Doctor Movie! and Hail Ming Power Hour!

Dan: But it's a documentary in the Oregon Trail video game, which isn't very well known over here, but I know it because I'm a video game nerd, and I'm just interested to see how these guys came up with it back in the day when it was just writing code.

Dan: And now it's like this big thing that most American kids grow up playing.

Dan: I'm sure you played the Oregon Trail.

Doctor Movie: It was when they introduced computers into the school system.

Doctor Movie: That's the game you had.

Doctor Movie: That's the only game that kind of came with the system.

Doctor Movie: So yeah, everybody played it.

Dan: And it was educational.

Dan: Pretty educational as well.

Doctor Movie: And you all died in the same way, you know.

Dan: Dysentery, right?

Doctor Movie: Wait a minute, I hear something.

Doctor Movie: Hey, everybody, what's happening?

Doctor Movie: Welcome back to another episode of Doctor Movie, where we're not in a car.

Doctor Movie: We're actually at the house, because I got a special guest, also special guest with me.

Doctor Movie: It is the one and only Dan the Man.

Doctor Movie: His mama is not a snowblower, Dan Bone.

Dan: I was gonna use that line, too.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, of course.

Doctor Movie: What's happening, Dan?

Dan: No disassemble, I guess, is the first thing to say, really.

Dan: No, I'm good, thank you.

Dan: And thank you for having me.

Dan: I'm excited.

Dan: I'm excited to be on the show again and talking to you and discussing some 80s goodness.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, it's always a blast.

Doctor Movie: And I mean, if we could find time, I mean, we could have a banger of a show if we just ran with it, but we're both busy people.

Doctor Movie: Because I think it's pretty endless, the shows we could talk about, but we are together to talk about Short Circuit from 1986.

Doctor Movie: It's strange when you look at this movie and you put in perspective of that timeframe of how movies were kind of chugging along and the special effects were moving along.

Doctor Movie: This is right in that sweet spot, man, where it was getting to where the special effects were so good, you forgot they were effects.

Doctor Movie: And I said this to Becky a while ago when I was going through it again, I was like, you know, number five is amazing when you look at, even from today's standard of what we think a robot is, it's really impressive.

Dan: Yeah, because he looks like a robot, you know, he's not, I mean, obviously, it's 96, there's no CGI.

Dan: It's, they spent a 10th of the budget on just the number five robot alone, you know, and it looks incredible.

Dan: And certainly as a child, I had no qualms in believing he was just a character, you know, it wasn't until you get a bit older, you realize, okay, that's not the case.

Dan: The same with, you know, you recently covered in Anderson's.

Dan: And all these kind of movies that were coming out, like you said, chugging along, they made you believe, you know, in the mogwai, you believed that that was the creature, you know, it's just, and that's the beauty of practical effects, of course, but also something we passionately believe in, which was that these movies had heart as well.

Dan: You believed in the story, you know, as silly as it might be, you believed in what was going on.

Doctor Movie: I saw an interview with the director and he was talking about, if you believe in the character, if you like the main character, you're willing to accept anything that's the story because you've bought into believing in the character.

Doctor Movie: And that's exactly what this is.

Doctor Movie: You know, if you had a, well, it's just like the difference between ET and Mac and me, right?

Dan: I'm glad you brought up Mac and me.

Doctor Movie: Because there's that thing, right?

Doctor Movie: Even though Mac and me still has a charm to it.

Doctor Movie: But there's something about really relating.

Doctor Movie: And again, going back to an earlier episode, Harry and the Hendersons, you totally forget that those are effects.

Doctor Movie: You are so buying into, wait a minute, I'm watching this thing and I'm feeling affection for this thing.

Doctor Movie: It's not even real.

Doctor Movie: And you know, you got the same thing here and it's very robotic.

Doctor Movie: And it's, again, we keep throwing this around, that 80s magic, because this is a movie that not only adults could go and see, but kids could go and see and everybody could enjoy this.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, is it corny and cheesy?

Doctor Movie: Well, sure, but at the time it wasn't.

Dan: This is certainly, I mean, adult, I mean, rewatching this as an adult and even as I became a teenager, you realize there are a lot of rude jokes and little things sewn into this for the parents whilst the kids watching The Cute Robot.

Dan: You've got Fisher Stevens saying some quite obscene things here and there, which fly over the kids' heads.

Dan: You've got all this stuff happening.

Dan: And again, it's that sweet spot.

Dan: I noticed this a lot growing up in the UK.

Dan: A lot of these movies were on TV and they were heavily edited because they would just drop curse words into these PG movies.

Dan: You don't really get that as much now.

Dan: And I'm not saying we need swear words in our movies, but it was just the way that we spoke and the way that people talked about them as well.

Dan: And it just made it feel a little bit more grounded.

Dan: And if you saw a robot, you're probably gonna use a curse word.

Dan: If you see a robot telling you it's alive, you're not gonna say, oh gosh darn, what's happening here?

Doctor Movie: That's a very good point.

Doctor Movie: Here's something.

Doctor Movie: It only got a 6.6 out of 10 on IMDB.

Doctor Movie: I don't think I agree with that.

Dan: I don't agree with that.

Dan: I mean, obviously, I've got my nostalgia goggles on.

Dan: And I was eight years old when this came out.

Dan: Probably saw it at the age of around nine maybe on the Renzo.

Dan: I didn't see this one in theaters, but it's incredible.

Dan: I put this in the same league as Harry and the Hendersons, you know, all those movies that came out in a space.

Dan: Once just these crazy movies that just happened, and they kind of, a lot of these had sort of science fiction or slightly supernatural elements in them, which added to the weird fantasy world that you were just looking into for 80, 90 minutes.

Dan: And as a kid, that's all you needed.

Dan: You know, that was, it's that brilliant escape.

Doctor Movie: And we were getting plummeted with them too, because, you know, Back to the Future, Cocoon, Short Circuit, I mean, this battery's not included.

Doctor Movie: I mean, there was a ton of these coming out.

Doctor Movie: Yeah.

Doctor Movie: You could, you can always go back and say, maybe ET was kind of the start of getting into the interest of technology, futuristic stuff on Earth, which as Star Wars took us, you know, to another galaxy, that kind of brought it back home and made it relatable in the 80s.

Doctor Movie: In case you don't know what this movie is, I'll read a synopsis.

Doctor Movie: When one of the experimental range of military robots is hit by lightning, it's given consciousness.

Doctor Movie: It escapes from the military and befriends a young woman, Stephanie Speck.

Doctor Movie: Its creator, Newton Crosby, is desperate to find it or his entire project may be scrapped.

Doctor Movie: There you go.

Dan: Yeah.

Dan: Number five is alive.

Doctor Movie: Number five is alive.

Dan: And it's a great concept, you know, especially back then before we really knew about AI.

Dan: Well, more AI.

Dan: But back then artificial intelligence was a robot.

Dan: Now it's not.

Dan: It's an actual conscious thing, more or less.

Dan: So it's a great idea, you know, and it's taken that little bit of Frankenstein style, the lightning striking something and making it alive, but it's scrambling the circuitry of this robot, this highly advanced million dollar military, you know, and it's very sort of 80s, because it's there really to take down the Russians, because this is the 80s American military.

Dan: That's what they wanted to do back then.

Dan: And that's all it was, but they're hit by lightning and he starts learning.

Dan: And again, that's why you fall in love with this guy, because this Johnny Five, because you're watching him almost grow up through this 80 minute movie.

Dan: He understands what life is, he understands what death is, you know, he understands beauty.

Dan: And that moment is quite heart wrenching actually, when he realizes what disassemble means and what death means.

Dan: You know, as a kid especially, you're like, wow, okay.

Doctor Movie: And what he was created for, he was created to be a disassembler, you know.

Doctor Movie: And, you know, yeah, I mean, it's an interesting take.

Doctor Movie: And I know I keep bringing up the ET thing, because the three stories here, Short Circuit, Here in the Henshins, ET, very much follow the same plot line, when you think about it.

Doctor Movie: I mean, there's a little things different here and there, but it still comes to somebody that's not used to being around where they are, befriending somebody, learning about society, learning about people, learning about emotions.

Doctor Movie: And then the military tries to come and take them down.

Doctor Movie: I mean, that's pretty much all three movies.

Doctor Movie: But at the same time, they all have such memorable things that happen in them.

Doctor Movie: Even the TV stuff in this one reminds me of, kind of ET does this thing where he's watching the TV and taking stuff in.

Doctor Movie: And here, I mean, but he's in fast forward, right?

Doctor Movie: Cause he's super intelligent.

Dan: Oh yeah, like when he's reading the books, it's absolutely brilliant.

Dan: Like I need more input and he's thirsty for it.

Dan: He's like, ah, I need more.

Dan: And she's like, oh, I've got all the volumes of the encyclopedia on my shelves.

Dan: Why don't you just read through all of them?

Dan: And he's going around the house pointing, going, oh, there's a whisk and there's an egg.

Dan: And there's a, he loves it.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, I mean, it's a brilliant way to show that he's learning, you know, he's learning what everything is.

Doctor Movie: And the fact of, well, for first thing, encyclopedias.

Doctor Movie: How many remember those?

Doctor Movie: Right?

Dan: The encyclopedia salesman's at the door.

Dan: He wants you to buy RS&T today.

Doctor Movie: Now, you know, a robot that this would happen to, would just plug into a local computer and just go over the internet and figure things out.

