Let's Talk - Movies

The Fly (1986) - Scene-By-Scene Breakdown

• Just Curious Media • Episode 4

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Let's Talk - Movies
Episode 04: The Fly (1986) - Scene-By-Scene Breakdown

Jason Connell and Sal Rodriguez break down the classic movie and talk about teleporting, meeting Jeff Goldblum, and Lionel Richie's "Dancing On The Ceiling".
 
Synopsis: A brilliant but eccentric scientist begins to transform into a giant man/fly hybrid after one of his experiments goes horribly wrong.
 
Director: David Cronenberg
Writer: David Cronenberg, Charles Edward Pogue
Cinematographer: Mark Irwin
Make-up and Creature Design: Chris Walas, Stephan Dupuis
Cast: Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, John Getz
Composer: Howard Shore

Original Episode: S01E04
 
Recorded: 05-30-20
Studio: Just Curious Media
https://www.JustCuriousMedia.com/

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Jason Connell:

Welcome to Just curious media. This is let's talk movies. And I'm Jason Connell on the show today I'm joined by a special guest, Sal Rodriguez.

Sal Rodriguez:

Thank you, Jason. My pleasure to be here.

Jason Connell:

Sal. It is wonderful to have you back. And today we'll be talking about

Sal Rodriguez:

the fly. Yes. Big time excited.

Jason Connell:

The 1986 Fly, written and directed by David Cronenberg, and not the 1958. Vincent Price film? No, although

Sal Rodriguez:

people should see that I definitely recommend it. Yeah, I

Jason Connell:

do need to see it. It's long overdue. And maybe now do we do this podcast? I will add that film to my watch list.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, if you like a movie, that's a basically a remake. If you liked the movie, you definitely should see the original.

Jason Connell:

I agree. And for some reason, it was missed. But I'm not. I'd say I'm a little bit behind on movies from the 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s. And on I got it covered, but it's probably time to go back. Yeah. So this movie was also co written by Charles Edward Pogue. And it's classified as a drama, horror sci fi and I think that's a pretty accurate description. Sell thoughts.

Sal Rodriguez:

We're just curious where the drama comes in. Because you say yours. Oh, wow. Okay. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Okay. It's not like a Friday the 13th movie. Exactly. Okay, there's more of a relationship. Yeah. Okay. That's true. All right. I'll go for that. All right. You're on board. I like yeah,

Jason Connell:

I got it. And so I always like to give the rating says, you know, and the audience knows, but it's a 7.6 rating on IMDb and a 92%. On Rotten Tomatoes.

Sal Rodriguez:

That's 92 out of 100. Right. Exactly. That sounds like definitely one of the highest ratings that I've heard from you.

Jason Connell:

Well, I tend to pick movies in the 90s. No, I do. I look it up after the fact. I promise. I promise.

Sal Rodriguez:

I did not know that this movie was so well received. I mean, I saw this movie when it first came out. I was very young, Jeff Goldblum, in our family. I mean, my mother and I have met Jeff Goldblum. My mother worked as a consultant in the movie Vives, when it was Jeff Goldblum and Cyndi Lauper. I went to the set. I met Jeff Goldblum. He was fantastic. I met Cyndi Lauper. She was fantastic. So Jeff Goldblum sort of became the friend of a family. You know, not really the friend. But you know what I mean? Like, if he was in something, we were gonna see it.

Jason Connell:

Right. Yeah, it has a connection. You're one degree away from Jeff Goldblum.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, that's right. And so yeah, I definitely saw this movie when I was young, but did not know that. It was so well received. I didn't

Jason Connell:

know. You just thought it was the Rodriguez household. It was sure. I didn't know the whole nation cared. So you saw I guess when it came out in the theater? Is that Did you see it that soon? Okay. I saw it in the 80s. But it was on VHS. I didn't see it in the theater. And the movie actually came out August 15 1986. To be exact Nice. budget for this movie. On any guesses. You said? 86.

Sal Rodriguez:

I did say 86. Okay, I'm gonna say 30 million.

Jason Connell:

Cut that in half. Whoa. $15 million budget.

Sal Rodriguez:

Now, wait a second. I recently heard your let's talk movies, Wall Street edition. $50 million budget? Yes, exactly. And they're very different movies. So it's interesting how people can work within the same budget.

Jason Connell:

Now this movie was also shot in Toronto. So maybe that helps shave some of that cost, stretch, stretch the dollar. And besides, it's a really small cast of Wall Street. You have this ridiculous cast shot in New York City. So yeah, and they were shot a year apart. So but maybe because the fact that shot in Canada saved him some money. So the US gross for this movie. According to IMDb, these numbers can be far outdated. $40,456,000. So pretty good return on investment, and maybe why they made a sequel, which we'll talk about later.

Sal Rodriguez:

I'm also thinking that this was Jeff Goldblum at his peak. This was his peak movie, I would probably say

Jason Connell:

that's a good point. This was when Goldbloom was the leading man. Yes, yes. It

Sal Rodriguez:

was already roll started really big movie.

Jason Connell:

So yeah, this might have been Goldbloom either peaked, are peaking. But you're absolutely right.

Sal Rodriguez:

You're absolutely I mean, every other movie, I think I imagine. I think of Jeff Goldblum as supporting.

Jason Connell:

Yeah. So before this, I remember seeing him on a really big part and Annie Hall that he would go on to have a bigger role in The Big Chill. And to the night. He was the lead character in that John Landis film with Michelle Pfeiffer. And then he was also the lead in Transylvania six 5000, which is right before this. So yeah, probably leading up to this opportunity with Cronenberg, which audiences or audiences may or may not know, Jeff Goldblum and Gina Davis were in a relationship at the time making this movie. They were both in Transylvania 65,000. Then they went on to be in this movie, and then they went on to be in another movie Earth girls are easy so they made like three movies back to back to back together.

Sal Rodriguez:

Oh, because Jeff Goldblum did that. Remember was a made for TV movie played echo Bob crane. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I never saw that actual Yeah, yeah, cuz you know when people think of the Johnny Depp A motion picture but before that a great

Jason Connell:

movie that's also a Tim Burton film. It's

Sal Rodriguez:

yeah, no, it was great. And was the name of Christopher Walken? Yes. But before that was Jeff Goldblum is Zuckerberg crane, and I believe it wasn't made for TV movie.

Jason Connell:

That's interesting. Well, he would actually do that well, so I might have to check that out.

Sal Rodriguez:

The description of Ica crane is Jeff Goldblum. Yeah, it

Jason Connell:

looks like it is tall and lanky. Yeah, yeah. Well, he would go on to be in movies like Independence Day, the Jurassic Park franchise. I mean, Jeff Goldblum is a star. No doubt about it. But his star probably never shine as brightly as it did when he made the fly. And it was a super success even outside of the Rodriguez household.

Sal Rodriguez:

Wait, you know what, I will also add to this, okay, even if one may argue it was not his peak. Even if one may have a legitimate argument. This was not as Pete Goldbloom might argue, hang on his sexiest. This was his sexiest role. Well,

Jason Connell:

half of the film. Okay.

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay, okay. 1/3 1/3 130 is

Jason Connell:

hot, and then it's not so hot. So now, the synopsis for this movie, which I always like to give like, the elevator pitch for the movie is a brilliant, but eccentric scientist begins to transform into a giant man fly hybrid, after one of his experiments goes horribly wrong. That's a pretty good description, I would say.

Sal Rodriguez:

I don't think anybody in the 80s ever referenced the word hybrid when being descriptive of this movie. I think that's a was an A newer term that somebody applied back in time to this movie, but I don't think that he was a hybrid whatsoever. What's the term they

Jason Connell:

use in the movie? And he is?

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, I would definitely say and this is a sci fi term sci fi one on one a mutation

Jason Connell:

mutation. So besides your knock on the fact that it sounds like a more updated version of the synopsis? Would you say it's still accurate beyond that? Sure. Okay. Good. Because I wrote it. No, I didn't write it's on time. All right. So let's talk about the rest of the cast, which is pretty small cell because

Sal Rodriguez:

it's basically a three person cast. Exactly.

Jason Connell:

Besides, there's a cameo, which I'll I'll hint at. But I should also say that we already talked about Jeff Goldblum, but let's just quickly say his character name, which is Seth Brundle. Yes. And that morphs as the movie goes on. But we'll hold that. We'll keep that close to the vest right now. Gina Davis is the second lead in the movie and she plays Veronica Ronnie Quaife. Now I love that she's got a nickname, which is what we go by, but for audience's sake, are for the sake of credits. It's Veronica, which I don't think anyone ever calls her Veronica.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, there's only a couple people who reference her.

Jason Connell:

Right? There's only two. Yeah, yeah, there was that I say her name. It's Ronnie. So in my book, she's okay. But I remember seeing Janet Davis on his TV show that I absolutely loved in the 80s called Buffalo Bill. And here's why I loved it. Dabney Coleman was the lead and I already had grown fond of Dabney Coleman and his acting from war games and nine to five and anything else he was in On Golden Pond. And I saw her on there and immediately like, wow, who's that she was on my radar. And just quickly if I if I may, I was fortunate enough to meet Dabney Coleman at the United Film Festival one night when we screened On Golden Pond and honored him and Director Mark ryedale, who directed the movie. And then a couple years later made a documentary a bio doc about Dabney Coleman called not such a bad guy, conversations with Dabney Coleman, and it was an amazing experience. He's a wonderful person, as well as he is talented. And there's my Dabney Coleman plug,

Sal Rodriguez:

you know what, you're the only other person I've ever known in my entire life, who has ever even referenced Dabney Coleman. And then beyond that, you can make a documentary about him. My Dabney Coleman is that I worked as an extra in the slap Maxwell store Yes, a couple of times. So definitely I saw him in person I don't think I had any any interaction. He and I, but so I worked as an extra on the slab Maxwell story years go by I meet you years go by I still nobody in my life has referenced Dabney Coleman, except for you.

Jason Connell:

Are there you have it. Are you not there that night at the film festival that when he came out, you're probably at the other theater that

Sal Rodriguez:

night? Yeah, no, I would have remembered if I would have seen him there. I don't think I was there.

Jason Connell:

So I'm back to Julia Davis. Now. She was also in Fletch. Incredible movie, and she was in transplanting 65,000 But post the fly and also launched her career, she would go on to do Thelma and Louise A League of Their Own. And in many other films. In fact, I saw her on a show very close to my heart as well, which is glow Netflix's glow. She was on the last season. And of course it excites me because you know my connection to the glow documentary. And then it was amazing to see Gina Davis go from that movie to be in the show. I thought wow, it kind of came full circle but I have always been a big fan of hers. And I really think the chemistry between them is very very real and maybe because they were just so close.

