บทถอดความฉบับเต็มของ Arrival (2016)

knew the twist. And ⁓ just discussing it with my wife. wife, we watched it ten years ago and we have not watched it since, but like I mentioned that we're gonna cover this movie and and she's watching a little bit and we never talk about this movie, but yet still my wife remembers the twist. This movie made an impact on us, even though it's a movie that we have not revisited or rewatched and talked about hardly ever. But Twist is so memorable that we yeah we'll never forget it. Chris - Costello: way that the ⁓ film peaks at the end, the way that and it's actually funny because I like it's not ⁓ unlike me, I watched it in two parts. I I just had to stop. I mean it was the same day. It was like I there was like a forty-five minute intermission. But ⁓ I it basically like stopped right up until ⁓ things it was like the perfect point. Like I think I I I stopped it after like an hour and fifteen Peter - Abbott: Uh-huh. Chris - Costello: And and I I rejoined it essentially right shortly before she ⁓ gets ⁓ taken up to the spaceship. So like it was just like ⁓ all s like teeing up and then this crazy ⁓ ending which you brought up Christopher Nolan and I have to I did think of ⁓ I did think of Nolan with the time travel aspect of it all. ⁓ but just I mean the layers, like it's like a perfectly crafted thing, dish, whatever, that just like everything hits at the exact perfect time and the emotional experience and payoff and impact. my god. And the score is so be beautiful. Yeah. Yeah yeah. Luke: Well w we will get to it. So I I'll do some ⁓ housekeeping, we'll set this bad boy up. So this film came out in twenty sixteen. again, the director, Denis Villeneuve. ⁓ the writer, ⁓ screenwriter is Eric Heiser, but it is based on a book by Ted Chang called Story of Your Life that was written in nineteen ninety-eight. ⁓ the screenwriter Eric Heiser, I believe was pitching it for almost a decade. and w it was deemed too smart of a script and that people would not understand it. ⁓ they were wrong. This movie has a budget of forty seven million dollars and it grossed worldwide two hundred and three million dollars. So a big success movie over a hundred million dollars, even if you're adding in the worldwide is still a very successful for a sci-fi like very heady film. ⁓ and I I think it just shows the talent of the director. Not not to say that the screenplay is bad or in any way. Like the screenplay is really, really tight, very solid. ⁓ but the visuals that get added to the story that bring it to life is kind of the magic of this movie. So Amy Adams ⁓ was the first and only choice for Villeneuve to play the main parts. She accepted within twenty-four hours famously. Chris - Costello: Very much. Luke: And then ⁓ they brought on Renner as kind of the second banana. ⁓ the ship interior was on a set that was fifty feet off the ground. So much like Nolan making these huge practical sets so that his actors kind of are feeling more in the moment, more part of this magical

realism that the director is creating. ⁓ and then the other Big note from Villeneuve is he wanted this film to feel like a bad Tuesday morning. Just like a a normal day where class gets interrupted for this monumental news and he wanted it to feel everyday but yet earth changing all at the same time. Chris - Costello: He Peter - Abbott: Ooh, okay. Definitely. I I wonder so you mentioned you mentioned the script they thought was too smart. This sounds like a type of challenge that Christopher Nolan would want to take on. Is there any rumors of him wanting to do this movie? Because I think it takes an expert to ⁓ Chris - Costello: Yeah. Luke: Yes, very much. Peter - Abbott: construct something that all of us can understand even if the material is like difficult or heady and ⁓ har hard to piece together. I just absolute masterpiece. And I feel like Nolan would be interested in this kind of thing, but to Veneuve I mean incredible masterpiece. Chris - Costello: Sure. Luke: And then the score is this is kind of a sad story. Johann Johannensen, who did the Sicario score also, he had worked with Villeneuve on some of his past movies before arrival. He died two years after this, at 48 years old. And this he wrote the score without seeing any of the cuts from the movie. He wrote it based primarily on the script. Peter - Abbott: I looked him up, yeah. Chris - Costello: Wow. Peter - Abbott: Wow, that's insane. Do you do you hear in when you watch Dune I feel like VNUV is like, hey Hans Zimmer, can you do your best Johan Johansen impression? That's what I get. Chris - Costello: Wow. J Luke: And Do a little bit. Yeah, I I I totally yeah. It and this this score is just it it does bring you into the world. It it has parts to it that are very null and s with the boom and you know, Hansimmer a little bit obviously. But I I I think that without the score and to hear that the score is based primarily on what is actually happening Chris - Costello: Yeah. Peter - Abbott: Mm-hmm. Luke: from a script standpoint and not just with visuals makes the script sing even more. Peter - Abbott: How does how does one even do that? How often does that happen in Hollywood not watching the film to start to construct this? This is crazy sound. Chris - Costello: I wonder yeah, I feel like that ⁓ might have happened for the guy that did poor things, but that's that's that's speculation. Very a quick aside though, ⁓ when I there's like an emotional I believe it's violin piece that is sh played in the beginning and the end. It might be sprinkled in through other times. It's very prominent at the end, which is for the big emotional like hit you in the face. And I was watching it and I was like, This is Max Richter. It has to and and because I'm thinking Hamnet, I'm thinking the leftovers, I'm like this and it's so effective. Like I I mean I feel like that Hamnet ⁓ Luke: It is. It's Well, whenever the leftovers needed to like go to a gut punch, they just brought on the Richter. Chris - Costello: Boom! And I was like I ca and like Hamnet is is great. ⁓ the end of Hamnet is made like incredible by the score, in my opinion. And this I mean again, all things are firing in this film. All things are firing. ⁓ but like that just is like the final piece that like will bring someone to tears and like just completely ⁓ push it over the edge and it so that that look that little piece is a Richter piece. That that like ⁓ the the Johan Johanneson I guess did did everything else and a lot of the very, very cool at atmospheric stuff. All of it, is which is so cool and like alienisk and and harkens back to like ancient language even with some of like the the ⁓ chanting and stuff like that. But but yes, of course that that real heart string tug is ⁓ is is is our guy Max Richter, which ⁓ Peter - Abbott: So is educate me on Max Richter. Is he the actual performer who's performing on the instrument? Is this Okay. Luke: He's a he's the composer. Chris - Costello: He's done a lot. He's kinda like he's I mean, he ⁓ he's one of the big guys, along with ⁓ Hans Zipper and and the the guy that ⁓ there's a few, but yeah, he's he's a he's big shit. Luke: So what am I Peter - Abbott: Yo yo ma. Luke: Yeah. Max yeah, th the stuff that Chris listed as his other works, Max Richter, he also did an incredible reinterpretation of of all these four seasons that if you like classical music is very fun. ⁓ just kind of his interpretation of what that would sound with a little bit more modern classical styling. Chris - Costello: Yeah, he does. Peter - Abbott: I do love it when you can make a violin wail or cry. It's it's when it it's when you can anthropomorphize an instrument. I mean I always like it when a guitar solo sounds like someone singing or or a violin you can really make a wailing sound, you can capture a sad crying emotion. Luke: Yeah. Chris - Costello: It looks like he's also been just all over the place too. Like he did the score for it's like they're not all hits. Ad Astra. ⁓ which I didn't see it. Chris didn't see. ⁓ the Apple TV series Invasion. Did not see that. I'm kind of aware of it. But anyways, he's awesome. ⁓ and he famously, my favorite episode of Black Mirror that Luke always trashes me about, ⁓ nosedive with ⁓ with ⁓ the the Luke: Great. Great score. Great movie. Chris - Costello: What's his what's her name? ⁓ Bryce Dallas Howard. ⁓ first episode, season three, when Netflix took over. I love it. That's a Max Richter score. And you can tell because honestly, he's great, but the scores are like kind of reminiscent of one another. It's it's Yes, beautiful. Heartstrings. Love the score. Luke: Yeah. Yeah. He has a has a very distinct style that comes through. So part and parcel with the score is our intro camera work ⁓ where we are kind of panning up to that lakeside home. Beautiful home. I mean shout out shout out to that house. Wow. ⁓ my god. Chris - Costello: Beautiful hope. Fucking what is that on Zillow? That thing is that is a hot piece of

