Forgotten British Sci-Fi: Moon Zero Two

[00:00:00] The battle for the mind of North America will be fought in the video arena. The television screen is the retina of the mind's eye. Therefore, the television screen is part of the physical structure of the brain.

[00:00:29] Okay, welcome back to another episode of The Outer Reels. I'm here with Jason. Hello. All right, so this is episode 33 and this is our first entry into our season on British films. Hello, UK. So, what are we watching tonight, Jason? Moon Two Zero. This is Sam's pick. I am not responsible for this. I like this movie, Jason. I wanted to like this movie, Sam.

[00:00:58] This movie is from 1969 and I dug it up when just trying to find some, you know, British sci-fis. And while there's a lot of more popular things that would come up, I, after a bit of digging, this showed up and I was like, this looks perfect for us. So, a couple of things I want to point out before we get too far. This came out in October of 1969. Mm-hmm. Sam will dispute this, but the Americans landed on the moon in July of 1969. Jason.

[00:01:28] Jason. And, 2001 A Space Odyssey came out in April of 1968. So, 2001 A Space Odyssey came out 18 months before this movie. I'm just going to say that and leave it there. Let's be clear with the moon landing stuff. I'm not even on the footage. They could have went. We'll never know. I just think the footage is bogus. That's all I'm going to say about that. We could talk about, we could do a whole episode on why I think the footage is bogus. You know, everything from. No, we can't. We could.

[00:01:55] Everything from the Hasselblad camera that they use, how they got it through the radiation belt, how the emulsion stuck to the plastic and how it worked in the temperature swing. I mean, we could do an episode on this. I'm telling you. We can't. We could, but we won't. Anyways. I will save everyone from that. I'm not a crazy conspiracy theorist. I just like to talk about this stuff. But anyway, my bigger point, 18 months before 2000 or 18 months after 2001, a space odyssey night and day difference between those movies. Very different.

[00:02:25] This is, I believe our first G rated film. Parallel zero or zero latitude zero. That's what I was looking for. Wasn't that G? It had to be PG though. Was it? Maybe this totally would have been PG nowadays though, just for the innuendo. No. Yeah. I mean, well, I can't find a rating, but I'd agree with you there because based off the content in this latitude zero should definitely be a G from back in 1969.

[00:02:49] So moon zero two, which I'm going to say every which way I'm going to say two zero moon and zero moon two, because I don't know why it, I just automatically transpose these words all the time. MZT. Yeah. What is, uh, what is your elevator pitch on this film? God, it's, it's like there's two movies in this that are slammed together and then merge at the end.

[00:03:11] So it's a little frustrating, but basically it's like someone took the star Trek pitch, which was wagon trail to the stars and said, let's put a Western in space. And that, and that's it. And, and I forgot multiple times cause it does not look like a Western. It doesn't act like a Western for the most part, except for the odd bit here and there. That's a good pitch. Well, yeah. And, and it was done much better in the late nineties and a wonderful series called firefly. And no, I'm not at all upset that that got canceled.

[00:03:42] Not even remotely. Oh God. Um, say what you will about just we nowadays, but that is still probably my favorite television series of all time. I liked it when I saw it. I really liked the intro. I thought it had a great feel to it. Movie, not so much, but yeah. Well, the movie was less Western and more sci-fi. Um, so if I, if I was going to try and sell this, I would say it's a space Western as well, but I just say it follows a woman who is looking for her brother. Who's a missing prospector on the moon.

[00:04:09] And she gets help from a wisecracking jockey mercenary who is, you know, daring enough to take the gig essentially. Sure. Except that, uh, 10 minutes later they abandoned that entire plot. And now he's being hired by the local billionaire to slam a sapphire asteroid into the moon. Which we'll get to, but I love that plot point of the movie.

[00:04:33] I thought this was where the movie was going and I was all in and I was bummed to see that what I thought was going to be the subplot in turn became the main plot. There's some parts of this that are really slow. There are some parts of this that are, that are quite good. And, and I should say that looks great though. It looks so good. It looks mostly good. Some of the, I mean, it's, it's very much, uh, I mean, it's a hammer film, but I want to say Jerry Anderson was involved in this somehow.

[00:04:58] And I haven't looked to see if he was, he's the guy behind Thunderbirds and all that stuff, uh, UFO and things. So you said that it's a hammer film and yes, correct. And did you know, this is the only hammer film that's set in the future. Oh, there you go. Yeah. So this is directed by Roy Ward Baker to know a little bit more about Roy Ward. We need to go back Jason to 1932. Oh man. Yeah. This is his first credit on the film. Chu Chin Chow. And he was credited as a runner.

[00:05:27] And well in North America, we all unknown call them as runners, but technically because this is a British film, he was a T boy. And instead of a PA he's a T boy. Yeah. Um, it only took him three years from that, uh, to land an assistant director. He was a directing gig. And then world war two of course broke out. And, uh, he went straight in the army and he worked in the cinematograph department and got right back into filmmaking after the war. So this guy was just going for film in any which way he could. Nice.

[00:05:57] His core period of work were hammer films. That was his bread and butter. And he did quarter mass in the pit. I'll say, um, I'd love to put this in one in our season, but I think it's too well known for us to go over, but it is a great quarter mouse for sure.

[00:06:39] Yeah. Absolutely. And stuff like that. So we could do an episode on the history of hammer at some point, cause there's great, uh, long form backstory about the evolution and the acquisitions of the company, like just really good film history. This was also the most expensive hand movie that hammer studios ever made. Wow. And it never quite brought home the bacon. So that's why the props and everything for this film actually disbanded under sale and later appear in many other movies. So a lot of the stuff was made.

[00:07:09] They spent the money on this and then they had to liquidate it. And some of the stuff still is kicking around out there today. And I have some trivia on what movies that was used in it much later, but we can get there. Yeah. So the movie starts off with this like Rocky and Bullwinkle esque cartoon. Like it's seriously, I swear it was something I would have saw on that, on that show. It's great. I had a little vibe of Roger Ramjet from it. I don't know if you guys ever got that. Yeah.

[00:07:35] Um, I'm trying to think if I do, if I do know that or not, but you probably never saw Rocky and Bullwinkle. I'm guessing. So only reference of it. Yeah. Like later in life. But yeah, absolutely. Great. Yeah. Animation is not anything you'd write on about, but, uh, very far ahead of its time for mid mid, mid, late sixties humor and stuff like that. Um, animation kind of looks like that. They, they do get a credit at the beginning too. And I forgot to know what the company was Stokes cartoons, Stokes cartoons. There you go. Stokes. Yes.

[00:08:05] There you go. Um, I want to say, so, so the animation is like, you got an American landing on the moon. And again, this thing came out like three months after the U S did that. So, um, it's, uh, it kind of looks like the lunar lander and stuff. So obviously they knew all of them cause this stuff was all planned ahead of time. So they had all references to that. So this is what it looks like. It shows that, you know, it shows like you see the whole moon and then a man landing on it kind of thing. And he takes up, you know, he's like a quarter of the size of the moon. The cartoon character himself. It's one of those things. Yeah.

