we're on a mission from god

wendy so i got that going darling

looks like i picked the wrong way to

quit sniffing blue light

of my life we enjoy your films

welcome to vintage video where we'll be

reviewing every major film release of

the 1980s in real time

i'm patrick o'reilly i'm jesse bayless

and i'm richard wells and today marks

the 40th anniversary of the release of

john carpenter's the fog on february 8

1980.

it was written by deborah hill and john

carpenter and directed by john carpenter

and released by avco embassy pictures

which i am not especially familiar with

uh apparently especially familiar with i

am not especially

not at all at all well i i'm familiar

with a

film one

i guess an early cut of the film that uh

carpenter turned in was 80 minutes long

and they were like this should be longer

and so he shot that whole scene with

uh a houseman at the beginning that was

added on later

um oh like the the mandatory the kids

the store oh that's

that's like one of the best parts i

thought it was pretty pretty well done

yeah

um it was done on a sound stage um but

most of the rest of it was shot

on locations um the budget was a million

dollars

for the production which i think goes a

long way

um and three million was spent on

marketing

literally three times the production

budget was spent on marketing

it ended up making 21 million so that's

good

um carpenter at the time was married to

adrienne barbeau

who plays stevie the woman on the radio

um this was her first film

and uh the jon houseman stuff at the

beginning was a single shoot day

um so yeah the very beginning of the

movie is john houseman yeah

america's favorite old barn sitting in

front of a campfire

reading a book no he's uh he's holding a

stopwatch or like a pocket watch and uh

he's telling them the story of a

shipwreck this the shipwreck of the

elizabeth dane

at spivey point in antonio bay exactly

100 years ago tonight

um like literally right now like right

this minute 100 years ago

um and it's the witching hour the it's

very important that the time of after

between midnight and one the

the time after midnight is the is a key

thing for this movie yeah

um so we go from the campfire with all

these kids

hearing this story um to a church where

father malone is closing up for the

night

and pouring himself a glass of wine

which he offers to his assistant bennett

played by john carpenter

um that was john carpenter yeah and he's

like uh can i get my money

yeah why don't you come in an hour late

tomorrow he was like so

young yeah that was him

but i just think it's like like it's

like a metaphor can i get paid

yeah no no that's all right um

but yeah father malone here is hellhole

rook and uh

he is sitting there drinking some wine

and bennett has already left and he's

hearing these weird sounds

and suddenly a rock falls out of this

like stone wall that he has

and smashes on his desk and he looks up

to where it fell out of the wall and

there's

a diary but that's as far as he goes in

he does not look an inch further than

that diary

yeah well i i thought like at first i

thought he was like

having this moment of like oh that rock

could have hit me because he looks

really disoriented

well he's also probably that's probably

not his first class of wine

well yeah or first bottle and uh yeah so

like you said he

he doesn't look any further into the

hole than the diary he also only reads

up to a certain page of the diary

he's just like i can't read any further

i only know these letters

um so weird stuff is happening all over

town and we're getting kind of a montage

of it phones are

ringing and like payphones are literally

just dumping coins

uh dogs are barking everywhere gas pumps

are just

gushing all over the ground electronic

equipment is just going haywire

cars are honking uh we get a credit that

says music by john carpenter which is

the case in

most of most john carpenter movies and

what was

there was another weird credit though

electronic realization yeah what the

hell is electronic realization

that he was the orchestrator and synth

programmer for the film

so what so john carpenter wrote the

music and probably on a keyboard

and he would performed it yes okay or

programmed it into a computer to perform

because a lot of their stuff is

like synthetic wendy carlos

so uh then we cut to elizabeth uh

hitching a ride with nick elizabeth is

the jamie lee curtis character

hitchhiking and uh nick pulls over

to give her a ride not just nick his

name is nick castle

which mick castle is the name of the

actor who plays mike myers in halloween

he literally just named a character

after and not only that but

later we'll have a character named dan

o'bannon yeah exactly as soon as i know

the name i recognized it because

um he wrote aliens yeah but he also

wrote like dark star and life force yeah

but dark star he wrote for john

carpenter that was his first feature

film

which is actually really really similar

to alien and came out like

six years or five years earlier but

darkstar is kind of more of a comedy

right but they're written by the same

guy um

but uh yeah so he he just named a lot of

the characters in this movie after

uh his own friends and peace people he's

personally interested it's like

that's like an improv trick though you

know you just like use use names of

people that you know

