On today's episode of the unbinged podcast, we're going to talk about twenty eight years later. We're gonna explain that controversial ending, give our very mixed bag of reviews on the film, and discuss the upcoming sequels in the trilogy. All that more on an episode of unbinged Started.
Natt Kopdfhamer:This is your one and only spoiler warning for the 28 times later franchise. So you got twenty eight days, weeks, and now years later that we're gonna be discussing.
Alfredo Brown:Alright, guys. The ending of this film, I think, needs to be at the forefront of the conversation because aside from that and then just a lot of dong, which just could have very easily been called 28 inches later, and we're good. Like, it's the same same film.
Jagger May:It's your best joke you've ever said.
Alfredo Brown:Thank you. I wrote it down. I've been holding on to it. I didn't even put it in the show sheet because I wanted to keep that one
Jagger May:for myself. Nice.
Alfredo Brown:But but, like, that and the ending are the two things everyone is talking about. And so just to, like, give the quick recap of this. We have our main character, Spike, who comes across this cult led by Jimmy Crystal, who is the young boy at the beginning of the movie, the blonde haired boy. And his whole family dies, and the kids in front of him die. And we come across him and his cult that is just they're all wearing these different colored tracksuits, blonde hair inspired by Jimmy Savile, who is a prominent figure on TV in The UK, who we find out later after he passes on that he was a horrible sexual predator.
Alfredo Brown:So it for The US, like, imagine just like a Bill Cosby themed cult that was really into power rangers, essentially, and ironically kill Bill.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Jimmy Savva was The UK ditty, essentially.
Alfredo Brown:I'm so upset. Felt like I got there with Bill Cosby.
Jagger May:Yeah. You did. You nailed it. I'm so upset because I as you guys know, have not looked at the show sheet. I was gonna come in.
Jagger May:I'm like, I'm the only one who's seen the the Jimmy Savile Nope. Documentary, and I was about to drop that fact.
Alfredo Brown:Let's assume, there's a little bit of the inspiration from the beginning of the movie where he's watching the Teletubbies, and now they're all kinda different Teletubby cut colored. And, we even hear sort of, like, a weird rock version of the Teletubbies song there when they're being presented. And these guys show up. They are excited to kill the infected. And, yeah, looking like they are trying to befriend Spike.
Alfredo Brown:And by the way, this is played by, our guy from Sinners, Jack O'Connell, right, who who ends up playing this character, which I'm excited to see what he does with it. But I'll say this, the ending was a bit jarring. Cough, I think you are most positive on this movie, so I wanna hear your thoughts first.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Honestly, I was, granted, I was a little bit spoiled, unfortunately, by the Internet because somebody on TikTok decided to do a spoiler video, like, the day this movie, dropped. So I kinda knew the ending was coming, so it wasn't as jarring for me. But I also appreciated it because it gave me a little taste of, like, this is thirty years, almost thirty years after the initial outbreak. Where is the Mad Max level of bullshit that we're supposedly see like, this is what I wanted to go into this movie was to see some crazy shit. Like, I wanted another guy on a on a monster truck with a guitar shooting fire at some point.
Natt Kopdfhamer:So this is the closest we got to that, and I really appreciate it. Coming from a more grounded, more, like, smaller personal level story, and then we get this almost grandiose ending. And it's got me really excited to see what the next level is. Because I'm I'm I'm sure you guys noticed, but the the references to Jimmy throughout the movie were peppered in. So that way, when you get that reveal of this is Jimmy from the the beginning, it was like, oh, shit.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Okay. Things are starting to piece together. So for me, I enjoyed that that little coda ending.
Alfredo Brown:What threw me off a little bit was the the the Jimmy and Jamie of it all, where initially, I thought that maybe Jamie, Aaron Taylor Johnson's character, was the Jimmy from the beginning. And I was confused as to the name Jimmy being carved on the and thought, like, oh, did he maybe change his name? Am I missing something with the accent? Is this a callback to Jim from the very first movie, twenty eight days later? And so, obviously, we get that connection.
Alfredo Brown:And I I get what you're saying, Koff. Like, we get a little bit of that crazy that we want in the postapocalyptic world. It just felt so out of nowhere. And I understand that it the the movie has many of those jarring moments where you're absolutely right in calling it a coda, often referred to music as something that is, like, at the end of a sequence, not not necessarily end of the song or the story. But this just it felt so out of place from the colors to the styles to the the kung fu, the music even.
Alfredo Brown:Everything was just it felt like a totally different movie. I almost wonder if it was directed by the other the the next director for the next film who's Nia DaCosta, who recently directed the marbles. I got I'm I'm I'm losing a little bit of faith there, but it felt so out of nowhere. Jag, you mentioned before we started recording that you were emotional, to say the least, about this film.
Jagger May:Yeah. I I don't think and as you guys know, like, I don't read the show sheet show sheet reads me. I'm like that type of You know? Like, I don't really think about I I don't know follow the playbook. Playbook follows about things.
Alfredo Brown:Got it.
Jagger May:Exactly. It's like, I don't I'm not saying I don't really put into thought what I come on here and say. But this time, I took extra care that I normally don't because I just didn't wanna come off as angry as I felt while I was watching and as angry as I I felt, especially leaving. And I just felt robbed, man, because all the things that you said, I felt like I was sold a different movie, and I love a rug pull. Like, I can name I I love most rug pulls, but I wouldn't say this was a rug pull.
Jagger May:This was me going in and expecting a thrill ride, and instead, I got Teletubbies. That's how I felt. And then they go bring it back to the end.
Alfredo Brown:Hell of a rug pull.
Jagger May:And I just I just felt pissed off because I'm like, wow. That's dope. Why didn't we start there? Like, you know because that's the next movie. But cough.
Jagger May:And let let let me and I'll promise I won't hog the mic because I have a lot of thoughts, and I'll finish off with this. He this is my problem. This is just twenty eight days. It started from what felt like a cool documentary and look at at something until now we have fallen into the into the same traps of what I'm just gonna call franchise culture. Is there a word for this?
Jagger May:A term for it? Where it doesn't matter what they give me all the way through ninety minutes up at you know, let's say the big chunk of it. They're gonna hook me with the end of it. They're gonna dark plague Darth Plagueis.
