We Recommend: A Movie Podcast
We Recommend is a movie podcast where every week Jesse and Jason discuss a movie that they love and recommend you to watch and then come back and listen to their podcast!
We Recommend: A Movie Podcast
Signs
Have you ever wondered what truly makes a horror film gripping, especially for someone new to the genre? Join us on the "We Recommend" podcast as we explore M. Night Shyamalan's classic, "Signs." We kick off with a hilarious confession about our own swearing habits, before taking a nostalgic walk down memory lane with Shyamalan’s iconic early films like "The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable." Dive into our memories of "Signs," which we argue is the ideal introductory horror film for younger audiences. Remember that chilling birthday party alien sighting? We’ll discuss why good TV quality is crucial to fully appreciating these details, and delve into how the film triumphed at the box office despite the controversies surrounding Mel Gibson.
Curious about the aliens in "Signs"? We’ve got you covered. We delve into the mysterious motives of these extraterrestrial visitors and critique their design and CGI, suggesting where modern technology could improve their on-screen presence. With only minimal screen time, the aliens still manage to leave an indelible mark on viewers. Listen as we discuss the handmade crop circles, Shyamalan’s homage to Alfred Hitchcock, and the suspenseful atmosphere that’s masterfully built through clever cinematography and character dynamics. We also reflect on key character moments, like Graham’s emotional dinner table scene and how Joaquin Phoenix came to join the cast in a twist of fate.
Our final segments bring you an in-depth look at the symbolic elements and storytelling that make "Signs" a standout film. The Hess family’s Revolutionary War symbolism and emotional connections heighten the alien threat, adding layers of meaning to the narrative. From Mel Gibson's intense performance to the eerie alien encounters, we leave no stone unturned. To top it all off, we recommend pairing "Signs" with the equally intriguing alien film "No One Will Save You" for a perfect double feature. Join us for an engaging journey into the world of "Signs" and discover the new insights we've unearthed about this Shyamalan classic.
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Music produced by Joey Prosser. X @mrjoeyprosser
Hello and welcome to the we Recommend podcast, a movie podcast where every week, we recommend a movie for you to watch and then come back here and listen to us discuss. I'm Jesse, I'm Jason. I swore 37 times in the last month. I said the F word a couple of times, but it was mostly shits and bastards. Is douchebag a curse, I suppose it depends on its usage.
Speaker 1:How about, john, you're a douchebag for kissing Barbara? It's a curse? Oh, it depends on its usage. How about, john, you're a douchebag for kissing Barbara? It's a curse? Oh, well then, it's not 37 times, it's 71 times Because this week we recommend signs.
Speaker 2:So many douchebags.
Speaker 1:So I'm a big M Night Shyamalan fan. Sure, his movies are weird and so twisty, are kind of not good.
Speaker 2:It's like the first four. I love to death Like Sixth Sense.
Speaker 1:Sixth Sense, Unbreakable Signs and the Village. The Village is the one where people are like hold up, what are you doing?
Speaker 2:You're messing things up, but I kind of love that movie.
Speaker 1:That movie's got yeah it was cool, the acting's great. It's kind of like this where it's awkward. All those movies are kind of awkward and it's something that I kind of love.
Speaker 2:Makes me feel good about myself. No, it makes me feel terrible sometimes, especially like why do you let a blind girl run out in the woods by herself?
Speaker 1:no bad yeah, I know bad adults. They don't make the best decisions.
Speaker 2:But hey, I don't know, most people make terrible decisions they're like it's fine, it's safe out there, she'll make it, she'll be fine well, in that one there is actually.
Speaker 1:No, I don't want to spoil, they just know that she's going to die.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if she goes out there and they want to worry about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but so you've seen signs before?
Speaker 2:I have, but I was so glad to rewatch it on a television that is good. Oh it's like old tube TV when you watched it last time, and I think that was the reason I had a lot of problems with this movie in the beginning, because I was under the impression that the alien didn't show up until when he walks across the alleyway with his Starbucks in his hand.
Speaker 1:Oh no, From the very jump of this movie there's aliens.
Speaker 2:I know, but I never saw the alien on the roof before because my TV was so shitty. Oh yeah, it's probably way too dark, yeah, and plus like and then the corn when his leg, oh dude, when he's putting his leg with his leader hosing out.
Speaker 1:Something yeah, and it's like hey, big boy, there's some special corn in here.
Speaker 2:Want to run backwards through a cornfield, yeah.
Speaker 1:As a, this is like a great entry level horror movie. Yeah, it's a great movie for them. It's going to scare them especially, like every child, like whenever they hit I don't know eight and up before they make it to high school.
Speaker 3:They need to see the birthday party scene.
Speaker 1:They need to know what true terror is and I don't know if you how closely you looked at that scene. They need to know what true terror is and I don't know if you how closely you looked at that scene. This is the first time that I noticed that that alien is in. Is like you're able to see it the entire time on that shot? Like it's not behind the bushes, it's camouflaged as the bushes.
Speaker 1:So if you pay close attention, you can actually see the outline of the alien. He's there the whole time and it's like. This is what I love about the movie it gave me chills again. I was like, holy shit, I've seen this movie a thousand times and I have chills again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like I never noticed, and I think it was a TV quality thing where how his skin reflected, yeah, how he did the camouflage thing, yeah, like whenever they're at their coal.
Speaker 1:Shoot the hands there, like the hands is always there.
Speaker 2:Didn't really notice it until I got HDTV as well.
Speaker 1:I wish I could have watched this in.
Speaker 2:You have to watch it in theaters before now to really understand what's going on. If it ever comes back, I want to go.
Speaker 1:But so this movie was a hit. So six cents. That thing had a huge like long run in theaters because it kind of came out of nowhere.
Speaker 1:People like oh m night who, and then word of mouth you won't believe the ending, and then, unbreakable, less of a hit. You know there's a superhero movie for anybody care about superhero movies, super girlgirl movie, superhero, oh, bruce Willis yeah, I know, he's just like a little bit strong, it's like his power, he's a little bit strong, he can lift weights. And then this movie came out and it was a huge hit. So it had a $72 million budget and opening weekend it made over $60 million. Hell yeah, million, hell yeah. Us gross 200, over 200 000 worldwide. 200 million, I do that every damn time. Worldwide was over 400 million. Pretty great and everybody knows it stars mel gibson.
Speaker 2:Yeah, as soon as I saw it well, if it's like, oh no, he sucks.
Speaker 1:Now he's actually sucked for a long time he's been saying crazy things since like the 90s. It's just in the 2000s. Whenever it's like, oh, I can record myself saying things, I'll do it, even though it's the worst stuff, mainly about what he wanted to happen to his wife in the language he used about it. Do you think? Do?
Speaker 2:you think that technology as men grow older, we should just stay away from technology more, just to keep ourselves out of trouble.
Speaker 1:If it's a technology you don't understand, like now everybody pretty much understands. Oh, the Internet. If I say it, it's going to be on there. Yes, but yeah. Mel Gibson, amazing actor, love him as an actor. The man's career cannot be killed, no matter what he says. Joaquin Phoenix, my favorite actor probably at this point oh yeah, he's great. I've been watching him since I was young, loved him since I was young, and now he just I don't know really better and better.
Speaker 2:I don't really know how much he, his presence, really contributed to the movie you know what I mean. Like they didn't really use him yeah well, as well as I thought, maybe like he's being used now, I think he's kind of in this one.
Speaker 1:He's just kind of there for the powerhouse scenes, like whenever they. He really needed mel gibson's character to like have someone to act against, because he really doesn't have much to act against. I mean, the kids are amazing oh yeah, abigail macaulay culkin's.
Speaker 2:Uh, rory culkin is morgan his clone. Yeah, they all look like I never, it's crazy, does macaulay culkin have?
Speaker 1:a brother. It's like I know he's got three of them and they're all actors. I think he cloned himself. I think this is pretty much rory's culkin biggest movie, and then he also he's in Scream 4 and he's great. In Scream 4 Abigail Breslin plays Bo she's so cute she's so good in this movie. It's adorable. It's like I love the kids because they're they're kind of the parents in this movie, because the other two they're. So, yeah, man, he had to protect his sister from the dog. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:Holy shit.
Speaker 1:It's like the other two are Merle. Merle, who is just completely blind to everything, and just he's so down on himself because of his failed baseball career, and then Graham, of course, is going through the fact that his loss of faith and his wife yeah that's rough.
Speaker 1:Morgan has to take care of Bo, essentially, and then Bo is just an angel who can see, who sees the future in her dreams Fuck yeah. And then you got Cherry Jones who plays Officer Paskey I like her a lot or Carolyn yeah, she's great, you know something, I also. And then you have M Night as Ray Reddy, who should have no shit. Had somebody else do his part, oh, he didn't really have a lot. Yeah, I mean he really isn't too bad in it.
