[00:00:00] Kyle: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to episode 0050, the movie wars podcast. I'm Kyle. And we got my friend Matthew back. What you doing, buddy? How you doing?

[00:00:21] Matthew: How are we doing tonight? Movie wars audience, man. It's so great to be back, dude. Thanks for having me,

[00:00:26] Kyle (3): dude. You're welcome. Any, any, literally any episode we'll do some straight to [00:00:30] VHS stuff.

[00:00:30] Kyle (3): Like we were talking about before we hit record, uh, maybe, no, I don't know. But, uh, we are on Mad Max two, the road warrior, and there are 16 different variations of that title that have transcended over the years. Um, we, uh, as a quick reminder to the, to the, uh, to the crew, we did movie wars, uh, or we did Mad Max last week, the, the first entry in the franchise.

[00:00:52] Kyle (3): We got a five to two approval. Uh, on that movie, which was the shiny and chrome and the, as a reminder, that's the positive and [00:01:00] the nose or the blood bags, um, you know, and in setting the stage here for this one, you know, we kind of left the last podcast on the note that this is widely accepted is not only the greatest of this franchise, but will make its way onto a lot of top 100 list, not all, but quite a few.

[00:01:16] Kyle (3): Um, this movie changed a lot of things in terms of action. Not just vehicular, but action in general. This idea of we gotta keep everything moving. Before this movie, action was, you know, and this is kind of an anecdote. I like [00:01:30] anecdotes. Um, you know, action was a subset of a movie. You know, Bond movies would have pockets of action.

[00:01:36] Kyle (3): Westerns would have pockets of action. You know, this movie came along and it's just like everything has to move all the time. You know, there are very few dead spots. And, uh, you know, the biggest thing I think we see from, from 1 to 2 here, is just, just, it's just the most dramatic step I've ever seen in a franchise in terms of taking a step from 1 to 2.

[00:01:57] Kyle (3): You know, I think about a lot of the classic slasher, you know, [00:02:00] franchises where, like, you know, Nightmare on Elm Street. You know, three is considered kind of the most, you know, in terms of thought and complexity, the best, but it's not necessarily that it took that many big steps from one to three. It's just they kind of developed.

[00:02:13] Kyle (3): This is a massive, like, we landed on the moon step in so many ways. And I say this tongue in cheek because there's a lot of real reality behind this we'll get into through the conversation. But George Miller kind of went to school when he made Mad Max and all those mistakes And this these are his words in the [00:02:30] documentary about this film, but he Learned a lot from the mistakes he made on mad max, but I This is a dramatic step in a new direction and it's it's incredible.

[00:02:40] Kyle (3): What do you think?

[00:02:42] Matthew (2): Yeah, absolutely I think that part of like you were talking about where he had to learn from his failures is he was editing A a big portion of the first movie on his kitchen table. So like having to sit there for a year And just look at all of your mistakes [00:03:00] But not only that though is you're looking at all of the things that you did, right?

[00:03:04] Matthew (2): I mean, this is an amateur director for his first attempt at a movie and he's able to kind of just obsessively Pour over all of the things that he did, right all of the mistakes that he made and then just you know Take, uh, then a, what, a 5 million budget as compared to the 380, 000 budget of the first movie, and you basically become like an auteur expert [00:03:30] in your own filmmaking.

[00:03:31] Matthew (2): And not a lot of filmmakers get to do that. You don't get to edit your own work and just pour over your work obsessively to the point to where you become an expert filmmaker. And it's just immediate from just the, the onset of. Uh, Road Warrior, that he's just a, a, a cinematic juggernaut at that point. I, I equate it to like, he, he took John Ford's stagecoach, and he just dumped gasoline all over it, and just started it on fire.

[00:03:58] Matthew (2): I mean, once [00:04:00] Road Warrior takes off, it never stops going. And, you know, for my ADHD addled brain, it's the perfect film.

[00:04:08] Kyle (3): I love that you said that, and I was gonna save it for a little later, but let's get into it now. I don't And this movie isn't my top 50, but it's by no means my favorite movie of all time.

[00:04:18] Kyle (3): But the word perfect did cross my mind a few times. And I don't take that lightly, but I think I tie that to the first 10 minutes of this film. If you're [00:04:30] going to reintroduce a crowd to a series and, and try to get people acclimated back to the world, I don't know that there's a better first 10 minutes.

[00:04:38] Kyle (3): To get a to get a viewer into the franchise.

[00:04:42] Matthew (2): I mean, yeah, you don't you could skip the entire movie And then miller has essentially brought you up to speed established where we are now in the world And you know, it's it's remarkable, you know, we were talking about how Mel Gibson himself looked like he had lived through the actual apocalypse in the couple of years in [00:05:00] between the films, and it just, it's perfect for the character.

[00:05:02] Matthew (2): I don't know what happened to him to, to make that transition, but it's perfect for the film, uh, you know, and it's just, uh, the Road Warrior is cinematic in a way that other films are just not anymore, uh, You know, it's and Miller is talking in in visual language already in the in the first few minutes of the film when he's with the gyrocopter pilot is is tied up in in the [00:05:30] interceptor, and he's got the dog holding the bone that's tied to the shotgun.

[00:05:35] Matthew (2): Okay, so it's this Rube Goldberg contraption, but then you pass a jackrabbit on the road. So you're, you're looking at his eyes, you're looking at the jackrabbit, you're, you're, then Mel Gibson just smirks at it all because he knows his dog is not going to be easily persuaded, he knows, it's, it's like, it's a masterful little bit of subtle filmmaking that tells you [00:06:00] everything through just showing it to you.

[00:06:03] Kyle (3): Yeah, and it's so and there's something to be said for I think one of the reasons that the transition into the sequel is so good because it is a lot of showing, you know, if he described the first one as a silent movie with sound, you know, this one, this one gives you a lot visually and they're not having to over tell one of the worst things I hate and franchises with like a lot of films that are included in the series.

[00:06:26] Kyle (3): Is that they often make up for it with bad [00:06:30] dialogue or forced moments where they feel like they gotta pull, you know, the audience back in to kind of remind them, Uh, here. They start off with almost a poem. It's not a poem, but the narrative and the narration from the grown feral boy at the beginning is a well written piece.

[00:06:44] Kyle (3): And that, that's something that actually is unique to the entire franchise, like when you go throughout the entire series, is that these poetic, almost Ozymandias, you know, like I would almost compare to the Ozymandias, you know? It's like you feel like you're hearing that kind of pontification. And, uh, [00:07:00] and I love how they said, what is, how does he phrase it?

[00:07:03] Kyle (3): This is how he learned. He learned to live again through wandering the wasteland. That line in and of itself is actually what nailed it for me. I'm like, oh shit. Yeah,

[00:07:14] Matthew (2): and not only it tells you that, but it shows you that because you're in this wasteland and some of the best parts of the movie are just Mel Gibson's smirk, or, you know, and most of the best acting that he does is just nothing but eyes.

[00:07:28] Matthew (2): It's, it's [00:07:30] so incredible, but, you know, for, for him to have gone through everything that he went through and to just be able to, to have a laugh at the absurdity of all of it, it's, it's like, it's like, That's beautiful. It's beautiful filmmaking.

[00:07:43] Kyle (3): Yeah. And last point is just the fact that, uh, I think you and I were talking about this before we hit record, but when you have a franchise, uh, the temptation to to find ways to hook audiences again and to keep that money coming in.

[00:07:59] Kyle (3): As much as we [00:08:00] want to talk about themes and art, which is all that we care about, there is this money side. It's like, how do we keep making money on this thing? And, uh, The fact is, that they, the smart thing they did, whether it was, is accidental or not, is they mythologized Max as this almost spirit character that can flow in and out.

[00:08:16] Kyle (3): Yes, it's a western, but there's almost a ghostly aspect to Max too. I, at last frame, and I kind of forgot because I hadn't rewatched it in a while, I kind of forgot how haunting that last frame is, because you're feeling this victory, these strangers, he bailed them out, they [00:08:30] won, they got away from him, but that last shot, it's like, you don't feel great about Max, yeah, the people were delivered, but you have this feeling like they're gonna run into trouble again, at some point, Max is gonna get mixed up again, but he is this ghostly, mythological character who's going to almost lose themselves.

[00:08:46] Kyle (3): Exist in the wasteland until he dies and he's going to just continue along this lonely track until it this situation pops up again And then he leaves again and then he wanders and then he does it again.

[00:08:57] Matthew (2): Yeah, it's the classic joseph campbell [00:09:00] hero, man He's just and that's what makes it so great. And so compelling is like you just distill storytelling down to those Essential primal, you know, you got the hero.

[00:09:11] Matthew (2): He's got his hero's journey Uh, it fits the it fits the bill for you know, cowboy westerns that fits the bill for samurai films You know, he could be he could be literally you just fill in the blank for whatever stoic figure Is prevalent in your culture and max fits that bill. So, you know, that's why he's always going to [00:09:30] be Uh relevant it's he's always it's an evergreen character

[00:09:35] Kyle (3): Oh yeah, I love how you said that because that was one of the most revealing things George Miller said about this film is like they had this revelation that the reason that, you know, basically George Miller surmised that there was really no real reason the first film should have left the borders of Australia and done well, but they realized it's because the mythology was simple enough to where every culture, religion, country, You know, [00:10:00] they all have this character, you know, the, the samurai, the lone samurai character, uh, I can't remember what the Scandinavian equivalent, you might remember, but there's a, yeah, the Viking, like there are lone, uh, warriors in every single, you know, history context, whether that be their history or their mythology and every culture can relate to this type of character, which is why it transcended.

[00:10:24] Kyle (3): So it's the lone warrior.

[00:10:26] Matthew (2): Yeah, and the, you know, the nice thing about a stoic [00:10:30] character is you can just project anything you want onto him, even if, objectively, if you watch Max through the course of his, uh, of his attempts, I, I don't know if objectively he's the smartest or most capable hero most of the time, you know?

[00:10:46] Matthew (2): Yeah,

[00:10:46] Kyle (3): he's the most adaptable.

