Twilight Zone: The Movie (w/ Andrew Fossier)

Eli Price (00:03.904)
Hello and welcome to the establishing shot a podcast where we do deep dives into directors and their filmography's We are in our series on early Spielberg covering his movies from the 70s and 80s and Yeah, we're chugging right along and doing things a little bit out of order here with these anthology movies that we're gonna be covering today, but

Yeah, we're on episode 51. Um, had a good time last week, uh, celebrating 50 episodes. Uh, it's a fun little milestone to hit, um, as a podcaster. Um, so yeah, that was fun, but yeah, today we are getting back into our Spielberg series and, uh, we're going to be covering that we're going to be covering Twilight Zone, the movie.

which is an anthology movie that Spielberg directed a segment of and also produced. And then we're also gonna be covering a couple of his episodes of Amazing Stories, which is a TV show that he produced in 85 and 86. And then one of those, The Mission is the name of that episode.

ended up in a little kind of anthology kind of I think I don't know that it was released in theaters. I didn't really see that in our research. Should have should have figured that out. It seems like it was like a TV anthology. Yeah, but so yes, yeah. So that that is what we're covering today. We're covering Twilight's on the movie from 1983.

Andrew Fossier (01:41.294)
Yeah, I think it was TV anthology. It's on Apple TV as well.

Eli Price (01:55.456)
And a couple of Spielberg amazing stories, episodes from 1985. So kind of jumping around a little bit here. Um, and, uh, and chronologically, I guess, but, uh, yeah, it's going to be fun. We're going to have fun with this one and see where it takes us. Uh, and to explore these movies with me, I have a returning guest, Andrew Fosier, uh, to discuss this with me. How are you doing tonight, Andrew?

Andrew Fossier (02:25.006)
Happy to be here, I'm doing well. Looking forward to discussing some Spielberg.

Eli Price (02:29.024)
Yeah, yeah. Andrew, I don't even remember, was there very many options when I asked you what you wanted to do with me? I feel like by that point there weren't many left.

Andrew Fossier (02:40.43)
I don't think, yeah, I don't believe. No, yeah, I picked this because I watched some of the old Twilight Zone shows as a kid. So I had kind of a connection there. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:49.28)
Yeah.

Yeah. Cool. Yeah. I was wondering what, what had made you choose this out of the few options. So, uh, I figured I'd just wait and ask you on the episode, but yeah, that makes sense. Um, yeah. Do you want to, uh, tell a little bit for those that haven't heard you on Andrew joined me for just for context, he joined me on, uh, the tenant episode in the Nolan series. A lot of fun. Um,

Andrew Fossier (03:05.902)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (03:21.358)
Yeah.

Eli Price (03:21.824)
And then you were on the Christmas movie draft episode, right? Yeah, that was a lot of fun too. So he's, yeah, you're one of my three P guests now. Yeah. So there's, I think there's only a few of you so far. So.

Andrew Fossier (03:26.382)
Yes.

Andrew Fossier (03:33.39)
Really? Okay.

Andrew Fossier (03:38.83)
I mean, I knew I'd been here three times. I just, yeah. For re -remembering. Yeah. So actually, my introduction to Nolan, I found out when watching this Twilight Zone movie was earlier than I even thought because unless I just, that, the, the, uh,

Eli Price (03:41.408)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Andrew Fossier (04:02.958)
Well, no, I'm sorry. I'm mistaking the final episode in the anthology of the plane. I'm stumbling all over the place. I'd seen that as a young kid. And so that to me was part of the Twilight Zone. Like I just was like, oh, that's part of the original show. And I guess it all is Twilight Zone. But anyway, I didn't realize it was from this movie that's in a way connected to Spielberg. So.

Eli Price (04:17.792)
Mm.

Andrew Fossier (04:33.198)
wasn't Spielberg directed, but yeah. So I guess my first introduction, I mean, yeah. Oh, oh, okay. Yeah, I got an old on the brain. Spielberg, definitely was thinking Spielberg. I wasn't about to say Batman. Probably was Jurassic Park, I would say.

Eli Price (04:35.52)
Right.

Eli Price (04:42.048)
to Spielberg, right? Because you, I think you accidentally said Nolan.

Eli Price (04:48.288)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (04:59.854)
and then Jaws, which I actually was able to see in theaters recently. I told you before we started filming. Yeah, so I've, yeah, hopefully they bring it back. And then I saw, I've seen a lot more of his stuff than I originally thought too, like 1010 and then Ready Player One, West Side Story, and the Fablemans, of course. Yeah.

Eli Price (05:03.936)
Yeah, that's amazing. I'm really hoping I get to do that.

Eli Price (05:20.48)
Yeah. Mm -hmm.

Yeah, we, um, no ET, no ET in your repertoire. Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (05:29.39)
Oh, ET, yes. I'm trying to, I'm looking at like the chronological list right now. Yeah, I know ET is a little earlier, but yes, ET, which I actually for the first, saw for the first time in French, in French class, yeah. I was not fluent in French when I saw it in French, so yeah.

Eli Price (05:35.84)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (05:42.656)
Wow, okay.

Eli Price (05:48.064)
Yeah, some of it can still play though. I think even if you don't understand what they're saying, you know, you kind of understand the gist of boy with alien aliens trying to get home. Boys helping him sad. He's leaving. Yeah, that's good. Uh, I feel like, I feel like a lot of, um, kind of people our age, which I'm

Andrew Fossier (05:58.83)
Yeah.

Eli Price (06:16.64)
My early 30s are, are you 30? 29, yeah. Yeah, a lot of people in our kind of age range kind of started off with Jurassic Park or Jurassic Park was at least one of the first, you know? Yeah, so makes sense to me. Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (06:21.486)
29, one year left.

Andrew Fossier (06:30.734)
Yeah.

Eli Price (06:39.84)
I think, you know, I've shared many times my introductions, but to Spielberg, but yeah, there's definitely, it's been fun filling in a lot of blind spots. You know, we were kind of talking about that before we started recording. It's fun filling in blind spots as I go and covering movies that I'm watching for the first time. It's kind of fun.

Andrew Fossier (07:04.654)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Eli Price (07:06.272)
Uh, so, you know, my previous two series, I had already seen all the movies before when covering them. So it's, it's been cool to kind of experience movies for the first time as I'm like covering them for the podcast. But, and that's the case with, with these today. I had, I had never seen these before I had, um, I was going to ask the, so the nightmare at 20 ,000 feet, which is the fourth segment in the movie. Um,

Andrew Fossier (07:33.262)
Uh -huh.

Eli Price (07:34.368)
I have seen the original Twilight Zone episode that that is based on. Um, so have you, is that the one you've seen or did you see this one growing up?

Andrew Fossier (07:47.502)
I am almost positive that it was this one because I specifically remembered the... Well, I don't know if I've seen the original then.

Eli Price (07:58.784)
Yeah, I think the original is in black and white, so that might be a good indicator.

Andrew Fossier (08:00.942)
Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. Well, right. I feel like a lot of, almost all of them are. And then I remember it being in color, the gun, how sweaty he was. Yeah. And then he opened the window and it's got his face pressed up again. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm pretty positive it was this one. Yeah.

Eli Price (08:06.08)
Yeah, right.

Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (08:18.112)
Yep. Yeah. Okay. That's cool. Yeah. So yeah, that's, did you see it by itself? I guess.

Andrew Fossier (08:28.622)
That's the thing I cannot remember. I feel like it was maybe somehow connect... It was something to connect with school, I know that. The environment that I was in. Maybe so? I don't know. Yeah, because I don't remember. I didn't see the others. So... Yeah.

Eli Price (08:40.352)
Okay, maybe somebody just showed that segment.

Eli Price (08:49.056)
Yeah. Oh, cool. Yeah. Well, that's what we're going to be talking about is everything Twilight Zone movie. Um, I haven't seen a lot of their original. Um, I've seen, I had seen Nightmare at 20 ,000 feet before, um, the original one. And then I've seen a few here and there. Um, I don't remember a ton of them to be honest. Um, I know.

Andrew Fossier (09:16.302)
Yeah.

Eli Price (09:19.04)
I know I've seen several, I know I've seen there's like a longer one that's like a Christmas related one that I've seen before. But yeah, I kind of would like to like go back and, you know, see, watch some of them. If this movie is good for anything, this Twilight Zone movie, it's like, oh, maybe I should go back and watch some of the like more well renowned episodes.

Andrew Fossier (09:45.838)
Yeah. Yeah.

Eli Price (09:49.632)
So, um, yeah, we'll, we'll get into what we thought about this anthology movie eventually, but, um, for now, uh, let's just talk about how it got started. Um, WB, um, Warner Brothers, uh, studios wanted to make this movie, wanted to do, um, a Twilight Zone movie. I think they had already brought on John Landis to work on this.

Uh, John Landis at this point in his career had, um, made the movie schlock from 1973, which I think he himself says was a bad movie. Um, but, uh, he went on to make national Lampoon's animal house, which was a really big success. Um, and 1978 blues brothers in 1980 and an American werewolf in London in 1981, which were.

I don't think those were like huge successes when they were released necessarily, but were kind of became like cult classics pretty soon. Um, big impacts on pop culture and that sort of thing. Um, and he also, um, had directed the, uh, thriller video. Michael Jackson had chosen him to direct that. So, um, yeah. Which that actually, I think the thriller video.

Andrew Fossier (11:11.534)
Yeah, I did not know that. That is interesting.

Eli Price (11:17.92)
came out, I don't remember what year that was. It was 83 or 84. But by the time they were making this movie, I think he had already done the work for it, at least. But yeah, so Landis is brought on for this movie. Warner Brothers then brings on Spielberg, who, you know, Spielberg,

was excited because he grew up watching Twilight Zone and he was also excited because him and John Landis were pretty close. Um, so he was excited to work with him. Um, but yeah, they, they were both, um, fans of the show. Um, you know, it's obviously, I think it ran from 1959 through 1964. Um, Rod Serling, obviously the.

the man behind the Twilight Zone. And so they grew up watching it as kids, loved it. They met, they actually met during the shooting of Jaws. He had come on, cause Spielberg was already kind of getting some more writing done on Close Encounters. And so Paul Schrader had written a script that he, it wasn't really,

Andrew Fossier (12:30.446)
Mmm.

Eli Price (12:44.704)
weren't really jiving on the script Paul Schrader had written for, it wasn't called Close Encounters at the time, but eventually became Close Encounters and John Landis did some like reworking on that script. So they they had worked a little together. The final script wasn't written by John Landis, but he did do some kind of reworking on that original script for Spielberg. So they had a little relationship.

working together before, not a huge thing, but yeah. So, um, one thing that was interesting was that, uh, Serling is, this is kind of another like full circle. Um, one of those like full circle fun fact things, but Serling had originally like retained the rights to a Twilight Zion, a Twilight Zone movie after he sold the series to CBS.

Andrew Fossier (13:31.95)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (13:43.278)
Yeah.

Eli Price (13:43.68)
And his original idea for the movie was to include three original segments. And one of those was going to be a segment called eyes. Where a woman, um, this is, you're already going to know where I'm going with this. If you've listened to like the overview episodes and stuff, but a woman is, um, it's blind and she is paying a guy down on his luck for some sort of new eye transplant.

surgery so that she can see. And so that that segment called Eyes did not make it into a Twilight Zone movie, but it was the first episode of in the first episode of Night Gallery, which was Serling's show he did after the Twilight Zone. And who directed that episode of Night Gallery? But Spielberg himself. So.

Andrew Fossier (14:42.03)
Yeah, that is a wild ride.

Eli Price (14:43.2)
Full circle, yeah.

So, and now here Spielberg is working with John Landis on Twilight Zone, the movie. They worked with Warner Brothers to get a percentage of the profits. And then Spielberg and Landis obviously working as the producers. They kind of worked on the structure, got this studio to agree to doing...

an introduction segment and then four main like segments of different, you know, Twilight Zone stories and then kind of an outro or conclusion, um, to it all. And so that is sort of basically the structure we end up with. Um, the conclusion outro is kind of barely anything. Um, it's just kind of bringing back what was at the beginning.

Andrew Fossier (15:38.702)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (15:43.086)
Yeah.

Eli Price (15:43.616)
for like, you know, 10 seconds. So I don't know that I would call that like a conclusion, but it does bring things full circle, I guess. But yeah, Landis was always planning to do the introduction segment and the first main segment, Spielberg the second, and then they had to choose some directors for the third and fourth segment. So Spielberg had liked this movie called The Howling.

Andrew Fossier (15:45.806)
You

Eli Price (16:13.152)
from 1981, which was directed by Joe Dante, who was really like not a big name at all at this point. Spielberg had also sent him the script for Gremlins, which Joe Dante went on to direct eventually later in the eighties. And so, yeah, but this Spielberg chose Dante to direct the third segment for this anthology. And then the fourth,

segment, they ended up bringing on George Miller to direct almost kind of by chance. He was at Warner Brothers, I guess, prepping for the release of Mad Max 2. And Spielberg had seen Mad Max and liked it and was familiar with George Miller. But George Miller stopped by the office where him and Spielberg or Landis and Spielberg were working.

talking and they ended up being like, well, hey, why don't you direct one of these segments? And so, uh, George Miller gets brought on. So it's really like a pretty, pretty strong, um, group of directors here between Landis, Spielberg, Dante and, um, Miller. Um, yeah. Have you seen any Joe Dante? I've, I think I've only seen his segment here and Gremlins.

Andrew Fossier (17:24.301)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (17:38.67)
Yeah, I've seen like a part of Gremlins, but yeah, I haven't seen, I don't think I've seen any of his stuff.

Eli Price (17:45.984)
Yeah. Yeah. I haven't seen, Oh, I take that back. I did not know he directed the movie small soldiers, which I have seen. Um, just kind of like a, was that movie stop motion animation? I don't, I saw it when I was a kid. I don't really remember. Yeah. But yeah, he, he also directed loony tunes back in action, which I have not seen, but I know a lot of people have. Um,

Andrew Fossier (17:53.55)
Mmm.

Andrew Fossier (18:03.374)
I want to say that sounds accurate.

Andrew Fossier (18:11.086)
Oh, well, yeah.

Eli Price (18:16.)
And of course, Gremlins 2 directed that as well. But yeah, so Joe Dante, George Miller, people are more familiar with George Miller, but yeah, are you pretty familiar with his stuff? Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (18:30.094)
Yeah, more familiar, definitely. Yeah, less than Spielberg, but yeah.

Eli Price (18:37.28)
Yeah. He, I've always thought George Miller's filmography was pretty kind of funny because you have like the Mad Max movies from, you know, I'm max, max to thunderdome, fury road. He has fury also coming out. And then like in the middle of all that you have, um, uh, the witches of Eastwick, which I have not seen, don't know much about, but you also have happy feet and babe.

Andrew Fossier (19:06.478)
Yeah, that's the one that.

Eli Price (19:07.2)
babe pig in the city like not even the first babe like the second babe

Andrew Fossier (19:11.566)
sequel. Yeah that is that is quite the contrast. I mean just Mad Max and then Happy Feet.

Eli Price (19:16.96)
It is.

Yeah. Oh man. Yeah. I don't even know that I've seen happy feet, but so I can't judge it. I haven't seen it.

Andrew Fossier (19:28.078)
I have, yeah.

It's been a while since I've seen it, but definitely have seen it, yeah.

Eli Price (19:33.056)
Yeah. I haven't seen, have you seen 3000 years of long longing? I came out a couple of years ago. Haven't seen that yet.

Andrew Fossier (19:37.998)
Yes. Yeah, I saw that as well. It was pretty good. It was, I don't remember like rating wise what I thought of it. I'd say, you know, three, three and a half stars. It was, it was interesting at least. Yeah.

Eli Price (19:51.712)
Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, John Landis is kind of like a lot of old eighties comedies, like Coming to America, Trading Places, Three Amigos. I mean, he did, he, he did, he has a lot of like those old eighties comedies. So yeah, people are probably familiar with, with the, even if they haven't seen them, probably familiar. I already mentioned a few of them.

few of his movies as well. Um, but yeah, so all, I mean, all these directors have, have success before this and have success after Joe Dante, I guess is the one that's the most like fresh, the most new. He really has not done a whole lot up to this point. Um, cause gremlins comes out in 84. Um, so.

Andrew Fossier (20:32.046)
Yeah.

Eli Price (20:49.984)
He hasn't really worked on that yet. He just has the script for it. Um, and he's done, he did Piranha, which was kind of like, I guess, like, what would you call it? Homage to Jaws, I guess, but with Piranhas, which maybe I guess is what caught Spielberg's attention. Um, yeah, all that to say very interesting group of directors for sure.

Andrew Fossier (21:05.774)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (21:17.614)
Yes.

Yeah, very different tastes.

Eli Price (21:20.96)
Um, Oh yeah. Um, yeah. So what's, what's interesting is that they, what they ended up planning was for none of those segments to be original. They were all going to do remakes. So, planned us decides he's going to make, um, his inspired by the 1961, uh, third season episode, a quality of mercy, which I'm pretty sure is something.

Uh, it's, it's something similar where like someone is switch switches places with someone in a war or something that was like very unmerciful before. Um, and that's, and then I think if I'm not mistaken, I've read somewhere else that there were some other episodes one or two, maybe that were influential in, in what he ends up doing, um, with his segment. Um,

Andrew Fossier (22:04.846)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (22:21.984)
which is called Time Out, I think. I really should have written that down, but I did not in my notes. Yeah, his in this film, is it called Time Out? Or I think it is.

Andrew Fossier (22:31.95)
Oh, for it in this film.

Andrew Fossier (22:38.638)
I believe so. I don't...

Eli Price (22:40.896)
Yeah.

It's confusing. His is the only one that's like a different name than what the original was called. All the other guys just named theirs the same as the ones they were based off of. So yeah, Time Out. Yeah, so his is Time Out based on a quality of Mercy. Spielberg actually had chosen originally to do...

