0:01

Blackjack with

0:04

Griffin and

0:06

Davis. Blackjack

0:08

with Griffin

0:10

and David.

0:12

Don't know

0:14

what to

0:16

say or

0:18

two aspects.

0:20

All you need

0:22

to know is that

0:25

the name of the

0:27

show is Blackjack.

0:30

BC podcast! Blanchak Podcast! Wow,

0:32

that was stupid. That was great.

0:34

That was so dull. It was simple. Yeah,

0:37

it was just forward. Oh my God,

0:39

our microphones are all glowing at the tip.

0:41

Would you rather I call you podcast, Brad?

0:43

I was about to say that's what

0:45

I would do. That's the Griffin move,

0:47

but this is too important of a

0:50

movie to do something that disrespectful to

0:52

the film and to the medium of

0:54

podcasting, the serious medium of podcast. Here's

0:56

the thing about penis, we're starting out

0:58

great. Yeah. Yeah. Two things about

1:00

it. One, my favorite thing about him

1:03

saying penis breath beyond the fact that

1:05

it is such a specific... Insult. Yeah,

1:07

and I got four things to

1:09

say about. Calling him a jerk, calling

1:12

him an asshole. Is that the monk

1:14

cannot help but laugh because it's such

1:16

a specific, like she can't even shy

1:19

to, she's clearly being like, she

1:21

goes, it's a full laugh while she's

1:23

attempting to scold him. When I was

1:25

a teenager, I met Chris Columbus. Hey.

1:28

Because my mom, I think interviewed him

1:30

for Harry Potter. So she sailed the

1:32

ocean blue. all the way over to

1:35

London. It was in London. And, um,

1:37

and, and, and, yeah, it was a good

1:39

joke. And maybe it was in her interview.

1:41

I just look, this is all I remember

1:43

is that the story was, it was right

1:45

around when ET got, uh, revamped, right? It

1:47

was for the 20th anniversary, 2002.

1:49

Right. Yep. And someone asked him about

1:51

it. He'd worked with Spielberg, right. And

1:53

we're like, what do you think of

1:55

the fact that Spielberg made a couple

1:57

of a couple tweaks and he. And

1:59

he's. And he did? He did? In

2:02

the 20th version they take out

2:04

penis breath. What? I think it

2:06

gets stuffed over with something else.

2:08

No. The changes, the big changes

2:10

in the 20th are penis breath,

2:12

walkie-talkies removed, or walkie-talkies replaced guns,

2:14

digitally. No adults hold guns. Oh,

2:16

that's such an important detail. Correct.

2:18

So dumb. Highly regrets it. And

2:20

we're going to talk about this.

2:22

This is what's fascinating. Versus all

2:24

the other times we've talked about

2:26

this kind of tinkering, Spielberg within

2:28

one year of it was like

2:30

that was a mistake, pulled the

2:32

20th version from circulation and now

2:34

it's hard to watch that, which

2:36

is why it's hard for us

2:38

to recount recount. Yes, you have

2:40

to get the out of print

2:42

DVD. And then he did the

2:44

fucking CGI ET. There's one scene

2:46

where there's a holistic CGI ET

2:48

and then he did a lot

2:51

of face replacements and bits and

2:53

all of that sucks. The penis

2:55

breath thing, Grief, I don't think

2:57

that's true. Are you sure about

2:59

it? Yes, I think you may

3:01

have read that in this anic.

3:03

Cool news article from 2000 and

3:05

what but it's not true. Okay.

3:07

That was their rumor. She changes

3:09

she doesn't say terrorist She says

3:11

something else like post 9-11 world

3:13

because it was post 9-11 the

3:15

off-screen dialogue of her saying to

3:17

Michael Michael yes, you know, you're

3:19

not going out dressed like a

3:21

terrorist. It's changed like pirate or

3:23

so I don't know like something

3:25

like yes offensive. Not offensive. My

3:27

favorite thing about penis breath And

3:29

obviously, none of us were alive

3:31

in 1982. We can't speak to

3:33

what it was like to be

3:35

on the schoolyards in the immediate

3:37

release of this movie. I like

3:40

that it feels like an insult

3:42

exclusive to this film. You do

3:44

not hear it. Otherwise, I'm like,

3:46

it's astounding that it isn't even

3:48

quoted more. Every time he says

3:50

it and I'm waiting for it,

3:52

it still hits me right, because

3:54

it's surprising. Well, penis breath. It

3:56

was nothing like that penis breath.

3:58

Welcome to Blank Checks. I almost

4:00

said special features because I'm the

4:02

one who introduced... That stuff. Cut

4:04

that out. Welcome. PC podcast. Yeah,

4:06

see, the whole thing is, Griff's

4:08

like, let's do this intro where

4:10

Ben does ET, but he's, Griffin

4:12

has a good ET. Yeah. Do

4:14

ET. You're a professional voice actor.

4:16

Okay, so you repeat the part.

4:18

No, you do the Ellie. DC.

4:20

Cast. Do the, plain check podcast.

4:22

Do the, um, the ride. Right,

4:24

what's the, doesn't the ET ride,

4:26

doesn't you say like your name

4:29

at the end of it or

4:31

whatever? By David. Right, and you're

4:33

like, whoa, he said my name.

4:35

Ben. Can you do Griffin? A.K.

4:37

A. Producer, Ben. A. K.A. Producer.

4:39

Ben. A. K. A. K. A.

4:41

Producer. Ben. The band. A. Ben.

4:43

A. A. A. A. A. A.

4:45

A. A. On Patriot. Yeah, I

4:47

think we'll put I feel like

4:49

it's always a little like goodbye.

4:51

Do they like have one person?

4:53

It's not like a computer program

4:55

that figures out the same name.

4:57

They just have one person read

4:59

like a thousand names. This is

5:01

what's great about it is the

5:03

ride is I want to say

5:05

it's still sponsored by AT&T. It's

5:07

AT or T. You have to

5:09

choose. You still have to choose.

5:11

Ten county points a decade of

5:13

decade of dreams. Way to throw

5:15

back to in all. all-time moment

5:18

on the show. If I remember

5:20

correctly the system is still and

5:22

the last time I went on

5:24

it was like two years ago

5:26

you get handed a phone card

5:28

while you wait online and then

5:30

right before you board the ride

5:32

you hand that phone card to

5:34

an operator you tell them your

5:36

name they type your name into

5:38

a computer and they link it

5:40

to knowing which number ride vehicle

5:42

you're in so it will time

5:44

out properly. But it is still

5:46

a pretty fucking manual system. But

5:48

that is, yeah, it's kind of

5:50

an old-fashioned way of doing it.

5:52

Right, I guess, what else are

5:54

you going to do? Yeah. very

5:56

fun this ride I'm watching it

5:58

we'll talk about it looks like

6:00

a very chill yes not not

6:02

too intense right we've we've talked

6:04

about the scuttled blank check goes

6:07

to Orlando plans over the years

6:09

who knows if it ever happens

6:11

I have always felt like if

6:13

we could make it happen this

6:15

is the ride where you would

6:17

walk off and be like enchanting

6:19

I get where you're coming from

6:21

not that you would be fully

6:23

theme park-filled but I think you

6:25

would have a florky-esque Wall comes

6:27

down, I get it. It's one

6:29

of the rides, it's one of

6:31

the few rides that has actually

6:33

stuck with me. Wow. It is

6:35

enchanting, it is relaxing, it is...

6:37

I like relaxing, I like hearing

6:39

that. Yeah, and it's a fascinating

6:41

combination of the first half the

6:43

ride is you basically going through

6:45

ET the movie as a ride.

6:47

And then you're like on his

6:49

planet or something? Then the second

6:51

half the ride is basically Spielbergberg

6:53

being like... These are the things

6:56

I developed when Universal begged me

6:58

to make a sequel, and I

7:00

decided it was better to leave

7:02

the movie as is, but you

7:04

know what? I'll let them write

7:06

a sequel novel, and I'll put

7:08

it in the ride. And you

7:10

go to ET's plant with a

7:12

bunch of guys. A bunch of

7:14

weird plant guys who are like

7:16

playing instruments on their belly and

7:18

doing stuff, and then he says,

7:20

your motherfuckin' name, which rules, because

7:22

I'm gonna say it. Pow

7:26

I just shit my pants. This is

7:28

a blank check with Griffin and David.

7:30

I'm Griffin. I'm David It's a podcast

7:33

about fromographies Directors who have massive success

7:35

early on in their careers and are

7:37

given a series of blank checks to

7:40

make whatever crazy passion products they want

7:42

and sometimes those checks clear and sometimes

7:44

they bounce baby Sometimes they fly in

7:47

front of the moon and into film

7:49

history Here's my first one. Okay. I

7:51

think this movie is good. Okay, that's

7:54

not. a hot take at all, that's

7:56

widely held opinion. Second, and this is

7:58

a hot take. I think this is

8:00

one of the most successful movies of

8:03

all time. It's not even like a

8:05

take. It's just a matter of data.

8:07

And third, I think this is one

8:10

of the most important movies in history.

8:12

Just kind of in like cultural kind

8:14

of Omni present. These are hot takes.

8:17

I don't want anyone to cancel me

8:19

for this. I'm very excited to be

8:21

talking about ET. I see. Okay. Today

8:24

we've gotten to what I think is

8:26

his best phone. I think it's sort

8:28

of inarguably his, I have AI above

8:31

it as a personal favorite, I think

8:33

ET is, his, Opus, yes. I mean,

8:35

AI and ET are very paired, in

8:38

my opinion, Ben, can you grab me

8:40

a cell, sir, this voice is gonna

8:42

keep catching up with me. I think

8:45

at Power of the Sun and E.T.

8:47

you're very linked. I think Catch me

8:49

if you can, E.T. you're very linked.

8:52

I think because it deals with so

8:54

many of the core themes, he has

8:56

other movies that are like adjacent to

8:59

ET that I could understand, people ranking

9:01

above or below. But I'm like, this

9:03

is the cleanest example of everything coming

9:06

to ahead. Yeah, this is, yeah, look.

9:08

Yeah, I mean it's ET. This is

9:10

always gonna be a top episode. It's

9:13

a, it's, you know, there's, it's easy

9:15

to go into superlatives because there's really

9:17

no way to over superlative ET. Yeah.

9:20

And its success is undeniable and it's

9:22

the best. Talking about his blank check

9:24

status. Watch the trailer for this movie.

9:27

That very wisely hides ET. In all

9:29

of the trailers for the movie, all

9:31

you saw. was his hand and the

9:34

glowing finger at the very end. Silhouette

9:36

of the hand. I feel like you

9:38

don't even see silhouette of the rest

9:41

of his body. So like seeing E.T.

9:43

was surprised was kept off the poster.

9:45

The main poster image at the time.

9:48

Was the two fingers touching, right? This

9:50

is how the trailer opens. In 1975,

9:52

he brought you Joss. Yeah. In 1977,

9:55

he brought you close encounters of the

9:57

third kind. Let's not pay attention to

9:59

what happened in 1979. In 1981, he

10:02

brought you raiders of the Lost Ark.

10:04

In 1982, he brings you ET, the

10:06

extraterrestrial. Why not? If you're sitting in

10:09

the theater and you see that trailer,

10:11

you're like, great, you're promising me. One

10:13

of the greatest movies ever. You're promising

10:16

me. the fucking pinnacle of Hollywood filmmaking

10:18

and this movie like delivered. Right? There's

10:20

like a confidence to that pitch that

10:23

it is incredible it met and also

10:25

met in a way where the weird

10:27

contradiction of ET is like this is

10:30

his small personal movie. Yes, it is.

10:32

And it is undeniably smaller in scale

10:34

than the films you've been making. Intimate

10:37

film and if you actually recount it,

10:39

like five things happen in this movie.

10:41

Sure. And nonetheless, it's an epic, it's

10:44

sort of a little epic, as I

10:46

think you put it. A mini epic.

10:48

Yes. And it has real sweep, shriep,

10:51

to it. Look, obviously, a lot of

10:53

that is John Williams, who we will

10:55

talk about. A lot of that is

10:58

just the emotion this film is able

11:00

to tap into makes it feel operatic.

11:02

When it is actually very contained in

11:05

focused. And watching it today, it is

11:07

just like astounding as much as I

11:09

still feel like ET is one of

11:12

the movies that probably gets repeated in

11:14

like the offices of studio execs all

11:16

the time of wouldn't be great to

11:19

make something like ET. This thing would

11:21

not pass one notes round. This thing

11:23

would not survive. You just cannot imagine

11:26

them not feeling the need to explain

11:28

everything. Add bigger set pieces blow it

11:30

off heighten the stakes, you know, sure,

11:33

I think there could be What I

11:35

think the movie is missing, and I

11:37

don't know if you guys agree with

11:40

me is Barb. I don't bring her

11:42

in. You want Barb from Stranger Things?

11:44

Stranger Things is one of those, like,

11:47

totemic shows that invented everything that happens

11:49

in it, right? You know, it's like,

11:51

the tone, the vibes, the, the tone,

11:53

the vibes, the, the tone, the vibes,

11:56

the, the tone, the vibes, the aesthetic,

11:58

the, the tone, the vibes, the, the

12:00

tone, the, the tone, the tone, the

12:03

tone, the vibes, the vibes, the tone,

12:05

the vibes, the tone, the vibes, the

12:07

tone, the vibes, the, the, the tone,

12:10

the tone, the, the tone, the tone,

12:12

the, the tone, the tone, the, the

12:14

tone, the tone, the, the tone, the,

12:17

the tone, the tone, the, the, the

12:19

tone, the tone, the, the, the tone,

12:21

the, the You know, look, I have

12:24

famous being facetious. I am being facetious.

12:26

I just wanted to really crystallize. I

12:28

love to occasionally bring up Barb. Barb

12:31

because I've never made it past like.

