Peter Hyams - 2010: The Year We Make Contact

0:00 Hello, Jeff, please believe me. We need to talk about a film by Peter Hyens, the nineteen eighty four sci fi sequel twenty ten, the year we made Contact. Something's going to happen? Andrew? What? What is going to happen? Something wonderful? Hello everybody. I'm Jeff Johnson, I'm Andrew Blakeley, and I'm Amber Lewis, and this is a film by podcast. I know you both are very excited to discuss this one. Andrew, obviously you are a two time visitor to UH to Space Camp. You were the Shutle, you were the Shuttle commander. Correct, Yeah, I won the Right Stuff Award. I I don't you know. I don't like to brag about it too much. It's just hanging in my car window.

1:15 It's fine. Yeah, you're you. Uh if I if, if ever there was a NASA expert on this shows, it's got to be you. However, I don't know. Amber also, Uh, she's she's got a little bit of a of a tie to NASA, Is that right, Amber? A little bit? Yeah? My dad worked for a company that made the parts for the Mercury missions and May Shuttle and all that cool stuff. So some of those hinges and buckles and things were my dad and he loved science fiction. So two thousand and one and twenty ten were movies that we watched and enjoyed together, and he explained all the science to me. I absolutely love the fact. You know this twenty ten the year we make contact.

2:09 You've got you've got Roy Scheider working with Dame Helen Mirren, and here I am, I've got Andrew Blakelee working with Dame Amber Lewis. This is it's gonna be a fun one. Guys. Uh, December Helen Mirren in the sceneria, right, yeah, what if you if you want to be the Dame, that's fine, man, that's totally that's totally fine. I'll tell you December and nineteen eighty four it's a strong sci fi month at the box office. Twenty ten is competing with John Carpenter's Starman and David Lynch's Dune. That's that's heavy. Yeah. Wow, Well, and they're all three so different that there's a little something for everybody. Could you imagine being like a sci fi fan in nineteen eighty four and just looking at December and just like your local theater And here's another one. And another one and another one.

3:02 Yeah, it's great time to be a sci fi kid in eighty four. I do have to ask this question though, I was watching the original trailer the other day. It really plays up the events of two thousand and one A Space Odyssey. So my question to you guys, is it mission critical to see it before watching twenty ten, the year we make contact? I don't think so. Actually, as a kid, I liked this one more, which I think has a lot to do with it being a more traditional story format and more character driven. But I don't think you need to see two thousand and one. They feel like two entirely unrelated movies at times.

3:44 Obviously, we all know two thousand and one A Space Odyssey. But Amber, for those that maybe haven't seen this film twenty ten, can you give us a little synopsis? Tell us what this one is all about? This time? Absolutely? This is a joint American Soviet expedition sent to Jupiter to discover what went wrong with the USS discovery against a backdrop of growing global tensions. Amongst the mysteries the expedition must explain are the appearance of a huge black monolith in Jupiter's orbit and the fate of how the Discovery's AI computer.

4:27 I know we are going to talk a little bit about how nine thousand so but more on that later. But uh, you get that Amber, You get that huge exposition dump at the beginning of the film with Haywood's mission report, which I love because it's doing that you can almost hear like the the type, yes, the scrolling cross you know, it's very very alien and aliens, and you kind of like you get like the whole you basically get the synopsis for two thousand and one of Space Odyssey right there. So I'm just wondering, And that's what I'm wondering, Like, you know, do you have to watch two thousand and one to really enjoy this film. I don't think you do, But you guys are the experts. I wanted to find out what you thought. So yeah, no, I think that, like my love for two thousand and one has no bounds. I can go off on a tangent really easily. It's just an absolute piece of art.

5:19 So I think if you try to put that onto this movie, you're going to end up being disappointed in what is a really good science fiction movie. Stanley Kubrick. I mean he two thousand and one is a masterpiece. We all know it, but he has zero interest in directing a sequel. So the studio goes after Peter Hyams, based off the success of his film with Sean Connery that he did Outland in nineteen eighty one, which I know we'll probably talk a little bit when we get to the filmography, but it was a bold swing to get Hyams. You know, I like Outland. We'll talk about other filmography. I've nothing against the guy, but I feel like this was almost This is too much to put on almost anybody's shoulders, and I don't know that he had the pedigree leading up to this to do it.

6:05 Having said that, I think he made a great film, a great sci fi film, But I can't imagine if somebody came up to me and said, hey, we want you to make a sequel to arguably the best sci fi movie ever and some people's you know, list as the greatest movie ever. Just make a sequel to that. No big deal. Let's talk a little bit about this cast. So Roy Scheider, because heywood Floyd. He replaces William Silvester who played the part in two thousand and one. But that guy had aged out of the role, so now we got Shier. I'm loving Schier and this. I mean, you love Schier and everything, but he is I don't say. He's arguably a completely different Heywood. Floyd.

6:48 I couldn't agree more. He's so likable, He's got that perfect everyman energy that makes him great and something like Jaws. But I just I didn't feel like it was right for Floyd. He does great, but I definitely like him. But I can't picture that every man who loves a baseball hot dog is also the former director of the equivalent of NASA. It's just I don't see super genius scientist and Roy Scheider in the same thought well, and Floyd in the first one is he's like a political, kind of slimy liar. I mean, he really retcon his character to make him the hero of this movie, and he's much more likable this time around. Right, Yeah, you know you mentioned Jaws. I'd be remiss if I didn't say.

7:38 You know, I tell you what I see. I see a lot of Chief Brody, only because he did. You guys pick up on the fact that we are introduced to him. He's dressed like Chief Brody, he's got the kaki shorts and the gray sweatshirt from Jaws Do, and I'm absolutely loving that he's wearing like the khaki button down with the double pockets, Like yeah, I was like, what's up, Brody, I feel like that's just what Roy Scheider wears. He just showed up to set in that and they were like perfect. Is it part of his contract that he's just gonna wear his own flows? Maybe? And He's say, these are my clothes. I like my clothes. Yeah, Andrew, I know you, you know things all things NASA. I just got to ask you, and Amber, I want you to chime in on this question as well. I noticed the Russians wake him up from hypersleep and he kind of needs help raising up.

