What you got in the trunk?

Oh, you don't want to look in there.

Paul.

Javi! I feel like Brad Pitt at the end of Seven. You're like, what's in the trunk?

Yeah.

Paul, this is your pick.

Oh.

This is a movie that means a lot to you, and I want to get into how much this movie means to you, because I think it's really fascinating that this nihilistic piece of misanthropy is such an object in your childhood or your teenage years when you were like the nicest person that ever lived.

This is one of the two most impactful, formative films of my youth. I worship this film. It is a masterpiece, and I see it through a very different lens, because it is a sort of an existential challenge between the nihilism and the sort of, and capitalism. And can the spirit of true punk puncture that impasse and achieve transcendentalism? Wow.

And on that note, I just want to say, I'm Javier Grillo-Marxuach.

And I'm Paul Alvarado-Dykstra.

And this is...

Multiplex Overthruster Summer of 84.

The movie we're talking about is Alex Cox's masterpiece, Repo Man. Paul, can this true spirit of punk pierce the veil of capitalism? I think the answer is yes, right? I mean, I think this movie is such a like broadside acid shot right in the middle of it, right?

This film, to me, exists on this sort of existential continuum between 2001 and The Big Lebowski.

One of them is my favorite movie of all time, and the other one is a movie that I can't get my head around. I'm in a similar place with this in terms of I understand your appreciation of this film and I have a great deal of it, but the movie is quite confounding to me as I watch it and I hate to admit to that.

That's okay. I have great empathy and sympathy for that. I, of course, did not have the opportunity as a youth to see this movie when it came out in the theater, which I did get to experience the other major film of this year that we'll get to later this season.

Yes, exactly.

That has kind of been our beacon since the dawn of Multiplex Overthruster that's calling to us and continues to. But this film discovered through the magic of the neighborhood video store, the independent video store, and the cover taunted me. And in my early teen years, discovered and would watch over and over and over again, as if I had found a sacred holy text, like the Tibetan Book of the Dead. And it was waiting to open and expand my mind as though I were Paul Atreides, taking...

Taking the water of life, taking the bile of the newborn sandworm?

Taking an OD on spice melange and the water of life, and it was never the same again.

Okay, Paul, two things, two things, two things. I have a feeling I'm going to be interrupting you a lot because I can just see in your eyes the will to rhapsodize is just like... It's like Winston Churchill's first volume about World War II. It's The Gathering Storm. I can see it. There's two things I want to say about that. One of them is, if producer Brad weren't such a nice guy, he might right now say something along the lines of, Paul, the podcast is called Multiplex Overthruster, not Video Store Overthruster. Oh!

I was...

Two, yes.

Two, two, and I'll add three.

Two, well, no, because I think Paul should, look, I think because this film is so important to Paul, Paul should summarize the plot and we should get going.

It is a film that was theatrically released in 1984. That is the criteria.

Oh, oh, and suddenly we start relitigating.

There have been, it's long established that that's the standard for the podcast, and that we didn't, and that many of these films, we did not have the opportunity to see in a theater.

This one definitely, because it is a hard R.

Oh, oh, oh, as hard as an R could probably get, at least.

Without significant nudity, which it has very, none of in fact, which is kind of amazing.

It is. It's a remarkably chaste R rated film from the A's.

It's got other things in its mind. Producer Brad, let's see your number three, so we can get moving here.

I just find it hard to rapsidize punk. It just doesn't seem to mix. You should be, brevity in our descriptions of this.

Yeah, it should be like, so Paul, what did you think of the movie?

you, no future.

There we go, out. Here's the end theme. Boom.

So that is part of the significance of the film is that it opened a world of wonder of punk, specifically of early 80s, late 70s, LA punk. And this film is just a cascade of, from the Iggy Pop theme song that's iconic, you get the circle jerks, you get suicidal tendencies, you get black flag, you get the plugs, you get burning sensations, you get juicy bananas, you get fear.

You get a weird twang guitar version of the Rite of the Valkyries during one scene, which is kind of amazing.

Yes, it is both an incredible soundtrack and score. I would say it's one of the great iconic soundtracks of 80s cinema. It is out of print, the soundtrack, not available on Apple Music or Amazon Music or stuff like that. I cherish my CD. It is punk.

That's why.

You can get the Iggy Pop 83 demo of the theme song digitally, which I think is what was used. It's incredible. I will go so far as to say, I had not seen this film in a long time. Oh, really? Because it has been so ingrained. But to see it now after decades and reconnecting to how much it meant to me, there's a moment in the film near the climax that still gives me literal and existential chills.

Wow.

And I think this is a perfect film. Wow.

Okay. Well, tell us what it's about and let's get moving. I want to hear everything.

In interesting succession to Time Rider, this is another Michael Nesmith Presents production. But it is a quantum leap, evolutionary leap forward from Time Rider, with just a spectacular script, incredible direction.

But tell our audience what it's about, Paul.

And it is about, we will have some clips that sort of explain the plot, that's unique in ways that few things are, but we open with this map starting in Los Alamos, where a scientist-

No, no, we're not going beat by beat. We're just going to say what the movie, I'll summarize the movie-

I'm giving you the synopsis. You're asking for the synopsis.

Yeah, but you're literally describing the title sequence in a pornographic detail.

You're rapsidizing, Paul. You're rapsidizing.

We're going to call this one Rapsody and Paul. Look, let me just tell the audience what the movie's about. Emilio Estevez plays a young punk in Los Angeles with no employment prospects until he meets Harry Dean Stanton, who is a Repo Man, and together they go on a journey, which involves not only a great deal of random, bizarre incidents of repossession, all of which form a lattice of coincidence that then coalesces into a complete and unified plot, the plot is that one of the cars they're looking after is a Chevy Malibu that happens to have the dying remains of aliens from Area 51. The scientist is driving the car around, and it's about them trying to find the car for the repo purposes, while the men in black basically are also looking for the car in addition to an Evangelical Christian minister. At the end, the car is in fact revealed to be possessed by aliens, and well, much like Elliot and ET, actually not completely like Elliot and ET, Emilio Estevez gets to not only commune with the aliens, but take a great floating ride in this magical vehicle. Does that cover it?

Javi, that was beautifully coherent. I was near poetry.

I'm a high-functioning summarizer.

Thank you. I would have meandered a little more melodically, but I think you spared us judiciously.

Oh, but Paul, you're gonna, because let's hear the bell producer, Brad. Let's go.

Ding, ding.

Okay. The map looks weirdly pixelated like it was an early CGI. It's a pretty amazing title sequence, actually. I thought if Saul Bass liked the Sex Pistols, this is what he would do.

Yeah, and it's sort of like a digital, kind of early digital or kind of like a surveillance map. It's a black background and kind of reversed. And you kind of realize you're charting a journey that is this this escaped scientist who is absconded with the alien carcasses in his trunk of a late model Chevy Malibu. And he is on his way to LA for purposes that will reveal themselves. And on the way, as he's weaving on the road, we get one of the just great setups, narratively of a film that you could ask for. It's just perfect. He is pulled over by a highway patrol officer who poses the question that opened our episode, which is, what you got in the trunk?

What you got in the trunk?

To which, you know, our kind of mind frazzled character, behind the wheel says, oh, you don't want to look in there. He, of course, does, and what happens, Javi?

The thing you wanted to see happen when the Pulp Fiction briefcase was opened. He literally is dematerialized and all like he's disintegrated and all that's left are his smoking boots, which is, I mean, Paul, it's like it should be the teaser. It's basically the teaser for every X-Files episode. Yeah, it's fucking amazing. And it's such an amazing fusion. So Alex Cox, you know, famously sort of so obsessed with like the American West, the wide open spaces, and he even made a movie called Highway Patrolman, which was basically, you know, and this is so iconic and epic. Like it just sort of feels like it's like Vim Vendors and a bunch of old Western directors. I just all throw it into this one and then you got the guy melting.

Yeah, it is a big swing into early 80s paranoid sci-fi that is riffing on a lineage of kind of atomic age paranoid sci-fi. But updating for the Reagan era.

No, it's amazing to me because this film, look, it's really easy to look at this film. It's very slapdash. It's not really well plotted. It's not really. But when you actually look at this movie, how dare you? This movie is absolutely, no, no, I think for the casual viewer, Paul, not you and I.

It is meticulously, precisely plotted.

Well that's what's so interesting. While trying to give you the impression that it is not. Because the movie, you know, Tracy Walter does have that speech that we'll get to in a second where he says, all life is a lattice of coincidence.

Hey.

I know. We're like, no, we're 20 minutes in. We're only talking about the title sequence. It's fine.

It's our usual. That's our usual.

That's our usual, yeah. Paul, I mean, it's amazing because this movie is trying to convince you that it is anti-plot when it in fact is quite well plotted.

It's also very high density plotting because the film is very efficient. It's just over 90 minutes. But what you soon discover is that this is a film that demands your very high degree of attention because there's multiple things happening almost all the time in terms of what's playing on the radio, what characters are mumbling or saying in the background, what's on the TV, like what's in the set dressing. The attention to detail, the construction of this world, both visually and audially, that's not a word, I know, is so thoughtful and precise and rewarding in terms of multiple viewings. Because you keep finding and discovering new little things. So like for instance, this character driving is like singing by Darn and Clementine like on this drive. And it's like, what's going on? And you know, we get all these crazy juxtapositions of internally of tone that are commenting on the characters and the culture and the world that they're in and the tensions that are arising and eroding the fabric of their existence.

This movie is very much like if Sid Vicious like injected the parallax view into his veins and then vomited. You know, you kind of get this movie, you know, because it does have that lineage of paranoid 1970s thrillers into it. And then you've got the whole sort of punk rock thing thrown in, which kind of blows it into chaos, you know. But it is a... The other thing I want to say as we get into this movie, Paul, is this movie to me, you know, we've talked about, you know, we keep talking about The Beacon. It's Buckaroo Banzai, a movie we both adore.

Yes.

This movie is like Buckaroo Banzai's evil twin. It really feels like if you make, Buckaroo Banzai is such a riff on superheroes and all of that, but it's got the same Gonzo sensibilities as this thing.

Yeah.

But this movie is like that, but without a moral center.

This is the, let's see, I think there is a moral center, but it, or at least an amoral center.

There's an amoral center at Harry Dean Stanton, yeah.

But it is like the dark reflection. It is a very interesting contrast, but yet I think they're both so iconic in very distinctive ways and so original, even though they are built on clear foundations. But to say something new.

I think that the thing that's interesting about both movies is that they are intensely layered, they're intensely detailed, and everything from the set direction, and both, but both movies look junky.

Yeah.

Both movies were made to look junky and weird and really lived in and all that.

Yeah, very rough around the edges.

But it's on purpose, yeah.

Yes, and yet, and I want to, before I forget, acknowledge the DP because it is beautifully shot. And I think very-

My inventor says DP Robbie Mueller.

Exactly, whose credits include everything from Paris, Texas to live and die in LA.

Until the end of the world?

Yes, breaking the waves, Ghost Dog, Way of the Samurai. Yeah, it's just, he's an incredible eye that Alex Cox utilizes, I think brilliantly here. But we soon enter the mundane existence of...

Before we enter the mundane existence, can we connect this to Time Rider?

Well, we already, because...

More than Michael Nesbitt. How did Time Rider end?

With the helicopter? Was it the same helicopter?

