Evan: And if you're actually interested in the Left of Projector mug,

Evan: you can go to the Threadless page where I sell items, including Left of Projector mugs.

Evan: I also have an ACAB Batman shirt out there, too, if you like Batman and also hate cops.

ward: I didn't even know you sold mugs. I've been just hoping to get one for free this whole time.

Evan: I promoted this so sparingly.

ward: Dude, I had no idea.

Evan: You can go to leftorprojectorpod.threadless.com.

ward: Oh, God.

Evan: I also have a Karl Marx shirt that's very clever.

ward: Dude, I do so much more promo for your podcast than you do.

Evan: And you can also buy a t-shirt that says, Before reading Marx,

Evan: I couldn't even spell bourgeoisie, and I still can't. And it's spelled wrong, obviously.

ward: Oh, this is too funny.

Evan: See this is the part that goes at the beginning actually yeah.

ward: Why am i just now learning this how long have we been coming on this.

Evan: I actually i actually have the uh i do have the left foot projector uh tank

Evan: top which i which i wore in california actually if i'd seen you wore it i would have worn it.

ward: Oh damn it.

Evan: Apologize for that.

ward: That's all good shit happens.

Evan: It's funny you can buy like phone cases like you know you can just like basically

Evan: put it on anything you can get a windbreaker you can get a bomber jacket for

Evan: 85 dollars not bad yeah anyway oh man uh you can buy your merchandise at uh

Evan: laptop projector pod dot threadless.com and uh,

Evan: Hello and welcome to Left of the Projector. I'm your host, Evan,

Evan: back again for another film discussion from the left.

Evan: We come to you this week with a little mini-series from the team that brought to you the Andor series.

Evan: If you're a long-time listener, you may have heard the guests and I discuss

Evan: Gareth Edwards at length. He did direct the, or part of, Rogue One,

Evan: as well as four other films.

Evan: We begin our discussion this week with his very first work, Monsters,

Evan: a low-budget, $500,000 film released in 2010.

Evan: It only consists of two featured cast actors.

Evan: Edwards also served as the writer, the cinematographer, and special effects guru.

Evan: This film was slim, just seven people on the crew, but we have three people

Evan: to help you discuss that. I have Bill and Ward, thank you for being here today.

ward: Happy to be here.

Bill: As always, happy to be here.

Evan: So if you're listening if you listen to last week's episode actually you're

Evan: gonna hear the three of us talk for two straight weeks because that's just that's

Evan: just how it's just how it all that's how the cookie crumbled with uh vacation

Evan: in august and uh not having other episodes but,

Evan: we'll bring you a banger here today um so gareth edwards and monster um what

Evan: are your uh thoughts on this film that I had.

Evan: I literally knew nothing about it before I went in.

Evan: And I was pleasantly surprised.

ward: Yeah, I knew nothing. I mean, yeah, you guys had to tell me about this movie

ward: and I had to watch it just before recording.

ward: And yeah, I was, my expectation was blown away. This was a great movie.

ward: I can't wait to talk about it.

Bill: I've never felt so hipster-ish. I've watched this movie many times.

Bill: This is like a, this is an old like favorite of mine. it's all bills so much

Bill: cooler than us this is an old favorite of mine i've watched it many times uh

Bill: uh and it's like it really is it's like it's a favorite of mine i love giant

Bill: monster movies um i love sci-fi and uh,

Bill: I watched this movie the first time years and years ago when it came out,

Bill: and I've watched it many times since.

Evan: How did Bill burn his tongue? He tasted pizza before it was cool.

Bill: Yeah, that's right.

Evan: It's interesting because most people know Gareth Edwards probably for Rogue

Evan: One, for the Godzilla film sort of reboot, and just recently,

Evan: most recently, Jurassic World Rebirth.

Evan: and then in between those we have we have the creator

Evan: which got less acclaim than the other ones

Evan: but it's um it's like a

Evan: from what i read about what he did is he had

Evan: wanted to make that film for a while he'd been working on it and

Evan: he finally got his chance to do it he only had five hundred thousand

Evan: dollars and he did all the editing on

Evan: a laptop he did all the special effects on a laptop i mean

Evan: it's like as low budget as you can possibly imagine

Evan: and it's the like the first thing i wrote down when i

Evan: was watching it was that it's like this it seemed

Evan: like a godzilla offshoot or a war of the worlds offshoot or just sort of a a

Evan: monster film where you don't ever really understand the monster and this is

Evan: like it's almost like a steven spielberg trailer where he where if this is a

Evan: monster movie he has he never reveals what it's going to look like it's well,

Evan: you have to go see the movie.

Evan: But in this, there really isn't really much of a monster. It's kind of like the threat of monsters.

Evan: And I think I called the movie Monster at the beginning when it's monsters.

Bill: It's monsters, yeah. You don't see them very often. You see them, I think, twice.

Bill: Maybe three times in the entire movie.

Bill: And it really does hark into the classic movie, classic horror movie and sci-fi movies of the 80s.

Bill: And even before that, where it was like, you don't have the budget or you don't

Bill: have the technology to create this thing.

Bill: And so you leave it to like the, the best monster, the,

Bill: the best you know special effects that you can have is

Bill: your audience's imagination and that is what

Bill: he does he you know sound a lot of it's you know evocative you know through

Bill: evoking the the monsters through sound and then just the reactions of people

Bill: and that builds them up in ways that he wasn't going to be able to do it 500

Bill: 000 at all he just wasn't gonna do it and really they're,

Bill: the monsters as i'm sure we'll talk about and what they look like are not the

Bill: most important part of this movie by a long like by a wide margin.

Evan: Yeah it's like as i was like saying like it's more like the threat of them and

Evan: the existence of them in this world and let me i'll give like everyone like

Evan: a brief sort of uh synopsis because that this movie is probably you know very

Evan: under watched as far as this era goes.

Evan: But it takes place primarily in Mexico, or begins in Mexico,

Evan: but they kind of take you back to when NASA sends a probe out to verify the

Evan: existence of extraterrestrial life.

Evan: And then in doing so, this probe crash lands in Mexico, and it brings along

Evan: with it these extraterrestrial life forms, and they start to spread.

Evan: And essentially, there's now an area between mexico and

Evan: the united states and not just you know the border it's now

Evan: become this quarantine zone and it essentially becomes

Evan: a battle zone where you have u.s troops mexican troops

Evan: are trying to contain contain the creatures and you

Evan: just sort of learn this at the beginning and they're just kind of setting the stage

Evan: and to kind of show you a little bit what it looks like in this world uh but

Evan: it's again you don't really see them you just understand this and i also immediately

Evan: was like is this movie like a stand-in for like the immigration crisis i mean

Evan: we can probably talk about some of those things is it.

ward: I mean if you're asking me i don't know

ward: how much gareth edwards put into it i mean he pretty i'm pretty sure like the

ward: easy guess is to be like yeah there's not a lot of monsters in it because it's

ward: easier to make a monster movie without including the monsters especially for

ward: five hundred thousand dollars which is crazy um but But,

ward: you know, for me, it's like the lack of monsters.

ward: It helps build up like the misdirect that it's like, they're just things, you know?