8:26 That is that? Is that accurate? Andrew? I mean it would make sense. Obviously hyper sleep is not real, so it's you know, every sci fi has their own sort of take on it. But I mean, your muscles would be atrophying, so I'm sure they'd have to have ways of continually moving them and things like that. These are problems that we're still dealing with on the ISS is trying to figure out how to maintain muscle mass maintain bone density, and that's with astronauts actively working out and using all the equipment. So in hyper sleep there there'd have to be some way to mitigate that. Obviously it's not touched on because it's sci fi. You can kind of skip over some of the details, but it makes sense that it would be difficult waking up and readjusting. I just want to remind you both that in the greatest film of nineteen eighty six, Aliens, when Vasquez woke up, she started doing pull ups for reps. So is Vasquez really, I mean, just too Is she just too bad? A superwoman? Like she's just too bad? Yeah? When Drake's like, you're just too bad, too bad, I guess you are if you can do hyper sleep and then you start you like five feet tall and carrying that machine gun thing around. Yeah, I'll tell you about another Let's talk about another lady that is also just too bad. Dame Helen Mirren is playing Tanya Kerbuck. She is the whole movie for me. Yeah. Absolutely. When I saw this as a kid, there was no other place almost that you could see a woman in control, being the boss, taking charge of things, making decisions. In sci

10:00 fi. Yeah, that was the niche. So this is this is something that I love about sci fi especially is its ability to be progressive in a way that feels really normal. But you know, as we see a female commander of a Russian mission in a US based movie, that would have been unheard of because Sally Ride had only gone up about a year prior to this coming out, the first American female in space. But the Russians didn't really have that same lag we did. Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space and she went up in nineteen sixty three, so it would not be at all unheard of for the Russians to have a female commander of a mission like this, even in the eighties. I don't know if you guys know this. Helen Marren, she got her SAG card because of this movie. This is her American film debut. Oh wow, and what a movie to you know, introduce yourself to American audiences because she's fantastic in this. Another little fun fact. Peter Hyams he obviously he writes and directs this film, and you know is cinematographer. He pays tribute to Stanley Kubrick with this character Andrew, you know, Okay, both of you know, it looks like he wrote on your heads. Yeah, uh, Tanya Kerbuck Kerbuck Kubrick spelled backwards.

11:15 M hmm. That's that's just I love when writers do that, and also funneled on to Kubrick at one point where magazine's thrown down with the leader of both Russia and the United States, and the the Russian leader is just a drawing of Stanley Kubrick on the cover of Time magazine. I gotta go back now because I I remember that. I remember the scene where you see the Time magazine and I just just a quick glance. I just thought it was like Reagan and Gorbachev, or well, it wouldn't have been, because this is we're way beyond the eighties. But speaking of Gorbachev. Uh, Helen Mirren actually speaks Russian. There's a I guess her on her dad's side there there there's Russian descent. However, she speaks it with an English accent, like, you know, perfect English accent. What did what did you guys think on her on her Russian accent in this movie? Is it?

11:58 Is it a little over emphasized as a little you know, to count Dracula sounding or is it just young point. I did actually google do Russians have like modifiers in their speech? Because they always drop the words A and in them and it drives me completely insane. I hate it, But they actually don't, so those articles aren't there. I watched this movie a lot in high school. I was I played an Eastern European character in our version of Twelve Angry Men, and I watched this was one of the movies I watched several times to try to practice my fake Eastern European accent. So I hope it was accurate because that's what I was facing mine on. It's a little Boris and Natasha, but it's fine. Yeah, it is eighty four.

12:43 What do you want? Let's talk eighty four. Andrew, you and I were talking. We mentioned this last week when we were doing The Man from Uncle, that we were doing this, and we we talked. I mistakenly said Russian John Lithgow. I don't know why I remember this movie because I watched this all the time when I was a little kid. I always remembered. I always thought John Lithgow was one of the Russians. But he's he's not. He's playing Walter Kernow. He's one of the Americans, one of the three Americans on the shuttle. This is a big year for Lithgow because he's got the Adventures of Bucker Rubondsi. I was gonna say that's the movie you're thinking of, because he's got that ridiculous accent in that. I think that's what it is. I think I just kind of blended the movies because he's got Buck Rubond's eye, he's got twenty ten and he's he's got footloose.

13:28 This is a huge year for John Lithgow, and he's fun in this movie. He'd been coming off of a couple of nominations for Best Actor as well, so he's he was on a hot streak. It's wild though, you know, seeing this is forty years ago and he's still bald with white hair. I didn't he still looks old forty years ago. He's just he Yeah, he looks like John Lithgow. Yeah, exactly. He's one of those guys like like Sam Elliott. They just they have a look and they never they never went away from that look. You know, if it isn't broke, don't think exactly. Uh. I like seeing Litko here another one. I like seeing a big time character actor, you know, one of one of those celebrated that guys. Bob Balaban as doctor Chandram. Prolific TV actor, TV director. He's been on everything from Miami Vice to Amazing Stories to Seinfeld and he's directed those things. It's weird, though, you know, when you see him and you're like, Chandra, that's he doesn't look like a Chandra. No Indian actor they could cast, not one. See that's I like that. You bring that up, Amber, because Arthur C.

14:37 Clark wanted Ben Kingsley for this role. Oh my god, you know, and and uh and Chandra is a Hindu deity, you know, and obviously Kingsley famously plays Gandhi. So he they were looking at him the whole time. And I don't know why they didn't get him. I don't know what the situation was, but I feel like playing the exact same character that he played in Close Encounters, he is. Yeah, you're not wrong, he just got shorter here. Yeah, he's definitely. He is one of my favorite seeds of the movie. And we'll get to that here in a little bit. But he didn't really feel like I didn't feel like he got to do it really a whole lot until you know, and we can talk about a little bit later, but the climax of the movie, you know, there's such a tense scene, and I think his his subtlety really brought it home in a way that anybody else could have overacted. I think, yeah, we got We obviously have to mention one of the guys returning from the original two thousand and one, Heir Doula as back as David Bowman.

