FH Mini #19: Miseed That Movie! - Brainstorm

[0:00] Hey, floppers. It's that time again, the witching hour. And you know what that means? Another

[0:10] Flophouse mini episode, or mini-sode, or mini-soda, if you think this is a soda. It's not, though.

[0:17] It's a podcast. I'm your host for this evening, Elliott Kaelin. And joining me are two handsome

[0:23] hunks of the heartwaves, and they'll name their own names right now. What are your names,

[0:30] I'm Dan McCoy. I'm a handsome heartwave, Rick Wellington. Hey, you guys look a little

[0:36] uncomfortable. Why don't you take those shirts off and stay a while? Okay, let me just peel

[0:41] this shirt off. Stacking all my chest hair. Okay. You asked whether you should just totally drive

[0:49] this one. And like, just from the start, just kick it off. And we're like, yeah, we trust you.

[0:53] And then immediately you got creepier than I ever saw you before. I'm really going for the same

[0:59] feel as those Calvin Klein commercials they pulled off the air years ago, where they were interviewing

[1:03] shirtless models next to ladders in basements. Do you remember those? No, I do. They were gross.

[1:08] They were really gross and creepy. And you're like, why do you have so many ladders in the

[1:12] basement? Like it's not, how tall is that basement going to be? It's a huge basement.

[1:16] They are painting the ceiling. It's Michelangelo's basement. He's always painting the ceiling.

[1:20] Guys, on the Flop House, normally, as our regular listeners know, and if you're not a

[1:33] regular listener, this may not be the best episode to start with, or maybe it will be,

[1:36] let's find out. We usually watch a bad movie, and all three of us, and then we talk about it,

[1:40] and then we do a lot of other stuff too. Today, however, it's a mini episode. That means we didn't

[1:46] all watch a movie, but I watched a movie. That's right. It's another installment of our

[1:50] irregular mini episode series, Missed That Movie. Thank you. That's Stuart's new character,

[2:05] Far Away Guy. Hey, Far Away Guy, how's it going? It's not only far away. He's like falling off a

[2:17] cliff or something. There's a Doppler effect going on. Yeah, he had to step pretty far back

[2:21] to get far away, and he fell off the cliff. So in Missed That Movie, one of us has watched a

[2:27] movie, and we describe it to the other ones, and they tell us whether they wish we had covered the

[2:32] movie or if they watched it or not. So I watched a movie, and I'm going to tell you guys about it.

[2:36] Are you guys ready? Strap in, boys. Get ready. Buckle up. Am I being creepy enough? Almost.

[2:42] I should get creepier. Okay. Oil up, boys. Let's dive into this one.

[2:50] You got there. You did it. Okay. So the movie that I watched,

[2:54] I want to tell you about, is the film Brainstorm from 1983,

[2:58] starring Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood in her final film role. She actually died

[3:02] during the production of the movie. Louise Fletcher and Cliff Robertson. That's right.

[3:07] So it is a star-studded cast. That's three Oscar winners, one Oscar nominee in this film,

[3:13] directed by Douglas Trumbull, best known as a special effects master, and also directed the

[3:19] movie Silent Running. So Brainstorm, not to be confused with the movie Brain Scan from 1994,

[3:25] starring Eddie Furlong and Frank Langella. So sorry, guys. We're not talking about Brain Scan

[3:31] tonight. We're talking about Brainstorm. Are you okay with that?

[3:35] I mean, let's see. We're talking about Brainstorm. I mean, a storm sounds more exciting than a scan.

[3:41] Yes. You'd be wrong. It's not a very exciting movie, but you'd think a storm would be more

[3:47] exciting than a scan. Now, would you guys rather have your brain stormed, though,

[3:51] or would you have your brain scanned? Well, okay. Who's storming it?

[3:56] Storming Norman Schwarzkopf, the hero of the Persian Gulf War.

[3:59] I'll have to go with scan. Okay. But the scanning is being done

[4:04] by the scanners. So they're going to make your head explode.

[4:07] Oh, no. I really should have asked. Yeah. It's a real Hobbes choice. You're going to end up with

[4:12] a bruised brain either way. I feel bad for all the Normans out there who are never storming.

[4:18] I mean, what other nickname do they get? I've got a pill that could help them with that.

[4:25] Yeah. Like Glorman. Glorman.

[4:27] Yeah. Possibly, yeah. Or Chorman. Like they do all the chores. They're the chore man.

[4:31] Chorman. Yeah. No, you're right.

[4:34] Poor man. Poor man Norman. I mean, if he's poor, you're just kicking him when he's down. If he's

[4:39] rich, it's an ironic nickname, like when you call big guy tiny or a bald guy curly.

[4:43] Yeah. Or just a guy who likes Roger Corman movies.

[4:47] Or Norman Corman, who could just be Roger Corman's brother. Who knows? Norman Corman.

[4:51] Or guys, I got you. It's like when you have a really stiff guy, but you call him Stretch.

[4:57] What? A really stiff guy? I don't understand.

[5:00] Who's the stiff guy? I don't really rate my friends by how flexible they are.

[5:08] I told a joke. No, no, no.

[5:12] I am laughing, Stuart, but in a different way than normal.

[5:15] Dan's doing a good job. Well, it's not helping me out here.

[5:20] Sorry, I got distracted looking up Norman Corwin to see if there was a joke about him to be made,

[5:25] and there was not. So yeah, yeah, no.

[5:27] About Norman the doorman.

[5:28] Call the stiff guy Stretch, yeah, because he's stretching it all out real stiff. Okay, guys,

[5:31] so have you ever seen the movie Brainstorm from 1983?

[5:35] No. No.

[5:36] Okay, well, let me give you a little taste of what we're in for. Let me read you the tagline

[5:39] on the poster. Wait, is this the one with Eddie Furlong in it?