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay, so when they shot this movie they were already dating. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Because, you know, I definitely wanted to talk about that because she, she pretty much comes on to him. I mean, I know we're gonna take it. We're gonna get there, but she comes on to him. I mean, he Okay, he comes on to her, but then it goes professional. And then she comes on to him. Yeah,

Jason Connell:

she does. She absolutely does. You're right. She takes the lead and runs with it. Of course, he's also a journalist. But we're about to get into that. The last main character is played by John gets.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, a mainstay of 80s movies, I would say a staple

Jason Connell:

the staple. And his character's name, which cracks me up in its own right. It's status. Brandis? Yeah, interesting. What a name. What a in a blueblood. Name that is status get in here. I mean, who? Who this guy grew up very privileged, I would think Did you

Sal Rodriguez:

look at his office? I mean, seriously. I mean, what magazine editor has an office like that

Jason Connell:

article magazine, whatever that is, but that's what he's some sort of site.

Sal Rodriguez:

Can you imagine a science magazine guy? Science magazine editor has an office like that,

Jason Connell:

right? Well, that name come on, with a name like that. He was in blood sample, which is Coen Brothers first film and absolutely amazing. And he's great at it. And Sal, you may or may not know this, but he's also on the fly to,

Sal Rodriguez:

you know what? I want to see the flight to, okay, I do, because this movie ends in a way that makes anyone want to see the fly to or at least say, Well, hey, geez, I want to think about singing it anyway.

Jason Connell:

Well, I thought the same thing and then I watched the fly too. Recently, I hadn't seen it since it first came out. And I quickly realized why I didn't remember it that fondly. But we'll save that for a podcast are not down the road. I'm bummed out now. And the only other person I want to mention in the cast is David Cronenberg, the writer director plays the gynecologist

Sal Rodriguez:

where he plays the gynecologist in the real waking sequence or the dream sequence

Jason Connell:

the ladder. Okay. So as far as Cronenberg goes, he was coming off scanners video drum and the dead zone, and then landed the fly, which I also think shot him to new heights. And he's a very prolific filmmaker always has a dark tone to his movies, which I've always appreciated. History of islands is a movie that I highly recommend if you haven't seen it. And I've always been a big fan. So it was really excited to see him make this film, and kind of want to highlight two of the people from the crew because they would win an Oscar was Chris Wallace, and Steven DuBois. And they did the makeup and creature design and this movie, which is phenomenal sale.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, definitely. Well, of course, for the fans of practical effects you are in for a treat, of course,

Jason Connell:

because they didn't just make a creature they made one that was slowly mutating over time, they made a lot of creatures and a lot of effects. And so it's an amazing work that they did, because it wasn't just like create that boom, they just had to kind of go with Goldbloom on his journey. And sure they nailed it. And they did a great job. They both won an Oscar. And Chris weightless would go on to direct the flight too. So no disrespect to Chris wireless. He's amazing. But his strength is probably not the creation of fly two, it was mainly the amazing makeup and creature design of fly one and many other movies that he worked on.

Sal Rodriguez:

Wouldn't it be funny if I watched the fly too, and absolutely fell in love with it? Well, you

Jason Connell:

might be one of the only people that would have that reaction to it.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, I mean, Eric Stoltz, he's fantastic.

Jason Connell:

Actually, I really liked the setup for what it is. It's just where it starts to go and kind of just watch it. Just watch it. I will I will watch. I looked at fly two with Wow, there's so much potential here. Oh, they're going that way. That's kind of how I felt. But there was never a fly three. And maybe that's a good thing. Or they could someone could come along and reboot fly to pick it right back up where this movie fly. One is. I mean, there's room for that. And what

Sal Rodriguez:

about Super Fly? Well, that's a whole other

Jason Connell:

thing. But very cool. Lastly, before we get into the scenes, I just want to give a shout out to Howard Shore, who was the composer of the film, great score as usual. And he also did other movies such as Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia seven, the departed, and on and on and on. He's worked on a lot of great films along the way. So here we go Sal, into the meat of the movie, the scenes where we like to break it down chronologically, go through the timeline, and give our opinions on such. So we start off with a scientist party slash mixer. And Ronnie is interviewing scientist. And bam her and Goldbloom are talking I mean it's like the opening few seconds. They're in conversation.

Sal Rodriguez:

It's funny you say scientist party, when do you ever hear those two words together?

Jason Connell:

You do not.

Sal Rodriguez:

It's a scientist party who could ask for more.

Jason Connell:

These guys know how to party. But I love how fast this movie gets into it. There's not a lot of messing around like, she's doing ham. He's kind of hitting on her, like you said earlier. And Seth invites her over, like, that's it. And we're not two or three minutes into the movie, Sal. And she's literally driving him to his house.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, okay, so this is where I'm starting to think that maybe she had the hots for him early on. She had a poker face on in the beginning, but maybe she liked him right away. Because surely, this woman, as a journalist, after going to parties is used to guys hitting on her, you know, this, this is nothing new to have a guy hit on her. And yet this one she goes for and why is it but this place?

Jason Connell:

I think she was there are legitimate reasons. I think he told her that he was working on something great. It's gonna change the world. And I think she bought him yeah, she was caught up in his charisma. I believe that to be true. But I think she went there. She was intrigued by her journalistic integrity. That's what I think. But it just happened so fast. It's like, bam, bam, she was gonna interview two other guys skips that. And what cracks me up as well, Sal, is that she's not just driving to his place. She's driving him to his place. So how did he get there to the party? Is he a cab guy? Does he not own a car? I know he says later, he doesn't like automobiles or things like that. He says

Sal Rodriguez:

he has he has motion sick motion sickness. So but even as a passenger, he has motion sickness, not just when he when he's driving. Yeah, so he's screwed in any way with his has his own car or has attacks that he screwed.

Jason Connell:

And that may be the exact reason Seth Brundle has created the teleportation device to cure his motion sickness and change mankind as we know it.

Sal Rodriguez:

Wow. Whoa, my mind has been blown right now.

Jason Connell:

So they go to his place. And I love how she's calling the telepods phone booths. And he's taken offense to that right away. Like he keeps correcting her.

Sal Rodriguez:

Hang on, they get to his place. Yeah. And to the entrance is like in this back dark alley that I mean, I'm, uh, you know, I'm a healthy guy. I wouldn't want to walk through this alley, let alone like, some late night. tryst. You know, I gotta hand it to her. I mean, she's pretty brave.

Jason Connell:

She's a journalist. Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

I gotta hand it to her. She's going for the story. She's committing. So she winds up with Brundle, Seth Brundle? at his place within like, yeah, five the first five minutes of the movie.

Jason Connell:

But Ronnie is a bit slow to the stockings being teleported. He asked to you know, can I do you have anything? She has no jewelry. She doesn't wear jewelry, takes off the stocking. And he teleports and let me just back up for a second. These tele pods are awesome looking. So

Sal Rodriguez:

they remind me of something out of aliens or Prometheus. Yeah, they have that sort of look.

Jason Connell:

Yes, I agree. And they're very sci fi looking. But Cronenberg really got it. Right, the designs that these things are just cool. And I like that, you know, Seth lives in this big loft. It just works for the same. We didn't go to some real lab, we went to something more cozy. But he's just you know, he's just kind of a mad scientist is always tinkering around. But I really liked the set design. It really just makes it a place you want to hang out.

Sal Rodriguez:

It's like an Artist's Loft type of price. Right? Yeah.

Jason Connell:

But they could have done anything. They could have really taken us to some sterile overlooked lab, but they didn't. And that was a really good choice. Yeah. And so when she finally understands that this wasn't some big microwave and that she lost her stockings, you could just see the light bulb go off and Ronnie is super impressed. And she wants to do a story on brondell and his telepods she knows she's got her story

Sal Rodriguez:

down when she breaks out the cassette recorder. Yes. starts recording. Right?

Jason Connell:

Well, it wasn't a mini cassette, which became very popular in the 80s 90s this was full size cassette. Yep, sure. Old school.

Sal Rodriguez:

And what was interesting is she tried to be stealthy. Yeah, when she first press play, but then I'll cumbersome when she changed the cassette.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, there's like a reminder like BB BB. Yeah, he's like, Oh, let

Sal Rodriguez:

me know you're recording.

Jason Connell:

Let me change this eight track around, hang on a sec. fumble at this for a second.

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay, so at this moment in time, when she's fumbling with the cassette, and he realizes, Hey, what are you doing recording? I don't want you to record. I couldn't tell if he was being serious. Did he really not wanting to record I mean, obviously, he invites a journalist over to his place and spills his guts. So I don't understand his motives at this time.

Jason Connell:

I think he wanted to get someone interested and then shadow him. But yeah, that should have been talked about. He's selling it at the party. I'm going to change the world. Hang on a second. It's off the record off the record. Yeah, you're right about don't

Sal Rodriguez:

tell anybody. Hey, come

Jason Connell:

here. Give me I'm gonna tell you something. You can't tell a soul but you're a journalist. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. He's obviously beneath the surface out there both attracted to each other. So that's also there.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking so so he flirted with her, she responded. And the journalism is almost as an aside. I mean, these are two people who who are into each other.

Jason Connell:

I think it's there. I think it's beneath the surface. I don't think it's the driving force, but we could agree to disagree on that.

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay, then hang on, then. If she's really legitimately there as a journalist, then in the fly, too. There should be a book then at this time, right?

Jason Connell:

There should be and that's why someone needs to make the new fly to Oh, that's okay. That's a job. Someone could do that. It's I think it's time for that

Sal Rodriguez:

sequel. Okay, with starring Zac Efron.

Jason Connell:

Okay. Sounds good. very marketable out of the gate.

Sal Rodriguez:

He's on my shortlist.

Jason Connell:

Yes. All right. So now we're at monolith publishing. And that's a really nice homage to Stanley Kubrick's 2001 Space Odyssey. The monolith I like that. And Ronnie plays this recording to her editor status, brightness. And so he's just not impressed. He thinks

Sal Rodriguez:

this guy's a wacko, there's not much to be impressed by from that recording, I would say, I get that he needs more I would need more to I think

Jason Connell:

but he leaves the room. And what cracks me up is I mean, this is his office, not hers. And as a knock on the door, and it's Seth. Kind of weird. He just shows up at monolith publishing to say, you know, don't call her guy who hates to travel in automobiles. Don't call her on the phone and set some show up where she works to tell her, you know, you got to do a story on me. I kind of funny. I don't know if you knew that scene. I don't know if you had any thoughts on that?

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, I think we're seeing the character. He's very forward. He's unabashed. As they say yes, yes. Yeah. So I know, I gotta hand it to him. He's whatever he's doing. Again, I still don't know what he's doing. Does he want to be have the story? Does he not want to have a story? Because remember, when Gina Davis says about her editor, he thinks you're a wacko or a psycho or something. And he goes, Oh, good.

Jason Connell:

Oh, good. They're not gonna put me in this thing. But I need you. I need you. I think he needs like a muse. Or he needs someone to share this with. It's all in his head. And so maybe that's part of it. He feels he can trust her. Yes. Well, he's attracted to her. And maybe there's a bond there that this lonely scientist doesn't have.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, yeah, I guess his baboons are canceled fill all your needs, right? No.

Jason Connell:

So that scene, which is fine, I just felt like it wasn't very practical. I think he could have called her just as easy or said, Hey, come over, I want to tell you some more stuff. But he went to her, but they go to lunch. And at lunch. This is when he pitches her on not doing a story but doing a book on his creation. So it's long form. They can, you know, see the process unfold, and not this, you know, piece it's going to come out and expose his thing before it's really ready. That's kind of a nice idea. It makes sense to me.

