1 00:00:02,128 --> 00:00:06,633 - The COVID-19 pandemic came as a surprise to some, 2 00:00:06,675 --> 00:00:10,262 but horror films have sounded the alarm for decades. 3 00:00:11,638 --> 00:00:14,140 - What "Contagion” did perfect 4 00:00:14,182 --> 00:00:17,811 was to show us that the deadliest infection is fear. 5 00:00:18,937 --> 00:00:21,064 - It was an upsetting movie when there was no pandemic. 6 00:00:22,357 --> 00:00:23,942 And it was even more upsetting during the pandemic. 7 00:00:26,903 --> 00:00:28,405 - I remember when we shot "12 Monkeys," 8 00:00:28,446 --> 00:00:30,740 and you'd use a "What if?" 9 00:00:32,075 --> 00:00:34,369 - You won't think I'm crazy when people start dying next month. 10 00:00:34,411 --> 00:00:35,745 - You think it can't possibly happen. 11 00:00:35,787 --> 00:00:37,247 - No...! 12 00:00:38,790 --> 00:00:41,126 - When it comes to an infected people movie, 13 00:00:41,167 --> 00:00:43,712 probably my very favorite is David Cronenberg's "Rabid."” 14 00:00:46,715 --> 00:00:48,508 - The idea of sexually transmitted diseases 15 00:00:48,550 --> 00:00:52,220 and sex being the thing that destroys you. 16 00:00:55,140 --> 00:00:58,643 "," I think, was genuinely terrifying. 17 00:01:01,646 --> 00:01:05,942 - It was just raw and real and felt like, 18 00:01:05,984 --> 00:01:09,321 oh, that could be happening down the street, tomorrow. 19 00:01:10,947 --> 00:01:14,075 - That's the pernicious element of a disease. 20 00:01:14,117 --> 00:01:16,870 All the weapons of mankind 21 00:01:16,911 --> 00:01:19,581 are helpless before it, you know, you can't bomb a disease. 22 00:01:19,623 --> 00:01:20,624 - Oh, God! 23 00:01:22,667 --> 00:01:25,045 - You can't see it, you don't know where it is or when 24 00:01:25,086 --> 00:01:27,589 it's present or how dangerous it is or when it might strike. 25 00:01:29,382 --> 00:01:31,176 But you have to be on guard all of the time. 26 00:02:02,832 --> 00:02:05,377 - Horror stories are built around our fear of threats 27 00:02:05,418 --> 00:02:08,213 we know exist, but can't stop... 28 00:02:11,675 --> 00:02:13,510 ...and the threats we don't know about 29 00:02:13,551 --> 00:02:15,345 until it's too late. 30 00:02:17,889 --> 00:02:20,934 Pathogens inspire both kinds of fear. 31 00:02:20,975 --> 00:02:23,645 At first we don't know what's killing us, 32 00:02:23,687 --> 00:02:27,107 then we realize an invisible monster is on the loose, 33 00:02:27,148 --> 00:02:29,234 and it's coming for everyone. 34 00:02:31,861 --> 00:02:34,197 - In horror, these diseases often come wrapped 35 00:02:34,239 --> 00:02:35,990 in a supernatural clothing. 36 00:02:41,121 --> 00:02:44,332 But when COVID-19 brought the world to a standstill, 37 00:02:44,374 --> 00:02:49,087 many people sought out the films that seemed closest to reality. 38 00:02:49,129 --> 00:02:50,547 - At the top of the pandemic, 39 00:02:50,588 --> 00:02:54,509 I was seeing so many people online, 40 00:02:54,551 --> 00:02:57,637 purposely watching pandemic and zombie movies. 41 00:02:57,679 --> 00:02:59,806 And that says something about our psyche-- 42 00:02:59,848 --> 00:03:03,601 That when we are at our lowest point, 43 00:03:03,643 --> 00:03:05,562 we want to poke that. 44 00:03:08,773 --> 00:03:11,526 - "Outbreak," from 1995, 45 00:03:11,568 --> 00:03:13,987 follows the trail of an Ebola-like virus 46 00:03:14,028 --> 00:03:16,406 brought to America by a black market monkey. 47 00:03:18,658 --> 00:03:21,411 - Sirs... Mr. Motaba. 48 00:03:21,453 --> 00:03:23,496 Help! 49 00:03:23,538 --> 00:03:25,331 Oh, God! 50 00:03:25,373 --> 00:03:27,542 - "Outbreak” is one of the first of what you may call 51 00:03:27,584 --> 00:03:29,836 semi-realistic plague films. 52 00:03:29,878 --> 00:03:31,629 I wouldn't say entirely, because it goes nuts 53 00:03:31,671 --> 00:03:33,423 in the last half hour, but it's essentially kind of 54 00:03:33,465 --> 00:03:35,008 a look at how plague might actually operate 55 00:03:35,049 --> 00:03:38,344 in the modern world. 56 00:03:38,386 --> 00:03:40,722 And I think it was a really underrated film because 57 00:03:40,764 --> 00:03:43,099 that was the first time a lot of moviegoers thought, 58 00:03:43,141 --> 00:03:45,101 "Oh, yeah, this actually could happen.” 59 00:03:47,103 --> 00:03:49,189 - You had the monkey, you had the sneezing in the theater. 60 00:03:50,857 --> 00:03:54,611 - And you had these, these visual expressions that 61 00:03:54,652 --> 00:03:56,571 taught people, like, oh, 62 00:03:56,613 --> 00:03:58,740 , it's actually dangerous 63 00:03:58,782 --> 00:04:02,994 to be a human being and have lungs 64 00:04:03,036 --> 00:04:05,830 that can absorb bacteria 65 00:04:05,872 --> 00:04:08,249 in a way that can destroy our entire system. 66 00:04:10,335 --> 00:04:11,669 - Don't tell me when I need sleep, Casey, 67 00:04:11,711 --> 00:04:13,338 I don't tell you when you need sleep. 68 00:04:15,965 --> 00:04:19,260 - For every person who gets sick, 69 00:04:19,302 --> 00:04:21,721 how many other people are they likely to infect? 70 00:04:21,763 --> 00:04:24,265 - I feel like "Contagion" really brought that to the next level 71 00:04:24,307 --> 00:04:27,352 and included a scientific aspect 72 00:04:27,393 --> 00:04:31,189 of the storytelling that an outbreak was really rudimentary. 73 00:04:31,231 --> 00:04:35,026 - "Contagion” is the first movie that made me aware 74 00:04:35,068 --> 00:04:37,737 of how an epidemic spread. 75 00:04:39,614 --> 00:04:42,283 And Scott Z. Burns' script 76 00:04:42,325 --> 00:04:45,370 and the way it's executed by Steven Soderbergh, 77 00:04:45,411 --> 00:04:47,580 it's just right on the money. 78 00:04:49,374 --> 00:04:52,502 - "Contagion" begins as a woman, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, 79 00:04:52,544 --> 00:04:55,922 returns home to Minnesota after a business trip to China. 80 00:04:57,382 --> 00:04:58,925 She's been infected with 81 00:04:58,967 --> 00:05:00,677 a highly contagious respiratory virus 82 00:05:00,718 --> 00:05:03,847 that she unknowingly spreads everywhere she goes. 83 00:05:06,182 --> 00:05:08,726 As the number of deaths exponentially rise, 84 00:05:08,768 --> 00:05:11,855 it becomes a race against time to figure out how to stop 85 00:05:11,896 --> 00:05:14,691 the virus before the human race is decimated. 86 00:05:16,651 --> 00:05:18,486 - When I started the project, 87 00:05:18,528 --> 00:05:24,325 my hope was that I could write a movie that was, 88 00:05:24,367 --> 00:05:29,497 in some ways, a '70s-era disaster movie 89 00:05:29,539 --> 00:05:32,876 where we had this big, star-studded cast. 90 00:05:38,464 --> 00:05:43,553 But what I wanted to do was sort of Trojan Horse that idea 91 00:05:43,595 --> 00:05:45,221 and fill it with science. 