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Episode 51: First Daughter (1999)
30 Plays2 years ago
Happy New Year! At Road Wild 1999, we heard that two WCW wrestlers had been featured in films. But just how featured is "featured?" To find out, first up, we're taking a look at Diamond Dallas Page in the 1999 film "First Daughter" (not to be confused with the 2004 film of the same title). When extremists kidmap the president's daughter, can Secret Service Agent Alex McGregor bring her back? Will Agent Deadmeat survive until the end of the film? And will Dirk Lindman (DDP) get even a single fight scene? For all this and more, let's go...sit on the couch and turn on TBS?
Music by Michael Gary Brewer at https://www.instantmusicnow.com/
Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/letsgo2thering , or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/LetsGo2theRing/
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Hosts
00:00:00
Speaker
But yeah, it's Jess's shop and she rolled on the hill, but is she dead? Alex. Oh, sorry. Yeah, it's true. Sorry.
00:00:33
Speaker
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Let's Go to the Ring, where we take a look at the good old days and not so good old days of World Championship Wrestling Series by Series. I'm your host, Bob Moore, and I'm joined by a man with muscles in all the usual places people have muscles, Alec Pridgen. I need to check. Yeah, they're all there.
00:00:52
Speaker
How's it going tonight, Al? Good. How's it going to you? Doing all right. We are getting ready for the holidays around here. Yeah. Got your place all dressed up pretty. Mm hmm. It's a fun season. Yeah. And the most festive film to cover. But you know, it's not the most festive. It is kind of a present for me because I didn't have to do all the episode prep this time. Oh. More of it on you. But so I guess a present for me and Cole in the stocking for you. Yeah, that's been one of those years that makes sense.
Discussion on First Daughter Film and Cast
00:01:21
Speaker
Well, tonight we find a WCW wrestler outside his natural habitat, as we've decided to take a look at the 1999 film First Daughter, featuring one Diamond Dallas page. Will this be better or worse than the first DDP film that we reviewed? There'll be less wrestling in it, which could go either way, really. Yeah, true.
00:01:46
Speaker
First Daughter, not to be confused with the identically titled 2004 film or the other 2004 film with a very similar concept, Chasing Liberty, was filmed in Australia on an estimated budget of $5 million and first aired August 15th, 1999 on TBS. It has a runtime of about an hour and 42 minutes. It's rated TV 14.
00:02:11
Speaker
It carries a 5.5 out of 10 rating on IMDB and a 47% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. For comparison, Ready to Rumble has a 5.3 rating on IMDB and a 52% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. So we're allegedly in similar quality regions, I guess. Yeah, that 5.3 sounds pretty high, though, to be honest. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm not sure I entirely agree with that rating for Ready to Rumble anyway. No, not really.
00:02:40
Speaker
First Daughter is the first of three films about Secret Service agent Alex McGregor, played in this film by Mariel Hemingway, in 2000's First Target by Daryl Hannah, and in 2002's First Shot by Mariel Hemingway again. It co-stars Gregory Harrison as President Jonathan Hayes, Monica Keena as Jessica Jess Hayes, his daughter,
00:03:04
Speaker
Alan Dale as Secret Service Director daily has to be interesting when your character name sounds like a nickname for your actual name. Yeah, yeah.
00:03:15
Speaker
Doug Savant as Grant Coleman, Dominic Purcell as Troy Nelson, Chris Sedrina as Eric Nelson, David Wheeler as Michael Smith, and of course, Diamond Dallas Page as Dirk Lindemann, which honestly sounds like the name of a businessman in some kind of Wall Street drama, which is not the character Page plays in this. No, he is not. Quite the opposite, yes.
00:03:39
Speaker
It was directed by Armand Mastroianni and written by Chad and Kerry Hayes. Is it slightly arrogant to name a fictional president in part after yourself, by the way? President Hayes in this?
00:03:53
Speaker
Producers included Michael Gallant, Mads Hansen, Kerry and Chad Hayes, Tom Patricia, David Salzberg, who produced a lot of WSW Superstar series video tapes in 1999, and Jason Hervey, who played Wayne Arnold on The Wonder Years and was Eric Bischoff's buddy.
Diamond Dallas Page's Role in First Daughter
00:04:13
Speaker
Just how featured is DDP?
00:04:17
Speaker
to find out, let's go to, uh, the white house, I guess. Yeah. Teddy Roosevelt wrestled in it. So it's kind of like a wrestling ring and Lincoln lived there. Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. So I'll take it away.
00:04:31
Speaker
All right, so I'm the movie guy. I figured I'd get some more detailed information on our stars and featured players. So we have Meryl Hemingway. She is the youngest granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway, the famous writer. She's been acting since 1976. Her film credits include Manhattan star 80, my favorite Superman for the quest for peace. Is that really your favorite of these movies? Oh, okay.
00:04:56
Speaker
and the contender. Interestingly, in TV movies, she's played two real people. She played Tipper Gore in a movie about music censorship. Yeah. Okay. And Maria Shriver, which I can see. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. As a bonus, she was in a film in 2006 called In Her Line of Fire. Yes. Which features a very similar premise to this one, though a difference is he's rescuing the vice president who's been captured.
00:05:18
Speaker
Gotcha, gotcha. And that's obviously a even more direct reference to the Clint Eastwood in the Line of Fire film. Absolutely. Which is an awesome, awesome movie. It is quite good, yes. Going down the list, we have Doug Savant as mentioned. He actually has a multi-decade career going back to the original Teen Wolf. Cool. As well as the 1985 film Trick or Treat. Okay. As well as more recent stuff like The Rookie and Leverage Redemption. Oh, okay, that's cool.
00:05:45
Speaker
Well, he's never been the star, it seems. He's been all over TV shows like NCIS, The X-Files, Castle, CSI, and Criminal Minds. He feels like a very solid performer to have in your movie from his performance in this. I found I generally liked him. Yeah, absolutely. He also appeared in the classic threequel, Maniac Cop 3, Badge of Silence. Oh, and there goes the dignity.
00:06:10
Speaker
Gregory Harrison, who has mentioned plays the President. This guy has been working since the 70s, appearing in stuff like Trilogy of Terror, the original show MASH, and Trapper John M.D., a 70s-sounding show if you've never seen it before. Yeah, yeah, I think I've heard of that one, but... He was also the lead in the TV version of Logan's Run. Oh, okay. For me, he's also notable as the lead in the cult classic film Razorback, in which he fights the giant Razorback pig in the astronaut back. Okay. It's by the same guy that did Highlander.
00:06:41
Speaker
That is weird. Yeah. Well, music videos, killer pigs, Highlander. It's a natural progression. Yeah, I guess so. Most recently, he's appeared as the dad in a bunch of Homer Christmas movies. He's in his early 60s, late 60s, maybe I didn't have math on that. And he's, you know, he's a good looking guy. So I could see him playing the charming dad in those movies. My folks watch a ton of those, obviously, especially during this time of year. So I have to see if they've actually seen the guy. He's also currently on General Hospital.
00:07:11
Speaker
One of the few legacy soap publishers survived the purge to hit so many of those shows in recent years, even before COVID. Pre-COVID and a lot of those shows went down the tubes for whatever reason. Post didn't help, obviously. Monica Kina, she broke out weirdly enough playing Oksana Bayoull in a biopic about her. Okay. Yeah, I can't picture that, but you know, it's the nineties. She later appeared in such films as The Devil's Advocate, Freddy versus Jason, and the 2009 remake of Night of the Demons. Okay.
00:07:41
Speaker
The director, as mentioned, is Armand Masturiani, has over 60 directing credits to his name, such as the 1990 slasher film, He Knows You're Alone. That one is most notable for featuring a young, even pre, everything you know him from, Tom Hanks. Oh, okay.
00:07:58
Speaker
Famously, his character is killed off like, you know, most young people in a slasher movie, but apparently test audiences hated that scene so much because even they didn't know who he was. They just liked people. Just love Tom Hanks. I mean, yeah, don't kill Tom Hanks. Come on. You're crazy. They didn't go back and reshoot new scenes with him. They just cut his death scene. Yeah. So he just does unceremoniously disappears from the film. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah.
00:08:23
Speaker
He also directed a pretty silly movie called Cameron's Closet, which I viewed on Mondo Bazaar Cinema. Oh, okay. I think I remember that one. Yeah. He has many, many TV show directing credits to his name, such as the 1980s War of the Worlds TV show. Okay. The newer version of Dark Shadows, Tales from the Dark Side, The Dead Zone, and Friday the 13th, the series.
00:08:47
Speaker
The writers, they're the Hayes brothers. They will go on to write such horror films as The Reaping with Talia Swank, the remake of House of Wax 2005, and get this, The Conjuring. Okay, yeah. Yeah, the guys that wrote this wrote The Conjuring. Okay. Now I would have guessed, kind of amusingly to me, the films that were after The Conjuring sound like knockoffs of The Conjuring you would find in a video store, or I guess on Netflix now, whatever the... Try to recapture that, you know.
00:09:17
Speaker
But yeah, so they've since written films like The Crucifixion and The Turning. Before that, they wrote for such TV shows as Baywatch Nights. Shout out Jessica Slooper there. I'm sure she's probably seen one by now. Nice. They also work for Ghost Stories and The Flash. Oh. The 1990s Flash? Yes. Okay. Yes. Correct.
00:09:41
Speaker
Most slowly, although for us, they wrote a little film called Shutter Speed, starring the man called Stinn. Yes. Oh my gosh. I had no idea that that was the same group. Yep. That one we have seen off camera. We have seen separately from the show. Correct. But I think that's definitely something we need to review for the show at some point. Yeah. Slight spoilers, but it has many of the same problems as this film in its use of a wrestler. Very much. And that it basically doesn't use him as a wrestler or fighter of any kind. Correct.
00:10:12
Speaker
I didn't expect a connection back to a different WCW wrestler movie. Yeah. Yeah. That's surprising.
Key Scenes and Plot Points
00:10:17
Speaker
Although because you could think about it, they might sense there's a contract for TBS maybe. Probably. That would explain some of that stuff. Yeah. B Royal of Los Angeles is shown as the credit to roll and we are introduced quote unquote to Diamond Dowell's page. Yes. He's here under his wrestling name because of course he is. Yes.
00:10:38
Speaker
The sage is set at a fundraiser for the present and held by a fake director. I guess nobody wanted their actual name used as the scene for what happens next? Fair enough. The house, which appears to be far outside the city, is under the watch by mysterious gunmen in one place and Secret Service, led by Hemingway, at least the main one we see, and another.
00:10:58
Speaker
Inside there's drama as the titular for his daughter wants to go to a club with her friend. The dad won't let her. He's not opposed or going to club. He just has a chance to check it out yet. Yeah. Yeah. So he's making a perfectly fair thing, but you know, it's teenage girl and all that stuff. I think it's a, it's, it's a fair plot point. Yeah.
00:11:18
Speaker
Her side of things is very teenage, but also fairly reasonable. Like you don't want your entire teenage years to be solidly controlled, approved activities and everything. But at the same time, you certainly understand his position, especially based on what happens later in the film. Yeah.
00:11:33
Speaker
It's not a consistent problem in the movie, but something about that first scene with the president, his daughter, and then when Hemingway, as McGregor, comes in for that first time, it feels like they shoot one line at a time. Because there's this awkward pause at the end of each line where it'll go just long enough for the actor to clearly feel uncomfortable and smile awkwardly, and then it'll cut. So I think it's an editing problem, not a filming problem.
00:12:03
Speaker
There's probably some sort of complex reason for that, but you know, on the scene or something, but yeah. That's the only point in the movie where I detect that. Yeah. Otherwise I think actually it's pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. She does not like the news and so she storms off leaving her CD player and her copy of a smash metal CD behind. So at least he has that going for her. Yeah, sure.
00:12:24
Speaker
We also get drunk about Mary Hemingway liking KISS, which is also as ironic given this is WCW famously popped a rating for KISS and then made a wrestler based on them. True. True. But there's more wrestling connections than we thought and you think about it.
00:12:40
Speaker
Everybody suggests a different trip for them to go on as the pair exit and the music stage suddenly alerts us that danger is near. Is it me or is the music staying sometimes very, very sudden? Yeah, they're not bad. It's just like, wow. There's interesting elements of the music. I felt like the opening music over the helicopter shots, opening credits sounds like if you mix the Jaws theme with the Tom Clancy show. Yeah, I could hear that.
00:13:06
Speaker
Which would be a very interesting movie. Sam Fisher versus Jaws. I would watch that. I would watch that too. That's the thing with TV movies. I think a lot is that the music as a whole was good, but sometimes when it has to be dramatic, it's like you're talking with Ford's wrestling show where he played at the back of the audience, I guess. So you have to make it super obvious that it's a serious danger music. Yeah. You can't possibly miss that. It's just a subtext of it at all. Right. Right. Yeah.
00:13:37
Speaker
The world's worst sniper is watching as the president goes through the crowd. He very visibly has a shot of him, could easily pull his finger and blood figure. I was like, oh wait, nope. He's too busy calculating for the Coriolis effect. Ah, yeah. Eventually he does fire a shot and hits a guy good three feet to the president's left, it seems.
00:13:57
Speaker
and chaos ensues. Hemingway and the president retreat to the presidential limo as all the action goes on, because it is noted as the most defensible position they have. The thing is designed to be able to drive through an attack, which is of course a plot point for later.
00:14:13
Speaker
While they're hiding in there, the bag, I shoot an RPG at it, which damages the thing, but doesn't destroy it because it is the presidential limo. Yes. By the way, the just before that, this one secret service agent standing right outside, it gets shot and that guy sells like mad, right? He makes the absolute most of his two point five seconds of screen time. Yeah, just amazing jerk every possible limb and go down.
00:14:38
Speaker
So heading away and is on the radio with, of course, her boss, the guy, the lead agent running the situation. She tells them that she doesn't feel safe in the limo. She's convinced that not going to survive another shot. And he tells her, no, you got to stay here. It's the most mental position you have when she insists that this can't take another blast. And if they stay in there, they're going to die.
00:14:57
Speaker
she defies ores and flees as the RPG clearly misses the car and into kazebo to be fair it misses because her I think it's her buddy mark agent mark shoots the rocket launcher guy okay so he gets a shot off hits the guy I think and that's when the thing flies wide I believe that's
00:15:16
Speaker
I was yeah, I wasn't sure if it was that or if he was readjusting his name. Yeah, it's a little hard to tell on. There's a lot of quick cuts in this that aren't always put together very well. Yeah, you get a decent picture of events, but it's not always entirely clear who's shooting at who and who actually has a shot at who in this once. And those are occurring things in the movie where people are really bad shots until suddenly the plot says, oh, yeah, shoot somebody and they immediately make the next shot you do.
00:15:44
Speaker
And actually, I'm thinking about it. I think you're right. I think he fires adjusting his aim and hits the gazebo and then he's shot by Mark. I think you're right. Yeah. Yeah. Either way, it's a pretty quick turn of events. Yeah. Also, quick question. Yes. Why was Alex told to get the president to the limo when she apparently did not have the keys to drive the limo? Like wouldn't you get him in there and also evacuate him?
00:16:07
Speaker
I mean, at the very least, that thing is like bulletproof and everything. So if you got to barricade it somewhere, I guess that's the safest place. Sure. Yeah, it's just it feels weird that like they don't just have like all of the agents have keys to the limo to drive the president. If you're going to have any one of them could be escorting him to the limo, you'd think then next year would be getting. I don't know what the actual protocol is, but if I were setting it up, it'd be yeah, everyone has keys to drive them.
00:16:32
Speaker
The only truth I would say with that is it might be a security issue because you have a dozen keys that thing. So pick like three agents. Oh, yeah, no, there's might be a good explanation. But definitely it seems like McGregor is one that he works with very closely. Yeah, that is the one that probably will have the responsibility for evacuating the president. So she should probably be able to drive the limo.
