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This mini-episode focuses solely on the ending of 2016's "Arrival" and is filled with spoilers! If you don't want to know what happens at the end of the film, you should probably listen to the other episode which is spoiler-free!
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This mini-episode focuses solely on the ending of 2014's "Ex Machina" and is filled with spoilers! If you don't want to know what happens at the end of the film, you should probably listen to the other episode which is spoiler-free!
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This pairing focuses on films that "Hard Science Fiction," meaning heavy on the science, more so than the fictional aspect. Our first film is one of the early cinematic examinations of modern Artificial Intelligence. In 2015's "Ex Machina," writer/director Alex Garland gives us the story of a genius coder and inventor, Nathan (Oscar Isaacs), who invites a coder from his company, Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), to come and stay with him for a week at his home/research lab. There, Nathan introduces Caleb to Ava (Alicia Vikander), an embodied AI, and asks Caleb to evaluate whether or not Ava is actually sentient. As the week progresses, Ava's sentience isn't the only thing called into question. What is Nathan's actual end-goal? Who, and what, is Nathan's servant Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno)? Was Caleb actually randomly selected? What is supposed to be accomplished by this week-long test? This film was one of the first to ask the specific questions about AI that many are asking publicly now, making it a true - if frightening - classic and, just perhaps, prescient!
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The second film in our tribute to the late Sam Neill is a small, independent film that most have never heard of, but one where Neill gives a truly outstanding performance. In 2001's "The Zookeeper," director Ralph Ziman takes us to civil war-torn Eastern Europe, where life has become a daily shelling barrage and a fight for survival. The local Zoo has lost most of its staff, save for an immigrant veterinarian (Om Puri) and a former Communist Party official turned zookeeper, Ludovic (Sam Neill). Even when everyone else flees the city, Ludovic stays to take care of the animals. He finds a young boy, Zioig (Javor Loznica), shell-shocked from the war, but who has taken a liking to the wolves in one of the exhibits, who he reluctantly takes in. Zioig end up bringing his mother, Ankica (Gina McKee) to the Zoo as well, and the three form an uneasy trio, fighting to keep the animals alive as well as hiding mother and son from the local militia, who have taken the title "The Young Lions," led by local warlord Dragov (Ulrich Thomsen). A stirring story that shows, rather than tells, the true horrors of war and how the innocent alwasy suffer, even if they're animals. Plus, the gents reveal which two hard Sci-Fi films make up the next pairing!
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