The ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ Watch-Along!

28:03Banana peach? They're also talking about hardware. What do you want from me? They're going to have a problem with the Navi. The Navi are going to fight back. Will they get the unobtainium? It's fine. We know what's going on. You think that's less germane than this Pennsylvania yogurt? You have a yogurt mouth while talking on a podcast. I'm hungry. I need protein. It's a three-hour podcast. You said I could do whatever I want. And like, I truly can't tell you how good this yogurt is. Like, I know you don't do dairy anymore. I don't. Do you still have Greek yogurt? Every morning. This is technically Skier.

28:38Okay. Like, Christopher, like, go buy some. They sell the large plain. I honestly can't believe how good it is. That's Pete Hegseth's favorite yogurt, too. Yep. I'm mostly out on, like, really bulking with protein. But this shit's good. What are you talking about? What? There's like, speaking of psychic breaks, there is like an ongoing Amanda psychic break where she's like, everything's fine. You guys are the weird ones, which is just clearly not the case. Talking about yogurt 11 minutes into Avatar. I'm hungry. This is also what's going to happen is she's going to completely burn herself out.

29:15Hour two, she goes down. That's when we start talking about Lane Kiffin. Are we getting back into rap? I'm excited about Lane Kiffin. I start reading Guardian US Politics live blog aloud. that's what it lifts off here. Ciara and I did a solid 10 minutes on new music like an hour ago and I felt like we were at The Magician in 2006. It was just like, have you heard this yet? Have you heard this yet? I haven't been in that place to do in a long time. About our tastes or about albums that have come out? Oh, no, about me. Sorry. I thought you guys were talking over me like you normally do. I have some questions about that.

29:49I really can't tell you how life-changing this yogurt is and I think more people need to know about. No, about new music. What happens if they do say this lady? She's MAGA or Maha? No. If the painter and sisters yoga people. Yeah, they're the painter sisters. And they're like, you know what? They're fourth generation dairy farmers in Pennsylvania. I mean, Outlook, like not the best for the politics based on what I know. But it is, you know, delicious. But what happens if they send you 6 ,000 cartons of that? and now you've got a house full of yogurt. Well, I don't. I'll give it out. Maybe I'll just set up a little.

30:32Like Nino Brown. Absolutely. We just made it out of yogurt on Christmas. There's so much yogurt consumed in my home that we have a yogurt shelf in the fridge. Have you guys gone to see Yogurt Santa? She's been giving away yogurt all throughout the land for months. No one in the family is allowed to eat this yogurt but me because it's too expensive for the little kids' palates. That's generous. Knox tried it once and really liked it. Anyway. This gets better and better, this story. Oh, what happened to Kiri? She was napping in the grass. This was actually a slow, it was actually a good moment. Kiri and this kid, Spider, they beef a little bit, but there's probably some little spark, young love going on.

31:16Yeah, there's definitely something between them. What's up with the floating jellyfish? Or the flying jellyfish, I should say. Even I know that's a staple of Pandora. Okay, you do. But like, what are their functions? Not everything in nature has a function. That's kind of in the what is her legend area question. I think that you'll find that it does. You know, that life is a delicate ecosystem. It's honestly a delicate ecosystem. Because you're introducing as much mature scurr yogurt in yours as humanly possible. There's so many probiotics. Did you start a probiotic? No. I thought you said you were going to.

31:48No. Okay. I don't think so. Did you use cocaine? before the beginning of this pod? You're on a rail right now. Flying. You're in the American Scream Machine. One thing that I'm experimenting with right now is doing nothing different in my life. Uh-huh. Except lifting with no preparation three times a week. Like, no stretching. What? No eating beforehand. This is something you're doing now? Okay. So for the first few weeks of lifting, I was like, I should stretch. I should get ready or whatever. And now I did it a couple of times and I was like, I feel pretty good afterwards. Okay. What happened to Chris?

32:30Oh, he tore both rotator cuffs simultaneously. Like what kind of lifting? Like bench presses? Like what are we doing here? Free weight? Okay. Just like heavy weights. Yeah. Sumo squats. Can you not do that? Sumo squats are dope. Who's your first call? You're prone on your back. Always you. Always you. dead body in a desert I need you to dig a hole it's I'm calling you are you being serious yeah that's honestly the nicest thing you've ever said to me and I will dig with you no I know but I think if I'm like hey there's like a post hardcore band that also interpolates some techno elements would you like to go see them you'd be like no I'm sorry I would never but if I was like I fucking killed a guy I need you to help me cover it up I am your Michael Clayton no question about it but I do not want to spend any social time with you I mean I I'm like a little hurt but that's fine No, I think you would actually be a pretty ride or die as well.

33:23Yeah, absolutely. Ride or die what? You dropped a word there. Ride or die woman. Homey? Woman? Yeah. Lady? Yeah. Gal? Who do you think would be better at digging a hole right now, just fitness-wise? You. Thank you. You're just like 90 % yogurt pulsating through your body. The power of scurr. I'm not doing heavyweight Pilates, but then it's more free weights for me. but I'll do like a pickup free rate situation. Seriously, how many holes have you dug in your life? Have you dug one hole? You never dug a hole in your life. Yes, to plant our lemon tree that won't grow any lemons. Did you have like a...

33:59What is that? Why do you think I can't dig a hole? Because that's not your thing. What is my thing? You're not a manual labor person. That's rude. You never have been. That's not. Why did you have to be... Honestly, that's gender norms too though. Maybe never was like... I know Amanda very well. Excuse me, what about the manual labor of growing two fucking children? Well, there was manual birth. And then carrying them up and down. Well. Yeah. That's very rude. Let's dig a hole right now. Okay. Let's go. Jack, get some dirt in here. So this is going to probably be the first attack of Stephen Lang's homies, right?

34:31Is that what we're building up to? Yes. They're monitoring them. And they're trying to figure out how they're living. So the former Korich was basically like, Jake Sully is your all-time enemy. No matter what happens, you have to kill Jake Sully. Okay. so that the Korich Navi is singularly obsessed. There they are. This is their first like, yo, what's up? They're not bad Navis now. Okay.

35:00All right. I just want to note that we're like 30 minutes in and have not seen any water. So just... It's a really good note. Yeah. We have not yet learned the way. Well, this is, you know, they can't stay here. Yeah. That's kind of what they're showing us right now. You keep spoiling the movie before they get there. This is fucked up. If this is your first time watching it, I just think that's such a weird way to watch it. Well, people do all sorts of weird things. Is Sawyer or is this like Spider's Dumb side mission? This is just the kids, yeah. Oh, man, you hate that. Yeah. You don't want to see that.

35:31Okay. But this is what it's like, you know? You come over to my house, you know, Knox and Sy are there. They're doing whatever the F they want to do. Yeah. That's true. Jumping off the couch 302 times. Yeah. That's just something that happens, you know? It's like them running through the forest of Pandora. Oh, yeah. Also, some of these kids are basically teenagers, too. So they're sort of like babysitting the younger ones. Right. Okay. I mean, this is good acting in, you know, digital makeup, as they describe it. I think the kids are good in these movies. I don't know how I feel about the kids, but the grown-ups are good.

36:04Have the kids been making these movies for 15 years, or do they run different kids in there? They shot two and three consecutively. Yeah. Okay. Okay, so who's writing your weightlifting program? Like, where are you getting the... I have people overseeing it. Okay. Yeah. People overseeing it? Yeah. Like the Department of Defense? These guys? Kristi Noem is spotting me.

36:31That would be a good generator of AI. Kristi Noem is my bodybuilding instructor. She's in full suit. Don't worry, Chris. Department of Homeland Security. She's in a red pants suit with like door knockers on but she's holding the bar for you. Or I just have Edie Falco in a mech suit holding the bar. With a butt in her mouth. Yeah.

36:58Spider? Oh, that's his son. Yeah. Right. That's right. He sees something in this boy. Oh, and he's like, Oh, it's Luke. I am your father. They can't put babies in cryo. is that how so that's how you get back what's going on with earth completely honest with you that yogurt is quite fragrant you just politely said you stink okay no no not you i just like the peach yeah i mean i like i would throw it away but i don't know where to i got locked out by the way when i went out so when you guys go to the bathroom take your key card or have someone let me you guys know how louis ck is back yeah he's like he's back and like accepted into society like being reviewed in the new yorker and the new york times and whatnot my favorite louis ck bit was always the one where he was like, I have a peach.

37:43You guys remember that one? That was really funny. I haven't really been watching the new stuff, but I do remember that old bit. You're right that this is peach yogurt. Okay, but I had an avatar question. What is going, it's like 2150 in like, you know, BC. I don't know the year. Is that what it is? Is it 2150? It's like 2150 something. And is Earth uninhabitable or they're just exploring? That's what I'm asking. What's going on on Earth? I don't think it's uninhabitable, but I do think that they're in desperate need of new resources. where we are now, you know? Yeah. So I'll tell you one of the ocean facts I learned.

38:16I'm not endorsing ocean drilling, but there are a lot of minerals and resources available to us in the ocean, and it's been quite unexplored. But, you know. Not by Jim Cameron. That is true. Who has been going to the depths. But isn't he trying to protect that area? He doesn't want us to be doing deep sea sea? He doesn't want us to go back for the Mariana Trench? Yeah. Okay. He's in the trench? He's in Mariana? He went to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. the deepest that anyone's ever been he claims he claims and then there's another explorer who's like no i went deeper and did jim cameron say like i see your deepness and go and take you one step he's like i went he's like he literally says he's full of shit because you can't go any deeper than i went i went to the bottom so that's the other thing here this is another reason why the avatar films are so great because they create a new james cameron news cycle they're wonderful where he comes around and he just starts picking fights with people who have been training to be DC divers.

39:12This is the first time I feel like he's been, the champ is cut. You know? You think the champ is cut? A little bit. I think he's like, well, you know, maybe I won't make any more of these if nobody goes and sees three. He's done that every time. He does that after every movie so that he gets more money for the next movie. You think Disney is happy with their investment? In the Avatar films? How come they haven't made Pandora as like a theme park? Avatar is the most successful movie of all time. Yeah. You haven't seen it. I understand. I'm asking if Disney is happy with their investment. I support Disney in many other areas.

39:44I do think that... Name some of the areas. From the foremost proponent of the upcoming Paul Bettany series, Vision. White Vision. Oh, shit. Yeah. And you... Are you the co-star of that film? No. And then... But Vision is not who she was grieving when she had the profound thing. But I thought it was also her brother. No, that was before. What was that line of dialogue? From that show? Love means, love is grief telling you that it's okay to be sad. That's not what it was. Yeah, that's what it was. Love is, love is grief reaching out across time. Sure. I want to read you guys a quote that James Cameron gave Zach Barron in 2022.

40:27Why do you keep saying his full name? Because. To me and Chris. You've got Zach as a husband. You don't have to like, it's not like the yogurt company.

40:38I hope Zach Barrett is listening to this. I've been citing his work. So a note that I get from him pretty often is that I need to say the full name of writers because they deserve credit. That's a frequent note that you get? Yeah, I do, actually. He's like, if you have to talk about me. Not frequent, but like what? Also, I'm starting book promo right now, okay? So on his behalf? Yes, novel. Listen, you think I'm going to go door to door with yogurt? You just fucking watch me sell this novel. That always works. People love to be hectored about a novel. They love that. Well, I'm not going to hector them.

41:12I'm just going to hand them a novel. Do you think people love doing reading and eating yogurt? Okay, but anyway. That's your fantasy. Sitting around reading a novel written by someone you love while eating yogurt. Yeah, it's true. I mean, honestly, the fantasy is like having a cocktail and maybe bumming a cigarette off of someone. And then Nellie starts playing. But anyway, no, so this is the quote that he gave. about the response to this movie and executives. The first or the second one? The first movie. Okay. And how people feel about this movie and how he's feeling about it. I said something I've never said to anybody else in the business, Cameron recalled.

41:54He said he told them, I think this movie is going to make all the fucking money. And when it does, it's going to be too late for you to love the film. The time for you to love the movie is today. So I'm not asking you to say something that you don't feel, but just know that I will always know that no matter how complimentary you are about the movie in the future, what it makes, all the money. And that's exactly what I said, in caps, all the money, not some of the money, all of the fucking money. I said, you can't come back to me and compliment the film or chum along and say, look what we did together.

42:25You won't be able to do that. At that point, that particular studio executive flipped out and went bug shit on me. And I told him to get the fuck out of my office and that's where it was left. That's really what art's all about. No one is doing it better. Now, you could argue that that is the strong perspective of a fascist dictator. That is not how you want to. I yelled at a man, and when he defended himself, I kicked him out. That being said, Never Doubt Big Jim has become an axiom because of him communicating in that way about his work, and he's proven time and time again. Okay, so Jake, Sully has come to do an exfil?

43:02Yes. Okay. Because he knows his teens are taken. under attack yes do they know Papa Bear is always you know waiting he is a trained marine sure who has a Navi body that's good that would have been a cool 3D shot if I could wear 3D glasses yeah there's a lot of coming right at you stuff in these movies I I just can't see well enough without my glasses so that when I have 3D glasses it just feels very disorienting and then I assume now because I'm using progressives for reading and stuff that it would just feel really weird. Oh, okay. And so you can't... Would you consider getting a pair of contact lenses that would work just for this?

43:42Do you have astigmatism? Is that why you can't do contacts? I think so. No, I don't like touching my eyes. I know that everybody says... Yeah, you're an eye baby. Yeah. An eye baby. Well, Zach is also an eye baby. Zach Barron is an eye baby. And when you give him... When Sean scratched his eye and then he had to get eye drops, he would like dart... I do that. five feet away from the eyedrop. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That was tough. That wasn't my best work. It was just like a normal 4 a.m. Zach Barron, I'm sorry. Because he was an eye baby. Couldn't wait till morning. Eye stuff is tough. You get used to it with contacts.

44:19It's fine. You do. Okay. They're okay. Okay. So they break free. Is anybody still under Stephen Lang's? Look at this use of light. Come on, Chris. This fucking Jim Cameron. It's just light. It doesn't need a use of. No, of course. This is a digital environment and he's shooting it through with this prismatic light. It's gorgeous. Most digitally rendered movies don't do this. It is true that it looks so much better than every single other... Straight up. I completely agree. The depth and the fog and it's creating the atmosphere and the environment, the sound design. To me, this stuff is so far beyond basically any Marvel movie that you watch or any superhero film.

44:58Completely different product. Yeah. The only person that I compare it to, and you guys always will groan at me a little bit, is the Michael Bay Transformers movies, where it's like, they spent like two years trying to make those movies look good. I would argue that the first few Transformers films have more life in them than this does. Well, they have more humans. They have Shia. Yeah. Well, yes, that's true. And then later they have Mark Wahlberg. Oh, okay. That's true. And Totoro. What's going on with Spider right now? He's locked up. Anthony Hopkins. Okay. Spider's been captured. Has the guy who played Spider play spider done other work that I would have seen him in?

45:33You know, I don't know the answer to that. What's his name? I kept meaning to look that up. Let's look it up. Okay. I think he's Austin Butler. I think he's good in this film. I think he's quite good in three. Three is, the story is, it's important. It's spider coded.

45:50Okay. Do you think at the end of this you'll be like, I'm in fire and ash, I'm going? Me? Yeah. What do you think I'm talking to? Amanda and I saw it last night I gotta be honest so far no but listen we haven't gotten to the way of water yet right do you think of yourself as a water guy as elements go I would much rather explore space than underwater okay good to know and Sean it's Chris I'm in space I killed a guy I need you to dig a space hole. You know I'll come give you. Okay, so Jackson Champion was in Scream 6. As who? Remember that? Hold on. Wow. Jackson Champion. Ethan Landry, of course.

46:47Ethan Landry. He was also Kid on Bike in Avengers Endgame. 6 is New York, right? And yeah, I think so. And Trap House, if any of you saw that. but he's not on the poster here. He's one of the kids who's killed early on in their apartment. In Scream 6. Okay. Okay. But yeah, his like Chukum on, you know, his TK on Wikipedia is just Avatar 4 and Avatar 5. She is a... Natiri. Natiri, she's usually stressing like, you know, we got to keep, we got to just stay out of trouble. We can't get into violent interactions. Well, she's a warrior. Okay. But I think she's focused on surviving and protecting her family.

47:29Kind of. She's also connected to her world. Yes. And the Navi people in a way that... They're into her world, right? Yeah, but Jake is bringing in the marine technology and worldview. What the fuck is this? Yeah, what's going on? Is this advanced interrogation techniques? Trying to find the location of where they're living. where the base is. I see where this is going. Okay. So they, oh, so they captured him and everyone else got away with Jake Sully and now he's being tortured and he's wearing a face mask. I gotta give this kid credit. He's, he just turned 21 so he's like 15 when he's making this movie.

