Hello everyone and welcome to the Every Movie Ever Podcast. My name is Ben Groves.
My name is Rob Macfarlane and welcome to the show, a movie podcast slash mental health
check in for two broken brain best friends talking around their problems, but not about
their problems whilst laughing at movies. Ben, given that this is a thinly veiled mental
health check in, we need to start with the more important thing before we get to what
we're doing, how you're doing, but I feel like this should also be a physical health
check in. Because I think that rarely this week your mental health is the second problem.
Yeah, I'm actually, I'm feeling pretty, pretty positive at the minute. I'm just fucking ill.
I swear, Joe, one. Now I'm worse. I'm just ill. Other than that, I'm all right. Yeah.
How are you buddy? Yeah. Come on, spill it. It's about that really. No, that's good. I
scared. I have, I have, it feels good to have come clean. So much better. Wow. That's good
man. What are we doing this week, Ben? In our quest to cover every David Fincher movie
ever. We've locked ourselves in the panic room, baby. We've got a lot to get through
this episode. So we're going to get into how David Fincher doesn't care about this film.
Is this the perfect date movie? The 100 ways that David Fincher overprepared this movie.
The 101 things that went wrong. Why Jodie Foster is an acting goddess who we cannot
relate to. And how David Fincher will always be his worst enemy. Where Fincher at buddy?
Like what that man do? I've, I've, I've, I've got some, I've got some notes on this, bud.
What has he been doing? Do you remember last time when I was like, well, basically he just
launched straight into the next film. Yeah. Well, he basically did that again, except
amazing. Except he directed a music video for the ever incredible perfect circle for
the song Judith. Absolutely mint video. Great video. Probably the last use of his fight
club aesthetic with the bleach bypass process and all that kind of dirty graininess. He
was shortlisted by Columbia pictures as one of the potential directors to helm Spiderman.
His pitch was an older experience version of Spiderman in his adult years. Yeah. Post
the adolescent stuff. Yeah. Uh, he wanted character driven drama oriented tone. Amazing
with a 10 minute title sequence tackling Peter Parker's backstory and featuring green goblin
killing Gwen Stacy. Wow. Wow. He later said of his pitch, I went in and told them what
I might be interested in doing and they hated it. I still kind of want to see that film
right? Well, if you want to see that film, the there's a film that never got made called
passengers. And I know some of you out there might be thinking that that's the Chris Pratt
Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence in cell on a boat, but it's not super fun. Right.
It's a, no, this is set in 1987 and I'll quote for three years, people on earth have been
subject to the will of the passengers, in verb commas, intangible beings who usurp human
bodies temporarily and without warning and do nothing but play and cause havoc. People
being ridden are ignored by others and when they are freed, the experience by social convention
is ignored by all. God, I want to see that film. That sounds amazing. What? But instead,
what if it was set on a spaceship and it was Chris Pratt, fuck zoning Jennifer, Jennifer
Lawrence. Yeah. To be fair, sentencing her to death, but she's a bit fit to damn it.
I think it's three. I might've knocked on out in there by accident. That's about that.
After we just talked about passengers. Now, when, when, when did this come out? That caught
me so off guard. That was amazing. It's 2002 buddy. Who is it? It is M and M is providing
an era of hip hop that we won't love as much as it deserves until years later when we've
seen how bad it gets after this George W. Bush is trying to find allies for an invasion
of Iraq that he promises for realsies guys will do really, really well for super. We're
all bored of playing snake on our Nokia 33 tens because it doesn't have micro transactions
yet. We can buy swappable covers for the phone. That's pretty good time. That's a pretty good
time. David Fincher is given $50 million to make the panic room buddy. It's again panic
room. I know you love slapping another in front of things, but then you know, I mean,
the Beatles makes it better. The kinks even better kinks sounds off the kinks. I'm in
now. I mean, all right, fine. Yeah. You've seen this film for years, right? You love
this film. You've known this film since, since 2002. No, this is my first time watching it.
Shockingly. I have not been massive into Fincher. Okay. He was films have caught me and I've
been sort of like, yeah, buddy. Right. Okay. This one hadn't seen it. And in 2024 watching
panic for the first time, right? Aggressively fine super middle of the road. Like the story
is thin and kind of nonsensical at times. And that's, that's fine. That's, I get it.
Right. It's entertaining enough to get to the end. Right. But I've been spoiled by decades
and decades of home invasion movies. Watching this in 2024 is very close to what I imagine
the experience of watching avatar will be like in 20 years. Yeah. Like this film pushed
forward directorial techniques and like it was an insane looking film for the time. Yeah.
All the stuff that he does in this film is now totally do-re-go. Like everyone does that
stuff. Right. Yeah. So this is why. Right. But like avatar in 20 years, people were like,
yeah. And, but it's like, yeah, but at the time you went to the cinema and it was like
fireworks. It was wow. 3d was working. Yeah. And this same, when I watched it, it was a
perfectly fine film, but I do, I wasn't like, wow, what a great film panic room is. Yeah.
But I do remember it being one of the first films I ever watched where the look of the
film stuck with me. Oh, okay. Like suddenly I was, I was aware of more than plot or acting
as being part of the ingredients of a film. Yeah. I was like, oh wow. It's also how the
frame looks like what's in the frame. How is it composed? It's like me when I saw my
first 35 millimeter film, I was like, wow, reds are red. Huh? Now for the benefit of
those people that haven't seen this and aren't planning to all the people that have seen
it and just don't plan on rewatching it in order to listen to this episode, we should
break down what happens in it. Now, Ben, we spoke about the film earlier and you were
like, yeah, it's not, it's not, it's not really much going on in it is it's just a home invasion
film. So what I've done this week is I've written a breakdown with all of the subtext
and then that way everyone's on board, right? Oh yeah. I'm here. I'm here for it. I'll
start. I'll start. Here's the jingle. Panic Room centers on Meg Altman, a recently divorced
woman and her diabetic teenage daughter, Sarah, as they move into a high-end townhouse in
New York city. Imagine that. Imagine someone mentioning you being like, oh yeah, my, not
my friend Ben, my diabetic friend Ben. That's one of your adjectives. Like honestly, I'd
be flattered. I'd be like that man cares about my health. You know what I mean? The house
is equipped with an expensive high tech panic room designed to keep its occupants safe in
case of an emergency. This room becomes the focal point of the film when three intruders,
Burnham, Junior and Raul break in seeking a hidden fortune in the house, a fortune they
are denied by Meg and Sarah's need for safety. Subtext. Okay. I'm with you. I'm with you.
