Excuse the Intermission
Alex and Max take you on a journey through film with this discussion podcast about movies.
Excuse the Intermission
Top Five Post Apocalyptic Movies
As the dust settles on a world unmade, the haunting beauty of post-apocalyptic cinema beckons. Just in time for the release of "Furiosa," we've armed ourselves with reflections from the stark landscapes of societal collapse to share with you. From the Seattle International Film Festival to the challenging classrooms of film school, I've gathered personal anecdotes and technical insights to shed light on how stories of survival and isolation not only captivate but reveal the resilience of the human spirit.
Venture with us through the desolate worlds of "The Book of Eli" and "Children of Men," where performances and cinematic techniques leave an indelible mark, stirring deep questions about humanity's future. The genre's evolution, from animated epics to the grit of "The Road," showcases how post-apocalyptic narratives craft intense examinations of our darkest fears and brightest hopes. This episode also anticipates the potential of "Furiosa" to carry forth the legacy of "Mad Max," with musings on Chris Hemsworth's foray into villainy against the backdrop of George Miller's visionary world.
As we wrap up our trek across the cinematic wasteland, we invite you to join the discussion, ponder the thematic richness of films like "Alien" and "Mad Max," and look forward to the continuation of our journey. Stay tuned for updates on our Instagram and Letterboxd during our brief hiatus, as our passion for movies burns ever bright, signalling the promise of engaging conversations and film explorations to come in future episodes of ETI.
How's it? I'm Alex McCauley and I'm Max Fosbury and this is Excuse the Intermission a discussion show surrounding our favorite post-apocalyptic movies. With the release of Furiosa a Mad Max saga right around the corner, we are looking back at some of our most treasured entries into the dirty, bloody sub-genre of action movies, that is, the post-apocalyptic film. We will give you some recommendations and also do a little check in on spring festival season. All that up next, but first a short break.
Speaker 2:This episode is brought to you by the Seattle Film Society. The Seattle Film Society is a filmmaker run project dedicated to organizing, cultivating and celebrating the region's filmmaking community Through screenings, educational opportunities and community initiatives. Seattle Film Society strives to be a centralizing force for Seattle-area filmmakers.
Speaker 1:Their monthly screening event, Locals Only, is held at 18th and Union in Seattle's Central District and spotlights local voices in independent filmmaking. Tickets start at $10 and are available at seattlefilmsocietycom.
Speaker 2:To keep up with the Seattle Film Society, be sure to check them out on Instagram or Letterboxd at Seattle Film Society or on their website, seattlefilmsocietycom.
Speaker 1:Come be a part of the next generation of seattle filmmaking today. All right, we're back, we're in studio. We took a virtual vacation last week. Yeah, we did um, so this feels good. Back on our home turf max. How you, how you doing? Last two weeks you've been up in seattle, you've been bouncing back and forth between sif and finals week. A a lot going on. So give us a, give us an update. Maxi school corner.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've had the pleasure of going up to uh SIF a couple of times these past couple of weeks. Uh, I got to see um, I saw the TV glow uh, and the director, uh Jane, was in uh attendance, which was really cool. So we got to hear from them and, you know, do a Q and a after after the film, which was was great. And then I also went and saw harmony Corinne's new film. Of course, the uh the director of such films as spring breakers and the writer of kids, um, aggro drift. Is aggro Films as Spring Breakers and the Writer of Kids Agro Drift. Is it Agro? Yeah, it's Agro Agro Drift, which was filmed completely in infrared with infrared cameras. Just a wild time, a strange film. I would love to hear what you think if, if it ever gets picked up or released. I really don't know if, if anyone will will ever have that on their streaming service, but it seems like something that might make its way to maybe movie yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, something like that. I'm sure someone will because it is. It is kind of a film you'd everyone should experience there's an audience for it, I'm sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah um, and then, yeah, we're in, we're in finals week. Uh, today I think I was telling you uh as right when I showed up I've I've been uh just behind the computer all day editing uh, two different film projects for this to turn in this week, and, and then I've got, I've got another writing project that I need to work on tonight, tomorrow, um, for a presentation on Wednesday, but yeah, and then you're done with year one, right?
Speaker 1:You don't go through the summer, or is there summer quarter? Yeah?
Speaker 2:So I, I take a week off and then we jump right back into quarter four. Uh, but a little bit less of a quarter maybe, I don't know. There's only three classes next quarter instead of four, so I'm very excited to dive in. I think it's going to be more nonfiction filmmaking, which this quarter has been a lot of. A lot of interview, you know, sit down corporate style interviews, uh, and I think next quarter we actually make a, a short documentary, so that's going to be really fun, but, uh, but, yeah, I'm tired, I'm very tired. It's the end of the quarter.
Speaker 1:Uh, sleepies, right now, what is the biggest takeaway from this quarter with kind of experimenting with different film styles as far as some of the projects go, you're not.
Speaker 2:You're not out there making fun vampire movies anymore. Lighting is everything, lighting is everything and, um, a shotgun mic is, uh, very touchy, or, and laughs are very touchy too, um, but yeah, no, it's been a lot of interviews, right? So, like it's interesting, because in the cinematography class the project was, uh, you know, have someone sit down and do an interview, do three different interviews with three different lighting setups, um, which you know we found is actually pretty easy to accomplish if you're going. The wonderful gig that you hooked me up with with CISP is we've been going around to different schools and interviewing children and adults, and so it was easy to accomplish different lighting styles, but there are definitely more pleasing styles than than not for those kinds of interviews, um, does it make you have you watched any documentary style films or even like television shows recently?
Speaker 1:then that that have you looking at those through a different lens when it comes to like, oh, they must've set up like this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, uh, such documentary films like uh 13th, uh, by Ava DuVernay um, the way she frames her subjects, where she places the camera, how much headroom she's giving, um, there's a lot of different techniques to you know, if you put someone close to the I believe it's to the right of the frame that makes people very uncomfortable. So you'll see that a lot in that film, especially because it's talking about slavery and the civil rights movement and all that, and so they want people to feel uncomfortable. So they'll frame people that way or they'll just audience, audience members or audience members yeah.
