. Yeah, it's common cause steps from childhood trauma and brain injury, and alternate personalities are usually triggered by overwhelming emotions and stressful situations.

25:20 Interesting, and you know this might be jumping a little bit of talk about a little bit about the production of the film, but you know where he got his inspiration for this. I do, and I want to talk about that here. Let's I'll tell you what. Let's take a Let's take a break, okay, and when we get back, we'll dig into the film's background. And I would love to uh to discuss the the uh the inspiration behind Split. Delga, welcome back. We are talking about m Night Shyamalan's amazing thriller Split Dave. As we mentioned, uh Night calls this his East Rail one seventy seven trilogy. This is this is the second film in the trilogy. You know, Unbreakable starts at Glass finishes it. I want to talk about what inspired this film.

26:15 Can you give me, give me give the listeners a little information here? Yeah? Absolutely so. Apparently this was inspired from the real life of multiple personality Billy Milligan, who was charged with three rapes and was the first person diagnosed with a multiple personality disorder to use an insanity defense by reason of that disorder. At first you got acquitted by this, but Mulligan head twenty four personalities consisting of ten desirables. There is a really good documentary, Jeff. I don't know if you've seen it. It's on Netflix about Billy Milligan and oh, okay, what makes us even creepier? Jeff, Yeah, this all takes place in Ohio. No, yes, sir, And if I remember correctly, it's been a few years since I watched his documentary.

27:05 I'm billy. Guess where he was held at, Jeff, you got okay, I don't know the Lebanon prison. No, that's up the street from me, man, Yes, sir, he was held there for a little while, Yes, sir, while he was on trial. He got off on a few things, like they put him in like a and I'm just going off my memory right now. Because it's been a few years, but I know they like when he was going through court, they put him in a not in a prison, but like in a psych word kind of but it really didn't have a lot of security, so he kind of could kind of move around on his own with them now. And then finally he got put into prison for a little bit, which is when he went to Lebanon. Definitely check out the Netflix documentary on him and it will give you a backstory of where the inspiration of split came.

27:54 Okay, definitely going to check that out. And you said twenty four personalities, ten were deemed desirable. I guess that's like correct, Like people like Hedwig probably. Are the ten that really come out, I guess is what it. Is, Okay, Yeah, and then thirteen not so good, right? And then the undesirables Yeah wow, which I guess would be what Kevin Dennis Dennis's I don't know. Yeah, Kevin was a was an undesirable, wasn't me? Well, Kevin Kevin is the real is the. Real person, So I think Dennis is the one who would be an undesirable I would guess right. The Beast definitely is an undesirable.

28:34 The beast is Yeah, that's that. Just it blows my mind that this is a real person and this happened, you know, down the street. But at least, at least he didn't have like a beast character, a beast persona I would hope, Jeff, No, no, no, no, he did have a beast. He did his his twenty fourth was what he called the Teacher, and it was a fusion of all the other personalities. That is so creepy, it is. Yeah, the temail all right, yeah, yeah, I got I got the shivers there. Yeah, let's move on. We locked the door here and then we'll move on.

29:16 One thing I wasn't aware of until recently watching this, this was a collaborative effort between M Night and. Jason Blum from Blumhouse. Yeah, it sure is. And this is not this is their second one because in twenty fifteen they did The Visit, which awesome M Night Shyamalan movie. Go back and listen to our first M Night episode where Brad and I discussed what I would say is maybe one of his most underrated films, the Visit. But just I mean, think about this. It's one of these amazing moments where the right director and the right producer team up. Yeah, because we love blum Oh, absolutely we do. He's giving us a lot of good products.

30:02 I'll tell you who's got to love m night is the uh, the studios? Because Splits budget was only nine million dollars. That's a small budget, man, that's an indie by today's standards. It is, especially when you consider how great this film looks and who's in it and what we get. Yep, Unbreakable's budget was seventy five million fifteen years before. My question, why the hell is Disney and. Warner Brothers spending three hundred million dollars to make films today? That is a very good question, Jeff, And I wish nobody could answer that for me. There's a lot of wasted money out there, man. I wish man. Uh. Fun fact, Split was Blumhouse's highest grossing film until twenty twenty three, and he guess on what beat it in twenty three?

