A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

A highly advanced robotic boy longs to become "real" so that he can regain the love of his human mother.

Austin Lugo: Before we get started today, next week we are going to be watching Scream, the original and celebration of the New Scream movie. I've only ever seen one West Crave movie for a nightmare in Elm Street. Loved it very much, especially someone who does not love horror. It's a lot for me to say that I love a horror movie, so I'm very excited for this experience.

Andrew, you've seen quite a few West Scraping films. How many West Scraping films have you seen? Probably like eight. That's

Andrew Harp: a. Yeah, I mean I've watched all, both like he's a great director and um, yeah, you know, he made movies all the way up until he died like a few years ago, so he was very active and he made all kinds of different movies.

So he's a great director and I think all of his screen movies are, are at least pretty good, if not amazing. I'm

Austin Lugo: pumped, I'm ready. I'm excited. But this week we watched ai, artificial Intelligence, Steven Spielberg. I have always kind of. Mixed bag else feel weird's. So his work, I don't know. I mean, I know everyone loves him.

I know everyone thinks he's the great, and he seems like a very nice human being. And I've kind of turned around on Fable Man's. I think the more I think about it, the more I like it. And of course I love Jaws. Schindler's List is great. Catch you if you can love it. But you know, then there's other people book films where I'm just like, ah, I don't know.

One's like Jurassic Park where they just don't, they just don't hit. And I don't know why. Like they just, they just don't get. It's a near perfect

Andrew Harp: movie, in my opinion. I'm excited to watch. I I was excited to watch this one cuz I'm a big fan of, um, you know, he gets his, like, his historical drums, like Catch me if you Can.

Schindler's List Saving Private Ryan. You know, they get a lot of, uh, regard. I love his science fiction movies, though. I love Jurassic Park. I love War of the Worlds. Um, so sci-fi Steven Spielberg is really, I think, uh, where it's at for, for the most part. I think.

Austin Lugo: I feel you, I mean, I haven't seen War of the World yet.

I still very much want to. But

Andrew Harp: that's a, that's a nine 11 movie. Is it really? It came out

Austin Lugo: definitely. When did it come out? It came out not too long. In

Andrew Harp: 2004.

Austin Lugo: 2005? Yeah. Okay. Well, everyone had to make one. This

Andrew Harp: movie came out in 2001, which feels very, um, interesting. Cause you see the Twin Towers and it, and, uh, you see the Twin Towers at least

Austin Lugo: a couple times.

It's like, oh shit. It's a little weird. Interestingly enough. I started reading a book about Stanley Kubrick and Arthur Clark. Right. The creation of, uh, 2001 a Space Odyssey, which, uh, is interesting because this film had an original storyline by Kubrick, like it's a Kubrick production, even though he'd passed away before this film.

Yeah. He like

Andrew Harp: started working on it, like really early on. Right. And then it just, Out and then I think he sold it or gave it to Spielberg and then he died. And then they were like, well, we should do it. And it's based on a short story. You know Spielberg, another Spielberg movie he made was a Minority Report, which is based off of Phillip k Dick book, and it's based on a short story called Super Toys Last All Summer Long, which is a very like Philip k.

It's not a film K Dick Dick story. It's like a Brian Aldi story, but it's a very film K Dick title. Oh yeah.

Austin Lugo: It's artificial intelligence. The idea is all the ice caps have melted. Everyone's moved in land and we got these robots. We got all kinds of robots, all meccas, meccas, meers. And they have robot robots for every sort of situation.

They have sex robots, and it's mostly sex robots. It's mostly sex rabbits. It's mostly sex robots. But one man has made it his mission to make robots that love. Yeah, the

Andrew Harp: William Hurt character.

Austin Lugo: Yeah. Which seems like a fundamentally bad idea to build children. Because they never age. Like they're all, they're just eight years old forever.

Andrew Harp: They're, they're toys, you know, they're meant to be bought and then you throw 'em away when you're done with them.

Austin Lugo: What a terrifying idea. And they're all, the idea is that they imprint, so they are different than regular robots because they have the, they're very different, yeah. To dream and love, which of course is the whole plot of this film.

And for some wild reason, which seems, again, there's a lot of. Things that take place. Not that the story is dumb or the implies dumb, but like people make dumb decisions because it's the person they give. People are very evil. People are evil. The person they give the robot to is someone who has, has a son who is like near death.

Yeah. Like, has been in cryogenics for the last five years. That seems like the worst person to give this to.

Andrew Harp: Well, like they're, they're, they're desperate for a, like a kid to like be in their home, you know? Know at the time. It's like, it doesn't seem like things are improving for their son. And I think the dad right.

Works at, he does abott place, so they identify him and I think it's, you know, it's kind of like probably a part of his job, you know, to kind of like test him out, give it his, give it a, you know, run and uh, you know, check it out. And, um, yeah, they give him the, they give this couple this, you know, grieving, essentially grieving couple.

A prototype, like, kind of like the first prototype, David consideration Robot, which by the way, I really like the opening with William Hurt, by the way, where he is like talking about like wanting to the exposition. Yeah. I, I love that op, I love that opening of the movie. But anyway, yeah, they're like in New Jersey, I think, and um, yeah, and they're this couple, Monica and.

Henry. Yes, Henry. They, they get, they get the, uh, they get the David Robot, the terrifying David robot. The beginning with the David robot is very scary cuz it doesn't, when it's not imprinted it's like weird. It's

Austin Lugo: got this weird like servant esque, it's like exactly what you think like a robot would be. You know, just like very, and yeah, all.

Honor should be given to this young actor, of course was in Sixth Senses and

Andrew Harp: it's in a lot. Yeah. Harry Ju Osman. Haley Ju Osman. He's really good in the movie. Very good. He's great. Spielberg like, I don't know what he does, but like he just like is just able to, just the best performances out of child actors, maybe more than any director ever, you know?

