TRANSCRIPT
Office Ladies | Episode 235 - The Edge Pt 1
Jenna [00:00:04] I'm Jenna Fischer.
Angela [00:00:05] And I'm Angela Kinsey.
Jenna [00:00:06] We were on the office together.
Angela [00:00:08] And we're best friends.
Jenna [00:00:09] And now we're doing the Ultimate Office Lovers podcast just for you.
Angela [00:00:13] Each week, we will dive deeper into the world of the office with exclusive interviews, behind the scenes details, and lots of BFF stories.
Jenna [00:00:21] We're the office ladies 6.0.
Angela [00:00:27] Hi. Happy Wednesday. Jenna is giddy. She is giddy. She's like. You're actually, like, blushing. Like, because you're so like I feel like you have a body buzz right now.
Jenna [00:00:40] Well, everyone, this Friday is Valentine's Day. And, Angela, you have given me the greatest Valentine's Day gift of our friendship.
Angela [00:00:51] I guess I have. I was thinking of, like, all the gifts we've exchanged over the years. This might be your favorite.
Jenna [00:00:58] It might be.
Angela [00:00:59] Shall we tell him what it is? Okay. Well, you guys, we went into the Dear office lady's mailbag, and a lot of you wrote in saying that I should watch the edge.
Jenna [00:01:11] Thank you. Thank you for writing that.
Angela [00:01:13] Emma Grace from Texas, will you please add the edge to your movie list to break down on the podcast? I watched it because of Jenna. It's one of my all time favorites. She is right. It is so inspirational.
Jenna [00:01:25] It is, Emma. It is.
Angela [00:01:26] We got several letters like this lady. And you know what? You did watch the Star Wars Christmas special for me.
Jenna [00:01:34] I did.
Angela [00:01:35] You did. You technically watched two Star Wars movie ish. Well, so for this Valentine's, my gift to you is I said, let's break down the edge, lady. Let's do it.
Jenna [00:01:50] This was the most amazing work week for me, Angela. I got to watch my favorite movie for work.
Angela [00:01:57] I know you kept texting me. This is my work day, and it would just be a screenshot of, like, a bear in the woods. .
Jenna [00:02:04] Well, I got so excited I said we should even bring back fast facts. So I say, let's get to it.
Angela [00:02:09] Let's do it.
Jenna [00:02:10] All right. The Edge, written by David Mamet. Pulitzer Prize and Tony winning playwright. He's also a director and screenwriter. He is a master of dialog. And the dialog in this movie is fantastic. This film is directed by Lee Tomory from New Zealand. His directorial debut was Once We Were Warriors, which was a huge critical success. It won many, many awards and was the highest grossing film in New Zealand of all time. That's right.
Angela [00:02:42] And he also directed huge hits like Mulholland Falls Boys on the Side.
Jenna [00:02:47] Let's jump into fast fact number one. The edge is one hour and 57 wonderful minutes. It was released September 26th, 1997. It had a budget of $30 million and it made 43.3 million at the worldwide box office. Here is your cast. Anthony Hopkins plays billionaire Charles Morse. Alec Baldwin is handsome photographer Bob Greene. Harold Perrineau is Bob's photography assistant. Stephen. You might know him from Lost.
Angela [00:03:21] He played Michael Dawson in lost, he is so good in it.
Jenna [00:03:23] So good.
Angela [00:03:24] He's also into Matrix movies, you guys.
Jenna [00:03:27] So you liked this? Okay, this is great. This is good. And then finally, rounding out the cast is Elle MacPherson as billionaire Charles Morse's wife, supermodel Mickey Morse. And, you know, Elle MacPherson is a real life supermodel. Here's a fact for you. The original title of this movie was Bookworm. But about three months before the movie was set to come out, the studio decided that it needed a more commercial title, something that really spoke to the suspense of the film.
Angela [00:03:58] I think I agree with them.
Jenna [00:04:00] I agree. The role of Bob Greene, played by Alec Baldwin, was originally offered to Harrison Ford and Dustin Hoffman.
Angela [00:04:08] What?
Jenna [00:04:10] Could you imagine?
Angela [00:04:10] No. Dustin Hoffman as Bob? No, I can't.
Jenna [00:04:17] I also read that Robert De Niro showed some interest in the role of billionaire Charles Maurice, but that it went to Anthony Hopkins. I literally can't imagine anyone else in these roles.
Angela [00:04:26] Yeah. Yeah, it's hard to picture it.
Jenna [00:04:29] All right. Fast fact number two, This film was shot in Alberta, Canada. It was shot between August and November 1996 in Banff National Park, Canmore, Edmonton Thunder Stone Quarries and Fortress Mountain Resort. And here is an audio clip of Director Lee Tomory talking about the location.
CLIP [00:04:50] We really need to take this film somewhere that people haven't really been before. So it needs to look very, very rugged. You can't really fake thing. You've got to take the actors and everybody into this environment of this confrontation. They're lost right in the heart of the wilderness. What I like about all of David Mamet's work is that it's extremely primal. It's one guy pitted against another guy, two guys pitted against the wilderness. And you take actors the likes of Tony, who's never been exposed to this type of harrowing location, embraces them more.
Jenna [00:05:26] So, lady, they were really out there, the actors, the crew in the wilderness. I want to paint a little picture for you. The temperatures in Banff National Park in August are a high of 62 and a low of 33. But when we get to November, the high is 24 degrees and the low is three.
Angela [00:05:50] Yeah, Josh went on a hiking trip with his college buddies there and absolutely loved it. But it is rugged terrain.
Jenna [00:05:58] Yes. These fellows spend a lot of time in water. I checked the sea water temperatures in August they're around 54 to 61 degrees. For reference, I keep my cold dip tank around 60 degrees. I sit in it for one minute and I go pretty numb In about 30s in November, the water gets as low as like 50 degrees and they really got in it. Yeah, like that wasn't like a sound stage or something. They just.
Angela [00:06:25] They look cold.
Jenna [00:06:26] And they don't warm the water. Obviously, it's seawater. It's water. It's natural.
Angela [00:06:31] You can't warm a park lake, correct? Yeah. They're in it.
Jenna [00:06:36] They're in it. All right. Well, I've told you the characters. I've told you the location. Angela, Fast fact three. Over to you.
Angela [00:06:44] Yeah, I took fast fact three. And I'm going to give you two movie reviews and one of the original movie trailers. So people either really love this movie or they're, like, meh about it.
Jenna [00:06:56] Yes, I know this.
Angela [00:06:57] You know this.
Jenna [00:06:59] No one hates it, though.
Angela [00:07:01] There might be 1 or 2.
Jenna [00:07:03] I don't think so.
Angela [00:07:07] I only chose reviews that came out in 1997. Great. When the movie came out. This is from Reel Views. Real is spelled Reel. They're movie reviewer James Berard. Tonelli gave it two stars and said the following. Frankly, even though the edge is almost always dumb, it's also often fun. And to give the film its due, it's never boring. On the rare occasion when the plot goes for character development. The performances of Hopkins and Baldwin carry it through. The cinematography is frequently breathtaking, and Jerry Goldsmith's score has enough majesty to highlight the impressive vistas. This film includes several memorable moments, and also the Edge can boast what is hands down the best anti lawyer line of the year. I'm going to bring it up when we get to it. However, just like creamy icing can't save a half baked cake. These positive elements can't hide the fact that The Edge is a bad movie.
Jenna [00:08:07] And that's a two star review from James. What does he need the filmmakers to do? Come and literally suck dick? How do I get two more stars? Majesty? Cinematography? Amazing performances. Wonderful dialog. What else do you need while you're watching this movie, James? A literal blowjob?
Angela [00:08:28] My God, Jenna!
Jenna [00:08:29] What do you need?
Angela [00:08:29] Jenna!
Jenna [00:08:30] Don't come for my movie.
Angela [00:08:32] My gosh. This is, like, maybe the most hostile I've ever heard you on the podcast. All right, the next review. I'm only giving you two from 1997. The next one is from Roger Ebert, who gave it three out of four stars.
Jenna [00:08:49] Yes. Roger Ebert. Established movie critic.