12:33

episode three of Stranger Things. I tried

12:35

three times if that show was so

12:38

popular. I've never watched a second of

12:40

it. You know, trying to be like,

12:42

this show is so popular. I'm sure

12:45

I would, and I always, so I've

12:47

tried three times, so I've watched Poor

12:49

Barb. Poor forgotten Barb. This like very

12:52

early character dies. I've watched her die

12:54

three times. Barb looms very large for

12:56

you. And then just been like, ah,

12:59

I can't be bothered. It's not tried

13:01

with episode. When you said Barb, Barb,

13:03

I was like. Do you want ET

13:06

to go to Vista Del Mar? What

13:08

are you implying? There's a new Barben

13:10

Cup with Barb and Star. Barben Star?

13:13

That would be so cute. You know

13:15

what rocks? Go to Vista Delmar. Barben

13:17

Star? Go to Vista Delmar? That movie

13:20

rules. Such a good movie. Yeah, here's

13:22

another movie that rules. ET, the extraterrestrial

13:24

from 1982. Yes, we do. I've so

13:27

fucking much to say. who were possibly

13:29

hovering around it, but the whole time,

13:31

every time we talked about it, we

13:34

kept circling back to, and by the

13:36

way, if we do ET guestless, that's

13:38

all right. That feels kind of ideal.

13:41

Oh yeah, for sure. You know, there

13:43

were few people kind of sniffing around,

13:45

and we were like, if it works,

13:48

it works, but you know what? I'm

13:50

down to just fucking, just lay out

13:52

and talk ET ET ET, E. The

13:55

boys. When did you first see ET

13:57

the extra trash? Great question. I cannot

13:59

carbon date it. It was young. It

14:02

was early. I feel like it was

14:04

presented to me as if it were

14:06

like the Grand Canyon. Same. Like you

14:09

are finally ready to understand a thing

14:11

that is like key to our culture.

14:13

But also I think what is still

14:16

so specific about ET. is it is

14:18

presented to children as this right of

14:20

passage of like are you finally ready

14:23

to go through a profound emotional interest?

14:25

Can you handle the sort of more

14:27

intense emotions of this big feelings movie?

14:30

Yes. My guess is I saw it

14:32

around five if not younger but like

14:34

I couldn't tell you. I couldn't either.

14:37

I remember very viscerally the experience of

14:39

watching it for the first time and

14:41

the emotional journey of it and yet

14:44

I can't pin what age it was

14:46

because it's hard for me to think

14:48

about a time before I had seen.

14:51

you just every time I watch E.T.

14:53

Yes. Realize how written into my brain

14:55

it is of just like Elliot's little

14:58

shark toy. Things like this. You know

15:00

where I'm just... You know where I'm

15:02

just... Yeah, like all right, like the

15:05

image of the blood on his finger.

15:07

Things are just like, I'm these all

15:09

these things made such an impact on

15:12

me at a young age and they

15:14

are so like, like when I see

15:16

them it's almost like freaky deja vu.

15:19

Like then I'm like remembering something that

15:21

happened to happen to happen to me.

15:23

Whatever yeah pounded into me. Yeah, you

15:26

wanna Ben? I mean same yeah, I

15:28

saw it very young. I don't remember

15:30

exactly when but it's just been so

15:33

It's ingrained in me You know, and

15:35

we were all born after it came

15:37

out. It's not like we even saw

15:40

it, you know, in theaters or whatever.

15:42

And I remember the VHS tape having

15:44

a little green corner at the bottom

15:46

of the version I had that just

15:49

like always stuck out to me as

15:51

seeing it on the shelf. Okay. And

15:53

this also for sure implanted in my

15:56

mind that I want to be abducted

15:58

by an alien. So ET is kind

16:00

of a real pivot point movie for

16:03

you? Definitely. Yeah. So David's similar

16:05

experience for you? Wanting to

16:07

be abducted by an alien? No, no,

16:09

no. Watching ET for the first time. That's

16:12

right. No, no, no. I don't remember. I

16:14

don't remember the first time I saw it.

16:16

I'll say this, like, all implanted in my

16:18

brain burned into me. It was not a

16:21

movie I watched obsessively as a child.

16:23

It was not a VHS we had

16:25

I remember this one very profound experience

16:27

and then my sister Romley long-time sister

16:30

who's nine years younger when she was

16:32

a couple years old and it was

16:34

like is Romley ready for ET We

16:36

rented it for her and I feel like

16:39

I had possibly not seen it since the

16:41

one time at that point Romley had

16:43

a phase where she was obsessed with it

16:45

and I feel like I watched it five

16:47

times with her sure when she was like,

16:49

you know, four and I was like 13.

16:51

And then we took roundly on the

16:53

universal ride, she got terrified because

16:55

she didn't like actually meeting ET.

16:57

There is, there no way that

16:59

he knew how to say her name.

17:02

It was bad. Yeah. It like activated

17:04

some satanic chant in ET and he

17:06

started talking backwards. No, and we were

17:08

like. Romi, Romi, stop calling, he's gonna

17:11

say your name and then he goes

17:13

like goodbye. I will post it on

17:15

social media but afterwards at Universal next

17:17

to the gift shop they have like

17:20

a photo op where you can get

17:22

on the bike and ride in front

17:24

of the moon with ET. And we were

17:26

like, don't you want a photo with

17:29

ET and probably stop crying for it?

17:31

Five seconds in order to do a

17:33

perfect child, like model smiling face pose.

17:36

We got the picture and then she

17:38

got off and started bawling again. The

17:40

photo's incredible. But so I watched it a

17:42

lot in that period. Sure. And then I've seen

17:45

it, I want to say two or three

17:47

times since then. They were released at

17:49

NIMAX a couple years ago. I remember

17:51

going to like a free public park

17:53

screening. ET. uh... probably ten years

17:55

ago that was weirdly the twentieth

17:57

version projected off a DVD where

18:00

Everyone like five minutes and was like,

18:02

oh, fuck, CGI. Right. But it is

18:04

a movie that was there. Jappo was

18:06

there. ET stepped on his tail and

18:09

then Jabba stepped on his neck. Yeah.

18:11

But yeah, it's just, it's a very

18:13

important film to me, despite it not

18:15

really being like one of my movies.

18:18

Yeah, I hear what you're saying that,

18:20

but this ET is, yeah, right, to

18:22

me, not a movie I'd want to

18:25

watch all the time. Do you outgrow

18:27

a little bit? because I definitely remember

18:29

having my collection and at some point

18:31

and I watched it a lot because

18:34

I didn't have a lot of VHS

18:36

tapes growing up. You owned it. You

18:38

owned it. Yeah. And at some point

18:41

I was like that's baby stuff. Of

18:43

course when you're a teenager you right

18:45

you you swing away but then you

18:47

swing back. Well no I hadn't swung

18:50

back until today. Because I swung back.

18:52

I mean well I was destroyed was

18:54

pretty wrecked. Destroyed. I can only imagine.

18:56

I think, look, I've talked about this

18:59

a lot. Romilly being almost a decade

19:01

younger than me basically insulated me from

19:03

needing to swing away from any childish

19:06

stuff. That's why. Because I was just

19:08

like, oh, I'll take her to every

19:10

animated movie. You're the man in front

19:12

of us today. Right, exactly. And obviously

19:15

my love of the craft of like

19:17

fucking puppets and animation, whatever, I still

19:19

wanted to watch these things clinically as

19:22

my adult brain was developing, but that

19:24

made it okay for me to see

19:26

everything to see everything. I do think,

19:28

I just want to call this out,

19:31

I think also, culturally, we were of

19:33

a generation where there was this kind

19:35

of like, you go through a phase

19:37

where you think Spielberg is a corny

19:40

manipulative bullshit artist. 100%! And that was

19:42

like a cultural thing of like... People

19:44

love Spielberg as kids, then they get

19:47

cynical about him if you get serious

19:49

about movies and then you maybe swing

19:51

back. Now Spielberg is sort of like

19:53

such an old master? Yeah, he's like

19:56

a guardian of cinema now. It's not

19:58

the same. Mostly making adult dramas? Yeah,

20:00

he makes original movies too, so people

20:03

are just like, oh, what, you know,

20:05

used to be... like Spielberg he's you

20:07

know playing to the middle of the

20:09

back right now he feels like someone

20:12

that like film Twitter protects more than

20:14

the general public does and reviewers you

20:16

know yeah but I do think that

20:18

was like a thing of like you're

20:21

in the 90s and people are like

20:23

is e t like corny bullshit no

20:25

no it's not it's it is it

20:28

is I just think it's like one

20:30

of the most emotionally astute movies ever

20:32

made I'm gonna say a lot of

20:34

hyperbolic things in this episode you need

20:37

to relax I'm going to need you,

20:39

I need you to relax because we're

20:41

going to go too crazy. It's so

20:44

fucking good. Yeah, it's very very good.

20:46

Steven Spielberg's ET. I'm going to just

20:48

open the dossier just to sort of,

20:50

just to kind of like put a

20:53

saucer under the cup. Kathleen Kennedy. A

20:55

person who everyone has normal feelings about.

20:57

Yeah, it's, look, it's my favorite thing

21:00

to say when people like to complain

21:02

about the things she has done in

21:04

charge of Lucas film and go like,

21:06

like, who is this woman anyway. Why

21:09

did she get this position? I'm like,

21:11

I don't know what success she had.

21:13

She produced ET? He met her. What

21:15

are you talking about? While working on

21:18

1941. Yes, she was John Millius' secretary.

21:20

And right, she was working for John

21:22

Millius and so she starts working for

21:25

Seamus Billberg. She's an associate producer on

21:27

Pielberg. While I was doing all this

21:29

close encounters research, I found out about

21:31

this UFO case in Kentucky. Go find

21:34

out about it. Yeah. She goes and

21:36

digs into it. There's a case where

21:38

a family said they've been visited from

21:41

creatures from outer space. It's called the

21:43

Kelly Hopkinsville encounter. It's a very famous

21:45

UFOology thing. Family of 12 that all

21:47

said, sort of like these gray aliens,

21:50

you know, hypnotized us. It's a classic

21:52

classic classic. They were a turn of

21:54

this sicaca seven. has just come out

21:56

and Spielberg hires John Sales off of

21:59

that to basically like dramatize this. And

22:01

this is the kind of fabled lost

22:03

project Night Sky. Correct. It's basically a...

22:06

our thriller kind of movie about like

22:08

families coming under attack by aliens and

22:10

Spielberg is like thinking about making this

22:12

piece like what if like 20 years

22:15

from now someone makes this movie and

22:17

it's about you know you throw cups

22:19

of water on them and baseball it's

22:22

just one of these passing things it's

22:24

funny that he that's chamalan the Air

22:26

to Spielberg at that moment makes signs

22:28

which is night skies like you know

22:31

with his with Shalom's themes answered great

22:33

point It's just fascinating to me that

22:35

this movie kind of comes from three

22:37

different streams of like thought incubation But

22:40

all three start with Spielberg like he's

22:42

not intercepting anything from the outside, right?

22:44

Like there's this one impulse while still

22:47

making close encounters that is like what

22:49

if I made a really scary alien?

22:51

rather than the spiritual one. Then the

22:53

second thread is while he's shooting close

22:56

encounters and they are filming the stuff

22:58

from the end of the movie where

23:00

the aliens come out of the ship

23:03

and there's the one main, Carlo and

23:05

Baldy, animatronic alien who is the one

23:07

who does the hand signals and really

23:09

interacts with Richard Rifas. He has this

23:12

like thought of what if this was

23:14

like a student exchange program? What if

23:16

Richard Rifas gets on the ship and

23:19

the alien stays behind? What happens if

23:21

there's one alien on Earth on Earth

23:23

on Earth? thinking about that in like

23:25

a Disney movie. And is it a

23:28

coincidence maybe that that movie was almost

23:30

kind of anti-family a little bit? We'll

23:32

talk about it. Okay, look. John Sales

23:34

delivers the script. Okay. Spielberg is just

23:37

kind of like, this is violent. I

23:39

don't want this. Too scary and also

23:41

is this different enough from close encounters.

23:44

Do I need to do this? And

23:46

he's reading the script. One of the

23:48

last images in the script is a

23:50

little alien left alone looking at the

23:53

sky. And Spielberg is like, well, well,

23:55

that's interesting. That's interesting. And so throughout

23:57

making raiders, he's trying, he's pondering this

24:00

and he's trying to get back to

24:02

the tranquility, he says, the spirituality of

24:04

close encounters. He's kind of lonely, his

24:06

girlfriend of the time, Kathleen Kerry. is

24:09

in California, so is George Lucas, Harrison

24:11

Ford is pooping his guts out all

24:13

the time, and Spielberg's like, I wish

24:15

I had a friend to talk to,

24:18

because you know, it's the days before

24:20

he could just fire up Twitter and

24:22

fire off some sexy posts. Twitter is

24:25

a great place for friends. Exactly, connects

24:27

to the world in a really healthy

24:29

way. He's bored. Yeah. And he's like...

24:31

What if I were 10 years old

24:34

again and I had like an imaginary

24:36

friend? I feel like it's been turned

24:38

into like there's this kind of apocryphal

24:41

like Spielberg had an imaginary alien friend

24:43

as a child. I think that is

24:45

not true. No, I think it's about

24:47

him going back to the idea of

24:50

imaginary friend. Exactly. And what is like,

24:52

why do children do that? What does

24:54

this like need to create a thing

24:56

to fill a void? you know, a

24:59

sense of like loneliness that needs to

25:01

be replaced with like an imaginary loyalty.

