Latest / High n' Dry Podcast / Surviving "The Thing": High n' Dry Episode #72

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Surviving "The Thing": High n' Dry Episode #72 · High n' Dry Podcast

• 0:15
  Ryan Baron North: Hey everybody, welcome to High and Dry Podcast, the only podcast keeping alive the fandom of Little House and the Prairie.
• 0:21
  Ryan Baron North: And Michael Landon, welcome.
• 0:24
  Ryan Baron North: Thanks for joining us.
• 0:25
  Ryan Baron North: I'm Ryan Baird North with me, as always.
• 0:27
  Ryan Baron North: James Crosslin, james, what's happening?
• 0:31
  James Crosslin: Not much, just really excited to talk about Little House and the Prairie today.
• 0:34
  James Crosslin: Yeah, it's a good one.
• 0:38
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah, I'm more excited about talking about Michael Landon, just in general.
• 0:42
  Ryan Baron North: Just in general, I feel he hasn't come up enough lately especially in the podcast.
• 0:48
  James Crosslin: Well, he's been dead for a while, I think.
• 0:51
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah, well, anytime I think of anybody who's passed on, I think of Coco, and I worry that, because I haven't talked about him, he's being dragged further into the afterlife, and so I got to keep his memory alive via my podcast.
• 1:10
  James Crosslin: Well, he did do a lot of great.
• 1:12
  James Crosslin: Like all of his shows were ones that my family watched religiously.
• 1:15
  James Crosslin: Well, I don't know about Highway to Heaven, but Bonanza and Little House on the Prairie 100% my family loved those shows.
• 1:23
  Ryan Baron North: Nice.
• 1:23
  Ryan Baron North: Well, we just bought him a little extra time in the Coco Underworld.
• 1:27
  Ryan Baron North: So there you go, michael Landon, enjoy.
• 1:29
  Ryan Baron North: So you, who are just joining us for the first time, never heard this before, were you?
• 1:37
  Ryan Baron North: We talk pop culture, entertainment, philosophy, all that fun stuff.
• 1:42
  Ryan Baron North: We're going to dive into the thing, the film, the thing from 1982, but we're going to do it while drunk and or high.
• 1:50
  Ryan Baron North: So that being the case, james, what are you smoking today?
• 1:54
  James Crosslin: So I, for even after we texted each other about doing this, I totally forgot that we were doing it, and so I already smoked on a little under a half a gram today, but I'm still going to go hard.
• 2:08
  James Crosslin: Today I've got one I've never tried to do tried, called Oakstradam OG, I assume it's grown in like Oakland and it's all supposed to be like an Amsterdam.
• 2:22
  James Crosslin: I guess I have no idea what the fuck.
• 2:26
  James Crosslin: It's a really stupid name, but I'm going to try it.
• 2:31
  Ryan Baron North: Cool.
• 2:31
  Ryan Baron North: Well, I'm excited for you.
• 2:32
  Ryan Baron North: I'm going to be joining you with Makers Mark Whiskey, don't have the bottle with me.
• 2:37
  Ryan Baron North: I put my shit in the decanter, the glassware going on over here behind the scenes.
• 2:45
  James Crosslin: So that way you can tell, you can tell anybody.
• 2:50
  Ryan Baron North: It's any type of whiskey in there, you could lie.
• 2:55
  James Crosslin: They just accept it because it's in a decanter.
• 2:58
  Ryan Baron North: That's right, I'm class and even brought, so I have a countered up earlier.
• 3:02
  Ryan Baron North: I have eight different sets of my whiskey glasses.
• 3:05
  Ryan Baron North: Today I'm going with the executive, so that's nice.
• 3:08
  Ryan Baron North: But yeah, so Makers Mark, I think that's 40 horsepower if I remember correctly.
• 3:13
  Ryan Baron North: But the tried and true, let's try it.
• 3:16
  Ryan Baron North: Sometimes it's on sale, and that's when I pick it up.
• 3:18
  Ryan Baron North: It was and I did.
• 3:20
  Ryan Baron North: So this first one is going out to the movie today the Thing by John Carpenter, cheers.
• 3:30
  James Crosslin: Cheers.
• 3:30
  James Crosslin: Oh yeah, I'm supposed to smoke this Cheers.
• 3:37
  Ryan Baron North: Oh yeah, I did know that we had this coming up, but it was lunchtime, I drank anyway.
• 3:46
  James Crosslin: Yeah, got it.
• 3:48
  James Crosslin: You got it to get through the day Nowadays.
• 3:51
  Ryan Baron North: It's a mess, it really is.
• 3:56
  James Crosslin: It's like an alien's out here pretending to be dogs and people and shit.
• 4:01
  James Crosslin: It's too much.
• 4:05
  Ryan Baron North: So the second one, now that we're officially back on the air, this will be our second run around.
• 4:11
  Ryan Baron North: That goes live next week.
• 4:12
  Ryan Baron North: Well, no, that's going to be Rebel Moons next week, but he's listening now.
• 4:18
  Ryan Baron North: It doesn't matter.
• 4:18
  Ryan Baron North: So this second one goes out to our newest listeners.
• 4:22
  Ryan Baron North: These ones are in Glasgow.
• 4:24
  Ryan Baron North: I don't know how we keep hopping to other countries, but we're making it happen.
• 4:32
  James Crosslin: I think they're going to be mad that you called it Glasgow.
• 4:34
  James Crosslin: That's what it says it's Glasgow.
• 4:39
  Ryan Baron North: Oh, fuck that, it's whatever I say.
• 4:47
  James Crosslin: We can't understand you.
• 4:48
  James Crosslin: We can't understand you when you talk anyway.
• 4:53
  Ryan Baron North: Get fucked Cheers.
• 4:55
  Ryan Baron North: Here's to Glasgow Cheers man, I don't know what's going on Like I'm drinking more than ever, but I need to practice my no face making when taking a glass of wine.
• 5:15
  Ryan Baron North: No face making when taking my ounce and a half.
• 5:24
  James Crosslin: Yeah, you don't, you don't like you, you know you're being very real, which is that which is where you go.
• 5:35
  Ryan Baron North: It's very real.
• 5:35
  Ryan Baron North: Well, so, for this third one, well, what's it to?