48:17Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's pretty good. I agree. He's also acting in a world in which everyone else is wearing a ping pong ball on their face. Right. That's true. Oh, Stephen Lang. He doesn't like it. He's feeling paternal. Yeah. A single nosebleed. When's the last time you had a nosebleed? Me? Yeah. I've never had a nosebleed. What? I don't know. I've just never had one. You've never had a nosebleed? No, I've never had a nosebleed. Man, you're living a blessed life. Okay. That's right. That's what the protein will do for you, you know? Yeah, all those yogurt. The scurry yogurt, yeah. Is that one of the things that yogurt does?

48:48It prevents nosebleeds? It's so ironic, given all the cocaine you've been using, that you've never had a nosebleed. Her being like Alex Jones. Yogurt stops, nosebleeds. It's a great theme of this conversation. Nosebleeds, CR? When's the last time? 2008. 2008. Financial crisis. You know what I mean? I went fucking upside down at a couple of houses. It started pouring out. Did you guys know that some people borrow money against their stock holdings. Do you ever do that? Yeah, all the time. I thought that might be a new business. You're asking because you've done that? I was thinking about it. I was like, what would happen if I did that?

49:38What are you trying to acquire? I don't know. I need a thing. You just need a lot of cash. Yeah, I want a bunch of cash and then maybe buy like a championship level football squad. Thanks for my, yeah. Chris buys Warner Brothers is something I want to see. I need to. What do I get to do? Wait, if I buy Warner Brothers? Yeah, what am I in charge of? Think carefully. Yogurt product placement. Making sure that in task, Mark Ruffalo is like, have you tried this Pennsylvania yogurt? It's really good. Right before shooting a guy in the head. How did task work out for you? Like at the end? Yeah, was it a good ending?

50:14Immensely satisfying. You didn't watch it? No. Were there any Navi? Did you watch The Beast in me? No, Zach started it without me. Zach Barron started it without me. Okay. So I'm still on my flight back from Philadelphia for Thanksgiving, the worst flight of my life. I watched three-fourths of an episode of The Diplomat. Yeah. Which I really enjoyed, but that's what I managed. That's what you were allowed to watch in a six-hour flight. That was what I got together. Yeah, listen, it was real bad. It was a bad scene. God love my children. And in this case, not really Knox's fault, but the baby did not want to be contained.

50:51But a man in front of me did watch The Big Short. So I was thinking about you. Back in the news, yeah. Yeah, the financial crisis, CR's nosebleeds. Michael Burry. The Fed's pumping cash into the economy. What's he shorting now? No, Michael Burry stepped away. He closed. No, that's not true. He's shorting Bitcoin. Well, he closed his brokerage. So who is being? His hedge fund is closed. Oh, no, he's shorting... He was shorting water. Data centers? I can't remember. So we're having some sort of ceremony right now? I guess you can. You can short anything. On, like, those prediction markets, you can be like, I'm shorting shunts.

51:28So there's an... So this is an important... So Jake Sully is getting some sort of... There's some sort of ceremony here. Oh, they're leaving. Torak Mokto. Yes. So, and that was... Who is Torak Mokto? That's his... Oh, they're leaving their spot. Navi name? It's sort of... I think it's his union with a larger creature that makes him like an epic warrior. Okay, so they had a leaving ceremony because they have to leave because they're bringing danger to the forest community. But they don't know that if that kid gives up the spot, they're going to get smoked anyway, right? Yes. Right, exactly. Well, he's not giving up the spot.

52:07I mean, I guess he could, but that is disrespectful to Spider. This is a movie about fathers in a lot of ways. Yeah. and families Jack has just asked us what percentage of this discussion do you think has been about Avatar 35 to 40 percent I think we've been doing actually pretty good relative to what we've been I'm surprised by how engaged in it I am I fully agree so listen some water Jack what's the run time Jack how many minutes are we in no no no this has to be like a flight you can't look at the clock you can't look at the clock okay I mean you can is that part of what you're doing that was the mistake I made on my thing you cannot ever look like you have to read a book and then randomly be like, I wonder how, like if you get like a nice chunk in, you're like, oh shit, I only got two hours left.

52:50Okay. That's great. Wow. It must be nice to be you and living that way. Okay. So they're getting to the water. The way of water. You're a woman of the water. I do love the water. You love the water. I was going to ask you, you are a Scorpio. What element is that? Is that Earth? I think that might be. Earth, right? Scorpions. I think it's he of the nosebleeds. Okay, Scorpio, eighth astrological sign. You're in the nosebleed moon as well. It is water! What a surprise! Okay, so that makes sense for you. You and I, of course, are fire. Yeah, Leo's. So this is more my kind of avatar movie then. I guess so.

53:34Astrologically speaking. This is, minus all the beasts and machine guns, my ideal vacation situation. Did he shoot this in sandals? I mean. Yeah. Honestly, if someone walked in here and was like, don't even bring a bag. We're taking you in the car and sending you to Sandals for a week. You can come if you want. I mean, I guess. If that was the price. Sure. Because I would love to go to Sandals. I'm definitively not interested in that vacation. You would be terrible at Sandals. You would be fine. I'd be fine. Maybe they have a casino at Sandals. I've been to all inclusives before. So have I. We all have.

54:07We're Americans. It was more the sun and the sand. I've done it. Yeah, but you don't like it. I was just in Hawaii. It was great. I had a great time. The best. Different Navis. Sure. Different spot, right? Yeah. Yeah, this is just a... Why'd you guys come here? This is the Aqua people. Right. They're all Navi. But their cultures are different. A lot of these movies are all about simulation, differences between people, kind of bridging the gap. Sure. I found the third film to be the second movie in a row. the second great movie of this year about being a mixed race kid. Okay. There's like that's a The second great movie.

54:51Well one battle after another. Yes no I know that but I more meant that Avatar Fire and Ash You think Fire and Ash has greatness in it. How full of shit was your tweet? It's 100 % true. Oh my god hold on I didn't even see this let's pull up the tweet now. Everything in the tweet is true. Yeah how do you feel about your Twitter? I feel fine. What are we doing? There's so many people who were like, you can't be on there like other social media platforms are not also completely run by demons and filled with demons. People are just full of shit. I mean, when did you send this? Did you send this while we were walking?

55:23Oh no, this morning. Okay, six hours. Yeah, that's fine. No embargo on that. I was trying to think of what movie it was reminding me of when I was watching the third film. Okay. Dead serious because I was like, the setup here is Drums Along the Mohawk, is Drums Along the Mohawk, which is a John Ford movie. The third John Ford movie of 1939. cool can you name the other two no the only 1939 movie I can think of is Gone with the Wind which is not a John Ford movie not grapes the Irish one what's the Irish one what's it's not Irish isn't it Welsh How Green Was My Valley How Green Was My Valley is that 1939 that's not correct okay it's not How Green Was My Valley famously I think the following year defeated Citizen Kane for Best Picture.

56:11It's not any of the Cavalry movies two years later. The Cavalry movies are later, right? Cavalry movies are later. 1939, John Ford made Stagecoach. Oh, I thought that was earlier than 1939. Young Mr. Lincoln and Drums Along the Mohawk. Oh, Young Mr. Lincoln. Wow. Yes. Famously. Okay. So, your girl right here. Kate Winslet. Delco. Yeah, in the... I know that she's not actually from Delco. Delco? Oh, Kate Winslet. Sure. Yeah. That's her. Yeah. how do you this is a thorny one but how do you feel about the water people having these kind of maori it's not intonations in their dialect i don't like that yeah i think with cliff curtis the actor who portrays one of the leaders here you can kind of you know he's had some experience working in that world but like kate winslet doing the maori inflected accent is very odd yeah i i think that this movie this world is obviously about you know different cultures assimilation like cultural like exchange accepting people all these sorts of things but it can be oh yeah head to head yeah um they just literally they do literal hissing like a cat fight it's a very evolved representation of women in avatar um all threes so have you ever had to apologize for your mate just been like I apologize for my mate the way he just did Eileen's had to apologize for me yeah I've never had to apologize for Eileen it can be a little loose with some of the yeah Big Jim is always a little loose you know we've all seen True Lies there's always a couple things where you're like it's a little broad maybe we could have gone a different direction thought this through a little more yeah he doesn't his brush stroke is deep and wide you know it's not it's not thin yeah so the thing that I turned to Amanda yesterday was like 40 minutes into the movie and the kids were swimming in the water not the fire not the fire no and I was like it looks like these Navi are fucking swimming in water it really did like and even they're not in water even I watching that was like this this looks amazing yeah now this you don't quite get that as strongly when you're watching it in this way on a 48-inch screen.

58:34I don't want to overemphasize that point too much, but since so much of this film now takes place in this kind of environment, the fact that they were able to make this... It does look really cool. It's like a technical achievement, unlike any other. I really give them that. Oh, just wanted to let you know. Yeah. Red Dead Redemption is on Netflix games now. Okay. For the boys. For the boys. when he gets into Cowboys he and I are going to play an immersive weeks long video game so if I have a subscription to Netflix do I have a subscription to Netflix I think you can play it on your mobile well you can but my children don't have access to a mobile so not yet not until Uncle Chris comes to Christmas Day iPhone 17 group chat started you have bought my children Madeline Kiffin memes starting at six in the morning.

59:37How soon before Nox says the word six, seven? How soon before? I tried teaching it to him and Zach was like, don't do that. That's not funny. Yeah. So, but the other issue is like how long until Nox can identify the numbers six and seven when pointed out to him, which could be several years. I say this with love. He just has a very creative relationship to like the numerical representation. Do you think Nox will know his numbers before or after he knows who Lane Kiffin is. It is really, really up for debate. But you also know now, like, he, I don't know if he has, like, the celebrity bug, but he does notice people, and he remembers people pretty quickly.

1:00:17Like Saquon. Like Saquon, like Rory McIlroy, like Tom Cruise, like Yuri Gagarin, who is the newest person who wants to come to. The Russian cosmonaut? Yes, and he wants Yuri Gagarin to come to his birthday party. and like on a number of levels. I'm just like, that's not going to be possible. Is he also on Telegram? Yeah. How's that happening? Yuri Gagarin. Well, we have a book and he was the first person in space. Where's the book from? The library. I told you. Yeah, but where's like the book who wrote it? I think this is the Robert Usborne like space and such. This is the boomerang theory again where it's like we got to start getting him introduced to, you know, Soviet communism.

1:00:52Really early on. That's the first person in space. So anyway, if he hears about Lane Kiffin, he could be like, I would like him to come to my party. Do people who don't think that the moon landing is real also don't think any space exploration is real or just the moon landing? Jack, can you weigh in for us? Does Jack have a microphone? Jack, do you believe in space travel? No? Okay. Just checking. Jack can't speak right now. Okay, so now they're like, after some beef on the beach, the two tribes are like, you know what, let's break bread. Let's jump to the water. Can you protect us too? They're snorkeling.

1:01:26We need refuge from this incoming war. They're experiencing the wonder of the sea and all its creatures. This is like every time somebody gets fishing gear on Survivor. So you go snorkeling a lot. I have been snorkeling. Right, so every week for roughly nine hours. I do feel like every time that you go on a beach vacation, you guys do go snorkeling. We have gone snorkeling in Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Okay. so what are you up to when you're snorkeling what do I think about yeah the vast void just out of touching distance and how terrifying it is that's what you think about often what about what's right in front of you what what what about what's right in front of you it's like I'm following a turtle and then it goes out into that drop off like nothing I'm like this is it the shelf this is this is what Sartre wrote about you don't want to fuck with the shelf the void yeah yeah it's the blackness the thing is with snorkeling it's like I guess it's like the reverse of 3D glasses is that I can't really snorkel with contacts I know it's supposed to be an airtight seal but they just they don't have the technology down you know so that I can't keep my eyes open you should do an early kind of scuba gear like where they put the whole suit on you you know with the giant yeah you should get like Richard Dreyfuss in Jaws you should do that whole get up do you have interest in scuba diving?

1:02:51no me either I know. I'd be too worried. Scuba, no, me neither. Too much gear. Big no. Love to snorkel. Big no on scuba. I don't really like snorkeling. I just want to be swimming myself. When they're like, you can't, if it was in the firm, he can't fly for 24 hours, right? Oh, that's right, after diving. That's a problem for me. You never know. You never know when my loans against my stock portfolio are going to get called in. And what's in his mailbox? You know, have you considered that? Oh, so yeah, they're bad divers. They're learning. Okay. So these guys can't swim? so they well they don't have breath control they're not like kate winslet okay so this is one thing we're gonna do i'm gonna set a timer and you see how long you can hold your breath just like kate winslet that's not like podcasting one i guess it's good for video well we can talk about it i didn't say i could just hold my breath i said i could do it underwater well kate did seven and a half minutes okay i think i could do two

1:03:43four five six wait no i have to take a deep breath hold on great go ready

1:03:53one two wait no no i stopped okay reset tell me okay are you supposed to blow out i'd well that's what they do before i'm trying to remember what movie where right before they go into what are they do that's uh tom cruise does that mission impossible. Yeah, that would be right because we've seen it a lot of times. Okay, I'm just going to take one deep breath, right? One, two. Okay, I'm going. One second. Two seconds. You got to get him on. You got to fix his microphone. Oh, my bad. Ready? Okay. All right, three, two, one.

1:04:54Okay, here we go. a Bin Laden joke. You know that's my guy. It's nice to be reminded. Okay. Well, that was great content. Seven and a half minutes, Kate Winslet did. That's pretty good. I gotta say, I remember this movie being quite complicated. Yeah. Did you drink my water? No, this is my water. Whereas I had two bottles of water. Thank you. Okay. Take a deep breath. Can we get her more yogurt? Get the yogurt palette in here. This is just wondering where my table is. It's with a snap. I'm just trying to not have a lot of shit on the tables in the shop, you know? You have a fucking iPad here. It's a laptop and it's closed.

1:05:38Just in case I need it. Put it over there. Why is your yogurt container here? Because I eat it and we don't have a trash can. Did you not eat your sandwich? No, it's right there. See? Okay. You know what? Keep it to yourself.

1:05:56They're getting in touch with the dolphins here. Yeah, they're not dolphins. I'm not sure what these are called specifically. Like fish bulls. They appear to be mammals. Bull sharks, sort of. I have some facts about bull sharks for later. Bull sharks? Yeah. Oh, man. Okay. Oh, yeah. He got thrown. So, like, yeah, bulls. Water bulls. So this is not water. Like, this is digitally rendered. They're in a tank. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're in a tank, but... This world is obviously not real. It's not sand. Who shot this? I don't know the cinematographer's name. I'll look it up. It's a Batario store.

1:06:35Why didn't you get out that laptop, buddy? Do you think that Gordon Willis would think this is cool looking? I don't see why not. I think he would be blown away by the technology. There's a reason why these movies are both immensely successful and critically acclaimed and awards bodies are interested in them because there's just the level of craftsmanship that is way above anything else that is trying to do this kind of work. Yeah. The cinematographer of this film. I made it for the story though. Okay, look, he's flying. It's cool. Your boy, Russell Carpenter. Who also did? He also did True Lies.

1:07:16He also did Titanic. Okay. He shot the Charlie's Angels films from McG. Nice. Yeah. shot Ant-Man for Peyton Reed. Okay. A number of other films. Some good, some bad. Okay, there he goes. Oh, now they're diving. Oh, I mean, can't hold on. Yeah, you know. What kind of like water skiing? Where are you on water skiing? I would prefer tubing. Like tubing. Yeah, it's the same thing. What about you? Never done it. No, water skiing nor tubing? I've never done either one. Wow. You've tubed before. You've never been. You've gone tubing on a river. Tubi? No. Yeah, no, I've been in a tube going down a river.

1:07:57I've never been on... Did you have a very negative tubing experience in the Badlands? I did. Thanks for asking. So I went to Jackson Hole with my wife. Okay. It was during my sojourn in 2015 through the American West. Your breakdown? It was not a breakdown. Sure. It was a moment of realization that also turned out to be tremendously impactful in your life. And if I had not gone on that journey, we would not be sitting here right now. I'm just concerned because it's like, you know, it's an every 10 year sort of thing. I mean, it's happening. It's unfortunately not happening in the American South.

1:08:30Sure. So, but this, Eileen was present for this part. So I went out on the road for - I remember that. I'm sharing this with the listeners. They don't know the whole story. I went out on the road by myself for a week, drove through Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, et cetera, et cetera. Eileen met me in Colorado. Yeah. We went up to Wyoming and Montana. and when we were in Wyoming we stayed in Jackson Hole and we went tubing down the river in Jackson Hole and we went too far and we didn't have any shoes on and we there's no way to get back into our hotel without walking on the gravel roads in bare feet in bathing suits with no towels in the middle of the summer in a city we'd never been to with phones?

1:09:16no phones yeah because you know though they do have those little packs now where you can put the phone in the water pack yeah this was 10 years ago so it might as well have been 300 years ago I think they probably did have it then that would be dope because next time I go tubing I could still text Knox and Cy sick memes it was just really a failure of planning okay you know where we were just like had not considered that we would get right two miles down the river well you just missed your exit that's alright yeah but then you do have to walk a while so but you've never been on a tube but then just picture me shirtless in a bathing suit walking down a street with no shoes on holding a giant tube.