Alfredo Brown:It's IP, man. That's what this Like, that's where we've gone
Jagger May:to with IP. And it I'm just I'm done with it, dog. Like, this this movie was not good for a lot of it. The the first part of it, like you said, I thought maybe he doesn't wanna go send him to the fire because that's the cult that he left or something. And he's Jimmy, and he changed his name.
Jagger May:And now he's, like, being cool. Like, there's a lot there that they didn't give me. And instead, I've got whatever the fuck this was.
Alfredo Brown:So what what I wanna do here is rather than blame the movie for our expectations being subverted, because I know my expectations were absolutely subverted from the trailer to the film to the first half of the film to the second half to the ending, of course, let's really dive into this ending here and what it could actually mean because we're gonna talk more about that when we get to our actual review and how we feel about the movie as a whole. But for this ending here, Alex Garland, the writer, who he and Danny Boyle came back for this film, he said that this first movie is about the nature of family. The next is about the nature of evil. And this character, Jimmy Crystal, is upside down crossed. Everything he goes through in the beginning of the film and really the character he's depicting in here in Jimmy Savile is supposed to represent that evil in in sort of a way.
Alfredo Brown:I think you get the very obvious vibes that he's not a a good dude and not someone to be trusted. He's really, like, shmarmy, and you that's I think I might have made up that word, but, like, you don't really trust him as far as you can throw him. And this makes me wonder, you know, where could where could they go with this in the second movie? Is this something where Jimmy and Jim it just it seems weird that you'd bring in a character and have the name so similar to the character that made this series, the twenty eight days later. If it's a cult like thing, could it all be something that stems from the original Jim?
Alfredo Brown:What are your guys' thoughts on this? Koff, I'll start with you.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Yeah. That's a great point, especially the name similarity. Like, Danny Boyle and Alex Garland have shown that they don't do small details with no purpose or at least that's my interpretation. So I I think there may be especially with the rumors or maybe confirmed rumors now that Jim's gonna be back in this next upcoming sequel. Is he gonna be actually alive, and is he gonna be the head of this cult, or is he gonna be somebody that was myth mythologized by this cult because he was like an original survivor, and that's what's now perpetuating this this system of violence.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Because you can tell that when they saved Spike, they didn't just do it out of the altruism and goodness of their heart to save a kid. They were doing it because they wanted to kick some ass and, like, really let loose on these infected. And they're a direct dichotomy to what doctor Kelson was trying to, like, teach Spike about, like, hey. These are still people. They're just sick.
Natt Kopdfhamer:And meanwhile, the end, Jimmy and his crew are like, let's fucking get them. So it's gonna be exciting to see how they expand that storyline if they're gonna show us an actual, like, cult compound. And is it gonna be some crazy Mad Max style? Is it gonna be like the walking dead where it was like the governor or Negan and his, like, iron fisted control? Who knows what's gonna happen in this next one?
Natt Kopdfhamer:But, you know, with Jimmy wearing that tiara, it seems like he is the the de facto leader. And what kind of crazy shit has he gotten up to in those thirty eight years or twenty eight years between him seeing his entire family and friends get disemboweled in front of him?
Alfredo Brown:Jack, thoughts on where this could go? Because I I now I'm worried that we might be setting ourselves up for disappointment. Again, we know that Killian Murphy is supposed to be in the next movie, but if we keep building up this lore, this mythos that is, that that that is our guy, Jim, and we get five minutes of Jim at the end of the second movie, which has been reported that's what's gonna happen. Are we just gonna be pissed
Jagger May:off about that one too? Yeah. That's what I'm worried about. And I guess I guess I'm just hoping that if it's going if he said he's gonna be the nature of evil, just give me that. You know?
Jagger May:Give me that story because you already have the the the ingredients here. You we we already see. And, like, one point that we haven't brought up yet, and this is gross about the Jimmy Savile thing, Jamie's a little boy. Yeah. Like, where does that where does that go?
Jagger May:Or Spikes. I'm sorry. Yeah. Spikes' little boy. So and how long because, like, you gotta think about it.
Jagger May:Jimmy isn't, like, super old. You know? How long has has this developed? And I wanna go back to the the beginning scene again where we got the bookends of of Jimmy here, where, like, the Teletubbies thing is, like, they're like, the whole message is that they love each other. So, like, what if this is something that has started with he doesn't think of himself as, like, a pedophile, but he thinks of himself as he loves everybody, and that means he's
Natt Kopdfhamer:gonna love Jimmy when he
Jagger May:comes in here. Yeah. Yeah. And that What Peter Pan did you watch?
Natt Kopdfhamer:No. So Peter Pan is an is allegory for, like, sexual predation and
Alfredo Brown:Got it.
Jagger May:Got it. Arrested about gun violence. It is a Whiting term that correctly used. Got it. But yeah.
Jagger May:Read a book, I'm afraid. What if I don't. Actually
Alfredo Brown:I've I've read two, and they were audiobooks, so get fucked. Yeah.
Jagger May:I was actually surprised you finished Jurassic Park. I was like, I don't
Natt Kopdfhamer:think it's Proud
Jagger May:of you.
Natt Kopdfhamer:We can put it on your Goodreads.
Jagger May:But but but to finish a point here, I think that, like, the nature of evil is just like, is Jimmy technically evil? You know, if he's gonna have this weird sexual farm at that point, this is a different world where the morality boundaries and I and I wanna see that story if that's where they're gonna focus it. Because that's kind of where twenty eight days later was when they when you get to the army guys. He's just like, we're just dudes here.
Natt Kopdfhamer:I promise to women.
Jagger May:Think I'm gonna get him to go on and and survive as women. How do we survive if we don't have women? There's some logic to it even though, like, you could see immediately where it's fucked up. You know?
Natt Kopdfhamer:Right. You know, the most surprising thing about this movie, especially talking about themes where you're saying this is the nature of family, I felt like that's what twenty eight Weeks Later was. You know, you had the you had the the parents reconnecting with the kids, and then, you know, I want the shit because the mom was a carrier but not infected. And then
Alfredo Brown:Well, they wrecked out the shit out of that movie.