Andrew Fossier (22:53.006)
Uh huh.

Andrew Fossier (22:58.35)
Yeah, it is time out.

Eli Price (23:11.072)
A segment called The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street, which was an episode in the first season of Twilight Zone, which I have not seen.

Andrew Fossier (23:14.446)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (23:19.694)
I actually, that's one of the ones I for sure have seen. And that's to me, like quintessential Twilight Zone. That and then Time Enough, which I think those are probably like the things people would list as their biggest hits or the favorites. But those are two that I, whenever I think Twilight Zone, like there's parodies all over the place, but the one that's sticking with.

Eli Price (23:25.536)
Okay, cool.

Eli Price (23:30.208)
Gotcha.

Eli Price (23:38.048)
Yeah, sure.

Andrew Fossier (23:47.662)
right now that I'm thinking of, parody is strong, more just a joke, in Futurama they joke, it's a scary door, you're looking at the scary door. So yeah, but those two are monsters specifically, yeah.

Eli Price (23:53.6)
Gotcha.

Yeah, okay cool. Okay, well I'm gonna have to go watch that one then Dante Joe Dante chooses. It's a good life also from season one of the Twilight Zone And we'll go we'll get back to what happens with Spielberg's episode because he doesn't end up doing that Remaking that one, but yeah Joe Dante's it's a good life

Andrew Fossier (24:02.894)
Yeah, it was good.

Andrew Fossier (24:16.59)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (24:24.096)
It's just called his segment is called it's a good life as well. Um, and, uh, yeah, it's, it's pretty, I feel like it's a similar thing going on in the original that happens in the segment here. And then George Miller took on nightmare at 20 ,000 feet, which is from season five of Twilight Zone. I think it's, I think it's a pretty well known one too. Um, uh, in addition to the ones you were mentioning. So.

Andrew Fossier (24:48.494)
Yeah.

Eli Price (24:54.336)
Because that is one that I've seen the original of, as I said, keeps the same name for his segment. And yeah, it's an interesting group of remakes that they choose. And they even planned for a while to kind of link all the segments with shared characters. So I think like, for instance, the teacher at the end of...

Andrew Fossier (25:16.046)
Mmm.

Eli Price (25:24.512)
That it's a good life was supposed to like end up in a car with Dan Aykroyd or something Yeah, so there were supposed to be like some sort of like weight of length the characters from episode to episode And they kind of just abandoned that There's there's a lot of ideas that are kind of like left by the wayside and well, we'll get to Why that might be in just a bit?

Andrew Fossier (25:33.806)
Yeah, that would have, yeah.

Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (25:52.366)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (25:53.888)
Uh, but I do want to kind of talk a little bit more. Um, Spielberg, uh, at one point, I thought this was funny. Spielberg at one point thinks, um, about bringing back Serling who died in 1975 as a narrator with special effects and abandoned that idea quickly. That abandonment of that idea has nothing to do with the disaster that we're going to talk about soon. It just was him being smart, I think.

and not following through with that.

Andrew Fossier (26:23.918)
Yeah, well, I mean, I didn't know that until I saw this in your notes, but I wonder if that's the first attempt. Cause I mean, now, you know, now with everyone, the blood is where it is like, Oh, AI, AI, we're going to, you know, create, uh, well, I guess maybe the person, the personality of the person you capture their enough, their voice, you can make like Photoshop for, for voice. And then also, uh,

Eli Price (26:48.832)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah, well, I mean you have like the deep fake stuff, which is actually pretty good, you know?

Andrew Fossier (26:53.934)
Right, right. It's especially when they prioritize and yeah.

Eli Price (27:00.032)
Yeah. Yeah, but so I don't know exactly what, what it, I read that in, um, in one of my sources. So I'm not exactly sure what it means by bringing him back as a narrator with special effects. Um, obviously they don't have AI, you know, CGI isn't good enough to make that happen really yet. Um, yeah, not at all.

Andrew Fossier (27:08.622)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (27:13.902)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (27:21.422)
Yeah.

Eli Price (27:26.88)
Um, we can talk about that when we talk about the, the like intro, um, portion of amazing stories, which is like really funny to watch. Um, uh, no, it doesn't at all. It's, it's bad.

Andrew Fossier (27:38.318)
Yeah, no, right. Yeah, that just doesn't, doesn't not look, doesn't hold up. What I kind of was trying to ask is I wonder what the first actual, cause like this was like, oh, let's do this. And then they pulled back what the first actual instance of that was. Cause just recently that whole George Carlin thing, but I don't know if you heard about that, but they,

Eli Price (27:54.336)
Yeah.

Eli Price (28:03.392)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (28:05.518)
They basically made a podcast with his voice and it did not, I think they got ceased and desisted almost immediately. And everyone's saying George Carlin would hate this. Like you can't act like it's a tribute. Yeah, anyway.

Eli Price (28:10.4)
Gotcha.

Eli Price (28:16.448)
Yeah.

Eli Price (28:20.48)
Right, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, I really don't know. That would be maybe if someone is listening and wants to write in with that information and let us know so that I don't have to do more research, then feel free to do that. But yeah, that would be interesting to see. Yeah, so I think to like the before we get into.

Andrew Fossier (28:40.878)
The first.

Eli Price (28:51.136)
the disaster that ends up happening. Let's...

I did want to mention too the writers. So I'm pretty sure Jonathan Landis wrote his own segment. But then Spielberg brought on Richard Matheson who had worked some on the original Twilight Zone. And so he brought him on and he did the writing for the last three segments, I think.

I think with some extra, I know for Spielberg's at least, there were some others that helped with the writing too. But yeah, Matheson writes, is the main writer for the last three segments. And you know, he worked with them to kind of make the stories feel more contemporary, which makes sense. But yeah, let's address the elephant in the room, which is the huge tragedy that happens.

during the filming of John Landis' section called Time Out. Had you heard this story before? Yeah, it truly is a tragic story. Basically, I hadn't either. I kind of knew as I was preparing to do the series, I had kind of seen like, oh, something happens with Twilight Zone.

Andrew Fossier (30:07.278)
I did not know. Yeah.

Eli Price (30:27.008)
the movie, but didn't know until I was doing this research. But yeah, so during the filming of Time Out in July of 82, which was the segment that John Landis was directing, the lead actor, Vic Morrow. Okay, so basically the original idea for the ending of that segment, which if you've watched it, is what ends up being the ending, which is...

Andrew Fossier (30:54.03)
Yeah.

Eli Price (30:57.28)
We can talk about, we can dig more into like the questionable choices. Um, but the ending is basically him being labeled a Jew and being like thrown on a train to go off to a concentration camp. Um, is kind of the ending of it. Um, so that was the original, supposed to be the original ending. I think there was some like talks with the studios and they were like, Oh, maybe we should do this, make the character more redeemable.

Andrew Fossier (31:01.774)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (31:11.118)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (31:24.992)
Which I don't understand why if you're making a Twilight Zone movie why you feel the need to make a character redeemable because there's plenty of Characters that aren't redeemable in Twilight Zone episodes Yeah, that's kind of the point

Andrew Fossier (31:28.654)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (31:35.438)
Yeah, that's kind of the thing. Like that's, I mean, not to make it all time enough at last, but like that's, that's the thing is this guy has this bad mentality and he's, we're seeing him being realizing he made a mistake and he was wrong and he shouldn't. I'm thinking time enough at last specifically. Yeah.

Eli Price (31:44.928)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Eli Price (31:53.856)
Right. Well, yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, we'll talk about how it plays out here because I, I don't.

Andrew Fossier (32:02.798)
It's different here. I told you.

Eli Price (32:05.28)
In time out, I'm not sure that this dude learns his lesson, but it's, it's at the very least it's like a cautionary tale. Um, but so what they were doing was they were doing a shooting, a different ending where he ends up back in Vietnam and he's like saving two kids and like helping to, to, I think Vietnamese children, um, get safely across a river. Um, so that's what is happening. Um,

Andrew Fossier (32:08.814)
No.

Andrew Fossier (32:17.902)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (32:35.776)
when this tragedy happens. So they're shooting this scene, Vic Morrow, who is the actor that's in the movie that you see. So there's a lot that goes into it, but basically there's a helicopter in this scene that's...

flying or flying too low. And so the special effects team sets off some kind of poorly controlled explosions and they hit the helicopter, which is already at low altitude and the chopper ends up basically like smashing into one of the kids and then chopping Vigmaro and the other kid up and just

like violently, they are killed pretty much instantly. Um, I'm not sure what happened with the pilot, um, of the helicopter. Um, I'm not sure. I don't think he died because everything I was reading said it was just Vic Morrow and the two kids that, that died. So I think they would have mentioned if the pilot died. Um, but yeah, so three actors killed.

Andrew Fossier (33:33.038)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (33:52.75)
Yeah.

Eli Price (33:58.144)
Um, the investigations that, uh, followed showed that Landis allegedly asked the chopper to fly lower than expected to look more like spectacular on the set. Um, there was some illegal stuff going on with the kids for one, they were shooting at night. The kids, you know, there's, there's standard, even in the eighties, there were standards for what could and couldn't happen with children on a movie set.

Andrew Fossier (34:21.454)
Yeah.

Eli Price (34:28.192)
And, um, they weren't supposed to be shooting with children actors that late. Um, typically what you do is you shoot during the day and you make lighting adjustments or, you know, colorization adjustments in post to make it look like night. Um, and they didn't, they were shooting at night with these children. Um, and you're not supposed to, um, have children close to certain kinds of special effects.

Um, which they did. Um, and then on top of that, I'm pretty sure I had, I read that they were hired illegally. Like they didn't have the proper like permits or like contracts in place. Um, so just like all kinds of shady stuff going on. Um, it really unfortunate and it's, it's great. I've, I was listening to a podcast earlier where they were talking more in more detail.

Andrew Fossier (34:59.822)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (35:12.814)
Mmm.

Yeah.

Eli Price (35:27.936)
um, about this kind of what happened here. There's there it's, there's some like journalism done, like in some books, kind of looking back on this on what went wrong and all that. But a lot of it boils down to John Landis kind of having too much power and too much money. And, um, you know, there was a lot of, well, I don't want to

Andrew Fossier (35:49.966)
Mmm.

Eli Price (35:57.088)
rub up against John Landis the wrong way and tell him we shouldn't do this. Cause maybe he'll get mad at me and blacklist me and I won't get any more Hollywood jobs. So like the helicopter pilot had concerns, but it was his first movie and he didn't want to like get blacklisted. Um, apparently, uh, the parents weren't adequately like told about the risk, um, that their children would be in on set. There's just like.

Andrew Fossier (36:05.134)
Hmm, wow.

Andrew Fossier (36:11.118)
Oh wow. Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (36:21.294)
Mmm.

Andrew Fossier (36:26.766)
Yeah.

Eli Price (36:27.84)
Yeah. The more you dig into it, the more you're like, this is really awful. Um, but it ends up just kind of getting in the legal stew of everything and kind of nothing really happens. There's, uh, I think Landis ends up being, uh, acquitted. Frank Marshall was apparently on set during the incident incident, but he, um, I'm pretty sure he like left the country shortly after. Um,

And, um, Spielberg apparently like signed, um, signed a thing with Warner Brothers saying that he wasn't there, which, you know, it wasn't his, he was a producer, but it wasn't his segment. So it's kind of like, I don't know. I didn't really, I didn't really see anything that indicated that he actually was there, even though he signed a paper saying he wasn't, but he did sign a paper saying he wasn't so.

Andrew Fossier (37:12.078)
Yeah.

Eli Price (37:27.904)
I don't know how much, you know, it's, it's, it's how much culpability is there for Spielberg? I don't know. It's hard to say because there wasn't, there wasn't strong, invest strong enough investigation done. Um, Frank Marshall and Spielberg weren't even interviewed when there was an eventual trial in 86 and 87. Um, so Landis was the first charge that came through was.

Andrew Fossier (37:50.254)
Wow.

Eli Price (37:57.088)
From the victim, the families of the victims, um, Landis was charged with manslaughter. Uh, and I think like the technical team also, um, they were acquitted. Nothing, you know, nothing really happened as far as that goes. And then, yeah, I don't think anything really ever came of it. Um, yeah, just wild, just really horrible. It really like became a huge shadow.

Andrew Fossier (38:19.15)
Yeah.

Eli Price (38:26.368)
over this whole project. And you know, it's just, it's just sad to see someone just so blatantly ignore like the standards and ignore the procedures for safety.

Andrew Fossier (38:29.326)
Definitely, yeah.

Andrew Fossier (38:45.582)
Yeah, multiple. Well, I will say that the thing that this made me think of that I feel very differently about obviously is Tom Cruise because Tom Cruise is breaking all kinds of like no stunt coordinator would allow a stunt person to do what Tom Cruise is doing. He's able to do it because he has got the power and he wants to do it. Like that's right. Like he is, he is, he is.

Eli Price (38:58.976)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (39:10.464)
Yes, right, he wants to do it. That's the difference.

Andrew Fossier (39:15.63)
gained the notoriety and the power and the money and he's saying, hey, I want to jump off of the side of a mountain with a power chute on a motorcycle. I wanna do that. Like it's so admirable, you know, that that's the way he has gone with it. And then to see just contrasted with a situation like this, it's just, it's stark.

Eli Price (39:22.592)
Mm -hmm. Right.

Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (39:34.336)
this. Yeah. Yeah. And there's, there's other examples too, um, that don't necessarily end with death, but are like terrible either traumatic or like giving injuries situations, um, with, and it, it, it always seems to be happening with like directors that have a lot of power and a lot of influence. So like, um, you think about, um,

on, um, the birds, the Hitchcock's movie, the birds, um, there's, you know, Tippi Hedren, who was the, the lead actress there talks about how traumatic that experience was. You know, she w she thought that it was just going to be mechanical birds and stuff. But when, when they started filming, there were like handlers, like throwing live birds toward her and.

Andrew Fossier (40:24.43)
Hmm.

Eli Price (40:31.424)
There was a, there was a point where like some birds were like lightly tied to her while she was laying like live birds and they were like pecking at her and stuff. Um, just a really like traumatic experience. And then of course there's, there's stories on, uh, you know, William Friedkin for the Exorcist. Um, there's a, there's a part where, um, they're like pulling Ellen Bernstein, who's the mom, like pulling her backwards or something and.

Andrew Fossier (40:43.982)
Yeah.

Eli Price (41:00.672)
Like the guys like pulling her too hard and she says something to freak him and he's like, Oh, okay. Um, but then nothing, they, they just keep doing it and she ends up like, um, messing up her spine, which is kind of like, it has a lasting injury. And then on top of that, they, they broke, uh, Linda Blair's back that she was 14. She's the one that is possessed in the exorcist. There's.

Andrew Fossier (41:17.102)
Wow. Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (41:25.294)
Mmm.

Eli Price (41:28.192)
There's like, they made a contraption to make her like sit up really fast in bed. Um, and it like fractured part of her spine. Yeah. So just like, and it's like, I don't know. It's, it's almost like this thing of like, well, for the sake of the director's vision, we should sacrifice like the safety of people. I don't, I don't think so. I think there's ways to.

Andrew Fossier (41:36.526)
Goodness. Wow.

Andrew Fossier (41:54.222)
Yeah.

Eli Price (41:57.28)
It's a movie. There's ways to make make your artistic vision happen without like jeopardizing people's safety and And how about maybe we don't traumatize people we like let them act like You don't have to you don't have to like have live birds pecking at your actress for her to act scared You know

Andrew Fossier (41:59.662)
Right.

Andrew Fossier (42:04.046)
safely, yeah.

Andrew Fossier (42:11.47)
At a bare minimum, yeah, really.

Andrew Fossier (42:19.822)
Yeah, it's not like, it's not an episode of, oh, I can't think of a TV show now. Something to do with fear, like Scorpion Pits, like that kind of stuff. It's like, it's a reality show, and so it needs to look more real. You can accomplish a lot of this kind of stuff without endangering people's lives.

Eli Price (42:36.096)
Yeah.

Eli Price (42:41.76)
Yeah, yeah for sure. It's, yeah, it's a problem. It's a problem and I want to, you know, I want to believe that standards are much better these days with all that. You know, the only thing I can think of recently with a tragedy happening was the mishandling of the firearm with Alec Baldwin.

Andrew Fossier (42:45.742)
Fear factor is what I was thinking of.

Andrew Fossier (43:06.958)
Yeah.

Eli Price (43:08.544)
But that seems more just kind of like a freak accident thing. Not, I don't know, maybe there was some lack of training or some, there, there must've been something that went wrong because I think there was a trial. Um, but, um, I haven't either.

Andrew Fossier (43:22.478)
Yeah, I actually haven't kept up a lot with that, but just 10 ,000 foot view, why would light ammunition ever be around a prop weapon? And then how would the actor know that? Yeah, I mean, it looks, yeah.

Eli Price (43:36.032)
Exactly.

Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (43:42.976)
Yeah, apparently I also heard that Landis was unhappy with the way like the plants looked with when ammunition was being fired, like they weren't exploding right. And so like he gets a, one of their like effects guys and they get a shotgun and like actually just like start like blasting away like plants or something. Um, which is not safe to do movie set. Um, anyway, just.

Andrew Fossier (43:52.878)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (44:04.014)
Wow.

Andrew Fossier (44:07.758)
No.

Eli Price (44:12.832)
Wild things all around. There's wild things happening in the 70s and 80s on movie sets that, you know, I want to believe are better these days. I feel like I can feel like I have enough evidence of these things not happening very often these days to say that maybe standards are better.

Andrew Fossier (44:14.19)
Yeah, it sounds like a couple different things.

Andrew Fossier (44:37.454)
Yeah, I mean, I don't know a lot about it, I guess, in the applied belief that you know, you're talking about, but I do watch Corridor Digital and on YouTube and they do like a Stuntman React episode every once in a while and they'll have someone who's a stunt person come in and talk about their experience or, you know, what it's like doing these really dangerous things. And I mean, it sounds like it's still incredibly dangerous, but there's a lot more.

