Cloverfield (2008)

Episode 27, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw

Craig:  Hello, and welcome to another edition of 2 Guys in a Chainsaw. I’m Craig.

Todd:  And I’m Todd. 

Craig:  AAnd this week, we decided to watch the movie Cloverfield. A couple of weeks ago, we were recording and somehow no. Actually, we went the theater to see a film, and there was a preview for, 10 Cloverfield Lane. And Todd mentioned that he had never seen Cloverfield, which kinda blew my mind. How how did you miss this one? 

Todd:  You know what’s weird is this movie came out about the time that found footage films were really had almost been played out. Right? And and also at the same time that we were coming to terms with the fact that everybody had cameras around them all the time, and even even before our phones were really capable of video. I’ve been sick of the found footage films. I had to be honest. 

Clip:  When 

Todd:  I went to see Blair Witch Project when it came out 

Craig:  Mhmm. 

Todd:  Really was intrigued by that movie, but almost wanted to vomit at the end of it because of all of the shaky cam. 

Craig:  Uh-huh. 

Todd:  And when this movie came out, a lot of the buzz surrounding it was the fact that it was so shaky cam y that people were getting kinda feeling ill and sick. And that was actually enough to turn me away from this movie. Now, you know I’m a huge Godzilla fan. Right. And I knew this was a big monster movie, but, I don’t know. I just didn’t wanna go to the big theater and see this huge shaky cam film, especially since, again, the found footage thing didn’t really have that luster with me it had a couple years before, I thought I’ll just catch it on video or something, and I never did. 

Craig:  Yeah. I mean, I totally get what you’re saying about the found footage thing. After Blair Witch, it really blew up, and I I think that the reason that it was so popular with filmmakers is probably in many regards, not necessarily in this film, but it’s cheap, right? Mhmm. It’s it’s a lot cheaper to film. So I get that, but I think because this movie had such an interesting marketing campaign, and there was a lot of kind of mystery surrounding what the movie really was. Yeah. I was I was intrigued from the beginning. 

Todd:  Which they’re repeating with 10 Cloverfield Lane. It’s kind of amazing how they’ve been able to really pull that off the 2nd time. 

Craig:  I know I know next to nothing about that movie, and I’m glad. I don’t wanna know anything about it going in. And that’s kinda how I felt about this one. It’s funny because I went and I saw this in the theater, and I think, you know, seeing it on the big screen made a big difference, But I really liked it. Oddly enough, I get my level of horror, I think, mostly from my dad. And I didn’t go with him, I went with somebody else and he wanted to see it. So he rounded up a friend to go see it and because I Todd him that I liked it so much, and he hated it. He thought it was ridiculous.   He thought it was one of the stupidest movies he’d ever seen. In fact, he and the friend that he went with almost got kicked out of the theater for heckling. Are you serious? I’m serious. 

Todd:  Now that, I don’t understand that. 

Craig:  Why? I I’m not sure either. I guess they just thought it was silly. I didn’t. I think this movie is a lot of fun. You know? It’s fast paced. There’s a lot of action, I don’t know that I would necessarily say that it’s real scary, I mean there are elements of it that are scary, but I think we talked about this while the the film was playing. This was post 911. Mhmm.   And really that kind of panic and paranoia, when stuff goes down in this movie, that’s kinda what I found scary. Like, the human reaction not knowing what was going on, just, you know, unadulterated panic and fear and chaos in the streets. It’s it’s really tense and makes for a really tense experience. 

Todd:  You know, what really struck me when we were first watching this, this had never really occurred to me, is that being such a Godzilla fan, and they are my guilty pleasures. I just love Godzilla movies for, 5 or 6 different reasons, not necessarily because of the great cinematography, not necessarily because of the great special effects, But, for all that it’s worth, those Godzilla films, because they’re generally geared towards children, the giant monster movies, they really play down the human peril. And they’re never first person, Here’s what it’s like to be on the ground when this monster is attacking. Some of the later ones dive into that territory a little bit, but it’s way more so, about the monster destroying things. Mhmm. Right? Destroying the city, destroying giant objects, and I think that was, a thrill for people back then, because even by the standards of its day, the special effects were kind of cool, and much the way that Independence Day came along, and it was cool to see the White House blow up 

Craig:  Right. 

Todd:  And all these huge, monuments get destroyed. I feel like that’s what Godzilla did. But what it didn’t do was put you on the ground with the people in peril and make you imagine, well, what’s it really like to be running screaming from this monster? You just see these shots of people, you know, it’s almost a cliche of the Japanese people. But this movie, woah. It it really hammers home. This is what it’s like, and it’s terrifying I thought it was terrifying. 

Craig:  Well yeah that element of it is I mean we’ll get into the story but basically it is a Godzilla type monster I mean different in appearance obviously but the same kind of thing a giant monster rampaging through the city and like you said you know part of the fun of those old movies is watching the destruction of, like, familiar landmarks and whatnot. And you get that in spades here. Oh, yeah. It’s it’s really cool. You know, I’ve never been to New York, so everything I know about New York is from the movies and but, you know, they they take you on a little virtual tour of New York and just let this monster just come wreak destruction all over the city. And it’s scary, but it’s cool to watch. It’s really cool to watch. 

Todd:  Yeah. I was I was really impressed. Well, it starts out in a surprisingly compelling way. Yeah. It’s a guy behind a camera. His name is Hud, which is 

Craig:  actually the the 1st guy is, Rob. 

Todd:  You’re right. Rob is behind the camera, and he’s in, his girlfriend’s well, we don’t know this at the time, but a girl named Beth’s, 

Craig:  her dad’s apartment, I guess. Right. Which is exactly this apartment looks out over Central Park and Times Square. This must be, like, one of the wealthiest people 

Todd:  in here. We’re definitely among the 1% in New York right here. Just all of the apartments and, condos that we that we go through. And he’s going through, and camera kinda pans around and goes into this bedroom where there’s this girl. And I don’t even think we got her name at that point. Right. But later, we put together that this is Beth. Uh-huh.   This girl that he has slept with. And then the the camera cuts out. Oh, oh, he suggests that they go to Coney Island, and she’s never been to Coney Island. And so so they’re gonna go to Coney Island and make a day out of it, and you think that you’re gonna go along with them to Coney Island Right. And the date in the corner of the screen is April 27th, but then, immediately it cuts in with a a different date and some different footage and a different person behind the camera, which takes a little bit to figure out, but it becomes clear that this tape has been taped over. Right. Which comes into play a little later. At least it’s kind of a nice I actually thought it would come into play more 

Craig:  Uh-huh. 

Todd:  Later than it did. I was a little disappointed in that. I was waiting for a big payoff at the end. We’ll talk about that later. But, yeah. But that was a neat, effect. 