Speaker 1:but it's just like that was what he looked like For me, because I know who it is. I'm like why are you in this role? Get out of there, em. It's like we could have had like Michael Shannon or somebody in this role. Or I was actually thinking Matt Dillon, oh, actually thinking matt dylan. Uh, something about mary. I was like man, he would have crushed this.
Speaker 2:I don't know why, I just see, maybe when I watch it I'm like matt dylan would be good here.
Speaker 1:It'd been fun to see him the giant caps on his teeth, yeah, um, we'll get, we'll hop into uh. So wait, uh, before we go. So you re-watched it, and so, before re-watching, what was your opinion on the movie? That?
Speaker 2:the reveal of the alien was so dorky in the alleyway. Really that was your thought that was the dork, because I remember watching it. I was just building up to this huge moment and then he just walks across the street. I'm like what the fuck was that? Yeah, see.
Speaker 1:Because I remember first time watching it is me and my best friend. We're in my living room. We had all the windows blocked by pillows and stuff just because it was so bright in there and it's, you know, old TV and it's a dark movie and our TV was this bad so we had to have complete pitch blackness in it. So we're going through it. The whole movie is great and then he gets to that scene and it just scared the shit out of us.
Speaker 2:I was just so underwhelmed by it.
Speaker 1:I was thinking that the reason I think that scene works so well personally, no, not, you know, obviously not everybody has the same opinion but the fact that all it does is walk by because you don't think you're really going to see it, because you only saw the leg earlier and you're like, oh, we still got like half a movie to go. They'll probably show it later. And they just like, let it just clearly walk by. And I was like did not expect that. I thought like maybe it had popped out like hey, hey, how are you doing? But yeah, I don't know it's so good. And then, of course, the scene. I think my favorite scene is probably them on top of the car with the baby monitor. Oh yeah, it's just stop. The progress of that scene and how everybody's becoming a believer. But Graham like even.
Speaker 2:Merle who thinks it's just nerds who wants to try to get girls, then he's wearing the hat after so good so after you watched it, what'd you think?
Speaker 2:I had a much better time watching it just because I could see those things that I couldn't see before, especially the camouflaging stuff. That just adds a whole new level to this alien. But I was also super confused about what the aliens wanted, because you don't see a lot of abduction or fighting or anything really and they say they got deadly gas and like I don't know, and then they just leave after they take a couple dudes, Like they got drove.
Speaker 1:They got driven away by squirt guns. People were able to fight them. Yeah, so there is this kind of one. Offline it's a news thing. There's like important stuff visually happening, but on the news it says they're there to harvest us. Right, because there's only two ideas for aliens they're here for peace or they're harvesting us that's the only two things people can come up with.
Speaker 2:They just seem so non-plus, though, like they they're just. They just seem like regular dudes with gas in their arm, like they're not really that powerful. Yeah, they're not. They didn't even scare me that much. Well, yeah, I know, except for like jumping on the roof.
Speaker 1:That was the scariest part to me. Yeah, as soon as you see them. They're not super scary, but uh, I guess they're. So there is the line where morgan's like they won't use technology on us because they know that once they get the shit out of it, yeah're going to nuke them, and then, at that point, everything's ruined.
Speaker 2:Here's another problem I have with it. Here we go, they're here for our resources, but they ended up only being there for people, right? But if they are here for our resources, water's kind of our thing We've got a lot of it.
Speaker 1:Well. I think, they were thinking like I know, and because this was kind of like more of a reconnaissance mission, I guess, uh, and just from the dialogue they're saying like, oh, this is probably just mainly full-on, it was a probing attack first, so they're there, they're going to kind of attack a little bit just because the super weird uh recruiter guy in the army place was like blockface yeah that that's an actor that's in a lot of david lynch films his head is the squarest because you know he acts weird and looks weird.
Speaker 1:so david lynch is like he's my best friend, um, but yeah, so I think it at first like this was probably the smaller attack before a large group come in and they're like, oh, hold on, they have water in their houses too.
Speaker 2:We got to go, or they just come back with scuba suits, yeah.
Speaker 1:That would be great. They come back. There isn't like hazmat suits, but they have a little part here where they can squirt out gas. Yeah, so we're going to hop into some factoids, so the whole. So what do you think of the um opening credits and ending credits like the blue and the black? That was okay. I didn't really think anything. I think it looks really cool. It doesn't really go with the movie yeah, it's kind of.
Speaker 2:yeah, that's what I thought it wasn too.
Speaker 1:It wasn't really a good press, but Like if they put if he did this for, like, unbreakable or something, it would have been perfect, because it's a blue like colors in the movie are blue. But he essentially was just trying to do an Alfred Hitchcock tribute, because it's very it's kind of similar to Signs and Birds just the way the visual of the opening credits and stuff like that and the music score at the beginning. So he was just kind of doing a tribute to the bird, that's fine I guess, just do it good next time, yeah well, I think it looks good.
Speaker 1:It just doesn't fit with the movie for me, um, and so all the crop circles were actually made handmade.
Speaker 2:That's cool. Yeah, you just gotta have a plank with a board. Yeah, a board with two ropes.
Speaker 1:I've seen that guy my favorite part was M Night Shyamalan stated that he didn't really care for using CGI at the time. So put the fucking aliens in costumes, don't make them. Cgi or go back and try to redo your CGI like this is a movie that desperately needs like a George Lucas like redo on the CGI, but only redo the aliens, please A little polish. They're just like ugh, ugh, sucks. How bad they look, but whenever you see it through the TV it looks great.
Speaker 1:Personally, but as soon as they show him like when he gets water and he looks over. I'm like dude.
Speaker 3:come on man, they could look better in that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the aliens have less than five minutes of screen time.
Speaker 2:I feel like, if you're not going to, if you want like an invisible kind of enemy or just one you never see, and you're saving that moment. I think they were kind of between the line of having a monster in the movie interact with people and then having the monster interact indirectly through just being scared the shit out of them, yeah, and they just don't they didn't know what to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's. It's like I wish I could have found something where they're like like I'm cool with not seeing it a lot. It's kind of like the jaw situation, I get it. That's what he's kind of going for. A lot of you know suspense and not seeing it and just like trying to look at the screen be like is there an alien in alien on?
Speaker 3:the frame. Is there an alien in the frame?
Speaker 2:That would have been, I guess, maybe a little bit, if he would have been like, did more of the camouflage stuff, kind of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think if it was made a day, he'd probably we'd probably seen him a little bit more and there'd been better CGI or just make him completely camouflaged all the time.
Speaker 2:That would be scary as hell.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just make him predator. They're chameleons.
Speaker 2:Arnold Schwarzenegger busts your door down with machine gun bullets Just covered in blood.
Speaker 1:Everybody's like dude, you're getting mud everywhere, not blood, I meant mud. So this was an interesting one for me. So I guess this movie has revolutionary war themes. So Shyamalan likes to use colors and certain designs for symbolic purposes. In Signs, the Hess house was built from scratch to look Victorian American. There are little figurines based on the American Revolutionary War and the house itself is colored red, white and blue. Shyamalan's intention was to have the farm and the family represent the colonists during the 18th century. They were about to be invaded by a massive and scary force. Shyamalan's intention was to have the farm and the family represent the colonists during the 18th century. They were about to be invaded by a massive and scary force, with aliens representing the British army at the time. Despite being outmanned, the colonists won the Revolutionary War, much like how his family survives and overcomes the alien attack. I mean stretch, but you know.
Speaker 2:The house does look amazing. Yeah, it's a cool ass, cool ass house. I love it. I want to live in it. Yeah, I never got American Revolution vibes.
Speaker 1:It's like it didn't shout out to you like oh this is obviously a a metaphor for the revolutionary, I guess. Ah crap, there's something I was going to say. Um, so you know, when the dog pees?
Speaker 3:like in the ground.
Speaker 1:So the reason they're like we should call the vet, and he's like no, we'll call a doctor, blah, blah, blah. Well, that's because Ray Reddy, the man that killed his wife, is the veterinarian. So that's why he didn't want to go to the vet. Because it's the only vet in town, I'm sure Reasonable yeah, and he's like, oh, the medical doctor can do it, right He'll know what to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's close, give us some prescriptions and say have a nice day. Call me in the morning. Yeah, it's already said. The alien, oh, another one. This is just something I kind of read from someone. It says that so you know how you have the baby monitor. Yeah, every time the family comes together and they're bonded as a unit. So think of the moment where Rory Copen's holding the thing and then you have Merrill's holding Morgan, bo's holding Merrill and then Graham's holding Bo. They're all connected. And then that's when, like the signal boostl, and then Graham's holding Bo. They're all connected. And then that's when, like the signal boosts. And then the next time you see it doing it, they're all at the table where they just have that big emotional scene, oh yeah. And then all of a sudden the signal comes back.