00:16:51
Speaker
Yeah. They also maybe the plan is you stay here for like a minute when someone else with the keys will show up. But yeah, to your point, it'd be nice if they could actually try to drive away. Yeah, especially with them under rocket fire. Yes. Yes. So she flees the explosion, they run inside a nearby room, which they say is a pool house. But it's, I don't know, it's not super clear. That's what it is.
Secret Service and Action Sequences
00:17:12
Speaker
Interestingly, she decides to shoot all the lights out in the place. See,
00:17:17
Speaker
It attracts so much attention. Right. Well, it attracts so much attention. She uses like four bullets up she has. I don't know if she has, but. It's like, have you not heard of a light switch? Yeah, I'll say that'd be the light switch right there. I mean, if you're really good at thinking you take the lights out and maybe just hit them or something. Yeah. Yeah.
00:17:34
Speaker
More shooting, of course, than Susan's bad guys show up. And again, a guy has a shot of the president and then it's very, I think it's slow mo in this time. I don't think it's actually done in slow mo, but I think it's a similar intent. The editing is implying that it's in slow motion. She sees the laser and moves. The other credit I'll give him is because the lights are out.
00:17:51
Speaker
You can see that he has the dots, like on the president's back. But I would say there's at least an argument to be made that he didn't have a clear enough view himself of what it was. He could just tell something's there, but it could have been like the back of a chair or something for all. Right. It's not clear if he had night vision or anything. Yeah. We have more shooting ensues. Eventually everything works out when the remaining gunmen are killed and Sigurd service Russian to save the day. Her boss is a guy who told her not to leave the limo. Of course, it's not happy.
00:18:19
Speaker
Yeah. And that's daily, correct? As daily. Yeah. Yeah. Him, him yelling at McGregor is 100% the angry police chief yelling at the rebellious hot shot cop. Yeah. You see in like every early nineties cop movie, it's just in a different setting. Hemingway does some really great acting there. When, um, daily first enters, she hears the door open and just like gives this nice little like jerk that, Oh, I know I'm in trouble. Right. That's a really subtle little bit, but really nicely done. Gotcha.
00:18:50
Speaker
Two pieces of the collateral damage include her CD player and, sadly, I guess, her Smashmelt CD. Yes. Also, at some point, McGregor loses her Pearl necklace. I'm just not sure what happened for her to lose it in the first place. She's not hit. I mean, she's not. I think it's just after the rocket launcher, isn't it? So it might just be like part of the pressure wave or something. Yes. Yeah. It's not as obvious as the drop thing in my hand and pull right across it. Yeah. Yeah.
00:19:17
Speaker
Two days later, the FBI show up at what seems to be the compound for the attackers. Unfortunately, they are spotted because as we become a key plot point later, these guys have apparently really good radar that no one can get around. Yeah. I don't tend to be an expert on radar, but it seems a bit much, especially later on, but it's more for plot stakes that they know who are coming.
00:19:40
Speaker
I think it's it's it's in part, it's intended to be like a motion sensitive system, which I mean, certainly those exist. And, you know, you could probably set up with a reasonable degree. I think the exact portrayal of them knowing the precise locations on a map of the agents might be a little much. But the idea that they could have something set up in the area that tells them that something is moving in the area that they don't want to be moving in the area. That makes sense.
00:20:04
Speaker
And if you're out there in the middle of, unofficially, the Australian wilderness, you're not going to have a lot of people walking around. So I guess that would, other than that guy has a deer or other creatures. Yeah. And as we see, they have cameras set up as well. Yeah. That presumably are triggered by the motion sensors. They can be like, oh, that's just a deer or oh crap. That's a ton of FBI agents. Right. Our first shot of DDP, by the way, is 10 minutes and 30 seconds into the movie. Okay.
00:20:29
Speaker
So since they have event noticed the mush of men go into a series of tunnels that appear to be going underneath the cabinet itself. This movie is like two, three years after, um, take as in ski and all of that and other people that did fortunately did urban terrorism in the US. So it's clearly inspired by that and what we learned from that. So it's not too surprising, but when you see the level of tunnel, they have, it's pretty impressive. They did all of that. You took some time with this. Yeah. It's a, it's a very long weekend at the very least. Yes.
00:21:00
Speaker
The tunnels only work so well, though, because the leader and his henchmen, who looks like Jim Nighthart. Yes, totally looks like Jim Nighthart. Yes. They walk out of a tunnel and get captured. The idea is the FBI had once they realize they have tunnels, they have like some sort of metal detector or something. They're walking along the tunnel, I think.
00:21:17
Speaker
Well, this is interesting, too. So, like, they find out that there's the tunnel in the house because they step on part of the floor. Right. And the floor creaks. Yes. But here's a question. Yeah. Because there doesn't appear to be the usual, like, wires on the chair and rug to tuck them back into place. Who put the rug in the chair back into place after they climbed to the tunnel in the first place?
00:21:36
Speaker
Yeah, it's like Shawshank Redemption where you get the poster falls back into place. Yeah, but it's like there's nothing. Yeah, there's clearly nothing attached to these things that would make that happen. So it appears that Casper, the friendly ghost, joined the militia and moved the stuff back into place. If anyone would be radicalized, it's Casper. But I mean, you literally could have just had the FBI agents look in there and be like, oh, there's a trapdoor. Right. There's there's clearly no way that this actually happened.
00:22:03
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, if you, if there's nothing covered in the floor, it's one thing you can, they have like a rope on the door and they pull it down. But if you had to cover it again, yeah, there's no way to do that.
00:22:14
Speaker
The captured leader, Michael Smith, looks like a low budget version of Lance Henriksen. Yeah, for sure. The tricky thing here is so the leader and the Jim Nighthart guy are captured because they go with the one tunnel up, I guess. There's a different tunnel, some other direction? Yeah, they split off. There's the one FBI agent that says, oh, there's another tunnel down here. Oh, right. OK. And then he gets blown up by a mine.
00:22:36
Speaker
Right, right. It is weird that they split up like that, though, because like three people in one into another. I guess it makes sense that the idea is like at least that you would have different escape routes. I don't know that makes sense that you have this intricate tunnel system of multiple tunnels. Yeah, right. But having different escape routes is the main point that they're getting at. The thing is, they never show where the other guys get out of a tunnel.
00:22:58
Speaker
They just show that they are out of the tunnel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We see the leader and his buddy pop out of the hole on one side. And then we just see their three just standing and walking around the woods somewhere. Presumably DDP was actually digging the tunnel by repeatedly diamond-cuttering rocks. Oh, OK. It is a diamond-cutter after all. It could get through anything. Yeah, yeah. It could cut diamond and cut granite, I suppose. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. I will say, just get out of the way. It's weird. Not only seeing Young, Don McPhersel, because this movie is, what, 23 years ago now? Yeah.
00:23:28
Speaker
but also full head of hair, fairly long hair actually. Yes, yes. Not for sale. Yeah, absolutely. Because everything I know him from is like 2003 onward, is either really short hair or no hair. Yeah, he looks very different here, but still recognizably him.
00:23:44
Speaker
The Trio Escape, because as mentioned, the FBI agent sets off a booby trap in the tunnel. The youngest of them, he says we should go back for him. And they go, no, no, you shouldn't do it. He goes, he come back for us. And they go, no, he wouldn't. That's the point for something like that. He makes it clear that we're not coming back to rescue this guy if he wouldn't have done it for us. Yeah, Purcell is Troy Nelson and Sedrina is Eric Nelson, I think his younger brother. I believe so. Yeah, yeah.
00:24:13
Speaker
So it's now eight weeks later, and the president, weirdly delayed in response, by the way, is thanking McGregor for rescuing him during what happened. It's like they knew this scene had to happen, but they wanted to not have to do too many different scenes. Yeah. So they have him finally thanking her for saving his life eight weeks later and buying her a pearl necklace to replace the pearl necklace that she lost eight weeks later. It feels like maybe you could have gotten on this a bit earlier. Yeah. Just a touch.
00:24:41
Speaker
He has a lot to do, I guess. He is a busy man. He's the president of the United States. I'm sure he has limited free time, but I'm also sure he has lots of staff to ask to go buy a pearl necklace. I would think so, yeah.
00:24:55
Speaker
So there's two key points to the scene. One is that this reinforces that the president trusts her over basically anybody else, because it was her judgment that they kept him alive and got into safety. The other is that he replaces the necklace for her. They do the thing where he puts on her neck for her. This happened when the daughter walks in. The daughter sees her and thinks that she's trying to become her new mom, basically. Yeah, reads romance into it when there's not. Yeah.
00:25:22
Speaker
They're also super vague about the wife. Obviously, the wife is not alive anymore, but it's weird they don't mention it like, oh, it's been two years since such and such. It would have been nice to have a clearer mention of that. Yeah, we only get it late in the film when they're resolving this overall situation. Yeah. I don't think there's even like a picture of her. There's no like scene where he like looks at a picture or anything. Maybe it's in the background somewhere, but it's weird that she'd be pretty important to him, but I guess not.
President's Daughter's Subplot
00:25:50
Speaker
The daughter's routine is quite a bit though when the president says she can go on an outdoor camping, exploring, sort of all sorts of nature trip, I guess. She's a little less happy though, moment later when she told that there's limited detail, so it's more to do on the trip and it's more free.
00:26:06
Speaker
But Hemingway's character is being brought along to lead a detector. Agent McGregor, who she just suddenly decided that she doesn't like. Yeah. Do you think that the intent is that the entire problem with them is from this very moment or that she's supposed to have a pre-existing because she seems to treat her with a little bit of disdain even before.
00:26:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's not super clear. It should probably enforce that more. Yeah, it's like I don't understand why Jess seems to hate Alex so much. It's like she saved your dad's life like two months ago. That would earn you some points, it would seem like. Also, why open hostility? You know that she killed at least two people to save your dad. True.
00:26:46
Speaker
Even out of self-preservation, I would treat her with a little more respect. I think what we don't get and probably would help clear that up is if we had her experience with a different agent. Yeah. Because there's the two other agents that go on the trip. If she was friendly and chatting with them, it makes a point of not talking to Hemway, that would be more. That would answer, is it more just that Alex is a Secret Service agent and therefore a representation of the control over her life, or is it something personal between them?
00:27:15
Speaker
Well, and again, because with this big sudden eight week time jump here, maybe stuff happened we didn't see and they don't tell us about in this period between the shooting and that, but it'd be great to know that for entertaining character motivation. The president has put this team together, presumably he at the very least intentionally set Alex on it. Apparently also on this team is agent Cliff who hates Alex.
00:27:39
Speaker
Oh yeah, that guy, yeah. You would think that if the president was intentionally specifying, I want Alex on the team, he might also say, and don't put anyone on the team that loathes her. Yeah. Possibly. He loves tension. And then also as we enter this drive up to the lodge and Cliff says he wants to call daily right away and Alex gives this sarcastic, oh yeah, you go do that.
00:28:01
Speaker
Our very next scene is Cliff and Mark, Alex's buddy, talking clearly well after they settled into their room, as Mark is working on his little book. Yeah. And Cliff says he's going to call daily. So our only introduction to Cliff is, I'm going to go call daily. I'm going to go call daily. He's consistent. And I recall both of us saying while we're watching the film, I think that guy might be a traitor. He's acting really suspicious. Yes, yeah, for sure.
00:28:31
Speaker
I mentioned that Mark during the bit is writing his work of fiction. Yes. He has Alex read it at one point and she makes a little bit of fun of it. But is it slightly weird that there's a plot point in a movie that is a work of fiction about a secret service agent who will end up in danger in River Rapids that is about that secret service agent making fun of another agent's work of fiction that is about a secret service agent who ends up in danger in River Rapids? Are you saying Charlie Kaufman wrote this movie?
00:29:02
Speaker
on the point of people taking way the heck too long to do things. Alex has replaced Jess's CD player with a CD player radio combo, but she does it while they're already on the trip. Yes. So not only is this eight weeks after her first one was broken, she's the president's daughter. You would think that she would have a replacement by now. Yeah. She also waited until they were already on the trip to replace it, thereby lowering the chance that Jess would think to bring her CD collection, knowing that she had a CD player. Right. Yeah.
00:29:31
Speaker
So she says like, oh, you can go out and buy some CDs. I'm like, you could have just given her this before the trip. Right. Then you wouldn't have a problem. She'd be like, yeah, I have CD player. I can bring my collection. Right. Right. Yeah. Because it's not like she lost her entire CD collection in the attack. No, she lost the one Smash Mouth CD. Yeah. Unless that was her entire collection. She's got plenty more. Yeah, I would think so. See, for us is why we're seeing it like that, because we have to know that she has this radio for later. Right.
00:29:59
Speaker
But I mean, you could have done that same exact scene at the White House before they left. Yeah. Be totally fine. I think the real reason that they have to do it that way is she has to be listening to the country music station for a plot point later to work. So she has to not actually have CDs. Oh, yeah. Otherwise that doesn't work. Very true.
00:30:18
Speaker
On the night they arrive anyway, goes to a nearby bar. It's a very small, like, mountain town, so there's not a lot of stuff to do. She's seemingly working on her notes and repairing the scary detail stuff for the trip. I'm sure she has a dossier and everything over that. This guy, played by Doug Savant, comes over and he insists that she dance with them or drink with them. So our first match is Alex McGregor versus Drunk Guy in a Bar for the guy's wish to dance versus McGregor's solitude. Referee is nowhere to be found.
00:30:50
Speaker
The guy loudly and obnoxiously demands Alex dance two-step with him. He is at least nice enough to offer to teach her. The guy grabs her hand, Alex twists his arm around by the thumb and threatens to break his wrist. Alex wins by submission, retaining her solitude. I think that was still a longer match recap than Jimmy Valiant versus Wayne Bloom.
00:31:08
Speaker
Yes, I believe that was, yeah. And more ebb and flow to it, for sure. It is also the strongest Alex has looked off film. I think it's actually a good demonstration of her having capabilities. Yeah. And if they paid off later, that'd be great. Yeah. So the next day, they prepare for their trip out to the woods. Who's ended up being one of the guides to the trip? The guy from last night.
00:31:30
Speaker
I also get credit. He does a good job of like his reaction to that. Yes, you could be really over the top with that kind of thing. He plays it pretty subtly. They did a good kind of subtle tension between them, but they don't like get at each other's throats or anything. They just they're like, OK, bad start, but we'll try and be professional on both ends. What even is his reaction? He sees her and she sees him. Yeah, yeah.
00:31:54
Speaker
As mentioned, Jess gets a CD player slash radio replacement from Alex right before they leave, which is his odd timing. Yeah. She also looks upon a random boy who immediately falls in lust.
00:32:08
Speaker
Oh my gosh, hilarious teen movie zoom in on Milo. The character's name is that a name I wrote my notes to say random guy. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty much all he is. But yeah, obvious love interest for Jess. Yeah, he's even kind enough to stand off by himself from the rest of the group for no apparent reason, other than to have the camera be able to get that nice clear shot of him.
00:32:29
Speaker
I thought they would have done the, someone's in the way and they walk out and then you see him like, yeah, but no, guitar solo starts. Yeah, exactly. Milo also has the same haircut as every 90s teen heartthrob or late 1995 Sting. Yes. He also has the same haircut as my brother at the same point in 1999, I'm pretty sure. 90s teen heartthrob right there, right? I'm sure he thought so.
00:32:52
Speaker
For a visual thing, it's this hair where it curls in the front on both sides. It's the skater cut. Yeah, it's like... It reminds me of like Magneto's helmet where it curls at the top there. Yeah, yeah. That was the weirdest look because it's like you're parting your hair in the middle at these two little curly waves at the front. I never got that look even then, but this is why I never had that look even then. Yes. I have many embarrassing looks from back then, but not that one.
00:33:21
Speaker
As they go river rafting, there's conflict because, and this character insists that she has to go in the same raft with the daughter because they have two rafts for the whole group. The problem is, of course, that the guide she met the night before, he's the lead on this and he's got to go with her.
