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If you're looking to connect with highly engaged audiences, now's the time to dive in. Download podcast pulse 2024 for all the latest insights and see how podcast ads can drive real results for you. Welcome back everybody to another episode of Caravan of Garbage where we're taking a look at the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Whoa, big task. Huge task. Are we up for it? No. Are we going to say all the right things? Yes. Are we going to mention the time that Viggo Mortensen broke his foot?
Well, not in this video. Okay, that's all I had. We'll have to take that out of this video, obviously. Yeah, yeah, of course. We'll just copy and paste that, put it in the next one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, look, in case people are wondering, these are the theatrical cuts that we are covering. This is how we first... experience these movies. That's right. On Boxing Day. Day after Christmas. Tradition in Australia. Yep, that's right.
The long three-year tradition. Yeah, boy, was it. God, I had a good time watching those movies. What a moment in history, an incredible trilogy, which came out in the middle of a very disappointing trilogy. At the time...
The Star Wars prequels have their redeeming qualities, Mason. Oh, I see what you're saying there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyways, leave a like because we're, of course, looking at The Fellowship of the Ring, 2001. Oh, and tell you what, James. Yeah. Having not seen this in a long time. Look, and again.
I'm not a non-fan of the books. Sure. I just try to get through them every couple of years and I fail. I used to say I try to get through them every year, but I've dropped off. It's now every couple of years. Sure. So it'll be once a decade. But, you know, having not seen this movie in a while.
Tell you what, it was like just hanging out with some old friends. That's what it's like. I mean, old friends that are still saying the same old stuff from 20 years ago. Sure. But isn't that what hanging out with old friends is like? I tell you what, Mason, I think this movie and the idea behind a fellow...
and a friendship, that's what modern men are missing, right? Forget all that manosphere shit, just these unfuckable dorks telling you how many women to hate. You're suggesting some sort of hobbit sphere. I'm talking... Can we get that going? Hashtag hobbitsphere. We could do that. It's a little bit hard to say, but it's probably easier to type. It works. Look, just a diverse group of mates.
being good, keeping each other accountable, looking out for each other, doing rad shit, you know? Getting fake mad at each other and then they're like, I'm not really mad, I'm doing a big smile actually. That's right.
This is all good stuff, Mason. It is. Goddamn. Catching arrows for your bros, you know what I mean? Catching so many arrows. Big arrows too. And it's your bro who you think maybe wouldn't catch a bunch of arrows for you, and then he catches a bunch of arrows for you. Dude caught so.
many arrows he's dead but he's my bro though yeah and he knows it he knew it at the end didn't he he did didn't he uh yeah so look the way they got this off the ground is kind of remarkable so basically the trilogy of books which is really one big book that they broke up into three
for commercial purposes. And for the sanity of people who are trying to read them every one to ten years. That's right, yes. You fucking just do one more, Hugh. Maybe if they were smaller books. What if it was nine books? What if it was just a guy reading a sentence at a time on TikTok? I could probably get...
down with that i reckon you could so that was broken down into a 90 page treatment and peter jackson pitched it as two movies because he wasn't having much luck to bob shea who's the founder of new line and bob shea was like listen this cannot be two movies and then
They all went, oh. And then he went, but it could be three movies. And they all went, whoa. And that's what they did. So this is a huge jump for New Line as well because they'd done like Nightmare on Elm Street. Yeah. TMNT, the original, The Mask, Mortal Kombat. Just weird, slimy independent movies. And Peter Jackson had done the movie Bad Taste. That's what I knew of him before this. I think when this was announced, I'm like, all right, see how this goes. You hadn't seen The Frighteners?
Okay, I'd say The Frighteners. It's underrated. Frighteners is good. Frighteners is good, Mason. It's a good movie. Anyways, in terms of sacrifices and changes to the book, there's obviously a lot of compromises that...
need to be made. Like, there's less Tom Bombadil. There's almost zero Tom Bombadil. There's exactly zero Tom Bombadil. That's right. I mean, he's back in the modern day, isn't he? Yeah, he is. He's in the TV series. He's like, hello, I'm Tom Bombadil and this is maybe Gandalf. I don't know. I haven't finished that season yet. Look, it's not important.
So yeah, less Tom, more Arwen, who gets a pretty beefed up role in this trilogy compared to the book where it's just like, this is a woman who married this guy or whatever it is. But what I think I like about the world building in this, which you don't get through like exposition is...