Evan: Apparently he, according to the Wikipedia, and I found another article that

Evan: said this too, that he decided to use kind of like the found footage style.

Evan: So there's lots of reports on TVs and ways that they're relaying you information

Evan: about things as like the Blair Witch Project. Kind of that very,

Evan: I don't really think they're at all alike other than just kind of the,

Evan: maybe the found footage.

Evan: And then also I think he learned about the Cloverfield, which has kind of a

Evan: similar premise of this.

Evan: I won't ruin that movie at all if I haven't seen it, but.

Evan: This would be a good double feature with Cloverfield, actually.

Bill: Yeah, Cloverfield actually had a bit of an impact on things because,

Bill: well, Cloverfield and War of the Worlds, the War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise.

Bill: Because he was developing the idea around the time that those came out.

Bill: And he kind of put this all off because he was like, well, it's just,

Bill: it's too similar. It's not going to have any impact or anything like that.

Bill: And I like Cloverfield.

Bill: To be fair, I haven't seen Cloverfield since it was in the theaters.

Bill: And I actually really like the Tom Cruise War in the World.

Bill: But this movie, to me, has such a greater impact and more to say than either of those movies.

Bill: War of the Worlds has been done to death. We've seen a thousand War of the Worlds.

Bill: Most recently, with Ice-T. the worst.

Evan: Movie you've ever.

Bill: Seen in your entire life.

ward: I still haven't watched it.

Bill: You know like war the worlds have been done to death like that the the

Bill: allegory of that war of the worlds

Bill: presents has been just beat to shit

Bill: you know even independence day is essentially just the same you know it is it

Bill: is the story of war the worlds it's a virus that kills them like you know it's

Bill: like it's just now it's a computer virus you know it's all the same you know

Bill: and And that's so not the point of this movie at all. At all.

Evan: He said it. His quote was he changed the movie because of those to being something.

Evan: A war is going on somewhere on the other side of the world and no one cares.

Evan: Which, let's be honest, that is exactly what happens always.

Evan: No one cares about things that happen anyways because it doesn't affect them.

ward: Yeah, no, that's what happens with every war, especially if you're an American

ward: living in the Imperial Corps. It's not affecting you. Why would you care?

ward: I don't know. But for me, it's, I don't know, it's so great.

ward: It's just, this film's so good.

ward: It just has so much more to say, especially about, like, the way capitalism handles crisis.

ward: And, you know, and like creates its own crisis because like these aliens, you know, they're not.

ward: Yeah, they're violent, but I mean, not inherently.

ward: We find that out. It's made to be that way so it could justify the,

ward: you know, this infinite military spending.

Evan: To me, it's just like a metaphor in a way. I don't again, I don't think that

Evan: Gareth meant this is like a metaphor for just American imperialism.

Evan: We cause problems on the places. The people who live there get fucked over.

Evan: They need to migrate to us because they don't want to get bombed anymore.

Evan: And then they don't have the money or the abilities or the means to be able

Evan: to do that. And then we don't care what we do over there.

Evan: No one thinks about it. No one thinks about the damage we've done across Latin America.

ward: Or the fact that our military actually exacerbates these problems.

ward: Because, I mean, you can see in the film that the bombing that the U.S.

ward: military is doing is wildly indiscriminate. It's not actually affecting anything.

ward: If anything, it's just making these creatures more aggressive when they just want to fuck.

Evan: Do you think that the gas that they drop on them is making it worse?

Bill: The gas affects the population of the area far more than it does to contain the aliens.

Bill: Because the truth of the matter is that, you know, though they talk a lot about

Bill: the monsters and the aliens, but the reality is that it's not just the individual aliens.

Bill: they've basically brought an ecology with them and they are affecting the landscape itself.

Bill: They're affecting the ecology of that entire place. And,

Bill: As like Western mentality and thought, like you can't, the world has to change

Bill: and adapt to you and you, so you can manage it and you can take what you want from it.

Bill: And it can never like have its own like volition. And that's really what this is.

Bill: It's like, they're denying the possibility of the environment changing.

Bill: And so they're trying to contain change because it threatens the status quo.

Bill: It's really all what it is. it's all about threatening the status quo and then

Bill: if you look at the people in the area they're not fleeing the aliens they're

Bill: fleeing the military like.

Evan: It's implied.

Bill: Throughout the movie that the aliens are

Bill: not the threat to the people like even so down to the point that

Bill: like they travel through that thing and the the

Bill: guides that take them through the infected zone are never like oh yeah you know

Bill: the aliens are always killing us all the time like just like oh yeah you know

Bill: just uh be quiet and don't bother them like the people of the area are basically

Bill: like this the real problem is it's a military it's the fact that they're gassing us.

Evan: Well and and so the like to add on

Evan: to the plot to make it more obvious so the

Evan: you have but you have two characters in this film it's like

Evan: in total they have um andrew and

Evan: you have samantha andrew is a photographer who works

Evan: for a newspaper which is owned by

Evan: samantha's father so he essentially learns

Evan: of her being you know in the hospital he sends

Evan: the photographer andrew to pick her

Evan: up and get her to safety bring her back to america and his entire time doing

Evan: this is he needs to take a photograph of like the monsters doing killing like

Evan: a kid or a person to sell this to be to be able to live to live and And so the

Evan: thing I was not lost on me,

Evan: my thought there was the reason why there isn't many pictures to be had is because

Evan: the monsters aren't actually killing or hurting anybody.

Evan: Right. They're not, they're not doing this unless they're provoked or they're,

Evan: you know, all of this, but it's very interesting.

Evan: The, uh, you know, the two characters being sort of this working class guy,

Evan: he's just trying to make a living.

Evan: He has a kid back home in America. He's just trying to get a $15,000 photo shot to, to make his career.

Evan: And then you have this woman who's sort of rich and, uh, entitled and,

Evan: uh, white does kind of usually go together.

Evan: Um, and I keep saying, and, and he has to take care of her specifically.

Bill: So when they're traveling, she asks him about this. And he says,

Bill: let me ask you something.

Bill: Do you know how much money your father's company pays for a picture of a child

Bill: killed by a creature? $50,000.

Bill: Do you know how much money I get paid for a picture of a happy child?

Bill: Nothing. Do you know where that puts me? Photographing tragedy.

Bill: And yet, he can't find that tragedy outside of it being artificially created.

Bill: Any of the tragedies, all the tragedy that we see that he does photograph in

Bill: this movie are created by the military.

Bill: Like, every time. It's their fault.

ward: And whether Gareth Edwards means it or not, which I really don't think he means it much.

ward: I mean, Andrew is a perfect example of the commodification of media to manufacture consent.

Evan: I think he had an idea that he was like being used in some way i don't want

Evan: to i don't know i mean it's kind of a liberal-ish take on it i suppose but it's

Evan: i don't know i'm trying to give him a little credit andrew or gareth no no gareth edwards see.

Bill: I think having watched every gareth edwards movie at this point.

Evan: There are five of them folks yeah.

Bill: There's not that many of But you know what? There's a pretty fucking, there's a through line.

Bill: I don't think the man is ignorant to the things he's saying.

Bill: I don't think he's accidentally telling anti-imperialist stories repeatedly.