The helicopter shreds the bad guy. All we see are his smoking boots. And then this movie picks up where Time Rider ends.

Oh my God!

That is true, that is true.

So Paul, so we get into the mundane life of Otto.

Yes.

And by the way, I love this scene because my favorite sight gag in this movie is right in the scene and it is, would you like to say what it is, Paul? Because I know you know what it is.

Everything in this film that you can buy and consume is generic.

Now here's a question. Do they still have generic? Because now you just, I go to the supermarket, all they have is store brand, like they have like Signature or Kroger, but generic was a very 1980s thing where like literally, for those of you who don't know, they literally had products that were like, they were like the Dharma Initiative products from Lost. It was like literally like I just said, beer. And it was that blue line, like they got the packaging exactly how it used to be. But every consumer item in this, in this film is that way. And I think that's genius, right?

It is. It is one of many just dashes of genius that are, that are peppered across the firmament of this film that I, that I delight in. And again, it's this attention to detail, but we're immediately introduced to Otto, who is a wage slave at a Ralphs that is re-branded in the context of the film as a pick and pay chain. I'm curious, I did not have time to check, but this feels like it might even be the same Ralphs we later find the dude in The Big Lebowski and. And we're hearing, and this again is important, his co-worker is singing to himself commercial jingle for 7-Up. Feelings 7-Up, yes, exactly. And this is a hint of woven through the film in the background, there are characters that will be humming or singing or referencing things that are all fed to them by commercialism.

Yes.

And so it's the sense that this entire society and world has been infected, permeated by capitalism, consumerism, commercialism, and supersaturated by it.

But what's really interesting is because this is punk rock. It's not glossy like, you know, it's not a glossy satire of consumerism. It is, consumerism has basically created this dystopian, almost post-apocalyptic Los Angeles how this movie takes in it. It doesn't feel like our reality. It feels like an alternate reality and it's one that is really devalued. Everything is scuzzy as fuck. Nothing is shiny, nothing is new. Everything is used up and even, you know, all of these blandishments that people supposedly are, you know, like capitalism was supposed to bring all this great shit to your life. It's just crap. Yeah. Everything in this movie is garbage. And the whole movie, you know, and it's interesting that a movie where the aesthetic is garbage actually looks as aesthetically pleasing as this movie can look because it's also a really well shot movie. So it's a really fascinating thing.

Yes. And the efficiency of this scene where we introduce Otto, his impatience and annoyance with his co-worker who's telling to stop singing. And then immediately his boss approaches, apparently Otto was late again and Otto was defiant. Says, fuck you. And he basically quits. He is attempting to be an individual, a rebel, a punk in this capitalist consumer, like obsessed society, and he cannot take it. He's trying to break free. And that is our introduction to Otto.

The store manager fires him for being late. And also what's interesting, when you look at the store manager's performance is very mannered. Every actor in this film is acting in a movie that's about 30% away from our reality.

Yes, heightened and askew.

Yeah, except for Otto, who seems to just kind of be in his world. Estevez is sort of a very naturalistic performance and everybody else is like 30%.

Yeah, yeah.

It's kind of amazing because he's not an everyman because Otto is quite unlikable. I mean, he's a dick.

Yeah.

But he feels real.

Yes.

You know, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. And Emilio Estevez, who I don't know that we've mentioned, gives a very naturalistic, charismatic performance but very kind of edgy and frustrated. And again, is the Eyes and Ears navigating this slightly alternative reality landscape that's just, just a bit off from the one we're familiar in, but feels like, at least in the time, felt like what our culture was leaning toward.

It also feels like the Los Angeles of Terminator.

Yeah. Yeah, actually it does.

It's like that kind of scuzzy, low-budget film Los Angeles where you can shoot certain places without permits and stuff like that. So he leaves the store. He gets sort of fired at gunpoint by this very parody-like security guard. He went to pushing his friend over. Then he goes to a punk party.

Yes.

The next thing you see him in his element.

And Cuneta's playing by, yeah, yeah. And he meets, or was reunited with Duke, who apparently has just been let out of jail or Zulam or something. The slammer, basically. And then we get, and this is, I want to include as an example, here's the dilemma with this film of one of many. Almost every line in this film is quotable and clippable. Sure. But there's so many just little nuggets that are just-

Of like, of just randomness, of just like-

Just random and weird and off. So we cut from like this punk party as then we find him in bed or kind of semi in bed with this woman. And, but he needs to take a moment for something, which he expresses thusly.

Excuse me while I fold my pants. What's the difference?

And of course, in the background, you have institutionalized playing by suicidal tendencies. So like it's, again, the juxtaposition that he's-

Yeah, he's trying to hook up with this girl, but he somehow has this need to fold his clothing, which is weird because he's a punk rocker. He should actually be throwing his jeans someplace dirty. And then he leaves and he comes back and Duke is with the girl, right?

Because his girl, or at least who he thinks is his girl, tells him to go get a beer.

That's right.

And then he comes back and she's in bed with Duke.

And she's in bed with Duke, who is, who recurs with the movie. He's a criminal. Oh, yeah. Now, is this the British girl that Duke went up with? That's who it's on the bed? Or is this a different girl? I forget.

I think it's-

It's a different girl, right?

I think it's the same girl.

It's Debbie. Yeah, yeah, I think it's Debbie. Okay.

So he leaves the party and-

Yeah.

So Emilio has to auto- Deject it.

Yeah. And he goes on this rant about TV shows and throwing the beer and whatever. And then-

Yeah, he goes on a rant about media, which is really weird. He just has this random rant about-

I almost clipped it, but I was like, I can't clip everything.

You can't clip everything.

I tried. Then I went overboard anyway. Then we get the pivotal encounter with-

Yes, Harry.

Who's going to be his mentor figure. Yes.

Pulls up and offers some money. Of course, Emilio Estevez thinks that this is a gay proposal.

Yes. It is 1984, filmed in 1983. I think this is as good a moment as any, because I did bypass a couple key quotes and scenes-

Do go on.

That exhibit the film's unfortunate homophobia, that's reflective of the period and of this class and type of character that we find. I don't think it needs to be elevated any more than it is in the film, which is for comedic effect and is not meant, I think, to be taken too seriously. I don't think the film is homophobic, but I think it doesn't shy away from showcasing a lot of this male culture as being homophobic.

But the film never makes any bones about making anyone unlikable. Anyway, Harry Dean Stanton offers him ultimately 25 bucks to get in this car and drive it away. It turns out Harry Dean Stanton is repoing this car from a Latino family.

Yes, and he weaves this misleading narrative.

Yeah, it's like, you need to get that car because my wife is pregnant, I have to drive her to the hospital. And Emilio Estevez finally just gets out of the bullshit, takes the 25 bucks, gets in an altercation with a Latino family, drives away in their Oldsmobile. And this is how not only do we meet Harry Dean Stanton and the whole concept of repo men, it is also like our first kind of moment in the film where you realize that being a repo man is not a safe and easy job. Yeah.

So then they arrive at the repo yard.

Right.

And we are now entered into the world of repo men, the whole secret headquarters and community of colorful repo men characters. And slowly it dawns on Otto of what he is kind of tacitly been recruited into. Yes. And it then is made an explicit proposal to him.

This movie is like Scuzzy Men in Black. It really is.

It's like the secret society that has recruited him. And here is basically the recruitment.

What do you say, kid? We're always on the lookout for a few good men.

Screw that. I'm going to be no repo man. No way. It's too late.

You already are.

Yeah.

And so the film like has this streak of fatalism.

Yeah.

Of that, that this is what happens when he abandons the relatively cushy wage slavery in a supermarket. Yeah. And now he is he is sucked into this dark underbelly of repo men.

But of course, this is the refusal of the call.

Yes.

He's not he's not going to do it. But then he goes, then we have a couple of really interesting things that happen. One of them is Tracy Walter has the first of his many rhapsodic monologues in here.

And another connection to Time Rider. So Tracy Walter, who was one of the trio of bad cowboys.

Given a much better role here, by the way.

This role for him is magical.

It is maximum Tracy Walter.

It's such a treasure.

And this is the moment where he gives the lattice of coincidence speech, right?

Not quite yet. But this is the one where he does every opportunity kind of dispenses nuggets of wisdom.

Yes.

And one of them is that he hands Otto kind of as a token, in lieu of a membership card, a disposable air freshener.

That's right. And he says, there's one in every car.

You'll find one in every car. You'll see.

It's full of portents.

For voting. Meanwhile, we cut away. And the smoking...

The men in black.

It's the men in black. Yeah. It's basically men in black, but with mirrored sunglasses. And they are led by this mysterious Agent Rogers.

Yes. Who has a hand made of tinfoil?

Well, she has like... First, we think it's a sparkle-gloved hand a la Michael Jackson. But later, it's revealed to be like a metal cybernetic prosthetic hand.

It's like the female men in black version of the bad guy from Enter the Dragon, you know?

Yes.

But here's the thing, Paul. What's amazing about the scene, it is like so... It is the low budget thing that Barry Sonnenfeld totally ripped off in Men in Black. There's guys in hazmat suits, and they're burning things down that have the aliens in them. Like the whole thing.

Yeah.

And they have the big van.

There's a cover up underway, as a confounded local law enforcement is trying to understand what's going on. And here's just a little nugget of their exchange.

What could have done that to? Gasoline?

Napalm?

It happens sometimes.

People just explode.

Natural causes.

I love that. And what I love about this movie, and my opinions are very mixed. One of the many things I do love about this movie is that, when you watch Men in Black, they've got the big mid-century modern headquarters, they've got the Neuralizer, they know what they're doing, they understand the world, they're never at a loss for anything. It is, that underworld is still a very orderly underworld. In this movie, all of the alternate realities suck as hard as the real reality. And nobody knows anything, everyone's confused, all the equipment sucks, all the equipment fails all the time. And it's just sort of like, yes, they're secret societies, but they're not any better than you are. Which is kind of great.

And they're kind of minimal, there's a minimalist, just sketching enough brush strokes for us to get a picture, a sense of, oh, okay, I get it. This is that and how that works. And without over explaining things, without over doing things, but also with this very deadpan matter of fact absurdity that is played straight but is so funny because it's so preposterous. But yet it all fits and works in this weird tonal coherence.

Especially when you get to the next scene where Otto is wearing a Chinese paper hat for some reason and he's having a conversation. What is this next scene about, Paul?

Yes, Otto now is still trying to refuse the call of the Repo Man, is with his pick and pay former co-worker Kevin. Oh, he's with Kevin. Yes, that's right. Looking through job listings in a newspaper, which is used to be how you did that. And then he shares this prophetic dream he has of like them in, is it Miami or somewhere where they're going to be bellhops in their 60s? And he's just kind of looking for another way around it, but not finding another path another way out. It's like his fate may be...

He has a nightmare of being a wage slave, a menial service worker in a capitalist shitscape.

Yes, and then we get him emerging from a bus out at Edge City where he visits or comes home and finds his parents doing what?

