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On the latest episode of Die Laughing, hosts Bart and Lindsey welcome guest, Jamie Harmon, photographer and man behind the Amurica brand, to discuss Jim Jarmusch's 2019 Zom-Com, The Dead Don't Die. This absurdist, zombie comedy features a star studded cast, which includes Adam Driver, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Selena Gomez, Austin Butler and RZA, just to name a few! "I'm thinking Zombies."
Hosts: Bart Shannon, Lindsey Roberts
Guest: Jamie Harmon
Amurica: https://amurica.com/about/
Music provided by MKE. Check out more of his music at detectivemusic.com and Detective on Spotify.
Hosts: Bart Shannon, Lindsey Roberts
Guest: Jamie Harmon
Amurica: https://amurica.com/about/
Music provided by MKE. Check out more of his music at detectivemusic.com and Detective on Spotify.
Creators and Guests
Host
Host
Lindsey Roberts
Lindsey Roberts is a film, commercial and theatre actress, who has appeared in over 20 films including Hustle and Flow and Craig Brewer's breakthrough film, The Poor and Hungry. Her extensive theatre roles have included Velma in Chicago, Tanya in Mamma Mia, Nancy in Oliver and multiple years as Pan in Peter Pan.
Guest
Jamie Harmon
Jamie Harmon is a Memphis-based photographer with decades of experience in documenting both found objects and human subjects through film and digital media. A visual anthropologist, Harmon’s photographs have been featured in the New York Times, CBS News, Bitter Southerner and Memphis Magazine.
What is Die Laughing?
You'd be hard pressed to find a more divisive sub-genre of horror than horror-comedy. Those who hate it, really, really hate it. But for those of us who love horror as much as we love comedy, there is something truly special about a film that manages to combine these two genres into a perfect blend.
On the Die Laughing podcast, hosts Bart Shannon, Lindsey Roberts and a weekly special guest, take a tour through some of the best and worst entries in the horror comedy field!
Speaker 3 (00:01.666)
Hey, it's another week, another episode. Hey, Lindsey. How's your week going?
Hey Bart! It's going really well. Busy as usual, but good. Everything's been good. Been looking forward to this for sure.
Me too. The guest and the movie, a great combo. Are you ready to do this?
my god. I am so ready to die laughing.
Then let's do it. Another episode of Die Laughing.
Speaker 3 (00:45.596)
And welcome back. Hey, Lindsey.
Hey Bart. I mean, there's nothing to complain about, right? We're happy, we're healthy.
Hey
Speaker 3 (00:53.998)
Exactly. How about the movie we're looking at this week?
my gosh. I can't. It's, I can't. It's so good. No. No. I know. I don't know why I don't. I've seen bits and pieces of it. When I went back and watched it, I was like, I probably saw more of this than I realized, but I had not seen the whole thing start to finish in one sitting.
Had you seen it before? had you not?
Speaker 3 (01:18.766)
I saw it in 2019, which, oh my God, I thought there was a typo when I saw it was made in 2019 because in my brain, it feels like it was two years ago it came out. But yeah, six years ago, I saw it and I think I watched it again maybe three or four years ago. Why don't you share with the audience what our movie is this week? If I could do the roll R things, I'd give you a drum roll.
yeah
Speaker 1 (01:38.742)
huh.
Speaker 1 (01:45.624)
Like in Christmas vacation? This week's movie is none other than Jim Jarmusch's The Dead Don't Die.
100 years old, I can't do that.
Speaker 2 (01:57.29)
a fuck yes yes very excited
Yes. Someone who I never thought would make a zombie movie. Made a zombie movie.
Right? Maybe because of Tilda? Maybe?
Maybe? Maybe? It's such a Jim Jarmusch movie. With zombies.
Right. Right. A thousand percent yes. It's so good. Yes.
Speaker 3 (02:20.92)
So yeah, let's get moving on this thing. How about that? You want to bring on our guest this week? Alrighty, so our guest this week, he is one of my oldest friends and funny story. It's not really funny, but it's a story. He and I didn't realize until we were, think in our thirties that we had attended the same middle school in the same town at the same time and had a crush on the same girl.
Heck yeah, let's do it. Yes, so exciting.
Speaker 1 (02:49.73)
That's a movie script right there, Bart Shannon. Why haven't you written that?
Yeah, because I'm lazy and weak.
And not even in the same city that you would then later meet? No, not at all. Right, so that's like the interesting part, right? Yep. This is a completely different city. Yep.
completely different city. He moved around a lot. I think he was just there for a short time. He is just an amazing photographer, but he is also just an amazing artist as a person, as a soul. When I think of this guy, I think of a true artist to the core. He has always made me want to be more artistic. And I'm around him, I feel I am at my most artistic.
Yes.
Speaker 1 (03:31.33)
This person hands down makes Memphis a better place. Yep. Hands down.
If you're from Mephiser in the South, know him from his America brand of photo booths and photography and holiday photos. But there's so much more there, but we can talk about all that with our guest this week, Mr. Jamie Harmon.
Hey. Hey, Jamie. How you doing? Good to see you guys.
Hi, welcome to the die laughing podcast.
Happy to be here.
Speaker 3 (03:58.531)
Thank you so much for doing this.
man, thanks for reaching out and asking. Otherwise it would have been a Sunday of sitting on the porch and ruminating over mistakes I made in the past.
you
You can still do that on the podcast.
This is a great distraction though. It's hard to do that when you're distracted.
Speaker 1 (04:16.201)
That's right.
You have a little reprieve from that and then you can get back to beating yourself up. Did I say this? America.com is the website.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
That's a start. know, websites are our parents place to go and get information. You start on social media and then you're you know what, I really want to know what's going on. And then you go to the website and you're like, where's the about area. That's a cycle, but America.com is fine. Like I said, it's a good place to start. It's a good place to start if you're bored on the toilet.
are they?
Speaker 3 (04:41.41)
good place for the old people to start.
Speaker 3 (04:47.63)
Truly noted. So had you seen this movie before?
It sounds like I saw it the way both of you kind of described it where I saw it by accident years ago. I thought it was two years old, but it turns out that it's six. And because of this, thought, okay, I'm gonna sit down and just watch it tonight or last night. So I did. So it's fresh in my head. Yeah. I'm excited to talk a little about it.
I watched it twice. I watched it Friday and Saturday night. Yeah. Normally I just watch it once, but there was something about this one that I wanted to go back and watch a second time.
Did you really?
Speaker 3 (05:20.686)
So something we do, Jamie, is we'll watch the trailer. People at home will just have to listen to it. Yeah. Let's check out the trailer for Jim Jarmusch's 2019, The Dead Don't Die.
In this peaceful town, on these quiet streets, something terrifying, something horrifying is coming. Excuse me, we're closed!
Speaker 3 (05:53.326)
Was it a wild animal? This is really awful. Maybe the worst thing I've ever seen. What was it, wild animals? So what do you think?
I'm zombies. You know, the undead. Goos. You look gorgeous. Am I? Are you in this together?
What?
cool
Speaker 1 (06:21.255)
Flash eating zombies. Don't joke, it's really, really-
creepy.
Speaker 2 (06:28.77)
Man, this isn't gonna end well. They gravitate towards things they did when they were alive. Did she just say Chardonnay?
Shaggy.
Yeah, she did.
Speaker 2 (06:50.286)
you
Welcome to my world, zombies.
telling you this is all gonna end badly. Well, that's unfortunate. I'm quite confident of my ability to defend myself against the undead.
I can see that.
Speaker 3 (07:18.574)
Excuse me. Those are some pretty good cuts. You played some minor league ball, didn't you?
Well, a little class A. It was a long time ago.
Yeah, I mean it brings you right in. You're like, I mean you can't watch that trailer and not think to yourself, I have to watch that movie like immediately.
I remember the first time I saw it. I was like, Bill Murray, Adam Driver.
Tilda Swinton.
Speaker 2 (07:40.144)
yeah, if Tilda's in it, that's kind of what sold it for me was Tilda. I go back and forth between Brad Dourif and Tilda Swinton for who my favorite person to see on screen.
I'm a Kate fan. I'm a Kate Blanchett, Kate Winslet. I'm a Kate person. Hi. Yes.
Let's jump right into this. Right away, something is amiss in Centerville. The damn sun just won't go down. The radio only plays one station and everybody's cell phones have died. This ain't normal. We start right away with the two main characters, Officer Cliff Robertson and Ronnie Peterson, played by Bill Murray and Adam Driver. So we see them right off the bat driving into the woods to check on someone has been stealing chickens.
And so they go out in the woods and they see a recent fire and the skinned body of it looked like a cat to me. didn't look like a.
Did not look like a chicken.
Speaker 2 (08:32.59)
Yeah, I think it was a rabbit or a gopher
We kind of see the dynamic right away of Adam Driver and Bill Murray's characters. Adam Driver, just a few years removed from Star Wars. Captivating the whole time in this movie. He's got the best lines in the whole movie.
Right? Right.
the whole time. He does, he's such a scene stealer, but he doesn't even mean to be.
That was my first laugh in the show actually was, you know, he sees the skinned, I'm just going to say gopher because it's a funnier word. And he sees the skin gopher and he just says, yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:04.308)
Yuck. He says yuck throughout the entire movie and the way he says it is so like deliberate. He's just like yuck. It's so ridiculous.