Bill: Like, I don't think he's stumbling into anti-imperialism five times in a row.

ward: All right, Garrett Edwards, come on the podcast and talk to us.

Bill: All right. So I will say the newest Jurassic Park movie, probably not the greatest example of that.

Bill: So I don't think, all right, three out of five times. I'm going to give him

Bill: a solid three out of five times. I don't think he stumbled into anti-imperialist

Bill: rhetoric, like blatant anti-imperialist.

Evan: What's the other one he didn't do it in?

Bill: The other, he did the other Jurassic Park. Oh, no, I'm thinking of.

Evan: No, the other one will be. the creator, creator, Godzilla, this,

Evan: and Rogue One, so four out of five.

Bill: It's four. Four out of five of them. I don't think he's stumbled into this four

Bill: out of five times. I don't think so.

Evan: I buy that.

ward: No, I'm going to double down until he comes on the podcast. Okay.

Evan: Well, no, but here you also, there's a line that happens right before that that's also interesting.

Evan: He says, she says to him, like, you need something bad to happen to profit.

Evan: And he's like, no, I need something bad to happen for me to live.

Evan: Like, he's just a photography worker. He's a working class guy in horrible conditions

Evan: because that's all he is able to do.

Evan: I'm sure he'd love to take like artsy photos of things and like make money.

Bill: Actually, what he said is.

ward: He deflected first.

Bill: You mean like a doctor.

ward: Like a doctor?

Bill: That's actually what he says first. You mean like a doctor.

ward: She calls him out and she's like, you know what I fucking mean.

Bill: Yeah, because honestly, like that in and of itself, like I feel like that says

Bill: everything. Because even the character knows.

Bill: The character knows. like that's metatextually

Bill: acknowledging the bullshit of it like even

Bill: the characters acknowledging this that you know the two characters as they're

Bill: discussing this even they're acknowledging the perversity of the system and

Bill: he's trying to deflect from it because that's an uncomfortable thing to admit

Bill: and then he he's forced to admit it because there's a huge difference between.

Evan: Meanwhile, her dad works for a newspaper who also manufactures consent and profits

Evan: off of tragedy in the same similar way. We don't know much about the paper.

Bill: You know the b plot okay of the

Bill: movie that i think is easy to overlook but i

Bill: think it's also important is the fact that

Bill: she doesn't want to go back she is

Bill: clearly resisting going back and she

Bill: has recently been engaged to a very wealthy

Bill: man that she does not want to go back to and

Bill: he doesn't like frantically he's

Bill: not there like this is a rich guy he's not

Bill: like i am poor and if my wife was stuck in mexico i'd be like well i'm going

Bill: to mexico like yeah i'm figuring it out yeah like i'm going and like meanwhile

Bill: like this guy's just like what fucking i don't know i don't know what he's doing

Bill: being a ceo someplace i know.

ward: I'll see you when you get back honey.

Bill: No i'm.

ward: Stuck here did you not hear that fucking part.

Bill: And like did.

Evan: You say how did she get there why is she there.

Bill: You never learned any of this she is there

Bill: because do they say uh it is implied that

Bill: she is there uh basically because she

Bill: it's she wants to see yeah

Bill: like she wants to she wants she's basically trying

Bill: to escape her like reality and

Bill: like her life of privilege she's basically

Bill: fleeing her life of privilege that's what's there and like throughout the movie

Bill: because throughout the movie so this man has been all over the place but he

Bill: just observes everybody throughout the movie though who is the person that connects

Bill: with the population speaks their language goes out of their way to make connections

Bill: with the individuals that live there,

Bill: her, the entire thing is like, she wants to leave behind her life of privilege

Bill: and identifies with people who are oppressed and exploited.

Bill: She sympathizes and wants better for them.

ward: Oh, we watched anti-imperialist Titanic. Or is he a boat?

Evan: Oh, I'd rather watch this than Titanic, though.

ward: Oh, yeah, this is so good.

Bill: Throughout it, she is the one. She speaks Spanish.

Bill: He doesn't speak any Spanish. She speaks fluent Spanish and talks to everybody.

Bill: you know like she she the locals they all welcome her in because of the way

Bill: she is she clearly is like she doesn't she has seen the system that she lives

Bill: in and has rejected it and this is her attempt to flee it and she's.

Evan: Being dragged.

Bill: Back to it by her father through.

Evan: Like there's numerous sort of

Evan: stops along the way and i think some of them maybe

Evan: even all of them are like worth mentioning so then initially they

Evan: get on a train he goes to the hospital he picks her up they get

Evan: on a train to try and get to a boat which will

Evan: be able to take them back to the united states and

Evan: they the train like breaks down or like there something happens they have to

Evan: get off the train now that's when they we first learned that she speaks spanish

Evan: she's able to connect with the locals and has a place to stay for the night

Evan: and where they're able to that i think they get maybe they get a bus first and

Evan: then they go a little further along the journey but finally when they get to the, like the, the,

Evan: the place where they could catch the ferry,

Evan: it's $5,000 to go on it.

Evan: And you see all these other people in the, in the train station,

Evan: like that's a train station, like the, what do you call it?

Evan: The port, the ferry port office who are all going to be finding other ways to

Evan: go through the quarantine zone because they can't afford the $5,000 to do this.

Evan: And this, this is where I saw like the kind of that like immigration concept of

Evan: like people looking for a better life perhaps but it's

Evan: not very clear or it is very clear

Evan: that they're leaving because of the military as you said before bill like

Evan: they're they have to leave there because it's now a war zone they don't have

Evan: five thousand dollars so they're gonna have to take their chances you know getting

Evan: like people do right now every day every day you know our president uh the president

Evan: not my well he is our president i don't like him much trump obama biden like they're all doing this,

Evan: the deportation and getting people out.

Evan: So we cause the problems and then we don't let anyone in to escape them.

Bill: And we create the area they have to flee through that is increasingly deadly to the policies of the.

Bill: our country. Like the infected zone is an almost perfect analogy for,

Bill: I forget what they call it, but like the zone, I think it's literally just the zone of death.

Evan: Quarantine zone.

Bill: No, no, no, no. In real life.

Evan: Oh, in real life. Yeah, okay.

Bill: In real life, that area where migrants pass through that is so deadly and they

Bill: have deliberately increased policies to funnel people through that area.

Bill: Like that's what the quarantine zone, the infected zone is it is an area of

Bill: increased deadliness created by imperialist policies,

Bill: that people have to flee through to get to that place as a result of imperialist

Bill: actions in the first place.

ward: Yeah because we we learned the aliens aren't inherently aggressive you know

ward: they're just creatures with their own desires and behaviors you know what i

ward: mean and it's not it's the military that's causing these issues and creating

ward: this area where people are left behind to fend for themselves and being discarded.

Evan: Well you said before bill that the chemicals that are being dropped

Evan: are actually hurting the you know humans but i

Evan: even wondered right but i wondered if it's even

Evan: implied or if there's any you know like you

Evan: could think of disasters like uh chernobyl where the the chemicals create or

Evan: mutate animals and species like is it possible that they're actually making

Evan: it worse and making these animals or these aliens sort of more aggressive and

Evan: causing them more chances that they're going to fucking try and kill them. I don't know.