[00:08:34] Well then it quickly shows a, a, a, you know, Soviet astronaut doing the same thing, landing on the other side. They both plant flags and then they run around and find each other's flags and take them down. And then they fight a bit and stuff. And then, um, they show all sorts of other rockets coming in. Now the UN rocket came in twice. I don't know if you noticed that. I didn't see it coming to it. It's great. It's the first one that comes in. Then it comes in again, uh, later with a bunch of other rockets. Like there's another one that's got like an Eiffel tower on it and stuff. And it's great. It's, it's really cute.

[00:09:04] And it, it, it just sort of sets up that the moon is colonized and it's there's structures, there's buildings there and everything. Yeah. With an absolutely ridiculous theme song, but, uh, we're just basically screaming, uh, moon zero two over and over again. I'm glad you mentioned that Jason. Cause that was saying by Julie Driscoll. Yes, it was. I saw that in the credits. And, uh, you know, she was probably best known for her version of, uh, Bob Dylan's wheels on fire, which she absolutely belted out, which is actually a really good version of her stuff. There you go.

[00:09:34] Yeah. She's singing this song and this, this animation is playing and it sets up that life exists on the moon now in a, you know, in a, and you kind of, kind of realized later on the movie that the, the American and the Russian are essentially our two heroes. Yeah. Um, because it ends with them going into like a UN spaceport on the moon. Yeah. So that animation of Stokes cartoons, so that is operated and ran by Jack Stokes and he's the absolute man.

[00:10:01] Like he was the anim director on yellow submarine just before this movie. Oh, nice. Yeah. As many of our episodes, I always find a connection to the 1981 heavy metal as you know, and guess what? Jack Stokes was involved in. Dan, he was the sequence director and the lead animator for the day. Dan segment. Yeah. We do love Dan. Dan. Extremely famous British animator and just well known for his style and everything. He's, he's wonderful. I feel vindicated about picking this movie already.

[00:10:31] Cause there's so many intertwines that come up already straight out of the gate. So I'm having a lot of fun doing this, but the main character in this is Bill Kemp and he's played by James Olsen. Mm hmm. You would know him best as Dr. Mark Hall from the Andromeda strain. Yes. I was going to say he's from the Andromeda strain. So I actually had to look him up going, why does he look so familiar? And then I realized from the 72 version of the Andromeda strain. Right. I thought you'd get a kick cause I know you, how much you like that, but Jason, I need

[00:10:58] to explain to you the importance of James Olsen. Well, is this where you talk about commando or are you going to work your way up to that? What he contributed to all of earth's people. He was and forever shall be most importantly, major general Franklin Kirby from 1985's commando. I would disagree. Cause he was in two episodes as Thane on Battlestar Galactica. Battlestar Galactica did not have James Horner steel drums. True. That that's true. And it's the better for it.

[00:11:28] I couldn't believe this guy's Franklin Kirby. I think that's just the best things. It was such a treat for me. Okay. No, we're done here because all the commander references in our last 32 episodes have led up to this moment, I think as far as, but to all that aside, the movie opens and the moon lander is floating in space and camp is swimming through space, grabbing a junk satellite from it.

[00:11:53] And you're led to learn that he's a scrapper and a junker and he got, he just flies around collecting trash. And then, no, I want to point out how small the satellite is when he holds it in. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, you think this is a normal size satellite. And then he basically, um, you know, throws himself out of his ship and just kind of floats towards it. Yeah. He holds it under his arm. And then he puts it under his arm cause it's, it's only about three feet across. Jason, this is the future of 2021 satellites.

[00:12:23] Totally. Smaller. Oh, of course. Well, we got keep satellites now and everything already. So if anything, they, you know, they should have gone smaller, but I do find it funny because the way it's shot, you're supposed to think this thing is pretty big. And then he just kind of sticks it under his arm, puts it in the ship. Um, so like a side gag from top secret where they like walk across the room and pick the phone up and it's like super big. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. But you know, he's up in space and then he brings this junk back to the moon.

[00:12:49] And when you get there, the moon is like the, there's like an airport. It's like civilization and there's everybody's coming in and out of this airport and customs and everything. It's, it's very normal to be up there on the moon at this point. And this is where we find out the name of the ship is moon zero two, which is where we get the name of our title of the movie from. Um, which was kind of a letdown for me. I thought it would be something kind of cool and clever, but no, it's just like, just the name of the ship. Well, it's a better name of the ship than what they did in board of the robot.

[00:13:18] It's where they named the ship after the snow onesies that everybody wore the designer. Yes. But I argue that was still a better title of a ship than moon zero two. Yeah. So it's just a hubbub of activity down on this, in this airport on the moon. And, uh, we're introduced to, uh, Karminsky who's played by Ori Levy and the music in this is great. I was just eating up this mood. Like it's like 60s jazz goodness. Yeah.

[00:13:47] I do have a note that says at least the music's good. Um, the music doesn't stay good. I should, I should point out. It does a change. It doesn't turn and, uh, and then gets dramatic, uh, more of a standard dramatic orchestral score with way too many horns. So like, so Karminsky is Kemp's sidekick, I guess you could say. He's his buddies. He's co-pilot pilot. Yeah. He's, he's the Russian from the animation. And did you know what his last film credit was ever in history? I did not look them up.

[00:14:17] It was in 1994 and it was hell bound. The Chuck Norris flick, which is directed by Aaron Norris, which is Chuck's younger brother. So again, we're off to a great start in British film history as I'm saying, there's just people there's just great people all through this stuff. I will say the interiors of the ships and everything here, the sets look good. Like the interior of this ship looks better than DEFCON four did. Like, which was 20 years later. Yes. But it doesn't look anywhere near as good as 2001, a space odyssey. No, that's true. Yeah.

[00:14:47] 18 months before. Well, this is a hammer films. Exactly. And there is a dramatic budget difference between those two films. I have to admit, um, because the model works not terrible. Uh, some of it actually looks really good. Some of it's just like, you could have shot that better, but okay. The work is there and it looks good. It is my, my biggest problem. I think with the models is the moon buggies just have like, like slick tires, which I just think is kind of crazy for if you're driving around on the rugged moon. So we're here.

[00:15:16] We're introduced to Clem Taplin. Clem Taplin, the lovely Catherine shell who, uh, well, I know as being as a bond girl, I knew it. Just a secret service. So I remember looking at the coat. Oh, she's pretty. And I went, Oh wait, she looks familiar, which is of the same year. So yeah. She was in this and then that. And so, um, she also did you know Jason had a cameo in the 2022 Rob Zombie monsters as Zoya Crowe.

[00:15:45] Oh, I did not know that. There you go. I love monsters. I still like that movie. The remake. I mean, it's not amazing, but I, I still, I owe it to monsters to watch and enjoy that film. So I watch it around then. I actually did discover, and I didn't know this before today that she is also Maya from the second season of space 1999. Cause she looks very different in that show. Oh, there you go. So that is, yeah, she's, she's the alien that can like change into things. And, um, yeah, they did some funky stuff with her eyebrows and her hair and stuff.