92 00:05:45,263 --> 00:05:46,890 - Somewhere in the world 93 00:05:46,931 --> 00:05:49,183 the wrong pig met up with the wrong bat. 94 00:05:49,225 --> 00:05:50,560 - Have you ever seen anything like this before? 95 00:05:50,602 --> 00:05:52,562 - No. 96 00:05:52,604 --> 00:05:54,439 - One of the great things about the all-star cast 97 00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:56,357 is that it made it really 98 00:05:56,399 --> 00:06:00,570 easy for an audience to track the overlapping stories. 99 00:06:00,612 --> 00:06:03,239 You knew when you were with Marion Cotillard, 100 00:06:03,281 --> 00:06:05,992 you were in the World Health Organization story. 101 00:06:06,034 --> 00:06:08,369 You knew that when you were with Kate Winslet, 102 00:06:08,411 --> 00:06:13,124 you were in the CDC epidemiology domestic policy story. 103 00:06:13,166 --> 00:06:15,084 You knew that Laurence Fishburne 104 00:06:15,126 --> 00:06:17,086 represented both the CDC and government 105 00:06:17,128 --> 00:06:19,130 and the intersection of that, you know, 106 00:06:19,172 --> 00:06:22,634 Matt Damon was all of us. 107 00:06:22,675 --> 00:06:25,595 - Borrowing a page from Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho”... 108 00:06:25,637 --> 00:06:27,513 - Honey? 109 00:06:27,555 --> 00:06:30,642 - ..."Contagion” throws its audience off-balance by killing 110 00:06:30,683 --> 00:06:34,646 one of its biggest stars in the first 10 minutes of the film. 111 00:06:34,687 --> 00:06:36,064 - Let's get a line in her. 112 00:06:36,105 --> 00:06:38,191 - I think one of the best scenes in the movie, 113 00:06:38,232 --> 00:06:40,568 and it's a brilliant piece of acting, 114 00:06:40,610 --> 00:06:43,988 but it's, like, incredibly sad but very plausible, 115 00:06:44,030 --> 00:06:46,324 is when Matt Damon is in hospital 116 00:06:46,366 --> 00:06:49,035 and is informed of his wife's death. 117 00:06:49,077 --> 00:06:51,663 - She failed to respond. - Okay, and? 118 00:06:51,704 --> 00:06:55,583 - Her heart stopped and, unfortunately, she did die. 119 00:06:55,625 --> 00:06:57,210 - Right. 120 00:06:57,251 --> 00:06:59,671 - And he doesn't hear it, he can't process it. 121 00:06:59,712 --> 00:07:02,298 - Okay, so can |I go talk to her? 122 00:07:02,340 --> 00:07:06,052 - Mr. Emhoff, I'm sorry, your wife is dead. 123 00:07:11,391 --> 00:07:14,560 - There's no doubt that "Contagion"” is a horror film, 124 00:07:14,602 --> 00:07:16,145 but it's so artfully done, 125 00:07:16,187 --> 00:07:18,481 it's so intelligent, so well-written, 126 00:07:18,523 --> 00:07:21,818 it has such an enormous star cast that I think people 127 00:07:21,859 --> 00:07:25,363 who dislike horror try to steal it and say, oh, it's actually 128 00:07:25,405 --> 00:07:27,365 a drama-- it's a horror film. 129 00:07:29,450 --> 00:07:32,578 And the proof is when they peel off 130 00:07:32,620 --> 00:07:35,164 Gwyneth Paltrow's face, 131 00:07:35,206 --> 00:07:37,458 open up the top her skull and look inside 132 00:07:37,500 --> 00:07:39,961 and there's nothing but goop in there. 133 00:07:40,003 --> 00:07:42,839 - My wife makes me take off my clothes in the garage 134 00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:45,842 and she leaves out a bucket of warm water and some soap, 135 00:07:45,883 --> 00:07:50,179 and then she douses everything in hand sanitizer after I leave. 136 00:07:50,221 --> 00:07:52,223 I mean, she's overreacting, right? 137 00:07:52,265 --> 00:07:54,058 - Not really. 138 00:07:54,100 --> 00:07:59,272 - What I was hoping for was to get to a place where reality 139 00:07:59,313 --> 00:08:02,108 was scarier than, than fiction, 140 00:08:02,150 --> 00:08:04,444 and so I was very interested 141 00:08:04,485 --> 00:08:10,116 in what human beings perceive as dangerous. 142 00:08:10,158 --> 00:08:12,118 - What's that, fomites? 143 00:08:12,160 --> 00:08:14,287 - It refers to transmission from surfaces. 144 00:08:14,328 --> 00:08:16,998 - As opposed to what really is. 145 00:08:17,040 --> 00:08:18,416 - The average person touches their face 146 00:08:18,458 --> 00:08:20,376 two or three thousand times a day. 147 00:08:20,418 --> 00:08:23,129 - Two or three thousand times a day? 148 00:08:23,171 --> 00:08:25,089 - Three to five times every waking minute. 149 00:08:25,131 --> 00:08:28,634 - It turns out it tends to be our, our, our habits 150 00:08:28,676 --> 00:08:33,765 and our lack of willpower that is probably 151 00:08:33,806 --> 00:08:36,309 a greater existential threat. 152 00:08:36,350 --> 00:08:37,894 - What's your temperature? 153 00:08:37,935 --> 00:08:39,562 -101.8. 154 00:08:39,604 --> 00:08:42,190 - Steven Soderbergh peoples the film with, like, 155 00:08:42,231 --> 00:08:43,900 very famous actors and says, 156 00:08:43,941 --> 00:08:46,611 dead, alive, dead, alive, dead, alive, dead, alive. 157 00:08:46,652 --> 00:08:48,196 - I'm sorry I couldn't finish. 158 00:08:48,237 --> 00:08:49,530 - Just because Kate Winslet's a big name 159 00:08:49,572 --> 00:08:51,616 doesn't mean she's gonna make it. 160 00:08:51,657 --> 00:08:54,368 It's a brilliant way to look at it because you kind of think, 161 00:08:54,410 --> 00:08:56,704 I'm gonna be okay, my family's gonna be okay-- 162 00:08:56,746 --> 00:08:58,831 Oh, wait, my brother's dead? 163 00:08:58,873 --> 00:09:01,459 How is that possible? How can I be immune and him not? 164 00:09:03,503 --> 00:09:05,505 - If the film seems prophetic, 165 00:09:05,546 --> 00:09:08,841 it's because writer Scott Burns consulted with virologists 166 00:09:08,883 --> 00:09:12,637 and public policy makers to work out how a novel pathogen 167 00:09:12,678 --> 00:09:14,472 could come into the world, 168 00:09:14,514 --> 00:09:17,600 and what would happen if it did. 169 00:09:17,642 --> 00:09:20,812 - It was so prophetic, it was so dead-on, 170 00:09:20,853 --> 00:09:23,272 it didn't miss a single trick. 171 00:09:23,314 --> 00:09:28,402 Everything that it imagined happening happened, 172 00:09:28,444 --> 00:09:31,656 with only a few tiny exceptions. 173 00:09:31,697 --> 00:09:34,742 - Right now, our best defense has been social distancing-- 174 00:09:34,784 --> 00:09:37,328 No hand shaking, staying home when you're sick, 175 00:09:37,370 --> 00:09:40,665 washing your hands frequently. 176 00:09:40,706 --> 00:09:44,669 - It anticipated a lot of the crazy conspiracy theories-- 177 00:09:44,710 --> 00:09:48,965 You've got Jude Law selling Forsythia to suckers. 178 00:09:49,006 --> 00:09:50,675 - What does Forsythia do? 179 00:09:50,716 --> 00:09:52,635 - It's the cure. 180 00:09:55,972 --> 00:09:57,932 - It think it's a really brilliant film, 181 00:09:57,974 --> 00:10:01,686 I'm not surprised that a lot of people watched it, like, 182 00:10:01,727 --> 00:10:05,356 either for the first time or, like me, a second time around, 183 00:10:05,398 --> 00:10:09,902 slack-jawed with horror, like, oh, here we go. 184 00:10:14,115 --> 00:10:16,367 - When did we run out of body bags? 185 00:10:16,409 --> 00:10:18,786 - Two days ago. 186 00:10:21,080 --> 00:10:22,456 - "Contagion” showed us humanity 187 00:10:22,498 --> 00:10:24,500 at the brink of a viral apocalypse. 