Bill: I believe it's said by the guides that they get aggressive.

Evan: When they show them the tree?

Bill: Yeah. Around that time when like around the time when they're like camping and

Bill: the guides mention how like basically the bombs drive the monsters crazy.

Bill: They drive them crazy and they get them like riled up and that the passing through

Bill: of the military, like actually exacerbates their behavior and makes it more problematic.

Evan: Yeah.

Bill: Whether the gas is mutating things, I don't know.

Evan: Yeah, maybe that's, I mean, that's...

ward: But it's also totally U.S. military to use chemical weapons once they get the chance.

Evan: Yeah, we don't, U.S. doesn't pass up a chance to drop some new experimental

Evan: chemical on a civilian population.

ward: I mean, we can see how much money they dumped into that fucking wall in the movie.

Evan: Oh, God.

Bill: Yeah.

Evan: Well, yeah, we'll definitely get to it.

ward: They got to keep up the crisis so they can keep that budget up.

Evan: And you said, Bill, that Samantha doesn't really want to go home.

Evan: I think it's, actually, there was a moment that I'm now thinking of.

Evan: So they had bought the ticket for $5,000.

Evan: The guy's like, he's like, how about $3,000? No, it's $5,000.

Evan: They pay the $5,000. Also, where did he get five grand? I don't really know.

Evan: He gives them the $5,000. They go out drinking. He gets really drunk.

Evan: He ends up picking up a woman.

Evan: And that person steals her passport because for some reason,

Evan: she let him have the passport or whatever.

Evan: That was kind of stupid. But you could tell he was anyway, because of that,

Evan: then they have to then pawn her ready, her like engagement ring to be able to go on the ship.

Evan: And there was like this little moment where I'm thinking where I saw her being

Evan: like, well, maybe I just don't want maybe I'm just I'm like relieved that I don't have to go.

Evan: It's not a lot, but maybe, you know, I don't really want to give my ring away.

Evan: But at the same time, almost giving away the engagement ring is almost like a relief.

Evan: She can like take it off and maybe not feel engaged anymore.

Evan: I'm sure her dad like made her get engaged to whoever this bozo is.

ward: Yeah, I think like the only thing really like pushing her at that time is like,

ward: you know, the manufactured fear of what the aliens could do.

ward: Like that was the whole thread of that. I think that was the only reason that

ward: pushed her to be like, yeah, I'll give up my engagement ring.

ward: We'll go on this journey to try to get back because I don't want to get caught

ward: up in an alien monster storm.

ward: But then when she comes to find out.

ward: you know they're just just animals like anything else she's like yeah i don't want to fucking leave.

Evan: Yeah the um the i think

Evan: this is too when you like one of the first times you

Evan: see the monster is they end up as part

Evan: of the you know using their wedding ring this is

Evan: now it's not to go on the boat but to be able to hire

Evan: someone to guide them through you know

Evan: through this infected zone and one of the things they get onto is like a boat

Evan: to get them through like a you know further along whatever it is a river or

Evan: something titanic and they see one of the monsters like in in the water but

Evan: what's even funnier is they first think it's like some kind of shark or like

Evan: monster ends up being just like the plane that the u.s had used to presumably behind her jet that.

ward: Was so sick.

Bill: That was a great scene.

Evan: Which is such a good and then it turns you know then the monster

Evan: is actually you know the one grabbing it and like

Evan: oh they can fucking swim too it's like oh you guys are fucked yeah i

Evan: just like the idea that the plane is there it's just like the perfect metaphor

Evan: too which again i think plays into the idea that edwards does see some of this

Evan: of just like the ineptitude of the u.s military sunk in there they can't actually

Evan: stop the the monsters there's nothing they can even do that.

ward: That and also it's just setting up that it's like like when you're watching

ward: it for the first time you're seeing it and you're like a whole monster attacking

ward: a thing yeah of course the monster is attacking a thing but then you learn more

ward: of it it's it's great because it sets it up it just shows that like no they

ward: got a problem with the military.

Evan: There was something ironic about the idea

Evan: of two white people hiring mexicans

Evan: to smuggle them into the united states this way

Evan: like it just like i couldn't help but just i

Evan: think you bill mentioned before like just the idea like they're

Evan: the privilege but in a way it's actually not samantha's

Evan: privilege it's more andrew's privilege i

Evan: didn't mention who they're played by it's scooter mcnary you probably have seen

Evan: in a bunch of films and movies uh he was in uh the batman superman argo um can't

Evan: think of what else some netflix shows but he's the one who acts much more privileged

Evan: than she does and she's like the wealthy one.

Bill: Yeah well that's what's like she wants to

Bill: leave that behind like they're the the the juxtaposition

Bill: of their characters because she comes from a place

Bill: of privilege and she has come to a point where she's seen what it is and wants

Bill: to leave it behind he has never had that other you know like other than base

Bill: of like white privilege but in terms like economic privilege class privilege

Bill: he's never had that and he wants it and it's like,

Bill: This conversation between them throughout, it's like, you know,

Bill: it's almost like she sets it up throughout. It's like, it's a poison pill.

Bill: Like, you should be more, you should be class conscious, basically.

Bill: That conversation about photographing tragedy, that's a conversation about class

Bill: consciousness. That's what she's having with him.

Bill: In her very initial grasping of it, of understanding, she's saying,

Bill: she's like, you should reject this.

Bill: You should not play into this. You should not do this.

Evan: She doesn't have the understanding to go any further, any deeper,

Evan: which you wouldn't really expect them to.

Evan: That's not kind of the point. I also didn't realize that the two of them were

Evan: actually married. yes they.

Bill: Got married in 2010.

Evan: Yeah the movie came out march 13th 2010 at least that was a south by southwest

Evan: release and they got married in june and then the movie was fully released in

Evan: december in the united kingdom this didn't even have a u.s release which is

Evan: probably why it's so like underseen mostly i think in the united states in general.

Bill: Their marriage is definitely a uh a show ship.

Evan: And they are divorced now though.

Bill: Yes sorry about that guys well you know i mean i assume in real life he has

Bill: actual he's allowed to acknowledge his children as his unlike his character

Bill: who's not allowed to actually be seen as the father of his child his character's kind of sad yeah.

Evan: Character is a really big bummer.

Bill: His character is yeah he's a bummer he's sad.

ward: Yeah and he starts off dislikable too you know hitting on the woman that he knows is engaged.

Bill: Yeah and then you like really start to like you you kind of like you come around

Bill: on him and you start to understand like where he's coming from,

Bill: like why he is the way he is. And it's, it's sad.

Bill: He's, it's a sad story. He's a sad character.

Bill: And so is shade. Like they, they both are in a lot of ways.

Evan: Yeah. I mean, you, you learn that he has a kid, you know, where he was seeing someone just briefly.

Evan: He isn't allowed to like, the kid doesn't know that it's his dad.

Evan: Although he was like calling him, you know, to leave a message for his birthday

Evan: or whatever. It's like, why would this random dude be calling me?

Evan: I mean, the kid's young enough that maybe doesn't quite understand,

Evan: but I assume when they're older, they're going to realize, okay,

Evan: I like, I kind of look like uncle, you know, uncle, a little bit more than,

Evan: you know, uncle Andrew than whatever her dad's name is.