property. Peter - Abbott: Heck yeah. Luke: Amy Adams was making some money from that guy. I w I b I bet you that ⁓ you know when Forrest Whitaker like, ⁓ yeah, you remember that job where you're like doing Sanskrit or whatever she was ⁓ that must have paid for that house. Peter - Abbott: Those floor to ceiling windows? Damn. Chris - Costello: No, yeah. She got paid. She got paid. She's big shit in the linguist world. Luke: But that that pan up, the lighting that's used, very blue, ⁓ very cool colors, ⁓ and it pans up and then at the end, obviously comes down onto that same setup in the same house, and now you're seeing it from a different perspective. ⁓ and immediately we are just in like from the first shot of the movie, I'm like, okay, yep, we're in. This is this is the ride we're going on, and then The the ships come and it is a very distinct ship. It's a very distinct image, much like we talked about with District 9 with that huge ship hovering above the city the entire time. ⁓ we have this kinda egg long elongated egg oval y almost like a seed shape. Chris - Costello: Yeah. Is it 2001 a space oddity, it's gotta be a a wink to the ⁓ the obelisk. Yeah. But I mean it's its own thing. It's awesome, but also like, hey, large black ominous thing shape. Luke: Yeah. Yes, definitely a wink. Peter - Abbott: I I do wanna highlight the fact that this is like the opposite of Independence Day, where the opening shots of Independence Day are showing us that there is a ship coming. They show the ship. This movie is ⁓ is much more focused on the people. We don't get to see we don't get to see the ships until we've established that they've ⁓ positioned themselves in twelve different cities and the characters just talking ⁓ this event that's going on, but we do not get to see the ships first, we get to see the human ⁓ to it, which I thought was cool. Luke: yeah, and this is this is a very character driven movie, specifically the Amy Adams character, and you get her backstory, what she's been through with the loss of her daughter, ⁓ to a a sickness, and that that's when we meet her and her characteristics are understood as a mourning mother who is, you know, just kinda going on with her work. And s ⁓ either Chris or Peter you brought up nine eleven when you're talking about that scene in the ⁓ on the college campus where nobody's in class and one of the students on their phone is like, ⁓ turn on the local news and they flip to it and like I I mean I was only in fourth grade when nine eleven happened, but I everyone has the same story of sitting in a classroom and having the teacher wheel the TV in and like just showing you this monumental like Chris - Costello: Yeah. Yep. Luke: Life changing news. Peter - Abbott: We definitely had that. We we sat and watched the news except for one fricking teacher. She was an absolute troll, economics teacher, and she was like, We are gonna be doing classes normal and we're just like, What the fuck, lady? God ⁓ Chris - Costello: I think I know who you're talking about. We had I was in Milwaukee High School of the Arts just for that one semester and ⁓ I had one my honors English did that. But ⁓ yes, we were seniors. Peter and I were seniors in high school if you wanna date us. ⁓ ask his wife first though, am I right? ⁓ wanna date us. ⁓ but ⁓ no, it was ⁓ it it was quite the it was quite the Luke: Ha ha ha ha. Chris - Costello: realistic portrayal I think and just the panic and I love that yeah you don't even see the little jaws, right? Like you don't see the ship until they actually get there in Montana. Like they I feel like they there's maybe like a little peak that you might get, but really you you don't see it until until that ⁓ until they get there. In the copper. In the chopper. Peter - Abbott: Did we ever get explanation in the movie as to why they positioned themselves in the places that they did? Did I miss that? Are there internet theories about that? What's the deal? Luke: I I don't know if I ever ran across an internet theory. I did like the ⁓ the jokes that the that Jeremy Renner and his voiceover gives where they're like they all had a hit single by this random person was top of their charts. ⁓ Chris - Costello: Yes. Had a hit thong. Peter - Abbott: ⁓ yeah. Chris - Costello: It's very cool and mysterious. Which th this film goes for that area, ⁓ goes for that, ⁓ you know, uses mystery. Luke: Well, and it just like a very layman's idea is that they are fairly evenly spread out throughout the earth. If you see the overhead of the the map, they are Like if you were to map the distances between they were covering a majority of the earth in all different parts. And obviously that comes in key to the end of the movie and what the overall message of the film is. ⁓ so Forrest Whittaker comes in and he is kind of our get us up to speed character. He is the colonel coming in from the US military, obviously with these ships appearing out of nowhere around the earth. Chris - Costello: Yeah. Luke: militaries are kind of taking the lead ⁓ what are we gonna do with ⁓ with this ⁓ ⁓ get the first ⁓ with the alien ⁓ sound just with sound we don't see them we don't know what they look like we know nothing ⁓ just have Forrest Whitaker dropping a recording thing down pressing play and Amy Adams reaction to and our reaction to what we are hearing. Chris - Costello: Do we really quickly is what do we think about Forrest Whitaker's like accent? Is that he's that's not his real voice. Are we is and so ⁓ it like, is he Boston? Is like ⁓ going on there? ⁓ mean, it's fine. I like it, but for it I did just like, it took me out just for a second to be like, what? What is that? Yeah. ⁓ Peter - Abbott: It can't be. Luke: He he's doing like an east coast Yeah. Peter - Abbott: Maybe it's Baltimorean, I don't know. What was that? Why'd you say that one word that way? Chris - Costello: Yeah, it was just it was just interesting. I mean he his character ultimately, like you said, Luke,

is just i i it's ⁓ sometimes an exposition machine. It just has to get them to where they need to go. He does a fine job, but also yeah, interest maybe maybe because he didn't have that much to do, he's like, I'm doing a Boston accent They're like, Okay for it Peter - Abbott: Mm-hmm. Luke: Yeah, yeah, he he isn't given a lot to do. He he gets to raise his voice a couple of times, but he ⁓ yeah, he I I always find Forrest Whitaker like endlessly fascinating to just watch perform. And I think one of the reasons is his his wonky eye. And you're just always like, What is he squinting at? What what are you looking at, Forrest? Peter - Abbott: He's squirrel chasing a little bit, one of ⁓ is. Luke: But then he just does that like deadpan look all the t whenever he's like talking to a character and he just does that like Forrest Whitaker like and i just like very very good stuff. Peter - Abbott: He's good as Saw Guerrera and ⁓ Rogue One. Lies! Deception He's good. He's he's good as a kooky guy in that one. Yeah. Little Vader style almost. Chris - Costello: He's great. Luke: Yeah. He's huff huffing that ⁓ what what was the Chris - Costello: he has the ab he has the ability to be like authoritative but also like have like a a a tough heart. Like there there's heart behind him but he's all I don't know. Again, it is not the biggest role but like well done. Appropriate. Luke: Yeah. And We've talked about this in other films, specifically Spielberg films, in that we are right into the thrust of what this movie is and is going to be about in the first fifteen minutes. We get, you know, a little bit of the character setup character setup with Amy Adams, and within ten minutes, the aliens have arrived. She's contacted by the government. She goes back to her house after doing kind of the translation trick for all those, you know, people out there that know all these different languages ⁓ ⁓ to ⁓ the next guy they were gonna go to to define what war is in ancient Sanskrit or whatever. ⁓ ⁓ then we cut back to the house, she's hanging out, we get the chopper coming over the head, Forrest Whitaker knocks on the door, and ⁓ Amy Adams gets to do the like, ⁓ what did he say? And she gives the the definition that that professor gives and Amy Adams is like, I would translate it as like a disagreement over goats or whatever it was. Peter - Abbott: She's she's very adept at ⁓ tricking people when she needs to. For for example, the whole story of the aboriginals and the kangaroo is completely untrue, but she needed to get some kind of point across, her point about completely understanding these things before we move forward. And she's she's a very clever character. Luke: Yeah, she uses l well, she uses language to trick people. Chris - Costello: Yeah. Angaro. Luke: Well, when she does the sentence diagram when they give her the statement that they want to get to, which is what is your purpose here? And she defines each word and its meaning within language and how you have to