25:03

You know, because it's like kids with

25:06

friends have imaginary friends. It's not just

25:08

like a thing of latchkey children who

25:10

don't know how to socialize, but I

25:12

think it's the notion of that like

25:15

connectivity. I have an imaginary friend who

25:17

is always going to be there for

25:19

me that I can call on at

25:22

any moment. That's what he's riffing on,

25:24

not a specific imaginary friend of his

25:26

You know, he's pondering all of this

25:28

and he's thinking of course about his

25:31

father being gone and you know when

25:33

he was a young man and That's

25:35

how he comes up with Elliot and

25:37

this kid whose dad is flown off

25:40

to Mexico with another woman. But here's

25:42

the other part of this that the

25:44

third stream is during close encounters, which

25:47

he wrote of course He's like writing

25:49

another script or at least noodling with

25:51

the early stages of it being like

25:53

maybe I write all of my movies

25:56

and it is his first attempt to

25:58

try to make the thing that he

26:00

kicks the can on for 40 years

26:03

that eventually becomes the fable man's right

26:05

yeah it's the first attempt of being

26:07

like do I want to make a

26:09

movie about divorce maybe not a literal

26:12

autobiographical film about my family, but I

26:14

want to like excise the emotions of

26:16

divorce and being a child of divorce.

26:19

And like at many points over the

26:21

next couple decades, every time he sort

26:23

of toys with it, he goes, too

26:25

hot to handle. Sure. What he gets

26:28

into is the idea of can I

26:30

fold these three things together? Yeah. So

26:32

he's got the sales draft, he's like,

26:34

forget it. He brings in Melissa Matheson.

26:37

Yes. Who had written the Black Stallion

26:39

1975 or 1979 Black Stallion. Is on

26:41

set during Raiders. Because she is dating

26:44

Mr. Harrison Ford. Correct. And she's one

26:46

of the only people he's around there

26:48

to talk to. Yes. She's written the

26:50

Black Stallion, which he loves. She's written

26:53

the escape artist, which was a notoriously

26:55

kind of tragic and difficult production. And...

26:57

Uh, well, for instance for Copeland's Sun

27:00

dies during the making of that film,

27:02

uh, of that film, whatever. It's a

27:04

complicated movie, right? Sure. The point is,

27:06

he starts talking to her about, like,

27:09

I'm noodling with these ideas, there's the

27:11

sales draft I have, there's this other

27:13

thing I'm interested in, whatever it is,

27:15

Melissa Matheson's like, I'm retired, I don't

27:18

want to write anymore. But she's... She's

27:20

finally sort of locks in. What, David,

27:22

David. Let me read the dossier. Let

27:25

me read the dossier. Don't give me

27:27

that look. I just feel like why

27:29

do we even have the dossier then?

27:31

Because it's great. Okay. Well, she said...

27:34

JJ phone. She's not into science fiction.

27:36

She doesn't feel like a good writer.

27:38

She didn't like Black Stallion. Spill works

27:41

as he admired Black Stallion, which feels

27:43

a little more, you know, couched in.

27:45

But she was feeling very unhappy and

27:47

miserable about herself. She'd optioned a book

27:50

for some screenplay that she couldn't finish.

27:52

Whatever, they all lean on her, Kennedy,

27:54

Harrison, Ford, Spielberg, all lean on her,

27:56

she writes a draft, and she writes

27:59

a screenplay called E.T.N.M. Then it's called

28:01

a boys. life. She consults with Harrison

28:03

Ford's young sons, Willard and Benjamin. Good

28:06

names. Sure. Will that be true? And

28:08

she says that multiple kids that she

28:10

talks to basically with this proposal of

28:12

like what would you do if you

28:15

had an imaginary sort of alien friend

28:17

bring up the healing, taking the owies

28:19

away, right? Interesting. And so she locks

28:22

into that as like, okay, that can

28:24

be what's sort of magical about him.

28:26

Yeah. The other thing is that Harrison

28:28

Ford's boys are obsessed with Dungeons and

28:31

Dragons. Okay. And she's like, okay. So

28:33

I think like I'm gonna have them

28:35

playing Dungeon Dragons, have the sort of

28:38

like seed the rich imaginative stuff there.

28:40

I like that. Yeah, I did too.

28:42

Phone home, Melissa's line. Okay. Spielberg's joke

28:44

was, Melissa, are you working for me

28:47

or AT&T? And she said, to quote

28:49

Ben Hosley, it's AT or at you,

28:51

you have to choose now. Yeah, funny.

28:53

But also, wait a second, Ben, plagiarize

28:56

that joke? But a decade of loss.

28:58

She's crap. Spielberg, Pace, then has lunch

29:00

with Kathleen Kennedy. Mm-hmm. Walks in with

29:03

the screenplay. Kathleen Kennedy's meeting with someone

29:05

at MGM MGM. GM, I think. And

29:07

he's just like, we could shoot this

29:09

draft. It's the first draft and he's

29:12

like, we could shoot this to me.

29:14

He says it is still. It's still

29:16

to this day, the best first draft

29:19

he's ever read. Kathleen Kennedy said, at

29:21

that point in time, I'd maybe read

29:23

five scripts. Right. But Spielberg said, like,

29:25

people would read it and cry. Right.

29:28

It's like, you know, which is not

29:30

usual for a screen play. thousands of

29:32

scripts and nothing's as good as that

29:34

first draft of ET. The other part

29:37

of it is that Spielberg had been

29:39

stewing on all the pieces of this

29:41

for so long that he's basically during

29:44

raiders like going to her and being

29:46

like, can I share some more thoughts

29:48

with you? So like the writing process

29:50

is like, and I think it extends

29:53

when Raiders wraps, wraps, them meeting and

29:55

spending days where he is just spilling

29:57

notions and ideas to her. And then

30:00

she's doing things like talking to Ford's

30:02

sons and going, what about this? What

30:04

about this? And they're like meeting on

30:06

it. They're talking through it a lot

30:09

before she goes off rights. Hands them

30:11

a perfect thing. And they're like, they

30:13

probably adjusted less than 10% of what's

30:15

in that draft. But so it makes

30:18

sense that this thing sort of like

30:20

comes together so quickly. Yeah, it doesn't

30:22

I think being in love with Harrison

30:25

Ford especially back then is kind of

30:27

a tricky thing. He's kind of a

30:29

grump, you know, but the right focus

30:31

on it which is she is getting

30:34

to sleep with him. That's pretty cool.

30:36

Sure. I mean, yes. But but but

30:38

so it makes sense that this thing

30:41

sort of like comes together so quickly.

30:43

Because it had been in him so

30:45

long, she knew it a process at

30:47

well, she was pulling from other places.

30:50

When she finally sits down to write,

30:52

it had all sort of been figured

30:54

out. But I also think it is

30:56

a key part of this movie for

30:59

how much Spielberg didn't really want to

31:01

talk about his childhood at length until

31:03

later in life, but everyone knew that

31:06

the divorce was seismic. I think people

31:08

used to read this movie as being

31:10

a lot more like one-to-one autobiographical. Where

31:12

when you watch this film now, you're

31:15

like, the circumstances of his childhood do

31:17

not line up very well to this

31:19

movie. It is speaking to a feeling,

31:22

it is speaking to an emotional truth,

31:24

but there is like not a ton

31:26

of overlap here. And I think if

31:28

Spielberg had tried to write this himself,

31:31

it would never have even gotten close

31:33

to being as good as her being

31:35

able to process it and with a

31:38

little distance, form an actual story around

31:40

this. It isn't. It's not a, yeah,

31:42

this is the, just because he's inspired

31:44

by his, you know, his childhood, you

31:47

know, search for a father figure and

31:49

all that, and that's in the movie.

31:51

It's right, it's not like some one-to-one

31:53

movie about Spielberg's childhood at all. No,

31:56

which is what I find fascinating. And

31:58

I think I'm going to just pin

32:00

on the board right here in our

32:03

conversation that I was thinking a lot

32:05

about on this most recent watch. What

32:07

is ET about? I have plenty of

32:09

answers to you on that. I have

32:12

plenty of answers to you too, but

32:14

I think part of the movie's power

32:16

is that it actually is a little

32:19

hard to pin down. that it is

32:21

a little bit of like a mirror

32:23

and I think why this movie is

32:25

so effective is I think it is

32:28

about certain very specific things but I

32:30

think it is about them in a

32:32

way that leaves enough room for everyone

32:34

to like fill in the pieces of

32:37

it this is my take I will

32:39

get into it I'm not sure I

32:41

agree with that yes I think ET

32:44

is a very universal and powerful feeling

32:46

that children have which is why I

32:48

agree that's what I think it's speaking

32:50

to yes well Rick Baker had been

32:53

brought in to I guess design a

32:55

bunch of monster aliens for night skies

32:57

and was basically told like this is

33:00

now a children's film and you have

33:02

to design one alien yeah was really

33:04

so he got really mad yeah and

33:06

exits the project you wasted my time

33:09

Spielberg turns to Stan Winston another icon

33:11

yeah And Stan Winston likes the script,

33:13

but then he also checks in with

33:15

Carlo Rambaldi, who of course did the

33:18

amatronic for the big monks. For King

33:20

Khan, and he did. He did do

33:22

the little alien in close encounters, who

33:25

obviously is only on screen for 10

33:27

seconds or whatever. But Kirlarambaldi comes from

33:29

fucking Doria or Gento movies. He is

33:31

it rude to say he looks like

33:34

he tea? It is not. I had

33:36

the exact same thought. He's a very

33:38

funny-looking guy. People always talk about that

33:41

like Spielberg, like, you know, throughout, like,

33:43

I want to look a little like

33:45

Einstein. Yeah, then he's like, he has

33:47

Einstein's eyes. I want the intelligence and

33:50

I want the kindness in this. And

33:52

then I was just, well, yeah, he's

33:54

got put Derek's rocking by. He's like,

33:57

like, even his Wikipedia photo in the...

33:59

background blurred out his ET and it's

34:01

like you're like brother look at this

34:03

side by side shape of his head

34:06

kind of triangulates he's got these very

34:08

rich big but wide set eyes and

34:10

then the kind of like small pointiness

34:12

of his mouth and his nose oh

34:15

my god that's so funny right yeah

34:17

And you look at him and there's

34:19

the same kind of like odd elusive

34:22

hard to pin down quality where you're

34:24

like this guy looks a little scary

34:26

a little intense kind emotionally like deep,

34:28

you know, it's all there. So Rambaldi,

34:31

Spilberg decides he wants both. Stan Winston

34:33

doesn't want to collaborate so Spilorg just

34:35

goes with them. Stan Winston apparently intensely

34:38

regretted that decision no shit obviously uh...

34:40

and he's you know gives him this

34:42

really great sort of suggestion of like

34:44

basically like i want him to be

34:47

off putting but not monstrous which is

34:49

kind of a tough needle to thread

34:51

and if the e t design is

34:53

bad this movie stinks i agree it's

34:56

really would be really hard to overcome

34:58

if you have like mac and me

35:00

like you know instead of e t

35:03

right the mac and me absolutely like

35:05

if you just have a stupid looking

35:07

thing and what's wild is like you

35:09

know Rambaldi comes from like someone who

35:12

did yellow movies, right? The year before

35:14

this, he does possession. Great movie. The

35:16

creature stuff that he actually designed Isabella

35:19

Johnny. People don't know that she is

35:21

a Carlo Rambaldi animator on it. And

35:23

that's the root of her recent like

35:25

legal tax issues is like puppets shouldn't

35:28

be filing taxes. She doesn't know. Yeah,

35:30

I think she went to jail for

35:32

a bit possibly. If you're French, yeah,

35:34

and you're a famous actor, yeah, and

35:37

then you get older, yeah, something weird

35:39

to happen. It is, I don't know

35:41

what it is. It is wild. It's

35:44

like a radioactive half-life thing where it's

35:46

like, oh, time's up, you're about to

35:48

get weird, it's some way or another.

35:50

Right. Does like, is like, is the

35:53

biggest talent, you see the great guys

35:55

from Deepa... My favorite Netflix show? Yes.

35:57

I know it's not a, it's probably,

36:00

you know, what's that show called? Call

36:02

my agent? Yes, yes. I love that

36:04

show. Yeah. on my monkey pod joke.

36:06

That was good. It does feel like

36:09

the fame catches up with all of

36:11

them in a weird way. Have you

36:13

ever watched Call My Agents? So my

36:15

mom was like, watch this show. I

36:18

think I was like, I don't know.

36:20

You might be surprised to hear that

36:22

my mom was like, watch the show.

36:25

You might be surprised to hear that

36:27

my mom was like, watch the show.

36:29

And I was like, you might be

36:31

surprised to hear that my mom was

36:34

like, watch the show, that my mom

36:36

was like watch the French act. It's

36:38

so funny. Anyway, what I was going

36:41

to say is that possession designs are

36:43

not that different from ET. Interesting. Is

36:45

that sort of like fleshy, gooey, lumpy,

36:47

brown, sort of like bio-organic body horror

36:50

thing to ET? Right. And it's just

36:52

give it nice eyes and more of

36:54

a kind of old band vibes. The

36:57

possession ones are fully terrifying, but it

36:59

is what you're talking about, that line

37:01

of like... there should be something a

37:03

little off-putting for him in him. What

37:06

will make him feel real is the

37:08

idea that the audience has to kind

37:10

of like learn to love him and

37:12

warm up to him and start to

37:15

see a personality in him rather than

37:17

all other movies like this design something

37:19

that at first blush is cute, right?

37:22

Like they don't trust that they can

37:24

get you there through performance and story.