Speaker 2:That's cool, it's supposed to be connected, bro that is kind of cool, like playing on your emotions, like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man I love that scene too. Whenever he has the breakdown at the table it's so very awkward but also hella emotional. Yeah, and then I remember reading something where mel gibson was talking about how, uh, he didn't realize at the time how impossible it is to eat and cry. He said it was like the hardest thing he's ever done and that's why he looks like he's in so much pain while doing. It Works for the scene, but that's why it's also a little goofy looking. But man, bo and Morgan sell that scene so well. How, how it's crazy how children can just cry.
Speaker 2:Wow yeah, it sounded like a real sad crying yeah.
Speaker 1:Um, and obviously there's a bit of a connection with War of the Worlds, just because they bring up War of the Worlds and aliens kind of have a similar like hands to War of the Worlds. And this will be my last fact. So Joaquin Phoenix was in the original person to play Meryl. It was actually supposed to be Mark Ruffalo, oh, but at this time he had to pull out because he had to have surgery on a brain tumor Blech which is ended up being benign.
Speaker 3:But they got it out and that's why Mark Ruffalo actually has his kind of like a little bit of a droopy face's, because when they went to take out the tumor, it like they severed some nerves.
Speaker 1:That's kind of why his face is a little oh, that sucks, which just made him more endearing and kind of a more interesting actor, I feel like. And then the last thing is mel gibson. It was this his role was actually originally written for, uh clint eastwood.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, that could have been cool.
Speaker 1:I don't know, maybe he was. That could have been cool. I don't know, maybe he was like still in his 80s. I don't know. That man's been like in his 80s forever. I don't know, he's just so old. Yeah, it'd be weird to have the kid.
Speaker 2:Having young children? Yeah, that'd be super weird.
Speaker 1:Excuse me.
Speaker 2:He'd have to be grandpa. Yeah, great grandpa, oh man dude, so pumped I just want.
Speaker 1:And Joaquin Phoenix, he's got a cleft lip right yeah he's got a cleft lip alright, bro, you ready to start the movie? Yeah, let's go. So the movie starts out great because it just immediately starts with Graham waking up suddenly after you see like a a shot of his family before the wife died. We see him walking around the house checking on the kids. He's kind of picking up some stuff and all of a sudden he hears a scream.
Speaker 2:Do you think he's not Catholic because he's married? Yeah, so what denomination? I don't remember all of them.
Speaker 1:Episcopalian or something like that, don't know. He just likes the Jesus. Well, not anymore. And then we hear the scream again. It cuts the miracle merrill. He just rolls out of the bed. It's yeah, I know everyone wakes up in a panic yeah, I mean, is there anything scarier to an adult than hearing their tiny little girl screaming outside? And it's like I didn't know this. What they heard, oh my god. Um, he lives like in this little shed out outside or whatever you would call it right yeah, above the garage, yeah um.
Speaker 1:So they run outside and they hear beau screaming in the cornfield. Um he goes. They run into the cornfield and they see beau. Beau immediately says are you in my dream too? First mention of her dream she's just sleepwalking.
Speaker 2:It's terrifying.
Speaker 1:And then they find Morgan and Morgan's like I think God did it, Like okay, like did what? And then we see our first sign. Is it a sign from the alien or from God? It's a crop circle, so it's a sign from aliens.
Speaker 2:Crop circles.
Speaker 1:We cut to Graham. He's calling some guy named Lee, who I'm assuming is Lionel Pritchard's father, because they think it's like it's probably Lionel Pritchard, but he was at the movies. Oh we hear, and then next thing he's like okay, sorry, I thought it was him.
Speaker 2:Never mind. And then the police officer say like he can't do anything without pissing the front of his pants. Oh yeah, a little later he says that yeah um, and then we get.
Speaker 1:This is where we get the dog peeing, because all the dogs are acting weird, like marking their territory and growling it's like my dog anytime.
Speaker 1:Uh, a cat walks near anything that he thinks is his shoes, a piece of hair on the floor, and then we get a deputy Carolyn or Sheriff Carolyn I was called officer she stops by and they just kind of a talk and this is, I think, where we get the line he can't piss on himself or whatever. Apparently, a lot of things are happening around town. We see the kids are grilling, so I guess, after all this craziness, ram was ram was like hey, let's put some stuff on the grill. I guess, uh, we get the whole contaminated water thing where she's trying to give the dog some water. She drinks it first.
Speaker 2:It's contaminated that scares the shit out of me, like maybe she can taste something I can't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like uh oh maybe we should listen to her, but we'll figure out why there's so much water. Could it be a sign?
Speaker 2:kids just do this anyway, because as soon as I saw it, I was like man. My kids did the same thing. They don't say it's contaminated, they just don't put their cups up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so while she pours the water in the bowl, and all of a sudden the dog starts growling and morgan's like don't run away. Uh, it's very scary, especially being a german shepherd. It's the scariest thing that could probably happen to kids being, you know, a foot away from a amazing that he knew not to run away, because I only recently learned that.
Speaker 1:Oh really yeah, you're supposed to make yourself big and just hopefully because at it and hopefully it'll run away. They hate noises In times of like, when they want to attack. If you make a loud noise, it panics.
Speaker 2:What if I make a curse?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Then we see they're out in the cornfield, graham and the officer she says there's reports of violent animal behavior have spread across town and then we cut to. There's more screaming and then they go and you see that Morgan has killed the dog with a barbecue fork.
Speaker 2:He's like it landed on me he doesn't hear anything, he's just like he turns around. He's panicking.
Speaker 3:I don't hear my children are your children constantly.
Speaker 1:Just you're in the middle of a cornfield well, at the end of the film, all he like whenever he puts on his, he's like a preacher again. Like downstairs all you hear is his children playing. So it's like, oh, everything's nice and calm. Everything's calm now, now that there's children screaming, yes, but after morgan kills the dog, it left him shocked and he's silent. It's super sad man.
Speaker 2:He got it with a one of those, those hot dog forks, didn't he yeah, it's like a barbecue poker.
Speaker 1:He said he just fell on me and during this, the scene where he's talking to the officer, he's telling her like she keeps calling him father and he's like don't call me father, it's really pushing the narrative.
Speaker 2:It's like I do not do this anymore. Yeah, that's got to be a tough thing to retire from.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you got to move. Yeah, it's like everybody's just like why aren't father, father, father? It's like, what did I say? And then later, that night man, this movie just really goes. At the beginning it's just like constant scary thing after scary thing. Later, bo wakes Graham up asking for a glass of water because the one next to your bed tastes old. What does that mean? I do kind of understand what they mean. Uh, when it's like you wake up, uh, in the morning, you take a drink of your water and it's like, damn, wish it was cold. Um, so he walks her back to the bed. Bo asks why he talks to her mom when he's alone, it's like, and then asks like oh, I know it's so sweet and sad it's like, does she?
Speaker 1:ever talk back and he's like, no, yeah, me neither. It's like, okay, Jesus.
Speaker 3:Christ.
Speaker 1:I'm so tired but then like one of the best shots of the movie, like he's just looking out the window and then just sees like a dark black figure and then what I love about this is that he sees the figure and the figure eventually notices and kind of flinches a little bit like it's about to run away. I'm like hell yeah, dude, I never noticed that until this watching. So I love doing this podcast.
Speaker 2:I noticed so much stuff that I never would notice before.
Speaker 1:But then Graham and Merle, they're ready to fuck some shit up. Merle's all like all right, we're going to run out there, all crazy, just screaming, flailing our hands, and just sound tough and scary. Graham's like do you want me to curse? He's like yeah, say whatever you got to do. He's like but I don't curse. He's like but I don't curse. It's like well, you don't mean it, you're just trying to scare him away. And then they go running outside and I love it. Because graham's ah, I'm insane with anger. Merle, I'm gonna beat your ass, bitch. And he's like I'm a crazy man, I'm gonna beat your ass.
Speaker 2:Do you hear me?
Speaker 1:I curse yeah, great job. It's so good, but but I love it because then they cross each other and turn around.
Speaker 2:I thought it would have been hilarious if they would have run into each other. Yeah, like looking up at the house.
Speaker 1:Oh, you mean like in Scary Movie 3?
Speaker 2:Is that what they do? I haven't seen that one, my favorite.
Speaker 1:Scary Movie, and I think that's why three so much is because just in high school and junior high I watched both of these so much and, oh man, I don't know. And then you got in scary movie three. You have the bit with a uh, officer's hat, where every time she shows up every time it cuts away, her hat gets bigger or smaller and eventually it's so big she can't even get into the car. It's so good we got to do a scary movie.
Speaker 2:It's so funny.
Speaker 1:I think I've only seen the first one, yeah that one does the ring signs and what else Eight Mile does. All those. It's right before they all got terrible. Some people may say Scary movie three is terrible.
Speaker 2:I think it's the best one always like the strong hand guy oh yeah, scary movie two so good.
Speaker 1:Um, so yeah, they ran in circles. They didn't see anything. I cursed, I know, but they hear it on the roof of the house and now they are unsure if it's lionel pritchard it.
Speaker 2:It's like wait how did he get up there? He's got a 10-foot vertical yeah.