1:09:52Yeah. Yeah. That's not cool. And they're like, that's Grantland's Sean Fennessey. Okay, so you've never been like on a tube dragged behind a boat? No. Okay, yeah. I've obviously done that a lot. Grew up in the South. Oh, on lakes. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, lakes aren't my preferred body. Has your dad weighed in on the coaching carousel of college football? I haven't heard from him about Lane this time. But listen. Can you text him? Yeah, I actually can. His name is kind of mud for volunteers fans, right? My father and uncle have been trying to get the Knoxville Sewage Waste, you know, Waste Management Facility named after Lane Kiffin.

1:10:32The Lane Kiffin Sewage and Waste. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They've been, they have, you know, I don't know whether they, like, signed a petition or started the petition. I've been CC'd on some emails because my dad has a similar email strategy to your wife, Chris. All right, let's text my dad. Very direct. Dad, yeah, direct and okay. I am podcasting and Chris wants to know your thoughts about Lane Kiffin. Thoughts about Lane. What's going on here? Well, Korich is continuing to track Sully and his family. And Spider is helping him? Well, he's being forced to help him. But also, there's sort of like a dad-son thing going on, you know?

1:11:18There's a critical sequence in the first film where Jake learns to ride that giant creature. I think I've seen that in short form video. Just as the filmmaker intended. You might have seen a moment of that in the film Babylon, which is the last film that we covered on the Watch Along. You can see a brief clip of it. And so that was kind of core to like doing an echo of that scene. But he's not making a connection with the creature. He's just trying to dominate it. which is what obviously the American yeah okay I thought you were going a different way and I was like don't do it I don't know I can't even begin to fathom what you think I was going to say so yeah you know on the one hand Chris like you're not really a creatures guy I'm trying to think of some of my favorite creatures and I'll just run off the top of my head I'll name some I really like Falcor from Neverending Story yeah so do we all That's the...

1:12:11Formative. Buck dragon? What is he? Yeah, I think that's right. That's the creature that he rides. Number one. Yeah. That's him. Yeah, he rules. Good film. Yeah. Does he count as a creature? Yeah. I mean, he's an alien. I don't count as either morphs. Okay. These are technically aliens. To whom? To you. To you. To humans. So maybe you should think about that worldview, just like James Cameron's asking you to. you feel that you have a great deal in common with the navi um you know matriarchal society for sure warrior warrior moms yeah not impressed by machine guns yeah um hang in there mama you got this you got this girl you got this you got this padma you got this awa and I well I like these I do like the water I like being near the ocean that's true so in that sense I relate to these people yeah but I don't really aspire to scuba diving would you say this is the first act of this film or deeply in the first act yeah okay we're not in the second act though we might be in the second act because we've at least made it to the water but I guess we're sort of in the second half of the first act because we're learning about the water and then there's going to be some more water conflict, I guess.

1:13:36And then, you know, 90 minutes of machine guns. Ooh. Or you can get jellyfish attached to you and you can swim around. That's sick.

1:13:51All right. They're doing... I mean, that looks cool. So, Chris, this... a reference here for this world could be Ariel's cavern in Little Mermaid part of their world you know I'm trying to get some other except she has like a lot more forks and stuff dope creatures okay so aliens don't count it's not really your thing like would you call Sloth from Goonies a creature or just absolutely not right it's just a guy it's a human who loves Milky Ways baby Roos baby Roos what about Slimer more of an apparition. Okay, well, you know, is there no bad ideas in a brainstorm? You came right out with Rancor.

1:14:33Falkor. Falkor. Rancor? Rancor is the, what's the thing from Star Wars? Yeah. It's also how I feel whenever you're around. Rancor? Yeah. That's what you feel when I'm around? That's where it's my feelings. You came right out with Falkor. Hot. Yeah. And then no creatures after that. Well, because I think that we're getting into semantics here. Like, I was thinking, Okay. Because you're not a big fantasy guy. I was going to say Furbies, but that's not what I meant. What are the little waddling... Yeah, but no, the other little guys in Last Jedi. Oh, the ones that are like... Borgs. Yeah, they were cute.

1:15:11They're right. What about Gizmo from Gremlins? Is he a creature? I think so. Yeah, then I like Gizmo. Do you like Gremlins? What's the Skeksis in the Dark Crystal? Yes. Yes, now we're talking. Those are cool. They're the bad guys or the good guys? Those are the bad guys. Yeah, they're pretty cool. Those were gnarly. Intimidating. Yeah.

1:15:37What's the one that throws Gandalf off the bridge? Balroth? That's Balrog. Balrog? Yeah. And that's a creature? You shall not pass! Remember that? No, I really don't. Ian McKellen. Wonderful performance. I'm sort of like Chris. And all of the gray. I have seen all of those films, but my memory of them is limited. Are you sure you've seen all of them? Too short. I've definitely seen the last two. That's incoherent. Did you see the first one? I don't know. I remember though in college, they did a back-to-back of two and three. Oh, did you get blackout? And I went, no, I did not get blackout for that one.

1:16:15That was just for Rocky Horror. But, so I have seen two and three, I went. I don't think I've ever seen you blackout drunk. That's good. You're maybe the only person on Earth.

1:16:31Not in a while, you know? I've grown up. I'm mature. Okay, so why are they fighting? I'm still fascinated by you seeing Two Towers and Return of the King. But my memory of it... But Fellowship of the Ring is fucking fantastic. Oh, it's awesome. Those three movies, they're great. Okay. What is, when are they hunting for Gollum? Like, when does that happen? The hunt for Gollum? Is that in between Hobbit and Fellowship of the Ring? I thought it's before, yes, yes. But why would they be hunting for him? Because he has the ring, right? But who's on, like, I thought they had let the ring kind of pass into, like, this.

1:17:12I think it's SEAL Team 6. Oh my God, bro. Now that's, that is David Ellison's Paramount right there. to get generative AI on that. Seal Team 6 hunting Gollum? This is free money. This money is free. And if we could just get the Na 'vi involved somehow, now we're talking to her. Get She-Hulk in there. What other characters can we get involved? This is, you know, a popular but difficult to master cooking style with the banana leaves. Yeah, what do you like to put in there? Piece of fish, a little bit of... yeah like a nice like white fish yeah black tar heroin maybe took that up no I was thinking about you remember the tall day fish yeah the tall day fish that's recommended to cook in the banana leaf but I often have trouble sourcing it in short notice this scene is like there's like a replica of this scene in the third film yeah there are many replicas why is that in many scenes I don't know I did read that they were is it happening they were written simultaneously and split in half yeah well that's always the way Jim solo credit a writer on these no I believe it's is it Amanda Jaffe and Scott Silver I want to say Scott Silver no Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa excuse me okay they are writing Duo and their other films include The Hand The Rocks The Cradle the new one no the 1992 version the Planet of the Apes films from the 2010s the Matt Reeves movies okay they wrote Jurassic World which one's that that's blue the Mulan live action remake yeah that's blue yeah okay so this looks fun this is like jet skis but you know with nature they're dolphin jet skis that's cool what's this what's the like big scissors thing the big scissors they're all holding big scissors those are arrows those are that's a bow that's a bow I'm fairly certain yeah okay so this is kind of like it's like a tensile bow that like straps back Got it.

1:19:18And you can release it. National Influence Christmas Vacation. Everybody's kind of arrived at this place, right? It is a lot like that. Oh, are we about to meet someone important? Okay, this seems... I don't... Is it right now? I don't know. It's just like they're out in the world. Precious friend. And they're like about to... It just... There's a sense of wonder building. Actor cameo or is it just a creature? In a manner of speaking. Yeah. DiCaprio? Serene music is playing. So that is... There we go. Call the fish. called a fish yeah so they're speaking a special language yeah yeah yeah I love Wonderwall I mean that looks remarkably like a pair of nail scissors I just want to point that out there you see it's got an arrow at the end of it there I mean I do I think they're on the hunt here okay they're hunting for fish and they're trying to they're mocking him are they gonna find out that he actually is able to do this or is he gonna drown and they're gonna get in trouble they're gonna bail on him that's fucked up oh but then okay yeah this is sad you know Oh.

1:20:18Oh, he got the fish. Was he not supposed to have done that? Well, now he's all alone. And watch out here. He comes a big fish more than likely, right? To chase after him. Oh, he's alone. They're not being very nice. I told you guys the story of the kid who got invited to the party at my house. No. No. Is this sad? It's the saddest story in the world. Do you want to hear it? No. Do you think their parents are listening? No. Okay. I was 14. oh this is awful just went to high school oh this guy okay but that's not that's not what we're waiting for yeah that's not that's just a giant fish shark fish that's an evil shark fish and of course he's chasing oh no that guy which is not ideal for our guy is this lowock who is the young what's the young boy's name I forget his name lowock might be the other son it's probably no I think it's lowock because he makes the bond with lowock right I think that's the older son I could be wrong so I'm 14 years old I have a doubleheader baseball game to umpire or play I was playing it was in Nesconcet on Long Island and I never I never umpired a doubleheader that's a lot of work yeah um caught both games long day okay Saturday evening I get home this is awful this is I'm just like really really sad arrive in my house there's a a boy there a kid sitting on the stoop yeah on the front porch I have heard the story he just moved to the neighborhood like three months earlier and he's holding a bottle, a two liter bottle of Pepsi.

1:21:52And me and my mom pull up and this poor kid says, he bounds up, runs up to me and says, hey man, I'm here for the party. Said somebody prank him? Sincerely. And I guess friends of mine told him that there was a party at my house that started at five o 'clock. I got home at six o 'clock. He sat on my porch for at least a half an hour. That's so sad. That's awful. It was the most pain I think I've ever been for another person in my life. I could not have felt worse for this kid. It was like a nice kid who was like, we weren't good friends or anything, but he was not somebody that I was picking on.

1:22:27Yeah. And I think that's why they picked me to be the house, to do that to this poor kid. And I felt like such a deep hurt for this kid. What did you do? I just told him the truth. I said, there's no party here. I'm really sorry. I just got home from a baseball game. I'm really sorry. You could have like ordered pizza. Did his dad start Oracle?

1:22:49And now he's a real boy. Now he's going to take away all the IP that we love to punish us. Not only that, but he's going to delete every episode of the big picture because of what happened to him on that day. No, you fucking elevate you. I hope so. Okay, so he can't. He's having a hard time in the quarry. This poor kid is trapped. Yeah. But he can breathe underwater. He can, but he's still learning how to do it. Okay. And here comes the fish again. So this is the bad fish. It's a bad guy. I can't say that's what... Yes. This is who we're waiting for. Here he is. Is this before... This is a classic Spielberg big creature hits the little creature.

1:23:30Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so he's taking care of business. Oh, but this guy is about to faint. Well, he's dead. No, that guy. Oh, this guy, yes. Yeah. We don't know his name. He's gagging. He can't breathe under him. Oh, but does he bond with the biggest fish? Yeah. You bet he does. And they're like, yo. Yeah, he's a whale. There's something special about this kid. Yes. The ball pops out of the hands. There we go. Yeah. He's like, this kid reminds me of Wemby. Very beautiful. He's been brought to shore by this magical creature. This creature. Has he been brought to shore? Or is he resting on the creature?

1:24:07Oh, yes. He's resting on the creature. yeah so they've bonded that's beautiful yeah so this is this is Pyakon Chris yeah okay this is a whale voiced by uh Jim Carrey so he's like somebody stop me smoking Pyakon doesn't use words to communicate of course not he does he does communicate in his own whale language right and this kid understands it Well, they come to understand each other over time. He is a majestic creature. Oh, no. Oh, shit. He caught one? Payacon, no. Oh, God, brother. Yeah. Payacon, to me, is worth the price of admission for this film. I totally agree. So, Toucan is the type of whale that he is, or the type of mammal.

1:25:00Did you study that, or does this... No, that is, like, all I remember. It comes up frequently. Yeah. And so actually when Paiakon shows up in Avatar 3, I turned to... Is that a spoiler? I guess so. I turned to Sean and I said, is that Tukun? Because I didn't remember Paiakon, but I did remember Tukun. So they're important, the Tukun. Were many people turning to their seatmates and asking questions and chatting? Or were you guys ruining it for other people? It was just me, Amanda, and Jim Cameron. Okay, he's getting... Oh, he's trying to get this thing out. My dad has responded to the Lane Kiffin tweet, who wouldn't want to leave Ole Miss?

1:25:42Shots! It just means more down there. Yeah. Oh, that's cool. He's helping him out. Yeah, that is nice. It's like the pit. This is like the pit. They should do the pit, but on Pandora. In Navi, yeah. Well, if we get enough corporate mergers, maybe we can get there. Yeah, there you go. If we get Paramount and Warners together, for sure. That's in play, right? But I guess 20th Century Studios owns the Avatar IP. Oh, shoot. That's right. Yeah. Should they all just come together? Do you think that there's somebody at Disney in Burbank right now who's just like, why can't Captain America be in Pandora?

1:26:19Yeah. Yes, of course. There is somebody who is doing that and that person should be sent to hell because they're probably putting it in Free Guy too. I mean, that was what Free Guy was. That is what Free Guy was. Yeah. Wouldn't it be sick if Captain America had a lightsaber. And they'll do that, but Bob Iger won't let Kylo Ren live, you know, in a prequel situation. We can hunt for Gollum, but we can't hunt for Ben Solo. It's a cowardly act. Bob. Empower creatives. That's Disney's legacy. So this is nice. So now they're swimming together. They're buds. He's sort of like, he has like lobster-like claws.

1:26:57And he has a sea turtle kind of scale quality. but like a double a blue whale meets a turtle but also like a dune sandworm but also like the projection of the sand but like that look at that from beneath is pure whale this is pure whale the crab or lobster claw situation I mean just think about how delicious that would be I haven't had lobster whale undercarriage pro or negative whale undercarriage do you eat lobster? of course well I never know with you what do you mean? but scallops or no you said don't like scallops scallops or no lobster yes I tell you what's a what's a bay scallop small scallop yeah I'll have a bay scallop okay bay scallop and with some pasta is nice a large scallop that has been like pan seared I've never seen you do is tuck into a bowl of mussels and frites well funny you should ask okay you had a bad once there was a 14 year old boy at my house with a steam bowl that same boy brought over a bucket of mussels the next morning and we ate them together and nearly died.

1:27:59No, I had a bad muscle in 2014 and I'll never go back. I'll never go back. And by bad, I mean like the worst night of my life. Like the most ill I've ever been. And I just can't go back. And prior to that moment, I would have eaten mussels every day. I love mussels. I used to think that I was impervious to food poisoning until I was in Norway and I was on an island in Norway at a lovely dinner. And a man who I think owned this restaurant was serving oysters, fresh oysters, but was like really getting his thumb in there. She thinks she's connected to Ewa. That's important. Yes, it is important.

1:28:36My lasting memory of this experience is eating oysters, eating, I don't feel good about this, but a whale burger. Oh, yeah. And seeing this man driving a boat off. Well, Avatar is about respecting local cultures. Driving away from the restaurant in a boat and being like, who was that guy? Did he work here or what? Or was he just bringing oysters by? Chris, I have some news for you. That man was your real father. And then getting violently ill. Okay. That is really tough. Do you think it was his thumb or the whale? I ate so much weird stuff that night. That was like the outer limits of like how adventurous I am as an eater, which I am quite adventurous.

1:29:13Until someone tries to serve you a lovely mushroom skewer. I didn't. That's not about adventure. That was about the flavor profile of that mushroom. What was the profile? I just thought it was pretty earthy and fine. But Amanda looked at me. as if the future of the West. Because what he did was he lied to me. He looked at me straight in the eyes and he was like, that's dynamite. And he was just lying. And it was a terrible lie. Chris doesn't know how to do that from time to time. I know, but I'll never forget. You know, he's very kind. Oh, look, that is a planet. But that planet looks a lot like Jupiter.

1:29:45Is it? That was a really big planet. That looks a lot like Jupiter and or the planet that is crashing into Earth at the end of Melancholia. So... I believe this is a different solar system from Earth. Well, I'm just saying, it's planet-coded. It could be a planet. But you know what? If this is, in fact, a moon, perhaps that is the planet for whom this is the moon. Exactly, that's right. And you see the... Do you like other Lars movies or just melancholia? Really just melancholia? It's, I mean... Because I think Lars Mommy would also be a really good move for you. Yeah. You're just like, it's time to watch Antichrist again?

