Weirdhouse Cinema Rewind: I Come in Peace
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Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema Rewind. We have a fun one here for you. This is a Christmas episode from last year in which we discuss the 1990 sci-fi action film, I Come in Peace.

This is an explosion-filled, muscle-filled action fest that, yes, does take place at Christmas and has at least some subtle Christmas themes going on in it, but mostly explosions and muscles. So let's dive right in. Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. ♪

Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. And this is Joe McCormick. And today on Weird House Cinema, we are going to be talking about the 1990 sci-fi action cop movie, I Come in Peace, starring the one and only Dolph Lundgren.

That's right. A.K.A. Dark Angel. That was, I think, the international title for it. And it was released in the States as I Come in Peace. I Come in Peace is the title that I was exposed to as a kid. See it on the other trailers that would be on your VHS rental or I think I would see the poster art. And I was always really intimidated because.

It had this like really scary looking like giant dude with like long white, white blonde hair, very serious demeanor. And yeah, he's he's from space and he is here to deal drugs. And I don't know that anything can possibly stop him. So it's funny. I recall no awareness whatsoever of this movie when I was a kid, which is strange.

strange to me because it seems like exactly the kind of movie I would have thought was cool, would have remembered and would have sought out when I was, you know,

eight or whatever. Um, but I, uh, I don't remember this one. The, the Dolph Lundgren movie. I do really remember though. I never actually saw it. I just have the, the cover of the VHS box burned into my brain is a later one from 1996 called silent trigger, where he's just holding this ridiculous looking gun with like bullets that are the size of crossbow bolts. Um,

Silent trigger, is that a thing? I don't know. Is it like the trigger doesn't make a noise? I have no idea what it's about. It's just Dolph Lundgren looking very grim. And I think he's got headphones on or maybe earmuffs because maybe the trigger is too loud and that's the problem. And the plot is about how he wants to achieve a silent trigger so he can take the earmuffs off. Well, Dolph never had any trouble looking grim and serious. Like, that's pretty much one of his...

His trademarks. The interesting thing about the movie we're going to be discussing today is that he gets a little more room to flex his acting muscles. And I understand that was one of the things that attracted him to the to the project. So we're going to get to see Dolph, you know, do a little bit of comedy, do a little bit of romance, be be more of a certainly an action hero. He's still going to, you know, spin kick the soul out of people. But but, you know, he's going to maybe try a few other things as well.

I'm more used to him in Ivan Drago mode where he is just if he dies, he dies. But here he is. He's trying to loosen up. He's trying to be funny and charming and make the same kind of transition that Arnold Schwarzenegger did from like originally just kind of like a a grim, humorless muscle man like the Terminator to become more of a.

charismatic action hero. And no offense to Dolph Lundgren, I'm not sure if he quite has the charisma at the ready to make that shift. Yeah, I'm not sure it was entirely a success, but it'll be fun to talk about here.

But yeah, I mean, he barely takes his shirt off in this movie too. I should mention. That's true. I think he, he's got it on pretty much the whole time. Does it ever come off? I think maybe there's one scene where he's getting bandaged up or something by, by a coroner, by the way. Yeah.

It's towards the end, though, almost as if they were like, oh, man, Dolph's been fully clothed this whole picture. Maybe he should take his shirt off a little bit. And he's like, OK, I will. But I'm trying to try new things here. I love a scene that has a coroner whose main experience is doing autopsies. They just start rolling for medicine.

But hey, I know why you picked this movie, Rob. I think I know because you said it has Christmas themes and by God, it's not really advertised in the marketing materials for the movie. But when I saw it, yes, this is a Christmas film. So it's perfect for December.

That's right. We love to cover legit weird Christmas movies on Weird House Cinema, like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. I think we're going to be doing another weird Christmas movie straight up in the week ahead. But we also like to dig into those Christmas subgenres, like Christmas horror. We covered one of these previously with 1983's Bloodbeat. But this time we're looking at an even larger holiday subgenre, the Christmas action movie.

Now, the big one that probably comes to mind for everyone is Die Hard, which I think at least the first two Die Hard movies are both set around Christmas, from what I recall. I don't know if the trend continues after that, but I can't really think of another one. Are there other ones you've got on the list? Oh, yeah. So Lethal Weapon apparently takes place at Christmas. Various Shane Black films, The

He loves to go for the holidays in his action pictures. And so you have plenty of very mainstream films to consider in this subgenre. And, you know, they're probably influencing each other to some degree. I wouldn't say these are necessarily weird films. They may have some weird elements here and there. But you do get into the weird with films like 1992's Batman Returns. Oh, Lord. Which definitely employs some Christmas in its weirdness.

I always forget that there are Christmas themes in Batman Returns, but yeah, that one, that's about as weird as a big budget mainstream movie gets. Yeah. Like I say, he kind of pushed it over the line there and not in a bad way, but in just like a mainstream way. So we may have to come back to Batman Returns in the future. Um,

I rented this movie, I Come in Peace, from Atlanta's own Videodrome. And while I was there, I was talking with the owner and manager, Matt, about Christmas action movies. He was talking about how he was thinking he was probably going to put together a selection of Christmas action movies there in the store. And he pointed out that a fair number of Hong Kong action films also take place during Christmas. Yeah.

which I was not aware of. And as for like why, why combine action films and Christmas? He said that he thinks part of it is just how easy it is to use the holiday aesthetic to give a picture a sense of time and place, which I think is pretty valid. You know, it's like when and where does this take place? Well, we got some tinsel in the background. Christmas. It's almost like artificial depth has been applied to the scene. And or if you're filming at Christmas, you know, roll with it. But I think another aspect of it is certainly the juxtapositions.

between Christmas, commercial Christmas, that kind of like artificial souped up sense of joy and happiness with horror, sci-fi, or just straight up explosions and spin kicks. I feel like using Christmas as a

A time setting for a movie is almost like using a recognizable location setting in the world, except it's cheaper to do. You know, it's easier to just like put up Christmas decorations on whatever set you'd be using anyway than it is to shoot a scene in Times Square and have everybody be like, I know where that is. You know, you have Christmas decorations in any room and people go, I know what that is.

Yeah, I can relate. And it's there's also it's almost a little bit, you know, you can get some some nice subtle comedy in there a lot easier as well. So, OK, so we have an action film. It is a Christmas movie and hot on the heels of our Robocop episode. This is another Texas movie.

filmed and this time set in Houston, Texas. I have to say, I always like it when they just go ahead and set the damn picture where it's actually filmed, especially if it doesn't really impact anything, you know? Because otherwise they're like, oh, Iron Man can't go to Atlanta. He's got to be somewhere like, why can't Iron Man come to Atlanta? Mm-hmm. They actually...

They go farther than just letting it actually be Houston. Dolph Lundgren is frequently seen wearing Houston Astros merchandise. Like when we first see him, he's got an Astros T-shirt on underneath his cutoff denim vest. Yeah, the Houston Astros, by the way, it's the baseball team there. It's like the Astro Dome. I had to look them up, though, and I realized, oh, they were until 1964, they were known as the Colt 45s.

I don't know if their mascot was a handgun or what have you. But anyway, I was thinking malt liquor.

Oh, yeah. I guess it could go that way. The Colt .45 is also a gun, right? I guess so. I would imagine the Malt Licker is named after the gun. All right. Maybe it's the Malt Licker with the gun. I don't know. Now, you can also think of I Come in Peace as a kind of late 80s, you know, certainly 1990 update of Not of This Earth, the film we've talked about on the show before, as well as a predecessor to another film we've talked about on the show before, 1992's Split Second, starring Rutger Hauer. So,

Split second, especially, I think, gave us both. We can't help but compare this to these two films, even though to be sure I Come in Peace arrives in theaters years ahead of split second. But there are so many things they have in common with each other. Yeah, there is some extremely similar DNA, especially in the specific buddy cop dynamic of the two movies.

Both of these movies have sci-fi elements where ultimately there's like an alien or monster doing most of the murders. But then they also have a main cop who is like a tough, no-nonsense butt kicker who doesn't play by the rules, whose life is shattered by tragedy. The chief tries to take him off the case. He's taking it too personal. Then he gets a new partner who's a college-educated nerd who insists on following the rules. But then in the third act is Klaus.

converted to the cult of instinct and breaks all the rules in order to save the day. Yeah. To put it in like D&D terms, it's like you have your chaotic good and your lawful good, but by the end, everybody's chaotic good. Because the message is,

Because chaos gets things done, I guess. That's right. Your main cop is chaotic good. I'd say, actually, the new partner usually starts off more as lawful neutral. Like, they would rather follow the rules than do the right thing. And then by the end, they are converted to the cult of the chaotic good. Yeah. So that's the way it tends to play out. We had a whole offline discussion about, well, where does this come from then? Like, what specific film...

uh, is being, um, copied by both split second and I come in peace, like some sort of non genre, uh, peace. And, we were looking around at different buddy cop movies and the articles about the evolution of the buddy cop movie. Like apparently it goes all the way back to the forties with Kurosawa, but, um, I'm not sure like, where do you, where you find that first really, uh,

influential example of the he's a bad cop or not a bad cop. He's he plays by his own rules and he plays by the rules. And now they're on the same case, that kind of odd couple buddy cop scenario. Where does that come from exactly? What puts that on the map? Maybe we'll have to chase down that lead someday. But I think we don't know the full answer today. Yeah.