Natt Kopdfhamer:They did.
Alfredo Brown:Like, immediately at the beginning of this.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Yeah. They're like, yeah.
Alfredo Brown:They're just like, no. This never this never yeah. This never spread out. Which Which
Natt Kopdfhamer:I kinda wanted to see
Jagger May:sucked at peep
Natt Kopdfhamer:I don't know. I wanted to see that. I wanted see them show maybe, like, the coastline of fucking France, like, decimated because they had to, like, fire bomb the hell out of it to to keep the infected from overcoming Europe. I I I appreciated that this was a smaller story, and they didn't do the typical franchise thing where they were just, like, expand, expand, expand, expand. And they they focused it into a a more personal emotional story, so I appreciate that.
Natt Kopdfhamer:But I did wanna see more of what the rest of the world looked like because of thirty years after, you know, Britain's been quarantined, like, shit's gotta be a little funky. And, like, we get a little taste of it with a NATO Swedish guy, and he's, like, showing him on the phone. He's like, yeah. Don't you love my gorgeous girlfriend? He's like, what the fuck's wrong with
Jagger May:her face? I love that. That was the best. That was like the probably one of the top five scenes. The best part.
Jagger May:Best part of the movie.
Natt Kopdfhamer:I laughed my ass off.
Alfredo Brown:Oh, yeah. I love Especially
Natt Kopdfhamer:the shellfish the shellfish comment. Yes.
Jagger May:Yeah. It's just like like, anytime she has a scallop.
Natt Kopdfhamer:But I just I wish we had gotten a little bit more of that. Like, what does the rest of the world look like? Because you know America's done some fucking crazy shit thirty years
Jagger May:after that. Maybe.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Yeah. Like, especially after they had to do the code red in the second movie. So I wanted to see a little bit more of what those consequences were. So I feel like that's where I'm most disappointed in this movie. But I also have the trust in the in the the movie runners that they will give me some of those answers later on down the road.
Jagger May:I disagree. I do not trust Alex Garland. I don't. I I he It for me, it's
Alfredo Brown:less about trusting him and more about we've got a new director for the next film. Not only is it going be a new director, but it's a whole new it's kind of a whole new flavor of film, too. If the next thing is supposed to be about evil, if we're talking about so many different acts within different movies, within the same trilogy, I almost would have loved to have seen the the Jimmy cult and the dichotomy of that with the the the group that we have on the island and let him and his cult sort of be the antagonist here that can build to something. Maybe it doesn't have it shouldn't have had to be three films. Maybe it's two.
Alfredo Brown:It could have been maybe it's a little too smushed together, but this one also kinda had moments where it lagged. Like, there there were so many times where you see Jimmy on the side of buildings. You see Jimmy scratched into a body, and it's just never referenced by anyone in this village on the island. And it could be a thing where the dad's like, oh, I'm protecting you, kinda like the fire and the doctor, but just like not a single person mentions it. They have all these rules about, hey, high tide, low tide.
Alfredo Brown:This is what you do when you go out there to hunt. This is how when you come back, these are our traditions. Not one mention of like, oh, there's there's some other people on here that are killing motherfuckers and hanging them upside down. It seemed like a little hand wavy to me. That's that's my only complaint about it.
Jagger May:I will defend this to just this is me just being an honest about it and give credit where it's due. They emphasized and used the line, I wanna go to I have I can't see the coastline anymore. You gotta think how dangerous it is, how far in that he's been at that point. That Jimmy like, Jimmy could literally be anybody at that point. Could be somebody who's like, hey.
Jagger May:What if I put all this shit in here and Jimmy I will give credit for that there. I just what I really wanted to ask, can we we've we've we've talked about the end. We've talked many. Can we talk about the middle? Is it is it time Let's
Alfredo Brown:just get to our reviews. Let's do that. Let's get to our reviews. Let's give our scores on this, and and let's jump into it. Jag, why don't you kick us off here?
Jagger May:Do I have to give a score yet?
Alfredo Brown:Yeah. Now? Yeah. Why not?
Jagger May:Give it a Four. Four. Oh. Four. Jesus Christ.
Jagger May:My god. I was like, he's like, you want me to open up with that? No. No. Like, this is this is this is
Alfredo Brown:what's getting okay. Okay.
Natt Kopdfhamer:This is gonna get in the comments.
Alfredo Brown:Which, by the way, if you're watching this, give us your comments down below on what you give this out of 10. Maybe it's higher than a four. I don't know. Jack, go for it.
Jagger May:Alfredo, I appreciate you setting me up because I was, like, gonna get you I was gonna set you up for the four. I wasn't gonna go in, like, like, like, raw.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Turning in the you're turning the lights on early today.
Alfredo Brown:Doing this exactly like twenty eight years later.
Jagger May:You don't know where we're going. We're keeping you guessing the whole time. It's kind of what I said at the beginning. I am not gonna reward you giving me a shitty movie because you set me up for another one. I I asked I asked in our group chat what was the point of this movie.
Jagger May:At the end of the day, the point of this movie is to get me to watch another movie. Fuck you, Alex Garland and Danny Boyle. Like, get get Thanks for watching,
Alfredo Brown:by the way, Alex Garland, Danny Boyle.
Jagger May:Like and subscribe. I'm just I'm going I'm going to explain myself. It's the beginning. All the things you said was super interesting. All all that was there.
Jagger May:And then we completely railroaded that shit for a mom story with zero fucking payoff than for a boy to learn a lesson. And I'm not saying that you that's not enough, dawg. That's like that's bullshit. That is bullshit, man. And it's just not good, dude.
Jagger May:It's just not good. And it doesn't even make sense even twenty eight years later. Twenty eight years later doesn't mean that our brains and and child development hasn't advanced to the point where in a forty eight hour period, let's just say seventy two to be safe. His dad made him kill a human for the first time. Another one watched him kill it slow, then he goes and meets a doctor and said, hey.
Jagger May:These are all people, and I've been boiling their skulls, and you've been really into your like, saving your mom. I'm gonna take your mom out back, kill her, and I'm gonna make you hold your mom's skull and put it on a fucking monument? On a big Christmas tree of dead people? Are we doing, star topper, man. That's what I'm saying.