[00:10:48] Matthew (2): Right, that's, and then maybe that's what, that's what it requires. You've got a guy who's basically, his eye is swollen shut, um, because he looks like he's been beaten up by Rocky, but, you know, [00:11:00] he's the only one that's gonna be able to save your entire village, I mean.

[00:11:04] Kyle (3): Yeah, and I, not to skip too far ahead, but that's one reason I did actually really like Tom Hardy's interpretation, because that was the bumbling Max, the guy that kinda was, tired and made a lot of mistakes and that's why he ended up in the situation he was in because he kind of just tumbled and and that felt actually kind of natural you know because every lone warrior mythology has that like i'm tired i've been doing this a long time i've been surviving like stuff's gonna start falling apart a [00:11:30] little bit down the road and and i think that's a very realistic um ambiguation for for how this goes

[00:11:37] Matthew (2): I agree.

[00:11:38] Matthew (2): And there's a cute, like, childlike quality that Tom Hardy brings to it that's kind of fun. I don't know what it is. It's that cowlick on the back of his head or something. But he just looks like a doofus. And, uh, I like it. So.

[00:11:49] Kyle (3): They had the tenacity. Again, I don't want to give away too much of that episode when we get to it.

[00:11:53] Kyle (3): But the tenacity to make the shotgun malfunction was probably part of that childlike, like, like a kid. Is [00:12:00] his gun backfires it doesn't even work both iconic image of that that short barrel double barrel shotgun or what they call it a short nose or whatever and it just fail and you never he never gets to use it again the rest of the movie.

[00:12:12] Kyle (3): Yeah

[00:12:12] Matthew (2): there's something there that so romantic about shotgun shells and then george miller movie though it's like they're they're they're these precious. Objects, you know, the way that he frames cars and the way that he framed shotgun shells and the just gasoline it's, I don't know, man, he's very good at [00:12:30] building his, like his cinematic, uh, his tropes, I guess.

[00:12:33] Matthew (2): And

[00:12:35] Kyle (3): here's the question for you in response to that, is that because they've done such a good job painting this world for us that we know that resources lack. And so like, for example, the federal boy on the hood of that semi truck on the tanker, he's trying to get that shotgun shell for max. Like you as a viewer, I don't know about you and maybe it's only a certain viewer like you and I who are really inspecting This a deep level but i'm like it's because there's not many of those around Like if you lose that shotgun shell, there aren't [00:13:00] many left,

[00:13:00] Matthew (2): right?

[00:13:01] Matthew (2): and it I I was watching that scene just a little before we started recording this podcast and it's like Max doesn't seem to care about the boy But all he cares about are the motivations that are driving the thing forward and he doesn't give one shit about the feral kid at all But

[00:13:19] yeah

[00:13:20] Matthew (2): I don't know, but then again, he does, because if he truly didn't, then we wouldn't go along for the heroic ride.

[00:13:26] Matthew (2): We know that Max knows that the feral kid is [00:13:30] going to be able to get that shotgun shell.

[00:13:32] Kyle (3): Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot, and this is a rabbit hole we could go down if we dare, but the motivations of our protagonist are very interesting here. Um As simple as the story is, I think the simpler the story, if it's a well directed film and a well written film, then the simplicity can actually lead to a lot of questions.

[00:13:49] Kyle (3): You know, is it injustice? You know, it's not necessarily the people, but is it, this is an opportunity to restore justice in a world where justice does not matter. You know, is that the [00:14:00] motivation?

[00:14:01] Matthew (2): Yeah, it's, it's, it's difficult to tell because, I guess the motivation is ultimately, they're in a situation where there are no food options available, um, however, they've just made friends with a gyrocopter pilot that could surely go scout resources, so, I don't know, I'm a little unclear about what they're trying to accomplish by leaving.

[00:14:22] Matthew (2): If you've got if you've got access to the one resource, but also having to defend that resource constantly I suppose that takes a toll [00:14:30] and um I don't know what their motivation was at the beginning of the film to go to go have that that group Break off and try and find a tanker Um, was it just to leave the the constant oppression of these gangs?

[00:14:44] Matthew (2): um and just you know take enough gasoline and then leave leave that behind and You But then where are you going to go?

[00:14:53] Kyle (3): Yeah, everything is, it's conquest all over again. We're in a mapless world. Uh, we're in a, you know, and this is a pre internet world. [00:15:00] So. Um, you know, they have no record, you know, and it's interesting because the feral boy represents, and Miller talks about this, the feral boy isn't just this wild kid, he represents, um, the children of Sudan, the children of war torn areas that are born and live in war, um, and they almost have this, this smirky disposition because this is the world they grew up in, so they're not necessarily shaken.

[00:15:23] Kyle (3): Even though they're traumatized at a level they probably don't understand, they do embrace this world as the world they grew up in. [00:15:30] So this is interesting because I think the feral boy, even though it's easy to focus on him as just a child who's kind of wily and throws a boomerang and cuts people up, he really is the representation of a generation of people grown up and born into war.

[00:15:42] Kyle (3): Um, and so when you really focus on it that way, conquest Is reintroduced because you think of it now as we live in the United States of America, we are a product of decades and millennia of conquest, and we don't really see conquest as a prevalent thing today, but that's how we got here. If the world were to reset, and we were to be in a [00:16:00] wasteland, a post apocalyptic, you would have to get the sense that maybe some sort of conquest would, uh, would, uh, happen.

[00:16:06] Kyle (3): And so you could probably look through history and read instances with the Mongols or whatever you want to, whatever era of history you want to look at where people wanted to evade conquest and, and find greener pastures.

[00:16:17] Matthew (2): Yeah. Yeah. I guess that's part of the human condition as well is just this notion that somewhere it's going to be easier.

[00:16:22] Matthew (2): So you constantly have to cling to that, to that hope.

[00:16:26] Kyle (3): Yeah, yeah, the greener pastures, the, the, yeah, it is, it's the human spirit, [00:16:30] right? And if, I, sometimes I wish I could throw my phone out and just find a new greener pasture, you

[00:16:35] Kyle: know, in this technological age we live in.

[00:16:37] Kyle (3): Uh, I don't know how it would stack up against Lord Humongous, but, uh, uh, with the studded, uh, His studded under ruse, but,

[00:16:47] Kyle (3): oh man, that's good stuff. Uh, before we get to the questions, um, you know, as a reminder, you know, the easiest way to help this podcast is to share with a friend. And that means, you know, the send button on the podcast can take you to social media, it can take you to your text message, or you can tell [00:17:00] a friend if you have a Mad Max fan on there, don't forget to think about us.

[00:17:03] Kyle (3): And, uh, again, it's simple and it may seem too simple, but that's the best way, uh, to share the word here of the, uh, movie wars podcast. All right, the questions. I came up with a couple of, uh, kind of comedic questions for you. We are comedians, so you got to add a little levity here. First one, Matthew, if Max didn't come along, do you think they would have eventually been okay in the hands of the feral boy we

[00:17:24] Kyle: have grown up to be a worthy defender of this group?

[00:17:28] Matthew (2): All right. So, uh, [00:17:30] I am, if as many people may know this, I am white trash from Nebraska city, Nebraska. Uh, I have a cousin who looks exactly like the feral boy. Uh, we came from Carney hill and we all howled at the moon on that side. Um, so if you know, you know, it's like, but I've seen where that goes. Um, and you know, none of these assholes that I grew up with grew up to be stoic leaders.

[00:17:58] Matthew (2): So [00:18:00] I think if they had a max wander into their lives and teach them a thing or two. That maybe they would have had a better shot at being a good leader. So I, Max was essential here.

[00:18:12] Kyle (3): Yeah.

[00:18:13] Matthew (2): Yeah.

[00:18:14] Kyle (3): Yeah. I agree. I think, I think, yeah. And the fact that like one of the negatives for him being born in this world is that no one took the time to really give him an English lesson.

[00:18:25] Kyle (3): teach him any sort of linguistics. And he's kind of just, he's pure, uh, [00:18:30] he's just pure anger and boomerang throwing. So I, I don't know if they ever wanted to invest in that character, but you know, he's doing the narration though. I think some of this question is tongue in cheek, but some of it's kind of in the fact that eventually if you believe the narration, which it's an intricate part of the story, he grew up to retell the mythology.

[00:18:48] Kyle (3): So, you gotta wonder if Miller, if that was just a device, or if in his mind, in which I wouldn't put it past Miller because he's a, he's a pretty humble mirror, like, really kind of miraculous filmmaker given the history [00:19:00] of these films and how he developed. Maybe there was something in the back of his mind where he's thinking, there is a path to where this, this kid comes from not even speaking a, a language to just throwing a boomerang to eventually,

[00:19:13] Matthew (2): So I think we're just kind of implying that the feral boy got feral dictation lessons along the way, or feral, like, schooling, uh, feral finishing schools, which I don't know, well, maybe you would need feral finishing schools in the [00:19:30] apocalypse, that's the place you would need them, is just like, You know how to teach these, you know, I don't know these, these coyote kids, you know, how to use the right forks and how to speak with proper diction and how to, like, uh, you know, make, makes character sound epic, you know?

[00:19:50] Kyle (3): Yeah, it is kind of funny because that's not really ever, it's never prevalent in any of the films after this, like there is no education type of, you know, apparatus. There's no, [00:20:00] like, it's just always bedlam. So there is some. You know, maybe he got with the right group and they taught him and we're only left to wonder, but yeah, and eventually he does, but just because he can narrate this tale doesn't mean he's the, he's the, you know, the penultimate guardian here.

[00:20:15] Matthew (2): Maybe, I don't know, maybe it was like Braveheart's uncle, maybe had some sort of like stoic figure come in and, you know, tell him to quit being an asshole and like, you know, quit playing with your boomerang and, you know, learn how to talk right. [00:20:30]

[00:20:30] Kyle (3): Do you think, okay, here's another rabbit hole. Oh, you said the boomerang.

[00:20:33] Kyle (3): I never expected the boomerang to be as vicious as it was. And like, when you look at the prop, like, cause I watched the interview with the guy that played the feral boy and like the, it doesn't necessarily look razor edged or anything, but were you kind of shocked? Like if you can recall back to the first time you saw it, it's like, Oh, that's what that thing does.

