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And now, back to our regularly scheduled program. Salutations! Welcome to Podmortem. I'm Renee Hunter-Vosquez, joined as always by my co-host, my husband and my brother. Hi, I'm John Paul Vasquez. Hi, I'm Travis Hunter-Syappan. This week, we are recording live from an ill-fated elevator discussing the 2010 supernatural horror film, Devil. This film was directed by John Eric Dowdle and written by Brian Nelson with the story by M. Night Shyamalan.
Though often mistaken as the director of Devil, Shyamalan would serve as the producer for what was supposed to be the first installment of The Night Chronicles. Despite the unceremonious cancellation of the following two films, this film utilizes its committed cast, confined setting, and compelling twisty story. While Devil was a box office success, it was met with mixed reviews and this consensus continues. Still, love it or hate it, it's hard to deny that Devil is a fun time.
This film was requested to us by friends of the show. Kristen Loftin, Brittany Seaman, Noreen S, Megan Martinez, Probably My Jugs, Scott Troutman Wise. Beth Bauer, Topher Williams, Donna Eason, Megan M, Brandon Brown, Erica Thompson, and Jennifer Kuhn.
We want to thank each and every one of them for their support, as well as the suggestion. This film was also the winner of our December Patreon poll. So thank you to all of our patrons who participated and voted. If you want to help us pick an episode, join us over on Patreon at patreon.com. I don't remember the exact first time. you know exactly but i know babe you showed me this movie that sounds right yeah i don't think i even knew about this movie um watching it i do remember that i
Did not like the movie. I won't say that I had a distaste for the movie, but I just was like, what the hell was that? Like, what are you showing? What was that? Watching it for the show, I will say that I enjoyed it a bit more. I did enjoy it more than I did the first time. Being that said, I think this is maybe the second time I've watched the movie. Okay.
I mean, yeah, it is a fun movie. There is dialogue. There is some stuff that I don't enjoy that's just kind of like, that's really there. But I mean... I think there are some things that work and some things that don't work for me. So there is about a point where I'm like, I'm probably... checking out or I've already checked out to where I'm just watching but it just kind of I think in watching it without stopping I think it's a fun time
It is a fun time just to kind of like put on and, you know, throw a beer at the TV and say, oh, what is that? Or, you know, but. It's very specific. My TV's broke. I did break the TV. After this film? Yeah. No, I do remember seeing this in theaters. I'm pretty sure you saw it with me, Nay. Okay. I don't remember. Well, maybe. It could be. It was 2010. Yeah. So I was 19 years old. I feel like I had a lot of nostalgia for this film going back into rewatching it. Okay.
Because I remember we used to watch it a lot. and then there was a large gap of years that i did not and it was this october for my attempt at the 31 halloween films thing that i absolutely failed oh same yeah i wanted to re-watch it again yeah And re-watching it, I was like, huh. Like a good, huh? Like a mid, huh? Because, look, there's a lot of things that I really, really like about this film. I really like this kind of...
isolated, as close as you can get to a single location without being a single location film. I like that claustrophobic feeling for these characters and how the tension just rises. It is very... reminiscent of some elements of some of my favorite films in that way yeah not the same of course not to the same level i don't want you know
the thing, you know, how you feel that feeling of tension rising in one space and you're just like, oh, this is terrifying. Yeah, this is exactly as scary and as good as the thing. See, that's what I didn't want. Don't attribute that to me at all. I would never say that. I don't think that's what happened. No, I'm getting my lawyer involved. We will not put that to my name. Now you make me want to pivot to the things I don't want.
I actually hate this movie. There's more that I like, but I don't even want to talk about it anymore. No, I like the score. Yeah. There's some good camera work that I did appreciate quite a bit. Interesting movements. Yeah. Even the set. design the production design is actually pretty good yeah and the cast and performances yeah the cast is honestly surprising some of the people they get there is someone that is in this film for maybe not even a minute and a half
And I'm like, I can't even believe that you're in this film. Okay. And we'll talk about that in a minute. Okay. Well, several minutes. Yeah, in a while. But I actually also enjoy the twist. Okay. I think my problem with it, and we talked about this off mic, is the setup for the twist does not work for me. The twist itself, the moment of it, pretty cool. So it's a mixed bag there. But...
I think it's exactly as you said. There are some moments in the screenwriting where it is literally the only thing you can say is, really? Like, that's what you're using as an example of this? Yeah, and I'll be honest. Oh my God. I like the whole tight space. Yes. I like that. I think it's just stuff that happens around that.
And I also like this kind of almost like a frame of folklore. Right. I like that a lot. It's just those strange moments. I got to be honest, I. understand that that this film is very mixed as you put in your intro that the reception was even mixed and i have to admit Any complaint that someone has about this film, I would probably, yeah, I probably agree with. But the thing is, is that I have a lot of fun with it still. Yeah. And I, it's, the runtime is absurdly short. Yeah.
This is absolutely a film that is just fun to watch and you can rewatch it and just have a good time every single time. Yeah. i it's funny because you saying anything that somebody could say they have a problem with or whatever you're like yeah i agree yeah like i'm like yeah it has a lot of problems yeah there are moments And there is dialogue that's literally laughable. But even the moments that are, and I always have trouble with this, objectively, subjectively, fill in the blank, not good.
I still have so much fun with them. So, I mean, this film is just so enjoyable for me all the way around. The good moments are very satisfying. There are kind of creepy moments, especially some stuff. that we see towards the very end.
really really works for me and then the moments where you're like oh why would you it's it's still funny like i'm still laughing because i can't believe that y'all wrote that and then filmed it and then edited it and they were like no yeah they need this in it like it's so funny to me i think another thing that really shocks me about this film especially as i was watching it last night is that it was rated pg-13 yeah there's a lot of stuff in here that
They're pushing that. Yeah. Pretty heavily, I thought, because whenever I think of like a PG-13, like things are, you know, you cut away. Yeah. There's some actual like grisly deaths in this film. Yeah. That you linger on quite a bit. Yeah. But yeah, like I said earlier, I don't remember the first time that I saw this. I remember loving it, though. And I remember watching it a lot, a lot, a lot watching it a lot.
and i was like smiling through the intro and i hope it wasn't too audible but i'm like i'm so happy that we're covering this because this one is so much fun and it really is like a um tim burton nightmare before christmas situation where m night did not direct this no uh and he didn't write the screenplay either but i feel like his fingerprints are kind of all over this and i feel like even
I'm getting some reactions. I feel like even the stuff with M night that doesn't work for everybody. Most of it does work for me. so i don't know this i just really love this movie a lot and i will be the first one to admit i even in my script i'm like no what what are we doing here but i just really do even the moments of ridiculousness and they they the film is very weird and there are multiple moments like that, but we're like pretending that we're not doing that.
Like we're pretending that it's still a serious movie. Yeah. I don't know how to explain it. Normally that would piss me off. But this I'm like, this is so funny. I don't know. It just devil just really does it for me. I think it's just so much fun. But this isn't. horror comedy no horror comedy that's the thing it's a horror movie we're laughing out loud oh yeah
So I did want to get into production before we blissfully jump in to devil. But unfortunately, I could not find a lot. We used the Blu-ray. The special features did not really offer anything. I had to go like I was reading stuff on the Wayback Machine. Like this was a hard one to research.
That is interesting that there wasn't a lot for you guys to kind of dig into. Yeah. I think especially for who is involved. Yeah. You'd expect a lot more. And maybe it is because of the fact that it didn't go anywhere. Maybe, but still, this movie itself.
you know you would think at the time yeah and not only that the cast yeah and it's 2010 it's not like it's 1910 like it shouldn't there should just be more there'd be more stuff on 1910 Anyway, so as I said in the intro, Devil was meant to be the first installment of The Night Chronicles, initially conceived as three films, but we never got the other two.
Basically, M. Night said that it takes him about a year and a half to make a film and he's constantly getting ideas. He has notebooks just full of ideas. And within the year and a half that he's making one movie, he's getting these new ideas and there's no way. for him to make everything. So he's like, what if he gives those ideas to up and coming filmmakers and comes on himself as a producer?
He described himself as a goalie. He says that he hires the team to score as many points as they can, but if someone tries to get something by his team, he's there to stop the puck. That's fair. Yeah. So with that in mind, we're going to move on to how he got the idea for Devil. While being interviewed, he was talking about the expectations that are created when you're able to sell a movie on your name alone, which I think.
he is uniquely able to comment on. I mean, good or bad, people say, oh, it's an M. Night movie, you're gonna get a reaction. So he said, for example, if you were presented with Alfred Hitchcock's The Elevator, you know exactly what you're gonna get. he's just saying this casually in an interview so that night in his hotel room he was like wait the elevator he's like that's kind of a great idea
So he develops this story. Very simple premise. I don't want to, I mean, it's in the title, but you know, whatever. I don't want to give it away yet, but we'll get to it. So let's now circle back to this concept of the Night Chronicles. He said that he felt like the only way one of his stories would qualify for being an installment of the Night Chronicles was if it physically hurt him to give it away instead of.
directing it himself and he said that he felt that way about three of his stories and devil was the first one we will talk about the other two in a moment So Devil's going to be the first installment of The Night Chronicles, but we still need a director and someone to adapt a proper screenplay. So M. Night happens to watch this movie called The Poughkepski Tapes.
He absolutely loves it. He says that it traumatized him and it was directed by John Eric Dowdle and written by him and his brother, Drew Dowdle. So M. Night is immediately intrigued and watches Quarantine that these brothers also collaborated on. It was the remake of Wreck and John Eric again. directed it yeah so m night is like these are my guys this is who i want to be at the helm for devil so john eric is brought on as director and drew is brought on as executive producer
These two would also go on to make As Above So Below in 2014, which we were all pleasantly surprised by. Yeah. And it's so interesting because those three films you mentioned are kind of of the same ilk and don't feel or look anything like Devil. Not at all. Yeah. I was going to say, because I know we've watched those tapes.
And then we watched, or I've seen Quarantine a few times on my own. And I really like that. And I don't feel that here. No, and as Above, So Below was really a gem, honestly. Returning to the devil. Return to the W. But then the screenplay was adapted by Brian Nelson, who adapted the screenplay for 30 Days of Night in 2007 and wrote Hard Candy in 2005. Oh, wow. Which I've got on record as. I love that movie.
But now, as I said, Devil was supposed to be the first in a series of three. The third, from what I've read, was an exploration in the Unbreakable universe, which M. Night would eventually turn into Split. Oh, okay. The second was literally announced. It had a title and a director. It was called Reincarnate, which from what I've read was a twisted horror take on 12 Angry Men.
That's interesting. Yeah. Directed by Daniel Stamm, who did The Last Exorcism. Yeah. Oh, OK. Yeah. And it was announced and everything. I watched. Like I said, there wasn't a lot. So I was literally watching red carpet interviews. And he was like, yeah. M. Night was so excited about it.
Everybody's like, what happened to it? Like, it just didn't happen. Yeah. What confuses me the most is that it's not like this film wasn't financially successful. I don't understand. I don't know what happened. And this idea of kind of bolstering up. Up and coming directors having his name and his money attack. I mean, the name maybe because it was around this time when.
avatar right i believe and you know whatever but i mean even so his name whether you are hate watching it or watching it it's gonna get asses in the seats like i don't i really don't get what happened yeah and frankly i am devastated that we didn't get honestly That sounds fucking cool. Yeah. And wasn't there, wasn't Brad Pitt with the weird eye in that monkey movie? Didn't he do the 12 whatever it was?
I know kind of what you're talking about. I was waiting for what you got. 12 Angry Men is very different. Now, before we get stuck with this film, we would like to issue a warning for spoilers. Podmortem is a very in-depth podcast and in thoroughly discussing horror films, we have no choice but to spoil a thing or two. if you don't wish to be spoiled please go watch the film then come back and enjoy the show if you've already seen the film or don't care about spoilers then let's pray
Before the film begins, we get a card for the Night Chronicles and a bright beacon of the number one cutting through the darkness of the screen. This is... Sad. Yeah. Extra heartbreaking all these years later. Yeah. It was hard, too, because on all the special features, they were talking about how excited they were for this kind of like series. And on the red carpet, M. Night was going on and on about there's at least three, at least three. And just like.
knowing in the future that like no that's not true at all it's a bummer you sang at least three i i read this interview with dowdle and he was talking about the night chronicles as a whole and he had said he was like yeah and if they you know i don't know if they
plan they're probably gonna do this for like 40 years he said and it's like damn yeah it makes me really sad because i the the concept of it i i really think is brilliant it looks really cool too when you see it even not knowing what it is i feel like i was able to get that out of that there's a card there's a number oh we're gonna get more more yeah and why not just do like this would make a perfect entry to like even if we want to turn it into a tv anthology series
Yeah. If you have that many ideas. It's not too late, M. Night, is what I'm trying to say. Or whoever stopped him. It's not too late. But once it fades away, we are met with text. Be sober. Be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Peter 5, 8.
We soar over blue and tranquil water upside down as a narrator tells us that when he was little, his mother would tell him a story about how the devil roams the earth. And sometimes he would take a human form. to punish the damned on earth before claiming their souls. The ones that he chose would be gathered together and tortured as he hid, pretending all along to be one of them. The narrator admits that he thought his mother was telling him an old wives tale.
Finally, we end our journey over the water with a musical sting as we pan up to discover Philadelphia, also upside down. We get the title in white over the city, Devil. This is fantastic. I appreciate the symbolism of the camera work. As if Earth is hell and the devil walks among us. I like the score. Yeah. Honestly frightening once we see Philadelphia and it's like, you thought. Flip-a-duff in. Yes. No shit. Yes.
A dramatic score begins as we soar over the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, still upside down. As the credits roll and the score continues, we travel over Philadelphia, scanning over monuments and skyscrapers. We pause over the top of a building before plunging down into the fans. We glide through the ventilation system and into the elevator shaft where we free fall past a suspended car. We finally turn right side up before exiting. and gliding out onto a tiled floor.
We continue our hastened pace as the score dies down and the narrator joins us again, sharing that his mother's story would always begin the same way. A suicide, paving the way for the devil's arrival. and it would always end with the death of all those that were trapped. We travel along the shiny floor, slowing at the business end of a floor buffer. Old janitor, played by Rudy Webb, reaches beneath and pulls out a clog.
He slides the obstruction into his pocket and stands, the city in view through the wall of windows behind him. With his yellow ear protectors on, he doesn't hear the crash of a body falling from above, crashing the top of a van. parked on the other side and blowing out its windows. The van rolls forward, but the custodian continues his cleaning unknowingly. We hover above the buffer before cutting to a diner.
So is this one of the first times that we've seen this gag? Because it's kind of become overdone and cliche. That's true. Yeah. But watching it, I was like, I think this might be the first time that I've seen this in my life. Yeah. That's a really good point, actually. And it is jarring. It is. Like, I feel like this journey that we've taken through the city, through the, you know, like the under.
belly of the building and everything and then finally coming up for air and then that happens yeah it for me was very um effective yeah And to start the film that way. Yeah, I wasn't expecting that. No. Because we did, like you're saying, that cool little, the camera work, we're flying everywhere, and then we get there, and then that does happen. That did surprise the shit out of me.
And the narrator telling it is like, my mom always told it the same way and it's this and that. I'm like, did your mom like hate you or something? I feel like, dude, but like parents be saying weird shit sometimes when you're little and you're like with the devil beating as well. I guess it's just an interesting story to tell. It just happened.
In the mostly empty diner, two men sit at a booth. One of them, Detective Bowden, played by Chris Messina, assures Henry, played by Vincent Laresca, that he's good. He feels amazing. So Chris Messina, I didn't recognize him, but I know that you do, baby. He was in Sharp Objects in 2018. So was. It looks like he also did Away We Go in 2009, Argo in 2012, and Ruby Sparks in 2012 as well. I feel like he truly gives his all in this. I think that he does a really good job. He does.
He was recently in The Boogeyman, the new one. Yeah. And I think that he is good in everything that he's in. Yeah. And Sharp Objects. Oh, my God. Great book. Great show. Just fantastic. Maybe a future PMTV. I would love it. But Henry chuckles at this. He asks Bowden if he knows the main reason why people go back to drinking. While Bowden admits that he doesn't know, Henry invites him to guess.
Bowdoin chuckles that it could be the Eagles, but sipping his coffee, Henry gives him the real answer. Resentment. So he's not talking about the band, right? It's probably like a team or something. It's like we all love Hotel California. And when they don't play it, it upsets us. It's really upsetting. But Bowden asks if they're seriously talking about this again.
Henry insists that it's important. Bowdoin's ability to forgive is what's going to affect the course of the rest of his life more than anything else. And, you know. We were talking a little bit earlier off mic about how we don't know how necessary this scene is because some of the stuff that we learn in it, we learn kind of in a more interesting way later. But that line.
It does make a lot of sense. It is a little tell don't show by literally saying this is your arc, sir. Yeah. Listen, I feel like when enough shit happens. Even those kind of clunky and like heavy handed, whatever. If enough shit happens in between and you do it early enough, I will forgive it because I don't remember that. I forgot he said that until we're just reading it right now. OK, fair enough. You know. A lot happens. It does. This next one's bad, though.