But also, so this movie, yes, it has every cop movie cliche in it. It is it is explosion fest. On the other hand, there are some elements to it that I think are kind of clever and do work on their own terms. I don't want to oversell that element of it because this is ultimately a quite dumb movie. But like the idea of the villains being alien drug dealers, I don't know. That's just that's just kind of good.

Yeah, the only film I could come across, and this is one I didn't make it all the way through because I thought it was a little bit rough content-wise for my taste at the time, but 1982's Liquid Sky, I believe, also has some sort of like alien drug dealer kind of scenario or aliens harvesting drugs from human beings. And there are, sure,

surely others. So write in with your suggestions. Yeah. Um, you know, I was trying to think of another movie also that has the dynamic of an alien bounty hunter or cop chasing an alien criminal on earth. And I was like, Oh, critters actually. Yeah. Critters has that dynamic. And also, uh, there is a Jesse Ventura movie called a Braxis guardian of the universe that has the same dynamic, uh,

That movie is quite, I think, unintentionally hilarious, but nowhere near on the level of like budget or filmmaking finesse that I Come in Peace is. Yeah, I mean, you could even go, I think the Critters example is great. Our aliens in this film also kind of dress like the Critters, bounty hunters. But you could even apply it to things like Highlander.

where you have these outsiders, powerful outsider beings who are at odds with each other, but in the background of normal life. Yeah, that's good. All right. I came up with an elevator pitch for this one, but Joe, your Criswell is better than mine. Would you mind reading this? Oh, okay. So I'm doing Criswell predicts. My friend, can your heart stand the shocking facts about drug pushers from outer space?

Yes, it is. I come in peace, a.k.a. Dark Angel. And I might suggest you could also call this film White Christmas. Yeah, because of all the heroin. Yeah. All right. Let's go ahead and listen to the trailer. I don't know if we'll listen to the whole thing, but we should at least listen to the first part of it. Because even though most like the posters don't make it look like a Christmas film, they do push the Christmas button right here at the top of the trailer. Houston, Texas. It's Christmas.

Someone special is coming to town. And it's not Santa Claus. Jack Kane. A cop who does things his own way. What are you doing? Shortcut. He's sensitive, understanding and kind to strangers. Merry Christmas. But all that's about to end. I'm coming.

Three well-armed men have their throats cut before they can even draw their weapons. Who could possibly move that fast? Aliens. Say what? Are you crazy? It's true! You need a psychiatrist, Jack. Your psycho stole a lot of heroin to kill people. What are you gonna do? Tell them we're fighting drug dealers from outer space? Huh?

All right. Doesn't that put you in the holiday spirit? Doesn't that put you in the mood? I did listen to the trailer earlier, but I can't remember what the narration is like. Is it the voice? Yeah. Well, I don't know if it is the voice. It might be. I didn't check to see if it was LaFontaine on this. But the narration is Houston, Texas. It's Christmas. Someone special is coming to town, and it's not Santa Claus. This Christmas, get drug-snaked by a Martian. Ha ha ha.

I will put an asterisk by that. We will come back to this question because I think a case could be made that it is Santa Claus. Hmm. Okay.

All right. Well, if you want to go see I Come in Peace, a.k.a. Dark Angel, before proceeding with the rest of the episode, well, it's pretty widely available. We watched this on the excellent 2013 Shout Factory Blu-ray release, which we, again, rented from Videodrome. I thought it was pretty solid. It only has one featurette on it, but it's a good one. It gets a little bit into the making of the film. And you can also rent it digitally from wherever you get your movies. All right.

I think they kind of missed an opportunity with this disc where, you know, sometimes you have these physical media releases that mirror plot elements from the movie. So you've got your, you know, your evil dead release where the case is the book of the dead bound in flesh. It's probably not really flesh, but who knows? I think in this case, they should have made the disc razor sharp on the edges. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that would work. And maybe the case could have had a little liquid smoke in it. So when you open it and then you have some files of alien space drugs in there. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That'd be good. All right. We're all set for the party. I've trimmed the tree, hung the mistletoe and paired all those weird shaped knives and forks with the appropriate cheeses. And I plugged in the partition partition. It's a home cocktail maker that makes over 60 premium cocktails. Plus a whole lot of seasonal favorites too. I just got it for $4.

So how about a Closmopolitan or a mistletoe margarita? I'm thirsty. Watch. I just pop in a capsule, choose my strength, and... Wow. It's beginning to feel more seasonal in here already. If your holiday party doesn't have a bartender, then you become the bartender. Unless you've got a Bartesian, because Bartesian crafts every cocktail perfectly in as little as 30 seconds. And I just got it for $50 off. Tis the season to be jollier. ♪

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Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. All right, let's talk about the people behind this film, starting with the director. This is someone we've never talked about on the show before because he is very much an action guy for the most part. It's Craig R. Baxley, born 1949.

Third generation stuntman and stunt coordinator turned director. His father, Paul Baxley, worked on such films as Diamonds Are Forever and the original Star Trek series. I think Diamonds Are Forever is the James Bond film that Sean Connery came back for after he had left the James Bond franchise for one movie. That's the one, yeah.

Now, Craig, Craig R. Baxley, the director of The Sun here, started out doing stunt work in the early 70s on films like Diamonds Are Forever, but also The Omega Man. That was also from 71. He eventually starts doing stunt coordinator work by like 73 or 74. He's still doing stunts, though. He was Warren Beatty's stuntman on a few movies. And he worked steadily in the stunt department for another decade, culminating in 1987's Predator.

This is one where he served as stunt coordinator and also stunt coordinator second unit. I can't help but see a few little gizmos and gadgets in this movie that may have been inspired by the movie Predator. Yeah. Yeah, they're definitely some shared DNA, I think. And of course, both are just bombastic characters.

action film sci-fi action films of the day though I may come back to this Predator is a film that had like three times the budget of this movie yeah as far as just like straight macho sci-fi action goes I think Predator is kind of unbeatable yeah yeah it's right there at the top

So Predator was the last film in which he served as stunt coordinator. He started directing a few years prior to Predator with some episodes of TV's The A-Team, but then directed his first feature film with 1988's Action Jackson, starring Carl Weathers of Predator fame and much more. And now then comes I Come in Peace, followed up by 1991's Stone Cold, starring Brian Bosworth. Have you seen this one, Joe? No, but I think we talked about it in some other episode. We...

I don't remember why. There's some kind of biker connection. Yep. Yep. I've, I've watched the riff tracks version of it and it was a lot of fun. Okay. So Baxley, you know, firmly established himself in the action tough guy genre of film, but he eventually became a repeat Stephen King adaptation director with the 1999 storm of the century miniseries, 2002's Rose red, 2004's kingdom hospital. That's King's adaptation of Lars von Trier's the kingdom and,

And he's also apparently directing an upcoming adaptation of King's The Gingerbread Girl. I had a weird experience with Storm of the Century, which is I remember seeing Adelaide

ads for it before it premiered. I don't know if it was on TNT or whatever. I think it was made for TV miniseries. And then I didn't actually see it, but I bought at a used bookstore a copy of the screenplay that was published in bound form. So I read the teleplay for Storm of the Century. I just never, I was never drawn in by it because I couldn't tell what's the speculative element? What's the gimmick? Is it...

Is it, there's like a, there's a demon who, so a town that lives on a little Island off the coast of new England, I assume it's set in Maine, uh, is cut off from the mainland by a blizzard. And in that time, a demon comes to the town and tries to make a, get the townspeople to make a deal with the devil with him. I think he's like, I will, I will keep killing you until you give me all your children and then I'll go away. Okay. Well, that's, that's on brand. I don't remember how it ends up. Yeah.

Well, anyway, I guess the important thing to take home about Baxley at this point with I Come in Peace is this is a guy who knows stunts, who knows stunt teams, know what stunts can do and ultimately how to shoot them or how to line up the right people to shoot them. And so no matter what you say about I Come in Peace, the explosions are just top notch.

everything explodes. If you're done with a location, it's like, do we need to shoot any more scenes there? I don't think so. Let's blow it up. It's done. I'm talking like huge fireballs, sometimes filmed like in interior spaces where I often get a little wigged out by, by fire effects and shows these days, you know, they have like a man on fire effect and I'm always like, I admire it. And I'm, and I'm a little bit afraid for anyone involved, but,

But like these are enormous explosions, like it's just fearsome. And yeah, a lot of this stuff is they discuss in the extras. I mean, this is the kind of thing you would today you would use green screen and or CGI explosions. And a lot of these they were having to like shoot the actors in the same shot with the explosions. And there are all these additional there's an entire arc to shooting these things. So you don't like white out your your film while you're also just making everything explode in an enormous fireball.

And I should add, doing all of that safely, I think the most important thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You will not. If you watch I Come in Peace, you will not leave the movie thinking not enough stuff exploded. That's just not an opinion anybody's going to have. Yeah.

