Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha, and welcome to stuff
Speaker 1: I never told you inspection of I Heart Radio. Here's
Speaker 1: my question for you today, Samantha, because I've decided I'm
Speaker 1: just going to start asking you random questions at the
Speaker 1: beginning of every episode. Okay, have you ever seen While
Speaker 1: you were Sleeping? Oh? Yeah, I used to be in
Speaker 1: my Christmas movie list for a long while because Sandra Bullock,
Speaker 1: as beautiful as she is, that was her first movie
Speaker 1: that I saw her. No, that's not true. Love Pushing
Speaker 1: Number nine was actually the first movie I saw her in.
Speaker 1: But in each one of these characters, she was the
Speaker 1: normal girl, which, by the way, is not true if
Speaker 1: you look at it. But but she was supposed to
Speaker 1: be the normal, funny girl. And I love that, so,
Speaker 1: yes I did. It's been a minute, but that was
Speaker 1: in my roster. Was that? Like, I'm trying to remember
Speaker 1: if I've seen it, because Disney Plus was pushing it
Speaker 1: very aggressively at me earlier. Yeah, and I feel like
Speaker 1: was there a coma involved. Well, that's the whole point
Speaker 1: of why you were sleeping. It's this weird little tidbit
Speaker 1: of the dude falls in the train tracks to where
Speaker 1: she works, so it's like a public trains that she
Speaker 1: works there. She's been qushing on this dude for a
Speaker 1: long while. It's uh, oh, my goodness. What is his
Speaker 1: name is? Eyebrows? Dus know? How dare you sorry? I
Speaker 1: will see myself out? How dare you? I'm sorry that
Speaker 1: I don't know what eyebrows? Peter Gallagher is his name,
Speaker 1: and as in fact, he's a new girl as Schmid's dad.
Speaker 1: And one of the first things she says to him
Speaker 1: is commenting about his eyebrows, because he is an infamous
Speaker 1: guy with those eyebrows. But he falls into the tracks,
Speaker 1: goes into a coma. She saves his life advertently somehow
Speaker 1: miss you know, all of the meet cute things and
Speaker 1: all the kafuffle, somehow gets mistaken as his fiancee. Oh yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: And so that's how it all begins. Um, for Bill
Speaker 1: Pullman is there and he's the actual main squeeze love
Speaker 1: interest hero. I guess of the movie. It's just the
Speaker 1: whole thing. But the cast is fantastic. Peter Boyle is
Speaker 1: in it, and you can't help but love Peter Boyle.
Speaker 1: Um actually, an iconic old movie star was in it too.
Speaker 1: Glenny's John's and she was the mother and Mary Poppins,
Speaker 1: and I just really really appreciated that she was in
Speaker 1: that movie. Um, but yeah, it's uh, I know way
Speaker 1: too much about this movie. So so why are you
Speaker 1: asking me? I was not expect of an answer, but
Speaker 1: I'm very happy. But because I was just confused about
Speaker 1: like sleeping since Seattle and while we were sleeping, and
Speaker 1: I knew that you could clarify this for me without
Speaker 1: me having to do the onerous task of googling it.
Speaker 1: So I appreciate that. Um, I will put it in
Speaker 1: consideration because Disney Plus is pushing it at me right now.
Speaker 1: It's cheesy. I don't know how well it's aged, so
Speaker 1: I can't really put my endorsement behind it. But it
Speaker 1: is one that I grew up on and loved and adored. Okay,
Speaker 1: and a Christmas movie, all right, it's a Christmas Well,
Speaker 1: it starts as Christmas movie. Okay, you're adding a lot
Speaker 1: of layers here. Layers are well. Today we were talking
Speaker 1: about it is a feminist movie Friday. We are not
Speaker 1: talking about what you're sleeping or sleepless in Seattle. We
Speaker 1: were just trying to that was a mcguffin. Um, we're
Speaker 1: talking about something much more recent, and it is a
Speaker 1: suggestion of Samantha's the Netflix film, the new Netflix film,
Speaker 1: The Old Guard. So if you haven't seen it and
Speaker 1: don't want to be spoiled, now is your chance. Then
Speaker 1: you can come back and listen to this. Um really good,
Speaker 1: still trending, I think. And you know what, and for
Speaker 1: those who need just a mindless action movie and morning
Speaker 1: it does have violence and really gross scenes. That's how
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put it. But to me, it was worth
Speaker 1: it and will most likely be put into my rotation
Speaker 1: for my comfort ish quote films as something that I
Speaker 1: play that I'm like, I just want to kind of
Speaker 1: zone out. Yeah, So like while You're sleeping the Old Guarden,
Speaker 1: so while You're while you were sleeping is now pulled
Speaker 1: out of my list because it's one of those like
Speaker 1: it's been so long that I've seen it that I'm
Speaker 1: scared that I'm gonna be disappointed by it. Um, And
Speaker 1: with all of the realization and growth in my life,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't know if I'm ready to be
Speaker 1: disappointed by this. I totally understand. There are certain movies
Speaker 1: that I loved in high school that I am too
Speaker 1: afraid to rewatch because I'm almost certain they don't hold up. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so while You're Sleeping was on that list with like,
Speaker 1: um love Act Truly and Don't Judge Me and Harry
Speaker 1: Potter as my Christmas movies. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.