[00:20:53] Matthew (2): You weren't expecting fingertips to be flying at you through the camera. That's a, that's a jolt to the system [00:21:00] at a young age, man. I think I saw this when I was I think I saw this movie when I was like four. And this was like one of the lighter offenders. But yeah, you had fingers coming at your face.

[00:21:14] Kyle (3): Yeah, no, I was, I was around the same age and then it's like strong, like it's strong enough to penetrate the dude's skull on the back of Wes's, uh, bike, like that was, I was like, Oh, okay. That's a, that's a sharp boomerang.

[00:21:27] Matthew (2): Yeah, Farrah Fawcett, uh, on the back of the [00:21:30] bike there. So, you know, which is interesting to me that, uh, that they, that Miller, uh, you know, gave that relationship some modicum of respect.

[00:21:40] Matthew (2): You know, you're, we mourn the death of, of biker Farrah Fawcett when, when this dude dies and, you know, the, you feel the pain of Wes and humongous has to comfort him. Uh, you know, these are, these are, uh, Gay characters by apocalyptic necessity, but it's still [00:22:00] unusual for Australian cinema still at that time.

[00:22:02] Matthew (2): And, and even the, the strong female characters is, is unusual for Australian cinema at that time.

[00:22:10] Kyle (3): Yeah. And it's funny, like side rando here, like that was, uh, they, they, it was a last minute decision. They kind of wanted to go for the archetype of the female on the back of the bike. Um, they decided like that's gonna be too normal, like we have to go against the norms here.

[00:22:23] Kyle (3): So that's why they went and got him and they're like, well, we don't have anybody to play that part. So that was a, that was just like a post the mail boy for the [00:22:30] studio. Like, so he was just the guy that was running parcels, you know, they're like, that's the guy. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, it's, it's hilarious because, you know, like, but it made, since I get that last minute decision, because we're living in these abnormal times.

[00:22:43] Kyle (3): And really it's, it's a kind of a, it's kind of a nod to Spartan times, right? Like, even though it's not that level of warfare, I mean, that is the, that's the, you know, the ancient war archetype of the, the male companion. Yeah. They'll fuck you out of

[00:22:58] Matthew (2): necessity. It's not about love. [00:23:00] Well, actually there seemed to be love there between Wes and, and, and, and, And I forget the name of the character.

[00:23:05] Matthew (2): It was like young something or other, you know, young blonde bombshell, or I can't remember, but it was, and then they just saw this guy walking around and, uh, you must've just been in a cocaine haze, I imagine. And it's like, That's

[00:23:22] Kyle (3): perfect. Well, historians always like to look at it as like the, like, we got to keep up the morale.

[00:23:28] Kyle (3): That's, it's always [00:23:30] like, you really, yeah, you're a historian, but like, let's not like act like you, you understand this thing, this arrangement,

[00:23:37] Kyle: you know, like, is this, you know, it's like Homer didn't write about this. Okay. Like you're the one talking about it. So.

[00:23:44] Kyle (3): Sorry, my, my own quips with history here, so no one cares about that.

[00:23:49] Kyle: It's like, you got a movie, you got a movie podcast and you're now you're challenging the historian. Good job, dude. You're a comedian. Take that, historians. Yes, yes, [00:24:00] I'm on George Miller's

[00:24:00] Kyle (3): side. Um, this is, this is a question that just came naturally to my mind, the, the comedic mind at work here. Wes, are the assless chaps really the only way to go for optimal marauding?

[00:24:13] Matthew (2): Kind of. If you think about it, it's like, okay, first of all, if you've ever ridden a motorcycle, you know, road rash is a serious situation, uh, but if you've also tried to survive and subsist on jackrabbits in the apocalyptic wastelands, you have to [00:24:30] have, like, quick access to be able to, like, there's things happening and they're gonna happen quick, so, yeah, assless chaps are the all around, uh, I think the most pragmatic solution.

[00:24:42] Kyle (3): Yeah, and it, it, the only real disappointing thing about the, the materials, the behind the scenes, the commentaries, they don't get into it, but like, you know, this is a road based world where everything is road gangs and, and tankers and vehicles, but Wes is doing kung fu flips at the end. [00:25:00] He's doing like, gymnastics over people.

[00:25:02] Kyle (3): It's like, When did he learn that? In this road based, vehicle based, you know, world, like, he's doing flips and stuff. He's very nimble, like, is it because of the chaps? Is it like, well, I'm free. I'm gonna flip.

[00:25:16] Matthew (2): Well, you, you gotta, you gotta wonder what Wes's occupation was prior. He was a Cirque du Soleil, maybe.

[00:25:22] Matthew (2): I mean, you've got to think Like, that makes me think long and hard about who my allies are going to be in our [00:25:30] impending apocalypse. You might want to go places you hadn't thought before. If Wes is an example of that, then we need to be going to ballet studios and finding allies for the apocalypse.

[00:25:40] Kyle (3): Yes, yes.

[00:25:41] Kyle (3): And again, it bodes back to the bit I've been working on. I mentioned the last one, but I just don't have great I don't know about you, but I just don't have great prospects in an apocalyptic world. I just don't know. I mean, You know, think about it, as comedians, like, court jester, right? Like, we're gonna be court, but like, one bad joke, like, they're just gonna slit your throat.

[00:25:59] Kyle (3): [00:26:00] Yeah. We don't have, I'm not a physical being, like, I'm done. Like, I, my day job's in tech. Like, there is no tech. Like,

[00:26:07] Matthew (2): Right. Yeah, no, we're useless. When the power goes out, they're like, they're going to make chili out of us. That's the most utility that we're gonna have in the apocalypse, is they're gonna, they can make chili out of us.

[00:26:19] Kyle: I swear when the pooters turn back on, I'll be, I'll be useful. If you can find a power outlet, you know, it'd be

[00:26:25] Matthew (2): good. Yeah, you better learn to suck a mean dick before that time [00:26:30] comes. Well, there's a lot of good ways to

[00:26:32] Kyle: practice that.

[00:26:37] Kyle: Speaking, side note, just based on what I said about the power outlets, it is kind of amazing that, like, I know we're like, their

[00:26:43] Kyle (3): point was to delve us deeper into Apocalypse, but there are no buildings. Like, there's nothing. Like, there's

[00:26:49] Matthew (2): zero. Yeah, no structures at all. So it's like you have a gap. You have an oil, I guess, an oil refinery that's just in the middle of nowhere.

[00:26:59] Matthew (2): There are no food [00:27:00] resources anywhere near it. There's no, uh, by this time, Miller has not gotten into the world building that he did in some of the later sequels. But, uh, yeah, so it's a real struggle for resources, which I guess that goes back to my previous question. Why, if you had one of the most valuable, uh, you had infinite resources.

[00:27:18] Matthew (2): Access to the most valuable resource in the apocalypse. I guess it means nothing if you don't have anything to eat.

[00:27:25] Kyle (3): Yeah, and what happened to our ice cream shop from the first one? [00:27:30]

[00:27:30] Matthew (2): Yeah, right. Yeah, we've gone a long way, and it was, it was shitty ice cream, but we still had ice cream shops. Yeah,

[00:27:38] Kyle: not even, not even an ice cream truck.

[00:27:39] Kyle: Now, that seems like the, it seems like the, the food truck scene, scene should be exploding in this scenario, if they could find the food.

[00:27:48] Matthew (2): That would be phenomenal. You need some real savage like road warrior food truck type deals, but then you gotta wonder about the meat sources and that turns into a whole, you know.

[00:27:59] Kyle (3): [00:28:00] Coyotes, turtles, you know, and in the later entries they're all radiated, so. Yeah, or former IT guys. That's what it's like.

[00:28:07] Kyle: This is a pooter guy taco. It's probably damn good too. I've got a lot of marbling. Yes, yes, dude. Oh my, I'm laughing so hard because it is kind of funny now that I just realized how useless, like I knew I was going to be useless, but now after

[00:28:23] Kyle (3): this conversation, like we are useless.

[00:28:29] Kyle (3): Oh [00:28:30] man, all right, let's get to the randos, man. A lot of interesting little things popped up through my research here. The dog, the healer, uh, Bluey to the children out there. Um, I love dogs. I'm a big dog guy. In fact, I just met a new dog. I'm thinking about adopting today, actually, believe it or not, a new golden retriever, but, uh, that healer was one day away from being put down.

[00:28:49] Kyle (3): One of the runners for the show went out and said they realized they needed a dog and they didn't have one. And they went to a shelter that was nearby to where they were filming. [00:29:00] And I think, what is it called? Broken Hill? Is it Broken Hill or is it Dead Hill? I can't remember. I think it's Broken Hill.

[00:29:05] Kyle (3): Don't have a note on that one, but yeah, Broken Hills where they, the location they found a film and this dog was one day from being putting, put down and the way that this dog impressed him was like, he was retrieving pebbles and bring him into him and then like looking at him and like, he was doing all these like retrieval things and they just like fell in love with the dog.

[00:29:22] Kyle (3): So literally like this movie saved him from being euthanized the next day.

[00:29:27] Matthew (2): Yeah, that's fantastic. It's a great little story too. [00:29:30] And, uh, that dog had so much character and he was perfect for that, for that film. You know, you've got the sense that that dog had been through some, uh, some hard times in his own self and, uh, you know, blue healers are kind of notoriously kind of a dickish dog too.

[00:29:45] Matthew (2): So you'd have one with so much character. It was perfect.

[00:29:48] Kyle (3): Yeah. And I know there's the archetype that like, like people always react more. They get more disturbed when animals die than humans, like you can watch a movie like John Wick where like thousands of humans get slaughtered by a gun, but the one dog is the [00:30:00] most, that's a thing, but this one did hurt because you do feel like this dog went through some stuff and to die the way it died, it was like, Oh, and you know, there's no, there's no like funeral, there's no services, but I feel like in this era, like that dog should have really gotten some, some credit there at the end.

[00:30:17] Matthew (2): Yep, well, Max is just gonna get another dog to help him through. Yep.

