Science Gone Wrong Movie Draft (w/ Christiaan Funkhouser)

Eli (00:02.115)
Hello and welcome to the Establishing Shot, a podcast where we do deep dives into directors and their filmographies. I am your host Eli Price and we are here on episode 65 of the podcast with a returning guest from last week and also previous episodes. Christian Funkhouser is joining me today. We are in an in -between week.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (00:22.754)
Woohoo!

Eli (00:28.487)
We are in the middle of covering the middle career of Steven Spielberg, his movies of the 90s and 2000s. But this week we are inspired by our Jurassic Park episode from last week, going to do a movie draft. And today we're going to do a science gone wrong movie draft. So these will be movies like in Jurassic Park where

the scientific advancement, whatever it may be, is going terribly wrong for the world and the movie. So yeah, that's what we're gonna be doing. Our movie drafts, Christian has done one with me before, so he's familiar, but, no. But for those of you that maybe this is your first movie draft episode, basically we go back and forth.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (01:13.236)
I lost.

Eli (01:22.327)
drafting movies from the category and then you, the listener on the social medias get to decide later on who had the better movie draft. yeah, it's just a fun little thing. So we get to talk about movies from a specific category and yeah, have a little competition built into it. But yeah, so I, so.

Eli (01:51.245)
Here's the thing, Christian, I didn't say this before we started. I should have. When I have first time guests, I let them pick first. But then if they come back again, then I pick first. It's only fair, you know. If you come back on again, you'll get to pick first again. Go back and forth. So yeah, I feel like it's only fair and it's...

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (01:53.924)
great. no.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (02:06.03)
Okay.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (02:11.052)
Okay, so what did do? Okay. That's fair.

Eli (02:18.379)
I guess it's technically my show so I can do what I want. And I did let you pick first last time so. Yeah, maybe it was a curse and not a blessing. So maybe you'll win this time. I don't think so, but we'll see. You might, I don't know. Yeah, so.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (02:21.356)
You can do what you want, yep.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (02:25.772)
It did not help, so...

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (02:31.512)
Yeah.

Eli (02:41.143)
These, the category this week, inspired by Jurassic Park. So this will be kind of, I guess the other name for this is the Jurassic Park Memorial Draft. We're gonna set Jurassic Park aside. It's gonna be the main honorable mention. So we're not gonna draft it, but we are drafting.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (03:02.093)
Jurassic Park 2 is on the table. I'm just kidding. I would assume the whole franchise is out.

Eli (03:05.495)
I can't, I, that's what I was thinking, but I guess I didn't really specify that. So if you like half of your movies you were considering were Jurassic Park movies, I guess there's nothing I can do now. But, but yeah, so these are going to be movies where science in some way has gone terribly wrong. Me and Christian, we're kind of talking about it over text leading up to this.

we were talking about, so it can be maybe biological, as in the case of Jurassic Park. Maybe it can even be technological scientific advancements going wrong. it could be like, you know, technology advancements and technology throwing things into chaos. So we talked very minimally about this.

You know, so it's kind of up for our own interpretation of how this, what movies apply to this category. And we can get into that as we get through the draft. But, personally, I was thinking through movies and I was thinking, okay, I want to pick movies where this is like actually a major part of the movie. Is the science going wrong? And so I tried to stay away from movies where

Yes, okay, the science went wrong, but technically that's kind of background information. It's not really a focus of the movie. It's just kind of like an explanation of why things are the way they are, but no one, it's not really a theme of the movie or really like matters that much because now you're just dealing with the consequences because there's a lot of movies like that that I could have had on my list, but

That's just a restriction I put on myself. You might have thought about it. How did you think about this as you were preparing? Like what were you thinking of as you tried to come up with movies?

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (05:01.9)
Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (05:06.008)
So for me, as I was thinking about the stuff, a lot of it was...

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (05:13.634)
the catalyst for the reason the world exists that way or what's happening in it or what happens in the movie or during the crux of the movie is science gone wrong. so part of it is like maybe they're just kind of learning how to adapt within this world where science went wrong and things like that. But then also maybe everything's fine and then science goes wrong at the end.

Eli (05:17.526)
Hmm

Eli (05:42.605)
Sure, okay.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (05:42.974)
Or, and so a lot of it may be kind of like, did they, how was that incorporated into the story? And then how did the story work to overcome that?

Eli (05:52.559)
Yeah, okay, so you might end up with some movies that I did not consider or considered and decided to not have it on my list because you're because it sounds like the way you're thinking about it too is like It's still important if they're dealing with the consequences of it of like what do we do now? And yes, I totally get that too. But yeah, so Yeah, let's let's go ahead and jump into it and we can kind of

flesh that out more as we go. And so yeah, I'm going to make my first pick. This is a movie that I had been wanting to watch for a few years now that I had never gotten around to watching. And this was the perfect excuse to finally watch this movie. And it has become my number one pick for this draft. it's I'm going to pick the fly.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (06:22.606)
page six.

Eli (06:50.659)
from 1986 by David Cronenberg. Appropriately enough, the connection point of Jeff Goldblum, who is the star of this movie. Have you ever seen The Fly, Christian? man. It is... Okay, the science goes, let me just tell you, terribly wrong. Yeah. He has tele...