1:30:20Sure. I mean I don't like I respect it I guess but not really no I do but it weirds me out I'm an OG saw Europa in the in theaters there you go like 1987 no it's like the 90s okay was Europa in the 90s I think so okay I was like this guy's one to watch these people who'd you say that to when you were 10 this 14 year old boy I said next week okay so but why so you never got to the bottom of this what bottom of what what happened to the boy which one of your friends set him up i know who did it okay see they're listening it's in play was it pants no that was a college friend was it chris could have been probably was you think he's listening he does from time to time they're having some strategic with this guy it's not his fault oh yes no it is his it's not his fault but I think they left the compound without oh dear why

1:31:30I mean I just that is not Dr. Becky parenting is what I would say Jake suddenly has some struggles as a boy dad he really you know he's raised probably by a military man you think it's the kids fault well what is his issue what did he do wrong Rutt Road the Whale? Yes. Among other things. Disappeared for a while. You're not allowed to ride the whale? But these other kids abandoned him. Well, oh, and this dude's like, why didn't you rat me out? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, that's sick. Okay, and so then she's like, so does she look like Sigourney Weaver to you? I was just going to ask that. Are you getting Sigourney?

1:32:11That's Sigourney Weaver. She's playing Kiri, the 14-year-old girl. But now that you know, like watch the mannerisms a little. I see it. Of course. And that's... That's Kate Winslet. And that's Kate Winslet. Young Kate Winslet or... No, no, no. Young Kate Winslet. No, is she... I thought Kate Winslet was like the mom who greeted them all and gave them all. Yeah, but that was her. That's her. Oh, no. That's the friend. Is that her daughter? That's her daughter, yeah. Oh, okay. Sorry. They look a lot alike. They do. Okay. Okay, so then they're talking about whether Paya Khan is good or bad. Yeah.

1:32:48It was Loak. who did form the bond with PyCon. I know, because he's translating for him throughout the thing. I know, it's beautiful. You gotta respect the ocean. Okay, so... You said something very rude when we were watching the movie last night, where you were like, I don't care about any of these characters, but I disagree. I like these kids. We were just watching four people I didn't really care about. I care about PyCon a lot. PyCon's very important. But I also just didn't... What I meant in that moment... Oh, now he's out there. He's trying to find PyCon again. Was that the... Damn, he's responding.

1:33:15The movie was not effectively communicating... stakes and motivation of these people. They were just running back and forth for a while and I was like, I don't care. That was my note. Okay, so Lane Kiffin, he's leaving and people are mad. Hold on, I want to see what Paiacan says. It's too painful even to talk about? He can't trust anybody. Okay. How did he learn Paiacan's language? Wow, man. This is deeply moving. Yeah. Look at that. It's beautiful. This is the best part of the movie. It's incredible. yeah it's a good movie about friendship yeah oh yeah does anything bad happen to Piacon well you'll have to watch oh yeah Lane Kiffin yeah he was at Ole Miss he rebuilt Ole Miss right yeah did he sure they're having a good season they're having a great season and they largely built their team on the transfer portal where you bring kids in familiar but as Van explained and Todd McShay explained on Sunday night on Bill and in their other pods higher learning and not higher learning tailgate and and the Todd McShay show Louisiana just has a a fertile recruiting ground one of the great talent centers of football in this country yep okay and if he can build a team of homegrown players they're going faster and use his own you know he's a great developer of talent sure if he can find himself a piecon but okay he has never left a place without utterly fucking destroying it on the way out or completely embarrassing himself on the way out right okay And so he did it again.

1:34:50All right. So what did he do this time? He took this job at LSU reportedly several weeks ago, if not a week ago, bought a house in Baton Rouge, pretended like he was still preying on it for like another week. Sure. But basically wanted Ole Miss to let him stay and coach Ole Miss in the playoffs, even though he was already going to be working for LSU. Yeah. Well, that's unrealistic. Go fuck yourself. Yeah. Who were his advisors on that? Jimmy Sexton, the most powerful agent in college football. Okay. And my agent and my renegotiations.

1:35:22Did you buy your home in Baton Rouge as well? Jimmy was out over his skis a little. Honestly, I think I could do a lot worse in life than to have a third act as like moving to a nice southern city and becoming like... You've said for years your dream is to be the offensive coordinator of an SEC team. No, it's more of like a North Texas kind of thing. Oh, I see. I think that's better. I think SEC is a little more stressed than you want at this point. I want to be able to shop at Ralph's. Test some of my concepts. Oh, you want to be experimental. This is the spirit tree for underwater? Nobody blocks.

1:35:54Underwater spirit tree? Yeah. But there's a spirit tree in the first one. Yes, which is dramatically destroyed. Well, the giant tree is destroyed by the American military. Right. And then there is another gathering tree space where they connect with Ewa, and this is also. Okay, so there are different spirit trees throughout the ecosystem. Different ways to pray. What's Jake's plan here? We're just going to hide out for the rest of our lives in the ocean? Excellent question. Unclear. Okay, so they're connecting with the spirit tree. So what are the rules around connecting with the spirit tree? You've got these.

1:36:29You have to have T-Mobile. It's just. Billy Bob Thornton has to connect me. I made the request for BBT to come on the watch. Oh my God. I'd love it. For who? Billy Bob Thornton to come on the watch. I think he and I will get along very well. or he will think you are fucking twerp. Yo, look who it is. Oh, it's Sigourney and her. Also watch Sigourney act against Sigourney and tell me what you think. My beautiful daughter. Hmm. Okay. I legitimately find all this stuff very moving. Yeah, well, it's Sigourney Weaver. Do you think you would without a child? Probably not. Yeah.

1:37:13But you know what? That's just life. Yeah. That's just the truth. That's the truth of my life. That's why I find... Okay, but so now why is she blue? Well, she's having a spiritual experience where she's seeing visions of Ewa. She's not really actually seeing these things. But does she know that Ewa... Does she know that... Is Stephen Lang her dad, too? The blue person is Sigourney Weaver, like IRL? Did she go to Stanford? Or like, not IRL, but like in the... Oh, shit. She's just having visions. Yeah, but that we're cutting from like, it's Sigourney without the blue. I think what she's trying to make sense of is like what is the logic of her parenthood, of the parenthood?

1:37:58And, you know, we come to find out over time that it's not as natural as some of the other Navi. So Sigourney Weaver is her own mom. Yes. Sort of, yeah. But we don't know who the father is. No. And it's like, can you now create Na 'vi? Yeah, it's kind of an Immaculate Conception, kind of a cloning thing. Like, it's both. Gotcha. And that's very important because Kiri becomes a very important figure in this world because she has extraordinary power and access to Ewa. Have these guys ever seen a helicopter like this before? Well, this guy's a Marine. Yeah, but the other guys. These other guys are humans in Navi bodies.

1:38:46That's Joel David Moore, the actor, in a Navi body. And he's a scientist who is one of the key partners in the first film. That's Kate Winslet. That's Kate Winslet. She's very pregnant. She's mad. But she can still hold her breath. She's giving I can dig a hole energy right now. Okay, so she does like... Oh, yeah. She's sort of, you know, she's like Maha medicine, you know? But then... Homeopathic. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. But, you know, they're like super aggro military people. So, okay, everybody's checking their phones. Just a quick text. Oh, I got a text from Ayanna Pressley. She wants to let me know that I'm needed in the fight for democracy.

1:39:35Oh, great. Okay. Ayanna Pressley? Yeah. Nice. And are you going to leave right now and join her? You're going to finish the film or is it urgent?

1:39:46I have to leave this screening to join the squad. Who are you replacing in the squad? No, I'm additive. Do you think the squad needs a stronger male vision? Yeah. A white ally? No, one ally. What about a white vision? Okay, they're explaining the seizure. This is important. So she's not allowed to plug into the spirit tree anymore. That's right. But this person can do cocaine on a dead body. Well. Yeah. I mean, these are ancient traditions of revivification. Okay. There she goes, but she's not allowed. So Kate Winslet fixed her. Yeah. Where modern science couldn't. Exactly. I don't think I realized how much of a backseat Natiri takes in this film.

1:40:31Yeah. I mean, they've left the forest, so now. I know, but she is the first movie. Right. But this is an away game for her. Yeah. It is. Yeah. This is about fathers and sons. She has a very strong role in the third film. It's like golf outdoors, you know? Can't trust it. Yeah. 17 for 32, 190 yards, zero TDs, two picks. That's golf outside. Golf indoors? So just to be clear, you're doing G-O-F-F and not G-O-L-F, which I was like, oh no. Golf outdoors. We're talking about the Detroit Lions. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Alice's favorite football team, the Lions. Why? Because they're Lions. And they're cool colors.

1:41:10Got it. Cool colors? the silver helmet I think is iconic silver and blue yeah I guess so speaking of Saquon what's up with this man what's going on the Eagles I don't want to talk about the Eagles I want to talk about why Saquon sucks I don't want to get into whether or not running backs fall off a cliff after a certain amount of carries I know that's what's been suggested we also have not had Lane Johnson for a significant part of the season and I also think that they are not as creative in the run game as they used to be. Okay. I'm only asking because I drafted him in the Ringer Fantasy Football League and it has been a great disappointment.

1:41:48The offense all season long has been Oh, we got some humans. Truly embarrassing. Right. So this is where the story really kicks in. Can I pee? I would wait a minute. And then we'll take our break. Alright, that's very exciting. How long have we been going? It's 3.08. We've been going for like two hours. More like an hour and a half. Yeah, so we're like halfway. Okay. Let's just set the stage here and see what these guys are after. And then we'll take a quick break for the listeners and for ourselves. Oh, I see. Okay. Okay. Oh, Ayanna Pressley was more saying that she's heard everybody calling for her to run for the Senate.

1:42:25Yeah. But she feels like she's more needed in the House. Okay. Got it. Okay. I sent a similar message this morning. Okay, so these people are tracking the water. water traffic. And he's a marine biologist. And this fellow here is a hunter. Okay. He hunts to coon. He's a whale hunter. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So they're looking for Jake Sully. Is this guy South African? Also, probably. Yeah. and no offense, but did you see now you see me? Now you don't. No, I haven't. You got it. Just, do you not know about this? Oh my God. You don't know about this? Rosamund Pike plays a South African, like diamond, like villain.

1:43:22Yeah. Yes. A diamond heiress bond villain. It's incredible. It's, and she's doing full blown South African accent. It's so funny. you will jerk off. I swear to God. Can I go to the back? Okay, let's pause. So the whales are coming back, but also whale hunters are there. This is problematic. We're going to take a pause of the movie now for a bathroom break and a message from our sponsor. This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime. Like an action blockbuster, the holidays move quick. But with Prime, fast free delivery means those last minute gifts arrive right when you need them. Last year, while watching Singing in the Rain with my son, I realized a pair of tap shoes would be a perfect Christmas gift and I had them under the tree for him on Christmas Day.

1:44:05Prime's fast shipping is always there for you during the holidays, especially when it's last minute and just can't wait. Last minute holiday magic? It's on Prime. Head to amazon.com slash prime to shop now. And we are back.

1:44:22So the two couldn't have come home. I didn't remember that. Where were they? I want to do just a quick level setting and say that I'm loving my time with you guys, but I still think that this is pretty nonsensical or at least like this is uncalled for no I'm not trying to ding it I'm just saying if you thought I was converting I thought the pie icon thing was cool well there's more what flavor is this pretzel it's seasoned with what crack cocaine great that doesn't really say I mean, you've not had a seasoned snack before? Dots? Like a seasoned snack mix? Dots would be big. I wasn't expecting it.

1:45:06This is the original flavor of Dots pretzels. I hit up TJ's for the step up to the bar snack mix today. Oh, beautiful. Love it. What's in that? It's your usual snack mix. Well, juice or? Sesame sticks. Maybe like a Brazil nut in there. Any like Cheez-It type thing? Kind of, yeah. They got some wild shit in there. I ordered a bucket of potato chips for the holiday party this year. Like a large bucket. Will you keep it in there? Yeah, of course. That's going to be a germ factory. You have to put your hands in the potato bucket? You just have to put a hand in the bowl, Sean. It's no different. You could pull a chip off the top.

1:45:43It's a large bucket. It's like this big. Support a person? Bring your own potato chips to the party, okay? Okay. Will there also be a live pangolin that I can murder and eat there as well? We should start doing that. bringing chips to your parties. I wish people would always read the dance.

1:46:04Oh, Kate Winslet's now Team Pyacon, huh? Yeah, your son is beautiful. Thank you. How is your baby? Come on. My baby is strong. Okay. The Tulkun, you know, they're an ancient spiritual creature in their religion. Okay. Oh, this is cute. Look at that baby. Damn, dude. That baby's swimming. Is that Kate Winslet's baby? or Zoe saw that on this baby well I guess so because the baby's not in her belly anymore oh so we've we've some time has elapsed maybe that was a flashback I'm not totally sure I think that was a or she just gave it was a water birth this is bad seems intense but this looks like a Halo cutscene right I mean I've never seen Halo this part is all real this was all shot in the real world okay and these are all real nubby does that make it better for you

1:46:59do you think if we could militarize Navi we should

1:47:07okay so they're looking for Jake Sully and then the other guys island group with different people hanging out correct this is a different tribe okay got it and they're gonna keep moving but then so the Tukun have come back from where the great sea and they raised Kate Winslet I don't know if they raised her well I mean spiritual guidance they're connected okay alright um her parents probably raised her okay but maybe like a latchkey kid situation maybe it takes a village you know maybe could be who wrote that Hillary Clinton what are your faves yeah oh fuck they shot a whale yeah they're bad damn these guys are evil like the fruits of the devil as Mike Myers once said okay

1:48:04damn spider you fucking narc yeah he doesn't really know what he's doing Toruk Mokdo what is my Navi name put her down nah man we're not gonna have that happen you're right no okay finally spiders sticking up for

1:48:24yeah but they don't have them

1:48:29so this kid's 15 when he's filming this maybe 17 okay he was cast when he was 15 pretty good no he his audition was in 2017 so he was 13 when he auditioned wow okay

1:48:50Project Phoenix is that what it says on his little vest? So the Vietnam era? Yeah. These are the obsessions of James Cameron. Look at all the entry points Chris. Do you think it would have been better though if he had just made a movie about the Phoenix Project in Vietnam? A period piece? I don't. Okay. I made this movie. Respect the artists. Oh no. Now they're burning things up. Should have done. Okay, but this is the big picture. Sometimes we weigh in on what artists should have done. Right? I don't really... We try not to do that. I don't like to do that. That's boring. I have done that, and I'm not going to pretend like I haven't done that, but I would prefer not to do that.

1:49:27Because I don't want somebody telling me what I should be doing. That's true. You know? Yeah. Yeah. That's really beautiful. But sometimes we can't help ourselves. I get frustrated, certainly, when I feel that people are doing things just for money. But when you look at the amount of work that goes into these movies, you can't say that these are being done for money. These movies are insane. They're getting some bad news. Except when he tells Zach there in a story about how it's going to make all the fucking money and get the fuck out of my office. But I don't think he's like, I can't wait to spend all that money.

1:49:56I think he's like, I can't wait to be the most successful person. Now that is also a kind of sickness, but it's different and to me less egregious. Ambition can often create great artistic success. The human boy speaks not to say, They now know that Spider is on the other island working with these guys. Are you reading the latest Ryan Lizzo newsletter? No, I'm not paying for that bullshit. I actually, I don't endorse. They can all go fuck off, is what I have to say. All three of them. Who's the third? RFK Jr. Oh, yeah. Mr. Maha himself. I mean, you've made your feelings on this known. I think it's a bit of a strange stance.

1:50:35It is one of the more interesting things that's happened in recent American political media history. I guess so. But like, is it that interesting? It's like two star fuckers are each writing their own story of, you know, their interactions with another star fucker who is now denying vaccines to children. Like, I'm good. Like, you know, now they're trying to make money off of it because they can't make it any other way. Like, no thanks. Like, good riddance all of them. I mean, I understand. But like your moral superiority over that and not other things is just inconsistent. I mean, that's right.

1:51:07I'm going to be inconsistent on this one. Like, I truly, they can all, you know, good riddance all of them. Yeah. They all are, like, taking up space that should be filled with other things. This is the other thing. Like, I don't really believe in political journalism in this way. Like, I just, like, don't care about them. Oh, the, like, kind of insider window. Yeah, because what they want is to be famous themselves, as opposed to, like, actually reporting on things that matter to the world. So I thought less of them before all of this, but then Ryan lives in Olivia Nazi. Why don't you lay out your vision for political journalism in America?

1:51:42What do you think is the best way to do the work? I'd like to hear it. Because I would argue the people that they're covering are just as vainglorious and corrupt as the people who are doing their reporting. Pie a can. Yeah, that's true. But it's like... I guess that's why it's worthwhile to me, is it reveals something true about the system, the story. I'm just, I'm just, now Liz has got me hooked. I just need to know. Are you paying for it? No, there's ways around that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But did he reveal the conspiracy? Number four went out yesterday, but I have not read the full thing. I only read the first half.

1:52:17Okay, I think if he were like, you know, there was a plot to assassinate Trump and like Olivia signed the legal documents. We might've heard by now. Yeah, I'm like, I'm just guessing. Sure. Yeah, I think that's fair. Also bad writers. Just very purple. Yeah, really bad. That hasn't really stopped anybody else in the past. That's true. But another reason, I don't want to spend time reading it. So there's bad news is traveling across the islands, but now these kids are exploring caves. Yeah. Oh, but it's not a cave. This cave turns out to be... Be calm. So that's the older brother. this is a little bit of a Joan and the Whale situation manner of speaking reminds me a little bit of the mirror sequence in Us sure remember that scene?