15:50 I look, I know this guy was in Black Christmas, and I know he's in these the you know, the two thousand and one twenty ten. I don't remember him in anything else. He is in a fabulously campy movie called Bunny Lake Is Missing that you have to seek out and watch immediately. Bunny Lake Is Missing. I'm writing down with Sir Laurence Olivier. Wow, it is a hoot and a half. I don't I kind of don't want that though, because like in my head, that's David Bowman what I'm watching, Like anything else? Yeah, Yeah, they say his name and I'm like, wait, who are you talking about? No, that's no, that's David Bowman. What do you who? Who is this so I feel like it would be very jarring. I almost don't want to see him in anything else because especially in two thousand and one, but even in this he is he is iconic, and he's got such a unique look about him.

16:44 I think it'd be hard to dissociate. Here's the thing, and and Amber, you can you can tell us if if we're right about this. But the thing about him his performance. I mentioned this movie opening against Starman, and in that movie, Jeff Bridges is an alien who is playing what he thinks is a is a human, and I feel like that's what this guy does. Like his his look, it's almost creepy. I'm not gonna lie like, I kind of get creeped out sometimes, like his movements and just his that blank, you know, thousand yard stare he does with a smile. It's a little unsettling. Is he like is he like this in this in this bunny late movie Amber or is he Okay? I want to watch it just just to see him in a different light, because he's still he's still a little bowmanish in Black Christmas, which we covered last last Christmas.

17:38 But yeah, interesting that he he still looks the same too, like he didn't really age. Yes, I was really looking too, because I was like, did they put a ton of makeup on him or whatever? And it's like, now that's just his luck. Yeah. I also I had to google this one. It's a small part, but his wife, miss Bowman in this is played by the mother of Emily and Zoe Deschanel. Yes, what, I didn't realize that I had to google her. I was like, wait, that da Chanelle's pretty unique last name. I got to check this out. Yes, that's that's Emien. Zoe de Chanelle's mom plays Missus Bowman and she was also Missus Glenn and the right stuff. That's every time I see her. That's all I can think of. So she's playing the wife of not one, but two famous astronauts. Yes, that and that's impressive. That's okay, all right, before we take a break, Yeah, but she does have a type. Before we take a break.

18:34 Is there anyone I'm missing? I know there's I know there's a ton of people in here, but I just wanted to give a shout out to the young man that plays Christopher Floyd Kenny from Mister Mom with his woobie. That is him, isn't it oh man, yep. And then the delightful Candice Bergen is the voice of Sal that was Kandice Bergen. That's fantastic. I gotta read. You know when you hear it, you'll hear it. Well. When I think of Candis Bergen, I think of like the Murphy Brown voice, and I did not hear that in this movie. So now I have to go back and watch it just for that, for the for the soal nine thousand scene with with Chandra Wow, okay, good good call there.

19:27 H So you asked if we had anybody else worth mentioning. I will say it was great they were able to get Douglas rain Back to be the voice of How nobody else could have done it. I don't know what they would have done such an do it. Yeah, and you know what, we can talk about his character a little bit later, or the character of how and how it evolves in this movie, which I am in love with. But yeah, Douglas rain Is, I don't I don't even know what he looks like, and again I kind of don't want to know. I like red dot. Yes, he's a he's a he's a a glowing red orb that is that is menacing and terrifying. Yeah, that's that's sort of the hero of the story, right, Yeah, very very much of redemption arc for how nine thousand and this. Ye, and I know, I know we're gonna talk about that scene because we have to. Let's take a quick break and when we get back, we'll talk. We'll talk some of these scenes. Welcome back. We are discussing Peter Him's twenty ten, the year we make contact. Before we discuss the pivotal scene. Let's let's let's go through this a little bit. A couple couple couple of scenes that are worth noting. I think, first off, definitely love Roy Scheider training montage to get ready for the mission. Oh, I can do without that.

20:56 You can do without that. I love this seen at the v l A. And to me, you could cut from that to him launching and not missing. Wow. No, no moments with his wife, the wife from Funny Farm not forget her name, but like, I think you need those moments to kind of you know, we talked about we talked about Schider playing a more likable version of Heywood. I like the interaction he has with with the kid, you know, kind of explaining things, and I have to believe that when Andrew trains with his two year old, they're doing push up or they're doing sit ups the same the same way. You know, I see I see Andrew like helping him up, and then you know, back and forth. I will say one of the big things that I love about this movie that it did so differently than two thousand and one is this is a much more human movie where who they are, what it means to be human, and what it means to be an emotional being is much more in the forefront. So having these moments to actively humanize him, I think is really important for making this movie what it is and making it so different than two thousand and one. Yeah, I think that's a really good point, because I was really just stuck on I hate exposition, and it felt like they just felt like they needed to hold your hand and explain every little detail, and I'm like, no, you really don't. Looking at it from the humanist perspective, though, is that's a much more nurturing viewpoint? I

22:30 think so, Amber, not your pivotal not the pivotal moment, but is there a scene that you just really you really love them in the film. I love the air braking scene, and most specifically I wait and am locked on the screen for them. There's this little moment after they're done and everybody's just kind of like, oh, thank god we lived, and Helen Mirren gives therself one little second of feeling that way, and then she looks and I love that they don't translate the Russian. You're just lesstasic, not knowing what they're saying. But she looks at her you know, flight commander and makes a comment and he just kind of does this double take, and I swear I change what I think she says every time, but it's usually something like you know, eh, one's so bad and he's just like what And I love that little like face work that they do and those expressions, like you have this whole interaction after that really intense action sequence. So I want to talk about that scene because there's two things that I think really stand out of it. The first of which is that that little interaction between Haywood and the young Russian astronaut the cosmonauts, again going back to my point that this is really focusing on the human aspect and the fear, and they did a great job of showing that in the little moment between them where they don't speak the same language, there's no communication, but it's just finding that connection.

