Geostorm

Gerrystorm host Sarah and Tim Costa from the First Time Watchers movie podcast take on GEOSTORM – Gerard Butler's sci-fi epic which certainly set the international climate space station, if not the box office, alight when it was released in 2017.
We examine the good (Jake's romance in space), the bad (Max's terrible haircut) and the ugly (Max's terrible haircut). 
Plus: Tim on Roland Emmerich and pets-in-peril, the strange-but-true reason Sarah likes Gerard Butler, and what did happen to the Queen in The Day After Tomorrow?
Warning: very spoilery!

Transcript

INTRO MUSIC PLAYS

Welcome to the Gerald Butler podcast Gerrystorm, in which I take a deep dive, or sometimes a shallow belly flop, into the filmography of our Greatest Living Scotsman. I'm Sarah from cautionspoilers.com and I literally had to fly in from outer space.

SARAH (CAUTIONSPOILERS.COM)

Welcome to Episode Two, which is on the – dare I say – sci fi classic GEOSTORM about a network of weather regulating satellites above the earth which go haywire. GEOSTORM is one of what I call the Butler Boilersuit movies – see also Coriolanus and Hunter Killer. So I am in honour of that wearing my own boilersuit, which is a little on the snug side after three lockdowns. 

There's only really one person I could ask to discuss this film with me, and that's Tim from the First Time Watchers podcast. So Tim, if you would like to introduce yourself, and of course, plug your work, and – as this is the film where Gerard Butler literally just had to fly in from outer space, what have you literally just been doing?

TIM (FIRST TIME WATCHERS PODCAST)

 Oh, what have I literally just been doing? I've been admiring Gerard Butler flying in from space. What else does one do after watching GEOSTORM, or dare I say the greatest film of all time. Thank you for introducing me. Yes, my name is Tim, I am from the First Time Watchers podcast. I am one of three co-hosts where we watch films that are new to us or old to us, or on our lists of shame. We are currently a little over 400 episodes in and almost 10 years into this whole thing right now, and nobody's still listening. That's fine! That's fine. That's probably the way we would want it. But everyone should watch GEOSTORM.

SARAH:

See, you're on number 400, I'm on number two. So this is what I do, I get really experienced podcasters in to add a sheen of professionalism. 

 TIM

 I'll gladly pass the torch to you Sarah for Gerard Butler, Gerard Butler, Oh my God, my American's coming out again. I'm so sorry.

SARAH:

Gerard over here and Gerard when he gets off the plane in LA, I expect. 

So I shall start off with a synopsis. Gerald Butler plays Jake Lawson who – after a series of terrible weather events in 2019 – is put in charge of developing Dutch Boy, an international system of weather satellites which can manage the weather on Earth. He spends most of his time on the project on the international climate space station, until a Senate hearing goes very wrong and the maverick Jake is sacked from the project. The sacker is his own little brother Max played by Jim Sturgess, who works at the State Department. 

 Three years later, just before Dutch Boy is to be handed over from the US to the international community, one of the satellites goes haywire, freezing a whole Afghan village and all its inhabitants. President Palma (Andy Garcia) demands one man be found to go up to the space station to find out what went wrong, and Secretary of State Dekkom (Ed Harris) suggest Jake. Then more satellites go crazy, a man is sucked from a window on the space station, and soon it becomes apparent that these are not accidents. 

 Eventually, as more and more freak weather events occur on Earth, they will join together and produce ...drumroll please... a GEOSTORM. 

 I should point out that in my head GEOSTORM is always in capital letters. 

 TIM:

 Yes or you could yell GEOSTORM!

 SARAH:

 The temptation is always there... So first of all, I mean, this is a film that arrived on a wave of, almost derision, because it had a very troubled history. I think originally it was filmed in 2014 and then tested very badly with audiences, then had extensive reshoots, which apparently were overseen by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Danny Cannon, which I hadn't realised. The original director was Dean Devlin. 

 So when it did arrive, it's not like we didn't know what people were saying about it. So... when did you see it? What were you expecting? And what did you think?

