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Episode 88: Dante's Peak featuring Courtney Collins
83 Plays2 months ago
Friend of the show Courtney Collins is here to usher us out of the holidays and onto Dante’s Peak (1997). One shouldn’t stay long on Dante’s Peak the mountain or in Dante’s Peak the town because one or both is going to erupt in this Roger Donaldson disaster picture that shouldn’t be confused with Volcano (1997). This is the one where Peirce Brosnan has a strong feeling that the plot is going to happen and only mayor Linda Hamilton believes him. This film, pun intended, is a blast and constantly outdoes itself with scene after scene that makes even less sense. Plus gore! Tune in!
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Transcript
00:00:16
Speaker
It's
Introduction and Host Intros
00:00:17
Speaker
bad to be bad, it's bad to be bad, and guess it's understood that you would, if you could, and you know that you should, yes you know that you should.
00:00:40
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to your favorite bad movie podcast. The only podcast that's brave enough to ask the question, if this movie is so bad, why do you like it so much?
00:00:52
Speaker
We're your hosts. I'm so hairy. They call me Harry, but you can call me Chris Anderson ah with me. As always, i have, oh let's say the original boss, Mr. Greg bossy, AKA the Paul of the show. Mm-hmm.
00:01:14
Speaker
don't you Don't you tell these people that there's a volcano when there's not one, or they'll die some from economic reasons.
00:01:25
Speaker
It's true. We live in the real world. That's right. And no one lives in a realer world than, obviously, running things as though they were the mayor. It's my lovely wife, Anna Anderson.
00:01:39
Speaker
What? Hi! Hi! i don't know I don't know what I'm doing with this one. You're trying, and I appreciate that. You know, I wanted to mix it up, and I didn't
Guest and Movie Introduction: Dante's Peak
00:01:51
Speaker
think it through. But here, obviously, we have with us our very special guest, ready to blow their top.
00:02:00
Speaker
I'm going to call them a peak guest. It's Courtney Collins. How are you? Hi, everybody. Thank you. A peak guest. I get it. Absolutely. I appreciate it. it's a good I'm glad I got the good pun.
00:02:14
Speaker
Good. ah You flatter me. ah Listeners, this week we're talking about Dante's Peak. If you haven't seen the feature length film Dante's Peak, you can probably guess what it's about. But here's a summary just to hold in your mind anyway.
Dante's Peak Synopsis and Personal Recollections
00:02:41
Speaker
Dr. Harry is a rogue volcanologist, and he's the only one who knows that Dante's Peak is about to erupt. Now, with beautiful Mayor Rachel's help, he has to evacuate the village of Dante's Peak before it's destroyed by the mountain called Dante's Peak.
00:03:03
Speaker
I'm very glad that you addressed the multitude of of the names Dante's Peak. I was really hoping that ah Pierce Brosnan's character was going to be named Dr. Dante Peak.
00:03:15
Speaker
but That would have been very nice. Courtney, do you remember how you first came across Dante's Peak? Tell me about your relationship with Dante's Peak. Oh, I would love to. I actually did a little searching around my house yesterday to see if I could find it. I i have many, many, many of the movie subs movies I went to see as a teenager, and this is one of them.
00:03:38
Speaker
Okay. We saw it, I guess 14, as a group outing for a A group of 14 year old girls going to a birthday party at the mall. So we saw it at the mall. Salisbury Mall. Shout out to the center at Salisbury.
00:03:53
Speaker
That is the perfect place for this cinematic yeah experience. Absolutely. and I think I pushed for this movie pretty hard. I couldn't tell you like what other movies were out, you know, that week or whatever. And I don't think anybody really cared for it that much, but I thought it was pretty cool. um And then, ah like, probably six or seven years ago, I was really sick with a bad sinus infection, and I couldn't sleep one night, and I turned it on, and James was like, Dante's, James, my husband, was like, Dante's Peak, ah what about Volcano? And I said, angrily, that this is a Dante's Peak house, James. Oh, why is he there?
00:04:31
Speaker
And on top of all of that, so I think I've only seen it like two times before I watched it for this show. I've never seen Volcano beginning to end. Okay. Which I know was some extra credit. I've seen like clips of it and I'm sure you know what one I've most definitely seen.
00:04:47
Speaker
But I've never seen Volcano. So like I'm kind of, i'm I'm hard and fast with that. Like I don't know if I'll ever watch it. I'm kind of like stuck on Dante's Peak. I like it. What's funny is I was the exact opposite. I was like, when i was the last summer that I lived at home.
00:05:05
Speaker
Volcano was on cable. And so just like on any given afternoon when I'd be sitting around with absolutely nothing to do, I would just throw, watch Volcano. Right. and so I will probably watched it like 12 times over the course of that summer. And so anytime I wanted to watch a like late nineties volcano movie, I'd be like, Oh yeah. Volcano is good. I know volcano is good. I don't, I don't need to bother with Dante's peak.
00:05:31
Speaker
none of my business. Yeah. I like these bright lines when it comes to these teen films. its really We only have so much time for, you know, to watch these volcano movies. We have to pick one. like true yeah It's true.
00:05:48
Speaker
I don't need two of these. It's fine. ah Now, ah Anna, had you seen Dante speak before? Or Volcano? ah No, I had seen neither one. I mean, I had i had seen the last, like,
00:06:03
Speaker
sort of watched the last 45 minutes of Volcano when you were watching it recently, but I was waking up and yeah on my phone and only sort of paying attention. um And I had never seen Dante's Peak. So I did, I watched that yesterday. And then out of curiosity, I watched all of Volcano today.
00:06:25
Speaker
ok So you got to be the tiebreaker. You're the tabula rasa. Which one did you prefer? i I ultimately thought that Volcano was a better movie, but Dante's Peak has better volcanology, and I did kind of like it better.
00:06:44
Speaker
Interesting. Okay. Interesting. Interesting. Now, what about you, Greg? Where do you fall on this divide? So I'm somewhere deliciously in between everybody in that when I was watching this. Yeah. I feel like we're getting everything because I was like, that's Dante's peak. I've seen that. That's the one where Pierce Brosnan is driving around in LA.
00:07:04
Speaker
And then I realized that I was... And then ah ah looking at it, like, no, no, it's Tommy Lee Jones in L.A. and Pierce Broughton. So I was like, have I seen Dante's Peak? so I started it it up and I was like, I don't think I have. And then they got to the boat scene with the acid lake. And I was like, no, I have seen Dante's peak.
00:07:27
Speaker
I have definitely seen Dante's peak because I got a water problem. And again, i was right back and with the lake clenched. ah And so was like, yeah. So I think that I have seen both and recalled almost nothing of either one of them. So here we are.
00:07:45
Speaker
All right. A lot of valid responses to these films, I feel. Yeah. and ah I do specifically remember renting these movies because nobody wanted to watch. And I was like, i I'm curious. There are two of them. I was also curious about Deep Impact and whatever the other one was. Yeah, there were two meteor movies at the same time, too. And there's all these disaster movies, too. It's like, why everybody just destroying everything in pairs? Yeah.
00:08:11
Speaker
Yeah. You know, it was the night well we're going to be talking about that more later. Anna has a segment on that coming up listeners. we You don't want to miss it.
Dante's Peak Production Insights and Comparisons
00:08:21
Speaker
But before that, we got to talk about, you know, sometimes like my friend, Greg, once said a picture looks better in a frame.
00:08:29
Speaker
We got to put this movie in its context. ah Do you guys ah want to hear about the context research I put in this film? Sure. Yeah.
00:08:52
Speaker
I wish I had some context About the background of the film Script director, actors on set What was going on on screen? I wanna hear some details Gossips can do all that shit Can't imagine all the time
00:09:20
Speaker
So Dante's Beat came out February 7th, 1997. And one important question I want to get just for research before I even get into this. Courtney, you said you went with like gal pals for a birthday party when you went to see this at age 14.
00:09:35
Speaker
Yes. Did y'all think Pierce Brosnan was hot? I think it's important to know. You know, ah no. Interesting. When I was 14, Pierce Brosnan wasn't doing anything for me. like now when I watch it now, I'm like, he's extremely good looking. Why didn't I think that? That's actually funny that you bring that up because I definitely, he wasn't like somebody I was interested in at that age. Okay. Okay. don't even know who I was when I was 14. I don't know. Some dork like Devin Sawa or something. Sorry, Devin. I know you're cool, but.