Yeah. Like it's hard to say. I mean, I'm thinking of like et you know, when like, um, like ET is dying and all the kids are like crying and stuff. To me that's like a very like touching moment and, and in here, Hailey Gill Osman very touching performance. It's really good. Yeah, he's

Austin Lugo: just, I don't know, there's just something about him.

He's just really good with kids and I think Spielberg is just a really great. Acting director. I think he's just really good at working with actors, not just in finding the right person for the role, which at this point for Spielberg, it's kind of like everyone wants to be in a Spielberg movie. So he definitely has his pick of who he wants, even back in like 2001, cuz he was Spielberg.

But even so, you know, even if you have great actors, he still has the ability to get these really powerful performances out of everyone involved. And the kid does an amazing job. But when Henry brings this prototype home, he doesn't have a conversation with his wife, like pre bringing this thing home, which I feel like, well, he

Andrew Harp: is just kinda like, he, well, he is just like, yeah, she freaks out.

Which she's pretty good too. I think she's good too. Um, Francis O'Connor, yeah. She gets like really upset and freaked out because she's just like, nothing gonna, understandably, you know, nothing can replace her son or whatever. And he's like, we can just take it back. It's basically, you know, a fucking action figure, you know, you can take it back to the store or whatever.

It doesn't matter, you know, like, just give it a. And I mean, it's a cute little kid, you know, so it's like she kind of like grows attached to it, you know, like, but at the beginning, like you said, it's kind of like a servant esque kind of thing, but she kind of still likes having it around, right? She grows attached, and so she decides like to do the imprinting protocol, which will essentially cause the child to love Monica forever.

Yeah.

Austin Lugo: What's interesting about the imprinting. Is, it's only, I mean, I guess it could be on multiple people, I'm not sure, but he only imprints on her. So like, Henry's just like this guy.

Andrew Harp: He doesn't give a fuck about Henry. He still calls. I don't give a shit. It is very interesting. He calls, uh, Henry, uh, still by his first name.

He doesn't call him dad

Austin Lugo: throughout the whole film. I don't think he ever refers to him as daddy. He used to always refers to him as Henry. But then of course, uh, Monica becomes mommy and. Everlasting love for his mom and, and the whole family. Well, mostly his mom.

Andrew Harp: Yeah. Pretty much his mom. Yeah. He also gets the teddy, he gets the, uh, teddy bear, which is cool.

He gets Teddy, his

Austin Lugo: friend, best character in the movie. Teddy's the best 10 out of 10 character. That's cool. I love, I fucking love Teddy. Yeah.

Andrew Harp: I like the companion that he gets to kind of help him and stuff. He's cool as fuck. He comes in clutch at the.

Austin Lugo: He's always there. He's like his OB one Kenobi. He's always there for him.

Yeah, he guides him through the world. I love Teddy also, you know, some of this C G I has definitely dated because it is 22 years old, I guess. Yeah. But a lot of it looks, a lot of, it looks really good. I

Andrew Harp: think everything looks pretty good for the most part, except for maybe a couple shots.

Austin Lugo: Oh yeah. Like most of it's very good.

I think Teddy looks incredible. Like Teddy, it looks really good. The design of of Teddy is fucking

Andrew Harp: amazing. It is. I think I thinks because they're doing like, I think it's kinda like the Jurassic Park thing, right? Where they do kind of like a mixture of cgi, but also robotics. Right? Right. That's why they've aged really well.

It's not just like a CGI creature. They do like a combination of the two when needed. Yeah, it has aged very, very well. Just like, I think Dresser Park has aged really well in that department. Very nice.

Austin Lugo: Very cool. One thing I don't get about the future, no one has trunks to their cars. Does, does no one buy groceries in the future or like, Put things in their car, like the way the cars are

Andrew Harp: designed.

I love the cars. I don't give a fuck. The cars look really cool. I like how all the vehicles look. I mean,

Austin Lugo: the cars look cool. They look very cool. They

Andrew Harp: just don't seem very, I get maybe, maybe, maybe the flooding like destroyed. All the Costcos. There's no more Costcos anymore. They've been destroyed by the flooding, so there's no red neat reason anymore.

They've been flooded. I love

Austin Lugo: that explanation. But David, he's loving his mommy. He's hanging out with Henry and the kid. Prodigal son comes back, he's healed, he's better.

Andrew Harp: Something amazing has happened. David. Yeah, I love, I love when she like delivers that line and Martin is behind her and she's like slumped in the wheelchair.

So that's a good

Austin Lugo: shot. And this kid, honestly, most of the kids in this movie kind of dicks, they're, they're not very nice kids. They can be kind of dickish, especially to David, which I get, he's like a robot, so they don't feel the. To be nice to him or whatever, but it is baffling. I've lost you, Andrew. I have, I've lost you to the perils of the internet after some serious technical difficulties on my end.

Andrew Harp: We're back. Well, let's just, let's just, let's just get back into it. So like, yeah. We were talking about the, the stupid little kids and how, uh, annoying they are.

Austin Lugo: They're the worst these kids are. You get that like, worst cool scene. Yes.

Andrew Harp: Yeah, exactly what I was thinking

Austin Lugo: about. Hard to watch.

Andrew Harp: And, um, Martin, right?

He's like kind of competitive with David. He's jealous

Austin Lugo: of him because he feels as if he has to share his love with a robot, which I mean, you know, I'm very frustrated. Yeah, it is kinda weird by the kids, but I guess his frustration makes the most sense out of anybody's because like they did kind of replace him with a robot.

So, and he is kind of a prick. But also he is like, he's a kid. And like in that moment when like, the other kids are being pricks, like he's, he's kind of hesitant. I wouldn't say he's as pish as the other rich kids. Like he's not the one, you know, stabbing a, a robot, this poor robot in the arm, which is

Andrew Harp: Yeah, he, he's like, yeah, like kid, like he takes a knife and he like, tries to like do like a pain thing.

