Silent Running

Jake: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Jake and Pete's Movie Talk, the podcast about two friends from opposite sides of the pond, meeting in the middle to discuss the movies they love. This week on the program, we are going beyond the stars because we're going over silent running from the year nineteen seventy-two, directed by Douglas Trumbull, starring Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts, and Ron Rifkin. With me as always to talk about this picture is the astronaut himself, Mr. Pete. Pete, how are you doing this week?
Pete: I'm well. Thank you, Jacob. How are you?
Jake: Outstanding. Outstanding. I feel like we have like a revolving door on the podcast where we're either doing you know, movies about nature trying to kill you, people talking in rooms, or an astronaut all alone out in space.
Pete: There does seem to be a theme, doesn't there? I mean it's certainly no Star Wars, is it, this this movie we're reviewing this week.
Jake: It certainly know Star Wars. It certainly know a lot of things. This is for for the gentle listener, the silent running from nineteen seventy two, rated G, a rated G movie, the first rated G picture on Jake and Pete's movie talk. Really something else. That Pete, this was your pick. Why don't you explain to why don't you explain to us what made you pick this movie for the for the for review?
Pete: Can I can I ask G? What does G stand for, first of all? Is that general?
Jake: General audiences.
Pete: You so anybody can go, you can go like as a as a kid, doesn't matter.
Jake: Yeah, you could be a toddler and a diaper and they let you into this movie.
Pete: Interesting. Okay. Yeah. well this movie was, I felt, a missing piece from my movie knowledge. I'd never watched this before the day or two ago, for the review. So I'd heard that it was a decent sci fi movie. I'd a reviewer that I listened to some time ago mentioned it was one of his favourite sci fi movies, if not if not his actual favourite. So I thought it's a bit of a hole in my knowledge. I better fill up and find out if it's a decent movie or not. So that is why I chose it and and asked you to watch this, Big Jake.
Jake: Well nice. Who just out of curiosity, who's the reviewer?
Pete: Commode, mark commode.
Jake: Well incidentally enough, this movie belongs in a commode. Okay.
Pete: yeah, I think he'd say it's Kermode. That's right, that's how he likes to be pronounced. But anyway, he's a UK radio movie reviewer, I don't know if you've ever heard of him, but he he says sort of two things. He doesn't really like sci fi movies, they're not his thing, and he also has a tin ear for comedy. So you know, you have to take his reviews on those two areas with a bit of a pinch of salt now, I think. I hadn't seen it before. I know you hadn't seen it before, so I was quite interested in your take on this and whether you felt it was a decent addition to the sci fi repertoire. I know that you had some trepidation perhaps.
Jake: If you really call it trepidation, I came into this with a, you know, a big old open mind. And I was excited to watch a, you know, 1970s sci-fi movie. I love Bruce Dern. I thought it would be be awesome. but it it just I it this movie's really dated when when you know if if you want my honest opinion, this movie didn't age well. And I think primarily it's it's the humor in it. It's somewhat the performances in it. But mostly it's that nineteen seventies. You know, we're gonna have moments of introspection while some really dorky song is playing and some ladies singing. You know. A lot of like I'm gonna ha I'm gonna have a walk by the river and have a think.
Pete: Joan Bays is apparently the artist who does the very hippie music. I was going to ask you a bit about the music. I I also would agree. The music in this is unnecessary. Unnecessarily sixties. Unnecessarily hippie ish. They could have they could have done without this this lady singing, Joan Bays.
Jake: Well, it reminds me of a other movies from the seventies, like movies like Billy Jack or some of the rankin' bass pictures that you would watch around Christmas time, where just randomly there'd be just like musical number in the movie. And yeah, maybe no one's actually singing it, but it's it's a full length song being sung over whatever's happening in the movie.
Pete: You'll get it in the montages within this movie. So when they're doing something like fixing up something, or, you know, as he's doing, he's taking inventory, you know, this kind of thing, they they play a bit of her music. which is very it like you say, it dates the movie incredibly. apart from that, the score, did you get any of the score at all?
Jake: No, not really. I I didn't notice much of the score. Maybe you can smarten me up on it. Is it is it did did you enjoy the music in this picture?
Pete: There there are some scenes where the score is is is interesting. They've got like an orchestral score in some of the scenes as well, which works quite well, some violins going off. you know, the the old violin always works, right, on the screen. So it it does it does go quite well. Of course. the bit that sticks out is definitely Joan Bays, unfortunately, and her crooning over this sort of nineteen sixties flower power music. Yeah, terrible. I I think this movie brings up some interesting points. Interesting interesting areas for discussion, for introspection. I think the the most interesting or one of the most interesting things, there's no or very few screens in this movie. Did you notice? So there's there's kind of no TVs, they're not watching TV, they don't do any TV watching, there's no movies. the the screens within the spaceship itself they're all really not really functional. They've either got static on them or they're just counting down some random number or counting up. So they don't really use screens at all. The droids don't have screens. yeah, it's it's really I I think that stood out for me that they that they envisaged they envisaged a future without us sort of scr you know looking at screens and they got that just blatantly wrong, didn't they? Just the opposite.
Jake: Yeah, they really they they missed they missed that. a lot of a lot of chummy card playing, a lot of go-kart racing for God knows what reason. that's how these guys are gonna occupy their time, which we'll get into it. But yeah, Pete, I I find that interesting. The the design language of the future for this movie is bereft of screens, bereft of of moving pictures.
Pete: It is. Yeah, it's weird. When when the guy wants to look up something, he asks the droid to hand him a book. He goes, Can you pass me that book? He doesn't look it up on the screen. There's no screen or computer for him to look it up on. It's so you know, it's such a weird concept, isn't it, to think of? Give me the book. I have to look it up manually. that was their vision of the future. what I mean, what else? The how about the the special effects? What did you think of the special effects in this movie? Is it as good as Star Wars seventy seven?
Jake: No, but Douglas Trumbull, this is his directorial debut, but his his claim to fame, his nom de plum is visual effects in movies. So with that understood, you would think that this movie would just be incredible looking. It is pretty good looking. I think the exterior shots of the starships of these, you know, you you get a sense of of scale. with these large ships that are traversing the solar system. that all looks really good. These robots in the movie, these robotic contortionist things, they are
Pete: Well didn't you say didn't you say you thought these guys were w there was guys walking on their hands in there?
Jake: You're goddamn right they're walking on their hands.
Pete: I think they are. I think they've got themselves.
Jake: They they got some like Russian women in these things and their their feet are are wrapped around their necks, their their their their heels are by their ears, and they're walking on their hands. That's how these things operate.
Pete: Why can't there just be midgets or dwarfs inside? Because they're
Jake: The legs are too far apart, man. They're way too far apart. They're obviously arms.
Pete: I didn't
Jake: And they actuate like arms. They behave like arms. Did we watch the same movie?
Pete: Well I don't think I wasn't convinced 'cause I ha when you mentioned that to me, I had a good look at them. And I thought, no, that's just it's just some midgets. They've just hired the midgets. I mean, I I was thinking it's a good time to be a midget in the movie business, isn't it? In the in the seventies and eighties, you had a lot of work. It's kind of dried up a bit now for the the dwarves and the midgets.
Jake: The three drones, Huey, Dewey and Louis, were not remote controlled robots. Instead, they were played by bilateral amputees. People missing both legs. What did I tell you? They are walking on their hands, sir.
Pete: Yeah, they went to the the the right casting agency, didn't they, and asked the right question to get these guys. We need for this movie have you got any of these guys? We need people who are only from the top half up.
