SPEAKER_06 0:04

If someone's trying to kill me, I will kill them back. Just saying.

SPEAKER_05 0:12

Greetings and salutations and welcome to Hacker Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. You are making us blush. 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. A total joke, a waste of time, or a slash.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Totally killer. Fun intended.

SPEAKER_05 0:31

My name is Chris, and I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. Now this week I'm joined by the Superfly Space Guy Mac.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Hola Muchachos.

SPEAKER_05 0:38

The Gore Lover Alexis. Hey Rewind. The cowardly grouper Ryan. Hiya. And the Scream Queen Paris.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

Hey sweets.

SPEAKER_05 0:45

Now this week we're looking at a film that paints a dystopian view of what America could look like once it regroups from an economic collapse. But before we get to all that depressing stuff, we have some follow-up.

SPEAKER_03 0:56

Yes, we do, Chris. Uh recently we reviewed a little film called Susperia and its remake, and we asked our friends about it on Twitter. I have a tweet here from someone named Dr. Telez. He said, honestly, both are beautiful horror films. The imagery and score play in my mind constantly. But the ending of the remake was everything I could have asked for and more. And I'd hate to be inside his head if the score is always playing in his mind, but thanks for the right, Doc.

SPEAKER_05 1:24

Oh nice. Perhaps the doctor can uh help us get medical adjacent with Ryan every now and again.

SPEAKER_03 1:30

Oh we for sure need the help.

SPEAKER_05 1:33

Now, for this week, I want you to close your eyes and imagine a world, dear listener, where there's barely any crime in America. Unemployment is nearly non-existent, the economy is booming. It sounds pretty good, but that comes at a price. And that price is one night of cleansing, a night where any crime, even murder, is legal. A night where your friendly neighborhood can turn into a homicidal maniac, a night where you can hide, but you might be safer if you fight. Now that is the world that is presented to us in this week's 2013 film, The Purge. Who has had experience with this movie before this episode? I saw this movie, believe it or not.

SPEAKER_06 2:12

Nice. Starting off right. I know. I actually saw this movie with like someone I used to like, and it was interesting at the end of this, our different takes on uh the purge.

SPEAKER_05 2:25

Is that like first date territory or like a couple weeks of maybe dating territory where you discuss your purge plans?

SPEAKER_06 2:32

It was us being friends for a long time, and then like we're like maybe we can date. We're like really good together, but I think after this I scared all right, that's fair.

SPEAKER_03 2:43

I've never seen this movie before, and I hope I'm not the only one. Um, but I do clean out my closet twice a year and get rid of clothes that don't spark joy, and I call that the purge.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Paris, you are gonna be the only one. I can't believe we haven't seen this.

SPEAKER_03 2:59

I honestly don't know how I didn't see it.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Like it's an American classic.

SPEAKER_03 3:04

I saw trailers for it. I don't know why I didn't go.

SPEAKER_05 3:06

If Ryan has seen it, then you are definitely the only one who hasn't seen it.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Mac, have you seen it? I have seen The Purge, and I've seen all the purge movies and the TV show. Oh damn.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

I'm so happy you're worse than me, Paris. It makes me feel so much better.

SPEAKER_05 3:19

It's like Paris and Ryan are just duking it out for uh who has seen any big movies. I definitely saw this back around the time that it came out. And I will say that this is a movie that stuck with me. This kind of like Final Destination, right? Spawned this franchise. And Final Destination, I think you can look at it as like being horror, but it's also kind of action. It's also kind of like a guilty pleasure kind of franchise. This the franchise kind of takes a turn, and while it definitely remains in horror, it's it's very like action-oriented. So it's kind of like uh, you know, a movie that we're gonna be reviewing next week, folks, with Alien and looking at the turn that that franchise takes. This was a really interesting case. I remembered this movie, and it were the first time I was watching it, I felt incredibly tense because it's riddled with so many layers of conflict, and it makes you tense in a way that you may not necessarily feel in the movies that come after it, but how did you guys feel?

SPEAKER_06 4:17

This movie always is one of those movies after I watch it that I'm like thinking inward a lot, and it's like I don't know, it's like there's this movie, um, would you rather? And it's like these people doing things to other people, and like after it, I just like don't feel good. Like it's not that I didn't like the movie, like that movie, but it was just like it just gave me this weird like feeling afterwards. I'm like, I need to watch like a Disney movie, or right now I'm watching Riverdale, so I was like, I need to watch Riverdale.

SPEAKER_03 4:46

You need to purge those feelings.

SPEAKER_06 4:48

Yes, and I feel the same way even watching this like a this is only the site, this will be the second time and the second time too.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Can we get a counter for purge puns for this episode?

SPEAKER_03 4:59

As somebody who'd never seen this movie before, I was very stressed out and anxious for most of it, um, which I found to be irritating. I wanted it to stop.

SPEAKER_05 5:08

Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_03 5:09

Also, this movie takes place two years from now, which is like, can we not?

SPEAKER_06 5:14

After an economic uh downfall, which uh I see coming.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

But to be fair, I think this is one of those movies that set the date not that far into the future, intentionally, as like part of it's part of it. Like you're supposed to watch this this many years later and be like, this is only in two years. Like, I think that was part of their scheme for sure.

SPEAKER_05 5:34

I do think there was no way we could have predicted how things would be because this is three years before a lot of the like there's always been divisiveness in our country, but this is three years prior to the major division, right? And that is even then, you know, four years prior to the conditions that we find ourselves in today. So I will say that while this movie was good in in its time, right? Like it was really well received, it is a very different experience watching this. And I can imagine even watching this for the first time now.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Yeah, it definitely like ages differently depending on when you're watching it. And I think that'll, you know, the way the world works, I think that'll continue to happen. Like you'll continue to receive this differently depending on what's going on in the world. Um, but I definitely felt stress out during this movie. I I will say I there's definitely a different way you receive this when you've seen it before. Um there's a lot of the like shock, the shocking parts of the story are obviously not there because you couldn't you know what's going on. This is not a movie that's like um really intense storylines that you'll forget about or something like that. Like I I've seen this maybe one whole time, pretty close to when it came out, and I rewatched it and pretty much remembered every single thing that was happening. And um, so it it did lose a little bit of it for the re in the rewatch value, but there's still a lot of tension in this movie.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Totally agreed. There's there's so much tension. I've I've seen this one and and of course all the other perch uh properties, but still like going through it, I always feel this link to the concern I have when going to bed. I don't know if you all feel the same way, but even when I'm super tired, the second I lay in bed, if there's like a like a any kind of creak or noise in the house, I'm like ready to to pounce on some like home invader. And so in any kind of these like home invasion movies, I it just it's more worrisome. I feel like it just brings back those memories every single night of you know, who is that? Is somebody down there? Did we lock the door? Somebody go down, check all the lights, lock everything again. That's me like every single day. So yeah, this this movie will will stress you out just a little bit along the way.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

See, the more I check for like locked doors and windows and stuff like that, the more freaked out I get. So if I hear something, I'm just like staying in bed, never moving, yeah, locking the door.

SPEAKER_06 7:52

I lock the door if I'm home alone, like uh lock the bedroom door.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Oh, really? Yeah, I get that interesting approach. Yeah, because I'm like, well, if I can hear it rattle. Do you ever like if you like think something's outside, like look out the window?

SPEAKER_06 8:05

Chris knows me well enough. Oh, I don't look out of the window, but sh she knows me well enough. I run my ass up by the steps and they gotta turn oh you guys know, you gotta turn the light off for me. It ain't like that anymore. I live with a man. My boyfriend.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

He is a man. Yeah. The uh looking out the window into darkness and just waiting for someone to look back at you. I'd I can never I I will as soon as I hear a noise, I'm like, well, just stay right here and never move. Yeah, we never look out the window, especially that one behind you.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Pretty pretty recently, I'd say within the last couple months, um someone that I don't know personally, but that is is a friend of someone else I know. I'm gonna keep it ambiguous on purpose, uh, had a had a tenant living in their house, and there was some strangest that occurred. And the tenant basically had to leave. Um, and this person was just like, I'm scared that they're actually gonna come back in because they didn't leave on good terms. So I'm scared that they're gonna come back in, and I don't even know when it's gonna be. It could be at any point in the night.

SPEAKER_03 9:07

Or they never left and they're living in the walls.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Right.

SPEAKER_05 9:10

Thought twist Mac was the tenant. No, definitely not, definitely not.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Squatters, right? So we got kind of called over to help them feel more secure. And when you leave at 3 a.m. to go to someone else's super old, noisy house. Oh my goodness. Like everything sounds like someone's walking up the stairs.

SPEAKER_06 9:32

I hate old houses, especially when it's windy. Oh, yeah. And the whole yeah, ugh.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Uh just it just puts you on edge. That feeling of someone else being in your house when they shouldn't be there is like the freakiest of feeling. So I'm invasion is like a legitimate fear that I that I have.

SPEAKER_05 9:46

So this is gonna be interesting when we talk about how frightening this movie actually was, if we know it at least helps remind Mac of what the willies may feel like.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

This is this is true. Hey, I I used to live in a pretty crappy part of town when I lived down in Georgia. And you would wake up in the middle of the night and people would be yelling at each other, like in a parking lot, like near the house. And that's freaky enough. Uh, but I woke up one day, opened the door, and our bikes that we had double chained to our landing had been cut and and stolen. And if you've had anything like stolen from you, there is nothing that makes you feel just weirder instantly than knowing that somebody was either in your house or right outside or in your car or whatever it is, because you're like, how vulnerable am I? And I didn't even realize it.

SPEAKER_06 10:28

That is that is very true. I've had my car broken into and they had took everything, so I'm like, they probably knew like what classes I'm in, and all this sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_05 10:37

Yeah, it's it's freaky. So crazy when you think about that, right? And that level of crime that occurs on a regular basis, and then put that in the lens of like, okay, what if all that happened in one night and you just had to be on alert for 12 hours and that was it? I think one of the things that surprised me most, right, when looking back on this movie, you know, the feeling of tension that I felt then is equivalent to what I felt now, except I was able to pick up a lot more on the nuance of dialogue and looking at the the arcs that a lot of these characters go through and how you may be surprised by some characters' motivations, but really the seeds were kind of there all along. I found that incredibly surprising and really surprising when you look at just like the class divides and the racial divides that were present in this movie that they've always been there in plain sight, but they didn't feel quite as strongly in 2013 as they do now. What surprised you guys?