right you don't forget what you call

your scene partner right he would use

like a first or a last name not like

full-on just the person's name it's like

in um

is it hot fuzz where nick angel is the

name of the main character but he's also

the guy who arranged all the music

for the movie so in the credits you see

like nick angel's name in the beginning

and we also worked with yeah we worked

with

angel once at the time yeah um but yeah

elizabeth is hitching a ride with nick

castle uh and she's

first testing him to see if he's weird

by asking are you weird

he's like yeah i'm weird and she's like

okay good because i got it right from

were not

weird even though she just told him oh

i've never done this before

but obviously she's in the middle of

nowhere on the side of the road yeah

but uh yeah so uh they drive probably

another 500 feet before suddenly all the

windows of the car explode

which i think if i were either one of

them i would have blamed on the other

person

like either this hitchhiker has

something in her backpack that blew out

my windows

or or they hit something yeah right

right but they don't

there's nothing that they could have

crashed into they're just in the middle

of the road like i do feel like i would

have tried to

investigate those breakers just a little

bit start it back up and start

driving again which is what they do uh

then we meet stevie

who is hosting a late night talk show on

kab which is a radio

show hosted from the top floor of the

lighthouse

this is kb antonio bay california

six minutes after midnight haven't heard

from the weather man yet

so i can't say for sure about that rain

but there's a full moon

and no clouds in the sky mm-hmm the top

of the world

right the top of the world and she

mentions the bottom of a cliff

right yeah it's way way way lower

i mean it's clearly a real lighthouse

but yeah i feel like those are usually

built on on a high point not so far down

close to the water but um but she

mentions

in her broadcast that there's a party

tonight for the 100th anniversary of the

founding of the town

which apparently coincided exactly with

the shipwreck

right um well the the town was

founded after the ship right right

exactly after

so she gets a call from dan o'bannon

uh with some weather information and he

tells her that there's a fog bank

blowing in

uh from the east and that it's gonna hit

a ship called the seagrass that's out

there

and so maybe give a shout out to the

seagrass and let them know there's a fog

bank coming in i don't know what

is the fog bank dangerous to boats it

would

it would it would prevent you from you

know

seeing your route back to land i guess

they weren't in motion or anything

like what are you going to do steer

around it but i think

well one this is before the days of gps

i guess

and uh so unless they were anchored

which i don't think they were i think

that they were probably just free

floating free floating or trolling or

uh it's supposed to be some kind of

fishing vessel

right and they're not supposed to be out

there all night right yeah

but they're just sitting there drunk

they're not like they're not like

actively fishing

um so we we see them on the

on the ship just drunk talking to each

other about how hot this woman on the

radio probably is

and one of them's like oh yeah my son

plays soccer with her kid and

yeah you would like her he's like oh she

has a kid like he's

suddenly not interested even though he

has kids and i like the

the old guy's like there's no [ __ ] bank

yeah he's like looking out the windows

and like calling her bluff and then he

goes hey

it was a fog break

[Laughter]

and she also uh after she gives them the

weather conditions she

[Applause]

just to says which is the name of john

carpenter's band

the one that performs big trouble in

little china oh that's hilarious um

is the song actually one of their songs

yeah

the crew of the sea grass see this fog

blowing in

and decide that they're gonna move up to

the top of the ship

where they're very unceremoniously

killed off

yeah by pirates looming out of the fog

like silhouettes of pirates just black

figures and with hooks and knives

getting stabbed through the chest and

stuff and uh and one guy dick is just

getting stabbed in the eyes

yeah um later referred to as the the

orbit

the ocular orbit is that what he calls

it that's what the doctor calls i was

like

okay um and now we move back to nick

castle and elizabeth have already

consummated their relationship yeah it

took that long

he's like way older than her yeah super

creepy

this is like her second or third movie i

think it's her second movie

you know they say like ass gas grass

right exactly like this guy is closer is

much closer to her mom's age

than her history no i think i think he's

probably

oh oh oh you already looked it up i

already looked it up

well there it is i mean she doesn't i'm

not i wouldn't say she looks

exceptionally old but he looks closer to

her age in this movie but what what are

their ages

uh i think he i think he's he's eight

years younger than her mom

and oh wow he's like 20 years older than

her

okay i guess i'm just so used to her

being older

let's see she was born in 58.

what's this guy's name again tom atkins

yeah

he founded a diet

the south beach diet he was born in 35.

that's such a dumb joke 35 yeah

okay and then what about lee 58.

