MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE

HoTP (husband of the pod) Hank steps in for a traveling Emily this week and we discuss Stephen King's one attempt at directing a motion picture. 

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Transcript

The SWAMP (00:00.549)
I'm somewhat of a haunted semi truck myself, Spider-Man. Why was it the Green Goblin? I don't fucking know why it wasn't the green. Did Marvel care? Because Marvel movies just didn't have that kind of pull at the time. 1986, you know? Yeah. Did anyone step in for copyright to be like, you can't just put the green. I mean, I guess they never call it the Green Goblin. It's just the truck. But it doesn't even have a name. Like true. But I mean, that is

There's no that's no that's the Green Goblin. Yeah, unmistakably. That's the Green Goblin without question. It's on like the cover art to like that was probably in posters like on posters in the movie theaters and also on like the various like releases for like home cinema. Like that Green Goblin truck is on the front cover all the time. Our three selling points. OK, we're to put Stephen King's name really fucking big. Emilio Estevez is going to have a semi-automatic weapon.

and the Green Goblin. Yeah. Like, I guess Marvel, like that is just the difference between today and 1986. What are you going to do? Sue Stephen King? Right. Well, yeah. So is I mean, first of I don't even think Marvel was making movies back in the 80s, were there? Like, I don't even think they had like a robot. They didn't have like a TV, even like for TV movies. I think like it took until the 90s for them to start releasing stuff like that. Like they had like the old Fantastic Four. But again, I think that's all.

I think Marvel didn't even make shit till the 90s. This is the origin point of the MCU. Maximum Overdrive. This is the first Marvel movie. That truck played by Willem Dafoe, funnily enough. Yeah, he's inside that engine. I wish we got to hear the internal monologue of the truck. That would have really added something to this for me. There is there is that cool moment with the Morse code where like they they communicate their their goals or whatever, you know. Yeah, yeah. At some point, if he's like, you know.

Hello, immediately West of his don't blow me up with a rocket launcher. Yeah, that'd be awesome. No, that's what I would add. I mean, this movie, I think they only added no nothing was said no to no no. You know, browsing the Wikipedia before this, it's like Stephen King admitted that he was coked out the whole time. Yeah, doesn't he say he straight up does not remember like being there, which is so funny. So hi, swamp.

The SWAMP (02:19.374)
This is some wankus movie podcasting Emily is away this week. So this is just going to be the Dara and Hank corner. Swampers Henry Hank is my husband. I refer to you as both names. And sometimes I worry that people think I have a little side piece named Hank. Yeah, when really it's like a doctrine Jekyll Mr. Hyde situation. Yeah, that's how we keep our marriage fresh. I have a split personality. Can you be Hank today?

But the cool husband I talk about in the podcast is Hank. Is Hank. Yeah, but you're stuck with the real life Henry. Yeah, bummer. I think I refer to you like when I'm talking to other people, I call you Hank, but I feel like in real life, I call you Henry. Well, you know what? If it's just us in the room together, we are not really saying each other's names very often. I'm struggling to find an example of when I'd be Do you ever talk to someone who says people's names in conversation like so much and you're like, wow, I guess I just don't do that.

It's like one of those rules of power thing though, right? That they like tell you to do that to like socially engage more. So I always feel like I'm being manipulated when somebody's saying my name to me a lot. I'm like, what do want from me? That's a good instinct. I feel the exact same way. The only people who talk to me like that are people who are trying to get something out of me or trying to take advantage of me. Right. Yeah. Manipulative people are like, I will say sometimes to like, if I feel like I need to add emphasis,

Or to delineate if I'm talking in a group of people. hey, I'm talking to you. It is so creepy to be like, you're alone in a car with someone and they're like, I don't know, know, like, just inputting my name in there is freaky. Don't do that. But anyways, this is Henry and we're going to be talking about Maximum Overdrive, all caps, stylized all caps, Maximum Overdrive, which is Stephen King's singular foire into cinema.

One and done. His one attempt, I would say. I'll call it an attempt, an effort. I mean. His effort at directing, basically. He did write the screenplay and this is based off of a short story of his called Trucks. Yeah. Very creatively named Trucks. Trucks. I guess Trucks is in a published collection of short stories where some of the other short stories also have elements of like anti-technology.

The SWAMP (04:37.922)
So they pulled some stuff from the other short stories, which is why I think this got a little muddy because originally it's very much just like Christine. It's just about a truck, a haunted truck, but they're like, no, it needs to be bigger. It's like we're in the wake of a fucking sus comet and all technology is weird and going against humans, but not all technology just when it's convenient for the story.

And you quickly have to just let it go and suspend your disbelief that this is not going to get explained. And it just is a sometimes thing. only the so an interesting delineation that they make. Right. We have the big Mac trucks are all animated and taken over and none of like the civilian cars are taken over. There is that, you know, the Jeep with the machine gun mounted on it that's taken over. But then nobody else's cars are taken over and like also nothing inside the diner.

Is that really possessed to like the diner seems to be like a safe space for some sprinklers and like hairdryers. Yeah. And like the saw that they had for whatever reason to cut turkey or fucking whatever behind the counter at the truck stop. So basically the film is focusing on this truck stop in whoever knows where I think it's North Carolina. yeah, they do say, yeah, North Carolina truck stop where Emilio Estevez is sort of our protagonist and he is a

recently released convict who is working as a chef cook. He's like the he's kind of doing a lot. He's a greasy kitchen monkey, isn't he? He's just like, yeah, he's a he's kind of doing a lot. He's a parole guy in the kitchen. Yeah, he does what he's told. He's got a dirty white t shirt and he's doing that. He's doing the greasy work, you know, and it's owned by this this guy named Bubba who just has like a basement full of just insane.

guns and cannon launchers for some fucking reason. That actor, what's his name? Pat Hingle. Pat Hingle is just like the most evil sheriff of all time, right? He has the most like, I'm the wicked man in charge now. I think for it. So he's got a southern accent. He's in a position of power.

The SWAMP (06:43.286)
and he's abusive to his employees. It's got like real plantation owner kind of vibes to it, right? He's just like so wicked and like terrible. He's like, you're only going to clock in for eight hours today. And he's like, And he has his like sidekick who is like obviously a stunt actor. He's like this really big guy who's just like throwing himself across, you know, whatever scene we're in. I thought was so funny. That guy's great. But it was basically. And then there's also the waitress.

So it's like the employees of this truck stop along with a handful of truckers. And then throughout the movie, we got a bunch of sort of wayward travelers eventually making their way here. As the earth passes through this comet, as we get in this lovely title screen, that's like, Hey, we're going to catch you up. The earth is passing through this comet and we're going to be in the wake of the comet for like eight days, 56 hours, nine minutes. You know, we get some stupid, again, coked out. said numbers. Is that a thing people?

People on drugs are really into like angel numbers and shit. That rings true a little bit to me. think people who like, if you get like super fixated, which is something that cocaine tends to do to you. You're trying to find meaning in everything. Yeah. Yeah. I think like any uppers is typically associated with like people doing just cracked out numerology, you know? And so there is, cause I was looking it up. 19 is like a signifying number in the dark tower series. And I was trying to see if like,

any of those dates in there are kind of like related to that. It's not really basically like the it's it's set in 19 whatever something like it. There's there's I'm sure maybe if you added those numbers in us up in a specific way like the way the numerology always works. You could eventually find some something. Yeah. But

It just to me, maybe, you know, I'm telling on myself now because I saw all the specific dates, times and numbers. I was like, that must mean something. But you're kind of Stephen Kingpilled in the way that you knew that this was sort of a coked out disaster piece. So you were kind of like, I bet this guy is doing some sort of wild stuff. If you haven't listened to our episode that we released about the dark tower, Henry was on that. And you share sort of your personal experience with Stephen King as an author and, you know, his.

The SWAMP (08:56.674)
books over time, you know, seeing how his life and his struggle with addiction affected his work. You know, you're especially you were reading the Dark Tower series, which it's like you can kind of see him commenting on it and paralleling it. Yeah, the commentary too. But then when he's in the thick of it, you know, he's he's writing he's always putting big faces on his machinery. Like there's a there's a killer train that appears in the Dark Tower that also has like a big evil face like Thomas, the evil train. Yeah, yeah. Like tells riddles. It's like, you know, he's a

When he is when he is fully on the coke you can really tell it comes through in the work and it certainly comes through in this movie Yeah, and that's was the situation here that I think a bunch of Hollywood producers got King kind of swept up that they were like Oh, we want to buy the rights to trucks and then they're like, oh, we just can't get anyone to write the screenplay good enough Steven Why don't you do it? And then he took a whack at it and you should just direct it because basically they just like wanted his name on it I think is the situation and he was like, I don't really know. I've never really done this

But basically they were like, here's a bunch of money, a bunch of cocaine, and you can do a bunch of stunts. It's very much like a car flipping movie. So I'm sure it was a fun set to be on. But yeah, you mentioned that he openly is like, I was so coked out. I do not remember being there. There was a funny comment for some of the production people who were like, we weren't really aware of the cocaine use. It was actually drinking.

that we thought was the issue. We couldn't even be focused on the looming possibility of cocaine because he was having 14 beers before lunch on set and that was what we had to deal with. Stephen King's writing process is he's slamming lines down in beers and just locking himself in a room, just cranking out books. He has the lifestyle of a rock musician who is on tour.