1:53:13oh yeah that was good I liked Us me too Us a little bit kind of lost in the in the was it 2019? the fuck's going on? it was yeah so that was like one of our first deep dive yeah but but that was like a big movie year and then pandemic so kind of lost time yeah well it's a little messy yeah but narratively okay oh no so now he's memories we've seen we saw us together at south by southwest yeah that's great oh that's nice i made that memory i saw it at the arc light how's that going they bring in the arc light back permits are they keep saying they have So this is a flashback. He is sharing memories with Paiakon.

1:53:59Paiakon is sharing memories with him. Oh, okay. The last time the humans came through. Or these flash forwards. What the Tulkuns have witnessed. I believe it's him showing them their trauma. Memories, yeah. And that's how his wound happened, remember? Gotcha. So they've been under siege for a long time. We haven't yet seen why the whales are so under siege. they probably have like oil, right? We'll find out. I guess so.

1:54:33All right. Here's my first question for you. Not my first. About the water? Oh, no, no. Do you want some water facts? Give me what were you going to say? Well, I mean, just so just like what's up with geese? The band? Yeah. Like what's happening there? Well, they're on a rocket ship to the moon. Well, I know, but like. They are. They are. Well, but like I didn't click through. So, you know, I know they did like some covers or something. So they came along a couple years ago. Okay. And, you know, I wouldn't say an enormous amount of fanfare. And they put out a first record. These are like private school kids from New York.

1:55:03Okay. What private school? I can't remember. I think Brooklyn Friends. Here we go. Oh, Quaker kids. I think. Well, Quaker educated. And they put out one record that I happen to like, but is very much like post-punk, Interpol-y kind of disco. Private school. Okay. Then they put out a record called, I believe, 3D, second album. It's much more classic rock, vibey. Okay. And then late last year, the lead singer and songwriter for Geese put out a record. Cameron Winter put out a record called Heavy Metal. Okay, I've heard of Cameron Winter separately, but I also didn't... It became a cult hit. He became quite an object of interest.

1:55:42Oh, wow. Okay, so they went to Park Slope Rock School. I just don't know if she really cares about the answer to this question. Okay, so they put out two albums. Yes. Plus Cameron Winter has a solo album. And then Cameron Winter's solo album, I think, starts to garner more attention around the band. And they put out a third album called Getting Killed. Okay. And have now been adopted, I feel like, by a larger swath of the hipster influencer universe. That seems right. And are a very good band. I love them. I'm a fan. Okay, so I can confirm that they, or at least some of them were educated at the School of Rock, like the film.

1:56:22Which, okay, well, here's a telling line. As the teen sat in the sunroom of the funky Fort Green Brownstone owned by Bassin's parents. Okay. So, I mean, that must be nice to own a Brooklyn Fort Green Brownstone. 3D country. My bad. Not 3D. But I still can't find what private school. Okay. So, if I were you, I would just check out the most recent record and I would probably skipped the first song because you're going to be like, this is too noodley. But then you'll be like, damn. But are they controversial now? No. Okay. Amanda will not like this band. How do you know? She likes the Strokes. It's not that cool.

1:57:05It's not that clean and slick and pop oriented. No, it's much more like... It's a little experimental, a little vibes-y. Okay. A little bit atonal. Oh, I don't always love Atonal. They're the kind of band that you could see them making an album in the next 10 years that is like the album of a generation. But I don't, I think they're still working some stuff out. I think they're really cool. I was surprised that they're not as popular, at least on the streaming services as I expected. Right. Based on the way that people my age and younger talk about them, you would have thought that they were The Strokes.

1:57:41But maybe that's actually a notable thing about The Strokes is maybe they weren't as popular as we thought they were. they're pretty popular but they were to us the geese doesn't have like last night yeah they don't have a hit like that I'm scrolling through my second taxes is I think a big song but you don't really see too many sea birds in these films oh no not a missile to the back yeah that's a tracking device oh okay

1:58:07mother and calf so we have not disclosed why we're hunting these guys. Spider is just like frying pan to the fire. Yeah, and that ship driver appears to be a member of the San Francisco Giants. What was that outfit he was wearing?

1:58:27Maybe Okay, thank you for that explanation. Sure. I don't know if I'll check it out, but now I at least feel informed. I like these little crab guys. You should go for a nice long jog with the geese discography and report back. okay definitely leave a long voice memo to Chris that he can automatically delete do you not listen to voice memos ever? I listen to them do you listen to voice memos or do you delete them? I'll just read the transcription of them depends on who sends it yeah Mal will send like five minute voice memos to me okay she's never sent me one in her life that's really long you just gotta ask her questions I listen to them but I I seldom know how to send them so like I figure it out but then sometimes I send it to the wrong person you know yeah it's a disaster So I, when people ask me how I'm doing, I just send them an episode of the big picture.

1:59:12So check this out. You'll figure it all out. Is that how you want to be known? Is that how you want your emotional life to be understood? It's all real. It's all. Okay. So these guys are all back. All of it. And they have their, um, they're on the, they're on the hunt. This is a, this is a full blown hunt. Okay. This stuff is all very real world, Chris. Yeah. Looks, it looks really, uh, these are real whales. Yeah. oh no there's a sensor on that whale you missed it he got shot yeah it's a tough break it's not what you want when you're being hunted and why is Steven Lang on this trip if he's just looking for Sully he's looking for Sully but he's commandeered the boat it's like a oh oh that's awful stop doing that to the whales that's a sonic paralyzer because there is such sensitivity to the sound underwater yeah gotcha forces them to the surface.

2:00:08They hit Millie Bobby with one of those in the season five of Stranger Things. Eleven? Yeah, like a sonic paralyzer thing. Oh, Stranger Things. Yeah, so what's up there? It was fine. It was cool. I got to watch it with like my friend's daughters over Thanksgiving and they were like fired up about it. So it was a fun experience. what's going on with everyone in, what's the town where they live? Hawkins, Indiana. Yeah, that's right. And there's a parallel dimension called the Upside Down right underneath of it. Okay. And that's stalked by a demon named Vecna. Okay. and they can't seal it up no they have military tried oh sure did they have any tool coons there no they have demogorgons though I've seen those I gave up on that show after the second season many did I think it's pretty incoherent I find it surprising it's level of success did you watch into the third season I did to the mall one that was the introduction to Maya Hawke yeah yeah I did love Maya Hawke she's got a big role in this one I've heard you guys talking about it.

2:01:07I don't, you know. Timothy Chalamet just posted pictures of him with a new puppy. Do you think it's his puppy? Yeah, he's running. No, he's really running. And then, what else is in the carousel? You've seen Marty? We've got Josh. Josh has the black Marty. But it's not out yet, is it? No, but a lot of people have seen it. Nobody called you and tapped you on the shoulder and said... I had plenty of invitations, but I was traveling internationally and... Fancy. Yeah. Ooh la la. Yeah. So, spoiler alert, that won't be on your list this week. I'm fully ready to be like completely transparent about the films that will be on my list okay they largely are from the John Wick universe

2:01:47okay um I haven't seen Sentimental Value and I haven't seen Marty otherwise I'm I'm pretty much caught up are you? oh I haven't seen uh Decision to Leave no oh yeah no other choice no other choice oh right yeah this puppy is very small Tracy let's tell me no other choices is number one right now based on what he's seen so far okay does Tracy see everything contemporary has he seen one battle after another yet I don't think so Tracy should I text him right now and ask you can ask him Tracy have you seen no other choice rocks it is yeah it's really good Tracy have you seen do you think it's weird to put two Scott Derrickson films in my top five

2:02:35were you planning to put Doctor Strange from 2018 on your list? no Blackphone 2 and Gorge I know Blackphone 2 you do oh ProCare drop Knox Knox is free Knox is hitting the streets he's been signed out do you know about this? it's like they let you know well yeah you have to sign your kid in and out of school every day with this app and then you get a notification It's basically like, is the kid under our care? Is the kid under your care? Kids back under my care. I got that. It's the only app that can give me notifications. I don't need that though because I have a psychic link like Paya Khan with Alice.

2:03:12So anytime I know she needs something, she can just like... Oh, I got a text from Ben Stiller asking me for money. Delete and report. Ben Stiller. For what? I don't know. I did not report it as junk. It's like I'm trying to get Severance Season 3 going. I report them all as junk. I mean, it wasn't from him. So now the whales are dragging the boats, but they're struggling. We got load management issues with the whales. Yeah, you know, trying to catch them with the barrels. You can always tell when you get a South African big game hunter who talks a lot of shit that he's going to suffer a really gruesome death at the hands of his prey.

2:03:48You may have seen a movie or two in your time. What are these buoys attached to them? I tried to slow them down. That's awful. Spider, you fucking piece of shit, man. Hope you're happy. He couldn't do anything. Look at the calf. That's brutal. Look at these things. Oh, awful. That's so, what are those? Again, this is fucking Jim cooking. What is this thing that he designed? Does Jim's community, his peers, do they like these movies? Jim's community? Who are Jim's peers? No, like the DGA. Who's hosting Jim and is just like, I'm with God right now. This is amazing. Well, I think he has the admiration of everyone in the industry.

2:04:25I do think that he is famously like kind of a, like a poke you with a stick. Yeah. You know, he'll be like Spielberg can't do this. So like GDT, Del Toro is his homie, right? He told Matt Bellini Guillermo Del Toro is his best friend. Who's a filmmaker. As well as Catherine Bigelow. You don't see like Catherine. Oh, that's nice. Bigelow and him used to be together. They used to be together, but they're still, you know, they show each other their work. They're still very much, they have a creative connection. Yeah. Which is nice. That's nice to think of. I watched a short form video of Seth Rogen and Aziz, I'm sorry.

2:04:56This is gross. Talking about like going to dinner or something, being like shown to the patio. And the only two other people there were James Cameron and Catherine Bigelow. That's wonderful. Having dinner. And they were like, what do we do? Do we talk to them? Blah, blah, blah. And then Jim and Catherine came over and were very nice, which is cool. Makes sense. Tracy has responded. He has not yet seen one battle after another. So this is them extracting. Is the unobtainium inside of these fucking things? It's whale brain juice, which is an even more rare commodity. No way, really? Yeah, it's worth billions of dollars, which is why all of this tremendous technology and machinery is going into the research.

2:05:33Look at the twinkle in Spider's colonist eyes, man. Watch this. This is also giving major Jurassic Park vibes. There's a lot of Jurassic Park in this film. That smaller creature getting eaten by the bigger creature stuff. Amorita, right? Yeah, the vial of the stuff. Spielberg is a big part of these movies, I think.

2:05:55is that good i mean i think they wow the dramatic scientific breakthrough there we go anti-aging so this is even better than unobtainium 80 million dollars for that that's not that much money especially especially in 2150 whatever that's like a decent second baseman for yeah for eight years right there we go hey guys i'm just saying inflation is real actually in this future America that they're basing this on. I don't know what's happened to the dollar. That's a good question. Who's been shorting Bitcoin? That's really the question. What's Michael Berry doing in this reality?

2:06:41Chris, you have to either join the military or go into corporate America. What do you do? What time period? 1870s.

2:06:54corporate America you would go be a robber baron I mean with hindsight I would not want to be part of what was happening in the 1870s with the American military I mean you're from Pennsylvania more of a Carnegie guy railroads also not problematic though you caught up on the Gilded Age? caught up? I've seen 10 minutes of the first episode I've seen all three seasons now I have tremendous amount of respect for Carrie Coon. Yeah. And haven't seen the show. Okay. Christine Baranski, she's on it. She is as well. Yeah. Of the namesake farewell on your pod. Cynthia Nixon. Yeah. She's fine. Morgan Spector.

2:07:33Yeah, Morgan Spector. Roger McDonald. Yeah. Have you watched Pluribus? No. I'm still on episode four of The Diplomat. I didn't know if you were like moving around. I didn't finish it. I didn't finish episode four because of incidents, you know? so I can't believe they fucking killed these two twins yeah it is yeah and she has a bond with them so she's really upset this is actually slower paced than the third film I guess that is true do you agree yes but I don't know there are much more many more set pieces in three that's true that's interesting can I ask does Sully know who's after him he he does he doesn't totally understand it but he does

2:08:25are you guys ready for some ocean facts yes all right great time okay so just to go back to microbes just one liter of water from the ocean can hold up to 38 000 kinds of microbes that's just about how varied life is in the ocean you know not necessarily because like when you jump in you don't want to be thinking about microbes yeah but not all microbes are like bad it's just that's just the ocean. The ocean is a source of life for us in many ways. Right. Okay, you ready for another one? By the way, I verified all of these or at least verified that they were from a real source and not from AI.

2:08:58Like I didn't just copy. That's what you were doing outside? Yeah. Well, not like, I mean, I can't fact check everything. I'm not a marine biologist, but I did not ask chat GPT for any of these because I have never. Have you ever asked chat GPT anything? No, I've never used it because, I mean, you have. I haven't. Have you? I asked it for your favorite water facts. and I got some interesting responses. Okay, here's another one. Parrot fish poop makes up to an estimated 70 % of the sand on Hawaiian and Caribbean beaches created by the fish eating coral and excreting it. Parrot, we say that again?

2:09:30Parrot fish poop makes up 70 % of the sand on Hawaiian and Caribbean beaches. Okay, great. Good news. Some shark species can lose and regrow up to 30 ,000 teeth in their lifetimes. Guess what, I knew that. You did? Yeah. from whom? I think in my shark phase. I retained that from when I was a child. Were you a shark boy? Yeah. You were a shark boy. Giant sperm whales float vertically in the ocean while sleeping? Like Sean. Yeah. I sleep on my stomach. Really? Every night. Can't sleep in any other position. Arms splayed out? Yeah, and suspended in water. Not like an upside-down Dracula where you're sleeping on top of your...

2:10:17No, I sleep with my arms at my sides. On my stomach. Are you serious? Yeah. That's actually psychotic. It's the only way I can get comfortable. Are your palms down or palms up? They're full of Cheez-Its every night. No, but now I'm trying to imagine positioning myself. Okay, so which way are they? You don't sleep by your side. They're flat down, so palms up. Palms up. Or sometimes at my side. Maybe sometimes at my... I don't know if I'm quite so stiff when I'm sleeping. You're like a torpedo. A little bit, yeah. A little bit like a torpedo. I'm like, imagine... That's so weird. So it's just like this?

2:10:54Like a little T-Rex asleep? Well, no, I have a long, tall body. So no, it's not like this. My arms are not like this. I would say that I used to be a stomach sleeper, but between pregnancy and neck problems, I've had to move to my side. Yeah. What about you? Side. Yeah. And you sleep standing up. And now they're a little rebellion going. oh he's gotta go save Pyacon or something or they've been banned but they gotta join up get off me so Loak's striking out alone intergenerational drama intra-tribe drama yeah inter-species drama

2:11:37the natural world colliding with technology sure who did the music for this? John Tesh? Is it Thomas Newton Howard? Or Thomas Newton, I should say? No, Thomas Newman. Thomas Newman's doing the music for Star Wars Starfighter. I have an ocean fact that's also a pitch for the next James Cameron movie. Did you see Sean Levy was like, they made me redo the ending of my movie? Of which movie? Of Starfighter, of the Star Wars movie. Oh, why? Because someone was dead? What do you mean he said that? He said the opposite, I thought. They let him do whatever he wanted. No, that was what he first said. and then he was just like I think what he meant was like I was encouraged to rethink the ending and thank god I was because it's so much better sure Simon Franklin is the composer who did the music for this film he did the music for Avatar did the music for he arranged for okay Thomas Newman on Skyfall okay he works with Thomas Newman and James Horner so Log is getting rid of the censor so that they can't find oh no but it's too late you say shit in Na 'vi yeah sure okay

2:12:46I still can't believe a Sean Levy Star Wars movie is happening. Like, it's happening. Like, in a good or a bad way? In a terrible way. Okay. I mean, have you watched Sean Levy's movies? Yes, and I don't enjoy them, but, like, I never, you know, I just wanted to... So it's a quality control issue for you. For me, honestly, as much as I like him, and I bet Project Hail Mary is going to be dope, I just don't... I can't believe what they did to my boy. Gostling. yeah it's what they did or maybe what he did I know but I just misplaced beyond the pines Ryan yeah you know drive Brian it's hard to tell him to only make incredibly violent alienating movies about right emotionally men who cannot communicate like he can't do that forever I'm not asking for that Clint Eastwood did that's not true he made the Bridges of Madison County that's true when he was like 70 he made every which way of loose like you can do other kinds of things yeah but he's not it's Fall Guy Barbie Project Hail Mary this Star Wars movie I think Project Hail Mary is a win even if the movie doesn't work ultimately I think doing stuff like that is great it's a beloved book science fiction but grounded made with a great a good film good filmmakers I think it's cool I'm excited about it the Star Wars thing I'm just like I can't we've been waiting nine years for a fucking Star Wars movie Star Wars colon Starfighter the dumbest name imaginable Starfighter it's already called Star Wars let them know What the fuck are they fighting?