Before we get into that, I'm gonna say that, but before we get into that, I love the scene because this is the one scene of this film that producer Brad would quote to me earlier in our lives about Reverend Larry. So this scene seems to have stuck, seems to have hit a chord with producer Brad, and I just wanna say, like, I have memories of producer Brad bringing this up at least twice during our teenage years. Anyway, so he goes to see his parents, and his parents are zombies. They are hypnotized. They're watching a TV broadcast by Reverend Larry. Now, the one thing we need to understand is that this part, like, this was, this early 80s was like the renaissance of televised evangelism. Like, all the shit that's bad about evangelical Christianity is really getting rude in television during that time. And Reverend Larry is not being subtle. He's saying, send me your money. Take that second mortgage on your house. Sell your car. You don't need a car. God wants your money. And Emilio Estevez, Otto, tells his parents, hey, you promised me $1,000 to go to Europe.

After he goes to college, finishes college, but he asks, can I have it early? He's like, yeah, that's a really good idea. I want to go to school, but can I have the money early?

Yeah, except that the parents gave all the money to Reverend Larry. And now, Emilio Estevez is in that quintessential place when you're being recruited by a secret organization where all of your options vanish and you have no choice. Because anyone of us, and who among us has not written a script about somebody joining a secret organization knows you need to drive your character to desperation, so they say yes, right?

Yes, and to underline and punctuate this moment of his existential just desolation, he and Otto has entered the kitchen and pulled out of the cabinet, a can that is simply labeled food.

It's generic and it just says food. It's one of the best sidekicks in this movie.

And he opens the can and he's with a spoon eating some slop out of a can that is just generically labeled food. And everything in the kitchen is all just generic labeled whatever. And it's just this scene is just like, what a bit of...

Nightmarish, yeah.

But also, what a bit of high efficiency layered high density world building.

And I love just also that I don't love the nihilism, but I love the wit of the nihilism of when his mother says, I could warm that up, it'll taste better. And he goes, I don't think it could possibly taste better.

Yeah. And then, and then we get just, again, just the efficiency of the film, we get a cut straight to now, Otto is the trainee sitting in the passenger seat with his new mentor, Bud, who lays out the rules of how the commission structure works, which he says is better than getting paid, why you should dress like a cop.

And you get the code. I think we've got the code as a quote.

Yeah, well, first he's like, you know, you got to do this late at night, keep it at hours, and to do that, you got to take speed, so then we cut to them.

So they start snorting cocaine.

Snorting lines. And then we get one of many great Harry Dean Stanton monologues as he lays out the repo code.

The repo code.

I shall not cause harm to any vehicle nor the personal contents thereof, nor through inaction let that vehicle nor the personal contents thereof come to harm. That's what I call the repo code, kid. Don't forget it. Etch it in your brain. Not many people got a code to live by anymore. Hey, look at that. Look at those assholes over there. Ordinary people. I hate them.

Me too. What do you know?

See, an ordinary person spends his life avoiding tense situations. Repo Man spends his life getting into tense situations. Let's go get a drink.

They're so just amoral. They're always drinking. They're always doing drugs. I mean, these are not good people.

No. Again, so much packed in the scene and that monologue. Also, on the radio, what is Harry Dean Stanton listening to? He's listening to World War II era swing, Big Band, because Stanton's character, Bud, is someone who was promised the American dream and he feels like he has found his version of it and he has stability and comfort and a clear sense of how the world works.

It's a uniquely mean-spirited version of capitalism that he later goes into. You know, what's really interesting, though, is like, if you look at this movie, the degree to which Men in Black is this movie, he listens to old-timey music, you know. Otto is young and hip, you know. He's constantly monologuing about what it means to be this. They have a headquarters. I mean, it's like, the beats are actually not that different, even if you put in the alien part of the story. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's kind of amazing.

There are parts of it we're going to get to that also feel like they're in conversation and influence with films of this year, of one battle after another. And Disclosure Day that's coming out this summer, the Spielberg UFO film. It feels like this film has got existing across space and time. We see them in a liquor store. There's a brief liquor store scene where they're buying, of course, generic beer. As soon as they leave, one of many great visual site gags that the film does at so many opportunities that it avails itself of, they leave, and then emerging from below the counter are criminals who are in the process of robbing the liquor store.

And not for the only time in this movie that the liquor store is going to get robbed. You get the sense in this movie that everywhere around the edges, something shitty is going on.

Yes.

Like, this world, Alex Cox, I mean, my God, it's like, here's a movie where the world is just relentlessly shitty, and I'd have no other adjective to describe it but shitty. It's just shit everywhere. And the thing about this movie is that you get the sense that if you look three inches across the frame, someone's getting mugged, someone's getting beaten up, someone's getting torched. This is not a nice world this movie is in, you know? So yeah.

No, no, no.

But now we're going to be two of the best characters in the movie next, who I really think are pretty great.

Yes. We do get a glimpse, and we get this a couple of times. Even when we first see Otto and a bud driving around, we get a glimpse of the Malibu swerves in front of them. It has arrived in LA. We get another shot of it in LA., passing a hazmat van that has been deployed to find it. But then we get this momentous iconic scene in the LA. River.

You can't make a scuzzy low-budget movie or a high-budget movie in LA without going into the LA.

River. Which will also be immortalized at the end of Bucker Banzai and Terminator 2. And Otto and Bud are driving through it and essentially challenged to an automotive duel by... The Rodriguez Brothers. The Rodriguez Brothers.

And what I love about this scene is that when they show up, the first thing Harry Dean Stanton goes is, oh shit, it's the Rodriguez Brother. In this world, they all know each other, right? And later in the film, it's said, the Rodriguez Brothers aren't car thieves. They're just like us, they're car thieves. You respect the Rodriguez Brothers, right?

Yeah.

And they are La Garto, which means lizard, and Napoleon. Yeah, and they have this big race in the LA River that ends in kind of a vehicular carnage. And then completely randomly, the Rodriguez Brothers just leave. Like, they have their race, there's sort of a little bit of a crash out in the middle of the river, and the Rodriguez Brothers having one leave, and that's it. It's like this very random, weird encounter. They're gonna show up later, but it's kind of odd, right?

But it also is important because it provides an opportunity to display the contrast in the subjective experience that these two characters, Bud and Otto, are having through this encounter, and at the end of it, which is this exchange.

Goddamn dip shit Rodriguez gypsy dildo punks! I'll get your ass!

That was intense!

Repo Man's always intense. Come on, let's go get a drink.

Gee, Bud, you never told me it was going to be like this, man. Cops and robbers, real life car chases.

This is so important. This is so important. Yeah. Because again, we have Bud as the jaded, cynical veteran. Right. Who I think takes some comfort in the stability of this rivalry. Yeah. But we have now Otto, who has had the soul sucked out of him nearly by, again, this society of capitalism, consumerism, and is now living this dream he didn't know he had, of this wildlife of basically cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians, and for him, he's getting this hit of adrenaline, which is this new drug for him that is having an even more powerful effect than doing the lines of Coke.

And the interesting thing is that Harry Dean Stanton and the Rodriguez Brothers are kind of like the coyote and the sheepdog in those old cartoons, you know, where they literally clock in. They're like friends, they clock in, and they start hunting each other and killing each other, and then the whistle goes, and they just clock out on their friends again. Like, you can tell this is just how these guys live their lives. Like, every time they encounter each other, they have some sort of a violent encounter, and then they just stop. So then something really interesting happens, and the movie does this a lot, which is Otto is not just being trained by Bud, there's the other, he just sort of winds up going on these random adventures with the other Repo Man, and the movie doesn't particularly care to let you know what's happening. Then you just cut and he's in a car with Light, who's the black guy, he's the black Repo Man, right? And Light has a trick for getting women to abandon their cars, and that trick is to walk up the car with a paper bag and take out a rat and say like, hey, I've got something for you, and literally throw the dead rat in the car. So, Otto is doing this at Light's behest.

He's excited. He's so excited to try out this trick.

He's got this shit-eating grin in his face when he goes and does that, and of course, he takes out a can of pepper spray and maces the shit out of him.

Well, first, he turns unfazed and in an accent says, oh, how delightful or something like that, and then very smoothly, as if this has happened before, she just casually maces Otto and drives off. So it's like Otto still has got stuff to learn. Right. Yeah, it's not always as easy.

And this is in a Men in Black movie, right? This is the part where they go to Tony Schallhoof's...

Or Training Day, or like any other kind of...

Any other movie, like you see a couple of vignettes...

The rookie is learning how things work, and then so is the audience. Exactly, yeah. But it's this weird example. And then we're back...

And then we're repoing a car from the brokerage guy who's in the laundromat, right?

Yes, yeah. And so Otto's now back with Bud. And meanwhile, Pablo Picasso is playing, which again, one of the great songs on the soundtrack...

Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole, yeah.

And yeah, so they take the millionaire owner's car... Actually, Pablo Picasso is playing in this next scene. Otto is taking this car...

But by the way, that guy's doing laundry, and then as he's doing his laundry, he's kind of lecturing some other Latinos about how they should do their laundry. So when he runs after his car, the Latinos literally take his bag, his laundry basket and throw his laundry in the street, because no one is kind in this universe.

No.

It is a word that has been... Capitalism has stripped this world of all kindness. That's kind of a big message in the movie.

And I will say, although we do not necessarily have... Although, you know, Otto played by Emilio Estevez, obviously Latino, but not coded and presented as a Latino character. We have a lot of Latinos in LA. And we get a variety of Latinos who do show up in different scenes to varying degrees of impact. They don't have a lot to do, but I found some of them quite delightful in terms of what they do.

You know, it's an interesting thing because it uses... The movie uses Latinos specifically as a way of establishing a kind of alien-ness in this scuzzy downtown Los Angeles. You know, like, anytime Alex Cox wants you to... And Alex Cox, very, very much involved in all of the politics and all that. So I don't think he's got a mean thing to say about Latinos. He's always sort of had representation. You know, even his movie Walker is about capitalism in Panama. So you can't really say, I don't see racism. I see a certain amount of stereotyping. But it is always there for the purpose of letting you know that this is not your world, buddy. You know, like, this is an alien place, you know?

Exactly. And that there's a richness and a variety to the Latino characters, even though they are sketched quite economically. The other thing that I think is interesting that we get periodically, again, peppered in the background of the film, but prominent enough to demand notice is there are periodic newscasts and news reports of basically the US government committing crimes in Latin America.

Oh, yeah.

And that is, again, so clearly intentional, a political commentary, and something I appreciate.

You know what other movie takes place in this universe, by the way? RoboCop.

Oh, yeah.

RoboCop is literally the Detroit of the universe of Repo Man. It is one of the other movies that I think is so consistently presents a really scuzzy unsavory reality as a parody of capitalism, I think, yeah.

Yes. Yes, very much. So now Otto is made off with this fancy laundromat chain owner, like millionaire car, and he encounters a very fetching young woman walking down the sidewalk, who is Layla, played by the lovely and charming Olivia Barash. And he wants to offer her ride, but he's not paying attention to what he's doing. He runs into a bunch of trash cans.

Right. Because he's trying to pick her up.

Yeah. Yeah. He's hitting on her.

Again, part of the lattice of coincidence that she turns out to be so important in the plot of the film later.

Yes.

Because of her affiliations. Yes.

But he is kind of feeling a new level of confidence because he's now wearing nicer clothes. He's driving this fancy car that's not his.

Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man 3, man. The power feels good, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. And he's thinking, hey, let me try this out. And he persuades Layla to get in the car and they have a pretty charming exchange which takes a turn about identity and perceptions thereof. And here's a little snippet of it. And then the turn it takes.

I bet you're a used car salesman.

I am not. You dress like one.

I'm a Repo Man.

What's that?

It's a repossessor. They take back cars from dildos that don't pay their bills. Cool, huh?

