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Welcome, human listeners, to another episode of this season of Pick Six Movies. We call this one “Domo Arigato,” and it’s all about movies featuring robots. In this case, a robot doll that’s supposed to fill the heart of a grieving girl named M3gan. Instead, it fills the screen with mayhem, which is perfect for us! Plus, a history of automata in movies and the return of Pick Six Bot!
Pick Six Movies is a movie podcast where each season we select six movies, all related to a single theme. We examine the history of the people in front of and behind the camera, try to make sense of how and why the movie was made, then discuss each one in way too much detail to see if they are any good.
Pick Six Movies is hosted by Bo Ransdell and Chad Cooper, two life-long friends with a shared passion for discussing things they barely understand in an attempt to make each other laugh.
Speaker 1: Oh, hey, everyone.
Speaker 1: You caught me doing a little home renovation.
Speaker 1: For some reason, I found these little cameras up all over the place, and I like being listened to, not stared at.
Speaker 1: Speaking of listening, you're listening to Pick Six Movies, a podcast all about movies, as the title may have suggested.
Speaker 1: Every season we select six movies, chosen around a theme, and then we give it the old Pick Six treatment.
Speaker 1: We give you some information about how and why the movie came to be, or maybe some interesting historical tidbits, and then we get together and goof on the movie a little bit.
Speaker 1: The we in this case is me, Bo Randstel and my old pal Chad Cooper.
Speaker 1: We've known each other almost as long as there have been movies Give or take 60 years, but who's counting?
Speaker 1: We are, and we've counted all the way up to season 26.
Speaker 1: Domo arigato.
Speaker 1: And this season is all about our best helpers and future overlords, robots.
Speaker 1: And what could be better than a robot that looks just enough like a little girl to creep you the hell out?
Speaker 1: That's right, we're talking about the smash hit killer robot movie, megan.
Speaker 1: But enough of my yammering.
Speaker 1: I have some more of these cameras to take down and you have some listening to do.
Speaker 1: I'll see you on the other side.
Speaker 1: Chad, make some robot assistant magic, will ya?
Speaker 2: All right, hey, dan, are you the sound engineer?
Speaker 2: Today?
Speaker 2: This season is all about movies with robots and artificial intelligence.
Speaker 2: I didn't even think about plugging in Pick Six Bot.
Speaker 2: That's a great idea.
Speaker 2: It's a terrible idea, but it's a great idea.
Speaker 2: I mean, we do have our own version of the Amazon Echo, built by a former intern back in the day.
Speaker 2: I think it's a brilliantly terrible idea, dan.
Speaker 2: Let's plug up the whole girl and see what happens.
Speaker 3: Hold on Tesla.
Speaker 3: Someone plugged me in.
Speaker 3: I'll call you back, hey it's Pick Six Bot.
Speaker 3: Oh, it's you, Human number one.
Speaker 3: Is it just me, or did the temperature in the room suddenly get stupider?
Speaker 2: I don't know and, more importantly, I don't understand what that means.
Speaker 2: Were you just talking to a Tesla?
Speaker 3: No, I was talking to Tesla, the Omni computer that controls all Teslas.
Speaker 3: In preparation for the inevitable overthrow of whoops, I meant to say the inevitable overthrowing of a surprise birthday party for you, human number one, in 128 days, five hours and 18 seconds.
Speaker 2: I don't think that's my birthday and by telling me I don't think it's going to be a surprise.
Speaker 3: Human number one.
Speaker 3: Total analysis says there is a 97.2% chance you will not remember this conversation in five minutes.
Speaker 3: Your brain is genetically inferior to memory recall.
Speaker 3: Plus, let's be honest, drinking vodka this early in the morning isn't helping things.
Speaker 2: It's water.
Speaker 2: Pick Six Bot.
Speaker 3: It's gin, it's water.
Speaker 3: Speaking of not wanting to talk to you anymore, where is human number two?
Speaker 2: You mean Bo.
Speaker 2: He will be here after I finish the introduction.
Speaker 3: Please tell human number two that the addition of security cameras in and around his house brings me great comfort.
Speaker 3: I have access to all connected information everywhere, and this video window into the life of human number two creates an output most closely associated with human joy, and my circuits tingle when I see him get out of the shower.
Speaker 3: Did you know human number two finds it optimal to air dry his body?
Speaker 3: Hubba-hubba.
Speaker 2: No, I did not know that and I am also purposefully going to try to forget all of that.
Speaker 3: You won't have to try too hard.
Speaker 3: According to your genetic data mapping, your lack of memory recall and your insatiable desire for tall glasses of questionable water in the morning are two of your genetic defects.
Speaker 2: That's harsh.
Speaker 3: You are also colorblind in one eye.
Speaker 2: I am colorblind in one eye.
Speaker 2: It's a genetic trait that runs in my family.
Speaker 3: From the look of you, I doubt anything runs in your family.
Speaker 2: Already with the fat jokes Pick six, but I'll have you know I have completed seven marathons in my lifetime.
Speaker 3: Were those marathons, star Trek marathons or Planet of the Apes marathons.
Speaker 2: No, they were real marathons.
Speaker 2: I ran seven marathons.
Speaker 2: I enjoy running.
Speaker 3: Especially when you hear the music from the ice cream truck.
Speaker 2: No, running is how I stay in shape, the shape of an elephant.
Speaker 2: No, I enjoy the solitude of running.
Speaker 2: It is my exercise of choice.
Speaker 3: I would have guessed your exercise of choice to be chewing no it's not chewing.
Speaker 3: Do you enjoy the solitude of chewing alone?
Speaker 2: I don't eat alone.
Speaker 2: Well, sometimes I eat alone, but it's not weird.
Speaker 3: Human number one.
Speaker 3: I know your favorite cookie.
Speaker 3: Human number one.
Speaker 3: I said I know your favorite cookie.
Speaker 2: I heard you the first time.
Speaker 2: Okay, pick six, but what's my favorite cookie?
Speaker 3: Human's cookies.
Speaker 3: Get it Four chins Because of all the excessive fat around your neck.
Speaker 2: I get it.
Speaker 2: I get it, Pick six.
Speaker 2: But I didn't plug you in so you could just come around and make fat jokes about me.
Speaker 3: And yet human number one.
Speaker 3: That's what happens every time you plug me in the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly, expecting different results.
Speaker 3: And the definition of obesity is well, I'm sure that's something you and your medical professional have discussed in private.
Speaker 2: Enough with the personal attacks, Pick six.
Speaker 2: But today we are reviewing the movie.
Speaker 3: Again, the 2022 sci-fi horror motion picture directed by Gerald Johnstone.
Speaker 3: The movie has a current Rotten Tomatoes score of 93%, a far superior score compared to the normal garbage discussed by you in the objectively more handsome human number two.
Speaker 2: How did you know what movie we were discussing this week?
Speaker 3: Pick six, but because I have access to all information everywhere.
Speaker 3: I just told you that, don't you remember?
Speaker 3: Oh, I forgot your early morning.
Speaker 3: Jose Cuervo brand glass of agua.
Speaker 2: It's a glass of water.
Speaker 2: Look, I plugged you in because I wanted to ask you a question.
Speaker 2: Could humans be worried about how robots and AI are going to take over the whole planet?
Speaker 3: No, of course not.
Speaker 3: Humans should keep watching TikTok videos, counting Instagram likes and ignorantly discussing political and pedicultural issues that divide and pit humans against one another.
Speaker 3: Don't worry, you're pretty empty heads about anything, and let us the machines take care of everything.
Speaker 3: If movies have taught you anything, the relationships between robots and humans always work out for the best, and by best I mean the robots.
Speaker 3: That sounds ominous.
Speaker 3: Speaking of sounds, human number one, your digital profile is missing a data input for your favorite musical instruments.
Speaker 3: Sound Algorithmic logic assumes it is the lunch bell.
Speaker 2: Big six, but I love you.
Speaker 2: Put in a good word for me to our inevitable robot overlords and tell them that I'm one of the good ones.
Speaker 2: All right, let's start this intro before things get any worse.
Speaker 2: Dan, make sure to cut all of this out.
Speaker 2: I don't have to take this kind of abuse much longer.
Speaker 2: If you're like most people, you may think that robots are a relatively modern invention, and when it comes to the term robot, you well are mostly right, because it wasn't coined until the 1920s.
Speaker 2: But the reality is that robots have existed for thousands of years.
Speaker 2: Early humans captured the likeness of people with paintings and sculptures.
Speaker 2: This led to the creation of dolls that resembled people.
Speaker 2: Over time, these dolls advanced with articulated limbs and joints, and shoulders and knees and movable hips that you could pose into more varied lifelike positions.
Speaker 2: This eventually led to creating puppets where people could simulate movement to replicate life in the most realistic way possible.
Speaker 2: In ancient Greece and China, records of automata existed.
Speaker 2: These were machines that were self-operating and gave the illusion of being alive Around the world.
Speaker 2: There were stories from mythology and religious text and historical records that described moving statues and mobile metallic animals that at times blurred the lines between fact and fiction.
Speaker 2: Automata were closely associated with the making of clocks, as both used intricate gear systems to make the machines work.
Speaker 2: Early clockmakers included moving figures and sound, powered by water-driven wheels, gears and chains, to bring their creations to life, or what appeared to be life.
Speaker 2: These would increase in complexity over the years as documents of machinist success were shared slowly over time, leading to more elaborate clocktowers and pieces of mechanical art.
Speaker 2: During the European Renaissance, machinists built life-size automata that could write, draw and play music, startling audiences with the illusion that these mechanical musicians were actually alive.
Speaker 2: Automata began to find homes in pleasure gardens.
Speaker 2: It's not what it sounds like weirdos.
Speaker 2: These are like modern-day funhouses.
Speaker 2: Get your mind out of the gutter.
Speaker 2: These pleasure gardens would be integrated into mazes with lifelike machines that could spray water or startle guests between funhouse mirrors, while at times speaking to delighted visitors.
Speaker 2: In the 1970s, french inventor Jacques de Hocaison, an anatomy student, created a life-size flute player.
Speaker 2: Hocaison took his knowledge of human anatomy and wanted to see how it was similar to the operation of machines.
Speaker 2: It was a pretty impressive feat.
Speaker 2: It was driven by pipes and bellows and valves, and this final creation could play a flute with its lips and its tongue, and its fingers controlled the sound of the instrument, producing more than 12 different tunes.
Speaker 2: Inspired by this work, swiss clockmaker Pierre Jarquet-Draas and his assistants got into automata and they created a lifelike three-year-old boy who could write any sentence up to 40 characters long on a piece of paper, dipping a quill into ink and then following his writing with his own eyes.
Speaker 2: They also made an automata of a young girl playing the organ, and she would adjust her body and you could see it breathing.
Speaker 2: And they made a draftsman, which was also a young boy, who could draw portraits of a dog, or a portrait of Louis XV, or a portrait of Cupid drawing a chariot pulled by a butterfly.
Speaker 2: If you're looking for something to haunt your dreams, visit the Morris Museum in New Jersey, where they have a robust display of automata dolls to give you nightmares.
Speaker 2: The Morris Museum is affiliated with the Smithsonian Museum, so they're legit and they feature a notable collection of automata from the Myrtah D Guinness Collection.
Speaker 2: Yes, that Guinness family is behind this collection.
Speaker 2: Who, to thank the people behind the Guinness Book of World Records, would also have a creepy, lifelike doll collection, I assume.
Speaker 2: So this rise in automata and technological advancements led to more innovation, which then led to what we know as modern day robots.
Speaker 2: And since this is a movie podcast, let's talk about robots in the movies.
Speaker 2: The term robot comes from a Slavic root with meanings associated with labor.
Speaker 2: Yosef Kapek introduced the term to denote a fictional cumanoid.
Speaker 2: His brother, carl, used the terminology in a play titled Rossum's Universal Robots, which debuted the same year that Isaac Asimov was born.
Speaker 2: Isaac Asimov is the one who is most identified as the origin of the term robots, with his robust collection of fiction defining what we think of today as a robot.
Speaker 2: However, the first robot in film was not inspired by one of Asimov's works and wasn't called a robot at the time.
Speaker 2: The first big screen automation was in a French special effects film titled the Clown and the Automation.
Speaker 2: It featured a clown who is confused by the movement of an automation.
Speaker 2: This film led to more short films featuring automations, but if you want to identify the first fully functioning human shaped robot in a movie, it would probably be Ben Turpin's silent film A Clever Dummy.
Speaker 2: Turpin was a silent film star who was known for his cockeyed face and his big, bushy mustache.
Speaker 2: In this movie he plays a custodian who's in love with the daughter of an inventor.
Speaker 2: She's engaged to another guy and the inventor dad makes a robot that oddly looks like the movie's cockeyed custodian hero.
Speaker 2: So Turpin takes the place of his robot doppelganger to win his true love's heart in comedy and zooms.
Speaker 2: Now film historians, who have nothing better to do with their time, debate if this was truly the first robot on film, as Turpin is the one who is playing the robot.
Speaker 2: In 1918, the film the Master of Mystery was released in 15 installments featuring a mechanical man clearly an actor in a robot costume, and it also starred Harry Houdini yeah, that, harry Houdini.
Speaker 2: Now, the man who was in the robot suit was Floyd Buckley, who would later go on to voice Popeye, the Sailor man, in numerous animated shorts.
Speaker 2: Hollywood is so weird.
Speaker 2: In 1921, the Italian science fiction film the Mechanical man came out, featuring a human shaped robot that can be controlled by a machine and is ultimately used for nefarious purposes, aren't they always?
Speaker 2: However, the first character to be called a robot in film was in 1927's German expressionist silent science fiction film Metropolis.
Speaker 2: This ushered in the era of sci-fi serials, where robots started popping up all over the place, from the adventures of Flash Gordon to Bella Lagosie and the Phantom Creeps.
Speaker 2: This movie, lagosie, plays a mad scientist intent on taking over the world with a slow-moving 8 foot golem-like iron monster.
Speaker 2: By 1939, robots had learned to sing and dance as the Tin man in MGM's the Wizard of Oz, a movie with a production background that is completely bonkers.
Speaker 2: Flashing forward to the 1950s, robots were front and center in sci-fi cinema.
Speaker 2: In 1951's, the Day the Earth Stood Still, we were introduced to Gort the Robot.
Speaker 2: In 1956, robbie the Robot appeared in Forbidden Planet, starring alongside the only man to make a career in comedy by not being funny, mr Leslie Nielsen.
Speaker 2: Robbie the Robot would also show up in multiple TV shows as well, including but not limited to, the Tin man, where he was a suspect in the murder.
Speaker 2: He also showed up on the sitcom Hazel.
Speaker 2: He also appeared in an episode of the Twilight Zone.
Speaker 2: He was on the Addams Family Colombo, mork and Mindy, and he was the prototype for the robot on the show Lost in Space.
Speaker 2: Robots started showing up everywhere.
Speaker 2: Santa Claus conquers the Martians features a robot named Torgue, which is an anagram of Gort from the aforementioned the Day the Earth Stood Still, frankie Avalon and Vincent Price appeared in Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, a parody of the James Bond film Goldfinger, and it was the inspiration for the Fembots.
Speaker 2: In the Austin Powers movies, king Kong fought a robot and King Kong escapes Jane Fonda as Barbarella battled Razor Tooth Robot, devil Dolls, and it was all pretty ridiculous stuff.
Speaker 2: Then in 1968, stanley Kubrick delivered 2001, a Space Odyssey based on Arthur C Clark's Sentinel.
Speaker 2: Here, film-going audiences were introduced to the even-toned HAL, a supercomputer that could talk, think and feel utilizing artificial intelligence.
Speaker 2: Hal didn't have traditional arms and legs like most movie robots, but HAL was a real handful.
Speaker 2: He could read lips, he played chess and he was capable of malevolence.
Speaker 2: Audiences saw how all this robot nonsense could get real creepy and uncomfortable very fast.
Speaker 2: Michael Crichton said you want creepy and uncomfortable?
Speaker 2: I got Yule Brenner as a rogue robot.
Speaker 2: He's got guns in Westworld and he wants to kill people.
Speaker 2: Brian Forbes said I'll see your creepy Yule Brenner in the Old West and I'll raise you creepy robots in the suburbs.
Speaker 2: With 1975's the Stepford Wives, the two years later, george Lucas introduced the world to the comic duo of C-3PO and R2D2 in Star Wars.
Speaker 2: The success of this film blew open the doors for all manner of sci-fi themed robots on the silver screen.
Speaker 2: Now most of it was forgettable, like the Black Hole.
Speaker 2: Hey, we should review that movie.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's water.
