Join Marc, Darren and Paul as they give you everything you need and more to help you decide to watch or re-watch.

Train Dreams(2025)

PART 1 – The Nutshell – If you haven’t seen it

A spoiler-free breakdown designed to help you decide if this reflective drama is your kind of film and worth your time.

We explore the film’s central idea around one man’s life shaped by solitude, change and the passage of time in an ever-evolving world.

We’ll give other movie comparisons plus tone, style and feel so you can quickly judge the type of viewing experience it offers.

By the end of Part 1, you will have made a decision!

PART 2 – The Unboxing – If you’ve seen it

What Did You Miss?

The things you missed, the details you didn't notice and the layers beneath the surface. This will make you want to watch it again.

The lads explore the film’s deeper themes around isolation, memory and identity, and how these ideas quietly unfold across a life marked by both connection and loss.

They also break down the storytelling choices, pacing and character perspective, and how the film uses simplicity to deliver emotional weight.

Paul’s Facts of the Day

Behind-the-scenes insights including:

• Creative decisions that shaped the tone and style of the film

• Casting choices that influenced the emotional core of the story

• Production details that helped bring the setting and time period to life

• Moments from filming that added authenticity to key scenes

• Subtle elements and references you might not have picked up on

Hate It or Rate It?

Marc, Darren & Paul submit their scores and Train Dreams (2025) takes its place in the Legend League.

PART 3 – Listener Lounge – All about you!

The Lobby

Your emails, questions, comments and stories.

Question of the Week

A recap from last week’s question plus the lads ask this week’s burning question!

Next week’s movie

The big reveal of next week’s movie!

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League Tables:

The Legend League

Every movie we’ve featured and rated on the podcast

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Darren Horne

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Music

Main Theme

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Music Bed

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All music licensed under Creative Commons.

Are you sad because you're football team? Is that an American accent? I just realized I'm sure the American,.

The absolutely terrible one, will be writing.

In about that one.

Yeah, they will correct me. No doubt.

This is spec in time.

Yeah, we're a speck in time.

Meaningless grain of salt in the whole.

Yeah, you die and then life moves on. Hello and welcome to Movies in a Nutshell with me, Marc Farquhar, myself, Darren.

Horne and I, Paul Day.

Here's why you should tune in every week.

We help you make better movie choices on films you haven't seen with quick spoiler free breakdowns to help you decide if they're your kind of movie.

And we help you get more from the movies you have seen with things you missed and details you probably didn't notice.

Plus there's movie facts, trivia and behind the scenes stories.

There's also your chance to choose the movie.

So grab some popcorn and let's crack open this week's movie. Okay, gentlemen, here we are. Dreams. Darren's Choice. Netflix. Why did you choose this, Darren?

I make good choices.

Train Dreams will be the. We'll tell you that if you made a good choice or not.

Oh, challenging.

Yeah. I don't know. I love Joel Edgerton and I think he's one of those actors that I really admire.

I've loved him since the movie Warrior with him and Tom Hardy in it and love that director as well.

Is that box in that film? I still.

It's mma.

Mma.

Okay.

Yeah, it's cool. It's about my life basically. And it's rare that he's kind of in a solo leading role. I don't really remember seeing him kind of carry a film before.

And then a couple of my students started to say it's really good, I should check it out. And then I saw it was Oscar nominated and won maybe. I think it was Oscar nominated.

No, it didn't win it. It was. It was nominated for a few, like cinematography, screenwriting. Yeah, I don't want a few. But it didn't win any. But it was nominated for five.

Five, I think.

And it's a fairly new director. I think he's only made two films and its first film was Oscar nominated for a script. So I just thought there's some talent here.

It's rare that we see or see a movie that we haven't, we all haven't seen. So I just thought I'd give it a bash. I chose it knowing nothing about it.

I like that. The switch up of all choosing something we all overly familiar with, versus something we have known nothing about. Right. Then we're in part one.

The nutshell. We will break the movie down. Spoiler free. To help you decide if Train Dreams is your kind of film and if it's worth your time.

How do we break this down? What do we. What would you say?

It's a very meditative film about a guy who works in North America and he's a logger and he cuts down trees.

Is this.

I. I can't remember. Sorry. I nearly went into the Monty Python song.

You're lumberjack and you're okay.

I don't know what gold.

I did think of that when I was watching it.

But this is a snapshot of America at that time, isn't it?

That's it. It's. It's. We basically follow one guy and it's him and his life, and it's a slower pace of life before the technology that we have these days.

And it's about his beliefs and values and how he sees the world and how he moves through the world and.

How the world changes as he gets older and he goes through. And in the time when America's going through a lot at that time, this.

Yeah.

Industries changing and.

Yeah, of course. And I think that it's a celebration in many ways of multiculturalism. And I think it's a great movie to watch if.

Particularly if you're a guy and you're a little older. Although that's maybe patronizing. Maybe, you know, younger people would like it. I think it's a good.

If you're at a crossroads of life, if you're a little bit lost and you're not sure what your next step is, like you've just come out of a relationship or you're between jobs or you just finished uni maybe, and you're not sure what you want to do. You're not sure about anything. I think you could watch this movie. I feel like it's a bit of a solo movie and like a man's.

I. I don't get complaints because I've had complaints to my face about my project Hail Mary review to your face.

People have hunted you down.

Yeah, let's keep.

Let's save that for the lobby later. You can tell us all about that in soon.

But, yeah, I think it's a really good movie for men to consider what the meaning of life is.

I agree with that. Got this movie tracks a man's life as his view of the world grows and develops, but as his country does as well.

Yeah, it's a meditation on life. That was a good word. It's a meditation on life because it is very much an artistic film.

So the slower pace of life that it depicts is what you kind of seen on screen.

This is very different to any movie I think we've covered before.

I think it is. Yeah.

It doesn't follow any of the same formula.

Feels a bit. Terrence Malick.

Y. I was going to say Richard Linklater because it was kind of just life unfolding. If you're watching scenes, it's so different.

I don't have a meets.

Oh.

I couldn't really think of anything.

It would be something like something. I don't know Terrace. Terrence Malik's work that well. But he did the Thin Red Line. Thin Red Lines about a walk. I remember which one.

But it's got that vibe. But instead of being about war. But it's very slow and there's a voiceover. It feels like someone's almost reading from their diary at parcel.

Their journal.

Well, it's a novella. It's based off a novella book, isn't it? It's almost like a whiskey commercial advert.

The voices.

The voices, you know.

Yeah.

The meditation bit comes from the fact of our lives are moving so fast with technology and everything. This really. It takes time to show you how slow it was, doesn't it?

Yeah, absolutely.

But at the same time, in the time he was alive, a lot did happen. Yeah, There was a big shift and.

You're seeing it almost through this railroad tree, lumberjack lifestyle and watching it unfold, I suppose. I mean, I don't have a meet either, but I had films that are nothing like this, but kind of gave me the vibe.

So I had Revenant with Leonardo DiCaprio because that's all out in the wild and he's been hunted by a bear, that kind of thing. So that was kind of the great outdoorsy feeling. Stand by Me almost, because that's told by a narration, isn't it?