I'm hearing what you're putting down. Am I going to pick it up? Let's see. You will if
I've written it. Yeah. Meg uses the room's advanced surveillance and communication technologies
into common Sony CCTV. It's 2002, Ben. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. My bad. My bad. My bad. Uses
the advanced surveillance and communication technologies to monitor the intruders, but
these advantages prove limited as the criminals become more determined and more resourceful
as the situation escalates. Sarah's diabetes becomes a key issue as she requires insulin
that is outside the panic room, adding urgency to the narrative. The intruders, particularly
Burnham who has experienced with security systems, try various methods to break into
the panic room, starting smart and ending up with brute force as they become increasingly
desperate. In the third act, Meg is forced to leave the safety of the panic room to retrieve
Sarah's medication. This leads to direct confrontation between Meg and the intruders, ending with
Burnham and Raoul now locked inside the panic room with Sarah on the edge of a diabetic
coma and Meg outside with a gun. Burnham, the most conflicted of the criminals, shows
some reluctance to harm Meg and Sarah, but Raoul's more aggressive behaviour highlights
the darker, more desperate side of the class he represents. The film concludes with the
police arriving just as the situation reaches its breaking point. Burnham, who tries to
steal the money, is caught while Meg and Sarah are left physically safe but shaken.
To recap, a rich divorcee with too much money buys a house with 22 million dollars in bearer
bonds hidden in a safe she doesn't know about inside a panic room she doesn't want, and
three upstanding, working class, proper blokes walk in. She gets all shirty about it like
a right bitch. More upper class propaganda about rich people I can't care about because
money makes you not a person.
I'd say there's an accurate representation of your feelings, Ben.
Kinda.
No, I think it's there if you want to pick it up. The idea that their money and their
resources makes them safe, and the people outside of the representation of that money
and safety are desperate for some safety of their own, but it's in the box. And how do
you get into that box as a working class person? Do you do it by being a monster like Raoul?
Do you do it by being an empathetic person like Burnham?
As a class allegory, it's pretty thin, but it's there.
It is pretty thin, bud. It's pretty thin.
Well, I think intentionally. Fincher initially accepted the project because Fight Club, which
was his previous film, was 150 separate locations. Now bear in mind how many takes this guy likes.
Exactly.
150 different places. He said his whole experience at Fight Club was just waiting for trucks
to be unloaded.
And Panic Room was entirely self-contained. Fincher doesn't write his scripts. He doesn't
have that kind of interest. What he does is he acquires scripts and goes, that's a good
test bed for what I'm doing. And this allowed him to plot out every shot, handpick every
single bit of equipment. Oh, that's expensive and new. I've not used that before.
I love that.
He said to The Guardian in 2002, a movie is made for an audience and a film is made for
both the audience and the filmmakers. I think that the game is a movie and I think Fight
Club's a film. I think Fight Club is more than the sum of its parts. Whereas Panic Room
is the sum of its parts. I didn't look at Panic Room and think, wow, this is going to
set the world on fire. These are footnote movies, guilty pleasure movies, women trapped
in a house movies. They're not particularly important.
That's a bang on representation of how I felt at the end of this film. I was like, that
is utterly pointless, but fine.
Right. He said, I sort of feel like all movies, you have to go in with the idea that this
isn't the one that defines you. Because I think people get too caught up in the legacy
that they're leaving. And that's why I like thrillers. This is a popcorn entertainment
movie for him that allows him to play with his toys. He's like, give me just one location
and all of your equipment and I will just have fun and learn some stuff. Push myself.
I love this. I love all of this. For me personally, this was a huge step in a direction that I
did not see coming. It's a pure date movie. You know what I mean? You go to the cinema,
it doesn't matter whether you miss a line of dialogue or not. It's just, oh yeah. You
don't turn your brain off completely, but the twists and turns sort of, you see them
coming about half a mile away. Right. So you can sort of like, there's a bit of playfulness
to it. And I like that. I like those movies. They're fun. But Fincher's films before this
have gone from like big to bigger, right? Alien three to seven, huge step up seven to
the game, enormous step up. Cause now you've got San Francisco as one man's back garden.
You've got the game to fight club was enormous. Cause like you've just said, 150 locations,
the amount of reshoots and stuff would have been insane. And now you've got this tiny,
tiny claustrophobic set that like feels minuscule in comparison to all of his other works. Oh
God. Yeah. And that's great. That's awesome. It shows that he can do the big and the loud
and he can do the, the in your face. He can do him and it can do them all well, right?
He can do them great. Right. But now we can also do the very quiet and the intimate and
the closed off you are in a fish bowl. The cats are swiping at the tiny fish in this
tiny bowl. Right. And that's an incredible thing to do. So, uh, Hitchcock for me is a
big reference here. Okay. Kind of like thriller set with it's all tone is all ambience. It's
all that kind of nervousness, which you get in a lot of Hitchcock movies where it's not
necessarily what's being shown. It's what's not being shown. And you're like, Oh my God,
they're outside the gate. Yeah. The joy of this film for me isn't in the plot whatsoever.
Right. Okay. Like Fincher, I see it as a pretty boilerplate. It's a good script. It'll do
well as a date movie bearing in mind he's coming. We kind of look at panic room as the
follow up to his magnum opus fight club. Yeah. But at the time this was the follow up to
his massive flop fight club. Yeah. That critics hated. Yeah. And everyone said was a violent
celebration of everything that's wrong with toxic masculinity. That's crazy to think about
that out loud. Do you know what I mean? This is, this is him kind of having to go, no,
I'm still a safe bet. Yeah. Look, here's your date movie. Yeah. But also I do, I see this
as the first film that looks like a David Fincher film. Right. Seven and fight club
look very similar, dirty, noisy, loud. They're quite stylized. Yeah. There's quite a lot
of like, I'm just going to call it out for what it is. Peak nineties. It's peak chin
stroking in the, in the, in the look. But he's also got this weird seven ease grit that
it's almost like the, you know, like bullet and stuff like this, like they all like grit
films. It's that done in a higher definition. Both of them are quite reactive styles. Yeah.
This film looks like Gone Girl and like the social network and like every other film he
does going forward. Okay. This is the first David Fincher looking film, which is a kind
of original style. And there's a reason for that. Okay. So the house that this is set
in was built on a soundstage in LA. All right. Uh, by a guy called Arthur Max who'd just
come off the back of gladiator, right? So he's just designed like massive, massive sets.
