Weirdhouse Cinema: Reptilicus
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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 a movie that has two faces, but one slimy, toxic heart. And that is the 1962 English-language version of the Eurokaiju movie Reptilicus, directed by Sidney Pink.

Now, one thing to mention right at the beginning here is that this movie is kind of weird. There exist two different versions of the film, one in English and one in Danish, and neither one is simply a dub of the other. There were actually two different movies combined.

shot separately, but sharing the same story and most of the same cast, but with different lines in each language and two different directors. So the Danish version you'll get was directed by Paul Bong and the English version by Sidney Pink, the latter of which, again, is the one we're going to be talking about today.

Both of these movies have the same basic storyline, the same scenes overall. Both films are set in Denmark and concern Danish paleontologists attempting to investigate the remains of a giant frozen dinosaur tail uncovered from deep underground, which

which eventually turns into a big dragon thing, is named Reptilicus, and then just goes nuts on Denmark. Runs around eating cows and attacking people at the beach, attacking the city, attacking famous, beautiful landmarks that you should visit, by the way, if you're ever in scenic Copenhagen. And yeah, and so this is a giant monster movie like many others we've talked about before, but with, I don't know, some interesting distinctions we can get into as we go along.

Yeah, so I guess you could say it's kind of like the situation with 1931's Dracula, where you have the Mexican version that is shot on the same sets, though that one doesn't have the same actors. This one has almost exclusively the same actors. We just have them delivering their lines in different languages in separate shots. Exactly. It would be like if the 31 Todd Browning Dracula and then the Spanish language version were

It would be like that situation if they used mostly the same cast, but not entirely. If they had been like, okay, Bella, how...

How's your Spanish? They went a different direction, obviously. Yes. Now, we were talking about something before we came on, Mike, which is that I think both of us really enjoyed watching Reptilicus. But I do have to be honest about this one and not oversell any of its individual merits because I don't think it has a lot of extreme merits in any particular direction. Right.

I would not honestly be able to say that this is a great idea or a great script. I would not honestly, you know, sometimes we can say like, oh, the story is kind of weak, but it's got a great cast. No offense to any of the wonderful cast members involved here, but it is not an especially standout screen presence we're dealing with with anybody here.

Uh, the, uh, I would say even the special effects are not really that impressive. They're, they're enjoyable in a certain way, but none of, they're not even on the level of Gorgo, which we'll get to in a minute. Uh, so there is really no element of this movie I can point to and say, well, at least that's really great. And yet overall, I love Reptilicus. Yeah.

Yeah, it's a charming picture. Like, it's a feel-good monster picture. And the areas where it's rough around the edges adds to its charm. But indeed, it's hard to recommend it to folks unless you are looking for a picture like this. You got to be on board for something that has this vibe. Yeah. So maybe despite not being stellar filmmaking in any particular direction, Reptilicus has many appealing things.

Oh, one of them is just the word reptilicus, which is one of the most pleasing words to say that I've ever come across. I discovered before we came in to record, I was walking around the house with my wife and I discovered that the word reptilicus has the same stress pattern as the word America. And then for that reason can be subbed into any song lyrics ever.

containing the word America. So like, you know, Reptilicus the Beautiful, I'm proud to be a Reptilican. They've all gone to look for Reptilicus and so forth. There's been a lot of that going on at the house. So, you know, take Reptilicus into your vocabulary and use it with whatever gusto you please. But I will say another big appeal of Reptilicus for me

is conceptual. For some reason, audiences seem to have long reacted to this movie with amusement at the idea of a giant monster attack film set in Denmark. And I recall a similar sense of fun in the way that people, including us, reacted to another movie we covered earlier this year, Gorgo from 1961. So right around the same time period. I think these were produced within like a year of each other.

And Gorgo was a movie in which an enormous rat-like god monster emerges from the sea off the coast of an Irish island, is captured and transported for display in a London circus, and then triggers a monster rampage in the streets of London, sort of a rat god amphibious attack from the Thames.

Yes. And so, of course, no one language or culture owns the idea of a giant monster. Giant monsters go back in literature of many different cultures, deep into history. But I think it's safe to say that Japan in general and Toho Studios in particular really grew and perfected the art of the giant monster movie.

Though, of course, the creators of films like the 1954 Godzilla were inspired, at least in part, by American films like RKO's King Kong. So there's plenty of, you know, trading back and forth of inspiration and creative energy across borders, as there always has been. But

Many of the greatest and most enduring giant monster movies ever made are Toho productions from Japan. And in the Gorgo episode, I think we had a brief discussion about the question of why people seem to think it's inherently funny or counterintuitive for a giant monster to attack and crush office buildings in London.

Or in the case of today's movie in Denmark, in a way that it's just not counterintuitive or funny for that to happen in Japan or for that matter in the United States. So like a monster from the sea, giant monster comes out and attacks Tokyo or New York. Yeah, we buy that.

Monster comes out of the copper mines and attacks Copenhagen. That just makes people laugh. And I feel this as well, but I don't quite fully understand it. I was trying to think of reasons and I was thinking maybe it's as simple as this is the only Danish kaiju movie that I know of. So it's just unfamiliar. If there were more of them, it would feel normal.

Or maybe it's something about the like the cultural or geographic setting that just doesn't interface as naturally with the soul of a beast like Reptilicus. Could it be something about, I don't know, predominant styles of local architecture? I really don't know the answer, but I do think it's it's interesting that people quite consistently have this reaction. So it's just something to think about.

Yeah, I think part of it is that from very early on, we associate New York City and Tokyo with giant monster attacks. And it kind of sticks. And yeah, we would maybe expect Copenhagen to have its own thing. Like, I don't know, like killer mermaids come out and attack Copenhagen. That tracks. Oh, that'd be great. But I mean, but then from the Danish perspective, why not Copenhagen? As we learn in this film, it's a beautiful city with a lot to offer. Yeah.

That's right. I was not able to research this before we recorded today, but I would love to know if like the

I don't know, local, the Copenhagen Tourism Board or something was a producer on this film. They put some funding into it because there is a segment in the middle of the movie that is an almost too good to believe just travel brochure for the city of Copenhagen. Look at all of the beautiful local landmarks. You can visit the swinging, you know, nightlife district. Oh, check out this gorgeous bridge and fountain. Great place to take the kids. Yeah.

Yeah, everything that they say during this 10 minute travel brochure section of the film, you could easily imagine Rick Steves saying all of it in an episode of his show or his podcast. Love Rick Steves, by the way. But yeah, I can imagine him saying like, you know, many people say that Danes were born on their bicycles. And when you travel through Copenhagen and so forth.

And it ends with a scene of, um, it's like two military guys who are both on a date with the same woman at the same time. That's what it's showing. I don't know what that means, but they're, they go out on this date and they just go to a nightclub and like watch a musical number and we watch too. Yeah. Here we are.

But I love that. The film felt as if the film knew that American audiences might say, why Copenhagen? And so here's the answer. Here's why Copenhagen.