Craig:  Well, and it’s that opening scene is cool because you get introduced to these characters, but you’re just thrown right in, like, you don’t get any expositions, you don’t know what’s going on. It seems like these 2, Beth and Rob, you assume that they’re boyfriend and girlfriend. It seems really intimate. You know, they seem really comfortable with each other. It’s cute. It’s flirtatious. They seem to I would venture to say they seem like they’re in love, like a young couple in love. And it’s really sweet.   And that, you know, kind of sets up our expectations but then we jump a month in time and now the guy behind the camera is Jason who is Rob’s brother and he’s with his girlfriend, Lily, and they are on their way to a party, what we find out is a going away party for Rob. He has gotten a big promotion, and he is going to be relocating to Japan. To their hand. Right. So they’re excited. There you go. So they, so they’re throwing in this big, goodbye party, and that’s when we kind of get introduced to the other main characters that we’re going to be following along. Jason, like I said, is Rob’s brother.   He doesn’t want to do the filming. Lily says, you know, it’s like a wedding. You know how people go around and, like, do testimonials and and say their goodbyes and it’s just like, that’s what I want. And but he doesn’t wanna do it. So as soon as they get to the party, he pawns the camera off on this guy named Hud who is kind of their, like, goofy looking, goofy acting friend. And Hud is reluctant to take it, but as soon as he does take it and starts kind of talking to people around the party, he’s having fun with it and having a good time. And then we are pretty much seeing everything that plays out from Hud’s perspective from the rest of the movie because he he keeps this camera on him throughout. Now I know that one of your complaints with found footage films is why wouldn’t they put the camera down? Yeah.   You have said that over and over again. 

Todd:  And this movie needly solved that problem. Right. Because after a while, you become like a voyeur at this party. Because as soon as Hud’s gone around and he’s talked to some people, he talks to this woman named Lily. And his he says his job is to, document and he’s trying get those oh, the wedding thing where you look at the camera and you wish them well. Right. You’re supposed to wish Rob well off, you know, on his journey. And so he’s gonna try to hit everybody at the party.   And so he goes around the party and he’s hitting little scenes of the party here and there and he talks to Lily. He talks to this girl Marlena who’s sitting at the bar who is, like, a friend of somebody’s. 

Craig:  I think it’s Lily’s friend. That’s right. But he clearly has a crush on her. I at some point, I think even, Jason, that was one of his selling points with the cameras. Like, Marlena’s gonna be here. I don’t so, you know, 

Todd:  he’s HUD’s excited to to meet this girl. But, of course, she shows absolutely no interest in him whatsoever. 

Craig:  And it kind of funny to watch his bumbling attempts at flirtation from the other side of the camera. 

Todd:  It is. And it is funny. And I think the first person perspective has a lot to do with that too because being in his shoes and talking to these people, you feel like you’re at this party. Yeah. 

Clip:  Excuse me. Hey, Marlena. Hey. What’s up? Hi. Did you know that I’m going around, the party and I’m do you know Rob’s leaving? Like, it’s Todd going away party. Yeah. Cool. Hey.   So we’re taping people talking 

Todd:  about it. 

Clip:  Oh, no. Thank you. I I barely even know Rob. I’m just coming to say hi to Lily, so it’s a little weird that I’m even on it, I think. Okay. Cool. So I’m supposed   to get everybody. So, have you ever been to a wedding? Yeah. So I’ll take a quick look. You doing? I just I don’t wanna   do it, but thank you. Okay. Cool. We’ll just do a short one real quick. 

Todd:  And you kinda get wrapped up in it. 

Craig:  I don’t know. 

Todd:  I got kinda wrapped up. 

Craig:  Yeah. Well, it it and this isn’t always the case with found footage, but it felt authentic. It felt real, and and part of that is probably what made people sick. I mean, he’s not a professional videographer, you know, he’s moving the camera, you know, fast and all over the place, sometimes dropping it down so all we see is the floor, But it’s it that Todd me, it gives it a feeling of authenticity, like, you know, this this guy really is just carrying this camera around. 

Todd:  It it really did feel like that. He’s going from person to person, he talks to, Marlena. Marlena’s reluctant to say anything because she doesn’t really know Rob, but then she gets on and says something kind of funny. And then the camera then starts to turn toward the well, the next shot anyway, is of Rob coming in. Right. It’s a surprise party. Oh, he comes in. He’s surprised.   And he starts asking, well, is is Beth here? 

Clip:  Mhmm. 

Todd:  And, that starts into play, this mini drama going on where we and again, I thought this was clever because it gives us a reason to keep watching, it gives us a reason to be interested, but as you said, it also gives him a reason to keep filming. Right. Because it’s almost like Hud is filming all the juicy bits of what’s going on. Right? There’s some drama between him and Beth. And when Beth comes to the party, we realize that Beth is the girl who he had slept with Right. A month ago. But they obviously didn’t come in together. Right.   And she comes in with another guy named Travis. Mhmm. And so there’s suddenly some tension here. We don’t we it starts to unpack itself as Exactly. The video goes along. 

Craig:  Yeah. So, I mean, he can tell Hud, there’s tension, clearly between, Beth and Rob. Beth is there with another guy, a date, and, you know, it’s Rob’s party, but once Beth arrives, he kinda just sits off in a corner by himself and is just kind of watching her. 

Todd:  Mhmm. 

Craig:  So Hud tries to go and talk to him and figure out what’s going on, but he won’t, you know, say anything. And then so, Hud finally approaches Beth and tells her, you know, you should do this testimonial for Rob. Well, Travis is standing right there, so it’s awkward. So she sends him off to get her a drink, then she and Hud go in the kitchen, and her message is a little bit hesitant. She says something like, I didn’t want to do this on camera, but I’m so happy for you. I really want you Todd know how happy I am for you. And then she’s interrupted by Rob who grabs her and takes her off while while Hud follows them or tries to follow them. And this is kinda where we kinda get the fill the story, the the month that we’ve missed gets filled in.   He sees them arguing in the hallway, she says something like, well, you never called me, what was I supposed to do? But then they see that he’s filming, so they chase him back off into the party where he goes and finds Lily and says, we we know you know something. Yeah. You have to tell. 

Todd:  And she’s, like, oh, yeah. They slept together. Right. Which then is this humorous scene where he’s going and telling everybody at the party. Yeah. Did you know that, did you know that Rob and Beth slept together? Oh, I knew it. I’m like It’s like person to person. Yeah. 

Craig:  He spreads it around the whole party. Apparently, what has happened is that these 2, Rob and, and Beth have been friends forever, and Rob has forever been secretly in love with her. And, apparently, for whatever reason, the stars aligned and they hooked up, but then nothing else happened. He he didn’t contact her or anything. After, Rob and Beth come back inside, it’s clearly tense between them. Beth grabs her date, and they leave, and Rob just she says to him, good luck in Japan, and he says good luck tonight, Travis. 

Todd:  Yeah. 

Craig:  It’s just kind of, you know, a dig, at her, and you can see in her face that it cuts her a little bit, but they leave. And then Hud and Jason, Rob’s brother, take Rob out on to the fire escape to talk about what’s going on. And, basically, they’re Jason’s ribbing him a little bit saying she, you know, she’s too good for you, you know that. But you love her, and she knows you love her, and and so maybe now is not the best time to go to Japan. And that’s when the shit hits the fan. 

Todd:  Yeah. And that came at the perfect time for me. I I thought it was well timed. At that point, they’re having this conversation out, and one thing this film does pretty well is it keeps you cognizant of the time as it’s going along. I mean, if you’re paying attention or you’re interested, you will see clocks in the Yeah. Background at different times. And so you see here that it’s about, oh, I think it was a little after midnight, that they’re out on the deck having this talk. And it’s the super late night, we’ve all been drinking 

Clip:  Mhmm. 

Todd:  Trying to reassure our friend talk, which comes across, like, stupid when you’re when you’re watching it. It Right. It’s just a bunch of, 

Clip:  oh, you know, you gotta get her, 

Todd:  and you gotta just go for your dreams and blah blah blah blah blah. 