And it's like flashing back to childhood and it's like a life journey. So again, these aren't like this film, but it's that sort of vibe.

Have you seen Ghost Dog? No, it's a Jim Jerry's film. It's different, but again, it's just got that meditative, slow kind of pace.

The only Other one I could think of, Call of the Wild with Harrison Foggy.

Okay.

With a computer generated wolf dog, but the vibe of it is very much that southern old school train track.

I remember watching and I saw this image in my head of like an hourglass sand running through someone's hand. That's kind of what I feel.

This movie is just time slipping away.

The Stoics would say like momentum or we just. You're going to die. Like time is passing. Every moment, seasons are passing.

This is a quiet, reflective movie.

Yeah. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea.

I think you'll. Early on, it'll either lose you or it'll draw you in, depending on what your. What your tastes are. It's a slow burner, this one.

You're either going to be hooked into the world in this slow pace of it, or you're going to think this is dull. So that's for you to find out. I guess.

So it's a laborer working on the railroads and logging camps, living a simple life, often isolated.

Yeah.

And it talks about family and work and the juggle between that as well. Felicity Jones is in it, who you may know from such things as Star Wars Rogue One. I picked her most famous film straight off my head.

But you know that. You say that.

Yes.

I knew I knew a face from somewhere.

Do you know?

So now I do.

Working with Uncle Owen from the prequels.

But this. This movie isn't about plot in the traditional sense though, is it?

It's interesting you say it because if I mean there will be a hero's journey within it, I genuinely think there's one in. In most narratives for it to work.

Honestly, I disagree. And this, I don't think there is. I think it's literally. It's just tracks his life from beginning to end. It's not. It's not about him.

Well, if you think about. It's not really a spoiler, but she has an idea of what she wants to do and he doesn't want to do it to start with.

So that's like the refusal of the call. So there's always going to be something that.

At a low level, I suppose.

Yeah, absolutely.

But this, yeah, it's not about plot. This is more about moments. I feel. Different moments.

Yeah.

Memories and how life unfolds.

It's almost like follow. Like you said, following the chapters of a journal, maybe.

Yeah.

It skips here. Skips.

Which is interesting you say that because I mentioned Stoic philosophy just now, but one of the Most famous Stoics is Marcus Aurelius, who is a Roman emperor and he's got this book of meditations and it's just his notes of how to live a good life, really. And it's huge on like Success Podcasts and CEOs of different companies kind of read it and it feels like that.

It feels like it's not so much necessarily a guide for how to live your life, but it's a guide for how to live a life. And then you can decide if that's a good life. But then any life is a good life because it's supposed to be individual.

It's what you make of it.

Yeah.

It's like a poem of a movie almost, isn't it, in a way, as you're moving through it.

A well written journal as well.

Posted. I think you have to make anything of it. I agree with Lister in Red Wolf at one point when he gets judged.

Wow.

And they're like, you, you had so much potential. You did nothing. He's like, so smeg off. And I'm like, yeah, like, you know, if we've got free will, you're free to not do anything.

There was one line I saw online. I didn't look up it too much, but I saw this one describing fragments of a life shaped by work loss n and the passing of time.

Yeah, that's good.

I thought that's a good nutshell.

It's not. It's not a grand movie. It's not about big things. It's a snapshot of life in Western America at the time.

And it's very much a film that's all about the cinematography and the look of it as well as anything like the feel of it.

Yeah, it's shot beautifully.

Very little dialogue, very little urgency and no clear mission driving things forward.

I don't know if this is selling it to them or not, but.

But that's why this is. It's. It's sort of flipping the narrative. It's. It's not what we're used to. What kind of watch is this, Darren? You kind of already covered it.

This could be a solo film, not. Not a film you'd watch in a group.

I don'. Think again, this is just an opinion. For me personally, I think it's a good movie for a guy to watch on their own.

I think if you watched it with like a girlfriend or wife or whatever, I think their commentary would take away from what you might get from it.

I think you push with anybody.

You think anyone. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Because you need to absorb what's going on and like have your own natural reactions to it.

Did you see that social media going around? It was a video and it was a guy who was looking at a roll of tape or something like that. They're Americans.

And the wife comes out and she's like, what are you doing? Like, why are you like. You seem sa sad and you in your cap. Are you sad because your football team. Is that an American accent?

I just feel as Americans, the absolutely.

Terrible one will be writing in about that.

Yeah, they will correct me, no doubt.

I'm only laughing because you mock all of my accents.

Was Darren having a stroke on that episode?

One out of ten on that one.

Was he possessed?

Continue though. Yes, they'll enjoy this.

And he says something like, he's like, you know, this isn't tape. It's something like that.

He's like, I bought this like 25, 30 years ago and I've been using it for 25, 30 years and it's nearly run out and all those years are gone.

And he's having this really profound moment about, you know, the passing of time and years and she totally doesn't get it and she kind of mocks him and all the comments are like, get a divorce to get a divorce. And I kind of working. And I kind of think that the value you may get from this film needs to be on your internal.

Yeah, crossroads of your life, like a soul searching vibe. And I suppose it's immersive, isn't it? You're in the forest, you're in the trees and if you've got someone going, what are they doing?

Where are you going? What's going on?

What do you think's going to happen? Why she say that?

Why is it flashing back? Why is it flashing forward? Yeah, it might just take you out at the moment. So it's a good call.

It's probably a good isolated film, really taken on your own.

Okay, thanks, gentlemen. That takes us on to part two, the unboxing. In part two, the unboxing, spoiler territory ahead.

If you haven't seen the movie and we've helped you decide you want to watch it, pause, go watch it and then come back. Because from this point forward there will be spoilers. In the unboxing we have what did you miss?

Where we will reveal things you may have missed even if you've seen the movie many times. Paul has his formidable facts of the day and we round off with hate it or rate it where we each give a brief opinion, score out of 10.

And we see where it lands on our legend league. So what did you miss? I'll go to you first, Darren.

Sweet.

There's a couple of things. The darkest element is this racism that's going on in the background. And for me it felt like a celebration of multiculturalism.

As I've said, you would expect racism in this movie based on when it's set.

Yeah. And what I quite like is how much it upset me because as it should.

Well, that moment where they throw him off the bridge and he's going, what's he done?

Yeah.

That was obviously playing on the character's mind as well because he kept flashing back and then that guy comes back as almost a spirit guide later, doesn't he?

Yeah.

So it runs as a thread throughout the whole.

And it also makes me interested as to what makes a good man. And I think Joel Edgerton is very attractive in this film. I think he is absolutely charming.

Grizzly Beer that's doing it.

He's got stoic, he's got dignity, he's honest. He's a. He's a solid good man. I'm really curious with this idea that if you're a good person, you're just more attractive. I don't know how I kind of.

I feel like I think if you're a well rounded, confident enough and nice.

Yeah.

I thought you hate people if they're too good.

As in two good people. I mean. Yeah, I mean, it's just I don't trust people who are always kind. I'm just. Show me the darkness. There's got to be balance in life, you know.

But he can't kill that insect.

You know, he can. He can be a little bit dark.

