Speaker 1: This is a podcast from Minute Media.
Speaker 2: Okay, everybody, welcome back to the Shirly You Can't Be
Serious podcast. This is part two.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're gonna talk about casting today. Super excited to
get into that with you. You always have the best
information on casting.
Speaker 2: Where else are you going to get that little nugget
of information that said if the dad from Flipper hadn't
had a motorcycle accident, we would not have got Blade Runner.
You are not getting that anywhere else. I promise you that. Yeah,
that was that was a rabbit also a deep dive. Man,
it was quite a rabbit hole. Well done. Yep, let's
get into part two et versus the Thing versus Blade Runner. Okay, Jason,
we have an executive producer for this episode. Yeah, his
name's Chris Pick.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Chris got to our Patreon page. We've talked to
you about our Patreon before and some of the prizes
you can get for the various levels. We are starting
a brand new thing that Jason and I are super
excited about. We're going to have each month a bonus
episode that is exclusively for our Patreon subscribers, and we're
going to be going through the one hit Wonders of
the eighties and beyond in every single episode.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's going to be awesome. Jason is a genius.
He called me with this idea.
Speaker 3: I'm like, this is why I partnered with you on this,
because you are a genius.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: We started one hit Wonders and I'm like salivating at
how many awesome songs out there that were the only
hit by some of these folks that I'm just I'm
dying to dive into.
Speaker 2: Let's do it. If you would like to.
Speaker 3: Be a part of that, please check out our Patreon page.
It's patreon dot com slash Sure podcast, and for as
little as five bucks a month, you can join in
on those super secret episodes with us.
Speaker 2: Hey, we are going to drop one this month. We're
gonna start with a bang. It's the video Killed the
Radio Star. It's gonna be awesome. One hit wonder by
the Buggles. Come check us out on Patreon for that
exclusive episode. We sure appreciate it. Chris, Thank you so much.
We are deeply grateful. You the man. Okay, so listen
to this. So et made seven hundred and ninety two
million dollars in nineteen eighty two. In nineteen eighty two. Yeah,
at the time, it was the most money ever made
by any one movie of all time. Yeah, okay, so
let's put that in perspective for just a second.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 2: So Blade Runner made yeah, forty million, okay, Okay, not
profit total total, right right? The Thing made eighteen seventeen
nineteen million, nineteen million. Budget was fifteen okay, So that
means they made about four million bucks. And if we're
talking about a giant movie like that, that's not enough. No, basically,
you've got to make three times your budget to be
considered a hit. Yeah, okay, Now follow me on this, Okay.
This is Summer of eighty two. Conan the Barbarian, Annie,
Rocky three, Poulter, Geist, Star Trek two, Grease two, Blade Runner,
The Thing, The Best Full of Whorehouse in Texas, Zapped,
and An Officer and a Gentleman. Those movies were all
released the summer of eighty two. Their combined total at
the box office is seven hundred and sixty two million dollars.
That's still thirty million dollars less than e Team made
by itself. Wow. So et was top of the box
office for twelve weeks. Yes, you just mentioned a ton
of incredible movies. Yes, but you posed the question to
me which of those movies knocked ET out of the
top spot? And I was like Rocky three, Nope. No,
I was like Tron Nope, Like best Little Whohouse in Texts? Nope?
What was it, Jason? What movie of those that you
just listed knocked E t out of the top You
may have caught it because it was the one that
really doesn't belong. It's Zapped, starring Scott Bayo, the stupid
teen comedy that he could lift up girls skirts with
like telekinesis. It's a boomfast. That's the movie that Heather Thomas.
Let's all take a moment and just appreciate Heather Thomas.
That's the movie that knocked ET have the number one spot.
Now ET came back and regained it and bounced around
number one. For the risk. It was in theaters for
almost a year. Yeah, I mean I saw it probably
five times in the theater. Tak my mom, Dad took.
I mean I was there every time you mentioned ET
on our very first episode when we were talking about
Michael Jackson's Thrower. ET is one of the great cinematic
experiences I've ever had in my life. Okay, and it's
I mean, you got Star Wars, you got Raiders. I
told you when my mom covered my eyes when the
Propellers et and diehard, I mean, that's it. Those are
my top I could not believe what I was seeing,
all right, and I wasn't alone because it made eight
hundred million dollars. Yeah, okay, we ready, tadcasting. Sure, stop casting.
All right, let's flip back to the thing. In tad casting.
Speaker 5: You're gonna have to sleep sometime, a real.
Speaker 2: Light sleeper child. Okay. So the thing is an ensemble movie,
all guys, no females except a little tiny cameo that
you may not notice.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 3: Of course, John Carpenter had made several movies. One of
his kind of go to actresses was a lady named
Adrian Barbou. Yes, we might have mentioned her inconsistent zipper
height when we did our Cannonball Run episode. She was
a well endowed young actress that ultimately ended up being
his wife, and as it turns out, she's the one
female part in this movie, as the voice of the
chess computer that McCready is playing chess against that he
ultimately I believe drowns with some J and B whiskey
or something.
Speaker 2: Check maan, check mak.
Speaker 4: The bitch.
Speaker 2: That's exactly right, Adrian Barbou, the voice of the computer.
Go back to our Cannonball Run episode where she dazzles
Reynolds with her cleavage and her zippers.
Speaker 4: Oh, I'll take care of this one.
Speaker 5: Well, hello, hot pants. I don't suppose you have a
driver's license tuck down in there somewhere, do you?
Speaker 2: Yes? Okay, So Kurt Russell was the last guy hired,
which I find fascinating. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean it's interesting because I told you that we
have a Those guys fell in love on the set
of Elvis, right, uh huh. They of course went on
to make Escape from New York, which is a fantastic
movie and was kind of a reason that he got
greenlit to do some of the other movies that he did,
including The Thing by the Way, Escape from New York
fantastic love it.
Speaker 2: Did you know that?
Speaker 3: Like the it's a total satire of all the old
Clint Eastwood movies like The Dirty Airy and The Man
with No Name.
Speaker 2: I did not know that until you pointed that out.
Speaker 3: But I mean it's spot on you if you had
those guys be a little bit uglier and a little
bit quieter, that is snake Pliskin.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, yeah. You take the guy who was the
Disney hero, give him an.
Speaker 3: Eyepatch and a murderous attitude, and that is that's how
you burn that image to the ground.
Speaker 2: Well, speaking of the man with no name, Clint Eastwood
was one of the guys considered for the part of McCready.
That would have been funny in nineteen eighty two, right right,
Who else have you got? Okay? Kevin Klein was one
of the guys. He was kind of an unknown at
the time. Yeah, but Carboner really liked him, Okay, Christopher Walking,
Jeff Bridges, ah, Now, they would work together on Star Man,
which you mentioned, yep. Nick Nolty okay, Sam Shephard Okay,
Peter Coyote, who is of course an et he is
Tom Barranger, Brian Denahey, okay, is that for me? That's
big Tom? No, son, that's for me. Bill Ancaster was
the screenwriter, the person he had in his mind when
he was writing the part of McCready. Harrison Ford, there
you go, husband of Melissa Matheson, Star of Blader, inner
Now then flipped the Child's real quick. Okay, Child's is
the one of the last guys left. The Bees and
the Franks go back to our Something about Marry episode.
He is Mary's dad, Mary's dad. Yeah. Ernie Hudson had
this part, wow, until Keith David read for it. Ernie
Hudson was, of course the fourth Ghostbuster. Yeah right, if
there's a steady paycheck in it.