[00:30:22] Kyle (3): And then apparently squashed a salamander with two heads in the fifth row. And apparently he grows to hate the animals later on. [00:30:30] Um, I love this one because, um, I love connecting. Like, I don't know about you, but when you see an actor who played another role that you love, but, you know, it's not like a big actor, so you have to like, You have to, like, do some mental math, like, oh, that's, that's that guy, Vernon Wells, who played Bennett in the, in Commando with Arnold, um, a really interesting, he was the guy that wore, like, the chain mail in Commando, really kind of a, another weird quasi, he plays Wes, right, and so the, the story was that George Miller wanted him, he was more [00:31:00] of a classically trained, the guy's natural disposition.

[00:31:03] Kyle (3): He's very gentle, kind, kind of quiet, and he's like, I want you to play Wes. And so he reads the script in front of George Miller's like, I can't do this. He's like, I can't play this guy. I've never done it. Like, I can't look this way. And so George Miller literally points to a makeup person in his office.

[00:31:20] Kyle (3): And says take him back and they take back Vernon Wells and they shave his head into the mohawk and they put on the the S& M gear and he can't see himself there's no [00:31:30] mirrors in this room and they're purposely doing that and then they bring him back and there's a full length mirror behind the door of Miller's office and he says look in that mirror and Vernon Wells says that when he saw himself dressed as Wes he said a spark ignited he's like I get it and he's like I got to do this

[00:31:47] Matthew (2): and he does it

[00:31:47] Kyle (3): well.

[00:31:49] Matthew (2): He's perfect. He's the, he's the archetype, man. It's like when you think of the, that type of ravager, like post apocalyptic character, you think of a character like [00:32:00] Wes, he, you know, he, he nailed it. So, um, kudos to him. And, you know, I'm glad that it w it worked out the way it did, because I think it wouldn't have been a strong as strong a film if it didn't have those compelling villains.

[00:32:13] Kyle (3): Yeah, and it, it really set an important tone for movies going forward that the bad guys are not just the people we dispose of to get our heroes victory at the end, that these are, these are people with stories themselves. And as much as I think it's a little cliche now, like Nolan kind of set the tone that we're going to give [00:32:30] backstories and we're going to really care about, like, how our villains got here.

[00:32:33] Kyle (3): It's kind of become rote now, but this was a new idea, you know, kind of that we're going to, you know, we're going to kind of like learn that villains are just as important. Like, they're not just the pins that we knocked down to get to the victory, but they are like, you know, they're people with attributes and uniqueness and, uh, and do interesting things.

[00:32:52] Kyle (3): And, and they're, they're just as important to the story.

[00:32:55] Matthew (2): Yeah. And they all, and they have their own motivations and they are the heroes in their [00:33:00] own stories, respectively. Totally.

[00:33:02] Kyle (3): Yeah, I love that. So much so that today we're getting side stories. Like, I just was hearing that the Penguin, uh, side story from the Reeves Batman is getting tremendous reviews.

[00:33:11] Kyle (3): So, like, we're, we're actually, like, invested in them being our, our makeshift protagonist antagonists.

[00:33:16] Kyle: You know?

[00:33:17] Kyle (3): Yeah,

[00:33:20] Matthew (2): well, in a world bereft of actual heroes, I guess you have to root for bad guys now, so.

[00:33:25] Kyle (3): Yeah. I mean, they are interesting because they don't have the same rules, I guess, and it's more interesting for us [00:33:30] subconsciously to see people live out those vestiges of our subconscious.

[00:33:34] Matthew (2): That's right. We're wrestling with our shadow cells, baby. Let's go.

[00:33:37] Kyle (3): Do you want to read Jung out loud, or are we going to read Carl Jung?

[00:33:41] Matthew (2): Yeah, and then we can cry together for the rest of the podcast, and we'll share a moment. I'm going to turn the lights off first, though.

[00:33:47] Kyle (3): Yes. Hold on, let me go get my Jung.

[00:33:49] Kyle (3): Um, yeah. Um, the leather. So, you know, that is one question I always ask myself watching and I'm glad I finally have the answer. I always wonder why the S& M gear and the stuff and, [00:34:00] you know, it's, it's funny because it's easy to think there's just some weird sexual overtone to it. But it really was because a, you know, one of the costume designers, Norma Marissa, who is apparently was a legend in the Australian film scene.

[00:34:11] Kyle (3): Was the designer here and she said it was because on her way to her, I guess, wherever her office was between her apartment and the office where she lived in Melbourne was a shop and she would go in and because she's a costume designer, she was curious and she would ask questions. And so she kind of had this idea that like, this is what our villains need to wear.

[00:34:28] Kyle (3): So it literally [00:34:30] was just born out of her own, her walk to the office.

[00:34:34] Matthew (2): Yeah, that's great. And I, you know, I guess it is still S and M centric though. It's like they can, they can sugarcoat it all they want, but in the apocalypse, we're getting freaky. Uh, you know, I, I haven't picked out my loincloth yet. He kind of like cod piece or whatever for when it happens.

[00:34:52] Matthew (2): I haven't decided on my apocalypse look yet. Uh, definitely, definitely gonna get an eye patch right away though. That's going [00:35:00] to.

[00:35:00] Kyle (3): Well, considering we're going to be food as IT guys, I think that's really the only, the only thing we're going to enjoy is picking out the outfit. We die in it. Yeah, we might as well go out looking fabulous.

[00:35:11] Kyle (3): Yeah, and Humongous, really, it's over the top, you know, and he's got the shirt off and he's got the metal helmet, but the studded underwear is really something. It's, it's like a, it's something a wrestler would wear, you know, in the WCW or whatever.

[00:35:25] Matthew (2): I wonder what his day to day life is like, you know, once, you know, how [00:35:30] does that guy take a piss, first of all, and, you know, I, I don't know.

[00:35:34] Kyle (3): Again, though, following the, the, the, uh, the, the outline of the great Mad Max villain with the, the Shakespearean speech and the, you know, the, the classical approach. And I guess that guy was a, he was Mr. Sweden, the guy that played Lord Humongous. He was Mr. Sweden and, uh, you know, jacked his all get out. But really, I mean, played the part really well, but that studded underwear was really something to behold.

[00:35:56] Matthew (2): Yeah, absolutely. You don't, you don't become the Ayatollah [00:36:00] of rock and roll, uh, without an epic stellar cod piece.

[00:36:04] Kyle (3): Yes, sir. So we touched on this a little bit, you know, the, the, one of the original, uh, foundations of the movie was the oil shortage. I think it was 1973, the, uh, the gas shortage. Uh, and although they touched on that during the materials of the first film, they kind of expounded on it here.

[00:36:21] Kyle (3): George Miller talked about how it took 10 days. From the start of the gas shortage until 10 days was the first time a gunshot was fired in a gas line [00:36:30] waiting for, you know, the government was getting involved and they were trying to ration and he said that's where really he realized like humanity were a few threads away from, from insanity.

[00:36:39] Matthew (2): Yeah, and I think, uh, I think we're living through that right now, you know, but yeah, I haven't been shot at a gas station yet. Um, Where have I found any crossbows like a Kroger? So I think we're all right.

[00:36:55] Kyle (3): We need gas as a service, you know, just an app and digitally just, you know, [00:37:00] uh, that didn't work. I don't know, like salesforce.

[00:37:02] Kyle (3): com shit. I don't know. Okay. That was stupid. I should cut that. I try and I fail. Tech joke. Yes, and, uh, last rando here, rando, uh, the actor who played the feral kid, uh, this is amazing. I think you probably saw this too in the documentary, the last scene on the hood of the tanker. I guess he kept laughing. Uh, when Wells would pop up, as was, and, and he would pop up, he was supposed to scare him, but the boy just kept [00:37:30] laughing hysterically, and so, Wells was like, well, how do I, how do I make this happen?

[00:37:33] Kyle (3): Like, how do I make the boy, uh, scared? So he found a sponge and a bucket of, of studio blood, you know, the fake blood they use, and he stoked it, and the last time they shot it, Feral Boy's reaching over, and he slaps his hand with the sponge and blood. It just explodes and goes everywhere and it freaked him out and he was legitimately scared.

[00:37:53] Kyle (3): And so, that's how they finally elicited the right response.

[00:37:57] Matthew (2): That was a that was an epic scream too. I just relistened [00:38:00] to it a little while ago and that is a Terror scream, you know,

[00:38:05] Kyle (3): yeah

[00:38:06] Matthew (2): It's like when they terrified, uh, cory feldman on the on the nightmare or the friday the 13th movie Uh, that was a genuine scream on that one as well Uh, I but feral feral kid from what i've seen of recent interviews.

[00:38:20] Matthew (2): He fared a lot better Uh with that trauma than cory feldman did so Yeah, yeah, he's like, he's like a jeweler now.

[00:38:29] Kyle: Yeah, [00:38:30] he does diamonds and stuff. Feldman, you know, he's like, got this weird dance

[00:38:34] Kyle (3): he does in his band and, oh, yeah, and also, well, side note, the guy that played Jason, was it C. J. Graham? Is that C.

[00:38:41] Kyle (3): J. Graham or was that, I think that was Graham who played, he hated, he said Feldman was so annoying as a kid, like, I guess this guy hated kid actors, and so he legitimately did want to frighten him. He like, wanted to scare him, and he talks about this special feature on the Crystal Lake Memories about how he finally got so much joy from finally having scared the tar out of [00:39:00] Corey Feldman.

[00:39:01] Kyle (3): I hope he feels bad about that now, because Feldman is a tormented individual.

[00:39:05] Matthew (2): I don't know. I would get a lot of joy out of scaring the shit out of Corey Feldman today. That would be, that would be the highlight of my year. If I could just sneak up on Corey Feldman and just pop out of a corner and just scare the shit out of him.

[00:39:18] Kyle: What have you done since lost boys?

[00:39:22] Kyle: We got to cover that by the way. I love,

[00:39:25] Kyle (3): yeah,

[00:39:25] Matthew (2): that's a fun movie.

[00:39:27] Kyle (3): Yeah. All right. We got the war score. Are we ready to get into [00:39:30] the war card here? Ah, let's do

[00:39:31] Matthew (2): it.

[00:39:32] Kyle (3): Let's do it. As a reminder, shiny and chrome is our affirmative, our yes. And then blood bag is no here. Giving a little nod to our Fury Road. All right.