58. she wasn't born in 58. janet lee not

january oh

sorry she was she was two in psycho

she looked so much older than two in

psycho

i always see i'm so i was always

confused about the the janet lee

jamie lee because i always assumed that

their leaves were spelled the same way

oh what like your your middle name and

your sister's middle name

yeah but they're both lee and they're

both those are middle names like i

assumed that she had named her daughter

after herself

but like that they're not spelled the

same i don't i don't know well it's but

is is

jamie lee curtis her given name i

thought it was

where is that there was a statement

curtis obviously curtis yeah

uh so she uh janet lee was born in

1927 okay

so 27 to 58

27 to 35. i'm talking about the two

women

are 27 and 58. yeah so 35 eight years

yeah

okay so he is older than i thought or

she's younger than i thought

um yeah that's crazy so super creepy

sure i don't think it's super creepy

i've seen worse well that's because

society tells you that it's totally

acceptable for

young women to sleep with much older i

would say if she were

under like eight it would be weird

no i know that would be a crime oh right

yeah

crimes are weird but yeah so uh they're

getting a knock at the door

while they share a cigarette under the

blankets presumably naked

looking at her artwork right she's yeah

she has like a sketchbook

um and uh and someone's knocking at the

door

and we're getting little glimpses of it

through because it's a translucent door

and uh the person is knocking like we

see from the outside too

the person is knocking with a hook right

door but then the fog clears and by the

time he gets the door to answer it

there's nobody there anymore right

at the at the stroke of one af after the

witching hour right

the next morning uh andy

the son of stevie who runs the radio

station played by adrian barbow

andy is walking along the beach and sees

a doubloon

on the rocks and he goes to pick it up

but the water splashes up over it

and when the water washes away suddenly

there's a big piece of driftwood here

and it's a part of the elizabeth dane

right it's got the the name on it says

dane

right and uh so he picks that up because

he's like oh

cool wood was more interested in the

gold i'd probably keep looking for the

gold

yeah all right i wouldn't assume that it

literally transmogrified into wood

i would be like oh this is on top of the

gold or it fell

um but so he takes the uh he takes the

big piece of wood

um and then we see nick and liz have

gone to the docks where the seagrass

left

because he's trying to meet the guys

that are supposed to be back from their

fishing trip by now

and they never came back uh now we cut

over to

kathy and sandy well kathy is the the

councilwoman she yeah she's not the

mayor uh

but she is featured more than the mayor

is in the movie uh yeah she's a

councilwoman she's in charge of putting

the together the 100 year

celebration right and her assistant

sandy is just

like sassy come back yeah she's very

sarcastic

and constantly making fun of kathy but

kathy is also not putting up with her

[ __ ]

right but they have a fun relationship

yeah like they they they're not enemies

or they don't

hate each other it's just just part of

what they do yeah so they're here

near the church to approve a statue

that's being installed to commemorate

like the lives lost in the shipwreck

right as a memorial

and uh they're like oh it's not terrible

like they look under they like peek

under the sheet and they're like oh it

doesn't look

as awful as i expected it to um

we're cutting back and forth a lot

between right them here

and uh nick uh and

yeah there's essentially three main

character groups

right um so yeah it's it's the

dj mother and her son these

the two women that are planning the

festivities and

uh nick castle and elizabeth right who

are investigating the disappearance of

this ship

so uh they find the the ship but it

looks like it's abandoned

and they start to move below decks kathy

and sandy are driving and kathy explains

that

in the middle of the night her dog just

started barking like facing the ocean

just barking out into the ocean and that

al never came home that night

she's like oh well you should be at home

like what are you doing out here and

she's like no no i got to keep myself

busy and home is the last place i want

to go because my dog's driving me crazy

um

and sandy says that's weird my car alarm

went off around the same time which i

think we get

a shot of right in the earlier montage

she's like

looking at her window at the car alarm

and then suddenly a chair slides across

our living room

which i feel like that's probably what i

would bring up to someone not like yeah

my car alarm went off i would be like

oh my chair just moved halfway across

the room right in front of me

um but yeah so they go to visit father

malone

hal holbrook and he tells them hey so i

found this diary

uh it's my grandfather's diary it was in

the wall here

and uh so that shipwreck that happened

on purpose

wait so this this must not be like a

catholic priest right because your

grandfather isn't a priest

if you're a priest or some

i don't know illegitimate things have

happened

i was a priest like my father and his

father before

i think that this particular priest has

done

other things that disqualify him other

than having children i think

murdering boats full of people is

probably worse oh fair enough

we don't know that he could be

uh the brother

no they could be like protestant

lutheran i don't know one of them can

marry

who knows either way uh he's he's like

yeah so i

started to read this diary but then it

got real hot and heavy and i put it down

on this page

and i didn't read any further but uh

what i did read

is that uh there was a bunch of lepers

and they were gonna start a colony just

north of us

and this is on the west coast right

there in california correct

um a fictional town in california right

but it was all filmed up in uh like

marin

county yeah um but uh yeah so they were

gonna start a town just north

and the fat the grandfather the priest

uh was terrified of having a bunch of

lepers living there right

so they said instead of leading them to

shore with a safe lighthouse they're

going to start a campfire

near the rocks to specifically lure them

into crashing their ship

right and there were there were six

conspirators

that all agreed to do this right i don't

know why it takes six people to start a

campfire

he probably could have done it on his

own saved a lot of souls

but he didn't and so they did this

campfire and everything went off without

a hitch

but it wasn't just to stop the leper

colony

it was also to they knew that the the

guy who was the head of the leprechaun

had a lot of gold how does one become

the head of a leopard

leopard you use the most fingers well i

suppose you have the most gold

or maybe you have the most fingers that

is the in the world of the blind the

one-eyed man is king

right the world in the skunks the man

with half

a nose is king

[Laughter]