You know what mean? But he's just like sitting in his cabin and writing books on his typewriter. You know, like he's like he's like strung out every day, but still just like kind of badass cracking out. It's also just so, so very sad. I mean, you know, it's it's people deal with success in all kinds of ways, you know, and Stephen King still still with us today. So, you know, it's very grateful for that, certainly, you know. But I also like I just love Stephen King's obsession with ACDC.

The SWAMP (11:12.538)
So fucking funny. Yeah, so ACDC scores or like soundtracks, I guess, this whole movie. I think the majority of them are original songs for this film, but they definitely do a few pulls of some faves to pop in. they do not let you forget that this is an ACDC forward movie. And honestly, I think it kind of saves it in some moments where I'm like, well.

At least we're sticking to this creative direction. At least there's sort of something we're panning it up, kind of camping it up with this rock ACDC. Like the dialogue is like, can't be too heavy because there's some mad guitar riffs behind us that you're probably going to be paying attention to. Yeah. I wonder about the tone of this movie. If you have it like a more traditional horror soundtrack, you you have it kind of sound like Psycho or something with like the shrieking violins or like,

more ominous sound effects. There are some moments that I bet if you scored differently would have like genuine jump scares to them maybe, like some real like some tension to it. More haunting, the Green Goblin being a bit more haunting and a little less like, wait, that's kind of a badass monster truck. Yeah, I'm never scared. like, that's sick. That is pretty sick. And I think that's the point. I think that's what this movie's going for. know, like no one, they're not trying to unsettle you. They're just trying to be like, dude.

Look at that. Holy shit. Pretty cool. Am I right? You mentioned all like the car carnage that goes on like the there's that opening sequence where the bridge controls get fucked up and like we see the AC DC van, you know, right? The one to punch. They really seal the deal that you're going to be listening to AC DC for 90 minutes. They have it very prominently in the opening credits like music by AC DC gets its own title card, which of course it does. And then while this

What was it called? What's the like? Jesus, the bridge that goes like a lifting bridge. I don't know, like a drawbridge drawbridge for sure. Well, that's like on a castle. No, that's like a moat. I don't know. You know, when you're driving on a bridge and you have to like stop because they're going to open it to let the boats through. It's not like a suspension bridge. That's like a that's a different. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I'm not an architect.

The SWAMP (13:24.43)
But you know what I mean. But for some reason, it's like this is the first instance of technology kind of freaking out. Oh, well, we get the cold open with Stephen King, where it's him at the ATM machine and the ATM machine keeps telling him that he's an asshole. And like, you know, he's like, honey, the machine won't work. He's like, OK, we cold open on me. He gives kind of like a like a Kevin McCallister, McCully Culkin, like like hands on the hands on his cheeks kind of face to is like the ATMs calling me an asshole.

Honey, and he he slaps his cheek. he's like, oh, we must be in the wake of a mysterious comet. That's another thing, too. Like, there's a Amelia Estevez has this line where he's like, he seems aware of the that opening title card. That's like the comet will pass by Earth in eight days and 72 minutes and 36.

seconds or whatever. Like, it's because his new girlfriend listened to the radio while she was getting assaulted by the Bible Salesman cab driver. And she was paying attention. Yeah. And then they fucked and they transferred knowledge, you know, so now he's all caught up on the situation. We didn't see any of that happen. Right. But it's all that's all implied. Yeah. A lot of implications that people understand the situation that I myself am not quite solid on. we do.

Another, this movie really seals the deal, know, not to jump right to the end, but the main conflict of the movie is resolved with another title card at the very end. It's just like a little placard that's like, and then the next day, a Soviet satellite that just so happened to be equipped with a bunch of missiles blew us UFO out of the tail of the comet. It's like, we all lived happily ever after. We don't, see anything.

There's nothing implied about that. That's nothing to do with any of the characters we're following in this movie. But just know that off screen it got resolved. These guys survived this night. And you know what? They're going to be OK. It's so confusing because we got the context that we're in the wake of this comment and some technology, some machines. Let's just maybe use the blanket term of some machines will are going crazy and are attacking humans. And it's mostly trucks. But also we get

The SWAMP (15:35.55)
handful of other instances, but we also see many machines that are not being evil. you know, who's to really say? And it just seems like it's because we're in the comment. And then we get one passing comment from basically our female love interest for Emilio Estevez has to just arrive at the scene somehow. And, you know, we've already got the waitress, can't be the waitress, so we need to introduce a new hot young woman. So she's just

hitchhiking her way to Florida. That's all we really ever learn about her. And she is with this like kind of grimy Bible traveling Bible salesman. I mean, let's let's take a second for the Bible salesman. What a crook. Yeah. What a bastard. Oh, my God. He's the only one who actually ever is tapped into what's happening because they're all like, OK, the machines, the trucks are attacking us. The machines are attacking us. We need to take shelter. They're taking shelter at this truck stop.

which if all the trucks are evil, why would you want to be at a truck stop? That's stupid. But he at one point is like, yeah, this is because the aliens are controlling the machines to kill all the humans so that aliens can inhabit the earth. And then it's sort of just like, okay, you're not of any consequence to the story. So you're moving on. But then the end title card is like, yes, that was the case. There was a UFO in the wake of the comet and it got struck down. So it's like, what, where?

that storyline. Although it is for that is just for somebody in the editing bay to be like, yes, the irony. Ha. That's like it's only satisfying for them. He's like, Ha, we knew this about the movie going into us. Ha. Yeah, I got to know this. But we've really tricked you now. There's that's it. I think that that's a core theme in this movie is that the things that are happening with the characters just have nothing to do with the plot or what happens to them. Right. Like there's no like

Emilio Estevez isn't flawed in some way that he needs to confront. He's not going from point A to point B. Well, he is. And when it gets confronted, his new love interest just doesn't care. Like, she shows up and basically she's like in her little suit jacket. And then they're like, she's like, Emilio Estevez, you're kind of hot. And he's like, ha ha ha, sure. And then she gets into a sexier outfit. And then the two of them just are an item and just kiss and have sex and are just a couple basically for the rest of the movie with

The SWAMP (17:56.31)
zero lead up, but at one point, Bubba tries to be like, you don't know anything about this guy. He just got out of prison. And Amelia Westrup is like, I'm so ashamed. I was young. I was, I was flawed. And she's like, I don't care. Let's bang again. It's pretty much. That's what I'm saying, right? It is. That's a, it's a scene that is like trying to imply that we're building something and we're going somewhere, but it just that, so it's got nothing to do with the main plot of the movie.

first of all, right? Like it's not- They're like little side love story, which it just goes from zero to 100. Like they're giving each other little pecks on the cheek like they've been married for years. Give me one last kiss before I go. It was like 40. get 48 hours at this truck stop and they're like, they're rock solid. Oh yeah. I mean, yeah. They like fall asleep together in each other's arms naked, you know? In the porn room? Yeah. Oh my God. The room where the walls are covered in clippings of porn. Cause that's-

what truck stops are? Yeah, well, mean, truck stops in the 80s, babe. We weren't there, you know, I guess not like outdoor shower thing they got going on to like the the stall of showers feels very 80s truck stop to me too. That's the vibes in there are immaculate. It's dusty as hell. You know, like imagine like you got to like take a shower and like you're all wet and then you got to like cross from the street. Yeah, it's like all dust. Yeah.

And then the girl behind the counter is just making the most fucked up scrambled eggs you've ever seen. like that flat top was disgusting. my god. Emilio Espes is just like cracking eggs and leaving the shells in and just like throwing them down and like chopping it up. There's like six other breakfasts that are left over on that griddle. they've made food for like eight other customers before they got to those eggs we saw on the griddle. It's brilliant.

But I like the kind of setting that where it's sort of a little snow globe and this crazy thing is happening. And it's just like, how is it affecting this very small, I don't know, location? I think that's pretty cool. This location full of just nonsense people. I think everybody there is kind of a nonsense. mean, this movie is extremely campy. It's very self-aware, I think. Everybody there, top to bottom, is extremely silly.

The SWAMP (20:07.246)
Like a caricature basically. Other than Emilio Estevez's girlfriend who's just sort of like I'm a woman and I'm here now. Yeah, she's just kind of the hot one. Yes, right? Like I'm not sure. depth. She's not really fulfilling any other trope other than to be the girlfriend. Yeah, to give Emilio Estevez a love interest. Yeah, which do you want to know something crazy? I read that Stephen King wanted that role to be Bruce Springsteen. Yeah, which I mean.

Which is crazy. Imagine if the boss did a crossover soundtrack with ACDC. The crossover song, because they would have done a single for sure. Yeah, without a doubt. I mean, they'd be on the lot together. I guess the producers were like, we want someone who's already an established movie star. And Emilio Estevez had already been in such hits as The Breakfast Club and Same Elmos Fire.