Angela [00:08:53] Dude, you don't know James.
Jenna [00:08:56] I know James.
Angela [00:08:57] Okay.
Jenna [00:08:58] I know enough about James that it's all I need to know.
Angela [00:09:01] Roger wrote a very long review. I can put a link to it. But here are the highlights. He says about the edge. It's suddenly funny in the way it toys with the cliches of the genre. Too subtle, apparently, for some.
Jenna [00:09:15] Like James.
Angela [00:09:16] The movie contains glorious scenery, quixotic Mamet conversations, and of course, the obligatory action scenes. Even in generating tension, the movie Toys with Convention. There are a few bear wrestling matches and a big showdown with the beast. But the movie doesn't lose its mind and go berserk with action in the last half hour, as most action films seem to. It is typical of Mamet that he could devise his plot in such a way that the climactic payoff would not be bloodshed, but the simple exchange of a wristwatch.
Jenna [00:09:51] Thank you, Roger Ebert.
Angela [00:09:54] It also got 62% on Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer and 70% on the popcorn meter, which is the fan ranking. Maybe I shouldn't have read the reviews.
Jenna [00:10:11] All right. There's nothing you can say about my movie that I will ever, ever stray from my love for it.
Angela [00:10:21] I am reading other people's words. All right. And I also thought we should hear one of the original movie trailers for the Edge. It's that classic trailer. Remember how in the 90s they all had the same voiceover actor who would, like, say things like, 'In a world' like that? I loved it so much. It has a fantastic ending line. Let's hear it.
CLIP [00:10:49] In the salt of the earth. The most excellent man before I married you. And you are the only woman I've ever wanted to see. One lucky guy. You have a billionaire who has everything he wants. A good companion, a good friend, and a good sport. You've got it. Okay. And great. A photographer who wants everything he has. Nice looking lady, your wife? Yes. I'd just like to know who everybody is. Must be tough with all that money and knowing that people value you for it. What do you value me for, Bob? Are you planning to kill me? Now two rivals lost in the wilderness. Are forced to confront nature out there. What are we going to do? I'm supposed to have a plan. They were about to discover. Nature isn't as dangerous as the nature of man. Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins. You want to die out here? I'm not going to die. Alec Baldwin. Money folks sit up there, drinks and golf. You make me sick. Where civilization ends, survival begins. The edge.
Angela [00:12:26] I mean, isn't that a great trailer?
Jenna [00:12:28] Yeah, because it's from a great movie. You really you know, they had good film to work with when they made that trailer.
Angela [00:12:36] Let James go. Let him go.
Jenna [00:12:39] You know what? All right, I'll let him go.
Angela [00:12:41] Let him go. Because where civilization ends, survival begins.
Jenna [00:12:47] Angela, I love your fast act. I love everything about the edge. Why don't we take a break and then we can start breaking down the edge? And thanks to Macy's, we only have to take one break this episode. Thank you, Macy's. We are back. Are you ready?
Angela [00:13:15] I'm ready.
Jenna [00:13:16] Here we go. We open on a small airplane.
Angela [00:13:19] Lady. I have to share something with you. I know everyone talks about the bear in this movie.
Jenna [00:13:27] Yes.
Angela [00:13:28] But I need to point something out right away. It's in the opening credits.
Jenna [00:13:33] What is it?
Angela [00:13:33] It is something that continues throughout the movie. And it literally chilled me to the bone. It was so unsettling. The very beginning of the movie. Before you see anything on the screen. The screen is just gray and you hear wind. But it's that wind that's like cold out in the wilderness. Kind of wind. Yeah. For, like, two minutes. It's just wind. Wind is throughout the whole movie. I would like to say that one of the other big characters in this movie is The Wind.
Jenna [00:14:11] I like that. The atmosphere.
Angela [00:14:14] Yes. It creeped me out just in the very beginning.
Jenna [00:14:18] My goodness.
Angela [00:14:20] So you hear all the wind, right? And then finally, out of the gray, you see a small plane. It's kind of a fancy, like private plane. And it lands and everyone exits off the plane.
Jenna [00:14:33] Yeah. People get off the plane and they're about to get on another plane.
Angela [00:14:38] Micki has a lot of Louis Vuitton luggage. I just wanted to point that out.
Jenna [00:14:41] Does she? Well, yes. And this is when we're going to learn who everyone is. We're going to learn that Charles is a billionaire. We're also going to learn that he is used to people, like, coveting his wife. There's a mechanic who's like, I would love to get my hands on her. And he's like, On who? And he's like, the plane.
Angela [00:15:01] It's a $20 million plane called the Challenger. Yeah.
Jenna [00:15:05] But of course, he thought the guy was talking about his supermodel wife. Right. It's probably happens to him all the time.
Angela [00:15:12] Right. And he was kind of looking in her direction.
Jenna [00:15:15] Yeah. Yeah. So they're going from their private plane to this little private water plane. And we're going to get a lot of foreshadowing here. We're going to hear the pilots say, hey, everything's fine. He says, just don't fly under any low ceilings. You don't want a bird strike. You don't want migrating birds to run into your plane.
Angela [00:15:36] Yeah. Because they could take the plane down.
Jenna [00:15:39] Exactly.
Angela [00:15:39] We also learned, like, Charles has an assistant, you know, who gives him, like, a manila envelope. He also says he checked out the plane and that it's safe. And then he says, When do you think you'll require your big, fancy plane back? And Bob, who's played by Alec Baldwin, says, I want the film in New York 36 hours, I'd say 8:00 tomorrow night. Lady, I'm confused. What did they go all this way for just one night?
Jenna [00:16:04] I think so.
Angela [00:16:05] That's crazy.
Jenna [00:16:06] Yeah, they're there because Bob is doing a photo shoot with Mickey, right? And I guess they let Charles tag along. He's taken a day off to join her. She's so excited.
Angela [00:16:18] Right. Okay. Well, before we get to the scene in the prop plane, I thought, well, lady, I tried to be Dr. Tibideau and track some stuff.
Jenna [00:16:27] What did you track?
Angela [00:16:28] Well, here are my Dr. Tibideau stats and Dr. Tibideau, I apologize. They are not as thorough as yours. But the name Charles is said 118 times in the movie.
Jenna [00:16:39] So many times they see each other's names so many times.
Angela [00:16:42] 118 times, you're going to hear Charles. The name Bob is said 27 times. The word bear is said 19 times. The word sh*t is said 19 times.
Jenna [00:16:55] I didn't even catch that.
Angela [00:16:57] The word fuck is said 13 times. Wow. And the word motherfucker said twice. Wow. There are your Doctor T. stats. Charles. Charles? Charles.
Jenna [00:17:08] What do you think? Charles?
Angela [00:17:09] Charles?
Jenna [00:17:09] Charles, What are we doing next, Charles? Yeah, he does say it a lot. So now what happens Is this, more foreshadowing. This little prop plane takes off without incident. Charles is going to open up his envelope that he got from his assistant to see that it is a wrapped gift. It is a book called Lost in the Wilds by Dee Crowley. And I looked it up. It's not a real book. If it was a real book, I would have wanted it, for sure.
Angela [00:17:36] Well, I was very curious about this book as well. And I found a blog about it written by David Crowley. If we're saying that last name correctly. And listen to this. David writes, After the movie came out, a lot of fans went looking to pick up a copy of the book, a task which was made particularly challenging because it didn't really exist. The book was a prop made for the movie. There were three copies made for the filming. One of which was lost after the shot where it slowly sinks to the bottom of the lake. Here's the tidbit that I loved, Lady. David writes, The book's author is shown clearly on the cover, as D. Crowley, which is, in fact, my name. But in this case, it was a tip of the hat to Director Lee Tamahori's assistant, Dara Crowley. Dara is my sister. And after filming was completed, my sister kindly sent me one of the two remaining copies of the book for my birthday. Wow. I knew nothing about them at the time, so it was a fun surprise. She included a note with it, joking that we had been published, which was written on stationery with the movie's working title of Bookworm. Isn't that so fun?
Jenna [00:18:45] That is so, so cool.
