Cloak & Dagger

In this episode, Anna and Derek chat about the crazy amount of independence kids of the '80s had, movies for children that may not entirely be movies for children, and much more during their discussion of Cloak & Dagger (1984).

Connect with '80s Movie Montage on Facebook, Bluesky or Instagram! It's the same handle for all three... @80smontagepod.

Anna Keizer and Derek Dehanke are the co-hosts of ‘80s Movie Montage. The idea for the podcast came when they realized just how much they talk – a lot – when watching films from their favorite cinematic era. Their wedding theme was “a light nod to the ‘80s,” so there’s that, too. Both hail from the Midwest but have called Los Angeles home for several years now. Anna is a writer who received her B.A. in Film/Video from Columbia College Chicago and M.A. in Film Studies from Chapman University. Her dark comedy short She Had It Coming was an Official Selection of 25 film festivals with several awards won for it among them. Derek is an attorney who also likes movies. It is a point of pride that most of their podcast episodes are longer than the movies they cover.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Yeah, thanks. Hello?

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Dad, you gotta help me.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

David, why aren't you in bed?

SPEAKER_00 0:12

The spies, they planted a bomb in Kim's walkie-talkie and she doesn't even know it.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Let's go. I told you, I didn't want you to get in those games. You understand that?

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Dad, this is no game now. I need your help.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

David, look, I've got a rush job here.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

I do not have time for this kind of stuff. They're trying to take the plants out of the country at midnight.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Just calm down, okay? I don't want you to get worked up again. I'll be home as just as soon as I can. What'd I tell you? He's useless.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Hello and welcome to 80s Movie Montage. This is Derek.

SPEAKER_04 0:39

And this is Anna.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

And that was Henry Thomas as Davy Osborn and Dabney Coleman as Jack Flack and Dabney Coleman as Hal Osborn in 1984's Cloak and Dagger.

SPEAKER_04 0:52

Cloak and Dagger. Mm-hmm. Brand new film to me.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Yeah, it's an interesting perspective on just how violent movies were towards kids.

SPEAKER_04 1:03

But this was... I don't want to say that most of those are my pick per se, but this definitely was your contender.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

It was one that I picked just because I remember we'd covered some Dabney Coleman movies, and so his name came up for this movie, and I'm like, oh yeah, we should talk about it sometime.

SPEAKER_04 1:24

I do know that... Very frequently throughout the viewing of this film, I was like, do you remember this? Did you remember this? Do you know what's happening?

SPEAKER_02 1:32

You asked me that a lot. And my answer most of the time was like, nope. The only thing I remembered were the old spies. Because I remember the twist blowing my mind as a kid. I'm like, goddammit, I can't trust old people.

UNKNOWN 1:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:51

So let's dive in. Let's expand upon that. 1984. So you mentioned Henry Thomas. If people don't know him by name, he's Elliot from

SPEAKER_02 2:05

E.T. Yeah, he is.

SPEAKER_04 2:06

So at this point, this is post E.T. E.T. was 82. He doesn't I mean, yes, he looks a touch older now. My guess is like this maybe was the next thing that he filmed after E.T.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

Like right after. It

SPEAKER_04 2:18

had to have been because he doesn't like a ton older. But in any case, let's start, though, with the writers. Sorry to preface with Henry Thomas, but written by we have a couple people, one familiar name that we have definitely talked about before. And we're going to start with him. Tom Holland. I

SPEAKER_02 2:37

remember that name.

SPEAKER_04 2:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:39

Not the actor. No. Not Spider-Man.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

Yeah. I hadn't even thought of that joke again. Dang it.

SPEAKER_04 2:45

Beat you to

SPEAKER_02 2:46

it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:46

But yes, Tom Holland. It's kind of fun to see him back. Yeah. Actually, we might bring him up again later this season. So he has a screen story and screenplay credit. And so... Holland, he's a little bit of a writer, a little bit of a director. I'll get to the credit that we've covered before in just a moment. But strictly speaking, his writing credits, we have The Beast Within, Class of 1984, Psycho 2, which I've never seen, but I think I've heard good things about it.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

Yeah, I have too. I have heard... Like in terms of like sequels that were not absolute shit.

SPEAKER_04 3:32

Yeah. It

SPEAKER_02 3:33

might be better than that.

SPEAKER_04 3:34

It did come fairly far after the original, but I've heard that it's decent. So here we go. Fright Night. Yeah, I love that movie. I love that movie so much. He is the writer and he also happens to be the director for that film. And he also has a credit for Fright Night Part Two because he originated the characters. So that's another credit. I

SPEAKER_02 3:56

have not heard good things about Fright Night Two, nor have I watched it, though. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 4:00

No, I'm not. so interested uh child's play so that's the one that i was like oh maybe we'll do that later this year

SPEAKER_02 4:07

i can't believe that's an 80s movie for some reason it feels you

SPEAKER_04 4:10

have a real uh

SPEAKER_02 4:12

i have a real problem with this

SPEAKER_04 4:13

real problem with the fact that it's from the 80s and thinner so uh the net so here's what's interesting this is a film that's like based on a story like outside of Outside of like script writing, like there's this writer. His name is Cornell Woolrich. Not Woolrich. God, it's hard to say. Remember that store? Woolworths? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:38

Not that.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

Not that. Woolrich. Woolrich. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:41

So he was this... prolific writer he passed away in 1968 so long before this movie ever came along and he's kind of one of those guys where a lot of like in Hollywood they've taken a lot of his stories and they've made projects out of them so he has a from a story by credit on this one and I think he did try his hand at screenwriting I think he was more successful as just like a story writer like novels and short stories but A couple of his credits are very familiar, but I'll go through a couple of them. And these are all kind of like based on his stories, not necessarily a screenplay. The Haunted House, Seven Footprints to Satan.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

Wow. I

SPEAKER_04 5:29

love that one.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:30

No Man of Her Own, If I Should Die Before I Wake.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

That's so fucking dramatic.

SPEAKER_04 5:37

Here we go. Rare Window. Rare Window.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

I do like that movie a lot.

SPEAKER_04 5:42

And from what I read, he was like a mystery writer. And so it makes sense that Hitchcock... I could see why Hitchcock would pull from his stories.

SPEAKER_03 5:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:54

The Boy Who Cried Murder, which I took a look to see, oh, is this the story that originated, kind of was like a basis for Cloak and Dagger? Because there's kind of that element.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

Very much. He, in fact, is a boy who cries murder.

SPEAKER_04 6:07

Yeah, I don't... Maybe... Okay. Okay. Briefly, I'm going to bring up this person because technically she's uncredited for this, Nancy Dowd. But she is a very well-known screenwriter. So I don't know if she came in for a polish or what she did, punched it up in some way. But some of her credits, I bet you we have talked about her. Although the film that we covered, she's also uncredited for. She probably did a lot of story doctoring.

UNKNOWN 6:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:53

I wish this was an 80s movie because I would love to cover Slapshot.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:57

She's a screenwriter on

SPEAKER_02 6:58

that. I know you love that movie.