Speaker 1: I see you. Um well, we'll go on. You know,
Speaker 1: anything could be a Christmas movie if you want it
Speaker 1: hard enough, die hard. Spider verse, spider verse. Um. So,
Speaker 1: The Old Guard has been hailed as a summer blockbuster
Speaker 1: during COVID nineteen, when that is sort of a rarity,
Speaker 1: if not almost non existent right now. According to Netflix
Speaker 1: at Broke Records in terms of viewership, up to seventy
Speaker 1: two million within one month, um, which I do find
Speaker 1: funny because I catch myself. I feel like I've said
Speaker 1: this on several podcasts now, but I'm scraping the bottle
Speaker 1: of the barrel when it comes to horror movies at
Speaker 1: this point. And I do think that anything new, anything
Speaker 1: new that comes out right now, it's like, what could
Speaker 1: it be? Um, So, there is the benefit of that,
Speaker 1: but um it did attracted a lot of years and
Speaker 1: a lot of repeat viewers, and it is a superhero
Speaker 1: movie in a lot of ways, but in other ways
Speaker 1: it diverges. So it's kind of as we talked about
Speaker 1: in our Star Wars episode about the whole summer blockbuster thing.
Speaker 1: It is doing that, but during a time of quarantine. Yes,
Speaker 1: and speaking of Star Wars, I just want to point
Speaker 1: out here the top grossing movie for several months now
Speaker 1: in the US, I think since March until now is
Speaker 1: the Empire strikes Back. Yep, it's making like fourty five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars a month because they're playing old movies and
Speaker 1: theaters and ding the like our drive Ins, um so
Speaker 1: my whole my favorite still still succeeding. And actually, speaking
Speaker 1: of drive Ins, I know they just re released at
Speaker 1: drive Ins uh mad Max the Fury Road, so in
Speaker 1: you know, going along with our Charlie's movies. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: I just actually want to point that out as well.
Speaker 1: But yeah, actually I was talking about Rogue One the
Speaker 1: other day because I realized I haven't seen that one yet.
Speaker 1: But there's been a debate back and forth about people
Speaker 1: talking about how much they loved that movie and why
Speaker 1: it's getting such a bad rap. Because Holly was on
Speaker 1: a movie crush about Rogue one. She chose Rope one. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know that that precipitated the whole thing. I
Speaker 1: just know that a lot of people have been contacting
Speaker 1: me about it because she was not okay, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: it was a whole different level. And I was like, mm,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I've seen that one yet, which
Speaker 1: you and I have been on repeat. By the way, y'all,
Speaker 1: I've been trying to get through these movies, but we
Speaker 1: go back on repeat, just so everyone knows. And there's
Speaker 1: been a start seeing you. It's been a while. Started
Speaker 1: Rogue one and we got twenty minutes? Is that what happened?
Speaker 1: So yes, because it had been on But I'm like,
Speaker 1: the last movie was really bad outside of the Han
Speaker 1: Solo was like, it was really bad. Well, yeah, so
Speaker 1: we we started. It was like four in the morning
Speaker 1: and we started Rogue one and then we got twenty
Speaker 1: minutes and we're like, we'll call this a day. But
Speaker 1: then you came in later. You came back and I
Speaker 1: had watched it. I was like, wow, Dark Vader's at
Speaker 1: the end. I forgot how scary it is. And I
Speaker 1: was like, it's night in the morning, what are you doing? Yes,
Speaker 1: So we will that is next on our list. Okay,
Speaker 1: but yeah I like it. Yeah, I think it's coming back, well,
Speaker 1: not coming back when people are rewatching and reliving and
Speaker 1: loving that they forgot that they loved. Yeah, right, but
Speaker 1: back to the old Guard, just go back. It is
Speaker 1: a Netflix original movie based on a comic book by
Speaker 1: the same name, written by Leandro Fernandez and Greg Ruca,
Speaker 1: who served as the movie screenwriter. Is directed by Gina
Speaker 1: Prince Bythewood, who also directed two thousand's Love and Basketball,
Speaker 1: which was a really great movie and stars My Love
Speaker 1: and Charlie srn As and Dramaica Day Cynthia or Andy.
Speaker 1: And she says it really fast and then she does
Speaker 1: it as she knocks somebody out, So I was like,
Speaker 1: what's happening? What's her name again? Who? And then she
Speaker 1: goes or you can call me Andy. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: there it is um and Kiki Lane as Nile Freeman,
Speaker 1: who does a fantastic job, and Prince Bythewood also broke
Speaker 1: a record becoming the first black female director to break
Speaker 1: into the list of Netflix Top ten most popular films
Speaker 1: of all time. And she deserves all of that credit
Speaker 1: for sure. Yeah, and she did this um again with
Speaker 1: the caveat we're in COVID nineteen. But also whatever she
Speaker 1: did this um within four weeks as compared to like
Speaker 1: movies like The Irishman had a super long time to
Speaker 1: get on there. UM. So pretty big deal, right, So
Speaker 1: let's get into the plot. Uh. The story revolves around
Speaker 1: a team of immortal mercenaries. After learning there is a
Speaker 1: new immortal, the team rushes to get to her before
Speaker 1: this billion in their chasing them in hopes of unlocking
Speaker 1: the key to their healing abilities and immortality. Does this
Speaker 1: sort of happens in tandem where they learn about that
Speaker 1: and a betrayal and her and it kind of entwines together. UM.
Speaker 1: The comic, which was published as our Plan to be
Speaker 1: published as a five partment a series, launched in Seen
Speaker 1: and it began with The Old Guard, which you can
Speaker 1: find online for Freedom, is very very worth reading and
Speaker 1: stunning illustrations. UM a featured work by letterer Jody Winn
Speaker 1: and colorist Daniella Miwa and depicted flashbacks and these epic
Speaker 1: battles is touted as a quote fairy tale of blood
Speaker 1: and bullets as in the movie. It centers around immortal
Speaker 1: soldiers and the largely violent events that make up their lives. Typically,
Speaker 1: their immortality is uncovered after they survive an event on
Speaker 1: the battlefield that should have killed them. Usually their soldiers
Speaker 1: died on the battlefield or should have and then didn't.