Angela [00:18:49] And a little bit, like you said, foreshadowing the first chapter that Charles opens up to says traps and snares.
Jenna [00:18:56] Well, another thing we're going to learn here is that the reason Charles's assistant gave him this book is that it is a birthday gift.
Angela [00:19:03] Yes.
Jenna [00:19:04] No one else is regarding this day as his birthday. Kind of seems like everyone else forgot. And only his assistant remembered.
Angela [00:19:13] Miss Harriet Smith.
Jenna [00:19:15] But this is when the other passengers start chatting. And one of the gals on the plane who's part of this whole, like, photography shoot, she notices that Bob, played by Alec Baldwin, has a new watch. It has dual time zones.
Angela [00:19:29] Yeah.
Jenna [00:19:30] I looked up the watch because this is going to come back later. This watch, everybody. There's this guy who has a YouTube channel called the Timeless Watch Channel. And he did a mini series that looks at how watches play significant roles in movies. He did a whole deep dive on why do protagonists wear their watches with the clock facing in and the strap facing out. He noted that this is true of Alec Baldwin in this movie. It is true in Die Hard and in John Wick. All of the leads of the movies, they are watches which figure significantly to the plot are always facing in. We know why.
Angela [00:20:12] Camera angle?
Jenna [00:20:14] Yeah, because when you're doing takes. If the watch kept moving, it would be a different time every time. So if your watch is going to play a big role in the movie, you put the band facing out.
Angela [00:20:24] So you can pick when to show it and make sure it's the correct time.
Jenna [00:20:27] Exactly. Exactly. I will also tell you that the watch is a seamaster chronograph watch, which goes for around $5,000. This is a nice watch.
Angela [00:20:39] I was really curious about that because, you know, we ultimately see the receipt for the watch. And it said $2,700.
Jenna [00:20:47] Well, nowadays, $5,000.
Angela [00:20:50] Well, you know, we learn something really quickly. I feel like about Bob in this scene is that everyone thinks he's hilarious. Yeah, because when he says I don't have to go through the anguish of adding three hours, you know, because he has L.A. and New York on his watch, everyone laughs like, so hard. Yeah, like this is the funniest thing.
Jenna [00:21:09] Yeah.
Angela [00:21:09] I don't think Bob's funny.
Jenna [00:21:11] I think Bob's a douchebag. Yeah. Yeah. We would not like Bob at a party.
Angela [00:21:15] We would not like Bob.
Jenna [00:21:17] The plane is now going to fly over some snowy mountains. It lands on the water. It pulls up to a dock, this beautiful, rustic lodge. This is where they're going to shoot their amazing photograph tomorrow. Elle MacPherson said in an interview that that lodge was built for the movie and then taken down afterward.
Angela [00:21:37] No way. It's massive.
Jenna [00:21:39] I know. And beautiful. She was like, I would have bought it and lived there. If someone would have told me, she said It was amazing. It was just a set.
Angela [00:21:48] Wow.
Jenna [00:21:49] Not real.
Angela [00:21:50] Well, did you catch the dialog as they're walking up the steps? You know, you've got the crusty old guy styles, right? Yeah. And Mickey says to him, So you built this place with your own hands? And he says, Yes, ma'am. Been building it all my life. His whole life. But we also learned that there's no locks on any of the doors, and the bedrooms and outhouses are upstairs. I'm sorry. What? Outhouses. What? They have to go to the bathroom outside.
Jenna [00:22:20] I don't know. But later on in the evening, when it's time to go to bed like a generator shuts off all of the electricity and Charles has to walk around with a lantern.
Angela [00:22:29] I know I have stayed somewhere like that. I stayed in this rustic cabin with a generator. It literally shut down at nightfall. We had no electricity.
Jenna [00:22:37] I don't know. Seems like you want it to go on at nightfall.
Angela [00:22:41] I know.
Jenna [00:22:41] Right? Like I can use the sun during the day. Maybe at night. Maybe we flip it?
Angela [00:22:47] Yeah, I think that would be smart.
Jenna [00:22:48] I don't know. I don't want to tell people how to run their lodges. All right. Let me give you a quick summary of what's going to happen now. Bob is going to see a black and white photo of an indigenous man holding a rifle. And he tells his assistant, Steven, This is what I want. I want this guy for tomorrow. But you can never get a guy like this because these guys don't exist anymore. Right. This authenticity in this picture.
Angela [00:23:12] Yeah.
Jenna [00:23:12] And of course, Styles, the runner of the lodge is like I took that picture last year.
Angela [00:23:17] Yeah.
Jenna [00:23:18] He's my friend.
Angela [00:23:19] Yeah. Crusty Styles is what I call him. Crusty. He looks like he has, like, a big, like, kind of like. Like maybe he got in a tussle with a bear at some point.
Jenna [00:23:26] He's got scars.
Angela [00:23:28] Yeah. Yeah, He's crusty Styles.
Jenna [00:23:29] He's worn in.
Angela [00:23:30] Yeah, He knows this guy Jack Hawks his name. And Bob really wants to meet him. Can we just comment one second? That Bob was wearing almost like a full length black leather coat. Yeah. Douche bag number two. Yeah. Tracking douche Bob.
Jenna [00:23:45] Charles' first stop is to go over to the bookshelf. This guy loves books, Remember? The movie was called Bookworm.
Angela [00:23:50] There's books, but there's also, like, a whole shelf of National Geographic magazines.
Jenna [00:23:55] Yeah. This is when Mickey says Charles knows everything. You can ask him any question. I bet you can't stump him.
Angela [00:24:01] Yeah.
Jenna [00:24:01] So crusty Styles says I'll give you $5 to tell me what's on the other side of this paddle. It's like a canoe paddle up on the wall, and it has a carving in it.
Angela [00:24:10] Yeah. And the side he can see is like a black Jaguar, like Black Panther looking animal, right?
Jenna [00:24:15] Yeah. And Charles says it's a rabbit smoking a pipe.
Angela [00:24:19] And then crusty Stiles flips over the panel, and it is.
Jenna [00:24:24] Yes, It is a traditional motif of the Cree Indian tribe. The rabbit is the prey, but is unafraid of the panther because he's smarter than the panther.
Angela [00:24:37] Yeah. So, you know, everyone's very impressed, except for Bob. And another thing I track throughout this movie is something I call Bob Snark.
Jenna [00:24:45] Lot of snark from Bob.
Angela [00:24:47] A lot of snark from Bob. He looks at him with kind of like that, like stink eye and goes, Amazing accomplishment. Yeah. He's not impressed.
Jenna [00:24:58] Well, now it's time to go to bed. And Stiles says, Listen, go to bed. But I got to tell you, it's like time for bears. Beware of the bears.
Angela [00:25:06] Lady, he literally says we got a problem with bears around here. And just so you guys know, that's where I'm out. I'm out where I'm packing up my shit and I'm leaving. If you tell me we got a problem with bears around here, that's it. Enjoy your weekend. I'm gone.
Jenna [00:25:23] Well, Styles says don't leave food out. Not even inside.
Angela [00:25:29] Yeah.
Jenna [00:25:29] And then he says, you know, if a bear does come upon, you, stand still. And then back away. Slowly.
Angela [00:25:37] He says, Let the bear know you see him. What am I making eye contact with the bear? I'm out, crusty Styles, I'm out. Mickey says. Well, on that note, I'm going to bed. And then she has a little flirty moment with Bob.
Jenna [00:25:51] Yeah. Bob whispers something in her ear, and she, like, bats him away.
Angela [00:25:54] Yeah, she, like, shoves him and is like, Shut up. But Charles sees it all.
Jenna [00:25:59] Yeah. Well, now Mickey and Charles are up in their bedroom, right? And Charles is like, Hey, do you know why my secretary gave me this book? We're going to bed now. And he's basically saying, like, this is my birthday. Are you going to remember my birthday?
Angela [00:26:13] Says, you know, this is a very special day for me. Dot, dot, dot.
Jenna [00:26:18] Yeah.
Angela [00:26:19] And she says, Can you make me a sandwich?
Jenna [00:26:21] Right.
Angela [00:26:22] What?