Clip:  You’re not good enough for her. That’s it. That’s that’s fact. That’s science. Beth McIntyre is, like, from a whole another planet, man. She’s beautiful. She’s charming. And you, I love you, but let’s face it.   You’re kind of a douchebag. And going to Japan is not gonna fix that. She’s crazy about you, bro. Like, right now 

Craig:  Yeah. 

Clip:  As you were in love with her. But you gotta go after that. That simple. No. It is that simple. Come on, man. Don’t be scared. It’s about moments, man.   That’s all that I’m gonna learn to say, forget 

Todd:  And just when you’re like, okay. Okay. Let’s move on. Care care about the Bam. The lights go out. There’s this huge noise. And you can see behind them, from the balcony, obviously, that the lights are going out all across the city, and there’s general panic, and then the lights come back on. Do they see the monster at that point? They see something flying through the air, don’t they? Yeah.   Well no. As they’re escaping. 

Craig:  Yeah. At at first, they think that it’s an earthquake. Yeah. 

Todd:  To the roof. Right. 

Craig:  What they see they turn on the news real quick and the news, you know, they the news doesn’t know anything yet. They’re saying a possible earthquake. A barge is turning over. We’ve heard a barge capsized, near the Statue of Liberty. So they think we gotta get out of here, and and they all start to run down to the street, and there’s just mass chaos in the street. Everybody’s kind of converged down there. Actually, it was when they were still on the roof. There was a huge explosion, and that’s kind of what made them and and debris started flying towards them and was crashing down at the building on the building, and so that’s when they all get out.   And when they get down there, again, there’s this mass chaos, there’s these big explosions, and then a huge some huge piece of debris, like, ricochets off a building and comes screeching down the street, and HUD follows it with the camera. And when it stops, you realize it’s the head of the statue of the Lego Batman. 

Todd:  I think I remember that from the trailers. Yeah. That’s a real iconic moment and it’s obviously it tells you that everything is pretty serious. But also, I found it interesting that at that point, just like Hud, everybody around starts to pull out their phones Mhmm. And they’re taking pictures of it. Yeah. And this was something obviously, it’s a theme of the whole film. And as you said earlier, you wonder why people start to die.   You know, why do why do people not put down the camera? Later on, HUD says something very specific. I think they they escape, there’s some big, billowing dust storm, they jump into a 

Craig:  it’s like 

Todd:  a convenience store in there, where some more explosions happen, and then as they step back out, I think they see just a little something flitting by. 

Craig:  Well, you see, like, in the silhouette of the buildings in the distance, kind of between the buildings, you see some massive movement. Yeah. 

Clip:  I mean, 

Craig:  you can’t really tell what it is. You can see that something large is moving back there. Of course, you know, everything is really dusty and cloudy because buildings are collapsing, and we all saw what happened on 911 when the buildings collapsed. I mean, it was Yeah. Just debris everywhere. 

Todd:  And the billowing dust too. I mean, it was all straight out of that. 

Craig:  Yeah. Well, and, you know, they when the explosions start happening, you hear people in the background, is it terrorists? Is it terrorists? And, you know, I think it it really played on that paranoia. I think it it did so on purpose, you know, that was kind of the conclusion that they jumped to which would be a logical conclusion especially, you know, that soon after 9/11 but it’s you know yeah it is it establishes we’re in a disaster at this point And and that scene with the head is really cool. I remember that teaser trailer. That was the first thing that got me intrigued. I saw it in the theater. I don’t remember what it played before, but it was just that scene of the the Statue of Liberty heads flying down the street, and just the image of that. And they they shot that before they even went into production.   Oh, really? Mhmm. They shot that as the teaser before they even went into production, and they had to enlarge the Statue of Liberty head by 50% because test audiences thought that it looked too small. Oh. I think I think that we all have this vision of the Statue of Liberty being this gargantuan thing, when in reality, it’s not as large as we picture. 

Todd:  Yeah. You can’t like, it’s not like the arch where you can go inside and you’re sort of stepping from window to window Right. Around her crown. It’s sort of like you poke your head up in the in the crown and that’s it. Yeah. It’s it’s small. It’s very small. 

Craig:  But it could I’m glad they did. I’m glad they made it bigger. It looked cool. 

Todd:  Yeah. And that and that was and I think that’s when they meet up with Marlena. So we’ve got Marlena. We have Lily. We have Jason. Robin Hud. Robin Hud. They’re like, what? What? But of course it’s general panic, and they’re more interested in running, especially when things start exploding again.   And so the it seems like the military or somebody has kind of come in at this point and is guiding everyone towards the bridge. The Brooklyn Bridge. The Brooklyn Bridge. So there’s a mass of people crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. This is the point where, I think it’s, Rob turns around and says to Hud, why are you still filming? And he says, well, I gotta film this. People are gonna wanna see this later. Right. Right? So immediately, you have your excuse.   You had your excuse at the party for why he was filming, you had your excuse at the party why he continued to film, because it was kinda saucy, and then you had your excuse of why he felt like he had to document Todd. 

Craig:  And it document it. Todd does make sense. I mean, we’re all documentarians now. You know, we’ve all got cameras in our pockets, and that’s why, you know, you see so much footage in the news of things that we just didn’t see before because not everybody had a a video camera in their pocket. So it makes sense, and I believe it. Not only do I believe that he would really think that, like, people are gonna wanna see this. They’re gonna wanna wanna know how it went Todd. But I also believe that filming it gave him something to to do and to keep his mind off of how scary what was going on was. 

Todd:  Oh, yeah. I think you’re absolutely right. No. I think you’re absolutely right. Because he took that job pretty seriously. He puts his camera trained on the action. He kept moving, he picked it up when he dropped it. Mhmm.   There’s a lot of cleverness actually in the way that this is filmed, to keep our interest, to give us a little variety, and Todd also give us excuses to see things. For example, there are times when HUD puts down the camera to help somebody. Mhmm. So the camera sits down on the ground, and maybe, it’s something kind of gross. Right. So the camera doesn’t quite capture the visual of what you’re seeing, but it’s just a nice way of keeping it PG 13. I think for the audience, but also very realistic and then you would actually end up putting your camera down a few times. 

Craig:  Of course, of course. 

Todd:  So, yeah, it all went very well. Well, and the 

Craig:  other thing that I liked about that, and I was appreciative of the fact that Hud was the one behind the camera, because he’s a goofy guy. 

Clip:  Mhmm. 

Craig:  And this movie is funny, you know. It is. There are lots of places in this movie where you’re laughing, but again, it doesn’t seem forced, you know? It just seems like this is his personality, and, you know, his reactions seem genuine, but you laugh at them because that’s probably how you would react Todd, you know, just swearing and, Oh shoot, oh shoot, oh my god, oh my god. And, you know, when he’s, talking to people, his personality comes through. I mean, he’s a goofy guy. At one point, I think before they go to the bridge no. It’s not before they go to the bridge. He just says stuff like, guys, I think we better run.   You know, just the the way you really would talk Exactly. And it’s funny because you don’t normally see that kind of naturalness in a horror movie like this. 