SPEAKER_04 6:59

I do really love that movie. She is an Oscar winning screenplay or screenwriter, I should say, best original screenplay for Coming Home. She was uncredited, but I have a feeling she probably had something to do with Ordinary People.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

Oh, man. That's a feel good classic.

SPEAKER_04 7:19

And Swing Shift.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Okay. So some of her credits.

SPEAKER_04 7:22

Okay. So moving on to the director, Richard Franklin. This is another one of those episodes where unfortunately a number of people attached to the film have passed away. He passed away in 2007. Interesting filmography. Oh? I don't think we have brought him up. Maybe in passing. Maybe in passing we have for one episode. But some of his... Directing credits include the TV show Homicide. He directed Road Games. So here's why maybe we've, in passing, brought him up. He has an uncredited credit on the Pirate movie. Go check out that episode. Love that movie. He was the director on Psycho 2. Okay. He also directed on the TV show, haven't you brought this up, Beastmaster?

SPEAKER_02 8:12

The TV show Beauty and the Beast? Yes.

SPEAKER_04 8:16

No, Beastmaster.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

Or the movie Beastmaster. Yeah, I've brought up the movie Beastmaster. But it's not

SPEAKER_04 8:20

the movie. It's a TV show.

SPEAKER_02 8:21

I've not seen a TV show for Beastmaster.

SPEAKER_04 8:24

And his final credit was a film called Visitors.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 8:29

Okay, moving on to cinematography. Let's see. Have we brought him up before? Yes, we have. And actually, we might be bringing him up again very soon. Victor J. Kemper. He's also passed. He passed more recently in 2023.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

You know, we had considered naming this Recently Passed, but 80s Movie Montage won out.

SPEAKER_04 8:52

Unfortunately, we've just had a couple episodes in a row where there just is a high number of people who are no longer with us.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

It's just the way it works with movies that are... I

SPEAKER_04 9:01

know. It's only going to... The longer we continue this, the higher the odds are.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

The movies are slightly aged now.

SPEAKER_04 9:07

Yeah. So some of his credits include, this comes up all the time. Oh? That the film, They Might Be Giants.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

Oh, yeah? Yeah. Why? Is there, what's the connection there?

SPEAKER_04 9:23

He's the cinematographer. Wait, what? You're trying to tell a joke. Yeah, I know. I know. I know. I do love the band. So he is the DP on that. We've also brought up this film, though I think it's been a minute. Who is Harry Kellerman and why is he saying those terrible things about me?

SPEAKER_02 9:40

It's a title that's so long you probably have to expand your browser window just for IMDb to show it

SPEAKER_04 9:46

all. I love that that's the title of a movie. So he did that. Some probably more well-known films. He shot The Candidate. He shot Dog Day Afternoon, The Last Tycoon. He shot Slapshot.

SPEAKER_03 10:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 10:01

So we have brought him up for Mr. Mom. Okay. He was the DP on that. Go check out that episode. So the reason why I was like, oh, we might bring him up again real soon because I have on the slate National Lampoon's Vacation. All

SPEAKER_02 10:15

right.

SPEAKER_04 10:15

So he did that. Pee-wee's Big Adventure. We also brought him up for Clue. With the multiple endings. So he shot that, Beethoven, Tommy Boy, in a film that I am going to speak on your behalf and say neither of us enjoyed. Jingle all the way.

SPEAKER_02 10:31

Man, I don't like movies that are just anxiety simulators, and that's Pretty much what that was.

SPEAKER_04 10:37

It was all just like bits.

SPEAKER_02 10:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:40

Just like physical comedy bits.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

He was also the DP on a movie from 1980 called The Final Countdown. No relation to the song, but it's an aircraft carrier that goes back in time to 1941 near Hawaii.

SPEAKER_04 10:55

Oh, yeah. That's with Kirk Douglas, right?

SPEAKER_02 10:57

Just before Pearl Harbor. I don't. Yeah. Yeah. You're right.

SPEAKER_04 11:01

Yeah. We could do that one at some point. I wouldn't mind. Be

SPEAKER_02 11:05

interesting to see how the effects have aged on.

SPEAKER_04 11:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

On something like that or just how anything has. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:11

Okay. Moving on to music. So the composer on this film was Brian May. He too has passed. He passed in 1997. And I think we could definitely bring him up again. It's interesting that we haven't talked about it. I'll get to kind of some of his main credits in a second. But it's interesting that we haven't thought about doing these films. So here, I don't even know this show, but he was the composer on a TV series called Bellbird for 1,639 episodes.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Wow. In 1967.

SPEAKER_04 11:49

Yeah, that's a crazy long run for a show.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

These aren't like YouTube shorts.

SPEAKER_04 11:55

No! I was like, okay. I don't usually see that big of a count on a TV show. So here we go. Although this is technically 70s. He was the composer on Mad Max, but the reason why I bring that up is because he's also the composer on The Road Warrior, which

SPEAKER_02 12:09

we could do. Yeah, and I've thought about them. I definitely want to cover road warrior and, um, beyond Thunderdome, I think is eighties as well.

SPEAKER_04 12:18

We would start with, I mean, we, as far as like the, uh, having to stick within the decade, we'd start with road warrior

SPEAKER_02 12:26

though. Yeah. We can talk about road warrior and we can talk a little bit about if, when we cover that, we can talk a little bit about what transpires in the original as we did with, uh, Rocky two. Yeah. You know? Sure.

SPEAKER_04 12:39

Um,

SPEAKER_02 12:41

No one's going to come after us if we break this rule.

SPEAKER_04 12:44

I will come after you. He also did Road Games, Death Before Dishonor, and Freddy's Dead, The Final Nightmare. All right. Okay, moving on to film editing, Andrew London. Not a huge filmography, but again, it's clear that, again, some of these people, they... have a relationship. They like to work on projects together because he was the editor on Psycho 2. So he

SPEAKER_03 13:13

did

SPEAKER_04 13:13

that. He was the editor on Rambo 3.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

So Rambo, which is First Blood Part 2, already kind of takes what was an interesting story from First Blood and just goes kind of wild with it. And then Rambo 3 is like... Rambo 3

SPEAKER_04 13:31

is like the...

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Dialing it to 11.

SPEAKER_04 13:33

Yeah, like the one that people kind of make fun of in terms of just how ridiculous. I'm

SPEAKER_02 13:40

pretty sure it's the one that Weird Al was making fun of in VHS.

SPEAKER_04 13:44

Yes. He also cut Big Eden and then did work on a fair number of TV movies over the course of his career. All right. We are at the start of this film. And actually, we do have a decent amount of people to talk about. Starting with, you mentioned him, Henry Thomas.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

E.T. Elliot.

SPEAKER_04 14:06

Elliot. He is, you mentioned his character name, Davy Osborn.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

Sounds like one of the monkeys. Yeah. What

SPEAKER_04 14:17

was his name? Davy something. Jones, maybe?

UNKNOWN 14:21

Davy.

SPEAKER_04 14:23

Anyway, Henry Thomas is still very much acting to this day. We'll definitely go through his credits. But what an amazing kid actor. He's so good. He

SPEAKER_02 14:37

really is. He

SPEAKER_04 14:38

really is so believable in these roles. Look, it's very hard to not think of him as Elliot from E.T. because it's just such an iconic role.