get to that like it's one thing to say the words, it's another thing to get the person to understand why you're using each one of those words. And we do that instinctively because we live in this language. A lot of, you know, that the thing that Jeremy Renner asks her when he's like ⁓ I forget the term, not ⁓ I should have remembered what that term was, but the term of when you start thinking in another language and it starts to change who you are. Yeah. Because that's some of the things we don't realize in a you know global world and all that sort of stuff is that the language that you know and are a part of is defining you as a person. Peter - Abbott: manipulates how you yeah, how you think. Completely. Chris - Costello: Yeah. Peter - Abbott: Well, Chris, you and I took German and there's there's parts where the verb goes at the end, right? Luke: Yeah. ⁓ I took German too. Chris - Costello: Yeah. ⁓ it's ⁓ I ⁓ that's good. Sergo. I didn't I didn't remember a lot. Peter - Abbott: ⁓ there go. That's just good, yeah. Luke: Yeah, yeah. Told. Peter - Abbott: Haven ein Luftkissenboat? I have a Luft Kissenboat, that's a hovercraft. Chris - Costello: I love it. But I do either of you ⁓ speak langu ⁓ other languages t at this point, at any event? Yeah. I don't either. But Peter - Abbott: Fluently? No. Chris - Costello: I think it is really interesting though, just that that that theory and and the idea of our our language being so instrumental. I mean, you know, the cornerstone of humanity, right? They bring that up on the chapter. On the chapa, sorry, Predator. but like just being like it is ⁓ the cornerstone of humanity is is language, ⁓ and then he says, No, it's science, but of course setting up what will be something that goes on for the ⁓ a lot for the rest of the film, but just like that is so true, and like language is how we ⁓ set our perspective. Peter - Abbott: Yeah. Chris - Costello: Perceptions and our perceptions are our reality, and our reality is our experience. And ⁓ You know, I mean i right away getting into some really heavy ideas that like the film will briefly talk about, but then also ⁓ it gives you stuff to like leave the film and like think about and like presents these ideas that like you might not have really considered or maybe you d but like it just it brings up such a such a rich tapestry, I'll say that, but of of of ideas and and just like yeah, behind you know, the evolution of of language and what's behind it. Luke: Well, one of the videos that I watched doing prep for this show by someone way smarter than I am, because I would not have thought of this, is just if you take the way our language is written, English for one, is that we write from left to right. We are literally discovering the future as we write left to right on a page. So the next letter follows, the next letter follows, the next letter follows, the next letter. And you can only look back on the past. Whereas the alien language is a circle. So there is no start, there is no end. Time is not a function of that language. Like if you were to read English in a circle, you wouldn't know what was the starting word and all that sort of stuff. But it to them it doesn't matter. So that is like a literal Textual way, like imprinting way of our how language changes our perception of just time. Chris - Costello: from true detective said it best, time is a flat circle. But Peter - Abbott: Consciousness was a cruel trick. Luke: ⁓ don't make me go Russ Cole, baby. Chris - Costello: It's very ⁓ but all of it like it's you got some beers you could just take apart and fashion into little toy soldiers. but seriously, I mean ⁓ funny also, but like all these are awesome concepts and and and just I it's just it's really like you say heady stuff. Also it is crazy that this film d was so successful. ⁓ Peter - Abbott: Damn that line. That that scares me. ⁓ Luke: Boy. He was right. Chris - Costello: I think for the right person, this is like an amazing film. ⁓ for example, my ⁓ twenty-two-year-old son started to watch it with me, and it this is a quiet film. This is a movie that is about aliens, but like it's not like it's just ⁓ it's you have to be ready for what this film is and what it is not. And I think do you I mean, yeah, I I don't know. I think do do you think some people were very let down, turned off by this? Yeah. Luke: I'm sure there were, yeah. Especially if you especially if you see like a movie like Sicario, which does have action set pieces and like is violent and stuff like that, and you go, ⁓ that guy's making an alien film, like that that's gonna be sick and then like the first hour and fifteen minutes is just like talking. Peter - Abbott: I don't want to be friends with those people. Chris - Costello: Mm, they suck. And for sure, it's a very quiet film. Like I I have the soundbar like punched up all the way and like it really never gets up. Luke: It's it Peter - Abbott: Well the the sound is not quiet and the sound is very atmospheric. The the the the the score that is. Luke: No. Sound is very very loud. Chris - Costello: Yes. For sure. But like, you know, as far as like you I mean, for example, you know, we we don't I there's one explosion that we do get, but ⁓ you know, it is very it's calm and I I think there's like a cold clinical sensibility that he has, not to say that there's no heart or anything, because there absolutely is, but I think we can even see this sometimes in in like Dune. Like It's just like I don't know, there like there's like a tone to to his films and I don't even know. Like I'd have to go back for Prisoners and Sicario, but like it is calm and calculated and not very emotional. Like I mean there is emotion. ⁓ Luke: He he he has a very he has a very David Fincher energy to like he he is almost like he he's revealing what is on screen to you, the viewer, in as unbiased of a way as possible. And just kind of letting letting it flow over you like this incredible situation that's

occurring. And I did want to make another comparison to Nolan again. Chris - Costello: Yeah. Yes. Luke: In just this scene where you are ⁓ Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner are being brought up to the ship and they don't know how you get on the ship or what is going on, and they go up the the kind of forklift ramp thingy, and then the scissors there you there you go. And then they do the gravity inversion where you have to essentially jump up Peter - Abbott: Scissors lift. That would be my job. I would operate the scissors lift. That'd be my job in the movie. Chris - Costello: Ha ha ha ha. Luke: And then you land sideways. And that whole camera trick, much like ⁓ Nolan in ⁓ Inception with the rotating hotel. Now Nolan adds, you know, a fight sequence to that to enhance it because that's the type of film that he's making. Villeneuve, like that happens and it's very quiet, and they end up just walking down the hall, and then you get the visual of, you know, the big screen. Chris - Costello: Yeah. Peter - Abbott: Hotel. Yep. Luke: literally a a movie theater that they these characters walk into and start interacting with. ⁓ so Villeneuve is using visual to kind of bring you the wonder, whereas Nolan is going to bring you action to enhance kind of what he's doing all around it. Peter - Abbott: Yeah, I do want to piggyback on like some of these scenes are just very calculated and emotionless, and it reminds me of many of the characters in Dune. Well, the good guys, the Harkonens are interesting. Wish there was more Harkonens in Vanu's Dune, but ⁓ I have read it. Yeah. dude, the Harkonens are so interesting. But the main Harkonen, yeah. Chris - Costello: Mm-hmm. Luke: You gotta read it, man. La a lot more behind the scenes than the Harkonens. I always pronounced it Harkonens in my head. Peter - Abbott: Harkinens, whatever. ⁓ but the main characters, the House of Trades, like they're not very interesting and they are cold and calculated and extremely thoughtful and Vanu nails that. Luke: W well all this all the scenes all the scenes shot on Atreides look like a rival. Peter - Abbott: Yeah, cloudy and and wet and almost like Seattle. Chris - Costello: Yeah. Luke: And blue. Chris - Costello: I did you and Amy Adams has this like for a lot of it has almost this like I don't wanna say it's lifelessness, but it's like a blankness. Luke: But it makes sense she's supposed to have this tragic passing of like the thing she l person she loved the most in her life and you're like, Yeah, she would just kinda just be like, Well, I'm doing my job, but this sucks. Chris - Costello: Yeah. And I mean, spoiler alert, she's like seeing all over at all times, maybe. Peter - Abbott: I here's my here's my question about this. ⁓ when sh when all these shots of cloudy days and her depressed ⁓ I don't think she has had her Dr. Manhattan omniscient unlocking yet. I think that she's just a depressed alcoholic. I really think that that's it. That's how I i did you guys also hear that Jeremy Renner mentions that she has a bottle that she's been hiding and she's got the shakes and there's glasses of wine out in all of the scenes with clouds. I I think that she is in a bad depression before all of this, and the use of clouds and the use of dull colors is her depression. And then when they show shots of her daughter, which Luke: True. Peter - Abbott: happens in the future, there is more light. There's a little more sun. ⁓ when we first see the ships, there's a little more sunlight. When the her awakening happens, there's more sunlight. I think that the shots ⁓ earlier in the movie, she's just a depressed person. I think that's it. Chris - Costello: Yeah. Yes. Luke: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, yeah, and I'm I'm only talking I I completely love that idea and that read on it. I'm I'm as I'm speaking, I'm trying to like not do it within the context of the full movie. Because obviously as the screenplay linearly linearly is working, we are thinking she is depressed because she's lost her daughter and all that sort of stuff. Obviously your reading is the correct one where Peter - Abbott: Okay. All right. Spoiler alert. Okay. Luke: This is a person with problems currently that is starting to figure out how to resolve those. Chris - Costello: Yeah. I ⁓ Luke: So that she can be prepared to, you know, get married, have a kid, ⁓ do all that stuff. Peter - Abbott: needs some light in her life which is I think what informs her decision to go ahead with with her decision to try to have a child despite knowing the outcome. Really, really heavy step. Luke: And I th I I think maybe alcoholism, maybe just flat depression, maybe like married to her work and her work isn't bringing her the most amount of joy because she's doing like governor, you know, ⁓ contracts with the military and people are like getting blown up as a result of that. I can see 'cause she she mentions that to the Forrest Whitaker character, like, yeah, those people that you blew up after I did that translation. Peter - Abbott: Mm-hmm. Government work. Yeah, yeah. Chris - Costello: Yeah. Peter - Abbott: Yeah, you got ⁓ Chris - Costello: You you made quick work of the insurgents. Luke: So yeah, you can definitely see someone falling into a depression because their w their work that they cherish is being used for these ill ends and just kind of being like, I work at this I mean, does she is she a is that university in Montana, do we think? It's probably I mean, it's in the Pacific Northwest somewhere, but Peter - Abbott: Yeah. I would guess the ⁓ Seattle area. So damn cloudy. Yeah. So maybe so maybe the ship ⁓ was in Montana to possibly attract from either the west coast or the east coast as equally as possible to get as many experts closest to it as possible. I don't know, just throwing out there. You're in between Chicago and Milwaukee. Yeah. Chris - Costello: Yeah, in that yeah. ⁓ Luke: Cause the the ship is in Montana. Which I think Denisville I think Denis Villeneuve was like, What it