All right. Now, the screenplay here, there are two individuals credited. There's Jonathan Tidore, who hasn't worked on a lot else. This was his first produced screenplay. I believe he's directed a little bit as well. But then the other writer is someone that's credited is Leonard Mass Jr. But this is a moniker for David Cope Jr.

Born 1963. So this is, of course, one of the most successful screenwriters of the 1990s and beyond. Having worked on 92's Death Becomes Her, 93's Jurassic Park, to a lesser extent, 94's The Shadow, 96's Mission Impossible. Then you got the Lost World, Jurassic Park, other films like Panic Room in 2002, Spider-Man in 2002, War of the Worlds in 2005, and also the two most recent Indiana Jones movies.

And he's also directed a little bit as well. When do we get to Dolph? Let's get to Dolph. Come on. All right. All right. Dolph Lundgren plays Detective Jack Kane. I don't really don't even have to introduce Dolph all that much here, but, you know, born 1957. I believe he's about 6'5". Always hard to tell with...

People in entertainment, like what's the actual height? What's the build height? He's pretty tall. And we have people in this film that look even taller. And of course, there are ways to trick that. But at any rate, huge guy, tall guy, Swedish, made his film debut in 1985's View to a Kill.

And he immediately followed that up with his iconic role of Ivan Drago, as you mentioned, in Rocky IV. I did not remember that Dolph Lundgren was in A View to a Kill, though that would make sense because I know he at some point was the boyfriend of Grace Jones, who is in A View to a Kill. Yeah, if memory serves...

They were no longer dating at that point, but still knew each other. And she recommended him for the job saying like, hey, you want somebody stern and huge to stand in the background of your movie? Well, you should call my friend Dolph. And they did.

But, yeah, certainly by Rocky IV, he was off to the races. I mean, very iconic role. If he'd done nothing else after that, we would still be talking about it. But then in 1987, he played He-Man in the Masters of the Universe adaptation. I remember him as being very fun and, of course, very jacked in that as well. Yeah, I think in that movie, don't they, like, they're not just hanging out in Eternia or whatever. They come to modern-day L.A., so he gets to have some, you know, what is the 80s?

Yeah, Masters of the Universe is one of those films that...

It just has some awesome design choices in there, some great casting. I love all the villains in that movie. But even at the time, I was rather disappointed when we leave Eternia and then we just do a fish-out-of-water story with all these goofy scenes of these fantastic characters interacting with modern life before then going back to Eternia and having an awesome showdown. Yeah, let's go to the Galleria. Yeah.

Oh, yeah, there's a huge mall scene. It's awesome. But anyway, so he was already a huge name by 1990. He had just played the title role in an 89 adaptation of Marvel's The Punisher. But as all these titles suggest, yeah, he was playing the stern, tough guy.

with maybe a little bit of humor there in Masters of the Universe. But apparently what attracted him to the script is it gave him that chance to try more things, you know, to try a little comedy, try a little romance. And in the featurette, I mentioned earlier, the director Baxley gave him a lot of credit for his professionalism and his performance. So he was trying new things. But for the most part, moving forward, Dolph would end up sticking mostly to action.

And it's still active today, often in a lot of action films. Subsequent movies included the Universal Soldier franchise, 1995's Johnny Mnemonic. He pops up in the Coen Brothers' Hail Caesar. And he's also in the Aquaman movies. I think he's like a Russian submarine pilot. I can't even remember if he's in the movie or if he, because I think, you know, the Coen Brothers film, late Coen Brothers films, everybody in the world is in those casts. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, that movie's got a big cast, but yeah, I did not remember that. That's funny. So again, Dolph was trying new stuff with this particular, he was spreading his wings a little bit. But one of the things for me anyway, I don't know if you had this experience, Joe, it's like you can't help but compare this movie to Split Second, which came later. But in doing so, you can't help but compare Rudger Hauer's performance to

to Dolph Lundgren's performance. And that's entirely unfair. It's unfair to compare most actors to Roger Hauer. But yet I kept doing it. Yeah, I mean, it's natural for us. I would say that I wouldn't expect most people who see one of these two movies to see the other one. And I wouldn't expect most people who see both to remember both of them. So the comparison is not like inevitable. But for weirdos like us, yeah, yeah, it's kind of hard to ignore it.

Yeah, this is another thing that comes to mind is I often remember this film or at least promotional materials for it alongside promotional materials for Eve of Destruction and have kind of merged them into a single film that I haven't seen. So I still need to get around to Eve of Destruction at some point, but I don't think it's one we could necessarily watch for Weird House.

All right. So Dolph is our cop who plays by his own rules. We have to also have a cop that plays by the rules. That is Special Agent Arwood Larry Smith or Agent Smith played by Brian Benden. We do not learn that his name is Arwood until the very last line of the film. Yeah, it's a hilarious reveal that they leave until the very end. But it hits about as well as most of the comedy in this movie, the intentional comedy. Yeah. Yeah.

So Brian Benben, born 1956, you might watch this movie and say, where have I seen this guy before? Well, I never watched it, but he was the star of the HBO sitcom Dream On from 1990 through 1996. And he was also in Radioland Murders in 94. Both of these were things that co-starred Michael McKean.

That's weird. I haven't seen those things, though he did somehow seem familiar to me. I know I must have seen him in something. Yeah, I think I would just see ads for Dream On or, you know, or perhaps if you're trying to watch the Tales from the Crypt episode, Dream On would be on as the intro. And you're like, well, I guess I got to set through this to get to the Crypt Keeper. It was not a film that was catering to me as its audience, for sure. But yeah.

People seemed to quite like it at the time. It's easy to see, looking at this film, how this actor went on to have success in kind of a TV sitcom environment. Yeah, but he's the nerdy new partner. Yes. Now, of course, we also need a love interest, and that's where we have the coroner, Diane Pallone, played by Betsy Brantley. She plays the romantic coroner. Yes.

Which is fun. I mean, it's a fun idea. And they do, it mostly works from a, like a slight comedic standpoint. And she does come off as like a character who knows her stuff. Like she makes some vital breakthroughs in the case. Credit to Betsy Brantley for delivering some of the most ludicrous lines in this entire script. Like the scene where she has to, where she asks, uh,

uh, Dolph Lundgren to promise her something, anything that was hilarious. Oh yeah. And also the scene where she has to explain how the alien endorphin plot works. Oh yes. Yeah. She's, she's, she's great in that scene as well. Yeah. The whole idea, we'll come back to the promises aspect of the plot. That's yeah. It doesn't quite work.

But anyway, Brantley is an American actress best known for her roles as the mother in Princess Bride. So that's John Savage's mother in that film. As well as supporting roles in such movies as 98's Deep Impact and 1999's Double Jeopardy. She was the performance model for Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit from 88. Hmm.

And her first big role was opposite Sean Connery in 1982's Five Days, One Summer. But her first credit acting credit is actually for a small part in Richard O'Brien's Rocky Horror follow up shock treatment from 1981. I know you've talked about looking at that multiple times. Of course, I know Rocky Horror, but I've never seen shock treatment.

Yeah, we recently had someone write in suggesting it as well. So I don't know. I need to give it a shot. I've never actually watched it. I've seen Rocky Horror so many times, but I've never watched Shock Treatment. Brantley also pops up in a 1984 episode of the excellent Granada Sherlock Holmes series.

And she was previously married to director Steven Soderbergh and later worked with him on his 1996 film Schizopolis and more recently in his 2022 film Kimmy, which was also written by Cope.

All right. It's time to get to our alien drug pusher here. What do you want to do first? Good alien, bad alien? Oh, we got to go bad alien. I mean, that's the reason for the season here. And he's credited as bad alien Talek. So Talek is his name, though I don't remember them ever calling him that, but that's the character's name. I don't recall that coming up. Played by Matthias Hughes, born 1959.

I have to just say, again, this is a character that scared me a bit as a kid and watching the film, still a bit scary, still quite a screen presence. I've seen his height listed as anywhere between 6'5 and 6'8, and he's wearing lifts in this alongside, you know, various camera trickery to just make him look like an absolute giant. Another...

freaky thing they do to him is they, I guess it must be contacts or something. They cloud his eyes over. So you can't really see where he's looking like his eyes are kind of foggy and he speaks in this, this creepy horse whisper. And basically the only line he says in the movie is repeatedly telling people, I come in,

peace right before killing them. It's great. It's like you get the sense that this is the only thing he knows how to say in like earth language. Maybe he can say it in multiple earth languages and he doesn't necessarily even know what it means. He just knows that it's something that you can say to a hostile human being to momentarily give them pause so you can blow them up or drug snake them.

So Hughes is a German-born Venice Beach bodybuilder who initially pops up as an uncredited extra in the 1987 cult-themed Dragnet movie. But then he followed this up with Small Roles and 87's No Retreat, No Surrender. 88's Big Top Peewee. He plays the lion tamer in that. But then he pops up in another movie that we've talked about the cover art for this one because he's the other muscle dude fighting Jorge Rivero.

on the cover on the VHS art for 1988's Fistfighter. Oh, Jorge Rivero is the star of Conquest, and many listeners may also know him as the villain from the movie Werewolf. He's Yuri. Yeah.