[00:39:40] Kyle (3): Top bill cast. What do you think?

[00:39:42] Matthew (2): Oh, yeah, it's I mean, it's Mel Gibson. It's what Bruce Spence is also top build. Is he not? I think that that was it, which it was just interesting that Bruce Spence in Australia was the more known of the two actors. Um, and he just nailed it as this [00:40:00] gyrocopter performance.

[00:40:01] Matthew (2): Uh, you know, he's perfect as this, you know, lovable guy. You I don't know. You almost get a sense for this guy immediately when you see him on screen and Australian audiences already knew who this guy was. He was in movies like, uh, let's see, you've got, uh, Philip Mora or Philippe Mora. This guy was, he was born in Paris.

[00:40:21] Matthew (2): He was an Australian director. He directed some of the Howling sequels that were kind of infamously bad and weird. [00:40:30] But he directed this movie, Mad Dog Morgan, where Dennis Hopper was the protagonist and Dennis Hopper was just trashed on rum the entire time. And, uh, Bruce Spence was also in this movie, but, uh, apparently, um, if you get a chance to watch this, Dennis Hopper was so drunk, he went to the, to the grave site of Daniel Morgan, he poured out a bottle of rum on the grave site, then he drank an [00:41:00] entire bottle of rum, and, uh, apparently immediately arrested thereafter, and then escorted out of the country.

[00:41:08] Matthew (2): He was basically kicked out of Australia, uh, with a content with the, the judge would declare that uh, he would, he should be dead apparently. So a wild film, uh, Bruce Spence gives a fantastic performance in that as well. And, you know, Bruce Spence through all of the movies, I, you know, I, I just, you know, Mel Gibson, we're going to give him [00:41:30] his, his flowers, but you know, Bruce Spence is, is perfect in this role and it, you know, I don't know, it adds a, a counterbalance to, to Mel Gibson's stoic character that, uh, is very important and, uh, and Mel, I mean, he acted his ass off in this movie and just with nothing more than just some, I don't know, intense eye movements or just, uh, a smirk in the right place or, you know, he, he delivers everything, [00:42:00] like he, all of the torment of that film, Max character.

[00:42:04] Matthew (2): He seems to have carried it with him through his own life somehow. And he showed up to the movie looking 10 years older. Uh, it all plays to the strengths of the movie, you know, definitely, uh, shiny and Chrome all around on, on this one.

[00:42:19] Kyle (3): I totally agree. But side note, that's such a Dennis Hopper story. Like how sad is it?

[00:42:22] Kyle (3): You hear that? I was like, that sounds like Dennis Hopper. Yeah. It's like, what

[00:42:26] Matthew (2): countries has he not been kicked out of for being too drunk? [00:42:30]

[00:42:30] Kyle (3): Yeah, we were talking about it before we hit record about how, you know, like, how did we get this guy who delivered one of the craziest improvisations in Apocalypse Now with the Cosmos Lion when Sheen, when Sheen's character's in the the bamboo jail, and then he can go as far as to to do Wicked Prayer, The Crow, straight to VHS, and one of the strangest Like this guy, like sometimes you see him, it's like, that's one of the greatest actors of all time.

[00:42:54] Kyle (3): And then you see him. It's like, what the hell happened? So that is an opera

[00:42:58] Matthew (2): story. [00:43:00] He's he was King Koopa. I mean, he's,

[00:43:02] Kyle: oh my God, he's, you know,

[00:43:05] Matthew (2): I mean, he was in a Romero movie. I mean, this, he was mad dog Morgan. And he took that to heart, uh, in ways that, uh, the rest of the cast and crew did not probably appreciate so much.

[00:43:16] Kyle (3): Yeah, yeah, I go shiny and chrome for the same reasons. The thing about Mel in this is that he, um, you know, it's, it's interesting, we talked about the increased budget, but I think we'd be remiss to, to act like this was some luxurious experience. I mean, they're filming in a location [00:43:30] that's still, you know, a desert.

[00:43:32] Kyle (3): You know, kind of out in the middle of nowhere, Australia, you know, these first few films, like they're not, you know, it took until I think I'm pretty sure Thunderdome, Thunderdome, because we had Tina Turner, probably there were some trailers and some, you know, some luxury, but this was not like. Just because they had to increase budget, they didn't spend it on quarters for the actors.

[00:43:51] Kyle (3): I mean, this was still a challenging thing, but Mel talks about how he really thrived on the desert. Like he said, it helped him really sync up with the character and kind of come to [00:44:00] terms with what he had been through. So I think he translates that. I think, I think it's unfortunate that some of his, his, uh, his escapades later in life have kind of, uh, taken people, uh, of, you know, a back from how great of an actor he is.

[00:44:12] Kyle (3): He's one of the most charismatic. No one does crazy better. No one does like borderline schizophrenia better. Uh, but you know, he's a guy that's like crazy and lovable at the same time. So I think he does that well here, the five o'clock shadow. Um, he took a dramatic step from one to two here and I think he gets all the credits of shiny and Chrome here.[00:44:30]

[00:44:30] Kyle (3): All right. What do you think about supporting cast?

[00:44:33] Matthew (2): Uh, supporting cast, you know, they were, they all had character about them and it wasn't like the first movie where it was a bunch of like art school dropouts. Uh, these characters seem to all live in the world that they were presented in the movie and, um, you know, it's, and it was interesting too, because this is, uh, You know, this goes into the western theme again, but it's cowboys and indians and the good guys wear white and the [00:45:00] bad guys wear black and but even in that simplistic framework, each one of them, you cared about them, you know, each one of you had your, your female protector, you had, uh, these mechanics that were hilarious, just relaying information back and forth about the state of the vehicle, the vehicle and, uh, you know, All of them really suited the movie.

[00:45:22] Matthew (2): None of them were distracting in the way that some of the characters in the, in the first movie were. Um, so yeah, definitely shiny and [00:45:30] chrome on that all the way. I'm so glad you brought

[00:45:33] Kyle (3): up the mechanic because that, that didn't have to be there. That little, him like whispering and then them yelling and then him like totally just reneging on everything.

[00:45:42] Kyle (3): Yeah, 25, sure. You know, like, That was a, that was a nice little thing here that broke up some of the, kind of the heavy and the action. Like, that was just a nice touch. And that was, uh, I just saw the actor, I just saw his name, um. Not that we're gonna find out what else he's done. Steve J Spears, who did that.

[00:45:58] Kyle (3): Really funny. [00:46:00] Kind of an underrated, low key thing in that movie. And, you know, the thing is, is this is a physical movie. Uh, this has never been about dialogue. Um, you know, and the whole series really is, it's, it's It's the whole one of the defining factors that it's not about the dialogue. It's about the physicality of what you're seeing in the, in the action and the motion.

[00:46:16] Kyle (3): But everyone exuded that like I, I was looking forward to, cause I didn't want to be a Homer for the movie when it came to the scorecard, but I'm looking for people who aren't delivering. But you know, I think, I think we're just seeing people display that [00:46:30] physicality here and without lines, you know, and actors, you know, when you're learning how to act and you're coming up in that world.

[00:46:35] Kyle (3): What is your obsession? Lines. Like, yeah, you gotta play the part, but a lot of them are just like, I gotta memorize lines, I gotta read my lines. That's how you audition. You go read your lines. Well, that wasn't necessarily the, the, the line here. You know, here it was about, uh, being physical in a world that's devastated.

[00:46:51] Kyle (3): And I, I looked for it. I didn't see one faltering, um, performance here.

[00:46:58] Matthew (2): Nope, even the, the gal with the [00:47:00] 80s, the unfortunate 80s, uh, like ponytail out of the top of her head and like the magic, she still fit in that world. It still worked. It was, yeah,

[00:47:11] Kyle (3): yeah, they didn't flesh her out much. I don't know about you, but they didn't flesh this out.

[00:47:14] Kyle (3): But this is just me pondering. Like, I kind of got the nurturing shaman vibes from her. Like, she's almost like, uh, Like she would be if they would flesh her cared out character out more. She would have been like the healer, uh, caretaker type of the,

[00:47:28] Matthew (2): of the village, you know, and [00:47:30] within the brilliant thing about the movie and the simplistic, like you don't, you don't need anything.

[00:47:35] Matthew (2): You don't need any context for you to project that onto that character because you know, all the pieces are there and it's all kind of iconic.

[00:47:43] Kyle (3): Yeah. Yeah. All right. We got two to zero here in terms of the shiny and chrome two and then blood bag zero. This feels a little remiss, but we, this is, this is the scorecard.

[00:47:52] Kyle (3): It determines all vehicular manslaughter. This category is about the, the cars, the road warfare, just kind of, you know, how do we feel [00:48:00] about the entire, uh, you know, the vehicular aspect of this and the, the warfare that takes place. I mean, I feel dumb even asking, but. Yeah,

[00:48:08] Matthew (2): I mean, you've got to appreciate that the V8 Interceptor has got some rust on it this time right out of the gate.

[00:48:14] Matthew (2): You can tell that it's lived in that world for a while, and it's as iconic a character as Max himself, you know, it's, and then you've got this, the road war in the Road Warrior. I mean, it's the best in the [00:48:30] series as far as I'm concerned, even with, uh, the limited, uh, Technology that they had available to them and even on a budget of five million, which was much more than the first movie, but still relatively small, uh, what they were able to do with the frenetic energy of just the movie was balls out from the beginning and it just never stops.

[00:48:51] Matthew (2): And it's just. You know, constantly charging ahead. Like I said, like a John Ford stagecoach, you know, it's always charging ahead. [00:49:00] And the, the cars are an integral part of that. Um, and they all look like they belong in this, you know, post apocalyptic war, they, they all look like they belong there. Uh, there's all these intriguing vehicles and it.

[00:49:14] Matthew (2): Characters that kind of look like they were kind of birthed in that vehicle, you know It's very interesting what they were able to do Um, they do it more in fury road further in the series, but even this early on um [00:49:30] he seems to to have this notion of the car going with the character Even if they go out on fury road Yeah,

[00:49:40] Kyle (3): I go shiny and chrome as well.