what is the biggest open space in America that I can go to? And they're like, Have you been to Montana? Chris - Costello: It's like Alpine Valley. Alpine Valley Okay. Peter - Abbott: Yeah. Chris - Costello: Film in Montana. Peter - Abbott: Our alien pilots aren't very good. They need a lot of space. They don't want to crash into the trees or the buildings. Luke: Yep. Chris - Costello: Water. One of the ships, right? At least that's so cool. ⁓ Luke: That was sick. Peter - Abbott: Was that the one that was out by China, right? Luke: Yeah. Very ⁓ Project Hail Mary on the ⁓ the boat that they're kinda using to s to stay away. ⁓ dude. You wanna talk about if if this if we did this type of franchise two years from now, Project Hail Mary would have been on the list. That it is Chris - Costello: I'm gonna see that one day. I can't wait. I know no Peter - Abbott: Mm-hmm. Definitely. Very good movie. Luke: Probably my favorite science fiction movie non Dune related since this movie arrival. Chris - Costello: That's high prey. Peter - Abbott: What are your ⁓ quick aside, Luke, what are your thoughts on Messiah coming up? I am not jazzed about it. I listened to it on audiobook, need to give it another shot, but I did not like it when I listened to it on audiobook. Luke: Stop. Stop. So Dune Messiah is my favorite book of the Dune series. Peter - Abbott: Okay, maybe I should actually read it instead of audio booking. Luke: I I just think it it so it's significantly shorter than the first Dune book and tells a more straightforward story. But I think the ideas that are kind of touched on in the first Dune book are just so focused and so interesting at least to me, like what happens when a religion goes too far and you have this messianic figure that is kinda turned into an emperor. Chris - Costello: Peace. Luke: very much Roman Empire related and all that sort of stuff, and then to have the rejection by the Messianic figure of that idea and what what essentially Jesus needs to do ⁓ fix his movement that has gotten out of his control is essentially what Messiah is about. I'm concerned that the movie won't be able to capture ⁓ lot of those ideas correctly. 'Cause it's a big swing. Like Messiah is so much headier than like the story that they told tell off the first book. ⁓ Yeah. If anyone can do it, he can do it. And he's the first two movies are great. the first one I think is like if I were to like rate it, I'd be like an ⁓ eight eight for the first movie, and then the second movie is just significantly better in my opinion. As more to work with, but Peter - Abbott: I think Vanooov can do it though, if anyone can. Chris - Costello: Yeah, anyone can. Luke: I re watched it within the last month and I was I was like, ⁓ yes, this movie is amazing. Chris - Costello: They showed like the first seventeen minutes of it at Cinemacon, like the ⁓ new Dune movie, and it got yeah, rave re people said it was a amazing. So Luke: Looking forward to it. December this year. It's

gonna be big. Chris - Costello: ⁓ going being released at the same time as Avengers Doomsday. Luke: Yeah, which one's gonna do better do you think? Peter - Abbott: shoot. Chris - Costello: ⁓ Dune. Luke: Dude. Chris - Costello: I feel like this yeah, I mean, I know we're getting off topic here, but ⁓ I think that we're gonna see that these Marvel movies I mean it'll still make millions and millions of dollars. But also there's a thing with IMAX, like Dune has the rights to all the IMAX screens that week and so or or something of that nature. So and like Marvel has like made a new type of viewing experience that's like supposed to compete with IMAX. I don't know. ⁓ clearly I'm just having the bullet points here and like the clickbait articles, but ⁓ I think it'll be very Peter - Abbott: ⁓ okay. Chris - Costello: Interesting and I will definitely see Dune. Luke: So I have a couple of scr structural things to talk about with arrival, and then we can get into the full picture, the full transcendence of time that we are taken through in this film. Does the kind of action plot piece with the kind of rogue guards that are listening to all these alt-right figures on on the line talk about it? We gotta we gotta send a shot across the bow. And ⁓ Peter - Abbott: The meatheads. Chris - Costello: That's right, everybody. It's Alex Jones. ⁓ Yeah. Peter - Abbott: Fear. Broadcasting fear. What a surprise. Luke: Do you do you think that that part works to help us get through the middle of this film and towards the end? Peter - Abbott: Yeah, you definitely need some kind of conflict. That was a highly suspenseful scene that I was just like, I can't whoa, I i is this clock really going real time? What are you doing, Vinuve? ⁓ but are the the the aliens must be pretty telepathic if they could sense that there was a bomb in there, maybe without having seen it, or they can read the minds of the soldiers. How powerful are these aliens? Luke: What's Chris - Costello: They can just see they see everything. So they knew that was they knew all they knew all. They they know all. Peter - Abbott: They knew the time they knew the yeah, right. It doesn't have to do with telepathy, it has to do with their life experience in knowing the future. Right. Okay. Obviously. Chris - Costello: Yeah, time is time is a flat circle, baby. Luke: Well and yeah, and their ask that we find out is they're like, We are gonna need your help in like three hundred years. Three thousand years. So it's like so so they are they're seeing the full picture all the time. They know exactly how much time they have in each situation and they they jet ⁓ out great great shot on the explosion, switches to that slow mo ⁓ to show the effects of no gravity. Peter - Abbott: Three thousand. Okay, yeah. So pretty good foresight. Luke: and them just getting rocketed out of there. I don't know how they survive that. but they they do. And ⁓ then the the last structural thing is I think the CGI is kind of not great. The the scene when she goes up to the ship to get the final bit of information does it work? Chris - Costello: So Peter - Abbott: Her hair looked like the fox's hair in disclosure day. Chris - Costello: Yes. Yep. We ⁓ or ⁓ the wolves in Frankenstein. But really to to really to comment real I'll do just a second on each of those, ⁓ I thought that the insurgent, ⁓ alt right whatever is barely touched upon. Which is fine 'cause I don't think we need it to do much besides, like, as you said, just kind of move the plot along. Peter - Abbott: Yeah, always the wolves in Frankenstein. Chris - Costello: And I think if they would have done more with it to flesh out like who who is that guy? I mean they they he that the soldier guy has like one scene where they're like, his daddy's gonna be killed by the aliens to kind of show that, and then he's listening to like the Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh character. And that's it. do you guys think that that's enough? Do you wanna see more? Do you wanna see less? What I mean, what do you think about that? Peter - Abbott: I I mean I kind of agree with that and it really wouldn't take much. It would take ⁓ a couple of different extra twenty seconds probably for for fleshing out a couple of those characters and their motivation. So like you I feel like some some script writer or director could do that very efficiently. Literally f like forty more seconds and two different pieces leading up to that. Probably probably could have done it. I would agree with you, Chris. Luke: I was a I was a little worried. I'm like, did I forget that there's this weird almost too long subplot about these guys trying to blow up this alien ship before we can get the message across? And I was very satisfied with the amount of time that it took up. I was like, ⁓ that's that's enough to drive the plot forward. It's not too much that it becomes like a main thing within the movie when you think about it and I I think it's effective. I don't Chris - Costello: Yeah. Luke: Yeah, maybe forty seconds if you want to draw it out just a little bit more and add a little bit more context to it, but I think they did a pretty efficient job of getting that across. Chris - Costello: And the film does have the theme of mystery. I mean so much of it is like, you know, talking about the old Nolan references, like the prestige or ⁓ inception as far as like it's playing a trick. And that's not really what's happening with this alt-right insurgency thing, but like we're showing you this and then now it's gonna you know, it's a magic trick, but ⁓ it is just they show just enough. ⁓ and we don't know w after the bomb went off, I was like, ⁓ what? Who's what is this bomb about? And then they kinda say, ⁓ yeah, it was the insurgents. And again, it's fine. It does what it needs to do. And you do have that like ⁓ ma like the the absolute ⁓ I don't know, be be be like it being baffled is like, Well, why is there a bomb ticking down? What's happening here? So that's kind of a