• 5:39
  Ryan Baron North: For this third one, I'll practice my no reaction, I don't know.
• 5:45
  James Crosslin: Well, this last one, that is to me not making a reaction when I take a drink.
• 5:51
  Ryan Baron North: If you're watching this on YouTube, you actually get to see if I pull it off.
• 5:54
  Ryan Baron North: So here we go.
• 5:55
  Ryan Baron North: Cheers.
• 5:55
  James Crosslin: I'll not have a reaction either.
• 5:57
  Ryan Baron North: Cheers, I felt the top lip move up a little bit, but I don't think it was that bad.
• 6:04
  Ryan Baron North: I'll review the tape later.
• 6:06
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah, I'll review the tape later.
• 6:12
  James Crosslin: Yeah Right, put a comment.
• 6:15
  Ryan Baron North: Just leave us a comment and tell, tell Ryan if he didn't make a face Like so I do the little, I sip all the time, but I'm not just sitting at the house busting shots, so you know, oh well.
• 6:30
  Ryan Baron North: Anyway, now that we've so we've gotten our hits, we've gotten our shots it's time to get into this show.
• 6:34
  Ryan Baron North: So we're going to be talking about John Carpenter's the thing and we're going to break it down.
• 6:38
  Ryan Baron North: Right now we're going to go into our sober thoughts, then we're going to move into our enlightened thoughts, once the drugs and alcohol have had a chance to work their way into their system, and then, finally, we're going to do some what ifs.
• 6:52
  Ryan Baron North: We're going to throw us into the thing and we're going to see what we could do that Kurt Russell was incapable of.
• 6:58
  Ryan Baron North: So, james, sober thoughts the thing, what are you feeling?
• 7:05
  James Crosslin: Sober thoughts on the thing.
• 7:05
  James Crosslin: I think that it's a it's kind of it's kind of a play on the locked room, you know, kind of it's almost like a stage play.
• 7:21
  Ryan Baron North: The.
• 7:21
  James Crosslin: Thing where the core of its tension and the driving force of the plot are actually interactions between people.
• 7:30
  James Crosslin: You have a looming threat, but it's a lot of.
• 7:33
  James Crosslin: This movie is just people talk and not trusting each other and trying to come up with solutions when they're presented with problems, and that's a very like stage play thing.
• 7:43
  James Crosslin: There could be a the thing stage play, and I bet it'd be kind, I bet it'd be pretty good.
• 7:48
  Ryan Baron North: Well, I'm actually I'm working on that as we speak.
• 7:55
  James Crosslin: But I'd say that you know, in the presentation I felt like they did a really good job of.
• 8:01
  James Crosslin: You know they did a lot of tight shots.
• 8:03
  James Crosslin: You know it's I'd say it's comparable to alien in a lot of ways, where they make, they force you to be inside in this enclosed space.
• 8:11
  James Crosslin: You know they have people walking, they have, they have these you know, deep shots of hallways and people coming towards you or leaving.
• 8:19
  James Crosslin: You know the focus of the camera frequently and it's really tight.
• 8:22
  James Crosslin: They have people coming through doorways a lot because just to show that every room is kind of small, they don't have a lot of space and they're all stuck here.
• 8:30
  James Crosslin: I feel that it's a really good job driving the tension and the while the the props are limited by the time they were made.
• 8:43
  James Crosslin: You know the technology just wasn't there.
• 8:46
  James Crosslin: They're very unique, you know and yeah, they're memorable, and I think that's one of the more important things when you're doing, when you're looking at a monster movie, is is it memorable rather than is it like photorealistic or something?
• 9:04
  James Crosslin: Yes, and, and the same guy who did the props for this also did the props for total recall, and I had watched total recall recently.
• 9:13
  James Crosslin: We're going to do an episode on it.
• 9:15
  James Crosslin: I'd watched it for the first time, really as an adult and straight through, and I instantly noticed that it was the same person.
• 9:23
  James Crosslin: I looked it up, I was like who did the who did the props?
• 9:27
  James Crosslin: Because they're so, they're so familiar and both of those films have, like really unique, recognizable props that are dating but so memorable.
• 9:37
  Ryan Baron North: Yes, see, I I thought right away that we were.
• 9:43
  Ryan Baron North: I was looking at Kronenberg stuff, which wasn't the case, the dude who did the fly and all that kind of stuff.
• 9:48
  Ryan Baron North: But but now that you think, I think about it, the styles are pretty distinct.
• 9:53
  Ryan Baron North: But the thing he had such a way of I was like using tubing he found in his garage to make it disgusting and I thought it was especially, you know, limited.
• 10:10
  Ryan Baron North: By the time I thought it was a fantastic job and that in.
• 10:13
  Ryan Baron North: But as far as my sober thoughts.
• 10:15
  Ryan Baron North: So I've always been a fan of the thing.
• 10:19
  Ryan Baron North: I've seen it a lot.
• 10:21
  Ryan Baron North: So Reese Merritt we've had on the show a few times.
• 10:24
  Ryan Baron North: He actually came with me one time when they were doing a re-screening in Las Vegas.
• 10:30
  Ryan Baron North: So I've even seen the thing in theaters and I've always enjoyed it.
• 10:35
  Ryan Baron North: For me it's right next to, it's next to Alien, which we did an episode on Alien.
• 10:41
  James Crosslin: All the way next to Alien right next to it.
• 10:45
  James Crosslin: Wow, yeah, and that's high praise.
• 10:48
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah, we had high praise for Alien, for sure.
• 10:50
  Ryan Baron North: So, yeah, if you guys could go back and listen to the episode we did on Alien.
• 10:53
  Ryan Baron North: We didn't much care for Alien 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
• 11:02
  James Crosslin: I'd have to watch them again, but I watched two pretty recently and maybe I don't know, maybe I was just off on how I was feeling or not approaching it very well, but I thought it was a fucking joke.
• 11:15
  Ryan Baron North: Well, but something to think.
• 11:16
  Ryan Baron North: Though I appreciate the distinct personalities that are there, it seems to me like fucking Wilfred Brimley is the only one who actually has a job there.
• 11:36
  Ryan Baron North: The rest of them just kind of drink or roller skate, so I don't know what to say about that Kurt Russell.
• 11:49
  James Crosslin: Kurt Russell's the pilot.
