"Flash Gordon" (1980) vs. "Highlander" (1986): Part 2

<v Speaker 1>All right, everybody, welcome back to the Shirley You Can't
<v Speaker 1>Be Serious Podcast. We are here for part two of
<v Speaker 1>our comparison between Highlander and Flash Gordon. I am in
<v Speaker 1>my skull hat with big black mohawk and Erector set
<v Speaker 1>sword and Jason is in his skin tight T shirt
<v Speaker 1>with his own name across the front of it.
<v Speaker 2>That's right, Jason Golvin, co host, Sureley you Can't Be Serious?
<v Speaker 2>All right? This episode is brought to us by Alan Housted.
<v Speaker 2>I think I'm pronouncing that right. I do know that
<v Speaker 2>he's a big LA Dodgers fan.
<v Speaker 1>Right.
<v Speaker 2>He found us on Twitter and communicates with us there,
<v Speaker 2>and he is on our Patreon for this page.
<v Speaker 1>We really appreciate the contribution. Alan. Really means a lot
<v Speaker 1>to us. Can't explain to us what it means. Just
<v Speaker 1>your support both financially and being there to talk to
<v Speaker 1>us on Twitter is awesome. Thank you very much for
<v Speaker 1>doing that. If you like to be an executive producer
<v Speaker 1>for one of our episodes, just go to our Patreon page.
<v Speaker 1>There are different levels that you can join up on,
<v Speaker 1>but even at only five dollars a month, you become
<v Speaker 1>an executive producer for us. Okay, let us jump into
<v Speaker 1>production for these two movies. Great, okay. So to start
<v Speaker 1>off with Flash, Gordon, you have Clytis and Ming talking
<v Speaker 1>to each other. I just signed bold about this planet called.
<v Speaker 2>An obscure body in the s Case system, your majesty.
<v Speaker 2>The inhabitants refer to it as the planet.
<v Speaker 1>Earth, Earth, and they say Earth like they've never heard
<v Speaker 1>Like it's like to state like, I've never heard of this,
<v Speaker 1>And then three seconds later he's pressing a button that
<v Speaker 1>literally says earthquake? What what?
<v Speaker 3>Hey?
<v Speaker 1>How did you never hear of this? And you've got
<v Speaker 1>a button that has it right there.
<v Speaker 2>It's the same reason they speak English in another universe,
<v Speaker 2>and just that is the way it works.
<v Speaker 1>And he has a button this is typhoon, and a
<v Speaker 1>button that says hurricane. That's one button, Hey, that is one,
<v Speaker 1>But those are the same thing.
<v Speaker 2>You haven't even talked about.
<v Speaker 3>The button that says hot hail.
<v Speaker 1>Hot hale. You know hale, that's hot.
<v Speaker 2>Well, it's because it's a lot scarier than cold hal,
<v Speaker 2>you know.
<v Speaker 4>Right, Yeah, Cale, I watched this with Caleb, Like I said,
<v Speaker 4>he was just like, what is hot hal?
<v Speaker 1>I don't know? Son fire and broomstone, I guess.
<v Speaker 2>Here's the deal. Hot hal is debris from the moon
<v Speaker 2>that's off by twelve degrees. All right, so the beginning, Yes,
<v Speaker 2>you have the clitus on board. What plaything do you
<v Speaker 2>have to offer me today? And then you have that
<v Speaker 2>pump and Queen and when it pounds in the flash,
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, let's freaking go, because Queen can make some
<v Speaker 2>freaking great intro songs. But here's one of the things
<v Speaker 2>that bothers me. Okay about the intro to Flash. We're
<v Speaker 2>talking about Flash.
<v Speaker 1>Of the movie.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, okay, this is a small thing, and I know
<v Speaker 2>this is weird. Probably nobody else thinks about this flash.
<v Speaker 2>Gordon's on vacation. He's also listening to football games. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>what professional quarterback goes on vacation during football season?
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So here's here's the weird thing for me. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>and this is further on in the movie, of course,
<v Speaker 1>when Ming ultimately gets impaled with the ship.
<v Speaker 2>We're moving there already.
<v Speaker 1>Slides off and what color is his blood blue? And
<v Speaker 1>earlier in the movie, his daughter is being whipped. What
<v Speaker 1>color is her blood red? Why is the daughter bleed
<v Speaker 1>red and the dad lead green or blue or whatever
<v Speaker 1>it doesn't make any sense.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know the answer to that question.
<v Speaker 1>Oh my gosh. So anyway, so part of the craziness
<v Speaker 1>that occurred during production we mentioned before was the Dananello
<v Speaker 1>Dennardi who had all these weird things that he wanted
<v Speaker 1>to do. Included the mask that wouldn't move move for Cleitis.
<v Speaker 1>It included a fifty pound bridle dress for Melanie Anderson,
<v Speaker 1>and the wings for the Hawkmen. They didn't move like,
<v Speaker 1>they were rigid, like. They couldn't sit down because the
<v Speaker 1>wings would smash against the flor so they had to
<v Speaker 1>lie on their stomachs. This is nineteen eighty, right, nineteen
<v Speaker 1>eighty and so they've got these Hawkmen that they've got
<v Speaker 1>to do this flying scenes for. So what they do
<v Speaker 1>is they go to Superman, the guys that did Superman
<v Speaker 1>and him flying so that they get could they could
<v Speaker 1>get it where you wait a minute, I'm sorry, No,
<v Speaker 1>they didn't. It was to the guy who did the
<v Speaker 1>flying Monkeys and the Wizard of Oz like fifty years
<v Speaker 1>earth what, Yes, they did not. I'm like, what why
<v Speaker 1>did you go to that guy?
<v Speaker 3>Why?
<v Speaker 1>Why would you go to the guy who made the
<v Speaker 1>movie before? Like color movies existed, instead of going to
<v Speaker 1>the guys that just made the movie that made you
<v Speaker 1>to believe a man could fly.
<v Speaker 2>Now that you say that they did look like flying monkeys, Well,
<v Speaker 2>here's one thing that they got right though. Okay, let's
<v Speaker 2>give it up special effects. Wise, everything else, including Star Wars,
<v Speaker 2>space is black with white stars. They made these unbelievably cool, colorful,
<v Speaker 2>rich background skies. What they made by dumping color dye
<v Speaker 2>and water and watching it swirl.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, the way they did it, like you said, they
<v Speaker 1>had different weights and colors for these inks, and they
<v Speaker 1>would shoot them at like really high speed, like a
<v Speaker 1>lot of frames per second, so that they could slow
<v Speaker 1>down the blending of the colors. And it looks like
<v Speaker 1>these rainbow colored clouds slowly moving.
<v Speaker 2>Across it, and they look amazing. Can we just pause
<v Speaker 2>and put the flag at half mast? Put your hand
<v Speaker 2>over your heart for our buddy. Munson too played Porkins
<v Speaker 2>and Star Wars and Death the Top Men, guy in
<v Speaker 2>Raiders at the Last Time, Dye in that one, and
<v Speaker 2>Eckhart detective in eighty nine Batman.
<v Speaker 1>Did die in that one.
<v Speaker 3>Munson makes a run for the hills.
<v Speaker 2>Before you know, Zarkov tries to make him get on
<v Speaker 2>the ship, threatening him with a gun.
<v Speaker 3>Get in the ship.
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna shoot you.
<v Speaker 3>You're crazy, I'm out of here.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and then Flash Gordon squishes in with the airplane.
<v Speaker 2>Completely accidental, however, Flash takes out Munson.
<v Speaker 1>Sorry Muson, our good friend William Hootkins.
<v Speaker 2>The third here's the other thing's a little weird. Doctor
<v Speaker 2>Zarkoff builds a rocket in the middle of Greenhouse. Yeah, okay,
<v Speaker 2>which is a little far fetched, although Elon Musk basically
<v Speaker 2>is doing the same thing. Okay, but the rocket ship
<v Speaker 2>can't be operated alone. You gotta have two people because
<v Speaker 2>somebody's got to press the freaking red lever.
<v Speaker 1>I yes, that was my that was my thought as well.
<v Speaker 1>You are a single guy by yourself, you make a
<v Speaker 1>ship capable of going into outer space, but it can't
<v Speaker 1>unless you have two people operating.
<v Speaker 3>Pushed the red lever.
<v Speaker 1>Listen.
<v Speaker 2>I love these movies, okay, but apparently when you take
<v Speaker 2>off into space and you go to Mongo, it's kind
<v Speaker 2>of like a wet dream because.