00:10:04
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because obviously he was an adult man. That makes sense. Right.
00:10:12
Speaker
Hey everybody, Chris here. ah Courtney just wanted me to clarify for the record that her actual crush at the time was Gavin Rosdale.
00:10:25
Speaker
Gavin Rosdale.
00:10:30
Speaker
Anyway, back to the show. Hope you enjoy it.
00:10:36
Speaker
ah So, it was directed by Roger Donaldson. And I found three taglines.
00:10:46
Speaker
Tagline number one. The pressure is building.
00:10:54
Speaker
Okay. I'll take it, but I'm not happy it. You can do better. I ate too big a dinner. The pressure is building. Well, followed up with tagline number two.
00:11:09
Speaker
Exploding soon. a
00:11:15
Speaker
There's part of me. There's something happening here. I feel like there's something. I'll say this for many different movies.
00:11:29
Speaker
Yes, there's something between the lines. Tagline number three. Whatever you do, don't look back.
00:11:40
Speaker
At the volcano. Yeah. i guess I think those are all all really letting the title do all of the work. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, do you need, like, do you really need a tagline? Like, I feel like it's kind of hard to come up with something better than just it being called Dante's Peak about a volcano named Dante's Peak. Like, what else do you need to convey?
00:12:05
Speaker
I feel like exploding soon. If that one just in isolation didn't have the others around it, probably would have been the best. Yeah.
00:12:15
Speaker
So Roger Donaldson was born in Victoria, Australia, but at the age of 20, he immigrated to New Zealand in his 1977 debut film, sleeping dogs, which I watched over the weekend.
00:12:32
Speaker
ah It was the first feature length film shot on 35 millimeter entirely in New Zealand. And it was like a political thriller about like Sam Neill getting caught up in martial law being declared in New Zealand 1977.
00:12:48
Speaker
huh but in this sort of like Kafka esque situation, but it's also very rural New Zealand. Uh, I fell asleep, but I did start watching it at like eight 30 in the morning, which is probably the worst time to do that.
00:13:04
Speaker
Uh, but it was at the time, the most successful film ever made in New Zealand. And, it really opened the doors for Kiwi films and filmmakers to find an international audience. He like helped the entire nation break out.
00:13:19
Speaker
Huh? That's cool. Yeah. Putting a row on the map. Uh, so he followed this up with a more niche comedy called nutcase.
00:13:35
Speaker
Uh, I'm only bringing it up because it's about a terrorist named evil Eva who holds the city of Auckland hostage by threatening to reactivate a nearby volcano with a nuclear bomb.
00:13:48
Speaker
Hello. Wow. So he has a history of volcanoes in film.
00:13:57
Speaker
He was able to break out of New Zealand with the help of famed producer Dino De Laurentiis. Oh, Wow. David Lean was originally slated to direct an adaptation of Mutiny on the Bounty, but had to quit after the budget started running out.
00:14:13
Speaker
And also the screenwriter had a stroke before he could finish the script for the second part of what was supposed to be a two part film adaptation. Okay. But at this point, De Laurentiis has already spent millions of dollars building a replica of the HMS bounty and had already hired Anthony Hopkins to play Captain Bly.
00:14:31
Speaker
And since the boat was already in New Zealand, he hired Don Donaldson to take over.
00:14:40
Speaker
The bounty was fairly well received. It garnered Donaldson Palme d'Or nomination. And it was his ticket to every foreign film director's dream, competently directing mid-budget pictures for major American motion studios on an average once every other year.
00:14:59
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah you ah So in his run between the bounty and Dante's peak, there are two films that he made that I wanted to point out specifically.
00:15:11
Speaker
One is a favorite of Greg and me that we have longstanding love of. He directed Cocktail. Yeah, I saw that yesterday when I looked that up. I was like, I can't believe this is the Cocktail guy. I was like, I knew this guy's name for some reason.
00:15:25
Speaker
Oh, we got to watch cocktail baby. It's great. Listen, it's horrible movie. yeah It's so good. It's so good. It's so intense. Maybe we could make that a Saturday madame.
00:15:39
Speaker
ah And that explains why that Australian guy is in it. Yes. I was just thinking that. Hmm.
00:15:47
Speaker
let's see. The other one that he directed was the movie species, which i always like to bring up because that is the origin of the encrypted, the chupacabra.
00:15:59
Speaker
Nice. That's the origin of the chupacabra. Yes. A woman went to see the movie species and then she said she saw a chupacabra, but she was just talking about the movie species.
00:16:12
Speaker
hu Whoa. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. that's That's one of those scripted where it's like, no, that's one one place where we know where that comes from. know. Yeah. yeah that's And it's kind of ripped, too. That's a pretty good movie. I haven't seen it in a long time, I remember correctly. should check it out again.
00:16:32
Speaker
It's at least got a babe in it. Mm-hmm. Henstridge. And it, yeah, to think that the chupacabra sprung in like, the late 90s. That was when it came up. Yeah.
00:16:45
Speaker
So Species was a big hit and it was effects heavy. So ah he was a natural choice for director when Universal Pictures was looking to make Dante's Peak two years later.
00:16:59
Speaker
Donaldson, for his part, had studied a little geology in his youth. And so that interested He's like, oh, yeah, I know a little bit about volcanoes. Yeah, this sounds fun. I'm on board. ah The production went fairly smoothly, near as I can tell. i didn't find any hassles or anything.
00:17:17
Speaker
It was largely shot in Idaho. i did find an interview with Pierce Brosnan raving about how beautiful Idaho is. He just seems like a cool dude.
00:17:29
Speaker
I brought my mother out to Idaho. was wonderful.
00:17:35
Speaker
ah For visual effects, they brought in a company called Digital Domain and visual effects supervisor Patrick McClung. McClung has a very solid effects resume.
00:17:48
Speaker
Starting off as a model maker on Star Trek, the motion picture. You also did the Empire Strikes Back and Ghostbusters. You would go on to work on Aliens, Die Hard, The Abyss and True Lies. Damn.
00:18:02
Speaker
Not heard of any of those.
00:18:07
Speaker
You need to get out more. All right. So at this point in filmmaking history, digital effects were starting to make some big leaps forward, but you couldn't do a lot of this work digitally very well.
00:18:23
Speaker
ah So there's a lot of model work in Dante speak. And I think I always like a blend of the two. This is probably my favorite era for special effects. Yeah. I think it really has helped them hold up so well.
00:18:39
Speaker
Yeah, i agree. I think there are a couple shots here that are kind of clunkers. I think the lava doesn't look great, but there's a lot here that does look good.
00:18:52
Speaker
They did have to rush things a little bit, and that might be why. ah They found out that 20th Century Fox was working on the movie Volcano, and they wanted to beat it to the big screen. They beat it by about 10 weeks.
00:19:06
Speaker
Boom. First in, first out. got to be crazy to be working on a movie and then be like, someone else is doing a similar thing, so we have to go faster. Like, free social media. Like, you didn't have the network that you do now where, the like, this would literally probably never happen. There's no way. Like, you think about, you know, how did they find out?
00:19:27
Speaker
Yeah, completely different era. ah Dante's Beat cost an astronomical $116 million. dollars wow It made $178 million. Okay.
00:19:41
Speaker
okay okay So possibly not worth the investment, but definitely, you know, a success. Nobody lost any money. You know, the critics were similarly sort of lukewarm, you know, a lot of C plus to B minus.
00:19:58
Speaker
Gene Siskel wrote, it takes a full hour for the volcano to blow in Dante's peak. And when it does, the movie really starts to cook. The special effects of rivers of lava, snowstorms of volcanic ash, and a river of acidic water are top notch.
00:20:15
Speaker
Can I recommend half a movie? That kind of sucks. ah Yeah. I mean, I can't argue with him too much. No.
00:20:28
Speaker
and It almost feels like it was made for cable because you could like tune in. like as a The later you came in, the more you would want to watch it. I was thinking that yesterday, too. I'm like, this is a perfect TV movie.
00:20:40
Speaker
Yeah. This is something on TNT that you did not see the first half hour. yeah You don't need to see the premise at all. You get it. Yeah. yeah yeah When I watched Volcano today on an unnamed streaming service, it did have some commercials And didn't mind it that much.
00:21:01
Speaker
Yeah. It's fine. I don't know. You take a break. You walk around. You come back. Yeah. Again, like movies from this era were paced in a way where commercials don't bust them up as much as movies from like the 70s and earlier or yeah that too modern movies, I think. Mm-hmm.