Doctor Movie: Just like Neo in The Matrix.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, he literally had to take books and flip the pages faster than humanly possible.

Doctor Movie: To learn every page and every detail.

Dan: And I feel like that was done by Neo in The Matrix, you know, similar concept and the same with, if you've seen any of the Transformers movies, which I know you have, Bumblebee only communicates through song clips and adverts and commercials.

Dan: And that's how he initially starts to communicate, you know.

Dan: So it's definitely influenced, this movie is definitely an influence on future movies and pop culture.

Doctor Movie: Absolutely.

Doctor Movie: Well, we even get a guitar player named John Five that's playing with Molly Crew now.

Dan: There we go, yeah.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, I mean, that's just right there on the nose.

Dan: And I strongly believe that this film was remade when they did that movie.

Dan: What was the movie by Wichato Copley, the South African guy, and they've got the robot.

Dan: And do you know the one I mean, I can't remember the name of it now, for some reason, it's gonna really annoy me, but it feels like that was remade almost because it was a military robot that was rewired by some hoods in the ghettos.

Dan: And then he started to realize, I don't really wanna chappie, that was it.

Dan: Yeah.

Dan: And that feels like almost like a short circuit remake, but just a little bit edgier.

Doctor Movie: Well, that's that thing, right?

Doctor Movie: We have to push a little further.

Doctor Movie: So when we started this conversation, that's the first thing Dan wanted to talk about is, like I said, with this 80s magic and how we just have such a lack of now.

Doctor Movie: I went on it pretty hard about the Harry and the Henderson's episode, but what is wrong with a feel good movie that you don't have to have everything spelled out for you?

Doctor Movie: Just take the ride, man.

Doctor Movie: Take the ride.

Dan: Yeah.

Dan: And I said to you, well, I'm pretty good at, there's a button in my brain when I know that I need to just take the ride with a movie and I'm happy to hit that button.

Dan: It doesn't always have to be deep.

Dan: I don't need the backstories of every single character.

Dan: This is a very simple story, but very clever and well written, good script.

Dan: Throw in Steve Guttenberg and a few other great people here and there as well.

Dan: And some top notch effects.

Dan: And some genuinely funny scripting, you know, all the way.

Dan: Heartfelt as well.

Doctor Movie: Yeah.

Doctor Movie: I love that he latches on to the Three Stooges.

Doctor Movie: And you kind of get to see a playoff of that later on in the show, like when they send the other military robots to come take him down and, you know, he outsmarts them because he has human intelligence and knows how to build a snare and all this kind of stuff to trap them.

Doctor Movie: And he rewires them and they become robotic Three Stooges.

Dan: I mean, I should imagine he also watched a lot of Wile E.

Dan: Coyote and other one of Looney Tunes movie cartoons as well, because yeah, he seems to be heavily influenced by that type of comedy, doesn't he?

Doctor Movie: He was full of the pop culture of that time period, the stuff that was on TV while we were growing up.

Doctor Movie: I'm a little older than you.

Doctor Movie: So yeah, I mean, Three Stooges were on every day when I was a kid and yeah, he's just taking all of that and rolling it together and becomes his own person, just like we all do.

Doctor Movie: Those miniature influences all mixed together is who we are.

Dan: He just does it over the course of a couple of weeks rather than 10, 12 years until he's not realizing what kind of a person you are.

Doctor Movie: Well, I think I caught it a while ago is when Gutenberg's character finally catches up with him and they go up to the mountains and spend some time together, she makes the point of, I think he speaks really well for a four-year or a four-day-old.

Doctor Movie: So he's only four days in at that point.

Doctor Movie: So yeah, let's talk a little bit about the cast.

Doctor Movie: We got Gutenberg.

Doctor Movie: I mean, when you talk about mid-80s, is there anybody that was hitting it anymore than Steve Gutenberg?

Dan: Yeah, he's been in some of my favorites from this era.

Dan: I'm a big fan of the Police Academy movies, although there were especially ones he was in.

Dan: The Cocoon movies, Three Men and a Baby, Three Men and a Lady, and there's a, you mentioned one the other day.

Doctor Movie: Bad Medicine, yeah.

Dan: Bad Medicine, that was it.

Dan: And he is a charming, funny, could deliver the lines, every man, but also, I don't know, he had that magic.

Dan: There's a glint in his eye.

Dan: He's just very good at what he does.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, I mean, you don't confuse him for anybody else.

Doctor Movie: He's kind of his own thing.

Doctor Movie: And I can't think of anybody else that even kind of fits that category.

Doctor Movie: I think they try to bring other people in and kind of shoehorn them in there.

Doctor Movie: He's kind of like Bill Murray light.

Doctor Movie: He's like Bill Murray cute.

Dan: Yeah, because he can be sarcastic, but he does it in a really charming way.

Dan: Whereas Bill Murray can be quite cutting.

Doctor Movie: Since we're talking about Gutenberg and Police Academy, we got GW.

Doctor Movie: Bailey in this as well, right?

Doctor Movie: He's pretty one-dimensional, always has been.

Doctor Movie: Plymouth plays the same character all the time, but nobody does it better.

Dan: If you need an a-hole who works for the police or the military and is a bit too big for their boots, then GW.

Dan: Bailey is your man, whether it's in Police Academy or even in Mannequin.

Dan: Now, we talked about Mannequin together, so this is our second GW.

Dan: Bailey discussion.

Dan: In fact, I have a theory that when he gets fired at the end of Short Circuit, he then goes on to work in the department store as a security guard, changes his name, because he's exactly like that character, really.

Doctor Movie: Still over the top even for the job that he's in, right?

Dan: Today, today.

Doctor Movie: Oh, we got Allie Sheedy, I mean, one of the Brat Pack here, stepping up.

Doctor Movie: Not, how am I going to say this?

Doctor Movie: It's not a spectacular performance.

Dan: No, but she's cute.

Doctor Movie: But she's cute.

Doctor Movie: I mean, she plays it perfect.

Doctor Movie: But I guess I was used to seeing a little more out of her.

Doctor Movie: And this one's kind of dialed back for that character.

Doctor Movie: She's a little more airheadish, but that's fine.

Doctor Movie: She's playing the part for what she wanted to be.

Doctor Movie: I saw an interview.

Doctor Movie: She said she always wanted to be in a movie like this, where it was more fantasized, you know, dealing with, you know, those kind of subjects.

Doctor Movie: So, you know, I'm not saying she did a bad job.

Doctor Movie: It's just, I don't know.

Doctor Movie: I've seen her do some things that make me go, wow, OK.

Dan: I guess all of the cast knew they were going into a movie where they knew that the main star really was going to be this 1.5 million special effect.

Doctor Movie: Good point.

Doctor Movie: Yeah.

Dan: You know, so they knew that that was going to be front and center.

Doctor Movie: All right.

Doctor Movie: And we'll talk about the elephant in the room.

Dan: Oh, boy.

Doctor Movie: Fisher Stevens.

Doctor Movie: I'll be honest with you.

Doctor Movie: I had never seen Fisher Stevens before this movie, so I didn't know he didn't talk this way.

Dan: I think that was a revelation for a lot of people when they realized he was not an Indian gentleman.

Dan: Not a South Asian gentleman.

Dan: He is in fact a white guy.

Dan: But yeah, I mean, it's the elephant in the room.

Dan: You know, let's call it what it is.

Dan: He's brown facing it.

Dan: You know, he went for the job.

Dan: He got the job.

Dan: This was 86, probably 85.

Dan: This film was shot maybe even earlier that it was started, you know, getting put together.

Dan: He went into this, you know, he went and lived in India for three years, for three months, not three years, that's commitment, three months to learn the culture.

Dan: And he actually wanted to try and portray the character as less of a stereotype, but the studio pushed him to become the comedic side, you know, sidekick.

Dan: It's incredibly funny performance, but yeah, it doesn't, it wouldn't fly.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, it's just a different time, you know.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, I mean, that's one of those things, right?

Doctor Movie: And, you know, even in this situation, like I said, if I didn't know any different, I mean, most of them, if you go back into the 60s and 70s, it's pretty obvious that this person is not this nationality, you know, with him.

Doctor Movie: I was shocked when I found out that he wasn't.

Dan: Yeah, I mean, he does a brilliant job.

Dan: And I think he's a very memorable character, you know.

Dan: Maybe that's shocking to say, but I'm a big fan of it.

Dan: Obviously, yes, OK, you could say he was taking away the role from somebody who was actually from that part of the world.

Doctor Movie: But you didn't have access back then like you.

Doctor Movie: I mean, you just didn't.

Doctor Movie: Bollywood was not at the level that it is now.

Doctor Movie: You didn't have all the way that we're all connected.

Doctor Movie: You stuck with who you had and who you used and you were either in the system or you weren't in the system.

Doctor Movie: And, you know, it was just a different just a different time.

Dan: And the character was popular enough that it was more or less front and center in the sequel.

Doctor Movie: Yeah.

Doctor Movie: I mean, that whole the whole sequel is here.

Dan: It's just him and number five and then Fred, the other guy, doesn't it?

Dan: I can't remember his name, but but yeah, no, but it's the elephant in the room and good job.

Dan: We talked about it, but yeah.

Doctor Movie: How about how about the fact that GW.

Doctor Movie: Bailey's name is Scroder?