<v Speaker 3>It's erotic.
<v Speaker 2>Melody Anderson could barely keep her clothes on inside the
<v Speaker 2>Rocket Show, and they're all passed out. They're sweaty, and
<v Speaker 2>they're having it's very erotic, and the rocket ship is
<v Speaker 2>very phallic. It's very phallic. And then of course when
<v Speaker 2>they get to Mango, Ming pulls out his magic green
<v Speaker 2>and hypnotizes her to do this magic erotic dance, which
<v Speaker 2>is weird until you find out that Dino de Lorentis
<v Speaker 2>told Lorenzo simple, Hey, how's the script going pretty good?
<v Speaker 2>I got my buddy Bob Guccioni over here. Why don't
<v Speaker 2>you ask him for some ideas. Bob Guccioni, the guy
<v Speaker 2>who created Penthouse Magazine, he had some input into Flash Gordon.
<v Speaker 1>Brian Blessed talks about the fact that Dino de Larentiz
<v Speaker 1>would show up on the set, show up on the set,
<v Speaker 1>and he scared the crap out of everyone, and finally
<v Speaker 1>Mike Hodges had enough and he was like, we can't
<v Speaker 1>nobody could do anything with you here. You instead of
<v Speaker 1>I don't think you tell del Reentis to f off,
<v Speaker 1>I just don't think you do that.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, I've got two star Wars Indiana Jones connections. I
<v Speaker 2>want to talk about real quick, all right. In the
<v Speaker 2>movie Flash Gordon, Prince Baron, I believe what runs up
<v Speaker 2>to this guy who's got the special eye goggles on
<v Speaker 2>and he rips him off and it's this kind of
<v Speaker 2>grotesque wires coming out of his eye sockets. Yes, freak
<v Speaker 2>me out as a kid. Okay, And that guy is
<v Speaker 2>actually the same guy who played Lobot and the Empire
<v Speaker 2>strikes back. The guy who has that weird robot ear
<v Speaker 2>thing on, who's Letto Kelriskian's right hand man. But the
<v Speaker 2>guy at the beginning, they're all making their offerings to me,
<v Speaker 2>and the guy from Ardentia who stands up and says,
<v Speaker 2>since you blasted our kingdom into Adams, we've had nothing
<v Speaker 2>to offer but our loyalty.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, it's the guy. It's Captain.
<v Speaker 2>It's Katanga Captain Raiders of the Lost Ark. Yes, But
<v Speaker 2>what I really wanted to talk about. I've been waiting
<v Speaker 2>to talk about one of my favorite parts in the movies,
<v Speaker 2>and this is one I get jabs at, Like people
<v Speaker 2>make fun of this part. Yeah, the football scene.
<v Speaker 1>So it's it was supposed to be just a regular
<v Speaker 1>old bawl.
<v Speaker 2>And Sam jane Jo's is like, well, wait a minute,
<v Speaker 2>he's a football player. Yeah, this ought to be like
<v Speaker 2>a football fight.
<v Speaker 1>And they had the eggs that they were going to
<v Speaker 1>present as like the offering toming perfect football.
<v Speaker 2>It was great, and they play that that cool queen
<v Speaker 2>football fight song.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and then Melody Anderson jumps in it starts cheering,
<v Speaker 1>go flash go. It's go flash go. It is a
<v Speaker 1>bit absurd.
<v Speaker 2>It's absurd, but he's launching football is at the bad guys.
<v Speaker 2>Clydes gets in trouble by me because he's not keeping
<v Speaker 2>him on the right pills or whatever. And Topel is like,
<v Speaker 2>you know, the guy who keeps shotguns, snapping it to
<v Speaker 2>him until he hits him right in the head with
<v Speaker 2>one and then knocks him out. Okay, let's flip back
<v Speaker 2>to Highlander. Let's talk about the movie, the actual movie
<v Speaker 2>Highlander for a minute.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So you've got this guy who's directing music videos
<v Speaker 1>to direct this movie. He has got his own way
<v Speaker 1>of doing it, and in my opinion, turns out fantastic.
<v Speaker 1>Can I just talk for just a second about three
<v Speaker 1>of the coolest transition scenes in any movie from the eighties.
<v Speaker 1>You've got number one, You've got the garage transition scene
<v Speaker 1>where somehow they move the camera moves up through the
<v Speaker 1>ceiling of this garage and peeks out over the top
<v Speaker 1>of the Scottish Highlands. How did they do that?
<v Speaker 2>It's freaking amazing. It is freaking The transitions are shockingly good.
<v Speaker 1>And then you have this moment later on when he
<v Speaker 1>gets kicked out of the land and Connor macloud falls
<v Speaker 1>into exhaustion against the rock and suddenly his face transitions
<v Speaker 1>into the Mona Lisa picture that's on the side of
<v Speaker 1>the building in New York City.
<v Speaker 2>It's amazing.
<v Speaker 1>And then transition number three. They're probably more of them,
<v Speaker 1>but these are the ones that jumped out at me.
<v Speaker 1>We pan in through the window of Connor mcloud's New
<v Speaker 1>York City apartment. He's sharpening his sword. He hears something
<v Speaker 1>and turns back and looks behind him at the aquarium.
<v Speaker 1>And as he looks at the aquarium, the camera goes
<v Speaker 1>into the aquarium, then rises up and suddenly we're looking
<v Speaker 1>at the top of the water where they're on the
<v Speaker 1>lake in Scotland again, and Ramirez is lessening McLeod on
<v Speaker 1>how to balance ballance balance.
<v Speaker 2>It's a very karate kid type of shot right there.
<v Speaker 1>It is, I mean, and he's the he's the mister
<v Speaker 1>Miyagi character. But that transition scene was incredible transitions.
<v Speaker 2>They're amazing.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, this is before CGI, this is this is
<v Speaker 1>one of the end of the practical effects movies, which
<v Speaker 1>you know you can tell like with some of the
<v Speaker 1>electricity things and the wires you catch some of those things.
<v Speaker 1>It's nineteen eighty six and they had a limited budget.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, and I'm willing to forgive some of that, like
<v Speaker 2>when they're doing the quickening and when like they're absorbing
<v Speaker 2>the power. There's some weird animated character ghosts looking things.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, they're doing cell animation because he didn't have computers
<v Speaker 1>that could go.
<v Speaker 2>And they get a pass for me on that right
<v Speaker 2>for sure.
<v Speaker 1>And it was I mean, I thought it was pretty good.
<v Speaker 1>I thought it was pretty cool. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>You mentioned that lake Sean Connery's character rocks the boat
<v Speaker 2>and Christopher Lambert's character McLeod's like, stop rocking the boat.
<v Speaker 2>I can't swim, you stupid haggins, right right, So Sean
<v Speaker 2>Connery gets mad enough at him that he tumps him
<v Speaker 2>out of the boat on purpose. He can't swim, right.
<v Speaker 2>He falls to the bottom of the lake and realizes
<v Speaker 2>I can't die. It's one of the revelations to the
<v Speaker 2>character where it comes to realize he.
<v Speaker 1>Almost giggles underwater.
<v Speaker 2>He's breathing in water and cannot die. So it's a
<v Speaker 2>pivotal scene in the movie. When he was filming that scene,
<v Speaker 2>they were actually filming it at a Scottish lock right,
<v Speaker 2>So Christopher Lambert said, the first time, it's a surprise, right,
<v Speaker 2>you think the water's gonna be cold, and then you're like, this,
<v Speaker 2>water's cold. Water's way colder than you thought it was
<v Speaker 2>gonna be cold, but not that cold.
<v Speaker 1>Right.
<v Speaker 2>The second time, you know it's gonna be freezing. The
<v Speaker 2>third time you say, that's the last time we're doing this,
<v Speaker 2>that's the last take.
<v Speaker 1>But then he comes up and he comes out of
<v Speaker 1>the water and he has the fish fall out of
<v Speaker 1>his kilt. Right, yes, well his kilt was too short.
<v Speaker 1>They take this like pipe and they funnel these live
<v Speaker 1>trout through the pipes, so they're flipping around around whenever
<v Speaker 1>they fall out of his kilt. Here's another camera scene
<v Speaker 1>that I was just blown away with that I had
<v Speaker 1>to stop and go, how the heck did they do this?
<v Speaker 1>In nineteen eighty six, the beginning scene when he's at
<v Speaker 1>the wrestling match, they have the camera panned through the
<v Speaker 1>auditorium above everybody else. They didn't have drones back right, right?