Todd:  Yeah. And you could place yourself there. Yep. That’s exactly what I’d be saying. That’s exactly what my friends would be doing. And HUD HUD itself is kind of a joke. I I you know, if you’re a gamer, first person gamer, or maybe in the military, HUD is short for heads up display. Oh, yeah.   Which is usually a first person, type thing where you put on a helmet. I think the Comanche helicopter is one of the first, things to do this, where you put on a helmet and wherever you turn it tracks things and shows things up on the display. I thought that was kinda it. It is Nicholas, but but, yeah, they go on to this bridge and, you see Jason, the, which was Rob’s brother hanging from kind of a lamp pole. He’s goofing off a little bit. 

Craig:  Well, they get separated because Rob has been trying to call That’s right. Beth, but he hasn’t been able to get through to her. But when they’re on the bridge, and now the bridge is completely crowded, and it’s the the crowd is moving en masse. Mhmm. So Rob, the phone rings, and it’s Beth. And so he kinda goes off to the side, and Lily and Hud and Marlena, he’s he calls for them to wait. And and they do wait, but Jason gets kind of pushed by the crowd of. That’s right.   And so claims a hole to try to to ask them. 

Clip:  Did you 

Todd:  stop? And then giant tail comes, flicking out of the ocean onto the bridge and whacks Jason means very first to go. Right. 

Craig:  I mean, we’re talking giant tail. I mean, it just, you know, karate chops the the bridge, and the bridge, collapses. 

Todd:  Yeah. And that’s the first we really truly see of the monsters. Really, the first indication we know for sure, okay, this is a giant monster movie in case you didn’t know going into it, Because it’s unmistakably a giant tale. 

Craig:  Right. Absolutely. And of course, you know, everybody who survived this event, you know, turns and starts running the other way. And, you, you know, it’s again, it’s just Hud running, so it’s really shaky. You can’t really see what’s going on. You can’t really see if he’s been able to stick with the other characters. But eventually, kind of in the distance in front of him, you see them, Lily, Rob, and Marlena kind of go off to the side. They Todd running and kind of go into, like, this entrance to a store or something. 

Todd:  Is this the store they were looting or no? 

Craig:  Well, it’s right across the street. That’s right. And, you know, it’s like they pause to collect themselves. Of course, Lily’s upset. You know, her boyfriend fiance was just killed. It was Rob’s brother. He’s upset. Marlena’s trying to comfort Lily.   Hud is kinda trying to comfort Rob, but Rob is, you know, just kinda shell shocked, I think. Well, at that 

Todd:  point where Rob seems really shell shocked, actually, I was thinking, he’s awfully shell shocked. He’s stumbling around. He clearly has something on his mind. And we know that Beth is on his mind. Right. But he seems very indecisive, and he’s stumbling. And I’m thinking at that time, and I turned to you, and I said, does he know more about what’s going on? Is he putting, like, puzzle pieces together in his head? Because I’m thinking back to the fact that this is recorded over another tape when they went to Coney Island. 

Clip:  Right. 

Todd:  And I was thinking later on, we were gonna see some hint of something that they caught at Coney Island that informs what’s going on now. Well, do you know that in fact we do kind of see that at the end? No. Oh, okay. Alright. You’re gonna have to explain this to me when we get there. Okay. Because I was looking really hard for it, and 

Craig:  I didn’t find it. It’s tiny. It’s so hard to see. 

Todd:  Oh, okay. 

Craig:  Alright. He doesn’t know anything. Okay. But you were right to be looking because there is something. Okay. Okay. And I’ll tell you when we get there. But yeah.   He I mean, he’s concerned about Beth. Okay. And, you know, he’s talked Todd her on the phone and I don’t know if he actually spoke to her. I think he just got a voicemail from her and she seems to be crying. She said you hear him say, what do you mean you can’t move? So she’s in distress apparently somewhere. And so pretty much at that point, he decides that he’s gonna go find her. 

Todd:  Well, he they go into the electronics store first. Right? 

Craig:  Right. Because the battery on his phone is dying. 

Todd:  And I didn’t even put that together, that I I know he was trying to listen to the voicemail. I thought he kind of heard it, but then they go into this electronics store that people are looting across there. And it’s a it’s a clever device to take us out of the limitations of this first person thing, and give us a little taste of something else. Mhmm. Where there are giant screens in this electronics store, and HUD can train the camera on the giant screen where the news broadcast is going, where we can see that there’s a monster going. 

Craig:  Oh, and it’s a funny shot, because you see all the looters just standing there around with Even if you don’t have a bar of electronics. 

Clip:  Continue now with our breaking news story in lower Manhattan. We are getting some truly extraordinary live images here in the studio. For those of you just joining us, Lower Manhattan is in an absolute state of siege. 

Craig:  What is 

Todd:  At the be in the meantime, Rob is going through, like, the Nokia, chargers. Right. And the first thing going through my mind is, oh, yeah. That would probably be a good thing to do because I remember how expensive those things were. When when everybody’s phone had a different charger, and they charged, like, $50 for them. You know, that’s really clever. But no, he was looking for a charger so that he could For 

Craig:  a battery. A new battery. 

Todd:  So that he could hear the entire message Right. That she left. And and 

Craig:  he does, and and they all kind of do. When he finally does get the message playing, everything else kind of falls quiet. And it makes sense because everybody else is watching the big screen Yeah. Quietly. And on the big screens, finally, we really do get a pretty decent shot of this monster, an aerial view. Not a 100%. We can’t see exactly what it is, but it’s clearly a big gangly monster Yeah. Working his way through the city. 

Todd:  It’s like the news camera, the traffic copter that went by and got footage of this thing from way above. Right. 

Craig:  Yeah. So they, he decides Rob decides 

Todd:  that he’s gonna go, find her. Rob, it’s it’s time we leave the electronics store. 

Craig:  Yeah. There are several funny lines that went Rob runs off to the electronics store, and Hud goes after him chasing him, and he says something, like, dude, I can’t 

Todd:  handle all this running. Just 

Craig:  little funny things like that, and that would so be me. Slow down. The military is evacuating everybody else, and Rob says, you guys go. You know, go with everybody else. Get out of here, but I have to go get her. But they don’t. They, I guess, decide to stay with him, and they run with him. And then they end up they’re walking down the street, and I feel like this is the point where they come right like, they are faced with the monster.   Like, it steps around the corner right in front of them. And then from behind them, the military starts to advance. So they are right in between the monster and this huge military force that’s shooting rockets and machine guns. There’s a 

Todd:  tank going down there. And and it it felt so much like a Godzilla film except being on the ground with those people. Yeah. It was so it’s such an iconic scene from a different perspective. Right. That I don’t know. It was really thrilling for me. And It was great action.   Oh, it was. And they did they Rob from across the street, there’s they’re across the street from each other, motions down to HUD that they should get down essentially into the subway. Right? Just around the corner. So they go out, and this is when you get your first really clear view of the monster. As he’s turning the corner to go down in the subway, swings his camera up, and you see this giant head with these huge teeth and jaw. 

Craig:  And it’s right above it. 

Todd:  Yes. Oh, but before this, there was a a segment where we noticed that the monster was spewing out or shooting out some kind of small creatures. 

Craig:  On the news, yeah, it said, some kind of debris seems to be Falling. Falling. And then we see on news cameras that what is falling off of this thing are smaller creatures. I would say, like, the 

Todd:  size of large dogs. Spider y kind 

Craig:  of Insect like. Yeah. Kinda reminded me of, like, Starship Troopers kind of thing. Thinking. And these things are attacking people on the ground. I don’t one of the things that I like about this movie is that they never really explained the nature of what is happening. Correct. We don’t really know what this monster is.   We don’t know where it came from. 

