The Weekly Planet - Reign Of Fire - Caravan Of Garbage

Episode Date: June 27, 2020

Reign Of Fire is an oft forgotten but somewhat pioneering action fantasy movie from 2002. Set in the distant future of 2020 it pits Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey against an army of full on fire breathing dragons. The movie is something else in terms of scale, VFX work and action sequences. But does it hold up? We find out, that's the Caravan Of Garbage guarantee. I guess.Help support the show and get early episodes at https://bigsandwich.co/SUBSCRIBE HERE ►► http://goo.gl/pQ39jNVideo Edition ► https://youtu.be/578GR4UzuuAJames' Twitter ► http://twitter.com/mrsundaymoviesMaso's Twitter ► http://twitter.com/wikipediabrownTWP iTunes ► https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/t...TWP Direct Download ► https://play.acast.com/s/theweeklyplanetTWP YouTube Channel ► https://goo.gl/1ZQFGHPatreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesAmazon Affiliate Link ► https://amzn.to/2nc12P4T-Shirts/Merch ► https://www.teepublic.com/stores/mr-s... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As women, our life stages come with unique risk factors, like when our estrogen levels drop during menopause, causing the risk of heart disease to go up. Know your risks. Visit heartandstroke.ca. FX's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London.

One woman has a secret. The other, a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost. FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. It's the worst time in the world ever, mate. Well, maybe not ever. It's a bad time in the world now, isn't it?

2020, the year 2020. Oh, the year we're currently in. Yes. Absolutely. I mean, you know, it has its ups and downs, hasn't it? Mostly downs. Almost exclusively downs. I was trying to think of a good thing, but I couldn't.

Here's a good thing, though. Movies made in the past, set in the year 2020, that are also apocalypse movies. We're going to do a few of them, aren't we? Sounds grim, but all right, let's do it. Starting with 2002's Rob Bowman's Reign of Fire. Is that the whole title? That's the whole title.

The thing about this movie is, if you saw the trailer, it's like, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba, the year 2084, ba-ba-ba-ba- the year 2084 it's a classier movie than that don't you feel absolutely and it's not set in 2084 i don't know what you were talking about well it's in the i think that's just the trailer people going like fuck whatever dragons gives a shit sure but yeah dragons are back and they're mad that's that's i love metal music that should have been the tagline dragons are back and they're mad. So Rob Bowman, you might know, director of Airborne, did a bunch of X-Files stuff including the first...

Air Bud, did you say? No, I wish. Yeah. That movie I haven't seen. A bunch of the X-Files including the movie, the first movie, Electra. So look. Mixed bag. Mixed bag, but all in all, I think he does solid work.

And I think this movie, it's just a fun kind of action romp that takes the really dumb source material really seriously in a way that absolutely plays. Yeah, I think that's probably down to the cast. Yeah. Mostly, yeah. Definitely. Well, let's talk about the cast,

because apparently Matthew McConaughey required everyone call him Van Zam on set. What I admire about that is, though, it's commitment to just a really dumb premise. I'm going all in on this dragon fighting movie. It's shirts off, hair's gone. Sleeves gone. No sleeves. No sleeves on anyone. What I enjoyed very much about Reign of Fire,

that in the tradition of apocalypse movies of your Striker Pentecost, your... Cade Yeagers? Your Cadeade yeager we've got in the two lead characters we have some wonderful names in quinn abercrombie and denton van zand i feel like maybe a few future apocalypse movies are the few movies where your lead male character can have a name other than jack or john they really just leap on it yeah you're absolutely're absolutely right. Christian Bale, this was post-American psycho, but before Batman, obviously. He wasn't a huge name.

But a huge man. But a huge man. Those guys, those elite guys, the guys who run the communities, they're stealing food. They're stealing food. You can't be maintaining that kind of muscle mass without stealing food from kids,

is what I'm saying. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Maybe they've got their own little, maybe they've got their own little mushroom garden for protein. Oh, that might be true, yeah. They're making mushroom protein shakes. Of course, we also get Isabella Skorupko.

Did I say that? Skorupko. Skorupko, yes. Goldeneye's own. She's back. I mean, she never really went away. No, I guess she didn't. What do you think? They put her in storage until they need her for another movie.