Doctor Movie: Yes, very close to another word that when they say it, sometimes you're like, I think they called him Scrodom that time.

Dan: I'm pretty sure that Fisher Stephen says it at one point.

Dan: I'm pretty sure he says it at one point.

Doctor Movie: So, but yeah, man, I don't know how you want to approach this.

Doctor Movie: I haven't done the show with somebody in a while.

Doctor Movie: I don't know if we want to kind of walk through it, but it's a it starts off with a big military showcase.

Doctor Movie: They've got funders there that's going to back this program.

Doctor Movie: They're showing off the robots.

Doctor Movie: They're doing some incredible things and they want to meet Newton.

Dan: Newton Grosby.

Doctor Movie: Yep.

Dan: The relaxing genius.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, he's he's not there to rub elbows with people.

Doctor Movie: What do they what do they keep saying?

Dan: Hobnobbing.

Doctor Movie: Hobnobbing.

Doctor Movie: And he's tucked away in his room and he's basically, hey, come on, man.

Doctor Movie: I mean, Jarvis, he had Jarvis back then, man.

Dan: Yeah, he did.

Dan: Flipping people off.

Doctor Movie: Yeah.

Doctor Movie: So that's the first thing I thought of when I saw it.

Doctor Movie: Oh, look at this.

Dan: This is teaching him to play the piano, isn't he?

Doctor Movie: Yeah, one handed.

Dan: Nice.

Dan: Yeah.

Dan: Yeah.

Dan: Gutenberg, he's not really played a character like this, I guess.

Dan: You know, he's a bit of a recluse, bit of a hermit, a genius.

Dan: You know, a lot of geniuses are like that, I guess you hear.

Dan: And, yeah, he's, you know, everybody wants to meet the man that create these robots, and I think partly the reason he's like that is because he knows that they're going to be used to kill a bunch of people, you know, in these wars, and he just wants to take his money and run.

Dan: You know, he doesn't, he feels bad about it.

Dan: He's guilty, you know, so.

Dan: But yes.

Doctor Movie: And, you know, out of that, you know, you got funders that say, oh, we won't, I'll probably invest my money once I get to meet him and understand the person that's building all this.

Doctor Movie: And so our leadership in the military is trying to find him and get him out there to hobnob.

Doctor Movie: And, you know, it's just not his thing.

Doctor Movie: While this is going on, they're doing some great displays of what these robots can do, even, you know, mixing the gin and tonic, you know.

Doctor Movie: So these things are.

Dan: I know.

Dan: It's like we've shown you, we've shown you all these explosions and stuff on the field.

Dan: And now the ultimate selling point will be, this robot can mix me a gin and tonic, shaken but not stirred.

Doctor Movie: And, I mean, they're talking like Cylons, so I kind of dig that.

Doctor Movie: You kind of get the panel that's over the power button.

Doctor Movie: It's kind of reminiscent of what the Terminator sees.

Doctor Movie: So, I mean, you've got all these elements that are all mixed into this thing.

Doctor Movie: But the fact that you're taking these killing machines that their eyes light up red and they're shooting lasers off their shoulder pack, and now they're mixing you a drink.

Doctor Movie: Hey.

Dan: And they, of course, they use the sound effect from the Ghostbusters proton pack for the lasers.

Dan: And they do look a bit like something you'd see in James Cameron's first Terminator movie, or maybe even the second one.

Dan: There is something about them with the wheel treads.

Dan: They're not walking.

Dan: They've got little tank treads and stuff.

Dan: So, yeah, they're pretty badass.

Doctor Movie: Yeah.

Doctor Movie: And the fact of, because this is going back to probably R2D2 or whatever, but in most cases, you're going to see the character, but not the whole character, right?

Doctor Movie: You're just going to see an arm or the wheels or...

Doctor Movie: You're literally seeing these things rolling around and doing things and reacting.

Doctor Movie: Yeah.

Doctor Movie: I mean, it's impressive, man, it really is.

Doctor Movie: To think about 1986, you haven't really seen anything like this before that wasn't a motorized machine that you stuck a person in to move the legs, you know?

Dan: Yeah.

Dan: There was no lying to the audience that this was a real machine and it was, you know, they built...

Dan: I don't know how many of these they probably built, you know, arms here for closeups, eyes, you know, and I know they built obviously probably about 10 of the actual robots.

Dan: Like I said, they spent a tenth of the budget, 15 million back then, you know, it's nothing these days on the movies, 15 million and they spent 1.5 on the robots, you know, and it was worth it.

Dan: I think I had to get that right.

Doctor Movie: Again, believing in the character and when you see that it's rolling around and you don't see wires running to it or things are...

Doctor Movie: and I'm sure there's some hidden things.

Doctor Movie: That's just, you know, that's part of the movie magic.

Doctor Movie: But I still say, this is impressive, man.

Doctor Movie: We saw such a change in effects around 92, 93, it really started getting interesting.

Doctor Movie: You can say, you know, DreamWorks or whoever ILM, you know, getting involved and pushing everybody beyond what's been the norm.

Doctor Movie: And this is the result you get.

Doctor Movie: Now, it's all CGI, which don't get me wrong, there's some things that work great.

Doctor Movie: But this is a real robot running around.

Doctor Movie: You know, I'm sure that you overdub things, the voice and all that kind of stuff for sure.

Doctor Movie: But still, it's so impressive.

Dan: And it's all in camera, any tricks they needed to do, they're all in camera, you know, like when he's flipping a coin or whatever it is.

Dan: And yeah, you know, they're doing there's lots of things they do where it's all real, you know, and anything they couldn't do, apparently, they just used a hand, like a robot hand, and then would just do a close up of it already attached to like winding a window down or something like that, you know.

Dan: So they worked around it and it worked really, really well.

Dan: But whilst Steve Guttenberg is hobnobbing with these military guys who want to bless the best, these Russians, they're packing away the five robots, aren't they, Ricky?

Dan: And there's a bit of a thunderstorm rolling in.

Doctor Movie: Show enough.

Dan: Uh-oh, lightning strikes.

Doctor Movie: They forget to disconnect one of them.

Dan: Oh, boy.

Doctor Movie: And there you go.

Doctor Movie: Electric, the lightning strikes.

Doctor Movie: And now he's feeling different or feeling for once.

Dan: And he starts malfunctioning a little bit, doesn't he?

Doctor Movie: Just a little bit.

Doctor Movie: Well, the first thing he sees is a female robot.

Doctor Movie: We're assuming it's a female robot that goes by with a nice voice.

Doctor Movie: And I get you say a nice tale.

Dan: I mean, I guess that was the joke.

Dan: He's like, oh, he just follows it.

Dan: But then he gets, it's quite comical.

Dan: Then he kind of gets bumped by the garbage bins.

Dan: And then he's put into the back of a garbage truck.

Dan: And he sort of, where am I?

Dan: What's going on?

Dan: You know, it's one of those classic sort of knocked from one place to the other.

Dan: And sure.

Dan: So I just to escape the facility.

Doctor Movie: Yep.

Doctor Movie: Breaks the barricade.

Doctor Movie: He's out there and nobody can really track him.

Doctor Movie: So they call in Gutenberg.

Doctor Movie: We got to find this unit.

Doctor Movie: You know, it could be out there shooting people or whatever.

Doctor Movie: So they're in their mind.

Doctor Movie: This is a killing machine that's out there in civilian world.

Doctor Movie: And, you know, he kind of gets knocked off the truck.

Doctor Movie: Looks like he's at a farm.

Dan: He lands in a field of cows, doesn't he?

Dan: Yeah.

Dan: Just like Gwildor in Masters of the Universe trying to communicate with the cows.

Dan: And he sees a butterfly, doesn't he?

Dan: And he's really entranced by this butterfly.

Dan: You realize he appreciates beauty.

Dan: He's becoming alive.

Dan: He's becoming self-aware.

Dan: All the meanwhile, in contrast to that, the military, like you say, they're panicking because not only do they realize he's missing and he's worth millions, somebody says, well, at least he hasn't got any ammunition or lasers.

Dan: And they're like, what are you talking about?

Dan: He's fully armed to the teeth with lasers and grenades and goodness knows what else.

Dan: So we need to find him before he fries someone.

Doctor Movie: Right.

Doctor Movie: And that's where we get Scroder involved.

Doctor Movie: You know, they try to communicate with Five.

Doctor Movie: They get Newton to reach out to him and try to, you know, find a location for him, try to shut him down.

Doctor Movie: None of it's working.

Doctor Movie: And I love the scene where he sends back the, I'm a pepper, you're a pepper, wouldn't you like to be a pepper too?

Dan: What is he saying?

Dan: He's saying, wouldn't you like to be a pepper too?

Doctor Movie: It's just a sign that he saw on the side of like a barn or something.

Dan: He's just reading it out to himself, isn't he?

Doctor Movie: So it's got plenty of that kind of humor of trying to decipher something, meaning something, and it means absolutely nothing, you know.

Doctor Movie: And again, one of those things I miss.

Doctor Movie: Everything doesn't have to mean something.

Dan: Yeah.

Doctor Movie: You know.

Dan: You know, he's not reading like a page from, I don't know, some really deep philosophical book and understand.

Dan: He's just reading a Dr.

Dan: Pepper advertisement on the side of the road, you know.

Dan: That's all it is.

Doctor Movie: Again, reaching into that pop culture of the time, you know.

Dan: Yeah, I don't think I'd heard of Dr.

