SPEAKER_06 0:04

I mean, there's some of us who might have three roles at home right now.

SPEAKER_03 0:08

Amen.

SPEAKER_06 0:09

Which is fine. Don't don't judge us. I'm not I got a bidet in the mail. It's headed to me. It's fine. You gotta upgrade your poop game, just saying.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hacker Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. We're flattered you've chosen to join us in this interesting time. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack. Total joke, waste of time, or a slash.

SPEAKER_06 0:39

Totally killer, pun intended.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

My name is Chris, and I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the Superfly Space Guy Mac. Hola, muchachos, the gore lover Alexis. Hey everyone. The cowardly creeper Ryan. Hiya. And the Scream Queen Paris.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Hey sweets.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Now we originally planned to cover the theatrical release of a Quiet Place 2 this week, but social distancing is the new normal, and like many other movies slated to hit theaters, it has been pulled from the release schedule. In its place, we're opting to raise our anxiety even higher by checking out a movie some have said is terrifying to watch for the first time during this the age of COVID-19. But before we get there, let's look back to happier times with some follow-up.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

So we have some follow-up from our last episode's poll. We asked our listeners on Twitter if the movie Misery with Kathy Bates was a hack or a slash. So far it's a pretty overwhelming slash from the majority of our fans.

SPEAKER_04 1:36

Whoop-whoop.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

We have Amber saying that this is definitely a slash for me. Kathy Bates is by far exceptional in this movie, and I think the Academy agrees with Amber. We also have a comment from Spencer saying, This movie is so great, in my opinion. It really builds that creepy atmosphere, and of course the two leads are solid. Kathy Bates is terrifying, and the touch of humor from the sheriff and his wife add just enough to give you a break from the tension. As always, we will be asking you on Twitter and on Instagram if you think this movie is a hack or a slash, so stay tuned for this week's poll.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Yes, and I'm so glad to see that everybody agrees with us, Paris, except you seem to be a little lonely over there.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

I am maybe one or two of the people that voted for this movie being a hack.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

One or two of the people who voted. Is that your burner Twitter?

SPEAKER_00 2:22

I may have made a fake Twitter for this poll.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

That's fine. Kind of like Alexis's mom voting for tea. Exactly. Alright, folks. Now, our movie this week is a star-studded chronology of a virus as it spreads throughout the world, and it shows the tension between organizations racing for a vaccine, truthers seeking to sow civil unrest, and the deterioration of society as we know it. This week, we're talking about the movie Contagion from 2011. Now, who has seen this movie before?

SPEAKER_04 2:52

I definitely have.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

So I had a really hard time concealing this, uh, as to not spoil this question, but I had seen this movie before. Oh I know. You guys were like warning me about stuff, and I was like, yeah, I know what happens.

SPEAKER_06 3:15

I too have seen this pretty close to when it came out, but not in theater. So uh almost a decade ago. But uh this was uh this was a good rewatch, uh think. I think it had some rewatch value for me. Definitely uh in the time of coronavirus.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

I've actually never seen this movie, and I don't even really remember hearing about it. When I found out we were gonna be watching it, I was like, oh, this is probably one of those like virus movies from that like 2000s, mid-2000s like boom of all the different like plague movies that came out, and I was like, this is probably just one of those. And then I saw the cast list and I was like, wow, who's not in this movie? And how did I not hear about it?

SPEAKER_02 3:48

Morgan Freeman. Morgan Freeman is not in this movie. Oh, agree. Good point.

SPEAKER_06 3:52

What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_02 3:52

He plays the virus, he's the voice of the virus.

SPEAKER_06 3:55

Hello, dear human.

SPEAKER_02 3:57

I actually hadn't seen this movie either, Paris, and like you, I also hadn't heard of it ever before. I was on Reddit the other day, and someone was commenting on how this is a movie that is terrifying to watch for the very first time in this day and age, if you're someone who has like a lot of anxiety already about this kind of situation. I didn't know what to expect, and I also didn't look up the cast beforehand. So, you know, this movie stars a ton of folks, all right? We have Gwyneth Powstraw, we have Lawrence Fishburne, Kate Winslett, Matt Damon. And let me tell you this: if I knew Matt Damon was in this movie, I wouldn't have watched it. Can't stand that guy. Absolutely can't stand him. But we also have Jude Law, Someone Else I Can't Stand. Aw. I know. This movie is just like it's it's a 50-50 chance on whether or not I'm actually gonna like it, but I expected this to be nothing more than like a play out of that gameplay gink. Have you guys ever played that in the app store?

SPEAKER_06 4:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

No.

SPEAKER_06 4:48

I am familiar.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

Okay, so basically, you mutate your own disease or virus or bacteria, and uh you have to modify it over time, and your goal is to get it to spread throughout the world. And I know that China actually removed it from its app store in the wake of the of COVID-19. Uh yes, they should. What kind of game is that? You know what? But okay, so while them giving people ideas. Giving what are they gonna do? You know, let nature mutate something diseases.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

It just kind of gives you a little more perspective on like how diseases work and how they like spread across the world.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

It's more educational than anything. I don't need that education. Seems skeptical. But one cool thing about that game now, I was playing it in back in February when I visited Virginia. I was playing it on the plane, and I didn't play the disease mode, I played fake news mode. So that's interesting as well. Uh it shows you how you can actually befool people uh through social media or tabloids or websites, things like that. So pretty interesting. That I like. Yeah, that's cool. That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

See, that seems more dangerous, giving people actual ideas.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

Exactly, exactly. Now, this movie was a really wild ride, and I have to say that even though I didn't have a whole lot of expectation beyond that, I was kind of floored every step of the way with how deep it gets and how tense it gets. But how did you guys feel while you were watching it? Uh, tense.

SPEAKER_04 6:13

Tense, my mind racing. I don't know. Then I was like, I need to run to the store and get Tylenol, and then you see if I need a thermometer. I am a doomsday prepper or just a crazy ass person right now.

SPEAKER_06 6:29

Have you been buying all the toilet paper?

SPEAKER_04 6:31

No, I actually was out of toilet paper when I needed it and went to Walmart and there I thought it was a joke. Like I just thought there was toilet paper, like just You thought it was just Facebook. Yeah, I was like, okay, there's clearly toilet paper. And my boyfriend's out of town, he's like, go get the toilet paper. I'm like, what are you hearing from halfway across, like, you know, in the other Americas? But anyway, long story short, there was no toilet paper, and that's when my reality checked in.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

To clarify, if you were a doomsday prepper, you wouldn't have needed to go to the store. That sounds like been ready.

SPEAKER_04 7:00

Well, from now on, I'm being extremely keep on her.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

This is a learn, a learn for all of us. I know, right? So I tried to watch this flying in an airplane, and it was a a terrible decision.

SPEAKER_02 7:11

How much judgment did you get?

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Well, I was sitting next to my friends, so they were cool. They knew I told them, I had to admit to them that I had to watch this movie. And I was uh I I was I was riddled with anxiety, is really the only way I can say it. And I actually turned off the beginning of this and waited until I got home in my comfy bed, turned it back on. It was stressful. And I it it got less stressful, but the beginning of this is like you need Xanax, I think. I think you can you could get a prescription based on watching this movie.

SPEAKER_04 7:40

I feel like I watched this last time and I didn't feel as much anxiety the first time I watched this first. For sure.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Definitely.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

I mean, it's stressful, but not like probably because in 2011 you were just thinking that it was like this foreign concept.

SPEAKER_04 7:52

I was like, oh, we can get it, just wash your hands, but it's okay if you touch your face.

SPEAKER_06 7:56

Like gosh, watching this movie is a is a wild ride, Chris. You definitely said it right. Especially with what's going on right now, you're probably thinking, like, oh my god, what have I touched today? What uh what door handles did I touch? What uh surfaces in in foreign environments that I'm walking through have I touched today? It just it definitely makes you I remember I remember when it came out, it had this effect on people with touching their face. And I hope it has the same effect right now. Stop shaking hands, stop touching your face. I saw a comedian talking about it, how like in the future, you know, shaking hands is it's gonna seem like this like really weird concept that's gonna be very intimate. It's gonna be like third base. It was a good little bit. But I I enjoyed this. I watched this with my girlfriend, and today I know she cleaned her entire apartment.

SPEAKER_04 8:37

Because of that.

SPEAKER_06 8:38

Oh, it was because of it, you know, but everything going on and everyone's worrying. You were like in here huffing Lysol or something.

SPEAKER_04 8:45

So No, I'm not the one that's drinking the disinfectant right now. Everyone.

SPEAKER_06 8:51

Yeah, don't don't do that, anybody.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

That's bad. This kills the human. I did kind of expect this movie to be a little bit more dramatized.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

But like having kind of seen how things have been going lately, it seemed pretty accurate. It didn't seem like they took any like huge creative liberties with how something like this would be handled. It all seemed very plausible. So that was in a way reassuring. But yeah, at one point when Kate Winslett says that we all touch our face like 2,000 to 3,000 times a day, I was actually shocked because I am somebody who tries to never touch my face for any reason at all. And when I do it's like with the back of my hand, mostly to avoid breaking out, but also it's just gross.