And what happens is that all these different moments sort of accumulate to. The dad, uh, Henry, essentially not wanting David around anymore because he's, I don't know, dangerous or something like that.

Austin Lugo: He's afraid of an iRobot situation because the little boy Martin keeps like forcing him to do these things that, yeah, outside of context, do feel quite threatening.

I mean, if a robot came up to me with scissors in their hands, It seems very threatening. Yeah. You

Andrew Harp: get that weird Yeah. Thing where it's like you gotta cut off a lock of like mom's hair. It's like, okay. And he just does it. He's like gullible, you know? He wants to be liked, but once again, it just accumulates into kind of like this thing where it's like, oh man, you know, he's scary.

David is scary, but he's pretty harmless though, for the most part. He's

Austin Lugo: harmless. He's, I guess it's more of the idea of David that's scary, right? This just idea of. Robot living in your house. I mean, I guess they all have robots in their house to a certain degree, but there's something off-putting because he's the first child robot, which we learned a little bit later on, is like there's no other children.

Robots, like all the robots are adults. And the thing about being a robot is he's perpetually that age. So yeah, there's an inherent creepiness of just like forever being, he never grows up eight years old. Yeah. I wonder. I mean, we don't really see this, but I wonder like if this robot, if David lived for like a dozen years, would he still have the kinda childish and naivete of an eight-year-old or does his like artificial intelligence think that's the point, right?

Grow? I think that's the point. Yeah. Right. Is like he's always naive and gullible.

Andrew Harp: Yeah. It's a good question. I'm not really sure. It's hard to say.

Austin Lugo: Yeah, it's hard to say because you, he's not, I guess he's not like alive doing things long enough to kind of. Like what would happen? But I mean, it's a fundamentally creepy idea altogether, which the whole reason they do this commercialization of children is because they've basically banned having children.

Like you have to go through all this legislation to have kids. So the idea is they're commercializing, they're utilizing capitalism to sell fake kids of just one age, which to give the illusion very creepy idea of having a child. Right, but only an eight year old child. Not like you think they would work different ages in there.

You know, maybe like every year you get like a new model, kinda like an iPhone thing, and you start with a one year old and then you get two year old. Maybe they did.

Andrew Harp: Oh, that's true. Yeah. We really only saw the, we really only saw the beginning of it happening.

Austin Lugo: That's a good point. That might have been the future of, uh, human robot technology.

So

yeah,

Andrew Harp: like David, he freaks everybody out. He's super scary and so, They decide to basically take him, return him, take him back to the store, and Monica's driving him and she's like, you know what, I, I can't have David be destroyed. So she goes into the woods and she essentially is like abandons him in, in the woods, which, you know, kind of feels worse in a very, uh, it, it results in a very, um, sad scene,

Austin Lugo: very traumatic scene because she doesn't want to kill him.

But leaving him, abandoning him almost feels. Like, I understand why she does it, right? She, she wants to do it because she doesn't want to kill this cuz she feels like this is a real person or this mecca has feelings and killing is kind of a, and, and David doesn't,

Andrew Harp: doesn't really, really, he doesn't eat food.

That's a thing that they mentioned, right? He doesn't need to eat food, he doesn't drink water, he doesn't have to, um, He doesn't need any power

Austin Lugo: supply. Yeah. He

Andrew Harp: can endure like weather. So I don't think he, you know, gets wet, you know, like mm-hmm. You know, I mean, like, he's in the pool, he is underwater. Like he doesn't get hurt from that.

Like things don't really, uh, affect him very much. Um,

Austin Lugo: he's just a, a very sad kid who's abandoned in the woods. Very hard scene to watch. Very intense. Yeah. That

Andrew Harp: intense sucks. That sucks. So just, it's just him and Teddy pretty much. And, and, and Monica leaves. Him and Teddy against the worlds. It's very sad.

This is where the movie kind of like takes like a, like a different, it kind of shifts perspective

Austin Lugo: a little bit. Yeah. I mean this movie is basically a three-part film, right? Yeah. Part one,

Andrew Harp: which is it's just like them in the house singing Own the house Yeah. With the family. Yeah. Yeah.

Austin Lugo: And the, the dynamics of that.

And then part two is kind of him. Exploring the wider world, which I think part two is my favorite part of this movie because you kind of get to see this cyberpunk techno world that they live in, which of course starts with the introduction of Jude

Andrew Harp: Law. Yeah. Which is a great character. Uh, Juggalo Joe, he's awesome in the movie.

He's very good. He's amazing. He plays, he is a sex robot. He plays like a sex robot who's just, you know, going around and stuff. And, um, He, uh, I love the introduction of him when he is like talking to the woman that he is about to have sex with. Mm-hmm. That's a great scene. It's really funny. He can like, play music at Will, like, he's like a really great kind of funny

Austin Lugo: character.

I love that whole Technocentric red light district that they're in. I love his whole, I know,

Andrew Harp: I love all the cities really great. They look amazing.

Austin Lugo: The cities are awesome. I love the way they make us hair. Like they gel it down and they kind of make. They do this thing where a lot of the robots have like this, look to them like doll.

Like look to 'em? Yeah. Like, like almost like they have too much makeup and kind of plastic. Yeah. Like their skin looks plasticy.

Andrew Harp: It's, he can change his hair color, whatever

Austin Lugo: color he wants. He change his hair color is pretty cool. It's almost like in the valley of Anca, uncanny like the way these robots look, which is a really cool thing to do because like they look human.

They look. But they also look just a little bit off, which I think is a really, I fucking, I

Andrew Harp: fucking love the scene when he goes into like the big junk pile. Uh, David does. Yes. And like everybody's like getting oh, my taking God parts and like replacing and it looks really great. It looks amazing. It looks kind of real.

Austin Lugo: Oh my God. The special effects there are insane. And just the different design of all the robots, because of course there's the robots like David and Jude Law who are very humanesque. But then you get to meet like all these other like cool robot designs. It's really weird looking. Stuff. Fucking amazing robots.