SPEAKER_02 14:49

If you have the opportunity, look up his... You can find on YouTube like a casting thing of him when he was auditioning for E.T.

SPEAKER_04 14:58

And Spielberg's like, he got the role kit.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:02

I mean, he's just incredible. You know, I was thinking about this as we were watching it. Like I was I was kind of think about like, you know, people come together for I'm going to say on average, maybe if it's like a studio backed feature film for maybe maybe two months ish to shoot it. when they're doing, like, principal photography, depending on, like, the demands of the shoot. Yeah. But you have this, like, really intense time where you're, like, working with somebody, you're seeing them every day, you're doing maybe emotional scenes with them. And I was just thinking about the fact that, like, we'll get to him in a second, but Dabney Coleman just passed away last year. And even though they only worked on this one film together, I always kind of think about, like, oh, so, like, when Dabney Coleman passed away, like... What does that mean for someone like Henry Thomas who worked with him when he was a child? I just kind of think about that. Or is it like... I don't know what the comparison would be, but if we heard somebody from high school had passed away, where there's been enough time passed where it's like, oh, that's sad, but it doesn't really... I just am curious what kind of relationships develop or don't over the course of those types of collaborations and what it means when somebody passes away later on in life. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

Sorry for the

SPEAKER_04 16:23

side.

SPEAKER_02 16:23

No, I mean, I've heard stories where actors... they might develop a friendship that extends for years. Even Kevin Smith was talking about dogma because they ended up getting, oh my goodness, Hans Gruber.

SPEAKER_04 16:40

Sure. Alan

SPEAKER_02 16:42

Rickman. Yeah, Rickman. They got him and after working together, he was super intimidated by the possibility of working with him. But afterwards, they remained friends like somewhat close like if he was if Smith is ever traveling overseas he would meet with them so like that can happen I you know

SPEAKER_04 17:05

especially with something like this though when you're a child and

SPEAKER_02 17:08

that's his dad yeah and his hero

SPEAKER_04 17:11

because like for instance at the Oscars this year you know Morgan Freeman gave kind of the intro for the In Memoriam and specifically called out Gene Hackman because that was his friend they had developed a friendship over the course of their careers but they were like peers so I'm always kind of curious what it means for somebody who's a much younger actor, if that means anything. Anyway, I'm not going to go hit up Henry Thomas and ask about his feelings on the passing of Dabney Coleman. It's just something that I kind of randomly think about. But he was, and still is, an incredible actor, but he... He's very... What would you say is his character's main trait? He's... Precocious.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Yeah. I mean, as a lot of kids in this era of movie, like very independent.

SPEAKER_04 18:04

Oh, my God.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

Getting all around town. Very assertive.

SPEAKER_04 18:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:13

That is something that was so funny about this movie because like his little friend, his little neighborhood friend, she seems to be even younger than him. She's taking the bus at midnight to get to the airport.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

Look, I'm not getting on the bus at midnight to go to the

SPEAKER_04 18:29

airport. And they each had bus passes, so this is something they

SPEAKER_02 18:33

do on the rag. Yeah, and then when he forgot his bus pass or something, so he's just asking random cabbies outside a bar.

SPEAKER_03 18:43

Strangers!

SPEAKER_02 18:44

Yeah, one of whom I'm sure we'll get to. Louis Anderson, just a random cabbie in this? Yeah,

SPEAKER_04 18:49

that was a really random cameo. Yeah, it is very funny to see the depiction of children In this time. Yeah. I think it maybe takes it a little far. I, too, was never riding buses by myself when I was this age. But yes, there was a high level independence, I would say. I feel

SPEAKER_02 19:08

like it got off the rails as time moved on with other movies where you'd see kids... They weren't really even acting like kids in these. They're doing these things where that's crazy that this kid be doing this, but he was still acting like a kid.

SPEAKER_04 19:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

I

SPEAKER_04 19:27

was actually thinking about you a lot watching this because he's a gamer. That's a huge part of the story. Yes, it is. So I was curious if that was nostalgic for you in any way for when you watched the actual gameplay.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

I'm sure that's what drew it to you. I never had an Atari 5200, which I think was the successor to the 2600. Okay. I had a 2600. But after that, I think I was more for a while just trying to do PC games. gaming instead of the console experience. Was

SPEAKER_04 20:02

Atari Frogger? I

SPEAKER_02 20:06

think Frogger was probably an Atari title. You would have been able to play it on one of those. Pitfall, Frogger, Joust was kind of fun.

SPEAKER_04 20:16

But he's had a really interesting career. So as mentioned, huge breakout role in E.T. Some of his other roles while he's still kind of like... He's had an interesting career because I think there have been some lulls, but he's been very busy lately. Some of his earlier work, I have almost in the early half of his career films, Fire in the Sky. So he's the youngest brother in Legends of the Fall.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

How does that movie, that movie comes up all the time?

SPEAKER_04 20:48

Legends of the Fall? Yes. It did come up. Last time, I think, for music, for music, because you said it was dramatic. And you also said it was like a far off place. But he's the youngest brother. So he's brother to Brad Pitt and Aiden Quinn, I believe. That's rough. That's rough. That's rough. And he does, spoiler, pass away.

SPEAKER_02 21:11

Is he the one that got stuck in the barbed wire or something? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Pretty rough. That was...

SPEAKER_04 21:16

It's... Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Not the best move.

SPEAKER_04 21:19

Oh, wait. Are you... Oh, God.

SPEAKER_02 21:21

He's in a couple of really bad death scenes. What am I thinking of?

SPEAKER_04 21:23

So you're thinking of Gangs of New York. No. When he falls on the...

SPEAKER_02 21:28

I'm thinking of both, I think. Wasn't there the... Well, okay.

SPEAKER_04 21:31

In Legends of the Fall...

SPEAKER_02 21:32

Someone gets stuck in the... Yeah, because

SPEAKER_04 21:33

he's in World War I. Yeah. I believe that might actually be how he dies. Yeah. In Legends of the Fall. But he has like kind of a similar death in Gangs of New York.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

He's like strung up or something in Gangs of New York, isn't he? Well,

SPEAKER_04 21:47

don't they– no, they like drop him on a fence. He's like– you can't even move him because he's like impaled.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

Oh, that's rough.

SPEAKER_04 21:56

That's a really tough scene.

SPEAKER_02 21:59

That's like a 10-hour movie, so I don't remember that

SPEAKER_04 22:00

exact scene. Man, I haven't seen either of those films in a while, but–

SPEAKER_02 22:06

You know it's a long movie when it comes with two discs,

SPEAKER_04 22:08

right? Which one was it?

SPEAKER_02 22:10

Gangs of New York. It had a disc one and disc two. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:13

Still is one of my favorite Scorsese films. Yeah. He also did All the Pretty Horses in between those two films. He did a TV series called Betrayal. Here's what I love. He is fully embraced horror. He is almost, maybe it's a little premature, probably is, to say that he's like an icon. Yeah. He's not there yet, but he is fully immersed. He's been in... It kind of started with Ouija, Origin of Evil. He's in that. He's in Gerald's Game.