188 00:10:26,502 --> 00:10:29,839 What if we went over the edge, and into the void? 189 00:10:34,760 --> 00:10:36,721 - You've gotta think I'm addicted, haven't you, Cole? 190 00:10:36,762 --> 00:10:39,098 To that dying world? 191 00:10:39,140 --> 00:10:40,808 - I just wanna do my part, 192 00:10:40,850 --> 00:10:43,978 to get us back on top, in charge of the planet. 193 00:10:44,020 --> 00:10:47,607 -In 1995, a romance about a weaponized virus 194 00:10:47,648 --> 00:10:50,610 wiping out humanity came to the screen... 195 00:10:50,651 --> 00:10:54,155 - Five billion people died in 1996 and 1997. 196 00:10:54,197 --> 00:10:56,449 - ...Terry Gilliam's "12 Monkeys." 197 00:10:56,490 --> 00:10:58,201 - Are you going to save us, Mr. Cole? 198 00:10:58,242 --> 00:10:59,619 -I can't save you-- nobody can. 199 00:11:02,246 --> 00:11:06,459 - "12 Monkeys" is based on "La Jetée," by Chris Marker, 200 00:11:06,500 --> 00:11:10,838 who was a French filmmaker, and he took a really unique concept 201 00:11:10,880 --> 00:11:15,551 of using stills-- still images-- to convey the arc 202 00:11:15,593 --> 00:11:21,098 of a love story and a man's witnessing his own death. 203 00:11:27,063 --> 00:11:29,357 And "12 Monkeys" took that story 204 00:11:29,398 --> 00:11:31,692 and made a feature film from it. 205 00:11:34,987 --> 00:11:36,697 - Bruce Willis plays James Cole, 206 00:11:36,739 --> 00:11:39,492 a convict in the virus-wrecked future. 207 00:11:39,533 --> 00:11:42,703 - James Cole, cleared from quarantine. 208 00:11:42,745 --> 00:11:44,330 - Cole is sent back in time 209 00:11:44,372 --> 00:11:46,332 to find the source of the contagion. 210 00:11:51,212 --> 00:11:52,880 But he winds up in a mental institution, 211 00:11:52,922 --> 00:11:55,216 where he meets psychiatrist Kathryn Railly, 212 00:11:55,258 --> 00:11:57,260 played by Madeleine Stowe. 213 00:11:57,301 --> 00:11:58,511 - What year is this? 214 00:11:58,552 --> 00:12:00,596 - What year do you think it is? 215 00:12:00,638 --> 00:12:02,598 - 1996. 216 00:12:02,640 --> 00:12:04,392 - That's the future, James. 217 00:12:04,433 --> 00:12:06,560 Do you think you're living in the future? 218 00:12:08,020 --> 00:12:11,232 I was very familiar with Terry and his sense of displacement 219 00:12:11,274 --> 00:12:13,859 and disorientation that permeated his movies, 220 00:12:13,901 --> 00:12:15,611 and I was dying to work with him. 221 00:12:16,904 --> 00:12:19,198 There were some challenging days, 222 00:12:19,240 --> 00:12:20,908 and part of the challenge, quite frankly, 223 00:12:20,950 --> 00:12:23,619 was he was dealing with a movie star in Bruce... 224 00:12:23,661 --> 00:12:26,205 - This is it, James, what you've been working for. 225 00:12:26,247 --> 00:12:28,249 - Women will want to get to know you. 226 00:12:28,291 --> 00:12:30,626 - I don't want your women! I want to get well! 227 00:12:30,668 --> 00:12:33,629 - In the end, he became very surprised with what Bruce 228 00:12:33,671 --> 00:12:36,841 was doing, which was this wonderful sort of pure, 229 00:12:36,882 --> 00:12:39,635 childlike thing. 230 00:12:39,677 --> 00:12:42,680 - People can't travel back in time, "Whoop! Whoop!" 231 00:12:42,722 --> 00:12:44,849 Uh-uh. Not here. 232 00:12:44,890 --> 00:12:48,311 He was just very pure, and that's perfect for the movie 233 00:12:48,352 --> 00:12:51,939 because it's actually told from a child's point of view. 234 00:12:54,525 --> 00:12:56,861 - The scenes set in the past were shot on location 235 00:12:56,902 --> 00:13:00,823 in Philadelphia, which helps to give the film its unique look. 236 00:13:05,286 --> 00:13:07,413 - It was not a great time for cities period, 237 00:13:07,455 --> 00:13:10,041 but Philadelphia, it was really rough. 238 00:13:10,082 --> 00:13:12,001 He went to corners of the city 239 00:13:12,043 --> 00:13:14,462 that filmmakers were not going to. 240 00:13:14,503 --> 00:13:18,049 You know, for him it was just, you know, as an artist, 241 00:13:18,090 --> 00:13:20,051 a great palette for him. 242 00:13:20,092 --> 00:13:22,511 - Maybe the human race deserves to be wiped out. 243 00:13:23,846 --> 00:13:26,265 - Wiping out the human race? 244 00:13:26,307 --> 00:13:28,559 That's a great idea. 245 00:13:28,601 --> 00:13:31,604 - In his first Academy Award-nominated performance, 246 00:13:31,645 --> 00:13:34,106 Brad Pitt plays a mental patient 247 00:13:34,148 --> 00:13:36,275 with mysterious ties to the pandemic. 248 00:13:36,317 --> 00:13:38,527 - Jeffrey? - Mm-hmm. 249 00:13:38,569 --> 00:13:40,571 - You're completely insane. 250 00:13:40,613 --> 00:13:43,741 - He seems to be the engineer of the apocalypse... 251 00:13:43,783 --> 00:13:46,160 - No, I'm not. 252 00:13:46,202 --> 00:13:48,037 - ...but that's deliberate misdirection. 253 00:13:48,079 --> 00:13:50,206 The real threat is a rogue scientist 254 00:13:50,247 --> 00:13:52,249 played by David Morse. 255 00:13:55,169 --> 00:13:58,547 He plans to release a highly infectious airborne pathogen 256 00:13:58,589 --> 00:14:01,008 across the world. 257 00:14:01,050 --> 00:14:03,344 - He was talking to me about 258 00:14:03,386 --> 00:14:06,347 that scene, you know, in the airport in "12 Monkeys." 259 00:14:06,389 --> 00:14:07,973 - Do you mind letting me have a look 260 00:14:08,015 --> 00:14:08,682 at the contents of your bag, please? 261 00:14:08,724 --> 00:14:09,975 - Please. 262 00:14:10,017 --> 00:14:12,561 Probably my favorite part of it was the moment 263 00:14:12,603 --> 00:14:16,440 going through security and didn't want to open the vial, 264 00:14:16,482 --> 00:14:17,983 I guess, or the bottle. 265 00:14:18,025 --> 00:14:22,363 It doesn't... even... have an odor. 266 00:14:22,405 --> 00:14:24,281 - That's not necessary, sir. 267 00:14:24,323 --> 00:14:27,118 - And just the realization of what's going to happen 268 00:14:27,159 --> 00:14:29,537 if they do that. 269 00:14:29,578 --> 00:14:33,207 - Cole tries to stop him and change history. 270 00:14:33,249 --> 00:14:34,708 - No...! 271 00:14:34,750 --> 00:14:37,128 - But the past can't be changed. 272 00:14:44,969 --> 00:14:48,013 - The story of the film is that time is a circle, 273 00:14:48,055 --> 00:14:52,184 and that things fold in on themself and then 274 00:14:52,226 --> 00:14:56,647 Bruce Willis' character is haunted by a traumatic event 275 00:14:56,689 --> 00:14:59,567 that he witnessed as a child, 276 00:14:59,608 --> 00:15:01,402 and then at the end of the movie we realize 277 00:15:01,444 --> 00:15:04,738 that the traumatic event was caused by him as an adult. 