i don't know that's from sort of dirty

work chris farley wonderful

wonderful stuff sing the song boys

sing the song boys

before me

jimmy release the skunks okay i got it i

got it i'm on it

um but yeah so these leopards struck it

rich somehow

i think a rich guy got leprosy what

i don't think that the left i think it

is i think that a rich guy

caught the disease now richard maybe you

can

solve this mystery between us i think

that they all had hooks because they're

lepers

but she says that they're just fishermen

and pirates and that's why they have

hooks i didn't say they were pirates

they're fishermen they

but they weren't they were just on a

boat traveling on a boat yeah

i don't think that they were this is the

coast this is what they they have

they have their i think they have

because they're lepers

no that's why all these ghosts have

hooks their hands didn't drop off and

they didn't replace them with hooks they

had

fisherman hooks they were the kinds that

have handles that you hold on to

with whatever fingers you have left

captain hook works though

well uh here here's what i will say um

i disagree that they lost their arms and

replaced them with hooks

but i also disagree that this is a

fishing vessel

we'll we'll learn a story later but it's

also

clearly like a galleon when it pulls up

um

we'll we'll learn a story later that it

seems

uh because i have questions about the

rules because sure

i agree with that some of which are

answered by the

the novelization of the film yeah

because tom atkins says oh there was a

time where

another ship was lost it's like oh so

this doesn't happen every 100 years

this happens all the time like it's also

just the west coast

before you know gps you know you crash

into rocks this just

happens yeah but the he specifically

mentions the gold the balloon and then

right

well because i'm leading us back into

the discovery of the seagrass here

part of the plan was not only to kill

all these lepers but

because they have a lot of gold on board

that they can go and recover right

but getting back to the sea grass which

is part of this where i'm leaving here

is that the state of the seagrass where

he says like everything's rusted

and this isn't that old of a ship yeah

it looks like it's been underwater

and tom atkins tells a story about his

father who had found a ship

and like there was a fresh cup of coffee

that was in a metal cup that was still

steaming hot

but the saucer had rusted to the table

uh and so whatever uh

so these ghosts attack at random it

doesn't seem to be anything that

particularly that calls

it's also weird that we of the three men

that were killed on the ship we only

find

one body and we never we never locate

the other two dogs well

i kind of wonder if they join the ranks

because this body that they find

reanimates

so yeah so they they uh

uh basically after he he says all this

stuff and he's like yeah they

killed all these people and took all

their gold and that's as much as i've

read of the diary and

you know it's kind of boring yeah

it's like i got a lot of breaking bad to

catch up on

just bored me it was like the sky

pilgrim this

is boring delete

we're fighting over ramona didn't you

get my email explaining the situation

i skimmed it you will pay for

it but yeah he uh they're like okay wow

so you're gonna give your speech though

uh to talk about the lives that were

lost he's like yeah no i'm not going to

do that anymore my grandpa murdered all

those people

yeah this is highly inappropriate we're

celebrating murder

super offensive for me to give that

speech at this point and i love

like janet lee like looks at her watches

just like like watch us

oh wow yeah it's for the best

that's crazy anyway uh we gotta go we

could still have the festivities

the big party for all the murders um

and uh and so they're like all right

well you know what you don't need to

give us nobody

needs to go speech we'll just head out

um and then

nick and liz on the boat find the body

one of the three bodies

the one with its eyes stabbed out of its

head and uh they bring it

back to the mainland right um stevie

gets

the piece of driftwood from her son and

takes it to work with her for some

reason

um she sets it down on a stack of

eight tracks and it starts leaking

yeah it just starts dripping water

magically

while she's listening to like the

startup recordings in the morning

on the radio program and uh before she

can start her show

suddenly the whole table is wet enough

that like

it's literally shorting out her

equipment there's this weird broadcast

playing by itself

and the word um dane on this piece of

wood has been replaced with the words

six must die and she grabs a fire

extinguisher

to put out the fire of all the equipment

catching on fire from oh was that was

that the equipment catchy fire i thought

the the

the piece of the piece of wood could

just randomly like after it randomly

started leaking it also

randomly caught fire i thought it was

because it was on top of electronics no

no i think it just started cabinet

of tapes yeah well either way she puts

the whole thing out but then as soon as

the fog of the

the fog of the extinguisher clears it

looks like nothing happened nothing was

ever wet

but although there is an insert later

where you still see water pooling on the

table yeah

that wasn't on purpose but uh but the

recording is pretty haunting i

like it it's just like this voice

describing like

uh i think they they use the word like

albatross

yeah which is like like wizardry words

yeah

um but yeah so then now the the board

again just says dane it doesn't say six

must die anymore

um and then at the morgue where they've

brought

uh dick baxter's corpse um

uh it wakes up and

jamie lee curtis is left alone in the