Speaker 4: I'll believe anything you say.
Speaker 2: I have seen that makes you turn white. Right. Bernie
Casey and Carl Weathers were considered for this. Okay, Paula Creed,
that'd been cool, right, Yeah. Blair Now, Blair is the
part played by Wilford Brimley. Good morning, I'm Wilford Brimley,
and I'd like to talk to you for a few
minutes about diabetes.
Speaker 3: Wilford Brimley. Here's an interesting tidbit about Wilford Brimley. Yes,
he was bodyguard for Howard Hughes before he became an actor.
Howard Hughes, Howard Hugh the aviator, Howard Hughes, the movie producer,
Howard Hughes the inventor, Yes, the crazy Howard Hughes. Wilfrid
Brimley was a bodyguard for him.
Speaker 2: That's amazing. Yeah. Donald Pleasants was originally supposed to be Blair. Yeah.
I love Wilfrid Bridley in this movie. He's so good.
And when he's out, they put him out in the shack,
you know, and he's like, I feel better now, like
to come inside, and there's that news that's hanging right
next to explain it. I literally wrote.
Speaker 3: It down as I'm watching the movie. I'm like, what's
with the noose right here? Like they are not saying
a word about the noose?
Speaker 2: I feel love better now? Okay, all right, gosh crazy,
right right? Jay Leno read for a part in this movie. Okay,
so did Gary Shanley. Okay.
Speaker 4: T K.
Speaker 2: Carter was actually a stand up comic and he was hired,
so maybe it was one of those parts. Okay. Richard
Manser plays Clark in the Thing. Clark is the guy
who handles the dogs. Yeah, he's the dad in License
to Drive, Right. He turned down a part in et.
He was also the dad in and Sino Man. By
the way. Oh yeah, man, he's great as the dad.
Speaker 1: I like him.
Speaker 2: Was he the guy crap?
Speaker 3: Was he the guy who interviewed Tom Cruise in Risky
business Man. Oh dude, if I'm right about that, howe
me a coke or something?
Speaker 2: Okay, hold on and yes he was.
Speaker 5: Wow, Now it's my understanding, Joelt, you would like to
attend Princeton.
Speaker 2: He was Rutherford. That's fantastic, great job.
Speaker 3: He read the script and they didn't know which part
they were going to cast him in. They wanted him,
they didn't, and he was like, I asked for Clark
because the idea of a guy who had more love
for the dogs than he did for the humans was
fascinating to me.
Speaker 2: Interestingly, Richard Manser and Keith David decided through rehearsals. Uh
huh that because they were the two biggest guys there. Yeah,
they weren't going to like each other. This is Keith
David's first film role, right, fascinating love it Okay. The
part of Gary Jerry Orbach was considered for the part
of Gary b Oh guest Baby's Dad, Baby's Dad from
Dirty Dancing. And then finally, I mean, we could go
through all these guys, but I'm gonna throw a couple
out when you're done. Fuchs. The guy who plays Fuchs
is Gary from Gary's Old Town tavern from cheers. Oh
my gosh, that is a deep cut, my friend. Well,
thank you, well done, thank you. That is great.
Speaker 3: Okay, so I'll throw a couple out there for you.
You got Richard Dysart as the physician, right, he's the
doctor that goes to the old Norwegian.
Speaker 2: He's the guy who gets his hand eaten off when
he's yes, yeah, he gets his arms bit off, yes,
bitten off. Excuse me.
Speaker 3: I recognized him from La Law, like I watched La
Law and he was like the main prime partner on
La LAWK.
Speaker 2: Well weird in me?
Speaker 3: I was, he has a nose ring in this thing.
I don't understand why the guy who is the MD
is the one with the nose ring, all right? And
then you also as windows, and I remember you telling
me a story about windows and why he's windows.
Speaker 2: But as windows you have Thomas g Waits, who had
been in the Warriors before this. He was classmates Juilliard
with Robin Williams and Christopher Ree. And how about that,
Keith David, So tell me why windows is called windows.
I love it when you told me a story and
then then you forget and I get to tell this story, like,
it's my story. It's wonderful.
Speaker 3: So he showed up to the set wearing sunglasses and
he was like, from now on, I want you.
Speaker 2: To call me Windows. That's how he got his name,
Like he's I'm gonna wear sunglasses the whole time, so
just call me Windows. Yeah, And that's how Windows became
a character. Oh okay, I forgot to tell you this story.
He also gets his head eating off. I did hear
all these guys talking about how it is like summer camp, right,
So you get these twelve actors, they all fly him
out to the middle of nowhere Canada, Canada, Stuart British, Columbia, yep, okay,
and they've got to you know, they stay at the
hotel or whatever, and they've got to take this special
road and every time they go up there, it's like
they're taking their life in their own hands. But they
all had a ball, you know. I mean, you're you've
got flamethrowers and you're in Canada and you're all there
by yourself and you're having a great time. I thought
that was interesting. But the one actor I wanted to
point out that may have had the best performance. According
to John Carpenter. Now, okay, the dog. Oh yeah, the dog,
Jed Jed jed the dog actor, who is the thing?
He's the first thing we know it's the thing because
it's the Norwegian dog that has come into the camp
and he has to creep down the hallway, stop, pause,
look around, not look at the camera, and then slowly go.
He's like John Carpenter was going on and on about
the dog.
Speaker 3: Well he was half wolf. This dog was half wolf, yes,
And one of the things that when you get a
half wolf mix is they don't bark like normal dogs bark,
and when something is going wrong, they stare it down.
And that's exactly what he did in all of his
shots that it needed it. But he wasn't real comfortable
around human beings. Like you can see him when he
has to go under the table and people are weirded
out by the dog. He's uncomfortable there too. But all
they had to do whenever he had to stare at
the wall in that weird way, was just a little
bit of a signal to show that something was wrong,
and he would stare it down.
Speaker 2: It's fascinating, by the way. Kurt Russell told a story
about when they pulled into. They shot parts of it
in Canada, parts in Juno, Alaska, and parts in LA.
They shot it actually on refrigerated sets, which is pretty cool.
Kurt Russell says, one hundred and five degrees outside, and
so anytime they went to lunch, they had to like
take off all their ski gear, right, and then you know,
walking one hundred and five degree heat to come back
in and put all their coods on. Yeah. The guy
who played Clark, Richard Master, said, eventually they just said
heck with it, and they would just wear their parkas out.
It was like, I'll be hot for like two minutes, says,
we're walking through, and then we'll walk in an air
conditioned room and we'll be fine again. He goes.
Speaker 3: People were looking at it's weird when we were wearing
our parkas. Then I came in with a bullet hole
in my head and people like literally moved away from
my table.
Speaker 2: Kurt Russell said. When they pulled up to the studio
to begin filming the thing, there's a giant sign that
said welcome Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds. The big thing
at that moment was best little whorehouse in Texas. Yeah,
done with casting on the thing. Let's move on to
Blade Run Replicans.
Speaker 5: They're like any other machine.
Speaker 2: They're either a benefit or a hazard. They're a benefit.
That's not my problem, So not a big casting Blade Runner.
Listen to who they wanted for DECKERD. We already talked
about how this is pre Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Speaker 5: They don't advertise for killers in a newspaper. That was
my profession law x cop ex blade Runner ex killer.
Speaker 2: At that point, he had been in I think Force
ten from navarone and Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back,
and that's pretty much it. American graffiti, American graffiti. I mean,
he had a big part in American graffiti. Yeah, okay.