Jagger May:And, like, don't get me wrong. This was all after we watched an infected give birth, and we just shut I have so put the baby in the basket. What the fuck? Yeah. Straight up Moses the baby.
Jagger May:Yeah. Yes.
Natt Kopdfhamer:That was I don't have an answer for that one.
Jagger May:Okay. Okay. Thank you, dog. That is
Alfredo Brown:the one thing that
Natt Kopdfhamer:I'm confused about.
Alfredo Brown:But that's where I hop on this with Jack is that, like, that should have been the payoff, and I get what they were trying to do. This is a super ambitious movie. And let me let me go next here because I think I am I'm the middle ground between you and Jagkoff is that it was very ambitious where I get what they were trying to do. They were trying to give us the humanity of it all, how humanity has changed, how humanity has regressed or even progressed, and how it can change in a very quick coming of age tale. You care about the characters initially.
Alfredo Brown:The high tension throughout like, honestly, the first forty minutes I was saying before we started recording, had it kept going that way, I I might have said this is the best movie of the year so far because it was awesome. That scene where they're running down the causeway, getting chased by the alpha, and you see the beautiful background, which, like, you have to remind yourself, this is all shot on an iPhone.
Jagger May:Are you fucking kidding me? Like, it's just gorgeous. Shows. That's one of my
Alfredo Brown:It does. It does. Like, there's some grainy stuff there. Honestly, I was in a really bad movie theater. Like, the the screens barely work, so I was kinda just blaming the theater on that one.
Alfredo Brown:But there was just some stuff where you're you're on the edge of your seat really enjoying the movie, and then it just shifts so hard after that. And I can applaud the movie for trying to take these swings, really. It's about family. It's about relationships. Dominic Toretto would have loved the shit out of this.
Alfredo Brown:I get it. It's just that the acts and the switches in character perspective were just so jarring. And, Jag, what you said, where our our our character, Spike, goes from, like, I was scared. I was pissing my pants. I couldn't hit any of them to, like, actually, you know what?
Alfredo Brown:I'm gonna take my mom who, like, just goes into these fits of rage every now and then, which conveniently didn't happen as much while they were walking around. And now I can actually really defend myself. I'm a lot more calm. Maybe that's the whole veil of childhood being lifted from him, and now he's calmer being out there. We could chalk it up to that.
Alfredo Brown:I loved the concept of the alphas. I thought even though the Swedish soldier was funny and it brought in a different perspective, probably could have not had the entire gas station scene. Just just saying. Was weird to me. Like, they breathe in a bunch of toxic stuff and then explodes.
Alfredo Brown:They're like, yeah. Just get down. Don't worry. Fire doesn't go down.
Jagger May:I was that's what I thought too, dude. I was just like, alright.
Alfredo Brown:We're good. The the pregnancy scene, I think, was the turning point for me where I was like, okay. This is fucked. This is I'm out. I'm out.
Alfredo Brown:Because, like, I was having a little bit of those questions. I was enjoying the movie even to the point where I was like, this is a fantastic movie. And then we do the whole miracle of childbirth, holding hands with the infected. Hands? And then have for the infected to have that moment of clarity where it's like, this is shared thing that we still have that shows we're both human.
Alfredo Brown:I get what they were going for. It did not hit with me. Also, are we to assume that this is a baby that was created by Samson? Our our big dick swinging infected? So we've got an infected dad and infected mom, but the magic of the placenta makes this baby not infected.
Alfredo Brown:It just, like there was there was a few things here where I'm saying, like, there's just a lot of hand waving, and I get it. That's the point of some of these films. They can do that. Doctor Kelson tried to create the humanity with the with, like, we don't kill the alpha.
Jagger May:It's just weird.
Alfredo Brown:But then, like, he's really quick to be like, alright. But I'm gonna kill your mom, though, like, pretty fast. It it there was there was a lot of that moral gray area. For that, Jag, you gave it a four. This is not a bad film.
Alfredo Brown:I I think it just annoyed me at parts. And the problem with this is I don't think it stands on its own. I think that this movie needs a sequel to complete it, perhaps even a third movie to complete it. It feels a lot like Fellowship of the Rings, except that had a true journey to it and some there was just a bit more. We kinda knew where it was going.
Alfredo Brown:This, we just we we don't get that that satisfaction out of it, and I understand that's that's the point of the film. For me, I'm gonna give this a six and a half. It's a good movie. There's just enough things in here that really annoy me.
Jagger May:Wow.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Okay. Shit. My score is a little bit higher. I have it as seven and a half. I enjoyed
Jagger May:score in Alfredo?
Alfredo Brown:Six and a half.
Jagger May:Wow.
Natt Kopdfhamer:See, I ended at seven and a half. I enjoyed the emotional it so okay. I thought you were coming in with
Alfredo Brown:a nine just like Samson, just the hard nine. Soft nine, actually.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Jesus. I feel like this story would have worked better as a novel where we could have dived into the head of Spike and and really gotten his inner thoughts more. And I think that would have hit better than translated to on screen. Because this felt to me like a a a story that a novel would be written about. Like, is a a one per like, a kid going through his rite of passage in a fucking post apocalyptic world, like him discovering that the world is a lot bigger than just his island, and there's a lot more danger than just what he's heard about and learned about.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Like, so for me, I was I was in from moment one. And even when they did the tonal shift and he got angry at his dad, pulled the knife on his dad, then ran away with his mom, like, I was still like, alright. Where are we going with this? And when we got to doctor Kellison, they did that little they did again another tonal shift where you're expecting, like, a fucking doctor Mangala or some crazy shit. Yeah.
Natt Kopdfhamer:You're expecting, like, Demento from Mad Max or something. And instead, you get this really grounded, really, like, almost philosophical character where he's talking about, like, there is no difference between the infected and the normal other than the sickness. And then, yeah, you get the birth scene. And, again, that felt a little too on the nose. But what they were going for was trying to reinforce that message of, like, they're just like us.