The detective's lightheartedness dissolves as he shifts in the booth under the weight of his sudden discomfort. He tells Henry stoically that some things are beyond forgiveness. But Henry counters that Bowdoin is already on his way. More than half the battle is taking responsibility for his actions. And he's already done that. He maintains, though, that to feel truly free, Bowden may need to finally start believing in something greater than himself.
Bowdoin allows that that does sound good, but when he thinks about the guy that killed his family, he has a tough time believing in much of anything. Now, I will give you that. Thank you. I will give you that. we could have saved for later yes keep the scene keep the conversation maybe don't be that expository
in that instance. Right. Because you're just, you're getting everything. Yeah. And again, we learn it in a much, like a heavier way. Yes. This would have been cool to kind of breadcrumb it and be like, what happened?
we're we it's fucking 70 minutes long 80 minutes long we're gonna find out you know yeah there's even a moment later where it's vaguely hinted at but they don't say it right yeah and that leads to that really good moment and you're like man if all of that was there yeah but this wasn't yeah yeah
But Henry asks him to just leave himself open to it. Leaning back in the booth, Bowden asks if they can maybe just have breakfast for once and talk about normal stuff. But Henry reminds Bowden that he's his sponsor. He can talk about. normal stuff with everybody else. The score pulses as we join Bowden, ducking under crime scene tape. He's greeted by Detective Markowitz, played by Joshua Peace, who stands waiting for him in front of that van with the crushed top.
On it, we see the briefest glimpse of a limp and outstretched hand. Markowitz tells Bowden that he's got a good one for him as they approach. He points up to the hand, and when Bowdoin boosts himself up to look, we see it in the forefront. The skin appears bruised and discolored, with blood pooling under the thumbnail, but still in its loose grip are rosary beads. We shift our focus from the hand to Bowden, taking in the scene.
His eyes lift from the body on top of the van to the ledge of the building above. From on the ground, Markowitz mentions that it doesn't make sense for the guy to hit the truck with this kind of force from a two-story building. Bowden is positive that he was a jumper, but Markowitz wonders if he wasn't pushed. Bowden points out that the deceased has a rosary in his hand. That's not something you grab in a panic. And Markowitz agrees.
Bowdoin climbs back down the side of the truck, just as Elsa Nahai, played by Caroline Diverna, struts over the back of her jacket, marking her as part of the forensics team. I was so surprised to see Caroline Daverna here. She's Dr. Alana Bloom on Hannibal. oh very nice and i hannibal came like three years after this movie but she was already in a lot of films a lot of spots on tv shows and she's barely in this film she's built like if you go on imdb she's billed super high yeah
And we barely see her. It's kind of surprising. She's great. Yeah. She should have had more. Yeah. But she strolls by and she and Bowden greet each other a little flirtatiously. But Bowden settles back down, looking at the ground where a small amount of water runs in a steady stream against the concrete.
As he walks away from the scene, he bids Markowitz to follow, revealing that he noticed there's no glass on the ground. That means the truck wasn't here when the impact was made. It must have rolled. An officer lifts the crime scene tape for them to step out onto the street. We pan up a giant skyscraper, its glass exterior reflecting the passing clouds, and Bowden identifies it as the building that the man jumped from.
Indicating the alley they've just come from, Markowitz asks if Bowdoin means to say the dead guy turned the corner. But Bowdoin points to the bumper set up between the concrete dividers marking off a construction area. He mentions these are for cars. to bounce off of. Incredulous, Markowitz mutters that he's gotta be kidding, but Bowden isn't. He tells Markowitz to walk it with him.
You see where the truck made contact. Yeah, I was going to say, you see it there. He's like, you're fucking joking. Marco, are you really a detective? He's got the mustache. He's a detective. We look up at the foreboding building, impossibly tall at this severe angle. In front of it stands Mechanic, played by Logan Marshall Green, his hood pulled up and a red duffel bag slung over his shoulder.
He looks around suspiciously as Salesman, played by Jeffrey Arend, saunters by in his suit, glancing at passing women, but looking up at the building with a gulp just before passing through its doors. So Jeffrey Arend.
I know we all remember him from Super Troopers. Yes. That was 01, of course. It looks like he was also in Garden State in 04, The Ringer in 05, and 500 Days of Summer in 09. Oh, yeah. Okay. I will say, every time I see... jeffrey errand i have two thoughts the first is the snozzberries taste like snozzberries from super troopers and the second is i cannot believe that he was married to christina hendrix for 10 years yeah yeah it
I'm floored every time. I love her so much. I'm floored every time I think about her. But watching, like I said, those red carpet interviews and stuff, he said that he got married. He didn't say her name or anything, but he was like, I got married about two weeks before we started shooting this. Oh, wow. So this was like, this was. in that time okay yeah everything's coming up millhouse yeah for real dude and a fucking m night like vehicle yeah
And Logan Marshall Green. We talked about him in The Invitation. Yes. We all love him. Phenomenal. Yeah. And I will say, and this is ridiculous, but the game telling lies, okay? It's a Sam Barlow game. Go buy and play every Sam Barlow game ever made. They're all amazing. But it's like you're watching videos and they're talking to you and you're like scrubbing through videos and stuff. So I feel a personal connection to Logan Marshall Green because I feel like we have FaceTimed.
for hours just for playing that game that's right you that you were playing that game it's so good sam barlow is one to watch i love all of his games but logan marshall green i think severely underrated yeah He is incredible, even in this and even in the some moments of ridiculousness or whatever. He.
gives everything. Yeah. Everything that I've seen him in. Another film you both really need to see because he's fantastic and he's the lead. Lee Whannell's Upgrade. Okay. We got a few requests for that over the past like week. Interesting. Yeah. I've never seen it. Now, is this like a Million Dollar Man upgrade or like a Stay Alive upgrade? More towards Million Dollar Night. But you have to see it. It's probably for the best. Yeah, no shit.
But we follow salesmen into the lobby. And when a phone rings at the front desk, it's snatched up by guard played by Bo Keem Woodbine. Talk about underrated. I know, dude. This is another actor that I've seen constantly growing up, constantly. Dude was in all kinds of shit. And even looking at his IMDb, there's so much stuff. I just picked a few things that I remembered him from, but I know he did so much.
he was in dead presidents in 95 he did the big hit which for i hate to admit it but it was a big movie like fixation movie for me. I would watch that movie constantly. He was in Life in 99. Oh yeah. He also was in Spider-Man Homecoming in 2017. Okay. He was fucking fantastic in Fargo. the show okay oh my god he was one of the best parts of that whole season he's great he's amazing yeah i actually just saw him on ripley
Okay. The new TV show. I still need to watch that because Talented Mr. Ripley was one of my hyper fixation. Yeah, dude, it's so different. Really? Yeah, Jules told me to watch it. It's in black and white. Huh. It's fantastic. Okay. I will definitely check that out because I love, I know it's different. Yeah. I love the OG.
But we linger on the guard for a moment before catching back up with Salesman, who is consulting a directory. Our attention drifts to Old Woman, played by Jenny O'Hara, who looks around the space, confused. So Jenny O'Hara. Uh-huh. I recognize her immediately. It's Doug's mom. Yes! From King of Queens. King of Queens. It also looks like she did Wishmaster in 97 and Mystic River in 03. Oh, man.
love mystic river i don't think it qualifies but god damn i love that movie it's horrific it is but it is come on now we can only stretch so far But we glide past her to follow a well-dressed young woman, Sarah Carraway, played by Bojana Novakovich. She walks confidently past the front desk, but guard stops her, informing her that she needs to sign in. Now, I will address what we are calling these characters.
Names are very important and we will unlock them maybe or maybe we won't as we go along. But Sarah Carraway is the only one credited with a name. everybody else is like mechanic guard old woman whatever yeah that is interesting yeah But Sarah asks where Ramsey is because he knows her and guard informs her that Ramsey's out sick. So today she's got him and that means she needs to sign in.
Sarah goes back over to the front desk to get in line to sign in, where a salesman stands in the front, writing his name on the log. But she caresses Guard's arm as she goes, asking if she really looks like such a threat. Guard only maintains that they have procedures, but at the sight of this contact, salesman looks up with a grin. Finished signing in, he walks past guard with a woo, keep dreaming dog.
did not didn't like that so he's he's the asshole yeah but so far this just kind of seems like a normal day so far yeah everybody is being rude to each other or nice or they're just Massing everybody and minding their business and going where they're going. Yeah. I did want to talk about this opening sequence because I was just like applauding from my seat on the couch. Yeah. Because from that.
Low angle shot of the building twisting through all the way to introducing all of these characters. One long take. Yeah. It's very impressive. the coordination and the choreography that has to go in to do something like that i know it's not this 15 minute it isn't the haunting of hill house or anything no it's still really cool though still very fantastic
The cinematographer is a guy called Tak Fujimoto, who we've talked about quite a few times on this show. Okay. I think the first time was whenever we covered The Silence of the Lambs because he shot that. Oh! But... For M. Night, he shot The Sixth Sense. Hell yeah. Signs. And the happening. Hell yeah. A lesser hell yeah. It's not even a heck yeah. It's a yeah. Yep. Sure. But. Okay.
According to Dowdle, Fujimoto, and this is actually Fujimoto's last film before he retired. Oh, wow. His last released film, because I think I read that there was another film that he made that wasn't released. Okay. But. Dowdle said that Fujimoto got his start with Roger Corman and Corman gave him the advice whenever they worked together. He said the eye is the most sensitive organ and it gets bored very easily.
And I feel like he took that to heart with this film in particular. Yeah. Because it seems like the camera is always moving. There's always some interesting way to enter some kind of a scene or a situation. And this opening is the perfect demonstration of that. Yeah, it's very dynamic. And even like, because...
It is no secret. I don't think that we're going to be in a pretty confined space for most of this. But I think even in that confined space, they... it's still interesting to watch because a lot of time we're looking at somebody's point of view and like scanning and looking from person to person then we're in somebody else's point of view like it is very you can't get bored visually we're kind of all
Oh yeah. And they always seem to find a way. Yeah. Yeah. There's a, there's a few, I was talking to your sister. There's a few shots that. They are very interesting and cool to look at. And that makes sense because I don't ever feel like I was bored. Was I disappointed with some things? Yeah. Yeah. Well, Fujimoto had nothing.
to do with the story yeah the story is where he did his job yeah he did yeah he showed up he showed up hey But Guard looks after Salesman with mild annoyance, and instead of being deterred, he turns to the other security guard behind the desk, Donnelly, played by Craig Edridge. He tells him that he's going to have to handle the sign-ins because some lawyers on the 39th floor need the file he's holding right away.
He starts to walk away, but Donnelly follows, asking in disbelief if Gard is taking the stairs again. Guard shrugs, asking how else he's supposed to stay in shape. But Donnelly isn't laughing. He reminds Guard that it's 39 floors up. He tells him emphatically to just take the damn elevator. And I'm sorry, take the damn elevator.
Yeah, you would. You're going to leave me alone down here for 39 floors two ways as well? Yeah. Oh, I wasn't even thinking. I was just thinking, like, you would find me. Yeah, no, I'd be a hot skeleton. Probably around the third floor. Who left this skeleton here? But old woman and salesman are both waiting for an elevator. A friendly man played by Robert Lee stands in the front of an already pretty full car.
He invites them to come on, but Old Woman maintains that it's too tight for her. He proposes that they can squeeze in, but Old Woman only gives a definitive no. as the doors slide shut. He looked a little wounded. Yeah. Well, he was trying to be nice. He was. But just as those doors shut, another elevator dings behind them and those doors glide open to reveal an empty car.
Salesman opens his arm toward it, inviting old woman to get on first. She does, and he follows. But seemingly having thought better of his 39-floor track, guard doubles back and gets on too, still holding on to his file. He presses the button for his destination and the doors start to close. But when someone calls out for them to hold them, he does. It's Sarah, who thanks him slyly as she takes her place in the back of the elevator and requests for floor 40. too.
Guard obliges, commenting that this he can do. But when the doors start to close again, someone else requests for them to be held. Instead of being courteous like Guard had, salesman leans over to press the closed. doors button but mechanic reaches the door just in time to hold it open he steps inside thanking salesman sarcastically for his help salesman steps to the back of the elevator muttering don't mention it why was he trying to
I know. He's an asshole. Oh, okay. I mean, there's only four of y'all in there. There's so much room. I think every single time he... does anything it's just the screenplay just saying this is the guy that we this is the asshole yeah The doors finally slide shut and a polite Muzak version of the Pointer Sisters Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree cuts through the silence. I will say I remember this song being featured a lot more than it is.
Yeah, it's a few times and probably too much for the occupants of the elevator car, I would say. Yes, yeah. But it's not as much as I remembered. I remember it being such a crucial part. Okay. We don't get it that much, but I do love its inclusion. Yeah. Well, if you think about the apple tree. There was another. Yeah.
Another person in there? Oh. Or, well, thanks. There was somebody else. Yeah, he was knocking about. Johnny Appleseed? Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's an apple, too. That evil motherfucker. He damned us all. You From the back of the elevator, we are in the salesman's POV as he eyes Sarah in front of him. He watches as she flicks her dark hair away from her face and his gaze lingers on the gold bracelet around her wrist.
He follows down the long blue scarf draped over her shoulder and down her back. He peers at the heels beneath her tailored slacks. And when she tugs on the back of her jacket, his eyes linger on her ass. And when he looks back up, he's met with the disapproving and unwavering stare of the old woman standing next to him.
him he just shrugs at her judgment but faces forward he was caught there's nothing yeah he's like what can i do about it you already saw me doing it he didn't try to look around and pretend no I'm just looking at everything here. I'm just checking out the surroundings. A small red arrow indicates that they're ascending under a label that marks this as elevator six. So.
They've been doing a lot with numbers already. The building number is 333, half of 666. He was going to floor number 39, which is 13 times 3. Which is unlucky, I guess. She asked for floor number 42. Four plus two is six. Right. So they're doing a lot already, kind of subtly being like the devil's around. Yeah. that's definitely what it means I'm sure
Everyone stands in an amicable silence until the car lurches forward. The group stumbles, but straightens back up and salesman mutters that this isn't good. A bit more pleadingly, guard implores the elevator not to do. And the group eyes each other uncomfortably. In the security office, Lustig, played by Matt Craven, sits with his feet propped up watching hockey.
Matt Craven, we just talked about him in Jacob's Ladder. We did. It's kind of wild because I remembered him looking incredibly familiar on Jacob's Ladder and it must have been because of this. Probably. Ramirez played by Jacob Vargas comes in with coffee for both of them and when he asks how they're doing in the game Lustig reports sourly that it's the same score.
He thanks Ramirez for the coffee and starts to drink it, his eyes still focused on the game. So Jacob Vargas, I know this man from many things. He was in Ernest Goes to Camp. in 87. That's right. He also played Selena's brother, AB. He was in Selena in 97. That's right. He also was in Next Friday in 2000. He was also in Traffic. Fantastic movie in 2000 as well. He's done stuff. Like, I like this dude. But nothing here. Compromise. Yeah. Here, though. To the role of Ramirez.
Yes. This is a little different. This is quite different. Yes. He does well with what he's given. Right. I will say for the amount of moments that we get from this character, if there was going to be an M night cameo in this film, I think that he should have played this dude. I'll give you that. Right. Oh yeah. I just.
I just can't. I had to get myself under control because I was giggling just introducing this character. I'm getting excited to get to one scene that we quote. Constantly. Among the three of us all the time. This character and some of the things that he says, some of the, I was brought to tears with how hard I laughed. And again, it shouldn't, it shouldn't.
be like that should not be no and it should bother me but it just it adds to the charm of this because there are at least two instances where i had to pause it and get myself under control because i could not stop laughing I think for the things that he's saying, the things that he's sharing, the knowledge that he has, it really should be sternly serious. Yeah. Yeah. It's that. So it's wild. It's a wild ride.
But Ramirez sits behind the security screens and asks why elevator six is an inspection mode. This is news to Lustig, who scans indicators for each of the functional elevators, but finds that the one under elevator. is blank. He joins Ramirez behind the console and looks up at the monitor to find mechanic, guard, salesman, old woman, and Sarah standing inside.
He remarks that they've got a full house in the car with two queens and three jacks. He pulls the elevator footage up on a bigger screen. And when Ramirez suggests that he called Dwight, Lustig picks up the radio with no hesitation. Elsewhere, Dwight played by Joe Cobden picks up his own when Lustig reports that he's got a problem.
Dwight reports back that he's already up on 35, fixing the presumed problem, which has nothing to do with the stalled elevator. He stands next to a broken window, the wind whistling through. Lustig tries to clarify if he's talking about the elevator, but Dwight says he's talking about a broken window. Lustig asks again if he's not fixing the elevator because the screen shows it's an inspection mode and there are people in there.