Speaker 1: Once immortality is discovered, they join up with a group
Speaker 1: of others like them and spend the rest of time
Speaker 1: fighting for what they think is right. And this others
Speaker 1: like them is typically like four or five. They're not
Speaker 1: many of them in at least in the world that
Speaker 1: we are shown and Uh this what is right can
Speaker 1: differ obviously between characters, and most of them long for
Speaker 1: the day when their immortality will fade away. On top
Speaker 1: of this is the moral quandary of how much violence
Speaker 1: is used to do what's right. The leader of the group,
Speaker 1: Andy Uh, who she's been fighting for millennia. This is
Speaker 1: something she's really struggling with when we see her in
Speaker 1: in the movie. When new member US Marine Niles Freeman
Speaker 1: joins the team, it coincides with Yes, this pharmaceutical billionaire
Speaker 1: fixing his I on them. He's determined to harness their
Speaker 1: healing abilities their immortality. Uh. The Old guard Book one
Speaker 1: Opening Fire was followed by the Old guard Book two
Speaker 1: Force multiplied in twenty nineteen, by the way I did.
Speaker 1: Immediately after I watched the first time, I went and
Speaker 1: looked through all the differences and all of the reviews,
Speaker 1: and it's pretty on par and the changes most of
Speaker 1: the critics, I think that it was actually a good change.
Speaker 1: So that's not too usual for comics that I've seen.
Speaker 1: Um So let's break down the characters a bit more,
Speaker 1: starting with Andy, my lady Charlie's when she's saying that
Speaker 1: throughout she's been around the longest, and according to the comics,
Speaker 1: her immortality began in Eurasia and b c E. She
Speaker 1: learned about her immortality in a tragic, brutal way after
Speaker 1: someone she viewed as a mother turned on her and
Speaker 1: threatened by andy strength and intelligence, And after that she
Speaker 1: spent the next thousand years by herself and alone before
Speaker 1: she met two others like her, Lykon and Mariko or Quit.
Speaker 1: And however, Lykon becomes the first and to the point
Speaker 1: of publishing, only mortal to actually die in battle, and
Speaker 1: Noriko has lost the sea after being tossed off a ship,
Speaker 1: assuming she's drowning over and over again. And yes, so
Speaker 1: I just want to put in here. I have read
Speaker 1: this sand fiction before where some people were like, well,
Speaker 1: if Baltimore, why didn't you just put him in a
Speaker 1: dan coffin and weighed down and put him in the
Speaker 1: bottom of the sea, And then Harry could have lived
Speaker 1: an old, happy life as a hor crux and never
Speaker 1: had to like sacrifice himself or die. And also supernatural,
Speaker 1: this was a plot point. They did have that at
Speaker 1: the plot point, which, by the way, also the scene
Speaker 1: and Old Guard with her drowning. It's pretty horrified. I
Speaker 1: couldn't imagine actually filming that. That seems like a nightmare
Speaker 1: in itself. I just want to say that. Um. And
Speaker 1: she later returns as a villain enforced multiplied, which we
Speaker 1: kind of see at the end of the movie's credit scene.
Speaker 1: I later fell in love with Achilles, who was afraid
Speaker 1: enslaved person who fought alongside the British and the Revolutionary War.
Speaker 1: They met while he was incarcerated in the West Indies,
Speaker 1: and they grew old together until Andy left, not wanting
Speaker 1: people to grow suspicious of her immortality. And she embodies
Speaker 1: that don't get close to anyone vibe except her small crew. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's that comes up several times in the movie
Speaker 1: of at some point the people you love are going
Speaker 1: to realize you're not aging, right, and they're probably not
Speaker 1: going to take it well right, And they do talk
Speaker 1: about that a lot with Niles and her want wanting
Speaker 1: to get back with our family. They keep saying, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna be able to do this, it's not liable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And also with Booker and his whole plotline, um, so yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you do have You have Niles Freeman, who is a
Speaker 1: US marine who is immortal circuit modern day Afghanistan, and
Speaker 1: her story kind of leads a lot of the plot
Speaker 1: line as then they're trying to find her, and then
Speaker 1: she sort of serves as the audience in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways where they're explaining, well, now you're this immortal
Speaker 1: and we have to go fight stuff together and you're
Speaker 1: part of our army, and she's like wait what wait,
Speaker 1: And yeah, she's very torn about the violence and implications
Speaker 1: of being an immortal um and being with her family,
Speaker 1: wondering if she'd be better off if she settled down
Speaker 1: with her family, even if it was only for a
Speaker 1: few years before they realized, hey, she's not aging. I
Speaker 1: don't know, I feel like it could be more than
Speaker 1: a few years because us brown people with the melanine,
Speaker 1: we don't age as fast. I feel like I just
Speaker 1: say I do. I do feel like in Quarantine, I've
Speaker 1: added like seventeen years. I mean you look at like
Speaker 1: people like Kneel Long, Gabrielle Union Um and you're like,
Speaker 1: what the hell these people look like there's still twenty Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean certainly because she was young enough she could
Speaker 1: have I think she could have gotten like a decade
Speaker 1: if she would have gotten I think twenty years. So yeah,
Speaker 1: if you look at characters like Bianca Lawson, she's still
Speaker 1: playing teenagers and shows like she was just in Riverdale. No,
Speaker 1: what was it? Is it? Riverdale? Now? She was in
Speaker 1: a recent one I can't remember, but she plays a
Speaker 1: high schooler still, and she was a high schooler Buffy
Speaker 1: the Vampire Slayer the series, as well as uh say,
Speaker 1: the Last Dance. So people like that, you're like, maybe
Speaker 1: they maybe there are immortals. I've been thinking about this.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie. You think I think the uncle
Speaker 1: Lawson could be an immortal. Got Paul Red for sure? Yeah,
Speaker 1: Paul read right up there, Like you started looking and
Speaker 1: you're like this doesn't at Pedma lotched me. It's right
Speaker 1: there too, Like, how do you look younger than me?