room with it but isn't paying attention

and it grabs a scalpel off of a table

and starts to approach her

and she freaks out and screams everybody

runs into the room and apparently

the corpse just collapsed and carved the

word three into the floor

implying that six must die three on

the sea grass have already been killed

so there's three left

to kill and what is the lesson that we

learn here

don't give the corpse a scalpel always

pay attention and a morgue

yeah oh okay that's good too um

uh nick decides that uh he should get in

touch with

kathy and let her know that al is

officially missing that he was

on board this boat and they're in like a

bar where he tells her this

but uh and she's obviously freaking out

because her husband's missing and

the dog was barking all night so she's

already like stressed and she has so

much going on

but she is trying to push it all out of

her head and just focus on getting this

stuff done

but she feels terrible that like the

whole night she was mad at al for not

coming home

and taking care of the dog when it turns

out he might have been dead though yeah

it probably

is dead yeah and uh they also important

in the scene with the morgue is that the

the temperature drops rapidly

right and when the body is waking up

yeah and that's the same thing that

happened on the seagrass

correct yeah the the thermometer was

broken at 20 degrees

um and the doctor also relays that the

body of the guy they brought in had been

in

in the water for over a month yeah

because he says oh you remember those

kids that

drowned on that shipwreck like they were

under the water 10 days i would swear he

was under for

a long time yeah they weren't implying

that those kids

were also like attacked or anything

related accidentally yeah i think it was

just

the rocky the dangerous waters dan calls

stevie's show and says

oh hey how's it going i don't have any

information for you she's like oh that's

not going to help my broadcast

but um she's trying to warn him about a

glowing fog

that she knows has caused problems she

heard on the radio earlier in the day

about the seagrass and the people dying

on it and she's trying to warn him about

it

because she can see this glowing fog

from her lighthouse

and he's like making fun of her and just

like haha what are you talking about

she's like i'm watching it right now

it's coming to where you are where his

like observation

building is and uh he's just like okay

whatever

whatever you say anyway there's

something glowing outside i gotta go

i gotta go there's someone at the door

anyway i gotta go let's open up the door

i like i like

that they have to knock like they can't

just well sometimes they seem to break

open windows and stuff but

they're they're very polite poltergeists

i don't know i always felt like knocking

is rude though

like if there's a doorbell at least try

it i guess we don't know for sure

but they did uh try a doorbell at andy's

house

they did that's right yeah they did they

did ring the bell um

but uh one of the one of the reasons i

wanna think i wanna bring up about the

cold

was uh but that's the that's what

generates the fog

right the the chair in the air yeah the

there's they

they create such a field of cold around

these ghosts that it it's condensing all

the air wherever they go

there is no water in this air

uh but he's still on the phone with

stevie like it's

he's yeah he like sets his phone down

and walks away like hold on somebody's

pranking me gotta go die

and uh he goes and answers the door and

gets murdered while she's listening

so she freaks out because she can hear

this happening

and just starts telling the radio

audience like my son is at home

you need to like someone go get him even

though she left him with an adult

yeah mrs corvitz yeah and so she's like

just drive to wherever my house is and

take my son he's home alone it's like i

hope there's no pedophiles listening to

your program

like my son is alone there's no way to

protect him

i left him with a feeble old neighbor

woman

um so they go there and ring the

doorbell apparently the pirates heard

the program

right and she's watching the fog close

in on her house which is also on the

coastline she can see all of this from

from her radio station and she's also at

the same time she's like someone go to

my house and get my son

i can't do it i have to stay on the air

because these oldies aren't going to

play themselves i

i like you too it's like a very war of

the worlds kind of broadcast like she's

like

like it's crossing fourth street you

know it's moving up

like she's able to like she has a bird's

eye view of everything yeah because

she's on top of the

she's on the bottom of the top of the

yeah she literally can't even see

the town from where she is but she's

telling that exactly underwater with the

tide

yeah she's just floating around

it's coming up on main street

um but yeah so the fog rings the

doorbell

and uh mrs culverts is like why don't

you go in your room for now

and goes to answer the door and just

gets murdered yeah why why does she

answer the door

i don't know she's so adamant about like

protecting him and like

close your windows don't don't you know

like do all these things with it

i'm gonna go answer the door but they

kill mrs cobrats and then move into the

house

and uh the shadowy figures are getting

close to the kid when

nick just busts open the opposite window

and pulls the kid through this shattered

window

it just looks super dangerous but this

is the point at which they give up on

knocking because everyone else has

answered the door but the kid does it

and they start to smash the door down

yeah

but uh so yeah so they get the kid out

of there throw him in the car with jamie