Jake: Right. And how like you think they'd be like just pumping their fist 'cause like, fuck yes, finally a role that's not one of these one of us characters. This is gonna be great. I'm not playing someone from a circus. This is awesome.
Pete: I'm not playing someone stuck in a hole.
Jake: Not playing someone who's underneath a boulder. This is fantastic.
Pete: We're getting swallowed by a shark.
Jake: Yeah. I don't know, this is this is twenty years before Jurassic Park. I feel like they yeah, they missed an opportunity here.
Pete: So you telling me these guys were doing handstands the whole time? Is that what you're actually telling me?
Jake: Because they had no legs below because they had no legs below the hips, they could fit completely inside the robot shell while supporting themselves on their arms.
Pete: That's crazy. That I did not know.
Jake: Yeah. Yeah. Just another one of those little details. It's hard to miss.
Pete: Well it's just you know, you gotta imagine that's probably one of the reasons why they were unable to design the the the droid effectively to communicate in any way that mean that makes any sense at all. They were unable did you notice this? The droids the droids can't communicate. The only way of communication they have is like they've got a small servo powered flap, like a letterbox that they can flap open and shut, and that's their only way of communication apart from like a flashing light. they've got no way of speaking, they've got no way of projecting their thoughts. I mean if they're if they've got something really complicated that they need to get across, it's not happening. It's just never gonna happen.
Jake: What was the main function of these of these drones? Did di is it ever explained? Are they just like there to hang out? Are they cleaning the floors? What are they doing?
Pete: Yeah, they're maintenance drones, yeah. that apparently can be reprogrammed. But I I also thought it was quite a prescient movie. What do you think about that? The environmental message in the movie, Jacob.
Jake: Well the movie lets you know where it stands politically. If not for the script and the, you know, the the characters and what they choose to put in their mouths and on the screen. But one hundred percent in that like we already h mentioned earlier, these super hippy dippy moments in the movie where it's just like Some lady with her hair parted down the middle and it's l long and straight down to her ass, wearing a flower print shirt and some bell bottoms, singing away.
Pete: Well y well you've got imagine, right, this came out in seventy two, before really anyone was talking about global warming or, you know, environmental issues like that. I think global warming was came out basically in the in the mid to late eighties, pretty much. that was when that was sort of really publicized. So it I think it's quite prescient on that on that level. I mean look at the stuff that's going on in Spain and Italy and I think it's quite an important topic though. You know, it's got to be addressed, Jacob. The world is getting warmer. This this this movie told us about this fifty years ago. And what have we done? We banned aerosols and a few fridges. That's pretty much the extent of it.
Jake: Yeah, that's pretty much it. And then we just pump the atmosphere full of carbon dioxide. But I have no recollection of there being something in this movie about warming. They've made the earth a pleasant seventy five degrees everywhere all the time. Why are they in space? What's the deal with these big biodomes they've got up there? What's going on?
Pete: Let me tell you a bit of a story. Bruce Dern stars as the caretaker of a greenhouse located on a group of space stations that are sent into orbit. The Earth has been stripped clean of foliage, and the greenhouse contains the last remaining greenery from the planet. Dern's staff includes three human beings and a trio of endearing robots he later named. Huey, Dewey and Louis. But yeah, so what's happened is there's been environmental catastrophe. Something has happened. It has killed off all of the foliage of the earth. So they have uprooted the last of the trees, put them into huge biodomes on these massive, huge spaceships, and then shot them up into space somewhere near Saturn. They're kind of hanging around in space. Waiting for instructions as to what to do next, it seems.
Jake: I didn't get any of that in while watching it. I didn't get that the earth was had some sort of a disaster that stripped it clean. I didn't get that these were the last forests, you know, in in in
Pete: Did you even watch this movie, Jacob?
Jake: It's funny you should mention that. I've got a plan now. Does that help? No, I did. I had it on last night. I I had it on while I was making dinner. I I was so completely bored by this movie and questioning Pete's tasted movies questioning so many different things. I I finished my supper. I I sat, you know, I'm I'm I I ate my dinner in front of the TV watching this movie. And I finished my meal, I sat back on the couch, looked at the TV and immediately fell asleep.
Pete: Yeah, I knew it. I knew I knew I could sniff it out. You fell asleep in the movie, Jacob. I'm gonna have to help you out big time on this one. I don't mind doing that because I'm gonna probably agree with most of what you say on this movie, because it's not the best of movies. It's not the best of movies. I I but I I found it interesting enough that I think there's some stuff to speak about in this movie. I think the performance of Bruce Dern especially is is quite interesting.
Jake: Interesting is the right word for it. Yeah. I I got you there.
Pete: yeah.
Jake: So th there there I you're right. There are some good things about there are some charming aspects of this movie, but a lot of it reminded me of that we you d I don't think you watched it, but I watched it I think last year for the podcast as like as a candidate for review. But that movie Darkstar.
Pete: Yes, that's right.
Jake: It reminded me of Darkstar where there are these whole moments where you're like, Why are we doing this? Yeah, I like Bruce Dern. I like him. He's he does okay in this. But there's no one that he's bouncing anything off of. It's just Bruce Dern, like baby Bruce Dern going like, It's a cantaloupe. Back off, Johnson.
Pete: I I'm not gonna I'm not gonna harp on too much, but I'm just gonna whiz through these scenes basically and then if anything sort of stands out for you or any scenes that you wanna particularly go into, just let me know.
Jake: Yeah, dude, you are on the ones and twos tonight. Let it roll.
Pete: Yes. Well, we open with a beautiful ballad by the one and only Jane Joan Bays. and she is singing away and we've got these beautiful flowers on the screen and it's sort of the the camera pans across this beautiful flower bed and we see some animals as well. and we think we're in some park maybe or some Forests, but then the camera pans out further and we see we're in some sort of biodome, Jacob. and we've got this amazing music going on at the same time. What did you think about the music in this opening scene?
Jake: Yeah, this is we are in a time machine and we are heading back to the early seventies, is what I thought about the music in this scene. But yeah, just to wax on it a little bit, it's it's a lot of really neat shots of moist flowers. and yeah, like Pete said, a few animals. We get a snail and a turtle and a frog. And I'm kind of thinking at this point, this looks more like a fantasy picture than it does a sci fi picture, right?
Pete: It it does place it very firmly in the in the sixties or seventies though, doesn't it? This the the music, it's awful, frankly. It's a dirge, I I would describe it as. yeah. So we we pan across this idyllic looking scene and we come across Bruce Dern swimming naked in the river. And it looks like paradise. He's he's enjoying himself swimming,
Jake: the first shot of a character we get in this movie is Bruce Dern bare chested and swimming around in this lagoon thing. And you're bringing all the might of human engineering, you know, space travel, telemetry, setting up these environments in these dome structures in space. You mean to tell me you can do all that, but you can't filter some fucking water? This water looks disgusting, Pete.
Pete: Yeah, but he is he's happy to show off his buns. He's doing some lengths in this dirty river. And next thing is we see him out, he it cuts to another shot of him, which I call in his Jesus phase. I don't know if you got this.
Jake: Yeah. Bruce Dern in a snuggie hanging out and talking to a rabbit. I don't know. At this point I'm still just waiting like okay, movie, you tell me what we're doing here.
Pete: Yeah. But that's that's what we get. We introduced to Bruce Dern's character who plays the character of Lowell, Freeman Lowell or Lowell. however you Lowell. It's it's Freeman, 'cause he is that's what he strives for. And then Lowell, L O L. Freeman Lowell.
Jake: Ooh yeah, I don't think L O L was even on the radar for these people. I
Pete: No.