24:02 It's really powerful. But also at the same time, I'm the technical side of me is a little annoyed watching them try an aerobraking maneuver on Jupiter in a man spacecraft, which we had never done and would never even consider doing. Like that's that's an insane choice. Way nobody would ever approve that. Ever, Yeah, I say it was a wild choice. Well, you know, you talking about the Russians. One thing I really like, you know, and Amber mentioned we don't get the translation, and I think that works because there's a little bit of paranoia going on, because one of the better moments in these in this film is where they're sitting around the table kind of trying to hash things out, and it's almost like it's it's show and tell you know, I'll I'll tell you everything, but I'm showing you nothing.

24:55 And and I think that's it's it's a fantastic thing. As Amber been in uh in the synopsis, you know, we're there's there's some serious stuff happening at the you know, down back on Earth, like Russia and in America we're on the brink of war, and so for that to be happening, and then meanwhile, these these guys are up on Jupiter, you know, trying to you know, work it out. I love I love the dynamic there where Yeah, are the politicians back home? What's what's uh? What's what's shout out to say? Like the politicians back home, they they they're they're asses, But we don't have to be asses. We're scientists. Let's let's work together. Liam. He said, like, was it really like this? And I have to constantly movies from this era have to explain to him it cannot be understated that they were going to kill us, like they were crazy, they were going to blow up the world. You know, you just can't understand what living under that kind of anxiety was like.

26:02 So that tension, and especially you know, as he's waking up and they discuss all the conflict between these two leads to one of my favorite scenes, which is when they're doing the EVA to go from the Leonov to the Discovery. I mean, this is obviously it would be a terrifying thing to do. And I think you know, now in movies we get so accustomed to the idea of just floating out in space, but the first untethered VA only happened earlier that year in real life, so this is still a very tense moment. To do this next to another world, it's absolutely crazy. So I think Liftgow does such a great job of just being an engineer and panicking a little bit. I think that would be a very human response. And the connection that he develops with his Russian counterpart, and the way that they develop a friendship really quickly and like are emotionally supporting each other is so impactful because of all the tension that's led up to that moment. It's one of my favorite parts of the whole movie. Well did you notice I didn't notice until this rewatch today he wears Max's beret at the end. Mm hmm.

27:10 I never nevericed that before, dude, I I didn't notice that. That's fantastic. Yeah, Well, like like you're saying, like the bond that they have, it's you know, and again I'm p you know, calling back to what you had said. This is a very human movie and lift Gow. I love panics lift Gow, I love compassionate lift Gow, and I kind of feel like he's anchoring the film in that in that regard because Helen Mirren and Roy Scheider they got to play the hero role, and you've got all these other Russians that we you know, they're just there manning the controls like it's like it's the bridgis of Star Trek, so we don't really hear from them. And that leaves it with uh with lift Gow, Who's who's making the bond with with with these guys, and I love him in this movie. Let's talk. Let's talk pivotal scene though, because I know for me what it is, I'm guessing maybe we all have the same one.

28:06 I'm going to just put it out there. Doctor Chandra telling how nine thousand the truth about what's happening moment. I feel like the more important moment is the one where he tells Floyd, this is why you went nuts. Okay, let's let's talk talk about that one. Namber talk about that moment. Well. One of the things about two thousand and one, if you haven't seen twenty ten, is that all of a sudden, you're on this mission and the computer is malfunctioning, and the malfunction just cascades until you lose all the crew members and you finally have to disconnect him. You don't know why this happened. It's just like the computer suddenly just snapped, and so this huge emotional moment of you forced him to lie and it's against the most basic of his programming, and he couldn't handle it. He got stuck in a loop and you know, broke. It's just heartbreaking to me. And that I felt humanized him without him having to do anything. That's a really good point. I think that, you know, as the movie has gone out of its way to discuss what it means to be human. How is just such a really interesting way of looking at that, Because you watch two

29:37 thousand and one, you think, man, this robot, this machine is evil, It is homicidal, awful, and it's so old and you know, I'm sorry, I can't do that. And yeah, now, giving that its proper context and saying like no, it was the politicians, the lying rulers that put it in this position, lends a different angle to what it means to be human or sentient at least, and I think that that's a that's a really cool angle to it. Yeah, the original I remember thinking how terrifying. That voice was because these guys are just trying to survive. And when you hear that, I'm sorry, Dave, I can't do that. And then you see that red that red, that red light just beaming out at you. He's terrifying. But when you get this, when you get his background, you find out that he, you know, the HOW nine that was basically had like a a you know, a psychotic break in the computer world because you know to what you know, the way Emer was describing it. Now he's just he's a sad character. He's a he's a tragic, tragic character and ultimately becomes one of the heroes of this film.

30:47 That menacing tone, it turns out, if you go back and watch it with that context, is actually sympathetic. Yeah, it's almost kind. This is the voice they tried to make to be soothing, and that maybe made it scary, but in retrospect it makes it kind of sad, and it's a sad scene like that, you know, I think for you, like I said, the pivotal moment for me is is doctor Chandra having his interaction with how where he tells him the truth and you know, meanwhile, you got shier micd up and he's like, go to a private channel, you know, tell this tell it anything, you know. Like Schier is like, I don't give a shit, Like tell him whatever. We need to tell him, lie to him so we can get out of here. And and Chandra, who who treats How like like a person, is just like, yeah, the Discovery is going to be destroyed. And it's almost like he's he's basically telling how like you're going You're not going to survive, and it's just sad. When How's like, you know, will I dream?

31:40 You know, it's like I think it's more said when he says, thank you for telling me the truth? Oh gosh, yeah, I know it gets me. That's a that's a hard one. I love Chandra's response when when Hal asks will I dream? Because at the beginning when he's talking to Sally and he says, of course all intelligent beings dream, and then for that callback and that the honest answer is I don't know, yeah, because I felt like being like really kind of patronizing. Yeah, he was just telling her what she wants to hear. He was all, how how nine thousand just just the heartbreaker in this movie, I think, And I love that they, Like you said before, I love that they got the original actor back. No one else could do this voice for sure. We're gonna take one more break and uh, and then we're gonna we're gonna talk about Peter Hims a little bit and his uh, his impressive filmography. We are back, uh, Andrew. Last week, we we kind of started something new, you know, we we we kind of ditched the uh the director book report, you know, uh doing I have a little more fun, a little you know, moving things on a little bit more quickly.