So, uh, Mateus Hughes, other credits include 91's Kickboxer 2, 91's Star Trek 6, The Undiscovered Country. I believe he's a Klingon in that. Uh, I'm assuming like maybe kind of a background muscle Klingon. And then he's also in 2008's Puppet Master, The Littlest Reich. Um, uh,

Again, I love him in this. It's one of these roles where I guess I haven't seen him in a lot. So this character feels to me like very disconnected from the rest of cinema. Like he is an actual seven foot alien who has just popped out of a crater to start harvesting human brain juice for space drugs. Yeah. Now that's the bad alien. We also have a good alien by the name of Azek. Again, I'm not sure we ever hear his name again.

But this alien is played by another very tall individual, Jay Bylas, born 1963, former pro basketball player and coach who currently works for ESPN as a college basketball analyst. He had no acting experience for this, but he was 6'8", so they said, hey, how would you like to shave the front part of your head?

and put some contacts in and run from some explosions, and he gave it his all. So given all of that, given how green he was, he does a pretty good job.

So when he's on one of those shows on ESPN where the guys are yelling at each other, do they bring this up at him? They're like, oh, yeah, yeah, uh-huh, the Astros are good this year. How about you go and star in I Come in Peace 2? I don't know. I hope he's proud of it. He should be proud of it. His haircut in this movie is solid. There are multiple mullets in I Come in Peace, but this one is sculled.

Yeah, the hairstyle is apocalypse in the front, party in the back. Yep, yep. He also has cloudy eyes. All right, these are the main characters that are in play. So I'll try and run through some of the other actors with a little more speed. But we have some criminal elements, human criminal elements that pop up. The first is Victor Manning, played by Sherman Howard, born 1949, American actor of stage and screen, perhaps best known for playing the zombie in Headphones Bubb,

from the 85 Romero movie Day of the Dead. He also pops up in 89's Lethal Weapon 2, as well as various TV episodes, including shows like Seinfeld and Deep Space Nine. He plays an incredibly smug gang boss in this, of a weird gang that we'll discuss more as we go on. Yeah, we don't see as much of him as I would have liked. It's pretty fun and over the top while it lasts.

You know, regarding the bad guys, we've talked about movies before where unfortunately you have some trouble telling the different characters apart. I don't have that trouble with the main characters in this movie, but the villains, there are like seven villain characters in the yuppie gang slash the feds in this movie that all look exactly the same. Fortunately, you do not need to be able to tell them apart to follow the plot.

Yeah, a lot of bad guys in suits in this film. And ultimately, they're not a part of the final showdown. Another key character is Inspector Switzer. This is...

This is our villainous federal agent who's looking into the whole alien murders angle, played by David Aykroyd, born 1940, actor of stage screen and TV. His other credits include 83's Cocaine, One Man Seduction, 83's Deadly Lessons, and 1986's A Smoky Mountain Christmas, starring Dolly Parton. Aw. Yeah. Does he play a hard-nosed federal agent in that? I hope so. I hope so. Comes into Dolly. I'm going to bust up this whole operation.

Now, on the criminal element side of things, we also have another guy who I'm uncertain if he's the main boss or the secondary boss, but his name is Warren. We only encounter him in a skyscraper. He's the number two. So, like, the main boss of the gang in the movie leaves after the first scene. He never comes back in the movie. We hear about him being in Rio enjoying the sun and the beach while all the other characters are suffering under the alien boot heel. Yeah.

And so he leaves this other guy, Warren, in charge.

Yeah, played by Sam Anderson, born 1947. And if you're a moviegoer of a certain age, you probably see this actor and you're like, I've seen this guy before, but I just can't place him. I suspect that the reason is that he's the principal in 1994's Forrest Gump. Yep. I spent several minutes with it paused, just trying to think without looking it up. Who is this guy? And then I realized, yep, he's the creepy principal. Yeah.

And he's done some other TV work as well. I think he's also in Critters 2. Oh, okay, cool. But certainly Forrest Gump, that's a big pop culture footprint to leave there. Now, we talked about Split Second earlier. We mentioned Split Second. Interestingly enough, there is one individual, there may be some more deeper in the credits, but there's one core member of the cast who connects these two pictures, and that is the wonderful character actor Michael J. Pollard.

who lived 1939 through 2019. He played the rat catcher in Split Second. And in this movie, he plays a snarling criminal informant by the name of Boner, who's essentially Gollum. He's essentially Gollum. Yeah. Who, I will add, plays no role whatsoever in the plot. He's just there to get roughed up by Dolph Lundgren. And then Dolph Lundgren, unrelated to his interaction with this guy, has an epiphany about the case. Yeah.

It's weird that it goes like that. It's almost like they're like, look, we got Pollard for a day. We got to use him. Find a way. Slot him in there somewhere. He just happens to be fortunately standing next to a pool table. And then Dolph Lundgren looking at the pool table is like, aha, aliens are throwing murder discs through the air. Yeah.

Uh, but Pollard's always great though. His other films include 67's Bonnie and Clyde. He's an 88 Scrooge for a Christmas tie in. And he's also in Rob Zombie's, uh, House of a Thousand Corpses from 2003. All right. Now this is a small role, but I have to point out that, uh, Al Leong is in this playing the luggage salesman. There's like, essentially it's like a drug drop kind of a situation. Um,

Born 1952. Small role, but I think film fans will recognize this guy because he plays the Wing Kong Hatchet Man from 1986's Big Trouble in Little China. He's another one of these recognizable character actors from a bunch of 80s movies. A lot of other people might remember him from Die Hard.

Yeah, he pops up in Die Hard. He's Genghis Khan in Bill and Ted from 89. He's in Lethal Weapon. Longtime stuntman as well. One of these guys, kind of a low-key action film legend, I think, because you just see him pop up in so many things. And he had a signature look.

Uh, and it had kind of like a receding hairline, but long hair. So, you know, glorious mullet and then a really robust mustache. Powerful mustache. Really strong. Yeah. So sometimes he's just standing in the background. Other times he's screaming with a hatchet in his hand. Uh, does great work.

You attached a picture of him in the outline where he's like squatting in the foreground and then you can see the Hollywood Hills in the background and the Hollywood sign is under his thigh. Glorious. I hope he used this as his main promotional image for many years. I think he's still active, too.

Great. Now, we generally don't mention special effects coordinators, but I will mention real quick that Bruno van Zibrowick is the individual who had the honors on this movie. Still active and highly cited by Baxley in the featurette as a key part of the film's success from a stunt and production standpoint.

So I was looking into him a little bit. He worked on Predator and also such films as John Carpenter's The Thing, Return of the Jedi, David Lynch's Dune, Action Jackson, Roadhouse, Alien 3, and Die Hard. So again, the stunt and explosive effects, pyrotechnics pedigree of this film is just, you know, can't deny it. And then finally coming to the music, I

I got kind of excited when I was previewing the credits for this one because we have Jan Hammer on this, born 1948.

This is the Czech-American musician, composer, and record producer best known for two tracks, really. He's done a lot of work, but there's the theme song to Miami Vice, the TV show, and there's another track he did for Miami Vice titled Crockett's Theme. Both of these were from the 80s TV series. Crockett's Theme, especially, is just an incredible track. It's just so perfect. It's just this glittering, upbeat synth sound

masterpiece, you know, that just bleeds 80s directly into your veins. Yeah, it's strong, it's moody, it's got a kind of a surprising and moody chord progression, but also the bouncing rhythmic synthesizer

tone in it. I feel like it's something that has tried to be copied later by anything that is evoking the spirit of the 80s, even like the Grand Theft Auto games, I think, have some musical score in them that is trying to copy this feeling. Yeah, absolutely. It's incredible. I highly recommend listening to it. And even the Miami Vice theme song, like that one earned him, I believe, two Grammys.

So, uh, highly successful guy. Uh, other scores include two episodes from, of tales from the crypt. I'm not sure exactly which ones off, off the top of my head. He did Knight Rider 2000. Some of his music appears on 1992 is beyond the mind's eye, which was one of these like early, like CGI psychedelic visionary art kind of things. He could order, order off an advertisement on television. And he also scored 1996 is beast master three, the eye of Braxis.

Who is Braxis? I don't know, but he's got an eye. I was trying to look. I was like, what beefy guy plays Braxis in this? And I couldn't tell that there is a Braxis. There's a voice of Braxis. So maybe it's some sort of a special effects God sort of situation. I briefly forgot and then just remembered that we covered Beastmaster 2 through the Portal of Time on this show. Oh, yeah. That one was great. Wings Hauser in that one. Speaking of He-Man coming to L.A., that's another one.

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Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together.

You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire, join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all. It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun.

Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose.

This season I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel-winning economists to leading journalists in the field, and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong though, I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough, so join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better.

Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. Hey, what's up? This is Ramses Jha. And I go by the name Q Ward. And we'd like you to join us each week for our show Civic Cipher. That's right. We're going to discuss social issues, especially those that affect black and brown people, but in a way that informs and empowers all people to hopefully create better allies.