Speaker 1: This is amazing? But I will say I feel like
Speaker 1: I look young within me. I feel like I look
Speaker 1: younger than me. I'm just saying my so, yeah, younger
Speaker 1: than me? Yeah, sure, sure, sure, okay, Well maybe immortals
Speaker 1: walk among us. I'll pin that and think about it later. Um.
Speaker 1: But back to do this. Other than Andy and Nile,
Speaker 1: you have Nicolo and yusuf are Nikki and Joe, and
Speaker 1: their immortality began during the first Crusade. And of the
Speaker 1: immortals that you're the only ones that don't regret immortality
Speaker 1: because their immortality resulted in giving them each other. They're
Speaker 1: the only ones that's sort of they have this person
Speaker 1: that they love that is also not going to die. Um,
Speaker 1: also immortal. Uh yeah. And they did have a very
Speaker 1: violent beginnings. They killed each other many times. Um, but
Speaker 1: through that they fell in love. You've you've heard it
Speaker 1: all before, I know. Uh. In fact, they were on
Speaker 1: opposite sides of the crusades and they killed each other
Speaker 1: and they kept repeating that, yeah, and kept coming back
Speaker 1: to life and then fell in love. And that's I mean,
Speaker 1: that's just how it is. It's beautiful. Mm hmm. Next
Speaker 1: up is Sebastian Luva slid Booker and I love Loli
Speaker 1: for a Samantha in case you don't know, is French
Speaker 1: for a book that makes so that's why he's Booker.
Speaker 1: I laughed and laughed and laughed. He became immortal in
Speaker 1: eighteen twelve Russia, and he was a soldier in Napoleon's army,
Speaker 1: and he died after you attempted to dessert after he
Speaker 1: was freezing and starving, but he was caught and left
Speaker 1: hanging for three days before the army left his body.
Speaker 1: And he had four sons who grew up to detest
Speaker 1: him as he aged, and they didn't and he didn't,
Speaker 1: and they thought, well, why can't you share the secret
Speaker 1: with us? And obviously he couldn't, so there was a
Speaker 1: lot of bitterness there, right. So next we've got James Copeley,
Speaker 1: not an immortal, but he's actually former CIA according to
Speaker 1: the movie, who is helping the main big bad after
Speaker 1: losing his wife to cancer. And they did. He is
Speaker 1: one of those that changed from the comic to the movie.
Speaker 1: They kind of changed his character a little bit to
Speaker 1: give him a little more depth, but a lot of
Speaker 1: the critics really believe that those enhanced the movie. Um,
Speaker 1: and he is going to be I guess on the
Speaker 1: sequel because he's going to be their new like dude
Speaker 1: in the chair. Yeah, he's the one that's gonna actually
Speaker 1: help them hide essentially is what they wanted. Um. And
Speaker 1: then that brings us to Steve Merrick played by Harry
Speaker 1: Potter's Dudley or Dude is always gonna be a villain.
Speaker 1: I feel so bad for him already, and he does
Speaker 1: such a great job at being awful. Is he is
Speaker 1: the big bad um, at least in this one. Most
Speaker 1: places describe him as a big farmer bro. He does
Speaker 1: talk about how he's the youngest billionaire. Who do see
Speaker 1: that a lot in the Youngest Executive or CEO. Um,
Speaker 1: And he's looking to harness yes, immortality, which is seemingly
Speaker 1: in a lot of plots. He's cruel and it's just
Speaker 1: and a lot of his experiments are carried out by
Speaker 1: Dr Ivan or doctor Metacosk. Yeah, and she's kind of
Speaker 1: a small character in the movie, but she is pretty
Speaker 1: awful too. Yeah, It's just it's odd the juxtaposition of
Speaker 1: like young far Mo bro who thinks, who doesn't care
Speaker 1: the consequences of his actions, but then you put him
Speaker 1: next to immortals who have seen like everything a thousand
Speaker 1: times Um, it just makes him feel so young and
Speaker 1: like stupid right, not still dangerous absolutely, but just and
Speaker 1: the audacity that he has in his little last scene
Speaker 1: and calling her a selfish bitch. Mhmm, And I'm like,
Speaker 1: what what, Yeah, yeah, she so we do. That's the plot,
Speaker 1: that's the overview. We do have some themes we want
Speaker 1: to discuss, but first we're going to pause for a
Speaker 1: quick break for a word from our sponsor, and we're back,
Speaker 1: niky sponsor. And I guess one of the big themes
Speaker 1: I picked up on was loneliness and uh, just this
Speaker 1: idea that I know a lot of us have have
Speaker 1: thought about, and it's been in our pop culture for
Speaker 1: a long time of if you were immortal, which it
Speaker 1: seems so many people at least in media want, what
Speaker 1: would that actually mean, especially if your loved ones weren't. Um,
Speaker 1: just the question like seeing people pass away and die
Speaker 1: not being unless you were all immortal together, which by
Speaker 1: the way, it just sounds annoying. Yeah. Maybe I'm just
Speaker 1: telling him like, look, I'm already sored of you forever, forever, ever, ever, ever.