00:21:23
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:21:26
Speaker
So other disaster movies of 1997.
Dante's Peak and the 1997 Disaster Film Trend
00:21:30
Speaker
Obviously you had Volcano. But you also had Tidal Wave, no Escape. Oh, yeah. You had Turbulence, the original Turbulence.
00:21:45
Speaker
Check out our episode about Turbulence 3. Classic movie. You also had Speed 2 Cruise Control. Oh, woof. Saw it in the theater.
00:21:57
Speaker
Oh, my God, you did. I'm sorry about that. i It's a second-run theater. We were looking for something to do. And, of course, you had the big daddy of them all of your disaster movies. You had Titanic come out in 1990. Oh, yeah.
00:22:13
Speaker
Oh, right. I, like, forgot. I wasn't even thinking about, like, maritime disaster. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. When I saw it in the list of disaster movies, like, yeah, no, definitely. Yeah, absolutely. Wow. I feel like once CGI came out, everyone's like, we could just destroy anything. Mm-hmm. Let's blow it up.
00:22:32
Speaker
Yeah, it used to be had to put a lot of work into making things blow up on screen. Now you just now you just do it with with weeks of work. You just ask Grok to do it for you. Oh, yeah.
00:22:44
Speaker
Grok, how do I blow up the Pentagon? You see? Yeah.
00:22:50
Speaker
and gives you detailed instructions. You guys want to talk about the plot of Dante's Peak? Yes. Yes.
00:23:16
Speaker
Plot
Plot Highlights and Character Introductions
00:23:17
Speaker
bumper, listen to me. I'm gonna give you the plot summary. Come on, baby. Here's the synopsis.
00:23:28
Speaker
Plot bumper, plot bumper.
00:23:42
Speaker
So we open on clouds. And our title font is a knockoff John Carpenter font, and it really jumped out at me.
00:23:53
Speaker
And then there's an eruption. And there's ash, and there's mud raining down from the sky, and fire, and people are fleeing in slow motion, and it looks like literal hell. It looks awful.
00:24:07
Speaker
And emerging from the chaos is our hero, Dr. Harry Dalton, as played by Pierce Brosnan. What do you guys think about Pierce Brosnan? He's great.
00:24:17
Speaker
yeah He's pretty good in this. He's good in this. You know, he's just good. He understands the assignment. Yeah, I think this is exactly the kind of thing that he's, like, perfect for.
00:24:29
Speaker
yeah he's really good at, like, looking at his instrument and going, hmm. He carries a certain level of seriousness and gravitas, but, like, approachability.
00:24:41
Speaker
Yeah. yes he's He's good with like the scenes with the kids. He's not too like corny. like But he he comes across as genuine, which I think is hard to do. And you buy him also as like intelligent as well as a man of action. It's not like Mark Wahlberg in The Happening.
00:25:04
Speaker
he picks up his lady love, Mary Ann, from his research lab, and they try to drive off Except ah there's a rock the size of an orange that blasts a hole straight through Marianne's skull, killing her instantly. that'll cheulate you It's so hilarious, which is so funny to say. It's so, so funny.
00:25:29
Speaker
It's just, it comes out of nowhere. He's like, Marianne, we got Marianne, Marianne. It's like, oh, dear God. She completely got her shit rocked. now yes She did not feel a thing. yeah We then cut to four years later and we can tell de Dr. Harry is still haunted by these events because he's doing a lot of pushups.
00:25:56
Speaker
Yes. Bean style. yeah He's doing a lot of push-ups and ignoring his boss on the phone. And that's how you can tell that, yeah, he's still tightly wound, but he's passionate about his job because a volcano killed the woman he loved. That's right. right He's never going to be not strong enough again. Exactly. He can push the volcano away.
00:26:23
Speaker
He's ready. ah So ah he lets his machine pick up the phone and it's his boss telling him that he needs to check out some seismic activity in the Northern Cascade.
00:26:39
Speaker
ah Specifically in a little town and a big mountain that are both called Dante's Peak. So he hops in his cool big red truck and he drives away.
00:26:50
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. We then meet a very frazzled single mother named Rachel played by Linda Hamilton. She's not just a mom though. She's also a small business owner and the mayor of Dante's peak.
00:27:06
Speaker
True girl boss icon.
00:27:11
Speaker
We as a working mother, how do you identify? How do you feel about the character of mayor Rachel? Okay. So can you truly have it all? Hmm.
00:27:23
Speaker
Yes, and an exploding town. The town's on, so now she can just start over, I guess, find a new town to be mayor of. um i do I will say in her opening scene when she can't find her jacket, i felt that deep in my bones. um But, you know, otherwise i was kind of like, it's little corny, little bit, but she rocks it. She does a good job. It's Linda Hamilton, you know, she's a consummate professional.
00:27:49
Speaker
Yeah. How do you guys feel about Linda Hamilton? I mostly know, obviously a lot of people think Terminator when they think Linda Hamilton. I largely know her from having a brief obsession with the Beauty and the Beast television show in my big Oh, yeah. Forgot she was on that.
00:28:05
Speaker
I watched some of that with you, I think. Yeah. They love each other so hard. Yeah. It's just like a really aggressively romantic show.
00:28:16
Speaker
Mm-hmm. ah But yeah, she's great. She does a great job here, I think. It's weird to see her in such a like chill... I can't really say chill role because yeah the whole town that she's the mayor of explodes. But like before that happens, she's so normie and she never plays like normie stuff. you know yeah yeah That was kind of odd. But like I said, like she rocks it. She does fine with it. I think it's a me problem that I'm like, why are you being so like regular right now? Yeah.
00:28:48
Speaker
Now, uh, so, uh, yeah, she's the mayor. So the mayor tells her little girl, Lauren, uh, that they need to rush out the door to the big founders day festival where Dante's peak is named the second best place to live in America population under 20,000. And also they're going to be getting a big multimillion dollar investment from some kind of corporation or developer or something.
00:29:18
Speaker
Great stuff. And it looks like a beautiful town. All the footage of this town is gorgeous. Yeah.
00:29:26
Speaker
We get a quick scene of some skinny dippers. this is something for the daddy in the audience. god I'm sorry.
00:29:40
Speaker
um But the skinny dippers are quickly boiled alive in a hot spring that rapidly heats up due to geothermal activity being afoot, perhaps? Perhaps.
00:29:54
Speaker
Perhaps another clue. Who could say? Scientists could, but will they? yeah We'll see if this hot spring pays off. This might be Chekhov's hot spring. It could be. It very well could be.
00:30:07
Speaker
Now, back in town, Harry introduces himself to Mayor Rachel and explains that he needs to run some tests. Rachel offers to show him around, but first she has to track down her miscreant tween son, Graham, who is hanging out in an abandoned mineshaft with some skateboarders.
00:30:28
Speaker
Seems pretty radical. me Yeah, and I knew exactly what haircut this boy would have before I saw him. Yeah.
00:30:39
Speaker
Graham is rocking the butt cut for sure. And he, yeah, he seems like a villain from the skateboard kid. If anybody's seen that movie, but mayor Rachel wants to drop the kids off with her late husband's hermit mother that lives up in the mountains.
00:30:59
Speaker
And they would do that. But instead, when they get to gam, gam's house, gam, gam invites herself along with the kids. They're all going to go swimming together in the lake up at the higher point in the mountain where Harry wants to go.
00:31:13
Speaker
So Harry looks at a couple of readings and instruments and chemicals and he says, Hmm. And Mayor Rachel's like, what is it? And he's like, no it's a test.
00:31:27
Speaker
yeah And then the gang wanders over to ah the self-same hot spring that we saw just 10 minutes ago, where a couple got boiled alive.
00:31:41
Speaker
And Harry noticed that there's something off of this hot spring just in time because he saves little Graham from almost cannonballing himself into there and getting sous vide. He did.
00:31:53
Speaker
And then they see the skinny dippers poached corpses float by.
00:32:01
Speaker
Two dead bodies are enough to make Harry call this into his boss, Paul, who agrees that he's going to send down the team. And the team to me is very reminiscent of Twister.