2:14:13Get it off your chest, Kate. But why is no one saying the same thing I'm saying? Not just you guys. Is everyone... Are we collectively agreed that this sucks? I just think that... Okay, so they're going out to fight for the tukun? That was Caitlin's lit doing her... They're going to seek revenge. Oh, they're doing... They're whale hunting. They're taking a piece of this back with them. Okay. Okay. And the production design official... Was Stephen Lang like, this is what I wanted to have happen? We were going to hunt the whales and then we're going to draw them out. Yes. Because he understands that these people have a connection to the tool.

2:14:45You gotta get this two-to-three. No, I'm not ready to give up the Star Wars thing. Okay. And I know I sound like a weird, like an elder millennial baby, but it just sounds shitty. Can you watch, will you watch season two of Andor for me? You didn't do it? No. You said you were gonna do it? No, you're not. I have to do it over Christmas. I had to watch too many things to get ready for later this week's episode. Oh. There are things that I was like, I don't know if I feel good about doing the best of the year if I haven't seen these five movies. Well, I've seen Andor season two and I have not seen sentimental value.

2:15:11Okay. That's where I am. I think that's okay. Yeah, but Starfighter's not out yet. Like when Starfighter comes out, if I haven't seen Andor two, I've failed. Right.

2:15:23Help me out. I mean, I agree with you. It's an abomination. It's an abomination. It's terrible. Why are we all pretending like this is okay? I think it's also... As Star Wars mommy, I am not. Yeah. They wouldn't let Ben Solo fight. they took away the Benioff and Weiss trilogy they took away Rian Johnson sequels they took away they said no to Steven Soderbergh where's James Mangold's fucking monks samurai monks movie yeah oh my god yeah a good question where's Taika Waititi's Star Wars movie you know where's who else what was Rogue Squadron Patty Jenkins Patty Jenkins' movie oh yeah and we so we we moved through all of these filmmakers you can have varying degrees of interest in any of their films but we netted at the blandest mainstream movie maker in America to make a Star Wars movie?

2:16:14I mean, that's the way the world is moving. It is disappointing. It's really bad. Okay, so now... Maybe it'll be great. Don't put the sensors in a reef. I mean, that's not good for the reef. And one of my ocean facts that I learned that I knew already, but the reefs are very important for life on this planet and I assume on Pandora. okay they're also they're hiding oh these are like hermit crabs yeah i love these creatures these little it's very cool mecca crabs this is jim cooking all of this stuff this is you want to go on a submersible ever i'm interested it seems dangerous i will say the sequences in the life aquatic seem very fun sure but you know if wes anderson is designing yeah i want a submarine You made a paper mache.

2:17:00I'm definitely available. What about you? I don't want to go in submarine. You don't want to go in space. Yeah. No, I agree. You wouldn't mind being trapped? I wouldn't mind being trapped in space. Like in a space station. Okay. Where I could jog. What if a xenomorph was on board? So that's your concern, physical movement? You need to be able to jog? Yeah, but I also just think that like space stations just seem kind of sick. You know, like your little zero gravity moments, you know? I have always wanted to do that. I recently found out that my good friend Molly got to go to space camp when she was younger and she did the zero gravity thing.

2:17:32I didn't know this about her. And I just, the jealousy is still coursing through me. Yeah. You know? Maybe that's the yogurt actually. You gotta get that out. You gotta go to space camp. You do have to go to space camp. I think that we've done this. We've talked about this once before and I Googled it on a podcast and they do have adult space camp. Of course they do. Is it at SpaceX? Like do you have to go in? Like in Jupiter, Florida, right? No, it's not Jupiter. That's where all the rich people live. This is Cape Canaveral. Jupiter's where all the golf bros live. That's right. That's where Tiger lives.

2:17:59Yes. Of rich people, as I said. It's going to Tiger's house. Tiger's chipping and putting again. Yeah. Well, and among other things. Right. Yeah. I didn't say golfing. Okay. All right. So they're under attack and the crab. What's up with little Tigre? Is he all right? He just did a press conference today. He was like, his back is fucked, but I'm chipping and putting. Okay. God, I love him so much. To what end? I mean there's the level of interest there is in golf when he is playing is incalculable compared to like when it's not you know it's like the casual looky-loos who are like is Tiger playing on Sunday unbelievable I like golf okay how did you feel about Happy Gilmore 2 I didn't see it okay should I see that before the best of the year pod I appreciate you guys letting me participate even though I haven't seen some of these classic films this year like Happy Gilmore 2 I wonder what you'll make of Sentimental Value 2.

2:18:53Or Sentimental Value. Is it okay if I haven't seen Sentimental Value 1 before I see 2? Yeah. But 2 is a prequel, so it's okay. Is it Selon Skarsgård's just playing his Andor character, right? Yeah. No, he's playing the professor from Good Will Hunting in Sentimental Value. He wears his Fields medal the whole time.

2:19:15Okay. This is a very long sequence. Yeah. Oh. None of these people have any moral compunction about what they're doing. Seems like it's a no. I think that, you know, it's almost an allegory for how we treat those who are different from us. And the natural world also. And they all work for a military industrial corporation. They capture creatures. this is what we do to real sea life in our world spider you rat you better redeem yourself man yeah it's been like two hours and 15 minutes at least what's he supposed to do he's powerless grow a pair yeah speak up you guys are bullying spider yeah practice political journalism the Amanda Dobbins way he's just a kid he can grow up to be Ryan Lizard one day yeah start a sub stack oh my god

2:20:17So what's the idea here? They're capturing them to get Sully or they're capturing them to study their bodies or what? Why do they want Sully back? Revenge? Yes, and also that he is kind of like a symbol for betraying the human race. Oh, that's right. But Stephen Lang's like Na 'vi. It's like you and me, we're not so different. Like what's going on? Well, he's a clone. He's not actually a human consciousness. proper. So I guess they can argue it away that in order to defeat the Na 'vi, you must become like the Na 'vi. This is sad. They're tying up children. Don't like that. I mean, in the political environment, this is pretty serious stuff.

2:21:00Practically one battle. I think you're making a joke, but I think this is what genre is for. You're totally right. To confront people with these ideas in ways that are entertaining and then they start to realize that this is evil to do this sort of thing. Yes. So are people making the connection to the real world? Some people are not. It's our job as cultural commentators to point out these ideas. You are right. You are 100 % right. So he's got his seeds. Yeah. He's mad as shit. One of the interesting tensions of the movie for real for me is this guy is an ex-Marine who is really good at shooting people.

2:21:43Yeah. But who has been thrust into a world where pacifism in connection to the world is definitional to their lives. Much like James Cameron. It's totally a reflection of his point of view. Who moved from Los Angeles where he was, you know, the weapons king and trained in all the guns. And now in New Zealand, he says in that piece, there are no guns. I don't need it anymore. There's a lot of things in these movies. I mean, also, this is a movie about a guy who's like, I wasn't a good father and I'm trying to get better. Do you relate? I did not get that. You don't get that from Jake Sully dealing with his teenagers?

2:22:24I don't think we were talking too much about, you know, yogurt and political journalism. I guess you haven't been watching this closely. No, I've been watching. Now I'm getting dialed. Okay. We're kind of heading into the best part of the movie here. Well, we already... Paiacon was the best part of the movie. Yeah, I did like Paiacon. So Winslet's mad now. this is they're confronted with what do they do they have to they have to fight back there's no other choice in the face of these genocidal monsters again so it's about american isolationism and yeah okay i don't know i think this is these movies are really dinged for having poor writing and i think it's because cameron historically is not the best writer of dialogue yes but i think the frameworks of his stories while simple are often insightful and create enough room to have these ideas sit comfortably.

2:23:13Yeah. I'm not trying to be pointy-headed. I'm being sincere. I don't disagree with you. They take too much room and I think as the films go on, he becomes more invested, not just in the world building. It's a pie-con lurking here? Yes. But also, you know, he is enamored with his own ideas and the symbolism of his own ideas in these films and can stretch it out a little more than is totally necessary. We will explore that when we talk about the new movie for sure. It's not without fault. I just appreciate that there's someone who's trying to make big blockbusters that are about something. So do you think that the reason why, do you think that the narrative that these movies don't have a cultural impact is one that's just been thrown at it and has happened to stick?

2:24:04Or do you think there's any truth to that? I think there's truth to it. And why do you think that is? There's not great merchandising around these movies. They're not super rewatchable. They don't have the same level of like happy mealification. They're very adult films. They're very violent. They're more or less R-rated action movies. They don't appeal to kids the way that most things that have this cultural impact do. So that's a factor. Some of it is there's quite strange and idiosyncratic. So Pyakon's on land here. He's on boat. there's also I mean there was a 10 year 12 year gap between the first and second installments and this is three years technology to catch up or something or yeah and I think they were going through all of the work that they needed to go through to make it the way that he wants to which I admire but one thing I would recommend for people who are watching this or listening to this episode is they Disney Plus just put out a two part making of documentary about the making of this film.

2:25:06And it's more of a bonus feature than it is a documentary ultimately, but it explains in detail everything that they had to figure out about how to shoot on water, which is super complicated. And there's a lot of time spent with the stunt performers who'd pull off all of this stuff. And just the various difficulties of trying to create water action and the way that water moves against the currents of these creatures and the ships and all of this technology that they're basically inventing and what would be the logical science behind how those things operate. There's just like so much intention and time put into thinking about it that maybe you don't get it all when you watch the movie.

2:25:44But I think that in that big gap there was a ton of there was years where they had to kind of figure out how to execute on this. The same way that like Titanic took so long to figure out how to do that. Yeah, I just think Titanic just has like it's easier to like get lost in Titanic not because it's a real thing that happened but because the characters wind up pulling you in. Yeah. You can watch it for Jack. I like Titanic too. And I wouldn't argue that Avatar is better than Titanic. But I think Titanic has just as much terrible dialogue. Sure, but it also has I'm the king of the world. Is that part good?

2:26:21Well, it's memorable. It is memorable. And that's, I mean, I think what is memorable Is it more memorable than I see you? Yeah, it is. I disagree. What does he say? I see you. It's when they make their connection, like when they're like, We are connected. We are in love. But what's memorable versus what's good is also an interesting rubric through which to discuss the films of James Cameron. It is. What's his best movie, Chris? Aliens? That's my favorite of his. Yeah. T2? I like Aliens more than T2. Do you have a favorite? I mean, Titanic. But T2 is really good, too. I like them both. Coming around on Terminator.

2:27:00Wasn't always an original Terminator guy. Okay. They get older. Huge achievement. It's pretty crazy. Yeah. Pretty crazy what they pulled off. Piranha 2? The spawning? It's okay. A lot of some Piranha 2 vibes. Is this the big battle? Is this the final battle? I think we have more coming. Yeah. I mean, at some point, it just becomes one big. This is the beginning of the end. Yeah. One big battle. Do you want to talk a little bit about iterations and remote control design? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I was out to dinner with some friends a couple weeks ago, and one of my friends who works in the movie industry was like, here's the biggest thing that happened in the movie business in the last 10 years, is they started putting the Netflix symbol on remote controls.

2:27:45And as soon as they did that, it was over. Netflix won. That was the nail in the coffin for the entirety of the theatrical film business. And I thought that was fascinating. I hadn't thought about that, but putting that symbology on a physical item that you touch every day. When it goes from tissues to Kleenex. Yes, exactly. And it was like, this is TV now. I just thought that that was very powerful and smart and simple and kind of definitional. That was it. Yeah. So on this remote, which is for an LG television, it has Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney, but in the top left position, of course, is Netflix.

2:28:23They haven't made that functionality like any better though from a user experience. I mean, the... Damn. That's work. Workplace. You know, like Thanksgiving, you're like at the parents' home. I know everyone's complaining about motion smoothing or whatever, but my issue is just trying to make the load a single app on the smart TV. You know, just one for five minutes. It doesn't work nearly as well as it should. Yeah, it does not work. Yeah. Even though my... Yeah, I crashed it. I have a wonderful 4K player at home and they put a fucking Netflix button on the 4K player. Wow. Why I spent$800 on this fucking 4K player?

2:29:01You put the Netflix symbol right in the middle of this remote control? What does your parents call the remote control? Clicker? Remote? Remote. The remote, yeah. It's New York. The clicker. Yeah. I never said that. Is this Charles Milton? No. It's not Charles Milton. This is a prequel to May, December, though. Christopher, how do you say the word for the condiment that goes on a hot dog with mustard? Or at least on some people. Ketchup? You say ketchup. Yeah. But you are from Philadelphia. Yeah. That's the... I will walk out of my home if my children start pronouncing it ketchup. Yeah. In the Philly way.

2:29:39They won't be speaking. They'll be texting me. Okay. You'll have a Piacon brain link with them. You guys will be communicating about how far along you are in Red Dead Redemption. Right. Okay. So Red Dead Redemption is cowboys? Yeah, it's awesome. You have to take care of your horse. Oh, okay. Yeah, Piakon. Fuck that guy. Go Piakon. Oh, no. Cut it. No. Cut it. No. Come on, brother. Yeah, flip the boat. Okay. This guy is just one of the most unlikable dudes ever. Yeah, it doesn't really seem like any of their life jackets are properly secured. You know, which is like, I have second thoughts about this.

2:30:23I'm a marine biologist. well he shouldn't be participating in the death of sea creatures yeah okay oh in theaters my soul came out of my body when that happened when we saw it in the theater do you remember where we saw this I can't remember the movie theater was we went together in 2022 we did yeah I got a gigantic soda okay I had to go to the bathroom like four times um I guess it would have been Burbank I think it was Burbank yeah saw it in 3D shot you cake hole garvin have you been to south africa chris no this guy's australian he's australian okay is he what is he kiwi no i think he's an aussie jermaine jermaine is from new zealand yeah i believe so yeah okay this this vessel is in trouble this is sick cut him in half oh come on dog oh oh you're not gonna like this rope against your goat oh yes oh and there the there the arm goes flying detached yeah this guy really like loves the fact that everybody else died so he became captain right so he gets to yell abandon ship I'm the captain now oh that was sick that was a cool way to board a plane or board a boat I'm serious during this part of the movie I was like Jim is cooking yeah

2:31:52I often wonder about this. I find it hard to get directors to explain this specifically to me about designing action set pieces. The only person who really does it is Stahelski. He'll be like, this is how we did this? I was thinking this and we wanted to have this element because of this. And some of it is because the stunt coordinators and the stunt designers do a lot of that work. But Cameron, he's in the weeds. Yeah, he's very specific. I'd love to hear him do the telestrator breakdown of a scene. Oh, yeah. Yeah. is that Kiri? that is Kiri does she look like Sigourney Weaver to you yet? no okay I remember when I first saw it I was like oh that does look like Sigourney Weaver like I get it okay top five Sigourney Weaver rolls okay Ghostbusters yeah five okay I mean Ripley and Alien well that's one well that's one yeah Working Girl Working Girl is definitely in there only four wow okay Gorge three is the Gorge what's Sigourney's other best roles is Sigourney's Miles Taylor Anya Taylor-Joy I don't think you told me she was in that she plays the head of the CIA oh yeah what about the Paul Schrader movie is she in Card Counter or is she in she is in Constant Gardener and she is not the Constant Gardener Master Gardener Master Gardener she is electrifying she's incredible and I was like if we're gonna do Sigourney Weaver villain she is so So good.

2:33:22Questionable movie released in the last five years. Questionable about it to me. Galaxy Quest. That's a good one. You know, I was thinking of Copycat. That's one of the first ones that comes up. What's up with this son here? This is a problem for him? Like the eclipse that's happening? Oh, something happens during the eclipse that they explained earlier, but I don't remember what it is. It's like they lose their powers or something. Oh, no. That's bad. That's right. I pushed into the water. Sigourney, not as strong a filmography as you might think. she is in the Mandalorian and Grogu. Yes. Hmm.

2:33:55Yeah. Is her face? No, she's, she's, she's like their new, like operator. I think like she's sending them on missions or something. Mandalorian and Grogu. You're excited, Chris, or no, I'm not, man. What happened? What happened guys? So I guess you could put avatar in it. Would you put avatar one or two? I think one. Okay. Even though I like her. Oh, is Spider about to catch a bullet? She plays herself in Finding Dory? Didn't know that. Yes, she is on the screen at the aquarium, and she's like one of the guides explaining what's happening at the aquarium. I know because I just saw Finding Dory in theaters with Alice recently.

2:34:39Okay, that's nice. Her episode of Call My Agent was very good. I haven't seen it. The French one? Yeah, the French one. I don't think I saw that.