Todd:  And these spidery things, like, how would they, like yeah. It’s bizarre. 

Craig:  Right. Yeah. We like, is this monster, like, intentionally 

Todd:  is it molting? Is this how it reproduces? Like, what’s going on? 

Craig:  But regardless, it’s freaking scary. 

Todd:  Yeah. Well, and it serves the purpose of keeping the tension up throughout, because you eventually are going to get to a point in this film, where you think, well, it’s just a giant monster, let’s go down to the subway, and we’ll just wait it out. I mean, the threat is large, and it’s obvious where it is, and as long as you can get subterranean, and, hole out for the threat, you’re gonna be okay 

Craig:  Right. You’d think. And that’s kind of basically what they decide, you know, they get down into the subway. As HUD had been going down, he was the last one to go down, like you said, he swings his camera around. We see a huge explosion and all kinds of debris falls down into, the subway staircase. So they know what’s up there. Rob suggests that maybe they cross the platform and go up on the other side, but I think it’s HUD says, we know what’s up there. We just saw it.   So they so they just kinda wait for a while. And and we get a little bit and again, I feel like it’s such a good balance. There is Yes. There is comedy. There is action, but then there are these little human moments. Mhmm. Rob’s phone starts ringing, which I don’t know if I believe that his phone would be working down in the subway. 

Todd:  Oh, you’d be surprised. Really? Yeah. The phones do work in the subway. Oh, well, there you go. 

Craig:  Yeah. Learn something new every day. Yeah. 

Todd:  I don’t know if they install special things down there or what. 

Craig:  But he, he’s hesitant to pick up the phone. He lets it ring several times. So I’m thinking most definitely not Beth because, he would answer that right away. So finally, he kind of walks away, and he answers the phone. We hear him say, hi, mom. Yeah. At first, he kind of reassure he says, we’re okay. We’re being evacuated.   He’s lied to her. Right. We’re being evacuated. But then he tells her the truth. He he says we were on the bridge when when that happened, and and Jason’s dead. And then he doesn’t really talk anymore. But you can tell by the way that he’s reacting that, obviously, he’s reacting to his mother’s grief, and it’s it’s it’s a nice little human moment. 

Todd:  It really was. And again, not at least, I think, you don’t see these You get a giant disaster movie, or you get a film like Aliens, where people are running and all the time, and people are dying getting picked off as they run. People rarely stop and assess the gravity of their situation. People at times become body counts for freights, and in this particular case it’s not. 

Craig:  It makes sense to an extent. I mean, if you really were in that kind of peril, I think some of your survival instinct would take over. Oh, yeah. You have to do that. But that’s why you’re right. In those types of movies, we usually don’t get the type of moment where they do have a moment to realize the gravity of what’s going on. And I liked that about this. It made the characters real.   It made them believable, and I I don’t know how they did it. You know that that party scene is actually kind of long in the beginning Mhmm. But for whatever reason, they got me invested in these characters, and I cared about these characters, and I cared about what was gonna happen to them. And I legitimately wanted and this is rare in a horror movie. Usually, I’m waiting to see people picked off. I wanted these folks to make it. So when they didn’t, it had to 

Todd:  be you were ready. Yeah. Yeah. It it it’s it’s a remarkable feat, really, to do that. And, certainly, something they didn’t have to do, but certainly something that added to the movie big time by making you care about these characters. And it’s interesting how something as superficial, essentially as that party scene. And I think it’s the familiarity. I think we can all insert oursel where many of us can insert ourselves into that kind of party, into that kind of situation.   And maybe the 1st person perspective has a lot to do with it too. That we were literally inserted into that Right. Situation, felt like an attendee at this party, and almost adopted all of these characters Right. As our friends. They got immediately into the drama of the situation. And if they hadn’t stopped to take that moment, that might have been left back there. 

Craig:  I yeah. I I think so too. Right? It it’s a nice moment. Mhmm. But, basically, they’re kinda stuck down there. Eventually, Rob looks at the subway map, and he realizes where they are. They’re on the 6 line. I don’t know what that means, but he does.   And he’s looking at the map, and he kinda shows them and shows us that if we just, you know, take this a certain amount of distance down this way and then switch to a different line, we can get right to where that’s house is. And they don’t have any better plan so that’s what they do. They go walking through the dark subway tunnels. And there’s another bit of comedy here, you know. Of course, they’re scared. It’s uncomfortable, But Hud, you know, Hud wants to keep talking. Apparently, these quiet moments are what makes him the most uncomfortable. And so he brings up this totally kind of inappropriate conversation.   Hey. 

Clip:  Do you guys remember a couple of years ago when that guy was lighting homeless people on fire in the subway? Jesus, Todd. What? Maybe not the best topic for conversation down here. Right. I just can’t stop thinking how scary it would be if a flaming homeless guy came 

Craig:  out of the dark right now. 

Clip:  I’m just saying. 

Craig:  He’s just a funny guy. And even though we don’t see him very much, he is really developed as a character Todd. Even though he’s not visible on camera very often, he’s still very much a character, and I do feel like it puts us in his shoes. Know, it 

Todd:  makes me wonder how they filmed this. I don’t know if you know the answer, but did they actually have the actor running the camera? They Some 

Craig:  of it. Did they? Some of it. 

Todd:  It seems like the kind of movie that could have been that way, that some of these moments wouldn’t have come across quite as well if the actor hadn’t been there, or maybe he was just running alongside the camera Right. At that time. 

Craig:  Yeah. Some of it was actually filmed by the actor. That’s it 

Todd:  it was. Oh, that’s cool. And at this point, you feel like they’re relatively safe, except for we know that there are smaller little creatures out there. And I don’t know about you, but that was a niggling fact in the back of my head this whole time, thinking, they’re not quite out of the boat yet. Right. Which was, again, it was smart of them to insert these creatures in there. 

Craig:  The first time that I saw it, I don’t think that I was thinking about that. I think that I that I had just kind of forgotten about those little things or whatever. I mean, I knew they pop up again, but I didn’t necessarily think here. But I liked this scene a lot because as they’re walking along, Marlena kind of freaks out and goes, ew, ew, so gross. And, Hud points the camera down, which there’s a a light on the camera which is how they can see down there. And hundreds of rats are running by them in the same direction that they’re going, and, somebody says they’re all running in the same direction. And they don’t even really have to have any further discussion, like, this can’t be good. 

Todd:  This can’t be good. They’re escaping something. 

Craig:  Right. It’s like the Titanic, you know. I’m gonna follow the rats. Yeah. And so they start running, but then they hear something behind them. And so they pause, and Rob gets the idea. He’s like, 

Todd:  oh, you got night vision on that camera. Here, let me switch it on for you. And you know I mean, you know what’s gonna happen. Mhmm. But even after it happened, I was totally freaked out. Yeah. Where the he flips on the night vision. Of course, they’re pointed down this dark tunnel, swings the camera around, and you see these creatures on the ceiling getting ready to pounce on.   Mhmm. And pounce on them, 

Craig:  they do. Yeah. And they get attacked, and it’s a pretty brutal attack. I mean, each each one of them, I think, goes down at some point. Mhmm. And these things, we they’re not as big, obviously, as the big monster outside, but they’re the size of, like, really big dogs. Yeah. We totally believe that one of these things could take a person out.   But they fight back. At one point, I think that, Hud beats 1 of the monsters off somebody else, and then he gets attacked by 1. Marlena comes in. Comes to his rescue, and she knocks the the bug or monster or whatever it is off of him, but then she gets attacked. Eventually, they’re able to get her away, and they find, I don’t know, one of those, like, access rooms or something in the subway. It’s like 

Todd:  a break room And she’s got 

Craig:  a pretty bad bite mark, on her shoulder on the and she’s got a pretty bad bite mark, on her shoulder on the front and back. And again, you know, there’s kind of a sweet moment where Hud kind of talks to her and and kind of helps her clean up, and you can tell that she’s, kind of, warming to him a little bit. It’s another cute little moment before we jump right back into the action. Yeah. 