Speaker 1: Oh that's interesting. I hadn't thought of it in that way.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, what if you don't like each other,
Speaker 1: what happens? It's kind of like death becomes her the
Speaker 1: two women which you haven't seen either, have you? Ah?
Speaker 1: But they live forever, but of course they're decrepit and
Speaker 1: falling apart. If something's damaged, it stays damaged, all of
Speaker 1: these bad things. But they hate each other, but they're
Speaker 1: they're cursed to live together or be with each other forever.
Speaker 1: Is that really a great thing? Well? I guess that
Speaker 1: leads into my question I was gonna ask you, would
Speaker 1: you want to be immortal? No? I don't think. I
Speaker 1: think that would be the last superpower I would ever want. Yeah? Uh,
Speaker 1: like what I want to live a rich fulfilling life. Yes,
Speaker 1: but I feel like eventually, with all the highs and
Speaker 1: lows that we go through, what I want to see
Speaker 1: things repeat it again and again and the mistakes. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I think I'd be on Andy's side of like, yeah,
Speaker 1: is it really changing? Is it really worth it? Right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And it's it's funny because, as you know, one of
Speaker 1: my favorite movies is What We Do in the Shadows Um,
Speaker 1: which is a different type of immortality. But the writers
Speaker 1: of that movie said, like, I feel like a lot
Speaker 1: of people like to believe if they were immortal, they
Speaker 1: would get so much done. But what if you just
Speaker 1: you just don't well, I mean, that's kind of the
Speaker 1: whole thing with quarantine, is the fact that we have
Speaker 1: to stay home, and we've had to stay home. If
Speaker 1: I just didn't have these things that I would have
Speaker 1: to do or all these plans that have to do,
Speaker 1: then I would be more productive and then are like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not well, yeah, you know, quarantine is an interesting
Speaker 1: metaphor for immortality because it does feel like, well, in theory,
Speaker 1: I have all this time, but somehow it just bleeds
Speaker 1: into one almost like day slash night, like just it
Speaker 1: doesn't end right. Honestly, some of the times I'm just
Speaker 1: waiting for bedtime. I'm like too early to go to
Speaker 1: bed now, to early go to bed now? I mean,
Speaker 1: I seriously do, And of course that's a whole other conversation.
Speaker 1: But I'm still procrastinating. As you know, I have nowhere
Speaker 1: to go, but I still procrastinate. That's what we need.
Speaker 1: We need the story of the Old Guard, which shows
Speaker 1: like them not being in battle and doing things. How
Speaker 1: did they spend their downtime? Well, according to them, they
Speaker 1: just all hit away for a year. It took a
Speaker 1: year break and then they I'm back. But you don't
Speaker 1: know what they did in that year break. Well we
Speaker 1: know what Booker did. Yes, he was plotting. He was plotting.
Speaker 1: You've got a Plotum. Would you want to be immortal? Ah? No,
Speaker 1: like my nature answers no. But I tried to think
Speaker 1: about it in terms of, well if I had other abilities,
Speaker 1: like is it just immortality? Or can I do other things?
Speaker 1: They couldn't, but they trained, really, they'd see they're fighting.
Speaker 1: They might have procrastinated, but they they really put in
Speaker 1: some training so they could do the fighters. But do
Speaker 1: you want to fight all the time? Would that be
Speaker 1: something you would want to do? Yeah, that's true. That
Speaker 1: would be exhausting. So maybe you and I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: the best immortals. Maybe that's why it's soldiers that usually
Speaker 1: become immortals and not because they also served live. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I do think it's been interesting for me during quarantine
Speaker 1: because I am such an extrovert, but I don't find
Speaker 1: myself getting lonely, and I think that's what a lot
Speaker 1: of people were worried about. You also have a really
Speaker 1: great group, Like that's one of the things that I
Speaker 1: think about with certain people who who may have struggles
Speaker 1: and like I don't completely well. You also make effort
Speaker 1: to have friend shows, but like you also surround yourself
Speaker 1: with people who are going to check it on you
Speaker 1: and they know you really well and know your weak spots.
Speaker 1: That's actually really good because you're also very communicative of
Speaker 1: that as well. Yeah, typically, so that's different. So you
Speaker 1: are a little different. I think in this quarantine is
Speaker 1: that people have no a that if they need you,
Speaker 1: they can reach out to you. B If they can't
Speaker 1: reach out to you, something's wrong and they need to
Speaker 1: can't find out what's wrong. And see, you have a core,
Speaker 1: you continue with the friendships from the past. It's not
Speaker 1: like you have a big blow ups. It seems as
Speaker 1: a lot of people can. Yeah, And I guess that's
Speaker 1: ultimately the key to if I was going to be immortal,
Speaker 1: I would have to have my immortal group right, not
Speaker 1: by yourself. Yeah, I couldn't do it, like I could
Speaker 1: for a while, but eventually you could hide away like that.
Speaker 1: They're not hidable, no no travel. See if we were,
Speaker 1: if we were immortal pals, then it would be an
Speaker 1: interesting storyline for sure. Um. Yeah. Another another theme is
Speaker 1: one I really want to come back and talk about,
Speaker 1: is the anti heroin uh And. I feel like at
Speaker 1: least they're on does such a good job of being
Speaker 1: the anti area. Between this and Atomic Bomb and even
Speaker 1: with um uh Mad Max, she does a really great
Speaker 1: job with all of the Yeah, and I would say
Speaker 1: she does it at least in those cases, and maybe
Speaker 1: particularly since we're talking about this one today, she does
Speaker 1: it in a way that I feel is different because
Speaker 1: a lot of times the anti heroine is so burned
Speaker 1: that they at least project that they could care less
Speaker 1: about what happens to other people into the world. But hers,
Speaker 1: it presents more like she's burned because she can't do
Speaker 1: more and is worried that what she has done isn't enough,
Speaker 1: Like she still cares and she's not really even trying
Speaker 1: to hide that, because I do think most anti heroines
Speaker 1: do still care. Um, But she's not even trying to
Speaker 1: hide it. It's just that she feels like almost this
Speaker 1: loss of faith. Am I doing what I think I'm doing.