SPEAKER_04 9:28

I'd be itchy. I got itchy eyeballs. I'm the grossest person though, probably at this table.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

2,000 times a day? That just seems insane.

SPEAKER_04 9:36

I don't know. Three to five times a minute seems dramatic.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Who has the time?

SPEAKER_04 9:40

I've already touched my face three times already, and he's touching his face right now.

SPEAKER_06 9:44

I have a beard. I always touch my beard. I can't believe it. Does the beard count? Yeah, the beard is attached to my face, so it 100% counts.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Do you know how much bacteria is in that beard?

SPEAKER_06 9:52

Ew. Well, I I shampoo it and condition it daily.

SPEAKER_02 9:55

It's his bacteria. It's cool.

SPEAKER_06 9:57

It's local, it's native.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

That doesn't make it desirable. It's native.

SPEAKER_06 10:00

No, I've got the leftover Gatorade going on in the mustache. You know, it's just sitting there hanging out.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Ew. The thing that struck me most when watching this movie was how shocking it was and how merciless it was every step of the way. You know, the the first 10 to 15 minutes of this movie are, you know, as Alexis has, you know, said in our group chat before, this purely brutal, right? Like it is unforgiving in any sense of the word. When you look at the quality of the characters and you look at the kind of people that you you would encounter in a daily life, and you look at people who you would look to for help, the ones who you would look to to guide you in a moment of like uncertainty and like fear and things like that, the most competent people of the world, and you see, you know, the kind of things that happen to them. I think that's what was most surprising about that movie for me. No one is necessarily safe, no matter how many precautions you take. But what surprised you guys?

SPEAKER_06 10:51

The the rewatch value on this was surprisingly high for you. I remember having a good experience watching it the first time, but I kind of figured, oh, I'm just gonna remember everything as it goes along and it's not gonna be super interesting, but it was not the case. I mean, there's so many great details and and just fantastic acting going on. Like the storytelling is just really strong, and the in the way we're like getting to kind of see this viral outbreak go worldwide and see it develop. It's just really interesting to watch. I know it's a drama. I I just I just found it really compelling to sit there and just be like, oh my god, this is happening, oh my god, that's happening, here's why it's happening. They give you they like you said, they go really deep on it. And so I I think it kind of keeps keeps you engaged. But I was surprised that I wasn't just like, okay, I've seen it, I'm just need to refresh myself. I'm sitting here like edge of my seat the whole the whole movie.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

That's interesting. I'm I'm kind of on the other side of it. Like after the beginning, when I was just just losing it watching this movie, um, I wasn't really like tied into it at the I would say like second half on. Like I feel like I expected what was coming, like I knew what was coming. So that's actually what surprised me because I remember loving this movie when I first saw it. This time I I kind of was just like, cool, I um I I know what all these things are. With people are gonna live, we're good.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

I'm with you, Ryan. I felt like this was it was surprising how procedural this movie was. It was like first this happens, and then this happens, and then this happens. And having seen it like actually happen, it's kind of like it really stuck to the script. So I I it wasn't as unpredictable as I was as I was expecting. Like I said, I thought it would be more extreme. But I also was really surprised by how many A-list actors were actually in a movie like this. It almost reminded me of like Love Actually, or like Valentine's Day, with just like a full ensemble cast, and the kind the story kind of touches base on each of their different like storylines throughout the film, um without any particular focus on one character over another. So yeah, I found that to be surprising, a little kind of confusing, I guess, because this doesn't seem like a movie that everyone's manager will be like, you have to get in this film, Matt Damon, or like Kate Winslow, this is the project for you, but somehow it got made and here they all are.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

First off, Matt Damon won't do anything. Okay. Anything.

SPEAKER_04 13:04

Oh my gosh. I agree kind of with Mac. I mean, I think watching this a second time, that was like really surprising that I was still able to, even though I knew what was gonna happen, I knew where it came from, like I still remembered those things. It was still enjoyable to watch in a way, because I think I'm like, oh wow, I can tie this to now, maybe like personal things I've been seeing. Because I think the first time I had seen this, maybe I mean H1N1 maybe came out right around then. But I don't think that nothing's ever really affected me. Not that any of this is affecting me at all, besides I can't buy toilet paper and or meet, but I think it was just I'm able to like put it in the context of now, so which is why I think it was so surprising that I still didn't care about any of that.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

So there was a lot of anxiety built up to this movie, a lot of talk in our group chat about uh needing Xanax to watch this movie. At the end of the day, did this scare you?

SPEAKER_04 13:55

Hell yeah. This shit was terrifying. It's crazy because I didn't think it was terrifying when I first saw it. It was like, oh my gosh, nerve-wracking. Every time you saw, it was like one where you just saw her shit pass it on at the end, and you were like, damn, or like there's another point where someone's like literally coughing in their hand and then touching the railing. And I'm like, I cringe at that on a normal day, but I'm definitely cringing knowing that he straight up was next to like patient zero.

SPEAKER_05 14:23

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:24

Yeah, this is so cringy, so cringy and so terrifying, in my opinion. I was already scared.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

I wasn't scared by this movie, I was just scared. I'm I just am scared, which is a little off-brand for me, even though I'm the cowardly creeper. Like, scared of life is not on brand for me. But um, here we are. I I wasn't frightened by this movie, but it's just so relevant. Like it, it just it's almost eerie when you're watching it how relevant it is, and like how things are following the same script, and you're just like, ha ha, okay, this is great, everything's okay.

SPEAKER_06 14:58

I feel that super strongly. I'm not super scared of can you know catching something right now, per se, because you know, I wash my hands already about 20,000 times a day, and then this has only amplified that a little bit more. But I what I find more frightening is like how humans act when they're when they're scared or when they're scared that they won't be able to get the things that they think they might need. And we're already seeing this. I mean, grocery store shelves are completely empty. My cousin works at a works at a store where they brought like I don't I don't even know if it was like a full palette. They were just bringing stuff from the back, and before they could even stock it on the shelves, customers were coming up and just taking it off. And so when I and I think when we see like society break down in a movie like this, right now we're not super concerned, but like it only shows it just shows you a little glimpse of like what's to come if things gets if things get worse.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

Who is not super concerned?

SPEAKER_06 15:49

Well, I mean, I'm not I'm not concerned they're gonna start breaking glass and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

Yeah, we're not breaking in houses yet.

SPEAKER_06 15:54

We're not breaking in the houses, we're not breaking into the stores yet. But we know that people can and will get there.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

That's that's a terrifying part. Yeah, this movie shows how it can just gently go from like just the dad to like, oh the well, the dad, oh, my neighbors aren't home. Well, let me go see what's in their house. That is the scary part.

SPEAKER_06 16:09

Yeah, and that that's the part that like frightens me more than anything. I mean, sure, like buying all the toilet paper just because it's kind of like a douchey move. I mean, there's some of us who might have three rolls at home right now.

SPEAKER_03 16:20

Amen.

SPEAKER_06 16:20

Which is fine. Don't don't judge us. I'm not I got a bidet in the mail. Let's head it to me. It's fine. You gotta upgrade your poop game, just saying Take a shower.

SPEAKER_04 16:28

Just take a shower.

SPEAKER_06 16:30

There you go. You want that cool, refreshing, clean. That's all I'm saying.

SPEAKER_04 16:33

Spread eagle.

SPEAKER_06 16:34

Oh, Jesus. But it is it is highly concerned to like think about like if things were to get worse, like they could and probably will, what could eventually happen? But I don't think we're gonna get to this point unless things like drastically change. I think we're we have a lot of preventative measures in place right now, which is gonna keep us from hitting this kind of level of stupidity, thankfully. But already, I mean it's pretty annoying that you can't go in and get some bread and some like ham right now at the grocery store.

SPEAKER_04 17:01

I mean, I got three bags for you if you need it.

SPEAKER_06 17:03

Just kidding.

SPEAKER_04 17:04

I didn't go that crazy. I just got enough groceries for two weeks, pretty much.

SPEAKER_06 17:08

There you go. It's pretty normal.

SPEAKER_04 17:09

Maybe another week after that.

SPEAKER_06 17:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:10

And maybe enough water to last me until next year, but we're all gonna. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_02 17:15

All right, so Alexis is gonna set up her own little convenience store on the merch store. Now you can't price gouge, but you can sell it back at the price you bought it for. So there you go.

SPEAKER_04 17:24

Oh, wait, and hold on, there will be hacker slash merchandise available if anyone wants to stop by.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

Slap a hacker slash sticker on top of the water bottle of toilet paper, and that's how we'll get our podcast now. There you go, we figured it out.

SPEAKER_05 17:36

What a ham.