Jake: think if you turned to someone and and you said out loud LOL to someone in the seventies, they would punch you right in the face.
Pete: I think if you'd have told people in the seventies that we'd be mainly communicating in memes these days, I think they wouldn't have a clue what you're talking about.
Jake: Yeah, if if you went back in time to like a bar like Chuck's Cafe from from Duel and you went in and you were like, Yeah, you know, fifty years from now everyone's gonna be doing this thing with their hands and they'll say six, seven, all those guys would be getting a vasectomy that day.
Pete: But yeah, we get a we then cut to a scene where we see that Lowell is tending his garden. He is looking after it looks like he's planting some vegetables in his garden plot somewhere. And we hear some buggies come along. These fast buggies just turn up out of this tunnel entrance and just go straight over his plants and they race around him. make a hell of a noise. They're really quite fast and c look quite dangerous, these buggies, Jacob.
Jake: Yeah, the designs of these little go-karts that they've got, first of all, why do they have these? They f as far as I can see, they hold no utility on the
Pete: Recreational purposes only.
Jake: I suppose so. because as these guys come into the come into frame, it's clear that they're racing. They've set up like a little like they they know where they're going. They've got a whole track lined out, and they are racing these buggies through Lowell's little garden area. They ride the buggy over Lowell's flowers, and honest to God, Peter, one of the guys driving the the buggy goes, yippee, as he flies over. The plants. I mean
Pete: I mean you're right. It th these guys are seemingly real assholes to live with. thinking about this, this scene, these guys have four, perhaps even five other biospheres on their own ship in order to race around on. But what biosphere do they choose? They choose the one that Lowell is planting his vegetable patch in and they just drive across his vegetable patch. I think it's premeditated. I think it's I think they mean to hurt Lowell in in regards to his feelings.
Jake: you think they're picking on Lowell, like he's the he's the runt of the litter and they're really just fucking with him in this in this scene?
Pete: It it seems to be, right? They could have gone in any of the other biodomes for a little race around if that's what they wanted to do, but no, they wanted just to run over Lowell's garden, his patch.
Jake: To be honest, I didn't realize that there were other biodomes. Walk me through that. Are there there are other spheres with different ecosystems in them or or what is it?
Pete: Well, it's all the same. They all they've all got the same like forests in them. They've just sort of uprooted all of the trees and forests and shrubs that they could and plants and put them in these did you not notice on the exterior shots of the ship there was like five different bio biospheres on each ship?
Jake: I I did notice that there wasn't really
Pete: Fall asleep again, Jacob.
Jake: scan what was inside them. What I was too distracted by all the product placement and brand labeling on the side of the starship. Like there's just all kinds of American airlines. AMF. I think I saw a rebox sign at at some point in here. And yeah, what's going on with that? They are certainly trolling Lowell here.
Pete: Yes. Poor Lowell. He is just trying to do his he's just trying to tend his garden, Jake. And these thugs, these hooligans, vandals, you could call them, are just driving their their buggies. They're quite high powered, quite fast buggies, just through his biosphere dome, ruining his his vegetable pan literally the guy just misses his leg as he drives through and Lowell takes a umbrage to this and throws his rake straight at the guy but misses, unfortunately. But they you can see that they've got not a not a particularly happy relationship, perhaps, these four guys.
Jake: Yeah, I think the three guys are kinda chummy, but Lowell is the is a bit of an outsider.
Pete: Yes, yeah, that's what it looks like. and they go off racing they race into this kind of cargo hold area and start doing like handbrake turns and racing each other.
Jake: But as they're driving through this cargo area, these are some other like bits of product placement, right? You see the labels on these crates, these sort of geometric crates that they've got, and they've got things like Coca-Cola, Dow, Reebok, AMF, as we said earlier. So I I I I at this point I gotta know like what are these guys doing? What are they hauling? Are they preserving the forests and also the big brands from from the US? Like what's what's going on here? Are they shipping as well?
Pete: Luckily enough for you, we get a big exposition dump in the next scene, Jake. Th we get this scene in the kitchen or the mess room area, and there's four crew who inhabit this spaceship. It's a huge, monstrous spaceship. I mean, this thing is like Battlestar Galactica size. So there's a flotilla of at least five or six of these huge starships. And they have been sent out with biospheres attached to them. Each of them has four or five or six biospheres attached to them, growing plants, various plants and trees and greenery from Earth. And we find out that their mission, these four guys, including Lowell, is to they've got a one-year contract. They're six months in to their one year contract. And their plan is once things have settled down on Earth, Once the environment is right, their job would be to go back to Earth with all these trees, with all this greenery, and repopulate the earth with all of the fauna that they have. Flora, I should say. And
Jake: Well they also have fauna and and a and a load of Coca-Cola.
Pete: So that was their that's their plan, Jacob. It's to repopulate the earth at some point, in some distant point in the future, or some near point in the future. And what these guys are waiting for is a signal or communication from the big boss who says, Yep, it's now time to go back home and plant these trees again.
Jake: In this scene where we're getting the exposition dump and we're seeing the scale of these starships in this flotilla, we're getting shots of the drones, the maintenance drones, walking on the exterior of the ship. And there you'll you'll see them doing maintenance and welding things and inspecting things. These are just basically Astromech droids from Star Wars. And this movie came out five years before Star Wars.
Pete: What do we get in this next scene though, Jacob? We get little bit of recreation. It seems to be that these guys just enjoy their recreation. It doesn't seem they do a great deal of work.
Jake: Yeah, they they come in and they're they're having a jaw with each other about the goings on on the ship. And there's this circular pool table with a single hole in the middle. And the
Pete: Yeah.
Jake: arm that comes down and hits the ball, there's no cue ball. And a a tiny little pink pool cue and no one plays the game. The it's just there as like a set piece.
Pete: I don't know how this game has evolved. The game of Paul has evolved from four corners and six pockets into a round table with one hole in the middle with no pockets. It's I'm not sure how much fun this looks, Jacob.
Jake: Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't look fun at all.
Pete: What have we seen these guys do so far, Jacob, in regards to their work?
Jake: absolutely fuck all. We haven't seen him do any work at all.
Pete: We haven't. We've seen them race around on buggies, we've seen them play pool, and we are now about to see them play poker. So these guys, it seems, do nothing but recreational activities. They don't have any work, it seems.
Jake: Yeah, they're if they have a list of chores, it's very short. But from what I was scanning when I was watching this for the first and only time. Right, and Andy will be the one that'll be like, Hey, Loya, you want to play some poker? And kind of being like, Hey, we we want to include you in what we're
Pete: You mean John? Well, we we gradually pan out from Lowell. We see him in his apartment with his fruit that he's picked from his garden, it seems, in this biosphere. And we pan back from him. He's in his room, and we see that the ship that he is on is called the Valley Forge. And it's a huge ship, as we say. It's got all advertising from American airlines all over it. We see that it's a bit of a tense atmosphere between these these four guys, of course, and that Low or Lowell manages to win the hand and scoop up all the money and the other guys really sort of seem to be a bit annoyed at playing with him. He has a full house, Lowell, by the I don't know if you saw that, he had a pretty decent hand. Lowell cleans up on their hand, and they get into a bit of a a bit of a discussion. What's the communication going to be about? What's the communique that we're waiting for from Earth? They are waiting to see what's gonna happen, what directive they're gonna be given from the big boss. And Lowell thinks that it's gonna be a recall to Earth to reestablish all the parks and the forest system on Earth, and he will be appointed as director of this whole project.
Jake: And doesn't he say something too like, I bet that they've been getting all the transmissions I've been sending? They're listening.