[00:49:42] Kyle (3): And, and I think, um, one of the interesting, this didn't make the Randall is cause there were just so many interesting things, but one thing that Miller realized was that, uh, when they were filming, they made a lot of decisions that benefited the fact that there wasn't a skyline. So, you know, in the first one, um, the roads that they filmed on because they had the, you know, they were trying to do the [00:50:00] gorilla thing.

[00:50:00] Kyle (3): They were, uh, trying to do it without police around. So they, but they did have like skyline around. So. That's when they realized that if they did it away from skyline, that you didn't have to necessarily do things at full speed to make it look as fast. So they realized in two that because there was no, no skyline, no buildings, it's just blue sky and desert that they could do it at like not half speed, but slower speeds, but they could get that road blur effect and they did everything over crank it.

[00:50:28] Matthew (2): Yeah.

[00:50:29] Kyle (3): And so they're not [00:50:30] actually going as fast as they, they maybe are putting off, but the roadblur is giving you this feeling and so that it kept people more safe, but they also got the deliverables they wanted to hear. So. That was an innovation, you know, and it's, it's pretty wild because, you know, every car chase movie that was made in America and anything involving intense car fare in the United States was a green screen or on a trailer.

[00:50:51] Kyle (3): You know, it's, it's not until the two thousands with fast and furious. I actually interviewed Mick Rogers, the guy that invented the Mick rig. Um, that was that [00:51:00] actually enabled people to be full speed in vehicles while keeping actors safe and driving the vehicles. But it wasn't until then they were doing green screen.

[00:51:07] Kyle (3): But here they kind of met in the middle where they have people operating real vehicles, but they don't actually have to worry about how it looks because there's no, there's no anchored. Structures to kind of give you that periphery to think, Oh, well, they're not going that fast and it gives a very real thing here.

[00:51:23] Kyle (3): So the actual battle here and another thing I thought about here, too, is that one thing they do really well as they zoom in on the [00:51:30] drivers. I love how, like, not just Mel, they did it with a lot of them. Like, so people in humongous his army, you know, the guy can't remember his name, but the guy that has, like, the leather mask, you never see his face, but he's got like, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:51:42] Kyle (3): Yeah, like they're zooming in on people while they're driving and they're struggling and they're driving through the dirt like that's another element They added that I thought made this spectacular. You're actually seeing their struggle like trying to operate in this chaotic world where they're battling, um, you know, and, and they're not as fleshed out as they would be in [00:52:00] fury road, but they're a huge jump from one where it's just really cars.

[00:52:04] Kyle (3): Um, I think it's spectacular. I can't believe what they accomplished in 1981. Um, here with real stunts, uh, no green screens. I just think it was such a huge jump that you just can't, you can't do anything, but give it shiny and Chrome here. I could talk days about it too, because it's just, it's, it's honestly beautiful.

[00:52:21] Kyle (3): I just, yeah,

[00:52:22] Matthew (2): it's like I said, it's got that cinematic look that movies don't have as much anymore. And it's, you know, it's the, it's the stock. It's the way it's shot. It's [00:52:30] it's, it feels permanent every time you watch it. It's, it's a, it's, it's a permanent film.

[00:52:35] Kyle (3): Yeah, and like, I think you hinted at this earlier, but every character, especially on the villain side, has their own signature.

[00:52:42] Kyle (3): Like, Humongous has this chariot type go kart thing, and then Wes has the bike. And I loved one thing you said about the Interceptor, about the Pursuit Special getting rusted. Like, that could have been a small thing they didn't do. Like, they could have forgotten, like, oh, we need to make this thing look like it's been lived in in Apocalypse.

[00:52:57] Kyle (3): Oh, it looks so, like, embattled. [00:53:00] Like, your first question is, man, what else has he been up to until this point? Great touch. I can't talk enough. I just can't talk it up enough. Next category. It's three on the shiny and chrome, nothing on blood bag yet. How great is this apocalypse? Huh? Uh, this is about the apocalyptic setting, you know, we're, we're, we've seen a tremendous change from 1 to 2 here with the setting here.

[00:53:22] Kyle (3): What do you think?

[00:53:24] Matthew (2): Yeah, you've, you've, uh, essentially erased all notion of civilization at this point. Uh, [00:53:30] there's no, there's no cabaret scene or no hall of justice. Justice that's crumbling to kind of tie things into, uh, uh, any kind of semblance of our current society. So all things have kind of fallen apart, and you're just left with nothing but these expansive spaces and highway and, you know, dust.

[00:53:49] Matthew (2): And, uh, it What I love most about the, the, the, the way he was using the way he was able to use these, uh, Australian [00:54:00] outback scenes is that these landscapes look very epic in a way that, uh, you'd find in John Ford films, it looks like Monument Valley out there. And so to be able to leverage something that, that looks that amazing and, and, and that epic and scale, uh, it's just an infinite resource to the film.

[00:54:20] Matthew (2): And, uh, you know, They don't look like they're highways that are in between towns. It looks like they're on a highway to nowhere. So yeah, [00:54:30] definitely shiny and chrome on that.

[00:54:32] Kyle (3): Yeah, and it's it's funny and during the movie you're not asking questions because the motion is just constant and you're you're on the ride And you don't really have time to ask and after I asked I was like well You know, in an apocalyptic setting, you would hope to find some buildings to hold up in so you could find shelter momentarily.

[00:54:48] Kyle (3): Those are all little things, but they really don't add up to a negative for me because the truth is, is like, if, if the motion and the action was lacking at all, then I probably would have had time during the movie to ask that, but I'm not asking that. I'm so [00:55:00] enveloped, I'm so invested that I really don't even feel like I have time to criticize the fact that maybe, you know, maybe we should find some buildings, just if we can sleep there for the night, you know?

[00:55:09] Kyle (3): Um, but that's also something that's kind of been portrayed by films that benefited, you know, and shows that have benefited from the development of Mad Max 2. I have literally zero quips, uh, just, just absolute incredible devastation. It answered all the questions. If you recall, this was one of the few blood bags we had on the last one, was, you know, was my blood bag, was, [00:55:30] I don't buy the apocalypse all the way with the ice cream shops and the mechanic who's happy to wear his blue overalls still even though the world's falling apart like I know if I was a mechanic in the post apocalyptic world, I would shake the, I don't need the overalls anymore.

[00:55:42] Kyle (3): I'm done. I'm going to wear flannel. I'm just going to wear what I want to wear. I don't need to be part of your system. But, yeah.

[00:55:50] Matthew (2): We're on the, you know, we're in the early stages of the apocalypse. I'm trying to think about how my fashion choices have changed just a little bit as a result, you know. [00:56:00]

[00:56:00] Kyle (3): Can you imagine still having to wear a name tag though?

[00:56:02] Kyle (3): After the whole thing went down

[00:56:04] Matthew (2): or scan

[00:56:05] Kyle (3): in.

[00:56:06] Matthew (2): Oh, I used to work at radio shack in the early aughts. Can you imagine having a check in at a radio shack when you know that it's all falling apart? It's it's hard enough when things are going well.

[00:56:19] Kyle (3): Yeah, leave it up to the one, like, ravenous corporatist, you know, in the post apocalyptic world, still making people wear name tags and ties, like, Hey, hey, tuck that in.

[00:56:27] Kyle (3): Tuck that shirt in. That would be horrible. We're gonna wear We still [00:56:30] have standards here, yeah.

[00:56:33] Kyle: Now go slit that guy's throat.

[00:56:34] Kyle (3): Exactly. Right on. We are on a roll, and I am foreseeing good things for this film, but we're gonna get through these categories. Oh, I love this. This is my favorite category. How good are these bad guys, huh?

[00:56:49] Matthew (2): How good are these bad guys, huh? I mean, they are When you think about ravenous bad guys in a post apocalyptic wasteland, you think of characters like Wes, you think of [00:57:00] characters like Humongous, you think of Just Walk Away. I mean, these are tropes. These are He's forged things that are in the the public consciousness forever, uh, because of this movie in particular.

[00:57:13] Matthew (2): Uh, so yeah, I mean, these are, these are epic bad guys, you know, they're, I don't know what their motivations are other than getting gasoline, but they don't need other motivations. And, but, you know, even Wes, he has a love life. And so that's a fleshed out bad guy. [00:57:30]

[00:57:30] Kyle (3): Yeah, yeah, and I, I go, I go shiny and chrome here, man.

[00:57:33] Kyle (3): It just, it set the mold, you know, and it set the mold in a big way. It's just, they're so interesting. Uh, you know, they don't have to be, Humongous does it, and Toe, going back to Toecutter, they don't have to be Shakespearean, and maybe that's, I'm not trying to say that in an exaggerated way, obviously they're not reading, you know, Pentameter or whatever, but they are, they're, they're not like street guys, like, hey, how you doing, you know, they are like, It was very, it was a very real [00:58:00] decision to say they're gonna be articulate, and they're gonna speak in a very verbose way, uh, they're gonna be ruthless, like, what's crazy too is like, um, I love the, did you catch on to this when, uh, when Humongous is pissed off that they renege on the deal, and like, all of a sudden they're like fire, and he looks like Satan, and they almost have like this hellscape?

[00:58:20] Kyle (3): When like with the red hues like that was crazy because like they almost fooled you It's like, you know, he's a bad guy Like he had to be a bad guy to get to where he is today [00:58:30] But he almost comes off as civil and you almost buy it because he's so articulate and he offers him the deal He like it's probably not a good deal.

[00:58:35] Kyle (3): He's probably a bad dude, but you know, he's Shakespearean, but then it's like he's Satan Like all of a sudden in this light, like he, like he's pointing and he's angry. Like he almost had this Hitlerian, uh, nonverbal language he's using to direct people. It's like,

[00:58:51] Matthew: right. Yeah.

[00:58:53] Matthew (2): It's, it's a very silent film moment for sure.

[00:58:56] Matthew (2): When he's just kind of like doing these dictatorship, like [00:59:00] moves that he does in that, in that brief moment. And, uh, yeah, I think that, uh, no, I had a point and I forgot what it was, but you know, it. I'm the king of that.

[00:59:15] Kyle: You're finding it? You're digging deep?