SPEAKER_02 17:37

Hammer slash. Yeah. I was having this really interesting conversation with my girlfriend the other day, and we're talking about like varying levels of fear and concern over a situation like this, and then especially as it relates to, you know, the things that happen in this movie. I have found that like you, I wouldn't be concerned. You know, when I lived in Virginia, I was off on my own, I had you guys, and that was it. And I realized that if something happened to me, okay, cool. Well, I'm relatively young, I have a pretty good immune system, I'll be okay. But then I realized like I moved home to take care of my 65-year-old mother who's uninsured, and we don't have the resources to get proper medical care if something were to happen. So I find that now my train of thought is not for me, it's for my mom. The many people who live in the uh you know lower income area and portion of Miami that I live in who don't have access to resources, and I think that is what's scary. I think that is the kind of fear that this movie highlights and brings to life. And if you stop to think beyond your economic situation, if you look at people who are in different brackets than you, then there's a lot of fear that can really come about. But I will say though that this movie, for as wild of a ride as it takes you on, wraps up in an interesting way, albeit tragic. Uh, I think this is one that I don't think there could possibly be a happy ending for. Like there's a more hopeful ending, sure. But at the end of the day, you know, I think when you look back on on the road that it took to get there, it's like almost like bittersweet, you know what I mean? I could see that.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Yeah, I mean, like once uh all those people are gone, you know, like things just change. Like if we're talking about in the movie, one in twelve people at some point they said getting it, or and then one in four dying, like that's a lot of people there that are gonna be lost. So there's no like wrapped up happy ending for this that could that could really be what you know, an annoying cliche happy ending in a movie. It just doesn't work.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

Yeah, I'm kind of with you guys in that the human behavior element of this was really the most fearful, the way we people react in a situation like this. But compared to what we have going on right now, like with the coronavirus, I feel like this virus was much more terrifying um because of how like powerful and how like lethal it was across the board. Um, so it kind of reassured me in a way that I was like, oh well, we don't have it this bad like they do in the movie, and we seem to be handling what we do have going on much better than they handled it in the movie. So it actually kind of alleviated some of the fear for me, which I was expecting to have the opposite effect after watching it.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

Interesting. Interesting. Well then how'd you feel about the ending?

SPEAKER_00 20:13

The ending, um I kind of liked it. It was actually one of my favorite parts of the movie was the ending. The very you mean like the very, very end? Yeah. Yeah. I love a good conclusive kind of bow on top that they kind of finished it with. The ending before the ending, I wasn't so into.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

Ah yes, the classic ending before the ending. The pre-ending to the ending that comes before the ending. The pre-end, if you will.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

Yeah, the pre-ending. I wasn't so into that, but um kind of the way they tied it all up and explained everything that I felt needed to be explained was satisfying.

SPEAKER_06 20:44

The ending, I think, is one of the most memorable parts of this movie.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Definitely.

SPEAKER_06 20:47

And one of just one of my like like you, one of my favorite parts. It is so well executed and so kind of in line with how they do visually other things in the movie that I think it's just like such a perfect conclusion to everything that they just showed you. It just like really kind of like falls in line with kind of how they show things earlier in the movie, and then they kind of follow up a little bit more in the middle of the movie. And then you have your hated ending before the ending, and then when you finally get to the last part, it's like someone just wrote the most perfect cursive happy birthday on the cake.

SPEAKER_02 21:20

Man, that's I I can feel that.

SPEAKER_04 21:22

Yeah, I think it was a great, you know, like tie with bow, which is kind of funny because normally I don't like movies like that. Yeah, but I think so much like a disaster happened that you're like, okay, this is the best way for it to be like a happy-ish ending. At least they found something in the end for you know, everyone without giving spoilers to like you know, wrap it up. But I still I don't know, I kind of appreciate that for this.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Yeah, it's like it it fits the way they shot this movie well.

SPEAKER_02 21:51

One thing that I I think is really interesting about this movie and the way it depicts certain things is you can look at what's happening. Today, and you can think about like mortality rates, right? And people are like, oh, you know, it's not a big deal or it's a hoax or this or that. But at the end of the day, yeah, you know, despite whatever you may think or believe or perceive about this situation, the fact is that people have died from something, right? Those are human beings that are no longer on the earth. Uh, those are people who, you know, you may not be in the demographic that is susceptible, but you are somebody who was somebody's grandparent or somebody's mother, father, brother, sister, daughter is no longer here. And I think what this movie does really well is convey that emotion and really just, you know, pinpoint that tragedy that can sometimes get lost in the figures that we see in media or the figures that we hear in reports when we talk about how things like this spread. So, what I think this movie does best above all else is just you know, show the show the human element of all this. But there's a lot to say, and there's a lot that we have to get to in our second half of the episode, because man, even the first 15 minutes of this movie is nuts. But uh, let's go ahead and start making our way towards that section. Alexis, good luck. How many people died in this movie?

SPEAKER_04 23:09

Well, if we want to go by total amount worldwide, we're gonna go by 26 million. Holy shit. Wow. But when we're talking about the movie in general, some of the main characters, some of the scenes that you actually see, it's gonna be eight deaths. Eight to twenty-six million. I know, big jump, but we got there in a matter of I'm not even sure how long this took. An hour and a half.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

And that's exactly what I'm saying, right? 26 million is such a large number you can't identify with, but then you saw all of a sudden you hear eight, and it's eight people you spent time with in the movie, and that's tough.

SPEAKER_04 23:42

Yeah, it went from you know, one, then eight, those, you know, the the eight people you do know, and then it went to twenty-six million. So you see what is it? What do they call it? The uh the R naught? R naught, yes, that R naught. That R naught was high, it was like four or something.

SPEAKER_02 23:58

All right, and Ryan, of all the deaths in this movie, how many of them were animals? This is a complicated question.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

None of the deaths in the movie were animals, but there are some situations involving animals, but in me, you were not gonna feel bad about it.

SPEAKER_02 24:14

All right, folks. Well, let's go ahead and start getting into our ratings contagion from the year 2011. Was it a heck or a slash?

SPEAKER_01 24:21

So I'll go first. This movie is not perfect, but it's a slash. Like, I think outside of this time period, it's a good movie. Right now, it's a good movie. I don't recommend it if you have heart problems or um anxiety of literally any degree. But this is like a really good watch. I think it's something where if you don't even care about what's happening as far as like the the illness and everything, just watching the human behavior, which I think is really interesting all the time. And I think it's fairly accurate. Like it's you see the way these little things progress. And so yeah, it's a slash.

SPEAKER_04 24:57

And I too give this a slash. I think it's funny to because I never categorize this as a horror movie, but like kind of is in this point of time. Um, but I think it's also scary. It gives you, like, you know, if you want that scary feeling during this sort of time, this outbreak, I hear 12 monkeys is great. I think it also is kind of, I know this probably does not have very many like facts in it. I'm sure, but you know, it makes you think about like how many times am I touching my face, especially it's a little bit more informative for me during this sort of time. It's scary, but also informative.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

Three out of the five of us right now are touching our faces.

SPEAKER_04 25:37

I know, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:38

I'm not one of them.

SPEAKER_04 25:39

I'm doing it more importantly. I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm a nail biter, so this has been all hell for me because I'm like, Jen, take your fucking hand out of your mouth, Alexis. Like, but um, yeah, so that's why I definitely would give this a slash. I think it just comes from it can be a horror movie in certain perspectives, but it can also be formative, and I just love the way this movie is filmed. It just gives off a structural procedural vibe that I I'm really enjoy from this.

SPEAKER_06 26:07

I think the virus must be spreading because I am also gonna give this a slash.

SPEAKER_05 26:11

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_06 26:12

You guys gave it to me. The slash virus. The the movie's great. I mean, visually stunning, acting's amazing, star-studded cast, as you guys have mentioned. And watching it for me, very just very engaging movie. It is a bit procedural, but I think that was on purpose. They really wanted to make a realistic, you know, appearing movie, and I think they were successful in in doing that. We're gonna get to some of the facts or otherwise in in fact or fiction later. And I'm I'm you know, can't wait to get to that point. But uh there was, I mean, there's just like so many tiny little details that were awesome to see on screen. So total slash.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

I never thought I'd say this, but I think I'm immune to the slash virus. I'm giving this one a hack. For me, it committed one of like the biggest sins a movie can commit. I was very bored for most of it. The first 15 minutes, really thrilling. Like you guys said, it showcased like how kind of gross we as humans can be and how things like this spread so quickly in doing just matter-of-fact things we do on a daily basis. But after that, it took a really slow turn for me, building up and kind of having everybody explore what this is gonna look like and what impact this is gonna have. And then the intensity of the impact of it sort of peaked in the middle, and the peak wasn't even that satisfying. Like I wanted to go further, and then it just kind of slowly wrapped up in a really matter-of-fact, practical kind of way.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

Did you want everyone to die? Is that what would have made you happy? You just wanted an empty planet, no, the zombie. This is the prequel to Wally.

SPEAKER_06 27:43

Extinction level event or bust.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

That's exactly what I was thinking. I guess because of what people have been saying about it, I was expecting it to be a lot worse than it was. And then I also felt like the acting, like the actors themselves weren't given enough time with their characters to give me a performance that made me forget that I was like watching Kate Winslet or like watching Marion Coltyard. So the whole time I was like, oh now Kate Winslet's doing this and Lawrence Fishburne's doing that. So it didn't really take me to that level of immersion that I was hoping for either.

SPEAKER_02 28:09

Interesting. So I can give you one thing and one thing only there. I can agree with you about the performances to one extent, and that was Matt Damon. He was the only emotionless robot that I could really feel, save for one scene. And it wasn't even that he showed the right emotion, I was just imagining that dialogue being spoken from literally anybody else. I'm like, ooh, yeah, I could feel that hypothetically if this was another actor. But that was not enough to to hack this movie for me at all. This is 100% a slash Paris, and I'm deeply concerned by how much more anarchy you could want from the millions of deaths in this movie. This is the highest body count we've ever had in a movie. It's literally 26 million. Oh, it's actually a lot of people. Oh, that death was so boring. I was bored. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Someone got hit by a bus. Bored.