Dwight is confused and radio is back for Lustig to make sure he's reading it right because his eyes ain't what they used to be. At this, Lustig and Ramirez share a look. And as Ramirez chuckles, Lustig fires back to Dwight that he'll ask his mom to read it for him next time he's got her bent over the console. I was like, that was an escalation.
He's like, your eyes are going bad. I fucked your mom in this office. In this office. Jesus. That's what he said. This is entering some established banter, I hope. Well, they're all like, how droll. They all laugh. No, we're talking to HR about this. There's a lack of decorum in the security office. But Dwight invites Lustig to have at it. His mom is 78. Lustig laughs and Ramirez grimaces at this.
Getting back down to business, thankfully, Lustig tells Dwight to go up to the machine room and check it out. And Dwight assures him that he's on his way. I will say, honestly, I forgot how fast. We get stuck in this elevator so fast. I know when they stop and everything and then they call him and he's trying to deal with this. But I do remember sitting here and I'm like, damn, this happened really quick.
When you think about it, what is it, before credits, it's like 74 minutes? Yes. So, I mean, they get through everything at a surprising pace and fit in a lot of shit. Yes. Back in the elevator shaft again, we look down at the stuck car before joining the group inside. Guard is frantically hitting the buttons to no avail, and when he turns around, Mechanic is watching him with narrowed eyes.
Guard explains that he's just trying to jumpstart it. Annoyed, old woman asks if they don't have any emergency procedures, but Guard admits that he doesn't know. He's a temp and he just started working here. Despite this, Old Woman still asks if they don't service the elevators, but Salesman proposes that he try hitting the emergency button.
Guard turns back to the buttons, which are all lit up in red, and he hits the emergency one at the bottom. I was like, you didn't try the emergency one first? You're just smacking all of them, but you didn't hit that one?
that was a little weird an alarm immediately begins to ring an old woman continues her admonishments asking guard if they really don't keep up with the equipment irritated guard turns and tells her again that he doesn't know repeating that like he said but old woman interrupts asking if he's got a walkie-talkie Gard doesn't. He didn't think he would need one. When Old Woman begins to lecture him on this choice, he snaps at her to shut up.
She stares at him in shock, but mechanic chimes in for him to take it easy. Salesman's like, so you don't have a walkie talkie? No. He just said he was a temp, dude. But this useless back and forth is mercifully interrupted when Lustig starts speaking to them over the intercom. He tells them that they can see them in there.
The old woman cries out that they're stuck, but he tells her to just hang tough because the building engineer is on the way. Mechanic looks shifty at this. Salesman jokes, asking when the last time they heard anyone say hang tough was. but when Lustig asks what he said, his smile drops and he goes, nothing. He was like, oh, he's gonna kick my ass. The old woman asks if he's picking a fight. Lustig asks for one of them to look toward the camera and say something loud and clear.
Sarah points toward the camera mounted in the corner and salesman turns to it, speaking loudly and enunciating clearly. Your building sucks. But in the security office, Lustig can't hear anything. He tells the group that they're supposed to be able to hear both ways. He asks if they can hear him, and Guard yells back that they can. It's working on this end. The old woman mutters that he just said he can't hear them.
All right. So this is going to be a fun time. You're mean as hell. And in their defense, it did sound like Lustig was about to pick a fight with him. What did you say? Oh, shit. Nothing. You didn't like the new kids on the block? No, not at all. But the old woman adds he didn't say that they should talk louder.
The guard eyes her, but Lustig just tells the group to give them a second. Sarah sighs sarcastically that this is reassuring, but Mechanic is just shaking his head, lamenting that he's gotta get somewhere. Guard takes out his flip phone, but salesman tells him immediately that he's not going to get a signal in here.
Guard asserts that he just needs to call his job so he doesn't get fired over this. But when he finds that salesman is right and he has no signal, he slams it shut angrily. He asks if anyone else has signal and Sarah offers that she has. one bar before handing it over to guard with a polite smile. I will say, is he calling the temp agency? Because they know that the elevator is stuck. Yeah, I didn't know if he was calling.
the front desk yeah to let his guard his co-worker know maybe but he's like i'm gonna get in trouble but like you wouldn't they they know maybe it's just paranoid yeah maybe because of some if they do call to check on him and they're like he's not at his post it's like oh shit yeah like well he's fired Well, maybe he'll be like, man, he did take those 39 steps. It's going to be gone for about an hour and a half. About 74 minutes, I'd say.
Begarde dials the number before bringing the phone to his ear. Regaining composure, he identifies himself as Larson and asks if he can be connected with his job at the security desk. I guess you're right. After waiting for a response, he asks if the person on the other end can hear him. The old woman cries out, tell them to get us out of here. Larson turns his back on her and when the call cuts out, don't sit under the apple tree.
Larson hands the phone back to Sarah with a shrug, realizing that they're just gonna have to deal. So guard is named Larson. Yeah. Standing in the corner, salesman offers that at least they've got tunes. He starts singing the lyrics, don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me, and ask the old woman to sing along, telling her, come on, grandma, you know the words.
I was like, God damn. And everybody takes this horribly. That's fucked up. Yeah, no, they don't take kindly to it. He continues to sing along while... Sarah had been politely smiling, but now she tells the salesman not to be rude. He turns on her, calling her Miss Manners and asking if he offended her noble sensibilities. When mechanic calmly tells him to lay off. He fires back with the gym. Why don't you suck a butt? Really? Yeah.
Mechanic only looks back at him, which really is what I would do to him. Yeah, surely fucking say that. Wait, so you got annoyed at hang tough, but you can... You can say suck a butt. What is this guy? We know who we're eating first. Yeah. If it comes to that. But Salesman continues, sarcastically quipping that this is great. Everyone's picking on the nice guy for bringing a little levity. But Sarah has a great idea. Why don't they all just stop talking for a little while?
Salesman agrees and a silence descends on them. But Larson is looking more and more uncomfortable. Salesman starts singing along with the song again. And when Sarah turns to him in disbelief, he raises his hands and surrender and laughs. promising that he was only joking. But Larson stands in the corner by the buttons, sighing out in uneasy breath. As storm clouds gather outside, Dwight makes it onto the roof.
A stiff breeze knocks his hat off his head and Dwight chases it to the very edge of the ledge, stopping just before running off. But his hat flips away in the wind. I'm sorry. No fucking hat is worth that. No lucky red hat. No nothing. I was thinking that. It's gone. It's gone. It's gone. No.
Just that sight. Yeah. Yeah. I can't, dude. Hell no. That hurt my stomach. Yes. And Dwight keeps finding himself in precarious positions. And I'm like, dude, you're a fucking superhero. Yeah. Even when he was standing by that window. Yeah. been through and he's like it's white you'd be careful we'd be like throwing up and stuff oh yeah Lustig radios in asking if Dwight is there yet. And Dwight reports almost before finally letting the hat go and getting back to business.
Back on the street, Markowitz tells Bowden that he's just glad he's dating again. Bowden counters that he's glad that Markowitz is glad, but Markowitz asserts that Bowden knows what he means after all of his troubles, but Bowden interrupts that he knows. He asks how it's been going for Bowdoin and the other detective answers that it's been going good. He's got 90 days tomorrow. Markowitz is impressed by this. He says that it seems like just yesterday that.
But Bowdoin interrupts again. Not to me, it doesn't. See, this is the subtle thing that I'm talking about. Yeah. We just hinted at everything that was established very, what's the word I'm looking for? Clumsily. Yeah. In that first scene. Yeah. He comes to a stop when glass crunches beneath his feet. He looks up to find Janitor, played by Jenadijas Dalganov, sweeping up more glass. Bowdoin asks if they've got a broken window up there. The custodian says that they do. Facing this way? Yes.
big enough to fit a person through it, the custodian's like, I suppose. It's kind of an odd question. Are you threatening me, sir? Yeah. He drags his broom across the glass again, but Bowden asks him to please stop sweeping. He's declaring this a crime scene. He looks up the side of the building as he radios for another car, but a huge piece of glass chooses that moment to come time. We see from above that the trajectory seems to be heading right towards Markowitz's head.
Screaming at him to look out, Bowdoin pushes him further into the street and out of the way. The glass crashes into the street, creating even more of a mess. Bowden advises the custodian to secure that better, and out of breath from his shock, he immediately agrees. There are some moments in this film that feel almost out of the Final Destination universe. Yeah. Right. That's all I thought. Well, everything's going wrong right now. It started.
All right. I wonder what else could go wrong. I hope everybody's okay at the end of this. Yeah. And their breakfasts. Oh, fuck. I'm especially worried about the breakfast. The narrator's voiceover starts up again as we join Dwight, peering with the flashlight down the elevator shaft. The narrator says that in his mother's stories, innocent people always die.
Poor souls that were just trying to help out and didn't realize what they were dealing with because he doesn't take kindly to people who stand in his way. Dwight closes the top back to the shaft. Standing in front of the controls for elevator six, he radios back with Lustig, greeting him with, Hey, old man. He reports that it doesn't say that the elevator is in inspection mode and the circuits look fine.
Lustig tells him to flip elevator six. He'll alert the people in the car. He tells Dwight to count to 20 and then do it. And Dwight agrees. But back in the elevator, salesman has sidled up close to mechanic who stands by the certification. Salesman reads out loud, inspected and certified August 12th by G. Carson.
Mechanic looks at him challengingly and Salesman steps back into his own corner. He proposes that they go pay G. Carson a visit when they get out of here. They'll let him know what they think of his inspecting prowess. He's trying. But we all already hate you. We should all go together, guys. We're friends for life after this, I think. Bonded. And we all love each other a lot. I'm the leader, though.
I'm loved the most. I think it's that he is kind of funny, but you are an asshole. You shouldn't have started that way. You've already blown it. The speaker comes alive with Lustig's voice again, letting them know that they're going to turn the lights off for a second and see if there's a short in the breaker. Salesman is not happy about this, and the old woman asks in a panicked voice if that means they could drop.
but Lustig assures them that they'll be fine. He just didn't want them to panic. At his last word, the lights cut out. The old woman and salesman begin to clamor, but Mechanic tells them simply to relax. Larson's breathing is heavy and quickening and suddenly the old woman screams at someone to get off of her. When the lights come back on, she is batting Larson's hand away.
He's panting and his face is slick with the sheen of sweat as he apologizes to her. The old woman looks perplexed and angry and salesman just asks what's wrong with him. Sarah and mechanic look at him quietly. Finally, Larson catches his breath and explains that when he was younger, his brother locked him in a trunk for six hours. He has trouble with tight spaces. He pulls at the collar of his shirt and salesman mutters, Oh, great. Dude.
I swear to God, you don't have to suffer through any of this. You just have to watch somebody be claustrophobic. And you're like, oh, my day is even worse now. This sucks for me really bad. Unbelievable. You also don't need to comment on everything that happens. Also true. Well, but we all do that on the show. On the show. And then Olivera would be like, oh, this fucking guy.
But Mechanic is looking upward. He presses against the lights in the ceiling, testing them until he finds one that can slide open. This lets a new stream of air into the car, and when he looks over at Larson, Larson hurries over to stand underneath and take a deep breath. So I just wanted to talk about this elevator car. Yeah. It is a set, which probably isn't much of a surprise.
that they didn't actually use a real elevator for this. But there are moments that definitely feel as if they could have the way that it is so tightly captured through the cinematography. Yeah. read that the production designer a guy called martin wist who we have talked about at least twice on this show twice twice twist yes it's late or whatever but uh he was a designer for Cloverfield and The Cabin in the Woods. Very good. All right. But...
They had built this elevator and it was made with actually nine removable panels so that they could shoot from different angles when they needed it. But they had mentioned that they wanted to keep those panels closed as often as possible.
possible to create that feeling of claustrophobia so very often they are shooting from upward angles and from below just trying to keep it to where the actors can use this tight space as much as they can yeah but one thing that they did say that they tried to do which was very interesting to me was they changed the pattern of the wood grain on the panels to make it vertical instead of horizontal because they said that it's almost like a subtle thing in the audience's mind when it's...
vertical and the way that they were shooting the film, it almost gives the audience this feeling of it being off kilter. But it's like little choices like that that you don't even think about. Yeah. They said the floor. They had a pattern that almost appeared like veins. Oh, OK. Where it was like organic and like living. Yeah. But something very interesting about this scene in particular is whenever they were building the set of the elevator, they had already cast Logan Marshall Green.
And so him reaching up to get this ceiling opened for Larson, they tested this to make the ceiling of the elevator the exact length of him reaching up. Very nice. So they were like, we will give him as much space as he needs and not an inch more. No more. Yeah. And so that only adds to the claustrophobia. Yeah. That's really cool. Yeah. And watching it, you're like, that was so kind of him. Yeah.
like you see salesman being like oh brother but this guy's like he needs some air he needs you know and he does that for him i thought that was really thoughtful and kind well he understands we're all in this car together yes so let's yeah but i i do i do want to say that i i said it earlier but i do enjoy when we're in the elevator looking at it and seeing like when you see up through it and then when dude's looking down on it the maintenance guy later
It's, you know what I mean? It looks like a fucking elevator shaft. Yeah. No, it's all super convincing. And I think that's what makes it like more stressful. Yeah. We were talking earlier about the limited information. I don't know how they did the elevator shaft. I can only assume green screen work. Yeah, I don't know. It looks good, though. It does.
Larson wonders if they can get out through there, but mechanic asks if he's going to shimmy up the cables. He shakes his head before saying decisively that Larson is a lot safer in here. ruining the moment as he is want to do. Salesman asks if anyone knows where the bathroom on this thing is. I think I hate him because this is me trying to make light. Yeah, that is me. Not like this. Not the mean part. No.
In the machine room, Dwight radios Lustig, asking if it worked. But Lustig reports that they're still stuck. Dwight tells him that he's going to go check the mains in the basement.
Outside, the score hums as the city grows darker under the threat of the incoming storm. But in the security office, Lustig ends a phone call, and when Ramirez comes over, he fills him in. That window on 35, it looks like... somebody might have jumped through it ramirez asks today lustig tells him yes this morning and ramirez ramirez looks away reflectively you say that yeah
It's got the subtlety of a Telltale Games character. Yeah. He's got... stuff brewing okay I was waiting for you to pick your option what you're gonna say Ramirez will remember that In the elevator, Lustig thanks the group over the intercom for bearing with them. They should be back online in a few minutes. Adjusting his suit in the mirror, salesman retorts angrily that it's been minutes.
The old woman has sunk down into her corner and salesman pulls a business card from his suit jacket and hands it to her. He tells her that when they get out of here, she's going to need a good rest. Consulting the card, the old woman asks, mattress mania? This launches salesmen into a spiel, telling the car that everyone has had their mattress for too long. Am I right?
With an accusing finger, he points at the old woman, admonishing that she didn't follow the advice about flipping it every few months. Now she's worn a groove into it and she's used to it, but she can't help but miss the way it felt when it first came out of the bag. invites her to look at her own shoes he says that they've been through the mill and they're telling her that she deserves a nice place to lie down the old woman is incensed asking if he's insulting her shoes which he is
Yeah, that's a wild place to start for a salesman. Let's face it. Your shoes look like shit. Look at your raggedy ass shoes. You deserve a good night's sleep. He asserts that the point is a new mattress will cost her a lot less than she thinks. He mutters that she doesn't have to be as well off as this one, indicating Sarah.
Sarah has taken off her jacket and scarf and stands in a white satin tank top. She disputes that she's not that well off. Salesman turns his focus on her. He argues that what makes him so good at selling mattresses is that he can. look at a person's clothes and know exactly how much they can afford to spend. And she's no super sleeper.
The music starts up again and losing patience, Mechanic mutters through a clenched jaw that they keep playing the same song over and over and over. The old woman wonders if they can't just turn the music off. We hear a small slap.
and Sarah turns around in surprise finding her words she asks if salesman just touched her ass but salesman has both arms at his sides and he scoffs at this in genuine disbelief he tells her you wish sweetheart that's unbelievable but sarah steps to him angrily she tells him that she doesn't know who he thinks he is but she demands that he keep his hands off of her Salesman crosses his arms but can only offer a week, whatever.
Static begins to imbrew the light music and the lights above flicker. Old woman grimaces at this, pulling herself up to her feet and mechanic reasons that they must be working on the lights again. Lustig radios Dwight, who is making his way through the basement. Lustig reports that Elevator 6 just lost power again, and he asks if it's because of Dwight. But Dwight reports that he can't even do that from here. He looks up the shaft for elevator six and finds it suspended high up.
He tells Lustig that he doesn't see anything wrong with it. When Lustig tells him that the lights keep going out and the passengers are getting scared, Dwight flips the switch on the breaker box, telling Lustig to see if this helps. In the elevator, Sarah lets out a small fearful whimper when they're suddenly bathed in darkness and Larson immediately becomes uneasy.
When this didn't work either, Dwight proposes that the only thing left for him to do is to go back to the roof, climb down, and reset the car manually. Yeah, fuck off. But you're right. He's like, what did you call him? A superhero? Yeah, I'll do it. Unbelievable. I'm on it. That that's my note. I'm going to need you to be a little more worried than what you are because he's just like, oh, yeah.