SPEAKER_03 11:31

I was surprised actually by the home invasion angle. I wasn't expecting it to be like that kind of story because from what I like knew of the purge, I guess from like trailers and stuff, I was thinking more like the anarchy angle. I was thinking there'd be like looting and rioting. Um, I thought there would also be like multiple interlacing storylines instead of like one cohesive narrative. So I was really surprised because when I first thought about it, I was like, okay, if the purge were to happen, I would like bunker inside my house. Like that would be how you survive the purge. And they were like, oh, we already thought about that, and that's actually the movie. And I was like, oh, okay, let's swatch.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Okay, I would say there are some interlacing storylines, but they do all occur based around one main characters, character group, something like that. I was really surprised at how much I remembered about this movie, and maybe that's a silly answer, but like I've I've talked about this before. I don't re-watch movies, and to be honest, I don't like I don't like catalog things that I've seen in movies in my brain, right? Like I got a limited amount of brain space, so I usually just like purge it all out. Three. So it's not something that I normally like. Normally I rewatch a movie and I'm like, it's basically the first time I've ever seen this. And this, I remembered every single thing that happened. And the different relationships that happen in this movie, I think, are I'm not trying to say that they're the most incredible relationships I've ever seen built in a movie, but these things work together really well. And you start to feel the same way as you're watching the movie as some people in the movie feel, and then they speak on it. And it's really cool because like I always talk during movies, so I start talking about this feeling, and then the movie started talking about it. And um, I'll expound upon that more. But it was it was a really interesting way that these relationships are built together.

SPEAKER_03 13:22

I think I had that same moment, Ryan, so I can't wait to talk about it after the break.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Hopefully, we all did, or I have questions for your psychiatrists.

SPEAKER_06 13:29

I was surprised that I have not watched this or like watched any of the movies in this franchise more. Um, I've only seen this when it recently, I mean, uh recently after when it came out, like on video on demand or whatever. I'm sorry, video on demand stopped in 2001. Whatever I combined to you, direct TV, whatever it was, like I bought the movie on the TV is what I did. I don't know how. Pay-per-view. Pay-per-view. Yeah. So they definitely don't have pay-per-view. What a time. What a time to be alive. So from seeing this when it came out on TV versus like the movie theaters, um, and like knowing what it's about and like seeing all the subsequent like movies, but like never re-watching this one. And I'm like a believer if we've if I've seen like or pick it up like in the middle of a series, like I'm like, oh, this is on TV. I'm like, man, this is gonna make me watch it from the beginning again with the Harry Potters, with the nightmare in Elm Street, with the Halloween. Like, I'm always like that, but this has never made me do that, which is kind of interesting. So I was surprised that I have only seen this. This will be the second time.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Yeah, I feel like this is one of those movies where if you have a holiday that you tend to re-watch movies on, like you know, coming up towards Thanksgiving and Christmas, you're gonna watch like Harry Potter stuff. This needs to be your fourth of July movie. Agree. So rewatch all the purge movies on the 4th of July.

SPEAKER_03 14:52

Is that when it takes place? Like, do they ever say like what date the purge is?

SPEAKER_05 14:55

It's yeah, it takes place in March. We just passed it.

SPEAKER_03 14:58

Uh, so it's over? Damn. It is, yeah. Okay, we survived you guys.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Can I tell you how out of touch with life I am at towards the end when they say it's they say it's March 23rd, the next day, basically. And I go, Oh, I bet we're releasing this on March 23rd. It's May. And I was like, it took me a whole set of thoughts to be like, oh yeah, that's probably not happening.

SPEAKER_05 15:21

But we did get locked down around Purge Day. So there you go.

SPEAKER_03 15:26

Spooky.

SPEAKER_05 15:27

Technically, we're just frozen in time.

SPEAKER_03 15:29

It sure feels that way.

SPEAKER_05 15:30

Technically, I thought this was a summer movie. It does seem like it. No coats in this movie. This isn't March. No, it's like all centered around the idea of spring cleaning. Classic, classic Hollywood there.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Oh my gosh. This this this movie was I I don't know how I got sucked in to watching every single purge property there there possibly could be.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

I'm actually surprised when you said you've watched everything, including the TV show.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Everything. I don't know how it happened. But going back and re-watching this, it's it's so weird because I'm like, this is not the thing that I'm normally into at all. And it kind of surprised me re-watching it. Um, that it's completely not up my alley, but I'm still into it and still glad that I've seen all of them. Uh, Paris, a lot of the things that you were expecting, you're gonna see in some of the sequels. That's if I watch those sequels, Matt. If you watch those. Oh, you totally should. You you should know. It's it's worth a watch to kind of you know, kind of see how how it changes throughout the years and how more specific it gets to modern day culture. I mean, the one that came out in 2018 is very much on the nose when it comes to like the political statement of the movie. Because by 2018, we obviously have experienced, you know, the modern day political climate. Back in 2013, it was it was just forecasting what was coming.

SPEAKER_03 16:47

Honestly, I believe that because I feel like there's so much you can do with this premise, and they made an entire movie out of just a very small slice of this world that they're living in.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Yeah, I agree. And I I I don't really like when they are like on the nose about it. Like, and I I think I kind of feel that way about most movies. Like, I don't I don't want you to be intentionally making this movie so political and everything. I like this one because it's kind of before a lot of the chaos that we've seen now. Not all of it, but a lot of it. And so it doesn't feel like, hey, we're gonna intentionally play on all these anxieties that you have. Whereas I feel like some of the sequels that have come are like pretty obvious. They're they're this is what we're trying to do. We're trying to stress you out.

SPEAKER_06 17:30

I have a question do you not like that they play on it because it also makes you feel anxious? No, it really doesn't.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

So I'm I'm not the kind of person. So there's two types of people that watch this movie, right? There are this could happen tomorrow, people. Me, same, and and every other person that I know. And then there's me, and I'm just like, if we're being realistic, is this gonna happen? And probably I'm wrong. Probably it will, God only knows. But it's I'm on the other end of the spectrum. So when they play on the like intentional political stuff, it just throws me off because I'm just like, like, like let us let us use our imagination for that part, you know?

SPEAKER_00 18:05

Like they're trying too hard. I don't think the political statement is that this is going to happen.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

No, I know.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Yeah, I think the the statement is that this is happening in a in a different way.

SPEAKER_06 18:13

Precisely. Right. People are evil.

SPEAKER_03 18:15

Ryan, I haven't seen them, obviously, but it does it have the same energy as the American Horror Story season that was like about the election year.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

Oh no. Worst one. I was gonna say, I haven't seen it, so I'm not sure. I've only seen three episodes of American Horror Story.

SPEAKER_03 18:29

It was like very deliberately, like on the nose, and like, we're being topical, but like so much so that they like shoved it down your throat and you were like, but I don't care. And I'm only two episodes in.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

Yeah, I don't think so. But I just don't like I don't like anything that doesn't let me come like I want to make the relationship between what you're doing and then real life. I don't want you to tell me this is the connection. You know what I mean? Am I being unreasonable? Maybe.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

No, I feel that. That being said, I mean, the the struggle that this movie presents goes back like hundreds and hundreds of years. So it's it's not a new thing. I mean agreed.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Then that's why that's what I'm saying about this one versus the later ones.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Right. I mean, the later ones, like you can definitely feel a direct like relation to the Trump era. But like there's there's no there's no way around it. But I think the whole the whole series of movies is is really you know pulling on this battle that that has been waging for as long as there's been money about the rich versus the poor.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Too bad we're not playing bingo because we got political adjacent with men.

SPEAKER_05 19:34

So I think that very subject is what makes this movie frightening for me. And it's not in the sense that Michael Myers can be perceived as frightening, right? It's not in the sense of trying to do Busan is frightening, but it's more so this sensation that simmers beneath the surface for so many people. And only recently, in the last few years, have we really seen some of those feelings just kind of come right out there and just get really in your face about stuff. But there's a particular quote, and it's in the very first moments of this film, right? This movie is is it's very full of context in the first opening moments after you get past the security footage, right? You get a really solid taste of what this world is like. And this person on this interview on the radio says the poor can't afford to protect themselves, they're the real victims tonight. That is what's terrifying. It's that all that's separating us from total catastrophe is someone's lack of willing, like someone lacking the willingness to aid those who have not. And that's what this movie really plays on.

SPEAKER_06 20:37

Ugh. Yeah, and you definitely see it in some certain situations, and it's like, you know, how do these people get these weapons? And you know, like, yeah, and I will tell you, these aren't my favorite movies, they're really hard to watch, in my opinion. It's really hard to see like unfortunate victims who can't help themselves in other movies, and they're not usually my favorite horror movies or thrillers or any sort of movie.

SPEAKER_03 20:58

So for me, I was scared, and that's because I'm not a big fan of people as it is, and in this movie, the antagonists were people and just regular people, just out for blood and coming into my house where I have my nice things. Uh, so I was very scared during this movie, and then you know, had to lock the doors and didn't sleep that well at first, and finally I got over it and went to bed, but I was just like, ugh, hell is other people sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

Mm-hmm. I think for me, I have a really hard time with this movie to remember how I felt initially. Like I said, I'm kind of like uh optimist to my detriment. So I don't get all like, oh snap, this could happen tomorrow. Like, I don't I don't get that in this movie. So it doesn't scare me in that way. Like I I can watch it and appreciate it and just be like, yeah, I hope we're never at this point because that would be insane. And I'm completely separated from it. So that part doesn't scare me. With that being said, there's a few jump scares that didn't get me this time only because I remembered them kindly. Coming and I know they got me the first time. So there is there's definitely some fear in this movie. And it depends on who you are, if it's gonna hit you psychologically or if it's gonna be jump scares. There's both. And and maybe if you're a a great listener here, you get you get scared by both parts.

SPEAKER_06 22:16

On my behalf, I don't think this is really gonna happen tomorrow. Like, I'm not like, oh my gosh, the uh president's gonna say, everyone kill each other and our problems will go away. So will Corona.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Uh I also didn't think he would say shoot bleach into your veins, but he did. And so there's always some realistic actually, probably.

SPEAKER_06 22:34

But aside from that, I think to me it's the more psychological. I think it's it's scary that people would act this sort of way towards other people. Um also, this is probably why I scared the guys watching it with, because we were talking about, okay, like, hey, if there was a purge, like what would you do? Would you be the person that would be inside? Would you be the person that's outside? And I totally said the wrong thing. I literally said I would try to stay as safe as I could, but there's two people I'd kill.

SPEAKER_05 23:07

This doesn't surprise me about Alexis.

SPEAKER_03 23:09

Name names.

SPEAKER_06 23:10

Be true to who you are, Alexis. We don't judge here.