[00:16:14] And I did not recognize her at all. That's very cool. So, yeah. So we get introduced to another, again, it's just a hustle and bustle in airport and people are coming and going. And we meet, uh, JJ Hubbard, who's played by Warren Mitchell. They're trying to get camp to come back to earth and fly ships for a corporation is the way the story is, is like, he's like the best guy out there. And they're like, Hey, we want you to come back to earth. There's a good job.

[00:16:39] And I think the way he sort of is spun in his character is that he's too bored to go corporate as he calls it. Like he wants to stay out and explore. And we, we find he was the first man on Mars and all this stuff. And he doesn't want to just start dealing these corporate routes, even though they're offering big pay and he's got this crummy sort of ship. It's very much a precursor to Han Solo in, in some ways. In a lot of ways. Yeah. He just wants to be able to explore. He doesn't want to, he's, he refuses to basically become a bus driver.

[00:17:08] And I can't remember how he words it or he ferrying passengers. I think is what he says. Yeah. He refuses to be that. So, um, like his girlfriend is the head of the police on the moon station and like, she's the sheriff essentially. And she's trying to get in some to do it. Cause she's concerned that his ship is going to fall apart on him and get him killed. Yeah. And there's a new plot going up about a memoriam for some pilots they know. And he's like, I didn't know he died. And then they're like, Oh, they're riding in the same ship you have.

[00:17:36] And they're, they're, they're always talking about how his ships a pile of junk, but it doesn't have the, the luster that the millennium Falcon does. Like it's not even remotely. This thing looks like a slightly longer, uh, LEM module, except they keep the legs on it the whole time. Exactly. Yeah. I know it's because they just took the design, right? They were making this movie before they landed on the moon and didn't understand that this would separate out. Exactly.

[00:18:01] So, um, Catherine show or Clem Taplin, the, she approaches camp in the airport essentially and is like, Hey, like my brother Wally is going missing and I'm here trying to find him. And I want to say she's in the wildest outfit I've ever seen that. Like she looks, looks like a juggernaut. Yeah. So she looks like an Imperial officer from star Wars with a juggernaut hat. That's the same color. It's, it's all made out of green felt. It's all, yeah, it's all felt. Yeah.

[00:18:30] But, and they all have these weird badges and stuff that I never understood other than I guess they're just a costume choice. Yeah. Um, but it, you know, her outfit looks exactly like what, you know, Grand Moff Tarkin's wearing in, in the first star Wars movie. It's just, it's almost exactly the same. It's kind of crazy. It always a little goofy, but I think because they go so hard on it the whole way through, it works, you know, there's no, you know. Oh yeah. No, I didn't have a problem with it.

[00:18:56] I just was more amazed that like this would come back in eight years. Yeah, that's true actually. Yeah. And you know, for, um, maybe there's a costume designer that overlaps or something like that too. Yeah. Oh, I didn't do look up the, uh, costume designer in this movie because she didn't work on troll too. So Clem Taplin, she is trying to get camp to help her find her brother. And on the moon, there are prospectors and people are out at these mining camps and they're

[00:19:25] all over the moon and it takes time to travel to these places, but she's there to find him. She hasn't heard from him is how the sort of thing goes. And he's a bit of a mercenary and everything else. They decide to get in a transport from the airport to go to like the closest like city or living area. And so they're sitting on this, this little space bus thing. And it looks great. Like when it's flying across the moon surface, all the surface shots and everything, really good visual effects. Yeah. It looks pretty good.

[00:19:52] So the moon sets here built for this movie were so good. And that's what I'm saying, because this was the most expensive Harriman moving, it didn't return any budget that they had to make something back. So they actually didn't tear any of this stuff up or trash it and they re soldered off and then they got kept and used in many other things. So the sets, all the moon stuff, the moon surface stuff and exteriors were used in UFO from 1970. Moon base three from 1972. Nice. And here, you ready?

[00:20:20] Space 1999 from seven. So Jerry Anderson bought it all is what happened. And let's not stop there though. Superman two and Superman four. Oh, wow. And then my favorite moon from 2009. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which I mean, they're still being used that far, which is our Duncan Jones connection. Cause we both worked on Warcraft. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty wild. No. And I love moon. It's a great movie. And, uh, while they're riding on this transport, uh, Kemp says to Taplin, he says something really cool.

[00:20:50] And he says, she's sort of like looking out, you know, I think it's her first time on the moon and he's like, it's bleak. We're all foreigners here. We always will be. Perhaps we should have never come. And he throws down a lot, this whole, like, we're all foreigners here this whole time. And I think it's trying to unify this thing. Cause later there's a line where somebody asks, uh, his, um, somebody else, the Russian guy or, uh, yeah. Yeah.

[00:21:18] Somebody else, Karminsky, where it's from. And I think, uh, Kemp just says earth like me. And so they're trying to make it, you know, this. He says, oh yeah, but I was looking for something more specific. And he said, we're all foreigners up here. Yeah. So that comes up a lot. But, but, but it's, it's, it's a nice little way of saying that those politics on earth don't, don't do not matter here. They don't care. It makes the movie bigger than earth and bigger than civilization. Like everything is, you know, after their little trip across the moon, they show up at this

[00:21:47] like cocktail lounge and they're in this bar and there's like egg chairs and dancers. Yeah. It's just this weird dance number all of a sudden out of nowhere and they stay with them for a long time. Um, and I should say, and it's, it's really, it's supposed to be a saloon because there's swinging wood doors and there is like this wood facade and stuff like that. Cause there's your space Western connection. Yeah. They're, they're, they're really trying to make this a Western, but also because, you know, they call everybody prospectors and everything.

[00:22:16] These are miners, you know, people living out in the, out in the moon surface and they're camping and they're trying to harvest and they're coming back. Um, so Kemp's showing Clem all around, you know, how oxygen works and he's like, these are the ice mines and they're pointing out this window and there's a hydroponics facility. This is how we grow all our stuff and generate our oxygen. So there's some thought and effort here on like how the whole place functions. And it doesn't leave any like questions of like, why is this here? Why isn't happening? They do a pretty good job of like moving things along.

[00:22:46] Yeah. Yeah. There is some pretty good world building just in the dialogue alone. It's, um, it's not terrible. Yeah. It's, um, I think this, this movie just drove me insane in a bunch of places. Anytime there is low gravity or, um, zero gravity, everyone moves into slow motion, which always, it annoys the hell out of me when that happens. Cause it's just, it's dumb. It's not like the only reason I can think that happened in all these movies is they saw the astronauts training in water. Sure. That's the only thing.

[00:23:15] And how they move slowly. And of course you're, you're in water, you're moving slowly, but you're in space. There's nothing holding you back. Why would you move slowly? Even the astronauts on the moon jumped like cause they, they would jump to walk around cause it was easier and faster, but, um, they're still moving fast. They're just not. I'd like to also mention that anytime we see a space scene here, there's just no star field. There's nothing like the, the space fields are very bare bones. Like you can clearly see where they like pick and choose where they were going to spend their

[00:23:45] money. Cause there's no star backgrounds on any of this. It's just, yeah, I can argue that if you look at them, you know, the moon pictures from, from the landings and stuff, you can't see any stars for the most part anyway, because of how photography work. Yeah. Because of how photography works, Sam on a stage. Yeah. Okay. Um, so they're two around this cocktail bar. Clem asked camp, like, she's like, where do you think my brother might be? Like, you know, um, what mine would he be in and how can I get there?

