Ol' Dirty Basement: True Crime and Vintage Movie Reviews
Join Dave, Matt and Zap every week as they cover a true crime or compelling story as well as Vintage Cinema and Album Review where they break down some of the best movies and music from the past.
Ol' Dirty Basement: True Crime and Vintage Movie Reviews
V.C.R. Presents: Sneakers (1992)
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What if the technology from your favorite 90s heist film was more real than you thought? Unlock the secrets behind the 1992 classic "Sneakers" as we, your hosts Dave, Matt, and Zap, embark on a nostalgic exploration of its intricate plot and stellar cast. With Robert Redford and Sir Ben Kingsley leading the charge, we discuss everything from the film's clever caper storyline to its impressive box office success. Discover the challenges of streaming this hidden gem today and relive the magic through standout performances and cultural references that defined an era.
Our conversation doesn't stop at the film's storyline. Get ready for a fascinating dive into the authenticity of the technology portrayed, as we compare the fictional 1969 university setting to the tech realities of the 1980s. We reminisce about tech-themed films like "WarGames" and share amusing cultural connections, such as a nostalgic nod to the band Color Me Badd. The ethical dilemmas posed by the film’s mysterious black box serve as a springboard for discussing the evolution of technology in cinema and its lasting impact on society.
Join us as we highlight the comedic and thrilling elements of "Sneakers," from clever password tricks to high-stakes heist sequences reminiscent of a Rube Goldberg machine. We draw connections to real-life hacking events that inspired the film and reflect on how these early explorations of technology continue to resonate today. With a sneak peek into upcoming episodes and a shoutout to our fantastic theme music creators, the Tsunami Experiment, we promise an engaging and entertaining journey through vintage cinema.
Sounds:https://freesound.org/people/frodeims/sounds/666222/ Door opening
https://freesound.org/people/Sami_Hiltunen/sounds/527187/ Eerie intro music
https://freesound.org/people/jack126guy/sounds/361346/ Slot machine
https://freesound.org/people/Zott820/sounds/209578/ Cash register
https://freesound.org/people/Exchanger/sounds/415504/ Fun Facts Jingle
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thanks for tuning in to the vintage cinema review on this week's episode.
Speaker 2:We're covering from 1992 sneakers a classic, one of my favorites. Love this movie. Just a great caper movie full of hijinks and hilarity yeah, an all-star cast, they pulled it off.
Speaker 3:Um, yeah, the the. The comedy in this is great and it's a.
Speaker 1:It's a fun, fun movie yeah, I hadn't seen this back in a day and, uh, this is first time through, so I'll tell you what I think. We hope you're enjoying the podcast. If you are, leave us a five-star rating on spotify. On apple, a written review. Sit back, relax and enjoy. From 1992 sneakers.
Speaker 3:Hey, this is dave matt and zap, and welcome to the Vintage Cinema Review where, every week, we review some of our favorite films from the past. Hey, there ain't no late fees here.
Speaker 2:Silence is golden and be kind rewind.
Speaker 1:Ooh, what are you loading up there?
Speaker 2:Something's cooking in there yeah an 80s classic perhaps I believe it's a 90s classic. Oh 90s, early 90s in fact, I want to thank whichever fan put this movie on the playlist. That would be the juice man. Thank you, juice man. This was and remains a favorite of mine. I love, love, love this movie I'd never seen it sneakers. Up until I can't believe you've never seen that dave up until now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this first time look, I slept on kingpin, you slept on sneakers I don't know how juice man comes from night of the lepas to sneakers.
Speaker 1:I mean he's well, this is two, two different categories, but neither the little great night of the leap has came up, because we did blood leak and that was the first movie and it was horrible but good, and that was his excuse for night of the leap is but this one that movie was horrible, yet horrible, yeah, but still good.
Speaker 2:This one, however, is fantastic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, for sure. It's like that meme with James Franco. I don't know if it's a meme or. Jeff, we are same, same but different. I don't know that's from you, know that's from the. What movie was that with Seth Rogen? Grandma's Boy.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, I forget the name of the movie. The actor, the I don't know, male Baggett.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:We are same same but, different. I actually went on to look for this movie and I put in sleepers and I'm like oh Brad Pitt, did they remake this?
Speaker 2:Oh Jesus.
Speaker 1:And for a couple of seconds there I was like, oh shit, they remade it. And I was like, oh, it's sneakers, not sleepers.
Speaker 3:This movie was. This was a pay movie. I had to pay money for this. This was hard to find on the freebies.
Speaker 2:It was 99 cents on prime. Yes, that owns it. Yeah, I was very fortunate to uh have owned it and have purchased this a long long time ago. Dude again, thank you, jews man. I love this movie. Man. I watch this a lot. I mean a lot.
Speaker 3:Can I write that 99 cents off?
Speaker 1:you might be able to for the business.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't know you're the accountant, can we?
Speaker 1:just channel that, yeah can I?
Speaker 2:so the can I get that back? You absolutely can. But you can only write off your expenses to the extent of your income, and if you're not making money on this show, there's nothing to write off against it.
Speaker 1:Now, hot coffee is worth something here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Dave had like $3,000 of coffee a month, right, but Zap owns this, so I knew it was one you liked for sure. Oh, yeah and yeah, we'll get into whether I liked it or not, I'm going to leave you in suspense. So, sneakers rated PG-13. Release date on this September 11th 1992, with a running time of 126 minutes. This was directed by Phil Alden Robinson, written by Phil Alden Robinson, lawrence Lasker and Walter Parks, and it was produced by Lawrence Lasker and Walter Parks. Budget on this 23 million box office, 105.2 million dang yeah, that's pretty pretty good man.
Speaker 3:Hell yeah, I wouldn't even thought they spent 23 million on this 25 or yeah, sorry, yeah, 23, yeah they had to pay for Robert Redford.
Speaker 2:He ain't cheap, hey, yeah yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of big names in this. Yeah, for sure uh, yeah, they put money out for this shit, yeah I think when you get involved with the computers and all that, I don't know if they gotta buy them or they rent them or they.
Speaker 3:I don't know well there's, there's a fun fact on the computer. Yeah, yeah, I think that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah so this was filmed in cali yeah, from? Uh, I don't think so yeah, going back to cali from october 28 1991 to march 12th of 1992, so that's a pretty long in comparison to some movies that I've seen.
Speaker 3:Sure for filming they cgi the san francisco bridge in there no, no, I don't think so. No, there was no special effects in this we said, filmed in la wouldn't be filmed in san francisco. No, it be filmed in San Francisco.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no, filmed in California.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, yeah, Okay.
Speaker 1:In and around different parts of, I know, simi Valley, yep and a couple other places. So that's pretty much all I have for that fun stuff. I'll turn it over to Zap for the cast.
Speaker 2:All right. The cast of the fantastic 1992 classic Sneakers includes, but is not limited to, robert Redford as Martin Bryce, also known as Martin Bishop. Gary Hershberger as a young Martin Bryce. Ben, that is, sir Ben Kingsley as Cosmo. Joe Marr as a younger Cosmo, sidney Poitier as Donald Crease, david Strathairn as Erwin Whistler, emery Dan Aykroyd as Darren Mother, roscoe River Phoenix as Carl Abergast, mary McDonald as Liz Ogilvie, stephen Tobolowsky as Werner Brandes, timothy Busfield as Dick Gordon, eddie Jones as Buddy Wallace, george Hearn as Gregor Ivanovich, donal Logue as Dr Gunter Janik.
Speaker 1:Lee Garlington as Drena rishkov and james earl jones as nsa agent bernard abbott this is cnn yeah, that scene at the end, that right away I was like oh shit, I got vader vibes, that's fair.
Speaker 3:Yeah's absolutely fair. He just died this year.
Speaker 1:You're right.
Speaker 3:Recently. I mean not recent, recent, but this year.