Pete: He does. Yeah, he's been lobbying for this this position and he he says to the other guys, Can you think of anybody better for this position? And they all kind of look at each other, 'cause obviously these guys have been doing fuck all. So they kn they know nothing about forests replanting, you know, refurbishing. All they know about is driving buggies, annoying low, playing robot pool and playing poker. So that's pretty much what these guys are good for. Lowell is the only candidate for this role.
Jake: is it Andy's like, You're dreaming, Lowell? You're dreaming. All that stuff that you're spouting is nonsense. And Lowell's like, Well, don't you think it's about time for us to have a dream? Don't
Pete: Yeah.
Jake: you think we should save the forests? I think we need more people with dreams, don't you? It's just like You voted for Jimmy Carter, didn't you?
Pete: He gets Yeah, he's passionate. He's passionate, Jacob. Some people've got a passion, you know, some people've got a passion for dogs, some people've got a passion for playing poker. He's got a passion for the environment.
Jake: Yeah, the and Andy's got a passion for go kart racing and red scarves.
Pete: audio only on this transmission and they got a transmission from somebody called Anderson. and he basically says, Okay, we've got new directives from the big boss upstairs. the directives are to abandon and nuclear destruct all of the biospheres on all of the spaceships and come home. We don't need any trees.
Jake: It's not enough to just abandon them. They have to nuclear destruct them as well.
Pete: It is the weirdest decision. And he actually says, he says, Anderson on the radio says, that's the order we've been given, guys. We're gonna carry it out by nine AM or at nine AM tomorrow morning. And he says, I have been given no explanation for this
Jake: Yeah. Like before you start asking me, before you come at me with emails, like just no. I don't know either.
Pete: The they would have a valid point though, wouldn't they? Hang on, Anderson, we've been doing this for six months. Are you saying that we've just been wasting our time for six months and that nobody wanted trees back down there? And I mean I'm down. I hate fucking trees, right? I'm not interested in trees, bushes, shrubs, any kind of plant life at all. so just send me back to earth where it's a barren desert and I am happy.
Jake: Yeah, they wouldn't appreciate that in the wicker man. But is it is it really six months? I thought in the previous scene Bruce Dern let fly that he's been working on these biodomes for the last eight years.
Pete: yeah, well maybe it's a like a s a year contract that they do. So maybe maybe Lowell has been like six contracts in a row or something, or maybe it's on a longer contract. But the other guys say, Yeah, you know, we're six months into a one year contract. So they are at least
Jake: Well that makes more sense on why they think he's a fucking Looney Tune. These guys are probably up there for, you know, six months at a time or one one year at a time, and Lowell's like, I've been doing this for eight years.
Pete: Yeah.
Jake: Get off my flower bands.
Pete: Yeah, so that's the plan. The plan is they've got to jettison all of these biodomes. So as you as you mentioned, there's like about six or five or six biodomes on each ship. They've all got to be jettisoned one at a time and then sent out safe distance into space and then automatically exploded with a nuclear device that's been attached to them. And we cut to a close up of Lowell's face. And he doesn't look very happy, does he, Jake, about this news?
Jake: No, he is distraught. He was expecting a promotion and you know, everything to be just A OK on his side. And I think Pete, I could be wrong, but this is where we get to the first of the introspective terrible hippie music moments.
Pete: Andy Martin and John, they all sort of hug each other and they all give each other they all give each other like a high five and say, Yeah, we're going home now, guys you know, that's what we were after. No more of this hanging around in space, looking after these.
Jake: Fingers and hand jobs everywhere. Yeah. So the first thing that we see is Lowell walk into this forest biodome and he clicks on the lights. Which is about five or six lights at the top of this dome. And he he gets onto this bridge and he extends his arm just as this bird comes flying up and perches on his arm. And this is the lamest shit I've ever seen. Yeah, it he is the beastmaster. It is so so bad.
Pete: We have Lowell. He's visiting his garden once again and he's picking up some of his fruit from his garden, brings it back into the kitchen area or the mess area, and Marty says to Lowell as he brings this melon and starts eating it, this cantaloupe, he says, Do you have to bring that that food in here, that shit in here, it stinks. So he doesn't like Marty doesn't like the smell of a ripe cantaloupe melon. For some reason he finds it abhorrent.
Jake: Just doesn't like the smell of fresh food. And it's a real like 1970s, like, it ain't a burger or a chili dog. Fuck you, dude.
Pete: Yeah. It he's being and he Lowell says back to him, he says, What do you know about real food? And Marty says, What do you mean real food? You mean out of the dirt? That's what you call real food? And Lowell goes, Well, yes, that's that is real food. It's nature's greatest gift, is what he says. And Andy says, Yeah, maybe to a celibate. But Lowell Lowell carry on carries on with his argument. He says, Look, you know, you're you're missing all of this stuff, you know, without plants. You're missing the The blue sky, the valleys, you know, the grass. You could lay down in the grass in you know, years ago in Earth and just dream away the day. And the other guy, Andy, says to him, Look, Earth is a uniform seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit. Everyone is the same. he says there's no disease, there's no poverty now on earth, there's full employment. And Lowell goes, Yeah, there's no beauty. You know, how about the simple wonder of a leaf? In a girl's hand. You know, you don't get that anymore. We're missing something. And the other guys are just kinda looking at him like you're crazy. Nobody misses that stuff. You know, it's not something we're interested in anymore.
Jake: Yeah, Lowell is a man on an island here, and he has one of the one of the little bits in his tire is Earth used to have valleys. What are you saying? Like they bulldozed all the topography? Like it's just a uniform there are no more valleys on earth? They've they've they've they've abolished mountains.
Pete: Here's B. Yes, apparently so. Yes. They want everything just to be flat like Netherlands. Yeah.
Jake: Yeah, and do you do you read this as as a critique on communism as well, or is it just an environmental type thing?
Pete: what do you mean by a critique on communism? Tell me more.
Jake: Or like a s like a critique on on on socialism, where, you know, this this kind of rings the bell for me of the Fahrenheit four fifty ones, like the the deep state, you know, abolishing beauty, abolishing nature and but to to the comfort of all. You know, there's there's a collective peace, but at the expense of earth's greatest beauty.
Pete: Wow, no, I didn't I didn't kind of get that angle at all. No. I I got the impression that they had No No, I kinda got the impression that it just wasn't something that most people were interested in these days. The the simple sort of beauty and the trees and grass, they were doing other things and and and these things have kind of gone by the way by and Lowell is going, Look, how but you it's beauty, the nature is beautiful and they're they were kind of sneering at him. But the the directive has been given, Jake. The directive is to go and blow up all these domes with nuclear weapons. So they that's what they start to do. It's morning time, it's nine AM, time to get to work, guys. So they go to the garden, they go to find like these holes that they can just drop these charges, these nuclear charges, I assume, into the biosphere. And at the same time we're hearing other ships deploying or or disposing of their biodomes and they're launching their biodomes off into space and we're hearing these huge nuclear explosions going off in space. and then we get some of the we get one of the biodomes getting launched on their own ship, the Valley Forge. So we get one of their biodomes being launched out into space by the other three guys. Lowell is still in one of the biodomes and as I say, looking very, very nervous, looking very worried. And he kinda looks up and after one of these big explosions he just looks up and says, No. No. So
Jake: Explode that thing way too close to the ship too. I mean that that's just irresponsible.
Pete: Seems that way.
Jake: They're naking it, right? So for me in this scene, I was actually thinking that Bruce Stern was going to be ejected with one of these pods, but he was going to, you know, survive the whole nuclear thing and it, you know, wouldn't be a problem. He was just going to be adrift, silently running through the solar system in one of these biodomes. But that's that's not quite what happens, is it, Pete?