[00:24:15] And, uh, Kemp says, well, you know, from here you have to take what we call a bug, which is this lunar module. And he sort of says that the only way to get to all the camps are these lunar rovers that people drive around. He's like, it's going to take like six days, but he's like my ship, I could do it in 20 minutes. You know, he's like selling himself up on this. Oh, cause she's hot. Yeah. So nevermind the fact he's got a girlfriend, but still. Yeah.

[00:24:40] Cause then he goes and visits her right after this and his girlfriend, Liz Murphy, she's played by Adrian Corey. She was in clockwork orange right off of this movie. Nice. Kemp and his girlfriend discussed the recent ship crash and she's like pushing him to go back to corporate and saying, you know, work for earth, like go back, you know, your janky ships going to blow up. And he's, he's kind of in love with his old ship. And again, it's the Han Solo thing. Right. Yeah. And he's, he, this is the point where he says, look, I'm more interested in exploring

[00:25:09] planets and especially planets that the corporation refuses to. And he's decided to not go corporate, not stay and do. And now he's going to take the gig looking for Clem's brother. Yeah. So yeah. So then that's where he, um, he, he meets our billionaire friend and this is where the entire narrative of the story shifts to a completely different story for a while. Yeah. Uh, JJ Hubbard and, uh, who we mentioned earlier, who he meets in the airport and he's this billionaire

[00:25:37] and he's summoned Kemp to come over cause he's got a job for him. And I love, did you see the board game they were playing? They play Monopoly, but it was like space Monopoly. No, it was called Moonopoly. Moonopoly. There you go. It's a round table. Yeah. This looks like Monopoly, but it's a round board. And that would be a great shirt, dude. That'd be a great shirt for our store is the Moonopoly logo. Cause it's pretty great. Um, that'd be hard to make, but, uh, JJ Hubbard's like big bodyguard drags camp down

[00:26:06] to see, uh, JJ Hubbard. And you know, we learned that JJ likes camp because he was the first man on Mars and he's flying this old ship and spell it selling space junk for a living. You know, Kemp's the only pilot on the moon with a ship for hire. So he's a wanted guy. Like he's a desirable dude to have, you know, to do a job or get something done. And they hatch this plan where they want him to land on an asteroid, but they say that it's not an asteroid. It's a giant gemstone.

[00:26:36] The whole thing is made of like some rare gem and they hatch a plan where they're have to fly up, mount some rockets to the gemstone or the giant asteroid and force it to crash back on the moon service. Cause they can harvest it. Like this is a, this is a pretty loaded story. I like at this point I am all in on this movie, dude. I'm like, this is great. And then they talk about the legality about how they can't go up there and they can't mess with it.

[00:27:03] So they have to sneak up there and this is turning into like a space asteroid heist. And I'm like, this movie is great. There is some of that. It's, it's slow and cumbersome how it gets to all of that, which, which annoyed me. Um, and it's all, it all hinges on a terrible plot point, which is the satellite that they brought in at the beginning is one of the communication satellites that they use to keep in touch with the far side of the moon.

[00:27:27] Um, which, uh, which means, and it's been out of service for like 12 days or something. And I'm just thinking like one satellite goes down and you lose access to the other side of the entire planet. Like this, this is a, this is a serious flaw in your infrastructure. Yeah. Yeah. We have all the technology they have. It's a, it's a pretty weak link for what's going on here. And it's a plot point that exists solely so that the rest of this heist idea works.

[00:27:57] Yes, exactly. So they assemble this team and it's Kemp and Kraminski are going to do the gig. JJ Hubbard's bodyguard, this big giant dude and Hubbard's accountant. Um, he's like, it's funny cause he's like sitting when they're playing monopoly and he's a bit of a character cause he's calculating everybody's losses and odds. And so they assemble this team of four people. And when they're walking back through the air, uh, through the terminal, this is where

[00:28:24] I got some fifth element vibes, like all the stewards and the women there look just like that. They're wearing wigs. They're wearing all the strap stuff. There's some real. Some, some of these styles, um, definitely seen stuff like that in UFO and space, 1999. And which we see, you know, again in fifth element too, with the stewards for the, um, yeah. A bunch of miners show up at the airport bar now and they're wearing like all these like flannel, but it's vinyl, you know, it's like printed flannel checkers, but it's like shiny vinyl.

[00:28:54] Yeah. The wardrobes are great. And Clem starts asking the miners like, Hey, have they seen, you know, this girl, have you seen her brother? And so they're trying to cause they've just come from this other camp on the other side of the moon. And this is where there's another dancing and, uh, where the dancers are doing high kicks and running around and they're dressed more Western this time. Yeah. It's high energy. Giant, uh, cowboy hats on. Yeah. And, uh, yeah. Sorry. Go ahead.

[00:29:20] There's a woman, uh, in this dance group named Vonnie Castell, who was a well-known dancer at the time and actor. She was paralyzed for life after an accident in this scene. Wow. Was it, was it, are you sure it wasn't during the fight scene or was it just, uh, Oh no. Yes. So this was, yes. Okay. So someone wrong in the fight scene and, uh, Must have. Yeah. That's because they have a, they have a classic bar fight. Yeah. And the dancers are there and like, you see people jumping around. So pretty bad. Yeah. That's horrific. Um, I, I did have a note here. Like how long are these women dancing for?

[00:29:49] Because every time you see them in the bar, they're, they're in a different outfit and they're just dancing and they're dancing nonstop. It's not like they do a couple numbers and take a break. They dance the whole time. Anybody is in this bar. Yeah. And these women are dancing. And I think that's where the slowness you talk about comes into this movie is that there's stuff happening, but they just stay on it for too long. Like the dancing, like you establish it, you cut away and you mingle in the bar or whatever this it's like they're, you know, they've spent money and time on this.

[00:30:17] So they try and roll on it as long as they can to get a bit of first time you see them dancing. They stay with it for like close to five minutes. Like it's, it's several minutes that they're on them for. Yeah. When they spend money, they want you to know how they spent money and they sit on it for too long. So this is a lot like our other movie, like this thing, it was, it was what? 90, 90 minutes, 92, something like that. Yeah. It, it should be about an hour 10. Mm hmm.

[00:30:43] This could have been a two parter TV episode of something really. If this was like a series, this would make more sense, but you could make a great series from this. You just, you know, the moon airport and all the people that come and go from there after this bar fight, then we're up in space. And this is why I feel like it moves sometimes because you see that. And now they're up in space and they're on this asteroid, this gem asteroid already. And they're hooking up these rocket boosters to this asteroid. Like, so it's Kemp and three other guys and they all wear different colored spacesuits

[00:31:12] so you can identify them. And the spacesuits are cool. I like the colors again. I just like bright stuff. Sounds like a cat. You see something shiny. Oh, a hundred percent. J.J. Hubbard's accountant who he sent, you know, the bookkeeper, he's got this giant machine that he's doing calculations on the whole time. Like how much rocket fuel they're going to put in these boosters they've strapped to the thing and how much fuel on trajectories and stuff like that. Yeah. And it's a computer that he keeps in a briefcase that's better than the one they have on the ship. It's giant. Yeah.

