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"Shadow Dancer" · The Spy-Fi Guys

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Colette McVeigh. Mother, daughter, sister, Spy. We are the Spy Fi Guys and this is Shadow Dancer. Welcome to the Spy Fi Guys.
• 0:14
  Speaker B: So I apologize to the universe for that.
• 0:17
  Speaker A: Yes. Wow.
• 0:19
  Speaker B: Justice for Dennis M. Is it though? I laughed and then I hated myself for laughing.
• 0:32
  Speaker A: Welcome to the Spy Fi Guys, where we cover spy facts, spy fiction and everything in between. I'm Christian.
• 0:37
  Speaker B: And I'm Zach.
• 0:39
  Speaker A: And today we have Shadow Dancer from.
• 0:42
  Speaker B: 2012, a movie you've definitely heard of. Of course.
• 0:46
  Speaker A: Hey, some of our most fun and interesting ones are the ones a lot of people haven't heard of. Although this is one of the ones where we're very, very finely stretching the definition of spy movie. This is definitely a spy movie.
• 0:58
  Speaker B: It is now here on the Spy Fi Guys, we typically jump back and forth between based on a true story and totally absurdly, over the top fictional. This time we were looking for something that's based on a true story. This movie isn't quite there, but that's okay.
• 1:13
  Speaker A: I was wondering because I realized as I was reviewing my notes. Wait a minute, I didn't see it based on a true story at the beginning of this. Is this not a true story, Zach?
• 1:22
  Speaker B: Well, it somehow ended up in our list of non fiction movies and I didn't put it there.
• 1:27
  Speaker A: I didn't put it here.
• 1:28
  Speaker B: I don't know how to explain it.
• 1:30
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 1:30
  Speaker B: But certainly there's elements of it that are based in truth, which I appreciate.
• 1:36
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And it is quite the change from our dead drop not earlier this month. Section 31.
• 1:42
  Speaker B: Yes, it is. That is definitely true.
• 1:44
  Speaker A: Alright, so shall we get into it?
• 1:46
  Speaker B: Well, actually, really quick, do you want to explain how we ended up making this movie?
• 1:51
  Speaker A: Because it was available on streaming.
• 1:54
  Speaker B: There was that. But I was looking at the list and I saw Ireland and I saw Clive Owen and I saw Gilliam Anderson.
• 2:00
  Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, actually we've had a decent amount of Irish film. I probably have learned more about the conflict in Northern Ireland than I ever would have before this podcast started.
• 2:12
  Speaker B: That's right. That's because I'm into Irish stuff, as longtime listeners may remember, especially Irish music. More about that later.
• 2:18
  Speaker A: I've become, especially since my, you know, trip to Ireland, I've become more interested in it and you know, and on of Irish music as well. Plot synopsis.
• 2:34
  Speaker B: All right, so with that being said, let's get started here with our plot synopses. As always, spoilers begin right here, right now. And first is our haiku single, Irish Mom Plays Both Sides comes out on top. A triple agent oh, pretty good.
• 2:53
  Speaker A: Pretty good.
• 2:54
  Speaker B: Thank you. And then the haiku over here comes our Limerick. There once was an agent called Mack who foiled a terror attack. He combs through the files, puts Colette through some trials before he got stabbed in the back. Too soon. And then, of course, here is the real IMDb plot summary. Set in 1990s Belfast. An active member of the IRA becomes an informant for MI5 in order to protect her son's welfare. Oh, yeah, for son who's in the movie so much. Remember how?
• 3:21
  Speaker A: I do, actually.
• 3:23
  Speaker B: So, Christian, would you say it's safe to say that this is almost a made for TV movie? Not unlike the Seventh Protocol. Seems very independent.
• 3:31
  Speaker A: You mean the Fourth Protocol.
• 3:32
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 3:35
  Speaker A: I would argue that. No, it's not a big budget movie. But just because it's big budget doesn't mean it's a made for TV movie. There was something about the Fourth Protocol that made it feel made for tv. This still feels like a movie that was made to be seen in cinemas. It was not a movie of the week kind of deal.
• 3:51
  Speaker B: Right, but it's definitely an independent foreign movie, maybe.
• 3:55
  Speaker A: Sure. That doesn't make it made for tv. There's a big difference between those two things.
• 3:59
  Speaker B: Yeah, fair enough.
• 4:00
  Speaker A: So. So we start in Belfast, 1973, where a father asks his daughter Colette to go get some cigarettes.
• 4:08
  Speaker B: And it's slow. The movie is slow right away.
• 4:12
  Speaker A: It's a slow burn.
• 4:13
  Speaker B: But I feel like there's tension here because.
• 4:16
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Oh, yes.
• 4:17
  Speaker B: They wait long enough for you to realize that the kid has a big old death flag on him. Did you see it coming, Christian?
• 4:23
  Speaker A: Well, okay, but it's not even that. So Colette doesn't. She tries to pawn the task off on her brother. As soon as he walks, I'm like, oh, something's not right here. And they're like noises outside. And then we see emotion. And then we hear the brother being brought in and he's been shot. And in my notes, I said, zach, why are you making me watch this?
• 4:44
  Speaker B: Making me? How was I supposed to know?
• 4:46
  Speaker A: I don't know. There's a kid being shot in this film. Why are you making me watch this, Zach?
• 4:51
  Speaker B: No, you can blame the mystery ghost, probably person who put it on our movie list. And no one knows what it is or how it got there. But actually, Christian, you know what this reminded me of was the beginning of dawn of the Dead.
• 5:01
  Speaker A: I've never. Wait, the original or the.
• 5:04
  Speaker B: No, the Zack Snyder one.
• 5:05
  Speaker A: I've never seen either. So I don't know Why I bothered to specify.
• 5:09
  Speaker B: Well, what about Shaun of the Dead?
• 5:10
  Speaker A: I have seen Shaun of the Dead. Yes.
• 5:12
  Speaker B: So do you remember when he's going through his day and you see on the news something's up? It was a little bit like that, too, where the girl is making the tea kettle and you hear someone yelling in the background. Someone runs by. I thought if this was an American movie, they would have had a car bomb go off on the street and her whole front window gets blown in.
• 5:30
  Speaker A: So, like the beginning of the Untouchables.
• 5:33
  Speaker B: Yes, that's a movie I've seen, but I don't remember a whole lot about it.
• 5:36
  Speaker A: Yeah, there's a big scene at the beginning where a kid gets blown up. Not just the kid. The entire place that was not buying protection from Al Capone anymore got blown up.
• 5:46
  Speaker B: So, okay, so the dad blames Colette, which is some interesting guilt. But do you think also, again, spoilers, knowing what we know at the end of the movie, that it provided a motivation for Ma to become an informant?
• 5:58
  Speaker A: I can see that, yeah. Yeah.
• 6:00
  Speaker B: Because at least in my memory, they don't say who actually killed the brother. Which side?
• 6:05
  Speaker A: Yeah, I think. I think it just violence in general, which is, you know.
• 6:10
  Speaker B: Yeah. Does it matter?