Very well known, but he was kind of ass in this, not gonna lie. He looked kind of bad. They gave him this weird blonde, of gelled hair and an earring, but the whole thing just wasn't really working and his character was just too flat to decide if he's likable or not. The sort of charismatic ex-com could have worked, but he just wasn't charismatic. Right, he doesn't like...

There's so it's it's an otherwise campy movie and he's not really camping it up So but he's also not really acting as like a good foil to the campy characters, right? He's not like he's not the straight man either right? He's just neutral enough to kind of just be neutral He also like I don't know familiar with two vets like ever had a drug problem or anything like that I don't want to sound judgmental too, but he also looked like and this could you look bad? would just be the makeup department, but he always looked like his eyes were bloodshot He had like dry cracked skin like that didn't look like it was

makeup effects, you know what I mean? Like it just seemed kind of like naturally he looked a little... No, my first comment was that I was like, he looks pretty rough here. If that was intentional or not. I mean, it was Charlie Sheen who was primarily having the public drug use. And I think Amelia Osterweiss has noted that his experience with drug addiction has just been through being a loved one of someone with addiction. Like that's usually where his statements about it have come from. But who's to say? I mean, I think it's fair to assume that there was just...

The SWAMP (22:23.188)
so much free cocaine for anyone who wanted it on the set of this film. That much is apparent to me. think like, absolutely, Steve, you know, if people are, if Stephen King is openly drinking in the morning until the evening, is also doing cocaine, I'm sure that's just an atmosphere where it's accessible. You've got that at your fingertips.

You know, and so like, especially if your director is also strung out, he's like, he's not gonna criticize Amelia as to best be like, hey, go clean yourself up. No, exactly. But yeah, it's the concept of this is so wild because we get all of these people in this truck stop and then the trucks just circle around. It's like six or seven semi trucks that are just doing donuts around. And it's like, why don't they just

bust through the side of the wall. Like you're a semi truck. You're the green goblin semi truck. You could just pummel through the middle of, know, if the goal is to kill the people. do eventually get there, right? I mean, they, they, they eventually go nuclear on them. But I think the, so what I'm, what I'm kind of piecing together, I've thought about this for a bit. I think that we see the scene in the suburbs where all the machinery kills the people, but that's not where like, for whatever. So if we're going with

the aliens are trying to clear out humanity a bit so that they can come do their invasion. Like the only way, and this is me doing more narrative work than the movie's doing. This is me applying a bunch of stuff after the fact. If the aliens' goal is to clear out a bunch of humanity, keep the people in the truck stop alive to fuel up the trucks. That's what because that is a big part of it at the end. Yeah. All the trucks in the whole country, it seems.

line up on the highway to get refueled at this truck stop and the truck with the gun comes out and Morris code threatens like you are going to refill and the child who just knows Morris code. Yeah. Well, he's a classic 1980s boys. Yeah. Some boy scout shit. And he's like, the trucks say that they're going to kill us if we don't fuel them up. And then we get this wild montage of everyone fueling up these trucks, but

The SWAMP (24:26.446)
acting like it's exhausting. Like, they're like tapping each other out and Emilio Estevez is like hunched over and sweating. It's not any more difficult to fuel up a semi than it is just a car, right? You're just standing there with a pump. like, and they show the blisters on his hands too. And it's like,

Don't they have those little latches where you can kind of pop, keep it open? That technology can't be that new, right? In the 1980s, they must have had that. But, well, I know they did. We totally know they did because we showed a scene earlier where their hands were re-pumping the gas. Emilio Estevez's hands are chapped like he was digging a hole for eight hours. Yeah, like doing tough manual labor. They are all looking exhausted. Right, like digging holes straight up, like the holes from holes. his hands are like bloodied and blistered.

Like he has like no skin on his hands and he's just like, he's like breathing. Like he looks like he's had like his 30 days of temptation in the desert. Like. Ruling up these trucks. Yeah. It's bizarre. And like, I guess they also seem like they are in the shade too. Like it doesn't look like the sun is beating down on them. They're underneath that big gas station canopy. Maybe it's a little hot out. I, North Carolina in the summer, you know, that's no joke. I guess for some reason this is really taking a toll on everyone.

But so the aliens are keeping them alive. The only way that this is making sense for me is if the aliens have decided that trucks are the most lethal thing to humanity, like Big Mac trucks are the most lethal thing, which is hilarious because they can control guns. I was going to say, are shown. Well, is the gun being controlled by the truck? Because it is mounted to a truck. maybe because we don't otherwise we don't see any guns because this is once again defining what machines are affected by this comet slash alien. And the answer is it's

entirely arbitrary and random. Because it has nothing to do with electricity either though. Like it's not an electricity thing. We see a knob just get turned. So simple machines, levers, pulleys. It's not about the size of the thing either, right? Because we see everything from telephones to there's the lawnmower. sprinklers. Sprinklers to Mack trucks. The car, there seems to be a woman who gets strangled and

The SWAMP (26:39.474)
by the window of her own car. Yeah. Yeah. For some reason, none of our protagonist's cars turn on them while they're in the car. But we do see evidence of that happening to a bunch of other people. Yes. Because we get basically the original gang at this truck stop and then the Bible salesman and the love interest show up because they're just like, we got to get to safety because she listens to the radio. We also get this kid.

who witnesses a vending machine spit out sodas and kill a bunch of people at like a peewee baseball game or something. Like nails a guy in the head and it's like the super gory shot of like a soda can like dent in his skull. That's pretty nice. Yeah. A lot of fun like stunts and makeup and like just cornstarch blood going on in this movie. Loads of cornstarch blood. my God. That actually did make it quite worth watching. was you could tell that they were having a lot of fun with like the stunts department. yeah. So I think with this movie.

It's got the hallmark of a really boring movie with plot points just happening because the plot just needs to happen. Right. We only like that all this these these issues we have with the technology turning on randomly is all it's that's all in place because the technology needs to turn on when it's going to be for the plot. Right. The technology becomes evil and tries to kill you once we need the plot to go forward.

And that's like a hallmark of a really boring movie or like a poorly thought-out So it's like if I don't even understand what the stakes are, how am I supposed to care about these characters? And then also additionally, I don't care about any of these characters. I think they were smart to get really campy actors and to fill in some of those roles by like really big personalities. Because it's like, okay, at least I can have a chuckle and at least we can kind of ham it up here. Which is like you said, I'm lacking with Emilio Estevez. I'm like, you need to be like, be the hero.

be the big macho guy, you know? He's just sort of like, just there. Yeah, and I would say that like, this movie is not, it's not boring to watch. It has those hallmarks of a boring movie, but I'm gripped and riveted the entire time. Because ACDC is also happening. Because that can't be shit you're talking about, right? There's ACDC going on.

The SWAMP (28:42.158)
the, the, we made you, the waitress coming out of the diner, like, you know, just trying to yell at the trucks to make them go away. She like has this like epiphany where she's like, we created machines. How can they rebel against that? So she's like running out and having this like coming to God moment. She's like, we made you. So good. So if you're like running out of truck that's equipped with a machine gun. No, I think it makes for a really pleasant viewing experience.

So the campiness mixed with all the crazy stunts too. The car carnage that we see. There's like loads of explosives going on. My favorite scene is the couple, the wife who is the voice of Lisa Simpson. Yardley Smith, think her name was. I didn't know who that was. I thought she was excellent. She was like one of the saving parts of this movie. Are you alive? We get this couple.

who are just married and they've got the tin cans on their car and then they're driving down the highway and they witness the other cars being taken over. It's just like this hysterical woman just married who's just constantly screaming and is like, what's going on? And it's sort of like, shut the fuck up. But I love having her around because it was just, she really added.

the dopey couple kind of they're like awkward the guys like making jokes about the poop water. They really were when when Emilio Estevez and the like the the wiry newly married guy is are going through the series like that happened. know like geez I might step in some pool. It sure does stink down here doesn't it. boy that's poop I'm I hope that's not poop or pee I'm in in the sewer you know like.

Literally, I'm not exaggerating. That's like the, that's the level that we're talking here. It's like literally millennial, that happened. Stephen King was kind of ahead of his time with that gulp. Okay, Henry, to introduce Jen for her segment, can you do your impression of the guy from the beginning of Pet Sematary? Because I told everyone last week that you were going to do it.

The SWAMP (31:00.866)
And then we picked a different movie. So you didn't do it in the review for maximum overdrive, obviously. But can you just do it now for us, please? Can I put you on the spot? You don't want to go into that truck stop. A truck stops full of living trucks now. Sometimes trucks is better. Sometimes chocolate or vanilla is better. That was really good. Thank you. It's the specificity of the northern Maine accent that we.

have access to culturally and so when it pops up in movies, it's like, I have heard people talk like that. I love the way he says, I love the way he says, road. rest of it's just kind of like a Northeastern accent. Down the road. Yeah. You don't want to go past that road. But yeah, it's so good.

