IMMP 173 - Buckaroo Banzai === [00:00:00] Buckaroo: See, you can check your anatomy all you want, and even though there may be normal variation when you get right down to it this far inside the head, it all looks the same. No, no, no, no, no. Don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to. [00:00:13] Blue Blaze: Buckaroo the President's on line one calling about, is everything okay with the Alien Space Cloud from Planet 10, or should he just go ahead and destroy Russia? [00:00:31] Matthew: Hello and welcome once again to the IMMP, the Inter Millennium Media Project Podcast. My name is Matthew Porter. [00:00:39] Ian: This is Blue Blazer, regular Ian Porter reporting in [00:00:42] Matthew: Every episode of the I-M-M-P-I, I make Ian or persuade Ian to watch, uh, a movie or a TV show, or listen to a record from the 20th century. This is one that I think took a little less persuasion than some of them do. [00:00:56] Ian: Oh, no. Yeah, this was a one that I was happy to revisit. This is one where you showed it to me when I was younger, but I've watched it again since then. I've got some stories about this one. [00:01:07] Matthew: Well, that sounds great, because this kind of like Big Trouble in Little China, this has become part of your, media history [00:01:15] Ian: Oh, in own way. Absolutely. This is the Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai across the eighth dimension. Oh. This is a movie that I knew of existing long before I should have. [00:01:31] Matthew: Oh, is that right? [00:01:33] Ian: Because you and my mom quote it. Or quoted it a lot more than you think you did. [00:01:42] Matthew: Oh, I'm not surprised. I'm sure we did. [00:01:44] Ian: There were plenty of instances where it got referenced. Over again and I was so intrigued at wanting to see this, this thing where these lines came from. That sounded so cool. And it was definitely in the, when you're older. So when I was older, I was so excited when it was finally time to see this film. Yes. And I was so confused. [00:02:11] Matthew: Were you? [00:02:12] Ian: I enjoyed it. It's fun, but it's weird. [00:02:15] Matthew: Oh, it is. It is a weird and confusing movie. You have to have a certain mindset going in. [00:02:20] Ian: Oh yeah. And so you've described that like you'll, you'll watch stuff when you were too young and you went home and it was like, oh, that messed with my mind. It was on my brain for a while. Yeah. Buckaroo Banzai did that to me for while. [00:02:33] Matthew: Oh, I bet [00:02:33] Ian: a while. And then I went to college and in the school library at my community college when I was just starting out. Yeah, they had a tiny section of DVDs, like they intentionally kept their DVD variety, low , but what was one DVD whose box I recognized the first day I walked in there, Buckaroo Banzai across the eighth dimension, and it was barely ever checked out. But I checked that thing out multiple times in that first semester and it became a go-to, I need to calm down. I need to turn my mind off. I'm burning out. I would pop in Buckaroo Banzai into my, my laptop DVD player and I would watch that while studying or something. It was great. [00:03:29] Matthew: I totally get that. It is this combination of comforting and absorbing that is just the right thing. [00:03:36] Ian: Absolutely. It's the right thing. And I have watched so many things discussing and trying to break down this film since then. So some of that analysis will inevitably leak in. Sure. But I am coming to that as a fan of this film and yet completely acknowledging this film is not perfect and it is wildly of its time in certain ways. And it kind of is not of its time, but it's of the time before it intentionally to some extent. [00:04:12] Matthew: Yeah, it's another movie from that magical year, 1984. [00:04:16] Ian: Yep. [00:04:17] Matthew: And it is definitely of its time. It is a 1984 movie in some very specific ways, and yet it references so much culture from prior. It. It is a almost a movie about the media history that existed in 1984. [00:04:35] Ian: Yeah. There's something very much Buckaroo, Banzai is a film commenting, like planting a flag and stating this is what came before and this is what could come after. Yes. In certain ways, because Buckaroo Banzai is a film that takes pride in being the only film in a series that never got made. [00:05:03] Matthew: Yes, that's right. It does have that kind of, it, it, it seems like it is one episode plucked from an alternate universe where. Buckaroo has been a fixture for generations [00:05:16] Ian: And it's not just to us. He's a fixture. He is that in his own world. [00:05:21] Matthew: I, yes. There's meta fiction there where he is a hero. He's a comic book hero. Yes. Interestingly, they make a a, a very careful point. He is not a super hero. Yes. He has no superpowers. He is a heroic human being. [00:05:36] Ian: Yeah. That's the interesting that he is like he is Dr. Buckaroo Banzai. Because this is a movie that starts with an opening crawl. Yes. And it's an opening crawl that does so much heavy lifting. [00:05:50] Matthew: Very Star Wars-y in that way [00:05:52] Ian: Very Star Wars, but he's a physicist, test pilot, neurosurgeon, rockstar. Yes. That combination. [00:06:05] Matthew: Well, I, um, I say this with some degree of embarrassment, but I talked last, uh, our last episode about the crying of lot 49 and how that had an impact on me. I read that when I was in college. Mm-hmm. And, uh, it, it affected what else I read my worldview and things. Buckaroo Banzai also had a certain influence on me, but it wasn't, I'm not sure how to describe it, but I, I saw this, it came out when I was in college, and to some extent, I, I watched it and it said, sure, that makes sense. And yeah. [00:06:39] Ian: Oh, that puts so much into context. [00:06:41] Matthew: You, and you think, I'm going in too many di different directions right now. I started out in college studying acting. I then added, an English literature and publishing degree added the, to that a computer science degree and wound up graduating with the computer science degree and the English literature degree was still doing stuff in the, the theater for a couple of years, but didn't pursue that. Instead, I was doing stuff within the, uh, the literary magazine and the school newspaper. This idea of somebody not choosing one field and instead doing a whole bunch of things. I thought, well, that sounds like somebody I could grow up to be, uh, cool. [00:07:23] Ian: That's, that's makes so much sense and Absolutely. Buckaroo is inspirational in that sense. Yes, I, I get it. He is a, he is a character that is designed to be well prepared for whatever, and he is designed to be. Like admirable in variety Yes. Is almost the best phrase I have for it, because all these different things he's doing, kind of, they all fit together into what happens. And yet I would not say it's a smooth film. [00:08:00] Matthew: No, no. It is a, it is a film that gets over its skis more than a few times. And it has, it has difficulty managing its own material and, and staying comprehensible. And yet it has this weird ambition that is somehow charming and the way they, they somehow take this character of Buckaroo Banzai and the way it's written and also the way Peter Weller plays this role. [00:08:27] Ian: Oh my goodness. [00:08:29] Matthew: He, he's such a non arrogant character. He's a leader. So he has a leadership position over the. Hong Kong Cavaliers and the Banzai Institute for biomedical Engineering and strategic information. [00:08:44] Ian: Yes. [00:08:45] Matthew: And yet he is, he is curious, he is welcoming, he is eager to have other people contribute their strengths and their expertise, which is how he has built this institute and, and brought this team together. So somehow they managed to create this bizarre superstar of a character and still make him sufficiently humble and relatable. [00:09:10] Ian: Yes. A lot of other characters who are similar to buckaroo in