• 6:11
  Speaker A: Exactly. So we cut forward nine, 20 years to London, 1993, and we're in a tube station. In my notes, like, is this older Colette? I assume it is, because why would they just introduce that character? But we don't actually know.
• 6:26
  Speaker B: She looks a lot like the kid. Colette. Good job.
• 6:29
  Speaker A: Okay. But she's looking around a lot. She seems very suspicious. She gets off the tube at a station and runs. Goes down a service entrance, and we hear overhead.
• 6:42
  Speaker B: Sorry, in a row. Christian, again. Again, it's slow. It takes me, like, 15 minutes to go on this train ride.
• 6:48
  Speaker A: I felt the tension, though, because you don't know what's going on. I mean, you know that this is still during the Troubles, and.
• 6:54
  Speaker B: That's Right. And something I appreciate is that the movie has 10 scenes without the need to have the tense music.
• 7:05
  Speaker A: For some reason, when I started watching this, I thought this was filmed in, like, early 2000s or late 90s, this 2012. She goes through a service entrance, and we hear that the station is being evacuated due to an emergency.
• 7:19
  Speaker B: Yep. Again, nice subtle use of a variety of ways to communicate information to the audience.
• 7:26
  Speaker A: Running up some inside stairways. Again, she's trying to get to the outside, and as soon as she does, men come up behind her and drag her into a car.
• 7:35
  Speaker B: That's Right.
• 7:36
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 7:36
  Speaker B: It gets caught immediately.
• 7:38
  Speaker A: Yep. And they bring her into a service entrance of a hotel and up a service elevator. And now this is all silent up to this point. There's no words other than the. The service announcement. And we see Clive Owen in a hotel room who's looking at surveillance photos in a big file.
• 7:56
  Speaker B: Yep. And I like the visuals where his room is all. Was it red and her room is all blue. So being like they were in two very different rooms, but they're just right next to each other, as it turns out.
• 8:07
  Speaker A: Yeah. We don't. We're not told until a bit later that this is actually Colette. But she's brought to a hotel, the hotel room, like you said, next door to Clive Owen, hands over a file, says it won't give her what she wants, but it might help. And he leaves to go to another room where the men who brought her in are. So she goes, sits next to the folder, doesn't open it. And all the guys are watching through cctv and this could take a while, but finally she opens a file, and it's pictures of her brother's corpse.
• 8:38
  Speaker B: So I thought the movie was gonna be about her tracking down her brother's killers. Turns out it's not about that at all.
• 8:45
  Speaker A: And there's details on the type of bullet that killed him and the caliber. Clive Owen comes back into the room, he's got a giant folder. Shows her a photo of a man who she used to work for in a print factory who died. And apparently she went to the funeral.
• 9:01
  Speaker B: Right. I'm sorry if I'm jumping ahead, but doesn't he know all this personal information about her?
• 9:06
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, he knows that, too. That. Like that. That's the first thing that he uses to plant that seed.
• 9:12
  Speaker B: Wouldn't you say he knows what she eats for breakfast?
• 9:16
  Speaker A: Probably.
• 9:17
  Speaker B: Do you understand that reference?
• 9:19
  Speaker A: I do.
• 9:20
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 9:22
  Speaker A: She says she wants a lawyer. He shows her a video her playing with her son and lays out how hard it will be for her son to see her. And it'll basically kill his spirit to have to go, what, take 90 minutes every weekend to see his mother for an hour?
• 9:38
  Speaker B: That's right. Doesn't he also say, at this point, I wasn't sure if I missed it. I couldn't get the subtitles working for the beginning was he said you never even set the timer on the purse bomb.
• 9:48
  Speaker A: Oh, I.
• 9:51
  Speaker B: No, I think he was trying to make the case. You're not really a hardcore irony supporter. You don't really want to help them.
• 9:58
  Speaker A: Right, Right. Right. I think you're right. Because. Yeah, I was trying to figure out what's going on. In the beginning. She set the bomb. But I think you're right that she. Yeah.
• 10:08
  Speaker B: So do you think that they know about her because of Ma? Now that we know how the movie ends, how could the effect drop so quickly?
• 10:18
  Speaker A: I mean, because they're probably monitoring her entire family.
• 10:20
  Speaker B: No, I know. I mean, like, after she dropped the purse.
• 10:23
  Speaker A: Oh, I don't know. Maybe.
• 10:26
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 10:26
  Speaker A: Clyborne says that her brothers killed a lot of people last year and tries to convince her to talk to the Brits.
• 10:35
  Speaker B: That's right. To become an informant, which was very common in the Troubles.
• 10:40
  Speaker A: Or a tout, as it was known.
• 10:43
  Speaker B: As you learn in this movie.
• 10:45
  Speaker A: Yeah. So Clive Owen leaves the room, was watching her on the cctv. She's still sitting at the table. He goes back into the room and says, they'll never know. He'll be watching. He's done this before. And she agrees. And they go into a car. He gives her the phone number to call. And her cover. She's supposed to always ask for Declan.
• 11:07
  Speaker B: That's right.
• 11:08
  Speaker A: Her cover is that she has a new boyfriend. And they also give her an emergency beeper, which basically all helper will break loose and they'll come for her if she presses that button.
• 11:17
  Speaker B: We talk about a Chekhov's beeper. They call it a bleeper, which is kind of funny. I don't know if there's a British term for it or something, but she never uses it the whole movie.
• 11:29
  Speaker A: Well, it becomes more of a is she able to keep that hidden? Kind of deal.
• 11:33
  Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
• 11:35
  Speaker A: So she asked for his real name, and he's like, it's better if you don't know. If I'm risking my life, I want to know your name. And that's Mac, right?
• 11:41
  Speaker B: Yeah. That sounds like a real name.
• 11:43
  Speaker A: Sure. Well, everyone else in his department. Department. Calls him that as well.
• 11:48
  Speaker B: Yep.
• 11:49
  Speaker A: So seems to be his real name.
• 11:51
  Speaker B: Seems legit. Yeah.
• 11:52
  Speaker A: And then gives her a rendezvous point and when to meet. So we see Colette on the train back home. She gets to see her son. He's mad at her for being away so long and doesn't want to see her.
• 12:03
  Speaker B: That's right.
• 12:04
  Speaker A: Her brothers come in later that day. And then there's brothers. Yeah.
• 12:09
  Speaker B: No. 1 actors. This is an all star cast.
• 12:11
  Speaker A: On the news, there's reports about peace talks.
• 12:14
  Speaker B: Are you not gonna see what their brothers are? Who her brothers are?
• 12:17
  Speaker A: I'm getting to it, actually. Brother Jerry, I didn't recognize until the end of the movie. Holy. Is that Littlefinger?
• 12:25
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's right.
• 12:26
  Speaker A: I have it in my notes. But outside realizing, oh, wait, that's Little Finger.
• 12:31
  Speaker B: That's right.
• 12:31
  Speaker A: But yeah. Jerry asks what happened to her. She said she was being followed but managed to lose them. Jerry says that you need to talk to Kevin, who's gonna enforce her.