Yeah, so that was the first one for me.
It's strange to see Bill Murray in a movie and him not be the funniest person, but you age out of being the funniest person. And he's the supporting character to Adam Driver's funny character. Right away we meet Hermit Bob, played by Tom Waits, who's been in many Jarmusch films.
Right, right.
Speaker 1 (09:33.262)
Tom Waits.
and full beard and long hair. He's hiding in the woods. So apparently a local town's person, Frank, has said that his chickens are missing. And so they're going looking for him and they first, of course, assume the usual suspects and Hermit Bob. And he's hiding in the woods and he fires a warning shot over their heads. And you could tell Bill Murray's used to this type of behavior from Hermit Bob. So after this interaction, we're back in the squad car and both Bill Murray's character and Adam Driver.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 (10:05.048)
Cliff and Ronnie. They noticed that the sun hasn't gone down yet and it's at the time of the day the sun should be down.
Yeah, it's like 820. Because the thing is, is that you don't know that. He says, is it already 820? And you automatically think AM, right? Yep. And then they start looking at their watch and like, yeah, it should be dark by now. And you're like, oh.
something is definitely amiss. And then their police radio goes out. Bill Murray says, check your cell phone. Adam Driver's cell phone is dead. And the radio station, all they can pick up is one song, Sturgill Simpson's, The Dead Don't Die. Which immediately we find out something's gonna be different because Bill Murray says, where have I heard this before? And Adam Driver says, well, it's the theme song.
to absolutely pause it. I had to pause the film and I was dying laughing and like five minutes later Jackson and his girlfriend come in and I'm trying to explain to them what it was and I'm like right and they were like okay mom I was like that was hilarious.
the first time I watched it, that's what made me go sit up a little bit and go, I'm gonna like this. This is gonna be good.
Speaker 1 (11:13.422)
This is the kind of movie that we're in. I'm here for it. Also, did you notice that the radio station that they stopped at was 9-11 and the time was 11-11? No. Uh-huh. Anyway.
did not.
It didn't have it as much as I wanted it to, you know, kept it kind of very subtle.
Yeah, I get it.
Yeah, we'll talk about that a little later, but yeah, have, have thoughts on the device itself and
Speaker 1 (11:37.901)
good. I can't wait to hear.
affects you as a viewer of a movie. So we've established that things are going to be a little different here. They're going to break the fourth wall occasionally. The next scene is at the diner, the local diner, and we meet Frank, played by Steve Buscemi, sporting his Make America White again.
Sitting right next to Danny Glover.
It said, keep America white again, which was, I was perplexed by that. I'm like, that's not proper, the proper sentence. What's going on? Like maybe they were saying he's an idiot, even more of an idiot than we think he is.
Yeah. But yeah, we also meet Danny Glover, who plays Hank Thompson.
Speaker 1 (12:11.191)
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:14.658)
Hank Thompson. Almost everybody has a first and last name in this film.
and a couple of characters have a play on their actual name. Once I realized that, hoping everyone's name was, but it wasn't. Just a few got that special treat. So yeah, we're at the diner. We get to meet Fern, who's the waitress at the diner.
Yes, they sure do.
Speaker 1 (12:28.44)
couple.
Speaker 1 (12:32.43)
Fern is Esther-balant?
She's been in some other Jim Jarmusch films as well.
Yeah, well, she was in stranger than paradise. Shadows and fog.
Shadows and Fog, which is my least favorite Woody Allen.
It's gotta be, right, everybody's. But hey, it's Woody Allen.
Speaker 3 (12:50.094)
I knew early on that that hat on Steve Buscemi's character was a guaranteed death scene to come.
thousand percent.
everybody did so.
Yeah. The next scene we go to the juvenile detention center where we meet these three kids that are watching television and realizing something is not quite right. You know, it was three kids. One of the characters, Geronimo was fleshed out. The other two were never fleshed out. Probably the least fleshed out characters in the entire film.
Yeah, they kind of came out of nowhere and I wondered if we needed it. It kind of threw me a little these ventures into the scene with these kids because I was like, the detention center, but they seem really smart and what are we hiding from? They seem also really relaxed. Like it felt like it was maybe in another movie.
Speaker 3 (13:42.894)
They don't have an arc. We'll talk about that later, but they get introduced. We check back a couple of times and they get out and then we never see them again.
maybe they do live. He said, I know a safe place. And then they ran off.
We never found out.
And then they ran off. And then they're not in the end, you know, when Ronnie and Cliff are making that pass and we'll get there. You don't see them there either.
Yeah, so it's these three characters, two female characters and the one male Geronimo. And Geronimo is really the only one that stuck with me. The other two could have been interchangeable. Not the actress's fault. Just something that just didn't get fleshed out. The next scene is at Bobby's gas and stuff.
Speaker 1 (14:21.272)
Yes, God, I love Caleb Landry Jones. I just love him.
facial tics at the beginning that he has. That's the character, right? He's never had facial tics before,
I think so. Yeah, I think he's just extremely awkward and very good at playing awkward, like futzing with the $20 bill and looking at it and still saying his lines and his eyes are kind of all over the place, but it's very good.
He does a lot of interesting stuff between the words. So yeah, he runs this place, his gas station, but it's also a very kitschy comic book store and music shop and joke store and I think later costumes some kids buy just pretty much anything you want. And he's behind the counter and right away we get, again, this is probably the second joke in the movie where it's like, it's gonna be this kind of movie where it's gonna be absurd. RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan shows up.
can't.
Speaker 3 (15:14.21)
delivering a package from his Woo PS truck.
Speaker 1 (15:21.45)
another pause moment. was like, I'm sorry, I need a minute. I like I need a minute to gather myself.
I didn't know what was going on. I didn't know what was going on. I'm like, what is going on?
Yeah
You
Delivering from whoopie. Yes. Whoopie. I died.
Speaker 2 (15:39.234)
Delivering wisdom and packages and
GIFS. That's right. GIFS.
And go. He had my favorite line that was not a Adam driver line, which was when he needs Bobby to sign for the package. He says, just give me your Herbie Hancock right here and I'll be on my way.
left at that too. was watching with me and she was like, she just said it out loud again, know. Herbie hair and cogs.
Bye.
Speaker 1 (16:02.062)
Obviously my brain immediately went to Tommy Boy because that's a line from Tommy Boy when anyway they're talking about the presidents and he was like yeah let me get you know get your John Hancock right here and he's like John Hancock it's Herbie Hancock. So I mean that's first thing I thought of was Tommy Boy.
Mm.
Speaker 2 (16:19.892)
That is a better laugh, actually.
Still brilliant. And worth the callback. Let's just assume it was a RZA ad-lib.
So bright.
Speaker 1 (16:27.27)
Yeah. Can we pause and jump into just a little bit of the dialogue that Dean and Bobby have when he leaves? Because you can tell something's going on with Bobby. He's worried about something because, well, Dean has given him some sort of newspaper that says, like, you know, the end of the world is coming. The world is off its axis. And so Bobby is very concerned. He is nervous. And so Dean, apparently...
our delivery man dropping wisdom, something other than packages, right? And he says, Dean, give me some good news. And he says, the world is perfect. And then he says something else. does he say? Appreciate the details.
appreciate the detail, but he also was really watching him as though he was in love with it.
I thought he was in love with him because that shot when he was loading the truck and he's watching him through the open door. I thought he had a crush on him.
when he asked him for the wisdom, I thought he was gonna say, Dean, would you ever wanna go have dinner? But instead he asked him for wisdom and the way he was looking at it was like, he's in love with him. And Dean called him Frodo, he had a nickname for him and he gave him a 1974 comic or something that he was like for his collection. So he gives him gifts regularly and that's what I thought was happening.
Speaker 1 (17:45.238)
Interesting. And both of you thought that. No. wow. But it makes so much sense.
Yeah, you didn't feel it?
Speaker 3 (17:53.742)
In fact, I believed it until later when Selena Gomez shows up.
Yeah, because then he's fascinated with her. Maybe he's just kind of fascinated with all these people that enter his life.
Yeah, maybe small town. Just a-
Well, he wasn't fascinated with Austin Butler.
Well, no, he sure wouldn't. Austin was a little bit of a dick to him, right?
Speaker 2 (18:12.376)
Well, they both called him Frodo. He called him Frodo as well as Dean. They were two the same nicknames that didn't know each other and nobody else called him that. So where did that come from?
The other hipster calls him a Bobby Baggins as well. everyone's he's getting hit from all directions.
And then his delivery line of his Bobby Wiggins. It's like, so he's so funny. Anyway, yeah, this is the moment where we realize that Dean is much more than a delivery guy, right? He's dropping some wisdom on us. To me, that's enough to make you kind of perk up and say, okay, this character is gonna matter. I need to remember him.
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:48.472)
But you you say that that piece of wisdom that RZA dropped, you know, said that these characters got dapped and he's going to be around, but he wasn't. His line of wisdom that he drops reminded me of a Key and Peele sketch from the past that Webb, I thought it was a little misplaced.
I wanted a lot more of him.