background in one way or another, usually veer off at that point. [00:09:20] Matthew: Yes. [00:09:21] Ian: Weirdly enough. , examples in my head are, johnny Silver Hand in Cyberpunk 2077 is similarly a rockstar who's also this vigilante organizing the down with all these other things. And a lot of those characters become grim and gritty. And that's part of why I say he feels like a comic book character in story style. But he's a comic book character from the eighties talking about comic books of the Bronze Age seventies. Yes. And a lot of these kind of characters did not survive the nineties attitude era without becoming very different. So he's this weird example of an older style of presenting this kind of polymath super person, but relatable, normal person in that sense. [00:10:11] Matthew: And there's so interesting that you brought up, uh, cyberpunk. I. In that as cyberpunk as a genre. This was really at the start. When it was first coming into big public view. I think this is around when William Gibson's Neuromancer came out. [00:10:28] Ian: I think it is, yeah. [00:10:29] Matthew: And in some ways Buckaroo Banzai the, the anti cyberpunk in that case. Optimistic. It's optimistic in a very Doctor Who kind of way, I think [00:10:39] Ian: Very! Doctor Who and Buckaroo Banzai. Have very similar aspects there. . If you put cyberpunk kind of technology and futurism Yeah. But with nineties poptimistic aesthetic. Yes. You wind up with buckaroo Banzai in that sense. Yep. [00:11:01] Matthew: And, and it's important to this character to note that he is not somebody who has just gone through his life collecting degrees and collecting, um, accolades and credentials. We actually see him doing every one of the things that you listed as far as what he does. He, the first time we see Buckaroo Banzai, he is doing like an emergency consult in a brain surgery. Mm-hmm. Where a colleague at Columbia brought him in to help with this unexpectedly complicated and difficult, uh, surgery. [00:11:32] Ian: And it's interesting because we also, in doing so, get to meet, I almost wanna call him our other main character. [00:11:41] Matthew: Yeah, he's kind of an audience surrogate in that he's the newcomer. He knows who Buckaroo Banzai is, but he's being introduced to the world, which [00:11:50] Ian: is odd because I would expect him nowadays to play the Buckaroo Banzai kind of character. And that's Jeff Goldblum? Yes. This is a stacked cast. [00:12:00] Matthew: That's Doctor Zweibel, AKA New Jersey. Yes. And yeah, it is an amazing cast. [00:12:06] Ian: It's an amazing cast. We've got Peter Weller as Buckaroo, Jeff Goldblum as New Jersey. Christopher Lloyd. John Lithgow. [00:12:16] Matthew: Ellen Barkin. [00:12:17] Ian: Ellen Barkin, uh, Lewis Smith. Perfect. Tommy. Yes. He does such a good job. [00:12:23] Matthew: And Clancy Brown. Yes. Clancy Brown has, is kind of Buckaroos right hand man. He's kind of Buckaroos chief of staff. Mm-hmm. Uh, uh, rawhide, of course, a member of the Hong Kong Cavaliers. [00:12:36] Ian: Exactly. All of these actors have such interesting careers and effects later. The IMDP page just does wild numbers. Yes. And seeing them all here playing in this story feels impossible. If it wasn't exactly at the right time [00:12:59] Matthew: and what really makes this work, what could have been a it's downfall had they not done this? But what makes it work, I think, is they play it straight. There is never a sense of what a weird carnival where in isn't this goofy. There's never the suggestion of a wink at the camera. These are real characters and they are dealing as weird as the stakes and situations are. We'll talk about that. They are serious and the characters have to bring all of their abilities and skills to bear, to, confront these challenges. That, that absolutely makes it, the closest we come to something not being played straight is, John Lithgow's performance. But even there he is playing a, an Italian particle physicist who has been possessed by the mind of an interdimensional alien dictator. So yeah, his, his performance is a little off the wall, but absolutely appropriately off the wall for that character. [00:14:06] Ian: I, yeah, I actually would say though that, um, the three henchmen. for John Lithgow's character are more our comic relief. [00:14:17] Matthew: Oh yeah. They're comic relief characters. Absolutely. They're [00:14:20] Ian: comic relief, but they're playing things straight. [00:14:21] Matthew: Yeah. They're still played in a fairly subdued, almost naturalistic for the environment. [00:14:26] Ian: Way [00:14:28] Matthew: for, [00:14:29] Ian: interesting way to put that [00:14:30] Matthew: for the environment is doing a lot of lifting there. Oh, [00:14:33] Ian: that is, oh my goodness. Industrial strength lift. Yeah. But yeah, this is a film where the entire point is, , it wants to tell you this earnestly, this story is said with such earnestness that you with it. Mm-hmm. And later on you can sit back and go, what in the world? But in the moment you can let this movie just take you and it will flow. Yeah. Pieces will make sense. You go from thing to thing to thing and it, it's not jarring. [00:15:12] Matthew: This movie, it, it kind of elicits this sort of breathlessness as you're first watching it because it's like you're trying to catch up. This is, we're watching a story set in a world where everybody knows who Buckaroo Banzai is, and he's, uh, in every newspaper and we are still learning this. Even, even our audience surrogate character, uh, New Jersey at least knows who Buckaroo Banzai is and works with them. Oh, yeah. In the hospital. We're desperately trying to catch up every minute of this movie. But you're right. If you just kind of let it go and, and absorb it, it works so much better. [00:15:48] Ian: I've referenced this channel on our podcast before. Yeah. There is an excellent, excellent video essay, by, Kyle Calgren, YouTube channel Brows Held High. Mm-hmm. Where he talks about the adventures of Buckaroo Banzai in the context of. A film industry nowadays that has things like a Marvel cinematic universe. 'cause Buckaroo Banzai is a film that treats itself, like it has an entire cinematic universe around it. [00:16:20] Matthew: Yes. [00:16:20] Ian: There is a distinct scene where are during another moment. A character is, why is there a watermelon there? And the response he gets is, I'll tell you later. And the point that, , Kyle makes is they never tell you in the film, but treating it like that implies it has its own story. [00:16:45] Matthew: Yes. [00:16:45] Ian: And there's so many instances of that, which makes all these pieces, which makes that feeling of you're catching up to it kind of fit. Because this is, we, we keep shortening it down to Buckaroo Banzai, but this is a film, it's the Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai. Across the eighth dimension. [00:17:04] Matthew: Yeah. This is just one story of many. [00:17:07] Ian: That's exactly, it's formatted. Like there's other movies that are the Adventures of Buck Ru Banzai with a different subtitle, and yet those don't exist. It's just this one. [00:17:19] Matthew: Have I ever told you the story about tormenting my local librarians in, uh, in 1977? [00:17:28] Ian: You've told me many stories like that, but I can't tell this one specifically. In [00:17:32] Matthew: 1977, a movie called Star Wars is released, and as most big movies at the time had, there was a novelization. I loved the movie, read the Novelization, I don't know how many times. And right there on the cover of the novelization, top of this gold cover, I can still picture, probably still have it in the basement. It says, from the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, I. [00:17:58] Ian: Oh God. [00:17:59] Matthew: So I went to the library looking for the rest of the adventures of Luke Skywalker because it says right here, this is just one of them. And they're saying, well, they're, they're, we've got some picture books about Star Wars and we've got No, no, no. I want more of the Adventures of Luke. See, it says on the cover, the, from the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, I want the rest of the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, please. [00:18:24] Ian: Oh, that's beautiful. Yeah. That is beautiful. I love it. [00:18:29] Matthew: And that's what this is like. Okay. This is where, where, where are the other adventures of Buckaroo banzai. [00:18:34] Ian: Yeah. [00:18:35] Matthew: Before and after his trip across the eighth dimension. [00:18:40] Ian: But in the story of this, because of there's all those other bits and pieces, we get to follow what Banzai is doing. He is our title character. He is our main character. And yet. There's this nice element of Jeff Goldblum's character getting swept in as the new guy, which gives us someone that everyone else explains things to. Yes. And that's why he's our audience surrogate, because there's all these other pieces and he's being brought in as the newest member. 