00:33:38
Speaker
She asks which him or his co-instructor, the only lady in the film with an actual Australian accent, because the film is not actually set in Australia, just being filmed in Australia. McGregor asks Grant, the guy from the bar, which is the better rafter between you and your co-instructor? And he admits it's him. She says, then I want us in your raft, because even the slightest better chance for Jess is what I'm taking.
00:34:02
Speaker
Yes, I think like a decent scene for revealing her philosophy on like calling back to I think to the limo scene that even if there's a chance that this isn't going to succeed, I'm going to take the path with a greater chance of success.
00:34:15
Speaker
I wasn't a person that I'm really, I'm burned by dialogue like that because I'm still stuck on Batman for Superman with Batman to the 1% chance. Yeah. Doctrine. This is not that bad. It's not that literally Corwin Dick Cheney, but yeah, I just, any dialogue like that. I'm burned in that stupid, terrible dialogue in that movie. Yeah.
00:34:35
Speaker
But yeah, it's a good telling thing for her character that in spite of how she feels about this guy because of the way he treated her, she wants the daughter to be with him and she's got to be with the daughter. Right. Yeah. She trusts herself more than any other agent and she trusts him more than the other instructor. So she's getting the best possible odds knowing that they're going into a moderately dangerous situation. Right.
00:34:58
Speaker
Later on, we see them at, I guess, some point after they stopped rafting. They go climbing up a small sort of incline or a hill, I guess. I wonder if you've got a cliff face, I guess. And it's the whole point where they show a girl is trying to do and she can't do it. They're doing the assisted one where they're holding the ropes. You're not gonna really fall, but... Yeah, this is Cassie, I believe it is, Jess's best friend. Yes. I think it's supposed to be the daughter of the film director who owned that house that got blown up, basically.
00:35:26
Speaker
Okay, I think I don't recall there's there's one point where mark says Cassie's dad is in his film director Oh, so I think that that's supposed to be the relation, but I'm not sure it'd be weird to Britain a film director Two different times and not related. Yeah. Yeah be a little bit strange
00:35:43
Speaker
I think probably an attempt to, you know, serve Humbler, I guess Doug's character. It's just that Hemingway try climbing and she's like, oh, no, I can't do it, but eventually she does it. And she agrees that if she does climb all the way, then she has it like that goes. It's if she fails, she'll switch to the other boat for rafting. If she succeeds, he has to call her Alex instead of Agent McGregor. That's right. Yeah.
00:36:10
Speaker
she being the heroine of course eventually climbs the top and there's a nice sort of knowing look of respecting the two of them yeah yeah i think that was a good overall scene for showing that obviously it's being used to build up that she's able to do this even though she's not fully trained to because that's going to become important later in the film but also it's a good way of starting to to develop the relationship between these two characters it sort of helps turn the dynamic a bit the right direction from where it was before yeah
00:36:37
Speaker
I also want to highlight, I can't remember if it's before or after that, but there's a line from her buddy Mark on Dreams where he says, you know, people put them on hold and before they know it's too late. You know, if I die tomorrow, I'm going to have no regrets. Rarely has there ever been such a blatantly obvious death flag in a movie. Yeah, right.
00:36:59
Speaker
They should have sat in the one day from retirement or something. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Me and my wife are going to retire and go across the country, finally have the vacation we've all wanted to go on. Yeah, he's also extremely sympathetic about the inquiry into Alex actions. He's really supportive, even I would dare say kind of mentor-like. He's the wise best friend of the main character in the 1990s action movie. He is so very screwed. Oh, yeah.
00:37:25
Speaker
Thankfully, it's a 1990s action film, not a 1990s rom-com. Because 1990s rom-com has got to be the gay best friend. That's true, yeah. You know, depending on the nature of it, he could be the gay best friend or he could be the guy who's actually right for the main character. Oh, yeah, true. She doesn't realize until the very end of the movie and he's just nice and supportive and always there. He could be the ducky, yeah. Sure. Yeah, he is Agent Deadmeat for sure. Yes, definitely.
00:37:53
Speaker
In the following scene, the first daughter talked to by her friend finally goes try to talk to the guy she's in love with for no apparent reason other than he's kind of good looking. They have a line in the intro to this. I think Jess says, Jess is the one saying, he just seems so different. Like he's had literally no lines in this movie. Which he finally talked to me as his first line after appearing 10 minutes ago in screen time. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's like the Twilight love romance. I see you in a cross room. It's like, I'm going to marry him one day.
00:38:24
Speaker
I think he might mentally ill, honey. As bad luck would happen, and lazy writing in this case would happen, this is the same words that the trio who escaped the attack at the compound are out hunting. Oh my gosh, yeah. DDP's first line in the movie, by the way, 36 minutes and six seconds in. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. How big a coincidence is this, by the way? So they captured Michael Smith, the terrorist group leader in Montana. We're now in Colorado. Yeah.
00:38:54
Speaker
in storyline. Obviously we're in Australia in reality, but we're in Colorado in storyline. That is two entire states away from where the remnants of Smith's crew escaped. And yet it just happens that the outdoors trip that the president sent his daughter on is the exact same woods that the bad guys decided to go hide in.
00:39:12
Speaker
And they meet up in these woods, not because the bad guys saw the president's daughter in town or on the news or something, but because the bad guys, while randomly chasing a deer, just happened to spot the camp and just happened to decide to take a look, despite the fact that getting anywhere near anybody at all is a very, very bad idea for them at the moment, considering they are wanted for crimes against the nation. Correct, yes. Thus why they're hiding in the woods in the first place.
00:39:37
Speaker
we did get just before they left town. There's a brief moment where one of the escaped baddies just happens to be in the exact same town. Oh yeah. But weirdly, even though he looks directly at Alex clearly doesn't recognize her at all or anything. So, uh, admittedly he wasn't at the attack on the mansion or whatever, but he's, he's too busy reading that his old boss was indicted, which is a plot point. So obviously it needed precisely no highlighting. Yeah.
00:40:05
Speaker
What I will credit one thing is that they only decide to check for VIPs because they happen to spot Alex and the other agents and see that they're armed and think, huh, that's a little weird for a camping trip. Right. So at least there's some explanation for that. But come on. The string of coincidences that have led to that point is uncanny. And not to mention, if I am the president and recently in the Western United States, a group of folks wanted me and everyone in my vicinity dead.
00:40:34
Speaker
I might consider, say, sending my daughter on a hiking and rafting trip on the east coast. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Not only two states away from where the bad guys how to hide out was. Right. Or, you know, maybe actually sent her to Australia in plot, not just filming location. Yeah.
00:40:51
Speaker
Well, and to your point as well, these guys are wanted by the state have crossed state lines twice. Yes. And not been caught, which is pretty impressive. And at least one of them is fairly distinctive. Yeah. DDP is like six foot five built like a Mack truck and has interesting tattoos of like a Vegas cat with a hot rod. Yeah. Cat like as like playing card and stuff on it. Yeah. Yeah. I think you would have a fairly easy time describing this man.
00:41:17
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Well, he's got to take all his match binders with them. He travels as well. That's exactly. Yeah. You've got to carry on. It's just match weighs them down. Yeah. They actually can't board a plane because he just has too much luggage. Yeah. Other thing to note is so this is 2022. We're watching this on a streaming service. In this case, it's crackle and the movie fades to black for a commercial break for actual reveal. I see the first daughters there.
00:41:43
Speaker
Yes. Clearly, something like this is not important enough for someone to go through and just put little edits in, just remove these little fades to black. Well, it's funny because the crackle has ads. Yes. But they have not lined them up with ads in the actual movie. Yeah. So you get actual ads just at kind of random locations in the film. And then you get what were clearly cuts for ads that just like fade to black or black for about a second and then come back in. Yeah.
00:42:10
Speaker
Incidentally, if you think there's some sort of big reveal coming as to why they sent the president's daughter and the people detail out in the vicinity that the bad guys could be, well, there's not. Yeah. Again, you and I both thought that Cliff was going to be a traitor. Yeah. Or that I think there's a bit later on with Daly where both you and I were like, oh, he's totally a bad guy. Yeah. In both of those cases, it would make sense why they end up in the vicinity of the bad guys.
Character Dynamics and Plot Logic
00:42:38
Speaker
That actually would be kind of a neat twist. It would be.
00:42:40
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, no, it just, this is all happenstance. Yeah, yeah. The other thing you get with the weird cutting here is so the movie itself cuts the black after the reveal, they reel the president's daughters there. And then when it comes back, which would have been after an actual commercial break, they're leaving their cabin, they put their camo makeup on. Yes. So they ran back home, put camo makeup on, they ran back out again. Paige, I noted, did a much better job with the camo face paint than the other baddies. Yeah. Probably got some notes on face paint from Sting.
00:43:10
Speaker
Yeah. They did do the camo face paint for, how much was it? Oh, full brawl, 90, 90 five, I believe. That's right. That's right. Yeah. How can his team go to war? Yes. It's a shame paid was involved that that would make more sense. Yeah. Yeah.
00:43:26
Speaker
It's something I was rubbing my notes. I was convinced there's gotta be some sort of technical term for that face paint, like the black line face paint, but I couldn't find it. I, I, yeah. There's gotta be something. I'm sure there's something. Yeah. I'm sure there's an actual term for it. I like Google it and I'm like, no, okay. Just came with face paint. The next day, McGregor is doing her, uh, detail looking around the campus covers. The first daughter is missing. Everyone freaks out, although I'm not sure they all know the importance of her. I guess they do right now.
00:43:53
Speaker
McGregor had obviously told the guy. Yeah, Grant and his co-instructor clearly know. I think at this point, Milo knows as well because I think Jess tells him during a conversation at the riverside where and when she finds out he doesn't recognize her. Oh, yeah.
00:44:10
Speaker
I think it's a fair assumption that most of the camp, at least by this point, knows from one way or another that that's the president's daughter. Yeah. It's not like someone was missing a cabin trip. You don't want to find them, but that the level seems really high. Alex draws her gun. So that's true. Yeah.
00:44:28
Speaker
Which incidentally, yeah, genuine question. A Secret Service agent realizes her charge is missing and believes the situation is severe enough that she draws her gun. Is it okay that she then also ropes in a bunch of civilians, including several teenagers, to help search? Like the tour guide, sure. I mean, they're adults that are responsible for the situation. It feels like maybe it would have been a good idea. You stay here. You stay here, we'll search. But she clearly ropes in the entire group. If you believe the situation is severe enough, you're drawing your pistol.
00:44:58
Speaker
That means you believe there's a chance you may be fired upon. Right. You should probably not be roping in random teenagers to assist you. Well, you need someone to slow the bad guys down or they're coming at you. Yeah. Stand here, kid.
00:45:11
Speaker
So the movie obviously wants you to think that she's been grabbed by the bad guys. But plot twist, she's just making out with the random guy. Yes. Like 50 feet from camp. In the weirdest possible way. They're both individually wearing headphones. Yes. Listening to two separate music stations while they make out. Yeah. It's like the strangest possible way you could be doing this. Oh, God, it was funny. Yeah. It's the nice equivalent of people talking to each other via text while sitting next to each other. Yes. Yeah. It's very similar to that. Yeah.
00:45:40
Speaker
Just like, Oh man, I love being in your presence. Well, we can't hear each other and aren't even listening to the same thing. Not in any way sharing any part of this experience. Yes. Yeah. Clearly it's just so that both of them can have some excuse for not hearing Alex calling Jess Jess. Yeah. So, uh, so we can build some suspense, but yeah, it's just funny to think of that situation. What's actually going on there.
00:46:03
Speaker
Mm hmm. For sure. This of course embarrasses Jess is not happy with all the attention on her. This makes her mad at Alex and she thinks Alex like intentionally interrupted her like it's like, it's again, she's a teenager to be fair, but it's like, she's really mad at Alex for
00:46:19
Speaker
trying to find her when she got stuck. Yeah, I think it's kind of meant to be Jess's overall anxiety about her life being under surveillance, basically. And she's just lashing out not entirely fairly at Alex for this situation. But still, it comes off a little bit weird. Yeah.
00:46:38
Speaker
So the guy who's at this point is kind of softening on Alex throughout this, he tells her she should really talk to the girl and really try to iron things out, which I mean, she hasn't tried in the last eight weeks. Again, this timeline. I mean, yeah, as far as I mean, Alex delays a lot of important things. So yeah, if it took her eight weeks to buy a CD player to replace the one Jess lost, it's going to take a heck of a lot longer for her to be like, Oh, I should try talking.
00:47:04
Speaker
Datteries haven't actually legitimately haven't talked in eight weeks. That's why she just now gives her the thing. They don't seem close. So no, that's true. And the White House is one building, but it's a pretty big building. I guess you could be separated that way. Yeah. And admittedly, it's implied at least that she may have been on some kind of leave between because when Jess walks in during the bit where the president's giving her a necklace and everything, she's like snarkily says, Oh, Alex got her job back.
00:47:29
Speaker
Oh, okay. So I think there's a bit of an implication that maybe she's been on some kind of enforced leave because of the rocket attack. It's just one of those things where this movie is very civic in certain details, like how many weeks it's been since the attack, or how many days it's been since this happened. It kind of glosses over a few details that would have been actually helpful to know, well, going into more detail than we need to on other things. Exactly. It's an odd prioritization note. Yeah, absolutely.
00:47:58
Speaker
So finally, the two have a heart-to-heart talk and she explains that she's not trying to replace her dead mother and that she just wants to protect her or that she sees her father, the president, as like a mutual respect situation. Everything seems to be worked out nice and peacefully. Yes. I will say it's weird to completely wrap up this part of the plot line now.
00:48:19
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's because of the way the rest of the movie is going to go that they're just not going to have that many opportunities to throw that in. But it definitely feels odd that they kind of like entirely wrap up their animosity at this point. Yeah. Rather than leaving it for a better, more dramatic moment later on.
00:48:36
Speaker
Yeah, if you had had her stuff to go to save her, well, there's still some animosity going on. Then you could have had that being a reason for just to be like resistant to a plan and Alex have to talk her into it by resolving their their differences.
00:48:51
Speaker
So it's one of those cases where what they do is an intelligent thing. If this were real life, you would want these people to do this because it resolves the differences between them. But intelligent choices sometimes don't make good cinema. Yeah, exactly. See every slasher film ever made. Pretty much if people do the smart things, those are very short. Yes, exactly.
00:49:14
Speaker
The tone quickly changes moments later when the Englishmen finally show up and shoot, start shooting everybody. They end up killing the two Agent Buddies. Yes. Shockingly marked eyes. Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah, exactly. Shockingly Agent Dead Meat is now Dead Meat. As they go.
00:49:31
Speaker
come and start attacking the camp ddp is the one firing the first shot it shows him aiming at alex yeah he says ladies first because i'm such a gentleman or something like yeah yeah and then he shoots a tree that's like a foot to alex's right i guess there's like a female squirrel on it and that maybe that's what he was talking about
00:49:51
Speaker
Alex is shot and she rolled down a hill, but noticeably there's no blood. We saw the agent dead meat. Her friend is shot twice and a lot more blood than you expect in a TVS movie. Yeah, yeah, actually. Yeah. They, they, it's not like anime level or anything. No. Yeah. I can't remember. Do we actually see Cliff shot? Uh, no, we don't. Yeah. We obviously see him dead later, but I think at that point, both of us were still convinced that he was actually a bad guy. Yeah. He, he, he left the camp and then yeah, I think happened too.
00:50:21
Speaker
So Alex is shot and rolled down the hill, but is she dead? This is again, we get another one of those fade out clear ad break and then fade back in to show that she's actually alive. Yes. So that was clearly going to be an ad break cliffhanger. Exactly.
00:50:34
Speaker
So at this point, she's now fallen down a very convenient hill. Because obviously, if she was laying on the ground where everyone else was, they would have double checked her and shot her again. Right. Yeah. Because they clearly wouldn't shot the other guys again afterwards. Yes. So she rolled down the hill. Turns out that they shot her in the chest where her cell phone was. And Bearmind 90 cell phones, especially flip phones, give you a nice good installation for bullets.