 TIM:

 Okay, well I think it has to go back to my love for these types of films to begin with. I have a soft spot for disaster movies. So Dean Devlin comes from the Roland Emmerich school. He produced many if not all of Roland Emmerich's films, you think of Independence Day, and specifically think of 2012 – a movie at which I was gleefully laughing myself silly while watching that in the theatre. And later, I heard that the old lady a couple of seats next to me was wondering why I was laughing so hard when John Cusack was in such peril – many times! 

 So I have a soft spot for these types of movies. San Andreas, for example, is another film in this mould, that one starring The Rock who is probably a more believable person in such a role than maybe Gerard Butler as a person with a scientific background. 

 My objectivity is completely thrown out the window when it comes to going into a film like this. I think my expectations, all the history regarding the troubled production, I didn't know going into the film. I remember seeing the advertisements for it and saying, I have to be there opening weekend because I will have a good time, I will get myself a beer, and I will sip my beer as I'm watching destruction unfold in a movie titled GEOSTORM. You can't take a movie like this seriously, with that premise and that title. 

 So that's my background in these types of films. 

 Look, I know how to look at a film that's if you want to call it Oscar bait, Oscar worthy, you know, highbrow films. I know this is not a highbrow film. So my expectation going into it is just to have a lot of fun. And that is exactly what I had on opening weekend by myself beer in hand.

SARAH:

How busy was the cinema theatre when you saw it?

TIM: 

Not very busy. I would say it's even less than half full at the time. because like you said it was met with derision by critics, it's not a very highly-rated film. I don't think it did all that well, box office-wise. So yeah, it was a rather muted experience other than my, you know, gleeful exclamations. 

SARAH:

I think I took about $200 million, I think most of that was overseas, but because of marketing and things like that that wasn't enough to put it into profit. 

I saw it on the opening day as well. And I went by myself as well. And I think there was maybe a couple of other people in, it was almost empty. And I remember, I'd heard that it was the worst film ever, and it was going to be terrible. I remember sitting there thinking, it's not the best film I've ever seen, it's by no means the worst film. I mean, at the time my five year old was going through his Santa Buddies phase. So having sat through that many, many times, it takes quite a lot for it to be the worst film. But I still didn't think it was terrible. I didn't think it was amazing, but I didn't think it was awful. I think I gave it three and a half out of five in the end. 

I thought it was fun. I thought it was silly. I thought it was very over-full. And I actually think the main issue with it is that there is too much going on. Because simply the International Space Station blowing up is a big deal in itself without everything else. But you've got the presidential thriller side, and then you've got the terrible weather, and you've got the brothers not getting on – the dynamic there. And everything else. I think it's overstuffed. 

The other thing is, is that the same time I think that it is missing... what I wanted was to perhaps see more people around the world, because you see these terrible weather events. 

I wanted to get to know people around the world, and then see them die in horrible ways. You just see people die in horrible ways who you don't know.

TIM:

It's true. You're right. And it does come from, like I said, that Roland Emmerich School of filmmaking, where, you know, if it was directed by Roland Emmerich, it would be a lot bigger and broader a film like Independence Day. 2012, for example, offers those moments following multiple characters around the globe, around the country, whatever it is, that somehow also meet and coalesce in the final act. 

But the thing with this movie is, I don't think it makes any bones about what it is or what it sets out to do. Yeah, it sets out to entertain, it sets out to offer maybe not all of the destruction that it advertises, you know, there are these events, but it never gets to full geostorm, that global event. There are pockets around the globe, that you see these moments of destruction, you know, obviously very unrealistic and completely over the top moments, especially when you get towards the end. 

And these almost missile-like lightning bolts that just happened to avoid everybody. And destroy a whole arena. And just after they've made it outside, well, at least the important people within the plot made it outside. I feel bad for the rest of the poor suckers that are stuck in there.

 SARAH:

I thought that was funny, because that was the Democratic Convention. And you know, in my mind, it would be a Republican convention that would have lightning and thunder shrieking down around it. But yes, I think there's lots of miraculous escapes on there, for the key people. 