That's true.

He's like, you know, don't the wolves have sex with a dog? For the newness of the experience, Meaning that he might sleep with another person because of the newness of the experience.

You know, he's got some dark thoughts. He just maybe doesn't ping them out. So what makes him a good man?

And it's interesting because I think really early on we realized that when he was 6, his parents died and he was never told why. And then he kind of gets sent off to a strange town. And one of his earliest memories is in his town.

There was the deportation of 100 plus Chinese immigrants from his town and he was shocked by the violence. So at 6, he basically learned about racism and learned that it was unjust and he didn't like it.

And that programming has carried through his Whole life. That fascinates me.

Also, because he didn't have parents, so if he'd had his original parents, they might have fed him that racism. Or if he'd had proper foster parents, he might have had parents who didn't agree with it.

But either way, he was sort of left to make his own mind upon it.

Yeah, totally. And then I think, because there's other bits where people are standing by just watching the Chinese get hurt and they're not really doing anything.

But then I think we witness that at scale now. We see people just watch things happen and let them happen. Although, thankfully, with America and ice, that seems to be changing that. Minneapolis.

Am I pronouncing that correctly? Doing amazing, amazing things that, you know, standing up to ICE and the world is changing.

But then it was also interesting, not just with that, but then there's an African American man who rocks up in camp randomly. And this is what I quite like about this film. Just random events that happen and they don't really have anything to do with.

The whole as they would in life.

They just represent life. Yeah, I was going to say, yeah.

I had to think a Stalin fly out of my log fire today. Like, I just heard all this noise all morning. What the hell is that? And then I opened the fire and it flew straight out of my face.

And I said, what are the odds of. Is this a normal country thing? Like, I'm not used to.

Because you could have not noticed that. Put the fire on.

Yeah, I thought it was someone outside gardening. It's crazy. But anyway, so this African American comes in, kills a white guy. Everyone just stands there watching him.

And then he's like, oh, this guy killed my brother. I've been hunting him for a while. If any of you got a problem with it, let's have that out now because I don't want you following me.

And they're like, no, we ain't got a problem. And then they move on.

Mission complete.

Yeah, it's interesting. I like the spirituality of this movie as well. And I think it was William H. Macy, who's a phenomenal actor as well, who had probably the best lines.

Which character was he?

The older chap?

Oh, the older man who he became befriended later on.

He's called Arn and talk about a lot of stuff, but he says, you know, I've seen bad men raised up and good men brought to their knees. And I'm like, man, that's. That's a lesson.

That's life. That's the world. Just great. It's Just great injustice.

Yeah, it's an injustice. It's not fair at a scale. He also says, you know, we just cut down trees that have been here for 500 years and that's going to weigh on your soul.

And then I think one of the younger guys is, ah, no, it's just a job, who cares? And he's like, he's like, we could be cutting down trees for thousands of years and we wouldn't even make a dent.

And William H. Macy's his aunt, I think his name is, says, I used to think that when I was your age. And there is this feeling that you get wiser as you get older.

That's what I'm saying. That's the difference between young and old there, right? Young, naive.

And then Joel Edgerton's character later on starts to reflect back to the other character where he's like, are these youths to different or is it me getting older? And he's having that moment of, was I this reckless when I was younger?

And I think we all go through that. We all go through that at some point. Was I.

Was I this loud and rowdy? And now I'm not. Have I learned something whilst I'm cutting down these trees?

There's a moment he also says, I think he's. Is he dying or. Can't remember. But he says, beautiful, ain't it? All of it, every bit of it.

And he's just looking at the planet that the countryside, and he's like, this is beautiful and we get to be here. I never, I haven't. I haven't told you guys about my polar bear theory yet, have I?

No, don't think so.

So my new thing is there's a meme where it's like two bears, but in my memory they were polar bears. And I think it's funny if they're polar bears, but they're actually bears.

We're making poles and they're like, hey, Greg, do you want to play it Being humans? And they're like, yeah. So then they go in this like, cabin and one's leaning out the window being like, oh no, I've got depression.

And then the other guy's outside being like, I'm gonna drive to work to make money so I can afford to drive to work. And that's it. And whenever I'm doing anything now, I'm like, I'm just a freaking polar bear doing this.

I'm just like, I'm just getting to experience being human and seeing what that's.

Like, just going through the Motions, but.

It's more just making it fun. We're just indestructible energy that's decided to manifest into human form and have a podcast. It's a joke.

There's an episode of the X Files, I don't know if you saw it, where he's like a were monster, but he changed. He's actually a monster, but he changes into a human. And it's like the you with the polar bears.

And it's the guy from Flight of the Concords, Rhys Darby. So he plays it very much like he would, but he's like, I've got to go and get a job now.

Yeah.

He's like, I don't like this. And he's like playing at being a human. Like your polar bears thing.

Yeah, totally. We'll play in it being human. And we're all playing at being grown ups.

Trying our best. Trying. We're all trying our best faking it. But this, this movie is a sad movie.

He didn't know his parents and he loses his wife and child and he dies alone. That's the sad.

Thanks for changing the mood.

There's a sad tone spoiler nutshell there.

Although I did decide I would happily grow my beard out to have somebody who loves me as much as Felicity Jones character loves him. And that scene where he's just leaning on her lap and she's stroking his beard.

Yeah, that's all we want in life, I think, is.

It is all we want in life just, ah, it will happen for us. The sun shall shine on us again. Paul. We will have the love of a good woman. Hopefully not the same one, because that'd be awkward.

But we will have the love of a good woman. He also, at some point, he says another great line. He says, my family is anywhere there's a smiling face. And that really touched me kind of deeply.

And I was just like, yeah, it is profound. I think by the end of it, you would have probably developed what your meaning for life is.

And I think they even have a discussion in it, like, what's all this about? Like, what's the meaning? And it certainly isn't money, it certainly isn't fame.

And it's a reflection of memories a lot of the time as well, isn't it? Especially when he's in the plane at the end and he's flashing back to all the bits and it's like, well, that is life.

It's this collection of memories. And at one point he talks about William Macy's character and the fact that he Couldn't remember his name at one point.

And that was around that scene that you said, darren, where he's saying, it's beautiful, isn't it? So even though he couldn't remember who he was or what was going on, he was still taking in life as it was and just going, this is beautiful.

And it also built on other movies where we've had an impact on us. Like Crow was, it can't rain all the time. And the Castaway episode, we talked about how you never know what the tide is going to bring in.

My big thing is, you know, it's all changing seasons, which this was profound on that. And I think I said on another episode, you know, it was really cold in winter where I live.

And everyone was saying, oh, you know, winter will be over soon. And I'm like, I might only have 20 winters left. Like, I don't want winter to, you.

Know, be getting through things. You want to be able to enjoy them.

Yeah, it's everyone wishing to the next thing. Oh, it's almost a weekend. Oh, it's almost summer.

I try not to. I try not to wish every summer away, but I do love away. But I wish in the winter. I'm pining for summer.

I get that.

I'm sick of wet, dark nights.

We have no control. They've got limited control as to which way the tree falls. They're like, you know, nine times out of ten we know, ten time we don't.