Speaker 1:And then he essentially like jumped over him, I guess, and then disappeared into the crops, moving faster and disappearing quickly.
Speaker 2:He did one of those Mario running backflips. Yeah, wahoo.
Speaker 3:Wah, wah woo.
Speaker 1:Damn, I'll play Mario now. That would be great. Give me a signs version of Mario, that would be terrifying. Yeah, so Morgan takes a liking, so the sheriff's back or whatever, and then like, talking to Morgan and Morgan's like likes her walkie talkie, and then she kind of brings up oh, baby monitors can do this too, but it's only one way we get more water stuff with Bo. It's got amoebas in it, sure does. She's watching Dexter's Laboratory and tells her to turn it off.
Speaker 2:That was awesome turn it down.
Speaker 1:I love Dexter's Laboratory. I know that movie's great or show, yes. So the sheriff talks to Meryl. He doesn't think he's any help, but she does. Something I like about this movie there's a lot of panning shots where it starts on, one person slowly pans kind of, does it like four or five times in the movie, if not more. Um, yeah, I didn't really notice. It's just I don't know. It's the way the house is set up and just kind of the way the, the lens kind of manipulates the visuals like of the house, where it kind of makes it looks a little weird and bigger than it's supposed to be.
Speaker 1:And it's it's very unnerving. It really is. Yeah, um, and this is where we learned a little bit about Merrill that he doesn't play baseball anymore and stuff like that, uh, and he just thinks he's useless here because he's not doing anything with his life and he just works at a gas station.
Speaker 3:We all feel like that sometimes.
Speaker 2:Living with your brother. Yeah, I think that's why he moved there right, because it's like the help out with the kids and stuff.
Speaker 1:He just feels stuck. He's stuck just like Graham just in his own way.
Speaker 2:He wants to join the army.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Like don't do it, Don't Bro just go coach some like Little League or something. You'll get your way out of it. So they try to tell the officer what happened, but they don't have any real information. She's like all right, so all you had, all you told me, is it was dark. She's like it was dark it was certainly dark. They're just like it's tall and stuff. And then all of a sudden Caroline is just like well, it could have been somebody at the Olympics. Now there's these women at the Olympics.
Speaker 2:They were put on and off.
Speaker 1:It's like okay, dude, we get that, people are fast. That's an M Night thing, whereas it's like, ooh, isn't she kind of kooky too? She won't stop talking about the Olympics and it's like M, you need to get a little bit better at your dialogue, brother. I watched some olympics yesterday. It was fun. We've been watching it all the time, mainly gymnastics and, uh, swimming. That's our two favorites, um. So she asked about if anyone would be, oh, um, and then she explains that there's been like there's a strange woman in town acting strange and she's like it could have been her um. And then she asked about if anyone has been mad at them since he left the church. It's more like, oh, he's left the church.
Speaker 2:It's just a woman that wears a hat, and that's why she's weird.
Speaker 1:She's different. But then Meryl's like it wasn't anybody in the Olympics. I'm strong and I'm fast and I could not keep up with it. It's like, yeah, stop talking about the Olympics. But then Bo comes in and says hey, there's the same channels on every single station. It's like what? And they're super shocked to learn that there's more crop circles all over the country World, in fact, in ways that's too quickly to merely be a hoax.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like how they talked about how it's actually done as a hoax, but no, this happened Unless there's this giant coordinated event.
Speaker 1:Yeah, unless there's this an insane cult that's just trying to freak everybody out. It's a scientologist, like it's for xeno. Um, then we get a shot of morgan. He's taking a puff his inhaler just to make you add like oh great, now there's a kid with an inhaler.
Speaker 1:But it's actually, you know what? It is A sign. We'll see why later. So Carolyn tells him to keep his kids calm and away from the news. Then you get this great zoom out where it's you just you're seeing outside. And then it zooms into the house, as you just see Graham sitting there just like fuck. My life sucks, and this is worse.
Speaker 2:This is all happening way too fast.
Speaker 1:Just some of the shots in this movie are so good. He's such a good visual director. Yeah, just wish he could. For sure. I say that he's a bad writer, especially when you watch the Happening. It's like he's not a very good writer, but his dialogue is so awkward and it's like people don't talk like this. Then I love it. I just love it. I don't know. Yeah it is interesting.
Speaker 2:It kind of just gonna scream about it keeps everything a little off kilter. Yeah he's.
Speaker 1:He's really good at making everything seem awkward and not, uh, normal for sure, for lack of better words, apparently. So they all go to town. The young kids go to a bookstore. Morgan asks for a book, but normal For sure.
Speaker 1:For lack of better words apparently so they all go to town. The young kids go to a bookstore. Morgan asks for a book about aliens. Graham gets an asthma inhaler. The cashier calls him father. He's like don't do that. Then she asks to confess to him. He says no, but she does it anyways, so good. And then Meryl goes into an army recruitment recruitment building. You have this weird recruiter. He's like hey, you're that baseball player you should have. Um, yeah, why don't you have girls licking your feet? Oh gross shut the fuck up.
Speaker 2:This is what you got to look forward to the army, my friend this guy's just talking about you.
Speaker 1:You have a bunch of pretty women licking your toes, um, and then this is where we, essentially the recruiter tells us what the aliens are doing. They're just kind of probing at the point and uh, scoping things out to make sure they can make contact, uh, and the guy recognizes he plays baseball, find out he has five minor league um records, uh, but then all of a sudden, lionel, lionel shows up, it mentions that he has a record for strikeouts as well.
Speaker 1:Um, he's such a weird looking dude. Yeah, you know who that is I don't know.
Speaker 2:I've seen him before. I don't know his name.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's, he's a part of crap.
Speaker 2:He's in wet, hot american summer it's michael showalter showalter, he's Michael.
Speaker 1:Showalter, showalter, he's Okay. Yeah, he was a part of that whole improv group. They have a bunch of hilarious videos on YouTube and stuff.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, essentially Funny as hell.
Speaker 1:He's made some of the funniest movies.
Speaker 3:That no one's ever heard of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, wet, hot American Summer. Please come on to something so we can cover it. I buy it anywhere, but something that I really like. Walking Phoenix delivers this line where he looks at the recruiter and he says it felt wrong not to swing. He just delivered the hell out of the line. It made me feel sad.
Speaker 2:Because he made him feel like shit for swinging and everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's like it just felt wrong not to. And then he walks up to Lionel and jumps at him and makes him flinch. It's so good. Why the hell is Michael Showalter?
Speaker 2:in this movie. It makes no sense. He has one line. It's not a good part, it's for him.
Speaker 1:And it's the only time he's ever done a dramatic movie. I know Well.
Speaker 2:I didn't know that.
Speaker 1:Like he delivers the line. Well, it's just. It takes you out of the movie a little bit. This it takes you out of the movie a little bit.
Speaker 2:This whole scene is it's just like you got the two really weird people like talking to walking Phoenix.
Speaker 1:It's like what are we doing?
Speaker 2:Maybe that's why he put him in there. Yeah, I mean, that's what I was thinking.
Speaker 1:Has to just be like wait, why is he in here? I'm already too stressed to even figure this out. Then we cut to the bookstore. You got Bo asking for more water. She says contaminated. The lady at the bookstore is like there's something wrong with our water. It's like Morgan's like. Just she does this. I can't take her anywhere.
Speaker 2:And what book on aliens did he get? This is the most. It's just a random book.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and because when he asked for it it's like oh, we actually, we actually got a random book.
Speaker 2:It came in and it wasn't supposed to. Are these the books that ufologists write and read and write? I don't know. I guess so.
Speaker 1:But hey, maybe they got that book, maybe it's a sign Because it is, because it's a random book, it got shipped to the wrong place and now it landed into the right kid's hand, and they decided to keep it. God is good. So the cashier is still confessing to Graham. This is where I swore 37 times last month how about John is a douchebag before?
Speaker 2:kissing.
Speaker 1:Barbara, it's a curse, so good. So then we cut to. The family is at a pizza joint and they see Graham sees the random man and they just stare at him. It's a joint and they see, uh, graham sees the random man and they just stare at him. It's like is that the one like yeah, yeah, it's ray who ended up killing his wife, bo doesn't know who he is, though so, oh, so he never told them well, I think morgan knows, but I don't think bo does, because she's so young I'm sure she was super young when it happened.
Speaker 1:So we learned that morgan finds bo bo's like old baby monitor from the basement and he carried it to town with him. On their return home one of the best scenes of the movie happens. There's like strange noises on the baby monitor and like clicking coming from it and then Merle thinks it's a bunch of. He gives this nerd speech or is this another M Night thing where it's like let's have this random monologue. It's like it's just a bunch of nerds you can't get a yeah, this is those weird like making fun of nerds.
Speaker 1:And then, like Graham's, like give me that and he gets out. And then all of a sudden it like makes a noise, it's like wait stop. And then Graham's, like he's starting to believe um morgan, believing that the sounds to be aliens, climbs on the car roof to get a better signal. And they all end up getting on the car roof and touching like holding hands, and all of a sudden uh, it was a cool picture, like a sick shot.