SPEAKER_03 23:13

Well, actually, you did allude to them in the teeth episode, so this isn't new.

SPEAKER_06 23:16

Yes. Okay, so this is not new. This is how I feel about Some X's, that I would actually go out of my comfort zone. Clearly, I'm still not over it. Uh yeah, it's just it's just scary to see how other people in this movie treat other people. And some of the words they use, it's just like to me, it's just like uneasy and not necessarily scary, but it's just like, oh, it just makes me cringe. And it just like it honestly hurts my feelings watching this sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

I think the the scariest part about the whole premise is that the people that we're watching in the movie that seem like complete caricatures, they're realistic people, like their opinions and the uh about other other human beings, like those are pulled from actual human beings that are out right now walking around with flags of nations that we've already beaten, to say the least. But you know, there's people that like legitimately look down upon everyone aside from themselves, and it's all about me, it's all about this huge like ego thing. And and I I think the idea with it is the only way to to survive as a species is you know changing that to a focus on we. And that's the scariest part, is that legitimately so many people can't do that. And and so many people in this country legitimately think it's like their American like duty to be the violent people in this movie, that they should help like cleanse the earth of anyone that is not them.

SPEAKER_05 24:38

And let's look back in history at other people who tried to cleanse the earth of people that weren't them.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

Oh yeah, and they lost.

SPEAKER_03 24:44

So they lost. I love what you're saying, Mac, about just like the need to change that mentality. Because while I just said that hell is other people, I've also considered that like maybe hell is just the idea that like people are other than us, and just like hell is the mindset that we're not all in this together.

SPEAKER_05 25:01

Deep cuts of Paris.

SPEAKER_00 25:04

I love that I like a really classical um ideation of hell is is complete solitude and aloneness. So if you go for like a more Christian thought, it would be the complete like uh isolation from God, right? And so that's the idea is like like true hell would be completely being cut off from everything that is good. Which is like right now, we're close, right?

SPEAKER_06 25:24

All the bars, the beach, except without your boyfriend, with it without your good snacks. You're right.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

I do have food and love and but other people uh other people and and and other forms of goodness, that's you know, that's proper heaven right there, you know. So get on those Zoom calls, people. But uh just I mean, it it is crazy to think that like sometimes like people really piss us off, and we're just like, I just want to be away from them. But then when you're truly away from them, all you crave is like social interaction. Maybe not a lot of it, maybe like that little bit. But yeah, I mean, I like it. I like the um was it the term Ubuntu, the name of a Linux distribution. But yeah, Ubuntu, I am because we are getting getting super deep cuts here. But that's but that's like what people in this movie are are just like completely missing out on. Yeah. Is is the idea that we only are great if we are great, all of us, taking care of each other, that kind of thing. And in this movie, it's like we are great if we purge and get rid of people we just like decide are not good enough.

SPEAKER_06 26:26

Or we like get out our aggression. Like, dude, go to a counselor.

SPEAKER_03 26:29

Yeah, therapy. What happened to that?

SPEAKER_05 26:31

Here's what I want to know. I just want to know why no one's fucking purge crime has been hacking into Experian and Transunion and changing everybody's Reddit scores.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

Like everything will be fine. Oh, yeah. I would like to know. I have faith that if this happened, that would be there's a hack deep there. Yeah, for sure. There are people that do fun things like that all the time.

SPEAKER_05 26:52

My purge crimes don't involve murder, it just involves acquiring money and helping others acquire money. Like, that's it. Like, that's all I want to do.

SPEAKER_03 27:00

Sticking it to the man.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

Mine is acquiring food.

SPEAKER_06 27:05

She's looting, she's looting, I'm murdering. What's everyone doing? What are you doing, Mac? He's Mac staying at home reading a book.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

Uh totally staying at home. Definitely not reading a book. Um, if it if there were an actual per tonight, I would be so on edge I wouldn't be able to do anything.

SPEAKER_04 27:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:21

Which would suck because it would be, you know, normally I would just want to play video games, but there's no pub G when you're worried about actual people showing up with actual PUBG. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

Okay, here's my thing about this movie. And and if I'm wrong, or if I'm just like, I don't know, grabbing a straw, if I just need to get involved in the movie and just like let it go, then I will. But like the concept of a these people that you know being just literally insane, like your neighbors and stuff. And I get it, that's kind of the whole point of the movie is that we all have like these demons inside and stuff. And my other thing is people are just gonna be dead tomorrow. Like, you're just gonna go to work once a year, and like some people are just gonna be dead, and it's cool. And like the whole time in this movie, the house is just being destroyed. And I just think about like every year they spend how much money fixing their house? Consequences. I know, yeah. It's just like all these things. Like, are y'all telling me that we're just gonna go to work tomorrow? And since it was the purge, just pretend like it's cool that like my secretary ain't here and like my neighbor killed him.

SPEAKER_05 28:25

But then consider the economic impact of that, right? That's guaranteeing local businesses, right? That's probably bolstering purge insurance.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

Well, yeah, that's what I was saying about security. I was like, if this did become a real thing, because obviously I had to have that conversation because I'm on the this would never be real side. Um, it's all I I feel like I would just blame it on security companies because they'd be out here getting this money, you know? There you go. But then also, like nobody sleeps that night, right? So we all go to work tomorrow, tired. Like, it just all seems a little out of touch, you know?

SPEAKER_05 28:56

But hey, we don't know. Maybe, maybe it's like the day after uh Super Bowl and a lot of people just call out anyway. Probably not wrong.

SPEAKER_03 29:03

Honestly, Ryan, a lot of these logistical questions were running through my mind as well and just like added to the stress and anxiety of it all.

SPEAKER_01 29:09

I knew it.

SPEAKER_03 29:09

I was like, how do you plan for something like this? How do you deal with the aftermath? How do you clean up something like this? It's too much.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

I was like, Do they know how much windows cost? They're very expensive to have her placed.

SPEAKER_06 29:19

I think though to me, it was the whole, which kind of like this how I felt about the ending a little bit. It was just kind of like abrupt, which I think would be like, okay, it's 7 a.m. Bye, bitches. See, I was gonna kill you last night, but I'm gonna wait till next year. Like, like how it's just gonna be cool.

SPEAKER_03 29:35

Are we still on for brunch this weekend?

SPEAKER_01 29:37

Yeah. You're supposed to, I'm supposed to believe that people aren't ever gonna act on these things outside. And like there's not enough of a police force to stop this at 7 a.m. You know, if we're being realistic, there's just no way. Because you would have to be everywhere. And who's gonna tell me?

SPEAKER_06 29:51

I'm like, bitch, I killed you at 6.59. Fuck yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 29:55

Right. What about fires? So there's no emergency services all night long.

SPEAKER_01 29:59

Yeah, the whole place gets burned down, the whole country.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

There's so many fires like every day, all day long. So for 12 hours, if there's no firefighters, it's done for. Yeah, it's over.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

The logistics here, just can't do it. It's okay.

SPEAKER_05 30:13

We probably know slightly better than that.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

Like, all right, we're gonna purge, we're not gonna purge too hard, guys. I think it's like my uh internal goal to just like ruin every movie by questioning its logistics. Don't be that person, please.

SPEAKER_06 30:26

We already had one of those.

SPEAKER_05 30:28

All these questions lend themselves to a very interesting point, right? We look at the depiction of this reality and we look at how many things had to happen uh for all the events in this movie to take place. This is not the first dystopian movie in existence, but do you still think it was original?

SPEAKER_03 30:47

Totes McGotes. This is a very specific dystopia. It is a very some might say plausible dystopia. Um, and to my knowledge, there hasn't been anything like this specific or brutal made into a horror movie. And it was like a really interesting idea to make this, I guess, a whole franchise.

SPEAKER_06 31:07

Yeah, I've seen something very similar, The Invitation on Netflix. Yeah, that was a good movie. Yeah, it's a really good movie. Not really similar, but same, same, but different. But honestly, yeah, I I completely agree. This is a totally something plausible, not really, but I don't know. Something some creepy person had in their head that they were like, let's put this out on paper. This would be awesome to scare Americans with.

SPEAKER_01 31:32

I feel like it's realistic to an extremist, like the whatever not saying like one side or the other, just in a survivalist of that too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But people that just take things like very, you know, extreme. But I I mean, I think it'd be hard to argue that this isn't a unique premise. I think it 100% is.

SPEAKER_00 31:51

Totally. Like there's so many, you know, post-apocalyptic movies and dystopian, you know, movies and alternate histories and alternate dimension kind of movies where like one subtle thing has changed and craziness happens. But I don't think there's there's something that really shows like this mirror world of our of all of our like current fears, like economically and and socially and culturally, um, quite the same way that this movie does. Now it's it's obviously it's not super intricate and it's not like incredibly realistic. Like this could could never happen. But the violence that's shown and the the attitudes of a lot of the people in this movie 100% realistic and currently happening. So true. Yeah, but I don't I don't I don't think we've seen this this formula in another in another movie. And if if we have, I'd love to watch it. Hit us up. Let me know what I missed out on. But I I feel like that's probably why I continue to watch the movies as they come out. Sometimes in theater, and you know, sometimes when the TV show comes out, I binge it all in one go. But uh because there's there's nothing exactly like it.

SPEAKER_03 32:59

Yeah, like the premise is original, but the energy is like spookily familiar.

SPEAKER_01 33:04

Mac, is the show worth watching?

SPEAKER_00 33:06

So if you've seen all of the movies and you want a little bit more, I think it's I think it's worth watching. It's it's you know, it's a TV show, so it's not gonna hit up to the same level of of how extreme the movies are, but I think those stories about like people and the the crises that they get into, it's it's worth watching.

SPEAKER_06 33:28

So it doesn't follow like one person per se.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

There it there are several people that it follows. Okay. And it actually does a good job of kind of interweaving uh some stories. Um and resolution happens, I think, at the end of the second season. Um it's been it's been a couple months since I since I wrapped it up, but it was I would say it was definitely worth a watch. The other movies are also um worth like kind of seeing how the story goes. Yeah, but is Lena Haydy in them? She is she's not, but you can watch Game of Thrones.

SPEAKER_05 33:58

Yeah, there you go. I've never seen Game of Thrones, but she is my lady from one of the best lesbian movies I've ever seen. What is it?

SPEAKER_03 34:08

I need to see it.

SPEAKER_05 34:08

Imagine me and you. It's Darling, uh, the girl from Coyote Ugly is in there. It's just wonderful. Oh Piper? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 34:16

Can I tell you? Uh, this is I'm so ashamed of this. I spent the entire movie. So I I turn this movie on and I'm like, dude, who is this chick? She's wearing a wig. Who is she? It's a bad wig.