SPEAKER_00 29:00

Even that was so casual.

SPEAKER_02 29:02

Oh my gosh. This movie is incredible. Because while it's a slow burn, it's still a burn. And one of the scariest things is something that's happening slowly and is also unstoppable. Because even though, you know, like we talked about, like this movie has some sort of conclusion, the the route and the path that you take to get there is still harrowing. I think if you looked at any kind of zombie movie and thought, wow man, that's so it's so cool. I love this shit because it shows how people would react. This is that in a more realistic way, with a virus that is uncontrollable and has roots in actual viruses that have happened in our world. So there it is. It's a slash for me. Alright, like if if there's anything that shines about this movie even more, it it is this, and that is the fact that there is a quote from a character who is uh you know kind of staying off a conspiracy theory. Another character asks, like, where'd you hear that? He's like, the internet. And that shows how we're in the situations that we can get ourselves into today when something like this happens. That is why it's scary. But there you have it, folks. Contagion from 2011 has four slashes, one hack, which I mean I guess it is fair because Matt Damon did suck pretty bad in this movie. If you find yourself isolated over the next few weeks and looking for something to watch, check it out, then join us in the second half so we can all talk about the spoilers together. We'll see you in a bit.

SPEAKER_00 30:26

Don't spend four dollars renting this movie.

SPEAKER_06 30:34

Dearest listeners, if you would like information about coronavirus slash COVID 19, head to www.cdc.gov slash coronavirus.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

Alright, welcome back. Contagion from 2011 uh struck four out of the five of us with the slash, and one remained immune given to the hack. Before we get into why Paris rated this a hack. Uh Alexis, what's up with that gore score?

SPEAKER_04 31:06

I'm not sure what's uh more gory, like a slasher from the 80s, or like seeing this lady on this stoop waiting for uh Jude Law's character to give her some for Cynthia or whatever that was, and her she had like chalky lips, sunken eyes. Oh my goodness. And there's like a white patch of skin, too. Uh yeah. I'm like, girl, you look like you've been doing something else, but uh oh Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

But she had just had her seizure, so she was probably foaming.

SPEAKER_04 31:38

Oh, yeah. That's that's the excuse they use.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

It was very gross.

SPEAKER_04 31:42

Yeah, so I think this is, I mean, to me, it's not gory in that sort of sends like an 80 slasher, like blood, but it is pretty intense for the the kills you do see, you know, Gwyneth Paltrow's character who goes into a seizure and then all that sort of foaming at the mouth and all of that. And then the guy who, you know, is like he's on the street. I think he was like the like waiter, and he's like like you just see the sweat. And I'm gonna tell you the only other thing I felt like you could feel it and you could see it because it reminds me of like in Bridesmaids when the girls had to go to the bathroom. Oh, and you know you've been in that sort of situation before.

SPEAKER_01 32:16

I turned has everyone I turned that movie off during that scene.

SPEAKER_06 32:19

No, yes, I've seen Bridesmaids, I know the situation, I've never been there myself.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

You never had a shit so bad that you're sweating. Oh, I turned I turned the movie off when that scene happened. Yeah, I can't handle it.

SPEAKER_00 32:30

I'm with you, Alexis. That's happened when there's like no toilet that's like serviceable insight, and you just like are about to die.

SPEAKER_04 32:36

Yeah, and you ate something bad, probably, and like it's like it's either the end or the front.

SPEAKER_00 32:43

Why did I just admit to this on a podcast?

SPEAKER_04 32:46

Because you're human and it's okay. It's okay to have to poop.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

I regret this immediately.

SPEAKER_04 32:51

Sorry, I don't know why I'm going into potty humor right now. Because you can feel the fever in this movie. That's what it is. I think it's just this like uh like nasty, sort of not gore, but just like gross and disgusting feel when you see some of these people and some of the things that they're doing. So that's how I feel. Like it's not not really low gore score, but you know, very squeamish, very like disgusting, like nasty germy things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

What about when they opened up Gwyneth Paltro's head?

SPEAKER_01 33:19

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:19

That was actually my favorite scene.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

They like didn't pull away from that autopsy.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

No, not at all. And the expression on her face was like so ridiculous. The moment they cut to that, I actually laughed so hard out loud. And I was like, they're just scalping Gwyneth Paltro right here. Like, this is fully Gwyneth Paltro, not even her character, just getting scalped on a table.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

Oh my gosh, you didn't even give him a chance.

SPEAKER_00 33:40

I didn't. With Gwyneth Paltro, there was a little, there was little she could do for me.

SPEAKER_02 33:44

Which I found surprising because I actually used to like Gwyneth Paltro, and I know that the times have turned on her. I don't know when, I don't know how. I just know universally people dislike her now. But that flap, man, oh god, that was rough. That was rough to look at. As soon as it came down, I was like, I feel smell.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

I don't dislike her. She's just not hard to take seriously.

SPEAKER_04 34:04

Did anyone get any saw vibes? Because I definitely had, and it's it's soft two or three. I think it's three where they cut his head open. Yeah. Yeah. That shit is when you just hear that. I mean, like my teeth hurt when I hear that grinding.

SPEAKER_06 34:17

I think it's a blood pop that did it for me. When they pulled off the, you know, oh yeah, but just like spray it onto their masks, you know, it's like, ugh.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

Yeah. The deaths where they were just like had their seizure and staring out, like especially the kids. Um, those were pretty intense to me. Like those were things where they didn't have to focus on that scene for so long, and it's it's not gory, but it it sits with you. Like it's like, dang, this is intense. Because it's so realistic, too. Yeah. And like you're just it's just like there. And then it just keeps escalating, and you you know, call 911 and they're like, if you need a body removal, dial nine.

SPEAKER_02 34:56

It's like what have we come to at this point? There's something so traumatic about just the gaze of that that you just get from a dead body. Like it's just the eyes are open, it's just done. Like, there's no life in those eyes, and it's so unsettling to see. Even within the gore in this movie, there's one thing that disgusted me the most. And I know this is gonna sound really silly, but it was the crustiness of the lips. Uh that they were really focusing on like the woman on the bus when she died.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

Ugh. Yeah, those are really, really gross. But that's it's that's that thing. It's not gore, but it's like I can't deal with it.

SPEAKER_00 35:37

I mean, the whole first 15 minutes was just Gwyneth Paltrow touching everything in sight and just like coughing into the open air. So I feel like that was really horrific.

SPEAKER_02 35:45

Also, who the fuck eats bar nuts?

SPEAKER_00 35:47

Ew, no. White people, nobody anymore. They did a really good job using like depth of field to focus on how nasty some of the things are we do every day.

SPEAKER_02 35:56

Yeah, these seemingly mundane things, but here we are being gross humans.

SPEAKER_06 36:00

Yeah. That was one of my favorite parts of the movie, how they were able to kind of highlight these small things, and like every time that they I mean, they would just like show someone touching a door handle who had just coughed, and you're just like, oh good, gross. And like, yeah, it's not that gross, someone just touched a door handle, which is not necessarily disgusting in any way, but because of like the context, you're just sitting there like squirming, like, oh someone please come sanitize that.

SPEAKER_01 36:21

And it's also like as they have those sick people traveling through and showing everything they've touched, you just think about like, oh, I've walked on a subway and you don't think about like the people that were on it before you.

SPEAKER_04 36:32

Oh, I definitely do. I came back from New York City and thought I had lace for two for like a not two weeks, but like a week.

SPEAKER_06 36:38

Just bed bugs.

SPEAKER_02 36:40

This is exactly why I'll never go to New York City.

SPEAKER_01 36:42

But it's everything. It's walking up a set of steps and you grab the handrail and you don't think about it. You don't even realize that you grab the handrail every time. So I was in Nashville this weekend and I spent the entire every single place we went. I was like, oh, why do I grab handra handrails? I have balance. Like I'm an adult, I can walk, I don't need that. There's just there's all these things that you do and you don't think about like what's been done to them before you.

SPEAKER_06 37:05

And you have a little bit of that like, you know, like, I don't know, just like detail kind of focus going on where you're like, oh, why am I doing that? Maybe I shouldn't. But think about how many people don't have that. Yes. Who literally just like cough on themselves and just like wiped it on their pants before like shaking your hand or touching your shoulder?

SPEAKER_04 37:18

Right. Which the most cringy thing was the chef who was cutting the pig and then just like wiped it on that like which napkin on him or something. Super realistic. I walked out and I was like, no shit.

unknown 37:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 37:31

Serious question. Why are wet markets a thing?

SPEAKER_06 37:34

The world has the same question. Why are wet markets still a thing?

SPEAKER_02 37:36

I mean, like, is it like a lack of infrastructure, or is there like a reason for it to exist in such a way?

SPEAKER_00 37:43

Freshness.

SPEAKER_04 37:44

I don't I don't feel it's I mean, I heard at these they sell everything, right? Like any imaginable like animal you could eat.