Speaker 1:And Robert Redford did not. In my mind, I thought Robert Redford passed away?
Speaker 2:No, he was, I mean even in recent years. He was in Marvel movies. Oh, really yeah he was a member of, like the board of S oh shit, see, I didn't see all the new or I've seen.
Speaker 1:I've seen, like iron man, and I watch, like you know, a few of them, but I don't like watch all of them, gotcha robert redford.
Speaker 3:They were actually talking about experimenting with cgi at this time for redford's character really because of of how handsome the man is? I was gonna say, yeah, like people aren't able to stare at him too long without like passing out.
Speaker 2:Yeah just because the guy is so handsome, I get the same thing. Yeah, people say that about me.
Speaker 1:They can only stare for so long, only so much yeah that's why you do podcast that's right yeah, actually we had to stop doing video because it was turning people on too much that's, I get it.
Speaker 2:People were going, sterile, just women were going sterile, looking at me.
Speaker 3:They were putting us on porn sites yeah, we couldn't have that.
Speaker 1:but yeah, you're right on Redford, like I was thinking that watching that, I was like man, handsome dude.
Speaker 3:Do you guys know how old he was in that? 55?, 56 years old, something like that For sneakers? Yes, dang, he was 56 at the time, so right now he's 88. 88. My gosh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I saw, like I said, I looked it up looking older now, obviously, but like at this time, like he was just like a handsome older man, sure, I mean for sure.
Speaker 3:But the reason I said that is uh, talking about that, or my mom saying something to me the other day and I was like you remember that movie sneakers and I was figuring like she. But yeah, she's like, oh, with robert redford, he's so handsome yeah yeah, she was like back when we were, like he was in movies back in what the 60s.
Speaker 2:Yeah correct yeah, big time, yeah yeah he's like brad pitt before brad pitt.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess we'll turn over to matt for a brief synopsis oh yeah, is that we're on to next?
Speaker 3:yeah, all right, here we go. Computer hacker martin heads a group of specialists who test the security of various san francisco companies. Martin is approached by two national security agency officers who ask him to steal a newly invented decoder. Martin and his team discover that the black box can crack any encryption code, posing a huge threat if it lands in the wrong hands. When Martin realizes the NSA men who approached him are a rogue agent, they frame him for the murder of the device's inventor From 1992, sneakers Interesting, they frame him and for the murder of the device's inventor from 1992 sneakers interesting I like it that was.
Speaker 2:I would call that a partial synopsis, but hey, thank you the internet I think, yes, that's what I because look even, let's say, for kingpin.
Speaker 1:So I was gonna say that was too much.
Speaker 2:The polar opposite. You got the whole goddamn movie in that synopsis, right in kingpin synopsis. Uh, oh, on one note on the cast I guess.
Speaker 3:No, they're right, like they're talking about the encoder, the black box, but yeah, they don't put too much. Yeah, you're right, uh, kingpin was pretty much the whole movie, yep, but yeah, yeah, continue before, oh thank you before we jump into, uh, the, the plot details.
Speaker 2:So back on the, the topic of the cast. We were talking about the greatness, or the magnetism of Robert Redford.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They landed him first. He was the first guy to sign on. He was the first guy to sign on, and they did that with purpose, thinking to themselves look, if we can land Robert Redford, well then shit, we can get anybody else that we would want, because they'll work with. Robert.
Speaker 1:Redford Right to be attached to it.
Speaker 2:And for damn sure I mean you look at the cast of characters in here. I mean there are some huge, huge names here Portier.
Speaker 3:James Earl Jones. Ben Kingsley yes, Sir Ben Kingsley Dan.
Speaker 2:Aykroyd. You get some big names in here, bruh.
Speaker 1:River Phoenix, yeah, river Phoenix was good at that time.
Speaker 3:Pretty hot stuff.
Speaker 1:What was his big like role? Was it my private idaho or stand by?
Speaker 3:me. Stand by me. He was a kid like younger in it, but I think you might. My own private, idaho was the one that had the school shooting yeah, I mean I'm trying to remember like what was his like?
Speaker 2:oh, he's a serious actor, I think it was my private idaho because in fact, I had read someplace that he took the role for this movie that wasn't a fun fact, yeah was it to basically get his mind out of being in that, in that dark place, in that other role, right yeah?
Speaker 1:The Viper room.
Speaker 2:Viper room.
Speaker 3:When I say, uh, I think he likes drugs. I think Jeremy was uh from that, my own private, idaho the song the kid who spoke in class.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Really, huh huh. You guys ever see that movie I've never seen it, okay.
Speaker 3:That's why, yeah, he's like they're also saying the the school shooting at the trench coat guys, because that's what he in my own private idaho. He's like that kid kind of in the back of the room picked, and that's why I said about the school shooting. He comes in one day with, you know, a long trench coat and oh yeah, I have to go back. I've never seen it it's, it's a great movie. I mean, it's dark, very dark, but it's a good movie.
Speaker 2:So the mary mcdonald that's in this hottest 90s woman I've ever seen dude she's for damn sure. So she was in dances with wolves and she was in a show. What a great show. I loved the remake of battle star galactica. She was like the president of the whatever in the show the soccer show oh, okay yeah yeah, yeah, basically so. Battlestar Galactica, like the human race, is flying around the universe in ships.
Speaker 1:I like that type stuff. The planet's blown the fuck up. I like that Lost in Space remake.
Speaker 2:There you go, yeah.
Speaker 3:So anyway, yeah, Mary McDonald, yeah like her get-up, even like the 80s hairstyle the 80s outfits? Yeah, she looked like that early 90s hot mom that would have been a mom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh well, speaking of mom, she was the mom in Donnie Darko, which was also a dark really classic movie.
Speaker 3:We haven't done that one yet.
Speaker 1:Is that too late? No, it's never too late. That would do.
Speaker 3:All right yeah.
Speaker 1:Donnie darko was great, but sneakers, this cast insane, insane, insane well, you want, shall we jump in?
Speaker 3:let's lace up let's lease all right lacing up my uh my eye dark on so I can see the paper sneakers.
Speaker 2:Opening credits riddled with anagrams that rearrange to the names of directors, producers and actors cleverly sets the stage for what's to come. We open with a flashback to December 1969, where we meet young college students, martin Bryce and his best friend Cosmo. These two aren't your ordinary radicals at the time. Instead of going to rallies and protests and smoking dope, these guys engage in computer hacking activities meant to redistribute wealth from prominent account holders. The two burn the midnight oil in the university computer lab, intently focused on changing financial ledgers across various banks, after losing a rigged bet with Cosmo relative to who will go get pizza. The stakes of their actions quickly escalate as law enforcement zeroes in on them. Marty narrowly escapes as he witnesses Cosmo's unfortunate capture, an event that irrevocably changes their friendship and personal destinies.
Speaker 1:So a question for you that computer that they're on in the beginning, the screen and everything, did that look period corrected like 1969? I was wondering, like, if they were like you know how like somebody didn't have a computer like that well, that's what I wonder. I don't know enough about it to say that it's legit or not.
Speaker 2:I would say it was. I would say it was because, like I had worked at a place where they had some old, old, old school shit this this old ibm green green screen stopping this. I mean, dude, that's the way. I'm pretty sure that's the way it was bro yeah, but that screen uh looked a lot bigger.
Speaker 1:Well it should have been bigger in the 60s.
Speaker 2:I looked modern for 1969 I should say I was just one. No, they had the uh. Like that I see what you're saying like that might have been right for like 1980, wasn't right for 1969 or maybe they were like high-end hackers that they had built this stuff by themselves.
Speaker 3:Maybe, that was something that they came up with.
Speaker 1:What school it was or anything. I was wondering too. Was it MIT? Was it like some kind of? It was a made-up university, made-up university.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they didn't do very well on the winter scene and the outside of that thing. That was pretty terrible.