SPEAKER_03 34:28

It was a bad wig.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

I'm like, man, she's wearing a wig. Who is this? Who is this? And then so I finally convinced myself that actually it was just that she looked like someone. So then I start looking up who the actress is, and then I start looking up look-alikes, and I'm like, oh my God, yeah, yeah, yeah. You'd even look at what she was in. I know, I know, I know. So I so her like look-alike on like, you know, whatever Google brought up is Kira Knightley. And I was like, yeah, yeah, she looks just like Kira Knightley because she looks so different in this movie than in Game of Thrones. So as I was watching it, I didn't relate the two. I was just like, oh, she looks like someone that I'm recognizing. And then literally, almost like the very last scene, I was like, okay, it's killing me. I pulled it up again and I was like, oh my God, it's Game of Thrones. I'm an idiot. I was so ashamed, so ashamed.

SPEAKER_05 35:13

So glad we went on this journey with you.

SPEAKER_03 35:14

Ryan, when you saw her sipping wine out of an oversized glass and looking disdainfully at a family that she barely cares for, it should have been a dead giveaway.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

Okay, actually, the moment for me was when she there's a point where she's dragged and she dragged with the same Game of Thrones energy, and I was like, oh, I know who this is. It's like the exact same energy. She's she only has one character. There's just a different accent.

SPEAKER_05 35:39

Watch Imagine Me and You. Very different character.

SPEAKER_03 35:42

I'm so actually gonna watch that.

SPEAKER_05 35:44

Not that I've seen Game of You Game of Thrones. We've we've spoken a lot about this movie, and there's so much that we have to unpack because we have to get into some very specific details with the politics of the purge, with the economics of the purge, and just with all of the interpersonal interaction, right? So let's go ahead and start getting into our ratings. But before we actually score it, Alexis, how many people died in this movie?

SPEAKER_06 36:07

In this entire movie, from beginning to end, we have 47 deaths. Which I will tell you is definitely probably our top our number one death movie.

SPEAKER_05 36:19

Our number one without being a zombie movie.

SPEAKER_06 36:22

Without being yeah, because that's like infinite deaths.

SPEAKER_03 36:25

I mean, it's kind of a zombie movie.

SPEAKER_01 36:27

All right, and Ryan, how many animals were victims to the purge? So fortunately, no animals are part of the purge. Um, I don't think that I can say this for the later series, but in this one we were good. No uh, no cute pups that we had to lose or anything like that.

SPEAKER_05 36:44

Nice. I'm glad we can all agree that even when a time of murder, the dogs are off limit. Which is exactly what's wrong with Americans. All right, guys, now let's go ahead and get into the scoring. The purge from 2013. A world in which for one day you can release the beast. Was it a hack or was it a slash?

SPEAKER_06 37:00

This whole franchise, I've seen them all. To me, they get better. They're a little bit more in-depth on characters and like what's going on in society and um a little bit more dialect, and you get a lot more kills and a little bit more brutality, which I think um was lacking in this one. Um, but I really do think it like set a good precedent for like this idea, this what's gonna go on through the rest of these movies, and it it and it it it's original. So although it might not be my favorite out of the franchise, I definitely think it's worth a watch, and I would definitely give this a slash.

SPEAKER_03 37:34

I'll go. Nobody hate me, you guys, but I hated this movie very much. Um, I was stressed out, I was anxious, I wanted it to be over. Um, I gagged, I wrote down what the fuck a few times. Um, and for that it actually gets a slash because it made me feel way too many things, and it was emotionally exhausting. And I was scared. Um, I was thinking, it was psychological, it was original. I was surprised like by several different plot points throughout it. Um, so like overall, I have to. I can't, I can't hack this movie. It's a slash.

SPEAKER_05 38:10

So glad you believe that hating a movie just means it's effective. It's good, it's good, it's a special kind of hate.

SPEAKER_03 38:15

It can be. In this case, it was.

SPEAKER_01 38:17

So true. I was literally about to jump in and be like, and so what does that mean? It means you loved it. For me, when I think about the purge, like, so you know, I know that we're doing the purge this week. I'm I've been thinking about it, you know. I don't really feel like watching the purge. One, I don't want that realistic, that little ounce of realism. I don't want it in my life right now, right? I'm trying to chill. And then two, um, I have this like connotation with the purge, and I don't know exactly where it comes from, but I I kind of think of it as this like silly concept in these movies that don't have a lot of substance. And I I'm I I think that that more so has to do with like the people that have dressed up like as the purge girls and stuff for Halloween, and like it's just become this other thing aside from this movie. And so I found myself like really dreading watching it, and then when we put it on, I was like, Oh, this is not a bad movie, and it's not like and those girls probably never watched it, why I absolutely true. Yeah, basically, every girl for Halloween is like, I don't have a costume, let me put blood on a white dress, and it's the perch. So yeah, I I just don't know where this connotation is from, but I definitely have it, and I I imagine I'm probably not the only one. So I think of it as this like movie, it's not, you know, in my favorite era of horror movies. It's it's later than a lot of kind of terrible horror movies, but I'm not like, oh, 2013, that was a great year for horror. Um with that being said, I I enjoy this movie, and I think it it is gonna be a very important part of horror moving forward. Um, if it, you know, it already has been, but I think it'll continue to be like a vital thread in what horror is, especially in the 2000s. It's a slash. I I think this movie is definitely worth watching. If you haven't seen it, I'm surprised. I feel like almost everyone has seen this movie at this point, and I I know that uh it's kind of hypocritical for me to say that. But it's it's really good and it is really worth watching. And if you're super anxious about everything going on in the world, maybe don't watch it right now. Maybe watch it in a couple months, and that's totally okay. There's nothing wrong with that because I feel that too. I can't, I don't, I don't need to add to my anxiety. But in a couple months, you should watch it. It's great.

SPEAKER_03 40:29

Just to add to your point, I feel like what you're getting at is like you can like a movie, but then the fan base of the movie is like uh and almost taints your your feeling of the piece itself.

SPEAKER_01 40:40

I think you're right.

SPEAKER_00 40:41

Yeah, so going, I mean, going with the fans of the movie who like agree with the idea of the purge, they completely missed out. It's like the movie just went straight over their head because the movie is not trying to get you think that this is a good idea. Like if you think this is cool or fun or a great idea, or you want this, you've missed out on everything.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

Maybe that's the thing that I don't like.

SPEAKER_06 41:02

Why would they dress up as something so bad? Yeah, kind of. Like it's not cute, it's not a good look. You shouldn't be a purge girl. I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_00 41:10

Agreed.

SPEAKER_06 41:10

I shouldn't be ghost face killer either, but people do that. But it's fun.

SPEAKER_00 41:16

So I I mean, there is obviously some sort of statement politically coming from the movie, but don't I mean don't watch it expecting the deepest movie on earth. Um, I I wouldn't classify this as like, you know, super super smart, super cerebral, or anything like that. You know, it's it for me, it's kind of along the lines of Fast and Furious for for fans of action movies or like The Expendables or something like that. Um it's not super deep, it's not completely shallow, but it is entertaining and it is thought-provoking, and it is effective. You all had some sort of effect happen to you when you watched this movie, whether that was good or bad. You know, whether you were super stressed out and and worried about humanity. It's an entertaining movie, it's thought provoking uh in a way, and overall I think it's worth a watch. So I'm gonna give it a slash.

SPEAKER_05 42:04

So this is a particularly interesting movie. And Ryan, you're talking about how you had this stigma about the purge without it being actually connected to this movie, but not realizing it, right? For me, that's how I feel about Final Destination. I remember Final Destination being this incredible first movie, and the rest of the movies were enjoyable, but they were kind of silly. But then when I watch them again, I'm like, oh wait, no, these are actually really cool in a very specific way. I would say that this movie in particular, you know, there are a lot of folks who don't like the original, and they feel like the the sequels do a better job. And I actually disagree. This movie is 100% a slashery because it's rich with so much, with so much tension, with so much storytelling, and it plants the seed of what's to come in the later movies, but I don't think the later movies ever scratch the same depth that this one does, in my opinion. When I look at this movie, uh it's just a reminder that there are monsters who walk among us every day, and there are people who, if it weren't for these like forced smiles and polite society, they'd probably murder you if it can it convenienced them in some kind of way. And I think that's what's terrifying about this movie. And it's a very specific type of horror that it's not the boogeyman coming to get you, it's your next door neighbor, or it's some random person in town who you just happen to come across one night when all bets are off. So it's a slash for me. Uh I think this movie ages well. I think it ages differently, it hits differently in 2020. Now, this movie is available for rent, so go check it out. Join us in the second half because the purge is just under universal slash, so you know we got some stuff to talk about. We'll see you in a bit.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

To making America prosperous again. We need you to purge. This year, purge your wardrobe of all t-shirts with cheesy jokes, dad jokes, one-liners, puns, and others will all be purged. Those filthy old Ugboots? Purge. Those leggings printed to look like denim? Purge. Any and all cargo shorts must be purged. Together, the new founding fathers of America and you can move this country forward to a more fashionable future.

SPEAKER_05 44:37

Alright, welcome back. The Purge from 2013 has earned a universal slash, and boy, was there a lot of slashing in this movie. Before we get into why we rated this movie the way we did, Alexis, there was some blood, and there was some open wounds with things being pressed into those wounds. Uh, what's up with the gore?

SPEAKER_06 44:53

There will be blood. Um, not what I was expecting. Since I've seen the later franchise, there's a lot more blood in those compared to this one, but I'm thinking of the aim for this movie is like it's more of a thriller and action than it would be horror. Um to me, it was a little bit on the low side. There are a few things um that have gore in it. To me, the most shocking. Um, I know you I usually talk about my favorite death or something like that. You know, two things stood out with me with this movie is the um montage in the beginning where you actually see how freaking violent people are. Um clearly, I know this isn't real, so but I had to take myself out of it. I mean, there's a guy killing a woman, people are beating up people in the streets. It's like all this chaos.

SPEAKER_03 45:41

Yeah, it was tough to watch.

SPEAKER_06 45:43

It really was for me, too. Was it for you guys? Yeah, and it's playing over that uh nice, smooth, classic music. It was it was creepy that with the music with that.

SPEAKER_00 45:52

Yeah, some of those clips I thought were real life clips that they kind of spiced in. Yes. Is that is that the case? Does anyone know? I believe it. I mean, it definitely looks you could tell like some of them were obviously like shot for the film, but there were some that I thought they just like grabbed some. They just like you know, hit Reddit, find some violent clips, and just like spliced them in.