They wanted Dustin Hoffman as Deckerd wow at the time,
like he was their number one choice, and Dustin Hoffman
was like, you shouldn't want a little more macho guy
for this room, right, and so he went on to
play titson. That's right he did, right. Yeah, So think
in terms of Blade Runner being like a film noir, right.
Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely, Philip Marlow, absolutely, Chandler, I mean very macho,
very alcohol swilling, morally questionable guy.
Speaker 2: So listen to the list of actors that were considered. Okay, yeah,
Tommy Lee Jones, Gene Hackman, Sean Connery, Jack Nicholson, Paul Newman,
I mean Chinatown of course, Jack Nicholson for sure. Yeah, okay, right,
I mean these are yeah, little edgy, tough guys, right,
a little older, but yes, Albacino, Burt Reynolds, Paul Newman
did the verdict that year. Yes, okay, go aheadkay, Christopher Walking,
Martin Sheen. Yeah. Arnold Schwarzenegger. What Arnold freaking Schwarzenegger.
Speaker 3: So, Arnold Schwarzenegger was considered for Deckert in The Blade Runner, yep,
but ultimately would be in another Philip K.
Speaker 2: Dick movie, Total Recall in ninety seven, eight years later.
How about that? Yeah, so they had some trouble with
casting Hampton Fincher envision Robert Mitcham as deckerd Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think Robert Mitchen had played some of those Marlow
type of guys in the past.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yep, all right, let's talk about Roy Batty for
a second. I've seen the people wouldn't believe Roy Batty
is the Batty, if you will, the leader of the replicants, right,
He's ruger Hower. Rudger Hower. Okay, so this was the
one role that they had no problem with. Ridley Scott
had seen rugger Hower in a movie called Turkish Delight. Okay, okay,
is it about dessert? No, it's not about dessert. I
told you so. I watched. I got on YouTube and
I googled the Turkish Delight movie trailer and I watched
thirty seconds of it. I was so bored I almost
fell out of my chair. If you get a boring trailer,
you're in a bad spot. Oh my gosh. It was like,
I'm not kidding. It was like watching Lady Chatterley's Lever
or something like that. Okay, a seventies era softcore romantic
cinemax movie. Okay, But really Scott loved him because he
was Arian, right, he was what arian arian arians in
blonde blondes, hair, blue eyed. They even went overboard and
they proximated him for the part because of that, not
because let's be clear here, I'm gonna say that again,
man in the high cast old It's hilarious. He loved
him because he was Arian. Okay, this is awkward. No,
he loved him for the part because he was airan
I gotcha. I got now.
Speaker 3: From what I understand, rugger Howard showed up with his
hair dyed that bright blonde like it was it was
staying bleached. Yeah, I mean it was the police blonde.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3: And then like also in like this fur coat and
kind of looking punk rockerish, and Ridley Scott was like,
oh my dear lord, what have I done? Yeah, but
it was all just as it was just a messing.
It was just a mess with him.
Speaker 2: Look, we'll get into this later, rugger Hower and his
his performance, and then Harrison Ford manoemno, yeah, so good.
So let's talk about Rachel really quick. Okay, they hired
Sean Young. You're reading a magazine. You come across the
full page nude photo of a girl.
Speaker 1: Is this testing whether I'm a replicant or lesbian?
Speaker 2: Mister Deckert? Sean Young, she was very young. Who was
the almost Vicky Vail was? She was almost Vicky Vale.
Almost Vicky Vail fell off ho worse, that's right. She
heard her when she break her wrist or something like that,
she got hurt and she couldn't be Vicky Veil. But
then she stormed Tim Burton's office. Dressed in a catwoman's
suit and wanted him to hire her back, and they
had to throw her out of the studio. Wow. You
ever heard that story of Oh wow? So sean young,
very young, beautiful bird, like I'd say in this movie.
She's just very precise and very Okay you with me
on that. No, I have no idea what you're talking
about it, but I'll go all right, I'm following behind you.
Okay the way all right? Good? So here's who they want.
Here's the other people that they looked at. Okay, Nina
axel Pod, I don't know who that is. Yeah, I
looked at her. I didn't really recognize her. Okay, Okay,
Barbara Hershey, there you go. And Philip K. Dick wanted
Victoria principal. Wow, how about that? Okay? Okay. Also, Grace
Jones was considered for the part of Rachel. Okay, Grace
Jones good a Bond movie instead? No, thanks, not a
fan of that. One of you two killed terrible Okay, Chris,
that's the part that Darryl Hannah plays. Yes, I think
Sebastian therefore I am. They wanted Debbie Harry from Blondie
to play with that for sure. How about that. Yeah,
they also looked at Monique fond Devin, who was the
girl that Rugger Howard was in love with in Turkish Delight. Eh,
play Chris Okay, might as well if it were just
bring him back his boyfriend girlfriend. Sure, okay, So the
part of Leon Kowalski wake up trying to die, Brian
Jones is the guy who ends up playing him. Yeah,
he's the guy who takes the boy comp test to
the very beginning. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Man, what a great beginning scene that is. But yes,
his portrayal in this one is a good one. He was,
He was in a ton of stuff in the eighties,
and I think he passed away like a pretty young age.
I think it was only in his early fifties. Maybe
when he passed away.
Speaker 2: I think he was in Tingo and Cash. I think
they put a grenade in his mouth with Kurt Russell. Yeah,
he was in the Fifth Element as well. Okay. They
had decided to hire this guy named Frank McCrae as
Kowalski until really Scott's secretary told him that Brian James
scared her, frightened her. He's scary, he is scary. He's
intense and he's got the crazy eyes. And he does
have the crazy eyes. And really, Scott's like, that's enough
for me, We're going to hire him. And then Zora
was played by joe Ane Cassidy. She was in Roger
Rabbit Waitress. She's like Eddie's girlfriend, had a rabbit in
your pocket or you just have it to see? That's her,
all right, you got it nice. And then the role
of Gaff went to Edward James Almos. Too bad, you
won't live. But then again, who died from Stand and Deliver?
Standing Deliver? Mimy Vice American Me. He's tough, he's intense.
Great job. I thought this was hilarious. M Emmett Walsh
plays Captain Bryant, another scratcher. He's raised in Arizona and
he's in the Jerk, right, He's in a couple of
the Coen Brothers movies. But yeah, he's great. He's the
guy that shoots at Steve Martin. Steve Bard's like he
hates these cans, right, even r Johnson. That's exactly right.
So here's the funny part. So really Scott said, hey,
for this role, could you smoke and m Mimmett Walsh
didn't smoke, but he's like, well, okay, and really Scott
kept having take after take after taking, kept smoking and
smoking smoking ntil he got sick. Oh no, he got
sick of the cigarettes. And he's made a comment in
the press that really Scott needs to be hung up
by his balls. Oh and the producers reamed him out
for that. He got in trouble for that. Done with
casting on Blade Runner, Okay, now to do casting on
e T. He's a man from out of space and
we're taking him to a space shirt. Well, can just
beam up?
Speaker 4: This is reality.
Speaker 3: Brin maybe the most fascinating casting even though it's a
small cast.
Speaker 2: It's a small cast.
Speaker 3: Now, so of course here we go another connection. Yeah,
de Wallace was in The Howling, which was the movie
that had Robert Boutin's first big werewolf transformation where he
was the main guy on point.
Speaker 2: So I kind of dug rob Botein in in our
Howling episode for making her look like an Ewok at
the end. Remember that. Yeah, I mean that we figured it.