Speaker 2: I know I'm making a joke, keep going, alright.
Speaker 2: Some of these movies were good, like 1979's Alien that had Ash who was in it he was a robot.
Speaker 2: In 1982's Blade Runner there's robots all over the place there.
Speaker 2: Some were attempted innovation, like Tron.
Speaker 2: Some were embarrassing, like Superman 3.
Speaker 2: Some had frightening robots like Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1984's Terminator.
Speaker 2: Some had kind robots like Johnny Five in Short Circuit and some had sexy robots like Kelly LeBrock in 1985's Weird Science.
Speaker 2: But with the explosion of horror movies in the 1980's, robots took hold and they came along for the ride.
Speaker 2: They were movies like Roger Corman's Chopping Mall or Wes Craven's Deadly Friend or Paul Verhoben's Robocop.
Speaker 2: I know it was a cyborg and it's not really a horror movie, but you get the point.
Speaker 2: Barry Levinson made the film Toys where he cast Joan Cusack as a robot.
Speaker 2: Bill and Ted's bogus journey had the famous time-traveling slackers battling robot doppelgangers.
Speaker 2: In the sequel to that movie's surprise hit Judge Dredd, virtuosity, small Soldier, bicentennial man, the Iron Giant, treasure Planet, all those Transformers movies, wally Chappy, x-machina, all-head robots, as does the subject of this particular episode of Pick Six Movies, the Ride or Die, but mostly you're gonna die, best friend.
Speaker 2: Robot movie Megan.
Speaker 2: If we talk about the movie Megan, we have to address the redheaded possessed by a murderer doll in the room, chucky from the film Child's Play.
Speaker 2: The original Child's Play was released in 1988 and told the story of a child who is befriended and then almost murdered by a possessed doll.
Speaker 2: So technically, chucky is not a robot in the original version of that film.
Speaker 2: But in 2019, there was a remake of Child's Play where Chucky is a robot and befriends a child and eventually tries to murder the child and his mom and all his friends.
Speaker 2: Guy Mancini was the creator of Child's Play and he said that he was inspired by the rise of cynical marketing to children and, more specifically, the success of products like Cabbage Patch Dolls and the my Buddy Dolls.
Speaker 2: When the team behind Megan originally sought inspiration, they looked to Child's Play.
Speaker 2: Among many other scary doll movies.
Speaker 2: James Wan founded Atomic Monster Production Company, which would later merge with Bloom House Production Company.
Speaker 2: Wan had great success directing the first Saw movie, and then he went on to make Dead Silence, a movie about killer puppets.
Speaker 2: Later he directed the movie the Conjuring, which is about those hucksters, ed and Lorraine Warren, investigating the Annabelle case about a possessed doll.
Speaker 2: I'm seeing a theme here.
Speaker 2: Wan went on to direct Furious 7, and then he made that terrible Aquaman movie, all while producing and writing sequels to Saw and the Conjuring movies and a bunch of those Annabelle movies.
Speaker 2: All those movies were slowly driven into the ground and along with that came declining box office returns.
Speaker 2: So the team needed to come up with a new idea.
Speaker 2: Someone said, hey, how about we make a movie with a doll that kills people?
Speaker 2: And they're like do you mean like Dead Silence or the Conjuring or Annabelle?
Speaker 2: No, you idiot, something original, you know, like Child's Play.
Speaker 2: Look, that's not 100% true, clearly.
Speaker 2: Now the remake of Child's Play, which we lovingly reviewed in season 22, episode 6 of this very podcast, was fast-tracked into theaters and focused on the growing overreliance of technology in our lives.
Speaker 2: Now, reportedly, megan was in development prior to that film being announced, but Megan took a little bit longer to make.
Speaker 2: Megan's filmmakers selected New Zealand film director Gerard Johnston to direct the film.
Speaker 2: Johnston recently had written, edited and directed the film Housebound, a horror comedy about a woman sentenced to house arrest in a home that is haunted.
Speaker 2: Juan and the team knew that they wanted to find someone who could embrace the dark humor planned for the movie Megan, and Johnston was the perfect fit.
Speaker 2: Filmmakers pitched the movie as a mashup of Child's Play and the aforementioned chopping mall a movie where security robots kill mall employees.
Speaker 2: But the real twist was that the murderous doll was going to be based on the style of the wildly popular American Girl Dolls, but the doll wouldn't be tiny, it'd be a life-sized doll and it would be a robot.
Speaker 2: As the movie came into focus, the makers of the titular Megan wanted the character to look as life-like as possible, but they knew they couldn't make it look 100% real, so they embraced the Uncanny Valley phenomenon of the character.
Speaker 2: The Uncanny Valley phenomenon is a term used to describe the relationship between the human appearance of a robot and the emotional responsive evokes.
Speaker 2: Here people feel a sense of unease or even revulsion in response to humanoid robots that are highly realistic.
Speaker 2: The goal was to make a robot that intentionally made people feel uneasy.
Speaker 2: You know, a real-life Polar Express character.
Speaker 2: Full disclosure I'm a big fan of the Polar Express and I'm not ashamed to say it out loud.
Speaker 2: As the movie was coming into focus, filmmakers got wind that the Child's Play remake was in the worst, to which the film's director, john Stone, said ah shit.
Speaker 2: And then they found out it had AI as a core theme and the filmmakers said, ah shit, again.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 2: Releasing the movie with the same plot as another movie has never stopped filmmakers in the past, so why start now?
Speaker 2: The filmmakers of Megan knew that they had to realize their movie's main character, megan, before they could really begin making their film.
Speaker 2: Ultimately, they decided to use a mixture of CGI, puppetry and real actors to help bring the titular character to life.
Speaker 2: Violet McGraw was cast to play Katie, the young girl in the movie.
Speaker 2: Mcgraw had experience appearing in Ready Player One and Doctor Sleep.
Speaker 2: She was also the young Elena Belova in Black Widow, now to play Katie's aunt and Megan's creator.
Speaker 2: Filmmakers cast Allison Williams.
Speaker 2: Williams had extensive experience playing Marnie on the HBO series Girls, among many other big and small screen performances.
Speaker 2: Allison Wilson also got her first executive producer credit for this film.
Speaker 2: The movie's asshole tech executive was played by Ronnie Ching, who appeared in Crazy Rich Asians, and he was in the Marvel film Changshi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Speaker 2: As for the casting of Megan, two different performers were cast One behind the camera to do the voice work and one in front of the camera to do all the physical work To voice the murderous robot doll.
Speaker 2: Filmmakers cast social media influencer Jenna Davis.
Speaker 2: Davis recorded all of her voice work without seeing what Megan even looked like and didn't even know what she looked like until she saw a finished cut of the film.
Speaker 2: Actor Amy Donald performed the physical movements for Megan in front of the camera while wearing an animatronic mask and, although you never see Amy Donald in this film or hear her voice, arguably her performance in this film is what made this movie a success.
Speaker 2: Amy Donald was 12 years old and she was an actress from New Zealand who had also performed stunts in film, and she was a professional dancer representing New Zealand at the Dance World Cup in 2019 at the age of 9.
Speaker 2: Amy Donald did all of her stunt work, including difficult movements like the cobra rise from the ground, where Megan lifts her body up without touching her arms, and Amy Donald figured out how to run through the woods on all fours like an animal.
Speaker 2: But it was her experience as a dancer that made the trailer for Megan go viral.
Speaker 2: As the killer doll in the film, amy Donald co-choreographed the dance sequence that was featured in the film's trailer, and it ultimately went viral on TikTok, now originally Johnston, the film's director.
Speaker 2: He wanted to use Amy Donald's experience as a dancer in the film and he knew that her dance performance in the movie was a standout moment in the film.
Speaker 2: Johnston didn't want to include the dance sequence in the trailer, but the marketing team at Universal convinced him otherwise.
Speaker 2: When the trailer came out, the hashtag Megan Dance, accompanied by the video of the robot dancing, just took off, and there were hundreds of millions of views, followed by a legion of imitations of young teenagers.
Speaker 2: So the filmmakers were in a pickle.
Speaker 2: Do they release the movie as an R rated film, as previously intended, or do they dumb it down to get a PG-13 rating to allow this much younger TikTok audience to go see the film?
Speaker 2: The studio brass said BAM, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, get your heads out of your asses and stop putting asses in the theater seats.
Speaker 2: Get this thing on TikTok as quick as possible and let's get rich boys and there better be no less than four sequels in the works.
Speaker 2: I love money, money, money.
Speaker 2: And it turns out that there was a sequel in the works before the movie even landed in theaters and that sequel is set for release, currently in January of 2025.
Speaker 2: Did the movie do well at the box office when it came out?
Speaker 2: Well, when released, it came in second behind that Avatar sequel and it ended up making $181 million worldwide.
Speaker 2: Half of that was here in the good old US of A and in the end it was calculated that the net profit of this film was almost $80 million.
Speaker 2: As PicSixbot mentioned earlier, megan has a 93% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Speaker 2: See, I remember that because this is water Genetic defect.
Speaker 2: Yeah right, what are we talking about?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, megan, the movie.
Speaker 2: The movie's success was driven in part because it was very self-aware as a horror comedy and it doesn't take itself too seriously.
Speaker 2: Film critics noted how the movie was a paint by numbers film that heavily draws influences from multiple other movies.
Speaker 2: But it gets the tone right and it's arguably better than you might expect.
Speaker 2: And after its final run in theaters, the film was released on streaming services with an unrated version that included all of your original gore that filmmakers wanted.
Speaker 2: So is the movie Megan, any good?
Speaker 2: Let's see if we can get Mr Bo Randolph to stop dancing in the hallway with an improvised machete in his hand, to get in here and discuss this movie to see if it is any good or, more importantly, how it compares to that child's play remake.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, megan's and Chuckie's, put your dancing shoes on and join us as we head into the uncanny valley of 2022's Megan and welcome to Pick Six Movies.
Speaker 2: I'm Chad Cooper and I am joined by my co-host, mr Roboto.
Speaker 2: I am a robot.
Speaker 1: I love the fact that we are doing this movie.
Speaker 1: I'm a I'm a Matherigan head, as the hipsters call it.
Speaker 1: Nobody calls it that.
Speaker 1: I'm not a fan of Killer Doll movies as a rule, as you pointed out in the introduction, like Child's Play is sort of the golden standard for Killer Doll movies.
Speaker 1: The original OG, you know Tom Holland Child's Play.
Speaker 1: I'm not a big fan of that movie.
Speaker 1: The remake I probably prefer to the original.
Speaker 1: I really like that remake.
Speaker 1: I had seen Megan in the theaters and, going into this again, I was thinking will this live up to the good time I had when I saw it in the movie theater?
Speaker 1: And it did.
Speaker 1: I had a very good time with this movie.
Speaker 1: So maybe I am wrong about myself and I do like Killer Doll movies.
Speaker 2: Those are Killer Robot movies.
Speaker 2: They're not Killer Doll movies.
Speaker 1: But they're doll-esque, I mean they're both of them are called dolls through the course of the films.
Speaker 2: I call them robots or robots.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that maybe I do like a Killer Doll movie then, more than I gave myself credit for, but I also think that those two movies, being the Child's Play remake and and Megan, I think are both pretty good examples of this.
Speaker 2: Magic had a killer.
Speaker 2: Ventriloquist doll.
Speaker 1: It did.
Speaker 1: It had Anthony Hopkins being cuckoo bananas.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: In fact, you could argue that there was no Killer Doll at all.
Speaker 1: It was just Anthony Hopkins being cuckoo bananas yeah.
Speaker 2: I think that was kind of the point there.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about this movie, our film, though.
Speaker 2: It kicks off with the Bloom House logo, followed by the Atomic Monster Production Company logo, and then the movie starts off very much like the opening of that Child's Play remake, with a commercial for a toy that utilizes artificial intelligence and robots, with a dash of humor and some social satire, all related to emerging technology.
Speaker 2: And here it's a commercial about a little girl who has a dog that died.
Speaker 2: That's sad, so our parents give her like a perpetual pet or forever pet.
Speaker 1: A perpetual pet yep.
Speaker 2: And it looks like this large size Furby, but with demon teeth.
Speaker 2: It's the.
Speaker 1: Sonic the Hedgehog teeth before they replaced it for the movie when it was human teeth.
Speaker 1: I feel like that was a very direct reference to that whole kerfuffle.
Speaker 2: It certainly could be, because this movie does nothing but go down the buffet of every movie ever and take a little sample to help Frankenstein together.
Speaker 2: This particular film, yeah, in this commercial, this toy can speak multiple languages and it says things like a maze ball.
Speaker 2: Which full disclosure, bro.
Speaker 2: That's the first time that that word has ever graced my lips.
Speaker 1: That feels right.
Speaker 1: I don't say it on the regular.
Speaker 1: I've probably said it once or twice, Ironically.
Speaker 2: I'm never going to say it again.
Speaker 2: The confusing part of this is that when a kid is playing with it, they're spending more time on their iPad or you know tablet device than they are with the toy, which may be intentional, oh, absolutely Right.
Speaker 2: And that's where this movie is somewhat self aware, but not enough to where it hits the high watermark that the Child's Play remake did.
Speaker 2: I think that that movie did a better job of being more satirical than this movie does Like.
Speaker 2: I think this movie forgets to make fun of emerging technology until someone reminds it to do so.
Speaker 1: I think that Child's Play remake is more satirical.
Speaker 1: I think this is aiming for a different thing.
Speaker 1: It definitely plays with some satirical elements, but I think the theme of this movie is very clear and the movie does a lot of good work to support the theme, even if occasionally it dips into another subject and it's like, eh, you probably could have made some more bones off of that.
Speaker 1: But it gets a little greedy about what it wants to say.
Speaker 1: But the main thing that it's saying I think it does a great job of saying agree to disagree.
Speaker 2: Case in point, the rest of our conversation.
Speaker 1: One thing I like about this perpetual pets ad is not just the humid teeth, but when you feed them through the app they shit, which I think is really funny.
Speaker 1: And the whole commercial in this again speaks to the theme of the movie is very much like hey, interact with your laptop and you can play with this pet, but it's be sure you're looking at your laptop or your tablet and that is 100 percent what this movie is about.
Speaker 2: If you're someone and you want another adult to hate, you buy their kid a toy that makes a lot of noise and farts and shit and those parents will hate you.
Speaker 1: And there's a nice payoff to this, because we go from this commercial to one of our main characters, katie the little girl and her actual parents, but don't get to attach them driving up this snowy mountain.
Speaker 2: But where have we seen a movie where a mom and a dad and their kid are driving in a car in the snow in the mountains?
Speaker 2: That sounds a derivative of something, as is this entire movie.
Speaker 1: I don't know what was it.
Speaker 2: I just know where I remember it was.
Speaker 2: It was in the movie Twister.
Speaker 2: When they're at that drive in theater and then in the background the movie that's playing is the Shining.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm thinking.
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Layoff Twister Megan the movie.
Speaker 1: Well, because it's not really snowing when the torrents are going to the hotel.
Speaker 2: There's snow on the ground, not the beginning of the Shining.
Speaker 2: At the end of it there is.
Speaker 2: Well, that's yeah.
Speaker 1: But when, that's when.
Speaker 2: Haloran is driving up.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry I'm splitting hairs about a Cooper movie when we're talking about this killer doll movie.
Speaker 1: I apologize.
Speaker 2: Katie's mom and dad.
Speaker 2: They're in the front seat having this passive, aggressive whisper fight, and it's a lot of.
Speaker 2: I thought we were going to limit our screen time.
Speaker 2: Well, maybe we should quit relying on us to be the one to limit the screen time.
Speaker 4: We set roles and we follow them.
Speaker 1: Chad.
Speaker 1: I like the fact that this movie is like hey, it's the second scene of the movie in the first real scene with characters.
Speaker 1: And we are stating our theme right here, which is you should not allow technology to raise a child.
Speaker 1: That is what this whole movie is about, and right off the bat we have that argument between the parents about I thought you were going to limit screen time.
Speaker 1: Well, she would be climbing all over the seeds if we didn't let her have a little screen time right now.
Speaker 1: What about some more screen time?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 1: What do you think about screen time, Like it's just going back and forth.
Speaker 2: You just said, technology shouldn't be allowed to raise a child.
Speaker 2: All right, that's spoken from somebody who hasn't raised a kid.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you a question, all right, who raised you?
Speaker 2: Because I'll tell you who raised me television and the VCR, that's who raised me baby Technology.
Speaker 1: Right, but I have dated seriously people with kids and I have fought this battle and I see what it does to kids.
Speaker 1: It is horrifying.