It's explained through like culture and what you see. The world of the dwarves, there's barely any in this, but it's just Gimli just being like, well, it's this, this, and this, and I'm like this and whatever. But it works. I think it really works. And so, yeah, all the world building is like, it's the sets and objects.
and all of that, and you get an idea of what everybody is. The dwarves are Minecraft, elves are dolphin slick and sexy. You get the idea from just looking at them. You understand it. That's right. And the pre-production of this was...
Absolutely insane. We've covered the Hobbit trilogy and how rushed that ended up being. But Peter Jackson storyboarded the entire thing. They filmed mock-up models with lipstick cameras to figure out how the shots were going to work. Lipstick cameras? That's tiny little cameras.
such as a spy might carry in their lipstick. That's right. Whoa. Yeah, believe it. They do things like they'd walk around like the half-built sets like Bag End and just figure out all the blocking. There was pre-vis, which actually Rick McCallum, who worked on the Star Wars...
Prequels said why don't you come to Lucasfilm and we'll talk you through our process they had to design all those weird angles so that you know Gandalf looked bigger than the Hobbits oh my god I want to talk about that well we're not allowed to no we're not allowed to so before the 15 month shoot there was like
two to three years of just like getting everything ready, which is like unheard of. You don't kind of get that laid up often anymore. It's like not at all. Yeah. Your Marvel movie. It's the one that you're directing. We already finished filming it. That's right. And this was also rewritten the entire time by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens. Well, first of all, how dare they? Rewrites.
On Mr. Tolkien? Yeah, but I feel like the essence of Tolkien is still here. They switch things around.
There are characters missing, as we mentioned. Dialogue is given to others. But the way they kind of got around it was the focus is on Frodo, right? The way they got around it is nobody remembers what happens in those books. Sure, there's that. And there are people who love the book who don't... think that this is like a good adaptation nerds nerds obviously but i think the way they were able to condense this it's it's actually
It's genuinely incredible. I agree. And you know what? You mentioned that, but you know what? It's just got a good vibe. Oh, my God. Having watched the Hobbit movies fairly recently for this series, those, by comparison, they just feel awful. Ugly. Well, ugly, except for that one beautiful dwarf. No, I don't even mean it looks ugly. It feels ugly to watch. But that one dwarf. Yeah, he's good. God.
Give me some of that, Mason. They just feel so cynical by comparison, but this feels so earnest. Yeah, and this feels so full of life and kind of earnest. And it's like they weren't... You know, with The Hobbit, they're just obviously just trying to piggyback off these movies and go, oh, you know, let's force the same vibe. But I don't think he could. No. I mean, the adventure alone that they try to kind of beef up in The Hobbit, it doesn't compare.
adventure in The Hobbit is bullshit. It's a bullshit adventure for a loser, Mason. I agree. Compared to this. Get some shoes, idiot. And look, I love the Hobbit book. I think it is incredible. And we have talked about this. Like if you whittle down those movies, I'm sure, you know, you could get it into one like fairly cohesive and like fun narrative. But yeah, what they've done here again is remarkable. And I, I love it.
We're not here to do any Hobbit bashing. No, we did that already. That's a hate crime. That's right. After we made those videos, they made it a hate crime, so we're not allowed to anymore. No. We're here to talk about how the Fellowship of the Ring is real good. Yeah, and bros, and they're all bros. They're all bros. Also, we...
you have to reckon with the idea that this is a really old movie now. I guess it is. You know, we don't think about that. No, I was at school when this came out. That's how old this fucking movie is. So I hate in movies, and I've talked about this before, where at the start there's an extension. retelling of the lore of the universe. Green Lantern does it. There's other examples, right? No, no, there's just that one example you said. Yeah, but I blame this movie for that because it's so good.
and so concise so philippa buoyance she wrote this incredible opening and it just gives you everything you need to know and like glimpses of battles you see like arrows whipping past hugo weaving and sarah's just like battering soldiers aside and you see his fingers get cut off. It's just phenomenal. That guy's cool as hell. He's cool as hell. I'd follow him into the fires of Mount Doom. Me too. He's got that big mace or whatever. Yeah. Damn. You don't reckon he'd smash you with it?
He could. I'd let him do that. You'd let him, would you? Yep, I would. Goddamn. And I think also, like... I mean, guard your ring hand, obviously, Sauron. Yeah, obviously. I mean, this whole thing could have been avoided if you'd simply maybe put that behind your back. Yep. I don't know. Yeah. Don't reach out with it. Get a second glove, idiot. Yeah. Get a mitten. Get the orcs at Mount Doom to forge you a big iron mitten. Yeah. And then you'll be fine. They'd do it. Yeah. Yeah, they have to.