Evan: but it's yeah it's like this it's interesting

Evan: when you see like a lot of movies about people

Evan: who like are trying to get a story for a newspaper you know like their reporter

Evan: or something like that i think of like salvador and some others but this being

Evan: a photographer it's like such a different uh i don't know it was an interesting

Evan: choice to do it that way because it could have been a reporter i don't know

Evan: but i guess it plays much better this way.

ward: Yeah i really enjoyed like all the interactions was

ward: sam and andrew like at the beginning it's like

ward: rough it just makes andrew really dislikable but

ward: like i love like you know

ward: talking about photography and she just pushes him the only

ward: thing it really made me wish for was when later in

ward: the film andrew's like oh like what do you think it's going to be like you know

ward: when we're out of all this and we're back into our suburban homes and then like

ward: she's just like oh let's talk about something fun instead I would have wished

ward: that he pushed her and then got a real answer from her on her desires before...

ward: a little bit later.

Evan: You must realize that she seems unhappy no i.

Bill: I think he does he's not entirely dumb yeah.

Evan: No yeah and she's not.

Bill: Incorrect she's not she's not that subtle about it.

Evan: No there she's definitely not and um

Evan: like the to go

Evan: back to the photography thing briefly is that when they do end

Evan: up within like the woods and that scene you're talking about a little later with like the

Evan: guides they end up getting attacked by the monsters and

Evan: everyone dies except for them they're able to like hide in

Evan: the back of the car it also seems like they like light

Evan: also attracts them right yeah they're attracted like it's yes he's like holding

Evan: the little light on in the like the car ceiling to prevent them from seeing

Evan: him and then later the tv is on she returns off the tv to get the monster to

Evan: go away but then he stages the kid who had died to take the photo and it's like oh this Again,

Evan: this photo can only exist not only if you stage it or if you go to a different

Evan: war zone. You know, I don't know.

Evan: It's like he's literally staging and she sees him doing it. And she doesn't

Evan: really, like, say anything, right? She just kind of, like, looks at him.

Bill: Yeah, but there's, like, definitely, like, there, she's a good,

Bill: like, she hasn't done a lot. She's a good actor.

Bill: Like, she acts the shit out of this. and like

Bill: there is a lot of like unspoken like emotion

Bill: in that moment where like he acknowledges that

Bill: she is judging him and she judges him and it's very clear and it's like but

Bill: also like in the same way like she is also understands to a certain degree like

Bill: what his conditions are like where his circumstances are she doesn't like that's

Bill: why that's why i think she doesn't say anything.

Bill: She doesn't need to but also like,

Bill: it would be unkind to because she understands

Bill: they've had that conversation already she and

Bill: she knows who he is at this point that he like has a kid

Bill: that he can't connect with that he loves that he's

Bill: separated from you know and can't acknowledge the relationship and here's this

Bill: like who started as kind of like an unlikable person who's just like a guy who

Bill: worked for her father and now it's just like a real human being and who has

Bill: to make like shitty decisions well.

Evan: He's also being forced to right like.

Bill: He has he loses.

Evan: His job if he.

Bill: Yeah the.

Evan: Job that sucks and doesn't pay anything anyway.

Bill: Yeah he.

Evan: Loses that job.

ward: Yeah he literally yells it's an ultimatum over the phone.

Bill: Yeah and they.

Evan: Don't say this but i wonder if other photographers had also gone there and potentially

Evan: you know trying to get the same kind of photos and have either died or you know

Evan: left because they were unable to do it it doesn't seem like they've ever actually

Evan: in the six years It seems like they've never actually gotten the,

Evan: you know, the newspaper money shot.

Bill: Yeah, there seems to be a real dearth of, you know, documented evidence of of

Bill: this incredibly dangerous thing that has to be quarantined in an entire area and bombed.

Bill: There seems to be a real thin on the ground evidence of all that.

ward: Yeah.

Evan: Are you saying that the government is lying and not doing?

ward: Oh, we never say that.

Bill: I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't bad mouth even fictional,

Bill: fictional American government.

Evan: Well, it, I mean, it's not the purview of this film, but it's interesting.

Evan: Like they could have, you know, if they, if like the thing that they,

Evan: we learn later from the people who are like the locals that they seem to like

Evan: have a fungus or some kind of, you know, some kind of thing that grows on the

Evan: tree and then it goes out to lay its eggs and they grow up in that way.

Evan: Like you easily could have like learn something about them, study them,

Evan: you know, capture the egg. I don't know. I mean.

ward: Quite easily.

Evan: Not torture them, but like learn something about them.

ward: Yeah, but that doesn't justify military spending.

Evan: Department of War needs its war.

ward: Exactly. Yeah. You know, and like you're saying that they're attracted to light.

ward: The thing is they're attracted to light.

ward: Yeah. So like, yeah, you're just trying to drive through, but sorry,

ward: you got headlights on and uh it's mating season you're.

Evan: Gonna get fucked then you start shooting.

ward: At it oh now it's a problem.

Evan: Yeah and they they show what like one or two of them that are dead

Evan: right they have one like kind of like on a an area that's dead

Evan: you see a little bit and then the other real only other op times really see

Evan: it is in the in the um the gas station where they're kind of hiding out when

Evan: they finally have you know gotten across the border and we'll go back and talk

Evan: about that wall too but they finally get across and or they finally get across and,

Evan: They come across two of them, like, you know, outside of the thing,

Evan: and they just want to be left in peace and make out.

ward: Yeah, it's mating season, you know? It's not them getting aggressive.

ward: It's mating season. Why does it always happen at the same time of year? It's mating season.

ward: Why did that thing have its tentacles all inside the gas station that had the lights on?

ward: Because they glow during mating season, and they glow and communicate.

ward: Like, that's part of their anatomy and biology.

Evan: Maybe she was pregnant and needed some ice cream or something.

ward: Maybe that too. Pregnancy cravings are a hell of a thing.

Evan: Like a ice cream.

Bill: I mean, it really is like the tagline for the movie is like on the like, you know.

Evan: What is it actually?

Bill: It is.

Evan: The poster on Wikipedia just says beware.

Bill: Now it's our turn to adapt. And it really is like.

Bill: The idea of like humans refuse to acknowledge that like,

Bill: not humans, but like Western, you know, like mentality refuses to acknowledge

Bill: that like shit changes and you need to change with it sometimes and like move and, you know,

Bill: adapt to things and accept change.

Bill: and but like you're part of the system you

Bill: do not live separate from the greater

Bill: world which is like ward is like saying it's like why are they act like

Bill: this because mating season it's like but we have like throughout history

Bill: it's always just like well this animal

Bill: was aggressive and i don't know why and it's like well you

Bill: like you know we're in its space like leave it

Bill: this this bison attacked me for no

Bill: reason it's like it was in the

Bill: field and you walked up to it leave it the fuck alone like

Bill: like just refuse to take like

Bill: take like accountability for the fact that you exist in a world surrounded by

Bill: other things and that other things have their own like you know objectives and

Bill: internal lives and you know also they weren't like giant.