Speaker 2 (19:04.578)
Which is so campy, mean, there's so much weird stuff. And some of the acting, was almost like they were, for sometimes, like I'm not saying it was bad, because it fit what he was doing, was almost like, is this just like a dress rehearsal? You know, at times, it's like, is this a dress rehearsal? We're just gonna do it, this doesn't really count guys, so just relax and, you know.
Yeah.
In fact, there's a line later that I was not gonna talk about because I have my own personal feelings about it. But it's when Bill Murray says, you know, I should have retired two years ago. And Adam Driver says, I know, why didn't you retire? And Bill Murray says, are we improvising here? And I was a little confused because there was a part of me that was thinking that was like, I love Bill Murray.
Yeah, but he's notorious.
He's notorious for being difficult, which I don't like to hear those stories because I like to live in a state of denial about certain things. And so my first thought was that's Bill Murray being difficult because Adam Driver didn't deliver the line on the script. Could be wrong, but I was like, no.
Speaker 2 (20:09.742)
you
Did they cut right after that?
No, they kept going, which makes me think maybe it was deliberate.
Now I want to go back and watch it again and just watch Adam Driver's reaction to it. I think everybody in Hollywood is sort of unfazed by Bill Murray at this point. They would kind of have to be, Yeah, I know. I'd still do a movie with him any day. Are you kidding me?
Yeah I looked he's on Facebook
Speaker 3 (20:26.67)
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:31.507)
I'd drive him around, a grown man, I would drive him around.
Alrighty. The first play on an actual name is one of the newscasters and the newscaster throughout the entire movie. Rosie Perez plays a newscaster, Posy Juarez.
Speaker 2 (20:50.67)
Yeah, that was a good one.
The next scene we're at Frank's house, Steve Buscemi, and his racist home, and the animals are acting strange. Right away he's looking for his dog, Rumsfeld.
Rumsfeld, I died. Rumsfeld. Can we also talk about what was all over his house? Taxidermy fucking galore. Like there was a huge bear like over his couch and there were fucking guns everywhere. I mean this guy, what the fuck, Farmer Frank.
farmer Frank, he finds Rumsfeld, he's outside and runs away from him and then he notices his cows are gone and then he notices his chickens are gone. And then we cut to Tom Waits. You got to.
god.
Speaker 1 (21:37.346)
The piano isn't drinking.
spots that his cow is running into the woods and he's like, you know, he knows things.
Okay.
and he's eating chicken. He's eating the chicken. said, this is good chicken.
That's later when he, when they're doing something to Frank. That's right. Sorry. Let's not forget about that because I want to talk about that later because I'm going to say I had beef with that chicken.
Speaker 1 (22:01.946)
Mm-hmm. Okay.
We're back at the police station, Bill Murray, Adam Driver, and we meet one of the other police officers, Mindy, played by Chloe Savigny. And they're all looking out the window at the sun that just won't go down while the corpse of Carol Kane's Mallory character is lying in the cell behind them. And Adam Driver says, if you ask me, this whole thing is going to end badly, which becomes his mantra throughout the film.
a small part of me that all I could think of I know this sounds maybe it's like a weird Star Wars thing and you know how I am about that but the whole time I was just thinking like I've got a bad feeling about this you know what I mean like it just totally harkens that I was wondering if there was somewhere that that was maybe slightly intentional
Well, it would not be the only Star Wars reference in the movie. After that scene, we're at the cafe where Fern and a new character, Lily, discuss the new mortician in town, Zelda Winston, Tilda Swinton, Tilda Swinton, Zelda Winston. The name connection here. They discuss how strange she is and we immediately go to the funeral home and we witnessed Zelda doing her sword work. Here's my guess. I think that sword works when they come in handy later.
Correct. Correct.
Speaker 1 (23:01.836)
Yeah, we got another name connection.
Speaker 1 (23:15.307)
you think?
Elvin kill Bill in front of a Buddhist statue doing Zen sword.
A thousand percent Harkin Kill Bill. Hattori Hanzo sword, that's all I was thinking the whole time. That wig was glorious.
Yeah, let's just add every weird thing with tilde we can add.
An Elfen Scottish Uma Thurman.
Speaker 1 (23:35.82)
Yes.
Yeah, the accent was pretty pretty outrageous
Ha ha.
You and this together.
After we get to watch her sword work, she notices that one of the corpses on the embalming table, the corpse's arm has fallen off the table. Goes in, puts his arm back under the sheet, exits the room, and we see the body twitch. So that's the first time we see signs of some reanimated corpses.
Speaker 1 (24:02.37)
We're pretty far into the movie before you see a zombie. Yeah. For a zombie film, I think it's almost 30 minutes before you actually see a zombie.
And once again, once you have this kind of cast, we don't care. We just want to see them talk to each other.
You don't need
Yeah. Right.
It's a Jim Jarmusch movie and he is gonna make his movie, this is the same style, the same tone, the same pacing that he always does with zombies. We go back to the police station and the rest of the cops go home and Bill Murray, his cliffhanger, sleeps overnight in the cell right next to Carol Kane's corpse. Carol Kane's corpse. Carol Kane's corpse.
Speaker 1 (24:28.108)
Right. Yeah, basically.
Speaker 1 (24:40.492)
where it's clear that they've dated because he makes a comment about sleeping next to her corpse and it'll be like old times basically or something like
No different than when she was alive.
I was like, oh, Bill. Also, I think this reunited them from Scrooge. 1989, Scrooge to 2019's The Dead Don't Die.
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (25:04.11)
So when they were doing Scrooge in 1989, Mystery Train was being released.
How about that, Jamie Harmon?
Time's a bitch, isn't it? Geez.
Yeah, right.
Yes, sir. At this point, we go back to the juvenile detention center and visit the kids. And again, something is strange. And that's really all we use these characters for is like a cut back to just so we can see another viewpoint of something odd is going on.
Speaker 2 (25:29.678)
I didn't think about that.
Speaking of something odd, why were the guards these jack-dudes? You know what I mean? They had these guards come in that I swear looked like the Rock. They're these huge jack dudes in these like tight white shirts. I'm like, what?
Mr. Clean
Speaker 2 (25:47.478)
And we only get to see two rooms in that place. also I thought what was kind of funny is they always, Geronimo is the character you mentioned that had a little bit of development and he's always getting busted for being in the girls area. Which is another weird part of it too. But what struck me is like, they're pretty nice for guards in a detention center. In my mind I really went to the place like, well maybe Jim's just trying to say that they're not all horrible.
You know, like what's he trying to say about this? Cause there really was nothing else. It like, we don't really know anything about these guys, what they're in for. And they always seem to be together, even though there shouldn't be. It's another road to go down because as soon as the zombies got in there, I thought it's a fucking detention center. How the hell does zombies get in? It should be the safest place in the town.
right
Exactly. You're right. my god, Jamie.
And then I tell myself, it's a zombie movie, they're not even real anyway, so what does it matter where they get into?
Speaker 3 (26:45.058)
They're not real yet.
The movie is so deliberate in, you know, if they're at the pharmacy, what they want, they're playing tennis and they're playing soccer and they're, they're pining for the things that they wanted in life. So they wanted to be in the detention center. Well, you know what? At Harkin's back to Shawshank Redemption and Brooks, you know, he didn't want to be out either.
I'm going to blame it on a smoker and just someone propped the door open because they realized what was going on inside. They were getting a smoke break and then the place was breached by the smoker. You know, let that be a lesson to you smokers.
It is a small town. probably weren't taking it that seriously. That's true.
They also may have the best food in town since there's only one diner. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:27.948)
Yeah. So yeah, the kids at the detention center can tell something strange. So does Herman Bob. In fact, he looks up at the moon and sees a purple aura around him and says, vibrations. And then we see the dead begin to walk through the cemetery. And the first zombie we see is Sarah Driver, which is Jim Darmouche's partner. And the second zombie we see is Iggy fucking Pop. Shirtless, shockingly shirtless.
Yes.
Shockingly shirtless
Actually, he's wearing a vest, isn't he?
Yeah, he's wearing a vest, but he doesn't have a shirt on underneath it.
Speaker 3 (28:01.944)
You still get to see all of Iggy Pop's chest and belly. So yeah, those are the first two zombies we see and they stumble their way to the diner and attack and kill Fern and Lily. Then after they attack and kill them, Sarah Driver's zombie says, coffee. So it's first time we hear the zombies speak and they walk over to the counter and they start dumping cups of coffee into their mouth holes. Not really swallowing it, just sort of dumping it into their mouth hole and then all spills out on them.
And before that, Iggy Pop is absolutely gnawing on her intestines. Yeah.
before he drops it to go to the car.
drops it to go to the coffee. was like, that was the horror in this film by and large, there's no real, I mean, there's creepiness, right? But there's no real like jump scares or anything. This film is just all kind of gore and it's horror. That was one of the first moments that I was like, man, that is.
Just a close-up chewing though, like any of the chopping was cut. You know, they're like, well, we don't have a lot of, we're all going to use CGI and we don't have the, you know, we don't want to waste time on actually making it look like I'm chopping it. Well, they did use the CGI. When Adam Driver's like hitting physical people, they would just cut right to the last.