Natt Kopdfhamer:They are just sick. And the whole, like, yeah, they were holding hands during the birth. I felt like that was just supposed to emphasize, like, this is a sickness that pumps up the rage and aggression in people, but something like birth where so many hormones are are coursing through the mother's body that it basically overrode the virus. And she was able to come back to herself in that moment. And then she passed
Jagger May:out the Really quick.
Alfredo Brown:I I actually wanna hear from our female viewers that have experienced childbirth, and I wanna hear their thoughts on it. So if you saw this movie, you are a mother. I wanna hear your thoughts on it because I'm sure there's gonna be some people that say this is a very beautiful moving scene. It's a powerful scene. But I've also heard others that are moms that have gone through it
Jagger May:be like, that that scene's ridiculous. Bullshit.
Alfredo Brown:So I just I I wanna get that. I wanna hear that from them. Cough. I'm sorry to interrupt. Keep going.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Yeah. No. You're good. So, yeah, the first scene was a to me, that was a little jarring, and I was just like, maybe we could have done without that little storyline. But it also kinda ties back to the wife Samson chasing him the entire second half of the movie.
Natt Kopdfhamer:So it's almost like this it's almost a a a mirror of what Jamie's going through, where at the end of the movie when he gets the letter from his son and he, like, goes and run out into the causeway even though it's flooded. So you almost get that dichotomy of, like, okay, the the infected once again is mirroring a noninfected father. Like, they are both chasing after their kids. So, again, you get these themes and you get these tiebacks and these rhymes. So that's why I'm giving it a higher score than both of you.
Natt Kopdfhamer:I really enjoyed it. I'm not gonna lie. Him having to put his mom's school on top of the the, you know, school Christmas tree, like, I was sobbing through the entire thing. I lost my mom last year. So for me, it just had that emotional atheism that I needed, and it it just hit for me in a way that I wasn't expecting.
Natt Kopdfhamer:So I I maybe I'm giving it an elevated score because of my own personal experience, but, you know, that's what we that's the lens we all go through. Right?
Jagger May:And a point that I wanted to give to you, Koff, because I didn't wanna come in here and because like like, we've even been criticized by the audience for doing this. I don't wanna say it's bad that you enjoy it on there. And that's okay that you gave it a score and you connect with those things. I just have I judge and give criteria solely if it's good and not if it's just that I enjoyed it. Me enjoying it factors into that, but, like, I enjoy Below Deck.
Jagger May:It's not fucking good. I'm not recommending it to my friends or anything like that. And and that's kind of where I'm at with this, where it's like that I'm heavily docking it because I am tired of rewarding Hollywood for IP culture. I'm done. Make write good fucking scripts.
Jagger May:I'm not gonna like, write make a good fucking movie the first time, and then I'll be excited for your next movie. Don't be like, but wait. There's more. Don't do that shit to me. And then and then just a second.
Jagger May:And then two, I won't I won't I think emotional bullshit like that is cheap, and I'm sorry. That's not saying, like, other people and this is me. I am the Grinch with that. I'm not saying it's wrong for you to enjoy that. I feel like they're trying to emotionally manipulate me.
Jagger May:It's like, you gave me a bad story, but if you make me cry, I'm willing to forgive that. I was like, that's Hallmark's entire business model.
Alfredo Brown:See, to me, that's a sign
Natt Kopdfhamer:of the story, What's
Jagger May:bad about the story?
Alfredo Brown:I'll I'll defend it a little
Natt Kopdfhamer:bit on that. Bad about the story? That's what I'm I guess, I'm a little confused on is, like, you keep saying it's a bad story. It's a bad script, but what about it is bad?
Jagger May:You had set up with zero payoff, and your entire payoff is based on me going and watching another movie. And the raffle that you gave and then two, Marley and Me is always my example of emotional manipulation. That is not a good movie. That a dog died and it was sad. This is why I say emotionally manipulative, Alfredo, and why it's not good.
Jagger May:Your mom died of cancer, and you tried to save her. And then you had to put her skull up somewhere from a weird man, you failed. That is not good writing. That's just sad. That is sad.
Jagger May:That is a sad fact. You wrote down a fact on the board.
Alfredo Brown:Like a
Jagger May:And then you said this is good writing. That that is my problem and what they did with that. And then you had things that just didn't make sense logically with the universe. This was annihilation, man. That movie pissed me off too.
Jagger May:Guess who wrote it? Alex fucking Garland, where you have Natalie Porton dance men dancing with herself, and then it just kind of ends. Like, I just like, come on.
Natt Kopdfhamer:They did the they did the it's always sunny thing. They gave us full penetration,
Jagger May:and then after ninety minutes, it just ends. Yeah. I was gonna say to you guys clean my mouth. You.
Alfredo Brown:Here's a spine. Here's dong, spine, dong, spine, dong, and then fade to black.
Jagger May:Like, that's it. Did you have Frank Reynolds say it? I just wanna be pure crawling on the ground the whole movie. You could've literally Alex Garland saw four. It's always sunny memes and then made a movie out of it.
Jagger May:He just said
Natt Kopdfhamer:That's why
Jagger May:I love it. Hangs dong. I just wanna be pure, and then it just sort of ends. This is the TikTok clip right here. And the implication.
Jagger May:And the implication. And the implication. Like, it's like it's like We cracked the code. Literally literally granny, like like, granny elder was just like, once you leave, you know, like, you're stuck and we're not gonna come and get you. You know, you're trapped out there at sea.
Jagger May:And whatever happens out there happens because of the implication. I'm just like, come on. 10 out of 10. I changed my score. Papa's like you he's like you're only selling it hard.
Jagger May:I love it more. Movie of the year.
Alfredo Brown:I'll say this. I'll say this about the the emotional scene where he basically uses his mom's head as a Christmas tree topper. I I get the the scene is about emotionality. Sorry. I really had to say that one.
Alfredo Brown:I get what they were
Jagger May:doing there. And
Alfredo Brown:I do think that our character Spike has enough of a coming of age journey to get to that point. But the where I think it gets cheap is the I'm gonna hit you with this drug, you know, that I'm basically gonna inject you with to make you be okay with growing up in this moment. And then when you come to, you'll be good with it. And then, oh, by the way, here's a baby in a basket that you're gonna go drop off back at your encampment. And then, oh, by the way, all now within, like, within, like, five minutes, you're gonna go meet the the the the pedophile power rangers.