• 11:50
  Ryan Baron North: He's a pilot right, he does a helicopter pilot.
• 11:52
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:54
  James Crosslin: So he does end up flying the helicopter, yeah.
• 11:57
  James Crosslin: So actually I think the other guy, what's his name?
• 12:02
  James Crosslin: Fuchs or something.
• 12:04
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah, fuchs, fuchs.
• 12:07
  James Crosslin: He didn't he take the samples of the ice and like I think I mean they did have some people do some science shit yeah it's very vaguely touched on, but at the same time you know that's a good thing.
• 12:18
  Ryan Baron North: You know you have a story to get to, what's the chase and how do we cut to it.
• 12:22
  Ryan Baron North: And they did that.
• 12:25
  James Crosslin: In Rebel Moon, we would have just watched them do their jobs yes, for like an hour.
• 12:30
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah, and God bless Rebel Moon.
• 12:32
  Ryan Baron North: You know there are farmers and every scene was just a to B.
• 12:37
  Ryan Baron North: How do we get back to farming?
• 12:39
  Ryan Baron North: Let's talk about crop moisture levels, let's.
• 12:41
  Ryan Baron North: Let's get to where we need to be.
• 12:43
  Ryan Baron North: By the way, I used to be a fascist and everyone's like oh, okay.
• 12:48
  Ryan Baron North: Well, hold on, let me talk for an hour about that In Rebel Moon.
• 12:54
  Ryan Baron North: God damn it.
• 12:56
  Ryan Baron North: So, oh well, so yeah, so those are my my thoughts on it.
• 13:01
  Ryan Baron North: I enjoy it.
• 13:02
  Ryan Baron North: I love the atmosphere.
• 13:04
  Ryan Baron North: I thought the atmosphere is great.
• 13:05
  Ryan Baron North: I like the personalities that are represented in it.
• 13:11
  Ryan Baron North: I did feel like Wilford Brimley was the only one with a job, or at least he took his job seriously, which is impressive, because he's combating diabetes the whole time and he doesn't let that, you know, interfere.
• 13:24
  James Crosslin: I don't I'm just looking as they let him go to.
• 13:26
  Ryan Baron North: Antarctica.
• 13:29
  James Crosslin: Very true.
• 13:30
  Ryan Baron North: I don't think we get insulin down there, brimley, are you sure?
• 13:33
  Ryan Baron North: He said no, I actually distill my own.
• 13:37
  Ryan Baron North: So other than that though, yeah, I was I'm waiting to see what my enlightened thoughts are.
• 13:45
  Ryan Baron North: Did you have any final sober thoughts?
• 13:48
  James Crosslin: Oh no, those are long gone.
• 13:50
  Ryan Baron North: Oh, they've left the building All right?
• 13:52
  Ryan Baron North: Well then, in that case, I think it's time to move on to the second portion of this.
• 13:58
  Ryan Baron North: Let me shuffle around my glassware.
• 14:01
  Ryan Baron North: I'm going to need another shot before we get into our enlightened thoughts.
• 14:06
  Ryan Baron North: Is Wilford Brimley still doing okay?
• 14:14
  James Crosslin: I don't know.
• 14:15
  James Crosslin: No, definitely not.
• 14:17
  James Crosslin: He's, he's 100% dead.
• 14:19
  James Crosslin: Well, shit.
• 14:23
  Ryan Baron North: I just spared him from another cocoa style rip into this underworld too.
• 14:30
  James Crosslin: That's true.
• 14:31
  James Crosslin: He died August 1, 2020.
• 14:33
  James Crosslin: So he was like trapped at home.
• 14:39
  Ryan Baron North: Okay, well, that sucks.
• 14:40
  Ryan Baron North: Well, this one's to Wilford Brimley.
• 14:43
  Ryan Baron North: Cheers, Cheers to Wilford Brimley.
• 14:47
  Ryan Baron North: That was the one, that was the one, so I forgot the key to it.
• 15:00
  Ryan Baron North: So, for those of you listening and wondering how you too could drink like a well functioning alcoholic and not let it affect your face, you have to take it on the tongue slow, that's, that's what you got to.
• 15:15
  Ryan Baron North: Let it roll down.
• 15:16
  Ryan Baron North: You can't just choke it.
• 15:17
  Ryan Baron North: You got to roll it down Really, save for the flavor of your maker's mark that was on sale at cost cutters, that's it.
• 15:29
  James Crosslin: That was, that was erotic.
• 15:34
  Ryan Baron North: All right.
• 15:34
  Ryan Baron North: Now that we're all aroused and a little further down the road and Wilford Brimley's been spared from cocoa hell, let's get into our enlightened thoughts.
• 15:45
  Ryan Baron North: So it's a James with drugs flowing.
• 15:48
  Ryan Baron North: What are your enlightened thoughts on this?
• 15:52
  James Crosslin: My enlightened thoughts are thank God for Keith David.
• 15:55
  James Crosslin: What a great actor.
• 15:58
  James Crosslin: And I thought he was great.
• 15:59
  James Crosslin: He's.
• 16:00
  James Crosslin: David, is like one of my favorite actors, who pops up and stuff.
• 16:03
  James Crosslin: Oh yeah, I absolutely love his lives.
• 16:08
  James Crosslin: Right, he was lils.
• 16:10
  James Crosslin: Hold on, let me look.
• 16:12
  James Crosslin: I can't remember the name.
• 16:13
  James Crosslin: I don't know their names.
• 16:16
  Ryan Baron North: I thought you watched it once.
• 16:18
  James Crosslin: His name is Giles.
• 16:20
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah, giles, that's right, that's right, I would have known that in the silver side.
• 16:26
  Ryan Baron North: I would have known that in the silver portion, but we're beyond that now.
• 16:32
  James Crosslin: Yeah, we're way past that, but he was really great.
• 16:35
  James Crosslin: I gotta say Kurt Russell was a good actor in this movie, but he played an absolutely insane man.
• 16:45
  Ryan Baron North: Yes.
• 16:46
  James Crosslin: He plays.
• 16:47
  James Crosslin: I feel like he's so typecast as an impulsive hothead who makes like terrible decisions.
• 16:56
  Ryan Baron North: He escaped from New York like two years just to wind up in Antarctica.