OK, another thing to consider. This also has come up in past episodes where we talked about giant monster films. These surprisingly sober themes that come out of some of these movies. Now, many of them are just deliberately and consciously silly, just some good, wholesome atomic beast wrestling. But other kaiju movies have some pretty serious ideas in mind, at least in the back of the mind.

I think it's well known that the original 54 Godzilla obviously had nuclear weapons on its mind. Later Godzilla films have some pretty clear environmental themes, like the idea that we have polluted the Earth and the Earth is striking back in the form of emissions.

like an embodied monster, a sort of meat form imago of the very real, but sometimes more invisible and diffuse human consequences downstream from pollution, pollution of the air and water and destruction and natural habitats and so forth. So I was wondering, does Reptilicus fit into this picture? Does Reptilicus have any serious themes in mind?

I'm not sure, but we could come back to this question later. Yeah, if they're there, it's a very, and we can always speak to the American version here. Something like this could be more stressed in the Danish version. But I got maybe mild vibes of the importance of international cooperation against threats, regenerative threats. But it's very shallow if it's there at all.

Okay, should we hear some trailer audio? Sure, sure. Oh, my elevator pitch, by the way, is springboarding off of something you said, is they're coming to Reptilicus today. I'm not going to sing it because I don't know if we get pinged for that. Anyway, yes, the U.S. trailer for this is pretty fun. Let's have a listen. Somewhere in the forbidding tundra mountains of Lapland, high above the Arctic Circle, a group of mining engineers were prospecting for copper. But what they unearthed was a story.

A story that was to terrorize the whole world. Fossil bone? I have never seen bone fragments like this before. I'll work with the army through Captain Brandt. Commander Svensson, you'll stand by for any naval action required. As chief of police, I'll rely on you to handle the population. General Grayson. Where? Stay out of his way!

How long do you expect me to continue this hell? All right. If you want to go out and watch Reptilicus yourself, we encourage you to do so. The Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray is clearly the best choice here. It features a restored cut of the American version of the film, as well as the original Danish version, or I guess it's the original. I will say it's the original version. But anyway, both English version and Danish version.

I own this Blu-ray set from Vinegar Syndrome, and it is gorgeous. I highly recommend it. Yeah, they do great work. Sadly, this version was checked out when I went to rent it at Videodrome. They were very apologetic. They were like, I'm sorry, you're not going to be able to watch it in the best quality possible. And I was like...

It's fine. This is a time constraint situation and so forth. So I had to rent an older DVD of the American cut of the film, which was fine. I think the quality was certainly watchable, though I did have French subtitles that I could not make go away. But that did not get in the way of my enjoyment of the film.

What was the movie that we watched that had hard-burned Dutch subtitles? Was that the Hawaiian werewolf movie? It was, yes. It was a TV movie. So we were having to watch like a YouTube cut of it, YouTube upload of it that had been like ripped from television over there. Yeah, with a Verc beast. Yeah. Death Moon. Death Moon is the motion picture. Someone needs to put it out on Blu-ray. Someone make that happen.

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All right, let's get into the connections here. Starting with the director we already referenced. This is Sidney W. Pink, director of the U.S. version, producer, I believe, of both Reptilicuses, and one of the credited writers. He lived 1916 through 2002, American director and producer, often singled out for his contributions to 3D cinema. In fact...

He was an AP on the associate producer on the first widely released feature-length 3D film, Bawana Devil, in 1952, a film we mentioned in our previous Weird House Cinema episodes talking about 3D pictures. He also gave us the Cinemagic technique in 1959's The Angry Red Planet, in which a pink-red tint is applied to black-and-white film to give us the surface of Mars, to

to take us to the surface of Mars. He also directed Journey to the Seventh Planet right before this picture in 62, starring John Agar. There you go. Also, I'm always into a good I was a title. That always catches my interest. So I'll just point out that his first film, both as a director and a producer, was 1953's I Was a Burlesque Queen, which also had 3D dance sequences in it. I Was a Teenage Reptilicus. Yeah.

All right. The other writing credit goes to an individual who's come up on the show before. It's Yves Melchior, who lived 1917 through 2015. Danish-American screenwriter with some impressive credits. We previously referenced him as one of the writers of Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires.

Oh, I knew I recognized the name. Yeah, I mean, it's a name that stands out. He wrote and directed The Angry Red Planet, 59, Time Traveler, 64, co-screenwriter on Robinson Crusoe on Mars in 64, and his 1965 short story The Racer was adapted into the 1975 Corman-produced, Paul Bartel-directed movie Death Race 2000.

Oh, yeah, man. I haven't seen that one in many years, but I have some fond memories about it. Is it as good as I remember? I don't know. Frankenstein. Frankenstein. Oh, that's the Carradine character, right? Yeah, yeah. And what's Stallone's in it, right? I guess he is. He's like one of the villains. He's like Machine Gun Joe V Turbo or something. I don't remember him. I just remember Frankenstein. But I also remember this being fun.

All right. Now, getting into the cast, there are a lot of folks that kind of fade into the background here, performing various bureaucratic kaiju fighting duties. This is often the case in some of these older giant monster films. You have...

governmental bodies and organizations responding to the threat. And so there's a lot in this movie and other movies of like folks sitting around having meetings and smoking cigarettes. And it can get a little boring. It can be also incredibly thrilling, as we know from films like Shin Godzilla. Yes. It's not an inherently boring idea

But it can be boring. Yes. Reptilicus has many pleasures, as we've said, but I do not think it is a highlight in the stretches where we're just like watching military men stand around a table and like, you know, talk about their strategy. They're like, we're going to have to flush him out here. We will position our artillery. It's it's not very thrilling. Yeah.

All right. So I'm not going to have as much to say about some of these actors because a number of them like almost almost, if not exclusively, work in Danish cinema. And if there's more to add about some of these folks and we don't get into, if you were familiar with Danish cinema, if that's like your your area of expertise or if we have any Danish listeners or listeners of Danish heritage out there and you recognize these names right in, we'd love to hear from you.

So let's go through some of the names here. We have Carl Ottoson, who lived 1918 through 1972, playing General Mark Grayson. He was a Danish actor. He was also in Journey to the Seventh Planet. This is the dark-haired general guy.

He is. I think it took me a while to realize this, but he's like the voice who's narrating at the beginning of the movie. And then he shows up halfway through. OK. Yeah. All right. Then we have Anne Smerner playing Lisa Martins. She lived 1934 through 2016. Danish actress who appeared in a handful of Sydney Pink movies, mostly worked in German cinema, though, until her retirement from acting in the 70s.

And then we have Mimi Heinrich as Karen Martens. She lived 1936 through 2017. Danish actress who was also in Journey to the Seventh Planet.