SPEAKER_06 37:52

I mean, I guess it depends on the country and the market you're talking about, but if if if there's some if someone's gonna eat it, they're gonna sell it.

SPEAKER_01 37:58

As like a bonus tidbit from you girl Ryan, okay. If you guys get a chance, listeners, Google gutter oil, which is uh like type of reclaimed oil, but like there's some sources that are questionable that a lot of street food that some street food is cooked in, not in America. But just for fun, it's it's maybe the most disgusting thing you've ever heard of. And it involves Fat Burgs, and if you know what those are, that's how disgusting it is. But that's just a tidbit. It that's a little nugget for you guys if you want to be grossed out right now, as I'm sure you already are in life.

SPEAKER_00 38:30

I'm looking it up right now, and I am grossed out. Oh god.

SPEAKER_02 38:33

Like between this and between Mac sharing the video of the coronavirus challenge where someone's licking an airplane toilet seat, I think I've been sufficiently grossed out tonight. Thanks.

SPEAKER_01 38:43

Yes, we can all bathe in Clorox.

SPEAKER_02 38:45

A question for you, Alexis. Which death in this movie was the biggest one for you?

SPEAKER_04 38:52

I think it was when we follow the waiter around, um, because you necessarily don't know the context or what's going on. And I mean, you just see it, you see the sweats, you see the like fever, you see the disorientation. And you know, it's really the first I mean, the first someone who's extremely symptomatic that you're seeing in the first like 15 minutes, and it's super terrifying. And the next thing you know, he just runs right in to the uh to the bus because it's so disoriented, and it's just it's just crazy. I think that's just what set it off. Um, but the most, the saddest death of them all, besides all 26 million, let's go there, but was mirrors because Homegirl was just trying to literally help us all and figure out where this came from and ended up dying for it. Yeah, she was good. We appreciated her. And trying to give a cold patient in need her jacket. That was her last moment. Oh my god, I'm I think I'm gonna cry. See, this is the problem.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

She also like worked her ass off for the entire movie, and then at the end, while she was dying, she was like, I'm sorry I couldn't finish the work. I thought that was like a big Capricorn vibe.

SPEAKER_01 40:00

I was just gonna jokingly be like, see, nice guy finishes last, but this is not what I want to spread in the world. I really want us all to be nice to each other and help each other and give shirts, but you know, there's a risk. There's a risk involved.

SPEAKER_02 40:13

I think her death was the heaviest for me. I think one of the saddest ones was a little boy in the beginning. Yeah. You know, who the only thing he did wrong was hug his mother. And that's really, really sad. And I think what's crazy is when you look at like the scope of this, we're talking about like the chef wiping his hands and all that. That quote where it says, Um, somewhere in the world, the wrong pig met up with a wrong bat, and it's so nuts that something so small can wreak so much havoc in our world.

SPEAKER_01 40:40

Yeah. Can I tell you um my favorite theoretical death that didn't happen that I wish had happened in this movie? Oh wow, go ahead on that one. Dude, I hate Jude Law's character. Yes. It's so annoying. You guys know I'm not like the same type of movie person that you guys are. So, like actors and stuff generally, I don't have a lot of feelings about them individually, like hating certain actors and stuff like that. Not a lot, anyway. Um, so I don't feel anything about Jude Law, but his character, like, it's like so indicative of what I feel like internet culture is now. Like everyone thinks they're smarter. And they're listening there's some, there's a lot of conspiracy theories. And I'm not saying that none of them are right. I'm just saying a lot of them sound stupid. And it it just this character, I was like, please shut up. I want you to be gone. You look stupid walking around with a puffy shirt on. I don't understand what the shirt was for. Shoulders are not contagious. I don't understand what that was, but I just wanted him to go.

SPEAKER_02 41:42

Faking his illness to uh and you know, to let people think that there's some kind of treatment. Also, I wrote down a lot of quotes in this movie. Favorite quote directed to him uh from our boy Ian, the American hero from San Francisco. Blogging is not writing, it's graffiti with punctuation. Solid. Also, I feel like every conspiracy theorist has a shitty website. Do you guys feel like that? Oh yeah. His website was the worst. You haven't made it as a conspiracy theorist if you don't have a shitty website. If you go on Squarespace, which this episode is not brought to you by, if you go on Squarespace, you're gonna have a good website, no one's gonna take you seriously. You're only taken seriously if you made that shit yourself on WordPress and it's like circa 1995 design. So true.

SPEAKER_06 42:30

Yeah, but he had that live video plug-in. It was literally called Truth Serum Now.

SPEAKER_01 42:34

He did have that live video. Oh gosh, I can't, I just couldn't, I don't, I don't want to be part of it.

SPEAKER_04 42:40

I think it's really cool though, because you have essentially like two different plots going on. You'll have this one where the pandemic's going, and then you have the one brought to you by Jude Law's character who's bringing this panic, which we see a lot. Like they had the satanic panic, and now there's the coronavirus panic for sure. I'm sure that's going on, or people will probably say I'm not, but I am a victim of it.

SPEAKER_01 43:03

So uh Yeah, I think that there will be some things, and I hope that they say on a very small scale, but there'll be things where people find somebody that's saying something they agree with and they start following them and and following things that they're recommending and stuff, and I hope that it doesn't put people in danger, you know.

SPEAKER_04 43:20

And I think it just shows who you pay attention to. So if he's this person that everyone's looking for, you know, it makes you think on like like to me, if my dad texted me, I go by what my dad said. Unless he said something absurd. The lesson is trust no one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:35

Think for yourself as an adult.

SPEAKER_00 43:37

His character was the worst. Yeah, when they first introduced him, I wasn't sure like which side he was on because I thought they were just discrediting him because he was like, Print media is dead, like the internet is how people are gonna consume media. And I was like, Oh, that's pretty fair. Like, I guess at that time we still weren't taking like the internet seriously. Um, but then as they developed, I was like, Oh no, Jude Law's insane, and he's like using his twenty one million followers to like really enact some some havoc. In a situation like this.

SPEAKER_01 44:01

Don't trust people that recite their number of followers ever. Ever.

SPEAKER_02 44:06

I'm sorry. He didn't even say followers. He said unique visitors.

SPEAKER_00 44:11

Yeah, he was just a dangerous idiot. Also, was that a fake tooth that he had? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 44:16

Yeah, it's horrible. Does he not just have fucked up teeth? I thought he had fucked up teeth.

SPEAKER_00 44:20

I didn't remember fucked up teeth, which is why I was like, that dead tooth in the front seems suspicious.

SPEAKER_02 44:25

Well, you're not a conspiracy theorist unless you have fucked up teeth, too. Geez, this movie really lays it on thick.

SPEAKER_06 44:30

He reminded me of so many people doing the exact same thing right now about coronavirus.

SPEAKER_04 44:36

Play trolling.

SPEAKER_06 44:37

Like just severely. I mean, they just had some like Fox News host get reduced from a primetime spot for saying stupid things like this.

SPEAKER_04 44:46

On the news?

SPEAKER_06 44:47

Yeah, like legit saying that the coronavirus thing was like a hoax, but like this, like every time that he's on screen, I'm just thinking Alex Jones with Jude Lostface.

SPEAKER_04 44:56

That's it's that's crazy.

SPEAKER_06 44:58

Yeah, there's like so many things being posted on social media and people's parents and and relatives like sharing it because they like want to believe it, but it's like, no, there's scientific fact. Okay. Here there's that there's like the real stuff, and then there's all this junk that you're just like subscribing to.

SPEAKER_02 45:13

Yeah. I think the most important moral of this story, and in any story, you know, whether it be a virus that's you know making its way around the world or some of the more harrowing events that you see in our history, it's just to do your research and keep an open mind. While it's really easy to be susceptible to misinformation, you know, I think sometimes we we tend to go with the immediacy of the information in front of us instead of taking a moment to apply our critical thinking skills. And I think this movie shows the dangers of that.

SPEAKER_01 45:45

That does not mean going along with uh 5G conspiracies. That that doesn't count as thinking for yourself, okay?

SPEAKER_02 45:52

Yeah, you're right. You're right. What did you guys like about this movie visually?

SPEAKER_00 45:56

Gwynneth Paltro getting scalped.

SPEAKER_02 45:58

Wow. You are just not holding back Paris. Please go on. Why? That's so brutal. That's brutal.

SPEAKER_00 46:05

I I didn't feel brutal to me. It felt comedic. Just the expression they had on her face, like her tongue was kind of sticking out. She truly looked gooped. I was just dying when it happened.

SPEAKER_02 46:14

What is gooped? Does she have a product called goop?

SPEAKER_00 46:17

No, yeah, that's also her website.

SPEAKER_02 46:18

What is that?

SPEAKER_00 46:19

It's like a wellness brand, which is really ironic how she was able to launch that being patient zero of this movie.

SPEAKER_05 46:24

That is hilarious.

SPEAKER_00 46:26

And then they open up her brain and they're like shocked at what they see, but they don't actually show it. And I'm like, what is it? Just like empty? Like, what's in there?

SPEAKER_05 46:33

Call everyone.

SPEAKER_00 46:34

It's just junk at that point.

SPEAKER_06 46:35

It just like melted.