SPEAKER_02 22:41

Excellent book. And I was really happy with the adaptation on Netflix, I think it was. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:49

He also... I'm going slightly out of chronological order because I... well actually I don't even have to because he

SPEAKER_02 22:55

don't do it do whatever you want

SPEAKER_04 22:56

he because I forgot that this was also a Flanagan film Flanagan mostly has done these TV series but he is the director of Dr. Sleep and he's yeah struck up this like really amazing collaboration with Mike Flanagan as have other actors Flanagan has definitely become that person that like pulls on the same cast of characters for a lot of his work so he most of what I have remaining for him are all these Flanagan miniseries so The Haunting of Hill House.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

One of the best twists. in a horror series that I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_04 23:27

I was just talking about that with some co-workers, and they were suggesting reading the book by Shirley Jackson. The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, and The Fall of the House of Usher, those are all Flanagan miniseries. But then also, he did direct Doctor Sleep. And he just is a bit part, but essentially he's kind of playing the Jack Nicholson role. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:50

Yes, yeah. He's like Jack

SPEAKER_04 23:52

Nicholson as the bartender.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

That movie, it's... That was so interesting because the original Shining book and movie had such dramatically different endings. And so it's a similar experience with the book and the movie for Dr. Sleep because they each had to jump back in from their respective totally different endings.

SPEAKER_04 24:13

I was listening to a podcast with Mike Flanagan recently. I think it was that– what is it? History of Horror. I think he was talking to Eli Roth. And he was talking about how he had to convince Stephen King to be able to do the film and had to really talk him through how he would actually execute. Doctor

SPEAKER_02 24:35

Sleep? Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 24:36

Yeah. And so without– I never read The Shining. I only know the film version. However, I'm aware of the differences in the book. So Doctor Sleep, like– It falls somewhere in the middle for me with all of these sequels that come decades later. after the original film and how well they execute on it i think one of the best examples of doing it well was maverick

SPEAKER_03 25:02

yeah

SPEAKER_04 25:02

with top gun so in one of the worst in my personal opinion in my humble opinion one of the worst versions is like all these like more recent ghostbuster movies um and i'm not talking about ghostbusters 2016 i'm talking about

SPEAKER_02 25:16

because that wasn't as much of a sequel that was like uh its own thing yeah

SPEAKER_04 25:20

but um so yeah i mean stephen king came on board because Mike Flanagan said, like, I understand how bad the fallout was when you saw the finished product of The Shining and how far you felt that it came from your original work. So he tried the best he could, to your point, to try to, like, tie those two very separate stories together.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

They did a good job, I think. I liked them both. I mean, I kind of, like, went pretty quickly from finishing the book to watching the movie and And all that stuff is like fresh in your mind, all the differences. But I really enjoyed it. And I enjoyed Henry as the bartender.

SPEAKER_04 26:02

Very good. He did a great Jack Nicholson being the bartender.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

Very much so.

SPEAKER_04 26:09

OK, moving on to the gentleman that we did briefly talk about, Dabney Coleman. So to your point, you want you want to explain this for the folks at home? Because you you said he plays two different characters.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

Well, it's interesting because he's Davy's childhood imaginary friend, Jack Flack, I think. But it sounds like he was also his dad's imaginary friend.

SPEAKER_04 26:36

That's weird too, right?

SPEAKER_02 26:38

But yeah, so he's the same. It's Dabney Coleman playing both of those roles. He's like the secret agent spy Jack Flack and also his dad.

SPEAKER_04 26:48

He is actually Davy's dad.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:50

Hail Osborn. Yep. And yeah, I thought that was so interesting that choice that he is both of those characters.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

I feel like it was very intentional so that at the end when you see like the silhouette of Jack Flack walking back from the explosion, it kind of like... morphs into his dad

SPEAKER_04 27:13

it definitely does because like in the first version of like this like shadowy figure coming back towards db you can very clearly see the bray yeah and then it's just his hair yeah and then and then it like cuts away to db cuts back and then it's like actually the silhouette of his dad

SPEAKER_02 27:26

i mean they kind of tease that i guess a little bit with um the conversation earlier in the movie when his dad is telling him that You don't need to shoot the bad guys to be a hero. Heroes fix bikes and put supper on the table.

SPEAKER_04 27:41

Which is not a bad thing to be telling your kid. No. I did sympathize with the dad. I mean, he's... He is that, like, military dad from the 80s who, like, doesn't really show tenderness or love.

SPEAKER_02 27:55

Because earlier in that same scene, he's like...

SPEAKER_04 27:57

Yes! Oh, my God, when they're talking about how Davy's mom passed away, he's like, well, she's not coming back.

SPEAKER_02 28:02

Because Davy says, like, she'd believe me with this crazy story. Yeah, and then his dad says... She's not coming back. Ever.

SPEAKER_04 28:11

Damn. I mean, we all know that. But anyway, so I do love Danny Coleman. And he has come up a couple of times. Possibly he can come up again in the future. I think he will. Maybe. Yeah. So he started off in TV, a ton of TV work. I mean, he had such a long career. He only passed in 2024. He passed very recently. Some of his early... Credits include the film The Scalp Hunters.

SPEAKER_02 28:39

That doesn't sound cool.

SPEAKER_04 28:42

Yeah. So he also it sounds like he he was a character that crossed over between TV series because he plays the same character name in Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and also Forever Fernwood.

SPEAKER_03 28:56

So

SPEAKER_04 28:56

he did that. OK, so probably the first time we brought him up. Well, maybe. I'm beginning to lose track chronologically. But very early in the podcast, we brought him up for 9 to 5.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 29:08

He is amazing. He is the classic sleazeball boss in that. And he's so fun. He really goes with it. Go check out that episode. I was going to say that maybe at some point we would talk about him because he's in the film on Golden Pond.

SPEAKER_02 29:24

Oh, okay. So possibly. We should have done a double feature of that and Cocoon.

SPEAKER_04 29:30

Yeah. Yeah. You know what? I think that could have worked because, again, it features older actors. And I think some of the storyline is about just being in that stage of life.

SPEAKER_02 29:41

But no aliens in Golden Pond.

SPEAKER_04 29:43

No aliens in Golden Pond. The reason why I would want to cover Golden Pond is because I do really love Henry Fonda. I love his early work. One of my absolute favorite films of all time is Lady Eve. He was actually an amazing comedic actor. I think a lot of people know him more so for his dramatic work like Grapes of Yeah. So I was going to say Young Doctors in Love is another one we could possibly cover. He also he just kind of plays a different version of his 95. And I don't mean that as a slight in Tootsie. Very much. But he's great in that. Yeah. We also when we actually covered the film, I was like, oh, he's in it a lot less than I remembered in War Games.

SPEAKER_02 30:50

He was. Yeah. I don't know. I expected him to be around a bit more, but

SPEAKER_04 30:57

same.

SPEAKER_02 30:57

Sadly, no.