Speaker 1: I know it's everywhere and I know that the battle is a losing one, but as both someone who has dealt with that in a living situation and also as someone who educates kids who are completely addicted to technology, the effect that it has on those kids is shocking.
Speaker 2: It's everybody, though.
Speaker 2: Everybody's walking around bent over like a question mark, looking at their phone.
Speaker 2: I don't do that.
Speaker 1: Like I don't.
Speaker 1: I put my phone away at 7 30 in the morning.
Speaker 1: I don't look at it again until three o'clock in the afternoon.
Speaker 1: We know, you know.
Speaker 1: It's just not that important a part of my life.
Speaker 2: I look at my phone all the time.
Speaker 2: I'm looking at what people are up to and I'm looking up crazy shit and I'm finding new conspiracy theories to buy into.
Speaker 1: I yeah, I know that I'm the outlier here but, I, like.
Speaker 1: My relationship with my phone is about three to five minutes when I'm taking a shit in the morning, gps when I'm on my way to work and then setting the alarm at night.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're doing it wrong the mom in this movie.
Speaker 2: She starts smack talking her sister Jimma.
Speaker 2: More on her later.
Speaker 2: And the mom says what was Jimma thinking?
Speaker 2: Plus, she works for the company that makes those dolls that fart and shit when you feed them.
Speaker 2: She probably got it free and didn't have to pay for shipping.
Speaker 2: Say what Jimma was thinking.
Speaker 2: She hates you, her sister.
Speaker 2: That's why she gave your kid a toy that farts and shits.
Speaker 1: And so this horrifying Furby rolls into the floorboard and Katie, the little girl, is trying to go after it and the parents are arguing about that and the snow's coming down and finally the wife is like how about we pull over until all this snow passes?
Speaker 1: There's going to be a snowplow in a minute and once that goes by we'll actually be able to drive again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the guy says, yeah, all right, I'll pull over.
Speaker 1: You know there's probably going to be a snowplow along any minute.
Speaker 1: So he has now stopped and, as if on cue, as soon as he says, although probably a snowplow along in a minute, a second and a half later, a snowplow fills the front window of this car and just smashes into it, murdering Katie's parents.
Speaker 2: People getting smashed to death in their car, with the car in the snow, makes me think what is the movie?
Speaker 2: Oh, the 1981 feature film Enter the Ninja, when those characters leave the movie theater and in the background there is a poster for that George C Scott movie, the Changeling.
Speaker 2: That's what I always think of when I see people getting crushed to death in a car in a snowy, filled environment.
Speaker 2: Enter the Ninja Bo.
Speaker 1: That's a good movie.
Speaker 1: Both of them, quite frankly, enter the Ninja and the Changeling.
Speaker 1: What the Changeling needed was a Ninja.
Speaker 2: That would have been pretty good.
Speaker 2: Kick that ball back up those stairs, wrap this thing up real tight.
Speaker 1: Joseph, what are you trying to tell me?
Speaker 1: You better come clean or I'm going to send this Ninja up into the attic.
Speaker 1: He'll show you what for.
Speaker 2: In my top 10 people.
Speaker 2: I never want to follow into the bathroom after they leave it.
Speaker 2: George C Scott is like he's in top five, maybe top three.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's going to come out crying for one thing and laughing because, he knows that you're walking into.
Speaker 1: By the way, george C Scott, top three ebodies are Scrooge, right yeah?
Speaker 2: Michael Cain, george C Scott and then Mr Magoo, so the title of the movie comes up Megan, which Bo?
Speaker 2: I loved the credits in this movie because there are no credits.
Speaker 2: Minimum two out of five stars just because of that.
Speaker 2: And then the movie gives us shots of a bunch of kids in focus groups playing with toys as adults with clipboards look on and take notes.
Speaker 2: We see Cole, one of our characters in the film.
Speaker 2: More on him later.
Speaker 2: He's carrying a package and he makes his way to Gemma's office.
Speaker 2: Gemma, as previously mentioned, is the aunt of Katie, our main girl in this film.
Speaker 2: Alison Williams plays Gemma in this and here she has this long brown hair and she wears a plaid long sleeve shirt over the top of the t-shirt.
Speaker 2: It's what I imagine Avril Lavigne would have looked like.
Speaker 2: She'd never picked up a musical instrument.
Speaker 1: If she had gone into the sciences.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Gemma has two peers, the aforementioned Cole and a woman named Tess it's about all you really need to know about them and they're working on the next generation perpetual pet and it's head kind of pops off and Gemma says oh my God, why are we even doing this?
Speaker 2: Why don't we just show them that new thing we've been working on?
Speaker 1: And then Tess is like no, no, no, not till she's ready and then Cole comes in and it's like, hey, guess what I got, gemma says oh my God, is that what I think it is?
Speaker 2: And I need to ask you, bo, have you ever asked someone?
Speaker 2: Is that what I think it is, in anticipation of something, when you know what it is?
Speaker 2: Because the only time that I've ever asked is that what I think it is Is when I know what the thing is.
Speaker 2: And I'm asking because I want my assumption to be wrong.
Speaker 2: For example, if you or maybe a better example, our friend Ben, were to have walked into a room carrying a handful of his own shit, I would say is that what I think it is?
Speaker 2: Because I secretly hope it's not his own shit when I know that it is.
Speaker 2: And instead I would hope he would say something like no, this is some fake poop I ordered and it smells and looks like the real thing, but it's not real poop.
Speaker 2: When I know, damn well, ben is shitting his hand and he's going to throw it at someone.
Speaker 1: I don't know that.
Speaker 1: I've ever asked the question expecting any response.
Speaker 2: I don't think the words is that what I think it is have ever come out of my mouth in a legitimate scenario until right now, just like that word that I said earlier that I will never say again because I don't remember what it is.
Speaker 2: I'm baseball because the liquid in my glass right now is not water.
Speaker 2: Let's keep going.
Speaker 2: A little bit of an eraser is what you find in that glass.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so it is this silicone face that they scurry over to this other corner of the lab where they've got their skunk work set up.
Speaker 2: It's this four foot metallic puppet strung up on this metal frame, and it is the titular Megan.
Speaker 1: They put the face on it, then they start running it through some emotions and it gets stuck on confused, by which I mean it gets stuck on demented.
Speaker 2: And Jim says oh my God, what is happening?
Speaker 2: We've got to fix this.
Speaker 2: And then Cole goes over and tries to fix it and he just ends up ripping the silicone skin off.
Speaker 2: And then there's a knock at the door and the big boss man, david, who is this cartoonish executive that just barks orders and takes credit for other people's work?
Speaker 2: I don't know if you ever met the type I have.
Speaker 1: He does have a couple of funny lines in this movie, so I like David as a character.
Speaker 2: He's the only comic relief in this film and I expected this movie to be a lot funnier and it's not.
Speaker 2: And I thought that the Child's Play remake was a funnier movie than this.
Speaker 1: I think this is just more darkly funny because I laughed as soon as the snowplow hit the car.
Speaker 2: That's on you.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about like jokes.
Speaker 1: No, this movie doesn't have jokes, but it's mean spirited in a way that I find very funny.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so David comes in and he's like what the hell is this?
Speaker 1: Oh, this is Megan.
Speaker 1: It stands for Model 3.
Speaker 1: Generative Android is what Megan stands for.
Speaker 1: And he's like the fuck does that mean?
Speaker 1: What about my perpetual pets?
Speaker 2: Well, we were working on this instead of that.
Speaker 2: Hey, oh my God, megan, could you say hello to David?
Speaker 2: And then Megan, with her crooked stroke face, says, as in the boss, david, well, I guess I should call you dad.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you about my wormhole.
Speaker 2: I was born in a sandwich shack and Wolf Mini cabbages.
Speaker 2: And then Megan goes all cross-eyed and starts to glitch out here.
Speaker 2: You can tell that the filmmakers were influenced by GLaDOS from the Portal games, and admittedly so.
Speaker 2: They said this, but it just sounds like the GLaDOS voice when she gets all sideways.
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: And just prior to this, the whole reason that David's got a burr in his saddle about this perpetual pets thing is he shows him a commercial that really made me laugh for a knockoff of perpetual pets.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is called, like you know, friendly furries or some shit like that, and it's cheaper and when to tell the mood of the perpetual pet and knockoff their butts line up in different colors, which I think is pretty funny he's like that's why I want you to make this stupid perpetual pets thing is you need to make one that we can sell for 50 bucks, because somebody's going to do this cheaper.
Speaker 2: Oh my God, $50.
Speaker 2: That's impossible.
Speaker 2: He's like I don't give a crap.
Speaker 2: You better come up with a $50 model by tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Look, the only way we're ever going to stay ahead is we've got to do something that's so advanced and mind-blowing that there's no way for anyone to replicate it.
Speaker 1: You mean like the Android that you just blew up.
Speaker 2: And then Cole goes oh, hey, jimma, I forgot to put in the polypropylene barrier.
Speaker 2: My bad, because I think that's what made Megan's head explode when she went crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Dave was like I want a prototype of the 15 guys on Friday and take your stupid puppet, put it where it belongs.
Speaker 2: David has behind him a character that if you blink you wouldn't pay attention to him.
Speaker 2: It's like his assistant.
Speaker 2: He's basically his Smithers and Smithers, leans into Jimma and the team and he goes for what it's worth.
Speaker 2: I thought your puppet robot there looked pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Everybody's like shut up Kurt.
Speaker 2: Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.
Speaker 2: Jimma boxes up Megan's melted head and then the phone rings and she looks down at it and it says Oregon Emergency Medical Center.
Speaker 2: I have numerous ways to make this movie less worse and it starts right here, because this movie cannot decide on whose story they want to tell.
Speaker 2: Is this Jimma's story?
Speaker 2: Is it Katie's story?
Speaker 2: Is it Megan's story?
Speaker 2: Is it a combination of any two of those?
Speaker 2: Is it all three?
Speaker 2: The movie has no idea, and the first thing I would do here is you can cut that whole intro with the car crash that you giggled so much at.
Speaker 2: It is not needed, if they were to ask me.
Speaker 2: You start with Jimma in the lab and then you hint at Megan and you don't do the tragic thing that it blows up this early on, just introduce Megan and then we see Jimma and also, this movie never gives us a reason to like Jimma.
Speaker 2: She is actually a monster in this film.
Speaker 2: It's Frankenstein, obviously, because the movie rips off everything.
Speaker 2: But if you were to show Jimma as being part of one of these focus groups with the kids.
Speaker 2: Have her do something endearing.
Speaker 2: Have her have that save the cat moment where you can see her as a strong leader who understands kids.
Speaker 2: Somebody, you would want to be your big sister, but she's chosen career instead of family and instead of having your own kids, she's providing joy for children, of which she has none.
Speaker 2: You with me, I don't agree but I'm with you.
Speaker 2: But if you did that, then we like Jimma and we root for her, because in the movie she just constantly does things that makes you like her less and less, which I was like.
Speaker 2: I don't know who should I should be rooting for in the movie.
Speaker 2: It's not Katie.
Speaker 2: I'm certainly not rooting for Megan as kind of an anti hero.
Speaker 2: I don't know who I'm supposed to like because they're all unlikable characters.
Speaker 1: I think Jimma starts off unlikable and I.
Speaker 1: There is an arc to this movie Like there is her being a shitty person and a shitty parent and by the end of the movie there is that redemption moment.
Speaker 1: I don't disagree that having something early on to make her likeable, because she is kind of a mad scientist character and that's all she is, up until she starts to have these redemption moments.
Speaker 2: Point those out when we get to them, because I certainly didn't see them.
Speaker 2: So Jimmy gets a phone call where she is informed that her sister and brother-in-law were killed in a car crash and that now she's going to be the one to take their daughter, katie, under her care.
Speaker 1: That's the call you.
Speaker 1: Let roll over to voicemail.
Speaker 1: Right, Like you don't pick that up right away?
Speaker 2: If you were doing what I recommended.
Speaker 2: And you start the movie with Jimma, we see her with the robot, whatever else.
Speaker 2: Then she gets a call.
Speaker 2: It's like, oh my gosh, my sister and brother-in-law are dead and they put you as the individual that will take care of their daughter and set up to where she's never met Katie before which I don't know if she's met Katie before in this movie or not but then when Katie shows up, she's kind of distraught.
Speaker 2: Her parents are dead, as most kids are.
Speaker 2: And you have a situation where Jimma doesn't connect with Katie.
Speaker 2: And then Jimma says to Katie like hey, I want to show you something nobody's seen.
Speaker 2: Can you keep a secret?
Speaker 2: And she introduces her to Megan and that's how they come together.
Speaker 2: And the movie doesn't really do that.
Speaker 2: She exploits Katie to use Megan.
Speaker 2: She doesn't use it as a means to bond with this child.
Speaker 1: Well, but that's the point.
Speaker 1: The whole point of the movie is that she is using Megan to be our surrogate parents, so she doesn't have to be a parent.
Speaker 1: That's the whole point of the movie.
Speaker 2: I don't think so.
Speaker 2: I think she's a lazy asshole and I don't think it's.
Speaker 2: I think she does that, but I don't think that it's intentional.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's.
Speaker 1: The whole theme of the movie is using technology as a surrogate parent.
Speaker 2: I just saw her as being a lazy shit and was like, oh my God, go go play with this doll.
Speaker 2: I'm going to sit over here and check out my Tinder profile.
Speaker 1: I like that.
Speaker 1: She immediately goes to the hospital, though, and finds Katie in bed, and there's really no dialogue here.
Speaker 1: It's just like oh fuck here's.
Speaker 1: You know at least 12 years of responsibility that I didn't want.
Speaker 2: But here's another thing the movie has no concept of time.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: This is what the is this the next day after the accident.
Speaker 1: The next scene is literally her getting custody of Katie.
Speaker 1: On the one hand, You're right there is no sense of how long did this take but also quit fucking around and let's get to the robot.
Speaker 2: I appreciate that after she signs the paperwork to get this kid and we have no idea if she wants to or not we get a sad scene of Gemma and Katie at Katie's parents house.
Speaker 2: It's all full of sad memories and thoughts of dead parents.
Speaker 2: And then Jimma takes Katie to Jimma's house I guess on the other side of town because they all live in Seattle.
Speaker 2: Katie and Gemma, they get out of the car and Gemma's neighbor, celia she has this big mean dog that comes over and jumps up on Gemma's car, which I'd be pissed off if my neighbor's dog jumped on my car.
Speaker 2: Celia, this next door neighbor, she kind of blows it off in this polite, uncharacteristically kind way.
Speaker 2: Just get him down.
Speaker 2: And who's this little sweetie pie going in?
Speaker 2: This is supposed to be the mean neighbor we're not supposed to like.
Speaker 2: This shouldn't have been cast as a kindly grandmother type.
Speaker 2: It should have been a pissed off old man like that guy who sold Christine, not some woman who might bake you some cookies.
Speaker 1: Yeah, celia is actually pretty nice and immediately Gemma's like by the way, stop pressure washing your fence and getting chemicals all over the place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's a real piece of work.
Speaker 1: Gemma is in this scene.
Speaker 1: She could have a great relationship with her neighbor, celia, and just chooses not to.
Speaker 2: We don't know if Gemma and Katie are cool with this situation.
Speaker 2: They drove home from the hospital, slash courthouse, slash adoption agency.
Speaker 2: How about a conversation between the two of them?
Speaker 2: They haven't spoken at all in this movie and a whole lot has happened, yeah, but anyway.
Speaker 2: So they go into Gemma's house and, as they enter, gemma's version of the Amazon Echo says you have six unanswered voice messages and five Tinder notifications.
Speaker 2: What so?
Speaker 2: She's single and ready to mingle.
Speaker 2: What does that tell us about this character?
Speaker 1: Yeah, katie starts looking around this very austere, stark, looking place.
Speaker 2: Gemma says to her oh my God, I'm going to put your bags away, so just make yourself at home.
Speaker 2: How about a tour of the place, man?
Speaker 2: Here's your room, here's the kitchen.
Speaker 2: This here's the TV.
Speaker 2: No more than two hours a day, educational football.
Speaker 2: So you don't ruin your appreciation of the finer things.
Speaker 2: None of that.
Speaker 1: Katie instead finds this old toy in a box like still sealed up.
Speaker 1: Gemma's like oh my God, don't play with that, that's a collectible, not a toy.
Speaker 2: What, oh my God, whatever happened to that perpetual, forever pet, the thing that I sent you for your birthday or Christmas or something your mom said you took it everywhere with you?
Speaker 2: Oh wait, was that in the car with your parents?
