Binary System Watch Party – 12 Monkeys

I HAVE TOO MANY SUGAR OPTIONS

Elizabeth
I have some Wasabi and soy sauce almonds so I’m happy

Hannah
I have dessert paralysis and it’s probably going to end with my dipping Twix into Cool Whip

Kathryn
I’m resisting breaking into the Halloween candy, I shall have tea like a civilized person. (She says, knowing that it will be a half hour at minimum before she’s mashing a Twix together with a Reeces cup.)

Elizabeth
hahaha

I’m ready whenever everyone else is!

Kathryn
Just a sec, tea’s almost ready…

Elizabeth
I’m also sipping some ginger lemon kombucha

Hannah
(I’ve had to mute the DVD menu because the music and mumbly voices are freaking me out)

Kathryn
Just renting on Prime now

Okay, ready now!

Elizabeth
Ready!

Hannah
ready

Elizabeth
Playing!

Kathryn
Playing!

Elizabeth
FBI warning!

Hannah
Universal Studios thingy

Nathan
We’re still loading

Kathryn
Fbi warning

Elizabeth
Universal just started

Universal just finished

Kathryn
Now we’re on Universal

Hannah
I got two Universals haha

Elizabeth
Uh, second universal intro

Nathan
Is this a Universal film? I wonder.

Hannah
Terry Gilliam in the pocket of big Universe

Kathryn
Been a LONG time since I’ve seen this

Elizabeth
I’m trying to remember, been at least five years

Hannah
I first saw it in the movie theater and I associate it with Fight Club for the way it was weird and irreverent and blew my mind

Kathryn
Starting with the apocalypse already in progress is such a great narrative choice.

Hannah
Yeah the time jumps are gonna be fun having just finished the Mulholland Drive Best Pick ep

Nathan
Did not realize this was was this old

Thought it had come out post 2000.

Hannah
Yeah I just remember seeing it in high school

Probably after Mr. McCarter had showed us Brazil

Really gets to the heart of how so much of Monty Python was always teetering on the edge of being terrifying

Elizabeth
Oh my goodness THAT’S IT

Monty Python scared the crap out of us as kids, those stupid animations

Hannah
Those animations are up there with Edward Gorey’s PBS stuff

Kathryn
And the ending of How Not To Be Seen STILL gives me a shudder

Elizabeth
I think I liked the Gorey animation because it had the potential to be as scary but somehow wasn’t

Nathan
I’d also forgotten Christopher Plummer was in this.

Hannah
same

Kathryn
Definitely some 2001 vibes in the music here

Hannah
I think these images of the future are also what I associate with Fight Club and Brad Pitt (oh yeah he’s in both) talking about his vision for people abandoning civilization and…

Elizabeth
Yep, definitely

Kathryn
PUT SOME AIRHOLES IN THAT JAR.

Hannah
haha

I think ’cause it’s an airborne virus, tho…?

Kathryn
Yeah, that’s my knee-jerk reaction to bugs in jars I think

Elizabeth
Didn’t realize this was based on another film

Hannah
Me neither, kinda curious now

Nathan
Le Jetee is on The Criterion Channel. Been meaning to check it out.

Kathryn
I’m getting The City of Lost Children vibes from the movie’s theme music

Nathan
From the cinematography, too.

Elizabeth
That row of scientists is the Gilliam of the Gilliamest of images

Hannah
And all the fucking curves and fisheye lenses

Kathryn
Nope, I would not sit in that chair

AAAAA

Hannah
This movie is what I think of when I think of a “Cassandra complex”

…it’s what she’s talking about later

Nathan
There’s an actress who dropped off the face of the earth,

Elizabeth
Apparently she showed up in one episode of the TV show?

First look at the prison and I thought we’d gone forward in time again

Hannah
Yeah, this is a weird performance, kinda reminds me of the chick from In the Mouth of Madness

Weird intonation

I’m pretty sure this movie stands out as being one of the few Gilliams that isn’t a Gilliam story (?)

Kathryn
Enuff with the drool please

Hannah
heh

Elizabeth
Seconded

Hannah
haha so much Bruce Butt

Elizabeth
Dude can’t catch a break with all the scrubbin

Hannah
Aw, I love this guard

Elizabeth
The BOING sound when he pops out of his shirt hee hee hee

Hannah
YES

I’d never noticed that before! haha

Kathryn
Brad Pitt’s most spastic role

Hannah
I still do the motion he uses when he flicks people off

Nathan
Earned him Oscar nomination, I think.

The, like, transition from biting his nails to gesturing

Elizabeth
I mean he’s doing something with the focus of his eyes

Hannah
I think he’s got a contact or contacts in

Elizabeth
OH that makes sense, it was hurting my eyeballs

Hannah
heh

Kathryn
I’m…not detecting a lot of lies in this rant.