Speaker 3 (29:12.674)
Later I was thinking
Speaker 1 (29:17.774)
So apparently Iggy Pop asked Jim prior to shooting with the backstory, which I love that. Come on, you need a backstory for your zombie character, Iggy Pop. But Jarmusch explained that he and his girlfriend were killed on a motorcycle in 1973 after leaving a Blue Oyster Cult concert. That's what he told him.
And I would assume her neck was broken because of the entire time she's holding her own head up.
Anyway, Iggy Pop actually performed a Blue Oyster
So he's like, this is a character I can relate to.
Yeah, he may not. He's like, who's that? I don't remember.
Speaker 2 (29:52.974)
It's amazing he remembers.
Speaker 3 (29:57.144)
So Bill Mary gets the call and arrives at the diner where he meets a distraught Danny Glover who warns him about what he's about to see.
this fucking scene.
So Bill Mary walks in, sees them both dead on the floor. Adam Driver arrives in his smart car.
That is ridiculous.
ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (30:16.046)
This was another pause moment. I had to pause it.
Yeah, that was pretty funny.
was
As a fellow tall person who's driven a smart car before and realized that it's a dangerous like driving a go-kart like my knees get stuck against the steering wheel
And apparently the sounds of the car were taken from a Star Wars vehicle sound effect.
Speaker 2 (30:38.498)
You know, I thought it did sound odd driving up. I'm like, it's not an electric car. What is that?
You know what I mean? Yeah.
I did. That's great. Yeah. So there are multiple Star Wars.
There are multiple Star Wars references here.
And you know, she's driving a Prius, Chloe's driving a Prius and he's driving a smart car.
Speaker 3 (30:55.978)
so Adam Driver goes in and sees their bodies and says, yeah.
YAH!
Yeah, that's the second yuck.
It still makes me laugh. For me, it was like the best line from my dumbass.
But the best part, right, was the callbacks were immediate. So like Hank says, what do you think it was Cliff? A wild dog or several wild dogs? And then, you know, Adam Driver goes in, sees the body says, yuck. And then comes out and says, well, maybe it was a wild dog or several wild dogs. They just keep.
Speaker 3 (31:36.278)
Yeah, Chloe arrives in her Prius.
And Chloe says it.
And she is just such a mess, that poor Mindy. She just cannot hold it together. She wanted to be a cop in a small town and was expecting it to be real sleepy and just pull people over or keep them straight. And man, training did not prepare Officer Mindy Morrison for a zombie apocalypse.
Obviously not a lot of character development. We don't really know anything about any of these people. Do we? can't remember any backstories and even the hipsters from Clevelanders. Like where the hell are they going? What are they doing?
Speaker 2 (32:15.734)
just standing there after they say their lines? Yeah.
They're just standing there staring at each other in between lines and their deliveries are very slow. When Adam Driver pulls up in that car, he says nothing to Bill Murray. He just comes and stands next to him, profile looking at him. And Bill Murray just nods his head.
Yeah. And then Hank eventually says, well, I'm going to go.
So yeah, like you mentioned Hank says, well, I'm going to get out of here and he leaves and they send Mindy to do crowd control. Of the three people that are trying to look through the window. Adam Driver's got nine of the best 10 lines in this movie. Bill Murray asks him, so what are you thinking? As in, know, what's his opinion on who killed him? And he says, I'm thinking zombies, know, ghouls, the undead.
Crowd control.
Speaker 1 (33:02.05)
dead. And then there's a nice little pause. And then Bill Murray says, you're telling me you think zombies did this. And then another pause and then he's like, yeah.
This device is used several times through the movie. I think it's zombies in theory, and then everyone just goes along with it. It's like, I like that fact that we don't have to like, we got to convince everybody it's zombies. It's just, I think this is zombies. Okay, I'll take your word for it. It makes it easy.
That was nice. I think I enjoyed it too. It's like, well, that's what it is. All right.
Well, it does make sense a little bit later, right, when we understand a little bit more about the fourth wall and what these two characters are supposed to know.
Yeah, getting to the fourth wall, guess, did, there was one moment where I'm not positive where maybe it was when Bill Murray went into the diner where he looked at the camera. feel like there's only like three or four times where the fourth wall was broken. was like, it's a theme song. And then definitely when he said later, we'll get to when he talked about it, got the full. Then there was one, I can't remember what scene it was where I.
Speaker 1 (34:08.686)
Police car, yeah
Speaker 2 (34:12.974)
could have sworn he'd looked at the camera for a second. But I don't remember if it was Bill or if it was another character. But there wasn't a ton of it. And you were going to talk about that later, right? You said, I got some thoughts on that.
Yeah, it gets heavy later. They're really leaning to it. Yeah, I didn't know.
Yeah, it gets real heavy later. I didn't notice that either. Worth another watch. Worth a third watch.
or just ask the robot. Yeah.
Hey, robot. So at this point, we have new characters. It's the arrival of the Cleveland hipsters. just because you didn't know they were in it?
Speaker 1 (34:40.204)
I died.
I didn't know any of them were in it. I mean, I saw their names in the credits and I was like, what?
and so weird just where they're sitting how they're sitting their life is like everything about sharing a drink.
The sharing in a drink thing, I thought it was heavy handed because it was saying these guys like each other a lot. They have no boundaries. They're going to share a drink together.
One of the weird things I thought about was like, all right, the placement's weird. Let's take the actors and who they are and what they look like. The girl is driving, go into a small town in America. And then eventually we learned she owns the car and she's not dating either one of them.
Speaker 1 (35:13.527)
Okay.
Speaker 1 (35:21.496)
And it was an energy drink. At first I thought if it's a beer that makes sense. You know, cause they could only afford like one beer.
Sharing an energy drink makes it more gro-
I was like, but
And it was almost empty because they were tilted it pretty high
They wanted us to know that there are none of these old people hangups in this group of friends, but I have an old person hang up about drinking after anyone. Especially at the end of a can.
Speaker 1 (35:47.171)
Yeah.
Yeah, no shit.
Right, but we've got Selena Gomez. We've got Austin Butler and we've got Lucas Saba.
Was this right after once upon a time in Hollywood within like a two year span maybe?
actually was before. The IMDB list, The Dead Don't Die, right before Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Maybe they were filmed at the same time. But, I mean, Elvis was 2022, right?
Speaker 3 (36:10.424)
Yeah, maybe some.
And that was a classic 80s horror movie. The way they did their scene was they're driving down a back highway. We need gas. It says gas. Like it's a trick gas sign to get you to come into the town, you know, like, and then they go to the motel and then they die.
Right. There were a lot of intentional tropes used, sort of just like, this is my movie. It's going to have zombies in it. I'm going to use the tropes. So horror fans can appreciate that.
Just flip the script on those too, because in the old days it would have been like the alpha dude driving the muscle car. And the girls would have been ditzy and didn't know anything. And in this one, it was all reversed. The other characters really didn't have much to offer the scenes. Their lines were very simple, where she interacted with the police officers and she complimented everyone.
Octoboby. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:00.226)
So let's talk about that scene. So they get to the gas station and they go inside and so awkward Bobby's behind the counter and immediately Austin Butler calls him Frodo, which is what RZA had called him. And he said, did you call me Frodo? Frodo. I didn't get Frodo vibes from him ever for two separate people to call him Frodo.
Yeah, no.
No. Yeah, the first time it made me think that the other two that was his nickname form, like his pet name, and they were really close.
Yeah, but second one was a little head scratching. So there's this store, there's a lot going on in this store. First of all, Bobby's wearing an Osprey R2 t-shirt and a of the Living Dead pin. Selena Gomez says nice t-shirt and then spots a CD that she buys, The Dead Don't Die by Sturgill Simpson. I didn't count the callbacks to The Dead Don't Die, but has to at least be five. They buy the CD and they go outside and Bobby follows them outside. can't remember why.
Yeah, it's a lot.
Speaker 1 (37:54.839)
because he sees the car.
Oh, he sees the car and he says, great car. And I said, it's very old school Romero vibes. again, shout out to neither living dead for the second time. I call him on it's gorgeous car. Absolutely gorgeous car.
Pontiac Le Mans.
And right before she gets in the car, she's like, thanks. And then they have the little star kind of around her head. Yeah.
Well, first she says what any geek wants an attractive woman to say. Yes. Your film knowledge is impressive or your whatever knowledge, whatever your geek area is, is impressive. And then she lights up.
Speaker 1 (38:26.572)
That's when Luca's character calls him Bobby Baggins. That's right.
Bobby Baggins.
She asks him what his last name is. He says, you know, Bobby Wiggins. And then the guy makes the joke and then he's a little deflated. And then she says the compliment and then he's inflated. So at least he's left on a high note.
Yeah, nice to meet you, Bobby.
And obviously, since we had this moment, they're going to fall in love and we're going to develop the whole arc of their two characters getting together. And obviously, right? Obviously that's going to happen later. They get back to the motel, these three of the Cleveland hipsters. So they're staying at this local motel, which there was a pretty funny line earlier. Zach character says, are they cute little separate bungalows like in Psycho and Bobby?
Speaker 1 (38:53.474)
Mhm. Obviously.
Speaker 1 (39:06.286)
No.
and psycho that were all connected.