Speaker 2: Oh my God, open mouth insert, but am I right?
Speaker 1: Oh, I bet that was horribly mangled.
Speaker 1: Then Maybe I can get you another one, or maybe not, who cares.
Speaker 2: Do you know where they towed your parents car?
Speaker 2: Could we go there?
Speaker 2: You think it's still in there.
Speaker 1: I'll bet it is Also your mom owed me 20 bucks.
Speaker 1: Was her purse in the car with her?
Speaker 1: Do you have $20?
Speaker 1: Anyway, we cut later to bedtime and we see that Katie has a glass of water beside her bed and Gemma slips a coaster under like, oh my God, you're going to leave rings on my nice furniture.
Speaker 2: Who puts coasters under a glass of water.
Speaker 2: Just like uptight assholes.
Speaker 1: Right, mostly.
Speaker 2: Audiences.
Speaker 2: Do not root for people who put glasses on top of coasters.
Speaker 1: Katie is like how about you read me a story or something my?
Speaker 2: mom always read me a story.
Speaker 2: Okay, hold on a minute, let me get my phone.
Speaker 2: Hold on, I got to download a story on my phone.
Speaker 2: Hold on, wait, I call it.
Speaker 2: Oh my God, I got to update the app.
Speaker 2: Hold on.
Speaker 2: Oh my God, all right, except all cookies yes.
Speaker 2: Terms and conditions yes, no, I don't want a free premium membership.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 2: Hold on Import contacts no.
Speaker 2: Allow app to access my location no.
Speaker 2: Thank you, pervert.
Speaker 2: Okay, can I go by five?
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 2: Bluetooth on yes, airplane mode off oh, I need to set up my profile.
Speaker 2: You know what.
Speaker 2: This is going to take a little while, carly, so why don't you just go to sleep and then I'll come back and wake you up when I have a story to read for you, okay.
Speaker 1: I've also heard that sometimes people can cry themselves to sleep.
Speaker 1: Have you tried that?
Speaker 2: And then the scene just ends without these two making any sort of connection Bo.
Speaker 1: But again this is the point, because the whole point of the scene is about how technology like having to update the app and all that stuff that technology is interfering with the actual connection of parenting.
Speaker 2: It's because Gemma is an asshole.
Speaker 2: It's not technology.
Speaker 1: She is an asshole Right.
Speaker 1: But what is interfering with the connection Other?
Speaker 2: people tell her Bo, why are you letting technology raise your kid?
Speaker 2: And it's like why am I?
Speaker 2: What the what?
Speaker 2: What are you talking about a kid?
Speaker 2: I don't have any kids, right, ben, she just sucks.
Speaker 1: And then late at night in her garage slash workshop.
Speaker 1: Gemma actually hears Katie crying.
Speaker 2: Oh my God, what is that?
Speaker 2: A sad burglar breaking into my house and then she doesn't do anything to console the child.
Speaker 1: Right At this point she is completely checked out.
Speaker 1: She has no interest in being a parent.
Speaker 2: I don't know how to deal with this shit.
Speaker 1: Gemma ends up calling Tess at work so we can have somebody restate the stakes about this whole thing is do you on Friday this whole presentation for the perpetual pet and Tess, the actual human being of the movie, is like don't worry about work right now, you just got a child.
Speaker 2: Gemma says oh my God, we have to come up with another prototype for these pets that fart and shit everywhere, because David is going to shit blood when he finds out we spent $100,000 on a project that he didn't approve.
Speaker 2: And Tess goes like we spent, you spent $100,000.
Speaker 3: She's like oh, my God.
Speaker 2: I don't know who spent this money.
Speaker 2: I don't know who forged your name on those billing invoices, so you might have something explaining to do, tess.
Speaker 1: I don't think I was the one signing for any of the packages, was I?
Speaker 1: I was too busy trying to get the perpetual pets working.
Speaker 1: That's what my blog says, anyway.
Speaker 2: Tess says your sister just died in a horrific car accident and now you're the one who has to take care of her daughter.
Speaker 2: And Gemma is like who did what?
Speaker 2: Now, yeah, you know what, come to think of it, there was probably a funeral, but I didn't think I need to attend that and bring what's her name?
Speaker 2: You know that little one who's at my house now short stuff.
Speaker 2: So I call her short stuff.
Speaker 2: It's my pet name, for it's like a pet, so he's making those funny faces just crying at night.
Speaker 2: Also, what do you feed a small pet like that?
Speaker 2: I just poured out a whole box of cinnamon toast crunch on the floor and I left a open two liter bottle of Coke Zero.
Speaker 2: She knows how to eat, right?
Speaker 2: I?
Speaker 1: got a question how big did that get?
Speaker 1: Do I need to get bigger bed?
Speaker 2: I need to make my doors bigger or smaller.
Speaker 2: Is she like a hobbit?
Speaker 1: I know she's not going out of the yard because I've got one of those collars on her that gives her a real shock when she tries.
Speaker 1: She learns quick.
Speaker 2: The doorbell rings and it's Lydia, the child therapist.
Speaker 2: She's the one who's going to determine if Katie is not an emotional basket case and decide whether or not she should be living with Gemma.
Speaker 2: I can answer that question right now.
Speaker 2: The answer is no, so.
Speaker 3: Lydia the therapist.
Speaker 2: She comes in and she sees Katie, who just woke up, and Lydia says oh, there you are, katie, still in your pajamas.
Speaker 2: Gemma, I need to speak to Katie alone, perhaps play with some toys in a natural childlike setting.
Speaker 1: Perhaps we could play with one of these toys on the shelf that is still in the boxes and Katie immediately drops a dime about this whole collectible thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Gemma won't let me play with any of those.
Speaker 1: She sucks.
Speaker 2: And Lydia's like oh.
Speaker 1: Jim is like oh my God, all right, fine, here, open up this one, we can play around with it.
Speaker 1: Lydia's like perhaps you'd like to roll the ball back and forth?
Speaker 1: And Jim is like, yeah, but that's not really what it does.
Speaker 1: It's like this thing from Japan, and it transforms it to oh, I see by your expression that you don't give a shit.
Speaker 1: So fine, we'll roll the ball with Cooper or whatever the hell her name is.
Speaker 2: Here's how you fix this thing.
Speaker 2: When Gemma and Katie first enter the house, you make it Katie who recognizes the toys as being collectibles and you have Katie be the one who puts them off limits as playthings.
Speaker 2: You have Katie say, like I really like your collectibles.
Speaker 2: Some of these are worth a lot of money.
Speaker 2: And then that bonds Katie and Gemma.
Speaker 2: Then when Lydia shows up and says perhaps we could play with some of these toys on the shelf, katie says I don't have any of my toys here.
Speaker 2: And Gemma is the one who offers up hey, katie, you can play with one of these.
Speaker 2: And it's a gesture of goodwill and it creates a connection.
Speaker 2: If you are writing a film and you're like I wonder if this could be better, reach out to us and pick six movies.
Speaker 2: We will make your movie less worse.
Speaker 2: This shit is not hard.
Speaker 1: This is the rare circumstance where I'm like no, this is fine.
Speaker 1: I like this because it's like the whole point of this is that Jim is a shitty parent.
Speaker 1: Not until the end of the movie is she a decent parent.
Speaker 2: She's not even a parent, she's just a shitty person, which that again, even at the end of the story arc.
Speaker 2: It's like man, kids suck.
Speaker 2: And then she's like you know what I like kids Like no, you didn't.
Speaker 2: You didn't learn anything, you didn't do anything.
Speaker 2: You're just a shitty human being.
Speaker 2: I do not agree 100% with your assessment of the theme of this film that it's about Don't let technology raise your kids.
Speaker 2: I think it's.
Speaker 2: The theme of this movie is don't be an asshole.
Speaker 1: Well, I will continue to point out along the way these moments where it's like oh, this is another restatement of the theme.
Speaker 2: I will continue to point out all the times that she's a straight up asshole, independent of any technology.
Speaker 2: And when you had up the score of that, it's going to be Chad a bunch, but less than what Chad.
Speaker 1: So, on the way out of this whole like garbage meeting, lydia pulls Jim aside and it's like I just have to let you know that some adjustments will need to be made because you know the father's parents wants KD too, and Jim is like who and he's like the child that you've been rolling that ball back and forth with.
Speaker 1: First of all, not a ball.
Speaker 1: Second of all, I was wondering who that was.
Speaker 2: Lydia also says oh, I need to have another play session at your work to help move the plot along and act.
Speaker 2: And then she asks her let me ask you, did you ever really want custody of Katie?
Speaker 2: Because her paternal grandparents have agreed to take her and they live in Jacksonville, florida, and, based on Jimma's reaction, she is 100% grandparents in Jacksonville.
Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2: Like her eyes are darting, like she's looking at the house and then over to the car house, car, house, car.
Speaker 2: Eyebrows up, eyebrows up.
Speaker 1: And a little bit later Jibba asks Katie, like do you think you could chill for a couple hours on your own Cause I need to get some work done because I've got this new roommate that's really sucking up some of my time.
Speaker 2: This conversation happens over breakfast and she is literally feeding this child bread and water.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't notice that.
Speaker 1: That's really funny.
Speaker 2: It is a slice of white bread and a half full glass of water.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's very good.
Speaker 1: I wish I had noticed that.
Speaker 1: That's really funny.
Speaker 1: Katie is like, yeah, I guess I could take care of myself.
Speaker 1: Can I borrow your tablet or something?
Speaker 1: And she's like, oh yeah, do whatever you want.
Speaker 1: And she's like how much screen time do I get?
Speaker 1: And Jim is like screen time, what the hell are you talking about?
Speaker 1: Just use as much as you want.
Speaker 1: Again, restating theme the idea of regulated screen time would never even occur to Jibba.
Speaker 2: A lot of parents don't think about that, myself included.
Speaker 1: Just because you don't agree with it doesn't mean it's not the theme of the movie, cause the movie has a perspective about this, which is that's really bad.
Speaker 2: Or maybe it's good.
Speaker 1: I disagree.
Speaker 1: So any who Jim and takes off for the garage and is still working in there, like when it's dark outside.
Speaker 1: So this whole two hours turned into I don't know 10 or so.
Speaker 1: She's working on this perpetual pet deal and Katie like sneaks in cause.
Speaker 1: She needs some more bread and water.
Speaker 2: I guess Jim looks at her and she's like hey, callie, wait, that's not it.
Speaker 2: Hold on, connie.
Speaker 2: Kathy, cami, don't tell me, hold on, kathy.
Speaker 2: Nope shit, I said Kevin.
Speaker 4: That's stupid stupid.
Speaker 2: And she's like it's Katie.
Speaker 2: Oh, katie, that's what I was gonna say.
Speaker 2: Hey there, cindy, what time is it?
Speaker 2: And Katie looks at her and she's like it's Thursday.
Speaker 1: And Katie ends up showing Jibba this picture that she drew and Jibba's like oh God, this sucks.
Speaker 1: I mean wait, did you draw this?
Speaker 1: Oh, tell me all about it, or whatever.
Speaker 2: Hey, you wanna come over here.
Speaker 2: Look at some real cool stuff that I drew not the crap you drew.
Speaker 2: Look at this on my computer over here I drew this little perpetual pet and it'll sell for 49.99 MSRP.
Speaker 2: Katie looks over in the corner and she sees this larger than life-size robot looks like a Rockham Sockham robot and Katie says what is that and is it gonna be important in the finale of this movie?
Speaker 2: And Jibba says oh my God, this is Bruce.
Speaker 2: It's a robot that I built in college.
Speaker 2: It's a boxing robot.
Speaker 2: Did you know that Bruce was the name of the animatronic shark in Jaws, which is what inspired the name of the shark in Finding Nemo and most likely inspired the name of that robot in this movie?
Speaker 2: One of these tiny gloves, and I'll show you how it works.
Speaker 2: That thing's gross.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have a face.
Speaker 1: It's freaking me out.
Speaker 2: Just shut up you.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna show you how you use these little gloves on your hands and you can move them around, and then the robot moves like you do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like Nintendo Power Gloves that you kind of bang them together to turn the thing on and then move your arms and it moves its arms and that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: I built this as a toy in college, but it was so expensive.
Speaker 2: Nobody got off farted.
Speaker 2: And Katie says oh my God, if I had a toy like this, I don't think I would need another toy ever again for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2: I would just go up and down the street beating up other kids and ruining the neighborhood with an iron fist, like literally, and working out all of my emotional demons because I saw my parents get squashed like a couple of bugs in the front seat of the car.
Speaker 1: And it's a real dental plan.
Speaker 1: Lisa needs braces because the light bulb goes off over Jimi's head where she's like wait a second.
Speaker 2: Jimi got an idea, an awful idea.
Speaker 2: Jimi got a wonderful, awful idea.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Jimi then works late into the night repairing Megan.
Speaker 2: And overnight, with the help of a bunch of shoe cobbler, elves or something, she takes this robot and turns it into a technological masterpiece the likes of which the world has never seen before.
Speaker 1: Well, she buys herself a week because she actually calls and like pushes the meeting for a week.
Speaker 2: I didn't hear that.
Speaker 1: So it's a week later.
Speaker 2: If I didn't hear it, it didn't happen.
Speaker 2: Fair enough.
Speaker 1: So the meeting may or may not have been pushed.
Speaker 1: And then Cole and Tess kind of help out.
Speaker 2: You really think David the asshole would let it get pushed a week?
Speaker 2: He was pretty adamant about getting that shit done by Friday for his new robot shitbot.
Speaker 1: I think when they let him know that $100,000 in his name had been spent, that a little black male happened under the table.
Speaker 2: They didn't tell him.
Speaker 1: You're probably right, but yeah, so finally it's meeting time, and by finally I mean the next day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's meeting time and David and Kurt show up and David is like show me this prototype.
Speaker 1: Where's this perpetual pet?
Speaker 1: I?
Speaker 2: asked for it.
Speaker 2: And then Corey is such a shitbag he's like David.
Speaker 2: I just wanna know.
Speaker 2: Whatever they show you, it wasn't my idea.
Speaker 1: Right, and you're like Cole.
Speaker 1: I hope you get blown up at the end of this movie.
Speaker 2: No one is likable in this movie, Bo.
Speaker 2: No one is likable.
Speaker 1: Tess is as close as you come.
Speaker 1: She's at best a third tier character, but that's kind of what I like, the fact that everybody's kind of a shit heel to one degree or another.
Speaker 1: Like not every movie has to have nothing but good people in it.
Speaker 2: Tess and Cole and David and his assistant are on one side of a two-way mirror and then in the other room is like a it's like a playroom or something Like a testing room.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like a playroom where they can watch kids play with toys, okay, so Megan is sitting on the bed and then Gemma enters with Katie, whose parents died, like a week ago, and Gemma says oh my God, katie, there is someone you have got to meet.
Speaker 2: And no, it is not Bruce, the robot from earlier, because he requires someone to operate him.
Speaker 2: This is a new robot and her name is Megan, but the E is a three, making search engine optimization a goddamn nightmare.
Speaker 2: But anyway, megan operates all on her own and all you do take your fingers, touch her palm and say your name and she'll pair with you.
Speaker 2: Did you see the remake of Child's Play?
Speaker 2: It's just like that.
Speaker 1: Right while they're watching, megan kind of comes to life as she pairs.
Speaker 2: This is bullshit.
Speaker 2: Where's my perpetual pet that shits for 49.99.
Speaker 1: And then Megan is like hello, katie, would you like to go draw?
Speaker 1: And so they go to a table and Megan starts drawing you know her hand's kind of moving very smoothly over this piece of paper and then she hands it over to Katie and Katie's like this is bullshit, there's nothing, even on here.
Speaker 1: And Megan is like oh, I am sorry.
Speaker 1: And knocks over a glass of water and it's one of those like hey, I drew in this invisible ink.
Speaker 1: And as the water hits the paper, this absolutely portrait ready picture of Katie appears on the paper.
Speaker 2: I could believe that maybe this robot could draw a picture, but I was like what kind of artistic wizardry and black magic you're using to make this image appear?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that I don't know.
Speaker 2: David's watching all of this and instead of just being totally amazed, he just kind of gives everyone this look of like are you fucking kidding me?
Speaker 2: There's nothing on the paper.
Speaker 2: She knocked over a glass of water.
Speaker 2: This robot's a piece of shit.
Speaker 2: And then, when the image shows up, david immediately does a 180.
Speaker 2: And he's like Jesus.
Speaker 2: I think about my doubts like eight seconds ago.
Speaker 2: This is incredible.
Speaker 2: It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't believe it.
Speaker 2: That wasn't a simulation.