SPEAKER_05 46:08

Shit, that'd be nice to know. I can't even imagine the legal loopholes you had to jump through to make that happen. It would be dope, but probably not.

SPEAKER_06 46:17

Yeah. I was not dope. I mean, but like dope as far as movie making goes.

SPEAKER_03 46:23

I guess.

SPEAKER_06 46:23

Hey, let's show some actual bodies being killed in this movie and to make sure people don't know the difference.

SPEAKER_01 46:29

It's weird for me because I feel like I don't feel attached to it. I feel I I feel detached from those scenes in the movie, so those don't like freak me out as much. But I was watching this with someone and they were totally freaked out by those scenes, those different security films and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 46:46

Yeah, my boyfriend and I were bugging during the opening credits. We were like, this is gonna be rough. Do we have to do this? But we suffered through it.

SPEAKER_06 46:55

Yeah, it's pretty crazy, and it's kind of like a slow burn in terms of deaths, like in the beginning and the vi like the violence, and then it just progressively just amps up. And I think what it is is this movie, I'm so desensitized by the end that I'm just like, oh wow, everyone just killing each other because you're allowed to do it. And I more focus on like, you know, this family getting out. And I'm like, fuck it, if they gotta kill everyone in this house, I don't give a hell they can kill them. So I think I was just like, yeah, kill him, bam, bam, bam, bam.

SPEAKER_01 47:22

Yeah, like but see, that's the exact point of the movie, is to make you feel like it's okay to kill these people or this guy that broke into your house. If someone's trying to kill me, I will kill them back.

SPEAKER_06 47:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:34

Just saying. That's just self-defense.

SPEAKER_06 47:36

I'm not gonna be like, you know what? It's okay you were trying to kill me. I forgive you. I'm gonna kill that. I'm gonna do I'm gonna defend myself. I'm not gonna be one I've watched way too many horror movies to tie up the person who tried to kill me and be the savior and be like, I'm not gonna kill you. It's fine. You just sit here until the police come.

SPEAKER_05 47:53

Well, I mean, at some point you gotta be like good old Harry Truman, and you know, the buck stops here. At some point, you gotta break the cycle.

SPEAKER_01 47:59

It's like they're just sitting there waiting until the clock strikes 7 a.m. And it's just like, does anyone care that the clock strokes 7 a.m.? Are we still gonna try to kill each other? That's where I came in.

SPEAKER_06 48:09

Well, that's where I came in, where I was like, eh, no, no, I'm still, yeah, you know, and I I love how like, you know, you do have to break the silent cycle of violence. So at the end, there is a like the mom is like, you know, I'm not doing this and punches the shit out of this woman. Bro, that was like what slams her head in. It was crazy because I was like, oh, because in normal movies I feel like they're drastic. So they would be like, Oh yeah, that person's dead. Yeah, or they're passed out or like in some sort of comatose or something. I don't know. Agreed. This one she sits back up and her nose is all jacked up, and I was like, I bet she has had so much work on that nose, so fuck it. Like another nose job, another nose job. Yeah, that seems really gory. And then yeah, um, like Chris mentioned, like when they were just like sticking the knife in that wound. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Like I said, to me, the gory thing about this movie was everyone's ability to just be so violent towards people, whether you're on the good or bad side, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 49:10

There's a there's a section when then like the neighbors reveal that they're like not there to help. But I think like one of the neighbors like totally isn't blinking during that scene. Um, because they're just like so freaking nuts.

SPEAKER_06 49:21

The blonde.

SPEAKER_00 49:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 49:23

She was like psycho, and that's like you know, like other people, it's like you they might seem like they're nice, and but ever like even you know, this everyone would think like this movie is like focused on the hot like upper class ver versus the lower class, but then there's these struggles between the upper class, and it ain't the same, I'll tell you, but people are being jealous of like certain things. But on a side note, I could totally see other families who maybe are of upper class being like, Well, that person got this, you know. I need to get a new car. Oh, it's so real. They got an uh extension on their garage, or they got a they got a porch. I need a porch. Like, and then there's that sort of like thing where it's like, okay, then then you want to kill over that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 50:06

I mean, it's like this play on you go from keeping up with the Joneses to slaughtering the Joneses because you paid them to for services rendered and you don't like that anymore.

SPEAKER_03 50:16

Yeah, I thought that was kind of ridiculous. It was like, oh, your husband like did us a favor and like helped protect us from the purge, but also we're mad that you got an addition on your house. Like it's it's very much like a story about like the haves versus the have nots, but it was also like the haves versus the have more's. And I thought that was just like really petty, but I don't know. I'm not rich, so I don't know what money does.

SPEAKER_01 50:37

Have you ever been? I've never lived in a community like that, but have you ever been even adjacent to a community like that? Because that is real. Like that jealousy between people and what they have, and like, oh, so-and-so got a new car, because they don't have enough things consuming their mind, enough stressful things consuming their mind. They have to stress themselves out over silly things like what somebody has and and what is new on the block or something like that. It's so real, so real.

SPEAKER_03 51:05

Yeah, it was definitely a a a poor prioritization on their behalf.

SPEAKER_01 51:10

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:11

Maybe it was just me, but I thought that the the main family in the movie was just like upper middle class. Like they didn't seem that rich.

SPEAKER_06 51:19

It seemed like they were in Phoenix, those houses aren't that expensive, but in Virginia, those houses are 700,000. Yeah, that house looked huge.

SPEAKER_05 51:29

That was kind of the the best death for me in this movie, and what I think was the best depiction of that like struggle between classes that you guys were talking about, was the stranger, the polite stranger, Reese Wakefield. And there's a point where he shoots his friend, he's like, I will not tolerate that. And uh it's just one of the most shocking moments of the movie to me because he's so cold and so calculated. And again, he has this forced smile on his face, as you would expect of any good, well-educated boy in modern day, right? But there's a line that he says, he references him Ethan Hawk's character, like, hey, he was my friend, and you were not my friend. And he says, Send out he or that will be thee. And there's just like something very chilling about the way he kind of wove his dialogue, that performance and that kill and that scene, hands down, favorite of the movie for me. But what about you guys?

SPEAKER_03 52:30

Damn, Chris, that line specifically made me cringe really hard and like was a detriment to that character. Because I thought that the guy was a great actor, but some of the writing, like that, like he or that will be the part, was like, uh no, no, no. We're we're taking it too far. But that's just that was just my perception. I also was afraid I was like, do I look like that man?

SPEAKER_06 52:49

Believe it or not, I was about to say that. No, you guys have the same hair.

SPEAKER_03 52:53

Yeah, I'm like looking at it now, I'm like, ew, is that me?

SPEAKER_06 52:56

Go shave your head.

SPEAKER_03 52:57

I this like garbage man.

SPEAKER_06 52:59

I loved when he died. It was like super satisfying to me. But it came from a character who had been hiding the entire time, which I didn't appreciate. Girl, you but you would be hiding in the purge. I thought you'd relate to that. Oh, hell yeah, I'd be hiding. But if my family is dying downstairs, I know I have enough goodwill in me that I wouldn't just if my brother, my sister, my mom, my dad, my stepdad, my stepmom were down there, all of them I love. But if I heard them struggling downstairs, I would definitely not be like, hold on, I'm gonna make my surprise appearance when I kill a leader at the end.

SPEAKER_01 53:33

But she was also this like a strange teenager, and like her boyfriend shot at her dad and then got killed, and it's just like this whole thing. Um, I will say there were some times where I was just like, Where is she? Like, what is she doing? Like the whole time they're in this house, and they just made it seem like the house was like so big that she could just be like on her own.

SPEAKER_06 53:53

Yeah, they did make the house seem so I didn't feel very claustrophobic in that house. No, not enough.

SPEAKER_00 53:58

I I I don't know about favorites, but I did enjoy the satisfaction of like seeing them take out the stupid boyfriend right up front. Yeah, he was gross. I just just end that storyline because first of all, he's obviously like nuts to like show back up during all this going on, but he's shot first, man. That was so surprising.

SPEAKER_06 54:19

I forgot about that watching this a second time.

SPEAKER_05 54:22

How did he think that was gonna go after Purge Night?

SPEAKER_03 54:25

Right? Like, oh, I'm so glad you killed my dad and we can be together.

SPEAKER_00 54:28

What? Yeah, so it's not like you took it out and he was just like, I'm angry and frustrated and I don't have to deal with any of this, I just want to be with her. Or he didn't like talk to him like an adult because he's like, Hey, I'm you know, I'm 18, I'm an adult. No, he like showed up with a gun and then like shot first at her dad. So I'm so happy that the dad was just like, pop pop, you're done.

SPEAKER_01 54:46

Well, it's because it's the purge and you have that chance, and you don't have to talk to someone, you can just kill them, and it's legal and everything's cool, and that's what's weird about this movie.

SPEAKER_06 54:55

But the re repercussions are what that like this this is where I guess I just don't understand that's the logistics stuff that I was talking about.

SPEAKER_00 55:03

There's this whole cult mentality with people in like America in this in this America, I should say, in the purge, of like that they're doing like what's right and that they should be like commended for it uh after you know after the purge is over. It's true. But like everyone else who'd like obviously isn't bought into that cult mentality is like what the heck is wrong with you?

SPEAKER_06 55:23

Yeah, it does feel like I mean the government in this thing is like we're doing this, this is great, like our like our economy is great, our unemployment's low, like this is something everyone should be doing.

SPEAKER_01 55:33

Yeah, and then like you buy the flowers in agreement and support, and so then like exactly what Mac is saying, like everybody that's in on it is supportive of each other, even if they're like people are dead, that your people are gonna die because of this, and it's cool, and it's patriotic for me.

SPEAKER_03 55:51

I think, and this might be annoying and like stupid of me, but my favorite death was like a non-death when Lena Haydy had the chance to kill the neighbors, and like she, you know, she was like, Why? Why are you guys being such bitches right now? And the one woman, like the blonde one who I did not like from the jump, I wrote down that those cookies were definitely poisoned and that that was a clever way to kill somebody during the purge. Um, but when she's like, Oh, you guys got this, all this money, and you like rubbed it in our faces, and then she's like, You think you're so perfect, and then Lena Haydy gets the chance to kill her, and she's like, No, I'm gonna let you live, because living with what you've done is gonna torture you more than death would be. Because you could tell she was like, just do it, just kill us, like just get it over with. And it was like, No, no, you don't deserve that. You deserve to suffer and live with the consequences and the guilt of what you've done tonight, uh, which I think is a fate worse than death, and thus my favorite kill kind of.