[5:44] Nope, nope. That's Brain Scan. Easy mistake to make.

[5:47] This is about storming of brains and not scanning of brains.

[5:51] In Brain Scan, which I have not seen, I have to assume Eddie Furlong is an MRI technician

[5:55] who is just making sure people's brains are scanning good.

[5:59] Okay. He plays a video game where a character

[6:01] named Trickster shows up and then swallows his head at one point. It's really great.

[6:05] Wait, he plays a video game in the movie, so his character is a video game?

[6:09] Yeah, well, in a way, yes. For parts of the movie, yes, you're actually right.

[6:14] So is this finally that adaptation of Toe Jam & Earl that I've been waiting for for so long?

[6:20] It's not unlike Toe Jam & Earl. They both have attitude. They both have names that I guess

[6:29] don't completely make sense in context of the narrative. Dan, I'm going to need some help.

[6:35] I've never seen the movie Me & Earl and the Dying Girl. Is that about Toe Jam & Earl and

[6:46] the Dying Girl? Uh-huh. Yep.

[6:48] Okay. The me is Toe Jam, yes.

[6:51] Yes, that's what I'm implying, Daniel. Thank you.

[6:53] The weird thing is the Dying Girl is the girl with the pearl earring,

[6:56] which you never would have thought. Oh, wow.

[6:58] So it's really Toe Jam & Earl and the Dying Girl with the pearl earring on a train.

[7:04] Okay. So here's the tagline on the poster for Brainstorm.

[7:07] The door to the mind is open. Imagine a machine that records sights,

[7:11] sounds, sensations, thoughts, feelings, emotions, even your dreams and nightmares.

[7:17] Then at the touch of a button, transfers these personal experiences from one mind to another.

[7:22] Not done with the tagline. Any person, any experience, anything you can imagine.

[7:28] And then the tagline concludes, Brainstorm, the ultimate experience. Now,

[7:31] that's a lot of text for a poster, right? Yeah. I mean, it seems like that last part

[7:38] in and of itself would just be a tagline that you could use.

[7:41] The ultimate experience? No, but they had to explain what a Brainstorm was.

[7:44] It seems like a walk in the razor's edge between poster and novella.

[7:49] Yeah, it really feels like it is the text from the back of the paperback of Brainstorm.

[7:54] I mean, do you think that they were afraid that people would think that it was the creativity

[8:00] exercise brainstorming? I think they were afraid people would think it was the movie

[8:05] Brain Scan, which wouldn't come out for 11 more years.

[8:08] Oh, well, that's I mean, that's foresight, at least.

[8:11] Now, yeah, I got a little bit of a side tangent, but when we when I was growing up,

[8:16] I was super into superhero characters, right? Superheroes like Superman.

[8:20] I'm not familiar with them. Yes, it's a niche thing.

[8:23] Nobody knows about them. So I bought myself a little notebook

[8:28] and I was also I was also I got to go on a side side tangent.

[8:31] I was also really tell us about the brand of notebooks, too.

[8:35] Is that what you're going to talk to us about? I was also really into Marvel cards

[8:39] because they had like, you know, like they had a picture on the front and the back had like

[8:43] a little bit a little bit of bio and then like, yeah, power levels.

[8:47] Yeah. Like your typical trading card.

[8:49] Yeah. It's how I got into it's how I got into comics was Marvel

[8:53] Universe series to the best comic book card set ever.

[8:57] How I got to college was by being Anthony Edwards.

[9:00] Yeah. So so I I created my own like universe of heroes and villains in this in this notebook

[9:10] that I was filling out. And it was in the style of those Marvel Marvel cards.

[9:15] And the like the the first hero, the hero that was like my Superman character was a character

[9:21] named Brainstorm, who's basically Superman, but hadn't exposed brain in a jar.

[9:27] Oh, OK. That's pretty cool. I mean, DC has three different characters named Brainstorm,

[9:31] but I bet you could still use that name.

[9:33] I mean, Stuart, I don't have to go back and like I don't have to go back in time

[9:38] and make myself not create that original character Brainstorm, right?

[9:42] Unfortunately, yes. You're being sued by Warner Brothers right now.

[9:46] OK. Does that also include Dot or just Wacko and Yakko?

[9:50] Just the brothers. Dot is sitting on the sidelines for this one.

[9:56] OK, well, it's just Yakko and Wacko.

[9:59] I mean.

[10:00] I just wanted to point out, though, Stuart, that now you're playing a brain man in a jar in a movie.

[10:08] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I play tube man in a movie.

[10:10] So your childhood dreams have come true.

[10:12] Yeah, it's weird. It's weird. It's almost like I told this whole tangent-within-a-tangent story as a means to promote my starring movie.

[10:20] Well, not starring, but movie role as tube man in the movie Psycho Goreman.

[10:25] That should be coming on VOD and Shudder in the not-too-distant future.

[10:30] And also, we're all brains in jars being fed stimuli that leads us to believe that we are physical beings.

[10:35] So there's that, too.

[10:37] OK, brainstorm. Let's talk about it, guys.

[10:39] So the opening credits are real, like, kind of 90s PC game-style floating graphics.

[10:44] It looks like the computers and hackers vomited all over the screen.

[10:47] And we're introduced to our two main scientists, Christopher Walken and Louise Fletcher.

[10:51] Louise Fletcher's main character trait is she is tough and also constantly smoking.

[10:55] I think in the first four minutes of the movie, she lights three separate cigarettes in one scene.

[11:00] They are scientists.

[11:01] They're making kind of a cerebro-type brain helmet that can telepathically transmit sensations to someone else wearing another helmet

[11:10] and can also record those sensations on a huge reel of reel-to-reel digital, like, magnetized tape.

[11:17] That's right.