And is that. Why do you think they have that point of view shot right at the start where the tree goes down?

It's always. These films always do this just to make everything look big. Always looking down up to make everything look.

I could do with tips of making things look big.

Moving on.

So I like the way it sort of starts. He's very local. He's very. He's not being anywhere.

He's not done much, but every time he goes to a job, it's a bit further away and he gains a bit of experience and he's. He broadens his view of the world.

And it means him spending more time,.

More time away, further and further away. So he feels isolated, but he's also learning at the same time.

He's getting life experience every time he goes away, but he feels sad and he comes back and he has to go away again. It's kind of that cycle of his life.

And he also couldn't have predicted or prepared for, like, all the worries we have, they're minor or they're not. The thing that's going to happen. And for him, he must have had worries over money or whatever it was.

And then there's a forest fire or hot fire and he loses his wife and kid. Like that isn't on his list of things to worry about. Same with, you know, us.

It's not, you know, we're worried about bills going up or whether if a car passes its mot, it's not even on our radar that someone we love might, you know, pass away or an accident might happen. And yet you see in the paper, on social media, there was a guy.

There was an accident Yesterday on the M6 and someone was airlifted, I think, away, you know, serious injuries. Someone hit a truck.

I think there was a multiple. It was multiple pilots.

Right. And it's just that that could have happened to me today.

Life is brief and we're really, really fragile, but because we don't know when we're gonna die, we think we are.

Invincible to, like sliding doors moment as well. Isn't it like from that movie where, like, if you get delayed by something and then you carry on where you were, then there's an accident.

You go, if I hadn't been delayed there, I'd have been in. There's the classic footage in the 9 11. There's a guy on his phone, he's on the bus and you can see from someone's filming on a camcorder. There's.

Pan to the foot, I think it's before the second one hits the tower. He's on a bus and he turns around, you can hear a guy on the phone. It's a young lad. He's going, I'm okay, Mum, I'm okay.

I slept in because I stayed up late to watch Monday Night Football. So I missed my first bus. So I'm on the second bus now and I'm fine. Oh, wow. If I'd been on the first bus, I'd have been in there.

So that's why his mum was ringing him.

Yeah, bet. Oh, the panic.

It wasn't for American football, Monday Night Football. He didn't set to watch it. He'd got up at normal time, he'd been in there.

And that's fate and sliding doors.

And I always remember that. I'll never forget that.

And. But then also, good stuff can happen. Like out of nowhere, some dogs turn up.

Yeah.

And he's like, now I've got dogs.

Quite cute. But back then it's all small things, like, we, like, we take for granted.

Like a little, small, small thing I have in the dog everyone's got dogs around. Like it's just no big deal so much. Or a roof. Yeah. Having fire.

Playing with the candle with his baby. And he's sort of doing like shadows on the candle, isn't he? And the baby's giggling and the wife's laughing.

Or even when they go to get the portrait with the family and they're laughing at something.

Yeah.

And it's something and nothing.

But it's just that. Just normal life. Simple, good life. Yeah.

And that. That's where you almost feel envious of all the stuff that we've piled on to make everything more complicated now for us.

And it's that thing of what brings you joy, isn't it? And now compared to then maybe joy for them was just lazing by the river.

Life was so much more simple back then. That's what made me think. We're still so overcome. Over stimulated and overcomp. Things are so complicated now.

Well, even if we want to just. Just sit by the river and have a picnic, you've got to pay for parking. You've got the thing you've got.

But even having moments to do that is rare these days. Finding the time.

Yeah.

Just to be able to manufacture those situations where you can just enjoy something.

I do wonder if. Because if you go back to, say, the ancient Greeks, they had so much time, like there's so many philosophers.

Because all they had to do was kind of think. And musicians would get better because they'd be just musicians from the time they were. Yeah.

Like.

And that was their job and great poetry and literature and stuff. And now it's hard for artists to commit their life to something entirely. But then I think one.

I wonder if, you know, that's part of mental health issue that we've got, is that we just don't have enough time to really think about who we are and how we fit in with things.

And we don't. We don't. We don't have time to stop.

No.

And is there a content problem in the sense that there's that much content now because everyone's produced. I mean, we're in the middle of that. We're producing content right now to put out into the world. And there's so much content.

The algorithms just get the popular kids. It feels like a big popularity contest. And Taylor Swift said something.

I found a way to bring her into it, but it was ding, ding, Taylor Swift moment. But she said something at an award ceremony, which I thought about a while ago. Me and Taylor, just on the same wavelength. Just saying.

She was on about when she learned to play guitar. And she used to spend hours and hours practicing and learning it and making mistakes and getting better.

That's how you learn.

But it was all stuff that she did behind closed doors. She wasn't filming everything. She wasn't putting everything out there. So she had this time to get good at a craft. And now everyone.

Oh, well, you've got to get it out there. You've got to get everything out there. So no one gives any sort of slack for.

Everything's much more of a hurry now.

Yeah. And everything's a popularity contest almost of who can get the highest ratings or put the most on a post or.

Again, I say this ironically because obviously we want our podcast to do well as well, but there's so much content out there. Maybe we don't have time to have a clear head or this.

This movie takes you back to that. Like a simple way of life where you can just sit and contemplate and just enjoy the moments, the little moments.

Because a lot of the sound on this is very much ambient sound.

Yeah, I was going to mention that. You can see why I got an award for the sounds. There isn't that much music in it, but when there is, it fits in very well. A lot of it.

Almost all the time when they're. You hear. You can hear trains in the background, if you picked up on that.

Oh, yeah.

It's almost like a constant background. Birds and trains. There's always some kind of train noise somewhere.

Yes. On its way.

Why do you think it's called train dreams? What does that mean?

Actually, I don't know.

Because he's working on the tracks and it's kind of the. The dreams of a railroad worker, I guess.

I think that's the opening up of America, wasn't it? Connecting all the different states by rail. Rail networks.

And he was having them sort of flashback dreams, wasn't he? To the chap who died and everything else.

That's kind of what I thought, but I wasn't. I just wonder if you guys have any thoughts on that. It's interesting why they've gone for that name.

I like it though. I like the name.

Yeah, I do.

Captures what it is.

This film doesn't really matter transitions either. They can kind of pass by. It creates a sense of almost slipping by, which mirrors the characters sort of experience.

Yeah, the kid just grows up and we get to see that. And then the hut gets built and stuff like that. There's a nice bit as well where they See a comet and they're like, oh, we saw a comet in the sky.

And we thought it was the end of days. But two weeks later it just went away. And I'm like, two weeks of anxiety for no reason. I can absolutely relate to that feeling.

Just worrying over something and then it goes away. That's great. I like also there's a speech where he talks about wolves being loyal. And that was really sweet.

And it was just really like another thing you can learn from nature. That really worked for me. And then another standout scene for me was again with the technology. Moving on is he struggles to use the chainsaw.

And there's that young guy, he's, oh, no, you just do this. And oh, man. Closing in on 50. I definitely feel that way.

Just do this, Darren. Just press the button.