Pete: That's not quite what happens, Jacob. No, what happens is John, the the more friendly of the other three guys, comes into the biodome where Lowell is working, where he's hanging out with his forest buddies with all his fruit and his vegetables and his garden. Lowell is not in the mood for talking. He wants to stop John from blowing up his biosphere, I guess.
Jake: Yeah, and there's a bit of fisticuffs that happens. he says, Look, I'm not gonna let you into my into my forest with these bombs. It's just not gonna happen. And Lowell tries to kill John with a shovel. John blocks the shovel with a suitcase full of nuclear charges, which is always a good idea. And they have a roll around in the same flower bed that was run over by the go karts in the opening of the movie.
Pete: They do, and John manages to smash his shovel against Lowell's leg as well. He gashes his leg quite badly when they're having this fight. And yeah, like you say, they're rolling around on the floor, really having a bit of a wrestling match, and Lowell manages to get the upper hand and manages to throttle gets his shovel, pushes it up against the throat of John and he throttles him to death.
Jake: Protagonist of the movie, ladies and gentlemen, Stone Cold Murderer.
Pete: Hmm. Yeah. and then as soon as he's done this, he realizes I'm in a bit of trouble here. there's two against one now. I'd better get rid of the other two. So he legs it to the area where they launch off all of these biospheres from the the ship, and he finds the right one that launches the biosphere that Andy and Marty are currently placing the nuclear charge in. So the biodome that they're trying to prep for this explosion, he launches that into space. He actually presses the button and ignites the the the the nuclear weapon and blows them up as well. Doesn't just launch him into space, he blows them up as well.
Jake: And at the death of the crewmates of the Valley Forge, we will take just a little break. And we're back. Pete, what's going on now?
Pete: As we mentioned, Andy and Marty have been dispatched by Lowell. So that's now three. He's got a body count of three now in this movie. Jake, are you keeping count?
Jake: I'm keeping count. Three guys, three other guys on the starship, three other guys dead. He goes to the control room where there are screens, Pete. CRT screens. But there are screens. And he has a little bit of a moment with command, and he's like, Yeah, everything's fine. Everything's fine here. we can't launch the last pod, though. Some technical difficulties. We can't launch the last of the forests.
Pete: He does her hand solo, doesn't he? While dressed as the Stormtrooper in holding cells. Yeah, everything's okay here. We've had a slight fire.
Jake: We had a reactor leak, everything's fine here. How are you?
Pete: Boring conversation anyway. That's what we get. So Lowell is basically gaslighting the boss, the big boss in another ship who's saying, what's going on over there? You know, why haven't you launched all of your biodomes yet? What's the delay? And Lowell's going, yeah, we've had some technical difficulties with biodome number two. I can't launch it. And we've had like a gas leak and then an explosion. And I think... I think that these guys were all killed. think they were in the dark biodome that exploded. I think they're all dead now. And they're buying it. They're like, okay, all right, fair enough, lol. We've got you. Give me some time. I'll get it sorted out and we'll get this biodome launched and then we can get home, okay guys? And they were like, yes, we're waiting on you. We're waiting on you. You're the last ship, the Valley Forge. All the other guys have exploded all of their... Biodomes for no apparent reason and we're just waiting on you now. So lol goes I've got to get this leg sorted out It's given me a lot of pain. So he calls in the three droids and He says droid number one droid number two do number droid number three get in here you need to line up here for me and he goes and does a little bit of editing where he reprograms the droids to be able to operate on him and staunch his gashed leg and make it all better. So they go to the med bay, the droids carry out this work in an exemplary fashion, very gentle. They don't hurt him at all. They wrap him up in gauze and yeah, the blood flow has stopped. And we see that Lowell decides the only way out of this predicament because he's going to get found out soon that he's basically murdered. these three colleagues of his. So he decides the only thing that he's going to do is he's going to launch his ship, he's going to accelerate his ship towards the rings of Saturn. So that's his plan. He's going to get away from the other members of this flotilla and he's going to do a run for it basically.
Jake: Like OJ Simpson and a white Bronco, he's taking that American Airlines Space Freighter on a joint ride, Pete. If the glove don't fit, you gotta acquit.
Pete: Do you remember that at all? Were you too young?
Jake: Dude, I remember the chase. I remember the police chase. I was watching TV at my grandparents' house and every channel was showing the the white Bronco fleeing the police. All right, so he's all patched up, he's good to go. He's taking control of the space station.
Pete: He's on a collision course with the rings of Saturn and he gets another radio audio communication from the big boss and the headquarters says, hey, you understand, you knew the risks here, Lowell. You you're in trouble here. You're heading straight towards Saturn's rings. Your trajectory takes you through the rings and our analysis says you're not going to survive this. The spaceship won't survive going through the rings. And Lowell's like, really? He's not really interested, it seems at this point, he's kind of given up a little bit. But the HQ says, we will send a search party to come and find you. We can't do it right now. We're a little bit busy blowing up biodomes, but when we've got time, we're going to send a search party to come and get you because you're the last guy alive on that ship. We need you back and we need the ship back as well. It's all been a bit much for Lowell. He needs a bit of a lie down after all the excitement. And at this point, the spaceship does indeed go through Saturn's rings and it makes a hell of a noise. All the alarms are going off. He's getting hit by sort of small debris you would imagine from the rings. You don't really see too much of it really. The special effects on this part are not fantastic. But unfortunately, as they're going through the Saturn's rings, there is one issue, which is the drones. The drones have been outside on the hull of the spaceship and So very hurriedly, he has to call them back in. Lowell gets on the radio and he says, drone one, drone two, drone three, get back in here quickly as possible. And drone one and drone two get back in. Unfortunately drone three doesn't make it. He's not fast enough and he gets sort of ripped off of the spaceship. Unfortunately the hull of the spaceship and tossed into eternal flight around Saturn's rings it looks like.
Jake: Tough luck for drone number three. I love how Bruce Dern in this situation, he's just speaking English to these drones. He's like, You can do it. Drone number three, keep going. You can do it. Like the drones are really shh. They appreciate all of the encouragement. But the thing that I don't get here is like again, I'm gonna get granul granular with it. Drone number three gets launched off the hull of the ship and then the CCTV feed goes down too. So what's going on there?
Pete: or your guess is as good as mine. the Saturn's rings ripped off the CCTV camera outside as well.
Jake: Well, I think it's more of like an unsophisticated viewer watching this, right? So if you lose the the visual of drone three, you think drone three is gone. But really it's just a camera that that went down. Much like how can you pan the camera on the moon as the lander goes up?
Pete: LOL honey has drone one and drone two. So he brings them back in and he says to them, look, drone one, go and bury the body that I left of John in my garden. He needs to be buried. You go as well. they, the droids go out and they do his dirty work for him. he's like the mafioso now.
Jake: Yeah, I was gonna say it is kinda like Luca Brazi go make sure.
Pete: The body's
Jake: Buried. I want I want John swimming with the fishes.
Pete: That's right.
Jake: I want him fertilizing the tulips, if you know what I mean.
Pete: He right? And he decides that he needs to say something. While they have made this hole in the ground, they push John's body into the hole and Lowell says, hold it guys, I need to say something before you actually bury him. I need to say a few words. And he says something basically along the lines of, yeah, you know, I had to do it anyway, you know, something had to be done and I had to do it and that was the right thing. So there we go, anyway. and he starts crying a little bit. He seems a little bit contrite, but not very. Are these crocodile tears, do you think, Jacob?