[11:18] The technology in this is super 80s.

[11:20] It's really fantastic.

[11:21] Everything is as analog as possible, and there's just, like, huge clunky machines everywhere,

[11:27] lots of old video screens and, like, computers where when you want to press a keyboard button,

[11:31] you got to press real hard, and it makes a big, like, thunk sound.

[11:34] It's really fantastic.

[11:36] They transmit a lot of different sensations using their test subject, Gordy, who is the joker of the group.

[11:43] He's constantly just flirting and joking.

[11:44] Gordy Howe?

[11:45] No, not Gordy Howe, hockey great Gordy Howe, just a guy named Gordy.

[11:49] Not the big Gordy?

[11:51] No.

[11:52] He eats a steak covered with marshmallows, and he briefly puts the helmet on an angry chimp

[11:58] so that Christopher Walken knows what it feels like to be an angry chimp.

[12:01] He's like they have him riding horses, riding go-karts.

[12:05] He's with some babes at a water park, and he's transmitting all these sensations to Christopher Walken.

[12:10] Now, obviously, you can just imagine the amazing applications of being able to transmit sensations to another person, right?

[12:18] Guys, just name them.

[12:19] Just name some of these amazing applications.

[12:20] Well, you could send somebody to a water park with babes.

[12:23] You could have them drive a race car.

[12:26] You could have them.

[12:28] Those are all things people can do already.

[12:30] Oh, right.

[12:31] Like how would being able to send those sensations to somebody over a helmet and record them on tape, how is that profitable, I guess I would say?

[12:38] I mean that's basically the plot of Strange Days, right?

[12:42] If people are recording their memories and other people get to enjoy that shit.

[12:46] That's true, I guess.

[12:47] That's a way to be inside someone else's mind.

[12:49] One person could watch the movie Gordy about the pig and broadcast it to other people so they could also see Gordy.

[12:58] Oh, so Dan, you've seen Brainscan.

[13:00] You've seen Brainstorm because that's what happens.

[13:02] That's what happens later in Brainstorm.

[13:03] It becomes about who owns the copyright to Gordy the pig movie because can you copyright the sensation of seeing the film?

[13:10] That's the question that they ask.

[13:12] Sorry.

[13:13] I got hung up on Gordy because I was remembering there was like questions from the movie Answer Man back when Roger Ebert was alive where someone wrote in and they're like,

[13:22] did you actually write like on the VHS cover of Gordy it says kids will squeal over Gordy?

[13:29] And he's like, good eye.

[13:31] I gave Gordy a bad review.

[13:32] That was a headline that my editor wrote for me.

[13:37] Anyway, so looking at the poster, the theatrical release poster for Gordy, the quote they have actually there is four stars, rule over Beethoven, see a Simba.

[13:46] This is the year of the pig.

[13:48] Wow.

[13:49] That's pretty big talk for a movie about a pig wearing sunglasses.

[13:52] I think the quote that they decided not to use was Scar couldn't kill Simba, but Gordy could.

[14:01] So Christopher Walken and Louise Fletcher, they made a breakthrough.

[14:04] Walken wants to celebrate.

[14:06] He rides home on his ridiculously futurey recumbent bike to his future house where he has a son and his ex-wife, Natalie Wood.

[14:14] She also works at the same company.

[14:16] She's going to work at turning this helmet that they've just invented into a product that can be on Christmas store shelves in the near future.

[14:23] And also at this house, I should mention Christopher Walken has achieved every kid's dream.

[14:27] He has a refrigerator in his bedroom and it is stocked with soda.

[14:30] What?

[14:31] So he is living the dream.

[14:34] I feel like every kid's dream is getting a soda gun from a bar in their home so they could just get soda on demand.

[14:41] Oh, yeah, just squirt it right in their mouth.

[14:43] They don't even have to measure it.

[14:45] It's just like Bulk Barn, just scoop as much as you want at any moment type stuff, yeah.

[14:50] Yeah, yeah, yeah, and you can be like, no, no, no, no, no.

[14:53] You can put ice in it.

[14:54] Don't worry.

[14:55] You can have as much soda as you want.

[14:57] The ice isn't blocking your soda qualities.

[14:59] No, that's how they get you, is what my dad would say.

[15:02] Anyway, everyone in this movie, I should mention, is really sedate all the time, like really just kind of they all seem like they're on some kind of tranquilizer.

[15:10] And we see this the most when they present to the board at their company this amazing invention that allows you to experience exciting things like flying a hang glider right in your own brain.

[15:21] And everybody sitting at the table just looks very pleasantly just kind of like, oh, OK.

[15:28] All right.

[15:29] They're literally there at one point.

[15:31] They're in a truck that flies over a cliff and crashes, and they're just like, oh, all right.

[15:35] OK, yeah, this is a good product.

[15:37] And I got to be honest.

[15:39] I don't know.

[15:41] I say this now, you know, like certainly during a pandemic, this product would appeal to me to be able to, you know, jack into the Matrix and experience things out there.

[15:51] Well, no, no, you're not jacking into the Matrix stand.

[15:53] You have to get a big reel to reel spool of experiences and then play it on the machine.

[15:58] And then that will go to your helmet.

[16:01] So is there a pitch that you just like?

[16:03] They're like wet wear.

[16:05] There's no no wet wear would be some kind of organic extant existence type thing.

[16:10] This is very much hardware running software.

[16:12] The hardware is the helmet.

[16:13] The software is these big reel tapes of experiences.

[16:17] So you don't like carry around like a fleshy controller that like.

[16:21] No, the throb slightly while you push it.

[16:24] No, and it doesn't.

[16:25] You don't have to have a port put into your body to operate it or anything like that.

[16:28] It's just a helmet.

[16:30] No, I you know, I'm thinking about like, say, say one of these reels is skydiving, right?