SPEAKER_05 56:43

Killed her soul, really.

SPEAKER_03 56:44

Yeah. If one existed, killed her with kindness and pacifism.

SPEAKER_01 56:49

I'm actually totally on board with that. I love that, and then the end again where the chick is just being annoying, and instead of killing her, she just smashes her head into the table.

SPEAKER_03 56:59

Oh, so satisfying.

SPEAKER_01 57:00

Yeah, both of those scenes were like satisfying. They made the the part of my heart that hopes that people never do stuff like this happy because she, you know, she had the chance, like she lost her husband. There's so many things that happened here. She had the chance to just seek that revenge and she didn't. And I love both of those non-deaths more. So, and aside from that, one of the like visual elements that I really liked in this movie, which I I think is pretty cliche, like I think this is the common favorite visual moment, is when they have the lights shining through and then they bust down the front door. Um, it's so satisfying. I have this like memory, and I'm I'm always thinking, like, oh, there's so much of this movie that happens at like dawn, but that's not true. It's just the lights from the truck coming in. I always remember it as like hopeful. You're like, oh my god, they're almost done. They're almost done. Yeah, but they're not. But they're not, it's just the truck. And so that whole scene where they just they he, you know, he brings it up so many times. He's like, I have reinforcements coming, I have reinforcements coming. And then you see this truck and you're like, What? And they've got all these barricades and everything, and they bust down these doors, and it's such a like satisfying moment, and then the light coming in, and um the dad is trying to get away, and he know he realizes that like his shadow gives away everything that he does. It's such a nice looking scene, and then that continues through the rest of the end of the movie.

SPEAKER_03 58:21

I actually didn't realize the thing with the shadow.

SPEAKER_01 58:23

Yeah, he like stuck his hat out and he's like, Oh snap, my shadow's there.

SPEAKER_06 58:26

Yeah, I really liked the masks. I think because they are just these creepy masks.

SPEAKER_01 58:32

Do you think they were modeled after the the guy that's at the front door? Because I feel like it was his face. Oh like but like more dramatic, but in the mask because he has that smile the whole time, that forced smile.

SPEAKER_06 58:44

Yeah. I I don't know. I like I like that where you're going with that though. Anyway, sorry, go ahead. No, no, no, no. I'm just saying, like, I I just love it because it's like this eerie creepiness that and I think what it has, and it has this like now this sort of pop culture around it where people are wearing these spurge masks. So I think that's why I like it so much that it has like this creepiness is even carrying into like real life as well. Because they take it off, and I still get the same visual effects. Like I see this person that has this smile on his face, and it's great, and maybe like something creepy or like a guy that's like you can tell in his eyes is evil, takes it off. But no, it's just this plain, plain dude underneath there with the same smile, and you're like, Oh my gosh, maybe it was modeled after him, but I get this still the same reflection of like um attitude and like personality in the mask that I do in the person as well, which is so creepy to me.

SPEAKER_01 59:40

So creepy adds to that like cult thing, like we're all wearing the same face, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 59:45

And it goes with his, you know, and I know Chris was Chris. You did you have the uh captions on? Yep, yeah. So he was polite leader. Did you see that? I was like, yeah, you had mentioned that. I was like, that this is great. Polite leader, love it.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:02

I feel like that's a really good point, Alexis, just because I wrote down that he was like the face of the purge, but more so in like the metaphorical sense, like he he was the one kind of preaching the philosophy behind the purge, and he was sort of like the main figurehead of an antagonist. But you're right, like that face that he had was like literally the same face that all the masks that they were wearing. And then I also didn't notice that. So you guys are making me slash this movie harder.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:26

Slash that they definitely had this feeling of like glee or like contentment with what was going on, uh, especially like when the dad's in the pool hall and the and the two were kind of going after him, and the girl with the axe is coming after him. I felt the satisfaction after he took her out with a shotgun. Maybe that makes me bad. I don't know. But no, that was fun. Yeah, it was fun.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:50

Her skipping was ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:51

Yeah, she was just like too gleeful about the whole process.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:55

Even in the way she like swung the axe, was just like, ah, for fun, here we go. Yeah, I got very Manson vibes from this. Like, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:02

Same energy. Yeah, yeah. And I'm I'm I'm glad he at least got one out with that shotgun. That was kind of cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:09

Because he was like, bang, like backed up.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:13

Kaboom, you're down.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:14

Also, as a side note, he did a thing that I'm so pleased anytime anyone in a scary movie does. He killed two people and then he went back and made sure they were dead instead of like standing there and staring at them longingly. He was like, Okay, let's make sure these people are dead. Boom, boom, we're done. Yeah, like let's come back. Like I shot you in the stomach, now let's shoot you in the head.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:32

He does a walk through through an unsecured door, but okay. That's true.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:36

That's true. But it's one of those things where like they have the opportunity to have him like, oh, this is such a sad moment. But instead he was just like, All right, let's just make sure. We're good, we're good.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:46

I never understand in horror movies when they they think the killer's down. Why don't they kick them in the balls?

SPEAKER_06 1:01:52

Or why don't they keep stabbing them or something? Well yeah, just shoot them in the head.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:56

I always think just like a face shot. Well, that would do it, but I mean that's that's one of the ways you can check if somebody's actually down because they can act as as you know.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:05

What if they don't have balls? Question, not everyone has balls, then you can kick them other places.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:09

Killers can be women too. I would never kick a woman ever. I wouldn't kick anyone. If she was a killer, if she was a killer, I'll kick her right in the neck, dude. Like she's coming after me. But they're not gonna be able to hold in a response. Yeah, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:24

You can't, we would like silently. I think the insurance shot is better.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:28

Yeah, it's actually illegal in war though.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:31

So really, yeah. Well, I'm not in war, so we're good.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:34

That's true. But also, if you like had to go to court for the fact you like took out this person in self-defense, and they're like, why did you shoot them in the head when they were already dead?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:42

Uh, to make sure they weren't gonna kill me.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:43

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:44

It's cool. I'm good.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:45

Wait, that's illegal? Well, it it could be it things to become questionable, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:50

I would be like, I shot them five times. I didn't know which one actually hit.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:54

Yeah, I had to be sure.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:55

We'll go legal adjacent here in a few weeks.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:58

I have a question. There's a thing that like just kind of there's not very much about like the the dialogue and the characters in this movie that I don't really like, but the polite leader of the purge that we have at the front door says swine and pig, or maybe just says swine so many times, and like I I get it, I get the concept because that's truly how he sees this person. Um, so I I understand why they did that, but did that like stand out to you guys at all? I mean, to me, it was a little bit overkill, like saying swine and he was being a bit of a ham.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:36

Oh my god. Jeez, yes, that totally made my skin crawl in like a different kind of way, and it was part of it was because uh the character he was referring to was at that point the only black character in the entire movie, which I thought was a very interesting choice. At first I was like, why did we make that choice? And then later I kind of like understood what they were trying to say with it, and it made a little bit more sense, but just like referring to him as a swine and then a pig, and then later saying that he was entitled to kill him. I was like, no, no, no, this has so much racism built into it that I'm like wanting to die right now. I I later understood was the point, but it was very hard to watch.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:13

Yeah, I don't think he was overdone. I think it, if anything, just reaffirmed how shitty this character was and how deeply I felt bad for this other character because this character probably had nothing to do, was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. And if you've seen the latest one, you know, which it it dealt it deals with a lot of like racism, and I I just like it's so like that truly is like actual horror to me. Like something, you know, we watched a perfection, and I just could not stomach stuff like that because it's just like real stuff that is real horror. And I watch Freddie, I love Freddie, Jason, Saul, all of them, jigsaw, because that's just puts me in in a way.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:54

Freddie did the same thing as a perfection, he just you know got spooky within your dreams.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:59

Yes, and technically Saul could happen, but you know, it's happening to bad people. But I think I like when I watch horror to be transported somewhere where it could be out of the realm of racism, sexism, or just our actual yeah. So when he was saying that, I was like, okay, can you please stop saying that it's making me super uncomfortable, it's making me pissed off, and it's making me just so uneasy. And maybe that's why he kept saying it. Yeah, I think it was effective. I think it's effective.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:26

How how creeped out were you though when he kissed Mr. Stanley on the head?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:32

I mean, I think like that fit his character perfectly though. He was literally like thankful, like, thanks for letting me kill you. Like that that means a psychopath.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:44

He was drinking the Kool-Aid.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:45

In some ways, you know, he was very much like and he even said earlier, we don't want to kill our own. So there was some level of rem Yeah, some level of remorse there on his behalf. Like, hey, I wish it hadn't come to this, but here we are. Thanks for sacrificing. Yeah. Like compassion for that person that they killed.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:03

It's crazy. So I think it's crazy that like I don't even know if I'm seeing a lot of character development because there was a lot of killing towards the end, but I definitely see this family that's struggling that they're like, You're getting your ass out there because I want my family to live. And you're just like, I was struggling because I definitely wouldn't do that in a situation. One, my kid would at this would never happen. Because my kid knows I'd whoop their freaking ass if they did some shit like that. But um, but it was just you see this struggle, and it's towards the end that this like I don't know if Ethan Hawke's character necessarily, because it seems like he's still at the end, he's like, Oh fuck, like maybe I'll save this guy. Yeah. Like at the end, where he kind of feels bad. It's an internal struggle. Yeah, when he realizes it doesn't matter because they're all gonna die, he's like, Well, I'll save him now. Yeah. Well, then I'm like, okay, well, you never wanted to save him.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:56

He's like, Well, my wife said so, so I guess I'm gonna save you, man.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:59

Yeah. So it's just this like character development that I like wish I saw more of, but then I realized the situation and I was like, I feel like it was perfect for it.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:08

It's also like the the whole concept is like, if you're in the situation and you're watching this movie, and this is what I was talking about, where I literally said this out loud and then it happened on screen, is if you're in the situation, you know this guy's definitely gonna kill your family if he comes in. So if you don't give this this man that you don't know, the stranger, if you don't give him up, your family is gonna die or have to fight for their life. And there's two women, a child, and a dad. So it's not not a not a great army. So you're you're battling with this feeling of like this person, I have compassion for this person, but also I don't know him and I care about my family a lot. So that's where the the battle comes in, and you have to decide like, do you give this person up, which clearly means killing him? And like there's a lot of uh been watching The Walking Dead a lot, and it's like if you leave somebody on the side of the road, you're not killing him, but you know they're gonna get killed. And it's the same type of thing in this movie. Like, you know, if you put him outside, he's gonna be killed. So then you have to decide, like, do I care more about him or about my family? And that's where it's such a uh struggle, and the wife gives in first, and then I think the dad finally comes through and realizes, like, no, this is not the right thing. And just because it's tonight, I it's not worth sacrificing this man's life because of my family. And I literally said it out loud, like, oh, these people are battling with the the craziness of trying to like he wants to get this man out of his house so he can save his family, but then at the same time he realizes like this is a human. And then as soon as I said it, it happened in the movie. And I I I love that in this.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:38

I had the same moment, Ryan, like when they're struggling to like tape him to that chair, and then like they're like tying this man to a chair and like stabbing him in front of their kids, and Lena Hades just like, wait, what the fuck? Who have we become? And that's what I was thinking the whole time. I was like, You guys are just as bad as the people on the outside.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:53

I think if you were in the pressure of the situation, you would be feeling similarly, like things escalate, and then all of a sudden you're like, what's happening here?