Jake: So basically they're putting a lot of trust in Brew Stern here to deliver some sort of a performance. It's a single shot of him explaining why he killed him. He killed John. And if you're asking me whether or not these are crocodile tears, I would say an absolute yes. And I would also say that whoever the DP was on this day, whoever was the director of photography, he's not Bruce Dern's not in focus in this at all. They were asleep at the wheel. I can't believe they approved that in dailies. They must like Bruce Dern must have given like three or four takes on that, and this last one was just like dynamite, but it's out of focus.
Pete: and he decides that he's going to name the droids. He is going to name the droids Huey and Dewey. Louis is dead, Louis would be Droid 3, but Huey and Louis. Where does this name come from? Huey, Louis and Dewey. It's not from DuckTales. I know that, right?
Jake: It is from DuckTales. Huey Dewey Louie. They're Donald Scrooge McDuck's nephews.
Pete: Was that really where the actual original three came from? They weren't named after somebody else?
Jake: Like a perfect a perfect question for Google.
Pete: Hmm. Yeah, I'm assuming this is 1972. So is I don't think they even had Louie, Huey and Dewey today in 72.
Jake: yeah, they did.
Pete: We did? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe that's where it comes from. I thought it was from some 30s or 20s comedy troupe something.
Jake: No, Huey, Dewey, and Louie originated as the mischievous nephews of Donald Duck. He names the robots Huey and Dewey. Louie has unfortunately bit the space dust as they careened through the rings of Saturn. So these two robots will be basically his companions for the rest of this movie. Now, I will give an attaboy to Bruce Dern. I will give an attaboy to Bruce Dern. With this performance with the robots, he really does give a convince convincing. portrayal of a guy that just has two machines to talk to?
Pete: Mm-hmm.
Jake: I think he he does pretty well with what he's got. I'd love to hear the conversations when the cameras weren't rolling when he'd be like, So how strong are your wrists? Pretty do you ever get carpal tunnel? Is that tough?
Pete: Yeah, yes. Anyway.
Jake: What's happening now, Pete?
Pete: Well, we get into Jesus phase two now. So now he puts back on the smock, as we may call it, the robe, the Jesus robe, his white kind of linen, heavy linen robe. I don't know what it is really, but it's magnificent. I would have this onesie for sure. I would wear this all the time.
Jake: Is that like loungewear for you, or would it be, you know, you're working in the garden type of stuff? Thailand's hot it's a hot place, man. Are you gonna be wearing this on a day to day?
Pete: Well, I think it's a morning attire, isn't it? would be one that like the ties that go down to the market in their pajamas. That's what I would do. I would go to the market in my robe and wander around like Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Jake: That's pretty much it, yeah. He'd be wandering around and going like nomini parters feeling spiritual sanctions.
Pete: These are not the droids you're looking for.
Jake: Mall size leaves a hive of scum and villainy.
Pete: So yeah, so Jesus phase two occurs, which puts us smack bang into act two here. Jesus turns up act two and he decides he's gonna teach the droids more things. So he does a little bit more editing on their cards, on the programming and he programs them to help them in the garden. He says, you guys are gonna help me a lot more. I'm gonna teach you how to do planting, weeding. know, watering, looking after basically this forest environment and my plants and the garden.
Jake: And these robots are useless. I mean, we have we have conquered space. We've got American Airlines traversing the stars, but we can't put together a a pair of robots that can put a tree in the ground. This is just a disgrace to humanity. You know, Bruce's like, I want to go back to Earth to save it. But instead he's teaching these useless robots how to cultivate a Christmas tree.
Pete: Well these, you know, robot number two, Dewey or whatever, he's like, you know what, Huey, I'm going to complain to the union boss about this. I was specifically told I'd just be doing welding on this job and this fucker's got me planting trees. I don't even know what I'm doing. I haven't got the right appendages for tree planting. So I'm going to launch a formal complaint here.
Jake: It is it I would love to see that scene where where robot number two is like, I'm a fucking welding robot. What do you mean plant trees? And robot number one is like, Come on, this is a big chance we could be somebody.
Pete: Nevertheless, they are there and we get a nice gardening montage here of the droids doing the garden, Jesus doing the garden, Lowell, he's in his Jesus phase doing the garden. We get him doing inventory, he's got back into his jumpsuit again and he does an inventory of the whole place. He's getting himself organized.
Jake: you think when he made that robe, that Jesus robe, he was like looking at himself in the mirror and he was like, They're gonna make fun of me. They're gonna make fun of me. I can't wear it. I can't wear it. No, Lowell. You made this to where you know it's gonna be comfortable. Just wear it. Just wear it. You'll wear it. But they're gonna make fun of me. They're not gonna understand. They're gonna drive their golf carts all through my flowers. And now he's killed all of them. So he's just like, forever it will be the Jesus robe. I will wear it every single day.
Pete: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. He decided that's his garment. Yeah. He loves it. And like I say, I'd go for a good one. If I had nobody else around me, no neighbors other than two droids who can't express themselves in any meaningful way anyway, I would wear whatever the fuck I like. I'd probably walk around naked most of the time.
Jake: Sure. That's what I would that would be my first play. It's just like I'm gonna be walking in my shorts absolutely everywhere.
Pete: He goes to sleep in his bed, little cot in his room and right next to his bed, he's got like a little poster that's stuck on the wall and it's a conservation pledge. I pledge to look after the plants for...
Jake: Okay, it says I give my pledge as an American to save and faithfully to defend from waste the natural resources of my country, its soil and minerals, its forests, waters and wildlife. Smoky says prevent forest fires.
Pete: Yes.
Jake: The fact the fact that this is clearly like removed from a boys' life magazine makes Bruce Ernst's character makes Lowell look like an absolute lunatic.
Pete: Lowell has learnt this off by heart because he's training to become the director in charge of all conservation back on earth, in charge of the forest, right? So he's learnt this off by heart. He knows this, I'm sure.
Jake: Yeah, I'm sure. But do you are you aware of who Smokey the Bear is?
Pete: Yes, yeah, he's the one who warned against forest fires, I believe, is that right?
Jake: Yeah. Only you can prevent forest fires. Right. So you have a grown man on a space station who took this so literally that he murdered his crewmates and has reprogrammed robots to give him hand jobs and plant trees. How could anyone be on side with Lowell in this movie? This guy is an absolute Looney Tune. He's he's a nut job.
Pete: Yeah, I mean he is dedicated to his task, isn't he? Certainly.
Jake: And I know you don't have the movie plane, but he's like s he's caressing and stroking this this conservation pledge and the camera lingers on it long enough for any like if if you have a third grade reading level, you can read this pledge.
Pete: They need you to read the
Jake: This movie's ninety minutes long and I gotta tell you, thirty of those minutes are this play.
Pete: Do you think Brandon would like this movie?
Jake: I c I cannot I I can't answer that question. I don't know. It's rated G, so I doubt it, but it's crazy, so maybe he
Pete: What? It feels bad movie as well. Maybe. Kind of.
Jake: I feel I certainly feel bad right now.
Pete: Well, we get the next cut scene is a spacewalk scene. I don't know if you noticed this, I thought this was extremely realistic. I don't know what your thoughts are.
Jake: Douglas Trumbull? Yeah. We're gonna do a spacewalk with with Bruce Dern. Yeah, he's gonna be out on the on the ship. He's gonna be walking around. You're the you're the visual visual effects specialist. What sort of spacesuit should he have? Space suit? You say spacesuit? Put put him in a fucking wetsuit. Doug, Doug, Douglas. He's gonna be in space. Not not in the ocean. He's gonna be in space there's there's no gravity and there's no oxygen and there's no there's no atmospheric pressure. So what what's the suit gonna be like? Did I fucking stutter? A wetsuit. Put him in a wetsuit. Moving on. That's lunch. That's basically what this is.