Yeah. I can't believe you can't do that.

He's used to, like logging with the whole massive. Where two people go back and forth with the huge chips, these huge saw.

There was a peacefulness to that. Now you've got this chainsaw echoing around the forest and, you know, animals fleeing for their lives. And it's just.

It was just. It was just a symbolism of progress, wasn't it? And technology and more time slipping by.

It feels like the orcs in Mordor would have chainsaws.

Yes, they would definitely have that.

As sort of slow or sometimes like tough as this movie is to watch some places it is just reminds you of a simpler time when we're all just simpler creatures with simpler problems to them sometimes. Like, obviously your house burning down, losing your family, but just normal things of, like having to go away, travel to make money for your family.

That was the extent of it. And the entertainment. There wasn't much entertainment, but everyone was happy.

Yeah, that's it. So work, life, balance is still a thing then, but people do seem to get bored very quickly now.

A lot of people can't just sit with their own thoughts. They always have to have something on. The TV's on. In the background of music is on. You can't.

Well, they can't focus on one thing. Like music has become a background thing. Podcasts were a background thing, which is.

That's okay because you can still consume on the go, but lots of things. They're not like no one's listening to albums in full with headphones in the bedrooms anymore. No, it's just. It's in the background watching tv.

Like second screen syndrome filmmakers these days making a film with the bearing in mind that someone's going to be on their phone. So you have to repeat things because they're not exposition.

Focusing on it.

Yeah, that's where we are. But this film, sort of. In conclusion, the expansion of the railroads represents connection and development, but for him, it represents isolation.

Because every time that happens, it's developing. But he's isolated.

And it's kind of almost, what's the value? Because they make this amazing bridge, which is a feat of engineering then.

And he's like, I think it was two years later, they built a fancy steel or concrete one just down the river.

That was. For me, that was the time of technology just overtaking itself. That was obsolete. Now, even though it's fantastic, here's a.

Newer version and there's sat on the train looking at. Across it, going, I built that, but no one cares.

This film leans heavily into ambiguity, really. It's. And what I like is the way it doesn't explain everything. It doesn't wrap things up neatly like a lot of films do.

It's just kind of like, this is how it was. This is. This is it.

Well, it does exactly what you said. It kind of leaves you with your own thoughts a bit more than another film. So instead of giving you more narrative, it leaves you to ponder.

The openness is intentional, I think, which I really like. I enjoy that aspect of it.

And some people are going to hate it because of exactly that.

They're used to it. Yeah.

What's next? Where's the next thing?

Wrap this up for me. Where does this end? What happens? Tell me what I'm watching, watching here. What have I learned? What's the. What's the. What's the moral of the story?

What's the moral? What's the takeaway? Let's get to the end.

And I do worry doesn't do that.

So people are getting more like that with films. They just want to be like, how does it end? Well, they want to snap quick, quick.

And the point of it was the telling of the story in the past, wasn't it?

So it's a point as well, where a character says, she's talking about the Valley. I think it's the second woman who kind of rocks up and she's like, oh, this all used to be like a glass, used you. And then it just moved through.

And you think, we're specs. Our lives are specs. They're just.

This is back in time.

Yeah, we were speck in time. Meaningless brain of sound in the whole.

Yeah, you die and life moves on.

Well, will this podcast ever die? Or is this gone forever for eternity Now?

As long as we keep paying the host subscription, we'll be fine.

There you go.

Shout out to captivate. Okay, thank you, gentlemen. That takes us nicely into Paul's fantastic facts of the day.

Go Paul. Paul, it's your birthday. Gonna party like it's your birthday. It's not your birthday.

It's not, but I'll take it. Okay, let's do some facts. Will Patton.

Yes, he's the voice.

He provided the voice.

What would we know him from? Paul?

What do I know him from? I always think of him in Armageddon. Isn't he his Bruce Willis?

Yeah, I think that's true. Is he?

Yes, it's sort of a character actor. He pops up in different things.

He's the sweet one who's like ex wife and kid don't appreciate him. Then he's like, is that daddy on tv?

But he's in loads of stuff, isn't he? And he also previously narrated the audiobook of Dennis Johnson's novella.

Oh, nice.

So there's.

Good choice.

Symmetry across.

I wondered why they didn't get Sam Elliott.

Well, it's a very Sam Elliott sort of thing, isn't it? Bentley has said that only a limited number of real trees were felled during production.

Scenes depicting characters cutting into tree into a tree were performed using an artificial prop constructed from wood and fiberglass with visual effects applied to extend the trunk and canopy to resemble a full size tree.

That's actually really good at them. They wouldn't have to have done that if some directors blow up a forest.

I was thinking that when I read that, I was like, yeah, but we blow up cars and buildings and everything for the sake of a movie. And yet they've done so that commendable. But I suppose that's on. On point of the film as well. On theme. Yeah.

So the Nick Cave song, the end credits, train dreams recorded for the film was not actually included in the version shown at the Sundance Film Festival. That was added later on in subsequent releases.

That was the only reference I had, was I knew that song by Nick Cave. Isn't Nick Cave in the Bad Seeds.

The director of photography, Adolfo?

Here we go.

Veloso.

Velociraptor.

Adolfo Veloso. Yeah, I'm going with that. He became the first Brazilian to be nominated for an Oscar for best cinematography category.

So you're right, he did get nominated, but.

But also quite young, I think. I think he's like 33 or something,.

Which isn't bad going Sterling Job. Yeah.

And the directors. Clint Bentley, who we haven't spoken about Bentley.

That's right.

Second time film director, I think because.

Bentley and cinematographer considered shooting it on film. But the production, that would have been cool. Well, do you know how long it took to make the film? 29 Days.

Oh, Jesus. My students get more than 29 days to make a movie.

I was going to ask.

And they complain about the time.

Wow, that's. That's impressive.

Now, second year said four months.

Yeah. So if you. Why, why so short then? Why would you think it just maybe. Is it because it's such a simple story and it's.

It doesn't move outside of its boundaries very much and if you plan it, I suppose if you plan it well enough, yeah, you can do it.

Budgetary reasons, because the longer film shoots tend to go on, the more it costs money.

So that is tight though. I mean you can you hear of features like being done in six weeks. Like Bubba Hotep was done in six weeks or so Desperado was.

But it's 29.

That's impressive.

But yeah. So because it was so tight though, they shot it digitally which is impressive because it actually looks quite filmic.

They must have the post production made it a bit more look not so.

Digital, make it pop. So they obviously wanted to use film but couldn't.

The film is a rare instance of a movie that the narration from someone who's not a character in the film,.

There's just a general voiceover.

So Will Patton is an omnipotent, omniscient.

When it's like that though, it always makes me feel as though it's like an angel or God or a guide or something.

A guide. That's what I thought.

Thought.

Yeah.

It's almost like a commentary of hey, let's look at this guy.

And the voice was very reassuring and sort of it fit with the time and authentic.

I know it's like a blanket. Like. Like this guy's gone through some rough times, but it's all going to be okay.

It did just feel like someone reading a journal. Yeah, that's what it.

I feel like Darren could do this.

He.