37:26

They're like, well, if he looks cute,

37:28

it's easy to get people in. to

37:31

invoke a movie we've covered in the

37:33

past decade of dreams. When David Finscher

37:35

was doing his casting process for Sure,

37:38

with the Dragon Tattoo, and all of

37:40

Hollywood's hottest actress were coming in and

37:42

desperately vying. And ET did audition for

37:44

that. He did. And by the way,

37:47

he had a good take. He had

37:49

a good take. Sure. He had a

37:51

good take. He always said, I am

37:53

hacking. Yes. The problem was he would

37:56

see people like Scarlet Johansson. to not

37:58

make Scarlet Johansson sexy. And we could

38:00

like put the piercings to the wigs

38:03

on her and it always still was

38:05

like fighting that. And he said to

38:07

Sony, I need Elizabeth to be like

38:09

ET. And they said, what do you

38:12

mean? And he said, I want it

38:14

to be so if you see her

38:16

on a poster, it feels a little

38:19

bracing. And I trust that in the

38:21

movie, you will warm up to it.

38:23

And he said like, like, ET, if

38:25

you see him as like a plush

38:28

doll on a plush doll on a

38:30

shelf, But if you've seen the movie,

38:32

you connect to the design. So, you

38:34

know, he comes up with the ET

38:37

design is a really good one. Yeah,

38:39

he nailed it. It's fucking incredible. Beyond

38:41

the design, it is just, I texted

38:44

this in BC Group Text, Max, Plus,

38:46

our major all hands on deck group

38:48

text, as JJ was like completing the

38:50

dossier. And I said, like, does ET

38:53

give the greatest performance in the history

38:55

of film? He's

38:58

a cool guy. It is

39:00

astonishing what they get out

39:02

of like a obviously a real

39:04

mishmash of mediums Right animatronics puppets

39:06

guy in suit Yes, but I

39:09

think the thing in the

39:11

ET puppet that I struggle

39:13

to think of another example

39:15

of it being done this

39:17

effectively Isn't just like oh, there's

39:19

an expressiveness to him This

39:21

puppet feels like it breathes.

39:23

There are motors in it

39:25

that are like micro expressions that

39:28

are going on and moments in

39:30

the film that are not trying

39:32

to sell an emotion. They

39:34

are selling the idea that

39:37

he just exists. There's always

39:39

this kind of just sort

39:41

of like flexing of his face.

39:43

Right. I agree. I think

39:45

UT's cool. I do think...

39:47

He's right on the edge of looking

39:50

completely fucked up and terrifying, which is

39:52

why he's cool. I like when he

39:54

gets drunk, I like when he puts

39:57

on flannel, like when he crushes some

39:59

beers, we'll talk about it. Can I

40:01

do a quick ranking in my... five

40:04

favorite comedians of all time. Number one,

40:06

Steve Martin. Number two, drunk E.T. Number

40:08

three, E.T. as it goes for Halloween.

40:11

Yeah. Number four, E.T. wearing lady clothes.

40:13

Number five, Bernie Mac. Um, these are

40:15

three of the funniest. I am scared

40:18

of you, Mother Funer. Eastery. Yeah, I

40:20

love it when E.T. says that. which

40:22

means it is my birthday month. And

40:25

all I ask for as a present

40:27

this year is a robust slate of

40:29

new theatrical motion picture releases and that

40:32

our listeners perhaps use our sponsor Regal

40:34

and their Regal Unlimited program to see

40:36

such releases. Yeah, what do we got?

40:39

Heart eyes. Yeah, from our friend. An

40:41

original horror film directed by our friend

40:43

past and future guest overdue to have

40:46

him back on the pot. Josh Rubin.

40:48

Yeah, well he's been busy making films.

40:50

He has, which is wild. And he's

40:53

got a new one, Hard Eyes, that

40:55

looks really exciting. Love hurts, I would

40:57

argue, one of the weirdest. That's the

41:00

Cajouquan action movies. Movies movies to be

41:02

pushing the fact that it stars two

41:04

Academy Award Award winners in history. All

41:07

of the marketing is Academy Award winner

41:09

Kiki Kwan, Academy Award winner Arian Debose,

41:11

and you're like, yeah, right, I guess

41:14

so. That's very exciting. You've also, well,

41:16

let's acknowledge it. Someone's coming. Hail to

41:18

the cheese. Stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp,

41:21

let me check my glasses here. I'm

41:23

used to hoax being green, but this

41:25

one's red. Finally. Finally, we can stop

41:28

talking about Red Hulk because we'll be

41:30

able to see him and vote for

41:32

him. Yes. And also opening up, you

41:35

know who's going to possibly kick Red

41:37

Hulk's butt? The monkey? Patington in Peru.

41:39

Oh sure, but can we... Look, Patents

41:42

in Peru, we're all obviously excited to

41:44

eat some marmalade sandwiches with Patington. Although

41:46

I'm a little worried about how they've

41:49

maintained with the long-distance flight. to per

41:51

room underneath a hat. What's awesome about

41:53

all this is that there's lots of

41:56

interesting different kinds of movies. In theaters

41:58

that you can go see. And with

42:00

Regal Unlimited, the whole point is you

42:02

sign up and seeing three, four, five,

42:05

six of those movies is easy and

42:07

affordable. And I. Find that once you

42:09

know you have the regal unlimited right

42:12

you know sort of the option of

42:14

basically like let me pop over my

42:16

theater I have three hours more that's

42:19

what's nice you do it more go

42:21

see the movies go see the movies

42:23

sign up now in the regal app

42:26

yes or the link in the description

42:28

in our show notes and use code

42:30

blank check to get 20% off your

42:33

three months subscription And then you're going

42:35

to be in the Crown Club. You're

42:37

going to get rewards. You're going to

42:40

build up points. You can get free

42:42

popcorns and sodas. 25% off candy on

42:44

Tuesdays. 50% off popcorn. Discounted ticket. Oh,

42:47

it's a regal Crown Club website. And

42:49

as I said, it's a little deep.

42:51

It's a little buried in here. There

42:54

is a section where you can redeem

42:56

your points for old promotional movie memorabilia,

42:58

like red one socks. Follow the link

43:01

in the show notes. Go to the

43:03

regal app. Click on the unlimited banner

43:05

and then follow the instructions to sign

43:08

up and enter promo code blank check

43:10

when prompted to receive your discount. And

43:12

look I'm just gonna say it again

43:15

David. Mm. Signing up for Regal Unlimited

43:17

or maybe gifting a membership to a

43:19

moviegoer in your life? Sure. Great way

43:22

to support the show. This is this

43:24

is a dream advertiser. Yes. A dream

43:26

partner for us. We want to keep

43:29

this going. We think it could benefit

43:31

everybody. Especially the movies. Spilberg

43:38

has a script. Spilberg has a little

43:40

clay prototype of what ET looks like.

43:43

He goes to Columbia, where Night's Guys

43:45

was set up and they made close

43:47

encounters, and they're like, this is gonna

43:49

cost $10 million. That seems like a

43:52

lot. Your last movie was 1941, because

43:54

Raiders hasn't come out let. Yet, that

43:56

didn't do well. And let's remember that

43:58

Columbia really had it. We have a

44:01

movie called Starman that we really like.

44:03

This is I love when our podcast

44:05

has gone on long enough that stories

44:07

start to overlap and things we've covered

44:10

in the past like this web of

44:12

shit But Columbia really wanted a close

44:14

encounter sequel which is why he makes

44:16

the directors cut to sort of satiate

44:19

that need But when he comes to

44:21

them with nights guys, I think they're

44:23

like look this feels close enough to

44:25

close encounters even if it's not literally

44:28

a sequel We'll take what we can

44:30

get by the moment he comes in

44:32

with a fucking clay McKay and is

44:34

like it's now about like a nice

44:37

alien who befriends friends a sad boy

44:39

I think they were like, what the

44:41

fuck are you talking about? Sure. And

44:43

a thing I saw him talk about

44:46

a lot in these special features I

44:48

watch that span over decades is that

44:50

he kept on being like, this is

44:52

me trying to make a Disney movie.

44:55

And in 1982, in 1981, Disney was

44:57

at their nadeer. They are bad. It's

44:59

not quite a brand that you can

45:01

sell to people in the same way.

45:04

It's a bit of an embarrassing brand

45:06

at that point. He was like, like,

45:08

it's uncool Disney animation is. in a

45:10

bad place, Disney live action is in

45:13

a worse place. Like in 1982 or

45:15

1981 or whatever, like you're talking, that's

45:17

Fox in the Hound, Black Cauldron is

45:19

85, it's a, yes, it's an ade,

45:22

the Renaissance is coming. Tron comes out

45:24

the same summer, they're trying to make

45:26

Star Wars, right? Yes, or shitty family

45:28

comments, we both love Tron. The animation

45:31

movies are like struggles behind the scenes.

45:33

Columbia puts this project in turn around.

45:35

Yeah. Spielberg goes over to Sid Scheinberg,

45:37

his old mentor at Universal, and Scheinberg

45:40

says, I love it, but I'm not

45:42

sure it's going to be like a

45:44

big commercial movie. I'll give you distribution,

45:46

but I want you to raise some

45:49

money with a bonding company. Spielberg does

45:51

that and signs a contract that has

45:53

strict penalties where he would give up

45:55

percentage points if he went over budget

45:58

or anything like that. Well, they're trying

46:00

to keep him on rails as well.

46:02

And, you know, so he does it

46:04

really sort of... quickly and sort of

46:07

conservatively if that makes sense. This movie

46:09

was set up. in the manner of

46:11

a blank check project where everyone's like,

46:13

look, the script is good, it's probably

46:16

not commercial. He talks about how everyone

46:18

working on it was like, this feels

46:20

like a fun project, but I don't

46:22

know if it's going to make any

46:25

money, and his greatest wish was that

46:27

it wouldn't lose universal money. And Scheinberg

46:29

just kind of took a flyer and

46:31

like, look, we got a history, you've

46:34

made some other hits for us. There's

46:36

also this Howard Kazagian who produced Raiders

46:38

claims that Spielberg was trying to make

46:40

a musical universal called Real to Real,

46:43

which he could not get them to

46:45

agree to and he still kind of

46:47

owed Universal a movie and does ET

46:49

as also like finally he's like well

46:52

let me just do ET yeah now

46:54

I'm not sure how the grain of

46:56

salt on that you know like I

46:58

don't know how much we should take

47:01

it is like great people were just

47:03

getting something out of the way Universal

47:05

buys ET from Columbia for one million

47:07

dollars and instead just puts all their

47:10

chips all their chips onto Star Man.

47:12

Columbia does, yes. So, number one, casting

47:14

decision, Drew Barrymore. Bring her in. legendary

47:16

child of the Barrymore acting family. She

47:19

tells, famously tells Steven Spielberg a story

47:21

about how she's like the lead singer

47:23

of a punk band. Correct. I'm not

47:25

sure if that was like her like

47:28

making something up or if it was

47:30

like quote-unquote real. This is what he

47:32

said that she talked for minutes about

47:34

how she had a punk band and

47:37

she was just so like brathed and

47:39

you know confident she's five years old.

47:41

Right and like six or seven minutes

47:43

in he was like this isn't real.

47:46

Like the more details. Right. When she

47:48

started out, he was like, I guess

47:50

maybe she plays with friends at school

47:52

and she started typing to a degree.

47:55

But then his realization was, if she

47:57

can sell me on this being a

47:59

reality, this kid could sell me on

48:01

anything. I mean, she's, it's the most

48:04

delightful kid performance. It's incredible. It is

48:06

a sounding. In altered states is her

48:08

first movie is that right? She had

48:10

been in she is I think she

48:13

She's very young. She's very young. Heather,

48:15

or Carol, and for me. Anyway, Elliot

48:17

obviously is a much tougher decision. Yes.

48:19

David? Jackfisk? Oh, no, what were you

48:22

going to say? David Hollander. I don't

48:24

know who that is. Had been cast.

48:26

There's some kid from Little House in

48:28

the Prairie. Okay. He's made to play

48:31

D&D at Harrison Ford's house and was

48:33

seen as too showy and assertive by

48:35

Spielberg. So, is uncast? Well, let's get

48:38

ahead of one thing here, right? And

48:40

it speaks to like why the audition

48:42

process included things like Drew Barry Moore

48:44

talking about being in a punk band.

48:47

That Spielberg was like, for this to

48:49

work, I need to like create an

48:51

experience for this children, where they are

48:53

like feeling things honestly, and also are

48:56

like taking some part in the authorship

48:58

of this movie. So part of his

49:00

thought, even though... the script in his

49:02

view is pretty perfect is like the

49:05

thing that will make this work is

49:07

if the kids are really in this

49:09

in an honest way and we have

49:11

to sort of adjust around them and

49:14

find the right personalities and kids who

49:16

have that level imagination emotional connection and

49:18

all of that sort of stuff so

49:20

all the auditions are these weird tests

49:23

to sort of like see the personalities

49:25

of the children as much as anything

49:27

else? That makes sense to me? Yes.

49:29

Yeah, because Hennie Thomas reads, he's recommended,

49:32

yes, by Jackfisk, because he had played

49:34

Sissy's Basic Son in Raggedyman. He reads,

49:36

and the reading is not very, and

49:38

the reading is not very, and the

49:41

reading is not very good, but then

49:43

Spielberg's like, well, why don't you do

49:45

this improv? You can watch it on

49:47

YouTube. Have you ever seen this, Ben?