<v Speaker 1>How the craft did they do this?
<v Speaker 2>Isn't it like on those wires aren't?
<v Speaker 1>Yes? So the guy, the guy's name is Garrett Brown.
<v Speaker 1>He is the guy who invented the skycam, which is
<v Speaker 1>what they use what they use in football games now.
<v Speaker 1>But this is what they use to do that scene,
<v Speaker 1>which is a camera that's on cables that they control
<v Speaker 1>with a computer. And that's how they get it up
<v Speaker 1>all right.
<v Speaker 2>Before we dive in and start breaking apart the movie
<v Speaker 2>section of Highlander, I just want to give a quick
<v Speaker 2>shout out to my buddy Brandon Hasselton. He is a
<v Speaker 2>friend of mine in front of the show. He always
<v Speaker 2>listens to the podcast, gives me feedback. I really appreciate him.
<v Speaker 2>This is his all time favorite movie, like Highlander is
<v Speaker 2>top of the heat for him. He has declared it
<v Speaker 2>the perfect movie. He sees a lot of biblical imagery
<v Speaker 2>between the Kurgan and McLeod. Right, the good guy and
<v Speaker 2>the bad guy chase each other across time and eventually
<v Speaker 2>they're gonna fight yep, and who's gonna win. I think
<v Speaker 2>that's a great hook for a movie.
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely and the you know Queen that part about the
<v Speaker 1>immortality Queen was originally slated to just do one song, yes, movie,
<v Speaker 1>just one song, but then they watched like twenty minutes
<v Speaker 1>of footage from the movie and were inspired to write
<v Speaker 1>several songs, which is why they basically end up with
<v Speaker 1>the whole soundtrack themselves. But Brian May was inspired by
<v Speaker 1>that idea of living forever, meaning you're gonna lose everyone
<v Speaker 1>you love over and over again, which is what inspired
<v Speaker 1>him to write the song who Wants to Live Forever?
<v Speaker 1>Great song. He's singing the first lines of that song.
<v Speaker 1>Did you know that? Really? Yeah? That's Brian May singing
<v Speaker 1>the first lines of the song. He sings the first
<v Speaker 1>verse and Freddy Mercury comes in for the second. Really. Yes.
<v Speaker 2>So Highlander does not have an official soundtrack, okay, right, However,
<v Speaker 2>Queen has an album called A Kind of Magic Yes,
<v Speaker 2>came out in eighty six. On this album, you have
<v Speaker 2>a song called a Kind of Magic, right.
<v Speaker 1>Which is a line from the movie. It's what he
<v Speaker 1>says Rachel twice yes, as he rescues her as a
<v Speaker 1>little girl from the German and she's like, you're We're dead,
<v Speaker 1>and he was like it's kind of magic. And then
<v Speaker 1>when he tells her he's not going to see her again,
<v Speaker 1>last thing he says to her is it's kind of magic.
<v Speaker 1>Which side note, they cut the German scene from the
<v Speaker 1>American release, which means that when he says that last
<v Speaker 1>line to her of its kind of magic as he's
<v Speaker 1>leaving on the elevator, it's the first time the American
<v Speaker 1>audience ever heard it, and it didn't make a dang.
<v Speaker 1>But so this is probably why the movie did not
<v Speaker 1>do as well in America as they cut some kind
<v Speaker 1>of critical stuff.
<v Speaker 2>That scene with the Germans really cool. It is if
<v Speaker 2>you haven't seen it, if you're American and you haven't
<v Speaker 2>seen it. He rescues Rachel, who's this older woman secretary
<v Speaker 2>as a young girl from a Nazi killer and for
<v Speaker 2>many many years serves him. Okay, so back to the soundtrack.
<v Speaker 2>You have a kind of Magic, you have one Year
<v Speaker 2>of Love. You have a song called who Wants to
<v Speaker 2>Live Forever, which we talked about. You have a song
<v Speaker 2>called Don't.
<v Speaker 3>Lose Your Head.
<v Speaker 2>You have a song called give Me the Prize, which
<v Speaker 2>is freaking awesome. It's Kurgan's theme and it's hard rock
<v Speaker 2>and it's give me the prize and then you have
<v Speaker 2>Princess of the Universe.
<v Speaker 5>To the case.
<v Speaker 1>It's kind of magic. Is really basically for the soundtrack
<v Speaker 1>for Higland. From the Dawn of Time we came moving
<v Speaker 1>silently down through the centuries. The red text was supposed
<v Speaker 1>to be a place marker that they were supposed to
<v Speaker 1>replace or not have, but the producers thought that actually
<v Speaker 1>looks pretty cool, let's keep that. And the audio track
<v Speaker 1>was something that Sean Connery did later production had wrapped,
<v Speaker 1>as we mentioned, and they said, oh, hey, we forgot
<v Speaker 1>to have you do this part. So he did it
<v Speaker 1>from his house in the through. That's why you get
<v Speaker 1>the echo effect. He's in his toilet with a microphone
<v Speaker 1>recording the first lines of the movie.
<v Speaker 3>What you didn't hear.
<v Speaker 2>Was the flush after he finished.
<v Speaker 1>Recording, trying to record.
<v Speaker 2>Come on, Ralvie, I'm out here, and the audio.
<v Speaker 1>So we go from that intro by mister Connery himself
<v Speaker 1>into a crazy wrestling match which was supposed to be
<v Speaker 1>an NHL game. Yes, the clacking of the sticks before
<v Speaker 1>the game was supposed to transition into the clacking of swords,
<v Speaker 1>and that's what sparked his memory and so they went
<v Speaker 1>to the NHL and the NHL said, no, we don't
<v Speaker 1>want hockey to be known as a violence sport. Are
<v Speaker 1>you kidding?
<v Speaker 2>That's funny. Here's the funny part about this. This is
<v Speaker 2>supposed to take place in Madison Square Garden, right right, Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>Well they're supposed to have this fight in the parking
<v Speaker 2>garage underneath Mason Square Garden. Right, Mason Square Garden doesn't
<v Speaker 2>have a parking game.
<v Speaker 1>It does not have parking garage and anything.
<v Speaker 2>This is actually shot in New Jersey. The wrestling match
<v Speaker 2>was shot in New Jersey where the New Jersey nets
<v Speaker 2>and I think the Devil's played. The parking garage scene
<v Speaker 2>was shot in London.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. That's the thing about this movie is like so
<v Speaker 1>many of the New York scenes are shot in London.
<v Speaker 1>They've got all kinds of tax breaks for being a
<v Speaker 1>London production, So most of your footage is actually shot overseas.
<v Speaker 1>You've got London, you've got Wales, you've got Scotland.
<v Speaker 2>So I want to talk about this fight scene at
<v Speaker 2>the beginning of Islander. Okay, super cool, queen right into
<v Speaker 2>the action, right right, A wrestling match match. We have
<v Speaker 2>the introduction of the character. He's walking in the parking
<v Speaker 2>garage and you have this guy sneak out behind him
<v Speaker 2>and say, McLeod, facile. Then they have this awesome, cool sit.
<v Speaker 1>I love that his first line is wait, and then
<v Speaker 1>it's too late. Facile is ready to fight and he's
<v Speaker 1>jumping in. It's kind of hard to be sympathetic to
<v Speaker 1>a guy who slices the head off of somebody else
<v Speaker 1>at the very beginning of a movie unless his first
<v Speaker 1>line was wait a minute, you know, and then it
<v Speaker 1>makes it okay, okay, go ahead.
<v Speaker 2>So the sword fight is awesome. There is some ridiculousness.
<v Speaker 2>The guy that does fifty thousand backhand springs for no
<v Speaker 2>apparent reasons.
<v Speaker 1>Literally electic is he still flipping? Why is he doing that?
<v Speaker 1>I don't know. That's weird.
<v Speaker 2>And you have McLeod reaching for five minutes the sword
<v Speaker 2>under the car.
<v Speaker 1>It's building tension. Okay, while they still get you a
<v Speaker 1>nice good close up of that samurai handle, which was
<v Speaker 1>really cool.
<v Speaker 2>It was cool. Here's what I wish they would have done.
<v Speaker 2>I like the idea that these immortals would have known
<v Speaker 2>each other over this long period of time. It would
<v Speaker 2>have been cool to have him say McLoud, it's me.
<v Speaker 2>We've been friends for a long time, but now's your day.
<v Speaker 2>I've come for your head. Yeah, or don't announce yourself
<v Speaker 2>and try to take his head off without him even seeing,
<v Speaker 2>but instead he's behind him, and so, as McLoud.