In terms of the special effects, I'm not a great judge of them. I'm easily wowed, I think. But I actually thought – again, the film got quite a lot of criticism for them – but I thought things like when, I think it's Hong Kong that effectively overheats and everyone's told it's gas pipes – but there's this, it's like this fiery wombs coming along up under the road chasing Cheng, who's the Dutch Boy representative there. And then every now and again, you get these fountains of fire coming out. And he's in his little tiny car trying to get away. I thought it was quite effective. 

TIM:

Sure, it's effective because you also introduced his tense moments of escape, you know, not just from the falling buildings, which he outruns in a smart car. 

SARAH:

Okay, the tower blocks falling like dominoes are the least believable bit, yeah.

TIM:

But also he's escaping from these henchmen in the building,. I love how the main henchman has this scar on his face. So you know he's a bad guy. And then he shows up a couple of times later, and it's like, oh, there's the bad guy again, you know? So, yeah, it's an extremely trope-filled movie. It's just a entertainment popcorn film. So it has everything you would expect from such a template, if you will. 

At the end you the viewer is led to believe that Andy Garcia, as the president, he's the one behind all this but no, it's his Chief of Staff or whoever it is, played by Ed Harris. Who just... I cackle, I cackle every time he pulls out that bazooka from the trunk of a car because he wants to blow up the President of the United States. 

He blows up the car, of course, and then from out of nowhere, behind them comes Abbie Cornish, who of course plays the most badass Secret Service agent ever with her fiance. 

Like you say, it has these moments that you think would lead to those Independence Day-type of tropes of everyone having a backstory and coming together at the end. With Abbie Cornish and Jim Sturgess in their relationship, and the daughter of Gerard Butler, who, you know, has a good moment in the beginning of the film before he says goodbye. That's a good dynamic. I think it makes you kind of appreciate where he was and where he is at that moment. But she doesn't even appear until about 10 minutes left in the film again, and she's just watching the TV and then in the tag at the end of the film, and then out of nowhere, there's this ex-wife that you're like, oh, okay, that's her I guess.

SARAH:

I read somewhere that – I may be misremembering this, because I didn't check this today – but I think Katheryn Winnick was meant to be in it. And I think she may have been originally playing Jake's ex-wife. And then I think she ended up on the cutting room floor, so when they reshot so it may be that there was a bigger role there. 

It's funny about Hannah... is that the name of the character, the daughter?

TIM: 

I believe so, Yeah.

 SARAH:

Oh, I found her so irritating. I know that part of what she was there for was to be acting like the grown-up to make the brothers' petulance, you know, to show it up for what it was. But I'd have gone to the space station to escape her. Her dialogue was so over the top adult that she really, really got on my nerves. 

And the other thing that really grated, which is a minor thing in the scheme of things, is Max's haircut, which is sort of a cross between Mr. Spock and a British '80s footballer / soccer player. It's hard to focus when he came into view. 

But I know what you're what you're saying about Dekkom, he's just this kind of megalomaniac character. He's almost like a 1960s type bad guy with a very waffly ideological reason for doing this. At least the annoying scientist on the space station was doing it just for money because he wasn't paid enough, you can understand that. But I quite like that we've got to think of a reason for him doing this, but we'll think of it after we've decided about the explosions and the terrible weather, we'll come up with a reason.

TIM:

Yeah, it's a movie, like if you look at it objectively... like I've said before, I can't look at the movie objectively, because I know what it is... but if you do look at it objectively, it's not a good film, it's not a well-cut, well-made, well-written film. It follows a lot of standard plot details that we've seen in the past, it really doesn't do anything that new, other than be ridiculous. I know, a lot of people don't like the term "shut off your brain",  but you really can't think about this film too hard if you want to do anything other than be entertained by it and have a good time for about 100 minutes.

SARAH:

And also films like that are actually great fun to review. And I don't mean to slag them off, because I did enjoy it. But it's it is just nice sometimes not to think too deeply. And just to enjoy the ride in all its silliness. 