that elicits some ⁓ anxiety, right? Luke: And so we get to probably the most nolen part, which is the end of the film, where we are cutting back and forth between a scene and a kind of dinner get together like event, kind of red carpet type event, that yeah. Chris - Costello: Yeah. Yeah. Peter - Abbott: Maybe it was a luncheon. I hate the word luncheon. So we're gonna call it a luncheon. No, it was a big ball. It was a big celebration of of like overcoming this mystery. Chris - Costello: I mean she was dressed pretty fancy for a luncheon. Do you dress it was the hept Luke: Yeah. Of her and like her book that had been released and all that. So we're getting the time dilation, we're getting the back and forth between the future and the past, and characters in the future using their conversation to impact the past. ⁓ the Chinese liberation leader is giving her the words to say to him to convince him to stand down. which are the last words of his wife as she was dying to him, which we never do hear. and what is it? Chris - Costello: Do know what it is? It's ⁓ war war it's something along the lines of like war has no winners, only widows. 'Cause I've listened to something where they they you know and the and it is interesting too, like ⁓ again a Peter - Abbott: It's done in Mandarin, right? Yeah. Luke: That might be Yeah. Pro Chris - Costello: It's just yeah, it's in it but ⁓ and just adding to the mystery too, right? 'Cause like ⁓ sh he like whispers it to her and or we don't know or whatever. It's just it adds to the ⁓ mystique of everything, but yeah, I guess Peter - Abbott: So did he get was he awakened like Amy Adams was? Does he have the same level of consciousness as her? Chris - Costello: What if they all learned the language? 'Cause she wrote the book. She wrote the book so I mean I I guess we're we're Luke: Yeah. I think I think it is spreading l as people interact with the language, the ability to understand time through their that language is coming off on people. She's just had it for longer. She's had it for the entire time. Chris - Costello: Yeah. And she ⁓ I mean I mean and she just and she has the she says the ⁓ the the she says that stuff to him to like be like, Whoa, I'm for real, you have to listen to me and here's you know, I have your special cell phone number and all that stuff, which is just very cool time travel ⁓ plot exposition. Peter - Abbott: So if you're if so this ⁓ brings up the point of the construction of this movie. More people are becoming aware because they're learning the language. It's exactly the journey that we, the audience member, is on. We get these we get snippets of different points in this woman's life. and we don't understand it yet we will understand it by the end because we are starting to understand the language and then that goes exactly with rewatching the movie. You have a better understanding because you're familiar with the time manipulation and and the the alien language. It's it's he walks he walked you right through it exactly the way he should. Luke: So Let's talk about the end of the film, the root full reveal, what is actually going on. So Amy Adams' daughter obviously is her future daughter. with the J with the Jeremy Renner character, and then we get the appreciation that Peter - Abbott: Who is this girl? Luke: The person that we saw at the start of this movie, Amy Adams, has not had her daughter yet. Like, has all that in front of her. They have the line of dialogue between her and Renner, like, if you could see the future, ⁓ would you change anything? Or if you could redo the past, would you change anything? And she says, No, ⁓ ultimately. And then we understand why Jeremy Renner's character left, why he is not around with the daughter why they are separated and is because Amy Adams tells him what is going to happen. So does he never learn the language because if he had the same time stuff that was going on with Amy Adams, he also would be able to see what was gonna happen with the d with their daughter. Chris - Costello: We Peter - Abbott: I don't think he gets the same awakening. I think that's it. Chris - Costello: I I think this might be a plot hole. I I like I I I love this film, right? But like first of all too, like obviously like the Jeremy Renner leaving her and her d and the daughter or like splitting up, that's a traumatic event. ⁓ that's hard for her, that's hard for the the daughter. If Amy Adams has this omniscient ⁓ presence and knows what's gonna happen, wouldn't she be like, I'm not gonna tell him that? Like like Peter - Abbott: Yeah, this is like a huge ethical question. Luke: Yeah. Well and I maybe it's not a plot hole so much as like she just felt like that always was going to happen, so it has to happen and it is going to lead to him, you know, running away and resenting her for making that decision that he had he he had asked her, like if you could see what was going to happen, like would you still do it? And Chris - Costello: Well because yeah, I mean like Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Peter - Abbott: I think I think that we've talked about this, the hero's journey of people being chosen ones, and I think maybe he just is not awakened to the timeline yet like Amy Adams. Amy Amy Adams is our chosen one. Luke Skywalker, Emily Blunt from Disclosure Day. I think that this there's kind of there's levels to your power and she's the first one to unlock it. So she must be the most aware, most powerful. That's that's my read on it. Chris - Costello: You can read this through like a biblical interpretation too if we want to talk that way, which I don't think we do. But right? Like you could, like the the ⁓ the chosen one, right? Yeah. Yep, okay, moving on. Peter - Abbott: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Luke: Yeah. Yeah. She well, she is the ⁓ yeah, sh she has almost godlike powers in that she can see all time. ⁓ and it's not fully fleshed out like what the full like ability to know the future, know the past, all that sort of stuff. It is kept

vague enough that there aren't like Chris - Costello: And then yeah. Luke: severe pro plot holes and like that doesn't make sense with how this was depicted in the film because you can just be like, Well, she was only seeing snippets of things and people only see snippets of things that they want to see and like need to see and stuff like that. Peter - Abbott: What do you think her classes were like in the future with her college students? She's like, hey, ⁓ don't don't sleep with that guy. He's got an S T D. You're gonna regret it. Luke: Or even more simply, like, ⁓ god, I gotta go do this lecture and this one fucking sucks at the end. Like people do not dig this one, but I but I gotta do it this way. Peter - Abbott: Yeah, the kids are all asleep at eight AM. Chris - Costello: Don't you marry that guy? Don't go to beauty school, Tara. It's not gonna work out well for you. Peter - Abbott: Don't drop out, stay in school. Luke: So I had texted you guys that I love this movie unabashedly. Every single bit and piece of it I think is fantastic. ⁓ I will reflect that in my overall ranking. ⁓ but I do not like one line of this film. And it is at the end, and it is it is the last line of the film, I believe. There might be one more after, but it's the Jeremy Renner. Do you wanna make a baby? And I'm like what Chris - Costello: ⁓ yeah, I was curious about this. Peter - Abbott: ⁓ yeah, that's right, you said that. ⁓ no, I glitched out. Luke: boy. Peter left. He was he was disgusted. He was not ⁓ ⁓ think it is way too just like hammer meat nail. ⁓ we get it. We we understand what's happening, I think visually, thematically well enough. And I think that line just kinda l runs really flat where it's just like, Yes, you're going to ha have a kid. We we know this is gonna happen. We don't need runner being like, do you wanna make a baby? Chris - Costello: We lost Peter. He's like, I nope, I'm out. I'm I'm and for that reason I'm out. Okay, so you did like that. This is for the I mean, I wonder if it's almost like a studio note. Like we wanna we don't think Luke: Yeah, we have to really make this clear what's happening. Chris - Costello: Yeah, boy which I mean, you know, f fair. I I don't know. I mean like I didn't I don't I didn't mind it as much. I I feel like, you know but I I see, like it's it's ⁓ Luke: I I I cackled, I was like, ⁓ there it is, there's that line Peter - Abbott: So as far as Jeremy Renner lines go, there is ⁓ while I was watching a little bit of this with my wife, it's a seemingly insignificant line. It's when Jeremy Renner's about to pull his hazmat suit off. He just simply says, and it you know fits well with the scene, he said, everybody dies, right? And I was like, ⁓ my god, that's it. Because a minute earlier, my wife and I are discussing Chris - Costello: Yes. Yeah. Luke: Yeah. Peter - Abbott: Do you make this decision of having a child who's who's going to die and she's and my wife said said, everybody dies. Everybody's gonna do that,