Like if you read the thing, I'd feel quite comforted.

Not yours wouldn't be able to read a word.

No, that's not my nose. No, of course not. Try and read this journal. No, it'd just be like me trying to read names. This would work.

Oh, your own writing.

Yeah, exactly. So many have compared the film. You said this before. Many have compared the film. Lyrical style to that of Terrence Malik.

Yeah, I heard. Lyrical. Lyrical narrative.

Clint Bentley has openly admitted that was an influence on him. Like a proper profound influence on him.

Kerry Condon, who's in the film, who is his second.

Not his love interest, his friend, the friend, the female friend he makes later on.

She actually owns a farm in the Pacific Northwest where the film was shot. So maybe they did some shots on Earth thing that would make sense.

I think for script, I think.

Oh, wow. Okay. That's pretty good on your first couple of films, isn't it? That's a good, good start.

And also have such a strong artistic vision of what you want to do and visually as well, especially particularly compared to, like, Velociraptor.

Velocirapasta. We don't talk.

We don't talk about that anymore.

I think he led that one.

Yeah, I think so.

There we go.

Obviously there's nothing out as many yet because it's fairly pretty new. Yeah.

Yeah. Thank you very much, Paul. That takes us on to hate it or rate it. So what did we think? It was Darren's choice. So I'm going to go to Darren first.

Okay. So the way we rate these films is based on how it made us feel. And this was quite a depressing film, I think.

I think we combine it. I combine it with how it makes me feel versus, like, what did I actually think of it, like, as a film. As, like a what? The makeup of it.

It. I have to put a bit of that in the mix as well.

I do a bit of both.

I liked it. I liked it. A lot in places. And it really made me thankful for what I've got.

And I've heard this phrase, or may have mentioned on podcast before, that one of the kind of things you can say, or one of the mantras you can say that has the strongest impact on your happiness and mental health is that these are the good times. So you just say these are the good times, and you really focus on,.

Like, what's going and what you've got to be thankful for.

Yeah, right. Because it can be taken away and like anything, have a car crash tomorrow and lose the use of my legs or something.

It just often makes you realize lots of little things that you're worrying about, just they're not worth worrying about.

No.

Well, it reminded me of the quote from the American Office finale.

Oh, yeah.

Which was around, you don't know you're in the good times until they're gone. Something like that.

Absolutely. So I loved that. I loved the main character. He made me want to be a better guy. He made me want to be one of the good guys.

And I think with all the conversations they were having, even if they weren't having the conversations, even the conversations in my head that they. They initiated about what is the meaning of life. It made me. Reassured me that my belief that whatever you do in your life is the right way.

As a collective species, we want to experience as many different lives as we can. So if your life is just staying indoors for your whole life, playing Xbox, then that's a valid life. Like, why is it that someone.

You were happy doing that?

Yeah, why is it that someone, you know, climbing Kilimanjaro or something that's deemed as more worthy? Like, it's interesting. Like, is this. This guy's in. In reality would be forgotten very quickly. He wouldn't have any photos or videos, no social media.

There's no family. You know, his wife and kid died, and then he was ill alone, which is also my greatest. One of my greatest fears, because I live alone.

Like, I knew I was ill in January. Being alone, being ill is one of the worst feelings.

It's just we're all used to it.

We're always at the end of the phone, aren't we, Paul?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

We'll always be here.

We're here for. Okay, cool with the microphones. Ready to do a live from Darren's sick bed.

I helped you move into your house. I will also come over and visit you when you need friend.

Nice. Thank you. You send me the nurse.

That was also one of the Funniest times I've had in a long time. Moving into his house in his car with, like, furniture sticking out the window, stuck in third gear because he couldn't, like, reach it.

It was. It was hilarious. As I said at the beginning, it's meditative, it's stoic, it's dignified. It's. It's about a different time.

I relate to it a lot because, you know, I'm getting older, technology is moving fast. AI has come out of nowhere, and it's massively evolving. I don't know where I fit in necessarily anymore. I don't know if I've had a good life.

I'm not sure if it has been valuable. I don't know what people necessarily would say about me after my life.

Yeah, it left mark, so I'm gonna give it eight because I wouldn't watch it again in a hurry.

But you're glad he did watch it.

But I'm glad I did watch it. And I probably. I may watch it again, like when I was 70 and I give them in a hospital bed and I'm just like, have I had an okay?

You feel different watching it.

You know that scene at the end of Saving Private Ryan?

I know what you mean.

He. He goes to spoilers a graveyard. And, you know, it's about somebody who basically saved his life. And then he asked his family. He's like, have I.

Have I been a good man? Or if I had a good life, like, did I earn this guy sacrificing himself for me? Yeah, heavy stuff.

And who decides that? At the end of the day, that's it.

And. And in our culture we're in now, oh, everyone loves to judge. He said, oh, this guy's wrong. He shouldn't be doing that. You shouldn't think that.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's. It's.

The worrying thing is that we care too much about those sort of things, what other people think.

And also it's everyone else's life, not theirs. So why do they have such.

Why do you care about what people don't know you think either?

So I. 8 Out of 10. Beautiful film. I didn't know they made films like this anymore, and I heartily recommend it, but I would watch it alone.

So, yeah, I'm similar. Didn't know anything about this movie, but Darren, you bastard. This had made me blubbering several times.

Well, I was thinking about both of you when I was watching this. He has a daughter and you both have a daughter. And I'm thinking, this is going to hit both of them.

Yeah. That fire when, like, he starts having visions of what. What's going on with them. They're just like, she's passed.

There was a one where she's passed out from the smoke. And it's just the girl, a little girl, going, mama.

Yeah.

Yeah. I was gone. I was.

It was all kind of just daydreams.

Just the thought of, like. Like just them dying, that was horrendous. And I just. That stuck with me for quite a while after I watched that. But that's still.

It's good storytelling.

It's.

It's. It's. It's well put together and it's. It. Did you say this is from a book?

It was a novella. So, like a short book. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Good.

Just.

Well.

Just well written. And the way they've brought that to life, the imagery is very impactful. And.

Yeah, it took me longer than usual to get an idea of what this movie was about when I sort of got the image, but after about halfway through, I was like, this isn't really about anything. This is about what. Just what you see. So you get.

It's the atmosphere of it.

Once I understood that, like, I think I appreciate it even more. And then when you say, yeah, they've done it in 29 days. And just the main character, obviously, I wasn't familiar with him, but I thought it was.

He was fantastic. The chemistry between the character, like, he was. Certain people who he wasn't.

Like, they weren't in his life for long, but the camaraderie were there and it was just good. Well cast.

I thought the guy from the shop.

Oh, he was a sweetheart. And also because Joel Edgerton's character was kind. Yeah. And. And I did wonder if there was much racism towards that shopkeeper.

But because Joel wasn't. He looked out for him a little bit more. Yeah. Like, honestly, being kind is the best thing to be.

Absolutely. I think if you always give out good things, help people go out of your way, you're only going to get good things back.

And then when you get something negative back, that's on them, not on you,.

Which is what karma is. It's not that there's going to be divine retribution or justice. It's like if you throw out kind, it bounces back to you. It just does.