That's exact delivery, Jamie.
And the motel they say that was like psycho. It was. I can't remember why the cops are there.
They're telling the owner of the hotel, Hey, we just, you know, there's a problem at the diner.
Speaker 3 (39:24.162)
Yeah, there's a little interchange that's pretty damn cute where Selena Gomez asks if they have any change for the vending machine. Adam Driver, obviously you can tell is. Smitten. Smitten. So he gives her all the change and she hands him the cash and he's like, don't worry about it. And she's like, you sure? It's like, And she walks away again, one of his funniest lines. He says that girl's part Mexican. I have an affinity for Mexicans. They're like my favorite people.
Thank
Speaker 3 (39:53.166)
Yeah.
How can you tell? think Bill Murray was like, how can you tell?
And there's nothing factual here. I just have an affinity for them and I can tell. It was really cute. There's a funny little interchange too between him saying like, I feel like they give me Pittsburgh vibes. And he's like, well, the plates say Ohio. So I'm thinking Cleveland vibes. I thought that was, and that's also if they were from Pittsburgh, right? The city Romero studied and started his directorial career in was Pittsburgh. So I just was wondering if that was.
like maybe a little connection there. And Jim Jarmusch named his production entity Imagine 11 as a nod to Imagine 10, which was the production company that produced Night of the Living Dead. Dope.
I assume they were.
Speaker 3 (40:38.488)
Pretty dope. There's a lot of Bill Murray and Adam Driver's characters going to different locations. Now they're here. Now they're there. I get it. They're cops and they're trying to figure things out, but just sort of, we don't know the motivation for why they're there. They're just there. I guess because... So they go to the cemetery and Bill Murray even says, are you looking for here?
That's what's in the script.
Speaker 1 (41:05.678)
into it is the funniest thing. Bill Murray's pratfalls are the best things on the fucking planet. Like, this one is, he's like, what are we looking for here?
And it might be the only time that Adam Driver shows any emotion. He laughs at it, he's kind of smiling at it, and that's it, you know?
He goes and helps him up. He's like, look, there's another one right here.
So yeah, they find two. So they find two. So we're to assume that those are the two graves of the zombies that played by Iggy Pop and Sarah Driver. And then they leave and then Tom Waits, Hermit Bob character comes down and looks at the hole and says, God damn it, ghouls.
God damn it.
Speaker 3 (41:47.214)
Right after that scene, we're at the hardware store where Bobby is telling Hank about, immediately, again, this is another one of those moments where this person is telling this person it's zombies. Don't need facts, don't need proof. It's just, he's telling Hank that to kill a zombie, you gotta kill the head. And he's just like, okay, I'll do it. So they start assembling all these weapons that they're gonna use to kill zombies with.
Yeah, we need no proof of this. We're just kind of all going along with it. But this could be another like fourth wall moment, right? So like the film uses sort of zombie rules that they maybe have seen in other movies. Like you got to kill the head. Yeah, it's it's not like the real world where they had an experience with a bunch of zombies and it happened to be that when they were trying to kill him, the only thing that worked is you got to chop off their head. They just said from the beginning.
This is in the real world.
Speaker 1 (42:35.692)
This is how you do it. And none of these characters are connected, right? This is what Ronnie said and this is what Bobby said, but they don't get together and say it, right? Especially somebody like Bobby, right? Given his knowledge of zombie films, his knowledge is coming from movies, not from real life.
Yeah, Bobby's character, he knows the rules because that's his character. His character is supposed to know, whereas Adam Driver knows because he read the full script.
Exactly.
But we get proof right away because the very next shot is the cemetery and now it's overrun with zombies. They're coming out of the graves, walking everywhere. There's no turning back. Everyone's going to know if you don't know already that it is zombies. So back at the motel, we see the hotel manager looking for his missing cats and he's attacked by a group of zombies with one of them saying, free cable.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:24.022)
Is that go? Yeah, we have free K
that's mauled and taken down. So at the one hour mark when arriving at the police station with the weapons from the hardware store, Bill Murray and Adam Driver tell Chloe Seven you that is zombies. And then Carol Kane's corpse reanimates and she says.
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (43:41.518)
Shard and a did she just say chardonnay and again silence and then Bill Murray goes Yeah, and then more silence like it's just And she's just standing there. It's so good and nobody is freaking out but Mindy. Yeah, she's like Everyone's just totally calm
Well, as we know, Bill Murray has read these scenes. Right.
Yeah, yeah. So Bill and Adam, Adam has the upper hand, but you're right. Yeah.
Yeah.
So Bill Murray fills the need to be the one to dispose of Mallory because of her history and he fires a couple of shots into her body and a bunch of ashes, sprays. But then Adam Driver steps in and after several whacks, it's harder than it looks apparently, he decapitates her with a machete. Bill Murray says, those were some pretty good cuts. You played some minor league ball, didn't you? And Adam Driver says, well, some class A. It was a long time ago.
Speaker 1 (44:16.683)
ashes.
Speaker 1 (44:37.922)
Yeah, it took a couple of slices for poor Carol Cain to go down.
Yeah, I thought that was a little too that it took so many.
She was a tough broad. It took me a while to kind of figure out. I was like, I don't understand what this is that's coming out of them when he slices their heads off or when they die. It took me a second. Like I was like, I don't understand. It looks like soot.
Yeah, it does look like soot. Yeah, exactly.
And so I didn't understand and something happened later and somebody said ashes to ashes or something, they said something about ashes and I was like, okay, ashes to ashes, to dust. It's the person's ashes. Cause they were already dead right inside. I thought that was interesting because there would be no running blood in these people's bodies. They're dead.
Speaker 3 (45:19.662)
It was the first time I'd ever seen it that. Like that. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (45:27.982)
And we see it all the time. Spray blood out of zombie movies. yeah, it's like, wait, they don't have functioning arteries.
yeah, now I'm remembering. That's true. That's a good point because when the people in the motel weren't zombies and they made a point to say when Adam was chopping off their heads so they wouldn't become zombies, their blood splatters all over him and he cleans the blade and then it splatters all over Bill and Chloe.
and Chloe.
gonna go to the funeral home scene right after that, where we see Tilda Swain. Zelda Winston putting on makeup on the two golfers that were started by lightning that were mentioned earlier. What a farce of a makeup job that she's doing on both of their faces.
Zelda Winston.
Speaker 1 (46:09.698)
It's like divine, you know?
That was not what I thought. was divine. Or poison.
yeah, yeah, open up and say Yeah, but the guy looked like divine to me, so like, that's all I was thinking the whole time.
So she's working on both of their faces at the same time. And first the woman's eyes open, she closes them. Then the guy's eyes open, she closes them. And then they both pop open and they both sit upright on the embalming tables at the same time. And she says, I can't do a Scottish accent.
Are you two in this together then? I'm not very good at it either, but that's what she says. Are you two in this together?
Speaker 2 (46:47.842)
Then she cuts their heads off and says, Mahajalukhansoulbunny.
What a shame, I you looking so bunny.
Like all embalmers do, she's doing her job with a katana sword at her waist. know, of course it's what people do. As one does.
you do.
I then she heads over to the, she starts walking like a road.
Speaker 1 (47:07.502)
Like a fucking robot
First, hang on, we got a little scene in between. Back at Frank's house, Frank, Steve Buscemi's character has a zombie come to his front door. And I thought it was very fitting they made it a black zombie since he wears a hat that says, he shoots that zombie. And then we go to the, next scene is the gas station where the gas station is overrun with zombies. And we see all of these zombies saying the words that they yearned for when they were alive.
Keep America wide again.
Speaker 2 (47:34.178)
Yeah, Wi-Fi.
Skittles, toys, Snickers. That's a lot of the kids.
A lot of kids, but we go inside past all of these kids. Camera goes inside of the store and RZA turns around and he is a zombie. Now we know what the Z in RZA stands for.
There you go. There it is.
Nice.
Speaker 3 (47:54.286)
Then immediately outside, we see the zombified Sturgill Simpson lumbering up towards the gas station and says, get up.
the guitar.
Yeah, was a good one.
And I think he is acting in his future. We've seen righteous gemstone. huh. So next we go back to the juvenile detention center with our underdeveloped characters. It's overrun with zombies. As Jamie mentioned earlier, it's like, is how these fucking zombies get in there. I'm going to blame it on a smoker. The kids, they just hide in the closet. They wedge the door and hide in the closet. then that's, that's Immediately go to the police station. That's when Zelda arrives walking 90 degree turns everywhere she walks.
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (48:35.886)
And that really weird white bike in the yard?
saw that too I was like the ghost bike
Yeah.
We follow her to the police station as she whacks the zombies along the way and finally gets inside. She has a crush on Adam Driver's character, right?
Yeah, are you and the handsome one together?
Speaker 2 (48:55.062)
physically attractive one.
Ha ha!
and calls them by their full names. Chief Cliff Robertson, Officer Ronnie Peterson, like the whole time she's just calling them all by their full name.
Yep. She asks Bill Murray, since he is the elder cop, so what's your plan? What are you going to do? And he really, you could tell he's got a, he's thinking of a plan right at this moment. He's like, well, I guess since our job is to protect the people, I guess we go on patrol. then Chloe Sevenier says, I'm not staying here alone. I'm going with you. So till the Swinton's character offers to man the police station while they go out on patrol.