Yeah. I do this all the time. Yeah. This sounds good to Lustig, who invites Dwight to do that and call him when he gets there. Again, Dwight agrees.
Lustig sets the radio down and they watch the footage of the car. Their view of the passengers eclipsed by darkness again and again as the lights struggle to stay on. But in the flicker, we see something. A strange and... distorted face but it's gone as quickly as it appeared a tense score begins as Ramirez stares at it with open fear I like little subliminal things I think what they do with this though yeah doesn't really it's great oh there's a word for it's not it but yeah
Meanwhile, on Dwight's quest to reset the car, he hears noises strange enough for him to call out, hey, but there's no one there. It's not until he steps in the elevator area with the cars in front of him marked eight and nine in yellow paint that he sees a rodent skittering in the shadows. But in the security office, Lustig realizes that Ramirez is disturbed. He inquires, but Ramirez just continues to stare at the flickering screen.
Okay, now that I've had like 30 seconds to think about it a little bit, I don't think I like this face anymore. Because we established that the devil, even like the innocent, he'll... get out of the way if they get in his way. So why are we alerting anyone that we're here? To play. But why? With who though? Ramirez? Everyone. He's like, your mom told you that story?
You know about me, I'm confused. I don't know. Yeah, what if it was his day off, then what? Oh, yeah. Leslie's like, what the hell is that? Anyway, you got your ears on. What's going on? But Dwight is crossing over elevator seven's area to get closer to the creature, which we can now identify as a raccoon. It sits on top of the base for elevator six, perhaps the cause of the problem.
Dwight successfully shoos it away, but his triumph is short-lived when Elevator 7's car suddenly free-falls down. Dwight is able to throw himself out of the way just in time. Good Lord. Come on. Yeah, no, absolutely not. why are we crawling around like I'm like did we stop all the elevators like shouldn't everything be shut down I don't know whatever I Dwight has me stressed every every time he's on the screen I'm stressed out but
I do think it is interesting because the narrator said earlier, like you said, about innocent people getting in the way or whatever. And when he's saying this, Dwight has the door to the shaft open and he's like pretty much looking right at us. So I think that ever since then we are waiting.
on Dwight to die oh yeah and so all of these moments it's like oh here it comes oh no he's fine yeah so like I do kind of find that interesting where that had that seed has been planted and so every time Dwight is on screen we are on high alert because we've basically been told that something horrible is going to happen to him. Right. That is fair. And again, that does fit in line with Final Destination. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
But in the elevator, the group looks around nervously as the music grows distorted and the flickering lights finally just shut off. In the darkness, salesman mutters, inspected by G. Carson. that's the theater laugh line yeah definitely There's a loud rumbling sound. And when mechanic asks what it is, no one has an answer. The lights come back on long enough for us to descend on Sarah with impact.
They shut back off as she offers a weak cry. The rumbling begins again, mixing with the sounds of rustling and an impact within the car. When the lights come back up, complete with the clear and pitch perfect Pointer Sisters rendition, Sarah is on the floor. Mechanic asks if she's all right, and she says confused that she thinks someone pulled her blouse. Old woman remarks that she's bleeding. Larson and Mechanic help her up to her feet.
Sarah reaches back and when she brings her shaking hand back to her face, there's blood on it. She says, I think I got cut. She stumbles to the back of the car and we cut to the security footage just in time to see a slash of blood on the back of her white top. The rest of the inhabitants shrink away from her to the opposite side. Ramirez asks what happened as they watch from the security office. And Lustig says that they're just scared. But Ramirez points out that he thinks the lady got hurt.
In the car, Sarah lifts her shirt and we see it up close and personal. In the smear of red blood are strange twisted and open wounds. Old woman asks, what in the world? Sarah struggling to compose herself pulls her shirt back down and looks at the others.
In the office, we see a mechanic on the footage yelling something to the camera. Lustig uses the intercom to report that he doesn't know what he's saying. But back in the car with them, we can. He tells Lustig, turn off the... music ramirez guesses that maybe they don't like the music oh my god Lustig is amused to find that it's still on. He tells Ramirez to go turn it off because it's probably driving them nuts. After some direction from Lustig on where to find the kill switch Ramirez sets off.
In the elevator, Salesman notices a potentially damning smear of blood on the front of his jacket. He crosses his arms over it, and the loud music suddenly stops. Mechanic yells out a grateful thank you. Lustig's voice joins them asking what happened to her. Gasping for air, Sarah admits in a wavering voice that it feels like something bit her. Mechanic asks if someone has anything sharp that might have cut her or that Sarah might have cut herself on.
Old woman immediately answers no, but our view is of salesman who denies this quietly. But Larson is watching him. He asks pointedly why salesman has blood on him. Unable to hide or deny it, Salesman raises his hands, which are also stained with Sarah's blood. He tells the group that she fell into him. This does not fucking look good. No. Kind of couldn't look worse. The old woman turns on him with the quickness, asking, so you cut her?
He says no. So she thinks the chain of events is Sarah fell into him. He just slices her back. I guess. Good Lord. He says no. Something happened. into her then she fell into him but he quickly loses the crowd when he suggests that she probably did it to herself oh come on you suck yeah I will say I like this rising like tension and paranoia turning on each other so quickly over the old woman's clamoring Larson asks facetiously she bit her own back
But the old woman and mechanic are both sure that it's not a bite. Larson wonders what else could have done that then. But he doesn't have to wonder long because mechanic knows a serrated blade could have done that. He asks if salesman would happen to have a knife with a serrated blade on him, and salesman replies with a seemingly sincere, no.
Mechanic asks if he minds if they search his pockets, but Salesman does mind. He turns it on Mechanic, asking if he would mind if they search his, but Mechanic doesn't mind at all. He raises both hands high and invites them to go ahead. Everyone has turned towards salesmen now, and in his desperation, he proposes that maybe Sarah has a serrated blade on her. Come on. If we say serrated blade one more time. I know, I know, I know. Let's get past that.
Sarah asks if he's really suggesting that she did this to herself and shoving himself into the back corner. Salesman admits that he doesn't know through clenched teeth. Larson invites him to give him another reason to kick his ass. Salesman just implores him, please, bro, take it easy. But stepping up to him, Larson tells him simply, bro, I'm not your bro.
Just thinking of them watching from the security office. I think they're going to kick that guy's ass in the corner. They're all ganging up on the annoying guy. That would be very funny. Because they can't hear him, though. No, they're just watching. But you don't need to hear to see where this is going. It's like a silent film. Yeah.
They're watching this go down in the security office. And Lustig interrupts through the intercom, asking for Sarah to face the camera and show them what happened to her. She lifts her shirt and Lustig and Ramirez both react to the gravity of the situation. Lustig glances at Ramirez before looking back at the screen and deciding, OK, we got to call the police.
Which I did appreciate. Yeah. Thunder rumbles and lightning flickers in the sky before we join Bowdoin back on the street. We don't hear their conversation, but he talks with Elsa, who smiles as she drinks from a to-go cup of coffee. His radio crackles to life with the voice of the dispatcher, alerting to a possible 240 at 333. Locust Street. Oh. Exorcist 2? Yeah, I was going to say. Reference? I feel like we've talked enough about Locust Street. Period.
After a moment, Bowden realizes that that must be around here. He scans the street and realizes that it's the building with the broken window that they're standing right in front of. He radios back, reporting that he happens to be outside of it and he's got it. He looks back at Elsa, who smiles and nods that that's convenient. But Bowdoin tells her sheepishly that he doesn't make the calls. They just come for him.
She tells him playfully to go, and after a lingering look, he does, jogging across the street and calling out for Markowitz. Markowitz joins him immediately, asking, how's your girlfriend? Bowdoin only tells him to shut up, much to Markowitz's delight. But in the security room, Ramirez is rewinding the earlier footage frame by frame. When Lustig asks what he's doing, he says that he thinks he saw something. Lustig asks for more detail, but Ramirez only repeats, something.
Finally, Ramirez finds it. The strange face appearing in the front of the screen. I was surprised that he was able to call this back up. Yeah, I was too. I thought honestly that it would just be something for him to see in the moment. Right, right. And then he goes. goes back and of course it's the devil. He's fucking leaving evidence and traces. Well, if it gets recorded, I guess it's there. It's there forever. He can't beat VHS.
Ramirez loses his breath, asking Lustig if he sees it too. He does, but he chalks it up to a mistake, just a grain in the image. It's like when people see Jesus in a pancake. I gotta say he's picking the wrong guy to say this to. Yeah. But Ramirez's fingers have dipped between the buttons of his white uniform shirt.
He pulls out a gold cross and his fingers work at it fretfully as he begins to pray in Spanish. Lustig admits to Ramirez that he's freaking him out, but Ramirez continues his prayer and whispers. He doesn't stop until... Lusted grabs his arm imploring him to listen. The people are relying on them so they need to convey calm.
that's a straight up face though man like no it is yeah i think that pisses me off in movies like if you don't believe that it's the face of the devil yeah that's fine but at least admit that it looks pretty creepy yeah that And it's just that. At least be like, no, I'll be damned. It is a face. Yeah. You can see it's a face. And you know the thing that they say? It's like psychological.
For humans. We look for faces. Yeah. There's a name for it. I'm misplacing it now. Yeah. But it's a thing for sure. But he tells Ramirez to stop this shit right now. Ramirez stops praying, but he doesn't move his eyes from the screen, nor does he loosen his grip on his cross. Lustig slides away in the chair and with the click, the image of the face is removed from the screen. He's like, that's enough of that. Can't have that here all day. No more for you.
Back in the elevator, Larson and Mechanic are working together to pry the doors open. They strain, veins popping out on their faces and heads, but it's no use. Once they give up, mechanic reasons that he doesn't even know why they're trying to do it. They're in the express shaft. There won't be another opening until the 23rd floor. But Larson argues that maybe they're close. Old woman wonders if the elevator could fall. They have to be 20 floors up just dangling over nothing.
Larson asks them to just stop talking about it, please. And sensing Larson's unease, Mechanic invites him to try the doors with him one more time. They get into position, but before they can start to pull, salesman comes over to help them.
larson snaps at him to get away from him but salesman maintains that he can help he wants to get out of here too larson yells at him to sit his creepy ass down in the corner so that everybody can keep an eye on him And without another word, salesman obliges and Larson and mechanic get back to work, straining as they try to pry the doors open.
Meanwhile, Lustig leads Bowden and Markowitz into the security office. Bowden asks what makes Lustig think this might be an assault. Lustig explains that she seemed to be having words with another one of the passengers before it happened. they're all keeping an eye on him. He indicates the screen and points out salesmen standing alone in the corner.
Bowden asks if they have communication, and Lustig shares that they do. He hands over the microphone for the intercom, adding that you can talk, but you can't hear. Bowden takes the mic and introduces himself. He requests for them to remain calm because they won't be in there for too much longer. To Lustig, he asks how much longer. Lustig reports that the engineer is working on it right now, and usually it's done pretty quick.
Bowden asks if the engineer works for them or for the elevator company. And when Lustig answers that Dwight works for them, Bowden tells him to call the elevator company and have them send someone to. I would be like, wow. I feel fucking stupid. Yeah. I appreciated this because he did come and just take charge. Yeah. And it was all the right calls he was saying. Yes. There are a lot of moments in their interactions where you're like, dude, you were not.
prepared every ball he's like the music's still on yeah what the hell is going with you guys He turns to Markowitz and tells them to have the fire department send some guys, and Markowitz heads off to get this done. Bowden turns back to the screen and spots Larson. He tells Lustig that it's good that at least there's a staff member on board, and while Lustig... agrees he shares that Larson is a guard but he's a temp been something he started yesterday
Markowitz is returning from having radioed the fire department just in time for Bowden to hit him with another task. Call the temp agency and get all the info they have on Larson. He asks for the rest of the names, but Lustig says they don't know anyone else. his names but from behind them ramirez pops up he's like he should see the face lustig is like no no no
But at Bowdoin's confusion, Ramirez repeats that he saw a face. Lustig says definitively that there is no face. But Ramirez is like, tell him about the face. Lustig dismisses this, saying that Ramirez is religious and Bowdoin can just ignore him.
He chastises Ramirez quietly once Bowden turns his attention back to the car. He tells them through the intercom that he'd like to get a sense on who everyone is. He instructs them all to hold their driver's licenses to the camera so that he knows who he's talking. to lustig commits him on a good idea and bowden thanks him the old woman complies immediately holding her license up to the camera
Bowden tells her to hold it closer, and she does, but the words are still just too small. This moment is incredibly important for reasons that will be revealed. Yeah. And it's actually pretty cool and I actually appreciate the writing in that area. Yeah. When Bowdoin asks if they can adjust the brightness, Lustig breaks the news that that's as good as it gets.
Bowdoin just tells them to put their IDs away. He asks if anyone has a pin and everyone shakes their heads and looks up at the camera apologetically. They head to the lobby where they inspect the sign in sheet. Bowden tells Markowitz to account for everyone on the log and find out who didn't show up to their appointment. So John Paul, like you said, it's just like, oh, well, the adults have arrived. Yeah. Thank God. we're actually doing some good detective work yeah
But Ramirez has stayed behind and he sits in front of the screen in the security office on a phone call. When the lights begin to flicker again, it catches his eye and his focus on the phone call is lost.
tears have dragged trails down Sarah's face as she stands in the flickering lights of the elevator Larson rocks back and forth from one foot to the other she looks at him then the old woman who gazes back at her blandly before turning away She looks over at salesman who stares at her dazedly, but when the lights turn off and come back up, he's gone. Sarah sees him on the floor, bloody and limp, piled up with the old woman and Larson who are also bloody and dead.
Her eyes trail across them to Mechanic's feet, and he still stands, braced against the corner of the elevator, and when she stares up at him, he meets her gaze, and he offers that they must be working on the power again. This is interesting as far as being a shocking moment. Yeah. I don't know how I feel about it, though. I'll be honest. I don't either. I feel like a lot of what is happening in this elevator is this like.
Like the narrator said at the beginning, this playing and torturing and having fun. And that's what I chalk this up to because we do see more stuff like this where it's just like we want... everyone to be as miserable as literally possible and scared yeah you know no yeah that's just kind of what i took it as that it was just like oh so you're fucking torturing him in there yeah And making them see shit and, you know. Yeah. It's a little soon. Yeah. Well, maybe. We got to get, dude, 74 minutes.
Salesman, who is back standing in his corner, loosening his tie, quips that the geniuses have done a bang up job of it so far. When the lights shut off again Sarah gasps for breath then falls silent. There is a tense moment of darkness and silence but it's broken along with the mirrored wall behind Sarah when it shatters spraying glass all over the car.
She screams and the lights flicker on long enough for us to see her crawling along the floor before they go out again. There are sounds of panic and loud thuds, then a concerning squelching noise, followed by more sounds of mood. Movement. When the lights come back on, Sarah is huddled alone in a corner. But when she turns around, she sees that old woman, Larson and mechanic have convened around salesman who lies thrashing on the glass littering the floor.
His body seizes, and through the panicked passengers trying to render him aid, Sarah eyes that he has a huge piece of glass stuck in his neck. She cowers. This is one of the things I was hinting at earlier with my surprise of it being PG-13. Yeah. We just saw...
All of their corpses piled up bloody in this elevator. Then we cut to seeing this dude with, and you see the glass in his throat. Yeah, you do. You see him hemorrhaging. You see the entire thing. So it's just kind of shocking that this got away with a PG-13.
Yeah. I'll be honest. I didn't even know it was PG-13. Yeah, because it doesn't feel like that. And there's more to come as well. Yeah. I will also say, and that was another thing I read from the director. He was like, and we were... very okay with it being pg-13 because there's really nothing in this film that would lend to it needing to be an r but i'm like what the fuck are you watching i watch a different film but i think that it's really smart to kill this dude
Yeah. Because everybody in the elevator car has a reason for wanting to kill him. Yeah, for sure. It is crazy that his last words were like, they've done a big job of it so far. It was the last thing he ever said. It was true to his nature, I guess. He died as he lived. Being an asshole. Lustig accompanies Bowdoin back into the lobby where Markowitz meets him with some information on Larson.
Bowden asks what he has, and just before Markowitz can get into it, Ramirez yells at them that something else is happening, and they all run to the security office. They gather at the console and watch the footage of the elevator. Salesman is still on the floor, motionless. Ramirez questions if he's dead. Sarah Larson and old woman congregate by the elevator doors, but mechanic stays on the other side.
with Salesman's body. He looks up at the camera and after a moment, he gives the subtle shake of his head. Salesman is dead. Bowden radios in that they have a possible 187 and need backup. He asks how to rewind the footage and Lustig shows him how to navigate the console. Bowdoin tells the survivors to just keep breathing and take it easy. He promises to get them through this. But Ramirez points out that today there's been a suicide, a woman got hurt, and now a man is dead.