No.

What are you doing?

There's men in the car next to us. Don't look at them. Don't look at them. If they see me, they'll kill me.

Really? Why?

What the hell are you doing?

Now, those men are, in fact, the men in black who are looking for the Malibu, right?

Yes.

Because it turns out that she's kind of part of the anti-men in black? No, she's not. She's part of the men in black.

She? Well, we're going to get this reveal in a second. Because she kind of lays out the plot, and we're about a half an hour into the film. We are going to accelerate as it goes forward.

But they have sex now, right? They weren't having a tryst in the car, don't they?

But first, I just want to acknowledge a couple things. The efficiency of the film, where we have this meet-cute, that within the same scene turns into revealing the broader scope of the plot and this conspiracy, and also this cosmic coincidence that permeates the proceedings, as will later be articulated by Tracy Walters' character. I find this so delicious. It's so captivating to me, especially when I was a young viewer of the film, because there's such comfort in how well constructed this puzzle starts revealing itself to be.

As long as you accept that, as Tracy Walters says, I'm sure we have the clip, it is all part of a lattice of coincidence. See, for me, I was watching this movie going, this all seems very random. And then once that speech was made, I was like, It's not. It's not. But you have to suspend your, you have to suspend your expectation of, not narrative expectation, but of cause and effect.

Exactly.

If you suspend your expectation of cause and effect, then you let cause and effect become a much more diffuse thing. All of a sudden, this movie makes a lot of sense.

Yes, yes, big time, big time. Also, meanwhile, note again, playing on the radio, not just Secret Agent Man, but the Spanish language cover Hombre Secreto, which is just perfect and also setting the tone of East LA. It just makes me happy. It's the plugs.

So then we see the men in black.

Well, so we have a quick follow-up here where she reveals the plot. And this is maybe the longest clip, but it kind of lays everything out you need to know about all the things that are now in motion because we've now introduced all the key players.

What's going on?

Take a look at this.

Looks like... looks like sausage.

It isn't sausage, Otto. That's a picture of four dead aliens. Laugh away, That picture is going to be on the cover of every major newspaper in two days' time.

How do you know that?

Part of a secret network. A scientist who's also in our secret cell smuggled the corpses off this Air Force base. Now he's got him in the trunk of his car to shove you Malibu. We've got to find him.

What are you going to do? Put him on Johnny Carson?

Yes. We're going to have a press conference and tell the world.

Laugh You know, Paul, I listen to this monologue. Yeah. One of the things I like about this movie is that it is written in a style that I have affected more than once in my career, which I call hypertext.

Yes.

Because you have subtext.

Yeah.

All right. This movie doesn't need subtext. It literally, everybody just says exactly what they mean in the most amusing or awkward way possible. That's how people relate in this film. Maybe it's my own neurodivergence or anything, but I find it so refreshing.

Yeah. It's so efficient. It connects so many dots. It also leans into a throwback toward noir, like a gumshoe mystery detective story plot that's just now laid out all of a sudden. But also the fact that the plan is predicated on the media. That is the big plot. There's this underground conspiracy, and the way they're going to combat it is by... Yeah, and that's going to solve all the problems.

This movie may be an anti-establishment, anti-capitalist manifesto, but like so many of them, it falls under the delusion, and we still do, that if you expose high crimes in mass media, the high criminals will be shamed into stopping.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Even that particular. But at a time like this, you know what I wonder, Paul? I wonder, what was producer Brad's experience of watching this film?

That's a good question.

I have to apologize because I accidentally watched the TV edit of this.

Oh, what?

The DVD, the criterion has both.

For this viewing or just in general?

For this viewing. I didn't realize until, if you look on that, it's on there, Paul. It's on that one you're holding. And so, instead of fuck face, I heard fat face. And instead of... I heard a whole bunch of melon farmers, and I was very confused until I realized, and apparently, Alex Cox, he did the TV edit. It's a little longer. It's like a minute and a half or two minutes longer.

I have never seen the TV edit. Wow, melon farmer. And that's why the time code wasn't matching.

That's why the time code wasn't matching.

That's crazy when I was sending you clips.

And when you haven't seen this movie in a long time, you know it's an odd movie. So at first, it doesn't seem odd that there's this-

So they're calling each other melon farmers.

And flipping this, flipping that.

Well, because they call everyone a dildo. Who says that as an insult?

Well, that was dropped too. You couldn't hear that in the-

No, but I'm saying the language of the film is mannered in its own weird punk rock way. It has a very mannered punk rock type style. So it's like the dialogue is mannered in its own way. So of course you could watch it and hear people say, Ellen Farmer instead of Motherfucker and say, oh yeah.

Yeah. Oh my God.

All right.

So that is an option for anyone who has the Repo Man is on Criterion Collection and highly recommended. It's an essential-

So can we talk about diuretics in this film? Like, is diuretics-

Yes. Yes. So just real quick. So Otto is dropping off Layla at United Fruitcake Outlet, which is apparently a front for the Secret Underground UFO-ology organization.

So of course you call it something- it's kind of like Ben Kenobi hiding in Tatooine under his name and his robes.

The acronym is UFO, obviously.

Yeah, exactly. It's ridiculous.

It's hilarious. And meanwhile, there's like radio stuff happening in the background about warning about not to let strange creatures in. Otto half-heartedly asks Layla out. And she says something along the lines of, you know, if you weren't such an asshole, like maybe people would like you. And because Otto clearly has not had an abundance of proper socialization in his upbringing. Yeah. But Layla-

Also Otto's kind of a piece of shit. He's not a good person.

Yeah. Yeah. He's kind of a jerk. But Layla still is charmed by him and is refreshingly assertive and asks him if he wants to get back in the car. And they do, and they go to town in the back of the stolen or repoed car. Back at Repo HQ-

Where they were with light, right?

The word has gone out that there is a $20,000 repo reward fee- Yes, yes, yes. Whatever it's called for this Chevy Malibu. And no one has ever seen that kind of a bounty on a repo.

It's kind of like when they put the $14 million on John Wick, you know, it's a lot.

Yes. And Otto sees the same photo that Leila showed him in the car.

Which is the thing he said was sausages, but they're really aliens, yes.

Yeah, they were told they're aliens. The alien sausage corpse photo, but now emblazoned on the cover of what apparently is Weekly World News or something similar, a tabloid with the headline, E.T.'s will land any day now. Subhead, aliens will bring joy and happiness to all the earth. Then we have another little episode where Light takes Otto to Jack O'Red Camaro. He's explaining more of his worldview. They throw out unknowingly gift-wrapped packages full of cash that they could have kept.

Is this the one with the guns? Is this the one where the guns happen?

That's later, but this is where he brings up the book and asks him if he's read the book he gave him that he found in a Maserati in Beverly Hills because it'll change his life. And we cut to Otto tossing said book into the burning trash. Javi, do you remember the full title of the book?

It's Dioretics, the Modern Science of something. It's a take on Dianetics. What is it?

A thinly veiled take on Dianetics called Dioretics with an X at the end, the Science of Matter Over Mind by X. Rumbubba. And he's at a burning trash can now with The Great Miller, played by Tracy Walter.

And we get this incredible gift. A feast! And what I want to say actually kind of hits on both of these things. So let's hear the monologue. Let's hear it.

So this is, before we get to it, this is an epic, epic monologue.

Yes, it is.

That I played back in my youth over and over and over again. It was like a sacred text. This is just an excerpt, but it's kind of getting to the meat and potatoes of it. It starts with this thing about this whole thing about cosmic coincidences. And then Miller makes a startling connection and revelation about the secret of the world. Let's hear it.

There had to be a time when there was no people, right?

Yeah, I guess.

Well, where did all these people come from?

Hmm? I'll tell you where.

The future.

Where'd all these people disappear to, hmm?

The past.

That's right.

And how'd they get there? How the fuck do I know?

Flying saucers.

What you're really?

Yeah, you got it.

Time machines.

Okay. Not the first time we've heard this. So it's amazing because again, and part of the speech is the expression, a lattice of coincidence, that all life is a lattice of coincidence, right? Which I keep now quoted for the fourth time. Paul, you know what this whole thing is starting to remind me of? And it's something that is so long gone and not long gone, it's still around, but it's like before the internet, high weirdness, like what they used to call high weirdness. It's like stuff like Church of the Subgenius, stuff like Ong's Hat, the alternate.

Mondo 2000 magazine.

Yes, exactly, like-

An Omni magazine.

Yes, and just the way that like weirdness was just weirder back then, and it wasn't pop-culturized, it was actual sort of French shit, and this is reminding me so much of, this entire movie is like the Church of the Subgenius made a movie, you know? It is literally so much about conspiracy, but this weirdness of conspiracy, and they're not, I think that we tend to look at conspiracies nowadays as being, again, very glossy, very, you know, like, and this is just everything. It's just that the weirdness is like druggy and dirty, you know? And it's just fascinating, like it just reminds me of even weirdness isn't the same it used to be, you know?

Yeah. Two important things also that come to mind that this film does so elegantly and effortlessly is expressing this basic human social need for belonging. And that like there's good and bad versions of that, but that part of Otto's yearning is to be integrated into a group. But also about kind of intellectual or existential belonging of understanding how the world works. And we've been introduced to different characters that have different outlooks on this. And we find here in Miller, the one person, and he's part of the Repo Man, but he doesn't know how to drive, because as he says, the more you drive, the less intelligent you are. Is this kind of Zen master who has the most preposterous theory and perception of reality, but yet is the most comforted and placid and at peace by the warm embrace of it?

He's the only person in the movie who actually understands the world of the movie.

Yes.

And that's why he's an outsider. He's sort of like Reverend Jim from Taxi by way of Yoda. And that his crazy wisdom is actually correct. Yeah.

And what's interesting is that Otto is sort of shopping around for his Obi-Wan or his Yoda. So he gets some mentorship from Bud, but then he gets another different version of mentorship from Light. And now he finds this radically different cosmic version of it from Miller. And so then we cut to then Otto back with Bud, and then...

I just realized all the Repo Man are named after Light Beers. I'm sorry. I didn't even get that. It's Bud, Light, and Miller. Yeah?

Yeah. Yeah.

You know what? I honestly like... I feel like such a dunderhead. I mean, I'm such an intellectual titan most of the time.

No, no, no, Javi. This is one of the wonderful things about the film, is that...

It keeps unfolding. It keeps opening up to you.

It is a never-ending treasure trove of such gifts of revelation that are boundless. So, Otto and Bud are then driving at night, and Otto's kind of conveying or continuing the conversation. There's that Bud thinks he saw the UFO once. We see the Los Alamos guy in the Malibu driving around again. He's still around. And then we see Otto and Bud at a phone booth downstairs from the Rodriguez Brothers, as Otto is playing a little Casio keyboard for some reason, and Bud is calling the Rodriguez Brothers looking for a Ford Falcon. But Rodriguez Brothers upstairs are with Marlene, apparently, who's like in a revolutionary garb, discussing the 20,000-

Wait, which one's Marlene? Oh, Marlene is the secretary in the Repo office. Yes.

Yes.

She becomes a much bigger character in the movie.

She's like a Repo double agent.

Yes, she is. Yes.

And they're discussing the $20,000 bounty on the Malibu. So we get these worlds that have been established in characters separately starting to converge at this point, because Otto calls Layla now about the Malibu connecting dots as Agent Rogers is monitoring a wiretap of the call.