00:32:13
Speaker
Yeah. Big time. This seems like this is yet trying to draw a lot from Twister to me. Yeah. Which is, I guess it makes sense. They couldn't be drawing from Volcano because Volcano wasn't there yet. Right. But it's also funny because I feel like in Twister, the gang is more of a thing. Whereas this is just like, we needed inspiration. So we took inspiration from the gang. They're not really a part of the movie, but they are. It's copy of a copy. Yeah, exactly.
00:32:41
Speaker
Yeah, they're very thinly sketched. Totally. They're like Jabberjaw's band as opposed to the Mystery Machine. I literally do not remember the names of any of them except for I think one was named Greg.
00:32:54
Speaker
Right? there was Yeah. And Greg is the... See, already forgot his name. No, it is Greg, but he's played by Grant. Is it the guy who likes coffee?
00:33:06
Speaker
Yeah, coffee guy. Okay. Well, I'm glad that that's him because I was like, hopefully that's the guy. But also I feel weird when there's someone in a movie that has my name and I'm unaware of it. It feels strange somehow. That would be off Twitter.
00:33:20
Speaker
It's just like his name was Greg and I didn't know that. Why didn't I click in when someone said my name? Yeah. Why did that not register? So Mayor Rachel agrees to set up a meeting with the Dante's Peak City Council to talk about the possibility of evacuating the town.
00:33:39
Speaker
When Paul and his ragtag band of volcanologists show up and Paul finds out that Harry is already talking to the city council, he is pissed. So he busts into the council meeting and tells them not to panic.
00:33:53
Speaker
An evacuation would be premature, blah, blah, blah. blah blah Paul also tells Harry that he's off the case. Hmm. I love this scene so much.
00:34:06
Speaker
yes yeah I love the idea of someone being like, whoa, we wouldn't want to go in here and say that there's possibly going to be a volcano eruption because that'll fucking kill a town. And do you want to kill a town?
00:34:18
Speaker
Is that what you want to do, Harry? Is kill a town? and With your warnings, you scientist and your warnings with your numbers and your readings. I too am a scientist and I'm your boss.
00:34:32
Speaker
I'd like to tell a story about it. It's like, it's insane. He says, we can't evacuate 7,000 people. We're talking about evacuating 7,000 people. i immediately got my phone and was like, how many people can fit in Citizens Bank Park? And let me tell you, it's six times as many.
00:34:46
Speaker
And they load in and load out of there. it several stuff yeah I'm pretty sure, yeah, you could evacuate 7,000 people in like a half hour. It doesn't take that long, bro. was like, nice flex, I guess. ah Let's see. But yeah, Paul is, ah yeah, tells him that he's off the case. But then at a bar later that night, he says he's back in as long as he sticks to the party line. We're going to run our tests. We're not going to panic.
00:35:19
Speaker
So the next day, Rachel delivers a big thing of coffee to the crew and invites Harry over for dinner before the guys fly around in a helicopter.
Volcano Threat and Town's Response
00:35:29
Speaker
They take a helicopter up to the top of the volcano to like take some gas readings. They're like, how much sulfur is there? And you got to think, the giant rolling helicopter blades might impact your gas readings. I was wondering about that, too.
00:35:46
Speaker
Well, maybe they compensate for that.
00:35:51
Speaker
a right Maybe. I mean, it seems like it would be really hard to do. Anyway. Anyway. A pedant could see the strings.
00:36:03
Speaker
but
00:36:06
Speaker
ah That night, Harry goes to Rachel's house for dinner and he does a little magic tricks for the kids. He gets a little pet the dog scenes with the kids and every now and then. And ah then he ends up talking about his dead girlfriend, Marianne.
00:36:21
Speaker
Great way to do it. She loved volcanoes, he says wistfully. One of my favorite lines. She loved volcanoes.
00:36:35
Speaker
The next day, the crew has a new plan. ah They're going to send in their exploratory robot spider legs. And he's going to go walk around in the mouth of the volcano and take some readings. Maybe now without the helicopter blades, they'll get something a more accurate.
00:36:52
Speaker
Maybe. But unfortunately, spider legs only makes it so far, maybe about 40 feet before getting its foot stuck in a rock or something. Just like immediately get stuck. yeah Terrible robot.
00:37:06
Speaker
Real, real bad design. Then one of the more interesting volcanologists, Terry, the one with the beard, he goes to set it free, only to be caught in a rock slide himself breaking his leg.
00:37:20
Speaker
Luckily, Harry is able to airlift them out of there before any more rocks fall on them. I would like to point out that he takes his harness off and everyone's like, don't do that. But you'd think that they would be like, you be Terry or whatever. Terry, you lead like you literally can't do that. like Don't be fucking stupid. like They're weird scientists in this movie. and yeah All of them are trying to be the rebel and that doesn't work for Christian. No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't. can't do that. Nobody plays by the rules in this government organization. And then they all exploded in the volcano. Come on. Yeah, they're all very open to interpretation. seem just more like volcano enthusiasts. Yeah.
00:38:04
Speaker
and We all know how that works out. Yeah. Yeah. Famously. So he's able to call it an airlift. The helicopter pilot is like a D plot.
00:38:17
Speaker
Yeah. Right. Cause he's a shithead. Yeah. He's like more money, please. Yeah. yeah He's like a mercenary because he has to fly into an exploding volcano. And he's like, oh, well, I guess I should ask for more money. That to me seems reasonable. Yeah, it does.
00:38:35
Speaker
You could have just fucking stayed home. ah But ah the two of them, Harry hooks them both up to his harness and they share a manly embrace in the sky as they're airlifted out of the volcano.
00:38:50
Speaker
Beautiful. Now that one of the members of the crew has gotten hurt, Harry is very seriously pushing for an evacuation. And still everyone is like, no dice. Harry, the readings just don't back it up.
00:39:05
Speaker
Harry's like, I felt that volcano. That was a magma. It was near the surface. It was near the surface. It wasn't seismic. It was magmatic.
00:39:16
Speaker
ah But everyone says no. So it's time to pull up stakes and leave town. Before they do, Dr. Harry walks Mayor Rachel home from the town bar, and they almost kiss before they get interrupted by a child.
00:39:33
Speaker
Rachel goes to get a glass of tap water, and it's all brown and gross. He brings the brown, gross water to Paul, and Paul's like, yes, this water is gross.
00:39:45
Speaker
This town is about to blow. ah
00:39:51
Speaker
So Rachel calls the town meeting that night for 6 p.m. and everyone in town shows up except for stubborn old gam gam. But in retrospect, she should have called the meeting for 5 p.m.
00:40:02
Speaker
because at 6.01 Dante's Peak erupts.
00:40:09
Speaker
It's good that they got everybody together for it into one location. Right, yeah. Because also, they're like, nobody panic. It's like, if they had not been in one room, none of this would have been an issue. They all just would have walked out in their own pace and everyone would have left fine. Yeah, yeah there really is a series of striking mistakes. Yeah.
00:40:30
Speaker
Now, the movie is really getting started, though. Siskel is right. there's There's chaos. There's eruption. There's people getting trampled. Tape club video gets destroyed.
00:40:41
Speaker
No. Yeah. People rush out of town, ah but Rachel can't leave without her kids who are back at her deli slash house that she lives in above the deli. And why aren't they at the town meeting? Why aren't they at the town meeting?
00:40:55
Speaker
They'd get bored. Mom's the mayor. It sucks. Yeah. Mom's so corny every time. She's like, I'm the mayor. Do what I say. Yeah.
00:41:09
Speaker
But when they get back to the deli, the kids aren't there. They've commandeered Rachel's truck to drive up the mountain to get Gam Gam. This is even though. yeah Graham, the older child appears to be about 12.
00:41:22
Speaker
He's a country kid. They are navigating this road that is genuinely just flooded with an ash rain. And just like, look at how you can't see anything. it's like, you can't see anything. How are these children not running into the side of a mom? No, they should have died 50 feet from their home. yeah Graham's been stealing his mom's car for years now, driving it around. Okay. Okay. I buy that backstory. like this a lot.
00:41:53
Speaker
Still, even Graham is forced to admit, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. hence Harry and Rachel chase after them. They drive through
Escape and Survival Amidst Chaos
00:42:03
Speaker
a river in a very exciting river sequence. ah They almost get hit by the crashing helicopter piloted by the shithead that has the investment guy and the city council member who's an asshole in it.
00:42:14
Speaker
nice All our assholes are dead in one fell swoop. Kaboom. Terrible helicopter accident during a volcano eruption. Never thought it would be me. Yeah. I still like the idea that a helicopter pilot doesn't know that they can't fly around when there's a bunch of shit in the air.