Speaker 1:Boost the signal yeah, it's just like the whole, the man can craft a scene. I mean that was, yeah, like, is this the build-up to them all starting to believe a little bit?
Speaker 2:it's really, really, really, really good yeah, cause as soon as he says stop and everyone just freezes yeah everybody's like wait.
Speaker 1:This is weird, but as soon as they're starting to get a signal and they're hearing more, the noises completely stop. Morgan theorizes that they were communications between two of the aliens.
Speaker 2:I wish there were. I don't know. I just you can't understand what they're saying. But what if it's something normal? It's just like Beavis and Butthead talking to each other.
Speaker 1:They're just. They're in like the neighbor's bathroom, just like talking. It's like toilet paper bathroom, just like talking.
Speaker 2:Toilet paper TV from my uncle stupid dumbass they have boobs oh, I'd watch it.
Speaker 1:So that evening, graham, investigating their other dogs barking, goes into the cornfield to investigate. He stands in the middle of a crop circle. This scene rolls as well.
Speaker 2:It'd be funny if the dog just barked at corn all the time.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:To keep it back from invading the property I hate corn.
Speaker 1:I only enjoy popcorn.
Speaker 2:You see some corn at the edge of the field, just kind of inching forward.
Speaker 1:It's like I don't know, it's just like mr hanky oh no damn.
Speaker 2:We got a lot of references going on this movie we're crushing.
Speaker 1:So, speaking in a loud, firm tone, he tells the unseen being that they'll get no publicity from stalking his farm or his family. Then here's the clicking noises from earlier. He sudden sees a oh yeah, he gets into. Then he's just like walking back into the field and he drops his flashlight. And then he like, then he starts hearing clicking and then he lifts up his flashlight and it's the green or blue looking leg. I guess it's green because he's probably um camouflaged with the corn okay, or it's so scary, I don't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was like that was really creepy. Yeah, it's just all around, surrounded by corn. Corn is the scariest vegetable.
Speaker 1:It really is, and I grew up all around cornfields, because behind our house and next to our house well, not next, but all behind our house there's cornfields and there's a dirt road. We used to ride boilers through and sometimes at night we'd walk through there. So scary. Ride boilers through and sometimes at night we'd walk through there. So scary. Corn is so scary. Um, and just one little thing. I want to clap back at this movie, for they should have so many spiders and bugs in them, because have you ever walked into a cornfield?
Speaker 2:uh, I don't know. I can't remember the last time I did that.
Speaker 3:Always spider webs and bugs always, even though they they like, spray them.
Speaker 1:It does not work fully. There's oh yeah, there's always gonna be something because there's times where I ran into a cornfield I was like I'm out of here this is terrified in spiders. I hate this.
Speaker 2:I'd hate to go into a cranberry patch. Have you ever seen those? No, they are covered in, like these wolf spiders oh yeah, the giant ones the wolf? Well they're. They're tiny ones, but they are, I don't know. But like they're good for the because they keep the bugs off, yeah, but when they harvest the cranberries the people just get swarmed. They're just trying to keep out of the water yeah but they're covered in them like a blanket.
Speaker 1:Yeah, of spiders. What's great is wolf spiders look exactly like brown recluses, yay so it's even scarier. When you see one, it's horrible. So back to the movie graham. Even though super startled sprints back to the house, he stops and just sits at the kitchen table without talking, which is really good because everybody's just being normal and they're like the kids, like oh dad, something happened to dad and then merrill turns around like, oh, something happened to him.
Speaker 1:Everybody's super terrified, like this guy's supposed to be a rock. He then tells Bo, morgan and Merrill that they can turn on the television, which is something he said they couldn't do.
Speaker 2:Does it piss you off whenever they drop the camera Like the flashlight? Oh yeah, it's like.
Speaker 1:ah, I can't see it's something in movies where it's like the one thing they always need to hold on to, everybody becomes Butterfingers all of a sudden.
Speaker 1:It's always frustrating, but it happens all the time. So they turn on the news to discover that large, mysterious, unidentifiable lights have been spotted over Mexico City Looks like they're, but I love this because and actually I think it's just kind of all over the place now this is where it's kind of spreading to more places. Um, during the scene. It's great because they're watching the TV, but they're staring right at us, just so unnerving. That was cool, very eerie. I love those, the reflections in the television, yeah, and it's just like uh, okay, they're looking at me now.
Speaker 1:I'm just sitting here trying to watch a movie, but that's fine. And this is where we get a great little line. Morgan, we have to tape this. And then Bo my ballet recital yeah, what the fuck, Morgan, I know it's like, this is important. Listen, Bo, this is very important. Everything people have written about in science books is going to change. The history of the world's future is on the TV right now. Tv right now. We need to record this so you can show your children this tape and say you were there for your children.
Speaker 1:Bo Bo, my ballet ain't real science and as soon as they turn the TV on it's like it immediately says everything people have written about in science books is going to change the history of the world's future.
Speaker 1:He's like told you it's so good, and then all the kids fall asleep and then it's just Graham and Merle together and I wrote down kind of both lines because I feel like it's a really long, so bear with us here. But the entire point of the movie is here in this dialogue. So Graham says because Merle's asking him about faith and like luck and coincidence and Whether or not that Graham still believes and has faith and like luck and coincidence, and whether or not that Graham still believes and has faith and stuff. And then Graham says people break down into two groups when they experience something lucky. Group number one sees it more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign, signs, evidence that there is something up there watching out for them. Group number two sees it as just pure luck, just a happy turn of chance. I'm sure the people in group two are looking at those 14 lights in a very suspicious way. For them the situation is 50-50. Could be bad, could be good, but deep down they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own and that fills them with fear. Yeah, there are those people, but there's a whole lot of people in group one. When they see those 14 lights, they're looking at a miracle and deep down they feel that whatever's going to happen, there will be someone there to help them, and that fills them with hope. See, what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, that sees miracles, or do you believe that people just get lucky? Well, look at the question this way Is it possible? There are no coincidences? And then yes, immediately goes to meryl, who has the funniest, just like okay, this is really how you choose to believe that there's fate and stuff, meryl.
Speaker 1:One time I was at this party and I was sitting on the couch with amanda mckinney. She was just sitting there, looking beautiful, so I leaned in to kiss her and I realized I have gum in my mouth, so I turned to spit it out and put it on paper cup. I turned back and a man named McKinney throws up all over herself. I knew the moment it happened. It was just a miracle. I could have been kissing her when she threw up Would have scarred me for life. I may never have recovered. That was perfect. So, yeah, the whole Graham thing. It's like a very moving and deep speech, and then Merrill just kind of comes up. Oh this, what type Bandcamp? No, but I just it's probably like my favorite monologue from the whole thing when Graham, because this Mel Gibson crushes it, because he's got crazy in his eyes.
Speaker 1:So when he's set whenever he's always had crazy in his eyes. That's why he's perfect and lethal weapon in the Mad Max series. But just like seeing him just try to wrap his head around whether he's a man of faith or a man of I don't want to say science, but science. It's not science because I don't just not unfaith. Yeah, he's a man of unfaith, I don't know. I really do like this whole scene. He's an apostate. It's probably the best until merrill comes in.
Speaker 1:It's probably the best written thing he's done in this movie yeah, it was amazing and then merrill's like oh well, oh, I kissed a girl, or almost did um, but yeah, and then merrill, essentially, is asking he's like, well, so what do you believe?
Speaker 1:and he's like, I don't know, um, and then he kind of starts talking about, uh, the death of his wife and that before she died she said, see, it's like she said Graham, see, and then told Meryl to swing away. When Meryl asked his brother the same question about the faith, graham does not answer. Then we cut to the flashback that shows Graham approaching the scene of an accident. Still in his clerical suit, he sees his wife pinned to a tree by a truck and the officer tells him that his wife won't live long, being held alive only by the truck pinning her into a place. It doesn't really it doesn't go that far into it, but I just wrote kind of the whole thing, but what I do like is it's very weird and it works though is that he explains what happens to his wife and then they cut to the flashback only showing a little bit of it. Yeah, so it's like, oh, we're going to see it, but then he holds it back a little bit.
Speaker 1:And it just kind of more anticipation to see Just to see the carnage.
Speaker 2:When are we?
Speaker 1:going to hear an emotional speech, because we know it's coming.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, For sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So the following morning we see Merrill is watching the news in the closet. He's like I had to take it away. The kids just wouldn't stop watching it. So I'm protecting them, even though he's slowly becoming crazy in that closet. So he's watching the news he's. He seems like he might be going a little crazy. He thinks the crop circles are there to help the UFOs to navigate the spots which he's like by the way, we have one in our backyard, bro.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're showing up all around them, and I love that. Merrill's the one that says, oh, it's a way to you that for them to navigate. And then in the end he's like oh, we should stay here though, okay so after he says he wants to go to the lake, so he walks in on the kids reading about aliens and we see him wearing tinfoil hats so great, um.