Speaker 2:Or they'll. Uh, you know they'll choose. They don't want to make their interview subject yeah, no, no right, but they'll, they'll choose like a certain like motif as far as what is in the background. Right it it, especially again in in 13th. That's kind of the main film we studied, um, you know there's when you have activists talking about the civil rights and whatnot, there's a lot of um parallel like lines in the background to kind of illustrate, you know, being locked up or or or being, you know, in some sort of prison or when they're talking to someone who maybe was on the front lines or is very important.
Speaker 2:She puts them in a huge cathedral where it's very dramatic. Behind them very wide open spaces to make them look more. Lack of a better word holy right.
Speaker 1:So much intentionality, though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there is and like it's stuff you don't even really think about when you're watching the film, but it does, I think, totally make a difference while you're watching it, subconsciously, right. Um so, yeah, documentary a lot of really cool things you can do. The frame, even though it's, you know, documentaries, are mostly people sitting in chairs talking to the camera.
Speaker 1:Right, I do, you know, maybe we don't spend too much time on it, but I do want to go back to one of the first films you mentioned from the Seattle International Film Festival. I saw the TV glow. Usually, you and I do like a mid-year horror recap. Now I think that, again, we always talk about things in terms of a video store. If you were going to rent this movie, you would put it on the shelf with the horror films Gosh, I don't know. Drama.
Speaker 2:I think honestly it's more of a drama.
Speaker 1:It's hard right. It's certainly marketed as a horror film. It definitely marketed as a horror film.
Speaker 2:And there is a little bit of.
Speaker 1:You know, there is some scary imagery yeah, ice cream man, or whatever yeah, well, ice cream man, mr melancholy, and the moon called the moon man.
Speaker 2:Yeah um, however, yeah, I, I want to say it's more of a it. You know it tries to be lynchian right and and lynch is always interesting because you know something like a racer head I think leans much more horror. But then something like maholen drive maybe is more drama. Um with frightening moments with frightening moments, which is a lot like what I saw the tv glow yeah, so yeah, I, I would probably put it in drama I really want you to go back and watch.
Speaker 1:We're all going to the world's fair after seeing. I saw the TV glow now because I was a film that I was so high on two years ago. One of my favorites from 2022.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Um, and that was Jane's debut feature.
Speaker 2:It's so interesting. So Jane again was at the screening and so they talked about uh, we're all going the World's Fair and they consider it an incomplete film, Like they did not. They were saying they didn't have the full language or breadth to tell the story that they wanted to tell in that film and they thought I Saw the TV Glow was a much more complete, almost like version of interesting the world's fair very interesting so yeah a director to watch the fact that a24 has picked up distribution rights yeah and in production they.
Speaker 2:This was an a24 total production feels very a24 the budget.
Speaker 1:The budget is certainly there. To me it feels a little different, maybe in more recent years. This is the direction that a24 has leaned, but again, don't go into the film thinking that you're gonna sit down and watch hereditary or the witch or the lighthouse or videodrome, even though I'm just thinking of other yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it does pull from some of those you know, lynch or cronenberg stuff, but it's not.
Speaker 1:I think you know it's more of a coming of age drama, yeah agreed, yeah, so we'll see when we bring that one back up, because it is. It's a very interesting film to talk about.
Speaker 2:I think, um, and then yeah, if I can get my hands on aggro drift listen, man, I, I, I know you love spring break and you know I think you're a fan of Harmony Corrine what they do, and I mean, yeah, I would love to hear your thoughts on it, because there are moments where it's just it's very mesmerizing and you're like, wow, this is like.
Speaker 1:We love when people take big swings.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is a huge swing, but then there's moments where it's just like what in?
Speaker 1:the world. You just shrug out on three pitches yeah, um, okay.
Speaker 1:So we had kind of teased that this episode would be a deep dive into the career of george miller. Well, we decided with furiosa and mad max saga still to come that we should save the George Miller conversation for when we can actually review and talk about that film after having seen it. So that will be on next week's episode, but still to kind of bridge the gap honestly really nicely here between our conversation last week about the planet of the apes movies, them obviously being apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic films and now going into Furiosa in the Mad Max world, we want to just focus on that sub genre of action films, the post-apocalyptic movie.
Speaker 1:So, max, when you think of these films, what are some of the key ingredients that you look for? Maybe some commonalities between the films that you brought to the table today.
Speaker 2:Well, you know I love this genre because it is such. It tows a line of like science fiction and horror, right.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I think some of the tropes that you have in it is obviously a small cast. Yeah, there can't be a lot of people on screen at one point.
Speaker 1:Big landscapes normally, but small cast.
Speaker 2:You're right, I love any sort of road movie and this I think this genre really plays into that. You know, we're, we're. We're usually a, a group or one person trying to get somewhere or trying to find some sort of salvation. Uh, we've left most of society, uh, or at least big cities or anything like that, and we're out on the road. So I'm a big fan of that as well, I do.
Speaker 1:I love what you say there between, because I think these movies can be both things. You can have a horror film that is a post post-apocalyptic movie. You can have a science fiction film there's a post-apocalyptic movie but there is that there's the action part that really helps bleed the lines, and in a nice way. Something else too is that these aren't this isn't a new subgenre of films. I mean, you can just look at the Mad Max movies themselves and the Planet of the Apes movies themselves. These are film franchises that have spanned decades, 30, 40, 50 years of cinema. So it's a tried and true formula. Why do you think it is? We talk about this a lot when we are talking about scary movies. Do these movies scratch some taboo sort of hidden itch for film goers? Do you think Especially, maybe, like American audiences and I hate to say that we're the ones that are always kind of living in a sense of dread and existential- panic as to what the world might one day soon look like.