And then he's like, do one house his 15 weeks and $6 million Arthur go wild. So every room
in the script was designed for the angles that David Fincher wanted. Okay. The height
of the cast was worked in. So it was also right. So he's, we built this house based
on the height of his actors, where his cameras are, the size of his cameras is literally
a custom play room for a director. Amazing. He then models the entire house and CG so
that he can do the shots ahead of time called previous basically where he has a virtual
camera in the CG house. And he goes, right, well, if I put the camera here, what can I
see? Where will I need to light? Where can I put my actors? That's incredible. So he
makes a low budget CGI puppet theater version of the movie first, right? With how deep the
focus is going to be, how bright the lights would need to be over two thirds of the shots
in this film were pre-visualized. That's not, he wanted the film. He basically originally
wanted the film to be done in pitch darkness, right? Like as dark as possible, but then
realize that wasn't going to work. So he wanted it barely lit. Well, like looking naturally
dark, but you're still able to see what's going on. That's not the sort of thing you
can nail on the day. No, because especially this is on film. This isn't digital yet. This
is his last movie on film. So he doesn't necessarily get to see what the negative looks like until
a little while later. That's a gamble man. So he gets everything ready. Everything is
prepped. Right. And then it all goes wrong. So 18 days into filming, his lead actress,
Nicole Kidman, right? Discovered that she's got a knee injury from her last movie, Moon
on Rouge, which means she can't work outstanding. Like it's killing. Uh, there's a screen actors
guild strike on the horizon. So he's got to find a replacement rapid. Oh, I see. Jodie
Foster quits her position as president of that year's calm film festival and gets to
set with nine days of prep. Wow. Uh, all of Fincher's shots that he's pre-visualized
are for an actress who's considerably taller than Jodie Foster. Wait, Kidman's taller
than Foster? Yeah, by quite a way. Okay. The laser detector in the door for the panic room
is literally lines up perfectly with the height of Jodie Foster's eyes. Yeah. Every time she
runs in and out, she keeps blinding herself to finish the take. She finds out five weeks
into being on set that she's pregnant. They've now got a shoot around that. Okay. Christian
Stewart's mid puberty. Right. So she grows about four inches from the start of the start
of the shoot to the end. Jesus. Okay. These are all things that like Fincher can't, you
can't control actor getting a knee injury. You can't control somebody being in puberty.
You can't control somebody being pregnant. Not yet. I imagine the second you can with
AI Fincher's going to go all over it. And then we get into like Fincher's love for take
after take. So like 2000 unique camera setups, pulling down the lights, camera diffusers,
electrical, hold on, hold on, setting up for a new angle 2000 times on one film. 2000 individual.
Yeah. For this film. For this film. And then also each, each setup is hundreds of takes.
So you know, there's a scene where Raoul is trying to smash into the panic room. Yeah.
From underneath. Yeah. With the sledgehammer. With the sledgehammer. Yeah. They took two
days filming that one scene. It's 30 seconds. If that. It's not even that. It's not even
that. But he wanted take after take. But of course they've got to reset the ceiling every
time he wants to do a new take. How? That's insane. Cause he's breaking wood and everything
else and plaster. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They just built huge numbers of ceilings. That's insane.
And we just slot them in. There's, there's a five second shot in this movie. Yeah. Which
is when Meg is attacked by Raoul and she drops Sarah's medical kit. It's less than five seconds.
Yeah. Over a hundred takes. That. Okay. Cause he didn't want it to look like Meg through
the kit. He wanted to make it look like she lost it. Right. But it also needed to land
in frame and in focus for his very narrow aperture, shallow depth of field shot that
he'd set up on the floor. Jesus, man. All right. I don't. Okay. This is, this might make me
sound like amateur when it comes to like filmmaking, techniques and stuff. How much did it help
doing the 200 takes? Like is it? I think realistically, if you've got a shot low on the floor with
a really shallow focus, right. So something needs to land pretty accurately. Yeah. Trying
to get it. So your actor doesn't look like they're throwing it like a, like a ring toss
into focus, but they're legitimately having a fight and dropping it. Right. I don't know
how much I care. Same. You see what I mean? Like how much does it bring to the table when
it's less than five seconds of the film? But then I think it also helps with that suspension
of disbelief where it doesn't look like you're watching someone do acting. Okay. I get that.
And when, when, when it looks like when you're in, when you're invested in it and then suddenly,
you know, Jodie Foster carefully tosses a medical kit across the room whilst having
a fight with a, with a mental ski mask guy. There was many times that snapped me out of
it before that moment. And I'm not going to lie. That was not even on the list of things
that might have brought me out of it. Had it looked like she'd thrown it a little bit,
to be fair, it might make sense that she thrown it because it's just sort of like my daughter's
in there. I'm not getting in there. She needs a meds. There you go. Get it in. You know
what I mean? And that it still would have made sense. Yeah. It still would have been
like, okay, maybe she can like appeal to the humanity of the criminals that are in the
room with her daughter now. Yeah. That would have been fine. Um, there's speaking of this,
I've done a little bit of research on Fincher himself and I've got, okay, I've got a quote
from him here based on what you've just said. Right. Um, I was watching through the director's
commentary because they're insane with him in them because he doesn't talk about the
film that's happening. He talks about how the ideas arrived to him and they are insane.
Like it is pure, just, it's the most unhinged director's commentaries that you can get your
hands on because it's mental. Huge amount of effort he goes through for the smallest
things. He's a nerd. He's a nerd and I love it. I just love the fact that I think, I think
what Fincher enjoys is the process of filmmaking, which is incredible. He'll just do whatever
he needs to do to make sure that he gets another go at the process of filmmaking, figuring
out what he can do. Cause that's what he finds interesting. Yeah. I love that. Can I do this?
Will this work? I suppose I'd better pick a script to pick a script that will let me
find out. The only thing I'll say about it is I watch films to escape, right? A little
bit of escapism. Yes. I've immersed myself in the universe. It's not necessarily my own.
It gives me a break from reality. That's why I watch. That's why I like movies rather than
films, right? Right. Yeah. I appreciate filmmaking all day long. I'm not a big nerd into it.
I'm more of like in universe. You don't love cinema. You're just like, ah, help me turn
my brain off so I could not be me. Yeah. And whatever it is, you watch films like you watch
YouTube, you know, it could be Dr. Disrespect as much as it could be David Fincher or Nolan.
It's all the same. I don't think we can watch Dr. Disrespect anymore, buddy. I think, I
think I was out of pocket. It's more like I love movies. I like films, but I love movies,
right? Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So with that in mind, I went, I went looking through the
director's commentary and I, there's this one bit where he's talking about, there's
a big propane explosion inside of the panic room, which was mental. It was one of the
main things that pulled me out of the immersion, but it was fine. I can see that yet. Yeah.
Because they wrap themselves in fire blankets and set fire to propane that's actively being
pumped into the room. Also propane sinks doesn't float. So like getting on the floor breathing
is literally the worst place to be. Exactly. But get up, right? Stand up. It's fine. Anyway,
the immersion broken to the side. Fully. Yep. Right. After the propane explosion, Fincher
chimes in with this thing and he's talking about the light in within the panic room.