But every section of this movie, it feels so unique and lived in. Hobbit is just wonderful. And it's mostly just...
dicking around. Absolutely. I just love it. And the way they made that place look so real, and after this one, they returned it to what it used to be, and then they had to rebuild it again for The Hobbit. And we talked about this again, but now it's there as is. But construction... on this was a year out so you could make it feel lived in so all the grass could kind of grow through the cracks and it's phenomenal it's so good and the design of this movie is just
It's just breathtaking, Mason. It is breathtaking. And as someone who watched the 19 hours of behind the scenes stuff in preparation for this, which by the way, if you're a film student or have any interest in film, this is probably the best thing you could look at. Yeah. making used to be yeah that's right before marvel made all your movies for you before they announced that in the future ai is going to create 20 times the amount of content that exists now oh my god i love that actually me too
What if The Hobbit was the 80s or whatever? You know, those kind of videos. Oh, hell yeah. Ugh. Frodo would have a boombox. He'd have a boombox, Mason. Yeah. God. People complain when we put AI in these videos, and fair enough, but we just want people to know that when we put them in, it's because we think it looks like shit. That's right. And we hate it. This isn't an endorsement. This is a thing we fucking hate.
So yeah, the design on this started very early on as well because all of that stuff is in the book. So you don't need to kind of make up the world. It's already there. So they got Alan Lee and John Howe who have done a whole lot of artwork for... this franchise before just kind of just whittling away and you know designing worlds and a lot of that got into this and the idea behind shooting this oh and speaking of there's like
three units a day at least like running filming at all because it's impossible it took 15 months to film as mentioned and at the end of every day Peter Jackson and the team would look at three hours of dailies like every night minimum Soul-crushing Mason. But anyway, Peter Jackson's approach was that we're doing this like it's historical. Like we're going to kind of shoot this. And hysterical. And hysterical. Yeah, that's right.
Look at that guy's fingers go flying. God. Look at all those little men go flying. It's good stuff. But it feels like that they're shooting this movie where these events actually happened. And the environment does so much of the work, like the physical environment, that being that they shot most of this like outdoors, like in New Zealand. It's also this like rotting world. Like it's clearly this. Oh, come on, mate. New Zealand's not that bad. We got them.
We got it, Mason. Yeah. But, you know, like there was obviously this like enormous kingdom or kingdoms which have just gone to ruin. Yes. And we're at the end of this age, like going into a new... bad one i agree which we can all relate to i said i love all of that and also you have to make everything in the phantom menace for example like qui-gon's
communicator is like a lady's razor, which is great. That's really good. That's multi-purpose as well. That's right. But in this, even though there's design taken from, you know, different eras and different like civilization throughout history, you can't be like, oh, these are the Greek guys. or whatever. You can't give somebody just like a medieval broadsword. No. Because people recognise it and be mad about it. So you have to design your own. Exactly. There was also a couple of guys who...
made chainmail armor, like plastic linked chainmail armor, because it's the only way to make it look real. And apparently... they hand-stitched together 12.5 million rings for all of the costumes. Now those are the real lords of the rings. I agree, Mason. A lot of prosthetics also. Over the 254 days of shooting, most people have a prosthetic or wig.
And sometimes you wouldn't even see it. Apparently, for the Hobbits, 50 of those days, you didn't even see their feet, even though they were in there getting them glued on every day, hours at an end. Gandalf's nose is fake. John Rhys Davies had to endure the Gimli makeup, and he had a horrible reaction to it. Every time he was just like crying underneath that, the entire shoot of this movie. It's just my God, Mason, but it's worth it for the bros.
It is. And speaking for the bros, you know how they all got Lord of the Rings tattoos together? I do know that. Except John Rhys-Davies didn't do it. It was his stunt double. Oh. Yeah, because I guess he was having a bad time. Okay, yeah. The thing about his face. That's right. Melting off every day. Yeah. That also happened more recently for 2016's Suicide Squad, but that one is, that's loser shit, I feel. Agreed.
Or I've got the same tattoo as Jared Leto. Terrific. A badge of honour. You talked about size shifting. I've got it cleared by the government. We can talk about it, Mason. Okay, that's a relief. So... There are multiple ways that they did this. Nowadays, it would probably be, it would just be CGI. You shrink down another. How'd they do it with Bradley Cooper in Dungeons and Dragons? We don't know.