Think of it as a black show for non-black people. We discuss everything from prejudice to politics to police violence, and we try to give you the tools to create positive change in your home, workplace, and social circle. Exactly. Whether you're black, Asian, white, Latinx, indigenous, LGBTQIA+, you name it. If you stand with us, then we stand with you. Let's discuss the stories and conduct the interviews that will help us create a more empathetic, accountable, and equitable America.

You are all our brothers and sisters, and we're inviting you to join us for Civic Cipher each and every Saturday with myself, Ramses Jha, Q Ward, and some of the greatest minds in America. Listen to Civic Cipher every Saturday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

All right, let's let's get into the plot of I Come in Peace. All right. So the opening sequence, we have ringing synth bells and a lonely city street late at night. They're trying to establish that moody 80s, you know, neon neon signs in the background, dark city atmosphere.

A car is driving down the street. It's a luxury car. We see the driver, and he looks like one of Patrick Bateman's friends, and this will be a recurring theme. Fancy suit, smug face, looks like a rich, aggressive, mean guy. Driver of the car activates some blinking futuristic panel on his dashboard. What is it? It is a CD player.

And he inserts a gleaming silver CD into the slot. What's he listening to? Can you guess?

It's a new hit called Hark the Herald Angels Sing. He had to get that hit of the Christmas music. So this guy from the Bateman crew, he's cruising through the deserted city streets. It's nighttime. He's jamming to his Christmas carols until the music starts skipping. The song sounds totally scrambled, like the notes are playing at double speed, random order, that kind of thing. And the driver is very angry. He needs his hark.

And he complains, he's like, you pay $70,000 for a car and then they give you a broken CD player.

Then suddenly the CD shoots out of the slot at him violently. He's startled and he nearly collides with a bus at an intersection, swerves to avoid an impact and ends up crashing his car into a lot full of Christmas trees. So they're hitting you with a lot of Christmas right at the top. Almost makes you wonder if this whole prologue here was like added on to, to really emphasize the Christmas themes, but I guess probably not because we're, we're about to,

meet a crucial character. So he gets out of the car, he complains some more, and then to make things even worse, suddenly a fireball descends from out of space and obliterates his car, leaving only a flaming crater in its place. And the driver looks on as out of the flaming crater comes a man dressed in black with gloves, a long dark coat, and some kind of technological gadget strapped to his arm like the Predator.

He's got long blonde hair. His eyes are foggy, like they're clouded with cataracts. Yeah, and they shoot him rising up out of this crater like he's a redwood tree. You know, he seems like he's at least eight or nine feet tall. It's great. So the man from the sky approaches the driver and looms over him. He opens his lips and says in a hoarse whisper, I come in peace. Yeah.

Cut to something else. Next, we get an infiltration. There is a dude sneaking into some kind of building through air ducts, cutting through metal grating with a torch, climbing around in the ductwork. This is also a favorite theme of 80s action movies. They love putting a guy climbing through the ventilation shafts. So what's going on here? Well, it's a heist. This is some kind of police building. I think they later call it a federal warehouse building.

An infiltrator sneaks in. He sneaks into an evidence room and then in there he runs into a police officer and kills him with a throwing knife. He steals the officers. I was thinking at first he stole his clothes and his badge, but I think maybe he just takes his like badge or his name tag because he's

You know, this this police officer's clothes would have a big knife hole in the front and a bunch of blood on it. Yeah, this this whole sequence is ridiculous. You know, it's their standard sort of 90s Batman as chaos criminals, because there's not ultimately nothing smooth about them. They they immediately follow up the stealth portion of their mission with a seemingly unnecessary murder. Right.

And so he's disguised as a cop. Now he's got this other guy's badge and name tag on. He loads up a briefcase full of these little plastic baggies of white powder. It looks like he's stealing about 30 pounds of heroin.

And then the killer meets up with a co-conspirator who's been like walking him through the heist on a walkie talkie. Together, they go to the front desk and they sign out this suitcase full of drugs. And the guy at the desk has a righteous mullet. He's like, some must be some party. Yeah.

According to, I was looking at a 2009 DEA press release. And according to that press release, 30 pounds of heroin might be worth somewhere in the neighborhood of like $30 million. So just go ahead and sign that out to Officer Shifty and Sus here. Yes. So on the way out, one of these guys drops a bag on the staircase. In the lobby of this police building, somebody is just blasting joy to the world. Yeah.

And they leave the building. They pile into a waiting getaway car. The driver also has a mullet and is wearing, you know, he's dressed like a Bateman bro. They're driving a luxury sedan. So the theme's yet again. They drive away and then the police building explodes. And as we said in this movie, everything explodes. Yeah. Just fireballs of unreal proportions. Amazing.

But the other guys in the car are like, what was that? And the infiltrator dude says, a little insurance policy. And the guy goes, what the hell for? And he's like, no witnesses. Experienced criminals here. And then they're all like, oh, yeah, OK. Yeah.

So next we move on to a stakeout where we meet Dolph Lundgren's character. This is Detective Jack Kane. He's sitting in a car with an earpiece listening to a drug deal unfold at what looks like an empty nearby nightclub. And he's got a man on the inside wearing a wire. This guy on the inside is Turner, his partner, who is undercover as a drug buyer.

And the gang Turner is doing this deal with is called, for some reason, the White Boys. Yeah.

Their thing is that they are yuppies. So this is like a criminal street gang that distributes heroin throughout Houston, but they all have Ivy League degrees and they drive sports cars and they look like a Brooks Brothers catalog. So it's like, is this one of the concepts of the gangs from the Warriors along with like the baseball guys? If not, it should have been. Yeah, I agree.

And Victor Manning, the leader of the gang is giving a speech to Turner about how he once thought his education would be his saving grace. But then he got out of Princeton and he realized MBAs were quickly becoming a devalued commodity. So he says he went back to school and he got another master's in international banking, uh,

And then he's like, he's like quizzing Turner in character. He's like, what university did you attend? And Turner says a funny but sort of unrepeatable line. And then before the gang boss here gets to the point of his story, his preppy goons arrive with the heroin they stole from the police warehouse. Yeah.

By the way, this is one of these scenes taking place on a street where the storefronts are just all apparently liquor stores and adult movie theaters and they all have neon signs.

It's very convincing. I don't know if they had to build this or they just found this in Houston. So they let Turner see the merchandise. Yep, that's a bunch of drugs. And then he opens up a briefcase full of money. And Victor Manning goes on with his speech. He's like, you know, if you don't have at least a master's degree these days, you could find yourself really desperate. You might have to turn to a life of crime or even worse, become a cop.

And meanwhile, right next door, two guys in duster coats run into an unrelated liquor store and start robbing it. They're roughing up customers. They're pointing a shotgun at the shop owner. And Dolph Lundgren sitting in his car, he sees this happening. Uh-oh.

Jack Kane is supposed to be listening in on the wire for Turner to make the deal so they can make the arrests. But now there are people in peril. What's Adolf going to do? Of course, he's going to go administer some roundhouse kicks. So he drops his earpiece. He says, keep talking, guys. And he goes and he roundhouse kicks one of the guys in the in the store and then shoots the other one.

And unfortunately, while Kane is busy doing that, not listening, the gang boss reveals that they know Turner's real identity. They've been playing him this whole time. They shoot Turner. They take the money he brought. And then Victor Manning leaves the scene telling his goons to make sure they get, quote, every grain of that heroin.

But after the boss leaves, while the preppy henchmen are finishing up with the scene, a new player arrives. And hey, it's the alien from that flaming crater. He comes up to the henchmen. He says, I come in peace. Then he attacks them with an alien murder disc that shoots out of his wrist. Rob, do you want to describe the death disc attack?

Yeah, I really love the idea of the death discs. And ultimately, it's a lot of fun in the movie. I enjoyed the sci-fi explanation that they get into about how they work more than that in a bit. But let's face it, the execution of the effect is adequate. You know, it doesn't take you out of the movie, but it's very clearly just a CD spinning that they shot. Really.

watching the movie, you really want this thing to be something more like a cross between the tall man's fears from Phantasm and the Predator's killer Frisbee. I don't remember if he had the Frisbee in Predator 1 or if that's just a Predator 2 thing. I think that's Predator 2, yeah. Okay. So you want it to be like that. Instead, it weirdly seems to hit with more blunt force impact than slicing terror. Yeah.

So, you know, maybe a little disappointing in that regard, but otherwise still effective. You still buy it. Yes. On the other hand, I mean, it is quite clearly just a CD. Yeah. And it kind of deflates it a bit, too, when we have that opening scene with the CD player and the CD flying out. It's not doing the effect any favors. Yeah. It's a strange thing.

It's strange to offer that visual comparison. It's almost like the alien got the idea of using a CD from that scene. Yeah. So after defeating the henchmen, the alien steals the heroin and leaves the alien, one of those drugs and dealt. Then Dolph Lundgren comes in to find his partner dead. So in the next scene, police are all over the place. So we kind of get a walk through. Somebody says, looks like somebody put the white boys through the Cuisinart and

I guess referring to the cuts from the flying disc and Jack Kane's boss arrives to give the classic reprimand of the rogue cop by the chief monologue. So we get, I ought to break your neck. You're taking it too personal. You're a loose cannon. You're off the case. Go on vacation. That's an order. We're not yet to meet your new partner, but that will come in the next scene. Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely by the books. Now, in the opening scene, we don't necessarily get a great look at the character of Jack Kane because he is sitting in a car. And then the later action scenes in like a dark store where they've shot out the light. So let's take in Kane in his full glory here. Yeah, I'd say he's essentially a walking big and tall store rack in this film. Like, I just kept being shocked by just like how much clothing he's wearing. Nothing.