SPEAKER_04 46:37

What I really noticed visually, and it was just visually great watching this, but I think what really stuck out to me, especially looking at the like, you know, thinking back at it, was it seemed very like geometrically like sound, like a lot of corners, a lot of straight lines, a lot of that. Like, I don't know. I just when I'm looking back, that's really I mean, not that's not all I remembered clearly, but that's what stuck out to me, which I think helped follow this, like, okay, a day one, day two, day three, day four, day five, kind of plot, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

SPEAKER_01 47:07

So I think for me, when I think about this movie, I think like I f I feel gray. Like I think of gray, and everything is like it it just starts, it just declines in such a nice way. And I love the way we've already talked about it's kind of uh like it's step by step, and I think that's perfect for what they're doing because I think you can do movies about, you know, a zombie apocalypse and all this stuff, but the steps of a realistic spread of a disease, which as we see is absolutely plausible, it's just so so nice to see it work that way, and then everything gets gray and dark, and they're trying to get the food out of the trucks and all these things, and everything starts to be desolate, and that's that progression is really, really nice to see.

SPEAKER_06 47:52

Oh, yeah. I mean, the the the work they did with like color grading was fantastic. The shots they use, the depth of field, the way they aligned things up. I mean, they legit could have been making a documentary, I feel like, with kind of how they shot everything, and it worked so well for making it seem deliberately, I feel like procedural, deliberately like this is just real life, just you know, shown with drama. But oh my god, like everything about it visually, I know it can be it can might seem boring to some, but I just I just found it enthralling to be honest, because it wasn't trying to like glam it up at all, and it wasn't trying to like be overly dramatic with it, it was just enough like human-based kind of feeling to the movie. I loved just the little like clips we would get of showing the like the viral handoffs where they would like zoom in, you would you'd be able to see that moment, and then boom, here's exactly when they and it would freeze frame it as they're looking through like the security tapes and everything, and that like segment was so well done. That was so cool to see.

SPEAKER_01 48:49

And that warmth, the everything in China was very warm-toned and yeah, like red forest red, yeah, lots of reds, lot of warmth, life, drinking, partying. Everything changed.

SPEAKER_00 49:00

Oh yeah. Yeah, meanwhile, Matt Damon was shot exclusively with a blue filter because his life was just cold and sad.

SPEAKER_02 49:06

Yeah, very Midwest and behind glass. Poor guy, wife cheats on him, then uh dies. Real stand-up gal, that uh that uh Gwyneth Powell trail. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 49:17

I just thought it was so happy like he was at this conference, and then I figured out, oh, she planned it. I'm like, damn, even when she was coughing, like or actually she didn't, but she wasn't coughing at the time she called him.

SPEAKER_00 49:30

She made a lot of choices.

SPEAKER_02 49:32

My favorite moment in this movie comes when uh Kate Winslit has tracked down the man who picked her up from the airport, and this guy's like at the bus stop, freaking out, kind of like getting in and out of consciousness, and all you see is her running from the car, bringing the mask and putting it over his face. And I don't know why that image in particular has just stuck with me, but it was so beautifully shot, just seeing it drift from out from um you know from the background into the foreground, coming into clearer focus, and then just darkness. It was just it was so beautiful. Was there a moment in this movie that maybe didn't stand out to you guys visually, but emotionally?

SPEAKER_04 50:10

There's a shot, it's almost an aerial shot, um, where you see them. I mean, this is qu kind of middle, the end of the epidemic, but um, when they're putting the bodies, they're just tossing them in the ground. And it's like you think about it, a lot of people get a lot of closure from like going and going to a funeral, and you know, sometimes people want to see the body beforehand, and you know, like all that sort of stuff, but there's some you get some sort of closure in that. This the body gets whisked away, either buried in a mass grave or burned, which I think is like super sad because you know, all these people that I mean their lives are tragically already lost, and then their bodies aren't kind of like they're just being disposed of. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 50:49

And it's kind of wild that this stuff happens like these days. Mass graves, inability to bury I mean, things like when we had like Ebola outbreaks, like this is the kind of steps they have to take because they literally just can't come into contact with those bodies.

SPEAKER_02 51:01

It says my family can relate to an extent. My great-grandfather was the chief of national police in Cuba during the Cuban Revolution, and he was assassinated via firing squad, and his body was just dumped anonymously in a grave that's unmarked. And to this day, my family don't know where don't you know they don't know where he is, and that is a lack of closure there. I cannot imagine that feeling to the scale of 26 million people.

SPEAKER_05 51:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:26

And something like relating to that scene is is that is one of my favorite things about this movie is like the casual conversation. And it's so true. Like in that scene, they're sitting there and they're saying, you know, when did we run out of body bags? Like how long ago? And there's another scene where they're in the lab and they're, you know, talking about how uh they're talking about what they're working on, and then they're like, Oh, and how was your Thanksgiving? You know? And that's real, like that's that's the that human connection thing. Like we are gonna go through all these things, and before we get to the point of like, you know, breaking into each other's houses and shooting people and holding them hostage and stuff like that, we're gonna be dealing with these like very serious situations, but we're still humans and we don't know how to handle them. And we, you know, ask each other how our weekend was in this at the same time as these things are going on. And that's that's that's super real. And I love that in this movie. Deep cuts with Ryan.

SPEAKER_06 52:23

I think emotionally the the scene where Matt Damon, Matt Damon's character at least, finds out that his wife like cannot be buried, like that is hard on its own, but then he has to like explain it to his mother-in-law. That that's really hard because like he just had to internalize that and then imagine like having to then explain that to another member of the family, just be like, no, they can't. They can't they won't take her. And she's like, try, and he's like, No, they won't do it, they can't do it. He's having to like pretend as if he's accepted it when he's still trying to accept it in that moment.

SPEAKER_00 52:50

That was kind of dumb for me. Like, he really wanted like an open casket viewing and everything. And I was like, Your wife is like patient zero for this huge disease. You should really be able to understand why you can't do that. Like, maybe do a cremation, maybe have an urn. I don't know, but he was maybe because I have never lost a wife to a viral outbreak. I can't relate to this, but I feel like his reactions were unconvincing and unrealistic from an outside viewpoint.

SPEAKER_02 53:15

That's because he lacks the emotional depth to portray anything of substance.

SPEAKER_01 53:20

Yeah, literally, his daughter came up and like it was almost like she didn't care about her stepparent or her stepmom and her stepbrother at all. He was just like, It's okay, just go be with your mom. And she was like, No, and he's just like, No, it's cool. Like, everybody's dead. It's cool, man. No.

SPEAKER_02 53:37

Yeah, you get you know, soon, real real soon, because you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 53:42

The daughter was a very cold girl. His reaction in the hospital was good. No. With the doctors, when he first finds out, and like he had like he can't like like his brain doesn't compute exactly what's happening. He's like, Okay, so can I talk to her?

SPEAKER_02 53:55

Uh, the dialogue was good.

SPEAKER_06 53:57

Because he's like, so she did die. Like the way they phrased it was so awkward. He's like, Okay, so can I talk to her?

SPEAKER_00 54:04

I thought the dialogue and the performance were both bad in that scene specifically. I remember watching that and being like, no, that's no one's ever no.

SPEAKER_02 54:11

I feel like someone probably has.

SPEAKER_00 54:13

Also, your wife is dead, and he's like, Okay, when do I get to see her? And he's like, so she's dead. And he's like, Wait, what do you mean? She was right here, and I was like, No, it just wasn't. I wasn't cutting it. That's so realistic. Yes, your wife is in the cloud.

SPEAKER_06 54:27

Wow. You have to wait until you sink in order to see her again.

SPEAKER_01 54:31

Yeah, it needs to be plugged in, make sure it's not a low power mode.

SPEAKER_00 54:34

She'll repopulate over Wi-Fi.

SPEAKER_01 54:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 54:38

It's like when you say dead, you mean No, I mean I think like the suddenness of losing someone like that. Like, I'll never forget there's a day when like um my grandfather was out cutting the yard in Puerto Rico and it was starting to rain on him, and he ended up catching pneumonia. He ended up having a stroke, he ends up in the hospital. And my mom goes to visit him. He's she's there for like a couple weeks, and I remember being on the phone with her, hearing, yeah, he's gonna be okay. They're gonna transfer to him to the US just so he can get some bet better medical care, but everything he's stable. I give the phone to my sister, not seven minutes later, my grandfather's dead, and I couldn't believe that because I had just heard that he's okay. So I totally get him not responding in such a way. Like I totally get him being shocked and unable to really process that. But again, Matt Damon just did not convince me. He just did not convince me. But Parish, you had some c some qualms with some of the other performances in this movie. Who else disappointed you?

SPEAKER_00 55:32

Marion Coltiard was pretty flaccid, I felt. Uh her motivation was kind of questionable throughout the whole thing. So she's like kidnapped by this like Chinese family so that they can use her as leverage to get a vaccine, and then they dupe the family and say, like, oh, we here's your vaccine. Give us Marion Coltiard back. And then it turns out she that they were just given um placebos. And so she just like picks up her bags, leaves the airport, and that's the last we see of her.

SPEAKER_01 55:57

That is annoying.