2:34:53but spider can't do super swimming right he's just a regular old human with corich's dna

2:35:05okay why is all of the um all of the production design yellow on these on these probably for safety precautions. Right. Color. The whole thing is for safety. Well, so you can see it. In the event of what? Like darkness under, under the sea. In, in, in the event of Pyakon coming up from behind and sinking the entire body on top of the vessel. Oh, he got shot. Oh no. Who's this? Who got shot? This is his older brother. He's bleeding out, dude. Gotta get Winslet to put hands on him. I did this, Oh, okay. So this animal is going to take him back where he needs to go. What do you think about the Navi siblings all calling each other bro?

2:35:52You know. Do you think in Jim's final draft script writing, he's like, comma, bro every time? Because that is what kids say to each other right now. Yeah. Like my niece. I saw my niece in New York in October. And my niece Madeline. And she was like, she called me bro the whole weekend. Like, bro, bro, bro. Check this out. Okay. Just 14. Well, that's nice. You know, you're young. But was Jim like ahead of the curve on that? Or like are all the kids copying Avatar? Yes. I think that they watch it every night. You don't think that they think Avatar is chopped? But maybe this is its cultural cachet impact.

2:36:30Oh, you think that's what started Bro coming back? Yeah, when Lowak was calling his brother Bro. That's definitely... All right. They're trying to save him. I can't believe how little in the tear he is. I'm kind of blown away. I did not remember this guy gonna bleed out what happens here man watch just keep watching yeah we're not gonna spoil things for you okay here comes this guy oh there she is oh there she is oh no this is really not what you want that's very sad okay to the forest yeah

2:37:06it's got a little chill you got a little chill I like these movies yeah I don't know what to say You're looking at me. I'm not going to ruin them for you. Yeah. I get it. I mean, it's very sad. Don't start crying, though. Don't be weird. It's sad.

2:37:26They lost their child. I know, and they're human. Like, you can see Zoe Saldana. You know, they do a good job of communicating the humanness in these emotions. Yeah, so that's awful. This is just like Hamnet. This is a lot like Lioness. Is it? Yeah, when she has to order in a drone strike on her own operative. Oh, boy. does she do it first episode dude first few minutes wow sets it up did you did you cry uh i got choked up at the part when the first lioness joins the marines and they're like why why do you want to be a marine and she's just like narrates the pamphlet back at him he's like bullshit why do you want to be a marine and then she's like i was being chased and a marine helped me and he's like then you know exactly what it means to be a marine wow that's beautiful do enlist that day i started sobbing that's great okay the machine's still there where do you think taylor sheridan nets out on the intention of going to vietnam i would love to find out with the taylor sheridan show about vietnam you think he's like good idea wrongly executed i i can't honestly he's one of the most mysterious minds in Hollywood.

2:38:39Absolutely. Many people are saying it's extremely hard to read what he thinks. What he juxtaposes is just so wild where he's just like Did you watch the most recent episode of Landman? Tell us. Multiple scenes of Allie Larder attempting to give Billy Bob roadhead. Mm-hmm. Sure. Juxtaposed with a chemical leak and Andy Garcia playing a Those are not juxtapositions. I'm not sure you know what that word means. There's nothing antithetical. No, they're tonal, tonal. Or strikingly different. Yes, there is. Watching four men being like, I'm dying of like a chemical leak while Allie Larder is like, baby, keep the car straight.

2:39:20And he's like, that's too much teeth. That's what's, that's said in this show. Too much, I mean, too much teeth. This is like a moment of parental grief and bonding and digging, you know, deep. I teared up during the scene when the kid died for Christ's sake. Yeah, let's go get our daughters. Yeah, here we go. Now it's fucking revenge time. Now it's fucking lioness time. Yes. This is why I've been wondering where Nateria is at. They kept Zoe on the bench and now she's, yeah. She's ready to fucking soar. It's Kawhi. Take the minutes limit off. He just completely blows out both knees in the second quarter.

2:40:01Kawhi, NBA great? All-timer? Great pitch, man. You know, when you think about it. Hawaii Leonard is a great pitch man? Yeah. I mean, he's an earner. Yeah. Cash a lot of checks. Where are you at on, what's it called? Aspiration. Asphyxiate? Aspiration. The tree planting startup that he was reportedly allegedly a spokesman for. Well, I know what you told me the last time we talked about this on the podcast. Did you ever get to the bottom of how much you invested in the company? In the tree company? No, because I was digging the trees and planting them myself. There we go. We know that about you.

2:40:41I borrowed a lot of money against my aspiration stock. You buried it. So where does he play? Is he still? He's a clipper. He's a clipper. He's still playing. Yeah, but his knees are giving him problems. But the legal focus on the NBA has moved instead to gambling. And so they're not as good. They've got some fires they have to put out in the national basketball. How do you feel about the health of the league? Well, I love the players. you know you love the players yeah i'm a player guy the player first

2:41:13sorry don't know if that's controversial you just said it with such ease like it's a thing you've said many times there's a lot of really like great young players david falk over here i love all my guys all my little boys that i keep in my stable oh my gosh I thought I was gonna choke on that water what if the Knicks go to the finals they're not but go ahead yeah why would you say that do you think the Knicks are going to the finals aren't they already beefing with each other don't they already hate Cat what are you talking about doesn't Mikael Mikael hates Cat because he doesn't defend no they're fine they're doing they're doing very well how do you know I mean I guess I don't know for sure I don't have Mikael on speed dial Mikael Bridges that's what Liz needs to do get to the bottom of this Mikael and Cat Ryan get back to work that's a hard story to break I think I think they could go to the finals I'm not saying they would win they would probably get their doors blown off for nothing no one will beat the Thunder for like several years I agree with that but if they go to the finals like am I I'm allowed to be excited about that right yeah for sure of course I would never I don't begrudge you any sports joy at all thanks and you've always been honestly more supportive than you need to be of me I I just I just don't like the Phillies I know Yeah.

2:42:30The other teams are, we're good. I know if you, Sixers, you know you haven't had a title in a long time. Oh, she's fucking shit up now. Yeah. Yeah. She's throwing arrows right in their eyes. She was doing this shit way before Taylor Sheridan knew about Saldana. Way before. Natiri was wrecking dudes.

2:42:52Is Stephen Lang still? Yeah, he is there. Yeah, there he is. So is this actually, is that a Zoe Saldana stunt double doing all this jumps and stuff. I think she does a lot, but there are definitely a lot of doubles. Yeah, a lot of stunt doubles as well. There is a lot of attention in that documentary. I wonder if he could have gotten these movies together much faster if the Navi were just normal height. You ever think about that? That's a note I would love to give him. If the Navi were just 5 '9". Right. Then we've got a regular cadence. You have a surprising amount of notes for James Cameron, the most successful director in the history of Hollywood.

2:43:28I wasn't here for a purpose. I wasn't here to just kiss this movie's ass, you know? That's true. I'm supposed to be... That's true. The voice... Thus far, is it any more like or unlike what you thought? I think this one's much more combat than I imagined. And much more, like, especially this last hour. Yeah. Has been a little bit more engaging. I probably talked less because I'm a little bit more... My eyes on the screen. Yeah. Because this is more up my alley. I said it a couple times. Punching each other, yeah. And I think if you listen... People psychically communicating with inanimate objects or animated, but whatever.

2:44:01You're not as into that. Yeah. You don't have a spiritual inner life. It's not true. I don't know if you didn't listen to my task pods, I guess. I didn't. What did you talk about? I was going down the road of reading Franciscan philosophers, Richard Rohr. But does that mean you have an inner spiritual life? How does that relate to task? Well, Richard Rohr's philosophy on life is that the task of life is to discover what you're supposed to do with the second half of it after you've set up like your your baseline personality and your beliefs okay and then like what do you do with that and does that correspond to how you're feeling right now i guess so yeah what is your task my task is to watch avatar okay and uh you know and i have experiences like this i i haven't decided yet but my spiritual life is is like an ongoing process as it is for every human you know oh no it's her bow more about I'm not like, it's dead.

2:44:54It's out, you know? Okay. You're open to new feelings. For sure. Yeah. Are you open to new feelings? No. I have plenty. Like, all right, I'm good. Like, you know, we're at capacity. For new things. Do you think your spiritual life is topped up? The tank is full? I don't think I have one, actually. I think I'm pretty dead inside in that way. Or the spiritual life is like all around us, you know? It's in the everyday. Sure. There we go. Can I tell you something? I'm feeling an awakening coming. For you? in your spiritual life. Do you think that that will subsequently change your attitude towards cinema?

2:45:28Like maybe Interconnected. You'll get rid of all this all this plastic in your life. No, interconnected. Art is my spirituality. You found the one Okay. spiritual ideology that promotes the acquisition of DVDs. No, I One Jesuit scholar was like go forth and collect. You haven't seen Wake Up Dead Man. no you've seen it yeah so it's all it's all about Brian Johnson's like test of faith yeah yeah and he I had him on the show which I guess will hear next week oh spider on the block here we don't want that we really don't want this this does clarify what has spider done for us thus far in this film he's just shown a discomfort with the aggression okay of his clone father's tendencies dependencies.

2:46:23And also we know that he grew up with these kids. Yeah. Right. So he's, he's, he's connected to them. He doesn't want to be killed by Natiri. That's for sure. Um, very quickly on the Ryan Johnson thing. My mom was extremely spiritual in the second half of her life. And one thing I shared with him is that she became very close friends with a priest. And then like, I would come home from school and the priest would just be there hanging out with my mom. And I'd be like, this is so strange. Um, but I was thinking about her opening her mind. in the second half of her life. Being more open to changing feelings.

2:46:54So I like what you're saying. You never know. I don't really like the Catholic Church specifically. That's the other thing. I like spirituality. I'm fine with that. Can you point to an organized religion of any kind where it's like at the end of the day I'm like... I think the Lutherans are nice. I don't know. I grew up with some Lutherans. Okay. You know. With Martin Luther? Yeah. Him. He had a lot of problems. A lot of ideas. Oh, so they got their whole squad back. Where's Spider?

2:47:29You can't let this dude live. Oh, cool. Okay, here they go. This is a former corporal and a colonel in hand-to-hand combat in the V-bodies. Very normal movie. Okay, while other people are swimming around and fire a ring of fire on water speaking of fire in the water watch dunkirk again yeah still goaded did you see qt's i sure did what'd you think i was i was like you and i are smoking one oh hold on the same brand of cigarettes my brother googling right quentin i mean that i would not put blackhawk number one yeah that drop was very cr but i was like i see you and i understand you but some real wow some real if you go through the ringer archives you We did Unstoppable and Dunkirk with him on the rewatchable, so no surprise to see those.

2:48:21I was surprised. I didn't know. I thought he was Social Network over Zodiac, and I was interested to see. Pretty good. This is good. We specifically have talked to him about that over Witch's Bet. I mean, that's a fierce debate. Toy Story 3 has been talking about that for years. He loves that movie. Some interesting, some major idiosyncratic picks, but I thought it was cool. Yeah. Good job.

2:48:48what do you think about Midnight Paris? Did you agree with him about his take that Martin Scorsese hasn't made a movie in the 21st century as good as West Side Story? I don't. I don't. But I think I think silence is wildly underrated. Oh, okay. And I would love to know what Quinn thinks about silence. Okay. Because it's not doing the thing that you know, West Side Story is doing a thing that Wolf and Jack just sent me a Paul Dano quote, a quote from Quentin. I heard it. I'm going to read it now. It's very severe. There will be blood, would stand a good chance of being number one or number two if it didn't have a big, giant flaw in it.

2:49:30And the flaw is Paul Dano. Obviously, it's supposed to be a two-hander, but it's also drastically obvious that it's not a two-hander. Dano is weak sauce man. He is the weak sister. Austin Butler would have been wonderful in that role. Wow. It keeps going. so I think listen I like Paul Dano very much wildlife wonderful film Paul Dano is a phenomenal actor one of the best actors of his generation in my opinion I didn't think that he worked in The Wizard of the Kremlin which is the Olivier Sass movie starring Vladimir Putin I did I should have saw it in Venice yeah about to be CR's best of 2026 Jude Law as Putin you know I didn't think Paul Dano was the perfect casting for that.

2:50:16You didn't. No. But, all right, everybody's entitled to their opinion. I love Paul Dino, in that movie especially. So, I don't agree. What are we getting? What's big next year?

2:50:32What's a big movie that's coming out? I mean, The Odyssey is coming out. Yeah. Will you go see this for the five-minute featurette? Will you go see the new Avatar for the five-minute? Okay. I'm not going to watch the five minutes. That's not worth$20 to you? No, it's not about money. It's about purity of experience. Okay. You want to be able to watch the trailer? I'm into it. I watched the teaser. I guess I'll watch the trailer. I don't want certain things spoiled for me. Okay. I don't want to see the sirens until I walk into an IMAX movie theater. I'm with him. Who's playing the sirens? Sidney Sweeney.

2:51:07Cloned. Uh-huh. You didn't agree about that? But it's Na 'vi sirens, right? This is a very protracted final battle between Korich and Jake Sully. Can Korich breathe underwater? He hasn't had this kind of training. Very good point. Oh shit, fucking sleeper hold. Yeah, it's like Roddy Piper down there. Trying to put him out. You know about Roddy Roddy Piper? You familiar with his work? No, but I have to sign up for a parent-teacher conference right now because I missed them. Can that wait like nine minutes until the movie's over? well do you want me to be able to podcast next you know what i just saw this week i don't know what you mean really loved like i can i can be here doing this work or i can get a good spot i already did my you know what i really love i saw this week that has a great fight scene and a great sleeper hold what's that splitsville oh yeah it was fun really good fight scene yeah um very very like elaborate stunt work right like smashing through glass tables yeah yeah i like those guys they're really funny okay very amusing to be like yeah we absolutely are married to adria or hona and dakota johnson just straight up hilarious i enjoyed that one yeah it's a fun movie yeah okay so they're swimming under the fire and he's oh he's jake's also gotta learn he also can't breathe did he did steven lang get out he did he didn't do the kate winslet training this would be you Chris 20 seconds oh so Stephen Lang lives to fight another day that sucks dude I'm just gonna keep watching the movies you need him to die well I assume this is gonna happen in 3 right what's gonna happen that he gets Vader'd or Palpatine'd hmm okay so now they're under you'll have to see when you go to see the Odyssey trailer a wreckage and then you know this is a pretty long underwater stunt at some point the novelty wears off it would be really funny underwater stuff this is a very long sequence a very funny sketch would be I get middle row middle of the row for the middle row of an IMAX theater right and after the Odyssey trailer protractedly climb over every single person to get out so I don't watch Avatar Fire and Ash you should go at like the 8am screening as well I guess so yeah yeah okay they've got jake just want you guys to know that this is what happens to me these days what i get a text from a friend yeah who works in the industry yeah someone i haven't talked to in a few weeks this has happened a couple times okay and he just says i'm hearing it's netflix oh okay oh that warner brothers and stuff all right and like i don't you know maybe it's true maybe it's not it's just a rumor well this is just what it's like now you know that's cool Every day.

2:54:02I don't think, I don't think Trump's going to have to happen, right? Is he? He might be out of office by the time this thing closes. That's true. We got to go to court in Delaware. It'll take two and a half years. Yeah. I guess so. All right. So, I don't even, who is, who's helping who right now? He thought it was his dead son. Oh, he thought he was a head. It's actually a low walk. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Oh.

2:54:29He's a tough dad. Yeah, he's not even giving his kid a fucking piece. He must have been raised in a challenging environment, right? Spider, man. What about you? I mean, Spider is just kind of like around. You see what he just did, though? I know, but he doesn't do very much of it. He's just like always there being like... He just saved Corich. He's just like, I'm so sorry. He did? His own dad? That's who he just dragged up to the shore. Okay, well... Are you serious? Yeah. This goes back in the... Spider's back out of my cool book now. Well... these stories are complicated, man. It's not that simple.

2:55:06That's the Navi clone of his own father. Yeah. Okay. What would you do? Your sincerity is throwing me off. There's got to be something in this world that you believe in. And if it's not God... What do I believe in? Yogurt. Yeah. Not that much. Okay. Come on, these movies bring this out of us. You know, you're confronting your fears. This is kind of silly, though. Right. So what's she confronting right now? What's silly about it? She's channeling Ewa. But she can't, or else she's going to have a seizure. Well, no, but she is connected to the natural mystical world. Okay. And... Kiri. Who is that?

2:55:50That's Jake and Lowak, his son. Oh, because Lowak's like, I've kind of mastered this whole water thing. Yes, he knows how to swim underwater with Pyakon. He's a master of the sea. Eerie is like we need the we need the natural world and the spirits of Ewa to save my family and where Sigourney Wallace is happening like the Sigourney the human part of her she's dead in jail is floating in like a gel bubble okay and Rabizi is back on earth yeah he's furiously masturbating right now no he's practicing his putting no he's fixing cameras you know I really want to have him on the show let's talk about just that just about VistaVision just about the camera stuff That seems cool.