They froze her like Boris from Goldeneye. Oh, I see. And then I bought her for this, yeah. So, to set set the premise of this movie for those who haven't seen it first of all if you like fun dumb action movies this is a pretty good one i think so too yeah but what's the premise here well the premise is that uh the world is uh has over the course of history has repeatedly been the victim of dragons, the dragons of myth and legend, who emerge from hibernation,

destroy everything, eat everything, and then return to the nation. And everyone's like, these are awful! Exactly. They, as we learn, although how the characters learn, I'm not sure, they were responsible for the death of the dinosaurs. Yes.

Which makes sense because, you know, fire versus feathers. As we now know. Just a big fiery feathery mass running about. I imagine a lot of the dinosaurs were like, they were just engulfed in flames and they're like, phew, oh, no more feathers. Well, good, that was a little bit embarrassing.

Oh, no, I'm dead. You know what I mean? And the crocodiles are just like, I'm just going to go underwater. I'll deal with none of this. The perfect crime. crocodiles are just like, I'm just going to go underwater. I'm dealing with none of this.

The perfect crime. But in this movie, at some point in the unspecified past, or modern day past. Let's say 2002. They are woken from their hibernation, and they return to destroy the world. And then in the year 2020, after... Ish. Yeah, ish.

After humanity has unsuccessfully attempted to destroy them with nuclear weapons, they've only succeeded in destroying the entire world, and it's now a post-apocalyptic nightmare realm. Yeah. The idea behind them breeding is there's one male, which is insane to me. You'd at least have, like, beehives of them. You know what I mean? Okay, sure.

Hey, I'm not a dragon. Who am I to say? James, they're too big for beehives oh dear great point great point but what i really appreciate about the opening is he gets like some of the dragon fluid in his eyes this is quinn abercrombie this is quinn abercrombie a young quinn abercrombie because he's the one who unearths it in the first place well he doesn't unearth it he's the first one to come in contact he's there when it happens like in a rewatch, because I haven't seen this movie since it came out at cinemas. In a rewatch, ultimately it's not.

Maybe the construction site that was built on a dragon hive accelerated their release. But maybe it didn't. It seems like it was going to happen anyway. What did those dinosaurs have a construction site they were working on back in the day? Maybe, yeah. Like the Flintstones. Oh, yeah, maybe. But when he gets the liquid in his eyes,

I remember when I first saw this, I'm like, he better not get fucking dragon vision or a telepathic link to a dragon. And they do away with all the magic and myth, which I really appreciate. Because as I've mentioned, they're just fucking awful.

They're just awful rat-like creatures just scurrying about, just ruining everybody's day. If you gave a rat wings and flame breath, this is exactly what they would do. Yeah, that's it. And the way you, I mean, I want to talk about how they brought them to life, but just that first time you see it just thunder past the elevator out of the smoke, there's some terrific CGI in this. It's a little wonkier up close when you see the eye of it peek in.

But for a movie from 2002, pretty spectacular. And I wonder if that's partly due to the fact that this movie is almost entirely grey. Yes. Do you remember when someone decided that the most striking combination of colours was teal and orange?

Oh yeah. And so every movie poster for a couple of years was just teal and orange. Airbender. Sahara. Some of the Bourne movies. Some of the Bourne movies. Star Trek. Well, I think this is a movie that kind of took that idea to heart because it's like

this movie is entirely grey with just some bursts of orange. I thought about this, though. Yes. Is this the first... This is a really grey universe movie. It's a very gray universe movie very gray universe it might not be but if somebody could comment below is this the movie that kind of kicked that off this kind of this idea then you get like book of eli terminator salvation it just

they ran they ran rampant for 10 years but this one i think is quite effective because again it is you know it's ash everything's ash yeah it's true it's no grass nowhere i also like how they justify their design and their abilities because the idea is that they produce a natural napalm out of their mouth it's two liquids coming together they explain everything away they've got like tattered wings so that you can they're out there like scrapping with other dragons and just just messing up shit yeah they. They feel really real and tangible in their design. And I think a big part of that is also you don't see a lot of them. There might be maybe six or eight minutes of dragons in this actual movie,

and a lot of the times it's obscured and it's from the perspective of the ground. You get more of it kind of at the end, you know, in the final showdown. But I think that really adds to it. Unlike Dragonheart, which came like five years, more than that, you know, a few years prior, it's very much in the final showdown but i think that really adds to it unlike dragonheart which came like five years more than that you know a few years prior it's very much in the open it's a dragon walker walking around all fours and talking look dragon hearts it's dragon what do you what do you want it's i enjoy it i want a dragon speaking with the voice of sean connery that's what i want and i got it and i will forever be satisfied. That's right. Did you watch any of the sequels? No. They're all bad. Huh.