So Layla is being wiretapped by the men in black who are not part of UFO, but who will later be working with UFO.

Yes.

And so she's being wiretapped and she winds up with Otto. And Otto is a real dick to her in the scene, by the way.

Yeah. So Otto arrives and Layla thinks it's with more information, but he just wants sex and she's annoyed that he doesn't have more to contribute or tell her.

Right.

Then, meanwhile, Bud and Light are talking and Bud is already planning what he's going to do with the $20,000 when he gets the Malibu. He's going to go independent and break off on his own and that's going to solve all his problems. Then, we're back. Otto is back with Bud and Bud extols the virtues of credit.

I want to play this clip because this to me is like sort of really, you know, producer, Brad, can we hear that clip?

Credit is a sacred trust. It's what our free society is bounded on.

Do you think they give a damn about their bills in Russia? I said, do you think they give a damn about their bills in Russia?

They don't pay bills in Russia.

It's all free.

It's all free, my ass.

What are you, a fucking commie?

Huh? No, I ain't no commie.

Well, you better not be. I don't want no commies in my car. No Christians either.

You know, it's just amazing how much Harry Dean Stanton is the evil flip side image of Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black, you know?

Yeah.

I mean, he like listening to the old, it's just amazing. And he has these monologues and you can just tell just how wrongheaded this guy is. You want to like him because he's such a like he's actually, I think he's more of a rebel in his own way than than than the punk rockers are, you know, because he has such a clearly defined world view. But it's like, I mean, he is a walking, you know, sort of satire of the of the self-made American man, you know?

Yes. And and yet we're going to see this happening soon. We get hints of it is that there is growing as Otto's world is getting bigger and he is being exposed to more experiences and perspectives. He starts then bumping up against Bud's very rigid worldview and then kind of pushing against it. And that is coming. We see the Malibu going through a car wash. It stops at a gas station. The Los Alamos scientist is now clearly in bad shape.

The radiation from the aliens is making him stupider, crazier and sicker. And so he gets out of the car and it just so happens that in the lattice of coincidence, the Rodriguez Brothers are there. They see the Malibu and Kevin from the grocery store is now working at the gas station. They con Kevin into leaving so that they can steal the Malibu, which they do. So now the Rodriguez Brothers have the Malibu because the Malibu is like the Maltese Falcon. It changes hands multiple times in the course of the movie.

Yeah, yeah, totally, totally. Yeah, it's this great, like, yeah, hot potato. And then we see Otto. This is a really funny scene.

But it's weird because it's a random scene. Like these guys don't, I mean, it's just sort of random. It's like, all of a sudden we're back in a repo case. That doesn't really...

Yes, it is a setup to a payoff, but you could actually lift it from the film, except it does one important thing.

You see the guys later.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We do see the guys later. But it does establish a pretty important thing soon, which is, so first of all, Otto is speaking to the sweetest old black lady.

Yeah, he's trying to grip her out of her, yeah.

The car payment she's behind on, and then she's like, oh, maybe I'll have to borrow money, whatever, and it's just like, oh, why is he pestering this poor sweet woman? And then...

You can tell she's not entirely... She's not being entirely ingenuous. She's being pretty disingenuous. So there's just enough performance in her that you're going, there's something weird about this woman, yes.

Yes, and then her son and his band arrive from a gig, and Otto very nervously gets himself out of there.

It's very much the gag from Animal House, where they go into the nightclub, and all the black men sit and go like, you mind if we dance with the old dates? Like, he's just one little white guy sitting in a room trying to griff this old black lady to have her money, and then her son and his band come up, and they're like five very imposing black men.

Yes, very well dressed also.

At which time Emilio Estevez says, I'm just gonna go, and he tries to, yes.

Yes, and then he then tries to stealthily repossess the woman's station wagon.

He still tries to boost the car, that idiot.

But without noticing what?

I don't know, you tell me.

That it is up on a jack.

Oh yes, they've put it up on a jack so that he can't take it, yes. And then the band comes out and they kick the shit out of him.

Yes, he gets beaten mercilessly. Then we're cut back to him, wounded at the repo yard, and he's getting in an argument. He goes on a job with light. Meanwhile, the Rodriguez Brothers are driving the Malibu, but like sweating because it's now-

It's hot inside the car.

Yes, yes.

Why is it hot inside the car? Radiation.

Yes, the radioactive decay is accelerating. They stop for a cold beverage and to call Marlene.

And complain to her that the car is hot, like physically hot.

Like literally hot. Hot, hot, yeah. Meanwhile, around the block, Weirdly, coincidentally, cosmically, Duke and his gang are emerging from a building that they've robbed a pharmaceutical company, pills spilling everywhere, and they just so happen to find an escape vehicle.

Which is the Chevy Malibu.

Which is the Malibu, unattended.

And while they steal it, this is where we have the twang version of Ride of the Valkyries playing in the background, which is bizarre because, and I'm trying to figure out, is this an Apocalypse Now homage? Because they're sort of, like him and his gang are kind of running information toward the Malibu. So this is supposed to look like the helicopters from Apocalypse Now, but I will tell you this. This does remind me of, and if I may reach back into the annals of the life of Producer Brad and Javi.

Oh, please do.

Producer Brad and I, and I think two other friends. So, you know, when Producer Brad in our childhood...

Who presumably shall remain nameless.

Oh, they shall. They shall. But I think one of them does another podcast with Producer Brad. Anyway, we were one Christmas. So Producer Brad's family had this Econoline van, right? Ford Econoline van.

Midnight Blue and Camel, two-tone.

Yes, and inside the most lovely tan camel appointings. So one night we took the rear seats off and we went around the neighborhood and we...

Wait, we went around another friend's neighborhood, not ours.

Another friend's neighborhood and Producer Brad would basically pull up to a house and the other three of us would get out of the back of the van. And this was during Christmas break. And we would, and literally one of us, the biggest one would grab the bottom of the snowman, the next strongest man would grab the middle of the snowman, and I would always grab the head because I was physically the weakest one. And we went around the neighborhood and basically stole a bunch of people's snowman. Which we then put in the front yard of another friend's house, just all of them. Like you literally had like... But the funny thing was, whenever we pulled up to a house to steal a snowman and the door would open, the three of us would come out, we'd each grab a segment, put it back in the car, run out. What would we play in the background, producer Brad? Wagner. That's right, the ride of the Valkyries.

You know what this means. What? You guys were Repo Men.

We were Repo Men, yes we were.

You were Repo Men of snowmen.

That's right.

You know Javi, I found that joke funny for 24 hours until I told my dad and you know what he told me?

Oh God.

He goes, you're telling me that a whole bunch of kids woke up today and their snowmen left them?

Oh, for God's sake, Dr. Dumont, come on. See, that's what happens when your dad's a pediatrician. There's all this empathy and shit. It's not good. Anyway, Duke and his gang steal the car.

Yes. Meanwhile, White is now teamed up with Otto again to go Repo a beautiful blue Mustang, which has an air freshener hanging from the rear view mirror.

They all do.

You'll see. And as Otto is attempting to jack it, he gets shot at from the house and panics. This is the first time, presumably, Otto's been shot at and then pulls up, very calmly emerges from his vehicle, shoots back into the house repeatedly. Like a lot.

Like he literally empties his gun into that and he's just standing there in a very, very still position going bang, bang, bang. I mean, it's very strict because the other person is shooting at him with a shotgun and Light just stands up, holds out his hand and starts just unloading.

Yes.

It's not like he's doing a weaver and he's just shooting the gun into the house. Okay.

Very calm and as if he's done this a million times before, completely unfazed, he very sternly tells Otto to get back in the Mustang to finish the job, and they get away and then they meet up and Light gives the reveal, because Otto is like upset about violence, and Light shoots at Otto's feet, revealing that his gun is loaded with blanks.

The only part of this movie I don't like is that part, believe it or not.

Interesting.

Yes, because, look, Light is a badass, just like all the other Repo Man, they live in this awful, scuzzy world, and I don't understand why they had to kind of redeem him by saying he was shooting blanks, like, I mean, it feels like more of a piece with this world that he'd just pick up his gun and start unloading on Shotgun Guy because it is an angry and elistic universe, you know?

I think it's reasonable to have Light not be a cold-hearted murderer, but to be a strategic thinker in psychological warfare and deception.

I understand that.

And as he says more concisely, blanks get the job done too. And in his case, apparently they do.

But then we go back to Malibu Scientist Guy.

Well, we get the payphone scene.

Yes, yes.

The two payphones.

It's two payphones that are literally 10 meters from each other.

That are literally across the street from each other at an intersection, which is one of the greatest stagings of anything I've ever seen.

Topped only by the gag on the gag, which is that Malibu guy, so in the sake of secrecy, sick Malibu scientist guy is calling his contact at his underground group of people, which is Leila, who's in the phone book. And he's using a scrambler, a voice scrambler, to make sure that he's not-

And here's how well that goes.

Let's just hear clip number 12, because this is comedy platinum.

Hello? Is it you? This is Leila. Are you using a scrambler?

I can't hear you.

I'm using a scrambler.

Look out! What?

So, the men in black have come after them, but I can't hear you.

And they drive into the Destroy the Phone booth.

This movie is just literally not in our universe. It's great.

And again, I just want to say, so first of all, I will put this up against one battle after another and that phone sequence and scene any day. I think this is genius, but it's so hyper efficient in terms of just the economy of it. And the fact that it would be enough of a gag if it was just the scrambler thing and then figuring that out. But then to immediately use that as the launching pad for then the men in black to come and crash into the phone booth. And then Layla is fleeing.

So Malibu Sciences gets killed here.

No, he doesn't get killed.

Is he still in the movie after this?

He escapes. Oh yeah, he is. Oh yeah. Big time. What? Where? What?

No, I guess he doesn't get killed. But yeah, I wrote he gets killed and then I realized he came back or something. I'm looking at my notes.

Well, he barely escapes. It's a very close call. So you could think maybe in this moment he might be done for. The airbags deploy in the feds car, which is pretty funny. And Layla runs, but the men in black catch up with her and they capture her. And they take her in for interrogation. And I love this interrogation scene. I think it's one of the greatest interrogation scenes.

Do we have a clip?

Of all time, yes.

What do you want from me?

We ask the questions.

You're not going to torture me, are you?

Torture you? What for?

To find out what I know. Why torture someone in a second if it was up to me?

Why are you looking for the Malibu?

Because of the trunk. The aliens inside.

Illegal aliens?

No, silly. Extraterrestrials.

Ah, did you ever think about joining the CIA?

I'm going to have to ask my boyfriend.

Boyfriend?

Again, everybody in this movie just says exactly what's on their mind. There's no subtext. It's all hypertext and delivered in the most awkward way possible. And it's great.

This scene is just perfect. The writing on this is so exquisitely perfect and so stupid and funny and revealing character in surprising ways. But Layla, it turns out, oh yeah, she would have no problem in tearing somebody.

Oh, everybody in this movie is completely immoral.