• 12:41
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 12:41
  Speaker A: And then we meet her other brother, Connor. I'm like, wait, that's General Hux.
• 12:45
  Speaker B: That's right, boy.
• 12:46
  Speaker A: Bill Weasley.
• 12:48
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's right.
• 12:49
  Speaker A: He's been himself. Yeah, that's right.
• 12:52
  Speaker B: Yep.
• 12:53
  Speaker A: So now her brother Connor offers her a part of a new job. The cop who tried to get them after they took out the aforementioned boss at the printer.
• 13:03
  Speaker B: That's right.
• 13:04
  Speaker A: Yeah. So we see Mac arrive in Northern Ireland via chopper.
• 13:09
  Speaker B: Yeah, they must have blown half the movie's budget on this one chopper shot because it's one of those double bladed ones. It also made me think, of course, I've been talking about before. Before the book National Security Cinema, where the US military provides free equipment and personnel on things for movies that make them look good. I don't know if the British do the same. I wouldn't be surprised.
• 13:29
  Speaker A: I don't know. Good question. From there, he takes a car into a guarded area. They get the car inspection with the mirrors underneath the car.
• 13:36
  Speaker B: Right.
• 13:37
  Speaker A: And this is his office. And we meet Jillian Anderson, his boss. Who I don't remember her name.
• 13:43
  Speaker B: I feel like it's Nancy or something like that. She in the movie? For about 15 minutes.
• 13:49
  Speaker A: Yeah. So she congratulates him. I have just half heard as Julian Anderson in my notes. But she also knows that Colette will have to see Kevin, so that hopefully she holds up under that.
• 14:02
  Speaker B: Yep, that's right.
• 14:03
  Speaker A: They all know that Kevin's the enforcer. Even on the Brit side, they know that he's the one that they really have to pass. So Colette goes to drop off her kid at school and Mac is driving to the rendezvous point.
• 14:17
  Speaker B: Yeah, in the seaside. Which apparently no one ever goes to except for them.
• 14:22
  Speaker A: Right.
• 14:23
  Speaker B: They don't exactly blend in. Just a thought.
• 14:26
  Speaker A: Yeah. So Connor was supposed to fix something in the house, but apparently it didn't. So Colette and her mom are complaining about it. Mac is waiting for Colette but realizes she's not coming.
• 14:39
  Speaker B: That's right. So he has to do something else to get her attention, apparently.
• 14:42
  Speaker A: And Colette's at home. She has and sees that she has a visitor. It's Kevin. They need to talk.
• 14:49
  Speaker B: Yeah. And Kevin is not a famous actor.
• 14:51
  Speaker A: Unfortunately not. At least not to us.
• 14:54
  Speaker B: Not that we know.
• 14:55
  Speaker A: So some cops burst into their house early in the morning, start tearing apart her room. Take Colette. She's put into a holding cell where Mac comes to see her.
• 15:06
  Speaker B: That's right. Well, and the cops are mean to her. So you get to see a little bit of where the irony are coming from in this one part. The movie is not really very political, despite the subject matter. Yeah, but I thought that was interesting.
• 15:17
  Speaker A: So gives her a minute to give them any information that she might have picked up while in the day. She's been home.
• 15:25
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. And she does this thing that's very frustrating to watch as an audience member in movies. So say the code is 1, 2, 3, 4. So what's the code? And the characters. Stares at them for no reason. What's the code? I said we're all about to die. What's 1, 2, 3, 4? Oh, thank goodness. Why are you staring off into the distance? I think the idea is the character's supposed to be having some kind of existential crisis, but since we're not in their head, instead we just yell at the screen. You know what I'm talking about?
• 15:53
  Speaker A: See, I know there are cases where that is. I felt that. I didn't feel that here. I mean, she genuinely feels conflicted. And so immediately. So I was not frustrated by this.
• 16:04
  Speaker B: That's good. Yeah. This is her last chance. They do the cliche where when he's about to walk out the door, she.
• 16:10
  Speaker A: Finally says something that was pretty cliche, I'll give you. No, but, yeah. So she gives him intel on the job tomorrow about the cop who tried to put them away. But she doesn't really know too much. She just knows that there's going to be a job, an attack.
• 16:23
  Speaker B: Tomorrow.
• 16:24
  Speaker A: Yeah. Now, after she gets home, we see that Colette's son has wet his bed because he's having nightmares.
• 16:32
  Speaker B: Yeah. A bunch of cops just came through his door. I'm not surprised.
• 16:35
  Speaker A: And after all this, you know, Colette's mom wants her to tell Jerry that she's had enough.
• 16:41
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. Her mom wants her to get out of. Out of the business.
• 16:45
  Speaker A: Yep.
• 16:46
  Speaker B: And I must say, Christian, there never comes a point in this movie where you feel like Colette is really that dedicated to the cause.
• 16:53
  Speaker A: To the cause of the ira.
• 16:55
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 16:56
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 16:56
  Speaker B: Or any, really. Any cost, for that matter. Unless you, like, keeps it all buried deep down.
• 17:01
  Speaker A: Like, I'll give you that. No, she doesn't. I buy that she's doing this, but I don't buy that she's like, you know, dyed in the wool IRA supporter.
• 17:10
  Speaker B: Which apparently she is. We learn later in the movie. Yeah, I don't know.
• 17:16
  Speaker A: Let's put a pin in that and come back. I want to analyze that.
• 17:19
  Speaker B: Okay, that's fine.
• 17:20
  Speaker A: So Mac is writing up a report about the meeting with Colette, and one of his colleagues gets called into a last minute CCG meeting. Do you know what that stands for?
• 17:30
  Speaker B: Ccg? Customizable Card Game. I don't know what it means.
• 17:36
  Speaker A: I don't either. I was trying to look it up, but I didn't quite see.
• 17:40
  Speaker B: We're able to find it.
• 17:42
  Speaker A: Civil Contingencies Group, maybe?
• 17:44
  Speaker B: No, that doesn't sound right.
• 17:46
  Speaker A: No, no, no.
• 17:46
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 17:48
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 17:49
  Speaker B: Anyways, do also like the old computers in his office.
• 17:53
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's nice. Nice touch. But yeah, the meeting is invitation only, and Mac wasn't invited, but he bursts into the meeting anyways and finds out that they're going to send the in the SAS after Connor McVeigh. Who is General Hux.
• 18:07
  Speaker B: That's right.
• 18:09
  Speaker A: And they're going to blow Colette's cover.
• 18:11
  Speaker B: Yes. Which again, I don't know how many spy technologies you come up with or how much time passes. The problem always remains. If there's three people who know about a job and the job gets blown, only one of the three could possibly know about it. And there's really no way around it.
• 18:27
  Speaker A: Yep. Yep. Mac tries to put a pause on that operation through London, but they said no, we've already talked to them and they've agreed.
• 18:35
  Speaker B: That's right.
• 18:36
  Speaker A: So the next morning, Connor wakes up Colette, and apparently one of the men was picked up by. By the cops. So they need her. Her as another body on the job.