Elizabeth
Nope

Hannah
Right?

Elizabeth
errrrr GET OUT OF MY CHAIR

Hannah
(Also the YIPE I just let out because I sat down too vigorously on the couch and my drink tipped over and ICED MY BUTTOCKS)

Kathryn
Eeeek

Elizabeth
hahaha

Kathryn
Need us to pause?

Hannah
nah, I’m good

Kathryn
“Are you also divergent?”

Elizabeth
Line of scientists at the table again

Kathryn
“How can I save you, this already happened?”

Nathan
The doctor with the cigarette played The Riddler in the Batman TV series.

Elizabeth
I thought he looked familiar

Hannah
ooooh

Heh, she’s the oracle or whatever from the Matrix (not really)

Kathryn
Eee, no touch the spider.

Hannah
I love THIS point

Elizabeth
No lies in this rant either

Kathryn
EEE NO EAT THE SPIDER EITHER

Hannah
haha

Elizabeth
I like the helpful look on his face when he’s like “That’s very sane VERY sane”

Kathryn
GREAT DRUGS!

Nathan
We’re seeing everyone’s butt in this film!

Hannah
hahaha so much butt!

Elizabeth
It’s really hard to make such an artistic shot of pure chaos

Kathryn
Colonics for everyone!

Hannah
This song and…another one later…also always make me think of this movie

Terry Gilliam: Making nice things ominous since 1968

Elizabeth
heh

Pause to scare someone out of his chair again

Hannah
wait what?

Are we pausing?

Elizabeth
no no no

Hannah
oh haha

Elizabeth
sorry, Pitt paused in his rant to shake a broom at someone

Hannah
I was like, “Why do you care that Cricket’s on a different chair?”

Elizabeth
hee

Hannah
this guy like Dr. Chilton in Silence of the Lambs

Kathryn
Her saying she’d seen him somewhere before confused the heck out of me for a while.

Hannah
“Isn’t she being defensive?” Oh fuck off

Elizabeth
Ew that thing with his teeth

Hannah
heh

Elizabeth
I love how they screwed with the voice

Hannah
SO CREEPY

Elizabeth
The whole “Oh Cole..” tone is gaaaahh

Kathryn
Interesting that he and the psychiatrist are both getting the same attitude.

Elizabeth
Huh, good point

Shades of the lab scene in Rocky Horror here

Kathryn
It’s the plastic sheeting

Elizabeth
And the weird people observing from the balcony

I forgot this bit in the war!!

Kathryn
Overshot by a LOT more this time.

Hannah
I didn’t realize this happens this far into the movie

That the back and forth of the time travel itself isn’t even chronological

Kathryn
HA! I totally forgot her name is spelled the right way

Elizabeth
Hee

Hannah
hee

Elizabeth
I bet if you zoomed in on all those images there’s pictures of Cole all over

Hannah
haha I love people leaving their hors doeurvres shit by the statue

…yeah I spelled that wrong, don’t @ me

Elizabeth
Yes I noticed the wineglass by the butt as well!

That was one of her old bosses getting a signature wasn’t it?

Hannah
I don’t think I ever picked up on that before, how much her career had really taken off by concentrating on doomsday people

Kathryn
I forgot the emphasis on the Florida Keys

Hannah
This song haha

Nathan
That’s not making it louder. That’s changing the station.

Hannah
Also apparently that’s where the title for Brazil came from – an advertisement seeming strikingly optimistic in the face of all the shit happening

…and this one, haha

Kathryn
It’s such a shame Bruce Willis went into such a decline, he really was an amazing actor.

Hannah
Yeah just a good dude, too

(I think? Apparently?)

Elizabeth
I’ve never heard any bad stories about him

Kathryn
GOD THIS IS CREEPY

Elizabeth
I love a crazy person journal

Hannah
haha

I always absorbed this boy in a well story as a true thing but did that ever really happen? Or was it just like another weird obsession of the fiction we grew up with?

Elizabeth
I feel like it happened?

Kathryn
There was a little girl in a well.

Nathan
It really happened, but it was a girl.

Her name was Jessica McClure.

Kathryn
WHY WOULDN’T YOU FLOOR IT

Elizabeth
Gotta know the end of the story

Hannah
oooh I love this theater hell

Elizabeth
so apocalyptic

Kathryn
Is this Detroit, that theater looks familiar

Hannah
supposed to be Philly

Elizabeth
Yeah but I wondered

I think the Detroit one is mostly outdoors now

Hannah
The apocalyptic stuff in this movie (whether before or after the actual apocalypse) is what I’m looking for in apocalypse stories

Elizabeth
“All I see are dead people.”

Kathryn
So hard to tell who are the actual time travelers and who are just crazy

Hannah
Yes!