And it's always interesting in films like this because... the first episode was about Greenland, another much better review disaster film for Gerard Butler... and I think it's always interesting to see which tropes they pick and choose. In fact, one of the ones in GEOSTORM which I thought was funny is – and I wonder if they've added this in when they did the reshoots, because it smacks of being just stuck in there at the end – is the little boy in Mumbai when the tornados are coming and he loses his dog. We haven't got to know this boy, we don't know who he is. But you know, small boy and pet in peril.

TIM:

Once again a Roland Emmerich staple. You have that in Independence Day, you have that in even his 90s Godzilla movie, you have that in 2012 as well – there are various dogs in various moments of peril, and they always make it just in time. Yeah, so I did appreciate that. I do wonder whether or not that's like a wink and a nod to Roland Emmerich and Devlin's history with him, or maybe it's a Dean Devlin thing that he's always demanded Roland Emmerich put in his movie.

SARAH:

One of the characters I wanted to talk to you about was Ute Fassbinder, who is the Commander and Chief Scientist of the international climate space station. Because, of course, Jake goes back up there, and is not impressed with the housekeeping that's been going on there in the three years, since he was previously up there. And it's almost like they have this tentative romance that doesn't really go anywhere. 

They have this kind of ongoing joke that he's constantly, you know, either putting his foot in it when he's talking to people, or physically falling over his own feet and opening the wrong doors and things like that. And she's just a calm, forbearing, sensible presence. But I really hope that at the end of the film that we don't see – and I know it's made up – I just hope they got together.

TIM:

I think you're right there, their chemistry leads to something that may have been left on the cutting room floor. Yeah, there may have been something deeper, you know, regarding parts of the script that we didn't see. And, you know, even if they had left something in or added it in, I don't think it would have felt unnecessary.

I think it would have felt appropriate for the rest of the film, maybe added that level of tension or that moment of saccharin sweetness that, you know, when he says he's gonna stay on Dutch Boy, as it's exploding. Because you know what he has to do? He has to turn the computer off and on again.

SARAH:

It's the ultimate how to fix your computer, isn't it? 

TIM:

Which is great when she shows up out of nowhere.

SARAH:

And he may be about to screw it up! You know, he's there to sacrifice himself. And he may not do it correctly. I thought that was so funny that it had to be done manually.

TIM:

Yeah, that's beautiful. It brings a tear to your eye, really it does. 

SARAH:

They could have ended it like Moonraker.

TIM:

Right, exactly. Yeah.

SARAH:

Maybe the sequel... Clearly there won't ever be a sequel but it's actually a story that I wanted to see more of. At the very end, when he's talking about how he's going back up in a few weeks, obviously they landed safely and everyone who we were rooting for survives, and six months later he's saying he's going back up to, I guess, rebuild the space station. And I thought, well, maybe she's going with him.

TIM:

I will say the weakest performance in the film, if you want to say there's a weak performance in a film like this, is Abby Cornish She you know, doesn't exude the role given to her. She's supposed to be this badass. She's supposed to be super-determined, all that kind of stuff. But I don't know, there's something off about it a little bit in terms of her performance. I like the actual role and the character, but I think it's her delivery. 

At times it works in conjunction with the tone of the film, like during the car chase under the overpasses and all that kind of stuff when she's escaping with Jim Sturgess and Andy Garcia, and, you know, she flips the car around and shoots as she's driving backwards. That's a heightened moment of ridiculousness, amongst many others surrounding that moment that her attitude works, but other times, it just feels off, I think. You talk about the chemistry between the German officer and Gerard Butler, their chemistry works, but the chemistry between Sturgess and Cornish doesn't work that well.

SARAH:

It really doesn't, does it. I think the chemistry between Jake and Ute is that the characters are so different. So she is very, very calm. They're both clever people. He's the maverick. Yeah, I felt the same thing. 

Zazie Beetz, who plays Dana, I guess she works for the State Department and is a technical whizz. She isn't in that many scenes, but steals the scenes that she's in. I think she calls Sarah "Secret Service Barbie", which kind of sums it up. But you wonder if they cut more of Dana out – we don't know what they actually did then – because sometimes characters are taking over just because they fit well and it's a great performance. 