Speaker 1:And those real-to-real things like, like. That's what I mean, basically the computers would run on it correct. Uh is like a film in there or like uh, like, uh, yeah, it's like tape. It just moves back magnetic tape.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay just like a cassette tape or a v or vhs tape. Right, it was um, I mean, I think, a period correctness in 69. Was there enough financial records? Was there connectivity that? Online like that, yeah were they were people able to connect like that? Yeah, Were they were people able to connect like that back?
Speaker 1:then Maybe, maybe that's what I wonder, Like, I mean, it's a. I don't want to tell you what I think about the movie yet, but I mean, so far, whatever they're just, you know, telling a story. But I was just, I wasn't trying to knock it, I was just curious.
Speaker 2:I fear.
Speaker 1:No, not at all, but I was just curious if that stuff, if you caught anything, because, like I got to admit in 1992, as far as computers go, I would have been clueless as far as what was legit, what's not. Sure, looking at these movies now, in the future, you know, like war games for instance I really enjoyed it this time around.
Speaker 1:Um, back then I was probably like what the hell right? What is all this stuff? But yeah, I thought that and also I don't know if you guys remember a band color me bad, sure I want to sex you up, yeah so there was a guy in a band and this cosmo, the character, the guy that got to play, looked just like one of the dudes from color me bad. I gotta pull up the picture. Picture then.
Speaker 3:The one that looks like George Michael, but not really.
Speaker 1:No, that was like the good looking guy.
Speaker 2:The guy that wore the glasses.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was. Like you know, color Me Bad had the lead singer with the mustache.
Speaker 3:Then they had the guy with the weird long hair. They had a Kenny G looking kind of guy. Yeah, the Kenny G.
Speaker 1:This guy looked just like the Cosmo guy. Cosmo looks like Kenny G, so I was thinking of that.
Speaker 3:Fun fact, I think we did a video to Color Me Bad Song.
Speaker 1:We did Back in high school.
Speaker 2:Back in the day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we definitely did. It was UI and the kernel, I think.
Speaker 2:The kernel was in that.
Speaker 1:Lip syncing yeah.
Speaker 2:So 92, this movie comes out, and I'm thinking about these computers. I was still dicking around with a Commodore 64 in 92. I didn't switch to an IBM compatible until I went to college, which would have been 94.
Speaker 1:And see, that's the thing, like I had none of that in 92. Right. You know I had no computers, I would have had. Maybe that's why this movie kind of went over, you know, off my radar when you were younger you weren't looking at it as the way you looked at it. See that you know, like like an older, like as a teenager at the time I was probably like god, that's like not up in my alley, like in my wheelhouse and somebody would go see.
Speaker 1:But uh, that was cool though like for somebody like you or like shivy let's say, yeah, that's in the computer world, you know, would probably be turned on now.
Speaker 3:Matt, you saw this, though, back then I remember that I I liked this movie. There was a couple parts that like really stood out. Yeah, yeah, I just remember some there actually some one-liners from this movie also. Yeah, yeah, there was a lot of that but this is one that they used to play on tv quite often, yep yeah, never called it no it's crazy there was a.
Speaker 2:There's definitely a couple one-liners that I still, to this day, use from this couple lines yeah, it's pretty good ones let us now fast forward to the early 90s, where Martin Bryce is now living under the alias Martin Bishop and operating a successful security consulting firm. He's put together an eclectic crew of experts, each with a unique skill set reflecting the ingenuity of the era's growing tech landscape. The team consists of Erwin Emery, known affectionately as Whistler, who's a blind mechanic with extraordinary auditory abilities. Darren Roscoe, known affectionately as Mother, a characteristically paranoid, conspiracy theory-minded technician. Carl Arbogast, a young prodigy coder whose tech savviness is invaluable. And Donald Kreese, a seasoned ex-CIA operative who brings a sense of real-world gravity and tact Together. Marty and his team run tests on security systems to find their weaknesses. Their capabilities are illustrated by breaking into a bank one night and transferring $100,000, which Marty promptly returns to the bank's board the next morning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was cool. I didn't like watching that the first time, like I didn't catch what they were doing and I was like, oh, that's pretty cool that they you know, now we hear about that there's hackers and stuff that go in and like test you know exactly what they did. But back then I mean, I don't think that was on people's radar, that was even a thing. But I wrote down a couple of things, like when they flash forward to the 90s, that security guard was really young for like a bank, he looked like he was like 18, 19 years old Sure, maybe first job.
Speaker 1:In charge of that whole bank.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's what we would have called like rent-a-cops back in the day.
Speaker 1:And I also like the scene where they're in. I don't know, are they in a van? Yeah, and he's reading a Braille Playboy yeah, running his fingers across. That was pretty cool. That's awesome, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean this was pretty clever, the whole idea of setting this up right. So the whole idea in this is like a for lack of a better word like a caper.
Speaker 1:Yes, and.
Speaker 2:I'm not talking about the food item, they're delicious on bagels just the, the endeavor of doing something in some kind of like ludicrous fashion. So they set up what smoke bombs in a in a safety deposit box they, yeah, they trigger the, uh the, smoke the alarm system, the fire alarm, and then they have, uh, whistler tie, you know, dialed in as the, the 911 operator, just you know.
Speaker 2:Again talking to the guy on the other end, like it's, it was really really well thought to to do. They went through all of this effort just to illustrate to the bank look, we can break in here and we can steal your money yeah, that was cool. I thought it was neat did you notice the uh?
Speaker 1:so in the scene where he goes in to collect and the receptionist is typing up his check? Yep, I could see the total on there.
Speaker 2:Yeah did you see it? A hundred thousand? I don't remember how much you're saying, how much he was paid for his services. Right, because she made it says, yeah, she's like I'm not a very good living, or whatever.
Speaker 1:Right, it was like 25, 50.
Speaker 3:Dang If, if I was reading it right, cause I you know, I'm sure everybody's getting a cut well, which was strange too, is towards the end, when they're talking like I think it was 170, right 170?
Speaker 2:they were like oh my god, we're gonna be millionaires.
Speaker 3:175, that's insane yeah, I'm thinking that's the number I saw so that doesn't seem like it's yeah, not a great living for a company that I mean.
Speaker 1:Think of the money, yeah, think of the overhead on that man All the work, all the equipment, the computers, the equipment, the vans.
Speaker 2:Marty's past catches up with him when he's approached by two mysterious NSA agents, dick Gordon and Buddy Wallace. They present him with a dangerous ultimatum $75,000,. Marty and his team are tasked with retrieving a highly advanced decryption device, a black box created under a Russian-funded initiative codenamed CTEK Astronomy, from a renowned mathematician, dr Gunter Janik. Despite his better judgment, the pressure of the NSA's threats of revealing his past outweigh his concerns and Marty is pushed to accept the assignment. So that's got to be kind of scary as shit. Right Like this guy's been on the run since 1969. So you're talking. 23 years later, nsa shows up at his place and says hey, man, we know who you are, we understand what you do and oh, by the way, we know who all is on your team. All of these guys are degenerates. All these guys were either fired or dishonorably discharged or some kind of shit.
Speaker 3:Some kind of trouble with the law?
Speaker 2:Yeah, but we want you as the NSA. We now want you to steal this box. That's kind of fucked up, right. Yeah, it is, you would think the government's going to do that themselves, why would they privately contract with, let's say, me, of all people?
Speaker 1:right because they, you know, yeah, do they think like we're just the best around at what we're doing or like what the deal is? But, it's crazy to hand in on that paper with his wanted thing so that was.
Speaker 2:That was some dirty shit and I guess it reminds me that I guess once cosmo, you know once he was captured in 69, he must have ratted marty out like right, fucking quick, like he had to have been pissed. Like they got me, they didn't get my friend marty. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:Like you're saying that's how that they knew, or that's how his name got out there sure, like they didn't like cosmo did.