• 17:00
  Ryan Baron North: Like I mean, I'd be pissed off too.
• 17:06
  James Crosslin: And then he gets a job as a truck driver after this.
• 17:08
  James Crosslin: The bomb didn't kill him.
• 17:10
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah, so, and he goes off and he's in San Francisco, which I would love to do an episode on that now that you bring it up, but please continue.
• 17:21
  James Crosslin: But he, I think that this is just a continuation or maybe a defining, you know film where he becomes an impulsive, just a hothead, and like the, when he fucking tells Keith David, you know, when he takes the gun and is like I think someone more even temperate should hold on to this.
• 17:43
  James Crosslin: I was like I, I audibly went, he like he.
• 17:51
  Ryan Baron North: I remember the exact line.
• 17:54
  James Crosslin: He flew the fucking helicopter when they were like it's two days to supply this helicopter.
• 17:58
  James Crosslin: He's like I'm going out there Like what are we looking for?
• 18:01
  James Crosslin: I don't know.
• 18:01
  James Crosslin: And then but.
• 18:04
  James Crosslin: But even like the opening of this, movie.
• 18:06
  Ryan Baron North: He murdered their only chess video game.
• 18:10
  James Crosslin: That's what I was going to say.
• 18:11
  James Crosslin: It's the opening of the movie is he loses a game of chess and destroys a piece of machinery.
• 18:21
  Ryan Baron North: That's just even tempered right there, yeah.
• 18:24
  James Crosslin: I was.
• 18:24
  James Crosslin: I was like what the fuck are you talking about?
• 18:27
  Ryan Baron North: See, I think even temperedness is relative.
• 18:29
  Ryan Baron North: He was intelligent enough and socially conscious enough to understand that any other man on this installation, had they have lost the chess game, would have blown up the facility.
• 18:43
  James Crosslin: Yeah, that's.
• 18:44
  James Crosslin: That's just how Antarctica makes you yes.
• 18:48
  Ryan Baron North: But to that point I will say I kind of and it's interesting that you bring it up, and I think it's important to note that we don't know how we'll be until we're sitting there, and there's definitely a part of me right now, without getting too much into you know what was it going on in my real, non high and dry life?
• 19:11
  Ryan Baron North: Right now I'm, you know, I'm finding myself in a place I don't want to fucking be.
• 19:16
  Ryan Baron North: I have a you know, a developing drinking problem, all those sorts of things, and I feel just like him, like I have tons of experience, like in my career, you know, and I'm just so fucking over it and I could totally kill that fucking chess game right now.
• 19:37
  Ryan Baron North: At the same time, I would never let a single one of the motherfuckers I work with have the gun before me.
• 19:46
  James Crosslin: I believe you.
• 19:49
  Ryan Baron North: So I get it.
• 19:49
  Ryan Baron North: I get where he's coming from.
• 19:51
  Ryan Baron North: I understand.
• 19:54
  James Crosslin: I think that I think that this movie is actually incredibly deep philosophically and Kurt Russell represents a solipsism.
• 20:01
  James Crosslin: You know where?
• 20:02
  Ryan Baron North: I was going to say that.
• 20:10
  James Crosslin: But please go on.
• 20:10
  James Crosslin: But for those who, who you know, aren't familiar with the term solipsism, is this solipsism?
• 20:17
  James Crosslin: Is this idea where you are the only source of truth?
• 20:20
  James Crosslin: Only your experiences and your ideas can be trusted.
• 20:24
  James Crosslin: You're the only thing with agency in the universe.
• 20:28
  James Crosslin: This is all just a construction of of our minds and an expression of our minds to ourselves.
• 20:35
  James Crosslin: And Kurt Russell, thinking that he's the, that he's even tempered, is like such a such a solipsist view.
• 20:44
  James Crosslin: It's like dude, you, you, apparently, you can only see from your perspective.
• 20:49
  Ryan Baron North: Yes, yes, I well, I definitely see that.
• 20:53
  Ryan Baron North: Well, I'll see that and I'll raise you the epistemological viewpoint of this particular movie.
• 21:04
  James Crosslin: Let's go.
• 21:06
  Ryan Baron North: So let's talk about.
• 21:07
  Ryan Baron North: You know nature and the limits of our knowledge.
• 21:10
  Ryan Baron North: No matter, no matter how long you shove Wilford Brimley into a storage facility and you don't always you give him that magical 1982 computer program that was somehow able to take a sample and determine that the exact amount of time before the world is taken over 27,000 hours.
• 21:35
  James Crosslin: This is what I saw.
• 21:38
  Ryan Baron North: What I want to know is why did they, why did they have that particular computer program?
• 21:42
  Ryan Baron North: They have chess, they have chess master, and how long it takes for an alien entity to swallow the earth.
• 21:51
  James Crosslin: Those are the only two computers on board on that stage.
• 21:55
  James Crosslin: Every computer single purpose, and those are the only two.
• 22:01
  Ryan Baron North: So if I was a Kurt Russell and Giles sitting there and I'm putting that together and I'm Kurt Russell, I'm like they gave us chess master.
• 22:10
  Ryan Baron North: And how long would it take an alien entity to swallow the earth on a deluxe floppy disk?
• 22:18
  Ryan Baron North: Why did they send us down here, Right, Like I feel like we were set up.
• 22:26
  Ryan Baron North: I feel like we were set up, man.
• 22:28
  Ryan Baron North: Those would be my last question.
• 22:33
  James Crosslin: I always questioned this computer and why it was here.
• 22:38
  Ryan Baron North: I mean, this is 1982.
• 22:39
  Ryan Baron North: It took us five guys to bring that computer inside None of us asked why we needed it.
• 22:49
  James Crosslin: So, yeah.
• 22:49
  James Crosslin: Who knows?
• 22:55
  Ryan Baron North: So I did appreciate the magical computer program they have but to bring it back to my point, the whole, the entire time is just the concept.
• 23:04
  Ryan Baron North: Of our knowledge can never truly capture the full picture of what's going on.
• 23:14
  James Crosslin: Right.
• 23:14
  James Crosslin: And I think that's really displayed by the script, and I think the writer had an epistemological crisis.
• 23:27
  Ryan Baron North: He was having some issues.
• 23:28
  Ryan Baron North: His life had just handed him the divorce contract and he's seeing shit on there that was making him question everything.