Jenna [00:26:22] So Charles goes downstairs in the dark with his lantern. He goes in the kitchen. This kitchen is so freakin cool, he notices someone left some ham out.
Angela [00:26:33] There's like, a whole honey baked ham. And the door is open. And you hear that wind? Yeah. And I'm like, yeah. I was on the edge of my seat.
Jenna [00:26:42] The edge.
Angela [00:26:43] The edge. I was.
Jenna [00:26:45] And guess what? He makes a sandwich really quick. It looks good, too. I every time I see him make the sandwich, he does it with such care. You know, He really did put love in it.
Angela [00:26:55] Yeah, he loves her.
Jenna [00:26:56] Yeah. And he's walking out of the kitchen with this little sandwich on this plate. Didn't clean up his stuff. That's okay.
Angela [00:27:01] Didn't put the ham away. Didn't put him any of the food away. Crusty Styles, rule number one.
Jenna [00:27:07] Yeah, but he walks out of the kitchen and there is a giant bear.
Angela [00:27:12] Yeah. I screamed out loud. Yeah, I screamed. I don't know. Did anyone else scream at this moment? Sam, Cassi?
Cassi [00:27:18] My cat was laying on my lap. And at this moment when the bear screamed, she leapt a foot into the air and ran out of the room. It has never done that before.
Angela [00:27:29] My God.
Jenna [00:27:30] Sorry.
Angela [00:27:31] That's so, like, primal. Yeah. She's like, predator. I screamed out loud. Holy crap.
Jenna [00:27:38] Well, guess what? It's a prank. It's not a real bear.
Angela [00:27:43] Happy birthday.
Jenna [00:27:45] Bob was dressed in a like a bear skin.
Angela [00:27:49] Like he took the rug off the ground and wrapped it around him.
Jenna [00:27:51] Exactly.
Angela [00:27:52] And you know what I call bullsh*t! This is sh*tty a surprise birthday. He could have had a heart attack.
Jenna [00:27:59] He looks like he's going to have a heart attack. And behind Bob is everybody. They've got a cake. They're like surprise, Happy birthday.
Angela [00:28:08] A cake, by the way, that no one eats. You notice that? No one eats the cake.
Jenna [00:28:12] No one eats the cake. This birthday lasts maybe four minutes. They give him to presents and then they're like, Goodnight.
Angela [00:28:18] Don't eat the cake. Leave it out. Leave out the honey baked ham and the mayo. What the hell?
Sam [00:28:24] I know earlier you said you would go home on my notes for this movie I wrote, This is when I would leave. It's a terrible prank to play on somebody.
Jenna [00:28:33] So awful.
Angela [00:28:34] Yeah. And I also wrote, Who are these people to Charles? I mean, he's spending his birthday with these people that clearly, other than his wife, they don't care about him.
Jenna [00:28:44] No, He is going to get two gifts. He's going to get a watch. He's going to get a Hamilton pocket watch.
Angela [00:28:50] Yes. An engraved gold pocket watch from his wife.
Jenna [00:28:54] I found them on eBay. They cost anywhere from 500 to $2000. Remember how much Bob's watch was?
Angela [00:29:02] Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So it's engraved. And it says to my beloved husband on his birthday, from the luckiest woman in the world, I have an observation about Mickey.
Jenna [00:29:12] What is it?
Angela [00:29:13] She has a lot of grandiose statements. You're perfect. I'm the luckiest. We're the most wonderful. Anyway, Bob gives Charles a pocket knife, and then style says, Well, you better give him a coin. And I was curious about this.
Jenna [00:29:27] It's a thing.
Angela [00:29:28] It's like an old superstition.
Jenna [00:29:29] Have you never done this?
Angela [00:29:31] No. Why? No one's given me a knife before. I guess when I got married, I got a set of knives, but I didn't send a bunch of pennies to people.
Jenna [00:29:38] When I got married, I got a set of knives, and the person taped a penny on the box of knives. And I guess I was supposed to take the penny and then, like, send it back to them. I don't think I did.
Angela [00:29:50] Well.
Jenna [00:29:51] I also don't know who gave them to me, and I might not talk to them anymore.
Angela [00:29:55] Well, maybe then you should have done it.
Jenna [00:29:57] Yeah, tell us about it, Ang, I know this.
Angela [00:29:59] Okay. The tradition of giving a knife as a gift is accompanied by an old but intriguing superstition. That knife could symbolically cut the ties between the giver and the receiver, potentially ending love or severing the bond. To counteract this, a long standing custom involves including a coin with the gift. Historically, even a simple penny suffices. The recipient then returns the penny to the giver.
Jenna [00:30:25] Yeah.
Angela [00:30:25] Symbolically buying the knife, which is believed to maintain the bond between them.
Jenna [00:30:31] Yeah.
Angela [00:30:32] So there you go. And he does. Charles gives Bob a coin.
Jenna [00:30:36] Yes.
Angela [00:30:37] I also wanted to point out how beautiful this pocket knife is.
Jenna [00:30:41] Beautiful.
Angela [00:30:41] It's engraved with the letter C, M. It's got this ivory handle. I found this on Blade magazine.com. The knife was made by a Canadian knife maker named Brian Little. He described it as a gentleman's piece in an old time style, but large enough for use as a tool to make traps and spears and for other survival needs. The letter c m r, of course, for Charles Morse. But here's the thing I thought was interesting. Brian Little had worked on Legends of the Fall.
Jenna [00:31:09] With Anthony Hopkins.
Angela [00:31:10] Yes. And Brad Pitt and Brad Pitt liked his knives and had actually bought some to give as gifts to the movie's cast, including Anthony Hopkins. When it came time to select The Knives for the Edge, the assistant props master brought along Little's knives during a meeting with all the movie officials which Anthony Hopkins attended. And he saw the blades and recognized the maker's name on them. Wow. There's pictures of Brian Little like on the set with this article. I'll include it in our stories. He also was the person that engraved both watches because he was also an engraver and he passed away in 2016. But his legacy lives on.
Jenna [00:31:48] That's beautiful. I love that they used this artist. Yeah, the specialty knife maker on this film. But I have a nagging question. Did Brad Pitt give Anthony Hopkins a penny? Are they still friends?
Angela [00:32:03] This we don't know.
Jenna [00:32:05] If I ever meet Brad Pitt or Anthony Hopkins. That's the question I'm going to ask. I hope he's so confused.
Angela [00:32:10] I hope you lead with it.
Jenna [00:32:12] I will.
Angela [00:32:12] I hope you say, Brad, I know you gave everyone knives as a gift by Brian Little, the Canadian knife maker. Did you also include a coin?
Jenna [00:32:20] Yeah.
Angela [00:32:21] Yeah. I hope I'm with you the day you ask him that.
Jenna [00:32:24] Do I lead with that or do I lead with a funny story? Sometimes I have a dream that you make me soup.
Angela [00:32:33] God.
Jenna [00:32:34] I don't know which one.
Angela [00:32:35] No, you have to lead with that one.
Jenna [00:32:37] Okay. We're also both from Missouri. There's so much for me to talk to him about now.
Angela [00:32:44] You're going to talk his ear off.
Jenna [00:32:45] Why have we not met?
Angela [00:32:45] I don't know.
Jenna [00:32:46] I don't know. Well, as soon as they do this gift exchange, everybody who's doing the photography shoot is like, Guys, we got to get up early tomorrow. Let's go to bed now and they just leave. And the only person left behind is Styles, Crusty Styles and Charles. They have another sort of 90 second conversation. And now it's bedtime for everybody. Yeah. The next day, Charles is reading his survival book, and the photo shoot is happening. But Bob says it's lame. This is a lame photo shoot.
Angela [00:33:15] There's more flirty banter, though, between Bob and Mickey. Yep. They do these sort of cockney accents, and she's like, Should I sunbath on this beach nude? And he's like, Sorry, lady, it's against the rules. What are they doing? They are flirting right in front of Charles.
Jenna [00:33:31] I know.
Angela [00:33:31] He gives her a peck on the cheek.
Jenna [00:33:33] Yeah, but she blows him an air kiss, so I guess it's okay.