278 00:15:08,325 --> 00:15:10,786 - It's a very smartly told narrative because at the center 279 00:15:10,828 --> 00:15:13,122 of it, you think, oh, that's just the romance and you need 280 00:15:13,164 --> 00:15:17,209 a romance in this type of story, but really, that's what 281 00:15:17,251 --> 00:15:21,672 the movie is about, is these two human beings being human 282 00:15:21,714 --> 00:15:26,218 and that is coming to an end and that's worth saving. 283 00:15:29,472 --> 00:15:31,223 - Without that love story, 284 00:15:31,265 --> 00:15:34,518 how much does Coles' journey really matter? 285 00:15:34,560 --> 00:15:37,855 How much does the end of the world really matter? 286 00:15:37,897 --> 00:15:41,484 Right, you know, I mean, we're here for a reason, you know? 287 00:15:41,525 --> 00:15:44,403 I like to think it's to love each other, so... 288 00:15:48,282 --> 00:15:51,994 - Infections based in reality are frightening. 289 00:15:52,036 --> 00:15:53,871 When you add a touch of the supernatural, 290 00:15:53,913 --> 00:15:56,415 they can be absolutely terrifying. 291 00:15:59,168 --> 00:16:00,920 - Who's chasing you? - My mom. 292 00:16:00,961 --> 00:16:03,547 My dad. 293 00:16:03,589 --> 00:16:06,050 They're trying to kill me. - Amen. 294 00:16:06,091 --> 00:16:08,511 - Zombie infection films take our fears of contagion 295 00:16:08,552 --> 00:16:10,513 and give them teeth. 296 00:16:19,396 --> 00:16:22,483 - Two of the most original and unforgettable twists 297 00:16:22,525 --> 00:16:25,319 on the genre are "Pontypool,” from Canada. 298 00:16:31,075 --> 00:16:32,451 ...and "" from Spain. 299 00:16:35,538 --> 00:16:37,122 "" is a masterpiece. 300 00:16:37,164 --> 00:16:39,875 It really was the first docu-style film 301 00:16:39,917 --> 00:16:42,086 since "Blair Witch" that I thought was, like, 302 00:16:42,127 --> 00:16:43,712 legitimately terrifying. 303 00:16:45,631 --> 00:16:47,841 "" is all found footage 304 00:16:47,883 --> 00:16:50,844 through the lens of this journalist 305 00:16:50,886 --> 00:16:53,389 following just a regular, good, old night at the job 306 00:16:53,430 --> 00:16:54,557 with these firefighters. 307 00:16:57,059 --> 00:16:59,520 Until they get this call at this building. 308 00:16:59,562 --> 00:17:02,982 But there's a woman that's in a little bit of trouble-- 309 00:17:03,023 --> 00:17:05,693 Maybe she's sick-- and the moment 310 00:17:05,734 --> 00:17:08,654 that the firefighter team gets there, to this building, 311 00:17:08,696 --> 00:17:11,073 everybody's already in panic. 312 00:17:14,868 --> 00:17:17,037 - And then suddenly, once the firefighters 313 00:17:17,079 --> 00:17:20,457 and this journalist go all the way in, man, 314 00:17:20,499 --> 00:17:23,836 that's when all hell breaks loose, that there's an infection 315 00:17:23,877 --> 00:17:25,629 spreading really fast in the building. 316 00:17:37,641 --> 00:17:39,852 "" scared the out of me. 317 00:17:39,893 --> 00:17:44,148 I was just completely shocked, captivated, appalled, 318 00:17:44,189 --> 00:17:47,067 the moment when they walk into that apartment and that 319 00:17:47,109 --> 00:17:50,154 old woman in a nightgown comes running at the camera. 320 00:17:54,575 --> 00:17:56,744 It was just so shocking, and we'd seen 321 00:17:56,785 --> 00:17:59,788 a lot of found footage films up to this point, 322 00:17:59,830 --> 00:18:01,874 but this did something different with it. 323 00:18:10,633 --> 00:18:13,594 - It had looked like we were following real people. 324 00:18:13,636 --> 00:18:17,806 No known actors or added score or anything like that, 325 00:18:17,848 --> 00:18:22,019 it was all use of diegetic sounds, all of it. 326 00:18:27,191 --> 00:18:29,652 It's an incredible use of what's actually on the frame 327 00:18:29,693 --> 00:18:33,072 and enhancing those sounds-- the echo in the building, 328 00:18:33,113 --> 00:18:37,159 when you hear at the top story, "Whaaaap." 329 00:18:40,829 --> 00:18:43,916 And a firefighter had just got thrown 330 00:18:43,957 --> 00:18:46,460 off the top floor, all the way down. 331 00:18:46,502 --> 00:18:48,587 That echo and that use of sound design 332 00:18:48,629 --> 00:18:51,215 really makes an audience feel like we're there. 333 00:18:58,681 --> 00:19:00,766 - Found footage became part of the horror, 334 00:19:00,808 --> 00:19:04,687 it became part of really using the camera 335 00:19:04,728 --> 00:19:06,605 to show the isolation. 336 00:19:06,647 --> 00:19:09,108 It uses it so well in the final scene where we're hurting 337 00:19:09,149 --> 00:19:13,028 for light, and so then we get this limited view where she goes 338 00:19:13,070 --> 00:19:17,324 into night vision and we are experiencing the exact same 339 00:19:17,366 --> 00:19:19,827 limited periphery that the character is. 340 00:19:22,496 --> 00:19:24,164 - That last scene, 341 00:19:24,206 --> 00:19:26,834 when she's in that room and there's something 342 00:19:26,875 --> 00:19:29,086 in there with her and you realize this is patient zero. 343 00:19:35,008 --> 00:19:37,094 This is the thing that started it, 344 00:19:37,136 --> 00:19:39,847 whatever experiment led to this person being infected, 345 00:19:39,888 --> 00:19:42,266 that they've had it longer than anyone 346 00:19:42,307 --> 00:19:44,101 and that's what's spreading it to everybody. 347 00:19:47,438 --> 00:19:50,524 And it's just the scariest, most awful looking thing, 348 00:19:50,566 --> 00:19:52,192 it's just everyone's worst nightmare. 349 00:19:55,154 --> 00:19:57,906 "" may be the most terrifying zombie infection film 350 00:19:57,948 --> 00:19:59,408 of recent times... 351 00:20:05,122 --> 00:20:08,292 - ...but "Pontypool” is the most unusual. 352 00:20:08,333 --> 00:20:11,712 - Grant, Grant, Grant... 353 00:20:13,964 --> 00:20:16,550 - Stephen McHattie plays a talk radio personality 354 00:20:16,592 --> 00:20:18,802 in a small Canadian town... 355 00:20:18,844 --> 00:20:20,721 - Pontypool, good morning. 356 00:20:20,763 --> 00:20:22,139 You know, I want to talk to you about something 357 00:20:22,181 --> 00:20:25,601 that has been buggin' me. 358 00:20:25,642 --> 00:20:28,395 - ...who slowly begins to realize he's broadcasting 359 00:20:28,437 --> 00:20:31,857 from the epicenter of a rage zombie outbreak. 360 00:20:35,527 --> 00:20:37,738 - Pontypool's under quarantine. 361 00:20:37,780 --> 00:20:40,449 Everybody has to stay inside at all times. 362 00:20:40,491 --> 00:20:43,035 - "Pontypool” is a really fascinating and different 363 00:20:43,076 --> 00:20:46,955 kind of infection because it's not airborne, 364 00:20:46,997 --> 00:20:49,583 there's no real way of understanding the transmission 365 00:20:49,625 --> 00:20:52,669 because it's just through the spoken language. 