30:50 Yep, you're gonna smile here. It's gonna make you happy. What is it? Five nights at Freddy's? All right, Yeah, you're right, that would make me suck. That was a good movie. Yeah, yeah, you're well, you're Buddy's starring in it too. That's right, Matthew Lillard. Man, Matthew Lillard, Dave, I want to talk about uh, I want to talk about some. Of these scenes. Oh yes, please, let's break break some of these down, man. You know, because you know, I think there's one, you know, if if I, if you had me pick a pivotal moment, We're gonna get to it. But uh, I'll tell you what that stands out to me is Kevin's first meeting with Casey where he kind of wakes up. He's like, hey, I was sitting on a on a bus. What happened? You know? Oh?

31:30 Yeah, what's going on? Who are you? What happened? And then all the altar you mentioned his he he has to move from one altar to the next in the same moment, all the altars fighting for the light, trying to take control, to take control of the situation and put Kevin. Back to sleep. Yeah, And back to Anya Taylor Joy her face, she is just stupefied at what's happening because at this up till now, you know, these girls have been trapped, you know, locked up in a room. And sometimes Hedwig comes in, sometimes Dennis comes in. Sometimes sometimes it's Patricia, but this is her moment where she sees all of them kind of kind of fighting for position here. It's awesome to watch what James mckinboy does, but it's also awesome to watch her reaction to what he's doing.

32:24 I love that moment. A lot of my moments. There's a few moments, but most of mine were with doctor Karen Fletcher. I'll talk about this. There are so many good ones. The one that really stands out to me is when she keeps probing him, your Dennis, your dentists, and keps going and going, and she when she's realizing she's pressing his buttons and getting the reaction a little bit from what not getting the reaction she wanted, she kind of backed off a little bit. You know, you know, I'm just trying to do my job. You know, I'm here to care about you, you know, those kind of things. But when she finally does bring Dennis out, that and how he just turned and oh it, Oh Dennis, it's so nice to finally meet you. And that whole sequence right there, man, was just so incredibly well done between both of them.

33:11 I am very afraid for Betty Buckley. Yeah, you know her character, Doctor Fletcher. I'm very afraid for her when he does. When Dennis takes the light yep or not, I should say, you know, we it was Dennis all long. Dennis is Dennis is playing uh you know, let me. Let me let me say that again, because we know Dennis. It's Dennis all along, and he's trying to pass himself off as Barry. But the moment Barry's smile fades and Dennis does that that that raised eyebrow yep, that's like his expression and kind of sits up a little bit more.

33:53 I'm just I'm terrified for for doctor Fletcher. And I feel like she's like, and she's got to be terrified, and what are you gonna doing that situation? You can't get up and run, you can't. So she's got to be like, hey, I'm finally glad to meet you. We can help Kevin together. Yeah, he doesn't. The only the only, the only defense she has is to play offense exactly. Yeah, And that's exactly what she was doing just to get out of that situation. But then she puts herself into a more dangerous situation by going to visit him where he's staying and then that that whole sequence when she realizes what's going on and she goes, can I go to the bathroom, and just the whole sequence just starts falling apart on her, and I'm like, would you just stop? Go go the other?

34:37 This is you know, listen all horror films, thrillers, they always have that one moment. Where you're like, why did you do that? Yeah? Please, you know you're smarter than that. I think the only fix here because I get it, like she she sees like dozens of emails saying we need you right now, and you know, so she's concerned, but I don't know she knows what she's dealing with. So why would she take a cab at night to an abandoned zoo? You know, like you're you're going into the the din. Of the killer. Like you can't do that, you know you can't. The only thing that would have made it more I feel like what would have made more sense is, you know, if if he had done a phone call like please help me.

35:26 I'm you know, like maybe maybe Kevin. Is wanting to tie a b loose sends yeah, and with the beast arriving, we don't need the doctor anymore. So I would have liked that better. But again we're. Nitpicking, Yeah we are. And another thing that I really want to point out to Jeff. You know how much I love camera work. Yes, m Night is brilliant with the camera work. One of the masters man he is. And there is a scene in Unbreakable and again I don't know why it didn't dawn on me what was happening here and Unbreakable when David is on the train and remember the kid I guess was playing making faces or whatever it was, and the camera kept slowly going back and forth, back and forth. M Knight loves that shot and he did it here there in the beginning when they got into the car and then the father was still in the back putting stuff into the trunk.