Eli Price (44:43.104)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (45:00.32)
Yeah.

Eli Price (45:05.088)
Right.

Andrew Fossier (45:07.694)
protection in place.

Eli Price (45:08.64)
Mm -hmm and stuntmen are are doing it knowing the risk and being willing to take on the risk Which is totally different than you know, the things we've been talking about Yeah, especially kids Yeah, so anyways like, you know all this happens it's it's really truly terrible and Spielberg considers just canceling the film altogether or pulling out

Andrew Fossier (45:13.902)
Right. Right.

A kid, right? Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (45:36.27)
Hmm.

Eli Price (45:38.88)
of the film himself. Um, and Warner Brothers, of course, you know, kind of tries to dissuade them of that. And also his lawyers, I think as I read somewhere, try to pretty much dissuade him from doing that. And I think part of it is it, they were saying like, Oh, it seems like that would be like an admission of guilt, which is like a terrible reason not to pull, pull out of a movie that had a terrible tragedy. Um,

Andrew Fossier (46:01.262)
Oh.

Yeah.

Eli Price (46:09.824)
So yeah, just not good. Not good things happening with Twilight Zone the movie. And especially John Landis' segment. So everyone was very like, just kind of wanted to get it done. It's, yeah, everyone just wanted to get it done. I'm pretty sure even like Joe Dante, he finished his segment and then he didn't even like,

He just like, was like done. Like he didn't do any of the post -production work. Like I think George Miller ended up doing that, helping with the editing for his segment. Um, and, um, yeah. So Spielberg of course, so one of the things that ends up happening out of this, uh, I kind of mentioned it earlier, Spielberg didn't end up, um, doing the, um, uh, Monsters are due on Maple street segment. He switched.

Andrew Fossier (46:43.438)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (46:48.014)
Wow.

Eli Price (47:09.984)
Um, because that segment did deal with children and some special effects and nighttime, which doesn't mean that he was planning on shooting at nighttime. It just means. There was, you know, it just kind of like had all the same sort of bad vibes that happened with the first one. Um, I, I, I kind of feel like it's more just like, okay.

Andrew Fossier (47:20.59)
Yeah.

Eli Price (47:36.928)
I know something like this wouldn't happen for my segment. I, you know, I wasn't planning on having an unsafe environment, but at the same time, like, it just feels icky to do like nighttime special effects with children when this just happened, you know?

Andrew Fossier (47:46.062)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (47:53.454)
Well, but I'm wondering, I'm wondering, I really wish I could hear the conversations that surrounded that because when you're phrasing it, when you're the way you're talking about it right now, it sounds like if the objective was to move away from having kid actors, I feel like you could have very easily done that in The Monsters or do, I don't think you've seen, you said you hadn't seen it, but do you mind if I like just talk about generically?

Eli Price (48:00.096)
Yep.

Eli Price (48:17.344)
Yeah, I haven't seen it.

Eli Price (48:21.44)
Yeah, yeah, no, go for it.

Andrew Fossier (48:22.926)
It's just kind of like people in a neighborhood and weird things start happening and they start saying, oh, you, I think, I actually don't remember the set up, but the implication is that there's aliens somewhere around doing something and, oh, your lights are on and all our lights are off. So you're an alien. And then they just kind of start getting angrier and angrier and then kind of just break out in mayhem.

Eli Price (48:38.144)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (48:47.456)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (48:48.814)
and then you kind of just pan out and you see the aliens talking like, see, we don't even need to do anything. And they're just basically monsters. So they're the monsters, you know? So it's like, that could just be all adults. This specifically has kids. So yeah, I don't know. It's just interesting to see.

Eli Price (49:01.76)
Sure.

Eli Price (49:06.048)
Yeah, it is interesting. It probably had something to do with that mayhem section of there's going to be kids around and craziness going on. And he just was like, ah, let's just stay away from it. Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (49:12.974)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (49:18.446)
There were kids here, but it was super chill. It was like, not, let's break the neighborhood up.

Eli Price (49:26.304)
Yeah. Well, maybe Spielberg's was a little bit more crazy, because he dropped that one and went with something definitely calmer and more sentimental with Kick the Can, which was an episode in season three of Twilight Zone. And yeah, he chose this. George, let's see. Let's...

Andrew Fossier (49:31.31)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (49:39.726)
Yeah.

Eli Price (49:55.616)
back up a little bit. So the kick the can is his segment. Let's do this. Before we get into talking about his segment, let's go ahead and talk about our thoughts on John Landis' segment that does still end up in the movie with Vic Morrow as the lead. Yeah, it just feels icky. But that's what we have. What did you?

Andrew Fossier (50:06.638)
Mm.

Andrew Fossier (50:22.382)
Yeah.

Eli Price (50:25.024)
think about that segment.

Andrew Fossier (50:27.982)
I mean, I think it just needs to be said. I don't know. There were more uses of the N -word in that segment of the show than I think, specifically with racist intention, like the characters were using it. It was just, it was a lot. It was a lot. It just immediately started off and it's like, okay, we're two seconds in. He's being racist. He's being...

Eli Price (50:43.84)
Right.

Eli Price (50:48.832)
It was.

Andrew Fossier (50:55.79)
sexist and he's pulling the waitress onto his lap and it just was like okay I get it we're supposed to not like this guy and then he started you know dropping in words and it's just like oh whoa okay yeah

Eli Price (51:06.24)
Yeah, I mean, he's doing, he's like, in word this, in word that, do this, do that, you know.

Andrew Fossier (51:12.366)
Yeah, I can't remember. He uses a slur for Asian people as well. And I just...

Eli Price (51:19.84)
Yep. Yeah, it's and, and then all of a sudden he's like, I don't know. It's, it's definitely something that would never be made today. Um, I think it was made maybe in an 1980s cultural environment where it was done with maybe good intention, but it's very like very much would be called appropriation today.

Andrew Fossier (51:49.198)
Mmm.

Eli Price (51:49.312)
Uh, because like what ends up happening with Maro's character is like he walks out of this bar after being a bigot for five minutes and then he's in, um, like German, German occupied France and he's being treated as if he's a Jew and chased around, which is like, okay, but he's not, and he's racist towards Jews. So like, why are you like,

Why is he doing? And then like he drops into, he falls off a building and drops into like deep South KKK meeting with a burning cross. And it just all feels in really bad taste. And you know, he comes up out of the water and now he's in Vietnam being fired at by, you know, an American troop. Um, and it's just like, okay. I don't know. It.

Andrew Fossier (52:19.95)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (52:36.59)
Yeah.

Eli Price (52:46.432)
It just all feels like it's for the spectacle of it all and not like, I don't know. It's, it just feels like it's in bad taste, but you know, we're looking at it with 2024 eyes. And so.

Andrew Fossier (52:46.734)
It's.

Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (52:55.726)
Yeah, it does.

I mean, yes, I don't know. I also was just thinking, I guess the thing that just made me feel so uneasy about it is if there are ever films today that are using language and imagery like that in a cultural context, I guess the one I'm specifically thinking of, because I've heard so many people talk about it is Jango Unchained, right? And...

Eli Price (53:16.128)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (53:29.262)
There's like this weight and like, I don't wanna do this, this isn't okay, I shouldn't be saying this. And...

I don't know, I'm totally just talking, blowing air right here, but it's like, to do a casting call and say, hey, we're gonna have a group of guys chase, like do a KKK chase scene, it's just, I don't know, it feels too close to the real examples of violence like this for it to be, I don't know, it just was, it was very.

Eli Price (54:03.264)
Yeah, it's odd. And there's like, there's a fine line of like, you know, think about like black Klansmen. You have, you know, you have KKK a lot in there and you know, there's, there's a degree to which like, if you're going to make a movie that has KKK people in it, then you probably are going to have guys in white hoods run around saying the N word. Like it, you know, there's a degree to which like,

Andrew Fossier (54:12.494)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (54:26.67)
Right.

Eli Price (54:33.664)
Yeah, like that makes sense. Um, and that's not, it's, it's not so much that that bothers me about the movie. It's more just like, it feels in bad taste. And then at the end of everything, like, it doesn't even feel like the dude like learned anything or, and what are your, what is your takeaway supposed to be? Like, Oh, if you're racist, like we'll turn.

Andrew Fossier (54:52.27)
It doesn't, yeah.

Eli Price (55:02.208)
you'll get turned into the kind of person you're racist against and be victimized. Like.

Andrew Fossier (55:06.894)
Yeah, I mean, I know the people, I know in the context, I guess, diegetically, the characters that are seeing him are seeing him as these things. And I guess I'm really glad they didn't decide to do, you know, blackface. But that's good, right? But the resolution just kind of felt like...

Eli Price (55:17.152)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (55:22.112)
Yeah. Yes. Right.

Andrew Fossier (55:32.942)
even there approaching it from this level of privilege where it's like, I'm trying to make sure that they know that I'm not a Jew. And then none of this crazy stuff will be happening. Whereas it's like connecting his actions from the very beginning to what's even happening to him right now. Doesn't even feel, I don't know, yeah. It just felt like the intention of the character the whole time was to exercise the ability to say, hey, I'm not this group that you're attacking.

Eli Price (55:39.552)
Yes, yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (55:49.504)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (56:03.022)
even when he's being chased by the, you know, KKK members. He's like, I'm not, I'm not black. What are you talking about? And so it's like, yeah.

Eli Price (56:12.128)
Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's, it's not great. Let's just say that. So yeah, this first segment, I did not like at all. As you can, as everyone listening can tell by the way we've been talking about it, not good. Doesn't hold up. I don't really know how it was received back then, but with 2024 eyes, not good. So then let's.

Andrew Fossier (56:24.078)
No.

Eli Price (56:43.168)
Well, let's do this. Let's end with Spielberg segment. Um, and we can talk about it in more detail. Um, because I'll say this about it before we go, before we talk about Joe Dante's because it feels the most disjointed from the rest of the segments. The rest of the segments are all pretty dark and the Spielberg segment is like pretty like optimistic and.

Andrew Fossier (56:50.51)
Okay.

Andrew Fossier (57:03.214)
Mmm.

Andrew Fossier (57:12.59)
Yeah.

Eli Price (57:13.152)
lighthearted. Um, and so it just, it doesn't really belong mood wise. It would be different if they all had like a little different mood and atmosphere going on, but they don't like the first third and fourth segments all kind of have a darker, like cautionary tale kind of feel to them. Um, that where, you know, not everything's really resolved and necessarily at the end.

Andrew Fossier (57:19.982)
Yeah?

Andrew Fossier (57:33.102)
Right.

Eli Price (57:42.688)
And this one is like very neat and tidy. Everything's resolved at the end. You you're supposed to have like a good feeling. And it's just like, it, it feels weird in the middle of these other three. Yeah. Yeah. And then, yeah, following the first segment and then also being followed up by it's a good life. Like.

Andrew Fossier (57:55.31)
Yeah. Well, especially following the first segment, it was just like, what is going on?

Andrew Fossier (58:06.286)
I think it's a good life was, I mean, well, I guess first, I don't know, just ranking and like, they were all disturbing in a different way except for this one. Yeah. Which I don't know. I was thinking about like the theme or like what he, you know, what the, I guess, message to take away from this one was, especially after the first one.

Eli Price (58:20.896)
Right. Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (58:34.798)
And I guess it's more just like, be happy where you are, kind of. Because it was almost like a monkey's paw situation, because they basically were saying, I wanna be young. And then their literal children, it's like your options are eight years old or 80 years old. And he even said that about Haley's comment.

Eli Price (58:40.128)
Yeah.

Eli Price (58:48.896)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (58:56.128)
Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's interesting. Well, yeah, let's, you know, let's go ahead and dig into it. Um, no, no, yet. Like I said at the beginning, like, I don't really know how this is going to work because this is our first anthology film. So we're just going to have fun with it and roll with what happens. Let's, let's go ahead and, and dig into kick the can a little more because I do want to, I do want to talk about what you're hitting on there. So.

Andrew Fossier (58:57.07)
So yeah, I don't know.

Andrew Fossier (59:04.59)
I'm sorry, did you not want to do that? That I just derail? Okay, okay.

Andrew Fossier (59:13.358)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (59:25.102)
Yeah.

Eli Price (59:26.816)
It, the original one was written, um, by a guy named pulling up the crew, um, George Clayton Johnston, um, who they do bring back and does have a screenplay credit on this one too. Um, Richard Matheson is the main writer and I think George, uh, Clayton Johnston was brought on kind of to consult and help with the writing. Uh, and, uh, Spielberg also brought on Melissa Matheson.

Andrew Fossier (59:41.038)
Hmm.

Eli Price (59:55.968)
who wrote ET and she is credited under a pseudonym Josh Rogan. Um, which I don't really know why, but yeah. And then, um, yeah. So, you know, you have Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, his, his co -founders of Amblin entertainment with Spielberg. They're working as associate producer and executive producer, um, for these. And then, um,

The director of photography DP was Alan DeViau who worked with Spielberg on ET as well. You have Michael Kahn, Spielberg's trusty editor that has edited all but like two of his movies. And music by Jerry Goldsmith who I'm not really sure what all he's done. Didn't really look that up.

Sound by Tommy Cosi, Production Design by James D. Bissell, whose name I did recognize and I think has worked with Spielberg before. I just don't remember exactly on what. I'm seeing if I can find him on a, here on a letterbox real quick, but I'm not seeing his name, which is unfortunate because.

It would have been nice to have smoothly transitioned into that. But yeah, James D. Bissell, Mike Wood did the special effects. So, you know, all of them had kind of had their own technical crews that they brought on for their own segments. So these are the guys that Spielberg brings on for Kick the Can. Matheson, you know, modifies.

Andrew Fossier (01:01:37.806)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (01:01:50.592)
Johnson's original script. Um, and I think it was actually, uh, George Clayton Johnson that suggested, um, the choice to return to old age. So the original story was a little bit different, um, from this story. I haven't seen it, but I have listened to it explained on another podcast. And so basically the original, um, kick the can story has two old men.

Andrew Fossier (01:02:10.318)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (01:02:20.544)
that are friends in this, you know, old people's home, nursing home, whatever you want to call it. And, um, one of them is the guy that, uh, like his, his son won't like bring them to visit, but that guy is actually like not the grumpy one. Um, the grumpy one is his friend. And so the guy whose son won't bring them home decides like, well, you know, screw this.

Andrew Fossier (01:02:36.014)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:02:49.248)
I'm going to enjoy life and act like I'm young and have fun. And so he, he's actually the one that decides where, whereas in Spielberg's it's the guy, it's that character that whose son won't bring them to visit that ends up being like the curmudgeonly guy. And so in the original, it's the friend that's the curmudgeonly guy. So basically, and then also in the original, there's no like Scatman Crothers character, the kind of magical guy.

Andrew Fossier (01:02:53.23)
Uh huh.

Andrew Fossier (01:03:12.142)
Hmm.

Andrew Fossier (01:03:17.262)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:03:18.464)
It's just these two friends. And so, you know, basically the convergent curmudgeonly friend is like telling the nurses and workers at the home that like, Hey, I think my friend's going a little crazy. Cause he's like playing in the sprinklers at night. And he's like, he's just doing all kinds of like stuff that kids would do. Um, and so they're planning on like maybe isolating him or doing something along those lines.

Andrew Fossier (01:03:35.406)
Hahaha.

Yeah.

Eli Price (01:03:45.28)
And then, but then before that happens, one night he gets like all the other old people in the home to like go out and play with him one night, except for the curmudgeonly friend. Um, so that's kind of a similar thing. The, and that ends up with the Spielbergs and then, um, the old people, the workers of the home, like go look out the window because they hear about a bunch of commotion, but it's just a bunch of kids playing. So.

Andrew Fossier (01:03:57.774)
Mmm.

Yeah.

Eli Price (01:04:15.104)
Somehow magically they've all turned back into children. And then, um, the curmudgeonly guy looks out the window and sees his friend cause they were childhood friends. And so he recognizes him and he's like, they all start running off all the kids. And, um, the curmudgeonly friend is like, can I come with you? And the, you know, the other friend like looks at him. He's like, I don't know who you are.

Andrew Fossier (01:04:20.206)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:04:43.328)
Like I guess cause he's a kid again, he doesn't recognize them. And so he runs off and then that's kind of like the end. The, the commercially friend has just kind of left there as the only remaining old man in the home. All the, all the others like have run off as kids.

Andrew Fossier (01:05:02.126)
Yeah, I mean, I guess this is not, it's maybe not as chaotic evil as, you know, episode three, but why does the source of unlimited power always like offer awful solutions to the problems that the people that it comes across face? It's like, I want to feel youthful again. Okay, the whole home is changing to kids now.

Eli Price (01:05:12.704)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (01:05:20.768)
Ha ha ha.

Eli Price (01:05:29.024)
Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, it's interesting. Yeah, so I mentioned Scatman Crothers. He's cast as Mr. Bloom, the kind of magical dude that shows up in the home. Scatman Crothers was 72 at the time, I think, and he was a former jazz singer. And Spielberg had actually met him while visiting Stanley Kubrick on the set of The Shining.

Andrew Fossier (01:05:43.47)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (01:05:57.952)
Crothers was in The Shining. So, met him there, liked him, and brought him on for this. And I almost wonder if he invented this magical character, because he pictured Crothers doing something like this, and was like, oh, this'll be a good opportunity to have him in something I'm doing. Only a couple other notable actors, Bill Quinn was in

Andrew Fossier (01:05:58.03)
Oh.

Okay.

Andrew Fossier (01:06:14.478)
Heheheheh

Yeah.