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (07:03.362)
I have not. I think it's gonna be too much for me.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (07:16.258)
I know the overall, like, synopsis of it and stuff like that. Yeah.

Eli (07:20.611)
teleportation pods and so he's kind of come up with a way to teleport things. He's working on how to teleport objects that are alive, getting the computer system to, you know, understand how to teleport those objects and not just inanimate objects. And he at one point decides to teleport himself. Little does he know a fly has flown into the tele...

pod with him and yeah I won't get into you know our main episodes are spoiler I'm trying not to spoil too much of these movies but let's just say things go terribly wrong this movie gets real gross at some points so if there's a little bit of body horror element in here in this movie so if you can't handle that sort of thing I probably don't recommend this movie but man it is

It is so well made. The effects are great. The design of it all is great. Jeff Goldblum is great in it. He just goes manic crazy. Yeah, it's all just really good. And it's just like, to me, it's not just that I thought the movie was phenomenal. It's just like the epitome of this category of science gone wrong.

So yeah, that's my first pick.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (08:52.982)
I think one of the things with science gone wrong is you've got like, is it just like a natural evolution of the science that happens? Is it intentional evil? Is it unintended consequences? Or in the case of I think the fly, is it an accident? And is

Eli (09:11.979)
Yeah, it's kind of an accident slash unintended consequences for sure. But it is due to like total hubris and ego. There's also like some, like as, I feel like David Cronenberg also has like sexual undertones in a lot of his movies too. So there's some of that there too, kind of a...

Eli (09:42.369)
examination or critique of masculinity in that way. That's definitely in this movie. yeah, it's a great movie. Definitely recommend it if you can handle some of the gross body horror stuff. It's not like the whole movie isn't that, but there's a few scenes that are rough. There's a fingernail scene in particular that I'm like, I couldn't look at the screen the whole time.

I had to look away for a few moments of that. if that tells you anything.

Eli (10:19.265)
All right, Christian, where are you going with your first pick?

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (10:25.12)
man, there's, my goodness. It is. I would say.

Eli (10:27.949)
Pressure's on.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (10:34.504)
My first one is going to be. no, what? I think it's rise of the planet of the apes. The new one, the first one in the new one. Yeah. I think it's it really hits that science gone wrong because like you've got the people altruistic reasons we're going to cure all timers and then they're they're testing it on the monkeys and the the.

Eli (10:45.131)
Okay, yeah. That's the first one. Yeah. Great pick.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (11:03.778)
the apes they get, they become smarter. And then the guy tries to stop. Well, OK, but anyway, it becomes smarter without getting into like all the stuff. And I think it's just one of the pit. And then new advances try. And then it's new advances come in there, but they try to fix it kind of without trying to get too spoilery. They try to fix it. And but what ends up happening is more and more.

Eli (11:26.285)
Yeah.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (11:32.748)
Sorry, it goes from an injection to an air, whatever that's called.

Eli (11:36.525)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli (11:40.132)
air. Yeah.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (11:41.016)
where it's transmitted via air. And that's how you get all the other monkeys that become smarter. And I think it's just a great, whereas I think the original one was they just evolved to become smarter and things like that. But in this one, it is because of science and they're trying to fix this. And and then you can see how they're laying the foundation for eventually it happening with turning into the world where Charlton Heston will eventually. Yep. And I.

Eli (11:56.779)
Mm -hmm.

Eli (12:07.261)
Planet of the Apes. Yeah, it's a great one for sure, and it kicks off a really... it's actually the weakest, I think, of the three of that trilogy, in my opinion, and I think most... I feel like that's the consensus is it's the weakest of the three, but it is the one where the science goes wrong. So that's what I was thinking about when we were talking beforehand.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (12:28.206)
Because I think they were trying to.

Eli (12:38.033)
of like do we do you take what which one do you take in the franchise and take the one where the science goes wrong yeah that's exactly the one i was thinking of too so

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (12:47.276)
Okay, yep. And that's part of what I was thinking, because was like, because I'm like, so do I want to franchise or because, but that's the one where the science goes wrong. And I think that, and then if you're familiar with the movies from back in the 60s, then you all know that it gets very wrong. And we just haven't gotten there yet. But I think I also think it's a really good reimagining of it to where it's like, we're updating it to be more modern. And we're also because

Eli (12:53.186)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli (13:03.39)
Yeah.

Eli (13:10.571)
Mm -hmm. Yes.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (13:17.76)
In the old movies, they kind of went backwards. Like, here's this, and now we're going backwards to explain how it happened. And then in the new one, we're actually starting from the beginning. I think it can be. I think that's one of the things that was important to me is that it was just as a movie in general, that it kind of respected the source material. And it didn't just rehash the old thing. So was unique enough. So Rise would be.

Eli (13:28.886)
Mm -hmm.

Eli (13:42.679)
Yeah, Yeah. And the Caesar character is just phenomenal.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (13:49.186)
Yes. Is that the one that's done by Circus, right? Okay, yep. He's just fun. He's a phenomenal actor,

Eli (13:52.515)
Yeah, Circus does Caesar. Yeah. yeah. All right. That was a good pick. I, with my second pick, am going to go with the 2015 film by Alex Garland, Ex Machina. Have you seen this one, Christian? Ex Machina.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (14:20.364)
Maybe.