It's kinda hard to destroy. Turn off jaws. Oh my god, it's so cool. And they're ripping off arms, you know, they're like attaching shit. It's amazing. And they got the balloon. The fucking moon balloon

Andrew Harp: thing. Yeah, that was completely random. There's a lot of random shit where it's just like, I don't understand that detail, but it doesn't really matter.

Like it's a future, you know? It's, it's, it's kind of wacky science fiction, so I'm okay with like, stuff like that. Um, yeah, it's got like a cyber book, Brendan Gleason.

Austin Lugo: Yeah. Yeah. I did not, he was in this movie.

Andrew Harp: It was cool to see him. He, he, he takes David, he, he, he and his like robot, his like biker guys. The boo are cool, like cool robot.

They round up all these like, people cast, we like, um, like these crappy robots. Like these robots that are mostly obsolete meccas. Um, and they take him to this Flesh Fair, which is a crazy set. It's kind of amazing. It kind of made me sad when I saw the Flesh Fair set, cuz I was just like, man, I don't think I've seen this like in a.

And another movie and a little, you know what I mean? Like I haven't seen like a such a weird, kind of like large set like this in a movie, in like, I don't know ever. Mm-hmm. Like when was the last time you saw a movie in theaters and it was like there was a set like that? I don't know. Yeah, no,

Austin Lugo: the set design is amazing on this and everyone is just absolutely wild.

It's very horror ass. Like, it's like a outside, out of like a circus horror kind of. Yeah. This flesh

Andrew Harp: like very, like, it feels like almost like rob zombies in a way. It's kinda weird, like his metal music playing and stuff and like, I, I don't know, it still kind of has that Spielberg like directing touch that he does for sure.

Like, you know, typical stuff. Yeah, but like the point of the flash fair is that they destroy these meccas because it's like the people who attended it like hate meccas, they want 'em to, they wanna destroy 'em. So they torture and kill meccas in very uh uh, obscene in terrible ways. It's kind of sucks.

Brutal. Yeah.

Austin Lugo: It's basically a monster truck rally, but with meccas. Yeah. Yeah.

Andrew Harp: It's true. Yeah, that's pretty much what

Austin Lugo: it is. And you get all of these cool robot designs. I think my favorite is the guy whose face is like imprinted on a screen. And then it's like attached to like, like a metal, not a rope, but like Yeah.

You know like a pivotable, a wire. And then like he's got like the old school, he was the man what? He was a times man of the year. Right? Like 750 years ago. Yeah. He was the me of the year. Mecca of the Year. Yeah. Which is a great quote. Yeah. So many. Cool. I think that's, That's where you get to see like that's all the different variations of robots.

Right. It's kind of cool because you get to see like the history, this made up history of like what robots have been over. Like you get to see like their evolution over like a thousand years and you know, the different like ways and how they become more humanoid. And Chris Rock does like a, he's like a two second little,

Andrew Harp: yeah, yeah.

There's a lot of voice kimia in this movie. Yeah.

Austin Lugo: Yeah. And they just brutally. Rip them apart and light them on fire.

Andrew Harp: They shoot 'em outta cannons. Yeah. It's funny. Very brutal. And they're, and yeah, they're gonna kill David, essentially. Mm-hmm. They kinda have a moment where like, they realize like, wait a minute, this David is like, this kid is like a mecca.

Yeah, they don't make like kid meccas like, what the hell? So they're really confused. But what they do is that they do put him in the, they're gonna like dump like oil or acid or something on him. Acid, yeah. And he's like pleading for his life, like a little, like a little boy pleading for his life. And the audience is so like, Not with it.

And I love it too. They mean they immediately turn on Brendan Gleason and they just start to like destroy the stage, which is very

Austin Lugo: funny. I love that scene cuz Brenda Gleason's like, look, we got this little kid, he's a mecca, you know, mecca's our bad, blah, blah, blah. He's gonna

Andrew Harp: replace your kids, da da da da.

Yeah. Yeah. He, he makes all these, but he, David is so realistic, he looks so real that it's not. And, and they say like, you know, meccas don't plead for their lives. Like, right. Why is he pleading for his life? That's kind of weird. Like, it's very strange. They're very disturbed

Austin Lugo: by it. And he is like, he who has not sent cast the first stone.

And then for some reason they all have bean bags. I don't know where they got these bean bags. Just like little bean bags. Because

Andrew Harp: I think Do they, they throw 'em at the robots. It at the targets? Yeah. Okay. They throw 'em at the targets so that the thing falls on them. Yeah. I think that's what they were gonna use 'em for, but instead

Austin Lugo: they just throw 'em at him.

Oh, okay. They just throw 'em at printing and they mob the stage. And of course, laws is taken with David and, and they're set free. They get away with Teddy, of course. Teddy, I mean, Teddy's the real winner here. He's the one who saved. Yeah, he robbs. He's the one who found the little girl. He's the best. I love how.

Monotone. Teddy is like, there's no, yeah, he's great. There's no like, uh, intonation in it. Like, you know, he never gets excited or sad. He's just very flat and I think it's the perfect way to deliver these lines because I think it could have been very easy. To make Teddy kind of like this silly, wacky side character.

Andrew Harp: Nah, he just chill.

Austin Lugo: But he's just chill. He is just like this chill Obi one Kenobi guy, just helping out his buddy David. And he is just there all along the way. Like he's just there to help and I love him. Just another win for Teddy. Yeah. And,

Andrew Harp: and, and so they're able to escape the Flesh Fair, all of them.

Mm-hmm. Uh, which includes Gigo Joe. By the way, I'm on the, I'm on the Wikipedia page right here and it says here, under cast, under, um, Jude Law's character as Gigo Joe. It says, I don't know, this might be bullshit. It says to prepare for the rule law study, the acting of Fred Astair and Gene Kelly whose movements Joe Emulates cuz he does a little dances and stuff like that.