Angela [00:33:38] Hi. Well, we have what I'm calling creepy crusty styles moment.
Jenna [00:33:42] Okay.
Angela [00:33:43] As Charles is going through his book, he opens to a page with a Kodiak bear and crusty style says Kodiak Bear soon kill you is look at you. And the ones that's killed a man is a man hunter for the rest of his life. Nothing he'd rather eat got the taste of human flesh, a man killing machine.
Jenna [00:34:01] Yeah.
Angela [00:34:02] That is creepy.
Jenna [00:34:03] It is. Is everybody keeping up with this? Here's what we need to keep our eye on. We need to keep our eye on these watches. We need to keep our eye on man killing bear, bear that has a taste for man. Yeah. Also, don't forget, we are worried about migrating birds. That's going to come up in a second.
Angela [00:34:20] Yeah, well, now Bob is really pissed because apparently nothing on this photo shoot is going his way. I guess there's some shoes that look really sh*tty. They need to be shined. Charles of course, pipes in with some trivia. He says, use a banana peel. I looked it up. It's true. You can shine shoes with the banana peel, Charles. I mean, I can't imagine him on a road trip. He's got so much trivia.
Jenna [00:34:42] You do not need to look up anything Charles says. It's all true.
Angela [00:34:45] It's all true. And then also, Bob finds out that his model James is sick. Like, really sick?
Jenna [00:34:51] Yeah. A male model.
Angela [00:34:52] Yeah.
Jenna [00:34:53] He can't participate. So Bob says I need Jack Hawk. That's who I need. We're going to get in this prop plane. We're going to go to his cabin.
Angela [00:35:01] It's 80 miles north with no phone or radio. I mean, I'm out.
Jenna [00:35:07] They got to go and they say, Charles, come with us. Let's go on an adventure. Charles is like, sure, I'm in. Here's why they're doing this. Now, in this movie, Charles is going to drop a lot of wisdom I have four wisdom moments that I'm going to point out as we break down this film. Bob has one and it's right here. Here's the one piece of advice in life that I think you can take from Bob.
Angela [00:35:31] What is it?
Jenna [00:35:32] Steven says, Should we really do this? Is this a good idea? Like, should we go fly and get this guy? And Bob says, a good plan today is better than the perfect plan tomorrow.
Angela [00:35:44] I have that in bold.
Jenna [00:35:45] Yeah, which is another way of saying, why put it off? Just do it. Get it done.
Angela [00:35:50] Get it done. And you know what? Charles is probably ready to go. I mean, Mickey's like, get some air under your wings. And then also Styles has hit him up for about 30 to $40 million to build like a resort.
Jenna [00:36:03] That's right.
Angela [00:36:04] So he's like I'm out. We do find out that they're going to lose light at 4:18 p.m.. They got to get going.
Jenna [00:36:12] So they get on the plane. They're heading out.
Angela [00:36:15] They're heading out. I do have a classic Bob Snark moment as they take off on the plane.
Jenna [00:36:20] Yeah.
Angela [00:36:21] I want to play it.
Jenna [00:36:22] All right.
CLIP [00:36:24] I tell you something, Charles? Yeah, if you like. I admire the way you took that joke last night.Embarrassing moment, I thought you handled it, well. Thank you. Tough row to hoe. You think about it.
Angela [00:36:41] That's some snark right there. That's like, I was so embarrassed for you, but you handled it great. How embarrassing for you, though, You fell down. Yeah, that was embarrassing. But you did fantastic.
Jenna [00:36:53] Yeah.
Angela [00:36:55] Such snark. Yeah. Also, I do want to adopt how Charles responds to someone wanting to tell them something.
Jenna [00:37:03] What did you.
Angela [00:37:04] Say? Say, I want to tell you something.
Jenna [00:37:06] I want to tell you something.
Angela [00:37:07] Yeah, if you like.
Jenna [00:37:11] All right. So there's some great dialog. It goes on what you played, Angela It goes on. Bob says, I bet it's really hard to have all that money.
Angela [00:37:21] Yeah.
Jenna [00:37:22] People always coming at ya. You never know why people really want to be around you. And then Charles says, Never feel sorry for a man who owns a plane.
Angela [00:37:32] It's a great line.
Jenna [00:37:33] Bob loves it.
Angela [00:37:34] Loves it.
Jenna [00:37:35] Thought that was so funny. And then Charles looks at Bob and says, So how are you planning to kill me?
Angela [00:37:43] And then right after he says that all the birds fly into the plane and the pilot is like, sh*t, hold on. Yeah. It's so dramatic.
Jenna [00:37:53] And the plane goes down. It plummets.
Angela [00:37:56] I mean.
Jenna [00:37:56] Like down the edge of a cliff and then it crashes into the lake. I found a video on how they did this crash. It is so fascinating because this is before this is 1996, everybody.
Angela [00:38:11] It's before like all the special effects stuff.
Jenna [00:38:14] Yes, before all this CGI stuff. Now, first of all, these geese that fly into the plane window and get in the propeller and cause it to jam up and then make the plane go down. They were added digitally in post. But to get this crash, they basically built a giant zip line from the top of the mountain over the lake down to the other side of the shore. And they attach the plane to the zip line and then they made it crash into the lake. The video shows how they tested it. They like crazy. But I want you to hear how the shoot day went. So they tested it one day and then they put the plane up there and they got ready to shoot it. Here's a clip.
CLIP [00:39:00] At 5:00 in the morning, the crew returns to prep the plane for its brief flight. Mannequins are placed inside the cockpit to sit in for the actors. The plane is loaded onto a transport boat and brought out to the rig where it's attached to the cables. The wings and pontoon are precut or scored to make sure they tear off cleanly. That's it. We got it. Once it's secured to the rig, the crew clears the area in preparation for the big moment. But before any action takes place, a safety meeting is held to outline procedures for the crash. Now, in terms of safety, the area which is the most dangerous is 150 foot either side of the bollards holding the lines to the plane.
Jenna [00:39:53] Did you hear that? It was a safety meeting.
Angela [00:39:57] I love it. I mean, that's a big safety meeting. Yeah.
Jenna [00:40:00] And I'll send you the link. If anyone wants to watch this, you can watch this stunt. You can watch the whole safety meeting.
Angela [00:40:06] I'll put it in our stories.
Jenna [00:40:08] They went on to say that they had six cameras set up to get the plane crash. Remember when we broke down speed and we learned about how they jumped the bus and they had all the cameras? All right. Well, they set up the six cameras. They did a take. And the director didn't think it looked dramatic enough. And I got it. When you see it in the video, it's kind of like they've clearly like they're making it so that it comes down real slow down the zip line. The director was like, I don't know. It looked kind of lame. So he's like, I want to do a second take. First they had to get the broken plane out of the lake. They only had one plane. This isn't speed with their like 13 busses. They had one plane. They had to reassemble the plane overnight. And then they did another take the next morning. And it worked. And what they did was they put no resistance on the zip line the second time. They just fully let gravity take that plane off the top of the mountain. It's so dramatic. It's an amazing, special effect.
Angela [00:41:12] So many departments had to come together to work on that.
Jenna [00:41:15] So many. This video is really cool. But okay, so back to the movie. Where are we?
Angela [00:41:20] Well, we're underwater. The plane has submerged the pilot. It looks like he died on impact. Yeah. Bob, I want to point out, swims to the surface alone.
Jenna [00:41:31] He seemed like he tried to take note of his surroundings, and he very quickly was like, I'm saving myself.
Angela [00:41:39] Yeah, yeah, yeah. He didn't stick around that long. No. He noted that the pilot, the one guy he probably needs, is dead. And then he's like, I'm out. These two guys are on their own. Yeah. Charles uses his knife, swims over to Steve and cuts his seatbelt because Steven is stuck. He can't get out. And then he grabs the bag of flares. Very smart. They swim to the surface, and his survival book floats away.
Jenna [00:42:04] But he's already read it. I want to point out.
Angela [00:42:07] End to end. He doesn't need it.
Jenna [00:42:10] I don't know. It probably would be good to have. But also, Charles remembers everything.