Yeah. Is it like Air Bud? It's Dragonheart, but now he's a surfing dude. Now they've drafted him into the NBA. I know his name's not Dragonheart. Yeah, his name's Dragon Dragonheart. Oh, sorry. Okay.

Dragon Dragonheart. Kid FBI agent. What? Do you want to know a bit about how they actually made these dragons, how they brought them to life? They brought them to life? No, no, okay. Dragon Dragonheart. Kid FBI agent. What? Do you want to know a bit about how they actually made these dragons? How they brought them to life? They brought them to life? No, no, sorry. In a technological sense.

Mason. I know it's the year 2020. Everything's bad. You know, sure. Who knows what's out there? You know what? Again, if they did unearth a dragon, I'd be like, fuck whatever. Better than some other things we've got going on.

Let it run loose. We can start again. It's fine. So, first of all, things we've got going on. Let it run loose. We can start again. It's fine. So first of all, they modelled them in clay. And then this is one of the first examples of taking a 3D scanner and scanning them into the computer. So then normally they'd have to digitally recreate. Like a flat screen scanner, right?

Yeah, like a flat screen. No, just like a little barcode scanner kind of thing. Because normally before that. Oh, this one's coming up as potatoes? I don't know. So say for like the first Jurassic Park, they would model them, but then you have to digitally kind of recreate them.

This, not the case. They also keyframe animated all of it. So it's all hand animated, essentially, all the movements, which is amazing because they look really lifelike in the way that they move because they copied bats as well to get that kind of wing flapping effect. And they're low slung bodies.

I don't know if you noticed that, but the wings hang way above the bodies, which makes them more menacing. And that's designed to be kind of like a hornet. Ah, I see. And when they're on the ground, they've got that cobra spit, which comes from the movie Cobra. Ah, Sylvester Stallone's famous spit. Yeah, that's right.

And when they're on the ground on all fours, it's kind of like a tiger ready to pounce. Like it's shoulders up, head down. Yeah, right. All teeth and head. All of those things, I think, just they add to the realism of these dragons. And I think there's been terrific dragons since,

but this might be the best design. I mean, I know there's Smaug and there's Game of Thrones, but I feel like those built off this, if anything. Interesting. No? A big call. Those are pretty solid dragons. Yeah.

But you're right, I think. But also you, you know, Smaug, of course, used Benedict Cumberbatch performance capture, him rolling out of the ground. Yeah, great stuff, great footage. Very great stuff. Matt'll put it in. Matt's doing this one.

Ben's taking a break. Thanks, Matt. He's not dead, he's okay, but just so you know. No, from when. Ben's taking a break. Thanks, Matt. He's not dead. He's okay. But just so you know. No, from when you said he took a break, I wouldn't. I'll get comments like, is Ben dead? He's not dead. But now it sounds like he is dead because I keep pressing the point.

It really is. Maybe Matt killed him. Speak to Matt about it. Matt wouldn't have killed him because he's taken so much time to make this great video. That's a good point. He's really busy. Yeah, what are you going to say, sir? I can't remember anymore.

I'm too concerned that maybe Ben's dead. So I can tell you a bit about the pyrotechnics as well. There was eight tons of propane, 7,000 gallons of diesel. That was for the black smoke. Most of the smoke in this is and fire is real. You couldn't really do convincing CGI, smoke and fire.

Especially fire at this point. Or even now, really. Yeah, well, no, I think it's gotten a lot better. Look at movies now. Matt will put up a clip of a movie. I refuse to look at movies now. I've seen this, I've seen Dragonheart, that's all I need. Fair enough.

But yeah, so the idea of eight tons of propane for this movie is incredible. So every time you see like a burst of flame, something lit up, it's real. They did it for real. That is money in the pocket of Hank Hill. Yeah. Hank Hill's propane and propane accessories. You're not incorrect.