Eli Price (01:06:27.872)
Alfred Hitchcock's the birds and, um, I didn't see him in the credits for Spielberg Savage, but I did read in one of my sources that he was in Spielberg's TV movie Savage. Um, so, uh, yeah, Bill Quinn, uh, Murray Matheson and, uh, Peter Bracco both were in original, um, Twilight zone episodes back in the day. Um, and then you have, uh, other, you know,

Andrew Fossier (01:06:51.534)
Yeah, that is cool. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:06:57.6)
Actors and actresses, Martin Garner plays Mr. Weinstein, Selma Diamond plays Mrs. Weinstein, Helen Shaw plays one of the ladies, Priscilla Pointer plays one of the ladies. And then, you know, you have a bunch of, you have all the kids versions of them all. And then Burgess Meredith is the narrator and he is actually,

I think I heard, if I heard correctly, he was in the most Twilight Zone episodes, um, back in the day. So, you know, there's not a ton of like recurring actors in Twilight Zone episodes, but I think he was in like a good handful of them. Um, so, and he's actually, um, probably most notably known as, um, I forget.

Andrew Fossier (01:07:30.606)
Hmm.

Andrew Fossier (01:07:35.31)
Uh huh.

Eli Price (01:07:50.88)
I can't think of the character's name off the top of my head, but he's the old trainer in Rocky. Um, if you've seen Rocky, yeah. So he's the old, old guy trainer that Rocky ends up training with. Um, and so that's Burgess Meredith. So that's probably a better point of reference than old Twilight Zone episodes for people. But yeah. Um, yeah. So they get this cast gathering.

Andrew Fossier (01:07:58.638)
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:08:11.502)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (01:08:19.52)
He gets his crew together. They start shooting in November of 1982. Um, each of the segments, they had like six to eight days to shoot. And so, um, I think Spielberg's was shot last. I think, um, Landis, what Landis's was first. And then I think Dante and Miller had actually already finished shooting theirs and then Spielberg, um, did his, which probably has something to do with him. Totally changing what he was adapting. Um, so.

Andrew Fossier (01:08:47.694)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:08:49.471)
He was probably like, uh, it's probably like, you know, when you don't know what you're ordering at a restaurant and you're like, uh, come back to me. Um, I think that's probably what Spielberg did here with, with shooting his, um, segment. Um.

Andrew Fossier (01:08:57.166)
Hahaha.

Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:09:05.134)
higher stakes, but good example.

Eli Price (01:09:07.488)
Yeah. Yes. Um, uh, I did read that he took every possible precaution that he could for having children on set. Um, which makes sense. Um, and then it was shot, you know, entirely in studio with, uh, night scenes shot during the day, as we talked about earlier to comply with the law on child actors, basically like making sure that he does nothing wrong. Um,

Andrew Fossier (01:09:16.845)
Mmm.

Andrew Fossier (01:09:35.598)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:09:36.703)
with all of the, you know, legal trouble surrounding Landis's segment. So yeah, kick the can. I thought it was not that great, this segment.

Andrew Fossier (01:09:53.71)
I agree. I will say, it had been a second since I read your texts when we watched them. And so I actually had given Hunter negative, my wife Hunter, incorrect information about which segment that Spielberg did. And when we finished watching them, she said, that one felt the most Spielberg. When I was like, oh yeah. When I realized afterwards, she had already said that felt the most Spielberg. And so, you know, it...

Eli Price (01:09:54.688)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:10:00.064)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (01:10:09.856)
Mm.

Andrew Fossier (01:10:23.022)
But yeah, I agree. I didn't really... It's kind of the same thing as...

What I was saying earlier, I don't really understand. I mean, if it's for older people, you know, especially, I guess the mindset just really supposed to be, be happy where you are and don't wish for things to change. But I don't know. That's just conflicted messaging to me.

Eli Price (01:10:36.256)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:10:43.136)
Yeah.

Yeah, no, I agree. And it's, yeah. It's a, it's.

Andrew Fossier (01:10:50.702)
I feel like a better thing is use power responsibly. Like in all of these, use power responsibly and you wouldn't be in the situation you're in. I guess not the last one really, but yeah.

Eli Price (01:10:54.24)
Sure.

Eli Price (01:11:01.408)
Yeah. Yeah. It's, I mean, so you know, it, it does have some like the only like good really like interesting shot I can even think of is like, you have a couple of shots of like the old people looking out windows and it kind of like is a good like example of using your framing to like kind of add to the theme of them.

being spectators of life instead of like living their lives. Um, but like, other than that, like, I don't even think Spielberg's doing very much interesting, like. Direct or like directing wise, like camera work wise, it just feels like he's kind of phoning it in and you know, he probably honestly is, he probably just wanted to get done with it. Um, but yeah, I mean.

Andrew Fossier (01:11:32.142)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:11:53.838)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:11:59.456)
And then as far as themes go, like, I guess it makes sense as a Spielberg segment because you have like nostalgia for childhood, which Spielberg like very much has, but here it kind of feels disjointed. Like it's yeah, it's like, okay, you should be, you should want to be the age you are, but also like one of the old people like

Andrew Fossier (01:12:12.238)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:12:17.646)
You shouldn't.

Eli Price (01:12:27.808)
decides to stay young. Um, and then it's like, Oh, you should be young in your heart. Um, and apparently like being old and being young and heart means like playing games outside. Um,

Andrew Fossier (01:12:29.742)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (01:12:42.606)
Hahaha.

Yeah, I don't know. It's like, be happy where you are, maybe, or be content where you are, but it's like when the old lady's saying she wants to dance, like she wishes she could dance.

Eli Price (01:12:51.392)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:12:59.118)
I don't know, it just didn't connect with me. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:13:02.624)
Yeah, I agree. Yeah, it felt disjointed. It felt weird. It didn't really land. It felt like it was supposed to be emotionally impactful, but really like wasn't at all. And then, you know, the twist, the like Twilight Zone twist is that Scatman Crothers is like going from old people home to old people home and apparently doing this everywhere. Playing kick the can. Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:13:17.134)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:13:30.03)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:13:32.096)
I'm like, oh, OK, cool.

Andrew Fossier (01:13:33.806)
Which again, I think was supposed to be kinda like, oh, he's going to this other place, but it felt, I don't know, it felt more destructive almost to me than it did positive. But yeah, I don't know.

Eli Price (01:13:46.24)
Yeah. I don't know. Just overall pretty weak. I guess it's like a little better than the first one because for one, it doesn't have a tragedy shadow hanging over it, but also like it, if yeah, it, yeah, the content of it is at least like, even if we didn't connect with it and it didn't really like, it felt disjointed, at least it was like,

Andrew Fossier (01:13:56.302)
I mean, yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:14:02.734)
Just looking at the content even, yeah, I would say.

Eli Price (01:14:14.656)
saying something instead of just being like look racist guy is going to a concentration camp now um you know so yeah i guess

Andrew Fossier (01:14:17.71)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:14:26.446)
It wasn't harmful, it was just kind of bland, maybe.

Eli Price (01:14:32.32)
Yeah, yeah, bland is a very good description of the Kick the Can segment directed by Steven Spielberg.

Andrew Fossier (01:14:34.734)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:14:39.086)
I did think the girl for the, I can't remember the character's names, but she was playing the wife, the Jewish wife. She was like really going for that. She was acting so like an old little old lady. I did think that was funny. Yeah. I did get a laugh out of that. Seeing little kids pretend to be old people was kind of funny.

Eli Price (01:14:48.864)
Yeah.

Mm -hmm.

She was, that accent.

Eli Price (01:14:59.808)
Wah wah wah wah.

Eli Price (01:15:05.984)
Yeah.

Oh yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:15:09.486)
Well, they were kids, but they were acting in the mannerisms like old people. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:15:14.272)
right. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So that's the Kick the Can segment. I didn't like the first segment at all. I didn't like the second segment a little less. So not off to a great start with Twilight is on the Movie for the first two segments. We didn't talk about the intro. I didn't mind the intro. I thought the intro was kind of fun.

Andrew Fossier (01:15:33.326)
Hehehehe

Andrew Fossier (01:15:37.134)
Yeah.

Oh yeah. Hmm. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:15:44.672)
You know, you've got, um, uh, Dan Ackroyd and Albert Brooks, uh, in the car and they're kind of like, just kind of riffing really, and start talking. They do the little game with, uh, like game show and the Twilight Zone gets brought up and then he's doing the like, turn the lights off. And it's like, it's like building in like the amount of like eeriness.

Andrew Fossier (01:16:05.774)
Uh huh.

Andrew Fossier (01:16:12.462)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:16:12.992)
And then Dan and Dan Akkroy pops up with what I can only assume is his real face. He took off his actor mask and revealed his real monstrous face. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't mind that. I thought it was like, I thought it was kind of a fun little intro to the movie. I don't know.

Andrew Fossier (01:16:22.83)
He got out of character. Yeah, I don't know.

Andrew Fossier (01:16:34.606)
Yeah, it was, I don't know, I thought it was fun. I just, the very first thing that I, when I saw it, as I was thinking, this didn't feel Twilight Zone -y to me. I'm not saying that it was offensively bad or annoying or frustrating or something. It just, for that to be the opening thing, I was like, this doesn't feel Twilight Zone to me.

Eli Price (01:16:48.768)
Sure.

Eli Price (01:16:53.984)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:16:59.808)
Yeah. Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:17:01.998)
But it wasn't bad. It was kind of funny. Especially not to spoil anything, but when it came back, I thought that was funny at the end.

Eli Price (01:17:09.216)
Yeah. Yeah. So I don't think part of that is just like, it's not actually like a Twilight zone episode or segment. It's just like meant to be like, Hey, remember the Twilight zone? That's what this movie is. And so like functioning as that, it kind of works. Um, you know, helping the audience like get into like the, yeah, we're ready to watch a Twilight zone movie. Yes. That's what we paid.

Andrew Fossier (01:17:18.51)
Hmm.

Andrew Fossier (01:17:22.286)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:17:38.08)
That's the ticket we paid for, you know.

Andrew Fossier (01:17:40.782)
Yeah, it's funny that the thing, self -referencing the thing that everyone else is saying, oh, this is just like this. Because that happened with, I don't know if you've, I don't want to spoil monkey man for anybody. Okay, well, I will just say that movie explicitly says John Wick in it, you know, like, and it's like neon lights and fight scenes. Okay, yeah, John Wick, you know, but.

Eli Price (01:17:47.328)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:17:54.88)
Yeah, I have seen it.

Eli Price (01:18:02.432)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:18:07.488)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:18:10.126)
That's kind of what this felt like, except I would say to less effect because I really enjoyed how Monkey Man was like John Wick. I think they did a good job of that without it being a cheap feeling call out. And this felt a little more like, I don't know. I didn't like these two at least as much.

Eli Price (01:18:18.176)
Yeah, sure.

Eli Price (01:18:24.288)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (01:18:31.488)
It kind of felt like, you know, it was kind of like elbowing, like the person you're sitting next to like, Hey, remember the Twilight Zone? Yeah. Um, I didn't mind it though. I, I thought it was, I thought it knew what it, what it, what it was doing and wasn't really aiming to do anything more than that. And so for what it was, I was like, Oh, that's kind of fun. You know, he pops out and, um, and actually, um, I remember hearing, um,

Andrew Fossier (01:18:36.334)
Yeah, that's a good way of putting it.

Andrew Fossier (01:18:48.078)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (01:19:02.272)
Man, I don't remember what it was on. There was a podcast, I think someone was talking about how that like that little segment like really like freaked them out when they were a kid. Cause it's so unexpected. He just like all of a sudden pops up with that monster face. I could see how that would like, like make you jump as a kid. Um, yeah. Yeah. So first two intro for me. Okay. For you, I guess kind of okay.

Andrew Fossier (01:19:13.39)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:19:17.742)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:19:31.694)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:19:31.712)
Um, and then first two segments, we didn't really go for it. How about the Dante segment? It's a good life. How did you feel about that segment?

Andrew Fossier (01:19:43.918)
I don't know. It was another one where like the setup was pretty like where they showed the sister with no mouth and then like they were all acting very obviously staged and strange. Like I was like yeah.

Eli Price (01:19:44.864)
Hehehehehe

Eli Price (01:19:54.88)
Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (01:20:00.8)
Yeah, it feels like Twilight Zone, you know

Andrew Fossier (01:20:07.15)
And then I didn't really know. I don't know. It just, it was the most interesting one, I would say. It's because there were so many, it took big swings.

Eli Price (01:20:07.36)
Yes.

Eli Price (01:20:21.184)
Yes. And that's why, so I actually think I liked this segment. Um, and I think that's why it's the, it's the most interesting. I mean, I think part of it is just like Joe Dante is like, what have I got to lose? You know, uh, you know, Spielberg is going to let me do gremlins. Uh, maybe I can test out some like freaky weird stuff here with, with these animatronics and, um, yeah, it, it's just.

Andrew Fossier (01:20:25.998)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (01:20:35.31)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:20:45.87)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (01:20:49.792)
It's kind of weird and eerie. And then it's the only one that's like doing really interesting stuff, like technically as a film. I mean, you have the, there was like a part that stood way out, um, was all of a sudden. Like everything except for the, the teacher character is basically in black and white. Like she's walking down the hall.

Andrew Fossier (01:21:03.31)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:21:17.774)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:21:19.2)
And it's kind of like, makes you like do a double take because like shortly after that it's back, like they're back in a room with color again. Um, and it's just like, it's like all these like weird visual cues, like it's not just like the weird, um, the family being weird. It's like doing interesting visual cues like that, that indicates like something is wrong. Um,

Andrew Fossier (01:21:44.014)
Yeah.

And like the unnatural lighting change when they like moved from the hallway into the, or maybe when they were starting dinner, maybe is when the lighting just like changed really, yeah.

Eli Price (01:21:48.896)
Yes.

Eli Price (01:21:53.856)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Yeah, it's doing a lot of interesting technical stuff. And then I think too, like, the story is kind of eerie and, you know,

You know, it slowly like unveils more and more and you kind of realize what's going on along with her, which I think is pretty well executed. Like, you know something's off, but you're kind of figuring it out as you go. And then yeah, the little like...

Andrew Fossier (01:22:17.198)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:22:35.2)
like demonic rabbit is like wild.

Andrew Fossier (01:22:38.926)
That was the turning point for me, honestly, when I was going from interested... Again, because...

Eli Price (01:22:42.4)
I could see how that could be like, oh yeah, or like, okay, I'm done.

Andrew Fossier (01:22:48.11)
I don't know. Maybe I should give it a second chance, but it just, it reminded me too much of, oh, I can't, there was that time in there where there were a couple of movies that did the like rotoscoped humans into the cartoon world thing. And like, for both things that happened, when the sister got sucked into the TV and when that happened, I just wish that they would have,

Eli Price (01:23:06.944)
Sure, yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:23:17.934)
been animated and maybe that's a really nitpick, but it just like, it didn't, I don't know. It just, the way it was presented was too weird for me.

Eli Price (01:23:24.8)
Yeah, well, so for one, for one, like that technology wasn't really there yet. So that's one thing, which we'll talk about that a little bit when we talk about the mission later. But, or it might've been there, but if it was, it was like not very widely used yet.

Andrew Fossier (01:23:35.438)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (01:23:44.942)
Oh, to be clear, I didn't mean like CGI. So those were animatronics, right? Like that was...

Eli Price (01:23:48.928)
No, yeah.

Yeah, you're right. You're right. The technology is definitely there. The I don't know. I think I'm thinking of something else. Yeah, I think I was thinking of CGI because I mean the the technology like Mary Poppins is definitely there. So yeah. Yeah, you're right.

Andrew Fossier (01:24:01.518)
Yeah, yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:24:05.454)
Right, that's what I more so meant. I feel like that would have been especially more fitting with the idea of when he said the cartoon, anything can happen in cartoons, that's when it started to be like, oh, okay, this is the, you know, he's got some kind of power or whatever and things are happening. I just wish it would have looked more that way. But at the same time, I know I'm contradicting myself. I do.

Eli Price (01:24:18.528)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:24:25.152)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:24:29.806)
I do like the use of the practical animatronic and then the big swing of using that.

Eli Price (01:24:33.408)
Yeah. Yeah. And I even like, like the, I mean, it's basically like a demented Tasmanian devil that like comes out of the TV. Um, it's like spinning around with its tongue hanging out. I'm like, Oh, is that supposed to be like demented Taz? Um, and I, I don't know. I was into it. I was like, Oh yeah, this is like, this is wild and like disgusting. And I was like, I was all in on it. Um,

Andrew Fossier (01:24:45.166)
Yeah. Yeah.

Hahaha.

Andrew Fossier (01:25:02.062)
You

Eli Price (01:25:03.264)
And I don't know, I think there's a degree to which like, I can just like, accept like, is this like, does this look realistic? No, but is it like freaky and demented? Yeah. And that's kind of what he's trying to do. Um, like he's not trying to like make realistic looking things. I mean, it's a, it's like, you know, cartoons coming into real life, like they're going to look kind of demented because they don't belong there.

Andrew Fossier (01:25:18.606)
Mmm, yeah.

Eli Price (01:25:32.992)
Um, and I don't know, he's just like, like you said, he's taking big swings and I just like really appreciate that.

Andrew Fossier (01:25:33.23)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:25:41.934)
I agree, that is something even though...

Taste -wise for me, it didn't hit. I think this was the biggest risk and I really respect that. Like that bumps it up for me even though it just visually was kind of weird for me. I do like the commitment to that.

Eli Price (01:25:49.28)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (01:25:55.136)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Eli Price (01:26:04.384)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (01:26:08.)
Yeah, just like a game recognized game kind of, you know, respect. So I'm assuming then the George Miller segment is your favorite of the four.

Andrew Fossier (01:26:10.99)
Yes, yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:26:17.678)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think so.

Eli Price (01:26:19.392)
Yeah. Yeah. I liked it too. It wasn't maybe as effective for me because I've seen the original. So I kind of like, you kind of like know what's happening. If I were to have seen this for the first time without the original, I'm sure it would have been like, okay, is he crazy or is he not crazy? You're kind of like wondering that as you watch along. But LithGal is definitely the best performance.

Andrew Fossier (01:26:41.454)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:26:49.44)
of all the segments. He's like really selling it.