'cause there's something in him, to some extent, Banzai sees as potential. Yes. And you get the feeling that Banzai might have You described he's not just going around gathering degrees. No. But he's gathering people [00:19:26] Matthew: Yes. [00:19:27] Ian: Good at things to build this group. It's very Avengers like in that sense. [00:19:32] Matthew: You're right, it is. He's gathering aerospace engineers and biologists and uh, uh, archeologists and essentially anybody who might be able, mm-hmm. Anybody who has an expertise and is curious enough to develop more by being part of the Banzai Institute. [00:19:52] Ian: And here's, here's this new guy who seemed to be a fine neurosurgeon and a good chemist. Yes. Great. I could use one of them on my team. You come with me, Uhhuh. Join me on the latest thing. [00:20:01] Matthew: And he, he recruits them while they're in the middle of this surgery. Is that you? Have you ever thought of, you know, coming to me? Oh, you got an opening? Well, yeah. Can you sing? That's fairly one of the Yes. Uh, a little other dance [00:20:13] Ian: because he is also a rock star. [00:20:17] Matthew: Okay. Now it's part of the, the character that he is a rock star. Is he, is he really a rock star? 'cause the one performance we see and, and all of this is set in New Jersey, by the way, except for one critical scene we can talk about. Yeah. And he's playing in a, a bar somewhere in New Jersey. He is. Is is he a rock star or is does he does his collection of. Scientists at the Banzai Institute blow off steam by being a bar band on weekend nights, which is still really, really awesome. But it's not like he's filling arenas. [00:21:00] Ian: I watched it having watched it again for this, the security was very fast to respond. That's true. In that scenario. Yeah. I am starting to think that he might be a rock star and that the tickets per person at that bar were way higher than you would think they would be. [00:21:20] Matthew: Maybe. Or maybe he does fill arenas, but on the weekends when they don't have a another gig and he's too busy to travel, they go to Artie's and they play a bar show. Mm-hmm. And half of the, I, I keep imagining that half of the, uh, the people in that bar are there for the music and the other half are like physics students from Rutgers and Penn State who just come into, uh, to, to. See Buckaroo Banzai. He's not lecturing on physics, but we still get to see Buckaroo Banzai. [00:21:47] Ian: I wanna see the crossover bits because we watch as elements of being, a physicist integrate into his test piloting and his neurosurgery and his physics degrees change and affect how and what he knows. I wanna see what their music is like. 'cause the one example we get is not, I'll admit, is not great. [00:22:08] Matthew: Uh oh. I kind of like it. Maybe I've just seen this movie so much. [00:22:12] Ian: It's, it's fun, but it's, I wanna see the songs that have all the sciencey bits in there. Oh. Like, oh yeah, thi this chord progression is, is based on this, on this neuron sequence. That's Oh, that's an interesting idea. Common things like that. [00:22:27] Matthew: Because what we get is kind of a semi ska sort of thing. [00:22:32] Ian: Yeah. It is. Weirdly, s Skyy, he's more of a. Ska band. Yeah. That's a lot of horn. Yes. It's a, that's a disquieting amount of horn. [00:22:44] Matthew: And there's also, in terms of the aesthetic, it's very, very eighties. [00:22:50] Ian: Oh yeah. [00:22:51] Matthew: Lots of skinny ties, lots of capiz shoes. Flat colors and neons. But there's also, as you can imagine, from the name very much a cowboy aesthetic under all of that. [00:23:04] Ian: Yeah. It's it's eighties Cowboy Samurai. [00:23:07] Matthew: Yes. And they all, all of them pack guns. They're at this show. And there is an incident where a, a gun goes off in the audience. Every single member of the band drops their instruments and pulls out a firearm. [00:23:22] Ian: Yes. Oh goodness. You know, the en the entire party is Wizard Bard, multi-class. Everyone is ready to cast fireball or break out in song at the same time. That is this, that is this group. And all of this is that sort of setup, all of these pieces we're describing are part of the world this has developed. [00:23:44] Matthew: Yeah. We've we're, we've been talking for 20 minutes or so and we have said nothing about story. We've just spoken about characters and world building, which is what so much of this is. But it has story. [00:23:55] Ian: It has story because this is one of his specific adventures. It's, this is the test of the oscillation over thruster, which is such a cool, cool McGuffin name, [00:24:09] Matthew: That is great. Techno babble right there. [00:24:11] Ian: It is such good techno babble. But this is an object that allows you to pass through solid matter and, you know, travel a vehicle across dimensions as the name implies, uh, in order to revolutionize transit and technology. [00:24:32] Matthew: And he is, he's built this jet car. High speed vehicle to test and demonstrate, uh, this car. But secretly he has also built it and designed it apparently. Perfect. Tommy's lead engineer behind this, they've built the jet car to also demonstrate the oscillation over thruster and yeah. So he goes from performing this neurosurgery of Dr. Zweibel goes to Texas for this test where we also meet the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and another cabinet member, all the high level government officials who are there for this test. And they wanna see this 500 mile an hour land vehicle, which they see. Yeah. But they also see him drive through a mountain because they didn't know anything about the oscillation over thruster, which is a, a technology that. He's developed or further developed with a Dr. Hikita, who is, uh, a mm-hmm. Colleague of Buckaroos parents who in the 1950s were developing this technology. But it was, their experiment was sabotaged and they died, but it was originally worked on by Hikita and Dr. Emilio Lizardo in the 1930s. [00:25:57] Ian: Yeah. So he's, he's reaching back into these previous attempts and that already establishes more continuity and narrative. [00:26:07] Matthew: Right. Gives you such a rich feeling that this is part of a much, much bigger story than you're getting a glimpse of here. [00:26:14] Ian: it also says something, the first time we see buckaroo is him, consulting on this neurosurgery and recruiting someone new to his team. Yep. And the second thing we see Buckaroo do is show up late to a project, but hop in as the driver of this vehicle and immediately go off script to test the grander science. He wants to check. There's that little bit of, well, not little bit of, there's a lot of that, um, you know, ray guns and space lasers kind of man of action to his styling. Yes. And that's shown in him driving through and the wild visuals of the eighth dimension. This CGI, early days wonderland of like, you know, moving particle effects and, uh, I think