It's obviously like it's lit with fluorescent lights. Yes. And this is a direct quote from
him and I just, it's one sentence. It's going to take me a minute to get through it because
it is long. This is a quote from Fincher regarding the flickering lights in the panic room after
the explosion, right? Okay. We had this flickering light effect because we wanted after the explosion,
we wanted one of the fluorescents to be screwed up in some way. And it ended up being such
a hard thing to cut around because you wanted it to be erratic. But sometimes it just felt
like when you cut the lights had been off for too long or were flickering too fast or
something, it was one of these things that you think is going to be a really good idea,
but it ends up screwing everything up. Yeah. When he said this, I'm sitting there and I'm
watching the film and I'm like, if you hadn't have mentioned that entire thought process
about how the flickering light is hard to cut around, I wouldn't have even clicked.
I would not have picked up on the flickering of the light behind Jodie Foster's head in
one shot. I think this is why Finch is called a filmmaker's filmmaker, right? Got you. Because
the people that really rate Finch are the other people that make films. Right. And they
see what he's done and how hard that is to do. Yeah. Whereas an audience member, it's
a little bit like we don't know what's behind the curtain. So we just sit and we watch and
we go, oh yeah, fine. Exactly. We view what's presented to us. Yeah. A flickering light
on in a shot is in camera. You can't change that after the fact. Yeah. Fincher in his
next film, Zodiac, basically reacts to that flickering light in a big way. Quite a lot
of the blood in Fincher movies is no longer practical blood. Right. Okay. Quite a lot
of objects that are thrown by actors are no longer actually thrown by the actors. Okay.
Because if he's going to get a hundred takes or something, he doesn't want the perfect
take ruined by something that isn't really predictable or controllable inside the shot.
Right. Okay. So like a practical blood splatter, he's like that actor nailed that performance.
Yeah. But the blood got in their eye. Right. And now I can't read. Right. Right. Right.
No, have that. There's a scene in Gongo where she's throwing gummy bears at him. Yes. And
he's like, we're not doing that in camera. We're just going to CG the gummy bears in.
Stop it. I can't wait to do Gongo. That's probably my favourite Fincher film of all
time. Well, I think, I think Finch is a director who has in his head how it needs to look.
Right. And the process of him making a film is him having to explain to everyone else
who can't see that what he's going for. Right. Okay. And then trying to get it going. Okay.
This is the tools. These are the tools I have. Yeah. This is the, this is the, I've got these
actors, this equipment, this set. This is what I think the shot can be. Okay. And then
just trying to get it. I mean, that's, and a flickering light in camera is just a random
uncontrollable element, which is the antithesis of how Fincher makes films. He knows what
he wants already. I guess he's already visualised how and when that light flickers. That's insane
to me. Like that is insane. That's, that's the type of neurosis that's like so focused
on every minute tiny detail. That's because the film already exists in his head. Doesn't
make sense to me in my brain. It doesn't make sense to me in my brain at all. Like when
we do these shows, we don't sit down and meticulously plan out every single line of dialogue. It's
a literal, like it is right headline. And then we waffle, right. And ad lib and improv
for how long? Right. An hour. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's mental. He pre writes,
he pre writes every camera move, every little nuance so that it becomes, this is why he
doesn't write scripts. Cause he would never finish it. He'd never get one finished. He'd
never get one done. He would sit there debating whether or not the or an for weeks, but how
many seconds does this, do they breathe between or an an I genuinely, when you said, you know,
AI, I genuinely believe if there's one director who would wholeheartedly embrace the ability
to have AI actors, it'd be Fincher and heartbeat. Of course, of course a programmable thing
that's like meticulous down to like the, the nano second. Yeah. He, he, on this film, he
started you, he started his sort of habit for using motion control cameras rather than
camera operators, right? Cause he's like, I know if I hit go, it will do the same thing
every time. I can't, I can't promise that from a camera operator. Right. Okay. Okay.
It's a bit unfair. It's a bit unfair. He does, he does roll with punches like on seven where
Brad Pitt breaks his arm. Yeah. And he's like, right, okay, I'm going to build that into
the script. I'm going to make that part of the story. Okay. This one, he obviously expected
Nicole Kidman. And I think that's a huge change in the tone of the film. Yeah. Cause with
Nicole Kidman, she's much more of like a trophy wife, uh, grace Kelly Hitchcock style lead
actress. Yeah. But like Jodie Foster spent a lot of time sort of carving out a little
niche of the non damsel in distress character, right? Yeah. It's no longer, Oh my, there's
just, there's intruders in the house. It's like, go my fucking house. Yeah. No, no, no.
That wasn't me swearing. That was Jodie Foster. Oh, sorry. It's Meg Altman swearing. Got
you. Got you. Yeah. Yeah. I just, I, I think it's a huge change to the tone of the movie.
I love the fact that Jodie Foster can do the damsel in distress, but also simultaneously
be carrying herself as a heroine at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. I always struggle with Jodie
Foster. I've never once, I've never been like, Oh wow. Same. Jodie Foster. I've always known
rationally that she's an incredible actress. Incredible. Incredible. Couldn't tell you
a film that I really, really emotionally resonated with her in. I don't think there is one moment
where I've ever fully connected with Jodie Foster or any of her characters ever. Right.
I don't think that's a bad thing. I think that's, that's fine. I think it's because,
I think for you it's because she's a lesbian and therefore you just can't relate. You're
like, nah, it's nothing for me there. It's cause you're a misogynist. It's cause she's
a strong, capable woman who, who you're not relevant to. And therefore you're just like,
ah, there's nothing for me there. There's nothing for me there. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I
appreciate that little summation of my entire character in one sentence. It is both hilarious
and simultaneously devastating at the same time. But I think what it is, right. There's
one character that I relate to more than others. And it's her in Elysium. Right. Okay. Where
she sort of like controlling the immigration of the ring, the halo, right? Right. Okay.
Is that cause your racism comes out and you're like, yeah, keep them out, keep them out,
Jodie. It's because I don't like people. I'd literally be sort of like, make Elysium great
again. Mega. I'd be like, I think the only reason that I related to it is cause I was
like, if I was in that position, it would just be the people that I enjoyed being allowed
on that. What you think that normal people are going to come onto my mate's ring and
use a med bay. Absolutely not. I don't know people. People are terrifying. Off you go.
I mean, I'm too straight for it to be mates. Yeah, that's fine. You go, you go one way.