Speaker 1: I've been here for millennia. I think she does what
Speaker 1: a lot of women do, is they focus on the
Speaker 1: value is more so than success, which is why she
Speaker 1: couldn't see it, and Copley could because he researched back
Speaker 1: on these are the things that happened as for many
Speaker 1: women and many who I think are on that spectrum
Speaker 1: of level of like, I've done this wrong and all
Speaker 1: I can focus is on the bad. And as podcasters,
Speaker 1: we've learned. I've learned I focus really hard on critiques
Speaker 1: over the compliments. And I think that's kind of a
Speaker 1: telling sign of the anti heroine. Is not necessarily that
Speaker 1: she's so Jada that she's going to flip it all
Speaker 1: lose it. It's just I've not done enough, and here
Speaker 1: on my failures will tell you why. Yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: really good point, um, and that I would be really
Speaker 1: curious to look at a comparison of the male anti
Speaker 1: hero versus the female anti heroin and just what is it.
Speaker 1: I think it's probably very similar, but it just presents differently.
Speaker 1: I'd be curious to look at it. I mean, we
Speaker 1: need to look at John Wick versus Atomic Blonde. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'd be into it. I'd be so And they love
Speaker 1: each other, Charlison in a kana. They love each other, dude,
Speaker 1: they do. Actually they really are, Like they filmed several
Speaker 1: movies together and they actually are really good friends. I
Speaker 1: love this so much. Okay, it's okay, that's so good. Okay,
Speaker 1: keep going, Okay, Okay. Another thing I was really interested
Speaker 1: in is just how well they did the immortality thing
Speaker 1: in terms of kind of your maturity level. Almost But
Speaker 1: there is this big betrayal in the movie, and but
Speaker 1: that it's predictable. But I loved it. Yeah. I think
Speaker 1: I have spoiled on it because I started researching this before.
Speaker 1: No why why So I think I knew the whole time.
Speaker 1: I So, I can't say about that. But yeah, so
Speaker 1: Booker portrays them, um and at the end they're arguing
Speaker 1: about what to do with them, what his punishment should be,
Speaker 1: And it was kind of nice to see Andy be like,
Speaker 1: not angry necessarily, just you know, this is your punishment.
Speaker 1: You have to accept it. I'll see you in a year.
Speaker 1: And if you have lived that long hundred years, hundred years,
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that's why he says, I won't see you,
Speaker 1: will I because she becomes becomes mortal, right right, well
Speaker 1: we'll see ye yes, yeah, but just kind of seeing
Speaker 1: that play out was really fascinating to me. Right, Um,
Speaker 1: and that goes back to the question of immortality. How
Speaker 1: long is a hundred years? Really? Yeah? Yeah, exactly, which
Speaker 1: was cool. It was cool that, Um, the writers clearly
Speaker 1: put thought into that. Ah, what would you be like
Speaker 1: if you've lived that long? Oh, I would be so crusty.
Speaker 1: I'm already old and crusty now. I could not imagine
Speaker 1: a hundred years from now if I was still here,
Speaker 1: how old and crusty I would be. Yeah, they all
Speaker 1: still looked pretty good. They're still I'm talking about my soul.
Speaker 1: Oh both right, sure, Um, well, let's move on from
Speaker 1: that then. Violence. This was another theme in there, and
Speaker 1: and the way they handled it was interesting because comic
Speaker 1: book movies are pretty violent, although a lot of our
Speaker 1: mainstream ones handle it in a way that feels sort
Speaker 1: of cartoonish, like you never see dead bodies per se.
Speaker 1: It feels very like, oh, they're unconscious, not dead. Then
Speaker 1: you're not really sure. Um, And and this one is
Speaker 1: much more violent, and oh they're dead. And that is
Speaker 1: something that at least Andy and Nile really struggle with,
Speaker 1: is we'll look at the carnage we're causing for good. Um.
Speaker 1: And this is something I struggle with and in my
Speaker 1: writing all the time, is when you have a good
Speaker 1: character who is really violent, who uses violence to accomplish
Speaker 1: these good things, how do you reconcile that? And and
Speaker 1: I talked about this and when I did the Last
Speaker 1: of Us to review Ludo Dissonance, how do you how
Speaker 1: do you put that together? Um? And then on top
Speaker 1: of that, I wonder sometimes if here in the United States,
Speaker 1: we've presented violence and murderous sort of the easy solution,
Speaker 1: and that's where our minds go because I've I've definitely
Speaker 1: played video games where they challenge you not to kill,
Speaker 1: and it's so much harder. And it's it's strange that
Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of our media has, whether
Speaker 1: we know it or not, conditioned as to think the
Speaker 1: easy way is to kill someone, right. I don't know.