But I agree with you about Sarah and Max's relationship. It just doesn't it doesn't feel right, probably because she is quite go-getting, and he is, with the best will in the world, a bit wimpish, and I thought it was interesting.

Do you have siblings? Do you have brothers or sisters? No? I see. I've got two sisters and a brother and so I find sibling dynamics in films quite interesting. And this one, obviously it's part of the drama. But when people talk about birth order and things like that, quite often, it's a bit of a cliche, but quite often the oldest will be more sensible and follow a traditional path, and the youngest will be the maverick, whereas here, it's the other way around. 

So Jake is this maverick who refuses to bow to anyone. He  just does his own thing for what he thinks is the right reasons, although he does make mistakes. And Max is really straightlaced, and has followed a very solid career path.

 TIM:

I do like all that dynamic. But I also really appreciated the secret coded message.

SARAH:

Great, wasn't it.

TIM:

It's really entertaining to see that he has to parse these words in a certain sequence and how he gets Zazie Beetz' Dana to help him with that. And I think it also allows Dana and Max's dynamic to work better between them, those two different personalities. And also, you know, Zazie Beetz, as you've said, is really an effervescent personality in this movie. Maybe, who knows, she was originally supposed to be cast as this millennial, male Mountain Dew-drinking geek computer geek. And she inherited some of those original character traits and made it her own. Which works, it works, you know, she comes across as just knowing what she's doing. 

SARAH:

Yeah, she's quite scathing about their code. And he was like, 10, or something, when they wrote it. I didn't go back and check if it was actually accurate, what they were saying. But I remember seeing that for the first time and not twigging at all until later and thinking "Oh, here we go, the bit about their childhood..."

TIM:

You gotta go back, you're gonna find out that that scene isn't accurate at all. And like, zero stars, this movie is the worst.

SARAH:

Exactly, see if that code really, really does work. So Gerry's accent, because this was one of the ones where actually, he stays in American for nearly the whole film. And yet they do this thing where he tells – I think it's Duncan, the evil scientist – that he and his brother were born in the UK. So I don't know, I wonder if they've started doing that because his accent does tend to wobble a bit. 

Because in Greenland, part of the plot point is that he was Scottish and moved to the States. And I thought, why can't they just do that in every film? You know, very, very rarely does he have to be American. Maybe Hunter Killer.

TIM:

Unless it's a movie like Den of Thieves, which requires him to have been living in Los Angeles this whole time. And it works, I don't remember having any issues with his accent or anything like that slipping through in that.

SARAH:

When I was researching I found an article which rather unkindly – it was talking about GEOSTORM – called him "a marble-mouthed lump". And I think it's because he tends to talk out of the side of his mouth when he is doing an American accent. But I thought that was a little unkind.

TIM:

Let me ask you, this whole podcast endeavour is geared towards one of our favourite actors. What exactly endears him to you?

 SARAH:

 Honestly? Okay, I'm going to be extremely truthful here. When I started the website, I thought, I need to have some characters to hang stuff on. You see what I mean? And I literally googled something like "hot actors", "hot Scottish actors", and he came up. And so I thought, right. And then I started watching all these films. I'd seen some of them, but he passed me by, in a sense. I'm quite specific about the ones that I like. And then I decided I really did like him. 

So it was a bit like a marriage of convenience, where one falls in love and the other still doesn't care...

TIM:

That's funny. That's funny. You know, I think my appreciation for him started with this movie. And yeah, because I don't think I had really given him much of a second glance or a second thought prior to this movie. And continuing with other films of his after GEOSTORM like Den of Thieves, Hunter Killer. The Vanishing, the Has Fallen movies. Oh, yeah, of course, I had definitely seen Olympus Has Fallen and London Has Fallen before this. And, you know, I enjoyed them for what they were, especially Olympus Has Fallen. But I don't think I really gave him a second thought as an actor, as a performer, or an actor in these type of movies. 

Because I think – and I'm sure there have been articles written recently about Gerard Butler and the types of movies he's been choosing – because it harkens back to a day of the '80s and '90s action, popcorn yarns that aren't meant to be taken seriously. They're meant to be taken at face value, for their entertainment value, for exactly what they are, and there's really not much beyond the surface of what they are. I think he understands the movies that he's in as well. And he doesn't try to elevate. 

