Full Transcript for The Mothman Prophecies

this was the magic trick that destroyed an industry. 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:52.240 I had experience in peer-to-peer sharing, and with a few clicks and downloading mostly recordings of Bill Clinton denying his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky, which was the original Rick Roll, if you remember. 00:04:52.480 --> 00:04:59.279 Anyways, I got the OST, burned it to a disc, and to seal the deal, I got her Peter Jackson's film Braindead, known in the States as Dead Alive. 00:04:59.439 --> 00:05:02.720 At the time she was a huge Lord of the Rings fan, and that movie didn't go over well. 00:05:02.879 --> 00:05:04.639 I guess it didn't have enough hobbits in it. 00:05:04.879 --> 00:05:15.839 Anyways, before the introduction of streaming, if you downloaded something off of BearShare or my best friend LimeWare, you'd drag it into iTunes and burn a copy, and then it would be trafficked onto your MP3 player where it would live forever. 00:05:16.079 --> 00:05:24.879 This is before data asset management for me, and I became so obsessed with the soundtrack to a movie I had barely seen, and we're magically at my point. 00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:29.519 Tom and Andy were discovered by a young Mark Pellington when he was working at MTV making music videos. 00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:33.759 Pellington directed previously covered Arlington Road as well as the Mothman Prophecies. 00:05:33.839 --> 00:05:43.199 Ta-da! Tom and Andy have already delivered scores for Avery and Pellington movies, and this year, 2002, they do both of these, which could not be more different from one another. 00:05:43.360 --> 00:05:47.759 In Rules of Attraction, the tempo is and vibes are up to match the setting and editing style. 00:05:47.839 --> 00:05:50.240 It's a banging techno and dance mix. 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:55.439 Took a charter flight EC 10 to London, landed at Pico, took a cab at the city center. 00:05:55.519 --> 00:05:57.279 Don't let people lie to you, hospitals are really ugly. 00:05:57.360 --> 00:05:59.439 I'm staying in Home House, the most beautiful hotel in the world. 00:05:59.519 --> 00:06:04.319 Called a friend from school who was telling Hash but she wasn't in, and met a couple of friends who take me to a ball play that's Camden Street. 00:06:04.399 --> 00:06:07.759 I flirt a bit at the Virgin Megastore, buy some CB, then followed some girls take care. 00:06:07.920 --> 00:06:10.959 I wandered around trying to get late, a postcard in the rain, then went back to Home House. 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:14.079 Mystery's town is dead, so I go to REM for, but it's game night. 00:06:14.160 --> 00:06:16.560 I find the one head over girl in the place we got off with the dance floor. 00:06:16.800 --> 00:06:17.680 Have it back to home house. 00:06:17.759 --> 00:06:19.600 I took her clothes off, stuck her toes on her butt. 00:06:19.839 --> 00:06:23.759 Hung out for four or five days, let the world's biggest D Dick all over control, missing the changing of the guard. 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:25.600 Roll my mouth postcard I never spent. 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:28.399 Bought some speed from a tiny ducky who was trying to tell me a store and bite. 00:06:28.560 --> 00:06:30.319 Smoked a lot of hash that had too much tobacco with it. 00:06:30.480 --> 00:06:32.879 Saw the tape, saw big pen, ate a lot of weird English food. 00:06:32.959 --> 00:06:35.759 It rained a lot, it was expensive, and I'm Jonesing, so I clicked for Amsterdam. 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:38.639 The Dutch all know English, so I didn't have to speak any Dutch, which was a relief. 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:42.720 I cruised the red light desert, visit a sex show, visit a sex museum, smoke a lot of hash. 00:06:42.800 --> 00:06:45.279 I need a Dutch TV actor so we drink abs instead of bar called abs. 00:06:45.680 --> 00:06:56.000 Whereas in the Mothman Prophecies, they make a slow and boring as fuck movie, attention-filled thriller, by giving a morose but fairly catchy trip hop style that is very portisant. 00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:19.839 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Screen Generation, a podcast about the films released by Sony under the label Screen Gems. 00:08:19.920 --> 00:08:30.160 I'm your host, Evan Hughes, recording in beautiful Las Cruces, New Mexico, where the pot smoke rests slow on the ground like a light fog, giving the roadrunners and chupacabras cover from the larger predators. 00:08:30.399 --> 00:08:32.639 I realized I just called this movie boring. 