<v Speaker 1>I think it has to be a fight. I don't
<v Speaker 1>think you can sneak up and kill people from behind.
<v Speaker 1>Why not, because I think that's one of the rules.
<v Speaker 2>Let's talk about the rules for a second.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, the rules of.
<v Speaker 2>A Highlander are the guy has to cut off your head, yes,
<v Speaker 2>for you to die.
<v Speaker 3>That's the only way you can die.
<v Speaker 2>Also, you can't fight on holy ground right now. The
<v Speaker 2>movie doesn't explore this very much, but as I understand it,
<v Speaker 2>the TV show did a little bit. Okay, So there's
<v Speaker 2>a scene at the end of the movie where the
<v Speaker 2>Kurgan and McLeod are in church, right, and Kirgan is
<v Speaker 2>being a told jerk to the nuns and the priests
<v Speaker 2>and not real church by the way, yeah, and real nuns.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and they like the church really didn't want to
<v Speaker 1>do it, but they needed the money.
<v Speaker 2>And then he like Clancy Brown, apologized to him after
<v Speaker 2>the shot. So, but they can't fight on holy ground
<v Speaker 2>right now? Is that a rule or is that a tradition?
<v Speaker 2>They mentioned that it's tradition.
<v Speaker 1>The way that Sean Connery puts it, it sounds like
<v Speaker 1>it's like a rule that is a rule, because they've
<v Speaker 1>put these rules in place themselves. Like it's not like
<v Speaker 1>lightning's going to strike you dead if you try to
<v Speaker 1>fight in a church. It's just hey, we've got guidelines
<v Speaker 1>and you don't break them, right because we just have
<v Speaker 1>a mutual respect as immortals.
<v Speaker 2>But the Kurgan doesn't seem to have respect for anybody
<v Speaker 2>or anything.
<v Speaker 1>But he has respect for the immortals rules. Okay, he
<v Speaker 1>won't fight on only ground either.
<v Speaker 2>Well, as I understand the TV show McLeod's cousin Dug
<v Speaker 2>in McLoud, they were on holy ground and they start
<v Speaker 2>to fight and then lightning does start to flash, and
<v Speaker 2>so there's this idea that there is a higher power
<v Speaker 2>holding these guys capable.
<v Speaker 1>Interesting.
<v Speaker 2>But that scene at the beginning super cool, very cool
<v Speaker 2>and at the end.
<v Speaker 1>And I love that they somehow get the sprinklers going,
<v Speaker 1>so get the fight on the rain. And to listen
<v Speaker 1>to Russell, Okay he talking, he just kind of laughs.
<v Speaker 1>He's like I know it's absurd that they're fighting in
<v Speaker 1>a garage in the rain, but it looks cool.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, And all the car lights come on and
<v Speaker 2>they start honking, and the windshields blow out.
<v Speaker 1>And then a hubcap. Good.
<v Speaker 2>Here's the absurd thing about that fight.
<v Speaker 3>So I'm willing to go all in.
<v Speaker 2>On all this stuff. I'm in right, super cool. Conor
<v Speaker 2>McLeod takes this guy's head clean swipe. Absolutely no witnesses,
<v Speaker 2>nobody's there. He pulls out of the parking garage and
<v Speaker 2>the entire New York Police Department pulls him over.
<v Speaker 1>He hears the sirens, which makes him panic, which is
<v Speaker 1>why he puts the sword up. He's trying to get
<v Speaker 1>out before they get there. He takes Eddie Murphy's car
<v Speaker 1>from forty eight hours. That really sucks because I think
<v Speaker 1>it's got like half a million dollars in the dru
<v Speaker 1>that's true. But they catch him coming out too fast,
<v Speaker 1>I mean.
<v Speaker 2>Eating, and the whole NYPD pulls him over.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, somebody discovered a dead box.
<v Speaker 2>Oh, by the way, called the forensic slash sword specialist
<v Speaker 2>out here.
<v Speaker 1>Tell me what this is? A sword?
<v Speaker 2>Here's the other scene I want to talk about. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>This is where I'm trying to understand the rule, and
<v Speaker 2>they sometimes they kind of break their own rules, and
<v Speaker 2>so anyway, I'm just trying to understand.
<v Speaker 1>All right.
<v Speaker 2>So McLeod as a young man in Scotland. They're gonna
<v Speaker 2>have this fight between his clan and another clan.
<v Speaker 1>I hope he doesn't what is killed.
<v Speaker 2>Mcloud's a young I think he's supposed to be like
<v Speaker 2>eighteen or nineteen.
<v Speaker 1>He's a young guy.
<v Speaker 2>Well, little do we know, but the Kurgan is fighting
<v Speaker 2>with the other klan, right, and his deal is like
<v Speaker 2>nobody fights for Cloud with me.
<v Speaker 1>I get him Connor conn. It's important that he says
<v Speaker 1>Connor because.
<v Speaker 2>Because they're all Mcloud's thank you, thank you, one name Connor. Right,
<v Speaker 2>So they have this fight, which I think is ridiculous
<v Speaker 2>because he's chasing these guys around. He's like, fight me,
<v Speaker 2>you cowards, but nobody'll fight him. Which if you're not
<v Speaker 2>gonna fight me, I'm still gonna take your head.
<v Speaker 3>Fight me, you coward.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, well you're dead, You're dead. And then the Kurgan
<v Speaker 2>shows up. He's like here I am McLeod, let's fight
<v Speaker 2>and stabs him and he dies right, Well, he gets
<v Speaker 2>one stab in.
<v Speaker 1>He gets one stab in, and he's about to behead him.
<v Speaker 1>And then the other guy's, his compatriots, his cousin, his friend.
<v Speaker 1>They run and tackle the Kurgan and keep him and
<v Speaker 1>he says, another day, McLeod, that could be only one.
<v Speaker 2>See that's ridiculous too.
<v Speaker 1>It is a little.
<v Speaker 2>The Kurgan is there, McLeod's on the ground. I need
<v Speaker 2>to take his head. I'm not gonna let three smelly
<v Speaker 2>Haggis's take me from the prize. Okay, he stabs him,
<v Speaker 2>I believe guy. He stabs him and McLeod dies right
<v Speaker 2>just a little, yeah, okay, flash forward like an hour
<v Speaker 2>into the movie. The Kurgan stabs a marine, threw his back,
<v Speaker 2>picks him up, holds him for like forty five seconds,
<v Speaker 2>throws him, and the guy's in the hospital bed making
<v Speaker 2>sketch artists pictures for.
<v Speaker 1>The the operative word. There is marine. You can't kill
<v Speaker 1>those guys, all right?
<v Speaker 2>Sorry? That dude was like, what time's breakfast? Right, I'm
<v Speaker 2>totally fine.
<v Speaker 1>He was. He was. He was vigilante number one.
<v Speaker 2>On the New York streets that night, which and then
<v Speaker 2>he unloaded a clip on the Kurgan. Yeah, he had
<v Speaker 2>five bolet holes in his shirt.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, and then he got up.
<v Speaker 2>Five minutes later.
<v Speaker 1>So does he not die?
<v Speaker 2>So I understand that they don't die, but do they
<v Speaker 2>die in resurrect Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>I was gonna say. My impression is, is it the
<v Speaker 1>first time you die, you actually kind of go through
<v Speaker 1>the death process before you you come back, But after
<v Speaker 1>you've died a few more times, you're just better at
<v Speaker 1>getting better.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, all right, all right, that's fine.
<v Speaker 1>I from what I understand in the novelization, like the
<v Speaker 1>Kurgan's dad is the one that killed him like as
<v Speaker 1>a child, like as a young man, smashing his head
<v Speaker 1>with a rock or something.
<v Speaker 2>And crushed his skull. Yeah, and then when he resurrected,
<v Speaker 2>he made his dad eat a hot coal and that's the.
<v Speaker 1>Way to go.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, that would be unpleasant. Here's the other rule
<v Speaker 2>that we forgot to mention. The other rule is that
<v Speaker 2>immortals can have children, which I think that's okay.
<v Speaker 1>It's interesting because Gregory Wyden said that he had more
<v Speaker 1>emphasis on the rules in the script, but apparently that
<v Speaker 1>wasn't one of the rules in the script because in
<v Speaker 1>the script he had thirty seven kids, right, So they
<v Speaker 1>changed the rules and then disregarded them. And in the
<v Speaker 1>original script there wasn't There wasn't like this prize at
<v Speaker 1>the end. There wasn't the idea there can be only one.