Speaker 3: We found out that that was at her behest it was,
which was you know, that was the wrong choice there.
Speaker 2: But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Let's go
ahead and keep going right. Okay, So Henry Thomas was
hired as Eliot. You can see his audition on YouTube.
It's heartbreaking. Yeah, you can't take him a.
Speaker 4: Way much, but it's not my choice.
Speaker 2: The president asked me to come here and to get it.
Don't Carol what the president's I mean, my best friend
and you can't.
Speaker 4: Dog you what.
Speaker 3: Steven Spielberg had seen him like in commercials and stuff,
but hadn't seen him really speak any lines and wanted
to know if he had some acting ability. He said, right, look,
but does can he act right? And so he had
him come in to do some acting. Yes, and this
is the cue that he gave him. He was like, Okay,
they've come to take away your best friend. There's a
man at the door, and he is there to take
away your best friend. And it's your job to stop
this big, grown up law enforcement guy from taking your
best friend. Yeah, when you watch this, Steven Spielberg says that.
He says, Okay, are you ready. Henry Thomas says, yes,
immediately knock at the door. We're here to get whatever
whoever it is, right, and Henry Thomas he starts breaking
down and He's like, you can't take it not and
you see the tears start to flow. In my gosh,
if you have a soul in your body, you are
shedding tears in ten seconds of performance from this kid.
Speaker 2: Here is amazing. Yeah, it really is. Yeah. Jack Fisk
was a friend of Spielberg. He had done a movie
with Henry Thomas and suggested him one of the other
boys that auditioned. So there's a hundred boys who auditioned
for this role. Keith Coogan is one of the guys
who auditioned. You will remember him as one of the
kids in Adventures in Babysitting or Don't tell Mom the
Babysitters Dead. Okay, Okay that guy, Yeah guy, Okay, gotcha. Yeah.
Henry Thomas also auditioned in a Indiana Jones outfit. Real
true story. Okay, the part of Gerty played by Drew Barrymore.
Speaker 4: Could be a monkey ranging a ball? Monkey?
Speaker 6: Is he a page? Sure?
Speaker 2: Eats like this one. I get a story on go ahead.
So she came to.
Speaker 3: Audition not for this movie, but for Poultergeist. Got a
little pretty little blonde girl yep In Poultergeist.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 3: She auditions for Steven Spielberg, and he says, you're not
right for the part, but I think there is a
part in another movie that I have that you're perfect for.
And she was like, I didn't care. I was just
like happy to hear that I was right for a part, right.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: So I didn't get the movie. It came to audition four.
But that's how she became Gerdy and et. You know,
he was impressed when he started talking to her. He
was asking her about herself and stuff like that, and
she's like, you know what, I'm the leader of a
punk band. And he's like that sounds like gerty. Yeah, right, Yeah,
she's five, what five years old maybe when they're making
this movie, six at most. Yeah, and she already got
the imagination that hey, I'm gonna I'm not just I'm
gonna be in a rock band, but I have a
rock band.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: She detailed it like I'm the singer. There's drummers she
gave And he's like, this is kid's imagination is on point.
Speaker 2: We need to have her. Oh my gosh, she's so
cute too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and she comes from I mean she comes from
acting royalty. I mean John Barrymore is one of the
most famous actors of all time, and it's her grandfather,
I believe.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but she nails it. She's perfect. She nails it.
Speaker 3: There isn't I don't think a cast member in this
movie that is not perfect.
Speaker 2: Henry Thomas knocks it out of the park. Yeah, okay.
Julia Lewis and Sarah Michelle Geller also auditioned for the
part of Gerty. Okay, how about that good okay part
from Michael. Robert McNaughton was the guy hired.
Speaker 4: Where's the playground?
Speaker 2: It's not wheres mom?
Speaker 4: Where's that Poe?
Speaker 1: Bless me?
Speaker 2: Yeah? You know he He came out with another movie
in nineteen eighty two. Do you know what, The Electric Grandmother?
That's right, it keeps coming up. I don't know how
these things happen, but if you will, remember Linda Gottlieb,
the person who produced Dirty Dancing. The movie that she
made right before she signed un to do Dirty Dancing
was The Electric Grandmother. And yes, how does that movie
keep coming up? It's like a bad penny. It's a
good movie. We should watch it, okay. Robert mcnonton auditioned
eight times for this. Ultimately he got it and he
nails it. I mean the children's performances in this out
of this World, and Spielberg has said they're not acting, goes,
I just told him a story and it's just them
being them. Yeah, real quick, Mary, who is their mother
that I never knew her name? I think their last name,
according to the script is Taylor. Okay, okay, both news
to me. Yeah, okay. So Dee Wallace got the part
when she goes to conferences and conventions, she's always referred
to as Ethie's mom, which is kind of funny. They
offered the part to Shelley Long Oh okay from Cheers. Yeah,
plays Diana Cheers. Okay, Now we mentioned that Peter Coyote,
he plays the part of Keys I got. I got
a story for you on this one. Go.
Speaker 3: So we talked about how Peter Coyote was one of
the considerations for Indiana Jones.
Speaker 2: Right, yes, that's right. So he tells the story of
his Indiana Jones audition, right, okay. He comes in his
his agent has got him this audition with Steven Spielberg.
He's excited. He's got a fedora that he wears. He's
all decked out in the right gear, you know, and
he's behind the curtain and his agent introduced is. He's like,
mister Spielberg, I would like you to meet mister Peter Coyote.
And he says, so, I come out from behind the curtain,
and what you can't see is that these lights that
they've got shining on you all have legs on them.
And I see the legs, and so I catch one
of these legs. I go careening off the stage on
my face, and Steven Spielberg's just looking at me, like,
who in the world is this horrible person? That's hilarious.
But apparently I had enough of an impression on him
that he thought this will be the perfect guy for
the mysterious adult with the keys. Yes, because the first
half or more of the movie all you see is
his crotch. That's true, he said. My ex girlfriend after
she saw the movie, She's like, I recognize you immediately.
That's hilarious. All right. Now, then the part of et Okay,
it's a combination of a few people. Yeah, okay, one
you've heard of and when you haven't heard of.
Speaker 3: Probab, Well, it's more than that, because you've got voice,
and you've got the body and hands and all that.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, it's fascinating. So the voice of Et
deva winger we know, recorded every line of ET's dialogue.
She was a friend of Steven Spielberg. She had come
by to see how things were going. Devera winger has
this kind of deep, husky voice. Yeah, He's like, you
know what, let's go ahead and let you record all
this voices of VT. Now. Also, they combined her with
a woman named Pat Welsh. Right. Pat had been an
actress long time ago, like was in some old like fortiesties. Right. Yes,
she spoke two packs a day and she was in
the store when Ben Bert was there buying something. Ben Bert,
who is the sound designer for every Star Wars and yes, everything,
He heard her talk and he's like, hmm, this lady
might be perfect for Et. Yeah, she had that a
little vice. She was paid three hundred and eighty dollars
a day to be ET's voice. Wow.
Speaker 3: So Et is usually an animatronic thing, right, because I
then nobody has a neck that thin. And he said
he didn't want it ever, anybody to ever think this
is a guy in a costume. Yes, yes, And so
in different scenes you have different folks inside the workings,
there was a lady who wore gloves. She was like,
I just happened to have very long fingers, and so
she became the perfect hands for ET. So what she'll
get a lot is her like laying on her back
and having her hands up doing the glove work next
to the animatronic Et as like a million other guys,
Like there are literally dozens of guys doing all of
the working processes for his eyes and his neck and
all of these other things. But his hands remain real.