00:08:32.720 --> 00:08:33.600 And it's not boring. 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:35.200 It's just 20 minutes too long. 00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:40.399 When I was uh talking with Andrew about Ghosts of Mars, we mentioned it looked like an episode of Star Trek. 00:08:40.480 --> 00:08:44.960 This is like a long episode of X-Files, and if it was, I see Will Patton taking home an Emmy. 00:08:45.360 --> 00:08:55.360 The problem is now coverage of an investigation is really helped when you have an open-minded Agent Moulder and a straight-up smoke show in Dana Scully, who shuts him down and conducts autopsies. 00:08:55.600 --> 00:08:57.840 We're going to cover more movies scored by Tom and Andy. 00:08:57.919 --> 00:08:59.679 A few Resident Evils, The Covenant. 00:08:59.759 --> 00:09:01.679 I still don't want to actually talk about this movie. 00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:03.919 I mean, and there's a lot of good things about this movie. 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:05.440 The crane work is fantastic. 00:09:05.600 --> 00:09:08.320 Most of the visual effects are done in camera and they look divine. 00:09:08.480 --> 00:09:09.840 Oh, maybe that's the reason. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:12.399 I'm in withdrawals from 2 can play that game. 00:09:12.559 --> 00:09:17.360 And it's it's not only because this movie is not as fun, it's just so white. 00:09:17.519 --> 00:09:21.360 Like, there's not a person of color in 120 minutes of movie. 00:09:21.519 --> 00:09:25.679 And I get it we're set in West Virginia, but he works out of DC. 00:09:26.480 -->

00:09:32.240 Alright, so this very white cast is really great in this movie, and they have to be to keep the audience's attention. 00:09:32.320 --> 00:09:35.200 Especially Will Patton, who is good regardless of what movie he's in. 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:37.200 That dude's in the postman, he's solid. 00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:41.440 And I mean he gets electrocuted in the horrible movie The Green Mile, and he's solid in that. 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:44.080 If anything, Richard Gere is the fish out of water here. 00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:50.480 He says this is the scariest movie that he's in, and his iconic white hair is darkened in this film, which is always a strange look. 00:09:50.720 --> 00:09:54.080 Last week, I was able to break down the plot of the movie in one sentence. 00:09:54.240 --> 00:09:56.000 This isn't gonna be one of those weeks. 00:09:56.799 --> 00:10:01.039 The movie starts off with Richard Gere as a journalist who has just closed a house in DC. 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:02.879 Notice it's winter in DC. 00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:05.200 Otherwise, the neighborhood would look like Houston. 00:10:05.360 --> 00:10:10.799 On the way home, Deborah Messing crashes their beamer and dies of cancer in the next five minutes. 00:10:10.960 --> 00:10:14.320 It's really messed up how they just off her, but not quickly. 00:10:14.559 --> 00:10:18.320 She could have died in the car crash, not cancer, but they decide that. 00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:27.039 Then a recovering gear who clearly just doesn't want to hang out with his boss decides to take a late-night drive from DC to Richmond to be prepared for an interview with the government of Virginia tomorrow. 00:10:27.200 --> 00:10:32.639 His car breaks down in West Virginia, which is not on the way to Richmond, and we meet our supporting cast. 00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:41.840 Will Patton, who thinks he's being haunted by gear, and Laura Linney, who plays a small town sheriff, who is constantly ripping on gear for being upper class and assuming their backwoodsiness. 00:10:42.080 --> 00:10:46.799 I'm joking, but she'll say stuff like, Well, my daddy was a woodchuck and my mama was a mercury. 00:10:47.360 --> 00:10:55.039 And immediately she practically deputizes Gear and shares everything about the paranormal investigation she's conducting. 00:10:55.200 --> 00:10:58.080 There's lots of drawings and old ladies to question. 00:10:58.159 --> 00:11:01.759 There's a publish professor who Gear scares into spilling some spooky beans. 00:11:01.919 --> 00:11:05.840 And the rest of this movie, until the climax on the bridge, is on the phone. 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:06.960 I'm not kidding. 00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:09.759 The Mothman introduces himself to Gere over the phone. 00:11:09.919 --> 00:11:12.080 Gear is doing research exclusively on the phone. 