Speaker 1:And he goes in there to sits with him and graham's like who with him? And Graham's like who wrote this thing? He's like scientists who were persecuted for their own beliefs. He's deep, it's funny because that's like not now, but that's how it used to be, for talking about UFOs.
Speaker 2:You're crazy. That's a tinfoil hat thing.
Speaker 1:It's so funny, that's what made me think?
Speaker 2:what the fuck are they reading? I know they're just kids though, what kind of crackpot.
Speaker 1:In their heads it's like, oh, this will obviously work, I know it's so cool. And then, like Graham's kind of making fun of it a little bit, he's like, well, we're not going to talk to you if you have to take this seriously. So cute. But the book says the aliens are either here for research or they're hostile. While looking through the book he notices a picture of a house on fire. Looks a lot like their house Bo's, like that's our windows. And then we also see three bodies dead on the ground.
Speaker 1:Whoa book Like a super loud telephone ring and it jump scares everybody. It's really good, it's perfect timing. Um, and then you have Graham. Everybody needs to calm down, need some fruit or something yeah, that was the one.
Speaker 1:That was the one I was thinking of it was between that we probably should have done that one so, um, the phone call was from ray. He just says father. Um, he's like yeah, and then you kind of hear a little bit of like clicking on the other end and then uh, like they're listening in on the phone call well, because later we'll see that at ray's.
Speaker 1:Like he had one in his house and he trapped it right, right, right, um. And then beau turns to morgan and says she doesn't want him to die. And it's like who told you I was going to die? But Bo has her dreams. That's where she's getting it. So Graham takes a short visit to Ray Reddy's house His name is Ray Reddy we're not going to talk about how bad of a name that is, how would you name him Ray Reddy and finds Ray staring blankly out of his car window and bleeding. He says one got into his house.
Speaker 2:Doesn't he love to put red shit in movies, in that Shyamalan? I know he's got a visitor, not the village, I don't know Red is huge in the Sixth Sense and the Village and I'm sure, like everything else he does, like play with the colors a lot.
Speaker 1:Maybe the word red, like if you watch the movie Glass, like the whole movie is just set up with like color schemes for each character and it's like that's cool, anyway, sorry. So and he says he got one into his house. He he said like I knew I had your number and for some reason you're the only person I could think to call um ray, apologizes for the accident that occurred, tells graham that they don't like water and that a lot of people have gone to the lake, and then he says sorry for making him lose his faith. Mel Gibson fucking crushes this scene, just like because he's so crazy looking and uncomfortable and he always seems a little amped up and you can just see how uncomfortable he is. Like having to sit here talking to this guy who's like this guy killed my wife and then to hear him like apologize, which I'm sure is frustrating but also super sad, because it's like, oh well, I think this guy's life was also probably ruined that night, just like mine is. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I think he always wanted to hear him like say sorry for making him lose his faith.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I believe that he was kind of fighting from. You know, whenever he left his religion or whatever, he probably decided he would never forgive anyone ever again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, exactly, he's like well, if I don't believe in christianity anymore, there's no reason to forgive anybody kind of do whatever I want now maybe yeah, um. So before driving away and leaving graham in the driveway, ray tells him that he trapped one in the pantry. And leaving Graham in the driveway, ray tells him that he trapped one in the pantry. It's like, oh cool, they can't open door. Yes, so cuts it. Yeah, like it's just a little lock and they're supposed to be big bad aliens.
Speaker 3:He did have some stuff against the door.
Speaker 1:So maybe, yeah, I guess Maybe they don't have doorknobs, they just have gas. They're just like we don't know how things work in this world. Everything we have, we just use our mind and it opens, or whatever. I don't know.
Speaker 2:So yes here we go.
Speaker 1:We cut to Meryl, who's still in the closet.
Speaker 3:He's startling. I mean, this would be me, though.
Speaker 1:I'd be glued to the TV if this was happening, he hasn't slept, or I'd just be like, hey, natalie, is there anywhere you want to go, because this might be it for us? And so this is on the news. We see it's like found footage. M Night just took a regular camcorder to film this, and he was doing it all himself and during a boy's birthday party.
Speaker 1:in Rio Grande or in Brazil, somewhere, an alien slowly walks by a driveway. I mean, we kind of talked about it earlier why I think it's scary. It's like you're not expecting such a clear shot and it's just kind of casually walking by, which is like hey, can you not be so casual dude? You're an alien.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, he's not even trying to sneak or like hurt anybody either. He's just walking around. He's got a camera around his neck snapping photos and shit he's scoping out the land.
Speaker 1:So then we're back to the Graham scene. Graham investigates. He pretends to be a cop because he still thinks he's just a random guy. It's like me and the guy don't throw your life away. We don't want to put you in a paddy wagon. He's like what the fuck did? I just say, and then, after even says something is a soupy. He's like I'll keep trying. Um, but then he takes a carving knife from the kitchen and attempts to use it like a mirror to catch the intruder's reflection from under the door.
Speaker 2:When he does a cool thing, oh dude.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this scene rules. I wish it wasn't cgi, but it still rules. When he does like, the hand comes out and it's like the fingers scratching at it, he's like fumbling with the knife and then eventually he's able to cut, just like the carrots yeah yeah, those carrots which are just there foreshadowing the fact that he's gonna cut off fingers.
Speaker 1:It's like okay, dude, we get it. You staged this scene. We get and startle Grant. Yeah, he cuts off the knife and I like, before he does that he walks away first, like he's like I don't believe it, I'm not gonna believe it, I'm not even gonna like I don't want to see, because I don't want to actually know if it's aliens or not, then you're like ah, fuck it, he does it.
Speaker 1:That's great. So Graham returns home, sits on he's like, oh my god, what did I just see? Sits down on some stairs, mind blown. And then you see the whole family's there with tinfoil hats, except for a gram um. And then merle says immediately they can change colors and use camouflage. It's great. Morgan says that they will use hand-to-hand combat because they don't want us to use nukes now. If the aliens lose, they will eventually come back hundreds or thousands of years, Thousands of years yeah, it's like oh great, obviously setting up signs too.
Speaker 1:Fuck yeah, man, bring it, I'd love it. So Graham proposes to his family two options. They can either go to the lake in hopes that aliens do not like water, or stay home After a family vote in which at first it's three to two because Graham's vote counts as two because of his wife. They're going to go to the lake, but Morgan's like super pissed off, says bullshit.
Speaker 3:Hell, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then and then I guess because Bo trusts Morgan more than Graham she changes her vote to stay here. And now Graham's pissed off, but the family decides to stay home and they board gramps. Pissed off, um, but the family decides to stay home and they board up all the windows.
Speaker 2:Uh, merrill goes outside there's a base they got a lot of boards just laying around. They just have a pallet. It's just a farm I guess they just have wood everywhere it's got a giant stack because they've got a hundred thousand windows yeah, I actually can't wait to talk about that a little bit later. Oh yeah, there's lots of.
Speaker 1:So, while Graham and Meryl are boarding up the house, morgan and Bo watch the news and find out that mysterious airborne lights are now visible over approximately 274 cities worldwide, appearing within a mile of crop. Signs and the appearance are growing rapidly. News is acting like it's the end of the world world. Merrill says world world type stuff, oh, hell, yeah, um. And, like wild graham, leaves the closet, says I'm gonna go board up some more. And then, uh, morgan and merrill are just sitting there and morgan asked merrill is like if he will take care of them and he says of course I will.
Speaker 1:And he says he wishes he was his actual dad o's like, don't ever say that oh yeah, so uh, before the family finished up boarding the house, they decided to have their last full family meal, or the last supper, and they're all choosing their favorite foods. I really like this. Yeah, it was awesome where it's just like I want spaghetti, and then he's like I want French toast with mashed potatoes. Like now we're talking, and then I guess they also just had some chicken teriyaki in the house.
Speaker 2:I don't really understand that.
Speaker 1:It's like okay.
Speaker 2:They got it all.
Speaker 1:Graham's like I want a hamburger with bacon, extra bacon, yeah, because I don't care if I get cholesterol now. So an emotional scene, probably the most heartbreaking scene of the whole movie. Morgan wants to pray, but graham doesn't want to. Morgan says he hates him. It's like well, that might be fine. And he's like you know what y'all don't eat? I'm gonna eat all your food. And he's like I won't waste a single minute more on prayer. Um, he starts eating all their food and then starts crying. It's's kind of funny, but also super sad. Yeah, he's lost his shit yeah.
Speaker 1:And then Morgan realizing like oh crap, my dad's losing it.
Speaker 2:Goes to hug him. And then Bo does, and then Meryl gets in there.