Speaker 2:So the if in 69, like a good friend's gonna just say yeah, hey man, I'm just sitting here alone dicking around on the computer like I'm not gonna go out of my way to say why. Yes, there's another friend of mine who's not here, but his name is Martin Bryce. You've got to go find this guy. He's a fucking asshole. Jimmy quit, jimmy quit.
Speaker 1:What was what? Johnny got married. What did he say? Like in the beginning? I wanted to go back to that because I watched it twice and I watched it again with Michelle. But when he the window looking down at him and he, they started pulling away and he kicked the window out marty, marty.
Speaker 2:He was yelling marty. Is that what he was going?
Speaker 3:marty, because marty was sitting there looking at him he ran away instead of being like look, I was involved too, but who in their right mind?
Speaker 2:would just go inside when he got cops everywhere no, there's no way that, yeah, there's no way that martin bryce is going to go up there and say, oh, hey man, hey man, I'm involved in this too.
Speaker 3:Please arrest me See, that was stupid. And if the guy's like really your friend, you would be like dude go like get away you don't call for Marty right away let alone give up.
Speaker 2:Here's a picture of the guy. Here's his name Like Cosmo's a bitch.
Speaker 3:You got to eat your shit, man.
Speaker 2:That's, I think, was when he cheated he's like a magician.
Speaker 3:So he kind of cheated his way out of not going to get the pizza too, because that could have been him the one that could escape. That's right, that was like a little a little foreshadow with the trick there.
Speaker 2:If cosmo wasn't a jerk about, you know, hiding that coin but this was actually.
Speaker 3:This was the. I didn't like this part of the movie just from watching so many movies, because this guy is like majorly smart. He has a whole crew of guys working with him. Like right away, you would be researching these people, I think, right, but instead of and it was a mistake, I guess once you saw the martin bryce and I could see that angle of- it sure that's the thing that's fucking with his head yeah, holy shit this.
Speaker 2:These guys must be legitimate because they know my real name, they know my identity, but right away right away.
Speaker 3:I would have got like my team on that. You guys can figure out anything. Be like who are these people before we get involved that's fair, come up and, and that was the only part that bothered me, like I thought about, for you know, a few minutes afterwards, and, and, but the rest of the movie's great marty enlists the help of his old girlfriend, liz ogilvy.
Speaker 2:the two attend a swanky conference where dr janik is the main attraction and mathematics and cryptography is all the rage. At a light reception afterwards, marty and Liz run into an old associate within the Russian consulate, gregor Ivanovich, who invites them to an exclusive forthcoming performance by the Kiev String Quartet. With Dr Janik still in his crosshairs, marty and his team make their move to surveil Janik's office and locate that black box. During the team's surveillance, an impromptu visit by Dr Janik's assistant, dr Rishkov, reveals not only the two's torrid love affair but also the location of the black box. With the help of his cohorts, marty cleverly makes his way into janik's building and the office therein. After an unexpected run-in with dr rishkoff in janik's office, marty secures the black box and makes his way out again.
Speaker 1:another caper, right, yeah I know I like those scenes in movies too, like where you're at a soiree a big party like that, like a fancy house, like I don't ever go to anything like that right. You know what I mean like I'm never in a big like wayne manor, you know what I mean where, like, everybody's in suits and yep that, that tuxedo, that party reminded me a lot of that yeah, I'm saying that black box, like you're going like what's that uh?
Speaker 3:that one. There was a group, I think they were called black box. Black box, yeah, you guys don't remember that. No, I know the song you are fucking killing me yeah, oh and uh, the guy that played um janet what, what was his name? He was like in twister, he's like a pretty good b actor. Who the guy that played janek dr?
Speaker 1:janek the russian dude?
Speaker 3:yeah, I don't know the one that was holding like that big uh donald loge.
Speaker 2:Donald loge, that's the guy who played dr janek the, the long hair, the smart guy that he was like a bunch of movies he had a show on.
Speaker 1:Uh, we used to watch.
Speaker 3:It was on like fox, it was a comedy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was the dad, like an irish. It was on like fox. It was a comedy, yeah he was the dad like an irish, it was like an irish family and, uh, the daughter was like in catholic school. It was like a good show. I wanted to look that up so what's his, what's his name? Donal or donald loge, loge okay I will definitely look that up because I know I'm glad you said that this was his first main main role.
Speaker 3:Main role and it wasn't like it wasn't a big role or anything, but I was like, oh, that dude.
Speaker 1:Back to what I was saying about those parties. I like those parties, like that.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:Movies where you're going in trying to gather intel.
Speaker 2:Where are these conferences? Where are these things at? Where there's just some crazy smart dude that's up on stage that's talking about numbers, numbers so big that you just can't even imagine, like you?
Speaker 1:don't even know. Yeah, you don't even know.
Speaker 3:You're just sitting there taking it all in like, yes, that's a very, very good point, Right, right, right. Well, didn't the one guy say I don't have any idea what this guy's talking about. Correct, correct.
Speaker 1:I like that and with computers and stuff like you Like, just put it in a calculator computer. It makes me think of that Ali G, where he's with mathematicians and he's talking about supercomputers, like can they solve all these different you know? Equations, he's giving them numbers, he's like what if I took nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine times 10, 10, 10? The guy's like yes, he's like I'm not done yet. 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10.
Speaker 1:He's like of it but yeah, these mathematicians and stuff like, yeah, exactly where is this at? You go to a thing, where does this happen?
Speaker 2:the uh determining where the black box is was. Uh was pretty, pretty clever, that is to say. So here are these guys re-watching this tape, like they've surveilled and they've got mother there with the, with the microphone, you know, listening to what's going on the whistler, and these guys are going over and over, going over again, watching this tape over and over, trying to figure out like what's his password to his computer and all of this shit. And they couldn't get it. And all the while the blind guy is sitting back there he's saying look, man, the black box is on the desk. It's in between the computer and the. Wherever it's, the, it's the fucking answering machine. Because he has an answering service. Oh yeah, so he doesn't need it. He doesn't. Why would he need an answering service? Oh yeah, so he doesn't need it. He doesn't. Why would he need an answering machine that's not connected to anything, that's when he has an answering service.
Speaker 1:And all's there worry about seeing this girl who was the girl who was in there. It was trying to hook up.
Speaker 3:Dr, Rischoff, dr Rischoff, yeah, she was having the Dr Janik. Look, man, he's look. Everybody needs love. Man. Did you see the mess up on that part where they're like they're showing her and she's over by his desk and she? Rips her shirt open to like, show her in the bra yeah and then she goes over to the other side of the room and there she is with her shirt on again button I didn't notice that, yeah, so I was like wait a second good eye, matt.
Speaker 1:Very good, thank you. You knew we were progressing to nudity yeah, it was.
Speaker 3:It was a letdown when they got to the full shirt again.
Speaker 2:Wait a minute come on now you know it's interesting that, uh, let's, we got to pin that for a sec. Pin the the idea of of her ripping her shirt open okay that'll come in later in the fun facts. So let's see. Oh yeah, so anyway, martin makes his way in, right, makes his way to the office. He's. That was clever as shit too. Like you create that distraction at the front desk, right you?
Speaker 1:you create this chaos, that's.
Speaker 2:That's you're overwhelming the guy that's at the desk. He's just being overwhelmed by this one from this side, this buddy from somebody else delivering bleach or something.
Speaker 1:Was that correct?
Speaker 2:50 50 boxes or 50 bottles of this. This drano, drano, that's what it was. Yeah, and all the while, martin just needed to get up into this secure area in this building. Sure enough, it worked to. Kicks the door open, gets in there.
Speaker 1:That was great. That that's the comedy in this movie. Like that scene like my wife and I were watching and she even laughed at it oh, how to get through a code.