Oh, and then we have, uh, as Jorn Anderson as professor Otto Martens. Uh, this is the, he's also the parent of the character I just referenced. Uh, this actor lived 1903 through 1978 Danish film actor and director who plays one of the more memorable parts here as the, uh, kind of L Ron Hubbard looking professor who is studying the rise of reptilicus. Uh, he mostly worked in Danish cinema. Um, but, uh, yeah, he's, he's, he's memorable here. I do like him a lot.

The movie plays him like a hero, but he's kind of low-key the villain of the movie. Like, you know, he's like, yes, let's grow Reptilicus some more. Yeah. Yeah, he's not presented like a mad scientist, but he does mad science for sure. Yeah. All right. We also have Bent Midgning playing Svend Vitrloft.

He lived 1937 through 2024. This is our slim, blonde, sort of leading man type. He's the guy who goes and parties on the beach. Played by award-winning Danish actor. Here only in his third film role, but he would go on to have a long career in Danish cinema. So this is definitely, I think, one of those names where if Danish cinema is your sweet spot, you know this guy and you can tell us all about him.

For most of the runtime, he is completely superfluous to the plot, which makes me think that originally this movie was just written to be about like the old scientists and the military guys. And the producer might have been like, what is going on? Why don't you have any like young, attractive characters in here? So they just wrote in like, oh yeah, there are just like several good looking people in their twenties who are standing around in whatever scene.

So that's when we get Sven and Lisa and Karen and that problem solved. Oh, yeah. And then also we have Connie here, the character of Connie, who I think was probably brought in for the same reasons, almost definitely, played by Marlies Behrens, born 1939.

Occasionally, a former nationwide beauty pageant winner pops up in the movies we watch, including Miss Mexico's. I think we've had a few different Miss Mexico's pop up. And so I was not shocked at all to read that this majorly attractive minor character in this film was played by Miss Germany 1954.

Now, wait a minute. Is this the actress who plays this role in the American version or in the Danish version? Because I believe this role is the one that where they actually swapped out the cast, wasn't it? This is, yes. You will only find her in the English cut of the film because the actress who plays Connie in the Danish version, apparently she couldn't do the English lines. So they needed someone else to play the character in the English version.

Okay. She didn't appear in much, but yeah, her presence here kind of highlights some aspects of the filmmaking process.

Well, yeah, as I was saying, this movie is full of characters who there's no plausible reason that they would actually be in the place where this scene is happening, but they're just standing around to sort of like fill out the cast. So it's not just, you know, General Grayson standing there being sad and like, oh, we got to fight Reptilicus. So let's just have Sven and Lisa and Karen and Connie and everybody kind of pile into the shot and they'll be like, what's happening with Reptilicus?

All right. But as far as the cast goes, we saved the best for last, in my opinion, because we have, for my money, the most visually stimulating performance in this film. It's not another former Miss Germany, but rather the legendary Danish comedian and character actor, Dirk Passer, who lived 1926 through 1980.

He is the true star of the film. He only gets a couple of scenes and we never learn what happens to him. We never learn of Dirtch's fate. Like, does he succumb to Reptilicus or does he make it out and live happily ever after? We don't know. No knowledge at all. Yeah, he plays Peterson, who is very much a comic relief character, a sort of bumbling janitor slash security guard slash...

occasional sort of lab assistant, and he may or may not sleep in the building on chairs. It's unclear. Unclear what his job is. He's a guy in overalls who is brought in by one of the professor's daughter. It's almost as if he's her boyfriend or something. Yeah.

And she brings him in like, here he is, father. And he's just this guy in overalls who's like, yes, hire me and I will keep an eye out for anything fishy. And then he walks around the halls and like sticks his hand in eel tanks. Yeah, he has some great...

comedic moments. Uh, cause Passer in this film is a big man and he has one in wearing the overalls and he has one of the most comedically expressive faces. I think you could ask for the eyes, the mouth, the energy he's able to project through, uh, his face. Uh,

We started, you and I started talking about him when he showed up in stills for a movie that came up in our discussions on our train episodes for Stuff to Blow Your Mind. It's a 1976, what is it? I think this may have been a TV movie, a Danish TV movie called Ghost Train.

Oh, which was an adaptation of this, I think it was British play. There's like a play about a ghost train, people trapped in a station with a story about a ghost train. And then it all turns out to be a ruse covering up a like secret espionage caper where like communists are infiltrating Britain by way of a secret train. Yeah. Which is...

Okay. But then, yeah, so there were many adaptations of this plot, and one of them is this one that has Dirge Passer in it, who I don't remember which character he plays, but... Yeah, he ends up on some of the promotional materials for it because he had that very expressive face, which I think he could use for sort of terror as well as comedy. Yes. Like, he could open his mouth really wide and, yeah, he...

I was instantly impressed by those stills. Like, you know, you see a still like that and you're like, who is this hyper expressive actor? Um,

Well, indeed, he was pretty legendary within the Danish world of entertainment as an actor, kind of a character actor, but also as a comedian noted for his improv skills and apparently also just really explosive loud performances. Though in his private life, as is often the case, you know, he was said to be a very quiet, reserved man. Huh. That's funny.

But on the stage, a loudspeaker for the absurdity of the human condition. He was also apparently had a clown act and famously slash tragically died in his clown makeup. He suffered cardiac arrest. He

in the midst or immediately following a performance. And so, you know, I guess this is one of the things that cannot help but sort of add to one's legendary status. But he's apparently highly influential within the Danish acting world. And I can see why. Like, this is a guy that even in this small, you know, just comedic role, like, he stands out. Like, he's the main actor that sticks in my mind from this picture.

There are some shots where, as we were discussing, he has a bit of a Stephen King in the 80s energy going on. He brings with him the

The great suggestion of tomfoolery soon to follow, like when he's walking down the hall and you see the eel tank, you just know before it even happens is like he's going to end up at least part of his body is going to be in that eel tank. Yes. Yeah. Thank thank goodness it happens. But again, we'll just prepare you for disappointment. He does just disappear at some point in the film and does not come back for more comedic mishaps.

They should have had him defeat Reptilicus. I would have bought it. Yeah. He seemed like a big guy. I think he couldn't handle it.

All right. Finally, the music for this picture, the U.S. version anyway, it's another Les Baxter score. It lived 1922 through 1996. We've talked about him numerous times for some of his very traditional scores, his weird score for a very minimalist electronic score for frogs in the 70s. This is another film score by the master of exotica music that I guess mostly doesn't hit any exotica notes, at least until the very end, right? It gets a little exotical.

Exotica right there at the end? No, there's some. So there's nothing wrong with the music in this movie except the way it is matched with what's happening on screen. Like persistently funny music choices throughout. It'll have these these

These like stings and stings, the orchestra stings that are timed strangely. It'll have the use of like blustery march music, like 76 trombones kind of marches playing over scenes where it doesn't feel like it makes any sense, just like a car's pulling up to a building. And then...

One of the funniest things is like right at the end when they're looking out over the water and it's like, well, we killed Reptilicus. And while the guy is saying this, it's playing like the nightclub music that we heard earlier, like the lounge song. It needs to feel good film. Yeah.