Sal Rodriguez:

He's basically saying be my biographer. Exactly. Yes. Next level.

Jason Connell:

So that's another reason why he's dismissing the editor. Because this is what he wants. She could be that person. And who will condemn that Ronnie?

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay, so right now then I get it. Okay. He wants to be immortalized. Yeah, this time? Yeah.

Jason Connell:

Yeah. So now Ronnie goes to her apartment and firings of all people status and what do you do? So?

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, in the shower, taking a shower. Like it's like the middle of the day. It seems. Yeah. This little shower. Yeah. And then he said what? I was feeling kind of slimy. That I take a shower.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, I'd say a little slimy. Yes, for sure. And what else do we find out?

Sal Rodriguez:

We learned that her editor who's in her shower, was her former boyfriend, former lover and used to live there. Yeah, he used to live there. He has a key to the apartment because she gave it to him.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, that is kind of weird. This is status. Brandis who's editor of particle magazine. I believe he came up the ranks with money and privilege. And he used to live in this tiny apartment with Ronnie Quaife.

Sal Rodriguez:

Wait, are you talking about the apartment that he's showering in her apartment? Yes. It doesn't look that small. Jeez.

Jason Connell:

Have you seen this guy's office? I'm just saying so he most likely have Ronnie live with him.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, his office is very impressive. And yes, with his name and most likely his pedigree. Yeah, he's got a nice place.

Jason Connell:

And may I add this from the sequel? It just hit me. You do see his home in the sequel? Whoa. But now we're at brendel's lab. And Ronnie's filming Seth do an experiment. And so I take a little issue with this. And I know you do too, because we've discussed it before. But he's going to use a live animal and at lunch just a couple of scenes ago. He tells her what last time we did a live animal. It didn't go so well. But yeah, what's he doing now? So.

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay, all we've seen so far. Is him teleport a nylon stockings? Yes. That's all we've seen. Okay, now the stakes are very high. 15 minutes later, he has a baboon alive baboon in telepath. Number One. Yep. Ready to teleport. What did you do some bananas? Some egg plants? Yes.

Jason Connell:

Yes.

Sal Rodriguez:

What did you do a mouse a lab rat? What did you do like 150 things before you get to the baboon after having only done a nylon stocking, I may even do a fly. How about anything that can move a caterpillar? Anything?

Jason Connell:

I totally agree. However, this movie as we've talked about, it's moving very quickly. This is only a 90 plus minute movie. And they don't mess around on beats. Yes, they needed something in between stockings and live baboon. But the baboon does look cool.

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay, so this scene is where we are introduced to the horrors of the fly.

Jason Connell:

Yes. And Ronnie is filming and I love Sal that she's filming with a Super Beta movie camcorder. Yeah, yeah. Which I'd love to have my hands on that right now. And she's filming. And what happens in this first experiment? is not good. Seems to start fine. Teleportation works. Leaves teleport one, but teleport to not so good.

Sal Rodriguez:

No, no, no, very, very sad for the animal lover. Very sad. And essentially

Jason Connell:

the baboon gets churned inside out.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, it's a horrible mess. horrible mess. And so Seth and hang on to get into more horror here. So here's this inside out baboon still alive, still alive. I thought to myself, what is to become of this baboon is Seth Brundle have to euthanize he's gonna have to destroy this beast. Yes. That's pretty terrible. I'm glad that didn't show that.

Jason Connell:

I saw enough to make me sad. Yeah. And the way they expose this is you have the one tele pod it just disappears. You know that AES graphics, something like Terminator or weird science. And then the second tele PA, there's always like fog and smokes. And then you just all of a sudden you see like a bloody arm or some sort of appendage hit the glass. Because this is we didn't really describe the telepods because you're it's more of a visual thing. But there's also a glass door, which is really good for a fact. And you see the smoke, you see this thing? Not good. I love the way it opens and closes to very high tech opens and the door. And then they see this baboon inside out. And so yeah, I with you. They didn't have to show anymore. That was enough. And essentially, Seth goes on to explain that the computer just can't recognize flesh. And that's the problem at this point in time. And Seth's really depressed after this. And that's, you know, he's, he knows what he did, morally and ethically wrong and probably should have tested several things before the poor baboon, but he's distraught.

Sal Rodriguez:

And this is where they go into the stakes, right? Well, no,

Jason Connell:

no, that's, that's coming. That's coming. Okay. So he's distraught. She's recording his reaction. And he just like, I want to stop recording. And oh, yeah, tires in the bedroom, because he's just kind of, you know, he's just trying to think what's wrong? Well, I got to figure this out. How is this keep happening? Because this isn't the first baboon or live animal that's this has happened to it's only first one that we've seen.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yes. Do not ask your friend, Seth, to pet sit for you.

Jason Connell:

Please don't. And so then this kind of an off scene where she mentions him changing, how can we never change? And then she's like, I change every day. This is a fresh pair of clothes. And she goes to his closet. And so it's pretty funny what she discovers.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, it's one of these things that they say Bill Gates does this.

Jason Connell:

Obama had two suits.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah. Where you like, have just a tiny amount of clothes because these guys believe that. You can expend lots of time and energy messing around with what you're going to wear. So why not just knock that out of your life and just wear the same damn thing all the time? I think it's an interesting thought. Nothing that appeals to me personally. I like a variety of clothing. Therefore, my time is wasted on choosing my attire. But yeah, so that's what you have for Seth Brundle. You look in his closet. You see, basically this is like three or four of those tweed jackets, like

Jason Connell:

five sets of the same clothes. Yeah. And she's not just like the jacket. It's the shoes. I mean, the jacket and the shoes you might be able to get away with just have a bunch of shirts and ties but no, he's got the same outfit. You know? That's pretty funny. So if there is a Seth Brundle, action figure cubbies, your toy collector, does it come with some multiple suits and little closet?

Sal Rodriguez:

There actually is a Brundlefly action figure made by McFarlane Toys came out about maybe 20 years ago, maybe 1520 years ago. It is him in his final form. Yes, it is a horrific figurine. It is for the horror toy collectible lovers only I would say it is hideous. Do you have it? But a beautiful homage? No, I

Jason Connell:

don't have it. Do you need it? Bronto Hi,

Sal Rodriguez:

I need a Brundlefly so it is on my list. It's on my wish list. But yeah, Look for McFarlane Toys Brundlefly came out about 15 years ago. Alright, so

Jason Connell:

now so depressed, Seth is then sort of propositioned or hit on again by Ronnie. And this leads to a night of passion.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, he's laying there on the bed, right kind of lamenting, and you know, oh, why aren't things going you know, the way they should. And she walks over to the bed and starts making out and crawls on top of them. She grabs

Jason Connell:

his tie, and just really subtle, and yeah, and that's it. They have their you know, their moment they have their sexy well, we don't see the sex scene, but we know what happens. And I like that after it's over. And we come back and he kind of rolls over on this microprocessor that was on his bed scientists or scientists have microprocessors like all over the place and laying in there sheet later, she's like, Oh, I was wonder what happened to that, but it sticks into his back. And it's a great little nugget in the movie, and then she removes it and it hurts and she's gonna kiss it and she does. And do you have any disinfect it? No, it's gonna be fine. But they know now audience knows that, you know, that had happened. And that will come back into play. Yeah, there was a cut on his back, cut on his back. So now says decides to get up. He's got some energy post sex. He has an idea. Because she had mentioned earlier, I brought some steaks, but they just didn't cook them yet. They got busy with this experiment in the failed experiment. And his idea is to teleport the steaks.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, I think it's I think it's a good idea. I think it's a fantastic idea. I just want to know why this didn't happen. 20 minutes early. That's what I wanted.

Jason Connell:

We had had the sex scene. Silence. Come on. It's like building a house is building a movie. Yeah, I don't know.

Sal Rodriguez:

I just didn't like seeing that poor baboon. Know, for a baboon. Well, that,

Jason Connell:

you know, I say the one thing about that scene, and yes, it was grotesque and sad. But it raised the stakes. We as an audience, see the nylon work? We hear him say one comment about nah, didn't go very well. But then you see just how bad it can be. Yeah, it raised the whole game.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, if I would have seen the nylon, I would have thought it was a trick. I would have thought that some sort of vacuum hose sucked up an island and just went in and pushed it through the other side. I would have thought it was a wonderful, elaborate trick. It's like the

Jason Connell:

banks that used to have the thing get sucked in. Dry. Yeah, exactly.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah. And also, I think the old pharmacies had that to it. Yeah. So

Jason Connell:

they want to do a taste test. There's two steaks cooks in both teleports one and can just, you know, have Ronnie do the taste test. He doesn't even do it. Which is funny to me. I don't know why he doesn't but he asked her. And she says What Sal about the tasting the one that went through the telethon.

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay, she tried the normal regular unaffected steak. Yep. She said it tastes fine because all it could use seasoning or whatever. But then she tried the teleported steak. Yep. She's quickly spit it out. She says, Look, taste. What did you say? Synthetic synthetic. Yeah, taste synthetic.

Jason Connell:

And then he knew like from that, again, he doesn't taste it. He just trusts her, which I think that you know, you could have also taken a bite. But he thinks Wow, okay, that's it. The computer is having a hard time with Flash. I know what to do. I'll train it. You know this is

Sal Rodriguez:

because because because like you said earlier he said computers are dumb. They only know what you tell them right to know. So then

Jason Connell:

he goes like weird science. He's just gonna plug a bunch of stuff on this computer and teach it to identify flesh. So now Ronnie's leaving, it's the morning and she gets in her car and she's driving away. As Ronnie pulls away. Who do we see doing some sort of stakeout?

Sal Rodriguez:

Status status? being creepy? Yeah, he's

Jason Connell:

good at being creepy, man.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, he's really good in this role. I mean, we're gonna see an arc. But I like him. And yeah, he's he's stalking his ex girlfriend. He's been very inappropriate.

Jason Connell:

He shows up at our house and he's in the shower. Okay, yes. And then he goes to this person's house that she's doing a story on, but he stays there all night. Because he sees her car there and just waits for her to leave. You know, I would say this, if you're gonna stalk someone, and you go to where you think they are, and you see their car. That's all you needed to know. But he stays there all night.

Sal Rodriguez:

Wow. Well, he's he's committed. You don't become a magazine editor by not sticking your nose to the grindstone. You know, this guy's committed. And I don't think I've ever done that I've never parked myself outside of a girlfriend's house or apartment or or her lover or whatever. All night long. I would never do such a thing.

Jason Connell:

And I think a guy like this usually gets his way. So maybe this is just too foreign for him. like wait a second, she's rejected me and she's with this guy. So it's probably too much for a guy like this to bear. His ego is just too big. But I also liked the fact that his license plate is vanity plate. Do you remember what I said?

Sal Rodriguez:

I remember it was a vanity plate but I don't remember what it said particle.