Dan: Pepper until this movie over here anyway, in the UK.

Dan: We didn't get it, you know.

Dan: Well, I mean, it might have been around, but it was certainly not a very talked about drink.

Dan: It was because of this in the Cannibal Run movie that I started understanding, oh, there's a drink called Dr.

Dan: Pepper.

Dan: And then I think we started getting it a little bit easier over here.

Doctor Movie: Wow, that's cool.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, that's like I think I was born with a Dr.

Doctor Movie: Pepper.

Dan: I mean, it's my second favorite fizzy beverage after Cherry Coke.

Dan: So I always liked Dr.

Dan: Pepper.

Dan: Got some fond memories of drinking that in cinemas as a kid.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, it was my go to.

Doctor Movie: And until I had kidney stones, I was like, you know, maybe I ought to back off.

Dan: But the Pepper time.

Doctor Movie: That's right.

Doctor Movie: Dr.

Doctor Movie: Pepper time.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, and then you get from here to, we meet Ali Shidi's character Stephanie, who is trying to do her own business.

Doctor Movie: A snack mobile, I guess you would say.

Dan: Yeah, Stephanie Snack Shock.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, so it's a snack shop on wheels.

Doctor Movie: She comes home and her boyfriend slash ex-boyfriend, not really sure what the term is at the time, is trying to get the dog off the roof or either he put the dog on the roof.

Doctor Movie: He's trying to get it and capture it, right, and put it into a cage.

Dan: Yeah, because he wants to sell it to a lab who are going to just test on it.

Dan: And he is such a lowlife that he's willing to steal his ex-girlfriend's dog and sell it to a laboratory for a few thousand dollars.

Dan: And she, to further emphasize her pure good character, not only is she sort of serving people food in her snack shop, she's also rescued every animal in the vicinity.

Dan: She has pet raccoons, dogs, chickens, cats, you know.

Dan: She's like Ace Ventura.

Dan: Her house is just full of animals.

Doctor Movie: She's like my wife.

Dan: Well, we all know someone like that.

Dan: My mum was the same.

Dan: Every cat in the neighborhood would be in my mum's kitchen.

Dan: She had budgies, fish.

Dan: We definitely all know someone like that.

Dan: In your case, it's your lovely wife.

Dan: And there's people like that who just don't want to help everything and help everyone, you know.

Doctor Movie: They don't feel that connection with people so much, so it's the animals that they get it from.

Doctor Movie: And yeah, I mean, in the evening time around 6 o'clock, you'll see a, I don't even know what you call a group of skunks.

Dan: A stink of skunks?

Doctor Movie: A stink of skunks.

Doctor Movie: They'll start hobbling.

Doctor Movie: You'll see them coming across the fields going to the barn because they know that she's going to throw some cat food out for them to eat.

Doctor Movie: They will come out of the wild for her to throw them cat food.

Dan: Look at their watches.

Dan: Hey guys, you know what time it is.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, as soon as they see the sun coming down, you'll see them start hopping.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, so I mean, she just loves animals.

Doctor Movie: I mean, I could go on and on with the possums, the raccoons, the, you know, the multitude of cats, the nine donkeys we have.

Dan: That's incredible.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, it is.

Doctor Movie: It is.

Doctor Movie: That's why I have to work three jobs.

Dan: Those damn donkeys.

Dan: Well, he's got her ex-boyfriend's got this amazing red transam.

Dan: She pulls the dork mobile, doesn't she?

Doctor Movie: I'm like, that's anything but a dork mobile.

Dan: Tells him, go get in your dork mobile and leave me alone.

Dan: So he does.

Dan: They have a bit of a fight.

Dan: He's quite physical with her again.

Dan: This was a different time.

Dan: You know, a couple of times in this movie, he gets quite physical with her.

Doctor Movie: He throws her down on the ground.

Doctor Movie: I'm like, wow, I'm surprised with that, actually.

Dan: Later on, he shows up with a shotgun, doesn't he?

Dan: Crikey.

Doctor Movie: Well, again, showing how low life he is.

Dan: I mean, there's a reason he's the X, I guess.

Dan: Cool car, though.

Doctor Movie: Oh, yeah, the car is fantastic.

Doctor Movie: While it's still together.

Doctor Movie: Hint, hint.

Doctor Movie: So at this point, now you've got, you know, Newton and Ben, which is the Fisher Stevens character, setting up some road trips, trying to find the other robot.

Doctor Movie: They take number one with them, the number one robot, in case there's any, you know, yeah, in case there's any altercations whatsoever.

Doctor Movie: They've got some backup and, you know, they don't have a whole lot of luck.

Dan: They don't, they really don't.

Dan: And it's really funny, actually, they do work well together.

Dan: They've obviously worked, you know, their characters have obviously worked together for a long time because they understand each other's quirks.

Dan: And they even have like a little language and they keep chipping in and finishing each other's sentences.

Dan: You know, when he says machines don't think, they don't laugh, they don't feel, they don't do this, they just run programming and they always follow that last sentence for each other, you know.

Dan: So they definitely work together, but yeah, they do not have a lot of luck.

Dan: Both probably don't have a lot of luck with the ladies either, you know, you get the feeling.

Doctor Movie: Well, and that's the Ben character's like, maybe we can find some females, you know.

Dan: Some females.

Doctor Movie: Did she shove her tongue down your throat?

Doctor Movie: You know, his questioning is just like, wow, you really do not get out, do you?

Doctor Movie: So yeah, when we talk about nerds, and again, that's an 80s thing, man.

Doctor Movie: The computer nerds.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, he's kind of the epitome of that in this movie as well.

Doctor Movie: He could have fit into Lambda, Lambda, Lambda very well.

Dan: I can imagine him in the background of war games or something as well, you know.

Doctor Movie: Oh, it's funny you say that, right?

Doctor Movie: Did you say that on purpose or?

Dan: I didn't know.

Doctor Movie: Okay, the director actually did war games.

Dan: Oh, really?

Doctor Movie: And Saturday Night Fever.

Dan: I know he did Saturday Night Fever.

Dan: That's crazy.

Dan: John Travolta and Johnny 5.

Dan: Two Johnnys.

Doctor Movie: Yeah.

Dan: But very different.

Dan: Interesting.

Dan: Very interesting.

Dan: Yeah.

Doctor Movie: John Badham is the director.

Doctor Movie: Not John Bottom.

Doctor Movie: I mean.

Dan: John Badham.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, Badham.

Dan: Now, what I really like is now number five makes its way to Stephanie's farm.

Doctor Movie: Yeah.

Dan: And this again harkens back to the 80s, where I guess in some ways we still are obsessed with aliens, you know.

Dan: But pop culture back then, Stephanie would have seen Close Encounters or ET, and she sees there's somebody outside in her snack shack.

Dan: And of course, the gate, the little shutter's open, and you've got these glowing red eyes and this little face.

Dan: She's like, welcome to Earth.

Doctor Movie: Welcome to our planet.

Dan: She goes in, she's so brave, like she's taking in all the raccoons.

Dan: She's, I'm going to take this alien in.

Dan: Come on.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, yeah.

Doctor Movie: She knows who the real bad people are, and that, you know, that's the warmongers, right?

Doctor Movie: So yeah, again, that's that mentality.

Doctor Movie: But yeah, she's, and again, you know, not taking away, she plays the character, what it needs to be, right?

Doctor Movie: Because it has to be this caring person who wears their heart on their sleeve, that knows they're doing the right thing, willing to take anybody in and take care of them.

Doctor Movie: And it just works.

Doctor Movie: And at this point, that's where she's finding out he's not an alien.

Doctor Movie: He's a robot.

Doctor Movie: She sees the badge on him where to call, and she calls to say, hey, I found this robot, I think.

Dan: I think he's one of yours.

Doctor Movie: Is there any money for this?

Dan: And the guy's like, no, but we do offer tours of the facility.

Dan: We could even throw in maybe a soda or something.

Dan: It's like, come on, guys.

Dan: This thing's worth millions.

Dan: Just give her a few hundred dollars.

Doctor Movie: But obviously, she ends up falling and having some feelings for him as he goes along.

Doctor Movie: And of course, you're doing the learning thing.

Doctor Movie: And again, this harkens back to ET.

Doctor Movie: I think about Elliot showing the Star Wars figures and the planets and just trying to give them anything she can to say, here's things you should just know.

Doctor Movie: These are things that are important in my life that you should know as well.

Dan: He reads like every book in her house in 20 minutes.

Dan: So she's like, what else can I?

Dan: Ah, the television.

Dan: So she puts that on and he goes crazy, especially because he can change the channels himself with his own antenna.

Dan: So he's watching like three seconds of everything, just like almost watching every channel at the same time.

Dan: And we should probably mention something which I really love about this movie at this point.

Dan: What a tune.

Dan: And famously, the video for this song.

Dan: I don't know why Steve Guttenberg didn't want to appear in it.

Dan: Maybe he was busy with the Police Academy movie.

Dan: But they're all in this, even the robot briefly.

Dan: But there's a cardboard cutout of him.

Dan: I always remember that.

Dan: Why is Steve Guttenberg just a cardboard cutout?

Doctor Movie: Maybe Guns N Roses should have done that.

Doctor Movie: Remember when they did the Don't You Cry Tonight video, and Izzy had just left the band, and they held up a sign and said, Where's Izzy?