• 23:37
  James Crosslin: And he just wished he had a program.
• 23:38
  James Crosslin: He was like what are the implications that that one single cell is all it takes for this thing to survive?
• 23:46
  James Crosslin: What are the implications of that?
• 23:48
  Ryan Baron North: Whatever, people aren't going, to ask too many questions and he just went.
• 23:56
  Ryan Baron North: There's a computer program for that, but I think it definitely puts it gives you an idea of what the general public thought computers were capable of at that time.
• 24:11
  Ryan Baron North: Right, and what just well, and just what researchers had that wasn't on their Macintosh, you know.
• 24:20
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah, it really definitely showed us the fantasy of computers at that time.
• 24:28
  James Crosslin: Yeah, I agree, and I think that you know the general public wasn't as educated as they are now and I know I know it's we say like education's on a dip actually now.
• 24:41
  James Crosslin: But I mean I feel like during our period we got a pretty good education.
• 24:46
  James Crosslin: We especially, like it, touched on the higher concept, higher academic, you know courses than than conservatives would like.
• 24:57
  James Crosslin: They say it's like a waste of time, but you and I know how, like the structure of a cell, how cells work in a body, like what's the?
• 25:06
  James Crosslin: size, the size of a cell, like what you know.
• 25:12
  James Crosslin: All of these things are things that clearly weren't understood well during this time, because it just gets poo pooed that that each of the this organisms, individual cells is is in its own, an entire organism that will seek to survive and can replicate.
• 25:33
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah, and with a general, just a very general elementary knowledge of a cell.
• 25:38
  Ryan Baron North: That is fucking wild.
• 25:41
  James Crosslin: Yeah, that means that means the earth is definitely like at, at whenever.
• 25:45
  James Crosslin: Whenever this thing gets to where anything else is alive and can and can really kick things off, the earth is done.
• 25:52
  James Crosslin: It's just it's going to happen when the ice caps melt.
• 25:56
  James Crosslin: It's going to happen then it's going to.
• 25:58
  James Crosslin: It's going to happen at some point in history that this thing is going to come in contact with life.
• 26:02
  James Crosslin: That spreads it.
• 26:05
  Ryan Baron North: And that's just it.
• 26:05
  Ryan Baron North: Wilfred Brimley did not need the computer program to understand that it was unnecessary.
• 26:12
  Ryan Baron North: That was that was just for the sake of the audience, yeah, yeah, no, and that's a wild thing.
• 26:19
  Ryan Baron North: And so my last enlightened thought and the thing I think I think I appreciate excuse me, I appreciate most about the film is definitely the look at the whole survival, our instinct to survive, yeah.
• 26:37
  James Crosslin: Pushed into contact with a community, yeah, that that's looking, you know, at its destruction and trying to toe the line between being part of this group and then looking out for, you know, number one, yeah, that's a great way to sum it up, because and that's like a, that's like a, that's like a locker room stage play right Exactly when people are stuck in a place together, and it's all about this showing how people can have different philosophical ideals and how they can value different things more, and how trust is a tenuous balance.
• 27:18
  James Crosslin: It builds tension so well, and people have known that for a long time, and it's been on the stage for a long time, Without a doubt, and I think that will.
• 27:30
  Ryan Baron North: that'll definitely lend a lot to our what if, because we're, you know, for our what if portion that's going to come up here in about five minutes we're locking ourselves in this room and then we get to answer for ourselves.
• 27:42
  Ryan Baron North: You know, how would we react when it really, straight up, comes down to personal survival versus the survival of your group.
• 27:53
  Ryan Baron North: And I wonder myself if there was a better way for these guys, if they could get over themselves.
• 28:02
  Ryan Baron North: Was there a better way?
• 28:04
  Ryan Baron North: And I don't know.
• 28:07
  Ryan Baron North: I honestly I feel like this is the perfect chance to jump into our what ifs and just start working through it.
• 28:13
  James Crosslin: Sure.
• 28:13
  James Crosslin: What are your thoughts?
• 28:15
  Ryan Baron North: Well, all right.
• 28:16
  Ryan Baron North: So if everyone, welcome to the third portion of this podcast.
• 28:20
  Ryan Baron North: It's time to get into the what ifs.
• 28:22
  Ryan Baron North: So you know you're driving to work right now.
• 28:25
  Ryan Baron North: It's a Wednesday morning.
• 28:26
  Ryan Baron North: You're reaching for that bottle under the seat you keep hearing us take shots.
• 28:30
  James Crosslin: So we do not condone, yeah, yeah.
• 28:34
  Ryan Baron North: Look after numero one.
• 28:36
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah, you stuck down.
• 28:43
  James Crosslin: Listen, you're even tempered, all right.
• 28:46
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah, yeah, I'm even tempered.
• 28:47
  Ryan Baron North: I can drink behind the wheel, but your average person cannot, so I can't condone it.
• 28:55
  Ryan Baron North: Look, I'm one of those special types who becomes more safe as he drinks, because he knows if it's stay.
• 29:05
  James Crosslin: That was.
• 29:05
  James Crosslin: That was an episode of WKRP.
• 29:08
  James Crosslin: I don't know if you've ever watched that show, but it was like a really fucking funny show.
• 29:13
  James Crosslin: That was like a.
• 29:14
  James Crosslin: That was like a really good sitcom and they had a character on the show who they did a reaction timing test and as he got more drunk he got faster and it was a.
• 29:24
  James Crosslin: It was a, it was a whole thing and it was.
• 29:26
  James Crosslin: It was a very funny episode, one of the few, that is fun I remember that show.
• 29:30
  Ryan Baron North: That is funny.
• 29:31
  James Crosslin: People, people in the past were funny sometimes.
• 29:33
  James Crosslin: I'll give them that.
• 29:35
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah, yeah, I'll always remember this time.
• 29:37
  Ryan Baron North: It was, it wasn't me, it was this one guy and another guy who you got to get home from the party somehow, and halfway through the drive, you know, they realized that all right, we've, we've gone too far, it's time to hide in plain sight.
• 29:57
  Ryan Baron North: And they pulled into a taco bell and just rode the wave through the drive through a taco bell and got the best damn chalupas they've ever had in their lives.