Bowdoin asks what he's trying to say. And Ramirez, well, Ramirez has his iconic moment. He asks Bowden how many times he's seen a child fall and barely missed their head on the edge of a table. What the hell? What are you talking about? He's going somewhere with it. Damn it. Is he? So why is it so rare that they hit it?
Still scanning the footage, Bowden implores him to get to the point. Ramirez looks around the room for a way to illustrate his point and he finds it. He picks up a random slice of toast with a giant glob of jelly on it. He tells them to look. And once he's gotten everyone's attention, he tosses the toast into the air and it falls, landing jelly side down on the carpet.
This... terrifies ramirez and he can only sigh and stammer pointing to the overturned toast lustig stoops down to pick it up admonishing that ramirez is embarrassing himself but ramirez is not done He tells Bowdoin that when he's here, everything goes wrong. Toast falls jelly side down. Children hit tables. People get hurt. Lustig tells Ramirez pleadingly that the police don't want to hear this.
But Ramirez continues. Sometimes he takes a human form and he torments the damned on earth before stealing them away. Where he comes from, they call it the devil's meeting. Bowdoin is like. Is this guy for real? And Lestic apologizes for Ramirez's behavior. He tries to pull him away from the detectives, but Ramirez stands firm. He tells the men, you have to consider that one of those people...
may be the devil. Lustig is like, all right. He finally pulls Ramirez back. This scene is fucking iconic. It is. bad like it's bad i know it's bad but it brings me so much joy it makes me laugh so hard every time i see it what were you trying to prove with that toast that was a mountain of jelly it was gonna fall jelly side down it was weighted that way
taken out of it. One bite. One bite. He wasn't done. Was that Lustig's breakfast? You ruined it. Yeah. It's over. Now there's a stain on the carpet. And it was clearly your wrist that turned the bread over. Well, the way he like tosses it. This is iconic. It's so fucking funny to me. And just the bomb of might be the devil. And what like what really upsets me about Ramirez is that in any given group.
I would be the Ramirez, not on a God angle, but... on a like oh there's ghosts involved right and i'm like you're making us look real bad the leaps and bounds that you have jumped to because some jelly hit a carpet yeah it was just it's just toast It's his examples, really. Of all things, he's like, what can I use as examples for the devil being here? The two worst things that could ever happen to anyone. Well, hitting your head on a table is clearly the place to start.
It's a really specific example. And I see we've got the toast here. Watch this shit. Yeah, this will convince them all. If this goes jelly side down, we're all fucked. Yeah, and he reacts like, fuck, that's it. Like they should all know. Yeah. You guys know what that means, right? It was the final nail in the coffin because the jelly is the key to all of it. Clearly. And I think the thing for me as well, look, I know M. Night did not write the screenplay. Right. This moment feels like.
something that would come from the mind of a writer who would name a character mid-sized sedan. It feels very M. Night. Late M. Night. later M night you're not wrong that's the thing this has so like I said earlier it has his fingerprints all over it right but and I know that whenever anybody brings this movie up this is what they think of they think of the fucking jelly they think of ramirez
being fucking ridiculous and i know and i get it and i just embrace it for what it is because this scene really did i was it was like giggling and like kicking my feet like that's how much joy it brought me i was laughing so hard i think if it just was a little more silly if it just leaned more into the silliness of because we are laughing at things I don't think we're supposed to be laughing at because they are being very serious but I think the toss of the toast and like you're saying tea
You using that as to be like, the fucking world's over. it is like come on that's silly as fuck i just and not a 9.999 times out of 10 i would agree with you that's what i'm saying i don't know why it still works for me but it does i feel like the self-awareness of leaning more into it would ruin it because I should be mad at how seriously this is taking itself. I really should because it has no right to. We're flipping toast.
I don't know why it works for you. It's a puzzle. It doesn't work as like, oh my God, that does mean the devil is here. It works as I can't stop laughing. I'm having a great time. Oh, that I agree. Yeah. it doesn't work and like oh my god that does mean the devil's here dude kids hit their heads and there's no child in this movie at all again where would you why would you go there first i'd be like electronics fail you know what i mean because the elevator is
stuck maybe i don't know something like more in this room and i will give him that the toast is in the room but there is no child with a head injury in the room no and it's so strange as well because you have to do a lot of legwork to set up that scenario in the first place so you guys know the time yeah it's just wild and him being like why are we surprised when that kid finally is there because the child is at their head
It's scary. All of his voices are ridiculous, dude. And it just, it's so, so funny to me. And the performance given here. He's doing everything he can. And Lustig's reaction. is fucking it's top tier it's so funny he's like giving him enough rope and then he's like you're done you're cut off
Bowdoin focuses back on the screens, demanding that Ramirez stop telling campfire stories and get his head in the game. As Lustig and Ramirez stand in the background, their conversation unheard. Bowdoin directs Markowitz's attention to Larson on the screen. He stands there, and as Bowdoin inches the footage forward, he points out that when the lights come back up, Larson is closer to Salesman than he was.
He asks what he was saying about Larson, and Markowitz finally hands his findings over, remarking that he's a real piece of work. Bowdoin looks at the sheet, remarking the charges. Assault. Assault. Assault. He says that he beat a guy into a coma with a baseball bat. I got to say none, none. I know that Larson gets.
pissed off but he is like poked and poked and he's claustrophobic and whatever I don't think that anybody would be their best selves in the situation that he's in but nothing that he does even threatening to kick salesman's ass Makes sense for this fucking rap sheet that he has. Yeah, he seemed very nice and just like a normal dude. And I will say we never.
touch on this or get any kind of story literally not no explanation for any of this no there and there is a level of restraint with everyone yeah so i think it is kind of the reason is because we need the reason for the devil to want them here. Yeah. Which is honestly, dude, the devil doesn't have bigger fish to fry. He beat up some people once. Oh, well, we're taking that soul. No, he's done. There's plenty more souls, I'd say. Yeah, for sure. I'll give you a list. Coffee.
He calls out to Lustig, asking if these are the kinds of guys they hire for security. Lustig shrugs, repeating again that Larson is just a temp, but Bowden has turned back to the screens and quips, some temp. In the elevator, we peer up at the rest of the passengers from on the floor with salesman's body before joining them.
Old woman asks if that mirror could have been broken from salesman hitting it, but mechanic shakes his head. Old woman starts to ask another question, but Larson interrupts, asking what the cop is doing out there. But our focus has stayed on Mechanic, who wipes out his nose with a blood-stained hand before answering. He's probably trying to figure out which one of us is the murderer.
He and old woman both look over at Larson as we pan past him and linger on Sarah, who still stands pressed against the corner. But on the street, the rain is finally coming down as the fire trucks arrive. The firefighters jump out, arming themselves with axes before walking briskly toward the building. The narrator returns again, which we can, it's Ramirez. I think it's pretty obvious now.
informing us that in the story, men would always try to fight him with force, but some battles can't be fought with weapons. I don't know how much I like just the random interspersed narration of this folktale. Maybe having it more at the top would have worked better for me, but like these little scenes happening and you're like, oh, and by the way, innocence? No.
Yeah, they're just being like, everything that's happening, it's by design. Yeah. And this fits too. It really would have. Because it would have, I felt like it would have set more.
of a cautionary tale if we would have heard all of it at the beginning and then we just kind of... dip into the story and let it play out and be like oh you know he mentioned this or this is just like you know whatever yeah instead of being like by the way and if you're gonna do it do it at the end give a closer with a little narration that's it yeah leave somewhere for your audience to do. Yeah. No. He'll be back. He's not done.
In the security room, Bowden asks for them to clear away from the body so he can see him. Mechanic leans down over him, but Bowden tells him not to touch it. This is a crime scene now. And while he knows that they're stuck there, he. expects them to do as little damage to the body as possible. They all gather in a line against the wall with the doors as instructed, leaving the back half of the cramped space for the newly departed salesman.
Bowden asks the security guards if they had any luck contacting the elevator company, but Ramirez reports that they're out of business. What? Which I was not expecting. The devil do that too? Bowden guesses that that figures. He looks at the body through the screen, diagnosing a shard of glass driven up into his jugular. He decides that this was not an accident.
He backs away, pulling off his jacket as he ponders out loud. Who chooses a contained room with three witnesses for a killing? Unless they were just so worked up they couldn't control themselves. He concedes that the passengers look shaken up, but they don't look murderous. Standing with his hands on his hips, Bowden admits that he is missing something. He uses the intercom and asks for a volunteer within the elevator. After exchanging glances, mechanic is the only one to raise his hand.
Bowdoin points out a piece of paper sticking out of salesman's pocket. He asks mechanic to take it out carefully and hold it up to the camera. Hesitantly, Mechanic lowers himself to the ground and slides out an envelope poking from the salesman's suit jacket. These letters are big enough for Bowdoin to read, and the letter is addressed to our salesman, Vince McCormick.
Lustig points out that the return address is for the Better Business Bureau, and they have an office on the 35th floor. Bowden asks if he has a freight elevator, and when Lustig confirms that they do, they take off. We cut to Bowden and Markowitz meeting with the firemen in the lobby. We can't hear their words, but he's clearly giving them instructions and pointing them towards the elevator.
We return to elevator six now, where Sarah admits quietly that she's never seen anyone die before. Larson admits that he hasn't either, and mechanic commiserates. It's pretty awful, huh? Larson asks if he has then, and Mechanic shares that he spent time in Afghanistan, and you see things there that you wish you hadn't.
Larson takes this to mean that Mechanic has been trained to kill people, and Mechanic responds with the listless, oorah. Larson and Sarah exchange a glance. It's like you can... feel the alliance is being made here yeah and it's like i am not in one no as mechanic i'm not in one and i'm sorry i wouldn't offer anything about my life that incriminated anything probably not
Because you know they're going to take it there. Well, yeah. I've never seen a dead body behind me neither, dude. Or just like, shut up. Dude, yeah. That's true. He's like, yeah, get used to it. He lights a cigarette. Where'd you get that? It's hard enough to breathe in here. But upstairs, Bowden joins Elsa, who is inspecting the broken window. He asks how it's going, breaking her focus. And she asks him if he can take a look at the suicide note. Most of it makes sense, but then it ends with...
I can hear the devil's footsteps draw near. Don't show this to Ramirez. Please. Ramirez can't know about this. Elsa points out that usually suicide notes are either all rational or all crazy, but this one is both. She asks him, isn't it strange? And Bowdoin has to admit, yeah. It is. In the hallway, the firefighters approach elevator six. They first try the elevator key at the top, and when it, of course, doesn't catch, they try to pry the doors apart.
But despite their use of a giant crowbar between the closed doors, there is still something jamming it shut. Suddenly, we are looking down at elevator six from above through the opening that mechanic made in the ceiling. He slides the panel over further, making room for himself as he reasons that if he can get up there, he might be able to figure out what.
wrong he's a mechanic so he's good at this kind of thing this is a very reasonable request yes mechanic lifts himself up to the top of the car but despite having made his intentions very clear mechanic barely has time to take a look around before sarah suddenly starts screaming that he's trying to escape Mechanic is confused but Larson snaps into action grabbing his foot and yanking him back down into the elevator.
Fucking kidding me? Yeah, I was confused. You heard what he said. He told you. Yeah. And escape where, dude? Yeah. Like if he's let him go. Yeah. We just earlier. What did what did old lady say? We're 20 something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And if he's the killer, cool. Yeah, no shit. Let him go then. Yeah, now we're safe. Mechanic crash lands hard on Vince, who is definitely not a dummy, but actually Vince.
And understandably, he asks what the hell they're doing. Sweat beating on his forehead. Larson asserts that they're all going to stand right here until this is over. His composure broken. Mechanic yells, reminding them that he told them what he was doing. Sarah just stands, watching this aftermath as Larson screams back, declaring, I don't know you. That's his purse. Brilliant.
I could help myself. But upstairs, a business bureau clerk played by Joe Pingu is telling Bowdoin that it's not in their policy to discuss cases under review. It damages the reputations of their member businesses. But his smugness dissipates when Bowdoin reveals that someone killed Vince on his way here. He needs to know who knew he was coming and who wanted him dead.
After glancing over his shoulder for anyone listening in the clerk shares that that line would go around the block. Vince was a real scumbag. He says that three years ago, Vince started a Ponzi scheme and when it collapsed, a lot of people lost their asses and one guy even took his own life. Bowden asks if he has a list of these people, and the clerk does, the people that filed anyway. Bowden makes it clear that he's going to need that list. See, that's who the devil should be, you know, after.
Well, Vince. Good. Yeah. Yeah. I'm commending. Yeah. The work of the devil. Right. He is one on the list. And yes. Yeah. I'm going to check. What's his name? Vince. Yeah. There he is. There he is. Back in the elevator, mechanic proposes that they all get to know each other a little better. He invites them to frisk him and see that he's not carrying anything suspicious. He turns his back and lifts both of his hands. And when no one steps forward, he tells.
them come on harsh enough to make Sarah flinch. Larson finally steps forward and frisks him thoroughly but once he finishes up mechanic warns him that he's next and Larson and Sarah exchange a look. You should have told me that before I frisked you. He didn't read the terms and conditions.
Bowden returns to the office with the list and hands it over to Markowitz, commenting that there's a good chance that one of them didn't sign in. They might be on this list. When Markowitz doesn't understand, Bowden fills him in. Vince lost a lot of people. Again, deductive reasoning. Smart. He walks over to Ramirez and Lustig, who sit behind the console, and when Lustig asks if he wants footage of just Vince's murder or of Sarah being injured as well, Bowdoin asserts that he wants all of it.
everything since they got in the car. Lustig gets to work on this while Ramirez, well, Ramirez gets Bowdoin's attention and directs it to the screen in front of him. They're finally... They finally have a lead and they're actively working on it. And Ramirez is like, hey, come here. I got it all queued up for you. I just got to show you this one.
He's pulled it up again, that distorted face marring the image of the passengers in elevator six. Bowdoin is unimpressed, but as always, Ramirez has something to say. He says that everybody believes in him a little bit, even guys like Bowden who pretend they don't. This is a good line. Yes. Yeah. Bowden gives Ramirez a look before digging into his pocket. He pulls out a folded up piece of paper and drops it in front of Ramirez.
Questioning what it is, Ramirez unfolds it, revealing a coupon for 50% off your next car wash. But Bowdoin says it's an apology note left at the sight of a hit and run. Ramirez turns the coupon around and sees it, written simply in blue pen. I'm so sorry. I want flowers for not making an I'm sorry I can't don't hate me sex in the city joke but you two wouldn't get it anyway but the people who get it give me flowers for not making it. No you've made the joke before. I know the joke.
I know the reference. Great job. Success! But Bowden shares that his wife and son were killed on Bethlehem Pike five years ago. But that's OK, because whoever did it is sorry. He adds sourly that you can tell by the heartfelt apology left on the back of a car wash coupon. He doesn't believe in the devil because we don't need him. People are bad enough by themselves. Another great line.
is bethlehem pike right and i think the car wash was like trinity something so you know we're a little weird some really super subtle hints you know the heaviest of hands I will say I do like this moment. Yeah. I'd like it a lot more again without that first bit with Bowdoin. Right. Yeah. At the beginning of the film. Yeah.
Like just telling everything. Yeah, because this should have that weight to it. Yeah. This entire time, Lustig has been scrubbing through the footage and something catches Bowdoin's eye. He tells them to stop and back it up. It's the moment when Sarah accuses Vince of touching her ass, but it's clear on the footage that Vince is standing in his own corner and he kept his hands to himself.
Bowden points out that she's acting like Vince grabbed her. His eyes drift over to the current feed, where Mechanic is taking his turn searching Larson. Sarah stands in her corner watching, and Bowden wonders, what's she up to? I feel like that's enough to alert the people in the car about it because Lustig was there to see them all gang up on Vince for that exact reason.
true yeah i would be scared though like how like he just yanked that dude back in from the top that they would like beat her up or something like i would yeah oh that's true probably Cause panic. It's like it's her! She killed her! Her ass was never grabbed. And Ramirez is like, you want to remind me of the devil? Is it open mic night? We're not helping anything. No, that's true. Maybe we'll keep this a little closer to the... Maybe we keep it to ourselves. Just wait. For now. For now, for now.
He radios in, asking for them to do him a favor and keep their hands off each other. He says that they can leave the police work to him because he'll be in there any minute now. He asks Lustig pointedly, won't I? We cut to Dwight clinging to a wire, a mechanized hum echoing as he slowly lowered down the impossibly long elevator shaft.
In the elevator, old woman nudges Vince's legs away from her with her foot. This puts them right next to Larson, who kicks them back to where they were. He tells her to stop it, but the old woman says simply that she doesn't like him touching her. he's touching her she doesn't like it larson leans forward pleading with her to stop pushing him onto him but old woman whips out a can of pepper spray telling him to stay back i gasped yeah yeah
Larson backs up, remarking that he knows she's not doing what it looks like she's doing. And mechanic points out that if she sprays in here, she's going to blind all of them. But old woman maintains that she will do it. Larson steps toward her to take the can away, and the old woman presses on the trigger. She's astonished when nothing happens, and Larson takes this opportunity to bat it out of her hand and onto the floor.