00:11:12.159 --> 00:11:15.360 Sometimes Will Patton calls and it actually turns out to be the Mothman. 00:11:15.519 --> 00:11:21.919 Sometimes the Mothman leaves clues, but they're super vague, like the plot of this movie, so Gere misinterprets them and makes a fool of himself. 00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:25.120 It really reminds me of the back and forth and forgetting Sarah Marshall. 00:11:25.200 --> 00:11:25.679 Check it, listen. 00:11:26.080 --> 00:11:26.480 Obviously. 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:27.679 Did you like it? 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:28.799 The movie? 00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:29.600 Yeah. 00:11:30.639 --> 00:11:32.879 It was an awful bloody film. 00:11:33.039 --> 00:11:34.399 I see it's just ridiculous. 00:11:34.639 --> 00:11:38.960 Premise uh, oh, what would happen if your mobile phone killed you? 00:11:39.120 --> 00:11:40.799 Why would a mobile phone kill anyone? 00:11:40.960 --> 00:11:41.519 Doesn't make sense. 00:11:41.759 --> 00:11:44.159 How can a mobile phone have an agenda and kill people? 00:11:44.559 --> 00:11:46.000 I told her that when she read the script. 00:11:46.080 --> 00:11:47.519 Yeah, you were a voice of reason, mate. 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:49.200 I tried to do, but she didn't listen. 00:11:49.600 --> 00:11:51.919 Going around killing people with a mobile phone, like doing murders. 00:11:52.399 --> 00:11:54.080 Why couldn't you just take the battery out of the phone? 00:11:54.240 --> 00:11:54.879 Right, that's it. 00:11:54.960 --> 00:11:55.840 The battle's over. 00:11:56.080 --> 00:11:57.039 Yeah, we've won. 00:11:57.200 --> 00:11:57.840 I hated it. 00:11:58.080 --> 00:12:00.879 Well, it's not for everyone, but it it No, it's ridiculous. 00:12:00.960 --> 00:12:02.159 Here's my favorite scene. 00:12:02.399 --> 00:12:03.279 Bing bing. 00:12:03.600 --> 00:12:03.919 Hello. 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:06.559 Yeah, it could never happen. 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:08.000 No, it could never happen. 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:12.159 It's a metaphor for addiction to technology. 00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:16.320 For society, for how we're relying on technology. 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:17.360 I get it, I'm with you. 00:12:17.600 --> 00:12:19.039 It's a metaphor for a crap movie. 00:12:19.200 --> 00:12:20.159 Well, it was the right thing. 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:24.240 So the Mothman message is that there's going to be a disaster on the river. 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:29.279 And there's a big chemical plant that Patton won't stop talking about, so it looks like a great target. 00:12:29.519 --> 00:12:33.840 After there's no disaster and Patton is found dead outside, gear packs up and goes home. 00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:39.519 Then he gets lonely and doubles back to do what I assume involves Laura Lenny, some handcuffs, and a crackling fire. 00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:46.159 Then, in line at the bridge, a traffic jam overloads it and begins to be have the most impressive collapsing sequence. 00:12:46.399 --> 00:12:49.279 A true accomplishment of practical visual effects. 00:12:49.440 --> 00:12:53.840 It it's worth watching an hour and 40 minutes of this movie to get to. 00:13:10.320 --> 00:13:12.000 And so you don't get calls. 00:13:12.159 -->

00:13:19.519 So it helps continue the shrinking of not doing it that way because people don't know that. 00:13:20.159 --> 00:13:21.919 Oh, those were really models? 00:13:22.080 --> 00:13:23.600 I'll go but look at that again. 00:13:23.759 --> 00:13:29.919 I have I hear that all the time from people in the industry mentioning Mothman prophecies with the bridge falling down at the end. 00:13:30.159 --> 00:13:32.320 Well, yeah, so so so some of that was modeled. 00:13:32.559 --> 00:13:33.919 All of it was models, folks. 00:13:34.080 --> 00:13:35.039 All of it. 00:13:49.519 --> 00:14:05.919 Question it, you know, except you should, because if you think about it for a second and a half, there's no way in the world that you're gonna shoot a movie and have a suspension bridge like that, a thousand, fifteen hundred feet long suspension bridge, live, full scale. 00:14:06.240 --> 00:14:12.480 A sequence that lasts eight minutes, that you know you can't shoot all at once, falls apart like that. 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:16.399 There's no way that you're gonna do that full scale. 00:14:16.559 --> 00:14:17.759 You can't afford it. 