Agreed. So, yeah, I'm similar. I'm gonna give it an 8 as well.

Nice.

Over to you, Paul.

Okay. I was undecided as I was watching it.

Yeah.

And I think it's similar what you said. Matt. It took me a little bit to get the tone and then I realized, yeah, this is more about the, the feeling of the film, the meditation of life.

That's what kind of won it for me. I mean, the bit in the middle where he lost his wife and kid. I was like, screw this film to help.

Damn you.

And he keeps, he keeps going.

Yeah, and. And I think at first I was like, well, I'm done with this film. This is just too much. Because I love Felicity Jones. I love the relationship.

I should have known it was coming when he said, and he didn't know they were the great times he was living in or something like, they better not screw with the one. And they did. So, yeah, all them thoughts. And to be honest, talking about it today has made me appreciate it even more since I watched it.

And I probably wasn't in the right mood to watch it either because I was just, just really busy weekend, try to fit it in. Very tired, but it calmed me down. I've been running very fast. Busy, busy schedule.

And it kind of calmed me down and it made me lust for that life of just cabin by the woods. Sitting there with Felicity Jones. I can't really add much to more than what you both said.

When I read the fact around how quickly they shot, it's like, that's impressive to get them kind of shots in that time because don't forget, there'll been weather and everything else. The set, we, you know, all the other bits that we kind of always take for granted. The sets, the time, the production value of it all.

What was I going to give it? I've been fluctuating on the score because I hate giving it a score. I might give it slightly lower than you two. I think I'll give it 7.5.

But it is a really beautiful movie. And I think if I'm in the right mood, like you clearly were when you watched it, I think this is going to hit even harder.

Like if you, if you live alone and you don't have family, you could watch this on Christmas Day, I think, yeah, you could watch it on your birthday if you're on your own, because.

It's got the hobby. But the other thing is, is it going to bring you down? Because it is this sort of passing of time and it makes you go, what am I doing with my life?

I didn't feel that because he doesn't do that much when he does stuff. It's just about living. And I don't. I think it makes us feel seen and not alone. Yeah, because there's this guy and he's. He's quiet.

Dignity and strength at dealing with travesty. I just think that we're also just extreme now where it's like on Facebook, some people do really vague comments. Oh, what's going on, babe? DM me.

So you'll never believe what happened today. Oh, what happened today?

Just live on a heart in the word and let the people in the town talk about you.

Right. You know what you've taught me around. Let's have a 7.7. I'm gonna go 7.7. Just. Just for the wisdom that's in. I think some people are gonna hate it.

Don't get me wrong.

Why?

It won't be for everybody.

I don't think for everyone. But it really is a nice meditation and good slow down film.

There's no. But there's also no mismarketing on this film. Like if someone's watching it who doesn't like it, it. Why? What drew you to it?

It's like going to Pizza Hut and being annoyed. They sell pizza.

Yeah, exactly.

Like you're watching the wrong movie.

Cinematography alone's worth watching just to see it pop on your screens.

Acting's phenomenal.

Acting as well. Yeah, of course.

And I would imagine they probably took a bit of a pay cut because it's a great script.

I would think quite possibly. So there you go.

I can't imagine this being a massive budget there either. No, no.

It's funded by Netflix and things, isn't it?

It's just one of those pieces made for love. Because how do you pitch this? Yeah, How'd you go to a studio like, okay, I got this movie, this guy.

It's very exciting.

Yeah, it's like a warm blanket. It's a hot chocolate.

Okay, so that puts it in. Well, that gives it 23.7. Decent score of a maximum of 30. And that puts it in 18th. So it's just above Devil West, Prada and any of the state.

And it's just below History of Violence and Predator.

I forgot we did history with violence. We've been doing a lot of films.

We've now. So we're not on 66.

Guys, don't be shocked if you go back to some of our earlier podcast episodes and you realize the format is completely different and the rules are different.

Well, we've just developed it along the way, haven't we? With tweaks and things.

We didn't used to score it, did we?

No, we didn't in the very early days. And Then we did a bonus episode, scoring them all.

No, we will. We put it on our socials. Do you want us to score the movies? Because it felt like sometimes we would inadvertently give it a score.

So then we just put out there, and it was like 97% said yes. So we went with it. I don't mind doing it. The Legend League's quite interesting.

I wrestle with scores. I don't know why, but I should just call it.

Because you could watch it again in six months and it'd be different scores.

Yeah, it's because he's too nice.

But there is that as well. I have done that with films where we were on about the Fall Guy with Ryan Gosling. First time I watched it, I enjoyed it, but I was a bit like.

And then I watched it again recently, but I really got the tone of it this time, and I was like, you know what? This is absolutely brilliant.

And I would have given that completely different scores from viewing one to viewing two, completely watched it the second time thinking, you know what? I didn't quite get the tone of it. And I suppose this is like, this film, isn't it? It's very much about the tone.

So that's what we thought of Train Dreams, but we'd love to know what you thought. So send in your thoughts, your questions, and your comments on the movie, on the episode, and we'll read them out on the show. Oh.

So what do you think next? Listen. What, after this, after just listening to this episode, what would follow on?

One of our episodes would follow on nicely from this, do you think?

I think Secret Life, Walter Mitty, Castaway, Wonderful Life. It's a Wonderful Life.

Yes. That's a good shout.

Maybe even the one where Robin Williams, Robert De Niro, Awakenings.

That's one of my favorite films.

Yeah, maybe that.

So head into the back catalog and pick up one to follow after this. Okay, so that takes us on to part three, which is the listener lounge.

In part three, which we like to call the listener lounge, we have the lobby where we have your questions, your stories, and your comments. Sense. Then we ask our question of the week, and we finish off by revealing next week's movie. So into the lobby, I have a couple of emails.

All right, lads, Love the show. Listen every week, but I've got to call you out on your take on the beach.

Okay, that's fair.

What did we do?

He says, I actually think you massively undersold this film. It's one of those films that sticks with you for days after.

And I Don't think you gave it enough credit for that or how iconic it became or how influential it was at the time for accessibility of travel. Because we both said it.

You both mentioned.

Yeah, the last time you saw it. Because we definitely said it was influential at the time. Because I went around Southeast Asia and I think you did as well, didn't you?

Yeah. So I don't think I would have done it or it wasn't. It wasn't a done thing until this movie came out. It just sort of cemented people's thoughts.

Some people did it, but obviously there's no social media, so documenting it was virtually impossible. But this movie was almost a document of people doing that.

So clearly you haven't sold it enough.

Yeah, well, what did we. Where is it? Let's have a look.

I think it was mid on it. I think so.

It's 49th. We gave it 16.9.

Oh, that's not great.

So we didn't. Overall, I know you rated it quite low.

Yeah. I can't remember why.

I didn't know. I didn't think it was as good as I remembered it.

I was somewhere in the middle of it.

Yeah, you're in the middle. So it is what it is. But yeah, that's fair.

That's what we might do. Kind of a year anniversary or something is we could do a listener vote for which ones do to want you.

Your.

Which ones do you disagree with us and which films you want us to revisit.