00:50:57
Speaker
I'm pretty sure they busted that on MythBusters, but in fairness, that's a well-established cinema thing, the thing in the pocket that saves your life. Yeah, like a book or something else, yeah. Yeah. The key thing with the phone, of course, is that the bullet went through half of it, so now her phone is dead. Yes. So one hand, the phone is very useful because she's not dead. Other hand, the phone is useless now because the big bullet end doesn't work anymore.
00:51:21
Speaker
Yeah, I actually liked that as a point that it's like it simultaneously saves her life and screws them in another way. Yeah. That was a nice touch. I actually, I actually liked that approach.
00:51:31
Speaker
So she eventually goes back up the hill, and first thing she does is check the pulse of her friend, Agent Deadmeat. So I'm kind of torn in this, because I get it's her friend, and she wants to make sure her friend is alive or not. But he is covered in blood. It's fairly obvious, but at the same time, like, you'd hate to not have checked, and find out later, oh, he was actually alive, and he's, you know, written your name in his blood. Yeah, yeah. Alex, why didn't you save me?
00:51:55
Speaker
Yeah. I think I would check. Yeah. I actually should still check, but really? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm not sure what they don't show. You look like Carrie Van Eurek's head in the last episode. Fair. So yeah, I would. I wouldn't assume he's alive there, but yeah. RIP friend who was writing a novel. You were in this film.
00:52:14
Speaker
Yeah, it's kind of funny because they like he actually gets some build up in the first scene. He's one of the guys that takes out one of the terrorists attacking the president. But yeah, he's kind of unceremoniously out of the film. I kind of thought that he would last a little longer, but I was expecting this film to again, slight spoilers here. I was expecting this film to have more.
00:52:34
Speaker
back and forth between the heroes and the villains than it did. So I was totally expecting him to die, but I really wasn't expecting him to be like, when trouble first starts, he dies. I thought it'd be the dramatic, towards the end of the film, give my life to keep the mission going kind of death. We're like halfway through the film. They try to rescue her and it goes awry. Yeah, like build up a threat type of thing. Yeah. They very quickly dispense of the extraneous cast members. Yes.
00:52:59
Speaker
One part of this this scene as well, as it so much apparently happens off camera, and they just sort of tell us it happened like so the bad guys killed the two other agents, which better that happened during the scene. But they took like they're gone and their phones don't have bullets in them. It's weird, like they took the guns, even though they thought Alex was dead, I guess he's just being thorough.
00:53:19
Speaker
I mean, you wouldn't want the campers to get either. So was there a thing? So they wanted to kidnap the president's daughter, but they didn't want to kill these other people on the trip. Yeah, it's where they find Milo sprawled out. Alex finds Milo sprawled out on the ground, too, with a bookmark on his face. Apparently they knocked him out. But yeah, just, you know, they were nice and decided not to kill him. Yeah, there's no real reason that they didn't. Yeah.
00:53:42
Speaker
Like it'd be one thing if this group was portrayed as criminal, but with some kind of weird code of honor. Right. Where it's like they want political change, but they're fighting for the people. Right. So necessary sacrifices, yes, but not just random death. Yeah, sure. But there's no like real implication of that. There's no real discussion of what these guys philosophy is at all. We're freedom fighters. Faceless, quote unquote, freedom fighter goons. Yeah. Yeah. It comes off a little bit strange that they only killed the people that they had to kill.
00:54:11
Speaker
The only other injury in the attack seems to be that the female guide had the only Australian lady in the movie. Yes. I guess while running away, she hurt her ankle. Yeah, it's not super clear what happened. They don't really tell exactly how, but she's clearly like twisted her ankle or something. Yeah, right. Alex says she has she's going to look for the president's daughter and she sends them off to get her off to medical help kind of hurt her out of this thing stat. Yeah, he's got to go.
00:54:37
Speaker
the female guide goes off with basically the entire tour group, including Milo and Cassie, Jess's friend. And Grant says he's going to go with them right at first. And Alex kind of gets on his case about Mo, I need someone to help me with this. He's like, look, I care about what's going to happen there, but my responsibility is to this tour group, right? Getting the majority of them safe. Then I can come back and assist with this. Like he's, he doesn't say no, but he's like, I need to get the majority of them to safety first. Yeah.
00:55:06
Speaker
And then they cut to the next scene and he's immediately just comes back for her. Yes. You're like, why did you bother with this argument? On a second thought, I decided to go with you. It's like, what is it? 10 or 20 seconds of film between him saying, no, I won't help you. And him saying, actually, I'll help you. Yeah. Because she goes off, but they don't say how much time has passed. It's only he just appears to go, I'll come with you now, by the way, go in the wrong direction. It's like barely any time has passed. Yeah. He's a man of principle ish, I guess.
00:55:36
Speaker
going back to them resolving the Jess and Alex tension pretty early. It feels a bit weird that they don't have anything happen between him deciding not to go with her and him deciding to go with her. It feels like you could have shown her struggling with something. Yeah. Yeah. And then he dramatically shows up. He's like, you know, actually I made a mistake. I should, should come with you. Clearly you need my help or something. Exactly. Yeah.
00:56:03
Speaker
So some vague time later, we see the duo come across the cabin and Hemingway says, you stay back, I'm gonna look. Because she has a gun, she has experience checking places for traps and just checking corners and all that. A sort of SWAT train and they give a secret service people. So it makes sense that she will only go ahead. Absolutely, yeah. Here comes that darn music cue because suddenly something serious is happening. She goes inside and thankfully does not find a Necronomicon or a talking deer head inside.
00:56:32
Speaker
There's at least a chance, you know. Yeah, there's a prison chance. Nothing says Dead by Dawn, so probably okay to be in here. So I guess the idea is this was a cabin that the bad guys were at before, like maybe it's the one they did their makeup on, I guess. I say it because they left the All Exposition newspaper out, talking about their leader just now being arraigned eight weeks later.
00:56:53
Speaker
Yeah, again, like the most obvious plot point in the world. Guy who leads group that was responsible for attacking the president might get arrested and charged. Yeah. And also guy that we saw arrested earlier in the movie might be facing charges. Oh my gosh, how shocking.
00:57:08
Speaker
Yeah. So in the fake newspaper, they have that takes up three quarters of what you see. I would fit into the bottom part of the newspaper headline to see what they sneak onto there. So the bottom part of the newspaper headline is about how researchers are suing over the profits of Rogaine, a thou recent drug, right? Something like a fun legal drama, right? You want to see these guys suing or they're cut and watch that.
00:57:32
Speaker
after the whole thing of I can be careful. You sit back here, I'll take the cabin. The guy just kind of just walks in suddenly after they think she's done. Like, oh, hey, how you doing? Yes. He's really good at this, but also really bad at this.
00:57:46
Speaker
Aren't they she like signal everything he just walks in now admittedly he did say before She even went in that he thought there was no one in the cabin cuz he like sees this bird sitting on a rail Oh, yeah, right. Yeah, it was a weird thing and just kind of says Oh, well that bird wouldn't be here if there was someone hanging around there, which I'm like, okay Birds can sit on railings outside of buildings when people are in them true and not get scared off it feels like that's a little bit of a leap and
00:58:11
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, we have morning doves outside of our house all the time. Yeah, could have been there for just like five minutes. You know, it's a weird bird based person detection system he has going on there. I get the idea that he's like, if someone came here this way recently, it would have been startled off. Right. But yeah, I mean, and heck, maybe these guys have been feeding the birds the entire time. Yeah, there you go. DDP seems friendly. You know, he might do that. Yeah, he probably has a binder that's like a five point plan to use birds as a distraction device. So
00:58:40
Speaker
I could see that, sure. However, as they go to leave the cabin, Hemingway steps on a pressure plate, apparently, and now she realizes some sort of explosive there.
00:58:51
Speaker
I guess their training doesn't really cover taking the ground you're walking on. Just check the door, check the ceiling for traps. Don't take the floor for traps at all. This is the second time, by the way, that someone has found something in a cabin related to this extremist group by stepping on it. Right. Just the first time it was a trap door. This time it's an explosive. One second time involving explosives. The first time was crawling through the tunnel. This time it's stepping on a board. Yes. Yeah, that's true as well. Yeah.
00:59:17
Speaker
Also, the placement of that is really dangerous. I would think it'd be really dangerous for them. Right in front of the door. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hope you guys remember where you put that. Exactly. A couple of places are definitely going to step every time you enter your place. Yeah. Put like a yellow paint mark or something on that. Something over there. Oh my gosh, yeah. Heurically, she says that he can go rescue Jess, but he insists he can save her. His plan is to tackle her to safety. Naturally, that's the one you go with.
00:59:47
Speaker
They have a nice little heart-to-heart thing, because she thinks she's gonna die, or at least thinks she's... The odds are not in her favor. Yeah. So it's a nice little scene there. He says on the count of three, you know, he's gonna tackle her. It really seems to be the Goldberg movie if he's tackling. Yes. Yeah, so on the count of three, he dives at her, and suddenly they cut to a shot of them several feet outside the cabin. Oh my god, this was... Jumping away for a reproduction explosion.
01:00:13
Speaker
One of the worst smash cuts I have ever seen. Yes. They are well inside the door of this cabin. Two, three steps. Two, three steps inside the door. Yeah. He runs into her and suddenly they're like four or five feet from the cabin. Yeah. Side by side. Fully standing side by side and then dive and then the cabin explodes.
01:00:33
Speaker
Yeah, I think what it is is they decided this was too big of an explosion If they had done it as this is a localized pressure plate Directional explosive. Yeah, then they could have done he tackles her they land like a foot or two away, but it's a straight-up blast So they're fine But they decided they were going to have the entire cabin detonate. Yeah, so these guys have to be really far from that It's laughable. Both of us just about died laughing so ridiculous came on because it's just like
01:01:03
Speaker
Most of the stunts in this film are not badly done. No, no. It's literally this one. Yeah. Just stands out for making no sense how they managed to get this far away from the building before that thing goes off. Yeah. You could have walked with how slowly it goes off. You could have just been like, oh, I just walk off the plate myself. Yeah. It's a very polite pressure trap. Yeah. It gives you a minute to walk outside, think of what you would do, then it's going to blow up.
01:01:26
Speaker
Yeah, it seems like it's a lot of communication making the movie because one guy says, you know, I love the stuntman just dive away from a small explosion that shoots upwards. He said, they know guys like, no, let's have him die away from a big explosion. Yeah. And we'll just re protect that on the screen. Yeah, the blending is not awful or anything. It's just the.
01:01:44
Speaker
It's the cutting between them. The smash cut itself is what is the problem. Yeah. If they had them just running away from it and then cut to that, it'd be fine. Exactly. It's like he dives and then immediately they're separately jumping from somewhere else. He dives, teleports and dives again. Yeah. Yes. When they land side by side as well. Yes. How did he tackle her exactly? Yes. His plan was to tackle her from behind, by the way. Hitting her from behind in the back to like push her out a door. Yeah. That's the least comfortable way to do that. Yeah.
01:02:15
Speaker
So many things about this scene. If you ever watch this movie and think, is this a TV movie or not? And you see this scene, you're like, oh. Yeah, it's a TV movie thing, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's like we got to have one big massive effect in the film. It doesn't matter whether it makes sense or not. Yeah. If I went online and looked for the trailer for this, assuming it's even on YouTube. I would bet this is in it. Yeah.
01:02:38
Speaker
But can they make it and then cut to the explosion? Yeah, it's so close to working, honestly, but it just doesn't quite make it there.
01:02:45
Speaker
by far the silliest scene in this movie. Yeah. It really kills the attention of the scene. It's like, oh, it's a good, good, nice moment. They're genuinely doing a good job with the acting leading up to that point. Yeah, they build the staging. Everything is good. And then it's just then suddenly it's a good self-sacrifice thing for her. And it's a nice display of him having a hidden bravery that we haven't seen to this point. Sure. But yeah, it's just like it's just about killed dead by them teleporting out of an explosion.
01:03:14
Speaker
Further in the woods, away from all that silliness, we see the bad guys that set up a satellite relay, as you do, and they see to broadcast their demand for the video they're shooting of the first daughter. The demand, of course, is to free Michael Smith, the guy from the newspaper. The low-budget Lance Henriksen? Yes. The guy who, interestingly, has had no lines in the movie. Yeah, I don't think he ever says anything in the entire film.
01:03:38
Speaker
He does do a good job of looking like a creepy terrorist leader. Yeah, sure. He definitely has the right look for it and kind of he gives like the good, uh, crazy eyes, but, but like, um, driven crazy eyes, not just said vicious crazy eyes. Right. Right. Yeah.
01:03:55
Speaker
But yeah, it's funny that they use him as like the central plot point of this movie and never give him a single line in the entire film. He's the most important but also least important character in the movie. Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. I really want to credit Harrison's, President Hay's acting in this scene. He does this amazing job of
01:04:14
Speaker
Really subtle emotional changes as he's seeing the hostage video. Right. Going from initial shock at seeing her to worry for her to anger at what's happening to her. And over the course of that scene, just really nice, subtle acting in it. It doesn't overdo it at all, which is really nice. Yeah.
Villains and Technological Tropes
01:04:33
Speaker
But yeah, the demands is you must free our leader and we'll tell the girl for him. And of course, because this is a movie, all this is untraceable, apparently. Yes. It's satellites and computers or something.
01:04:44
Speaker
It's just weird that these people that live in the backwoods, and obviously they buy off Amazon, but it's $9.99. I don't know where they buy at this point. I guess sporting goods stores. They bought it from the actual Amazon. Oh, there you go. Right. They're retrofitting equipment. They could somehow out-advanced the technology of the White House and the
01:05:04
Speaker
Yeah, that's the thing with it. I mean, with a lot of films in this kind of genre, it's the bad guys actually have to be kind of super capable in order for the plot to work. It is questionable, but I think it's one of those things that a lot of those films, you either have to be willing to do a lot of extra plot work and to be fair, that's what you should do. Yes. But a lot of them take this shortcut of these backwoods extremists are just magically really awesome at technology, high technology.
01:05:33
Speaker
We then cut to the rest of the group that wanted off to get to safety and we see Jess's friend and Milo, I guess the boy. They get tired of watching them drag this poor lady behind them who can't walk. They ask her for directions to a cabin because the friend was told, go here and contact the president. Contact daily specifically. Yeah, Alex gave her the direct number to the secret service so that she could get in touch with him, let him know what was going on.
01:06:01
Speaker
So she goes in directions to go to a cabin. And the next seems kind of weird because they play it like dramatically, like they approach a cabin. They're like, what's going to be this cabin? Yeah, it's where it's like it's the cabin that they were given directions to. Yes. And yet there's this tension in the in the filming of it. What's going to be there? It's like I think you and I both kind of reacted like, oh, is this going to accidentally be the terrorist cabin or something? But then it's just this random old couple that are standing there like, oh, OK. Well, that was pointless.
01:06:31
Speaker
Yeah. And again, this is another case of them adding tension to the movie and then immediately resolving it. Yeah. That it's like one scene cut between Milo and Cassie leaving and going separate from the experience tour guide person. So you could legitimately be like, oh, will they actually be able to make it there and follow directions? Yeah. Picture another part of the movie couple scenes or something being them dealing with not being able to find their way in the woods or something like that. Yeah.
01:07:00
Speaker
They set off on this. There's like one cut to one other scene and then we cut back to them and they, oh, they've reached the cabin. Yeah. And then like the White House gets the call and we don't even see Cassie making the call. No, no. Someone walks in and is like, oh, uh, Jess's friend Cassie contacted them. By the way, Alex is live. Yay. One scene after we found out that the president thinks that Alex is dead. Yes. So it was like,
01:07:23
Speaker
This movie is genuinely actually rather good at building up tension. Yeah, but Resolves things way too fast. Yeah, it's all with a map as far as pacing and that yeah. Yeah
01:07:33
Speaker
It's weird they don't see the call at all. I guess it's an important plot point that they contact the president through daily, but it's weird we don't see that happen. Yeah, I think it goes to how this movie uses its side characters that they're there to fulfill a part of the plot, but they're not allowed to be full characters. Milo is there. In another film, he would legitimately be developed as a love interest for the character and maybe do something to try and save her or something like that.