[00:31:40] And it's, you know, there's a joke about him being the best if he's J.J.'s accountant and they sort of say, why would he send an accountant? And Kemp actually says, well, look, numbers are numbers. Yeah. He's good with numbers so he can figure out the velocity and everything else. And I want to talk about that big computer that he has. It's actually a Burroughs series C3100 calculator model with the, remember the Nixie tube display?

[00:32:06] Nothing, nothing looks better on earth than the old Nixie tube display calculators. Take your word for it there. Dude, it's, it's an incredible machine. Anyway, I just thought that was great that they just, they didn't even prop design. They didn't even design it or rebrand it or add it. It's just that same damn calculator from so long ago. I love those machines. They look beautiful. Yeah. I have to say that the, the stuff that they're doing at this point is probably the most scientifically

[00:32:34] accurate they get in this entire movie because they're talking about attaching thrusters to this thing to, to change its trajectory. And now it's a small asteroid that was seen, like I said, in like 1998 was the last time they saw it near earth. And it was small. So they didn't bother tracking it. So they stumbled across it again. They see, they see what it's made of and he wants it and he wants to get it to crash it onto the moon. But the whole point of strapping the rockets to it is to change its trajectory and they're going to do it once. And they, you know, cause they're trying to put it in orbit around the moon.

[00:33:04] Um, cause it wasn't, it was passing between the earth and moon before. So they want to change it. So it does that. And then in three days they're going to go to it again and do it again, which I thought was, it's very clever. They thought, they thought that through. It's great. I was thinking too about that. And I was just thinking like, oh, this is like them coming up with this story based off like moon landing propaganda from four years prior, talking about like how they're going to do it and what they're going to do in the orbit and like getting caught in the orbit and then how many days and stuff. There's some real science behind it.

[00:33:33] Like they, they try and think that it's about it in a real way, which is kind of cool. But yeah, they launch this thing and then they know that three days later, remember this, this is highly illegal what they're doing. Right. So this is the whole heist component. Nobody's supposed to know what they're doing and why they're up there. The idea is if they can do it in secret and get away with it, then when this thing crashes on the earth, nobody would, cause it wasn't tracked. Nobody would know it didn't land there on itself. So they can go and harvest it and they're going to be, you know, well set. Yeah.

[00:34:00] Um, we go back to the bar now after the spacing and there's no traversing here. Like you don't see them lift off and go to space. In space, they're at the bar, then they're in space. And now they're back at the bar. And now clam, like she's talking to camp and she's saying, you know, I'll give you $10,000 if you go find my brother. And he says, well, it's only a three day trip, you know, which is means because they've got the three day window. So he's like, I can squeeze this in. And this is another gig.

[00:34:28] There's this bar fight that he gets into, which is in slow motion, which is pretty awkward. It's not a very, well, he gets into the bar fight because Hubbard's henchman overhears all of this. And the bar and says, you got a ditcher. You're already working for us. You can't do this. Yes. He turns off the gravity because I guess they're, they're mimicking earth gravity and he switches it back to moon gravity. And of course all science knowledge that they had before gets thrown out the window. Cause like, like Clem's drink suddenly starts to float and I'm sorry.

[00:34:54] It's like gravity is only one six on the moon, but it's still going to hold your drink to your table. So, and people go flying and no. Yeah. This is probably one of the more cringier parts of the movie from the other stuff that I really enjoyed. I was like, Oh, here it comes. Like after this moment, you know, cause essentially camp is broken free from Hubbard's bodyguard and they just run to his ship. And so they hop in and Karminsky comes with them cause they're psychics, right? So, so the three of them, they need this engineer. Yeah.

[00:35:25] So then the three of them take Kemp's ship to this mining town, which is the closest to the prospecting area that Taplin's brother had rented. So they're like, well, we can fly here, but from there we've got to rent a moon buggy to get further. And it's a 24 hour drive. Um, and he makes a comment that the, the, the area around there is too rough. So that's why he can't land a ship nearby. And the miniatures are great. And the models are great. And the land, the buggy looks great.

[00:35:54] And they made a full size one of it. I couldn't believe it. Like, cause you see them get out of it. You see them and it's driving. And I'm like, this is, but it's not just like a static prop. Like it drives as well. Yeah. They have a miniature that, that drives and stuff, but they do have a big version that they get in and out of. Yeah. And you see that moving under its own power too, on the set site. Yeah. Movie looks cool. I really, really like it. I do have to say there's a scene early, early on where, um, his buddy is sitting in a chair and it's like one of those inflatable arm chairs and he has a hard time getting out of it and it sticks to him and stuff.

[00:36:24] And it's just like, that kind of made me laugh. And then they go on this drive, which is like I said, the 24 hour drive, I guess all the numerics that they give on this to try and make it tight for his three day window for this comment. Yeah. I was thinking about that because it just seems crazy. I mean, I mean, and I get the moon buggy can't drive well because that's like, there aren't real roads and stuff. He's basically following a trail and I get that it's gotta be slower. I think this is also part of like the Western kind of thing. It's like a three days ride covered wagon. Yeah. You know, to get, to get where they want to go. Kind of idea.

[00:36:54] I get that. And yeah, they do spend a lot of time in the buggy now just talking and Kemp does his spiel again, Taplin. And he sort of says to her to Clem and he says, you know, we're all only like foreigners here again, you know? And he goes down that thing and he's like, we're all just from earth. You gotta remember his character. He's the first man to land on Mars and he's got these other planets that he wants to explore first. And so I think he's trying to, you know, he's got the biggest eyes out of anybody cause he's seen the most of being the furthest.

[00:37:23] And I think he's trying to remind people like how much of a bees dick on the horizon we really are. Well, that, and we're just people and our petty squabbles don't matter. Like they kind of, he shuts it down when his, when Hubbard tries to find out what nationality his buddy is and stuff. Yeah. So we're an hour into the movie and I'm thinking, okay, this is where the third act is going to kick in right now. They're gonna arrive at Clem's brothers camp, but they better wrap that up because I want them to get back on this asteroid heist.

[00:37:54] And this is where the rug was pulled out from under me when I realized that the story isn't about the asteroid heist and the rocket boosters. And the real story seems to be about Taplin's brother and looking for this guy. And maybe it's an even split on screen time. I don't know, but I, I felt a little disenfranchised from it. And I was like, Oh, I thought this movie was about this.

[00:38:18] And then they make the third act makes you realize the whole movie is about finding her brother. The way it's done does feel like, Oh, this is way too convenient. They arrive at the location and they gear up in their space outfits and their PVC ones. And she says something, she's like, Oh, I love the color. And he's like, well, we give different colors. So we know who's who it's like explanation things. There's great music playing here and some awesome trumpets and stuff.