• 30:10
  James Crosslin: But anyway, take an Uber.
• 30:11
  James Crosslin: Take an Uber to the Taco Bell.
• 30:17
  Ryan Baron North: Well, the guy that I'm referring to, he was riding shotgun, so whatever.
• 30:20
  Ryan Baron North: So it's time to get into that third part, it's time for our what ifs, it's time to insert ourselves into the thing, which, by the way, I did also want to say.
• 30:32
  Ryan Baron North: I have one final, one, final heightened thought.
• 30:36
  Ryan Baron North: So the thing not a lot of people know was not the original.
• 30:40
  Ryan Baron North: It was based on the thing from another world, which was.
• 30:45
  Ryan Baron North: It happened in the 50s and, like the thing from 1982, the thing from another world did some things with horror as well.
• 30:55
  Ryan Baron North: They obviously it was still some time away from body horror that would be a little too intense for our, you know, post World War Two people.
• 31:04
  Ryan Baron North: But what they did was, throughout every scene of the thing from another world, they would have characters opening a door.
• 31:13
  Ryan Baron North: They'd be doing these same sorts of survival versus community arguments and they'd argue while opening a door.
• 31:20
  Ryan Baron North: They would talk to each other opening a door, passing through it, and then, finally, when the thing arrives, they open the door and the thing is just standing on the other side of the door and it fucking freaked everyone out.
• 31:33
  Ryan Baron North: They were still reinventing and inventing the jump scare, and the thing from another world did it, and so they touched on that, and now we're in 1982 where Wilford Brimley and Kurt Russell and Keith David are taking in, taking the helm.
• 31:54
  Ryan Baron North: That was my last enlightened thought right there.
• 31:57
  James Crosslin: So another thing I have to credit this movie with is that I don't I don't know if you caught, if you flagged this when we were taught, when I was thinking about, like, what makes a good film and what makes a bad film, something that's a little dated about this is the scene when the flamethrower, when Kurt Russell's got the flamethrower and the dude's head comes off and the flamethrowers like not starting up.
• 32:28
  James Crosslin: Yeah, it goes on for like 30 seconds and that's something that we would not accept in film today.
• 32:42
  James Crosslin: That was well.
• 32:43
  James Crosslin: That was well.
• 32:44
  James Crosslin: We will be hilarious.
• 32:45
  Ryan Baron North: I would argue right away with you, sir, that we would rebel.
• 32:51
  Ryan Baron North: Moon by Scott Snyder showed that audiences whatever, he lost his first name, as far as I have to put now that piece of shit.
• 33:03
  Ryan Baron North: But rebel moon showed us that you could just fucking do whatever and as long as you created a horde of fans, it don't fucking matter.
• 33:13
  James Crosslin: So yeah, and and again.
• 33:17
  James Crosslin: Another thing in that movie which I thought was very funny was the explosions, like when all the rooms, like we're having, like when they were setting fire and explosions in each room, every single room, and it was very funny well, there's my first what if?
• 33:44
  Ryan Baron North: my first what if would be like hey, level-headed guys, stop fucking blowing up all the rooms, you understand, we'll die.
• 33:56
  James Crosslin: I, I, I don't know what they were thinking most of the time, and also that that scene with the explosions made me think of.
• 34:04
  James Crosslin: Did you watch Garth Marengi's Dark Place right?
• 34:09
  Ryan Baron North: oh yes, yeah, I did.
• 34:10
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah, I'm a Matt Berry fan, so yeah yeah, so the where they talk about.
• 34:16
  James Crosslin: You know just lengthening scenes out, you know when they're talking about slo-mo in that one, but they're like, they're like sometimes our episodes were up to eight minutes short.
• 34:25
  James Crosslin: Everything was a candidate for slo-mo.
• 34:28
  James Crosslin: And it's like in this movie, like what they do with the explosions and what they do with the flamethrower, just like extended, extended.
• 34:36
  James Crosslin: We don't have to not lie here.
• 34:38
  James Crosslin: It's just people talking.
• 34:39
  James Crosslin: You gotta put some shit in between.
• 34:40
  Ryan Baron North: Look all all that John Carpenter was doing in 1982 was walking so that Zack Snyder could run and have a single swing of a hammer.
• 34:58
  Ryan Baron North: Take 135 seconds.
• 35:01
  Ryan Baron North: That's that's all that was happening right there.
• 35:06
  Ryan Baron North: That's all that was happening.
• 35:09
  James Crosslin: God bless, god bless.
• 35:12
  Ryan Baron North: Carpenter.
• 35:14
  James Crosslin: I've got a lot more thoughts, but we can move on.
• 35:17
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah, 35 minutes 35 yes, it's time for our what.
• 35:21
  Ryan Baron North: If so, james, you've been plopped in.
• 35:23
  Ryan Baron North: You are an Antarctic recent researcher with no discernible knowledge of Antarctic research, except for a distinct style, a distinct personality and a desire to live what happens oh well, okay.
• 35:43
  James Crosslin: So I know for sure that there's no way that we're going to live like just just this thing walking around like it.
• 35:53
  James Crosslin: If it's, if it's like building human parts and stuff and human skin, the human skin like naturally sheds so there's just cells of this thing falling around and being kicked up in the air, oh yeah, so like I feel like I feel like as a modern human I know that this is kind of like.
• 36:17
  James Crosslin: This is a problem.
• 36:17
  James Crosslin: I have a zombie movies too is.
• 36:19
  James Crosslin: Is that zombie?
• 36:21
  James Crosslin: If the zombie blood is like has a virus in it or something?
• 36:25
  James Crosslin: If people are running around with a baseball bat or a machete or something, you're throwing the fucking virus all up all up in the air and in your fucking face and shit.
• 36:37
  James Crosslin: There's no way to avoid it.
• 36:39
  James Crosslin: I will, which is weird, because that means that the original night of the living dead makes sense more than like 28 days later, because the original zombies were here, because they ran out of room and hell yeah, yeah so like yeah, don't go crazy guys, don't try it like if you're not a scientist, don't mix science into your fantasy yeah, like yeah, it is very important because if you want your piece to be timeless, yeah, it's important that you don't get too technical about about the, about the, the rules of your plane.