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:24.000 That'd be big the budget to do that one sequence would be more than your whole movie, four times over. 00:14:24.320 --> 00:14:31.840 So, the climax of this movie being so exciting and well done makes this movie unofficially a slow burn version of like Final Destination. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:39.759 Actually, let's compare them because Final Destination becomes a franchise with hits and misses, but a franchise to a studio and distributor are like printing money. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:47.600 I know the bigger the franchise, the harder the continuity, uh a la Marvel Cinematic Universe, but horror properties are less married to their lore. 00:14:47.759 --> 00:14:54.480 And using Final Destination as an example, the first film is a surprise hit made for 23 million and it makes 112 worldwide. 00:14:54.720 --> 00:15:04.000 Over the five following pictures, the total budget for each Final Destination movie is a little over$200 million, and that return is$985 million. 00:15:04.799 --> 00:15:08.080 What do Mothman Prophecies and Final Destination have in common? 00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:09.440 They're not really scary. 00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:21.440 Will Patton and telephones are the scariest thing in the Mothman Prophecies, and in uh Final Destination, it's violent and gross, but it's fun watching these dense people with like situational irony. 00:15:21.600 --> 00:15:26.480 Alright, they both have nondescript villains describe Mothman or the Force of Death and I'll wait. 00:15:26.639 --> 00:15:30.399 But the difference is the Mothman Prophecies waits and shoots its shot at the end. 00:15:30.559 --> 00:15:33.519 Uh Jeepers Creepers even gets two sequels in a reboot. 00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:37.279 That winged thing eats kids' eyes and tongues in rural America. 00:15:37.440 --> 00:15:40.000 Does that not have a Mothman

vibe? 00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:44.559 Alright, I'm I'm sounding like the bridge collapse is the only good thing in this movie. 00:15:44.720 --> 00:15:47.759 For being a movie with very little going on, it looks fantastic. 00:15:47.919 --> 00:15:57.919 This movie is shot by Fred Murphy, who also shot Hoosier's, who also shot Autofocus this same year, 2002, our year of the Mothman, and next year is gonna shoot Freddy vs. 00:15:58.080 --> 00:15:58.639 Jason. 00:15:58.879 --> 00:16:01.279 Isn't it nice when horror movies get sequels? 00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:06.320 And Murphy must have loved playing with the crane in this movie because he's getting all the fun angles and movement. 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:07.919 There is one shot in particular. 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:14.159 It is in a hospital where Gear is talking to a doctor, and it is funny to notice that the camera is outside of the building for some reason. 00:16:14.320 --> 00:16:19.679 Then you realize it's not a catwalk, a story up, and you're watching it like a dude who can fly. 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:28.399 So on my Arlington Road episode, I mentioned Mark Pellington's protagonists are often sad, grieving men, and it's not a wrong observation. 00:16:28.559 --> 00:16:33.200 But I looked further into Pellington, and two years after this movie comes out, he loses his wife. 00:16:33.360 --> 00:16:36.960 She was a costume designer, and he had this to say about losing her. 00:16:37.200 --> 00:16:40.720 In the summer of 2004, my wife passed away suddenly and tragically. 00:16:40.960 --> 00:16:43.200 It was unexpected and screwed up and wrong. 00:16:43.360 --> 00:16:47.840 It turned my world upside down as a man, a husband, and a father of a two and a half-year-old girl. 00:16:48.080 --> 00:16:54.720 I was thrown into a hole of despair and blackness that I would never want anyone else to experience, yet know others do every day. 00:16:54.879 --> 00:16:58.240 Everyone has suffered and lost and been dealt an unfair card. 00:16:58.320 --> 00:16:59.200 I'm no different. 00:16:59.360 --> 00:17:04.079 These experiences change us forever, shape us, and make us who we are, for better or for worse. 00:17:04.319 --> 00:17:12.319 He said that in an interview promoting his film Henry Pools Here, which is more optimistic and deals with a lot of the themes he's already played with before. 00:17:12.480 --> 00:17:16.319 And he's made other movies, but most recently he had a project fall apart. 00:17:16.559 --> 00:17:21.279 Lone Wolf was starring Lily Gladstone, Brian Cranston, and Ocea Jackson. 00:17:21.519 --> 00:17:23.680 And that can't be right, but Chet Hanks. 