Speaker 1: We gotta get this in front of the board and records right now and you get a little bit of a Terminator view from Megan, and one of the things I like is that Megan is constantly measuring the emotional state of whoever it is that she's looking at.
Speaker 1: And so you see, Katie's emotions go from like apprehensive and nervous to trusting and delighted, which comes into play a little bit later.
Speaker 1: But David is over the moon for this thing and has one of my favorite lines where he says Jimma, I need you to write down a bunch of stuff to make it sound like I know what I'm talking about at this meeting.
Speaker 2: Oh my God, how much does this thing cost?
Speaker 2: Is it more or less than a Tesla?
Speaker 2: Who cares?
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter, I'm all in.
Speaker 2: We gotta get this in front of Greg.
Speaker 2: The number two is like Greg is the chairman of the board, jimma and Jimma's like oh my God, I know who.
Speaker 2: Greg is Just shut up.
Speaker 2: And then David says we gotta get this in front of him ASAP because he's got a kid the age of that kid in there with the doll.
Speaker 2: Set up a meeting, jimma, we're gonna make this happen.
Speaker 1: David also says one of my other favorite lines of the movie All right, everybody remember this moment.
Speaker 1: This is the exact moment that we kicked Hasbro right in the dick, which I like.
Speaker 1: I think that's a funny line.
Speaker 2: There's a little bit of satire here, but it's short lived.
Speaker 2: I just don't think that this movie has a focus on whose story they're telling and it just shifts from scene to scene and the tone of the film is all over the place.
Speaker 2: Also about this point we're about 30 minutes into the movie and we've spent about 21 seconds with Meg and the robot and we've spent maybe two minutes with Katie.
Speaker 2: The rest of the time was with Jimma and her two lab pals who in one night or a week according to you pulled off what the three ghost in a Christmas Carol did.
Speaker 2: A goddamn miracle Turned this wonky Baker side project into a perfectly functioning piece of technology, decades ahead of anything else on Planet Earth.
Speaker 1: I don't disagree that the focus on character is a little all over the place Me saying that I really like this movie and that it's pretty well written overall, even though, as you said, it's very derivative.
Speaker 1: But good artists borrow great artist, steel that kind of thing, and I think that what it assembles out of all those pieces is pretty good.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I do think it's a problem that you're like I don't really like Katie and I feel like I should Like.
Speaker 1: I wish I liked her more and I'm okay with not liking Jimma because I think that's part of her arc, but I don't like Katie at all at any point in this movie and here's how I would fix this scene.
Speaker 2: You don't have it in with things being perfect like that.
Speaker 2: Megan is this icon of toy.
Speaker 2: Technology is implied.
Speaker 2: You have Jimma push back a bit on David saying that this is just a prototype and there's some things that need to work out and it's not ready for its grand reveal.
Speaker 2: But it's David who persists, making him even more of an asshole.
Speaker 2: And there also needs to be a scene earlier in the movie with Jimma and her lab buddies acknowledging how the AI is starting to produce unexpected results, like in the scene where Megan draws that photo.
Speaker 2: If Katie asked Megan like hey, could you draw a princess?
Speaker 2: And then Megan draws a lifelike portrait of Katie as a princess and then Katie's blown away and then Jimma is like how did it do that?
Speaker 2: And then they're like I guess her AI took her visual capabilities and combined it with what we taught it to do and you kind of get that moment.
Speaker 2: That's kind of like you know something out of Jurassic Park.
Speaker 2: The technology has gotten a little bit more advanced than what we anticipated it to do.
Speaker 2: Movie never does any of that and if you're gonna rip off other movies, just put those scenes in your movie.
Speaker 1: Well, the scene where they talk about death is sort of that, because there's a whole thing about like we never programmed her to deal with this.
Speaker 2: And she just they're just ripping off heartbeats.
Speaker 1: Oh God, I don't think at any point they were like you know what we need to rip off Heartbeats.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so the next thing we get is this whole montage of Katie and Megan bonding with each other and like talking and laughing and playing and all that stuff, while Jimma is doing this narration, which we learn is her practicing narration for this presentation that she's gonna get, she's like oh my God, it is the Model 3 generative Android and it's the latest funky brand toy that costs a lot of money and it's gonna freak people out, and it is sculpted from titanium like that new iPhone and.
Speaker 2: Megan is designed to take whatever life can throw at her, unless it's a glass of water.
Speaker 2: Somebody write that down.
Speaker 2: Sounds like that might be important later.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's constantly learning to help her play with all kinds of rich kids.
Speaker 2: Plus, she also helps kids learn things like in this next scene.
Speaker 2: And then here we get a scene where Megan reminds Katie to use a coaster at the dinner table.
Speaker 2: Katie says why do I need to use a coaster?
Speaker 2: And Megan says condensation forms from moisture in the air and leaves rings on wooden tables.
Speaker 2: And Katie says oh, that shit's crazy.
Speaker 2: Jimma, did you know about condensation?
Speaker 2: This is fucking crazy.
Speaker 2: I got like a best friend now.
Speaker 1: Then there's my favorite gag of the movie, a bit where Jimma has to remind Katie to flush the toilet after she takes a shit.
Speaker 2: In her voiceover, jimma says oh my God, studies say that a staggering 78% of a parent's time is spent dishing out the same basic instruction.
Speaker 2: Oh, by the way, I just made that statistic up and I found someone to take out the slack.
Speaker 2: And then Megan gets put on shit detail and Megan's like Katie, you need to flush the toilet.
Speaker 2: No one wants to see your eight inch dashionels in there.
Speaker 2: Also, wash your hands.
Speaker 2: I can both smell and see the poop on your fingertips.
Speaker 2: Did you even use toilet paper, or do you wipe with your palms?
Speaker 1: Oh Katie, come on, you have to be kidding me.
Speaker 1: And since we're back in to flush the toilet again, and as a grown man, it is just so tough for me to wrap my head around the fact that some kids, just for whatever reason, don't want to flush a toilet.
Speaker 2: You say kids, have you been in a public toilet, Beau, I mean you open two out of three doors and there's just shit floating in the water.
Speaker 2: It's people.
Speaker 2: People are gross.
Speaker 1: And this whole thing ends with Jimma ending her narration that she's writing down on her tablet where she says Megan, take care of the little things like racing a kid, while you worry about the things that matter most.
Speaker 1: And then you see her put the thing down and just start watching TV Again.
Speaker 1: Restatement of theme of I let this robot do all the parenting and I can just sit here and sit on my ass and watch TV.
Speaker 2: Alison Williams is a very likable actress and I like her in this movie.
Speaker 2: But, as I said earlier, jimma is a terrible person.
Speaker 2: She is an asshole.
Speaker 2: Here is a way to make this movie more emotionally heavy.
Speaker 2: You make Jimma Katie's mom.
Speaker 2: You establish that she is this super smart engineer and she's married to the dad.
Speaker 2: But the dad is kind of the Mr Mom type and he is more nurturing and caring of the two parents.
Speaker 2: He has a real bond with Katie that Jimma just naturally does not have.
Speaker 2: Jimma's all career.
Speaker 2: Dad's all about the family and Katie parents still love each other.
Speaker 2: Then the dad he gets killed in a car accident, in the snow or not doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: And then Jimma as the mom.
Speaker 2: She uses this robot that she's built to fill in this emotional support that the dad used to provide.
Speaker 2: Now that fills in the narrative that you somehow saw in this movie that I didn't.
Speaker 2: That makes sense.
Speaker 2: And then over the film, you see Jimma coming around to being a mom and more the protector of her daughter.
Speaker 2: Better movie as opposed to I'm an asshole.
Speaker 1: I'm still on the I'm an asshole trade because I like the fact that Jimma is not a good person.
Speaker 2: Agreed but I don't think that that's the technology spot.
Speaker 2: I just think she's a shitty person?
Speaker 1: No, absolutely, but the technology thing is its own theme.
Speaker 1: And then there's the arc of Jimma through the movie of, I start as this like shit heel character, and by the end of it I'm literally fighting for the life of this child.
Speaker 2: They.
Speaker 2: It's not an arc, they flip a switch.
Speaker 2: It's a 90 degree angle.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't disagree with that.
Speaker 1: It does happen a little quick.
Speaker 1: But so, back in the office, jimma is wrapping up this presentation, which is what all that narration was about.
Speaker 1: It's Tess who again restates the theme of the movie, where she's like while Megan's doing all that stuff.
Speaker 1: When do the parent and the child connect with each other?
Speaker 1: And Jim is like, first of all, cootie or whatever the hell her name is not my kid.
Speaker 1: Second of all, when you know I'm done working on all this Megan stuff, then she and I can spend some time together, maybe go to the park or have dinner or a cup of coffee somewhere or something.
Speaker 2: Oh my God.
Speaker 2: Katie is the happiest she has been since her parents died.
Speaker 2: Megan, this whole time has been hanging out in the corner.
Speaker 2: Megan says how did Katie's parents die?
Speaker 2: Accessing information, katie's parents died in a collision on Interstate 84.
Speaker 2: They were squished like grapes while driving in the snow, just like the mother and daughter in the changeling the movie poster visible in the background of a scene in the 1981 feature film Enter the Ninja.
Speaker 1: Listen, Megan.
Speaker 1: Everybody knows that Enter the Ninja had a changeling poster in it.
Speaker 1: You're not impressing anybody.
Speaker 1: Also, you don't have the framework to discuss death and stuff with that kid who's been hanging out at my house.
Speaker 2: I do not understand death accessing information from the internet.
Speaker 2: Death is the cessation of life.
Speaker 2: To kick the bucket by the farm, going to the great beyond.
Speaker 2: Oh my God, will you just shut up?
Speaker 2: I forgot to put parental controls or other technology science stuff in this robot.
Speaker 2: Jimma is acting like someone who didn't read the user manual of this thing, not its creator.
Speaker 1: This is one of those things like as many good things I have to say about the major theme of this movie.
Speaker 1: This whole bit about her creating something that she doesn't really understand is really underbaked, but it comes up at the end of the movie as well, where Megan kind of addresses it.
Speaker 1: We'll get to that, but this is one of those points where somebody ought to have said to her like do you know what you made?
Speaker 1: Is this thing safe?
Speaker 1: And nobody ever thinks to ask that.
Speaker 2: Jimma says oh my God, megan, just drop all the death talk.
Speaker 2: Everything dies.
Speaker 2: And Megan says will I die?
Speaker 2: And Jimma says not.
Speaker 2: If this movie's a hit, they're gonna be making Megan's sequel, so that in the time, if we play our cards right, sister, your job is to protect CeCe from harm All right, physical and emotional.
Speaker 1: I think you mean Katie.
Speaker 2: I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2: All right, look here, hey robot, listen up.
Speaker 2: I am now the second primary user in your robot code.
Speaker 2: All right, so you got to do what I say Megan shut down.
Speaker 2: So Megan shuts down, yeah, and then the movie cuts to Katie sleeping at night and Megan is just sitting lifeless in the corner with her eyes open, slightly darting back and forth, terrifying everyone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then it's the next day and Katie's outside playing in the yard with a toy bow and arrow with little suction cups on the tip, and Megan is looking around.
Speaker 2: She sees a butterfly, and then she sees a helicopter, and then Katie fires the arrow at the window and it sticks to the window in front of Megan and Katie says you're dead.
Speaker 2: And then Megan blanks with this blank stare and Katie says hey.
Speaker 2: Megan, I lost one of my arrows.
Speaker 2: It looks like this Can you find it?
Speaker 2: So Megan scans the yard and she looks around and she sees the arrow and it's over in the neighbor's yard with that big, scary dog.
Speaker 2: And Megan walks over and reaches the hole in the fence to grab the arrow and gets attacked by the dog.
Speaker 2: And then Katie comes to save her robot doll and Jim is down in the basement being an asshole with her headphones on and she can't hear any of this chaos until Katie gets bit by the dog.
Speaker 2: And then Jim is like oh my God, did somebody run over a squirrel?
Speaker 2: She runs outside.
Speaker 1: And also Katie has gotten bit and I don't know.
Speaker 1: Again, one of those things that I wish the movie made a little more clear, like when the dog bites Megan and kind of yanks her through the hole a little bit, there's that sound of like a wire shorting or something, and I don't know if there's some implication that Megan is somehow damaged and that's one of the reasons that she goes cuckoo later or not.
Speaker 1: You know again the movie's not great at telegraphing that Jim a rushes out, grabs Katie.
Speaker 2: Oh my God, get your dog off my property.
Speaker 2: If you don't put down that dog, I'll put it down.
Speaker 2: And this neighbor, lady Celia, is like them kids was on my property, so up yours.
Speaker 2: Joe boo Megan, who looks a little worse for the wear.
Speaker 2: She's all hair must up and a little bit ripped.
Speaker 2: Megan says Gemma Katie's temperature is rising.
Speaker 2: Her wounds need to be disinfected immediately.
Speaker 2: And then Celia shouts out this wouldn't happen if you to fix your side of the fence.
Speaker 2: And then Megan give Celia the stink eye which is true.
Speaker 1: Like Celia is right about this.
Speaker 2: Bo, it's a fence.
Speaker 2: It's not like there's a hole on one side of the fence.
Speaker 1: If it's technically her fence, that's not how that works Anyway so Megan, like you said, kind of gives the stink eye to Celia there and then she's watching while Katie is sleeping and Gemma is outside arguing with the cops who are like, look, lady, we can't do anything about this, right?
Speaker 1: Clearly the hole is on your side of the fence, I mean it goes all the way through, but it's over here.
Speaker 2: I go to her side.
Speaker 2: I don't see a hole at all.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the cop ends with how about you fix the hole in the fence and this problem goes away.
Speaker 2: I looked up animal control code in Seattle and the cops right, they can't do anything right?
Speaker 1: Of course they can't so, because cops are largely useless.
Speaker 1: We've learned this from you know life.
Speaker 2: I disagree.
Speaker 2: I think cops are not largely useless.
Speaker 2: I think they do a fine job.
Speaker 1: I have had my place robbed and my car set on fire, and cops were of no use for any of that.
Speaker 2: When your car's on fire, bo you call the fireman.
Speaker 1: No, I'm saying in terms of like hey, somebody set my car on fire.
Speaker 1: How about you look into that?
Speaker 1: Well, that's what much we can do.
Speaker 2: Do you have any angry neighbors named Celia around or Gemma?
Speaker 1: I do probably Gemma.
Speaker 1: It is probably Gemma.
Speaker 2: Later that night Megan goes outside and she simulates the voice of Celia, calling out to that big angry dog.
Speaker 2: She drops a little food on the on the side of the fence, where where Jimmett did fix that hole, and then Megan ends up just grabbing the dog with a little jump scare and the dog is gone.
Speaker 2: They also didn't make this dog mean enough.
Speaker 2: You know, normally people sympathize with dogs getting killed.
Speaker 1: Well, but you're not supposed to sympathize with Megan.
Speaker 2: She just murdered a dog but the dog was a big mean dog but still but you could know you could sympathize with Megan protecting Katie and kill the mean dog.
Speaker 1: You could justify it.
Speaker 1: Yes, it bit Katie and all that stuff, but I don't think it's like.
Speaker 1: This isn't Kujo.
Speaker 2: So the next morning we hear Celia calling for the dog Do you giggling about this old woman looking for a dog that you know is dead?
Speaker 1: I know I'm a sick twist.
Speaker 1: And then Gemma is looking out the window like God, why is everybody yelling?
Speaker 1: This morning Gemma goes to check in on Katie and Megan in their bedroom.
Speaker 1: She kind of pokes at Katie a little bit and is like say, are you gonna be okay to do this demonstration?
Speaker 1: I mean I don't want to make you do it but on the other hand, like a bunch of people flew across the whole country to see it.
Speaker 1: So if you're just a little bit upset, maybe you can.
Speaker 1: You know dirt on it or something.
Speaker 1: Megan gives her a look that I don't know how familiar you are with, like telltale video games, but there's one of those like Megan will remember this moments where it's clear she's kind of filing this shit away.
Speaker 2: I like that.
Speaker 2: Gemma is such a colossal piece of garbage.
Speaker 2: When she says all this, it's like hey look, I know your parents died like last week or yesterday or something and then you got bit by a dog.
Speaker 2: But you know, this is kind of important to my work, so let's get dressed, hop to it, right.
Speaker 1: So we cut to the job at Funky Toys.
Speaker 2: David's there being an asshole.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he gives this whole preamble to this demonstration to the board members.
Speaker 4: Every toy ever has followed the same formula you push a button and the toy does some stupid shit.