Evan: Monsters when they first arrived it was just like some kind of virus like the

Evan: they clearly didn't make any real attempt to do something about it.

ward: No, it was immediately, oh, treat it as a threat so we can dump money into military

ward: spending and justify building a giant border wall finally.

Evan: That wall, how tall do you think it was? Huge, right?

ward: Fucking massive.

Evan: And they built it in less than six years.

Bill: Absolutely.

Evan: They said it's like the biggest wall. Infinite spending.

ward: Infinite spending as long as you have an enemy.

Evan: They built the Great Wall of China across the border basically.

Bill: It makes the wall project in Pacific Rim look like Child's Play.

Bill: Like this thing is Absolutely. really epic.

Evan: Yeah. And the other line, as they're coming up, like they're,

Evan: they get to that ruin in like that ruin, like the, it's not really a pyramid.

Evan: What are they? This has a different name. I can't think of what it's called.

Evan: Is it a pyramid that they kind of climb on?

Bill: It's a stepped pyramid.

Evan: A stepped pyramid. They're at the top of it. I think they're walking in and

Evan: she says, or one of them, I think she says, it's different looking at America from the outside in.

Evan: And it's like a brief moment of self-reflection in some way of what other people view America as.

Evan: Like, oh, the place of safety will finally be safe and we won't get bombed.

Evan: And that must be what so many people are trying to come to.

Evan: Not because America is so great. It's because we're there. where they were we're

Evan: making worse so i don't know i thought it was a good line.

Bill: I believe that was actually i think he said that no he says it okay so.

Evan: Maybe he's kind of finally coming around to like being kind of a.

ward: Yeah that's that's the scene i'm talking yeah that's the scene i'm talking about

ward: where like he brings that up and then like she's the one that like deflects

ward: like he deflected earlier in the movie but instead of him holding her to it

ward: and being like no answer the question you know what i'm talking about he just

ward: goes oh yeah well we can think of something we can talk about something fun

ward: then something light-hearted.

Bill: Yeah did you have a sequel.

Evan: To this by.

Bill: The way yes yes i didn't even know i.

ward: Just found out about this movie there's a sequel bad oh.

Bill: It's not as if yeah no it's not oh first

Bill: of all but all right here's the thing okay we can actually

Bill: talk about this because i do think it's an interesting thing to talk about the

Bill: sequel because the sequel is not done by gareth edwards okay um it um takes

Bill: place in the middle middle east it is called monsters dark continent jesus.

ward: Oh i don't like that already.

Bill: Okay so that's like the very

Bill: fact that like i i like i'm saying it's worth

Bill: talking about because again to return to like i

Bill: don't think gareth edwards is stumbling into anti-imperialism four times out

Bill: of five and then like you literally you watch monsters and then the sequel to

Bill: this movie made by other people's other people's called monsters dark continent

Bill: and the main characters are,

Bill: US soldiers like that's who it follows what.

ward: Was the budget for the second one doesn't say it only made 50.

Bill: Grand in the box office I don't think it made it back I'll tell you that.

ward: Probably got some DOD funding though.

Bill: Probably.

Evan: I think it's British military in the movie. No, maybe it is US military.

Bill: No, it is not. It is American military.

ward: Ah, DOD money.

Bill: Four close-knit friends from Detroit. US Army soldiers.

Evan: Detroit, of course.

Bill: Deployed to the Middle East for their first tour. They're a job involved dealing

Bill: with the creatures dubbed monsters and a new insurgency.

Evan: That's just, and I saw in the description on Wikipedia, apparently,

Evan: like, there's a scene where they're doing, like, dog fighting,

Evan: but with, like, infant creatures. That is some fucked up shit.

Evan: That's the kind of shit that the military and they would do,

Evan: you know, using them for sport.

Bill: IED's feature, of course. Like, it is...

Bill: This could not be any more antithetical to the original story told in the first movie.

Evan: This happens a lot, though. Like, a good movie with, like, good principles,

Evan: like Starship Troopers, and then they make, you know, direct-to-DVD sequels that just suck ass.

Evan: Anyway. But going back to like the wall and that whole thing,

Evan: what was I going to say about it? Okay.

Evan: So they get to the wall and they sort of like walk up to it.

Evan: And there's just sort of like this open area where there's no one there.

Evan: And presumably, so it's almost like they're not even guarding.

Bill: It's like security theater. Yeah.

Evan: Right. Like they have all these booze and stuff. Well, go ahead, Ward.

ward: Gareth Edwards directed the sequel. So I'm doubling down.

Evan: No, he produced it.

Bill: He didn't. It was directed by Tom Green.

ward: Oh, whatever. hold on it's sequel he was executive my bad i reread the thing

ward: yeah whatever he was involved so i'm doubling down he stumbled into it come

ward: on the podcast gareth and just fend yourself well.

Evan: Oh wait what's oh but like the border is like it's secure and i'm using air quotes.

ward: Oh so secure monsters could just walk.

Evan: Right through well they do right.

Bill: Well i mean that's the point the like

Bill: they're big but at the same time

Bill: they're basically octopuses so like

Bill: they could probably squeeze through a human-sized doorway so

Bill: you know like i mean it's spoiler alert the monsters are basically just octopuses

Bill: guys okay like it's kind of lame but at the same time octopuses are really fucking

Bill: weird and cool so you know we'll give it a pass it works it works also.

Evan: The fact that they're in the water tells me that they could also just like get to other.

Bill: Places yeah like they're not easily they're not being contained at all this

Bill: is a boondoggle in the truce like they're no they're it's security theater that's all it is well.

Evan: And obama wait what year was this it took place in 2010.

Bill: So obama thanks obama.

Evan: Obama built a border wall, guys.

ward: Yeah, no, I like that this border is completely unmanned.

ward: It goes along with the whole thing that it's literally they're just trying to

ward: justify more military spending and more military action on this whole thing.

ward: Oh, they pushed through the border wall. Did they really?

ward: Was it unattended and they walled it? They wandered.

Evan: And then they get through and the town that's there is completely destroyed by U.S.

Evan: airstrikes. So, that tells me they're bombing American towns.

ward: Yeah.

Evan: With no regard.

Bill: Just like in real life. That has happened.

Evan: Oh, they would.

Bill: By the way, people, that has happened in real life. The American military has

Bill: bombed American towns in real life.

Bill: Also, the American military has used chemical warfare on American towns in real life.

ward: Mm-hmm.

Evan: They've also bombed a major city, like the police department in Philadelphia. You can check out that.

Bill: Speaking of chemical warfare, have you heard about St. Louis?

Evan: Yes.

Bill: That was a question.

Evan: Yeah, so, and so, yeah, well, go ahead.

Bill: I said that was a question to the audience, Evan, not you.

Evan: Oh, yeah, yeah, okay. I tell you this all the time. My audience is very well-read

Evan: in culture. They, of course, know.

ward: Yeah, they know all this stuff. That's why they're listening.

Bill: Listen, sometimes stuff, it slips with, listen, we all, we can't all,

Bill: we can't all keep track of everything the CIA does all the time, okay?

ward: Like, it's a lot.

Bill: We've got a lot of shit going on. It's a lot.