00:17:24.079 --> 00:17:33.759 Last year, 2025, the year of the Tron Aries, they're shooting it out in our Big Brother City, Albuquerque, and something happens on production and people in the crew stop getting paid. 00:17:33.920 --> 00:17:39.839 They allegedly rap shooting, but the stars are pissed with the studio, so the movie might get dumped without anyone promoting it. 00:17:40.160 --> 00:17:44.160 Okay, I think this is going to be uh kind of almost our ending point. 00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:50.079 I uh I I if I want to score this thing, it's very much like Arlington Road for me, I'd probably give it a 7 out of 10. 00:17:50.240 --> 00:18:01.119 Um I it's interesting because the Pellington movies are easier to find in a streaming service than via DVD, which is not the case for a lot of these other Screen Gems titles. 00:18:01.359 --> 00:18:05.680 Okay, this is gonna wrap up my research, and next week we're gonna be changing genre again. 00:18:05.839 --> 00:18:08.000 We got a teen comedy and it bombed. 00:18:08.160 --> 00:18:11.279 Roger Ebert gave it zero out of four stars. 00:18:11.359 --> 00:18:13.920 So you know it's gonna be a great time on screen generation. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:17.440 The podcast about films released by Sony under their label Screen Gems. 00:18:17.519 --> 00:18:19.039 Play the trailer for slackers. 00:18:19.680 --> 00:18:22.160 I don't want you to worry about finishing the exam. 00:18:22.319 --> 00:18:23.599 No one ever does. 00:18:23.839 --> 00:18:25.200 It's the way I designed it. 00:18:25.279 --> 00:18:28.880 So just finish writing whenever you're you, little red riding hood. 00:18:29.039 --> 00:18:29.680 Stop writing. 00:18:29.759 --> 00:18:30.960 You can stop writing, sir. 00:18:31.039 --> 00:18:32.000 It's fruitless. 00:18:32.240 --> 00:18:33.119 Congratulations. 00:18:33.200 --> 00:18:34.079 You just got enough. 00:18:34.400 --> 00:18:35.440 Do you even know my name? 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:36.319 No, I don't. 00:18:40.960 --> 00:18:44.480 Dave and his friends were the biggest campers on campus. 00:18:44.640 --> 00:18:45.359 We've done this before. 00:18:45.599 --> 00:18:46.319 Let's do it again. 00:18:46.480 --> 00:18:48.960 There was nothing they couldn't get away with. 00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:54.079 First Marco, I got hit by a truck today. 00:18:54.240 --> 00:18:54.960 Are you okay? 00:18:55.359 --> 00:18:56.960 Got hit by a truck. 00:18:57.440 --> 00:18:59.440 Until they met the one guy. 00:18:59.599 --> 00:19:00.240 I know what you did. 00:19:00.319 --> 00:19:01.119 I was there, I stopped. 00:19:01.359 --> 00:19:01.759 Cheaters. 00:19:01.920 --> 00:19:03.119 I stood right next to you, remember me? 00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:05.920 They couldn't get away from I got the proof. 00:19:06.079 --> 00:19:07.519 I'm afraid you expel you. 00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:08.240 What do you want? 00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:10.480 Money, free dry cleaning, Europass. 00:19:10.640 --> 00:19:12.079 Oh, I don't a Europass? 00:19:12.319 --> 00:19:13.039 No, no! 00:19:13.200 --> 00:19:15.440 I want you to get me a girl. 00:19:17.680 --> 00:19:19.359 I'm not gonna eat that, you retire. 00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:20.640 No one calls me a retard. 00:19:20.799 --> 00:19:21.759 You freaking hope! 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:25.119 The story about black girls. 00:19:25.200 --> 00:19:26.079 Bring me the girl's aid. 00:19:26.319 --> 00:19:27.599 You and your friends are going down. 00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:28.880 Really hate it. 00:19:29.359 --> 00:19:30.480 That's cool. 00:19:30.720 --> 00:19:31.519 Oh my god. 00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:34.880 Lovers. 00:19:35.119 --> 00:19:36.000 His name's Ethan. 00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:37.359 He really likes it. 00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:42.559 Oh shut up! Ah! 00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:43.839 Beautiful. 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:47.440 And a guy with a special friend is the quiet hair dog. 00:19:49.839 --> 00:19:51.759 I mean, it's not a good thing. 00:19:51.920 --> 00:19:52.400 I can do it. 00:19:52.880 --> 00:19:54.480 As your attorney, I can't advise us. 00:19:55.920 --> 00:19:58.480 First of all, the guy that I like is your friend Dave. 00:19:59.279 --> 00:20:01.920 Dave! Yeah, fudge! 00:20:04.559 --> 00:20:05.680 Is this my hair dog? 00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:06.799 I didn't make that! 00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:24.079 Alright, that's next week.