Alfredo Brown:And it's just like, it was all happening so fast that I think that when we finally got the payoff, the payoff got cheapened by everything around it. And and and that's that's where I think I'm most upset by it. Whereas, like, I remember being at Fellowship of the Rings in theaters, not having ever read the books, not having ever understood that there was gonna be two more movies
Jagger May:Not even knowing there were books.
Alfredo Brown:Utterly utterly I did I had never read
Jagger May:a book. What's a book? Never even heard of one.
Alfredo Brown:I I had seen If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and that's where it stopped.
Jagger May:And Google what a fellowship was. I remember that. Was like, what is a fellowship? It's fucking dumb. Wonder if you
Alfredo Brown:could do and and and the frustration of the end of it and then being like, okay. It's a longer story. But I felt like I had gotten enough with all of these characters that I kinda said, like, okay. I do want more. I guess I want more from this movie and what's coming next, which is why I gave it a six and a half.
Alfredo Brown:But it it would almost be like if at the end of fellowship of the rings, a bunch of orcs just, like, I don't or not even orcs. It has to be characters we've never seen before. Like, Sauron stopped being the great eye and just kinda backflipped into the lake and was like, I'm here now. Like, it just it was so jarring that it took me out of that moment.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Disagree. I was I it it pumped me up. I was like, yeah. Give me more of these weird fucking ninjas who are trying to, like, decapitate, like, infected with spears. I was like, I was into it.
Alfredo Brown:It felt very TikTok.
Jagger May:I was too, man.
Alfredo Brown:It felt very TikTok y. It felt like the end of a TikTok reel where I'm just like, oh, well, what's next?
Natt Kopdfhamer:I guess my brain rod my brain rod is advanced enough to where it it caught me.
Alfredo Brown:And I don't mean that as an insult to to the writing and directing team. It just it it felt so out of place. Jag?
Jagger May:It's very British. And I wanna point out that, like a
Natt Kopdfhamer:Nate reminds me of Doctor Who. Like, the end of a Doctor Who shirt.
Alfredo Brown:For unbinged. It's very British.
Jagger May:It's very British.
Alfredo Brown:That's very British.
Jagger May:Like, I actually that whole tracksuit thing, like, the and a specific, like, the whole, like, Irish Scottish thing, that is very big in their culture. Trash and I don't know if you've ever seen The Gentleman, you should watch The Gentleman, but that's Colin Farrell's whole character in there. Like, he has the whole tracksuit gang in there. Like, literally I saw him like, wow, that's dope. I wish that I wish I woulda came and watched that movie.
Jagger May:So, like, I'm with Koff on there. Like like, if anything, it was like, it made me mad. You know? It's kinda like when you ate a whole We coulda had this the whole time. Hated the meal.
Jagger May:Yeah. Had you had like you had a really bad meal, and then you're like, wait. That was in the like, you've had that in the kitchen the whole
Alfredo Brown:fucking The dessert was dope.
Jagger May:You know? Yeah. You gave me Skittles on, you know, fucking Greek yogurt, and then there was a steak in that whole time.
Natt Kopdfhamer:I bet you that tastes good.
Jagger May:And, actually, I was like, that isn't horrible. I can't even, like, fake a bad meal. Like, I was trying to make something nasty, and I couldn't.
Alfredo Brown:Maybe I I think maybe if those those characters at the end are introduced a little bit earlier, And maybe if it's introduced a little bit more toned down where it's just Jimmy sort of being like this, hey. I'm here to save you kinda person. And then he walks him back to his to his convent or whatever, and you meet everyone else. And and that's sort of how it ends where you think that this child is now safe. He's gone inland.
Alfredo Brown:It was just I think it would prepare you mentally a little bit more for it.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Yep. I don't know. I like the theme of the movies. I like I like doctor Kelson's message of memento mori and a memento mori. It's like you gotta remember everybody dies.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Yeah. But along the way, you gotta remember the love. And that's, like, that's the whole point of this movie. Like, yeah, it's a very singular story because it's just Spike. But, again, even in the apocalypse, you have to remember to be human.
Jagger May:Yeah. But I I will change my score, and I will bump it up a whole five because there's a lot that I did like in there. They just did it irresponsibly. I actually loved Ray Fines in that movie. I loved his character.
Jagger May:I just think that the kid's reaction and how he handled it, I didn't like. Like, I wish they would have done everything the exact same thing.
Alfredo Brown:You hate kids movies, though.
Jagger May:No. I'm not, dude. I'm just I'm actually thinking of as a kid. Actually thinking as a kid. Yeah.
Jagger May:Like, I'm not hating on it. Like, I would have been okay with all the mom stuff if that kid would have lost his fucking shit and maybe try to kill the doctor and then, like, try to survive throughout there because it feels realistic. Like, even, like, again, I'll put a quarter in the my fiance jar. Her whole thing is is child psychology, and she's like, there's no way a child would handle it like this. Like like, there's just no way.
Jagger May:Like, and they they even win against character. He doesn't like when he's manipulated or lied to, and that's why he showed anger to his dad. That's why I never complained about him leaving illogically. That is very much what a kid would do because he felt lied to. But, like, he was okay getting drugged and his mom killed after all that shit.
Alfredo Brown:So that's where I get upset about the whole lesson here from from doctor Kelson is that, you know, remember death. Death is part of of life and us, but he still cheapens it by giving this child a sedative, and and he doesn't really have to experience it or understand it. He just has this little kinda, like, token that goes in the Christmas tree later. And then if if we're gonna do the thing where he respects life, right, that these infected are still humans, they just have a disease that has no cure. Mom has a disease which has no cure.
Alfredo Brown:No cure. And, like, that's the only thing where it's just like, if we're going to do these themes, let's let it be consistent. And that's where I think, like, where we were leading to this whole thing of respecting death, respecting life, respecting humanity of it all, it got a little convoluted there at the end with with that whole sequence.
Natt Kopdfhamer:But that's because they were wrapping
Jagger May:half point.