Evan: Yeah. have you ever seen the wikipedia page for like u.s incursions in other

Evan: countries it's like 6500 pages long yeah.

ward: Oh yeah i love the u.s involvement in regime change wikipedia page with a top

ward: article it's like this article is too long to read in a proper format like.

Evan: We will send you a copy of a book with all the with all the citations so you

Evan: can like look at it yourself.

ward: Yeah they literally just like you might not want to read it here this is fucking

ward: long and it's disorganized it's a lot.

Evan: What year was that? Was that like in like mid fifties?

ward: Hmm.

Bill: 1950s.

Evan: St. Louis?

ward: Yeah.

Bill: Yeah. 1950s and sixties. It's operation.

Evan: Into the sixties too.

Bill: Operation lack LAC large area.

Evan: Oh, I didn't realize, I didn't realize it went on for that long.

Bill: Yeah.

Evan: It's funny. There is a, um, I'm rewatching X files right now.

Evan: And there's an episode where people are like going crazy and killing people

Evan: because they like see numbers on a screen and it causes them to tell them to

Evan: do things like that plays on their fear.

Evan: And it's partly because they're spraying in this town, like a really horrible

Evan: chemical on their crops to save it from like the town essentially going bankrupt.

Bill: Uh, that episode I believe is also very much based on MKUltra.

Evan: Yes. Yes. But using the spraying in town reminded me of that.

Evan: And I mean, so that the film ends sort of on a very, uh, like a nice note is

Evan: they like kiss at the very end. And they're about to get rescued by the Marines

Evan: or the Army or whatever, finally taking them away.

Evan: And she's probably thinking in that moment, this is the last time I'm going to have something good.

Evan: She clearly does not want to go home, as we've said numerous times,

Evan: unless they decide that they're not going to go home.

Bill: Except for the fact that the movie may end there, but chronologically,

Bill: the beginning of the movie actually takes place after the end of the movie.

Bill: And if you recall from the beginning of the movie, he has her lifeless body

Bill: in his arms because their transport has been attacked after bombing the aliens

Bill: and he is walking away with her body in his arms.

Evan: Is that during the opening?

Bill: It's the opening scene. The opening scene of the movie.

Evan: You're right.

Bill: Is the night vision after their transport has been attacked by the creatures

Bill: after they bombed the creatures.

Bill: so the end of the movie takes place it basically ends right before where the

Bill: start of the movie begins yeah begins and the start of the movie Jesus.

Evan: Christ I didn't I didn't I like I missed.

ward: That oh yeah no when the Humvees are rolling up and the dude's like singing mmhmm that's yeah.

Evan: Yeah.

ward: Mm-hmm.

Evan: Wow.

ward: And that's what clued me in. And I was like, oh man, well now I'm going to start it back over.

Evan: Jesus. I completely botched that.

Bill: Yep.

Evan: In some way I was thinking that she would, yeah, I was thinking that that would

Evan: happen sometime during the movie.

Evan: I didn't put it as that's, yeah.

Evan: So literally the military kills them after all this and he gets nothing.

Evan: Well, no, he could take a picture of her dead body.

ward: Yeah, there's that.

Bill: He could take a picture of her dead body and sell it to her father like capitalism

Bill: is straight up that is like that is like you could not have it is not subtle,

Bill: yeah that's again that's i don't think he did this by accident he did It's not a subtle message.

ward: Show up, Gareth.

Bill: It's not a subtle message.

Evan: Gareth is too big now.

Bill: She asks him, you profit off of tragedy.

Bill: He explains her father's the one doing it.

Bill: And then at the end of their story, beginning of the movie, he's got her dead

Bill: body, lifeless body. We don't, you know.

Evan: Yeah, no, but it makes a lot more sense the way you're thinking.

Evan: I was just thinking that he was just carrying her.

Evan: I didn't put the idea of her being dead there. but that makes sense yeah he

Evan: takes a picture of her dead body he experiences you know this tragedy finally

Evan: and of course it's because of the united states not because of the monster and.

Bill: The person that has like the person who has begun to awaken the idea in him

Bill: that this is fucked up is the person that dies the person the one person in

Bill: the entire movie who's like the most like openly like this does not work is

Bill: the person who was killed by that system.

Evan: That's i mean that's reality that's other movies like you know like this to

Evan: the the person who well we think of rogue one gareth edwards that'll be the

Evan: third in this gareth edwards miniseries for those counting at home.

ward: Mr. Edwards, defend yourself. Keep accidentally stumbling into anti-imperialist plot lines.

Evan: Well, and the other thing, too, is he wrote this film. He wrote the script.

Evan: He also wrote the script to the creator. The other three films he's directed,

Evan: he did not write the script.

Evan: So, if anything, this and the creator are the most radical in their- It's happy accidents.

Bill: It's a happy- He wrote a, like, how-

Bill: he wrote a 500-page script that that blatantly shows the united states military

Bill: as the villain he just was so fucking.

Evan: What's funny when i was happy i watched a bunch of um

Evan: a bunch of uh interviews about this film

Evan: there aren't a lot most of them are around the idea of like no and most of them

Evan: have to do with the uh the effects which he did again did like adobe basically

Evan: made like a commercial movie like interview basically like how awesome you can

Evan: do on our on our tools but he doesn't get into any of the politics really of

Evan: any of his works. He doesn't talk about it at all.

ward: Yeah, because he stumbled into it.

Bill: There is like not, you can't get stuff about him really.

Evan: No.

Bill: I have like, again, I've watched this movie multiple times.

Bill: I've tried, and as a person who like loves like, you know, like lore and like

Bill: behind the scenes stuff, like I've sought out and like looked for information,

Bill: background information in this movie, and there's just It doesn't exist.

Evan: He also did an episode for a documentary series about super tornadoes and solar

Evan: storms that have been... I haven't seen the episode.

Evan: I just saw this. I wonder if it has to do with climate change.

Evan: So he clearly has the idea that shit right now isn't good.

Evan: I mean, Rogue One kind of fell into his lap. He got the script and he said,

Evan: like, you're the director for this.

Evan: But he had control over it. He had creative control. He wrote a different ending

Evan: for Rogue One, which we'll talk about in the Rogue One episode.

Evan: I don't know why there's so little about him.

Bill: It's really not a lot.

Evan: Yeah. Like you literally, his Wikipedia page is, is like six paragraphs.

Bill: Yep.

Evan: And he seemed to like the thing that he, he was more into visual effects more

Evan: so than the directing initially.

Evan: That's like what he was interested in.

Bill: For Nova. He did a bunch of like documentary stuff, which meant,

Bill: you know, you could see actually kind of like, bleeds over into Monsters.

Bill: I mean, style, because it is presented, which, going back to what you said originally about, like,

Bill: Blair Witch, you know, it's like, I really do think that, like,

Bill: this is, like, a perfect balance between the, like, quote-unquote found footage and,

Bill: actual, like, just, like, a filmed movie, because you get a good balance between

Bill: those things, because found footage, and it's just found footage, that can get old.

Evan: I'm not a big fan of full found footage films. They get a little bit weird.

ward: It's exhausting real quick.

Bill: Yeah.