Right.
Speaker 1 (49:29.506)
Which again, Jamie, this is maybe one of those moments where the one place you want to be is the police station. What zombie wants to be at the police they're all going to avoid it.
Yeah, they're all going back to their own world. And then, you know, they ask her if she knows how to work the computer system they have. And she goes, I think I can handle it. Then we learned that apparently she's a master coder.
She's an alien, for sure.
Yeah, yeah. And we didn't know, but we knew she was something, you know, from the beginning. We're like, okay.
This was a very ET moment, right? So she's phoning home through this computer system and sending signals.
Speaker 2 (50:04.347)
Yeah, they all leave, so they're all in the cop car together and they're all driving, you know.
Hang on, first, as they're leaving, she asks Adam Driver for his car keys. And so he hands her the car keys. And his car keys has a... Star Wars. Star Wars key chain. And she says, oh, you like Star Wars. What did she say? It's good fiction? Yeah. Oh, it's good fiction. I didn't even get that line till right now. Yeah. Oh, what a fucking idiot I am.
Yeah.
I cannot believe I just.
Yeah. It's all, we love you Bart, we're here for you.
Speaker 3 (50:38.062)
Me words, thoughts not well.
And it's the Imperial Starship, right? Isn't that what's on the keychain?
Yeah. So then we get to the cops driving around in the squad car and they keep passing all of these zombies on the street and they're all doing the activities that they liked when they were younger. And this is a very back to Dawn of the Dead. Dawn of the Dead, there's that iconic line in the mall where they ask why, why are they coming here? And I'm going to butcher this line, but it's something like they gravitate to what they loved when they were alive.
which is almost like a direct quote, not a direct quote, but I mean it's.
The sentiment is exactly the same. Yes. And 100 % on homage.
Speaker 1 (51:16.526)
And you see them playing tennis and playing soccer and there's all sorts of scenes where at the pharmacy saying oxy and ambient and
Well, just the funny parts of like, they're all buried in their tennis outfit and they're buried in their baseball out.
Yes.
I was wondering that too. It's like, boy that's a lot of people that died doing what they loved.
And then we're left in those outfits and rotting laying wherever they were, I guess.
Speaker 3 (51:43.15)
Maybe that's why Tilda Swinton is the new funeral director because the other one was so terrible.
They're like, well, he's fine. Speaking of dress though, there's one moment where they're driving down towards the cemetery, Adam Driver's character leans out the window and Machete cuts off the head of that one particular zombie. You remember that moment? That zombie is dressed in the same clothes and with the same hair as Bill Murray's character in Zombieland.
You're absolutely right. is. Wow. Same floppy hair and everything. Boom.
Yep, you're welcome.
that's funny. All right.
Speaker 3 (52:19.106)
felt so planted that scene and I didn't know why. That's why they planted that same just to do that. I'll be damned. Yeah, that's rad. I had no idea. They get to the motel where they find the Cleveland hipsters dead in their room. Yeah, that's where we are. And Adam driver says, he goes in looks and says, well, that's bad.
Speaker 3 (52:44.536)
King of the understatement throughout this movie. Captain obvious. So immediately he just goes in and starts chopping their heads off and not wasting any time.
Anytime.
But they still just stand there at the door and watch. They just watch it happen. Everything's so delayed. You know, like they watch him chop three people's heads off. And then she says, why did you do that? It's like, well, you had like, she could have said, what are you doing as he walked in and raised it?
It's the train wreck. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (53:16.802)
And then to make matters worse, he walks out with Selena Gomez's character's head. Like a trophy.
holding it by the hair. Yeah. Well these people aren't undead yet. They haven't turned yet. And then the thing is is that Cliff so often in this movie says he's right. You know talking about Ronnie. He's right. He's right.
throws it back.
Speaker 3 (53:37.464)
Before he decapitates Selena Gomez, he sees the Sturgill Simpson dead don't die CD on the bed and puts it in his pocket. So then we get to the hardware store and the zombies totally take over the store. They get through the back door and this is what Bobby and Hank are still trying to fend off the zombies and they just get overtaken by zombies. that's last thing we see as just them fighting to the end as the zombies fill the room.
that's right.
Speaker 1 (54:01.55)
I've had such a little soft spot in my heart for Danny Glover in this film as Hank. He was so sweet. mean, just kind of putting up with fucking Farmer Frank's bullshit and then stumbling upon Fern and Lily in the diner. You know, I mean, he just had this sort of horrible experience all around. And I don't know, I just, I was like, poor ha-
It was hard for me also, but just to see as we get older and we see certain actors showing their age, it's like, he's not 40 anymore. So yeah, they get overtaken. then right after that, we cut to Frank's house where he gets devoured. He's in the yard and he gets devoured by zombies. And that's when Herman Bob is in the woods watching and pulls up a piece of chicken and says, well, this is good fried chicken. Or he said, this is good chicken.
but it's not fried, right?
You had beef with that. You had beef with the chicken line.
Yeah, my beef with it was, it was just too explained. We know it's his chicken. We know it's chicken. Well, as soon as he takes a bite, we're all adults. We know that that's his chickens. It's cute when he just takes a bite of the chicken and it's like, Hey, for the dumb fuckers out there, this is his chicken.
Speaker 1 (55:13.656)
Tell us without telling us.
Speaker 1 (55:20.878)
Yeah.
And no one said it was good chicken before. Like he's agreeing with someone in the past. This is good chicken like Cliff said.
Right.
Yeah.
We're back in the police car. The police car gets stuck in the cemetery. It looks like it's stuck on bodies. so all of our cops are trapped in the cemetery, unable to move the car. And this is when Ronnie says again, this is going to end badly.
Speaker 1 (55:47.01)
And Bill Murray's just over it. says, shut up Ronnie.
Shut up Ronnie. Shut up. He says, this is his other emotion Jamie. goes, no, you shut up.
yeah.
My kid's arguing.
Now this is after he throws the Sturgill Simpson CD out the window. He puts it in, he gets sick of it. I've had enough of this. Bill Murray throws it out the window. Bill is losing patience.
Speaker 3 (56:11.022)
Losing patience. He tosses the CD out the window. So after that, the tensions are high and they're yelling at each other. And then in the backseat, Mindy's dead grandmother appears at the window. She's freaking out already. She can't handle the situation. Her grandmother is saying, Mindy, Mindy. And so she does what anyone would do in a panic situation. You give yourself to being eaten by zombies, right? But yeah, she gets out of the car. Thankfully, the zombies don't get
are so dumb they accidentally close the door right behind her. So that way, Bill Murray and Adam Driver's character are safe. And can have this great conversation. first we cut to Zelda driving the smart car down the street. peaceful scene. Very peacefully. weaving in and out of zombies lumbering on the street.
and can have this great conversation.
Speaker 1 (56:56.91)
have a question about this. So right before this, we see Bill Murray head on hit a zombie with his car. And Mindy says, why did you do that? Why did you have to do that? And he says, I didn't see him. And then you have Zelda being very careful not to hit them. And they don't seem to be attacking her.
It is a smart car.
Speaker 2 (57:25.324)
She's not human. She doesn't have organs. Jamie. But I am curious why she stopped and cut the head off of the fashion person.
the fashion.
Just to say the tartan line, I guess.
I guess so. Yeah, I guess so. So we all know that it's a Scottish accent she's doing.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (57:45.451)
And just, she's offended by the tartan plaid. That was a definitely another plant that could have completely been omitted.
Okay, that's what it was.
Speaker 1 (57:53.71)
Yeah, I'm not sure we needed that.
So we're back in the car. Cliff asks Ronnie why he's been saying this is all going to end badly and why he's so fucking sure that it is. And Ronnie says, it's because I read the script. And Cliff asks, you've read the whole script? And Ronnie says, yeah, Jim gave me the whole script.
Lemony says his name.
Yeah, exactly. And then Clef says, he just gave me the script with my scenes in it. I've done so much for
Yeah, you just gave me my pages.
Speaker 2 (58:24.424)
There's so much that you don't even know about.
so much that you don't even know about. Yeah. And then he says, what a dick.
What a dick. So here's my beef. Got it. It's cute. It's funny. It's Monty Python and all the grail. Yeah. But anytime it happens, I'm out of the movie for a while. I get it. Because then you start thinking like are they Bill Murray and Adam Driver or are they Cliff and Ronnie? And it takes me a while to get back into the flow of things. And I know we've this film, there's a lot of things you just let go of, but it takes me a minute.
I thought about that.
Speaker 2 (58:56.078)
I think I was back in it though, because they went through the little conversation and then he said, Bill kind of came to the like, well, you read the whole script, you know, it doesn't end badly. So let's do this.
But I will say to your point Bart, who is Bill Murray then? Is he Bill Murray or is he actually Cliff? But it's these moments with Cliff or Bill that you think, well, now I don't know if he's Cliff or Bill. That knowledge of Bill Murray knowing Jim, just then your brain has to go down all of those paths. So it is a little strange.
it takes me out of the movie experience and I have to force myself back into the magic movie world and not the people who are making a movie.