I'll go another. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But just feel like,
I feel like if people are going to try and come on my ring, then that's nothing I'm interested
in. That's a friendly, that's a friendly experience. If I've ever seen one, what, what says Christmas
more than your mates just pop it over to your ring for a quick shower, some dinner for a
quick med bay, a quick lie down on your med bay. I just, I feel like Nicole Kidman in this
would have been a much better film. And I feel bad for saying that, but I feel like
it sort of lands in the vertigo rear window space where it's a character arc of a woman
who we initially feel isn't capable becoming capable. Yes. And it, and then I'm like, Oh,
there's some movement there. Whereas the second I see Jodie Foster, I'm like, she's going
to stab them in the neck with a bit of broken pipe. Same. As soon as Jodie Foster was in
the panic room and those guys were in the house, I was like, she's not trapped in there
with them. Right. That's just how it goes. And it ends up being that. And I'm like, it's
just Jodie Foster being Jodie Foster. She's badass as anything. Don't get me wrong. She
is like badass and she's always capable. Doesn't matter what character she's playing immediately
capable. I never have any sort of shaken faith. There's never a question on whether she's
going to be able to deal with whatever situation is thrown at her. And it kind of in a weird
way ruins Jodie Foster movies for me because it takes any ambiguity away. It's literally
just, Oh yeah, well she wins. End of. So, so Fincher was like keenly aware of this,
right? So one of the early casting decisions was there is a subplot in the movie where
she finally manages to get a phone working. She calls her husband because the police taken
ages and the door was like, just call dad. He'll, he'll, you know, they know they've
got a limited time on the phone. Yeah. And so she calls him, his new wife picks up the
phone and then later in the movie, like you've forgotten about that call, but he turns up.
Yeah. Now the original casting choice for the husband was Mel Gibson. Yes. And this
is back before anti-Semitism issues and all that kind of stuff. And the reason Fincher
wanted Gibson is cause he was like, it's a, it's a stereotypical Hollywood hard man.
Yeah. And I just, I would love the idea of Mel Gibson turning up on the film and immediately
just walking face first into a spade and then just being tied to a chair for the rest of
the film. Cause as an audience, we would see him and we would expect there to be a turnaround.
Yes. We'd be like, Mad Max is here now. Right. Mad Max is here now. It's all sorted. And
immediately bopping the face of the spade, you know, it just gets worse and worse. Right.
There's nothing of any like, you know, has no agency. Oh man, that would have been amazing.
And I think that's the original film. It's Nicole Kidman who were like, Oh wow. That's,
you know, Satine from Moulin Rouge locked in a room with her diabetic daughter. How
was she going to cope? Oh, Mel Gibson's here now. Oh no. Oh my God. I would pay so much
money to see that version of the film. So much money. It's unreal. But that's not the
one we got. We got, we got different, we got different characterization and I think the
film suffers for it. It does. Nicole Kidman is still in this film. Although she's one
of two cameos that I found in this film. Oh no. She's the voice of the new wife on the
phone. Well I'll scrap that from the game. Oh no. Should I not do the other one? No,
no. Okay. Yeah. Don't do the other one. But although I now know, you know, it's fine.
No, it's good. It's good. It's good. I wasn't, I wasn't ready for this level of prep mates.
It's good. It's good. I'm trying to impress. This is all I do every week. I'm literally
like, Hey, you teach me so much stuff about filmmaking makes me super happy. Cause then
when I go watch tremors, I'm like, yeah, but it's the mise en scene really complimenting
the film. I have never ever in my life sincerely used the phrase mise en scene and you know
that full well. I have never once gone. I've never mentioned the mise en scene. I think
of all the times on the podcast phrase mise en scene has come up. It's you using it to
take the piss out of you. I'm so sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry man. Yeah. Okay. I've talked a
little bit about why this film suffers for me and why I couldn't really like fully immerse
into it, but there are aspects of it that really hooked me in and got me, got me enticed.
You know what I mean? Okay. So on my first watch through, I was like these characters
thin and I'm not really invested in any of them. I don't really care about any of them.
I don't care whether junior gets his inheritance, but a cause it's Jared Leto for a start. So
the less he gets the better. Um, and then the rest of the people I was like, eh, yeah,
Rowell's crazy. Burnham's the sort of wholesome empath that he plays in every movie. Um, and
then you've got Jodie Foster who's like just insane borderline Clark Kent without the glasses
on. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. I feel like you're right about Forrest Whitaker.
It feels like Hollywood in the early 2000s pushed him into a really unfortunate type
of cast role where it's like, he is a black guy, but white audiences, he's got a wonky
eye. So he's sympathetic. It was like this kind of horrible, like, you know, that's just
a guy, right? And they're like, no, but he's a, let's, let's not forget. He's a black guy,
but white audiences don't be scared. We won't have him be a thug cause he's got a wonky
eye. And I'm like the amount of racism in the casting decisions that Forrest Whitaker
is given. I know we want you to be a thug with a heart of gold and people will know
you've got a heart of gold because of, you know, the eye thing. Yeah. And he's just stood
there looking at him being sort of like, you know, I'm like an actor, right? I'm not defined
by my eye. By my race and my eye. Yeah. Like, yeah, but you know, as a, as a white audience,
we can, uh, we can feel safe around you. Cause if you ever threaten us, we'll just stand
to one side and then we're invisible. There you go. That's it. We'll just move slightly
to the left and you, you will have to crane your neck so fast that hopefully injury we've
escaped. Yeah. But, um, I think it's down to species man. When he was in species, he
plays a powerful empath and it's like, yeah, that's your role now. Yeah. That was it. I
think every, every film after that for about a decade, he plays like a really, it's either
really empathetic or really sympathetic character who just understands the situation from every
point of view. And it's like, oh, he's, he's just a balancing board. Now this is what species
has done for him. A sci-fi film about a female alien trying to shag anyone and everything
just to reproduce. He was good in rogue one. He's great in rogue one. He's incredible.
Only time he's not playing a sympathetic empath, he's playing a nutter. Okay. I can get behind
this. The eye makes more sense now. Right. I love him in that, but the, uh, the characters
the first time through very thin, very sort of like wishwashy. I was like, man, I'm not
really invested. And then I said to you yesterday, I was like, I need to give it another watch
because I need to get something from it. I'm quite negative at this point. I need to get
something from it. Yeah. And I went, I did some studying mate, right. And I've come back
to the table with something positive. I think it's a big positive because it's, it's reinvested
me into the film. So the way the characters are written, okay. The, a, the film that you've
just described is probably what the writer, uh, what the writer David Co-op or cop had
in mind. Right. But the film that we got, we've got junior who is like, uh, the main
criminal who's hired in these goons to steal. Yeah. He's an inheritee from the prior owner
who knows he's going to get shafted in the inheritance. He's going to steal the money
first. Yeah. So immediately we're all like, well, you know, the inheritance baby just
desperate to try and elbow his way to the front of the queue to get the money before
anyone else's. And that is like, yeah, you know, screw that guy. And then you've got,
uh, Burnham who's like a blue collar working dad who's like, I, I, I'm going to get in.