• 37:32
  Ryan Baron North: You want to make your rules simple and understandable and essentially infallible, but when you reference, like real science, that are understanding changes all the time, it's impossible yeah, well, I mean, you and I both know when have we ever struck someone as hard as we can in the head with a bat and not been missed it?
• 37:56
  James Crosslin: it just doesn't happen yeah, yeah, I have to change my my horror movie animal mask every single time because there's evidence all over it yeah, and I?
• 38:11
  Ryan Baron North: I have to redo my sunscreen every time.
• 38:16
  Ryan Baron North: I won't step outside to beat someone with a bat without sunscreen.
• 38:20
  Ryan Baron North: Uv rays are the death of skin, so it could burn you through.
• 38:24
  James Crosslin: It could burn you through the clouds.
• 38:26
  Ryan Baron North: Everybody knows that so well, so alright.
• 38:33
  Ryan Baron North: So you're what?
• 38:34
  Ryan Baron North: If so, you're there now.
• 38:35
  Ryan Baron North: You know you're gonna die.
• 38:38
  Ryan Baron North: That's, that's essentially what is going.
• 38:42
  Ryan Baron North: I try to gas into the shower keep David's there.
• 38:48
  James Crosslin: Oh yeah, he's, he's, he's a hunk man.
• 38:51
  James Crosslin: Keep David.
• 38:52
  James Crosslin: That deep voice is so like just inherently sultry.
• 38:58
  James Crosslin: He's got such in it.
• 38:59
  James Crosslin: He's got such an amazing voice.
• 39:01
  James Crosslin: It really does like and I don't mean it like sexually, but every time he talks it's like wow, that's a great voice.
• 39:09
  Ryan Baron North: I feel safe such an amazing does.
• 39:11
  James Crosslin: I feel.
• 39:12
  James Crosslin: I feel whatever Keith David wants me to feel, because he's also good.
• 39:16
  James Crosslin: He's a good actor.
• 39:17
  James Crosslin: He's, like, so good at using his voice to convey emotion and his voice is so unique and powerful.
• 39:24
  James Crosslin: He's really good at it yeah mm-hmm.
• 39:27
  James Crosslin: So yeah, maybe I'd go fuck David, or you, david would fuck me.
• 39:33
  James Crosslin: Let's be honest, let's be honest, but no, I'd, I'd be like, well, I, we should probably have a working chess machine for our final hours.
• 39:44
  James Crosslin: Okay, all right, solid, solid.
• 39:53
  Ryan Baron North: Okay, so all right, so I'm in there.
• 39:56
  Ryan Baron North: Now I'm in this Antarctic research facility.
• 39:59
  Ryan Baron North: They keep destroying the barriers between me and the cold weather.
• 40:05
  Ryan Baron North: I start to think that you guys are just as much as dangerous as anyone else.
• 40:10
  Ryan Baron North: But I also don't want to die by that thing, because that looks terrible.
• 40:14
  Ryan Baron North: That looks like a horrible death, especially just the hand one.
• 40:18
  Ryan Baron North: When the thing gets the hand on his face and it starts fusing that way.
• 40:22
  Ryan Baron North: That's a slow fucking death.
• 40:24
  Ryan Baron North: You could live a long time without your jaw, yeah the fingers went like in, they went under the skin.
• 40:30
  James Crosslin: The fingers went like under the skin to melt Hell no, yeah.
• 40:34
  Ryan Baron North: so for me that's priority one.
• 40:37
  Ryan Baron North: I will kill myself before the thing kills me.
• 40:42
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah, keith, david's already in the showers with you.
• 40:51
  James Crosslin: I don't like we keep talking about the showers, but I'm not a shower sex person.
• 40:56
  James Crosslin: I would, for I would not about what you want.
• 40:59
  Ryan Baron North: It's about with Keith David once, I don't know, maybe you're just like yeah.
• 41:07
  Ryan Baron North: Okay, I think that I feel like he's a giving, a giving lover.
• 41:15
  Ryan Baron North: So, yeah, alright, so the showers are still available to me.
• 41:20
  James Crosslin: He was the most even headed person in that entire movie.
• 41:24
  James Crosslin: He's the one who gets yelled at that.
• 41:26
  James Crosslin: I think someone more even headed should have this.
• 41:29
  James Crosslin: He's the most even headed person in the movie.
• 41:31
  James Crosslin: He doesn't flip out, he's like very much like listen, we should all talk about this.
• 41:35
  James Crosslin: I don't think you should be in control, you fucking crazy bastard, and I don't know.
• 41:42
  James Crosslin: It's wild that the black man got yelled at.
• 41:46
  James Crosslin: You're too much of a hothead after doing fucking nothing to deserve that.
• 41:51
  Ryan Baron North: So I will say, trying to think of the best way, I would say he did sort of present himself immediately.
• 42:01
  Ryan Baron North: The character at least presented himself immediately as I will take care of myself.
• 42:07
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah, and you know, if you're leading people I can sort of understand.
• 42:14
  Ryan Baron North: Well, I could say this as a person who's going to take care of myself.
• 42:17
  Ryan Baron North: So it's in this what if scenario is a person who's gonna take care of myself first.
• 42:22
  Ryan Baron North: I don't want Keith David to have that gun.
• 42:27
  James Crosslin: Well, I do want to point out that the person who was like I'm gonna take care of this, god, everybody killed.
• 42:35
  Ryan Baron North: Yes, he did.
• 42:35
  Ryan Baron North: Yes, he did.
• 42:36
  Ryan Baron North: That's a good point.
• 42:38
  James Crosslin: Yeah, kurt Russell did fail at saving everybody, so he did, and it was because he did really stupid, careless things which we knew about the character in the first scene.
• 42:53
  Ryan Baron North: But he was just so damn likable.
• 42:54
  Ryan Baron North: It was Snake Pliskin.
• 42:57
  James Crosslin: So my first.
• 42:58
  Ryan Baron North: My first move would be to kill Kurt Russell and kill Keith David.
• 43:04
  James Crosslin: And then no one is willing to argue with you.
• 43:08
  Ryan Baron North: Exactly.
• 43:09
  James Crosslin: And then that'll make everything better.
• 43:13
  Ryan Baron North: Yes, I'm killing everybody.
• 43:15
  Ryan Baron North: It's decided.
• 43:17
  Ryan Baron North: Everyone's getting slain through it.