SPEAKER_04 30:58

And then a little bit later on in his career, a lot more TV work. So he was on a show called Buffalo Bill. I mean, also sprinkled in with still film. He was in the film Dragnet. A lot more TV work. He was on the Slap Maxwell story, Drexel's class, Madman of the People. He was in the films You've Got Mail, Inspector Gadget, and then Later on in his career, the film, or I'm sorry, the TV shows The Guardian and Boardwalk Empire.

SPEAKER_02 31:28

I'm so sad that we won't be able to cover Short Time, the hilarious 1990 movie where Dabney Coleman gets his medical test mixed up with somebody else.

SPEAKER_04 31:39

You have mentioned this.

SPEAKER_02 31:40

And he just has to somehow die in... in the act of like fulfilling his duty. He's a cop. So he has to die while he's like working. And so he becomes like a super cop because he just keeps doing increasingly risky things, hoping that he will get killed so that his family gets the payout from the insurance. And then of course, right when he's about to like finally die, he finds out, whoops, the results were mixed up. He survived.

SPEAKER_04 32:08

Go figure.

SPEAKER_02 32:09

So you don't have to watch the movie now. You just...

SPEAKER_04 32:12

Okay, moving on to one of the baddies in this film. It's a little convoluted. Oh? The whole... Okay, so the baddies, they steal these government secrets and they put them on a kid's game.

SPEAKER_02 32:35

They keep calling it a tape. I never called those things tapes. They were just like a cartridge or

SPEAKER_04 32:41

something.

UNKNOWN 32:41

So...

SPEAKER_04 32:42

One of the baddies' name, they call him Rice. He's... When you first see him, you think he's just, like, a random person, and then you realize, like, oh, no, he's a bad guy. He's, like, working for that side.

SPEAKER_02 32:55

Because he's dressed... In like a lab coat or something. Which, you know, I guess for an electronics place, they would wear the anti-static lab coats. Yeah,

SPEAKER_04 33:05

sure. So played by Michael Murphy. And actually, as I was going through his filmography, I was like, oh my God, this guy's been in everything. I was like, oh, that's where I know him from. Oh, that's where I know him from. He's been in a lot. Still very much working. Some of his credits, I have mostly films for him. We have Double Trouble. He was in the film MASH.

SPEAKER_02 33:28

Oh, which actually predated the TV series, right?

SPEAKER_04 33:32

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 33:33

That's got to be the most successful movie to TV series ever. I

SPEAKER_04 33:37

think so. I think that's a pretty, pretty, like, I would confidently agree with you on that.

SPEAKER_02 33:43

Mostly because that's one of the most successful TV shows ever.

SPEAKER_04 33:46

Of all time.

SPEAKER_02 33:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:47

Yep. McCabe and Mrs. Miller. What's Up Doc, which is an amazing comedy. Nashville. He must have had a good working relationship with Robert Allman. He was in An Unmarried Woman, Manhattan, The Year of Living Dangerously. I was like, oh, sure. I do remember him in this. He is the mayor in Batman Returns.

SPEAKER_02 34:09

Oh. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:11

Yeah. So he's in that. Private Parts, the film Magnolia

SPEAKER_02 34:16

with Tom Cruise. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:19

He was on the TV series This Is Wonderland. He was in one of the X-Men movies, X-Men The Last Stand. Okay, that's a good one. More recently, the TV show The Bridge. So this is going to kind of hold true for, I think, almost everybody else in this cast, if I'm bringing them up. A lot of one-offs, two-offs on TV shows. Okay, so this character, very fun. Davy's friend Kim.

SPEAKER_02 34:48

She was hilarious. She was very concerned with the perception. Looking embarrassed. Yeah, she did not want to be embarrassed using their walkie talkies, which was a great concept. I mean, in the 80s. No cell phones. How do you get these kids to be able to talk? You invent magic walkie talkies that cover the entire city of San Antonio.

SPEAKER_04 35:08

And this kid, she's a little like Spitfire. She's like very opinionated, very like she she knows herself at a very young age. Like she's very self-possessed, played by Christina Negra. And

SPEAKER_02 35:25

oh, man, now I know where I remember her from.

SPEAKER_04 35:27

Where?

SPEAKER_02 35:27

I'll let you go through the credits.

SPEAKER_04 35:30

Okay, I don't have a lot for her. Okay. Because it seems like she, for the most, there's, like, one credit, I think, from 2017, but, like, for the most part, she kind of veered out of being in front of the camera as she got older. But she had, like, a very small stint. Like, she did some TV work, like, one-offs, two-offs. She had, I think, like, a two-episode arc on Trapper John MD. Amazing.

UNKNOWN 35:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:54

She was in the film The Sword and the Sorcerer. Is that where you know her from?

SPEAKER_02 35:59

It's not.

SPEAKER_04 36:00

So I highly, highly doubt we brought her up for this, but she is– In the segment, what is it? Nightmare at 20,000 Feet for Twilight Zone, the movie.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

So that's the one with John Lithgow. Correct. William Shatner played the original episode. Yeah. I think we might have brought her up just because she's kind of the same. She's a little spitfire, I guess, in that... like, in that bit in the Nightmare at 20,000 Feet. Oh,

SPEAKER_04 36:28

you do think we brought her up?

SPEAKER_02 36:30

We might have, because I remember... That's what I remember her from.

SPEAKER_04 36:32

Okay. I don't know if I remembered her from that,

SPEAKER_02 36:36

but it's possible we... Because Lithgow is flipping out, and she's just, like, very opinionated on what's happening on this planet.

SPEAKER_04 36:42

Yeah. She... So her... Her most, if you want to say, her most substantial credit is that she was on, I think, most of the series of Out of This World, where I just remember, because the girl, her dad's an alien, she could stop time by putting her fingers together.

SPEAKER_02 37:00

Oh, there were so many shows. Like, there was Small Wonder. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:05

Lots of very strange shows from the 80s.

SPEAKER_02 37:08

Hey, we have a daughter. She's a robot. She's a robot. Can't let anyone know. But

SPEAKER_04 37:12

can't tell anybody

SPEAKER_02 37:13

that. Hey, she's an alien. Don't tell anyone. Hey, it's an elf.

SPEAKER_04 37:17

Half alien. Half alien. Her mom was human. Kind of like Guardians of the Galaxy. Star Wars. Yeah. But yeah, she's very fun in this movie. And she really brings a lot of life to it. She's a great... little actor to play off of Davey yeah and she's even more like independent than he is like it's wild these like I said like her taking the bus all by herself and like she's

SPEAKER_02 37:47

well fun she's not going through the same uh same personal trauma that Davey is going through yeah um

SPEAKER_04 37:55

I don't know where her dad is but yeah but her mom's a single mom

SPEAKER_02 37:58

she yeah exactly um So she's at least as independent, if not more, but she's not battling whatever Davy is working through with the death of his mom. So it gives her the ability. She can move about even more freely than Davy can because Davy's dad is like, stop playing these games. All

SPEAKER_04 38:22

right, moving on to that older couple that you mentioned. Kind of interesting, they come in pretty late. in the story, I would, I would say my own opinion. It's,

SPEAKER_02 38:35

yeah, they come in like probably after the halfway mark because it's when he's in San Antonio on this like boat ride thing.