Jason Connell:

Particle magazine. Interesting. Anyway, so now Ronnie's going shopping because She's gonna get set some clothes, man. Yeah. And while she's shopping, what happens?

Sal Rodriguez:

She's there shopping for like a leather jacket. It looks like some hip and cool. Yeah, she wants to get her new lover, you have a nice gift. Very nice gift. And yeah, status is there in the store? Like right in front of me. Turns around.

Jason Connell:

He drops to his knee at some point in time. So his knees.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, he makes a scene in this department stores. What is what he does?

Jason Connell:

Yes. And he wants her back. And what it's pathetic is what it is. And guess what? So when you go to these extremes, I would say would have the opposite effect on a woman?

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, from my experience, that answer would be yes, definitely. Yeah. Don't do this. If it were a romantic comedy, maybe. Yeah, exactly. But definitely not in the drama and definitely not in a horror film.

Jason Connell:

And it would work the other way around. If a female is throwing themselves at a guy. Anytime you see just desperation oozing out of somebody. It's a turn off. I'm sorry.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, it's true. And I speak from experience. Yes. Yeah. So it's

Jason Connell:

a kind of a funny scene. There's your comedy. There's your comedy for this movie. So now, we're back it says, and it's baboon. Experiment Number Two.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yes. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed. And I'm trying to remain hopeful.

Jason Connell:

I'm with you. So I do the whole bit. Again, different baboon. I think it's the baboons brother. Yes. He does the teleportation pod one works pod two. And the door opens, the smoke comes out. And here comes this amazing healthy baboon and jumps into sets bundles arms.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, I liked that moment. Because I'm imagining that Jeff Goldblum had to kind of be friend of this. Yeah. Boom for the for the movie, right? Yeah, there

Jason Connell:

was a report there. That was really Yeah. Oh, he

Sal Rodriguez:

jumped right in his arms. It really looked really great. Yeah, it was cool.

Jason Connell:

I don't even know what kind of baboons these are if there's a specific name, but I tell you, this guy is cool looking.

Sal Rodriguez:

And it wasn't one of those ones with the big red butts. I don't think it was how it was once. This is

Jason Connell:

like a high end one. But they're intelligent. He was saying things to him in the next scene. It's like, wow, that baboon is really playing along with Goldbloom. It was it was really good. So it's a celebratory moment, says calling in like some takeout food, some Chinese food, they're gonna have a great night. But the celebration is cut short, because Ronnie discover something, something that her editor staff has sent to Seth and he had looked at it yet. And he's like, oh, yeah, that came the slip underneath the door, and she opens it up. And it's a particle magazine mockup. And it's got Seth Brundle on the cover, kind of like he was seeing like a science magazine. It's like an animated portrait of him. And it talks about his experiment. And just she liked it. Really great. It was cool. I liked it. But Seth hadn't seen it yet. Thank goodness, because this is the last thing in the world he wants. I mean, yeah, Ronnie's doing a biography on him and videotaping things along the way. But she does not show it to him to Seth. And she says, I'll be back. I've got to go deal with something. And she leaves. So she goes to monolith. She doesn't go to a place where she could find status. More often than not in the shower. She goes to monolith publishing, because he's still at the office. I guess it's at night. And they're talking about their bundle story. And essentially, I guess he's asking to stay in the loop. Like he won't move forward on this story. She can do her thing. But keep him abreast of things. He doesn't want to be cut out of the process.

Sal Rodriguez:

He said something like, I don't want you out of my life. Right. Well, he also

Jason Connell:

said that, yeah, there's always Yeah, he's kind of, I guess what after he felt as exposed as he was after the shopping incident. He then tried to have some leverage and send that thing to Seth. And so this is his way of reeling her back in. He knows that's going to bring Ronnie to him. He knows that. He's still her boss. He still got some power. Yeah. And this day and age Sal, obviously already status can't hold this over Ronnie's head.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, the truth is, if you look at a lot of movies would say 10 years plus, there's going to be a little bit of a problematic situations.

Jason Connell:

Yeah. Does that make it right? Sal doesn't make it right. Well, I

Sal Rodriguez:

always defer back to the time I went to the Greece sing along. And then I was in a packed theater. Everybody's singing along with the Greece motion picture. And then we all got to the portion of summer lovin when he says she put up did she put up a fight and I swear there was a palpable shift in the air. I felt it.

Jason Connell:

No lyrics probably should be changed for the Sing along. Well, since

Sal Rodriguez:

we're talking about greasy if you look at the Grease Live that was done. Well, a couple years back, no cigarettes and cigarettes are so prominent in the original motion picture. And now all of a sudden I'm watching Greece without a cigarette and actually it looks weird without cigarette That's

Jason Connell:

interesting. Very interesting. All right. So while she's off meeting with staff this set had no idea where she went, you know, he's like, oh, man, I'm in celebration mode. This. I just did my first successful live animal teleportation. And so says from drinking, and he's upset, he's talking to the baboon.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, and this is where that baboon is reacting. Yes, a lot. Oh, yeah. And there's a fly buzzing around the baboons head is a little foreshadow. And the baboon is reacting to the flight or was a real cool scene. I do like that. Same with Seth Brundle, the baboon and the fly

Jason Connell:

once you do a little fly noise for us. It's pretty good. And the baboon does look up kind of like swipes at it. Yeah. I just love that. Cronenberg just just puts that in there. It's like perfect little. Wow, there was the setup. It's perfect. Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

because when it happens, I become very angry when we get to our moment of truth. In a few scenes, it makes me angry.

Jason Connell:

So this is a great sequence. And so Seth is just really distraught. And I think he feels invincible. And he's got a little bit of that God Complex going on. He's doing something that no one's done. And I think, I don't know. But I would think the scientific field could be ultra competitive at times, especially if you're working on something for long time you want to keep it a secret, you don't want anyone else to do it. And when you feel like it's ready, you probably, you know, you want all the credit. Like you said, he went and essentially landed his own biographer, you know, he has his own agenda. It's not like he's just doing it for the good of mankind. He wants the credit. So

Sal Rodriguez:

well, the scientific community is much like the space race. Everyone wants to be first. Right? Right. And then if you look at the world of journalism, look, Ronnie wants to be first with her story. So everyone wants to be first whether it be in science. Yeah, greed is good. Hey,

Jason Connell:

hey, girl, Wall Street. Nice. So now Seth is just convinced he's gonna go through, he's ready to go through on his own. The baboon worked. And by the way, they talked before she left about, I'm gonna go have the baboon tested. Yeah, make sure he's okay. But the drinking and he was upset that she left and assume that Ronnie had gone back to her ex if he's got all these jealousy, things going through his mind as well. So he decides to teleport right then in there puts the camera on. He has to be naked because it can't work clothes. And so he goes in and sow what do we say? Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

this made me very upset because we see that very same fly, possibly the very same flyer or a stand in that was buzzing over the baboons had we see that fly go into teleport one along with Seth Brundle? And the reason that made me very upset because I thought to myself, why isn't this the most sterile environment if you know that you're going to be broken down and teleported? Everything in that pod is going to be broken down and teleport that should be the most sterile thing. And there was not it's like so so he goes in there. So a drunken and haphazard Cavalier didn't wait on the baboons test results. At this juncture, very upset with Seth Brundle.

Jason Connell:

He Yeah, he's not in his right mind. I think it's the god complex. And he rushed it. And I mean, we're only what a few telepods away from the accident. I think that would have that in my mind. It's like a space shuttle. It's like you would try so many missions or rockets without people and finally introduce people after you have a track record of successful launches. He's only got a couple. I think I would have a series of things. And then maybe maybe some day you're ready for human teleport, but he's rushed it I'm with you. But again, this movie is moving forward. So we're moving very quickly. And this is the time to introduce it when you know where we're going in the movie.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, and this just always confirms what I say about horror and or sci fi is you have to rely on your cast making bad decisions. Yes, absolutely. Because if everyone makes wonderful decisions, there's the story over Yeah,

Jason Connell:

exactly. So the fly goes in, it goes through the front door and it goes to a window, circular window and it lands there. So the shot is like you see the fly, you see Brundle behind kneeling down and then you see a close up of the fly because you didn't see it. There's the fly door closes and a teleportation happens. And it's a success are so we think it is yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

it looks successful. Well,

Jason Connell:

the computer says successful. Yeah, yeah. Well,

Sal Rodriguez:

it was it was.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, he made it through.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, it's not as he wants But it was successful, according to the computer.

Jason Connell:

So now Ronnie comes back, it's much later that night, and Seth tells her that he went through. And she's shocked. Can't believe it, but kind of excited. And she's explaining, I guess her past was status because that comes up. He's asking if she's in love with him. And so we shed light on that there's your drama, you got a little love triangle going on. And this leads to what Sal

Sal Rodriguez:

now that you mentioned that this love triangle, I'm almost thinking a Phantom of the Opera here. Okay. We have a love triangle, and we have a mutated creature, if you will. So very reminiscent. And then once we see the Ark of status, and I'm a big phantom fan. So I'm just really at this present moment, just seeing see little hints of phantom here.

Jason Connell:

So you're absolutely right. It's a really good comparison. And this is kind of a modern tale of of that there is a triangle. There's only three people but they're all really connected and various ways. And they all want something from the other person, which is interesting, too. It's a really interesting not to sexual dynamic. It's, it's just their purpose. It's a cool cycle. I like it. It works. But what happens when she comes back and they have this discussion? It leads to them.

Sal Rodriguez:

Oh, is this when when they have sex

Jason Connell:

again? Yes. But this time Soule. Seth is no longer just Seth.

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay, so this is after he's teleported? Yes. So now we are at Seth 2.0. Right now it's a good way to find it. Yes. Right? And is this where he becomes a gymnast?

Jason Connell:

Almost. But I'm just kind of trying to tell you a softball. I'm just saying they've had sex. And

Sal Rodriguez:

okay, this is the first time they've had sex after he has done his teleportation

Jason Connell:

2.0. So I'm just putting this out there for the audience to think about for our listeners to think about. Wow. Okay, so he is now some sort of fused man fly. Something's going on in his body and his molecular structure. And he slept with someone and most likely had no contraception.

Sal Rodriguez:

I didn't see any Trojan wrappers on the nightstand. I didn't

Jason Connell:

either. I used that line before in our last podcast, but I like it.

Sal Rodriguez:

I did. Call it No, I

Jason Connell:

used my line. But I like it.

Sal Rodriguez:

No, but you know what, though? I had to reach later in the movie to go Oh, I didn't think about that right now. It didn't even occur to me that that could happen that there could be something happening. Something conceptualizing right now you know, I, I didn't think about

Jason Connell:

well, I can't remember what I was thinking in the 80s when I saw it, but now when I watch it, and it's it's hard to go back and forget what you know, but I see it now. It's like, oh my gosh, it's so obvious. Like something's not right about this if they're having sex now. And as they lay there because we don't know anything's different about him yet. We just know there was a fly and said pod. And he had a successful teleportation. We don't know anything else. Yeah. All we do know is when they're laying there sleeping, post sex, that fly and go ahead, make the noise again. It's, it's buzzing about and I shouldn't say that fly a another fly. So Brundle plays has lots of flies. Maybe the baboons brought them in. But it goes by why he's sleeping. He reaches up and grabs it with his hand. Pretty good instincts. Very Karate Kid style as well. But that's not a normal human thing to do. So that's the first time there was a hint of Wait a second. What was that? You know, a little bit of super human little Seth 2.0 right there for us to say.