I'm going to get the money. I'm going to get out. It's going to be good for my family.
We're going to be set up for life. It's just, I'm in a pinch. Yep. I get this done. No one
gets hurt. I'm out. I can forget about it with set up for life. I like that. I feel
like that's a relatable way to go about it. Then you've got Raul who is like, who is the
most unhinged person in any of, just did it for the love of the game. He just loves shooting
people. He just did it for the love of the game. He's like, he's got such a chip on his
shoulder. Raul is me. If I wasn't cautious, right? Chip on my shoulder. The class allegory,
the class allegory of this is they've got all the money and therefore all the safety.
Yeah. Safety and money being a hundred percent the same thing in this film. They've got a
panic room because they've got money inside that panic room is all the wealth to make
sure that anyone there can be safe for the rest of time. And then there's the three guys
outside one who is the fallen from grace wealth. He's squandered his money. One who's a sympathetic,
he's kind of our audience surrogate as poor people. We're not relating to Jodie Foster.
Just going, he needs safety for his family. Exactly. And then there's just Raul who's
just like, nah, he's the one with the chip on his shoulder. That's like, I'm going to
eat the rich. That's you. It's me. If I'm left unchecked, I know about the chip on my
shoulder. Uh huh. I know about it. I'm very conscious of it. Yeah. If I wasn't just snobbery
in the other direction, but yeah, it's kind of is that's bad. You were a rich guy. You'd
have a monocle and you'd be like, oh, the pause. I don't think I would. I think if I
was a rich guy, you totally would. You totally would because you're a poor guy going, oh,
the rich. No, I'm not going to look at the other group and go, ah, they're not people.
I'm not going to the rich. I'm like, just, just appreciate your privilege. That's fine.
That's it. I'm appreciating my privilege. I'm very lucky in most situations. Do you
know what I mean? Okay. Okay. That's all it is. If I was rich, I would be poor in a week
because anyone would be so that you got changed. You'd be like, nah, I got a grand. There you
go. I'd be broken a week. Exactly. This is why when they talk about trickle down economics,
I'm like, nah, give millions of pounds up benefits by a couple of million quid and watch the
economy sing. Yeah. It'll go crazy. Cause all of that money would be right back at the
top in about three weeks. That's all it is. Poor people look after poor people cause they
know how hard it's been. Right. And they buy stupid shit. And I know that cause I buy stupid
shit. Oh mate, thousands of that's five, by the way, she gave me a million quid. It would
all be, I know we've had a lot of crabs this week as well, mate. We've had some hideous
crabs as well. Crabs this week. I'm not, I'm not, I've never eaten a bird. Yeah. I saw
it. It's outrageous. It's outrageous. I never have an armored spider. It's an armored cannibal
spider that eats its own young by the fistful and like, oh, so cute. I'm going to get it.
It's a little plushie. No, you're not. No, that's outrageous. That's like having a Jeffrey
Dahmer plushie just chilling on your bed. Awful, awful. God's only mistake after Ben.
So with the, with David Coop's film in mind, I started looking at it and I was like, okay,
so maybe, maybe I've got this wrong way around. Maybe Jodie Foster isn't supposed to be the
good guy that she's portrayed to be in the film because let's look at the ex-husband
real quick, right? He's an elderly gentleman. He's a very, very wealthy elderly gentleman.
Jodie Foster is playing a jilted ex-wife who has been left for a younger woman. Right? Yep.
Jodie Foster is not an old person in this at all. She's not an older woman at all. She's
what? Like 30s, 40s. Yeah. Spending millions on a house in New York. Yeah. Yeah. How relatable.
But then I started thinking, okay, so this gentleman, I'm not entirely sure that when
he made his money, Jodie Foster would have been the first one there. Right. Because when
she's asked about what she does for a living, she says, oh, I'm just going back to school.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Retraining. Yeah. And the real, the real it is like, you should buy
this house. He can afford it. And I was sitting there and I'm like, okay, so she's buying
an outrageously expensive house, which is far too big for two people, far too big just
to spite an ex-husband who's left her for a younger woman. And I get that. But also
her child is going to grow up believing in ghosts just because of the size of the house
that she's buying. Yeah. A thousand percent. A thousand percent. I mean, she's going to
grow up needing therapy after the events of panic room. Let's not lie. Yes. You know what
I mean? Yeah. She's going to inherit her mom's claustrophobia. That's for sure. Yeah. And
then that, and then it got me thinking. So what's different between junior, the main
criminal who's trying to elbow his way to the front of an inheritance queue because
he feels like he's entitled to that money. And Jodie Foster, who's spending millions
of her ex-husband's money out of spite because she feels that she's entitled to it for being
left for a younger woman. And I'm like, Oh my God, it's the same coin on a slightly different,
the slightly different timeline. Those two are like match and match. I don't like Jared
Leto's character. I hate junior. I'm not a big fan of Jodie Foster's character, but that's
for different reasons. Right. Yeah. And then I started looking at like, okay, so where
does everyone else fall? Where does Kristen Stewart's character fall and who is she related
to in terms of the, the criminals, right? Right. Yeah. Yeah. I think, uh, Forest Whitaker,
Burnham and Kristen Stewart would be matched equally because they're, they're both on the
morality play on the morality play. Yeah. They're both sympathetic to the other side.
They understand the situation. They also don't want anyone to get hurt. Right. They're also
terrified. Both of them are terrified. And that's completely relatable. And I like those
two characters much more now because I can see it that way. Where does Raul fall on this
bud? The insane trigger happy. Yeah. I'm going to fill the room with propane cause nah. How
do we get the bonds out of the room if they're dead in there, mate? Nah, propane. Propane.
Propane mate. We'll get in propane. Where's that on the morality scale? And that is like
the low of the low that I'm going to burn everything to the ground. Like just hell for
leather. All of it up in flames. He's the Arthur Fleck of the situation. Exactly what
it is. And I'm looking at it from this point of view. It makes it such a better film. Right.
I'm now all of a sudden I'm way more invested in the characters. Cause I mean the writer
of the script, David, uh, David Coyle or David Cope, do you know what else he's written?
I haven't actually looked into that cause I, I like Fincher went, ah, the writing on this
one's not, not the rich seem to be mind that we normally find. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Fair.
Fair. I'm like, this is a technical masterclass, not a writing masterclass. No, I'll agree.