Angela [00:42:16] But you know what? They probably would have used it for fire. Not reading.
Jenna [00:42:20] Fire. Yeah.
Angela [00:42:21] Charles and Bob now dragged Stephen to safety on the shore, and Charles has to do CPR on Stephen. And finally he comes to. And they're all just freezing.
Jenna [00:42:32] Freezing.
Angela [00:42:32] They get up kind of higher up up the shoreline, and they're trying to figure out how they can start a fire.
Jenna [00:42:37] Yeah, they're trying to light a fire with some matches and they just can't get it to start. And Bob is like, fuck it. And he takes one of the flares and he, like, shoots it into the brush that they've brought together. And the fire starts immediately. And Charles is like, we really maybe should have saved those.
Jenna [00:42:54] Save those for when we need to signal for aircraft. But you know what? I'm going to allow this for Bob, because they are shaking. They are shivering. That is a sign of hypothermia. I know this from my cold dipping. If you're ever cold dipping and you start to shiver, you're supposed to get out. And so they did need to warm up fast. So I think they using one of their three flares for this purpose. I'm going to give them a pass.
Angela [00:43:22] Yeah. Bob does have a moment where I got real pissed off at him. Happens a lot for me. But he shares that he took the note from the cabin door.
Jenna [00:43:34] My gosh. We forgot this plot point, lady. So first of all, they get in that plane, they fly to find the guy, and he's gone hunting. He left a note on his door that he went hunting. He says, Where? And they're like, let's go find him where he's hunting. These guys are crazy.
Angela [00:43:52] So, yeah, they go even further into the wilderness, right? They're now way away from where anyone would think they would be.
Jenna [00:44:00] Yeah.
Angela [00:44:01] But Charles thinks, well, maybe they'll know to come look for us this deep because of the note. Remember the note on the door where the guy said, I'm going deeper into the woods?
Jenna [00:44:09] Yeah.
Angela [00:44:09] And Bob goes. And he opens his jacket and he's like, I took the note. Why would he take the man's note? Yeah. Why?
Jenna [00:44:18] All right. So fine. He used the flare, boo that he took the note. Also another boo. Bob's going to let the fire go out overnight.
Angela [00:44:28] Bob.
Jenna [00:44:29] Yeah. Fire died. They survived the night. But there's no more fire.
Angela [00:44:33] There's no more fire. Here's the thing, Bob, is the reason they went deeper into the woods. Yeah. Bob took the note, so now no one knows where they are. Bob, use one of the flares. Then he let the fire go out.
Jenna [00:44:46] Yeah.
Angela [00:44:46] He also would have left Stephen to die.
Jenna [00:44:49] Yeah. All true. All true. Well, now they're going to start to wonder. How are they getting out of here? Because no one knows where to look for them.
Angela [00:45:00] They're going to have to walk back. They have to figure out which way is south because they need to walk south to try to get back to where they started. Where people might be looking for them.
Jenna [00:45:09] But Charles is going to have to convince these guys. And here we have wisdom moment number one. This is your first moment of wisdom in the movie The Edge. And I want you to hear it.
CLIP [00:45:20] I once read an interesting book that said that most people lost in the wilds, they die of shame. What? Yeah. See, they die of shame. What did I do wrong? How could I have gotten myself into this? And so they sit there and they die because they didn't do the one thing which would have saved their lives. And what is that, Charles? Thinking.
Jenna [00:45:53] Yeah. Okay. So listen, obviously this is wisdom because it is a metaphor. It is not just about being in the wilderness. This is about when we are faced with any challenge in life. We can sit and give up and stew. And how did I get myself into this position? Why is this happening to me? Woe is me or we can think ourself out of this situation. We can put our mind to it and we can get out. Wisdom moment.
Angela [00:46:29] Wisdom moment. Don't be a victim. Be active. Be a doer.
Jenna [00:46:33] Be a doer.
Angela [00:46:34] Well, you know, Charles is going to try to determine which way is South, because that's the way they need to go. To get back to where someone might be looking for them. And he realizes his watch is broken. And he asked Bob, Hey, can I. Can I look at your watch? Bob crosses his arms like a toddler and goes, mine's broken, too. Shady. Shady Bob. That's what I'm calling him. Charles is now going to make a compass using a paperclip and a leaf. Bob is like, Charles, what are you doing? But they kind of follow him along anyway.
Jenna [00:47:07] Yeah, he rubs the paperclip on some silk, I guess. His sweater or his shirt. And then he puts it on a leaf on some water, and it pulls into a direction. And he's like, There it is. He says the magnet of the earth will point it north, and we're just going to head the other way.
Angela [00:47:26] Yeah. Well, I have a moment that I'm calling: is Charles Yoda?
Jenna [00:47:31] Okay.
Angela [00:47:32] He says the following. Just because you're lost doesn't mean to say that your compass is broken.
Jenna [00:47:39] I love it.
Angela [00:47:41] Can't you hear Yoda saying that?
Jenna [00:47:42] Yes, I can.
Angela [00:47:44] The three men are now making their way through this rough terrain. They're heading south. There's like this jagged Rocky Mountain pass. And then Charles decides to tell a random story about the Vikings. I thought you should hear it.
CLIP [00:48:02] You know, the Vikings would steer their ship with a rope. How'd they do that, Charles? While they'd have these two checkpoints on the land they'd left behind or sailed away from and they'd line them up and that would be their bearing. And then they'd trail this long rope behind the ship poking it. Those two points the trail or whatever. Charles, you might want to conserve your breath.
Angela [00:48:30] Let's go, Bob snark. Bob is like, we're hiking up this thing. We're lost in the woods. Would you shut up about the Vikings? So we have some Bob snark. But I wanted to play this clip because I feel like Charles is a combination of Dwight, Yoda and Cliff Clavin from Cheers.
Jenna [00:48:50] Yes. Yes, very much so. Well, now, luckily, they come upon a waterfall and they can have some water.
Angela [00:48:57] Yeah, because they have no food or water. That's the other thing. Yeah.
Jenna [00:49:00] They haven't eaten. This is the first time we've seen them drink water. And now they're going to keep walking. And now Bob is going to circle back and ask Charles, what was up with that comment on the plane about, like, how I'm going to kill you? What did you mean by that? Why would I want to kill you, Charles? And Charles says, my wife.
Angela [00:49:23] He says, I've seen the two of you together.
Jenna [00:49:26] Yeah. Bob's like, Why would I want to antagonize such a powerful man? I can get my own girls.
Angela [00:49:32] And then Charles says, maybe you want the money.
Jenna [00:49:36] And then Bob laughs and he's like, man, the rich really are different. You just think everybody loves your money.
Angela [00:49:44] Even though I keep bringing it up.
Jenna [00:49:46] Exactly. They're going to keep walking. They're going to keep walking.
Angela [00:49:51] Charles has some more trivia.
Jenna [00:49:54] Yes. Everyone is in a pretty good mood.
Angela [00:49:58] All things considered.
Jenna [00:49:59] All things considered. Until they hear a very unsettling noise.
Angela [00:50:03] Yeah.
Jenna [00:50:04] It's a bear.
Angela [00:50:06] It's a Kodiak bear.
Jenna [00:50:07] Mhmm.
Angela [00:50:09] Bob and Stephen, they bug out of there. Charles looks the bear right in the eye. And then he slowly backs up. But then they start running and they are running man for their lives, and the bear is chasing them. And all I could think about in this scene was the thing that Josh always tells me, which is you only have to outrun one person.
Jenna [00:50:35] Well, the person in the rear is Charles.
Angela [00:50:38] Yeah, They all. They get this giant log to cross over the stream and and the other two go across it and Charles is trying to go across it. This is terrifying. This log is up high. It's. It's narrow. And the bear comes up and starts pounding on the log, trying to get them to fall off.
Jenna [00:50:55] Yeah. I want to shout out the production designer Wolf Kroger and the locations manager Rhino Pace, this whole chase scene through the woods. It's down an embankment. It's into the water. I mean, this was an amazing location. And set design, like amazing.
Angela [00:51:13] Yeah.