Speaker 3:A coder.
Speaker 2:How do I do that? Come up the code. He's like try this, boom, kicks it in. It was like funny, it makes you laugh, it is. It is the, of course, the exchange when he's explaining to when he's obviously lying to her. But telling dr riskoff who he is you know he's a private investigator, blah, blah but he's hearing this from the back end. He's being fed the lines that he's supposed to tell her. Yeah, that was good. And he's like and give him and and give him head, give him, that was funny. Well, mission accomplished.
Speaker 2:The team has a party in their office that night and everyone's celebrating. While Marty, liz Kreese and his wife play a game of Scrabble, whistler, carl and Mother decide to investigate the capabilities of the black box. With shock and awe, the three discover they're now easily able to hack into any secure system the Federal Reserve, the National Power Grid, air traffic control, you name it. Janik's box isn't just a codebreaker, it's the codebreaker capable of breaking any known encryption. Simultaneously, marty cleverly deduces that SeaT-tech astronomy is more than just a project name. It's a code, it's an anagram for too many secrets. So, yeah, these tech guys, dude, they start plugging around and dicking around with this box that they. You know, apparently the nsa was willing to pay some big money for right sure enough.
Speaker 2:So if when you look inside that box it appears what I would, I guess I would call like an optical processor, like you, you're seeing little wires and all that. Those are fiber optics. So this is again. This is 1992. That kind of shit not even close. Did that exist back then? Infancy, yeah, but I don't know.
Speaker 3:Pretty pretty neat man it was no, it was neat they were giving a box like that. I guess uh, river Phoenix's character was like saying he had this book of stuff that's like they tried to get into before. They can't, because he's like you can't get in there, man, it's encrypted.
Speaker 1:And ii that they developed to decode messages that the germans were is that russell crowe in that no germans it's um. Uh, benedict cumberbatch oh, that's right yeah he's like, uh, he's like a scientist in england and, uh, he came up with, designed this machine to kind of read their messages and all that. It made me think a little bit about this movie, like that machine that he created helped them help them yeah help them win the war because they were able to figure out moves ahead of time.
Speaker 1:Sure that the germans were going to do, but it was cool because they had every message that the germans were you know. But they would only use percentages of them to their advantage, like if we do every one, they're going to know we're intercepting.
Speaker 2:Right, right. Oh, I see, I see we can't let on that we know.
Speaker 1:Right. So like there were times where people were going to die and they were like you know what we just we can't move on this because they'll know. So but yeah, when you have technology like this that you're able to know and crack into things, yeah, you know you have an advantage, obviously, of course, so it made me think of that yeah, there's another thing.
Speaker 2:There's another part of this movie and it'll it'll kick in again. But the, the, the, not the orchestration, that's a wrong word. Like and I don't want to say soundtrack, it's the, it's the music that's playing in the background the ambient like tracks and stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like it's, that's it. It's the score, the musical score so not like songs, right, like not like chain of fools that was playing during this party or whatever, but it's the musical score. The, the orchestral stuff that's in the background, that's going like it really sets like a like a edgier seat kind of tone. It really does like.
Speaker 3:Whoever did the music for this is a masterpiece kind of like in super mario brothers, where you get to the castle part your whole your whole mood, your whole, that's right. Like everything just changes, gets more tense, yep.
Speaker 1:Or like tsunami experiment, like when we start sometimes, and I'll hit the button.
Speaker 3:I'll see zap over there playing drums and mad doing it, or like like a wash of excitement just comes over. Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 2:You should mention that, dude. I want, I wanted to do that when we were just recording the other one. When the drum kicks in, when you hear that first snare drum hit man, that's just good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is, it's like, and then, yeah, you just know it's coming, just love it.
Speaker 2:Well, with panic now fully set in, everyone spends the night at the team's office. There isn't a government on the planet who wouldn't kill for that black box. The next morning is the handoff. The exchange of the black box for the big payday Sounds easy enough. What could go wrong? Martin and Kreese meet with the two NSA agents, but Martin is quickly recalled by Kreese back to the car when he reads in the morning paper that Dr Janik has been murdered. Now, unsure of whether the two NSA agents were really NSA agents, martin and Kreese make their way to the federal building where Marty had first met with them, only to find that it's being torn down. Not knowing where to turn, martin takes Gregor up on his offer to attend the Kiev String Quartet performance.
Speaker 3:Gregor helps Marty to determine that the NSA agents weren't nsa agents at all, just as gregor is murdered and marty is knocked unconscious and taken hostage yeah, yeah, they had him looking through that book because I and he was like going through who who it could be, yeah, like these spies or whoever was interested in getting that that box yeah that was a neat book to have and it wasn't yeah, it wasn't a book of all of the.
Speaker 2:It wasn't a book of all of the the united states agents.
Speaker 3:It was only a book of those that the russians thought that they could turn you know, I think they said the one guy was like what divorced three times alcoholic and so, yeah, these people that probably have trouble with money, that's still a thing with with the government, they still go through, yeah, oh my god, yeah, dude, it's rigorous.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the federal background investigation is fucking rigorous, and I think, yeah, you could ask your, are we able to talk about, like sure, oh, if you ask your wife about that, there's also like working for the feds. There's also recurring stuff that you have to take and like you know, and and they go through these things. You know leslie's having a tough time at work, she's recently divorced and is bankrupt and like all this stuff. So, like, is this a factor that you look for right?
Speaker 3:you know, I got so, like those are people that could be easily influenced with with money or you know, so, if you do have some sort of clearance in the government, those are people that they target back to like these guys not being suspicious of these NSA agents and all that.
Speaker 1:I just don't get that like. For instance, my mom lives in an apartment complex and she's there alone and she's like I got this note today from Xfinity's coming in and they need to rewire the apartment, they need access to the apartment at this time. And I'm like, well, let me see the letter. It was like handwritten. And I'm like, mom, uh, you might want to call the apartment office like. This doesn't seem legit to me, right, maybe they're just trying to get in. She's like, well, no, everybody got them in the whole apartment complex. I'm like, yeah, but like I'm just skeptical.
Speaker 3:That was back to the point I was at earlier. I don't understand what all the technology these guys have before they even got involved. But then what zap said about him? They knew his name correct, they knew who he was, so he's like shit.
Speaker 2:These guys are legit they have to be legit. They know my real name.
Speaker 3:And then when you strike that kind of fear in somebody, it's all about getting it done, getting it over with yeah, because you want to be, oh, I want to be safe again, and it's, and it turns into this.
Speaker 2:And let's not forget the very nature the whole, the underlying purpose of this is to be very clandestine, very secret. Like you're not gonna, you're not. You know, filling out federal procurement forms and shit like that. You know you're not trying to get on the list of preferred vendors, right you're? You are being approached by what you believe are nsa guys who know your real identity and they know what you do for a living and they're basically saying look man, you gotta grab this black box. We'll give you 175'll clear your name. Sure, I'm a fool not to the money.
Speaker 3:Maybe spoke to him more than anything, of course, even people like, yeah, if they have a badge and it looks like an undercover car and they pop in and pull you over, if you see lights behind you, you're going to pull over. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Speaking of cars, matt, I thought of you. What's that? Halloween, halloween, no. Michael myers, the comedian god damn it. Oh uh, the the spy who shagged me no man, the one you watched with your wife where it's like whoa man oh um, so I married an expert.
Speaker 3:Yeah, somebody married an expert, there it is. So I married an expert.
Speaker 1:Whoa man yeah, fun fact, that was going to be my first car, carmen guilla. Really, we went to look at one.
Speaker 3:Uh, my dad found it you would have been so much cooler d.
Speaker 1:Dave. Well, it was at. You know where Hot N' L was, on Paxton Street. There was a garage there before that, or it was either before that or around that time in that location. I remember going to look at it with a mechanic. It was like a yellow Karmann Ghia and we were going to buy it. The mechanic we looked underneath it was all rusted. He's like don't buy it, Don't buy it. I didn't get it. But I've always had a thing for those cars. Yeah, they're neat, yeah, they are pretty cool.