<v Speaker 1>And so the conclusion of the movie, where he's mortal
<v Speaker 1>and he has perfect understanding and all of that stuff
<v Speaker 1>was something that they came up with later on. And
<v Speaker 1>that he could have kids, that was something that came
<v Speaker 1>up with through the production of the movie. So this
<v Speaker 1>is what Mike Hodges said had to say about filming
<v Speaker 1>Flash Gordon. He said, I had a producer who spoke
<v Speaker 1>mangled English. I had a production designer who spoke none
<v Speaker 1>at all. Both like ming seemed to have arrived from
<v Speaker 1>another galaxy. Once I realized that the film was in
<v Speaker 1>many ways out of my control, I realized and I
<v Speaker 1>made it up as I went along. I loved it.
<v Speaker 2>He also said, it's the only twenty million dollar movie
<v Speaker 2>that was totally improved. Give it up to Mike Hodges.
<v Speaker 2>Let's go back to Flashcourt.
<v Speaker 3>After the football.
<v Speaker 2>Scene with Flash Gordon, he's executed. They don't even give
<v Speaker 2>him the dignity of being executed fully clothed. He has
<v Speaker 2>to be in his underwear, right right, So they execute
<v Speaker 2>Flash in his underwear. Dale was crying her eyes out,
<v Speaker 2>and Aura, Princess Ara Ming's daughter, decides she's going to
<v Speaker 2>resurrect Flash for her own pleasure. Right, Aura is banging
<v Speaker 2>everybody in the universe once she revives Flash. Now she
<v Speaker 2>takes him back. She's got this idea. She's going to
<v Speaker 2>take him to a Boria. Right, and that's what you have,
<v Speaker 2>the telepathic Yes, Wow, this girl's really turned me on. Right.
<v Speaker 1>What here's the thing.
<v Speaker 2>Here's the thing with Flash Cordon that bugs me. Okay, Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I'm an old fashioned guy.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>It flashes in love with Dale Arden, that's fine.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, okay, after knowing her for all of thirty minutes fifteen.
<v Speaker 2>Minutes, right, he had a very erotic flight with her.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that they almost died on a way to build
<v Speaker 1>a relationship.
<v Speaker 2>He gets there five seconds later. Mean's daughter is totally untrustworthy,
<v Speaker 2>but she's you know, hot, super hot, And it's kind
<v Speaker 2>of that question, like, never say never again, this girl
<v Speaker 2>might kill me. I'm still willing to take a chance.
<v Speaker 3>But she brings him.
<v Speaker 2>To Aboia where her other boyfriend, Prince Baron is there. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>and he hates Flash because he's a competitor and Prince
<v Speaker 2>Baron and Flash are gonna face off in this stump
<v Speaker 2>where the wood beast resides. Okay, this is the most
<v Speaker 2>wood beast. Yes, yeah, this is the most tense scene
<v Speaker 2>in the movie to me, and as a kid, scared
<v Speaker 2>the crap out of me.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah.
<v Speaker 2>So for those of you who don't remember, there's.
<v Speaker 1>No way you can't remember. You either didn't see the
<v Speaker 1>movie or that's true. Yeah. The most memorable scene.
<v Speaker 2>There's this animal that's kind of like a scorpion, like
<v Speaker 2>a green scorpion that lives in a tree.
<v Speaker 1>Grab slimy scorpion.
<v Speaker 2>And you reach your hand in and you do it
<v Speaker 2>until somebody gets stung and they die.
<v Speaker 1>The delight on her face is she watches the kid
<v Speaker 1>get stung and then get killed. It's yeah, she's messed.
<v Speaker 3>Up, all right.
<v Speaker 2>While this is going on, Dale Arden is back being
<v Speaker 2>prepared for her wedding right where she has to marry
<v Speaker 2>meing for the hour, right, But she escapes, so she's
<v Speaker 2>running down the hallways. She has this really cool scene
<v Speaker 2>where she's got she's managed to get a gun and
<v Speaker 2>she's shooting at these guys in their red suits right, right,
<v Speaker 2>but so she's doing these gymnastics and shooting, and she
<v Speaker 2>finally shoots one in the face, right, and when she
<v Speaker 2>shoots him, you have this big gas expulsion from the
<v Speaker 2>laser wound. And Leddy Anderson said that when they filmed that,
<v Speaker 2>that guy threw up because the smoke got and he
<v Speaker 2>breathed in the smoke and he had to rip his
<v Speaker 2>mask off and puke on the floor.
<v Speaker 1>So, oh, my classic classic. Those guys are worse than stormtroopers.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, talk about the most inept soldiers. How did
<v Speaker 1>this guy conquer the universe with these guys as his army?
<v Speaker 1>That doesn't even make sense. Yeah, they were speaking of
<v Speaker 1>things that does that don't make sense. You have these
<v Speaker 1>weird jumps in the story that you have no transition for,
<v Speaker 1>Like you think, okay, so number one, you think that
<v Speaker 1>doctor Zorkov's brain has been drained, yes, right, yes, And
<v Speaker 1>then Clytus Tells tells General Kala don't get him past
<v Speaker 1>the level three. He leaves and she's like level six, Oh,
<v Speaker 1>what's going on? What is the purpose of You never know? Why?
<v Speaker 1>Why did that happen? Right? What? What was the level six?
<v Speaker 1>What did it mean? Nothing? No, explanation at all. And
<v Speaker 1>then you got doctor Zartov walking around like a zombie.
<v Speaker 1>You don't know if he's been lobotomized or not. He's
<v Speaker 1>suddenly with Dale. He's talking very sporadically. It's confused, and
<v Speaker 1>then all of a sudden they're on a motorcycle ship
<v Speaker 1>and he's like, yep, I just fool them all. And
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, where's the rest of the story here? What
<v Speaker 1>happened to that?
<v Speaker 2>That part was confusing?
<v Speaker 1>And then the same thing happens with Princess Hottie h
<v Speaker 1>a a Aurora bory Ellis. She comes back and suddenly
<v Speaker 1>she's being whipped with a cat and iron tails.
<v Speaker 3>We don't have.
<v Speaker 2>Time for exposition. Not the boar worms, the bore worms.
<v Speaker 2>You talk about my imagination running wild.
<v Speaker 1>Because they don't tell you what they were.
<v Speaker 2>Exactly, which makes them cool.
<v Speaker 1>It sounds horrible. They sound like the thing from the
<v Speaker 1>Star Trek, the little earwig things that they'd stick in
<v Speaker 1>your beach bird.
<v Speaker 2>That's what they are to you. That's what they are.
<v Speaker 1>So then let's just talk about the awesome music that
<v Speaker 1>comes in on the battles of this.
<v Speaker 5>Okay, oh man, yeah, this freaking awesome man.
<v Speaker 2>The whole thing is awesome.
<v Speaker 1>So this again, Queen is the soundtrack on this one,
<v Speaker 1>but they weren't who they wanted originally. Originally they wanted
<v Speaker 1>Pink Floyd and as the click track, if you will.
<v Speaker 1>For the whole wedding ceremony, they were playing Shine on You,
<v Speaker 1>Crazy Diamond for the whole scene, like you watch. So
<v Speaker 1>I want to go back in and like put in
<v Speaker 1>that music. See what's what it looks like when people
<v Speaker 1>are walking around to that song, because that's what they're
<v Speaker 1>listening to and they're filming.
<v Speaker 2>It, and the music is very it has a very
<v Speaker 2>Pink Floyd type of feel to it, even though it
<v Speaker 2>is Queen, it has.
<v Speaker 1>A very Pink Floyd kind of feel.
<v Speaker 2>Totally agree, I totally agree. Okay, So one scene I
<v Speaker 2>want to talk about in Flash, Gordon, Flash and Baron
<v Speaker 2>end up being carried by the Hawkman back to the
<v Speaker 2>Hawkman Capital, which looks a lot like cloud City, right,
<v Speaker 2>looks like bestmin from Empress strikes back, right, okay, and
<v Speaker 2>they decide we're gonna fight. Voltan puts him on this
<v Speaker 2>revolving disc, throws him a couple of bullwhips and if
<v Speaker 2>you fall off the disc you fall into space plus
<v Speaker 2>their spikes, and as a kid, I was like, this
<v Speaker 2>is so cool. Baron and Flash fight right, and as
<v Speaker 2>Baron is about to fall off to his death, Flash
<v Speaker 2>saves it. And that's the part where the whole movie
<v Speaker 2>flips and Prince Baron says, where you go, I will
<v Speaker 2>fall off. That's when they talk Voltan into join us.