• 43:21
  James Crosslin: Listen, it's no worse than the outcome of the thing.
• 43:23
  James Crosslin: It's no worse.
• 43:24
  James Crosslin: No, it might.
• 43:26
  James Crosslin: It might even be better.
• 43:27
  Ryan Baron North: My opinion just dies very quick.
• 43:29
  Ryan Baron North: It might be better.
• 43:30
  Ryan Baron North: So yeah, I'm going to like all right, everyone on the other side of the room we're doing this blood test and then I just send them all straight to fucking hell.
• 43:43
  Ryan Baron North: No, no, I'm using the flamethrower and I'm committing more crimes here, baby no.
• 43:53
  James Crosslin: I'm just.
• 43:54
  Ryan Baron North: I am just scorching that side of the pool room.
• 43:57
  James Crosslin: Jesus Christ.
• 43:59
  Ryan Baron North: And yeah, every living thing I see is getting turned into a Vietnam war cry, war crime.
• 44:08
  Ryan Baron North: And then I will sit in the corner until the helicopter arrives.
• 44:16
  James Crosslin: And then you'll infect the whole world.
• 44:20
  James Crosslin: Correct Because you, because you stepped in it, because your boot has stepped in the fucking things.
• 44:28
  James Crosslin: Blood, maybe, that's all it takes.
• 44:33
  Ryan Baron North: Every you forget.
• 44:34
  Ryan Baron North: Everywhere I go, like, like I'll be sitting there, like I have to take a piss and I will gently wash the hallway with the flamethrower as I work my way as I work my way to the bathroom.
• 44:52
  James Crosslin: You flamethrower the bottom of your shoes.
• 44:55
  Ryan Baron North: Oh yeah, it'd be constant.
• 44:57
  Ryan Baron North: I would be constantly finger on the trigger, I would, oh, and there would even be a scene where, after I just scorched everyone on the other side of the pool room, I'm like fuck, I forgot Wilfred is out in the shed, let me go torch him.
• 45:18
  James Crosslin: Would have been the right move.
• 45:20
  Ryan Baron North: And yeah, that's, that's what it would be.
• 45:22
  Ryan Baron North: I would get my hands on the weapons first.
• 45:25
  Ryan Baron North: I do not trust.
• 45:26
  Ryan Baron North: I do not trust this community to hold itself together.
• 45:28
  Ryan Baron North: They're all libertarian and weird, and the ones who aren't, I can't trust them not to become libertarian.
• 45:37
  James Crosslin: So easily, easily swayed by the libertarian argument.
• 45:47
  Ryan Baron North: So you're all going to die.
• 45:50
  James Crosslin: What if?
• 45:50
  James Crosslin: What if we didn't owe each other anything?
• 45:57
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah and like no, I'm not letting you be swayed by libertarianism.
• 46:01
  Ryan Baron North: You're on fire, and you're on fire and Wilfred's still out in the shed.
• 46:08
  James Crosslin: So he's on fire.
• 46:10
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah, that's, that's what it would be, and then for the next two months, as I'm sitting in the dark, I would just randomly scorch parts of the floor and hope I made it out.
• 46:21
  Ryan Baron North: So yeah.
• 46:26
  James Crosslin: Well, I no matter what.
• 46:28
  James Crosslin: The entire earth is doomed, just correct.
• 46:30
  James Crosslin: It just depends on the time scale.
• 46:33
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah, no.
• 46:34
  Ryan Baron North: At the end of the day, eventually, those ice caps are going to melt.
• 46:36
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah, until our rich orval lords decided to do something about that, the thing will one day be our reality.
• 46:46
  Ryan Baron North: Don't bother with kids, people.
• 46:48
  Ryan Baron North: Don't bother with kids.
• 46:49
  Ryan Baron North: Don't bother with grandkids.
• 46:51
  James Crosslin: It's a wrap, it's over, it's all, don't bother.
• 46:53
  James Crosslin: Don't bother building connections with other people.
• 46:56
  Ryan Baron North: No no, no structures.
• 46:58
  Ryan Baron North: They're probably libertarian.
• 47:00
  Ryan Baron North: There's no point.
• 47:02
  James Crosslin: If they're not libertarian now, they will be soon.
• 47:07
  Ryan Baron North: It's spreading.
• 47:08
  Ryan Baron North: It's spreading.
• 47:08
  Ryan Baron North: They get to feel smart because they're in the middle in their opinion.
• 47:12
  Ryan Baron North: So yeah, it's spreading.
• 47:15
  James Crosslin: I'm not.
• 47:15
  James Crosslin: I'm not loyal to anybody or anything, so you can't.
• 47:19
  James Crosslin: So I can know I can't be held accountable.
• 47:24
  Ryan Baron North: And then he gets flamethrowered.
• 47:25
  Ryan Baron North: Yeah, so don't bother.
• 47:30
  Ryan Baron North: Don't bother guys.
• 47:31
  Ryan Baron North: Our future is the 1982 John Carpenter's the Thing.
• 47:36
  Ryan Baron North: Don't bother with fucking anything.
• 47:41
  James Crosslin: Yeah, overall good movie.
• 47:44
  Ryan Baron North: Solid movie.
• 47:44
  Ryan Baron North: So there you have it, folks.
• 47:47
  Ryan Baron North: Thank you so much for listening.
• 47:49
  Ryan Baron North: If you enjoyed what you heard, like subscribe to all that bullshit.
• 47:52
  Ryan Baron North: Here's to the thing.
• 47:56
  James Crosslin: Gotta point out Kurt Russell killed a lot of just regular dudes, oh yeah, oh, yeah he weren't infected.
• 48:03
  Ryan Baron North: God damn it.
• 48:03
  Ryan Baron North: Snake Plisken, he did, and he just popped him from the hip From the hip, yeah, yeah.
• 48:10
  Ryan Baron North: Quite a few, just just guys, just guys.
• 48:13
  Ryan Baron North: So there you have it, folks.
• 48:14
  Ryan Baron North: Thank you John Carpenter, thank you Kurt Russell, thank you Keith David, thank you Wilford Brimley and thank you listeners.
• 48:21
  Ryan Baron North: And thank you Glass Gal.
• 48:22
  Ryan Baron North: Goodnight Bye.