Natt Kopdfhamer:They were wrapping it up into a because Britain just passed a law about assisted suicide. So there there there's another little theme right there wrapping that up where you see the mom give doctor Kelson that little nod. Be like, yep. Dardom because she knows that it's her choice to die care about
Alfredo Brown:that as a as a viewer.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Because you're not in that situation, but somebody may have a family member who is going through a terminal illness, and they are suffering every single day.
Alfredo Brown:But you're saying specifically in Britain, that's something that they recently passed? Like, if this is a global movie and it doesn't Okay.
Natt Kopdfhamer:The writing team's British. So, again, just like the Jimmy Sabbath Like, they are referencing thing that's that's to their culture. But anyway, Yeah. So the it's the mom's choice because the doctor before that and the scene before had literally said, like, hey. Death is inevitable, but some deaths are better than others.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Do you wanna die screaming horribly, or do you wanna have the choice to go out in your sleep?
Alfredo Brown:So that's kind pretty good, though. He was selling her a timeshare, and she was like, alright. Let's do it.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Well, she's been suffering, and she even says, like, the tide has gone out. Like, she knows her time is nothing but suffering from here on out. So she made the choice, and she knew Spike wouldn't go with it if if he was fully if he was fully awake. And it's not his choice to make that for her. It's the mom's choice.
Natt Kopdfhamer:It's Eilah's choice to make that. And that's why I get where you're saying it's cheapened a little bit, but to me, it makes sense.
Jagger May:And Koff, this is why I wanna give you credit why I keep, like, bumping it up. Because, like, talking through this, I can see I'm, like, identified exactly why I'm upset and where I'm upset. And there's, like, a lot of good movie there, and I'm identifying exactly where my problem is. It's the fucking baby, and it's how he reacts to it. Like, have zero issue I have zero issue with everything up until the kid's reaction.
Jagger May:Like, I just think that if that kid woulda lost it and, like, I woulda been I woulda been okay with twenty or thirty minutes more movie if they woulda give me action of him handling that doctor word, like, poorly, maybe even throwing the alpha in there. Give me a little bit something that just felt real realistic. Having the whole fucking scene thing, it just felt like Midsommar, and that kid didn't even grow up in that cult. Like, that he just wouldn't, like, respond like that.
Natt Kopdfhamer:It almost it almost would have been better if they tweaked it where, like, the kid wakes up, the the doctor presents to school, the kid rages out for a second. That attracts Samson. They have the whole little bit with Samson, and then he chooses to save the doctor. And then does the school thing. That, I think,
Jagger May:would have been
Alfredo Brown:a I mean, on that a thousand percent. A nine.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Yeah. That would have made it a nine for me if they had done that little tweak.
Jagger May:Yep. It it was just like a little bit of poop in a brownie, and that's what it is for me. And I'm and this not specifically. It's just, like, you gave me you gave me a really, really good fucking brownie, but you put just a pinch of poop in it, and I don't want that fucking brownie, dude.
Alfredo Brown:Jack's like they were shitting the brownies. Three stars.
Jagger May:What? I hate that analogy so much.
Alfredo Brown:Alright. Sorry. Are you at a five and a half now?
Jagger May:Yeah. I'm at five and a half. I had a youth pastor that used to describe sin like that to us. He's just like, you can't ever sin because, like You keep pooping the brownies. Yeah.
Jagger May:If you if you have
Natt Kopdfhamer:That one kid with a scat bed is like, oh.
Jagger May:Bad. Yeah.
Alfredo Brown:Did I did I miss so all the all the dead bodies that are there that doctor Kelsen burns and turns into this giant memoriam and Moneman. Bone temple, which is what which is what the next movie is gonna be called twenty eight years later, the bone
Natt Kopdfhamer:temple. Sure.
Alfredo Brown:But I also now have the question of, like, did I am I am I forgetting it? Did we get that? How did all these people die? Or it's just they came across it and they were all dead?
Natt Kopdfhamer:It it's connected in two ways. So there's a story where the dad talks about they ran into the doctor, and he had all the bodies lined up, and he was burning them. And then the doctor said when the kid asks, like, what is that? And he gives him, like, oh, I've waiting thirteen years. So for the past thirteen years, he has been collecting dead bodies, whether they were infected or not infected, and then ritually cleansing them, burning them, and then stacking them.
Natt Kopdfhamer:So that's what he's been doing for, like, over a decade now.
Alfredo Brown:So he's just been walking around the hillsides, finding dead bodies, and, like, taking them back to camp?
Jagger May:Yep. I think that's dope. Like, I love that character. Like, I'm like like I said, like, I'm not complaining about most of the things I saw. It's just the two little things that I didn't like.
Alfredo Brown:So then I think that's gonna post something interesting for the next movie then is that are these in dead infected, or are these dead humans that maybe the Jimmy's have been Both. Killing?
Natt Kopdfhamer:Both. He said both.
Jagger May:I think it's both up.
Natt Kopdfhamer:He he tells Spike. He's like, you know, this the the forget exactly what he says, but, basically, it's another way he's pointing out, like, the infected and the and the noninfected are the same. Once you get down to it and they're dead and the bones are here, like, you can't tell the difference. So he has been collecting bodies of both for over a decade and then making his Bone Temple memorial.
Alfredo Brown:So, guys, there's, I think there's been some questions. There's been complaints that people have had, and there's also been questions. Right? Like, we know we're gonna get two more movies. First of all, wanna ask you guys, how does this compare to the first two films?
Alfredo Brown:Because I think I still have twenty eight Days Later as the top, this right in the middle, and then twenty eight Weeks Later as a a a fairly distant third.
Jagger May:Yeah. I'd agree with that. I liked twenty eight weeks later, personally.
Natt Kopdfhamer:It wasn't bad. I don't know. A little
Jagger May:I thought it was the worst.
Alfredo Brown:Bad. It felt very, very
Natt Kopdfhamer:US army
Alfredo Brown:coded, which I know that's exactly what it was, but it just I was. It kinda felt like this is how fucked things get when the US military gets involved. And Yeah.
Natt Kopdfhamer:I just felt very straightforward. Yep. Guess something came from British
Jagger May:TV and shit like that. Like, I've, like, would talk about mob land and shit like that. So, like, I watch a lot of, like, British stuff. Bridgerton? You know?