[00:59:16] Matthew (2): Nah. You know what? It'll come out in the middle of your thing. I'll let you start talking. It's like, no, no, no, wait, stop. Stop your thing, because I just remembered my thing. But no, it'll shake loose. [00:59:30]

[00:59:30] Kyle: It's going to come out in Furiosa. You're like, remember

[00:59:32] Matthew: it too, and I forgot it.

[00:59:33] Matthew: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's an Easter egg for one of the later episodes.

[00:59:37] Matthew (2): Because I had a

[00:59:38] Kyle (3): point. Yeah, it's on. I love the silent movie thing, though, because, you know, in because the movies aren't don't revolve around really deep dialogue, like when it chooses to be a silent movie with sound like they they get that point across like that was actually kind of scary.

[00:59:53] Kyle (3): I'm like, Oh, my God, like, I kind of thought he was a lovely villain, but now he's the devil.

[00:59:57] Matthew (2): That's what I meant. That's what I was getting at is that [01:00:00] you have villains that seem to have a philosophy So, these guys aren't just surviving or whatever, they're out there instilling a philosophy, and you know, those are the most dangerous sociopaths of all.

[01:00:15] Kyle (3): Yeah, this, uh, this almost Ayn Rand, Fountainhead, Howard Rourke, individualist mentality, not to get too, too literature. On it. But you know, this whole like individualist, like I'm bad by certain [01:00:30] Stan, by your standards, by you, the viewer, the American, you know, the night, the 2024 American standards, but by the world of the wasteland, I'm just another person that carved out my own existence in a world where there are no rules and I made my own.

[01:00:42] Kyle (3): So it's kind of like it. And they talk about this in, in the documentary about how it's like you only live by the moral code that you develop, and it's really this Venn diagram in this, in this wasteland existence. They, they, the, things only look negative and bad when they collide, but they're all [01:01:00] surviving, and they all, have all survived by their own moral codes, and it only looks bad when they collide.

[01:01:05] Matthew (2): I think the codpiece looked bad even before the collision, but he had a philosophy, and that apparently involved codpieces.

[01:01:15] Kyle (3): Is there, what's the, okay, mathematical, just say a number, the ratio, like how, how defined did the pecs have to be to wear that cod piece? Like you, you can't be me, which you gotta have pecs, right?

[01:01:25] Kyle (3): Like it's gotta be Right.

[01:01:27] Matthew (2): Yeah, I, no, I, you know, I [01:01:30] go to, I'm the least in shape person at the gym that I go to, and I'm not giving a single person there a pass on a cod piece. So you, you have to be, you have to be Mr. Sweden to be able to get a pass on a cod piece. Yeah.

[01:01:46] Kyle: What's funny is because there's so much motion in the movie, I never picked up on it, and it wasn't until I was

[01:01:51] Kyle (3): reading, uh, through the cast, you know, and they, of course this actor, this is really his biggest note, he hasn't done anything as notable since, so his picture on [01:02:00] IMDB is him just with his hands on his hips, as humongous with the codpiece, I was like,

[01:02:05] Kyle: that's when I finally zoomed in, I actually did the thing on my Mac where I zoomed in, I was like, that is, those are studded, those are studs,

[01:02:10] Matthew (2): so, yeah.

[01:02:12] Matthew (2): So you gotta wonder though, if you, if you have like a stud, there has to be a rivet situation happening. What is poking into this guy? That's probably driving one hell of a performance. If you've got cock rivets poking into you, it's like, just walk away. I'm, [01:02:30] it's like, I don't even. I don't even talk

[01:02:32] Kyle (3): this way, but this thing is pissing me off.

[01:02:34] Kyle (3): Yeah, especially with the emphatic dictatorial movements, like, like, that's gotta be rough on it. It's gotta be rough on it. Yeah. I could convey

[01:02:42] Matthew (2): so much subtext with nothing if I'm in that much torture.

[01:02:48] Kyle: We're living in a post apocalyptic world here, man. Oh, that was wonderful. Well, we are

[01:02:54] Kyle (3): racking it up here.

[01:02:54] Kyle (3): It's five, uh, it's five to zero. We haven't come up with a blood bag yet. And, uh, you know, it's lining up, [01:03:00] right? I mean, this is widely considered, uh, the beloved one. So, a stranger walks in the town. So, you know, we talked about in the first one that as the deeper that we go into this series, the more of a Western it becomes.

[01:03:10] Kyle (3): And you were really quick to point out that, you know, even the first one even hits on those notes. So how much of a Western do we have here? Do we have a good Western kind of archetype here?

[01:03:18] Matthew (2): Yeah, I think if the first one was hitting on those notes, this one is just playing them directly at this point.

[01:03:23] Matthew (2): You know, this is, uh, like I said, it looks like Monument Valley out there. This looks like [01:03:30] Cowboys and Indians. And this looks like the frenetic energy of a John Ford movie. It's, you know, and I think that that was largely deliberate. I think that you'd find that George Miller would probably agree with some of those, some of those statements.

[01:03:45] Matthew (2): And in the. The archetypes don't matter at that, I mean it's, the characters don't matter at that point, they're all just kind of playing into those archetypical roles, and you're gonna find every one of those characters, you're gonna find in a western, [01:04:00] um, you know, of all of them, I think this one is the most western of all of them.

[01:04:06] Matthew (2): Yeah.

[01:04:07] Kyle (3): Yeah, I agree. I think, I think the only big differentiator is, and, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this just as a, as a film critic, but the, the, not all the westerns of, uh, you know, I think of, you know, the Dollar Trilogy or any John Wayne film, they don't always have a need here. And, you know, you know, Max needs gasoline, you know, and so there's, there is a little bit of a motivator.

[01:04:28] Kyle (3): He needs his vehicle repaired. [01:04:30] Um, there is an exchange. Um, but usually what happens in a Western is they uncover the need, you know, like all of a sudden they find like, you know, a woman who's been oppressed that needs to be freed or something like that, you know, and that, that really does line up, you know, those two things, like he stumbles upon, he comes in selfishly with need, but then he stumbles upon oppression.

[01:04:49] Matthew (2): Absolutely, and, uh, and you stumble onto all of the, those same characters, and you, you, you, you've got the noble guy who means well, and he's a great leader, but he's [01:05:00] absolutely useless in these wastelands, and he doesn't know how to fire a gun for shit. Um, I mean, these are, these are very western archetypes, and, uh, I, uh, You could, you could probably formulate a solid list of westerns that you could go back and look at, but some of the, you know, John Wayne and John Ford collaborations are where I go first, uh, just merely because of the spectacle of the Outback looking so much like the, uh, the Monument Valley films and, [01:05:30] you know, even movies like The Searchers and, uh, and maybe, and then you dip into the spaghetti westerns and the films of Sergio Leone as well.

[01:05:39] Matthew (2): I mean, some of those influences. Yeah, those are very, that's very obvious. I think it's just because out of a landscape necessity type of thing that you, it may be either accidental references, I don't know, but after rewatching the road warrior, it's like, wow, you know, you could take any, you could sneak one of these shots into the searchers and no one would know.

[01:05:59] Matthew (2): If you took [01:06:00] a shot without the cars in it. How much of it's boredom?

[01:06:03] Kyle: Not to be too jovial, but what else are you gonna do? Like, mix it up.

[01:06:07] Kyle (3): You know, I'm tired of driving around. Let's mix it up a little bit and save these people. You know, cause I'm just tired of driving around out here with my dog. You know?

[01:06:15] Matthew (2): Right, yeah. Cause what, what, what else is your day going to look like? I mean, you, you're, you're essential. You're going to eat a can of dog food and kill a Jack rabbit and you get into an adventure from time to time. And [01:06:30] that sounds like a cowboy to me. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:06:33] Kyle (3): I mean, we, we really are never privy like good, the bad and the ugly.

[01:06:36] Kyle (3): Like, no, we're never really privy to what the stranger is doing. You know, Clint Eastwood stranger. I mean, but we're enthralled, you know, they walk on the scene and we're, we're full attention, you know? And that's what I love about Westerns is. You know, the stranger element is almost what draws us to it.

[01:06:50] Kyle (3): Like I almost, I kind of want to know, but at the same time, like, I really don't care. I just love that he showed up and it's time to mix it up and create some chaos.

[01:06:58] Matthew (2): Absolutely. You know why he's [01:07:00] showing up. You know what he's gonna do when the time comes to do it. I mean, we, that's why we love these movies and that's why we love these characters so much.

[01:07:09] Matthew (2): It's like, and it's fun to subvert, to subvert those expectations too. Uh, but sometimes you just want a straightforward, like, kick em in the balls western type movie. And, you know, Road Warrior I think qualifies as one of those types of movies. Love it. So you are going shiny and chrome here, right? Oh, definitely shiny and chrome all [01:07:30] across the board on the road warrior.

[01:07:32] Matthew (2): I will, I will simp for the road warrior forever. It's my favorite of the entire series. Yeah.

[01:07:38] Kyle (3): I mean, so we, we really, we really don't have to, to, uh, you know, in terms of the score, we don't have to dive in too deep here, but our last category, we're already at five Oh, but, or sorry, six Oh, but strangers in need this actually, I'm not saying I'm not going straight, you know, going, uh, going, uh, shiny and Chrome here, but no, it's interesting.

[01:07:56] Kyle (3): I'll kick off on this one. Like it's interesting. [01:08:00] One thing they did a really good job of is that there's a, there's a diversity of people here, like just because these people are grouped together does not mean they're all sent the same. You know, they're all, some of them have quirks. Some of them are more warrior type.

[01:08:13] Kyle (3): Some of them are more, more thinkers. Like the guy, I can't remember his name. I hate it. But the leader of the group. You know, he dies. I mean, he just, he just gets knocked off in the, in the final road chase. Like you kind of think he's the leader and, you know, and he is the leader, but he didn't have any level of permanence amongst this group.

[01:08:29] Kyle (3): I thought [01:08:30] they did a good job of that. But in terms of like, is this a group of people? Like if I was max, I'd want to save, like, I think there's enough endearing qualities of these people. And I, even if you don't necessarily care for the people you see, you see their resilience and how they've tried to stand up to this oppressive group, that's obviously stronger.