And it takes a turn of like, oh, are they kidding about recruiting her to the CIA? It turns out, no, they're not. Because anyone who's that plugged in and willing to torture people, but yet there's disappointment obviously in the guy that she has a boyfriend. So much going on in this little scene that's so funny and charming and smart. And meanwhile, visually, Agent R is monitoring the interrogation while making minute adjustments to her cybernetic hand slash claw. Which is insane. Now we're finally back, and this feels like it's a little loosey-goosey in terms of continuity, but the Repo Men at the yard have all converged on Otto, who you'll recall was beaten up by the band of musicians, and want to know who beat him up. But Otto, for whatever reason, doesn't want to give that up. I guess he doesn't want them to hurt the old lady. And then Miller makes, and this is a clip I almost got. It's pretty well known, but Miller makes this startling, extended revelation, homophobic revelation about John Wayne, that is challenged by the other Repo Men. And reveals varying attitudes about cross-dressing and whatnot.

I, for one, appreciated the open-mindedness that you can be a cross-dresser and not be gay.

Yes.

But you could be. I feel like the characters here really do acknowledge a spectrum of sexuality in a way that's quite touching.

Well, see, now I feel a little bad for not pulling the clip, but we already have so many clips. But yeah, it is an example of where the film opens the doors, like, oh, God, here's some homophobia. But then it takes this unexpected turn into a pretty broad, progressive, open-mindedness. Repo Men finally get Otto to give up the name or a name. We don't hear it just as Otto is about to say the name. We cut to the Repo Men gang now dressed up as cops or sheriff's department, showing up at a house and an older white guy answers the door. And Javi, did you track on who they are sent to by Otto and who they beat up, thinking is the perpetrator who beat up Otto?

No, do go on.

It's been an hour, but it is Otto's old boss from the pick and pay. Otto sends the Repo gang to go beat up.

We are, this is five-dimensional chess. This is like beyond my capacity.

Wow.

Okay.

Yes. But again, it's demonstrating that Otto now is kind of a made man in the gang of the Repo men and has them, they have his back. And they are willing to commit acts of violence on behalf of his behalf to...

Avenge, avenge his...

To avenge any wrongs on him. Back at Repo HQ, Marlene answers the phone. Leila is calling for Otto, who's now seated at a manager desk watching TV news about US atrocities in Latin America. And he is summoned to a rendezvous at a bar. And we're first see Duke's gang enter, so we know this is gonna be a problem. The circle jerks are on stage, playing when the shit hits the fan, which is glorious.

Doesn't matter what's gonna happen, yeah.

It's a little, it's a little like, hitting it on the head for the scene, but it's great. Otto then has this meeting with Agent Rogers and Leila, who now has clearly been recruited.

Yes.

By the CIA.

By the CIA, she's now part of the Men in Black, like you do.

She's turned.

A very, very fast clearance process on this one, but yes. Yeah.

As Duke's Gang approaches, make a bit of a scene, and Debbie is fascinated, and Archie, who's the henchman, fascinated by Agent R's metal hand, and Debbie starts licking it.

Yeah. Because there's cocaine on it now, right?

I think it's just, they do some cocaine on the table, but then I think-

Okay, I thought there was cocaine, okay, she's licking it. Anyway. That's what you do.

In my TV edit, there was no cocaine.

You missed out on so much cocaine.

So much cocaine. I'm shocked it's longer. I mean, you take out the cocaine from this movie, it's quite a-

Oh my God. So then, but meanwhile, outside, the Los Alamos scientist is trying to steal back the Malibu, which is part-

From the Rodriguez Brothers, that's right.

No, no, from Otto's gang, who stole it from the Rodriguez Brothers, who stole it from him. I'm sorry, Duke's gang, Duke's gang.

Duke's gang stole it from the Rodriguez Brothers, who stole it from, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah.

Yeah.

In the gas station, yeah.

So Duke's gang rushes out of the bar, they see him, and our scientist, we don't have his name yet, we get it soon, tricks Duke into opening the trunk, which he attempts to do, it burns his hand, like it's now so hot.

Isn't this where Duke has the iconic line about, let's go do some crimes? It's like, fuck this shit, let's go do some crimes.

It's better than that, it's coming. He starts to open it, but then Debbie, like, cause it's glowing, like this glow is emerging from the back of the trunk.

The Malibu is clearly deteriorating, shit's going wrong with this car now.

Yes, the trunk, what's in the very, let's say sketchy containment unit that is the trunk of a Chevy Malibu is deteriorating. And Debbie has the good sense to like, push him out of the way, saving Duke's life. But then Archie, the dumb lug henchman.

Played by.

Played by?

Come on, guys, he was in Time Rider. Miguel Sandoval.

Really?

A thin version, a young thin version.

Oh, wow, God, Miguel keeps showing up in this stuff. I keep not, oh, wow, okay, there you go.

He then bravely, as if to like challenge Duke's alpha male authority over their trio, opens it and is vaporized.

Yes.

Violently. Yeah. Duke and Debbie, well, Duke actually then says, and I'm sorry I don't have this, let's go get sushi and not pay.

Sushi, by the way, at this point in the 1980s, sushi was the craze.

Oh, yeah.

It was a brand new thing. Everybody was reading about it in magazines and stuff because it adjusted California. Yeah. It was like a big California thing.

Exotic, high-end cuisine.

Yeah, you bet.

The Rodriguez Brothers then pull alongside the Malibu on the road, try to get the Los Alamos scientist to pull over, who's clearly not of his right mind. Meanwhile, the Repo Men, who are still out on patrol, then also come into the scene and chase the Rodriguez Brothers, who blow a tire, they start a fight with them, but then back off when they're threatened with liability, because the Rodriguez Brothers say, no, this is actually our car, we bought it. It's not a Repo.

It's assumed that everything the Rodriguez Brothers are driving is stolen. So when they're threatened with that, instead they say that they actually own the car, which then leads to the next scene in which the Rodriguez Brothers are suing the Repo Man?

It's revealed the next morning at Repo Headquarters that the Rodriguez Brothers are suing them for all sorts of stuff.

Which is so bizarre because it's like all this, again, capitalism. Now it's a lawsuit. It's bizarre.

Now, the finely tuned, well-oiled machine of social fabric that Bud has clung to and found comfort in and control of, betrays him because Bud is fired.

Well, he's suspended, then fired. He's suspended and he says some nasty shit to his boss, and then he gets fired.

So, Otto and Bud are now driving in a car, and Bud is bitching. They get into an argument, and it's clear at this point that the student has surpassed his teacher. And there's a rift, and Otto gets out of the car, and we see him in a tracking shot that's amazing, walking past a sidewalk of squalor, amid bums and just all these home streets. And meanwhile, one of them is being taken by a hazmat crew. Right.

Yeah, there's all sorts of random... Yeah, it's not random. It is random, but it's not... But it's because the Malibu has driven by.

Yes, and then he turns a corner. Yes, Otto turns a corner, and he sees the Malibu, which he then starts to chase on foot. Yes. He approaches the Malibu as he gets close. He gets sick and throws up. He then finally approaches the Malibu, which stops for him, and the scientist...

Yeah, actually get his backstory. He sort of introduces himself and gives himself...

Invites Otto into the car with him, and introduces himself as J. Frank Parnell.

Right.

And we get a sense of his state by this first question he asks Otto.

You ever feel as if your mind had started to erode?

So, Parnell is played by Fox Harris, who finally now gets this meal of a scene and a monologue.

Right.

As he reveals the secret project, kind of in third person. Again, just everything spelled out.

No guile. Yeah, just everything.

And his melodically deranged, disassociated delivery, I think, is just so weirdly exquisite.

He has a weird high-pitched voice. His hair is greased back. One of his lenses is tinted because he's presumably a psycho. He's presumably lost an eye.

Or like sunglasses. One of them is just missing, popped out. It's not clear. But we get... Here is a snippet of what his backstory that is now filling in the gap for us on what's been going on, where he came from, who he is, what he's been working on and what he's hearing bring into the trunk.

You ever hear of the neutron bomb? It destroys people. Leaves buildings standing. Fits in a suitcase. So small, no one knows its air till blammo. Eyes melt, skin explodes, everybody dead. So immoral, working on a thing can drive you mad. That's what happened to this friend of mine. So he had a lobotomy. Now he's well again.

What kind of car is your friend drive?

Chevy Malibu.

It occurs to me as I listen to the way that his speech is written, that there is a lot of film noir influence in this movie. It's also a scuzzy detective movie, the way that double indemnity is a scuzzy crime movie. Alex Cox is like the Billy Wilder of trash, but what's really interesting is if you look at the influence of 1950s paranoid nuclear era stuff, you realize it's only been 30 years, between the 50s and the 80s. It's a greater distance in the years between when this movie was made and where we are now in time. So it's like you're looking at the influence of one genre that's kind of forgotten in a weird way.

And it's also Reagan era, duck and cover, atomic paranoia, height of the Cold War that's looming over everything. So you've got all these layers going on. The other thing about the scene that I think is so fascinating is that Parnell is essentially giving Otto his confession. His last will and testament before he passes out and dies. He literally passes out of the wheel.

He's been driving this car for too long with the aliens in it.

Yeah, he can't carry this burden any farther, any longer. It's not clear what his ultimate plan was. To go into the parking lot. Yeah, I guess the press conference.

Everything the characters are saying in this movie is the reality, so yeah.

Yeah, I don't know if he just thought he was gonna pull into NBC in Burbank, but the car hits a curb and stops, Otto then pulls Parnell out of the car, leaves him on a bench. We're not quite clear if he's dead or not, but he's dead. And he takes the Malibu back to the repo yard. Night has fallen, he locks the gate, and as he's leaving, he sees a handwritten note by the gate about a party, and then goes to the bar and is hit on by ladies, including one of the repo men's wives. But then we cut to someone breaks into the repo yard and steals the Malibu.

Right.

But then, after the party picks up, Otto...

And they have their big blow up here, right?

We get a blow up in that Duke and Debbie...

Oh, that's right.

Yes...

.are parked outside a liquor store.

Right.

And I so...

It's another coincidence, like Harry Dean Stanton and Otto go to get something at the liquor, they go to get alcohol, right?

Yes, a common occurrence.

And Duke and Debbie just happened to be the ones robbing the convenience store.

Well, not yet, because they are at this, at least Duke is, at this existential fork in the road of what to do with their lives, because they've had this near-death experience with the trunk of the Malibu. So Duke and Debbie are sitting outside the liquor store and Duke muses in reverie to Debbie about what if we settle down? What if we maybe have kids? He starts painting the picture of sort of the American suburban middle class dream, which is very quickly dismissed as absurd. And instead, they go do a liquor store robbery, finding Bud Otto and a security guard.

But it's the security guard from the supermarket who, at the beginning of the movie, it's the security guard that fired Otto, just happens to be there getting alcohol. So then there's a shootout in which that guard kills Duke.

So, right? So, it's insane. It is insane.

And it has very little to do with the movie. It's just a thing that sort of happens.

It is a jolt because we have not seen violence at this level in the film. And we're now in the home stretch.

We really haven't seen bloodshed in this film, even though it's a fairly violent and ill meaning movie, you know? But I was actually shocked by how graphic this shootout was.

It is. It is. Yeah, it earns the R. So, Debbie shoots Bud in the ear. Duke then shoots the guard, who shoots Duke. And then the cashier shoots Duke, pulling the shotgun out from under the counter, in the back. And then just as Duke's about to finish off the guard, and then Debbie shoots the cashier and then has the drop on Otto, who has just witnessed the most violent thing he's ever seen.

And this is his response.

Do you think it's too late for us to get romantically involved? I think a little. Wait, wait, stick with me, I'll make you a repo wife.