Andrew Fossier (01:26:51.406)
Uh huh.

Andrew Fossier (01:26:56.142)
Yeah, he's very, very sweaty. That's for sure.

Eli Price (01:26:59.168)
Yeah, he's super sweaty. He's like, he's got all the faces, uh, all the distraught faces you could possibly make. Um, yeah, it's, uh, the creature design is fun. You know, um, you, you've got like, I feel like I wrote down in my notes when I was watching there's like very smart usage of like,

Andrew Fossier (01:27:04.334)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:27:28.512)
You have the atmosphere outside the plane is like cloudy, foggy and rainy. And so that like, you don't have to, you don't really have to give a strong illusion that you're flying. You just have to have those elements in place where you can do the flashes of lightning and, uh, the atmosphere looks like you're flying through a rainy cloud and stuff. And so I thought that was just like really well done, like special effects. Um,

Andrew Fossier (01:27:34.51)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:27:44.878)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (01:27:57.792)
to add to the atmosphere. Um, and then two, like it, it works tension wise because you're like, you're kind of hiding the creature and then revealing it when you want to reveal it with a lightning strike. Um, you know, just, just really all that stuff is really good. This is definitely like, I say the second, I mean, I said the third is my favorite of the four, but this is probably the most well -made of the, of the four.

Andrew Fossier (01:27:57.966)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:28:26.862)
Yeah, I would agree too, because it didn't just have a good idea. And maybe it's because I have seen this one when I was younger. I just remember having that, it's not only playing on the fear that we have of being on planes, right? It's also the fear of...

Eli Price (01:28:33.248)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (01:28:47.296)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (01:28:51.31)
I think he even says a line very similar to this. It's crazy that your brain can make you see something that's not really there. And it's like, am I being objective? Am I seeing this? Or am I making it up? Because what's scarier? I guess the question is asking, seeing something that's not really there or seeing something that's really there and no one believing you. That's the fear and the, yeah. So it was very effective at that.

Eli Price (01:28:58.944)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:29:07.936)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:29:17.28)
Yeah. I don't know. I feel like the second is scarier. Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:29:20.974)
That's what I was gonna say. Because even if you can rule it out and just say, okay, I don't know, it's not all rationality. But the point is, if you know something is there and no one believes you, it's the same effect except it's really there.

Eli Price (01:29:30.72)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:29:38.88)
Yeah. You know what the best movie I think for that is, is the, um, uh, was it 20? It must've been 2020. It's the invisible man remake with Elizabeth Moss. Have you seen that? Oh, I loved it. I thought it was incredible. Um, but it's playing on that and it's, you know, it there's obvious themes of like believing or not believing women also, um, in there.

Andrew Fossier (01:29:42.574)
Hmm.

Andrew Fossier (01:29:53.198)
Mm -hmm. No. Yeah?

Andrew Fossier (01:30:06.35)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:30:08.384)
Uh, yeah, you should go, you should watch that if, if it's streaming somewhere. The, I think it's 2020 because I think it's the last movie I saw in theaters before pandemic hit. Um, um, but yeah, uh, the invisible man, I can't think of the director's name right now, but it's, it's Elizabeth Moss is the lead.

Andrew Fossier (01:30:13.134)
Okay, yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:30:19.79)
Mmm.

Andrew Fossier (01:30:29.71)
You know, now that you're saying that, I'm wanting to say that I did see that because it was like the, kind of like the, it was a spin on, like it wasn't the original, obviously. Like they were like in a nice house, it was a nice house and she, yeah, I think I did see that.

Eli Price (01:30:40.672)
No. Yeah. Yeah. It's, I thought it was really, really good. Um, but yeah. And you know, Elizabeth Moss is incredible. Um, incredible actress, but anyways, getting back off that bunny trail. Um, no, yeah. You know, this is definitely like the, the interesting thought there with, you know, nightmare at 20 ,000 feet is.

Andrew Fossier (01:30:48.59)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:30:59.246)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:31:12.096)
Is this, it is just that question. Like what's scarier having hallucinations or like people not believing you when you're telling the truth, like definitely the latter. So yeah. And then, you know, you get him going off in the ambulance and who's driving, but Dan Aykroyd, the ambulance, which is pretty funny. And then he says something that, that hints that he's going to like do monster face again, but.

Andrew Fossier (01:31:21.646)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:31:31.118)
You

Eli Price (01:31:41.728)
It doesn't really show it.

Andrew Fossier (01:31:41.902)
Well yeah, he was uh, you wanna see something scary? It's really a, what's your favorite scary movie? Kind of level almost. I mean, I don't think it's quite as iconic as what's your favorite scary movie, but yeah. You wanna see something scary? And then he pulls his face out. Yeah, that was, that was, that was so funny.

Eli Price (01:31:44.704)
Yeah, that's what it was. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:31:54.624)
Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If I'm not mistaken, it doesn't show him actually do that. It just kind of like does a zoom out wide shot. Yeah. And then the movie, movie ends. Twilight's home.

Andrew Fossier (01:32:08.206)
Yeah, zoom out onto the ambulance.

Andrew Fossier (01:32:14.734)
Which is just a... It's sad because you see the evidence that he was right and you're like, oh, okay, so he's vindicated. And like, maybe it's not gonna be awful. No, he's not, well, I don't know. Just in the sense that no one, I don't know.

Eli Price (01:32:21.12)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah.

But not really.

Eli Price (01:32:33.344)
Yeah, no, yeah, I know what you mean.

Andrew Fossier (01:32:35.246)
for the reveal to happen that it was reliable narration. He was really there. He was really seeing it. And then it pulled away and it's like, oh, bad luck, dude. You got the worst ambulance driver.

Eli Price (01:32:40.832)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (01:32:44.832)
Yeah.

Yeah, for sure. I don't know what made me think about this, but have you seen any of the newer Jordan Peele produced twyla's on? I haven't seen any of it. Is it any good?

Andrew Fossier (01:32:56.462)
Yes. Well, so I've seen, I've seen, nope. And us. Oh, sorry.

Eli Price (01:33:03.52)
No, no, no, not his movies. So he, he, he like produced and hosted like a new Twilight Zone series. Um, okay. I'm going to look this up cause I don't know if it, I don't think it's still like running or anything. Um, but yeah, he did it. It was Twilight Zone series. Um,

Andrew Fossier (01:33:12.878)
No, oh no, okay.

Eli Price (01:33:32.672)
Now it's not coming up. Twilight Zone.

Andrew Fossier (01:33:35.598)
I would be very interested to see that because I was gonna say I really like what he's done with...

Eli Price (01:33:43.328)
Okay, 2019 to 2020. It looks like there was 20 episodes. And they all, they ran like from anywhere from 30 to 30 minutes to like just under an hour. Yeah, I haven't seen any of these. There's two seasons. Yeah, I'm interested to check it out because I've heard it's pretty good.

Andrew Fossier (01:33:46.414)
Okay.

Andrew Fossier (01:34:12.75)
Well, yeah, and especially just for the way that he, I would say, very quickly builds tense atmospheres. Like, I'm specifically thinking us and Nope, I guess. Just great, like, get you into the scene. And to me, that's kind of what, I'm not saying I don't like the full thing, right? The full film when he sets the scene up really well, and then I would say wraps it up pretty well too, or at least leaves you.

Eli Price (01:34:19.232)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (01:34:25.024)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:34:37.504)
Right.

Andrew Fossier (01:34:42.638)
asking questions about it. I feel like with the stuff with Twilight Zone, it's kind of like it sets you up and then it just gets you and then it's done. And I feel like that he would be really good at that.

Eli Price (01:34:55.424)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So he, he like does the narration and hosting he and produced it. Um, and he didn't direct any of the episodes, but he did do, I think he, see this is on IMDB. It's saying written by, and it says 20 episodes developed by story by written by 20 episodes. So I don't think he was like,

Andrew Fossier (01:35:07.822)
Mmm.

Eli Price (01:35:23.904)
Cause there's a bunch of other writers too. So I think maybe he just like, kind of like as we'll get into amazing stories, Spielberg did direct a couple of them, but, um, all of the stories were like from his ideas, uh, which we'll talk about, but it seems like maybe that's a similar thing here with, with Jordan Peele. Um, and this more recent Twilight Zone series, but yeah, I might have to check some of the.

Andrew Fossier (01:35:35.438)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:35:53.248)
I'm going to have to go check out some original Twilight Zone episodes and then also maybe a few of the, I might look at like maybe what are the most highly rated of pills series and watch those. Yeah. Um, so anyways, wrapping up, um, Twilight Zone, the movie, um,

Andrew Fossier (01:36:04.11)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (01:36:17.056)
Spielberg and I think maybe some of the others refused to attend the end of shooting rap party and you know he kind of is absent from most of the post -production work and it just shows like that he's just ready to move on so it releases in June of 1983 I think it had a 10 million to 10 million dollar budget total.

Andrew Fossier (01:36:25.102)
Hmm.

Eli Price (01:36:45.28)
and ends up with a worldwide box office of 29 .45 million. So it doesn't do terrible on return. You know, more than almost triples its budget. So, you know, it doesn't suffer financially. It did suffer the usual fate of anthology films as far as its reception, which really is just a lot of times with a

Andrew Fossier (01:36:55.214)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:37:15.008)
with an anthology film, all the segments just kind of get compared to the others. And so, you know, just like we've just done here on the bygast. And so like the whole suffers a bit from the comparison, the inner comparison of, you know, different segments to one another. Um, yeah. And I think that is different when you have an anthology film.

Andrew Fossier (01:37:20.366)
Mmm.

Andrew Fossier (01:37:24.046)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:37:37.422)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:37:44.16)
where it's the same director all the way through. So like, I'm thinking of like the Ballad of Buster Scruggs by the Coens or the French Dispatch by Wes Anderson. Like those are a little different. Like, do you compare the segments to each other? Yeah, maybe, but there's like more of a directorial vision going through all of them. And so it's, yeah. And so, but yeah, this,

Andrew Fossier (01:38:05.294)
Yeah, yeah, that, a through line, yeah.

Eli Price (01:38:14.048)
Suffered it didn't wasn't terribly well received. I think it feels like it probably was mixed by audiences I'm sure a lot of people went saw this movie because they really enjoyed the original series and probably for the most part Maybe probably enjoyed this I would imagine it was fun to go watch this in theaters If you were a fan of the original series But yeah, and then

Andrew Fossier (01:38:22.03)
Hmm.

Eli Price (01:38:42.368)
What ends up happening is the, the critical reviews, mostly a claim Joe Dante and George Miller while violently criticizing Spielberg and Landis. Um, and that kind of lines up with our thoughts on that. You know, when I read that, I was like, that checks out. Um, that's how I felt after watching it. Um, maybe not violently criticizing, but, um,

Andrew Fossier (01:38:56.334)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:39:02.766)
I'm going to go to bed.

Yeah, no, I would not say violent criticism of Spielberg's work here.

Eli Price (01:39:09.856)
Yeah. Yeah, not Spielberg. Landis says I didn't care for it at all. Um, but anyways, um, we already talked about that, so I don't have to keep harping on it. Uh, Vince, I did write down Vincent Canby writing for the New York Times described Spielberg's work as inept and said, quote, a lot of money and several lives might have been saved if the producers had just re -released their original programs, unquote.

Andrew Fossier (01:39:30.158)
Ooh.

Eli Price (01:39:38.848)
Um, so yeah, that's pretty scathing, um, criticism there. Um, and you know, I feel like it was worth getting an interesting Joe Dante segment and George Miller's segment, but for the most part, he's probably not completely wrong there. Um, so, but we have a Twilight Zone the movie it exists.

Andrew Fossier (01:39:41.134)
Yeah, that's pretty, yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:40:00.558)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:40:07.552)
Um, I did write down, uh, John Lithgow, uh, did get some recognition, not, I mean, obviously not like at the, not an Oscar, but I think he did win a supporting actor award for something. I can't even remember what it was. It wasn't like a major award show. It was like, kind of like a, it might've even been one of the, um, like sub academy.

Andrew Fossier (01:40:21.614)
Hmm.

Andrew Fossier (01:40:28.014)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:40:34.816)
You know the Academy has like the Oscars, but they also have a lot of like sub Awards segments, and so I think it might have been one of those Yeah, you know I think just thinking about this the you you kind of just have to talk about like the horror of Studios and directors with too much power in leeway You know instead of talking about the

Andrew Fossier (01:40:36.078)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (01:41:04.832)
well -made Twilight Zone horror. Like the main thing that kind of overshadows this movie is just the horror of having too much power. Which I think is unfortunate, you know.

Andrew Fossier (01:41:15.47)
Yeah, which means kind of, I know I kind of said that earlier about, I mean, it definitely is episode three is like, misused power is dangerous and can harm people. I would say especially applied there.

Eli Price (01:41:26.496)
Yeah. Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:41:33.934)
But yeah, that is a very sad reality about this.

Eli Price (01:41:37.984)
Yeah. And it just, it just sucks. Cause like it gets lost in legal stew. And then like, no one ends up taking responsibility. No one. And I don't know. And then WB airs the film with that segment where the tragedy happened. Um, and it, I guess they just decided, well, we weren't able to film this other ending. So I guess we'll just use the original ending. Um, and.

Andrew Fossier (01:41:49.23)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:42:07.904)
Apparently I even read that they like...

somewhat like not explicitly, but implicitly blame the victims because they knew what risk they were taking, which if you, which if you look into like the investigations and some of the people they talked to that were on set, like they absolutely didn't know the risk that they were taking. Um, they weren't, they weren't adequately informed about, you know, what was going to be happening. And so.

Andrew Fossier (01:42:19.886)
Oh my goodness.

Andrew Fossier (01:42:31.694)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:42:40.576)
Yeah, just all around terrible. Studios and directors should not have so much power in leeway. Maybe we'll talk more about that later on in the show.

Andrew Fossier (01:42:42.798)
Mm.

Andrew Fossier (01:42:52.078)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (01:42:54.432)
For now, I think we can move into amazing stories. Before preparing for this series, I was not aware of amazing stories. Yeah, apparently there was like a more recent, is it a Apple TV series or?

Andrew Fossier (01:43:07.022)
Nah, it was -

Andrew Fossier (01:43:14.798)
Yes, it actually confused me when I was looking for this because not only is it, I mean, it's called the Music Stories. The one about the B -2 bomber, it's not named the mission, but it's the same thing. It's the same idea. I think it's just a remake of this, the mission. Yeah, but it's called something else. I can't remember what it's called. Yeah.

Eli Price (01:43:30.528)
Gotcha. Okay. Gotcha.

Yeah. Well, yeah, that's confusing. Um, but yeah, there is a more recent one. Uh, but yeah, this embassy, NBC worked, uh, with Spielberg on this with no hesitation. I want to say it was Spielberg's kind of like brainchild. Um, he just, I think it's maybe just the result of him having so many ideas and, you know, with limited time and money, you can't create all of your ideas.

And so I think this maybe was just like an outlet of like, how do I take, you know, how do I make all of these ideas into something? Um, and so in 1985, it's kind of the TV event of the year, obviously with Spielberg's name attached to it. Um, you know, it's, it's a big deal. Um, it does end up with 44 episodes over two seasons. Each segment is approximately like.

Approximately like 30 minutes 25 30 minutes

Andrew Fossier (01:44:38.798)
Yeah, I was surprised how many sees like there was a lot of episodes.

Eli Price (01:44:44.288)
Yeah. Yeah. There's like, I guess 22 per season. Um, which is what you usually can expect from a, I don't know these days, you never know how many episodes are going to be in a season of something. Cause you've got many series and you've got sitcoms and whatever, but yeah. And then, yeah, each segment too had about a $800 ,000 to million dollar budget. Um, so yeah, universal.

When they were preparing Universal suggested Spielberg to do an intro outro like Rod Serling did for Twilight Zone or at least to put his name in the title like Alfred Hitchcock presents, put his name in the title and so more people drawn but Spielberg refused. He didn't want to put himself forward in it. He just wanted to make his thing, which is respectful, respectable, I think.

Andrew Fossier (01:45:37.038)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:45:40.928)
I kind of, when I read that, I was like, Oh, that's, that's kind of cool. Like he wasn't really wanting, you know, his name is. His name is going to pop up at the beginning of every episode produced by Steven Spielberg or story by Steven Spielberg or whatever. Um, but he didn't want like, he didn't want to be the center of attention with it, I guess. Um, it's kind of hard not to be when you're Steven Spielberg. Like people know, but.

Andrew Fossier (01:45:44.91)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:46:03.758)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:46:07.278)
Hahaha.

Eli Price (01:46:10.144)
He was like, okay, let's not like drill this into people that, oh, it's Steven Spielberg. It's just, I want to, I want my stories made, you know?

Andrew Fossier (01:46:16.558)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:46:20.27)
Right, no, that's what I was gonna say. That does seem to be the motivation looking at it this way, because I was just thinking of how many examples of personality, well, I can't think of a good way to phrase it, but basically when you see a trailer and it's just like, this person, this person, this person, like it's who's in it, not, like that's the focus as opposed to who they're playing or the content of the thing, yeah.

Eli Price (01:46:38.624)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:46:44.064)
Sure. Yeah. Which I think there's a place for that. Like, um, you know, I think there, you know, one of, I was actually saying to my wife the other day, you, you don't get a ton of movies these days where it's like, this is a movie star movie. Like it doesn't really matter what it is. I'm going to see it because it's Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, you know,

Andrew Fossier (01:47:06.222)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:47:11.534)
You know?

Eli Price (01:47:12.544)
You used to get more of those, but you don't anymore. And so that's one reason I'm kind of excited to go see a fall guy. Cause it's like, I don't really care what it's about, but it's, it's, it's Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling. And I just want to watch them be awesome in a movie. Um, so there's definitely a place for that, but, but I do agree that that's not really what you want to do with something like this.

Andrew Fossier (01:47:19.694)
Mmm.