366 00:20:52,711 --> 00:20:55,297 - I'm going to go see if Mr. Mazzy's missing... 367 00:20:55,339 --> 00:21:00,677 ...missing, missing. 368 00:21:00,719 --> 00:21:02,638 - Where you say a word and then they keep saying that word 369 00:21:02,679 --> 00:21:04,056 over and over and over again and then it starts spreading 370 00:21:04,097 --> 00:21:05,557 from person to person. 371 00:21:05,599 --> 00:21:10,062 - Prah, prah, prah, prah, prah... 372 00:21:11,939 --> 00:21:14,274 - You say something, you're unknowingly infecting them 373 00:21:14,316 --> 00:21:17,027 with this virus that's making them insane. 374 00:21:23,909 --> 00:21:26,411 - It is the ultimate low-budget movie 375 00:21:26,453 --> 00:21:29,206 in that you never leave this radio studio. 376 00:21:29,248 --> 00:21:31,500 And there's a massive infection 377 00:21:31,542 --> 00:21:34,336 taking place outside the studio, in the real world, 378 00:21:34,378 --> 00:21:37,256 and other than a handful of the infected, 379 00:21:37,297 --> 00:21:39,216 you never really see them. 380 00:21:39,258 --> 00:21:41,593 It's a movie as a radio play. 381 00:21:41,635 --> 00:21:44,930 - People need to know, we have to get this out. 382 00:21:44,972 --> 00:21:47,140 - Well, it's your call, Mr. Mazzy. 383 00:21:47,182 --> 00:21:49,226 Let's just hope what you're getting out there 384 00:21:49,268 --> 00:21:53,230 isn't going to destroy your world. 385 00:21:53,272 --> 00:21:54,648 - When it came out it seemed something very alien, 386 00:21:54,690 --> 00:21:56,233 like how can a word or a phrase be something 387 00:21:56,275 --> 00:21:58,026 that could actually hurt you? 388 00:21:58,068 --> 00:22:01,029 And now social media, of course, has come such a long way since 389 00:22:01,071 --> 00:22:02,781 that movie came out, it's all about words, 390 00:22:02,823 --> 00:22:04,491 it's so violent right now that if you just say 391 00:22:04,533 --> 00:22:06,827 the wrong thing to someone, like, boom, 392 00:22:06,869 --> 00:22:08,495 you know, all you do is say one sentence and suddenly 393 00:22:08,537 --> 00:22:10,914 you've got people rioting in the capitol building. 394 00:22:10,956 --> 00:22:12,749 So that's, I think "Pontypool,” in that way, 395 00:22:12,791 --> 00:22:14,459 is very ahead of its time. 396 00:22:14,501 --> 00:22:16,420 - I am trying to piss a few people off 397 00:22:16,461 --> 00:22:19,715 because that's how it's done, simple as that. 398 00:22:21,300 --> 00:22:24,011 - Infections take many forms-- 399 00:22:24,052 --> 00:22:26,638 None more unnerving than the sexual parasites 400 00:22:26,680 --> 00:22:29,975 infesting the early films of David Cronenberg. 401 00:22:37,816 --> 00:22:40,235 - Of all the infections human beings can endure... 402 00:22:42,905 --> 00:22:44,615 - ...sexually transmitted diseases 403 00:22:44,656 --> 00:22:46,658 induce the most squirms. 404 00:22:48,577 --> 00:22:51,914 One trailblazing filmmaker, David Cronenberg, 405 00:22:51,955 --> 00:22:54,917 brought venereal horror to the screen. 406 00:22:57,294 --> 00:22:59,338 At the beginning of his long career 407 00:22:59,379 --> 00:23:03,800 he made two influential films that traumatized a generation. 408 00:23:03,842 --> 00:23:06,261 The first was "Shivers." 409 00:23:06,303 --> 00:23:07,346 - Ew! 410 00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:22,736 - "Shivers"-- initially released in America 411 00:23:22,778 --> 00:23:25,906 as "They Came From Within"-- chronicles the spread 412 00:23:25,948 --> 00:23:28,367 of genetically engineered parasites 413 00:23:28,408 --> 00:23:30,911 inside a high-rise apartment building. 414 00:23:30,953 --> 00:23:33,455 - Ooh! - Oh! 415 00:23:33,497 --> 00:23:34,998 - Ooh, good heavens. 416 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:39,503 - The parasites turn mild-mannered Canadians 417 00:23:39,544 --> 00:23:41,713 into crazed sex fiends. 418 00:23:41,755 --> 00:23:43,966 - I'm hungry for love! 419 00:23:46,051 --> 00:23:48,178 - A combination of aphrodisiac 420 00:23:48,220 --> 00:23:51,056 and venereal disease, it will hopefully turn the world 421 00:23:51,098 --> 00:23:53,684 into one beautiful, mindless orgy. 422 00:23:56,478 --> 00:23:59,648 - Well, I think it sounds a little crazy to me. 423 00:23:59,690 --> 00:24:03,735 - Roger, I had a very disturbing dream last night. 424 00:24:03,777 --> 00:24:08,949 In this dream, I found myself making love to a strange man. 425 00:24:08,991 --> 00:24:11,368 - "Shivers" or "They Came From Within" 426 00:24:11,410 --> 00:24:15,122 is one of the absolute perfect films from David Cronenberg, 427 00:24:15,163 --> 00:24:17,332 and it's one of his first. 428 00:24:21,086 --> 00:24:23,797 - It's psychosexual, it's twisted, 429 00:24:23,839 --> 00:24:26,466 it brings in all of these elements of body horror, 430 00:24:26,508 --> 00:24:30,053 and it is beautifully post-1960s. 431 00:24:34,099 --> 00:24:36,935 - That was a plague film of its time 432 00:24:36,977 --> 00:24:38,895 because that was the sexual revolution, 433 00:24:38,937 --> 00:24:41,565 that was when Baby Boomers were suddenly waking up to the idea 434 00:24:41,606 --> 00:24:44,985 that you can boink someone that you weren't married to. 435 00:24:47,571 --> 00:24:50,282 And that was a very big deal to that generation, 436 00:24:50,323 --> 00:24:54,369 so you had to have a plague that could make you do something 437 00:24:54,411 --> 00:24:56,913 as crazy as have sex out of wedlock. 438 00:25:08,216 --> 00:25:11,261 - It culminates in this completely abhorrent 439 00:25:11,303 --> 00:25:14,347 orgy pool scene. 440 00:25:14,389 --> 00:25:17,059 Somehow even though you don't really see much, 441 00:25:17,100 --> 00:25:19,603 it feels like you are seeing everything. 442 00:25:22,731 --> 00:25:25,817 - I think the end of "Shivers” is really terrifying, 443 00:25:25,859 --> 00:25:27,944 when they had that slow motion shot of them in the pool 444 00:25:27,986 --> 00:25:30,197 and her kissing him-- 445 00:25:30,238 --> 00:25:32,908 The music and everything-- really disturbing. 446 00:25:35,952 --> 00:25:37,579 - Are these people victims? 447 00:25:37,621 --> 00:25:39,498 Or have they been liberated from the straightjacket 448 00:25:39,539 --> 00:25:42,667 of their lonely middle-class lives? 449 00:25:42,709 --> 00:25:45,587 Cronenberg's subversive mission is to make us question 450 00:25:45,629 --> 00:25:48,298 our assumptions about our true natures. 451 00:25:52,511 --> 00:25:53,929 His next film, "Rabid," 452 00:25:53,970 --> 00:25:56,890 was a kind of sequel to "Shivers." 453 00:25:56,932 --> 00:25:59,059 Instead of confining the action to one building, 454 00:25:59,101 --> 00:26:01,436 he follows the spread of a nasty new form 455 00:26:01,478 --> 00:26:03,396 of rabies across Quebec. 