The real people movie world.
So a spacecraft hovers overhead while Zelda's chopping off zombie heads in the cemetery. She, by the way, great CG. She splits one guy's head in half. head opening vertically, parting. you see all the dust come out. thought that one was, X. And then walks out into the cemetery where all the zombies have congregated because they're all looking up at the spacecraft and she's just stares up at the spacecraft with them.
Speaker 1 (59:51.758)
parting.
Speaker 1 (59:56.706)
Yeah, that was cool.
Speaker 1 (01:00:06.903)
Right.
where you go when the fourth wall is broken, you can't get back. I am constantly thinking, the hell does this have to do with anything? And then I have to tell myself, it's an absurd movie anyway. So I go in that little loop and then it happens. And then I go onto the next thing, just fine.
Right, but it is like, what was Zelda's purpose? Why did she come to the town in the first place? Exactly. If she wasn't gonna stick it out and save him, it feels like when it got really hard, she was like, fuck this noise, I'm out. Like after kind of helping them build this plan and helping them attack these zombies, right? Just move there.
She just moved there. just moved.
Or was this part of her planet's plan to zombify Earth?
Speaker 1 (01:00:49.592)
But why would she kill any of them then? You know what mean? Unless it was just fun and she needed sword practice.
Yeah, I don't know. I'm just trying to.
That's a good point. There's a lot to let go of, or you have to let go of in this movie.
Yeah. Yeah. It's just the absurd. I can tell myself pretty easily. It's like, it's just can't be kitschy. Absurdity doesn't matter. There is a message that we'll get to at the end when we talk about it that I'm like, here's my takeaway.
just walk away from it and it's fine.
Speaker 1 (01:01:12.74)
huh.
But there is a line when the spacecraft's overhead, Bill Murray asks Adam Driver's character, was this in the script? And Adam Driver says, no.
So this is new to them. Again, it's like, like the device. I've always liked the device. Ferris Bueller's Day Off wouldn't have existed as a movie without this device. So I like it. It's just my own, it's my own personal demon that I just have to deal
No, perfect.
Speaker 2 (01:01:39.808)
Adam did not get the full script.
or there was a rewrite.
He was like, I wanted everybody to be surprised by the UFO. So I didn't, I intentionally left that scene. He's a dick. Yeah. He's just a dick.
Ow. Jarmusch is a dick.
Speaker 3 (01:01:52.59)
So spacecraft opens up a beam and sucks up Tilda and Tilda's out. She's gone. Spacecraft takes off, goes off into space. We are done with Zelda Winston. I thought so too. Cliff asks Ronnie at this point, so how does it end? And Ronnie tells him, well, we got to give our best shot. What does Cliff say? says, but it does him badly. Ronnie replies, yep. So they get out, walk out into the cemetery, Bill Murray with his shotgun, Adam Driver with his machete.
thought she was going to save them all.
Speaker 1 (01:02:21.934)
And I said immediately, I need a slow-mo moment here. And almost right when it came out of my mouth, it went to slow-mo. I was like, yep, that's what we needed.
Bill Murray utters, okay, let's do it. Then they walk out in slow motion. And to battle the undead, in the cemetery, they just walk through the cemetery killing reanimated versions of their friends and the townsfolk. And just one after the other, we could see all these characters that we've seen in the movie that are now zombies, except for the kids from the detention center. So let's all assume that they did make it out.
Bill gave, he gave one zombie a pass. Hank. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right.
Hank. He's like, I can't do it, Hank.
You're gonna have to do it yourself. And I thought he was gonna hand him the gun for a second.
Speaker 1 (01:03:02.252)
and then he just kinda walks away because that's who Hank is in the afterlife too. And man, Cliff gets so upset when Ronnie kills Mindy.
Yep, too soon, I guess. But Mindy also says right before it, it's the first character I think that says two words, right? She says both are names. And then Ronnie does what Ronnie does and just beheads the shit out of her.
Did you notice throughout the film, there was this like father daughter sort of thing going on with them? yeah. Yeah. And that was solidified when you saw how upset he was when Ronnie had to kill her.
Yep. An earlier scene where Mindy is crying and she says, I just want to know that everything's going to be okay. And then Bill Murray tells her everything is going to be okay. It's all going to be fine tomorrow. And then Adam Schreiber says, I don't think so. so, exactly. She starts crying and Bill Murray has to comfort her. So yeah, definitely several scenes like.
Shut up Ronnie
Speaker 1 (01:03:59.976)
It almost looks like he's about to kiss her on the forehead.
Twice! Twice. Two different scenes.
Yeah, I thought he was gonna do it. It's like he had to hold himself back. Bill Murray, the actor, had to hold himself back from not doing it.
100 % he did. He leans in and stops because it's natural reaction, but it's also it's a thing of the past.
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (01:04:21.004)
And also that seems so very un-Bill Murr.
Or maybe no on cliff, but probably Bill Murray. Yeah, it was an actor moment. It was not a character moment. It was definitely Frank comes up. He relishes shooting Frank in the face
It was an actor moment, for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:04:33.932)
Yeah, he loved that. He hated Frank. He made that pretty clear the whole movie.
At this point, they're overwhelmed. go back to back to fight off the zombies. Then we get to Tom Waits, Herman Bob character. As best we could tell, he's the only person that really has no interaction with the undead.
Right. Yeah.
and also the only person that survived.
He's a bystander to the entire movie.
Speaker 2 (01:04:56.878)
He's the narrator of course too, but because of that it's like he's the only one which in my mind is like He's the only one left on earth when it was all over I'm like, well, he's been living in the woods all his life He's fine because the animals weren't affected in this one
Right.
Speaker 3 (01:05:13.026)
I felt bad for the characters that didn't realize that all the safety was just a few feet away into the woods.
for the cows and the chickens and the cats and the dogs, they're all going to the woods.
Go hang out with Bob the hermit. I think he was the Greek chorus of this whole film.
Yeah. Herman Bob is going to be our narrator for the end. And he watches as Cliff and Ronnie get overtaken and lot of lines of dialogue in here. Some great, some a little heavy handed.
I don't remember any, truthfully. Except it was just like a synopsis of like, it's over, the world gets what it deserves or something, you know?
Speaker 3 (01:05:45.356)
Here's the takeaway I'm paraphrasing. I didn't think any lines were gold. Yeah. But here's the takeaway I took that the dead were just ghosts who sold their souls for consumer goods that gave them pleasure when they were alive. And he did say this, now they're just hungry for more stuff.
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:06:00.83)
Yeah, I do remember that. Yeah. Which was for me, the broader message of like the whole thing in a way, you know, like Siri, Oxy, all the little one-liners were just kind of like simple ways of putting it humans in perspective, capitalist humans or the world of what we live in. Consumers. Yeah.
consumerism. Right. Right. He said a lot of that in a lot of different ways, but yeah, the takeaway was they sold themselves for useless shit and now they're in their own version of hell. And as the zombies take down Cliff and Ronnie, Tom Waits says, what a fucked up world. And that's it. That's our last line of the movie. And that's. And Sturgill Simpson plays us out for maybe the fifth time in the movie.
That's it. What a fucked up world.
Speaker 2 (01:06:39.466)
and them's 2019 dollars. Imagine now.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, so that's the dead don't die. I think my opinion is the same as it was when I saw it in 2019. And we can talk about this, Lindsay, through a series of questions if you want to do it that way.
Yeah. So Jamie, we always have to ask these questions. So very curious to kind of hear your take on a scale of horror to comedy. Where do you think the dead don't die lands? Where does it land for you? Is it 50-50 right down the middle? Would it be 50 % horror, 50 % comedy? So how would you lay out those percentages?
Yeah, I haven't really thought about it like that. If I had to just put it in a category, obviously it's a horror movie, but at 55 years old, there's not many movies that are scary anymore. But I almost saw this as kind of slightly political oddball comedy with horror thrown in as the backdrop. Horror wasn't the main goal. And truthfully, usually the stuff that I'm attracted to as well, I'm sure with you guys, it's not the mainstream anyway.
Speaker 1 (01:07:27.426)
huh, huh.
Speaker 1 (01:07:44.93)
Mm-hmm. Right.
I always have to compare it to like, well, are you asking me what the country thinks that this would be? I think it is such a weird horror genre, but taking a lot of liberties in the way Jarmusch can do what he wants in such a way that it really makes me like, I just love the weirdness of what's not said and even how the actors are just saying these weird lines and this weird, strange interaction. goes back to the
cast and the way it almost felt like a dress rehearsal, like, we're only going to do one take and then we're going to move on. And it was great. And breaking that fourth wall early made me really dig in, you know? think it made me go, oh, I'm not going to go to the bathroom. I don't want to miss any.
It does sound like you're leaning more towards comedy than you are horror though. Is that what I'm hearing?
I think so. would lean more towards comedy for me, but also it's not a traditional comedy. The things I laugh at the most are not like Adam Driver's only funny because he's standing next to Bill Murray. Even though Bill's not the funny man in this necessarily to me, just him saying, yuck. It's, still makes me laugh. So yeah, I think it would be more comedy.
Speaker 1 (01:08:59.662)
Yeah, what are you saying, Bart?