They are gloved hands of this lady. But they also
found a kid who had lost both of his legs,
and he also was in it, and he would he
would his hands which he used to get around. He
would walk with his hands went into the feet of ET.
So when you see Et getting drunk and he's like
going through the kitchen and then suddenly just cook flat
on his face, that is a little amputee kid who
played the part of Et in a costume.
Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah, that's awesome. All right. We mentioned before, but
there is a scene that you can see on YouTube
of Harrison Ford as Elliott's principal. You don't never see
his face, but his voice is clear as day, unmistakable,
and he's kind of balling him out for getting drunk
in school.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I see you, fine young people from good homes,
every advantage, your whole life laid out in front.
Speaker 2: Of him, and Elliot's like, I'm sorry, sir, it never happened. Again,
that's Harrison Ford. Yeah.
Speaker 3: At one point, Harrison Ford turns to look out the
window as he's talking to him, and suddenly Elliott's chair
like starts floating up to the ceiling, and of course
it's this beautifully timed thing where it comes back down
right as he turns back around, and Mary d Wallace
comes in and they all leave it.
Speaker 2: Two more people I want to mention see Thomas Howell
plays Tyler.
Speaker 4: We made it.
Speaker 2: The Buddies, one of the Buddies, yep, this is his
film debut. He then goes on and he does The
Outsiders and one of my favorite movie Secret Admirer. That
part was also auditioned by Ralph Machu who they became
Buddies and the Outsiders. Yeah. I think they're still friends.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But the one I really want to mention to you, yeah,
is the pretty girl that Elliot kisses. Yeah, that is
miss Erica Alaniac. Yeah, if you've ever seen the movie
under Siege or Baywatch or bay Watch or you know
some Playboys. I don't know what you're talking about there.
What is playboys? Some sort of books, right right right?
She goes on to become a Baywatch actress and she's
I mean, she was the babe in under Siege. Yeah,
Google search, So that's going to do it for casting.
For ET. Okay, let's talk twenty four to thirty six
movie posters. You have three of the best movie posters
of the eighties. Without a doubt, I'm about to blow
your mind brow. Okay. So for ET, our artist is
John Alvin, who is very well known in the movie
poster world. That's the way several years ago. But he's
got the Star Wars reissue, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter,
a ton of old movies. His first movie poster that
he did was because mel Brooks was unhappy with the
movie poster they did for Blazing Saddles, and so his
first movie poster was Blazing Saddles. I know what what
you're talking about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then he also of course did Young Frankenstein
because mel Brooks was he became his go to guy.
So John Alvin is one of those huge names. He's
an icon in the movie poster industry, and so Stephen
Spielberg came to him with this idea for the poster
for ET.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: ET has a few different types of posters that were
all familiar with. One of the most familiar is the
big moon with the silhouette of them on the bicycle
flying across.
Speaker 2: You know, the scene from the movie Amblin logo, right, right, Yes,
that became the Ambulin logo years later when that company
was formed, right yes, yes, But there's.
Speaker 3: Another iconic poster where the two fingers are touching, where
you've got the little child's hand and the ET hand.
They've got that glowing it's that ouch moment, right, And
so that's the one that John Alvin did, and it
was Spielberg's idea, and he said, Hey, I'm kind of
looking for this Michelangelo creation.
Speaker 2: Of Adam kind of thing. And if you look at it,
that's what the hands are. Yeah, right, I see it.
Speaker 3: And if you look at the little kid's hand, it's
far too little of a kid. That is not Henry
Thomas's hand. It's John Alvin's daughter who was six years
old at the time.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so he created that image at Spielberg's request to
be a creation like image. I love it, which is
great because we'll talk about later on and how similar
this is to some biblical stories that we're all familiar with.
Speaker 2: There's some interesting parallels there to be made. Yeah, So
tell me about the Thing post. Okay, I'm gonna blow
your mind with this. Okay. So the Thing poster is
I think if there is one original piece of artwork
from the eighties, that iconic poster that I would take,
it's the Thing poster for me. That's it. Okay, Wow,
I just love it. It's one of those when you look
at it, you're like, what is happening here? This snowman
is something's happening to his face. It's like this bright,
shining thing. He doesn't have a face, and you're like, wow,
what is this? I have to know what's going on
in this movie. So it was made by Drew Strewsan
another icon who we absolutely adore. This guy has done everything,
I mean, Star Wars, Raiders Are the Lost Dark, He's
done a billion movie posters exactly. Okay, but he wasn't
the original artist. So the original artist came up with
a poster that John Carpenter hated. Okay, and the studio
didn't like it, and so they called Drew Strewsan and
they're like, hey, Drew, we need a movie poster. Are
you busy right now? And he's like, no, I can
do a movie poster for you. They're like, okay, because
we need it tomorrow. He did this in twenty four hours.
Oh my gosh. So he's like, okay, great, what's the
movie about? And they're like, ah, I'm not really sure.
He's like, well, who's in it? And they're like, well,
we don't really know that much about it. He's like,
how am I supposed to do a poster on it?
And they're like, well, we know it's a remake of
the Thing from Another World, the nineteen fifty one movie.
Well that's a big difference from what we get in
nineteen eighty two. Oh yeah for sure. So Drewstersan took
that idea, this is a remake of the Thing from
Another World. He actually got in his ski gear, went outside,
his wife took the pictures of him in his ski
gear until he found one that he liked. So drews
drews En not only drew this poster in twenty four hours. Yeah,
one of the most iconic posters of the eighties, but
he's also starring in the poster. That's him. That's awesome.
All right, what do you got for me on Blade Runner? Okay?
So Blade Runner? They called up Drew Strewsan yes, and
they said I want you to make a poster. Yes,
but they weren't happy with it, and so they called
up John Alvin. Oh my gosh, and John Alvin did
the poster in his John Alvin style. If you look
at Blazing Saddles or Harry Potter or any of you
know the hundreds of John Alvin where they've got all
those heads you know around, Yep, you look at the
Blade Runner poster, you're like, oh, same guy. Right, Okay,
So ladies and gentlemen listeners, you won't be able to
see what I'm about to show Jason right now, but
you're familiar with the old Blade Runner poster. Yes, I'm
gonna show you this one. Have you seen this before?
I have seen that one.
Speaker 3: So this if you're listening, if you go to the
two thousand and seven final cut, there have been a
couple of different remakes of Blade Runner where they did
a director's cut, and then in two thousand and seven
they did a final cut and they released it on DVD. Well,
at that time, Ridley Scott contacted Drew Strusan again and
he said, Hey, I actually liked your poster better, but
the studio guys said they wanted to go with John
Alvin's poster. But I'm about to do this reissue. Can
I use your poster instead? And so he had just
had these base drawings that he had used, and they're
so similar. They're so similar in style because you've got
I mean, you've got Deckard as the big head there,
but it's this collage of different faces from the movie.
And so strews antickes his old artwork from nineteen eighty
two and creates the new poster for two thousand and
seven You.
Speaker 2: Follow Me Away. I love both of those posters. They
are fantastic. They're both iconic. Hey, ET's got two iconic posters.
Blade Runner has two. The Thing I think has one.
But they're all amazing. Yeah.
Speaker 3: The other thing about the thing is that the font
for the thing, like in the posters that I've seen
usually you've got this kind of standard impact style font.