[16:36] If I haven't gotten around to skydiving in my regular life, the things that are keeping me from doing skydiving, I'm not necessarily.

[16:45] I don't think buying one of these reels so I can skydive through this brain brainstorm.

[16:51] You wait, you wait.

[16:52] Just because you haven't skydived, you wouldn't use you wouldn't want to experience it.

[16:58] OK.

[16:59] Well, Dan, Dan, he only does things virtually that he's done in person.

[17:03] That's why he plays Mario Brothers, because he has jumped on turtles to kill them.

[17:09] No, no. I mean, look, I don't know why I went to that one.

[17:11] There are certainly experiences out there that I would never have that I would certainly.

[17:15] Well, Dan, maybe some of them are going to come up here, maybe because, for instance, I mean, this is an experience I assume you have had.

[17:20] But for some reason, the preview they're showing to these people ends with a sort of glitzy ends with you being at a glitzy Hooters where busty ladies have trays of hors d'oeuvres.

[17:28] And they're like, oh, sorry, sorry, we don't know how that got into the reel.

[17:31] But the thing is, the movie is shot in one aspect ratio.

[17:35] And then for these scenes, so much wider aspect ratio.

[17:38] And the whole part of it is like, oh, so they invented IMAX, I guess, like it's just IMAX, but it's on a helmet.

[17:43] I should mention that Christopher. So the company loves it.

[17:46] Unfortunately, they want to get the military involved.

[17:49] And Louise Fletcher does not like that idea.

[17:51] She says no, but a government scientist gets added to the team because, of course, the military can now put helmets on soldiers and have them record, I guess, what it's like to shoot people and be shot.

[18:03] I don't know what again. I don't know what sensations are helpful for the military in recording.

[18:07] But maybe we'll find out later.

[18:10] Christopher Walken, he just wants success.

[18:12] He doesn't care how it happens.

[18:14] And he and Louise Fletcher have this weird relationship where they're coworkers, and it's not quite clear if they are in a relationship or not.

[18:20] Walken is always kind of touching her and very kissy with her.

[18:23] And at one point, because they disagree on the direction of the project, she runs into the ladies' room and he runs in after her and is just screaming at her in this like futuristic 80s ladies' room.

[18:34] And she has some kind of panic attack or maybe a cardiac event.

[18:38] It's not quite clear yet.

[18:40] But here's, Dan, why you're going to buy this helmet, because what is the real use of a helmet where you can record sensations and then play them back in the comfort of your own home?

[18:50] I'm sure you've guessed it by now.

[18:51] Sex stuff.

[18:52] Yes, exactly, because Gordy talks one of the –

[18:54] I got it right, Stuart.

[18:55] You got it right on the first try, and it does wonders for your reputation.

[18:58] So what's Dave Frost? Does he get one of these fucking helmets?

[19:01] Yeah, he gets to – I guess so.

[19:04] Yeah, Dan's prize is he gets one of these helmets when they're invented.

[19:07] Gordy, that lovable scamp, has recorded himself having sex with one of the lab technicians, and we almost get a scene where Christopher Walken's 12-year-old son accidentally puts the headset on when that reel is playing.

[19:19] Oh, no.

[19:20] But this isn't that kind of movie.

[19:21] So that's – if this was a Crasser movie, that would happen.

[19:24] Yeah, it's not like Squid and the Whale or something.

[19:26] No, no, but –

[19:27] Like the squid or the whale.

[19:29] So what version of Squid and the Whale has a scene like that?

[19:31] I thought it was the one with the helmet.

[19:34] I mean, he does wipe some semen on some library books and that, but I would not have – yeah, I wouldn't go with that one.

[19:44] So what was – was it a specific book that he was wiping the semen on? Is that what he gets off on, is that he's disrespecting that one book?

[19:51] Like, take this, Mein Kampf, and he just wipes his semen on it?

[19:55] A general, like, acting out kind of thing going on.

[19:59] I see.

[20:00] No, he there's there's none of that in this. There's no helmets in the squid in the whale and there's no on-camera

[20:05] Seaman in this but here's another

[20:13] Just inside the testicles of all the male members of the cast you have to

[20:18] It's kind of like a building block of all the people in the movie too, right?

[20:22] I'm you gotta assume

[20:24] I don't I mean

[20:29] You couldn't hold on you could not yet create a human life and then raise it to adulthood without in some way using

[20:35] Human semen, so you gotta assume it was used for everyone on the film. Yeah, let's go backwards

[20:39] So take me to call it a building to call it a building block, though

[20:43] I don't know I as a as a point of semantics and biology

[20:48] I don't know that like, you know, the semen obviously fertilizes the egg. We all know the story

[20:55] I don't know the story. We all know the tale. We all know the famous love story

[21:00] Stewart's arm isn't made up of a bunch of

[21:05] What

[21:10] Okay, anyway, let's let's move on I think I'm you know what as judge of this episode I'm gonna allow that I'm allow building block

[21:16] Even though that that now creates in my mind an image of like dried sperm used into it put it like a Lego type mold

[21:23] Yeah, and put together into some sort of

[21:26] licensed maybe Hogwarts castle set

[21:29] But not gonna think about that. But here's another use for it aside from sex stuff where Dan's mine instantly went to

[21:36] Christopher Walken

[21:37] He gets a glimpse of a tape that his ex-wife recorded on it and sees her feelings about him

[21:43] But also the memories of their marriage which involved mostly him being a real jerk

[21:47] He hands a dirty diaper a kid with a dirty diaper to one point and one at their wedding

[21:51] There's just it's the strangest memories. He starts talking about let's do the twist in like a vampire voice at their wedding

[21:57] It's very they're very Christopher Walken II memories and he gives her a reel of his memories

[22:03] Which are mostly him kind of explaining the right brothers for her at a trip. They must have taken to Kitty Hawk

[22:10] This allows them to have a moment of emotional connection. They have a night of hanging out together

[22:15] Reenacting their wedding and having sex and it ends with them back together as a couple and him making fart noises to make her laugh

[22:21] The most romantic thing that someone can do. I mean that sounds I mean that sounds oddly charming

[22:26] I would like to see Christopher Walken do those things

[22:29] Well brainstorm is the movie for you, but watch out

[22:33] Hey friends, Jesse here the founder of maximum fun and I have some really great news to share with you

[22:38] this year has brought a lot of changes for all of us and

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[23:12] Extraordinarily kind and whether or not you bought pins you can continue to help by heading to give directly dot org

[23:20] That's always. Thank you

[23:25] Guys can we pitch a can we pitch a TV show called Christopher Walken's memories?