00:42:31
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. My copter could take it. My old helicopter. This is apparently one of the things in the movie that, that is, that is real, which makes that the, the scene in volcano where they bring in like a whole fleet of helicopters to, uh, spritz water on the lava uh to stop it um i would not yeah that's the magic of the movies we're having fun yeah i know but it was also kind of magical watching that helicopter crash no that was great especially right in front of pierce brosnan yeah yeah
00:43:16
Speaker
The good news is they finally find the kids at Gam Gam's house. Unfortunately, Gam Gam's dog Scruffy is missing. Oh boy. The family tries to claim a few valuables and mementos from the lakeside cabin before evacuating when quite literally out of nowhere, the cabin is suddenly entirely engulfed in lava. Oops.
00:43:38
Speaker
Oops. It was really jarring how quickly they were immediately completely yeah like they had barely introduced the concept of lava at this point. i know They were like, shit, we're running out of time. We need to do more volcano stuff like really, really fast. as e But now we already did an hour of this movie without any volcano stuff.
00:43:57
Speaker
Yeah, and then just a lava jump scare. Which is it's it quite literally is. They're just walking through a living room and then suddenly it's lava everywhere with a great crash. Incredible cinema.
00:44:12
Speaker
Yeah. This is definitely one to watch on an edible because I feel like then it would feel like it took place in a normal amount of time. Yeah, yeah. You could definitely space out. So the lava consumes their cars, but there is a nearby motorboat on the lake. So they all hop in the motorboat and motorboat away.
00:44:32
Speaker
Unfortunately, the volcano was also turned the lake into acid and the acid is melting the boat. This scene is very effective. It's very scary. Yes.
00:44:44
Speaker
I repeated this, these three lines last night over and over the lake has Vaucan activity has turned the lake into acid. Acid eats metal. I'm like, am I taking a test later? Like, why are you talking to me like this?
00:45:02
Speaker
It so good. What it reminded me a lot of is um deathbed, the bed that eats. But that one scene that was surprisingly effective because it was just the woman with her legs melted off crawling towards a door for like three minutes. Yes. Yeah. Where it's just like, we're just going to watch this boat just drift and then slowly sink into the water and everyone's just going to sing row your boat.
00:45:28
Speaker
And it's in yeah pitch black and it's very effective. This is, by the way, the third of our movies to feature people singing row, row, row your boat.
00:45:40
Speaker
Wow. the first two being Manos and I think troll too. I meant to double check, but didn't. Okay. That sounds right. That sounds right. So as the boat begins to sink into the lake, Harry wraps his coat around his hand to try to paddle them to shore.
00:45:57
Speaker
But when it becomes clear that they aren't going to make it, Gam Gam heroically leaps off the boat and pulls them ashore as the acid lake eats the flesh off of her legs and butt.
00:46:09
Speaker
I gotta tell you, really satisfied that she just jumped in and did this. So good on you, Gam Gam. Terrible. Yeah, really sad. Yeah. Yeah. I like that they established that she's awful before she does this. Yeah. yeah yeah yeah That it's her fault that they're all up there to rescue her. And so she does sort of owe it to all of them. Yeah.
00:46:32
Speaker
Harry tries to carry her back to civilization. She's obviously much lighter now that a lot of her flesh has melted off. Yeah. ah But it becomes pretty clear that she's not going to make it I wonder why yeah they freaking dump her ass and they're like, see ya.
00:46:52
Speaker
Yeah. They do just sort of leave her there on the ground after they say their goodbyes. ah They do have to keep moving because the snow cap on the mountain is melting, sending a massive tidal wave of snow melt into the river Valley.
00:47:07
Speaker
Hmm. Luckily, Dante's Peak, the town, is finally fully evacuated. And just the National Guard and our team of geologists are the last people out. But Paul, picking up the van in the rear, gets swept into the currents during a bridge collapse. And he dies. R.I.P. Paul.
00:47:29
Speaker
He gives a slight little wave as he just gets tossed into the water. And it's just like, all right, way to go, Paul. The ostensibly the villain, if it weren't for the volcano.
00:47:42
Speaker
Yeah. I was like, I feel like I'd be more upset, but I guess it was their boss. So yeah. It's, yeah it's, it's so weird that like, he's the turd, the boss of the group is the turd of the group. It's like, this is not what I would have expected.
00:47:58
Speaker
The very working class ninety s I feel like. Yeah. The boss is still a turd. Meanwhile, Harry has found a park ranger's truck and has hot wired it.
00:48:10
Speaker
As he drives Rachel's family back towards civilization, he runs into a stream of dried cooling lava that still cracks and shows hot lava in between it. And he says, I'm going to drive the old truck over it.
00:48:22
Speaker
This is the craziest thing I've seen while. This was wild to me. This whole sequence was wild. Yeah.
00:48:34
Speaker
This is specifically called out on the... the At the time, actually, the ah geological survey put out of frequently asked questions on their web website about, you know, what in the movie is accurate. And this part was specifically called out in its own question as like, no, you absolutely cannot drive over lava fields.
00:48:59
Speaker
In a gasoline powered vehicle. Like, yeah come on. I like at one point the surface of the lava cracks and you see his tire in hot yellow lava, like it's mud, like kicking your lava. He's like rocking back and forth. Throw it in reverse and you got to do the rock and that's how you get out.
00:49:20
Speaker
And then at one point someone says, Harry, we're on fire. Yeah. And yeah then a child says, more lava is coming down the hill.
00:49:32
Speaker
yes Yep. just like the acid lake it eats metal more lava yeah it's just a real ear for dialogue in this uh luckily scruffy the dog is there they do find scruffy the dog and he hops in the truck and next thing you know they've driven through the lava and the car is still going it's normal it's normal I'm assuming the tires are now like pieces of obsidian, like a Flintstone. That's the only way this makes sense to me.
00:50:04
Speaker
It's also crazy. Cause there's so much ash raining down that it kind of looks like snow. so me has been like stuck in a blizzard. It's just like, yeah, they're rocking back and forth in the snow. And then they cut to the outside and it's complete black that they're rocking. And it's just like, no, this doesn't, this doesn't compute anymore. This doesn't work.
00:50:21
Speaker
e it's it's a very strange scene here I really liked it now ah they pick up Scruffy the dog and driving through molten lava didn't damage the car for it to be a problem they make it back to town They grab a piece of gear from the hotel, something called an elf, extreme low frequency transmitter.
00:50:48
Speaker
ah But before they can get much further, Dante's peak erupts again. This time it's the real eruption. Boom. You can get pregnant from pre eruption.
00:51:01
Speaker
Christopher. I'm sorry. Yeah. okay But now it's that's the difference between these two eruptions is what I'm saying. This one, there's a giant pyrostatic cloud that comes out of the volcano like a nuclear bomb. And Harry throws the truck into drive and he slams it into the abandoned mine.
00:51:26
Speaker
i i mean, inside the abandoned mine. And... and It's great because it protects them from the volcano.
00:51:38
Speaker
But the bad news is the mine collapses behind them. For now, they're trapped. They crawl through the front windshield of the truck and they head to Graham's secret hideout where he has a hidden cache of juice and snacks. So that's nice. Nice. that's Good job, Graham.
00:51:56
Speaker
Johnny on the spot. Yeah. Unfortunately, they do appear to be buried alive. But then Harry remembers the object that he picked up just 10 minutes ago that was just introduced to the film.
00:52:08
Speaker
No, no. there oh like I'll go get that. That came up earlier. It was on the robot and they did yeah took it off the robot because they're like, we're checking out this NASA junk for them. They want to track us. but It's fucking up our robots. Okay.
00:52:23
Speaker
am the okay I see. Well, anyway, lot of checkoffs items in this one. It's true. It's a Swiss watch going on Yeah.
00:52:35
Speaker
ah So here he goes back to get that gear. And, but on his way back to the truck, there's a cave in. And now he's separated from mayor Rachel and the kids.
00:52:49
Speaker
And then when he gets to the truck and he goes in to try and get the elf, there's another cave in. And now he's trapped in the truck under tons of rubble, but he is able to kick the thing on and it turns on the homing signal.