Yeah,

Austin Lugo: right. I mean he does do that thing with his hands, right where he holds them. He like that's true. Holds his like hand his fingers together. But of course we know Fred Astair, as we've talked about before, did that cuz he had these giant ass hands. I don't think Jula has giant hands,

Andrew Harp: but I don't, I don't think so.

He probably has normal hands, but, but he is just trying to like, emulate the movements. He does like little dances and stuff, just like little jigs and stuff. Cause now it's, it's, it's, it's Joe and David and Ted and they're on the run. And David has it in his mind because he had heard about it in Pinocchio when he was with Monica, that the blue Fair.

In Pinocchio was able to turn Pinocchio into a real boy. And so now David thinks that if he find the blue fair and he turns into a real boy, Monica will love him.

Austin Lugo: That's right. And at this point we learned that the company has found David or like knows that David was just a Yeah, they're looking for thing.

They're on the, they're on the hunt for them, which is very important because it'll come in later to play in the film. But Jude law's like Gigo Joe. He's like, we gotta go. To the only place where all of the women are, which is like a sex city.

Andrew Harp: It's like a, it's, it's, it's a called, um, what is it called? It's called, um, Ru City.

Austin Lugo: Yeah, Ru City. It's like right out here in Nevada. It's like just down the street.

Andrew Harp: It's like Las Vegas. Yeah, it's like a Las Vegas like city where I think just there's a bunch of sex robots. I think. I love the Roche. It looks so cool. It looks crazy. I love the design of everything. I love, like when they go into it, it's a cool design.

It's like a tunnel that's like a

Austin Lugo: mouth. That's okay. It's a woman's mouth.

Andrew Harp: It's just completely like, they're like big statues of Yeah, like naked women and stuff like that. Mm-hmm. It's like very specific and it's very like neon and bright. The movie's very bright, has very bright like lights. I think it's like, um, yes, the movie was shot by, um, Kamins.

So I think it's kind of his style. Yeah, he does, he does the, he does the cinematography for all these like Spielberg movies basically from the late nineties up till now. Okay. But they like, yeah, they're like chilling at Ru Ru city. And they decided to go visit like a search engine. Es essentially, um, Dr.

No, Dr.

Austin Lugo: Now the internet. He's the internet. The internet essentially.

Andrew Harp: Yeah. He's the internet. Yeah. And search engine, Google, whatever you wanna call it.

Austin Lugo: Bing. Yeah.

Andrew Harp: Dr.

Austin Lugo: Dot Go. They go

Andrew Harp: see Dr. No Wikipedia. Yeah. They just, because they want to, they're trying to find out where the blue fair. This is a nice old zine.

I kinda like it. It's fun.

Austin Lugo: Robin Williams makes a little cameo appearance here as Dr. No, not a fan

Andrew Harp: of Robin Williams, but I'm, I'm okay with his performance here. It's fine. Name me one good Robin Williams, performance, Goodwill

Austin Lugo: Hunting. Name me another. Fisher King. He's okay. In Fisher King. I haven't

Andrew Harp: seen Fisher

Austin Lugo: King.

He's all right. But I see your point.

Andrew Harp: Rest in peace. Rest in peace. But I, I don't know. Of course, I find employing course. This is an okay performance. I like it. And they're able to, they have to like ask a bunch of questions and they're able to find out that they have to go to Manhattan. Right. To go find man Manhattan.

Manhattan. Yeah. Manhattan. Yeah. At the end of the world. The end

Austin Lugo: of the world, because they have to find the blue ferry who can turn. Fake boys into real boys. It, it basically becomes a story of Pinocchio in a lot ways. There's very Pinocchio esque sort of Yeah. Vibes going on here. Definitely. And Fake boy wants to be a real boy.

He goes on a journey, that whole thing. They do that whole thing, but they have to go to Manhattan. Lo and behold, they walk outta Dr. Know's office and Jude Law, there's a little scene. He's, he's been arrested. They, they've captured him. They have a giant swat. And, but I guess no one like guarded the helicopter.

Like no one's in the helicopter. So David just, he gets into it, walks on in, he just gets into it and him and Jude law fly away. I love it.

Andrew Harp: Yeah. They get the hell out of there. They're escaped. I, yeah, I like it. They just like, take it and they,

Austin Lugo: they're just gone. Just like, no worries. I got this.

Andrew Harp: I like the ruins of Manhattan.

I think it looks really cool. Very

Austin Lugo: cool. I love the ruins of Manhattan. Obviously it's a little surreal to see because it's the 2000 version. The Twin Towers. The Twin Towers are there. The

Andrew Harp: Twin Towers are still there. That's very, yeah. Yeah. They fly around and they, I think they go to the Rockefeller

Austin Lugo: Center.

Yep. They go to the Rockefeller Center because that is where, I guess the Blue Fair supposedly is. He's in the right, and there's even like a little helicopter space, so like clearly like there's something here, like someone's been building some shit here and. Then you have that very weird scene where David walks into a room and he meets basically just an mc.

David. It's a very creepy moment. I couldn't, he meets himself. I couldn't quite figure out what was going on it. It took me a minute, like, I was like, is he like projecting or like, you know, is there some like magic surrealism? I didn't know what was going on. No, it is. It

Andrew Harp: was really another David. Yeah. Yeah.

And he fucking kills him. He's so mad. He kill the shit outta him, kills him. He's so. He destroys the hell out of him. He's so strong. Well, I, I, he is strong. Yeah.

Austin Lugo: He's like, yeah, he's a fucking robot. There's a great line early in this film that I kinda wish they would've explored more. Which is, and it's when Henry's talking to Monica and he's like, you know, if they've given him the ability to love, then they've given him the ability to hate, which is kind of a very terrifying idea and an interesting way.