Doctor Movie: Could have just had a cardboard cutout of him up there.

Dan: Well, this song is important because later on, it will help number five decide on his own name.

Dan: It's a cool name, Johnny Five.

Doctor Movie: So, you know, L.

Doctor Movie: Da Barge was in a band called Da Barge, which had a few hits of their own.

Dan: You know that that song is close to my heart, because of course, of course, you knew where I was going.

Dan: You read my mind.

Doctor Movie: We kind of got close to the same mind.

Doctor Movie: I'm sorry.

Doctor Movie: But yeah, I mean, so you go from, I've always wondered about that.

Doctor Movie: Well, we were Da Barge, but now I'm L.

Doctor Movie: Da Barge.

Doctor Movie: So you're the Da Barge.

Dan: I'm the The Barge.

Doctor Movie: It's very Spinal Tapish name thing, because remember they were in a band called...

Doctor Movie: Oh, what were they called?

Doctor Movie: Oh, I went blank.

Dan: It's been a while since I've seen Spinal Tap.

Dan: They did have a funny name change, I do remember.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, the originals.

Doctor Movie: They were in a band called The Originals, and they left and put another band called The New Originals together.

Dan: It's kind of like when you get like a Jason movie that's like the final chapter, and then the next one is the new beginning.

Dan: Hang on a minute.

Dan: Didn't see that.

Dan: The New Originals.

Dan: Come on.

Doctor Movie: The New Originals.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, I'm L.

Doctor Movie: DeBarge.

Doctor Movie: So, anyway, it don't matter.

Doctor Movie: He had a big hit with this, and I really don't remember him doing anything after that.

Doctor Movie: So.

Doctor Movie: Maybe he just stayed with DeBarge.

Doctor Movie: I don't know.

Dan: He should have done.

Dan: He should have done.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, oh well.

Doctor Movie: I think they were all brothers and sisters too.

Doctor Movie: I'm not sure.

Dan: Yeah, there was a family resemblance between them, for sure.

Doctor Movie: They had another group called the Jets back then that were all family too.

Doctor Movie: So maybe getting those a little confused because they're almost the same thing.

Doctor Movie: So anywho, doesn't matter.

Doctor Movie: We've got this song in this movie for a reason, and it is used for a purpose.

Dan: Twice we get it.

Dan: Once now, once towards the end when he's, you know, almost accepted.

Dan: It's almost like he's signing the, I'm now a human being, you know.

Dan: I'm a member of the United States.

Dan: And what's my name going to be?

Doctor Movie: I want to be a Mark or a Jeff or a Johnny.

Doctor Movie: So yeah, I mean, from here on, you've got, you know, our crew that's trying to capture number five and kind of keep them together.

Doctor Movie: But you got Scrotum, Scrotum, Scroter.

Dan: You can call him Scrotum.

Doctor Movie: He's really is trying to destroy it.

Dan: He's like a kid with a catapult or, you know, he's just itching to have the chance to destroy this, you know, and he's got his cronies following him around.

Dan: And he's just like he is in Police Academy, you know, any chance to flex his power.

Dan: When he gets told, you need to go out and bring this thing in, don't destroy it.

Dan: And he says to his men, destroy it if you have to.

Doctor Movie: They're like, yeah.

Dan: And everyone's like, woo, we're going on a mission.

Dan: But they're really inept.

Dan: They're like the Keystone Cops, you know, they're driving in their tank lorry thing, and they can't see number five.

Dan: And then they realize that they bumped into him and he's attached to the front of their vehicle.

Doctor Movie: Great scene.

Dan: They panic when he looks around at them, and then he falls off a bridge.

Dan: And yeah, it's lots of.

Doctor Movie: But yeah, I mean, you get several occurrences where he leaves Stephanie's, he comes back to Stephanie's, and you get all these situations.

Doctor Movie: I love where he makes Ben and the other guy get out of the van for the first time.

Doctor Movie: That's when he decides he's going to drive.

Doctor Movie: Well, actually, he drives at Stephanie's, right?

Doctor Movie: Because he takes the manual out and goes through the manual real quick.

Doctor Movie: But when he gets in that one, he's reaching out, moving the mirror, getting it all set.

Dan: He does the sort of pointing forward thing, doesn't he?

Dan: He's very confident now.

Dan: At Stephanie's as well, as we touched on earlier, he sees a grasshopper, he's learning about all the bugs, and he accidentally crushes, he's mimicking a grasshopper.

Dan: Like a child, joyful.

Dan: I've got two two-year-olds, and I know exactly what this is like.

Dan: And you're a dad, you know, and you see this joyful, oh, wow, this creature.

Dan: And then they accidentally kill it, and he kills this.

Dan: And he just looks at her and says, oh, just reassemble it.

Dan: She says, what do you mean, reassemble it?

Dan: You squashed it, it's dead.

Dan: And he's like, no, disassemble?

Dan: What?

Dan: Disassemble?

Dan: Reassemble?

Dan: And she's like, no, when something's dead, it's dead.

Dan: And then that's exactly like you said earlier, he starts piecing together.

Dan: Death is death.

Dan: And I was designed to cause death.

Dan: And then that further powers his little robot brain into thinking, you know, my destiny, I'm in charge of what I need to be doing, what I want to do.

Dan: It's a great, great little plot point.

Dan: You don't see it come in, you know, you don't see it come in in a movie like this, especially in a moment where he's learning about butterflies and bugs and raccoons, and then suddenly just crashes on.

Doctor Movie: Yeah.

Doctor Movie: I mean, that's again, the beauty of this film is that you get invested in the character and then you find out the real feelings behind all of it.

Doctor Movie: It's just like you said earlier, it's brilliant filmmaking, brilliant storytelling.

Doctor Movie: And it's very much like you said, he's a child.

Doctor Movie: He's learning as a child.

Doctor Movie: And you're seeing that.

Doctor Movie: You just brought up a great example.

Doctor Movie: You know, if you have kids, this is what you experience.

Doctor Movie: You have to stop and explain.

Doctor Movie: No, don't grab the cat around the neck because either it's going to go crazy and you're going to be in bad shape or you're going to kill it, you know.

Dan: Don't crush that snail.

Dan: That's what I have to say to my son.

Dan: I know you like to, you can pick them up.

Dan: You can look at the snail, but don't squeeze it because if you break the shell, you're going to kill it.

Dan: And you're going to be upset.

Doctor Movie: And until sadly, until one of those things kind of happens, they don't feel that inside, right?

Doctor Movie: And I'm not going against any of our hunting friends out there.

Doctor Movie: But for me, it was kind of the same experience.

Doctor Movie: I got a BB gun going out.

Doctor Movie: What are you supposed to do with a BB gun?

Doctor Movie: Are you supposed to shoot birds?

Doctor Movie: First time I shot a bird and it fell dead, I was done.

Dan: Really?

Doctor Movie: I felt terrible and couldn't do it again.

Doctor Movie: And I understand the need of being able to hunt for yourselves in case things get in the crap.

Doctor Movie: It's the fan.

Doctor Movie: Right?

Doctor Movie: So you got to be able to, but going out and doing it because you can.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, I'm not a big fan of it.

Doctor Movie: But hey, each their own.

Dan: You know what it's like here in the United Kingdom.

Dan: You would have heard about all the fox hunting, et cetera.

Dan: And it's not to the same extent, obviously, but there is a very small fox hunting culture.

Dan: And yeah, not many people here would agree with it.

Dan: There is a very small, it's the high, very rich and powerful that get involved in that kind of thing.

Dan: I know it's different over there, but yeah, I totally agree with you, my friend.

Dan: Totally agree with you.

Doctor Movie: Now, we do have a problem here with deer, because deer, I mean, we're overpopulated with deer.

Doctor Movie: So if we don't have hunters going out and taking care of that, you're going to have a lot more people getting killed in car accidents and stuff like that.

Doctor Movie: So, you know, there is a trade-off for that.

Doctor Movie: I get it.

Doctor Movie: But going and killing a caribou just because you can, I just, I don't get that.

Doctor Movie: So again, that's my opinion.

Doctor Movie: You can do what you want, right?

Doctor Movie: Yeah.

Doctor Movie: I mean, that's that moment that makes what happens in this movie relatable is because I can go back and say, oh, I've done that, and I remember how that made me feel.

Doctor Movie: I had no right to just shoot an animal that was just going about their day, doing their thing.

Doctor Movie: So it made me sad.

Dan: But when you're a kid, you've got to learn these things, like you said, and he's basically a kid.

Dan: He's just learning at an accelerated rate, really, isn't he?

Doctor Movie: I mean, yeah, he's learning way more than I did at four days old.

Doctor Movie: That's for sure.

Doctor Movie: I mean, I was drinking Dr.

Doctor Movie: Pepper, but you know.

Dan: And you like to be a pepper, too?

Dan: He also walks in on Stephanie in the bathtub.

Doctor Movie: Nice software.

Dan: Even as a kid, I got that joke.

Dan: I get that.

Dan: Because he sees her and he says, Stephanie, you changed color.

Dan: Beautiful.

Dan: Nice software.

Doctor Movie: All of a sudden, he sounds like Polly Shore.

Dan: Sorry about that.

Doctor Movie: He's so funny.

Dan: Hey, Stephanie Fonzie.

Dan: I don't know.

Dan: I turned to somebody else.

Dan: So yeah, he understands.