[01:08:47] Kyle (3): Obviously more vicious, but they, they hold their, they hold their ground and they stick to their guns. And I think that's admirable. And I think maybe that's the quality that attracts Max to them in the first place. Like, you know what? They're not just going to lay down, um, you know, and [01:09:00] they need me, so I'm going to go in there.

[01:09:02] Matthew (2): They, they've got spunk and they're also quite resourceful. Um, and like you said, there, there is a mix of characters. Some of them are cowards as we found in, uh, some of those that are strapped to the hood of the, uh, Uh, to some of the war machines and they're screaming about, you know, listen to the, like, hear them out and it's like, yeah, they're cowards, but they're also very resourceful people within that group as well.

[01:09:23] Matthew (2): And, uh, to think of, like, using the tanker as a [01:09:30] decoy, even they went to such great lengths to acquire that tanker. Uh, but it is the perfect decoy and Max himself did not have that angle figured out and the mission would not have been successful ultimately if they hadn't outsmarted and outmaneuvered Max in that capacity.

[01:09:47] Matthew (2): So even though they couldn't take care of themselves and they needed him to run, you know, blockade, uh, I, you know, I think they, they had a great group and they had some strong female [01:10:00] protectors and they had mechanics and they had, you know, it was a, it was a diverse group of, you know, ragtag, endearing folk that, uh, were making it work and you couldn't help but love them.

[01:10:12] Kyle (3): Yeah, uh, it's such a good point. Yeah, the mechanic again, I just laughed, which is, yeah, okay, 25, uh, or no, no, it's 12, he says 12, he's like, yeah, 12 hours, yeah, 12, yeah, 12.

[01:10:24] Matthew (2): And then, and then the, and then the foolish character's like, alright,

[01:10:27] Kyle (3): or, you know, however he had put it, it was, it was, it [01:10:30] was adorable. Yeah, this ragtag world without standards, you know, and no, I, I totally agree.

[01:10:36] Kyle (3): No, I love that. Yeah. And, um, yeah, no, I go shiny and chrome here. We went across the board here. I mean, it's, uh, this is like we hinted at earlier. You know, the word perfect is not a word that I use lightly here. And again, this is not my favorite film of all time. It's one of them. But, you know, there's a lot of films in my top 10 that I would say even Robocop, which is my favorite film of all time.

[01:10:56] Kyle (3): I I have never described it as perfect, but I think time and context [01:11:00] matters here. You look at the leap they took, uh, this deserves, this deserves a great score here.

[01:11:07] Matthew (2): Yeah, I agree completely. And, uh, you know, it, it, Being a film critic and all of that, I don't bandy about the term perfect very lightly either, but, uh, it, for what it is supposed to be and what it is, it transcends the action movie genre and becomes, and it transcends Australian cinema.

[01:11:28] Matthew (2): So, to have [01:11:30] something that, you know, that's coming out in 1981, that is able to transcend not only Australian cinema, but also transcend what it is to be an action movie, I, yeah, I, I don't know how George Miller was able to pull that off, and for only 5 million dollars, but, you know, For him to create one of the most memorable action movies of all time.

[01:11:54] Matthew (2): Uh, it, it's, it's a remarkable feat. And so, you know, for what that [01:12:00] is, I believe it to be perfect.

[01:12:02] Kyle (3): Yeah. And a film that doesn't get the credence either. I, and I don't know why that is, uh, maybe because. The imagery, I don't know if it's because of the dystopian setting, but, you know, I'm a, I'm a giant action nerd, um, people know on the podcast, I'm obsessed with Arnold Schwarzenegger, I love Sly, like, those are just the movies I grew up with, but you watch this movie and you think, man, like, all these films, like, we, we just take, you, you eventually become them.

[01:12:27] Kyle (3): numb and you take the car chase, for example, [01:12:30] for granted that you see in an action movie, an Arnold movie, just take any modern Steven Seagal, whatever you want, Van Damme. The, the car chase is just rote. It's just there. You know, it's just like, this is a, this is a subset, but the innovation here is, uh, it's just incredible.

[01:12:46] Kyle (3): The visuals and they didn't miss a beat the way they filmed it was perfect. Um, and, but I don't feel like, and I don't know why that is, but I just don't feel like it gets the credence from these, these future, these future iterations of action.

[01:12:58] Matthew (2): It has [01:13:00] earned its place among action movies. And so, uh, yeah, I don't know.

[01:13:04] Matthew (2): I will always sing its praises in that regard. And you know, it, it, it, you care about the action as well. That's the thing that Miller does extraordinarily well here is that, uh, some of that stuff you become numb to because it's just action without context, action without character, uh, like, There's, there's no consequences for the characters, but in each of [01:13:30] the action sequences in Road Warrior, uh, something happens to a character that we care about, something that propels the, the, the film forward in some way.

[01:13:40] Matthew (2): These, these action sequences are not just there, uh, you know. I mean, it does an extraordinary job of propelling the film forward, like the entire movie is like being strapped to the front of a rocket and taking off, but at the same time, he delivers heart throughout that entire thing. You care about villains in this movie, you care about all of the [01:14:00] characters in this movie, and you know, all of the action services that in some capacity.

[01:14:05] Kyle (3): Yeah, and I just had this thought, reacting to what you said, like how much, these, they're almost gladiators. I just had this thought, but it's almost. Like the way it's filmed and the way it's depicted like they're almost they're almost the gladiators in a way You know, they all have their their their weapon of choice.

[01:14:22] Kyle (3): They're all forced into this frame You know, this isn't this is a world. They've been forced into by the end and That's almost [01:14:30] it's almost Roman

[01:14:31] Matthew (2): Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that's just another one of those stoic archetypes that kind of it, it fits into. Um, and I think that that's why it's an evergreen film.

[01:14:41] Matthew (2): Even if auto, even if the gasoline automobile becomes a thing that's a thing of the past, I think you could still watch the road warrior and like appreciate it for exactly for what it is in the same way that you could watch a movie like stage coach and appreciate it exactly for what it is. [01:15:00]

[01:15:00] Kyle (3): Yeah, I don't think anything would deflate the erection for this movie then, like a, like an electric vehicle mandate.

[01:15:09] Kyle (3): I could see Humongous being that guy, like, like, they win a bunch of battles and eventually be like, alright, we're going all electric. I

[01:15:16] Kyle: think that would

[01:15:17] Kyle (3): be a,

[01:15:18] Matthew (2): like, if they went that direction for the Furiosa and have some sort of Muskean stand in that is touting this new electric vehicle. That I think he would be an instantly [01:15:30] detestable villain.

[01:15:30] Matthew (2): So maybe Miller ought to think about that for the next sequel.

[01:15:33] Kyle (3): What would be the equivalent to buying Twitter? Like, he bought the main guzzoline station. It used to be so cool. Now we can't say, like, everybody's got an opinion. You know. Yeah, we all,

[01:15:44] Matthew (2): it's like, they, they, now you can just buy one of the blue badges at the bullet farm.

[01:15:49] Matthew (2): It's

[01:15:49] Kyle: like,

[01:15:50] Matthew (2): that's not even cool

[01:15:51] Kyle: anymore. It used to be such a, oh god, don't get me started on Stephen King's little bitch fest about losing. I'm like, write a good book. [01:16:00] Right. You know. Well, you know, he wrote one. Yeah. 1985. Yeah. Well, this has been fun. We gotta cling to this feeling. I'm not saying we're gonna lose this feeling, but we're gonna go to Thunderdome next, so we gotta.

[01:16:15] Matthew (2): Oh, yeah. You know, Thunderdome, you know, you'll see the episode. It's kind of a clusterfuck, but it's a fun and adorable and endearing clusterfuck, but I think it's the first time we're gonna see a lot of blood bags come out, I [01:16:30] feel.

[01:16:31] Kyle (3): Yeah. And the first time we're going to see culture intersect, you know, we saw a trend and we don't want to divulge too much, but you know, there was a thing in the eighties and it persists today, but there was a time where we thought everybody that was famous should get a part in a movie, you know, and I'm not saying, I don't want to give away my thoughts on, on Tina Turner here, but you know, there, it was the thing, you know, people, everyone wanted to cast Madonna.

[01:16:52] Kyle (3): You know, everyone wanted to cast the most relevant pop star of the time. George Michael was a huge, coveted guy. Uh, Iggy Pop. You know, [01:17:00] even in The Crow, for example, Iggy Pop was number one for Fun Boy. We've always had this infatuation of like, instead of actors, how about a person that's never acted but's really famous?

[01:17:09] Kyle (3): And so, this is the first time we see culture You know, up until now, Mad Max is changing the culture, but this is the first time we see the culture bleed in to the franchise.

[01:17:18] Matthew (2): Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I don't know if that's the co direction effort at play here or what, but I'm looking forward to digging into that one.

[01:17:29] Matthew (2): It's gonna be [01:17:30] awesome. As flawed as it is, yeah.

[01:17:31] Kyle (3): It's gonna be awesome. Well, we had a straight up 7 0 here. This is a shiny and chrome. So right now we're 2 0. We, the first two entries we approve of, we love here. Dude, thank you so much for joining. I can't wait to hash it out in the Thunderdome, man.

[01:17:44] Matthew (2): Absolutely, man. Thank you so much for having me on, Kyle. And yeah, take, uh, you know, How would I say? How do you sign off? When your, your whole theme is war, you know, it's like, yeah, uh, it's like, [01:18:00] uh, Because I feel like, I feel like, I feel like I'm in a Terminator 3, like, apocalypse bunker. And I'm reporting my movie thoughts to the, to the masses right now, so.

[01:18:13] Matthew (2): Transmitting

[01:18:14] Kyle: through the last radio, you know. Yes, if you, if you're still out there, if anyone's out there.

[01:18:20] Matthew (2): Please let us know like and like and subscribe and

[01:18:24] Kyle: and let us know what you thought about Mad Max 2

[01:18:27] Matthew (2): And and there's hope there's hope for all of us out there. [01:18:30] I think that's the

[01:18:31] Kyle: best way to sign off

[01:18:33] Matthew (2): All right.

[01:18:33] Matthew (2): Thank you so much man. Love

[01:18:35] Kyle: y'all movie wars folks. Thanks