I think he can just do that. He can do that? He's a good actor. He is a good actor. And we like that about him. So for each person who plays a character, like the same character, you need 10 costumes. But the way it works is you've got- Indoors, outdoors, construction worker. Culp. Yep.
Native American. Yes. The other village people. Et cetera, yeah. So you've got the main actor who needs 10. You've got their body double who needs 10. There's a miniature costume if they're like a smaller character for a smaller person. Oh, yes. That's another 10. there's a stunt performer.
that's another 10 on top of that. So many costumes. Yeah, and it has to be the same costume, just scaled up and down depending on the person. So the way that they actually did the size shifting for the hobbits and the dwarf is, so you've got big guys who would stand next to them to make them look...
smaller if it's the actual actor you've got little people you'd see at a distance for like the hobbits and whatnot so their size appropriate they used a bit of cgi to blend the two together sometimes did they ever do that crooked room thing they yes they did well they did face replacement
They also did this incredible thing where they made these huge big guy stilt suits. So in The Prancing Pony, you see like giant dudes walk past them. That's like a guy in a big kind of stilted puppet suit. And also most famously, as you mentioned, there's...
Force perspective. Yes. So like Gandalf, when he comes in on the cart and they sit together, there's a distance there. And when they're sitting at the- Not emotionally. No, not of course. Yeah, you can tell that they're doing it together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And when having tea together, there's like a three, four foot gap between them. Oh, they would have had to make a little pot of tea and a big pot of tea. Exactly.
And they did that for all the weaponry as well. It's insane. So when they're doing the forced perspective trick and the camera is moving, the trick goes away. So you have to have the sets move with the camera to keep the perspective. It's... Phenomenal. Also, they built like two sets often. So there's two bag end sets. There's like one full size one. So it makes Frodo look normal size. And then when Gandalf comes in, because he's a bigger man, like it's...
I just, it's, there's so much in this. Do they rent those out as hotels now or something? I, those, the real one. Cause you charge more for the big one. Sure. You know, the real, the real one. Or you charge more for the little one. Yeah. Something like that. You know. The real location, which is still there, then you can't go inside. But I'm sure there'd be something in New Zealand where someone would make one and whatever. You could Airbnb it for...
Some stupid price or whatever. Agreed. Anyways, ring rates. Horrifying. Spooky stuff. Love that scene on the road where the road goes. Yeah. Love the chase sequence with Arwen. Because it's in the daytime. It's in the daytime. It's rare for this sort of thing, especially now because people don't trust special effects in the daytime. Yeah, absolutely. I just said it at night, but it's like, oh.
You don't want to waste that beautiful New Zealand landscape, do you? God, just whipping through it, mate. I love it. I love all of that. I mean, the ring race, they're not fireproof, are they? I mean, a regular man did beat up all of them at once. Yeah, he did. But he's cool as shit. Let's talk about that, guys. Viggo Mortensen. He was not the original choice. He wasn't. It was. Don't tell me. It was. Was it?
Vampire Lestat. The second one, yeah. Yes. It was Stuart Townsend. Stuart Townsend, there we go. You're absolutely right. So he did four days of shooting. He was League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. He was. He was. Dorian Gray. Dorian Gray. Yeah. Probably the same haircut. Yeah.
So he was cast very early on, that had four days of shooting, and there was just this kind of clash. Not a huge kind of problem, but there was this kind of misunderstanding, and Peter Jackson realised this wasn't going to work. He was like, why are some of these people so small and some so big? I don't get it, but I don't like it. I'm Stuart Towson.
I did that movie about, what is it? We're con men or something. Remember that one? Nah. We're con men or something? Nah. It's about the races and stuff as well. What? I don't know. It doesn't matter. Listen, it doesn't matter. Was it Australian? No. Okay. It's called... Time Out calls it a spectacular vision of Pop's future. Rolling Stone UK says it has to be seen to be believed. ABBA Voyage is a concert like no other. Join us on the dance floor this autumn at the ABBA Arena London.
Book your tickets now at abavoyage.com. Hey marketers, are you ready to discover the latest trends in podcast advertising? The Podcast Pulse report by ACAST is out now, packed with fresh audience insights into why podcasts are a must-have marketing strategy. Learn how podcast audiences are more engaged than ever, why hosts are trusted voices for brands and how niche shows are delivering massive impact.