456 00:26:09,069 --> 00:26:10,821 The source of the contagion is Rose, 457 00:26:10,862 --> 00:26:13,698 played by Marilyn Chambers. 458 00:26:13,740 --> 00:26:17,869 After an accident, Rose receives experimental skin grafts 459 00:26:17,911 --> 00:26:19,955 from a pioneering plastic surgeon. 460 00:26:23,375 --> 00:26:24,918 - All right, you hold it right there. 461 00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:27,212 - The procedure restores her body, 462 00:26:27,254 --> 00:26:29,798 but gives her a little something extra-- 463 00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:32,467 a blood-sucking stinger under her armpit. 464 00:26:40,016 --> 00:26:43,645 - Anyone she feeds on will become a bloodthirsty cannibal. 465 00:26:47,941 --> 00:26:49,442 - I remember watching it and like, oh, 466 00:26:49,484 --> 00:26:50,902 this is pretty good, going along with it. 467 00:26:53,363 --> 00:26:55,490 Like, wow, this is getting a little rougher 468 00:26:55,532 --> 00:26:56,741 than I was expecting. 469 00:26:58,285 --> 00:27:01,121 But when the operation scene happens 470 00:27:01,163 --> 00:27:04,291 and the doctor takes the nurse's finger 471 00:27:04,332 --> 00:27:08,003 and cuts it off with the scissors. 472 00:27:13,300 --> 00:27:15,343 - Oh, my God! What am I watching? 473 00:27:18,180 --> 00:27:20,182 - In "Rabid," what was scary about it 474 00:27:20,223 --> 00:27:23,435 was to see how quickly infections spread. 475 00:27:31,568 --> 00:27:33,945 Even if you set off a nuke on a city, 476 00:27:33,987 --> 00:27:36,239 if you live outside the city, you're gonna be okay. 477 00:27:36,281 --> 00:27:40,327 But imagine setting off a nuke that then makes more nukes. 478 00:27:40,368 --> 00:27:43,413 - I'm in terrible trouble, you gotta help me. 479 00:27:43,455 --> 00:27:47,792 - Marilyn Chambers didn't even know that she was Typhoid Mary 480 00:27:47,834 --> 00:27:50,295 until it was too late-- 481 00:27:50,337 --> 00:27:53,381 That's what's so scary about being a spreader-- you don't 482 00:27:53,423 --> 00:27:57,636 even know you're a spreader until you've already spread. 483 00:27:59,262 --> 00:28:00,889 - I'm afraid! 484 00:28:00,931 --> 00:28:02,724 - As the pandemic rages, 485 00:28:02,766 --> 00:28:04,559 Rose falls victim to one of the infected. 486 00:28:09,272 --> 00:28:12,150 She becomes just another corpse to be disposed of. 487 00:28:15,237 --> 00:28:19,032 Plagues have ravaged mankind for centuries. 488 00:28:19,074 --> 00:28:20,784 - Pull! 489 00:28:20,825 --> 00:28:22,118 - But there have always been those who think 490 00:28:22,160 --> 00:28:24,120 it could never happen to them. 491 00:28:29,751 --> 00:28:33,922 - In the early 1960s, director/producer Roger Corman 492 00:28:33,964 --> 00:28:36,341 made the jump from low-budget black-and-white films 493 00:28:36,383 --> 00:28:39,052 to the slightly-bigger-budgeted color films 494 00:28:39,094 --> 00:28:41,263 based on the gothic horror of Edgar Allan Poe. 495 00:28:43,723 --> 00:28:45,267 To help sell the pictures, 496 00:28:45,308 --> 00:28:48,937 Corman brought in veteran actor Vincent Price. 497 00:28:51,314 --> 00:28:54,526 - The Poe films made Price a horror icon. 498 00:28:56,444 --> 00:28:59,698 - Vincent Price was wonderful to work with-- 499 00:28:59,739 --> 00:29:03,535 He was a highly intelligent, educated man, 500 00:29:03,576 --> 00:29:06,413 he'd graduated from Yale. 501 00:29:08,748 --> 00:29:11,334 - The razor edge of death. 502 00:29:11,376 --> 00:29:15,171 Thus the condition of man. 503 00:29:15,213 --> 00:29:19,801 Bound on an island from which he can never hope to escape. 504 00:29:19,843 --> 00:29:23,722 - So he came with great intelligence 505 00:29:23,763 --> 00:29:27,726 and a classical training as an actor. 506 00:29:31,229 --> 00:29:32,939 - What is the meaning of this? 507 00:29:32,981 --> 00:29:35,775 - Probably the very first of the films, 508 00:29:35,817 --> 00:29:38,445 "The Fall of the House of Usher." 509 00:29:38,486 --> 00:29:40,697 - How dare you admit anyone into this house? 510 00:29:40,739 --> 00:29:43,867 - I think it was one of his best performances. 511 00:29:43,908 --> 00:29:45,827 Be done! 512 00:29:45,869 --> 00:29:48,538 - That and the first film we shot in England, 513 00:29:48,580 --> 00:29:50,749 which was "Masque of the Red Death.” 514 00:29:50,790 --> 00:29:54,044 - The village is full of the Red Death. 515 00:29:54,085 --> 00:29:56,504 - The Red Death? 516 00:29:56,546 --> 00:29:59,841 Prince Prospero, I beg you, allow us haven! 517 00:29:59,883 --> 00:30:01,343 I beg sanctuary! 518 00:30:01,384 --> 00:30:03,345 - This is no church. 519 00:30:04,637 --> 00:30:06,431 - "The Masque of the Red Death” is, you know, 520 00:30:06,473 --> 00:30:10,101 a terrific movie, I think, it seems to be the pinnacle 521 00:30:10,143 --> 00:30:13,021 of the Edgar Allan Poe series that Roger Corman did 522 00:30:13,063 --> 00:30:17,400 because he was in England and he had access to more time 523 00:30:17,442 --> 00:30:19,319 and a bit more money. 524 00:30:19,361 --> 00:30:21,905 - He'd been very influenced, shall we say, 525 00:30:21,946 --> 00:30:23,656 by "The Seventh Seal,” which was a huge art house hit at the time 526 00:30:23,698 --> 00:30:25,450 which, you know, Ingmar Bergman film, 527 00:30:25,492 --> 00:30:26,826 where you had Death in a black cloak. 528 00:30:33,083 --> 00:30:36,086 - Very symbolic, all about the Plague, you know, 529 00:30:36,127 --> 00:30:38,004 during the medieval era. 530 00:30:38,046 --> 00:30:40,465 And so he kind of found a way to filter that 531 00:30:40,507 --> 00:30:43,760 into the Edgar Allan Poe story. 532 00:30:47,931 --> 00:30:50,934 - Prince Prospero, who's this very cruel nobleman who invites 533 00:30:50,975 --> 00:30:53,144 his friends up to his castle because there's the Red Death, 534 00:30:53,186 --> 00:30:55,397 this plague that's ravaging the countryside and so they figure, 535 00:30:55,438 --> 00:30:57,816 oh, we'll just cloister ourselves away and party down 536 00:30:57,857 --> 00:30:59,901 and, you know, when it's all done and the smoke clears 537 00:30:59,943 --> 00:31:02,445 we'll go out and live our lives. 538 00:31:02,487 --> 00:31:06,324 - But because of me, through my mediation with my master, 539 00:31:06,366 --> 00:31:08,701 the Lord of Flies, 540 00:31:08,743 --> 00:31:13,623 you-- all of you-- unworthy though you may be, 541 00:31:13,665 --> 00:31:16,751 will be safe from the Red Death. 542 00:31:18,795 --> 00:31:20,255 - He shot in beautiful Technicolor, and that's one of 543 00:31:20,296 --> 00:31:22,549 the most amazing aspects of the movie, actually, 544 00:31:22,590 --> 00:31:26,428 the cinematography by Nicolas Roeg--it's just stunning. 545 00:31:26,469 --> 00:31:29,472 The camera's constantly moving one way or another. 