01:08:01
Speaker
He'd have more of a role in the film. In this, he exists purely to be the cause of her disappearing at first and to let Alex know that Jess was taken. Correct. And beyond that, he has no purpose in the movie. Yes. And same thing with Cassie. She's there because Jess is supposed to have a friend. Yeah. So there has to be a friend and she's there to get this message to the president. Yeah. Beyond that, she has no role in the movie.
01:08:28
Speaker
In fact, on that point, both of them don't appear again until the end of the movie. Right. Yeah. They literally are gone from the movie entirely. I legitimately, when they showed up in the movie again, I remember saying this to you while we were watching it. I remember saying, I forgot those two existed. Yes. Yeah. I forgot those two were in the movie. Again, it's a pacing thing. It's a character thing. You see this happening time and again in this film. The characters are there to fulfill one role. Yeah. When they're done with that role, they're gone from the film one way or another. Yeah, exactly. Rather than getting to be full characters.
01:08:59
Speaker
The next thing we get is at the camp where Jess is trying to talk to the younger mission man, figuring she can reason with him because obviously DDP and his crazy cat tattoo is not the guy you reason with. And Purcell is not a guy you reason with as well. But he doesn't mind they do with that because at the very least because his brother is watching him and he's not gonna talk to her while he's watching him.
01:09:21
Speaker
I do love her line. She's like, do you do everything he says? And he's like, well, he's my brother. And she's like, Cain and Abel were brothers. That's one of those lines that sounds good at first, but that doesn't make much sense when to actually think about it. Yes, Cain and Abel were brothers. That is literally the only similarity between these situations whatsoever. There's no implication that Troy or Eric dislike each other. They're jealous of each other or anything like that. It's like if you said to me, Bob, I'm friends with John. And I responded, yeah, well, Jeffrey Dahmer had friends too.
01:09:50
Speaker
Yes, that's very true. It'd be a little bit better if this actually went somewhere like Eric ultimately betraying Troy to help Jess or Troy killing Eric because he thought he was going to help Jess or something. But like most sub lots in the film, it's entirely pointless. It goes nowhere. No, that's true. It's just like, OK, I get what you were going for. Yeah.
01:10:14
Speaker
Jess also does her first escape attempt, which is sort of casually walk away, because there's three people at the camp. Two of them just turn their back on their one hostage. So she walks off for DP to suddenly be around the corner. Because yes, he's also in the movie again. Well, I mean, it's funny what they think the audience is going to think about this. Like, did they expect us to think she had a chance? Because we see two bad guys on the scene.
01:10:39
Speaker
DDP's not there, but we haven't been shown him doing things like super far away from the camp or anything like that. Like, again, getting into where I thought this was gonna be more of a cat and mouse thing between the heroes and the villains or something like that. If you had him having been in conflict with, say, the tour group or something like that,
01:10:58
Speaker
to add some tension to Milo and Cassie's bit of the story or something. Then it would make sense that we might think, oh, he's not there, but there's a reason he's not there. Yeah. But he's not there only so we can do kind of a jump scare. Yeah. With him showing up in the background. There's no explanation for him not being there. So of course the natural thought is, oh, he probably is there. Yeah. So yeah, I don't think either of us bought that this was a chance.
01:11:20
Speaker
All you need is one line of dialogue. You could have the younger brothers say to the older one, like ask if Dirk, who's named Dirk? Dirk, yeah. I thought so. I'm thinking of a literary character named Dirk. There's a few of those around, obviously. Dirk Gently is one. Yes, Dirk Gently, awesome. Yeah, and Dirk Pitt from Clive Custer, a novel my dad reads. Yep. You could ask him if Dirk is back, and they may have got an answer because he's busy working on something. But then when he appears, like, oh, I guess Dirk is back. Yeah.
01:11:47
Speaker
I was like, his plan was just wait seven feet away. I'm just chilling next to it. I mean, it worked. Yeah, yeah. He found her. Just seems like he could have prevented her even trying to get away by just standing slightly closer to the camp. Right. And if she hadn't walked in a straight line away from camp, he would be waiting there. Oh, she would take a left. But Trust DDP has those binders. He worked out the exact proper position to stand to stop an escape attempt. He knows where to be.
01:12:14
Speaker
Throughout this, we cut occasionally back and forth to Henning Wei and the guide. At one point, he's telling her that we can't keep going because it's raining. She insists that we have to go. So again, you have a little bit of tension there because she's focused on the mission. He's thinking of health and safety. Still concerned about rescuing her, but he's convinced that Ernie's going to walk away the tracks. There's no point in going.
01:12:36
Speaker
Yeah, they have to change plans, basically. Yeah. I liked that scene. But the way it resolves was a little bit weird that he's like, it's not safe to go. Well, it's raining and it probably washed away the trail. We need to think about this. He proposes this alternate path, he says, you know, is going to be risky, but they can take it. But then they leave while it's still raining. Yes, they do. And it feels like his argument was intended to be
01:13:00
Speaker
we're going to need to catch up because we have to wait for the rain. That's why we need to take this alternate path. But they leave while it's still raining. So it's kind of like you're making it even riskier for less reward because you don't need this alternate path to catch up. It felt like a little bit of mixed messaging there where they just said, let's wait till it clears up, then cut, and then you're show them at the start of the alternate path later, then that would work.
01:13:26
Speaker
Well, and the next time we see them and they're taking that ultimate path, that's not raining. Yeah. It's time time has passed. Yeah. I think they had two different concepts for that scene and they accidentally mixed them together. Very possibly. Yeah.
01:13:38
Speaker
Yeah, so the alternate plan is to climb up this big rock face and someone will get ahead of them. I'm not really sure. This movie really desperately needs a map on screen at some point to see where people are. Like we said back in the first scene, it's a little hard to tell in this film where things are in relation to each other. They do a good job in each individual shot and each individual scene, I think, but there's not enough plotting of how all this relates to other stuff. Right.
01:14:04
Speaker
When they went out much head to start, the bad guys have too. It's not like they had a day head start. They have from her being knocked out and waking up and checking the camp to where they are. Which doesn't feel like it's been a very long time because I mean like the tour group who were not knocked unconscious are just coming back as well. Yeah. Which admittedly they'd probably be a little bit slow because none of them have experience with gunfire. Right. But still, it feels like we're talking like maybe five, 10 minutes, not like an hour.
01:14:31
Speaker
And even an hour's head start against an experienced survivalist is not a lot. Right. So by the way, it plays out is that they've gotten apparently miles and miles ahead and have settled at camp and set up everything. Yeah, they literally got all the way to where they were going before the heroes even started out. Exactly. Yeah. Time and space is a really warped thing in this movie. Yes. Kind of a shame.
01:14:52
Speaker
The other side effect of doing the scene where they climb up the rocks is, of course, blue-screening effects is not great. Yeah. The budget's not quite there for the really, really good effects for a scene like this. Yeah. When they have good profile shots where they're on the fake rock face, but just when they have to look down and show how high up they are, it's kind of a giveaway.
01:15:12
Speaker
I did like the overall rock climbing scenes though I think that again it calls back to the scene earlier in the film so we're building on things that we've shown before and I think it builds on their relationship. The only complaint I have about this overall sequence
01:15:27
Speaker
is that it feels like we get a lot of focus on Grant, the guide and his abilities. Yeah. This is the Alex McGregor trilogy. Yeah. And it doesn't really feel like she gets highlighted much for most of the movie. Yeah, for sure. It's not like she looks incompetent or anything, but it just has this kind of odd feel like we started focusing a lot on him rather than having a give and take between the two characters. Yeah.
01:15:50
Speaker
There's a couple scenes where that changes up, but there's just a little bit too much of, we need the survivalist, we need the survivalist, we need the survivalist. It's very rare that her skill set with all-in-all her training really factors into the plot. Right, yeah.
01:16:05
Speaker
Speaking of the plot, the bad guys have set up a time and place for the trade. I think I'll see you in the next section.
01:16:21
Speaker
Which is a weird plot point because there's actually no reason for them not to do it. They kind of hand-wave this explanation of, it's to make you push harder for Smith's release, but that makes no sense to me. Because he's gonna work harder if he can see that his daughter is still alive and you can threaten her to his face. It makes it look like they lost her.
01:16:39
Speaker
It does, yeah. But they didn't. That's where I say it's like a bit of wasted potential. If she had gotten away briefly instead of immediately getting found by Dirk, then you could have had him say, oh, why didn't they show Jess? And have them be clued into, oh, things might not be going right for them. We might have a chance. There's a lot you could do with that. But instead, she's there. They just don't show her because they don't show her.
01:17:03
Speaker
And this is where the second time in the movie, I thought that a character was totally going to be a traitor. Yes. When daily starts having these really meaningful looking glances over, I'm doing meaningful looking glances over here right now. Yes. At this point on the wall that has nothing on it.
01:17:19
Speaker
daily the secret service boss starts doing these meaningful glances at the picture of michael smith and obviously it turns out to mean something completely different right yeah it totally looks like he's actually a bad guy does and is loyal to the group is like i'm gonna get you out boss no matter what he knows that he's just said something a little bit weird about
01:17:38
Speaker
He insults McGregor while they think that she's dead, like apologizes for sending her on the mission because she wasn't reliable or something like that. So that makes him feel a little bit traitory. And then there's something else he says as well that I forget what it was, but that's so a traitor line.
01:17:54
Speaker
It sounds it feels like he's not on the side of the good guys. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like you said, at some point earlier, there's this undercurrent, like someone there is responsible for sending her to this trip, knowing that the bad guys were there. And it feels like it's him. But then there's no one that did that. It's just a weird little bit of it's not even that it's bad acting. It's just like the portrayal of the scene just feels unintentionally bad guy. It does. Yeah.
01:18:23
Speaker
So right here they're made to the top of the cliff face that they're getting to, and they find a hut full of communication equipment. This is a point where, again, Grant, the survivalist guides, skillset really comes into play so much, and very little of her stuff comes in, because he knows where the radio stuff is, he knows how it's powered, he knows how it's on. The one thing I will say with this scene that helped it a little bit, is she's the one that knows how to get a secure channel to the White House. Right, that's a say. So you have to get a little bit here.
Rescue Plan and Tension Building
01:18:52
Speaker
Yeah.
01:18:52
Speaker
This scene is what I hoped the rest of the movie would feel like, where his stuff is definitely necessary, but her skills are also definitely necessary.
01:19:02
Speaker
It's a better split in this case. Absolutely. Yeah, then a lot for sure. Yeah, she realizes that if they just use the radio and call out the all knowing all seeing bad guys in there, I mean, the technology will realize this because they're checking all the channels. I get two pieces in there with checking every channel, not anyone would, you know, right? He has the notepad of every possible thing and he's making check marks next to it.
01:19:26
Speaker
Yes. So she sends a message via Morse code, which I guess they're not checking. I don't think survivors would check. You would think they would know Morse code. Yeah. But you could see if maybe she sends a really innocuous type of thing. They know that there's hikers in the vicinity as well. So it could be messages like that going out. There's enough there that you can get, okay, this happened. Somehow it worked, but it'd be nice if she was like, I'm going to send a message that's totally innocuous, but it's actually a secret service code or something.
01:19:53
Speaker
Yeah, like I'll say this phrase and I'll know it's the me or something. Yeah, so she sends the Morse code message and then they set up a secure channel where they can actually talk normally with the White House. Yeah. This would have been a little bit more of a dramatic scene if the White House hadn't already known that Alex was alive. Yes. From Cassie's call earlier and if the White House didn't already have literally all of the information that Alex is able to give them. Yes.
01:20:19
Speaker
It was even a point where she says, you know, start telling us, oh, we've already been briefed or we already heard that her man. Yeah. And they have to tell her. That's really the other problem with that whole Cassie subplot that is so limited, but it's just like you have them get information on what's happened three times. Yeah. They get it from Jess in the hostage video, which admittedly is slightly incorrect, but only slightly. The only information they don't really get there is that Alex is actually alive. Right.
01:20:44
Speaker
So you definitely need one other contact to say, actually, Alex is alive and we should work together on this. Right. But you don't really need both of those things to happen. No. It actually would have been a lot more dramatically interesting if Cassie hadn't made it or was not sent to give the first message. Yeah. She says, let's go to town and get safety and all contacts.
01:21:06
Speaker
Yeah. And so you get the message from Alex, then you're like, Oh my gosh, Alex, you're alive. You can picture that scene, right? Of like, cause they've been shown to be close. Yeah, exactly. Having two messages kind of lessens the importance of both of them. Yeah. There's no reveal to him that she's alive. And also here's your amazing. Yeah. He's, Oh yeah, you're alive. Great. Yeah. So it makes the watchtower client feel not entirely unimportant cause they'd still do some planning as a result of it, but less important than it could have been.
01:21:37
Speaker
So they explain as talking to the radio that the bad guys can triangulate anything in the area. They know a vague vicinity of the bad guys are in, but they know the bad guys can tell anyone in this broad area. But good news, in fact, they randomly climbed this rock face and went into this hut. Now they're inside the perimeter ready.
01:21:55
Speaker
Yeah, I think the implication is the perimeters recently been turned on. And at the time it was turned on, they were already inside. Oh, yeah, yes, it is. Yeah, they'll recognize anyone coming into the perimeter, but but crossing like a line. But they're already already done that. Yeah, right. Yeah.
01:22:10
Speaker
It still gets into the how the technologies that bad guys have work. Yeah, it's super technology except that it's not. Yeah. Yeah, right. As you noted there while they're discussing the plans about what they're gonna do daily goes and looks at the picture of Smith on the wall and looks sort of knowingly. It's not clear what his motivation is looking at that picture. But yeah, he's getting something out of that picture looking at it.
01:22:32
Speaker
I want to say at this point, audience, before we reveal what that is later, I actually did call it. Yes. I was joking, but I did call it. Yeah. Oh, yeah, you did. Yeah. So communicating with the White House and Secret Service, they come up with a two-part plan to rescue Jess.
01:22:51
Speaker
And then we would go by land and lead her away while the guy will take the river to somehow loop around and wait for them in the riverbed by where they know the trade's gonna be at. So he's there to wait for their escape and help them get away fast. He's gonna provide them transportation. Right. He's the wheelman or the paddleman, I guess, in this case. I guess paddleman, yeah.
01:23:12
Speaker
And of course, before they separate, there's a nice bit where they can express their respect for each other because it's, it's a, Hey, we may not make it back out going in a dangerous situation. I wanted you to know how I feel before we do it. Yeah. They could have easily gone too far in the scene and had like professor love for each other. I've got, they didn't do that. Yeah. These two have, have had really good chemistry together in general on, on the screen, I think. And this seems another example of that, that they do it exactly the amount they need to for it to make sense for the progress this relationship would have made in this time. Yeah. I think.
01:23:42
Speaker
It's a little sad to me that, you know, as we noted, this is the scene that does a pretty good job with both of their skill sets being necessary. And it's the last scene that they have working totally together. Yeah, sure. You know, it's like, Oh, we've had this entire sequence of them walking through the woods together. Yeah. And just at the end of that, you finally figure out how to do it right. And then you're not going to do it until like the very end of the movie. Yeah, I can see that.
01:24:10
Speaker
Back at camp, Purcell tells his brother that they're going to make the trade and then he has to kill the girl. He does not seem 100% on board with that, which is important for later. Yeah, it's kind of an arc they're going for where he's definitely a bad guy, but he's really more controlled and led by his brother. He's not on a redemption arc, he's on a hesitation arc. Yeah, exactly. It's not ever implied that he's not going to do it. Correct, yeah. He's got to think really hard about doing it, but he's still going to do it.