SPEAKER_03 1:09:00

Yeah. I think for Lena Hades' character, when she crossed the line uh when she started like stabbing his wound, which I thought was a bit much because Ethan Hawk was just like, press on his wound, press on his wound, and she was like, Oh, stab it repeatedly? Okay. And I was like, uh didn't say that, but it makes me I was curious. I wanted to ask you guys, like, if you're in that situation, does it not make the most sense to talk to the guy that's in your house, the stranger, let him know what's going on, recruit him to the team so you guys are all on the same side, and then kind of wait it out and even see if they actually can get in the house? Because he was like, Oh yeah, it's not 100% impenetrable. But I was like, Yeah, but like make them get in first before you're just like, Oh yeah, we should probably send this man outside. Like maybe they were just bluffing, you know.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:44

Yeah, I mean, but it's like that's is that a really a whisk risk that you're willing to take? You know what I mean? Like you'd have to have a really solid backup plan for okay, they're probably gonna get in, so what are we gonna do about this when they do get in, right? And even that, like the stranger who's in the house has been hunted this whole time, is met with a little bit of a compassion from a child, but then as soon as he gets in there, some other guy's trying to kill some other guy in the house. Don't blame him for keeping uh for staying hidden for so long. And I think what I love there was like he even says, I don't want to hurt any of you, but I'm not dying tonight. So I think you could have for sure tried to negotiate, like you know, I think you would have had to get him tied up to get through to him because I don't think there was any way he was gonna take a gamble in that in that environment.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:34

Yeah, I mean, they have no idea who he is. He is walking into a house with more rich white people, so nobody trusts each other, I think. And that's uh I think that's realistic.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:44

And that that exchange of fire between you know Mr. Sandlin and and the stupid boyfriend definitely didn't set the right tone, I'm sure. You know, like what if he came in? He was like, Hey guys, is everyone here? You know, everyone's okay, can I help at all? And there was like, yeah, sure, like take a seat, we'll get some dinner going. Now he walked in and they're like pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:02

Like, damn, I'm running. I would too. Fuck. And killing is legal. That's for sure a conversation that might have happened had Henry not done what he did. Uh, teenage boys all the time, ruining everything. Yeah. But I think the the bigger thing that this looks at, right, is how would you even explain this to a child? Like, children have to go to school and learn about the purge, but then you have to look at, you know, obviously Zoe hasn't grown up with the same ideals uh or the same conflict that Charlie has, and Charlie is very headstrong about his adamant feelings against the purge. But realistically, like we it's very hard for us to fathom what we would do in the situation where a stranger's in our house and other strangers are outside negotiating or like trying to negotiate and barter for their someone else's life. But what would you do if you had to face that decision? How do you explain this to your child? How do you explain to your child that you support the purge, but you don't purge, so you don't really support it? What's going on here? Like that is an impossible conversation to have. I totally agree.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:04

Is it me, or were we supposed to think that that child was a psychopath that was gonna kill the family?

SPEAKER_05 1:12:09

Oh, he was nothing but a more intelligent Sid from Toy Story.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:12

Yes, oh, very bad.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:14

The doll looked exactly the same.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:16

Yeah. I was like, oh, he's gonna kill his mom and his sister and his dad. And then he ended up being like the one that was like, I have a heart. And I was like, Oh, then why do you have that haircut?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:26

I did not have that feeling, Paris.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:29

You didn't think he was gonna kill everybody?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:30

No, never.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:32

He's like spooky purge shelter where he was like obsessed with the purge and like hiding in that little closet.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:37

I don't know that he was obsessed with it in a in a creepy way.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:41

Yeah, I think he was just this shy kid, and it was like, oh, look, I'm going to my dad's office, and then he sees all these people being killed. He's like, Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:49

But then he like asks them, he's like, if you guys like put took part in the purge, like would you kill someone? And they were like, Well, yes, we would. And I felt like that was them giving him like the green light, like, oh, okay, then I can kill people tonight. That's exactly what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:01

No, it was definitely like moral conflict there. Like, he he learned about the history of the purge. He doesn't like the purge, he doesn't condone the purge, and then he's like, Well, do you guys even would you really would you go out there and kill people tonight? And then he kind of just sees them through like through their thinly veiled bullshit, honestly. That's why I think he goes to explore that room, is because everything is kind of being layered for him and veiled for him. Like they're kind of keeping him away from seeing some of that stuff, and so he wanted to see it, and he wanted to see the reality of it.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:34

Also, like, why wouldn't you change the password after the first time he lets everybody in?

SPEAKER_06 1:13:38

Also, why does he know the password? I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:41

Like, well, he's hyper intelligent, so he's observed, obviously.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:44

I think one of the best things about this movie is it made me appreciate Ethan Hawk. I love the fact that when the polite leader is thanking him and telling him about how he has cleansed his soul, the reality is that he did cleanse his soul and he didn't cleanse it because he killed people, he cleansed it because he did the right thing and he was no longer a sellout, he was no longer just strictly profiting off the purge while leaving people out there to die. But was there any defining moment like that for you guys with any of these characters in particular?

SPEAKER_00 1:14:17

I actually like at the end where we see the mother tell this this stranger or ask the stranger, like, are you gonna be okay? Because it was like the first moment we we see a little bit of empathy for another human being in the movie, like verbally, you know, out there into the world. Are you gonna be okay? Like there's actually a care.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:34

I kind of wanted like some post scenes where he's now like uh like comes by and hangs out with the family.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:40

Yeah. I said the same thing, Ryan. I was like, invite him to stay. Like Ethan Hawk is dead, we need a man in the house. Like, you want to hang with us?

SPEAKER_00 1:14:48

What about the fact that you know the whole like stabbing thing though?

SPEAKER_03 1:14:51

Yeah, that was awkward.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:52

Is he gonna Is he gonna stick around? Because he'd probably be like, No, I'm good.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:56

I'm gonna go to the He obviously felt good enough to say it's her call, her decision about what to do with these people.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:02

Yeah, it was a complex relationship between those two, but I feel like Lena Haydey really carried the movie as far as like the acting goes, and all of the moments where she had to make those hard choices were defining, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:14

If you do want to see more of him, keep watching the purge movies. Oh.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:19

Dun dun dun.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:21

He is the only actor to I think appear in multiple purge products, uh, more than two.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:28

We've obviously said a lot of good things about this movie, but it it's not without its faults, in my opinion. Specifically, there were a few things that kind of drove me nuts. One, the pacing was kind of rough at a few points. Like at first, the beginning, good pacing, and then it kind of dragged in the middle. And for a movie about like anarchy and murder, there was a lot of footage of just people wandering around the house in the dark with a flashlight and a gun.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:58

Yes, agree, I agree, like low-key found footage type scenes that I was not on board with. I'm not on board with a shaky camera in this.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:07

Like, I'm good for like one or two scenes like that, but it kept like going back to that in a way that I was like, can we like turn the lights on, like flip the circuits? Like, I don't know what you have to do to make this stop, but unless you're gonna turn the corner and accidentally shoot your child in the face and like really gag me, like, let's move on from this.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:23

I totally agree. Yeah, I felt that scene was really long.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:26

Yeah, and when you're in that situation and your family is like, we're all gonna wander the house with guns in the dark and a flashlight, like, can we all just be like shouting, like, hey babe, where are you? Oh, I'm upstairs. Okay, cool. I'm going in the closet. Like that way, you have that line of communication so you don't accidentally shoot one another.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:40

This this kind of setup would immediately make me move to another country, though. So I I just I wouldn't even find myself in it. If this was announced that this was becoming a thing, I'd be like, Well, I can't trust anyone anymore. I'm um I'm moving to the one of the homes of my ancestors somewhere.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:55

Yeah. I promise I wouldn't purge you guys. You know, I would not not like you guys, but I would not purge anyone on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:03

Yeah, thanks for drinking all of my water.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:07

My hardship was the end, and I think it was just because it was just abrupt, and I get it goes with the movie. Like, that's the whole idea. You're dropped into this movie in the beginning of this thing, in the beginning of this like national holiday. Um, and then you're dropped at the end of it, or not dropped, but and then it ends. So I I wish there was some sort of like Ryan had mentioned, like something after this movie just to give me a little bit of hope for humanity, or just like somewhere where I could put some context in this a little bit better. But I get what it's doing. It's getting to be like, all right, cool. You did something wrong, you don't know the repercussions that are gonna happen necessarily all the time, which I kind of appreciate. So I liked it, but I didn't like it. I didn't like it for the sake that I wish there was a happy ending.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:57

You wanted some more.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:58

I wanted some I wanted the blonde girl to die, but that was just true.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:02

What would have been great, I think, would have been for her to grab whatever weapon once again, like as the bell tolls, and then for Ethan Hawke's character to not have actually died all the way and to like wake up and like take her out. Yes, I like that. That would have been cool. I like that. I'm I'm kind of bummed that he that that you know that character died.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:23

Uh and so kind of early into it, because I would have loved to see a transformation on his part before that happened to to have like a true ownership of like this thing that I've supported, even if it was just for my you know political gain or like social esteem. I you know, I I would love him have that like super like harsh click in his mind where it was like, I am totally wrong and have been thinking about everything the wrong way, and then to just like you know flip that switch.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:51

Or for him to throw those all those people in the middle of the street and just see what happens.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:56

That's saying like he doesn't change and his family kicks him out into the street.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:01

No, not Ethan Hawk, they they do all the they kick all the bad people out, that's then see what just happens. It's luck at that point.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:10

Yeah, take all their weapons and just get rid of them. Yeah, you gotta leave.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:13

Bye. And take their keys.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:14