Again, it's just the randomness of this movie and the way the character is just, they are very human, but they don't respond like human beings to anything, but they're, you get them, I mean, it's weird.

Yes.

You have a very strange relationship with the characters in this movie, you know?

Like, this movie is incredible. Also, Debbie in this glorious mohawk and clad in this long silver trench coat.

And she's British. She's got the accents, so she represents, yeah, anyway. She represents, she has the sex pistols on tour.

Yes, and she's also personifying the colonizer and the colonized, like in one character. It's just, there's so much going on. Again, I'm like, one battle after another, like, should pay royalties to this. Then we get what I will say. And I know you're going to be like, Paul, sometimes you get a little extravagant in your superlatives.

Oh my God. And you're warning me. What the hell? Producer Brat, should we invest in hazmat suits on a fallout shelter? I have a feeling he's about to weave a tapestry of superlatives that will probably hover over the state of California for the next three, five years.

Rhapsodize, Paul.

Like the airborne toxic event to go on, Paul.

Fun fact. On my way to the studio today, I did in fact stop at a medical supply company in search of a hazmat suit.

That you wanted to wear for the podcast or just for your own personal use?

A couple, it was a dual purpose. I'll...

Can't we have both?

Exactly. Exactly. I'll let the audience just imagine what the second purpose will still hopefully be.

Yes. Oh, wow.

I think this is one of, if not the greatest death scenes in the history of cinema. This is incredible. It's incredible.

Parnell dying.

No, Duke.

Duke dying. Oh, Duke.

Well, yeah.

Yes.

So, Duke, who has been shot twice... Yes... .by the guard and the cashier.

No, no. You're absolutely right. This scene is glorious. It is phenomenally good.

Yes. It is staged like the Pietà with Otto as the Madonna.

Yep.

And this is how it unfolds.

You're going to get no argument for me on this. Let's hear it.

I know a life of crime led me to this sorry fate. And yet, I blame society. Society made me what I am.

That's bullshit. You're a white suburban punk, just like me.

But it still hurts.

You're gonna be alright, man.

You know what I love about this, in addition to just that it's hilarious because it does take him a while to die and all the cliches are being deployed and all of that? This is the scene that basically says, punk rock is bullshit too, by the way, guys. It's a scene that's basically saying like, yeah, but, you know, like we have all this attitude, we got all this shit, we're just drumming all over the damn place, but when you actually look about it, it's kind of bullshit too, you know? So it's kind of also been commoditized and turned into something that can be sold to suburban kids as a lifestyle, which is amazing to me, that the movie would do that.

So I would just, as a corollary...

Please, correlate...

.punk can be bullshit. I don't think punk is bullshit. I don't think the film is saying that, but I think that punk can be bastardized, it can be appropriated and wrapped up and regurgitated with a death gurgle as bullshit.

But it's also telling us that our main character of this movie is not a genuine rebel that way. And that's what I find so interesting about it. When I say it's, of course, I don't think punk rock is bullshit, but essentially the movie is basically saying, you need to be careful what you buy into, even as you're watching this statement we're making here, because you could totally get the wrong impression from what we're doing.

Yes, exactly, and this is a critical moment of awakening for Otto, because Otto now has achieved a level of self-awareness and of understanding that he did not have at the beginning of the film, because at the beginning of the film, he shared that same worldview.

He's like, dude, you see him?

Society made me what I am, I blame society for everything. And he's-

The first thing you see him do after he leaves the supermarket and he's dressed up in his punk rock gear is he sees Duke and they have like a slapping match or something and they're roaring at each other, yeah.

Yeah, we don't yet appreciate the significance of this psychic, spiritual, evolutionary leap of awareness that Otto has made. But this death scene is a masterpiece.

So then we see Parnell who's finally died and the men in black are cremating him.

Yeah, they incinerate him.

They're incinerating him in the park bench.

In situ.

They incinerate everything in situ. They're very good at incineration. It's one of their great gifts.

Very efficient about that. Then Otto returns to the repo yard and finds the feds are interrogating Marlene about the Malibu. Then he teams up with Marlene to take down the feds. Marlene escapes after Otto takes out the turd and coat repo yard guard with boiling hot coffee. But then more feds arrive, surround the place and they capture Otto for interrogation by Agent Rogers who has Layla torture him.

Yes. He's literally strapped to a bed and they're going to give him electric shocks. Layla is in charge of the electric shocks because she's in the team now. Yes. And she wants to torture him. She's ready to. She's very excited about it.

She seems to have a thing about-

She even says to him, it's just torture. It's not personal.

Yeah.

By the way, again, first of all, electrical torture, very, very big technique taught in the School of the Americas, which is where we taught the Contras and all of the people that we trained in Latin America. They did a lot of electrical torture of people, so that's a big thing that's already happening over there. But also just how she says, it's torture, it's not personal auto.

Yeah.

Which is, yes.

But you should take a moment and talk about the actress's voice. She's so childlike in how she sounds and speaks.

Yeah.

I just really, I thought the casting of her was amazing.

She's disturbing.

She's disturbingly adorable.

Right.

Yes.

It's remarkable. I think her performance is great, and also the contrast of her and Agent Rogers' just dispassionate distance, who's adopted her now as like a protege. It's just so crazy.

But because we live in a lattice of coincidence, although the-

Yes. Who bursts in to rescue Otto is Marlene and the Rodriguez Brothers-

Lagardo and Nappo, Roger Ebert and Marlene.

Revolutionary garb, carrying Uzis, burst in and rescue Otto, but Agent Rogers is unfazed and says it's all part of the plan.

Can I throw something out in there? This movie is a much better adaptation of anything Thomas Pynchon ever did than anything Paul Thomas Anderson ever did calling an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon. In the same way that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is the best movie ever made that is not a Philip K. Dick novel, but it's totally a Philip K. Dick novel because the focus here is so much on these coincidences, and this to me generally feels like reading a Thomas Pynchon book in a way that none of the PTA adaptations feel like it.

I'm a fan of One Battle After Another. I think it's a really great film. I think Repo Man is better.

But I also think that if you look at One Battle After Another, the things that remain from Thomas Pynchon in that movie are things like the name Colonel Lockjaw and the Christmas Adventurers Club and things like that. But the actual progression of the film doesn't feel like that Pynchonian level of absurdity, which this movie totally hits on all cylinders, you know?

Yes, yes. And it does with such exquisite clockwork precision.

Yeah.

Even though it feels so chaotic and rough around the edges, when you really kind of examine it, I just think this is a structural formalist marvel.

If you look at this movie in One Battle After Another as living in the orbit of Thomas Pynchon, right? And living in that orbit of that absurd capitalist-hating, revolutionary kind of mindset, right?

Yeah.

It's almost like One Battle After Another is the marijuana version of this movie, and this is the methamphetamine-speed cocaine version of this movie. One's an upper, the other one's kind of chilled out a little bit. And this is definitely the cocaine version. Anyway, the Rodriguez Brothers show up with Marlene. They're carrying Uzis, they look like, and they save Otto, right?

Yes, and then they have to go find Bud, who they race to the hospital to go find him. They take Otto in.

What is the first thing you hear when you enter the hospital? It is the hospital PA saying, Dr. Benway to surgery, which is quoting William Burroughs' Naked Lunch, which I just adore.

It's very good.

So anyway, do go on.

Yes. Marlene and Otto take out a couple of hospital workers to impersonate medical staff. Otto finds an air freshener on a door knob, and then finds Bud kind of zoned out in bed, hospital bed watching our favorite televangelist. The televangelist is like a runner throughout the whole film.

Reverend Larry keeps showing up over and over again, yeah?

Otto then tries to reconcile with Bud at his bedside, at his hospital bed to no avail as the feds arrive. So Marlene Otto and Napo Rodriguez flee to the stairwell. Napo has an oozy shootout with the men in black.

I love how they distract the men in black. They actually pull the pins on their gas grenades, so the entire hospital gets covered. It's phenomenal.

Oh my God, this sequence, I think we'll have that clip. We'll have that clip shortly. What's funny, though, is that now the men in black have co-opted the televangelist who is using the broadcast to ask his viewers to help find the Malibu.

Yes.

Rodriguez Brothers, Marlene Otto flee.

I don't think they've co-opted him. I think Reverend Larry was part of this all along. I think Reverend Larry is how they're financing the...

I think you're right. Rodriguez Brothers, Marlene Otto flee the feds into this parking garage as the now fully green, glowing Malibu...

The Malibu is now glowing bright, Grileen.

And Harry Dean Stanton... Yeah, it is kind of floating through the garage and it takes out a couple of feds with lightning.

Because lightning is now flying out of the car, yes.

And then they're cornered and captured by the feds and asked where the Malibu is and then we cut to the hospital scene and the tear gas and it's this clip which is, I just think, gives a sense of the crazy chaos.

Where's the Malibu?

Don't even ask. Because I don't know. I mean, I don't have it, Marlene doesn't have it, you and your crazy friends don't have it. So that only leaves...

That's the part with the gas grenades. I mean, and then it's Bud with the Malibu. And let's bring it home. Let's bring it home.

Yeah, so, but here, I just, the glory, the glory of the meta text between the action in the scene...

Reverend Larry.

The Reverend Larry on the TV, the fact that now Bud is risen from...

His hospital bed.

The hospital bed. And now it's presumably, he's the one in the car, we think, Otto escapes back to the garage after he unleashes the tear gas canisters, breaks into a car and then is heading out and it is now raining ice, the radio tells us.

You're right.

Not hailing.

Not frogs. Ice cubes.

But ice cubes. And then lo and behold, Otto encounters the glorious green glowing Malibu.

Yep.

Tranquilly, perfectly back in the repo yard and Bud is in the driver's seat as a helicopter approaches.

Now I have one big question here, and it's a big one, and I think only producer Brad has the acuity, the mental acuity to figure this out. Did he at least hit the same helicopter from Time Rider? Because I have a feeling that Michael Nesmith did not have two helicopters. Producer Brad?

I will have to look that up, I don't know.

Okay.

The answer is yes, it just is. Of course it is.

I just want to know, but the numbers will probably still match because I don't think either movie had the budget to paint the numbers over, so there you go, yeah.

Probably.

So Paul, everybody's converged on the repo yard now. Everybody's here, yeah.

Okay, okay, we have to savor this. We have to savor this.

Okay, all right.

So, Otto tries to negotiate with Bud, but Bud is not there.

He's out to look.

He's mentally, he's checked out. But then, like as things intensify and the chopper approaches, Bud rises defiant, threatening the chopper with a gun that then gets shot by a shooter on the chopper violently. The feds arrive, hazmat suits approach, but are repelled by a force field and lightning.

Lightning coming out of the car.

By the car that apparently has achieved sentience.

So they bring out their secret weapon to try to get the car to knock the fuck off. And that secret weapon is?

The televangelist.

Reverend Larry.

Who approaches confidently, holding out-

The Bible!

The Holy Bible, which the Malibu strikes with a bolt of lightning.

Yes.

Inflaming it because-

With great vengeance and furious anger, yeah.

Clearly, the televangelist is a false prophet. And the televangelist has a great line here. He says, holy sheep shit. But then the greatest thing happens.

It is so good. It is so good.

And this scene, I will tell you, like there's so much in this movie that I love. But rewatching this scene and revisiting this moment after decades, and of being reconnected to early teenage Paul, first witnessing this and I got the same chills that I did then.