Eli (14:22.025)
It's Dom Al Gleason and Oscar Isaac. It's basically this young programmer gets invited or wins, kind of like wins a prize to go stay and learn for like a week or so with this like, I guess world renowned.

Programming guy that Oscar Isaac plays and he gets there and he finds out that he has created these this AI Woman and she he's basically having him give her I can't remember what they call it in the movie, but he's basically like testing her to see if he thinks she's real And he knows she's an AI like he tells the Gleason character that

she's an AI, but he still wants him to like test her and you know, basically things go wrong. But I feel like I don't want to get too deep into that because I think it's a, this is a really, really, really phenomenal movie. Just the design of it is incredible. It's in his like lab, I guess you would say for

lack of a better term is in the middle of nowhere so it's completely isolated it's just him them two and like the AI woman basically on you know in the middle of nowhere so there's nowhere to go and so the tension is incredibly well crafted the ideas are really really intriguing just a really really great movie so that's

Yeah, I won't get into exactly how things go wrong, but just suffice it to say that they do in fact go wrong.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (16:28.258)
That is intriguing. Does it and and if it's a spoiler, that's fine, too. So, you know, avoid it. But does it have anything to do with DSX Machina?

Eli (16:41.943)
Well, you know, that's the that's that's where the name comes from.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (16:44.044)
Is that kind of that's kind of where the name kind of comes from? OK.

Eli (16:50.572)
I.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (16:50.991)
That's the, for those who may not know, that's the idea of like, there's an impossible situation and then magically something happens that is able to solve that impossible situation.

Eli (16:55.34)
Right.

There's an item or there's a person that shows up that acts as the god. It's Latin for god in the machine or god out of the machine. And it's like something that solves a plot hole or a plot problem. So it's not really that. I think it's just using that Latin from out of the machine to.

to indicate the idea of personhood in a machine, can a machine have personhood sort of thing, which is a typical AI question. anyway, yeah, it's a great movie. no, it doesn't, I don't think it derives from that plot term exactly. But yeah. All right, where are you going with your next pick?

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (17:52.91)
So kind of in the...

This is a rough one. I don't exactly like the movie, but I think it's a great example of it. Stanley Kubrick's 2001. the idea with it, the reason why I chose it is because I was...

Eli (18:03.2)
Okay.

Eli (18:07.436)
Okay.

Eli (18:12.279)
Okay, yeah.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (18:24.436)
doing some thinking about it, because I thought that you've and this is kind of spoilery ish. But in the end, I can I mean, it's generally fine, right? This is kind of a popular one. Because I think this.

Eli (18:37.315)
Yeah, I mean, if you haven't seen 2001, when did it come out? It's late 60s. Like you've had plenty of time to see it, you know. Yeah.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (18:45.038)
Yeah, it's like. Right after the moon, the actual moon landing, the interesting there, there's a whole lot with it, but I don't necessarily enjoy watching the movie, but I appreciate it, if that makes sense. But in the end, what ends up happening is how 9000 he is, he isn't he's sentient, he's a machine thing and he ends up kind of. Well, OK, so then back for a second.

Eli (18:58.882)
Yeah.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (19:12.546)
So a lot of times in movies where you have like an AI or robots, there's always like laws like Isaac Afzimov's and his three laws type thing. This is a situation where the machine was not given any of those laws and is basically almost like a child. And it's given.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (19:36.943)
And so it's man, we can spoil, right? We just said that we can. Because I think it's part of why chose it.

Eli (19:42.349)
Well, yeah, mean, yeah, basically how, you know, turns on his human counterparts for the sake of the mission, I guess you would say.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (19:54.156)
Yeah. How was how was given a secret mission? But he was also told that no one else can know about it. And so where I think it was interesting in the science gone wrong area is because it dealt with like the reality of it, like it almost like brings the robot in the psychosis where it's like it has an almost like a nervous breakdown of like, have to keep this secret. Number one prime directive. But then also.

Eli (20:01.89)
Yes.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (20:22.486)
Number one prime director, I'm supposed to help these people. I don't need to finish my another prime director said that I need to finish this mission. And so he turns on Dave and he ends up doing stuff so he can complete his mission. And then he doesn't know how to respond. So it's almost like giving in that one. It's not so much that Hal is a mastermind of evil that turns bad. It's that he's like a child who's been told not to tell someone something, but then has to tell someone something. And I think

Eli (20:30.083)
Mm

Eli (20:48.14)
Mm

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (20:52.718)
So I find like that is a very interesting science gone wrong because like it doesn't have Isaac Asimov's roles. But then we kind of get to see the conclusion. But then there are other times where you do have Isaac Asimov's roles and it leads to an even worse thing happening. So it's kind of an interesting thing. And of course, the movie shot beautifully and there's a lot of really interesting. Kubrick is pretty, you know, he's

Eli (21:06.188)
Yeah.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (21:22.488)
good at what he does. But I just think that that's a, that also gets into like you had mentioned with AI like living and is it alive and whatnot. And cause he's that's where he's like, I'm not feeling well, Dave type thing. I can't do that. And so I think that that's a very intriguing. So that's when we're like science is fine and then it goes wrong at the end, but that propels what happens next.