SPEAKER_04 38:42

Correct. And you think at first they are going to in some way help him.

SPEAKER_02 38:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:47

But it's, they're, they're bad spies too. I would

SPEAKER_02 38:51

say they're exceptional spies.

SPEAKER_04 38:53

Except, yes, they're exceptionally bad spies. Meaning they're, They're the baddies. They're the villains. And what is so fun about this couple is that I love when they do this where they, like, pull these actors who have these, like, really impressive careers that they've had, like, for decades. And then they're in a– if it's okay to say, like a film like this. It's just very fun to me. And both of them, both of these actors had amazing careers. We're going to start with John McIntyre. Fun

SPEAKER_02 39:26

fact, they were married for like over 50 years in real life.

SPEAKER_04 39:31

Yeah. And funny that you should say that because they have a lot of crossover with their credits. I'm not surprised. Yeah. And he is very familiar looking. Honestly, looking through his filmography, I couldn't quite pinpoint why he looked familiar to me, but he looked very familiar to me. So to your point, they were married. He passed first. He passed in 1991. So he plays George, George McCready. And what a career. They both started out in the 40s. So many credits for each of them. I mean, some of his more notable ones. And I do have like a little bit of a mix between TV and film. The film called Northside 777, The Asphalt Jungle, The Tin Star. He was on the TV series Naked City. He was in the original Psycho. Wow. He, I think, was like the sheriff.

SPEAKER_02 40:29

Yeah. Okay.

UNKNOWN 40:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:30

I thought this was so interesting. I can't say I remember him from this film, but the film Elmer Gantry. I don't know if you're familiar with it. I am not. We watched it in film school. I think it's like 1960. And I want to say Burt Lancaster won an Oscar for the role very ahead of its time. It's basically about kind of like a salesman who... presents himself as a preacher and gains this following because of his charismatic ways that may or may not reflect his true interest or good intentions as far as religion is concerned.

SPEAKER_02 41:13

So a Righteous Gemstones prequel. Yes. Kind of. In

SPEAKER_04 41:17

a lot of ways. So he's in that. A couple TV series. A lot of Westerns. That makes sense. Wagon Train, The Virginian. Not a Western. He was in the film Herbie Rides Again. This is fun. Although the film is not fun. But he is one of the voices in The Fox and the Hound.

SPEAKER_02 41:40

Oh, my God.

SPEAKER_04 41:41

His final credit was Turner and Hooch. And beyond what I mentioned, so many TV appearances. One-offs, two-offs, all of that. So... Okay, moving on to the person who plays his wife and his wife, Jeanette Nolan. So she plays Eunice McCready.

SPEAKER_02 42:03

Missing a couple fingers there, she is. Yes,

SPEAKER_04 42:05

she is. She passed away a few years after him. He passed in 91. She passed in 98. Also an amazing career. I mean, out the gate. It was like her first credit as far as IMDb is concerned. She was Lady Macbeth. Wow. In 1948's Macbeth, which Orson Welles plays Macbeth. So like she played his wife. I mean, not a bad first gig. So she was in that. The Big Heat. This is fun. She's in Psycho. She is the accredited voice of Norma Bates.

SPEAKER_02 42:41

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 42:41

Yeah. So that's pretty fun. So they're both in Psycho. He's the sheriff and she did some voice work. She was in The Man Who Shot Liberty of Alice. Yeah. Some TV work, The Richard Boone Show. This is a film and another really fun title. This is the title. Did you hear the one about the traveling sales lady? That's the name of the movie. She also was on the show, The Virginian. More TV work, Gunsmoke. So she also did a fair amount of Westerns. Dirty Sally. She also... was one of the voices in The Fox and the Hound. God damn it. I think that's like so interesting that they both did some voice work

SPEAKER_02 43:23

for that film. Leave me alone, Fox and the Hound.

SPEAKER_04 43:25

Yeah. And then her final credit was The Horse Whisperer, the film. Oh. Okay, so moving on to, I'm going to call them like the henchmen kind of. Neither of them get a lot to say. For both of them, it's a lot of running around, trying to get Davey. They have no qualms about killing a kid.

SPEAKER_02 43:48

No, they don't. I mean, the first evil person we spoke of had this whole monologue where he's talking about how slowly he's going to kill Davey. Like

SPEAKER_04 44:00

blow out his kneecaps.

SPEAKER_02 44:01

Shoot him in the stomach. Yeah. And then just watch him die slowly.

SPEAKER_04 44:05

Pretty rough.

SPEAKER_02 44:06

Kids movie, everyone.

SPEAKER_04 44:07

Pretty rough. Yeah. Well, you know, that's interesting because I was thinking about that. Like, I think that there's a lot of this in 80s films. There is, yeah. It's become much more black and white, I would say, for a lot, not all. Like, I do, it's very clear that the studios are, like, trying to hit all four quadrants with a lot of the animated films in particular that they put out. This is not an animated film. But for a lot of, like, live action movies, back in the day, it was like an interesting kind of like position does maybe a kid's film, but maybe not a kid's film with like some of the story and dialogue. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:46

I mean, I think it's just like a classic eighties movie that was trying to be a kid's film that just had stuff that went a little too far.

SPEAKER_04 44:54

Yeah, that too. So the, their names are just Alvarez and Alvarez, I think I misspelled it. Is it Haverman? That

SPEAKER_02 45:05

sounds right.

SPEAKER_04 45:06

So the first, played by Eloy Casados, and he has passed. He passed in 2016. Both of these guys, well, okay, I think Casados was more of a straight actor. Yeah,

SPEAKER_02 45:20

you'd recognize him in things, I think.

SPEAKER_04 45:22

Yeah, you would. Although, again, he did a lot of teamwork, a lot of one-offs, two-offs, that kind of thing. One of the more substantial arcs that he had was on a TV show called Young Dan. I don't know why they abbreviated Daniel, but it's essentially Young Daniel Boone.

SPEAKER_03 45:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 45:40

He did that. But some of the films, varying stages of like the size of the role, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Hollywood Vice Squad, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man. It's tough. It's hard to say. Yeah,

SPEAKER_02 45:56

you got to say it. Marlboro Man.

SPEAKER_04 45:58

There

SPEAKER_02 45:58

you go.

UNKNOWN 45:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:58

White Man Can't Jump. Okay. Cobb. Hollywood Homicide. So he was in Hollywood Vice Squad and Hollywood Homicide.

SPEAKER_02 46:07

He's worked his way up or... Was that more of a lateral move? I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 46:12

Frost Nixon. Okay. He has a bit part. I thought this was fun because I do love this movie. And Bridesmaids. And then his final appearance was in the film As You Like It. Okay, so the other gentleman... Um, it's pretty clear. Like, and there are a number of these guys. I mean, I don't know. Most infamously maybe is, uh, OJ Simpson, where you have these former football players who create a second career for themselves in entertainment. And that's what this guy did. Tim Rosovich. He was a football player. He

SPEAKER_02 46:42

looks like a football player. 100%. He looks, he looks exactly like if someone was like, I just want to cast a football player for this. That's exactly what he looks

SPEAKER_04 46:52

like. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 46:53

I don't want him to say anything, but physically I want him to be like intimidating and be able to move around. The

SPEAKER_04 46:59

character of Alvarez is more menacing. Yeah. This character's just like straight, like he's the muscle.