have that happen to them. So why not have a life, have a positive thing in your life? Because everyone's gonna experience the end, so Luke: Well that Peter - Abbott: that was ⁓ just like a awakened me. My wife was just nailed it and then he said that line a minute later. I like, ⁓ that's that's it. That's the the crux of the movie here. Luke: Well when Amy Adams has that scene with her daughter kinda by the lake, where she kind of tells her without telling her what is gonna happen, that there is this rare disease and you know, she goes through like you're you're the bravest, strongest person that I I'm I'm almost getting choked up right now. ⁓ strongest person that I know and to yeah, to just go back and like Chris - Costello: Yeah. Peter - Abbott: Yeah. Luke: all of the scenes with the Max Richter where they're like, you know, doing the fake Cowboys and Indians in the yard and just all those moments that as a parent you you just would you're like, I would never give back those moments and it's like, would you give it back to not have to suffer through the loss of your child later on? And she ultimately chooses not to and like those are the reasons why. Like you can't like that's something you're never gonna get back if you choose not to have that kid. Peter - Abbott: And the sun is out and beautiful in those scenes. Chris - Costello: And that's the emotional stamp, right? Like th th this film does all these awesome h heady things, talks about language, does this, but then at the end, the emotional pull is like, you know, like life will be painful, but you must do it anyways. Or you can choose to do it anyways. The beauty, the sadness, the score, the kid see I mean it this is all like recipes for like, ⁓ would you like Chris to lose his shit? Or like like, yep, like put all these ingredients in. I mean it's I I I couldn't help it. Like it it's it's again and I used to shit on like Clint Eastwood movies because I'm like, they're just pulling at heart strings and but but but I think that this one does so in such an artistic, beautiful like this just worked for me on the deepest, deepest level and I feel like it especially as as a father, as someone that's gone through relationships that have been joyful and then have been, you know, ultimately maybe tragic is too intense of a word, but very sad. ⁓ I mean people that we've lost in our lives. Like I d This just hits this is one of the most core facets of our humanity, right? Luke: Yeah. And I Peter - Abbott: So why can jer why could Jeremy Renner's character not handle this? What is what's the difference between Amy Adams and and Jeremy Renner? This is an open ended question. I don't know. Luke: Well, ⁓ I mean it probably just goes back to the professions. It is the the master of language versus the master of science, the man that sees only math and sees probably from a utilitarian perspective like why would you bring this person into the world to just suffer? And he doesn't he doesn't want that whereas Amy Adams is through her memories and stuff giving you the reasons why she would choose to suffer that. Chris - Costello: Mm-hmm. Peter - Abbott: Like why would you do this if it's gonna end in nothing? I think that's it. You got it. Chris - Costello: Yeah. Quick note too. Luke: And I yeah. Chris - Costello: really just the apparently the original story that this is based off of is very much ⁓ in the line of determinism, like so there's like no choice. It's just like things will happen. And actually I guess the daughter dies in a rock climbing accident. ⁓ so something that you could potentially like avoid. ⁓ I guess the screenwriter did not like the ⁓ ⁓ hard determinist ⁓ mood and and made it more about choice, which I think was a brilliant, amazing ⁓ choice for him to make and makes it like this it makes it the emotional gut punch that that it that it is and is ultimately so rewarding. Luke: Yeah, and so the original script, the ending was that the aliensptopods were actually giving them actual stuff. Like the United States got faster than light travel. And China got like a life saving device. And apparently Villeneuve and the screenwriter just kept on being like, That's too pop sci fi, too pop sci-fi, we don't need it. Chris - Costello: ⁓ really? Peter - Abbott: No, we don't need it. No, it's not what the movie's about. Luke: And so they just ended up dialing in on language being the gift. Chris - Costello: No. Yeah. Perfect. That that goes with the whole tone. We don't need superhero shit. Like this is not a superhero movie. This movie, while it is about fantastical aliens, like it's not a it's so it's ⁓ it's like sci fi in style and in some plot, but it is really not it's a movie about, you know, humanity, which ⁓ yeah. Luke: Movie about being a mom. Just being a mom. Peter - Abbott: And awakening yourself to a higher consciousness. It reminds me of there's an old Carl Sagan video where he's trying to describe Two-dimensional things and three-dimensional things, and eventually to four-dimensional things. Let's imagine you are a flatlander man living in two dimensions. There is backwards, there is forwards, and there is left and right. You don't know that there is an up or a down. And then comes an apple that is coming from above that the two land two-dimensional people never see, and it appears out of nowhere and comes through as a shape of an apple in segments and then disappears. The two-dimensional person does not understand. What happened. So it's like it's like that. And then he brings up a fourth-dimensional tesseract and he tries to describe it and he shows you a cube that is within a cube and it's in three-dimension. He's like, This is this is not it. This is just a shadow of it. This is our best shot at describing. a four-dimensional object, but we're holding it here. It's in 3D. This is the shadow of the fourth dimension. And this kind of this these are the kinds of things that I think about and these are the things that

this kind of movie brings to my attention. And therefore I love I love thinking of a higher consciousness. This nails it. Love it. Chris - Costello: things a film can do make you think and elicit emotion. In my opinion. Luke: That's true. And this this is full of them. All right, let's get to our favorite scenes from 2016's Arrival. Chris, kick us off. Your favorite scene from Arrival. Peter - Abbott: Mm-hmm. Crush it. Chris - Costello: Okay. So this is tough. Like ⁓ I I part of me wanted to say when she's explaining the sentence, 'cause that's really great. But I have to be true to I guess what really, really blew the doors off for me, and it's it is like the very end. The end specifically I mean gosh. I mean So hard to pick. Like w do you pick when like when she when it's being revealed of how she met up with the ⁓ with the Chinese ⁓ leader and and all of that, which is more of the cool Nolan time travel. I think that's really cool, but I think what ⁓ ultimately I I'll go down to is the the end where we're also being revealed of like, no, this kid is gonna happen in the future. Well when we get that part of that that piece, that last piece, ⁓ and and then you know, when you really get down to the ⁓ I'm making this choice and life is hard and life is tragic but ⁓ but it's worth it and it's beautiful, I can't you can't beat it and so that's that's it. Luke: Yeah. Gold. Peter? Peter - Abbott: I would I would specifically I mean there's obviously all that stuff that Chris mentioned, but I think the point for me specifically is when the line is mentioned by the haptopod Luis sees future. And that's when ⁓ we've been and just this cloud of like depression and mystery about her daughter dying and then when that line is spoken the gears start to turn as they have walked us through the fact that these Aliens speak in sentences that are complete from beginning to end and that they see their own timeline from beginning to end at all times and that that is the moment where the the viewer gets a little ⁓ gets the hint, gets the gears turning that this might be what is happening. She's having a timeline awakening. That's my favorite scene. Luke: I'm gonna go with the ⁓ them boarding the ship for the first time and them walking up to the screen, basically. Is I mean, from my visual standpoint, something I've never seen before in a in a movie. I mean a lasting image that I will keep forever. ⁓ famous performance or favorite performance of the film. Chris - Costello: Alcohol. Yeah, beautiful beautiful photography. Peter - Abbott: Good. Good team. I mean is there any any ⁓ much like our Emily Blunt discussion in Disclosure Day. I think we gotta go with Amy Adams, no question. ⁓ Chris - Costello: Yeah, she's the star. I well but here at Luke, I mean, and so l but Luke, you were mentioned before you're a huge huge Jeremy Renner fan. And I think that the world and I'm just hypothesizing, maybe we I think we have a lot of people that are like, Jeremy Renner, yeah, he's cool, he's fine. But like you love Jeremy Renner, and so I ask ⁓ to maybe speak on his performance here, maybe speak on your overall love of that actor. Peter - Abbott: Elaborate. Luke: So Renner, especially in this movie, he's a very giving actor, like he's a good scene partner, and that he will match whatever you're doing. And I think he does a good job of taking a step back, letting Amy Adams have the camera focus on her. He is very subdued in this. He's just he like he just seems like a guy that who is a scientist that kind of is attracted to this this super smart lady. Chris - Costello: Yeah. Peter - Abbott: And is attractive. Luke: But is do is doing his own stuff, and he can do that. He can bring like to life Hawkeye, which is like a superhero in the Marvel world that like shouldn't be that cool. And he is very, very cool in that role. Also gives it a ton of emotional pathos. ⁓ the second ⁓ to last Avengers with ⁓ whatever Avengers Endgame, when it opens with him after the blip. Peter - Abbott: Ooh, that's a good part. Luke: Like that that is who you go to in that crew to land that emotional weight. I think he plays being a dad really well. ⁓ I love him in Hurt Locker where he's doing the more crazy, like eyes wide role. I love him in the town too, where he plays like almost a perfect like Boston tough guy. ⁓ he's just he's got so much range, he's got so much ability to work with whoever else he's in scenes with. Peter - Abbott: Yeah. Good good point. Yeah. Chris - Costello: Yes. Luke: I just he's one of the best performers we have. Chris - Costello: I love that take and I love I love the I love the the emphasis on the subtlety of his performances quite often, which I think is is very important and it's he's not necessarily typically gonna go over the top of the ch the subtle the subtleness in which he approaches roles and then also his ability to work with with others and let them shine and just like take the space and like I think that is that is very well said. Peter - Abbott: We're well said. Luke: I I love his line in the town where Ben Affleck comes in and he's like he's like, Hey, we ⁓ we gotta go beat some dudes up and you can't ask me why and Jeremy Renner just goes, Who's ca we taking? Chris - Costello: He's he's constantly been this guy that's been like the runner up to be like they're like, is he an action star? And like the answer is like, not all the way. But like right like hot Mission Impossible, right? Didn't weren't they they were trained? Luke: Yeah. They they tried to ease him into taking over for Cruz and Cruz just was like not having it. Chris - Costello: Yep. I'm it's me. Yeah. ⁓ Luke: I'll stay forever. You can't stop me. Peter - Abbott: Did he d did he also do a Jason Bourne type spin-off? Chris - Costello: Yes, yes. Luke: He did, yeah. He was he was gonna take over for Damon and then Damon came back and reclaimed it. Peter - Abbott: ⁓ Yeah. Hard to knock off those guys. Yeah. Chris - Costello: That's it,