Speaker 1:But is so? So what is it? What do you think it is about these movies that keep them? We get we seem to get a movie like this every three, four years, a big one that that kind of captures the culture for a moment and gets people thinking so is it? Is it something like oh my gosh, serial killer movies are so fascinating because we all kind of feel like we could be living next to one, our post-apocalyptic movies. So exciting because one day our world might look like this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think ever since you know, uh, ever since Oppie went and created the atom bomb, I think, any sort of nuclear fallout, fear, doomsday, doomsday, ptsd, that has been handed down through generations, I think really fascinates us, handed down through generations, I think really fascinates us Also, like it is a true and tried story of one's self overcoming odds, right Like you are. In these movies usually the main characters are you know, they're really alone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, lone survivors.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that plays really well into. But yeah, I mean I, I think everyone uh who lives in in in the internet age when we can easily look up you know who has who has how many countries have nuclear bombs right? You think about that. You know, um, if, if anything were ever to happen, and like, how would you handle? Handle that situation? So yeah, I think it's a societal obsession almost it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when it comes to the fallout premise of a lot of these films and now again, very interesting right now on I believe it'sulu One of the most popular shows streaming is an adaptation of the video game fallout yeah, so again, just ever present here in the culture. What is, do you think, the most effective way to tell these stories? And I think that a good film that we can look back at here from 2024 and kind of reference, is civil war, because that was a movie that really just dropped you into a situation and didn't give you a lot of backstory. What do you like in these post-apocalyptic movies? Do you like stories that maybe over the course of the runtime key you went on, what has happened for our characters to get to this point? Or do you like kind of seeing maybe the full trajectory of like the fall of society and then the rise of maybe this one, this one character, this band of characters, as they go on their own version of like a hero's journey?
Speaker 2:I like, I like the versions. I, you know, I think flashbacks is another thing that really plays into these films as a trope, um, but I do. I probably lean more towards the versions that you're just dropped into the world and it's already like we're fucked, like there is no coming back right. You know, uh, and you know, the world as we know it in this film, in whatever film is, is like it is dust and and nuclear fallout and people are, are traveling by foot, and you know there are no, there is no salvation that we just have you know, you just have to survive.
Speaker 1:Learn to and then maybe, yes, in flashbacks you get a little bit exposition um or or some different characters, that that our main group meets along the way. That explains sort of the stakes and where we are.
Speaker 2:Here's one.
Speaker 1:And now it is funny because you and I talked before we went live here 200 something episodes. Now we've never done this as an episode Pretty wild. Which is wild, because this show started in COVID. Yeah, that would have been a really good time to examine some of these themes I think know we were real heady with it and said we're the best isolated right, that is wow, you really went back. Oh yeah, because I was like our first or second, because I thought the same thing.
Speaker 2:I was like how did we not do this during the pandemic?
Speaker 1:so and again, now not to maybe spoil too many films on your list, but zombie movies can work. Pandemic slash virus movies can work and play in this category. So which of those subgenres of the subgenre, because that's getting a little bit away from what obviously Mad Max and some of these other films, like Planet of the Apes, is going to focus on, planet of the apes is going to focus on? But, of like, if we were doing a post-apocalyptic movie draft, which one of those then even more minute sub-genres would you go for? You think in like the first round?
Speaker 2:well, I think in my top five, most of my apocalyptic stories are kind of more, more ecological. Okay, um so you know, like, whether there's an ice age or or it's nuclear fallout or it's, or, like you know, just like the, a meteor or something right?
Speaker 1:so you're not like dawn of the dead top of the list.
Speaker 2:No contagion or something so I do have one pandemic movie okay on the list. Uh, I do have one that almost kind of bucks everything we were talking about, whereas, like you, are dropped into a post-apocalyptic world but there is still some remnants of society moving around, um, but again it's more of a ecological, like something has stopped happening and so you know, we must figure out how to, but again much more of definitely a road movie. Yeah, I guess I don't know zombie movies. I feel like zombie movies are post-apocalyptic, but they are such in their own lane and such their own genre that when I think of post-apocalyptic I don't really think of the traditional zombie movie.
Speaker 1:I'm the same way. I don't have any real horror films on my list today, right.
Speaker 2:And I also. You know, honestly, we just did a whole episode about all the apes movies. I don't have any apes movies on my list.
Speaker 1:However, if these two films maybe came out in reverse order, I would have had totally like dawn or rise on my list. Yes, all right. Well, let's let's stop the teasing and get to our top five recommendations here for post-apocalyptic films. I don't know if you have yours in order. Once again, this is normally how we do it. We did not share our list, so we'll see if we have crossover and you can kind of tell us how you have your films listed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my number five film.
Speaker 1:So you're going in order five to one. I'll go five to one, okay, so you're going in order five to one.
Speaker 2:I'll go five to one. Okay yeah, my number five film is a 2009 film that I did watch during the pandemic, during COVID, the height of COVID, and I remember seeing it in 2009 and then like searching it out during those COVID years, cause I think it's just like a really underrated film that, like, not a lot of people talk about. Uh, it's by Alex pastor and David pastor, the pastor brothers. Uh, they are kind of obsessed with apocalyptic, elliptic stories because they've also directed a movie called the last days and they did the bird box Netflix sequel, uh, just the sequel, just the sequel.
Speaker 2:Interesting Barcelona, bird box Barcelona, uh the sequel, just the sequel, barcelona, bird Box Barcelona, which I have not seen, so I don't know how good it is, or how bad it is, but this movie is called Carriers.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, stars Chris Pine, piper Parabo I think that's how you say that emily van camp. Um and again, uh, it's about it's, it's. It's a road movie. It's a group of people on the road traveling to what they think you know, the coast to get away from, from middle america. It is a virus that has spread uh worldwide and has killed a lot of people does kind of, I think, if I remember correctly. I believe the virus does turn you in kind of to a zombie, or or or kind of like a rabbit, just like a rabbit human like rabies.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, so kind of like 28 days later with the rage virus or whatever, I think so, or maybe it just kills you and it's just very contagious. I can't remember. Anyways, fantastic film, even though I can't remember Chris Pine early, chris Pine before his superstardom.