If Ethan Hawk did come back to life at the last second to like shoot the neighbor, that probably would have actually irritated me because I feel like there were a little too many like last second, this other person's here to save the day kills. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_06 1:19:27

That is true, yeah. They kind of overused that two, that would have been the third. They were at their limit.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:31

But then also, like you were saying, Alexis, at the end, it's hard because it asks you to believe that like the social contract is so strong that it's like, oh, seven o'clock, now it can't kill you. And like everybody's gonna stick to those rules.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:45

Or no one's a vindictive, like tell them, and then they're like, damn, I gotta wait another year to kill him. But don't worry, I got a plan for you. And they think about this all year. Yeah, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:57

Yeah. As you as you get into other purge movies and the TV show, the they show that the characters legitimately have this idea in their head. Yeah. That like they respect this 12-hour holiday so much that that's how they operate because they're so bought into it, they're so like insane with this cultish mentality that like when seven o'clock hits, like, oh, I have to respect it because that's the American way.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:20

12 hours is such a long time, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:20:22

Like it's anarchy, but they they'll stick to the rules. And I'm like, it's bizarre, but complex and interesting.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:28

I mean, that's the craziness of the world they paint. It's what it means to be an American. America. I don't know. I personally love the ending because I feel like even though it is abrupt, it drops you in this suddenness of like your lives are never gonna be the same. Like the whole time, right? The whole the whole way this movie goes, if Ethan Hawke's character didn't die, there would be there wouldn't be enough consequence for this family aside from maybe I have to fix a house and maybe I need to move. There wouldn't have been enough stakes there, right? And when you look at like just like the parallels in this movie with gun violence in our country, there are so many times where something happens. Someone walks out to go to school one day, and that's the last time their family ever sees them alive. So I love how sudden things were at the end, and I love that we had some redemption for that family. Not that they were ever truly evil, but that that the mother stayed strong in her conviction to keep things grounded on like a good end of the moral scale. Uh, I think if we didn't have that, this movie would have been really hollow without it.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:32

No, I totally agree. I just, in my, you know, full heart, I just wish it was a happier ending. Happier ending, she means the blonde woman dies.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:43

Just so we're clear. In my world. In my purge. In my purge, the bad people all die. She gets hit by an ambulance as soon as they walk outside. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:51

Oh, that would have been cute. That would have like lightened things up a bit.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:54

That's a final destination ending.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:56

Yeah, and then the final destination, you know, you know, they're intertwined and they're in the same universe. There you go. I'm not against uh purge final destination crossover.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:06

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:07

I do love an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine death.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:10

Obviously, there's been a lot to unpack here, and there's so much that can be uncovered in this movie in terms of its depiction of our stance on guns or our class systems in our country or the persistency of racism. But even though it's a universal slash, I'm so I'm curious to know is this a movie that has rewatch value for you?

SPEAKER_06 1:22:36

I feel like if I was going to watch the series again, like or not the series, but the series probably and the whole franchise, I definitely would watch it again, but I just don't see myself like not that it's bad, I just don't want this, like I don't like the feeling that this movie necessarily brings up. So I'd rather watch, you know, Harry Potter or Saws or something.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:56

I think for me, this is not like a movie that's incredible and it doesn't necessarily have good feelings, it's not like I don't know, it's in this like weird place where I like it and I think it's a great movie that you should watch, but I don't necessarily think you should be re-watching it. You guys know me, I'm not gonna re-watch it unless I'm forced to. But I wouldn't be mad if it was on. But also, like, I'm kind of mad that I paid $3.99 to watch it because it's so familiar once you've seen it one time. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:26

But would you have to be drunk to watch it again?

SPEAKER_01 1:23:28

I would not have to be drunk to watch it again.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:31

But it I will say it's not a movie that you necessarily will pay 100% attention to if you've seen it before. Yeah. It's definitely easy to be distracted while you're watching this for a second or third or however many times.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:44

This definitely doesn't make the list of movies that if they're on, I'll leave them on. And I probably won't go out of my way to re-watch this anytime soon just because like I'm still exhausted from this first watch. Um maybe 10 years from now I'll rewatch it just to like see how far we've come or like how far we haven't come. Um but yeah, I'm good, I'm good on this one.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:02

This is something I have already re-watched specifically for this podcast. So I think it holds some value. I did enjoy you know watching it again, and I would watch it in in sequence with the other films. Um if you if you were to do that and then the TV show though, you're gonna you're just gonna have no free time in your life. But yeah, I feel like if you were gonna you know make a go of it and watch it um on its own, yeah, I I think it holds value. I don't think it's like 1990s Kevin Costner movies where you like if it's on TNT, you're just gonna leave it on. So to agree with Paris there. But I think if you were like deliberately, I want to watch the purge and somebody hasn't seen it, like, yeah, it holds value.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:37

I I see I don't know why I'm such a different cookie here. I feel like this movie is so different every time you watch it. Obviously, the plot points, like you can't be surprised again by a lot of the twists, but even looking at the motivations and looking at like the nuances of vocabulary and looking at the different layers in this movie. I got something different watching it now than I did in 2013. And I got so much out of it, I'm still trying to petition my girlfriend to rewatch it with me because I just want to see her take on it as someone who hasn't seen it before. So there you go, Paris. You you weren't the only one. Every other there's one other human on this earth who hasn't.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:13

I think you need like some a few years of separation for watching this, like maybe more than five years. Somewhere between five and ten. I think it really will add to your life because I think our perception of it is going to be very different every five to ten years.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:29

That's fair. That's fair. I do I will say that I think if you are someone who cares about social injustice and looking at the way things are playing out currently in the climate of our country, I think you should give it a watch, and I think you should uh watch it with that in mind and just see what you come up with. But there's a lot we have left to learn about this movie, and we're gonna learn that in fact or fiction from your boy Mac. I'm gonna abstain from this round as I assisted in a little bit of the material for it.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:58

Yes, so it's just the other three of us that will be answering fact or fiction. Number one, the idea for the purge came from watching world star videos of everyday violence.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:09

Fact. I'm gonna say fact, because I got those vibes. Fiction.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:14

It is fiction. It actually came from road rage involving the writer director and his wife.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:19

Totally understand that.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:20

Yeah, I get that.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:22

I wonder how many people have been in the car, either by themselves or with a family member or a friend or something like that, and you have a crazy incident like this, and the other person's just like, oh, you know, I wish you could just shoot them. These stupid drivers, that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:35

We had someone follow us one time. Yeah. My dad and I. It was psycho.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:38

Yeah. But I mean, that like immediate like need to like defend oneself or like to fight other people who could like be ending your life accidentally or maybe on purpose. Um, it's it's so crazy strong and and so crazy fast. Number two, the freaks, the people who are wearing masks and their antagonists, and there's like dresses involved with blood on them. Uh, they were inspired by the Manson family.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:01

Fact. Who mentioned this earlier? Alexis.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:04

But I also got that same vibe, so I'm gonna say fact.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:07

Yeah, I'm gonna go fact also.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:09

Hey Chris, how do you feel about this one?

SPEAKER_05 1:27:10

You know, it's a fact, but it's also kind of indirect because it was inspired by the 2008 film The Strangers. But it actually is a fact, I promise.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:19

I was actually thinking about The Strangers while watching this. This is definitely like you should watch The Strangers and you should watch this one when moving into a new apartment.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:27

Just get from the Please don't do that.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:29

Just make sure you have some really strong door jams so you can feel a bit more secure after doing that. So we've talked about Reese Wakefield earlier, such a such a good actor in this in this film. He was super creepy, so he plays the um the polite leader. And he was cast just within a few days before uh filming.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:47

Fact. Fact.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:48

That seems random. Fact.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:51

It is random, uh, but it is also fact. So other actors were just overdoing the the character and his subtlety in the role. Uh has also like inspired people, his you know, fans to say he should be cast as the Joker.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:05

I could see that.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:06

How many Joker movies do we need though? Can we be done?

SPEAKER_05 1:28:08

More. Be quiet. What? Even during that audition, he played it cool and they could picture him as being reminiscent of Charles Manson. Hence the amplification of those Manson vibes.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:20

I wonder if there's like a video of his audition on YouTube.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:23

Somewhere in the world is gotta be one floating. Yeah, it it reminds me of Mindhunter though, because they have an amazing actor who's playing Charles Manson and does like such an insane little thing. Yeah. And let's uh wrap it up with one more. Ethan Hawke accepted the role as James Sandon for very little upfront pay because he wasn't working at the time and needed to basically pay for the expansion to his kitchen.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:49

Doubt it. He was in that vampire movie before this. He had enough movies. He had enough money and movies.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:55

Fiction just based on that random paying for an upgrade to his kitchen line. Like what?

SPEAKER_00 1:29:00

But it's also like so random that it has to be true. So I'm gonna say fact. It's so random it has to be fiction. He did this film basically like a favorite of friends. He's friends with both Jason Bloom and James uh Damonako, um, and even slept on Jason Bloom's couch during filming for the 19 days they filmed.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:18

Stars, they're just like us.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:20

Indeed. They have friends too.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:22

They have friends that are filmmakers, like all of us do.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:25

Yep. Films like this, uh, I mean, this one's a very low budget film, so we're talking somewhere around like three million dollars. Um, and the actors are paid a smaller print fee and then they get paid scale. So this movie, like, I forget like 10, like got like 10 times its budget back within like the first weekend in the US. So scale was probably a good thing to sign up for.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:46

Well, thank you so much for the enlightening experience. So glad there's so much more that went into the production of a film that paints a really depressing picture where we could be in just a couple years. There is a lot of mixed opinion out there on this movie. We all here at Hacker Slash think it's Stellar, right? We all gave it a Universal Slash, even if there are some small pain points here and there. But we know that your mileage may vary with this movie. So reach out to us, continue the conversation, and let us know what you think about the purge from 2013, the first in a franchise. There are a number of ways you can reach out to us, starting at our website, uh hackerslash.com.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:23

And you can check us out on our social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:28

You can also hit us up at the Hackerslash Hotline. If there is someone that theoretically you would purge, we won't judge you if you share it with us. You can text us, call us, leave us a voicemail, or an audio message. Our number is 757-606-0128. There are no attorneys on this show for attorney privilege.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:44

Yes, true.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:45

And if you would prefer to release the beast via text, you can email us at feedback at hackerslash.com.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:50

If you've enjoyed listening to our podcast, consider becoming one of our patrons. Check out patreon.com slash hacker slash where you can earn cool perks for as low as one dollar a month.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:00

We'll see you next week, folks. Stay safe. Bye.