Okay. Were they multiplying?

As, no, as, don't ruin it, as a cherubic and fully tranquil, contented Miller, Tracy Walters, calmly approaches the glowing green Malibu and it lets him. It does not repel him with a force field or lightning.

Scuzzy, Scuzzy Yoda comes in and uses the force and it works.

And they are communicating and not just communicating, they're communing on a psychic level. And Miller gently caresses the roof of the Malibu and it welcomes him inside unharmed.

Right.

And everyone is witnessing this inexplicable interaction and Otto says this.

Otto, don't go.

So in this moment, Miller is beckoning Otto.

What about our relationship?

that.

You shithead!

And the score, my God, the score in this scene is, it's perfect. It could not-

Who scored the movie, by the way? Who actually has the credit for the?

So it's members of, I wanna say members of, now I'm gonna-

I have two names, Steve Huffstader and Tito Lariva.

Wow.

And also then was the lead singer in Tito and Tarantula. Oh wow. So yeah, so these are like punk musicians who were commissioned to score the film. And it's incredible what they do. And this is like revolutionary from a film scoring standpoint. This is well before Danny Elfman makes the leap from Oingo Boingo to scoring Tim Burton movies.

So here's what happened. So now Otto has gotten in the car with Miller and the car has simply begun to fly.

It levitates.

It levitates. It is an ascension to heaven, literally. The film literally ends with Otto meeting an angel and being taken on a soaring ride above luck. You realize Tracy Walters character is in fact an angel. To the degree that this movie has a spiritual component to it. And this is the apotheosis of Otto, you know?

Yeah. And Otto has the perfect moment.

He has rejected the woman who tried to torture him, even though he's a horn dog and was, you know, whatever. He has kind of rejected the Repo Man lifestyle. You know, he's kind of like his mentor has now passed.

Yes.

And I mean, literally, if you look at the hero's journey, he's literally, this is the boon. This is...

Auto achieves punk transcendence.

That's right. That's right. It's, I don't know what to say. It's phenomenal.

It's amazing. And he makes this perfect observation of the moment with Miller. Wow.

This is intense.

Life in the Repo Man is always intense.

And then, they go to hyperspace.

Yep, and that's...

It's like a 2001 moment. They leave the... The Stargate opens, they leave the bounds of our earthly existence, and perhaps time travel to the past, or the future.

We don't know. I hope not the future, because it doesn't look like it's getting much better.

But they ascend, and then the end credits roll down, not up.

There's only one or two movies I've ever seen the credits roll down. One of them is THX 1138. And I think the other one is Requiem for a Dream is like that. I think it has like that weird...

Paul. It's perfect.

It's... Yeah, no, this...

And it is one of the perfect endings.

I have to say, Paul, that, you know, like, having just watched this movie, I was not nearly as enthusiastic having seen it as I am talking to you about it. I feel like I have a new... I'm not kidding. I feel like I have a new appreciation for it and that it's... You've seen my appreciation of this movie grow in real time as we discuss it. I just also want to say, Paul, so now you and I are, you know, men of a certain age. Producer Brad is not. He is much younger than the both of us. So here's my... So here's... Isn't it weird to be... And I know this is not a first time that I've made this, that somebody has made this, but it's very odd to have communed with punk rock during its early years of the late 70s, you know, 76 to the early 80s, and then now beat this age and looking at this and going... And looking at it almost nostalgically.

Yeah.

That, you know, when you talk about kind of like what this podcast is about, which is looking at the objects of our youth as adults, it is so weird to look at stuff like this specifically that was meant to be so revolutionary and countercultural and all that. And it's just now part of the great river of content that's out there, you know? I mean, what are your feelings about... Revisiting your love of punk and of this movie specifically now as the age group that this movie is rebelling against?

So I had a mixture of apprehension and excitement to revisit this film because I've had my Criterion Blu-ray, since it came out, however many years ago that was, unopened, sealed, waiting. I didn't know what, but I think part of it was that for decades, without realizing it, I was keeping it in the sacred place of memory and of my youth of when it was this thing that spoke to me so profoundly and beautifully. And of course, as you grow and you change in life of the world, advance, you wonder, was it what I remember? Was it, will it hold up? Am I going to still feel the connection and the resonance that was there? And to find that it is completely intact. I'm thrilled for you. That's great.

My God, that's a good feeling, yeah.

This has honestly been one of the greatest experiences of this podcast for me. Because I don't know how much longer I would have waited to revisit this thing that I love. And to finally have reason to do it and be so welcomed and re-embraced by it is so enthralling and invigorating to me.

That makes me so happy to hear that. I'm thrilled to hear that, Paul. That's really touching. I'm glad. I'm really happy for you.

Yeah, it's a masterpiece. I think I still think it's a perfect movie and still has so much to say. And in its weird way, like, yes, there's all this nihilism and like commentary about capitalism and consumerism. But there's this light that shines through, that to me remains this beacon of aspiration.

Aspiration in what way?

Of transcendence, the we can, of all this shit. There is still magic and cosmic mysticism that connects us if we take the moment to look for it and allow it to find us and can help us get to a better place.

I have nothing to add to that other than producer Brad. Paul, let me just reiterate, I am thrilled. I am absolutely thrilled. We have seen two Michael Nesmith movies, right?

Yeah.

One of them literally transported, in spite of our disdain of the film, transported me and producer Brad back to that wonderful place of being a teenager, watching movies on VHS. Now for you to have this response to this movie, it's really great.

Yeah. As I said during Time Rider, Repo Man would not exist if it were not for Time Rider. If he hadn't made that and learned from that experience, he could not have achieved this, which apparently was made for like one and a half million dollars. For all the grace you extended to Time Rider, Paul.

So I owe Time Rider. Time Rider is crap, but it is crucial crap.

The Shyamalanesk plot twists happening in our relationship here between the three of us are amazing.

Yeah.

Producer Brad, how did this movie do?

Well, first, since you asked, Time Rider, it was a Sikorsky S-58T helicopter.

I love it, Producer Brad.

In Repo Man, it was a Bell Jet Ranger. They were not the same helicopter.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

So the movie opened March 2nd, 1984. It was limited release in 39 theaters. Its first week in May, $95,000. For its run, it ended up making $2.3 million. And as Paul said, the budget was $1.5 million. There were five other new movies the same weekend. Four did better than it. The four that did better were Against All Odds, Harry and Son, Sahara, Over the Brooklyn Bridge. The movie that did less was in only three theaters, and that was Spinal Town.

Oh, really? Wow.

Okay. That's interesting. Wow. But by the way, that these two movies are actually contemporaries is really interesting. I'd never put those pieces together.

Yeah.

The movie was not doing well in the theaters, and Universal was thinking of pulling it. But their soundtrack, the record division, MCA said, this soundtrack is doing well. Then they redid the marketing to make it look more like a romantic comedy. They airbrushed the poster. They made Debbie look lighter, and they removed Emilio Estevez earrings, the cross-earings that make it more palatable for the mainstream.

Interesting.

And then it went wide and it made some money, so it did okay. That's great.

Yeah. And the soundtrack is a landmark. I think we're going to need a new multi-adjective award category, which is not just best score, but best soundtrack.

Well, you know, I think we can. Yeah, absolutely.

We could do that.

Because this soundtrack, I mean, is incredible.

Well, and speaking of soundtracks, the top five movies at the same weekend, Footloose, huge soundtrack, Against All Odds, which was the Big Phil Collins song, and then Blame It on Rio, and then Lasseter, Tom Selleck. Someday we're going to watch a Tom Selleck movie. We'll squeeze one in on this, and Unfaithfully Yours with Dudley Moore. So those were the big movies of the weekend that this movie came out in.

Wow. Well, you know what? Lasting Cultural Impact, I think we've gone through it. I mean, this film remains a touchstone, I think, for a lot of people. So yeah, I think, interestingly enough, I think Lasting Culture would have rival Spinal Tap, I don't think in terms of mainstream acceptance and appreciation.

It remains a cult film and somewhat of an obscure curiosity. I don't think it's penetrated the culture.

It hasn't gone mainstream, which is kind of cool.

It's never really gone mainstream. And part of me loves that, is that it's still a little underground.

But I look at this movie the same way that, was it Brian Eno who said about the Andy Warhol album for The Velvet Underground, that only 100 people listen to it, but every one of those 100 people started a band. Yeah. It's one of those movies that I think people who are passionate about storytelling and things like that, I think a lot of us have seen it and continue to appreciate it. Does that make sense?

Yeah, I think it has enormous influence and continues to, and exists as this, you know, weird fulcrum, you know, in the continuum of contemporary cinema in this time, and clearly ahead of its time, but also so of its time, but it's just almost vibrates with, I don't know, just this this energy of and vibrancy of, yeah, it's singular.

Everyone in this film meant it, you know, and they all brought their A game, and they made a movie that is really fucked up and weird, but that's actually like a really great thing, you know, and I believe that's why it continues to resonate, you know, even though it is not a movie that a lot of people know, you know.

Now it did have a few spinoffs and sort of quasi-sequels. Paul, have you seen any of them?

So I have them, both the graphic novel, sequel, which there was a long attempt to make a sequel film that did not happen and then kind of did. And I don't know that I want to venture into them. I'm very conflicted, because Repo Man to me is so perfect and singular. But yeah, please elaborate, Producer Brat, for our...

Well, there was one called Repo Chick from 2009, and it had many of the same cast members were in it. And I don't know the story of it.

Yeah, it's not really an official sequel, but it's sort of a spiritual, like, cousin, yeah, so...

Alex Cox is in it, too.

Yes, not really.

Yes, so it has some blessings, but I think it's fairly loosely connected. But yeah, but there is a kind of official graphic novel sequel that continues Otto's story. And I remain blissfully ignorant of what transpires there.

Yeah, I think sometimes if you like something enough, like, you don't, you know, like, I haven't read any of the Buckaroo Bouncey spin-offs. I haven't read the new novel either, anything like that. Like, I just like the purity of my experience of it, which was that novel, the novel that they wrote the movie, and not even the Marvel comic book, just the novel and the movie, that's it. That's all I need. I'm not looking at any other stuff, so I get it. I totally understand why that would be the case. So, producer Brad, what are we doing next?

Well, this was our second of three spring specials for 1984. Our third and final is Javi's Choice. Javi, would you like to tease what we're gonna watch?

It's a movie that I have not seen in decades, but that I loved when I saw and was a huge advocate for and continue to believe it to be a great film, so God, I hope it holds up. I think it does.

It's so much fun.

It's a movie called Romancing the Stone, and it is, if I'm so excited, because it's also a movie that a lot of people don't talk about anymore, but it's, I mean, Paul, I have such high hopes that this movie will not disappoint me because I know that the screenplay is a legend and Zemeckis directed it, and it's Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. I mean, I can't wait. I'm very excited.

Yeah, and as you said, it's overshadowed by the towering works that would follow by Zemeckis.

Yes, not to mention that it was overshadowed in its same year by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, even though they're very different types of movies, romancing the stone was seen as that kind of swashbuckling thing. So it's sort of like, you know, coming out in the same years in Indiana Jones' movie, it looked a little bit like it, like not like an all-around, but like an attempt to do that Raiders thing. But it's so different and so much better.

A lighter frothier.

Yeah. Save some for the episode, guys.

Okay, guys, I cannot wait. And until then, we will see you all in line at the Multiplex.