Maybe.

Maybe once a year we do that.

Could be bonus episodes for the Patreon one day. Okay. But he goes on to say, that said, I still enjoyed the episode more than the movie. So what do I know? Keep the debates coming. That's half the fun.

Cheers. And that's Ryan from Salford.

Thanks for how sweet.

One more we have. It says hi guys. Love the pod. I love when people say that. I just wanted to say I was enjoying your Frankenstein episode, but I had to pause.

I had to pause it straight after the nutshell as you had completely sold me on it. I was on the fence with it as it. As it was. So you gave me the nudge I needed.

I ended up watching it that night, came back the next day and finished the episode and honestly, the rest of the episode hit completely differently knowing. Knowing what you guys were talking about. I've listened to a lot of your episodes having not seen the movie.

But now I'm going to try and make an effort to make sure I've seen the movie first before listening. Unless it's something I read, that really doesn't sound like a tickets for me.

That's cool.

The whole structure you have really works so well. Keep them coming. You've cost me a lot of evenings recently.

Nice.

Sorry about that.

And that's from Lauren in Leeds.

Thanks. Lauren in Leeds.

Nice. That's cool.

I like that. That's. Getting emails like that makes me feel really good.

That's, you know, that's the idea of the podcast, isn't it? It's. It's hitting the. Hitting the.

Trying to provide a service. We're not just aimless ramblings about movies.

Thanks, Lauren.

There we go. Question of the week. So let's have a recap from the last time. Which movie franchise had the biggest impact on culture or society? The main one.

This time I've got another couple, but I'll read them on another episode because this one's quite long. Next to Star wars, the Marvel, the mcu Marvel Comic Cinema. Sorry, is it Marvel Cinematic Universe.

That's right, is arguably the most culturally influential film franchise of the modern era. Not just because of its popularity, but because it fundamentally changed how entertainment works.

It also changed how audiences engage with media. Fans don't just watch, they analyze, theorize and follow long term storylines across films and TV shows.

Platforms like Disney expanded this even further, blending cinema and television into one continuous narrative. Financially, the MCU reshaped.

Hollywood studios now prioritize interconnected franchises and big intellectual properties, trying to replicate Marvel's success culturally. It made superheroes the dominant mythology of our time, turning characters like Iron Man, Captain America and Black Panther into global icons.

In short, MCU didn't just succeed within the system, it rewrote the system itself.

Do I go further than that? I'm curious about this because it feels like everyone talks about mental health right now. And I'm really curious about the impact of the MCU on that.

That because you go back to it and it started easy at small with like Iron man having alcoholism and PTSD basically. And then we see Thor have depression and, and really let himself go.

And then you go through these movies and people are the people we would you Normally look up to and see as superheroes are broken and identified to a certain extent by their pain. I just watched another movie I really can't remember. It's called. Is it Thunder something?

Thunderbolts.

Thunderbolts, Yeah. I watched that again. And that's all about depression. Like, it opens where and she's basically talking, killing herself.

And the, you know, the bad guy is just a guy with really, really bad depression.

And then it manifests basically and decides that everyone is just wants to be in this black void of depression and starts putting them there and forces people to face their worst memories and things. And I'm just like, has that done more damage than good?

It was great early days because it raised awareness and it was like, hey, it's okay to talk about your emotions because Iron man can do it and Thor does it and, you know, it's okay. But now I'm like, yeah, I'm curious.

And that was from Pete Pemberton. Hey, Pete regulars. The show.

So, yeah, thanks for sticking with us, Pete. And yeah, he's right. It's. And you said Marvel when we asked the question last week, don't you. I can't disagree with that.

We said before. There was another. I saw this online. Don't. He said it. But the most consistent franchise is Mission Impossible. Because it's. You kind of.

It's consistent in what way?

In terms of quality. Like, Marvel Cinematic Universe has some crap.

Films within it, but like James Bond as well.

Yeah, but it's got some great. So it's probably got some tens. It's really got some twos players. Mission Impossible is usually like fives and sixes.

It's just mediocre.

Yeah, fives and sixes.

No, fives and sixes can be good.

Get out of here.

I haven't seen a single one.

What? I've only seen that one.

What? What's wrong with you both?

I'm not saying I don't want to. I'm not knocking it.

If only someone recommend one.

Well, maybe I will recommend them all.

So there we go. Thank you very much. Takes us on to the question of the week. Which do you watch Movie trailers. Yes or no. And why?

Why do you watch them or why do you not watch them?

Movie trailers.

Okay, let us know and we'll read them out next week on the show or whenever we get enough replies in. Okay, that takes us on to the final act of the episode, next week's movie, which is Mr. Paul Day, where we're going, what we're doing.

So we've Obviously done quite serious film this week. Very recently we did a film that Darren really enjoyed.

Well, we all enjoyed called Velocirapasta Past Pasta which featured the worst dinosaur effects we've ever seen in our lives.

The only chuckle I got was when we first saw it in full.

If you, if you haven't listened to the episode, please listen to our pain. So I think it's time that one. I love blockbuster movies and never seem to pick them that often.

On this I picked Star wars, so I know.

And it was like I picked Star wars. So I want to pick a blockbuster. I want dinosaurs done right. You can probably see where I'm going with these two things.

Okay, I want to go to 93, I want to go to Spielberg and I want to go to Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park.

Oh, welcome.

It is Jurassic Park. Weird that we could see where you were going. It's crazy that there's not that many movies that would immediately spring to mind.

Yeah, it's kind of the go to for dinosaur. I mean it's had billion spin offs now and sequels and whatever.

But what are the ones are other than anything Jurassic park.

You'd have to go back to like Lost Valley, the dinosaurs or something crazy or Doug McClure with some kind of.

I mean there's a few, isn't there? Where there's like Kong has dinosaurs, Skull island and things like that. Which are probably going to be our comparable comparisons next time.

But yeah, let's go back to Jurassic park which kind of broke the mold and in effects and everything else.

And it's Spielberg so it should be good Spielberg.

I love making a Spielberg. How's that sound?

Okay, next week's movie is the classic Jurassic Park.

I love movies where they say the title of the movie in it. And I bet he said. I'm sure he says welcome to Jurassic Park.

He does say that.

Yeah.

Well, yeah, he does.

In the Rock, Sean Connery says welcome to the rock.

He said the thing. He said the thing.

So now I've offended Americans and Scottish people. Let's keep going. Going. Give me an accent.

Carry on.

Welcome to the. I can't even do it.

Okay, next week's movie is Paul's choice, Jurassic Park. And that brings us to the end of the show. Thanks for listening.

We really do appreciate you taking out time out of your busy lives to spend it some time with us. If you enjoyed the episode, please tell a friend, share the show, help us grow and allow us to keep carry on doing it.

If you can think of just one fellow movie fan who would enjoy this show or this episode. Episode, Please send them our way. Okay, that is it. This episode is officially over. This is Mark saying goodbye.

And this is Darren saying goodbye. For now.

We are married. All we need now is a ceremony to prove it.

I will mock your accent. You're correct.

Thanks.

It was better than yours.

I know. We're seriously.