Dan: Perhaps even that is helping him to understand that humans, you know, wear clothes and, you know, the difference between him and them and life and death and all this kind of stuff.

Dan: Yeah, it's all learning for him.

Dan: Yeah, he steals her truck there, doesn't he?

Dan: And he drives off in her truck.

Doctor Movie: It's a great scene.

Doctor Movie: It's great.

Dan: He's driving off.

Doctor Movie: And again, I think he's Johnny comes on again at this point, and he's like, yeah, yeah, he's rocking out at this point because he's going through like some like radio evangelist and some news reports.

Doctor Movie: And then he gets to the music and then he starts grooving.

Dan: And then he realizes he's got a tracker on him.

Doctor Movie: Yeah.

Dan: And that's how the army keep finding him.

Dan: So he pulls his tracker off.

Doctor Movie: Throws it to the local redneck.

Dan: I wasn't going to use the term redneck, but I guess they are rednecks.

Dan: Let's be honest.

Dan: I like it when they get pulled over later.

Dan: And if you carefully listen to the wife, because these are like quite, you know, they're late mid to late 60s, these two fairly, you know, unassuming.

Dan: But she sort of says to him, I hope you haven't got the grass in the glove box.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, I hope you took the grass out of the glove box.

Doctor Movie: Then the cop says, she says, something wrong, officer?

Dan: It's so funny.

Dan: It's so funny.

Dan: Yeah, so he's pretty clever.

Dan: He's learning again, you know, and he understands what's going on now and that they're tracking him and that they want to disassemble him.

Dan: This is the whole point, I guess, really, is that he knows they want to catch him to disassemble him and study him and find out what's happened.

Dan: Because as far as the army know, he's still malfunctioning, and no one except Stephanie really knows that he's alive.

Dan: But the TV reporters get hold of this news and they put it all over the news, and there is a big reward being offered.

Dan: And who is watching the news in his local bar, but Stephanie's ex-boyfriend, the douchebag?

Dan: And he says, oh, she's going to give me that money, all right.

Dan: I think it's $15,000, $25,000.

Dan: He says to her later on, don't worry, I'll give you $5,000.

Doctor Movie: So yeah, he jumps in his dork mobile, drives out to her house.

Doctor Movie: This is where he has the shotgun, right?

Dan: Yeah, that's right.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, because he busts in the house, and he's trying to take Johnny...

Doctor Movie: Johnny, he was not Johnny at the point at this time.

Doctor Movie: He's still number five.

Doctor Movie: But that's where he goes outside and disassembles the car.

Dan: Well, just before that, you get him wooing.

Dan: And now I understand why, now you've reminded me why they are referencing Saturday Night Fever in this, because he's watching John Travolta, and he starts copying the moves.

Dan: And this scene is so good, the effects while he's doing the dance moves.

Dan: How did they even do that?

Dan: You know, it's no miniatures, that's a real robot doing some of these dance moves.

Dan: And then he starts doing the Bee Gees, doesn't he?

Dan: More than a woman.

Dan: And she's like falling in love with him almost, not in a Howard the Duck kind of way.

Dan: That was a bit, that was pushing the boundaries.

Dan: But the less said about that scene, the better.

Dan: But she is kind of like realizing, this is his charming robot and we're having a dance and he's spinning me around the room and it's all very lovely.

Dan: But yeah.

Doctor Movie: Look at the man that she used to have as a boyfriend and how he treated her now.

Doctor Movie: She's with a robot who treats her better than a human does.

Dan: He's making a breakfast Ricky.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, he is.

Dan: He might be burning it, but he's trying.

Doctor Movie: Still a little lumpy.

Dan: And I love all of that stuff he does where he quotes like commercials he's watched.

Dan: A can of soup, a mule in itself.

Dan: Even at the end when he's doing the, aw, shocked little lady, John Wayne stuff.

Dan: All of that is so good.

Dan: So ahead of its time.

Dan: We see it all the time now where people are quoting things like Jim Carrey was doing it in his movies.

Dan: But back then it was just like, wow, this guy is like, he's like a beacon of a pop culture, this robot.

Dan: I love that.

Doctor Movie: Exactly.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, I mean, that's what I mean.

Doctor Movie: That's why I think, I mean, as a kid, you go, wow, this is a cool kind of robot and he's, you know, hopping like a grasshopper and all this stuff.

Doctor Movie: But tying in all the pop culture stuff of the time, that kind of gets the teenage group involved going, all right, this is, you know, this is kind of cool.

Doctor Movie: You know, what a such a different idea.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, man, this thing across the board is just smart.

Doctor Movie: It's a smart movie.

Dan: And yeah, you're right, the Dorkmobile gets disassembled.

Doctor Movie: Oh, man.

Dan: He does it in like 30 seconds.

Doctor Movie: And he comes out.

Dan: The entire Trans Am is just in pieces.

Doctor Movie: He's holding up a drum rotor in his hand, right?

Doctor Movie: Or he just happens to be holding it, and dude is shooting at him, and he's blocking the bullets like Wonder Woman.

Dan: And he's making Bruce Lee noises, isn't he?

Dan: He's going, well.

Doctor Movie: That's a little later on, isn't it?

Dan: Oh, is that later on, is it?

Doctor Movie: That's when he confronts him.

Doctor Movie: And he starts using the laser to cut the drive shaft, which, looking at that, I kind of want to go back and watch that part again, because I'm going, how did they pull this off?

Doctor Movie: I mean, obviously, it's a rotoscope laser coming through, but he's holding this drive shaft, and it starts breaking off in sections with smoke and stuff coming out of it, you know, where the lasers are hitting it, hitting it down shorter, I'm like, because he's going to go over and whack him over the head with it.

Doctor Movie: And I'm still scratching my head of how did they pull that off?

Doctor Movie: I'm just trying to think of the assembly of the drive shaft to where you don't see any brakes in it.

Dan: Yeah, they must have had little...

Doctor Movie: And they're just going to start falling off, you know.

Dan: With little mini explosions or something going on.

Dan: I don't know, it's really good.

Dan: And like we said, when he flips the washers and the nuts from...

Doctor Movie: Yeah.

Dan: But that was apparently done with fishing wire, but you just don't see it.

Dan: It's just done so well.

Doctor Movie: But yeah, that's when he starts zapping the laser.

Doctor Movie: And the last...

Doctor Movie: He does is when he shoots his belt buckle and it makes his pants fall down.

Dan: Oh yeah, that's right.

Dan: And then he's humiliated.

Dan: She laughs so hard.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, she's laughing.

Dan: And he runs off and she's in love with this robot even more.

Dan: I mean, she's just saved her as well.

Dan: So Johnny and Stephanie then decide we do need contact, you know, Ben, Bish Stevens character and the Gut Meister, the Gut himself.

Dan: And we need to meet with them.

Dan: We need to.

Dan: So they go and talk in a bar.

Dan: And little do they know that Scroder and all of his cronies are disguised as various people around the bar listening in to their conversation.

Dan: And he's sort of saying to her, I know, I know it might seem convincing, but he's really looking at it like a bimbo, isn't he?

Dan: Come on, it's just a robot.

Dan: She's like, no, you don't get it.

Dan: He's real.

Dan: Something's changed.

Dan: He's definitely.

Dan: And then they're approached by Scroder and et cetera.

Dan: And they sort of say, thanks.

Dan: Thanks for leading us to her.

Dan: And she thinks she's been duped by Steve Guttenberg, you know.

Dan: He's fallen in love with this woman in minutes.

Doctor Movie: Yeah.

Doctor Movie: Well, that's kind of how it happens.

Doctor Movie: You know, when you're locked up with robots all the time, you meet one woman, you're like, I think I love her.

Dan: This is a real woman.

Doctor Movie: So yeah, I mean, you get this where she feels betrayed.

Doctor Movie: They kind of go back again to her place again.

Doctor Movie: There's a lot of back and forth to her place that happens quite a bit.

Doctor Movie: But it ends up leading to where they get back together with Gutenberg and they drive off out in the mountains, which looks like a scene from Curl.

Doctor Movie: You look at that mountainscape, it's like, wow.

Dan: It also reminds me of the Blue Shadows on the Trail scene from Three Amigos, where they're just sitting around.

Doctor Movie: Blue Shadows on the Trail.

Dan: Good night, Ned.

Dan: No reason for the turtle and the horse to join in, but hey, it was an 80s movie and we just went along with it.

Doctor Movie: My wife loves that scene.

Doctor Movie: She loved the night, Ned, the turtle.

Dan: My favorite scene is, for no reason at all, is the singing bush or whatever it is.

Dan: And when he shoots the invisible swordsman, it cracks me up so much.

Doctor Movie: We're going to have to revisit and do Three Amigos.

Dan: You're on, you're on.

Doctor Movie: That'll happen.

Dan: We get a shootout as well, don't we?

Dan: Because the other...

Dan: This is badass now.

Dan: And he's really confident in taking these guys out.

Dan: Like you said earlier, he's learned a lot of tricks from humans being around humans.

Dan: And he's doing all these fun quotes as well.

Dan: He's like, escape robot, fights for his life.

Dan: Film at 11.

Dan: And he's doing all these John Wayne things.

Dan: And then we get the, hey, laser lips, your mother was a snow blower, which we used to say on the playground.

Doctor Movie: Classic.

Dan: And then he stages them.

Dan: He totally stages them.

Dan: He rewires them all.