Pete: It doesn't look like he's walking in an airless environment, but he sidles up to the two droids who are doing some sort of welding or maintenance on the hull of the ship and he goes over to them and he says, yeah. He goes a bit mafia again. Did you get this? He goes, yeah, you too.
Jake: He's like you two are careless. Last person who was careless around me wound up at the bottom of the Pisces Nebula instead of C Man shoes.
Pete: Yeah, it kind of gives him a veiled threat. Don't be careless, boys. Like Droid 3, the ex-Louis.
Jake: That's why Louie's a trash can on Titan right now.
Pete: He expects him to get his toothpick out and just go, Louis got careless. Again, we get a bit of a montage of Lowell being a little bit bored after this. He's kind of run out of things to do. He's done his planting, his trees are growing. He's taught the robots how to plant and grow and to tend the garden for him. So he's got a lot of time on his hands, doing a lot of sleeping.
Jake: Yeah, what I caught from this whole thing, Pete, if you don't mind, we end this little spacewalk with him looking through a telescope. What is he looking for? He's looking back at the stars. he's looking to Earth. He aligns the telescope with Earth. And I guess this is supposed to start telling us, like, okay, he misses Earth in some way. And then we cut to him riding in the buggy. along the same track that the guys in the beginning of the movie were writing. Yeah. So he's doing the same thing the guys who were on the six month contract were doing. The guys that really wanted to go home, that really missed Earth, that really wanted to this whole thing to end. And now he's doing the same recreational activity.
Pete: Again, he's got nothing to do, he's bored. So he goes to play a bit of pool with the pool playing robot. And I had, this is a reasonably longer scene than before. We see the pool playing robots sort of pick up the ball, drop it and do all this sort of stuff. And I just thought to myself, is really automation and robotics has not moved on a great deal, has it, in 54 years?
Jake: Elaborate, what do you mean?
Pete: Well, if you look at the design of the robot arm that they've made for this movie to manipulate the ball and be the pool playing robot that they play with, it basically does all the same things that robots do, industrial robots do today. Yeah, they may be a little bit quicker. They may look a little bit prettier, but it's all the same basic functions. The robots today can really not do anything more than this guy can do. So where's... I was just watching this thinking, where's the innovation in 50 years, over 50 years in a hugely important area that they're really just sort of talking about now and bringing all these robots on board. This is stuff that we had, we had this technology years ago. Why? And it just made me think again of why this technology has not been developed to the point where it helps us. Do you know what I mean? What do we get out of robots at this stage after more than 50 years, 60 years, 70 years of research and development?
Jake: I do agree. Like, why aren't there robots in place that will say wash my car or take the trash out or do random everyday tasks for me when this robot can s can re rack a a a game of billiards? I gotcha.
Pete: But we come to my favorite scene in the movie next, Jacob.
Jake: nice. Okay. What do we got?
Pete: We have the scene where Laurel has gotten so bored that he decides he's going to reprogram the droids once again. He teaches them basically how to play poker. And then he has to cheat. He has to cheat the robots in order to win. So he does that and he collects all the money. And he says, I'm just going to take you guys to the cleaners. And you see the two robots kind of look at each other. This guy, A, is nuts, but B, we're not gonna let this mental patient take us to the cleaners. We're robots, god damn it, American robots, and we're gonna beat him at poker. And they communicate to each other. Well, this is where you really see the inability to communicate well comes back to haunt these two robots. They've got these little two flappy things that servos on their face and they kind of flap these things at each other. and lol goes hey you guys no cheating no communication between yourselves only communicate between the three of us you can't do any of that computer language I just thought it just made me laugh the whole the whole thing.
Jake: This is one of your favorite scenes in the movie. To me, this felt like it was really padding the runtime. I think this is this is where my eyelids started getting real droopy when I was watching this last night. So do you kind of check check like checking in on the pace and pulse of this movie? I think what the last few scenes were serving us was that he misses his fellow crewmates and that he's sort of Falling into the same thought patterns that his former crewmates were in, where all they want to do is race around. They miss the earth, they miss all this, they miss this and that. he's teaching the robots how to play poker so that he can kind of have some buddies back on the ship. He's clearly been eating the the replicator food. He hasn't been tending to the garden, he hasn't been tending to the forest. Yeah, this this whole bit of the movie I have a real issue with. So, Pete, take it away. I'll pepper in my thoughts as as you continue with.
Pete: Well, so yeah, so Lowell is really desperately trying to find out what is going on, what's killing his garden, why are the leaves turning brown on all of his plants and they're dying. So he takes some of the samples to the laboratory, puts them under the microscope, had a little look at them and can't find out what the problem is. He's got no clue. So we cut to a scene of him. Fucking. Why is that?
Jake: What a fucking idiot. He's been working at this stuff for eight years. He's on a spaceship that's flying away from the sun and around Saturn. And he's like, why are the plants that rely solely on photosynthesis? Why are they dying? What could it be? Could it be the air that's been the same the whole time? Could it be the water that's literally been the same the whole time? Or could it be our proximity? From the only thing that's giving it energy.
Pete: Yes, yeah, he wouldn't have made a very good director of forest for the earth, I don't think.
Jake: It terrible. Terrible dude. He doesn't understand the basics of plant metabolism.
Pete: Well, it cuts to Lao firstly jogging through the biodome and he is imagining while he's jogging through, we're going into his mind's eye, he's imagining himself back on earth, jogging through a vibrant forest on earth and he can feel his foot falls and he's looking up at the branches and the sunlight, dappling through the branches of these trees. But in reality, he's running in the dome and he's just thinking this. So we're just getting his perspective on this. to be driving one of those buggies hits Huey quite badly and smashes up Huey a little bit and has to take him to the med bay to try and help him out a little bit. he gives him a new circuit board as well. That's right. So he gives him a whole new
Jake: And when runs over Huey, he's like, This is your fault, Huey. I told you to stay in the forest. What an asshole this guy. He fucking runs him over with a car and he's like, How dare you walk in in in front of my moving vehicle?
Pete: But yeah, we get to understand that Lowell is starting to lose perhaps his interest in this whole project. So we're seeing him sleep a lot. We're seeing shots of the spaceship, which has got trash all over it. He's obviously not being able to eat from his garden, so he's been eating all this trashy food from the replicator that they use. And all of these things are just strewn around this whole spaceship. He's not been clearing up. So he's sleeping, Loaton lot of sleeping. And then we hear the radio come on. Shh, just a bit of static first of all. shh. Can you hear us? Can you hear us? The Valley Ford. We've got good news for you. We've got a search party out for you and they're going to be docking with you in about six hours. We're going to rescue you. But there's one thing you do need to do. We still need you to eject the last. Biodome, I'm sorry, but we need that gone You know before we can before we can get you home basically that needs to be done So lol again is just like no I can't I can't eject my Biodome. It's not gonna happen So yeah, that's where we are he's gonna get rescued it seems Anderson is like You need to get rid of the dome, Lowell. Get rid of the dome before we get there. We're going to be there in a couple of hours now. And at this point, this is where the epiphany.
Jake: He has like a eureka moment, doesn't he, where he's like, It's the light. The trees aren't getting enough light.
Pete: That's right. Yeah. He puts two and two together and understands basic photosynthesis as a thing. And he decides, this is when he decides, what does he do now, Jake?