I mean, not that this film needed to go in that direction, but that would've been also an interesting thing to kind of explore because he's, yes, he's the first robot to love, right? He's the first robot to. And print himself on others. But that also means, and you see this throughout the film, right? You see him getting jealous, which is very weird.

Cause now these other robots do that and that's, I mean, in that moment, right when he is fighting the other David, that's a very scary moment. Like he's willing to murder him.

Andrew Harp: Yeah. Like pretty much like immediately after meeting this, this other copy of. Because he fuels him. Yeah, he's Because he is just like, what the hell?

Like, no, I'm the only David. And, and, and as he soon learns, that's not exactly true. He meets professor, um, Habi. Right? Who is the guy mm-hmm. William Hurtz character. And it turns out all this thing with like the blue fairy and the Dr. No thing, it, it's all kind of concocted by him. Yeah. The reason why he did that was because it signifies to him that David does have like dreams and aspirations, right?

Which shows him that it worked like essentially like the robot. It it, it's what he wanted to do when you've created David was to create, like, we discussed a robot that can love and dream and it Dr. And it and David dreams of being a real boy. Um, and he meets William Hurt and stuff like that. You know, and he essentially says like, what does he say?

Like, William Hurt's character. He says like, um, what? David's like, I'm one of a kind and like, and then, and then Oh yeah. Uh, William Hurtz. Like, you're the first of a kind. First of a kind. It's a very like great line. Yeah. Like he, yeah. Great. Very great line. Um, and it's extremely sad. And you have that scene where right after that, where he's like walking through the office from

Austin Lugo: the beginning there where there's horror scene.

Yeah. And there's all of those. Yeah. David's hanging on the wall and you know, like, yeah. Severed heads and stuff like hooks. It's terrifying. It's a very terrifying scene. You gotta have this, uh, toy story moment, right, where you see all of the toy, Davids like, they're in their packaging. And then on the other side there's basically the female version.

I don't remember what they called her. I feel like it was something with an a Darlene. Oh, Darlene, that's right. David,

Andrew Harp: Darlene. You never see the. Female version lot, but she, but

Austin Lugo: I'm sure it's, I'm sure it's just as creepy and of course mean it's David. He's so upset as you would be. Yeah. Who would it be?

Andrew Harp: Yeah. Yeah. He's, he realizes that he's like a product, right. A commodity less of a person. Mm-hmm. Even though he badly wants to be a person, he wants

Austin Lugo: to be an orca

Andrew Harp: in Orga. Yeah. They call, yeah. They call, uh, people Orcas. Yeah. Meccas orga. And he's so, he's so upset about this that he decides to commit suicide.

Yeah. Which is crazy.

Austin Lugo: Pretty wild. Pretty wild thing for an eight year old to do. Yeah. Fucking falls off the Rockefeller Center. And just sinks right into the ocean. I mean, just, yeah,

Andrew Harp: straight down. But he's like saved by a school of fish for some reason, which is a little unexplainable, but whatever. It doesn't matter.

Maybe they're robot fish.

Austin Lugo: Yeah, maybe The robot fish, who knows The fish. Thing's a little weird. They like swim around him and they bring him to Jude Law cuz Jude Law finds him. Yeah. And Jude law pulls him out of the water. He's like, I saved you. We can. Do whatever we need

Andrew Harp: to do. You get, and then you get another, this part of the movie, by the way, just like basically by the time that they enter Rockefeller Center, the rest of the movie is very, very crazy.

It's just like very sad. Yes. So Drew Law is like taken by the authorities and like what he, he's like, he's like being magnetized and he's like, mm-hmm. He's like, I am. I was, and he's taken away. That's another great, great line. Unbelievable. Great. Just cinematic. Conclusion to that character. I am. Yeah. I was crazy.

But

Austin Lugo: David using his helicopter slash submarine, another very cool design. It's cool. Has been convinced that he has seen the Blue fairy, like he still believe, despite everything, still believes in the Blue Fairy. I mean, just to the nth degree. He's like, this thing

Andrew Harp: exists. Yeah. He, he hasn't, he hasn't, he still hasn't given up.

Austin Lugo: And him and Teddy go to. Bottom of the ocean to this like Pinocchio land basically. And all underwater, of course. And you see it's a Coney and yeah. Oh, is it Coney Island? Is that what it is? Okay. Yeah. They're in Coney Island. Yeah. Very cool. And he, you know, he floats around and of course you see the blue fairy.

And for 2000 years, this boy begs be a ribble. I mean, talk about dedication. Yes.

Andrew Harp: Yeah, yo, what happens is, is that like a Ferris wheel falls on him and he's trapped in front of the blue fairy statue, and so he like begs and begs and begs, you know, he's a robot. He doesn't. And yeah, like you said, very unexpectedly, the movie's like 2000 Years of Balance and you're like, wait, what?

Wait no way. This movie's crazy dude. And you have this whole other section of the movie that is completely like just off the rails. Incredible. Like, it's like, it's like the ocean has been, is frozen and everyone is dead and there is all humanity is dead. Crazy looking aliens. Very cool aliens. And they have these cool ass spaceships.

Austin Lugo: So as I talked about earlier, I'm reading Stanley Cooper and uh, Arthur Clark's creation of 2001 Space Odyssey. And this movie took years and years to make, like they spent years, decade into Figur Sound. And it started as a very different film. And of course there's a novel too that goes with it, which I've read, which if you've seen the movie and you don't really understand what's going on, reading the book definitely adds some flavor to it.

I think they're both good because. Originally the film was supposed to have like a bunch of narration over it, which thank God they got rid of all of that narration.

Andrew Harp: Yeah. And all of that stuff. There's a narration in ai, but it's okay. It happens. It happens right now. Yeah.

Austin Lugo: I don't love it, but it's fine.

It's whatever. I understand why they do it. But the thing I was gonna say is that the original design for the aliens was actually the aliens that they use in ai. Like that was his, that was Stanley Cooper's, like that's what he wanted to do for

Andrew Harp: 2001. The ending of AI is very similar to the ending of 2001.