Going fishing or something like that? Going fishing? Kate Beckinsdale is in it. Okay. Doesn't matter. I hope it's called going fishing. It's called something like that. Not even fish in apostrophe, but going fishing. It's not called that, but it's something like that. But I think... in replacing him and having him also be slightly older because this dude is also supposed to be like 90. Right. Aragon has this real vibe of like, thank Christ this dude is here.
absolutely yes uh-huh like every time he kind of shows up like there is this there's an edge to him and a grubbiness but he's just kind of like I've got it. And if I don't got it, I'll figure it out in the moment. Yeah, that's the thing you need most in life is someone who knows what they're doing. That's right. You know? My dad. Yeah. And mum. Yeah. Worth their weight in gold.
I love all of Moria, that going through that cabin, big squid at the start. That's good stuff. And the sound design in this. So... Before all the goblins storm in with the cave troll, the music just rises up. It's Howard Shaw, by the way, is incredible. He worked on this for like two years. Normally a composer would do like six to eight weeks, but he was there the entire time. And then he did an extra 30 minutes for the extended cut of this, plus all the other stuff, et cetera.
and so forth love all his work I can't do it justice so let's just say two thumbs up and also we can't play any of it because you know copyright reasons that's right just imagine a good music yeah that's right here it is yep
So before all the goblins pour in again, like the music swells up and it's dangerous. And as soon as they get in, the music cuts and it's just a... fucking massacre and all you can hear is just like screaming and stabbing it's so good and the cave troll is so interesting because it is kind of like sinister and having a good time but as it's dying there's a real kind of like oh this is
this is like a like a tortured creature we could have been bros could have been bros and there's even storytelling like in the troll because the way they designed it is on the front it's all like fleshy and soft but on the back it's all like rocky and scaly as if it's been in hibernation like crouched in a
Yeah. I just, I love that. Like a rock lord. Like a rock lord. And look, there's another big monster in there. Let's talk about that. But Gandalf. So another person who was nearly in this movie was Sean Connery.
He was offered $10 million for this film, plus 15% of the total gross. He's like, no, thank you. I'll wait for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I've been speaking to this Stuart Townsend character, and he seems to think it's a goer. He's on to something. So he would have earned for this trilogy $450.
$50 million. Oh, because of a little percentage there. Exactly. Wow. What use is it to him now? Yeah, exactly. I mean, he could have given it to us. I guess he could have, yeah. Yeah, which is what he would have wanted. I think so too. Yeah. But I think Ian McCallum is such a good find and he really was like he found his feet.
He always kind of did well. He was a Shakespearean actor and did TV and film and all of that. But obviously this and X-Men, he just exploded. And I think the idea that also... he wasn't super well-known works for this. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah. He also got out of Mission Impossible 2 for this. And Christopher Lee, who actually had met Tolkien. Uh-huh.
he wanted to play Gandalf. And I just don't think... He's too sinister. He's too sinister, which is why he's a great Sauruman. Very good. Wait, so Ian McKellen was going to be in Mission Impossible 2. Yeah, I think he was going to be the Anthony Hopkins... roll or something like that, yeah. Is that not three? No, that is two. No, that's two, Mason. That is two, okay. That's two. That's the Aussie one. I was speaking with Dugray Scott and he said, no, don't.
Don't take a role in X-Men. Why would you? It's stupid. It's a stupid movie. But what I love about Gandalf is he's on the surface, he's just this kind of... fuddy-duddy old man who likes fireworks and hanging out with weird little people and shit. You can meet a lot of those guys in a car park in suburban Melbourne. Totally. So he's that. He gets pleasure from just being around friendly, nice people.
Because he's an inhuman monster. Yeah, well, that's the thing. I didn't know that until the post watching these movies because I never got through the books. But he's not a man. No, he's not a man. He's an angel of sorts. He's like a god and he's beyond dangerous.
And you very rarely see that side of him. But then when the Balrog shows up, there's just that moment where it's like, oh shit, this guy's like for real. Like he does not fuck around. I love it. It's so good. And I didn't know when I saw this movie because... I hadn't read the books at the time and maybe I still haven't. Who's to say? I didn't know he came back. I thought they killed him. I didn't know until they spoiled it in the trailer for the next movie.
But yeah, just really good stuff. That sacrifice in this is really, really good. And I think what this movie does really well, more than the other ones, is that this is my favourite one, by the way. They're all good. This is my favourite. is that it has this real balance of hopelessness and hope. And it's always just kind of...
weaving in and out during those movies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's got that great sense and it does have a great sense of timing. You never feel bored. It is a three-hour long movie. Yeah. But you never feel bored. No. There's always just a new bro to bro down with, you know? New bros.