Speaker 3:What are they? Did you do any research on that? Did you see what they run these days, or if you can find one in decent shape? They're expensive.
Speaker 1:I did look them up.
Speaker 3:Not for this movie. Yeah, and they bring big money because they're rare and they usually rust out like that one. See, I think I thought that was Dylan's car on 90210, but his was a Porsche 365 Spyder which is basically the Karmann Ghia, but just Volkswagen's version.
Speaker 1:An actual, more rare VW is the thing.
Speaker 2:Correct, yeah, ugly as shit.
Speaker 1:No, they are.
Speaker 2:So how fucked up is that? So martin's like all right, look, it's got to be. The sneaky fucking russians that are that were the ones that staged those two dudes, who really aren't nsa guys.
Speaker 3:So by now they know I like sydney portier's uh point on that too. He's like is that still a thing with like the russians?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah yeah, that was funny. That's a very good point. Um, so then martin of course approaches gregor and he and he takes him up on his offer and he goes to that quartet thing and he's working it out with Gregor and Gregor the whole time is just denying it. He's like dude. I got nothing to do with this. I have no idea who these guys were. Then to get pulled over by some dude that claims to be an FBI agent and then just shoots Gregor and shoots the limo driver.
Speaker 3:Well, Gregor and shoots the limo driver. Well, that's what Gregor said right away he's like God, these FBI agents, because he deals with them all the time being a Russian consulate Do you want my protection?
Speaker 2:Do you want to? Yeah, oh well, you don't know who to trust.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:In his next moment of clarity. Marty awakens in a dark yet posh office. The black box is on the desk. Marty also awakens to the voice of his old friend Cosmo, who until now had supposedly died while in prison, despite now working for organized crime. Cosmo has bigger visions for the black box and offers Marty the chance to join him. Marty refuses, which infuriates Cosmo. In retaliation, cosmo adds Marty's alias to the FBI's database. Marty is knocked unconscious once more and is promptly returned to the streets of San Francisco.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just a push of the button he's like don't do it, don't yeah.
Speaker 2:Hits the button. Now that he has the black box, he can do anything the fuck he wants. So he adds Marty's name to the Ow, that's shitty Like. He wants. So we had marty's name to the? Ow, that's shitty like. Why is cosmo so pissed at marty because marty got away, because he sold. Yeah, I guess he feels like you you left me hanging like you should have went down. I don't get it. I don't get it. Um, oh, so that uh computer that was in. So cosmo's office is badass like that is.
Speaker 2:That is a fun fact on that that is a posh office, that computer I remember. I remember watching this movie when it had come out and that computer was a cray yes, I saw that. On that so that is, that is a serious, serious super computer.
Speaker 3:It wasn't like a billion dollar computer back in 92 or something like that it was in.
Speaker 2:I don't know if they hell, I don't even know if they still make them, but back in the day those things were amazeballs. I mean incredible. Nothing that anyone you know at the consumer level could ever purchase would have had I. But back in the day those things were amazeballs, I mean incredible. Nothing that anyone you know at the consumer level could ever purchase, Would have had.
Speaker 1:I think I have in the fun facts a number on that.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Okay when we get there. But yeah, it's cool that you brought that up, because it was. I didn't notice it during the movie and looked for that.
Speaker 3:So you recognized it. It looks like something in the Death Star. Yeah, like it just has like red and green lights it does. Yeah, it's very odd to think of that as some sort of supercomputer. But yeah, that was the real deal.
Speaker 2:I thought that Marty could have been a little more surprised to find Cosmo. Like he was pretty mild-mannered to find his dead friend, fucking dead. Hey, what happened to you man? Hey, how's it going long time no see, yeah what's up? They were pretty nonchalant, yeah. Well, marty and his team have to get the black box back from cosmo you guys, I can't believe you, don't know that song? I'm sure I do, I just can't remember it all right yeah, the group was called black box.
Speaker 3:I think the song was called everybody, everybody, oh, everybody. Yeah, they used to play it like our dances and stuff. Yeah, black box, all right, good job guys.
Speaker 2:Thank you all right calling the nsa proves to be somewhat encouraging, as its director of operations, bernard abbott, offers to assist them if they recover the box. Using whistler's keen ability to translate the sounds marty heard while he was knocked out in the back of the kidnapper's car, they discovered the location of cosmo's office that was fantastic that was that whole thing.
Speaker 3:That was really really cleverly done and that's one of the things I always remembered about this movie and I said it's like the uh oh, it was like a, a party, like a cocktail party, it was neat Marty becomes an honorary blind person.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's located in a business known as Playtronics, a technology-driven toy company whose building is the modern-day equivalent of a fortress.
Speaker 1:I sold my Xbox there. I think Playtronics.
Speaker 2:Is that right? I?
Speaker 1:was in a strip mall. Yeah sure.
Speaker 2:They gave me like 40 bucks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was like cheap.
Speaker 2:You know that business is really just a front, though, to conceal Cosmo's role within the crime. Family Playtronics remains a functioning and thriving business nonetheless, and one of its employees, werner Brandes, not only occupies the office next to Cosmo's, he's also a computer dater. The team makes him their ticket in. Marty's girlfriend, Liz, is used as the bait for Werner. They need his voice and they need his key card. The voice gathering was easy enough after the first date. The night of their second date, she obtains his key card and passes it on to Marty. The stage is now set for the team to get the elusive black box.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was a little odd, the way that she was like say this.
Speaker 2:There's this word that just loves me. Oh, I love it, it just.
Speaker 3:But this guy was, can you say it for me? He was overwhelmed that he's on a date with this woman. So he's like I'll do anything. I'm just trying to eat some dim sum. But yeah, you're not going to the 90s.
Speaker 2:This is 92. Not even the 90s, the very early 90s, computer dating, computer dating I had no idea such a thing existed, had no idea. Nowadays, what do you got Plenty of fish, plenty of fish.
Speaker 3:Tinder we were like sophomores in high school so I don't think we were worried about computer dating at the time?
Speaker 2:No, I guess we weren't. No, it was a world of opportunity. It was a world of opportunity it was a world of rejection for zap.
Speaker 3:All it was was rejection remember that we used to sit on your porch. Be like man, I ain't got no car because I got no job because I got no money. Got no girl. Got no girl because I got no job with a car yeah, it's sad times.
Speaker 2:It was everything, just it was one thing led to the other, it was implied, a caused b caused c caused d, and all it all started with not having a girlfriend.
Speaker 3:There was no motivation yeah, motivation, but if I knew about this computer dating in 92 would have been on it, I mean.
Speaker 2:So again, part of this caper, this, I don't know, maybe it's that's what I like about this movie. There's just so many clever aspects to it to get these. It's almost like that. Uh, we've mentioned it before. It's uh, oh god, it's the, it's the, like the mousetrap game, right where it's this elaborate machine just to do a simple task yeah, well, there's a name for it there is rubik's cube the close rube goldberg thank you, matt, I was gonna say it's something it's. It's a jewish name and it's goldberg, rube goldberg there was a.
Speaker 1:This movie is very well thought out for the time For sure you know what I mean A lot of times. I mean there's been some great movies over the years, but this movie seemed to be a little ahead of its time on how elaborate it was with.
Speaker 2:So that was a Japanese restaurant right. They went to Dim Sum, dim sum, dim sum I never heard it like dim sum.
Speaker 1:That's one of those things that's now. It's kind of hip sure you hear people talking about it, but I don't know if that was on my radar it's like like meatballs.
Speaker 3:There's like meatball shops that pop up. It's just a meatball dude.
Speaker 2:I loved hearing the japanese band singing leroy brown that was fantastic.