Speaker 2:And he's just always a delight to watch. And then also Piper, who, you know, he's just always a delight to watch. And then also piper, who you know, coyote ugly fame uh, wish she was in more things, because she's fantastic in this as well. And you know it's, it's her chris pine. And then, I believe, two other characters in the car and somebody is somebody's brother or something like that, and you know, at at first, at at at first, like it's. It's very fun, like upbeat road movie, and then things go bad and people turn on each other and it's, it's a very emotional, um ride and, uh, one that you know is beautifully shot in the in the American Southwest, uh, as they're trying to make their way to Mexico. So, um, just a really good road road, apocalyptic movie.
Speaker 1:So I really wanted to cheat at my number five and put melancholia just cause that's usually where we can have some fun, you know at the number five spot. But that is a way more of an apocalypse movie and not post apocalyptic. The events of the second half of that film destroy our planet. So right I did, I did the objective thing and took it off the list.
Speaker 2:But just that's an interesting uh caveat, like yeah, there are apocalyptic films where it's it the. The thing is happening compared to posts.
Speaker 1:And I feel like we should really. I'm doing my best here with my list to focus on the posts because that's what the Mad Max. Sure Totally Entire franchise.
Speaker 2:I should say is about.
Speaker 1:But oh my gosh, yeah like top 20 movie of all time for me, so at number five. Then I decided to put a movie that is interesting because and I've left a couple off here is on their honorable mentions for me, because I think they're going to be on your top five, okay, and so maybe I look back at this list here in 45 minutes or so and say, crap, I should have put this on there, because neither of us have it. But but I think I think after 200 something episodes together, I, I, I trust that you're going to have these on yours.
Speaker 1:So number five I decided to take a chance here and and recommend a movie that I'm still not 100% sold on. I've I've tried to rewatch this movie three or four times. I mean, I have rewatched this movie three or four times, I'm still just never come around on it, but it's one of those that really lives in my head as like a good, effective film. And then I watch it and I'm once again frustrated with it, but it's the 2017 film.
Speaker 1:It comes at night, okay, yeah, so this is one of the lesser successful the less successful 824 films of really. That like late 2010s pinnacle where they kind of couldn't miss there, and this was the one film that I think missed for a lot of people.
Speaker 1:Incredible cast here, like really good cast Joel Edgerton, chris Abbott, my girl, riley Kehoe and it's such a peculiar film because you think that it's going to take a turn into hard horror and it never really does. There's one intense scene out in the woods, but it is much more an examination of how people would come to trust and or distrust strangers in a post-apocalyptic world. And now this, this movie focuses so much on that to where you know nothing about what is happening outside of basically just this one house where this family lives, and I think that's what makes it a very interesting character study, but the trailer is very misleading. I think every time you makes it a very interesting character study, but the trailer is very misleading. I think every time you watch it you want more, you want to know more about what's happening, and yet it's so reserved in what it shows you. It's such a show don't tell kind of movie. Where is it? Is it nuclear fallout? Is there a virus? You never know. And it's. And at the end it's really not important because it's more about just the paranoia that people would have of each other, regardless of what's happening outside your door. Um and so so it's one that I've like.
Speaker 1:Once again, just talking about it right now it makes me want to watch it again, but I know when I watch it again I'm gonna be frustrated by it, but I guess that what. That's what makes it a good movie in a way, yeah. But then the other side of that coin is like, well, no, it it just it, it missed, it missed showing you. It doesn't have to show you everything, but it could still have. It could still show you more. And that's usually where I end up with it, like it's a. It's a really, really good three and a half star movie for me, but one that I think it's very different from all the other films on my list and it's one that is just so focused on the human characters as opposed to the chaos of this world, and so that's why I wanted to put it on the list.
Speaker 2:A film I've never seen, I've never fired up. It comes at night and then probably because I've heard similar things I've heard similar things where it's just like frustrating this should have been so much more than what it is, but you know, if it focuses on the, you know what are what's at stake within this house.
Speaker 1:You know with this family. There's a young child involved.
Speaker 2:And like how, how these characters now must try to live in normally, in, you know, continue to live normally. Yeah, I think, I think it's. It's got some merits to it. My number four is from 2013, directed by John John. Directed by Bon John.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, my number four is also Snowpiercer. Hey, now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Uh, this movie rocks. I can't believe that we're we're coming up. We're coming up to 2031, when this movie is uh is set.
Speaker 1:Here's your ice age.
Speaker 2:Yeah and uh, you know in in the future.
Speaker 2:I think we're going in the opposite direction right, as a global society uh, in the future, where a failed global warming experiment kills off most of life on the planet, a class system evolves aboard a snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe, uh, via a perpetual motion uh engine, which I don't know why that's important. But, um no, this movie fucking rocks. You know, uh, bonjour no, is probably one of the best filmmakers that we have right now. You know, working regularly and if you know memories of a murder and the host were kind of like inklings to cinephiles, like oh, there's someone very special coming.
Speaker 1:Snowpiercer was kind of the boom of to everybody even though it's so funny, though, because I still feel like, when it's all said and done, this is gonna. This is not gonna be the one he's remembered for, and it shouldn't be. The guy has won a best director academy award parasite best pitcher and you're right, memories of a murder, kind of like the early, like that's his seven you know like early career apex, first apex and now with everything else that we expect going forward.
Speaker 1:Snowpiercer is going to get just kind of like left left at the kids table, and it's such a good movie like this is it's so good, it's like a five-star movie on the tv show.
Speaker 2:The cast is absolutely stacked with chris evans, song kane ho, john hurt, tilda Swinton, jamie Bell, octavia Spencer, ed Harris.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean um and such good action, such a good all in one place movie Yep Toe very much toes the line of of action, horror, sci-fi.
Speaker 1:Um, it's really smart with how much it shows you of the outside world, so that that that climactic sequence is it's so different because not to spoil too much, but you of the outside world, so that that that climactic sequence is it's so different because not to spoil too much, but all of a sudden you are not in the same location as you've been.