Dan: Yeah.

Doctor Movie: I mean, takes the three of them and rewires them.

Doctor Movie: And they show up with the military looking for them, and they're all slapping each other and giving each other the eye pokes and doing the whole three stooges shindig there, which is still, again, it's incredible because now you got three of these things, and you only see them from waist up.

Doctor Movie: But they are like prodding the eyes and reacting.

Dan: Ducking down and slapping.

Doctor Movie: To make these things have emotion is one thing.

Doctor Movie: But when you can tie that into them having emotion and being able to see the whole robots and all that stuff, again, I can't say it enough.

Doctor Movie: You forget that you're looking at a special effect.

Doctor Movie: You're thinking, yep, that's a robot.

Dan: And it's because it's funny.

Dan: It's just genuinely funny.

Dan: He's saying, you know, he's saying all this stuff while he's doing all of this.

Dan: It's just funny.

Dan: You're just going with it.

Dan: It's too much really.

Dan: Maybe it's the distraction, but the effects, the humor, it all works well together.

Dan: You're just going along with the ride.

Doctor Movie: Right, right.

Doctor Movie: And so Gutenberg finally realizes that he does have real emotions when he tells him the joke.

Dan: He tells him a joke and he laughs.

Doctor Movie: And he finally gets it, and he laughs and laughs and laughs.

Doctor Movie: He's like, wow, he does have emotions, and that joke wasn't even that funny.

Dan: I messed up the punch line a bit.

Doctor Movie: So yeah, so at this point, now he's on board.

Doctor Movie: And then we get the turnaround, which happens in every one of these movies, where the bad part happens.

Doctor Movie: They've got them surrounded.

Doctor Movie: It's now Stephanie and Newton.

Doctor Movie: I think there's only two.

Dan: Yeah, that's right.

Doctor Movie: And then, of course, number five is in the back.

Doctor Movie: And they get stopped by the military and the boss of Newton, as well as they're saying, hey, you just need to, you know, walk away, let us get with the robot.

Doctor Movie: We'll take it in.

Doctor Movie: And that's not the plan at all.

Doctor Movie: It's almost a night breed scene, right?

Doctor Movie: He's got a gun.

Doctor Movie: So as soon as they clear out, then they just, you know, and then right when they get ready to do that, all of a sudden you see the back doors fly open.

Doctor Movie: And number five goes rolling out across the desert.

Dan: Goes for his life, flying along.

Doctor Movie: And you hear him sort of go, whoo!

Doctor Movie: Yeah, he does.

Dan: He does.

Doctor Movie: Yee-haw!

Doctor Movie: Yee-haw!

Dan: And again, this scene there, you know, if you as a kid, you know, you can imagine, don't know how old you were when you saw this, but like I said, I was probably 9, 10, maybe the oldest.

Dan: Broke my heart as a child.

Dan: I didn't understand, you know, until it's revealed later on.

Dan: Well, tell us what they do to him.

Dan: They army just...

Doctor Movie: Shoot him with a helicopter, blow him up.

Dan: They just, they do a grizzly on him.

Doctor Movie: They do a grizzly on him.

Dan: And he is exploded beyond reassemble.

Dan: There is nothing left of this robot.

Dan: You know, and Stephanie breaks down, you know, Ali Shidi is fantastic at this point, you know, and even Gutenberg sort of gives her his big hairy manly chest to lean against, you know.

Dan: Even at that point, he's sort of thinking with his actual head, you know, this time he's like, OK, yeah, she's actually really hurting.

Dan: I've got to look after her.

Dan: And they get in the van, they drive off.

Dan: He talks about my dad left me 40 acres in Montana.

Dan: I'm probably just going to retire from robotics and go live there now.

Dan: And then you hear a voice.

Doctor Movie: And he's in that that always obvious hidden compartment in the body in the bottom of a, you know, work van that opens up and he comes out of it, which if you look at the depth of the van, you're like, yeah, I don't think that would happen.

Dan: And then just in case the audience don't get it, Gutenberg says, you might as well look at the camera when he says this.

Dan: He says, wow, he he created a duplicate of himself out of parts.

Doctor Movie: Right.

Dan: Kids, don't worry, that wasn't the real J5.

Doctor Movie: Yep, he just sent a decoy out there to be destroyed.

Doctor Movie: So they think they killed him.

Doctor Movie: And now he can go live in Montana with with Newton and Stephanie and all the animals.

Doctor Movie: He's going to get all the animals.

Doctor Movie: They're going to live together.

Doctor Movie: And you get this great scene where they're in the back and he's like, you two work this out.

Doctor Movie: I'll start driving.

Doctor Movie: And again, he throws the seat out of the vehicle, which is a very small seat.

Doctor Movie: When you look at it, the one he throws out, he's like, yeah, that's not really the seat.

Doctor Movie: But anyway, it makes the point.

Doctor Movie: But he straightens the mirror, taking off again.

Dan: And this time he says, yo.

Doctor Movie: So yeah.

Doctor Movie: But yeah, I mean, this is why I keep saying ET kind of the same thing, right?

Doctor Movie: When ET gets real sick and they've got him in that incubator looking thing and they get the sticker things all over him and Elliot's sick too and traumatizing.

Doctor Movie: So that was 82.

Doctor Movie: I was 81.

Doctor Movie: Was it 81 or 82?

Dan: 81 I think, ET.

Doctor Movie: I was 10 years old when I saw that and it broke me.

Doctor Movie: That's the first movie that made me cry.

Doctor Movie: Of course, as it turns around, everything's okay.

Doctor Movie: Same thing for you, right?

Doctor Movie: Because you're at the same age with this movie.

Dan: I couldn't believe what I'd just seen.

Dan: I actually said to my wife, she was watching with me.

Dan: She'd never seen it before.

Dan: She's turning a bit younger than me again.

Dan: And she don't think she'd ever seen it before.

Dan: I said to her at that point, I said, don't worry.

Dan: He's okay.

Dan: She went, oh my God, I was going to say.

Dan: And I said, well, the thing is, and she doesn't mind me.

Dan: She doesn't mind me spawning things like that.

Dan: But I said, but can you imagine what a terrible thing to do to a child in a parental guidance rated movie over here.

Dan: You know, when a kid's renting that out from your local blockbusters and you're putting that on, you know, you're breaking a million children's hearts.

Doctor Movie: No doubt about it, man.

Dan: What if they turned it off at that point and said, I have to go to bed?

Dan: No, they never saw what happened.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, I've always talked about back when Free Willy came out.

Doctor Movie: It was such a big movie.

Doctor Movie: It was like, it's one of those, if you were babysitting a kid and they were watching Free Willy and they fell asleep and then you switch the tape out and put Orca the Killer Whale in.

Doctor Movie: Oh, no, look what Willy is doing.

Dan: Why is he doing that?

Doctor Movie: Get off Derek's leg.

Dan: They wouldn't know, would they?

Dan: And the same with, you know, Harry and Henderson's, really, really, really can cut you deep, you know.

Dan: And a lot of these movies that we talk about that have heart, that are light hearted and fun.

Dan: There's even John Candy movies, you know, that will make you, you know, playing trains and automobiles.

Dan: That last, you know, when he realizes his wife is dead, you know, that, if that doesn't get tears in your eyes.

Dan: Oh, boy.

Dan: So, yeah, that's the thing with these movies.

Dan: They grab you by the heart.

Dan: They give you a great time, but that's why you're more open to these more emotional moments within them as well.

Doctor Movie: It's the roller coaster ride, man.

Doctor Movie: You're going to have fun.

Doctor Movie: You're going to be scared.

Doctor Movie: You're going to be thrilled.

Doctor Movie: You're going to be sad.

Doctor Movie: It's going to play with all your emotions.

Doctor Movie: And then at the end, go.

Doctor Movie: And they all live happily ever after.

Dan: With an Elter Barge song playing.

Doctor Movie: That's right.

Doctor Movie: That's all you need, man.

Doctor Movie: That's all you need.

Dan: The one that I couldn't sit through without crying was Batteries Not Included as well.

Dan: It's just a really sad film and still is a really sad film, you know.

Doctor Movie: And I think that maybe that's why they stay with us because, you know, yes, the effects are so new for the time, but you get a unique story.

Doctor Movie: But these things that happen in them, stay with you, man.

Doctor Movie: I mean, ET is still in my top 10 favorite movies of all time.

Doctor Movie: And it's because it broke me.

Doctor Movie: It was the first movie that made me feel something besides excitement or scared.

Doctor Movie: It really made me go, that's terrible.

Doctor Movie: I care for this person, or it's not even a person.

Doctor Movie: It was ET himself.

Doctor Movie: And the fact of, the other beauty, what makes this movie different, is you don't have any children in this movie.

Dan: That's a good show, actually.

Dan: Because, you know, Harry, all these other movies we've talked about, they usually got some kids in it, usually the stars, you know.

Dan: But this is, yeah, this is Gutenberg, Fisher Stevens, Alice ED and a robot.

Doctor Movie: But the robot is the kid.

Dan: Yeah, I suppose, actually.

Doctor Movie: So there's your, you know, so that similar line that's running through all those, that tie them all together.

Doctor Movie: And again, I'm going to say it, because you were just talking about it.

Doctor Movie: But again, that's the magic of Ted Lasso, because it does the same thing.

Doctor Movie: It's going to make you laugh.

Doctor Movie: It's going to make you cry.