Andrew Fossier (01:47:24.174)
Yeah.

You're right. You're not wrong.

Eli Price (01:47:41.408)
Like you don't want it to be, Spielberg didn't really want it to be about like, Oh, this is a Spielberg thing. He is just wanted his stories to be made. And, you know, um, which, you know, like I said, I respect it was close to his heart. Um, you know, he's, you know, kind of thinking of these as like stories, you know, you hop on your dad's lap before bed and read us or listen to a bedtime story kind of thing. Um,

Andrew Fossier (01:47:49.806)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:48:10.656)
Yeah, he has this, like I said, this notebook of ideas and he's just doles out these ideas to script writers and finds directors. Um, he, he gets people he admires to direct like score and Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Robert Zemeckis, Joe Dante does one. Irvin Kirchner. Um, he gives episodes to people he is hoping to like help launch their careers. Like, um, Bill.

Andrew Fossier (01:48:39.566)
That's cool.

Eli Price (01:48:40.384)
Yeah, Phil Johnu, Kevin Reynolds and Brad Bird. Brad Bird's the one that I recognized there. And then, you know, he gives episodes to some faithful colleagues like Matthew Robbins, Michael D. Moore, Joan Darling, Norman Reynolds. And then of course takes two episodes for himself because, you know, he wants to make some stories too. And those two episodes that he made himself were Ghost Train.

Andrew Fossier (01:48:59.918)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:49:09.792)
which was season one, episode one. And then he also did the fifth episode of the first season called the mission. And so, yeah, I will say the mission ends up in, uh, I think, as I said, at the beginning of the episode, it's like a little televised anthology of a few. I think it's the mission. Um, here I'll, I'll make sure I get this right.

Andrew Fossier (01:49:33.454)
Hmm.

Eli Price (01:49:39.552)
Um, the mission, uh, mummy, daddy, and go to the head of the class are the three, um, that kind of get lumped together. Um, and I think I want to say, uh, go to the head of the class was directed by Robert Zemeckis and mummy daddy was directed by William Deere, um, who doesn't have a lot of great movies. The only thing I really even reckon.

recognize is, um, angels in the outfield. Uh, but yeah, it, so those kind of end up coming out as like a feature anthology kind of thing. So that's probably the reason that was part of the inspiration for including this, but also just. I like, you know, we're talking about Spielberg as a director in his career. So even if it wasn't an anthology, you know, I think it would still be.

It still like fits really well talking about this alongside the Twilight Zone movies. The Twilight Zone, the movie, because I feel like there's some similar like things going on here with the kind of episodic. It's really like Spielberg's return to, you know, making episodic things, you know, coming back to TV. He started in TV, coming back to TV now. Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:50:46.414)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:51:02.286)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (01:51:10.624)
It's interesting, but yeah, so let's, um, let's kind of just talk about each of these individually. Um, ghost train was the first episode. Um, and you, you said you, you went and checked that out today. Um, actually just watched it last night. Um, so pretty fresh, uh, on my mind. Um, he brings back Alan Davio who was with him, I know an ET and was with him.

Andrew Fossier (01:51:17.774)
Okay.

Andrew Fossier (01:51:25.134)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:51:40.544)
for his segment of The Twilight Zone. I don't know if he's worked with him other than those. I didn't really look into that. But anyways, so bringing back on him and John Williams for the music, of course. It's gotta be John Williams.

Andrew Fossier (01:52:07.47)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:52:09.376)
And so I don't know if John Williams did all of the music for Amazing Stories. Like every episode, I didn't really look into that. I would imagine it's probably similar to what they did with Twilight's on the movie, which is your director kind of brings with them their own little technical team. So John Williams is who Spielberg gets to bring on with.

Andrew Fossier (01:52:18.734)
Hmm, yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:52:32.622)
Yeah, there's Brixxer crew.

Eli Price (01:52:39.008)
With him for his crew Frank Deese wrote the screenplay based off of you know Spielberg's idea And then you know it you can I could rattle off these guys I think notably Michael C. Moore is notable for the sound and this the visual effects will William Riley

and joint Dreamquest images doing the visual effects. The set decorator, Gregory Garrison, art direction by Richard B. Lewis. I think those guys are worth mentioning because I do think that the set decoration and art design and the sound and visual effects come into play, especially towards the end of this episode. It's a pretty like...

good effect, I think. So yeah. And then for the cast, you have Robert Blossom as the kind of old man, grandpa. I don't even honestly don't know the character's name. I just know he was the grandpa. I think the boy calls him old pa or something like that. And he had worked with Spielberg before he played the little

Andrew Fossier (01:53:35.406)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (01:53:50.414)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:54:01.888)
The farmer guy in close encounters that's sitting on the side of the road waiting to see the UFOs. Um, I actually forgot that he was in that. And when he popped up on screen, I'm like, Oh, um, the old man from home alone is, is in this. Um, but yeah, that's Robert Blossom. He wasn't in a ton of stuff, but he was definitely the old man in home alone. Um, I can't think of the name of the character, but yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:54:04.526)
Mmm.

Andrew Fossier (01:54:26.958)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:54:30.35)
Oh, the sh - I can't think of his name either. If you hadn't asked me. The shovel and yeah, I can't, yeah.

Eli Price (01:54:32.896)
Yeah. Yep. This is a snow shovel. But yeah, Scott Paulin and Gail Edwards play the parents. They're kind of just experienced TV actors. And then the real star was Lucas Haas, who plays the nine -year -old boy. He actually went on to have, he's still, you know, in a lot of really good movies. So I don't know that he's like...

has a lot of like big lead roles, but he's definitely like recognizable. Like, oh yeah, I remember he was in that sort of guy. And yeah, Spielberg had seen his performance in Peter Weir's movie, Witness, was impressed with his performance and brought him on. There's also in the final scene, I think like in the train, Drew Barrymore is in there as a kid, kind of, I guess, I don't know.

Andrew Fossier (01:55:04.878)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (01:55:22.318)
Uh huh. Wow, yeah.

Eli Price (01:55:26.976)
why he brought her on just for like that tiny little thing but yeah brought on Drew Barrymore and um his mother -in -law Priscilla Pointer was was also um on the train there at the end but yeah this so this is filmed entirely at Universal Sound Stages um he was actually while they were filming uh David Lean came and visited him of um uh my mind just went

Andrew Fossier (01:55:30.638)
I'm gonna go to bed.

Eli Price (01:55:55.68)
totally blank Lawrence of Arabia fame, which was one of Spielberg's favorite movies. So he came, Spielberg was like, hey, you should direct an episode. And Lean found out that they had six to eight days to finish their film. And Lean was like, well, if you add a zero to those numbers, I might consider it. Give me a 60 to 80 days and I might consider it.

Andrew Fossier (01:55:58.19)
Mmm.

Andrew Fossier (01:56:19.694)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:56:24.064)
Which, you know, didn't happen, but, um, this one also began a long collaboration with set designer, Rick Carter for Spielberg. Um, so which I think is makes sense because you look at the set design of this and you're like, Oh, this, the house is just really well -designed. The, you know, the way that the train breaks into the houses, it just, it all like works.

Andrew Fossier (01:56:47.182)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:56:54.304)
pretty effectively, I think, so that makes sense. But yeah, it airs in September 29th of 1985. Spielberg kind of, well, let's talk about this segment before we talk about kind of its reception. I kind of enjoyed it. I thought it was,

Andrew Fossier (01:56:55.694)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (01:57:25.28)
I feel like I'm like, just like, I'm slightly positive on it, I guess. It doesn't, it didn't really connect with me emotionally. Um, but it feels like it's supposed to be emotionally sentimental. Um, just didn't connect with me. It's just kind of like it ended and I was like, Oh, that was nice. You know, it was kind of that sort of episode, I guess.

Andrew Fossier (01:57:30.126)
Yeah, I would say same.

Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (01:57:47.982)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:57:51.63)
Kind of the same for me. I did just get a kick out of the grandpa though. When he's going through the house and he's like, oh, we gotta take the, he's just like, we gotta take the belongings out. So you gotta take the importance out of the breakables about the way. It was really, really, it was funny.

Eli Price (01:58:03.648)
Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I like how, I like how when he shows, when they get to the house. So, you know, if, if you're listening, you may or may not have watched this and you may or may not be planning on watching this, but basically like the old, there's a couple and their son bringing, um, the husband's father to their new house that they've built on this land. And you slowly figure out that.

The old man, when he was a boy, had been listening with his ear to the train tracks for a train that used to go through there and fell asleep. And the conductor saw him up ahead and tried to hit the brakes or something, but it derailed the train. And it was a big train crash. And he woke up and was fine. But there was this huge disaster of a train crash that he caused.

And so they've built their house. Apparently he, he kind of like, there's a sec, there's a portion where he's like walking around the fields around the house with his grandson. And he's, I guess, trying to figure out like, where did the train crash exactly? And they're finding rail ties and spikes and stuff. And, um, basically he like does some like stuff with his hands and he's like, it's this way.

Andrew Fossier (01:59:32.11)
Yeah.

Eli Price (01:59:34.56)
And, uh, he's, he's like the train crashed right through where the house is now and the train is coming back for me. So you built your house in a wrong spot. You're like, the train's coming back for you. What do you mean?

Andrew Fossier (01:59:45.838)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (01:59:49.678)
Well, as funny as it was when he was holding his hands up and like, you know, figuring out where he is, very kind of goofy looking, it also was sad because at really just how many times he's played this out in his head and he knows exactly where it is. And yeah, it was comical in a way, but also just really sad for the character.

Eli Price (01:59:56.704)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:00:01.152)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (02:00:09.088)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:00:14.528)
Yeah, you know, it's there's definitely trauma, you know, in his past that he's kind of dealing with and it doesn't really delve a whole lot into that. Um, and that's one reason why, like, I'm only slightly positive because I don't really understand what you're supposed to take away from the ending. Um, so, I mean, basically like, they think, they kind of think, oh, poor, you know,

Andrew Fossier (02:00:19.47)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:00:36.142)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (02:00:44.768)
The son is like poor dad. He's kind of crazy. Um, and then, um, yeah, they, they try to like, I guess, tranquilize them. So he sleeps through the night and cause he keeps saying the trains coming for me tonight. You know, I have my ticket still his old ticket. He still has, um, and then like the train does come and the, the grandson's like wakes them up and.

Andrew Fossier (02:01:02.158)
Mmm.

Eli Price (02:01:13.024)
the train bust through the house and.

Andrew Fossier (02:01:13.39)
Yeah, the kid screaming was pretty like, it was like a, it was really, it was like volume down.

Eli Price (02:01:18.144)
Yeah. Mom, dad, the train is here. Um, yeah. So the train barrels through the house and you know, the grandson doesn't want his grandfather to go, you know, it's kind of sad. Um, but as he's like, no, it's, it's my time for the train to take me like it didn't before. And he boards the train and you know, the family kind of waves as the train, you know,

Andrew Fossier (02:01:35.182)
Hmm.

Eli Price (02:01:48.096)
goes off into the night. And I'm, I don't know, it's pretty vague, I guess. I don't really understand, like, so is it just like the grandpa's time to go and this is how it's being visualized in this kind of fantastical way? Or is it a like examination of like how like sad, but also like...

Andrew Fossier (02:02:09.454)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:02:17.248)
optimistic it can be to see like a loved one an old loved one go that I don't know it's it's kind of I'm not really sure what to do with it.

Andrew Fossier (02:02:30.638)
Yeah, I agree. And it's, yeah, I don't know. I mean, and also in an emotional sense, you know, for me was kind of the emotion of like, I lost my grandparents at a very young age, like all my grandparents. And so it's like, it felt like that was supposed to, but again, it's like,

Eli Price (02:02:45.856)
Mm.

Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:02:57.39)
Yeah, I don't know what I'm supposed to, like, yes, losing my grandparents was sad and I missed them and I wish I knew them, especially as an adult, you know, but it just doesn't. Yeah, I didn't really understand what I was supposed to get from it.

Eli Price (02:03:03.36)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (02:03:10.4)
Yeah. Yeah. Cause you don't know like, okay, but where's the train taking him? Is it like, is this supposed to represent he's like dead now or which I guess it is that that would make the most sense. But I don't know. It was just, I don't know. It's it. I feel like it's a good idea that wasn't like fully fleshed out how to like land the plane maybe. Um, or the trip or.

Andrew Fossier (02:03:22.062)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:03:35.438)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Eli Price (02:03:39.936)
get the train to stop at the right stop maybe is a better analogy for this one. But yeah, I don't know. As far as motifs, it does hit some like strong Spielberg motifs. He had a train that he heard the lights and sounds from from his New Jersey home as a kid that he's kind of reminiscing on. He had, he was close,

with his grandfather when he was young and then they moved away. So maybe there's something to that to kind of being really close to your grandfather and then kind of losing that connection moving far, far away. They moved to Arizona after New Jersey. And then there's also kind of like the kind of a recurring Spielberg theme of

Andrew Fossier (02:04:24.334)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:04:37.984)
lack of understanding between generations. I think, you know, you can see that kind of throughout Spielberg's filmography in places and that's definitely here for sure. Yeah, so you do get some Spielberg distinctives for theme and then also like Spielberg distinctive shots, like there's the kind of horizon shot with the sunrise or sunset or whatever with the silhouettes.

Andrew Fossier (02:04:41.87)
Mmm.

Andrew Fossier (02:05:04.718)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (02:05:07.488)
of the horizon and the stuff in the property. So that was a good shot. You get, you get like really strong emotion and close up shots. Um, especially of like the old man and the boy, the grandson, which is for sure a Spielberg thing. Um, you get like some really good, like an interesting, interestingly angled wide shots that kind of like,

Andrew Fossier (02:05:13.39)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:05:26.926)
Mm.

Eli Price (02:05:36.768)
set up both setting and character, you know, thinking about when they first arrive at the house, you get that wide shot. And so you're kind of taking in the setting like, oh yeah, it's this new house, new, like there's not really much going on here. And then you're also like seeing the way the grandpa is like walking around the property. And so you're, you're doing some character building there. Um, so yeah, I mean, definitely like, Oh, and of course, like,

Andrew Fossier (02:05:56.558)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:06:03.584)
big cinematic action with the train breaking through the house. Like definitely a Spielberg thing.

Andrew Fossier (02:06:09.198)
Well, the train scene that made me, well, it made me chuckle, but it also was like, this is so very Spielberg, was the toy train falling over because that is the fabled man, like, inciting cinematographer event for him. When he decides I want to film the train, yeah.

Eli Price (02:06:19.2)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (02:06:23.872)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:06:28.224)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:06:32.192)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, no, I agree for sure Yeah

Yeah, I did think this was interesting. The producer, David E Vogel said, ghost train works wonderfully on a big screen in a theater. You can create magic on television when sight and sound are limited. The visual leaps of basically like the visual leaps that you can take are also limited. And so.

Andrew Fossier (02:07:04.238)
Mmm, yeah.

Eli Price (02:07:08.512)
Yeah, that I think that's that was what so we'll kind of talk about like how this wasn't a very well received. Um, it didn't end up with good ratings. Um, but that was kind of the producer thinking through like, okay, like this really would have actually benefited from being on a big screen. Doesn't play as well on a television set. Um, and I think that's definitely there. Just thinking about that big cinematic.

like train busting through the house. Like that'll look great on a movie screen. Um, and yeah, but yeah, so the mission let's, let's hold off on, um, on the mission. And, um, we'll talk about that in a minute. Basically Spielberg, um, they, they kind of start getting ready to release this, the, these episodes.

Spielberg forbids the network from showing any of them to journalists to preserve the mystery and suspense of the series. But Brandon Turtikoff, the director of NBC Entertainment, thought this was a big error after very disappointing ratings for season one. This is what he had to say. He said, quote, if I could do it all over,

I would have taken the first five or six episodes and trotted them out on the press tour and gotten off on a better foot with the people who write about television. Um, and here's why this, this episode airs the first episode, September 29th, 1985. And what, what ends up happening is like too much mystery kind of kills the mystery. Um, which makes sense when you don't give any.

people like the media has nothing to go off of. Um, and then on top of that, the audience has no expectations. And so they can't make up their mind what they think of it. Like they don't know. They had no clue of what's going to be like kind of fantastical. Um, and then like, as the series goes on, um, you know, it seems like Spielberg maybe didn't have a good grasp on.

Andrew Fossier (02:09:02.094)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (02:09:08.878)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:09:29.312)
Um, kind of like what he wanted to do with the series. I wrote down Bob Gale, who had worked with him on 1941 said, uh, Steven never could make up his mind what the show was going to be. Um, so is it going to be fantasy stuff? Is it going to be horror stuff? Um, and then like, Gale also kind of talked about how like maybe TV series aren't the best thing for directors like Spielberg because.

There's so many directions you can go. It's hard to have like, um, one strong, he's, he basically said Spielberg actually would have benefited by like going out and getting really good TV writers to, to write all of these. Um, and he was more worried about like getting good directors for them. Um, but the writing is what matters a bit more for TV than the directing.

Andrew Fossier (02:10:16.59)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:10:27.342)
Yeah, I would agree. I think it's more, it's so much more constrained. And I mean, imagine as well, way less time for a director to even have, I don't know. I mean, how the back ends of movies work all the time, but it's like, there's more of a budget.

Eli Price (02:10:29.28)
And so, yeah, so just.

Eli Price (02:10:47.008)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:10:53.134)
and there's more of a timeline associated with making a movie, as opposed to an episode of a TV show.

Eli Price (02:10:59.296)
Yeah, I mean for sure, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So there's a lot of things kind of working against it. The...

Andrew Fossier (02:11:01.646)
Although nowadays, who knows? That could be very different now with the way Disney does things.

Eli Price (02:11:18.464)
Yeah, it -

It doesn't do that well. Let's just say that. Let's jump back and talk a bit about the mission. So this is the one that ended up in the, the kind of TV anthology movie that aired at one point, but it was also the fifth episode of season one. New screenplay writer and Mino Maes. And then he also brings on a new DP and John McPherson.