there's like. Some still images from an electron microscope. Zoom. Yes. And scrolled around. [00:27:16] Matthew: There's no CGI. This was 1984. Oh, okay. This was, it was, you're right. It was mostly, it was photographs from scanning electron microscope, images of the heads of beetles and spores and things like that. But then there were also some stop motion creatures. [00:27:33] Ian: That was it. [00:27:34] Matthew: Uh, which, which there were our things living in the eighth dimension, which he has entered by using the oscillation, overt thruster to go through the matter of this mountain in Texas. [00:27:45] Ian: And then the, we see him, you know, he climbs out of the vehicle as it's smoking, and he immediately turns around, goes back to the vehicle, and starts inspecting it. Inspecting the goo on the front of it, sliding under the car, and reaching and grabbing a creature that hooked on for dear life. Yeah. Under kind of a little ball thing. [00:28:09] Matthew: Yeah. [00:28:09] Ian: Yeah. But there's something very much like science is something you throw yourself into. Science is something that you do not allow to be stopped. And science is something you poke with your hands when that's all the tools you have. [00:28:23] Matthew: Yes. [00:28:24] Ian: That's like that sort of person we've immediately gotten buckaroo as, and it, it fits with his characterization and it fits with the kind of story this is telling because that gives him this ready to go for it and do it and make it happen kind of attitude. [00:28:41] Matthew: And then we get some backstory in that we get a press conference in which they're explaining what has happened here. We get news, there's some news coverage about what he has done and, you know, driving through a mountain and all this. And um, and then we get introduced to the primary antagonist in this story. Yeah. Which is Dr. Emilio Lizardo, who since 1938 has been in a home for the criminally insane in Trenton, New Jersey. And we see him with a, a electrical shock induced flashback, remembering his first experiment working with Hikita in 1938, trying to build the oscillation over thruster. [00:29:24] Ian: Which is way bigger. Love that aspect. It's like the, the Buckaroos version is this small handheld device that he can plug into the car. The original one is this giant table full of extra wires and , spinning discs and such. [00:29:40] Matthew: And that doesn't go well, partly because Lizardo is kind of sloppy and jumps the gun in actually using it. He winds up stuck halfway into the eighth dimension for a few minutes long enough to be possessed by the mind of Lord John Whorfin. Yes. Who over the course of the movie, we learned the details, but Whorfin comes from Planet 10 and he was a, a ruthless dictator who was overthrown by the forces of freedom on Planet 10 exiled with his forces into the eighth dimension. [00:30:15] Ian: Mm-hmm. [00:30:17] Matthew: And this experiment in 1938 released him and some of his troops [00:30:24] Ian: So they've been setting up shop and slowly planning to attempt to take over the world and then take back their own planet. [00:30:33] Matthew: Trying to build their own oscillation, overt thruster. And that has not gone any better than it did in 1938. [00:30:39] Ian: No. ' cause they are still sloppy with their science. [00:30:43] Matthew: And this is the character that John Lithgow is playing. He's playing a psychotic alien dictator in the body, and with the accent of a 1930s flamboyant Italian physicist, [00:31:00] Ian: which is such a wild setup. I think John Lithgow was having the time of his life. [00:31:07] Matthew: I think so. Sure. Sounds like [00:31:09] Ian: because he, he just is putting every emphasis on every bit he can. Every barked command. I can almost feel it being clipped in the audio because they couldn't let the people laughing in the background come through. It's got such oomph every time. And of course he's got his henchmen and this is this, this dark group doing things in the background. And I didn't understand before what I was getting into because what group name are they running under? What is, what possibly could they hide this Grand alien plan to take over the world under the name of Oh Yoyodyne Propulsion System. The moment I read that in the crying of lot 49, I was like, oh, this is why that's the next episode after. [00:32:07] Matthew: Oh yes, there are some nods to the crying of Lot 49 in this movie. I. [00:32:12] Ian: Oh goodness. Yeah. It's got that same kind of weird world aspect, [00:32:17] Matthew: bizarre world. Just accepted as being where the characters live. [00:32:23] Ian: Yes. But yeah, they are Yoyodyne propulsion systems and this is what they've been working as and building their, their evil plans and mechanisms underneath. [00:32:36] Matthew: And Christopher Lloyd plays John Bigboote, who has been the leader at the, the head of operations of Yoyodyne propulsion systems and the leader of the red Lectroids who have, been working there to build. Their oscillation over thruster to escape, and he's kind of running the show while Lord John Whorfin has been stuck in a mental hospital. [00:32:59] Ian: Mm-hmm. [00:33:01] Matthew: And he has very little patience for Whorfin, who is, he recognizes as crazy and useless and just let me keep running things. Please. [00:33:10] Ian: And he has very little patience for anyone mispronouncing his name, which constantly happens. [00:33:14] Matthew: Yes. And it's something about Lectroids, and the Lectroids are the creatures from Planet 10. Every Lectroids name begins with John. [00:33:24] Ian: Yeah. [00:33:24] Matthew: I can only assume that this is an honorific or something like that in the Lectroids language. Mm-hmm. And when they got to Earth, they realized, oh, that's a name. There's a lot of people who have that in front. I guess that's our name here [00:33:36] Ian: maybe. Yeah. But everyone is John something? [00:33:40] Matthew: Yes. So there's John Emdall, John Bigboote, John Smallberries. [00:33:47] Ian: Yep. [00:33:48] Matthew: Another weird coincidence, , for a while after college, I worked for an aerospace company in their, engineering, computer graphics division. And a weird number of, I won't actually give anybody's names because these are real names, but a weird number of the people I worked with or knew through that job they had, their first name was John, and their last name was something that seemed very weird, and it was very surreal to be in this environment. [00:34:24] Ian: You're just like, oh, am I in the Lectroids? [00:34:29] Matthew: Yeah. I hope these, I hope these are black Lectroids, because the black Lectroids are the, the good guy Lectroids who overthrew the, uh, the red Lectroids. [00:34:38] Ian: Yeah. And the black Lectroids are all depicted instead of being depicted with this like apathetic corporate America and insane Italian motif, they're all depicted as Jamaican. [00:34:54] Matthew: Yes. They're all Caribbean and Rasta sort of, uh, vibe to them and they, all the Lectroids have the ability to disguise themselves. It turns out it is a chemical brainwashing that they release, and when it's breathed, they can make people see whatever they want them to see. So everybody looks kind of human, but you know, you've got the, the red Lectroids have one sort of corporate aesthetic, and the, the black Lectroids are just awesome Rasta guys, [00:35:23] Ian: and two parts of that. One, it's a wonderful way for them to use the rubber mask heads for the Lectroids when they want to. But not have to do it constantly. Yes. Which is very clever of them. [00:35:37] Matthew: Oh, and the black Lectroids that we spend the most time with is played by Carl Lumley, another amazing actor. [00:35:43] Ian: Oh yeah. He does amazing with it. He carries some of that, , narrative discussion and like gets you invested in what's going on on his own . [00:35:53] Matthew: And the rest of the plot is essentially john Whorfin wants to get Buckaroo's oscillation over th thruster