He steps forward and he and the old woman switch corners. But in the office, Lustig radios Dwight asking where he is, telling him that he seriously needs to stop disappearing. Dwight is still descending, and he tells Lustig to give him a minute. But Lustig demands that Dwight needs to get inside of that car right now. It's like he's trying. And he keeps disappearing because he keeps telling him to go do different shit. Keep giving him different stuff.
Dwight stops lowering and chuckles that he can't. Lustig's voice rings out again, telling Dwight to stay on the walk. You're doing way too much. But suddenly, pigeons fly up in Dwight's face. He loses his balance and falls backward, nearly falling off the wire, and a piece holding him begins to loosen by itself. In the elevator, Larson taunts the old woman with the pepper spray can, waving it in her face. He reads it for her. Used by October 21st, 1987.
Mechanic allows that old woman was just scared and he tells Larson to relax. But Larson reminds him that she tried to pepper spray him. Before the old woman can speak up for herself, the entire car shakes and a light fixture from above falls down, hanging on its wire. Mechanic pushes it back up, but we hear Lustig's voice coming from a walkie. Dwight, where are you? The old woman looks up at the ceiling with hope and breathes. We're being saved. The crash landing was.
Was positive? Maybe it was like a hero landing. The posture. In the security office, Lustig continues to ask Dwight where he is, telling him again to pick up the walkie. But Bowden is watching the footage where everyone in the car is looking up at the ceiling. He reasons that they might. must hear Dwight moving in the elevator shaft. But Lustig asks why Dwight isn't answering then.
We see Dwight sprawled across the top of the car, a metal piece jutting up through his gut as Lustig continues to tell him to pick up. This is serious. Inside the car, Larson calls up a grateful, thank you. But the old woman and mechanic keeps staring up at the ceiling. And after a moment, the old woman lets out a whimper. We see that a rose of blood is blooming on the ceiling.
mechanic repeats no no no he tries to climb up to the panel that he had slid open but it won't open despite him banging on it repeatedly he finally settles back down into the car rocking himself back and forth as a quiet realization spreads between the four of them, much like the bloodstain above. At least Sarah wasn't like, he's escaping again! Yeah, no. Larson's just beating the shit up. It's like, Jesus Christ.
Lustig continues to radio Dwight as they watch the passengers on the footage. Sarah nervously fiddling with her purse.
Bowden asks what floor Dwight entered the shaft from. And when Lustig answers that he entered through the roof, Bowden hurries off. But Lustig can't take his eyes off the screen, wondering what they're looking up at. And when he radios Dwight again, there is an edge of desperation in his voice outside in the rain five more police cars pull up joining the other congregated emergency vehicles and a cluster of cops get out and head toward the building
Meanwhile Bowden is entering the machine room on the roof. He passes a pigeon sitting on one of the machines and makes his way to the open elevator shaft. Bowden peers down with his flashlight, reporting on the walkie that Dwight fell down the shaft and was impaled right on top of the elevator. They can hear him inside the car when he adds that Dwight is hurt real bad, possibly dead.
In the security office, Lustig and Ramirez sit in a stunned silence as Markowitz radios Bowdoin to tell him that he thinks the people in the elevator can hear their walk. We can. Larson looks at the camera, pantomiming the words, I can hear you. And Markowitz tells Bowden that it's confirmed. As a solution, Bowden's like, switch to channel eight.
He says that the car is stuck on floor 21 and for Markowitz to relay that to the fire department. Lustig chimes in, rebutting that they can't go through the wall, but Bowden asserts that they can. That's why you have insurance. Lustig throws his walkie down as Markowitz radios the firefighters, instructing them to switch to Channel 8.
After an upside down shot of the building standing tall in the pouring rain, we are back in the security office watching Sarah sign in on the log in the lobby. They identify her as Sarah Carraway. Bowden rattles off the names they know. Sarah Caraway, Benjamin Larson, and Vince McCormick. He asks which other names aren't accounted for.
Consulting the log, Markowitz identifies the older woman as Jane Kowski. With the other three accounted for, Bowden leans in and points right at Mechanic on the screen, standing alone in the corner. find me footage of this guy. But on the 21st floor, the firefighters are moving employees and desks out of the way before taking a sledgehammer to a logo embedded on the wall.
In the office, they're watching footage of Jane Kowski, the old woman, before she ended up in the elevator. She looks around, walking past a woman seated in a chair. Casually and swiftly, she plucks the woman's wallet from her. her purse and drops it into her own lustig is appalled by this but boating gets down to the facts vince was a scam artist jane is a thief sarah is a liar and larson is a thug
He muses that they've got quite the crew here, but he still hasn't seen Mechanic. Jane stole someone's wallet, huh? She did. That is interesting. I didn't love the use of the word thug here. No. But we can press on. With the musical sting, the footage in front of Bowdoin jumbles, and suddenly he sees the occupants of elevator six lying in a bloody heap on the floor of the car. The footage scrambles again to show mechanic and Sarah just standing there again.
He loves that. Yeah. The devil loves doing that. I think that it would have been more effective to just have it this. the first and only time it happens yeah because you're like you're just this is the greatest hits now yeah he loves it yeah i was it did remind me and i don't know why but it did remind me of book of shadows a little bit we all love book of shadows
I'll allow it. Bowdoin asks what that was, but Lustig says it's okay. It's just a hard drive crash. And Ramirez hurries off to fix the problem. What? How many computers? Have you seen this before, sir? And Ramirez didn't see it, but I'm surprised he wasn't like, see, this is what happens. Hard drives crash. Toast goes jelly down, jelly side down. Like again? Yeah. It's like somebody, he can leave. You can go home for the day. When was your last coffee break, man?
Moving past what he just saw, Bowden asks if they have another angle of surveillance in the lobby, but Lustig says the only other thing they have is the main entrance. He pulls it up so that Bowden can see. And under Bowden's instruction, he takes that and rewinds it back until he finds the mechanic looking very suspicious as he enters the building.
He notes the red satchel slung over Mechanic's arm and the absence of it in the elevator, wondering where it is now. He rushes away, but when Lustig reacts to the screen with a series of woes, he comes back. and on the elevator footage the lights are cutting out again. I will say it's a pretty logical theory he's putting together. Yes. So I appreciate that as well. Yeah. In the elevator, Jane moans, oh no, but Larson screams that he can't take this anymore.
Sarah is shrinking away against the doors, warning the rest of the passengers in a quavering voice not to come near her. Mechanic is attempting to be pragmatic, though, proposing that if he could just check the wiring. I was like, this dude is crazy. Bye. Bye. But the lights completely shut off. Sarah begins to breathe heavily. And when there's a loud rumbling, we get the briefest glimpse of Larson's face as he demands to know what's going on. The rumbling stops and Larson lights a match.
but behind him looms something frightening with a bandaged face. Larson cries out as his match is extinguished, and when there's a sound of scuffling and thudding, it's too much for Sarah to bear. You know what? We were talking off mic trying to like theorize of what that vision could be. Yeah. And it could be like, oh, is this the devil? Is this, you know, something that just came to me.
What if this is the man that he beat with the baseball bat? Oh, fuck! Okay, okay. Okay, that makes so much more, because I was like, we've never seen anything like this before. It was kind of giving Silent Hill for me a little bit. Yeah. Very frightening visual, but it really made no sense. But that I rather like that, actually. Yeah. The bandages. Yes.
I will say I would like to see it again. Yeah. Or more things like that. Yes. To where it is a little bit more like we're actually pointing at it. Like you had wanted it bringing up these things that could have brought them here in the first place. Yeah. But Sarah screams for them to turn on the lights and her wish is granted. We pan over to the corner where Jane Kowski dangles hanged by her neck.
Sarah screams hysterically and Larson only looks up at her, dazed. They see this in the security office and Bowden is like, that's it, shut down the building. He demands for everyone to be brought down to the lobby, stipulating that no one can come in or out but them. And Markowitz leaves to do this. If they're watching this, there's no way they could have done it that fast. No. No.
And another thing as well, one murder wasn't enough to shut down the building. He's like, two? Oh, two? Yeah, we can't keep doing this. I guess no more business today, you guys. Lustig asks Bowden which guy he thinks is doing this, but Bowden asserts that there are three people in that elevator and any one of them could be capable. Lustig disagrees. He's sure that Sarah's not doing it. Bowden, however, is firm in his decision not to rule anyone out.
Markowitz comes back, telling Lustig that the fire department wants to know if they have a shutoff valve before they get through the wall, just in case. Barely able to tear his eyes away from the screen, Lustig says that they do in the basement. After a moment of silence he volunteers to go.
Alone now with Bowdoin, Ramirez ventures that they're all in that elevator because they're bad people. But Bowdoin insists that two people just happened to get on the wrong one. Ramirez replies sarcastically. Yeah, and I. I just happened to have the wrong job and you just happened to take the wrong call. Bowdoin doesn't respond, but his eyes flit to Ramirez for a moment before returning to the screen. Ramirez continues. He never does this in secret. There's a reason we're the audience.
Again, I got to ding the writing a little bit. Yeah. Well, I'm thinking, I know we get small stories or reasons why our group is here, but. I want to know why Ramirez, if this is his thing, why are you here? The devil wouldn't want you here. Yeah. Who else was going to throw the toast? Okay. Who else could? No one, man. The answer is no one. He does. Too much. Yeah. And this little bit, we're just adding extra corners every five seconds, it feels. Right?
Like, oh, and also, he does it in front of people so that they can see specifically. Well, there's also, yeah, something else that he adds later where I'm like, when was that? That one pisses me off, frankly, because I'm like, come on. Come on, dude. I don't even know. Never mind. Go. Go ahead.
outside a tattooed woman with heavy eyeliner jogs through the rain up to the building Cheryl played by Zoe Palmer is stopped by an officer before she can go inside when he tells her that she can't go in she argues that She's supposed to meet somebody upstairs. The officer suggests for her to call and let them know she's not going to make it. She asks to just know what's happening, but he turns her away.
The narrator, AKA Ramirez comes back explaining that he always kills the last victim in front of the person they love most to make cynics of us all. You really are. I feel like it's a hat on a hat like isn't it bad enough what's going on they have to be named it's like what it's a lot are we doing In the elevator, mechanic is frantically trying to take Jane down. Sarah tells him not to touch her, but he insists that he is not leaving her hanging here.
Larson questions where he's going to put her and Mechanic admits that he hasn't thought that far ahead. Larson comes over to help, holding Jane's legs as Mechanic unwinds the light fixture cord from around her neck. Despite his help, mechanic points out that it's funny how this all started happening right after Larson started working here. But Larson thinks it's just as funny that mechanics, the one who knew where the cables were.
Finally, they loosen Jane's body and she falls, slipping through their grips and crashing to the floor with vents. Larson and mechanic retreat to opposite ends of the wall, eyeing the bodies uneasily as the light fixture swings between them. But something else catches Mechanic's eye. In her fall, Jane Kowski's purse has also fallen to the ground. And no less than six wallets have spilled out. She's been fucking busy, dude. What is her business? this year. Snatching Wallace. That's all, dude.
The mechanic kneels down and reaches out with a trembling hand. He brings her eyelids down, closing her eyes. And when Larson asks what he's doing, he tells him. But Larson says that it doesn't work like that. They have to be dead for a few hours. the score rises at this possible slip and mechanic turns eyeing him over his shoulder suspiciously
I was like, what the fuck? You just said that you have no experience with dead bodies. Yeah. And I was like, no, you got to wait. What? I didn't know that. Scared as hell, dude. Meanwhile, Bowden and Markowitz make their way through the congested lobby. Bowden muses, if you see a sign-in desk that you want to avoid, where would you go? We pan over, the far wall giving the answer along with Markowitz.
The restrooms. They go into the men's room, searching until Bowden reaches under the sinks and finds Mechanic's red duffel rolled up and stowed away. Bowden alerts Markowitz that he found it. He unrolls it and pulls down the zipper before turning it and emptying its contents into the sink. The objects clatter loudly, and we look down at them along with Bowden and Markowitz. They're just...
Markowitz wonders if they could be used to rig an elevator. Bowden admits that he has no idea, but he points out that Mechanic didn't sign in and then he hid these here. Ramirez stands alone in the security office breathing heavily as he watches the screens we rise above him as he slowly reaches forward and takes the microphone for the intercom he raises both of his hands slightly
and begins to pray in Spanish. They hear him in the elevator, but this brings further unease instead of comfort. This would make me fucking vomit, I think. Yeah, I'd be like, oh, we're fucked fucked. Like, we're done. Yeah. Larson wishes that Ramirez would stop, and after letting that hang in the air for a moment, Sarah realizes that she doesn't even know Larson's name. He tells her, I'm Ben. He reaches out his hand and Sarah takes it. Mechanic speaks up from the corner, adding, I'm Tony.
This made me so sad because they're like, you don't fucking care. Yeah. I didn't understand the like immediate sake. Not him. Yeah. Both of them. Yeah. He reaches out for Sarah to shake his hand too, but she just looks down at it before looking back at Larson with a smirk. Shunned, Tony mutters, where'd your claustrophobia go?
If he had a shake in his hand, he wouldn't have even brought it up. Larson's like, excuse me? But Tony just shrugs, marveling that he's never seen claustrophobia come and go like that. Larson invites Tony to just come out and say it if he's implying something. So Tony does. He knows that he didn't do it and he very much doubts that Sarah did. So that leaves Larson.
Sarah's eyes dart between the two of them as Tony levels the accusation that Larson's claustrophobia is just an act. He thinks he's a liar. Vince's death, I get. Yeah. There is no way that anyone could have killed Jane this way. No. So this to me, look, a skeptic, whatever you're thinking or feeling, we're going to start. I would hope I understand cabin fever or whatever and be in this.
tight space. Yeah. We got to come together on this one. Yes. Yeah. There's no fucking way. It was wrapped like several times. Yeah. And it was like a blink. Yeah. Yes. Larson looks over at Sarah before taking a step toward Tony but before he can get any further Tony yells running and tackling Larson into the wall behind him.
A fight ensues. The two men struggling against each other. But suddenly Sarah screams, kill him, Ben. Kill him before he kills us. All right. Oh, my God. Talk about fucking escalation. So we're not gonna, we're done. This fuels Larson's fire and he starts to pummel Tony. But Tony turns the tides with a headbutt, gaining the upper hand. And Sarah's calls for murder turn to cries for peace, begging Tony to stop it, begging for something.
Someone to get them out of here. But in the security. With his eyes still closed. And his hands still outstretched as he mutters his prayer. Ramirez is none the wiser. Bowden hurries in and snatches the microphone from Ramirez's hand and demands that Larson and Tony back away from each other now.
Again, I had to pause it and get my fucking laughs out this dude you're the security guard yeah he's not even fucking watching he's still fully in prayer head back eyes closed they're killing each other in the elevator and bowden walks in Give me the fucking microphone. This is hilarious. This looks so funny. And he's so in the zone that he just lets the mic get snatched. Yeah, he just keeps going. Sarah is staring up at the camera. Her screams unheard. And Tony finally lets go of Larson.
Bowden instructs them all to get to a separate corner and put their hands on the wall to ensure their safety. Everyone will be able to see that they're not up to anything. When they hesitate, Bowden yells at them to do it. They follow instruction and the detective assures them that it won't be long now because the building is surrounded by police.
He throws the microphone down and stands in silence with Ramirez behind him. Finally, he offers in a hypothetical conversation that he's not really having. How would this story of Ramirez's end? Ramirez is quick with his answer. They all die. Bowden asks if that's it. And Ramirez says with certainty that it is. He assures Bowden that it's not his fault. They all made the choices that brought them here.
That's very funny for him to be like, okay, look, dude, I'm going to humor you. Tell me what next. Oh, we're just fucked. Yeah, they all die. There's nothing we can do. Markowitz comes in with news that he says Bowden is going to love. Pointing at Sarah on the monitor, he informs Bowden that she has a criminal record, too. Three counts of blackmailing rich married men. He says that the interest.
The interesting part is that a couple years ago, the arrests stopped. He invites Bowden to guess why, but Bowden insists on being told. Markowitz reveals that Sarah's name is Sarah Carraway, and Bowden is like, caraway caraway markowitz chuckles that she married into the family Bowden wonders what she's doing here, and Markowitz knows. According to the sign-in sheet, she was on her way to the 42nd floor to meet with a lawyer named Wayne Kazan. Bowden takes off. Again.
This is what the devil's wasting his time with. Yeah. She ripped off some dudes. The devil's like, look, there are some shitty people in this building. I'll hang out here. This building is huge. There's no way that these are the shittiest people. No. That's pretty shitty, but I feel like there's bigger things going on than that. He's like, I'll go to Earth for this one. It's like, dude, really?