• 18:48
  Speaker B: And boy, is she enthusiastic about it.
• 18:51
  Speaker A: So they drive to the. To where they're gonna do the job. They're waiting in a safe house.
• 18:55
  Speaker B: Yeah. And this part with the safe house is again, slow, but has good tension around. It's kind of staring at each other, watching the minutes tick by.
• 19:03
  Speaker A: Colette goes to use the phone in one of the other rooms, asked to speak to Declan and one of the other members of the team, Brendan, goes looking for her.
• 19:14
  Speaker B: Yeah, again, good. Tension is scary. It's so scary. Do you think she just couldn't hear him calling for her and that's why she doesn't respond?
• 19:22
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 19:22
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 19:25
  Speaker A: But we see her hang up the phone as she comes to the door.
• 19:29
  Speaker B: That's right. And he definitely seems suspicious. Of her.
• 19:32
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
• 19:33
  Speaker B: Which is like. No, no, I'm fine. Everything's good. How are you?
• 19:37
  Speaker A: So they go to drive over to the cop's house. They see a white van in front of them.
• 19:44
  Speaker B: Oh, my God. This is the best part of the movie.
• 19:47
  Speaker A: There's a car in the driveway where we see some guy in it taking something out of his car.
• 19:53
  Speaker B: Well, it was. What do you call the things you carry babies in? The hard plastic one. It's not a stroller.
• 19:58
  Speaker A: Car seat.
• 19:59
  Speaker B: Well, it's a car seat, but it has a big handle on it.
• 20:01
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's the car seat. That's an infant car seat.
• 20:04
  Speaker B: An infant car seat, yeah. Oh, my God. There's a baby in there.
• 20:08
  Speaker A: Maybe Brendan puts a gun in his waistband and gives Colette a mask. Because he said, but you're coming with me, too.
• 20:14
  Speaker B: Yep.
• 20:15
  Speaker A: So they go put their masks on, they walk over, and as they again.
• 20:19
  Speaker B: Start interrupting again, there's no music. There's not even really any ambient sound. It's just them walking around. You see a guy walking off in the distance. Is he a cop? Oh, my God. What's gonna happen?
• 20:31
  Speaker A: Now? This surprised me. Once they get close enough, Brendan gets shot.
• 20:35
  Speaker B: Yeah, but what did you think was gonna happen?
• 20:36
  Speaker A: I thought he was gonna shoot the guy. I thought. I didn't think he was gonna get killed.
• 20:41
  Speaker B: Yeah. I thought the guy they were coming to was gonna turn around with a gun and.
• 20:44
  Speaker A: Sure.
• 20:45
  Speaker B: Something that give them some kind of plausible deniability that they didn't know that they were coming. But I guess it's also quick.
• 20:51
  Speaker A: They're like, wait, Because I hear the gunshot, and I thought Brandon had done the shot, but, no, he's the one who falls down. Like, oh, what?
• 20:57
  Speaker B: Yeah. So then it turns into Grand Theft Auto, where Coletta has to run away through a suburban backyard.
• 21:04
  Speaker A: Yeah, well, person. Yeah.
• 21:07
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. And, Christian, did you notice that she runs very slowly?
• 21:10
  Speaker A: I did not notice that, no.
• 21:12
  Speaker B: If you're so inclined to go back and watch it. It's a mild jog, but, yeah, she.
• 21:17
  Speaker A: Does actually manage to escape. Gets back home, and she's crying at the kitchen table.
• 21:24
  Speaker B: That's right.
• 21:25
  Speaker A: Now Matt gets a call about the shooting. We find out that the shooter, Brendan, is touch and go. He may or may not make it.
• 21:32
  Speaker B: Question. I'm trying to remember. I recently watched a movie, I think it was an Indian movie, where some guy had a secret.
• 21:39
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 21:40
  Speaker B: He was in the hospital, and the hero, or maybe the villain, couldn't let him survive because then he would tell the truth to go to the fuzz.
• 21:48
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 21:48
  Speaker B: Something like that. So it was like this again. And that's what I thought was going to happen with Colette. I thought she was going to go to the hospital and somehow try to get this guy killed. Turns out it's even worse than that.
• 21:58
  Speaker A: Yeah. Mac is, you know, trying to find all the information about the shooting. Says that there's no word about Colette, although he uses her code name, which I don't remember. Do you remember what her code name was?
• 22:08
  Speaker B: No, I don't remember.
• 22:09
  Speaker A: I should have written that down, but I forgot. But then Max sees someone come out of Gillian Anderson's office, right?
• 22:16
  Speaker B: So something's out at the end of.
• 22:17
  Speaker A: The day, you know, Max still there. So is Gillian Anderson. So he goes over and asks what that meeting was all about, but she gives him like, relax, we're all this, all on the same side. Don't worry about it.
• 22:28
  Speaker B: And she says it in a way that makes it sound like they're really not all on the same side. Yeah, it's really not very convincing.
• 22:33
  Speaker A: So Colette calls Mac, asks for Declan, and says that Brandon overheard them talking and it's all over. If he lives.
• 22:43
  Speaker B: Yeah. Which I guess I don't really understand why, if the shooter knows, then why wouldn't Connor also know? Like, it wouldn't get back to Connor again, the same problem I had before.
• 22:53
  Speaker A: Well, so the reason why is because basically, they go straight from when he catches her on the phone to the car. So he doesn't talk to anyone else.
• 23:01
  Speaker B: Right. But again, it's the same problem where if only the small circle of people know about the hit and the cops were waiting for them, someone must have told.
• 23:08
  Speaker A: No, it's not about the hit that she's worried about. She's worried about that he overheard them, her talking to Declan and giving information on where this is going to happen.
• 23:18
  Speaker B: Essentially confirm it if Brendan survives and lives to tell the tale.
• 23:23
  Speaker A: I mean, there is some suspicion on her at this point, but all the suspicion will fall on her if, yeah, Brendan survives and says that. Oh, I heard. Overheard Colette talking on the phone.
• 23:33
  Speaker B: Yep, that's right. Right before. I mean, they're not that dumb.
• 23:36
  Speaker A: Kevin comes over to see her and says, again, we need to talk. So they drive to some sort of secure buildings, a safe house. Kevin and Colette are talking. Asked when she first heard about the operation, Kevin's suspicious of when she disappeared in London after the failed bombing.
• 23:55
  Speaker B: So this was frustrating, too, because Colette gets caught in a lie easily.
• 23:58
  Speaker A: Uh, huh.
• 24:00
  Speaker B: Do you remember this? Because Kevin asked, when did you first hear about it? He said in the car. And there were people who talked to her about it the first time she heard about it who could prove her wrong, which they do. But despite this, Kevin doesn't immediately do anything, which is.
• 24:14
  Speaker A: He's also very suspicious already because she, you know, asks about when the cops took her from her house. And she says that someone from London questioned her. His name. Says his name was Jenkins, but then slips up and calls him Mac.