00:53:06
Speaker
And then we find out two days later, someone notices that it's been blinking the entire time. Insane choice. yeah Yes. Yes. really really wild to do that to think that these two children spent two days in a cave in total darkness yeah and also that they're like the main hero was just like more or less crumpled in a vehicle for 48 hours subsisting on nothing and just pissing and shitting himself
00:53:41
Speaker
with a kind With a broken bone. Yeah. His bone is sticking out of his arm. It was disgusting. I did not remember that part of the movie. I was really grossed out. It's a pretty, it's when it gets gory, it gets gory. Yeah. Yeah. Especially G13. I feel like if your bone is out, you don't have long, man. You know, that's something you should involve in a few hours. Yeah. Yeah.
00:54:04
Speaker
Well, two days later, the rescue rescue squad returns to Dante's Peak and they dig everybody out. And everybody seems to be pretty much fine. ah And Rachel and Harry reunite and they kiss and everyone's happy.
00:54:20
Speaker
And the movie's over. the it's Her kids are watching her kiss this guy and laughing in a very strange way. it's Yes. They've been through a lot. i I mean, they have been through a lot. That's fair.
00:54:34
Speaker
I think that secretly they want these two to be married. And so they're just giddy as hell that this man, this basically this Superman who came into their lives and save them. I'm just like, good. He's kissing mommy.
00:54:47
Speaker
Good. yeah but No, that makes sense. That makes sense. It's not like their dad ain't shit. So yeah. Yeah. Gam Gam's gone now. So this guy, is yeah she was there. and new authority figure They need someone else to drive to in secret.
00:55:03
Speaker
Mm hmm.
00:55:06
Speaker
Well, final thoughts, five-star ratings on our unique scale of watchability and weirdness.
Final Thoughts and Ratings: Evaluating Dante's Peak
00:55:12
Speaker
Greg, why don't you kick us off? So I was going to give it four for watchability, but I think after talking to everybody, i'm going to bump it up to a four and a half because I think had I been watching it with other people, I would have been enjoying myself more than I already was because it's a pretty enjoyable time. It's just it does take a while to get to the volcano. Luckily, a lot of the ridiculousness that's in there. Like I love the whole just like you want to ruin this town financially saying, having a sort of an early warning system in place, Mr. Scientist, there's the fellow scientist, like this whole um the only thing I could think of was, ah and no one's gonna know this reference except for Chris, was National Lampoon's RoboDoc.
00:55:56
Speaker
yeah which is a movie that ostensibly seems like it would be about a robot becoming a doctor, but is more about how to needle insurance companies and make jokes about them. And it really seems like it's written by someone who had some prior experience. It's just like, F these guys. And so this movie felt like someone was kind of like, we need to write about volcano ah scientists, but kind of fuck them in a way. They come into town and ruin their livelihood. It was just like, what where did this animosity come from?
00:56:25
Speaker
And so because of that, I'm going to give it a weirdness of two. It's not that weird. i mean, it's a disaster movie. It just does some really interesting things as far as tone goes. So, yeah. Makes sense.
00:56:38
Speaker
What about you, Anna? I would give it about, let's see. Yeah, I'd give it a four and a half for watchability. I had a great time. Yeah.
00:56:51
Speaker
I wanted to specifically compliment how it it did a good job of, like, there were a lot of really dark scenes in the second half of the movie, but the first half of the movie had done such a good job of establishing, you know, these clear skies that go on forever, these the view from grandma's house is just incredible. And then, so it it it's, it's a good contrast, you know, the darkness makes a really good contrast to ah ah what one went before. didn't even think about that, but that's a really good point.
00:57:35
Speaker
Yeah. As for weirdness, ah
00:57:43
Speaker
I think it's kind of straightforward. Yeah. That's fair. So that would be, i don't know, let's call it about a two. Okay. For weirdness.
00:57:54
Speaker
Fair enough. I, ah like I said, I'm a volcano guy. So I gave it a three stars in watchability. at Most of the time when I was watching it, I was thinking about how it would be great if I was watching Volcano, how good the movie Volcano is. Wow. How Pommie Lee Jones is. Wow. How Anne Heche didn't get a fair shake in Hollywood. You know, stuff like that. she didn't. Yeah.
00:58:22
Speaker
And then ah ah for weirdness, I gave it three stars just because I found it had sort of a surprising luridness to it that I wasn't expecting. And also like ah more of an earnestness, but like the the skinny dipping scene I wasn't expecting, you know, and I also wasn't expecting to see them with their you know, flesh boiled off later on you know, i so it did have a couple of surprises for me that I thought gave it a little bit of a weirdness. And to me, it, while volcano feels like sort of a throwback to seventies disaster movies, this feels more like a fifties throwback.
00:58:58
Speaker
Interesting. I think, And I don't know, was just something that sort of occurred to me. I don't know how defensible that position is, but I'm going to throw out there as food for thought. It's just an interesting thought.
00:59:12
Speaker
I do also like that Brosnan and Hamilton are basically the same age. Yeah, that's great. They're 44 and 42, whereas Lee Jones and Anne H., although they're only like and like, they flirt a little, but still, they're 20 years apart.
00:59:31
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Fair enough. be Fair enough. Well, what about you, Courtney, in terms of watchability and weirdness? Where'd you land? um ah Watchability, i would definitely give this like a four. I could even bump it up to a four and a half, depending on the situation that I'm in that day, the time, whatever, you know, I feel like watching, but um it is.
00:59:53
Speaker
It is just like, to me, you guys, you know, Volcano is like a throwback to the 70s and this one was more like a throwback to the 50s. And like, I get that. i I definitely can see that. But to me, this is like a quintessential 90s movie. Like, yeah you have your...
01:00:09
Speaker
ragtag bunch of scientists that are all rebels and you have like there's just so many things to me that scream 1990s about this that I just i I love that whenever I'm I don't know what to watch and I see like a category that's just movies from the 90s I'm immediately scrolling through those and that's fair yeah and and just just It's kind of like the reverse. We have to save the town because we don't have any money, you know, like the ski town, the mountain. oh or like ah yeah we We have to save the town by keeping this money and not making anybody evacuate because the volcano is about to erupt and kill us all. There's something funny about that to me.
01:00:49
Speaker
i don't know.
01:00:53
Speaker
Well, that's completely fair. Yeah. I don't think it's that weird a movie except for for all the points you said. like It is a little weird that there's boiled bodies and boiled grandmas. And um i think the dialogue is exceedingly strange when they like are very expositional. When all all of a sudden, when like for the whole front half of the movie, they aren't really. And then they're like, the lake is acid. Acid eats metal. I'm like, okay.
01:01:19
Speaker
Who wrote this part specifically? That's a little weird to me. So I would give it like maybe... I could bump it to three on the weird scale. Okay. That seems very reasonable.
01:01:32
Speaker
Well, speaking of threes, let's move on to act three of the show. And we're going to be having a little discussion of trends in film led by my wonderful wife. Yay.
01:01:43
Speaker
Woo. oo
01:02:00
Speaker
Trends in film, they do happen. Trends in film. Trends in film, that's the segment.
01:02:11
Speaker
Trends in film.
01:02:26
Speaker
All right. So as we've discussed extensively already, Dante's Peak and Volcano, famous examples of twin films, um which are her movies that come out around the same time um and have similar plot. ah this is usually They usually come from two different studios hopping on the same idea.
01:02:51
Speaker
i did see you know one film scholar saying that it actually makes more sense to think of twin films as an exception to like more often they'll find out that another studio is making a film and, you know, yours will get canceled or changed, you know, like most of the time studios want to avoid this, but, but it happens. Um,
01:03:18
Speaker
There's a lot of the time, you know, there's a clear winner between the two. um I don't know. There's like all the references. Well, we all have preferences on this. I do think that like box office wise, they both made money at the box office. ah They both got similarly kind of like mid reviews.
01:03:39
Speaker
I don't know. But I went through the list on Wikipedia of notable examples. And these were some that were interesting to me. ah The first ones were two versions of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde released a month apart in 1920.
01:03:58
Speaker
Oh, nice. Of course, it was written. The novella was written in 1886. which I always think is important when you're thinking about you know like early early films. It's just like it's um adapting like a 35-year-old book. That's not a big deal. That's something I hadn't thought about, actually. Yeah. 1931, Marlena Dietrich was in a movie called Dishonored about a lady spy ah which caused Greta Garbo's studio to rush out a movie with her as Mata Hari in the same year.
01:04:37
Speaker
Okay. In 1965. And these were both kind of um knockoffs of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, which had been a big hit a couple of years before.