We'll be right back.

So while other people are watching their returns shrink, you can sit back with regular interest payments.

We'll be right back.

Alright, 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

50 off. 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.

Add some holiday flavor to every celebration with the sleek, sophisticated home cocktail maker, Bartesian. Pick up your phone and shake it to get $50 off any cocktail maker. Yes, you heard me. Shake your phone and get $50 off. Don't delay. This is Jonathan Strickland from Tech Stuff. I've been getting into the holiday spirit by listening to a lot, and I mean...

a lot of music on my Sonos Move 2 smart speaker. Now, the thing I love about the Move 2 is that I can pick it up off its cradle and just carry it with me room to room. So whether I'm decking the halls or I'm prepping hot apple cider or I'm just

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This is Joel and I am Matt. We are with the How to Money podcast. So, Joel, you took a trip with your girls this past fall to Washington, D.C., and of course, you stayed at an Airbnb. Of course we did. We had a blast in our nation's capital, staying at this Airbnb in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. It made everything about this trip so much more relaxed.

Plus, it helped us save money, which you know I love. We had a full kitchen. We cooked breakfast together every morning before heading out to see the sights. My girls, they loved our adorable historic apartment. And our host made us feel like we were home while we were traveling. And it got me thinking, why am I not creating this experience for someone else by hosting on Airbnb too? You really should, man. Yeah. I cannot recommend it enough. I loved hosting with Airbnb because it's

easy and it was a great side hustle to earn some additional income. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host.

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All right. Time to talk about the plot? Yeah, let's get into it. Okay. So we begin with the glorious AIP logo as we pan over a vista of rippling hills dotted with green shrubbery. And then we get a voiceover. This is later going to be revealed to be, I'm pretty sure it's the general, Brigadier General Grayson. But we don't know that yet. It's just somebody saying, somewhere in the forbidding tundra mountains of Lapland,

High above the Arctic Circle, a group of mining engineers were prospecting for copper. But what they unearthed was a story. A story that was to terrorize the whole world.

I'm already fact check. They did not. This is, this movie does not have worldwide implications. It is more of a regional conflict. Yes. Uh, and so what we see by the way, when this is happening is we see some guys in like khaki jumpsuits and white helmets working on a bunch of mining equipment in the middle of the,

A forest, what looks to me, I could be wrong, what looks to me like a pretty warm forest, wherever this is, I don't think this is the tundra, as he says. But then he goes on to say, when the events began that were to place a burden of decision involving the lives of an entire city on my shoulders, I was far away, unsuspecting, unknowing.

And then we zoom in on one of the miners who is busy retracting a drill bit from a borehole in the earth. And as the drill comes up out of the ground, he feeds it onto a pulley system above his head and then notices that the drill is wet again.

Not with water or with oil, but with some viscous bright red substance. He says, it's blood. And then we zoom on his bloody hands and then get the title Reptilicus. I mean, it's a great start. It's shocking. I'm intrigued. Yeah. Chiller font Reptilicus. It's all dripping everywhere. And the orchestra is like stinging again and again.

But after the title, we rejoin the scene where the miners are freaking out about the presence of blood on their drill. They start digging at the mud caked threads of the drill bit with their hands, and then they start pulling all of this weird gore off of it. Floppy, moist red flaps of something.

And one of them says, it's a piece of skin like leather. This is effectively gross. I was reminded of the music video for Sober by Tool. They're like scenes of like meat moving through a tube at times. And it's like that's similar vibing.

Yeah. Yeah. So more gore comes off of the drill and, uh, it's like sometimes it's, uh, sometimes it's these flaps of stuff. Sometimes it's something rigid covered in blood and to the rigid stuff, the head miner says bones, fossil bones. And then this other guy says, what kind of thing is down there? And the head miner says, I don't know, but I intend to find out.

And he decides they have to halt operations until they figure out what's going on with the drill. And there's some great dialogue here. The main guy who later we'll learn this guy is the character Sven. So Sven says to his friend, Henry, as an American, you have drilled all over the world. What do you make of it? And Henry says, it can't be a living thing. Let it be.

And so Sven here is tall, blonde, handsome. He's going to be our geo hunk for the film. He's a minor and he's just he's just a good looking strapping lad. He says to his friend that he's going to radio someone named Navic at the University of Copenhagen. But first, they're going to take some Polaroids of this wheelbarrow full of bloody slop.

And what they don't see, like they take some pictures and then walk away. What they don't see is that the gore starts breathing. These little sacks are inflating and deflating in the gunk.

Then the same voiceover from earlier resumes, saying, within hours, two Danish scientists had joined the mining engineers, Professor Martens from Copenhagen's Danmarks Aquarium and his associate, Dr. Peter Dalby, as well as a third man, Hans Carlsen, a newspaper reporter.

So we see all these guys sitting around a campfire wearing hats with ear flaps. And the narrator says, the two scientists had examined the startling find hidden beneath the frozen tundra and brought up by the drill bit. They reasoned out the meaning of the gruesome puzzle without ever dreaming of its full deadly secret.

So one of the scientists explains the results of their investigation. They're like, these are the bones of a gigantic creature which lies fossilized down in the ground below us. And then the miner is like, but how do you explain the blood? And Professor Martins then says there is, quote, a streak of icy muck underground. The creature must be embedded in it, frozen solid. And.

And then this was great. Dalby says, not unusual, really. Uh, so they say the drill cut through this frozen creature's flesh. Uh, the friction of the drill thawed the flesh out and bam, there you get wet, wet blood. It's a pretty, uh, I mean, for the time and for the relative, um, vibe of the picture, uh, pretty gory. Like there's some effective slop in this. I,

Sure. Yeah. So Dalby explains that normally when this happens, the frozen animal underground is a mammal like a woolly mammoth. In this case, the flesh brought up by the drill is instead from a giant reptile. And that is totally unique.

So the scientists explain that they're going to excavate and then ship the remains to the aquarium in Copenhagen. So let's go straight to Copenhagen now. So we get like a Copenhagen title in yellow text in this metal band font. People are walking around in the streets. We see lots of bicycles, motor traffic, old buildings and so forth.

The music in this part is funny because it's just playing this march when what we're seeing is like a red convertible pulling up to a building. So the people in the car are Professor Martins, who we've already met. Otto Martins is his name. And his adult daughter, Lisa. And she's dropping him off at the aquarium. And Lisa says, don't spend all your time with those old fossils, father. You might become one.

And then Otto says with two daughters like you and Karen, it's a pleasure to retire my old bones. From what I can tell, this was written in English and not in Danish. And then like Lou,

losing something in translation, but it feels like something where we've lost something in translation. Yeah, yeah. There are a lot of lines like this in the picture. So we follow Professor Martens as he wanders through the Don Marks Aquarium to his laboratory. He's like passing through exhibit tanks full of fish and sea turtles on the way. And what I just noticed, they've got these sea turtles in a tank that looks quite small. And then the professor stops to bang on the glass in them.