• 24:26
  Speaker B: Yeah. And he's like, well, which is it? Is it Jenkins or Mac Jenkins? Yeah, that was. That was plausible. Then he says you were also back out of prison really easily. What's up with that? Yeah, I mean, he never really gives a good explanation for why. No, she just lets her go, I guess. So the movie can happen.
• 24:46
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 24:48
  Speaker B: Did you also like the serial killer plastic in the next row? Yeah, like it was an episode of Dexter.
• 24:53
  Speaker A: But he said, don't leave Belfast. Don't leave town.
• 24:56
  Speaker B: That's right. You're. You're red knighted. I mean, red lighted.
• 24:59
  Speaker A: So we see. You see Mac looking for Brendan in the hospital, but apparently he's already dead.
• 25:04
  Speaker B: He has a brief appearance with another British cop who's from Band of Brothers, by the way. I had the Leonardo DiCaprio meme where I pointed at him. He's one of the replacements, along with James McAvoy.
• 25:15
  Speaker A: Okay. But, yeah. So Colette overhears Jerry and Connor talking, and apparently Kevin wants to talk to Colette again. They're saying that Calvin wants to talk to Colette again. Brendan's dead. So she knows all this.
• 25:28
  Speaker B: Yeah, she freaks out. She's like, I want him, dad. He's gotta be thread. He's gotta be dead. And they never explain why he dies. I think it's implied that the British kill him. Right.
• 25:39
  Speaker A: It's unclear. It could be. It's plausible either way.
• 25:44
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 25:45
  Speaker A: I mean, because they already said he's touch and go, so he could have just died of natural causes. Well, not natural. Died of his injuries, rather.
• 25:52
  Speaker B: Yeah. This is convenient. Mighty convenient.
• 25:56
  Speaker A: Mack meets Colette in a car in the rain. Colette wants to know if he killed Brandon. No, I didn't have to. And she tells Mac that Kevin knows, but Mac thinks that Kevin is bluffing. It's his job to, you know, make you sweat.
• 26:13
  Speaker B: That's right. I like when he says it's his job to make you think that he knows.
• 26:17
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So Colette goes back home and moves her hiding place for emergency pager. She Moves it from the bottom of her underwear drawer to sticking it up in inside one of her drawers.
• 26:27
  Speaker B: That's right, yeah.
• 26:29
  Speaker A: Or her nightstand. Yeah. So we have Brendan's funeral and there's riot police right outside there.
• 26:36
  Speaker B: Another great part of the movie. This is the second best part. I felt like it was pretty hardcore for Colette to be offering condolences to the family when it's basically her fault, 100% of her fault that the guy died.
• 26:50
  Speaker A: Yeah. And apparently the police are there to make sure that Brendan isn't buried as a soldier, is what they say.
• 26:57
  Speaker B: Well, yeah. So I don't claim to know a lot about this, but my understanding is that funerals were used to, like, whip people up into, like a frenzy like.
• 27:07
  Speaker A: Like in the Molly Mcguires.
• 27:10
  Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. So I guess things haven't changed that much. I like the confrontation with Littlefinger and the head of the cops where he's like, you have no right to be here. Oh, yeah, well, we're keeping to the. The promise. Oh, yeah, we're keeping to the promise, so.
• 27:25
  Speaker A: And you see there's guns that are passed around people as they're bringing the body out. And Liam Hughes, is that a real person?
• 27:35
  Speaker B: Not to my knowledge.
• 27:36
  Speaker A: It seems like I don't know the guy. The older IRA guy.
• 27:41
  Speaker B: That actor. That actor is a perfect choice for an older IRA guy.
• 27:45
  Speaker A: Right, That's. I was like, is that a real. Sounds like a real person. So. But I couldn't find anything a Connor. And who's the other guy who puts on the mask? Is it actually Jerry? Yeah, you pull on masks and give him not quite a 21 gun salute, but I guess 12 gun salute because they fire all the rounds in the. In their revolvers.
• 28:06
  Speaker B: Yeah. And then everyone goes and apparently starts yelling at the cops. It's not really clear.
• 28:10
  Speaker A: Leave the body there.
• 28:11
  Speaker B: That's right.
• 28:12
  Speaker A: Yeah. I was like. Well, I was like. I had to rewatch. Whoa. Oh, they just. Literally just. Even though this is supposed to be his funeral, they just left the bar. Obviously it's still in the coffin, but they just left it there in the street.
• 28:23
  Speaker B: Yeah. And it's on a couple of risers. It's not like they just left it behind on the sidewalk.
• 28:26
  Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, essentially they did, though.
• 28:30
  Speaker B: Really interesting part.
• 28:32
  Speaker A: Yeah. So later at the bar, seemingly they're having the Irish wick after Colette enters. And it's intercut with we see Kevin at her house searching her room. Jerry and Connor are in the back with Liam. And Jerry is upset about these peace Talks and he's basically told to go jog off.
• 28:53
  Speaker B: That's right. Again, I thought the movie was going to go a different direction than it ended up doing. I thought he was going to make a splinter group or something. But this movie isn't that big. It's pretty small, actually.
• 29:05
  Speaker A: So, Kevin enters the bar, talks with Colette, gives her some money to buy a football for her son's birthday.
• 29:12
  Speaker B: Right. But he's still suspicious of her. He makes that clear.
• 29:15
  Speaker A: So Mack is looking up Henderson. Who's Henderson? Is that Brendan?
• 29:18
  Speaker B: That was the guy that Brendan was gonna kill.
• 29:21
  Speaker A: That's who that. Okay. Yeah. So looking up the report, but the report has been classified. So it goes over to Gillian Anderson's house on the weekend. Yeah. And he very quickly figures out what's going on because Jillian Anderson has another person on the inside. Another tout.
• 29:38
  Speaker B: That's right. Again, interesting. Yeah, that was very interesting. What are they going to do? Because she says, let's burn Colette to protect the spy.
• 29:47
  Speaker A: Right.
• 29:47
  Speaker B: Yak, of course, doesn't like that.
• 29:50
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah. Colette's basically just fresh meat to dangle as bait to protect their real, real intel source.
• 29:57
  Speaker B: Yeah. Do you. Also the part where she said, I don't want to spend the money to.
• 30:00
  Speaker A: Protect her because Mac wants to pull her out, and Gillian Anderson says, no, it's like that's, you know, a million to set her up, take, you know, take her out. New passports, new names. No. Not worth it. Not worth it for intel on just one hit. Yeah.
• 30:17
  Speaker B: Once again, the biggest problem is budget costs.
• 30:19
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So we go to Collette's son's birthday. He gets a new bike, and he's riding it, and I. The tension here. I was waiting for something to happen to this kid.
• 30:28
  Speaker B: Nope. Nothing happened, as it turned out.
• 30:31
  Speaker A: I mean, the movie primed us with, you know, killing your little brother. So I was. I had tense, you know, braced myself that something was going to happen to the kid.
• 30:40
  Speaker B: Nope.
• 30:40
  Speaker A: And this is where, in my notes, I'm like, is Jerry Littlefinger?
• 30:45
  Speaker B: You figured it out.