36:21 You really don't see what's going on, but you go from like the rear view mirror back to her, back to Casey and then the camera would move back and forth, back and forth slowly. I actually love those camera movements by m. Night. I love his use of reflections, Yes he does. He's big on that too. This movie's got some great moments. You know, all all of his movies do. I'll tell you what before I before it lose my train of thought. Can we talk about something that doesn't necessarily work for me? Yeah? What is it? All? Right? Again? I love this film, but if I had to go back, I would I would maybe do something different. The flashback sequences with Casey when she's a like a five year old girl with her father on the hunting trip with her father and uncle.

37:09 Yeah, it just doesn't work for me. It takes me away from the story, honestly. So I struggle with this, Jeff. I know what you're talking about here. When I look at this. The way he wrote this, he was trying to show two characters in two different lights. You're seeing Dennis or Kevins, whoever you want to call him, who is struggling with his inner demons. You get Casey who is also struggling with her enter demons, just in a different way. Yeah, And you're bringing both of those characters together. And that is the reason why he let her go at the end, is because he saw her with all where she had cut herself and all of that. So you had to have had that to get to that point for the Beast to let her go. You know, some of the some of the coolest dialogue. There's a lot of good dialogue in Oh Gosh, Yes, but the.

38:06 Dialogue written by M. Knight, by the way, yes, written by M. Knight. But the pieces that he gave there at the end, the beast was giving some of this really good dialogue to her. When he looked at her and saw those scars, you know, he goes, you are different from the rest. Your heart is pure. Rejoice. The broken are the more evolved, and then he walks away, letting her live. Yeah, so I think Jeff, you had to have those flashbacks. I agree with you. I didn't like them at first, but when you really dive into the story, you dive into the script and seeing how those two characters need that, I think it works.

38:46 You know what you're you're you're kind of convincing me. I'm kind I'm going back and forth on it now because part of me just wants a little bit more abrupt exposition. Like, clearly she has got issues. She she's you know, she's kind of keeps herself, keeps herself, she's quiet, we get that, right, and there's something there's something busted about her her background, right, so you know, just let me give me, give me you know, give me the news, right, But that's at the same time, now that you got me thinking about it, that first moment where we're on the hunting trip, I'm like, what the hell is going on here? And then you're like, okay, this is leading to something. I just feel like maybe the payoff wasn't there.

39:32 Yeah, because I can see that what you're talking about. Sure, you know, because you know and we know what's happening. The uncle is abusing her. But at the same time, I'm asking myself, where the hell is the father during the hunting trip, right, you you know, because then flash flash forward in the flashbacks and the father's had a heart attack and now she's going to be living with the uncle who's going to take care of her. But even at the end of the movie, you know, the police officers like, hey, your uncle's here, are you ready to go? So is it that we're just saying that, you know, Casey Cook is she's living you know, she's living in a prison, regardless of being in a literal prison. When the when the beast, when when when Dennis knabs her? Maybe is that what is that what we're going for?

40:22 Maybe that's what he's going for. Absolutely. Okay, I'm not sure if I like it still, but just I think maybe maybe it could have it could have. Been done a little bit better. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Dave we like I said, we u, I said, I said earlier we covered M Night Shyamalan. Uh. I want to say that was July twenty like mid July in twenty twenty one, So listeners, yeah, it's been a while. We were due for another M Night I think. Yeah, listeners, go back July twenty twenty one. Check check out our our episode on on the visit. That movie is terror fine and you'll never see the ending coming, like like with most of the Night Shamlan movies. Ye, well, let me just switch gears here and talk about one of the greatest scenes in this film, one of the one of the scenes that has never I don't know how if I've ever been this happy sitting in a theater watching what I'm gonna call the reveal, the David.