SPEAKER_02 47:05

He's the muscle.

SPEAKER_04 47:06

Yeah. He's also passed. He passed in 2018. And I mean, he did well for himself. Like he did have a whole career in sports. NFL. So he had that. But as far as like his acting career, some of his credits include that TV series with Billy Crystal, Soap.

SPEAKER_03 47:24

Oh, he had like

SPEAKER_04 47:25

a little little stint on that. Some more TV work on When the Whistle Blows. Don't know that, but I do know Fantasy Island. He was on Fantasy Island for a bit. I doubt we brought him up because I think the role was fairly small, but he was. Check out the episode. But he's in the film Night Shift.

SPEAKER_02 47:43

Trying to think of where he would have been. We probably didn't mention him.

SPEAKER_04 47:47

No. And then he's in The Sting, too. Nice. Okay, finally. This is a very interesting character to me. And the way that they deal with the character is also very interesting.

SPEAKER_02 48:00

You must be talking about Morris. I

SPEAKER_04 48:02

am talking about Morris. So Morris is Davey's adult friend. He, I guess, is smart. computer savvy he

SPEAKER_02 48:16

runs or owns a game store

SPEAKER_04 48:19

yeah yeah that's that's the sense I got of it and yeah he and Davey are pals and probably bonded over video games played by William Forsythe which when I realized that was him I was like holy fuck like he's almost unrecognized I know him so much more from his Later work.

SPEAKER_02 48:40

Well, between the hair and the glasses. Yes. It's like,

SPEAKER_04 48:42

yeah. And I am not body shaming, but he's a little bit of a heavier set character in this film.

SPEAKER_02 48:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 48:50

So I just did not recognize him at all. He

SPEAKER_02 48:55

looked kind of familiar. So I looked up the casting and I'm like, holy cow.

SPEAKER_04 48:59

Yeah. I mean, he's just so young. He's so young in this movie that I was like, oh, okay.

UNKNOWN 49:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 49:08

very much working to this day very busy and among his credits once upon a time in america i don't i don't think we brought him up for raising arizona

SPEAKER_02 49:22

we maybe maybe we i mean because he was one of the the brothers along with john goodman

SPEAKER_04 49:27

yes

SPEAKER_02 49:28

right so yes if we hadn't Our bad.

SPEAKER_04 49:32

He was in Dick Tracy, American Me. He was in the TV series, The Untouchables. He played Capone in that. Oh. A lot more film and TV work. He was in Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead. Maybe some people know him from The Rock.

SPEAKER_02 49:52

Possibly. I

SPEAKER_04 49:53

put this in just because we keep seeing commercials for the TV show, but he's in the film. The librarians, I don't know if there's any relationship between those two.

SPEAKER_02 50:02

There can't be. There simply cannot

SPEAKER_04 50:05

be. I think he actually probably has some kind of good, positive relationship with Rob Zombie because he's both in The Devil's Rejects and the reimagining of Halloween, like the Rob Zombie Halloween.

SPEAKER_02 50:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 50:19

Again, worst franchise ever for not coming up with original names. I

SPEAKER_02 50:25

don't know what you would even call the Rob Zombie ones. I

SPEAKER_04 50:29

mean, he should have just done what Carpenter did where it's like John Carpenter's blah, blah, blah. I don't know why it's just called Halloween. You would think he would want to emphasize the fact that it's his version of Halloween. Very much is his version of Halloween. One hundred percent. He I

SPEAKER_02 50:45

do think I like his version of Halloween better than I liked his version of the Munsters, which I have not watched.

SPEAKER_04 50:51

And he's if it's been a minute since I watched that film, but I believe he is Mike Myers mom's boyfriend.

SPEAKER_02 50:59

OK, that sounds right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 51:02

Yeah. a lot more tv work boardwalk empire the mob doctor i thought this was fun because it's like i guess in a way like a reteaming he was in the film tom holland's twisted tales nice he he seems to also have embraced like horror to to some degree um and then more recently the tv series the man in the high castle and the film nine windows

SPEAKER_02 51:24

and he was in one episode of daredevil

SPEAKER_04 51:27

Oh, I saw that too. But is it, I saw Daredevil, it was like 2016, right?

SPEAKER_02 51:31

That was, so the season that was just on Disney Plus is like the next season from that same like show, cast, everything from the Netflix version. So it's all still part of like the same group. But am I

SPEAKER_04 51:44

right with the date though?

SPEAKER_02 51:45

Yeah, he was on like an older

SPEAKER_04 51:48

episode. Oh, it's been going on and off for that long?

SPEAKER_02 51:51

Well, Netflix had it for a while and then Disney, like it took them a while before they were able to pull that over to Disney Plus.

SPEAKER_04 52:00

Got it.

SPEAKER_02 52:00

Get the rights and actually make new episodes.

SPEAKER_04 52:03

Film synopsis.

SPEAKER_02 52:05

What do we got?

SPEAKER_04 52:06

A young boy and his imaginary friend end up on the run while in possession of a top secret spy gadget.

SPEAKER_02 52:16

Sure, that works. I don't think

SPEAKER_04 52:18

it's like

SPEAKER_02 52:19

a

SPEAKER_04 52:19

gadget, but...

SPEAKER_02 52:21

What's the point, do you think, of... Like, so it's a game. It's like a skill-based kind of game where you have to reach a certain score. Would everyone be capable? Like, was the intent that this cartridge would go to someone with the requisite skill to unlock the code to then... That's a

SPEAKER_04 52:40

great question. I

SPEAKER_02 52:41

don't know. And then it looked like it was just a diagram of a Blackbird SR-71. Yeah. That was the spy plane.

SPEAKER_04 52:49

Yeah, that's all very good questions. And it's just like a really interesting concept for a film. And I am curious how they pitched it in terms of like who the audience is.

SPEAKER_02 53:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:07

I think... You know, we've brought this up already. To me, the most... So, look, I had fun because I've never watched the film. I didn't even know about the film until you brought it up. I had no idea that this film existed. It was very fun to see Henry Thomas in another role as, like, a child actor because he is so good. And I love Dabney Coleman.

SPEAKER_02 53:27

Yeah, I figure, like, notwithstanding the story, which is a bit nonsensical at times, like, it's fun to watch them.

SPEAKER_04 53:35

It's fun, um... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If I may say, Davey's like a little bit more collected about it than I thought a kid would be.

SPEAKER_02 54:05

Yes, because he climbs into the fucking trunk of the car with that dead body.

SPEAKER_04 54:08

With his dead body.

SPEAKER_02 54:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 54:10

And he's like sad. Also,

SPEAKER_02 54:13

amazing trunk space in the 80s. Yes. No way are you fitting that many bodies in a trunk today.