32:52 Two things you might not know about this director and then uh and then a quote from from the man himself, this one blows my mine. Before directing movies, Peter Hymes was an artist, a drummer for jazz musicians Bill Evans and Maynard Ferguson, and unbelievably, at the age of twenty one, he's one of the youngest news anchors for CBS News. Is it just me or should news anchors like twenty five years old? Yeah? Right, aren't they? They're like your dad telling you exactly You're they're not twenty one year olds on the on the on the desk, right. But Peter Jimes was, in fact one of them. He is also one of the few filmmakers that prefer to write, direct, and serve as cinematographer on their films, much like he does in twenty ten and I love I love this this quote from him. You know, when you think about his background, you know he's he's an artist, and you know, you know he does music, he does art, he's you know, he's a filmmaker. Listen to this.

33:58 This is this is a very twenty ten how nine thousand things to say quote. I think there's no excuse for not trying to make things look wonderful. I mean, I clearly fail more than I succeed, except except that I don't fail for lack of trying. I love that act. Great, that's a good one. That is really good speaking it really good. We got to talk about his his his philmography, because it is all over the map. So we'll bounce around here a little bit. He makes his his feature film debut nineteen seventy four. He puts out two movies, one called Busting and one called Our Time, Our Time Not I don't know. High school girl in a high school boy fall in love, but no one wants him to fall in love whatever. Busting, though, we got to see Busting.

34:59 I'm gonna I ask you, guys, I'm gonna ask. I'm gonna ask the listeners to go, whether you go on YouTube or you can definitely go to IMDb because I saw it on IMDb when I when you when you pull up Busting that you know IMDb does the trailers right there. Busting is clearly like one of these grindhouse movies where you get the uh, the you know, the narrator and it's like busting and then you see like Elliott Gould, he's like a hard nosed seventies cop who's on the edge. It's like, busting is not a pretty word. And then you get a clip. Then busting is not a pretty thing to do. It's like it's it's so great, but it's like and and like the preview just splashes the big words in big bold letters, busting. I'm like, I have got to see bust. I'm busting to sea Busting. I don't know if you guys have seen it, but it looks it looks awesome. If they say the name enough, you'll go to the theater and be kind of confused and just say I want to see Westing because that's the only name that's in your head.

36:02 If I was old enough in nineteen seventy four to go to the theater and they'd be like, uh, yeah, what do you want, I'd be like busting. I'd be doing in this guy's voice, because you gotta see. When you see the trailer, you know what I'm talking about. It's fantastic. I'm gonna actually, i'm gonna put it on our I'm gonna put on our Facebook page just so people can find it faster. Please do. Yeah, I gotta see this thing. Oh, you're gonna love it. You're gonna love it. A year later, nineteen seventy five, I'm just I'm just calling this out. He does a movie called Peeper. Not what you think, it's actually h it's actually yeah. He goes from Busting to Peeper, but not what you think. Peeper a slang term for a private eye, and Michael Kane it's not well, hold on, I'm gonna pull it up here. This is nineteen seventy five. Amber. You gotta it was. It was a it was a simpler time. Look I'm reading it to you. Peeper in nineteen forty seven, A smart mouth brit working in la as a private eye or peeper, is on a case to find the long lost daughter of a shady client, pursued by two dangerous goons. So there you have it. You know, Michael Caine, Natalie would, Mike Caana, Natalie would. It's got to be good. It's yeah, you know, I'm still calling the name, all right, nineteen seventy seven.

37:28 This one, I'm not gonna lie. This one was close to being our Peterheims episode, just because I've had I've had a couple of people like Ohn Capricorn one. That's a you gotta do Capricorn one. We were gonna do it on our film at forty five for nineteen seventy eight, but it technically did come out in seventy seven, so we had to we had to skip out on it. But Andrew, you've seen Capricorn one. Oh yeah, yeah, find me nothing but seventies and eighty sci fi growing up. So yes, of course I've seen Capricorn. It's awesome. Yeah, this one. Check this out. It's on It's on Hulu, it's on Peacock. For the longest time, I thought it was a really long episode of the Twilight Zone. You would not be yet that it was a movie. Yeah, this one's so good too, all star cast, right, Elli Golds back, from Elli Gould from from Busting but James, James Brolin, Hal Holbrook, Karen Black, Telly Savalas O j Simpson before his naked gun days and murdering, murdering days. I honestly, I don't think Jymes gets twenty ten if it's not for Capricorn one. That's this is what got him the really Yeah, you see they say that Outland got him, but you're saying it's Capricorn one. Right, That's what I think. I mean. I Outland's great, and we can talk about that in a minute. But yeah, I think Capricorn one's really would put him on the map. As this guy can make a good, good sci fi movie, Okay, well before he makes Well after he makes a good sci fi movie, and before he makes Outland, which is another good sci fi movie. Nineteen seventy nine,

39:00 he does a World War two love story with Harrison Ford and Leslie and Down and Christopher Plumber talking about Hanover Street. I'm gonna tell you right now, I've never seen it, and I'm excited to watch it because I know Scott and Dave are gonna be talking about this one this Friday on a film at forty five. It's it's basically it's Peter Heims Week if you haven't picked up on that. But I've never seen that. Have you guys seen like, don't know, you know, no spoilers, But have you guys seen Hannover Street. Yes, my best friend in high school was in love with Harrison Ford and so we watched every every everything he ever did, and so I have at least seen this once worth a watch. I watched that one when I was younger. I don't I don't really remember much about it though, Yeah I remember. I mean it's Harrison Ford. Though as a World War two pilot, we should I don't know. I feel like I should have seen it already, and you guys have seen it. I feel like you guys should remember it more so now now I've got mixed emotions, but I'm looking forward to watching this one. It's gonna be good. Andrew tell us about Outland. Outland is fantastic. It's Sean Connery in his like prime Sean Connery days where he was just macho to the nth degree. It's it's this, it's essentially high noon in space, and so it's fantastic. I mean, it's definitely got a little bit of that like late seventies early eighties cheesy sci fi vibe that creeps into almost all of them. But it's so much