Mm-hmm. They feel very similar. Yeah. Where it just suddenly like, you're like, shit is like, you know, intergalactic, you know,

Austin Lugo: did not expect that. I mean, I guess it makes sense cause they're so far in the future, but still a wild turn. Aliens with their fucking Yeah, they're crazy cool designs. They're skinny and.

They're telepathic mentality. Yeah, they're mentality.

Andrew Harp: They're super smart and all, and they're cool as fuck. All they want to know is like, they wanna learn more about like, the people that lived on Earth. That's pretty cool. And they, uh, they get 'em out. They get, uh, they get, um, They find and revive David and Teddy, um, and like David is like, oh my God, the blue fairy statue and he touches it and it just crumples churns into a million pieces, which is a great, uh, it looks great.

What an intense moment. And like, yeah, they touch his head and like it's clear they, like, his memories are still in there so that like they all get his memories. He's essentially, as I say in the movie, the last source of information of. What, like humans were like.

Austin Lugo: Mm-hmm. Very cool. And you know what, Teddy's there all along.

Teddy's still there by

Andrew Harp: his side. He's there too. Yeah, he's still chilling. Yeah. Yep.

Austin Lugo: And these very kind creatures, these extraterrestrials want David to live his best life. Like, they want David to be happy cuz they feel like David's, he's, he's helped them out. So he wants, they want to help David out so they recreate.

The home of Monica and Henry, but it's just David and Teddy, like there's no one else there and it, the lighting's kind of surreal and expressionistic and it feels very dark and empty.

Andrew Harp: I, I got outta detail that I didn't realize. That kind of changes the movie a little bit. Now that I'm looking at the Wikipedia page, it is not really for it explained, apparent.

They're, they're not aliens. They're Mecca that have evolved into an advanced form and a group of them called the specialists have become interested in learning about humanity really. So maybe they are aliens, but they're, I guess, like super advanced Mecca. And it kind of makes sense because earlier in the movie, Jude Law kind of does like that great speech where he's like, the reason why humans hate us so much is because we, we'll still, Here long after they're gone.

Austin Lugo: Right. And that's the very first, that's like one of the very first lines of the movie. Like when they do the opening narration, like before they do. Right. The exposition thing is like, there's a time when all of humanity dies and the meccas are the only thing that's left. So I guess that makes sense how they're like, plus I know like Stanley Kubrick his, he had this like big idea of being like inorganic material being what aliens are.

Yeah. So are they then, are they from another planet or are. They're from another planet though, right? Like they're inorganic material. They're mecca, but are they? It's

Andrew Harp: kind of hard to say, I guess. I don't know. Yeah,

Austin Lugo: I'm not sure. Cool spaceships though. Those like,

Andrew Harp: yeah, they got the little cool. Yeah, those are really great.

Yeah. Like you were talking about, they put David in basically into a reconstruction of his home from his memories and he's. And

Austin Lugo: they tell David, because of course David wants to see his mom, he wants to see Monica, he loves her to the end, to the end of Earth. Yeah. And end of time he's like, I wanna see her again.

And they're like, ah, man. The only way you can see someone again is if you have their dna N mm-hmm. And then of course, Teddy.

Andrew Harp: Teddy with the fucking

Austin Lugo: win win. I didn't realize this, but I remember early on, and this is an incredible little detail, that it's what makes Spielberg so great. What makes Spielberg Spielberg is early on in the film, Martin and David are talking, and in the background for no explainable reason, Teddy is sewing himself.

And they don't tell you why or like, that's true. Anything don't about that. It's so like, it's such a little detail and you don't think about it. But then of course Teddy comes in with the fucking win and he, you know, fucking does his little pouch and there is Monica's hair. Amazing. Amazing. It's great.

Andrew Harp: Fuck yeah, dude. It's, it's such an epic moment. You're just like, oh my God, I can't believe it. This is awesome. Because you're totally rooting for David. Like I said, this performance is really good. You feel really bad for him. Mm-hmm. And, you know, he deserves to have a moment with his mom, which, you know, isn't perfect.

Right? Because as he's told later, they can bring her back, but only for a, a day for some reason. When they bring people back, it's just not, it's, it's imperfect. Like, um, they just, when they go back to sleep, they die. And that's just how it is. So, so they warn 'em. It's only gonna be for a day, and then she's gone like forever.

And David's like, that's fine. You know, let's fucking do it. You'd rather see her than never see her again. You know, let's, let's do it. He's very adamant about it. He's just like, it, it's very, uh, and then they have that, that touching moment, right? Where Monica comes back and I, I mean this part of the movie, it's just when the aliens like, or the meccas or whatever, when they come through.

The last like 20 or 30 mo uh, 20 to 30 minutes of the movie are just like excruciatingly moving. I don't know what it is. It's just the way that people act and the way that everything is shot in the music as well is just like, everything is just completely like, just very emotional. I found myself very moved, like throughout these last like 20, 30 minutes of the movie.

Austin Lugo: Very powerful. And he, he's just living his best today. You know, he's painting and they're playing hide and seek and they're just living their best life and he's so happy. He's just the perfect day. Just the perfect day. And Monica, of course, is confused, which, you know, if you're brought back after 2000 years Yeah.

Could be confusing. And they don't explain anything which they aliens tell 'em not to explain anything. That's terrifying. But they have this perfect day and at the end of the day she decides to go to sleep and we have this really touching moment where, David lays next door cuz we learned that David doesn't need to sleep.

And there's this great scene early on in the movie where they're like, okay, it's time for bed. He's like, do you like power off? Do you sleep? He's like, no, but I can lay here very quietly. And that's like how he exists. Yeah. Like there's no sleeping for him. He just kind of doesn't move for eight hours.

