JimStahl's Replies


It was very purposely named this way because it's a stealth prequel disguised as a remake. There are clues that it's a prequel, such as when Carter leaves the axe in the wall (the Americans find the axe in the original movie), but these clues are subtle enough that most audience members will completely miss them, as the original came out 29 years earlier and we're not likely to remember its details. The twist at the end, when Lars fires at the dog from the helicopter, is meant to jump out at us and make us realize all very suddenly that Oh my god, this is the beginning of the other The Thing. It isn't a remake at all! Stealth movies are hard to disguise, so there are very few of them out there. [spoiler]Ones I can think of off the top of my head are Split (2016), which is a stealth sequel to Unbreakable (2000), and Mute (2018), which is a stealth sequel to Moon (2009).[/spoiler] After years of exposure to the conversations of the worst people in the world, I am qualified to say that people who use the word nigger use it profusely and casually. It doesn't slip out just once in a while when they're under stress. It occurs in nearly every sentence. Typically, more than once. It's a noun, a pronoun, an adjective, a title, a slur, and an expletive. It even serves as filler, like an um or an er. Ignorant people use language this lazily because they want to impress their equally ignorant peers. They want to demonstrate that they're not guileless or judgmental, because these traits are weak and offensive, respectively. Rather than show some bravery and strive to grow intellectually, they take the path of least resistance, which is to belong. To belong among the ignorant. I'm inexpressibly disappointed when I hear youth talk like this because I know that their parents are not training them to act like grownups. They're not training them to pull up their pants and speak in a manner that builds charisma. These kids are going to grow up to be idiots and criminals. They're going to live in ghettos and spread diseases and, if they're very lucky, cut a platinum rap album. Nigger is a stupid word. Please, anyone out there who is a screenwriter, don't try to make your story gritty or realistic by adding trite, dumbed down dialogue. Electromagnetism is the only field we emit. EM holds our atoms together, EM currents flow through our nervous systems, and our bodies emit heat through EM radiation. Ray guns, as Sarah calls them, and clothes do not emit EM fields. It's just a basic premise that Cameron and producer Gale Anne Hurd came up with so they could contrast the terminator and Kyle Reese; the terminator kills for resources while Kyle avoids conflict and steals his resources via stealth. So they needed to be naked and not arrive armed. Bizarro; I was thinking it too. <spoiler>In the mid credits scene, a conspiracy theorist shows us media footage of a Bizarro Justice League. There was an Aquaman, a Superman (Brandon), a Wonder Woman (a witch who kills people with a rope), a Flash (Rainn Wilson's Crimson Bolt from Super), a Martian Manhunter (a sketch of a caped grey alien), and a question mark that I'm guessing was Ben Affleck's Batman (the question mark is jab at Affleck, who refuses to finish what he started). What if in addition to the mid credits scene, Brandon steps through a portal to OUR EARTH and meets Superman!</spoiler> Another caped figure catching his mother . . . love it! Director David Yarovesky did say there's more to the story, if the movie does well at the box office. <spoiler>With the mid credits scene, I got the sense that "more to the story" means aliens are using Earth as an arena and the voice that tells Brandon to take the world is his corner man, his Mickey; the world is the prize. Or Bizarro Superman; https://moviechat.org/tt7752126/Brightburn/5cd9fe737b614e1571d68dd9/Bizzaro-Superman?reply=5d34f51c6e24074946bed686</spoiler> I think it's just the writers being clever, saying "Ooh, how about we hide the code in plain sight. The characters will literally say them. I mean, who will catch that? Fucking nerds, that's who!" "Ooh, and just the numbers too, like the doctor will say 'Oh' but she's really saying zero!" "Yes! Write that! We're so fucking smart!" Maybe the writing team is Pax. They know we won't figure out the rule the first time through. We play their game and fail because we didn't know the rule, AND THEN WE PLAY AGAIN. Think about how stupid we are to them. And the Netflix algorithm gets a little bit better. My guess is the whole show is a social experiment. The phone number ending is a reward . . . In the scene where Colin asks Stefan what he listens to when he codes, Stefan answers "jazz". Colin disapproves, so he tells Stefan to "Get a pen" to write down some bands. He's really telling US to get a pen - there's a puzzle ahead. During his rant about government conspiracies and the falsity of reality, he tells Stefan "It's a code. If you listen carefully, you can hear the numbers." That's where the rule comes from. Colin wants us to listen for numbers and write them down with that pen he told us to get. Like Colin, we were being manipulated by Pax, and rewarded for playing along. And because it's Black Mirror, Stefan had to suffer for our entertainment. Ultimately, we have another warning about how we use technology. "When given the choice to enter a phone number what was the correct choice?" 