Evan: Sometimes they make me like,

Evan: like they almost make me i mean i know that's part of the reason it's like they

Evan: make me feel like sick like you know just all the things whipping around and

Evan: the camera being really shaky.

Bill: Yeah i just find that like found footage films in general i don't have any real

Bill: character building like there's just it's so focused on that like yeah it's

Bill: so focused on that like style that like the characters take a back seat and

Bill: you just you don't get anything out of it whereas like this Can I.

Evan: Just say this too? He made Monsters for $500,000 and his next movie is Godzilla

Evan: with a $160 million budget.

Evan: It has to be the greatest increase in a movie budget from the first movie to

Evan: the second movie, like in director history,

Evan: like being an unknown person to making this movie that made $5 billion almost,

Evan: which is pretty good for a 500k film, then makes Godzilla on like one of the

Evan: greatest well-known movie franchises, like in the history of movies.

Evan: like, there has to be something else about this guy that like, isn't here.

Evan: We don't know. I don't, I don't know. He had interviews with like several studios

Evan: and legendary pictures.

Evan: And then that's when they Warner brothers and legendary is the one who made

Evan: Godzilla and they brought him in.

Evan: And so it just, that's just crazy. Like an unknown director.

Bill: Now I will say, like, listen, I just want to like, I want to get out of this. Okay.

Bill: I understand that we're talking a lot about the anti-imperialist aspects of

Bill: the things that, you know, the storylines that he has written into movies or

Bill: that has been part of movies that he has been involved in and stumbled,

Bill: I'm not dignifying that.

Bill: Um, and I, you know, I will acknowledge that anti-imperialism is not the primary thing.

Bill: point, political point you could take away from Godzilla 2014.

Bill: But I do think the other thing that is prevalent in this and Monsters as well

Bill: is a driving factor in Godzilla 2014 is ecological consciousness and environmentalism

Bill: and nature and systemic systems.

Bill: I just want to get it at, it's not all anti-imperialism. He also has a thing

Bill: where he returns to that kind of like thing as well.

Bill: Ecology and environmentalism and stuff like that.

Bill: Because that's a huge aspect of Godzilla. The legendary monster universe is

Bill: really focused on that kind of vitality.

Bill: Nature and systemic systems and stuff like that.

Evan: I don't know a lot. I haven't done much digging into his Godzilla film from

Evan: 2014, but I mean, he didn't write the screenplay.

Evan: It seems like it was developed for a while, so I'm going to have to look into

Evan: that for our next Excellent.

Evan: I mean, I don't have much else on this film. And we didn't really talk too much

Evan: about the news reports and things you would get along the way.

Evan: There'd be like a little radio clip, like a TV would be on and you'd see some things.

Bill: Well, that's like the aspect of the found footage. It's like the perfect blend

Bill: between found footage and...

Bill: just traditional filmmaking because the found footage is the footage that's

Bill: in the background which brings the world to life in the background of these

Bill: two people's like struggles.

Evan: Right yeah it.

Bill: Provides depth and context makes.

ward: The world feel real.

Bill: Yeah.

Evan: Yeah i mean it's it's and the thing i think i mentioned the beginning is they

Evan: shot in seven different countries in latin america they had permission to really

Evan: shoot at none of them for the most part you don't make a 500 000 film and all these places,

Evan: all the other people who he interacts with for the most part were not actors.

Evan: They just like convince people to be in their movie in many cases.

Evan: Hey, you want to be the guy who sells tickets to us in the scene?

Evan: And not also, I forgot to also mention, this was mostly improv.

Bill: Yeah, yeah.

Evan: There was an outline for that. Yeah, like the script was, it was all ad-lib,

Evan: like here's what's going to happen in the scene, you just kind of talk about it.

Evan: It probably helped that they clearly knew each other and were married or were

Evan: almost, you know, I guess they weren't married at the time of the filming,

Evan: but they were to get together.

Bill: They were getting to know each other.

Evan: Yeah. I mean, I don't know. They are. They already were married when the,

Evan: and maybe they just met on the set and then when did it actually?

Bill: Yeah. I have a feeling that's the case.

Evan: Yeah. They filmed it in. I was trying to see exactly when they filmed it.

ward: $500,000. That's including travel to seven countries that you didn't ask permission to film in.

Evan: Yeah. 15 grand of that was the equipment. it and

Evan: then he did all the editing on it like in a year on his laptop so

Evan: seven people on principal photography is ridiculously small for a movie even

Evan: for a even for a like a low budget film but five hundred thousand dollars usually

Evan: you get i mean i'm not a film expert but i would feel like that's pretty small

Evan: apparently the original cut it says was four over four hours long and they trimmed it down so it's.

ward: Four hours dang.

Bill: I mean any improv yeah any improvised yeah i could see that yeah.

Evan: I mean they probably just had them talking for a while in some scene and they

Evan: just like cut to the part that was the most interesting all.

ward: Right so how.

Evan: Do i get back to it.

Bill: Yeah i'd watch i would watch.

Evan: It's actually there is a blu-ray of this which is kind of hard to believe actually

Evan: like you have movies now that come out that are like good movies that don't

Evan: get like a blu-ray release and this one did yeah.

Bill: But this was 2010 everything that was a different time everything got a fucking release yeah.

Evan: I wonder nowadays.

Bill: Things don't get get released on Blu-ray because not everything does.

Bill: In 2010, that was how you got movies.

Evan: Yeah, I mean, I think it's like making a comeback, but you're right.

Evan: I want to see if it says on here, here are the special features.

Bill: Yeah.

Evan: So special features is there's commentary with Gareth Edwards and the two actors,

Evan: deleted extended scenes, look at how they made the monsters behind the scene

Evan: with the monsters, something called the edit.

Evan: It's probably like an interview, some visual effects, an interview with Gareth

Evan: Edwards, interview with the two actors again, and the New York Comic Con discussion

Evan: with Gareth Edwards. None of that is online.

Bill: It's kind of.

Evan: I think I can afford the $4 used copy of this that exists.

Bill: Yeah. Can we talk about who the hell chooses Scoot as their name?

Evan: Scoot?

Bill: Yeah, Scoot.

Evan: Oh, the actor's name, right. Sorry, I was like, there's no one.

Bill: Scoot. Who chooses that as their professional name? Scoot.

Evan: He's from Texas. I don't know.

ward: Who's Scoot and Boogie?

Evan: Scooter. Shooter.

Evan: Well, folks, you've been listening to Left of the Projector,

Evan: part one of five of gareth edwards and uh if he makes a new film we'll be sure

Evan: to have him on the podcast to tell everyone about it because without us how

Evan: will he how will he promote his new film without this podcast.

ward: It'll probably flop.

Evan: No one will be able to see like.

ward: It won't get the reach if he doesn't show up.

Evan: I mean he only was able to make a and.

ward: We're offering this yeah we're not even offering it for free we're not even

ward: offering it for free we're willing to give him a mug.

Evan: He's Getting.

ward: Paid to show up and not even show up is just like an online video.

Evan: I mean, he got a $225 million budget for, for Jurassic Park.

Evan: And I bet they didn't give him a mug.

ward: They're hard. They're a hard commodity, especially in this economy these days, dude.

Evan: And we'll catch you next time.