• 30:46
  Speaker A: This is what I figured it out. When he's standing outside the door. Wait a minute. I know this guy.
• 30:51
  Speaker B: He's on the plane. And Dark Knight Rises, too, Among other places.
• 30:56
  Speaker A: Yep. So Mac asks for a favor from a colleague. He wants to know about the mole And Jerem. Jerry McPhay's outfit. And he says he knows it's someone close. And his colleague is like, we don't know who it is. They're gonna listen to our old Friend, Kevin. But what his suspicions are.
• 31:17
  Speaker B: It seems like Kevin really knows what's going on.
• 31:19
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So Colette is meeting Mac, but before she goes, her mom tries to stop her. And like, his demand's like, what do you need to go downtown for? No one needs to go downtown.
• 31:31
  Speaker B: Yeah, sorry, mom. She's on kid duty all the time. I have to go do some spying.
• 31:37
  Speaker A: So she goes to the rendezvous point and Colette's worried about her life. Max says he won't let her die. And then she kisses him.
• 31:44
  Speaker B: Yes. Thoughts, Christian? Thoughts?
• 31:48
  Speaker A: I think she's. She doesn't actually feel anything. I think she's just trying to use it to get her on his get.
• 31:55
  Speaker B: So a femme fatale.
• 31:57
  Speaker A: Sure.
• 31:58
  Speaker B: How sexist.
• 31:59
  Speaker A: No, I mean, I think she's using everything she has at her resources to just try to make sure that she survives.
• 32:05
  Speaker B: And you don't think he was coming on to her based on Gillian Anderson's earlier comment about.
• 32:10
  Speaker A: No, I mean, there was that, you know, but. But he, like if you watch him, he's not giving into it. I mean, he doesn't. He stops it after a while. But he doesn't. Like there's a. Usually if it's. If it's that kind of thing, you have one person kissing and the other will join in and he's just sort of stone faced there as she's trying to kiss him.
• 32:31
  Speaker B: Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. This plot line doesn't go anywhere after this part. Never comes up again.
• 32:39
  Speaker A: Oh, them? No. Well, in her mind, because right after she kisses him, that's when he says he wants to take her out of the game. So in her mind it was successful and that was all she needed to do.
• 32:53
  Speaker B: Yeah, just pushed him over the edge to get her out.
• 32:56
  Speaker A: But he's. And he says, you know, but it's not me, it's. It's just me doing this, not the entire organization. They've got their own agenda. And I can take your son too, but nothing else. The three. Three o'clock on Monday.
• 33:06
  Speaker B: That's right.
• 33:07
  Speaker A: So Kevin and Jerry are talking about the mole or their tout. Jerry is hesitant, but Kevin says, mighty dak now. So he's. Okay, fine. And I like this part. Mac is making a call asking if they have a card copy of the library of the Henderson case yet. Because, you know, he's got locked out. So maybe if there's a hard copy, he's all right. I'm just looking for the agent code. Apparently there are two agent codes on this. Obviously one of them is Colette. But the other is codenamed Shadow Dancer, which is where we get the title of the film, finally. So he finds the account number, goes into the library to find the file, and sees that there are payments going back to 1982 for £250.
• 33:49
  Speaker B: Who says, My work is all excitement?
• 33:51
  Speaker A: I don't know. This was exciting to me. And then my wheels are speed. Wait, 82? Who could that be? How old is Jerry? Like, so my mind went to Jerry or Connor. I didn't even cross the mother. Like, that even. Didn't even occur to me.
• 34:06
  Speaker B: They got you again.
• 34:07
  Speaker A: Yeah. Did you have any idea or suspicions?
• 34:10
  Speaker B: No, but I'm not the kind of person that tries to figure movies out while I'm watching them. I just kind of let them happen. Like a tidal wave.
• 34:16
  Speaker A: Spoosh. But yeah. So Connor is getting tortured by Kevin, being dunked into water. Kevin asks when he told Colette about the attack, did you get annoyed with this because he doesn't say anything?
• 34:29
  Speaker B: No. And I'll tell you why.
• 34:31
  Speaker A: All right?
• 34:31
  Speaker B: Because I thought he was the mole. He was like, ah, they figured it out, so they might as well just kill me. Yeah, right?
• 34:39
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
• 34:40
  Speaker B: But it does know that's not the case. And I don't know why you didn't say anything.
• 34:44
  Speaker A: I think. I mean, because if. Even if it was his sister, it's still his sister. So he's trying to protect his sister.
• 34:49
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 34:49
  Speaker A: Maybe he figured it out.
• 34:50
  Speaker B: That makes sense.
• 34:52
  Speaker A: Because of the two brothers, he seems to be the one that's closer to her.
• 34:56
  Speaker B: Yeah, I completely agree about that.
• 34:59
  Speaker A: Jerry is walking around outside nervously. So Matt goes to talk to his callers, call to his other colleague again, the one who told him about, you know, who he had seen in person, and says he wants to look at their records of anyone who was questioned around. 82 in April sees it, and Free, you know, sees that, you know, the highlights of. Because there's no names in there, obviously, but they do have transcripts of the interview, and it says, you're a mother and something's. Oh. And that's when it. You know, it clicks.
• 35:29
  Speaker B: Mm. She said something only Ma could say.
• 35:33
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
• 35:34
  Speaker B: Right.
• 35:34
  Speaker A: At this point, back in the torture room, Connor is being held at gunpoint. And he's like, all right, go ahead. Do it. Do it right. You're not the one we're looking for. And let him go.
• 35:44
  Speaker B: But again, there's no explanation for how Kevin comes to that conclusion. He just knows somehow.
• 35:50
  Speaker A: Mac calls the mom and says they're coming for Colette. And then they recruited Colette to protect the mob.
• 35:58
  Speaker B: So Mac recruited Colette to protect the.
• 36:03
  Speaker A: Mom on Gillian Anderson's advice.
• 36:06
  Speaker B: Right before the movie started.
• 36:08
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 36:08
  Speaker B: Okay, right.
• 36:10
  Speaker A: It was her idea. They bring it up twice that it was Gillian Anderson's idea. So the mom puts on her coat and watches Kevin pull up and goes into his car. And we see Colette walking home. And she's talking as if her mom's there, but realizes quickly that her mom's not there.
• 36:24
  Speaker B: That's right.
• 36:25
  Speaker A: And that's when we see Jillian Anderson and Mac find the mom's body in a field. Dead.
• 36:30
  Speaker B: Yeah, like the end of Seven. Yikes.
• 36:34
  Speaker A: So we see Colette walking somewhere. Mac is waiting for her. This is the day of the rendezvous. Now, he thinks he sees her, but it's someone else who's walking a dog. That person passes by a couple times, actually.
• 36:51
  Speaker B: Right.
• 36:51
  Speaker A: With the dog. Do you think they planted the ball?
• 36:55
  Speaker B: I hadn't thought about it. It's possible, if not probable.
• 36:59
  Speaker A: Yeah, but. Yeah. So his phone rings. He can hear it in the car. So he goes in the car and it blows up.