Yeah. But in this final moment, as Monica falls asleep, he closes his eyes and dreams proving the e. Of Mecca to humanity,

Andrew Harp: I guess. Yeah, the na like the narrator says like, David falls asleep as well, and he goes to the place where dreams are born. So yeah, he does, he has dreams, you know, he actually, he falls asleep like a person would.

So, and of course, like right before that too, she finally tells David too that he, she loves him. Mm-hmm. Which is like really what he wanted all along. It's not really to be like a real boy, a real person, like Yeah, it's just the. Whining, the love, the reciprocated love of someone he loves so

Austin Lugo: much, which of course is the initial ponder and that very first opening dialogue between all these scientists.

Yeah. Because they say, you know, we want to create a robot that loves. And he is like, well, maybe we can create a mecca that loves, but. Can humans love meccas and at that moment, yeah, Monica. Monica loves

Andrew Harp: him. That's, it's true. They did it. Yeah, they did it. Yeah. It took like 2000 years. But yeah, they did it, you know, and yeah, it just, it's just, I'm assuming, yeah, like David, like Pete essentially dies.

I'm, I'm assuming, you know, like Yeah, he is essentially, cuz his life is complete, essentially. His goal, his dream has been a complete, there's no one left around. So it's, it's kind of over with. You know, once again, it's just like, this movie's fucking awesome. There's like, it's packed with like so many, so much stuff.

Mm-hmm. Like it's such a packed movie. Like so many things going on, it's like kind of insane that they were able to make it. Yeah. You know, and it's just kind of like, I love like that idea of like David, like containing 2000 years into the future, like David being able to contain and hold on to like the last.

I don't know. Refuge of humanity in him. Yeah. That he's able to give to this advanced, you know, uh, me, these advanced mecca so that they can learn more about humanity and what it was all about. And. And it's ironic cuz it's also another mecca that humans created for, you know, uh, that that was created to be, you know, commodified and mm-hmm.

You know, I think it's once again, kind of like that movie thing of, you know, of love being able to transcend, uh mm-hmm. Time and space and, you know, even people,

Austin Lugo: very powerful. Just a, a very powerful ending to a, a very powerful film. That's incredible. Do you wanna give your final thoughts?

Andrew Harp: I pretty much gave them, but I mean, yeah, like I said, yeah, it's like a very packed movie with a lot of stuff going on.

A lot of great set design. I think the cast is really good. I think it's a good looking movie. There's some weird details, but it's not really anything like too, like, I don't know, distracting. Mm-hmm. And yeah, I think like each act kind of has their own things going on that are really interesting and really, And I don't know, it's just like, I don't know.

I think this is like one of the best Spielberg movies, honestly. It's so good. Wow. It's so like crazy. And I don't know, like I said, it doesn't, it feels so, and I, I think too, like you have like. It's, it's one of those movies that it, it's not just like Spielberg's vision, but it's also Stanley Kubrick and the guy who wrote the original story.

Like there's a lot of like layers and stuff and influences going on. Mm-hmm. Which I find very interesting. And I think it really elevates the movie to this area that makes the, it's kind of weird, but it's also like very effectively, it's very effective emotionally. So, I mean, I gotta give it the nine out of.

Wow.

Austin Lugo: Rare Andrew moment. You don't go giving those away easily.

Andrew Harp: I don't give movies nine tens. Yeah.

Austin Lugo: And so, yeah. Wow. Big words. Big words. I am very conflicted about this movie. Talking about, again, you know, I talk about all the things that we love and all the amazing things, and all these like little details that are just so incredible and such amazing world building.

And as we said, you could really break this movie down into three separate parts. And I think that's the best way for me to kind of explain my feelings towards them. I found part one, the part from basically the opening until David is abandoned. I found this part to be a little dull to me, a little slow.

I get what they're doing, you know, they're getting relationships together and all that stuff. But as we talked about, the kids are kind of pricks and I find that little grading a little annoying. I find Martin as a whole to just be kind of irritating at me. I understand why he feels the way he does and it all makes sense, but first part to me just runs a little long.

I find myself just kind of a little bored by it. I mean, it basically all takes place on one set, which is a very cool set. Design all takes place in this house. It's a little slow to me. It's a little boring. But then part two hits and part two goes fucking hard. I mean, you got Jude Law, you got Brenda Gleason, you got fucking all these incredible robot designs, incredible futuristic world.

You could see all these cool cities and all these cool landscapes, and the special effects are just fucking off the charts. Such cool designs, very horrific at times. Love Teddy. You know, Teddy's just doing the best that anybody could ever do. Really incredible, incredible performances all around. Fucking love part two, I think part two is pretty much a perfect film, like part two, like on its own.

Perfect. I fucking love it. Like you could basically make three movies out of this, and part two is a perfect film if part one is just Okay. I think part two is basically close to perfect. And then you have fucking wild part three, Mecca alien shit, which comes completely outta left field. Did not expect it at all.

Very cool. Alien design. Very cool ideas going on. Him and Monica have their thing, which is very touching. It's very nice part. Good. I don't think it goes as hard as part two. I was touched by part three, but maybe not to the extent. Some people where, I know some people are very touched by the film, so I don't know.

I'm struggling. Cause there's parts of this film where I'm like part two, like that's a nine outta 10. Like I, I feel very good about that. But then, you know, the beginning for me it just, it runs so long and it feels a little slow to me. So. I'm still gonna go with an eight though. You know, when I came into this conversation I was feeling like a six, but having talked about it and all of the amazing things at Spielberg, I gotta give it an eight.

Andrew Harp: Hell yeah. It's a great

Austin Lugo: movie. All right, y'all, thank you for listening. You can find everything I do at Austin Luco. One

Andrew Harp: two on letter box at Retro Rancher, E R t, um, R E T R zero.

Austin Lugo: And you can find this podcast, whoever you hear, podcast. You can also find us on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube at theater 42 or with nothing to say.

And thank you all for listening.