Anyways, hi mom. My mom Jen is here to do chocolate or vanilla, her interim podcast segment where she's gonna say two things. We're all gonna say it, which one we like better. Henry will be taking Emily's place this week. So he'll answer after me, but before Jen, if you couldn't tell from his... I'm familiar with the structure. I've got this shit down, Pat. Well, make sure it's the listeners now. Okay, okay. Jen, is there a theme this week? So there is no theme, right? But it's a shortened chocolate or vanilla. I'm gonna try a new game at the end.

OK, new game. All right. Hashtag new game from Jen. Yeah. So chocolate or vanilla. Chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. Cheez-its or Cheetos. Cheez-its. I like I like both, but probably Cheez-its. I especially like the extra toasty ones.

I think Cheetos just squeaks it out for me just for the, only really like the jalapeno Cheetos. Yeah, the hot ones, but they come in the green bag, not the regular hot Cheetos, the green jalapeno hot Cheetos. They are different. I think if I had to like, if I had those Cheetos next to any other flavor of Cheez-Its, I'm going with those Cheetos. I'm going with the jalapeno Cheetos, no doubt. I'm going to go Cheez-Its, all kinds of, every Cheez-It before any Cheeto.

The SWAMP (33:04.398)
And why does a Cheez-It low key feel kind of healthy to me sometimes? like, it's not a chip. It's a toasted cracker snack. It's an adult responsible choice. Exactly. It's not healthy though. No, definitely not. It is to me. Sometimes it is to me. It's fried cheese. I love that combination of Cheez-Its and cashews. I don't know why. okay.

Like a broken harakuteri board. You're like, we couldn't make the budget for real cheese, so we're just going to do a handful of trail mix and some Cheez-Its. American cheese. Next one is double stuffed Oreos or these new Oreos called loaded Oreos, which are Oreos with a cookie and cream filling.

Okay, the Oreo doesn't need to be Oreo filled. Cookies and cream is code name for Oreo. So we're negating copyright law because we can't say Oreo, so we're calling it cookies and cream, but it means Oreo. So Oreo filled Oreo, and Oreo already tastes like an Oreo. I'm a single stuff girl though, because to me the best part is the cookie, not the filling. I don't want more of the filling. Like if anything, I wish there was more of the cookie. But Oreo filled Oreo sounds stupid, so I'm gonna pick double stuffed.

I'm going to go loaded because I like the I like the kind of meta thing they got going on there. That's cool. Yeah, I haven't tried them yet, but like I'm probably going to feel like we need to try them. You'll send me to the store. I'll be like, OK, you know, I'm going grocery shopping. What do you want? It's like, oh, list list. And then you'll be like, and a fun Oreo. Surprise me. Like the most fucked up Oreo they've got on the shelf. Like I want to go for it. And honestly, it's kind of a fun task because it's wild, right?

I know the truth from them. Like, my God, do I go with the lemon meringue pie Oreo or the peanut butter double crunch? Like they've got they've got a lot going on in the Oreo department. I think recently I saw blueberry pie Oreo. That kind of it piqued my interest. I'd go for it. Well, I know you would. Yeah, we need to try them all. Have you guys tried the Selena Gomez Oreos? Absolutely not. You need to.

The SWAMP (35:19.182)
What flavor are they? They're cinnamon. OK. OK, sure. The dream flavored. I am going to I'm going to try the new loaded Oreos, too. That's what I'm going to try. Next one is Woody or Buzz. Buzz. I love an antagonist. Antagonist. Yeah, OK. I think, yeah, Buzz has the cooler outfit, too. I'm going buzz. I'm going to go with O.G. Woody. There's a snake in my boots.

Except it's like a Tom Hanks versus Tim Allen situation. Is that who voices Buzz? That is correct. Yeah, Tim Allen is really questionable. And we have been up on Tom Hanks on this podcast as of last week. Do you have anything to weigh in, Henry, about if Tom Hanks has ever been sexy? No, he's my dad. Yeah, that's what I said I think that seems to be the right answer to me, right? Like, I don't know.

I mean, first of all, not attracted to men. like, can't like I'm already it's already a stretch. And then also like Tom Hanks, like he's just he's never not been like, is there ever like a shirtless like Tom Hanks like sexy moment like but he's like a in castaways. He's like dehydrated and skinny and like sunburned. Dehydrated. That's what that's what they want nowadays. They want to be shirtless and dehydrated. His skin is tight and dry. That's what Hollywood wants.

The SWAMP (36:42.122)
Next one is hot apple cider or hot chai tea. I feel like both of these things, I do want them cold personally, but I won't refuse them if they're hot. A cold chai. Yeah, well iced chai. Well, I guess I want coffee in my chai too. I want it to be a iced coffee chai situation, which is why I think I'll pick hot apple cider. All right. I didn't mean to like, you

be all judgmental during chocolate or vanilla. You know, this is a safe space. No, no, you're supposed to be judgmental. That's the point of the game. So I'm saying my feelings are right. And then you have to say, no, I don't think so. I love a hot apple cider, though. That's like super, super nostalgic. It's fall right now, too. I feel like we need to get some hot apple cider soon. Yeah. Especially if you get those mulling spices going. Oh, yeah. Get some, you know, put it on the truck. A cinnamon stick in there. Yeah. Get some get some of those Selena Gomez Oreos.

That's a date. That sounds good. A date. We're marking our calendars. apple cider, Selena Gomez Oreos. Next Wednesday. I will also go with hot apple cider. Next one is Timothy with hair or Timothy with a shaved head? I guess I'll say with the hair just like...

Personally, but I am I'm loving the bald era the mysticism around the baldness leading up to the bald Drop that we got recently with his big video with all the ping-pong balls was like Really just such an extra theater kid ass way to do like I got a haircut post which I thought was so funny I also think no, those are all AI though. None of those are real. This is what he looks like This one is real. I'm pulling up Timothy shallow-made bald. I haven't seen this yet. I

I found victim to many the fall, the false bald Timmy photos. Like I thought all of those were real at one point in time, but I'll say him with hair just because that's it suits him better. I think he can be bald when he's old. You know, like not that I needed it, but some more bald representation, you know, I can't complain. know my audience. OK, I'm a bald man.

The SWAMP (38:57.72)
Team bald has gained another baddie. Yeah, of course. Always a thumbs up from me. I will go with his hair because of it's so moppy. Next one is a raffle or a scratch ticket. A raffle because I do love the drama and conflamma of them reading the name and for a second you're like, it could be me. A scratch ticket I find always depressing.

Like every time I never buy them because I don't gamble. I don't really like to fuck around with my money like that. But if one is ever like given to me as like a gift or anything, I'm always just kind of like, OK, now we go through the somber experience of scratching off the little things to see that you either won nothing or that you won another dollar that you can basically just buy another scratch. It is like the intended purpose. So not really my vibe. I.

Right there with you, Dara. I think like a raffle is like a is a communal experience like that, that shared excitement. So good. Have you ever won a raffle that stands out to you in your mind? no, not not really. Like I think I've won, you know, like my mom was in charge of like Boy Scouts and StarCup Scouts. So like the little kids stuff back in the day. So she was throwing a lot of raffles, lot of like fundraising stuff going on. So witness to one, you know, I think I won like some soap one time.

You know, that's not socks, but I was having a great time at the raffle. You know, I won shit and I guess you put your ticket in the soap. So that's kind of on you. That's sort of like, did you ever like see you're like, this one doesn't really have a lot of tickets in it. Maybe I should go for it. And then you're like, what am I going to do if I win the soap? Well, that was usually my strategy. I was was usually a little defeatist about the raffles. Funnily enough, right. There'd be like a cool like utility knife or like a never win that. No.

Well, if you're like a Cub Scout thing, everybody's going for the utility knife. Exactly. No one's going for the soap. Yeah. Yeah. Raffle all day. Yeah. Same. I agree with you, Dar. That moment when they're reading the ticket and you're like, I hope you win and you think you're going to win. And then they call the number and somebody wins. Like, yeah, good stuff. I do have a ticket to this one. So I have a story about when I was probably

The SWAMP (41:20.204)
let go from the bandparent association. So they had I was in charge of the raffle table and there were two Christmas trees. One had hardware supply gift cards and one had dance costume dance. This is cards. And everybody was throwing their tickets in and I pulled the winner of the hardware store one and the woman this total.

band parent mom was like, I didn't put my ticket in that one. So maybe I flipped the baskets. But then what do you do? Do you give her the other one or do you are you like, sorry then? And then you draw from the original. This is a real moral dilemma. I would have I would have been probably so uncomfortable that I would have been like, I guess you can. So insistent that I gave her the dance thing and then I just dumped all the tickets into the other one hoping. Yeah.

It's bad, The TMA president was like, thank you for helping. You're never invited back. my God. That's some like weaponized incompetent shit that you could pull as a parent. If you're getting roped into doing too much, show up and do it so badly that they're like, we don't want your help anymore, actually. Guilt free. Next one is Gouda or Grier.