41:23 Dunn revealed the David Yeah, wow, Okay, it's because you don't see it coming. You do not see this. If you say you saw this coming. You're lying. Nobody saw this coming. Nobody saw this coming, you know, and you get little hints of it. When you look back to the movie, you realize, oh man, he threw some hints at us. We just didn't pay major hints. But yes, you just you know, m night. He puts everything in front of you, but tells you to look look over there the whole Yeah, you're that, Yeah, he the whole time you're watching this movie, you're just like, I don't want to miss it. I don't want to miss this. I'm looking for the I'm looking for the twist, I'm looking for the reveal. Meanwhile, he's it's just right there in front of your face the whole time.

42:05 Yeah. The So you talk about the reflections piece that he puts in his movies a lot. You get that ending with Kevin and the Beast Dennis, all of them looking in the mirror in the reflection. The camera's going back and forth again another night shot, and then he's just changing personalities, and then we go to that revealing scene of them in the restaurant or that little little restaurant or whatever it is. Well, well even even just like pump the brakes a little bit there, Dave, because when the Beast is admiring himself in that in that mirror and that Rundown apartment. I immediately the dog gears, you know, went up, and I got chills because I'm like, wait a.

42:46 Minute, is that that sounds like James Newton Howard. That's that's Unbreakable music. That's the Unbreakable theme. And I remember sitting there going, well, it is an awesome theme, and I guess it's ok it's it's okay to reuse it because it was an unbreaka when it was awesome, but you know whatever. But now we're in the diner and the you know, people are just sitting there, they're watching the TV. You know, the story is breaking, you know, these the girl has been found and this this Kevin Wendell Crumb is on the loose blah blah blah, and they're building up this this this super villain type persona right, yep. And then one of the patrons at the diners is like, wasn't there remember remember a couple of years ago, a long time ago, they had some weird name for some other guy, you know, wheelchair.

43:39 He was like a terrorist, what'd they call him? And at this point the music is really building yep, and there's Bruce willis sitting there, Glass Glass. They called him mister Glass. And then Dave, if you didn't need any more of a reveal, you see the patch on his shirt says done yep, and then the camera just, ever so subtly fades to the coat rack. Green, his green unser. Is hanging there, and now James Newton Howard's track Visions from Unbreakable is exploding through the cinema and I lost my mind.

44:22 I I freak. I freaked out, and I was just like, holy shit, this awesome movie is actually quietly been a sequel to Unbreakable the entire time. It's a villain story that is in the world of David Dunn, and God. We get he gives in two thousand, he gives us what arguably I will say is one of the best superhero origin movies ever. And then twist, now he's going to give you an origin story all about the super soldier. That we learned about and Unbreakable the villain. I couldn't believe it. I just could not believe.

45:03 I know, it was a great reveal that caught you by surprise, a great feeling when it when it rushed over you. Man, it really was, and again I'm glad it wasn't ruined for me. No. Well, and and hats off to him because the whole time they're screening this movie the test audiences, that scene what that scene didn't exist, that would have been ruined for Yeah, I would have been. He purposely did not show it. Bruce Willis purposely chose not to be credited at all. And listen, say what you will about Disney. You know, I know we've been we've been griping about him a lot lately with some of the stuff they're doing. But hats off to them because m Knight personally asked them permission this is this was Yeah, he David Dunn that you know, Disney owned that that that character. Yep, they owned the James Howard James Howard music and they were like, yeah, sure, go for it.

45:56 Which Jeff James Howard didn't do the music for this movie. That's surprises me. I wish he invited here. To tell us. This was with Dylan Thornton who did this music. Don't get me wrong, I thought the music was phenomenal in this Yeah it is. When you got those those beat of those drums, when the tension was getting really building and building, and I thought that was all really infestive. But why didn't he use James Newton Howard Because he loves James Newton Howard. I have to Okay, So I'm just speculating maybe James Newton Howard was working on another film. Could be and without looking, you know, and without looking, yeah, he's he's a he's an incredible composer. Yeah, without looking looking at looking at his filmography, you know, who knows, maybe maybe.