Speaker 1:That was good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's awesome, it's like karaoke there, exactly the ancient japanese art of karaoke.
Speaker 3:But a fun, a fun side fact on that. Rube Goldberg, that's what it's called. Yeah, there's like a tick tock or something that was going around with with the NASA. I guess they had like a team building event, so they had to do this like Rube Goldberg, Like they all were working in different parts.
Speaker 1:All this, the cracking egg or something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but but or something. Yeah, but, but none of it worked, like they kept on having to like, push stuff and it was like stopping in the middle. Yeah, the whole thing was just like it was a disaster. And they were like this is, this, is nasa today. And I was like man, that's funny that's scary, it's funny, this is true, yeah.
Speaker 2:while martin and his team slowly but surely fulfill their mission at platronics, werner accidentally discovers that liz isn't exactly who she says she is. In fact, he believes she's a spy trying to infiltrate his work he's been doing at Playtronics. Werner whisks Liz off to Playtronics and arrives at his office just as Martin has obtained the elusive black box. Cosmo, who just happens to be on site, concludes that Liz must be in cahoots with Marty, swiftly locking down the building and the surrounding grounds. The rest of the team is discovered in the parking lot, with the exception of Whistler, who remains hidden in the van. With Liz now held hostage and no way out, marty gives himself up For a moment.
Speaker 2:Marty and Liz escape to the roof with the box, but are again cornered by Cosmo. Meanwhile, the team in the parking lot break free of their captors right after an undiscovered whistler takes off in the van, literally driving blindly Back at the building. Cosmo remains unable to kill his friend. In exchange for the black box, cosmo allows Marty and Liz to leave. In exchange for the black box, cosmo allows Marty and Liz to leave and as Marty and Liz depart with the team, cosmo realizes he's been had.
Speaker 2:The black box is empty, so a lot to unpack with this. This was, in my opinion, obviously certainly the climax of the movie, right? So dude Carl gets in there. River Phoenix sneaks his way in there earlier in the day as a gardener makes his way into the maintenance room.
Speaker 1:Right, he's messing with the thermostats and the light, like getting the temperature, yeah getting all that shit up.
Speaker 2:Uh, the the way marty's able to break in with uh, with the voice pattern. Obviously he needed the key card, but then how can you possibly control your body to move two inches per second like that? That's pretty difficult like I'm thinking about this. Of course you're watching a movie, you have to suspend the disbelief. But I'm thinking like, why didn't he just crawl on the ground like you could? That you could do two inches per second? Sure you could do that, but walking, fuck no. What happens if you fell?
Speaker 1:right, is it two inches per second or less, I guess, like you can go slower. You can absolutely go slower you't go fast.
Speaker 2:You can't exceed two inches per second. That was just something for the movie. Sure, yeah, but I was thinking about that in the in the movie. How do you have the fish in Cosmo's office swimming around? They're swimming faster than two inches per second.
Speaker 1:They would be setting it off.
Speaker 2:They would have been setting off that motion detector. So it was crap. It's all a lie, it's all a lie, it's a lie, Steven A lie.
Speaker 1:What was that one movie? It was like the hot scene with Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Speaker 3:Oh, with Sean Connery she was in all leather yeah.
Speaker 1:Kind of like weaving her way through. I remember that was like a thing back in the. It was maybe early 2000s?
Speaker 3:Is that when they broke out of Alcatraz I?
Speaker 1:don't know, she was real hot. Yeah, and like, dressed in like a leather.
Speaker 2:Except a protege or something like that Might've been.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and she's like moving through these beams. She can't set them off. But it made me think of that scene. Like there's always those scenes where you can't. You got to move real precise.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was her father.
Speaker 1:Yeah, is that what it was? Yeah, inches per second. Yeah, it's pretty tough.
Speaker 2:It is priceless. Whistler driving that van was fucking priceless because he's blind dude that was so hilarious man again, just so, I don't know, cleverly done just well. Well, well done.
Speaker 1:Love, love, love this movie one thing I did like too is uh and uh. Matt, maybe you noticed it too, because we talked about the starter hats. He had a yeah, for phoenix hat on the 40ers starter hat. That was pretty cool. They were all the rage back in the day.
Speaker 2:Shit. Yeah, that was before they were flat brimmed.
Speaker 1:Yes, that was back when you put a little fold.
Speaker 2:Had a little fold in A little fold. Martin and team return to their office and NSA Director of Operations Bernard Abbott and his team are there waiting for them. As it turns out, Martin and his team are there waiting for them. As it turns out, Martin and his team have deduced that the box can't be used for spying on other countries, so the box could only be used for spying on Americans. With that as their bargaining chip, the team does some creative horse trading with the group from the NSA. Martin gets his identity back, cleared of all charges, Kreese gets a myriad of first-class flight tickets for a long overdue vacation with his wife, Mother gets a Winnebago, Carl gets the phone number of a fit young NSA agent and Whistler receives the promise of the NSA's best efforts to achieve peace on Earth. With all that now out of the way, Marty relinquishes the black box to Abbott, alerting him that it doesn't actually work. The next morning we hear on the news that the RNC has been bankrupted and simultaneously hear that a number of charities' coppers are suddenly overflowing.
Speaker 3:You know the money was like to Greenpeace United Negro College Fund and the Republican National Committee has been bankrupted, bankrupted, yeah.
Speaker 2:So, director Abbott, that's where we see. You know, james Earl Jones, yeah, that's the Darth Vader aspect.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and when he was sitting in the shadows, that's what I was like, man, it's Vader it is. You know when he's talking, Because the first line that he had there sitting down was like a Vader line. I felt like it sounded like it would go with like Star Wars. I forget what he even said, but I was like, oh, and then he comes out of the shadows.
Speaker 2:There he is. I remember the one thing he had said that was actually featured in Hunt for Red October, Almost word for word, he said look, this never happened.
Speaker 1:What you need to remember is this never happened. Yeah, it was definitely a good movie. You know what I mean. I enjoyed it. Yeah, I guess it's time for the Fun facts. All right, who wants to lead it all?
Speaker 2:I think every fact about this movie is fun.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is. This movie is so goddamn fun, fun fact.
Speaker 2:So at the end we saw Carl's request was just to get the phone number of that chick from the NSA, mm-hmm. So every other movie you've seen not every, but almost every has been a 555 area code.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:That phone number was actually a 415 area code. It was 415-273-9164. That is a San Francisco phone number. That's an actual phone number. That's surprising. When they released the movie, when you dialed that phone number, there was a voicemail at the end promoting the film.
Speaker 1:That's pretty cool Because usually that's like a big level, the one song they.
Speaker 2:you know these people eight, six, seven, five, three nine yeah, people get phone calls all the time, all the time about it. Shit, yeah, since then. Well, so this was 92. They're not paying that for that promotion forever. So they've since just allowed the phone number to be recycled.
Speaker 1:So to this day, I am sure there is someone out there in the san francisco area that's getting phone numbers or getting calls from because this movie like jenny eight six seven, five, three, oh nine true so at the start of the movie, when martin and cosmo execute their initial prank the building facade scene in a famous hill valley clock tower from back to the future that is correct.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that is the courthouse, that is the the clock tower we already already talked about the computer in the room of Ben Kingsley's office and it was like the Cray YP or whatever. That was, yeah, ymp, but they're saying at the time it was a multimillion dollar supercomputer. I think I said a billion dollar, but that's that's way too much. That's that's what it'd be.
Speaker 2:I don't know if they had billions back in the nin who was played by.
Speaker 3:Mary. What's her name? Quite contrary Mary Frances Steenburgen, no.
Speaker 2:Well, could it so the name she was played by, mary McDonald, uh, could have been in fact Mary Steenburgen? Oh wow, that's correct. Coulda shoulda? Yeah, I'm glad they went with the Mary McDonald.