[23:31] Sure. Okay. Let's tell me what it's like. I'm the executive. I'm it now first you have Christopher Walken for this show

[23:38] I've been nailed him down

[23:40] Okay, I mean don't do that because that I don't want you to actually nail him to anything

[23:45] Yeah, I assume that he'd be interested in the the the the property once I explained it to him

[23:53] It's you know, it's sort of a masterpiece theater slash masterpiece theater situation

[23:58] Okay, where we come across Christopher Walken, you know in his leather chair in his library, you know by the fire

[24:06] Sure, and he opens a book

[24:08] Library is on fire leather-bound book

[24:11] Well, there's a fire in the fireplace. Okay

[24:19] Sounds like an indie band leather fire. Yeah

[24:22] he opens a leather-bound, you know photo album and

[24:26] Starts telling us the story of one of his memories and then we sort of enter the memory

[24:31] Okay

[24:33] Painting

[24:35] Okay, sure, yeah, okay now, uh Christopher what so with what kind of memories these would be memories of him and his famous pals making movies together

[24:44] Yeah, yeah, it was like memories of the bakery that his family owned when he was a kid

[24:49] It's it's mostly him hanging around the set of a weapon of choice the Spike Jonze

[24:55] Fat Boy Slim

[24:57] Video just that one shoot not any of the other things he made

[25:00] No, just mostly just weapon of choice. Well, that's well

[25:03] We we have the rights to that right now and then we're you do so you don't have Christopher Walken yet

[25:07] But you know, it's a weapon of choice don't have that. Well, yeah

[25:10] Well, I mean weirdly Sony owns his memories of that shoot

[25:15] The rest of it is under you know, just Christopher Walken himself, but so you have you have Sony you have Sony on board already

[25:22] Yes, so he's on board. I mean that's huge. You should have mentioned that right away right away

[25:27] Cuz I don't know you

[25:29] I don't know Sony on board. Yeah, but Sony doesn't have a streaming platform. My name's right. Maybe we need to meet

[25:34] My name is Billy Netflix

[25:36] Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. Are you anyway any relation to the streaming service? No, actually I work at Hulu

[25:44] That's why you're talking to me

[25:45] It's actually it's my family my planet when we first came over from Greece. We were Netflix opolis

[25:50] It was changed Ellis Island to Netflix and it's just a coincidence that I happen to be in the streaming industry

[25:56] I'm a development executive at Hulu. But anyway, so why should Hulu be interested in I'm gonna call it Christopher feet Christopher piece theater

[26:03] Why what what makes you think that this is a show that works on Netflix or out sorry on Hulu

[26:08] I guess thinking of myself because let me tell you what Hulu is all about who is about providing the most

[26:15] incredible syndicated and original programming and then packaging them in a menu that makes it nearly impossible to find the things that you want to

[26:22] That's the Hulu mission statement

[26:24] That's our big objective is we want to tantalize you with the knowledge that there are shows you want to watch and yet you cannot

[26:31] find them and my favorite thing is when you when you find a show that you want to watch and you are on an

[26:36] Episode and you're like, wait a minute. I want to see a different episode. It's like well, no, no like figuring it out

[26:42] We don't want you to do that. We want you and if you finish an episode

[26:45] We want you to watch that same episode the next time you come on Hulu

[26:48] Just because we know you watched it and enjoyed it Hulu is all about making you really work

[26:53] For the enjoyment and we think you're gonna like it more because for instance, okay. Have you guys ever?

[27:00] Ran a marathon

[27:01] No

[27:03] Okay

[27:06] No, I know I haven't

[27:10] What about skydiving have you guys ever skydove

[27:13] No, would you put a helmet on your head that gives you the impressions of skydiving

[27:21] Okay, well we don't have that technology

[27:22] But if we did we would make it very difficult to access the thing you want to do

[27:26] In fact, we'd make it difficult for you to find the helmet

[27:28] We probably paint it like invisible paint so you couldn't you'd have to stumble around feeling for it

[27:33] But anyway, so Christopher walking you got him for the project. Yeah. Well again, we haven't locked down his memories beyond

[27:40] Him being on the set of weapon of choice

[27:42] But I think that you know if we're in negotiations

[27:45] We could have him being on the set of all kinds of things

[27:47] We could have his memories from being on the set of pennies from heaven

[27:52] He's just in one scene, but okay sure from being on the set of catch me if you can

[27:57] Okay

[27:58] His memories of being on the set for that live production of Peter Pan short where he was kept

[28:05] In a chair

[28:08] He was playing the part of he was playing the part of Captain Hook who?

[28:12] With with calcium density issues a lot of people don't know that that's the way he was playing that character

[28:16] Cuz where is he gonna get enough calcium and never never land? I don't see any cows. There's no milk or cheese

[28:22] Answer me guys answer the question Dan Dan. Where's Captain Hook getting his milk from answer me?