Speaker 1:Um, and I just I, I love it for its originality yeah, and I don't know if it's adapted from a book or or not, but but what bong put on screen felt so fresh, yeah, at the time. Uh, this I'm I'm glad we both got this on our list and and also, too, to give it a shout out, because it's one, I think, for a lot of the reasons that we already mentioned, just because already the catalog is so deep for bong, but it's a movie that doesn't get talked about enough for being great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And also like another one too where you get? You get one of these Chris's outside of a superhero costume and look at what you get so good. Chris.
Speaker 2:Evans, you can act. Please, please, do something good like this.
Speaker 1:Um, okay, so that's both. Our number four is what's your number three?
Speaker 2:Uh, my number three. Uh, okay, so that's both our number fours. What's your number three? My number three again from another brother duo from 2010,. The Book of Eli by Albert and Alan Hughes. Denzel Washington-driven movie, but also Gary Oldman is in the cast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, really strong in this.
Speaker 2:Mila Kunis in the time when we were trying to make Mila Kunis a silver screen Like A-lister A-lister Ray Stevenson, the late great Michael Gambon, tom Waits I mean, there are some fantastic character actors in here and again. I love the world of Book of Eli. It's written by Gary Whitta, who then goes on, I think, to write some Star Wars movies or something.
Speaker 1:Like the Rian Johnson ones or some of the less successful ones.
Speaker 2:I believe Rogue One is what he goes on to write, and now I think he works in video games, which is too bad. I hope he comes back to movies someday.
Speaker 2:We need good stories in video games, yeah because this is a totally original story, original film, not based on any sort of IP. You've got a huge star driving the bus and you know, as far as like Denzel action movies go, again, I think this is one that kind of gets left at the station and maybe because there is this whole a little bit of a like, religious, oh a very heavy religious, religious undertone.
Speaker 2:Yeah um, however, thinking about it, like you know, it's interesting with uh kingdom of the planet of the apes, which we talked about at length last week, and if you haven't seen that movie, it's been out for a while Spoilers they're trying to get into a vault, right, and my first thought, was they need.
Speaker 1:They're trying to find the Bible. They're trying to find the Bible Mine too. That's funny. We didn't talk about that last week. That would have been a bigger spoiler than we probably wanted to say. But that than we probably wanted to say. But that's so funny.
Speaker 2:Cause I thought the same thing. I thought that I, that is the first thing I thought of, and it's because of probably because of book of Eli, because I love that the idea that the weapon in book of Eli is knowledge.
Speaker 1:The King James.
Speaker 2:Bible is, yeah, is scripture is like and, and Gary Oldman plays such a great villain in that, because he understands that. You know, in a post-apocalyptic world, the only thing that's going to bring people together is something higher.
Speaker 1:That they can turn to yeah, that they can put hope in that they think will find, yes, salvation.
Speaker 2:And you know this world is set so far ahead of when that apocalyptic event happened that no one even knows what the Bible is Right. So really interesting film and just like some of my absolute favorite um denzel monologues well, he correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 1:It's been a long time since I've seen this. But he's also blind in this, isn't he?
Speaker 2:he's completely blind okay, and that that is a great twist too, because the Bible that he carries is in Braille.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:He actually is the only one who could read it and the only one who could use its power, but again chooses not to. But this monologue is a short monologue, but cursed be the ground for our sake, both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for us, for out of the ground we were taken, for the dust we are, and to the dust we shall return. That's great. Listen, not a big Bible guy over here, but that shit is fire and I feel like it really represents a post-apocalyptic sense and world.
Speaker 1:So I love that my number three is a film we've been talking about a lot recently here. This comes out in 1984, so right it, right it kind of the boom of the 1980s like new wave of post-apocalyptic films. Writing off of things like the original mad max movies. You get john carpenter in the 80s doing a lot of post-apocalyptic stuff too, which is really fun. Um, but this is hayami izaki's nausicaa of the valley of the wind.
Speaker 1:Good call, good call yeah, wow, yeah, the big brain on any, any chance I get to talk about nausicaa now I'm going to, and I think what's so cool about this is that world building right when you're dropped. You're dropped in to this planet with this, with this um young adult, and you are, you are an avatar through her, trying to figure out what has happened. Obviously, some huge environmental, environmental fallout has created sections of this planet Is it earth, is it not? We don't really know but sections of this planet that are uninhabitable by humans, and what it has done then as well is create different tribes of people who use what is available to them to. They harness the elements to try to make a life for themselves. So there's this valley of the wind, where wind power is so important. There's this area of the planet that they are on right now, where giant bugs have taken over, because bugs have been able to thrive in this post-apocalyptic world where their forests are toxic for humans to breathe, but they've been able to grow to just massive, massive, massive sizes.
Speaker 1:We talked about it a lot on the Miyazaki film, but you can see it's. It's taking a lot from Dune, it's taking some from Star Wars, it's putting the, putting them into a still yes, a science fiction film but that feels very, even though it's animated, feels very human, like the. The Nausicaa character is a great main character, great young female heroine. Um, just a five-star movie. I love this film, um, and it fit nicely into this genre, so I wanted to give it a shout out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great call that you know that that movie is. I mean, we talked about it at length on the Miyazaki episode back in the fall. That movie is such a underrated animated movie but also post-apocalyptic.
Speaker 1:And I love it too, because you still kind of get the metal tech, kind of the steampunk a little bit too, you that you've come to know from something like a mad max movie, right um and but. But also too, you get the futuristic stuff. You get different aircrafts flying around. It's just, it's just such a cool movie hell, yeah, uh.
Speaker 2:My number two film is from, also from 2009. All of my films are in the 2000s, which is really, really odd. I didn't realize there was such a boom then, but apparently we were thinking a lot about that in the 2000s.
Speaker 1:Well, think about it. Yeah, Post 9-11.
Speaker 2:That's very true. A lot of war. A lot of fear of nuclear fallout and we had no idea what was coming. This is directed by John Hillcoat, who also goes on to direct uh such films as lawless or uh triple nine, which oh, come on now. Huge fan, oh yeah um, probably the most the bleakest and just like darkest version of a post-apocalyptic world I've seen. Uh, it's called the road.