546 00:31:30,557 --> 00:31:32,600 There's a lot of very wide shots 547 00:31:32,642 --> 00:31:35,186 because those sets allow a lot of scope. 548 00:31:35,228 --> 00:31:36,688 It's just-- it's stunning, 549 00:31:36,729 --> 00:31:38,523 it's a really, really beautiful movie. 550 00:31:40,358 --> 00:31:42,152 And then, of course, there's Vincent Price, who was, 551 00:31:42,193 --> 00:31:46,156 you know, giving 100 percent as Prince Prospero 552 00:31:46,197 --> 00:31:50,493 and delightfully cruel and delightfully hate-able. 553 00:31:52,996 --> 00:31:54,289 -You're a madman! 554 00:31:54,330 --> 00:31:57,000 - And yet I will live and you will die. 555 00:31:57,041 --> 00:32:01,337 - He played a man of evil, but there were shadings 556 00:32:01,379 --> 00:32:07,135 of tenderness within him towards a young girl that he had 557 00:32:07,177 --> 00:32:11,014 taken from the plague-stricken countryside. 558 00:32:11,055 --> 00:32:14,476 - I do not want to hurt you, my dear. 559 00:32:14,517 --> 00:32:16,644 Can't you understand? 560 00:32:16,686 --> 00:32:19,355 I want to help save your soul SO you can join me 561 00:32:19,397 --> 00:32:20,815 in the glories of Hell. 562 00:32:20,857 --> 00:32:22,400 - No! Never! 563 00:32:24,903 --> 00:32:27,989 - While the outside world is ravaged by a plague of the body, 564 00:32:28,031 --> 00:32:32,535 Prospero's castle is infected by a plague of the spirit. 565 00:32:32,577 --> 00:32:35,413 - Demon lover, of all those 566 00:32:35,455 --> 00:32:39,000 who wish to live in your eternal light, 567 00:32:39,042 --> 00:32:41,044 transcribe the final mark. 568 00:32:41,085 --> 00:32:43,588 - This infection isn't inflicted on its victims-- 569 00:32:43,630 --> 00:32:45,507 It's chosen by them. 570 00:32:51,012 --> 00:32:53,723 The orgy of corruption, cruelty, and depravity 571 00:32:53,765 --> 00:32:56,935 reaches its zenith at Prospero's masquerade ball, 572 00:32:56,976 --> 00:33:00,813 where everything is permitted, except wearing the color red. 573 00:33:05,151 --> 00:33:07,028 - The one percent locks themselves up 574 00:33:07,070 --> 00:33:09,656 in the castle and parties, thinking that, you know, 575 00:33:09,697 --> 00:33:12,283 they're never gonna let anybody infected in. 576 00:33:12,325 --> 00:33:14,702 And then, of course, the Grim Reaper gets in. 577 00:33:17,830 --> 00:33:21,376 There's no escape, is what I got out of that. 578 00:33:22,877 --> 00:33:25,505 - I would like to see your face. 579 00:33:26,631 --> 00:33:29,634 - There is no face of death 580 00:33:29,676 --> 00:33:33,429 until the moment of your own death. 581 00:33:35,181 --> 00:33:37,934 - Death is the great leveler. 582 00:33:37,976 --> 00:33:40,895 You can be famous, you can be rich, you could be powerful-- 583 00:33:40,937 --> 00:33:43,231 But one thing you're not going to escape, 584 00:33:43,273 --> 00:33:47,026 and it's an experience that's common to everybody 585 00:33:47,068 --> 00:33:49,654 who has ever lived and who ever will live. 586 00:33:49,696 --> 00:33:51,990 - Let me see your face. 587 00:33:54,659 --> 00:33:57,620 - Your hell, Prince Prospero, 588 00:33:57,662 --> 00:34:00,665 and the moment of your death. 589 00:34:00,707 --> 00:34:03,376 - It's the one common nod of humanity. 590 00:34:08,006 --> 00:34:12,844 - The human race is barely able to cope with disease on Earth. 591 00:34:12,885 --> 00:34:16,097 Would we stand a chance against something not of this Earth? 592 00:34:22,061 --> 00:34:23,938 - When you think of alien invaders, 593 00:34:23,980 --> 00:34:25,690 you might think of this. 594 00:34:34,991 --> 00:34:37,869 But what if the invader was a virus from space, 595 00:34:37,910 --> 00:34:40,538 something we have no immunity against? 596 00:34:42,790 --> 00:34:45,335 That's the premise of "The Andromeda Strain.” 597 00:34:46,919 --> 00:34:48,963 Based on the novel by Michael Crichton, 598 00:34:49,005 --> 00:34:52,175 it's the story of a space probe that crash lands 599 00:34:52,216 --> 00:34:55,595 in a small town, bringing back a pathogen that rapidly Kills 600 00:34:55,637 --> 00:34:59,432 99.9 percent of the population, 601 00:34:59,474 --> 00:35:01,809 turning their blood to dust. 602 00:35:01,851 --> 00:35:03,561 - Powder. 603 00:35:03,603 --> 00:35:06,689 - I'll be damned. 604 00:35:06,731 --> 00:35:09,609 - Now an elite team of scientists must find a cure 605 00:35:09,651 --> 00:35:13,112 before the alien virus spreads across the Earth. 606 00:35:13,154 --> 00:35:15,031 - Never believed this could really happen. 607 00:35:15,073 --> 00:35:16,783 - Well, it has happened. 608 00:35:16,824 --> 00:35:20,620 - The classic of that genre, I think, the Big Mamou, 609 00:35:20,662 --> 00:35:22,664 the one that everyone-- they're all judged by 610 00:35:22,705 --> 00:35:24,123 is probably "The Andromeda Strain."” 611 00:35:24,165 --> 00:35:26,584 - Uh, yeah, yes. 612 00:35:26,626 --> 00:35:28,378 - If you're not talking about just some weird zombie breakout 613 00:35:28,419 --> 00:35:32,131 happening-- you're talking about, like, oh, a genuine 614 00:35:32,173 --> 00:35:35,843 disease that it could happen and you're trying to clamp it down, 615 00:35:35,885 --> 00:35:38,638 that's the one that they all get judged by, I think. 616 00:35:38,680 --> 00:35:39,931 - I mean, I love "The Androm--" 617 00:35:39,972 --> 00:35:41,933 What do you think-- what is it about? 618 00:35:41,974 --> 00:35:43,643 It's such a simple movie and it's so well done, and it just, 619 00:35:43,685 --> 00:35:46,479 it's just the pace of that movie just moves and moves. 620 00:35:50,108 --> 00:35:54,320 - I fell in love with, with just the notion of, you know, 621 00:35:54,362 --> 00:35:57,407 the scene where they're, like, examining the ship. 622 00:35:57,448 --> 00:35:59,200 - What about the bits of green? 623 00:35:59,242 --> 00:36:01,077 - And then you just see the one little green speck 624 00:36:01,119 --> 00:36:06,207 and you're like, wait, that one little tiny speck of dust 625 00:36:06,249 --> 00:36:08,084 caused all of this. 626 00:36:10,378 --> 00:36:12,171 It's growing. 627 00:36:15,133 --> 00:36:18,094 - Perhaps the strangest infection ever put on film 628 00:36:18,136 --> 00:36:22,306 is the 2020 adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft story, 629 00:36:22,348 --> 00:36:23,808 "The Color Out of Space”. 630 00:36:25,727 --> 00:36:28,479 Nicolas Cage plays the patriarch of an eccentric family 631 00:36:28,521 --> 00:36:31,441 living in an isolated country house. 632 00:36:34,569 --> 00:36:37,530 One night a meteorite crashes into their yard, 633 00:36:37,572 --> 00:36:40,783 bringing with it an unearthly infection. 634 00:36:40,825 --> 00:36:43,911 Teenaged daughter Lavinia is the only member of the family 635 00:36:43,953 --> 00:36:48,082 who quickly realizes the meteorite is not what it seems. 