2:56:31You think that would be interesting? Yeah, I do. Do you think he has a line where it's like, you know, because Euphoria is shooting in VistaVision? Yes, I heard. Oh my God, it is? I did not hear that. Okay, everybody. How shitty does the movie have to be where they're like, but we're going to shoot on VistaVision? And he's like, I'm not going to fix the cameras for you. I'm sorry. You know, it's funny. Like Ballerina 2, you know? I was just on the Pure Cinema podcast last week to talk about the New Beverly December calendar. And there was a movie on the calendar that was shot in VistaVision. And it kind of like, it speaks to, but also a little bit undermines what you're describing.

2:57:06A movie, it's a Humphrey Bogart movie called, shoot, what is the movie? We're No Angels. Magic Jellyfish. It's... And now Natiri's wearing it. Bogart, Aldo Ray, and Peter Usinoff play three escaped convicts from Devil's Island who basically like kidnap slash befriend a shopkeeper and his family over Christmas. And it's just like an all-in-one location Christmas movie. Fun movie. I liked it. Shot on VistaVision. It's not really terribly cinematic at all. It's just like Once Upon a Time. It was a format that just was like standard for its time. So it's not like so crazy to do that. But when you use it for one battle or you use it for The Brutalist, you expect that it's going to be.

2:57:49And now a bunch of other movies. There's a couple of other filmmakers who are using it now. Well, Brady Corvett is going to make a four-hour movie with it, right? Yes, that's what he says. Rated X. We are doing like a lot of James Cameron greatest hits in this one. Like we had the Terminator 2, we had a lot of Aliens, we had the Terminator 2 section, now we're doing some Titanic. Let me ask you a question about that. Yeah. So like late style, right? Yeah. Where a filmmaker is like, fuck your criticisms of like, I'm repeating myself, this is my thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you like that? Yes, of course.

2:58:20I mean, I think it can - I like it when it's in a more contained package. Well, it can be done poorly and it can be done well, but I think that you're not repeating yourself, you're investigating your interests, whether they are thematic or... I mean, like, he is doing the settings and conflicts of movies that he's done before, but all of this is, like, new tech, right? So, and, like, set in a totally different world. So he's not repeating himself. Do you think it's at all applicable? Like, is anybody going to use any of this technology to tell their stories? I think it's hard for anybody to get$500 million from Disney to make these movies.

2:58:53So at this scale, I think it will be a challenge. but like to me the Nolans and the Villeneuve's are in the tradition of Cameron which is like we can go really big and we really are trying to do something new if you want me to be honest here's what I think is that so many of these stories that are essentially creating fantasy mythologies it really is it's the buffet and you pick which one tastes good to you this one doesn't for me but I have ones that you're like what the fuck are you talking about what's an example of that I probably was more into Thrones than you yeah I liked it though yeah like I definitely wasn't like I'm not watching that I was in and out fair enough I'm I'm genuinely curious because it's not so far afield from stuff that you like which is why I find it so interesting and even Amanda who's very skeptical of this stuff historically is like I find things to like in the Avatar movies well I found things to like in the first two in the first two yeah yeah You'll be less high on the third one.

2:59:53Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Spoiler alert. Embargo broken. The embargo is broken. So, is this a social reaction? We're being social.

3:00:03Yeah. Yeah. If they find that three hours into this podcast, you've expressed some doubts about the third Avatar movie, I think. I think they're going to be okay with that. I have some doubts too. But there's things I loved about it as well. Okay, so now he's saved his dad. That's not a review. For the 45th time. All right. Oh, I want to see this scene. And he deployed his... Thank you.

3:00:29do you think James Cameron's time would be better spent making Predator Badlands. Fire in the background, that's foreshadowing. Yeah. Nicely done. You're a real James Wood. Okay, so he's going to ride that horse way? You bring your kid with you or what, bro? He's torn.

3:00:52He's not that torn. There he goes.

3:00:58Yeah. Painful. He's chosen the Na 'vi. More echoes of one battle. Except him. Right. Because he's my real father. He's betrayed them twice now. Yeah. You think a lot of people are like, I'm listening to all three hours and 12 minutes of this podcast? Well, you know, we're sundowning a little bit here. It's okay. Are we? I feel ready to go. I'll do another one. Don't you think that I'll do the first I think if people listen to two hours in, they went the whole way through. For sure. What do you think they're doing right now? I don't know. I don't understand how people listen to this podcast. People go running.

3:01:29People watch it on their screens. People, you know, I don't know what the children are up to. Long haul truckers? Yeah. Long haul truckers bringing American goods? You think a lot of long haul truckers are checking out Big Pick? I'm sure there are. James Cameron was a long haul trucker before, yeah, and then and checked out Did he tell him I saved my dad, by the way? He did not communicate that. Yeah. So, conveniently left that out. A son for a son. This is heavy shit, man. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like you're laying it a little sick with me right now. Oh, good. Now they're singing. What do you mean?

3:02:04I don't understand what you're saying. You're missing the sincerity bone. No, that's not true at all. You gotta bring it in. That's not true. It's not all lioness. I want to masturbate to Zoe Saldana stuff. It can't be all that. It can't be this post-ironic Gen X. No fucking way, dude. I'm out here crying at Andor. You just don't know. You don't know about the revolution. It's like, oh, it's actually Marxist, but Disney produced it. You know? No, man. What about being like, fuck? parents and their kids. This is deep shit. Is this a funeral? For the son that got killed, right? I guess so. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a ceremony.

3:02:43Okay. We're getting back to the failures of the father. Yep. I think I changed my mind. I want to, when I die, I want to go out like the boyfriend in Midsommar in the bear suit. In the bear suit? Oh, yeah. Yeah, okay. alive inside the tent. That seems good. Not the old people off the tent. When you go out, we're going to do a giant kind of pontoon barge of tubers in a lake in Tennessee. And what do you want to do? Just celebrate Amanda with beers. What beer do you want us to drink at your Viking funeral? Natty Light? I found some really good ones at the beer store on Thanksgiving. Are they all IPAs though?

3:03:30They're like 9%. No, they had good names and stuff and I almost sent you a bunch but then I was like, you don't really need an update from this freezing cold beer store on Thanksgiving morning in Philadelphia. They're always like Squirrel Master's Machete. The Hopsecutioner is still the best one. That's the best one. It's a very cute little baby. We're Lion King-ing now. What do you think you do with a tail, Chris? Okay. Yeah? I think so. Yeah. I had a cat with no tail. Whoa. And I think it's better to have a tail. If you're among tail people. It's better to have a tail. Yeah, my cat kind of looks like a rabbit.

3:04:05Did you feel...

3:04:11Did you ever feel like an outsider in your life? Sure, man. Yeah. Did you? Yeah. When was that? Like right now? No, I'm curious. No, I mean right now. This has been really weird. You crying about Avatar. But they're shaking hands. It's not what I thought was going to happen. They're sea people now. I didn't cry. Don't say that. Okay. What happened to Pyakon? He's around. Creation tree? Oh, yeah. He helped smash the boat. Creation tree. Spirit tree. Spirit tree. That's Pyakon. Okay. I was just like, where is he? Yeah. I just, you know, he disappeared from the narrative for a good 45 minutes there.

3:04:54Okay. so they can connect to the spirit tree because it doesn't give them a seizure she's dialing in and what's she gonna get yeah it's Black Friday she's making some deals cyber Monday she's signing up she's logging you got anything good oh my god you can't even believe how much physical media I got on Black Friday that's nice insane insane hauls she caught me anything I have some stuff at home for you I have some stuff at home for you did I tell you what I did for the unboxing boy gimmick no I'll tell you when we're done it's going up over the weekend. Okay. So now they're in the past or in the future or in the spirit world.

3:05:30They're in the present time, right? Is it a... She connected to the spirit tree. No, you're right. They're reconnecting with their child. Oh, and now he can be nice instead of giving him a fucking hard time. He might have a fish. Okay. Come on, CR. This is real shit. What if you could go to the spirit world and reconnect with your dead child? This is fucking crazy stuff, man. I can't. What does that matter? You were a kid once? Yeah, I know, I know. You're a living, feeling person? Yeah. Yeah. That's very beautiful. Are there limitations to the number of times you can go to the Spirit Tree? That's a great question, Amanda.

3:06:09It's like a ticket situation when you go to a carnival and you run out of tickets. But even so, it's like with any drugs. Did you see Eternity? I did. You can actually, they have tickets to go through the Spirit Tree. I have many notes about Eternity. I have so many thoughts in this. Is it doing well? It's very limited reviews. Yeah. I think everyone should see it. I think it's a catastrophic failure with some interesting things in it. I think that it was a very fun premise. And for the first hour or 45 minutes, I was like, I'm having fun. And then they can't really lay in the plane. I think Miles Teller might be more interested in golfing than being in movies.

3:06:43To his credit in the movie Eternity, which is this is the end of Avatar, The Way of Water, by the way. Wait, what did he just say to set up Fire Nash? just that they're staying connected to the world. But he doesn't know Stephen Lang still works. He doesn't know that. That will become very clear. Here we see. Oh, man. Jack Cameron. Fucking whales. Oh, great. And the weekend song over the credits. That was, we laughed so hard when that was revealed. That's really, really funny. That was great. That song has just disappeared to time. Yeah. Okay, so you didn't like Eternity. I liked Miles Teller.

3:07:17was like, I'm just playing a grouchy old Jewish guy from New York, which is not really in his historical skill set. And he was doing the accent, pretty good accent. Is he a grouchy old Jewish guy who has now been re-projected himself? He's an older guy who then lands in the afterlife. He goes back to himself at his happiest time. James Cameron gives himself editing credit in this. He edits these films. Okay. He didn't give himself credit. But he's cutting the movie. you don't scoff when Steven Soderbergh does it that's true Sean that's true I'm so disappointed we got some more animals did you think I was going to have like a road to Damascus moment with these movies I thought you know your heart is different than mine

3:08:06this was better than I thought it was going to be okay action sequences you don't have to say that you don't it's done now is it any different than you thought it would be Not really. Not really. Not really. And would you... That's a cool fishpontosaurus. Would I go see the third one? No, I know you're not going to do that. I wasn't planning on it, but I feel like I should probably experience one of these movies on a big screen. My gut tells me there will not be a four and five. My gut also tells me that the movie will make significantly less than... The new one will make significantly less than this.

3:08:41So this made two, Bill? 2.3. I think... I think you're correct. I think it's less of a novelty now. I don't know that the word of mouth is that great. I don't think it's going to be nearly as strong as it was for this one. It's three hours and 17 minutes. And Cameron is already shopping like the other projects he wants to do besides Avatar 4 and 5. Exactly. Apparently that was all a stunt to get Disney to pay for the fourth movie. Okay, well. Like his tactic is here's some other stuff I can do. Oh, threatening to do other stuff? Okay. You may also like Avatar. I don't know. You may. You may not.

3:09:18We usually talk through the entire credits. Okay. It's maybe quite long. Where are you? You have a dinner date? No. Original Avatar themes composed by James Warner. I have some stuff to watch tonight. What do you have to watch? Pluribus. Okay. New Pluribus is out? We're recording tomorrow for later in the week. Let's see. I was going to watch the finale of The Chair Company. I haven't seen that yet. And I was going to watch Blue Moon. oh yeah it's wonderful that's a lovely movie a lovely film yeah I watched Nouvelle Vogue the other day what'd you think of that? I thought it was very charming yeah yeah it's fine I mean it's like it's just very there's a cognitive dissonance between a movie that is very sweet and straightforward that is about a movie that was so formally groundbreaking yes yeah but I think maybe that's the only way you could have done that and I I just love that Linklater's like I'm obsessed with art and artists and I want to tell the stories.

3:10:17I like that too. It's unique to find a film with zero dramatic tension. Right. Mm-hmm. What is the dramatic tension of Nouvelle Vogue? That doesn't mean that every movie has to have dramatic tension, but it's unusual to find a movie from a big studio. If anything, I think it's also supposed to be a pamphlet about those filmmakers and introducing people to 30 people from that era. well I think we learned a lot today I mean I think we did well considering the length yeah I followed along with what was going on yeah it's a fairly straightforward film I think it would have been helpful to see this before Avatar Fire and Ash you know fully agree however and I'm saving this for way at the end yeah Avatar 3 repeats many of the beats of Avatar 2 much of it structurally you're actually like seeing both okay in a way that is somewhat confusing so there's just like another part of Pandora that's on fire but like on purpose no it's not that at all I don't want to spoil anything but just like literally like the framework of like battles and how the sequences are being set up and things that transpire now do you think that that's because it's conceived as like a third and five or do you think it's because there's like this is the game engine and this is what we're inside of well it's come I said this earlier it's come out that he wrote two and three together and then split them up.

3:11:47And so it's kind of a similar to Wicked and Wicked for Good where, you know, like splitting up Wicked and Wicked for Good made Wicked for Good so much worse. Which is apparently Craig Mazin's idea. Yes. Yes. Okay. Which was terrific for the movie studio and terrible for film goers. That movie's going to end up making like$200 million less than the previous movie. That never happens. Is it really? Yeah. Yeah. It's going to make like $620 million or something. People are not psyched about it. They really don't like it. It's too bad. So I think because they were written together, it was kind of like the repetition of the beats was part of the original intention of the one story.

3:12:24And then you split it up and you're like, so I just watched Way of Water to get ready for Fire and Ash. And then I watched Fire and Ash and I was like, wow. Same movie. This also features a scene with whales and ships. And you're like, we just saw that in the last movie. So it doesn't have that same novelty like you're saying, Amanda. But there's still some sequences that are incredible. the song chord by Zoe Saldana. All right. Did you know she sings a song on the soundtrack? I didn't, but she sings in, uh, in the film. Amelia, right? Amelia Perez. Yeah. I did see that. Was that number one on your list last year?

3:12:56Where was that? Number three. Can't remember what my top five was last year. What was it? Number one was civil war. I'll never forget. Oh yeah. That was the best thing you've ever done. Yeah. So proud of you. What was, I'm worried that my top five is too chalky this year. I think mine is like unsurprising. Though I've got like, I have an Amanda twist, but I'm not like... Also, it's like I don't see you in person enough and you really throw me off now. So like when I was like, what about this? Is this your top five? And you were like, nope. I was like, what? Like, who's he become? What's going on?

3:13:34Who's he become? Yeah. And now you're tearing up over the death of a Navi boy, you know? but you might not put weapons in your top five have i ever made it seem like i don't love stories

3:13:50i love a story sure my whole life is getting invested in stories yeah yeah yeah okay that's what it's all about yeah man it's letting someone take us away on a journey crying or is it just the lights are you just really tired what do you know i'm wide awake i'm deeply engaged my eyes are open and i see you both what's happening are you method acting no okay because i don't have weapons in my top five i've changed so it's not going to be in your top five at the moment it's not in my top five you're surprised to hear that i just thought you were my disgusting brother and we were like right now weapons is number seven on my list okay okay is it is it like is it on letterboxd is it available can i just go look nope it's on Letterboxd, but it is private.

3:14:36Okay. It will stay private until I've seen all the movies from this year. Okay. That's the discipline. That's what I do every year. I don't know if it's the right way to do it, but it's what I do. I have to watch, you know, eight hours of television drama series. You've had some good ones this year, I feel like. My choices? No, like TV shows. I feel like this was better than last year. Oh, this was the top of the top for TV this year is among the best of the decade, at least. What were they? Purimus, Task, Adolescence. Yeah, I mean... Andor, The Pit. Andor, yeah. Was Andor this year? Yeah. The Pit.

3:15:10Yeah. It's a good year. Yeah. That's cool. Lowdown. Yeah, I still haven't seen that. I'd like to watch that. Yeah, you'd really like it. I know. My guys are on it. Stories. I love a story. Yeah. You don't like stories? I do, and what I really like is when... She likes political journalism. Right. What I like is when people identify themselves as storytellers, you know, and then misquote Joan Didion in order to justify their political careers for lack thereof. no spoiling for Beast in Me but Claire Danes basically says we tell ourselves stories in order to live in Beast in Me yeah listen I don't that's not what I want someone to tell me a story okay yeah you should say that to Alice when she's like dad read me a story you're like tell me a story she will that's something she can do that's amazing it is amazing I brought my whole heart to this podcast that was beautiful I want to say thank you to both of you for doing this entire three hours and 15 minute recording.

3:16:06You're so welcome, Sean. Thank you to our producer, Jack Sanders. Yeah. For engineering and navigating this tricky situation. I want to say thank you to the listeners for spending all this time with us. This is definitely the most popular episode in the history of this show. As soon as it's published. It'll probably do numbers. You think so? Not like wicked numbers, but it'll do numbers. I want to say that later this week, we shall return with Adam Naiman and we'll talk about our top five favorite films of 2025 we sure will on Gladys voters stay in line you're revealing titles just saying while you turn your back so weapons Blackphone 2 The Gorge The Gorge Materialist Materialist you've already given away four or five Ballerina okay

3:16:56okay we'll see you then

3:17:01Bye.