Don't do that. Everyone knows you're not supposed to do that. So they get to the lab and there are various technicians at work. Martens and Dalby discuss the remains they unearthed from the mine and

Dalby has been trying to reconstruct the creature, and so far his attempts have all failed. He expresses his puzzlement, saying, I don't know why we can't put this thing back together. We've got plenty of bones. And Martens says, too many bones. We aren't even sure they belong to the same animal. But Dalby is sure. He says it's unlike anything in the fossil record. Completely unique.

So anyway, Otto's other adult daughter, Karen, arrives with a telegram from Sven, the handsome miner, that apparently he found more bones and he's bringing them to the museum and he'll be here in an hour. He needs somebody to pick him up at the airport with the bones. So Otto sends Karen, his daughter, to pick him up at the airport. And Karen is portrayed as boy crazy. She's like, ooh, is he handsome, father? And...

Uh, he tries to dissuade her. He says like, no, he has three eyes and a false mustache. Now hurry up. Uh, but the next scene is that Savannah and the bone fragments are already here. And this is where we get that great delivery where Otto says like, I have never seen bone fragments like this before. Well, what's so weird about the bones? Well, the professor explains they are resilient, but very strong. Uh,

almost like the cartilaginous bones of a shark. That's what he says. Meanwhile, they discuss how they have identified the frozen piece they discovered, and it is from the creature's tail. And now it's being kept under deep freeze conditions beyond this heavy iron door in the wall of the laboratory. And we get to see inside, and this actually looks kind of cool. They've got it under like

blue-green lighting. It's sort of frosty and shimmering. I thought it looked like the texture of a puppet from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Oh, yeah, that's good. Yeah, but then later we see a cross-section of it, and it looks like a beef roast. It's like an oxtail. Mm-hmm.

Anyway, they can estimate just from the tail that this creature would have been among the biggest reptiles or dinosaurs ever to live. They say 90 feet or more. They don't specify in what direction. And they say it lived 70 to 100 million years ago.

And then also in this scene, Kara and Martin's daughter is just coming on so strong to Sven. She says, like, Father, now that you've told Sven about Frozen matters, can I thaw him a little? Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, but then the other Professor Otto daughter shows up again. This is Lisa. And now Lisa brought a guy with her as well. But this is Durch. So I don't think they actually meant that like Durch is her boyfriend, but that's almost how it comes off. She like brings him up like here he is, father. Yeah. Yeah. Because again, this is Peterson. He appears to work here or at least he is here and is ordered around to do things.

Right. So he's this strange looking guy in a gray flannel shirt and denim overalls. And by the way, in the scene, like this, the sisters are mocking and sniping at each other. Like they're fighting over the handsome miner, the geo hunk, literally pulling him in opposite directions. You know, they each take one of his arms and they're fighting over him. And then these two old scientists, Martins and Dalby are acting like creeps. One of them, Dalby is like, Otto, I envy that young man. And Dalby's

off with your daughters and Otto's like, yes, he will be very busy now.

Uh, and this gives way into the, the dirge passer scene where, uh, he is explaining that he is here. He is there to help them keep an eye on things when no one's around, he will be there to, to keep a lookout. So he seems to me more security guard than janitor. Yeah. Uh, but it's still never very clear. Like basically what he does is he just walks around in the hall and gets into, gets into trouble. Yeah. It gives him a little mishaps. Yeah. Yeah.

Now, the scientists stress to Peterson that the most important thing is to always keep this reptilicus tail frozen. Never let the freezer thaw out. And he's like, OK, got it, boss. And.

So I really had my expectations subverted because as soon as I saw this scene, I was like, I know what's going to happen. Dirt, Dirt Passer is going to mess this up. He is going to thaw this tail. But it is not Dirt's fault, is it? No, no, not at all. Which is surprising. Again, like generally when someone says, hey, make sure this doesn't happen. A, that thing is going to happen. And if you have a...

Comic relief, bumbling security guard, like who better than to accidentally thaw the reptilicus? That's right. But so he's not the one who thaws it. He does get into some other trouble. He is walking down a hallway and just in the middle of the hallway, there is an open tank that has all these like electricity warning signs on it. It's got electric eels in it.

And, uh, dirch is like, I just got, I got to stick my hand in the tank. Oh yeah. Well, we build up to it, right? It's the first, is it the first scene where he just passes by and he's like, he says like, yep, everything around here runs on electricity, which is a line I genuinely laughed at. I thought I was pretty good.

Yes. Yeah. Okay. No, he doesn't stick his hand in it yet. That's later. But he comments on the fact that they're electric, just like the lights. Yeah. But you know that hand is going in there. You know we're going to come back to that electric eel. It's Chekhov's eel. Yeah. So later that night, Dalby is taking some reptilicus samples and analyzing them under the microscope. And he's like,

But he is overworked and drowsy and soon falls asleep at his desk. Meanwhile, outside, there's a lightning storm raging. And somehow this leads to the freezer door falling open. I think that Dalby, like, didn't shut it right or something when he was getting the sample out. And the freezer begins to thaw. That's right. You can't nail Peterson for this example.

He had no hand in this. Right. Not his fault. It was Dalby. And then the next morning, Professor Martins and Lisa, they come into the office and discover the scene. Dalby is asleep, head on the desk. The freezer is hanging open and the reptilicus tail is dripping blood on the floor. And we see it in its thawed state after it has come up to room temperature. And it now looks much nastier than before, like it's covered in a red brown damp wool. Yeah.

Obviously, unhappy to see this, everybody rushes in and Otto is like unfrozen. So there's some general fretting and chewing out of people until they discover something shocking. The drill hole in the tail that the handsome miner made by, you know, with his drill bit, it is now healing. And the scientists say, you realize what this means? You let it thaw and now it is alive. Yeah.

Uh, so the next scene is professor Martin's having a meeting in his office with somebody we haven't met before. Uh, it turns out this is a UNESCO official named Connie Miller. And the first thing he says to her is some casual sexism. He's like, oh, we don't often see women as beautiful as you associated with science. And she's like, dude, I am qualified. And he's like, ah, yes, uh, I'm sorry. I am old. Yeah.

But I was still unclear on exactly what Miller's job is supposed to be here. I take it this is like a job interview where they're having this meeting here, but they don't explain exactly what she's doing. It's something related to Reptilicus. Yeah, I'm not sure exactly what this character is supposed to be doing. Like, I was mainly distracted by, like, who is this actor playing this role? You know, and this is where I came upon the Miss Germany factoid.

Yeah. And then also for some reason, the dude's daughter, Lisa, is just looming over this lady during the interview. Just one of many, many examples of throughout the whole film. Why would this character be here? Yeah.

But then suddenly we meet another new character, the American brigadier general named Mark Grayson, who, again, this is I think this was the guy narrating in voiceover earlier. But we meet him through one of those sentence completed from across the room by a newly arrived character intros.