SPEAKER_00 55:58

It was odd. And I guess like maybe she got Stockholm syndrome. Like, I get like she was like teaching those kids, and she was like, Well, like, yeah, those kids need help, but they also seem to be the most fine of anybody in the movie. They were like really like in some remote area, like living on a compound in the jungle. I was like, if anyone's not at risk, it seems to be everybody there.

SPEAKER_01 56:14

But they were the only ones left. What do you mean? They were the there was the only people left in that in that um village, and she cared about them. They were kids, they were cute, it was old people, women. There, she just became a part of their community.

SPEAKER_00 56:27

I mean, they only gave her like one or two scenes actually showing that that connection was established, you know?

SPEAKER_01 56:33

So there's a lot of characters in this movie, man. She's there for months, though. She's there for months.

SPEAKER_00 56:38

Yeah. It just didn't feel like it.

SPEAKER_01 56:40

In in defense of Paris, I do think the sec like the the majority of this movie is a little bit boring. Like the the steps that are taken at the beginning to show us what is happening is really nice. And then when we get to like, bro, I know we're gonna talk about this, but the prom scene is I I just I could not have cared less. I couldn't have cared less about that scene. And then even like basically everything involving the daughter and the boy, Andrew. It's just there's there are things that are just boring in this movie, I'm not gonna lie. And I I think part of that is because I've already seen it, and I think when I first saw it, I didn't feel that way. But I'm I'm gonna, I'm gonna I feel you, Paris, in some ways, but not so much to make it a hack. But there are some there are some things where you could just sleep right through it. And in fact, I did, and I had to rewatch it.

SPEAKER_00 57:31

I did actually fall asleep too, and then I woke up and picked up where I left off.

SPEAKER_01 57:34

Man, you can take a good nap to this movie.

SPEAKER_00 57:37

Yeah, a great nap movie. I would write I give it a slash for napping. No, during that final prom scene, because I really was could not have been less invested in the daughter as a character or that boy that was trying to kiss her, even though there was danger to that. So during that prom scene at the end, I literally wrote down she needs to cough up blood and explode right now for this to get a slash.

SPEAKER_01 57:56

Horrible.

SPEAKER_00 57:57

Because it just ended so softly.

SPEAKER_01 58:00

It was so it it was real soft. And it was like, if the if that last scene that is the end end wasn't there, this could have easily been a hack based on the ending of this movie.

SPEAKER_00 58:12

Mm-hmm. Like, I get that he wants to give her an experience, but like we didn't spend enough time with that character for me to actually give a damn.

SPEAKER_01 58:19

You know what I really wanted to happen when he picked up the camera and he's like going through pictures. I just wanted some like Chicago affair, nasty pictures to show.

SPEAKER_00 58:30

Yeah, something like that I was waiting for too.

SPEAKER_01 58:33

That way he was feeling all like sad, like, oh, I miss her, and it's just like doggy style.

SPEAKER_00 58:40

That one photo was like, that ain't even a good photo, but I wanted it to be revealed during that scene that like the guy that she had been cheating on him with was Lawrence Fishburne's character, or something like of that nature. Like to really bring it full circle, but it was We are all connected in the great circle of life. In Gwyneth Paltrow's circle of influence.

SPEAKER_02 58:58

What about you, Mac Alexis? Anything in this movie that stands out as per particularly egregious to you in terms of like moments or characters. Did you also hate the ending?

SPEAKER_06 59:07

No, I didn't hate hate the ending. Although, so the the kind of the storyline with his family, like I feel like at a certain point could have just been dropped off and it would have been would have been okay. I don't think it made it bad though. I just think like they're letting us kind of see how it plays out for this this whole family, which which is fine. I don't I didn't consider it negative. I don't think it negatively impacted the film in any way, except for boring the two of you for those parts. But um I don't I actually don't have many issues with this film. I I truly think it's like a really solid film, and there's a lot of details. I'm gonna go into a couple of them during factor fiction, but there's like a lot of details I think um that either they got right or that they just used it in a really smart way. And I was a fan of the acting, you know, for the most part. I mean, um I'm I don't hate Matt Damon.

SPEAKER_02 59:56

I don't know why you guys do, but uh just like over here like No, it's it's just me that hates him. Don't worry.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:01

Okay. I didn't care for him in this. I you know, I think everyone in here did a really good, really great job um like portraying their characters. So I was I don't I don't think I could probably pick up anything that really bothered me about the film, to be honest.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:14

Yeah, nothing really bothered me either, especially I think you know, you're seeing everything on a different perspective. You're seeing someone from um someone who needs to make decisions for our country, who's the head of the CDC, who has to like he's grappling with his own stuff, but still has to be front and center, trying to answer everyone's questions. Then you see like someone, an epidemiologist. Damn, that's a big word.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:39

Nailed it.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:40

Okay, I know. I'm surprised I didn't stutter on that one. Um, so you see what they're going through in their life, and then you you're just seeing these different people. So I think Matt Damon's whole storyline. I think for it to continue, I think it was good. Like, you know, this is the daily life of how these people are gonna live. Like, oh my gosh, like I hear something outside. Normally you probably wouldn't go and see something. Your neighbor closed the door, but this one now you're like, okay, is someone trying to loot? Is this or that? Or you know, like they're in the grocery store. Um, and then that lady's reaching for them. That was a little dramatic because I don't think anyone would do that.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:16

That was like that scene actually made me so angry and disgusted when he like turns the corner in the grocery store and she coughs in his face. Yeah. People are monsters.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:27

They are, and this is why this thing is going around. One of the many reasons, probably.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:34

Alexis, you pointed out the the noise at his neighbor's house. And I will say that was one of my only like good really good scenes with Matt Damon in it, was when you when he's looking out into that yard and he you realizes that they're gunshots that he's hearing and then seeing the flashes from. That was so heartbreaking and also kind of terrifying. I thought this was gonna go home invasion real fast.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:58

I wanted it too.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:59

I thought it was people suiciding themselves before the obviously before the guys ran out.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:04

Oh that was the closest the movie came to actually scaring me because obviously the human behavioral impact is the real thing to be afraid of in a time like this. Uh, I actually looked at my boyfriend, I was like, babe, do we have a gun? Like, if things ever get to this, do we own a gun? And I've never thought I would want a gun in my life.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:19

Do we own the gun? Yeah. Because I don't. If you're asking the question, the answer is no.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:26

I know it was no. So I might reconsider that. I have no idea.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:30

Not available on Amazon Prime.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:31

The main thing that really just prevented this from being a slash for me was how predictable it was. And it would, like we said, it's it was very sequential, very plausible, very realistic, which lended itself to being a little bit more frightening. Uh, but living through something like that currently, it feels less threatening in our life, in our situation, than it does in the film. And then even as they got to the edge of like people looting and like the people like robbing somebody's house when they have guns and things, I wanted it to keep going and like just watch the world collapse, I guess. But they like went right to the edge and then came back and we're like, now here's the vaccine, and now we're gonna distribute the vaccine, and now Matt Damon's daughter's gonna have a prom and then the movie's gonna be over.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:10

I think you wanted a little bit more of like an a f a fictional story, and I feel like this is super grounded in in at least some amount of realism, and that's why you're unhappy, Paris.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:23

Yes, I wanted this to be like a worst-case scenario of what could happen today.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:27

Yeah, that's World War Z. Exactly. Or train to Busan. Allow us to introduce you to our collection of zombie movies we reviewed on the podcast. Train to Busan. We can make a uh playlist for you.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:41

Can we talk about the doctor who discovered the vaccine? I thought she was gonna kill herself. I thought she was like, you know what, this is it. And she's just gonna like inject herself with that like random vaccine, hoping she gets the virus and dies. But then she's like, hey dad, remember when you told me that that scientist did this thing? Well, I'm doing it now. Cough on me and let's see. That was a bold move.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:59

Apparently, it's tradition for a lot of doctors.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:02

Really?

SPEAKER_05 1:04:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:03

When they were like putting the vaccine in with uh like the SARS and the other vaccines, you know, that we actually have. What I really thought was gonna happen is they were gonna go in and walk past the monkey, and they were just gonna walk by and he would be dead after they'd given it to all these people. That would have been a great twist.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:18

Oh, yeah. It was a very small sample size.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:21

One monkey.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:22

We can bank all humanity on it. That's fine. One monkey lived. We're good. But what if that monkey was just the Matt and Damon of monkeys?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:28

Exactly. Like what if she was also immune and that's why she didn't die? And she was like, Yep, this vaccine worked for me, so mass distribution.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:35

They could have, they could have gone that route. I think, you know, they they share the vaccine, a lot of people have it, and then the monkey's dead and everything goes wrong, and then it's a zombie movie after that.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:45

And then we find out that Planet of the Apes, uh, the reboot is just the sequel to this movie.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:49

Oh my god, I would love that. This could be the prequel to a lot of movies.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:54

Yes, absolutely. It also reminded me of the faculty because it was it me or were they administering it like through the nose?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:03

Yeah, they were taking that scat. Was the vaccine cocaine?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:06

It was liquid cocaine, really.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:07

Was it a needle?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:09

No. I think it was like a flu shot kind of thing. Like you know how you can do the nasal in one proof.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:14

I've never had a nasal vaccine.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:15

Yeah, it's the only way I did it in the Navy. It was it's uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:19