Sal Rodriguez:

What does he do with the fly after he catches he

Jason Connell:

opens his hand and the fly goes away. Okay, but we know right then and there.

Sal Rodriguez:

Mr. Miyagi? Let the fly go to him. Yeah.

Jason Connell:

So did Danielson. Yeah, you

Sal Rodriguez:

gotta let the fly go. If you catch it, you have to catch and

Jason Connell:

release. But how many people are sleeping? Maybe we Shoo it away. He grabs it wakes up and he just looks a little bit non human. Right there. We know. Wow, something happened to him. He's fly esque right now.

Sal Rodriguez:

Sure. Then I think maybe someone would watch this and, and all of a sudden maybe have images of SpiderMan in their head. They'd be like, Oh, right. Well, he's gonna be like, have superpowers it's gonna be it's gonna be great, right? Like, you think this is gonna be fantastic. He's gonna be like spider man here like No, doesn't turn out that way.

Jason Connell:

Well, it doesn't yet but you're right. The very next scene he wakes up and he's a little bit possessed. And this teleportation just happened several hours ago. So he gets up and he's got this different look on his face. And he goes in his head. out and breaks out a Olympic gymnastic routine. That's incredible. Sal. You know, it blew me away.

Sal Rodriguez:

What I thought was funny about this. Yeah, this goes back to what I was saying earlier is that even if you develop strength, right, even if you do all of a sudden are super strong. Where do you all of a sudden? Well, first of all, well, how was why is there a parallel bar or a straight bar in your place? And then when all of a sudden you know how to do a, what they call these come swinging giants? I think they were called. But where do you learn gymnastics? That's what I want to unless Hang on. Maybe he has a history past in gymnastics, maybe in high school or something? We don't know that. Okay. We don't know that. We don't. I just thought it's funny that all of a sudden he knows gymnastics.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, that's true. We don't know the backstory of Seth Bronto. But he is great at it. But where he learned it from I have no idea. But in a way it works. Because it knowing this is a scientist who probably doesn't have a background in it. Maybe he has likely not. Yeah, maybe as an affection to it or an interest in it. But it's a great way to show his strength.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah. And if you notice that then Ronnie is sitting there. Yeah. enraptured by this. Yeah. I think actually getting aroused by it all. Here we go. Right. She's starting to get aroused by this. Oh, well, watching his his feats, his newfound feats of strength. And then I think once he's done with his performance, I think they start to get it on again, if I'm not mistaken.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, they lead you to believe she is enraptured by it. They walk towards each other. He's sweaty and shirtless. And we cut away so yeah, you're absolutely right. They could have went right back in the sack, for all we know. Yeah. But instead, we cut to them. And they're walking on the street in Toronto. But before that, I just want to say, Ronnie should have grabbed the old video camera and film this, because Oh, what a great thing to catch on camera. Yeah, he can't do it again. But he was just possessed to do it. Sure. And I know I talked about this earlier. But I like the lighting in his place, too. It's just kind of dark and eerie. And is everything just work. So it really is well done. So that whole sequence is not only impressive from a physical standpoint, but it's also just shot very well. And I really liked it. And I wish they had had it on film that would have made a great Instagram post, nonetheless. And so now they're walking down the street. This is kind of a weird scene, but they stop and he buys Ronnie, a little heart necklace from a local vendor.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, an interesting moment because she had previously said she doesn't wear jewelry. Exactly. So here he is putting a necklace around her neck with a heart pendant.

Jason Connell:

They kiss each other, you know? Yeah. And yeah, this movie had no drama.

Sal Rodriguez:

Gosh, yeah, no, no, no, there is a you know what? You always got to have a love story. I think no matter what, no matter horror, or comedy, or sci fi, whatever, you got to have some sort of love story, I think

Jason Connell:

raises the stakes as well. Now we're invested these people, they love each other, they're connected. And we know it's not gonna last. So no, it's doomed. It's doomed. And now we're at this coffee shop. And I really liked this, this st how it goes down, you get Goldbloom. And he's kind of, you know, fast talking, but take it away?

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, I would say the word would be manic that he's starting to. It's one thing to have the physical prowess and the agility, that's great. But he's starting to get hyper mania is what's happening to him. And he's like, adding sugar to his coffee and adding sugar to achieve and says, Oh, do you want a little coffee with your sugar? And he doesn't even take a

Jason Connell:

sip of it. It's like he's so coked up. But uh, yeah, just his body is changing at a rapid pace.

Sal Rodriguez:

He would be like a hyper puberty in his 30s is what's happening.

Jason Connell:

And it's happening in the span of like, 12 hours.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yes, yes. And so he's all going nuts in this cafe. And then he yells at the waiters like, Hey, give me a give me a What does it kill zone? What does he What does he

Jason Connell:

something but it just wants him to come over and get his order. Yeah, he's very irritable. All the sudden, you're extremely manic is the right word for that. Yeah. Now we're back it says house and this is a long sexing. Or at least they insinuate the fact that they've been going out for hours. And he's got this boundless energy. And Ron is exhausted. She wants a break. All of a sudden Sal, his space in the scene is breaking out. It's got dark patches. It looks different. And he's really changing very quickly. And he's just got this nonstop sex drive energy. And she's just you know, she's still human. So she can't keep up with the sky. The Super Yeah, he's not.

Sal Rodriguez:

He's not looking so good. No, and she even says as he wants to continue, I don't know how you can have any more fluid left in your fluids. So Geez, he's probably like dropped like six loads already. would like.

Jason Connell:

So if she hadn't conceived on the previous scene, this brings it home.

Sal Rodriguez:

While they're having lots of Sex

Jason Connell:

unprotected sex, lots of

Sal Rodriguez:

it. Yeah. Yeah. And this is the 80s. This is actually if you look at 86 is an interesting time to be having unprotected sex HIV

Jason Connell:

AIDS was across the world, it was a huge thing. And unprotected sex was taboo. And I remember reading something about Cronenberg, or had mentioned that some people were connecting this movie a little bit with AIDS, how he had changed so much in it. But you're absolutely right. If that's where you're going with this.

Sal Rodriguez:

Wow, people thought that his transformation was a symbolic of AIDS. I never heard that. Well, there was

Jason Connell:

just some parallels. That's all interesting. And I Okay, I could see this comparisons early on he, he's deforming his decaying, he's got these spots on his face. You know, there's a little bit and this is the time that they're filming this movie in 85. It's coming out in 86. This was definitely a hot topic thing. And a very scary thing. It crossed. Yeah,

Sal Rodriguez:

there could have been hints of symbolism. Yeah, I could see that. I don't

Jason Connell:

think it was intentional. I didn't think it was what was happening. It was just at the same time. Yeah. So as Ronnie gets a break, what does she notice? On Seth's back?

Sal Rodriguez:

Oh, she runs her hands across his back in the same location where he was previously cut by that what was that my processor, the microprocessor cut into his back. She feels along his wound. At first, they look like stitches at first. But then you realize these are like black, thick, very thick hair, of course, very coarse hairs growing out of this wound, in a very odd way. And I do think it's funny. She went over to grab some sort of kitchen shears and starts cutting some of these.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, and gets a few samples off. doesn't even get the whole thing but does cut some. Yeah. And then Sal, Seth just changes even more. He's demanding that Ronnie goes through, and you know, teleports herself. He won't let it go.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, well, he wants to be some sort of super couple or power couple or something. Well, yeah,

Jason Connell:

he wants her to go through because she needs to experience what he's experiencing.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah. Okay. So that could be almost like a drug parallel, like, Oh, my God, this drug is so good. You got to try it. You got to try what I'm on, man. You know, it's one of those things like he was feeling such immense power. He wanted her to feel it too.

Jason Connell:

But he gets so mad. This is just so sudden. I mean, they're literally having sex not a couple minutes earlier. And now he's demanding. She goes in the telepods. And she says, No, he's like, fine. I'll get someone who can keep up with me. Yeah, that's how fast he's changing. You know, because his mind his body has no control. And he heads out. He leaps.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, he puts on his leather jacket without a shirt. Yeah. And it heads out the door, heads

Jason Connell:

out, walk in the streets, finds a bar, spots a girl and gets into an arm wrestling contest.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, I think that arm wrestling scene is something kind of legendary. He gets into an arm wrestling match, wagers $100 And he gets to take the bar fly home, Tawny. Okay, he gets to take her home. He says if I beat you, I get to take her home. The guys are laughing at him. Oh, yeah, this, this puny guy, you know, he sits down against like some sort of burly truck driver type guy. And at first they're going at it almost looks even the other guy is struggling Seth Brundle doesn't really look like he's breaking a sweat. Not at all. The burly guy keeps going for keeps going for it. Boom. His arm breaks right across his wrist. Yeah. You see his bone come out. Wonderful special effects. Fantastic. Special effects. Poor guy. And then since Brunel grabs the girl and hightailed it out of there.

Jason Connell:

So So what was the last time that you were in an arm wrestling contest?

Sal Rodriguez:

Surely in my 20s, maybe in my early 20s? I don't think I've been in armwrestling. Yeah, it's been since my early 20s. Nothing recent.

Jason Connell:

No, I I'm not a big arm wrestling guy. And this scene was just too funny to go into a bar and see that going on was was great. But it worked because here's a guy with great strength. So his plan was to come back with a woman. He's got one. He gets Tani back to his apartment lab. And I guess there's no elevators the first time we're hearing to this or it wasn't working. So he has to go up the stairs and she's tired. So he carries Tawny and literally runs up the stairs holding her

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, kind of reminiscent of a honeymoon couple. While he's

Jason Connell:

like Superman, though. It's really a cool senior. You're seeing that this guy has super human strength now.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah. And you know, what I definitely found fascinating

Jason Connell:

is that he doesn't look so good. No, he's looking terrible.

Sal Rodriguez:

He's looking ripe. And Tiny goes along and it's like, why would you go with this guy?

Jason Connell:

Well, they wanted to Few more bars after he picked her up. She's like, Well, yeah, I'll go back to your place can wait some bars first. So she's probably trashed. And then they're going back. So she's just going along with it. But he's not like it's him. He doesn't look healthy. He looks very sick.

Sal Rodriguez:

And think of how he smelled didn't he just have hours of hot sex with Ronnie earlier didn't shower put on the jacket ran off. He's fresh. He's got a fresh quality.

Jason Connell:

I totally agree. So now they're in his place and he goes to the teller plots and forever to show her because I think he feels that going through them is like a hot shower. wakes him up. He thinks but he does not know what's going on. It has nothing to do with going through. It's the fact that he went through it the fly. And he comes out is naked goes right to her and has sex

Sal Rodriguez:

with Tawny. Yeah, yeah, right out of the pod.