But there are also posters that have the kind of
jagged letters that you get from the opening credits of
the movie. And there's a great story about how they
came up with that particular thing, which we'll talk about
when we do our special effects part of things. But
I have seen some posters that have it on there.
But what I like so much about the Thing poster
is it's a mystery who that guy is, who that
snowsuit person is, which goes even though he didn't know
what happened in the movie, he goes right along with
the key element of the movie of we don't know
who's the thing and who's not.
Speaker 2: It could be anyone.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this bright shining light is a faceless man who
could be my best friend or an alien who wants
to kill me.
Speaker 2: The person who made that poster did not know the
plot of the movie and yet still nailed it. And
I just discovered this.
Speaker 3: I haven't seen it yet, but there is literally a
ten minute video out there came out this same time
as the final cut two thousand and seven, called promoting Dystopia,
rendering the poster art featuring John Alvin and Drew Strews
in talking about creating the poster art for Blade Runner
Past and.
Speaker 2: Present, Love Love It, two of the best, And people
said these movies weren't connected. People said these movies weren't
any good. Yeah, I know, man, I know. It's crazy.
You gotta be a and kidding me to quote a
line from The Thing. Okay, I've got a few tidbits
before we get into the big questions. I love it.
Let's go, man, all right, So talking about the Thing,
Keith David broke his hand in a car accident the
day before shooting began. Okay, so like the first half
of the movie, he's always hiding his left hand. Huh.
They actually had to paint his cast his complexion for
certain scenes. Right, It's kind of like Lost Boys.
Speaker 3: Yeah, where Keith for Sutherland breaks his hand on the
motorcycle accident and then you see him he's just wearing yeah,
weird glove the whole time.
Speaker 2: Okay. Carpenter calls the Thing part of his Apocalypse trilogy.
You have the Thing, you have Prints of Darkness, and
you have in the Mouth of Madness. Okay, I haven't
seen those other two.
Speaker 3: I have not seen those other two either. I've heard
they're good, but I haven't seen them.
Speaker 2: Okay. One of the things they said was so difficult
about the shoot of the thing. They couldn't get any beer.
What they couldn't get beer where they were? Okay, so
they're up in was it British Columbia? They were up
in Nowheresville, British Columbia. Right.
Speaker 3: So they found their set by trying to find a
place that could pass for Antarctica, right, right, And so
in Antarctica the only thing that you have are snow
and mountains, that's really about it. And so they found
that spot. But there was this tree in the middle
of the set. And so what they did, the big
tower that you see on the set that they built
is the one thing that's covering that lone tree.
Speaker 4: Is that right?
Speaker 2: I didn't know that that's good?
Speaker 3: And so also that's interesting because you know they had
to have another set for the Swedes camp that they
go and investigate, right, Yes, So what they did is
they filmed that scene at the end when they destroyed
the camp at the climax of the movie by blowing
everything up. They were left with a bunch of burnt rubble.
Well that's what you see as the camp for the
Swedes in Norwegians or whatever they are.
Speaker 2: They not Swedes creating the Norwegians. That's brilliant, that's brilliant.
I did hear this that a couple of Thing superfans, Yeah,
went all the way to Stuart, British Columbia, in like
twenty eighteen and they found bits of the set still there.
That's awesome.
Speaker 3: They built it during the summertime and then just let
the snow fall yep, which I mean that's a cheaper
way to go for sure, but they still even in that,
they still had to use fake snow for their blizzard scenes.
Speaker 2: Yes, here's an interesting thing that they mentioned on the commentary.
There are some underlying parallels regarding the ving and infection
and not knowing who has it and who to be
afraid of, huh, and the AIDS virus Oh okay, which
was happening. I mean they started shooting in eighty one
and it was just sort of coming into awareness and
people didn't really know how you got it, how it
was transmitted. They didn't know anything about it, right, but
people were afraid of it. Kurt Russell's brother in law
was the Norwegian guy in the helicopter who kept trying
to shoot the dog at the beginning. That was Kurt
Russell's brother in law. Okay, I think this is interesting.
Windows can't reach anybody in the world world, right, so
he tries to get people on the radio. You talk
about the character Windows, the character Windows, Yeah, I got you, Yes, Yah.
It wears the sunglasses all the time.
Speaker 1: Yea.
Speaker 2: When he tries to reach the outside world, he can't
get any response back. Yeah. John Carpentras posed the theory
that maybe it's because one of the Norwegian team left
infected and the entire world is now gone. Yeah, that's interesting.
It's kind of interesting to think about it.
Speaker 3: So the end of the book that you know where
you watch the Skies thing, mm hmm, you get the
albatross the for the spring thaw or whatever, the albatross.
They see it flying overhead and it's coming from the
same direction as the camp, which is probably where you
get that watch the Sky's line.
Speaker 2: Interesting. Okay, cool, Okay, you want some tidbits on Blade Runner,
hit me all right. In nineteen sixty nine, there was
a young upcoming director who was interested in directing The
Blade Runner. Okay, you know who this is sixty nine. Yep,
no March Scorsese, okay, wanted to film Blade Runner. Okay.
The final scene of Blade Runner is shot in a
very prominent LA building. Yeah, the Bradbury, Right, it's the
Bradbury Building. Yeah. The screenwriters went to really Scott and said,
please do not film this in this building. Every TV
show known to man has been filmed in this building.
Oh yeah, and really Scott's like, he says, nobody has
filmed it the way I'm going to film it. Yeah,
and you know what, he was right, he was right. Yeah,
it looks completely different now you recognize it. It is
recognizable to Core and they, I mean they even have it.
You see the Bradbury written on the top of the place. Yeah,
but I mean they're supposed to be in LA twenty nineteen, right, yeah,
but twenty nineteen. Yeah.
Speaker 3: But the idea is is that it is decayed significantly.
It has become as cyberpunk as the rest of the
world is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I sent you a video. The Genesis Tonight Tonight
Tonight video from the Invisible Touch album was shot in
the Bradberry Building. Nice. When you look at the video,
I'm like, it was like Blade Runner Okay, I'm gonna
blow your mind with this. You're ready for this? Yeah, okay.
So one of the most sought after props from the
eighties was Decord's pistol. Somebody actually stole it from the set. Okay,
it was gone for thirty years and then cropped back
up for an auction. Okay, that pistol. It looks really cool,
but it was actually made from a rifle. Okay, I
can see that. Yeah, they built it out of the
remnants of a rifle, which made it extremely heavy. Yeah,
but it looks super cool. I love that gun.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's big and bulky, but what you expect from
a future gun. That's cool. So did they find it?
What happened thirty years later?
Speaker 2: It just appeared like they couldn't find the prop anymore.
It was gone, whoosh, whoosh, vanished, It grew little gun
legs and walked off. Somebody walked off with it, and
then it appeared like in twenty fifteen for a for
an auction. Let's talk about the company curse from Blade Runner.
Have you heard about this? Well, I sent you.
Speaker 3: I noticed something as I was watching as he was
going by, and when I saw the first sign, I
was like, oh man, these signs are all over the place,
but I saw a giant sign for Atari on there,
and then you hit me with this bit of info.
Speaker 2: So these are all companies that are prominently shown in
the movie Blade Runner. Yeah, Atari, Yeah, RCA, Bell, Yeah,
Pan Am Hi Fi Yeah, Coca Cola, right, all of
all of those have failed. That's the curse part, except
for Coca Cola. Coke took a huge dive in nineteen
eighty five though, when they introduced New Coke and got
their buzzkick for about a year before they came to
their senses and recovered. And of course, what was the
game that killed Atari? It is that's exactly right. Okay,
I'm gonna blow your mind with this. Yeah, okay, ye
stay with me on this now. Okay. So in the
movie Alien on the Nostromo, they use this bit of
software that is also used in Blade Runner. Okay, okay, yeah,
it's in Harrison Ford's floating car. Okay, okay, same software program.