49:50

It is a callback where he just

49:52

describes to him the situation where he's

49:54

like, okay, so government men have shown

49:56

up and they want to do experiments

49:59

on ET and they're going to take

50:01

him away from you and ET's getting

50:03

sick and you have this emotional connection

50:05

to him and he's your best friend

50:08

and he's got it and he's like,

50:10

okay. And then they just start the

50:12

improv. Henry Thomas like breaks into tears

50:14

and does basically at the level of

50:17

what you see in the final film

50:19

the emotional connection of like you can't

50:21

take ET away from me and then

50:23

it ends with him going kid you

50:26

got the part. Wow yeah it's say

50:28

it you can hear him say it

50:30

it's like perfect but he in that

50:32

moment realizes like he's adjusting to all

50:35

these kids of like what's the way

50:37

to direct this kid right yeah what's

50:39

the best way to get this performance

50:41

out of them I'm casting personalities energies

50:44

energies energies energies emotions Corey Feldman is

50:46

cast as a character called Lance, who

50:48

is going to be Elliot's like nemesis,

50:50

bully, whatever, gets taken out of the

50:53

screen. Unnecessary. Yeah, totally. Feldman is very

50:55

depressed, but obviously that's what gets him

50:57

the parts in Gremlin's and the Goonies,

50:59

which Spielberg produced. Peter Coyote walks in,

51:02

Spielberg hates him, and then he puts

51:04

some keys on his belt, and Spielberg's

51:06

like, I love it! Jingle, jingle, jingle.

51:08

Where'd you get those keys? They talk

51:11

a lot about how he shot this

51:13

movie, like basically in continuity because he

51:15

wanted the kids to have the emotional

51:17

experience of like this building in real

51:20

time and part of the big calculation

51:22

which I would argue pit off really

51:24

well is like when we get to

51:26

the end of the movie there will

51:29

be an outpouring of emotion because these

51:31

kids will genuinely be saying goodbye to

51:33

the whole experience and there's this great

51:35

clip of Drew Barrymore. where like an

51:38

EPK they ask her during filming like

51:40

how is this experience been and she

51:42

just goes like it's great because there

51:44

are a lot of kids in this

51:47

movie and sometimes you work on other

51:49

movies and there aren't other kids so

51:51

when you're not working you don't have

51:53

anyone to play with and it's lonely

51:56

you don't have anyone to play with

51:58

and it's lonely but here they're kids

52:00

all the time? and like do activities

52:02

with the kids when they weren't being

52:05

schooled so that she could learn them

52:07

and adjust to them and pull from

52:09

what they were feeling and whatever. And

52:11

Peter Coyote makes this comment on one

52:14

of these things I watched. I think

52:16

it was like a Q&A for the

52:18

20th anniversary release. Where he was like,

52:20

yeah, the vibe on the set was

52:23

great. I mean, I had just come

52:25

off at 10 years of living on

52:27

different communes And I rolled onto the

52:29

set and I was like, yeah, this

52:32

feels like a commune And I'm like,

52:34

wait, we're not going to unpack that

52:36

at all That's cool. But it does

52:38

speak to his weird kind of earthy

52:41

vibe Yeah, he's he's a real hippie

52:43

guy because his name his birth name

52:45

is like Robert Cohen. Yeah, and when

52:47

he was in college she like a

52:50

Peyote and was like, I am Peter

52:52

Coyote. One of the coolest names. It's

52:54

a pretty cool name. Yeah. And he's,

52:56

he's like, you can read all about

52:59

him. He discovered Zen, hang out with

53:01

the beets, like was hanging out and

53:03

hate Ashbury in the 60s and all

53:05

that show. Has a fall of fame

53:08

voice. Sounds cool. And he sort of

53:10

emerges from all of that and he's

53:12

like, I'll start acting again. Right. I

53:14

love Peter Coyote. He's, he's amazing in

53:17

all that stuff. says he kind of

53:19

winged it. I think it really helps

53:21

the movie. Obviously, a lot of those

53:23

feels natural. He needs to work around

53:26

the kids. He can't impose structure around

53:28

them. He said a thing I liked

53:30

where he was like, Melissa Matheson did

53:32

this thing that no other writer I

53:35

worked with ever did, which is when

53:37

we started filming, she handed me, she

53:39

had broken all the scenes onto cards.

53:41

She had re-type scenes onto individual cards,

53:44

so I had a stack of cards,

53:46

and that freed me from needing to

53:48

carry the script around. And every day

53:51

I would take the couple of scenes

53:53

we were shooting and just put the

53:55

cards in my pocket and then just

53:57

be able to focus on those scenes.

54:00

You know, like take a card out,

54:02

show the kids, be like, this is

54:04

what we're filming today, and this takes

54:06

place after what we filmed yesterday, and

54:09

just really, like, zone into that reality.

54:11

With Spielberg they hadn't worked together again.

54:13

Spielberg moves on to like much more

54:15

established cinematographers and then Davio says he

54:18

heard the announcement of ET and sent

54:20

Spielberg I think a TV movie he

54:22

had shot recently. You need me to

54:24

read from the dossier. Fucking read from

54:27

the dossier. Because that is not what

54:29

it says in the doc. We have

54:31

to listen. Spielberg watched a TV movie

54:33

called The Boy Who Drank Too Much,

54:36

starring Scott Bayo. But Spielberg watched it.

54:38

And noticed Davio's names in the credits

54:40

and called him immediately. And was like,

54:42

you need to shoot my next feature.

54:45

And Alan's like, why? And he's like,

54:47

I just saw this thing on television

54:49

and knocked me out. So very nice

54:51

of him. But basically also kind of

54:54

like, hey, it's my old buddy Alan.

54:56

It's one of his only movies. And

54:58

then he goes on to, course, shoot,

55:00

uh, color verboid. Yes, he does this

55:03

next run for the trunk of the

55:05

80s. It's one of his only movies

55:07

not edited by Michael Khan. Yeah, which

55:09

is crazy. Why isn't it? I watched

55:12

some Long Con interview where I forget

55:14

what it is, but he explained there

55:16

was some... I thought it sucked. No,

55:18

there was some scheduling conflict. It was

55:21

the one time he was on something

55:23

like there was any... No, animosity or

55:25

weirdness behind it. Carol Littleton who edited

55:27

it is a pretty famous editor in

55:30

her own right and also married to

55:32

John Bailey, the very famous cinematographer. Fascinating,

55:34

Hollywood, down-the-line tech power couple. Yes. Anyway,

55:36

you know, Spielberg starts shooting the movie.

55:39

ET is sort of the big question.

55:41

We have the look, but how do

55:43

we, you know, make it move around?

55:45

I'm sorry, it's Poltergeist. It's that Poltergeist

55:48

and ET were going at the same

55:50

time, obviously, that those two shoots basically

55:52

went back to back and he asked

55:54

Khan to oversee Poltergeist because he basically

55:57

was like, I trust you and I'll

55:59

be hands-on with ET. That's what it

56:01

is. So with ET, they're like, he

56:03

can't be a puppet like Yoda because

56:06

he doesn't, that won't make sense in

56:08

a realistic, in a fantasy environment, like

56:10

sort of hopping around. So, animatronics, Carla

56:12

Rambaldi wants to do animatronics, but Spielberg

56:15

is like, he's not going to feel

56:17

alive. So, whatever, they split the difference

56:19

by just doing a lot of different

56:21

things, I think is the answer, right?

56:24

They do have some animatronics, they do

56:26

have some puppetry, they also... people in

56:28

the suit. You have a walk around

56:30

ET, you have like mimes who are

56:33

doing just hand motions, you have an

56:35

animatronic, you have puppets, you have all

56:37

these different things. I think part of

56:39

what is so astounding about like the

56:42

success of ET as a performance for

56:44

me is that they're very smart about

56:46

like the design of ET is thoughtfully

56:48

made in conjunction with what you're gonna

56:51

need to get out of him. in

56:53

a performance, right? Like the extending of

56:55

the neck is sort of like, well

56:57

to put like a little person in

57:00

a suit and have them wattle around.

57:02

is going to look silly. So better

57:04

to give him like no feet and

57:06

no legs. So it does just kind

57:09

of like look like a lumpy shifting

57:11

of weight and you pre-establish that. But

57:13

also the neck can retract in so

57:15

you don't have this unwieldy thing when

57:18

he's moving. Well, but when it's a

57:20

planted animatronic, then he can get more

57:22

expressive. It makes it look like it's

57:24

not a puppet or person because you're

57:27

like, well, nothing could fit in that

57:29

neck. Exactly. ET's real, he's just a

57:31

real alien, they found him, they cast

57:33

him. Okay, he's just real. And that's

57:36

the answer. That's the truth. That's the

57:38

actual truth. Carla Rambaldi? You ever seen

57:40

that guy? That's just ET and a

57:42

human suit. Yeah, he fucked ET's mom.

57:45

And he may or may not know

57:47

that fucking Eminem's were the original in

57:49

the script, but then Reese pieces came

57:51

in. This is, and I am not

57:54

saying this to roast him, I just

57:56

know it about him because I've known

57:58

JJJ for years, JJ, JJ, JJ, J,

58:00

J, J, J, R, R, R, R,

58:03

R, R, R, R, R, R, R,

58:05

R, R, R, R, R, R, R,

58:07

R, R, R, R, R, R, R,

58:09

R, R, R, R, R, R, R,

58:12

R, R, R, R, R, R, R,

58:14

R, R It was literally the Reese's

58:16

Pieces deal and the sort of rise

58:18

of merchandising in movies and all that.

58:21

It was literally his PhD dissertation topic.

58:23

Yes. It's one of those famous stories.

58:25

You wrote 230 pages about this. M&M's

58:27

being like, we don't fucking need you.

58:30

We're M&M's and then like, right, M&M's

58:32

lost so much business and Reese's. But

58:34

it's not just that Hershey's who owned

58:36

Reese's who owned Reese's, who owned Reese's,

58:39

who owned Reese's, It'll be like this

58:41

is a chance to define ourselves. And

58:43

now that's what fucking American culture is.

58:45

Okay, here are things I have to

58:48

say. One, the entire ET is real.

58:50

This is what I'm building off of.

58:52

The entire visual scheme of this movie

58:54

is built around. Hey, it might be

58:57

smart if we try to lean on

58:59

backlighting. Yeah, it's, it's, yes. It will

59:01

make ET look more real. It will

59:03

give him a tactility, it will not

59:06

expose the sort of like, seams of

59:08

this puppet. I does feel like that

59:10

accidentally turns Spielberg on to what becomes

59:13

his number one, like visual preference. It's

59:15

also like, as a kid, I remember

59:17

really affecting me, how like their houses

59:19

often really dark, the shades are closed.

59:22

And it just feels depressing in there,

59:24

not like oppressively so, but just a

59:26

little gloomy. Like Elliot's room is kind

59:28

of a gloomy mess. That first whole

59:31

part where they're playing D&D underneath that

59:33

kind of stained glass light in the

59:35

big booth, which by the way, what

59:37

is their house? Their house is crazy.

59:40

Yeah. and like what is D Wallace's

59:42

job and how do they I know

59:44

it's in the valley and they're not

59:46

like it's like they're like it's a

59:49

rich neighborhood but like I'm fascinated by

59:51

this house they're also they're on the

59:53

hill yeah like it's they're in this

59:55

weird liminal space where they're like on

59:58

the cliff right on the edge of

1:00:00

the perfect suburban housing community but between

1:00:02

that and the forest that's the thing

1:00:04

it feels like a new housing development

1:00:07

yeah it's like out there yeah it's

1:00:09

it's Very of the moment, but we'll

1:00:11

be out of date in like a

1:00:13

year right there's going to be more

1:00:16

and more You're correct that this like

1:00:18

technical visual sort of like practical scheme

1:00:20

ends up lending this emotional weight and

1:00:22

I also think he responds to that

1:00:25

and then when he starts working with

1:00:27

Janish it becomes the cliche of the

1:00:29

Spielberg like pools of light from the

1:00:31

window shit. It's so crazy that I

1:00:34

Look, this film lost best picture to

1:00:36

Gandhi, obviously, an error. But one of

1:00:38

those things, right? Oh, Gandhi was this

1:00:40

big historical epic. The Oscar Vodakul was

1:00:43

much much less. How? it won best

1:00:45

sound and sound editing back when they

1:00:47

had two sound Oscars and it won

1:00:49

best visual effects And I think it

1:00:52

won maybe like a sort of special

1:00:54

makeup Oscar or whatever. I don't, maybe

1:00:56

not. But it is insane that it

1:00:58

didn't win cinematography, editing, and I would

1:01:01

say original screenplay. What wins original screenplay

1:01:03

this year? Best screenplay written directly for

1:01:05

the screen goes to Gandhi Pond? Gandhi.

1:01:07

What I mean Gondi like is it

1:01:10

like Gondi is Gondi a small little

1:01:12

cute nice guy? Well, wait a second

1:01:14

he is back to life. Well, kind

1:01:16

of, but it is kind of a

1:01:19

vibe. Does Gondi have like a visible

1:01:21

ribcage at all times? I'm like, fuck,

1:01:23

we're backing into this. I'm assuming neither

1:01:25

of you have ever seen Richard Attenbridge

1:01:28

out in Bris Gondi. It's just funny

1:01:30

to think about. It's also funny that

1:01:32

like Spilver clearly is an admirer of

1:01:34

Richard Ambrose, puts him in Jurassic Park,

1:01:37

likes, you know, and like Richard Amber

1:01:39

at the time was, you know, graciously

1:01:41

as the winner it was like, I

1:01:43

thought ET was a better movie. I

1:01:46

think ET is like a miraculous movie.

1:01:48

Neither of us have seen God. Yeah.

1:01:50

Gandhi is very, very watchable. I'm sure.

1:01:52

I mean, for one, Ben Kingsley is

1:01:55

just fucking ridiculously good in it. I

1:01:57

think he's a good actor, but it's

1:01:59

you know, it's just it's a very

1:02:01

straightforward watchable like here is the life

1:02:04

of Gandhi by a pick that by

1:02:06

the end kind of sweeps you up

1:02:08

and you know the funeral scene is

1:02:10

crazy, you know, it's effective, but it

1:02:13

wasn't even like a big hit, you

1:02:15

know, it was like a medium hit.

1:02:17

It was a big hit I guess

1:02:19

for a sort of big historical epic.