Speaker 1:Oh this is my number one, is your number one? Yes, let's save it for that. Sure Gosh, I love the Road, yeah, okay. So then my number two is another movie that I absolutely adore. I've yet to have this moment, I've yet to be able to say the words that I'm about to say on an episode of Excuse, the Intermission.
Speaker 2:But the next film that I'm going to talk about is cloud atlas.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, so it's a curveball. So it's a little bit of a curveball, because not every one of the six stories in cloud atlas takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting, but a few of them do, and I think the most successful one of the six stories is the one with well, there's, there's, there's two really, but I think the one that is the most successful is with Tom Hanks, and we are. We've gone so far into the future after the fall of of technology, and it is. It is where um, the true, true is is back and it is something that is is half folklore, half half um Hugo weaving, just being really creepy.
Speaker 1:And and it is. It is almost like a planet of the apes movie, right Then, where we've we've taken humans, have taken back to the forest, we're relying on natural resources to survive. But there is also this very spooky spiritual element to it and and the way that it just like bounces back and forth and and you see the connections. I just love this movie for how it it weaves this, this tangled web, into a really what I think is is a pretty coherent story. After you watch the film a couple of times. And now some people are like, well, you shouldn't have to watch a movie a couple of times to figure it out. But again, with with the comparison to the book, which is just like flawless, I think the movie does enough right and in, and even when you are in some of the more science fiction areas of the film that are still set far into the future, there's a way, there's, there's a world in which that is also post-apocalyptic kind of um. So I think that this, this movie really works in the sense that if it's almost like a gateway, post-apocalyptic movie, because if you don't want, if you don't want it all, you don't have to have it all, because you're still in, like the 1970s. At certain times of the film you're still in more contemporary times, but then you do jump like hundreds and hundreds of years into the future, and so I I think it pairs really well with with some of these more hardcore films that we're talking about, because it's it's. It is like that curveball that you talked about a little bit, but I just, I really love the in and I think it's in the chronology, I think it's the second to last, or maybe it's the last part of the story, once they're all the way back into the woods and society has fallen again. I just think that it's that I would watch a whole movie of just that.
Speaker 1:With Halle Berry is this almost like shaman type person? And, and, yeah, hugo weaving is like the big bad he's like, and I think it's also, um, it's, it's hugo weaving and he's, he's like the apparition, he's, he's the vision that tom hanks is seeing. And then, who else is it in there? Um, who? Who plays someone? It's hugh grant. Hugh grant is like the cannibal leader. Do you remember this? Yeah, so hugh grant is like he plays the leader of the cannibals that are chasing Tom Hanks around. It's just, it's wild, it's, it's pretty bad shit, but it is. It's so much fun. I love cloud Atlas.
Speaker 2:The Hugh Grant retrospective episode.
Speaker 1:one day is going to be a wild ride, you're not kidding because the guy's done it all really, especially in the last couple of years. If you haven't been paying attention Like, go look at his IMDb Insane.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you say Cloud Atlas three times, intern Tim will appear in a puff of smoke in front of you.
Speaker 1:I wish I had him here to just kind of talk about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, my number one, and I'm guessing you probably would have this on your list, but I I think you knew that the one that I was going to leave off. Yeah, and, and you know it's interesting, that melancholia is you know you were talking about that being apocalyptic, like mid apocalyptic.
Speaker 2:This almost could be like mid apocalyptic as well it is it is it's cheating, but it's children of men and listen for my money, this is probably the best movie might be. I mean it's up there with like there will be blood, no country for old men, for the best movie of the 2000s it's probably on the on the top 10 list for the 21st century so far, um, and of course you know it's got all the flashy. You know one, one scene, one one takes, uh, or long takes, whatever you want to call them uh, oners, uh in it.
Speaker 2:but again, the world building that you're plopped into, this world that has already experienced this post-apocalyptic event where women cannot bear children anymore, and you're set right in it. It's beautiful world building, it's a wonderful road movie where we are trying, then we, you know, of course, we find someone who is pregnant. We have to get them somewhere. That's not in the current area that we're in our cafes are exploding everywhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, gotta get out of that yeah, gotta get away from that. Um, it's got clive owen, who you want to talk about? Someone who had the world by the balls it could have been, could have been our next.
Speaker 2:It could have been the, the greatest the balls. It could have been, could have been our next. It could have been the greatest actor of all time.
Speaker 1:I was going to say it could have been the next you name it. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I mean for like three years there he kind of was it's amazing that duplicity is like the movie that just sent him over edge. One, one movie uh one movie, uh just destroyed a a golden boy career, um, but clive owen, uh edger for uh, julian moore, michael cain in one of his best roles um, I've forgotten michael cain role. Totally yeah, and yeah, it's just. I mean, it's one of the most beautiful looking films I think I've ever seen. It's it's by far my favorite, caron film I, I wish you know.
Speaker 2:I feel like he definitely moves away from from this. You know whether he's doing something way more techno, uh, technologically advanced, like gravity, or something way more personal, like roma. Um, this was such a great science fiction original, like epic at the time, and it it holds up. It holds up so much if you go back and watch it. It's, it is so good, I think it during the summer, like I watched it one night and I think the next night I threw it back on it's one of those movies where you could show it to somebody and you could tell them that this film won eight Oscars Unbelievable.
Speaker 1:You'd be hard pressed not to believe them after sitting down and watching it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just a masterpiece of a film.
Speaker 1:See, I told you listeners Left it off because I knew he'd have it and he had it.
Speaker 2:number one Of course.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's talk about the Road, yeah.
Speaker 2:You want to talk about depressing bully gosh, sad like just. This is such a good representation of what the world could be like. Like just it.