And, you know, not just that he's not shirtless, but like it's like, wow, that's that's a lot of clothes. He had to go to the big and tall shop for that. That's special. In this movie, he does not have his Ivan Drago blonde Frankenstein haircut. He's got brown hair and I don't know what you call this hairdo, but it's more normal looking. It's sort of done up a little bit Elvis-y, but white.

with a, I don't know, later more eighties kind of style. His outfit includes what looks to me like a black denim cut off of vest. I think it used to be a jacket or a long sleeve shirt, but with the sleeves removed, the badge mounted on the vest. And then this is over a black Houston Astros t-shirt. So it's a, I thought an amusing look, but another thing I want to get to is that a lot of movies of this kind are

We'll introduce some sort of little personality quirk to their main cop character to distinguish them ever so slightly from the other butt-kicking loose cannon cops who get results that we may have encountered in our moviegoing lives. For example, with Rutger Hauer's character Harley Stone in Split Second, the quirk was, do you remember what it was, Rob? Yeah.

Oh, he loved coffee and he loved sweets. Yeah, it was a sweet tooth. He loved candy and he put tons of sugar in his coffee. Yeah. So that was an interesting pick. And honestly, I think the quirk they pick for Dolph Lundgren's character here is kind of weak. The quirk is that he never breaks a promise. It is something that is universally true of his personality and everybody knows this about him. Odd choice. Yeah.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, it feels kind of mythic or folkloric in its own way, but it also never feels real either. There's like the scene with his girlfriend.

on again off again girlfriend where she's like i wish you would make a promise to me one day like you make promises to other people and he's like i don't know i'm not ready to do that yet yeah he doesn't do it in the scene but also what promises is she aware of him making to other people and also isn't keeping promises just a normal thing that is expected of most honest people like i feel like it would be more notable if a person was known for breaking a promise every promise they made

Yeah. Yeah. It seems like they get to come up with something else with this character. I mean, they kind of they kind of weave it into the plot a little bit, but it never really sticks. The way it's first introduced is in this scene where the chief is, you know, chief is chewing him out. He's saying, you're off the case. I command you to take vacation. And then he says, actually, no, I don't order you to take vacation. I order you to promise me you will take all your vacation days because I know you never break a promise, Jack Kane.

Oh, he got him. He got him. Can't get out of this. There's no way out unless there is intervention by a higher power. And then here we introduce the feds. The FBI comes in and Dolph meets the character of agent Switzer, an

arrogant, domineering FBI agent of the shut up and do what you're told style. He explains that his job is to know things and he's smarter than everybody else and that regular cops like Dolph are just stupid and beneath him and they need to obey what he says.

So Switzer takes Dolph into the bathroom to discuss the strangeness of the murder scene. It's like, what could have left these incisions on the victims? And Dolph says, I've seen a lot of knife wounds, but these were done by something else. Yeah.

I mean, to be clear, like we see the wounds in the movie and that nothing seems all that remarkable about them. Yeah. But but also we don't have a weapon. Yeah, that's right. They're like, what could have done this? Whatever this weapon is, it's the key to understanding what happened here. So Switzer decides that Kane should be back on the case. He comes and he tells the chief, hey, you know, you've you've got to put him back on the case and the chief complies.

But the condition here is that Kane has to be paired with a new partner and Dolph might as well look directly into the camera and shrug while a zoink sound effect plays. It's like new partner. Okay. So it's a classic cop movie pair up. The new partner is a sharply dressed FBI agent named Larry Smith and it's cop oil versus FBI water. Okay.

Cain is tall. Smith is short. Cain is buff. Smith is skinny. Smith is by the book. Cain plays by his own rules. Smith is snooty and stuck up while Cain is down to earth. You could have a beer with him. Smith operates on reason and logic, which the movie implies are stupid and doomed to fail. While Cain relies on instinct, which is smart and gets results.

Yeah, there's a whole sequence where they discuss the difference between relying on your gut and relying on logic and learning without ever drawing the obvious, I mean, I would think to everyone, connection between learning and repetition and instinct. Yeah. Like these things go hand in hand. It seems like these are falsely separate categories here. Yeah, of course, to the extent that instinct would actually be useful, it's like because of experience. Yeah. Yeah.

But essentially they're setting it up where like Kane is a jock and Smith is a nerd and this movie hates nerds. Well, actually there are some nerds later on that we find out are okay. But yeah,

but certain nerds are not so good. And in this scene where they very first meet in the chief's office, they're immediately clashing because Smith condescends to Kane. He's like trying to explain the definition of the word parameters and Kane is getting mad. And then they get interrupted when the coroner comes in. The coroner is Diane Pallone. As we mentioned earlier, she also happens to be Kane's girlfriend or something like that. They're in some kind of

ambiguous romantic relationship. Oh, and something I didn't mention before. Apparently, Jack Kane went off the grid for eight days before the nightclub stakeout, and nobody knew where he was or if he was even alive, including his boss and including Diane. Though I don't think it's ever explained why he went dark all this time. Do they ever say? No. We never get an explanation. He never has to explain what was happening. Yeah.

And we just kind of forget about it after a while. Maybe his reason was just instinct. Yeah, or maybe he had a really good reason. He made a promise about it. I don't know. All right, we're all set for the party. I've trimmed the tree, hung the mistletoe, and paired all those weird-shaped knives and forks with the appropriate cheeses. And I plugged in the Bartesian. Bartesian? It's a home cocktail maker that makes over 60 premium cocktails, plus a whole lot of seasonal favorites, too. I just got it for $4.

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Anyway, so Jack and Smith are in the room and the coroner comes into the scene to explain that the forensics work is done. The murder weapon was, quote, razor thin and razor sharp. It made a deep, straight incision I'd have trouble making with a scalpel. And the chief says, how do you explain it? And the coroner says, I can't.

Music sting. Everyone in the room makes ominous eyes at each other. I was laughing out loud here. I'm reminded of our episode on the cattle mutilation panic where it's like it's impossible to explain these cuts in the skin being so straight and precise with earthly technology.

Oh, and also the Jack tries to patch things up with Diane after this, but, uh, doesn't go well. She's mad at him because, you know, he disappeared for eight days without talking to her. And, uh, and Smith mocks Jack's relationship troubles. Yeah.

Smith is not likable at first. Thankfully, he does grow on you, but they really come out strong with the idea that this guy is just unlikable. We're totally on team Dolph at this point and can't wait to lose this guy. That's right. So we get to see them clashing again because they get immediately into some police work.

Smith wants to start off their investigation by reading the coroner's report and Kane wants to ignore the report and go straight to the scene of the crime. Smith explains how he solves crimes according to the quote Switzer manual. It is a handbook created by his boss, agent Switzer. And to be fair, yeah, that does sound really lame, but the handbook includes advice such as exploit the knowledge of experts. Their expertise is essential. Smith,

And Jack Kane is dismissive of this. And rightly so. It would be foolish to clutter your mind with facts about the case. You know, he's you're supposed to go to the crime scene and like get a vibe, feel it out.

Yeah, just just feel it. We see this all the time in cop shows. Right. I mean, there's like a cop and he just has to inhabit the scene. You know, he has to get in the mind of the killer, put in some headphones and listen to some music and kind of like have a have a jazz session with the crime scene. Yeah. Yeah. He has to really feel it.

But then, oh, and then there's some more clashing because the Switzer manual says that you're supposed to dress professionally. Smith says external things are very important. They tell people who you are. And Jack Kane is apparently just not dressed up to standards.

But once they get to the crime scene, this dynamic continues. Jack mocks Smith for taking measurements and notes at the crime scene. What a nerd. Jack says, so it's all clinical, huh? What about instinct? And Smith thinks instinct is no good. Jack says it works for him.

Meanwhile, we're going to see the arrival of a second man from space. There's like a derelict building where there's a woman sorting through aluminum cans. Suddenly a fireball hits from above, plows through a bunch of walls, and a guy dressed like the first alien emerges, except he has dark hair instead of blonde hair. And this is the one with the skullet. This is going to be our good alien. Yes.

whose, spoiler, is hunting the bad alien. Right. But we also see the bad alien at work. We're going to get our first alien-heroine attack scene in a scene structure that will be recreated several more times in the film. The blonde alien, like, he attacks a bail bondsman in his office late at night, and he does some kind of weird stuff to his body before murdering him. Rob, do you want to explain the breakdown of one of these attacks?