1:02:22

That's just kind of weird about it

1:02:24

to me is I have Gandhi in

1:02:26

one of those Columbia classic four kickosits

1:02:28

so I still just I'm always like

1:02:31

I'll watch Gandhi at some point but

1:02:33

you could see there being theoretically a

1:02:35

David versus Goliath narrative that I think

1:02:37

for example really helped hurt locker against

1:02:40

avatar right where similarly I don't know

1:02:42

why I broke that into two words

1:02:44

there is like here's the highest grossing

1:02:46

film of all time. Does it need

1:02:49

best picture as well? Yeah, no, I

1:02:51

think that's probably part of it. But

1:02:53

yet, Gandhi was this kind of like

1:02:55

classical Hollywood epic with big scale and

1:02:58

all these extras and all these things

1:03:00

you said. It's not like they gave

1:03:02

it to ordinary people against ET. Gandhi's

1:03:04

kind of in a weird midpoint, you

1:03:07

know? Yes. And it's, yeah, it's like

1:03:09

pretty good. Can I, can I finish

1:03:11

this epic point I'm building here about

1:03:13

ET being real? E.T.S. really. Right. Second

1:03:16

thing is Spielberg concocts a whole scheme

1:03:18

which is like I want to hide

1:03:20

the people operating E.T. at all times.

1:03:22

They build these sets and everything around,

1:03:25

like, can we run cables into another

1:03:27

room? If Drew Barrymore is interacting to

1:03:29

ET, I want her to feel like

1:03:31

ET is real. I think for the

1:03:34

other actors, he's like, look, it will

1:03:36

help their emotional reality. But Drew Barrymore

1:03:38

in particular, he's like, she's at a

1:03:40

crux age where she might just straight

1:03:43

up believe this is an alien. And

1:03:45

if we can get that out of

1:03:47

her, that's kind of magical, right? Like

1:03:49

just let's make it as little acting

1:03:52

required, required as possible. Like, oh my

1:03:54

God, we've fucking done it. We hide

1:03:56

the guys, we run cables, throw a

1:03:58

hole in the wall to another room,

1:04:01

we keep that door locked, she never

1:04:03

sees them. Like halfway through filming, she

1:04:05

comes up to him one day, and

1:04:07

she's like, I have a secret, can

1:04:10

I show you? And he goes, sure.

1:04:12

And she leads him by hand and

1:04:14

opens the door to all the operators.

1:04:16

And she's like, these are the guys

1:04:19

who work ET. Right. something out. And

1:04:21

he realizes she's known and that for

1:04:23

her that's like part of the magic

1:04:26

and what she says now as an

1:04:28

adult is even if she couldn't put

1:04:30

it in words she understood that the

1:04:32

emotion she was feeling from E.T. was

1:04:35

a reflection of these people and that

1:04:37

she didn't need to believe E.T. was

1:04:39

real that she was like A. the

1:04:41

craft of it but B. Like this

1:04:44

is being performed by people who are

1:04:46

pushing emotion through this. and it helps

1:04:48

me to see them as people. So

1:04:50

I know that that kindness is real.

1:04:53

And like the other actors talk about

1:04:55

it where like... He said he cast

1:04:57

D Wallace because he felt like she

1:04:59

had a childlike spirit. This movie doesn't

1:05:02

show an adult in full until Peter

1:05:04

Coyote's like full reveal, right, is the

1:05:06

whole visual scheme of like the keys

1:05:08

on the phone. That's the one. And

1:05:11

he said the reason is because she's

1:05:13

like a kid. She's the only kid,

1:05:15

the adult that they trust or have

1:05:17

a connection with. It's the magic of

1:05:20

the fact that the first time you

1:05:22

see Peter Coyote's face. I can do

1:05:24

with 10 more minutes of the keys.

1:05:26

The keys get me going. He's look

1:05:29

good. Jangling around. Sound great. You're seeing

1:05:31

his face because he's making an emotional

1:05:33

connection with Elliot. He's saying, I care

1:05:35

about this too. I've always wanted to

1:05:38

meet an alien since I was a

1:05:40

kid. He's saying things that are finally

1:05:42

getting through to Elliot. It moves me

1:05:44

to tears. I'm getting goosebumps thinking about

1:05:47

the first time you see that sweet.

1:05:49

Hippie's face. Do you give him a

1:05:51

supporting actor now for this? I don't.

1:05:53

That's an interesting, you know, maybe I

1:05:56

should. You put D Wallace in lead?

1:05:58

Yeah, is that, you know, bullshit. We

1:06:00

went over this in an episode that

1:06:02

will come out in two months for

1:06:05

our next many series. I think I

1:06:07

put her in lead because I wanted

1:06:09

the people I have in supporting and

1:06:11

supporting. Do you have Drew in supporting?

1:06:14

So that's the only argument I would

1:06:16

kind of make for putting D Wallace.

1:06:18

Exactly. Exactly. I do not. Who do

1:06:20

you give it to in 82? Paul!

1:06:23

in the verdict. I'm sorry. Leave me

1:06:25

alone. It's one of my favorite screens.

1:06:27

As much as Henry Thomas is so

1:06:29

fucking wonderful in this movie. My supporting

1:06:32

actors of 1982. Mm-hmm. Are. This is

1:06:34

a pretty good list. Okay, give it

1:06:36

to me. Ruckerhauer and Blade Runner. Very

1:06:38

performance. Sean Penn and Fast Times at

1:06:41

Richmond High. Great performance. Eddie Murphy and

1:06:43

48 hours. Which is a supporting performance.

1:06:45

Yeah. Nick Nolty is the lead of

1:06:47

that movie. By another 48 hours, they

1:06:50

are co-leads. I mean, Eddie's the lead,

1:06:52

basically. It's more of a supporting performance

1:06:54

than Curin Kolkin is in a real

1:06:56

pain. Sure. Who's probably one in an

1:06:59

Oscar by this point? Or no, maybe,

1:07:01

no, this episode's coming up pretty soon.

1:07:03

But he's probably going up this episode

1:07:05

is coming up pretty soon, but he's

1:07:08

a dynamite supporting. Sure. But is a

1:07:10

dynamite. Yeah, maybe. How about the keys?

1:07:12

The keys, yes, yes. Yeah, right. Well,

1:07:14

I gave it the honorary Golden Key

1:07:17

Award, which I only give out in

1:07:19

a year of great key film acting.

1:07:21

82, 2003, we're all rushing towards the

1:07:23

same. He says the thing when he

1:07:26

auditioned D. Wallace, he was like, she's

1:07:28

got this sort of like childlike thing

1:07:30

to her, right? It is reflected in

1:07:32

what you said, her laughing at penis

1:07:35

breast, she can't even contain it. She

1:07:37

can't even contain it. She's kind on

1:07:39

their level. He was like, she feels

1:07:41

like one of them. And it is

1:07:44

what. Talking about this, the setup of

1:07:46

this family not being one-to-one, but a

1:07:48

thing that Spielberg I think is really

1:07:50

connecting to is... his mother, you know,

1:07:53

was not always the most adult person.

1:07:55

And when his parents split up, he

1:07:57

is the oldest. He's taking care of

1:07:59

his sisters. With three younger siblings, there

1:08:02

is a degree to which he is

1:08:04

forced into a bit of a parent

1:08:06

role. Well, there's a degree to which

1:08:08

he's the Michael. It's like he's split

1:08:11

across all the kids. Like Michael is

1:08:13

the one who's kind of responsible for

1:08:15

his siblings. Yes. But also is making

1:08:17

front of them and Spielberg talks about

1:08:20

how he makes fun of his sisters.

1:08:22

just emotional, like throbbing kind of emotional

1:08:24

creature. Right, like his feelings are so

1:08:26

on his sleeve, who's so in need

1:08:29

of a parent. The middle child, which

1:08:31

is so different than Spielberg's identity, and

1:08:33

he is so much younger than Spielberg

1:08:35

was at the time of the divorce.

1:08:38

Yeah, he is. Spielberg was more of

1:08:40

a teenager. D- Wallace to me, does

1:08:42

more of a teenager. D- Wallace to

1:08:44

me, does not strike me as a

1:08:47

Spielberg's mom analog, really, because like, she

1:08:49

doesn't seem like this kind of a

1:08:51

analog into his own life. I was

1:08:53

watching this with Forky and like when

1:08:56

she leaves Elliot home alone with a

1:08:58

fever. Yeah. Ellie it's 10. We were

1:09:00

kind of like, you know, I mean,

1:09:02

again, you know, it's a single mom

1:09:05

thing, right? Where it's like, these are

1:09:07

latchkey kids, what can you do? Yeah.

1:09:09

And we were like, you know, 10,

1:09:11

you could leave a kid home alone.

1:09:14

It's a little borderline, but I was

1:09:16

like, but with a fever, I would

1:09:18

probably, totally, kind of feel weird about

1:09:20

it. It's kind of at the age

1:09:23

of five. Yeah. Just to go around

1:09:25

the corner to like get something like

1:09:27

it's a you do have that you're

1:09:29

like you're like damn like that is

1:09:32

that's a wild thing to do. It's

1:09:34

but but again the sort of latchkey

1:09:36

kid thing. It's very different from what

1:09:38

they live. What else is supposed to

1:09:41

do? His mom but. There is a

1:09:43

similar, he said that one of the

1:09:45

big things he insists on in the

1:09:48

script is that they call her by

1:09:50

her first name because that's something he

1:09:52

and his siblings did to his mom.

1:09:54

So fucking annoying. That they all call

1:09:57

her. My daughter does that sometimes. It's

1:09:59

so annoying. They know so early that

1:10:01

it's annoying. That's pretty funny. I give

1:10:03

her some comedy points to her when

1:10:06

you get home tonight. To give her

1:10:08

five. It's very. It's maybe a little

1:10:10

dangerous to give a young child. This

1:10:12

is the first time I've watched this

1:10:15

movie since I had a daughter and

1:10:17

it is. My daughter's pretty close to

1:10:19

gird in like personality and age and

1:10:21

yeah, even a little bit of look.

1:10:24

She's got some girdy vibes. Yeah. And

1:10:26

it was not, yeah, it was interesting.

1:10:28

Yeah. The D Wallace thing is just

1:10:30

like, right, her not being able to

1:10:33

contain the laugh, them sort of treating

1:10:35

her like one of the gang, right.

1:10:37

She's not the same as Spielberg treating

1:10:39

her like one of like one of

1:10:42

like one of like one of like

1:10:44

one of like one of like one

1:10:46

of, right. Her energy creates a need

1:10:48

for Elliot to kind of step up

1:10:51

and be the leader Which is more

1:10:53

interesting because he is not the oldest

1:10:55

child and that Michael in some way

1:10:57

is like a reflection of I think

1:11:00

the bullies that Spielberg felt like he

1:11:02

was sort of tormented with and he

1:11:04

talks about No, no, just I the

1:11:06

analysis of like ET forces Michael to

1:11:09

have to respect Elliot in an interesting

1:11:11

way. Yeah, right? But I still think

1:11:13

of Michael as the protector. Elliot is

1:11:15

ET. That's like the whole weird phenomenon

1:11:18

that happens. Yes. They become one being

1:11:20

and Michael is the only one who's

1:11:22

really attuned to that. Michael is kind

1:11:24

of the secret hero. Michael is great.

1:11:27

The scene where he goes and sits

1:11:29

down with the toys. Yeah. Very quiet

1:11:31

little scene. Really gets me every time,

1:11:33

but the first 10 minutes of this

1:11:36

movie are Michael and his friends You

1:11:38

know the headphones kid and fucking see

1:11:40

Thomas Howell for about 10 years there

1:11:42

seemed like the biggest movie star out

1:11:45

of the ET cast It's funny to

1:11:47

think he was in soul man. Yeah,

1:11:49

he got to start movies But there

1:11:51

that first chunk is like Elliot being

1:11:54

ignored them kind of gently ripping on

1:11:56

him right annoying Ellie is bit of

1:11:58

a winer, he's younger than them, but

1:12:00

he wants it. It's a classic, you

1:12:03

know, younger sibling thing of like, they

1:12:05

just want to play D&D. It's also

1:12:07

what Spilberg talks about. It talks about

1:12:09

his own happy childhood, right? This feeling

1:12:12

not even based on circumstance. what happened

1:12:14

with his parents but just like he

1:12:16

was a worried sensitive lonely child he

1:12:18

just felt this way all the time

1:12:21

yeah very feely very feely boy clearly

1:12:23

and you know I think it's easy

1:12:25

to get a little annoyed by Elliot

1:12:27

at first just in that way of

1:12:30

like stop being such a little pain

1:12:32

to me stepped on the pizza he

1:12:34

It's not just that, it's that he

1:12:36

then blows up the spot that they

1:12:39

had gotten secret pizza. You really feel

1:12:41

for the kids being like, fuck. It's

1:12:43

an anti-safe the cat moment. It's a

1:12:45

moment that threatens to turn you against

1:12:48

the character forever. It's such a bold

1:12:50

move to be like, everyone's gonna be

1:12:52

angry at him. But you can't play

1:12:54

D&D without pizza too. It's like, it's

1:12:57

like, it's... Pizza, D and D Pizza!

1:12:59

And also from their perspective, he comes

1:13:01

back, they're like, where's the pizza? He's

1:13:03

like, I stepped on him, by the

1:13:06

way, I found a goblin? You're like,

1:13:08

excuse me, first of all, unforgivable crime.

1:13:10

Second of all, that's your excuse? Second

1:13:12

of all, clearly you're not ready to

1:13:15

play D&D because we just said the

1:13:17

word goblin near you and you're like,

1:13:19

right, there's a goble inside. There's a

1:13:21

fucking goblin in our house. Oh, Elliot,

1:13:24

he's such a cutie pie, though. D

1:13:26

Wallace and one of these 20th anniversary

1:13:28

Q&A things. They're talking about Spielberg's whole

1:13:30

strategy of making the kids not see

1:13:33

the puppeteers engage with ET is real.