[00:38:46] I really was digging on the music at this point. And I was like, man, this is pretty good. But here's what's funny about this is particularly when they're in the lander and they're getting dressed. I was like, this has a really similar vibe to lay low Schifrin score from bullet, which is only one year earlier. And I was like, it has that same horns and the same energy. So what's funny about that? I was thinking this is real Schifrin stuff, you know, and the more I listening to it.

[00:39:14] And after doing some research on this movie, Don Ellis was the composer. And now believe it or not, he did some French connection and he did the seven ups. You ever see the seven ups? No, I know, but I know of the seven ups. Roy Scheider. Yeah, it's it's one of my favorite crime mobster movies, but it's got one of the best car chases in it. People talk bullet. I 100% say if you haven't seen the seven ups with Roy Scheider, at least check out the chase. But awesome New York mobster movie.

[00:39:41] Probably top five car chase movies of all, I think so. Back to Moon Zero to this whole score from Don Ellis. I'm like, man, this is just got bullet sounds to it. So I look it up and Don Ellis's first credit ever in the history of IMDb his credits. He was quite an uncredited musician on bullet. And then in parentheses, it says trumpet. It's the same damn trumpet player. And I was like, why does this sound so familiar?

[00:40:11] So it wasn't Chiffrin's composing. It was him playing the trumpet. I just thought that was so great. Yeah, that's funny. They get to her brother's claim, I guess is how you would say it. Yeah. He's got like a little shack there and stuff. And they're looking around and they don't see anything. And then they see a guy standing in the distance, just sort of around the corner. And he's just standing there. They go up and she walks up and puts her hand on his shoulder, turns him around and boom, there's our logo.

[00:40:39] And he's the same thing. Because he kind of floats as well. I was like, this is amazing, dude. It's just a skeleton inside the space suit. And it's a cool looking space. It's a 60 space. It's too. I'm 110% putting that clip on the Instagram. I knew as soon as I saw it, you would be doing that. This is really talking. This is a G-rated movie. Like this is the only scare or like hard image in the whole thing. It still looks cool and dark, but. Even the violence is very cartoony.

[00:41:08] Like there's, there's no real punching in that fight scene in the saloon. There's a lot of throwing of people and that's about it. Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah. Although we do get into a fair bit of gunshots and stuff now, but again, it's all very. Yeah. And this is where they sort of dial it up and then out of nowhere, more PVZ wrapped astronauts show up in different colors. There's a yellow guy. There's a blue guy. Then they have this like Western shootout, right? There's music playing, there's drums and there's horns.

[00:41:38] There's a point where Kemp looks up and there's a guy in a yellow astronaut space suit and he shoots at him and then the suit like kind of just deflates. Yes. Yes. And an empty space suit falls to the ground. Yeah. Well, you see it later on the ground too. And it's like flat. Yeah. I was trying to figure out like, was this like some special gun that Kemp has or is this trying to like talk about like the pressures lost, the, the suits lost pressure and some forces just turn this guy to liquid inside his suit. I don't know.

[00:42:08] It, but, but nothing like that happens to the other guy who gets shot. So no, you're right. Actually. Yeah. It's very bizarre. This is actually another part of the movie that I think is clever. And I was like, huh, we're an hour, 15 minutes into this movie. Right. The last of the three guys that attacked them is still alive and he's dying. Cause he's got air loss in his suit. Cause Kemp shot him. Kemp like tells Clem, he's like, Hey, go get the O2 tank off your brother, the skeleton in the suit.

[00:42:34] He attaches the air tank off her brother's suit. And the guy in the suit instantly dies. Yeah. And it's supposed to be full of oxygen. Cause he looks at it and he's like, yeah, it's a full tank. And then they realized that her brother's O2 tank had been booby trapped or poisoned or something. And I was like, this is great. Like this is actually good writing and good movie making. I really got a kick out of that. Whatever. And it's, it's good when they get back to town or back to the base. Um, although it takes them all to get there.

[00:43:03] So there's a lot of Thunderbirds looking miniatures on this traverse back to the thing. Yeah. But it's still, yeah. Yeah. So, but they're running into problems. The, the moon buggy is losing. Um, well, sorry. The, the moon buggy gets completely shot up by these other guys. So, but one of them has, um, like a, an industrial, like moon buggy. That's basically got like a scoop on the front of it for, for digging moon rocks and stuff. So they take loader bucket. That's just, you know? Yeah.

[00:43:30] So, but other than that, it looks exactly the same as the other moon buggy. It just happens to have this thing on the front, but they decided to take that back and then they realized, but they don't have, I think it's was in a fuel or oxygen or something. They don't have enough of something to make it the long way around, which is how they got there. So they're going to go a quicker route through a crevasse. Yeah. They take a shortcut through gnarlier terrain. And then, uh, they get to the side and everything's fine and they're taking a short route, but then they, they start losing pressure inside the cab.

[00:44:00] I don't know why I never did catch any reason why this is happening. I was reading it like they were working the moon lander too hard and then it was just going and it was falling into disrepair because they were overusing it and they were running it. I don't know what the result was, but yeah. Yeah. But before that, uh, they have to strip down. So we get, we get to see her in her underwear and then she makes some comment that she'll, she'll take even more off if it keeps getting hot. And then, uh, but yeah, and the pressure is dying.

[00:44:29] So they, he's like, quick, put your suit back on and they quickly get dressed and then they pop out, you know, they show the, uh, the door explosively blowing out. Like they blow the bolts on the door and then they go running into the, they find this little like crevasse that they can duck into. And then the thing just explodes. Yeah. No idea why this has happened or what's happened to it. It's just a device to stop them there because they're kind of like, well, where can we go? And then they're like, look, a moon base. Well, they're, they're almost, the thing was, is they were almost there. Yeah.

[00:44:58] So now they just walk the rest of the way. And instead of giving you any idea that it's a far walk, you can see it in the distance and then boom, they're inside. And this is also where I was like, oh, this music's actually being overused. So this might be the part where you said the music. Just a wee bit. Yeah. And it just didn't feel like it added anything and it didn't shift in tone. It wasn't a dynamic shift with the, you know, all is lost moment of the movie essentially at that point.

[00:45:25] Well, he gets in, they get inside and then, um, he starts talking to guy, rent him the buggy. And then immediately his, his girlfriend shows up who is like basically the moon FBI. Um, she shows up with a couple of her people. Yeah. They tell camp, she tells camp that he's really in trouble now. Um, cause he's basically done this excursion that he's not supposed to or whatever. Right. And she's like, I don't think I can get you out of this one. And he's like, well, I just, you know, found her brother dead. And, uh, she's like, oh, you can give me a better story than that.

[00:45:53] And he's like, well, there's the three other guys that I killed. Right. And she's like, uh, okay. And, and again, cause it's supposed to be a Western. She doesn't really bat an eye at that cause life's supposed to be cheap in Westerns. And then that's when he grabs the, the moon rover rental guy and says, um, you know, I got this air O2 module off of her, uh, off of her brother. Can you tell me what it smells like? Yes. And he's like a little bit like cyanide.