So I think Martins is saying we have a general coming in. His name is and then he's looking amongst his papers. And then the guy you hear another voice and he says, Mark Grayson. And I have never seen a man introduce himself in a movie with such apparent disgust. He says his own name the way that cop talked about hippies in The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue.

Yeah, it's so weird. So Grayson wanders over to Professor Martins. He's scowling. He's not happy about whatever's going on. The professor welcomes him and Grayson says, I think the line is, I don't know why I'm here, professor. I assume you'll let me know. Classic.

Didn't we just talk about movies with the scene convention of like, we're all here for a mission, but we don't know what it is. Now we're going to get the briefing. Yep. Yep. We have kind of like a mini version of that here. Yeah. Though I guess we talked about how the most believable context is when it's a military thing. Yeah. So I guess it makes sense here. Yeah.

But here all of the characters are introduced to each other. You got Miller, Lisa, Grayson, all saying hello, introducing, and it's very stiff all around.

We'll be right back.

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Add some holiday flavor to every celebration with the sleek, sophisticated home cocktail maker, Bartesian. Pick up your phone and shake it to get $50 off any cocktail maker. Yes, you heard me. Shake your phone and get $50 off. Don't delay. This is Jonathan Strickland from Tech Stuff. I've been getting into the holiday spirit by listening to a lot, and I mean...

a lot of music on my Sonos Move 2 smart speaker. Now, the thing I love about the Move 2 is that I can pick it up off its cradle and just carry it with me room to room. So whether I'm decking the halls or I'm prepping hot apple cider or I'm just rocking out to my punk rock holiday music playlist in the living room, I can carry the tunes with me. But better

Other than that, Sonos has engineered their products to deliver the highest quality sound you could ask for. So bringing the Move 2 into a room is like transforming that space into the perfect listening environment. Doesn't matter which room it is. And I can go hours without needing to put it back on the cradle to recharge it. Sonos has great gifts for everyone on your list. Visit Sonos.com forward slash tech stuff to wrap up your holiday shopping. That's Sonos.com slash tech stuff.

This is Joel and I am Matt. We are with the How to Money podcast. So, Joel, you took a trip with your girls this past fall to Washington, D.C., and of course, you stayed at an Airbnb. Of course we did. We had a blast in our nation's capital, staying at this Airbnb in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. It made everything about this trip so much more relaxed.

Plus, it helped us save money, which you know I love. We had a full kitchen. We cooked breakfast together every morning before heading out to see the sights. My girls, they loved our adorable historic apartment. And our host made us feel like we were home while we were traveling. And it got me thinking, why am I not creating this experience for someone else by hosting on Airbnb too? You really should, man. Yeah, I cannot recommend it enough. I loved hosting with Airbnb because it's

The

And no matter how fast your sports are,

♪♪

Uh-oh, maybe that's too far into the future. Yeah, that's better. Welcome to a new era of Samsung AI TV. Discover more at Samsung.com. Upscale every moment. Upscaling utilizes AI-based algorithms. Viewing experience may vary according to types of content and format. Now, the next scene is a news conference hosted by Otto Martens. Highlights, so the press is gathered and he gives sort of a talk and the highlights are this creature is alive and

It is, quote, regenerating. And he explains that by saying a lizard can regrow its tail when it's chopped off. A flatworm can regrow whole parts of its body, even its brain, after being cut in half. And that's what's happening right now. Also, we learned that the animal is called Reptilicus. The name is suggested by a journalist. And Martens is just like, Reptilicus it is. Yeah.

I think that's standard, right? It's like the journalist gets there first. They get to officially name a new organism. Yeah. Doesn't matter what publication they're from. What if we name it the Daily Mail-O-Saurus? So all the journalists come in and flock to look at the tank. Like they're clamoring up the staircase to look in the window inside and they're murmuring. And then we see newspaper headlines spinning at the screen. We see prehistoric monster growing in huge tank. And

And I really like that one because it's got the word huge in it, but it refers to the tank. And then another headline prominently featuring the concept of tank. It is incubator tank feeds monster from past. Yeah.

So after this, there's a scene of Brigadier General Mark Grayson sulking because he is being relegated to the command of, in his words, two captains, three office boys and a damn lizard. And he's like, I'm a war hero. I'm worthy of prestige. How dare they put me on reptilicus detail? Yeah.

Now, the next scene we get is a good old dirge scene here. We're not at the eel part yet. Instead, here he's eating a sandwich and painting something on a microscope slide and then looking through the microscope, then putting his sandwich under the microscope and seeing lots of bacteria. And then he burps and then we get like harp music playing and we cut to black.

I have no idea. This is a scene where I really was trying to figure out what Peterson's role here is like. He did not before this scene. He did not seem like a character who had micro microscope access. You know, it's like he's just now discovering that there are microbes on his food, I guess. I guess maybe. Yeah.

I would not be surprised if they, this was not a scene where they were like, hey, let's just, let's just improv some stuff. Let's just get the camera on this guy and just see what he's got. Turn dirge loose in the lab. See, yeah. He's like Billy Crystal and, uh, yeah. Yeah.

Oh, also this right after this, I think is when he actually does cram his hand in the electric eel tank. Yes. So he's like going down the, down the hall and just wants to get a little taste of free sample of electric eel. And it, I don't know, I guess it shocks him. I assumed we were to take it as him really being shocked.

electrified not him pretending to be oh yeah i think it was supposed to be real electrocution because we get we get as we're hoping like full um like a full array of facial emotions here like he goes to the seven stages of being shocked by an eel uh and it's pretty great uh but while this is happening there is distraction because he hears a rumbling in the reptilicus tank

And he gets very alarmed. In fact, so alarmed that he pulls an alarm. He pulls the fire alarm. Everybody comes running. They're like, what's happening? What's wrong, Peterson? And he explains. But then Martens says to him, don't worry, Peterson. Here's the quote. He says, Reptilicus has no conscious life yet. What you heard was merely involuntary embryonic movement. Yeah.

Uh, so, you know, in the meantime, we learn more about reptilicus. The scientists are constantly studying it as it grows. Martin's is like, yes, grow more reptilicus. And they learn he has big, strong scales on his back, uh, slimy secretion from his mouth, which has a corrosive effect, like highly, like highly concentrated acid, uh,

And so they're like, yes, keep keep growing it. Oh, and this is the part where we get to the Copenhagen tourism reel. Oh, yes. Like there's this I think German general. There's a general from somewhere named Brandt who is working with Grayson and he comes into his office and he says, is there is there anything I can do for you? And Grayson says, yeah, get me transferred out of this damn place.

So he's being grumpy as usual. But then Brandt suggests to him, why not go out for a night on the town and see all the sights in this beautiful locale? And Grayson is like, splendid idea, actually. So they go out together and we see all of the fountains and the bridges and the trams and the bicycles and the palace and everything.