Jason Connell:

So Sal Tani also could be pregnant with child. Whoa,

Sal Rodriguez:

I didn't even think about that. Wow. Okay, the fly three,

Jason Connell:

RFI two we just we kicked the second one of the curve and we just don't want to redo a mulligan. I like

Sal Rodriguez:

it. What if Tani comes back in the fly to given birth,

Jason Connell:

Tani and Ronnie Ronnie and Ty. Come on, man. I love this. So after sex with Tony, he tries to talk her into going through and do the teleportation. Yeah, and he's starting to get worked up talker and do it. And then Ronnie arrives.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah. And Ronnie gives the famous line famous line that was on the movie poster, I believe. Yes, it was because Ronnie walks in. Here's Tani say, I'm afraid. And Ronnie says, Be afraid. Be very afraid. And there it is. And that is the line. That is the line that is the movie poster line.

Jason Connell:

You can build a franchise around that line. Perfect. Look, fantastic line. And Tani leaves. That was her exit. And thank goodness Ronnie came in because she got out. Well, she might be pregnant, but she got out of there. And so Ronnie now sheds light on the fact that she had those hairs analyzed. Yeah. And he thought, well, that's a weird thing to go do. But what do we find out about those hairs? Yeah, she

Sal Rodriguez:

says that her friend at the lab looked at the hairs. Not only are they not human, right, but did she say insect insect hairs? Yeah, insect hairs growing out of your back. He's deaf. Are you hearing this? He's like,

Jason Connell:

that's weird. So she leaves and he goes to the restroom, bathroom and he takes his fingernail off. He sees it's kind of loose, and it comes off and he start to pause this coming out reminds me that CNN poltergeists, when the guy goes in the mirror and his face starts to come apart. It's a really well done and extremely uncomfortable and grotesque thing.

Sal Rodriguez:

Now that you mentioned the drama in this movie, or you mentioned calling it a drama. There are these times when the horror comes back and I kind of forgot it was a horror movie. You know, it's like, Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm watching a horror movie. A horror sci fi I forgot. I thought I was watching just a dramatic movie with a love story. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We're watching horror. I forgot. And it kind of surprises me. And that's

Jason Connell:

what I love about this movies got layers to it. You're comfortable here. Oh, we got this. I mean, it wasn't three minutes ago that they were having a wonderful romantic scene on the street buying her a necklace. And now he's decayed to the point that his body's falling apart, and he's having sex with a stranger. The movie is all over the place. But in a good way.

Sal Rodriguez:

Even though there are much grosser moments in this movie. When he's in the bathroom. They're taking off his nail and then his fingers start to ooze that milky. That it was so gross. To me, that was one of the grossest things still makes me cringe. Yeah, like, what was that? What what is that coming out of him?

Jason Connell:

Well, here's what we do know, right then and there. Seth knows, there's a problem. He may have denied it before. I said, Hey, I'm feeling pretty good about myself. I'm strong. I can do gymnastics. I can have sex for hours of multiple partners. This is amazing. Hold on, my body is falling apart. He

Sal Rodriguez:

talks about talk about symbolism. Now we're getting into the possible symbolism of drug addiction, where the person has to admit, well, maybe there is something wrong. Yeah, I have

Jason Connell:

a problem. Yeah, I have a problem. And I'm Seth Brundle. Now, Seth goes through his computer and starts to run some reports and just to analyze what happened and his successful teleportation the first one,

Sal Rodriguez:

he's reviewing what occurred, I guess the computer saves the analysis. It records it and he can go back and watch what happened.

Jason Connell:

So I slowly started to find out with 1980s graphics that there was a fly and the The tele pod with him. As he analyzes further, what do we find out?

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, first thing as I'm realizing that he could have programmed the computer to cease, once it detects an object other than the primary transporter, or transported, so yeah, he didn't program that properly. Well, we find out that he was he merged with the fly, right? He didn't absorb the fly. That's what he thought at first, I thought,

Jason Connell:

yeah, I'm a human being. Here's a fly, fly sign. Sure. I could swallow a fly. It might. It's gross, but I could easily do that. So he just assumes, yes, did brondell absorbed the fly? But that's not what happened.

Sal Rodriguez:

No, no, I wouldn't say a merger at the genetic level, something like that

Jason Connell:

fusion of Brundle and fly at the molecular genetic level.

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay, so when he reads that he knows Oh, no, it's that

Jason Connell:

tight shot of his eyes. And then it's like almost the horror movies like Dun dun dun. He knows. Oh, how do I reverse engineer this quick?

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, yeah, not good.

Jason Connell:

So now we go forward in time, which is kind of nice, because now we cut away, we're, we're with Ronnie, and the phone rings. And Seth is calling her and asking her to come to Him. And so it's kind of a nice kind of way, because now we have a chance to progress, his mutation more. And so Ronnie shows up. And so when Ronnie walks in, she's just mortified when she sees him.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, because not only does he look hideous, but he's got like this vomit stains all over his shirt. He's walking with these two crutches. He looks really horrific and pathetic.

Jason Connell:

Absolutely. And the place is a mess. I mean, he's just gone. He's probably been on his computer trying to figure out a way. And also, it's not like he's got his wits about him the whole time. We saw how erratic he was. We saw some of the decisions he's been making, just because now he knows something's wrong. I'd say he's probably still struggling to have his, you know, all of his faculties about him.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, he's not only physically mutating, he's going nuts.

Jason Connell:

Exactly. So he changes where he can go to the computer and figure things out. And then there's times that he's probably fighting the fly within himself.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah. As we all do. I know,

Jason Connell:

I'm always I'm always dealing with that fly, the inner fly the Enter fly. And so now he explains to Ronnie what has happened. Yeah, exactly what he knows. She can't believe it. But obviously, it makes a lot of sense. Again, I would be filming this every stage of this. This is big news. As tragic as it is, this has never happened as far as we know. And I will be documenting everything. So

Sal Rodriguez:

she was commissioned to kind of be his biographer. Right, right. And then what all of a sudden, just because everything goes to hell, you stop being the biographer. I mean, a biographer is supposed to be there to capture the good, the bad, the ugly. Well, they

Jason Connell:

let the romance get in the way. Yeah. And so that's why she took a break and you're right to stay, keep it. Business. Don't go personal. But while he's explaining what went wrong, we see how he eats his food.

Sal Rodriguez:

Oh,

Jason Connell:

oh, what's his what's his house? Well,

Sal Rodriguez:

you know what? This movie is probably up there as far as grossness with the thing. John Carpenter's Oh, yeah, the thing is, as far as grossness. Like, I don't even think movies. You know, slasher flicks can can compete with movies like this when it comes to just sheer grossest, but what a fly does and this is what Now Seth Brundle does is they don't have the proper enzymes to absorb the foods. So what they do is they hack up this corrosive fluid that kind of pre digests the food, then they kind of slurp it up, right. So that's what he does right in front of Ronnie he he hacks up the fluids and starts to pre digest his food and slurps it up. Oh, I'm sure it's a wonderful, wonderful scene.

Jason Connell:

If that's not bad enough, then one of his ears falls off. Yes, yes.

Sal Rodriguez:

A traditional lend me your ear moment taken too literally. And

Jason Connell:

then Ronnie. Yes, very literally. And Ronnie begins to cry. It's just too much for her to take and, and she leaves and she goes to meet with status and explains what's going on. And he urges her much like I just said to film him or tape him continue documenting this amazing and morbid and protest transformation that's happening.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah. So she does that she finally goes back to videotaping him as she should have been doing what like we said so yeah, she videotapes him having lunch, right?

Jason Connell:

Yes. But status is not built an empire. By doing things casually. I mean, Seth this knows this could be something huge for monoliths publishing and particle magazine. Right.

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay. Yeah. So he's still thinking of the The Hot story, the lead story, the story of the year right, the possible Pulitzer winning prize story. Sure. Okay.

Jason Connell:

So yeah, I believe that she's kind of put her jealousy aside because, honestly, so the relationship is over for all intensive purposes at this point in time. Yes, sexual relationship where they were potentially headed. And when she goes over this time, Seth is now with no crutches. He's crawling on the wall and ceiling.

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay, so now yeah, this is the Spider Man moment where he's having the the superpowers. This is the superpowers. Yeah, moment. He's crawling on the ceiling, like a fly defying gravity.

Jason Connell:

Very Lynelle. Rich, he asked is well, I might. Actually, I watched the dance on the ceiling video the other day. And it's actually pretty funny. I'm gonna watch it. As cheesy as it is. It's 80s Cheesy in all the right ways. And it's a great special effect. I really liked to see Seth move around. It's nice to get him mobile again. Because just the last scene, he could barely walk five feet. Now he's cruising around. So his metamorphosis is continuing at a rapid speed. And so he's moving round comes down, and he's got better spirits about himself now is kind of excited because he's like, I'm excited because I know what I am turning into something. And that's great. Not many human beings can do that. And then he coined the term, which we've already said, but he coined the term and calls himself Brundlefly Brundlefly. It's a great name, by the way. Yeah, it's good, says it all. And so yes, now she's recording him eating. It's very grotesque, as we've already said, various guesting, and I like the way that we show it. It's being filmed. And then we cut to status watching it.

Sal Rodriguez:

This was the original reaction video. Yeah, this is this status reacting to Seth Brundlefly. And so some more

Jason Connell:

time has passed because she brought the video home, she's given it to status. He's watching it. He's watching it at her house. So there's a lot of things at play, maybe now that things have changed status is back in the good graces. We don't really get into that. But he's at our place, maybe because they're in tandem to solve this crazy thing that's going on. But Ronnie comes in the same status as watching this. And she's got some more news to pile on. And this is something we talked about earlier. Which is the fact that

Sal Rodriguez:

Ronnie is pregnant. Boo Yong Dunt. Da I knew it. I knew it. What's interesting also is there was no, I mean, this is out of nowhere, right? It's not like, oh, I had morning sickness or anything is lower. I'm feel bloated. Boom, I'm pregnant. What our time for that? Yeah, no time for that.

Jason Connell:

We gotta move right into it. You're you are pregnant. Tani. Who knows? Who knows, but Ronnie, our girl, she's pregnant. And so now we're at the hospital. And Ronnie is in labor. And there's a lot of things going on. You got David Cronenberg there, which is kind of nice to see. And she's giving birth, not to a human and the same, I believe it's like an insect larva.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, because we don't know that this is a dream sequence yet. Now. Right? We think this is really happening. So she's we think she's, I don't know they're inducing labor. Right?

Jason Connell:

You're right. We don't know anything. This is happening. And I'm really good at spotting dream sequences. But I think when I first saw this movie, I think I bought the fact that it was happening.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, yeah. You don't know. Because yeah, there's no lead in to make us believe that it's a dream sequence. Just all of a sudden when that larva comes out, which is a fantastic scene, I mean, how horrific Oh was terrible was huge, horrific to give birth to a giant fly larva, maggot,

Jason Connell:

I think she screams and then she screams herself awake. So that's a nice, I'm not a huge fan of dream sequences. But if you're going to do it, this is how you do it. And of course, the ones from American Wharf in London are also great because they're just so different and unorthodox, and, and terrifying.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, one of the dream sequences in American Werewolf in London is the double, double dream double nightmare. Double night, the double nightmare. Yes,

Jason Connell:

yeah, we keep saying dream sequence say it's a nightmare sequence.