Speaker 1:Meryl's just like oh, I guess I'll just sit here. And then he like goes, takes him and grabs him, and then they all have this hug and hug and it's like super sweet alien hugs them and then, yeah, and I think this was a part where it's just like like this is where graham's like damn, like the death of our wife has really killed our family. Here I have to be strong and tough. Um, yeah, and then suddenly the baby monitor begins making the familiar clicking noises and stuff. Graham checks the television to only see it's no longer broadcasting. They then board up the last doors and windows and go to the living room waiting for aliens.
Speaker 2:Did you see how they boarded up the bedroom? Yeah, it opened from the inside.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they put two boards so good In front of it, it's so good they were getting in no matter what. But then he starts trying to calm his kids by telling them the way that they were born.
Speaker 2:He's like here. I know it's scary, but let me make you cry real quick.
Speaker 1:Well, it really works. It definitely works for Bo. She's loving it. She's just smiling real big. Yeah, that's really sweet.
Speaker 2:And then when she gets to the morgue, she'sgan yeah, your mom was bleeding so much um.
Speaker 1:This is apparently what happened to m night's kids.
Speaker 3:This is their birthing story.
Speaker 1:Um, but yeah, like bow apparently is so angelic and perfect and everybody called her an angel. It's really sweet. Abigail has this huge smile on her face. She's like the sweetest, cutest kid ever. But then they cut to. Their dog who was accidentally left outside, begins to bark alarmingly, but it's quickly silenced with the yelp oh man, that was sad too, I know it's like oh shit, we forgot the dog.
Speaker 1:It just dies so soon after something can be heard climbing onto the roof and breaking into the attic. It's great because you're just hearing noises all around the house and, like your tv's real loud, you have surround sounds in your walls like I wish I did. It's amazing. Um.
Speaker 1:He then tells morgan's birth story, which is also super sweet and like like there was a ton of blood and they weren't sure he was gonna make it but then, like he was better, and then like brought him in and it was just, uh, colleen, the wife and morgan were just staring at each other and it was great or whatever.
Speaker 3:Super sweet story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I didn't write down those quotes I should have. When Meryl realizes that no one boarded up the attic access door in the ceiling, family retreats to the basement. The intruders soon find the basement door and try to break in, Needing something to brace the door. They get like the axe thing Axe and pitchfork thing it took them forever to find something.
Speaker 2:But doing this they accidentally smash their lantern.
Speaker 1:This is so funny.
Speaker 2:Me and my wife were talking about how we would both react in that moment and she was like she's the one that breaks it. She's like turn on the light.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. So Morgan finds a flashlight and they look and they start looking around and grandma realizes that the aliens aren't trying to get into the basement through the door, so they're just trying to distract them. He remembers that there is an old cold shoot down there and they go looking for it. And during this whole scene morgan just keeps bringing up how they forgot their tinfoil hats, so that they can read their minds now, which I don't know if they can. But as soon as they bring up the coal chute, they get to the coal chute. So Graham sees that Morgan is standing near the coal chute.
Speaker 1:Suddenly an alien hand grabs at Morgan. It's camouflage. It's great because it's completely dark and they just shine the light onto him and he's just like standing there, like what, okay, move it up. He's like what do you got to look for? So Meryl covers the chute with large bags of dog food and then he puts one can on top of it. So good. When he looks back at his brother, he sees him distressingly cradling Morgan who's having an asthma attack, and without his inhaler. God, that sucked to watch. Bo says she dreamed this Right. Another part whenever, like there's a scuffle, they drop the flashlight and it just kind of rolls on the ground and you see Bo just standing in a corner.
Speaker 2:It's like Blair.
Speaker 1:Witch yeah, it's a really like. It's scary, it's a scary shot, so it's like, oh man, like what would a little girl do. In that it's like I'll just. I live here now so holding Morgan. Graham curses his God and his faith for letting Morgan suffer needlessly while Meryl and his daughter watch. I hate you Just whispering it in his kid's ear.
Speaker 1:So it's like don't do this, Don't take him. He talked to dad, but he's able to calm his asthma. And this whole scene you're kind of seeing it a lot through Meryl's eyes. He's looking scared and in disbelief. They eventually decide to save the batteries on their flashlights once Morgan chills out and they turn them off. Back to the accident where Graham's wife dies. His wife is pinned between a tree and a truck and she's being held together by the truck.
Speaker 1:And he's like you can go talk to her and he's like Carolyn, is this the last time I'm going?
Speaker 2:to talk to my wife. Like yeah, and I was like damn yeah, she's holding, telling him straight.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, it's something like there's something about him asking that question that's super sad and devastating, like, yeah, he's like he needs confirmation.
Speaker 3:It's like he knows, but he's like is this really it?
Speaker 1:but he begins walking to her and he sees ray on the ground. He cuts back to the well. We cut back to the family. The family hides out in the basement until morning, graham desperately coaching his son to breathe, all night despite the asthma attack. They hear on the radio that a method of fighting the invaders has been developed and they are now retreating.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe share that information. Right? She said water, water.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really easy. I think it's supposed to be, that they don't 100%
Speaker 1:know what it is Okay, and they said that they're even leaving the wounded behind and this is also where we hear they were there to harvest them. Merrill tells Graham that there were reports of people battling back against the Vader's and that some humans had been killed when the aliens sprayed them with poisonous gas More signs. Merrill asked him if he thought that they would make it through the night. Then Merrill says there are a lot of things I can take and some things I can't. But what I can't take is when my older brother, who's everything that I want to be, starts losing faith in things. Saw that look in your eyes last night. I don't want to ever see that look in your eyes again. Oh, come on.
Speaker 2:He's scared dude. His kid was about to die. But it's okay to you know change your face.
Speaker 1:I think it was just like forever in Meryl's life. Graham was always the rock right, like he was the one that was. He was the stable part of his life and then once he kind of went off the rails.
Speaker 3:It was like if you're not good, I'm not good anymore.
Speaker 1:So Graham decides they should all venture up from the basement because they're like well, if we hear anything on the baby monitor, we'll stay down here, but if we don't hear anything we'll go back up. They listen to it for five seconds. That's enough for me. How about you? Yeah, so Graham and the family head upstairs. Meryl goes up. It all seems clear. This is what I want to talk about. The windows up. It all seems clear. This is what I want to talk about. The windows. Every time I watch this movie, when it's the shot from the basement up to where merrill's looking around yeah, the window has stars, moons and stuff cut out of the thing, the shutter, the whatever they're called yeah, did the aliens just cut that out uh, no, I just thought that was the
Speaker 2:first time we'd seen light shining through the windows in the house, with the shutters drawn.
Speaker 1:So I was thinking that they put.
Speaker 2:They didn't have them down before they were up, because they roll up at the top, so they just have, like some curtains that have stars and stuff on them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cut out. I was curious because I thought it was like a piece of metal and it just was like stuff, like like the aliens did it or something. No, because it's like moons and stars and stuff.
Speaker 2:See, I just thought it was like aliens, like they had a baby alien and it was just messing with her messing and like cutting things out. Yeah, I was like it's so weird. Every time I watch it I'm like I thought it was super interesting. It'd be a cool thing to do, although it'd be super annoying and bright when you don't want it to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. Maybe for one window, they get out, they go into the living room. Bo comes in and says people are dancing on TV. Or Bo says people are on TV doing this. It's so funny because people are dancing on. Tv. She's like, yeah, so he goes to get the TV and suddenly, when he comes back in in they come face to face with an alien for the first time and it's grabbed. Morgan, for anyone can react Came out of nowhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Holds him hostage and extends, like a spiny tube, his wrist spaying the poisonous gas. Something I love the TV reveal because we first see it on the TV, like in the darkness of the TV so good. We first see it on the TV, like in the darkness of the TV, so good, oh yeah the shadow, yeah, hanging out reflection best part. Probably shouldn't have seen the alien at all and only through. Probably should have done the whole scene through the TV.
Speaker 1:Think it would have probably been better and also it kind of does a close up to the fingers being cut off of the alien. Yeah, so it's like I'm gonna stay and kill this family.
Speaker 2:I miss my fingers it's like dude and he was left behind.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah sure he was left behind, um, I don't know. I was just like, oh, that's a little too perfect that it's the same alien. Would he take a car and drive down there? But he's had a little while to walk, that's true.
Speaker 2:He had all night, I guess and they're fast yeah, maybe he got picked up by I'm sure someone let him out of the. He hitched a ride.
Speaker 1:I guess maybe another alien came out. Let him out of the pantry.
Speaker 2:He was like I lost my fingers.
Speaker 1:They're like dude you're so dumb it's like you know what we're leaving you behind, use your superhuman strength.
Speaker 2:That's why he was left behind Because they're like you.
Speaker 1:seriously, let one of these humans cut your fingers off, or we would have taken you so, and then this is oh yeah, so this is a part and it's a really kind of crazy shot where you have Mel Gibson's Graham. He's in the corner of, like, the living room. So it's a real weird like shot because it just looks unnatural because you have Graham in the forefront and then it's a wide angle lens so you have the like it's just how symmetrical it is and then the wideness of the lens makes it look really eerie and he's staring straight at the camera and it's doing this flashing shot from his face to the crash and it just keeps kind of flashing. Another movie.