Eli (21:36.883)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Eli (21:50.755)
Yeah, Yeah. And I did think about 2001. just, I don't know. guess I think about 2001, I guess, differently than like the science and the technology being like a main, a major thing. But yeah, the way you, like your perspective totally makes sense for this category.

for sure. yeah, 2001 to me is like a 10 out of 10, one of those 10 out of 10 movies. I think it's incredible. It's an incredible movie. Yeah, and I think I've probably taken it in a draft before too, so good for me to get some other ones out there. Yeah. All right, number three.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (22:27.874)
wow.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (22:42.126)
That's very fair, yeah.

Eli (22:48.963)
I know I've taken this in a draft before too, but it's just too perfect for this. And it's a movie that I love. It is 1931 Frankenstein, the original tight 70 minutes of Dr. Frankenstein creating this monster and this monster trying to figure out what it is. And it's...

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (23:13.571)
Mmm.

Eli (23:16.795)
There's just like these moments of just like pure and but like there's this moment of the the Frankenstein's monster like lifting its hands up and like in agony and You know, it didn't choose to be created. But here it is and it has to figure out like is it really human? Is it really? What is it? What does it do? What how can it?

how should it interact with the world around it? Just a very like, to me, yeah, like it's a 1931 movie, so like the effects feel old, but even like the design of it is just really, really well done. And I just find like the things that it explores really like profound.

and the imagery adds to that. So I love this movie. If you've never seen this original Frankenstein movie, know, it's a spooky month is is right here. It's it's coming. So throw pick a night. Pick a Friday night to throw Frankenstein on. It's 70 minute. Come on. It's, you know, a tight story. Yeah, I just love Frankenstein. It's a great movie.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (24:33.4)
sub -prime. Yeah.

Eli (24:41.259)
and the classic science gone wrong. So, yeah.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (24:43.714)
That very much so. And I like how it has, think part of, I think adding that moral and philosophical thing of like, is what happens, is it right? And like, am I a human? What is a human? Like, I think that's a very, that's like sugar on top of the science gone wrong thing. Which is kind of why I liked Space Odyssey for it. Cause it's like, cause I had never thought of it about like, I'd always just thought that how it went crazy.

Eli (24:55.403)
Mm

Eli (25:01.325)
yeah, it is, yeah. All right, what you got next? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (25:13.122)
And then he was, but then I was like, wait a second. my, Man.

Eli (25:18.881)
Ha ha.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (25:24.654)
okay. So, I think we would be remiss to not include this one. So I think I just gotta grab it up. Terminator.

Eli (25:39.127)
first one.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (25:41.14)
I like the second one best, if we go to where everything goes. Well, now where does it actually go wrong? I guess it goes wrong with Genesis.

Eli (25:48.865)
Yeah, don't do those ones though. Do the originals. Do either T1 or T2.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (25:51.82)
Yeah, think it's. I would like T2 is the one that I grew up on more. So I would do T2. Let's do T2 because then you get the T1000. So, yeah, Terminator classic technology goes grows way beyond our means, way beyond our ability to control it. I think don't wait, doesn't it?

Eli (25:57.644)
Yeah, sure.

That's fine.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (26:18.296)
basically come to the idea that humanity can't be trusted. And that's why.

Eli (26:24.355)
it's been a long time since I've seen them. I actually watched like the first 20 minutes of t2, earlier this week, but I just didn't have time to finish it. So I honestly couldn't say, it's just been too long since I've seen it.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (26:41.966)
Yeah, same kind of dish. Anyway, I actually didn't mind Genesis. I that was pretty good. just that whole thing of we create the thing to help us and to go through and it takes over. We don't know how to control it. We gave too much power over to the thing. And this one, it's unlike where we kind of give it psychosis with 2001. This is one where it becomes benevolent.

Eli (26:56.919)
Yeah.

Eli (27:04.61)
Yeah.

Eli (27:11.191)
Yeah.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (27:11.318)
malevolent and tries to take over stuff. then it's our then the whole thing is our fight to try to to stay alive from the purging of it. So I think it kind of hits like there's a number of movies that kind of touch with that same thing. But I think and I think that's kind of the best of the different examples. So I have a couple that are related to that that I think would be good honorable mentions. But yeah, so Terminator, I think is it.

Eli (27:18.712)
Mm

Eli (27:35.937)
Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, yeah, that's another one where like the way I ended up thinking about it was like this, this feels like more dealing with the results of the science gone wrong and the science gone wrong being like the background information that like informs why things are the way they are. But I do appreciate the way you're thinking about it too of like.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (27:50.21)
Mm

Eli (28:04.535)
thinking about it in the sense of dealing with the consequences is just as important as what caused it. yeah. OK, my next pick, I'm going to.

Eli (28:24.887)
Yeah, I'm going to jump to another franchise and pick a more recent prequel of an old classic that we all know. And I'm going to go with Prometheus, which is, know, the chronologically the prequel, a prequel to Ridley Scott's Alien and Alien's movie. And so Prometheus is

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (28:40.128)
interesting.