Todd:  And he thanks her for saving his life because she was the one who beat her, beat the the monster off of her in camp. And then of course they’re discussing what to do. Well, we go into the subway and get attacked. We can go out on the street and get attacked, or we can, 

Craig:  stay in here and die. 

Todd:  So let’s just go out, on the street, and so that’s what they do. 

Craig:  Well, they don’t go out on the street, and this is kinda confusing to me, even though I think I’ve got it figured out. 

Todd:  Okay. 

Craig:  They open a door down there where they are, and they go into, like, a A shopping area. Yeah. Like a like a shopping center. 

Todd:  Like an underground shopping center, is 

Craig:  that Right. Probably right. Probably, like, the basement of a shopping center or something. And and it would maybe make sense that there would be a subway access down there. So they get in there, and they get a little ways in, and Marlena stops and says, I feel dizzy. And they said, well, do you need to stop? Should we rest for a little while? And she says she takes a deep breath and says, no. I’ll be okay. They move in a little bit further, and all of a sudden, here comes The military.   The military. Yeah. They pop I don’t know. They corral, you know, our our main characters and and move them into this what looks like a makeshift, like, medical 

Todd:  area. Contingency hospital down there. Right. And tons of people injured, and tons of people sitting there. And a little bit of chaos in the military mixed wind. 

Craig:  And you see on a a, stretcher go by or a gurney, this guy whose entire abdomen looks like it’s either been eaten or, like, some exploded from the ins inside or something, and it goes by really fast. 

Todd:  This is such a clever sequence. It really is. Because that guy you well, my initial thought anyway was, yeah. He got stomped on or he got eaten. Right. Mhmm. But And then well, and then later, you see another it looks like a case go by, and you see one of these animals inside of it. 

Clip:  Mhmm. 

Todd:  And again, all this is through the camera. So it’s it’s flashes here and flashes there. Yeah. It’s kind of blinking. You miss it. And then the camera trains back on Marlena, and she’s and suddenly she looks like death. She’s completely white. She has blood coming from her nose And eyes.   And eyes. And, Hud’s like, Marlena, we need to get you something. Immediately some nurse or somebody jumps out and grabs her and says we’ve got, she’s got a bite, a bite. And everybody pounces on her and it’s mass chaos as they pull her away and they’re like what are you doing? And they’re going after her and they’re pulling her away and they’re like no no no. And then, again, brilliantly keeping this movie 13. 13 takes her they take her behind Like a scrim. A scrim, essentially, and she’s so she slid from behind so you can see Shadow, and then you see this this big splatter of blood go up on the Craig, and she falls down. And at the time I was thinking did they shoot her? Or did something happen? And it’s only when you if you care to go back and piece it together with the guy, on the gurney that you’re thinking maybe we’re in the alien’s territory.   Right. Right. Or she was bit, she was infected, and somehow something burst out of her. Right. Or That they immediately killed. Yeah. Right. It’s very ambiguous.   You really 

Craig:  don’t know. Right. You don’t know. Again, you know, there’s no time for them to stop and, you know, they ask questions. Nobody’s gonna answer their questions. They ask the first, like, general that, is escorting them in, and they say, do they know what it is? And they say, he says, well, if they know, they haven’t told me. So it’s it’s it’s mass confusion. Nobody really knows what’s going on.   But, Rob keeps telling the military guys, you got to let me go. You got to let me go. My friend is in trouble. I She’s in midtown. I have to go find her. And initially, they’re, no, no, no, no, no. But after Marlena dies, that general, the first one, kind of takes them all aside and says, if you wanna go up there, I’m not gonna stop you. But here’s the thing.   The government has already decided that if we can’t take this thing out. It’s 0 600. Right. We’re gonna do operation hammer down. And they want to know, of course, what that means, and he says, we’re gonna take out the whole area. And Rob says, you mean all of Midtown? He says, all of Manhattan. Mhmm. They’re we’re gonna we’re gonna blow the whole thing.   The hammer down protocol. Right. So he tells them, if you get to her and you can get back to this particular place where there are gonna be helicopters, they’ll get you out of here. But if you don’t make it by then, there are no guarantees. 

Todd:  Yep. He’s really stepping out on a limb here to help these people because nobody else was gonna let them go out. 

Craig:  Right. Right. And and what does he have to lose, really? Yeah. Exactly. So anyway, they go out, and then it seems like they’re kind of conveniently close. 

Todd:  I mean, but they have been working their way towards her. So Well, and I think when they come out too of the subway, he goes, oh, it’s the 39th Street Station. Like, they they make a comment, like, oh, I guess we are already here. Right. But you’re right, it was not far along enough in this tunnel for that they actually be there. Right? But they see the building that Beth, apparently, her apartment building is toppled over, kind of leaning against another building that is still standing. And, so then I was like 

Clip:  That’s our best place, is it? Oh my god. Is that best apartment? Oh my god. Bro, is that our place? Tell me that’s not her place. That’s her place. Yeah. Oh, shit. I don’t suppose she was on the ground floor. No.   39th. Okay. How do we even get up there? I don’t know. We just go inside and then see how high we can get. I don’t know if I can do that. Well, may maybe we could try going up the other building and then see if there’s a place to cross over under a roof, and then we could find some way down to our place. Wait. No.   Never mind. No. That’s a bad idea. Hey. That’s a bad idea. I take that back. No. Never listens to me ever.   And you know, of course, they listen to me. 

Craig:  And it is funny, but 

Todd:  it doesn’t seem forced. It doesn’t 

Craig:  seem like they’re trying to put shtick in there. It seems natural. 

Todd:  Well, and and that, you know, we’ve seen movies where it seemed a little too cute for its own. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Even, I don’t know. Did you ever see did you see Deadpool? That’s out right now. 

Craig:  No. I haven’t seen it yet. 

Todd:  So Deadpool’s kind of known for being a comedic thing or whatever. But that film for me, the dialogue was too cute. You gotta be careful. 

Craig:  People are fanboying hard hitting the audience. 

Todd:  I know that. I’m telling you it wasn’t a bad movie, but, it just Todd actually really talks them. Right. Right. No matter how clever they are. And, when you see that inserted in a film, for me anyway, it takes me out of it. And Yeah. You were right.   This all seems very natural. Even the comedy doesn’t take you out of it. Yeah. And that’s does it very well. Not many movies can 

Craig:  do that. I agree. I really am a big fan. I think it strikes a great tone. So they execute the plan. They climb up something like 50 some flights of stairs, but they finally get up to a place where they are able to climb out onto the roof. And it’s it’s really scary looking. I mean, it’s it’s in a pretty steep angle.   Only Rob is really, you know, confident about doing this. The other 2 really don’t want to, but 

Todd:  Well, that’s the neat thing about this film is every single step of the way, there’s an intense incredible motivation to do something. Once the party is done and they are trying to escape, there’s motivation to just get away from this monster, figure out what it is, get into hiding. But then immediately, the impetus and urge for us to move ahead is we’ve gotta find Beth. And Rob is so interested in finding Beth because of his guilt Yeah. That he left her on such bad terms and he really does love her. And he made that horrible quip Right. To Travis at the end. So that’s the motivation.   And you’re right, at that moment where they’re leaving from roof to roof, you can tell that it’s him pulling them along. They really don’t want 

Craig:  to do this, but they’re going to go along because he’s a friend. Well, then there’s also that I can only imagine that in an intense circumstance like that, you would do just about whatever you had to do to stay together. Yeah. You would never want to get separated from the herd if you could avoid it. 