Speaker 1:Another movie we recently did, did that that I really liked and I was like oh man, I love when people do that.
Speaker 2:That was cool. X, x did it. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So we see the remainder of Graham's flashlight to Colleen's death is revealed. She is still coherent as she dies and tells Graham that she loves him to look after their children and to tell Meryl to swing away. Meryl does love a baseball Because earlier he said like like everything she said meant nothing. It was just like her brain is messed up from being ran over.
Speaker 2:She's a witch.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he said like her cognitive function is severed or something he thinks.
Speaker 2:As you die, your brain lets adrenaline go and your synapses are firing.
Speaker 1:He wasn't noticing the signs, the signs. It cuts back to the coincidences. They're like luck and coincidences scene. And now Mel's realizing oh man, this was all signs.
Speaker 2:Everything is a sign.
Speaker 1:Back to the present. Graham spots Meryl's trophy baseball bat on the wall and tells Meryl to swing away. What? Meryl calmly grabs his bat and attacks the alien, which drops Morgan. Merrill quickly realizes that water is deadly to an alien and uses all the unfinished glasses of water Bo left all over the house to defeat the alien Signs Signs, while Graham takes Morgan outside and administers his asthma medication.
Speaker 2:Oh, he gives him epinephrine or EpiPen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, something like that, yeah.
Speaker 2:He stabs it into his leg.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's it. And then Morgan soon recovers his asthma attack, having prevented him from inhaling the alien's gas Signs, realizing that Colleen's dying words meant something after all Signs Realizing that Colleen's dying words meant something after all. Signs and that they actually saved his remaining family's life. Graham's faith is restored.
Speaker 3:Signs.
Speaker 1:The final scene, which is great because he's inside the house, like second story, and it's just like a shot of them outside on the lawn and it slowly pans around and the colors start to change and we see it on the other window. It's all winter. And then you see Graham. He's getting ready for church or whatever. He's in his little, his preacher's costume, I don't know Whatever they call it, the cloth and then he notices he hears all his kids. They're all laughing and having a good time down there. It's a clerical suit, that's what it's called. And then that's it. Also, there's stars on the comforter, signs, and that's the end of the movie, because that's Signs. Baby, yay, that was a fun movie.
Speaker 2:Great.
Speaker 1:Favorite M Night movie.
Speaker 3:That or Six fun movie, great.
Speaker 1:Favorite M Night movie, that or Sixth Sense.
Speaker 3:It's that or Sixth Sense.
Speaker 2:Those are my two favorites. Obviously I haven't lined up yet.
Speaker 1:Sixth Sense is probably the better movie, but this movie is so in my wheelhouse.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's cool. I love alien shit. Yeah, aliens are great. More alien shit.
Speaker 1:Go go aliens. All right, so we're going to hit our first category the good, the bad, the ugly, the fine. It's where we talk about the good of the film, something that we like, the bad, something we didn't like. The ugly, something that didn't age well. The fine, something that did age well. So for the good, I put, I don't know just like the whole plot, the way it's shot, all the kid actors, Phil Gibson's good in it, the kid Walking Just you know just everything came together.
Speaker 1:It's all really weird and awkward, but it all works.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I loved how they built so much tension all throughout the movie. Yeah, it was really cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the guy's really good at suspense. I mean they called M Night after the sixth sense. He was supposed to be the next steven spielberg. Oh yeah, way too much pressure to put on people. They should have never done that. I think it really got to him eventually.
Speaker 2:Oh man um but there was a lot. There's always there always seemed to be a pretty good payoff for all the suspense, except for that one I didn't care for and that was my bad wait. Which one the? The? Just like the alien itself.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, gotcha yeah, um, the bad something that you did not like about the film mine was the CGI alien.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, same just wish they weren't CGI, I thought, because they they were successful with things like seeing it on the roof for the first time Seeing its leg.
Speaker 1:That was the scariest fucking shit. Yeah, the leg in the corn where it's like, oh, now he's in the corn, where could he?
Speaker 2:be now he's gone. Yeah, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Maybe Everything, until they showed it pretty much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, he's just a guy, he's just some green dude, he's just some damn alien.
Speaker 1:That's what they're probably just going to be.
Speaker 2:They're just going to be like oh, you're just humanoid shaped. Oh, you've only got one dick yeah.
Speaker 1:We have five Interesting Sex is crazy, so we'll go to the ugly. Something that did not age well I think this is pretty much the easiest one Mel Gibson. He did not age well, still in Hollywood doing everything but he said some messed up stuff. And if you haven't heard him, go online, because you can easily hear him.
Speaker 2:He needs a handler.
Speaker 1:I did think about starting off the beginning of the podcast with, just like him, one of his rants oh no, oh no. Then, like as it ends sigh alright, so something that it did age well what do you got?
Speaker 2:I don't know, man, I really want more alien movies. Yeah, even though just the the fear of the unknown, yeah, I think that always ages well, I uh.
Speaker 1:I put M Night for a second there it didn't seem like it was gonna age well because after the happening and after earth, people were like wow, uh, no, good, bad doodoo poopoo, have you seen the series that he does, or that's?
Speaker 3:no, I haven't seen it like the sir about the baby, the babysitter or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's on apple tv plus fucking wild.
Speaker 1:Maybe we'll watch it after a lot it seems like a fun. Another mysterious show to maybe go to crazy got rupert grin in it. Yeah, we were just we watched the first three harry potter. He's pretty funny on that show. He's just apparently funny and everything this is so good, yeah, um, but yeah, that's that category.
Speaker 1:Now we're gonna head over to the double feature where we pick one movie that goes well with signs. I picked the movie no One Will Save you. It's an alien movie. It has a lot of the same issues, but it's also good in different ways. It's more action-packed and but the scary parts, like one of the aliens in the house, is really good, very creepy.
Speaker 2:Did you watch it?
Speaker 1:No, I don't think. So think you haven't seen, no one will save you. It's on hulu, go home watch it. Maybe do it tonight. It's one of those movies that last year just kind of popped up where people were like, hey, this is a good movie, and I was like, okay, and I watched it. It's like it's good, it's got problems, don't get me wrong, it's got problem it's a very much like hey, my trauma from the past is coming up and aliens are here too.
Speaker 1:But I really do enjoy the movie. I need to rewatch it this October again.
Speaker 2:What do you got? I was thinking Independence Day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hell, yeah, that's a good one. Just watch some aliens blow some shit up. I mean, essentially, M Night was just like I want to do an alien movie, but I want to do it the opposite of Independence Day. I want it to be a family stuck in their house, which he did before War of the Worlds, which he essentially had the same idea. Let's just follow a family.
Speaker 2:And there's no mother. It's super interesting, yeah, watching them all panic.
Speaker 1:It's kind of weird. A lot of our movies here recently have been really connected back to each other's movies. I don't. We kind of just come up with these movies last minute, like as we're recording. So it's kind of funny that they all seem to be tied. It must be like something that I'm doing in my own head or subconsciously I'm picking these movies. So, talking about movies that we're going to pick and we picked them last, minute.
Speaker 2:Yes, what's next week?
Speaker 1:We've chosen Roadhouse baby, that's right. Our boy, patrick Swayze, back in action. Jason has never seen this movie.
Speaker 3:He is going, he's got.
Speaker 1:This is a point breaking speed situation that's going to happen next week. He's going to love it and hate it all the same. I cannot wait, Dude. I cannot wait for you to hear one of the best lines in cinematic history. I'm not even going to tell you what it is, and also a very uncomfortable sexy. Oh no, oh, not like that. I just mean like, though I'm like this is an uncomfortable way to have sex. Oh, okay, sure.
Speaker 2:On marble stairs.
Speaker 1:Like in the Thomas Crown Affair oh wow, we almost picked that one too. So, yeah, join us next week for that. Thank you for joining us this week and leave us some fan mail. Go in the description or wherever you're listening If it allows you to click on the link. You can just click on the link that says send some fan mail and you can text us some mail or go to. We recommend mailbag at gmailcom. If you want to follow us on social medias, go to our Linktree. Linktree forward slash. Werecommendpodcast. I'd like to thank Joey Prosser for his contribution to the podcast through music. He did our intro and outro. Thank you, joey Prosser. You can follow him on X at. Mr Joey Prosser, is that? It? Is that what I usually say? Leave us some reviews, guys. We got, we got a couple. They're not leaving like comments, but they're rating us like five stars on things. Um, I'd love to actually hear from you get some feedback yeah, give us some feedback.
Speaker 1:What do you hate, is it? It's like, wow, these guys sound ugly or these guys sound hot. We did get one.
Speaker 2:We did get one youtube comment after that.
Speaker 1:So yeah, join us next week for Roadhouse. Thank you for joining us. This has been the we Recommend Podcast. I'm Jesse, I'm Jason. I think we all just need to calm down and eat some fruit or something. Bye, thanks for watching.