01:04:51
Speaker
But two movies came out about slapstick races in the early 1900s. Those were ah those magnificent men in their flying machines and the great race.
01:05:06
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. I'm glad that's what the great race turned out to be. That could be the great race. Actually, that it was a Blake Edwards movie um cost $12 million, dollars which was the most expensive comedy produced to date.
01:05:24
Speaker
thats okay just a really expensive movie 1973 the film adaptations of god spell and jesus christ superstar which had both debuted in 1971 so this is where the twin films are echoing the the twin musicals makes 1986 87 have nineteen eighty six and eighty seven we have platoon and full metal jacket six months apart yeah yeah 1989 canine and turner and hooch buddy cop movies where one of the buddies is a dog yes yep 1992 we had two christopher columbus movies I remember that child. Christopher Columbus, The Discovery. Yeah, yeah. And 1492, Conquest of Paradise.
01:06:16
Speaker
Oh, yeah. That was the brand name one because that's Ridley Scott. Right. I haven't seen either of those. I just remember thinking, like, why is Christopher Columbus suddenly so popular for some reason? Right?
01:06:30
Speaker
It was because it was 1992. It was a 500-year anniversary. 500 years. Yeah. It makes good sense. Yep. Yep. 1993 94, Tombstone and a tombstone and why an herb Both came out, one with Kurt Russell and one with Kevin Costner as Wyatt Earp, who, by the way, started his law enforcement career in ah West Wichita, what is now West Wichita.
01:06:57
Speaker
nice yeah yeah Nice. Yeah. 1994 and 1995, we had the inventors Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and To Wong Fu, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar.
01:07:10
Speaker
e that's a good That's a good twin film yeah Yeah. 1995 and 96, next week's selection, Powder and the movie Phenomenon with John Travolta have some similarities about a a guy with powers who's an outcast. 1998 was a year this. In 1998, we had was a huge year for this yes in ninety ninety eight we had
01:07:41
Speaker
Ants and a Bug's Life. Oh, yeah. Impact and Armageddon. Saving Private Ryan and the Thin Red Line. yeah, yeah. And then if we go a little over into 99, The Truman Show and Ed TV. Oh, yeah. Which one was the last time anybody watched Ed TV was.
01:08:03
Speaker
I don't know. People still talk about the Truman Show. Yeah, I've seen it. It's good. it's good yeah yeah Truman Show's good. EdTV is fine. I like Jenna Elton. In 2005, Red Eye and Flight Plan were both airplane set flip thrillers. 2006...
01:08:27
Speaker
The Prestige and The Illusionist were both about magicians. Prestige. I remember in 2011, No Strings Attached and Friends with Benefits. Oh, yeah. The Shuck Buddy movies. Yeah. and how how one of them has Ashton Kutcher and one of them has Mila Kunis.
01:08:50
Speaker
But they're both ah paired with other people. 2013, Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down. yes oh That one. Just hilarious to me, these yeah thank you two. Thank 2018, we had a couple of horror movies based around a like a sensory threat.
01:09:12
Speaker
I haven't seen either of one, but Bird Box, you couldn't so you couldn't look at the monsters. And in a quiet place, you couldn't make any noise. Oh, yeah. Yeah, thats yeah. You can see those as being similar. ah This was a one that I definitely watched both of these 2019.
01:09:31
Speaker
fire fraud and fire the competing documentaries about the fire festival that was another really good 2024 um the first omen and immaculate were two horror movies about um young american nuns who become pregnant with the antichrist as like I think as part of like nefarious plans by the Catholic church. Okay. Crazy specific. I've never heard of either of those. Yeah. I think they're both supposed to be pretty good. Yeah. Um, imaculate or Sidney Sweeney.
01:10:10
Speaker
Yeah. Get out. Okay. Um, and I will, this is one that a pair that was not on the list, but I discovered independently right before we started recording. I had mentioned Werner Herzog's documentary on some French volcanologists that's called The Fire Within, a Requiem for Katja and Maurice Kraft. There was another 2022 documentary about the two of them by a filmmaker called Sarah Dosa. was That one was called Fire of Love.
01:10:44
Speaker
Okay. So maybe that was the one I was thinking of. Who can say? Could
01:10:51
Speaker
Well, I could say it's time to play a game. Do you guys want to play When's Going On? Sure. Absolutely.
01:11:22
Speaker
When's going on? And said, hey, hey, hey, hey
01:11:54
Speaker
That's right. We're playing When's Going On and we're doing it with disaster movies. I'm going to give you a title of a disaster movie and a brief plot description. And I want you guys to each tell me what year you think it came out.
01:12:11
Speaker
If you get it within five years in either direction, you get one point. If you get it within one year in either direction, you had two points. If you get it on the button, you get three big points.
01:12:22
Speaker
Everybody ready? Yes. Yes. All right. Question number one. Lightning fire from the sky. Ooh.
01:12:33
Speaker
Overwhelmed by a disastrous lightning storm that his son predicted, a man must learn to trust his son in order to save his family and his community. Lightning, fire from the sky.
01:12:47
Speaker
greg when do you think that one came out? 1962. Okay. What about you, Anna? When do you think that one came out? 1991.
01:12:58
Speaker
Okay. What about you, Courtney? 1983. nineteen eighty three Sorry, that was 2001. 2001. What? Yep. Sorry, there's plenty of game left to play. No points.
01:13:13
Speaker
Question number two. Heat wave. The residents of an isolated mountain town must band together to survive during a devastating heat wave.
01:13:27
Speaker
Some of these are TV movies, should say. Okay. Okay. Greg, when do you think Heat Wave came in? 87. All right. Anna, what do you think? 85.
01:13:41
Speaker
All right. Courtney? 74. Courtney, on the dot, three big points. Wow. Good job. Thanks.
01:13:54
Speaker
I clearly know nothing about heat wave. We don't know anything about any of the things we answer about. so they They are guessing games. Question number three. Fire from below.
01:14:08
Speaker
Digging at a nearby cave, a careless industrialist unearths a vein of pure base lithium and inadvertently brings it to the surface where the lithium combusts when coming into contact with water and begins to wreak havoc on the countryside.
01:14:25
Speaker
take keep Fire from below. a convoluted disaster scenario.
01:14:34
Speaker
Greg, when do you think Fire from Below came out? and ah Wow. 19... I could go so many different time periods in here. 1982?
01:14:46
Speaker
Alright. Anna, what do you think? 2007. Okay. What about you, Courtney? I'm throwing it way back. This feels like 50s or 60s thing. I'm going to go with like 1958. 1958.
01:14:59
Speaker
fifty eight Anna gets a point, it was 2009. Whoa! like hey It's hard to gauge the time period of ah liquid lithium.
01:15:11
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. it It feels like it's becoming more relevant than ever. It's true. Question number four. Night of the Twisters.
01:15:25
Speaker
the residents of a small town come face to face with a deadly and unpredictable series of turn 80s.
01:15:34
Speaker
Face to face? Among them is one boy struggling to keep his family safe. Night of the Twisters. Greg, when do you think that one came out? 1996.
01:15:49
Speaker
Okay.
01:15:52
Speaker
Anna, what about you? Oh, uh, 68. All right, Courtney. 2000. All right. That's one point for Courtney and three big points for Greg. That was 1996. Yes. Well, I knew it was probably a twister's ripoff, but I didn't want to stop on Greg's toes too much.
01:16:12
Speaker
Question number five. The day after. The effects of a devastating nuclear Holocaust on a small town residence of Eastern Kansas.
01:16:26
Speaker
The day after.
01:16:30
Speaker
Greg, when do think that one came out? 1973. All right. Anna, what about you? 1977. Okay. Courtney? 2006.
01:16:39
Speaker
okay courtney two thousand six oh I skunked you that time. It was 1983. That's a really famous one. That's a really famous one. Yeah, think so.
01:16:52
Speaker
yeah I think so. That freaked out a lot of people. a lot of people learned about the devastation of nuclear war from that specific picture. Yeah. Maybe it's the after tomorrow ripoff.
01:17:04
Speaker
Understandable. That was my, your choice on that. think it's the other way around, actually. Yeah, totally.
01:17:13
Speaker
Question number six. Tychus.
01:17:19
Speaker
An underground city is built to save a cross section of humanity as a comet hurdles towards earth. Tychus. Greg, what do you think? 1966.