Jenna [00:51:14] Should we also talk about our new main character that has entered the film, The Bear?
Angela [00:51:18] Yeah.
Jenna [00:51:19] All right. The bear in the movie was played by the very famous Bart the Bear. He was a Kodiak brown bear subspecies from an island on the coast of Alaska. This is where many bears grow to be quite enormous. However, he frequently played an inland brown bear. It's very rare for an inland bear to be the size of Bart. He weighed over 1,700 pounds as an adult. Bart has an impressive resume. You mentioned Legends of the Fall, Angela. Bart was in Legends of the Fall.
Angela [00:51:51] Yeah.
Jenna [00:51:52] He had worked with Anthony Hopkins before. Bart was so well trained that he could be commanded to do things like stand up on his hind legs, charge toward actors, and even swim without needing much prompting from his handler or trainers. Alec Baldwin was extremely impressed with how well trained and docile Bart was. And here he is describing what it was like to work with him.
CLIP [00:52:15] The bear thing is done very carefully and it's very kind of sterile how it's done for safety reasons. So when you do it, there isn't a lot of danger involved. I mean, they bring the bear out and you sit there and go, wow, it's a it's this famous movie, Bear. How are you today? Nice to see you. And then the thing gets up on all fours. That was kind of a striking. I wasn't prepared for how enormous this thing is. I mean, it's like, you know, I don't know what is nine feet tall or 11ft tall or some ridiculous thing. It's like it's like the size of a, you know, a tree, you know. But the interesting thing is that it's all done very cautiously when you're shooting and there's not a lot of really danger involved. And it's and they go off and they piece it together and cut it and do sound editing and things like that to make it. So when I saw the film, I thought, wow, you know, they really, really got made this look very, very harrowing and very frightening.
Jenna [00:53:08] Yeah. Alec Baldwin went on to say that he was actually concerned that it wouldn't look scary enough because of how docile the bear was while they were shooting. And when he saw the final film, Alec Baldwin said that Bart should send the film editor a fruit basket for making him look so scary.
Angela [00:53:29] He did look scary.
Jenna [00:53:32] Trainers Doug and Lynn Sue said that Anthony Hopkins was, quote, absolutely brilliant with Bart because he acknowledged and respected Bart like a fellow actor, that Anthony Hopkins would spend hours just looking at Bart, admiring him. And as a result, Anthony Hopkins did many of his own scenes with Bart.
Angela [00:53:54] Well, I saw an interview with Anthony where he talks about acting with Bart the Bear. And I thought we should hear it.
CLIP [00:54:00] Yes. He's really the 1,500 pound killer. He was also in Legends of the Fall. But he's a big animal and he's a killer. He'll kill you if you get in his way. But he's been brilliantly trained by Doug Seuss and treated with great love and affection and respect.
Angela [00:54:18] You can really hear in his voice the reverence that he has that this is a huge animal. Yeah, that has been trained well. But I'm going to be respectful and just be careful.
Jenna [00:54:32] Yeah. Well, sadly, Bart died of cancer in 2000 at the age of 23. His trainers, Doug and Lynn Su, started the Vital Ground Foundation in honor of Bart. It was an organization set up to help preserve land for great grizzlies and other wildlife.
Angela [00:54:50] I love that.
Jenna [00:54:51] I know. Well, listen, you said that Bart, the bear was stomping on this tree limb that Charles is trying to cross. Charles is going to go in the water, and so is the bag of flares.
Angela [00:55:03] Yep.
Jenna [00:55:04] And then these other guys are going to have to go fish him out of the water.
Angela [00:55:07] Yeah.
Jenna [00:55:07] They escape the bear, but they lose the flares.
Angela [00:55:10] That's right. And the bear looks down at them and is, like, ticked off, and he roars. And here is a moment that I found incredibly frightening because that bear turns around real quick and leaves. And you know what? That is not a good sign.
Jenna [00:55:25] You don't think?
Angela [00:55:26] Not in Kinsey Survival 101. In my opinion, you want that bear to be really mad and growl and growl and then slowly give up and be like, well, didn't get him today. No, no, no. He does a hard pivot and runs the other way somewhere. Because you know what? He knows another way to get him. He's going around something he has not done. That's what I think that means.
Jenna [00:55:49] Well, I'm telling you, you're going to be right.
Angela [00:55:51] When I watch this the first time and I knew nothing about the movie, when that bear turned around so fast, I was like. He knows another way.
Jenna [00:56:00] Well, now the guys have to continue their journey. Charles is really beating himself up because he lost the flares.
Angela [00:56:06] Right? This would be his moment of shame.
Jenna [00:56:08] Yes. And Bob reminds him, shame is how people die in the woods. You got to let it go, Charles.
Angela [00:56:14] Charles is very touched that Bob saved his life. And, you know, Bob jokes that he'd have to kill Stephen if he killed Charles. And he really needs Stephen because Stephen knows how to make his coffee. Charles says, How do you like your coffee?
Jenna [00:56:27] And Bob says, I like my coffee, how I like my women.
Angela [00:56:30] And Stephen says, bitter and murky. And then they laugh so hard.
Jenna [00:56:34] Yeah.
Angela [00:56:34] And I wrote, I'd be shitting myself. How can they be so jokey so quickly?
Jenna [00:56:40] Well, they're in shock. They're in shock. They're in shock.
Angela [00:56:43] Yeah.
Jenna [00:56:44] They're going to have to camp out for the night. They make another fire again.
Angela [00:56:49] They haven't eaten. Nope. And they don't have any water with them?
Jenna [00:56:52] No. The next morning, they're walking. And guess what happens? They come upon their first camp fire with the flare that they used and they realize they have just walked in a giant circle.
Angela [00:57:08] Yeah.
Jenna [00:57:09] Well, Stephen starts to lose it.
Angela [00:57:11] Yeah.
Jenna [00:57:12] He's convinced they're going to die out there, right?
Angela [00:57:14] They have no food. They haven't eaten.
Jenna [00:57:17] So Charles is going to give them a knife. Tell him to make a spear. I want you to listen because this is wisdom moment number two from Charles.
CLIP [00:57:27] See this? Going to make a spear. All right. You want me to make a f*cking spear? Yeah. We need you to make one for fishing. Go and take that. I'll take it. Good. Fine. Okay. You can do that. They'll never find us. They will find us, Steve. And even if they don't, we're going to walk out of here. You do as I say now, okay? I'm going to make a fire. Come on, get on with it. It's going to be okay.
Jenna [00:58:05] Here is the piece that I missed. I missed this the first 15 times I watched this movie. I'm going to get emotional, so buckle in. I watched this movie last year after my breast cancer surgery before I started chemo. And I was spiraling. And I thought. How am I going to get through this? How am I going to get through this? And I zeroed in on this part of the movie when Charles says, we're going to walk out of here. And now I'm getting choked up. Because I thought to myself. I'm going to get through this. I'm going to walk out of here. I am walking out of here. And I started walking every day. Every single day. Sometimes I did circles in my backyard. Sometimes I walked around the whole block. Sometimes I went on full hikes. I went on a full three mile hike. At one point during chemo. I did what I could each day. It wasn't the same each day. But I held on to that. I thought, I am going to walk out of here. That's how I'm going to get through it. That's how I'm going to get out of here. And that is why I love this movie so much. I love it so much. Because to me, that was like. That was my, like, moment. Yeah. And I just wanted to lay in bed all day, right? And I just wanted to feel all my side effects, and I just wanted to. I really. I really thought. I don't know how I keep on keeping on this year.
Angela [00:59:41] Yeah.
Jenna [00:59:42] You know, but that was a moment for me where I had to decide, right? I had to decide what am I waiting for? No one can do this but me.
Angela [00:59:51] Right.
Jenna [00:59:52] And how am I going to be during this journey? Yeah.
Angela [00:59:56] I remember. You left me a message. Yeah. And you're like. Ang, I'm going to walk out of this. I'm literally going to walk, and it was like an emotional decision and a physicality that you took on as well to sort of bolden the emotional resolve. And you did. You would walk and I was just. I was, man. I was amazed at your grit.