Elizabeth
Snakes in the senate, milk on famous paintings…

Hannah
heh

Kathryn
Letting loose snakes in the senate would be tame by today’s standards

Elizabeth
What was that movie trope, it’s the woman’s job to tell the man to not do the cool thing

Hannah
heh I got that from the Guilty Feminist

Don’t have the adventure, don’t do the exciting thing

Elizabeth
Not that she’s wrong of course

Hannah
hah no but it’s all in the storytelling

Kathryn
Love how irritated he was there with her comment about how he’s made this up

Hannah
EW, COLE

Elizabeth
I like the misdirect there

Kathryn
Christopher Plummer himself!

Elizabeth
That’s totally a hey it’s that guy holding onto Brad’s shoes

Hannah
YES

I was trying to place him

Kathryn
Goodness those eyes

Elizabeth
DAD’S big DO

Hannah
He kind of looks like the E Street band guy who also acted

Kathryn
Aaa, they used this Schubert piece in The Avengers!

Hannah
heh

Elizabeth
Schubert’s Rosamund, wonder if that’s a hidden meaning

Hannah
…a quick google says that the plot of the play Rosamunde was for involves intrigue and poison

Elizabeth
Hm

I love that this whole thing takes place in a spiral staircase

Kathryn
Anyone seen someone come through here? NO, JUST A LUNATIC WITH A GUN WHO LOOKS JUST LIKE YOU.

Hannah
heh

Elizabeth
hahaha

Kathryn
Get em, Kathryn!

Hannah
I LOVE THE SPIDERS

Elizabeth
Oh hey that’s one of the Law and Order dudes

Nathan
It’s the SVU guy!

Hannah
hahaha argh…Italian name

Kathryn
Also in The Prophecy?

Hannah
He also plays a demented pediatrician on an ep of Scrubs

Nathan
Christopher Melloni.

Kathryn
No, different from The Prophecy guy

Elizabeth
SO. Gilliam!

Kathryn
Now THIS is the most Gilliam thing ever

Hannah
boom be doo boo bee doo

hah the sheets there are creepy

Elizabeth
Yeah that’s her old boss but he’s definitely not done as well as her

“No sign of your good friend the kidnapper…”

Kathryn
I honestly can’t remember if this voice is real or in his head and I think it works either way.

Nathan
From the IMDB trivia: Terry Gilliam was afraid that Brad Pitt wouldn’t be able to pull off the nervous, rapid speech. He sent him to a speech coach but in the end he just took away Pitt’s cigarettes, and Pitt played the part exactly as Gilliam wanted.

Elizabeth
HAH, good call Gilliam

Hannah
hahaha FOR GOD’S SAKE DONT’ LET HIM EAT

Kathryn
Definitely better than the directors who like to terrorize their actors

Hannah
seriously

I was listening to WFF horror movie today and the way Kubrik treated people…

Kathryn
I really hate the fact that people think it’s an either or thing with directors: you can be nice to your actors or you can be horrible and get a good performance out of them

Elizabeth
Next to a crazy journal I like a crazy document wall

Heh, I forgot about that “..women saiKAIatrists

Kathryn
Wasn’t this actor in Saint Elsewhere?

Elizabeth
Yep!

And House!

Hannah
I’m always surprised that this guy plays a creep in EVERY MOVIE, somewhere along the line I imprinted on him on a good-guy role, but god only knows

Nathan
He’s been in everything.

Hannah
Oh, was he nice on St. Elsewhere? Maybe it was that

Elizabeth
I think he was?

I love how the actress slowly flips places with Cole in terms of craziness.

Hannah
WHO CARES WHAT PSYCHIATRISTS WRITE ON WALLS

“Pusillanimous pretend friend to animals” is another fun bit to quote

Elizabeth
This whole scene up till the end was one long cut!

Hannah
oooooh

Kathryn
I would SO be running for the hills after that speech

Hannah
fuck the bozos

everyone just oozes hostility

It’s almost Dickensian

Kathryn
This speech from him must be what psychiatrists DREAM of hearing from their patients, and right now it’s the last thing she wants.

Hannah
hah, yeeeaaaah

Was it the bullet that pushed her over?

Kathryn
And seeing his picture in her history book

This guy’s hostility confused the heck out of me the first time I saw it.

Hannah
haha the putting the coat on the hanger and then dropping it

yes, that requires putting random pieces together

Elizabeth
Whew that bit with the tooth

Yet again making us think he totally did something awful and then didn’t

Tho mind you the tooth thing was still awful

Hannah
they didn’t even show us any of that and it’s still creepy

Kathryn
And that would be the point where the whole world will be doomed because I COULD NOT PULL MY OWN TEETH OUT

Hannah
haha

Elizabeth
a crazy whore and a fucked up dentist

Kathryn
“It’s okay, we’re crazy!”