So wait, that is actually a thing then?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:21

Nasal vaccines?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:22

Huh. Yeah. I think I would prefer that because I actually hate needles.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:25

Oh, there you go. Now we've uh now we've taught you.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:28

Alright.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:29

Yeah. Don't say you didn't learn anything on Hackerslash.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:32

I actually learned so much on this podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:34

Fantastic. I have one more person that I really wish would have expired in this movie, and I don't know that she did. It's that terrible lady who was uh just the Debbie Downer of the whole situation when Kate Winslit shows up in Minnesota, and uh she's uh at the onslaught of questions we don't even know what this is, and we don't know this, and like what about the economy and the money? And then, like, when they're trying to stage this area and they're looking at this. Or the stadium. She's like, is this coming out of your budget or ours? It's like, go fuck yourself, lady. Go fuck yourself. People are dying right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:07

Yeah, I hated her too. She's like, this is the biggest shopping weekend of the year. I was like, bitch, get some perspective.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:12

But I mean, that's but that's also so realistic because that's the stuff we're literally going through right now, where they're like, hey, don't meet in large groups of like over like a hundred and preferably not over fifty. And then like, you know, shopping malls are like, well, you know, there is a lot of money to be made right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:28

And didn't a congressman recently say, Yeah, go out this weekend and stimulate that economy.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:33

I don't know. I just got nine for 32 underwear at Victoria's Secret. So I ain't complaining. I will say.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:40

I think that the things that have been going on with a lot of the corporations, it's you know, the really big companies and stuff like that in our reality right now are giving me a little bit more hope than that woman did in this movie. Because I'm not saying everything's perfect, but there are a lot of things that are happening that will help us prevent this from continuing to spread, I think. And and a lot of them are good. Not perfect, but a lot of good things are happening.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:04

We're learning some good lessons this year, like paid sick time and bidets and remote working.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:10

These are all good lessons to learn. I also wanted to take a moment to acknowledge that when Lawrence Fishburn let his wife or fiance know about like the severity of the situation, and then like the first thing she does is like spill the tea to that woman, that like mom in her kitchen with that like visibly Karen haircut. And then the next shot is just everyone panicking because she told everyone on Facebook about it. I know, but like why would you tell that woman of all people in your friend circle to tell?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:38

I'm gonna say something to you and you're not going to repeat it. Repeat it to all of social media. She felt guilty. Well, she should have, honestly. Well, this movie, as I think we've discussed, is rooted in a lot of reality. Uh, there's definitely some stuff that we can learn from it and stuff that we can learn from Mac here in R Factor Fiction.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:58

Maybe, maybe. Let's get into it and find out. Number one, there's a real life virus as deadly as the fictional MEV1 in contagion.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:07

Fact. Fact for sure.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:08

Yeah, probably. Fact. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:12

So I know, Chris, you said you wanted to sit out of this one because you're so well versed in viruses and fact and I don't I don't know that I'm well versed in viruses, but I did send Mac a video that he could have pulled source material from, so I just want to be fair.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:26

It is fair. So let's it it's fact. So let's talk about the Marburg virus. It has a fatality rate of over 80%. And I think from what I was reading, it has like an R naught of something like 1.7, so like Yeah, pretty pretty darn spreadable, kind of like a solid margarine. But um MEV1 in this in this movie was actually based off of another one. I hope I'm saying it correctly, but like NEPA virus.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:52

That is correct.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:53

So it has a fatality rate 50 to 75 percent. And these are viruses that have been like you know encountered with in the world in the last like 30 to 40 years. So it's kind of wild that we see crazy stuff like this happening on screen, it's happening really fast, and we're like, oh, you know, we're we're getting, you know, coughs, we're getting, you know, like you know, breathing issue issues, respiratory diseases, but like, you know, people's brains aren't melting. But in fact, they are from certain viruses that are out there that we've discovered. So that's that's pretty wild. Speaking of viruses, there are viruses that have spread from bats to other animals and then back to humans.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:26

Fact. Fact.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:28

Fact. Of course, I hope we would all know this, but things like SARS and even this year's novel coronavirus are believed to have passed from bats to other animals. Um, small, cute little animals. Um, pigs are our thing. This year, one of the theories is penguins, because penguins, first of all, they look like real-life Pokemon, they look like armadillos, they're really cute, uh, but they're also consumed and handled and ground up and all sorts of crazy stuff, uh, which is pretty horrifying. But yeah, so they're not sure this year, which often is I honestly that's probably the scarier part, is like we don't know for a fact.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:01

I feel like we're always not really sure at the beginning.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:04

True, but it's just sad that it might have spread to those cute little Pokemon like things, and then we got it from them because we eat them. We shouldn't be eating them because they're so cute. Anyway, number three. Barry Marshall mentioned in the movie is the real person that did drink a solution of H. pylori and developed stomach ulcers.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:17

Oh, from the end. Um, from the the the talking to her dad.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:22

Um Fiction. Uh I'll go fact.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:25

I'm gonna say fact too. That seemed plausible when she said it. Yeah, this is a real life person, and he actually did receive a Nobel Prize for this work.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:33

This has been everything is true with Mac.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:36

Then he's gonna get you caught up on one. Yeah, I know. It's like a slight number off.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:40

We'll see. Okay, so viruses like this fictional MEV1 can spread around the world within days.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:46

I mean around the world? No. Are we talking one person? Flies to a different country, is that spread around the world?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:52

Oh, sorry, Alexis. Have you not met Carmen San Diego? Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:57

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:58

I got a fact. Fiction.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:00

Yeah, fact. Fact for sure. Alright, so let's let's think back a little bit to SARS and H1N1. H1N1 spread worldwide just a few weeks.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:08

Yeah, but you said days. You said days.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:10

Indeed, I did.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:11

Okay. Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:12

So I'm gonna say if you said factor fiction, you're correct. I don't care what you answered, but literally within a few weeks, these things spread around the entire world.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:22

Sounds about right with what we're going through right now.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:24

Yeah, exactly. I mean, uh, I know um SARS took a little bit longer, but like SARS was a huge deal, and it hit something like, I don't know, 13, 15 countries, something like that within, you know, just like a month.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:36

That was our lifetime, Chris. And Matt. No, it's insane. Yeah, it's uh I was eighth grade.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:40

Yeah, I mean, it's effectively kind of what we're going through now. So it's it's it's pretty wild how fast it oh god, it's just scary.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:47

Alexis, it's funny because it was their lifetime too, but we're the ones who are actually just exactly 30 years old, so yeah, we're not 12.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:54

Yeah, everyone here has experienced the world with SARS.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:57

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:58

Yeah, so let's go for another one here. Developing vaccines for viruses like MEV1 in the movie is as fast as the movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:05

Can I uh is this a question where there's actually a right or wrong answer unlike the last one?

SPEAKER_06 1:12:09

Yes, there's a factor of fission.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:11

I feel like that even took him a little longer. I feel like they they could do it in what nine how long was it? They said 90 days. 90 days, yeah. I feel like that's plausible, and I'm praying it is.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:23

I feel like the movie was I can't remember how you phrased the question. I feel like in the movie it was faster than it would ever be in real life to develop a vaccine.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:31

Well, yeah, it was an hour. Guys, I need to talk to all of you about how time works in the movies.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:40

Um, I'm gonna say that this is uh fact because I agree with Alexis. It seemed like they took a lot longer to get there in the movie than we could do it in real life. Because like you could feasibly get super lucky and figure it out on the first try.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:52

No, have you met our government? Know how many things you have to go through to get anything anywhere.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:58

Ryan's on the right track. It is a fiction. Typically, it takes at least four to six months to develop a vaccine.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:05

Yeah. Does that even count for approving it? And and and giving it to people? Because it seems yeah, I guess it depends on how the situation is.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:15

I'd like to remind everybody that uh Ryan is our resident medical consultant.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:19

Well, she got it right.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:20

Who knows literally nothing about vaccines.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:23

Well, that's that's been fact or fiction. I have I hope you've enjoyed. And I hope you're not scared.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:28

No, that last one. That was kind of factor fiction. Mostly facts, and then one, there was no right answer.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:34

Well, there was a right answer. It was more just informative than anything.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:38

Mac, thank you so much for that education. Guys, I think you know, the biggest thing to learn here from any of this is that this is an interesting time in our world, and we just have to be kind to each other and take care of each other. Uh, so regardless of where you stand in your beliefs or anything like that, we do want all of our listeners to stay safe and to stay clean and to stay healthy. We love you so much, and we want to hear your thoughts, not only on this movie, but what you're up to during this time of uh of shuddering indoors and and staying safe. Keep in mind there's a number of ways you can reach out to us uh to let us know if you fall in with the four of us who gave contagion a slash or the one that gave it a hack. Uh, first at our website, www.hackerslash.com. And on our social media accounts, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:28

And if you spend your time stuck in your house watching any really cool, scary movies and want to tell us about them, you can hit us up on the hackerslash hotline. You can text us, call us, leave us a voicemail, or an audio message, and it's 757-606-0128.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:42

And if you are plentifully stocked on toilet paper and are self-quarantining, you can hit us up at feedback at hackerslash.com.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:49

We'll see you next time. Bye.