Speaker 1:The world has at its worst with just like devoid of resources, bands of people still out there surviving, but no, completely lawless society, totally that, I think, my the reason why this is number one for me, because something like the ambiguity of like it comes at night, where you're not sure the rules and you're not sure how you can, who to trust and who not to trust, that's all real fascinating, but something like the road captures the terror yeah and the horror of what it would be like to be on the open road, having to go.
Speaker 1:They're on the east coast of the united states and having to travel through multiple states to try to get. They're trying to get coast of the united states and having to travel through multiple states to try to get.
Speaker 1:They're trying to get to florida if I'm correct um and how, how perilous that would be and how like. There's one scene, near about like the three-quarter mark, where they find a house and you think that it's a place of refuge and what happens next, over the like following 10 minutes, it's scarier than most horror films and the imagery is it sticks with you longer than anything in a than most horror movies would. And it's the film is so smart because it it there's a few times where there's the film is so smart because it it there's a few times where there's there's a lot at stake and things get very dicey for Viggo Mortensen and his son that he is with. But it's this one scene that it's just a little like peek behind the curtain of. Look, we could have made the whole movie about this, because we're letting you know right now that this is the kind of shit that's happening out there but we're just going to give you that little taste.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's so effective, it's brilliant it's absolutely brilliant and you know it, it is. I feel like it's an underseen movie. I feel like vigo mort again one of these guys that just like can you point to a bad performance, and someone who, again, never has thrown on a cape. It's never gone into any sort of mainstream. I mean, the most mainstream thing he's ever done was Lord of the Rings.
Speaker 1:Right. And he was an unknown then really, and that was before IP felt played out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, before IP felt played out. Yeah, and you know, I think it captures, you know the father son relationship so well because you know it's. It's not even like that Vigo is like strong and can kill people on the road.
Speaker 1:You know like it is really just survive, desperation, yes, yes. At its at its peak. Yes, this is such. It's such a desperate movie. There's a lot of anguish like this. I was just thinking of a movie that this would be like a good double feature with, just because of its tone, If you could take the last like five minutes of the dare bond adaptation of the mist.
Speaker 2:Yeah totally.
Speaker 1:It feels a lot like that. Yeah, the entire time though the entire movie. And I think a lot of people point to the ending of the mist as just like wow, you want a real gut punch. Like watch the mist, the last five minutes will deliver. Well, that's like the entire movie, the whole movie. Yeah, um, that's a great call. Is it weird that I want to? I want to fire like I might do a snow piercer. The road double feature tonight.
Speaker 2:It sounds awesome, man uh okay, so any, any honorable mentions, because I have a few here um, you know, I I think kind of some stuff we we mentioned at the beginning, you know, planet of the apes. I think any of those movies could really fit, but Donna, the planet of the apes, I think, is a really again a very kind of bleak and even war as well, very bleak version of of a post-apocalyptic.
Speaker 1:I think a lot like how children of men takes place during the, the fallout. I think that also, contagion is a really good movie that shows the fallout of a virus, um, but but a couple, a couple that I think are almost more horror and start to deal with zombies and or monsters, however you want to put it, but that I still really, really enjoy.
Speaker 1:I am legend this is a good one and another really good one for scale, but then also intense character, and that, I think, is honestly one of will smith's better performances. Totally really good in that film.
Speaker 1:Um, and then the quiet place movies and again to just kind of drum up, a little bit of excitement for a quiet place day one, but when it comes to something that's not a zombie or something that is not like an outbreak, the monsters in a quiet place are so cool. Yeah, I love the design of them. Just these killers, almost like xenomorphs the clickers is that, is that what they're referred to as the clickers. I, I like that, but that are blind, and so that's a fun little wrinkle. I can't wait to see what they do, what Krasinski does here with the third film. And so just a shout out to the Quiet Place movies Because, again, especially that second one, once we get outside of the house, really starts to meet some of the things we're talking about, starts to meet some of the things we're talking about as far as, like, being a road film.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, having to get from one place to another, encountering all sorts of different people along the way, um, that, like the fairy dock scene or whatever. That is really intense stuff there. Um, you know, that's something else too that we didn't really mention at the top, but that I think is pretty prevalent in some of our discussions here, but that, like, it's also not always the thing that caused the event that is gonna present the most trouble to the characters that you're with in these movies, people, the other people.
Speaker 2:It's the other people you meet along the way and, honestly, maybe that's what makes these films addicting yeah and kind of fun to return to over and over I I wanted to get your opinion on this, because on a lot of lists I saw the Alien movies Interesting. And I don't understand. I mean, I guess I get that like it's in the near future or in the. You know, it's a future that maybe life on Earth, but we never really see Earth right In any of those movies.
Speaker 1:So what that makes me? Because you know the one thing and I think this is really smart, maybe alien 3 actually does the best job of exploring this because in in that film you get there's an understanding that humans had to colonize another planet and you're kind of you know you, you're left to make up with your own thoughts kind of why that maybe happened. But it's not like the original Alien or Aliens movies do what something like Sunshine does at the beginning, where they say Another one I saw on list.
Speaker 2:Oh really.
Speaker 1:Okay, and that one that makes more sense to me, because you do get that voiceover at the beginning talking about how the earth is dying, our sun, because our sun is dying and so we have to go out and restart the sun, basically, which then I think kind of fits even though we're not on earth, we're not seeing the events, the fall out of what something like that would do, something like a natural disaster like that, but that makes a little bit more sense to me.
Speaker 2:as to, especially in that first alien movie, we just we're just like space cowboys we're just we're just out there mining oil, or doing whatever else y'all fed koto and harry being stanton or bitching about not getting paid enough for um and so and so, yeah, I don't know I, I don't, I, for me, I wouldn't have put them I mean, I didn't put one of them on on my list and I, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I think those are so many other things first, before they're a post-apocalyptic type of story, right, and of course you know the mad max movies are up there um right, like, like we could, I think just yeah road warrior and even um you know fairy road, oh, and I think could all be on our list.
Speaker 1:And if we didn't, if we weren't already preparing to talk about all those films next week, right, you know, we're just kind of saving it oh, oh, uh, I also.