because he knows it works, because he wants to go back to Planet 10 and take over again. Meanwhile, the black Lectroids send word to Buckaroo Banzai that you have unwittingly unleashed upon your world and ours this incredibly dangerous, uh, man and his armies. Either you stop him today or mm-hmm. We contrive a nuclear exchange between you, uh, between the US and the Soviet Union. Essentially sterilizing earth and getting rid of John Whorfin in the process. And they, they get that through this hologram record communication device, uh, with a message from John Emdall, , the leader of the Black Lectroids. [00:36:49] Ian: And it says so much that we've been able to describe all these pieces of story keeping straight faces and with energy and excitement. Because if you've seen this movie, all of this makes sense. You're invested with it. It follows each of these things from testing the car, to having the press conference, to calling the president about it. To being interrupted by the Lectroids attack and everything, all of it flows. And if you haven't, this sounds like we have gone crazy. Yes. Halfway through our podcast episode. And, uh, that's just normal. But also that's what this movie does. It is so earnest about every single one of these plot points and these characters deliver every single one of these with such gravitas and seriousness that you are drawn in. And join them on the just go with it side. [00:37:56] Matthew: And if you just list these events and the things that happen in the characters they encounter, it would seem totally disjointed. And yet to me it all fits together so well. It is a well structured plot in that there's nothing wasted, nothing that, doesn't belong or isn't followed up. There really aren't any loose ends with one possible character insertion that doesn't necessarily Yeah. Drive the story forward. And I have a feeling that that might have been more significant in earlier draft to the script. [00:38:28] Ian: I think it might have been, and I'm betting that is the love interest [00:38:32] Matthew: Yes. [00:38:33] Ian: Character, [00:38:33] Matthew: essentially the one female character. We've got a couple of supporting characters. There's Mrs. Johnson, who's sort of the administrative person at the Banzai Institute and there is, uh, one of the cabinet secretaries that we meet is a woman, but they're like the only other female character is Penny Priddy. Yeah. Who they wind up encountering by happenstance at their show, their rock show at this bar. But we get slowly, we get this, uh, detail that she is actually the long lost twin sister of Buckaroos late wife. Yeah. And becomes the love interest in this. It's, it, it seems like it's, somebody said, well, you gotta have a girl, so let's add this character. Not, I, I would've been happier with let's make some of the Hong Kong Cavaliers women. [00:39:29] Ian: Me too, on that. And for a portion of the, uh, story, she grabs the o uh, oscillation over thruster trying to protect it and so is of course, captured and, in danger and in, and is in peril. As she has both become the damsel in distress and McGuffin holder. [00:39:48] Matthew: Yeah. And a real, and an object of real unpleasant torture scenes and things. If there's anything I cut out of the movie, it would be a lot of that. It's not, it's not necessary. It doesn't really add anything. It just seems, uh, indulgent in all the wrong ways, um, with you and it to acknowledge some other flaws with this movie. Some of them just based on when it was made, there is a certain Orientalism in this movie, they, they've set up from the beginning in that crawl that Buckaroo Banzai his father, uh, Dr. Banzai is from Japan, and apparently in the backstory is that he escaped Imperial Japan near the beginning of World War II and came to work in America and an American mother, um, Sandra Banzai, who was also a scientist. And so they have all this kind of combination of cowboy trapping and Japanese trappings and. It seems like it's done mostly for design reasons. Yes. They talk about the fact that he traveled Buckaroo Banzai, traveled the world, studying martial arts in the few hand-to-hand action sequences. We don't see a whole lot of that. He's not Yeah, he's not particularly gifted , in hand to hand combat. He's great with a six shooter, however, yeah, [00:41:00] Ian: there's a little bit of that. Indiana Jones guy flails the sword. I shoot him with the gun. I don't have time for it. Kind of. Combat styling. So not a movie without flaws, [00:41:11] Matthew: but not a movie that flaws it. They can be moved past to enjoy what else it has. [00:41:17] Ian: They can be, it's in, it's very much a greater than the sum of its parts kind of film. And that's purely because of that, that collection of. You know, attitude and flow and pace and even the slow scenes keep a certain level of buzz to them. Like seeing everyone try to research and hack into Yoyodyne propulsion systems is not visually the grandest, but it's tense in the right ways. It's filmed in fascinating ways. Honestly, a lot of buckaroo banza is filmed like just in a visual style uniquely. There's a lot of pull zooms and kind of establishing shots where people walk in and out of them. It doesn't follow the characters. It does something more comic booky where it has a establishing almost splash page, and then our characters walk into the scene and we then start the momentum once they arrive. , these long pulls at times where it like will Dolly across a room to show you stuff as someone's starting to talk, and then we finally arrive at them where they're talking to be able to continue the story. But that, that visual was disconnected from the audio for just a moment. [00:42:41] Matthew: And part of what makes those slower scenes work is how good the actors are and also how well the characters are constructed. They may be off the wall characters in many ways, but they're, they're consistent. Mm-hmm. And they are believable in this context. This core group, the Hong Kong Cavaliers. We've got, uh, we talked about Rawhide, who's kind of a cowboy sort of guy, but again, he's really smart and he's Buckaroos right hand man and chief of staff. We've got Perfect. Tommy, who is a bleached blonde cover boy kind of look, but he's their yes. Aeronautical engineer. I'm not sure. I forget what Reno's specialist specialty might be. He might be the biologist, but he's a sort of a Yeah. folksy kind of a southwest guy [00:43:28] Ian: Reno, Nevada. Yes. And, and Robert Ito as, uh, professor Heta in the background Yes. Is also like, just he's this driving force and this kind of heart of the team where it's like, you know, if someone's going to state the mission of what they need to do, it'll be him. [00:43:47] Matthew: Yes. [00:43:47] Ian: And then someone else will comment about some piece of information to fuel it and Banzai will. Put that all together and send people off in different directions to do their pieces of what next. [00:44:01] Matthew: One set of scenes that don't work for me because they just seem tacked on and they're, they seem to be made in such a different style and a different level of quality. Are the scenes involving the president. There are communications between Banzai and the president who is recovering from surgery in Walter Reed Hospital, and we see him and some members of his cabinet there. And so much of that seems, a lower quality of, planning and shooting. And we've got. Soviet expat comedian, Yakov Smirnov playing the National Security Advisor. He's literally tripping over his lines. In some of these scenes, [00:44:44] Ian: there's something very, um, like stage chorus about the president in Yeah. Scenes in this where they are a counterpoint to buckaroos team's direct focus and readiness and careful precision because the president and the rest of the world that they represent are a little bit bumbling, a little bit all over the place, a little bit trigger happy, and that has this, you know, they are a voice of the rest of the world