The editor is Stephen Kemper who also edited Ghost Train. John Williams again for music. You know, Michael Seymour for sound, which I think is that a new guy? Nope, same guy. Same guy for sound. Richard B. Lewis for our direction, same guy. William Riley for visual effects, same guy. The set decorator was different. Richard B. Goddard.

And then they had a special effects guy, Wayne Rose, um, on this one, which we'll see why when we talk about the movie, there's some special effects here. Um, but yeah, and then you kind of have a little trio of actors that are not big yet, but will be bigger or at least two of them, uh, will be bigger. Uh, Kevin Costner plays the captain.

Andrew Fossier (02:12:44.75)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (02:12:49.408)
He's 30 years old in this movie, but hasn't had like a major splash yet. Um, he was in the movie Fandango that had already come out in 85, which was kind of a minor hit, but, um, the bigger hit in Silverado by Lawrence Kasdan had not yet come out. It would come out later in 85. That was kind of like his big first big splash. And so you have Kevin Costner here, young Kevin Costner.

Um, and then an even younger Kiefer Sutherland starting to follow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He was 19 years old, just starting to follow in his dad, Donald Sutherland's footsteps. So he plays static, uh, in the movie. Uh, they all kind of have, you know, it's, it's set in world war II airplane crew. So they all kind of have, you know, different nicknames. Uh, and then you have case Casey.

Andrew Fossier (02:13:21.71)
who somehow looks the same as he does now.

Eli Price (02:13:48.032)
Let's see if I can get this last name. See Mosco or Si Mosco. One of those, um, he plays Jonathan in the movie. He's also kind of at the beginning of his career and he was actually with, uh, Kiefer Kiefer Kiefer Sutherland in, um, Rob Reiner's 1986 movie Stand By Me, which had already filmed, I think, um, when they were doing this, uh, that movie came out in 1986, but it was,

This was 85, so they had already done the filming work for it. But yeah, this was kind of a pet story for Spielberg featuring planes and World War II. You know, you get it's. Which he needed to.

Andrew Fossier (02:14:34.19)
Would this have been before Saving Private Ryan? Or... Yeah, yeah.

Eli Price (02:14:37.12)
Yes. Yeah. Before his good World War II movies and after his absolutely horrible one in 1941. Do not recommend wasting time watching that movie. You can go listen to the episode. It was a fun discussion of it. But yeah, it's hard to recommend watching it unless you're just like really committed to being a completist. But yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:15:05.358)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:15:07.04)
Um, so yeah, this, this movie follows a crew and a B 17 ally bomber and world war two. They're trying to get back. I don't think they're, I think they're just getting back to like a main base so that they can start working towards getting home. Um, it seems like they're still like somewhere in Europe is where they're headed.

Andrew Fossier (02:15:26.126)
Mmm.

Andrew Fossier (02:15:30.478)
I think I said B22 earlier. I remembered. Yeah, which is actually the black stealth bombers that we have today, not B17s. I just remembered saying B22 and I'm wanting to correct myself there and I was like, ah, let's not be dull. Let me talk about this episode. So yeah, it's a B17s, guys, 30 minutes later. I know my planes, these two specifically.

Eli Price (02:15:35.488)
Oh, did you?

Eli Price (02:15:41.408)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, this is.

Eli Price (02:15:47.84)
Yeah, Andrew Andrew knows what he's talking about guys. He just messed up one time give him a break Yeah, I didn't even catch it earlier to be honest Yeah, so they they shot this in in time so basically they're just trying to get back to the base is basically like there's the plot thickens of course, but that's

Andrew Fossier (02:16:01.454)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:16:16.096)
That's basically what they're trying to do in the movie. Shot entirely at Universal Soundstage, just like the Ghost Train episode. They made the interior of the B -17 bomber. They put period objects in there for authenticity. He did switch to John McPherson as his DP, who was kind of better at this darker atmosphere that.

they had to do for this film. And he ended up shooting 14 of the episodes. So he hung around the amazing stories studio, I guess. I don't know. Yeah. One of the things that I thought was really well done as far as like the filmmaking aspect was like the confinement feeling that you get.

Andrew Fossier (02:17:13.325)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:17:13.92)
which I feel like is really well done. Um, you get smoke and the lighting and, um, the like very tight framing of everyone, um, really like adds to that claustrophobic feel. Um, really well done. Spielberg just keeps shooting and this ends up a longer episode than the, it's supposed to be like 25 minutes long and it ends up being 46 minutes long.

Andrew Fossier (02:17:29.646)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:17:44.206)
Mmm.

Eli Price (02:17:44.223)
It was expanded quote -unquote to 52 minutes to fit regular a regular TV slot So I'm not sure when I read that I was confused because that episode is 46 minutes And so I'm not sure how it was expanded in quotes to 52 minutes because that's six more minutes I don't know if maybe there's some deleted scenes that aired on well

Andrew Fossier (02:18:00.75)
Yeah. What's it like?

Yeah.

Didn't make it.

Eli Price (02:18:12.287)
they would have to be added to make it longer. So.

Andrew Fossier (02:18:16.302)
Well, no, I was saying that for some reason in the episodes that are out now, we don't have, but when they say that, does that mean, is that including the time slot? Is that including like ad time or is that, yeah.

Eli Price (02:18:28.704)
I don't know, that's why I was confused. I was like, okay, that's six more minutes than I just watched. I don't know if that means the one that aired on TV was longer or I don't know, they just put more commercials in. I don't know. So that was confusing, but.

But it did, it was longer than it was supposed to be. It was supposed to be 25 minutes and Spielberg was like, oh, this is my thing. I can just keep going if I want to, I guess. Which I'm kind of glad he did because I was, I was pretty satisfied about the results. Um, uh, yeah. Did you, did you enjoy this one?

Andrew Fossier (02:19:02.03)
Who's gonna stop me?

Andrew Fossier (02:19:06.925)
Hmm.

Andrew Fossier (02:19:13.454)
I feel like this is the common thing and maybe this is just a me problem. Maybe me getting what I not knowing what I should get out of it. I should just reanalyze the thing. I liked again, it just the resolution to me. I didn't like I also was struggling. Huh? Yeah. I also was just kind of struggling to think like who the audience like.

Eli Price (02:19:18.592)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:19:29.632)
Sure, yeah. It didn't land the plane?

Andrew Fossier (02:19:43.022)
I'm assuming like, you know, adults or like parents, maybe families even, but like it just families. Yeah. Cause I'm like, it's pretty, I mean, keep for Sutherland static is gonna like mercy kill him. Like that's pretty dark, right? That's pretty, let's watch amazing stories this week. Oh no. Assisted, you know, mercy kill. Yeah. Um, and then.

Eli Price (02:19:44.768)
Yeah. I would think families, yeah.

Eli Price (02:19:59.296)
Yeah, it is.

Eli Price (02:20:06.432)
Euthanasia.

Andrew Fossier (02:20:11.598)
So that was confusing, first of all, to me. And then second of all, it just, yeah, I don't know. The ending to me just felt confusing. I don't know, it's the power of imagination or hope? I don't know, yeah.

Eli Price (02:20:24.32)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:20:28.64)
Yeah, that's fair. I don't know, for some reason I didn't really think about that in this one. I just kind of was like along for the ride by the time it got. So I think here's where the difference was for me. I was positive on this this episode. I didn't like love it. I wouldn't I wouldn't like go to bat for it and be like, no, you're wrong.

Andrew Fossier (02:20:32.142)
Which is, I...

Uh huh.

Andrew Fossier (02:20:49.774)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (02:20:53.966)
Hehehe.

Eli Price (02:20:55.616)
It's just kind of like, Oh, that was nice. I enjoyed that. Um, uh, and I think the difference with like the way it resolves for me is he had done such a really good job building the tension and then keeping the tension through the whole episode, which was just really impressive to me when it ended. I was like, wow, like I felt the tension of the situation, like that whole episode and.

Andrew Fossier (02:21:12.686)
Yeah. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:21:25.504)
That's kind of, that feels like it would, it's kind of hard to do for a whole 46 minute episode. Um, and so. But I think because of that, um, because of being caught up in the tension and the stress of it all with the characters, by the time there was like the relief of, you know, we'll just say it at the end. Okay. So let's back up. So this makes sense because this is one of those where like.

Andrew Fossier (02:21:32.11)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (02:21:55.744)
I could see people listening to this without having watched it because they're like, I'll probably just listening because I'm not planning on watching this. So basically like they are on their way. They have Jonathan, the Jonathan character. He's the, um, the belly turret, uh, gunner. And so he gets down there, they're flying some enemy planes show up. Um, they had kind of have a little firefight in the sky.

which I think is really well done. Smart choice to have it foggy so that you can have the effect of a plane flying in a studio. Yeah, really well done as far as that goes. The visual effects there. But yeah, so he shoots guns down one of the enemy planes, it breaks up and then some of the shrapnel fragments like hit them. And one of the pieces,

Andrew Fossier (02:22:34.67)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:22:53.152)
jams into the side of the plane and has like basically like welded welded him like shut stuck in the turret which that's one thing they're like well we'll just have to get him out when we get there he's gonna have to stay in there like cramped up down there the whole time the other side thing is that Jonathan is like a cartoonist he spends a lot of time

downtime like making drawings he's made drawings of like all of his friends and the crew and They're all kind of like fun little cartoony drawings of the plane and stuff like that And so that's kind of like another relevant note about his character. Well, it turns out the the planes the shrapnel from the enemy plane also has knocked out the landing gear, so there's no landing gear, which is a problem because

He's Jonathan is stuck in the belly turret. And so you can't land the plane on its belly, which is possible without killing Jonathan in the process because he's in the belly. And so, yeah, they, they try some different things, trying to get him out, trying to get him a parachute that ends up ripping. But basically time runs out. Jonathan is in.

bottom of the plane, he starts like frantically drawing a realistic version of the plane and then draws some like cartoon landing gears coming out of it and just is like desperately looking at it and tells the captain, which is Kevin Costner's character to try the landing gear again. And lo and behold, as as Jonathan desperately stares at his

drawing of these cartoon landing gear wheels. He flips the switch and cartoon landing gear pops out of the bottom of the plane. One of the, I guess, probably an early version of some CGI work being done here. And so, yeah, I don't know. So that's the part that Andrew's saying like, okay, what the...

Eli Price (02:25:18.304)
What is like, this is the point here, you know, which I can totally see. Here's why I was fine with it. Cause I was so caught, like I was saying, I was so caught up in the tension and the stress that by the time there was the relief of the cartoon, it just kind of like made me chuckle and was like, Oh, that's, I'm so glad that he's not going to die. Like, um, that I just kind of accepted it. And, um, I don't know.

Andrew Fossier (02:25:40.654)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:25:47.776)
It kind of fits in a little bit too with just the Spielberg motif of being in like wonder and fantasy and I don't know. It's kind of, it's pretty corny. I don't know that it's necessarily like meant to say anything. I think that's the difference. The first, the, when we were talking about Ghost Train, it feels like the ending is maybe.

Andrew Fossier (02:26:00.046)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:26:10.542)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (02:26:16.384)
It felt like it was trying to say something. And with this one, I'm not sure that it was trying to necessarily like say anything profound. I think it was just like, Hey, this is a movie and this like, I guess maybe if it's saying anything, it's like the artist, the artist Jonathan like came up with the solution for the ending of the movie.

So that he didn't have to die and that's nice. Um, and I, I guess that's kind of how I felt about it. I'm like, Oh, you know, this, these corny, like CGI landing gears, like came out of the plane, but Oh, this character that I really like doesn't have to die. That's nice. You know, uh, the power of art and moviemaking, you know, um, but I don't know. I, I enjoyed it overall.

Andrew Fossier (02:26:48.206)
Mm.

Andrew Fossier (02:27:05.326)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:27:14.368)
Um, not like, like I said, not phenomenal, just like perfectly enjoyable 46 minute episode.

Andrew Fossier (02:27:22.99)
Yeah, and it was like the production, the stuff you're saying about the production design and you know, it was really well done, but then to me, it just felt... I don't know. It just, yeah, because to have, and maybe that's the whimsical, you know, kind of goofy concentration spell that he casts to, you know, animate the wheels.

Eli Price (02:27:26.784)
Oh, it was really good.

Eli Price (02:27:34.912)
to what end, I guess. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:27:45.376)
Sure.

Andrew Fossier (02:27:49.038)
I'm saying that because then when they pulled him out, he was like in a trance almost, it seemed like. And wake up, bam bam, and then the wheels disappear and the plane falls. It's like, yeah, I guess it was, you know, a concentration spell he was casting. But I don't know, it just was kind of, yeah, it was just a little too goofy for me. Given the grim setting of I'm going to mercy kill him, you know, but also, also.

Eli Price (02:27:52.128)
Yeah, he was. I had to slap him.

Eli Price (02:27:57.792)
Disappear, yeah. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:28:12.32)
Ha ha.

Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:28:18.03)
not discuss it with him at all, like to just stick the gun, it just, oh, if I was down there, I'd wanna go easier than getting ground by the plane. So yeah, that, the grimness of that thing, to me, the problem with it was it could have been used as a, like,

Eli Price (02:28:20.8)
Yeah, not ask him.

Eli Price (02:28:34.432)
Yeah, I don't know.

Andrew Fossier (02:28:45.39)
I thought he was just going to hand him the gun in case he wanted to do, you know, and then that would have almost made it more like choosing. I, that might've still been weird. I don't know. It just felt really weird, really problematic to be like in not even addressing it.

Eli Price (02:28:55.776)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:29:01.12)
Yeah, I see. I see where you're coming from. So, so here was my thing. When I was watching that, I wasn't even thinking about it in that way. At that point, I was, I was caught up in the tension of it with the way that it was edited. So it's the way it's edited. You're going back and forth between the captain upfront, trying to figure out what he's going to do. Um, cause they're coming up on their landing.

Andrew Fossier (02:29:12.878)
Uh huh.

Andrew Fossier (02:29:16.59)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:29:29.312)
You've got Jonathan frantically drawing his drawing, and then you've got Kiefer like about to maybe mercy kill him. So he doesn't have to like go through the horrible death of being smushed in the, in the, under the plane. Um, and so like, I was kind of caught up in like the tension of jumping between those three things. And I wasn't even, honestly, it wasn't even on my mind at that point of like, is this like morally okay?

Andrew Fossier (02:29:37.966)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:29:51.79)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:29:59.584)
Um, cause obviously like, if you do want to think about that, like obviously it's not, but also like the character is just like totally stressed out and not thinking straight and not emotionally stable. So, you know, um, I don't know, like I just, all that to say, like, I wasn't even thinking about that at that point. I was just, cause I mean, you're totally right in hindsight, but when I was in the moment, I was just like caught up in the tension of it all.

Andrew Fossier (02:30:16.206)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:30:29.536)
So.

Andrew Fossier (02:30:30.382)
Yeah, no, it's kind of just...

speaking to a grim reality about people in those kinds of situations, it's awful and traumatic and painful. So it's, I'm not saying it couldn't have been addressed, it just was such a strange, I don't know, I don't wanna say like, oh, dishonorable way, but it's just like, it was just almost too comical for me to be sticking the gun into the belly without.

Eli Price (02:30:41.344)
Yeah, sure.

Eli Price (02:30:56.768)
No, yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:31:05.742)
talking about it and yeah I don't know it just was for for that and then the cartoon wheels just for me that just sent me over the edge I was like okay I don't this was not enjoyable for those two reasons but everything else yeah like it was the production design was good the tension was there

Eli Price (02:31:14.912)
Sure.

Eli Price (02:31:24.032)
Yeah, no, I agree. It also like has a really great opening shot. Like it's like the camera starts off with some more guys working on like part of the plane and it like, it does this like backwards tracking shot through the fog under the plane, under the belly of the plane up. And then it's you. I realized like, I thought it was just like a backwards tracking Dolly, but then I realized like, Oh, it's a crane.

Andrew Fossier (02:31:37.614)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (02:31:53.632)
Cause then the camera starts like moving up to, and you get, end up with this wide shot of the plane and all the crew talking. And, um, I was like, Oh, this is such a great establishing shot, uh, calling on the name of the podcast. Uh, but yeah, I was like, Oh, that was so good. Um, and then, um, yeah, it just, I felt like filmmaking wise, this was really well done.

Andrew Fossier (02:31:54.286)
Mm. Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:32:08.846)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Eli Price (02:32:23.552)
You do get a lot of like classic Spielberg closeups with like strong emotion on characters faces and the tension building is really well done and the editing plays a lot into that. And then like it is kind of like highly emotional and sentimental at the end, I think, which is can be very Spielberg.

Andrew Fossier (02:32:31.182)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (02:32:50.222)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (02:32:52.512)
I don't know, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed these.

I don't know, it's hard to say, like, I enjoyed these two more than Spielberg's Twilight Zone segment, but I'm not sure I enjoyed them more. I probably, I guess like if you take all five of these, or all six of these as individual things, it would be between...

Andrew Fossier (02:33:10.51)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:33:27.296)
Like my, the thing, the ones I enjoyed the most would be the, uh, good life segment by Joe Dante, the 20 ,000 nightmare, 20 ,000 feet by George Miller. And then the, this, the mission episode by Spielberg, I think those would be the three that I walk away with like, Oh, I'm glad I saw those. Like those were, and I enjoyed watching those. The ghost train was just.

Andrew Fossier (02:33:53.902)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:33:56.672)
fine like take i could take it or leave it like more likely like leave it like yeah whatever then you know the two twilight zone segments we've already talked about not liking

Andrew Fossier (02:34:04.046)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:34:11.438)
Right, and I don't want to go too far into talking about his other films specifically, but it's like, I do like the way he, and just to also show, like he doesn't own sharks, right? Because he made Jaws. He just very, very effectively showed the horror of like that kind of, you know,

Eli Price (02:34:28.096)
Right.