01:17:32
Speaker
All right. about you, Anna? Well, I was thinking 65, so I'm going to say it. All right. What about you, Courtney?
01:17:43
Speaker
1981. Gotcha.
01:17:46
Speaker
yacha Again, that was 1999. Wow. That movie was also directed by John Putch, the director of The Boy Who Saved Christmas. Oh. You never forget your first Putch. yeah true was that part of That was a third. That was the triplet to Deep Impact and Armageddon.
01:18:07
Speaker
Oh, yeah. maybe Yeah, it was the the dime store version. Question number seven. Scorcher.
01:18:18
Speaker
The only hope for humanity to survive a natural disaster is to detonate a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles, California. It only makes sense. Scorcher. Greg, what do you think? 75. 75.
01:18:31
Speaker
Anna? 89. 89. Courtney? seventy five anna eighty nine eighty- nine courtney
01:18:44
Speaker
2003 Courtney with two big points that was 2002 wow nice
01:18:52
Speaker
Courtney with a commanding lead had a problem with some sort of screenwriter they had some beef I felt like that was a decent thing yeah you're scorch his ass I'm tired of Los Angeles that's it the only way to save the earth is to level it that's right question number eight The swarm.
01:19:17
Speaker
Deadly African bees spread over Texas and kill thousands of people. Scientists try to find an antidote for bees, I guess. Get him out of here.
01:19:33
Speaker
Against the advice of U.S. Army General Thallius Slater. The swarm. Greg, when do you think The Swarm came out? 76. I've seen about half of that movie. It's interesting.
01:19:46
Speaker
Okay. Okay. Greg has a very strong intuition. 1998. Anna does not believe Greg. i I also think but this is a 90s, John. I'm going to go with like... It's a three-year thing, right? i don't want to step on anybody says... I'm going go 90, 95.
01:20:07
Speaker
ninety five and It was 1978. Greg gets a point. Greg. Dang. need to watch more movies about bees, not bee movie. Well, if you want to hear Michael Caine say, I've got a horde of angry Africans coming over here, then that's the perfect film for you. If you don't want to hear that, it might not be very good for you. I may skip that That's why I've only seen a portion of it.
01:20:31
Speaker
Are you sure you're not thinking of Zulu? I am absolutely certain. Wow. Question number nine. On the beach.
01:20:43
Speaker
After a global nuclear war the residents of Australia must come to terms with the fact that all life will be destroyed in a matter of months. On the beach.
01:20:55
Speaker
Greg, what do you think? 1952. All right, Anna. Anna.
01:21:01
Speaker
all right anna
01:21:05
Speaker
I think this is like a classic of bummer Cold War cinema.
01:21:12
Speaker
What about you, Courtney? To be clear, this isn't the beach that makes you old. No, no. ok We will be discussing The Beach Who Makes You Old in a couple of episodes. Let's just keep an eye out for that one Good deal. Okay, then I'm going to say 1969.
01:21:28
Speaker
All right. Anna gets the point. It was 1959. Wow. I knew it was in the 50s. I've seen that one. It's very good. Yes, there's Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, and Fred Astaire.
01:21:40
Speaker
Get the fuck out of here. It's definitely worth a checking out. It's interesting to see an apocalypse movie from the 50s because it has just a different vibe. Wow. oh right Well, congratulations to Courtney. You're the big winner.
01:21:53
Speaker
What? what I'm good at guessing. Nice. And it's also the Batty Awards.
01:22:07
Speaker
Now you're messing with me. Now you're messing with the Batty Awards. Now you're messing with the Batty Awards.
01:22:18
Speaker
Now you're messing with the Batty Awards.
01:22:24
Speaker
Congratulations to all the nominees.
01:22:32
Speaker
That's right. Congratulations to all our nominees. It's the Batty Awards. The awards that we give out. Greg, do you have a batting award? I sure do. ah This is for perhaps the most surprising piece of dialogue in the film to me. There are a lot of wonderful surprises in here, especially ah when he's trying to get his fiance out. He's like, the volcano exploding. She's like, look at these readings.
01:22:57
Speaker
It's like, that's an interesting thing to say. Uh, when he shows up at Ruth's house for the first time, she's like, Oh, you people going up to that mountain. It's like you people, they're scientists. They're not insurance salespeople. Like what, this is bizarre.
01:23:14
Speaker
But the the biggest surprise to me is after they drive that truck into that cave and it collapses and they're stuck in there and they've just got flashlights and they got, so you know, snacks and they're spending a couple of days in there. The kids are freaked out. And Harry's like, okay, okay. gets everybody in. It gets in real close and everybody gets real
Humorous Exchanges and Batty Awards
01:23:30
Speaker
tight. He's like, have you ever been deep sea fishing?
01:23:34
Speaker
it's the funniest thing I've ever heard. And then they're like, no. He's like, I haven't either. And that's a surprise. And then he's like, when we get out of here, we're going to go deep sea fishing. they're like, yeah. And it's like, what are any of you even talking about? No one would be excited by this concept.
01:23:55
Speaker
When we get out of this mess, we're going to go deep sea fishing. An idea we didn't have until moments ago. um Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. A fantastic Batty Award, Greg. Anna, do you have a Batty Award? ah Yes.
01:24:13
Speaker
I'm going to give it to... Let's see.
01:24:20
Speaker
I am going to give it to the actor who plays... Graham, the little boy who looked familiar to me the whole way through. and it's because this same year he played Billy, the little boy in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode Nightmares. He's a little boy in a coma who's like manifesting his nightmares around town and and his like nightmare. He's he's trying to communicate that that he was beaten into the coma by his his softball coach.
01:24:55
Speaker
That's a good episode. Bummer alarm. Bummer alarm. This next hit is kind of over. He was beaten by a real child.
01:25:06
Speaker
That's fair. He's real child. That's fair. I'm going to give my baddie award. obviously to Harry's big red truck.
01:25:18
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Big red truck. It was the same color as a Campbell's soup can. It was great. Anytime you saw it, you're like, he's on the scene. He's the volcanologist.
01:25:30
Speaker
Our best man is great. if Obviously, if you were getting the Harry action figure, you'd want to get his big red truck to accompany it. Courtney, do you have a batty award?
01:25:43
Speaker
I think I have to give my Batty Award to the aforementioned gentleman at the meeting who said, you're talking about evacuating 7,000 people. Because when he said that, I was ready to flip a desk. What a fucking failure of a person to say something like that.
01:26:00
Speaker
Because it's not that hard to evacuate 7,000 people, dipshit. That's my Batty Award. Yeah, I feel like you don't even need a plane. I feel like they can largely evacuate themselves. Yeah.
Promotions and Closing Remarks
01:26:14
Speaker
Well, thank you so much for joining us this week, Courtney. I had a great time. Thank you for having me. Do you have anything that you want to plug? do you have anything that's going on? do you want people to find you?
01:26:25
Speaker
um I actually would love it if I could plug my sister's podcast. Absolutely. The Bedroom Brainiacs. It's like a sex positive sex education podcast that they do with their partner and they're just kind of like getting it off the ground. And I just want to make sure that the word is out there because it's very, very funny and very educational and just good stuff all around.
01:26:49
Speaker
Fantastic. And we're actually in talks to have Julie back on the show, possibly with Tyrese. So keep an eye out for that one, listeners. Okay. Okay. And ah keep an eye out for us next week when we're going be talking about the first movie I saw on a date with a girl.
01:27:10
Speaker
With the girl I saw it with. That's right. We're going talking about the movie Powder with my first girlfriend, Sharon Cunningham. Okay. I love this.
01:27:23
Speaker
This is going to go great. i Definitely. It's too bad Twister isn't good because, or Twister is good because the first, I saw that with my first boyfriend, but it's a good movie. It's like, you know, Dante's Peak, yeah but better.
01:27:39
Speaker
Yeah. You could see why Dante's Peak was trying to imitate it Yeah. Yeah. and So, yes, come back for that, listeners. And ah while you got your phone in your hand, don't forget to hit that like and subscribe. Don't forget to to tell a friend about the show. And don't forget to stick around. Here's the one song that I saw that was on the soundtrack.
01:28:00
Speaker
Blue Moon Revisited by the Cowboy Junkies. Oh. Hooray. Great. Until next week, be good. Goodbye. Goodbye.
01:28:11
Speaker
Bye. by Bye.
01:28:23
Speaker
think in a David Lynch film. Yeah. Real high energy clothes to the show.