Speaker 3:Not associated with Michael McDonald? Not at all. No, uh, Dan Aykroyd also wears a t-shirt and it has the name Ella. I think Alika's attic Correct and that was a band that river Phoenix was performing in.
Speaker 2:Indeed, yeah. So throughout this whole movie, dan Aykroyd wears a number of obscure t-shirt, of t-shirts of obscure bands. Another one, I think, was some band that from up in Canada that he was he. Another one, I think, was some band from up in Canada that he was a fan of the Tragically Hip. Yes, correct, tragically.
Speaker 1:Hip, there you go. Yes, I had that in here as a fun fact. So a couple things in here. Redford's jacket in this film is the same as he wore in the Natural.
Speaker 2:I've never seen the Natural.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the baseball. It was like that. I think it was that Letterman-type jacket he was wearing and the Dan Aykroyd promotes the band Tragically Hip. There, you go and even had them on Guest on Saturday Night. Live in 1975. Nice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this project was first given a G rating. Did you know that it was thought of as a kid's movie? Oh, did you have that one Zap?
Speaker 2:Well, so that's why earlier I had said you know, pin that thing about her ripping her shirt open and you know, see her boobs in her bra. Indeed, they actually had to.
Speaker 2:With purpose on purpose, add some you know some snarky about the head, also about the giving head Some flair to this because otherwise the movie, as written, as they had initially done, it was going to be rated G, and they don't. Anyone sees a G rated movie, they immediately think it must be a disney. Yeah, it's a disney movie. So, yeah, they had to add profanity, like on purpose, they had to add bad words and they had to add that, uh, the boob scene, or at least the flashing scene, wasn't boobs per se, it's boobs in a bra they're kind of like adult it up a little bit, correct they had to adult it up, which was amazing to hear.
Speaker 2:It was a pg-13 rating. I'm I thought it was just stop.
Speaker 3:It was pg. How to get 13 on that.
Speaker 2:I don't know, ask Dave. He read that shit that's crazy, I blame.
Speaker 1:Dave, so the access code entered at the movie start ends in 1138. It's likely referencing George Lucas' first film, thx 1138.
Speaker 3:They did a lot of that in this movie. I think there was a lot of stuff with the computer, with the coding. They were able to relate it. There's also a three days of the condor was a movie in 1975 that Robert Redford uh started in. Uh, he was like a CIA and agent and the final two names on on his character, martin and Bishop, which was they, were his aliases in the movie. Oh, three days of the condor.
Speaker 2:So, as we talked at one point early in this when I was going through the cast, like there are some heavy, heavy, heavy hitters in this movie, so everyone in this movie only three of them were oscar winners. Can you guys name the three that were oscar winners?
Speaker 3:james earl jones, sydney portier and robert redford incorrect. You got two out of three ben kingsley, oh ben kings correct the one that wasn't, and I was surprised.
Speaker 2:James earl jones has never earned an oscar. Now you think that, but at the same time you look at it and say what has he done?
Speaker 3:that would have truly garnered an Oscar Field of Dreams, I thought, but that was Kevin Costner.
Speaker 1:Coming to America.
Speaker 2:Now, I would have given him an Oscar for that, for sure, hell yeah. I think it's just. You know, he has a strong voice a strong presence, but has he done anything that was Oscar worthy?
Speaker 3:I don't know, I haven't seen him. Field of Dreams was pretty good.
Speaker 1:There was a tie between this movie and War Games. I think during the filming of War Games, or like the production of War Games, they met some people that were like hackers and different things in the computer world and they were like, oh, this would make a good movie.
Speaker 2:Is the guy that ended up doing, or whomever did, this movie did he also?
Speaker 1:is he also responsible for war games? There was definitely one of them that was involved in war games or two of them that were involved in war games.
Speaker 1:So they had this and they waited 10 years, or however many years, to come out with it. But, um, war games, the production of that and the or pre-production, I guess kind of spawned this as an idea. When, rifling through dr brandis's uh trash mother at the ant, he finds a folded box of Captain Crunch In the 1970s. These boxes contained a whistle that phone freaker John Draper, aka Captain Crunch, discovered could be used to make prank phone calls. Yeah, a practice known as phone freaking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a thing. What's his name from Apple did that? That's how he made Steve Jobs, the other one, wozniak. That's how Wozniak made money in college. He would sell these little boxes that would Send the signal. Send the signal or the tone, so like when you had touch-tone phones right, each number indicates a different sound. He mimicked that sound in these boxes so you could make free phone calls. Wow, freaking.
Speaker 1:Phone freaking, phone freaking, yeah. Phone freaking I thought that's when you called those 1-900 numbers.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I thought that's like we did in the 90s when we danced Like oh, I mean, he's freaking.
Speaker 2:Oh man, that's a ditty party.
Speaker 3:Yeah, lots of baby oil.
Speaker 1:They don't have cool dances like that anymore.
Speaker 2:Herman Remember that the tequila, yeah, so you guys want to get to the rating.
Speaker 1:Late fee, return or burn. I guess that, since yours, you might as well leave it on, so it wasn't mine.
Speaker 2:This was a fan pick.
Speaker 1:Right, but didn't you pick it off the list?
Speaker 2:We together sat and said what are we going to do? And we ran through a couple, and when?
Speaker 1:you had mentioned that this was on the list.
Speaker 2:I said oh let's do that. Let's do that I thought, for sure it was your like.
Speaker 1:I thought you it's fine, bro, threw it out there, but anyway, so do you want to start?
Speaker 3:I think I think that was like. I love sneakers. Yeah, he's like dude. That's one of my movies and I think that's where it came from obviously joking dude I'll own it.
Speaker 2:I'll own this 100. I love this movie. Love it, love it, love it. I would late fee the shit out of this movie. I've watched it countless times and I will watch it countless times again.
Speaker 3:What do you got man? No, again, like I don't know. I have like with this the return. Like I would always, I like watching it one or two times. I'm hard with like the money thing. I wouldn't take the late fee, but it's a great movie I would.
Speaker 1:I agree, Times are tough man.
Speaker 3:Times is tough in the 90s and 80s man. I was tough in the 90s and 80s man. I actually did kind of watch it twice, in a way, like I said I had rented it and you get a 48 hour window.
Speaker 1:I started it because it's a longer movie over two hours, two hours long so I had started it and figure I'm gonna finish it. And then I started it over again with my wife and watched it, which is probably good, because I caught a couple things that I that I missed. Um, definitely not burning it. Um, I'd probably watch it and return it. Now. Back then it's kind of hard for me to judge it because back then I don't think I would have enjoyed this movie because it would have been over my head on a lot of the tech side of things. I would have been like I don't get it, I'm lost here. What's going on watching it now? You know I have a better understanding of computers and hacking and how all this, so but I definitely enjoyed it. It was one that, uh, I never had never seen, so I'm glad that I got to see it. I appreciate juice putting it on there and good job recommending it so yeah, guys got anything else I got nothing else.
Speaker 2:I'm glad thank you juice again for for putting this on the list. We I was, you know, again very happy to do it yeah, I enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:Fun movie, yeah. So we'll be back next week with a true crime and then after another vintage cinema review, maybe platoon, I don't know. We threw a couple out there. We're still looking at the list, might have a special guest, maybe at some point for that one, just to say call him up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so he's getting dementia, like me.
Speaker 1:Get him in here while we can.
Speaker 3:Right, so we'll catch you where. On the flip side, if we don't see you sooner, we'll see you later. Peace. Thanks for listening to the vintage cinema review and the old, dirty basement. If you dig our theme music, like we do, check out the tsunami experiment, find them on Facebook. Their music is streaming on Spotify and Apple and where great music is available.
Speaker 1:You can find us at old dirtyirty Basement on Facebook and Instagram and at Old Dirty Basement Podcast on TikTok. Peace we outie 5,000.