I'll say Gruyere, I do love Gouda, but I Gruyere is like perfect shredding cheese to add amongst other cheeses to elevate their flavor for such dishes as like, you know, mac and cheese or a quiche or just, you know, whatever you're putting shredded cheese into, it can be improved by a Gruyere. I think I prefer a Gouda. I've said in the past, Gouda is the one that I'd like, if I had to cut out the rest of the cheeses, I'd stick with Gouda. That'd be like my one cheese.

So yeah, I'm going with Gouda. That's a bold choice. Smoked Gouda. Cheap smoked Gouda though sometimes gives me hot dog like too much. Hot dog cheese though? dog cheese? No, you kidding me? When you're like this cheese tastes like a hot dog. Russell me up some hot dog cheese. That sounds all right. All right, that was it for chocolate or vanilla. And now I have a very quick new game.

The SWAMP (43:42.584)
I want to try a couple of different new games in the next couple of weeks. I'm motivated. Love it. All right. So I'm going to read you the sentence from the first sentence from the Wikipedia plot of a movie. you have to guess what the movie is. no. We get no year, no first letter. No, hint. Just the first. OK, OK. But the three in the end will have a theme. Sure, sure. All right. In New York City.

Pianist Joe Gardner teaches music part-time at a middle school while dreaming of playing jazz professionally. Is this the Pixar movie Soul? Yes. Which I only watched once. It came out on Christmas, like during the pandemic. are correct. And I remember it feeling very like forlorn and melancholy and dealing with a lot of like, like.

issues about an adult man pursuing a passion that I was like, I just don't think this is going to resonate with kids. Like it was very kind of serious and sad. But. I haven't, you know, it didn't pop off as far as Pixar movies go. I don't think soul is, know, maybe there's some little kid out there who's really into the movie soul and maybe took up some jazz because of it. Let's hope. Number two in medieval Scotland.

a young princess celebrates her birthday and is given a bow and arrow by her father, king, dismaying his wife. OK, so is there all going to be Pixar movies? I'll be shooting for my own hat. If you had the chance to change your fate. Would you? OK, last one. So we already know the theme. In a world of an anorthomorphic animals, a rabbit from a rural area fills

find, uh, fills her childhood dream of becoming the first rabbit police officer in the city. Judy Ha. Zootopia, which Zootopia 2 is coming out soon. Already came out. The trailer's out. I just remember seeing pregnant Judy Hopps and I don't know if that was real or if somebody made that. I think somebody probably made it, but I don't.

The SWAMP (46:03.95)
don't want to touch that franchise with a 10 foot pole if I'm being quite honest with you. When did the first Zootopia come out? was like... I want to say like 2019? or something like that. like after... That's in a pre-BLM world. Yeah, we're pre-Floyd. Pre-George Floyd. Pre-George Floyd. Zootopia. Oh God. Like,

Not with a 10 foot pole. I mean, I'm going to see it. You know, I have to know. I have to know if she's 2016. 2016. Yeah. Well, the only thing from those movies that I think we can culturally extract and judge separately is Shakira as the what is she like? The gazelle. Yeah, the Shakira song and the gazelle of it all that I can I can fuck with. Dude, it's going to be.

The first and second Trump term, Zootopia's? Wait, it's truly a cultural response. What is going on? And if anything, as from how it was last time, we need to take the message more seriously. Is Zootopia part of Project 2025? Oh my god. are we witnessing? Is that part of the plan? They're going to get all the furries onto the alt-right pipeline if they weren't already.

Yeah, I imagine that's a pretty tight Venn diagram. They're like the furries need to want to be cops. How can we get this to happen? They'd be perfect police. Oh, no. Oh, that was wonderful. Was that that was the end of the theme was we got all three of them and the theme. I made it too easy. Yeah, too easy. Make it harder next time. I mean, it harder next time.

I like the soft launch though. It's a promising concept. Yeah, I like this game. I like this game. Thank you, Jen, as always for being here on The Swamp. We love you and we'll see you next week. Okay. I love you guys. Have an awesome night. Bye. wait, you actually told me this amazing fact about how Stephen King bought a radio station to just play ACDC. Yeah, up in Maine when he was writing his books in the 80s. You know, alluding to the cranking lines and...

The SWAMP (48:19.476)
slamming 30 racks and typing out screenplays and novels. Stephen King bought his own radio station that was just playing ad free ACDC all day long so that he didn't have to worry about not hearing ACDC. That's amazing. could just listen to his radio, which I mean. What a brilliant use of your your funds. You come into some money, you start really popping off as a writer and you're like, I don't want to listen to classic rock radio if it's not just playing ACDC. So I'm just going to

buy a radio station, like invented streaming. So cool. Billionaires nowadays, not that he was a billionaire at the time, but rich people now, boring, too easy to spend your money on boring shit. Get creative. I think like if I had the amount of money that some of these billionaires had, the water slides I'd be building would be so intricate. You know what mean? I would be doing some roller coaster tycoon stuff. I wouldn't just be like making more of the same money that I already had. Right, yeah. Who cares about the stock market? You got a few milli, buy it.

Get a theme park. If I get like one thousand more dollars than I already do, I'm starting to build that water slide. The threshold is super low for a billion dollars and you're not working on your theme park. That's that's fucking insane. You know, that's why billionaires shouldn't exist, because at a certain point you should just start building your theme park. That is happened way sooner for some of you freaks. Too many theme park. There'd be too many theme parks. No, no, no, no, no, no such thing.

That'd be a happier America, actually, you know, but it does leave us open for a maximum overdrive style invasion. Right. Where all the roller coasters go against us. Right. Which would be, mean, yeah, that's that's better. That's better. Well, that's your sequel, Stephen King. That's better. Haunted theme park. And everyone gets stuck, you know, on the rides and stuff. That's almost certainly a goosebumps book. yeah. Almost definitely. Yeah. I couldn't tell you which one. Which I was a little bit surprised that this movie didn't have more gore. Like it is pretty gory, but I was imagining some like

pretty intense car wreck bodily mutilation. And we didn't see too much. It's really just the fake blood. There's loads and there's plenty of fake blood and that's really it. When people get shot by the M60, the big mounted machine gun on the truck, it doesn't show, there's no squibs, there's just paint afterwards. There's no bullet impacts, we just see the reaction to being Lots of little tricks like that, where whenever like,

The SWAMP (50:43.192)
you know, whenever cutting to a close up of a silicone model of like something happening, you know, there's no like practical effects like that. The part where the kid gets run over by the road roller. yeah. It's like, it's just like a soft foam roll and you can like see it like curving around the kid. I just assumed it was like a dummy, but you, there's like, what do you call like that construction, like the big roller. A road roller. Yeah, big.

road roller that gets taken over to which if we had seen more like cranes and stuff that also would have been cool. Haunted construction site. Yeah. I think so some things that this movie could benefit from is a sense of scale for sure. because we get the kid does his bicycle ride through the suburbs and sees we see some of the carnage we see some of the stuff happening on the road and apparently his dad gets killed but I don't ever remember seeing that. Which one is his dad. They're like your dad got hit by a truck. I'm like what.

When did that happen? I have no idea which one his dad is. Also, if he could have just had one or two lines to be like, I better get to the truck station because that's where my dad works or like something like, why is he going there? Are they saying it's like, Sonny, if he's not here, he's dead. yeah. If I don't see him in front of my eyes, boy, he's dead now. Because then we get this attempt at like a true emotional moment where like Emilio Estevez and his new wife are like consoling this child. They have like a it's not your fault kind of like. Yeah, yeah.

What is going on? The guy, the Bubba, the unfeeling, terrible man is like, sorry, boy, but your son, your papa's dead. And then he's like, how could you do that? And he's like, the kid really earns his Oscar. The woman slaps him and is like, you better learn your manners. funny. What a bizarre remark to say that after, like, you don't really handle the death of a child's father well. And he's like, you have such bad.

Manos. Again, just Ripsline cranks up ACDC. It doesn't it literally doesn't matter so far. It's like a it's kind of like a classic ACDC too. It's not like the more modern or I say more modern like any it's obviously nothing from the 90s. So it's all like, you know, there's no highway to hell on there. Sure. There's like, know, that would have been appropriate though. It's super appropriate. We do do get for those about to rock. We salute you like some of the

The SWAMP (53:03.222)
Hell's Bells we get on there too. There's some real like some banger needle drops that are they're so distracting and completely unearned. no, they're like it's like it's for like a bad the badass moment is that they're traveling. It's like all the ACDC songs are in like montage more or less, you know, they're just like they're these passing moments of like, my God, how

Epic is it? This movie's epic. Epic. I've been like ironic. You know when you start saying something kind of ironically, but then you start saying it so much that it's like, I can't really argue that the use is ironic anymore because I am genuinely using it as a reaction and saying epic as that very like 2012 millennial like, you know.

Epic meal time is always the first thing that comes to mind for me. It's like bake, epic bacon. This movie is wicked epic bacon. epic. That's epic, bro. I don't mean epic like Lord of the Rings or like the Bible. mean, it's just something that's like a little bit cool. I mean, it's like sick, bro. That's epic. No, this movie is the whole thing is that it's sick, dude. Everything that happens, it's like it's so sick, dude. Like every time I see a scene.