I'll agree. I think the changes to the film negatively affected the script, but I've looked
into this guy and honestly we've covered a bunch of his films. Have we? Yeah. Jurassic
park. Hey, the lost world. Hey, you mentioned Spiderman earlier. He wrote the original draft
for Spiderman 2002. Hey, he also wrote death becomes a, which is a great film. Mint film.
Yeah. Great film. Um, war of the worlds in 2005. Terrible film, but super fun. Great
film. Exactly what it needs to be. Exactly what it needs to be. Yes. Tom Cruise killing
a man with a spade in the basement. Yes. Incredible. And then it takes a bit of a weird turn for
a while where he writes Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the crystal school. Yeah. And
then angels and demons. Yeah. Let's be fair. There's no way he's the only writer on those
films. He's a team of 20. Oh yeah. There's a few, there's a few on them. And then he
sort of spins it all back around with the 2017's the mummy. There you go. I mean, I
hear what you're saying. I mean, essentially I think to sum up your, your take on it, it's,
it's about a rich divorcee with too much money who buys a house and then three upstanding
working class folks walk in, she gets all shirty about it like a right bitch. Yeah.
That's the one. Yeah. Because she's a rich person. Money makes her not a person. Right.
So they're not after her stuff. They're after their own stuff. It's just in a panic room.
And if escrow, if the escrow had gone through as it should have in two weeks, which is,
you know, as we all know, escrow only works on business days. Thank you. Jared. No idiot.
I just, just on the Jared letter point, I adore the fact that David Fincher clearly
hates Jared letter as much as we do. Because every single film he's like, no, you're doing
your own stunts and we're going to set you on fire. Yeah. Also we're going to have you
hideously burned. Yeah. Also you get the absolute mints kicked out of you in this one, but so
enjoy this one. We're going to do 110 takes of this one. And then a new film. Yeah. You're
in it. Also you get shot in the face twice. 48 takes of that one, please buddy. Let's
let's go. One of our very valued listeners got in touch with a story. One of their friends
is working on a Jason Statham movie at the moment. Okay. And Jason Statham is also a
producer on the film and Jason Statham kept doing tape. Did, did about 30 takes of this
one shot because he really wanted to get it right. Okay. And the shot was him kicking
another man in the balls. I do the same. 1000% do the same. I was like, you know, I'm going
to get your money's worth. Yeah, you have to. I, I hear that this film doesn't really
connect. You're 22, you're 22 years too late to the party. Yeah. But I do think it's an
important movie for Fincher because it's where he defines his look, but it's also another
repeated every time I read an interview with Fincher, he says the same thing about every
movie and it's like, how many times do we need to teach you this lesson? Old man. He's
his own worst enemy when it comes to letting go. Yeah. So do you remember on a seven, we
were talking about Darius congee, the incredible cinematographer who makes everything look
brilliant. Yeah. Incredible. He was on this movie. Yeah. For two weeks. Oh no. Basically
he, he was supposed to sort of come in and help sculpt the, the underlit design of the,
of the thing. Uh, fortnight in he, he got replaced by Conrad Hall jr. And Fincher says
it's his own fault. He says, um, Darius is not a light meter jockey. He wants to be part
of the decision making process. This movie did not allow that. And it was incredibly
frustrating for him. Darius makes films, but panic room is a movie. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
There you go. He's come in, he's gone, all right, David, what we doing? And David's like,
we're not doing anything, mate. I've done it all. I've got two thirds of this film pre-visualized.
I know what lens I'm using, what angle, how I'm lighting it off your pop. Welcome to the
show. Yeah. Stand in front of it and do exactly what I tell you to do. And he says about this
movie, it was just over controlled. You know, he said, um, it completely removed the authorship
by the actors. You need that. You need someone to go. You're missing something here. Right.
I want people to feel like they can stop the train and say that. Right. Right. Right. This
was not the film for that. Um, as an actor actually, um, you know, the guy who plays
the drill sergeant in full metal jacket. Yes. Ah, Ali Ermi. Right. So he was in seven and
he talks about David Fincher working with David Fincher on seven. He goes, this is him
about David Fincher. He's afraid to take chances. He's afraid to let anybody change one word
in the script. He wants puppets. He doesn't want actors that are creative. If you're not
worth a shit at acting and you're not creative, then I would recommend you go work with David
Fincher. Wow. He won't let you act even if you're a fucking good actor. That's pretty
intense. Okay. Jesus. I think the micro he talks about this film, teaching him that he
needs to let go. He needs to stop micromanaging stuff, which is exactly the same thing he
said about fight club. Yeah. Which is exactly the same thing he said about seven. This is
crazy though. It makes him so relatable because you know, when we do creative stuff and then
we send it back and forth like eight or nine times, yeah. It goes or anything we can tweak
it. And it's like, yeah, there's hundreds of things and then we tweak it and it makes
literally no difference to anyone but us. Yep. Look at socials videos. They take, they
take a good few hours. I was up until three o'clock in the morning the other day making
one. Do you know, do you know how many people saw it? Couple hundred, couple hundred people.
Yeah. A hundred people. It took me about four hours to do that one just cause it was fun.
And every time, every time I watched it, I was like, yeah, but maybe if I switch it out
for this, do you want to know, do you know how much this made? Yeah. Hit me. So this
is David Fincher's highest grossing film since seven. Okay. It made twice what fight club
made. Jesus Christ. It made nearly twice what the game made. That's understandable. But
okay. Uh, and it two thirds of what seven made. Wow. It costs 2 million less than fight
club. Okay. And made twice the profit. This made $196 million. Jesus Christ. This was
a massive hit. Jesus Christ. Massive hit. I wish I would have seen this in 2002 because
it would have blown my mind in 2002. I probably, I would have probably seen two home invasion
movies and that would have been it. The look of this film, I cannot get over this film
looks a hundred times better than any Christopher Nolan movie shot for shot. Okay. Christopher
Nolan does incredible spectacle. Yeah. And if there's a dialogue scene, it'll just be,
you know, it will be a functional shot that just allows the actor to deliver the dialogue
right. And us to go, yeah, okay. I know what's happening in the plot. Fincher will go, how
can I make this one shot art? Yes. Okay. For everything. Yeah. And I, I do adore that.