Sure, sure. This is how it goes down. So first, our evil alien drug pusher is going to rip the shirt open a little bit, and then he's going to use sort of like a, it's kind of like a tentacle, but also kind of like a

kind of like the thing Scorpion shoots out of his wrist in Mortal Kombat, you know? Yeah. I think of it as a heroin injector tentacle. So this embeds in your chest and just fills you with like a lethal dose or near lethal dose of heroin. Just all the heroin in the world pumped directly into you. And then while this is going through your system, he...

has this big spike that he loads out of his wrist gauntlet thing, and he drives that into your brain to then, we get a lot of sci-fi explanations about this later, but essentially he's draining the brain juice out of your heroin-addled brain and then using that later to manufacture his own special space drug.

That's right. So what you were calling the heroin injector tentacle, I was thinking of as the drug snake. But yeah, it's like a prehensile winding kind of thing. It stabs into the people, it injects them, and then he gets the brain juice. Oh, and then the spike, yeah, is really, really, they did a great job with the effects on this because the spike really looks brutal when he drives this into one of the victims. They don't show it at first. They kind of

successfully build up the mystique regarding like what exactly is he doing to these people but then we see yeah he's draining something out of their brains after he gets them high with the heroin oh and every time he says I come in peace yes

There are also later scenes where he does the same attack on different people. He attacks a guy driving a forklift, a woman repairing a car. And in these later scenes, we see the skull at alien chasing after the blonde alien, blowing up nearly every car and building in Houston in the process. So many explosions. There's one scene where the

The fugitive alien is just running away by like jumping from car hood to car hood. He's like running and every step lands on a different car's hood as they're parked in a row. And all of the cars explode as soon as he jumps off of them. Because the aliens, in addition to these gadgets that we've already mentioned with the bad alien, they also have these crazy guns that I believe are also based on like the same thing.

underlying technology that they used to create the Robocop gun. They have this like crazy space gun that just explodes everything in its line of fire. Yeah, it shoots explosives at a buzzing rate of fire. But the blonde alien just keeps getting away.

So we come back to our cops. Jack Kane apparently is going to show agent Smith how to work by instinct. And so he takes him to some kind of combination nightclub bar slash strip club. And he says, I can think here. And Smith is not happy with this. He's like, I don't drink on duty. And then Jack Kane goes and harasses and sort of beats up a guy, some regular informant of his. This is a boner. Yeah. This is the rat catcher from split second. Um,

Uh, but this apparently gets them nowhere. The guy has no information to report except to say that like, oh, there's no drugs on the streets. Everything dried up. What happened? Smith promises to file a report about this, but, uh, Jack Kane does get insight in the scene unrelated to his harassment of, uh, of, uh, this, this poor guy here.

by looking at a nearby pool table in the bar. And I didn't understand what his revelation was at first, but then going back on it, I realized, oh, he's watching the ball bouncing off the walls of the pool table to make a bank shot. And then he realizes that the weapon at the murder scene was a projectile that bounced off the walls.

Yeah, I don't understand the connection either. But hey, I mean, he's that's the thing. We're too logical. He is an investigator that is based entirely in instinct. That's true. We are nerds and losers who rely on reason and that's not getting us anywhere. So we would never solve this case.

He goes back to the crime scene, taking Smith with him, and they find the weapon. Jack Kane sort of like models how it flew around the room and realizes it ended up lodging itself in a speaker cabinet. And it's still there in the speaker cabinet. It's like jammed into the speaker cone and like vibrating.

And it looks again like a metal CD. It's a disc. And if removed from the speaker, it cuts them and flies around the room until lodging itself back in the speaker. So they have found the secret alien weapon. Jack Kane takes the weapon home to his apartment against the protestation of Smith, who quotes the Switzer manual that,

saying that evidence must be turned over in a timely manner. And again, I'm sorry, I got to side with him here. He's right. Like, can cops just take evidence home with them overnight? What about chain of custody? Yeah. And that's just normal evidence, not even getting into the realm of strange alien weapons that nobody understands. But in this scene, we get a little bit of the thawing of the relationship between them because Smith follows Jack Kane into his apartment and he is immediately impressed that

Jack Kane, but why he's impressed was funny. He's impressed that Jack Kane has like high end wine and fine art on his walls. So Smith is like, wow, I thought you were a low, a low life, but actually you were secretly very classy and I didn't realize.

Yeah. And I love that, like, this kind of reveals more about Kane's character, but also doesn't. It's just kind of like, oh, he likes paintings and he likes wine. All right. Very well. He's a wine guy instead of a beer guy. I guess that's some level of depth. It seems like he's a beer guy in public, but a wine guy in private. What does that mean?

Well, anyway, Jack threatened Smith. He's like, if you try to take this evidence from me, I'm going to, I'm going to hit you very, very hard. So Smith leaves. And then Jack later goes to Diane's apartment to be like, I love you. You know, I'm sorry that I didn't tell you where I was for eight days. She's, uh, she's very mad, but here's where we get to that, that bizarrely written line, um,

Where she's like, Jack, promise me something. She says, promise to remember my birthday. Promise you'll come meet my mother. Promise me anything. I just want you to promise me something like you promise everybody else. Yeah, it seems like a very low bar for him to meet in this relationship. So it's really hard to figure this one out, what they were trying to say.

Trying to reveal about this character. I feel like he could have workshopped that. Yeah, I don't know. But he doesn't promise her anything. They just start smooching. And Dolph comes back to his apartment the next morning to find it ransacked. And Smith is hiding inside. Smith says he just got there. He found it like this.

Somebody tried to steal the evidence, the alien weapon, but fortunately Jack dropped it off the night before with somebody else who, well, here we're going to meet another character, the scientist who works at the university,

And what's this? Is Jack Kane actually associating with a nerd? I guess there really is more to him than meets the eye. And in this scene, they go talk to the nerd and it is explained that the murder disc works by electromagnetism being attracted to the electric charge of the human body or to any or to any magnetic charge.

So they say the reason it's lodged in the speaker is because the speaker cone has a magnet in it that's the driver, and it was attracted to that. But you can tune it to attack the charge of a human body. And the scientist says it's like turning your radio dial to K-I-L-L. This whole scene with what's his name, Bruce, I think, the scientist. Yeah.

very over the top. This is, um, some of the other like intentional humor part, humorous parts of the film are a little more subtle, but this is one of the moments where it's really ratcheted up like, uh,

Like some sort of a an explosion that's been triggered for for a string of cars. And I would say with mixed success, some of the gags in the scene really fall flat. Others are kind of funny. Like it is funny the way the scientist is frantically trying to hide pills from the FBI guy. I know that was good. Yeah. It's like these are vital to my research.

So they leave the disc with the scientist. And then later, Jack and Smith meet with Diane at the coroner's office to review new evidence from the alien murder suspects, the people who have gotten, you know, drug snaked. And she explains what's going on. People are being injected with massive heroin overdoses. They don't know why yet, but she's like, you know, people do all kinds of weird stuff to each other. And then she looks at Jack. Yeah.

But on the way out, Jack, oh, this is the scene where he gets a postcard from the villain from Victor Manning in Rio. And it's just like, it's just like, Jack, wish you were dead. I hate you. I'm sending people to kill you right now. Yeah. And again, we'll never see this guy again. There's no follow up to this part of the plot.

At the end, you get a sense that the ending is kind of like the ending of Silence of the Lambs, where it's like, you know, they're going after Chilton and wherever he is. But OK, so Victor Manning's gang is coming after Jack, Jack, for some reason. So there's like a car chase where his his goons chase Jack and Smith around in traffic. So they're like, OK, we've got to go confront these guys. So they go to the white boys headquarters, which just seems to be like a big law firm there.

Jack, like he gets inside by setting off a bunch of car alarms on the sports cars outside. People open the door and he sneaks in. He beats up the guards outside the board meeting and then goes into the board meeting, confronts Warren, the second in command.

And Warren thinks that it is the cops who killed their guys and stole all the heroin. Jack doesn't know what he's talking about. So they're like, well, then who actually took all the heroin? They don't know. But the gang has no drugs to deal. So their business is suffering. So Warren makes a deal. He says, all right, we have captured your FBI buddy Smith here and we're going to kill him unless Jack goes and buys them a bunch of heroin for them to sell.

This is the scene where we meet Al Leon because he's the guy who's supposed to be like selling the heroin to Jack and.

but it's a double cross he gives jack an empty suitcase with nothing in it after jack gives him the money and then he runs out of the building jack chases after him but on pursuit he encounters aliens the the blonde alien meets him i think like grabs him by the neck but then the cop alien shows up and they start shooting at each other and they make the whole alleyway explode and jack witnesses the entire thing

So at this point, things are finally getting back on track. I feel like the investigation portion of the movie feels like it goes on a bit too long. There aren't as many explosions happening.

Um, you know, luckily we do have those random scenes with the aliens to keep things moving. Oh, meanwhile, in this whole scene, uh, Smith beats up his captors and escapes. So maybe, Hey, he's maybe he's part jock after all. Uh, but after this, we, we sort of followed the blonde alien back to his lair. Like he's, you know, he, he has this big fight and he gets away, uh,

And we see him go back to it's kind of in fact, it's kind of like when we see the predator, like, you know, cleaning his trophies in the first movie. Yeah. Yeah. We find that he's he's just basically camped out in the ruins there, the industrial ruins there in Houston. When I would see the trailer for this movie and the promotional material back in the day, I was assumed that he.

that this guy was going to take over or insert himself into the local drug world using his technology, maybe those crazy disks that fly around attracted to people's electromagnetic fields. I assumed he was going to maybe be using some sort of crazy space drug that the world wasn't ready for. He was going to dominate the market, destroy the competition. But no, instead, he's operating like a lone wolf.

out here, you know, living amidst the ruins, just harvesting what he needs to fill up his this small supply of drugs that he's going to bring back, I guess, to his home planet or his home system. Is he also using the the drugs he's harvesting for his own pleasure? I think we see him do that.