They do a little Star Wars in this. They do. It's true, yeah. Christian Bale, Jerry Butler, they run an orphanage. Sorry, I stepped. No, please. You are not incorrect. They probably do it in real life also.

They probably did, yeah. Does that feel um disingenuous to tell kids you've invented star wars no it's all a bit of fun but also i you know i find it difficult to believe that i mean he's stealing food it's not the worst that you stole it but honestly also i feel i find it difficult to believe that even children born after a complete societal and world global apocalypse do not know what star Star Wars is. Yeah, you're born with it, aren't you? Yeah, I absolutely believe you are. Can you explain to me...

Yes? ...that the method that Van Zandt uses to capture and kill dragons... Yes? ...is drop three people out of a helicopter... They shoot nets at the dragon from net guns. ...using a triangulation 3D tracking GPS system... Yes?

...when you could just run over the hill on a horse and shoot it with a harpoon. It just seems insanely dangerous and complicated. They're like a person who jumps out of a helicopter to fight a dragon. They'll be dead in 17 seconds on average. Yeah, no shit. Why are you doing this? Because you're throwing them at dragons. Who can fly and shoot fire.

Look, you're right. What's the benefit? You get to fly that helicopter. One person does. Yeah, that's true. You get to fall out of a fire. Look, you're right. What's the benefit? You get to fly that helicopter. One person does. Yeah, that's true. You get to fall out of a helicopter. Yeah, yeah. To your death.

To your death. And that's the other thing. There's a moment where one just flat out hits the ground, right? Yeah. And they're monitoring them so they know where they are in the 3D space and no one's like, hey, pull your parachute. Just lets him hit the ground. What the fuck's going on?

Well, he's got to focus on looking at where the dragon might be, not the ground. Dragons are rarely on the ground, are they? That's a good point, yeah. I don't know, it just seems insane to me. And then afterwards, Matthew McConaughey's like, don't cheer, you know, we lost good men today. But you put on this insane display to get recruits for your cause,

which, by the way, didn't work because you just end up getting people in at gunpoint. And then don't be like, you, by the way, didn't work because you just end up getting people in at gunpoint. And then don't be like, you guys are the bad, bad people here in this scenario. You're a bad person. You're throwing people at dragons. You tricked us into liking this. That's right.

It was so cool. Maybe it's like a traveling show. Oh, okay. Like it's part of a circus, you know? Yeah, it might be part of a circus. Maybe he was never part of a... I mean, does he really look like an army man or does he look more like a guy who swallows swords on the side?

It's kind of more that way, isn't it really? Absolutely, yeah. So he's a P.T. Barnum-esque post-Dragon Apocalypse world or during Dragon Apocalypse world? Yeah, look, honestly, I don't know necessarily if I buy any of the premises of the movie when you think about it too hard. I don't really think that that would be more effective

at hunting dragons than actual nuclear weapons. Yes. I guess because they keep multiplying. But yeah, how many are you getting a day doing that method? None, mostly. But it also, to me, it leads more to my theory that this movie never really started as a movie about fighting dragons,

and they just added all that stuff later okay really it's a story it initially started like out like it's like a quaint english dramedy about people stealing vegetables out of somebody else's garden like peter rabbit exactly and then they just added more things on yeah until it became what it is now yeah it was gray filters and ash and smoke and and here we are yeah and the other thing about the mcconughey character, why am I picking this movie apart? I guess that's what people are here for. But I do like it when he's like, we're going to London.

We're going to take out the lead dragon, the buck, the bull, the big cheese. But he rolls in like it's fucking carnival. He's got like eight tanks in a row, and they're all like, pew, pew, we're having a good time, let's go. What are you doing? What are you doing? He's an idiot, tanks in a row and they're all like, we're having a good time. Let's go. What are you doing? What are you doing? He's an idiot is what I'm saying. He's the greatest showman.

You know, you can't, you can't fault him for that. Really? That's true. Because even his death, which is the dumbest part of the movie, a spectacular, impossible ax jump that he does. How far does he jump? Like 20 feet. It seems insane. What are you doing again? Like 20 feet? It seems insane.

What are you doing? Again. I mean, he's an idiot. I guess I've established that. Did he think that was going to go a different way? He probably expected a trapeze artist to catch him on the other side. It just never happened. Yeah, look, the thing about the finale is it's great.