Sal Rodriguez:

It's a nightmare. Yeah, it's a horrible nightmare dream sequence, but

Jason Connell:

it's a nightmare. And when she wakes up, but she wakes up and that's changed her. You know, her mo she's got to have an abortion. She does not lie like she knows that can happen. She knows how grotesque Seth is. I mean, she's the only person that seen Seth. She's the same person has been around him. I mean, status has seen the video, but he's not interacted with him. And so now we are South working away on his computer, and he's trying Ain't lower his fly percentage, like maybe reverse engineer himself like what can he do? And he's having a hard time on that computer he's got no gloves on is fingers. He's using like pencils to type the cute. His voice is no longer recognizable because this is the 80s. But he had voice recognition software on his computer. Yeah, but even that's faded because it can't recognize his voice anymore.

Sal Rodriguez:

No, his voice is becoming more absolves.

Jason Connell:

Maybe not, I should have never had to do that. So he loses some teeth, which is also gnarly. And you see them pop out on the keypad there and the yes keyboard. And I love it. He's keeping things he's mementos. And he walks into the medicine cabinet. Opens it up. And there's a ton of his body parts. Oh, yeah.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yep. Well, you know, my mom keeps her kids first hair cuts. Okay, hair.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, I sent baby teeth. I've kept Brody's and Nico's first tooth for a long time and something. Yeah, he's got a lot of things in the medicine cabinet. And I dare to say, I think I saw his penis. No, I think really there. It's a real man. And so I think I saw Bronto fly's penis.

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, I'm gonna, I can't believe I'm saying this. But I'm actually going to try to look back and

Jason Connell:

just Google what I just said, it may just come up for you online.

Sal Rodriguez:

Like if I were just a healthy individual, I would just take your word for it. Yeah. But instead, I'm going to actually research it,

Jason Connell:

whatever it is, there was a lot of things and that was very grotesque. And the fact that he's hoarding these things, keeping these mementos was just, it speaks volumes to where he's at, in his mental state.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, because it's not like he's saving them because he wants to do experiments on them. No, he's just saving them as like souvenirs. Yeah,

Jason Connell:

I remember when I used to have this nose and remember this. Yeah. But it makes for a grotesque scene. And this movie's full of them in a good way. So now, Ronnie arrives for an emotional exchange. And it's a really good scene. And you can tell this is whether they're working very well together. Obviously, they're dating. They're close. They've already made a movie together. But real chemistry, and she's distraught, because she came there to tell him what cell

Sal Rodriguez:

she came to say that she was pregnant. Right? Right. Yeah, but this is where he tells her that if you stay, I could hurt you. Right? Or I'm gonna hurt you.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, she's he's pushing her away. But she doesn't have the strength to tell him that she's pregnant.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Because right before she starts to get further into it, is where he says You better leave because I might hurt you. And this is him, him ultimately realizing that he is now dangerous. Yeah, I guess he didn't accept that before. Because what do you say he talks about insect politics that insects don't have politics? He will hurt her if she stays.

Jason Connell:

That's exactly right. And it's well said I'm glad you said that. He does use that terminology and SEC politics. I

Sal Rodriguez:

really liked the way Jeff Goldblum portrays this character at this juncture, because he's got the you know, those the slips of the tongue and the darting of the eyes.

Jason Connell:

Yes. Yes. All

Sal Rodriguez:

like, like insect mannerisms you know, right there.

Jason Connell:

They're kinda reminds me of Chet and Weird Science played by the late and great Bill Paxton. Rest in peace. Rest in peace Bill Paxton. But memory he was charted for that creature.

Sal Rodriguez:

Oh, yeah. Yeah. With the with the crew cut,

Jason Connell:

crew cut. And that fly goes by of all things, and he grabs it with his huge tongue, and then can't believe it. He's like, Ah, so nice little tip of the cap to a John Hughes. Also Rest in peace, classic film. And so now Ronnie leaves and status is outside. And he's like, you know, what's the hurry? And I really couldn't tell what's going on with status. Here. It was. He was pulling a little bit of aliens and Paul risers character in that movie, where if you remember that movie, the classic James Cameron film, he's trying to set up Ripley to get impregnated by the alien. And he says, it's gonna happen so I can bring it back. Well, I couldn't tell staff this was pulling that with her like, you know, do you need to do the abortion now sleep on it. Knowing what Seth is, is he thinking? She's got this potential thing and her that could be the biggest news of all time? Is that what's going on? Because why keep it?

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, you know what I would? I don't know. I don't know if we think that's status is that slimy?

Jason Connell:

Because he also cares for her as if he cares. He would want her to have abortion right away. I was just a little torn there. Like maybe she wants her to be okay with this. Hopefully that's Whatever it was, and not the ladder, the sinister guy who has, you know, this bigger agenda, but I don't think it's that it just felt like that for a second.

Sal Rodriguez:

I just got the feeling he was saying, Okay, you want an abortion, but why does it need to be tonight? It could be tomorrow could be Tuesday like it doesn't need to be this very moment.

Jason Connell:

That makes sense. It was just the way he said you could think about asleep on it. I just thought oh, there is there some ulterior motives here. I hope not. Because I want to like staff this more. So I'll go with that. But when this is going on, Sal Brundle eavesdrops on this.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, he's on the rooftop kind of seen like a hunchback of Notre Dame right thing right thing happening. So he's like, observing from the rooftop. He hears everything's got super fly hearing now. So he hears everything that she's saying about I want this baby. Atomy so this is where Seth Brundle realizes that he has a little half fly baby a little maggot in utero.

Jason Connell:

Yes, exactly. And his whole agenda changes he sent her away I didn't know this and so now we go to the hospital it's late at night they have an exchange with this doctor and he's also saying we got to do this and I and status knows and has relationship with Him it says yes, we believe the father of the child is

Sal Rodriguez:

what are they say? He says to form Yeah, the father is deformed because he's

Jason Connell:

never I believe the story about trying Sure so he's a father is the father is a half flock watch this video of him eating and so the doctor agrees but that's as far as we get because something crazy happens.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, so she starts to prep like get into the robe and the gown and the doctors I guess gonna go wash up he's gonna do the abortion right. Right and out of nowhere I don't think anybody for the first time watching would expect this. So there she is. thinking okay, she's going to have the abortion right. That's good. There's this big one of those. cellblocks window. Yes, glass plastic looking cellblock. So Brundlefly just burst through. And look she didn't put up much of a fight. No. In fact, none at all.

Jason Connell:

You're right. She was almost like, Okay, this is supposed to happen. And I know that you had issues with this when we kind of talked about this film at one point in time, but we don't see him fly Fly he is a fly. Fly Yeah, but he does hop down he has superpowers but but maybe speak to this point.

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay, so my big disappointment in the movie was that we never get to see him sprout wings I want him to become an actual fly sprout wings and will actually fly and we never get to see that and that's very disappointing to me

Jason Connell:

are just sprout the wings you would have settled for like this though wing reveal

Sal Rodriguez:

on them. Yeah. Because then we think oh, boy, he's gonna fly. At least we think he's gonna fly. But we never

Jason Connell:

really see the end of his mutation either, because we're about to the end of the movie, but he's still mutating up until the end. So I believe that still could have happened. We just ran out of

Sal Rodriguez:

time. He could eventually sprout wings. But he's

Jason Connell:

got superpowers because yeah, he made it across town style. And we know it is like to drive or be in cars. And so he probably hopped building to building he also just broke through this wall of glass that no human being could do, grabs her status comes out. Sorry, kidnaps her, actually, I had a note said rescue slash kidnapped, but I keep referring to rescue.

Sal Rodriguez:

It's a fine line, a fine line.

Jason Connell:

This is the ad cell. And so he grabs her and just jumps off the building. So we're led to believe he's just jumping in and, you know, scaling buildings just hopping around. And we also know that he can crawl up buildings and surfaces. So we've seen that. But anyway, he gets her and he takes her back to his place. And so status is at this point, it's his lair. Yeah, he's back in the lair. But status also has the layer and I gotta give this guy credit. He knows what he's up against. And status isn't calling the cops. Is it getting anyone involved? He goes to Seth's house layer. And he has a gun that he assembles. And he is going there to save her. And I gotta give him all the credit in the world, because I would have called any and everybody to come with. He's also model of publishing. Why not get the news involved? Now you got yourself the story here.

Sal Rodriguez:

You could have called five of your finest reporters to get on the scene. Totally. Well, yeah, he goes with that gun that he puts together. Now I gotta hand it to him also, but he waits until he's in the building to put the gun together. And he doesn't do it outside. I don't understand that. It's kind

Jason Connell:

of a cool scene. But yes, I think I would go in guns blazing. And I'm gonna have more than a shotgun but I do like the setup. I like that. He goes there. And no one's there. It's just him. Yeah. And so he so he thinks and he's walking around He goes to the computer and he sees on the screen cell. It says gene splicing mythology. It says Tella pod one transmitter of subject a tele pod two transmitter of subject B. Tele pod three receiver of genetically fused A B combination subject. In layman's terms, Sal, what is bundles new plan?

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, he believes, I guess his hypothesis is that if he merges with another human who would essentially dilute the fly, right, he would kind of dilute the flight because he'd have more human DNA.

Jason Connell:

Right? And he's trying to sell more with said human and become a super person.

Sal Rodriguez:

Wow. Okay, so he's starting to get a he's not just trying to save himself, he wants to go to the next level.

Jason Connell:

And this all came about when he found out about the child. This was the catalyst because he was telling her leave, um, dangerous that scene, he overhears why they drive to and get set up at the hospital all Brundle fly cranked away on this as a guy you know and puts this together, I can get myself in a pod, Ronnie and child and a pod and then and the third pod will fuse together as a family. Yes, diluting the fly sound but also just being one cohesive family. And one person

Sal Rodriguez:

interesting concept in and of itself, even in spite of a fly just an interesting concept of fusion. Yeah. fusions with other people very interesting

Jason Connell:

Brundle family. Yes. So but why status learns this information? What happened? So?

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, so here he is looking at the computer. He's now putting everything together. And then yeah, right off the ceiling. Is that where he's off the ceiling? kind of falls down, boom, lands on top of them. Right. Doesn't he land? Yeah. On him? Yep. Yeah, in an attack mode.

Jason Connell:

Like he's he's got the gun in his hand, too. So he just, you know, quickly disperses that. But it doesn't stop there. So he doesn't stop there. This is what it goes to next level.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But Brundlefly vomits the corrosive enzyme on to status. Left hand I think it is. Yeah, and melts his hand. I mean, status is gonna need a hook like handyman after this. Yes, yes. And then staff has kind of faints in shock falls on the ground. And then Brundlefly continues his menu and vomits on his leg, which then effectively amputate his leg for about the ankle down. Because they see his foot rather. Right. Yeah, he established on the ground, now without a foot and without a hand.