I believe so. Yeah. I mean, in general, he does a lot of snarling and, you know, he has, again, just terrific performance here. Just he's a beast. But yeah, I think he is also using this special brain drug. What do they call it? It's called like Barsi. Is that right? Barsi, I think. Yeah, we find out eventually it's called Barsi.

That's human brain juice. That's what it's called. Barsi. Yeah. At least that's what the good cop tells us when he dies in the backseat. Yeah. We'll get there in just a second. Okay. But first, there is a scene between Jack and Diane where she explains how, you know, all the murder victims have a hole jammed in their heads all the way down to their pituitary glands. Ah, there it is. Hmm.

Which she says, this is where endorphins are created. She explains that endorphins are nature's ecstasy. So if you shot somebody full of heroin, then extracted the endorphins from their pituitary gland, you would have on your hands the perfect drug. The only problem is nobody on earth has the technology to extract, preserve or administer endorphins. Not yet.

but Jack puts it all together. He's like, aha, nobody on earth. So now I know for sure we're dealing with aliens. He tells Smith, um,

They go back to their scientist friend to try to get the disc back because they got some physical evidence to back up the drug dealer theory, the alien drug dealer theory. Sorry. But when they get there, the disc has been stolen. The scientist says that the disc was stolen by guys who looked like Smith. So you assume at this point that means more of these preppy gang members, you know, they're dressed in their suits and they're back to square one.

But then the alien drug dealer attacks more people in a convenience store and gets into a fight with the alien cop. And the alien cop is injured in the fight. Like he's got sort of Ian home from alien guts hanging out of his belly. And eventually Jack, well, first they get to the cops, get to the location and Jack is ordered off the case. Once again, the feds take over everything. They're like, Jack, now you really have to go on vacation. And,

And he convinces Diane to quit her job and go on vacation with him.

But before they can do that, Jack gets into his car and he is confronted by the cop alien who's like hiding in his backseat. I guess somehow he knows Jack can be trusted, unlike anybody else here. He can tell. He can tell that this is a true police officer, you know, a man who solves crimes with his gut as opposed to his logic. This is the guy I need to bring the details of the case to. Instinct can recognize instinct. Yes.

So the alien explains, I am a law enforcement officer from space. The other alien is a drug pusher from space. And he explains if he escapes, he will bring more like him to Earth because they'll realize this is a good place to harvest endorphins and they will kill millions to to steal their brain juice.

Oh, and then Smith is in the car with him at this point. So Smith witnesses all of this. He knows about the alien at this point. And then the alien self-destructs. They're like, we've got his body to show people, so they'll have to believe us. And then light starts coming out of his mouth and his eyes and he explodes. Yeah, he does a mini quickening and then explodes. But he leaves behind his alien gun as evidence. Yeah.

Smith insists on turning in this piece of evidence and he he holds Jack at gunpoint to be like you're not taking this one I'm taking this to the boss this is we got to go by the book.

But there's a double cross. He takes the gun to Switzer and Switzer, instead of, you know, using it to to expose the whole plot, he like hides the gun in a bag. And he's like, OK, this will be of great use to the U.S. military for our, you know, for our global domination. Now we're going to have to kill Jack Kane. And then he does another double cross and he's about to kill Smith, I guess, to eliminate witnesses once again. But Jack Kane shows back up and saves Smith's life by shooting Switzer.

After this, Smith just fully converts to Harley Stone. You know, he's like, I'm kind of used to following procedure, but now I think we should just and he holds up the alien gun and he's like, kick some ass. And so it's definitely going to be just all explosions in action from here on out.

And that's ultimately what this film does best. Right. So there's a bunch of the rest of the movie is really just fight scenes. There's like a fight scene where they go and try to confront the alien and shoot him with the alien gun. But it gets away. They're injured in the process. They have to retreat. The two cops finally they eventually meet up with Diane. She's like, hey, I quit my job ready to go on vacation. And they're like, no, we have to kill an alien drug dealer.

So then all three of them are again, they confront the alien. There is a final showdown inside an abandoned factory, of course, where Dolph ends up taunting the alien drug dealer by like smashing the endorphin vials. He's like, oh, you're precious, Barsi. I've got it now. And he's smashing it on the floor.

And there's a big you think at the end that the alien is going to defeat Dolph by like piercing him with the drug snake. But in the end, Dolph is able to out, you know, out brawn the alien and twist the drug snake back on him.

And then he injects him. He like kicks him into a pipe where the pipe stabs through him, much like the defeat of the villain at the end of the movie Commando with Arnold Schwarzenegger, by the way, where the villain gets shoved into a pipe. And then in the end, the alien just says, once again, I come in peace. And Dolph Lundgren says, you go in pieces. Yeah.

It's a great exchange. It's a great exchange. I think they give it away in the trailer, but it's great when you finally reach it organically at the end of this journey. And then at the end of the movie, the three friends are like, hey, we did it.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think they're all going to go on vacation together. They're talking about this vacation. Yeah. But Smith's there, too. And so, yeah, I'm I'm I'm assuming they just all go on vacation together and I'm fine with it. I think it's great. They're three way buried now and they're going to go to Rio and get revenge on Victor. What's his name? Yeah. I love how this film sets up a future adventure that does not involve all of the cool stuff that made this film watchable. You know, they're like up next. Just just drug dealers.

All right. Well, at this point, I do want to come back to a question we raised earlier. Is Talek the drug-pushing alien Santa Claus? Incredibly good question. Yeah. And you may have a gut answer for this. Your instincts may tell you one way or another, but I thought we might apply a little logic. So, first of all, kind of in the pro category, Talek has white hair, like Santa. He is coming to town. We already established that. Yes.

He is giving people something that evidence suggests they like. Okay, yeah. Yeah, I mean, biometrically. You can't argue with that, I guess. He arrives from on high. Okay.

Like Santa Claus in a number of movies, he has to contend with a supernatural adversary that is trying to stop him. Ah, this would make the alien good cop kind of the pitch of this film. Yeah, yeah. He makes use of various special tools, much like the Santa Claus in that film. Uh-huh. He prefers to operate in the shadows, obviously. His blood may or may not be eggnog. Okay.

Which, you know, very Christmassy. I also have to add, he may use a sleigh and reindeer. We never see what made the crater. We don't know if Talek and the other alien just fell from the sky. We don't know if they were encapsuled in anything, if there's a spaceship, a disposable spaceship they travel in. It's just left to the imagination. And you may use your imagination to insert...

A sleigh with reindeer. Therefore, he did use a sleigh and reindeer. Disprove or accept. Exactly. However, he has no beard. That's just undeniable. Talek has no beard. Therefore, maybe he's not Santa. Also, he does not reward and punish with his gift giving. Instead, it's heroin and brain drains for everybody unless he blows you up with his space gun instead. Mm-hmm.

And then finally, there are no rules of correspondence with Talek Claus. Like nobody's writing to Talek and saying, hey, I've been a good boy this year. I would really like a whole lot of heroin shot into my neck with a space snake. No, you don't communicate with him. He just comes regardless. I would also say that no one leaves out milk and cookies for Talek.

No, no. I mean, he doesn't want milk and cookies. He wants that sweet brain juice. So he knows where to get it. You don't need to leave it out for him. Does he know who's been naughty and who's been nice? Unclear. Unclear. Yeah. I might push that into the con category as well. But hey, maybe you listeners have some thoughts on this. We'd love to hear from you. Also, just in general on the topic of Christmas action films.

Are there some other key examples that we didn't mention? Do you have some favorites? I don't know. I'll even entertain the old sort of false or sort of trumped up argument of is Die Hard a Christmas movie or not? I mean, it's a Christmas movie if you want it to be. Why not? Okay. I think that is all I can do on I Come in Peace.

Yeah, yeah, right in. We'd love to hear from anyone else who has thoughts on this film. In the meantime, we'll go ahead and remind you that Stuff to Blow Your Mind is primarily a science podcast, you know, that employs reason and logic. But on Fridays, we set aside all of that. We just go with our gut and we talk about a weird movie here on Weird House Cinema.

If you want to see a complete list of all the movies we've covered thus far on the show, head on over to Letterboxd.com. That's L-E-T-T-E-R-B-O-X-D.com. Our username there is Weird House, and you'll find a list there of everything we've covered. Follow us on social media if you're on there. On Instagram, we are stbympodcast. That is our handle on Instagram.

Huge thanks, as always, to our excellent audio producer, JJ Posway. If you would like to get in touch with us with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest a topic for the future, or just to say hello, you can email us at contact at stufftoblowyourmind.com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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