Uh, and then we end up, uh, Oh, they, they go over the Longabro bridge, which is a, an important landmark in the movie that will happen. We will encounter again later when Reptilicus is rampaging. Uh, but this is the part where Brant and Grayson both take Connie, Connie Miller from UNESCO on a date to dinner. And she's walking around holding both of their arms and it's playing what the subtitles referred to as soft, sultry music. Uh,

Uh, and this like nightclub singer is singing a song called Tivoli nights, Tivoli nights. So what a site, uh, this might be a standard. I wasn't familiar with it though, but it does include also some pretty good Danish scat singing. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I love this whole sequence here. Again, it's so overt. It is like a travel brochure. But at the same time, this is probably a sequence where some viewers are saying, hey, didn't I pop in a monster movie? Isn't there supposed to be a monster rampage at some point? Uh-huh.

Well, if that's what you're thinking, you're in luck because it is finally time for Reptilicus to break loose. So one night, I don't know if it's supposed to be the same night, but it's continuous with what we just saw. There's another frightening thunderstorm. Only Dalby and Peterson are working late in the office as usual. And they hear what sounds like a crash and they go out in the hallway looking toward the Reptilicus tank and they see something with horror in their eyes. Dalby sends Peterson off to the police and then they're

there's like a weird exchange here where I thought it was building up to some big comedic payoff and then it doesn't it's just Peterson and this cop playing chess with himself going back and forth over and over trying to figure out what they're talking about about the monster being loose there's some fun lines there's there are more electric eel jokes which I like yeah oh that's right yeah

Oh, yeah, yeah, you're right. Because what do they say? It's like the electricity went out and the cops like, really? And then Peter said, yeah, even the electric eel went out. Wonk, wonk. It's great. He sells it. I like it. So next thing that all the other characters arrive at the lab and Reptilicus is gone. And so is Dalby. Only his glasses remain. And then meanwhile, some military guys find Reptilicus's tracks leading down into the water where they vanish.

And here the movie shifts into rampage and response mode. So there's going to be a lot less fewer dialogue scenes from now on and more of people running around trying to set up artillery and soldiers and jeeps and tanks and everything to face off against Reptilicus. And Reptilicus, is he going to be put down by the artillery? Of course not. We're going to have to have some kind of secret weapon in the end.

but we're not there yet. Pretty standard stuff. So once you reach this stage of a Kaiju film, you know, the stock footage is coming out, you know, there are going to be a few different plans to kill or capture the beast. Uh,

One or two are not going to work, and that third one's going to be what really is effective. That's right. So one thing that's different at this point in the movie is that General Grayson is in charge now. It's what he always wanted. He's very excited. So he's like chasing around after the monster. The first attack is at what they call a small farm on the coast.

So we see a lot of footage of soldiers loading up into transport vehicles and heading down the road. And we get to the farm and the farmer there, he's like, oh, he killed 14 of my best cows. And we see a bloody skinned cow head on the ground.

And then it's a bunch of military dudes driving around and barking things back and forth on radios trying to find the monster until finally they do. And I like this line delivery because it has kind of unintended implications. This soldier, like he looks up when he finally sees Reptilicus and he says, it's my God. It is your God. Yeah.

I mean, really, it could be. You were created to serve it as a character. Reptilicus is pretty cool looking, though the effects, like we say, are rough around the edges. Hard not to love, but also difficult to believe. At times, he seems to have little stationary jazz hands when he's writhing about. But I like him. I think he's a memorable kaiju.

Uh, Reptilicus is kind of like a snake. Like he has a long, thin neck, but it's covered in a very raised layered scales. Uh, he has fangs like a snake and a head like a snake, uh,

And then he has big spiny wings. So I don't know, maybe his wings are, we never see Reptilicus fly from what I recall. So the wings might be more like, you know, neural spines. It might be more for cooling purposes to go back to a core episode we just talked about. Would you say that Reptilicus is a cross between a sauropod and an aquatic lizard that is striving to become a mammal?

Ooh, yeah. Wow. Perfect. Yes. Because that's how it's presented a couple of times in the film. Aren't we all striving to become a mammal? Yeah, every day. You get up every morning and you strive to become a mammal, stay a mammal, be a mammal, and so forth. I just want to live up to my destiny.

So, yeah, the military guys unleash artillery and machine gun fire at Reptilicus. And then they even, so that doesn't work at first, but then they try a giant flamethrower. And Reptilicus really does not like the flamethrower. Reptilicus squeals quite repetitively. The same sound effect is used over and over. Yeah, it's terrifying stock footage of a military flamethrower. Like, not one of these, like, novelty flamethrowers.

You know, I'm still dangerous things you see like it burns and whatnot, but like the real jellied gasoline horror show. So I understand Reptilicus's response here. Yeah. It's not mega weapon. It's like actually you're seeing the jet come out. It's scary as hell. Yeah. But Reptilicus, after being hit with the flamethrower, gets really upset and then slithers off into the sea.

So all of the characters are standing here on the beach. Why are they all here? I don't know. But they're like Sven's here. The daughters are here. They're all here on the beach. They're watching what's going on. Grayson is like, maybe he'll die. And then Connie, for some reason, says not a chance. He's just taking time to let his wounds heal. And then Grayson says regeneration. Regeneration.

You know, I just dawned on me the thing that's missing that I guess Connie is kind of filling in for here is we need a child. We need a child that is having revelations about the kaiju. Like that's what's missing here. A Timmy, if you will. Yes, we do need that. Yeah. To like sort of intuit the intentions and spirit and meaning of the monster. Yeah. But in lieu of child, Connie.

We don't even know if Reptilicus is a friend to all children. It's possible he is. And nobody even just nobody ever gets to say so. So it's like not even considered. Nobody thought to try. So after all this, the military and the scientists regroup and they launch a naval search operation to find Reptilicus. So we're out on the water and we see all these battleships and destroyers going.

going around and again why is finn the miner on one of these battleships yeah yeah so they they find uh reptilicus with sonar and then they launch a depth depth charges as he is slumbering on the ocean floor connie tries to get them to stop she's like don't you realize what you're doing if reptilicus is hit you'll never find all the pieces underwater he'll regenerate mark

Uh, but it's too late. We see some bloody Reptilicus chunks floating around in the water column. So it's too late. Uh, and then there's fallout from this Martins who was also on one of the boats has a medical event and is taken to the hospital. Uh, later we, we learned that Reptilicus has been attacking ships and ports throughout the Baltic sea and retaliation. So it's very, Oh, the humanity, uh,

And then we get a scene of Sven, the handsome miner, being consoled by Karen, I think by Karen, the daughter of Martens. And Sven says, Harbors, freighters, I had the blood of Reptilicus on my hands. Sometimes I feel that it's perhaps also the blood of all those people. Yeah.

Yes. Of all the ridiculous Dark Night of the Soul scenes in movies, this is one of the best. Yes.

Oh, anyway, next, this movie has been very short on like bikinis up to this point. So they just bring you like, what if we did a Jaws style beach scene, beach attack scene? So that's what's next. We just go to the beach, a bunch of young hip people hanging out in bathing suits, lounging in the sand. And then here's Reptilicus. Yep. Shooting green slime out of his mouth at everyone. And the effect here is, is marvelous. Not believable at all, but, but charming. Okay.