[00:46:20] And he's like, Hmm, that's actually mine. Great. Dude. I was like, it was a great setup. And so it proves that this guy knew there was cyanide in one of the tanks. And that's when Hubbard and his goons and his, and his two, uh, you know, the one, two women that follow him everywhere show up. It gets, it gets a little lost just because there's other messy parts of the movie. But that moment, if everything else in the movie was polished, like if that gag was in

[00:46:50] like a really tight movie, people would really love it. Like, and so I think there's these little bright moments in this movie all the way along. Yep. Yep. Totally. So then, um, they're few and far between though. Yes. So, so then basically we find out everything unravels at this point and the security guard at the rental buggy place says that they needed Wally's plot, her brother's plot, so they could land the asteroid on it.

[00:47:16] So JJ Hubbard and his buddies killed her brother or Clem's brother to keep his plot. So they were going to able to be landed. So, because he'd already had at least for a certain duration and all, there's all these. Yeah. The idea is you can have it for, I think it's so many years and it's like four years or something. If you don't find anything, then here, then you're, they take it away from you and they give it to somebody else. And he was ready to renew it. I think was what Hubbard. Well, Hubbard was res waiting for it.

[00:47:46] He was about to take it over. And then right beforehand, uh, Clem's brother found nickel and a good vein of it. So, um, so he wasn't going to be giving it up and Clem wanted it because they do make a comment earlier on that these plots are, have a long waiting lists to try and get ahold of them. So this was the next one that was going to come up and the timing worked out right. So now they had to take Clem's brother out of the picture. But then somehow there's a bit of a flip flop here and J.U.

[00:48:12] Harvard, the mob boss, essentially the, the, the goon, he convinces camp like, cause he holds Clem hostage and he's like, we're just going to kill her. And he's like, you need to take us back to space to the asteroid. And then he finally reluctantly agrees because she's at risk and everything else. So I was like, this shouldn't be the last 10 minutes of this movie. Is that probably not? No, I think. Yeah.

[00:48:42] Like I said, there's great ideas and they're just, you know, the structure, it bounces around and the duration between each one. So Clem tells, she tells J.J. Harvard that the stones and the rock that's going to come off this asteroid, you know, she's like, Hey, wait a minute. Like you're going to crash this asteroid down on the moon and you're going to harvest it. Like, remember why gems are valuable is because they're rare. And she makes it makes a point.

[00:49:09] She's like, you know, if you like 6,000 tons of this stuff, it's no longer going to be rare. And camp is kind of agreeing with her, but J.J. sort of replies. And he's like, no, no, it's, it's really good for industrial purposes. Like building better rocket engines. He's like, we could line rocket engines for long travel. We could get basically saying he can make better ceramics from it. Yeah. And he's like, you know, we could reach Mercury or even Jupiter's moons with it. And Kraminski chimes in and he's like, look, I guess if the corporation wasn't going to

[00:49:38] do it, somebody else would. And then he sort of mentions the flight to Mercury needs a pilot. Like J.J. says, well, we're going to need a pilot for the first flight to Mercury. Kemp finds this appealing. And this is where I was like, oh, he really is a space pirate after all. This is that Han Solo moment again, where you're like, oh, he's just, he's still in this for himself. And he's, you know, it's, it's a neat character thing. I thought. But at the same time, I think he also makes a comment that he's not never going to help him or whatever, but. Yeah. He still seemed appeal.

[00:50:09] Yeah. Or it seemed. Yeah. That's when Hubbard, you know, threatens to kill Klem off the next thing, you know, we're all on his ship again and we're heading towards a Sapphire asteroid. Yeah. And we're back on the asteroid with no stars in the background. There's a black, you know, and now they're all, and there's all these colored spaces. It's standing on this damn asteroid with these rocket engines bolted to it. And cleverly there, there there's, um, they've cabled themselves, like attach themselves to the asteroid. This moment moves really fast.

[00:50:36] I don't really know how it came about, but basically they're all on the asteroid. And then Klem, they've left the engineer. So they left Kaminsky and Klem on the ship. They've handcuffed Kaminsky. Right. To, to like the ladder that gets in between the two levels of the ship. But for whatever reason, they haven't done anything with Klem. No, she's just running around. Yeah. She's just, she's just some dumb girl. She's not going to know what she does, what to do. Meanwhile, like, you know, Klem's just like, or Kaminsky is just telling Klem everything

[00:51:05] she needs to do to sabotage this. And it's a pretty funny way to get out of this. So they're all floating on this asteroid just outside the ship. Kaminsky is like, no, do this, flip these switches arm this. And she just turns the boosters on the rockets on and it just melts one of the henchmen. Yeah. They've got a henchman sitting in the doorway watching everything and yeah, it just melts them. So now that they're the only two left on the ship. And then immediately after that, Kaminsky comes out shooting and he takes out another

[00:51:34] henchman that's on the asteroid. So they're all free now. Yeah. And this is where Kemp manages to get the gun from the, the lead henchman. What's his name? Whitson or something. Yeah. So that's when Hubbard says to his, to his main bad guy, like get him, but he has a gun. This is supposed to be the big ending crescendo. And then the shootout happens on the asteroid. Hubbard and the accountant are still strapped to the asteroid. Yes. Kemp jumps off. Right. So he's floating.

[00:52:02] Meanwhile, the asteroid clicks in and the engines fire. Right. Because that's the ticking clock is that they've already set the timer for these rockets. So they could only go out on the asteroid for so long and do this stuff. And now this rocket is this asteroid of gem is shooting off and Kemp makes the jump. And now he's floating back to the spaceship. And this is where they, they basically watch them crash into the moon. Yeah. And they're just floating in the spaceship.

[00:52:29] And I like this moment actually, is that the rockets, when it blows up, Kemp just looks at, uh, he looks at, uh, Karminsky and Clem and he's like, well, made his mark on the moon. All right. And then Kim looks, he looks over at her. He looks over at Clem and he says to her, what's your room at the hotel? Like? And she says, why don't you find out credits roll?

[00:52:57] And this is where, like, we forgot to mention that, um, his, his, uh, sheriff girlfriend, um, Kemp's sheriff girlfriend gets killed at, at the base when, um, you know, all the other stuff's going on when Hubbard shows up and, you know, she, so she gets shot there and she's like, I'm going to miss you. And this is at the end point where this line is said, like, what, you know, what's your hotel room? Right. This is where I realized, oh, the whole point of her was to die so that he could hook up with the younger model. Yeah. Yeah. He can, he can go hang out with the young girl.

[00:53:26] Um, and she is young. She's got to be half his age because she's talking about how she remembers when she was a young girl watching him land on Mars. So there's, there's gotta be like 25 years, eight, you know, between difference between them. I liked the movie, Jason. I really do. I want it. I know you did. I wanted to like it. There is some stuff I did like about it, but it's, it's, it's not great. I think all the good stuff is really good. It's just, like I said, it has these spikes of greatness when it's flat.

[00:53:56] It's, you know, it's a little flat, but I think the problem is, is that it's covered up with good visuals. Cause it's just, I mean, I, I just personally liked the look of these sixties movies. They just look nice. So they're fun to look at. So even if it's a boring scene, I still enjoy just looking at the sets of stuff. It's kind of like Argo man, you know, it's a 4.5 and IMDB. I think it should be higher than that. No, I think that's about right. Just visually in monetary wise.