<v Speaker 2>We're gonna overthrow me.
<v Speaker 1>It's awesome. Oh yeah, for sure.
<v Speaker 2>Flash's morality is his superpower. He doesn't have any ultra
<v Speaker 2>strength or super speed or X ray vision. He doesn't
<v Speaker 2>have any of that. What he's got he doesn't have immortality.
<v Speaker 2>He has humanity and morality. He's a great guy.
<v Speaker 1>So now we've talked about Queen. Yes, both of these
<v Speaker 1>movies had composers as well. Wow, okay, so Flash had
<v Speaker 1>an original composer. I don't even remember what his name was.
<v Speaker 1>Apparently he was so inebriated the whole time that he
<v Speaker 1>wrote about thirty seconds worth of musical music, and so
<v Speaker 1>they were freaking out. They bring in Lake Howard to
<v Speaker 1>write music, theme music, you know, underlying score for the
<v Speaker 1>movie that the Queen hasn't done. Yeah, and he gets
<v Speaker 1>to work and he has to have it done in
<v Speaker 1>ten days. We're talking about an entire score in ten days. Anyway,
<v Speaker 1>he writes NonStop, NonStop, finishes it in time, and then
<v Speaker 1>passes out and they can't wake him. Eventually they have
<v Speaker 1>to like give him an injection of something to get
<v Speaker 1>him to come out of it. And his wife is like,
<v Speaker 1>do you know what day it is? And he's like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it's Monday, and she says, no, it's Friday. Wow, you
<v Speaker 1>have been asleep this whole time. And the doctor's like,
<v Speaker 1>you've got double pneumonia and both of your lungs. Like
<v Speaker 1>he had nearly killed himself writing the score to this movie.
<v Speaker 1>And when they, you know, finally revive it and tell
<v Speaker 1>him all this stuff, he goes, I feel fine. And then,
<v Speaker 1>of course, to go back to Highlander. We have our
<v Speaker 1>friend Michael Cayman, you will remember, wrote the music for
<v Speaker 1>both Die Hard and Lethal Weapon. Yes, but he was
<v Speaker 1>working very closely with Queen throughout this process.
<v Speaker 2>Now, one of the things I want to talk about
<v Speaker 2>during that church scene when mcleoud and the Kurgan are
<v Speaker 2>talking and the Kurgan's giving the nuns a hard time
<v Speaker 2>and the priests and all this stuff right at the
<v Speaker 2>end of it, he makes this big anough.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I've got something to say.
<v Speaker 2>No, it's better to burn out than to fade away,
<v Speaker 2>right right, And that's actually from a Neil Young.
<v Speaker 1>Album, right hey, hey, my mind.
<v Speaker 2>However, this movie was filled nineteen eighty six. Yes, I'm
<v Speaker 2>wondering if he got that from Pyromania by def Leppert.
<v Speaker 1>I have your answer, Yeah, well you got he got
<v Speaker 1>it from Pyromania. And the reason that and I don't
<v Speaker 1>know this one hundred percent. I haven't heard that that
<v Speaker 1>that is where it came from. But what I do
<v Speaker 1>know is that the entire time that he wasn't shooting,
<v Speaker 1>he was listening to heavy metal on his headphones, and
<v Speaker 1>so there's no way he was listening to Neil Young.
<v Speaker 1>He came up with that line that was like, there's
<v Speaker 1>an improv line. He wasn't in the script. He said
<v Speaker 1>that on his own. That was him maybe one of
<v Speaker 1>the most memorable lines in the whole movie. That was
<v Speaker 1>him improving that line. And I my I would bet
<v Speaker 1>one hundred dollars to one that he got it from Deflipper.
<v Speaker 2>Did you know the chrispher Lambert did all of the
<v Speaker 2>dubbing for the French version of Highlander himself.
<v Speaker 1>Which goes into why it was such a big success overseas.
<v Speaker 2>One thing I want to mention about Flash Gordon. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>there was a whole dream sequence where Dale was supposed
<v Speaker 2>to turn into the Spider, this crazy spider character like
<v Speaker 2>Meing had hypnotized splash or something, and he was supposed
<v Speaker 2>to see Dale as this hideous spider person.
<v Speaker 1>Again this is there's no script and Dino Dealer Intos
<v Speaker 1>decides that this is going to happen, and probably like
<v Speaker 1>while drinking Chardonay the night before or something.
<v Speaker 2>Right, So Melody Anderson spelt like six hours into makeup
<v Speaker 2>getting olds spidered up, and Mike Hodges walks in, is like, wow,
<v Speaker 2>that looks really interesting. We're not shooting this at all.
<v Speaker 2>It has nothing to do with our movie.
<v Speaker 1>She's like, what.
<v Speaker 2>The other thing I want to talk about with Flash Gordon? Okay,
<v Speaker 2>And we'll get into post production here a second. But
<v Speaker 2>Flash Gordon's plan to save the Earth is to kill me.
<v Speaker 2>If he kills me, that ends the attack on the Earth, right,
<v Speaker 2>and he's got like two and a half minutes to.
<v Speaker 3>Do it, So what's he gonna do?
<v Speaker 2>He hijacks the war rocket, Ajax and he's going to
<v Speaker 2>crash it into the shield and that would then cause
<v Speaker 2>the explosion. It would kill everybody, including Flash and Dale
<v Speaker 2>and Zarkoff and everybody everybody. Right, Well, Zarkoff pulls a
<v Speaker 2>Han solo slash return of the Jedi Plan where he
<v Speaker 2>disengages the shield. So now the plan is out the window, right,
<v Speaker 2>blowing up the war rocket to kill everybody in the
<v Speaker 2>wedding party out the window.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>So now Flash is just going to crash the rocket
<v Speaker 2>right into smack dab into the middle of the wedding
<v Speaker 2>uh huh, and just happens to hit me right dead center.
<v Speaker 1>Good aim.
<v Speaker 2>That to me is in one part amazing and one
<v Speaker 2>part ridiculous.
<v Speaker 1>Well that's the whole freaking movie.
<v Speaker 2>Man, it is, and I'm I don't care.
<v Speaker 1>It is like it is like a high school musical
<v Speaker 1>that somebody got a million dollars to cost me. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>it's just crazy. It's just crazy. The stuff that they
<v Speaker 1>had all it is awesome. It is awesome. A lot
<v Speaker 1>of my awesome is nostalgia from being like a six
<v Speaker 1>year old kid watching this stuff.
<v Speaker 2>I know, if this really is I'm leaning on like
<v Speaker 2>fifth grade type of feelings.
<v Speaker 1>Here. Yeah, but let's I mean, we are kind of
<v Speaker 1>moving into post production of this. So I mentioned the
<v Speaker 1>success overseas of Highlander, and we've talked already neither one
<v Speaker 1>of these movies were a success in the US when
<v Speaker 1>they first came out. So a lot of people they
<v Speaker 1>didn't want what Flashbordon was given. It was just over
<v Speaker 1>the top. And what they had just fell fallen in
<v Speaker 1>love with was this monochromatic I mean, black and white
<v Speaker 1>and gray stuff from Star Wars, and so it did
<v Speaker 1>not sit well with the Star Wars conditioned audience at all. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>unless you were like us in like six and seven, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>watching this thing.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, yes, are we moving into judgment here or.
<v Speaker 1>Well no, it's just it's important to note that it
<v Speaker 1>wasn't a success, and Highland was the same way like
<v Speaker 1>it came out, And the first mistake that they made
<v Speaker 1>was they cut some crucial scenes. They cut the Kurgain
<v Speaker 1>licking the priests, and they cut the scene the Nazi scene.
<v Speaker 1>It just I mean, they took out the things that
<v Speaker 1>helped it make sense and helped you get some character
<v Speaker 1>on stuff. And then they gave us a poster. The
<v Speaker 1>original poster was a large black and white, very grainy
<v Speaker 1>like he looked like he had leprosy or something. Picture
<v Speaker 1>of Christopher Lambert's face and it just said Highlander on it.