SPEAKER_04 54:17

He's definitely sad. But as like a child, I was like, wow, he's taking this really well. He didn't even care. His friend is dead, dead, killed in a very violent way. And now he is in a trunk with the dead body of his friend.

SPEAKER_02 54:31

He cared only enough to comment on the lack of space in the trunk with that

SPEAKER_04 54:35

It was

SPEAKER_02 54:36

wild

SPEAKER_04 54:37

to me how, in a way, blasé he was about the fact that his friend had died.

SPEAKER_02 54:43

Yeah, no, that's fair. That might be something that the dad wants to bring up with the doctor that they

SPEAKER_04 54:48

eventually... That was disturbing that he didn't care more. Anyway, so, I mean, I guess the thing I did appreciate... And then what's funny is, like, he's, like, kind of whatever, right? about his friend dying, but then when Jack is pushing him to kill the baddies, that's when he grows a little bit more of a moral compass and caring about the sanctity of life and not wanting to kill these guys.

SPEAKER_02 55:14

It was interesting because I don't think I noticed this when I was replaying a few clips to try to find something for the intro. He actually tells Davey, His whole plan was to distract that guy and get him to shoot the wall and the bullets would bounce off the concrete and hit him. So he was trying to really convince Davey that he wouldn't have to kill. But Davey does kill someone in this.

SPEAKER_04 55:37

He kills somebody. Yeah. He kills Rice. And

SPEAKER_02 55:43

what's really interesting is that the act of him killing is what made him grow up and what made Jack go away. It's

SPEAKER_04 55:51

wild, yes. Yes, it's absolutely wild. And just even little things too, like the old couple, which it's just, again, funny that this is the way that they decided to do this movie. When they kidnap him, they kidnap him so that they can presumably hijack a plane. And they're literally like, if you don't get us a pilot to get us out of here, I'm going to blow his brains out. I mean, it's just really wild.

SPEAKER_02 56:17

Violent language. They're bluffing. No, they're not.

SPEAKER_04 56:20

Yes. It's like, wow. Okay. But yeah, it was...

SPEAKER_02 56:25

But look, they weren't ever going to kill him because he was the only one on the plane.

SPEAKER_04 56:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 56:31

You don't have much leverage left after you kill the only passenger. It's

SPEAKER_04 56:34

true. It's true. And that's cloak and dagger. So, I mean, as far as watching the film again... Sure. I've never even once seen it on TV. It's never crossed my path before to my knowledge. I

SPEAKER_02 56:51

don't think, yeah. I never have just been like scrolling. We'd have

SPEAKER_04 56:55

to suss it out. I know you were like, I'm not buying this film when we had

SPEAKER_02 56:59

to. So look, sometimes it's like, If you're going to buy the movie, digital copy, it's like$4 to rent it,$6 to buy it. Sure. And that's how we've ended up with several movies from the 80s. That we

SPEAKER_04 57:13

are never going to probably watch again. Probably not.

SPEAKER_02 57:15

But this one was like$15 to buy. Oh, no. Like, yeah, no.$4 to rent. That's fine.

SPEAKER_04 57:21

I mean, call the auction. I mean, look, I don't mean to go to the simplest one, but I am very curious who knows about this movie.

SPEAKER_02 57:31

People know about this movie.

SPEAKER_04 57:33

I have far from exhaustive knowledge of the 80s, but I've never even heard of this

SPEAKER_02 57:37

film.

SPEAKER_04 57:37

Do you think it's more, not to, I hate to draw gender lines, but do you think more boys know about it than girls?

SPEAKER_02 57:43

Maybe, probably, probably.

UNKNOWN 57:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:45

well if you want to reach out we would love to hear from you you can get in touch through facebook instagram or blue sky it is the same handle at all three it is at 80s montage pod and 80s is 80s

SPEAKER_02 57:57

yeah

SPEAKER_04 57:58

so i did bring up this film

SPEAKER_02 58:00

what

SPEAKER_04 58:01

in our look guess what huh this upcoming episode is already the halfway mark in this season

SPEAKER_02 58:08

okay

SPEAKER_04 58:09

crazy

SPEAKER_02 58:09

right are we already starting the halloween movies Very soon.

SPEAKER_04 58:14

Not very soon, but soon enough. Yeah. Crazy to think that we're already halfway through season six.

SPEAKER_02 58:25

It is.

SPEAKER_04 58:25

It is. Yeah. Do you know which film we are covering that I mentioned earlier in this episode?

SPEAKER_02 58:31

Nope.

SPEAKER_04 58:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 58:37

Did you just, was it like a title that just came up? Yeah. It wasn't like.

SPEAKER_04 58:43

Well, because one of the players for this film also worked on the one that's coming up next.

SPEAKER_02 58:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 58:50

So.

SPEAKER_02 58:50

We've talked about so many movies. It's

SPEAKER_04 58:53

summertime or about to be officially summer. Okay. So like the unofficial start of summer has happened because we're past Memorial Day. The official start of summer is in a couple of weeks.

SPEAKER_02 59:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:02

But.

SPEAKER_02 59:03

Celestially speaking.

SPEAKER_04 59:04

Correct. Yeah. So a lot of people go on road trips.

SPEAKER_02 59:10

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_04 59:11

During this time, family road trips.

SPEAKER_02 59:13

Got it. Got it.

SPEAKER_04 59:14

Maybe to amusement parks.

SPEAKER_02 59:16

Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_04 59:16

And every once in a while, I mean, I've never heard of this, but the entire amusement park is closed and so they can't enjoy this amusement park that they traveled all the way across the country for.

SPEAKER_02 59:26

This sounds like something that John Candy would be in just at the end as a security guard.

SPEAKER_04 59:30

He might be my favorite part.

SPEAKER_02 59:31

For Wally World? Yes. In National Lampoon's just vacation. Correct. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:36

That's it. Yeah. I thought- Okay, let's do this one. It seems like a nice, fun little way to usher in summer.

SPEAKER_02 59:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:44

And arguably, I know a lot of people have a very nostalgic affinity for Christmas Vacation. This is probably my favorite of the Vacation movies.

SPEAKER_02 59:57

I mean, I already know that you're going to... The dog. Yeah. I

SPEAKER_04 1:00:01

know. I don't know

SPEAKER_02 1:00:04

where to get through that. I know.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:07

Minus that part. Yeah. But because it's a little bit more understated, they get progressively more kind of wacky. We do. As the series goes on.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:15

It's always fun to see all of the ways in which Chevy Chase almost cheats on his wife.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:21

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:21

In all of them.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:22

Yeah. It's actually, now I'm thinking about it, it'll be good to watch it. It's been a very long time since I've watched it. But it'll be good to watch it again because I'm just remembering, it seemed like such a long sequence between him looking over at her in the car while they're both driving to the pool scene.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:40

Who was it? Christie Brinkley? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:42

Yeah. So- That's coming on tap next. And in the meantime, just thank you so much to everybody out there for taking the time to choose our podcast and hang with us for a little bit. We appreciate it. You have many choices out there. So

SPEAKER_02 1:01:00

many.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:01

So many. So thank you. And we will talk to you again in two weeks' time.