46:39 Maybe he was busy doing something. It could be. Yeah, yeah, all right, I need you to get busy because, like I said, we had talked about m Night Shyamalan back in back in July of twenty twenty one, you know. Been a while. We were due for another episode h Brad and I covered the visit, which I strongly recommend to any horror fan, thriller fan, M Night Shyamalan fan if you haven't seen it. Yep, we covered his filmography, you know, we talked about you know, well up until twenty twenty one, obviously, But Dave, I know you've got opinions if we could do, you know, and I know I know we want to start wrapping up here. But if you could give me a quick the day burns see it or skip it. Okay, we'll go through his filmography real quick, because I I think, I think I know where you're gonna You're gonna end up with a lot of these, but I want to I want to see how how close I get? All Right, So let's talk about M Knight's filmography and again, uh listeners, check out check out our other M night episode if you want to hear a little bit more details in a bigger breakdown. But Dave, I I only asked because we got to start somewhere. Nineteen ninety nine, The sixth Sense see It, see It? Two thousand Unbreakable see it question? Yeah, two thousand and two Signs.

48:04 See it, And that's his first chance working with Joaquin. Maybe that's where the whole it could be forgot about seed was born, right Yeah, yeah, yeah, two thousand. And four The Village. I'm torn on this one, Jeff, but I'm gonna say see it. Oh okay, because he's back with the Joaquin again. He is like Joaquin's kind of becoming like a go to guy. This movie we just advertised wrong, which is what throws me off of it all the time. But see it. I agree with you. Two thousand and six, Lady in the Water, definitely see it. Okay, two thousand and eight the happening, skip it. You gotta skip this one, right. You do? Not a fair Can we just this in the theater together? Yeah? Can we? Let's let's give it. Let's give it a little bit of credit though.

48:46 Maybe one of the greatest trailers for a film ever. Oh yeah, absolutely, we were. We were beating down the theater door to get in to watch this movie just based on the trailer and the big reveal were I felt like Ralphie, you know, with my Dakota ring, be. Sure to drink your levelteen. That's exactly what it was. Plants are killing us. It's son of a bitch. You know. The happening was not happening. No, no, In fact, Dave twenty ten The Last. Airbender, absolutely skip it. Look help me out here because I skipped it just based on the on the trailer and this based off of like a anime.

49:31 It's based off of Nickelodeon's Avatar The Last Airbender, and it was atrocious. I did not like this movie. I love the animated cartoon that they did, which was like five seasons long. Now Netflix has got a new one now that they just started, came out back in the spring of this year, which is fantastic, But this version not at all all. Right, we're in a we're in a bad spot with him night at this point are Yes, We've had a couple of misses. Thirty Team, he does After Earth with Will Smith and yeah. Not a fan. I was not a fan at all. No, But twenty fifteen the visit See It, He's back.

50:13 He's back. And in twenty sixteen we've been talking about split. He's back in a big way. Oh yeah, definitely see it. And the title wave continues to rise because twenty nineteen he gives us the third film in the East Rail one seventy seven trilogy, Glass See It. What we could not believe is happening. We got, we got David Dunn getools. Yeah, we got trilogy. We get it becomes a trilogy. They're all locked up in what basically is Arkham Asylum. Yep, and they're gonna it's where it's the big, the big pay per view, uh battle right, yep, No holds barred. No holds barred. This movie is awesome and I'm so happy that we it called like. I was just so happy that unbreakable because as perfect as a film is, unbreakable is that you know, when your expectations are high, it's like, well, where can this story go?

51:07 Split? We weren't expecting split, so we had no choice but to be super excited and elevated. But he announced Glass. We knew Glass was coming. Yeah, so the expectations are very high and I feel like it delivered. I was a big fan. Yep. Twenty twenty one. Now our last time we talked about M and Night. We were talking about a film that he was about to release called Old. Did you see Old? I did? I've seen everything M Night's done. I see this film. You gotta see this one, right, you do. Absolutely, It's got again, It's got some great camera work done, and it's got a really unique idea behind it. So definitely check this one out.

51:49 A vacationing family discovers that the secluded beach where they're relaxing for a few hours is somehow causing them to age, rapidly, reducing their entire lives into a single day. Incredibly creepy premise. It is. Gale Garcia Bar Now awesome in it rufus Sewell, Tamasa Mackenzie from Last Night and so ho she's in that. I love this. I loved Old. I thought I thought it was awesome. You know, definitely definitely see Old twenty twenty three. I'm gonna say he does maybe a top three m Night. Shyamalan film Knock at the Cabin.