Just having a little bit of fun. The devil wouldn't even come but for Constantine. Right. He's coming for these people. Come on. It's like, get over yourself. It's like, geez. In the lobby, he jumps up onto a counter to quiet the clamoring crowd and get everyone's attention. He calls out for Wayne Kazan. And when a voice answers him, Bowdoin hops down and makes a beeline for him. He asks Wayne.
played by Jonathan Potts, if he had a meeting with Sarah Carraway today. Wayne immediately asks for a subpoena, but Bowden pleads with the lawyer to at least tell him that much. Wayne only allows that he might have had a meeting with her. Why? Bowden reveals that she was attacked. He needs to know who has motive to hurt her.
This shocks Wayne, but he maintains that he can't divulge her personal information. When Bowdoin begs for him to give him something, he's trying to save Sarah's life. Wayne pulls him to the side. The rain pounding outside of the glass door. behind him, Wayne advises Bowdoin to start where they normally do with the person closest to her.
Bowden thanks her and starts to walk away, but Wayne stops him, adding that just so he knows, his specialty is forensic accounting. Bowden gives literally no response. Only takes out his walkie and radios for Markowitz to get Sarah's husband on the phone. I will say I thought that this was he's like, hey, like, do you know anybody that needs a forensic lawyer or whatever? Forensic accounting lawyer or whatever?
But I think that he was trying to drop him another hint. Oh, I thought he was just looking for work. I did too. I can't take it out here alone. Yeah, I did too. But later when like they're putting pieces together, it's like, oh, he was like. I work with money. Yeah. That's very, very smart. I like that actually. Yeah. But I will say again, it just makes it seem even weirder for the devil to want Sarah after hearing that. Yeah. And is he trying to say that her.
husband was going to put a hit on her basically like he had reason or she's something the victim of something yeah well I think the point I didn't take it that way I took it as like she's leaving him And if anybody would want to hurt her, it's him for her leaving him. Trying to take his money. Yeah, that's how I took it. Well, take the money.
take the money the money but again i just don't i understand you know stealing is one of the 10 and it's important you shouldn't do it but again yeah there's bigger fish to fry yeah for sure But in the basement, Lustig finally completes turning off the water and radios the firefighters that it's all good now.
Upstairs, the firefighters continue to break down the wall, and given the all clear by Lustig, the fire captain, played by Michael Rhodes, tells them to take out a saw to start cutting through to the elevator. But back in the basement, electricity crackles, causing Lustig to pause on his way up the stairs. He swings his flashlight toward it as he comes back down. Once he investigates, he finds a downed wire sitting on a wet floor.
sending up sparks he radios in that he might have found the problem the bad wire might be shorting out the circuits He looks up at the breaker above the sparking wire before arming himself with a piece of wood. Using the wood, he lifts the sparking wire out of the water and up toward the hook that it fell from. But the hook is just out of reach. Amen.
Lustig looks down at the puddle of standing water before going forward, hovering his shoe over it. And just as it makes contact with the water, we're back upstairs where sparks fly when the electric... saw shorts the other firefighters rushed to make sure that firefighter curtsy played by kelly jones is okay the captain radios to be brought a large target saw as quickly as possible i laughed out loud Yes. Because he got electrocuted immediately. Oh yeah.
the cut was really funny yes what we see in a second i hate to admit it but it's also really funny but i was like you know better you you took the wood yeah i was just like Lustig, what the fuck? Hold on, though. Yeah. So you're telling me that they know this wire's fucked up. They have a hook for it. Yeah. That's normal. Yeah. That's completely normal because they have a hook for it. Yeah. It has nothing to do with the devil. Yeah. No, no. That's us. Yeah. Wires fall down.
jelly fall or the jelly falls on the floor kids hit their head yeah but dude if that's your system yeah this is gonna happen yeah for sure if it didn't happen today it was gonna happen tomorrow yeah he knew better than to step in the fucking water he did and maybe the devil's part was leaving a stick just short enough was trimming a couple inches Outside, a pensive score accompanies Cheryl as she watches through the rain lurking outside the building.
In the lobby, Markowitz reports to Bowden that he called Carraway's office and was told by his secretary that he would call him right back. Suddenly, panic erupts through the crowd and people start screaming. ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
His eyes are rolled back as he twitches. Bowden screams for a medic, and as medics come to work on him, Bowden implores Lustig to just keep breathing. He turns to the gathering crowd and yells at them to... back away this again it's not funny but it's really funny like what the fuck were you thinking yeah i honestly i have to admit i was shocked that we ever saw him again No pun intended. But I thought he was just going to be in the basement. That's it.
But in the elevator everyone still stands in their assigned corners hands up on the wall. After a moment Sarah drops her arms and shakes them. Tony tells her to put them back on the wall, but she cradles them instead, whining that it hurts. Tony turns, telling her firmly again to put her hands back on the wall. Sarah turns, challenging him. Or what? Tony looks from her to Larson, but Larson only tells Tony to leave her alone. She's in pain.
Tony asks if Larson really can't see what she's doing. When he gets no response, he mutters, chicks a twist. This is a pet peeve of mine in writing. When you use a term that you know nobody else knows. Yeah, I know. And then you, in the next few seconds, explain that term. Like, don't. It's frustrating. I got to say, when I watched this when I was younger, I was like, this is the coolest fucking thing ever. Larson.
Of course, doesn't understand. And so Tony explains. That's what they used to call people like her in the Marines. Suddenly, out of the blue, people would start fighting with each other. Tempers would flare. People would get hurt. But then they'd realize it's just the new guy telling people what everyone said, stirring shit up where there wasn't any. Until one night, they beat the living shit out of the twist. And then just like that, he snaps his fingers. Everything would go back to normal.
Jesus Christ. I like that he's like starting shit where isn't anybody's also like telling everybody. The shit that we were talking about. Hugging herself, Sarah asks if Tony is threatening her, but he maintains that he just wants her to know that he knows. Larson suggests that Tony just shut up and keep his hands on the wall. And Tony shoots another look at Sarah. When she stares back at him, his lips twitch into a subtle smirk.
But infuriatingly, Ramirez sits pondering in the security office when on the screen behind him, Cheryl slips through the front doors once paramedics leave out of them. She just walks in. Ramirez should be fired. Is it everybody's first day on the job? In the lobby, Markowitz radios Bowden to report that Carraway lawyered up. Bowden responds that Wayne told him Sarah was locating all of her husband's money. She was probably about to leave him and maybe he knows it. That would definitely.
give him a motive to kill her but Markowitz wonders if he's trying to kill Sarah why are Jane Kowski and Vince McCormick dead behind him a security guard answers the phone this is Matt with Caraway security Bowden turns to look at him, focusing in on the patch on his shoulder with the branding for Carraway security. Stricken, Bowden radios back. Sarah Carraway's husband doesn't own Carraway security, does he?
He backs away from the security guard and tells Markowitz to meet him in the office. But with the Carraway security insignia on his own arm, Larson stands under the flickering lights of the elevator and no one has their hands on the wall. anymore and again i will say excellent theory yeah yes and then seeing this and that tight shot of the badge yeah you're like oh shit okay it makes perfect sense
Ramirez watches this in the security office warning he's not done yet. And he's alone. He's alone. Who are you talking to? Bowdoin runs in, declaring that it's the Kensington sniper all over again. Ramirez doesn't know who that is, so Markowitz explains. A few years ago, a guy shot four strangers and then his own wife trying to make a personal kill. Bowden says that Larson works for Sarah's husband, and he thinks the first two killings might have just been a decoy.
Markowitz reiterates that the guard is going to kill Sarah and Bowden shouts at his partner that he needs to be in that elevator now. Markowitz runs off. But we're the ones in the elevator now where Larson stands in front of the scrambling digital readout and under the failing lights looking extremely menacing. Yeah. Sarah pleads with him not to let Tony kill her, and he assures her that he won't. Which, in this moment, is pretty wild. Oh, he won't.
Like you're being playful. Yeah. He invites her to come stand next to him so that he can keep her safe. She does, and the two look at Tony, who stands alone on the other side. And suddenly... The lights go out completely. Bowdoin radios in, telling them to lift their cell phones and use the lights. He tells them not to let it go dark, to keep shining their lights on each other.
They do as told, holding up their state-of-the-art cell phones with shaking hands, pointing them toward each other like weapons. But inexplicably, their phones are snatched from their hands by something invisible, rendering the elevator pitch. black once again i do gotta ask this was 2010 yeah there is everybody only had flip phones like that or there was no
I feel like at this time I had a razor. Yeah, I was trying to think, actually. I don't remember. I think they were. We were a razor family. I don't remember. I know that I... When did the iPhone come out? I don't know. I know that we wanted one. i can't remember well because i remember android was starting to make phones i think we got the first ones in like 2010 or 11 that were screen screens
Yeah, because I was going to say, I remember having a AT&T prepaid phone that was just the screen. It wasn't a flip. No, but it also didn't have a lot. with it of course i do also enjoy whenever we visit movies around this time where it's like dude look at that phone i'm like that was the peak you know There's heavy breathing, troubling thudding, Larson whispering, don't you do it. Don't you do it.
We get a flash of the buttons all lit up in red again before the light comes back on. Sarah is illuminated and we pan over to Tony, who stands with his fist pulled back and ready to strike. But we follow his gaze down to the floor where Larson... is thrown into the corner, his head twisted backwards. Something horribly wrong with his neck. Yeah. Again. Don't see how anybody with human hands could have done this. No. And just want to remind everyone this is a PG-13 rated movie.
And we see his head. Oh no, his head is, yeah, his neck is twisted all the way around. It looks like several times. Again, you see like the rings around the Rosie. It's crazy. Yeah, they gave him the old Carmichael Hay. We're there. We're there. Sarah looks from Larson up to Tony, trembling. From the security office, Bowdoin says that it just doesn't make any sense. With realization, Sarah tells Tony, oh my God, it is you.
But Tony shakes his head, reminding Sarah that they can't hear her. She doesn't have to pretend anymore. They both know who did this. And Sarah's like, yeah, we do. So two things. Firstly, I think that the reaction of the detective is pretty small compared to what just happened. He's like, this is crazy. I don't get it.
I'm not following. But how though? And the second thing is there's a moment in the elevator whenever Sarah says that to Tony. Tony's response at the start, I thought he was confessing. I did too, yeah. But then it's like, oh, no, we're still in this kind of a stalemate. Yeah. When he's like, they can't hear you. Yeah. I was like, what the fuck? Yeah. He's like, you don't got to fake it, you know? No, he's still good. He's still all right. Oh, thank God. Oh, thank God.
But they both eye the broken glass shards on the ground, and at the same time, they stoop to pick up a piece. Armed, they grunt and brandish their makeshift knives at each other. But Bowdoin radios in, demanding that they put the glass down and put their hands... hands back on the wall now shaking tony maintains that he should kill her right now before she tries anything else sarah asks him what his defense would be she killed them all so i had to kill her tony's like yeah
That's exactly. Yeah. Something like that. But Sarah asserts that if he takes her down, they're pinning all of this on him and he knows it. She muses, a big tough guy like yourself. She looks him up and down, but neither of them dropped their glass. In the security office, Ramirez reminds everyone that this is what he does. He wants us to doubt everything. He continues mouthing words. This is a, I don't, I'm not.
Yeah, I'm going to be honest. I'm not a fan of it. No. My favorite part is that nobody's even paying attention to it. Then why have him keep saying it? I don't know. He's standing in his truth. Okay. Bowdoin radios Markowitz, who stands with the firefighters in a dust-filled hallway. He shouts over the sound of the saw cutting through the wall, promising Bowdoin that they're getting close. But Bowdoin begs him to hurry up.
Now, Bowden asks Ramirez, according to his story, how can Bowden save them? Ramirez is like, there is no easy answer. You've had all the answers so far. But he says that Bowden is never going to get those people to see themselves for who they really are. The lies we tell ourselves introduce us to him. Which is, again, another good line. Yes. Bowdoin thinks for a moment before picking the microphone back up.
He implores Tony and Sarah to look at what they're doing. He tells them not to think that just because he's a cop, he doesn't understand what they're going through right now because he's been to hell. He shares that six months ago, he checked into a hotel and nearly drank himself to death.
The thing is, when you're self-destructing, it only looks like it's the world's fault. But that's not real. He knows that it was all on him. And then he realized that his only way out of hell was to take responsibility. for what he'd become he tells them you are responsible for this he asks if they realize that and he tells them to take responsibility for what they're doing here he asks them again
to put down the glass. So this has to be him subscribing to Ramirez's theory and his assertions because them being stuck in an elevator and everyone around them being murdered and Bowdoin being like... You're responsible. Yeah. On its face is wild. That's true. Well, maybe one of them will be like, all right, I killed him. Yeah, I'm sorry. You're right, man. My bad, dude.
In the elevator, they stand in a sober silence as they ponder Bowdoin's words. Finally, Sarah reasons that she'll put hers down if Tony will put his down too. They'll call it a truce. His eyes still wide and distrusting, Tony stares at her. Sarah drops the glass, opening her empty and bloody hand to him in a sign of truce. And Tony finally follows suit, dropping his own piece.
Bowdoin tells him through the intercom that they've done good. But as Sarah lowers her hand, we watch from behind where we see that she has another piece of glass sticking out of her back pocket. Now, when did she do that? Yeah. There's lots of time, dude. It got really dark in there a lot of times. Dude, I'm not thinking of putting a glass in my pocket. All the devil's whipping about in the dark.
But that just means, too, she's not who she's saying she is. Fair. You've been doing bad shit. Fair. In the security office, Officer Choi, played by Alice Poon, steps in. She tells Bowden that there's a woman who thinks she knows someone in the elevator. Bowden tells the officer to send her in. When he looks back up at the screen, he's dismayed to see that Tony and Sarah appear to be in a standoff again. God damn it. Look away for one second. You got to keep talking to him. Yeah, dude.
He radios to Markowitz for the firefighters to get in there and get in there now. And we finally see that they have carved a hole in the wall. In the elevator, Tony groans and growls as the lights flicker. When the car goes dark, he lunges forward to grab his phone off the floor. He shines it at Sarah, illuminating the sweat sheened on her face.
as sarah reaches toward her back pocket tony's phone is jerked away in the darkness we hear the crunching of glass and the thud of a body hitting the floor The devil let him have his phone again? Only for a second. When the lights come back on we see that it's Sarah on the ground. She wheezes desperately for air but her throat is slit.
Tony stares down at her in shock before looking down at his own bloody hand. He turns toward the camera unknowingly meeting eyes with Bowden. So was that one the devil or was that Tony? It was a devil. Was it? Because why is his hand bloody? Was he already touching her throat? Why was salesman bloody? Well, because she fell into him. So he stabbed her? It's like, Jane! You're escalating. Orbit. Be quiet. You don't bite everyone that bumps into you? I thought that was a natural reaction.
Officer Choi brings Cheryl in and Bowden tries to tell her not to let her in, but it's too late. Cheryl stands next to Bowden looking at the monitor. Bowden asks if she knows him and Cheryl does. Tony is her fiance and he had a job interview here today. He didn't want to bring his tools in with him, but she was late picking them up. Bowdoin asks Tony's last name and Cheryl tells him. Jane Kowski. Tony Jane Kowski.
Bowdoin consults the sign-in sheet, realizing that Jane Kowski is Jane Kowski. He did sign in. He questions, then who is... We cut back to the elevator. Tony kneels over Sarah, tending to her wound. But behind him, the old woman, formerly known as Jane Kowski, currently revealed to be the devil, rising. her head tilted and her eyes pitch black. I love this moment so much. It is fantastic. The shot, the motion, her eyes.
I love it a lot. I just don't like the faking of the death, the fake out. Why would the devil? Like, I understand he's fucking around and playing with people and everything, but it does kind of take a little bit of the sting out of it for me. Well, he's like, they're going to start to suspect this old woman. We got to narrow it down. It's kind of like a Saul situation. He laid in the middle of the floor. You know, honestly, also.
them being punished this severely for their pretty mediocre crimes is also very soft. But I do, I like the twist. I like that it's her. I think it's just the execution of it. Yeah. If it was Raymond's mom. That'd be scary. She's so sweet. Yeah. She's something. Well, she's sweet on the surface. I love to their decision to keep her looking like this just with her eyes black. I think she still looks really frightening and her taking this form. It's like, I don't know. I, I just love it a lot.
I'm not going to lie. For me, I do get where it's coming from. I just would have liked maybe if it wasn't so much just. the old lady as maybe it was jumping from person to person saying stuff you know what i mean it does look cool but i think you're right t i think there's a little bit of sting taken out of it
And then it's like, oh, oh, okay, okay, we're doing the, you know, possessed older person thing. Well, it's a form, it's a form. And I mean, the moments that it leads to, it kind of is worth all the stuff that I don't really like. either you know right and i will say the fact that the devil kept the form of the old woman that to me only makes it kind of clearer that whatever we saw earlier was not the devil Yeah, yeah. Because you'd think we would see that again. Yeah. Or something like it.
When Tony turns and sees her, he screams and cowers against the wall. In the security office, Ramirez exclaims in Spanish before declaring, It's her! It's her! You're going to have to wait outside. Yeah, we can see. Keeping his voice steady, Bowdoin radios to Markowitz for them to get in there already. Stammering, Tony asks who she is. We peer up at her as she responds in a distorted voice. Today?