I feel like that is what the art is trying to communicate to me. know, like that's the emotional through line of this movie is how totally radical it is. That's like the whole thing. I still can't get over the green fucking goblin face on that truck, right? never explained. And the guy who gets out of the truck, he gets out of the truck to fuel the truck up. He goes in and says like, I'm going to go get some coffee. And he basically just like.

pats the green goblin head and says to the guy about to pump his gas, you like that? He's like, you like it? And basically, no explanation. it new? The back of the truck is for toy, it's like a toy load. And the logo of the Happy Toys company is a clown, but it's not the green goblin. Yeah, because presumably different back parts of the truck get put, you know, the green goblin front of the semi is entirely different from the cargo.

The SWAMP (55:09.834)
Right? so that's just that guy. what he's that guy doesn't work for Happy Toys. He's just hauling Happy Toys. Yeah. Yeah. Right now. But he just always has his personal Green Goblin truck. But it's just hilarious because the trucks we get that primarily circle the premises are like Bic, like Bic Liders. I think there's like a Miller, like Miller beer on one of them. So they just pick some specific companies, which again.

Did this get cleared by legal? Like, can we use the Bic logo on a haunted truck? If I worked for Bic, I'd be like, no. It makes you think, like, is that? Because in my mind, that's like how you do an integrated sponsorship. But in the not thought out, coked out movie world that we're living in right now.

That could just be, that's just the logos that were on those trucks, man. I don't know. Yeah, it's like, well, I would just put the trucks in there, man. I don't know. I don't know. We got, we got a couple thousand dollars from Bic. I'm saying like Bic didn't even know, right? Yeah. Bic didn't even pay for this. They were just like, this is just the kind of like, we don't, couldn't possibly Greek this out. We couldn't possibly make this work. You know, let's just fuck it. It's going in the movie. We already have the green goblin in there. You know, like who cares if a Bic truck makes it through. What are they going to do? Sue me? I'm Stephen King. Exactly. Yeah.

The kind of confidence, the kind of confidence you get only from starting a fat line and just being in an environment, being in an environment where not anyone will ever tell you no. No. So he just would like probably throw out an idea and everyone is like, okay, well, I guess we're making that happen. Okay. On the Wiki, it says that he would like that he sucked at directing and he was basically like weighing over his head.

which I think is probably why the substance use was so up at that point, right? Cause he's just like, you know, having a stressful I don't know what I'm doing. Yeah. I'm sure making a movie is very stressful. I'm sure a ton of people are talking to you about money and shit that you don't have the answer to all the time. A new director too, I bet is like, if you're not used to being in a movie making world, like that's, that's a, that's that's a tough, all encompassing, you're touching every part of a big production job to have.

The SWAMP (57:16.478)
what you'd be way more privy to having producers take advantage of you too if it's your first time doing it like he didn't know any better than to just listen to what everyone was telling him probably which is definitely not in the best interest of the art. No there's a another funny story from the wiki is the the cinematographer

Yeah. You read the story too. Yeah. I want to, before you tell the story, I want to note that while we were watching it, there was a handful of moments that I was like, wow, this one was kind of like well shot. Like there were some, like the lighting was kind of nice. Like I can't say for all of it. There were some times that it definitely was getting a little rocky and did not look as nice, but there were a few moments, especially in this opening sequence where we get Giancarlo Esposito in the arcade that's attached to the truck stop.

And it's like the arcade machines also come alive and zap him and it's like there's the spin out coins and cigarette. It gets like hypnotized by one of them and he like touches it. And it's basically yeah, just like a Pac-Man machine or something and it zaps him and he dies. But the whole thing is like these cool lights and just this interesting framing and blocking and I was like, wow, this movie looks kind of nice. And I was like, who is who did this?

And then that led me to learn this story about Stephen King just like, actually royally fucking up. Not that not only is this movie bad, but like people got hurt. Yeah. The guy lost his eye. So the, the cinematographer of this movie, Armando Nannuzzi, think. is Italian because they gave him, they were like, Stephen King doesn't know what he's doing. So let's get a pretty high end cinematographer.

So they really balled out and got someone good, which is so funny. And what's even funnier too is this guy did not speak English. So he had like this very like vague grasp. If you would ask him questions, he would just respond with yes, yes, yes. You just need to just, you know. Again, so lit for Coked Out Stephen King that the guy shooting your movie is like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we got that. I'm a yes man because I don't even know what you're saying to me. They only taught me yes.

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Armando Nannuzzi loses his eye. He's the one holding the camera. And he is looking down the scope of the barrel during the lawnmower scene. The lawnmower isn't around for very long. It's just kind of like scares the kid. chases him a little bit. It's a brief It's covered in blood to imply that it has killed before, but we don't get to see that. So when they go to shoot it, when the lawnmower turns on, despite being warned that they should just take the blades out of the lawnmower,

Cause who's going to see it anyways? In that shot, you don't see the spinning blades at no point are the blades like even part of the shot at all. Um, we don't see the grass behind the lawnmower being cut. there's no, there's no reason to have blades in that lawnmower. Stephen King was warned about it. He was like, no, it should be in there. Um, again, yeah, it should be in there. And, uh, when they turned the lawnmower on to film the scene, a stick that was attached to the blade flew out and hit Armando directly in the eye.

He had to be helicoptered out and he eventually lost that eye, which was the same eye. He's a cinematographer. That's the same eye that he used to look down the lens of the camera. That's, that's, that's he literally lost his eye. Like he lost his vision. He called it his shooting eye. Yeah. He doesn't have that eye anymore. That's crazy. Did he do any notable work after this? He went back to Italy and he did, he did like consulting work and stuff like that. And he's, sued the shit out of Stephen King in a lawsuit that he won. Yeah.

Thank God. Thank God. Like $16 million. Thank God it wasn't Marvel suing Stephen King, but rather this man who truly did lose an eye. Yeah. Yeah. Marvel's not losing anything from this, but somebody did and they, did get their comeuppance. So thank God for that. But yeah, a lesson learned, guess, take the, take the blades out of your lawnmower, dude. And maybe then that is, cause did he finish the movie? Like, no, no, no. So then that makes sense to me why some of this movie looks really nice and

other parts of it do not at all because you had a different person behind the camera. No, you are right. I think especially that opening sequence is like the lighting of it's so interesting. The just like the blocking of it adds to a lot of the tension and that that tension is lacking in other parts of the movie. The rest of the movie is just kind of like there's no even when they're doing their escape scene at the end, there's no real tension there. Like they never get spotted by the trucks. They're just kind of they have.

The SWAMP (01:01:46.99)
They have rocket launchers and guns, but it doesn't really like... They give a gun to the child and the child shoots a machine to sort of get back for his dead dad. And then he's like, I don't want this anymore. And the kid swears off violence for the rest of the movie, like with 15 minutes left to go. Beautiful. So beautiful. And Emilio Estevez's solution is that he knows of an island where there are no cars. And he says this in like a post-coital haze to his lover.

He's like, I know about this place. so there's no, there's no cars. If they can just get away from the truck stop, they can get on a boat, which are all vehicles reliable. What do we know about the control of machines? Nothing. So you're okay. You're relying on a machine to get you across to this machine less place. What at no point are they like they make that at no point are they ever punished for their assumptions.

They assume that the boat will be fine. And it is. it's fine and nothing matters. They assume that if they pump gas for the trucks that none of them will be killed and it's fine and everything's fine and the trucks are true to their word. And everyone was fine. The only people who are ever in danger are the people who are like.

Come on, what are you gonna do? Hit me with your truck. Yeah, right. The stupid people who die to show that violence can happen. Right, right. The crook Bible salesman who tries to like, you know, assault that woman in his car. Like he's like, well, geez, you know, I'll go outside and I'll teach these aliens a lesson. You know, that's the only people we're killing in this movie. Everybody else. she again runs out at the gun. She loses her mind and like is like, kill me, please. Yeah, there's like the.

There's kind of an interesting part where like the trucks seem to celebrate after they kill. I think it's after they kill the waitress, they all start like honking their horns at the same time, which, you know, the truck's goals are never really understood for me. I think so. They circle the gas station, the whole movie. Is that because they are corralling these people to keep them at the gas station? So they wait for all the other trucks to come so that they can fuel everyone up? they need to keep like their slaves.

The SWAMP (01:04:00.93)
where they are. So then we can send out the Morse code speaking gun truck, the warden and just hope that we can get the message across that we need you to do this 70 days and 70 nights of pumping gas. That's going to destroy, just destroy your morale. That the montage, the sun does not change positions in the sky like that much. They do that. That montage of them fueling up where Emilio Estevez is like dehydrated as shit, his hands are blistered.

is like over the course of like four hours based on the sunlight that we're working with. It's not like the evening time by the time he finishes or anything like that. They start at high noon and by like, you know. It would have been funnier if he had to spend the eight days of them being in the wake of the comet fueling these trucks. Kind of like the long walk kind of vibe, right? Which I did just see the long walk in theaters. I was afraid I was going to miss it.

because it's petering out. are not as many show times as there were a couple of weeks ago. But I did walk times. did get my ass to the theater and I did really like it. Especially if you're a Stephen King fan, knowing his kind of sense of horror and drama, it very much was giving that and amazing performances from David Johnson. I don't know. He's from Europe, so it could go either way.