But most importantly, he doesn't play down to the role, he doesn't play down to the movie, he plays it almost perfectly right.  I think, for the most part, he knows what movies he's in. Now, Den of Thieves for example, I don't want to go too much into other movies other than GEOSTORM right now, but you know, I think his role, and his performance is a lot better because Den of Thieves is a slightly higher-brow film. And a more interesting, you know, layered film and performances, and characters. I wouldn't put Hunter Killer and the Has Fallen films, of course, on the level of GEOSTORM. But, you know, Greenland, I think is also much higher up than any of his films as well. 

So it's only been over the past few years, maybe even a couple of years that I've really appreciated Gerard Butler for who he is, as a performer and the types of roles he chooses, and why.

SARAH: 

I think he's very committed, like, "well, I'm doing this film, I will take it seriously". And then I will promote it seriously, rather than you see with some actors who almost wash their hands of things that didn't turn out the way that it was expected. 

It's interesting, because on social media, you see people joke about his films. But he really strikes a chord with a lot of men, and not necessarily men who would always go looking for the latest brainless blockbuster or whatever. There is something about him that connects, so you'll see on social media, someone will mention a Gerald Butler film and someone else will come in and joke about it and actually no, the original person isn't joking. This is what they want and what they like. I do look forward to his films.

TIM:

I do too, especially when I read the synopses of some of his and I'm like, this is exactly what I'm looking for. This is the kind of popcorn entertainment I'm looking for. Absolutely.

SARAH:

So how often do you rewatch GEOSTORM? Is it a regular thing? Or do you like to have it on... quite often I have films on in the background and dip in and out.

TIM:

I would never put this on the background. 

SARAH:

You would focus. 

TIM: 

Absolutely. You know, I according to Letterboxd I have this listed four times.

SARAH:

Oh really?

TIM:

Yes, most recently because it dropped on to HBO Max. I own the physical copy, but it dropped on HBO Max and my Significant Other, once I realised this said "I gotta watch this with you now". And I was like, okay, so she had a good time watching me giggle incessantly throughout the film. 

SARAH:

What did she think about the actual film? Or did she keep that to herself?

 TIM:

You know, she knew going in about it being ridiculous. So once she gave into the ridiculousness of it, I think she was entertained. And she was entertained, because I was entertained as well. So I think I think if she had seen it on her own a while ago, she probably wouldn't have given a second thought. But you certainly have to have certain expectations going into this movie or watch it with certain company.

SARAH:

It does have this message of international co-operation. 

 Although what I did like was that, you know, you get some films made decades ago, with these incredible ideas about what we'd be doing in the 21st century. This was made in 2014, and they assumed that by now, effectively, we'd have this amazing network of weather satellites!

TIM:

It's an extremely idealistic movie. And when you look at it within the past four years, the scope of the last four years or so, it is completely unrealistic in terms of how these people would actually come together and form a plan, agree on a plan. Now look, there are moments in this movie where one organisation or one political party is looking to out-manoeuvre and gain access and gain control. That's the most realistic part, that meeting that he has in the beginning of the movie and in front of the political leaders. 

Yeah, that's realistic, if anything, in terms of how something would unfold but the getting there? And then after, at the end of this movie? No, no way. Nope.

SARAH:

Do you have a favourite disaster film? Or is it you just love the genre and you go to particular ones at different times?

TIM:

This is probably one of my favourites just because of how silly it is. But if I was to take a more earnest about it, you know i i do love Armageddon. Armageddon is a really good disaster film, I think because it's also a movie of complete and utter ridiculousness, but is buoyed by a legitimately moving scenes and performances. 

I think it's a time period when Bruce Willis still cared about acting. And I think he worked well against the brashness of someone like Ben Affleck at the time, who's whose acting ability at the time reflected the role, and then you have that relationship dynamic with Liv Tyler still on Earth and the whole interaction between the various crew members as well. So that's another good over the top disaster film. 