52:31 Yeah, definitely see this one too, Dave. I went in. I went into this one. My guard was up right, because the trailer is spectacular, you know, and we're talking about the one with Batista right. You know. While vacationing, a girl and her parents are taken hostage by arms strangers who demand that the family make a choice to avert the apocalypse. Yeah, these strangers show up the door with their weapons. Hey, well, you know, you guys gotta choose. We're gonna kill someone, but you guys gotta make the choice, and if you don't, we the apocalypse happens. And the whole time you're like, are these people crazy? Right? Could it happen? You're kind of torn? But the movie man does it deliver.

53:12 I love Knock at the Cabin. You're saying see this. One, yes, absolutely, yep? All right, Well and that takes us. Uh we got about wrap. We gotta wrap this up because uh yeah, we gotta go see Trap Trap were we got a little bit of time before Trap starts. So I'm happy to hear your thoughts on m Night, Dave, But uh, I want to talk about what's next real quick. I want to talk about what's next for the director. So in developments, he's got he's got a project in development, and I don't know how to feel about this. Man. What is a It's called labor of Love. Okay. The original screenplay that he did was written in nineteen ninety two and sold to Fox in nineteen ninety three.

53:54 And apparently this all started as like a Valentine for his his his then girl friend who's now his wife. And obviously I'm giving you a little development on where this this project's been. Harrison Ford was initially supposed to play the lead and it was gonna be a Sidney Pollock film. M he wasn't night was it was Remember like he used to just write like Stuart Little, so most stuff he didn't direct. This was gonna be one that he just wrote and wasn't gonna direct. But uh, you know it kind of stalled out because uh, Forrest Gump comes out, and I guess there's a very similar plot device with a you know, with what's going on because it seems like the guy, you know, the main character loses his wife.

54:38 And so he start starts running. Okay, kind of does like the you know, I just kept running, you know. So they kind of they kind of, you know, trashed it and it's been sitting in development. Hell for a long time apparently a long time. But apparently he's he's trying to get it where he's trying to get it revived again. So well, I mean, he's hitting a lot of home runs right now, Jeff, So he is let's see what he's going to offer. Yeah, well see this, Like I said, uh, I've got a very nice collector's edition Blu ray of it. Dave, where'd you watch this on? When I own a copy of it? You own a copy of it too? But I did For the listeners that don't have a copy of it. It is streaming right now on Hulu and free V with ads. But man, the Blue I don't have to tell you. The Blu rays loaded with some great behind the scenes stuff. Yep, alternate endings and some deleted scenes which lead the scenes were great and that's by the way.

55:34 Yeah, I gotta tell you so you ever get a rainy day, Breakout, Unbreakable, break Out, Split and Breakout Glass and watch your trilogy. The East Rail one seventy seven trilogy. I'm gonna do that soon. Yeah. Well, listeners, what do you think of Split? You can let us know on social media. You'll find us on Facebook, Instagram. And x. You can check out a Film by Podcast dot com for all of our episodes that are streaming free on the platform of your choice, and you can write to us at a Film by Podcast at gmail dot com with your questions, comments and concerns. We may just read your response on the show and send you some a film by swag. On Friday, our limited series nineteen ninety six returns with that long awaited trip to San Francisco.

56:20 Jason Colvin from the Shirley You Can't Be Serious Podcast continues his adjunct co hosting duties When we talk about Cage Connery, Rockets. And the rock Oh Yeah. And next time on a Film by Amber Lewis discusses the underrated, lesser known Elizabeth Salander movie. When we talk about a film by Feddei Alvarez, his twenty eighteen cybercrime action adventure The Girl and the Spider's Web Dave. That reminds me Eddi's got that new alien Romulus coming out, you know, we gotta. We're definitely checking that one out. We buy the tickets. We're outside the theater. We might as well buy the tickets for that.

57:03 While we're here, so might as well, all right. And as always, to those of you listening, liking, sharing, and rating this podcast, and those of you joining our growing. Community on Patreon, we thank you. Thanks. When I play that back, it might sound so fucking stupid that I just cut it and do like a This episode sponsored by black Key Coffee. I don't know. We'll see