• 37:05
  Speaker B: Yep. Classic Ira. When I watch Ira movies, I used to be in the habit of every time someone gets into a car, you expect it to blow up. But.
• 37:14
  Speaker A: Yeah, but. Yeah. So Colette goes to pick up her son from school, says that they're gonna go on a trip. Connor is in the front driving, and he's like, it's done, which means Max dead, and they need to get going. And so they drive off, who knows where.
• 37:30
  Speaker B: Yep. And then the end of the movie is just her staring out the window for probably about five minutes. Do you think the idea is going through feelings, changing feelings?
• 37:39
  Speaker A: Well. Oh, yeah. All the different emotions she's going through? Yeah.
• 37:43
  Speaker B: Yeah. Okay, so here's the question, Christian. Does this twist, which is a great twist, that she's a triple agent, does it hold up? Does it all hang together?
• 37:52
  Speaker A: Which twist? The mother or her?
• 37:56
  Speaker B: Yeah, there's a couple of twists.
• 37:58
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 37:58
  Speaker B: So I think the mother twist hangs together.
• 38:01
  Speaker A: Yes, I think so, too.
• 38:03
  Speaker B: Her. Okay, so maybe this is being a little too complimentary of the movie, but my read, I think the writers were trying to get us to believe that Colette knew what she was doing the whole time that she was a triple agent.
• 38:16
  Speaker A: I don't know if I believe that. Well, I don't know. I don't see that necessarily.
• 38:22
  Speaker B: Well, if she's not, then they must have turned her at some point or she changed her mind.
• 38:28
  Speaker A: I don't think So I don't think. I think she's playing her own game.
• 38:32
  Speaker B: Well, obviously not by herself, because she had her boys help her.
• 38:36
  Speaker A: She had her brother. That's it.
• 38:39
  Speaker B: Well, that was all we saw.
• 38:41
  Speaker A: I feel like if the movie was gonna tell us that she had given information to Kevin or anything else, they would have told us that. I don't necessarily see that. I see it as she is done playing all these games, and so is Connor, because he just got tortured by Kevin. So there was just the two of them and maybe the dog walker working to get so that no one who knew about her would be conspiring to.
• 39:06
  Speaker B: Kill their own mother.
• 39:08
  Speaker A: Well, not the mother. No, the mother. I think the mother gave herself up because she didn't want Colette to die. So that was separate.
• 39:15
  Speaker B: It was separate. Okay.
• 39:17
  Speaker A: Yeah. I think the mother made that choice herself. No, that wasn't them.
• 39:22
  Speaker B: Okay?
• 39:22
  Speaker A: That was Mac calling and saying. So she felt guilty about that and realized that they were gonna come for Colette, so she made that choice.
• 39:28
  Speaker B: Right, but. So if the mother got herself killed to protect Colette, then why did Colette kill Mac? There's no reason to.
• 39:34
  Speaker A: Because Mac got her mother killed.
• 39:37
  Speaker B: No, he didn't. She gave herself up.
• 39:40
  Speaker A: But if she had not said anything, if Mac hadn't made that call, she would not have done it. If that's supposed to be the twist, that she's been playing both sides of being a triple agent this whole time. It was not communicated to me in the film, and I did not get that impression at all.
• 39:55
  Speaker B: Okay?
• 39:56
  Speaker A: What I got was at the end that she was done with playing the game and didn't want Mac holding over her head. Here's why you kill Mac. Because even if he was trying to get her out, he still knows. And she. He could still make her life miserable.
• 40:13
  Speaker B: Right.
• 40:14
  Speaker A: So we eliminate anyone who might know. On the IRA side, they think it's done and dusted because the mom was the mole the whole time. They didn't know that there was two moles.
• 40:24
  Speaker B: Okay. Interesting.
• 40:25
  Speaker A: And on Mac's side, it's Mac. She only knows Mac, who she's dealing with, and she. That's Mac. Knows how to contact her, but everyone. So she's like, if I get rid of them, then I can be free and clear, and maybe I'll go move to Scotland or somewhere. I don't know.
• 40:39
  Speaker B: So then Dom Noble Gleeson was okay that she got Brendan killed?
• 40:44
  Speaker A: I guess, seemingly.
• 40:46
  Speaker B: Maybe he doesn't. Or maybe he doesn't know about it.
• 40:47
  Speaker A: Maybe he doesn't know about. Maybe he doesn't care because that's, you know, like we said, she's. He's the brother that she's definitely closer to.
• 40:54
  Speaker B: Right. Okay, interesting.
• 40:57
  Speaker A: He's the one who was, like, upset about her having to see Kevin because he knows what Kevin could do, and then he got to experience what Kevin could do. So I don't see as a triple H. That's why I wanted to put a pin in that later. I don't see it.
• 41:09
  Speaker B: See, okay, here's my interpretation that the IRA knew there was a mole, so they sent Colette in to find the other mole.
• 41:16
  Speaker A: I don't see that at all.
• 41:18
  Speaker B: So she was playing Mac the whole time?
• 41:20
  Speaker A: Nah, nah, nah.
• 41:21
  Speaker B: I like my interpretation. It's more fun. But it does. Again, it doesn't hold together. Why would she hype from Kevin if he knew about it?
• 41:28
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 41:28
  Speaker B: Or hypothetical.
• 41:30
  Speaker A: Which is why I don't think that's what the film workers were trying to say.
• 41:33
  Speaker B: Okay. Anyway. Anything else? Anything else to say about the movie?
• 41:38
  Speaker A: Let's go through the rest of our categories. Spy Fact versus Spy Fiction.
• 41:49
  Speaker B: Okay, so next we have our Spy Fact versus fiction. Christian, do you have anything?
• 41:53
  Speaker A: I don't. So you could go ahead.
• 41:55
  Speaker B: Okay, so I'm going to start with the beginning where she just drops the purse in the middle of the London tube. This reminded me of when I lived in Jerusalem. They taught us about a term called Hephetz Hashud, which literally means a suspicious object. Everyone in Israel is taught to always be on the lookout for anything that's like a. Like a backpack that is just sitting on the side of the street. You should call the police if you see that. And I'm still in that mode a little bit. When I'm walking along and I see a bag at a bus stop or something, I don't call the police. I'm not that bad. But it does set me off something else. I have the Armalite rifle in Irish Republican history because there's a part when she's looking at the files, it says, Armalite rifle, IRA weapon. So it's by a guy named Liam A. Ryan. Updated September 7, 2021. The Armalite rifle, a civilian version of the US military's M16 assault rifle, became synonymous with Irish republicanism. From 1970 onwards. It was famously incorporated into the twin track Armalite and ballot box strategy. Have you ever heard of that?
• 42:59
  Speaker A: No.
• 43:00
  Speaker B: So I'm not going to go into that right now. It's basically referral to. They're going to try to get their rights both via voting and via violence.
• 43:09
  Speaker A: Right. Yeah, I got the idea. I've never heard that term. Interesting.