And the way they managed to do that was they filmed so much of this. Like the original cut was like four and a half hours, but they basically stripped it all the way back to it focuses on Frodo. And if you ever cut away from Frodo, it's something really important. We're focusing on Frodo. That's right. You have to see Gandalf do a breakdance fight and get captured. You have to see that.
But they only cut away where it's like, no, you need to know this, or this is a really important character moment. And I think that's why this one works. It branches out in the later movies because they split up the fellowship, so you've got to kind of move around. But this one, it's just got that through line. which is why I think it feels so coherent. Anyways, bigotures. Oh, bigotures. We've talked about these before. Okay, yes. It's basically giant models that they use for...
For anything that's like a tower or a building or a city or a little elf village. Sure. And the detail on it means that you can zoom right in on it. So that's why it looks so real. And then obviously you put the people in it afterwards, either using CGI doubles or you film them on green screen or blue screen plates and insert them in. So that's why they look...
So good because they're real. And they're also huge. So Isengard, for example, you know, the huge tower and then like the surrounding area. I'm familiar with Isengard. This is for everybody else, Mason. This is for people who aren't big nerds like you. He doesn't know that it is.
it's where the white wizard lives man but like and you know the surrounding area where they're cutting down all the trees and that that's the size of a rugby oval like that entire thing and so if you're american i don't know that's as big as
That bell with a crack in it. I don't know. They're probably the same size, right? That's the size of a rugby oval. At least that big. Sure. Yeah. So that's good. Isengard is also giving birth to the Uruk-hai. Oh yeah. Which are terrifying villains in this. That final battle. I know the battles do get bigger, like movie to movie, but I love this one the most. It just, it feels the most tangible. Yeah.
I've actually been to that forest. I did a tour through there, and it's just what it looks like. Did you pick up a big stick that looked like a sword and swung it around? I ran around with it. Yeah, right. Killed a duck. Met some other dads also. Met some other dads doing it. Swung their sword sticks. Yeah. I mean, we talked about Boromir catching all those arrows. Oh, that's right. Great job.
by the way. I mean, otherwise somebody would have had to clean them all up. It's on the forest floor. That's right. But I feel like for that character and what's really fascinating about him is that, because he obviously wants to save, you know, humankind or specifically his city.
And I think the ring like is targeting him specifically. So I think it moves like person to person, like depending on who's like the most vulnerable. And I think that's really interesting. And he's like redemption arc. I love all of that. It's, it's so good. That fight between Aragorn and that one Uruk-hai, it's so scary and like really dangerous. You know the bit where he blocks the knife with his sword? Like that's real. That happened.
For real. Organically. Organically. And the moment where it's over so quickly, like the way it's just like beheads him and it's just, and then it just stops. That's how most of my sword fights go. You know, that's real. You get beheaded. Yeah. Yeah. I'm cursed to constantly come back. Yeah. And they're mates and they're holding each other at the end. They're like, you're a good dude. And he's like, I am a good dude. You're a good dude too. Two good dudes. Yeah, that's right. Line in the leaves.
And all the others are like, two good dudes, two good dudes. Mason, before we do the trivia ship of the trivia, we've got a returning segment. Oh, what's that? This is because your loyalty and the loyalty of the watchers and listeners of this has been rewarded. Thoughts and prizes is back. Oh, terrific. So for those people who don't know, it disappeared for a bit. It's this beautiful segment of the show and people have been calling for it to return.
where I offer you thoughts, just little miscellaneous thoughts I have about the movie. And there's an opportunity at the end to win some prizes. For me and the listeners. That's right, exactly. Okay, terrific. And it's just, it's really exciting and I'm happy to bring it back. And do you have any, are you going to offer any further?
criteria of what earns you a prize it doesn't it's not that's not really kind of what thoughts and prizes about it's about the prizes but also the thoughts interesting all right well hit us with your thoughts then james okay i know people go what did that why didn't the eagles take the ring and whatever like that's
Yeah, I mean, we know the answer. It's because Mordor has like a battery of surface-to-air missiles that they purchased from the US government. That's right. Which is real in this universe. Yeah, that's right. Exactly, yeah. Yeah, they get shot down. Yep.
We know that. So, look, I didn't want to bring it up, but somebody would have said it. Hugo Weaving, you should have thrown that dude's ass into the volcano. Agree. Just straight up. Yeah, you're an elf. You're faster than him. He's stronger than him, probably. Oh, you didn't want to mess up your nails, probably. Get him in there. Also the memes that have come out of this movie. Oh my God. I bet there are people who have seen this. You know that guy and he's all new.