01:24:39
Speaker
If I recall correctly, so this makes sense, I think how they've set up the trade is that Smith is going to be dropped off by helicopter. Yes. Once they have Smith, they will release Jess. Correct. But I think they say two hours later. I think there's some sort of delay. There's some sort of clear delay. So the implication is they can take her back to camp, kill her, get away. Right. Yeah. It's not that they're going to get Smith and then immediately shoot her on scene. That's not the original plan anyway. Correct. Yeah.
01:25:07
Speaker
So eventually Hemingway climbs up another bit of rock and is just below where the camp is at. Which is conveniently right when DDP, who's still in this movie by the way, kind of walks by and looks around. He's like hiding against the rock. Yeah, he's all Nazgul looking over the cliffs at the hobbits. Yeah.
01:25:25
Speaker
I thought for sure we were going to get a fight scene. Yeah. He's so clearly about to see her looking at her. I thought one of two things was going to happen. One, we'd get a fight scene justifying them hiring a professional wrestler for this movie, or two, he'd just get shot right here because she has her gun drawn. Yes, she does. Yeah. But admittedly, she has a reason not to fire at that point because the other guys are around and she doesn't have a shot at them yet. Right. Correct.
01:25:48
Speaker
Well, the problem with the scenes, I like the idea of it, like he's looking nearby and she's hiding because again, she can't fire the shot of the learning everybody and putting Jess in danger. Problem is we only ever see it from a front facing camera angle. Yeah. Where they're both in frame at all times. We never get like someone from behind him or his perspective where you can see that there's an overhang enough that she can hide under it or something. Yeah. Yeah.
01:26:12
Speaker
We see them like two feet away with a slight bit of rock there. They'd be a sight more observant than a tree stump in the scene. Yes. And they even play a bit worse. She accidentally hit some rock and it falls down. He goes back over and looks that he still doesn't. He got two looks and failed to notice her at all again. Yeah. Cause at least in the first time, he's not somebody looking for someone looking down. He's looking just out into the expanse. Yeah. They got a beer commercial or something.
01:26:36
Speaker
He's he's he's planning out his next match notes. I mean, his mind is not on the terrorist gig, right? This is short term. He's right. He's got to get back to pro wrestling. But when he comes back to be looking for someone or something that made noise. Nope. Yeah. Admittedly, like, OK, wind gusts maybe could blow rocks off lifts, too. But yeah, you would think you would look a little bit harder. Yeah.
01:26:58
Speaker
The next thing it's an issue I have with this movie really needing a clear map and see where people are at all times. Yeah. So the guy goes back to where their boats are. Oh my gosh. Yeah. He gets all the way back in the span of a single scene cut. Yeah. It's taken them the entire movie to this point to get from where the boats are to this.
01:27:18
Speaker
He sends her to climb a small area, and he has a nice sea where it's tough, but she makes it up, she perseveres. Meanwhile, he makes it back to the beginning of the movie practically, to where they dropped on the boats. Did you go through a wormhole? What the heck? Yeah, he has a super secret shortcut, or it's right nearby. Yeah, it's so strange because they've been walking for this entire time through what seems like quite a distance, and he's just there.
01:27:45
Speaker
Yeah. And so in the time that takes him to do all that, apparently, she's still at camp and she's just now gone from the bottom of the rock face where she was hiding to a nearby bit of brush and tree somewhere, watching thing happen. Yeah. I think what would have helped this is if they put the scene of him running down to the river just a little bit later in the film, like after this scene. Oh, yeah. There you go.
01:28:09
Speaker
Because I totally buy the fact that he is river rafting. He gets to the final confrontation faster than her. That's fine. Yeah. But it feels like it should take longer to get to the boats in the first place. Yeah. So just switch the order of the scenes a bit and you're good. Yeah. But to your point of establishing tension and really just ending it. Can you go back in time? Oh, he did. Yeah. He just does. Yeah.
01:28:32
Speaker
So this is finally where the whole radio thing pays off. Jess has no CD player because she was not told to have one. So this is under the country music radio station. They are able to tap into the radio somehow. I'm not gonna tell you sure that's the thing you could do. White House things. Okay, sure. Something, something transistors, I guess. And so she's now will talk, her and the president are able to talk to Jess through the radio.
01:28:58
Speaker
which I guess only she's listening to the station. Yeah. I think the idea here is they say is the only radio station that plays in these parts. So they know for sure that that's the one she's listening to. Right. And I think the idea is they actually like get with that station and say, Hey, can we broadcast? I'm like, yeah, that part's not super clear. Can we take over your frequency type of type of thing? Or rather more likely we are taking over your frequency. Not a question. There is no, can we? We are at the white house. We're doing it.
01:29:24
Speaker
They're somewhat lucky that none of the terrorists happen to be country music fans, I guess, right? Against all odds being kind of rednecky. But, um, yeah, it works. I kind of like it as a concept. Just maybe, again, one of those things you could have used a tiny bit of extra justification for, but overall, it works. I kind of really want to have a scene where they showed someone else listening to the station. Like, what the heck? Jess? Who's Jess? What song is this? Yes. Very confused.
01:29:52
Speaker
So it's this actually pretty nice scene, honestly, where she's talking to us to the radio and tells her to, with the headset still on, I think you can't hear them and go towards the rush where Alex is at. She gets out of just that they have let her take bathroom breaks. Yeah. So she has just asked them for one. Right. Yeah. I guess, fortunately, just hadn't done that recently. Yeah. And yeah, then, like you said, has her walk towards where Alex is hidden. Yeah.
01:30:17
Speaker
While this happening, DDP sees her and calls out to her and she tells Jess, you know, don't turn, don't know if you acknowledge him, then obviously he knows. Then he knows the jigs up. Yeah, exactly.
01:30:28
Speaker
But at the same time, now the director's on the line and he's saying, don't do that because he thinks DP's going to shoot her, I guess. I think the idea he has is if she fires, the other two are going to be alerted. There's no guarantee that she'll get Jess out in time. I think it's a legitimate tactical dispute between the two of them, it feels like. It's not him just being, at the time we thought, no, you're a traitor. Right, yeah. But the actual meaning of the film is just that these two have a different approach, that he's by the book, she's not quite by the book.
01:30:56
Speaker
Right. Yeah, so it built it builds and builds DPs walking and they did a nice bit of cross cutting here as well where you see everyone involved and it seems building a building. Eventually, the bosses know you can't do it. And then DP takes her away and he takes the headphone away. So now that's not an option anymore.
01:31:14
Speaker
I would actually call this the movie's best shot scene. I think they do an excellent job of the cross-cutting, like you said, building a lot of tension, showing that she has a shot at DDP, but maybe it's not a certain one. Right, because he's walking behind her. Yeah, and they have a better implication of location in this one as well, that we know is pretty close to the camp because Jess just walked from there. Yeah, absolutely well done in that respect.
01:31:39
Speaker
I do feel like for all that I'll compliment the scene on how it shot, it feels just a little bit like undercutting of Alex's story. Yes. Her story starts out as she doesn't always go by the book. And we've seen that there's a little doubt in whether that's a good thing or not. Right. Did she make the right call with the presidential limo? Right. So now we're presented with another scene where she's doing something maybe a little bit risky.
01:32:05
Speaker
But rather than getting to see whether that plays out or not, we instead have it cut down by daily immediately. Right. And she follows the order. Exactly. Yeah.
01:32:16
Speaker
I want to say like this scene alone is not a problem. No, it's when you combine with how the finale goes, yeah, that it becomes more of a problem for it. Where I feel like we never quite get this actual resolution to the by the book versus playing the odds conflict in Alex's character. We don't get to really see her have that resolution one way or another on it. Right.
01:32:38
Speaker
But this scene alone doesn't do it. I think this scene is fine if the finale had gone different. In a vacuum, the scene isn't an issue. It's one of the best scenes in the film. Agreed. By far. So now they gotta go to plan B because plan A did not work. We're now at the hostage trade that they're set up.
01:32:59
Speaker
The bad guys set up the exchange at a suspension bridge. I swear I have seen this exact suspension bridge in another movie, by the way. I would not be surprised. I have no idea what film it was, but the first establishing shot they have of them standing on the bridge waiting for the arrival of the helicopter. Yeah, thank you. I blocked out helicopters after Road Wild.
01:33:23
Speaker
I swear I have seen that exact shot angle and bridge in some other movie, and it annoys me that I can't remember where. You look up at 3am tomorrow and go, oh, of course. It's going to be one of those things, yeah. Eventually I'll be like, I'll remember the movie it's from, and I won't remember why I was thinking of that movie.
01:33:43
Speaker
Yeah, so the pension bridge is the place for the things that take place. The guide has someone back way back around through the rapids and is waiting like he has like debris on it. So he's like hiding down there. Yeah, he's he's deflated it as well, which seems like a little bit too much of a yes, a little bit much. Yeah.
01:34:02
Speaker
Nearby the Princeton Bridge, lower down, the younger brother and the girl are there and he's got the gun on her, obviously. Meanwhile, as you see the helicopter arrived, DEP is watching them from a nearby sort of bit of branch and cover. The DEP is going to take the guy out, I guess, when he comes back around. So he sees the FBI agent and Smith being led to the bridge.
01:34:25
Speaker
as something way moves under the bridge, trying to get in position as well, because he's trying to get behind where Jess and the other guy are, abruptly DDP is just shot. Yeah, that was so weird. Is it supposed to be the FBI agent that was in the helicopter? Yeah, it's the only one of the guy there. Yeah, he just has a silenced pistol and just shoots DDP. Yeah. And you're like, what? Yeah, all this time we've been waiting for this like, Oh, you hired a pro wrestler for this movie, like some physical fight scene with him.
01:34:54
Speaker
It doesn't have to be long, but like something that justifies you hiring this big, muscly guy that knows how to do fight scenes. And he's just unceremoniously shot by his island's pistol by someone who's not even a main character in the movie. No, it's not Alex McGregor that takes him out. No, it's not Grant that takes him out. You know, it's not even daily that takes him out. No, it's a random FBI guy that I think was featured in a couple of the White House discussions.
01:35:22
Speaker
He might have been the guy leading the original attack. I don't think it's that. I don't think it's even that guy. I think it's like another guy that's at the White House that talks with that guy or something. OK, it might be that I was trying to get in the crowd by connecting the compound attack on this. But in any case, I do not believe the character even has a name. No, he doesn't. So you're like one of the three main bad guys of this movie. And actually, the one that's been portrayed is the scariest of the three because he's the one that's caught just twice. Yeah.
01:35:50
Speaker
is taken out by a nobody in the film by just like, it's so strange. It's like you would think that there's so many different ways you could set that up that it could be that McGregor needs to sneak past him in order to get to the location she needs to be in. So she has to confront him or take him out without alerting the others. Yeah. And that's why you get a fight scene in the film because she can't use her gun for it. Yeah. Something like that.
01:36:16
Speaker
Maybe he spots the raft and he... Yeah, so Grant has to fight him or sneak past him or take him out somehow. He gets thrown into the river. There's so many ways that this could play out. It boggles the mind that you hired a guy who's not only big and scary but does fight scenes for a living and did precisely zero fight scenes with him. So, RIDDP.
01:36:42
Speaker
Again, this is the point where you think this is like the sudden betrayal thing, like the FBI agent that did it, he kills DDP and maybe that's part of something else.
01:36:52
Speaker
Yeah, it feels sinister. It's a silenced pistol thing and sneaking up. Yeah, which obviously makes sense why he's using a silenced pistol because he doesn't want to alert the other bad guys. Sure. But again, if this is like the third time in the movie where it feels really sinister the way they filmed this, that it's like, it feels like it's going to be a guy that's actually involved with the team, but Dirks a liability. So he's getting him out of the way. Yeah, yeah.
01:37:15
Speaker
I mean, a serious person shoots DDP in the back or then in the front after the first time. And then they pan over and oh, just the FBA agent that was there earlier. Yeah. Like, Oh, okay. Which also meant DDP's whole plan of waiting in secret here does not help at all. How do they know where he is? They loop back around somehow behind him. Yeah.
01:37:33
Speaker
Yeah, the entire idea of his plan is that he's hidden and is going to be useful somehow to the bad guys out there, but apparently they just know exactly where he is. Yeah, I think the idea is supposed to be that they want the FBI agent, he's gonna leave Smith there for the trade, and DDP will kill the guy. Yeah. He's gonna kill the FBI agent and now there's no one there to tell you what happened. Yeah. But no, the guy he was, I guess, supposed to take out just takes him out without anything happening. That's so strange. It's a really weird choice.
01:38:01
Speaker
At this point, Hemingway is sneaking up on the militia man holding Jess. Which is the younger brother,
Climactic Moments and Action Critique
01:38:06
Speaker
Eric, right? Correct, yes.
01:38:08
Speaker
Like everyone in the movie, she can't get a shot. At least in her case, they're standing by a rock. She's like, if I shoot this guy and he falls over, he might fall off the cliff with her. There's more reason why she can't just shoot the guy now. Yeah. Yeah. It's better than some of them were like, they can't shoot. Yeah. While that's going on, they set the transfer up. So Smith is led away from the F agent who now goes his own way. He's why he's walking towards Purcell. So now he's watching.
01:38:36
Speaker
while she hesitates because he can't get a good shot. Purcell knows that something is off about the guy. It's not clear. I think it would be like a way he's walking or something. Because he looked at the close up of his feet. He notices that something's weird about Smith. Slight spoilers. This is a disguised daily. Yeah, yeah. They actually have done a fair job with it. Daily does have a bit of a physical resemblance, which I joked about. Yes, yes, yeah. The way it's shot, he's looking down a little time. He's got the wig on and everything.
01:39:03
Speaker
I'm just not clear what the hint is to Purcell that something is wrong. Like, he sees his feet, like, is he walking like a military guy walks? I don't know that it's necessarily supposed to be that he actually picks up on something weird about how he's moving, or just that he finally gets close to the other, like, wait a second.
01:39:19
Speaker
Well, no, so he's looking at him while he's getting closer and something alerts him of being off. So he takes his binoculars out so you can look at the guy's face. That's true. That's true. Yeah. Well, and while it's happening, he tries to call Dirk and when Dirk doesn't answer because DDP and his last shot is splayed out with his arms and leg wide with three bullet holes in him. Real dignified way for the guy who's going to be world champion to be resented at this point.
01:39:44
Speaker
Eventually, something is off, and he carries a cold guy, and he's not answering. He takes a binoculars out and realizes it's not actually Smith. It's, as you said, it's Daly. We're in the hat and wig. A shootout ensues, at which no one can hit each other at all, apparently. In fairness, the FBI guy dies pretty dark. Oh, right, well, yeah. He fires two or three shots at Priscilla, who's down a straight walkway ahead of him. Yeah, there's no cover on this, and yet they have extreme difficulty hitting each other, yeah.
01:40:12
Speaker
At this point, Purcell tells the brother, you get him to kill the girl because things have gone wrong. Finally, at least sort of paying off the scene because he could actually take the shot. He's holding the gun or he's really, he's like, yeah, it's not like he really has to take aim or anything. He's got a gun already. Yeah. But he's trying to really sell that he's like, he knows he can fire and he knows that he quote unquote should fire. But same time, he doesn't think he wants to kill her. He's either he's part of the mission, but he's not necessarily part of the shoot people in the head part of the mission. He's trying to sell that anyway.
01:40:40
Speaker
Like you said earlier, he's a follower personality. Right. You still get the feeling that he'll eventually do. Oh, yeah, he's definitely going to eventually. But yeah, there's a good 10, 20 seconds where he's thinking about really struggling with the morality decision. And that's when Alex can finally get his attention. He turns towards her voice and he's able to shoot him.