It's a Jim Jarmusch movie, which are quirky comedies. Some people don't like them. I personally love them. think we all, all three of us personally love them. So it's a Jim Jarmusch comedy with zombies. I would say 90 % comedy, 10 % horror.
That is exactly where I am, 9010. I have to think about intention too, right? They did not set out to make a horror film. It's the vehicle, it's the device they wanted to show some of that and the...
The of even the zombies as we've talked about is just this consumer culture of we kill the planet or each other just to keep, you know, feeding our shallow appetites, right? We consume, we destroy in the process. Like the zombies are a necessary device for that commentary, but I feel like they set out to make a comedy.
Yeah, I guess the zombies are definitely the device of which I knew when I first heard them saying one word. He's basically just reducing all of us to one word, which is what we've allowed to happen to us by the, you know, one percenters that own everything that are like, we're the consumers, they're the capitalists. Like in this movie, they're polar fracking, Whatever that is. So they're polar fracking. They've destroyed themselves, which is what they will do, which is the way the system is designed to work.
Speaker 2 (01:10:18.574)
But we are just one word, stuff gatherers.
Yeah.
Right. I don't think the scares are really designed to terrify you. They're more absurd and intentionally awkward and the horror is in the texture, right? The gore, the zombies, the dread, but the humor is what drives it. I wasn't ever scared. I didn't ever jump. There was no jump scares. You know, there's none of that in here.
Never. Not once,
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:10:42.802)
Yuck. All right, so Jamie, the other thing we always ask is what would your elevator pitch for this film be if you were either trying to get the film made or just trying to kind of talk a friend into watching it with you? What would your pitch be?
hate selling things. Sorry. Don't we all? Son of a bitch. Alright, Lloyd Do-
Yes! Just said Lloyd Dumlin.
You
I would be such a lame pitch person. Yeah, you go first and maybe I can just riff off.
Speaker 3 (01:11:11.278)
Do you want me to go first?
Speaker 3 (01:11:15.372)
Yeah, exactly. It's fine. Whatever you say will work. But mine for this one's really simple because like I've already said, this is a Jim Jarmusch movie. It's Jim Jarmusch characters, it's Jim Jarmusch tones. So I would just say a classic Jim Jarmusch movie with zombies. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, mine is pretty similar. A deadpan zombie Jim Jarmusch comedy where Bill Murray and Adam Driver know the world's ending but still show up for work.
Yeah, I think when you asked me the question, like, so the movie hasn't been made. I maybe am the person trying to get the funding to make it. And that was the pitch I was thinking about. Like, no, no, it could just be like, hey, you want to watch a movie? What is it? Is Jim Jarmusch.
Right, that's all you have to say. It's a Jim Jarmusch film. Yeah, you know, that is kind of what's amazing about this film in particular. Jim Jarmusch has been making films since 1980, and this was the first of his career to receive a wide release in over 600 theaters in the United States.
It's Mystery Train with Zombies.
Speaker 2 (01:12:20.622)
Really? They had to because it was like all the cast.
Yeah, and it premiered, was the opening film at Cannes in 2019. It's funny that it takes something like this to make Jim Jarmusch more of a household name when folks like you and I have just watched his films since the 80s, you know.
yeah. All right, one more question. Yeah. Yeah. I'll go to Lindsay first. Would you recommend this movie and what caveats would you put on it and who you're recommending it to?
Yes, I would absolutely recommend this movie. I would say, I would recommend it to anyone. And I realize that sounds strange, but I am forever the optimist that wants to take whatever people's film experience is and help them see past and beyond your typical films, right? If it's somebody that I'm talking to that I already know, like,
loves this type of film, like barred if I were, I'd be like, oh my God, have you seen Jim Jarmusch's most recent film? And he does have a new project that I'm excited about that sounds like it's gonna be really good. So I would talk to you about that, right? I have sent this trailer this week to several people. Several people who I know either one would totally dig it because they're like, oh yeah, absolutely, why haven't I seen this? Or people who I know probably have never, like we talked about, have no fucking clue who Jim Jarmusch is.
Speaker 1 (01:13:46.21)
this is one of those films is the perfect introduction to films like that, right? They may not go back and watch some of the other Jim Jarmusch films, but they may go, well, that was really entertaining. I mean, yeah, there may be some caveats that you'd have to say like, okay, you got to deal with some fourth wall breaking that may take you in and out. There's some things that just, there aren't explanations for, you just have to dive in and say, wow, I mean, Jarmusch is very clearly a Camus fan, so just get ready. But otherwise I would recommend it to anybody.
Jamie, what about you?
Yes, now that we've especially fresh off of it and talking about it for an hour or so really, really makes me appreciate it more and almost doesn't want to watch it again. while you were describing your that was, think I would be like, yeah, I want to go back and watch mystery train because it was 30 years now that we've talked about it, know, 1989, 2019, it was a 30 year differences crazy 30 years. And it would really be interesting to watch those back to back just to see.
differences and choices made. But if I was gonna, yeah, I would definitely recommend it and say, look, just the cast alone, I keep bringing that up. But it's like all that stuff is gonna make it to where it doesn't matter even if you get it. You don't even have to get it. It'll be a fun movie to watch. I think even my dad would like it.
Right, Yeah, a zombie movie even my dad would like. There it is.
Speaker 3 (01:15:04.514)
There's your elevator pitch right there.
Speaker 2 (01:15:10.606)
Get him the DVD for his birthday.
MSD. I would definitely recommend it. I would not recommend it to straight horror fans looking for a horror film. I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't recommend it to people that I didn't think had the right sense of humor. I think they're just going, it was boring. So there would be caveats of who I recommended it to. Like anybody that I just immediately knew had this similar sensibilities, 100 % I would. It's like, it's a fucking Jim Jarmer's movie. Just watch it and enjoy it. And there's zombies in it. And if people did like,
Hmm.
Speaker 3 (01:15:41.452)
a little comedy and a little horror, 100 % I'd recommend it to them too. But yeah, I definitely would recommend it, 100%. It was a joy watching it. I wouldn't say I enjoyed it any more than I did when the first time I watched it or any less, but that kind of makes me want to go back and watch more older Jim Jar Mooshes like you said. I'd like to see Night on Earth again and see what my opinion is now many years later or Mystery Train or anything else.
Coffee and cigarettes, we haven't talked about that either.
yeah. RZA wasn't coffee and cigarettes, was it? Del Mary and RZA. Yep. That's the Dead Don't Die by Jim Jarmusch. An absolute pleasure and an absolute pleasure getting to chat with you two fine human beings about said movie. Yes. If you want to know more about Jamie, America is the brand. I now feel too old to mention the website, so I'm not going to do that. Thanks, Jamie.
Mary was too young.
Speaker 1 (01:16:25.516)
You can find it on the social medias.
Speaker 2 (01:16:30.68)
Do not. I'd rather nobody look me up. Just leave me alone.
Jamie Harmon
Leave this poor man alone. He has been through too much.
Your COVID photos were fascinating though.
Thank you. That definitely almost killed me, but thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:16:45.048)
Jamie, during the pandemic, took photos of people in their homes, except separated by their windows and their doors. And there is a book of those photos, which I know Jamie doesn't want to talk about.
I actually still have 600 of those left in my studio so mythiscquarantine.com order one $35.
But leave him alone. Just order the book and leave him the fuck alone.
Yes, please. There's 2000 pounds of books I've got to go crazy Larry is selling.
Books.
Speaker 3 (01:17:13.09)
Jamie has lost his lease. Everything must go.
Everything was good.
I about those until every time I walk into my studio and I'm like,
Damn. Jamie.
Absolute pleasure, my man. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:17:25.238)
Absolutely, this is awesome. Jamie, thank you so much.
Yeah, thanks for having me. Love you guys.
We love you.
Well, that was a joy, my friend.
my God, that was so much fun.
Speaker 3 (01:17:37.262)
It kind of seemed like just we all appreciate Jarmusch and we all appreciate that style and that sensibility. so we kind had very similar opinion on it. None of us disagreed on if we loved it or hated it. None of us disagreed on what the film was. Right.
which I'm fine with disagreements, but Jamie and I were talking about this, like when the movie is as good as this, there's just always so much to talk about. We've had films that we've talked about where we're kind of, well, you gotta run out of things to say here, you know, but man, when it's like ripe, there's so much to talk about. It's so great. Also, I immediately went to MemphisQuarantine.com. I cannot believe it's only $35, knowing how much time he put into it.
and it started out at 75 bucks a pop. And just even if you're not familiar with Memphis, just the sentiment of seeing these people behind closed doors and quarantine, if you live through it, it will hit home.
It is a time capsule of the pandemic, especially if an artist using the constraints of that pandemic to make art. I'm not going to keep you anymore, Lindsay, but as always, an absolute pleasure just sitting here getting to chat with you about, in this case, a really enjoyable movie.
Uh-huh.
Speaker 1 (01:18:45.701)
my God, the time of my life I loved every second.
Have a wonderful day and I will see you next week.
Why, do you like it or not?
Bye lads.
Bye.
Speaker 3 (01:19:00.494)
All music for this podcast is provided by MKE. To hear more of his music, visit his band's website at DetectiveMusic.com and Detective on Spotify.