maybe he's so good Maybe he's so good that these big actors start to see what he's about to do and they go, No, no, no, no! And their egos like, Nope, I can't, I can't let him do it. He's gonna do it better than Yeah. Okay and and then Renner being the gentleman that he is, is like, go do your thing. Have your have your flowers. I don't mind. Because that's how we do it. Peter - Abbott: And they feel threatened. Not giving up. He's gonna be better than me. Luke: And ⁓ he also started his own app, so he might be a crazy person too. ⁓ Peter - Abbott: Yeah. Are you well, are you I was are you on the Jeremy Renner app where you can discuss all things, Jeremy Renner. Luke: I I w I actually co founded it with him. ⁓ my my s my stock options are not looking great right now. ⁓ so MVP. I I'll I'll give my performance Amy Adams also. She is the center of the movie. It was written for her. ⁓ Peter - Abbott: Start up shit. Chris - Costello: Needs another hit! Okay. Peter - Abbott: ⁓ after all that Jeremy Renner talk. Chris - Costello: It was a nice time. ⁓ Luke: Runners, this is a great supporting character. He's a great supporting character. Peter - Abbott: That was a great that was ⁓ great ⁓ little flowers to run her. Chris - Costello: ⁓ this quick question, is this the best Amy Adams role? If this is the Amy Adams Mount Rush mark? Luke: Yes. Peter - Abbott: Taladega Knights. She's in Taladega Knights in a small role. That was her best one. No. Chris - Costello: She She sa she said a lot of shit. ⁓ She works I mean she's the ⁓ she's ⁓ Philip Seymour Hoffman's wife in the Master that gives him a very sad hand job. Yeah. Luke: She isn't all she works. She is. She's great in that movie. Yes. I Chris - Costello: I mean she's g she's a wonderful actor. I mean, ⁓ you can see her now doing like a ⁓ soap opera role in the Cape Fear show on Apple TV where she does an over the top southern accent and the entire show is actually a soap opera but has a lot of A-list stars. But ⁓ th away from that, yeah, I mean this is just a sh also, okay, she's so quiet. Like, another thing that I was thinking and again, this is all part of the film and this works to the s style, but like she's talking to the aliens, right? She's like, What do you think? Like, speak up like do you think the aliens can hear you? Like she's like she's just very soft spoken, right? Am I? Luke: Well ⁓ I'm doing my one simply does not walk into Mordor hand. ⁓ not to not to criticize like who she is in real life. I'm sure she's a very, very intelligent lady, but she plays intelligent super well on screen. Like when she's diagramming that sentence and everything, and like being a professor in front of a classroom, I'm like, yeah, I would sit in a class and look at Amy Adams lecturing and being like, yeah, this lady knows what she's talking about. Peter - Abbott: There you go. Chris - Costello: Yeah, I believe her. She's right. Luke: Not that I not that I look at women in general and go, I they have no idea

what they're talking about. I just think people in general are of base intelligence and there are some people that transcend that. Whew. Yes. She's just attractive enough to listen to. Bad. No. Not good. Not that not that kind of podcast. ⁓ Peter - Abbott: Good save Luke. I thought you were a total misogynist right there. Chris - Costello: Just attractive enough. If she was sexier, I'd start to be like, I don't know. Probably doesn't actually Just kidding. That's a parody. That's a parody, not the manosphere. Okay, keep going. Peter - Abbott: ⁓ my god. Cut that, cut that, cut that, cut that. Luke: MVP. Peter - Abbott: ⁓ I'm gonna go with Johann Johansson. ⁓ totally put me in the movie, especially those early scenes in the in the dark hallways, the gravity manipulation, the giant screen. Definitely I think this movie is not as good without Johann Johansson. Sad that his career could not be longer. Chris - Costello: ⁓ I'll say Denis Villeneuve, I which is obvious. I mean I could also yeah, but I'll just go because it may be the screenwriter, I mean it is really well written, but ⁓ I mean Yeah. ⁓ Luke: Based on a book. Not that not that adaptation isn't an art in itself, but it it's not an original screenplay. Chris - Costello: Yeah. Well yeah, but just like Luke, you mentioned this when we were talking beforehand, like almost every shot is interesting. Everything like you know, you we talked about these little potential like I don't even not gonna even call them plot bowls, but like the little things that you have to be like, ⁓ yeah, just believe this. Believe yep, they've figured out this language and they have a computer system. But like it's all handled with such master preparation from the score, from the cinematography, from the ⁓ everything put together so well ⁓ that believe all of it. Like it's none of it comes into question. just being shown like from the beginning, you're like, this is a master at work here. And it you like it's just this is a he's an amazing filmmaker. I'm really excited ⁓ see the rest of this guy's career. Like he's one of our I'd say most exciting filmmakers working today. Luke: I think he's the new Spielberg. maybe with a little bit darker subject material. A little bit colder. but he's definitely I think I think he's with Nolan the best filmmaker working right now. Sorry Tarantino, you don't make enough movies. ⁓ Chris - Costello: A little colder, maybe? A little colder? Yeah, but but still, I think what saying. Yes. Peter - Abbott: But can still land the emotional punch better than anyone. Chris - Costello: I that tenth one Monday. Peter - Abbott: Did he talk shit about Paul Dano or what like what's that about? Fucking ass. Luke: I'm also gonna Yeah, what the fuck? ⁓ but there's no disrespecting Tarantino on this podcast. We I am also gonna go with Denis Villeneuve. If you watch the movie a number of times like I have and also nerd out with all the ⁓ people theories and stuff that go on around this film, there are movements of the camera that are matched with how Chris - Costello: Okay. Luke: The circular time dilation of the movie is occurring. There are scenes where you're cutting back to an Amy Adams, you think memory. And then if you look forward near the end of the film where there's a continuation, like she is literally like walking in a circle almost the entire movie. And so if you yeah, if you literally just watch the end of the movie and then immediately start it over, you're gonna see that. The camera pans up and the camera then pans down at the end. So like you're literally the movie you could like Memento, you could watch it backwards and forwards and just back and forth. Peter - Abbott: Unbelievable. Unbelievable, man. Unbelievable. Chris - Costello: It's so good. Peter - Abbott: Guys are genius. Chris - Costello: So good. I I wonder what Christopher Nolan thought about this. Phil. Peter - Abbott: Right, it seems right up his alley of of like there's a trick that's happening but he like w upon rewatch you are in on the trick and you just didn't know it. Chris - Costello: It Luke: I will say that a lot of the scenes by the lake with the daughter and stuff like that is very Terence Malik too. and I I am a huge Malik stan. I think Malik is literally the best director alive right now. I think he's the best creator of images in film history, maybe Kubrick. Chris - Costello: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Luke: I would probably say Kubrick from a historical stance is, but I think Terrence Malik is the best. Now people really, really do not like Terrence Malik. ⁓ is very much a you are either all in or all out. And ⁓ so yeah, I just wanted to shout out my Terry, my guy. Chris - Costello: We should cover one of those films 'cause Peter - Abbott: Feel free to make fun of me. What are movies that Terrence Malik has made? Did he do the thin red line? Okay. Came out the same year as Saving Private Ryan. Did not do as well as ⁓ you know, that other World War Two movie. Luke: He did. But it is a it's a different movie. It's not better in any way. It's just so different. Yeah. But it I mean, equally as good in my opinion. Tree of Life is his masterpiece. he did a Pocahontas one called ⁓ what's it called? The New World, which is Peter - Abbott: It's a different movie. New World with Colin Farrell, which the first half of that movie is Chris - Costello: Bad one. Luke: That movie is unbelievably beautiful. Like it's so so good. Chris - Costello: I wanna read live stuff. Peter - Abbott: I feel I feel I saw that in theaters and I feel like it kinda went the way it was supposed to. Like you're you you love the first I love the first half of the movie and it was just this wonder and then it was just the second half of the movie was just this stuffy ass English ⁓ bureaucratic life. Just I was just like, ⁓ that's not nearly as fun as being in the wilderness. That's what I thought. Chris - Costello: ⁓ very end of though the very end of that film stuck sticks with me. I saw it f