for this. [00:45:22] Matthew: They help you help maintain the stakes and the tension about this potential nuclear war because the, the black Lectroids have threatened to, obliterate Smolensk in the Soviet Union with a particle beam weapon fired from American airspace triggering a, uh, nuclear war. [00:45:40] Ian: Oh, and, , there's one more group that I think we gotta talk about in terms of world building and environment. Oh yes. I made reference to them earlier, but that's the Blue Blaze irregulars. Yes. Which is this like fan club slash militia, where, you know, being a Buckaroo Banzai fan is one thing, but being a Blue Blaze Irregular means that you might get a radio call from Buckaroo wherever you are. And you're there to help. [00:46:12] Matthew: Right. And they've all got special training and call signs and they're on kind of on call. [00:46:18] Ian: Yeah. It's very much like the global frequency, if you know that story. Yes. [00:46:23] Matthew: It is very much like Warren Ellis's global frequency. [00:46:26] Ian: Where, you know, we're in this location. It's like okay, you want me to call some Irregulars? Yeah. No strike teams. Like we just need someone who can get us in and out of place and they put out the call and get back this, father-son duo who run a helicopter tour business and are happy to help Buckaroo. [00:46:45] Matthew: Casper Lindley and Scooter Lindley. Scooter Lindley is like blue bla irregular number 41 and a half yeah. I gather his father must be the whole number and his son is the half. Yeah. Kids get fractions. And, um, but yeah, the fact that they have that, that when Rawhide is telling Perfect Tommy to put out a call for any Blue Blaze Irregulars in the area, he has to specify no strike teams. Understand. Yeah. That's, that's wild. And later they bring in some Blue Blaze Irregular strike teams. Yeah. Including groups like the rug suckers, which I is apparently a carpet cleaning business, but they're also Blue Blaze Irregulars. [00:47:29] Ian: I kind of love that though. It's like, you know. And, and the naming is obviously based on the Baker Street Irregulars. Oh, yes. And that also fits because there's an element just in the same way that we were saying that he's kind of Dr. Who there's definitely some, Sherlock Holmes in this whole setup. But it's like, what if Sherlock Holmes just kept gathering more Watsons Yes. And was a doctor in his own Right. Exactly. It's like I decided to get myself a doctorate. Okay. My 20 Watsons, we've got to go deal with aliens that's this and it's perfect for that. [00:48:10] Matthew: And there are some Blue Blaze Irregulars who work at the, the institute headquarters. They're not. Mm-hmm. Apparently they're not part of the central team, the Hong Kong Cavaliers. But that's guys like Pinky Caruthers, who apparently handles lot of the security there at the headquarters. And who's played by one of the guys who was a music supervisor's, a musician primarily. [00:48:32] Ian: That fits everyone is a musician. Yes. [00:48:35] Matthew: Well, that's one of those, one of his first questions to Doctor Zweibel was Can you sing? [00:48:40] Ian: Exactly. Also the music in This is so fun. Yes. The soundtrack for this is wildly, wildly infectious. [00:48:51] Matthew: It is, and it's very, you can just, from the instrumentation, the way it uses synthesizers, it is very early eighties, and yet it is not like they just plucked needle drops off of an early eighties chart. It is not stereotypically eighties. It's just, oh, this is what a good electronic score made for a relatively low budget movie in the early eighties. Is gonna be at its best. [00:49:17] Ian: The ending theme is still one of my favorite pieces of music. Yes. Yes. [00:49:22] Matthew: Because it is, um, as the the plot plays out, it is not without tragedy. We have people who fall in action. We have eventually, of course, the confrontation between Buckaroo and John Parker, and whorfin and the escaping, red Lectroids trying to get back to Planet 10. So we do get a nice resolution to this story while still having this sense of, and what's next for Buckaroo Banzai. [00:49:49] Ian: Mm-hmm. [00:49:50] Matthew: And then the best closing sequence, closing credit sequence, maybe in cinema history. [00:49:56] Ian: It's the closing sequence that inspired the ending to, Steve Zisou. The iconic scene of them all walking, and the group gathering is such so perfect. And all the while Buckaroo is throughout the entire story, Buckaroo is constantly this, grandly competent man. I love the bit where, , him and our, black Lectroids friend are chasing after the Red Lectroid ship. And this moment of like the, the Lectroids in a Lectroids ship. I don't know how to fly. I'm not a pilot. [00:50:43] Matthew: Yes, I failed flight school. I'm a diplomat. [00:50:46] Ian: I'm a di, I failed flight school. I'm a diplomat. Buckaroo takes over and he is like, okay. And we see him figure out all the controls. [00:50:54] Matthew: Yeah. 'cause he's a test pilot. [00:50:55] Ian: He's, he's a test pilot. He starts flying it. And this the kind of line that is this movie's humor. And this cracked me up so much more on this viewing than it had any of the others. But just swapping seats back with the, the diplomat and saying, uh, you, uh, you get us where we're going. Uh, it flies like a truck. Great. What's a truck? And it's said still like so openly. And there's that element of like, he's the perfectly confident man, but he is absolutely okay with handing off anything to someone else. He's competent with immense trust. And that is that combination and that's that missing ingredient that makes Banzai a different kind of heroic character than others. [00:51:45] Matthew: One of his skills is he's a good judge of people of their skill mm-hmm. Of their character. And he is eager to recruit , the people who are of great skill and of great character to be people that he will trust. Absolutely. And John Parker, the Lectroids becomes one of those people very quickly. [00:52:06] Ian: We might be getting towards our end thoughts soon. [00:52:09] Matthew: I think we might, we could keep talking about this for a long, long time. [00:52:13] Ian: For a long time. We could dissect this scene by scene if people like, like us talking about Buckaroo, Banzai enough, we could be one of those people who spin off an entire like 10 minutes at a time through the movie, miniseries kind of podcast. And I would be for it. I [00:52:31] Matthew: would be totally [00:52:32] Ian: down with that. [00:52:33] Matthew: In the meantime though, I think that's something we might do for our Patreon feed. Mm-hmm. Is that on the Blu-ray set that I've got is a, a making of retrospective. Ooh. About this movie with interviews with practically everybody involved, actors, director, producer, crew. I [00:52:52] Ian: like it. [00:52:53] Matthew: I think you would def for one thing, you definitely need to see this, and I think we can have a lot to talk about that, , for Patreon. [00:53:00] Ian: I like it. [00:53:01] Matthew: But I think you're right. We are now, about to head into our final questions. But first, if you are enjoying the Inter Millennium Media Project, please go to immproject.com. That's where you'll find more of our content, including all of our back episodes, , over 170 of those. Now, you'll also find there ways to communicate with us. You can reach us on our Discord, you can reach us on our contact page, including email and including honest to goodness US Mail. And you can also find ways on, uh, IM project.com to support the podcast. You can join our Patreon where you can just join it for free and, uh, get information about what we're doing. Or starting at $3 a month, you can get additional bonus audio content and if you join the, the movie club, you will occasionally get a mystery DVD in the mail. [00:53:55] Ian: If you want to ever experience what it's like to be me watching new things you may never have, never have heard of, it's a perfect way to do so. And it's, it's