Agreed. So when Reptilicus rears up out of the water, everybody panics and runs away. And then we see more military personnel and vehicles getting into position to face the Reptilicus menace. And we just know now is the time for Reptilicus to attack all of those beautiful tourist friendly landmarks and affordable locations in Copenhagen. Not the Little Mermaid.

So we see like the, you know, the military, they're just shooting and shooting and shooting and shooting. They unload a zillion bullets into Reptilicus, but it's just making him madder. Reptilicus rides around. He slams his head into little models of buildings. They say we can't use our flamethrowers, which he didn't like last time because we can't get close to the acid slime. Now Reptilicus is like spitting green goo at people. So they can't get too close.

And next we see Reptilicus attack the Langebro Bridge where Sven, the miner, I think gets to have a heroic moment because like somebody has to operate the controls of the bridge to like lower the drawbridge so that the panicking civilians can run away. But the guy who's supposed to lower it is paralyzed by fear. So Sven has to do it. I think that's what happened. I think that's how it goes. Yeah. Yeah.

So the military tries more plans. They're going to try to like steer Reptilicus in one place or another to so they can use certain weapons. Reptilicus attacks the stock exchange. Oh, no, not the stock exchange. More rampaging and shooting all heading toward a final confrontation.

So we get the lead up to that final showdown where there's another plotting scene where they're all like standing around in a room over a map. And Grayson says he wants to use bombs. But Martin appears now recovered from his medical event to argue. He says Reptilicus cannot be blown to bits because the pieces of him will regenerate.

And Grayson says, I'm a soldier, not a scientist. That's the way I know how to kill. And then Martin says, then you will have to learn another way. So what's it going to be? We have a showdown here between these worldviews is like science versus medicine.

militarism and who's which one is going to triumph over Reptilicus. It seems like they go for a synthesis of the two because ladies and gentlemen, the solution to all of the Reptilicus problems in this movie is a drug bazooka. Yes, the drug bazooka. Another one of my favorite aspects of this picture. So they get the idea from like

They're just having a conversation. I think it's Sven and Lisa are talking or Sven and Karen are talking and he's like, how's your father? And she says, sedated. They gave him a hypo. And then somebody says, what about Reptilicus? And somebody says, if only we could give him a hypo.

And then you can see it dawn on them. They're like, by George, that's it. There's some great lines here. Like they're like, well, was there some sort of drug we could give him? And they're like, could we get enough of that drug? And somebody in the midst of this, I don't remember who's like, drug? Like they'd never heard the word before. One of them says, by my calculations, we'll need a gallon of it for Reptilicus.

Uh, so yeah, they, uh, well, they kind of split up into different teams. Like the young attractive people all go to get a gallon of reptilicus drugs and, uh, Grayson is like rigging up some way to deliver it. Um, and I love that after this part, there are repeated scenes of people explaining the, the drug bazooka concept to each other in detail as reptilicus is raging in the background. Um,

And they keep saying things like, I'm going to take a crack at Reptilicus. So eventually they load up the drug bazooka and shoot. Grayson does it, of course. He's the real hero in the end. He shoots and it's a hit. It hits Reptilicus right in the mouth, which was the only place they could get him, but it works. And then Reptilicus thrashes around a little bit and then falls asleep.

So afterwards, we surveyed the destruction, you know, the burned and crushed buildings and everybody wandering around looking like, what happened? What hath Reptilicus wrought? But then the weirdest thing, I mentioned this earlier, what the subtitles describe as soft, sultry nightclub music starts playing. And Grayson is standing there with Connie and he says, it's a good thing that there's no more like him. Yeah.

And then we cut to the bottom of the ocean where one of Reptilicus's legs, severed legs, is walking around by itself. And then the end. You know what that means. It's going to regenerate into a full Reptilicus and then the whole problem emerges again. That's right. Reptilicus can never be defeated unless they launch him into space. That's right. I mean, I guess that's where we're going in the sequel. Like maybe sedated Reptilicus.

Reptilicus versus new regenerated Reptilicus. And then we have to just, yeah, we have to launch both of them into space today. How long does the drug sedate Reptilicus for, though? I don't know. They don't really get into that. Like, what's the plan next? Yeah. Launch him into space. Freeze him. We don't know. We have to trust that the scientific world

We'll take care of it this time, even though they're the ones that accidentally thawed the foot to begin with and did the mad science that got us to this predicament in the first place. They had to do that with one of the villains on The Boys, right? That's right. They did. I forget his name, but the evil take on Captain America. Yeah, like couldn't be destroyed. They had to just keep him permanently sedated. Yeah, yeah. I mean, sometimes that's the way it is with your various, as we've discussed on Weird House, some of your various takes on vampires and werewolves.

Like, what does the stake do to the unholy creature? Does it murder them or does it just hold them in place? A stake that may one day be removed and free them. Yeah, it's like a lock. Yeah. Which, you know, I feel like if Reptilecus does have any kind of deeper meaning, it is getting at the idea that, yeah, solutions to problems are not permanent solutions. They are all inherently temporary. Right.

And you have to keep at it and or keep solving the same problems over and over again. In this case, giant lizards that regenerate.

Yeah. Well, I guess Reptilicus is an update on the tale of the Hydra, right? Yeah. Yeah. The Hydra is very much like the classic telling of that story, right? The problem, not only a problem that keeps springing back up, but springs up with additional problems. Every time you cut away the head, you get more heads. And indeed, every time you defeat one Reptilicus, you potentially get more.

So you got to think outside the box. Yeah. For Hercules, it was what? It was like cauterizing the stumps with fire. Yeah. And help from your cousin, right? His cousin helping them, yeah. In this case, it's a drug bazooka. Yeah.

All right. Well, on that note, we're going to go ahead and close it out here. We hope everyone has a good Turkey Day, if you celebrate Turkey Day. In the past, we've kind of made it an official thing to do, or an unofficial thing, even to sort of do a film that has been covered on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

You know, thinking back to those Turkey Day marathons of old and they still put it on. So look for that if you're into it. But this movie was, of course, covered on one of the recent seasons of Mystery Science Theater 3000. So just a reminder that, yeah, if you don't want to seek out the original version, I think you can still find the MST3K version on Netflix. So, you know, go watch it there. This is a fun movie. This is a good one to riff on.

I think it was the first episode of the reboot. Yeah, it was a Jonah episode. I think it had a fun song in there about how every country, every culture has its monster. So, yeah.

All right. Just a reminder, the stuff to blow your mind is primarily a science and culture podcast with core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. But on Fridays, we set aside most serious concerns to just talk about a weird film on Weird House Cinema. Find the full list of the movies we've done on Letterboxd.com. That's L-E-T-T-E-R-B-O-X-D.com. Our username is Weird House. And if you're on Instagram, follow the show feed at STBYMPodcast.

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.

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