Jake: Well, he p takes a bunch of incandescent light bulbs and sets them up all around his little biodome and he switches it on and he's just happy as a pig and shit. Droid number one and number two are there. They're all looking around like, this is fantastic. He's got a buggy there, he's just hanging out and thinking, I've solved all the problems.
Pete: Yep. Yeah, he leaves one of the droids in the biodome and he says to the droid, now your job is to tend this garden for as long as you can. And another droid then departs from the biodome and he then jettisons this biodome and thus ensuring it lives for as long as the droid can tend it or as long as the incandescent light bulbs.
Jake: Yeah.
Pete: Yeah, as long as it keeps going, as long as the batteries keep going. Yeah, so that's what he does. he goes out of the biodome area back into the spaceship proper with the other droid. And this is where we get the letter in a bottle story from Lowell.
Jake: But yeah, from this point, as he's telling the story to robot number two, he's arming all of the nukes that he has left on his ship.
Pete: Yes he is. Yeah, he is seemingly not interested in the rescue mission. He doesn't want them to land. Even though, I mean, he's disposed of all of the evidence apart from actually John. Now John's body is still in the biodome. But that's gone now as well into space. He'd be fine now, right? He should be fine to be rescued.
Jake: Yeah, he'd technically be fine, but I I think it might be like, can I live with the things I've done? Do
Pete: Thank you.
Jake: I want to be a part of the society that will jettison the forests?
Pete: Yeah, does he want to go to a...
Jake: Am I a good American if I've wasted the the U the the United States' resources into the rings of
Pete: And does he want to go back to an earth with no hills and no trees?
Jake: True, yeah. No valleys. There's there's no topography on Earth anymore.
Pete: You can see for miles. So yeah, so that's what he does. He arms all of these nukes, as Jake says. And second from last shot we get is the camera pulls away from the giant spaceship and we see a huge explosion in space, assuming that this is the Valley Forge going up in flames. But that's not quite the last shot is it Jake? is hope. There is another, there is an ending to this movie.
Jake: Yeah, we get some beautiful seventies music and we get shots of a robot watering trees in the biodome that's still hurtling through the heavens.
Pete: so he's still maintaining life.
Jake: The message in a bottle of planet Earth.
Pete: Yes, that's what it was. The message was, the message was this is planet Earth. These are some of our trees and take this robot as a sacrifice to any aliens that pick him up.
Jake: This robot will be your slave.
Pete: So yeah, that's the movie. That's the last shot of the movie. We are finished the movie, Jacob. You can wake up now.
Jake: And that is Silent Running from nineteen seventy two. Pete Pete Peter. What about this movie do you like? What about it do you not like? Is this a recommend for you?
Pete: Well, let's tie it up then. Yeah, I mean, I like, I do like this movie. I think it's, it's got interesting concepts. It's not particularly well written and the concepts aren't fleshed out hugely, but I like the, I like the cut of its jib. I like what it's trying to say. What is it trying to say? Trying to say, you know, be environmentally conscious. You know, the planet is perhaps not at its best at the minute, we've got to help the planet out. Don't let the planet lose its trees. Don't bulldoze the mountains. Don't do that. No.
Jake: Need to maintain the valley.
Pete: I think it's got some interesting stuff to say. It's a very early ecological alarm bell, isn't it? That this is what's going on. We need to try and help the Earth. So yeah, very prescient movie in respect to that. message. Yeah, I think interesting in regards to the droid side of things and the automation side of things, as I mentioned before, gives a little insight into the technology and my gripe is where is the advances in this as mentioned. yeah, interesting movie. It made me think quite a bit, this movie, and I like movies that make me think a little bit. Yeah, I liked it. Apart from the music, I didn't like the music in the movie, as mentioned. How about you, Jacob? What do you think of this movie? What are your final thoughts about this?
Jake: Well, I share a lot of the thoughts with you. I also didn't really like the music, and I also think this movie has a lot of things to say, and I think they say a lot of it well. I feel like the runtime of this movie is padded. I feel like the the filmmakers they had a really solid idea for about a s forty five to sixty minute flick. And they tried to pad the runtime up to a feature length movie, to be honest. A lot of it drags for me. hence me falling asleep last night when trying to watch it. But if you if you're there for it and you're up for it and you're in for the big story beats, the the the Bruce Stern murdering his his crewmates, an irredeemable character trying to pursue a a just cause all that stuff is interesting to me. just Kind of how they drug it out and how kind of schlocky it is takes me away from it a little bit. The fact that this is from 1972 is awesome because I think that there are elements of this that appear in Star Wars and appear in future sci-fi movies. You know, big blockbuster Hollywood sci-fi movies, I think, can kind of tip their hat to this. that being said, I think that the, you know, the the the the pacing Some of the performances, some of the stuff on the page doesn't really make it to home play for me. I'd still probably recommend the movie though. It's a fun little watch. It's rated G, although it's got some really heavy and serious subject matter. you know, fun for the whole family, I suppose.
Pete: You can imagine dragging your kids along to this movie in the 70s at the theatre. Your six-year-old began, Dad, what was that movie about? That'd be like no clue.
Jake: Ball of fire at the end of the movie, papa.
Pete: What are the main themes of the movie, Jacob? What are they trying to tell us? What's the filmmaker, Mr. Doug Trumbull, trying to tell us here?
Jake: course there's the environmental thing. I think this is a bit of a Cold War movie. you know, there's a lot of the collective will make the decision and the individual is suppressed in this flick. And I think there's a lot of Americana, especially with the Smokey the Bear thing, protecting the America's forests and his its natural resources and minerals. having dreams, having passions. And if you have passion and and and you believe that you're right, you're free to murder your friends and familiars in order to make sure that those passions and those dreams come to fruition. If you Believe in your convictions to such a degree that you are willing to murder the people around you.
Pete: Yes, yes, what is it?
Jake: Are you a hero or are you a a Looney Tun?
Pete: Can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. Jacob.
Jake: That's true. That's true.
Pete: I quite enjoyed it. I like Bruce Dern's performance. think he did well. He holds the movie together for me.
Jake: Great acting against a couple of robots. yeah, he's doing a lot with the script he was given.
Pete: Yes, yeah. Yeah, I would recommend this movie as well, Jacob. So it's a to recommend movie. I mean, as long as you're not looking for like a, you know, like a huge space opera with lots of lasers and aliens, this wouldn't be the right movie for you. But if you're looking for a thoughtful, interesting look at perhaps how people thought technology would be. I mean, imagine this is like, what, three years? after they landed on the moon. So they are, you everyone's, everyone's thinking, you know, we're going to be doing all this stuff. We'll be on two different planets, you know, in a decade we'll be in Mars, you know, in 20 years we'll be at Saturn. I'm sure everybody was really excited about this kind of space race. Little did they know it was all made up.
Jake: I'm not touching that one, Pete.
Pete: But there we go, Jacob, that is the movie Silent Running from 1972, and I'm glad it's a recommendation for you. I just wish perhaps you'd enjoyed it a little bit more and didn't fall asleep.
Jake: we'll I'll I'm sure I'll circle back to it like many of the movies we put on the podcast and I've come around to the movie while having this conversation. This morning I felt much differently about the flick than I do right now. And you know what? That's the power of conversation, friendship, and a podcast.
Pete: Well it's because you missed half the movie by falling asleep Jacob, you didn't watch it.
Jake: Let me have this. Let me have this, Pete. Just Let's not focus on the fact that I was wildly unprepared for this. And that's Silent Running from the year nineteen seventy two, directed by Douglas Trumbull, starring Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts, and Ron Rifkin. As always, I'm Jake.
Pete: and I'm Pete.
Jake: And this is Jake and Pete's movie talk. We will see you next time.