Eli (28:55.319)
goes back to kind of before humans have found these aliens and really like Prometheus doesn't even really have the alien from alien in it. It hasn't developed to that point yet, but basically the whole like premise of Prometheus is there's this team, they're, they find

Basically a planet that they think is suitable for Earth Suitable for like human life. So they're going to that planet Come to find out the the head guy of this company is just trying to find out They they think that this is a place where their makers came from it kind of delves into like aliens created us kind of thing and He's like I want to go

face my makers and see if they can heal me because he's on his deathbed. You kind of find that out at some point in the movie. And so there's that element. It's definitely like scientific progress and finding out where we came from. Kind of that ends up going terribly wrong. There's the AI, there's the Android guy that's played by, played incredibly well by Michael Fassbender, who is

One of those actors that like is kind of under the radar, but when whenever he pops up, he's like, yeah, that guy's like one of the best actors we have. but yeah, so Prometheus is, I really, really enjoyed it. And I actually like really, really enjoyed Alien Covenant 2, which was the follow -up to this. so the newest, the one that came out this year is Alien Romulus. and it's kind of like,

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (30:43.362)
That's the newest one,

Eli (30:51.733)
its own thing. not it's you know it's got the alien stuff but it's in not a interconnected storyline. Different characters, different part of the timeline kind of thing. But yeah Prometheus is great. Alien Covenant has a follow -up to this I thought was great. Some people liked it less. I thought it might have been even a little bit better to be honest but

Prometheus is where it all starts, so that's the one I'm going.

Eli (31:27.339)
I just really like that whole franchise. It's a great franchise.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (31:30.56)
It's a, because it kind of bounces around to different like. It's not, yeah, it's not all horror, it's not all suspense, it's also like he kind of he tries to get with the science of it and tries to explore. Yeah, I agree.

Eli (31:35.882)
ideas.

Eli (31:48.355)
Where are you gonna go with your fourth pick?

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (31:52.108)
I need like six more picks.

Eli (31:54.611)
Well, you've got to, so you've got to narrow it down.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (31:58.616)
Okay, so this is one that is.

Eli (32:09.803)
It's hard. It's hard to.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (32:11.425)
It is.

But this is one that I think is a wild card, but I think is worth it. The Prestige.

Eli (32:19.468)
Okay.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (32:24.469)
So.

Eli (32:26.54)
It totally is. you know, spoiler alert, but we have covered it on the podcast, so.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (32:32.49)
well, there you go. Long story short, it deals with like Tesla science and like teleportation and things like that. I think one of the things that's really important, it has that moral kind of dilemma of it. And in the end, we don't know what actually happened with the things. And I think that it's definitely it's not a science. This is I tried to hit all the different kind of genres of science gone wrong.

Eli (32:34.947)
Hehehe.

Eli (32:39.905)
Yeah. Cloning.

Eli (32:48.909)
Mm -hmm.

Eli (33:01.526)
Mm

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (33:01.814)
And I think this is one of those where science is being used for nefarious, potentially evil purposes, but not to affect the world, but for one's own personal gain. Yeah.

Eli (33:12.013)
for personal gain. Yeah. One's own gain, personal gain and personal ego and really like one's own personal vengeance against a very like not vengeance against like society or anything, but just like against this one guy that you don't like. Yeah. Yeah. It's, I, I had this on my list, but I wasn't going to draft it because I've taken it in a draft before and

covered it on the podcast, so was like, if he takes it, great. If not, I'll just have Honorable mention. So I'm glad you took it, because I think it totally works for this Science Gone Wrong category.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (33:47.266)
Okay.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (33:53.742)
Because it's because manipulation of science and Tesla is just a really cool like I don't think we do enough to look at like Nikolai Tesla and like I think there's a lot of stories that can be told using his stuff because it's just all this very I think they do. I also think I love the idea of the the ground like that had the electricity going through it and lit up little things in the yard like that scene has always stuck with me outside of.

Eli (33:57.773)
Yeah.

Eli (34:05.303)
Yeah.

Eli (34:14.647)
Yeah.

Eli (34:18.019)
It's a standout image, yeah. It's a standout image for sure, yeah. And people forget David Bowie played Tesla in that.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (34:27.308)
Yeah. And as you look at the cast of that, you got David Bowie, Hugh Jackman, the other guy whose name I just forgot, but I knew. Yeah, Christian Bale. and, Alfred, name's not Alfred. He played Alfred. Yep. You got Star -Sat cast. That was pretty cool. Yeah. So that's my science gone wrong because of personal manipulation. That's my ode to Jurassic Park.

Eli (34:34.851)
Christian Bale.

Eli (34:42.944)
Michael Caine.

Eli (34:46.699)
Yep, Scarlett Johansson.

Eli (34:52.614)
yeah yes all right great pick that one is gonna that I feel like having the prestige on your list and maybe even rise of the planets of the ape is gonna get you a lot of votes so yeah yeah you're just your list is looking good as far and t2 yeah

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (35:11.566)
I'm gonna make it for my next one.