You can actually see it's the same screen. So that
means that really Scott's Alien and really Scott's Blade Runner
share universe. Okay, Okay with me so far, I'm with you. Now,
then we know that Alien and the Predator movies share universe.
Yeah they do. Now they do? Yeah, So that means Alien,
Blade Runner, and Predator all share universe. Okay, okay, Now
then Terminator shares the universe with aliens. Okay, Cyberdine all right, right,
Cyberdyne yet is involved in the Alien universe. That means
the Terminator, Alien, Blade Runner, Predator all share universe, and
the Abyss what the abyss is involved in it? They're
all part of the same shared universe. Oh my gosh, directly,
some indirectly. But I think that's really cool that when
I started putting those together, I'm like, holy God, that's
pretty neat. I like, a good job. Okay, you're gonna
have to trust me on this. But there is a
city scape scene where if you change the lighting just
right and you put this in front of it, you
can see the Millennium Falcon as a building. Really, yes,
it is in the background and it's used as like
part of the city scape. Okay. One of the sort
of underlying themes of Blade Runner is that maybe all
animals are extinct. Yeah, that's the way that the novel
starts out, I believe is that I think one of
the first animals to die off are the owls, which
is why the owl is important in Tyrrell's office building. Okay, well,
Harrison Ford actually, when he's questioning Zora, he asked her
if that's a real snake. Yeah, She's like crazy, I
can't afford a real snake, right, what are you talking about. Well,
one of the interesting things that he gets, one of
those scales appears think and it's got like a code
on it. Yeah. Yeah, So when they zoom in the
actual picture that is in the movie, yeah, is actually
a zoomed in picture of a marijuana but oh really yeah, Okay,
it's not snake at all. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think that the idea is that the humanity that's
left on Earth are kind of the rejects, like everybody else,
like all the pretty people.
Speaker 2: You'll notice this.
Speaker 3: Virtually all of the people on Earth in Blade Runner
are unattractive unless they're a replicant.
Speaker 2: We're gonna talk about the big question about who exactly
are replicants and who are not replicants. That's gonna be
in part three. Let's talk about the love scene for
just a second. Okay, say you love me? Say it? Again,
mean it kind of it's very noir.
Speaker 3: It's comfortable. Yeah, it's a little rough, it is, but
you're right. It is also very noir type of thing.
It is very Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler.
Speaker 2: It's something you might see in a movie from the forties,
you know, Humphrey, Billgert Yeah, okay, James Bond, yes, oh yeah, Goldfinger,
My gosh, I thought this was interesting. Alan Ladd Junior
actually chose the release date of Blade Runner, Okay. He
chose June twenty fifth, nineteen eighty two, and he saw
twenty five as a lucky date, okay, because Star Wars
had been released on May twenty fifth. Right, An Alien
had been released on May twenty fifth. Uh huh, it
was not a lucky date for I mean in the
long run, I guess sure, but definitely not as far
as the box office is concerned. Yeah, Philip K. Dick
died before he got to see the entire movie.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean he died in March. The movie didn't
come out until June, so yeah, he did not get
to see the final product.
Speaker 2: He did get to see one shot that they showed
him of the World of la In twenty nineteen. Yeah,
he felt like somebody had like come into his brain
and extracted the image.
Speaker 3: David Wright was talking to us about this earlier today,
about how cyberpunk this world is and the way that
they took the fashion of cyberpunk and created an entire
city scape that embodied that style is amazing. It is
a flawlessly executed, beautiful, dirty, grimy futuristic scene.
Speaker 2: It is incredible, and it's all practical effects. Yeah, no,
CGI hope it looks amazing. Yeah. In fact, they shot
it I think on the Universal Lot and they did
it and it's like one block of the Universal Lot
and really, Scott's like, I don't know if this is
going to be big enough. They were just very careful
at how they shot it, and so it looks huge. Yeah,
but it's just one block. Okay, tidbits free t hit
me all right. I thought this was really cool. Et
was shot in chronological order, Okay, that was done on
purpose so that it would help the kid's performance. And
the kid's performance is incredible. We already said that before.
But yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 3: Well, there's one scene that they did shoot out of
sequence that they wanted to get over early. I think
we may have talked about it that first shot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the kiss, the kiss, Let's get that. Steven Spielberg
wanted the kiss done. Yeah, okay, we did talk before
about how Steven Spielberg worked on both Et and Poldergeist
at the same time. Officially, Poultrygeist's director is Toby Hooper. Yeah,
but there's a lot of people who said Steven Spielberg
really directed that movie. In the closet scene in ET, yeah,
I say that. There's multiple closet scenes. Are you talking
about the one with Dee Wallace? When Dee Wallace opens
the door to the closet and there's nothing but stuffed animals.
The camera pans and there's ET's deadpan face, and the
whole audience is like, Oh, there's Et, and she doesn't notice.
She grabs a shirt or whatever off of the closer
rac That was Robert Smecchus's idea. That was his gag.
That's lovely. Oh, that's great, super funny. Do you know
that Corey Feldman was supposed to be one of Elliot's buddies. Well,
as they started working, it turns out they didn't need
that buddy. They had everything they needed, so they had
to chop that character. Well, Steven Spielberg felt bad about that,
and that's why he is in Crevalins. Nice. One of
the scenes that we'll talk about next week, I'm sure
when we have reaction is the like the Trioche scene
with Et. Yeah, those are real doctors. I noticed that.
I was looking through the cast and I was like,
oh my gosh, these guys are mds. Some of them
are mds. And then there's also a PhD in there
as well. Yeah, Steven Spielberg just said, hey, treat him
like you would treat any other patient in the emergency room. Okay,
he's flatlining, what do you do? Go for it? And
that's why you have that real feel of its you know,
actual doctors. Great. Yeah, the communicator that Et builds two
phone home, yes, with the speaking spell and the bus
chainsaw blade yeah, or that's right, the circular saw blade
that actually worked. They contacted aliens, yes, and that's how
the ship came. I mean, how else are you gonna
film a space if you don't contact the aliens first.
That's how they got in at the actually worked. It
gave me actually works. It was a working transmitter. Okay,
it worked as a transmitter like a radio. Yes, okay,
all right, it's speaking spelled out into space. I'm telling
you I'm not speaking a spell expert. But apparently phoned home.
It phoned somebody. Okay, all right, let's talk about the
huge mistake that Mars company made when it denied Eminem's
to be used as the candy in et. Man, that
was that guy should have gotten fired. They thought he
was too scary for kids. Oh man, I can see
that decision being made, like as as you know, somebody
who works in a corporate atmosphere, you know, you're just like, oh,
I don't know, do we really want to associate ourselves
with this thing? Is it really gonna get I mean,
it's not like the Eminem's you know, went under Yeah,
I mean they're still obviously very successful. But I had
some the Reese's Pieces sales I mean went through the roof. Yeah.
Was it even a candy before it was? It was
like a new candy, Like he was just on the
market and they said, well, you know, call races and
see if they've got anything. Hey, we got this new
thing called we call Reese's Pieces. I know what I
bought when I went to the store in nineteen eighty two.