Yeah. Or like, all right, keep your secrets. I bet there are people who have shared those memes. They've never seen this movie. They have no idea. They should watch it. They should watch this movie. That's a great thought, actually. That helps. Me or the listeners? It just helps. Getting prizes? It just helps. So I might get a prize this time? Yeah. Okay, great. That's always the promise.
I also don't really understand, and this isn't in the book why Aragon is like worried about like, oh, I've got the same blood in my veins as like my ancestor who didn't throw the ring into Mordor or whatever. Dude, there's like 3000 years between you. There's barely any of that guy in you like at all.
You're absolutely fired. When Gimli says, and my axe, there's a moment just earlier where he shatters one of his axes trying to destroy the ring. Oh, so everybody in that circle would have been like, oh, so bad axe. That's what you're offering, is it? One of your poorly made axes?
That's what I mean. I know he has multiple axes, but he has two axes and a bunch of hatchets. Yeah. But I guess, does that also mean that he broke somebody else's axe? Because his dad was with him, who's in The Hobbit. His dad's axe. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Sorry, dad. Yeah. Maybe. Maybe he...
He thought to himself, I'll say, and my hatchet, but then he'll have to explain what a hatchet is to a lot of people, you know what I mean? You know the bit where Gandalf's like, you shall not pass. No, I'm not familiar with that very memeable moment. Okay. I think... that that thing couldn't have passed regardless. I know it can fly because it has wings, but even if it flew across, it's not getting out.
That's true, actually, yeah. Yeah, so I don't know. I think maybe just leave it. Yeah. Also, Gandalf did have like a surface-to-air Stingham missile in his backpack. That he didn't implement? No, but he purchased it from the US government. Yeah, man. To be clear. Which exists in this universe. Also, my last thought is that Boromir, wash your dirty ass forehead.
Just most of the scenes. Why is your forehead always dirty? And like across multiple weeks, like with his dirty forehead, what are you doing? Figure that out. Okay. Just looking, entering results. He's not doing anything. Oh, hello.
No prizes this week, unfortunately. But don't worry, thoughts and prizes will return at some point. Interesting. Yeah. Anyways, Mason, it's time for the trivia ship of the trivia. Oh, I love that. This is a trivia section of the show. Now, there's so much trivia in this. This is some.
This is some. And don't worry, I love the comments that are like, fun fact, and then they say a thing. Those are my favourite comments, so keep it up. Are your favourite comments also the ones that are like, I can't believe you didn't know that. That's my second favourite comment. Yeah, me too, yeah. Also, I did know that. Yeah, we did know. Yeah. We didn't put it in because your thoughts are boring and obvious. Unless it's Peter Jackson in the comments. Yeah.
In which case. We love the Frighteners. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. This is a fun bit. You know where they're struggling to get through the snow and you just see Legolas. He's just like, oh Legolas, whatever. Like just walking on top. He's cruising on by. Bloody Australia would be called Legolas, wouldn't he? He's bloody, bloody.
Too much pipe weed. Probably too much pipe weed. There was a moment where Saruman's like, you've been smoking too much hobbit pipe weed, which is apparently just tobacco. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. yeah sorry you were saying now I've got this is a bit of trivia that only I know because I did that Lord of the Rings thing or whatever apparently Liv Tyler doesn't like horses so I did a horse tour like I
rode a horse through again to this area. Okay. To prove you're better than Liv Tyler. Yeah. And I am. Wow. And, um, who's your dad? Is it? The lead singer of Aerosmith? Or was it just some guy who was good at helping you with stuff like changing tyres and so forth? Yeah, I would rather... I mean, you know about that guy. Yeah, I know, yeah. If I had to choose, I'd choose my dad. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But Viggo Mortensen actually purchased Arwen's horse after production. And he ate it. No, it said he gave it to Liv Tyler's riding double, Jane Abbott. So there you go. So live Tyler. Which is like, great, what am I going to do with this horse? Yeah. I'm going to take it back to America, am I? This horse, where I assume I'm from.
My brother, Mason, the one you don't like. Do you remember when he bought like 20 or 30 Boromir action figures so that they'd increase in value over time? Oh, yeah. How are they doing? Here's where they're at. Here's some numbers. Okay, great. Yeah.