lee curtis

and drive basically the fog chases

everyone except for stevie to the church

stevie's

stuck at the radio station and all the

other townspeople

right yeah everyone is there uh because

that's where they're

unveiling the statue and doing this but

they all

the townspeople vanish because yes

everybody's gone except for

the six main characters and then they

get to the the church

and then you have nick and liz get there

and andy

and the and the priest basically that's

everybody and adrian bravo

in the lighthouse right um and so she's

still trying to give everyone updates on

where the fog is and they're like

literally like

listening live and making u-turns as she

tells them that a street is being taken

over

there's a lot of really cool visual

effects here that actually kind of threw

me

off because like it's a it's a comp job

of a city street plus maybe a miniature

yeah

of fog being blown through uh uh

probably fully black or like matte black

replication so we can roll over it so

yeah it's actually matching the texture

of the street as it rolls toward camera

it's a very convincing effect um

it cuts off the the power yeah the fog

gets into the generator

yeah and it's just basically trying to

shut the whole town down as on its way

to this church

um so the ghosts meanwhile

have basically swarmed the the

lighthouse

and the power has gone out like you said

the generator has been roasted

and so she goes to start up like a

backup generator

to get the electricity to come back um

and

they end up the ghosts end up chasing

her to the roof

of the lighthouse and she's like

literally fighting off two of them at

the same time

but she's not kicking at them which

bothers me when it's happening

because it's just like just kick them

off the roof like your legs are pointed

at the bad guys and

and she's just like swinging at them

with her hand one of them hooks her

yeah the next and the neck and i thought

i was like oh okay i wasn't expecting

her to go but

then she just kind of doesn't react to

that afterward

um but back at the church they decide

you know what

there were some other pages in this

diary maybe i should keep reading and

then he's like

basically finds out that the gold is

there in the church and then if you give

it back to ghost blake then

yeah everyone will leave you alone and

where was it hidden

two inches behind where the diamond yeah

if he

just inspected the hole a little closer

he would have already found it but uh

it's literally

been all the gold has been melted down

into a crucifix which feels just like

doubly insulting to the memory of the

people who yeah we took all of your gold

and then made it into the symbol of what

we believe in but i obviously don't

because i orchestrated all your murders

that thing is huge yeah there's no way

in hell that guy would be able to carry

that thing like

yeah you know i mean the the cross was i

mean it was probably

it probably weighed as much two or three

feet you know if not more

yeah but he so he's just lifting it with

his arms

and he walks it out to where all these

like ghost pirates are walking through

and uh he calls to blake specifically

blake i have your gold i've come to

return your gold

and the person playing ghost blake do

you see who it is yeah rob boutin

rob boutin is playing ghost blake who

does all of john carpenter's

cool special effects yeah and uh also

some for joe dante

but explorers and

good stuff um but yeah he's playing the

ghost character here

and uh he gives ghost blake the gold and

then

all the ghosts disappear but i love the

effect the the

really brightly washed out cross when

yes

when it's in their hands just because

it's the only you can tell they're

hitting it with a spotlight though

because

there's a reflection of it on the wall

yeah yeah but but it's just

it's just so intensely bright but you

can still see everything else

yeah it's very cool it's very it's very

uh precise lighting mm-hmm

um but yeah but yeah everything

everything is kind of like it's like

okay

yeah and barbo is like on the roof of

her radio station and all the ghosts are

just gone and she's like oh

i guess i can climb down now i'm also

bleeding from the jugular but

i guess i can climb down now and uh

basically everyone is suddenly gone

and father malone is there by himself

and he's like why not me

even though the answer is you gave the

gold back in accordance with the

explanation in the diary but then blake

shows up and it's like oh yeah you're

right

i missed one thank god you reminded me

because i was about to disappear for 100

years

but uh here and then he stabs him or

cuts his head because it cuts his head

off yeah

and that but that makes six then again

so like even though he's got his gold

back he's still

like out for vengeance yeah well he's he

is he that was the sixth death

so he got his gold back and he killed

the six people well and see

uh and that's why again when i get back

into the rules

of these ghosts because father malone is

a direct descendant of

one of the conspirators according to the

novelization everyone who dies is a

direct descendant

all right it's not cleared up in the

movie yeah it's not

specified in the movie but it's quite

impossible with who dies in the movie

that that is yes

it's entirely possible with who dies in

the movie but

if you knew that to begin with you would

know that jamie lee curtis is safe

that andy is safe that adrian barbeau is

safe

even though they're getting attacked

yeah why are they going after these ones

that aren't

i don't know descendants because because

the rules

because they're those are the lepers

that lost their eyeballs

i don't know um the rappers that lost

his way everyone here is now blinder

for having lost their eyeballs

[Laughter]