[28:29] Maybe he

[28:31] Milks that alligator

[28:34] I mean sure it doesn't make any sense

[28:37] But maybe never never land alligators are mammals and and feed live young milk from their own bodies

[28:41] Hey speaking of bad streaming interfaces, so I signed up for

[28:46] Because we don't watch me because we eventually want to watch the new Bill and Ted movie

[28:51] okay, like I was watching the old ones with some friends and Audrey who hadn't seen it and

[28:58] We signed up for stars cuz like you could get a free month and

[29:03] And they spell it in a fun way

[29:04] Yes

[29:05] Well in a fun way with that Z makes me know that that's a party

[29:08] But I was even though Z is usually the letter people used to register sleeping. Mm-hmm. Yeah, like a slumber party

[29:14] but I

[29:16] If you use the stars app all and you go to their movies section, they just have all of their movies

[29:22] Sorry interrupt

[29:24] movies spelled with a Z at the end

[29:28] These are old-fashioned non party movies

[29:32] or

[29:33] non-sleeping movies

[29:34] But if you go to the moon, they don't have so they don't have bachelor party with Tom Hanks and they don't have sleep the Andy

[29:39] Warhol experimental film

[29:41] right

[29:43] Now I'm just saying that like all of their movies are just sort of dumped in a section

[29:48] No, like genre divisions and not alphabetized

[29:52] They have slumber party masquerade with it, which is both a sleeping movie and a party movie

[30:00] I think they cancel each other out. So that's a lot. Okay. Okay. Yeah, it's a double negative

[30:04] Dan you may not realize that stars is tagline is actually a big old dump of movies

[30:12] So guys, let me tell you about what happens in this movie

[30:14] So, okay

[30:14] so the army wants to use it for obvious reasons but its best applications are for sex or are they because one of the one of

[30:21] Christopher Walken's co-workers he takes that sex tape home and becomes addicted to it

[30:26] Although he soon feels fine. He gets over it pretty quickly

[30:30] Like Robert Palmer. He's addicted to love. Yeah in a way sure

[30:34] And he's also what's the other song they did simply resistible. Yeah, did he have any other songs?

[30:40] Those are kind of the same song, right?

[30:43] Yeah, I believe they basically have the same video as well. Yeah, just those ladies dancing

[30:47] So one night in the lab Louise Fletcher

[30:49] she accidentally seems to cut her wrist on a boombox if I understood correctly and

[30:54] Has a heart attack and dies and she records her dying sensations

[30:58] Using the helmet now Christopher Walken's in charge of the project and he tries to play back that tape, but it's too much for him

[31:04] So he sets up his computer machine so that it's not as intense as it otherwise all the computers. Okay, sure

[31:13] and the

[31:15] Like moves the intensity slider down. So it isn't quite I mean kind of he turned he turns off a few of the sensory outputs

[31:22] but the government guys they tap into the feed and play it to Gordy and they do not make it safer and Gordy dies while

[31:28] listening to it and

[31:29] Christopher Walken experiences the sensation of Louise Fletcher

[31:33] Dying and then her soul leaving her body and entering a universe of bubbles containing her memories

[31:38] It's too much for me wakes up in the hospital and his boss is like I'm pissed at you

[31:42] This tape is locked away and I'm played by Cliff Robertson. So I know a thing or two about scientific experimentation. That's right

[31:48] I was in the movie Charlie. I want an Academy Award for it, dude, and he's like, whoa, okay

[31:52] Okay, I also have an Academy Award

[31:54] I want an Academy Award to and Louise Fletcher whose character has died is like I also have won

[31:59] So they talked about their Academy Awards for a little bit Christopher Walken though

[32:02] He's determined to play that tape to the end

[32:03] he gets tipped off to hack into the computers of the company the computer machines Dan and

[32:09] You look for a project file called

[32:12] Brainstorm this appears to be a secret government project to record the minds of people having extreme psychotic episodes

[32:19] So that they can I don't know throw it at people in war. I'm not quite sure again what the planet put this helmet on

[32:27] Yeah, and it's one of these movies where Christopher Walken hacks in and and someone's like hey

[32:31] He's trying to hack into the system and then the guys like hold on let him do it

[32:34] I want to see how far he can get and he gets all the way he gets the thing that he wants

[32:38] Oh

[32:43] Well, they put the helmets on like a little flying guillotine contraption and guys

[32:49] So it lands on their head and then make drives them in yeah drives them psychotic

[32:53] Yeah, I have to assume that's what it is

[32:55] The no no word on the one-armed boxer program that the that they were also putting together

[33:02] So he plays that psychotic psychosis thing. That's too much. He rips his helmet off. But uh-oh

[33:07] This is the kind of movie where his twelve-year-old son will put on the helmet and experience an extreme psychotic break so that

[33:14] Now Christopher Walken is taking it personally

[33:20] He's not like

[33:23] It's it's it's played for tragedies it's played for tears

[33:28] His boss is like back off take a vacation

[33:30] So he does he and Natalie would go on a vacation together, but it's all a ruse

[33:34] They pretend to have a public fight while they're being spied on and their fight is hilarious

[33:39] She goes you go to hell and he goes you go to hell, too

[33:41] And she goes you go to hell and he goes you go to hell go to hell

[33:44] They just say go to hell to each other a bunch of times. They storm out David's David Mamet wrote that fight for them. That's

[33:52] Repetition based

[33:55] Technique they could really make it sing but it was all a trick to escape surveillance

[34:00] They go to their separate places and while they talk on the phone and pretend to have a meaningful conversation about the relationship

[34:06] They're actually both hacking into brainstorm

[34:09] Christopher Walken manages to hack into the assembly line making brainstorm helmets and makes the robots go haywire

[34:14] They're shooting fire hoses and security guards. The factory is going up with foam

[34:18] It's real silly and then Christopher Walken loads in leaves Fletcher's death tape