1:13:35

And then she interjects and she's like,

1:13:37

I have to say I'm being thrown

1:13:39

off every time one of you guys

1:13:42

talk about him as a puppet, because

1:13:44

to me, ET is real. And even

1:13:46

20 years later, I feel that way.

1:13:48

And it's like, that's why he fucking

1:13:51

cast her. as the adult at the

1:13:53

time of the making of the movie

1:13:55

being anything other than like another actor

1:13:57

she worked with or not even actor

1:14:00

a real thing she reacted to. E.T.

1:14:02

is real. David, people like to say

1:14:04

that one should stop and smell. the

1:14:06

roses. Today I'm doing something different. I'm

1:14:09

imploring our listeners to stop and listen

1:14:11

to the ad read because the ad

1:14:13

read is going to sell you flowers

1:14:15

that you can then smell. Valentine's Day

1:14:18

is coming up. I mean I was

1:14:20

going to bring it up. You're a

1:14:22

married man. Sure, for me there's only

1:14:24

one place I trust. One eight hundred

1:14:27

flowers.com. You got a show. your wife

1:14:29

that you love her and that you

1:14:31

care. Each year I'm ordering stunning high

1:14:33

quality bouquets from one hundred flowers that

1:14:36

my wife absolutely loves and we're partnering

1:14:38

with one eight hundred flowers to make

1:14:40

sure you're a Valentine's hero with this

1:14:42

exclusive offer for a listener. An easy

1:14:45

sell. This is a great time of

1:14:47

year to encourage people. to order flowers

1:14:49

for the love of their life. This

1:14:51

doesn't need extra spin on it. We

1:14:54

don't need to put any mustard on

1:14:56

this ad, read. Offer with double the

1:14:58

flowers, double the roses for free. When

1:15:01

you get one dozen, they'll double your

1:15:03

boot K to two dozen. It's the

1:15:05

perfect way to two dozen. It's the

1:15:07

perfect way to say I love you

1:15:10

without breaking the bank. Yeah. One eight

1:15:12

hundred flowers. It always delivers. We're getting

1:15:14

through this ad read. Okay, but I

1:15:16

will tell you that I got a

1:15:19

great bouquet from one hundred flowers and

1:15:21

arrived right away Just walk to the

1:15:23

door quickly. It was really nice. And

1:15:25

why didn't get roses? I got a

1:15:28

sort of double blooms. Yeah, yeah, hand

1:15:30

outraged. I'm just in a really nice

1:15:32

container. Yes Who can plan to Rosebud?

1:15:34

My God Dan. Buck Petunius too. It's

1:15:37

been a while. How are you? Dan

1:15:39

Candyman can. Been a dog's age it

1:15:41

has. It's been a long time since

1:15:43

you guys have invited me to come

1:15:46

over. No one invited you. I felt

1:15:48

like it. I felt it in the

1:15:50

air. My ears were burning. Wow, Dan,

1:15:52

Candyman, you look like crap. It's been

1:15:55

a rough couple years. Why? What's going

1:15:57

on, Dan? I come from the Candyman

1:15:59

family. by trade. The name does tend to

1:16:01

confuse people, along with me singing

1:16:03

a song that's a modified version of

1:16:06

the Candyman, the Willy Wonka song. And

1:16:08

it always confused people, so I'm

1:16:10

actually here today selling candy. Oh,

1:16:12

okay. Well, all mice and candy... To raise

1:16:14

money for my high school's basketball team. Okay,

1:16:17

cool. How much? You're not going to

1:16:19

ask any questions about that? What are

1:16:21

eminent? Well, you know. These are just gray

1:16:23

shells. There's not a color in sight.

1:16:25

Look, I'll admit, yes, I'm selling candy.

1:16:27

That's not really why I came in

1:16:29

here today. Okay, what's going on? I

1:16:32

need flowers. I no longer have the

1:16:34

hookup. My family has completely divested. Oh,

1:16:36

well, and I actually do have great

1:16:38

news for you. All roses from 1,800

1:16:40

flowers are picked at their peak. Here

1:16:43

for every step of the way and

1:16:45

shipped fresh to ensure fresh to every

1:16:47

step fresh to ensure lasting beauty.

1:16:49

sat on our table looking great for

1:16:52

ages in like wilt after two days

1:16:54

like some you know local sort of

1:16:56

bodega flowers you might buy or

1:16:58

whatever little packet to sort of spruce

1:17:00

them up and make them alive yeah

1:17:03

gosh this is a stressful time of

1:17:05

year you know Valentine's day is really

1:17:07

rough on day and candy man I

1:17:09

don't because I'm part of a very

1:17:12

large molecule I have to get a

1:17:14

lot of flowers I hate all your lore I

1:17:16

think it's interesting and people are going

1:17:18

to be excited. Well, you better

1:17:20

get on it because bouquets are selling

1:17:23

fast. Lock in your road today,

1:17:25

and of course, if you do order

1:17:27

a dozen roses, they'll double the

1:17:29

rose bouquet for free. That's a

1:17:31

great value. To claim your double roses

1:17:33

offer, go to 1,800flowers.com/check to get

1:17:35

your double your roses offer. 100 flowers

1:17:38

that come slash check. Now that

1:17:40

sounds great, but I have to admit.

1:17:42

My many, many, many partners have

1:17:44

some pretty specific tastesates. Double roses

1:17:46

sounds nice but by any chances one

1:17:48

800 flowers offer kaleidoscope roses

1:17:51

hand dyed 24 stems in a

1:17:53

purple vase with wind chime included

1:17:55

I'm looking at it okay they do have

1:17:57

it great what a great product would you

1:17:59

like to buy one M. Sure,

1:18:01

fine. Give me an M. There

1:18:03

you go. Thanks. I'll be $25.

1:18:06

Wait a second. I have to

1:18:08

raise money! One eight hundred

1:18:10

dollars,.com/check. David.

1:18:13

Yeah. That's got

1:18:15

a hurt. That's a quip.

1:18:17

That's a quip that people

1:18:19

make. Or like, do not go

1:18:22

in there. That's like another quip.

1:18:24

But if they're saying that's got

1:18:26

to hurt. Maybe they're saying that

1:18:28

about root canals. And if they're

1:18:30

saying, do not go in there,

1:18:33

maybe they're saying that about a

1:18:35

mouth with a bunch of plaque

1:18:37

buildup. My point here is if

1:18:39

you want to avoid being the subject

1:18:41

of quips like that, maybe you

1:18:43

should use our sponsor today, quip.

1:18:45

Yeah, so why don't you get yourself quip?

1:18:48

Three, 60. It's an oscillating toothbrush

1:18:50

griffing that's literally going to revolve

1:18:52

around you. That's what I like.

1:18:54

I've been using quip for a

1:18:56

long time, but the 360 is

1:18:58

the, you know, you know, the

1:19:00

kind of like round brush. Sure.

1:19:03

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So. This

1:19:05

is the whole thing with

1:19:07

quip. It's an electric toothbrush

1:19:09

that doesn't overcomplicate the most

1:19:11

basic daily ritual. I feel

1:19:13

like quip just exists to

1:19:15

make this as easy as

1:19:17

possible. the American Dental Association,

1:19:19

scientifically proven to move up

1:19:21

to 11 times more plaque

1:19:23

between teeth compared to a

1:19:25

manual toothbrush and provide up

1:19:27

to two times more whitening

1:19:29

on day one. And if

1:19:31

you don't like it, return it for

1:19:34

free within 30 days. It's fine. It's

1:19:36

easy to travel with. It is convenient.

1:19:38

It's easy to clean. And if you

1:19:40

do love it, you can brush easy

1:19:42

knowing you get a free lifetime warranty

1:19:44

for purchasing on GetQ. That's quip.com. And

1:19:46

the opportunity to subscribe. to refill heads, buy

1:19:48

mail, every three months, so you never have to go to the

1:19:51

store. This is a part I like. That's the kind of thing

1:19:53

I forget. You don't have to go to the store, it just

1:19:55

happens, they just send it to you. It shows up and you

1:19:57

go, oh right, find a chain. I get a bunch of quick

1:19:59

stuff sent to me. every, you know, a few months,

1:20:01

it's really, really helpful. They've got 25,000 five-star

1:20:03

reviews, and, you know, people love Quip. And

1:20:05

they got a perks program. You know, I

1:20:08

love perks programs. So you do. Quip perks,

1:20:10

quip, quip, quip perks is a little hard

1:20:12

to say. I'm gonna say, that's just for

1:20:14

me. Quip puts their money where their mouth

1:20:16

is. When you subscribe to Autoship, you'll be

1:20:18

enrolled in Quip, Perks to earn credit back

1:20:21

over credit back over time. Just for

1:20:23

listeners a blank check,

1:20:25

get 20% off-site wide

1:20:28

and a free travel

1:20:30

case and counters top

1:20:32

stand at getquip.com/check that's

1:20:34

get quip.com/check. Free your

1:20:37

mouth today and save

1:20:39

20% site wide plus

1:20:41

a free travel case

1:20:44

and countertop stand at

1:20:46

get quip. The

1:20:55

film begins, oh, we'll get to

1:20:57

the release later, the film begins

1:20:59

in the forest. Well, it first

1:21:01

just begins with the letters ET

1:21:03

coming up. No like preamble, no

1:21:06

Universal Pictures presents, studio logo, and

1:21:08

then just ET fading in, the

1:21:10

extraterrestrial fading in, and then the

1:21:12

movie starting. It's a little like

1:21:14

ominous, especially because the logo is

1:21:17

the hand-drawn version, which otherwise we

1:21:19

basically only see over his shoulder

1:21:21

as he's like doodling ET in

1:21:24

school. and writing his name. But

1:21:26

there's something kind of just like

1:21:28

no preamble, no ramp up, title,

1:21:30

cast, and then we're in the forest and

1:21:33

we're seeing this very shadowy

1:21:35

backlit thing of this admittedly

1:21:37

very cool spaceship design. It's a

1:21:39

cool spaceship, roundy, round boy. Looks

1:21:41

like a flower pot. Flower pot.

1:21:43

Interesting, sure. Because they like flat these

1:21:46

are botanists. That's how I always took

1:21:48

it, right? These aliens are botanists. ET

1:21:50

has said when people asked for like

1:21:52

direction on the development visually. ET has

1:21:54

said this? I'm sorry, Stephen Spielberg. I

1:21:56

was more excited to hear what ET

1:21:58

has to say. ETSA. ET says. and

1:22:00

botanismism. Grafone. Spielberg said

1:22:02

that when they asked him about like

1:22:04

the sort of biology of ET that

1:22:06

he would say to people like, I

1:22:09

almost think ET is a plant. He

1:22:11

has like plant beans. I've heard this

1:22:13

too, like he's a planted side. Maybe

1:22:15

think of him less as an animal

1:22:17

on his planet, more like a plant.

1:22:19

Love it. Yes. But that makes sense with

1:22:21

the flower pot version of it. They're

1:22:23

studying, you know, whatever grass. You're seeing

1:22:25

a lot of ET was in this

1:22:27

opening, but all in silhouette, all through

1:22:29

trees. RET is kind of enchanted, I think,

1:22:32

by the lights. That's why he misses

1:22:34

his flight. He's like looking at the valley.

1:22:36

He's looking at the houses. It is. And

1:22:38

he's thinking, like, one day the ultimate valley

1:22:41

movie will be made. Magnolia. It is the

1:22:43

Wally time. But until then, this is the

1:22:45

ultimate thing that I love. And I feel

1:22:47

like Wally is one of the only movies

1:22:50

to kind of come close to touching

1:22:52

it at times. And yet, come close

1:22:54

to touching it at times. I put

1:22:56

so many fucking qualifiers on that. And

1:22:58

you're waving your head. I do not.

1:23:00

I'm pushing back to your pushback. But

1:23:02

what I like. I'm pushing back to

1:23:04

your pushback, to my pushback, to

1:23:07

your pushback. He's making the most

1:23:09

disrespectful faces. And I really like

1:23:12

Wally. I really like Wally when

1:23:14

it came out and I've only

1:23:16

grown to love with Lauren. David's

1:23:19

making stinky poo-poo faces and I

1:23:21

want to jump over the desk and

1:23:23

strangle him. It's, come on now.

1:23:26

Nothing touches ET, ET, except for

1:23:28

Macamu. Come close to touching it at

1:23:30

times. What do you think, Griff? He's

1:23:32

he's reaching. Come close. Oh, he's reaching.

1:23:34

I'm fucking to Tambay Matumbo. I got

1:23:37

the wingspan. Let me reach The thing

1:23:39

I like is this very

1:23:41

subtle implication that like this guy's just

1:23:43

a little different He's a little

1:23:45

different. He's just made a little

1:23:48

different. It's not overstated and we

1:23:50

don't get to see the personalities

1:23:52

of the other ET's but like

1:23:54

you said it's like there's something

1:23:56

in a light Ed Burns Yeah, there's like

1:23:58

one with glasses Let me phone

1:24:00

home. I gotta call my mom. There's

1:24:03

a demolitions guy. He's got like

1:24:05

stood all over his face. Just

1:24:07

trying to think what the guys

1:24:09

would be. The ETs would be

1:24:11

like. There's a gay one. But

1:24:13

I like that we don't. To

1:24:15

the 80s, so it's a little

1:24:17

broad. Yeah, I'll let you do

1:24:19

a take on what that one

1:24:22

sounds like. Fabulous. Right, there's one

1:24:24

girl one, obviously. Again, it's the

1:24:26

80s. So they're like, we could

1:24:28

have one girl one and one

1:24:30

kind of, you can pick like

1:24:32

other minority. One racially ambiguous one.