fifteen or sixteen years ago. I've seen it only once and I watched it by myself and just that ending again, score, like I there I see some similarities in in just this grand like, you know, ⁓ you know whatever, climax or whatever ⁓ my god, beautiful. And I but I I there's so much I don't know about that guy in his films and I wanna learn more. So Luke maybe we'll be able to ⁓ Luke: The The Tree of Life is literally the best movie about if you have any conflict, whether it's good or bad with your parents, like it is the best movie for a kid to watch ⁓ to understand their parents better. Peter - Abbott: Seen Luke: It's it's transcendent. It is a truly a transcendent experience like dinosaurs. Sean Penn is just wandering around in a desert. It's amazing. Chris - Costello: Also, there's weird stuff. It goes from like dinosaurs to like Brad Pitt and No, I know. I saw it in when it came out briefly and I was not prepared for it. I wasn't in the right Luke: You've seen a skyscraper from, you know, helicopter cameras and people walking alongside ⁓ but have you ever seen it with the angle like this? Chris - Costello: Have you ever seen the Statue of Liberty but upside down? See the purple. Luke: Have you ever listened to sparse dialogue while you are the camera's literally on the toe of the person in front of them pointing up towards the sky? Have you ever been watching a film where the camera's like, okay, here's our main character. Wait, there's something going on in the tree over here. Peter - Abbott: I guess I gotta watch it. Sounds interesting. Luke: Yeah, a lot of the behind the scenes on that too, and how they shot it and lit it with all natural light and literally had a set that they could rotate so that it would be consistent with the lighting in the house. It just from a technical standpoint, he's the best to ever do it. Besides maybe Stanley Kubrick. Chris - Costello: Experiments experimental film on a grand scale. Love it. Rating? Luke: Alright, our ratings out of ten for arrival. I'll I'll get us kicked off here because I I'm going big. I'm going big. This is one of my ten favorite movies of all time. And it is a 9.8 out of ten. It is the best movie we have ever covered on the channel. Sorry, Alien Dethroned. Arrival is, in my opinion, a little bit better than Alien. There are different movies, but Chris - Costello: Let's go. Totally. Luke: The emotional impact in the visual styling of this film hits me perfectly. Chris - Costello: Yeah man, I agree. Peter? Peter - Abbott: ⁓ I was like this is like In the grand scheme of things, in the type of movies that I like. This is not really my type of movie. I like adventures and like globetrotting, new areas, new set pieces, and that's not this type of movie. And I was gonna give it an 8.8, and I was like, dear God, you know what? A movie that I saw 10 years ago, but ⁓ that I still remembered the emotional impact that it has and what it means, and us covering it again. Talking about it, this movie cannot be below the nines. I'm giving it a 9.0. Great movie. Chris - Costello: Beautiful. ⁓ I will go 9.5. ⁓ I mean, I it's really great. I mean, I don't I mean I don't I honestly ⁓ don't remember exactly what I gave the other ones, but I feel like this could be the highest rating, or if it's not, it's like right there. ⁓ this as I mentioned, like this was as Stefan said, this has everything. ⁓ but but Luke: Does Peter - Abbott: Have fun. Chris - Costello: Yeah, but like, you know, it it really was such an amazing viewing experience. ⁓ it's beautiful, it's wonderful. I nine point five, great. Luke: This I ⁓ I'll ⁓ I'll promote our own sh I'll promote our own show here, but if you like listening to Chris and I talking about the more emotional parts of movies and how it connects with us and makes us feel, check out our beyond before series where we covered before midnight, before sunset, before ⁓ sunrise, all of those. ⁓ Peter - Abbott: High praise from you guys. I love it. Still gotta watch those movies. Not seen ⁓ Chris - Costello: Yeah. So good. So good. Luke: Watch them with your wife and then just see how your relationship is impacted afterwards. Yeah, some of them you'll be like, ⁓ man, when we were dating and it was great and all that sort of stuff. Remember all the crazy fights that we had, and then midnight happens and you're like, ⁓ shit, these are the same things we talk about? ⁓ no. Peter - Abbott: Yeah, let's well all right. Let's do it. Chris - Costello: Yeah. Some of them will go really well. Honesty, honest filmmaking, really well done. ⁓ so this is great. what do we got next? Peter - Abbott: ⁓ Luke: boy, what do we have next? We have an another ⁓ a franchise ⁓ we we bounce some ideas around. We we check some different things out. But we wanted to keep giving you banger after banger and I think we did it with this list. There's a couple of oddballs in there, some of ⁓ are just for us, some of us some of them are bigger movies. ⁓ actually probably four. ⁓ Peter - Abbott: What don't we have next? Luke: Yeah, four just for us and one big movie. If I'm if I'm reading it correctly. but we are gonna do an isolation series. So focusing on movies that focus on isolation with their characters, with the setting. We are kicking it off in nineteen eighty two with the thing. Chris - Costello: Dang that's Peter - Abbott: One of the greatest horror sci fi movies of all time. Chris - Costello: It is so good. ⁓ I haven't I've seen it once or twice. ⁓ I know. awesome. Can't wait. Peter - Abbott: ⁓ get ready. Luke: Then we are moving to two thousand with the movie I saw in theaters as a nine year old, Castaway. Chris - Costello: Yeah. Luke: Is this the first Tom Hanks movie that we are gonna be doing on the pod? I believe so. One of my favorite performers of all time, America's Dad, Tom Hanks. Chris - Costello: Yeah. Yeah? 100%. America's father, no longer the captain of that ship. Peter - Abbott: Can't wait. Luke: Then we get a little weird. We're

going to 2009, a movie that is very appreciated by the fans of it, that is under scene. That is Moon. Peter - Abbott: Mm David Bowie's son, yes, directed? Chris - Costello: Yeah. Yeah, Duncan? Peter - Abbott: Duncan Jones. Luke: Sam Rockwell? Chris - Costello: yeah, we get a young I I saw again, I I I saw that like ⁓ Netflix delivered that DVD to my mailbox shortly after it came out. I watched it once and so I'm excited to rewatch. I really don't remember much. Luke: Man alone in space on a spaceship. Much like it is a little bit Project Tail Mary-ish if ⁓ the Ryan Gosling character would have lost his mind more. ⁓ speaking of Ryan Gosling, we then move to 2011. This is the controversial pick, but we think it works within the series and is one of the reasons why Chris and I are friends to this day. That is the movie Drive. Chris - Costello: Yep. We gotta get the matching scorpion jackets. We gotta throw give Peter one too. I mean really we all just Luke: ⁓ dude. Peter - Abbott: This is w a movie I haven't I've only seen once. I don't remember a lot about it, but I remember liking it. So I'm excited for this one. Luke: So much much like Terence Malik, where you either hate this director or love this director, I love Nicholas Wendyreffing. ⁓ he is the director of this film. And I think like Villeneuve, one of the greatest visual stylists ⁓ working in films right now, he has very distinct style. ⁓ he has a distinct way of making films and TV shows, and people usually hate it. And so this movie is probably his most loved movie by the largest amount of people. Drive is a great action ⁓ movie, very quiet in some spots, but I think it fits a man isolated within a city very well. And then we go outside the city, back to the sea, for two thousand nineteen's Chris - Costello: Mm-hmm. Luke: The lighthouse. Chris - Costello: yeah. You don't like me a lobster. ⁓ Luke: And another yeah, another director that both Chris and I like very much. Chris - Costello: Yeah, Alex Eggers. Like Luke: Yeah. Peter - Abbott: I lagged out. What movie did you say we're doing? I lagged out. I missed it. I missed the announcement. Okay, good. Haven't seen that one too. Heard good things. Luke: The lighthouse. Two thousand nineteen's the lighthouse. Chris - Costello: The lighthouse. Yeah. I wonder if Eggers is just gonna I mean, he's I feel like and he's pretty new still, but like he's doing a Tim Burton and just remaking shit. No Sparatu, Wolfman, Wolf Peter - Abbott: Eggers. Luke: Yeah. Peter - Abbott: Where werewolf? The new one's coming out. Werewolf. Where werewolf? There, Wolf. Walk this way. Chris - Costello: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I mean I'm in for it. He's he's he's awesome, but ⁓ this is definitely a very interesting film with some two very interesting performances. Luke: I will yeah, I I may have to kick off our one guest and have him only do one movie 'cause I believe the lighthouse is one of my brother James's favorite films. I might be wrong about that. ⁓ but if we can get James on the pod again, we'll ⁓ we'll see if he wants to do the lighthouse. Chris - Costello: That would be great. Looking forward to it. Peter - Abbott: Yeah. Chris - Costello: We'll be out of isolation talking together and talking with everybody out there. ⁓ thank you guys again. This was great. I'm so glad we were able to end this series with arrival. ⁓ yeah. Fitting. Luke: Thanks guys and Chris make sure that you don't log off right away. Peter - Abbott: All right. Thanks for having me on, fellas. Luke: See ya. Peter - Abbott: Why Luke: Wait till it's