01:40:58
Speaker
Yeah. Now, this is the scene that I think finally kills off the Alex storyline of obeying orders versus making the call you think is right, because this entire time leading up to her firing, everyone and their mother has been yelling at her to fire. Yes.
01:41:16
Speaker
Weirdly, it's not daily, it's the FBI agent that's doing most of the, Alex, you need to make your move. Alex, you need to make your move. So this is Alex following orders, not going her own way, robbing us of a chance to see her making the difficult but correct call. But at the same time, it doesn't prove the following orders is right, because Alex hesitating for so long.
01:41:36
Speaker
is what results in this plan all going a little bit sideways, right? Yeah, she can't get a shot on the guy holding Jess. So daily has to walk closer and closer down the bridge. So Troy Purcell realizes that something's wrong and the gunfight starts getting the FBI agent apparently maybe killed back there and getting daily knocked from the bridge. So it's like simultaneously following orders gets her a good thing and that she kills the guy holding Jess ultimately.
01:42:04
Speaker
But also, she takes so darn long to follow orders that everything else that could possibly go wrong goes wrong. At most you could say she's not following orders because she thinks that the shot is not safe enough to take the shot. So it may be her still on that path of making the call. She thinks of the right call against orders, but it's all very muddled. But if it is, it's demonstrably wrong.
01:42:24
Speaker
Right, I get the thing. The total thing is muddled by the way they handle it. If that's the intended message that she once again has made a hard call in the situation and she's been right about it, the events that happen as a result of her call are awful and nearly destroy the entire thing. If that's what they were going for, massive points against. Yeah, yeah. Points of execution is not clear how are they supposed to work. Yeah. Continuing the theme of very coincidental timing,
01:42:54
Speaker
She makes a shot and kills the younger brother, which is right when Purcell looked down at the clearing at the rock to see that happening. So now the younger brother is killed, and she pulls Jess away from the clearing while the guy's shooting at her. Gunfight starts back up again with the FBI agent, he's possibly dead or just laying there.
01:43:14
Speaker
daily shot and kind of like in wrestling logic tries to roll to the outside. Like he rolls away from being shot, but like through a hole in like where the suspension bridges. Yeah. So it ends up like dangling from the bridge. Yeah. It's hanging there. Yeah. But there's one arm.
01:43:29
Speaker
some reason the the guide is down there with the raft under it very at least under inflated I think it's funny enough to be still floating there what is not to use it so the implication I think is that he's like covered it with like leaves and stuff yeah but he must have thought that it'll stick up too much from the water if it's fully inflated but I mean they're viewing it from a high cliff in a suspension bridge yeah I think from that distance up you could have left the thing inflated and it wouldn't have made a difference in the amount that they were gonna be able to see it right
01:44:00
Speaker
So he gets a dramatic shot where daily fall from the bridge and it's such a dangerous fall that you use an obvious dummy to make the fall for him. Yeah. But don't worry, he survives somehow. Yeah. With a bullet wound, he falls 100 feet into the rapids. He's OK. He won't get off. He got to be Secret Service director by being an absolute bad. So I guess so. Yeah. Kind of want to film trilogy about him at this point. Yeah, for sure.
01:44:30
Speaker
So now it's a race to get away. Jess and Alex, they run down through the path down to the river while the guys turn briefly at the raft.
01:44:39
Speaker
They actually have to jump off of a cliff into the river. Yeah. And by the way, Alex waits very little time after telling just to jump. She could easily have landed on top of her. Yeah. Like two seconds. Yeah. Good. Good job. Yeah. They also, for some reason, they shoot the landing in the river facing the stunt people. So hers is kind of noticeable. Yeah. The camera. There's so many angles you can shot from above. You shot behind, but that's you towards the person's face. That's clearly not actually really having a way doing this.
01:45:08
Speaker
It's a weird, weird choice they made. Meanwhile, Purcell is up there. Apparently, he set up a thing where he can, like, repel himself down very quickly. Which I get, he wouldn't- Makes sense, he'd want a quick escape. Yeah, exactly. So now it's a race to the river and then race on the river as they pick up daily from the river.
01:45:26
Speaker
Yeah, they pick up daily and this is where they tried to shoehorn in the buy the book versus taking the risk. He's like, leave me. We do things by the book. I'm like, this is not a buy the book situation versus no. This is she has plenty of time to pull you out of the river before Purcell's ready to pursue. Right. Yeah, exactly. A few moments ago was when you should have thrown that story beat in. Yeah, exactly.
01:45:49
Speaker
So yeah, there's a total chase and they're rapid. They have a slight advantage because they at one point had three people paddling. They quickly have two people paddling because Jess is not great at that. She drops her paddle. Yeah. But at least they have a slight head start and they have two people paddling. So they managed to get ahead of where Purcell is.
01:46:07
Speaker
There's some wonderful lamp shading that this is going to happen earlier in the movie that while they're doing the original rafting trip, Grant repeatedly and blatantly brings up this dangerous location on the river called Hell's Half Mile. He's like, no one's crazy enough to go through that. So you see this coming a mile away, or whether a Hell's Half Mile away, that they're going to have to go through this for that final river chase. Absolutely.
01:46:33
Speaker
And it's so dangerous that a guy who you're not shown having rapid experience can do it by himself in a whole raft. At least he is kind of shown to be a survivalist too. So you get the reason maybe he does this kind of thing. But we never see them on the rapids is my point. Yeah. Yeah. And he's doing it by himself. That's the minimum two man job. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's a little bit ridiculous that he does as well as he does.
01:46:54
Speaker
At least he's having a hard time getting through it. So they've had to start with the extra people. Although they get a pretty good head start cause they have all left the raft sitting there and have gone hiding somewhere else. They like loop around to where he's going to come out at.
01:47:09
Speaker
Troy terminates their overturned raft after Hell's Half Mile with extreme prejudice, but Alex and Grant ambush him, giving us match two. Alex McGregor and Grant Coleman versus Troy Nelson in a handicap match for first daughter Jess Hayes. Yeah. Referee is the river. Sure.
01:47:28
Speaker
Alex and Grant try top-rock flying splashes, but Troy, despite them already being airborne, notices, gasps, slowly turns, and somehow still has his gun in place to get a shot off before they hit. Grant has been shot, so Troy lands several punches to him, knocking him out. Alex tags in with a palm thrust to Troy's face, but he lands a backfist and starts choking her underwater. She goes for a rock but can't get hold of it. Fortunately, Daily finds one and clubs Troy with it, apparently killing him for the win.
01:47:58
Speaker
Jess helps daily to shore and Alex saves Grant with some mouth to mouth. I didn't catch first time that he's both actually shot Grant. Yeah. It happens so quickly and there's no like bolt wound. I only picked it up because, um, Grant is doing a really good job of always holding his side with one of his hands while he's being punched. So it makes sense. You're like, well, yeah. And they show him, they show Purcell like poke him in the rib, like he's like from his biggest finger or something and a wound. Yeah. That draws a fuse. I'm like, wait, why is that hurt so much? Like, Oh, apparently he was shot.
01:48:28
Speaker
Yeah, it's not entirely clear. This film is not 100% great at showing the relationship between events. Yeah.
01:48:35
Speaker
I did like this fight overall, though I think they had some nice touches to it. Though, again, if you're gonna have a three-to-one fight scene of the heroes versus one of the villains, maybe pick the professional wrestler. Not that Dominic Purcell doesn't look tough. He looks like a tough dude. And he's also a pretty tall guy. I think he's like 6'1 or something. It's not like he's unintimidating. But again, you're just like, we're having this big fight scene, and there's a pro wrestler in the movie who is not in this fight scene, which feels weird.
01:49:06
Speaker
I also feel like Alex doesn't quite get to give a good enough account of herself here. No. She gets in that one palm thrust, which does look cool. It does. That's actually a cool looking move. But that's, I believe, the only blow she lands, and then she immediately knocked down and choked. You would think the arm thing might come into play.
01:49:21
Speaker
Yeah. And this does kind of work as a bit of a payoff for daily saying not to save him earlier and her disobeying. It's like one of those, what do they call it in the Intel Dawn stuff, the butterfly effect. Oh, yeah, yeah. She had that choice pop up on the screen of save daily or go for safety. And if she chose and go for safety, no one would have been there to save her.
01:49:41
Speaker
But yeah, it also just feels like this film is just resistant to letting this character have her own successes. There's no reason she couldn't just scoop up the rock. The one compliment I will give on this, they do a very nice job of suggesting that the save is about to happen without actually highlighting it. You have a cut of daily standing with Jess watching the fight.
01:50:03
Speaker
We cut back to McGregor underwater being choked cut back to Jess watching the fight. Daily is not there. That's true. Yeah. And then we cut back to McGregor scrabbling for the rock, being unable to reach it. And, uh, Troy is knocked out. And then you fall. Yeah, he falls into the river. Yeah. And, and we see that daily did it. That was a nice artistic way. I think of having a legitimate buildup to that without giving it away. No, I agree. Yeah.
01:50:27
Speaker
But yeah, it just feels like, can you give her her own success one time in this movie? Right? Yeah. At this point, the only scene that she's had that's entirely her own victory is nearly breaking poor Grant's thumb. Right. Right. Yeah.
01:50:42
Speaker
In the aftermath, they are flown to see the president who flew somewhere nearby for the communication, the intel area to plan things out. And everyone is happy. Even a random boy and a friend are happy. They're back at the movie again, yeah. Yeah, we're back at the movie. Thanks, I guess.
01:50:58
Speaker
We got to some vague amount of time later because this once they didn't give us a day or week period set anyway is at her desk he's clearing stuff out and she finds a picture of herself and the two other agents again the only three that were sent together on this mission that's something I graduated together or something it's not clear I don't think it's actually the three of them even it's it's her and Mark for sure but I think the third guy's not Cliff
01:51:21
Speaker
I wasn't clear in that because I thought that first thing you tell me wasn't that I'm yeah either way it's weird that they always this picture I have yeah yeah I mean her and marker implied to be good friends right yeah so it makes sense that she keep a picture of him around especially given that he you know right so it's either it's either coincidental that
01:51:38
Speaker
all three in this picture together or it's confusing that the third random guy in this picture. Yeah, yeah. I don't know which is better. Yeah, I don't feel like it's Cliff because he seems to have a real problem with her. I don't think he'd be like smiling and posing with her in a graduation picture, but it might be. I don't know for sure. Right. Daily shows up and he's got his arm and a sling that's selling that he was shot and wounded.
01:52:00
Speaker
He tells her that respects her, and then he explains some good news. As it turns out, the RPG apparently was loaded with fusion heads, as they say. Yes. Which would have destroyed the limo, they say. Yeah. Mind you, these fusion heads didn't blow up a whole gazebo when hit directly, so I'm not really sure how that works, but
01:52:21
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not sure what exact type of technology they're getting at, but basically the implication is she was right. The limo could take the first shot, but wasn't going to be able to take the second. Right. So it would have been bad if it got hit a second time. Exactly.
01:52:34
Speaker
He also explains that since he's wounded, he's being taken off of the detail because he can't actively serve anymore. He says he recommends her for the job. She mentions Grant, like she's gonna take Grant flying, I think. Yeah, I think they're taking flying lessons. So it's basically they're definitely in a relationship at this point. Yeah. Or at least good friends. It's weird that you don't know what to see him again, but I get that they're in the White House. But it's nice to mention it, but it's weird not to show him again after all. Yeah, a little bit.
01:53:01
Speaker
To close this out, Daley explains that the president is staying an extra day behind at Camp David, and we see that the president is giving driving lessons to his daughter in the presidential limo, as the Secret Service agents awkwardly run and stop as she's trying to learn the brakes. That is kind of a funny scene, I will say. All we're missing is an oh boy, and created by Donald P. Bellisario. I'd like to wrap this up. Yes.
01:53:26
Speaker
During this entire ending sequence, there's this one dude, like this Secret Service agent with glasses and kind of short, a little bit frizzy hair. He keeps being in camera focus. It's like we're supposed to recognize him. It's like he's a major character. Oh, it's that guy. But it's just this random dude that happens to be very good at camera positioning. I guess it's like La Parque at the end of Starrcade 97. He knows what the camera is, baby. Yeah, yeah. It's really, really funny. Yeah.
01:53:54
Speaker
The end credits music, I thought was quite nice. It felt like, um, it would have gone really well with shots of us on the road trip, long seaside roads or something. Or to get back to your point, if they'd shown her with Grant again, and then taking the flying lessons would have been a perfect tune for them flying in the, in the plane. So overall thoughts on the movie.
01:54:15
Speaker
I think it's a good film, but it definitely has some issues to work out, as we've talked about. Hemingway, as a lead, she needs saving and helping a lot. Yeah, yeah. I get the whole she's out of her element thing. That's the whole point of putting her on the woods, and that's why Grant has to be important. But at a certain point, he never gets to do a whole lot once the situation is established. She's really just kind of following Grant and doing a little bit here and there.
01:54:40
Speaker
She never feels incompetent, but she just doesn't feel like she gets to ever show her skills. Yeah. My theory is that they thought being a character that is willing to do things is the same as a character that actually does things. Yeah. So for instance, she's willing to go find the girl, but she needs lots of help to do it. She needs Grant to even literally tell her the right direction to go in the first place. He's going the wrong direction the first time. Right. And she needs him to tell her how to get to this thing, how to turn on the power.
01:55:09
Speaker
She's willing to shoot DDP to save the girl, but she's not allowed to. And finally, she's willing to fight Priscilla, which is a big thing. But then she needs a one armed older guy to save her. Yeah. The one thing she really does on her own, which is exiting the limo with the president following her judgment call.
01:55:26
Speaker
gets her in somewhat trouble. She is proven right, obviously. But yeah, like one thing where she really stands on her own is the thing that gets her all this issue with her boss and setting up all arc there. Yeah, pointing. Basically, she has her personal moment in the intro of the movie. Yeah. And not really ever again throughout the film. Correct.
01:55:46
Speaker
I like the dynamic they gave her with all the people involved. Her and Grant, you know, they have a nice arc to it. Her daily districts have a nice arc. Her and the president have a fine thing. Her and the daughter. There's just a lot of manufactured tension, like the whole daughter thing she's dating the father thing. It's not really that important. It's just to make them tense until they're not tense.
01:56:09
Speaker
Yeah, it's a story detail that would have worked really well as a additional bit of tension on top of existing tension. Yeah, but it doesn't feel like we had existing tension before that moment. So it's just like weird. Why is this alone enough? Yeah, if there's a version of this movie or a draft at some point where instead of her being captured and Alex and the guy going to rescue her if
01:56:31
Speaker
They're being hunted through the woods by bad guys? Yes. That tension works because they're running for their lives, they're hiding, they're doing all these things. She thinks you can't trust Alex. Even if it's a short moment, like she gets her away from the original attack, they're being hunted through the woods, go a few scenes later, just disobeys Alex because she doesn't respect her. Yeah. And gets captured as a result of that, cut to the rest of the movie the way it was done.
01:56:55
Speaker
Right, that's fine, yeah. We needed some payoff to that tension rather than it just being resolved out of nowhere. Right. And from our point of view, Captain DDP has a random goon that looks menacing, but does no fighting and just get killed by a random AI agent is not great. Yeah, it feels like they cast him for a reason and then they forgot what that reason was.
01:57:16
Speaker
I think the idea is someone at TBS, someone like Eric Bitchtop guy, says you didn't cast one of the guys in this movie. So instead of writing a role for DDP to play, they just slotted him in an existing character. If they could have tweaked Purcell's role and made that DP is the lead bad guy, if they'd written it for him, that would work. But they just, who of me cast it? Oh, we haven't cast Dirk yet. Okay, he's Dirk. Yeah.
01:57:38
Speaker
And I will say, even without that character being DDP, it's kind of a weird way that they use that character. They have various points throughout the film that he's randomly not there at times just so he can suddenly be there. And he's killed off by a random guy rather than a main cast member, despite being one of only three main villains in this movie. But when you add in that he's a recognizable guest star to this movie,
01:58:02
Speaker
It's done casting not done well. Yeah, he's done cast and then you have you make something out of him being this person. Yeah, even one fight scene, even one fight scene would would have done it. Yeah.