but yeah that's the end of the movie is

him chopping off holbrook's head

yeah classic really solid and

john carpenter does this a lot with his

like last shots of the movie or just

like

oh yeah here's that other thing you

wanted to happen um

this was his fourth feature after

darkstar which we talked about before

precinct 13 which also had atkins

yeah and uh halloween obviously which

also had jamie lee curtis this was her

second movie

um deborah hill who co-wrote this with

john carpenter

also wrote halloween one and two and she

came back to write escape from la

but those are the only john carpenter

movies that she wrote right right um

adrian barbeau

was stevie wayne on the radio uh she's

in four john carpenter movies presumably

all

during their marriage yeah um so she was

before this she was in a tv movie called

someone's watching me

she was in this and she was in escape

from new york

and the thing um but she also appears in

a lot of horror movies

uh she was in cannibal run which isn't a

horror movie but she was in creep show

um swamp thing she was the uncredited

voice of

central and judge dredd huh

um oh when you said the thing i was like

there's no women in the thing but then i

just looked her up and i was like oh

she's the voice of that

yeah yeah she she might bear it

yeah exactly there's no women in the

thing

um yeah that wouldn't be a safe

situation for a woman to be

in the middle of the antarctic with a

bunch of creepy dudes

um she also adrien barbeau was uh in the

recent reboot

of creep show that uh greg nicotero

has been producing and uh she was she

also had a part on dc's

swamp thing show um because she had

appeared on the the original sword

right um jamie lee curtis

yeah this is her second movie after

halloween she was also an uncredited

computer voice in a john carpenter movie

which was

escape from new york um and obviously

she's

in a bunch of really cool stuff trading

places fish called wanda true lies

yeah to name a few jamie lee curtis

obviously people know who she is

and she just started a new trilogy of

halloween movies that john carpenter is

producing

um she's the first one is out already

and the next two are going to come out

on the next two halloweens yeah i can't

believe that they're making

even more i think david gordon green's

doing all three of them

and i wouldn't be surprised if danny

mcbride is writing all three of them

because he wrote the first one and it's

it's what halloween kills or something

like that

yeah uh halloween halloween kills and

halloween ends

i think are the three um and janet lee

obviously her mother

uh who was in psycho um and by by birdie

and manchurian candidate right a lot of

uh old school classics uh john houseman

who's only in that that first scene

is great yeah and and obviously like i

would

reference screw scrooge to write uh

because

i i thought he was a more prominent

actor

but i guess he's just mostly from the

paper chase yeah but i guess

he's like a huge he was a huge producer

and he's a stage actor

a lot of the time too and uh and so like

i was

really unfamiliar with his career yeah

other than seeing him and things like

and

even like the naked gun where he's the

right school instructor

but uh he has an oscar for the paper

chase in 1973

which was only his third film even

though he was like 71 years old when

that movie came out

um but for a long time he was like the

head of the acting classes

at juilliard um and so he taught like a

bunch of like famous actors

like robin williams i think was one of

his students um

and uh so paperchase was his third movie

before that he had done frankenheimer's

seven days in may

in 1963 and orson welles is too much

johnson in 38 that's my high school

nickname

um but yeah so from 1938 to 1963 is a

huge gap in your feature film

appearances and then from there to 71

another eight years

and then nine years to this movie so

it's odd

uh very sporadic but he's also in three

days of the condor and rollerball

and yeah he'll show up later this year

in holy moses

tom atkins as nick castle which we

talked about already

yeah um well he was in the third house

he was in the third halloween movie he

also appears in an escape from new york

and as well as like a million other bee

oh yeah yeah lots of crazy horror and

sci-fi movies

um and he'll show up again uh in about

three weeks

uh eight episodes from now for the ninth

configuration

um charles cyphers is uh dan o'bannon

the guy

calling in with all the weather updates

he's also on halloween and precinct 13

before this

and uh he plays an interrogator and

loaded weapon one

which i need to rewatch because i like

that movie even the title makes me laugh

still

i like him in uh night of the creeps i

don't know that one

uh it's a it's a weird little move it's

a fred decker so it's like

okay from uh monster squad squad yeah uh

but it's yeah it's a

it's a weird little horror film but he's

great in it um

and yeah sandy the assistant to kathy

uh isn't is uh nancy kai's but she's

credited as nancy loomis

which loomis is obviously a halloween

reference oh okay

i don't i don't get the reference dr

loomis

oh dr loomis okay yeah the donald

pleasant's character from

halloween who is played by malcolm

mcdowell in the remake

um but yeah she was in precinct 13 and

the first three halloweens

um hal holbrook as father malone um

is this is the second deep throat that

we've dealt with

the first one was in the porn film deep

throat and how holbrook played deep

throat in all the president's men

both technically deep throat actors

after harry reims from

uh to all the good night and hal

holbrook mostly known for playing mark

twain

uh i mean he's had a career that spans