20541 is the only number revealed. The 4 isn't repeated because the rule at play is: the numbers to the code aren't found in sentences, they're the only words in their sentences. So when Dr. Haynes says "One for," those numbers are meaningless. There's no flaw. It's why I elaborated on the following: Dr. Haynes asks Stefan "TO?" Dr. Haynes says to Stefan "OH." Dr. Haynes says to Stefan "You were only five years old, Stefan. FIVE." Dr. Haynes says "One for all and all . . .", prompting Stefan to finish the adage, "FOR ONE." There's a scene where Colin asks Stefan what he listens to when he codes. Stefan's answer fails to impress, so Colin tells him to "Get a pen" to write down some bands. He's really telling US to get a pen; there's a puzzle ahead. During his rant about government conspiracies and the falsity of reality, he tells Stefan "It's a code. If you listen carefully, you can hear the numbers." And here's where we hear them: Dr. Haynes asks Stefan "To?" Dr. Haynes says to Stefan "Oh." Dr. Haynes says to Stefan "You were only five years old, Stefan. Five." Dr. Haynes says "One for all and all . . .", prompting Stefan to finish the adage, "for one." Dr. Haynes tells Stefan "Call me. You know the number." Actually, he doesn't. We do, because Colin led us to it. "People are not going to remember the Creed music". I agree. I've already forgotten it. I know there was rap and I can't remember being motivated by any of it. Although I do think that rap motivates people to fight, I don't think it's an inspirational kind of motivation. More like go fuck yourself if you're not me. You cut and pasted your résumé nearly word for word from your attack on my comment about the same movie. You have a chip on your shoulder, sir. Siding with Adonis because he's like you does not give you street cred. It just means you identify with an imaginary character. "he uses a word that 90% of Black people use the way we want to use it". Thanks for that bit of gold. By the way, why did you capitalize black? Why did you even make this a black issue? And are you suggesting that "diverse audiences", who I take you to mean non white people, took Rocky from "white people"? Not once, but twice in just your last post, you made this a black VERSUS white issue. And you're calling ME a racist. If Adonis called his cornerman nigger simply because he's black, then I am truly ashamed of Stallone. But still moreso in Jordan for not standing up against the stereotype and saying "Hey, Sly, can we talk about this line here?" He said "son of a bitch". Correct; him being ghetto as a kid means nothing. I was a ghetto kid too (plot twist). Like me, he's a grown-up now. He has the intelligent option to simply throw nigger out of his vocabulary. He can know the word, but he doesn't need to use it so freely just because his culture appropriated it. Taking the word from its venomous roots and turning it into the casual equivalent of "homie" (which he also says when he's NOT ANGRY, so revealing) doesn't make it so. You know damn well it's a hate word and you know damn well everyone else knows it too, because black history month. When people say it, it's always a thinly veiled, hostile commentary. Even Rocky, with his relaxed brain would know this. Especially so, given his background. So Adonis has no excuse. He's just being thug. I can't be inspired by his courage if it's expressed as enmity. Would it have been acceptable to you if Adonis said "Tony, don't call this shit"? Or better still, "Tony, don't call it"? Can we not be inspired by THAT? I think Adonis would rather we fear him because he barked nigger at his own teammate. I used to listen to rap, when it was about, well, rapping. When it was about dancing and picking up girls. But it's so aggressive now. It celebrates hostility. THAT'S why I don't like it. Certainly not at 1 in the morning. You're not street if you were taken in by a kind, affluent woman at the age of 13. Conflict that lives that far behind a man just isn't legitimate. I don't doubt that Stallone was TRYING to say there's conflict, but that is a tired cliché written specifically for Michael Jordan because he plays the archetype so well. In Rocky, Stallone played a street thug who didn't curse and didn't have the nerve to break Bob's thumb for failing to pay Mr. Gazzo his $200. And, wait for it, Rocky had NO EDUCATION. Therein was HIS CONFLICT; he was angry that he was "a bum". And that was why we loved him, because he tried so hard to not be a bum. He was just too dumb to succeed. When Apollo gave him his chance, we rooted for him. Adonis is not a bum. He is not underprivileged. He's a paid athlete. And he could have been an iconic role model like Rocky, but then he opened his mouth. His race is irrelevant. So he's simple. He's my neighbor. He's that lazy piece of crap in apartment H4 who blasts rap music at 1 am on a Thursday. Rocky was poor. Rocky was uneducated. We got that story already. But Adonis had a mother with affluence who cared for him. There's no chance he was that "street". Michael Jordan had a real opportunity to bring something new to the franchise and he squandered it because he just wanted to play himself. He didn't want to act at all. Lazy. And he said nigger with a hard r. Sorry, I meant DEMON. I corrected it. About 55 minutes in, Adonis' corner man says "I'm callin' this fight" and Adonis says "Nigger don't call this shit!" Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown.