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 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
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<v Speaker 1>doing that. If you will like to be an executive
<v Speaker 1>producer for one of our episodes, just go to our
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<v Speaker 1>you become an executive producer for us. Okay, let us
<v Speaker 1>jump into production for these two movies. Great, okay, So
<v Speaker 1>to start off with flash, Gordon, you have Clytis and
<v Speaker 1>Ming talking to each other. I just signed bold about
<v Speaker 1>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?
<v Speaker 2>What what? Hey?
<v Speaker 1>How did you never hear of this? And you've got
<v Speaker 1>a button that has it?
<v Speaker 2>Right, there'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. The button that says hot hail.
<v Speaker 1>Hot hale. You know hal, that's hot.
<v Speaker 2>Well, it's because it's a lot scarier than cold hal,
<v Speaker 2>you know, right.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I watched this with Caleb, Like I said, it
<v Speaker 1>was just like, what is hot hail? I don't know?
<v Speaker 1>Son fire and broomstone, I guess.
<v Speaker 2>Here's the deal. Hot hail 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 of the movie. Yeah, okay, this is
<v Speaker 2>a small thing, and I know this is weird. Probably
<v Speaker 2>nobody else thinks about this flash. Gordon's on vacation. He's
<v Speaker 2>also listening to football games. Okay, what professional quarterback goes
<v Speaker 2>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 we're moving
<v Speaker 1>there already slides off and what color is his blood blue?
<v Speaker 1>And earlier in the movie, his daughter is being whipped.
<v Speaker 1>What color is her blood red? Why is the daughter
<v Speaker 1>bleed 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 Melody 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 floor, 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? Why? Why would you
<v Speaker 1>go to the guy who made the movie before like
<v Speaker 1>color movies existed instead of going to the guys that
<v Speaker 1>just made the movie that made you to believe a
<v Speaker 1>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 across it, and.
<v Speaker 2>They look amazing. Can we just pause and put the
<v Speaker 2>flag at half mast? Put your hand over your heart
<v Speaker 2>for our buddy Munson who played Porkins and Star Wars
<v Speaker 2>and the Top Men guy in Raiders of the Last
<v Speaker 2>Dye in that one and Eckhart detective in eighty nine
<v Speaker 2>Batman did die in that one, Munson makes a run
<v Speaker 2>for the hills. Before you know, Zarkov tries to make
<v Speaker 2>him get on the ship.
<v Speaker 1>Threatening with a gun. Get in the ship.
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna shoot you.
<v Speaker 1>You're crazy.
<v Speaker 2>I'm out of here. Yeah, and then Flash Gordon squishes
<v Speaker 2>in with the airplane. Completely accidental. However, Flash takes out Munson.
<v Speaker 1>Sorry Munson, 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 2>Pushed the red lever. Listen. I love these movies, okay,
<v Speaker 2>but apparently when you take off into space and you
<v Speaker 2>go to Mongo, it's kind of like a wet dream
<v Speaker 2>because this is erotic. Melody Anderson could barely keep her
<v Speaker 2>clothes on inside the Rocket show, and they're all passed
<v Speaker 2>out and they're sweaty and they're having it's very.
<v Speaker 1>Erotic, and the rocket ship is very phallic.
<v Speaker 2>It's very phallic. And then of course when they get
<v Speaker 2>to Mongoming pulls out his magic ring and hypnotizes her
<v Speaker 2>to do this magic erotic dance, which is weird until
<v Speaker 2>you find out that Dino de Lorentis told Lorenzo simple, Hey,
<v Speaker 2>how's the script going? Pretty good? I got my buddy
<v Speaker 2>Bob Guccioni over here. Why don't you ask him for
<v Speaker 2>some ideas. Bob Guccioni, the guy who created Penthouse Magazine,
<v Speaker 2>he had some input into Flash Gordon.
<v Speaker 1>Brian Blessed talks about the fact that Dino de Laurentiz
<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 Reentiz 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, Okay, all right? In
<v Speaker 2>the movie Flash Gordon, Prince Baron, I believe what runs
<v Speaker 2>up to this guy who's got the special eye goggles
<v Speaker 2>on and he rips him off, and it's this kind
<v Speaker 2>of grotesque wires coming out of his eye sockets. Yes,
<v Speaker 2>freak me out as a kid. Okay, And that guy
<v Speaker 2>is actually the same guy who played Lobot and the
<v Speaker 2>Empire strikes back. The guy who has that weird robot
<v Speaker 2>ear thing on, who's Leno Kelriskian's right hand man. But
<v Speaker 2>the guy at the beginning, they're all making their offerings
<v Speaker 2>to me, and the guy from Ardentia who stands up
<v Speaker 2>and says, since you blasted our kingdom into Adams, we've
<v Speaker 2>had nothing 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 Arc. 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 brawl.
<v Speaker 2>And Sam Jane Jones 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 2>Go Flash go.
<v Speaker 1>It's go flash go.
<v Speaker 2>It is a bit absurd, it's absurd, but he's launching
<v Speaker 2>football is at the bad guys. Clydes gets in trouble
<v Speaker 2>by me because he's not keeping him on the right
<v Speaker 2>pills or whatever, and Topel is like, you know, the
<v Speaker 2>guy who keeps shotguns, snapping it to him until he
<v Speaker 2>hits him right in the head with one and then
<v Speaker 2>knocks him out. Okay, let's flip back to Highlander. Let's
<v Speaker 2>talk about the movie, the actual movie 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 f from
<v Speaker 1>the eighties. You've got number one, You've got the garage
<v Speaker 1>transition scene where somehow they move the camera moves up
<v Speaker 1>through the ceiling of this garage and peeks out over
<v Speaker 1>the top 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 clan and Connor macloud falls
<v Speaker 1>an 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 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.
<v Speaker 2>Budget, yes, and I'm willing to forgive some of that,
<v Speaker 2>like when they're doing the quickening and when like they're
<v Speaker 2>absorbing 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.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. You mentioned that lake Sean Connery's character rocks the
<v Speaker 2>boat and Christopher Lambert's character McLeod's like, stop rocking the boat.
<v Speaker 2>I can't swim, you stupid hagins, 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 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.
<v Speaker 1>Water's way colder than.
<v Speaker 2>You thought it was 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 of 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 Garret 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.
<v Speaker 2>Up all right. Before we dive in and start breaking
<v Speaker 2>apart the movie section of Highlander, I just want to
<v Speaker 2>give a quick shout out to my buddy Brandon Hasselton.
<v Speaker 2>He is a friend of mine front of the show.
<v Speaker 2>He always listens to the podcast gives me feedback. I
<v Speaker 2>really appreciate him. This is his all time favorite movie,
<v Speaker 2>like Highlander is top of the heat for him. He
<v Speaker 2>has declared it the perfect movie. He sees a lot
<v Speaker 2>of biblical imagery between the Kurgan and McLeod right, the
<v Speaker 2>good guy and the bad guy chase each other across
<v Speaker 2>time and eventually they're gonna fight yep, and who's gonna win.
<v Speaker 2>I think that's a great hook for a movie.
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely, And the you know Queen that part about the immortality.
<v Speaker 1>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 2>Great song.
<v Speaker 1>He's singing the first lines of that song. Did you
<v Speaker 1>know that? Really? Yeah? That's Brian May singing the first
<v Speaker 1>lines of the song. He sings the first verse and
<v Speaker 1>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.
<v Speaker 1>Right, which is a line from the movie. It's what
<v Speaker 1>he says Rachel twice yes, as he rescues her as
<v Speaker 1>a little girl from the German and she's like, you're
<v Speaker 1>not dead, and he's like, it's kind of magic. And
<v Speaker 1>then when he tells her he's not going to see
<v Speaker 1>her again, last thing he says to her is its
<v Speaker 1>kind of magic. Which side note, they cut the German
<v Speaker 1>scene from the American release, which means that when he
<v Speaker 1>says that last line to her of its kind of
<v Speaker 1>magic as he's leaving on the elevator, it's the first
<v Speaker 1>time the American audience ever heard it, and it didn't
<v Speaker 1>make a dang. But so this is probably why the
<v Speaker 1>movie did not do as well in America as they
<v Speaker 1>cut some kind 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 Lose Your Head, have a song called give
<v Speaker 2>Me the Prize, which is freaking awesome. It's Kurgan's theme
<v Speaker 2>and it's hard rock and it's give Me the prize
<v Speaker 2>and then you have Princess of the Universe b to
<v Speaker 2>the case.
<v Speaker 1>It's kind of magic. Is really basically for the soundtrack
<v Speaker 1>for Hilight. Yeah, from the Dawn of Time we came
<v Speaker 1>moving silently down through the centuries. The red text was
<v Speaker 1>supposed to be a place marker that they were supposed
<v Speaker 1>to replace or not have, but the producers thought that
<v Speaker 1>actually looks pretty cool, let's keep that. And the audio
<v Speaker 1>track 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 back through That's why you
<v Speaker 1>get the echo effect. He's in his toilet with a
<v Speaker 1>microphone recording the first lines of the movie.
<v Speaker 2>What you didn't hear was the flush after he finished recording.
<v Speaker 1>Trying to record.
<v Speaker 2>Come on, Ralby, I'm out here and 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 clanking 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 the hockey to be known as a violence sport.
<v Speaker 1>Are 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 a parking garage underneathing.
<v Speaker 2>Now, this is actually shot in New Jersey. The wrestling
<v Speaker 2>match was shot in New Jersey where the New Jersey
<v Speaker 2>Nets and I think the Devil's played. The parking garage
<v Speaker 2>scene 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 the 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 matchup. 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.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, okay, go ahead. So the sword fight is awesome.
<v Speaker 2>There is some ridiculousness. The guy that does fifty thousand
<v Speaker 2>backhand springs for no parent reasons.
<v Speaker 1>Literally electric 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 is 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. The rules
<v Speaker 2>of a Highlander are the guy has to cut off
<v Speaker 2>your head, yes, for you to die. That's the only
<v Speaker 2>way you can die. Also, you can't fight on holy
<v Speaker 2>ground right now. The movie doesn't explore this very much,
<v Speaker 2>but as I understand it, the TV show did a
<v Speaker 2>little bit. Okay, So there's a scene at the end
<v Speaker 2>of the movie where the Kurgan and McLeod are in church, right,
<v Speaker 2>and Kirgan is being a told jerk to the nuns
<v Speaker 2>and the priests and not real church by the way, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>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 holy 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 that 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 accountable.
<v Speaker 1>Interesting.
<v Speaker 2>But that scene at the beginning super cool, very cool
<v Speaker 2>and at the end, and.
<v Speaker 1>I love that they somehow get the sprinklers going, so
<v Speaker 1>get the fight on the rain. And to listen to Russell,
<v Speaker 1>Okay he talking, he just kind of laughs, He's like,
<v Speaker 1>I know it's absurd that they're fighting in a garage
<v Speaker 1>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. So I'm willing
<v Speaker 2>to go all in on all this stuff. I'm in right,
<v Speaker 2>super cool. Conor McLeod takes this guy's head clean swipe.
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely no witnesses, nobody's there. He pulls out of the
<v Speaker 2>parking garage and the entire New York Police Department pulls
<v Speaker 2>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. Yeah, they're
<v Speaker 2>gonna 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. He's a young guy. Well, little do
<v Speaker 2>we know, but the Kurgan is fighting with the other klan, right,
<v Speaker 2>and his deal is like, nobody fights the Cloud with me.
<v Speaker 2>I get him Connor Connor.
<v Speaker 1>It's important that he says Connor because because they're all
<v Speaker 1>Mcloud's thank you, thank you, one name Connor.
<v Speaker 2>Right, So they have this fight, which I think is
<v Speaker 2>ridiculous because he's chasing these guys around. He's like, fight me,
<v Speaker 2>you cowards, but nobody will fight him. Which if you're
<v Speaker 2>not gonna fight me, I'm still gonna take your head.
<v Speaker 2>Fight me, you coward. Okay, well you're dead, You're dead.
<v Speaker 2>And then the Kurgan shows up. He's like here I
<v Speaker 2>am McLeod, let's fight, and stabs him and he dies right, Well,
<v Speaker 2>he gets 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.
<v Speaker 1>For the the operative word there is marine. You can't
<v Speaker 1>kill 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 on
<v Speaker 1>the New York streets that.
<v Speaker 2>Night, which and then he unloaded a clip on the Kurgan. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>he had five bolet holes in his shirt. Yep, and
<v Speaker 2>then he got up five minutes later. So does he
<v Speaker 2>not die? So I understand that they don't die, but
<v Speaker 2>do they die in resurrect Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>I was gonna say. My impression is is that 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.
<v Speaker 1>The 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 I had to say about
<v Speaker 1>filming Flash Gordon. He said, I had a producer who
<v Speaker 1>spoke mangled English. I had a production designer who spoke
<v Speaker 1>none at all. Both like ming, seemed to have arrived
<v Speaker 1>from another galaxy. Once I realized that the film was
<v Speaker 1>in many ways out of my control, I realized and
<v Speaker 1>I 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. After the football scene with
<v Speaker 2>Flash Gordon, he's executed. They don't even give him the
<v Speaker 2>dignity of being executed fully clothed. He has to be
<v Speaker 2>in his underwear, right right, So they execute Flash in
<v Speaker 2>his underwear. Dale was crying her eyes out, and Aura,
<v Speaker 2>Princess Ara Ming's daughter, decides she's going to resurrect Flash
<v Speaker 2>for her own pleasure.
<v Speaker 1>Right, Aura is.
<v Speaker 2>Banging everybody in the universe. Once she revives Flash. Now
<v Speaker 2>she takes him back. She's got this idea. She's going
<v Speaker 2>to take him to Aboria. Right, and that's when you
<v Speaker 2>have the telepathic yes. Wow, this girl's really turned me on. Right.
<v Speaker 2>What here's the thing. Here's the thing with Flash Cordon
<v Speaker 2>that bugs me. Okay, Yeah, I'm an old fashioned guy. 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.
<v Speaker 2>Fifteen 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 2>But she brings him to a Boria where her other boyfriend,
<v Speaker 2>Prince Baron is there. Okay, and he hates Flash because
<v Speaker 2>he's a competitor and Prince Baron and Flash are gonna
<v Speaker 2>face off in this stump where the wood beast resides. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>this is the most wood beast. Yes, yeah, this is
<v Speaker 2>the most tense scene in the movie to me, and
<v Speaker 2>as a kid, scared the crap out of me.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah.
<v Speaker 2>So for those of you who don't remember.
<v Speaker 1>There's no way you can't remember. You either didn't see
<v Speaker 1>the 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 2>Up, all right. While this is going on, Dale Arden
<v Speaker 2>is back being prepared for her wedding right where she
<v Speaker 2>has to marry me for the hour, right, But she escapes,
<v Speaker 2>so she's running down the hallways. She has this really
<v Speaker 2>cool scene where she's got she's managed to get a
<v Speaker 2>gun and she's shooting at these guys in their red
<v Speaker 2>suits right, right. But so she's doing these gymnastics and shooting,
<v Speaker 2>and she finally shoots one in the face, right, and
<v Speaker 2>when she shoots him, you have this big gas expulsion
<v Speaker 2>from the laser wound. And Anderson said that when they
<v Speaker 2>filmed that, that guy threw up because the smoke got
<v Speaker 2>and he breathed in the smoke and he had to
<v Speaker 2>rip his 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 Kla 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 explanation at all. And then
<v Speaker 1>you got doctor Zartov walking around like a zombie. You
<v Speaker 1>don't know if he's been lobotomized or not. He's suddenly
<v Speaker 1>with Dale. He's talking very sporadically. It's confused, and then
<v Speaker 1>all of a sudden they're on a motorcycle ship and
<v Speaker 1>he's like, yep, I just fool them all, And I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>where's the rest of the story here? What 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 2>We don't have time for exposition.
<v Speaker 1>Not the bore worms.
<v Speaker 2>The bore worms you talk about my imagination running wild.
<v Speaker 1>Because they don't tell you what they would exactly, which
<v Speaker 1>makes them cool. It sounded horrible. They sound like the
<v Speaker 1>thing from the Star Trek, the little earwig things that
<v Speaker 1>they'd stick in 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 3>Oh man, Yeah, this is freaking awesome.
<v Speaker 2>Man, 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, right, Originally they
<v Speaker 1>wanted 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 what what it looks like when
<v Speaker 1>people are walking around to that song, because that's what
<v Speaker 1>they're listening to and they're filming in and the music
<v Speaker 1>is very it has a very Pink Floyd type of
<v Speaker 1>feel to it, even though it is Queen, it has
<v Speaker 1>a very Pink Floyd kind of feel.
<v Speaker 2>Totally. I totally agree. Okay, So one scene I want
<v Speaker 2>to talk about in Flash, Gordon, Flash and Baron end
<v Speaker 2>up being carried by the Hawkman back to the Hawkman Capital,
<v Speaker 2>which looks a lot like cloud City, right, looks like
<v Speaker 2>bestmin from Empress s rekes Men, Okay, and they decide
<v Speaker 2>we're gonna fight. Voltan puts him on this revolving disc,
<v Speaker 2>throws him a couple of bullwhips and if you fall
<v Speaker 2>off the disc, you fall into space. Plus their spikes
<v Speaker 2>and as a kid. I was like, this is so cool.
<v Speaker 2>Baron and Flash fight right, and as Baron is about
<v Speaker 2>to fall off to his death, Flash saved him. And
<v Speaker 2>that's the part where the whole movie flips and Prince
<v Speaker 2>Baron says, where you go, I will follow. That's when
<v Speaker 2>they talk Voltan into join us. We're gonna overthrow me.
<v Speaker 2>It's awesome.
<v Speaker 1>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 Blake 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. And he gets to
<v Speaker 1>work and he has to have it done in ten days.
<v Speaker 1>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, and eventually they
<v Speaker 1>have to like give him an injection of something to
<v Speaker 1>get him to come out of it. And his wife
<v Speaker 1>is like, do you know what day it is? And
<v Speaker 1>he's like, yeah, it's Monday, and she says, no, it's Friday. Wow,
<v Speaker 1>you 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
<v Speaker 1>then of course to go back to Highlander. We have
<v Speaker 1>our friend.
<v Speaker 2>Michael Cayman, you will remember.
<v Speaker 1>Wrote the music for both Die Hard and Lethal Weapon. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>but he was 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 McLoud 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 anount. Yeah, I've
<v Speaker 2>got something to say. Now, It's better to burn out
<v Speaker 2>than to fade away, right right, And that's actually from
<v Speaker 2>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>This has nothing to do with our movie. She's like,
<v Speaker 2>what the other thing I want to talk about with
<v Speaker 2>Flash Gordon? Okay, And we'll get into post production here
<v Speaker 2>a second. But Flash Gordon's plan to save the Earth
<v Speaker 2>is to kill me. If he kills me, that ends
<v Speaker 2>the attack on the Earth, right, and he's got like
<v Speaker 2>two and a hal half minutes to do it, So
<v Speaker 2>what's he gonna do. He hijacks the war rocket Ajax
<v Speaker 2>and he's going to crash it into the shield and
<v Speaker 2>that would then cause the explosion. It would kill everybody,
<v Speaker 2>including Flash and Dale and Zarkoff and everybody everybody. Right, Well,
<v Speaker 2>Zarkoff pulls a Han solo slash return of the Jedi
<v Speaker 2>Plan where he disengages the shield. So now the plan
<v Speaker 2>is out the window, right, blowing up the war rocket
<v Speaker 2>to kill everybody in the wedding party out the winding. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>So now that's just just gonna crash the rocket right
<v Speaker 2>into smack dab into the middle of the wedding uh huh,
<v Speaker 2>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 that 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 here.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, But let's I mean we are kind of moving
<v Speaker 1>into post production on this. So I mentioned the success
<v Speaker 1>overseas of Highlander, and we've talked already neither one of
<v Speaker 1>these movies were a success in the US when they
<v Speaker 1>first came out. So a lot of people they didn't
<v Speaker 1>want what Flash Gordon 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 seven 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. It was
<v Speaker 1>actually part two being announced and its success overseas that
<v Speaker 1>caused people to become interested. And it had its big
<v Speaker 1>success through video, and so when they went to France,
<v Speaker 1>suddenly they're like he and Christopher Lambert treated like a
<v Speaker 1>rock star, and everybody loves it in Europe because they've
<v Speaker 1>got those missing scenes in there. It makes sense. And
<v Speaker 1>they do a poster that has him it's like the
<v Speaker 1>scene from the parking garage where he's got his arms out.
<v Speaker 1>You've got the Kurgan like silhouetted in the back, and
<v Speaker 1>you get an idea of it being about immortals. And
<v Speaker 1>that's I mean, that's why it got the success that
<v Speaker 1>it did and Flash Gordon. Fortunately the guys who were
<v Speaker 1>our age at the time, some of them ended up
<v Speaker 1>being big time directors, like Robert Rodriguez. Yes, and Seth MacFarlane,
<v Speaker 1>who when he decided to make ted which is the
<v Speaker 1>movie with Mark Wahlberg and a Teddy Bear that's vulgar
<v Speaker 1>and inappropriate voiced by Seth MacFarlane, he had this dream
<v Speaker 1>that you know that Sam Jones was going to be
<v Speaker 1>in it as this kind of over the top caricature
<v Speaker 1>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. Line, blind on a rocket cycle.
<v Speaker 1>Good, Okay, so you want to talk about Sam Jones
<v Speaker 1>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.
<v Speaker 1>Kind of heartbreaking. So they started the production and Sam
<v Speaker 1>Jones came in and injured from a bar fight he
<v Speaker 1>had been in the night before. Yes, he was, from
<v Speaker 1>different accounts, kind of a prima donna or emotionally immature
<v Speaker 1>during the shooting of this movie, and they broke right
<v Speaker 1>around Christmas time. He went back to the States and
<v Speaker 1>when it was come it was time to come back
<v Speaker 1>to finish some final scenes and post production stuff. His
<v Speaker 1>representation told him not to go and he listened to them,
<v Speaker 1>and that was probably the worst mistake he made as
<v Speaker 1>far as his career goes.
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely. In fact, I didn't really understand this. I had
<v Speaker 2>kind of heard rumblings about 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 Dela Reentis. Oh wait, I got fired. He could
<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 Clydis's hand.
<v Speaker 1>Because the actor who played Clytis, Peter Wingard, did not
<v Speaker 1>want to die.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, that's what I like.
<v Speaker 1>When it came down to shoot his death scene, he
<v Speaker 1>came and he's like, you know, Clytus is a very
<v Speaker 1>important character. I don't think we should kill him. And
<v Speaker 1>they're like, but but I mean that's what the scrip,
<v Speaker 1>that's the script says. He's and he's like, but he
<v Speaker 1>I really feel like that. There are more movies lined up,
<v Speaker 1>and I think he would be And certainly Brian Blessed
<v Speaker 1>is jumping and he's like.
<v Speaker 2>You die, you bloody well, die go die die Brian Blessed. Awesome, Hey,
<v Speaker 2>I've got something that was gonna blow you away. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>do you know who designed the logo for Flash Gordon,
<v Speaker 2>the like the little saturn looking thing.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Freddie Mercury Get out of Town.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, he is an artist and he came up with
<v Speaker 2>that and they went with it.
<v Speaker 1>Fantastic, Freddy, fantastic. So no part too. So interestingly, interestingly,
<v Speaker 1>Flash Gordon, you have a movie that had I've 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 happened with it
<v Speaker 1>since then, yes, absolutely nothing. And then with Highlander, which
<v Speaker 1>didn't perform, well, you get five sequels and a series
<v Speaker 1>and a cartoon, and I mean there's all kinds of
<v Speaker 1>stuff that bloomed from this thing, which originally was a
<v Speaker 1>flop at the box office. Crazy, It's it's still I mean,
<v Speaker 1>there's still talk about the reboot of Highlander, and there's
<v Speaker 1>talk about a reboot of Flash Gordon as well. One
<v Speaker 1>of the directors and this is this is the thing.
<v Speaker 1>One of the directors for an animated version of Flash
<v Speaker 1>Gordon is Taiko Wa Titi, who did Thor Ragnarok. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>now I want you to think about Thor Ragnarok for
<v Speaker 1>just a second. Okay, yeah, yeah, both based on comics. Yep.
<v Speaker 1>The hero arrives at a forum world and is immediately shocked.
<v Speaker 1>Flash Gordon and Thor both right, and then you have
<v Speaker 1>at the beginning of Flash Gordon people asking for his autograph.
<v Speaker 1>Whenever he is in New York City with Loki, the
<v Speaker 1>girls come up asking for his autograph. You get a
<v Speaker 1>death match with a guy in green and a guy
<v Speaker 1>who is green. You get I mean, just think about it.
<v Speaker 1>Think about all these things. You ultimately team up with
<v Speaker 1>a girl and a doctor to fight the evil overlord
<v Speaker 1>who rules the world. I mean, you just look at
<v Speaker 1>the graphics at the beginning of both of the movies
<v Speaker 1>and they're very eighties. Yeah. One was made in the
<v Speaker 1>eighties and one was made to look like it was
<v Speaker 1>in the eighties. They both steal like a flying vehicle.
<v Speaker 1>They both have a guy who gets his eyes ripped out. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>and then it ends with both of them with a
<v Speaker 1>bald guy getting stabbed through the.
<v Speaker 2>Torso, holy cow, Thor Ragner 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.
<v Speaker 2>I'm all in, let's do it. Yeah, Okay, before we
<v Speaker 2>get to final judgment D I just want to throw
<v Speaker 2>in a couple of tidbits that I found really interesting. Okay, Okay,
<v Speaker 2>here's a couple of things for you from Holander. Okay.
<v Speaker 2>The climax takes place on top of the Silver Cup
<v Speaker 2>Studios building. It was originally supposed to take place on
<v Speaker 2>top of the statue of Larty X Men. Yeah. Also,
<v Speaker 2>according to the cast and crew, anytime they were in Scotland,
<v Speaker 2>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 song.
<v Speaker 1>Either Scotland or Wales. Apparently Sean Connery used to gather
<v Speaker 1>everyone around for like these meetings during the day and
<v Speaker 1>explain to them what was going wrong with the movie.
<v Speaker 2>I'll tell you what. The scene where the Kurgan actually
<v Speaker 2>kills Ramirez kicked send the door at the castle. The
<v Speaker 2>rocks look styrofoam ish, also wood door, but we're willing
<v Speaker 2>to forgive the practical effects. Yes, but when Clancy Brown
<v Speaker 2>came through that door, he swung his sword too low.
<v Speaker 2>He took out the candelabra on the table and almost
<v Speaker 2>took out Sean Connery. Conrie was pissed and walked off
<v Speaker 2>the set and said, I'm out of here, right, I'm
<v Speaker 2>not going to get killed for this movie, right, And
<v Speaker 2>Clancy Brown was like, oh man, he felt really terrible
<v Speaker 2>and apologized and they came back and did it again.
<v Speaker 2>But it was it was a bad dealer for a
<v Speaker 2>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>a 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, like I think it had to improve
<v Speaker 1>the intensity of that scene that they're just like this
<v Speaker 1>could give way any second and we could fall to
<v Speaker 1>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, but she taught. She says,
<v Speaker 1>most 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 haircut 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. He 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 how 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 impact, right his idea.
<v Speaker 1>So he's got the two best football ideas in the movie.
<v Speaker 2>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 Cordon. We are bond to the
<v Speaker 1>kings with the prison Okay, I mean, in addition to
<v Speaker 1>all of the other imperfections that we've discussed, Flash Gordon
<v Speaker 1>is the same at the end of the movie that
<v Speaker 1>he was at the beginning of the movie. He's a
<v Speaker 1>football star. He's a football star who's people are asking
<v Speaker 1>autographs from Who's gonna fly and save the plane? He's
<v Speaker 1>a football star who knocks out the competition in the
<v Speaker 1>chamber with the football game. He tackles over and at
<v Speaker 1>the end he's spiking the ball and doing celebration in
<v Speaker 1>the end zone. There's no change, there's no movement in
<v Speaker 1>his character. So what so that makes a boring story.
<v Speaker 1>You've gotta have some sort of transition, Whereas in Highlander,
<v Speaker 1>you you take a guy who's given up on love,
<v Speaker 1>who's hold himself up because he can't let himself love
<v Speaker 1>people because it's too hard to watch them die, who
<v Speaker 1>decides even before he has won the competition I'm gonna
<v Speaker 1>let myself open up again and love someone again. He
<v Speaker 1>falls for another girl and it is it is her
<v Speaker 1>who ends up saving him in the fight. Do you
<v Speaker 1>remember he's about to die, the Kurgan is about to
<v Speaker 1>kill him, and she comes in and saves the day. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>And then that allows him once he wins the battle,
<v Speaker 1>that allows him to become mortal and to share the
<v Speaker 1>love that he had long for before with Heather, share
<v Speaker 1>that with her. He has the transition. They're out on
<v Speaker 1>the Scottish Highlands living life. You have a transition from
<v Speaker 1>the with the character on this one, you have the
<v Speaker 1>hero's journey, whereas with Flash 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 Catadella 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 at Max Fonsido 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. I love Highlander two and it's goofy
<v Speaker 2>and campy and awesome Land also Highlander. Also, I did
<v Speaker 2>not love Hollander 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 Wydon. No, I didn't write Highlander 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. It's so fun. It's
<v Speaker 2>absolute full throttle fun. By the way, depth by the way.
<v Speaker 2>According to Brian Blessed. The Queen of England's favorite movie
<v Speaker 2>is Flash Gordon.
<v Speaker 1>He met her, He met the Queen of England, and
<v Speaker 1>she's like, Oh, we love your movie house. We watch
<v Speaker 1>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 2>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 be.
<v Speaker 1>Why not?
<v Speaker 2>Why not?
<v Speaker 1>God