Eli (35:19.459)
You might have this one in the bag, to be honest. My picks might be too obscure. But I'm going to try to change things up and get the, get the popular, get more popular votes on my side with my last pick. And I'm going to go with a more like fun family science gone wrong movie. And I'm going to pick, the 1989 movie starring Rick Moranis and Honey I Shrunk the Kids.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (35:49.038)
That's a good one.

Eli (35:50.86)
this is like a big part of my childhood. I loved this movie growing up and I honestly haven't watched it in a long time, but Preparing for this. I was like, yeah, honey. I shrunk the kids and now I kind of i'm like itching to watch it again just like Yeah, i'm sure i'll watch it again. And it's like this is corny But i'm still gonna love it because it was it was a part of my childhood, you know

If you've never seen it before, Dad creates Shrink Ray. Shrink Ray shrinks kids. Dad knows he shrunk kids and can't find them. Kids have to get unshrunk. Like, that's the movie.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (36:32.43)
And they have to deal with being very smart. We're talking like ants are huge compared to them type thing. And I think that to me is probably one of the most, when the ant crawls over them, like.

Eli (36:39.841)
Yes. Yeah.

Eli (36:46.633)
remember that i remember that from my childhood of like i never saw ants the same way again after i watched that movie all right this is your last pick gotta make it count

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (36:56.622)
First at 100%.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (37:06.286)
So this one is a 2016 movie, I believe. And it's taking a different look at science. It's actually literally science going wrong. It is with Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt's called Passengers.

Eli (37:10.231)
Okay.

Eli (37:25.847)
Yeah, okay. I've seen that.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (37:27.758)
The idea with it is that science went wrong. The ship start, they're on a ship, they're going to a faraway land and they're in cryo stasis and an asteroid gets through the shielding -ish and, huh?

Eli (37:38.613)
Mm -hmm.

Eli (37:46.499)
Something like that. Something like that, yeah.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (37:50.274)
Yeah, without getting too spoilery. so the fact that Chris Pratt's character has woken up and he has to struggle with what does he do? And it's not like he's on this luxury yacht. so things go around and he it handles things of companionship or lack thereof. Human things, you know, it's got it kind of got that thing from like the 90s. What do you do if you have all the time and the money to do whatever you want to do?

Eli (37:56.688)
Mm

Eli (38:17.623)
Yeah.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (38:18.986)
And so it goes in there. But then as it goes on, things keep getting worse and worse and worse. And so then they have to figure out, how do we fix this type thing? so I think it's a really, I think that's kind of along the genre of where science was working what it was supposed to, but then just things happened because there's. Yeah. And then it got worse. And there's a really, really, really

Eli (38:31.895)
Mm

Eli (38:42.859)
Yeah, spiraled out of control, yeah.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (38:48.628)
really cool scene that has always stuck with me. it is so as they're going through, there's like there's things that spin and there's a there's a pool and someone's swimming in the pool and then the gravity is lost. They lose gravity in it. And so they're in this bubble of water that's just floating because there's no gravity and they're trying to get out. And and I just that always just stuck with me. I think it's beautifully shot.

Eli (39:04.962)
Mm.

Eli (39:11.371)
yeah.

Eli (39:17.909)
horrifying.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (39:19.18)
Yeah, I don't like deep water. And so not being able to get out of the water was interesting. But I think that's a great example of when where science works like it's supposed to, but it can't be the answer to everything.

Eli (39:31.841)
Mm -hmm. Yeah. No. Yeah, I remember I don't remember Terribly liking that movie a ton But I haven't watched it since probably it came out I do I will shout out my mother -in -law though. She loved she really like loved that movie So shout out to her

So you'll get her vote with that on your list if she votes at all. But yeah, that's it. Let's do some honorable mentions before we list out our final picks again. You said you probably had a couple of honorable mentions, a few. What you got?

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (40:20.226)
Yes, I have many. I'll just, Godzilla, I think is a great example of science gone wrong. I decided to kind of move to different genres of science going wrong. But Godzilla is definitely one of the side effects of nuclear attacks. And I think it's very interesting the way that in

It kind of like shows, nuclear is evil and then Godzilla is evil and then he's helping people because nuclear power is good. And then in Godzilla minus one, Godzilla is just he's going back to being a monster to do stuff. But I think that's a that's a great example of science gone wrong. Should I keep going?

Eli (40:59.469)
Yeah.

Eli (41:03.415)
Yeah, he's kind of a, Godzilla's kind of a, I've never seen Godzilla as a evil creature. I've always seen him as like the results of, you know, basically just that, all that humans that have taken power too far and now you've unlocked this force of nature that you can't, you can't put back, you know.

That's kind of what he represents in a way and so he's he's not so much evil as he's just something that We unlocked that should have never been unlocked And now you can't just like tell it to go away now, it's it's out there now And it's gonna wreak whatever have it whatever havoc it's gonna wreak Yeah

Yeah, that's, I definitely, I had that on my list. I've taken it in drafts before. And so I just, I was like, I'm not going to, I'm going to go with some different ones this time, but, it would have been one of my top ones. if, if I hadn't taken it in other drafts. So.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (42:18.392)
Good. Other ones, Gattaca. Are you familiar with that one? Without spoiling just the overall premise of the science area, it's basically you live in a world where eugenics exists. So the people with the best genes can do stuff and it's created a caste system. so, but it originally started off with like, we can.