Andrew Fossier (02:34:38.926)
in its element, right? And then also the characters that were, all the characters were like, it was just interesting, right? To compare that, yes, to compare that to something like the Meg, right? It's like same concept, right? But so poorly executed. And I mean, I know that's not the point, but you know, necessarily, but it just, it definitely is something he does well.

Eli Price (02:34:44.256)
The characters are great in Jaws.

Eli Price (02:34:53.312)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (02:35:05.312)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:35:05.998)
And so I can only imagine that maybe part of the reason, I don't know. I mean, I don't know if I would have liked this ending if it had been a film work. But the point is just like, I think the timeframe plays a part, right? It's such a shorter amount of time. And yeah, just, I feel like he's very good at that.

in his other films. So it just to me, maybe that's the problem is I was wanting it to be, you know, something it wasn't and I wasn't just, TV show, watch it. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:35:36.)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (02:35:44.832)
That's fair. Yeah. Yeah. I think too, like he, he is a great like character builder. Um, that's one of the things he, and usually he's pretty efficient at it. Um, and so like, so in his Twilight Zone segment, like there's not great character development there, but I think that all goes back to just like, he just like was done. Like I almost like want to just write that off as just like, he didn't even want to be there.

Andrew Fossier (02:35:51.502)
Yes.

Eli Price (02:36:14.048)
anymore. Like why would he put his heart and soul into making that segment when he just really just the whole there's just that from the tragedy there's just a shadow over the whole thing that like it's hard to like take it with any amount of like critical seriousness because it's like they didn't those guys are just they didn't want to be there anymore. So I think there's yeah I think there's like a asterisk.

Andrew Fossier (02:36:14.51)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:36:38.318)
Yeah.

That's a good point.

Eli Price (02:36:43.808)
on the kick the can segment. I will say Ghost Train and the Mission do decent, efficient character building. You get a pretty good sense of the relationship dynamics between the old man, the parents, and the grandson pretty quickly. You kind of get a grasp on that. And so it's just a matter of how it.

Andrew Fossier (02:36:56.974)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:37:12.896)
ends and does it like where does it where does it lead to is the problem with that one and then the mission the mission has okay character building i think there's too many in the crew you kind of can get lost in like wait who is who um you have the main three and the costner sullivan and the casey casey's character but um those are like the main three but there's a

There's a lot of other ones too that we didn't even mention that like you can kind of get lost in like who's who. And so that kind of probably distracts. The Jonathan character I think is really well developed in that movie. I mean in that episode, but so you do get some Spielberg character development, but not to the same effect as like, like you said, Jaws or Close Encounters or ET or...

any of the one or especially like Raiders like talk about like efficient character development like Raiders is like the um the example of that. Yeah so I don't know um yeah this this one aired in November, November 3rd of 1985 um it's I wrote down

Andrew Fossier (02:38:16.046)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:38:36.704)
from one of my sources, it suffered from direct competition with Murder, She Wrote on CBS. And I was like, yeah, my mom would have been watching Murder, She Wrote, not Amazing Stories. My mom loved Murder, She Wrote. I saw many episodes growing up because my mom would have it on.

Andrew Fossier (02:38:49.07)
Yeah, I've actually seen some, yeah.

Yeah, I've I feel like I've seen a lot of the a lot of those episodes as well. Yeah. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:39:00.8)
Yeah, it's a decent show. Yeah. Yeah, the second season aired to similar fate. And Spielberg just kind of eventually gave the project up. I think he was originally going to direct a couple of the second season episodes too, but didn't end up doing that and just kind of wrapped up and finished. The show did win five Emmy awards and the mission won two of them.

Andrew Fossier (02:39:18.766)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (02:39:30.912)
for the cinematography by John McPherson and the sound editing. Which makes sense. I think the cinematography and sound were pretty well done in the mission. So, makes sense. One of the things that Amazing Stories did do was it kind of ended up being like a laboratory for ideas and talents. So...

Andrew Fossier (02:39:38.606)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:39:59.104)
You know, you have the CGI cartoon landing gear and the mission kind of foreshadowing things like who framed Roger Rabbit, which Steven Spielberg produced. Um, and then Brad Bird, um, writes and directs, um, an episode called family dog, which was a cartoon episode that ended up becoming a full fledged series produced by Amblin entertainment six years later. Uh, so that's that.

came out of it, never heard of it. But I would say the more notable thing is that Brad Bird would go on to direct Iron Giant. And then he directed Monsters Inc, maybe? He's got a couple of Finding Nemo, I think. Finding Nemo is Brad Bird. And he has one other Pixar movie, too.

Andrew Fossier (02:40:30.19)
Yeah, neither have I.

Eli Price (02:40:58.272)
For some reason I'm thinking Monsters Inc, but that might not be right. Yeah, Iron Giant was his directorial debut in a feature film. He also directed Ghost Protocol, Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol, and Tomorrowland, which I've never seen. Yeah. But yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:41:03.31)
He was Iron Giant.

Andrew Fossier (02:41:07.95)
Okay.

Andrew Fossier (02:41:14.67)
Oh, okay. Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:41:20.206)
Neither have I. I just, when you said Iron Giant, to me that just, well, as conflicted as the portrayal is in Ready Player One of the peaceful... It's there! It's funny. Yeah.

Eli Price (02:41:33.12)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I love Iron Giant, it's so good.

Andrew Fossier (02:41:44.206)
I like Ready Player One too. I've just been like ready wanting to bring that up and talk about it a little bit just because it's another thing of Spielberg's that I did really like. And when I saw that movie, I don't know that I was like in like super focused on director mode. That's been like last several years for me really. But.

Eli Price (02:41:46.912)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:42:03.584)
Sure. Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:42:09.262)
it definitely speaks to how I feel about his other work too. So I don't want the impression to be that I don't like Spielberg.

Eli Price (02:42:13.184)
For sure.

Eli Price (02:42:16.96)
Yeah, no, that makes sense. The only other thing I had noted for this before we start wrapping up with final thoughts is that, um, batteries not included, which was directed by Matthew Robbins in 1987 was initially intended to be an episode of amazing stories. So there you go. So like I said, a laboratory of ideas and talents. Um, yeah, that's.

Andrew Fossier (02:42:26.382)
Mm.

Eli Price (02:42:45.184)
Twilight Zone movie and amazing stories? Let me ask you this as we're just for some final thoughts. Are anthology movies good? Should we have more anthology movies, Andrew?

Andrew Fossier (02:42:52.43)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (02:43:00.462)
I will sidestep the question and say only if there's one director. I don't know. It's a...

Eli Price (02:43:05.376)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:43:09.966)
For what it is to me, for it being already a collection of small things that are piecemeal, together to make a whole, right? I feel like it has to have a consistent director or directors with a consistent goal. And I would say I don't feel like this was a good example of that for sure.

Eli Price (02:43:15.232)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:43:27.584)
Sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Eli Price (02:43:38.176)
Yeah, yeah, I feel like there's probably, I probably need to just like see more. Yeah, because yeah, I mean, I've seen some, but yeah, it's just, it's hard to.

Andrew Fossier (02:43:47.15)
Yeah, that's also fair. I don't have a lot to base this off of.

Eli Price (02:44:05.28)
I get, it's hard to know like, okay, what's like, so for example, like Chunkik Express by Wong Kar Wai is a phenomenal movie. It's technically an anthology. It has two separate stories in one, but it's the same director. I also really, really enjoy a couple of Jim Jarmusch movies that are anthologies. Um, uh, Night on Earth and Coffee and Cigarettes are those two. Really enjoy those, but those are the same director. So I think there is something to like,

An anthology movie can be really good, but most of the time it's the best if it's like the same director directing all three or not necessarily three, but however many segments, two, three, four, whatever. Um, but yeah, you know, I haven't seen movies like New York stories. Um, you know, that, that a lot of great directors there, Coppola, Scorsese, Woody Allen.

Andrew Fossier (02:44:47.79)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:45:05.664)
Um, I haven't seen that. So I don't know. I'd like to like take in a couple of more like ones with well -known directors where there's like more than one director and then maybe make a more informed judgment of anthology movies. But yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:45:22.99)
Yeah, that's definitely fair because I don't... I'm having a real... I can't actually think of another anthology film that I've seen, but yeah.

Eli Price (02:45:36.064)
I mean, obviously you have the ones like Fantasia, like the old Disney collections. But that's kind of, it's a little different. It's hard to compare because I love Fantasia, but it's a little bit different. It's hard to like compare it one to one with like Twilight something movie or the French dispatch, you know, it's a little different.

Andrew Fossier (02:45:41.742)
Yeah, I mean, yeah, those.

Andrew Fossier (02:45:47.598)
Mm -hmm.

No, yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:45:58.51)
Yeah, no, that is...

Eli Price (02:46:07.296)
Yeah. And then kind of wrapping, wrapping up everything, you know, a lot of our talk revolved around the tragedy that happened on set. So the other final thought question I had was should studios give directors full control over their projects? Like absolute full control and power. Cause it, it's a, it's a catch 22, I think a bit. It's like, you want to give them full creative control, but also like,

Andrew Fossier (02:46:26.958)
Mm -hmm. I mean, yeah.

Eli Price (02:46:37.216)
There is sort of a reason why studios exist and there's a bit of keeping reins on certain creators so that they don't go off the rails.

Andrew Fossier (02:46:52.494)
Yeah.

I don't know, the thing that I thought about, because it's something I just recently learned that kind of applies, it definitely applies to this discussion is actually, I watched a really interesting video of, it was comparison, compare and contrast of David Lynch's Dune and Denny Fell New, but the video talked about calling it David Lynch's Dune might be,

of who might upset David Lynch, and it showed some interviews with David Lynch, and it was really sad that, you know, hearing him talk about it was like a slow death, I was selling out in the scriptwriting process, and so he's saying it wasn't his vision. Now, I guess the fair question is, if it had been completely his vision, I personally didn't enjoy it, would it have been more enjoyable? Maybe, but to me, the sad thing is,

Eli Price (02:47:26.08)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:47:32.512)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (02:47:36.832)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:47:50.4)
Maybe, maybe not, yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:47:52.494)
The sad thing is to see him not having had that full control over something that he had a very specific vision for, right? It was a big, the way it was described was, I think maximalist, like very over the top. Whereas, you know, the new Dune is much more muted, but serious.

Eli Price (02:47:56.768)
Right.

Eli Price (02:48:02.752)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (02:48:11.296)
Sure.

Andrew Fossier (02:48:18.574)
So yeah, I don't know. I feel like for David Lynch, yes, but I don't know.

Eli Price (02:48:19.584)
Yeah, I think it's... No, I think it's a balance, at the end of the day.

The studio is stepping over a line when they're saying like, Hey, you, you know, we know this is the direction you're headed, but Oh, wouldn't it be nice if, you know, this character did this or this character, you know, had a happier ending or this care, you know, there's a lot of that going on with like studios and producers, like stepping over lines over the creative storytelling that the director is aiming for.

Andrew Fossier (02:48:46.35)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:49:00.096)
but then like.

There's also the like, there's, there's also like, Hey, Hitchcock, you know, we're going to have to kick you off this movie if you don't stop throwing birds at your lead actress, you know? So there's, there's also that like, Oh, it's for the, you know, the creative vision of the director. It's like, well, no, like you got to figure out another way to get that vision. So.

Andrew Fossier (02:49:17.486)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:49:31.278)
Oh yeah, there's a line for sure.

Eli Price (02:49:33.728)
So I mean, you know, you're on set for shooting John Landis' segment of Twilight Zone and everyone's like, well, I don't want to get blacklisted. I don't want to like make John Landis mad. And there's a degree to which it's like, no, there should be somebody there telling him like, hey, you can't do this. You've got to write.

Andrew Fossier (02:49:53.646)
Right, there should be oversight for abuse and safety violations, but I guess specifically what I was thinking is, creatively right.

Eli Price (02:49:58.048)
rights.

Eli Price (02:50:02.496)
creatively it's like But sometimes like those things overlap. I guess is I guess where For the context of this discussion and what brought on this question with the tragedy when the times were overlaps It's like yeah this this there should be a leash on the director and what they're allowed to get away with So yeah, I don't know it's

Andrew Fossier (02:50:08.622)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (02:50:16.942)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:50:31.328)
I guess in the context of this, it's more cut and dry. There's definitely a more interesting discussion to be had on studios and the creative process of directors. You could get into what would Sam Raimi's multiverse of madness been like if they would have really let him be Sam Raimi. But it is what it is.

Andrew Fossier (02:50:43.054)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:50:51.854)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:50:58.976)
In the context of this discussion, somebody should have stepped in for sure.

Andrew Fossier (02:51:04.814)
Yeah, well, and it's so funny how the differences contrast because it's like the problem to me with like the two example, like Sam Brimie and then, you know, David Lynch is a little more iffy for me as, you know, but the point is those two discussions, it's risk aversion and finance that kept something better.

Eli Price (02:51:18.912)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (02:51:29.216)
Yeah. Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:51:32.59)
potentially from happening in giving the director more freedom or more time to make the movie, it's risk aversion. And then in this case, it's risk oblivious, being oblivious to risk. And so, because it's the director making an unsafe call. So it is, yeah, it's different, but.

Eli Price (02:51:37.568)
Right.

Eli Price (02:51:44.384)
Yeah. Right.

Eli Price (02:51:51.424)
Yeah, yeah it is. You're right. And yeah, I think too, like it makes me think about like...

This is totally going down more of the discussion of like creativity, but like it makes me think of shoot. I'm trying to think of his name. It's not coming to me off the top of my head. The director of American fiction in his speech at the Oscars. It's like on the, yeah, it's on the tip of my tongue and it's just not coming to me. I'm very upset about it.

Andrew Fossier (02:52:06.03)
Uh -huh.

Andrew Fossier (02:52:18.702)
Oh!

Andrew Fossier (02:52:23.982)
I can't think of his name right now either.

Eli Price (02:52:30.88)
But anyways, his speech about like, Hey, maybe instead of doing a $200 million movie, you can do, you know, 20, $10 million movies. And then like, you don't have to be so risk averse because like some of those can fail and some of those can succeed and maybe one or two might like really hit. And so, you know, you can be, you don't have to be so risk averse and allowing like directors to really like go after their vision.

Andrew Fossier (02:52:51.598)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:53:00.608)
Because you're not like throwing 200 million dollars at one thing, you're throwing it at 20 different things. And you know, if you're making smart decisions and like trusting people that seem like they're, you know, have a creative, a strong creative vision, then like something's going to hit, you know? Did you pull up his name?

Andrew Fossier (02:53:24.11)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:53:28.014)
Yeah, the director is Cor Jefferson.

Eli Price (02:53:29.504)
Cord Jefferson, man. Feels like I should remember the name Cord, but I don't. But yeah, that's it. That's it for our discussion of the Twilight Zone movie and amazing stories. I rated.

I think I rated the Twilight Zone movie with two and a half stars. Those two and a half stars being mostly for segment three and four. I did see, I saw your wife gave it a solid one star on Letterboxd.

Andrew Fossier (02:54:06.414)
Yes, yes. I would, I would maybe give a...

Eli Price (02:54:13.248)
That's fair. No, I just, you know, it seems like I enjoyed those last segments more than you, which is mostly where my two and a half stars is coming from. But I mean, I have my Spielberg ranked list up and it's like, it's way down at the bottom. Amazing Stories is also on Letterboxd as the like anthology TV thing. I rated it.

Andrew Fossier (02:54:14.638)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:54:20.622)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (02:54:30.382)
Yeah.

Andrew Fossier (02:54:38.414)
Okay.

Eli Price (02:54:41.44)
I was struggling. It's like a three or three and a half stars for me. I rated it just for the mission because I haven't seen the other two segments that are included in that. So I'm cheating on Letterboxd and rating it for just one segment instead of for all three. Yeah, I enjoyed it. It's kind of a... I could see it ending up as like a middling or maybe lower middling once I've...

Andrew Fossier (02:55:07.502)
Mm -hmm.

Eli Price (02:55:11.904)
become a Spielberg completist eventually, but yeah.

Yep, that's pretty much it. I don't have really anything else to talk about on these movies. I think we hit it all. Yeah. Yeah, we have next week coming up. Real soon we are going to be talking about the color purple. That's next up on the list. Spielberg's, you know, it's a different, it's going to be a different.

Andrew Fossier (02:55:25.422)
Yeah, I think we had a good discussion.

Eli Price (02:55:49.344)
movie for Spielberg, I think. So it should be a very fun and interesting discussion covering the color purple. I have been listening to the audio book, um, to prepare for watching the movie. So it's going to be interesting to compare those, but yeah, that is coming up next week. Uh, the color purple, Andrew, is there anywhere you would like people to follow you? I think last time you were like, just letterbox is good.

Andrew Fossier (02:55:55.918)
Mm -hmm.

Andrew Fossier (02:56:18.67)
Yeah, just letterbox. I mean, we were discussing earlier, I don't, I mean, I don't post on any social media pretty much. And I even struggle to post on letterbox, but yeah, if anyone's inclined, that's probably the best place.

Eli Price (02:56:21.184)
Yeah.

Eli Price (02:56:26.208)
Yeah.

Yeah, and I'll make sure to link your profile in the episode description so people can just go click on it there, follow Andrew on Letterboxd and see his occasional logs and reviews there. Yeah. Yeah. Whenever I see one pop up by you, I make sure and go look at what you have to say. So.

Andrew Fossier (02:56:43.15)
Yes. I try to keep up with what I see.

Andrew Fossier (02:56:51.054)
Yeah, I don't always put anything too witty or insightful, but I try to at least keep a log of what I've seen for the first time.

Eli Price (02:57:00.8)
Yeah. Yeah. No, yeah. Letterbox, I love Letterbox. But I've talked about that before, but yeah, that's all we have for this week. Color Purple next week, but until then, I've been Eli Price for Andrew Fosier. You've been listening to The Establishing Shot. We will see you next time.