And it also works into the whole idea of the dragon's weaknesses. They have vague ideas about how they work. They're like, I think they can't see at dawn and dusk. Maybe you get them on the ground, you shoot them in the face with a big explosion. That might be okay. But in that space at the end and you see the size of that lead dragon, the dragon from Dragonheart, he's falling on hard times. It feels so dangerous.

Sexy. And sexy. But when you see sexy and sexy but when you see one of them like run out in front of a dragon it's like oh don't do that that's that's a terrible idea that can shoot fire haven't you seen one before but that whole finale i feel you think they're out of fire they're never out of fire they've been doing this for years maybe they're out of fire maybe i'll be lucky yeah you might be right but the whole idea behind the premise it brings together like the performance and the setting and the premise, it brings together the performance and the setting and the pyrotechnics and the VFX. And I think it's a really great conclusion to this movie

that is good, I think. Or is it? Have I gone mad? Maybe in the Twilight, that guy thought that it was one of his friends, the fire breather. You know what I mean? It's entirely possible, yeah. All in all, this is a very grey movie. One of the of the grayest there is but in a good way i think yeah pretty solid movie

anyways this has been care about a garbage we do this every week we are doing our 2020 apocalypse trilogy should we say trilogy we'll do three of these yeah let's do three what's next week do you think mason should i put in a hint yeah put in a hint here it Should I put in a hint? Yeah, put in a hint. Here it is. Matt put in the hint. I didn't put it in. Ah! I reacted to the hint as if it was there, but it was absolutely not there.

What did we say? What's the next one? We're doing this for the audio one. What are we doing? I don't know. I don't know what we're doing. I'll have a look. Second one is... You sent me a text.

I sent you a text. Don't reveal the third one yet, Mason. Okay. But the second one is... Here he goes. Here he goes. Here we go. Coming in hot. Not, not, not, not, yet, Mason. Okay. But the second one is Here He Goes. Here He Goes. Here we go. Coming in hot.

Nut, nut, nut, nut, nut, nut. You send me a lot of texts, James. What are you doing? Most of these texts are from you. Edge of Tomorrow. Yeah. That's a good movie.

Grey as they come. Yeah. Should we rank these movies on how well they relate to the current situation we're in? Oh my God. Would you want to talk about that? What would you say

these dragons represent in British society? Is it all the pedophiles in the royal family? I've just got this demonetized, why'd I do that? I don't know. You're free to take it out. We're currently in the recording stage. I don't know if you're aware of that. I don't know, but I haven't, have I? It's in here. What are you doing? I think, personally, James, and you know I'm passionate about this, I think the dragons represent the oversupply of Jaffa Cakes in the British food industry. Yeah. They'll consume us all.

You think you're consuming them, but they're consuming you. People don't like it when we get political, Mason. And you've taken a big chunk of our audience and you've spat in their faces. That's right. And they're Jaffa Cake loving faces. They're orange jam smeared faces. Anyways, of course, we will be back next week.

If you actually want to see these videos early, guess what? What? You can go to bigsandwich.co, sign up. It's $9 a month. Is that too much? I don't know. But look, early videos all the time, including every Caravan of Garbage goes up there early.

Very cool. I think so. And if you've got any suggestions, leave them below. Put up polls on Patreon as well. It's a good fun time. I'm at MrSundayMovies on Twitter. I'm at WikipediaBrown on Twitter. What are your thoughts on the movie Dragonheart?

Tell us. Is it good? Do you think they should have got somebody else other than Sean Connery, a more Scottish person? Do you think they should have kept it as a quaint English drama with some funny four weddings and a funeral fistfights towards the end, you know? Anyway, see you next week.

Bye. Oh, we have a podcast. I missed it. I didn't say it. I'm saying it here. Say it now. Monday. Monday's Monday podcast.

It's not called that. There's a logo on the screen. You can see it. Just start up some sort of podcast app and just wait for a podcast, our podcast to emerge from it. Yeah, it'll cycle through eventually. Yeah, cool, nice. All right, goodbye.

Grab a jam, you guys. We'll see you next week. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. I mean, if you want. It's up to you. As women, our life stages come with unique risk factors, like when our estrogen levels drop during menopause,

causing the risk of heart disease to go up. Know your risks. Visit heartandstroke.ca. FX's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret, the other a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost.

FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+.