Jason Connell:

And he's about to go in for the kill. He is he's leaned over him and Rob said and stops him screams at him to stop. Yeah. And he tells her helped me be human. Yeah, he's asking for help. There's the plea. And then he explains his plan of which we just talked about. And I mean, this is terrifying news to her. She's of sound, mind and body and she wants to have this child, you know, removed or have aborted and she has no interest in this crazy new Brundle family plan. No, no. And so she tries to fight. And then the sequence out it's interesting because she's fighting. Seth, I guess he's no longer Seth Brundle fly is losing more of his body. Oh, yeah. And his head comes off. And it's more of the fly. It's the final version of that Brundlefly head. And then he just literally just flings and tosses, throws Ronnie into the telepods closes the door. So his plan is in motion. And he's too strong to fight.

Sal Rodriguez:

A wonderful transformation scene, a really, really, I think, iconic transformation scene. As he's falling apart and the fly is coming out more very well done very great special effects.

Jason Connell:

I'm glad you brought up the thing earlier because that movie had a great transformation scenes in them is the thing and then sometimes the people would get tested with the blood and that the guy would turn in front of you. And then in America Wharf in London, another amazing scene here to see of Rick Baker. But this movie does it as well. It's like these directors. Carpenter land is Cronenberg. They got it right man, they raise the stakes, and they probably ruined it for a lot of other people. Because this is how you do it. And this one in particular, like I said earlier, butterflies mutation never stops. There's no final we don't even get to the final thing in the end because I think there could have still been wings potentially like you wanted. It's amazing that it just continues to go forward. Yeah, it's you don't see that and we take it for granted. Now we're reflecting on this movie from the 80s going wow, I've Not seen something like that.

Sal Rodriguez:

It probably would be one of the longest running mutations on film.

Jason Connell:

Yeah, absolutely. And so he gets inside his pod. And the countdown is beginning. It's odd, but status comes to skies kind of a hero.

Sal Rodriguez:

Oh, this is the Arca was talking about at this point. You're down with status. Yeah. I mean he's a hero. He's got Ronnie's back. Yep. And he's delivering and he and here he is. Yeah, he aims that gun at one of the cables, which I thought was an odd choice. But hey, okay. I think I would have aim for one of the pods but yeah, it worked. So he aims for the cables. Yeah,

Jason Connell:

it's true. He actually, he figured that could stop it.

Sal Rodriguez:

I think it's great. I would I would have thought the pod you know, but no, great. Shoot the cable. You shoot the connection? It's over. Right? Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So he shoots the cable. Then. One pod stops working but the other one still working. The one that Rhonda flies in is still working? Yes.

Jason Connell:

Correct. So, to be clear, Ronnie's opens her stops luckily, and you know, the door opens and she comes out. But rondels continues to countdown. And there is a teleportation

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, what happened was he winds up Brundlefly winds up in the pod number three, somehow fused with the pod two. He somehow fuses with it. That's why he comes out with this creature with like these cables intertwined.

Jason Connell:

So the door opens for him. And he's just barely crawling. Thank goodness, he doesn't have the strength and the wherewithal to harm them. Because the insect has taken over at this point in time.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, but Okay, so here though we're is the sympathy now you go oh my god. How pathetic is he now? You know,

Jason Connell:

so yeah, he comes crawling out. And staff. This is just barely hanging on. So Ronnie grabs the shotgun?

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, she doesn't want to do it. At first. She's struggling with

Jason Connell:

it. She just has it as a more of a protection device as he comes crawling towards her and holds it up. And then Brundlefly himself with his hand reaches out and like pulls the barrel to his head.

Sal Rodriguez:

Right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, very, very, it

Jason Connell:

was really well done touching. Because you knew that fly this grotesque thing? Seth Brundle is in there. And that moment, it's not 100% Fly. He's there saying just in this Yeah, that was really touching.

Sal Rodriguez:

And that's where you kill the creature not out of defense. But out of mercy.

Jason Connell:

Right. As much as it's hard for Ronnie to do. She is the one to do it. And it's sympathy. And it's the right thing for her to do. And she blows Brundlefly away.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, yeah.

Jason Connell:

This movie doesn't shy away from those things and Brundlefly blows up everywhere. And that's it. It's over.

Sal Rodriguez:

It does seem to have a sudden ending. Don't you think?

Jason Connell:

That show status. He's in shock and rightfully so. He's lost a hand. He's lost part of his leg. And he just witnessed something that is more horrific than you could ever imagine. But it just hits bone music. Por que Ronnie

Sal Rodriguez:

Ronnie is in tears? Yeah, she shoots and then as crime if you

Jason Connell:

had your way you might hear one more call back to your famous noise.

Sal Rodriguez:

Once she's crying. Ronnie's crying. And then you hear in the distance. And where it's coming from her belly. That's where it's coming from.

Jason Connell:

And movie. And that's this now. What an incredible film. Yeah, you

Sal Rodriguez:

know what if you're a horror, sci fi fan drama you drama, okay. Yeah, fantastic. Really fantastic. And again, yeah, the drama was so good. I had moments forgot I was watching a horror sci fi. The horror comes up and I go oh, yeah, that's right. I forgot. So it took me in and out. So yeah, I definitely enjoyed it. And I would say that as an adult, I appreciate the movie even more having seen it recently, as compared to I saw when I was a youngster.

Jason Connell:

And that is exactly what this podcast is all about. It's talking about great films to inspire people to either revisit a movie that you loved, and it's been forever. You can see the film in a new light and appreciate it in a whole new way. Or see a movie you've never seen that's sitting there waiting to be discovered. So it's also a treat for us to do because it gets us to go back and revisit it and see if it holds up. And this one sounds absolutely does much like all the movies on previous podcast. And let me just plug the show for a second. We've already done American Wharf in London. We've done Wall Street, and we've done to live and die in LA. So please go back and listen to those earlier episodes. Because these are all great movies. But what a great one. Cronenberg absolutely delivered, as did Jeff Goldblum. Yeah. Gina Davis and John gets.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yeah, yeah. Great cast. Again, a three person cast aside from a few ancillary characters, a three person cast Great job, great emotion. Yes. Great special effects. Great horror. Great grossness. I mean, there is that gross factor that I think a good horror has to have. As I get older, I start to appreciate it less. But yeah, that good gross factor is is good in in good horror. So definitely appreciate it. Yeah, this movie. Definitely liked it a lot.

Jason Connell:

So now I'll just do a little trivia, like the end the episodes with little takeaways, little nuggets. So Brundlefly is transformation often took five hours to apply five pounds of makeup to Goldbloom, especially in the later more grotesque scenes. And yeah, I can imagine. Absolutely. He is carrying this huge suit around me. Yeah, this is back in the 80s. All practical effects. Yeah, I could see that. And very impressive and well done. Goldblum.

Sal Rodriguez:

You know, if anybody has ever had prosthetics put on like, for example, I've worked at some haunted houses for Halloween, you know, for Halloween season had prosthetics put on my face. Yeah. If you're the kind of person who gets claustrophobic, you're gonna feel that. And so when I see somebody, like, in this instance, Jeff Goldblum in the fly, or you see other people like the guy who's always in the Guillermo del Toro movies in the suit, the skinny guy, Doug Jones, right, these people who can do that, as someone myself who's claustrophobic, right, I gotta hand it to these people who can get in these prosthetics and stay in there for hours, and it takes hours to get on hours to get off, can barely breathe. I gotta hand it to these people. That's an another level of sweet suffering.

Jason Connell:

Oh, yeah, absolutely. It would be tough. But yeah, I'm sure Jeff Goldblum took a good portion of the $15 million to do that. So I'll take it. I'll try it. I'll try it. Good job, Goldblum. As you were talking, I was thinking back to American Werewolf in London again, because Griffin Dunn's character, not just the transformation of the werewolf, but his character continued to muniya as the movie went on, and that's a long transformation, long transformation. He's not a main character as the movie goes on. But every time you check in with them, he's gone further down the decayed road. It's very impressive. Okay, another one is the design of bundles. telepods were inspired by the engine cylinder of Cronenberg's to cut day 450 Desmo motorcycle. Oh, that's

Sal Rodriguez:

funny a motorcycle. Yeah, so I,

Jason Connell:

I also think it harkens something from Alien, or aliens. But yeah, who knew I'm not familiar with that motorcycle, but I'm sure there's something there they drew from. I like it. So the famous helped me lime was spoken and both versions of the fly. And the 1958 film Vincent Price and Herbert Marshall required several takes to shoot the scene, because they could not stop laughing. Now I'm assuming that same was much funnier. You've seen that movie. And that particular scene? I guess it was more comedic than this fly?

Sal Rodriguez:

Well, by today's standards, maybe. But I think at the end of the movie, spoiler alert, I think you have one of the characters in the fly, forgot who was the end of the movie. He has a fly body and a human head. And he's caught in a spider web and the spider is about to get him and he says help me. And that's when another character then takes mercy and, and destroys him with a large stone.

Jason Connell:

Right? So I think that's they were laughing because this the absurdity of the scene shows a guy you know, fly body, human head. And they found that hilarious and it is pretty funny. However, in this version of the fly, the context of the line is much more serious. And I highly doubt Goldbloom was laughing. It's that lie in the end when he says helped me become human. So it's not just helped me it's helped me become human, much different tone. Sure, but a nice tip of the cap to the original. And my last one, musician Bryan Ferry was hired to record a song to promote the film. Naturally, the track was entitled helped me and there was even a music video made, which includes footage from the film. Now Cronenberg admitted to liking the song, but felt that it was inappropriate for the film, and therefore it was only used as background and the bar scene were Brundle arm wrestles. The track became rather obscure, and it was not included on the film soundtrack, but later resurfaced on a compilation album by Bryan Ferry, and Roxy Music. And I personally agree with Cronenberg, the song is actually quite catchy. And the music video is so vintage 1980s And I absolutely encourage you to see it.

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay, so I'm going to look back into the armwrestling scene for that song right or just

Jason Connell:

go online and look up the video the videos we're seeing, okay, because the video has He's moments from the movie. I'm like, wow, I don't remember this. But yeah, it was the right decision. But I'm glad the song and music video found the light of day.

Sal Rodriguez:

And I'm going to be going back to the medicine cabinet to look for Brundlefly his penis. That's true.

Jason Connell:

You could do that as well. I have done it myself. So I was trying to spot everything that was in his medicine cabinet. So give me give me a hit list of what's in there if you could sell and report was it?

Sal Rodriguez:

Okay, yeah, I know the ear in the in the in the nails. Yeah. The teeth. Oh, there's

Jason Connell:

probably more. I think there's probably his nose could be in there. You know, lots of stuff. So that's all the trivia. Another great episode. Sal. It was a pleasure having you back for your second time on Let's Talk movies. Always a pleasure to work with you and reflect on and talk movies.

Sal Rodriguez:

Yes, thank you, Jason. I definitely hope to be on again.

Jason Connell:

Absolutely. So thanks so much for listening and please be sure to subscribe rate and review the show wherever you get your podcast. You can also follow us on social media at let's talk movies, or check out our other shows at just curious media.com. So without further ado, please enjoy the fly.

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Jason Connell

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