Not well. You still have him? Oh yeah, he's got him. Of course he does. He's got a big collection. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Peter Jackson actually original contemplating having Tom Bombadil appear in a cameo scene where he'd walk past him in a forest with a little feather dart in his cap and they would have heard him...
him like singing but then he was like nah and he just didn't film it so he's not in the movie yeah yeah interesting i get it he's not he's not like integral to the story like if you can take him out and most people are like who what Like I know there's big fans of him out there. I'm not saying that, but like I get it. Yeah. And I also get the sense from having not read the books, but reading about the books that Tom Bombadil is just, he's sort of like, he's just intended to be.
Well, in this fantasy world, sometimes there's just weird guys you can't explain. Yeah, that's right. So it's not necessary for the story. No. Oh, and then the tattoo thing, but I said that. Sure. Yeah, Suicide Squad, et cetera. How good are all the other hobbits as well?
We didn't really mention that, but Sean Astin, all those guys. I mean, they all get time to shine in subsequent movies. We'll talk about them all, I hope, if they can keep it up. Yeah, that's right. Keep it up, boys. If they don't let the boys down.
Anyways, in terms of box office on a budget of $93 million, that's just this one. They obviously filmed all three at once. $93 million for this is very good, by the way. I agree, yeah. I mean, it also, bearing in mind, they did film this in like 1999. And also, in an era where...
You know, they plan stuff out in advance. As we've mentioned extensively, they didn't just film it all in a day and go, yeah, let's just get some VFX guys to fix it over the subsequent weeks and crunch them. You know what I mean? The return on this was $887.4 million. Well done, everyone. Huge work, huge return. Big gamble doing this as well. Filming three at once. It's really been done and it's real.
And it's also really been done successfully. True. Back to the Future. Did two and three together. What else, Mason? Maybe some of the, what's that series? Kirk Cameron, you know? Everybody goes to heaven. Oh. Maybe they filmed 10 of those at once. Yeah, they probably did. What's that called again? I don't remember. Surviving Christmas. No, yeah, it's called... God Won't Save You? Yeah, no, no, it's called... The Rapture? I'm going to look it up. All right.
Yeah, but while you're doing that, there is a reason studios don't film three movies at once. Yeah. Because if the first one's bad, you're stuck, you know? Yeah, yeah. That's why you get two divergent movies and then never... Left behind. Yeah. I was talking about Divergent, but yeah. That's why your two Divergent movies are not the third. Not worth it.
Would have been funny at the time. If I'd have remembered it's called Left Behind, I'd be like, oh, they filmed 10 left behinds at once. Still funny. Still funny to think about it. Assemble it in your own brain. I will. Have a little chuckle about it. Absolutely will. Now, of course, we will be back to talk about the subsequent movies, but because these are so long. If you're nice to us. If you're nice to us, obviously. Otherwise, this isn't coming back. That's right.
We're going to have to break it up like we did with the Star Wars prequel. So in between, we're probably going to look at the Lord of the Rings, the official video games related to the movie. So there's a Two Towers one and there's a Return of the King one and those will happen.
In between. Because Ben and Lawrence were putting these together. My God, they're working hard, aren't they? They are. And they didn't have the lead up that these movies did to get it done. That's true. We're crunching them. We're crunching them. We recorded this badly. Fix it in post. You can do it. Yeah. Of course. Fix that left behind joke. Disassemble the words correctly in the correct order. I had a funny clip from that movie. You can do it. You can do it.
But also, people might want to see these videos early. Guess what they can if you head over to bigsandwich.co where they always go up early, but there's also bonus movie commentaries. There's video game let's plays we do exclusively also. There's bonus podcasts. We also have a podcast called The Weekly Planet where we...
talk movies and comics and TV shows. We're of course going to cover the animated Lord of the Rings movie, which is coming out in December. That's right. The War of Rohirrim. I'm excited to get back into this universe, Mason. And it's animated. Might be a good thing before we get that...
Gollum in between Quill or whatever's happening. Oh, we're going to play the Gollum game? I hear that's great. Maybe a big sandwich, actually. Okay, all right. I haven't worked out what that one's going to be yet, but yeah, maybe. Okay. All right, thanks, everyone. We'll wrap that, Jeremy, guys. We'll see you next week. Goodbye. Cameron McIntosh and Matthew Bourne's glorious, sumptuous, revelatory revival of Oliver opens at the Gilgut Theatre from the 14th of December.
A whopping great hit with June's glorious June, says the Mail on Sunday. Book now to consider yourself well in. But hurry, best availability is now late January. Visit oliverthemusical.com or you'll have to pick a pocket or two to get... Hey marketers, are you ready to discover the latest trends in podcast advertising? The Podcast Pulse report by ACAST is out now, packed with fresh audience insights into why podcasts are a must-have marketing strategy.
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