1:24:35

Slave queen. She ate. I put

1:24:37

my whole e-tousie into that damn

1:24:39

thing. This is what people miss

1:24:42

about this show. They miss this?

1:24:44

Have we not been giving

1:24:46

them this? It's a sort

1:24:48

of phantom podcast energy, right?

1:24:51

Sure. Yes, e-t is gay.

1:24:53

No, sorry, he's hanging out.

1:24:55

He's hanging out, he's looking at the

1:24:57

valley, he misses his flight. Yeah, there's

1:25:00

just, he just sort of gets caught

1:25:02

up in a moment. The other T

1:25:04

seemed very like, okay, let's get in

1:25:07

and get out, let's get some samples,

1:25:09

right? It's data collection. ET is a.

1:25:11

A bit of a messy bitch misses

1:25:14

his flight home. Yes. Then crashes on

1:25:16

a 10-year-old's couch, eats everything in his

1:25:18

fridge, drinks beer, and then rips open

1:25:21

all his toys and shit and makes

1:25:23

like some weird DIY project and is

1:25:25

like, let's go in the woods and

1:25:28

fucking turn it on. Beyond him being

1:25:30

magical. Like, relax, buddy. Beyond him being

1:25:32

magical. There's this quite implication that, like,

1:25:34

ET is a genius, but he can't

1:25:36

get past the language barrier, right? And

1:25:39

in the stuff, like the ride and

1:25:41

the books, they make it more canonically.

1:25:43

Like, ET is a botanist and fucking

1:25:45

whatever. I know, I'm just saying, right?

1:25:47

There is an admittedly problematic robot

1:25:49

chicken sketch that is sort of like

1:25:52

if ET goes up to his planet is

1:25:54

he the fucking forest gump of his planet

1:25:56

is he the fuck enough enough let's stop

1:25:58

invoking all these terrible things I do something

1:26:00

like if you tease a child like

1:26:03

or right or like a young person

1:26:05

on the crew or something I don't

1:26:07

know like the sort of elfangor yes

1:26:09

to the you know of the Andalites

1:26:12

in Elfangor is the captain who dies

1:26:14

and gives them their morphing power and

1:26:16

animor. Sure. And then there's acts, right?

1:26:18

And they meet, he's the only survivor

1:26:21

and they meet him and they have

1:26:23

an handle. But he's like a, he's

1:26:25

like a teenager. He's like the baby,

1:26:28

you know. Sure. And that's kind of

1:26:30

what ET might be. Maybe he's like

1:26:32

an answer of animor if I can

1:26:34

just say some more words that are

1:26:37

nonsense to 90% of our listeners. No,

1:26:39

I just adore this movies. Right? I

1:26:41

love that you're just like, maybe he's

1:26:43

a child, or maybe he's an elder,

1:26:46

maybe he's a genius, or maybe he's

1:26:48

a fuck-up, you know? Like so much

1:26:50

of it is about like the struggle

1:26:53

to form a line of communication, but

1:26:55

just barely. E.T. Phone home on a

1:26:57

guy, and he goes to the shed

1:26:59

of young Elliot and pretends to be

1:27:02

a goblin. Right. and you have this

1:27:04

like you don't really see ET even

1:27:06

sort of clearly until 15 minutes in

1:27:09

the first 10 minutes are largely this

1:27:11

kind of like ET being left and

1:27:13

Elliot like fighting to get a just

1:27:15

a fucking crumb of attention from his

1:27:18

older brother and the friends and then

1:27:20

all just kind of like overlapping dialogue

1:27:22

cutting him out yeah and then he

1:27:24

slowly discovers this thing. Yeah, uh, discovers

1:27:27

him with the Reese's pieces. The flashlight.

1:27:29

Have you guys ever... Eating Reese's pieces?

1:27:31

Yes. Yeah, I've eaten Reese's pieces. Yeah,

1:27:34

they roll. I guess, I don't think

1:27:36

my mom ever had a mercury thermometer.

1:27:38

So I guess I never did the

1:27:40

specific holding it to the bulb. I

1:27:43

did run it under the tap once,

1:27:45

and it kind of backfired, and maybe

1:27:47

this has happened to you guys, to

1:27:49

pretend to be sick. Because then I

1:27:52

had like a temperature like a hundred

1:27:54

and three like it's like yeah, it's

1:27:56

too hot too fast And then my

1:27:59

I was like whoa what is going

1:28:01

on with you. I feel like we

1:28:03

had a like plastic Thermometer with a

1:28:05

metal tip that was the sensor and

1:28:08

I would put it under my armpit

1:28:10

Yeah, the armpit thermometer was a thing

1:28:12

when we were kids for sure for

1:28:14

annoying kids who couldn't keep it in

1:28:17

their mouth, right well that was part

1:28:19

of it, but I guess you also

1:28:21

my be surprised to hear that I

1:28:24

got sick so often I didn't need

1:28:26

to pull tricks. I was basically out

1:28:28

one out of it five days. Yeah,

1:28:30

you just had to say I feel

1:28:33

sick and mom was like sure you

1:28:35

do. Right Wednesday was like Gray Griffin

1:28:37

Day where I was like lying there

1:28:39

on the floor. So Elliot stays home

1:28:42

from school and meets ET. Because he

1:28:44

wants to really lock him with ET.

1:28:46

He shows ET his Star Wars action

1:28:49

figures. It's maybe the best. No, I

1:28:51

have to stop saying maybe the best

1:28:53

moment in the movie, but it is

1:28:55

it's so accurate. Yep. This 10 year

1:28:58

old meets 18. He's like, all right,

1:29:00

so this is landing. And here, look,

1:29:02

by the way, here's how Spielberg constructed

1:29:04

this, right? He's like, let's put a

1:29:07

bunch of cool shit in this room.

1:29:09

and let Henry Thomas do whatever he

1:29:11

wants. He arguably has too many toys.

1:29:14

You're kind of like, this is a

1:29:16

middle child. How does he have this,

1:29:18

this cooler room with this many toys?

1:29:20

But that's why I feel like inheritance

1:29:23

for Michael, whatever. But it is, he

1:29:25

was just like, show him whatever you'd

1:29:27

be most proud to show him. Look

1:29:29

around this room. Describe in your own

1:29:32

terms. There is divorce kid energy too

1:29:34

I guess of like if your parents

1:29:36

are divorced often both parents then kind

1:29:39

of will buy toys to try to

1:29:41

get your affection and like a win.

1:29:43

And it's part of him being the

1:29:45

middle kid of like Michael's like sort

1:29:48

of old enough to be like angry

1:29:50

about this right? Grudy is a little

1:29:52

too young to fully process what's going

1:29:54

on. Elliot would just be pure emotions

1:29:57

about this thing. I also love that

1:29:59

it's like this is a snapshot of

1:30:01

a moment before Lucas goes in and

1:30:04

is like, ugh. have to come up

1:30:06

with like Wikipedia names for all these

1:30:08

characters. Right. So he's just hammerhead. They're

1:30:10

all hammerhead walrus man. Like there's no

1:30:13

fucking Pondababa, Momon, Nedon shit here. He's

1:30:15

just listing the toy names. Real shit.

1:30:17

Real shit. And then Lando, he loves

1:30:19

Land. Save the best for last. There's

1:30:22

a Lando colorizian. It's got good taste.

1:30:24

It just feels so authentic. Yes. How

1:30:26

can a kid explain like humanity. Right.

1:30:29

using like the toys and the things

1:30:31

and the objects that represent our culture.

1:30:33

Now we would be like here's my

1:30:35

favorite twitch streamer. Yeah. Here's my favorite

1:30:38

at Fortnite skin. Good. Yeah. Jesus. He's

1:30:40

asking ET to give him some V

1:30:42

books. Show ZT. I also think California.

1:30:44

There's an element. Yes. Go ahead. No,

1:30:47

and you have the Yoda moment later,

1:30:49

right? Which is then accompanied by John

1:30:51

Williams quoting his own score. Which is

1:30:54

a little too cute, but I think

1:30:56

works. But I also think there's an

1:30:58

aspect of Spielberg almost being like proud

1:31:00

and in awe of his friend. where

1:31:03

he's like, look, realistically, this kid would

1:31:05

be obsessed with Star Wars. And also,

1:31:07

it's cool that my friend made something

1:31:09

that undeniably culturally pervasive, that it's not

1:31:12

even me just putting in an Easter

1:31:14

egg. Sure, no, totally. Yeah, of course,

1:31:16

these kids are right at the age,

1:31:19

right? That hammerhead means something to an

1:31:21

eight-year-old. I think it's something Spielberg is

1:31:23

like, that's cool that George did it.

1:31:25

Let's just be honest, Griffin just loves

1:31:28

that the kid loves toys. I do

1:31:30

like that. He's got a pretty good

1:31:32

fit collection. I mean, this kid brings

1:31:34

home six figures a month, if you

1:31:37

know what I'm saying. I don't like,

1:31:39

I don't like, don't like, like, I

1:31:41

don't like, I don't like, I don't

1:31:44

like, I don't know. Action figure photography,

1:31:46

Instagram. This could have been a big

1:31:48

episode. It is a big episode. Remember

1:31:50

when I said he put his whole

1:31:53

e-tussy into it? That was good. Yeah.

1:31:55

Put it on the fucking non-rush. Damn

1:31:57

it! See, I already had cut that

1:31:59

out. No, it's back in. It's back.

1:32:02

We're gonna keep calling it back. I

1:32:04

put my whole e-tosey into that damn

1:32:06

thing. No bits. Yeah, so another thing

1:32:09

moment that really, like, you know, in

1:32:11

a sort of heart-ending way feels accurate

1:32:13

to me is they're like, all right,

1:32:15

he shows Michael E-T, okay, and then

1:32:18

they're like, all right, let's show it

1:32:20

to Gurdi, but they have to like

1:32:22

threaten her toy. with mutilation to kind

1:32:24

of get her in line it it

1:32:27

just breaks my heart watching that happen

1:32:29

like not not like this like tragic

1:32:31

way it's on it's honest it's how

1:32:34

a kid like that operates like obviously

1:32:36

my kid cares most about her toys

1:32:38

right these like you know like matrix

1:32:40

bear she does have matrix bear he's

1:32:43

usually daddy bear i will say well

1:32:45

because matrix is daddy i guess so

1:32:47

And then, but then Gurdie gets it,

1:32:50

just like them. Like the way Gurdie

1:32:52

gets it, the way they all get

1:32:54

it with ET. Of like, this is

1:32:56

our friend, it's not gonna hurt us,

1:32:59

and the adults can't know about it.

1:33:01

But the concept's a little too big

1:33:03

for Gurdie, so they have to introduce

1:33:05

some stakes to get her to lock

1:33:08

in and pay attention to what they're

1:33:10

trying to impart upon her. the whip

1:33:12

pan from the sort of serene emotionally

1:33:15

like locked in sensitive moment between Michael

1:33:17

and Elliot and ET all connecting, whip

1:33:19

pan to girdi like kicking the door

1:33:21

open. Yeah, then like whip pan to

1:33:24

ET's reaction, girdi scream and ET's neck

1:33:26

extending and screaming back in response and

1:33:28

then just needing to like muzzle her.

1:33:30

But I the Michael thing I think

1:33:33

it is like the what you're saying

1:33:35

about like Michael doesn't engage with Elliot

1:33:37

because Elliot's annoying, right? At the beginning

1:33:40

when he's being dismissive. He's just all-inian,

1:33:42

like, you know. And he's also, he's

1:33:44

a, he's been a teenager, he's a,

1:33:46

like, in that phase. With his fucking

1:33:49

teen friends, he doesn't want his dumb

1:33:51

younger brother to be like playing D&D

1:33:53

2, he's playing D&D. It goes a

1:33:55

little into my read of what this

1:33:58

movie is ultimately about, which I'll get

1:34:00

to, but that like Michael seeing that

1:34:02

Elliot has connected to ET and there's

1:34:05

a sort of like emotional intelligence now

1:34:07

to what he's presenting to him, sort

1:34:09

of with a new sense of like

1:34:11

maturity, just totally recalibrates Michael immediately, right?

1:34:14

Right. There's a part of him that

1:34:16

has grown up the second he's connected

1:34:18

to ET. I just also think that

1:34:20

just there's this bond of there. Three

1:34:23

of them are all like we are

1:34:25

in on this project together of like

1:34:27

protecting ET. And the the way that

1:34:30

they get Gurdie on board to by

1:34:32

saying that. Only kids can see it.

1:34:34

So they have to turn it into

1:34:36

a game for her. And I just,

1:34:39

it hit me this time. She does

1:34:41

respond to that with, give me a

1:34:43

break. Yeah. Like, so I do feel

1:34:45

like she's kind of like, I'm older

1:34:48

than you think I. Yeah, she says

1:34:50

give me a break. I don't know.

1:34:52

I, but she's playing this line all

1:34:55

the time. I mean, there's sort of

1:34:57

the stuff of her like saying too

1:34:59

much to grownups when she shouldn't and

1:35:01

other times taking their responsibility very seriously

1:35:04

very seriously. It's amazing that this performance

1:35:06

does not become overly precocious, wise, beyond

1:35:08

her years kid, because she says things

1:35:10

that are very much from a child's-like

1:35:13

perspective, but she says them with a

1:35:15

level of confidence and authority, right? Like,

1:35:17

isn't that the magic of the Drew

1:35:20

Barrymore line deliveries in this? I mean,

1:35:22

I guess so. There's something that's a

1:35:24

little bit like, hey, I wasn't born

1:35:26

yesterday. Drew Barrymore turned out to be

1:35:29

a really good actor. Yeah. So it's

1:35:31

one of those things in retrospect that

1:35:33

can be like, this is a great

1:35:35

performance. You never know what these kid

1:35:38

performances. Is it just kind of a