Jagger May:Yeah. Not that. That's not British. Whatever that's McDonald's.
Natt Kopdfhamer:That's what
Jagger May:that is. McDonald's. Sam's not here.
Alfredo Brown:Downton Abbey?
Jagger May:Yeah. Mommy's not here to defend it. Doctor who? I actually like Downton Abbey, but I think that For years, I thought it was downtown, Abbey. You're so Yeah.
Jagger May:Of course, you would. So Abby shooting from downtown. Sorry. I like that British people are making fun of Americans is what I that's what I took for that movie. I very much understood that message of, like, Americans like, yep.
Jagger May:We're fucked.
Alfredo Brown:Let's kill everybody.
Natt Kopdfhamer:But that's after the British already fucked themselves up. So it's like, hey. America's come to save the day, and they can't do it either.
Jagger May:Hey. I'm we're all bad in our own special case. You know? I just like, I'm not saying anybody's
Natt Kopdfhamer:Apparently, France is fine, those fuckers. I
Jagger May:don't believe
Natt Kopdfhamer:back the infection.
Jagger May:One time France's military would be effective. Like, well, not everybody's dead. You know? It's just How
Alfredo Brown:far French accent is sending me? Well, not everybody's dead. No?
Natt Kopdfhamer:Again, I wanna see more of what the world looks like in this universe. I wanna see what the greater not just Brandon That's good story. Goddamn it, get us off this fucking island. I wanna see what's going on in the rest of the world.
Alfredo Brown:Isn't the rest of world normal, though? Like, that was that was what was depicted with the Swedish soldier where he's just like I know. Headphones. This is my girlfriend.
Natt Kopdfhamer:I there's gotta be things that are happening because of the rage virus. It can't just be like, I don't know. I wanna see something
Alfredo Brown:That feels like a
Natt Kopdfhamer:new show. What's going on?
Jagger May:Yeah. There to me, there is like a Jurassic Park alien show in there. Like like, there there's a whole thing where, like like, hey. Literally, like, if if that Swedish kinda cunty kid wasn't the main character, that would be a really cool thing where he's just like, you don't understand online. You don't understand this.
Jagger May:Where the fuck am I? And you've got this weird you know, like, we get feral Why should call new daddy? Yeah. Exactly. There's just, a lot that What's a Kardashian?
Jagger May:Dude, like, that to me, that perspective is interesting. I would watch that show for sure.
Alfredo Brown:See, I'm I'm actually surprised Spike can freak out more when he sees an iPhone after being like, what's that when his dad has a Frisbee? And now he sees, like, a legit like, he has no concept of the Internet. And then there's a magic box with photos and a whole different world inside of me. He's just like, shellfish.
Jagger May:He's like, have you ever seen a vagina, kid?
Natt Kopdfhamer:Shows a deep fake deep fake AI videos. Oh. Yeah. Aliens. But you know,
Jagger May:like never believe Trump.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Oh, god. But, like, you know, with Jurassic Jurassic World coming out, like, there's gotta be a whole part of that is, like, the whole smuggling them onto the island thing. Right? So you know that there's gotta be some sort of, like, black market pirating set up in this world where they're either trying to ferry people to or from this infected quarantine island. I wanna see more of that.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Like, what's going on with
Alfredo Brown:that? That I would have loved with the the the soldiers. Like, if that was something that they were kinda running as, like, a black market thing, that would have been kinda cool.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Like, a smuggling ring or some shit?
Alfredo Brown:Yeah. I listen. I think this movie did a lot of things well. I think it there are a few things it could have done better. I'm still going to see the sequel.
Alfredo Brown:I'm still gonna see the sequel. Yep. The it seems like it's already tracking to make enough money that it's going to be successful. Had a big opening weekend, biggest of the entire three films so far. And that's something they said is, like, they said, okay.
Alfredo Brown:Yeah. We've already filmed the sequel, but the third movie will depend on how this one does financially because we don't have the money to make it. That's slightly worrisome. That that's, like, that's the only thing that's, like, a percentage of me is, like, don't commit to three films if you don't have the money to do it, but, okay. Like, it seems like that'll that'll play itself out.
Alfredo Brown:Guys, anything else we wanna add here? Anything that you you would have loved to see different in this film? Not enough time for the infected on screen? Too much DONG? Not enough DONG?
Alfredo Brown:Maybe more DONG?
Natt Kopdfhamer:I don't know. I felt like
Jagger May:the More DONG? More DONG. I don't know. Don't Like
Natt Kopdfhamer:If you remember, the fur like, one of the first scenes is Jim full frontal nudity in the hospital bed. Yeah. Yeah. All the clothes would have, like, decidivated.
Alfredo Brown:What if this is something that Jimmy and and his cult has done something predatorial to these people? And, I mean, remember, he was he was leaving them hang that other guy hanging. I believe it was naked, upside down to get infected. What if he's just been doing that, like, up little naked bait traps for these people, and then I don't know. That that's that's another question for
Natt Kopdfhamer:you think the baby is Jimmies?
Alfredo Brown:Oh, well, now we've gone. Ew. We've gone.
Jagger May:We've gone too far.
Alfredo Brown:Yeah. That's that's when we ended. Alright, folks. Yeah. We yeah.
Alfredo Brown:We're gonna ugh.
Natt Kopdfhamer:Too much.
Alfredo Brown:We're gonna be back again. Too much. Yeah. We'll be back again another time. That's when we know we've gone too far.
Alfredo Brown:We'll be back again
Natt Kopdfhamer:Yeah.
Alfredo Brown:Next week. We've got a bunch of stuff right now. We're actually trying to figure out the schedule for you guys. And so we we've posted some of these polls here on YouTube, and also let us know in the comments down below. We've got a bunch of shows that are coming out here from Ironheart to Squid Game, The Bear.
Alfredo Brown:We've got a bunch of big blockbuster movies as well that are coming out that we are also going to discuss. Jurassic World Rebirth, Superman Fantastic Four. Let us know in the comments what you'd like us to talk about. And as always, I thank you guys for watching or listening all the way through for myself, for Jag, for Koff. We'll see you next time.