Eli (42:24.769)
Never seen it.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (42:45.454)
help you make sure that your baby doesn't have Down syndrome or whatever. And then, well, actually, we can make sure that it has an IQ of over 200 or whatever the case is. And so then, but it created a caste system where people who aren't biologically engineered, they don't get to have good jobs. And so it goes, it follows a person who is not biologically engineered and like them trying to achieve their dreams. And so that was...

Eli (42:48.835)
Sure.

Eli (43:11.746)
Mm

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (43:17.25)
But it's very like 1990s style, like equilibrium post -fog lips, think.

Eli (43:25.025)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Got any others?

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (43:30.922)
Yes, so I chose Rise of the Planet of the Apes instead of I Am Legend because it kind of fits the same thing in I Am Legend. They cure cancer by hijacking the measles vaccine and it creates a bunch of vampires.

Eli (43:35.842)
Mm.

Eli (43:46.498)
Mm

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (43:49.002)
Then I chose...

Eli (43:49.869)
This was one of my favorite movies in high school. Yeah, I'm legend. I loved that when I was in high school. I haven't really revisited it since then,

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (43:53.11)
really?

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (43:56.622)
Have you and the the non the extended version I think is a lot better With the it has an alternate ending that follows the book more apparently High robot I think is good because and that one has the eyes of Moff's three laws And it also has Will Smith in it I have a lot of Will Smith movies

Eli (44:04.997)
Okay.

Eli (44:13.117)
Mm -hmm. Another Will Smith.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (44:25.922)
And I think that's so that's just it goes into the whole thing of the negative side of the three laws like maybe the best way to protect humanity is to make sure they don't leave anywhere. Let's see another. Instead of like war games or the matrix, I chose Terminator because I think those are all were like the computer becomes software and malevolent. Malevolent, sorry.

Eli (44:48.044)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli (44:52.727)
Mm

Yeah, in the matrix for sure. Yeah.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (44:55.456)
Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (44:59.47)
Let's see.

The other one which I had on here, which I almost picked because it's one of my favorite movies, is Tron Legacy.

Eli (45:11.915)
Okay yeah, I haven't seen either of the Tron movies and so I was wondering if you would pick them or... yeah.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (45:24.238)
The soundtrack is amazing. I don't have a lot of hope for the new one. So without spoiling anything, the overall thing is you've got either in the first one, there's an AI and the second one. But in both cases, it involves the science of being able to take matter and turn it into information or programs and stuff like that. And so something happens and they go into the computer world.

Eli (45:25.527)
I love the soundtrack.

Eli (45:46.263)
Yeah.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (45:52.384)
And the struggle is to try and get out.

Eli (45:55.467)
Yeah, my brother -in -law was telling me that Tron Legacy feels more like a science -gone -wrong movie than the original. Yeah.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (46:02.988)
Yes, absolutely. And I think The Chon Legacy is one of the greatest sequels that has been made in the sense that it is...

It's been like 30 years between the other one, but it's almost like they picked up where it made sense and they respected the original lore. They did great things. fixed a lot of the problems. They put in a strong female character that is believable and does a great job, believe it or not, does a phenomenal job. And the costuming is great, the aesthetics, the music. But I kind of...

Eli (46:33.517)
Yeah.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (46:46.434)
What was my one I did instead of that one? I picked the prestige instead of that one because I felt that was a thing where you had like this crazy technology that someone could use and manipulate and it created issues. So yeah, those would be my.

Eli (46:58.541)
Mm

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (47:07.192)
Yep, those are my things.

Eli (47:08.355)
Cool. Yeah, I have a few just to roll through these. I also watched another David Cronenberg movie from 1999 called Existence. It stars Jude Law and Jennifer Jason Lee. It's spelled E -X -I -S -T -E -N -Z, existence. I think it's actually in the movie they pronounce it existence.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (47:31.205)
interesting.

Eli (47:37.763)
And it's basically Jennifer Jason Lee is this designer of this game existence on the run from assassins and Jude Law is this PR guy that's acting as her bodyguard. They're trying to kill her because of this game she's created. These games are you jack into these games basically through these little like.

game pods and they're like these like weird fleshy little things and it runs this like umbilical cord looking thing into a bio port like at in your spine that's like you run it into that and so it's it's definitely it's it's i really enjoyed it i was totally intrigued to see where it was gonna go

And it's definitely an example of like, okay, when you're using like games and virtual reality, which is a technological advancement to escape reality, and there's layers to that, and then like, do you lose your all sense of reality? What's the real world?

Can you tell when you're in the real world? Like it goes into all of that. I really enjoyed it and it was a really good movie. Definitely recommend checking that out. It is David Cronenberg. So there is like a little gross stuff in there, but nowhere near as bad as the fly. So I thought about the invisible man, the thirties one is good.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (49:28.493)
Yes.