Speaker 1: That's the debate with like use and um, young adults
Speaker 1: about whether or not they're so acclimated by media that
Speaker 1: violence is a norm. And then outside of that, it's like, no,
Speaker 1: it's completely different, and you need to think on the
Speaker 1: loss of life and all of that and what does
Speaker 1: that really mean in the end, And yeah, I think
Speaker 1: this is definitely one more and I say this is
Speaker 1: my comfort the list, And it's not in that sense
Speaker 1: of like, yeah, I'm not a fan of seeing Gore
Speaker 1: and I'm not okay with it, but again, like I
Speaker 1: think for me, it's like, Okay, I can differentiate. This
Speaker 1: is a movie movie, but they are a little more
Speaker 1: realistic when you see the injuries and the violence, Like
Speaker 1: you don't see that as much when it comes to
Speaker 1: the opposition or the enemy, but you see that more
Speaker 1: so for them themselves who can heal which says a lot. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And I suppose there's like two arguments we made there,
Speaker 1: And one is we talked about this a little bit
Speaker 1: in our Female Revenge episode. But it's meant to be
Speaker 1: over the top, so you're not supposed to necessarily take
Speaker 1: it as a stamp of approval of violence. It's just
Speaker 1: sort of a fantasy getaway entertainment um. And then you
Speaker 1: could argue, like is it better to show the real
Speaker 1: damage and make you feel that, or I would I
Speaker 1: would say that's just a different movie. Um, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I've heard people argue about that. And and in the
Speaker 1: context of violence and American media's particularly um and that
Speaker 1: you can see that debate play out with Andy. Like
Speaker 1: you said, Samantha, one of her quotes is some good
Speaker 1: means nothing, or the world isn't getting any better, it's
Speaker 1: getting worse. Um, talking about what they've done or in
Speaker 1: her mind not done. And then she's reminded at the
Speaker 1: end of no, you saved all these people and caused
Speaker 1: all these things that were good to happen through your actions. Um,
Speaker 1: but I do think that's a real moral quantry, right.
Speaker 1: And then you also have to remember that they do
Speaker 1: have the scene Niles is from, Um she was stationed
Speaker 1: in Afghanistan. Is opens up with her being in this
Speaker 1: volatile situation and and UM, I was watching it with
Speaker 1: my partner who automatically was like, oh, no, is this
Speaker 1: like a feel good for military? And you gotta remember,
Speaker 1: you know, as much as where you want to say yes,
Speaker 1: the military does protect us, there's also a lot of
Speaker 1: like where as the line of romanticizing what is happening
Speaker 1: in the military and those that are stationed out of
Speaker 1: the country. UM, in defense of we don't know what,
Speaker 1: what are they actually defending? Is that? Is it actually
Speaker 1: freedom or is it for other means? Yeah? Yeah? And
Speaker 1: what is it glorifying? But yeah, this is the whole
Speaker 1: big conversation because like you want to enjoy a movie
Speaker 1: at the same time the realistic like background. It's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I remember, so my older brother is the best at
Speaker 1: ruining a movie for you. And I remember seeing Iron Man.
Speaker 1: I think it's two thousand and eight, that came out
Speaker 1: two thousand nine. I'm walking out and like, oh wow,
Speaker 1: that was really fun. He was like, yeah, it was fun,
Speaker 1: excepted romanticize the violence in Iran. He goes off, it's
Speaker 1: all the thing. I was like, I didn't pick up
Speaker 1: on that at all. I'm sorry. I just thought it
Speaker 1: was fun action. But that's the thing is he's not wrong.
Speaker 1: What is it putting into our heads about what's happening
Speaker 1: and what's being defended and what's being okay and whether
Speaker 1: it's villainizing the Middle East and what's happening in the
Speaker 1: Middle East and not putting a whole picture as opposed
Speaker 1: to glorifying our military or you know, it is the
Speaker 1: whole thing. Oh, absolutely, And we're big, big proponents here
Speaker 1: of always being mindful of your media and the messages
Speaker 1: that it is imparting to you and children. Right, I
Speaker 1: will say they did quickly run away from that, and
Speaker 1: we're like, okay, this is just the means to a plot.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna linger here, moving on. So I will
Speaker 1: say it did that, but it's kind of like, oh
Speaker 1: oh oh no, and I did. I wanted to put
Speaker 1: in here when uh Andy, as we've alluded to, she
Speaker 1: potentially it looks like has lost her immortality. And it
Speaker 1: reminded me the first time I played The Last of Us,
Speaker 1: the first one, because in a lot of video games
Speaker 1: like that, you can just kind of be shot like
Speaker 1: twenty times and not die, so you can be very
Speaker 1: like just run in no plan the Last of Us.
Speaker 1: I remember the first time I fought a zombie and
Speaker 1: I died in one hit like twenty times in a row,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh no, so so I really
Speaker 1: got to play on this. I kind of do this
Speaker 1: a little better. Yeah, because she suddenly had to worry
Speaker 1: about how I could die. I can't just take a
Speaker 1: hit and get back and take it off. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what it reminded me of. Um, And Okay, so
Speaker 1: we do have a little bit more we wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about, but first we have one more quick break
Speaker 1: for our word from our sponsor, and we're back, Thank
Speaker 1: you sponsor. So another thing we wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: is queer representation, because this did come up a lot
Speaker 1: when I was searching what were people talking about when
Speaker 1: it came to this this movie, and one of them
Speaker 1: was the love between Joe and Nikki, And this is
Speaker 1: caught a lot of people su to mentioned for a
Speaker 1: lot of reasons. Um. First, pretty rare to see gayme
Speaker 1: in and action movies, um, outside of like a very
Speaker 1: passing cameo um and kissing and sharing affectionate touches. It's
Speaker 1: also rare to see gaym in and mythical movies. And
Speaker 1: and some people, some articles I read, argued that this
Speaker 1: solidified that the lgbt Q plus community has been here forever. Um.
Speaker 1: And these characters and their relationship doesn't feel token at all,
Speaker 1: and they also feel they both feel pretty fleshed out. Um.