Jenna [01:00:20] One foot in front of the other. And like I said, sometimes it was a five minute circle in my back yard. Yeah, but I worked every day. Yeah. And that did something to my mental resolve.
Angela [01:00:32] Yeah.
Jenna [01:00:33] And, you know, my cancer nurse. Nurse Ron, who I love, he encouraged me to get up out of bed each day and have some kind of activity. He said he's been a cancer nurse for, my gosh, 25, 30 years. And he said, in my experience, the women who keep moving, they do better. They just do better. He's so sweet. He was like he was like, so I don't want you to go in and draw those curtains and stay in bed. Draw those curtains. I love so much the idea of I was going to draw my curtains. He was like, I want you to throw up in those curtains. I want you to get sunlight each day. I want you fresher each day, and I want you to walk just a little bit each day. And so when I saw this movie, I thought, yeah, that's right. And I walk out of this just like Nurse Ron and just like Charles tells us to.
Angela [01:01:20] I'm so glad you're sharing all of that, Jenna. This is all stuff I knew. It's also another reason I really wanted to watch this movie because I knew on a deeper level how it spoke to you in that moment.
Jenna [01:01:31] It did.
Angela [01:01:32] And, you know, in this scene there's more dialog where Bob is questioning Charles as well. And I wanted to point out this is the first time we see Charles raise his voice. He's been so mild mannered. Yeah. With everything going on. But this is the first time he seems slightly agitated. And he says to Bob, What would you like to do, Should we lay down and die? And then he raises his voice is like, Should we lay down and die, Bob? Bob apologizes. But I thought it was important to point out this is the first moment Charles is getting worked up.
Jenna [01:02:07] Yeah. Well, now something is going to happen.
Angela [01:02:10] We hear a scream. Like a pure pain yell.
Jenna [01:02:14] Yeah. Stephen, while he was making his spear, has cut his leg like, deep.
Angela [01:02:20] Yeah. The minute I saw this, I thought, well, he's dead.
Jenna [01:02:23] Charles is going to stay calm. At this very bloody leg, he's like, you're going to be fine. You're going to be fine.
Angela [01:02:32] He puts a bandana around it. He ties it tightly. And then night falls. And Charles has made, like, a little lean to structure that they can all these that they're all sitting under. Yeah. And he's like, you know what? I think you're going to be fine because it was a clean cut. And Stephen thinks, Charles, he's like, you know what? You're all right. You're a very thoughtful man. And Charles appreciates that. And Charles, like, you know what? We're going to get out of here. He points to a constellation and says, That's Cassiopeia. And he says, we're going to walk south through the river to safety. And as Stephen falls asleep, he says, how do people die in the woods? And Charles says, shame.
Jenna [01:03:15] Yes. That's right. So we're not going to blame ourselves for cutting our leg and making it harder for all of us to get out of the woods. We're just going to move on.
Angela [01:03:24] That's right.
Jenna [01:03:24] Okay. We're all fine. This is just no biggie.
Angela [01:03:28] And now Charles leaves a sleeping Steve, and he goes to wash his hands in the lake. How do you wash your hands on a lake? Do you wade into the lake? He walked into the lake. There is no reason for him to get his feet wet. Yeah, it is cold out. Why? Why? Bob is having a smoke. He looks out at The View. He says this all puts things in perspective. You know, it's a little different from the fashion world. Little different from snorting coke off girl's hip bones.
Jenna [01:03:55] And then Charles says, How so?
Angela [01:03:58] You know.
Jenna [01:03:59] And they have a good laugh.
Angela [01:04:00] They do. And then Bob gets up and walks in the lake, why?
Jenna [01:04:04] I didn't notice it.
Angela [01:04:07] They both now have wet feet at night.
Jenna [01:04:11] Bad idea.
Angela [01:04:12] This is very upsetting to me. I often have cold feet at night.
Jenna [01:04:17] Well, it wouldn't have mattered if they walked in the lake or not. They're going to have cold, wet feet because just like in an episode of Survivor, when you think this day can't get any worse, it's going to start pouring rain.
Angela [01:04:31] Pouring downpour.
Jenna [01:04:32] Yes. They're freezing. They're shivering.
Angela [01:04:36] Charles, once again is like, listen, we're going to get out of here. And then he notices the blood stained pant leg. Okay, so when they made the tourniquet at First Stephen's leg, they cut off part of his bloody clothes. And Charles explicitly says, Bob, go bury this, right? It's got blood on it.
Jenna [01:04:57] Bury it, bury it.
Angela [01:04:59] What did Bob do? He hung it from a tree.
Jenna [01:05:02] Threw it up in a tree. Why?
Angela [01:05:04] Why? It's just like blowing in the wind. Just this blood smell going through the air. I wrote I hate Bob. And Bob's like, what's the big deal? I'll do it, later.
Jenna [01:05:19] And Charles is like, you're putting the scent of blood in the air. The bear is going to smell that. And Bob's like, Whatever. No sooner does Bob dismiss this idea, then a bear comes barreling out of the woods.
Angela [01:05:35] The same bear.
Jenna [01:05:38] And eats Stephen, just brutally attacks him.
Angela [01:05:41] Yeah. I want to point out, Bob hauls ass pretty quick. Charles stays behind and tries to throw logs at the bear. And you know what, though? There's no saving Stephen. He is literally getting picked up upside down. Torn apart. Charles sees it all. How do you come back from that? That would haunt me for the rest of my life.
Jenna [01:06:02] We got a fan letter from Melissa in Ohio who said, The edge made me literally retreat downstairs the first time I watched it during the bear bit.
Angela [01:06:11] My gosh.
Jenna [01:06:11] I'm sorry, Melissa. This is a great bear attack scene. It's not my favorite bear attack scene.
Angela [01:06:18] How do you. I'm sorry, How? Why do you have a list of bear attack scenes? Who are you?
Jenna [01:06:26] Well, why do they keep putting them in movies?
Angela [01:06:28] What other movies? I don't watch movies with the Bear Attacks.
Jenna [01:06:32] The Revenant.
Angela [01:06:33] Yeah. I'm not seeing that. I will never see that.
Jenna [01:06:35] Sam, Cassi, have you seen The Revenant?
Sam [01:06:37] I have. It's incredible.
Jenna [01:06:39] Incredible. It is the edge times ten.
Sam [01:06:41] Yes, it is.
Jenna [01:06:43] It's everything that the Edge has, but even more. More harrowing. More survival. More cold water. More bear attack.
Angela [01:06:54] I can't take it.
Jenna [01:06:55] But without this sort of like, it doesn't have the what?
Sam [01:07:00] It's not uplifting in any way.
Jenna [01:07:02] Correct. So it's going to say there is no, like, wisdom. It's very dark.
Angela [01:07:07] You mean there's no jokes about watches in two time zones?
Sam [01:07:11] No one gets pranked at all.
Jenna [01:07:13] Nobody gets pranked in The Revenant.
Angela [01:07:15] No, thank you. Okay.
Jenna [01:07:17] Well, everyone, I think this is a good stopping place. This ends part one of our breakdown. Please join us next week to see how Charles and Bob go on from here.
Angela [01:07:29] I got a hint for you. It's not going to go great.
Jenna [01:07:32] It is not. And I will also be sharing the things you should and should not do during a real bear attack.
Angela [01:07:39] You're going to want to hear this.
Jenna [01:07:41] I thank you all for listening today, and I hope you'll come back with us next week. This has just been a delightful, delightful, Galentine's day gift. Angela, I thank you so much.
Angela [01:07:53] You're welcome. It's going to keep on going.
Jenna [01:07:55] We'll see you next week.
Angela [01:07:56] See you then.
Jenna [01:08:12] Thank you for listening to office ladies.
Angela [01:08:21] Office Ladies is a presentation of Audacy and is produced by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. Audacy's executive producers are Jenna Weiss-Berman and Leah Reis-Dennis.
Jenna [01:08:25] Our executive producer is Cassi Jerkins. Our audio engineer is Sam Keefer, and our associate producer is Aynsley Babaeko. Office ladies is Mixed and Mastered by Chris Basil.
Angela [01:08:27] Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.