• 43:12
  Speaker B: The late Brendan Hughes is credited with introducing the Armalite rifle into Irish Republican arsenals. He saw a brochure for it. Isn't it America Great? Instantly recognized it would be a weapon. Useful. He said it folded, it could be dumped in water. And we were faceted by the weapon. The AR15 came first and the AR18. We all fell in love with this weapon. Which is funny because I seem to remember the M16 was not very well thought of in the Vietnam War because it would jam a lot and it wasn't very reliable. The band I like called the Wolf Tones, I think I told you about them. They were like, we love the ira. I think I told you about them. In the Michael Collins Spy Friday Nights episode, they have a song, and they're not the only ones, but they covered them, among other people, called My Little Armalite, or Me Little Armalite, which praises the Armalite AR18 rifle that was widely used. And then, fortunately, no one ever heard of the AR15 again after that. There's a part where they say the target, Henderson, he leaves his house at 7:30am every day. Do you remember that part?
• 44:12
  Speaker A: No, but go on.
• 44:13
  Speaker B: Okay, well, they say that in dialogue. And in the book Patriot Games. I don't remember the movie Patriot Games, but in the book, when Jack Ryan is being targeted by the ira, one of the things they tell him is change your route when you go to and from work.
• 44:28
  Speaker A: Right. The same thing that is in the movie too.
• 44:31
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 44:33
  Speaker A: I think so. I don't know. Or at least they talk about all of your, you know, creature, your, you know, your routines of habit or what will get you.
• 44:42
  Speaker B: That's right. And they say that's the best way to avoid being killed by terrorists. Actually, there's a part where Colleen said she's red lighted. There was no explanation I could find for that on the Internet.
• 44:51
  Speaker A: Right.
• 44:52
  Speaker B: I looked up why the word tout means spy. So the American definition of tout means bragging. But in British English it says to spy out information about.
• 45:02
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 45:03
  Speaker B: There was a sign in the bar that said, no singing allowed.
• 45:07
  Speaker A: Yeah, I saw that.
• 45:09
  Speaker B: So I googled that. Again, there was no explanation. I assume they put that up because it's a funeral and you don't sing at funerals. And then finally they say, did you guys put a hit out on the peeler? Why do they call British cops peelers? Well, it is from. According to. Oh, gosh I don't have a source for this. Sorry. I think it was just Google. It denotes a police officer and was originally a nickname for a member of the Peace Preservation force, established in 1814 by Robert Peel during his term as Chief Secretary of Ireland, 1812-1818. It was first used in the proceedings of a debate in the House of Commons in 1816. And that is what I have for spy fact versus fiction.
• 45:50
  Speaker A: Favorite quotes. All right, shall we move into our favorite quotes?
• 45:58
  Speaker B: Sure. Why don't you go first? I don't have that many.
• 46:01
  Speaker A: I have one, actually.
• 46:02
  Speaker B: Okay, go for it.
• 46:04
  Speaker A: Well, it's a twofer. It's. I think it's Kevin and Colette. Kevin says a volunteer is never off duty, and Colette says neither is a mammy.
• 46:14
  Speaker B: Yep, I had the beginning of that. That's one of your favorites.
• 46:17
  Speaker A: That's what I've got. What do you got?
• 46:18
  Speaker B: I did like when Gillian Anderson. We're all on the same side because she said it with such a insincere manner. I like the part where they're having the argument about tactics and somebody says, the leadership decides. Jerry. The leadership decides. And is that it?
• 46:35
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's it.
• 46:35
  Speaker B: It's not a very quotable movie, I guess.
• 46:37
  Speaker A: No, no. I mean, it's very intense. Very good at that. But not so many quotable lines.
• 46:44
  Speaker B: Ratings. Now it is time for our ratings. On a scale of one to ten martinis, one being even better than Mission Impossible, Ghost Protocol, and one being Avengers 1998, how would we rate Shadow Dancer? Christian? I guess I can go first.
• 47:03
  Speaker A: Sure. Okay.
• 47:04
  Speaker B: So I didn't love the movie. The twists at the end are good, I think. And there's a. There are pieces of tension that are also good, but it is kind of slow. And there's not enough Gillian Anderson. So it's okay. I don't think sometimes with these Spotify guys movies, I want to tell people about them. Not this one. So I'm going to give it a 5 out of 10 martinis.
• 47:28
  Speaker A: It's fine. Okay. All right. See, I had a bet. I mean, maybe it's just because in Comparison to section 31, this was outstanding. It. It started slow. It was a slow burn. But by just halfway through, I'm like. I am very invested in what's going to happen here. I did not see the twist coming, so I was pleasantly surprised by it. And also, I appreciate it's under two hours.
• 47:52
  Speaker B: Yeah. The fact that it's short is nice.
• 47:54
  Speaker A: Yeah. So I'm going to give this 7 out of 10 martinis. It's not spectacular, but it's a. It's a solid movie.
• 48:01
  Speaker B: I think you give every movie a 7 out of 10. I don't mean to call you out.
• 48:04
  Speaker A: No, I gave. I gave section 31 two and a half.
• 48:08
  Speaker B: Right.
• 48:09
  Speaker A: I gave Goldfinger nine. I vary. I don't. I mean, I do give a lot of sevens. If I think it's just a solid movie that I will. You know, that I think people, if they're interested, should watch. But I do vary. Like, I'm looking at things like.
• 48:23
  Speaker B: Okay, okay. No need to get to that.
• 48:25
  Speaker A: No, we just. We talked about last episode. I gave Hudson Hawke A2. Although had. Like I said, you know, that one maybe was a little. Little harsh.
• 48:34
  Speaker B: Yeah, well, we'll have to talk about that some other time.
• 48:36
  Speaker A: So I would just say if you are interested in that Troubles era and you're looking for just a movie, not necessarily one that's comprehensive, but that gives a flavor of the time. It's a good movie.
• 48:48
  Speaker B: Good.
• 48:49
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 48:49
  Speaker B: Very nice.
• 48:50
  Speaker A: Okay. All right, well, thank you all for joining us. You guys can find us on social media at the Spy Fi Guys on Facebook, Blue Sky, YouTube and Instagram. And our Merch Stubble, our merch store@redbubble.com until next time. I'm Christian.
• 49:03
  Speaker B: And I'm Zach.
• 49:04
  Speaker A: And we are the Spy Fi Guys signing off. Thank you for listening to the Spy Fi Guys. If you enjoyed our podcast, please be sure to give us a five star rating on itunes. The theme song from this podcast is Mistake the getaway by Kevin McLeod from Incompetech.com licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0. Films, books and television shows reviewed by our podcast are the intellectual property of their respective copyright holders and no infringement is intended.
• 49:39
  Speaker B: This is a personal podcast. Any views, statements or opinions expressed in this podcast are personal and belong solely to the participants. They do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the participants may or may not be associated with in a professional or personal capacity. Unless explicitly stated, any views or opinions are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company or individual.
• 50:03
  Speaker A: You can find our podcast on social media at Thespy Fi Guys on Facebook, Blue Sky, YouTube and Instagram.