Todd:  And, you know, if my wife had been a little distant from me, and had called, and I had gotten this horrible message on the phone, absolutely, it is not unrealistic at all. Right. That what have I got to lose, things are in utter chaos, I could die, I need to at least make sure that she’s okay or has the closure. 

Craig:  Right? Right. So they they get in there, and they actually do, they get into Beth’s apartment, and her apartment is pretty much destroyed, the windows are busted in, there’s rubble everywhere, but they find her, and she’s impaled on like a, metal, Rebar. Yeah. Right. But she’s alive. 

Todd:  Yeah. It’s kind of gone through her shoulders. 

Craig:  Right. And then that’s like you said before, you know, it’s it’s an excellent device that HUD is able to put the camera down so that we don’t actually see them pull her off. We don’t see any gore, but we know we you know, we can just kinda see her legs, and then everything else is obstructed by, like, a piece of debris or something. But they pull her off, they get her off, and then and we have to say for the kids listening at home, don’t don’t do this. Oh, no. 

Todd:  If somebody’s in jail, do not take the if they’re alive You know, 

Craig:  I mean, here bar in there. Here, I guess, there’s, you know, they’ve got nothing to lose, but it’s totally unrealized. 

Todd:  Well, it’s a bad idea. Well she can start bleeding. 

Craig:  Oh, of course. 

Todd:  The rebar could be holding in her, you know, could be what’s stopping her from bleeding. Right. 

Craig:  I mean, it could puncture her lung any number of things, you know. Yeah. Terrible idea. Now what I mean, what choice do they have? She’s gonna die one way or another, I guess. Sure. 

Todd:  Yeah. In that building. And with the monster, which we could see in the back of the road. Approaching. 

Craig:  Right. It’s it’s being bombarded by the military from behind, so it’s approaching them. Again, more comedy. Beth says, what is that? And then it says, I don’t know. Something terrible. And then 

Todd:  as they’re going down the stairs to leave, they encounter one of those spider monsters, Which is again a very good thing because now we know the stakes with that spider thing. It doesn’t matter if if it bites you, you’re a goner. Right. So that makes that even brief scene be even more intense and even more menacing, and he’s like what was that? Something even more terrible. Terrible thing went out. So funny. 

Craig:  But they they get out, of the building. 

Todd:  And this is again where the film is coming to its climax and converging. We’ve been we know in the back of our heads, they only have a limited amount of time to get it out of there before the military takes 

Craig:  them out. 

Todd:  And we’ve seen ominously every so often these ch jets fly overhead. Right. It’s constantly reminding you that the the clock is ticking, and the monster is not your only danger here. 

Craig:  Right. And so this is when and, again, they get there really quick. And the the helicopter place must have been really close to her dad’s apartment. Yeah. They get there really quick, and they’re the military is loading people into helicopters. They’re loading 1 and Lily gets on, but then, like, that’s capacity, so they cut it off. And and she’s banging on the windows, like, she doesn’t want to leave her friends, but, they they take off and, you know, the others just kind of yell, we’ll be right behind you. Meanwhile, the monster is really nearby like.   Like blocks away. Yeah. And maybe even a block away, like super, super close. But Hud, Beth, and Rob also get into a helicopter, and as they’re flying away, it’s this awesome aerial shot. It it’s so funny because Hud, he realizes how awesome he, are you guys seeing this? Are you guys seeing this? And what we’re seeing is the military taking a full strike against this monster. They’re coming in behind it. They’re shooting missiles and rockets at it and, Carpet bombing it, basically. Right.   And it’s running along. It seems to be being injured and hurt, and eventually, it gets hit with something big, and it goes down. And, of course, we can’t see anything because it falls into that, like, debris cloud. Right. Of dust and whatnot. And, Hud says, oh my god. They got him. They got him.   And then out of that cloud leaps the beast at the, helicopter. Wow. Teeth blaring. 

Todd:  I was not seeing that coming at all. I imagine that the film is wrapping up at this point. And and it takes down their helicopter. Their helicopter goes into a spin, and it’s terrifying. And I think Craig, that first person view, you’ve seen this so much in movies, but you’ve never been in the helicopter when this going down Mhmm. And you just think you’re gonna die. 

Craig:  Oh, absolutely. And I think they were I thought they 

Todd:  were going 

Craig:  to be dead. I thought that was gonna be it. And in fact, I was reading on, IMDB that a lot of people are critical and say, oh, there’s no way they could have survived the helicopter crash. Yeah. 

Todd:  Well, it’s pretty true. Well and something 

Craig:  that I read said, you know, if these are military, pilots, they’re trained for, you know, tactical landings and whatnot. Okay. Alright. Something awesome. I’ll buy that. They crash. It seems like the crew is killed, but the 3 friends have all survived. They have to pull Rob out.   He’s apparently injured his leg. Hud puts down the camera to help pull him out and they do pull him out and they start running off together. Hud realizes that he’s forgotten the camera. He runs back to grab it, and the other 2 turn back to see him and scream and say, HUD, HUD. He picks up the camera, and looks up, and he’s standing directly underneath this huge monster, and we get just right close-up shot of this monster at this point. 

Todd:  The movie gives you everything. It gives you that on the ground between military and the monster. It gives you so much, and it even gives you a first person perspective of what it’s like to be eaten by this thing. The monster clamps down on him right on the camera, right on us as the audience. And I imagine if I had been in the theater seeing this, this would have been a moment where everybody was going 

Craig:  hey. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Totally. 

Todd:  He and so how’s dad? I mean, they crunch he crunches them up and somehow the camera falls out. And the others, probably the only time when it seems a little inexplicable is the others end up grabbing the camera and running it with them. 

Craig:  It that there I can’t think of any reason why they would have gone back for the camera except for that they really didn’t. The monster drops Hud out of its mouth. I mean, you see Hud from, like, the shoulders up on on camera, they run back to make sure that he’s dead, you know, that if if if he’s alive, they want to help. Now, again, I don’t know. Did the monster step away for a minute? Yeah. I’m not really sure. 

Todd:  I think maybe there’s a passage of time in there. Yeah. Maybe. Maybe. Like like, it’s one of those things where the camera got kinda got knocked and then kinda got turned back on again later. 

Craig:  Yeah. 

Todd:  I mean, you can hear them calling from kind 

Craig:  of a distance. They must be running back. They see right away that he’s dead. But, Rob grabs the camera and they take off running. They’re in Central Park, and they find one of those stone bridges, in Central Park. And they go down underneath there. You’re hearing bombing all over the place. And Rob just kind of turns the camera on.   I mean, they’re panicking. It’s not like this is a calm moment. Beth is crying, and she’s saying she’s so scared. She’s so scared. And he turns the camera on himself, and he says, I’m Rob, whatever his last name is. And he kind of explains what’s happened to them, over the course of the night. And he turns the camera on Beth and says, say something. And she doesn’t know what to say.   And he says, just just say who you are. And she said she says who she is, and she says, I’m just so scared, but we’re gonna wait it out here. 