like 50 years and he's still doing stuff

yeah

but but he's like i mean he's he's like

sons of anarchy right

he's he's just around all the time he'll

play the president

later this year in a movie called the

kidnapping of a president

and uh he was in cr with a creep show

about the crate with the monster oh

that's such a great one too

um and then there's this guy uh george

buck flower

who played tommy wallace one of the

three guys on the boat and his career

is just fascinating i'm so jealous of

the parts that he's played

so he's in four other john carpenter

movies they work together a lot

but he plays a bum in back to the

futures one and two

he plays a drifter and they live he

plays a homeless man

in wish master with our friend tammy

lauren um

he plays a security guard in mac and me

he played a 49er on briscoe county

junior

and he plays a character named norville

and tammy on the t-rex

it's just an amazing career i think mac

and me and tammy the t-rex are the same

director

he's not the bum the red the former

mayor

in back to the future is he no he's just

credited as bum so i would assume he's

not read

but he's he's literally in the first and

second movie so i would

imagine that it's a significant enough

part that they brought him back to play

the character again unless he's

literally

in some other reused footage yeah yeah

um

but yeah um how would you say this is

aged

i think this is pretty solid yeah i

think it's done pretty well i think it's

still a fun

horror movie i mean to be honest a lot

of the it had a really

it had really cool shots in it and i

think that that's just john carpenter

and rob botton are just amazing

well and dean cundy did the was the tv

oh okay yeah

also back to the future yeah yeah and i

think it's it's it's these films and

some of the other ones around this time

that john carpenter were doing that was

defining you know the horror genre and

like establishing what people do

still to this day yeah with some of

those shots

okay the fog is this uh is this a must

watch

i say yeah i think you should watch it

i agree i don't think there is a don't

watch a carpenter

it's a it's like it's a watch well i

mean later at carpenter you can we can i

disagree

[Laughter]

already um yeah no this is this is

definitely

worth checking out i thoroughly enjoyed

it and would watch it again

yeah well i think um

letterboxed for me

that uh this might go on top

i i still like uh my brilliant career

better but otherwise this was in second

place for me

above american gigolo uh definitely

above american gigolo

[Music]

i think i feel bad that i'm always this

uh but i'm with jesse again on this

richard and i just have similar tastes

in film it'll it'll happen i don't like

what's going on here

[Laughter]

i think just in terms of like i think

the pacing is really solid in this there

were parts of

my brilliant career for me that dragged

a little bit compared to this

but i feel like um yeah i think i'm

comfortable putting this on top

um i think that's everything for this

one

uh if you guys have any thoughts you'd

like to share with us we are

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the year

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thank you so much for listening and i

hope you will join us next time when we

will be discussing

hero at large which wikipedia describes

thusly

steve nichols john ritter is a

struggling new york city actor who

accepts the job of posing as

a comic book hero for a movie he's hired

to help promote

after he stops a robbery while wearing

the captain avenger costume

his life becomes unexpectedly

complicated nichols decides to continue

playing superhero and discovers that a

hero's life is more complex than he

expected

so it sounds like a comedy kick-ass

type story uh we leave you now with the

audio for the trailer

for hero at large

somewhere in the heart of this city in a

small shop closing for the night

a robbery is in progress but help is on

the way

mind if i drop in captain

[Music]

john ritter is steve nichols how about

that

hero at large who are you j edgar hoover

i'm captain avenger such a nice boy

he can't fly tomorrow i'm leaping over a

tall building at a single bound

wrong guy i'm expanding he can't bend

steel

i'm in big trouble fighting crime is a

dirty business

but when there's danger he can't turn

away you're a crazy man he dresses up in

a comic book suit and goes around doing

good

deeds hold it right there don't make

another move

if they're gonna use real bullets i

think i'll retire

he's loved by women i'm not always this

easy

i bet you say that to all the girls

cheered by men

they want their superhero and all he

stands for to hold on to

and worshipped by children captain

avenger yes sir let's see a fly

a hero's work is never done he's nutty

but noble

i'm counting to three milo who the hell

is that this is robert redford

he's dizzy but dedicated people putting

themselves on the line for other people

that's what being a hero is but he's

really just an actor

who got carried away with a role it's

just like any other part you gotta

really get into it

captain avenger who send you out in

these missions anyway

your agent i took a third-rate movie

made it the biggest hit of the year with

a simple gimmick

captain avenger comes to your

neighborhood authorities are still

wondering who the man in the red blue

and yellow costume with a large a

on his chest really is it's me steve

nichols

all he knows about heroes is that people

need one uh yeah i heard it a couple of

times

all he could do was make himself hero

at large well i think it's really

terrific john ritter

ann archer bert convey and kevin

mccarthy

hero at large at last help

is on the way