[34:22] he reenters that crazy vision of a world where memory bubbles are flying around and

[34:28] He gets I forget why but he has to run away he gets pulled out of the system

[34:32] He has a now he has a mobile computer that I don't remember him that he brought to the on a vacation with him

[34:37] He uses it on a payphone and he dials up that death tape again this time

[34:40] He watches it all the way and he sees that's right

[34:43] Louise Fletcher has recorded hell and heaven in it is a very a very goopy kind of like

[34:50] In the mouth of madness hell that you see for a moment and then he ascends from Earth

[34:54] Into space and is watching angels floating towards heaven and

[34:58] basically

[35:00] normal style or do they look like Old Testament style where they're like

[35:03] I don't know like a flame with a crown and like a spiral of goat legs

[35:08] Or like that movie where like they fight all those angels that we watched in the engine

[35:14] Yeah, legend where the angels were actually weaker than normal humans classic

[35:17] Yeah, they're they look kind of like fluttery sheets like a sheets fluttering in on a clothesline

[35:23] so they're not sheets the

[35:25] convenience store

[35:27] No, no, no, not like that

[35:30] If they're like it doesn't look like an angel where it's a person with wings and it also yeah

[35:35] It's not an Old Testament angel where it's just a aliens flying saucer that

[35:38] Primitive people saw and thought was a divine thing chariots of the gods guys. Look it up

[35:43] How could pyramids a very simple shape that anyone any child can make out of blocks?

[35:48] How could that emerge in two different parts of the world at the same time unless aliens were coming down to build pyramids so that

[35:55] Predators could hunt aliens and xenomorphs in them guys explain to me. How is it possible guys?

[35:59] Just open the stargate in your mind, you know

[36:01] I know two people invented the telephone and two people invented the telegraph and two people invented the television separately and the theory of natural

[36:09] Selection also come up with by multiple different people but pyramids only one possible exonation

[36:14] Aliens flying around the globe dropping pyramid seeds like a regular Johnny pyramid seed. Mm-hmm

[36:20] Well, I'll fact-check that with my time life mysteries of the unknown series. I'll get back to Ellie. That'd be great

[36:26] What if they do you think there's a guy who?

[36:29] Does the new additions and he's like I have to fact-check and make sure all these things are still unknown

[36:33] Oh, wait, we know about this now remove it from the book

[36:36] Or do they like send out updates to people? They're like, hey

[36:41] Newsflash we know the Loch Ness Monster was a fake now. So addendum, please insert this in the book

[36:48] So

[36:49] He first walking seems to collapse and die and Natalie would is like come back come back come back and he goes

[36:54] Okay, and gets up and he goes things are great

[36:57] I love you, and they become a memory bubble in space and then the credits roll

[37:02] So way ends with Christopher Walken having a transcendent vision of heaven

[37:07] And realizing that ooh heaven is a place on earth for them

[37:12] So guys, that's brainstormed the but they are a bubble at the end. Well all memories become bubbles

[37:18] It's more a way to grab every transition out of the film than anything else

[37:22] Okay, so it's this is like this movie is like if in flatliners

[37:28] Instead of dying they rented the movie flatliners

[37:32] And they experienced what it would be like for their character in flatliners to die. Yeah through the movie what yes

[37:40] Cast in that flatliners. Am I right? Oh, wow. Yeah, so many young stars

[37:46] Kiefer Sutherland

[37:48] Boris Karloff Lillian Gish

[37:53] Algero

[37:55] Armstrong

[37:57] asked of it the thin man dog Lassie

[38:01] Rin-Tin-Tin cuffs all the big dogs. It was Cuffs a dog

[38:05] Cuffs is a movie that features Tony Goldwyn and Christian Slater and me. What am I thinking? And is there a dog in it?

[38:13] Probably I mean, I don't most movies have a stipulation that there has to be at least one dog in it or else

[38:19] It isn't technically a movie

[38:20] Yeah, that's the 13th Amendment. Yeah, actually 30 the members the anti-slavery amendment

[38:24] I should have chosen a less important amendment to say that about

[38:30] What numbers the amendment that lowered the voting age to 18 that could be else. Yeah

[38:36] but guys so brainstorm is a story of science gone amok and people being very calm and

[38:42] Occasion and in one part in one part you do see boobs

[38:45] So that's great is brainstorm a movie that you are glad you missed

[38:50] Sad you missed or you have to go on miss it. Yeah

[38:54] I don't know. It sounds pretty it sounds pretty good

[38:57] Like I'm tempted to say had to go on miss it. Like I'm gonna go watch it right now

[39:02] How does one watch?

[39:03] Brainstormed we have to go back in time

[39:05] What's I mean going back in time to 1983 when it was in the theaters would help I I recorded it off of Turner classic

[39:10] Movies, I don't know if it's brain streaming anywhere. Oh, so I

[39:14] It's awesome. Watch it

[39:15] No, I deleted it from my DVR

[39:18] Watched it

[39:20] Considerate to Stuart

[39:22] There are you

[39:29] You're in like Kansas right now like kind of halfway between you and me, okay

[39:36] I'm gonna say I mean like

[39:39] I'll just go with sad. I missed it because

[39:43] You know, I mean part of me wants to miss it but I

[39:48] If look silent running is is great

[39:52] But it's not known for being zippy and I got I've got a feeling that brainstorm

[39:59] also

[40:00] That that trumple drag to it and

[40:04] Just because I haven't heard much about this movie. You would be correct

[40:08] It is a it is a movie that really takes its time all the time

[40:12] Yeah, and I did and I also I didn't mention the subplot about Christopher Walken selling his house

[40:18] And having a second thoughts about that there's some there's some other stuff going on with

[40:24] With some of the other characters, it's there's I didn't tell you everything that was going on in it

[40:28] It is yeah, it's a slow movie. It's a slow stately movie

[40:33] It's like a it's like the Barry Lyndon of science fiction movies

[40:38] In that it was all in and that was all lit with candles

[40:40] I mean, it's beautiful if you like looking at old analog 80s technology, which I do honestly

[40:46] That's the highlight for me is just seeing all these old computer monitors and like stuff like that

[40:50] But there is a scene where Christopher Walken learns they are assembling

[40:54] Brainstorm helmets to send out to consumers and he's just watching the fact the assembly line for quite some time at least four minutes

[41:01] I think three or four minutes

[41:02] He's just standing there watching robots moving stuff as if we've never seen an assembly line before. Yeah, that sounds great

[41:08] Do you do you think that Douglas Trumbull ever got Dalton Trumbo's mail by accident?