Todd:  Mhmm. 

Craig:  And then Big 

Todd:  big explosion. Obviously, the military’s taken that out. 

Craig:  Yeah. The before the explosion, we hear the sirens. That’s right. 

Clip:  You you 

Todd:  you it’s just a feeling of impending doom. Yeah. You know they’re absolutely not gonna make it, and you’re right. Rocks start to fall down, and the camera’s obviously buried by rocks. 

Craig:  You hear them say, I love you Todd one another, and then there’s another explosion, and the camera cuts out. 

Todd:  And, it cuts out Todd what was being taped over, which is the tail end of these of Rob and Beth at Coney Island. And it’s sweet and It really is. And it’s sad, 

Craig:  you know, it’s bittersweet because presumably they’re dead. They’re all dead except for maybe Lily who may have gotten away. 

Todd:  Well, and and it has to be mentioned that something that we didn’t say say is that throughout this film Todd different regular inner irregular intervals, we’re getting, for one reason or another, a little taste of that day at Coney Island. Almost as though the whole movie, well, literally, the whole movie is was bookended by their trip to Coney Island together during this apparently really really great day in their lives. Yeah. And you get little reminders now and then in there that do tug at your heartstrings a little bit. 

Craig:  Yeah. And it’s sweet. 

Clip:  Alright. We’re almost out of town. 

Craig:  We got, like, 3 seconds to begin. 

Clip:  I had a good day. 

Craig:  And that’s where it cuts out. Okay. So what you missed, and I totally missed it too. I didn’t notice it in the theater. Looking for this. I didn’t notice it in the theater at all. But when they cut back that Coney Island scene, they’re in a Ferris wheel and when we see the beginning of the shot, he has it focused out over the water, the ocean. If you’ve got a super eagle eye, somewhere in the screen, you see something fall from the top of the frame down into the ocean.   Really? It’s tiny. It is so hard to see. So maybe my screen’s not 

Todd:  big enough. Yeah. 

Craig:  Tom’s got this 

Todd:  monster created here. You had 

Clip:  to see this in 

Todd:  the theater to catch this? I was looking for you know what? Maybe I was looking in the water, though. I was looking for a little flick of a tail or something 

Craig:  that was 

Todd:  just kicking up. 

Craig:  Now I don’t know that JJ Abrams has ever confirmed what the Cloverfield monster is, but the most prominent theory that I see online is that what was falling to the earth was some sort of failed satellite. And it crashed, into the ocean and awoke from the depths of the ocean, this monster. And then the monster slowly rose and took over. And, I don’t remember if it was the director or the creature creator. I think it was the creature creator said that he envisioned the monster as being a frightened baby, just looking for its mother. You know, no ill intent, no, maliciousness. It just is out of its element and, of course, it’s it’s causing destruction. That’s why, initially when they scripted it, the bridge was taken down by 1 of the monster’s arms, but they decided that seemed to deliver it.   That it was just an accident. It wasn’t trying to do anything. It was just out of its its its element. 

Todd:  Well, that’s sort of the Godzilla mythos. You know, you have, Godzilla special well, the original in particular was, a parable of sorts on the Todd age Right. And atomic bombing. And, of course, Japan being so badly hit, the idea is that, you awaken this beast from the bottom and you you can’t do anything about it. Right. 

Craig:  You would put yourself. 

Todd:  Exactly. So I can see that. Okay. Now, my thought would have been, well, it was an alien creature Right. Came in. And and the reason I would think that is be because of these additional spider things. It makes it seem more like an attack than just, a but, I don’t know. 

Craig:  Well well, like I said, I don’t know that Yeah. I’ve ever confirmed anything. That’s just the the most prominent theory that I’ve read. 

Todd:  Well, it is in so many films like this. As you said earlier, it is it is a nice thing that they are a little ambiguous Yeah. About where this came from and about its origins and its intent. 

Craig:  And again, that’s why I am excited to see Cloverfield, Lane, and I have I’ve tried to stay away from anything, about it, because I don’t wanna know how it’s connected. But I believe that it’s gotta be connected some way, and I’m I’m really looking forward to to seeing how. 

Todd:  Yeah. I saw the trailer and, even within the trailer, you’re not quite sure. You the trailer starts out looking like it’s one thing, and then kinda morphs into another thing. Mhmm. And there are probably multiple trailers too. 

Craig:  Right. 

Todd:  I I haven’t I’ve intentionally stayed away from these things as well. And now that I’ve seen this movie, I kinda wanna go to the theater. 

Craig:  I prob I was I was 

Todd:  gonna be on, you know, it was kind of on my back burner, but now it might be up towards the front. 

Craig:  The thing is, it’s so ambiguous. Like, I I wanna see it too, and I’d be happy to go with you, but I don’t even know if it’s a horror film. Yeah. I in fact, I kinda don’t think it is. I think it’s more of a thriller. 

Todd:  There are hints that, I mean, even Abrams has said it’s a spiritual successor, and I’ve seen headlines on articles now that say that once again Abrams is redefining the art of promoting a movie, in a very ambiguous way, which again, casts all kinds 

Craig:  of shit. And I 

Todd:  don’t wanna read those articles. I wanna see the movie. Me too. 

Craig:  Yeah. Well, so I have the feeling you liked it. I loved it. 

Todd:  I was Did you? Oh, I did. I can’t imagine anyone going into this thing thinking it’s stupid. 

Craig:  I loved it Todd. So I was I was really excited to see what you would think. I was really thrown by my dad’s reaction to it because we usually have really similar taste. And 

Todd:  he didn’t like it. 

Craig:  He didn’t like it at all? He’s kinda silly. 

Todd:  He was one that thought 

Craig:  of it. You know, I I have a feeling maybe a lot of for him was the shaky cam. Yeah. He’s not a big fan of that. So and if you if you do get motion sickness, you better take a, Dramamine before you watch this movie because it is really shaky. I’m not bothered by that stuff, but I can see if you are. 

Todd:  There’s very little aside from it. And, you know, my wife, Bic, is very bothered by that sort of thing. She poked her head in at one point and said, oh, could could I watch this? And I said, you know, it was pg 13, and she never did come back in. But as I’m watching this, I thought, no. There’s absolutely no way she would be able to endure 5 minutes of this. Wow. She can’t watch, you know, me playing a first person video game. So Yeah.   This would definitely be not for me. 

Craig:  For her. But if if you haven’t seen it, and I can’t imagine. If you’re a horror fan, you haven’t seen this like Todd. You’re you’re some sort of anomaly, I think. But I like it. It’s a fun movie, and it is you know, it’s quick. It’s a short movie. It’s fast paced.   There are only a couple of places where it slows down, and that’s just for a moment, and then you’re right back into the action. So this one gets 2 big thumbs up for me. That was another episode. Thank you for listening. If you like what you heard, we’ve got a whole backlog, for you on, iTunes or Stitcher. You can find us on Facebook. We’d love to hear your feedback and maybe even give us some suggestions of things you’d like to see us talk about in the future. We’ll be back next week.   Until then, I’m Craig. 

Todd:  With 2 Guys and a Chainsaw