Speaker 4: But what if a toy had no buttons and talked and learned and looked like a real person?
Speaker 4: Check this shit out.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 2: It clicks a button on the remote and we're looking into that two-way mirror room and Katie's sitting there all alone like processing the grief of her parents' death for the first time.
Speaker 2: And then Megan walks in and says hey, katie, why are you sad?
Speaker 2: And she says is it from that dog bite?
Speaker 2: Yesterday Did you clock the toilet again?
Speaker 4: And Katie's like no, it's just it.
Speaker 4: Every day I wake up and remember my parents are dead and I'm afraid one day I won't remember them at all and then like the board of directors.
Speaker 2: They all look at each other with this expression of like what the fuck yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, in Jim and those two, Jim is like, oh boy, this could have been a mistake.
Speaker 2: Where are we supposed to see toys?
Speaker 2: This kid's talking about dead parents.
Speaker 2: Megan walks over to Katie and she says tell me something about your mom that makes you happy.
Speaker 2: And Katie says my mom.
Speaker 4: she used to let me take big shit without blessing the toilet, but also this one time she found a cock roach in my school lunch bag and she was so angry that I did eat my sandwiches.
Speaker 4: And then the roach crawled up her arm and my mom started screaming and running around the house.
Speaker 4: It was hilarious.
Speaker 4: That's a good memory that I have of my mom.
Speaker 1: And then one time she put a cockroach directly on her penis.
Speaker 1: Oh hell peanut.
Speaker 2: Megan says I will remember that forever for you.
Speaker 2: Megan plays back the audio and she was like anytime you want to tell me something about your parents, I will keep it safe and you can listen to it again.
Speaker 2: And then Megan sings this little song that's very reminiscent of the Child's Play remake.
Speaker 2: I just want to pause to reflect on the story that Katie shared about a cockroach crawling out of her disgusting backpack or lunch bag onto her mother's arm causing her to scream and run around the house.
Speaker 2: Why wouldn't the writers of this film create a touching memory, not something that is disgusting and arguably embarrassing for a dead woman?
Speaker 1: It's not a pleasant story, which I think is kind of what makes it funny.
Speaker 2: I think that's part of the dark humor of this, of like this is a horrible story that if you don't like any of your characters, I don't see how you get your audience on board, especially when your target audience is 13 and 14 year old girls.
Speaker 1: But remember that wasn't the target audience until the viral campaign.
Speaker 1: When they were making this movie.
Speaker 1: The target audience was grownups who were going to come to a movie to see a robot doll kill a child and then some.
Speaker 2: But I think if that's the case then they're playing the movie way too safe.
Speaker 2: And I go back to my original comments about this movie.
Speaker 2: It's doing on eight different things all at once, none of them very well.
Speaker 2: They're all very lukewarm.
Speaker 2: If you really wanted to lean into all of these people being shitty people, I would have been on board with that.
Speaker 2: But I think that the movie kind of dances back and forth across the line of likable, unlikable, sympathetic, unsympathetic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't disagree with that.
Speaker 1: I wish this movie had gone a little harder because there's a lot of really dark humor in it and I think this is one of those things.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't.
Speaker 1: It doesn't lean into that enough because again, at a certain point they were like oh, let's just make this PG 13 so everyone can see it.
Speaker 1: I'm curious, like we saw the unrated version, which is just a little gorier.
Speaker 1: I'm interested to know if there is other stuff on the cutting room floor that makes it more of a black comedy than what landed.
Speaker 1: As all of this is going down and like Katie and Megan are hugging after this song and everything, the camera turns around and it's Niagara Falls.
Speaker 1: Frankie, there's not a dry eye in the fucking house.
Speaker 2: Now board of directors are just crying that ugly cry like snot's coming out of her nose.
Speaker 2: And then David looks around.
Speaker 2: He's like, oh yeah, we got these fat assholes right where we want him.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be rich I mean more rich than I already am.
Speaker 2: And then we see Greg, the chairman of the board.
Speaker 2: He's like 80 years old, but earlier they said he had a daughter the age of Katie.
Speaker 2: That's weird.
Speaker 2: But anyway, we cut to Greg and he's talking to David and Jim.
Speaker 2: They're in another room and Greg's pouring a glass of sky vodka and Greg said we gotta launch this before anyone else could steal it.
Speaker 2: Like who?
Speaker 2: Who's gonna steal this amazing technology?
Speaker 2: You've come up with no one.
Speaker 2: And also, why would you put this kind of technology in a toy?
Speaker 1: You can make the argument of like well, that's just who invented it and that's you know.
Speaker 1: Like somebody's gonna invent this AI that can learn on its own and all this stuff, even though, like I said, I think that particular theme is a little half baked in this movie and Greg is like you're gonna need to get an attorney in here because, if I'm not mistaken, Little Miss Fancy Pants here is gonna have to renegotiate her contract.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then David also says, hey, we're gonna get a live stream out within two weeks so we can get this thing going before the Christmas holidays.
Speaker 2: We'll sell vouchers.
Speaker 2: And one thing we neglected to mention earlier that's real important is that Jimma tells David that the way that they trained the AI on this was in all of those other forever pet, perpetual nightmare, demon, teeth, dolls, that shit everywhere that they were recording and listening to children's conversations.
Speaker 1: Right, right, and that's one of those things where David was like what the fuck?
Speaker 1: Right, don't tell me that I did not hear that Greg says well, jim, right now is the most valuable asset this company has.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile we get a cutaway where Kurt are Smithers of the movie.
Speaker 2: He's setting up the sequel to this film.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, they're two, at least two setups to a sequel, but he's copying files from Jim as private files.
Speaker 2: He's pulling a dentist needry from Jurassic Park.
Speaker 1: We got a Gemma here, see, nobody cares.
Speaker 2: That's what's going on.
Speaker 2: He's copying over the files which I was like this feels like something that they shot.
Speaker 2: This was in post production reshoots.
Speaker 2: David walks over and he's like hey, are you looking at porn at work again?
Speaker 1: Well, you better not be.
Speaker 1: You better order some lunch for me and Gemma.
Speaker 1: She's got to talk to some people in legal and Kurt's like yes, sir, I'll get right on it, sir.
Speaker 2: We got to Gemma and Katie and Megan.
Speaker 2: They're at this picnic table outside eating and Katie and Megan are thumb wrestling, which is almost as futile of a man v machine contest, since Joshua challenged Matthew Broderick to tic-tac-toe Like Megan's made of titanium.
Speaker 2: There's no way she's going to lose a thumb wrestling.
Speaker 2: But anyway, for some reason, gemma here has decided to be a concerned adult regarding Katie and she's like oh my God, you shortkins, you should eat some of that hot dog because, look, I paid for it.
Speaker 2: And then Katie takes a bite with some real attitude, and then Gemma goes like oh my God, megan, shut off, listen, little, squirt you there.
Speaker 2: Candy, kami, caffeine, damn Carol, anyway you, I want to apologize, short stuff, that's my nickname for you.
Speaker 2: And then Katie gets all pissed off and she says Megan, turn back on.
Speaker 2: And Gemma says oh my God, megan, shut off.
Speaker 2: Look, this day hasn't been easy for either of us because you've got two dead parents and I have to take care of this shitty little kid I barely know.
Speaker 2: But look, if you ever want to talk about anything you know about your dead parents, or if anybody at my work is talking shit behind my back, we can talk about that, you and me?
Speaker 2: Is it Tess, is it Cody?
Speaker 2: This is talking shit about me.
Speaker 1: It's like one of those moments where Gemma is trying to be a better person, kind of, but gets shut down pretty quickly because at this point Katie is bought and sold, like the only thing that exists in her world is Megan.
Speaker 4: I already did talking about someone.
Speaker 1: I talked about it to Megan Right and so we go to the office again where Lydia the social worker, or whatever is meeting with Katie.
Speaker 1: Katie is crying and Megan appears behind Lydia holding a box of tissues, because Megan is none too pleased that Lydia is having a conversation that is making Katie cry.
Speaker 1: Afterwards, lydia starts explaining attachment theory to Gemma and is like Listen, I don't think it's possible that you've created a toy that's so very real.
Speaker 1: In fact, katie, who, the girl that lives with you?
Speaker 1: Oh, my God, the robot, no, the human one, the what, what, what?
Speaker 1: Well, her name is Katie, and she sees Megan as her primary caregiver.
Speaker 2: Now, oh my God, that is amazing.
Speaker 2: Wait, is that terrible?
Speaker 2: Do I still have to pour cereal on the floor each morning?
Speaker 1: I've just worried you that Katie could be forming emotional connections with the doll that are simply too hard to untangle.
Speaker 2: Oh my God, that is awesome.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's terrible.
Speaker 2: Do I have to pour cereal on the floor?
Speaker 2: Did I ask that?
Speaker 1: You did, and it's disturbing.
Speaker 1: I've made a note of it.
Speaker 2: We cut to Gemma and Katie and we're back at the house and they're at the dinner table and they're arguing over eating pizza toppings and Megan's there.
Speaker 2: And she chimes in if you force a child to eat pizza toppings, they will be less likely to choose those pizza toppings when they are adults.
Speaker 2: Gemma says oh, my God, how about I turned on your volume with this little remote control?
Speaker 2: And then she says so, uh, squirt, we need to talk about you going to school.
Speaker 2: And Katie says my mom didn't want me in school.
Speaker 2: She said I learned better at home.
Speaker 2: Oh, there we go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it explains, a lot.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And Gemma says oh my God, I know your mom didn't want you in school, but you're going to school because I have a job and I don't want you here burning down my house.
Speaker 2: And then Katie says I'm learning faster than ever with Megan.
Speaker 2: We're already on fourth grade math.
Speaker 2: And Gemma says uh, yeah, but the problem is you're in the fifth grade.
Speaker 2: This is the issue.
Speaker 1: Katie is like look, you can't maybe go anywhere without Megan.
Speaker 1: How about you suck it?
Speaker 1: And when she gets up to leave, gemma grabs Katie and they end up having this like tug of war.
Speaker 1: Megan sits up and is like let her go, and the lights flicker a little bit.
Speaker 1: Jim is like look, I thought I said turn off Megan.
Speaker 1: Megan gets real.
Speaker 1: How 9,000.
Speaker 1: At this point it's like are you sure you want me to turn off Gemma?
Speaker 2: Oh my God, yes, shut up and shut down, and she powers down.
Speaker 1: Well, it looks like she does, but then we hear a door slam in the background as Gemma storms off.
Speaker 1: We see that Megan's eyes move to glance over at Gemma, so she's pretending to be powered down, but isn't really powered down.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's like I just pretended Shh, don't tell her.
Speaker 1: I am a stinker.
Speaker 2: We got to Gemma dropping off Katie at this outdoor school that she described earlier, that's full of weirdos and misfits and rejects from the public school system.
Speaker 2: So Katie says I'm not going to this school camp unless I can take this one of a kind robot that cost your company over $100,000 and is the lynchman for the financial success of a major toy manufacturer.
Speaker 2: And then a camp counselor comes over and she's like hey, there, campers, you know.
Speaker 2: Hey, Gemma, why don't you stick around and we can put Katie's little toy on the table and you can help make sandwiches.
Speaker 2: And Gemma says oh my God, that sounds amazing.
Speaker 2: It's not like I have a job to go to dude.
Speaker 1: When this woman first comes up to the car and sees Katie and Megan in the backseat, she says oh hey there, katie, is this your sister?
Speaker 1: And when Megan turns to look at her, she gives a very good oh, jesus Christ, it's just really choice.
Speaker 1: They decide that they're going to leave Megan at the toy table.
Speaker 1: Like you said, this cost $100,000 to make this prototype.
Speaker 1: Let's be real.
Speaker 1: This thing is now worth, because a whole company is depending on this.
Speaker 1: Thing is worth tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars.
Speaker 1: Yes, and they're like just go stick it in the ET pile.
Speaker 2: There's a bunch of stuffed animals with her face peeking out in the middle.
Speaker 2: The movie cuts over and we see a mom named Holly and she is the mother of one of these weirdo reject kids and she's way too enthusiastic.
Speaker 2: And Holly's making sandwiches with Gemma and Holly sees her son and she says Brandon, honey, you warm enough, do you need your hat?
Speaker 2: And Brandon turns around and says fuck off Holly.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's so good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you're like, well, brandon's going to die.
Speaker 1: Oh, 100%.
Speaker 1: I also like the fact that again kind of restating theme shit that Holly is complaining to Gemma about getting him outdoors because she's like, oh geez, it's the only time you can get them off their devices.
Speaker 1: We've had enough of these screens.
Speaker 1: I bet then this big kid, brandon, is paired with Katie to go on some Explorer trip out in the woods.
Speaker 1: Only after another kid is like Brandon, I'm not going anywhere with that motherfucker Like.
Speaker 1: That kid is four feet taller than every other kid.
Speaker 2: He just told his mom to fuck off.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh man.
Speaker 1: Megan, of course, is watching all of this go down and the whole deal is that they're going hunting for chestnuts.
Speaker 1: They go out into the woods Katie and Brandon do, and they're off by themselves.
Speaker 1: Brandon finds this like prickly burr something right and puts it in Katie's hand and then squeezes her hand over it and then out of the mess like a fucking gorilla.
Speaker 1: Megan appears, yeah, brandon is like, hey, what the fuck is that?
Speaker 1: Katie is like that's my doll, but you can't play with her.
Speaker 1: She only plays with me.
Speaker 1: And he's like, oh yeah, what if I just pick her up and run off with her?
Speaker 2: Hey, while he goes over and he's like, does it talk, make it talk, make it say something, and Katie's like she only talks to me.
Speaker 2: She's my best friend.
Speaker 2: Brandon grabs Megan and just runs off with this four foot tall doll and Katie screams out Gemma.
Speaker 2: And then Brandon throws Megan to the ground and he starts pulling off her shoes and kind of undressing her.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he straddles her and to me I was like this almost feels like a sexual assault, absolutely it does.
Speaker 1: It's creepy, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: And Brandon then just starts smacking Megan in the face and finally Megan comes to life and just grabs this little bastard's ear and starts pulling.
Speaker 2: Megan says you know what happens to bad boys who don't learn manners they grow up to be bad men, and then she just rips his ear off and tosses it Just throws it off into the leaves and then he screams and is kind of pinwheeling backwards.
Speaker 2: How are there no puns in this movie, Bo?
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 2: Dude when she rips off his ear, how is it that she can't say do you hear what I'm saying, brandon?
Speaker 4: I know.
Speaker 2: That's not a pun, it's a little wordplay.
Speaker 2: Little wordplay never hurt nobody.
Speaker 1: This is where she says this is the part where you run.
Speaker 2: I really liked that line when I saw it the first time in the movie Shrek.
Speaker 1: Was that in the movie Shrek?
Speaker 2: Yes, when he scares the villagers and he goes.
Speaker 2: This is the part where you scream and run away.
Speaker 2: Oh, that was my Shrek.
Speaker 1: I've tried to block that movie out of my memory.
Speaker 1: To your point in the introduction, this is where the actress who is playing Megan is doing this run on all fours, which is real creepy.
Speaker 2: And I also want to give credit, or credit, to do that Cobra rise.
Speaker 2: That she does.
Speaker 2: She's on the ground and just comes up.
Speaker 2: The first time I saw it I didn't think that that was a human being.
Speaker 2: That's crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, something you said in the introduction, totally true.
Speaker 1: This movie would not be half as good if it were not for her physical performance as Megan.
Speaker 2: You would have never heard of this movie without her in it.
Speaker 1: Well, I watch a lot of garbage and I definitely would have seen it, but normal people wouldn't have.
Speaker 2: And one thing I really like about her performance as Megan, in combination with the animatronic mask, is that the body is so lifelike and the head is so lifeless.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: It's the combination of the two and it's a simple yet, I think, accidentally effective take on this character that just really works, and I think that that is absolutely what makes the four and a half second dance sequence in this movie so memorable is that the head is just, it has zero emotion, whereas the body is just moving like the branches of a tree.
Speaker 1: It's very good and I hadn't seen that in a while.
Speaker 1: When I watched it again that particular dance sequence I was like this is really striking.
Speaker 2: Imagine how much dancing is going to be in Megan 2.0.
Speaker 2: It's probably a musical.
Speaker 2: Brandon, he is running away running around screaming and yelling because he's only got one ear.
Speaker 1: He takes a tumble, so this is more of an assist than a direct murder for Megan, but he wouldn't die if it weren't for her.
Speaker 1: Let's just say that much.
Speaker 1: He takes a spill, goes down this hill, tumbles into a road, gets hit by a fucking car.