Cooper Hoffman, just like really, they just knocked it out of the park. But like so gory and so gruesome. I went with my mom and I like apologized to her afterwards. I'm like, I'm sorry you had to see that. Also a lot of poop coming out of butts being shown.

like shit coming out of a butthole that you see like more than once. That's a good like Instagram page that I've found recently that's like public poopers. Yeah, public poopers. Yeah, it's really quite, you can just be horrified for as long as you want to be. On the internet, if you wish to be horrified, you can just that's an option for you at Imagine if Stephen King had had Instagram reels in the 80s.

The SWAMP (01:06:05.646)
That would have been crazy. No, think actually he would have been so content. He never would have written anything. He would have had everything that he needed. would have just doom scrolls. That's why there's no good art being made anymore. We're all just scrolling. We're watching public poopers on Instagram Reels. We'll never have another Maximum Overdrive because of public poopers and uppers really just aren't that popular anymore. Yeah. What drugs are big with Hollywood? They're all taken.

Well, at least I know the rich people are taking like ketamine and shit, you know, they're all they're all they're all in Ozempic and downers. Yeah, they're all chilling out. They're all vibing out. Just investing. They're all investing in micro dosing LSD and psilocybin, bro. Yeah. I mean, I guess nothing, nothing wrong with a little, you know, micro micro dose and investment and chill. there would also be nothing wrong with a cocaine movie. You know, let's let's get that back.

Charlie XCX is making her a directorial debut. that will probably be a new kind of cocaine movie. It'll be at least be upwards. it's gonna be giving party. Yeah, it's giving party. I guess that's where the uppers are in music. Yeah, we're taking ecstasy. go to the club. Charlie XCX is sort of the modern day Stephen King when you think about it. Yeah.

No, anyone who is anyone who's abusing substances in any capacity can just be described as a modern day Stephen King. That's funny because he's just like such a mild like cocaine user by comparison, right? Like he's still alive. Probably just like ruin some of his like, you know, personal relationships, but he was wealthy in the 80s. You know what I mean? Like he's no different from anybody else in his shoes. You know, so real.

Who among us, if we didn't, you know, we made a couple hundred thousand dollars here and there for my books, you know, for ripping a line or two. Come on. He earned it. And what would you say if you were hosting a Maximum Overdrive themed party or just the two of us last evening? What would you serve for food and drink themed? I think because it's a truck stop.

The SWAMP (01:08:20.758)
and there's like a diner attached to it. I would like, would give us both like, you would want an eggs Benedict. So I'd probably, would like, would, I would whip up an eggs Benedict and then maybe also like another, like if we're going, we can either. So we got two options, right? We can either go eggs Benedict or like club sandwiches, you know, like the big, a big, like the triple stack of the bread, big stupid, big stupid olive on top of that toothpick, you know, very like, yeah, it's gotta be a diner vibe.

to me, it's gotta be the meal for this. The Bible salesman at one point is shown eating a very mayonnaise forward sandwich and talking with food in his mouth trying to sell Bibles while he just like has this goopy mayo slurry in his mouth. Yeah. That was very much giving. Yeah, I don't think they'd have hollandaise sauce. Like I think an Eggs Benedict is shooting too high. I'm saying- Yeah, not in a truck stop, you're right. I'm saying you do like a fucked up scrambled egg. You know when you go somewhere and they basically have an option to get a slop bowl.

It's like, it's like they'll call it a scramble. They're like, you know, get the Southwestern scramble. And it's like, we basically just took eight to 12 ingredients and we mashed them up and you're going to get a slop bowl. Yeah. We're not going to throw enough eggs at this to make it an omelet, but you know, and it's not going to be, you are going to have to eat it like a hog at a trough. You know, like there's no, there's no rhyme or reason to cutlery here. It's

just a slop bowl. Yeah, just dig in. So I think you could do like a big egg scramble where you have, know, whatever meats you've got in your fridge. Um, you know, sausage, bacon, just chop it, just chop it up. Big burnt piece of toast on the grill. Yeah. Crumble up a toast in there. Crumble up a toast into your scramble. Yeah. Some salsa, add some salsa. Like we've got salsa in the fridge, you know, that might as well be in there as well. It's gotta be like that cheap, like a canned stuff from the store. You know, like the most like white people's salsa you can get, you know,

I was also thinking like chili, like a can of like Hormel chili. Yeah, absolutely, dude. Absolutely. Yeah. So I'm a can of the Hormel corned beef hash. yeah. yeah. I just feel like Maximum Overdrive spam, which yeah, I two pieces of white bread with mustard and a couple of pieces of spam. Yeah, that's this movie for sure. Yeah. I my letterbox review, I called it a Bud Light Lime on the Beach, which I do.

The SWAMP (01:10:45.206)
I say that because it's like, wouldn't normally, but I'm on the beach. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I'm there. I think like it's embrace this movie. You know, it's like, it's, it's happening to me. So I might as well accept it. You're at the beach, go for a swim. You wouldn't normally go for a swim in the ocean. That's not like a youth thing. But like, you got your shoes off already. You have your Bud Light line. Go in the ocean, watch maximum overdrive. And I will use this opportunity to shout out anyone who's listening, who's a letterbox user.

If you don't follow me or Henry or Emily, all of our letterbox handles will be in the description below. Henry writes very funny movie reviews. You give every movie either five or zero stars. The only ones so they receive just no rating. The only ones that I've given no rating to are... Because there's not a zero star option. You have to give it a half star.

Yeah, yeah. So I just like, but you can give half star or just no rating at all. And you can write the review and do no rating. Yeah, so it's yours is truly pass fail, which I think is a bit of an enlightened way to be a cinema viewer. And typically like a movie, it's like to give you a frame of reference for my rating. Like the only movies that have not earned a rating are Amelia Perez.

Hello very nice to meet you, I'd to know but I will say- Change of operation. I would give Amelia Perez a half a star just for the day-to-day use that me and my friends get out of I see, see, I see. Now that is the default way to say to somebody that you understand, I see, I see, I see. Our buddy Gavin, poor Gavin, deeply in his lexicon was-

I see. see. see. Now it's a CIC. I see. Gavin very much is like cares about clarifying things, getting things right when you say them to him is a wonderful way to communicate with some active listener. Yeah. He's saying I see it, but I'm never not going to hit him with the I see. see. I see. I can't help myself to woman or woman just roasting. And the other one that I've given no rating to at all.

The SWAMP (01:12:50.74)
is the Leon the professional because that's a movie made by pedophiles for pedophiles. Yeah, it's it's it's just Leon the professional is the most disgusting and especially if you watch the director's cut, which is insane that it's like legal to view it. Yeah, we had this strange experience where if you listen to the episode that we did on the swamp about it, I think I talk about it, but it's like the Leon the professional, the cut that you can find usually.

has a bunch of really fucked up shit cut out of it. And then if you watch the director's cut, it's like very much you realize that the person behind the camera is a pedophile. And then you learn, like we also didn't know that the first time. having lived with thinking I kind of like this movie and then learning that there's this like really sinister other side of it that I didn't know about is like, it just makes you feel so icky and.

feels so icky for Natalie Portman and just everyone. So that simply cannot be a five star movie. Right. Yeah. But then pretty much I give everything else I watch five stars and then I kind of delineate it by like I like it or I don't like it. I just find like I would be full of discrepancies if I started assigning different numbers of stars to things like why is one movie four versus three.

That's all arbitrary to me. It's all, I like it or I don't, and it's going to get five stars. Yeah, I feel that way because sometimes I'll look at two movies that I've given the same star rating to. I'm like, that's crazy because I feel wildly different about those two things, but I call them both, you know, three and a half stars or whatever. I'm not using the same metrics every time. Different movies are good for different reasons. know, I like different parts of movies and stuff like that. yeah, but I like zero parts of Amelia Presley and the Pre-Lars. Yeah.

But if we're gonna do Fuck, Marry, Kill, I feel like the three main characters are Emilio Estevez, maybe Bubba. I was about to say you gotta have Bubba. Bubba. Gotta have Bubba. And then what's the love interest or do we wanna include the waitress or like who's our third? I think so the love interest is like a little too appealing. I think we gotta go with the waitress.

The SWAMP (01:14:57.806)
I think either either the waitress or the newlywed wife either either that or Lisa Simpson Yeah, I feel like the the waitress gets more screen time because she's there from the beginning Let's go waitress then for fuck. Mary kill. So I feel hmm. I'm gonna I'm gonna kill Emilio Estevez Wow, okay. He's just doing nothing. Yeah, explain yourself. You're gonna just kill this guy He's doing well because I definitely don't want to fuck her Mary Bubba actually So now that I know about your options now that I consider it

Maybe I'll kill Bubba. I guess I'll fuck Emilio Estevez in the porn room. And you know, she seemed like she still liked him afterwards. So it had to have been at least pleasant. But I'm going to marry the waitress because I'm going to give her a good talk and have her realize that this will all be over in eight days once we get out of the wake of this comet.

and that she doesn't have to run with the gun and that, you know, we can just chill and then we can both work at the truck stop after and we can tell people about that crazy shit that happened one time. I would love that. That sounds like a good life. Yeah. waitress. So I would go, I would painlessly euthanize the waitress. That's just the humane thing to do. think she's like totally lost it. Yeah. She's like a few seconds away from just. Yeah. Yeah. That poor thing.