I've always loved Independence Day. I've always enjoyed that film as well and 2012 to I've mentioned in the past, you know, previously so I would say it's more the genre itself, as long as it buys into its own BS, I think – then I can see the filmmakers and maybe even the performers wearing the, you know the moment on  their sleeve and saying this is what we are, you know, this is what we are enjoy it if you want.

 SARAH:

 Yeah, when I finished watching GEOSTORM yesterday, so then it tees one up for after. And it was The Day After Tomorrow. And I don't know whether it's streaming free at the moment or whether I previously bought it and forgot about it…

TIM:

See that's a Roland Emmerich film that I think takes itself a little bit too seriously. I appreciate it. I think I enjoyed it at the time. But I don't think there was anything ever heightened enough. I think it's a movie like I said, I think it takes itself too seriously.

SARAH:

Being British, I am obsessed with the weather, even though because we get so many different types of weather, we don't normally get particularly severe weather. I mean, it's getting more polarised over the last 10 years or something. But mainly, you know, we don't get the worst storms, we don't get the worst floods, we don't get the worst heatwaves or anything like that. But we are all obsessed with weather. And I'm sure that's partly why I love GEOSTORM, and also The Day After Tomorrow. 

Quite often whenever they're showing disaster films where they show you different countries, it will inevitably be something to do with the Queen  in this country. And I think she's at Balmoral in Scotland, and they send an RAF helicopter up to get her. And when they open the doors of the helicopter, the pilot freezes and I don't know...

 TIM:

 That's funny. 

 SARAH:

Did she did she get out, was she all snuggled up in Balmoral throughout the peril? Those kinds of films, particularly weather-related, that involve the Queen. 

It's interesting what you said about Armageddon. And we talked about this with Neil Vagg, when we were talking about Greenland, and quite often it comes down to well, Armageddon or Deep Impact. And I much prefer Deep Impact but I don't know if that's just because I saw it first. I saw them in the same year at the cinema, but did prefer Deep Impact. I think the landing on the asteroid bit was maybe a bit much for me...

 TIM:

Oh, that's where I lost you, huh? Yeah. It's interesting. You know, you mentioned these dual movies that seemed to happen for a number of years like Armageddon, Deep Impact, there was Dante's Peak and Volcano. Yeah. And it's interesting, that kind of pattern just died out over the years. So you don't have the opposite equivalent of GEOSTORM, you know.

SARAH:

Well also you had Olympus Has Fallen and was it White House Down? 

TIM:

Yes, exactly. 

SARAH:

It's interesting why you would get two being developed at the same time. I guess, people... if you think how people's brains however much you think you're writing independently, you're going to be attuned into what's happening in the world. We're going to get lots of movies, not just necessarily about the pandemic, but that channel it in some way in the next few years. 

I would happily go see two volcano movies in a summer, but yeah, no parallel to GEOSTORM, which is a shame.

In terms of the rest of the film, is there anything else that particularly you would like to champion?

TIM:

Oh, my gosh, I champion the whole damn thing. I really do. I already mentioned Ed Harris pulling this bazooka. By that point, you're at the end of the film. And then there is this interesting tag at the end of the film, where they're fishing on this end of the dock, where they're trying to relive a memory that they never had...

SARAH:

A bit BladeRunner.

But they have this this bit at the beginning, where they're explaining what happened three years earlier, when the weather went bad. And it's narrated by Hannah, and these terrible, terrible events that are just said in, like, a line, like there's a heatwave in Madrid and 2 million people die in a day. But then in the world that the film then moves through, life is back to normal because the human race is so adaptable. You just keep going, you keep on going out for dinner, not doing a pandemic, but...

 TIM:

 People are still doing it. Believe you me!

 SARAH:

 Oh really? Everything here is shut. But yeah, these terrible, terrible things that are just mentioned very briefly at the start. And then we're on to the kind of meat and potatoes of the...

TIM:

You can't you can't waste any time, you got to get right to Gerard Butler saving the day.

SARAH:

And doesn't he do that! Well, thank you very much for coming along. I feel like I should watch it for a fifth time. But yes, thank you very much.

TIM:

Oh, a pleasure. Thank you so much.

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