a lot of fun. [00:54:03] Matthew: And, uh, and of course the best way to support the podcast is share it. Let people know about it. Uh, give us a nice five star ratings wherever you get your podcasts and tell your friends. Mm-hmm. Now, uh, Ian, where can people find you? [00:54:16] Ian: I can be found as item crafting live on Twitch. I stream every Thursday that I can playing games, uh, recently being coached how to, play Dark Souls for the first time. It's a lot of fun. Come join. I can also be found at itemcrafting.com, I believe I might be. That might be down for just a little bit, but we'll be back soon on that. And I'm item crafting on Etsy as well, where I make props and costume pieces from games and TV shows. And Dad, how about you? [00:54:48] Matthew: You can find me pretty much anywhere as by Matthew Porter. So you can go to by matthew porter.com, uh, and find what I'm doing these days. You can also find me on YouTube as by Matthew Porter, where I review movies and movie theater experiences along with travel and some other things. And I'm also on Blue Sky as by Matthew Porter and MAs it on.social as by Matthew Porter. So you look for that look for by Matthew Porter. You'll probably find me. [00:55:13] Ian: Very nice. [00:55:14] Matthew: So our final questions are, this is a movie, so it starts out with screen or no screen. Do you think people should watch this movie, Ian? [00:55:26] Ian: Oh, absolutely. This is a screen. Yes, and it's a screen because even if it's not everyone's thing, I think Buck Buckaroo Banzai is aggressively eighties as we've described. And it's this wild trip that I, I've been saying over and over how like if it grabs you, its earnestness will pull you through the whole thing. That's not gonna grab everyone, but it makes Buckaroo Banzai an excellent litmus test for a kind of movie and a kind of story. And so if you want to see if some of these weird things that we describe liking. are to your taste, and this is one of your early episodes of listening to our podcast, Buckaroo Banzai is a great way to test that, I think. And the things Buckaroo Banzai was doing in terms of character and implied world building and all hits so differently now, the media landscape having changed has actually veered towards buckaroo ness over and over in ways that make this movie almost easier to get into. Now we have, we live now with comic book stories hitting the big screen as the large things. We've had strange science fiction, permeate popular culture in ways it hadn't before. [00:56:53] Matthew: Mm-hmm. [00:56:55] Ian: The, the cyberpunk and all these other things that were new then are more the background existence of. Our cultural landscape as it is now, which makes the barrier to entry and the barrier to Buckaroo, Banzai thinner than it probably was when this movie first came out. I think it's easier to get into it now 'cause we've all been primed for it. [00:57:22] Matthew: That's interesting. I guess it has it, I don't know if it's specifically the influence of this movie or culture sort of catching up with it and its pace and its nature in some ways. Yeah. Hmm. But oh, of course I say screen. Absolutely it is. It is so much fun in its own right. But yeah, it's also interesting to see it's either its its resonance or its influence in the decades that have, , come since. [00:57:48] Ian: There's so many background references to this film. Yes. People putting buckaroo Banzai stickers on something. Uh, Yoyodyne being a double reference to both, Crying of Lot 49 and this movie. It's kind of fun. It's a lot of fun. [00:58:10] Matthew: I wanna watch it again now. I might do that later. [00:58:11] Ian: Oh yeah. [00:58:14] Matthew: Well, that, um, that brings us to a more complicated question, which is our, our revive reboot or rest in peace. And I think there's something that has to be acknowledged here is it was, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy in some ways. [00:58:32] Ian: Mm-hmm. Because there is more buckaroo Banzai content now [00:58:38] Matthew: In the, the world of the movie. There were Buckaroo, Banzai comic books. Well, guess what? There are Buckaroo Banzai comic books. There was a Marvel tie in limited series back in the eighties, but there have been more buckaroo, Banzai comic books as this has become a cult phenomenon. There are new Buckaroo Banzai novels the movie ends before the credits. There is a, look for the next adventure. Buckaroo Banzai against the World Crime League. Yeah. Which I think they actually made a novel of. Eventually [00:59:09] Ian: they did. That was a novel published by Dark Horse Comics, uh, in 2021. Apparently [00:59:18] Matthew: this just keeps gaining momentum as a, uh, a cult property and beyond. Yeah. So it has gotten its revivals in that way outside of film. But in terms of film or maybe other media, how do you feel about or that revive, reboot, or rest in peace? I think rest in peace is off the table. I don't think that's bad, really. Oh, see, that's, [00:59:43] Ian: that's the thing. Back in the day when I first saw this, when you first showed it to me, I was already imagining what Buckaroo Banzai Sequel would be like. Yeah. And I kind of felt it's been so long since the original that just going straight into World Crime League didn't feel right anymore. I agree. And I got really invested in my head about an idea of a BuckaroBanzaiai story about Buckaroos kid trying to live up to a family legacy that has gotten so wild and out of hand. And this kind of, what does an empire like this look like as it hits its twilight, and what does the next generation do with what came before it, kind of story. And that has interesting potential. And yet I worry that doing this too many times, Buckaroo Banzai, played perfectly straight, too many times, could fray at the edges. And so you'd have to be so careful doing that. I'm almost wanting to say rest in peace more in the way someone takes a valuable comic book and seals it in a case to preserve it in this weird way, which is a little bit sad, but it's true. It's like I don't wanna, I'm almost too worried that something would. Would mess with Buckaroo, Banzai, the concept. That I don't want to take the risk. And it's weird to say that [01:01:23] Matthew: I, I understand what you mean. And, uh, although the idea of Slabbing comics, I always find that appalling, they're made to be read. You're making them unreadable. But anyway, I I understand what you mean. There is a risk there. And I've gotta say that in the first five to 10 years after Buckaroo , Banzai came out, I absolutely wanted more Buckaroo Banzai movies, get Peter Weller, get the rest of the cast together, make more of these, please. Starting about 10 years after it, I started think now they're, they've moved on with their careers and they're kind of too old for these roles right now. And I don't want to just start over and invalidate the thing came before, let's, let's forget about it. I'd love more comic books, maybe some novels, but no, let's not make more movies now. We're far enough away. Yeah. And I've seen so many. Good adaptations and reimaginings of things. I would be really, really interested for a revival. Oh, on more Buckaroo Banzai stories set in the same continuity. So you could make start out by making them eighties period pieces, but you would have to recast and that's fine, but give us more Buckaroo Banzai in that way. And it would be, I don't think we're gonna get Richter again. We're not gonna get the same director necessarily and get the same vision. But make sure you've got somebody who appreciates and understands the vision, , of what Buckaroo Banzai was, and give us some more movies, which of course leads to those questions. Who are you gonna cast? Who's gonna play these roles? Who would you cast as Buckaroo Banzai. I've got some ideas. [01:03:05] Ian: I know who to cast as Buckaroo Bonzo. Oh, who? But he needs five years. Oh. Who? Gimme Tom Holland in five years playing Buckaroo because he needs that little