I would also fuck Emilia Estevez because he seems like a young spry lad, know, he'd probably show me a good time. He's been to prison, you know? Yeah. That's cool. And then I guess that leaves marrying Bubba. And what you do there is you marry him. He doesn't sign the prenup because he's head over heels for me. He's totally distracted. And you get all those cool cannons. His legal defenses aren't up.

You know, he dies in a mysterious M72 law firing accident. Well, when the truck sale went evil, know, we just lost him. Who knows what happened? And then, you know, and then I inherit the truck stop and a whole cavalcade of guns. Yeah, that's that's a brilliant plan. Yeah, I'm always looking for the loophole at the fuck, Mary. Kill. I'm always trying to like up my. Yeah, I'm trying to get more resources as a result of my marriage to fuck, Mary. Kill. And I feel like from everyone, I feel like I want to fuck. John Carlo Esposito in.

The SWAMP (01:17:08.084)
the arcade room so pretty in there so that he doesn't touch the machine and die. just touches you. Yeah, exactly. I'm gonna I'm gonna marry Lisa Simpson and we're just gonna scream at each other like that forever. I think that'll be pretty nice. And then I'm who am I gonna kill? Who is the most like despicable? mean, Bubba is pretty. Yeah, for sure.

You could kill one of the trucks too. You can kill the green goblin truck. I got, I don't really want to kill the green goblin. He's kind of chill though. He's kind of chill. like the ACDC music will stop if I kill him. So that's been kind of nice. Yeah. I guess I'll just kill Bubba. Yeah. So I guess I would marry ACDC. I would fuck the suspension bridge. I would fuck that suspension bridge or draw a bridge, whatever the fuck it's called. think draw a bridge must be right. Yeah. Yeah.

We're dumb as hell dude for not knowing those. don't know. It must be engineer And then I would kill Hmm, who do I kill for the whole movie I kill I would do what the lawnmower couldn't do I would kill that kid with a lawnmower. Wow. just to just prove I could do it I kept waiting for his bike to turn on him They kept showing him riding on his bike and I'm like, when is his bike gonna turn evil? But I guess that was one of the machines that was chill What is the more Hank pilled option actually is to kill that guy with a soda?

yeah. That's what I would kill that guy by being the vending machine that kills the baseball coach with the soda can. Yeah, that shoots out the soda can. That was one of the more impactful character deaths we saw. The soda can to the temple. That's the one where we linger on his dead body the most too. That must have been one of the more expensive practical...

makeup effects that they did. Obviously not one of the most practical effects because they like they flip several cars. Those cars where they put a whole truck into a river and they blow it up. Yeah, they blow up a bunch of stuff in this. are a couple of times where you're like that was a fun day on set. Oh, like every other shots. Yeah, that must have been fun to do. There's that part of one of my favorite parts to just shout it out is like Emilio Estevez is like, huh, what are you going to do? Huh? He's like chest bumping a truck is like the truck is like.

The SWAMP (01:19:23.626)
slowly driving towards him. It's like at the end of the big fueling up montage, like the fuel truck like puts in more fuel into the gas station. And he's like, he's like chest bumping, like he tried to out macho a Mack truck. So it's a good moment. He also like talks to the truck and is like, I got that good gasoline, that uncut practically uncut gasoline. And I'm like, why are you like, rinsing yourself up to this truck right now? So that's like,

He has that little dialogue before where he's like, aren't you worried they're just gonna run you over? And he's like, that'd be like a junkie taking out a supplier. So he's like, he's he's joking about that. He's trying to be funny about, which it's, that joke really doesn't land. And I can't tell if it's because of the delivery or just like the way that it's like not really emphasized. Like that joke just kind of like, it flew over your head, right? mean, it's like, it's not a, the joke is not.

really teed up well. it's just kind of like and again the delivery and the only thing I supposed was delivery is just like kind of flat. Yeah. And serious. don't know. It doesn't sound like anybody's at no point I was like, they're making a joke, you know, like, right. They were trying to do something there for a second. guess. Hmm. In what movie would you do a double feature? After Maximum Overdrive. So we have a bunch of killer cars. I think you go to the Owen Wilson vehicle.

Cars, Pixar's Cars. Oh, that's an amazing choice. Yeah, I think you have a wholesome car movie afterwards. Yeah. Which is also like, think like it, is it Radiator Springs? like kind of like another like abandoned dusty gas station. like kind of similar setting, but totally different vibes from the cars with faces on them. I'd go Cars. Interesting. Yeah, that's a really good choice. I was just going same thought process of like Evil Machine. And I think you should just watch Terminator.

Yeah. Let's get more locked in and more serious about this evil machine, you know? Let's streamline this.

The SWAMP (01:21:20.142)
Yeah, let's let these machines actually kill. Right. Is it the first Terminator and any Terminator in general? I mean, everyone likes the second one the best. So I guess that's just the practical, the practical answer. Well, Jimmy Cameron. Yeah, James Cameron. I might try to get Emily to do James Cameron month for my birthday. You should do that. I can force her at gunpoint to watch the Avatar movies. So we can at the hour mark here. We can take this moment to talk shit about Emily.

see if she listens to this episode. No, no, I think a great, a great month would be to do the Jimmy C sequels. Right. He aliens. Yeah. Aliens. He does Terminator. There's a couple other ways. Avatar way of water. So we could just watch this James Cameron sequel month. This is, yeah, this is a, you're listening to this brainstorm happen in real time. What's another, we would just need one more really. I think he's got another really iconic one too. Because both aliens, I can't say aliens is better than alien, but it's certainly

It's a sequel. It's a really, really good sequel, but I would say Terminator 2 is better than Terminator and everyone would agree with that. I think Most people would agree with that. I love a sequel that supersedes the first one, like a superior sequel. I think it's pretty rare, but when it does happen, it like really fucking hits. Yeah, yeah. And I would say Avatar 2, The Way of Water is better than the first Avatar, but again, just kind of different. I don't know. Same with Iliya, just kind of hard to say. It's like, Avatar 2 is different. I feel

Like it's a good sequel. I don't know. I need to like spend a month in like the hyperbaric chamber before I like have an answer on whether or not to like Avatar one or two better. Yeah. They're both so good. to like achieve Nirvana. you gotta go to... I had somebody tell me once that they got for Christmas a gift card to one of those sensory deprivation tank places. So they went there. Like I wouldn't have really gone, but I just like got a gift card.

And they went and then you basically like lay in this high salt water concentration and you kind of float in this darkness and they leave you there for like an hour plus and you're supposed to, you know, all your muscles release from the tension because you're floating, but also like your mind, you know, you need to do that to finally come to the, to the conclusion. You need to ponder this in the chamber. Yeah. Well, Henry, thank you so much for stepping in and being a filler.

The SWAMP (01:23:40.002)
co-host this week. Of course, my pleasure, my pleasure. To talk about this batshit movie. seems, I love when you come on and you're always like, let's watch something bad. I don't have anything to say about a good movie. It's so real. All I have say about a good movie is like, man, it was so good when they did that. that was great. You know, this movie, I have lots of, I do, at end of the day, I do love this movie. It's super endearing. was, you know, we, last night I'm,

I'm a very sleepy baby. I have a hard time. And we were gonna try to watch Barry Lyndon, which is famously three hours, famously three hours, historically three hours. And I was just like, there's no way I'm not gonna fall asleep during that. And this movie, you know, it's 90 minutes, which was promising. zaps you. I had no, like I was not under threat of falling asleep even once during this movie. It's like it had me by the seat of my pants. Cause I'm too busy trying to figure out what is what machines, which ones. Right.

I'm too, I can't fall asleep because I am still trying to figure out what's going on. That's where all the tension lives. It's which arbitrary choice are they going to make next? Honestly, make your movie interesting by making it confusing. That's a technique. It worked for this guy for sure. worked for this one. Also, I would say this movie is endearing because it shows that somebody who is the greatest of all time at one thing can be pretty bad at something else, right? Like Stephen King is the king of horror or is a...

Notably just one of the best-selling authors of all time. It's like yeah, and he couldn't make a good movie. No, he couldn't do it so You probably can't either George Clooney didn't start acting till he was like, you know 40 or whatever. So you know true. Yeah something like that. That's like a yeah sure And thank you for listening AC DC may it score your life

Be wary of Green Goblin trucks. Stay safe out there and have a lovely rest of your day. Do you have any parting words for the people, Henry? Yeah, I just miss back when things were normal, back before everything turned to maximum overdrive.