Doctor Movie: It's going to make you feel for these characters.

Doctor Movie: And it's not just one character.

Doctor Movie: You end up feeling for all of them.

Doctor Movie: There's a point in this movie where you feel sorry for Gutenberg, because Johnny's been killed, or number five's been killed.

Doctor Movie: And he's trying to react and hold it together to make sure that Stephanie's okay, but he's traumatized by it too.

Dan: And even the boss, when they blow him out, even his boss is like, that's not what we wanted to happen.

Dan: The only person who's happy, of course, is GW.

Dan: Bailey.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, of course, he comes down and he's, you know, we got him, we finally did what we wanted to do.

Doctor Movie: I'm just doing my job, sir.

Doctor Movie: So maybe from now on, you can do your job somewhere else.

Doctor Movie: And I was like, oh, all right.

Dan: And that's when he goes and works in the department store.

Dan: And Kim Cattrall's going to provide lots of entertainment.

Doctor Movie: Hey, you know what?

Doctor Movie: I'd take that job.

Dan: Oh, me too.

Dan: Me too.

Dan: You know, we've talked about it.

Dan: You know, my feelings on Kim Cattrall.

Dan: Again, a movie set in a small bubble where just a funny, weird story about an Egyptian woman who comes back in the form of a mannequin.

Dan: That's the 80s for you.

Dan: Weird science, you know, all these.

Doctor Movie: Yep.

Dan: They wouldn't make sense.

Doctor Movie: They would send in the script with some cocaine in the package and on top of it.

Doctor Movie: They'd start it and go, all right, let's do it.

Dan: You must do this cocaine before reading this script.

Dan: Okay, sure thing.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, man, we really haven't seen another time like it since.

Doctor Movie: I mean, well, I mean, you have Independence doing some pretty interesting stuff.

Doctor Movie: But as far as mainstream, we've just kind of gotten away from the magic of it all, you know?

Dan: And the special thing about all the movies we've talked about for the most part of them is that they aren't fantasy set.

Dan: They're not like Willow or Crowe.

Dan: I mean, we've mentioned one or two of these, but even like The Last Starfighter, that's about a guy on Earth who then gets to take, you know, so these are all people we can relate to, that they know how many interactions with robots or aliens or supernatural beings or whatever it might be, you know, and that's why we relate to them, I guess, you know.

Doctor Movie: Yeah, absolutely.

Doctor Movie: Can you think of anything else you want to add to this?

Dan: The sequel is, it used to make me cry again as a kid when he gets chopped up at the end, but in Einstein, I did rewatch it recently, it's nowhere near as good.

Dan: It was a bit of a cash grab really, but it's okay.

Dan: It's got the Les Logos guys in it, which I like.

Dan: But no, other than that, I'm just glad that, and I just hope that they never really remake this.

Dan: I just think it was one of those things.

Dan: It's just, it's of its time and there's a lot wrong with it, as we discussed, but there's a hell of a lot right with it.

Doctor Movie: And would you say it's lightning in a bottle?

Dan: I'd say it was lightning in a robot.

Doctor Movie: Lightning in a robot.

Doctor Movie: All right, we can give this a goofy rating, I guess.

Doctor Movie: I always do one through five.

Doctor Movie: And, you know, I'm going to say four point five.

Dan: I was going to say exactly the same.

Doctor Movie: Of course.

Doctor Movie: Again, we share the same brain.

Dan: I would love to give it a number five is alive out of five.

Dan: But yeah, you know, I'm in my late 40s now.

Doctor Movie: It does need to be a five because five is alive.

Doctor Movie: That's a good point.

Dan: Let's round it up.

Doctor Movie: We'll round it up to five.

Doctor Movie: There's a couple of flaws, but it's a five for us.

Doctor Movie: Is it something I'm going to watch continuously like I did Found of the Paradise?

Doctor Movie: Probably not, but it's still very good.

Doctor Movie: Very, very good.

Doctor Movie: And again, it's great to go back and revisit these, and you go, you know, these have staying power.

Doctor Movie: There are still elements here that are really, really impressive.

Doctor Movie: And you see why it was so big at the time.

Doctor Movie: It still works.

Dan: This is one of about 20 movies of similar ilk that were on rotation all the time in my household as a child.

Dan: So I do go back to those movies every few years.

Dan: I'll watch this one.

Dan: I'll watch that one here and there.

Dan: And they've all got special places in my heart because I was at a point where...

Dan: So yeah, this is definitely a five for me in that case.

Doctor Movie: Well, this is like ET was for me.

Doctor Movie: This is your ET.

Doctor Movie: I mean, specifically because it's of the time of your being at that age when these things really start making an impression on you.

Doctor Movie: And yeah, you don't forget those.

Doctor Movie: They are the fabric of who we are.

Doctor Movie: So you can't diss them, right?

Doctor Movie: They are a part of you.

Dan: And somebody out there somewhere, for somebody out there, Mack and me is there, ET.

Doctor Movie: Absolutely.

Doctor Movie: Nothing wrong with that.

Dan: Nothing wrong with it.

Dan: Nothing wrong.

Doctor Movie: I mean, that was the purpose of it, right?

Dan: Other than the McDonald's tie-ins and a few other bits and bobs, but maybe that's another show for another time, maybe.

Doctor Movie: The only thing Mack and me was missing was a Canon logo at the beginning.

Dan: Why?

Dan: There would have been a few ninjas in it, I expect, at that point.

Doctor Movie: That's what I'm saying.

Doctor Movie: Maybe that's all it needed.

Doctor Movie: I just watched a thing about ninja movies, and they went for a long time on Ninja 3.

Doctor Movie: They're like, you know, Canon had it going on with, you know, Enter the Ninja, then you had Ninja 2, then you got Ninja 3, and it's amazing.

Doctor Movie: That's the one they spent the most time on.

Dan: Well, Canon ninjas.

Doctor Movie: So, man, what you got going on?

Doctor Movie: Give me some background on what's happening in Dan Bone's podcasting.

Dan: So, the Podcast on Haunted Hill is my show that I do with Gav, and our next episode is my birthday episode.

Dan: So, when it's a birthday episode, the host whose birthday it is gets to pick their movies.

Dan: You're going to love this.

Dan: Funny enough, talking of Canon, I picked two Dolph Lundgren movies, one of which is, of course, Masters of the Universe.

Dan: It falls under the horror umbrella.

Dan: I'm trying to convince Gav.

Dan: And the other one is the classic Dark Angel, which I believe in the US is called We Come in Peace.

Dan: I Come in Peace, that's it, yeah.

Dan: Which I absolutely love that movie.

Dan: It's been a long time since I've seen it, but I do remember lots of CDs being used as weapons.

Dan: Look out for my Compact Disc.

Dan: So that's our next episode.

Doctor Movie: Very cool.

Dan: Yeah, I'm looking forward to recording that.

Dan: So that's what we've got coming up.

Dan: That's the podcast On Haunted Hill, if anyone wants to check it out.

Doctor Movie: If you're not listening to that show, then you just need to quit listening to the podcast altogether, because it's just one of the best.

Dan: Well, it's an honor to be on your show, as always, because I do absolutely love your show.

Dan: And every time it comes out, which is almost every day, I'm there for it.

Dan: So keep doing what you're doing.

Dan: As I always message you, I do love it.

Dan: And I'm happy to try and get on it whenever I can, you know, when the twins allow it and life and work and everything else falls in.

Doctor Movie: I hear you.

Doctor Movie: That's the Helming Challenge.

Doctor Movie: I mean, it's just like, hey, Danny, what you got going on?

Doctor Movie: Well, I'm replacing the floor in my kitchen.

Doctor Movie: Okay, we'll try another day.

Doctor Movie: So he's I mean, he's living life and he's got a double handed grip on life right now.

Doctor Movie: So but doesn't change anything.

Doctor Movie: We're still the best of friends.

Doctor Movie: We're going to see each other next month.

Doctor Movie: We're going to Texas Fright Mayor and get to spend the weekend together.

Doctor Movie: So that'll be fun.

Doctor Movie: Maybe we can get together and come up with an episode while we're there or something.

Doctor Movie: Who knows?

Doctor Movie: But yeah, man, it's always great having you around.

Doctor Movie: I mean, I bounce ideas off you all the time.

Doctor Movie: You're not just a guy that I want to have on the show.

Doctor Movie: You're a friend that I reach out to say, hey, what do you think about this?

Doctor Movie: What do you think about that?

Dan: And I appreciate that.

Doctor Movie: I appreciate that a lot.

Doctor Movie: And always a blast.

Doctor Movie: We always, like I said, we kind of share the same brain on a lot of stuff.

Doctor Movie: So that's always fun.

Dan: It's quite scary sometimes, isn't it?

Doctor Movie: Absolutely.

Doctor Movie: That's okay.

Dan: That is okay.

Doctor Movie: Let's me know that I'm not alone.

Doctor Movie: All right, folks, I believe that's going to be it for this one.

Doctor Movie: If you have any ideas or anything like that or shows or any comments of what Dan and I just talked about, feel free to let us know.

Doctor Movie: And if you got some ideas for shows in the future that you kind of want me to cover, any movies, send them to me and I'll do what I want to anyways.

Doctor Movie: But that's it for this one.

Doctor Movie: So Dan, thanks for hanging out with me, man.

Dan: And we'll check you later.

Doctor Movie: Check you later.