Speaker 1: After they are captured and a guard mocks them, asking
Speaker 1: if one of them is a boyfriend, Joe says, you're
Speaker 1: a child. He's not my boyfriend. This man is more
Speaker 1: to me than you can dream. He's the moon when
Speaker 1: I'm lost in darkness, and warmth when I shiver in cold,
Speaker 1: and his kiss still thrills me even after a millennium.
Speaker 1: His heart overflows with a kindness of which this world
Speaker 1: is not worthy. I love this man beyond measure and reason.
Speaker 1: He's not my boyfriend, he's all he is more. And
Speaker 1: then they make out and it's such an amazing thing.
Speaker 1: It also kind of leads to another violence thing where
Speaker 1: they try to break them up and end up they
Speaker 1: all die. Yeah, yeah, they definitely. Joe in particular did
Speaker 1: not take well to that. The relationship is such a
Speaker 1: really adorable and loving relationship. Even in the scene where
Speaker 1: they're on the train and they're just asleep cuddling and
Speaker 1: they just need to be with each other, it's just
Speaker 1: really really nice. It's sweet, and it was it was
Speaker 1: refreshing to see. It's one of those things where when
Speaker 1: you see it, you're like, oh, why can't I see
Speaker 1: more of things like this? Right? Because it wasn't over
Speaker 1: the top. There was no level of queer baiting, there
Speaker 1: was no level of um making them a caricature of themselves.
Speaker 1: It was just who they were and their strength and
Speaker 1: then who they were in their love Yeah. Uh and
Speaker 1: they were funny too, they were they were funny together. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And and it's really resonated with a lot of people.
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of articles about, like I love
Speaker 1: this movie, but the thing that stood out was that
Speaker 1: speech alone. It was beautiful speed. Oh yeah, that speech
Speaker 1: all day. Yeah. Just to remind you, this is like
Speaker 1: an action movie with immortals, and they found each other
Speaker 1: in the Crusades and I've been together pretty much ever since,
Speaker 1: so that is that is very rare. And it didn't
Speaker 1: feel it both. It didn't feel out of place, but
Speaker 1: it did feel very new, if that makes sense. It
Speaker 1: felt shockingly real. Yeah, and that's not what you typically see. Yes, yeah, um,
Speaker 1: it definitely. I don't know. I was going to say
Speaker 1: it felt like the heart that they were hard of
Speaker 1: the team, but I feel like there were multiple hearts
Speaker 1: of the team. They were definitely the hope of the team. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. Um And and some people have interpreted the
Speaker 1: relationship between Quinn and Andy as queer as well. Um,
Speaker 1: when they're they're both captured, who knows, way back when
Speaker 1: um trials in England, Yeah, what was it? I don't
Speaker 1: know which which trials. Yeah, I was trying to think
Speaker 1: it's it's in it's in England, right Britain. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I believe. And it was doing that point because they
Speaker 1: were being seen as which is yeah, and they got
Speaker 1: separated for being quote too powerful together and some people
Speaker 1: have seen that as queer representation, and Andy certainly spent
Speaker 1: a very long time looking for her. Although again this
Speaker 1: can go back into a conversation of ken any relationship
Speaker 1: people a tonic these days. Um, but know that that's
Speaker 1: a big plot line in the sequel, so I guess
Speaker 1: we'll be seeing more of that. I need a sequel,
Speaker 1: give it four years, I know, right, But I do
Speaker 1: I need that sequel? Well, you can read the comic
Speaker 1: book in the meantime, but I need Charlie's need you
Speaker 1: need Charles, I understand. I'm just saying so. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: I'm excited to see Quinn, who is played by a
Speaker 1: Vietnamese actress. And actually that's one of the changes that
Speaker 1: they made from the comic to the movie. She was
Speaker 1: not originally Vietnamese, but because she is, her origins are Vietnamese,
Speaker 1: they changed her name and character in the movie to
Speaker 1: represent her, which I love, as it should be. M hm,
Speaker 1: as it should be. I'm I'm excited. I'm excited. Uh
Speaker 1: and and I'm glad that you suggested this one, Samantha.
Speaker 1: It was a fun I was like, this is so fun.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna let's let's just do this one because
Speaker 1: it's got a great director, it's got a great actors,
Speaker 1: and it's going to be a really a good plot line. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I mean, I think this is our first feminist
Speaker 1: movie Friday where we're like on French, look at us,
Speaker 1: look at us, look at us. Well, speaking of for
Speaker 1: the next one, please send us any suggestions. Um, I
Speaker 1: think Samantha's pushing pretty hard for I'm very annoyed. But no,
Speaker 1: not let me have that again. Not annoyed, I'm very
Speaker 1: appalled that you have not seen that. I cannot believe.
Speaker 1: Like Heather's I kind of understand because that was a
Speaker 1: little before you, definitely a way before you, but a
Speaker 1: leak of their own I feel like should have been
Speaker 1: in your will. Um four. Um, Well, in either case
Speaker 1: it should be rectified. But if you have any other suggestions, listeners,
Speaker 1: we would love to get them. Maybe we'll do another
Speaker 1: watch party soon. Um, yes, you can send those suggestions
Speaker 1: to our email which is step Media Mom Stuff at
Speaker 1: i heeart media dot com. You can find us on
Speaker 1: Instagram at Stuff I've Never Told You, are on Twitter
Speaker 1: app mom Stuff Podcast. Thanks as always to our super
Speaker 1: producer Andrew Howard, Thank you, and thanks to you for
Speaker 1: listening Stuff I've Never Told You, the production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit iHeartRadio app,
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