636 00:36:48,124 --> 00:36:52,712 It's behind the lightning. 637 00:36:52,754 --> 00:36:54,922 - At first it's fascinating because it's this 638 00:36:54,964 --> 00:36:57,967 beautiful thing-- there's that dichotomy of it being this 639 00:36:58,009 --> 00:37:02,138 gorgeous meteorite that lands in their front yard and it's 640 00:37:02,180 --> 00:37:06,309 kind of this amazing thing that's otherworldly. 641 00:37:09,604 --> 00:37:12,273 And then gradually you see that this is 642 00:37:12,315 --> 00:37:14,567 a very malevolent entity. 643 00:37:17,612 --> 00:37:19,739 - Whatever was in the meteorite infects the land 644 00:37:19,781 --> 00:37:22,742 and transforms the family-- 645 00:37:22,784 --> 00:37:27,205 First, their minds... then, their bodies. 646 00:37:29,165 --> 00:37:31,626 - It's like a virus-- you can't see it, you don't know 647 00:37:31,667 --> 00:37:34,295 where it is or when it's present or how dangerous it is 648 00:37:34,337 --> 00:37:35,880 or when it might strike. 649 00:37:35,922 --> 00:37:37,882 But you have to be on guard all of the time. 650 00:37:37,924 --> 00:37:39,550 Look out! 651 00:37:39,592 --> 00:37:41,719 - The worse things get, 652 00:37:41,761 --> 00:37:44,180 the deeper the father sinks into denial. 653 00:37:44,222 --> 00:37:46,140 - Come on, dad, don't pretend that you haven't noticed. 654 00:37:46,182 --> 00:37:49,268 Nothing has been this place up. 655 00:37:49,310 --> 00:37:51,229 - Why are you so in denial? 656 00:37:51,270 --> 00:37:54,315 - Okay, you know, I've had it with your drama! 657 00:37:54,357 --> 00:37:57,860 - The picture features a classically 658 00:37:57,902 --> 00:38:01,322 unhinged performance by Nic Cage. 659 00:38:08,120 --> 00:38:09,580 - His performance is a stunner, 660 00:38:09,622 --> 00:38:13,292 but in and around that performance is a story 661 00:38:13,334 --> 00:38:15,962 about a family's shared sense of reality 662 00:38:16,003 --> 00:38:20,675 being smashed into tinier and tinier fragments 663 00:38:20,716 --> 00:38:22,260 by an environmental poison 664 00:38:22,301 --> 00:38:24,470 that has leaked into their well water. 665 00:38:26,389 --> 00:38:29,350 - Much of the film is seen from the point of view of Ward, 666 00:38:29,392 --> 00:38:31,853 a young scientist who befriends the family. 667 00:38:31,894 --> 00:38:34,772 - Jack, what are you up to? 668 00:38:34,814 --> 00:38:36,774 - Playing with my friends. 669 00:38:36,816 --> 00:38:39,777 - This de facto stand-in for the infamously racist Lovecraft 670 00:38:39,819 --> 00:38:42,405 is played by a person of color. 671 00:38:42,446 --> 00:38:44,574 - I remember Nic saying a few times 672 00:38:44,615 --> 00:38:47,869 that he'd always wanted to do a family drama and, for him, 673 00:38:47,910 --> 00:38:49,579 that's what "Color" was. 674 00:38:49,620 --> 00:38:51,330 - What do you mean you tried? 675 00:38:51,372 --> 00:38:55,001 Do you have any idea how much those animals cost us? 676 00:38:55,042 --> 00:38:58,296 They are alpacas-- alpacas. 677 00:38:58,337 --> 00:39:00,673 - And so that's how we entered it and I think 678 00:39:00,715 --> 00:39:03,926 it's exactly that, it was a dysfunctional family 679 00:39:03,968 --> 00:39:07,388 in very bizarre circumstances, 680 00:39:07,430 --> 00:39:10,433 and that's what really gave it its kick. 681 00:39:10,474 --> 00:39:12,268 - I can't get a dial tone. 682 00:39:12,310 --> 00:39:14,937 - It becomes body horror, which is basically 683 00:39:14,979 --> 00:39:18,566 taking something as simple and intrinsic to our experience 684 00:39:18,608 --> 00:39:22,069 as humans as a mother's embrace of their own child 685 00:39:22,111 --> 00:39:24,739 and turning that into something grotesque. 686 00:39:29,744 --> 00:39:32,914 - Late in the picture the llamas out in the garage 687 00:39:32,955 --> 00:39:35,499 all become this one slimy 688 00:39:35,541 --> 00:39:37,793 10-headed grotesque llama creature. 689 00:39:40,671 --> 00:39:43,466 - The teen girl is slicing 690 00:39:43,507 --> 00:39:47,094 pentagrams into her flesh. 691 00:39:47,136 --> 00:39:49,263 - The father loses his mind. 692 00:39:49,305 --> 00:39:52,600 - We've been having a hard time, you know? 693 00:39:52,642 --> 00:39:55,978 - And Lavinia realizes she is humanity's last line of defense 694 00:39:56,020 --> 00:39:58,648 against the color out of space. 695 00:39:58,689 --> 00:40:00,942 - It's so beautiful. 696 00:40:03,277 --> 00:40:05,071 - It's a progressive spin on Lovecraft's 697 00:40:05,112 --> 00:40:07,949 relentlessly misanthropic tale. 698 00:40:10,618 --> 00:40:13,120 - Lavinia isn't ruined by the color, rather, 699 00:40:13,162 --> 00:40:14,914 she's elevated by the color 700 00:40:14,956 --> 00:40:17,041 and she kind of reaches her true purpose 701 00:40:17,083 --> 00:40:20,920 by willingly and voluntarily merging 702 00:40:20,962 --> 00:40:23,297 with the color and sacrificing herself 703 00:40:23,339 --> 00:40:26,217 so that the color returns to its original source. 704 00:40:31,597 --> 00:40:34,684 - Only Ward survives, slowly emerging from the wreckage 705 00:40:34,725 --> 00:40:37,603 into a colorless world. 706 00:40:37,645 --> 00:40:40,773 - It came out right before, you know, COVID... 707 00:40:40,815 --> 00:40:43,150 hit and started impacting the entire world. 708 00:40:46,237 --> 00:40:48,114 It's absolutely relevant to today 709 00:40:48,155 --> 00:40:50,866 and I don't know what the moral of the story is, 710 00:40:50,908 --> 00:40:52,702 because we haven't, you know, 711 00:40:52,743 --> 00:40:54,704 we haven't reached the conclusion of this one yet. 712 00:40:54,745 --> 00:40:59,166 What touched this place cannot be quantified or understood 713 00:40:59,208 --> 00:41:01,460 by human science. 714 00:41:01,502 --> 00:41:03,170 And I don't really know what the moral of the story 715 00:41:03,212 --> 00:41:05,423 of "Color Out of Space” is, either... 716 00:41:05,464 --> 00:41:09,385 yeah, other than maybe be the Black guy, for once. 717 00:41:09,427 --> 00:41:11,095 I'll take it. 718 00:41:11,137 --> 00:41:15,224 It was just a color out of space. 719 00:41:19,395 --> 00:41:21,272 - In the movies, lethal contagions can come 720 00:41:21,313 --> 00:41:25,651 from outer space, escape from a lab, 721 00:41:25,693 --> 00:41:28,029 or emerge from the rain forest, 722 00:41:28,070 --> 00:41:30,239 leaving a trail of the dead in their wake. 723 00:41:32,366 --> 00:41:34,702 But as films and real life have shown us, 724 00:41:34,744 --> 00:41:36,746 the human race is resilient. 725 00:41:36,787 --> 00:41:38,039 - Boy, I better get vaccinated. 726 00:41:39,707 --> 00:41:43,502 - New threats will come, but we can survive them... 727 00:41:43,544 --> 00:41:44,587 or can we?