[00:54:22] Well, speaking of monetary wise, um, the budget for this was 500,000 pounds, which probably then was a million us, maybe even more. Probably. I think, I think the pound was even stronger back then. I like talking budgets about these movies, but so many of them, like on these movies we do, they're never actually documented cause we, we do these sort of, you know, oddball things that there's not as much information on. So it was nice to feel like, Oh, we, we got a number from this, but I feel like you see it on screen.

[00:54:51] You know, when you think starship invasions was a million Canadian or was a million new us I think. And 10 years later. Yeah. This movie looks pretty damn good for, for the money. Yeah. It's, it's, it's not bad. It's like they, I mean, they knew what they're doing. It doesn't look anywhere near as good as 2001 does 18 months before, uh, also out of the UK. I mean, that was on Pinewood and stuff, but again, that probably had triple or four times the budget. I'm sure. Yeah. So the production shoot for this span across, uh, it started, they should start filming

[00:55:21] March 8th and they went to June 10th and 69. So then actually shot all of this before the supposed moon landing. Well, I figured they would, it came out cause this is what came out in October. So yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I just think they needed to, I just don't know. Why did the effects in this movie look better than the footage of the moon landing? Oh my God. So here's, here's a good little nugget for you. Actually, I'm proud of this one.

[00:55:51] All right. So this movie opened as a double bill with the legendary when dinosaurs ruled the earth. I really liked that movie, but probably some of the best stop motion as far as I'm concerned. But did you know that Jim Danforth was the guy who, the stop mode animator on dinosaurs rule of the earth. So he's incredible. He's incredible. Like you would have seen his work. He had this autobiography called, uh, dinosaurs, dragons and drama. Okay.

[00:56:21] He never released it to print and it used to ship out of his website on a CD ROM. So you go to his website and this is like in the early two thousands and you can buy a CD. And then it was just this giant, like PDF. You could scroll through. And there's all these great photos on sets and everything else of like all of his miniature work and stuff. And you know, he's done so much stuff. Cool. There's not a single print copy of this movie.

[00:56:47] As far as I know, I've ever seen, you know, we talked about lost media and stuff like this is one of those things that he, he just personally decided not to do it. But this is probably at that time period where everybody thinks, Oh, digital, the future. It was too early to have gone back to print. You know, it was like right in that middle where they're like, Oh, no, it's not. I really wish it was. I wonder if, wonder if yeah, but it should be an easy thing to translate to like a Kindle version or something. Right. Probably. Yeah.

[00:57:14] I haven't looked at, I mean, I just remember having the CD so long ago, but. Or they think it probably would look like crap and they don't want to bother. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. That's a good question too, of what the resolutions are. But that that's very cool that you have that. Anyway, I thought this is cool that this is just a double bill on that movie, which I really like. This is a lot better than the psychic, Jason. This is a fun movie. I, they're, they're very different movies. Yeah. Well, how would you, how would you make it better? What would you?

[00:57:43] I would probably flesh out the story a lot because it, um, I mean, it could, could be a remake, um, instead of it taking place in, was it 2021 or 22? You'd bump it up another 25 years probably, you know, and, and give it a little more story because it there's, there's some lacking stuff here. It needs a bit more. Yeah. I think, I think I would just double down on the asteroid heist. Like, I think that's a cool idea. Like make them. Yeah.

[00:58:11] And that was where I felt short changed where I was like, Oh, the movie isn't about like, cause I always thought that her brother Clem's brother was the visa was the subplot and the romance plot. But it turns out that that's the main plot and the asteroid heist, they still tie it in nicely again. Like, because the only reason he's dead is because they want to crash land the asteroid on his plot. There's just really good bones here. It wouldn't take much to make this good.

[00:58:37] One, one problem that kind of glares at me and it just kind of ferment, you know, cemented itself in my head is they make all these things about how bleak and empty and desolate the moon is. But supposedly every track of land of the moon has been, you know, divvied out on these claims. Right. So there should be a hell of a lot more activity going on too, in all these. And I guess the, you know, the areas could be huge, but still there's, you know, there, there should be, there should be, it doesn't all gel.

[00:59:05] It, um, there, there's some significant plot holes here. You could play it better. If you were, the moon is now just a garbage plant, like, or the moon is what route 66 used to be. And since then everybody discovered these mineral rich moons everywhere else thinking, yeah, there and there's just not, it's just not worth going to the moon anymore. And it's very derelict. Yeah. Well, I mean, they say in the asteroid belt, there's, there's whole, you know, rocks with more gold. Yeah.

[00:59:34] Like in, in one of them than there is on the entire planet. Right. Yeah. And like, it would be a cool way to do it where you make the moon like a has been. And then the people that live there are the people who can't afford to leave anymore. Like, just like, you know, you know, if you went back to like old gone, gold mining where, you know, a lot of people were, you know, found gold in the Sierras. And so they come to San Francisco by boat and then they walk the 140 miles and then they get there, they can't find anything.

[01:00:04] And now they have no money to get back. And so they just start working in taverns and stuff. And like, that's why San Francisco existed is because the gold rush, everybody flooded through it, but not many people made money and they couldn't leave. You know, you're touching a little bit on the moon is a harsh mistress, which is a Heinlein novel. Hmm. And, uh, it, it, it, the crux of that story is essentially the moon, um, breaking away from earth and becoming its own sort of thing. But there's a lot of that.

[01:00:32] Like these, these are all like, uh, working class people that are on the moon. Yeah. Like, yeah, you make it a really sleazy spaceport that it's not worth anybody to come by anymore. And maybe some, you know, blue collar criminals stop there or whatever. And I think you can have a lot of fun with that, but I guess that's, I guess that wraps it up. I, I have fun. I'm enjoying our delve into British films already. And I know you got something in the tank for next week. So I do.

[01:01:01] I've gone back and forth a few times on what it'll be. So I look forward to it. I guess. I'm sure you won't like it, Sam. So, cause you don't like any of my movies. Well, if you wouldn't stop picking the psychic, we would be fine. I've got to find another musical. No, you know what? That's like the classic one, right? Is that cause we talked about sons of steel and it's, it's annoying to watch, but it's so good to have seen it.

[01:01:29] Like, and it just, I think about it a lot, you know, there are some great scenes from some great stuff from sons of steel. Like I know you put the classic one where he smashes through the, through the wall, right? It's like his shape as he does it, but there's some other great stuff in that movie. It's just so insanely stupid. A super cut of that movie would do really well. If just all the insanity, I think, cause it's not very coherent anyways. So if you can just draw the stuff out. Well, thanks man. Look, dude, this has been so much fun.

[01:01:57] Uh, we love hearing from everybody as always shaping up to be a good year. I'm really enjoying doing this man. Yeah. It should be interesting. Uh, we've got some cool stuff coming. Mm hmm. Well, thanks again. And we'll see you next week for episode 34. As always. Anything but casino. Cheers, man. Thanks very much. Bye. Take care. Bye.

[01:02:20] Therefore, whatever appears on a television screen emerges as raw experience for those who watch it. Therefore, television is reality and reality is less than television.