It's just, it's a shame it's on such a, a slight film. Yeah. No, I agree. I'll agree
with that. That's what you're going to, what you're going to rate it. Okay. So come into
the show 22 years later than I should have having been spoiled with decades of home invasion
movies, arguably done better because they are movies, not films. Yeah. Um, I, I'm going
to have to put it bang in the middle of the road because it took me two watches to get
anything from it. But when I did get something from it, it was fun. Right. So I'm going to
give it a five. Oh, that's fair. That is fair. This plays so much to my, you like, we've
got the cameras we use for social media and like getting the focus right. So that the
background's just blurry enough, not too blurry and then getting the lights just right so
that I don't look like my naturally salmon pink self, but also that like everything else,
everything else looks normal is a nightmare. And that's one shot that I've had years of
practice at and I'm still like, the idea that Finch has done that 2000 times. Yeah. In the
space of a few months is how it's come out looking like this. I'm just like, that's outrageous
for plot. It's a four. Yeah. Entertainment wise, I'm going to give it a five film making
wise. I'll give it a 10 cause it's insane. But that's so, so I have to go with like a
seven or an eight, right? Got you. Because like just the sheer artistry of like, I'm
going to make every frame a painting is incredible. I can open this film, skip to any frame and
go, that looks mint. Yeah. That looks mint. Yeah. That looks mint. There's a scene, there's
a wide shot of them and it's like, it's a wide shot of the room and there's the three
people all stood around the room and there's little details like Raoul stood in front of
a doorway, right? Which has got a very dim light on in the other room. So you can see
the silhouette of his head, even though he's wearing a black ski mask. And I'm like, that's
not an accident. No, that's not an accident. That is a very meticulous thing that's been
planned out for weeks before even looking at an actual light. So I'm going to, I'm going
to go eight. Okay. As a, as a piece of filmmaking, it's an eight. As a story, it's a four. Sound.
That makes sense. I can agree with that. I can agree with that. Do you want to play a
game? I'd love to. Panic Room Trivia Quiz, getting all the bits of trivia that mopping
up all the gravy from the plate that we've not managed to get through in there. Yes.
So I'll start you with an easy one. Nicole Kidman crashed out of this film. Yeah. But
do you know where else she appears in the film, Ben? I wonder, do you know, do you know
where else she has a cameo? Oh, she's the, she's the voice on the phone. She's the new
wife. Oh, wow. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. No, that was a good spot. I was, I was, I was as impressed
as I was infuriated that you already got that one. Okay. Next one. Okay. The sleepy neighbor
that they managed to rouse from, from his sleep across the room. You mean the Prince
of Porno? The what? The Prince of Porno. Why is he the Prince of Porno? And the director's
commentary they call Andrew Kevin Walker's cameo, the Prince of Porno. Why? Could not
tell you. But yeah, you're right. That is screenwriter of Seven and script doctor on
Fight Club, Andrew Kevin Walker. It is. So there's the two I know that you know. Okay.
Who was originally cast as Raoul? Oh, I'm not sure. It was Maynard James Keenan, lead
singer of Tool in a Perfect Circle. Shut up. Yeah. Okay. He had to turn it down because
of touring commitments to Tool, but that would have been excellent. That would have been
incredible. That would have been so good. Yeah. That would have been amazing. I would
love to see him play an unhinged criminal. Right. Dwight Yoakam does, does the role perfectly.
Like there's absolutely nothing that Dwight Yoakam does that I dislike, but it would have
been a nice little get. Now, speaking of aspects of the film that got you enticed, Ben. Yes.
Kristen Stewart says she has plenty of fans from this film. Why? I don't want to. I don't
even want to know the answer. Bearing in mind, bearing in mind, she's a young teenager in
this. This is what I mean. I don't want to know the answer to it because I feel like
it's going to be wildly upsetting. It is. It is. I don't know. Kristen Stewart has said
that because of the closeup scene of her toes, she has gotten plenty of fans that say they
like her feet. That's disgusting. She's a literal child in this. I don't know how you
approach an actress in person and say, I really appreciated the closeup shots of your feet
in that film you made when you were a child. Nope. Nope. But clearly there are people out
there who are happy doing that. That's the worst. That's one of the worst things that
I can think of. Can you imagine being a fully grown adult actor and then having some lech
just creep up to you at a convention and being sort of like, I, I saw panic room and I've
been a fan ever since. You're like, Oh wow. Thank you so much. Yeah. That was one of my,
you know, it was my early roles. I was, it was quite young in that you've got, you've
got really nice feet. I'd be like, wow. Okay. So this man's a predator. Um, security, security,
anyone around can someone check this man's basement because he might have skin lamps.
Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. No comment corner this week buddy, because
we've got a special episode next week. We do. We do. We're going to be taking a break
from covering movies and we're just going to have, we're going to have an open chat
about the future. We're going to do a little bit of a mental health check-in and then just
have a full focus on that. Hit the reset button for one week. Yeah. And just, um, we've got
some stuff we need to address and we think it'd be good. It's still going to be fun.
It's still going to be, you know, uh, we might trigger warning for, you know, severe conflict,
but it's good. It needs to be done. And I think it will be healthy. We've also got a
big stack of comment corners. If you've written into us recently, it's not that we're ignoring
you is that we're saving it up for an episode, which will make sense once you've heard it.
Yes. I do have to say though, we are not only available here this week. Okay. What'd you
mean? We are also available on the No More Late Fees podcast. Yes, we are. Yes, we are.
Absolute belter of a show over there. We had the pleasure and the privilege of joining
them on their show to discuss the grudge with Sarah Michelle Geller from 2005. Yeah. 2004.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Great show. Go head over to No More Late Fees and have a listen
to that one over there. A hundred percent do. Jackie and Danielle are incredible at what
they do. Their show is very different to ours, but I think it was, I think it worked harmoniously
and I think we weren't too chaotic. I hope, I really hope we weren't too chaotic. We do
have priors for just turning up on someone else's show and being like, ha ha, hello.
We don't have to edit this week. Ah, here's a joke about Hugh Jackman. Do you know what
I mean? Yeah. We do that a lot. But it was fun. It was chaotic and it's not the best
grudge film, but it's the best podcast about the grudge 2004. So it is. Objectively. Guys,
that is unfortunately all the time we have this week. Thank you so much for hanging out
with us. It has been an absolute pleasure. It really does mean the world to us. We love
you all from the bottom of our hearts. We really, really do. Ben is now going to thank
you for spending an hour of your week with us, especially at the start of the week by
wrapping up the thoughts, feelings and subtext of this movie into a little Monday motivational
pep talk for you to attack your week with. While I just do what society always tells
you to do and consume. I'm ill this week. I'm going to keep you short. All right. I
think the main takeaway that we can get from panic room is eat the rich. Burn them down.
They have our money in their safes and quite frankly, I want it. Junior ain't going to
get us in there because he is a literal idiot. But what will get us in there is a sledgehammer
and propane. So just as a quick, quick recap, panic rooms are rich divorcee with too much
money buys a house with 22 million in bare bonds hidden in a safe. She doesn't know about
in a panic room she doesn't want the three upstanding working class proper blokes walk
through. She gets all shirty about it like a right bitch.