40:30 fun it doesn't matter. I really Outland he's like he's like a marshall, like you know, like in then, like one of the moons on Jupiter, Moons of Jupiter, something like that. He's a marshal on like a penal colony. I need to rewatch because it's been a lot of time since I've seen it. Amber. Are you a fan of this one? Yes, very much so. Cone. There's a lot of these I need to watch again, like one. I haven't seen that probably since nineteen seventy seven. Connore. I was just thinking, I've got it. I've got to rewatch Outland. It's been years and I'm I'm itching to now. Yeah, Connery with a beard in a shotgun, you cannot go wrong with that in space. I've never seen this one, but it's next to uh no, no, I'm not talking about Outline. Oh I've seen that. Yeah, I've seen it, and it is good, but uh, his next one.

41:20 In nineteen eighty three, right after I finished watching A Busting, I got to see this movie. Have you guys seen the Star Chamber? Yeah, that's what I was talking about. It is Oh you're talking about Okay, you were, you were, you were setting me up for starting I've never seen it. Bro Oh my gosh, listen, Andrew, have you seen this? Have you ever heard of this one? Let's listen to this. Listen. I've heard the name. I don't know anything about it. Okay, we're talking about Michael Douglas and Hal Holbrook. So listen to this synopsis. Man frustrated with a legal system gone haywire. A secret society of judges hires hitman to snuff out criminals who escape courtroom justice, but one young judge questions the ethics of their vigilanti system. Friends of the show James D.

42:07 Graves and James Buckley, who are in the This This World. I wonder, I wonder which which kind of judges they are. I wonder if they're the ones questioning, or you know, they're part of the secret society. You know, James and James, you gotta you gotta let me know because this movie just looks too good. It is spectacular. Kind of like, listen, I haven't seen it, but I'm kind of, you know, getting like Court of Owls vibes here, Andrew, like from Batman. I was kind of picturing like a daredevil, daredevil punisher thing like you know, when do you take the law into your own hands? And you know, when is that right? That kind of thing? Andrew, You and I have discussed that many times and we yeah, again the answer is is yes, it's right. Yes, No, The answer is yes, it's right, and yes, it's it's always right to to take the longder your own hands, you know, to punish evil. It's I'll ever back down for that. That's why I carry caps shield and and I carry you know, the Punisher's arsenal. We've been talking about twenty ten, which which came out celebrating his fortieth anniversary, which which is amazing, but uh, another movie we have covered. Uh, people wondering like if we've if we talked about Peter Hines before we actually did. We covered one of his films on our limited series nineteen eighty six. He was the one that did Running Scared Billy Crystal Gregory Hines. The more the more I talked to Scott Hoffman, the more I the more I found myself loving this film. I don't know,

43:38 am I right? Ambers, Yeah, it's a hecking delight. It's such a departure from other stuff too. Yeah, and so unexpected, Like Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines are not who you cast this movie. No, but they're great, Yeah they are, they are. What did you guys think of the presidio? He's uh, he's he's teaming up with Sean Connery again nineteen eighty eight. Love say, I've actually never seen it. You've never seen it, Andrew, It's one you're gonna like. Mark Harmon is a police detective who he's uh, he's working on. It's like a murder case. He's trying to figure out something, but his former commanding officer, who is Sean Connery, is like kind of involved. And also he just happens to be dating Sean Connery's daughter, so it gets a little Ryan.

44:31 Yeah, that's I was trying to think who it was. Yeah, this is this is this is peak eighty late eadies, Meg Ryan, you know, I mean late eighties is peak Mark Harmon and peak Sean Connery too. It's that's just a movie. Yeah, this is yeah late eighties Mark Harmon, Yeah, Mark, late late eighties. That's Mark Harmon. He's he's like people sexiest man Alive or whatever. Yeah, So here's where things start to go a little little sideways. I think, Uh, nineteen ninety two he does uh, he does that that weird movie Stay Tuned. It's like a comedy with with John Ritter. I know you guys seen it because it was on showtime like six times a Day TV or something. Yeah, they're like him, uh, John rind And and Mindy from Working Mindy, Pam, thank you, Pam Dauber. They're like, I guess you could say they're they're they're like bad They're not bad parents, but they're just their absent parents, I think. And then uh, if I remember, right, uh, Jeffrey Jones, uh, principal Ed Rooney from Ferris Bpeeler's Day Off, who you know was canceled for all the right reasons. Uh, he's I can't remember if he's like the devil or like a demon, but he's like kind of controlling them, and they're like they have to like move through weird TV shows. It's almost like it's almost like a weird al type of situation. But I watched that all the time as a kid, and I

46:01 absolutely loved it. I feel like, based on my childhood memories, there's no way it holds up at all. But at the time I was very into it. I was yeah, eight, yeah for the under ten crowd. I think it's a blast, but probably not going to hold up by today's standards. But I'll tell you what does hold up by today's standards. In nineteen ninety four, he starts his working relationship with Jean Claude Van Dam. He does a movie called Time Cop, which is arguably the second best genre Claude Vandam movie of all time. I would agree because my brothers made me watch starting with Blood Sport, every pos, martial arts, like whatever was we were watching it, and this was the one that, like, I actually liked. Yeah, Time Cop is awesome. But Andrew, to answer your question, when we're talking about what is the best Jean claud and film, it's gotta be Blood Sport. No, no, oh, we all know we're it's all about It's all about going and getting in the kumute.

47:10 Are you kidding? A true story. Come on, it is is a is an awful liar. That is not a true story. Wait, it is a let's be fair. And yeah, let's be fair. It's a quote unquote true story. It could one guy's true lies true. It could, it could have happened. We don't know on Earth and involved. It's about as realistic as Time Cup. I'll tell you what's realistic. Uh. Donald Gibb who plays Jackson. I got a chance to meet him last year. Actually he was on one of our episodes. He's one on one of our common episodes because I asked him some questions and he was like, yeah, you know, let me let me know what the questions are.