<v Speaker 1>It didn't say anything about being immortal. It didn't have
<v Speaker 1>any swords, nothing to give you any information about what
<v Speaker 1>this movie was about. And seeing a greeny, black and
<v Speaker 1>white picture of this guy's face is not going to
<v Speaker 1>make me want to go watch this movie, right. It
<v Speaker 1>was actually part two being announced and its success overseas
<v Speaker 1>that caused people to become interested. And it had its
<v Speaker 1>big success through video, and so when they went to France,
<v Speaker 1>suddenly they're like, see and Christopher Lambert treated like a
<v Speaker 1>rock star and everybody loves it in Europe because they've
<v Speaker 1>they've got those missing scenes in there, it makes sense,
<v Speaker 1>and they do a poster that has him it's like
<v Speaker 1>the scene from the parking garage where he's got his
<v Speaker 1>arms out. You've got the Kurgan like silhouetted in the back,
<v Speaker 1>and you get an idea of it being about immortals.
<v Speaker 1>And that's I mean, that's why it got the success
<v Speaker 1>that it did. And Flash Gordon. Fortunately the guys who
<v Speaker 1>were our age at the time, some of them ended
<v Speaker 1>up being big time directors like Robert Rodriguez, Yes, and
<v Speaker 1>Seth MacFarlane, who when he decided to make ted which
<v Speaker 1>is the movie with Mark Wahlberg and a Teddy Bear
<v Speaker 1>that's vulgar and inappropriate voiced by Seth MacFarlane, he had
<v Speaker 1>this dream that you know that Sam Jones was going
<v Speaker 1>to be in it as this kind of over the
<v Speaker 1>top caricature of himself, and Sam Jones agreed to do it.
<v Speaker 2>They're flying on a rocket cycle, flying blind on a
<v Speaker 2>rocket cycle.
<v Speaker 1>Bline blind? What a rocket cycle? Okay, so you want
<v Speaker 1>to talk about Sam Jones for a minute.
<v Speaker 2>We need to talk about this is the most interesting
<v Speaker 2>and yet sad part of the movie, kind of heartbreaking.
<v Speaker 1>So they started the production and Sam Jones came in
<v Speaker 1>and injured from a bar fight he had been in
<v Speaker 1>the night before. Yes, he was, from different accounts, kind
<v Speaker 1>of a prima donna or emotionally immature during the shooting
<v Speaker 1>of this movie, and they broke right around Christmas time.
<v Speaker 1>He went back to the States and when it was
<v Speaker 1>come it was time to come back to finish some
<v Speaker 1>final scenes and post production stuff. His representation told him
<v Speaker 1>not to go, and he listened to them. And that
<v Speaker 1>was probably the worst mistake he made as far as
<v Speaker 1>his career goes.
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely. In fact, I didn't really understand this. I had
<v Speaker 2>kind of heard rumblings of this. Ninety percent or more
<v Speaker 2>of his lines were dubbed over by another actor. That
<v Speaker 2>actor's name is Peter Mehrinker, which has kind of been
<v Speaker 2>a secret up until recently. But it was heartbreaking for
<v Speaker 2>him and really just kind of a dumb kid move,
<v Speaker 2>you know what I mean. I'm going to take on
<v Speaker 2>Dino de Laurentis. Oh wait, I got fired. He couldn't
<v Speaker 2>go on the Tonight Show, and he couldn't go on
<v Speaker 2>these things to sell the movie and make it successful, right,
<v Speaker 2>And therefore we got part two and part three canceled.
<v Speaker 1>So interestingly, let's talk about the end real quick. You've
<v Speaker 1>got the ring sitting there, yes, and the black gloved
<v Speaker 1>hand comes to pick it up, and a question mark
<v Speaker 1>comes up as the end question right, and so is
<v Speaker 1>that Clytis's hand?
<v Speaker 2>That is the rumor that it is Clydee's hand.
<v Speaker 1>Because the actor who played Clytis, Peter Wingard, did not
<v Speaker 1>want to die. Yes, that's what I like. When it
<v Speaker 1>came down to shoot his death scene, he came in,
<v Speaker 1>He's like, you know, Clytus is a very important character.
<v Speaker 1>I don't think we should kill him. And they're like,
<v Speaker 1>but but I mean that's what the that's what script says.
<v Speaker 1>He's and he's like, but he I really feel like that.
<v Speaker 1>There are more movies lined up, and I think he
<v Speaker 1>would be And certainly Brian Blessed is jumping and he's like,
<v Speaker 1>you die, you bloody well, die.
<v Speaker 2>Go die die Brian Blessed. Awesome, Hey, I've got something
<v Speaker 2>that was gonna blow you away. Okay. Do you know
<v Speaker 2>who designed the logo for Flash Gordon, the like the
<v Speaker 2>little saturn looking thing, Yeah, Freddie Mercury Get out of Town.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, he is an artist and he came up with that.
<v Speaker 2>And they went with it.
<v Speaker 1>Fantastic, Freddy, very fantastic. So no part too. So interestingly, interestingly,
<v Speaker 1>Flash Gordon, you have a movie that had i'd nearly
<v Speaker 1>had forty something years worth of history leading up to it,
<v Speaker 1>and then suddenly it's off the radar. After this movie
<v Speaker 1>comes out, right right, almost nothing has.
<v Speaker 2>Happened with it since then, yes, absolutely nothing.
<v Speaker 1>And then with Highlander, which didn't perform well, you get
<v Speaker 1>five sequels and a series and a cartoon, and I
<v Speaker 1>mean there's all kinds of stuff that bloomed from this thing,
<v Speaker 1>which originally was a flop at the box office. Crazy,
<v Speaker 1>It's it's still I mean, there's still talk about the
<v Speaker 1>reboot of Highlander, and there's talk about a reboot of
<v Speaker 1>Flash Gordon as well. One of the directors, and this
<v Speaker 1>is this is the thing. One of the directors for
<v Speaker 1>an animated version of Flash Gordon is Taiko Watiti, who
<v Speaker 1>did Thor Ragnarok. Yeah, now I want you to think
<v Speaker 1>about Thor Ragnarok for just a second. Okay, yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>both based on comics. Yep. The hero arrives at a
<v Speaker 1>four world and is immediately shocked. Flash Gordon and Thor
<v Speaker 1>both right, And then you have at the beginning of
<v Speaker 1>Flash Gordon people asking for his autograph. Whenever he is
<v Speaker 1>in New York City with Loki, the girls come up
<v Speaker 1>asking for his autograph. You get a death match with
<v Speaker 1>a guy in green and a guy who is green.
<v Speaker 1>You get I mean, just think about it. Think about
<v Speaker 1>all these things. You ultimately team up with a girl
<v Speaker 1>and a doctor to fight the evil overlord who rules
<v Speaker 1>the world. I mean, you just look at the graphics
<v Speaker 1>at the beginning of both of the movies, and they're
<v Speaker 1>very eighties.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>One was made in the eighties and one was made
<v Speaker 1>to look like it was in the eighties. They both
<v Speaker 1>steal like a flying vehicle. They both have a guy
<v Speaker 1>who gets his eyes ripped out. Yeah, and then it
<v Speaker 1>ends with both of them with a bald guy getting
<v Speaker 1>stabbed through the torsoe.
<v Speaker 2>Holy cow, Thor Ragner Rock is flashboardon.
<v Speaker 1>I think that ty Taiko Waktiti is the perfect guy
<v Speaker 1>to be directing the flash Gordon Virgion, I'm all in,
<v Speaker 1>let's do it.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Okay, before we get to final judgment D I
<v Speaker 2>just want to throw in a couple of tidbits that
<v Speaker 2>I found really interesting. Okay, Okay, here's a couple of
<v Speaker 2>things for you from Holander. Okay. The climax takes place
<v Speaker 2>on top of the Silver Cup Studios building. It was
<v Speaker 2>originally supposed to take place on top of the statue
<v Speaker 2>of Larty X Men.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Also, according to the cast and crew, anytime they were
<v Speaker 2>in Scotland, good chance, Sean Connery was drunk.
<v Speaker 1>He was only there for a week and they were.
<v Speaker 2>Seven days and he couldn't lay off the side either.
<v Speaker 1>Scotland or Wales. Apparently Sean Connery used to gather everyone
<v Speaker 1>around for like these meetings during the day and explain
<v Speaker 1>to them what was going wrong with the movie.
<v Speaker 3>I'll tell you what.
<v Speaker 2>The scene where the Kurgan actually kills Ramirez send the
<v Speaker 2>door at the castle. The rocks look styrofoam ish, also
<v Speaker 2>wood door, but we're willing to forgive the practical effects. Yes,
<v Speaker 2>but when Clancy Brown came through that door, he swung
<v Speaker 2>his sword too low. He took out the candelabra on
<v Speaker 2>the table and almost took out Sean Connery. Conrie was
<v Speaker 2>pissed and walked off the set and said, I'm out
<v Speaker 2>of here, right, I'm not going to get killed for
<v Speaker 2>this movie, right, And Clancy Brownd was like, oh man.