Eli (49:31.588)
Just kind of a classic science gone wrong story adaptation of the book. There's... Yeah.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (49:41.048)
The classic Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, but I hadn't seen it, so I couldn't put it. But that's in the movie. I watched the synopsis of it. But in the movie, the guy tries to separate out his evilness. And what it does is it creates a second personality. so he can't control it. So it's very much science gone wrong. But I haven't seen it, so I can't.

Eli (49:46.283)
I haven't seen it either.

Eli (50:00.727)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli (50:07.715)
Yeah, I haven't either. I also watched like 30 minutes of Island of Lost Souls, which is an adaptation of the Island of Dr. Moreau. I didn't get to finish the movie though, so I couldn't tell you if I would have taken it or not. But I do plan on finishing it. So another one was Moon. Have you seen Moon with Sam Rockwell?

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (50:18.531)
Yes.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (50:31.799)
I'm not.

Eli (50:35.964)
Kevin spacey plays the voice of the AI I think it would be too much of a spoiler to explain What goes wrong here? So I'm not going to go into details, but that's one I thought about It's a really good one. I think you would enjoy that one Yeah I had thought about some of yours some of yours like the matrix and stuff I felt more like

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (50:56.108)
moon.

Eli (51:04.759)
the science gone wrong was like the background information. And so it didn't fit into the restrictions I put on myself. Another one that kind of feels like that, that I wouldn't have picked because it doesn't fit the restrictions I put. But if I was going to fit an animated movie in, there's WALL -E you could argue would fit in.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (51:28.78)
Okay, I can see that.

Eli (51:30.183)
But the one I was gonna pick if I allowed myself to was the Mitchell's versus the machines. Have you seen that? It's it's it's I think it's a Netflix movie Animated movie came out a couple years ago And it's really good. I highly recommend checking it out. It's it's basically these Robots like start trying to take over and there's this like it's like a family comedy

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (51:37.038)
I don't think I have.

Eli (52:01.08)
Animated comedy drama where this family's like trying to make it through this robot takeover It's it's good Yeah, I mean there's you could you could say Avengers age of Ultron is Yeah, Ultron There that I guess tenant tenant technically fits to

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (52:17.526)
Okay, yeah, cuz Ultron. Yep.

What do you think about a movie?

Eli (52:27.539)
If you were going to go with another different Nolan movie than the prestige The technology of going backwards in time it's kind of terribly wrong with all that The only other one I'll mention and I'll be done is there's a movie that I loved that came out this year called the beast it's a French language film with Lea Sadu is the star of it

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (52:37.87)
OK.

Eli (52:57.111)
but it's in like a near future where AI has kind of like taken over most jobs and really the only way to get a good job and have a good life is to go through this process where your DNA is purified where you don't really have emotions and then the AI will let you have like a better job and better life and stuff and so but the way the movie is structured it's like

It takes this woman through her past lives to purify her DNA. And so it's like three different time periods. And there's this same guy that pops up in all three that she's interested. It's a very, it's a very mind bending movie. I thought it was really, really good. So I was going to, I wanted to shout that out because it's kind of a science gone wrong movie too. So.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (53:35.534)
Interesting.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (53:57.036)
That made so I the other one of the ones I was thinking of was equilibrium. Where they go in and like they take the pill to get to lose all emotions, kind of. About how science was used to. Pacify the masses.

Eli (54:04.022)
Mm -hmm.

Eli (54:09.654)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Eli (54:18.328)
you

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (54:20.014)
I think that was a...

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (54:26.1)
Anyway, so that was another one where it seemed, but I felt like some of the other ones were a lot stronger and more focused on science, the science going wrong.

Eli (54:30.711)
Yeah, same.

Eli (54:38.243)
Yeah, for sure. Well, yeah, I mean, those are those are all really good suggestions on good honorable mentions. We could probably go on thinking about these for a while, but let me go ahead and read back what our final lists were one more time before we go. So Christian ended up with Rise of the Planet of the Apes 2001, a space odyssey Terminator two Judgment Day.

the Prestige and Passengers. I ended up with the Fly, Ex Machina, Frankenstein, Prometheus, and Honey I Shrunk the Kids. So great lists. We'll let the people decide. So be looking for that on, I usually try to post the polls on Mondays. So try to look for that on the social media. I post them on

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (55:27.725)
Yes.

Eli (55:37.219)
pretty much all of the platforms. So look for those there, vote. Next week, we are going to be getting into the other 1993 movie from Steven Spielberg in Schindler's List. So look forward to that. But yeah, Christian, why don't you share really quickly where people can follow you and see what you're up to again.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (56:03.234)
Yeah. So once again, thank you for having me. If anyone's interested, they can go on X or Twitter. Dancing Fox on X is my X handle, I guess. You can also check out the website at DancingFox .Studio or any of my socials, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, DancingFox .Studio. I'm still building everything up. So be patient if you don't see anything. But the X is going strong. So we're on there.

Eli (56:15.779)
the

Eli (56:31.639)
Great. Cool. Yep. I'll make sure to link all those in the episode description so you can find them there. But that is all we have for this week. I have been Eli Price for Christian Funkhouser. You've been listening to The Establishing Shot. We will see you next time.

Christiaan (DancingFox.Studio) (56:49.634)
Bye.