bit. He needs to be a little bit older or at least get a little bit. But I think you could do it. I say that more because I'm imagining Tom Holland in the Uncharted movie Yes. Than I am. Hi. Him as Spider-Man. There's something about that more that fits with Buckaroo. [01:03:36] Matthew: I would absolutely love to see Tom Holland involved in this. I couldn't see him as buckaroo. I don't, I don't, I don't know that he has the range to include the gravitas that you need to play. Buckaroo, Banzai. He, again, maybe you gotta give him quite a, a few years at least. Mm-hmm. He could be a really good Dr. Zweibel. Have him play New Jersey. He's the kind of nervous kind of fish out of water, but it's super enthusiastic guy. Okay. Because he's the new, he's the newest member of the Hong Kong Cavaliers. [01:04:09] Ian: That could work. [01:04:10] Matthew: You need somebody with a certain kind of stoic gravitas to play buckaroo, I think. Yeah. And maybe, maybe Holland has that in his range. I just haven't seen it. Now I, I am thinking, I've got two people in mind. Okay. One of them, Joseph Gordon Levitt. [01:04:29] Ian: Okay. [01:04:30] Matthew: I think he could play Buckaroo Banzai. He's got that range, he's got that presence. [01:04:37] Ian: Okay. I'm seeing it. [01:04:41] Matthew: Another potential, actor for this Justin Min. [01:04:47] Ian: Oh, wait. Oh, what do I, [01:04:50] Matthew: he plays Benjamin, the brother Benjamin, in Umbrella Academy [01:04:57] Ian: and he, oh, he could, [01:04:58] Matthew: he was also really, really good playing a not incredibly likable person, but it showed his range. He was also really, really good in the movie, , Shortcomings from a couple of years ago. [01:05:10] Ian: Oh, he could do a really good job. [01:05:13] Matthew: I've also got a note from, our producer Mrs. Darling wife Timothee Chalamet. [01:05:20] Ian: Yeah. I almost am worried about like, you gotta be care. He, we are, we're stretching our Chalamet a little thin. But at the same time, you know what he could, [01:05:28] Matthew: he, I mean, he could play it. He's definitely got that range. He's definitely got that presence. I think we're starting to tap into our strategic Chalamet reserves at some point. [01:05:36] Ian: Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna, I'm gonna throw a weird curve ball back. Give Chalamet Dr. Emilio Lizardo. [01:05:46] Matthew: Yes. [01:05:47] Ian: Let him, [01:05:48] Matthew: yes, yes, yes. [01:05:49] Ian: Do the John Lithgow complete craziness. And he could have fun with that because he's got the right kind of bombastic weirdness. [01:05:59] Matthew: Yes. Chalamet. As Lizardo works. I like that. It does [01:06:05] Ian: that kind of dark mirror going on. And if you weren't throwing, Chalamet at it, I could also see Daniel Radcliffe doing a good Emilio Lizardo. Oh yeah. [01:06:16] Matthew: Yeah. He has, he is made his whole second career out of weird, over the top bad guys, and he could do a great job with that. Oh yeah. I'd like to see that. [01:06:23] Ian: Either one of them could do good with that. [01:06:25] Matthew: And there are certainly actors I could see playing various members of the Hong Kong Cavaliers and other roles. I think Harry Styles could do an interesting take on Perfect tommy. [01:06:34] Ian: Oh, he'd be great for that. And this is all casting this story, but if they were going to, if you do a reboot Yeah. Do a different Buckaroo story. [01:06:43] Matthew: Oh, yeah. I would like to see it as a, as a, in our terms, a revival. Yes. The first movie was Canon. This is another story from The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai. [01:06:53] Ian: Buckaroo Banzai is the sort of. Property where you can even lampshade that no one looks the same in the story and all it has to be is one of the Hong Kong Cavaliers saying like, yeah, the comic books never draw us quite right and keep going. Yes. And it would, it would smooth right over. 'cause that's the sort of just earnest, that's life that this, this movie has, [01:07:17] Matthew: right? Yeah. They're looking at a comic book, Hey Tommy, they got your hair wrong again. Exactly. So I would, I would really be interested in seeing the right person pick this up and do a revival Buckaroo Banzai movie [01:07:31] Ian: you're convincing me back again. You're convincing me that they could do it again. It's just such a, a perfect piece of when it was. And it's a, a delightful romp and it is, I used it to calm down and just, you know, I. I was having a rough time. Finals were coming up. It was busy. Sit down, watch Buckaroo, Banzai and clear my head was such a thing. There's something almost meditative about it. [01:08:04] Matthew: Well, I'm glad that that was there for you. I'm glad I was able to share that with you at the right age then. Oh, yes. [01:08:11] Ian: Thank you. [01:08:14] Matthew: Well, this has been fun. I I, I knew that we a lot fun had to talk about this, of all the, all the stuff that we talk about on this podcast. One of the things I was happiest to share with you back then and I'm so glad that you enjoy it so much. [01:08:25] Ian: Well, I am. Always game to watch Buckaroo Banzai again. [01:08:30] Matthew: Alright, now I'm really starting to think about that. Um, five minutes at a time. Oh yeah. Podcast series. [01:08:39] Ian: That, that's, that's really doable. [01:08:40] Matthew: I'm gonna have to struggle with those thoughts for a while, that, that's, that's got some potential there. [01:08:46] Ian: Oh, [01:08:47] Matthew: But this was great. Like I said, we could keep talking about this, but, we're really glad that you listeners, joined us. Hope you enjoyed this, and, we will be back soon with more tales of media from the 20th century. [01:09:00] Ian: In the meantime, go find something new to watch. [01:09:04] Lectroid: So what big deal. [01:09:13] Matthew: You know, that's something we didn't talk about. I want to talk about this for a minute, because May, maybe I'll put it on our, uh, our YouTube as a short, okay. What is with that closing line? So what big deal? I've had so many different theories about what that means. [01:09:29] Ian: Well, I must say the audio sounded like it came from Lectroids. [01:09:33] Matthew: Yeah. We, and we see him kind of superimposed over there. It's the, the leader of the black Lectroids on their ship orbiting Earth before they go back to Planet 10. He says, so what big deal? [01:09:45] Ian: I kind of took that as a attempting to be dismissive. But here's these people who have encountered Buckaroo [01:09:54] Matthew: and when this happens is Penny Priddy has died from being tortured. And even the talented Dr Zweibel, New Jersey was not able to bring her around. And yet, yeah, Buckaroo, when he touches her, he was previously ionized and electric shocks were being created whenever he touched things because of a transmission he got from the Lectroids that brings Penny back to life. So I wonder, is the black Lectroids saying the whole about the whole story? So what big deal this backward planet wasn't destroyed. Who cares? Or was it, yeah. So these two humans have another chance at romance. So what big deal, or did he intentionally give Buckaroo Banzai that ability to bring somebody back to life? [01:10:52] Ian: I think it's that one. [01:10:53] Matthew: And he's not really supposed to, so he's making an excuse. So what big deal? I broke the rules a little bit. He was worth it. I, [01:11:00] Ian: I really did get that way. It's like Buckaroo's a good judge of character and he draws people in. And so the idea of like, wait, you, you, you let him do that? Oh yeah, I did. Oh yeah. So what big deal. But there's this element of like, the Lectroids are now interested in buckaroo. They'll stick around. I kinda like that. [01:11:22] Matthew: Yeah. Yeah. I think that, uh, Lectroids could make a little cameo appearance in future stories. [01:11:28] Ian: , I hope they would. [01:11:30] Matthew: Well, this was so much fun. [01:11:32] Ian: It really was. Thank you, dad.