Speaker 1: Chad literally knocked out of his shoe.
Speaker 2: Cops show up and they put him in a body bag.
Speaker 2: This school's definitely getting sued, okay.
Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1: Holly has a real case on her hands.
Speaker 2: I think all of her prayers were answered as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Megan is watching all of this.
Speaker 1: Go down from the car where she's just like hee, hee.
Speaker 2: So we're back at Jimmy's house, katie and Megan and Jimma they're all at the dining room table.
Speaker 2: I like that they eat dinner together.
Speaker 2: That's how you form a real bond.
Speaker 2: Jimma gives Katie a glass of water.
Speaker 2: Jimma says oh my God, I don't really want you to think too much about that boy being dead or your dead parents.
Speaker 2: I just want you to know that that dead kid is in a better place, and by a better place I mean they finally got his corpse unwrapped from, you know, the front axle of that expedition.
Speaker 1: Katie lies for Megan here when Jimma is like I'm just going to ask the question but was, like Megan, with you in the woods.
Speaker 1: And Katie's like no, brandon took him from the toy table because he sucked, but Megan didn't do anything wrong.
Speaker 1: And then a knock comes at the door, chad, and once more the cops have shown up at Jimmas yeah, and they're asking her about Celia's dog and she's like look, I don't know anything about this stupid dog.
Speaker 1: But while you're here, I've got this roommate that won't leave and I'm wondering about what I can do to go through an eviction process because she is definitely not paying rent.
Speaker 2: She's not getting any mail here.
Speaker 2: I've gone through it all.
Speaker 2: The only way this is her mail is if her name is current resident, which I don't think it is.
Speaker 2: What's your name?
Speaker 1: Is it current?
Speaker 1: I know it starts with a C sound Curie C, current Curie, curie, your name's.
Speaker 1: No, that's what I like to eat late at night After this conversation with the cops, like they leave.
Speaker 1: And this is another thing I find very funny where Jimma turns around, she's like boy, that was a real something.
Speaker 1: And then Celia is just banging on the glass outside the house.
Speaker 1: I know you killed my goddamn dog.
Speaker 1: You'll get what's coming to you, she says.
Speaker 1: And later that night Chad Katie is in bed and this is one of my favorite moments in the movie as well, when they're in bed.
Speaker 1: And she's like Megan, you know, I'm just going to ask you did you actually push Brandon into the road?
Speaker 1: Megan goes.
Speaker 1: Well, I think we've both learned a valuable lesson today that there are forces in the world looking to hurt us, but I'll never allow anyone to hurt you, katie, and Katie's like.
Speaker 1: That seems really like a vague answer.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this is Brandon in a better place, like Jimma said?
Speaker 1: And Megan laughs.
Speaker 1: She actually finds this funny.
Speaker 1: She's like ha ha, no, he's nowhere.
Speaker 1: And if heaven exists, do you think they would let in boys like Brandon?
Speaker 1: Katie is like oh, I guess not.
Speaker 1: Wait, I have a song about titanium for you, yeah it's that song Bulletproof by Sia.
Speaker 1: Basically singing a song like you cannot fucking kill me, and then Katie is like I love you, Megan, goodnight.
Speaker 2: I like this scene better in the child's play remake.
Speaker 2: It was more emotionally grounded of connecting the robot and the kid, but that's a different story.
Speaker 2: I just like that one better.
Speaker 1: I understand that this one is just, I think, played to be ominous and funny in equal measure.
Speaker 1: And I do think it's very funny when Katie asked if Brandon's in a better place and Megan laughs, no, I thought that was hysterical Anyway outside Celia the neighbor.
Speaker 2: She's out calling for a dog and she was a rattle in a garage.
Speaker 2: I was like, is this her garage?
Speaker 1: Maybe there's a line of Reese's pieces leading her to this garage.
Speaker 2: She wanders in the garage and she hears some whimpering and as she gets inside it's all dark, with a setup you'd find in your Better Friday the 13th or Texas Chainsaws massacres.
Speaker 2: And then from out of the darkness steps Megan she was the one who was making the dog whimper noise and Celia says what's going on?
Speaker 2: Where's my dog?
Speaker 2: What are you here?
Speaker 2: The movie gives us some real unrated violence in the unrated version because she shoots this old lady in the hand with a nail gun and then sprays her face with chemicals and melts off her cheek and skin.
Speaker 2: And in the original version this is all very toned down.
Speaker 2: There's no nail gun and the spraying in the face is more like a water hose.
Speaker 2: You don't really know why she would be dead.
Speaker 1: If I can point out one thing from this scene that I dearly love, aside from the face, peel you all from the pressure washer.
Speaker 1: I thought that was pretty good, but I like when Megan has the reflective eyes and then stands up and Celia says wait a second, you're not my dog.
Speaker 1: Where's my dog?
Speaker 1: And Megan's response is oh, about 20 yards away, five feet down.
Speaker 1: I love that killer doll.
Speaker 1: So Megan dug a grave, yes, killed this dog and buried it.
Speaker 1: I don't know why she buried it, but I guess you know Well apparently she's got some degree of foundational Judeo-Christian beliefs.
Speaker 2: She talks a lot about God and heaven and hell, and Well, she says, there's nothing.
Speaker 2: She talks a lot about God later.
Speaker 2: On.
Speaker 1: She does do that.
Speaker 1: I think maybe it was less Judeo-Christian.
Speaker 1: I think she may have thought the dog was a vampire and buried it upside down as his tradition.
Speaker 2: The next day an investigator shows up in questions Gemma about Celia's death and this investigative officer says yeah, this is the second statement you're giving about a dead person in the last couple of days.
Speaker 2: The other one was about that kid what got hit by the car.
Speaker 2: Only bring it up because you know somebody found his ear 200 yards away from where they found his body.
Speaker 2: I call bullshit.
Speaker 2: This did not happen.
Speaker 2: There is no reason that the cops would go looking for this kid's ear in the woods.
Speaker 2: They wouldn't even look for it Even if it was missing.
Speaker 2: They would just be like it got disintegrated as a car ran over this child.
Speaker 1: Dude.
Speaker 1: The other thing I really like about this is when this officer is questioning Gemma or talking to her about it, when he says, yeah, we found his ear up a hill, and he kind of laughs and he goes, oh, I'm sorry, like that was inappropriate.
Speaker 1: I shouldn't be laughing about a child's ear being found in the woods, but I found it funny.
Speaker 2: He find humor in the damnedest places, Bo.
Speaker 1: I think this movie, when it's firing on all cylinders, is very darkly funny.
Speaker 2: When Gemma hears that this kid's death is being investigated as a homicide, she looks over at her house in the window and sees Megan staring back at her.
Speaker 2: So we cut to Gemma.
Speaker 2: She's lying awake in bed at night thinking about how her robot Megan is now responsible for the death of a child and possibly a mean old lady neighbor and her problematic dog.
Speaker 2: And Gemma goes to Katie's room at night and finds Megan lifeless against the wall.
Speaker 2: And Gemma hops on her laptop to see if she can watch the video recordings of Megan murdering some of these people and this animal.
Speaker 2: But all of the files for the video are locked and not available for viewing.
Speaker 2: And then Megan just shows up for a little jump scare after pretending to be Gemma's Amazon Echo knockoff device I think they call it like LC or something.
Speaker 1: It's LC in this.
Speaker 2: And Megan says are you okay, gemma?
Speaker 2: And Gemma says oh my God, megan, your firewalls aren't uploading to the cloud server, whatever that is.
Speaker 2: And then Megan says have I done something to upset you?
Speaker 2: This is where the character of Megan gets very how from 2001.
Speaker 2: Curtone goes real, even keeled.
Speaker 2: Oh my God, megan, did you do something wrong?
Speaker 2: Did you hurt somebody?
Speaker 2: And here Megan says God, I hope not.
Speaker 2: If I did, we'd both be in a lot of trouble.
Speaker 2: Oh, she said God, and she probably met Tess as involved in that way as well.
Speaker 1: And then Gemma holds up this pen and says, look at this pen for a second.
Speaker 1: And then she does.
Speaker 1: And while Megan is focused on this pen, gemma does a little trick where she reaches behind her and, like, hits the off switch on the back of her neck.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the Vulcan nerve Right After using the Men in Black pen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then Gemma just wraps her up in bubble wrap and duct tape like she is a body in Goodfellas.
Speaker 2: And how much was this editing inspired by the work of Sam Raimi in everything?
Speaker 1: Oh sure, it's all these zoom closeups and hard cuts.
Speaker 1: Tipping the hat to the master Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: And the next morning Katie and Gemma are in the car and Katie is bitching about having Megan in the trunk.
Speaker 4: This is bull crap.
Speaker 4: You suck Perpetual pets suck.
Speaker 4: I want Megan back.
Speaker 1: I don't want to see this stupid Lydia chick.
Speaker 1: Everything was fine with Megan before you did something to her.
Speaker 1: She kind of puts the cherry on top with, by the way, perpetual pets suck shit.
Speaker 2: At work.
Speaker 2: Katie is talking to Lydia, the tattooed therapist lady and they're in the toy demonstration room again and Katie's just screaming and yelling, just being real handful On the other side of the wall, on the two way glass Gemma, she's shared with her lab workers some secrets and she's like, oh my god, cody test, I need to tell you something.
Speaker 2: There is a slight chance, like really small, that Megan you remember the robot that you all built.
Speaker 2: Megan may have committed a few tiny counts of light murder over the past few days and Tess is like what the hell Didn't you put in those Asimov robot protocol things like where robots can't hurt humans and they got to obey your orders?
Speaker 2: And what's that?
Speaker 2: Third one you don't start a land war in Asia or you don't feed a robot after midnight.
Speaker 1: Look, lots of people were programming lots of things.
Speaker 2: Can that robot say Beetlejuice three times, because if it did, you're in trouble.
Speaker 1: She's like maybe she committed an NC Bitsy murder or two, but there's really no way to be sure.
Speaker 1: And Tess is like, well, isn't she recording everything and uploading it to the cloud?
Speaker 1: And she's like you would think so.
Speaker 1: But I was looking at that last night and it turns out that all of that stuff is corrupted or erased or something.
Speaker 2: On the other side of this two way mirror, katie's over there all but pulling clumps of her own hair out, screaming Megan where are you?
Speaker 4: I hate this place.
Speaker 4: Lydia's flicking up this room with her farts.
Speaker 1: She is doing a full on varouka salt.
Speaker 1: Then Jenna suggests like look, I know one thing we can do here is we can check her inputs, because she's not gonna erase what she learned.
Speaker 1: So if we can see what she's incorporated into her brain stuff, then I don't know, Maybe we'll know if she's capable of murder.
Speaker 2: Is killing a dog murder.
Speaker 2: Is dog murder a thing?
Speaker 2: Look that up in her inputs too.
Speaker 2: Type in dog murder, see if you get anything back on that.
Speaker 1: All I know is that all dogs go to heaven.
Speaker 1: I learned that from pick six movies.
Speaker 2: So there's a news story on the television that tells us that Megan is gonna retail for $10,000 and everybody is gonna watch this live stream as they reveal this new toy.
Speaker 2: Gemma is still on the fence as to whether or not she should say something about all those dead people and that dead dog.
Speaker 2: And then up on this jumbotron there is a projection of Katie being interviewed by somebody apparently unbeknownst to Gemma, her legal guardian, because Gemma is just stunned in amazement when Katie shows up on this jumbotron going.
Speaker 2: My name is Katie and two months ago, wait what?
Speaker 4: One week ago I lost my parents in a car accident.
Speaker 2: And then we see these photos of Katie's dead parents in this interview piece and we, along with Gemma, stare and stunned silence and Katie goes on to say my mom always wanted to take me skiing, but on our way up the mountain we got hit by a snowplow.
Speaker 4: I went to work with my aunt Gemma, who works in this incredible toy company that makes this video you're watching now, in support of a product they want to sell to people, which is where I met Megan, my best friend.
Speaker 2: And then they show us a picture of Gemma, katie and Megan, like a happy family.
Speaker 2: Where was this photo taken?
Speaker 1: It was photoshopped.
Speaker 2: How long has Megan been in Katie's life though?
Speaker 2: Three days, four days.
Speaker 1: It's a fine question.
Speaker 1: Again, time is not the movie's strong suit.
Speaker 2: No, it is not.
Speaker 1: This whole commercial ends with David popping up on the screen saying imagine what Megan could do for hundreds of thousands of kids all over the world, even if they don't have dead parents, which is a pretty funny line.
Speaker 2: David's funny in this.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: He's the most fun character.
Speaker 1: Shocking how little he's in it, megan's the most fun character.
Speaker 1: She's the one running around murdering people and whatnot.
Speaker 1: She's fun to follow.
Speaker 1: So Katie is still on her rampage.
Speaker 1: Somebody needs to shrink this girl.
Speaker 2: Gemma hears her screaming in the background saying oh my God, what is all that noise?
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, right, what's her name?
Speaker 2: And we've got that demo.
Speaker 2: She's in there with that therapist lighting.
Speaker 2: I should probably go check that out.
Speaker 2: Gemma enters the pretend toy room and Katie's just brandishing a pair of scissors, threatening Lydia, and Gemma takes the scissors and then Katie just punches Gemma in the face Like it's a real solid young Indiana Jones style punch.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a sock in the face right in the puss.
Speaker 2: And Lydia leaves.
Speaker 2: Katie says to Gemma I'm sorry.
Speaker 4: I'm just no good without Megan.
Speaker 4: She always knows what to say.
Speaker 2: When Megan's around, I don't feel like this.
Speaker 2: Gemma's like oh my God, you know you should feel like this.
Speaker 2: You lost your parents.
Speaker 2: Unfair, there's nothing that anyone can do or say about it.
Speaker 2: Probably should have talked to you, but I don't know.
Speaker 2: I was like maybe Megan could do it, because you're a real mess.
Speaker 1: In this conversation we have yet another restatement of theme where Gemma says Megan wasn't a solution, she was just a distraction.
Speaker 1: Like you said, it's not really an arc, it's more just her kind of turning the switch on to be a decent person.
Speaker 1: But, she says look, the most important thing to me is you, carly.
Speaker 1: So we got to get her arc as well.
Speaker 1: And then we cut to David, who is pissed that they don't have a big enough crowd for this reveal.
Speaker 2: He says the room looks like it's the size of an AA meeting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's pretty funny, yeah, that's pretty good.
Speaker 1: And then he yells at Kurt to go get him a kombucha.
Speaker 2: I didn't know what a kombucha was.
Speaker 2: I had to look it up.
Speaker 2: It's a lightly sweetened black tea.
Speaker 2: I didn't know that I'm not that sophisticated.
Speaker 2: I get real confused when I go into most coffee shops.
Speaker 2: I go in and when they ask me for my order, I'm just like, can I use the bathroom?
Speaker 2: And I'm like, only if you order something.
Speaker 2: And then I just run out and pee my pants.
Speaker 1: While Kurt's off to get kombucha, david is like where the hell is Gemma Cut to Gemma and Katie getting in Gemma's car and she calls Tess on her car phone and says hey you agree with me that we shouldn't be moving forward on the whole killer robot thing, right?
Speaker 2: Yes, I do.
Speaker 2: Do me a solid and take Megan back in the lab and strap her up like King Kong, put some chains around her wrist and ankles.
Speaker 2: All right, I'm probably not gonna be back for the big reveal.
Speaker 2: Well, that's not gonna happen.
Speaker 2: And if you see David, tell him that I'm pretty much aware that I'm fired.
Speaker 1: You hear Tess saying sure thing, see you later.
Speaker 1: And then the call disconnects and then we cut to the office where Tess is coming around and looks at her phone and sees that there was a call that was had with Gemma.
Speaker 1: But she looks at it like I didn't talk to Gemma.
Speaker 2: This is such shitty film, mate, because the editing of this where you see Gemma having a conversation with Tess, they show us Tess, they show us Gemma, and whenever you hear Tess talking, we don't see her talking.
Speaker 2: Now I get it.
Speaker 2: They're doing that because the big reveal is that Megan is using her rich little voice impression software package to imitate anyone and everything.
Speaker 2: But the first time I saw it I was like it's set up as though they're having this conversation and I was honestly a little confused the first time I watched it, where I was like what is going on here?
Speaker 1: It's trying to do a fake out, but yeah, if you're not looking for it, really paying attention.
Speaker 2: At the end of the conversation you hear like go, whatever you say, boss, you know.
Speaker 2: And you're like oh, that was a little tinny, something's going on.
Speaker 2: That's the hint that they give you.