01:58:13
Speaker
It ties into my question of when we watched Star Speed just for my own website review is, were there restrictions on using wrestlers? Do you now want to risk them being injured making a movie because that'd affect a pay-per-view? I mean, they risk injury literally every time they perform. If anything, they'd be less dangerous doing this, I'm pretty sure. Right. Because you'd be doing like, okay, it's time to do the punch and the other punch. And then we'll cut and go to the next location and do the kick. You know, it's independent stunts.
01:58:42
Speaker
I mean not always there's there's some that do a little bit longer sequence but yeah film fight scenes because of needing to set up shots and everything you do in chunks. Yeah, it reminded me of the funny anecdote from Goldberg is in linear to his back in action playing with the bad guys.
01:59:00
Speaker
So he sold the story for her. He's funding a fight scene with Brendan Fraser, who's the good guy in that movie. And I guess at some point they're doing what it takes and he was supposed to do a fake punch and he didn't quite aim it right. So Brendan Fraser actually hits him. And he says, you know, Brendan's like, oh, I'm really sorry. I'm sorry. He's like, dude, relax. I got punched for a living. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So it's weird that you had food, you cast these wrestlers and then don't let them do stuff.
01:59:21
Speaker
Obviously with the benefit behind sight, casting Bracel as the main bad guy makes a lot of sense because he would go on and even to now he's still playing bad guys. He's good. I have no problem with Bracel being the main bad guy. I have a problem with him not using his side characters better, but him being the main bad guy is fine. Yeah. Yeah, it's nothing really bad here, but the whole, this is a TV movie. Constraint really comes into play a lot.
01:59:47
Speaker
Yeah, I would agree. I don't think this was in any way a bad film. I think it's a little bit below average, but not actively bad. Yeah, agreed. The acting is mostly fine or even good. Yeah. There's some real standout moments at various points from Hemingway, Savant, Harrison and Kena. All of them do some really good emotional performances at just the right points in the story. The locations are genuinely beautiful. They found some excellent filming locations for this.
02:00:13
Speaker
Most of the humans versus nature scene work really well, whether we're talking the rock climbing, the hiking, the river rafting. I liked most of those. I thought they did a good job with them. And the general concept is rather cool. Secret service agent who's out of her element teams up with a survival expert to save the president's daughter. That's a fun idea. You see that being a good film. So, yeah, there's some genuine potential in this film. The problem is it just doesn't quite ever live up to that. Yeah.
02:00:41
Speaker
So probably the biggest issue in the film, from which a lot of its problems consistently stem, is that the villains come into direct conflict with the heroes very few times. That's true, yeah. We have the intro, which is actually a different group of villains entirely. Correct, yeah. Well, not entirely. It's tied to this one, but you give the picture. Not the same people, yeah. We have the kidnapping, we have the rescue attempt, and we have the finale. That leaves the main source of tension in the story to be Alex and Grant versus nature. True, yeah.
02:01:09
Speaker
And that can only sustain the film for so long. There's no sense of change in the central conflict of the story. Once the situation starts, it remains nearly in complete stasis all the way to the finale. Three villains have kidnapped Jess and Grant and Alex are making their way to them. That's the situation from the point that the action really kicks off in the film all the way to the end. There's no change in numbers or involved parties until the very end of the film. Yeah.
02:01:36
Speaker
To ratchet up the tension, the film could have made freer use of its villains. Make them aware at some point that Alex survived so that they have reason to actively work against her, or give them reason to want to stop the outbound group from leaving the woods. Something that makes Troy order one of the others, probably Dirk, since DDP's the most imposing, to go hunt our heroes or hunt the innocents out in the woods.
02:01:58
Speaker
That way you can have a few more direct or indirect conflicts between good and evil characters and show the situation changing over the course of the film. So maybe Dirk or Eric get taken down before the final scene. But Alex and Grant pick up an injury that they have to deal with or lose some of their resources. Something to stop the film from feeling like it's just the same situation throughout the thing.
02:02:21
Speaker
The film does have some direct conflict in it, and when it does, it's okay. The finale was the best of it, I think. We had movements and actions that mostly made sense. There's a reasonable flow from spot to spot. The nature of the action changes up frequently enough to keep things interesting. We move from the gunfight at the bridge to whitewater rafting chase to fistfight in the river. Sure, absolutely.
02:02:44
Speaker
Other scenes don't fare so well. In the intro and in the kidnapping scene, the Secret Service agents just use plain boneheaded tactics. They just stand out in the open. Most of the time, even Alex at one point is just like, I'm standing in the open. There's bullets flying everywhere. Oh, I got shot. I'm so surprised. Right. Yeah. You know, I get that both cases are sudden attacks, but that's kind of exactly what this group of people are trained for. Yeah. Yeah.
02:03:08
Speaker
The Secret Service in this film comes off as mostly incapable, poorly coordinated, and easily overwhelmed, which I'm pretty sure is the exact opposite of what the Secret Service is actually supposed to be. Yeah, yeah. She gets a couple of moments during that scene. She personally gets some good shots. Yeah. As a whole, they're like, you know, she knows how to shoot her, and if you've got eyes on the shooter, where's the shooter? Yeah. It doesn't help that the gunfights are not very well edited, particularly the intro where positions of characters and who's firing at who are just spectacularly unclear. Right.
02:03:37
Speaker
Most of the supporting cast and the subplots are pretty much entirely wasted and inconsequential. The film keeps trying to start up subplots. Off the top of my head, there's Jess's attraction to Milo, Grant deciding whether or not to help, Cassie needing to escape the woods, Milo working with Cassie to do so, Jess trying to get Eric to question Troy's orders, Emma getting hurt and needing to still lead the group out of the woods, and Mark and Cliff arguing over Alex's value as an agent.
02:04:04
Speaker
All of those are either entirely abandoned, immediately resolved without any real conflict building, or quickly rendered inconsequential within minutes of being introduced. As I mentioned earlier, I genuinely had forgotten that Cassie and Milo were even in the movie when they showed up in the ending. Yeah. And unless I miss something, we never again see Emma or the rest of the Outbung group once Milo and Cassie leave them. Yeah, I don't believe so. My personal headcanon is they got lost in the woods and were ultimately discovered by Kevin Sullivan and trained to be Druids.
02:04:36
Speaker
In some cases, it might have helped if the film just cut plots entirely for redundancy. As I mentioned, there's two separate plots about contacting the White House that give basically the same information. In other cases, there's good ideas, but they just need some more development, like Grant at first being reluctant to help, but then coming around in less than 20 seconds.
02:04:56
Speaker
And with some, I could go either way. Milo's subplots could have been developed further to be somewhat worthwhile, maybe him getting captured with Jess, for instance. Or, alternately, you could have just cut the character because they weren't going to do much with him. True, yeah. Speaking of underutilized characters, Alex herself doesn't get to do much in her own movie, as you pointed out. Yeah. She gets to look independently capable at the very start, at the bar, a bit at the watchtower, at the rescue attempt, and in the final fistfight.
02:05:25
Speaker
That's not a lot of scenes. For the rest of the film, she plays clear second fiddle to Grant. I think I said this when we watched this at first, but it really feels like they originally wrote a movie focusing on a survival tour guide who ended up protecting the president's daughter with a Secret Service agent as supporting cast.
02:05:44
Speaker
But then, they decided to change the focus of the movie, and all they did was slap on starting and ending scenes that focused the story on the Secret Service agent instead. They changed nothing else about the film. Yeah. I do wonder, casting-wise, what comes into play with how you decide to do that. Pictures of the movie played exactly the same, except it's, for instance, it's an older Secret Service agent, and it's Chuck Norris. Yeah. Chuck Norris is Alex. Do you think they would do all these scenes the same way with Chuck Norris being led by The Guide somewhere?
02:06:14
Speaker
Yeah, probably not. No. Even the final fight scene fact that the one armed guy is a saver. I mean, Norris would have kicked Purcell's butt in the... Oh, yeah, yeah. Or rather spin kicked his face. Correct. Which would look really cool if he's standing in a river. I mean, you get a good arc of water on that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kind of want to see that movie now. He did his own series of films where he's texting like the president or something else. Okay. Good thing to watch.
02:06:38
Speaker
I don't want to sound like Alex is a weak character. She's not. I think she's portrayed as a capable character that's just consistently put in situations where she doesn't get to show that capability. This is, again, where I feel like if they had more direct conflict between the heroes and the villains, this would help because Alex is the one that's a fighter.
02:06:56
Speaker
Yeah. It would take the story out of Grant's expertise, which is humans versus nature, and into Alex's expertise, which is humans versus humans. Fair enough. Yeah. So the film then could switch the capability focus a couple of times between the two rather than remaining so focused on Grant's area of capability until the final conflict. It'd make Alex feel more valuable to the film and keep things more varied and interesting. Yeah.
Alex's Tactical Judgment and Film Critique
02:07:20
Speaker
Related to that is Alex's primary arc. We talked about this a bit, but she starts out the film making a call against orders and saving the president, but wondering if she, in fact, put him in more danger in the process. She then comes up with a bold plan to save Jess, but follows orders so the plan fails. She nearly screws up another attempt to save Jess when she can't follow orders in time. And finally, she does kind of benefit from not following orders, but only in that she saves her commanding officer in a situation where there's not really a ton of current risk to doing that.
02:07:50
Speaker
so he can safer butt down the line. What we don't get is either a solid confirmation or solid rejection of Alex's tactical judgment as an agent. We don't get a strong argument for following orders because that keeps Jess as a hostage, but we don't get a strong argument for disobeying orders because following orders rescues Jess.
02:08:09
Speaker
Part of the problem is that Alex just gets so few chances to be of use in the film, with more chances to show her independent actions and quick thinking, we'd have a clearer argument that she was right, or conversely, with more points where she got in trouble because of disobeying orders, a stronger arc about learning to work with a team. They don't give us a strong argument either way. So yeah, all told, I found First Daughter a below average action suspense film that does have some good ideas, but just flubs the execution from time to time.
02:08:39
Speaker
Some strong acting, though, helps carry it, holding the viewer's interest more than the film's actual plotting deserves. But it can't drag it above a middling overall performance. With some more development time, maybe it could have been something more, but as it is, it's not really anything to go out of your way to see. But it's not bad.
02:08:56
Speaker
Yeah, if you're reading it as what it actually is, it's okay. It's not great, but it could be a lot worse. If you're watching it from our point of view, which was a as a wrestler in an action movie, what are they gonna do? It's real drop off its appointment in that regard. Yeah, because there's none of that. Yeah, it's an interesting combination of he was in the film longer than I expected him to be in the film, just didn't do anything that justified him personally being in the movie.
02:09:20
Speaker
Oh yeah, it's a weird imbalance because he's in the movie a long time, but doesn't do anything to benefit from being in the movie. Yeah. Match of the night and MVP. Now we agreed in discussing that our match of the night could be stuff beyond just the fist fights, since there's one that's an actual fist fight and maybe the bar fight we can kind of count as one. Yeah. So I think we said any action scene in the movie you can choose for yours.
02:09:46
Speaker
For me, um, I see your point on the Wade shot. It's made it's a little hard to follow, but for me, I think the opening shooting and the mention works because it's both be chaotic and both be no one's quite sure. They don't nail every part of it, obviously, but it has the biggest character moment for Alex. Yeah. It gives you a nice chaotic action bit here. And there's explosions, all stuff happening. I think it works better for me, I think, than later stuff.
02:10:13
Speaker
I will say, despite my complaints about that, I very nearly picked that as well. For me, the final fight comes just a little bit better. The Alex and Grant versus Troy and the River. Okay. Yeah. It has a decent stunt or two. It builds up some genuine tension. It has some good character work in the middle of it. And then Daily Save of Alex is nicely suddenly built up as I pointed out with the shots of him with Jess and the Jess without him. Right. Yeah.
02:10:38
Speaker
There's still some problems to it. Mainly, again, that Alex just doesn't look terribly capable in it, which was what tempted me to choose the intro instead.
Actor Performances and Final Thoughts
02:10:45
Speaker
But still for me, I felt like overall that came off as the best action scene in the film. Okay, that's fine. MVP? I actually thought Monokina as the daughter did really well because she's doesn't get a whole lot to do. Like she didn't have all the character moments, but
02:11:01
Speaker
So he has all the emotions. You get to play angry. She gets to play upset. She gets to play concerned. There's really good bits, nonverbal stuff. Like she's listening on the radio talking with Alex. Yeah. Or she's walking in path. All these little things she gets to do. And the thing is she's the least experienced as a whole. That is true. That is true.
02:11:20
Speaker
In contrast to Hemingway who's been acting for this point like 20 years and Harrison is acting 20 years. She has a lot of focus. She's literally the title character of the movie. And even if she doesn't have a lot of dialogue, I thought she did a good job in her role. Absolutely. Yeah, I think she's a very worthy choice for it. That scene of her at the camp distraught and then hearing Alex and having to portray that sudden like hope, but still afraid. She really manages some complex stuff there. It's quite impressive.
02:11:48
Speaker
And it's going to be Father Daughter Day. Okay. Because I'm going with Gregory Harrison as President Hayes. I think so. Yeah, that's a good push. He's generally quite good anytime he's on camera. And once the kidnapping occurs, he really starts nailing this feel of a desperately worried father who just happens to also be the President of the United States. Yeah. So he gets across this feeling of powerlessness felt by a man who is the most powerful man in the world.
02:12:14
Speaker
that scene where he gives these subtle shifts of emotion as he listens to Jess's hostage video is what did it for me really. He just really took some acting chops in going these slow transitions where you can tell there's different thoughts going through his head without him having to verbalize any of it. It's really, really good.
02:12:31
Speaker
Yeah, so I think we both highlighted for similar reason. Yeah, we chose which is neat. And this is not to say anything bad about the acting of really almost anyone else in the movie. Yeah, no, I think I gotta honestly say I got a compliment pages acting in this as well. Just since we
02:12:47
Speaker
Came into this because of him. We should talk about how he did in a bit I think he does a good job with the Dirk role for what they give him he comes off as big scary intimidating But not in a cheesy fashion. Mm-hmm. He he he's a big part of that scene that we both loved at the camp as well Yeah with him slowly getting closer to where he feels legit there. He comes off as terrifying. Yeah So some quite nice work from him. Absolutely. Yeah
Conclusion and Next Episode Teaser
02:13:14
Speaker
And that wraps up our review of First Daughter. If you've enjoyed listening to us tonight, you can find us on Twitter or Facebook as Let's Go to the Ring. Links will be available in the episode description. Follow us for episode announcements and other show details, and share your own thoughts about each show as we go through. You can subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, TuneIn, Verbal, or Audible.
02:13:39
Speaker
And please, if you've enjoyed this show, give us a rating or review, and share the show through your favorite social media platforms to help others discover us. Many thanks to IMDb for casting and production information, and to Giannis Urgio for our logo. Next up, we're going back to the movies. Diamond Dallas Page was not the only wrestler featured on film in 1999. His WCW cohort, Goldberg, even made the big screen. He did.
02:14:08
Speaker
So, was Goldberg's version of, featured, more featured than DDP's featured? Next time, we'll find out, as we look at, Universal Soldier, The Return. I will note, I have not actually ever seen the original Universal Soldier, so hopefully I will not be totally lost.
02:14:26
Speaker
I don't think it matters that much. Honestly. We'll see. Have you seen the original? Yes. Okay. I'll actually, I was, I was thinking I would try and watch it between, but I think actually I won't so that we can see if we react to the film differently. Yeah. As one who saw it at the other one and when they didn't. Fair enough. Yeah. This is Bob Moore for Alec Phrygian signing off. Good night, everybody. Happy wrestling.
02:15:02
Speaker
Oh, I had something on that real quick. Sorry. Okay. But I've lost where it is.