Elizabeth
Chills down my spine when he recites the message along with her

Hannah
eeeeeeeyyyeaaaha

Elizabeth
hahahah the faces in the tv

I knew it, he was stumbling around this store in the very beginning of the movie

Hannah
Another thing that feels like Fight Club

Elizabeth
Just like Fight Club!

Hannah
haha

Elizabeth
Jinx!

Kathryn
Poke some holes in that bag!

Hannah
….no I’m not

Elizabeth
Hey we watched this movie together didn’t we?

Hannah
Vertigo?

Nathan
I think so.

Hannah
It says it on the marquee

I saw it in college but I already associated it with this movie

Elizabeth
Hm, I think I’m thinking of something else

Nathan
We watched North By Northwest.

Elizabeth
THAT’S the one I was thinking of

Kathryn
It’s Vertigo, don’t think we’ve done a Watch Party for that one

Hannah
Does make me wonder how much of this philosophizing comes from the French film, because it’s all really apt

Elizabeth
Very

Wonder if it’s intentional, the statue of the lion looking sad over the body of the other lion

HA, north northwest was an earlier show

Hannah
I forgot they were going to Key West

Kathryn
And did they even have The Birds on the marquee?

Nathan
Didn’t see it!

Hannah
Not sure?

Elizabeth
I’d have to rewind

Kathryn
Continuity editor, you had ONE job.

Hannah
haha big job in a time travel movie, tho

Kathryn
Now, do we know how she could have recognized him?

Such a cool image of the giraffes

Hannah
yes!

Elizabeth
Such a nice happy moment for just 20 seconds or so

Hannah
haha

Elizabeth
why is your airport so smoky?

Kathryn
Right?

Hannah
“Airports all look the same” Yeah scary as fuck

Kathryn
Oh jeez “This is my dream” is such a terrifying statement.

Elizabeth
Was that their first kiss?

Kathryn
And LAST

Hannah
I think so

Kathryn
Ah, back in the days when you could buy tickets under any old name.

Hannah
Alll the places the virus first showed up…

Elizabeth
Yeeeap

(Kinshasa’s the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo)

Hannah
haha

Kathryn
Ah, back in the days when you could bring guns into an airport.

Hannah
hahah I mean was that ever actually OK?

Kathryn
To any NSA agents listening THAT WAS A JOKE.

Elizabeth
Hee

Hannah
hahaha

Elizabeth
I was thinking earlier she got a ticket under a fake name with cash really easily

Man that dude on the escalator is so naturally creepy

Hannah
yeeeaaah

Me going through security with my CPAP…

(also disease-ridden)

Elizabeth
Patient Zero

Kathryn
You would DEFINITELY not make it through security with that.

Hannah
No Nonsense Black Security Agent

Kathryn
Heeeere we go

Elizabeth
We have lost cabin pressure

Hannah
cutting out the music here is so good

Elizabeth
Man alive

Hannah
Phoebe is Affected

Kathryn
God, her looking around for young James just BROKE me.

Elizabeth
“I’m in insurance.”

Hannah
You never root for that woman like you do there

Elizabeth
Yes!

Did not get that line the first time I saw this

Kathryn
Whoooo

Hannah
STOP CREEPING OUT THE HAPPY SONGS, TERRY

Nathan
First time I’ve seen that since it was in the theater.

Elizabeth
No way!

Hannah
Holds up!

Nathan
Yes, it does!

Kathryn
Still powerful, what, 27 years later?

Elizabeth
I’ve seen it since, but only a couple times I think

Good choice!

Kathryn
Only nitpick, if enough time had passed for young James to become Bruce Willis James, how did the insurance lady from the plane live long enough to become one of the scientists in the future?

Hannah
She was only transported back there

…was how I saw it

Kathryn
Huh, I don’t know why that hadn’t occurred to me, I thought she was just an average person from the past there.

Elizabeth
Yep, I think the first time I saw it I thought she just lived really long, but they sent her back in time too. As insurance.

Kathryn
Summary on imdb checks out, she’s the scientist they said they’d send back to study the virus once they figured out exactly where it started.

Hannah
Ooooh

… do they actually say that in the movie?

Elizabeth
I don’t think so, but I feel like someone at one point said that was the plan behind sending convicts back, once they found the source they’d be able to study it and find a cure, not to help the past but to let humans reclaim the world.

Kathryn
They say that was the plan I think.

Gah!! The actor from Saint Elsewhere was in the Von Trier movie Dancer In The Dark. THAT’S why I get creeped out when I see him now.

Elizabeth
Hahaha, I never saw that, but after all my House MD rewatches I think of him as the cop who had a vendetta against House (I’ve started skipping those episodes, the actor does too good a job.)