Heck yeah, I still get them with my popcorn and
the movies to this day. There you go. You know,
in the novelization of ET, it's still Eminem's interesting. Yep.
And it didn't start product placement. There's like this urban
legend that that's when product placement started. But I mean,
I think no. We talked about it in our Jabs
episode of the Coca Cola signs. See you around there, Superman.
It's seven years before at least, yes, so really quickly.
Spielberg has mentioned that he's actually a plant, like a
plant being.
Speaker 3: I don't think that means that he's like vegetable matter,
like the thing from another world. What he's talking about
is that he is like a botany guy, but he's
he's like a low level like he's the grunt who
you send out to go pick up some flowers so
that you so that the scientists, the real brains, can
study him. So that's what the Ets are doing at
the beginning of the movie, is there are all these
grunts out there collecting specimens for the smarter aliens who
are back home.
Speaker 2: Okay, well that's interesting because I heard him say that
in reference to like his heartlight. Okay, and they wanted
it to look more plant like than you could see
what the inner workings of his chest. Yeah, because you
don't want to.
Speaker 3: I mean, you don't want to have the eminems be
scared away, right, I mean, we don't want this to
be terrifying. You don't want this to be you know,
oh my gosh, we can see the glowing innards of
the alien. It just needs to be something simpler, like
a vegetable, I guess.
Speaker 2: But yeah, okay, Hey, that heartlight was actually genius on
Spielberg's part. It works like the dorsal fin in Jaws
at the beginning of the movie. We still haven't got
a good look at et, but his little red light
right comes on and we can track him. We see
where he's going, we see what's happening. It's got a
good dimmer switch. Yeah, it's like the world's worst evolutionary
thing for a being who gets scared is trying to
hide and his light comes on. This is not quite
an ocular emission. It's an involuntary light emission. I'm threatened
and I'm scared here. I am by the way, you
heard Neil Diamond's song Heartlight.
Speaker 6: Might say, turn on your hot light.
Speaker 2: Let it shine wherever.
Speaker 6: Let you go, Let it big, happy glow for all
the world to see.
Speaker 2: Do you ever wonder where that song came from? You're kidding? No,
I am not. You are kidding. No, it came from
E T E T. Okay, you just ruled my mind
right there, my friend, leave my mind? All right? Well,
I think that does it for this episode. Okay, d
We've got a surely showcase this week from our buddies
over at the All Eighties Podcast.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is Bill Band and Jason Massek, who do
a fantastic podcast over there. They are weighing in on
their opinion of et versus The Thing versus Blade Runner.
Let's hear what they have to say.
Speaker 4: Hey, guys, it's Jason and Bill here from the All
Eighties Movies Podcast. First off, we would like to thank
you fine gentlemen, Dan, Jason, and surely you can't be
serious for asking us to weigh in on this discussion.
It is an honor as Bill and I are both
big fans of what you do and how you do it.
So we've been charged with the unenviable task of hitting
these early eighties classics against one another. Well, let's get
right into it, build bands and start with ET the
Extra Terrestrial. And you know what, I was trying to
think of one word that would capture the essence of
each of these three great iconic films. For ET, I
chose the word wonderment. I was eight years old, right
in the midst of the phenomenon known as Star Wars,
so when ET was released, I was already all about
that SI five. It delivered. It's what Spielberg does best.
It captures the essence of the small town atmosphere during
this particular time period, and it's told through the childlike lens,
this view of wide eyed wonderment and discovery, friendship, adventure.
And of course, for me, a huge ingredient in this
film is the unforgettable John Williams score. It's a character
into itself. We have the iconic flying bicycle sequence, ET
Phone home, I left, I cried, There's some scary moments.
Even the bottom line is I left the theater having
felt true escapism and entertainment. And I was a sap
then and I am still a sap now. For the
saccharin spield early, I'll never ever tie that. Just give
me more moving on to the thing. The word I've
chosen is infectious. Bill Batt. This movie has Kurt Russell,
who is Craig Harry and always takes the story to
the next level. This movie has Keith David, which means
it has to be good, right yeah, hell yeah Keith David.
This movie has incredible visual effects by Rob Botten that
mostly hold up today, but at its essence, really it's
it's about the tension, the building up of tension, the
pacing of this film. It really taps into the darkness
of my imagination. What I love about this movie is
that it makes me ask the question what if? Meaning
what would I do if I were in the situation.
There's the iconic Petri dish scene. I love this Ennio
Morricone score, and it has one of the best endings
of all time. Bill Bann. It's down to two survivors
and one may be infected with the alien virus. But
which one will we find out?
Speaker 2: Nope?
Speaker 4: Cut to black and that's how you do a cliffhanger. Now, last,
but not least, we have Blade Rudder and the word
I've chosen to encapsulate this iconic film is immersion. Once
I enter this world I'm in, and once this movie
is finished, it takes me a while to separate myself
from it because it is a totally immersive experience. It's
an assault on its senses in the best possible way.
This is a dystopian future that's lived in it's dark.
It captures a real, real, distinct feeling. It's a hard
boil to film noir, which I'm a sucker for. I
don't know what a blade Runner is, a replicant, is
a Nexus six model, I don't care. I'm fascinated at
the setting, the landscape, the architecture, the overall designed the
flying cars. This entire film is stunning. And at the end,
it's about that Phinalee between Rip Deckerd and Roy Baddie,
and you've got Harrison Ford staring at Rutner Hower like
as if it were his own, facing his own mortality
and well maybe possibly knowing what he is himself, depending
on your interpretation of the movie. Now for my judgment,
et We'll always have my heart and take care of
the child inside me. The thing if it's on television,
Phil Man, I gotta watch this movie because of its gripping,
nail biting tension, but ultimately Blade Runner is the winner
because of its lasting impact on cinema and this genre
of filmmaking.
Speaker 7: Jason, great pick. I couldn't sum up those movies any
better myself. So for my pick, the family Man or a.
Speaker 2: Child in Me.
Speaker 7: Of course he's going to go with et the film nerd,
film buff, filmmaker. Hit me of course is going Blade Runner.
But if you give me a bucket of popcorn, a
nice comfy couch, I'm popping the thing on and I'm
watching that one. I'm picking the thing.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 4: Surely you can't be serious, Dan, Jason, thanks for letting
us talk about these great movies.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, they're kind of hedging their beds a little bit.
Speaker 3: It sounds like they're picking all of them. I think,
if I got it right, I think that Jason is
picking Blade Runner and Bill is picking the Thing. Although
basically they all they picked all of the movies, which.
Speaker 2: You can't go wrong. You can't why this is a
hard joint. They're all awesome. Thank you guys for weighing
in on your final judgment. If you want to go
over there and check out their podcast, they run an
excellent podcast, All Eighties Movies Podcast.
Speaker 3: Okay, guys, that does it for Part two. Be sure
to come back next week.
Speaker 2: Next week, we're gonna talk about the big questions we're
gonna ask ourselves. Is Decker a replicant? Is E T
a Jedi? Is is E T Jedi? E Ta Jedi? Boy?
You got it? That's it? You had me there? Say
anything else? Coming back? Well, come back next week. We're
gonna ask the big questions.
Speaker 3: Yeah, is Child's the thing? Or is mccreedy the thing?
Or are they both a thing? I think that's where
you're gonna go with all that. That's where I was saying,
is E T a Jedi?
Speaker 2: That? I mean, that's a teaser enough for anybody.
Speaker 6: I think.
Speaker 2: Hey, let's go part three next week, guys,