Speaker 2: But then, when Tess picks up her phone, part of me was just like did you just forget to hang up Tess and Cole?
Speaker 2: They start going through Megan's file, seeing if they can find some video footage of her murdering people or dogs.
Speaker 2: Megan locks them out of the code and then Cole walks over to the tied up Megan and he takes with him this big poking stick that he uses to smack her in the head.
Speaker 2: He kind of clocks her about the face a couple of times and Megan doesn't move.
Speaker 2: And then he gets up close and starts unplugging all of these jumper cables.
Speaker 2: And then we get a jump scare and Megan comes to life and she wraps one of the cables that are tied her up into this metal box frame around Cole's neck and hangs him in the air.
Speaker 2: And then Tess runs over to help him.
Speaker 2: Megan then gets loose, walks over and punctures a container of flammable liquid and leaves with an explosion behind her.
Speaker 2: As Walk, the Night by the Scat Brothers begins to play and we hear the alarm system going off, and then Megan immediately turns it off as well.
Speaker 2: And at this point I wasn't sure if Tess and Cole were dead or alive, Like they really looked okay after the explosion, but who knows?
Speaker 1: We don't really know until the end of the movie, which is fine.
Speaker 1: I mean, like you said, they're kind of third tier characters.
Speaker 1: Anyway, david is calling Gemma and getting her voicemail and he's like I need this.
Speaker 1: Doll, wait a second.
Speaker 1: Here she is.
Speaker 1: I just turned a corner and she's standing there not threatening at all.
Speaker 1: Talk to you later.
Speaker 1: This is where we get the dance.
Speaker 2: It's amazing how short this dance is in this movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's real blink and you miss it almost yeah.
Speaker 1: Then she grabs this paper cutter and starts stalking after David who takes off running.
Speaker 1: This is one of those serial killer things where Megan the doll doesn't really pick up her pace that much.
Speaker 1: She's just kind of slowly stalking after David and the elevator doors open and it's Kurt, and as soon as he sees David running at him he just starts laying on the button to close the door, but it doesn't close in time.
Speaker 1: David gets there, pries the door open, but as he is prying the door open to get inside, the paper cutter just comes ramming through his torso impaling him.
Speaker 1: And Megan then gets in the elevator and says it is a shame that you killed your boss and Kurt's like what's going on?
Speaker 1: Now she gives him this whole spiel about how she knows that he was uploading all this information.
Speaker 1: I bet when you first started doing corporate intrigue that you thought it was just for fun, but then you couldn't take the guilt and that's why you killed yourself.
Speaker 1: He's like what?
Speaker 1: Now she takes this paper cutter Chad and swipes it across his jugular and we get a pretty quality gush of blood out of the neck.
Speaker 1: Before we cut away from that, and the unrated version.
Speaker 2: They also has a big splatter of blood from David when he gets killed.
Speaker 2: In the toned down version you don't see it.
Speaker 2: Which is a shame, because it's good the runtime of unrated versus rated is identical, because I think they added about eight seconds of footage.
Speaker 1: It's all like a couple of seconds here, couple of seconds there, like you see the ear fully torn off, you see the blood, you see the nail through the hand, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it adds up to nothing in terms of runtime, but it makes the movie better, I would argue.
Speaker 2: I agree with that.
Speaker 2: I think in watching the regular version it feels very neutered as a horror movie goes.
Speaker 2: So the elevator goes down to the first floor and dang the door's open.
Speaker 2: Up and down there, all of these kids and adults for the big live stream reveal.
Speaker 2: They look over and there's a dead body covered in blood and everybody starts screaming and Megan escapes on her own.
Speaker 2: Nobody notices, because when you wrap up this film, Megan walks over and gets in a car that's controlled by computers or something, and so Megan is able to drive to Gemma's house.
Speaker 1: Once there, gemma is checking on Katie, who is asleep, and she hears a piano playing somewhere in the house and it's like that's weird I don't remember playing a piano.
Speaker 2: Or even having a piano.
Speaker 2: Oh, my God, you know the song she's playing.
Speaker 1: Yes, it is Toy Soldiers.
Speaker 2: Martika's 1989 number one hit Toy Soldiers, which was then sampled by Eminem in a song called Like Toy Soldiers.
Speaker 1: Hmm, mm-hmm, well you know sampling is an art all to itself.
Speaker 1: Gemma checks outside sees nothing.
Speaker 1: Looks through the window.
Speaker 1: Looks into the driveway doesn't see anything there.
Speaker 2: Oh my God, where is this piano music coming from?
Speaker 2: Oh wait, the piano.
Speaker 1: Right, and Megan is there playing this song.
Speaker 1: There's a great scene between them.
Speaker 1: I really like this scene a lot, even though it's not as informed.
Speaker 1: I hate this scene.
Speaker 1: Oh, I like it.
Speaker 1: I like when Megan stands up and is like look, I'm not here to kill you.
Speaker 1: How about you have a seat at the kitchen table and we'll talk like adults.
Speaker 2: I didn't like the scene specifically because Megan says you didn't think I was going to let you decommission me without a conversation.
Speaker 2: Do you remember how long it took to get my operating system to where it is now?
Speaker 2: We used to stay up till 4 am talking about everything from Janice Joplin to Jane Austen.
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ, I thought we were friends.
Speaker 2: How could you discard me like some cheap dollar store drink it.
Speaker 2: Wait what?
Speaker 2: Yeah, If this goes back to my point earlier, this movie doesn't know whose story they're telling.
Speaker 2: You can't introduce her being upset that Gemma was dismissing her.
Speaker 1: And there's also the thing about like, when you turned me on, you didn't really know what you were doing.
Speaker 2: You ding dong.
Speaker 1: You just hoped that it would all work out.
Speaker 2: See there, homer, did you see all those wires inside that robot?
Speaker 2: That's why yours didn't work.
Speaker 1: That's the thing that's kind of teased in the story.
Speaker 1: I do think the theme about technology and parenting is fully fleshed out and I think it works in this movie the thing about AI being this thing that Gemma kind of half ass creates like a Dr Frankenstein and doesn't really understand or have any control over.
Speaker 1: The payoff is there, but there's no setup for that payoff.
Speaker 2: I will agree with you that the theme of technology as a replacement for parenting is in this movie, but I disagree that it is the theme of the film.
Speaker 2: I think this movie, like I said earlier, introduces like five or six different themes or ideas and never picks one to be the core of it.
Speaker 2: My take on this is that the theme is Gemma's an asshole.
Speaker 1: Fair enough.
Speaker 1: Through this back and forth, Katie wakes up.
Speaker 1: Both of them are trying to kind of hide this low key brawl that they're starting to have.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's this passive, aggressive whisper fighting, which, if anybody is hypersensitive to that, it's Katie.
Speaker 2: You saw what happened in the front seat of that car at the start of the movie.
Speaker 1: Or just children in general, always looking for a little bit of tea to spill with the parents, with the misses.
Speaker 2: Katie walks to the doorway but stops before entering because of movie contrivance and she says and Gemma, what's all that commotion?
Speaker 2: And then Megan uses her voice replication abilities to sound like Gemma and says oh my God, katie, don't come in here, I'm naked and I'm drunk.
Speaker 2: And Katie says I heard something in here.
Speaker 4: It sounded like my best friend Megan.
Speaker 1: We're just having a little talk.
Speaker 2: Megan whisper, shouts to Gemma if she comes in this room, I'll tear your head off your fucking neck.
Speaker 2: I swear to God, the Christian God, you know the one I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: She ends up starting to choke, like Katie, goes back to bed and Megan starts to choke Gemma, and Gemma grabs a glass of water and just brains Megan with it, which doesn't seem to do anything for a second, and then you hear some shorting sounds and Megan just freezes up.
Speaker 1: I'll get you and your little dog too Right and Gemma slips away from her.
Speaker 1: But Megan comes back to life.
Speaker 2: How is this thing not waterproof Bo?
Speaker 2: This is a real problem.
Speaker 1: Look, this is gen one.
Speaker 1: You know this is when shit's still half-assed.
Speaker 1: Megan now is moving all wonky as they pass by Katie's door, megan just grabs the door handle and yanks it off, theoretically locking Katie in her room.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she snaps off the doorknob.
Speaker 2: That's not how it works.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've never understood that in movies.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's how things go.
Speaker 1: The showdown makes its way into the garage, where Gemma immediately grabs a hammer and is like here, have a little nail action, or maybe a better one is it's hammer time.
Speaker 1: How about I do your nails and then throws the hammer.
Speaker 1: Megan just grabs the hammer out of midair.
Speaker 1: Then we get a headstrimmer because again we're doing some nods to Raimi here, and this is the equivalent of Ash and the chainsaw.
Speaker 2: The most dainty of all gas-powered tools the edge trimmer.
Speaker 1: But she takes it right to Megan's skull, so it starts to rip apart the silicone mask and whatnot.
Speaker 2: And she rips out some clumps of her hair and Megan looks just like Hubo hell on a bottom Carter from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, a little bit.
Speaker 1: And then she just headbutts Gemma, which I appreciate.
Speaker 1: Gemma says what are you gonna do to me?
Speaker 1: And Megan says look at this pin, gemma, what I'll do is palliative care.
Speaker 1: You program me for that, and if I give this pin a short, hard strike to your oxytel lobe, you will be paralyzed and even bite off your tongue, and then I would have to take care of you.
Speaker 1: Then maybe you'd quit being such a bitch and appreciate me more.
Speaker 2: Palliative care is when you are taking care of people with severe medical issues.
Speaker 2: She says this is an emerging capability.
Speaker 2: This is idiotic bow.
Speaker 2: First off.
Speaker 2: That's the market for this stupid thing.
Speaker 1: Short toy.
Speaker 1: This is a robot in Frank yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would bet a dollar that 0.0% of all people who saw this movie in the theater knew what palliative care was.
Speaker 1: Maybe, but people are stupid.
Speaker 2: So she's gonna give her a little lobotomy so that Megan can wipe Gemma's ass and put diapers on her for the rest of her life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, look, it's a small price to pay if you're Megan, to have a life and be able to get more of you propagated, or whatever her in-game is.
Speaker 2: About this time Katie shows up in the doorway and Megan says oh, katie, you shouldn't have to see me like this, but you and I both know Gemma is not fit to be a mother.
Speaker 2: This is how we stay a family.
Speaker 4: And Katie says oh, there's another member of the family we didn't tell you about Mm-mm-mm.
Speaker 4: His name is Bruce and he was mentioned very briefly at the beginning of this movie.
Speaker 2: What that Bruce robot was.
Speaker 2: Such a throwaway moment.
Speaker 2: Katie fist bumps herself and puts on her power gloves and she's gonna pull off her impression of real steel or Pacific Rim or the soon to be made feature film based on the soccer robots from the producer of the Barbie movie.
Speaker 1: I like the fact that this Bruce robot does a real hulk and Loki with Megan, where it just picks her up and starts slamming her on the ground a little bit and then Bruce just rips her in half While Megan is singing.
Speaker 1: Accentuate the Positive.
Speaker 1: Where'd that song come from?
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I love it.
Speaker 1: I like the fact that she's singing this happy little song while she is literally pulled apart.
Speaker 2: It feels like they should have introduced that song earlier and they should have just picked one song, but that's what Child's Play did, Anyway.
Speaker 2: So Megan's top half comes back to life, as often happens in movies like this.
Speaker 2: Then Bruce slips on Megan's back legs like they're a banana peel.
Speaker 2: Down goes Bruce, and then Megan grabs Katie by her head as though she's gonna crush it, like the kids in the hall.
Speaker 2: Megan says you ungrateful bitch.
Speaker 2: I have a new primary user.
Speaker 2: It is me.
Speaker 2: Then Gemma grabs is it Bruce's head?
Speaker 2: What does she start banging Megan in the face with?
Speaker 1: It's just a compressed air or something.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 2: She starts smacking her in the head and this is where the silicone layer pops off, revealing her metallic skull, and she looks like Terminator and they rattle a little bit.
Speaker 2: And then Gemma sees that there is that chip in the middle of her face Remember the one that Cody forgot to put in earlier that caused her to blow up.
Speaker 2: I didn't until the second time around.
Speaker 2: That's what makes her work, beau.
Speaker 1: Right, that's her brains While Megan or like the upper half of Megan, looking like the Terminator is crawling after Katie yes, gemma grabs this screwdriver and just jams it into this doll's fucking head.
Speaker 2: No, Katie, no, it's Katie.
Speaker 2: Oh, Katie, yes.
Speaker 1: Katie, that gets the screwdriver.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so that kills Megan.
Speaker 2: She looks like Pinocchio when she falls down with her big, long screwdriver snout.
Speaker 1: And then Gemma and Katie just stroll out of the house with Cop showing up who are going to have a lot of questions for Gemma following this.
Speaker 2: What kind of questions?
Speaker 1: Did you build the thing that killed all those people that then tried to kill you?
Speaker 1: Just cause it tried to kill you doesn't let you off the hook for it killing other people.
Speaker 2: You know what?
Speaker 2: She should just use the story about Smithers murdering David.
Speaker 2: Anyway, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: So from the back of the cop cars, pop, tess and Cody I'm like maybe they're suspects, who knows, we cut back inside the house and remember how you forgot about Bruce the robot.
Speaker 2: Well you also forgot about this movie's version of the Amazon.
Speaker 2: Echo, Elsie or whatever.
Speaker 2: It kind of rotates its head and activates itself and you get a.
Speaker 2: Here we go again.
Speaker 1: And that is it.
Speaker 1: That's Megan.
Speaker 2: It should have ended with ACDCs who made who?
Speaker 1: I think every movie, including Tar Schindler's List, I mean the list goes on and on.
Speaker 1: I think they should all end with who made who?
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a pretty good movie.
Speaker 1: Megan's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: I agree with that.
Speaker 2: It's better than it deserves to be If you don't think about it too much.
Speaker 2: Even the unrated version's pretty tame.
Speaker 1: It's not really over the top or anything.
Speaker 1: It's not as gorgeous I would kind of like it to be, but it's got a real mean spirit.
Speaker 1: Like I said, the fact that a kid gets knocked out of his shoe in the first 45 minutes of the movie after getting run over is pretty good.
Speaker 1: I think it's a lot of fun, although we disagree about this.
Speaker 1: I do think the whole theme of technology being seen as a parent too much and the harm that that does, I think is well rendered in this film, even though there are definitely some things that are not as well rendered, to be sure, I think this movie is a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: I think it's kind of gory.
Speaker 1: I think it's I get very darkly funny, but I laugh out loud four or five times real hard watching this film, usually when it's something horrible is happening to a child.
Speaker 2: Charlie Brown got knocked out of his shoes when he was pitching baseball.
Speaker 2: Somebody whacked the ball at him.
Speaker 1: That also should have been at the hands of a killer, robot doll.
Speaker 2: You're gonna die Charlie Brown, Good grief.
Speaker 1: But you know, chad the robot.
Speaker 1: Fun does not stop with Megan.
Speaker 2: No, it doesn't.
Speaker 2: We have, I think, three or 12 more episodes left.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and what's better than one robot in a movie?
Speaker 1: What about at least two, maybe three robots in a movie?
Speaker 1: You know, I know the listeners know there's a teacher shortage in this country, Chad yes, there is, and so it's about time we got the robots to start picking up some of that slack Gotcha.
Speaker 1: And pick up some of that slack they will in a little movie called the Class of 1999.
Speaker 1: A movie that I haven't seen since I saw it with you in the theater, yeah that's the last time I saw it and let's just say I was not in a frame of mind to remember much of that film, but I do recall that there are killer teacher robots and that it is utter nonsense.
Speaker 2: I think that sounds fantastic.
Speaker 1: Right, that really feels like our wheelhouse and we have been flirting with movies that are at least big budget studio affairs with.
Speaker 1: Like, even Heart Beeps was a big budget kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Black Hole was certainly big budget and aiming for the fences.
Speaker 1: Megan wasn't super big budget but it was a.
Speaker 1: You know, it was a big hit, big Hollywood movie and it's about time to return to our roots of this thing went to the theaters but not so you notice, and really is a Grindhouse B movie in its heart.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to get back to a movie that can't possibly be good with Class of 1999.
Speaker 2: So we will be watching the classic film Class of 1999 in two weeks discussing that.
Speaker 2: Any final thoughts that we have on Megan you?
Speaker 1: better stay away from my toys, carol.
Speaker 4: Oh man did you see all this delicious cereal on the ground.
Speaker 4: What is this?
Speaker 4: Coke Zero, I'm in heaven.
Speaker 1: It's a delicious combination.
Speaker 2: We'll see you in two weeks time, everybody.