48:00 That dude has a has a grip like it's like a like a grizzly bear. Because when I was like, hey, can I ask you some questions for the show, he pulled me down and I was like, he could snap my neck right now. He's yeah, still got it, he still got it? Yeah, yeah, he he should have been the Kumuite champion as far as I'm I'm concerned, but absolutely yeah. But time Cop, I don't know this, Andrew, well Amber, both of you, because I know we all love time travel sci fi time travel movies. Oh okay, hold on, well, let's let's put a pin. Let's put a pin in that Amber Andrew. I know we like this. I know we like time travel sci fi movies. I would put this one. I put Time cop in like my top five easily. I don't know. That's that's a stacked list. I don't know if I could put in top five, top ten, I'll give it easy, top five, is it okay?

48:57 Ron Silver playing Cinema Combe and know he is. This is Ron Silver at his best because he he I don't think anyone plays a villain as as good as Ron Silver enjoying himself as a villain. You know, he is clearly having a great time. Oh he is. Uh you know you got you got one of our one of the eighties crushes, the all time eighties crushes me a Sarah playing playing uh Van Dam's wife. I don't know. I just I love the fact that people are going back in time for profit. And then you know the senators trying to you know, do his evil machinations. I don't know. I think, yeah, we're gonna get the splits and we're gonna see Vandam's butt. And that's what you want in a Van Dam movie. You want to you want to seem to do the splits, you want to see his button, you want to seem speak poorly and beat people up. But I I like I like this movie. I like the time travel aesthetic. How we have like time cops like that that patrol it amber. Is this a separate conversation we have to have that you don't like time travel films. I mean, I mean it's pretty I have pretty lengthy opinions about it, but I can keep it sure. I just think time travel in general is bullshit. And any movie that involves time travel that you like, you have to just be willing to accept absolute absurdity and check your sanity at the door. So I'm willing to say that I love the movie Somewhere in Time. That movie is ridiculous. I love it. I'll watch

50:29 it and cry all the time. But yeah, but let's get real. Yeah, well, let's get real ridiculous. Let's get real the time. Let's let's talk time travel. If you're gonna believe time travel and you're in you're a fan of Somewhere in Time, you're telling me that you can't. You're not readily accepting that a little bit of plutonium and a DeLorean get us back where we want to go? No, No, what about a phone booth? No? Okay, so I gotta ask. Though. We spent a while talking about how great two thousand and one and twenty ten are. You have probably time travel, but Frank Bowman just becoming the star child and living outside. He went through the stargate and one with the alien. Like my dad explained all that science to me, that's aliens. It's a whole different thing. I can justify in Interstellar too, because it's all gravity and it's a thing. Yeah, okay, sure, okay, we're gonna have the I love Christopher Nolan. I love the movie Tenant, Like, what an absolute fun couple of hours is that movie? But come on, magically favorite Nolan radiation. You can go back in time. All right, We're we're we're off the rails here with I told you, yeah, we're gonna go to a huge chance. Let's go back. Let's let's go back to something a little more realistic. Nineteen ninety five, he's second time. He's

52:00 working with Van Dam. H. Van Dam's a like a security guard or a cop. He's got to stop a bomb from going off during a hockey game. Sudden death. Oh yeah, that's not the death. It's not what what that's not the title? That is the title sudden death are Come on, are you? Are you not a hockey fan? Like, yeah, well you got sometimes when you gotta go to a sudden death he listen, he's he takes on a group of terrorists. Hold it, you know the vice president is at this hockey game. No, this is an episode of the Office. Yes, Midnight Level Midnight is absolutely referencing movie like it's it is. Every new piece of information you learn about sudden death is better than the thing before it. It's it's so over the top, it's perfect.

52:58 It's peak Van Dam. If you're like I want to watch it, just turn your brain off and yeah it's yeah, it's like the Yeah, it's the Stanley Cup finals or it's maybe the Stanley Cup championship game. I can't remember which. But the Vice president's there and Van Dam is like a Andrew is he like a disgraced firefighter or disgrace cop, Like he's you know, kind of falling a fallen hero. But then he's a he's gonna redeve himself because he's a take off these terrorists at the hockey game. Yeah, I honestly don't remember. It's so generic. Just yeah, I love this movie. It is mind boggling to me that the same guy made this that made like twenty ten and Capricorn, and then he goes on to keep doing Van Dam stuff. I feel like he was phoning it in or he was on coke or something. This is the Michael Caine quote where he says, yeah, I've seen just three and I've seen the house that it bought two.

53:52 Yeah, fair, fair enough, all right? Moving moving on from threat level Midnight nineteen ninety seven, he he takes Atturney does a horror film. Did you guys see The Relic? I feel like maybe I did. I don't think so. I know it's I've ever seen it. It's not bad, but it's not great. Yeah. Tom Sizemore's in it. It's a you can find it on Pluto, I think right now, I don't know. It deals with like archaeology and there's like a possessed thing. I'm I need, I need to watch a game. Yeah I haven't seen. Yeah, this isn't the one. I was thinking, I thought this was a one with like the bugs in the subway, But that was mimic.

54:32 That's mimic. That is good. That is good, I'll tell you. I feel like. So we get to nineteen ninety nine. Yeah, and this is maybe where he does his last good film, talking about in the Days with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gabriel Byrne. This is peak nineties for me. This is like the the ultimate nineties action movie genre. Like, I love it. It's not good. I would never make a case that like, this is a great movie, but I it's the kind of movies that I loved as a kid. Where do you, okay, make a little bit of a case, where do you put this in Schwarzenegger's lineup? Is this?

55:16 Like is this top ten? No? Not even it's really it's not a I can't really make a case that it's a good movie. The premise just is silly, the idea that his big muscles are gonna stop basically the devil like it's it's a very just ludicrous concept from the get go. But it's Schwartzenegger when he really like knew what his his thing was and leaned into it. And so I do like it. Yeah, but I like it because this is Schwartzenegger. You talking about his muscles. The muscles aren't gonna help him. But he's also he's a really failed character, like he's like an alcoholic and he's lost his family and amber. You've seen this one, I mean, like when it came out, Yeah, this is I was hostage to two brothers a lot. And so I've seen every ban damn every Schwartzenegger. I've seen them all. It's hard to remember. Gabriel Byrne is playing the devil. That's why I remember it. Yeah, he's awesome.