<v Speaker 2>He felt really terrible and apologized and they came back
<v Speaker 2>and did it again. But it was it was a
<v Speaker 2>bad dealer for a little bit.
<v Speaker 1>So you know the scene that's that they're sitting on
<v Speaker 1>the stairway like that, Ramirez and MacLeod are sitting on
<v Speaker 1>the stairway talking. Yes, they were sitting on the exact
<v Speaker 1>part of the stairway that would later fall away, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>and so they're literally sitting on something that's being held
<v Speaker 1>up with pins. I think it had to improve the
<v Speaker 1>intensity of that scene that they're just like this could
<v Speaker 1>give way any second and we could fall to our deaths.
<v Speaker 2>I also heard at the end of Highlander, like once
<v Speaker 2>you claimed the prize that it like released a dragon
<v Speaker 2>that you had to defeat, Like there's this other challenge, right,
<v Speaker 2>like take that dude's head. And then also boom, there's
<v Speaker 2>a dragon.
<v Speaker 1>That show sounds like Super Mario Brothers.
<v Speaker 2>One of the things that I was just gonna mention.
<v Speaker 2>This is just a side note. This is not a tidbit.
<v Speaker 2>McLeod falls in love and Mary's and ages with Heather,
<v Speaker 2>and then you flash forward for five hundred years and
<v Speaker 2>he has a little fling with Brenda. You have this
<v Speaker 2>love scene yep, and then the next like it hard
<v Speaker 2>cuts to him telling her I can't get involved. Yeah, right,
<v Speaker 2>which is what everyone wants to hear. Oh, last night
<v Speaker 2>was okay, but today we're not involved.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. It's interesting her line to him, which I mean,
<v Speaker 1>I don't know how well she really is going to
<v Speaker 1>know him at that point she taught she says, most
<v Speaker 1>people are afraid to die. You're afraid to live, right,
<v Speaker 1>that's telling about his character. Yeah, he is a guy who,
<v Speaker 1>because he has seen the loss of people that he's
<v Speaker 1>loved over and over, has decided to hold himself up
<v Speaker 1>until all of this is you know, over, until the
<v Speaker 1>final battle happens, right right, right, except he may go
<v Speaker 1>watch a wrestling match.
<v Speaker 2>You gotta do something at four hundred years.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, And I mean, of course the guy who has
<v Speaker 1>been trained in swordsmanship and other warfare for the last
<v Speaker 1>four hundred years would be incredibly interested in fake rest.
<v Speaker 2>Are you cool with his hair? I mean, he's got
<v Speaker 2>this funky eighties cut.
<v Speaker 1>It's even call it an eighties cut. It's just like
<v Speaker 1>a French guy in their cut herself.
<v Speaker 2>Like he went to sports clips. Okay, flashback to flash Gordon. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>they got to the end scene. They didn't know how
<v Speaker 2>to wrap it right, oh right, And they're standing around
<v Speaker 2>improving a twenty million dollar movie. They're like, okay, Soming
<v Speaker 2>uses his ring to disappear, and then what like, how
<v Speaker 2>do we celebrate this ending?
<v Speaker 1>Right?
<v Speaker 2>And Sam Jones goes, I got it, I got it.
<v Speaker 2>Just film this and so that giant jump, yeah, that's
<v Speaker 2>all improv right.
<v Speaker 1>His idea? So he's got the two best football ideas
<v Speaker 1>in the movie.
<v Speaker 3>They're great. It worked.
<v Speaker 1>Are you ready for final judgment?
<v Speaker 2>Let's move into final judgment.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so you've you've segued perfectly on why I like
<v Speaker 1>Highlander better than Flash Courton. But to the kings with
<v Speaker 1>the okay, I mean, in addition to all of the
<v Speaker 1>other imperfections that we've discussed, Flash Gordon is the guy
<v Speaker 1>at the end of the movie that he was at
<v Speaker 1>the beginning of the movie. He's a football star. He's
<v Speaker 1>a football star who's people are asking autographs from Who's
<v Speaker 1>gonna fly and save the plane? He's a football star
<v Speaker 1>who knocks out the competition in the chamber with the
<v Speaker 1>football game. He tackles over and at the end he's
<v Speaker 1>spiking the ball and doing celebration in the end zone.
<v Speaker 1>There's no change, there's no movement in his character. So
<v Speaker 1>what so that makes a boring story. You've gotta have
<v Speaker 1>some sort of transition, Whereas in Highlander, you you take
<v Speaker 1>a guy who's given up on love, who's hold himself
<v Speaker 1>up because he can't let himself love people because it's
<v Speaker 1>too hard to watch them die, who decides even before
<v Speaker 1>he has won the competition. I'm gonna let myself open
<v Speaker 1>up again and love someone again. He falls for another girl,
<v Speaker 1>and it is it is her who ends up saving
<v Speaker 1>him in the fight. Do you remember he's about to die,
<v Speaker 1>the Kurgan is about to kill him, and she comes
<v Speaker 1>in and saves the day. Okay, And then that allows
<v Speaker 1>him once he wins the battle, that allows him to
<v Speaker 1>become mortal and to share the love that he had
<v Speaker 1>long for before with Heather, share that with her, he
<v Speaker 1>has the transition. They're out on the Scottish Highlands living life.
<v Speaker 1>You have a transition from the with the character on
<v Speaker 1>this one, you have the hero's journey, whereas with Flash
<v Speaker 1>Gordon you have Flash Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, all right, so let me just say I don't
<v Speaker 2>give an f about transition. Okay, Flash Gordon is perfect
<v Speaker 2>from the moment he shows up. He is a stud
<v Speaker 2>football player who is a leader and interested in being
<v Speaker 2>a great dude, and he brings that humanity to all
<v Speaker 2>of Mongo.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, Mungo, just a pond, Okay, Flash Gordon.
<v Speaker 2>Yes it's goofy, Yes it's campy, But as our friend
<v Speaker 2>Pat Cavagello says, you've got to appreciate the awesomeness. You
<v Speaker 2>have the over the top Brian Blessed, you have great
<v Speaker 2>supporting actors in Max Fonsaido and Timothy Dalton. You have
<v Speaker 2>the sexiest woman in the universe. You have all this awesomeness,
<v Speaker 2>and I think you have the perfect fifth grade boy fantasy. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>you have stud football player shows up, saves the universe,
<v Speaker 2>gets the girl, defeats the bad guy, and not only
<v Speaker 2>all that, he's honored, right, Prince Baron says, we owe
<v Speaker 2>everything to Flash at the end of the movie. He's
<v Speaker 2>like the greatest guy in the entire universe. It's every
<v Speaker 2>young boys fantasy.
<v Speaker 3>I love Highlander two and it's.
<v Speaker 2>Goofy and campy and awesome.
<v Speaker 1>You Land also Highlander.
<v Speaker 2>Also, I did not love Holland too.
<v Speaker 1>Greg Wyden said that there was a period in the
<v Speaker 1>early nineties that he had to change his name to Hi,
<v Speaker 1>I'm Greg Wyden. No, I didn't write Highland or two.
<v Speaker 2>That's awesome. So anyway, Highlander's great, and I love it
<v Speaker 2>for what it is. It's just Flash Gordon to me,
<v Speaker 2>It's it's almost the perfect movie.
<v Speaker 3>It's so fun.
<v Speaker 2>It's absolute full throttle of fun. By the way, by
<v Speaker 2>the way, according to Brian Blessed, the Queen of England's
<v Speaker 2>favorite movie is Flash. Gordon heard.
<v Speaker 1>He met her. He met the Queen of England and
<v Speaker 1>she's like, Oh, we love your movie The House. We
<v Speaker 1>watch it all the time. Could you please say Gordon's line,
<v Speaker 1>Gordon's line, Oh, thank you so much, Gordon's line.
<v Speaker 3>Let's hear from you. Guys. Where are you on this?
<v Speaker 2>Is it Flash Gordon or is it Highlander? Here we are,
<v Speaker 2>Princess of the universe. We are the one, the only one.
<v Speaker 2>We are the Gods of Kingdom. Come all right, guys,
<v Speaker 2>come back next week. We're gonna dive into dumb and
<v Speaker 2>Dumber versus something about Mary that's gonna.
<v Speaker 1>Be d Why not?
<v Speaker 3>Why not?
<v Speaker 1>God