[41:14] Probably well, they would live together. They were roommates. So all the time. Yeah. Yeah, very confusing. Yeah

[41:21] Well, that was all I had

[41:23] I

[41:26] Do you have any any other jokes about people whose names sound kind of like Douglas Trumbull, okay

[41:33] Wait, I do

[41:38] Trouble

[41:40] Big trouble in little China. Yeah

[41:44] Wait a minute. I

[41:46] Mean we all know the famous story of when the movie Nothing But Trouble came out and Douglas Trumbull sued them thinking it was called

[41:52] Nothing But Trouble

[41:56] Wait a second have they been following all my movements with with hidden cameras so they can make a movie about me

[42:02] I didn't agree to this Dan Aykroyd you perv and then he sued him in court in the case of Trumbull V

[42:07] Trouble and of course the judge quickly was able to put things across the judge made it through the first

[42:13] 25 minutes or so of Nothing But Trouble before having a serious psychotic break of his own and having to give up and

[42:19] And at that point it was it was considered that Douglas Trumbull dropped the case and

[42:24] Nothing But Trouble was marked unfit for human viewing

[42:30] It was

[42:32] It was put in a barrel and sent to that that medical supply shop from Return of the Living Dead

[42:38] Yeah, it was rated R for a real bad

[42:40] Yeah, and it was this whole story was collected in the movie Trumbull with the curve, right?

[42:47] Exactly you did it. We pulled it all together. No, I can finally rest. Let me just walk over to this freshly dug grave

[42:56] Lie down in there. Yeah

[42:59] All right

[43:00] well

[43:01] Well, we did it guys. This has been another miss that movie

[43:05] We missed the movie if anyone has thoughts about brainstorm or this episode, please write to Dan McCoy at his home address

[43:12] Daniel McCoy

[43:14] One two, three fake Street any town USA, Brooklyn, New York or just write to the flop house podcast

[43:20] I don't have the email address off the top of my head

[43:22] We can find it on the website the URL of which I also don't remember

[43:26] Please feel free to tweet about the podcast

[43:29] Instagram about the podcast or tick-tock about the podcast anything you want to do to help us spread the word of the flop house

[43:33] I want to give thanks to my boys Dan McCoy and Stuart Wellington and

[43:37] My boys and my boys the TV show an underrated gem and to our editor Jordan Cowling for

[43:45] Hopefully making this episode make some sort of semblance of sense

[43:48] Guys, do you have any final words before I murder both of you at the end of the episode?

[43:53] My final words are the email is the flop house podcast at gmail.com. How was I to remember that?

[44:02] Website is

[44:04] Flop house podcast.com. So the email is the flop house podcast, but the website is just a flop house five

[44:10] Yes, here's here's the answer to that question the implied question there. You didn't actually answer one, but

[44:17] Okay, I'll ask you. My real question is what happened to brand standardization Dan? I'll cross the line

[44:22] well, the answer is

[44:24] back when we started this podcast, no one thought it would be worth a lick and

[44:29] And that we would have listeners who would care and that there was a reason that we would need to optimize

[44:37] You know, like yeah growth funnel people into the right places

[44:40] And so a lot of real shoddy work got done in those first few years

[44:46] It's a tight mean machine now

[44:49] Yeah, and we push through it and we are now worth one lick or one third of a tootsie roll pop Stuart

[44:54] What did you want to say?

[44:55] I just want to say on the subject of streaming services that are not particularly well organized HBO max

[45:02] Not a very good service to use it

[45:04] It fails half the time and when I do get to use it, it takes me forever to navigate the menus now

[45:09] I love HBO max in some ways. I don't like that

[45:12] I cannot use it on my Roku brand television and instead have to stream it off my laptop

[45:18] Using a program that I purchased for that purpose

[45:21] But here's the great thing about HBO max if I'm looking for a particular Looney Tunes cartoon HBO max says no no, no, no

[45:27] No, no, no. No, I can't find those

[45:28] I'm gonna give you all of them and it means that I never know what Looney Tunes cartoon

[45:33] I'm gonna show my children because I can't find the particular one. I'm looking for just watch the undoing with them

[45:40] They get to watch Hugh Grant's

[45:42] shockingly more

[45:44] Lined face than I expected and Nicole Kidman's alabaster like

[45:49] Unlined face. It's pretty amazing. It's it's kind of a like a

[45:54] study in contrast a collection of faces

[45:57] What are you gonna do that election? I don't know trade it

[46:01] It is something that a that is something a serial killer would have is a collection of faces

[46:06] Like in the Glenn Danzig film Veronica

[46:09] The wheels have come off of this the wheels are no longer on the bus

[46:13] They are off the bus and the bus is skidding over a cliff to explode as in the season and series finale of the Young

[46:19] Ones and so I will thank my co-hosts Dan and Stuart and I'll thank you the listener and I'll say

[46:26] Good night

[46:33] Maximum fun org comedy and culture artists owned audience supported

FH Mini #19: Miseed That Movie! - Brainstorm

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