56:19 Yeah he can it's the It's it's the end of the century. He comes to New York because he has to. I think he has to get a bride to create the the Antichrist, and only Arnold Schartzinger can stop him. Obviously, obviously, yes, are you gonna ask you're you would think you would ask John claw van Dan because he's working with him all the time, But no, it was it was Arnold's movie after this, you know, early two thousands, he does he does the Musketeer, which wasn't good. He does the Sound of Thunder, which should have been good. Uh, it's a time travel movie, so we will just skip right past it before Amber gets worked up. Uh. And then his last film, twenty thirteen, he does like a like director red box type of thing. Enemy's Closer with Jean Claud Van Dam. So yeah, he definitely. I feel like, like, you know, he probably peaked early, you know, late eighties, early nineties, and then just kind of kind of fizzle, which is sad because he's he's got such an amazing filmography. As far as I'm I'm concerned. Yeah, it's weird to see somebody, you know, you think a director has kind of strut to develop and hone their craft over time.

57:31 And I feel like he made a lot of really good stuff for frontloaded his career and then just kind of had some fun with it in the nineties and then dropped off, And I don't know what happened. I'd be curious. Now, Well, let's talk about what's next for this guy. Nothing, He has nothing, and he's not working on anything. And you know, to be fair, I think he's eighty three now, so maybe he's you know, he's retired, he's moved on. Maybe he's he said all he wants to say but let's talk about if we could have had him do anything else. My vote, I say give us the next two chapters twenty sixty one, Odyssey three and three thousand and one, the final lot of Sea Andrew. I'm sure you know this. At one point Tom Hanks was interested in both these projects, Like that would have been great, right, Well, I I having not read the books, you know, I have no idea where this story can go. I think much like at the end of two thousand, they colonize the moons around Jupiter, they go back to Jupiter. I thought they were really fascinated with that. Well, that didn't last very long because they were only told to stay away from Europa, though they were allowed to. They colonize Europa too. Oh and the books, that makes sense, Yeah, I like I have turns into like a horrifically volcanic place you can't go it is right now, it sounds like it just gets like more violent, just like constantly erupting. And so they build a

59:07 station on Ganymede, and they build a station on Europa and then like spoilers, Frank Borman gets reanimated and comes back to life, and what goes back to Earth and you mean David Bowman. Frank Borman was an actual astronaut. Then Frank Borman in two thousand and one, Frank Pool Frank Pool Sorry, yeah, yeah, Frank Borman was an actual Apollo astronaum. Yeah sorry, that was thirteen. Well you did, Hey, you didn't read the books, so maybe Frank Borman is in right, maybe that's reanimated. Okay, So yeah, I read the books when I had my dad there to hold my hand, and like every ten pages, like what is this? You know. One of the things I want to give the books credit for all on the subject real quick, is like how well it some of the stuff going on in these moons like Io. You know, they show Discovery covered in that dust that sulfur from Io, and they talk about Europa being the place for life and that is our best bet for finding life in the Solar System. But we didn't know that at the time these books were written.

1:00:16 I mean, Pioneer didn't get there until much later, and that was before Voyager, before you know, all the space graphic sent out there. Now we know all these things and it's like, wow, they called it man, Europa's where it's at. Amber. Your recommendation on the Arthur C. Clark Honesty Books Worth the read. Oh yeah, yeah, for sure. I like it can get a little science y, but you just hang in there. You know I'm gonna check them out. You can check this movie out. It's streaming twenty ten is streaming on Netflix and the Roku channel. Andrew, am I right in assuming that you probably own this one. I don't. I think my mom does so like growing up, I watched it on DVD a lot, but that one stayed stayed back at her place.

1:01:01 So I was very very pleased to find it on Netflix. I actually watched it before you even asked us to do this episode. I had watched it the second I saw it on there. Amber you said we need to uh to check out the Odyssey books. I'm assuming you're you're gonna give this one a thumbs up. You're gonna recommend this one for everyone? Oh heck yeah. I love future science like this. I can appreciate movies like Blade Runner, but it gets really depressing having it just people in the rain and drugs and misery, And like, I like the inspiration of a nice, bright, shiny future, you know, where we explore and we go after things and you know, so this is right up my street. All right, Andrew, obviously you're you're telling people check it out one hundred percent. I just like I've had this conversation before. I just say this movie. The worst thing this movie did was be a sequel to two thousand and one.

1:02:00 It's a great movie, but it just it feels so imbalanced with one of the greatest directors at doing one of his greatest movies and then this one comes out. It just feels very off. But if you watch it as it's own thing, absolutely I recommend it. All right, listeners, what do you think of twenty ten? You can let us know on social media. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You can check out a Film by Podcast dot com for all of our episodes, which are streaming free on all the platforms, and you can always write to us at a Film by Podcast at gmail dot com with your questions, comments and concerns. We may just read your email on the show and send you some a film by swag. Join us tomorrow for our Star Trek themed series Phasers Set to Stun. Wayne, David and Scott are continuing their recap of the final season of Discovery and on Friday more, Peter Hims our limited series of Film at forty five will look at his film Hanover Street starring Harrison Ford, and next time on a film by Andy Tom will join me for a special episode when we discuss a film decided by one of our Patreon producers. Talking about you, James Buckley, are you all ready for another John wu episode because it's happening. Yeah, Andrew Amber, always a blast having a conversation with

1:03:34 you. I know we got a little off the rails this one. We went a little long, but I'm we're good for it. I love that you guys are here more, way, more often, and I know our listeners are love it too, So thank you both for being here, Thanks for having us. I love it, Yes, thank you so much. And for those of you out there listening, hitting the like, subscribe and follow buttons and following our exclusive content on Patreon, like James Buckley, we thank you. M