I'm an old woman. Amazing. So good. And it also, remember whenever she was going to get on that other elevator and she said no? Yes. Because she had no business with those people. No. She did look like she hurt that guy's feelings though. Yeah. But I mean, I guess she is the devil. So that was her sin. Yeah. Jigsaw's coming for that ass. Bowdoin radios for them to grab the old woman the second they get inside the elevator. But inside, she asks, are you ready for your turn, Anthony?
Tony turns and looks down at Sarah when she wheezes, her eyes unfocused and far away. And we see Tony in a flashback behind the wheel of a car, his hair longer and his dropped beer pooling with its drained brethren on the floor. floor. Keeping an eye on the road, he strains to reach his dropped drink and pick it up.
But as soon as he straightens back up in his seat and brings the can to his lips, his headlights illuminate a car in the darkness and he barely has time to see it before he crashes into it. His windshield is shattered on impact and the car skids off the road before settling into the grass. Smoke billows from the hood as Tony pulls himself out of the car.
An ominous score moans as he limps to where the other car ended up on the opposite side of the road. Car Crash Woman, played by Stacey Shaboski, lies on her back, coughing up blood in the grass. Did you recognize her from the Poughkeepsie tapes? Oh! Yeah, and she plays a crucial role in that film. Yeah. But she's also the wife of the director. That's cool!
Tony covers his face and sobs at the sight of her. The woman stares up with dazed eyes, but Tony looks over to the car where there's a hole in the passenger side of the windshield. He follows the trajectory to find the body of a little boy played by Gage Monroe lying still in the grass. Tony sobs, but he takes one last look at the woman who has slipped away.
He gets in his car and takes off, smoke still pouring from beneath the hood. We pan over to the crashed car, where an apology note, presumably written on the back of a car wash coupon, flutters on the windshield. what the hell with the beer yeah like that took a long time it almost reminded me of how long dude took on wrong turn to get a cd oh my god i was like dude what are you doing like what
Keep your eyes on the road. Please. And don't drink and drive. No. Tony echoes this sentiment in the elevator now. He's sorry. But the woman speaks, still looming over him. The whores, the liars, the cheats, and the deserters. It's always the same thing. She asks Tony if he knows what she is now.
Tony nods and implores that she take him. The devil agrees that she intends to but Tony means for her to take him instead. He's the one who deserves this. She objects that he doesn't believe that but Tony asserts that he does. It's all his fault and he never should have left. She asks if he thinks he can make some kind of bargain, but Tony just continues to ask for her to take him instead. Her voice rising to a terrifying scream, she demands for Tony to stop saying that.
The distortion of that voice sends a shiver every single time. Yeah. That sounded really cool. It's so good. Suddenly, the car slips away from the firefighters still trying to get inside and begins to free fall within the shaft, Dwight's body still lying limp on its top. Tony and the bodies he sits among jostle and shake, but the devil stands strong and firm, still gazing down at him.
When the car finally comes to an abrupt stop, Dwight's body dangles from the hole in the ceiling and his walkie falls from his pocket and onto the floor. The devil asks if Tony thinks this will make him good because he's not good. But Tony says that he knows. And when the devil asks if he thinks he can make up for the choices he's made, he says no. She leans into him, demanding to know in a grating and harsh voice if he thinks he can be forgiven. And again, Tony says no.
He snatches up the walkie and Bowdoin quickly tells him channel eight. And that didn't make me. He's watching me. He's like, I gotta be able to hear him. On the proper channel, Tony admits that he killed a mother and her son on Bethlehem Pike five years ago. He says that it was a hit and run and he was never caught. Bowdoin is hit with the shock of this and he stares at the screen. Ramirez stares at Bowdoin. Looking a little smug, Ramirez. Well, you know, he's like...
Told you he had to be here for a reason. This is what he does. This is what he does. So was Ramirez just supposed to be here to help him get through it? I guess he's like, I don't know, like a messenger, like the in-between. Sure, yeah. Sure. He's like the angel on his shoulder? Sure. Tony tells the detective, I'm so sorry. And Bowdoin's eyes drop to this message written on the back of the coupon. I'm so sorry.
Having confessed, Tony and the devil lock eyes, and when Sarah lets out another desperate wheeze and falls still, Tony can only quietly ask, no. The devil continues to stare at him with her black eyes and Tony looks up at her bravely. She tells him sincerely, damn, I really wanted you. She stands tall and adjusts her hair before looking down at Tony. And suddenly, everything goes black. The elevator car, the lights in the building, the security office.
The elevator shaft suddenly brightens as if nothing ever happened. And when the firefighters pry open the doors to elevator six, they slide with ease. Inside, Tony sits, traumatized and staring. Sarah, Vince, and Larson lie dead on the floor, but there is no sign of the old woman. How do you explain that to the rest of your squad? Yeah, we've got some proof of something. Yeah. How many people saw this woman? You know? Oh, yeah. Everyone. So, I mean.
Pointing his gun, Bowden yells, demanding to know where she went. He even checks the top of the car before turning in slow motion. The score mounts, drowning out any sound. But we see him screaming at the firefighters at Mark away. to go. Paramedics come to help Tony while Ramirez watches all of this from the security office with the long side. Glad that's over. I'm going to sleep good tonight. I need to call my mom. Right, thank her.
The bodies are wheeled out on gurneys as Bowden stands alone in the hallway. He walks out to the lobby and finds Tony giving a statement to another officer with his hands cuffed behind his back. The two men lock eyes and Tony gives a small knowing. nod. Bowden on the other hand gives him nothing. He walks past Cheryl and tells the officer next to him that he will take Tony in and she nods her approval. I don't think he should be allowed to do this. Yeah.
no i mean i can only assume that they don't know yeah Everybody knows, though. And we just saw the confession and he said where it was. Yeah, they could have heard because they were all supposed to switch to that same channel. You're right. They're like, why does that sound familiar? Five years ago, Bethlehem. Where do I know that from? Oh, well. He seems really adamant about it, so we should probably let him. He's got, you know, seven him on the side of the road. Yeah. Definitely not.
Detective Bowden steps out into the night where the rain has stopped, but emergency lights still pulse in the darkness. We cut to his car as he drives with Tony in the backseat, and after a prolonged silence, Bowden admits that that was his... family on Bethlehem Pike that was his son he admits that he's been waiting for this moment for five years all the things he's wanted to say to him are the things that he would do to him
Tony waits for the barrage, but Bowdoin confesses. The thing is, I forgive you. Tony sits stunned. Ramirez pops back in as the narrator, sharing that after his mother finished her story, she would always comfort them. Because we were sobbing. Thank God. She would say, don't worry. If the devil is real, then God must be real too. She's like, and the devil is real. That's the whole point. Yeah.
Bowdoin's enlightened face gives way to the deep blue water again and we pan over it to find Philadelphia, right side up in the dawn of a new day. It fades to black and the credits roll.
So, what did you guys think of Devil? I had a lot of fun talking about the movie. I still want to say that I don't... love the movie why'd you phrase it talking about well because we did we had a lot of fun talking about it going through there is heavy stuff here there is they do play it very serious when some things do feel silly there is a lot of stuff that I...
I like. I really enjoyed that there is, like you were saying, T, the shots, the camera work. There's times when we're seeing Logan Marshall Green's character and he's next to the mirror the whole time and you see like... to you know what i mean him talking both times we see it with a couple of the characters in there and it looks really cool it looks really good um premieres i i i get it and i you know
I love that he's here. I don't like that we continue to keep going with what's going on here. Them to his partner. Lustig. You knew that wire was there. Why did you do that? Because the devil was around, man. It was affecting everyone. Is he dead? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I don't. What happened to him? I don't know. I don't know. We don't get close. No. There were a lot of body bags, but I don't. I don't know.
It is a fun movie. I think it is, for me, it's one of those movies to put on and just kind of have fun with. I don't want to sound mean, but I wouldn't suggest Let's Watch Devil. But if you, if your sister, my wife, who I love, was like, hey, do you want to watch Devil? Sure. And I will. Yeah, let's watch it. That's fine. Not something I'd pick. Right.
I feel like I do get a lot of enjoyment out of this film. Some of it is absolutely in spite of it. Because there's no way that they meant for us to be laughing at Ramirez this much. I just doubt that. But I do have a lot of fun with a lot of those moments that he has. I am, as you said, we keep adding rules. We got like 20 minutes left. I was going to say right up until the buzzer. By the way, the person he loves the most.
But only the last one. Everybody else fucked them. The devil doesn't give a shit. But the last one has to be. But Tony was the worst offense in that elevator. Fair. Okay. But at the same time, we're talking about all the people that have been gathered in this elevator for the things that they've done. And it's like the devil, like this is what he's coming up from hell for. Yeah. It's a little fun.
a little i had fun yeah i mean i had fun watching it and there are a lot of things that i do enjoy about it i just think that a lot of it gets kind of let down by the writing Where you're telling us too much too soon, a lot of heavy-handed stuff. Yeah. You got Ramirez and all that business going on.
But, I mean, there is a lot of enjoyment here. The runtime is incredibly short. Yeah. This is a film that you can just be like, hey, you know, you got a little bit of time. Let's watch it. It's fun enough and short enough to where you don't get too... annoyed at the things that are very clearly in my view wrong with it no yeah here's the thing all the complaints that y'all have you're completely right and i don't disagree with them
The thing is, is I think I feel like you kind of nailed it for me when you said in spite of it. There are so many things that I know totally wild. All of it with Ramirez. That is so fucking funny to me, even. And I again, I'm not a religious person, but this kind of uplifting messaging at the end, I did appreciate.
Bowdoin finding forgiveness it does happen very quickly but spacing out enough you know that conversation he's having with the sponsor and almost the very first scene versus this right at the end It's enough time. It worked for me. But then you have moments with jelly toast. Yeah.
And then you have the moments where he's praying and they have to snatch the radio. And they're fighting on the screen in front of him. And then you have the scene where this man who has not proven himself to be a dumb man. steps in a pool of electrified water. Yeah. There are things that just don't gel with the story being told. Um, like you said, T, why are, why is the devil wasting? It's time with.
these people in this elevator i don't know but while i'm watching the movie frankly i don't care i'm just along for the ride even if it is a free fall down an elevator shaft um I think that it is a fucking blast, like you said, at times in spite of itself. And I've never watched Devil and not... Been delighted by it. I know that objectively slash subjectively.
It has a lot of problems. I don't even know if you zoom out and look at this with no nostalgia, no nothing, no enjoying it in spite of itself. I don't even know if that if it's all that good of a movie. Like, on paper. I really don't. I'll be honest. For me, like I said, I don't... I don't dislike the movie. It is fine. It's more than just a movie. But it is something that I think for me, at times it is very heavy handed. You know what I mean? Yeah, it can be. It's like, okay.
So are you already telling me that I can guess what's going to happen? And that's another thing. The twist really, really worked for me. I did not see that coming at all. I love the way that she looked. I think that she fucking killed. That last bit, she did incredibly. And that's another thing. The cast is really, really great. And even when they're not given the best to work with, they do their best with it. You know what I mean?
I think the thing about the twist is that the idea of it is great. It is just about the execution for me because every single moment we get from that being the end is fantastic. It's so good. I just I don't know. There's just something about it that just does not gel. And maybe it's a matter of the fake out. I maybe if there were more reasons to point to to say, oh, it was her.
I do feel like, though, I know that she had that little standoff with Larson with the pepper spray. Yeah. But a lot of the times when they're fighting, she really is just standing in her corner and letting them fight. Yeah. Like rewatching it. I rewatched it today. And she is. I mean, she talks her little shit or whatever, but a lot of the time she's just standing back and they're at each other's throats. And so watching it with that knowledge, it's like, oh, she's just enjoying it.
just watching it and having fun. And it did kind of seem to me, maybe it was just me, but when she's kicking the salesman's feet back and forth, it seemed like she was doing that to antagonize. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I think that if and maybe that's me giving a little too.
It's like, no, no, they were telling us all. And that's fine. Like I said, if somebody was like, oh my God, that movie devil sucked. I'm like, yeah, maybe it did. Maybe it totally did. But I know that I enjoy it and I have a lot of fun with it. The last thing I will say. And we can slide into ratings as well. But I also feel like the runtime is such an asset. Because if you're telling this story and we're telling it over two hours, 215, 220.
it would not be as successful. I think that the first time you watch this, as we are peeling back shit and poking holes as we do on this show, you... don't have time to do that everything is moving so quickly you get punched in the gut with that twist and it's not until after that you're like hold up like i mean the jelly side yeah you're gonna laugh at that but
You know, it moves so quickly that there really isn't time to be critical. If the pace was any slower, I think it would hurt it a lot. Yeah. But yeah, I'm just going to go on into ratings. Let me just. toss a couple more flowers at logan marshall green but and i'm ready for it okay i know i feel like there's gonna be a wide range of scores on this one that's okay
Kind of, you know, I don't expect hardly anyone to agree with me. Drag me, Monique. It's okay. I don't care. On a scale from one to ten, terrifying jelly topped toasts. I am kidding. With all the love in the world, devil, eight out of 10 terrifying jelly topped toasts. I know that this movie is not on paper an eight, but in my heart, it is an eight.
I have a blast every time I watch it. No other movie is giving you a scene where he's throwing toast in the air and being fucking horrified when it lands on the ground. You can't get that anywhere else. There are reasons for that. I was trying to think, but I don't know if that's a plus for me. I will admit enjoyment from that, but I don't think it counts as a kudos.
no y'all did that and you did it with your chest and i love you for it i'm kicking my feet and giggling okay i i respect you for speaking your truth and i guarantee to a lot of people there are people that probably will give this film a 10. And I love that for them. I'm so happy for them. But yeah, that is what it is. I'm standing in my truth. I am an M night apologist. I know that he didn't direct this.
or write the screenplay, but he did come up with the story and maybe just something about his work just really speaks to me most of the time. But yeah, that and eight, and I will now open up the floor to you. No, I think you're right. I think the strength that this movie has is its runtime. Because it is one of those put on. And like I said, if it's on... I will sit there and, oh, it's Devil. Okay, you know what I mean? I did enjoy it more than I did the first time.
There is, I can understand how people or anyone really watch it and be like, no, I enjoy that movie. I get it. It's the same thing with I didn't know how much I enjoyed Jack Frost. Pretty sure a lot of people don't like Jack Frost. He can see his house. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's a snowman. But, I mean, I get it. And I'm not comparing this to Jack Frost because Jack Frost is very fucking silly. I thought he was going to say because Jack Frost is great.
But I do wish maybe this, if this was a little sillier, maybe it would have, you know, packed the... bit more of a punch for me um but i i i do think that everybody gives great performances the camera work everything again was really really good so i i mean i get it but it is There is a lot of heavy handedness. There is a lot of continuing to tell us things as we go that I feel like we should have known.
either before you know what i mean or maybe later than give us a little outro of what's going on you know what i mean but i mean i i if you put it on i'll watch it i'm not gonna pick it but you know that's okay i will yeah And we'll watch it together. But for me, on a scale from one to 10, terrifying jelly topped toasts. I'm going to give Devil a 6.5 out of 10. I did. I mean, again, I do see the strengths of it.
the runtime, not being able to kind of, you know, have time to think about what's going on. You're just watching it and like, oh shit, oh shit. Oh, that's crazy. Oh damn, that full, you know what I mean? I get it. I get a lot of enjoyment out of this movie again, in spite of itself. But there are moments that I really, really like. There are sections. Again, the performances. I like isolated horror. Yeah. I like it set in one location or just a couple locations.
I just, I don't know. There's just something about it that does also feel nostalgic. Yeah. I watched it when I was 19 in the theaters, and I do remember not really thinking about anything, but just kind of being along for this ride. But watching it now and my big age of 33 currently. With a more critical eye. Right. I do see a lot of things that I'm like, what the hell? Like that's an interesting choice. Yeah.
Or just things to me that, again, could have been fixed in my mind with another draft of the screenplay. It's funny you saying that because it's hilarious that he... pours his soul out to them in the elevator and then they drop the glass and then two seconds later they're back. I was like, why do we even do that? I don't know. They're like, we don't even know you, dude. This guy's trying to kill me. He's killed everyone here.
But I mean, I don't know. I just I think that it is a lot of fun and it is definitely one that I will return to because it is just an easy watch. And look, that toast the scene. I think we all appreciate it for different reasons. But it is funny as hell. Yeah. It is! And I will say I am an M night apologist when it's earned. Like if somebody comes for unbreakable or signs or the sixth sense, I will be on the front lines with you.
No, even the bad ones. I'm like, he's under a lot of stress. I love that for him and you. But for me, out of 10 terrifying jelly topped toasts, I think. I am going to give devil a very fitting six terrifying jelly top toast out of 10. I want to give it more. I just want some things to have more weight than they do. Yeah. And apparently there was a weight limit on this elevator.
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