Speaker 2:Uh, just so I don't get any angry ds, I'm obligated to say 28 Days Later.
Speaker 1:So I do like I like 28 Days Later more than something like Dawn of the Dead or Train to Busan, where it's like those are zombie movies. The fun little wrinkle of 28 Days Later is that they are just infected humans with this rage virus, and I think that's the thing that people always forget when they just think like oh, that zombie movie with Killian Murphy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, well, and, and I think also just the imagery in that film of Killian Murphy walking around London and it's completely deserted is is kind of very um, it's very important to this genre.
Speaker 1:Um. Someone else who I think has done interesting work within the subcategory is Terry Gilliam. And so I almost thought like is Brazil post-apocalyptic? It's not cause that's a functioning society, but it's a very different society. You feel like there's been a big change somewhere. 12 monkeys is totally post-apocalyptic. And and that's a movie that I I've only seen that film once that I think I just need to. I need to return to it again.
Speaker 1:Confusing I know it's definitely confusing um a lot of time travel yeah in that movie and and so that's one that I need to return to, because I think that that's that's one that's thought of as a very, very well done post-apocalyptic film. Um, I did just pull up a couple of lists here to terminator plays in this category, um, artificial intelligence pretty interesting, okay idea there to think of that as post-apocalyptic, um, and but then also to like escape from new york.
Speaker 1:Our boy carpenter mentioned it earlier, but like in the 80s he was cooking, he had kind of, I mean, he, he has a loosely kind of how, like polanski has his apartment trilogy, these like loose trilogies that people kind of that fans sort of make up, or maybe the the filmmakers have adapted them themselves but um, or adopted them. I should say kind of the mindset that like he has his apocalypse trilogy right, he has the thing he has they live and he has prince of darkness, which all the events of those movies could all create an apocalypse yeah, another one that is kind of more like oh king of and eric escape from new york escape from new york.
Speaker 2:Maybe that's the one instead of they live, I'm not sure actually uh and then uh dread I think also yeah again in in the in the early 2010s, um, but again it's like it's post-apocalyptic, but there is still somewhat of a society happening um, but it is very. You know something? Something terrible has happened to society.
Speaker 1:Okay. So as we look ahead to next week's episode, we now will be talking about Furiosa, a Mad Max saga and the career of George Miller. So, as we look forward to this Max it's one that's been on our watch list for a long time. The moment has come no more trailers. The moment has come no more trailers, no more speculation, no more having to read about a nine minute standing ovation. It can god, everyone gets a fucking nine minute can?
Speaker 2:yeah, can, we just can you submit something to can? Yes, yeah, I will, I will, uh, I will be have your 15 minutes of fame and I. I will keep the people up. I will keep standing, keep clapping. I heard that, like mega opolis got some ridiculously long, give your 15 minutes of fame and I will keep the people up. I will Keep standing, keep clapping.
Speaker 1:I heard that, like Megapolis got some ridiculously long standing ovation as well, but then everyone's like I don't really know what it's about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, but like I'm not going to be the first, no one's going to buy this. I'm not going to be the first person that be like all right, that's enough. That's enough, right? All right, come on.
Speaker 1:I could be that person. Can, if you're tired of these headlines that everyone's making fun of, fly me out to your festival. I'll be the first person to sit down during a standing ovation. No, so, okay. So kind of last chance. What do you expect?
Speaker 2:For Furiosa. I think it will be fun, but I don't think it will be like Fury Road.
Speaker 1:Okay, I don't know. And now you mean like in a prestigious way, almost, yeah, because you think about Fury Road?
Speaker 2:Fury Road is like a multiple Oscar winning film. It's's gonna come down to how crazy they went with the cgi. And again, I'm only going off a trailer and the way it looks in the trailer. It's extremely cartoony, um, and it looks like it leans a lot more on computer graphics as opposed to the incredible stunt work and incredible. I I was rewatchwatching fury road the other day and like and that movie, just like I, it really came out of nowhere when it came out like I remember that is the tough thing about furiosa.
Speaker 2:This has a, this has so much as, so much to live up to, and I I'm sure anna taylor joy is going to be fantastic in the role. Um, I think there are going to be some amazing stunts, but is it going to be it? It's. It's going to be really interesting how a how it ties into fury road being a prequel and but also an odyssey, but like, is this just going to be another big car chase? You know, I, I, really I, I don't know. And and is Chris Hemsworth?
Speaker 2:careful now of being a villain, or is he going to go over the top because he has been let off the leash? So who, who knows? I, I want it to be good. I want it to be one of my favorite movies of the year. Um, but I want to go in with just lower expectations, so maybe I'm pleasantly surprised in in the chris draft.
Speaker 1:I'm taking hemsworth with my first round pick, so I'm hoping for the best for him, because I don't want carriers and snowpiercer.
Speaker 2:I'm leaning towards. I'm leaning towards pine, maybe yeah, hemsworth, just I think.
Speaker 1:I think that he is the one that is interested in having the most fun. But now that's the tricky thing about playing a villain role is you don't, you don't want. We still need to be able, like in morton joe and mad max fairy road, we still feared that character. We need to not be watching chris hemsworth in furiosa thinking oh, that's chris hemsworth, he's not going to make a bad decision.
Speaker 2:Like, at the end of the day, we, as an audience member, we need to die.
Speaker 1:He needs to die or he needs to do some despicable things. He needs to be okay with doing despicable things on screen, so that's what I hope for for him for the role and for the film to be successful, I think you need to have that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and doing some prep work for next week's episode, you know, with watching a lot of George Miller stuff so far, you know that guy knows how to make a film, so I think we are definitely in good hands. And I know you know he has buttered a lot of bread with the mad max. Uh, uh, franchise, yes, um, I like that. So you know, do. Returning to the well, could this be one too many? Who knows? We shall see. It is the fourth, fifth film. Fifth, I believe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm excited, though very, very excited. So, in the meantime, full excuse the intermission on Instagram and the two of us on Letterboxd to track what we were watching between shows, and we will talk to you next time on ETI, where movies still matter.
